honest and generous do also make them lovers of Liberty and constant in the defence of their Country which savouring too much of a Republican Spirit he prefers the morals of that City since they are become more refined by the pious and charitable Jesuits before those that were remarkable in them as long as they retained any shadow of their antient Integrity which admitted of no equivocations and detested prevarications by that means preserving innocence in the hearts of private men for their inward contentment and in civil Societies for the publick good which if once extinguish'd Mankind must necessarily fall into the condition Hobbes rightly calls Bellum omnium contra omnes wherein no man can promise to himself any other Wife Children or Goods than he can procure by his own Sword Some may perhaps think that the endeavours of our Author to introduce such accursed Principles as tend to the ruin of Mankind proceed from his ignorance But tho he appears to have had a great measure of that quality I fear the evil proceeds from a deeper root and that he attempts to promote the interests of ill Magistrates who make it their business to destroy all good principles in the People with as much industry as the good endeavour to preserve them where they are and teach them where they are wanting Reason and experience instruct us that every man acts according to the end he proposes to himself The good Magistrate seeks the good of the People committed to his care that he may perform the end of his Institution and knowing that chiefly to consist in Justice and Virtue he endeavours to plant and propagate them and by doing this he procures his own good as well as that of the Publick He knows there is no Safety where there is no Strength no Strength without Union no Union with Justice no Justice where Faith and Truth in accomplishing publick and private Contracts is wanting This he perpetually inculcates and thinks it a great part of his duty by precept and example to educate the Youth in a love of Virtue and Truth that they may be seasoned with them and filled with an abhorrence of Vice and Falshood before they attain that Age which is exposed to the most violent temptations and in which they may by their crimes bring the greatest mischiefs upon the publick He would do all this tho it were to his own prejudice But as good Actions always carry a reward with them these contribute in a high measure to his advantage By preferring the interest of the People before his own he gains their affection and all that is in their power comes with it whilst he unites them to one another he unites all to himself In leading them to virtue he increases their strength and by that means provides for his own safety glory and power On the other side such as seek different ends must take different ways When a Magistrate fancies he is not made for the People but the People for him that he dos not govern for them but for himself and that the People live only to increase his glory or furnish matter for his pleasures he dos not inquire what he may do for them but what he may draw from them By this means he sets up an interest of profit pleasure or pomp in himself repugnant to the good of the publick for which he is made to be what he is These contrary ends certainly divide the Nation into parties and whilst every one endeavours to advance that to which he is addicted occasions of hatred sor injuries every day done or thought to be done and received must necessarily arise This creates a most fierce and irreconcileable enmity because the occasions are frequent important and universal and the causes thought to be most just The People think it the greatest of all crimes to convert that power to their hurt which was instituted for their good and that the injustice is aggravated by perjury and ingratitude which comprehend all manner of ill and the Magistrate gives the name of Sedition or Rebellion to whatsoever they do for the preservation of themselves and their own Rights When mens spirits are thus prepared a small matter sets them on fire but if no accident happen to blow them into a flame the course of Justice is certainly interrupted the publick affairs are neglected and when any occasion whether foreign or domestick arises in which the Magistrate stands in need of the Peoples assistance they whose affections are alienated not only shew an unwillingness to serve him with their Persons and Estates but fear that by delivering him from his distress they strengthen their enemy and enable him to oppress them and he fancying his will to be unjustly opposed or his due more unjustly denied is filled with a dislike of what he sees and a fear of worse for the future Whilst he endeavours to ease himself of the one and to provide against the other he usually increases the evils of both and jealousies are on both sides multiplied Every man knows that the Governed are in a great measure under the power of the Governor but as no man or number of men is willingly subject to those who seek their ruin such as fall into so great a misfortune continue no longer under it than force fear or necessity may be able to oblige them But as such a necessity can hardly lie longer upon a great People than till the evil be fully discovered and comprehended and their Virtue Strength and Power be united to expel it the ill Magistrate looks upon all things that may conduce to that end as so many preparatives to his ruin and by the help of those who are of his party will endeavour to prevent that Union and diminish that Strength Virtue Power and Courage which he knows to be bent against him And as truth faithful dealing due performance of Contracts and integrity of Manners are bonds of Union and helps to good he will always by tricks artifices cavils and all means possible endeavour to establish falshood and dishonesty whilst other Emissaries and instruments of Iniquity by corrupting the Youth and seducing such as can be brought to lewdness and debauchery bring the People to such a pass that they may neither care nor dare to vindicate their Rights and that those who would do it may so far suspect each other as not to confer upon much less to join in any action tending to the publick Deliverance This distinguishes the good from the bad Magistrate the faithful from the unfaithful and those who adhere to either living in the same principle must walk in the same ways They who uphold the rightful power of a just Magistracy encourage Virtue and Justice teach men what they ought to do suffer or expect from others fix them upon principles of Honesty and generally advance every thing that tends to the increase of the valour strength greatness and happiness of the Nation creating a good
