Government as it excellently complies with the Laws Genius and Interest of this Nation so it comprehends all the Benefits of a Common-wealth in great perfection and this I shall do as briefly as I can TO demonstrate how it complies with our Laws and Constitutions let it suffice That Monarchy in these Nations being more ancient than Story or Records more venerable than Tradition it self our Laws were born as it were under this Climate habituated to this Diet and Air grafted into this Stock and though we have thanks be to God forgotten our Norman yet will it be very hard for us to learn Greek much less Utopian that in the late Usurper's time our Lawyers with one Voice importun'd him rather to assume the Style and Power of a King to which they found all our Laws were shaped than retain that of a Protector unknown to the Law That nothing render'd the late Architects of a Common-wealth more obnoxious than that notwithstanding their infinite Discords in other things they generally agreed in the necessity of subverting all our Fandamental Laws in order to their Design which Consideration we are in Charity to believe obliged the sober men of all Parties the true Patriotes nay and even the chiefest Pillars of the Parliaments-Cause too to unite themselves with the Royal Interest as not enduring to hear of those violent and dangerous Alterations which they plainly saw a Republick must necessarily introduce FOR its complyance with our Genius examine we in the first place the various Revolutions that have happened to this Island Brittains Romans Saxons Danes and Normans or more nearly the changes in their Descents from the direct Line to the Collateral or yet nearer the times of Insurrection and deposing Kings Edward and Richard both the Seconds of the name and we shall find King-ship still in fashion Nay that of King John is more notorious for when the People had in a sort dethron'd him and sworn Allegiance to Lewis of France yet when John dy'd the same People not only Expelled the Foreigner but having got the Power into their own hands they Crowned King John's Son being then an Infant without Interest or Adherents Nor will all our Chronicles afford us one single Instance of any Design or Endeavour to erect a Free Estate before the late unnatural times furnish'd the President no not when Wat Tyler or Jack Straw revell'd it with their Clowns Nor yet is this Genius ever to be chang'd for Reflect we in the second place that as our English Nature is not like the French supple to Oppression and apt to delight in that Pomp and Magnificence of their Lords which they know is supported with their Slavery and Hunger Nor like the Highland Scots where the Honour and Interest of the Chief is the Glory of the whole Clan So doth it as little or less agree with the Dutch humour addicted only to Traffick Navigation Handicrafts and sordid Thrift and in defiance of Heraldry every man phansying his own Scutcheon For does not every one amongst us that has the name of a Gentleman labour his utmost to uphold it Every one that has not to raise one To this end do not our very Yeomen commonly leave their Lands to the Eldest Son and to the other nothing but a Flail or a Plow Did not every one in the days of our late blessed Martyr pinch himself in his Condition to purchase a Knight-hood or small Patent What need further proof You cannot but remember Sir how that bare glimpse and shadow of Monarchy under Cromwel and his Son Dick though persons even at that very time hated and scorn'd and that too upon a most impious and scandalous account was for meer resemblance-sake admitted astolerable and in respect of a Common-wealth courted which clearly evinces how grateful the substance must needs be to all true English Spirits AS to our Interest briefly to wave tedious and Politick Discourses there is no man but with half an Eye may foresee that a Republick were there any possibility of setling one would destroy all our present Peace and Felicity ruinate our Trade and Traffick involve us in a Field of Blood alarm all our Neighbours make our best Allies our bitterest Enemies and probably draw upon us the united force of Christendom to crush the Embryo which would be the utter destruction and enslaving of this most free and prosperous Nation could it but once be capable of a due sense of its own Felicity to the Tyrannical Damnation of a Foreigner Beside at best by what Title can we pretend to hold Scotland and Ireland should that of Descent be avoided for Consent there is none nor can any be expected § 5. BUT I come now directly to assert That the Present Government eminently includes all the Perfections of a Free-Estate and is the Kernel as it were of a Common-wealth in the Shell of Monarchy And first I shall begin with the Essential Parts of a Common-wealth which are three viz. the Senate proposing the People resolving the Magistrate executing For the Senate or Parliament if ever there were a Free and Honourable one under the Cope of Heaven it is here where the Deputies of the whole Nation most freely chosen do with like freedom meet propound debate and vote all matters of Common Interest no Danger escapes their representing no Grievance their complaint no Publick Right their claim or Good their demand In all which the least breach of Priviledge is branded with Sacriledge and though there lyes no Appeal to the