sometimes united by the malice of his Holines Though armed with no more naturall weapons then what her mony puts into the hands of strangers the most unhappy Militia a State can imploy Yet because all her Senatours look one way and not a squint upon Forreign Interests as the Privadoes of our Kings have beene knowne to doe in relation to their respective Pensions Unity improves their small force to so much advantage as they have for these latter yeares not onely disputed the dominion of the Seas with the Grand Seigniour but forced him to wash away with his peoples bloud divers markes of advantage his multitudes of Souldiers had purchased him in the Levant So as if Monarchs were owners of so much Christianity as to spend but the tith of what is consum'd yearly in Masques and such unnecessary vanities this way a thing not to be hoped for till our good God have discovered to all Nations the curse of monopolized authority this enemy to Christ might be easily reduced Since all the force he can make returnes him from this single State nothing but dishonour and losse whereas the greatest German Caesar was never yet able to beare the least branch of his power without imploring and receiving aide from most of Christian Princes who are now so weltered in their own blood as they omit the opportunity Thinking themselves more charitably imployed in the ruine of their own people or Neighbours A Lunacy could never befall them were they not agitated by such ridiculous humours as Common-wealths disdaine to be affected withall where there is no roome for any disputation about such triviall things as crabbid Titles Legitimacy c. all being ejected there as spurious that conduce not to honour or safety And what advantage this State hath in the wise Conduct of affaires may be easily discerned by any eye that shall passe over the Transactions of this Senate and Paul the fift during the Interdict and compare them with the Treaties of our King James with Spaine the first redounding no lesse to the honour of that Republique then the latter to the shame and losse of this Nation Neither are these advantages peculiar to Venice onely but to all found under this Government which officiating in the double capacities of a King and a Councell both cannot choose but be wiser then the first and lesse subject to corruption then the latter it being as unnaturall for them to betray their owne power as it is usuall with the greatest Courtiers to sell the revelation of their Masters most secret Counsels Though Offenders under Free States are punished with the greatest severity it is with the least injustice and partiality Single persons being more subject to be agitated by the tempests of Fury Prejudice or Revenge then Popular Tribunals which in all reason are not capable of so totall a distemper as to utter such intoxicated Censures as ordinarily drop from single judgements who rather then confesse a mistake will with the Tyrant in Seneca make three guilty because they find one innocent Neither doth Covetousnesse the root of all evill prosper so well or spread so much in the hearts of Senaters as in those of Kings lest their Posterity should be forced to disgorge what they had devoured Too vast estates being so formidable to this Government as they cannot be pass'd by without observation and jealousie by such as know the cause of the reduction of the State of Florence under the House of Medici But Kings are such bottomlesse pits that they proclaime themselves responsible to none but God for all their rapines and injustice By which they doe not onely adjourne all reparation to the day of Doome but leave their oppressions for lawfull inheritances to their successours As the Monopoly Queene Elizabeth granted upon Glasses was improved since to very Raggs and Marrow-bones All a Senate can justly be charged with by way of disadvantage after perfectly founded is division which if pure from popular ambition may possibly occasion more good then hurt by keeping them upright One Faction remaining as a guard upon the rest Their owne safety perswading all Corporations to intend the generall welfare in which Reason gives the right hand of advantage to the Government by a Senate rather then that of a King whose best designes are retarded if not buried with his person whereas this Jurisdiction is never sick much lesse subject to drink or death but reacheth through a continuall suppliment to as immense an eternity as Providence hath afforded any humane Society not being apt to be scared out of the paths leading to their advantage consisting of too great a number to be subject to any clandestine attempt or abused by evill Counsels or corrupted by rewards whereas experience teacheth that Kings may be forced through feare or allured by flattery to resigne their reason and concede things not onely contrary to their peoples but their owne interest as appeared by that celebrated Prince Henry the Fourth of France who was not ashamed to confesse he durst not for feare of his owne life but revoke the just Ban he and all the Parliaments of France had pronounced against the bloudy Jesuits whose expulsion the Venetians make good against all their machinations threats of the Pope and mediation of Princes From whence I may observe That though experience proves by this State and the Catholique Cantons c. that the Roman profession may sute in some measure with all kinds of Government yet undeniable Reason of State renders Monarchy most acceptable to the Pope as it doth the Reformation to