Whether the Chirotonia mention'd in the fourteenth of the Acts be indeed as is pretended by Dr. HAMMOND Dr. SEAMAN and the Authors they follow the same with the Chirothesia or a far different thing In which are contain'd the divers kinds of church-Church-Government introduc'd and exercis'd in the age of the Apostles EITHER I have impertinently intruded upon the Politics or cannot be said so much to meddle in Church matters as Churchmen may be said to have meddled in State matters For if the Chirotonia be Election by the many and the Chirothesia be Election by one or by the Few the whole difference between Popular and Monarchical Government falls upon these two words and so the question will be Whether the Scriptures were intended more for the advantage of a Prince of a Hierarchy or Presbytery than of the People But that God in the Old Testament instituted the Chirotonia not only in the Commonwealth as by the Election of the Sanhedrim but in the Monarchy as in the Election of the Kings is plain So if there remains any advantage in Scripture to Kings to the Hierarchy or Presbytery it must be in the New Testament Israel was God's chosen People and God was Israel's chosen King That God was pleas'd to bow the Heavens and com down to them was his choice not theirs but in that upon his Proposition and those of his Servant MOSES they resolv'd to obey his Voice and keep his Covenant they chose him their King In like manner the Church is CHRIST'S chosen People and CHRIST is the Church's chosen King That CHRIST taking flesh was pleas'd to bow the Heavens and com down in a more familiar capacity of proposing himself to Mankind was his own choice not theirs but in that the Church upon his Proposition or those of his Apostles sent by him as he was sent by the Father resolv'd to obey his Voice and keep his Covenant she has chosen him her King Whatever in Nature or in Grace in Church or in State is chosen by Man according to the Will of God is chosen by God of whom is both the Will and the Deed. Which things consider'd I wonder at Dr. HAMMOND who says Sure the Jewish and Heathen Citys to whom the Gospel by §. 36. CHRIST'S Command was to be preach'd were not to chuse their Guides or Teachers CHRIST was not chosen by them to whom he preach'd for says he ye have not chosen me He came from Heaven sent by his Father on that Errand and happy they whom he was thus pleas'd to chuse to call Book II and preach to And when his Apostles after his example go and preach to all Nations and actually gather Disciples they chose their Auditors and not their Auditors them To make short work I shall answer by explaining his Words as they fall A ROMAN chusing whether he would speak to the Senat or the People chose his Auditors and not they him Nevertheless if it were the Consul they chose him and not he them It is one thing to be a Speaker to a People that have the liberty when that 's don to do as they think fit and another thing to be a Guide whom the People have consented or oblig'd themselves to follow which distinction not regarded makes the rest of his Argumentation recoil upon himself while he procedes thus And they that give up their Names to the Obedience of the Gospel chose the Preachers as I should think of that Gospel their Guides one branch of this Obedience obliges them by their own consent it seems because before they gave up their Names to observe those that being thus plac'd over them by their consent are plac'd over them by God such not only are their Civil Magistrats who succede to their places by and govern according to the Laws which the People have chosen but also their Pastors whom the Holy Ghost either mediatly according to the Rules of Church Disciplin in Scripture or immediatly upon som such miraculous Call as the People shall judg to be no imposture has set over them From which words the Doctor not considering those Qualifications I have shewn all along to be naturally inherent in them concludes that a Bishop is made by the Holy Ghost and not by the People IF he would stand to this yet it were somthing for if the Holy Ghost makes a Bishop then I should think that the Holy Ghost ordain'd a Bishop and so that the Election and Ordination of a Bishop were all one But this hereafter will appear to be a more dangerous Concession than perhaps you may yet apprehend Wherfore when all is don you will not find Divines at least Dr. HAMMOND to grant that the Holy Ghost can ordain he may elect indeed and that is all but there is no Ordination without the Chirothesia of the Bishops or of the Presbytery Take the Doctor 's word for it § 107. Acts 20. 28. WHEN St. PAUL says of the Bishops of Asia that the Holy Ghost had set them Overseers I suppose that it is to be understood of their Election or Nomination to those Dignitys for so CLEMENT speaks of St. JOHN who constituted Bishops of those that were signify'd by the Spirit where the Spirit 's Signification notes the Election or Nomination of the Persons but the constituting them was the Ordination of St. JOHN GOD may propose as the Electors do to the great Council of Venice but the Power of the Council that is to resolve or ordain is in the Bishop says Dr. HAMMOND and in the Presbytery says Dr. SEAMAN Indeed that Election and Ordination be distinct things is to Divines of so great importance that losing this hold they lose all For as I said before whatever is chosen by Man according to the Will of God that is according to Divine Law whether natural or positive the same whether in State or Church is chosen by God or by the Holy Ghost of whom is both the Will and the Deed. To evade this and keep all in their own hands or Chirothesia Divines have invented this distinction that Election is one thing and Ordination another God may elect but they must constitute that is God may propose but they must resolve And yet GROTIUS who in these things is a great Champion for the Clergy has little Chap. 5 more to say upon this Point than this Whether we consider antient or De Imp. sum Pot. c. 10. §. 31. modern Times we shall find the manner of Election very different not only in different Ages and Countrys but in different years of the same age and places of the same Country so uncertain it is to determin of that which the Scripture has left uncertain And while men dispute not of Right but of Convenience it is wonderful to see what probable Arguments are brought on all sides Give me CYPRIAN and his times there is no danger in popular Election Give me the Nicene Fathers and let the Bishops take it willingly Give me
Jewish Sanhedrim The Providence of God in the different way of Apostolical Ordination NOW in these several ways of Ordination there is a most remarkable Sect. 5 Providence of God For wheras States and Princes in receiving of Religion are not at any point so jealous as of an incroachment upon their Power the first way of Apostolical Ordination destroys Monarchical Power the last wholly excludes the Power of the People and the second has a mixture which may be receiv'd by a Commonwealth or by a Monarchy But where it is receiv'd by a Commonwealth the imposition of hands coms to little and where it is receiv'd by a Monarchy the Election of the People coms to nothing as may be farther consider'd in the original and progress of the Conge d' Elire THE ways of Ordination or of Church Government lying thus in Scripture the not receiving of the Christian Religion is not that wherof any State or Prince thro the whole world can be any ways excusable The Conclusion Shewing that neither GOD nor CHRIST or the APOSTLES ever instituted any Government Ecclesiastical or Civil upon any other Principles than those only of Human Prudence Vses of this Book TO sum up this second Book in the Uses that may be made of it Sect. 1 Certain it is of the Greec and Roman Storys that he who has not som good Idea or Notion of the Government to which they relate cannot rightly understand them If the like holds as to the Scripture Story som light may be contributed to it by this Book Again if som gifted Men happening to read it should chance to be of the same judgment it is an Argument for acquir'd Learning in that for the means of acquir'd Learning and in the means of acquir'd Learning for Universitys For how little soever this performance be had it not bin the fashion with the English Gentry in the breeding of their Sons to give them a smack of the University I should not have don so much The present use of this Book BUT letting these pass If there were Commonwealths or Governments Sect. 2 exercising Soverain Power by the Senat and the People before that of Israel as namely Gibeon If the inferior Orders and Courts in Israel as those instituted by MOSES after the advice of JETHRO a Heathen were transcrib'd out of another Government tho Heathen as namely that of Midian If the order of the Church introduc'd by CHRIST in his twelve Apostles and his seventy Disciples were after the pattern of Israel namely in the twelve Princes of the Tribes and the seventy Elders If there were three distinct ways of Ordination introduc'd by the Apostles one exactly according to the Ballot of Israel as namely in the Ordination of MATTHIAS another exactly according to the way of the Jewish Sanhedrim or Synagog as namely that of TIMOTHY and a third compos'd of these two as namely that of the Deacons Then is it a clear and undeniable result of the whole That neither GOD nor CHRIST Book II or the APOSTLES ever instituted any Government Ecclesiastical or Civil upon any other Principles than those only of Human Prudence Sect. 3 The Consequence of this Vse AN Observation of such consequence as where it has bin rightly consider'd there the truth of Religion and of Government once planted have taken root and flourish'd and where it has not bin rightly heeded there has Religion or the pretence of it bin the hook and the line and the State the prey of Impostors and false Prophets as was shewn in the hypocritical Pharises for ever stigmatiz'd by the word of Truth AND for Might let her be never so much exalted in her self let her Sword be never so dreadfully brandish'd the Government not founded upon Reason a Creature of God and the Creature of God whose undoubted right in this part is by himself undeniably avow'd and asserted is a Weapon fram'd against God and no Weapon fram'd against God shall prosper Sect. 4 A transition to the next Book THE Principles of Human Prudence and in them the Art of Lawgiving being shewn in the first Book and vindicated throout the whole course of Scripture by this second I com in the third to shew a Model of Government fram'd according to the Art thus shewn and the Principles thus vindicated THE THIRD BOOK CONTAINING A MODEL OF Popular Government Practically propos'd according to Reason confirm'd by the Scripture and agreable to the present Balance or State of Property in England The PREFACE Containing a Model of Popular Government propos'd Notionally THERE is between the Discourses of such as are commonly call'd Natural Philosophers and those of Anatomists a large difference the former are facil the latter difficult Philosophers discoursing of Elements for example that the Body of Man consists of Fire Air Earth and Water are easily both understood and credited seeing by common Experience we find the Body of Man returns to the Earth from whence it was taken A like Entertainment may befal Elements of Government as in the first of these Books they are stated But the fearful and wonderful making the admirable structure and great variety of the parts of man's Body in which the Discourses of Anatomists are altogether conversant are understood by so few that I may say they are not understood by any Certain it is that the delivery of a Model of Government which either must be of no effect or imbrace all those Muscles Nerves Arterys and Bones which are necessary to any Function of a well order'd Commonwealth is no less than political Anatomy If you com short of this your Discourse is altogether ineffectual if you com home you are not understood you may perhaps be call'd a learned Author but you are obscure and your Doctrin is impracticable Had I only suffer'd in this and not the People I should long since have left them to their humor but seeing it is they that suffer by it and not my self I will be yet Book III more a fool or they shall be yet wiser Now coms into my head what I saw long since upon an Italian Stage while the Spectators wanted Hoops for their sides A Country fellow came with an Apple in his hand to which in a strange variety of faces his Teeth were undoubtedly threaten'd when enter'd a young Anatomist brimful of his last Lesson who stopping in good time the hand of this same Country fellow would by no means suffer him to go on with so great an Enterprize till he had first nam'd and describ'd to him all the Bones Nerves and Muscles which are naturally necessary to that motion at which the good man being with admiration plainly chopfallen coms me in a third who snatching away the Apple devour'd it in the presence of them both If the People in this case wherof I am speaking were naturally so well furnish'd I had here learn'd enough to have kept silence but their eating in the political way of absolute necessity requires the