dispersed Body of the people a Decision manifestly impracticable in Government and fitter indeed for Tribunes to move then Nations to admit yet Elections being so popular and conventions frequent the same end is attained with much more safety and convenience The Prince may likewise in some sense be said to have only an Executive Power which he exercises by Ministers and Officers not only sworn but severely accomptable and though both He and the Lords have their Negatives in passing of Bills and though it be the King only that by his Royal Fiat makes our Laws yet no Tax being imposable but by the consent of the Commons nor any Law without it of such validity that the Ministers of Justice dare enforce it there is a wise and sweet necessity for the King and likewise for the Lords to pass all such Bills as are convenient for the People and not greatly hurtful to the Prince and those that duly weigh the Reason of things do find a Negative in the King to be a most safe Preservative of Peace to the People who have as much comfort under the protection of his Prerogative as they have Benefit by their own Priviledges For in truth this Bug-bear Negative as our Republicans labour to represent it is an impenetrable Target to shelter and secure the Government from being alter'd at the Will of the Commons if at any time they shou'd prove Factious And this being in reason manifest has also been confirm'd
by great Experience our Kings having rarely obstructed any Bill which they might safely grant but on the otherside pass'd many High Acts of mere Grace circumscribing their Prerogative and clipping its Wings nay better had it been for us if they had not pierc'd its very Bowels THIS is that Triple-Cord that could never yet be broken tho' it has been Cut asunder This is our Gold seven times Refin'd for every Bill being Thrice Read Debated and Agreed in Either House is at last brought to the King for his Royal Assent which is the Mint of our Laws a Tryal so exact that surely no Dross can escape it since all Interests must thereto concur as truly it is but fit they should in the Establishment of That which must Bind all This is that Temperament which purges our Humours and at once indues us with Health Vigour and Beauty no Vote is Precipitated no Act Huddled up as by sad Events you saw they formerly us'd to be when the Power was engross'd by One of the Estates purg'd and moulded to the Interests of a Faction a Consequence but Natural to such Premises Nothing was There weigh'd but as in a Balance consisting of one Scale our Laws were Mandrakes of a Nights Growth and our Times as Fickle as the Weather of the Multitude THE King indeed has the Power of making War but then he has not the Means so that it signifies little more then a Liberty to Fly if he can get Wings or to go Beyond Sea provided he can waft himself over without Shipping He has a Sword but Himself alone can never draw it and the Train'd-Bands in whom he has the sole Right are a Weapon which he decently wears 't is true but the Nation only may in Effect be said to have the Use and Benefit of it He chuses his Ministers as who doth not his Servants but then they pass through such a Test as none but the soundest Integrity can abide He can hinder the stroke of Justice with his Pardon tho' still the Jaws not being muzzled it will Bite terribly but then on the Other side the Power of Relieving his Wants rests in the Commons to Balance his Will and induce him to a Correspondence with Parliaments THAT his Person should be Sacred is most Needful to avoid Circulation of Accounts Reasonable since it carries with it the Consent of Nations Just that he become not the meer Butt of Faction and Malice and be in a worse Condition then the Basest of Vassals Honourable that the Nakedness of Government be not daily Uncover'd Wise in the Constitution that so we may not at once both Trust and Provoke by forcing him to shift for his Own Indempnity no danger to the Publique seeming so Extreme as the Outlawry of a Prince no Task by daily Experience so difficult as the Arraigning of any Power whether Regal or Popular and if we make Golden Bridges for Flying Enemies much more should we afford them to Relenting Sovereigns Upon which account in our Neighbour Kingdom of France even Princes of the Bloud are not subjected to Capital Punishments Finally very Safe it is in the Consequence for should a King be never so wicked and Tyrannical yet being by the Danger threatning his Corrupt Ministers stript of Agents his Personal Impunity might signifie something to Himself perhaps but nothing to the People A Revenue he has for the support of his State and Family Ample for the Ordinary Protection of his People Sufficient but for any considerable Undertaking Defective and for Publique Oppression so Inconsiderable that when Prerogative was most Rampant our Greatest Princes and some doubtless we have had the most Renowned Warriours of their Age would never prudently aspire to make themselves Absolute The Royal Revenue is proportioned to the Maintenance of Courts not Camps and Fleets In fine it is very Competent for Ordinary Disbursements and as for Extraordinary he resorts to Parliaments the Wiser He and the Happier We Now there is nothing more Demonstrative then that upon Examination we may find the present Government to be compared with all the other Models of the Late