will be thought the juster when he is sharp upon a particular man that demerits but to let fall his Majesty warrants low thoughts of him among the generality Thus Princes tho' as men they must live as men yet by reason of the dignity of their office they must either abstain from or use these familiarities in private or be prejudiced in their regal station And the person to whom the Prince communicates these favours if he be either vain or insolent upon them which is a hard task not to be he draws upon himself an insupportable envy and on his Masters reputation a great diminution The full glory of a Nation or its majesty is drawn as in a burning glass The Prince the true representative of a Nation into one point in the person of the King and therefore if he let it fall himself or any subject by abuse of his favour darken it it is an offence against the publick The office of a King or supream Governor is to govern multitudes of people and they are heady refractory and unsteady like horses apt to be resty without they find their Rider fast in the saddle and themselves commanded by the bit and spur or under a power How his power and majesty are necessary and thus power is necessary And common people like children are delighted with glorious and gay things and thus Majesty is necessary so as the reverence of civil Government is upheld much by the splendor of Majesty for without this popular fancy will not be pleased nor satisfied for which reason greatness ever stands in need of some sensible lustre Thus as there is a real necessity of power so considering how strong fancy is in multitudes there is a necessity that Majesty be as little neglected as Power The personal vertues of a Prince Power and Majesty are the two great supports of Soveraignty but they are best upheld by two personal virtues viz. that of Piety and that of Justice Piety Piety leads a Prince to believe that he is accountable unto God for the administration of his high office and it leads the subject to believe that that prince who acknowledges a greater power than his own and that a divine power is like to use his own unto good ends It bows his own heart unto God and his subjects unto himself or it disposes him to live well and his subjects to obey willingly It makes him watchful in the discharge of his own office and resolute against those who invade him in it It is the best directress both of his Power and Majesty for it keeps power from cruelty and majesty from disdaining of others It makes a Prince value the divine Providence that watches over him more than his Guards knowing without this civil wisdom or military power very often miscarry Indeed the vices of Princes always turn unto their own punishment for they that imitate them in their vice are aptest to disquiet them in their Government and thus they dishearten good subjects to uphold them and encourage ill to rebel against themselves Justice as it flows from piety Justice so it is upheld by power Justice must appear or be known to be armed or it is too like to be disputed in its execution Men entred into Society that they might enjoy the benefit of it and when it is obstructed a Common-weal is sick if generally not administred the band of Society is dissolved the execution of it is the life of the laws No arbitrary power or decision or reason of state must want justice for the standing laws and the arbitrary determinations of Soveraignty must both be reasonable and just the one may want the formalities or forms of process which the other is tyed unto but justice must be the life and spirit of them both And therefore they are narrow thoughts that think what is arbitrary is unjust for when it is the determination of a good and a wise man it is very often more perfect than the law it self because made a rule after the inconvenience of the law is perceived or wise men would make it a law or give it a sanction as soon as proposed So as I ever thought the binding the Judges or their binding themselves too strictly unto the letter of the law and formality of words and spellings in pleadings was like strait ligatures which hinder just circulation of humors for it is one thing to leave the Judge too loose but it is another more nocent to tye him up too strait This sets up distinct Courts of Equity and that multiplies suits and many other inconveniencies Keep an ill or corrupt man from being a Judge soon remove him when it is perceived nay severely punish him but pinion him not so as he must sit and see the craft of a Sollicitor or an Attorney evade the true meaning of the law in such a case let him as well as the party pincht by the subtilty of the plea have the liberty to put the case to a summary decision of all the Benches which he finds not fit to determine in his own Court Faithfulness Faithfulness in a Prince is but a part of his justice Lying lips says Solomon become not a Prince and the reason is that he that hath a generous heart will not stand in need of a false mouth A Prince ought to be cloathed with reputation which no man inwardly can render to him on whom he cannot depend or whose word he cannot rely on But because necessarily there must be granted unto men in civil affairs and in Kingly Policies a greater latitude than ought to be allowed in common conversation not of dealing falsely but of demeaning a mans self sagaciously therefore Princes and Ambassadors who know what weights are used seldom expect other coin than that which is mixt with an alloy which though it debaseth the mettal yet makes it work the better Chancellor Bacon distinguishes well betwixt dissimulation and simulation indeed the distinction is Cicero's in his Offices l. 3. making the first but an art of State or an