Free States who are too wise to admit willingly a Forraigne interest into the Common-wealth by a multiplicity of Ecclesiasticks independent on any other power but that of Rome which Kings being but single persons dare not resist for feare of the Knife it being besides a maine disadvantage in worldly policy to professe a Religion so odious to their neighbours that they are looked upon under no better notion then Heretickes and so no faith to be kept with them nor marriage contracted but by an especiall Indulgence from his Holinesse which Republickes have no use of And being already under the ill opinion of the Roman Church doe but desire a faire opportunity to free themselves from it and make booty of the Religious Houses long since looked upon by them as dens of Traiters and idle persons Therefore such as desire a through Reformation displease their ends by abetting Monarchy Kings being knowne not onely to have beene the Begetters and Nources but the onely Maintainers of Antichrist if the POPE be the man And if any in opposition to this truth object Queene Elizabeth her Brother Edward's Youth and short raigne rendring his inclinations abortive to the benefit of the Nation I answer whosoever considers how resolutely the Pope denied to reverse her Illegitimation refusing to give a decent reception to her Embassadours And with what affection the Parliament out of pure zeale hatred to the
in one single individual it cannot but be most safe to divide it amongst more Many not being so apt as one to be intoxicated by the fumes of power and flattery The childish Love the Common people beare the gaudy person of a King gives occasion to beleeve that popular Goverments are rather results of Princes disorders then the naturall effects of the peoples inclinations and therefore founded with the more difficulty But after establishment easiest maintained wise men being apter to connive at a fault in this Goverment out of hope to have one day the happinesse to mend or commit it themselves The first Monarchies were purely tyrannicall as Babylon and Persia who used to try both Plaintif and Defendant in a Starchamber of Beasts Yet though absolute tyrants over their people so much enslaved to their own passions as what was uttered against the life of the Prophet in folly was not after repealable in judgement And under these arbitrary Monsters the world laboured till necessity the pregnant Mother of all conveniency taught their Subjects to temper them with Lawes But sinding absotute Princes of so faithlesse a nature that they were not tenable by compact delighting like the Demoniaques in the Gospell to rome in the estates and among the graves of their Subjects some Nations exploded them quite as formerly severall Citties of Greece and Rome c. and of later years the united Provinces who having obtained their liberty and so not being exhausted by the exorbitant and vast expences of a King nor shackled by the distracted and contrary interests of a foolish and suborn'd Counsel were able from their infancy to teare such morsells out of the throat of his great Catholick Majesty as the weakenesse of France suffered him to swallow and the feares of King James caused him to sell to prevent the danger he was perswaded by his jealousies and some of his Counsellors more servants unto that State then to him wayted upon the delivery or deniall of the Cautionaâ—y townes to the King of Spaine which this poore spot of Earth doth not only dare to owne as their birthright But have brought him to that passe as he hath twice concluded peace with them under the free notions of an Independant State And some Nations never at all admitted any Kings and such as are celebrated for most wisdome felicity and continuance Apparent in the State of Venice who hath outliv'd the story of her own birth and seen the often repeated funeralls of all the Kingdomes in Europe being now by her account onward of her twelfth Century And though France seems to boast of little lesse continuance deriving her originall from the uncertain history of Pharamond supposed her first King Yet the impartial reader may find her subject to the discipline of strangers and her own inferior Princes till Lewis the eleaventh's wisdome had compounded for her wardship and if Edward the fourth his contemporary had been owner of so much prudence as the Free Cantons of the Swisse he had mis'd of his marke Fulnes of bread that inclines a people to Idolatry makes them so proud and wanton as to think any of their own body too mean to Governe choosing rather with the Froggs in the Fable a Storke for their King though it be his nature to devoure them then a selected number of their own tied in reason to preserve them Not perceiving that Monarchy is a sacrilegious overcharging a single person with more honour and power then so fraile a creature is able to beare without falling into the distempers of excesse which renders industrious Nations more capable of freedome as neerer to a parity then such as time and luxury have overstock'd with Nobility and Gentry who scorning to be subject to those of their own quality and not so well able to tyrannize over inferiours upon their own single score cry up Princes whose faults they cover with a false varnish made up of an imaginary Divine Right glistering only in the eyes of fooles wise men owning it as borrowed from the Easterne Idolaters who were never better pleased then when they saw something carried before them gloriously adorned with the eare-rings jewels and spoyles