Times a mighty Ease to the Publique Charge we allow'd the Tyrant Cromwell no less then a constant Revenue of 1900000 l. to support him in his Usurpation and yet That Sum beside all his other intolerable Squeezings at the years end clear'd not the Account by far Under the Rump a great deal more was yearly Collected out of the Bowels of the People to maintain the Army and yet we could never be at quiet neither but were perpetually embroyl'd in Wars either Abroad or at Home by our active Spirits some to feed their Ambition others their Purses And such a Spirit we read of working in all Free-States Ancient and Modern What shall we say now of the Expences of the Late King if examin'd by This Standard whose Revenue in Lands Perquisites and Customs exceeded not 700000 l. a year and yet by the good management of that most Thristy and Temperate Prince that petite Annuity furnish'd a glorious Court a Noble Equipage for the Honour of the Nation and paid off a considerable Fleet which never was much improved afterwards by all our vast Payments when we were so unfortunate as to fall into Other hands Nay and our present Charge is rather a Sport then a Burthen compared with Their Monthly Tax TRUE it is that while we live with Men we shall be subject to That which is the Effect of their Nature Sin nor is it possible to reap the more General Fruit of the best Establish'd Policy unless we submit to some possible Inconveniences But yet I defie your Friend and all other Projectors of Commonwealths to contrive greater Freedom for their Citizens then is provided by Magna Charta and The Petition of Right or shew that it is not much easier to Violate then to Mend them for Thereby our Lives Liberties and Estates are under Monarchy secur'd and establish'd I think as well as any thing on this side Heaven can be It is no Soloecism to say that the Subject has his Prerogative as well as the King and sure I am he is in as good condition to maintain it the Dependance being less on his side Beside that no Prince ever attempted any Violation thereof but that at Long Run he suffer'd in that point of his Prerogative that let in the Opportunity Hence it is that the Rights of the People have grown stronger and stronger against the Prince and sometimes have hurried his Person to be a Sacrifice always his Instruments whereof few in our History can we read that contriving against the Law have died in peace If possibly One Prince as King Harry by his High Spirit swept all before him yet his Infant Successor is forc'd to make amends for his Fathers Violations So that Liberty we see is no less Sacred then Majesty Noli me tangere being its Motto likewise And in case of any the least Infringement as
Escapes in Government may happen even in the most perfect it is resented as if the Nation had received a Box on the Ear. If it be as they say the Glory of a Tree-State to Exalt the Scandal of Tyranny to Embase our Spirits doubtless the Establish'd Form is our Only Commonwealth for all that we got by the Change of it was but the learning quietly to take the Bastinade Nay and at the very worst that can be imagin'd it is much more Easie were it Lawful for us to dispute our Rights with a single Pâ—ince and his Trembling Agents then as it was our Case formerly with a Knot of Sovereigns that are backt with the Sword WE are now again able to distinguish which we could never do under their Free-Estate for all the fair Promises they made us the Legislative and the Ministerial Authority For tho' both of them are Inherent in the King yet are not both of them his own Peculiar and Personal Act. We know that the House of Commons has not the Power of a Court-Leet to give an Oath nor of a Justice of the Peace to make a Mittimus And this Distinction doubtless is the most Vital part of Freedom and far more considerable to poor Subjects then all these mens pretended Rotations as on the contrary the absolute Jumbling and Confounding of them is an Accomplishment of Servitude for which all Republiques I fear and our late one more especially have more to Answer then any Limited Sovereign can have And certain it is that as our Prince in his Personal Capacity makes no Laws so neither does he by himself Execute or Interpret any No Judge takes notice of his single Command to justifie any Trespass no not so much as the breaking of a Hedg his Power is Circumscribed by his Justice he is equally with the meanest of his Subjects concern'd in that Honest Maxim We may do just so much and no more then we have Right to do And it is tolerably enough said He can do no wrong because if it be wrong he does it not it is void in the Act and punishable in his Agent His Officers as they are alike lyable so perhaps they are more Obnoxious to Indictments and Suits then any other by how much their Trespass seems to be of a Higher Nature and gives greater Alarm His Private Will cannot Countermand his Publique His Privy Seal still Buckles to his Great Seal as being in a sense the Nations as much as His His Order Supercedes no Process and His Displeasure threatens no man with an hours Imprisonment after the Return of HabeasCorpus An Under-Sheriff is more Terrible a Constable more Sawcy a Bailiff more Troublesom then He And yet by his Gentle Authority by this Scabbard of Prerogative as some in derision have lewdly Term'd it which if it Would Could Scarce Oppress an