bound us hand and foot before this time But when their ill-contriv'd Oppression came home to their own Doors they quickly shew'd the World how different a thing it was to suffer themselves and to make other People suffer and so we came by our Deliverance and tho the late King had the Nobility Gentry Clergy People and his own Army against him and we had a very wise and couragious Prince nearly related to the Crown and back'd by a powerful State for our Protector yet we account this Revolution next to a Miracle I will add here that most of the Nations I instanced before were inslaved by small Armies Oliver Cromwell lest behind him but 17000 Men and the Duke of Monmouth who was the Darling of the People was suppress'd with two thousand nay Cesar seiz'd Rome it self with five thousand and fought the Battel of Pharsalia where the Fate of the World was decided with twenty two thousand and most of the Revolutions of the Roman and Ottoman Empires since were caused by the Pretorian Bands and the Court-Janizaries the former of which never exceeded eight nor the latter twelve thousand Men And if no greater Numbers could make such Disturbances in those vast Empires what will double the Force do with us And they themselves confess it when they argue for an Army for they tell us we may be surprized with ten or fifteen thousand Men from France and having no regular Force to oppose them they will over-run the Kingdom Now if so small a Force can oppose the King the Militia with the united Power of the Nobility Gentry and Commons what will an equal Power do against the People when supported by the Royal Authority and a never-failing Interest that will attend it except when it acts for the Publick Good But we are told this Army is not design'd to be made a part of our Constitution but to be kept only for a little time till the Circumstances of Europe will better permit us to be without them But I would know of these Gentlemen when they think that time will be Will it be during the Life of King James or after his Death Shall we have less to fear from the Youth and Vigor of the pretended Prince of Wales than now from an unhappy Man sinking under the load of Age and Misfortunes Or will France be more capable of offending us just after this tedious and consumptive War than hereafter when it has had a breathing time to repair the Calamities it has suffer'd by it No we can never disband our Army with so much safety as at this time and this is well known by these Conspirators against their Country who are satisfied that a Continuation of them now is an Establishment of them for ever for whilst the Circumstances of Europe stand in the present Posture the Argument will be equal to continue them if the State of Europe should alter to the advantage of France the Reason will grow stronger and we shall be told we must increase our Number but if there should be such a turn of Affairs in the World that we were no longer in apprehension of the French Power they may be kept up without our Assistance nay the very Discontents they may create shall be made an Argument for the continuing of them But if they should be kept from oppressing the People in a little time they will grow habitual to us and almost become a part of our Constitution and by degrees we shall be brought to believe them not only not dangerous but necessary for every body fees but few understand and those few will never be able to perswade the Multitude that there is any danger in those Men they have lived quietly with for some Years especially when the disbanding them will as they will be made believe cost them more Money out of their own Pockets to maintain a Militia and of this we have had already an unhappy Experience For Charles the Second being conniv'd at in keeping a few Guards which were the first ever known to an English King besides his Pensioners and his Beef-eaters he insensibly increased their Number till he left a body of Men to his Successor great enough to tell the Parliament he would be no longer bound by the Laws he had sworn to and under the Shelter and Protection of these he raised an Army that had put a Period to our Government if a Complication of Causes which may never happen again had not presented the Prince of Orange with a Conjuncture to assert his own and the Nation 's Rights And tho we have so lately escaped this Precipice yet Habit has made Souldiers so familiar to us that some who pretend to be zealous for Liberty speak of it as a Hardship to his present Majesty to refuse him as many Men as his Predecessors not considering that the raising them then was a Violation of our Laws and that his Government is built upon the Destruction of theirs and can no more stand upon the same Rubbish than the Kingdom of Heaven be founded in Unrighteousness But the Conspirators say we need be in no apprehensions of Slavery whilst we keep the power of the