of the people Which gives all Politians occasion to to pronounce that a Prince cannot disparrage his affaires more then by suffering his power to fall under a popular contest Nor a Republick decline sooner into a tyranny then by continuing that shadow which decency constraines Free Governments to retain of Monarchy too long in one Family as the Dutch did without change or some vigorous opposition For however Insurrections like thunders are terrible for the present They render Liberty more serene and cleere Princes being apt with Alexander to apprehend themselves more then humane unles they be now and then besprinkled with their own blood Affliction and opposition being better able to put them into the way of duty then flattery or prosperity so as if Feare were not more prevalent with them then Love Subjects would be farre more miserable since it is without question that the interest of Princes lookes with a contrary aspect to that of the People His gaine being for the most part their losse as in case of illegall taxes which if once carried cleer without question are conveyed as an inheritance to their posterity who improve rather then diminish any thing layed in charge by their Predecessours Therefore Governours out of their own body in reason should be more naturall then these fathers in Law who see nothing about them but what they falsely imagine to be their own Now though a Senate may have inclusively the same power they are more tender of using it for feare the evill consequence should reach their Children who in these impartiall Governments mingle among the people and participate of all their inconveniencies unles wisdome and good parts makes them capable of their Fathers dignities which happens rarely Able Statesmen finding their virtues commonly wanting in their Children And this discovers another grosse inconvenience in successive Kingdoms where not only Law and Custome but Religion if you trust Regall divinity teacheth the people to cry Hosanna to the next Heyre Though nature or which is worse his wicked inclinations render him unworthy the government of a Asse Whereas a Senate is continually fill'd with the most able men Not to loose time in casting up the account Antiquity made of this Government upon whose approbation it is the nature of men to looke through the prospective of multiplying opinion as they doe upon lesse remote verities with the eies of envy and contradiction The progresse and vertues of the State of Venice are patterns not found in the greatest or match'd by the best of Kings Who hath received nothing her situation only excepted but from the benevolence of Heaven and her own vertue which hath inabled her though but a Pamphlet in comparison of the Voluminous power of other Nations to beare the opposition of all her Neighbours in their turnes and
Clergy or feare of refunding the profits made of Abby Lands did offer to cover her blemishes with the Crowne must conclude there could be no better refuge for her in prudence then to side with such as did maintaine the Church of Rome it selfe to be Basterdized And for the dangers probability might threaten to such a totall defection all being avoided by her tyrannicall Father her Councell in whom she was the happiest ever waved the English Scepter thought a dispencing with them lesse prejudiciall to her affaires then the tedious ceremonies incident to a Reconciliation with Rome Neither was the progresse the Protestants made in Germany France and Switserland a small provocation who by letters instigated her to this resolution the hopes of the Councell of Trent not being quite lost because they found a generall desire in all Princes to see the power of Rome moderated And that she was rather throwne by necessity then fell of her owne accord from the Church of Rome appeares by the Ceremonies used at her Inauguration all purely Catholique so as though she was not unwilling to give the new Profession hope she could not be brought suddenly to put the old in despair not indeavouring to bring in a greater Reformation then she found but suffered the Bishops to besprinkle her Raigne with the bloud of some and inrich her Exchequer with the livelyhoods of many more that were so zealous as to desire a review of such errours as they presumed the base ends of Henry the Eighth had let slip And these were then persecuted though of most exemplary lives whose followers God hath in our daies beene pleased to requite with the most miraculous successe that ever crowned the endeavours of an Army And for a farther confirmation that this totall separation from the Pope grew rather in the minds of the people then the Prince All the endeavours they could use were not able to abrogate the ceremonies of Crosse Ring and Surpleece though confess'd by all of no more absolute necessity then what they derived from the breath of Authority But their true end was to discover such consciences as were irreconcilable to Rome unto which they had then and doe still drive on a designe of returning Provided they could by an universall conjunction of Princes bring the Pope to renounce the power he pretends to have over Kings in that which is meerly temporall And if I am not fouly mistaken the too vigorous prosecution of this project was the cause of the murdering the two last Henryes of France Therefore such as hinder the establishing a Free State oppose the most probable way of suppressing Superstition and discovering Truth which in time will by the blessing of God worke it selfe into Vnity I