Orphan Tumults are Curb'd Faction Moderated Usurpation Forestall'd Intervals prevented Perpetuities Obviated Equity Administer'd Clemency Exalted and the People made Happy to a degree even of Satiety and Wantonness TO Conclude this Point What shall I add more The Act enjoyning the Keepers of the Great Seal under Pain of High Treason to Summon a Triennial Parliament of Course by Virtue of the Act without Further Warrant The Act forbidding the Privy-Councell to intermeddle with Meum Tuum the Law abolishing the Star-Chamber High-Commission c. Branding all Past and Bridling all Future Enormities The Statutes limiting the Kings Claims and relieving his Tenants from Exaction of Forfeitures Beside many other principal Immunities wherewith by the Especial Favour of God and the Bounty of our Princes we are Blessed far beyond any of our Neighbours Above all our Assurance by the Goodness and Clemency of our present Dread Sovereign readily to obtain such further Addition and Perfection of Liberty and Security if any such there can be as may consist with Modesty and Liberty it self to ask Does not all this Proclaim aloud that we are the Mirrour of Governments Envy of Monarchies and Shame of Common-wealths who cannot but blush to see themselves so Eclipsed and Silenc'd in all their Pretences to Freedom And does it not more than justifie my Assertion that with all the Ornaments of the Noblest Kingdom we have likewise all the Enjoyments of a Free-Estate § 6. AFTER all these solid Blessings and Advantages which we Reap from the most Excellent of Governments and of Princes the bare Fruition of the Tithe whereof would be sufficient to transport the Best to pass of our Neighbour Nations into all the Cordial and Passionate Expressions of Joy and Gratitude imaginable After all these Comforts I say a Body would think there should scarce be found one single Murmuring and Disaffected Person in the whole Kingdom And yet so hard is our Fate our Hearts infensible and so Ingenious are we in starting Fears and Jealousies that a great part of us deprive our selves of the Enjoyment of all our present Felicities through a too Eager and Pensive Solicitation for Futurities Nay so miserably Hood-wink'd is our Reason that our Carefulness to avoid miscarryinâ— upon a Scilla hurries us Violently into the other Extreme of splitting upon a Charybdis Popery and Tyranny we cry are breaking in upon us like a Deluge the Presumptive Heir is of the Red-Letter Stamp and therefore another Sect of our Pseudo-protestants apprehending the Danger and the Impracticableness of a Commonwealth-Government here amongst us do hope to mend the matter mightily by propounding the setting up of a Single Person either of a Crack'd Title or of a New Line upon the death of his present Majesty without Legitimate Issue Whom God preserve THERE is no man shall be more willing than my self to grant that the Popish Religion if it may deserve the Name is little better than a Compound of meer Secular Interest Tyranny Hypocâ—â—sie Homicide and Delusion and that the very principles of the Jesuits do inspirit and egg them on to the inflicting of all manner of Outragious Violences upon the Persons of those that enjoy a greater Light and Purity of the Gospel then themselves But yet I must averr on the other hand that since through the peculiar Mercy and Providence of God and the Indefatigable Industry and Vigilance of Authority all their Machinations have hitherto been defeated and their Conspiracies both against our Church and State rendred Abortive it will become us both as Men and Christians to temper our Passions and to rest satisfied with the singular Care and Concern that the Government vouchsafes continually to express both for our present and future safety and preservation in all Respects Full well know that nothing is of greater Concernment then the Security of that Religion which by the Bloud of so many blessed and Glorious Martyrs has by Gods immediate blessing been so firmly Establish'd amongst us But then we are to take special heed that we lend not too easie an Ear to such as cry up Religion design Faction that cry out Zeal
for the Lord of Hosts when they intend Self-Interest to keep up a party an Affected way or to be the Ipse dixit of a County Religion has not at all prosper'd by undue practices to advance it 'T is Meekness Patience Humility and those Graces of the Spirit that Convince and Convert when Rigidness Censuring and the Sword Exasperate and Harden Has not Gods power or truth Evidence to secure it self Let but the Gospel have Free passage and it will make its own stay For all true Protestants do unanimously disown the Promotion of it by the Sword as totally Unchristian and bequeath it to the Pope and the Turk Was not now the maintenance of our Fundamental Laws the pretence of our late Quarrel Found we not the Spirit of the Nation rouz'd up upon the sound of the Trumpet Popery was it not decry'd and Religion Protestant Religion judg'd to be in danger Were we not call'd out to the Battle upon the account of Zeal with Curse ye Meroz And yet under our Free Estate as they call'd it our Religion so much of it especially as could any way be term'd Protestant turn'd into Wantonness and our Divisions became so great that we durst not exasperate by advancing that Idol of the Presbyters Discipline nor indeed could we if we durst