F H Van Hove Sculpsit CAROLUS Secundus Dei Gratia Angliae Scotiae Franciae et Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor etc. HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE THE COMMON INTEREST OF KING and PEOPLE Shewing the Original Antiquity and Excellency OF MONARCHY Compared with Aristocracy and Democracy And particularly of Our English MONARCHY AND THAT Absolute Papal and Presbyterian Popular Supremacy Are utterly inconsistent with Prerogative Property and Liberty By JOHN NALSON LL. D. LONDON Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the Sign of the Three Roses in Ludgate-street 1677. TO THE READER IN this following Discourse I have endeavoured to pursue the Point I had before made an attempt upon in the Countermine without any other Passion or Design than a Loyal Zeal to my Prince and Country and a Conscientious Discharge of my Duty which because every person is in his station obliged to do will I hope render an Apology as unnecessary as it is disagreeable to Your most faithful Servant JOHN NALSON The CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE two great Principles of Nature Self-preservation and the Ardent desire of Happiness the Foundation of Society and Government Mr. Hobs refuted in his Impolitick Position That Fear was the first Origination of Society The Origine of Monarchy The occasion of the Primitive Wars The Original of Laws Monarchs or the first Leaders of Colonies the Primitive Legislators The reason of the Coercive power of Magistrates The Dangerous Error of those who make Law the Foundation of Monarchy when in truth all Laws were the Concessions of Kings and Legislators The Ill consequences of this mistake The Laws of Nature and Nations are of Divine Institution CHAP. II. Of the danger of Anarchy The necessity of Laws and Government to prevent it All People not fit for one kind of Government Of the three kinds of Government Democracy Aristocracy and Monarchy Some considerations and necessary Animadversions upon our late English Government by a Republick CHAP. III. The Government of a Republick examined whether in its own Nature so good for the Ends of Society as it is pretended The end of all Government the Happiness of the Society it consists in Protection Property and distributive Justice Democracy cannot in probability attain those Ends. It obliges the Supreme Magistrates to maintain a private separate Interest distinct from that of the Publick and the inconveniences that necessarily attend that imperfection Domestick Peace not secured by Democracy No security of Property or equal Distribution of Justice in a Republick in regard of the constant Factions which are inseparable from that form of Government CHAP. IV. Of Monarchy and its excellency proved from its Antiquity The first Essay to a Democracy the Rebellion of Corah and his Accomplices Secondly from the Universality of Monarchy The first popular State at Athens A. M. 3275. Thirdly Monarchy most agreeable to humane Nature by answering the three forementioned great Ends of Society and the Happiness of Mankind CHAP. V. Of the Excellency of the English Monarchy It is not apt to degenerate into Tyranny the King having by his gracious Concessions given Limits to his absolute Sovereignty Of the Interest which the three Estates have in preparing Bills for the Royal Assent to be by that past into Laws and the great obligation which thereby the People have to Subjection and Obedience CHAP. VI. Of the Priviledges of the English Government And first of the prerogative of the King The Imperial Crown of this Realm Hereditary Absolute and Independent The greatness of his power according to Laws The Kings person Sacred The priviledges of the People First in sending their Representatives to the Parliament Secondly in their Property secured Thirdly in the excellent and constant method of Justice In particular Priviledges and Franchises In all imaginable care to prevent the growth of the Poor and in providing for such as are so In committing the Execution of the Laws to such hands as will act with Justice And of the care that is taken to prevent all abuses of Laws CHAP. VII The great misfortune of Religion which is made the great pretence to ruine Monarchy A stratagem of the Devil to extirpate all true Religion The two opposites and enemies of Monarchy Papacy and Presbytery The opinion of the Catholick Doctors about Papal Supremacy and the new Roman Creed to confirm it Papal Supremacy devests the Prince of his absolute Sovereignty of his Legislative power and renders Monarchy insecure of Possession or Succession by bereaving it of the guard of Laws of the strength of Alliances of the Fidelity of their People Several Impolitick inconveniences which attend that Religion Papal Supremacy destructive of the peoples Liberty and Property CHAP. VIII Presbytery inconsistent with Monarchy proved from five of their Fundamental principles 1. That it is not the best form of Government 2. That the Right of Kings is not from God but the People 3. That Kings may be called in question for their Administration of the Government 4. That they may by the people be deposed 5. That they may be punished with Capital punishment CHAP. IX Presbytery in reality as great an enemy to Democracy and Parliaments as to Monarchy A short view of their Tyrannick Consistorian Government over the Magistracy Clergie and Laity Of the latitude and power of Scandal to draw all affairs into the Consistory Of their kindness to their Enemies The small difference betwixt a Jesuit and Geneva-Presbyter Both aim at Supremacy CHAP. X. Presbytery as destructive of the Peoples Liberty and Property as it is dangerous to Monarchy and all Government Some necessary Conclusions from the former Discourse Licensed Sept. 20. 1677. THE COMMON INTEREST OF KING and PEOPLE c. CHAP. I. The two great Principles of Nature Self-Preservation and The ardent Desire of Happiness the Foundation of Society and Government Mr. Hobs refuted in his impolitick Position That Fear gave the first Origination of Society The Origine of Monarchy The occasion of the Primitive Wars The Original of Laws Monarchs or the first Leaders of Colonies the Primitive Legislators The reason of the Executive and Coercive Power of Magistrates The dangerous Error of those who make Laws the Foundation of Monarchy whereas in Truth all Laws and Establishments were the Concessions and Sanctions of Kings and Law-givers The Ill consequences of this Mistake The Law of Nature and of Nations anâ— of Divine Institution AMONGST all those Principles of Nature which Mankind and indeed the greatest part of the Creation receive at the same Instant with their Being there are two which as they are the most Universal so they are of the greatest Necessity and most constant Use The two great Principles of Nature Self-preservation and the ardent Desire of Happiness the Foundation of Society and Government THE first is that of Self-preservation or an inseparable Desire to keep themselves in Being by the obtaining and enjoyment of all those things which contribute towards the continuance of it or which give them a
the Nature of Brutes and most certainly it is the Mother of all Confusion of which inevitable Ruine is the undoubted Daughter But as to the forms and manner of Government the opinion of the World has been as various as the practice and so it continues to this day One kind of Government not fit for all People Several kinds and frames of Government suit best with the several circumstances and natures of differing People and Nations So that though it be no great difficulty to determine which in its own nature is the best Government in the World yet it would be too hard if not arrogant positively to affirm that even that were universally the best for all sorts of people Custom and long continuance which can never admit of any alteration that is suddain and general without great inconveniences is certainly one great Rule in all Forms of Government according to that appearing Paradox though good State-Divinity Malum benè positum non est temâ—rè removendum Ill well establisht to remove A dangerous rashness oft does prove Of the three forms of Government However in order to my design it is necessary that we should briefly consider the three kinds of Government which have shar'd the Empire of the World amongst them Of Democracy WE will begin then with the lowest and that which has had the least part as well as the least reason to have a greater in the manage of publick affairs as being but one step from Anarchy and that is Democracy where all govern and yet all obey In this all the People have or pretend to have an equal Right to Power and the Laws are the Plebiscita the Votes of the Common people in general This way of Government is only practicable in small Bodies and Societies of Men it being impossible that populous Nations and of great extent should either congregate for the dispatch of every little affair of State or ever be brought to any agreement about them in any tolerable compass of Time and besides they must be forced to neglect the private concerns of their Country employs which are as necessarily to be attended for the good of the Common-weal as the greatest consultations of State the Populace being no less able to subsist without Corn and the other effects of good husbandry than they are without Counsel and Laws And supposing they should thus meet in multitudes all things would be managed by a tumultuary Faction rather than by Right and Reason with which necessary