doe not write this out of an humour of singularity or to cast dirt upon the Memory of Queene Elizabeth who in my opinion deserves to be celebrated above all the Princes I ever heard of but to manifest this truth That Monarchs look upon all Religions with love or disdaine as they find them sute with their worldly concernments The like may be said of most of the Princes in Germany who tooke part with Luther to have a pretence to seize upon the rich Monasteries and Lands of the Church And though humane policy may inject the same thoughts into the minds of Senatours yet purity of Religion is likelier to find friendship among many then one Neither is the small countenance the French give to those of the Reformation under a shallower policy then to balance all partiality which the Pope may be terrified out of a dread of his power to shew the King of Spaine to the French King's disadvantage being allwayes able by their assistance to make the like booty of the Gallican Church as Henry the Eighth did of the English Neither had the rich revenues of the Roman Profession which Christian Princes have long since surveyed as too great a patrimony for a few Priests beene untaken in but that the Catholique King is tied not onely by a contrary but a stronger interest to keepe up the Pope from a totall suppression because he hath nothing to shew for the possession of divers of his territories and the dispensation of so many incestuous Matches but the power his Holinesse arrogates to make any thing lawfull towards God or Man Yet if any desire farther satisfaction Why Spaine remaines so true to the bondage of Rome whilst other Nations are in labour with divisions it may be said That besides the Inquisition her naturall pride and affected gravity renders her proofe against Innovation especially in order to a Profession lesse splendid then her owne being like the Jewes more delighted with well drest Ceremonies then naked Truth Neither have they any generall propensity to the study of Controversies or the writing of any thing besides Romances to which the Roman Religion best sutes being replenished with the high Rhodomontadoes of Saints and miraculous Stories A Monarchy both in Church and State is most sutable to the English Clergy whose maintenance being raised out of the sweat of the Labourer can find none so ready the Pope excluded as Princes to protect them Commonwealths making no such roome for flattery as Kings to whom those Churchmen are dearest and readiest to be preferred by them as having the faculty to discover Virtues where none are and hide Vices where they most abound to which qualities James and Charles were the indulgentest Princes since the Reformation For Queene Elizabeth standing faire in her Subjects opinions was bold to make exchanges with them to their disadvantage The cause the sweetnesse of her Raigne is no more legible This proves it madnesse to expect a pure Reformation under Kings the Roman Religion being in all policy most necessary for them because they have his Holinesse ready at any time as an honourable Vmpire friendly to cement them together by fair means or in case they will not agree to excommunicate the contumacious party No small advantages to Kings who participating of the same vindictive humours with other private mortals fall upon most destructive wars onely to revenge personall affronts As the last quarrell we had with Spaine rose from no more serious a bottome then a misprision the Duke of Buckingham stumbled upon in his lust And the same Kings Expedition to the Isle of Reez had as noisome a source which are things below a Senate not apt to run a madding like unadvised Princes who are distempered upon the least bite of a passion Adde to what hath beene said the vast summes correspondent to the charge of a Court and wanton affections incident to Kings James of England having throwne away upon Dunbarre Carlisle Sommerset and Buckingham only according to computation two millions and you cannot but conclude a Free State the thriftiest Government for the people about whom no such summes can be found but under the hazard of a present or future question Besides consider the excessive expence the Nation would be
are so modest as to confesse themselves and their judgements implicitly contain'd in the suffrages of the Major part though the Law pass'd be never so contrary to their sense And I cannot but admire from whence this Infallibility should at first be derived which were no lesse madnesse for the people to give then presumption in any below a God to receive Such as allow the King a Negative voyce forget they place the Abstract of all the Prudence Power and Probitie of the Nation in one Individuall Juells of too high a value to be packt up in so single and weake Vessels as our English Monarchs appeare to have beene But were they better they might upon this account enervate the gravest results of the Supreme Councell yet denied by Law and Custome the ability to quash the sentence of an inferiour Court of Justice Then if no Example can be produc'd of any King that hath voluntarily and out of no more impulsive respect then meer conscience and indulgency to his poor prince-trodden people offered a Bill to abate the power he found so abused by his Predecessours and not likely to be better employed by such as might succeed What greater Impudence can there be then to maintaine That this Negative vote is claimed only to avoid the abolition of good lawes and to hinder the passing of worse Since it is notoriously