for the most active of our Statists if they had any Religion at all 't was that of the Sectary which they own'd as the main Supporter of their Model whose Interest it was to give Licentiousness to all As for Laws those which we ador'd for Excellency and Antiquity they were by them of necessity alter'd in our Freedoms of Person and Estate wherein true Liberty is principally concern'd For when the House of Commons or rather the Rump of it engross'd the Soveraign Power they both Imposed Taxes and Levy'd them by vertue of a trifling Ordinance which could never be done before but by an Act of Parliament solemnly and regularly pass'd by the King and the Three Estates And having of Tribunes of the people as it were and their Bulwark against High Payments and Impressures demanded by the King advanc'd themselves into the degree of Princes they took upon them to assess and impress us at pleasure and we might complain as long as we would of the Reiterated Burthen but there was no remedy but Patience because no Appeal left us themselves being both Parties and Judges I COULD heartily wish there were at present no more reason to be apprehensive of Popery coming amongst us then there was in those days But yet let his Royal Highness's Perswasion be what it will this I'm sure of that Dr. Oates has deposed upon Oath that the Jesuits were so far from saying or acting Indifferently as to his Person that in their Hellish Plot they had mark'd him out also for Slaughter with his most Royal most Protestant Brother Now the late Marquess of Argyle was wont to lay it down as a Principle in Policy That it was the Character of a wise man not to let the World know what Religion he was of But for my own part I cannot in Charity but hope the best of a Person till I shall be convinc'd of the contrary by more certain and positive Arguments then any that I have yet been able to meet with that has been so Lectur'd and Tutor'd by our late Glorious Martyr as well as by Experience into a Veneration for and a Perseverance in that Pure Reformed Religion the Principles of which he suck'd in with his very Milk and in Defence of which his ever Blessed Father laid down his most precious Life upon a Scaffold You may read his words thus I do require you addressing to his present Majesty as your Father and your King that you never suffer your Heart to receive the least Check against or Dis-affection from the True Religion establish'd in the Church of England I tell you I have try'd it and after much Search and many Disputes have concluded it to be the best in the World not only in the Community as Christian but also in the special Notion as Reformed keeping the middle way between the Pomp of Superstitious Tyranny and the Meanness of Phantastick Anarchy c. To this sence spake he when he had no more to speak Nay and so zealous this way was our English Solomon the Duke's Grandfather King James that rather then any of his Progeny should ever come to be tainted with the Errors and Idolatries of the Church of Rome he made it his Prayer to Almighty God that they might be taken out of the World first AS to the apprehensions of Tyranny I hope by what I have already deliver'd in the Body of this Discourse it is evident that there is less ground to fear it then many people might before imagine for that it is next to an Impossibility to introduce it And upon probable grounds I perswade my self that should the Duke ever have the occasion offer'd yet would he be wiser then to make tryal of the Experiment knowing so well as he must needs do that should the English Liberties be violated in the example but of any one single Person the whole Nation would take it self to be concern'd upon that account apprehend it self ready for the Fetters and thereby what with Fear what with Hate such a Storm would be rais'd as might shake the surest Foundations of the Government and so very much has Majesty already felt by the Fury of the People that it will be chary doubtless of giving occasion to encounter it again BUT 't is farther Objected it seems that there is a Vindictive and Implacable Spirit in the Case Now this is most manifest indeed that there have been Provocations to the height but shall we therefore continue to provoke because we have begun 'T is a Rule you know that he that does wrong never forgives but he that has wrong may The Interest of Revenge is passionate but the Interest of Profit arises from a Passion that prevails more and he is very weak that anteposes Rumour and vain Passion when it stands in Competition with his Safety To speak home Interest rules the whole World and Princes as others design more the security of their own Greatness then a petty Revenge that may hazard it But for this search we the Experiences of past Ages Henry the Great of France was so far from punishing any of the holy League that labour'd by all means possible to keep him from his Right and to murther him that on the contrary he imploy'd those very Persons that were his main Opposites in his Armies in his Offices and in his Councels And what shall we say of King James who sent Messages made Vows menac'd Revenge and all to prevent that fatal Stroke from falling upon his Mother the Queen of Scots under Queen Eliz. but to no effect Observe the Issue now Shortly Q. Eliz. dies and those very Lords that acted personally in the Mothers Death were the most