far more rare less violent tending to and procuring the publick Good and therefore deserving praise The like having bin proved by the Examples of other Kingdoms and might be farther confirmed by many more which on account of brevity I omit is in my opinion sufficient to manifest that whilst the Foundation and Principle of a Government remains good the Superstructures may be changed according to occasions without any prejudice to it SECT XVIII Xenophon in blaming the Disorders of Democracies favours Aristocracies not Monarchies IN the next place our Author introduces Xenophon disallowing Popular Governments Cites Rome and Athens as places where the best Men thriv'd worst and the worst best and condemns the Romans for making it capital to pass Sentence of Death Banishment loss of Liberty or Stripes upon any Citizen of Rome But lest his Fraud in this should be detected he cites no precise Passage of any Author alledges few Examples and those mistaken never tells us what that Law was when made or where to be found whereas I hope to prove that he has upon the whole matter abominably prevaricated and advanced things that he knows to be either impertinent or false 1. To this end we are in the first place to consider whether Xenophon speaks of Popular Governments simply or comparatively if simply 't is confess'd that a pure Democracy can never be good unless for a small Town if comparatively we must examine to what he compares it We are sure it was not to Absolute Monarchy there was no such thing amongst the Greeks established by Law The little Tyrants who had enslaved their own Countries as Jason Phaereus Phalaris and the like had no pretence to it and were accounted as the worst of Beasts None but such as in all bestiality were like to them did ever speak or think well of them Xenophon's Opinion in this point may be easily found out by what pass'd between his Master Plato and the Sicilian Tyrant and the matter will not be mended by referring to his own experience He had seen the vast Monarchy of Persia torn in pieces by the fury of two Brothers and more than a million of men brought to fight upon their private quarrel Instead of that Order Stability and Strength which our Author ascribes to Absolute Monarchy as the effect of Wisdom and Justice he knew that by filling one man with pride and cruelty it brought unspeakable miseries upon all others and infected them with all the Vices that accompany Slavery Men lived like Fishes the great ones devour'd the small and as appeared by Tissaphernes Pharnabazus and others with whom he had to deal the worst and basest were made to be the greatest The Satrapes insulted over those of meaner rank with an insolence and cruelty that equal'd the depth of their servil submission to their proud Master Luxury and Avarice reigned in all many great Nations were made to live for the service of one man and to soment his Vices This produced weakness and cowardice no number of those Slaves were able to stand against a few free Grecians No man knew this better than Xenophon who after the death of Cyrus the younger and the treacherous murder of Clearchus and other Officers that commanded the Greeks who had served him made his retreat from Babylon to the Hellespont with ten thousand foot and passed over the bellies of all that dared to oppose him He would never have spent his life in exciting his Countrymen to attempt the Conquest of Asia nor perswaded Agesilaus to put himself at the head of the Enterprize if he had thought there was such admirable Order Stability and Strength in that Monarchy and in the Greeks nothing but giddiness of Spirit and so much Learning as made them seditious Nor could he being a wise Man and an excellent Captain have conceived such a design if he had not by experience found that Liberty inspir'd his Countrymen with such solid Virtue and produced such Stability good Order and Strength that with small numbers of them he might hope to overthrow the vain Pomp of the Barbarians and to possess himself of their Riches tho they could bring more than a hundred men to fight against one which Design being interrupted in his time by domestick Wars was soon after his death accomplished by Alexander But that Xenophon's meaning may be better understood 't is good to consider that he spoke of such Governments as were then in use among the Greeks which tho mixed yet took their denomination from the prevailing part so that the Dorians who placed the Power chiefly in the hands of a few chosen men were said to be governed Aristocratically and the Ionians giving more Power to the common People Democratically And he tho an Ionian either through friendship to Agesilaus conversation with the Spartans or for other reasons best known to himself preferr'd the Government of Sparta or some other which he thought he could frame and desir'd to introduce before that of Athens as Cimon Thucydides and many other excellent men of that City are said to have done And if I acknowledge they were in the right and that Athens was more subject to disorder and had less Stability than Sparta I think it will be of little advantage to Absolute Monarchy 2. The Athenians did banish some worthy men and put others to death but our Author like the Devil never speaking truth unless to turn it into a lie prevaricates in his report of them The temporary banishment which they called Ostracism was without hurt or dishonour never accounted as a Punishment nor intended for any other end than to put a stop to the too eminent greatness of a man that might prove dangerous to the City and some excellent Persons who fell under it were soon recalled and brought home with glory But I am not solicitous whether that reason be sufficient to justify it or not We are upon a general Thesis relating to the Laws of God and Nature and if the Athenians by a fancy of their own did make an imprudent use of their Liberty it cannot prejudice the publick Cause They who make the worst of it can only say that by such means they for a time deprived themselves of the benefits they might have received from the Virtues of some excellent men to the hurt of none but themselves and the application of it as an injustice done to Themistocles is absolutely false He was a man of great Wit Industry and Valour but of uncertain Faith too much addicted to his own Interest and held a most dangerous Correspondence with the Persians who then threatned the destruction of Greece Through envy and spite to Aristides and to increase his own Power he raised dangerous Factions in the City and being summoned to render an account of his Proceedings he declined the Judgment of his Country fled to their Enemies and justly deserved the Sentence pronounc'd against him Some among them were unjustly put to death and above all