formidable for their Noise than Number and for their Number more considerable than their Power who will not fail with open mouths to proclaim that this is a seditious Attemt against the very being of Monarchy and that there 's a pernicious design on foot of speedily introducing a Republican Form of Government into the Britannic Islands in order to which the Person continue they whom we have for som time distinguisht as a zealous promoter of this Cause has now publisht the Life and Works of HARRINGTON who was the greatest Commonwealthsman in the World This is the substance of what these roaring and hoarse Trumpeters of Detraction will sound for what 's likely to be said by men who talk all by rote is as easy to guess as to answer tho 't is commonly so silly as to deserve no Animadversion Those who in the late Reigns were invidiously nicknam'd Commonwealthsmen are by this time sufficiently clear'd of that Imputation by their Actions a much better Apology than any Words for they valiantly rescu'd our antient Government from the devouring Jaws of Arbitrary Power and did not only unanimously concur to fix the Imperial Crown of England on the most deserving Head in the Vniverse but also settl'd the Monarchy for the future not as if they intended to bring it soon to a period but under such wise Regulations as are most likely to continue it for ever consisting of such excellent Laws as indeed set bounds to the Will of the King but that render him therby the more safe equally binding up his and the Subjects hands from unjustly seizing one anothers prescrib'd Rights or Privileges 'T IS confest that in every Society there will be always found som Persons prepar'd to enterprize any thing tho never so flagitious grown desperat by their Villanies their Profuseness their Ambition or the more raging madness of Superstition and this Evil is not within the compass of Art or Nature to remedy But that a whole People or any considerable number of them shou'd rebel against a King that well and wisely administers his Government as it cannot be instanc'd out of any History so it iâ— a thing in it self impossible An infallible Expedient therfore to exclude a Commonwealth is for the King to be the Man of his People and according to his present Majesty's glorious Example to find out the Secret of so happily uniting too seemingly incompatible things Principality and Liberty 'T IS strange that men shou'd be cheated by mere Names yet how frequently are they seen to admire under one denomination what going under another they wou'd undoubtedly detest which Observation made TACITUS lay down for a Maxim That the secret of setting up a new State consists in retaining the Image of the old Now if a Common-wealth be a Government of Laws enacted for the common Good of all the People not without their own Consent or Approbation and that they are not wholly excluded as in absolute Monarchy which is a Government of Men who forcibly rule over others for their own privat Interest Then it is undeniably manifest that the English Government is already a Commonwealth the most free and best constituted in all the world This was frankly acknowleg'd by King JAMES the First who stil'd himself the Great Servant of the Commonwealth It is the Language of our best Lawyers and allow'd by our Author who only makes it a less perfect and more inequal Form than that of his Oceana wherin he thinks better provision is made against external Violence or internal Diseases Nor dos it at all import by what names either Persons or Places or Things are call'd since the Commonwealthsman finds he injoys Liberty under the security of equal Laws and that the rest of the Subjects are fully satisfy'd they live under a Government which is a Monarchy in effect as well as in name There 's not a man alive that excedes my affection to a mixt Form of Government by the Antients counted the most perfect yet I am not so blinded with admiring the good Constitution of our own but that every day I can discern in it many things deficient som things redundant and others that require emendation or change And of this the supreme Legislative Powers are so sensible that we see nothing more frequent with them than the enacting abrogating explaining and altering of Laws with regard to the very Form of the Administration Nevertheless I hope the King and both Houses of Parlament will not be counted Republicans or if they be I am the readiest in the world to run the same good or bad Fortune with them in this as well as in all other respects BVT what HARRINGTON was oblig'd to say on the like occasion I must now produce for my self It was in the time of ALEXANDER the greatest Prince and Commander of his Age that ARISTOTLE with scarce inferior Applause and equal Fame wrote that excellent piece of Prudence in his Closet which is call'd his Politics going upon far other Principles than ALEXANDER's Government which it has long outliv'd The like did LIVY without disturbance in the time of AUGUSTUS Sir THOMAS MORE in that of HENRY the Eighth and MACCHIAVEL when Italy was under Princes that afforded him not the ear If these and many other celebrated Men wrote not only with honor and safety but even of Commonwealths under Despotic or Tyrannical Princes who can be so notoriously stupid as to wonder that in a free Government and under a King that is both the restorer and supporter of the Liberty of Europe I shou'd do justice to an Author who far outdos all that went before him in his exquisit knowlege of the Politics THIS Liberty of writing freely fully and impartially is a part of those Rights which in the last Reigns were so barbarously invaded by such as had no inclination to hear of their own enormous violations of the Laws of God and Man nor is it undeserving Observation that such as raise the loudest Clamors against it now are the known Enemys of King WILLIAM's Title and Person being sure that the Abdicated King JAMES can never be reinthron'd so long as the Press is open for brave and free Spirits to display the Mischiefs of Tyranny in their true Colors and to shew the insinit Advantages of Liberty But not to dismiss even such unreasonable People without perfect satisfaction let 'em know that I don't recommend a Commonwealth but write the History of a Commonwealthsman fairly divulging the Principles and Pretences of that Party and leaving every body to approve or dislike what he pleases without imposing on his Judgment by the deluding Arts of Sophistry Eloquence or any other specious but unfair methods of persuasion Men to the best of their ability ought to be ignorant of nothing and while they talk so much for and against a Commonwealth 't is sit they shou'd at least understand the Subject of their Discourse which is not every body's case Now as HARRINGTON'S Oceana
the one party endeavoring to preserve their Eminence and Inequality and the other to attain to Equality whence the People of Rome deriv'd their perpetual strife with the Nobility or Senat. But in an equal Commonwealth there can be no more strife than there can be overbalance in equal weights wherfore the Commonwealth of Venice being that which of all others is the most equal in the Constitution is that wherin there never happen'd any strife between the Senat and the People AN equal Commonwealth is such a one as is equal both in the balance or foundation and in the superstructure that is to say in her Agrarian Law and in her Rotation Equal Agrarian AN equal Agrarian is a perpetual Law establishing and preserving the balance of Dominion by such a distribution that no one Man or number of Men within the compass of the Few or Aristocracy can com to overpower the whole People by their possessions in Lands AS the Agrarian answers to the Foundation so dos Rotation to the Superstructures Rotation EQUAL Rotation is equal vicissitude in Government or succession to Magistracy confer'd for such convenient terms enjoying equal vacations as take in the whole body by parts succeding others thro the free election or suffrage of the People Prolongation of Magistracy THE contrary wherunto is prolongation of Magistracy which trashing the wheel of Rotation destroys the life or natural motion of a Commonwealth Ballot THE election or suffrage of the People is most free where it is made or given in such a manner that it can neither oblige * Qui beneficium accepit libertatem vendidit nor disoblige another nor thro fear of an Enemy or bashfulness towards a Friend impair a Man's liberty WHERFORE says CICERO †Grata populo est tabella quae frontes aperit hominum mentes tegit datque cam libertatem ut quod velint faciant the Tablet or Ballot of the People of Rome who gave their Votes by throwing Tablets or little pieces of Wood secretly into Urns mark'd for the negative or affirmative was a welcom Constitution to the People as that which not impairing the assurance of their brows increas'd the freedom of their Judgment I have not stood upon a more particular description of this Ballot because that of Venice exemplify'd in the Model is of all others the most perfect Definition of an equal Common-wealth AN equal Commonwealth by that which has bin said is a Government establish'd upon an equal Agrarian arising into the Superstructures or three Orders the Senat debating and proposing the People resolving and the Magistracy executing by an equal Rotation thro the suffrage of the People given by the Ballot For tho Rotation may be without the Ballot and the Ballot without Rotation yet the Ballot not only as to the insuing Model includes both but is by far the most equal way for which cause under the name of the Ballot I shall hereafter understand both that and Rotation too NOW having reason'd the Principles of an equal Commonwealth I should com to give an instance of such a one in experience if I could find it but if this work be of any value it lys in that it is the first example of a Commonwealth that is perfectly equal For Venice tho it coms the nearest yet is a Commonwealth for preservation and such a one considering the paucity of Citizens taken in and the number not taken in is externally unequal and tho every Commonwealth that holds Provinces must in that regard be such yet not to that degree Nevertheless Venice internally and for her capacity is by far the most equal tho it has not in my judgment arriv'd at the full perfection of equality both because her Laws supplying the defect of an Agrarian are not so clear nor effectual at the Foundation nor her Superstructures by the virtue of her Ballot or Rotation exactly librated in regard that thro the paucity of her Citizens her greater Magistracys are continually wheel'd thro a few hands as is consest by JANOTTI where he says that if a Gentleman coms once to be Savio di terra ferma it seldom happens that he fails from thenceforward to be adorn'd with som one of the greater Magistracys as Savi di mare Savi di terra ferma Savi Grandi Counsellors those of the Decemvirat or Dictatorian Council the Aurogatori or Censors which require no vacation or interval Wherfore if this in Venice or that in Lacedemon where the Kings were hereditary and the Senators tho elected by the People for life cause no inequality which is hard to be conceiv'd in a Commonwealth for preservation or such a one as consists of a few Citizens yet is it manifest that it would cause a very great one in a Commonwealth for increase or consisting of the Many which by ingrossing the Magistracys in a few hands would be obstructed in their Rotation BUT there be who say and think it a strong Objection that let a Commonwealth be as equal as you can imagin two or three Men when all is don will govern it and there is that in it which notwithstanding the pretended sufficiency of a popular State amounts to a plain confession of the imbecillity of that Policy and of the Prerogative of Monarchy for as much as popular Governments in difficult cases have had recourse to Dictatorian Power as in Rome TO which I answer That as Truth is a spark to which Objections are like bellows so in this respect our Commonwealth shines for the Eminence acquir'd by suffrage of the People in a Commonwealth especially if it be popular and equal can be ascended by no other steps than the universal acknowlegement of Virtue and where men excel in Virtue the Commonwealth is stupid and injust if accordingly they do not excel in Authority Wherfore this is both the advantage of Virtue which has her due incouragement and of the Commonwealth which has her due services These are the Philosophers which PLATO would have to be Princes the Princes which SOLOMON would have to be mounted and their Steeds are those of Authority not Empire or if they be buckl'd to the Chariot of Empire as that of the Dictatorian Power like the Chariot of the Sun it is glorious for terms and vacations or intervals And as a Commonwealth is a Government of Laws and not of Men so is this the Principality of Virtue and not of Man if that fail or set in one it rises in another * Uno avulso non deficit alter Aureus simili frondescit virga metallo who is created his immediat Successor And this takes away that vanity from under the Sun which is an Error proceding more or less from all other Rulers under Heaven but an equal Commonwealth THESE things consider'd it will be convenient in this place to speak a word to such as go about to insinuat to the Nobility or Gentry a fear of the People or to
Spiritual or Temporal for not only the Thane Lands but the Barons by their Possessions possessions of Bishops as also of som twenty six Abbats and two Priors were now erected into Baronys whence the Lords Spiritual that had suffrage in the Teuton Parlament as Spiritual Lords came to have it in the Neustrian Parlament as Barons and were made subject which they had not formerly bin to Knights service in chief Barony coming henceforth to signify all honorary possessions as well of Earls as Barons and Baronage to denote all kinds of Lords as well Spiritual as Temporal having right to sit in Parlament the Baronys in this sense were somtimes more and somtimes fewer but commonly about 200 or 250 containing in them a matter of sixty thousand feuda militum or Knights Fees wherof som twenty eight thousand were in the Clergy It is ill luck that no man can tell what the Land of a Knights Fee reckon'd in som Writs at 40 l. a year and in others at 10 was certainly worth for by such a help we might have exactly demonstrated the Balance of this Government But says COOK it contain'd Cook 11. Inst pag. 596. twelve Plow Lands and that was thought to be the most certain account But this again is extremely uncertain for one Plow out of som Land that was fruitful might work more than ten out of som other that was barren Nevertheless seeing it appears by BRACTON Balance of the Neustrian Monarchy that of Earldoms and Baronys it was wont to be said that the whole Kingdom was compos'd as also that these consisting of 60000 Knights Fees furnish'd 60000 men for the King's service being the whole Militia of this Monarchy it cannot be imagin'd that the Vavasorys or Freeholds in the People amounted to any considerable proportion Wherfore the Balance and Foundation of this Government was in the 60000 Knights Fees and these being possest by the 250 Lords it was a Government of the Few or of the Nobility wherin the People might also assemble but could have no more than a mere name And the Clergy holding a third to the whole Nation as is plain by the Parlament Roll it is an absurdity seeing the Clergy of France came first thro their Riches to be a State of that Kingdom to acknowlege the People to have bin a State of this Realm and not to allow it to the Clergy who were so much more weighty in the Balance which is 4 Rich. 2. Num. 13. that of all other whence a State or Order in a Government is denominated Wherfore this Monarchy consisted of the King and of the three ordines Regni or Estates the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons It consisted of these I say as to the balance tho during the Reign of som of these Kings not as to the administration Administration of the Neustrian Monarchy during the reign of the first Kings FOR the ambition of TURBO and som of those that more immediatly succeded him to be absolute Princes strove against the nature of their Foundation and inasmuch as he had divided almost the whole Realm among his Neustrians with som incouragement for a while But the Neustrians