art of life as Tacitus calls it i. e. an art of living among men that dissemble the other a false profession by which I think he means falsity when he professes sincerity which surely is a false Policy and no ways allowable the first he assigns unto Augustus the second unto Tiberius The first is but the art of a well managed horse who observing the hand knows how to stop on a sudden Undoubtedly where a Prince believes he is clearly dealt with he should be as clear in his dealing for though their condition exempts them from that openness and round dealing which is the honor of a private man's nature yet the importance of their obligations reaching unto the good or harm of so many private men they are admitted to have more of the serpentine windings than would become a private man Equivocations must necessarily be disallowed by all men in Treaties but
to the young Sons of the Nobility and Gentry the growing hopes of their Country and who one day by their virtue courage loyalty wisdom and learning befitting their birth and quality will make a great figure in it for the seasoning of whose minds capable of the highest and noblest impressions with virtuous and true notions of Policy and for their direction and service it is chiefly published and to whom therefore it is humbly dedicated The Reader is desired to correct the following errata which have escaped the diligence of the Corrector PAg. 29. l. 29. Person p. 89. l. 29. make is p. 80. l. 23. were p. 121. l. 13. reckoned 139. l. 21. recommend 149. l. 12. justice is 146. l. ult prescribe 154. l. 7. condition for 164. l. 1. prompter 172. l. that is a. in the margin there for civil read single 193. l. 13. take 206. l. 20. for too read two OF Government As examined by Reason Scripture AND Law of the Land GOD and nature made men sociable creatures Government as examined by reason which appears by this that every man affects a companion which arises from this that every single man stands in need of anothers help Men could not have liv'd together in a body politick if God had not disposed the natural inclinations of their minds for such a society and the same reason that leads them to co-habit together exacted from them the preferring publick good before private interest or the whole before any part so as government is an ordinance of God and not an invention of man and arises not as Mr. Hobbs would make it from the passion of fear which one man had of another but from the moral virtue of justice to do as one would be done unto This makes the politick body so much to resemble the natural The brain must be distinguisht from the heart and the heart from the liver If one part give life another must sense and a third nutrition The understanding or Prince or soveraign power must give the law and the animal spirits or Nobility must influence the nerves or instruments of motion thro' the whole body or subordinate Officers to set on work the muscles or organical members or Commonalty to perform the several offices which belong to the several faculties of the soul of government But we will not follow affectedly metaphors or resemblances which only serve for illustration but not for proof The Object of Government stands in Persons Ruling are Either Supream Whether supremacy lies in one or more persons Here rule or government is absolute arbitrary and uncontroulable yet with an eye and duty to publick-weal or salus populi and an accountableness to God Or Subordinate Magistrates under him or them in whom the supremacy is lodged These do rule by the Soveraigns commission the powers whereof they are not to exceed and they are accountable for the execution thereof not to God only but man likewise Ruled are the People in general viz. 1. Nobility Ecclesiastical Civil 2. Gentry 3. Commons The three states of men which among us make up a Parliament and are united to the King or Supream as members with their head They represent the whole body of that people unto the King but the King is the true representative of the people to all the world The Soveraign the Virtual Body of the Nation The three Estates the Representative Body of the Nation The People themselves the Essential Body of the Nation Things Prerogatives are in defence of the Government it self and of the Soveraign Person and to be made use of in both cases Laws Civil or Municipal for securing the Lives Liberties Properties c. of the Subject Matters Thus Ad Caesarem potestas omnium pertiner ad singulos proprietas Divine Civil as 1 Religion 2 Justice 3 Council 4 Commerce 5 Confederation 6 Treasure 7 Arms by Sea Land The seven great sinews or pillars or nerves of Government Military Government and Governors Government and Governors are both Gods ordinances for though He himself was the sole Legislator in all those matters which concerned mans ultimate happiness yet he left men by the light of their own natural reason to make such laws as concern'd their civil interests or their concerns of this life as natural reason dictated unto them And because no society could be formed and kept together but by equal and just laws nor those laws executed but by some Persons therefore both laws and Governors were made sacred the one to be observed and the other to be reverenced and therefore God owns both and puts an impression of part of his own honor both on humane laws and Soveraign Persons though both these may be infirm and failing for Princes or Soveraigns may err as well in making laws or in their judgments about them as in the execution of them or in their own manners And therefore God obliged Princes to be well advised about making laws and as nigh as they could to follow sound reason and the best precedents and to do all with deliberation