Nature sutable to their Original all Tyrannies have had their beginnings from corruption The Histories of Greece Sicily and Italy shew that all those who made themselves Tyrants in several places did it by the help of the worst and the slaughter of the best Men could not be made subservient to their Lusts whilst they continued in their integrity so as their business was to destroy those who would not be corrupted They must therefore endeavour to maintain or increase the corruption by which they attain their greatness If they fail in this point they must fall as Tarquin Pisistratus and others have done but if they succeed so far that the vicious part do much prevail the Government is secure tho the Prince may be in danger And the same thing doth in a great measure accidentally conduce to the safety of his Person For they who for the most part are the Authors of great Revolutions not being so much led by a particular hatred to the man as by a desire to do good to the publick seldom set themselves to conspire against the Tyrant unless he be altogether detestable and intolerable if they do not hope to overthrow the Tyranny The contrary is seen in all popular and well-mixed Governments they are ever established by wise and good men and can never be upheld otherwise than by Virtue The worst men always conspiring against them they must fall if the best have not power to preserve them Wheresoever therefore a People is so governed the Magistrates will obviate afar off the introduction of Vices which tend as much to the ruin of their Persons and Government as to the preservation of the Prince and his This is evidenced by experience 'T is not easy to name a Monarch that had so many good qualities as Julius Cesar till they were extinguished by his ambition which was inconsistent with them He knew that his strength lay in the corruption of the People and that he could not accomplish his designs without increasing it He did not seek good men but such as would be for him and thought none sufficiently addicted to his Interests but such as stuck at the performance of no wickedness that he commanded he was a Souldier according to Cesar's heart who said Pectore si fratris gladium juguloque parentis Condere me jubeas gravidaeve in viscera partu Conjugis invita peragam tamen omnia dextra Lucan And lest such as were devoted to him should grow faint in Villany he industriously inflamed their fury Vult omniâ— Caesar A se saeva peti vult praemia Martis amari Ib. Having spread this Poison amongst the Souldiers his next work was by corrupting the Tribuns to turn the Power to the destruction of the People which had bin erected for their preservation and pouring the Treasures he had gained by rapine in Gaul into the bosom of Curio made him an instrument of mischief who had bin a most eminent Supporter of the Laws Tho he was thought to have affected the glory of sparing Cato and with trouble to have found that he despised life when it was to be accounted his gift yet in suspecting Brutus and Cassius he shew'd he could not believe that virtuous men who loved their Country could be his Friends Such as carry on the like designs with less Valour Wit and Generosity of Spirit will always be more bitterly bent to destroy all that are good knowing that the deformity of their own Vices is rendred most manifest when they are compared with the good qualities of those who are most unlike them and that they can never defend themselves against the scorn and hatred they incur by their Vices unless such a number can be infected with the same and made to delight in the recompences of iniquity that foment them as may be able to keep the rest of the People in subjection The same thing happens even when the Usurpation is not so violent as that of Agathocles Dionysius or the last King of Denmark who in one day by the strength of a mercenary Souldiery overthrew all the Laws of his Country and a lawfully created Magistrate is forced to follow the same ways as soon as he begins to affect a power which the Laws do not confer upon him I wish I could say there were few of these but experience shews that such a proportion of Wisdom moderation of Spirit and Justice is requir'd in a supreme Magistrate to render him content with a limited Power as is seldom found Man is of an aspiring nature and apt to put too high a value upon himself they who are raised above their Brethren tho but a little desire to go farther and if they gain the name of King they think themselves wronged and degraded when they are not suffer'd to do what they please Sanctitas pietas fides Privata bona sunt Qua juvat reges eant In these things they never want Masters and the nearer they come to a power that is not easily restrained by Law the more passionately they desire to abolish all that opposes it and when their Hearts are filled with this fury they never fail to chuse such Ministers as will be subservient to their Will and this is so well known that those only approach them who resolve to be so Their interests as well as their inclinations incite them to diffuse their own manners as far as they can which is no less than to bring those who are under their power to all that wickedness of which the nature of man is capable and no greater testimony can be given of the efficacy of these means towards the utter corruption of Nations than the accursed effects we see of them in our own and the neighbouring Countries It may be said that some Princes are so full of Virtue and Goodness as not to desire more power than the Laws allow and are not obliged to chuse ill men because they desire nothing but what the best are willing to do This may be and sometimes is the Nation is happy that has such a King but he is hard to find and more than a human power is required to keep him in so good a way The strength of his own affections will ever be against him Wives Children and Servants will always join with those Enemies that arise in his own breast to pervert him if he has any weak side any Lust unsubdued they will gain the victory He has not search'd into the nature of man who thinks that any one can resist when he is thus on all sides assaulted Nothing but the wonderful and immediate power of God's Spirit can preserve him and to alledg it will be nothing to the purpose unless it can be proved that all Princes are blessed with such an assistance or that God hath promised it to them and their Successors for ever by what means soever they came to the Crowns they enjoy Nothing is farther from my intention than to speak irreverently of Kings and