while they were but foren Plants having no security against the Natives but in growing up by their Princes sides were no sooner well rooted in their vast Dominions than they came up according to the infallible consequence of the Balance domestic and contracting the National interest of the Baronage grew as fierce in the vindication of the antient Rights and Liberties of the same as if they had bin always Natives Whence the Kings being as obstinat on the one side for their absolute Power as these on the other for their Immunitys grew certain Wars which took their denomination from the Barons THIS fire about the middle of the Reign of ADOXUS began to break out And wheras the Predecessors of this King had divers times bin forc'd to summon Councils resembling those of the Teutons to Barons by Writ which the Lords only that were Barons by Dominion and Tenure had hitherto repair'd ADOXUS seeing the effects of such Dominion began first not to call such as were Barons by Writ for that was according to the practice of antient times but to call such by Writs as were otherwise no Barons by which means striving to avoid the consequence of the Balance in coming unwillingly to set the Government streight he was the first that set it awry For the Barons in his Reign and his Successors having vindicated their antient Authority restor'd the Parlament with all the Rights and Privileges of the same saving that from thenceforth the Kings had found out a way wherby to help themselves against the mighty by Creatures of their own and such as had no other support but by their favor By which means this Government being indeed the Masterpiece of modern Prudence has bin cry'd up to the Skys as the only invention wherby at once to maintain the Soverainty of a Prince and the Liberty of the People Wheras indeed it has bin no other than a wrestling match wherin the Nobility as they have bin stronger have thrown the King or the King if he has bin stronger has thrown the Nobility or the King where he has had a Nobility and could bring them to his party has thrown the People as in France and Spain or the People where they have had no Nobility or could get them to be of their party have thrown the King as in Holland and of later times in Oceana But they came not 49 11. 3. to this strength but by such approaches and degrees as remain to be further open'd For wheras the Barons by Writ as the sixty four Abbats and thirty six Priors that were so call'd were but pro tempore DICOTOME being the twelfth King from the Conquest began to Barons by Letters Patents make Barons by Letters Patents with the addition of honorary Pensions for the maintenance of their Dignitys to them and their Heirs so that they were hands in the King's Purse and had no shoulders for his Throne Of these when the House of Peers came once to be full as will be seen hereafter there was nothing more emty But for the present the Throne having other supports they did not hurt that so much as they did the King For the old Barons taking DICOTOME'S Prodigality to such Creatures so ill that they depos'd him got the trick of it and never gave over setting up and pulling down their Kings according to their various interests and that faction of the White Dissolution of the late Monarchy of Oceana and Red into which they had bin thenceforth divided till PANURGUS the eighteenth King from the Conquest was more by their Favor than his Right advanc'd to the Crown This King thro his natural subtilty reflecting at once upon the greatness of their Power and the inconstancy of their favor began to find another Flaw in
Law I might as well say The Declaration to all men by these presents that a man ows Mony is call'd a Bond which if it outlives the Person that enter'd into that Bond it is only because the Persons that succede him in his Estate are presum'd to have the same Will unless they manifest the contrary and that is the abrogation or cancelling of the Bond so that still the Debt is not in the Bond but in his Will who gave a being to that Bond. If it be alleg'd against this example that it is a privat one the case may be put between several Princes States or Governments or between several States of the same Principality or Government whether it be a Regulated Monarchy or a Commonwealth for in the like Obligation of the States as of the King the Lords and Commons or Partys agreeing Authoritate Patrum jussu Populi till the Partys that so agreed to the Obligation shall agree to repeal or cancel it lys all Law that is not merely in the Will of one Man or of one State or Party as the Oligarchy But not to dispute these things further in this place let the Government be what it will for the Prevaricator to fetch the Origination of Law no further than the Will while he knows very well that I fetch'd it from Interest the Antecedent of Will and yet Book I to boast that he has outthrown me I say he is neither an honest Man nor a good Bowler No matter he will be a better Gunner for where I said that the Magistrat upon the Bench is that to the Law which a Gunner upon his Platform is to his Cannon he gos about to take better aim and says If the proportion of things be accuratly consider'd it will appear that the laden Cannon answers not to the Laws but to the Power of the Person whose Will created those Laws Which if som of them that the Power of the Person whose Will created them intended should be of as good Stuff or Carriage as the rest do nevertheless according to the nature of their Matter or of their Charge com short or over and others break or recoil sure this Report of the Prevaricator is not according to the bore of my Gun but according to the bore of such a Gunner Yet again if he be not so good a Gunner he will be a better Anatomist for wheras I affirm that to say ARISTOTLE and CICERO wrote not the Rights or Rules of their Politics from the Principles of Nature but transcrib'd them into their Books out of the practice of their own Commonwealths is as if a man should say of famous HARVEY that he transcrib'd his Circulation of the Blood not out of the Principles of Nature but out of the Anatomy of this or that Body He answers that the whole force of this Objection amounts but to this that because HARVEY in his Circulation has follow'd the Principles of Nature therfore ARISTOTLE and CICERO have don so in their Discourses of Government PRETTY It is said in Scripture Thy Word is sweet as Hony Amounts that but to this Because Hony is sweet therfore the Word of God is sweet To say that my Lord Protector has not conquer'd many Nations were as if one should say that CESAR had not conquer'd many Nations Amounts that but to this that because CAESAR conquer'd many Nations therfore my Lord Protector has conquer'd many Nations What I produce as a Similitude he calls an Objection where I say as he says because what ingenuous man dos not detest such a cheat A Similitude is brought to shew how a thing is or may be not to prove that it is so it is us'd for Illustration not as an Argument The Candle I held did not set up the Post but shew where the Post was set and yet this blind Buzzard has run his head against it Nor has he yet enough if he be not the better Naturalist he will be the better Divine tho he should make the worse Sermon My Doctrin and Use upon that of SOLOMON I have seen Servants upon Horses and Princes walking as Servants upon the Ground discovers the true means wherby the Principles of Power and Authority the Goods of the Mind and of Fortune may so meet and twine in the Wreath or Crown of Empire that the Government standing upon Earth like a holy Altar and breathing perpetual Incense to Heaven in Justice and Piety may be somthing as it were between Heaven and Earth while that only which is propos'd by the best and resolv'd by the most becoms Law and so the whole Government an Empire of Laws and not of Men. This he says is a goodly Sermon it is honest and sense But let any man make sense or honesty Consid p. 7. of this Doctrin which is his own To say that Laws do or can govern is to amuse our selves with a Form of Speech as when we say Time or Age or Death dos such a thing to which indeed the Phansy of Poets and Superstition of Women may adapt a Person and give a Power of Action but wise Men know they are only Expressions of such Actions or Qualifications as belong to Things or Chap. 3 Persons SPEAK out Is it the Word of God or the Knavery and Nonsense of such Preachers that ought to govern Are we to hearken to that of the Talmud There is more in the word of a Scribe than in the words of the Law or that which Christ therupon says to the Pharisees You have made the Word of God of no effect by your Traditions Mat. 15. 6. Say is the Commonwealth to be govern'd in the Word of a Priest or a Pharisee or by the Vote of the People and the Interest of Mankind CHAP. III. Whether the Balance of Dominion in Land be the natural Cause of Empire THE Doctrin of the Balance is that tho he strains at it which choaks the Prevaricator for this of all others is that Principle which makes the Politics not so before the invention of the same to be undeniable throout and not to meddle with the Mathematics an Art I understand as little as Mathematicians do this the most demonstrable of any whatsoever FOR this cause I shall rather take pleasure than pains to look back or tread the same path with other and perhaps plainer steps as thus If a man having one hundred pounds a year may keep one Servant or have one man at his command then having one hundred times so much he may keep one hundred Servants and this multiply'd by a thousand he may have one hundred thousand men at his command Now that the single Person or Nobility of any Country in Europe that had but half so many men at command would be King or Prince is that which I think no man will doubt But * Point de Argent point de Suisse no Mony no Switzers as the French speak If the Mony be flown so are the Men also Tho
this as it was said of SOLON by ARISTOTLE being that which I have already shewn to be us'd both in the Greec of the Scripture for the constitution of the Sanhedrim by MOSES and in other Authors for that of the Senat by ROMULUS each of which was then elected by the People whence it may appear plainly that this is no word as they pretend to exclude popular Suffrage but rather to imply it And indeed that it is of no such nature as necessarily to include Power could not have bin overseen in the New Testament but voluntarily where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are Acts 17. 15. signify'd by it that conducted PAUL But they have Miracles such indeed as have neither words nor reason for them had need of Miracles And where are these same Miracles why the Apostles by the Chirothesia or laying on of hands confer'd the Holy Ghost So they did not only when they us'd that Ceremony in reference to Ordination but when they us'd it not in that relation as to those that were newly baptiz'd in Samaria Men and Women now it is not probable that Acts 8. these who should seem to have bin numerous were all ordain'd at least the Women and so the Miracle is to be attributed to the Hands of the Apostles and not to Ordination in general JOSHUA was full of the Spirit not because he had bin ordain'd by the Chirothesia for so had many of them that crucify'd CHRIST and persecuted the Apostles but because MOSES had laid his hands upon him WOULD Divines be contented that we should argue thus The Chirotonia or Suffrage of the People of Israel at the first institution was follow'd with miraculous Indowments therfore whoever is elected by the People shall have the like Or what have they to shew why the Argument is more holding as to their Chirothesia seeing for above one thousand years all the Hierarchy and Presbytery laid together have don no more Miracles than a Parish Clerc A CONTINU'D Miracle as that the Sea ebs and flows the Sun always runs his admirable course is Nature Intermitted Nature as that the waters of the Red Sea were mountains that the Sun stood still in the Dial of AHAZ is a Miracle To continue the latter kind of Miracle were to destroy the former that is to dissolve Nature Wherfore this is a certain rule that no continu'd external Act can be in the latter sense miraculous Now Government whether in Church or State is equally a continu'd external Act. An internal continu'd Act may indeed be natural or supernatural as Faith A NATURAL Man being even in his own natural apprehension fearfully and wonderfully made is by the continu'd Miracle of Nature convinc'd that the World had a Creator and so coms to believe in that which is supernatural whence it is that all Nations have had som Religion and a Spiritual Man being convinc'd by the purity of CHRIST'S Doctrin and the Miracles wherby it was first planted is brought to the Christian Faith However CHRIST may require such continu'd Faith or Spiritual exercise of his Church as is supernatural he requires not any such continu'd Act or bodily exercise of his Church as is supernatural But the Government of the Church is a continu'd Act or bodily exercise It should be heeded that to delude the sense is not to do Miracles but to use Imposture Now to persuade Book II us That Monarchical Aristocratical Popular or mixt Government have not always bin in Nature or that there has ever bin any other in the Church were to delude sense Wherfore give me leave in which I am confident I shall use no manner of Irreverence to the Scripture but on the contrary make the right use of it to discourse upon Church-Government according to the rules of Prudence THE Gospel was intended by Christ to be preach'd to all Nations which Princes and States being above all things exceding tenacious of their Power is to me a certain Argument that the Policy of the Church must be so provided for as not to give any of them just cause of Jealousy there being nothing more likely to obstruct the growth of Religion and truly the nearer I look to the Scripture the more I am confirm'd in this opinion First way of Ordination in the Church Christ Acts 1. CHRIST being taken up into Heaven the first Ordination that we find was that of the Apostle MATTHIAS after this manner THE Aristocracy of the Church that is the Apostles assembl'd the whole Congregation of Disciples or Believers at Jerusalem being in number one hundred and twenty where PETER it having as it should seem bin so agreed by the Apostles was Proposer who standing up in the midst of the Disciples acquainted them that wheras JUDAS was gon to his place the occasion of their present meeting was to elect another Apostle in his room wherupon proceding to the Suffrage they appointed two Competitors JOSEPH and MATTHIAS whose names being written each in a several Scrol were put into one Urn and at the same time two other Lots wherof one was a blank and the other inscrib'd with the word Apostle were put into another Urn which don they pray'd and said Thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men shew whether of these two thou hast chosen The Prayer being ended they gave forth their Lots and the Lot fell upon MATTHIAS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by this Psephisma the very popular word and not only so but being apply'd to the Ballot is the very literal and original signification he was added to the eleven Apostles So you have the first way of Ordination in the Church after Christ was taken up into Heaven perform'd by the Election or Chirotonia of the whole Church NOW except any man can shew that MATTHIAS ever receiv'd the imposition of hands these several things are already demonstrated First that the Chirotonia is not only the more antient way of Ordination in the Commonwealth of Israel but in the Church of CHRIST Secondly that the Chirothesia or imposition of Hands is no way necessary to Ordination in the Christian Church Thirdly that the Disciplin of the Christian Church was primitively Popular for to say that in regard of the Apostles it was Aristocratical is to forget that there is no such thing without a mixture of Aristocracy that is without the Senat as a Popular Government in Nature Fourthly that Ordination in the Commonwealth of Oceana being exactly after this pattern is exactly according to the Disciplin of the Church of CHRIST And fifthly that Ordination and Election in this example are not two but one and the same thing THE last of these Propositions having bin affirm'd by Mr. HOBS §. 115. Dr. HAMMOND tells him plainly that his assertion is far from all truth Let us therfore consider the Doctor 's Reasons which are these Seeing the Congregtion says he is affirm'd by the Gentleman to have ordain'd and it is plain by the words of