Qualifications for Government the Common sort of people are as seldom well provided as they are of understanding any thing that goes beyond the limits of their education in Tillage Husbandry and Mechanick Manufactures For these and many other Reasons if ever there was any such kind of Government it is impossible it should be of any long continuance which is the reason that it has been long since exploded out of all great societies of Men and where ever any of it does remain it is either in some particular small Municipal societies as with us in Corporations in England or else this right is committed to Delegates chosen by the people to represent them and act for them such as are the Members of the honourable House of Commons or the Common-Council-men of the City oâ— London and several small Republicks beyond the Seas Of Aristocracy or Optimacy THE second kind of Government is Aristocracy or Optimacy where the Nobility or principal persons have the charge and management of the publick Affairs This was that form of Government which several of the States oâ— Greece as Athens Sparta Thebes Corinth c. did at some times affect And this was the Government of the Roman Commonwealth under the Senate and Consuls Senatores à Senioritate and Consules à Consulendo who were chosen out of the Patricii or principal Nobility as their name imports for their age and experience to consult about the weighty affairs of State to make Laws according as the present necessity required and to alter or abrogate the useless or inconvenient THE third sort of Government is Monarchy Of Monarchy where all the whole frame of Government lies upon one single person who has power to make alter and abrogate Laws and to exact obedience to them and this kind of Government as it is by far the most ancient so it has been and is the most universal Insomuch that there is not any People Nation Country Language who either are not or have not been under this form of Regiment And the Original both of Democracy and Aristocracy must be attributed to Usurpation and will be found upon the search of all the Records of Time to have been founded upon Rebellion and a Regifugium which certainly if there were nothing besides were a sufficient Argument to keep all wise and sober men from being in love with such models of Government and Laws as took their first rise and birth from the breach of Laws and the apparent ruine of that establishment to which they were born subjects if not sworn vassals Some Considerations and necessary Animadversions upon our late English Republick BUT in regard it is grown to be but too popular an Error amongst us to entertain very kind thoughts of the Democratick way of Government which in the time of the late horrid Rebellion some Men managed by private ambition and insatiable desire of Sovereignty did endeavour invita Minerva to introduce and establish contrary to the Genius and inclination of the English Nation though they constantly abused the name of the people to countenance their unjust usurpations and in regard the same restless and dangerous Faction is as busie as ever to promote the same Design to the utter subversion of this most ancient flourishing and well-temper'd Monarchy we will consider this way and see whether in its own Nature it is so good and excellent as it is pretended to be by the Factors and Fautors of Antimonarchical principles who do so industriously labour to alienate the minds of the Subjects of great Britain from their ancient Loyalty and Allegiance to their Sovereign THAT we may therefore take a true and impartial survey of this adored and so much magnified Model of a Republick and that we may do them which they never did to any Justice we will take our Copy from their own Original and the most exact and curious draughts and elaborate pourtraicts in several Declarations published as they pretended for the satisfaction of the people of these Nations and more particularly of one presently after the Kings Murder wherein they express the grounds of their proceedings in setling as they term it the present Government in the way of a Free State or Commonwealth Where first they begin with the observation of Gods blessing upon Rebellion shewing the excellency of this way of Government from the example of the Romans who after their Regifugium for many years prospered far more than
under any of their Kings or Emperors from the State of Venice the Swisse Cantons and our Neighbours of the United Provinces IN the next place to make their Way appear the best they tax the Government by Monarchy with Injustice Oppression and a design of enslaving the people telling them that if the King and his Party had prevailed the fate of England was to have been the same with a neighbouring Monarchy where the Commons are glad of Canvass-cloathing and Wooden-shooes and look more like Ghosts than Men and for proof they instance in Forest-lands as a great oppression in protections against Arrests Purveyance exaction of Money unnecessary Salaries Pensions Gifts and the luxury of the Court as they are pleased to call the innocent diversion of Masques and Plays concluding with the charitable application of a snap out of a Latin Poet exeat aula Qui volet esse pius In the last place like most worthy Patriots truly Zealous for the good and interest of their Country they promise that these and multitudes of the like grievances will be prevented the situation and advantages of this Land both for Trade abroad and Manufactures at home will be better understood when the dangers of Projects Monopolies and other obstructions thereof are together with the Court the Fountain of them removed and a free Trade with incouragement of Manufactures and provision for the Poor be setled by the Commonwealth which Monarchy had never yet the leisure effectually to do Parturiunt Montes Sure if ever the Proverb was verified it was now the Devils shearing of his Sheep when he mistook Hogs for them All Cry and no Wool AS to their first observation of the blessing of God upon them in their unlawfully established Free State or Republick they acted the Prophets too soon and all the World is witness according to their own measures who are wont to judge the goodness of Actions by their prosperous successes how much they were mistaken and there can be no plainer testimony from their own Topick of observation how grateful their Government was to God by his blessing it and how agreeable it was to the Genius of the English Nation appears by the long and happy duration of their State For this young Republick which seemed to affect and emulate the long-liv'd Roman Commonwealth for all its excellencies and advantages could not out-live one single Roman Lustrum nor continue so many years as the other did hundreds before the strong byass run it round into a single though mistaken person again I wish all our stiff Republicans would seriously consider this and no longer dirigere Brachia contra torrentem tire and toil themselves and trouble our calm Waters which would run most smoothly if they did not endeavour to trouble them by perpetually swimming against the strong current of Nature Law Reason Providence and Religion AND for the Roman Common-wealth which they did so admire and pretended to imitate it is well known that was an Optimacy and no Democracy as this was which these men by being the peoples representatives did endeavour to establish and therefore never like to prosper long or flourish like the Roman Republick for there was always a distinction betwixt the Plebs or ordinary Rank of People and the Patres Conscripti Patricii or Senatorian Order And upon this account the Roman Senate never owning themselves the peoples Delegates or Representatives many great quarrels arose betwixt them the Populace endeavouring by Representatives to get a share in the Government and the Senate as stoutly opposing all such Incroachments and Innovations From hence arose many mutinies and popular Insurrections in one of which the whole Commonalty forsook the City and in a pet run from their houses to the Aventine Mount T. Liv. lib. 2. and the Senate was forced to Lure the Haggards down again by gratifying them with the Tribuni Plebis who were certain persons chosen by the people to look particulary after their concerns in all the Debates of the Senate And at another time they contended to have the Election of one of the Consuls and the dispute was so hot that the Senators durst not come to the House but so great was the fury of the inraged Populace that there was a five years Anarchy the true result of Democracy T. Liv. lib. 6. And at the last the Senate was obliged to condescend to their resolute Importunity and grant them the choice of one of the Consuls which plainly manifests that the Government of the Roman Commonwealth was originally Aristocratick BESIDES it is absolutely false which is said That the State of Rome flourished more under that Government than under any of their Kings or Emperors for it is notoriously known and confessed that Rome never came to its perfect greatness and splendor till the Empire of Augustus Caesar AS to the State of Venice which they mention that likewise is an Optimacy mixed with a restrained and elective Monarchy for such is the Doge or Duke of Venice and the same may be said of our Belgick neighbours who next to the assistance of the English Monarchy under Queen Elizabeth are obliged for their greatness and duration to the Illustrious House of Nassau Ancestors to the present Prince of Orange their Hereditary Stadtholder