they fear which are the principal Arguments that perswade men to expose themselves to labours or dangers 'T is a folly to say that the vigilance and wisdom of the Monarch supplies the desect of care in others for we know that no men under the Sun were ever more void of both and all manner of virtue requir'd to such a work than very many Monarchs have bin And which is yet worse the strength and happiness of the People being frequently dangerous to them they have not so much as the will to promote it nay sometimes set themselves to destroy it Antient Monarchies afford us frequent examples of this kind and if we consider those of France and Turky which seem most to flourish in our Age the People will appear to be so miserable under both that they cannot sear any change of Governor or Government and all except a few Ministers are kept so far from the knowledg of or power in the management of Affairs that if any of them should fancy a possibility of something that might befal them worse than what they suffer or hope for that which might alleviate their misery they could do nothing towards the advancement of the one or prevention of the other Tacitus observes that in his time no man was able to write what passed Inscitia Reipublicae ut alienae They neglected the publick Affairs in which they had no part In the same Age it was said that the People who whilst they fought for their own Interests had bin invincible being enslaved were grown sordid idle base running after Stage-plays and Shows so as the whole strength of the Roman Armies consisted of Strangers When their Spirits were depressed by servitude they had neither courage to defend themselves nor will to fight for their wicked Masters and least of all to increase their Power which was destructive to themselves The same thing is found in all places Tho the Turk commands many vast Provinces that naturally produce as good Soldiers as any yet his greatest strength is in Children that do not know their Fathers who not being very many in number may perish in one Battel and the Empire by that means be lost the miserable Nations that groan under That Tyranny having neither courage power nor will to defend it This was the fate of the Mamalukes They had for the space of almost two hundred years domineer'd in Egypt and a great part of Asia but the people under them being weak and disaffected they could never recover the Defeat they received from Selim near Tripoli who pursuing his Victory in a few months utterly abolished their Kingdom Notwithstanding the present pride of France the numbers and warlike Inclinations of that People the bravery of the Nobility extent of Dominion convenience of Situation and the vast Revenues of their King his greatest Advantages have bin gained by the mistaken Counsels of England the valour of our Soldiers unhappily sent to serve him and the Strangers of whom the strength of his Armies consists which is so unsteady a support that many who are well versed in Affairs of this nature incline to think he subsists rather by little Arts and corrupting Ministers in Foreign Courts than by the Power of his own Armies and that some reformation in the Counsels of his Neighbours might prove sufficient to overthrow that Greatness which is grown formidable to Europe the same misery to which he has reduced his People rendring them as unable to defend him upon any change of Fortune as to defend their own Rights against him This proceeds not from any particular defect in the French Government but that which is common to all Absolute Monarchies And no State can be said to stand upon a steady Foundation except those whose strength is in their own Soldiery and the body of their own People Such as serve for Wages often betray their Masters in distress and always want the courage and industry which is found in those who fight for their own Interests and are to have a part in the Victory The business of Mercenaries is so to perform their duty as to keep their Employments and to draw profit from them but that is not enough to support the Spirits of men in extream dangers The Shepherd who is a hireling flies when the Thief comes and this adventitious help failing all that a Prince can reasonably expect from a disaffected and oppressed People is that they should bear the Yoak patiently in the time of his Prosperity but upon the change of his Fortune they leave him to shift for himself or join with his Enemies to avenge the Injuries they had received Thus did Alphonso and Ferdinand Kings of Naples and Lodovico Sforza Duke of Milan fall in the times of Charles the Eighth and Louis the Twelfth Kings of France The two first had bin false violent and cruel nothing within their Kingdom could oppose their fury but when they were invaded by a Foreign Power they lost all as Guicciardin says without breaking one Lance and Sforza was by his own mercenary Soldiers delivered into the hands of his Enemies I think it may be hard to find Examples of such as proceeding in the same way have had better Success But if it should so fall out that a People living under an Absolute Monarchy should through custom or fear of something worse if that can be not only suffer patiently but desire to uphold the Government neither the Nobility nor Commonalty can do any thing towards it They are strangers to all publick Concernments All things are govern'd by one or a few men and others know nothing either of Action or Counsel Filmer will tell us 't is no matter the profound Wisdom of the Prince provides for all But what if this Prince be a Child a Fool a superannuated Dotard or a Madman Or if he dos not fall under any of these extremities and possesses such a proportion of Wit Industry and Courage as is ordinarily seen in men how shall he supply the Office that indeed requires profound Wisdom and an equal measure of Experience and Valour 'T is to no purpose to say a good Council may supply his defects for it dos not appear how he should come by this Council nor who should oblige him to follow their advice If he be left to his own will to do what he pleases tho good advice be given to him yet his judgment being perverted he will always incline to the worst If a necessity be imposed upon him of acting according to the advice of his Council he is not that absolute Monarch of whom we speak nor the Government Monarchical but Aristocratical These are imperfect Fig-leave coverings of Nakedness It was in vain to give good counsel to Sardanapalus and none could defend the Assyrian Empire when he lay wallowing amongst his Whores without any other thought than of his Lusts. None could preserve Rome when Domitian's chief business was to kill Flies and that of Honorius to take