so numerous that they began to be call'd Christians Chap. 5 there were among them Prophets so being assembl'd on occasion as I conceive of giving an extraordinary Commission after the manner of the people of Athens when they elected Ambassadors or that I may avoid strife upon a point so indifferent to chuse two new Apostles The Holy Ghost said Separat me BARNABAS and SAUL for the Work wherto I have appointed them that is for so it is render'd by all Interpreters the Holy Ghost spake those words by the mouths of the Prophets Now the Prophets being well known for such this Suffrage of theirs was no sooner given than as one that can allow Prophets to be leading men may easily think follow'd by all the rest of the Congregation So the whole multitude having fasted and pray'd the most eminent among them or the Senatorian Order in that Church laid their hands upon PAUL and BARNABAS who being thus sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed to Seleucia TO evade this apparent Election or Chirotonia of the whole Congregation wherby these Apostles or Ambassadors to the Churches of the Gentils were ordain'd Divines have nothing to say but that they were elected by the Holy Ghost As if the Chirotonia of the People were more exclusive to election by the Holy Ghost than the Chirothesia of the Aristocracy for which in the mean time they contend But if neither of these were indeed exclusive of the Holy Ghost how is it possible in this frame where tho of natural necessity an Aristocracy must have bin included yet the Aristocracy is not in the Text so much as distinguish'd from the People or once nam'd that the Power and so the Ordination should not have bin in the People The Council of the Apostles of the Elders and of the whole Church at Jerusalem and other Councils not of Apostles nor of the whole Church in other times or places us'd this form in their Acts It seems good to the Holy Acts 15. 22. Ghost and to us But dos this whether a true or a pretended stile exclude that Act from being an Act of that whole Council Or how coms it to pass that because PAUL and BARNABAS were separated by the Holy Ghost they were not ordain'd by the Chirotonia of the whole Christian People at Antioch THE Chirothesia can be no otherwise understood in nature nor ever was in the Commonwealth of the Jews than Election by the few And so even under the mere Chirothesia Ordination and Election were not two but one and the same thing If MOSES ordain'd JOSHUA his Successor by the Chirothesia he elected JOSHUA his Successor by the Chirothesia and for what reason must it be otherwise with the Chirotonia That a Pharisee could do more with one hand or a pair of hands than a Christian Church or Congregation can do with all their hands is a Doctrin very much for the honor of the true Religion and a soverain Maxim of Ecclesiastical Policy Third way of Ordination in the Church of Christ THE third Constitution of Church-Government in Scripture whether consisting of Bishops or Presbyters between which at this time a man shall hardly find a difference runs wholly upon the Aristocracy without mention of the People and is therfore compar'd by GROTIUS to the Sanhedrim of Israel as that came to be in these Grot. ad 1 Tim. 4. 14. days from whence Divines also generally and truly confess that it was taken up to which I shall need to add no more than that it is an Order for which there is no Precept either in the Old Testament of God or in the New Testament of Christ This therfore thus taken up by the Book II Apostles from the Jews is a clear demonstration that the Government of the Church in what purity soever of the Times nay tho under the inspection of the Apostles themselves has bin obnoxious to that of the State wherin it was planted The Sanhedrim from the institution of the Chirothesia for a constant Order consisted of no other Senators than such only as had bin ordain'd by the Imposition of Hands which came now to be confer'd by the Prince in the presence or with the assistance of the Sanhedrim The same Order was Grot. ad Mat. 19. 13. observ'd by the Jewish Synagogues of which each had her Archon nor would the Jews converted to the Christian Faith relinquish the Law of MOSES wherto this way of Ordination among other things tho erroneously was vulgarly attributed whence in the Church where it consisted of converted Jews Ordination was confer'd by the Archon or first in order of the Presbytery with the assistance of the rest Hence PAUL in one place exhorts TIMOTHY thus 1 Tim. 4. 14. Neglect not the Gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery And in another thus 2 Tim. 1. 6. Wherfore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the Gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands I GRANT Divines that Ordination by this time was wholly in the Presbytery what say they then to the distinction of Ordination and Election Are these still two distinct things or may we hence at least compute them to be one and the same If they say Yes why then might they not have bin so before If they say No who in this place but the Presbytery elected Why says Dr. HAMMOND §. 106. it is plain that the Spirit of Prophecy elected But to give account of no more than is already perform'd were the spirit of History rather than of Prophecy to which it appertains to tell things before they be don as did the Prophets now living in this Church that TIMOTHY should com to be ordain'd So the place is interpreted by GROTIUS and how it should be otherwise understood I cannot see But putting the case som Act preceded as SAUL and DAVID were elected Kings by Prophecy yet did ever man say that for this SAUL or DAVID were any whit the less elected Kings by the People To the contrary in every well-order'd Commonwealth a Jove principium the disposing of the Lot and of the Suffrage too has universally bin attributed to God THE Piety of Divines in persuading the People that God elects §. 134. for them and therfore they need not trouble themselves to vote is as if they should persuade them that God provides their daily Bread and therfore they need not trouble themselves to work To conclude this point with Dr. HAMMOND'S own words upon the same occasion this distinction of Ordination and Election is in Divines the procreative §. 111. Mistake or Ignorance producing all the rest THE reason why PAUL ordain'd now after this manner among the Jews is to me an irrefragable argument that he ordain'd not after this manner among the Gentils for wheras the first Ordination in the Christian Church namely that of MATTHIAS was
write and yet not omit writing on any occasion that shall be offer'd for if my Principles be overthrown which when I see I shall most ingenuously confess with thanks to the Author such an acknowlegement will ly in a little room and this failing I am deceiv'd if I shall not now be able to shew any Writer against me that his Answer is none within the compass of three or four sheets THIS also will be the fittest way for Boys-play with which I am sure enough to be entertain'd by the quibling University men I mean a certain busy Gang of 'em who having publicly vanted that they would bring 40 examples against the Balance and since laid their Caps together about it have not produc'd one These vants of theirs offering prejudice to truth and good Principles were the cause why they were indeed press'd to shew som of their skill not that they were thought fit Judges of these things but first that they had declar'd themselves so and next that they may know they are not An Answer to three Objections against Popular Government that were given me after these two Books were printed Object 1. MONARCHICAL Government is more natural because we see even in Commonwealths that they have recourse to this as Lacedemon in her Kings Rome both in her Consuls and Dictators and Venice in her Dukes Answer GOVERNMENT whether Popular or Monarchical is equally artificial wherfore to know which is more natural we must consider what piece of Art coms nearest to Nature as for example whether a Ship or a House be the more natural and then it will be easy to resolve that a Ship is the more natural at Sea and a House at Land In like manner where one man or a few men are the Landlords a Monarchy must doubtless be the more natural and where the whole People are the Landlords a Commonwealth for how can we understand that it should be natural to a People that can live of themselves to give away the means of their livelihood to one or a few men that they may serve or obey Each Government is equally artificial in effect or in it self and equally natural in the cause or the matter upon which it is founded A COMMONWEALTH consists of the Senat proposing the People resolving and the Magistracy executing so the Power of the Magistrats whether Kings as in Lacedemon Consuls as in Rome or Dukes as in Venice is but barely executive but to a Monarch belongs both the Result and Execution too wherfore that there have bin Dukes Consuls or Kings in Commonwealths which were quite of another nature is no Argument that Monarchical Government is for this cause the more natural AND if a man shall instance in a mix'd Government as King and Parlament to say that the King in this was more natural than the Parlament must be a strange Affirmation TO argue from the Roman Dictator an Imperfection which ruin'd that Commonwealth and was not to be found in any other that all Commonwealths have had the like recourse in exigences to the like remedy is quite contrary to the universal Testimony of Prudence or Story A MAN who considers that the Commonwealth of Venice has stood one thousand years which never any Monarchy did and yet shall affirm that Monarchical Government is more natural than Popular must affirm that a thing which is less natural may be more durable and permanent than a thing that is more natural WHETHER is a Government of Laws less natural than a Government of Men or is it more natural to a Prince to govern by Laws or by Will Compare the Violences and bloody Rapes perpetually made upon the Crown or Royal Dignity in the Monarchys of the Hebrews and the Romans with the State of the Government under either Commonwealth and tell me which was less violent or whether that which is more violent must therfore be more natural Object 2. THE Government of Heaven is a Monarchy so is the Government of Hell Answer IN this says MACCHIAVEL Princes lose themselves and their Empire that they neither know how to be perfectly good nor intirely wicked He might as well have said that a Prince is always subject to Error and Misgovernment because he is a Man and not a God nor a Devil A Shepherd to his Flock a Plowman to his Team is a better Nature and so not only an absolute Prince but as it were a God The Government of a better or of a superior Nature is to a worse or inferior as the Government of God The Creator is another and a better Nature than the Creature the Government in Heaven is of the Creator over his Creatures that have their whole dependence upon him and subsistence in him Where the Prince or the Few have the whole Lands there is somwhat of dependence resembling this so the Government there must of necessity be Monarchical or Aristocratical But where the People have no such dependence the causes of that Government which is in Heaven are not in Earth for neither is the Prince a distinct or better Nature than the People nor have they their subsistence by him and therfore there can be no such effect If a Man were good as God there is no question but he would be not only a Prince but a God would govern by Love and be not only obey'd but worship'd or if he were ill as the Devil and had as much power to do mischief he would be dreaded as much and so govern by Fear To which latter the Nature of man has so much nearer approaches that tho we never saw upon Earth a Monarchy like that of Heaven yet it is certain the perfection of the Turkish Policy lys in this that it coms nearest to that of Hell Object 3. GOD instituted a Monarchy namely in MELCHIZEDEC before he instituted a Commonwealth Answer IF MELCHIZEDEC was a King so was ABRAHAM too tho one that paid him Tithes or was his Subject for ABRAHAM made War or had the power of the Sword as the rest of the Fathers of Familys he fought against So if CANAAN was a Monarchy in those days it was such a one as Germany is in these where the Princes also have as much the right of the Sword as the Emperor which coms rather as has bin shewn already to a Commonwealth But whether it were a Monarchy or a Commonwealth we may see by the present state of Germany that it was of no very good Example nor was MELCHIZEDEC otherwise made a King by God than the Emperor that is as an Ordinance of Man THE ART OF LAWGIVING In Three BOOKS The First shewing the Foundations and Superstructures of all kinds of Government The Second shewing the Frames of the Commonwealths of Israel and of the Jews The Third shewing a Model fitted to the present State or Balance of this Nation The Order of the Work The First Book THE Preface considering the Principles or Nature of Family