The advantage and necessity of which Office in his present Highness they have in this War with France been sufficiently made sensible of and possibly had not the private envy of a prevailing Party of the French Interest De Witt. during his Minority neglected both Him and the Office with a Design of utterly abolishing it for the future they might have been in a condition with the assistance of their Allies to have put a stop to the victorious Arms of France whereas by their Intestine disorders and the great advantages which his most Christian Majesty made of their disagreement they have unhappily drawn in the greatest part of Christendom into a most fatal and bloudy War AND for the States of Switzerland it was an unlucky Precedent and not much unlike the Reformation they practised to the ruine of the Nobility and Gentry But if we may credit Geographers and Travellers for I never was there nor desire to see it the Country will scarcely invite an Enemy to invade or pay the purchase of a Conquest and therefore they may be safe with any Government if they can be secure amongst themselves And therefore they can never be a pattern for England a rich populous and fertile Nation who upon that account stand in need of the best Government to secure us from Intestine quarrels to which all populous places are most subject as also to protect us from Foreign force to which the goodness and riches of the Country may give the most tempting invitation So that our Republicans are out in the measures they took of comparing themselves and their new Commonwealth with any of those mentioned by them in their Declaration FOR the second part of their
doubt or difference as will appear from that place about Saul 11 Sam. 14.41 and Jonathan's eating the prohibited Hony where Saul said unto the Lord God of Israel Give a perfect Lot And therefore Solomon Prov. 16.33 tells us That the Lot is thrown into the Lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. AND though we find Samuel extremely displeased at their proposition we ought to attribute it to humane frailty he looking upon it as a rejection of himself from the Government Yet I do not find in that place that God was offended at it Or if from the words of Hosea I gave them a King in mine anger and took him away in my wrath Hos 13.11 it may be conjectured he was displeased with them Yet it was not because he did not approve the Government by a King but because they had rejected him to be King over them For they have not rejected thee 1 Sam. 8.7 〈◊〉 says God to Samuel who appeared discontented upon that humane jealousie but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them And upon their repeated instances to have a King like the Kings of the neighbouring Nations who should reign by succession that so in their distresses they might not be at a loss for a Captain to lead them and fight their Battels as at that time they were The Prophet tells them You have this day rejected your God 1 Sam. 10.19 who himself saved you out of all your adversities and tribulations And that therefore God was justly displeased with them was not for desiring such a form of Government as was not agreeable to his will since by owning himself their King he visible declares himself for Monarchy but it was for their Infidelity upon the approach of Nahash King of Ammon 1 Sam. 12. as is evident from the words of Samuel where he briefly recounts unto them that particular care and Providence which God had all along taken of them and their Fathers when in all their extremities he raised up eminent persons for their preservation and deliverance as Moses Aaron Jerubaal Bedan Jephthah and Samuel And that it was this Diffidence and not the Government at which God was displeased does most manifestly appear from that particular Order which God took about the succession of the Royal Government after it was once constituted by sending Samuel to anoint the son of Jesse to be by the most extraordinary methods of Providence which he made use of to preserve David from the hand of Saul and of all his enemies and at last in despight of their malice conducting him to the Throne of the promised Kingdom A preservation and establishment which was without a parallel till the most miraculous Protection and Restauration o◠our most gracious Sovereign the present most August Monarch of Great Britain whom God long preserve with glory to sway the peaceful Scepter of the English Nation The extraordinary effects of Providence manifested to these two Illustrious Princes if they were throughly considered were enough for ever to stop the mouths of all such as are against Monarchy being such publick and signal Declarations of the kindness and favour of the Supreme Monarch of Heaven and Earth both to that Government and to these Persons that they must be more obdurate than Pharaoh and more inchanted than his Magicians if they do not confess that digitus Dei hîc here was the immediate finger of God And let them take care lest whilest they refuse to see the hand of his Providence he force them to feel the heavy hand of his Vengeance Shimei the son of Gera though a great example of the clemency of Princes yet went not to a bloudless grave but his cursing came upon his own head And Sheba the son of Bichri who blew the trumpet of Rebellion against his Sovereign by the wisdom of a Woman paid the forfeiture of his own for attempting against the Supreme Head and Governour 2. Sam. 20.22 FROM what has been said it appears evidently from the Testimony of all the oldest Records of Time amongst the Heathens and from the Sacred writings of Moses more credible and ancient than any of them That Monarchy was the Primitive Government of the World and most agreeable to the will of God who as S. Chrysostom well observes from the Creation Chrysost Hom. 34. in 1 Ep. ad Cor. c. 13. That God made one man not many to intimate unto us that he did design Monarchy not Democracy for the Government of the World And that his posterity were his subjects both by the Law of God and of Nature I cannot think any person will question who has not a desire to teach his own Children disobedience both to God and Man by breaking the first Commandment with promise and that God should by his Charter grant to Adam Dominion over all the inferior Creation Gen. 1.28 and renew it to Noah with more ample conditions cum potestate vitae necis over every living Creature and leave the most glorious part of it which was created in his own Image under the confusion of Anarchy or Parity Gen. 9.1 2 3. is both most absurd and unreasonable to believe Monarchy proved the most Excellent form of Government from the Vniversality of its Limits and Extent THUS have we seen the first particular wherein the Excellency of Monarchy consists viz. Antiquity Nor i◠the Universality and Extent of its Limits less evident which is the second particular which shews the goodness of this way of Government and as before has been proved all the Ancient Records do with one consent give us an account of the Monarchical Government of all the inhabited Regions of the Earth The first Popular State at Athens Anno Mundi 3275. THE first Popular State we read of was at Athens after the expiration of the ten years Reign of Erixias which happened about the latter end of the Reign of Manasseh King of Judah and near the year of the World 3275 according to the computation of Chronologers And till that time the Earth knew no other power but Monarchy After that several other Cities of Greece as Sparta Corinth c. followed their examples and expelling their Kings erected in the room of them little Commonwealths but great Tyrannies And as Justin gives us an account of them they were in continual broils either amongst themselves about the Magistracy or with their Neighbours for precedency till the time of Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Empire to whose winged fortune all these little quarrelsom Republicks submitted and never after recovered that form of Government again and this happened about the year of the World 3630. THE Roman Commonwealth begun upon the Regifugium and therefore confesseth it self the younger Government commencing about the year of the World 3457 and for our modern Republicks the date of them is easily known And let any persons travel a◠far as they can