knowne that all the customes people complaine of have beene intruded and still kept in being by the countenance of an exorbitant power pretended by Kings And therefore such a prerogative cannot be look'd upon as naturall and convenient but destructive to the very essence of Liberty and consequently void in it selfe In case of Minority Madnesse and Folly the triall of the Kings sufficiency is without question in the Parliament and if that be allowed to determine the extent of his power in contingencies no wayes chargeable upon any as faults Shall wicked contumacious and destructive principles and practises be exempt from their cognizance Since the fool or mad man cannot be lyable to so severe a censure as he that imployes his wit wholly to the destruction of his people And if we trace our Kings through all the paths their incroachments have made over the peoples immunities we shall find it was not Charity hath kept them from being more tyrannicall but Weapons and constraint all our priviledges having beene first written and in all ages forced to be copied out in the peoples bloud An argument sufficient to prove that little is to be expected from them in favour of the Publique but by constraint Kings intending nothing more then the augmentation of their owne Arbitrary power Therefore Flattery rather then Truth fonted them Fathers of their Country to which they are in nothing sutable unlesse in correction the severest and least hospitable part of Justice They indeed as domestique Fathers are oftentimes suborn'd by a particular naturall love to doe that which is destructive to the generall well being of a Nation as where an equall affection to their children shall cause a division of their Kingdome into severall Cantons by which the whole is weakned in regard of the expence of more Courts and expos'd to ruine by division as is not without a precedent in Story Next the affection they beare to their female issue makes them raise great taxes to marry them not onely sutable to their birth but unlimited ambition By which meanes a people are often made subject to the curse of a forrain Jurisdiction And in case it should happen to light upon France or Spaine or any Prince else unwilling to remove his Throne further from the Sun they must run the fortune of Naples Sicily Millan Navarre c. who are so miserable as to be under the Regiment of unnaturall Strangers And say they should be so mad as to follow their ambitious humours in quest of honour out of their owne territories as Francis and John of France did they may like them fall into captivity and tie their Kingdomes to harder conditions and a greater Ransome then all the particular benefits redounding from that government are able to compense or all the inconveniencies objected to a Popular State parallel who are confess'd on all sides to be responsible for their misgovernment in parcell as particular Members or in grosse as the whole Councell when dissolved Whereas the flattering Clergy and Courtiers by perverting the Scriptures have in a single person situated Regality out of the reach of all question so as he may shake or kicke about the world without any feare of other danger then what the Poets faine fell to Phaëton from Jupiter himselfe Which cannot but perswade wise men to keepe it out where it never was and upon all advantages to explode it where misfortune hath brought it in Queene Elizabeth though an excellent Prince yet incroach'd upon the English Liberty by denying them to enquire who should be her Successour The unnaturalnesse of this tyranny being hid from the eyes of the people whose interest it was to know it by the delicate and soft hand she carried over them defective in nothing in their imagination but that it was fraile earth and so subject to mortality which made the Commons winke at the commitment of Pigot and Wentworth valuing the satisfaction of her mind before the Members of their owne Body Neither could they well have found weapons to have revenged this unparallel'd outrage she standing so faire painted in her Subjects hearts Therefore though they did well to passe by a fault they could not punish yet the goodnesse of her raigne cannot be said to expiate the curse she brought in by this example the unnaturalnesse of the Scotch Line tooke advantage of which I believe had never come in especially without Caution but that the feare of the Londoners wanting time to secure their wealth and the basenes of the Nobility tempted them to betray themselves into the hands of those who were ever enemies to this Nation Now if there was so little care found in a Queene raised from a prisoner and goodnesse in a King taken from the barren mountaines of Scotland Who could expect more gratitude then we have found in his Son that to make good his Fathers Monopolies and his own illegall taxes covered the Kingdome with a Sea of blood It is impossible for a Popular Government to be so expensive as these two last Kings though with Ieroboam they should sell themselves to work wickednesse not having whereupon to bestow it without making so palpable a demonstration of their Covetousnesse as the people would soon take notice thereof and redresse it by their change or ruine which might be obtained at an easier rate then by a Warre without which no Monarch though never so bad is able to be removed who commonly hath a power to defend him proportional to his prodigality and the Honours he throws about by which those multitudes who only hope are as strongly taken as the few that enjoy