is to say Peers or in parity among themselves as well likewise the People to attain to the truth of Democracy may be Peers or in parity among themselves and yet not as to their Estates be oblig'd to levelling 8. INDUSTRY of all things is the most accumulative and Accumulation of all things hates levelling The Revenue therfore of the People being the Revenue of Industry tho som Nobility as that of Israel or that of Lacedemon may be found to have bin Levellers yet not any People in the World 9. PRECINCTS being stated are in the next place to be form'd to their proper Offices and Functions according to the truth of the Form to be introduc'd which in general is to form them as it were into distinct Governments and to indow them with distinct Governors 10. GOVERNMENTS or Governors are either Supreme or Subordinat For absolute Monarchy to admit in its Precincts any Government or Governors that are not subordinat but supreme were a plain contradiction But that regulated Monarchy and that Democracy may do it is seen in the Princes of Germany and in the Cantons of Switzerland Nevertheless these being Governments that have deriv'd this not from the Wisdom of any Legislator but from accident and an ill disposition of the matter wherby they are not only incapable of Greatness but even of any perfect state of Health they com not under the consideration of Art from which they derive not but of Chance to which we leave them And to speak according to Art we pronounce that as well in Democracy and in regulated as in absolute Monarchy Governors and Governments in the several divisions ought not to be Soveraintys but subordinat to one common Soverain 11. SUBORDINAT Governors are at will or for life or upon Rotation or Changes 12. IN absolute Monarchy the Governors of Provinces must either be at will or upon Rotation or else the Monarch cannot be absolute In regulated Monarchy the Governors of the Countys may be for life or hereditary as in Counts or Lords or for som certain term and upon rotation as in Viscounts or Sherifs In Democracy Chap. V the People are Servants to their Governors for life and so cannot be free or the Governors of the Tribes must be upon rotation and for som certain term excluding the Party that have born the Magistracy for that term from being elected into the like again till an equal Interval or Vacation be expir'd 13. THE term in which a man may administer Government to the good of it and not attemt upon it to the harm of it is the fittest term of bearing Magistracy and three years in a Magistracy describ'd by the Law under which a man has liv'd and which he has known by the carriage or practice of it in others is a term in which he cannot attemt upon his Government for the hurt of it but may administer it for the good of it tho such a Magistracy or Government should consist of divers Functions 14. GOVERNORS in subordinat Precincts have commonly three Functions the one Civil the other Judicial and the third Military 15. IN absolute Monarchy the Government of a Province consists of one Beglerbeg or Governor for three years with his Council or Divan for Civil matters and his Guard of Janizarys and Spahys that is of Horse and Foot with power to levy and command the Timariots or Military Farmers 16. IN regulated Monarchy the Government of a County consists of one Count or Lord for Life or of one Viscount or Sherif for som limited term with power in certain Civil and Judicial matters and to levy and command the Posse Comitatus 17. IN Democracy the Government of a Tribe consists of one Council or Court in one third part elected annually by the People of that Tribe for the Civil for the Judicial and for the Military Government of the same as also to preside at the Election of Deputys in that Tribe towards the annual supply in one third part of the common and soverain Assemblys of the whole Commonwealth that is to say of the Senat and of the Popular Assembly in which two these Tribes thus delineated and distinguish'd into proper Organs or fit Members to be actuated by those soverain Assemblys are wrought up again by connexion into one intire and organical Body 18. A PARLAMENT of Physicians would never have found out the Circulation of the Blood nor could a Parlament of Poets have written VIRGIL'S Aeneis of this kind therfore in the formation of Government is the proceding of a sole Legislator But if the People without a Legislator set upon such work by a certain Instinct that is in them they never go further than to chuse a Council not considering that the formation of Government is as well a work of Invention as of Judgment and that a Council tho in matters laid before them they may excel in Judgment yet Invention is as contrary to the nature of a Council as it is to Musicians in consort who can play and judg of any Ayr that is laid before them tho to invent a part of Music they can never well agree 19. IN Councils there are three ways of Result and every way of Result makes a different Form A Council with the Result in the Prince makes absolute Monarchy A Council with the Result in the Nobility or where without the Nobility there can be no Result makes Aristocracy or regulated Monarchy A Council with the Result Chap. V in the People makes Democracy There is a fourth kind of Result or Council which amounts not to any Form but to Privation of Government that is a Council not consisting of a Nobility and yet with the Result in it self which is rank Oligarchy so the People seldom or never going any further than to elect a Council without any Result but it self instead of Democracy introduce Oligarchy 20. THE ultimat Result in every Form is the Soverain Power If the ultimat Result be wholly and only in the Monarch that Monarchy is absolute If the ultimat Result be not wholly and only in the Monarch that Monarchy is regulated If the Result be wholly and only in the People the People are in Liberty or the Form of the Government is Democracy 21. IT may happen that a Monarchy founded upon Aristocracy and so as to the Foundation regulated may yet com by certain Expedients or Intrusions as at this day in France and in Spain as to the Administration of it to appear or to be call'd absolute of which I shall treat more at large when I com to speak of Reason of State or of Administration 22. THE ultimat Result in the whole body of the People if the Commonwealth be of any considerable extent is altogether impracticable and if the ultimat Result be but in a part of the People the rest are not in Liberty nor is the Government Democracy 23. AS a whole Army cannot charge at one and the same time yet is so
Monarchy for the Judicial part of the Form may admit of a Jury so it be at the Bar only and consists of som such kind as Delegats or ordinary Judges with an Appeal to a House of Peers or som such Court as the Parlament at Paris which was at the institution in the Reign of HUGH CAPET a Parlament of soverain Princes 25. DEMOCRACY for the Judicial part of the Form is of som such kind as a Jury on the Bench in every Tribe consisting of thirty persons or more annually eligible in one third part by the People of that Tribe with an Appeal from thence to a Judicatory residing in the Capital City of the like Constitution annually eligible in one third part out of the Senat or the popular Assembly or out of both from which also there lys an Appeal to the People that is to the Popular Assembly Chap. X CHAP. X. Of the Administration of Government or REASON OF STATE 1. AS the Matter of a Ship or of a House is one thing the Form of a Ship or of a House is another thing and the Administration or Reason of a Ship or of the House is a third thing so the Matter of a Government or of a State is one thing the Form of a Government or of a State is another and the Administration of a Government which is what 's properly and truly call'd Reason of State is a third thing 2. THERE are those who can play and yet cannot pack the Cards and there are who can pack the Cards and yet cannot play 3. ADMINISTRATION of Government or Reason of State to such as propose to themselves to play upon the square is one thing and to such as propose to themselves to pack the Cards is another 4. REASON of State is that in a Kingdom or a Common-wealth which in a Family is call'd THE MAIN CHANCE 5. THE Master of a Family that either keeps himself up to his antient bounds or increases his Stock looks very well to the main Chance at least if his play be upon the square that is upon his own Abilitys or good Fortune or the Laws but if it were not upon the square yet an Estate however gotten is not for that a less Estate in it self nor less descending by the Law to his Successors 6. IF a People thro their own Industry or the prodigality of their Lords com to acquire Liberty if a few by their Industry or thro the folly or slothfulness of the People com to eat them out and make themselves Lords if one Lord by his Power or his Virtue or thro their Necessity their Wisdom or their Folly can overtop the rest of these Lords and make himself King all this was fair play and upon the square 7. REASON of State if we speak of it as fair play is foren or domestic 8. REASON of State which is foren consists in balancing foren Princes and States in such a manner as you may gain upon them or at least that they may not gain upon you 9. REASON of State which is domestic is the Administration of a Government being not usurp'd according to the Foundation and Superstructures of the same if they be good or so as not being good that they may be mended or so as being good or bad they may be alter'd or the Government being usurp'd the Reason of State then is the way and means wherby such a Usurpation may be made good or maintain'd 10. REASON of State in a Democracy which is rightly founded and rightly order'd is a thing of great facility whether in a foren or in a domestic relation In a foren because one good Democracy weighing two or three of the greatest Princes will easily give the Balance abroad at its pleasure in a domestic because it consists not of any more than giving such a stop in accumulation that the State coms not Chap. X to be Monarchical which one Reason of State being made good all the rest gos well and which one Reason of State being neglected all the rest coms in time to infallible ruin 11. REASON of State in a Democracy which is not right in its Foundations may flourish abroad and be one but at home will languish or be two Reasons of State that is the Reason of the State or Orders of the Nobility which is to lord it over the People and the Reason of the popular State or Order which is to bring the Common-wealth to equality which two Reasons of State being irreconcilable will exercise themselves against one another first by Disputes then by Plots till it coms at last to open Violence and so to the utter ruin of the Commonwealth as it happen'd in Rome 12. REASON of State in an absolute Monarchy whether Foren or Domestic is but threefold as first to keep its Military Farmers or Timariots to the first Institution next to cut him that grows any thing above his due Stature or lifts up his head above the rest by so much the shorter and last of all to keep its Arms in exercise 13. IN Aristocratical Monarchy Reason of State as to the whole is but one thing that is to preserve the Counterpoise of the King and the two or the three or the four Estates For in som Countrys as in Poland there are but two Estates the Clergy and the Nobility in others as in Sweden there are four the Nobility the Gentry the Clergy and the Commons in most others there are but three the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and the Commons 14. IN Aristocratical Monarchy Reason of State as to the parts is a multifarious thing every State having its peculiar Reason of State and the King also his Reason of State with the King it is to balance the Nobility that he may hold them under Reason of State with the Nobility is to balance the King lest he should grow absolute Reason of State both with the King and the Nobility is to keep down the People and Reason of State with the People is to drive at their Liberty 15. IN Forms that are pure or in Governments that have no more than an absolute Prince or one State as absolute Monarchy and equal or pure Democracy there is but one Reason of State and that is to preserve the Form intire In Forms that are mix'd as in an inequal Commonwealth where there are two Estates and in Aristocratical Monarchy where there is a King and two if not three Estates there are so many Reasons of State to break the Form that there has not bin any inequal Commonwealth which either the People have not brought to Democracy or the Nobility to Monarchy And scarce was there any Aristocratical Monarchy where to omit the Wars of the Nobility with their King or among themselves the People have not driven out the King or where the King has not brought the People into Slavery Aristocratical Monarchy is the true Theatre of Expedientmongers and Stateemperics or the deep Waters wherin that Leviathan