without a great measure of caution and due examination so it is very unlikely he should be perswaded to make any alterations of his Judgment in regard that there is nothing that can prostitute Authority so as to make it cheap and contemptible like easiness and instability frequent changes and alterations in things established with due deliberation For this represents the things so determined not good necessary oâ— expedient and by consequence the Legislators either very unwary or unwise Which are as low thoughts as can be entertained of the worst things or most inconsiderable persons And therefore the establishments and determinations made by Monarchy are in probability likely to be most durable and people are likely to enjoy the greatest settlement peace and quiet in regard it cuts off the hopes of many great sudden or frequent changes to which for the before-mentioned reasons a single Person is not so liable as a popular State which must of necessity be composed of dissenting Parties and Interests and which by its very fundamental Constitution must frequently change the Persons Governing and by an unavoidable consequence many determinations of the former Government And let it be observed where you will this effect is so natural that those persons who are so Zealous for change of Governours in a Common wealth are always for some change in the Government it self hoping for effects answerable to their desires from the New ones which they have not tried which they cannot from those whom they have and whom by experience they find resolute to oppose their Interests and Designs And as certainly those who in a Monarchy are for an alteration in any of its fundamental Constitutions Priviledges or Supporters are in reality against the Monarchy it self And therefore we may conclude that they who do so industriously endeavour to pull the Mitre which has ever been a sure friend to it from the Crown design by weakening of its Interest to pull the Crown from off the Royal head of Majesty that wears it BUT further Monarchy will appear the most natural Government if we consider how all other Governments do of their own accord insensibly fall into it which apparently shews that the Genius of Humane Nature grows this way And though it may by force violence custom or convenience be bent and strained to some other form of Government yet upon the least relaxation and native liberty like a bow unbent it returns to its natural and proper state and position Thus we see that the so famous Roman Commonwealth could not subsist without a Dictator an Office that for six months had all the Power and wanted only the Title of a King or Emperor And when ever the Senate was in danger Trepidi ad Dictatorem confugiunt their fear made them seek for a sanctuary in the Courage Counsel and Conduct of a single Person though when the storm was over the Saint was most usually forgotten and those services which were above their reward by their greatness became crimes and did most commonly prove fatal to their great Defenders who though they had freed the Republick from their dangers and Enemies could not free them from their fears and jealousies of such grand abilities courage and merit And even in times of peace and calmest deliberation in a popular Senate all affairs are generally managed by one leading active Man who draws the rest after him either with the strength of his Parts or the power of his Party So that when any publick Debate happens it is always determined by the prevailing opinion of one Person who by the power of his Eloquence or the strength of his Arguments induces the rest or at least so many of them as are necessary to joyn with him in their Opinions For of all the variety of Judgments which may be propounded one only can be chosen and that must certainly proceed from one Man at first to whom after it is weighed by deliberation if it be by the major part approved they give their assent whereby it is established Thus when the Senate of Rome was in a warm debate An delenda esset Carthago whether Carthage should be utterly destroyed Cato by shewing them the Grapes which grew at Carthage not many hours before from the dangerous vicinity of such potent Rivals as had thrice contested with them for the Universal Empire and wanted but only the skill of an Uti victoria Vincere scit Hannibal uti victoria nescit to pursue their point to have succeeded in the attempt he brought the whole Senate to an Affirmative determination That Carthage was utterly to be demolished which was accordingly put in execution by the great General Scipio Africanus Thus Cicero upon many occasions both at the Bar and Senate-house carried the Senate in the determination of differences by the force of his prevailing Rhetorick in those Orations of his upon several occasions which are so deservedly famous as to remain to this day the true standards of the Roman Language and Eloquence A thousand instances of the like nature might be brought to shew That the Results of all the Counsels and Debates of a Republick are generally if not universally the effects of a single Judgment and Perswasion to which the rest accord and who therefore is pro tempore the Monarch of the Council BUT there is nothing that manifests Monarchy to be so Natural to Mankind as that all Commonwealths do sooner or later run back again into that Ocean of Government Monarchy which is the Fountain from whence like other Rivers from the Sea they first took their original and into which therefore all these wandring Politick Meanders of Aristocratick and Democratick Government do insensibly slide Thus all the little Commonwealths of Greece fell at last to the prevailing Throne of Macedon The Roman run into the Empire And it is the necessary Fate of all Commonwealths their very fundamental principles as before has been manifested inclining them to it And the Head of a Faction in a Republick is a King in disguise or rather enjoying and using the Power whilest he wants the true Title he is a Tyrant Incognito in the dress of a private Man And that perpetual separate Interest and distinction of Parties which is inseparable from a Commonwealth must at last occasion its fall and ruine if a change into a better Government may be called so For it is a Maxim in Politicks as well as Divinity That neither Kingdom nor Republick divided against it self can possibly stand And if a Commonwealth falls it must be either into Anarchy and Confusion or Monarchy as the first principle from which it came and into which all other forms of Government must be resolved AND if the State of Venice has lasted a considerable time above a thousand years or if our Neighbours of the Belgick Union hope to do the same the first is obliged already and the last must be if it expects to continue to that little mixture of Monarchy amongst
BESIDES the very Foundation of such an Opinion is absurd and unreasonable for there can be no Laws till there be some frame of Government to establish and enact such Laws nor can any thing have the force or power of a Law or oblige men to obedience unless it does proceed from such a Person or Persons as have a right to command it and Authority to punish the Disobedience or neglect of those who ought to be subject to it And to say that this Right is in the People who by their suffrages Elect the Supreme Magistrate is so far from mending the matter that it makes it worse and more dangerous for then the People may in reason fairly presume when ever they please to say That the Sovereign Power is abused to their prejudice which was contrary to their Design in granting it to reassume their own Right and either keep the Power themselves or proceed to a new Election which is the direct Way to fulfil the prediction of the Necromantick Head which was once said at Oxford Bakers Chrons pag. 167. to have given this fatal Oracle Caput decidetur Caput elevabitur Pedes elevabuntur supra Caput which was tragically translated into English in the transactions of the late unhappy Times when Monarchy beheaded lay The head of Traitors bore the Sway. The feet of * Dan. 2.33 Iron and of Clay Became a monstrous head they say K. Charles Martyr O. Cromwell Army and Rump Parl. BUT further the universal Testimony of all Ages Nations and Places derive the beginning of Positive Laws from a Government justly impowred to make enact and command Laws and a superior Power that had a Right to exact Obedience to them So that it is almost impossible to find the least footsteps of Law Law of Nature and Law of Nations of Divine Institution that is by far so ancient as Government As for that Jus Naturae and Jus Gentium they are more properly Common and Universal Principles of Nature and all Nations than Laws and owe their establishment to a Divine Authority and not to any Humane Power and there is a vast difference between the very Words Jus and Lex though our Language does not admit of it in the common use of Expression for Jus properly signifies a Right or Propriety and such a Right as if it be common as the Right of Nature and Nations are every man by vertue of his Being lays a claim unto The word Lex or Law seems derived from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 finem facio termino to put an end and determination to things which before were undetermined or from the Latin word Ligc to bind and oblige as Laws do all people to Obedience or possibly as Tully observes à Legendo from chusing what is best for society So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distribuo pasco rego to distribute Justice and Right to feed the people with care and diligence as a Shepherd his flock for which reason Homer calls Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Shepherds of the People who rule and govern them So the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred Law signifies Doctrina teaching instruction because Laws teach and instruct all people what is their Duty All which words of the most ancient and universal Languages plainly intimate that there must be some person or persons who must have such Authority as may inable them to determine Differences oblige men to Obedience to those Laws they chuse as best for them seed govern and teach their Inferiors their respective Duties and who must therefore by necessary consequence be Governours before the Laws were made by which they and their successors afterwards directed and managed the Societies over which they were the Primitive Rulers Princes and Law-givers CHAP. II. Of the danger of Anarchy the necessity of Government and Laws to prevent it All People not fit for one kind of Government Of the three forms of Govenment Democracy Aristocracy anâ— Monarchy Some Considerations anâ— necessary Animadversions upon our laâ— English Republick