and good advice and with an eye to publick utility Nevertheless because these concerns were but about matters of an indifferent nature and that coming under so many divers circumstances it often puzled a sincere and a wise Governor what to ordain and the narrowness of mens understandings often making that whilst the business was in councel or agitation appear best which as soon as perfected was often discerned not to be so and so wisdom and sincerity though not likely so grosly or so often might fail in councel as well as folly and negligence therefore he stampt his own authority both upon human laws and Governors The reverence due unto authority thereby to keep them both from being disputed And upon this ground it was that laws were by the same authority that made them to be revoked or repealed Thus the human authority from whence these laws flowed silenced all private judgment and became indisputable there being nothing to be put in the ballance with it it being only the prerogative of God's Laws to be entertained for their own excellency mens for the authority or station they were in Otherwise all Government had been precarious or subjected so to change as to be unsteady or endless and so useless This every master of a family shall find if he give way to his wife children and servants to dispute his commands much more then a Lord or Soveraign over a whole nation And this should make every master of a family as careful to keep up the honor of his Prince in his great family as he would his own in his little family Soveraignty must be absolute and arbitrary Soveraignty therefore was by divine ordinance made both arbitrary and unquestionable else it could never have answered the true ends of government Divine wisdom therefore necessarily armed even in behalf of the governed the supream Governors with these powers following The
too hard a task for one no better verst in both these two Sciences than my self to give the limits unto this may be said that the Prince is obliged since Politicks flow from Ethicks as nigh as possibly he can to suit his Policies with good Morals or rather that he frame them out of at least never contrary unto the Word of God for this will make him truly worship his God and best teach him how to demean himself with men or how to govern himself either in relation to his forreign or home Affairs Not that there are such rules given in God's Word but that a Prince's Policies should not warrant any thing that Word forbids but rather cast himself on Providence Such delineations of a Prince as these are will convince men that not only Government but Governors are the ordinance of God for by me says God Kings raign which Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges when he says to Daniel Your God is a God of Gods and a Lord of Kings and he rules in the Kingdoms of the earth and gives it to whomsoever he will and sets up over it i. e. whenever a people provoke him to send them that curse the basest of men or as Hosea may seem to explain it they cast off his Government for Governments that men have framed for say they give us a King like the other Nations or let us cast off King Charles the first for a Cromwell or Christ for a Barrabbas Thus people will sometimes set up a King but not by God yea and pull down a King to their own confusion which God divert them from doing any more But that they may not thus mischief themselves God's Word describes a King's power by his character A King against whom there is no rising And what is said of a King is said of all Soveraign Persons be they one or more a Monarchy or an Aristocracy a Kingdom or a Common-weal for if Subjects upon discontents and dissatisfactions might change their setled form of Government the politick Body like his Natural that is always giving Physick to himself would be surely purged out of its setled peace and probably into its grave so as Solomon was very wise and spake as well to the States of a Land as unto particular persons when he said Meddle not with those who are given to change c. Fear God therefore and honour the King and curse not the King i. e. speak not evil of him or in discourse revile him Remember he is thy Politick Parent go backward therefore and cover his nakedness Shimei's cursing was but revilings Cut not off so much as the lap of his garment or approach him not with a prophane tongue or hand as if he were not the Lord 's Anointed for he cannot be innocent that lessens his dignity or clouds his Majesty No do not this in thine heart or in thy bed-chamber no nor mingle with those that are given to changes for their calamities shall rise suddenly or a Bird some small or unlook'd-for accident shall betray thy conspiracy or who knows the ruine of them or it shall fall upon them by some providential accident and their ruine shall be as swift as their plots were secret for if God's Word in case of oppression direct men to cry unto him for relief and not to cry unto your Tents O Israel what is our resistance but to cast off our dependance on God's providence and to have recourse unto the Witch of Endor or our own impatience or like an injured man that will not let the Judge give sentence nor the Hang-man execute him that robb'd him but he will do both offices himself Rebellion therefore is like the sin of Witchcraft it removes its dependance on God's Providence and flies as has been said to an ill Spirit or its own disobedient and vindicative humor There is no distinction between the King's person and his power Nor must men subtilize by distinguishing betwixt the power and the person for that Apostle who says Be not afraid of the Power expounds it by the Person for he is appointed by God c. Thus a King's Person