native Interest may upon like occasions be of more Expedition and Trust Being com thus to foren Arms which is the point I more especially propos'd to my self in the present Discourse one Objection in relation to what has bin already said seems to interpose it self Seeing France while it is not govern'd by the Assembly of States is yet of the same Balance it was when govern'd by the Assembly of States it may be said that a Government of the same Balance may admit of divers Administrations TO which I need make no other answer than to put you in mind that while this Government was natural or administer'd by the Assembly of States it is celebrated by MACCHIAVEL to have bin the best order'd of any Monarchy in the world and that what it is or has bin of later times you may believe your own eys or ears Of Arms and their kind THERE be yet before I can com to foren Guards som previous Considerations All Government as is imply'd by what has bin already shewn is of these three kinds A Government of Servants A Government of Subjects or a Government of Citizens The first is absolute Monarchy as that of Turky The second Aristocratical Monarchy as that of France The third a Commonwealth as those of Israel of Rome of Holland Now to follow MACCHIAVEL in part of these the Government of Servants is the harder to be conquer'd and the easier to be held The Government of Subjects is the easier to be conquer'd and the harder to be held To which I shall presume to add that the Government of Citizens is both the hardest to be conquer'd and the hardest to be held MY Authors Reasons why a Government of Servants is the hardest to be conquer'd com to this that they are under perpetual Disciplin and Command void of such Interests and Factions as have Hands or Power to lay hold upon Advantages or Innovation whence he that invades the Turk must trust to his own strength and not rely upon Disorders in the Government or Forces which he shall be sure enough to find united HIS Reasons why this Government being once broken is easily held are that the Armys once past hope of rallying there being no such thing as Familys hanging together or Nobility to stir up their Dependents to further Reluctancy for the present or to preserve themselves by complacence with the Conquerors for future Discontents or Advantages he that has won the Garland has no more to do but to extinguish the Royal Line and wear it ever after in security For the People having bin always Slaves are such whose condition he may better in which case they are Gainers by their Conqueror but can Book I never make worse and therfore they lose nothing by him Hence ALEXANDER having conquer'd the Persian Empire he and his Captains after him could hold it without the least dispute except it arose among themselves Hence MAHOMET the Second having taken Constantinople and put PALAEOLOGUS the Greec Emperor whose Government was of like nature with the Persian together with his whole Family to the Sword the Turk has held that Empire without reluctancy ON the other side the Reasons why a Government of Subjects is easilier conquer'd are these That it is supported by a Nobility so antient so powerful and of such hold and influence upon the People that the King without danger if not ruin to himself or the Throne an example wherof was given in HEN. 7 th of England can neither invade their Privileges nor level their Estates which remaining they have power upon every discontent to call in an Enemy as ROBERT Count of Artois did the English and the Duke of Guise the Spaniard into France THE Reasons why a Government of Subjects being so easily conquer'd is nevertheless the harder to be held are these That the Nobility being soon out of countenance in such a case and repenting themselves of such a bargain have the same means in their hands wherby they brought in the Enemy to drive him out as those of France did both the English and the Spaniard FOR the Government of Citizens as it is of two kinds an equal or an inequal Commonwealth the Reasons why it is the hardest to be conquer'd are also of two kinds as first the Reasons why a Government of Citizens where the Commonwealth is equal is hardest to be conquer'd are that the Invader of such a Society must not only trust to his own strength inasmuch as the Commonwealth being equal he must needs find them united but in regard that such Citizens being all Soldiers or train'd up to their Arms which they use not for the defence of Slavery but of Liberty a condition not in this world to be better'd they have more specially upon this occasion the highest Soul of Courage and if their Territory be of any extent the vastest Body of a well disciplin'd Militia that is possible in nature wherfore an example of such a one overcom by the Arms of a Monarch is not to be found in the World And if som small City of this Frame has happen'd to be vanquish'd by a potent Commonwealth this is her Prerogative her Towers are her Funeral Pile and she expires in her own flame leaving nothing to the Conqueror but her Ashes as Saguntum overwhelm'd by Carthage and Numantia by Rome THE Reasons why a Government of Citizens where the Commonwealth is inequal is next the former the hardest to be conquer'd are the same with this difference that tho her Peace be not perfect within her condition is not to be better'd by any thing without Wherfore Rome in all her strife never call'd in an Enemy and if an Enemy upon occasion of her strife and hopes of advantage by it came without calling he presented her with her most Soverain Cure who had no leisure to destroy her self till having no Enemy to find her work she became her own Nondum tibi defuit hostis In te verte manus Nor is there any example that a Government of this kind was ever Chap. 9 subdu'd by the Arms of a Monarch tho som indeed may be found that have call'd or suffer'd foren Princes or Force to com in as Holland by Marriages of their Princes and Genoa thro her Factions as those of the FIESCI and ADORNI. Guic. l. 11. TO conclude this part as to the Reasons why a Government of Citizens so acquir'd or possest as thro Marriage or Faction is the hardest to be held there needs no more than that men accustom'd to their Arms and their Libertys will never indure the Yoke Wherfore the Spaniard tho a mighty King no sooner began in Holland a small Commonwealth to innovat or break her Orders than she threw him off with such Courage and Disdain as is admirable to the World And somwhat of the like kind did Genoa by the help of her DORIA in the vindication of her Liberty from France Proper and Improper Arms. TO com by this
is nevertheless Phil. 1. shewn by POLLUX to have bin the peculiar Office of the Thesmothetae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to chirotonize the Magistrats For as the Proedri were Presidents of the People in their Legislative Capacity so were the Thesmothetae upon occasion of Elections thus the Chirotonia L. 8. c. 8. of the Proedri or of the Thesmothetae signifys nothing else but the Chirotonia of the People by which they enacted all their Laws and elected all their Civil or Ecclesiastical Magistrats or Priests as the Rex Sacrificus and the Orgeones except som by the Lot which Ordination as is observ'd by ARISTOTLE is equally popular This whether ignorantly or wilfully unregarded has bin as will be seen hereafter the cause of great absurdity for who sees not that to put the Chirotonia or Soverain Power of Athens upon the Proedri or the Thesmothetae is to make such a thing of that Government as can no wise be understood Book II WHAT the People had past by their Chirotonia was call'd Psephisma an Act or Law And because in the Nomothetae there were always two Laws put together to the Vote that is to say the old one and that which was offer'd in the room of it they that were for the old Law were said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pronounce in the Negative and they that were for the new 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pronounce for the Affirmative THESE Laws these Propositions or this frame of Government having bin propos'd first by SOLON and then ratify'd or establish'd by the Chirotonia of the Athenian People ARISTOTLE says of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he instituted or constituted the popular Government which Constitution implys not any Power in SOLON who absolutely refus'd to be a King and therfore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to him implys no more than Authority I have shew'd you the Words in controversy and the Things together in the Mint now whether they that as to Athens introduc'd them both understood either I leave my Reader by comparing them to judg IT is true that the Things exprest by these Words have bin in som Commonwealths more in others less antient than the Greec Language but this hinders not the Greecs to apply the Words to the like Constitutions or Things wherever they find them as by following HALICARNASSAEUS I shall exemplify in Rome Lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ROMULUS when he had distributed the People into Tribes and Parishes proceded to ordain the Senat in this manner the Tribes were three and the Parishes thirty out of every Tribe he elected three Senators and out of every Parish three more all by the Suffrage of the People These therfore came to ninety nine chosen by the Chirotonia to which he added one more not chosen by the Chirotonia but by himself only Which Election we may therfore say was made by the Chirothesia for as in this Chapter I am shewing that the Chirotonia is Election by the Many so in the next I shall shew that the Chirothesia is Election by One or by the Few But to keep to the matter in hand the Magistrat thus chosen by ROMULUS was praefectus urbi the Protector of the Commonwealth or he who when the King was out of the Nation or the City as upon occasion of war had the exercise of Royal Power at home In like manner with the Civil Magistracy were the Priests created tho som of them not so antiently for the Pontifex Maximus the Rex Sacrificus and the Flamens were all ordain'd by the Suffrage of the People Pontifex Tributis Rex Centuriatis Flamines Curiatis the latter of which being no more than Parish Priests had no other Ordination than by their Parishes All the Laws and all the Magistrats in Rome even the Kings themselves were according to the Orders of this Commonwealth to be created by the Chirotonia of the People which nevertheless is by APPIAN somtimes call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chirotonia of the Tribuns whether these Magistrats were Presidents of the Assemblys of the People or elected by them Sic Romani Historici non raro loquuntur Consulem Calv. Inst l. 4. cap. 3. â— 15. qui comitia habuerit creasse novos Magistratus non aliam ob causam nisi quia suffragia receperit Populum moderatus est in eligendo WHAT past the Chirotonia of the People by the Greecs is call'd Dion Hal. l. 8. Psephisma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When the Congregation of the People was to be dismist MARCUS standing up said Your Psephisma Chap. 3 that is your Act is exceding good c. THIS Policy for the greater part is that which ROMULUS as was shewn is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have instituted or ordain'd tho it be plain that he ordain'd it no otherwise than by the Chirotonia of the People THUS you have another example of the three words in controversy Chirotonia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psephisma still apply'd in the same sense and to the same things Have I not also discover'd already the original Right of Ordination whether in civil or religious Orders This will be scandalous How derive Ordination as it is in the Church of CHRIST or as it was in the Church of the Jews from the Religion or rather Superstition of the Heathens I meddle not with their Religion nor yet with their Superstition but with their Ordination which was neither but a part of their Policy And why is not Ordination in the Church or Commonwealth of CHRIST as well a political thing as it was in the Churches or Commonwealths of the Jews or of the Heathens Why is not Election of Officers in the Church as well a political thing as Election of Officers in the State and why may not this be as lawfully perform'd by the Chirotonia in the one as in the other Philo de Inst Princ. THAT MOSES introduc'd the Chirotonia is expresly said by PHILO tho he opposes it to the Ballot in which I believe he is mistaken as not seeing that the Ballot including the Suffrage of the People by that means came as properly under the denomination of the Chirotonia as the Suffrage of the Roman People which tho it were given by the Tablet is so call'd by Greec Authors All Ordination of Magistrats as of the Senators or Elders of the Sanhedrim of the Judges or Elders of inferior Courts of the Judg or Suâ—fes of Israel of the King of the Priests of the Levits whether with the Ballot or viva voce was perform'd by the Chirotonia or Suffrage of the People In this especially if you admit the Authority of the Jewish Lawyers and Divines call'd the Talmudists the Scripture will be clear but their Names are hard wherfore not to make my Discourse more rough than I need I shall here set them together The Authors or Writings I use by way of Paraphrase upon the Scripture are the Gemara Babylonia Midbar Rabba Sepher
highest Mystery of Popular Government and indeed the supreme Law wherin is contain'd not only the Liberty but the Safety of the People FOR the remainder of the Civil part of this Model which is now but small it is farther propos'd Rule for Vacations THAT every Magistracy Office or Election throout this whole Commonwealth whether annual or triennial be understood of consequeuce to injoin an interval or vacation equal to the term of the same That the Magistracy of a Knight and of a Burgess be in this relation understood as one and the same and that this Order regard only such Elections as are National or Domestic and not such as are Provincial or Foren Exception from the Rule THAT for an exception from this Rule where there is but one Elder of the Horse in one and the same Parish that Elder be eligible in the same without interval and where there be above four Elders of the Horse in one and the same Parish there be not above half nor under two of them eligible at the same Election OTHERWISE the People beyond all manner of doubt would elect so many of the better sort at the very first that there would not be of the Foot or of the meaner sort enough to supply the due number of the Popular Assembly or Prerogative Tribe and the better sort being excluded subsequent Elections by their intervals there would not be wherwithal to furnish the Senat the Horse of the Prerogative Tribe and the rest of the Magistracys each of which Obstructions is prevented by this Exception Where by the way if in all experience such has bin the constant temper of the People and can indeed be reasonably no other it is apparent what cause there can be of doubt who in a Commonwealth of this nature must have the leading Yet is no man excluded from any Preferment only Industry which ought naturally to be the first step is first injoin'd by this Policy but rewarded amply seeing he who has made himself worth one hundred Pounds a year has made himself capable of all Preferments and Honors in this Government Where a man from the lowest state may not rise to the due pitch of his unquestionable Merit the Commonwealth is not equal yet neither can the People under the Limitations propos'd make choice as som object of any other than Book III the better sort nor have they at any time bin so inclining to do where they have not bin under such Limitations Be it spoken not to the disparagement of any man but on the contrary to their praise whose Merit has made them great the People of England have not gon so low in the election of a House of Commons as som Prince has don in the election of a House of Lords To weigh Election by a Prince with Election by a People set the Nobility of Athens and Rome by the Nobility of the old Monarchy and a House of Commons freely chosen by the Nobility of the new There remains but the Quorum for which it is propos'd The Quorum THAT throout all the Assemblys and Councils of this Commonwealth the Quorum consist of one half in the time of Health and of one third part in a time of Sickness being so declar'd by the Senat. HOW the City Government without any diminution of their Privileges and with an improvement of their Policy