THE goodness of the Divine Nature has not more visibly appear'd in any thing of humane affairs than in bestowing this principle of Self-preservation in so high a degree upon Mankind as to make it universally out oâ— Love to themselves oblige them to enter into Communities and Societies An effect so Noble that possibly that and Religion may more truly be said to distinguish Men from Brutes than Reason which though we ambitiously endeavour to ingross to our selves yet am I to learn how they can without some injustice be excluded from a share and lower portion of it some of their Actions being so remarkably Logical and Discursive as will never be solved either by mere matter and motion or the higher principles of bare sense and fancy But for this principle of Self-preservation though they enjoy a great measure of it in common with us yet not so much as to teach them for their security to enter into the mutual obligations of Laws Government and Society And 't is happy for us that this Wisdom was deni'd them since there are few Creatures so inconsiderable but if they had the Policy for their common safety to unite they would in a little time grow so numerous and powerful as to be able to enter into open hostility with Men and in probability either wholly extirpate humane race or at least as that Monopolizer of Wit and Fancy the most ingenious Mr. Cowley expresseth it Cowley Pind. Odes upon the 34. Cap of Esay stanz 6. pag. 50. And if of lost mankind Ought happen to be left behind If any Reliques but remain They in the Dens should lurk Beasts in the Palaces should Reign whereas now if they attempt any Rebellion or Disobedience they are easily subdued and kept under subjection by their own Disunion WITHOUT Laws or Government men would be but a more cunninâ— kind of Brutes and therefore we sâ—â— that where these prevail there humanâ— Nature is most refined civilized anâ— polite but where Laws are wanting iâ— any measure there in proportion meâ— degenerate into the greatest Barbarism Infidelity Ingratitude Treachery Inhumanity and almost brutish Anarchy and Confusion Nay their very Religion which is the highest exaltation oâ— the nature of Man and possibly the oâ—ly thing that perfectly and incommunâ—cably differences it by setting men in 〈◊〉 degree so superior to Beasts that they can never arrive at it even Religion 〈◊〉 self for want of Laws and Government becomes sensual and Barbarous if not Devilish THERE has therefore appear'd to all the World for self-preservation and mutual advantage an absolute necessity of Society The danger of Anarchy shews the necessity of Government Nor has it been less evident that it is absolutely impossible there should be any such thing without Government Superiority and Subjection For Anarchy is indeed the state of Nature but it is only of
all such rapacious arts and methods and by a common consent for their mutual advancement father the great expences of their Private gains upon the publick Necessities aâ— well as draw them from the Publick stock Nor will their successors be very forward to call them to a strict accompt fearing the like treatmenâ— themselves and to their prejudice to draw it into a precedent for succeeding Authorities FROM hence it is easie to observe with what fidelity the common Interest will be served which must almost unavoidably fall into the hands of such persons whose designs will be so faâ— from promoting the common good and protecting it from the Rapacious attempts of others that they will be sure to make a certain prey and revenue of it for themselves and the inconvenience will be so little remedied by frequent Changes and new Elections that it will rather prove a new increase of the Malady and the application of fresâ— and hungry Leeches to the Temples of the Body Politick will rather be a means to suck out its very heart-bloud than to preserve its health and wellfare AND that this is not only very natural but experimentally true no bare supposition but a deadly Recipe to which we can all write a sad Probatum est we shall need no further proof than to take a short review of the transactions of the late English Republick whose great business was to inrich themselves and their Confederates by the Ruines of others and by impoverishing the whole Nation And to what Estates by their ill-imployed Power they did most of them arrive is still visible in that though they were forced to their great affliction to disgorge a great part of their acquisitions by restoring the Crown Bishops Dean Chapter and Cathedral Lands to the right heirs and owners yet still some of them had so well feathered their Nests out of the publick stock that they or their posterity might have lived in the greatest splendor or plenty if their fear to be taken notice of or their narrow penurious and covetous humour would have permitted them or in truth if the dangerous Curse upon such as make more haste than good speed to be Rich had not like a secret rust consumed those ill gotten greatness and riches Prov. 20.21 the end of which that Royal writer assure us shall not be Blessed BUT more particularly as to the happiness of any Society by protection from Foreign Force and Injuries No security against Foreign Force can be expected from a Democratick Republick especially in the greatest dangers it is impossible that any persons should endeavour this so heartily and with that fidelity of resolution as to defend it to the utmost with their Lives and Fortunes who having a distinct Interest from the Publick may therefore hope to save their own stake and survive the fate of the expiring Government And this every one who is a sharer in the Government of a Republick may easily hope to do and though he be devested of his Authority by an invading Power that is no greater loss than in a few years or it may be days he is sure to do of course without such violent means when by resigning his place he must be reduced to the condition of a private man yet still he may hope even under the prevailing Power to enjoy his Life and private Fortune Nay further it is possible that by selling the present Power he does possess and bartering away the publick Interest he may arrive at a higher pitch of greatness and a more durable command than otherways he could ever have hoped for And certainly there cannot be a stronger temptation to such men to betray the Liberty of their Country than assurances that they shall reserve to themselves not only the continuance of the present but also an additional power and greatness and all the advantages of it by such a profitable treachery AND though so long as a Common-wealth can keep a-float the sweetness of Sovereignty and the other advantages which the present possession of gives them a greater satisfaction in than the largest promises of an Enemy of whole fidelity they cannot be absolutely certain and such like considerations may make them struggle hard to preserve the Bird in hand rather than trust to two in the Bush by resigning their Power yet most certainly when they see it in manifest danger of sinking which is the only season for trial of Courage and Fidelity they will be so far from employing their utmost efforts to buoy up the Ship of the Common-wealth that they will quit the crazy and leaking Vessel and fairly tack about in their own private Chaloup and stand in with the next shore of safety or by striking Sail and coming under the Lee of the Conqueror save their own Interest and it may be obtain honourable and advantageous conditions for their early submission BESIDES in all Democratick Governments there dwells a certain dangerous and mischievous person which the common people call No Body who always walks invisible and shelters himself from discovery amongst the crowd of Governours So that when there happens any notable miscarriage of State No body knows the occasion or Author or who it was that did it and if at last the publick sink and perish No body must be charged with it because amongst so many it will be difficult to fix it upon any particular person or persons and they who are really guilty will yet have the confidence to protest their Innocence and it may be that they may appear so will be forward-enough to charge any such miscarriages upon the opposite Faction which this kind of Government is never without whereby they do not only shelter themselves but expose their Enemies to the general Odium and it may be to the popular Rage and by that means at the same time secure their treachery and revenge themselves THUS it was with the Romane Senate who though for above four hundred years they stood many violent shocks yet still they were never in a manifest danger of an intire Ruine till such time as the conquering Genius of the mighty Julius had overthrown the great Pompey and his Confederates who appear'd the defenders of the Republick though possibly had victory waited upon their Eagles they would have made the same Quarry of the Commonwealth that Caesar's did for immediately the Senate gave way to the Conqueror and his fortune and decreed him a Triumph the first badge of their cowardize treachery and slavery And though the ingrateful Brutus and his conspiring Friends thought by his death with three and twenty wounds to have revived the expiring Republick and healed those which Caesar had given it yet were they but such convulsive struggles as did presage its certain and near approaching death for no sooner had Augustus the heir of Caesar's Fortune and Empire overcome Anthony but the tame Senate resigned it self and the Government into his hands and the rather in regard he permitted them to