and his Power cannot be separate though they may be distinguished or his authority may be where his Person is not but never his authority can be wanting where his Person is Whoever therefore will not do the law of God written in God's book nor of the King written in his statutes let Judgment be executed upon him whither it be unto death or banishment or confiscation or imprisonment And if this command comes from Artaxerxes by Ezra he would not have set it down but as it was warrantable to execute Nay the people of Israel themselves say as much to Joshuah Whosoever resists thy commandments and will not hearken to thy word or Legislative power he shall be put to death for whatever thou commandest we will do and where-ever thou sendest us we will go Only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses or be careful to rule thy self by God's law as we will be to rule our selves by thine or contrary not thou thy will established by a law by some sudden or passionate resolve Yet as hath been observed before God who is the single punisher of Prince's faults yet permits as a scourge of his Subjects and Subjects sometimes to be a scourge to their Prince though God hath reserved Princes for his own Tribunal yet he hath shewn by several instances in Scripture very particularly in that of Abimelech and the men of Shechem that he often makes Subjects by permitting it for it is ever evil in the Subject to become scourges to their Princes and both to work each others ruine As a scourge to David he lets the greatest part of Israel rise against him and follow his rebellious son Absalom and it was of the Lord by his permission that nine Tribes and a half forsook Rehoboam and followed Jeroboam for Solomons idolatry However our great Master born King of the world acknowledgeth himself in his humanity born a Subject to Augustus and Tiberius and doth a miracle to pay a tribute and gives to Caesar the things that are Caesar's outward obedience and observance in matters of a secular and indifferent nature and acknowledges the power of Pontius Pilate over his life and will not call for the Legions of Angels as he could to defend him nor doth his Apostles tread in other steps or teach other doctrine Yet doth not all this security authorize a Prince to be arbitrary or tyrannous for God proclaims himself an Avenger nor doth his Word afford such Princes any other appellation than that of a Bear or of a Lion When Nebuchadnezzar would have had his golden Image worshipped what is the answer Not let us resist but Pardon us in this O king Non est nostri juris peccare pati est Tyrannus cum titulo is or may be God's Anointed Tyrannus sine titulo is an Usurper and is to
is that religion neglected or despised weakens all other parts of government Religio neglecta aut spreta trahit secum rempublicam for where there is but an indifferency to it or a want of devotion and inward esteem of it the soul of moral virtue is lost for men will be rather temporate for health than for the peace of society or to have a fitness by piety to have an intercourse with their God and justice will be observed rather as an outward compliance with laws than an inward esteem of such a beneficial tye in relation to society For it is the love of justice which flows from religion not the fear of its punishments that inspirits government for this values the Legislators authority and wisdom the other dreads only the Lictor's rods Secondly Government is never freely and chearfully obeyed but when it is supposed God's ordinance and that it is accounted a part of religion so to esteem it else obedience will be more precarious than the nature of it will admit The commission of goverment therefore issues out of God's Chancery and directs the Prince to direct his government to the benefit of the subject and yet when he fails therein leaves no appeal to the subject but unto his providence who prescribes to both for Nero's vices were not half so pernicious to the empire no nor to particular men as were the revolts even from that monster and from his Successors Galba Otho and Vitellius who were but pestilential breaths of the same ill vapor When conspiracy had cast out Kings the Consul's rule seemed so majestick and arbitrary that the Commonalty must needs be tempering it by Tribunitial power so as Livy observes that the cord of government was so strongly haled at each end or extremity that there was no strength left in the midst and that strife was more for the management and rule than for the safety and preservation of the State and all these revolutions because government was not supposed God's ordinance but the peoples choice Thus we see it is religion that only makes Soveraignty and liberty sociable or sets such bounds to majesty in the Prince as may advance concord among the Citizens Cast off this temper and every mistaken judgment will produce such angry humors as will neither endure the ordinary evils or sores of government nor the common remedies or salves for its cure Thirdly the highest throne though never so wise powerful or sincere depends upon Providence which can either by natural or moral causes disappoint all its best laid designs An earthquake a storm or a treachery frustrates all man can do whilst nothing can withstand heavenly benedictions and the very opinion men have that the Gods are propitious to them gives diligence and courage in all attempts These are the reasons and many more why government must be supported by religion Next we will offer a few why the religion of every Nation should be but one Religion should be but one First Religion is the highest as well as the strongest obligation upon the mind of man so as if that admit any principles of liberty