Purse in our own hands which is very true but they do not tell us that he has the power of raising Money to whom no one dares refuse it Arma tenenti Omnia dat qui justa negat For 't is as certain that an Army will raise Money as that Money will raise an Army but if this course be too desperate 't is but shutting up the Exchequer and disobliging a few Tally-Jobbers who have bought them for fifty per Cent. discount and there will be near three Millions a Year ready cut and dry'd for them and whoever doubts whether such a Method as this is practicable let him look back to the Reign of Charles the Second And I am afraid the Officers of the Exchequer have not much reason to value themselves for their Payments in this Reign at least the Purchasers of the Annuities are of that opinion and would be apt to entertain some unseasonable Suspicions if they had not greater Security from his Majesty's Vertue than the Justice of the Ministers But if we could suppose whatever is the fate of other Countries that our Courtiers design nothing but the Publick Good yet we ought not to hazard such unusual Vertue by leading it into Temptation which is part of our daily Duty to pray against But I am afraid we don't live in an Age of Miracles especially of that sort our Heroes are made of a coarser Allay and have too much Dross mix'd with their Constitutions for such refin'd Principles for in the little Experience I have had in the World I have observed most Men to do as much Mischief as lay in their Power and therefore am for dealing with them as we do with Children and mad Men that is take away all Weapons by which they may do either themselves or others an
AN ARGUMENT Shewing that a Standing Army Is inconsistent with A Free Government and absolutely destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy Cervus Equum pugna melior communibus herbis Pellebat donec minor in certamine longo Imploravit opes hominis fraenumque recepit Sed postquam victor violens discessit ab hoste Non Equitem dorso non fraenum depulit ore Horat. Epist 10. LONDON Printed in the Year 1697. DEDICATION To all those whom it may concern Qui capit ille facit WHen I consider your great Zeal to your Country how much you have expos'd your selves for its Service and how little you have improved your own Fortunes I think it is but Justice to your Merits to make your Encomiums the Preface to the following Discourse 'T is you that have abated the Pride and reduced the Luxury of the Kingdom You have been the Physicians and Divines of the Commonwealth by purging it of that Dross and Dung which corrupts the Minds and destroys the Souls of Men. You have convinced us that there is no Safety in Counsellors nor Trust to be put in Ships under your Conduct You have clear'd the Seas not of Pyrats but of our own Merchants and by that means have made our Prisons as so many Store-houses to replenish your Troops In fine to use the Expression of the Psalmist Your Hearts are unsearchable for Wisdom and there is no finding out your Understanding When I consider all this and compare your Merits with your Preferments how you came by them and your behaviour in them I cannot but think a Standing Army a Collateral Security to your Title to them and therefore must commend your Policy in promoting it For by these Kings reign and Princes decree Justice These will be our Magistrates who will not bear the Sword in vain These like the Sons of Aaron will wear their Urim and Thummim on their Backs and Breasts and will be our Priests who will hew the Sinners to pieces as Samuel did Agag before the Lord in Gilgal By these you will be able to teach us Passive Obedience as Men having Authority and not as the Scribes You will have your Reasons in your Hands against resisting the higher Powers and will prove your Jus Divinum by the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon Your Honours most obedient Slave and Vassal A. B. C. D. E. F. G. An ARGUMENT shewing that a STANDING ARMY is inconsistent with a free Government and absolutely destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy WHen I consider what a dismal Scene of Blood and Desolation hath appeared upon the Theatre of Europe during the Growth and Progress of the French Power I cannot sufficiently applaud and admire our thrice happy Situation by which we have long enjoy'd an uninterrupted course of Peace and Prosperity whilst our Neighbouring Nations have been miserably harassed by perpetual War For lying open to continual Invasion they can never enjoy Quiet and Security nor take a sound Sleep but Hercules like with Clubs in their hands So that these Halcyon Days which we enjoy amidst such an universal Hurricane must be solely attributed to our Tutelar God Neptune who with a Guard of winged Coursers so strongly intrenches us that we may be said to be mediâ insuperabiles undâ and not unfitly compar'd to the Earth