keep the Name and to enjoy their private Fortunes together with many places of trust and advantage in the management of publick affairs though he transferr'd the absolute Power and Dominion from them to himself And there is not the least doubt to be made but since the greatest most durable and potent Commonwealth that ever was in the World did so easily submit the less and more inconsiderable would soon be perswaded to follow their example NOR would any of our Modern Republicks be of long duration were it not for the assistance of their Neighbours who to keep the scale even do not think it fit to let them fall as an addition to the Territories of a neighbouring Prince lest by the accession of so considerable a Power he should become too dangerous and formidable to which policy of State and not to the goodness of their Constitution they are therefore obliged for their continuance and preservation BESIDES to the safety of any Government there is necessarily required great unity in Councils and secrecy in the conduct of many State affairs neither of which can with any probable reason be expected from a Government which is committed to so many Heads who have all Tongues and it may be not brains enough to guard them Nay supposing them all wise men they will very difficultly be brought to agree upon the same expedients and it may be the more hardly for being such Since every mans own reason weighs more to himself than all the World because he apprehends and understands it best Now they who dissent from the rest which some will generally do out of envy and private Pique that their advice was rejected and despised will be apt enough to retard the publick affairs and to divulge the most important secret Counsels of the opposite Faction thereby to render them ineffectual and to advance their own Interest by shewing from events that their Advice Opinion and Counsel was the best FURTHER many times the Debates and Consultations amongst so many different Judgments are so long protracted that before they can arrive at a resolution many favourable opportunities for action are irrecoverably lost And whensoever any great enterprize is to be undertaken for the defence or safety of the Publick in regard they cannot execute their own Commands and all be Generals or Admirals therefore the Commissions they grant to those high Officers are from their fears so limited and restrained lest they should by too great latitude of power grow absolute that it frequently occasions great miscarriages And the fear which their greatest Commanders have to offend so many Masters though it will infallibly render them most cautelous and wary yet will it most certainly make them slip the advantages of many sudden unexpected emergencies which they will be afraid to lay hold of without advice or command from their many Superiors lest the success not answering the promises in the attempt they should fall a sacrifice to an enraged Populace And thus whilest they wait for an Express occasion which will wait no mans pleasure slips away and shews them the bald part of his head which is never to be laid hold of again Domestick Peace not so well secured by a Republick as by Monarchy NOR is there a greater probability of expecting Domestick Peace from a Republick which is the second particular required from all Government in order to the happiness of any Society For where there are many who pretend to an equality and parity in Power and Dignity there will of necessity be jealousies emulations and animosities arising from the differences of Judgment as to the conduct and management of all great weighty or profitable affairs of State And where all things must be carried by majority of Vote since all men naturally have a good opinion of themselves their own wisdom prudence and ability every man will judge most advantageously of his own counsel and advice for otherwise he would not offer it in opposition to others and therefore in all transactions managed by suffrages those persons whose opinion is rejected will look upon it as a lessening of that esteem for Wisdom and Policy which they think they deserve because they desire it should be so and by an unavoidable consequence they will be most certainly dissatisfied if not exasperated with thoughts of revenge against the prevailing and opposite number These discontents occasion the making of parties entring into secret combinations of Faction and frequently end in popular Insurrections Tumults and Disorders to which for this very reason whoever will take the pains to observe it shall find the Government of a Republick far more obnoxious than any other way And Affairs being generally if not constantly managed by a prevailing Faction who endeavour to ingross the sole Authority and advantage to their party and favourites rather than by an even and unanimous consent it makes that party who think themselves injured and affronted by being deprived of the fundamental parity of their constitution restless and industrious in their endeavours to advance their Interest so as to be able to counterbalance the other THUS it was with the Roman Commonwealth when ever the busie active and ambitious spirits were not employed in foreign Wars they were always running into Mutinies amongst themselves Parties Factions and popular Insurrections which would have been more frequent and dangerous had not the policy of the prevailing part of the Senate taken care to cut out Sword-work for them abroad A. V. 281. T. Liv. lib. 2. The first remarkable Sedition was about the Lex Agraria immediately upon granting a forty years truce to the Veientes which was appeased by raising a War against the Sabines Aequi and Volsci No sooner was that at an end but a greater Sedition arose A. V. 297. Liv. lib. 3. in which ten Tribunes of the common people were created and this Decemvirate by violence wrested the Government from the Senate and Consuls And after the creation of the Military Tribunes A. V. 311. Liv. lib. 4. they did for almost seventy years usurp the Government and Authority And generally all those Tumults and great Disorders happened whilest they enjoyed peace and quiet with their Neighbours which can be attributed to nothing but that then the Factions and Factious spirits had time to mind their Interest at home whilest they wanted employment abroad And that there are no greater or more frequent popular Insurrections amongst the modern Commonwealths is to be attributed to that mixture of Monarchy they have in them which balances the Factions and like the natural Salt of the Body keeps those bodies Politick from a Dissolution as also because they are almost perpetually ingaged either as Principals or Confederates in foreign Wars No safety or security of Property in a Republick in regard of their constant Factions THERE is nothing more evident than that the very Essence and Natural Constitution of a Republick inclines it to Faction and it is as plain that
very rare and uncommon persons who will espouse Vertue though the greatest Beauty in Nature without any other portion than what she has in her self of excellency and satisfaction And how happy any Society of men in process of a little time are like to be without Vertue and how long lived she is like to be upon so thin a diet where Probitas laudatur alget she is commended and starved I think I need not spend time or trouble the sober and judicious Reader with arguments to prove and demonstrate THE same may be said of Punishments as of Rewards And if it shall be said that the frequent changes of the Governours will be a means to prevent these inconveniences I answer it will indeed change the Governours but not the nature of the Government which of it self is inclinable to these Imperfections and apt to deprave the best Natures into these miscarriages which do attend the very Essence of its constitution and though the Governours may be altered yet it is probable the same Faction and Interest will bear the sway and in all common Policy will take what care they can of the succession notwithstanding which it will so happen sometimes that the contrary Faction will get into the Saddle and the more frequent such changes are it will render the condition of all people so much the worse uneasie and insecure in all the forementioned consequences of Faction for since first one Party will be uppermost and then another the remembrance of the injuries they may have received from their Enemies will prompt them to the like measure of severities against them when they are vested with the power of Revenge which few tempers have the moderation to resist or refuse when it is not only proportioned to the treatment they formerly received but necessary to keep their own Power and Authority in safety and Being SO that upon the whole it will appear that this way of Government by a Republick is not in any probability of attaining those excellent ends of Society which all men propose to themselves when they enter into it and the hopes and enjoyment of which can only render any Society durable and happy CHAP. IV. Of Monarchy and its Excellency proved first from its Antiquity The first Essay to a Democracy the Rebellion of Corah and his accomplices Secondly from the Universality of Monarchy and the Extent of its Limits The first Popular State at Athens Anno Mundi 3275. Monarchy proved the most excellent Government from its agreeableness to Humane Nature and because it does best answer the three forementioned great Ends