or exemption from Civil authority disobedience shelters it self and replies it is fit to serve God before man and so grows incorrigible because reasonably it may justifie it self though that be an error as will be soon proved Secondly Men of a superstitious temper either infect one another or are misled by some subtil knaves who make good gain of men who are of a superstitious devotion and who make conscience of every little thing and are apt to believe vain and foolish prophesies or interpret revelations And thus says Livy in his fourth book they became a publick offence insomuch as the Aediles had in charge that no other Gods should be worshiped but those of the Romans nor after any other manner than had been usual in their native Country Indeed if it were rightly considered the religion of all Nations should be but one because all should serve but one God and he by the tradition unto the Patriarchs before the Law and by his divine prescripts under the Law and by the revelation of his will by the Messiah and his Apostles after the Mosaic-Law made his will known in all necessary natural moral and divine truths tending unto salvation whereof Kings and Priests were the guardians but not the parents for they were to deliver in matters immediately relating to salvation nothing but what they had received though in matters relating to decency and order in his service or in matters of civil concern they were authorized to give the law suitable to their own best judgments and all subordinate to them were thus to seek an unity in the faith and a common utility in the State in the band of peace Thus God is a God of order and not of confusion and if he made religion a support to government private men by framing new axioms of their own to exempt themselves from odedience or to weaken the sinews of government must not distract it For if a Soveraign may command one thing which God hath not forbidden and a high Priest another which God hath not revealed or a private person contradict both in those things which are both true and suitable to their distinct authorities then the reins or girdle of all authority divine ecclesiastical or civil is dissolved Among the Gentile world instituted religion was no disturber of government because it consisted principally in outward rites ceremonies and observances But in the Christian religion God being a jealous God of his honor and truth it hath great influence on government because the main end of it Instituted Religion was to restore natural as it was to make reconciliation and clear the intercourse betwixt the divine and the intellectual nature so it was to restore natural religion and to cleanse that polluted stream Therefore that Church which upon false glosses on instituted religion introduces corruptions in natural and weakens civil Soveraignty that it may usurp Ecclesiastical or dispences with moral duties that men may be the more observant of their ceremonial laws makes the buttress which was to support the wall thrust it down And those Princes whom God bridled by his moral law in the exercise of their Soveraignty weaken but their own Governments when they decline those laws natural religion and common justice recommended unto them as to be the basis of all their civil municipal and human laws Nor doth any spirit more weaken government by pretence of religion than those Enthusiastical persons who upon pretence of particular impulses respect neither human nor divine laws The ill influences on Government by several phanatick principles for these can fall in love with their own selves and their tribe and broach doctrines that we may say turn the world topsie turvy for one says 1. Dominion is founded in grace and thereby is all Soveraignty overthrown though the same men at the same time read that Cyrus
permit them slightly to work any manufactury Neither must the Merchant be permitted to adulterate or sophisticate his commodity Nor should any office be set up under pretence of visiting the commodity and discovering the abuse as with us is the Aulnage and exercises it self in tolerating it for it is pernicious unless the true end of it be preserved and then it 's of good use for the publick not only in the dishonour but in the vent of the commodity pays dearly the price of such a Patent There are too too many more instances to be found but I fell upon this because it wounds us in our chief staple commodity Our State should be more careful of this than other States for to our shame we must confess it our Nation in its genius at least in individual persons is too much given to laziness and to affect a sudden gain and return and not to affect publick works or such as require time to ripen or such as relate to posterity or such as conduce to the honour of the Nation and not present and personal profit This humor the Physicians of our State by laws and rules of Government which should be obeyed should purge out and endeavour to raise a publick mindedness in particular men If Holland had had this humor it had never been rich but their publick spirit with their frugality and industry hath made them valuable in the opinion of a Philosopher as well as considerable in the eye of the whole world Had they had our scituation many and safe harbors shipping of such timber and so well built such staple commodities as Cloths Stuffs Bays c. Tin Lead and Leather Corn Fishing Saffron or such means to have made free ports or magazines for all Nations upon small customs to have waited for their markets too too probably they would have eat us out of our Trade as we for these last two Kings the Fathers and the Sons great care and encouragement of Trade and by many worthy knowing and wealthy Merchants who