which stands fix'd and immoveable and never to be shaken but by an internal Convulsion And as Nature has been thus liberal to us in our Situation so the Luxuriancy of our Soil makes it productive of numerous Commodities fit for Trade and Commerce And as this Trade renders us Masters of the Silver and Gold of the East and West without our toiling in the Mine so it breeds us multitudes of able-bodied and skilful Seamen to defend the Treasures they bring home that even Luxury it self which has been the Bane and Destruction of most Countries where it has been predominant may in some measure be esteemed our Preservation by breeding up a Race of Men amongst us whose manner of Life will never suffer them to be debauched or enervated with Ease or Idleness But we have one thing more to boast of besides all these Felicities and that is of being Free-men and not Slaves in this unhappy Age when an universal Deluge of Tyranny has overspread the face of the whole Earth so that this is the Ark out of which if the Dove be sent forth she will find no resting place till her Return Our Constitution is a limited mix'd Monarchy where the King enjoys all the Prerogatives necessary to the support of his Dignity and Protection of his People and is only abridged from the Power of injuring his own Subjects In short the Man is loose and the Beast only bound and our Government may truly be called an Empire of Laws and not of Men for every Man has the same right to what he ean acquire by his Labour and Industry as the King hath to his Crown and the meanest Subject hath his Remedy against him in his Courts at Westminster No Man can be imprisoned unless he has transgressed a Law of his own making nor be try'd but by his own Neighbours so that we enjoy a Liberty scarce known to the antient Greeks and Romans And lest the extraordinary Power intrusted in the Crown should lean towards Arbitrary Government or the tumultuary Licentiousness of the People should encline towards a Democracy the Wisdom of our Ancestors hath instituted a middle State viz. of Nobility whose Interest it is to trim this Boat of our Commonwealth and to skreen the People against the Insults of the Prince and the Prince against the Popularity of the Commons since if either Extream prevail so far as to oppress the other they are sure to be overwhelmed in their Ruin And the meeting of these three States in Parliament is what we call our Government for without all their Consents no Law can be made nor a Penny of Money levied upon the Subjects so that the King's Necessities do often oblige him to summon this Court which is the Grand Inquest of the Kingdom where the People speak boldly their Grievances and call to account overgrown Criminals who are above the reach of ordinary Justice so that the Excellence of this Government consists in the due ballance of the several constituent Parts of it for if either one of them should be too hard for the other two there is an actual Dissolution of the Constitution but whilst we can continue in our present Condition we may without Vanity reckon our selves the happiest People in the World But as there is no degree of Human Happiness but is accompanied with some Defects and the strongest Constitutions are most liable to certain Diseases so the very Excellence of our Government betrays it to some Inconveniences the Wheels and Motions of it being so curious and delicate that it is often out of order and therefore we ought to apply our utmost Endeavours to rectify
Government that is within the City of Venice or the great Towns of the United Provinces but they defend these by their own Burghers and quarter their Mercenaries in their conquered Countries viz. the Venetians in Greece and the Continent of Italy and the Dutch in Brabant and Flanders and the Situation of these States make their Armies so posted not dangerous to them for the Venetians cannot be attack'd without a Fleet nor the Dutch be ever conquer'd by their own Forces their Country being so full of strong Towns fortified both by Art and Nature and defended by their own Citizens that it would be a fruitless Attempt for their own Armies to invade them for if they should march against any of their Cities 't is but shutting up their Gates and the Design is spoiled But if we admit that an Army might be consistent with Freedom in a Commonwealth yet it is otherwise in a free Monarchy for in the former 't is wholly in the disposal of the People who nominate appoint discard and punish the Generals and Officers as they think fit and 't is certain Death to make any Attempt upon their Liberties whereas in the latter the King is perpetual General may model the Army as he pleases and it will be called High-Treason to oppose him And tho some Princes as the Family of the Medices Lewes the XIth and others laid the Foundation of their Tyrannies without the immediate Assistance of an Army