of Society and the Happiness of Mankind Of Monarchy HAVING thus examined the Government of a Republick and found it insufficient as to the answering those necessary Ends of Society the Happiness of the Community Let us proceed to the Consideration of Monarchy or Government by a single Person and that we may discover its real Excellencies and that preheminence which it does most justly challenge over all other forms of Regiment we must take a view of its Antiquity and Original its Limits and Extent its agreeableness to Humane Nature and lastly its advantageousness as to the three forementioned principal Ends of Society in order to their Happiness and Duration The Excellency of it proved from its Antiquity WE will begin then with the Antiquity and Original of Monarchy and to do so we must consult the very beginning of the World and Mankind and herein we have the Universal Testimony and Consent of all the preserved Records and Monuments of Time both Sacred and Humane who all give it in evidence That Monarchy was the most Ancient and the Primitive Government of the World Insomuch that we never read any thing of the Origine of Nations but we likewise find mention of Kings and Royal Authority as the very first form of Government in the World Thus Sanchoniathon Sanchoniathon ut citatur à D. Stillingfleet Origin Sacrae cap. 2. who as Porphyry affirms of him is of greater Antiquity than any of the Greek Historians gives a large account of the Phâ—â—nician Antiquities and Monarchies and dedicates his Book to Abibalus King oâ— Berytus Thus the Egyptian Maneth Sebennyta who was the High Priest oâ—â— Heliopolis as the learned Vossius tells us and lived in the time of Ptolomaeus Philadelphus Voss de Hist Graec. lib. 1. cap. 14. at whose request he compiled the History of the Egyptian Antiquities and Government gives us a long at well as fabulous account and Cataloguâ— of the Monarchical succession and Government of God's Hero's and Men foâ— above 50000 years which he pretend to have taken from the Inscriptions oâ— the Pillars of Hermes Trismegistus Thâ— Greek History begins with Cecrops King of Athens And the History of the truâ— Berosus who is mentioned by Josephus Eusebius and others is concerning the Antiquity of the Babylonian Empire which he affirms to have been the most Ancient and Original Government oâ— the World And to this purpose is that of Justin in his Epitome of Trogus Pompeius who takes it for a Truth undoubtedly agreed to by all People when he tells us in the first words of his History Justin lib. 1. That Power and Government was from the beginning of the World and Original of People and Nations wholly and absolutely in Kings And it is impossible to find any Record that is really ancient that gives an account of any other kind of Government in the World prior to Monarchy And though those ancient Authors Manetho Berosus c. are not only with great reason suspected but with manifest certainty discovered to be guilty of most irrational fabulous and impossible fictions and falshoods especially as to the Chronological part of their writings yet were they never so much as accused by any person as guilty of depraving that part of the Records of Antiquity which concerns the manner and form of Government Which with a Nemine contradicente has been affirmed to have been Monarchy a Government which by the early approbation of the World as well as by the constant succession of Time has ever been esteemed the best According to that of the Prince of Poets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No good a Commonwealth can bring The best of Governments is a King But in regard as the learned Author oâ— Origines Sacrae has made it appear that all these writers are by many year younger than Moses the Penman oâ— the Sacred Volumes about the Worlds Original and because amongst us he passes for a Divinely inspired Author though it were enough for our present purpose if we gave him only the creditâ— which we afford to any other Historian we will the more willingly hear him speak the rather because it is growâ— a Popular error and prevailing opinion That the excellency of a Republick 〈◊〉 evidently to be proved from his wâ—â—tings That form of Government aâ— Calvin the great Patron of Free Stateâ—
and Oracle of Anti-Monarchical Meâ— would perswade us Cal. Inst lib. 4. cap. 20. Sect. 8. being of God own appointment choice and establishment amongst his peculiar people the Tribes of Israel for whom it oughâ— not to be doubted but he would chuse the best amongst all the kinds of Government extant in the World LET us therefore hear the opinion of Moses as to the Antiquity of Kings and Monarchy and as once a greater than he said of him They who will not believe Moses and the Prophets would not believe though by a miracle one should rise from the dead to convince and confute them That Adam Noah and the rest of the Ancient propagators of Mankind were Kings and exercised Regal authority though his writings do not tell us yet we must conclude in regard that their posterity were bound to honour and obey them both by the Law of Nature Reason and the Divine Eternally Moral Law which did and do for ever command it But the first mention of a Monarch is Nimrod Gen. 10.10 who was a mighty Hunter before the Lord and the beginning of whose Kingdom was Babel Which Empire according to the computation of Chronology began about 130 years after the Deluge and is the first established Kingdom and Government that we meet with in the Sacred writings There is likewise mention made of the Egyptian Kingdom Gen. 12. another of the most ancient Monarchies In another place there is an account of a great action that happened Gen. 15. in which Nine Kings were concerned and the place of their Kingdoms as also in the same Chapter oâ— Melchizedeck King of Salem beside Abraham who as appears by his victory over them with an Army of hiâ— own Militia the Trained-bands 〈◊〉 Troops of his houshold was also a greâ— King himself as the Children of Heâ—â— stile him My Lord thou art a mighty Prince amongst us Gen. 23. c. NOR is there any great doubt to be made but that at the confusion of Laâ—guages he who undertook to lead a waâ— a Company was their Prince and as afterwards they subdivided themselveâ— for more Room and convenience 〈◊〉 Pasturage for their Flocks and Herdâ— the Riches of those Ages still the priâ—â—cipal person of note undertook to coâ—duct them and was their King And the great increase of these as well as oâ—â— the people of necessity obliged them as it did Lot and Abraham to part onâ— from another and to seek out for their convenience new Lands and unpeopleâ— Regions and this seems to be the true Reason why in the early Ages of the World we find mention of so many little Kings that every considerable City in the small Continent of Canaan had its distinct King and Kingdom which did not a little contribute to the facility of their conquest by Joshua and the Israelites Josh 12. who is recorded to have subdued one and thirty of them in a few years AND that the Government of the people of Israel after their deliverance from the Egyptian slavery was Monarchical under Moses all the time of their Encampments and Decampments in the Wilderness is evident matter of fact as appears by that place where there is a description of their manner of Judicature And it came to pass Exod. 18.13 that on the morrow Moses sate to judge the People c. And though upon the wholsom advice of Jethro the Prince of Midian his Father-in-law he afterwards chose able men out of all Israel and made them Heads over the people Rulers of thousands hundreds fifties and tens yet the Supreme Power of Judging he reserved to himself for they Judged the people at all seasons in every small matter but the difficult causes they brought unto Moses for his determination as being the Supreme Governour both in Civil and Ecclesiastical affairs And that Moses did this not pro arbitrio dominandi libidine of his own Ambitious desire of Sovereignty but by Gods especial appointment he tellâ— them Hereby ye shall know that thâ— Lord hath sent me to do all these works Numb 16.28 anâ— that I have not done them of my own mindâ—â— And that he was a great Prince amongst them is apparent from the Charge of those Rebels Corah Dathan and Abâ—ram and their Accomplices who pretended that his design was not so much to Govern them and Conduct them 〈◊〉 the promised Land as to make himseâ—â— absolute Is it a small thing say they that thou hast brought us up out of a Laâ—â— that floweth with Milk and Hony Vers 13. to kâ—â— us in the Wilderness except thou make thâ— self altogether that is an absolute Tyrannical Prince over us The first Essay to a Democracy the Rebellion of Corah and his accomplices Here is the first Essay for a Republick or Democraâ—â— that is upon any Record which was founded upon Rebellion against the Prince and the Priest and by consequence as he declared against God himself from whom they had that Authority The 250 who undertook iâ— seems to be the peoples Representatives who were all holy and the Lords people as they stiled themselves Numb 16. v. 41. and the murmuring Tribes thought them so though they paid dearly both for their mutiny and mistake but upon this pretence of sanctity and equality they were all as fit to Govern as Moses and to offer Incense as Aaron and why should they take so much upon them It is worth our observation how these Primitive Reformers make use of the same popular Charms with which our Modern Republicans their true successors in the Art of Wheedling a credulous Populace do now Act viz. The fair and taking pretensions of their own Sanctimony and the peoples Liberty of Conscience from the Tyranny of the Government by a single Person and the Priesthood How acceptable this their Mutinous design of a thorough Reformation in Church and State was to God Almighty Numb 16.35 the sequel of the Rebellion did declare for this strange Fire which they pretended to offer unto God but which in truth was the Wildfire of their own Brains with which they intended to sacrifice Government and Religion to their wicked Ambition brought down Fire from Heaven upon the 250 Cenfor-men and the very Earth upon which such Monsters of Mankind were unfit to live Numb 16.34 opened her mouth and gave them a new and terrible way of Sepulture making them Eternal Monuments of that confusion and vengeance which both Heaven and Earth conspire to take upon seditious Rebels I heartily wish that all our Anti-monarchical and Anti-hierarchical people would soberly consider of it left whilest they run on headlong in a seeming Religious despising of Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities Jude 11. they also perish in the gainsaying of Corah AFTER Moses succeeded Joshus in the same way of Regal though not Hereditary Government after him several Judges whom upon extraordinary occasions God raised up to Rule Govern and Deliver