may be made to fall in with these Orders has * In Oceana elswhere bin shewn in part and may be consider'd farther at leisure Otherwise the whole Commonwealth so far as it is merely Civil is in this part accomplish'd Now as of necessity there must be a natural Man or a Man indu'd with a natural Body before there can be a spiritual Man or a Man capable of Divine Contemplation so a Government must have a Civil before it can have a Religious part And if a man furnisht only with natural parts can never be so stupid as not to make som Reflections upon Religion much less a Commonwealth which necessitats the Religious part of this Model CHAP. II. Containing the Religious Part of this Model propos'd practicably THERE is nothing more certain or demonstrable to common Sense than that the far greater part of Mankind in matters of Religion give themselves up to the public Leading Now a National Religion rightly establish'd or not coercive is not any public driving but only the public leading If the Public in this case may not lead such as desire to be led by the Public and yet a Party may lead such as desire to be led by a Party where would be the Liberty of Conscience as to the State Which certainly in a well order'd Commonwealth being the public Reason must be the public Conscience Nay where would be the Liberty of Conscience in respect of any Party which should so procede as to shew that without taking their Liberty of Conscience from others they cannot have it themselves If the Public refusing Liberty of Conscience to a Party would be the cause of Tumult how much more a Party refusing it to the Public And how in case of such a Tumult should a Party defend their Liberty of Conscience or indeed their Throats from the whole or a far greater Party without keeping down or tyrannizing over the whole or a far greater Party by force of Arms These things being rightly consider'd it is no wonder that Men living like men have not bin yet found without a Government or that any Government has not bin yet found without a National Religion that is som orderly and known way of public Chap. 2 leading in divine things or in the Worship of God A NATIONAL Religion being thus prov'd necessary it remains that I prove what is necessary to the same that is as it concerns the State or in relation to the Duty of the Magistrat CERTAIN it is that Religion has not seen corruption but by one of these three causes som Interest therwith incorporated som ignorance of the truth of it or by som complication of both Nor was ever Religion left wholly to the management of a Clergy that escap'd these Causes or their most pernicious Effects as may be perceiv'd in Rome which has brought Ignorance to be the Mother of Devotion and indeed Interest to be the Father of Religion Now the Clergy not failing in this case to be dangerous what recourse but to the Magistrat for safety specially seeing these Causes that is Interest and Ignorance the one proceding from evil Laws the other from the want of good Education are not in the right or power of a Clergy but only of the Civil Magistracy Or if so it be that Magistrats are oblig'd in duty to be nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to the Church Isa 49. 23. how shall a State in the sight of God be excusable that takes no heed or care lest Religion suffer by Causes the prevention or remedy wherof is in them only To these therfore it
there were in the time of the Barons Wars more than som yet were they as to this purpose none But a Militia is one thing and a sufficient Militia is another where the Government consists of a Nobility and of a People what sufficient part of the Property or Revenue of the Territory can there remain to the Prince wherby to have always in pay such a Militia as may be sufficient to keep the Nobility and the People from joining or to suppress them being join'd If these be small Armys the like may befal them which befel those of the Kings in the Wars of the Barons And if they be great Armys the Prince has not wherwithal to support or content them nay if he had Mr. WREN tells us plainly W. p. 106. That Princes who keep great Armys as Guards to their Persons or Empires teach us that this is to walk upon Precipices there being no possibility of preventing such an Army specially if they ly still without imployment from acquiring an interest distinct from that of the Prince Wherfore to follow Mr. WREN and no other Leader in his own words against himself this Militia being great cannot be so instituted as to have no interest besides the pay it receives from the Monarch nor so as to have no hopes of being safe in their own strength if they should withdraw themselves from the Service and Obedience due to him and being not great against the whole Order or Orders of the Nobility and the People they cannot be sufficient What then remains but to say that Mr. WREN having declar'd the perfection of Monarchical Government W. p. 107. to consist in a mixture of Monarchy by a Nobility and a Monarchy by Arms has as to his Model intirely subverted Monarchy In this way of disputing I have rather follow'd my Leader than Reason the true Answer being that which was given in the Preface namely that an Army to be effectual in England must be such where the Officers have popular Estates or where they have such Estates as had the antient Nobility in the latter case they make a King in the former a Commonwealth But Mr. WREN will have his own way and therfore to conclude let me but desire him to lay his hand upon his heart and then tell me whether the condition of the Nobility to whose favor in my exclusion he pretends a meritorious Title sharing eminently and according to their rank with the People in the Commonwealth by me propos'd or the condition of the Nobility under the insolence and burden of a mercenary Army sharing equally with the People in Oppression and Slavery or reviving the old Barons Wars for new Liberty in the Monarchy by him propos'd be the more desirable And to speak a word for my Adversary we will submit it wholly to the present Nobility whether Mr. WREN or I be so extravagant in these things that they have or can have any other than the like choice Yet enters not Mr. WREN Ibid. into despair of living to injoy his share which ought to be a good one of the Felicitys which will belong to the Subjects of such a Government He looks upon Persons but Things are invincible THE rest of his Book to which The Prerogative of Popular Government is still a complete Answer consists altogether of gross evasion or invective or of drawing out of story against Popular Prudence such imaginary Swords as do but stand bent To rectify or streighten these I may hereafter present him if any man shall think it worth the while with a fuller Answer A VVORD Concerning a House of PEERS NO man knowing what is necessary to the Foundation or Being of a Popular Government can hope or expect the introduction of any such Form where Monarchy is not impracticable They where Monarchy is impracticable who com first to discover it and be convinc'd of it if Reason be not altogether depos'd are inevitable Leaders Hence it is that our Commonwealthsmen are already renown'd throout this Nation for their invincible Reasons even by the confession of their Opponents or such as procede nevertheless in other ways But where Seed is so well sown and rooted intervening Possession and Interests are like such Weather as holding back the Spring yet improves the Harvest Commonwealthsmen indeed may have a cold time on 't but upon the Common-wealth it must bestow Fermentation Had our incomparable Assertors of public Liberty appear'd before a universal eviction of the necessity which inforces their Cause it must have bin thro such a reluctancy as would have made them glad to do things by halves which is the only Rock to a rising Commonwealth of Scandal or of Danger the whole being such against which there is nothing to be alleg'd and the half what may be easily confuted These things consider'd what appearance is there but that it must redound to the greater advantage of our Commonwealthsmen that we are under the force of a present Humor which abhors the very name of a Commonwealth Seeing by this means one of two things must of necessity happen and com shortly to public view or discovery either that Monarchy is practicable or that it is not practicable I mean in our state of Affairs or in this present distribution of the Balance If Monarchy be found practicable Commonwealthsmen are satisfy'd in their Consciences and so ready in fair ways to return and submit not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake But let Divines cry Atheism and Lawyers Treason if it be once discover'd to common Understanding that Monarchy is impracticable then in coms the Commonwealth not by halves but with all its Tackling full sail displaying its Streamers and flourishing with Top and Topgallant THE ways wherby it is at hand to be discover'd whether Monarchy be practicable or impracticable are particularly two the one quicker the other slower The quicker way will be by the Workmen the slower by the Work IF the Workmen being willing be yet overcom by the mere obstinacy of their Matter it amounts to a plain confession that Monarchy is impracticable And if they give away the Libertys of the People they are overcom by the obstinacy of the Matter for that is not their Work nor any other Work than such as must be useless not so much in regard of it self tho that may be true enough as by the want of any other Security than what the Prince had before that is an Army And such an Army which for security is as good as none at all nay the very contrary as has bin shewn already nor to Art of Law-giving p. 433. be alter'd with better success than theirs who became Princes in Grecian and Sicilian States BUT if the Workmen give not away the Libertys of the People then must they so limit their Prince that he can in no manner invade those Libertys and this by any other means than the full and perfect introduction of a well order'd Commonwealth they will
were a Commonwealth 7. DISTRIBUTION of shares in Land as to the three grand Interests the King the Nobility and the People must be equal or inequal 8. EQUAL distribution of Land as if one man or a few men have one half of the Territory and the People have the other half causes privation of Government and a state of Civil War for the Lord or Lords on the one side being able to assert their pretension or right to rule and the People on the other their pretension or right to Liberty that Nation can never com under any form of Government till that Question be decided and Property being not by any Law to be violated or mov'd any such Question cannot be decided but by the Sword only Chap. III 9. INEQUAL distribution of shares in Land as to the three grand Interests or the whole Land in any one of these is that which causes one of these three to be the predominant Interest 10. ALL Government is Interest and the predominant Interest gives the Matter or Foundation of the Government 11. IF one man has the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory the Interest of one man is the predominant Interest and causes absolute Monarchy 12. IF a few men have the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory the Interest of the few or of the Nobility is the predominant Interest and were there any such thing in nature would cause a pure Aristocracy 13. IT being so that pure Aristocracy or the Nobility having the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory without a Moderator or Prince to balance them is a state of War in which every one as he grows eminent or potent aspires to Monarchy and that not any Nobility can have Peace or can reign without having such a Moderator or Prince as on the one side they may balance or hold in from being absolute and on the otâ—â—r side may balance or hold them and their Factions from flying out into Arms it follows that if a few men have the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory the Interest of the Nobility being the predominant Interest must of necessity produce regulated Monarchy 14. IF the Many or the People have the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory the Interest of the Many or of the People is the predominant Interest and causes Democracy 15. A PEOPLE neither under absolute or under regulated Monarchy nor yet under Democracy are under a privation of Government CHAP. III. Of the Privation of Government 1. WHERE a People are not in a state of Civil Government but in a state of Civil War or where a People are neither under a state of Civil Government nor under a state of Civil War there the People are under Privation of Government 2. WHERE one Man not having the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory yet assumes to himself the whole Power there the People are under Privation of Government and this Privation is call'd Tyranny 3. WHERE a few Men not having the whole or about two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory yet assume to themselves the whole Power there the People are under Privation of Government and this Privation is call'd Oligarchy 4. WHERE the Many or the People not having the whole or two parts in three of the whole Land or Territory yet assume to themselves the whole Power there the People are under Privation of Government and this Privation is call'd Anarchy 5. WHERE the Tyranny the Oligarchy or the Anarchy not having in the Land or Territory such a full share as may amount to the truth of Government have nevertheless such a share in it as may Chap. IV maintain an Army there the People are under privation of Government and this Privation is a state of Civil War 6. WHERE the Tyranny the Oligarchy or the Anarchy have not any such share in the Land or Territory as may maintain an Army there the People are in privation of Government which Privation is neither a state of Civil Government nor a state of Civil War 7. WHERE the People are neither in a state of Civil Government nor in a state of Civil War there the Tyranny the Oligarchy or the Anarchy cannot stand by any force of Nature because it is void of any natural Foundation nor by any force of Arms because it is not able to maintain an Army and so must fall away of it self thro the want of a Foundation or be blown up by som tumult and in this kind of Privation the Matter or Foundation of a good orderly Government is ready and in being and there wants nothing to the perfection of the same but proper Superstructures or Form CHAP. IV. Of the Form of Government 1. THAT which gives the being the action and the denomination to a Creature or Thing is the Form of that Creature or Thing 2. THERE is in Form somthing that is not Elementary but Divine 3. THE contemplation of Form is astonishing to Man and has a kind of trouble or impulse accompanying it that exalts his Soul to God 4. AS the Form of a Man is the Image of God so the Form of a Government is the Image of Man 5. MAN is both a sensual and a philosophical Creature 6. SENSUALITY in a Man is when he is led only as are the Beasts that is no otherwise than by Appetit 7. PHILOSOPHY is the knowlege of Divine and Human Things 8. TO preserve and defend himself against Violence is natural to Man as he is a sensual Creature 9. TO have an impulse or to be rais'd upon contemplation of natural things to the Adoration or Worship of God is natural to Man as he is a Philosophical Creature 10. FORMATION of Government is the creation of a Political Creature after the Image of a Philosophical Creature or it is an infusion of the Soul or Facultys of a Man into the body of a Multitude 11. THE more the Soul or Facultys of a Man in the manner of their being infus'd into the body of a Multitude are refin'd or made incapable of Passion the more perfect is the Form of Government 12. NOT the refin'd Spirit of a Man or of som Men is a good Form of Government but a good Form of Government is the refin'd Spirit of a Nation Chap. IV 13. THE Spirit of a Nation whether refin'd or not refin'd can neither be wholly Saint nor Atheist Not Saint because the far greater part of the People is never able in matters of Religion to be their own Leaders nor Atheists because Religion is every whit as indelible a Character in man's Nature as Reason 14. LANGUAGE is not a more natural intercourse between the Soul of one man and another than Religion is between God and the Soul of a man 15. AS not this Language nor that Language but som