yet they all found an Army necessary to establish them or otherwise a little Experience in the People of the change of their Condition would have made them disgorge in a day that ill-gotten Power they had been acquiring for an Age. This Subject is so self-evident that I am almost asham'd to prove it for if we look through the World we shall find in no Country Liberty and an Army stand together so that to know whether a People are Free or Slaves it is necessary only to ask Whether there is an Army kept amongst them and the Solution of that Preliminary Question resolves the Doubt as we see in China India Tartary Persia Ethiopia Turkey Morocco Muscovy Austria France Portugal Denmark Sweden Tuscany and all the little Principalities of Germany and Italy where the People live in the most abandoned Slavery and in Countries where no Armies are kept within the Seat of their Government the People are free as Poland Biscay Switzerland the Grisons Venice Holland Genoa Geneva Ragusa Algiers Tunis Hamborough Lubeck all the free Towns in Germany and England and Scotland before the late Reigns This Truth is so obvious that the most barefac'd Advocates for an Army do not directly deny it but qualify the matter by telling us that a Number not exceeding fifteen or twenty thousand Men are a handful to so populous a Nation as this Now I think that Number will bring as certain Ruin upon us as if they were as many Millions and I will give my Reasons for it It 's the misfortune of all Countries that they sometimes lie under an unhappy necessity to defend themselves by Arms against the Ambition of their Governours and to fight for what 's their own for if a Prince will rule us with a Rod of Iron and invade our Laws and Liberties and neither be prevailed upon by our Miseries Supplications or Tears we have no Power upon Earth to appeal to and therefore must patiently submit to our Bondage or stand upon our own Defence which if we are enabled to do we shall never be put upon it but our Swords may grow rusty in our hands for that Nation is surest to live in Peace that is most capable of making War and a Man that hath a Sword by his side shall have least occasion to make use of it Now I say if the King hath twenty thousand Men before hand with us or much less than half that Number the People can make no Effort to defend their Liberties without the Assistance of a Foreign Power which is a Remedy most commonly as bad as the Disease and if we have not a Power within our selves to defend our Laws we are no Government For England being a small Country few strong Towns in it and those in the King's Hands the Nobility disarmed by the destruction of Tenures and the Militia not to be raised but by the King's Command there can be no Force levied in any part of England but must be destroy'd in its Infancy by a few Regiments For what will three or four thousand naked and unarm'd Men signify against as many Troops of Mercenary Souldiers What if they should come into the Field and say You must choose these and these Men your Representatives Where is your Choice What if they should say Parliaments are seditious and factious Assemblies and therefore ought to be abolished What is become of your Freedom Or if they should encompass the Parliament-House and threaten if they do not surrender up-their Government they will put them to the Sword What is become of the old English Constitution These things may be and have been done in several parts of the World What is it that causeth the Tyranny of the Turks at this day but Servants in Arms What is it that preserved the glorious Commonwealth of Rome but Swords in the hands of its Citizens And if besides this we consider the great Prerogatives of the Crown and the vast Interest the King has and may acquire by the Distribution of so many profitable Offices of the Houshold of the Revenue of State of Law of Religion and the Navy together with the Assistance of a powerful Party who have been always the fast and constant Friends to Arbitrary Power whose only Quarrel to his Present Majesty is that he has knock'd off the Chains and Fetters they thought they had lock'd fast upon us a Party who hath once engag'd us in an unhappy Quarrel amongst our selves the Consequence of which I dread to name and since in a tedious and chargeable War at the vast expence of Blood and Treasure to avoid that Captivity they had prepar'd for us I say if any one considers this he will be convinced that we have enough to do to guard our selves against the Power of the Court without having an Army thrown into the Scale against us and we have found oftner than once by too fatal Experience the truth of this for if we look back to the late Reigns we shall see this Nation brought to the brink of Destruction and breathing out the last Gasp of their Liberty and it is more owing to our good Fortune than to any Effort we were able to make that we escaped the fatal Blow And I believe no Man will deny but if Charles the First had had five thousand Men before-hand with us the People had never struck a stroke for their Liberties or if the late King James would have been contented with Arbitrary Power without bringing in Popery but he and his black Guard would have