have corrected much of our ill National genius have born up with and overborn them therein The advantages of trade manufacturies and shipping for the trade of England is great and highly valuable for few rightly consider how many live on the land by those few who swim on the sea How many Factories are employed about building but one ship The Timber Merchant the Ironmonger the Carpenter the Smith the Ropemaker c. Navigation begets many manufacturies and is not only a wealth but a security unto a Nation for the plough or keel at sea breeds as many lusty Lads and more daring than those at land It 's a part of the care and wisdom of a State that their subjects be bred laboriously especially the poor Lads that are put out to apprentiships by the charity of Parishes that they be kept to the plough or to the keel and not made Footboys or idle Tapsters c. or multiply small trades c. I believe the present great King of the world who had never been considederable at sea but as he fomented jealousies betwixt us and Holland who like the acorn covered his first growth under this shrub till he thrust out his head above it and then dropt so fast that he by his own power and ours craftily managed endangered both of us I say Navigation too likely to set up the greatness of France I believe he had never affected to have been an East and West Indian Merchant but as he foresaw with old Rome in vain it was to affect the universal European land or Monarchy without he became considerable at Sea So as though he sails unto both Indies yet thereby he hopes to fall upon Holland and England Nor had he become considerable but as the jealousies of Holland towards us shrowded him till he thrust forth a top that will shade us both unless we hold a stricter correspondence and confidence in each other than hitherto we have done and we have sufficiently smarted for the deceitful assistance he gave us and they by the invasion he made upon them may think what he then regorged he may hereafter retain But he that sets bounds to the sea can to his prosperity otherwise humanly speaking and considering his policies to divide confederates and the untempered mortar they have to hold themselves together we may prophesie hard things without the spirit of prophesie But upon this subject of Navigation he came so strongly into my phancy that I could not decline the folly of saying thus much because of the future danger But to revert to our proper subject matter trade No nation can be great or rich that abounds not in some part of his dominions in shipping or who neglects trade and who hath not in his own dominions or imports not materials for manufacturies Yet it is no policy to think to engross it or be monarchs of it as Holland hath for a time affected and pursued that sea-monarchy as eagerly as Charles the fifth or Francis the first did the land monarchy but it is wisdom to divide the profit with neighbour Nations amicably We throve not when we could not content our selves with the manufactory of our cloths but must prohibit the transporting white and undy'd Merchandizing like the sea shore is made smooth and even both among our selves and Forreigners Companies or trade managed by them under a regulation not by governing all parts of it by Companies or wholly excluding Neighbours Companies for home and nigh trades are not very advantagious They are always of most use when they exclude no private traders and yet they cannot subsist if all Interlopers be under no restraint therefore it may be well thought that no man should be permitted freely to trade where Companies are erected but under the regulation of that Company nor that Company make such chargeable by-laws as should discourage young and free traders therefore Companies may by a Council of State or Parliaments be well countenanced if regulated so as they should admit private Traders upon such rules as the Council of State not themselves should set down as equal betwixt both Two Companies we have viz. that of the East-Indies and the Turky which trades would soon fall to irreparable disorder if they were not supported by such pillars The great covetous rapacious Statesmen in either of these Countries and places would soon dash private Merchants against one another and one Nations bribes would eat their Neighbours out if the wisdom of such societies prevented it not The East-India Company in Holland is a little monarchy Amsterdam hath a half Middlebrough and Zealand a fourth Horn and Enchuysen a sixth and the small remain we may say serves to gratifie such interloping persons or places as they will admit of The soveraignty of this trade is in the States General who renew the Charter upon a considerable fine to this Company usually once in years Had we not a trade in
is to be understood flagrante bello for in times of truce and cessation of arms there ought to be a great restraint upon the former liberty Methinks that God made it a great restraint upon the best and wisest Princes and even upon the most injured not rashly to run into a war since conquest gave or was the mother of a right even unto dominion so hazardous it was even to vindicate an injury by this inhuman course for success did not always attend upon the best cause And it is a great evidence a Prince had just thoughts when he began his war if he appeared apt to end it upon moderate and reasonable conditions or ne victis quidem praeter injuriae licentiam cripere Neither doth he grant peace that grants it not till he hath ruined his enemy for that is not as the Historian says pacem dare but solitudinem facere Among Christians sure I am it ought to be begun upon great deliberation and to be managed with tenderness and reluctance even upon the