and Man he became also miserable his example ought to deter others from the Crimes that are avenged by a Power which none can escape and to encourage those who defend or endeavour to recover their violated Liberties to act vigorously in a Cause that God dos evidently patronize SECT XXV Courts are more subject to Venality and Corruption than Popular Governments THO Court-flatterers impute many evils to Popular Governments they no way deserve I could not think any so impudent as to lay Corruption and Venality to their charge till I found it in our Author They might in my opinion have taken those faults upon themselves since they certainly abound most where Bawds Whores Buffoons Players Slaves and other base people who are naturally mercenary are most prevalent And whosoever would know whether this dos more frequently befal Commonwealths than Monarchies especially if they are absolute need only to inquire whether the Cornelii Junii Fabii Valerii Quintii Curii Fabritii and others who most prevailed in Rome after the expulsion of the Kings or Sejanus Macro Narcissus Pallas Icetus Tigellinus Vinnius Laco Agrippina Messalina Lollia Poppaea and the like were most subject to those base Vices Whether it were more easy to corrupt one or two of those Villains and Strumpets or the Senats and People of Rome Carthage Athens and Sparta and whether that sort of Rabble had more power over the Princes they served than such as most resembled them had whilst the Popular Government continued 'T is in vain to say those Princes were wicked and vile for many others are so likewise and when the Power is in the hands of one man there can be no assurance he will not be like them Nay when the Power is so placed ill men will always find opportunities of compassing their desires Bonus cautus optimus Imperator venditur said Dioclesian and tho he was no unwise man yet that which principally induced him to renounce the Empire was the impossibility he sound of defending himself against those that were in credit with him who daily betray'd and sold him They see with the eyes of other men and cannot resist the frauds that are perpetually put upon them Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius seem to have bin the best and wisest of all the Roman Emperors but the two Faustina's had such an ascendent over them as was most shameful to their persons and mischievous to the Empire and the best men in it Such as these may gain too much upon the affections of one man in the best regulated Government but that could be of no great danger to the Publick when many others equal or not much inferior to him in authority are ready to oppose whatever he should endeavour to promote by their impulse but there is no remedy when all depends upon the Will of a single person who is governed by them There was more of acuteness and jest than of truth in that saying of Themistocles That his little boy had more power than any man in Greece for he governed his Mother she him he Athens and Athens Greece For he himself was found to have little power when for private passions and concernments he departed from the interest of the Publick and the like has bin found in all places that have bin governed in the like manner Again Corruption will always reign most where those who have the power do most favour it where the rewards of such Crimes are greatest easiest and most valued and where the punishment of them is least feared 1. For the first we have already proved that Liberty cannot be preserved if the manners of the People are corrupted nor absolute Monarchy introduced where they are sincere which is sufficient to shew that those who manage free Governments ought always to the utmost of their power to oppose Corruption because otherwise both they and their Government must inevitably perish and that on the other hand the absolute Monarch must endeavour to introduce it because he cannot subsist without it 'T is also so natural for all such Monarchs to place men in power who pretend to love their persons and will depend upon their pleasure that possibly 't would be hard to find one in the world who has not made it the rule of his Government And this is not only the way to corruption but the most dangerous of all For tho a good man may love a good Monarch he will obey him only when he commands that which is just and no one can engage himself blindly to do whatever he is commanded without renouncing all Virtue and Religion because he knows not whether that which shall be commanded is consistent with either or directly contrary to the Laws of God and Man But if such a Monarch be evil and his Actions such as they are too often found to be whoever bears an affection to him and seconds his designs declares himself an Enemy to all that is good and the advancement of such men to power dos not only introduce foment and increase Corruption but fortifies it in such a manner that without an intire renovation of that State it cannot be removed Ill men may possibly creep into any Government but when the worst are plac'd nearest to the Throne and raised to Honors for being so they will with that force endeavour to draw all men to a conformity of Spirit with themselves that it can no otherwise be prevented than by destroying them and the Principle in which they live 2. To the second Man naturally follows that which is good or seems to him to be so Hence it is that in well-govern'd States where a value is put upon Virtue and no one honoured unless for such Qualities as are beneficial to the Publick men are from the tenderest years brought up in a belief that nothing in this world deserves to be sought after but such Honors as are acquired by virtuous Actions By this means Virtue it self becomes popular as in Sparta Rome and other places where Riches which with the Vanity that follows them and the Honors men give to them are the root of all evil were either totally banished or little regarded When no other advantage attended the greatest Riches than the opportunity of living more sumptuously or deliciously men of great Spirits slighted them When Aristippus told Cleanthes that if he would go to Court and flatter the Tyrant he need not seek his Supper under a hedg the Philosopher answer'd that he who could content himself with such a Supper need not go to Court or flatter the Tyrant Epaminondas Aristides Phocion and even the Lacedemonian Kings found no inconvenience in Poverty whilst their Virtue was honour'd and the richest Princes in the world feared their Valour and Power It was not difficult for Curius Fabricius Quintius Cincinnatus or Paulus Emilius to content themselves with the narrowest Fortune when it was no obstacle to them in the pursuit of those Honours which their Virtues deserved 'T was in vain to think of