suitable to the Service they have done their Country they will be ready to resume their Arms whenever occasion offers But I desire to know of these Patriots how comes an Army necessary to our Preservation now and never since the Conquest before Did ever the prevailing Party in the Wars of York and Lancaster attempt to keep up a Standing Army to support themselves No they had more Sense than to sacrifice their own Liberty and more Honour than to enslave their Country the more easily to carry on their own Faction Were not the Spaniards as powerful as good Souldiers and as much our Enemies as the French are now Was not Flanders as near us as France and the Popish Interest in Queen Elizabeth's time as strong as the Jacobite is now and yet that most excellent Princess never dream'd of a Standing Army but thought her surest Empire was to reign in the Hearts of her Subjects which the following Story sufficiently testifies When the Duke of Alanson came over to England and for some time had admired the Riches of the City the Conduct of her Government and the Magnificence of her Court he asked her amidst so much Splendor where were her Guards which Question she resolved a few days after as she took him in her Coach through the City when pointing to the People who received her in Crowds with repeated Acclamations These said she my Lord are my Guards These have their Hands their Hearts and their Purses always ready at my Command and these were Guards indeed who defended her through a long and successful Reign of forty four Years against all the Machinations of Rome the Power of Spain a disputed Title and the perpetual Conspiracies of her own Popish Subjects a Security the Roman Emperors could not boast of with their Pretorian Bands and their Eastern and Western Armies Were not the French as powerful in Charles the Second and King James his time as they are after this long and destructive War and a less Alliance to oppose them and yet we then thought a much less Army than is now contended for a most insupportable Grievance insomuch that in Charles the Second's Reign the Grand-Jury presented them and the Pensioner Parliament voted them to be a Nusance sent Sir Jos W son to the Tower for saying the King might keep Guards for the Defence of his Person and addressed to have them disbanded And now our Apostates would make their Court by doing what the worst Parliament ever England saw could not think of without Horror and Confusion They say the King of France was in League with our late Kings so he is with us and he would have broke it then if he had thought it safe and for his Interest as much as now But they say we have more disaffected Persons to join with him which I must deny for I believe no King of England in any Age had deservedly more Interest than the present and if during such an expensive War in which we have consumed so much Blood and Treasure paid such vast and unequal Taxes lost so many thousand Ships and bore a Shock by recoining our Money which would have torn up another Nation from its Foundation and reduced it to its antient Chaos when most Countries would have sunk under the misfortune and repined at their Deliverance as Men in Sickness commonly quarrel with their dearest Friends I say if at that time he had so great and universal an Interest there can be no doubt but in times of Peace when the People reap the Fruits of that Courage and Conduct he hath shewn in their Defence he will be the most Beloved and Glorious Prince that ever filled the English Throne I will make one Assertion more and then conclude this Discourse viz. That the most likely way of restoring King James is maintaining a Standing Army to keep him out For the King's Safety stands upon a Rock whilst it depends upon the solid Foundation of the Affections of the People which is never to be shaken till 't is as evident as the Sun in the Firmament that there is a formed Design to overthrow our Laws and Liberties but if we keep a Standing Army all depends upon the uncertain and capricious Humours of the Souldiery which in all Ages have produced more violent and sudden Revolutions than ever have been known in unarmed Governments For there is such a Chain of Dependence amongst them that if two or three of the chief Officers should be disobliged or have Intrigues with Jacobite Mistresses or if the King of France could once again buy his Pensioners into the Court or Army or offer a better Market to some that are in already we shall have another Rehearsal Revolution and the People be only idle Spectators of their