the Minister of State takes his pastime 16. THE Complaint that the Wisdom of all these latter times in Princes Affairs consists rather in fine deliverys and shiftings of Dangers or Mischiefs when they are near than in solid and grounded courses to keep them off is a Complaint in the Streets of Aristocratical Monarchy and not to be remedy'd because the Nobility being not broken Chap. X the King is in danger and the Nobility being broken the Monarchy is ruin'd 17. AN Absurdity in the form of the Government as that in a Monarchy there may be two Monarchs shoots out into a mischief in the Administration or som wickedness in the Reason of State as in ROMULUS'S killing of REMUS and the monstrous Associations of the Roman Emperors 18. USURPATION of Government is a Surfeit that converts the best Arts into the worst Nemo unquam imperium flagitio acquisitum bonis artibus exercuit 19. AS in the privation of Virtue and in Beggery men are Sharks or Robbers and the reason of their way of living is quite contrary to those of Thrift so in the privation of Government as in Anarchy Oligarchy or Tyranny that which is Reason of State with them is directly opposit to that which is truly so whence are all those black Maxims set down by som Politicians particularly MACCHIAVEL in his Prince and which are condemn'd to the fire even by them who if they liv'd otherwise might blow their fingers 20. WHERE the Government from a true Foundation rises up into proper Superstructures or Form the Reason of State is right and streight but give our Politician peace when you please if your House stands awry your Props do not stand upright 21. TAKE a Jugler and commend his Tricks never so much yet if in so doing you shew his Tricks you spoil him which has bin and is to be confess'd of MACCHIAVEL 22. CORRUPTION in Government is to be read and consider'd in MACCHIAVEL as Diseases in a man's Body are to be read and consider'd in HIPPOCRATES 23. NEITHER HIPPOCRATES nor MACCHIAVEL introduc'd Diseases into man's Body nor Corruption into Government which were before their times and seeing they do but discover them it must be confest that so much as they have don tends not to the increase but the cure of them which is the truth of these two Authors POLITICAL APHORISMS Obsequium amicos veritas odium parit Terent. 1. THE Errors and Sufferings of the People are from their Governors 2. WHEN the Foundation of a Government coms to be chang'd and the Governors change not the Superstructures accordingly the People becom miserable 3. THE Monarchy of England was not a Government by Arms but a Government by Laws tho imperfect or ineffectual Laws 4. THE later Governments in England since the death of the King have bin Governments by Arms. 5. THE People cannot see but they can feel 6. THE People having felt the difference between a Government by Laws and a Government by Arms will always desire the Government by Laws and abhor that of Arms. 7. WHERE the Spirit of the People is impatient of a Government by Arms and desirous of a Government by Laws there the spirit of the People is not unfit to be trusted with their Liberty 8. THE spirit of the People of England not trusted with their Liberty drives at the restitution of Monarchy by Blood and Violence 9. THE Spirit of the People of England trusted with their Liberty if the Form be sufficient can never set up a King and if the Form be insufficient as a Parlament with a Council in the intervals or two Assemblys coordinat will set up a King without Blood or Violence 10. TO light upon a good Man may be in Chance but to be sure of an Assembly of good Men is not in Prudence 11. WHERE the Security is no more than personal there may be a good Monarch but can be no good Commonwealth 12. THE necessary Action or Use of each thing is from the nature of the Form 13. WHERE the Security is in the Persons the Government makes good men evil where the Security is in the Form the Government makes evil men good 14. ASSEMBLYS legitimatly elected by the People are that only Party which can govern without an Army 15. NOT the Party which cannot govern without an Army but the Party which can govern without an Army is the refin'd Party as to this intent and purpose truly refin'd that is by Popular Election according to the Precept of MOSES and the Rule of Scripture Take ye wise men and understanding and known among your Tribes and I will make them Rulers over you 16. THE People are deceiv'd by Names but not by Things 17. WHERE there is a well order'd Commonwealth the People are generally satisfy'd 18. WHERE the People are generally dissatisfy'd there is no Commonwealth 19. THE Partys in England declaring for a Commonwealth hold every one of them somthing that is inconsistent with a Common-wealth 20. TO hold that the Government may be manag'd by a few or by a Party is inconsistent with a Commonwealth except in a Situation like that of Venice 21. TO hold that there can be any National Religion or Ministry without public Indowment and Inspection of the Magistracy or any Government without a National Religion or Ministry is inconsistent with a Commonwealth 22. TO hold that there may be Liberty and not Liberty of Conscience is inconsistent with a Commonwealth that has the Liberty of her own Conscience or that is not Popish 23. WHERE Civil Liberty is intire it includes Liberty of Conscience 24. WHERE Liberty of Conscience is intire it includes Civil Liberty 25. EITHER Liberty of Conscience can have no security at all or under Popular Government it must have the greatest security 26. TO hold that a Government may be introduc'd by a little at once is to wave Prudence and commit things to Chance 27. TO hold that the Wisdom of God in the formation of a House or of a Government gos not universally upon natural Principles is inconsistent with Scripture 28. TO hold that the Wisdom of Man in the formation of a House or of a Government may go upon supernatural Principles is inconsistent with a Commonwealth and as if one should say God ordain'd the Temple therfore it was not built by Masons he ordain'd the Snuffers therfore they were not made by a Smith 29. TO hold that Hirelings as they are term'd by som or an indow'd Ministry ought to be remov'd out of the Church is inconsistent with a Commonwealth 30. NATURE is of GOD. 31. SOM part in every Religion is natural 32. A UNIVERSAL Effect demonstrats a universal Cause 33. A UNIVERSAL Cause is not so much natural as it is Nature it self 34. EVERY man either to his terror or consolation has som sense of Religion 35. MAN may rather be defin'd a religious than a rational Creature in regard that in other Creatures there may be somthing of Reason but there
out to debate or examination that a man having the mind to weigh discourse upon or object against this Model may do it in the parts with the greatest convenience ANY examination of or objection against the whole or any part in print or in writing the Author holds himself bound to acknowlege or answer But as to mere discourse upon matters of this compass it is usually narrow besides that in writing a man must put himself upon better aim than he can be oblig'd to take in discourse ANY one objection lying in writing against any one Order in this part of the Model after such manner as to shew that the Part or Order so invaded ought to be expung'd alter'd or amended unless it may be expung'd alter'd or amended accordingly destroys the whole AND any one or more Objections so lying against any one or more of these Orders or Propositions that therby they may be expung'd alter'd or amended must in the whole or in part make a better Model IN this case therfore or in case no Objection lys the use of these Propositions will be such as therby any Man or any Assembly of men considering or debating upon them in order may find or make a true Model of a well order'd Commonwealth AND that an Assembly can never make or frame a Model of any Government otherwise than in som such manner is provable first by a demonstration from the effect and secondly by a demonstration from the cause THE demonstration from the Effect is that an Assembly no otherwise frames a Law or Order than by having it first pen'd by som one man and then judging upon it and the Model of a Commonwealth must consist of many Laws or Orders THE demonstration from the Cause is that wheras Reason consists of two parts the one Invention and the other Judgment a Man may be as far beyond any Assembly for Invention as any Assembly can be beyond a Man for Judgment or which is more that the formation of a Model of Government requires a strong faculty of Invention and that an Assembly is naturally void of all manner of Invention Nov. 13. 1658. THE Ways and Means Wherby an Equal and Lasting COMMONWEALTH May be suddenly introduc'd and perfectly founded with the free Consent and actual Confirmation of the Whole People of England Scire tuum nihil est nisi te scire hoc sciat alter Pers A WORD fitly spoken is like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver THE Desire of the People of England now runs strongly to have a Free Parlament LET there be a free Parlament TO the end that the People may be most equally represented or that the Parlament may be Freest LET there be a new Division of England and Wales with as much equality as may stand with convenience into fifty Shires LET every Shire elect annually two Knights to be of one House and seven Deputys to be of another House of Parlament for the term of three years For the first year only let the Deputys in each Division be elected triple that is seven for the term of one year seven for the term of two years and seven for the term of three years The like for the Knights save only that the present Parlament remain that is let two Knights in each Division be elected the first year only for the term of one year two other Knights at the same time for the term of two years and let the present Parlament be the triennial part of the Knights House for the first Election THE House of Knights and the House of Deputys being assembl'd let the House of Knights debate and propose LET what is propos'd by the House of Knights be promulgated for the space of six weeks PROMULGATION being thus made let the House of Deputys meet and give their Result upon the Proposition LET what was thus propos'd by the Senat or House of Knights and resolv'd by the People or House of Deputys be the Law IN this Constitution these Councils must of necessity contain the Wisdom and the Interest of the Nation IN this method Debate must of necessity be mature IF it be according to the Wisdom and the Interest of the Nation upon mature debate that there be a King let there be a King IF it be according to the Wisdom and the Interest of the Nation upon mature debate that there be a Commonwealth two Assemblys in this Order are actually a Commonwealth and so far a well order'd Commonwealth that they are capacitated and inclin'd to reach to themselves whatever furniture shall be further necessary in more particular Orders which also is at hand TILL this or the like be don the Line of the late King and the People must be fellowsufferers in which case the impatience of the People must be for the restitution of that Line at all adventures BUT this or the like being once don immediatly the Line of the late King and the People becom Rivals in which case they will never restore Monarchy WILL never may som say But if the Senat and the Popular Assembly be both Royalists they both will and can restore Monarchy THO both Royalists they neither will nor can for let them that look no further than home or self say what they will to affirm that a Senat and a Popular Assembly thus constituted can procreat Monarchy is to affirm that a Horse and a Mare can generat a Cat that Wheat being rightly sown may com up Pease or that a River in its natural channel may run upwards IN the present case of England Commonwealthsmen may fail thro want of Art but Royalists must fail thro want of Matter the former may miss thro impotence the latter must thro impossibility Or where the State is purely popular that is not overbalanc'd by a Lord or Lords let there be one Example or one Reason given that there is was or ever can be Monarchy There will be this when all fails for the aftergame tho the work should fall as is like enough into the hands of Royalists CERTAIN it is that where any privat Citizen or Freeman might not som way or other propose there never was a well order'd Commonwealth UPON this incouragement I offer'd this Paper to good hands but it was according to custom thrown after me SO it went in the Protector 's time in every Revolution since La fortuna accieca gli animi de gli huomini but that is Atheism that 's MACCHIAVEL WELL but now says the Protectorian Family O that we had set up the equal Commonwealth So say broken Parlaments and Statesmen so say the sadly mistaken Sectarys so say the cashier'd Officers so says he that would have no nay but Oligarchy was a good word and so will more say after these except they learn to say after another Aut reges non exigendi fuerunt aut plebi re non verbo danda libertas either the Kings ought not to have bin driven out or the People to