considerations of humanity And since the event is so uncertain Moses's councel surely is very reasonable When thou art to make a war be sure to keep thy self from every wicked thing for the Lord walketh in the midst of the camp and keep it clean free from dung that there may be salubrity of body and purity of mind Princes are to reason with themselves whether with 10000 they can meet with their enemy that hath 20000 or whether they be supplied by Confederates or Mercenaries for both these are insecure to depend on For Confederates have most commonly separate and single interests of their own and Mercenaries are without any affection or good will to the cause having their eye only upon the pay and that is very often dazled when the enemy can give them a better Besides as they have mercenary bodies they too often have mercenary minds for this sort of men in any extremity which is usual to befal men in a state of war have not that virtue and generosity to undergo the toil and hazard of their present condition Besides this may give Princes caution how they engage in a war since their very prosperity creates them new enemies and some neuter Prince rises up in behalf of the conquered and reduces all to some nighness of equality or state which the war at first was begun upon If choice or necessity lead them to undertake a war they can have no wiser councel than that which the Delphic Oracle gave unto the Lacedemonians viz carry it on with all their power or rather to overdo than undergo it for then there is no retreat without great loss or great dishonor so as fitting preparations of all necessaries are not to be sought for when they are to be used for that war is sure to continue longest that is least provided for when it is first begun Nor must the Prince forwardly run into it upon a probability of his enemies oversight but upon a confidence of his own foresight Nor should the confidence or forwardness of his councellors especially if they have perceived in himself a strong inclination to the engagement lead him to think he shall meet with a constancy of fervor for difficulties and dangers which are the constant companions of a war in action change those tempers of mind which first appeared in councel Safest therefore it is and most commonly those Princes thrive best in war who foresee and are ablest to digest improsperities The Germans never thought the Romans invincible till they found no ill success or misfortune could daunt them This spirit in the Athenians after their great losses in Sicily made the Lacedemonians and their Confederates as much apprehend their stomachfulness as they had before at any time apprehended their power Many considerations therefore attend upon preparation for a war Viz. A well chosen experienc'd General Constituent parts of an army Officers who have tasted adverse as well as good fortune Commissaries Providores Quarter-masters and Engineers Chyrurgeons all expert in their Offices Arms Armour Horses Carriages Tents and Artillery not inferior to the enemies Treasure as much as any thing for all these are necessary to inspirit the Common Soldier since his fighting part is the least part of his duty it is the fatigue or the undergoing the necessary toil and labour as much as the danger of his profession that makes him valuable To march all day and be weary and then to quarter in open field be the weather never so stormy and no sooner in his quarters but often finding an enemy to disquiet him or least he should do so to be obliged unto a fresh labor by raising up some works to secure the same these are the difficulties of his condition and the unavoidable contingences of it and therefore as he is to be chosen of an able body so he is to be governed by a strict discipline that he may know it his duty to undergo these labours and dangers often with scarceness of food and with a patience and obedience that would become a Philosopher All which he usually with cheerfulness undergoes when he hath a confidence in his General as being an experienc'd Commander well vers'd in stratagems when he finds his care prevents his own Officers from preying upon him and defrauding him of his pay for then he is willing to use his hands and not to use his tongue or to be silent in action that he may the better receive his orders or words of command when he finds his belly and his back carefully provided for When he is to fight if he observes his arms are as good as his enemies and his ground as well chosen to fight on at least as well as the place will afford and if his difficulties be great if he perceive good reserves to second him this begets that spirit of discipline which is the true spirit of an army and makes them willing to keep their just order and rank and that with silence that they may hearken to what orders are given them which is the true strength of an army and if their pay be not wanting their duty is seldom Men may vulgarly discourse that a good army in an enemies country will maintain it self and so peradventure it may if the General receive the spoils in order to distribute among the common Soldiers or for raising their pay or if by strong parties he brings in sufficient provision of food or ammunition-bread into their camp but it never fares worse with an army than when by small parties or straglers the common Soldier forrages and provides for himself for then the spirit of discipline and consequently the strength of the army ceases and all advantagious opportunities for the enemy seem to begin Times there are when fate and destiny seem plainly to be setting up one Nation and pulling down another as when successes and that in several places at one and the same time and that under no promising