upon him that doth evil He therefore is only the Minister of God who is not a terror to good works but to evil who executes wrath upon those that do evil and is a praise to those that do well And he who doth well ought not to be afraid of the power for he shall receive praise Now if our Author were alive tho he was a man of a hard forehead I would ask him whether in his Conscience he believed that Tiberius Caligula Claudius Nero and the rabble of succeeding Monsters were a praise to those who did well and a terror to those who did ill and not the contrary a praise to the worst and a terror to the best men of the world or for what reason Tacitus could say that virtue brought men who lived under them to certain destruction and recite so many Examples of the brave and good who were murder'd by them for being so unless they had endeavour'd to extinguish all that was good and to tear up virtue by the roots Why did he call Domitian an Enemy to virtue if he was a terror only to those that did evil If the world has hitherto bin misled in these things and given the name of Virtue to Vice and of Vice to Virtue then Germanicus Valerius Asiaticus Corbulo Helvidius Priscus Thraseas Soranus and others that resembled them who fell under the rage of those Beasts nay Paul himself and his Disciples were evil doers and Macro Narcissus Pallas Vinnius Laco and Tigellinus were virtuous and good men If this be so we are beholden to Filmer for admonishing mankind of the error in which they had so long continued If not those who persecuted and murder'd them for their Virtues were not a terror to such as did evil and a praise to those who did well The worst men had no need to fear them but the best had because they were the best All Princes therefore that have power are not to be esteemed equally the Ministers of God They that are so must receive their dignity from a title that is not common to all even from a just emploiment of their power to the incouragement of Virtue and to the discouragement of Vice He that pretends to the veneration and obedience due to the Ministers of God must by his actions manifest that he is so And tho I am unwilling to advance a proposition that may sound harshly to tender ears I am inclined to believe that the same rule which obliges us to yield obedience to the good Magistrate who is the Minister of God and assures us that in obeying him we obey God dos equally oblige us not to obey those who make themselves the Ministers of the Devil lest in obeying them we obey the Devil whose works they do That none but such as are wilfully ignorant may mistake Pauls meaning Peter who was directed by the same Spirit says distinctly Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lord's sake If therefore there be several Ordinances of men tending to the same end that is the obtaining of justice by being a terror to the evil and a praise to the good the like obedience is for conscience sake enjoined to all and upon the same condition But as no man dares to say that Athens and Persia Carthage and Egypt Switzerland and France Venice and Turky were and are under the same Government the same obedience is due to the Magistrate in every one of those places and all others on the same account whilst they continue to be the Ministers of God If our Author say that Peter cannot comprehend Kings under the name of human Ordinances since Paul says they are the Ordinance of God I may as well say that Paul cannot call that the Ordinance of God which Peter calls the ordinance of man But as it was said of Moses and Samuel that they who spoke by the same Spirit could not contradict each other Peter and Paul being full of Wisdom and Sanctity and inspir'd by the same Spirit must needs say the same thing and Grotius shews that they perfectly agree tho the one calls Kings Rulers and Governors the Ordinance of Man and the other the Ordinance of God inasmuch as God having from the beginning ordained that men should not live like Wolves in woods every man by himself but together in Civil Societies left to every one a liberty of joyning with that Society which best pleas'd him and to every Society to create such Magistrates and frame such Laws as should seem most conducing to their own good according to the measure of light and reason they might have And every Magistracy so inflituted might rightly be called the Ordinance of man who was the Instituter and the Ordinance of God according to which it was instituted because says he God approved and ratified the salutary Constitutions of Government made by men But says our Author Peter expounds his own words of the human Ordinance to be the King who is the Lex loguens but he says no such thing and I do not find that any such thought ever enter'd into the Apostle's mind The words are often found in the works of Plato and Aristotle but applied only to such a man as is a King by nature who is endow'd with all the virtues that tend to the good of human Societies in a greater measure than any or all those that compose them which Character I think will be ill applied to all Kings And that this may appear to be true I desire to know whether it would well have agreed with Nero Caligula Domitian or others like to them and if not with them then not with all but only with those who are endow'd with such Virtues But if the King be made by man he must be such as man makes him to be and if the power of a Law had bin given by any human Sanction to the word of a foolish mad or wicked man which I hardly believe it would be destroy'd by its own iniquity and turpitude and the People left under the obligation of rendring obedience to those who so use the Sword that the Nations under them may live soberly peaceably and honestly This obliges me a little to examin what is meant by the Sword The Pope says there are two Swords the one temporal the other spiritual and that both of them were given to Peter and to his Successors Others more rightly understand the two Swords to be that of War and that of Justice which according to several Constitutions of Governments have bin committed to several hands under several conditions and limitations The Sword of Justice comprehends the legislative and the executive Power the one is exercised in making Laws the other in judging Controversies according to such as are made The military Sword is used by those Magistrates who have it in making War or Peace with whom they think fit and sometimes by others who have it not in pursuing such Wars as are