own Ruin And whosoever considers the Composition of an Army and doubts this let him look back to the Roman Empire where he will find out of twenty six Emperors sixteen deposed and murdered by their own Armies nay half the History of the World is made up of Examples of this kind but we need not go any farther than our own Country where we have but twice kept Armies in time of Peace and both times they turn'd out their own Masters The first under Cromwell expell'd that Parliament under which they had fought successfully for many Years afterwards under General Monk they destroy'd the Government they before set up and brought back Charles the Second and he afterwards disbanded them lest they might have turned him out again The other Instance is fresh in every one's memory how King James's Army join'd with the Prince of Orange now our Rightful and Lawful King And what could have been expected otherwise from Men of dissolute and debauched Principles who call themselves Souldiers of Fortune who make Murder their Profession and enquire no farther into the Justice of the Cause than how they shall be paid who must be false rapacious and cruel in their own Defence For having no other Profession or Subsistence to depend upon they are forced to stir up the Ambition of Princes and engage them in perpetual Quarrels that they may share of the Spoils they make Such Men like some sort of ravenous Fish fare best in a Storm and therefore we may reasonably suppose they will be better pleased with the Tyrannical Government of the late King than the mild and gracious Administration of his Present Majesty who came over to England to rescue us from Oppression and he has done it and triumphs in it in spight of his Enemies In this Discourse I have purposely omitted speaking of the lesser Inconveniences attending a Standing Army such as frequent Quarrels Murders and Robberies the destruction of all the Game in the Country the quartering upon publick and sometimes private Houses the influencing of Elections of Parliament by an artificial distribution of Quarters the rendring so many Men useless to Labour and almost Propagation together with a much greater Destruction of them by taking them from a laborious way of living to a loose idle Life and besides this the Insolence of the Officers and the Debaucheries that are committed both by them and their Souldiers in all the Towns they come in to the ruin of multitudes of Women Dishonour of their Families and ill Example to others and a numerous train of Mischiefs besides almost endless to enumerate These are trivial as well as particular Grievances in respect of those I have treated about which strike at the Heart's-blood of our Constitution and therefore I thought these not considerable enough to bear a part in a Discourse of this nature Besides they often procure their own Remedy working Miracles and making some Men see that were born blind and impregnable against all the Artillery of Reason for Experience is the only Mistress of Fools A wise Man will know a Pike will bite when he sees his Teeth which another will not make discovery of but by the loss of a Finger What I have said here against Standing Armies I would be understood of such as are the Instruments of Tyranny and their Country's Ruin and therefore I need make no Apology to our own which was raised by the Consent of the Parliament in this just and necessary War and next under God and our Great and Glorious Deliverer have by their Bravery and Conduct preserved our Liberties and the Protestant Religion through Europe For if in future Reigns any Designs should be levelled against our Laws we may be assured these Men would be discarded and others promoted in their rooms who are fit for such Arbitrary Purposes Nor do I think it reasonable that our Army should be ruined by that Peace which by their Courage and Fidelity they have procured for their Country and I doubt not but the Generosity and Gratitude of the Parliament will give them a Donative equal to their Commissions which when the Foreigners are paid and sent home will amount to no extraordinary Sum at most'tis but supposing the War to have six Months longer continuance which is an easy Composition for the Charge of keeping them But if there are any Gentlemen amongst them who think we can no otherwise express our Gratitude but by signing and sealing our own Ruin I hope we shall disappoint their Expectations and not give the World occasion to tell so foolish a Story of us as that we turn'd to grass one of the most powerful Monarchs in the World for breaking our Laws that we have maintain'd an eight Years War at the Expence of forty Millions of Money and the Blood of three hundred thousand Men to justify the glorious Action we have done that by it we preserv'd all Europe besides and lost our own Liberties at least I hope it shall not be said we consented to it FINIS