Union among them and bringing every man to an exact understanding of his own and the publick Rights On the other side he that would introduce an ill Magistrate make one evil who was good or preserve him in the exercise of injustice when he is corrupted must always open the way for him by vitiating the People corrupting their Manners destroying the validity of Oaths and Contracts teaching such evasions equivocations and frauds as are inconsistent with the thoughts that become men of virtue and courage and overthrowing the confidence they ought to have in each other make it impossible for them to unite among themselves The like Arts must be used with the Magistrate he cannot be for their turn till he is perswaded to believe he has no dependence upon and ows no duty to the People that he is of himself and not by their Institution that no man ought to inquire into nor be judg of his actions that all obedience is due to him whether he be good or bad wise or foolish a father or an enemy to his Country This being calculated for his personal interest he must pursue the same designs or his Kingdom is divided within it self and cannot subsist By this means those who flatter his humour come to be accounted his Friends and the only men that are thought worthy of great Trusts whilst such as are of another mind are exposed to all persecution These are always such as excel in Virtue Wisdom and greatness of Spirit they have Eyes and they will always see the way they go and leaving fools to be guided by implicit Faith will distinguish between good and evil and chuse that which is best they will judg of men by their actions and by them discovering whose Servant every man is know whether he is to be obeyed or not Those who are ignorant of all good careless or enemies to it take a more compendious way their slavish vitious and base natures inclining them to seek only private and present advantages they easily slide into a blind dependence upon one who has Wealth and Power and desiring only to know his will care not what injustice they do if they may be rewarded They worship what they find in the Temple tho it be the vilest of Idols and always like that best which is worst because it agrees with their inclinations and principles When a party comes to be erected upon such a foundation debauchery lewdness and dishonesty are the true badges of it Such as wear them are cherished but the principal marks of favour are reserved for those who are the most industrious in mischief either by seducing the People with the allurements of sensual Pleasures or corrupting their Understandings by false and slavish Doctrines By this means a man who calls himself a Philosopher or a Divine is often more useful than a great number of Tapsters Cooks Buffoons Players Fidlers Whores or Bawds These are the Devil's Ministers of a lower Order they seduce single Persons and such as fall into their snares are for the most part men of the simpler sort but the principal supporters of his Kingdom are they who by false Doctrines poison the springs of Religion and Virtue and by preaching or writing if their falshood and wickedness were not detected would extinguish all principles of common honesty and bring whole Nations to be best satisfied with themselves when their actions are most abominable And as the means must always be sutable to the end proposed the Governments that are to be established or supported by such ways must needs be the worst of all and comprehend all manner of evil SECT XX. Unjust Commands are not to be obey'd and no man is obliged to suffer for not obeying such as are against Law IN the next place our Author gravely proposes a question Whether it be a sin to disobey the King if he command any thing contrary to Law and as gravely determines that not only in human Laws but even in Divine a thing may be commanded contrary to Law and yet obedience to such a Command is necessary The sanctifying of the Sabbath is a divine Law yet if a Master command his Servant not to go to Church upon a Sabbath day the best Divines teach us the Servant must obey c. It is not fit to tie the Master to acquaint the Servant with his secret Counsel Tho he frequently contradicts in one line what he says in another this whole Clause is uniform and sutable to the main design of his Book He sets up the authority of Man in opposition to the command of God gives it the preference and says the best Divines instruct us so to do St. Paul then must have bin one of the worst for he knew that the Powers under which he lived had under the severest penalties forbidden the publication of the Gospel and yet he says Wo to me if I preach it not St. Peter was no better than he for he tells us That it is better to obey God than Man and they could not speak otherwise unless they had forgotten the words of their Master who told them They should not fear them that could only kill the Body but him who could kill and cast into Hell And if I must not fear him that can only kill the Body not only the reason but all excuse for obeying him is taken away To prove what he says he cites a pertinent example from St. Luke and very logically concludes that because Christ reproved the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who generally adhered to the external and circumstantial part of the Law neglecting the essential and taking upon themselves to be the interpreters of that which they did not understand the Law of God is not to be obeyed and as strongly proves that because Christ shewed them that the same Law which by their own consession permitted them to pull an Ass out of a pit on the Sabbath day could not but give a liberty of healing the sick therefore the commands of Kings are to be obeyed tho they should be contrary to human and divine Laws But if perversness had not blinded him he might have seen that this very Text is wholly against his purpose for the Magistratical Power was on the side of the Pharisees otherwise they would not have sought an occasion to ensnare him and that power having perverted the Law of God by salse glosses and a superinduction of human Traditions prohibited the most necessary acts of Charity to be done on the Sabbath day which Christ reproved and restored the sick man to his health in their sight But I could wish our Author had told us the names of those Divines who he says are the best and who pretend to teach us these fine things I know some who are thought good that are of a contrary opinion and say that God having required that day to be set apart for his Service and Worship man cannot dispense with the Obligation unless he can abrogate the
set limits to them but all reasonable men confessing that they are instituted for the good of Nations they only can deserve praise who above all things endeavour to procure it and appoint means proportioned to that end The great variety of Governments which we see in the world is nothing but the effect of this care and all Nations have bin and are more or less happy as they or their Ancestors have had vigour of Spirit integrity of Manners and wisdom to invent and establish such Orders as have better or worse provided for this common Good which was sought by all But as no rule can be so exact to make provision against all contestations and all disputes about Right do naturally end in force when Justice is denied ill men never willingly submitting to any decision that is contrary to their passions and interests the best Constitutions are of no value if there be not a power to support them This power first exerts it self in the execution of justice by the ordinary Officers But no Nation having bin so happy as not sometimes to produce such Princes as Edward and Richard the Seconds and such Ministers as Gaveston Spencer and Tresilian the ordinary Officers of Justice often want the will and always the power to restrain them So that the Rights and Liberties of a Nation must be utterly subverted and abolished if the power of the whole may not be employed to assert them or punish the violation of them But as it is the fundamental Right of every Nation to be governed by such Laws in such manner and by such persons as they think most conducing to their own good they cannot be accountable to any but themselves for what they do in that most important affair SECT XXXVII The English Government was not ill constituted the defects more lately observed proceeding from the change of manners and corruption of the times I Am not ignorant that many honest and good men acknowledging these Rights and the care of our Ancestors to preserve them think they wanted wisdom rightly to proportionate the means to the end 'T is not enough say they for the General of an Army to desire Victory he only can deserve praise who has skill industry and courage to take the best measures of obtaining it Neither is it enough for wise Legislators to preserve Liberty and to erect such a Government as may stand for a time but to set such clear Rules to those who are to put it in execution that every man may know when they transgress and appoint such means for restraining or punishing them as may be used speedily surely and effectually without danger to the Publick Sparta being thus constituted we hardly find that for more than eight hundred years any King presumed to pass the limits prescribed by the Law If any Roman Consul grew insolent he might be reduced to order without blood or danger to the Publick and no Dictator ever usurped a power over Liberty till the time of Sylla when all things in the City were so changed that the antient foundations were become too narrow In Venice the power of the Duke is so circumscribed that in 1300 years no one except Falerio and Tiepoli have dared to attempt any thing against the Laws and they were immediately suppressed with little commotion in the City On the other side our Law is so ambiguous perplext and intricate that 't is hard to know when 't is broken In all the publick contests we have had men of good judgment and integrity have follow'd both parties The means of transgressing and procuring Partizans to make good by force the most notorious violations of Liberty have bin so easy that no Prince who has endeavoured it ever failed to get great numbers of followers and to do infinite mischiefs before he could be removed The Nation has bin brought to fight against those they had made to be what they were upon the unequal terms of hazarding all against nothing If they had success they gained no more than was their own before and which the Law ought to have secured whereas 't is evident that if at any one time the contrary had happened the Nation had bin utterly enslaved and no victory was ever gained without the loss of much noble and innocent blood To this I answer that no right judgment can be given of human things without a particular regard to the time in which they passed We esteem Scipio Hannibal Pyrrhus Alexander Epaminondas and Cesar to have bin admirable Commanders in War because they had in a most eminent degree all the qualities that could make them so and knew best how to employ the Arms then in use according to the discipline of their times and yet no man doubts that if the most skilful of them could be raised from the Grave restored to the utmost vigour of mind and body set at the head of the best Armies he ever commanded and placed upon the Frontiers of France or Flanders he would not know how to advance or retreat nor by what means to take any of the places in those parts as they are now fortified and defended bnt would most certainly be beaten by any insignificant fellow with a small number of men furnished with such Arms as are now in use and following the methods now practised Nay the manner of marching encamping besieging attacking defending and fighting is so much altered within the last threescore years that no man observing the discipline that was then thought to be the best could possibly defend himself against that which has bin since found out tho the terms are still the same And if it be consider'd that political matters are subject to the same mutations as certainly they are it will be sufficient to excuse our Ancestors who suting their Government to the Ages in which they lived could neither soresee the changes that might happen in future Generations nor appoint remedies for the mischiefs they did not soresee They knew that the Kings of several Nations had bin kept within the limits of the Law by the virtue and power of a great and brave Nobility and that no other way of supporting a mix'd Monarchy had ever bin known in the world than by putting the balance into the hands of those who had the greatest interest in Nations and who by birth and estate enjoy'd greater advantages than Kings could confer upon them for rewards of betraying their Country They knew that when the Nobility was so great as not easily to be number'd the little that was left to the King's disposal was not sufficient to corrupt many and if some might fall under the temptation those who continued in their integrity would easily be able to chastise them for deserting the publick Cause and by that means deter Kings srom endeavouring to seduce them from their duty Whilst things continued in this posture Kings might safely be trusted with the advice of their Council to confer the commands of the Militia in