is truly Pater Patriae the Father of his Country and as such must have a certain Natural tenderness care and concern for its Safety Peace and Happiness which he looks upon as it is to be his own BESIDES it is to be considered That there is an Art in Governing which Monarchs from their very Infancy are trained up and accustomed to which makes them by Experience and the second Nature of Custom come to a true Understanding of the great Affairs and secret Reason of State and therefore more ready in all publick dispatches more quick apprehensive and sagacious in perceiving what is conducive to the Common Good and what not than such who have not been Educated with all those advantages to Govern And then their Continuance for Life and the succession of their Posterity gives them the desire of Designing well for the publick good safety and security and the opportunities of finishing what was well begun Whereas all Governours in a Commonwealth must at first be much to seek in all great Affairs and one may as well expect that a man taken from the Plough should be able to Conn a Ship and carry her an East-India Voyage as that a Person though of the greatest Natural or acquired parts should at first be fit to Pilot the Government or skilful and dexterous in so great a Charge as is the steerage of the important affairs of a publick State And by that time that he is arrived to a competent skill he must resign his Place and Power to others as Raw and Unexperienced as he was and so must leave that Work which it may be was well laid and designed to the conduct and management of such Persons who possibly neither understand it nor how to conduct it if they did or if they do both yet may have envy enough to cross or ruine it because they had not the Glory of the first Invention SO that upon all accounts Monarchy appears to have been the most Ancient the most Universal the most Natural the most Useful and by unavoidable consequence the most excellent Government for promoting preserving and continuing the Common Happiness of all Mankind CHAP. V. Of the Excellency of the English Monarchy and Government It is not apt to degenerate into Tyranny The King having by his gracious Concessions given Limits to his absolute Sovereignty Of the Interest which the three Estates have in preparing Bills for the Royal Assent to be by that past into Laws and the great obligation which thereby the People have to Subjection and Obedience Of the Excellency of the English Monarchy THUS have we taken a view of the several Governments in the World amongst which Monarchy justly challenges the precedency in all respects And against which there can be no objections made but such as may with ease be retorted upon any other form of Government and not only so but many more and more rational and just Exceptions may be made against all other kinds of Regiment AS for that thread-bare Topick out of Aristotle which is so perpetually in the mouths of all Democratick Factious people That Monarchy is apt to degenerate into Tyranny It is only possible to be true where Monarchy is absolute Arbitrary and unbounded But in our English Monarchy the case is clearly different for though the King be so absolute that where he has not precluded himself by his gracious Concessions to his People It is not apt to degenerate into Tyranny the King having by his gracious Concessions given Limits to his absolute Sovereignty his will is his Law and is not to be limited by any other Power than that of his own Royal pleasure Yet in this particular the condescensions of our English Sovereigns have been so many and so great and those compliances having been formed into Laws as measures and standards of Government are the Bounds and Limits which Monarchy has no less prudently than indulgently been pleased to give it self thereby to ease the Subjects of any just occasion of Fears or Jealousies which might receive their birth from the formidable redundancy of their absolute Power And by this means the Government is secured from the danger of falling into an Arbitrary and Tyrannical way of Ruling and the minds of the Subjects are freed from the dreadful apprehensions of slavery under it And as by this incomparable method of goodness and generosity in our Princes the people their Subjects of all degrees and conditions are the more powerfully obliged to all dutiful Allegiance to their Temperate Government so the Government it self is thereby rendred more capable of effectually answering all the Ends and Intentions of Society Let us therefore take a short view of this most admirable Monarchy which will discover unto us the matchless excellency and goodness of our present Government as it is now Established The English Monarchy Hereditary and admits of no Interregnum NOW the Excellency of it appears first in that the Monarchy is Hereditary and not Elective But the Son or Daughter or in defect of them the nearest of the Royal Line does upon the expiration of the former King so immediately succeed that our Law does not allow the Interregnum of one moments space and therefore holds it as an establisht Maxim Rex non moritur The King of England is Immortal and the young Phoenix stays not to rise from the spicy ashes of the old one but the Sour of Royalty by a kind of Metempsychosis passes immediately our of one body into another And this certainly is not the least of the advantages of our Monarchy For whereever there happens an Interregnum not only all Laws are for that time at a stand as to force and execution but also all lawless and disorderly persons take the greatest and most unlawful Liberties Thus at the death of the Ottoman Heir they Janizaries and other Martial men rifle and plunder the houses of the Jews and Christians at Constantinople and cease not to commit all manner of out-rages till the new Grand Seignior by his publick appearance and bounty to them puts an end to those Disorders Which may chance at that new Rome to verifie the saying of the Popes Jester who being ask'd which was the best Holy-day to the people of Rome repli'd The day on which the Pope dies because there likewise the common people by prescription plunder the Palace of that Cardinal who is elected Pope And this custom amongst the Turks which is become a certain expectancy to them and which they look for at the death of their Emperor as a priviledge and part of their salary though at first permitted them in malice to the Jews and Christians may in time prove so ill policy as may occasion the dispatch of the Ottoman Family one after another to their great Prophet and his Paradise in greater haste than ever Nature did intend or the safety of that great Monarchy can allow AND for the disadvantages of Elective Monarchies we need not
bare Primacy of the Pope as Patriarch of the West which is the thing they only seem to own is inconsistent with Monarchy which would be to believe against the evidence of sense but That absolute Supremacy which is maintained by the Court of Rome into which by unlimited Obedience to the Pope and his Jurisdiction they appear in danger insensibly to slide which certainly is utterly inconsistent with Monarchy and Loyalty and the true Ancient Catholick Religion which never intended the Pope to be more Supreme to the Imperial Power than we intend the Archbishop of Canterbury to be above the King because he is Primate and Metropolitan of all England CHAP. VIII Presbytery inconsistent with Monarchy proved from five of their fundamental Principles 1. That it is not the best form of Government 2. That the Right of Kings is not from God but the People 3. That Kings may be called in question for their Administration of the Government 4. That they may by the People be deposed 5. That they may be punished with Capital punishments LET us now come to take a view of the Younger Antagonists of Monarchy The Popular Supremacy of Presbytery that Lerna Malorum that revived Hydra of the Lake of Geneva with its many headed Progeny Anabaptists Quakers Levellers c. all which Unnatural off-spring of this Monster are as kind to their Dam as Vipers and as inconsistent with Monarchy as they pretend to be with the Papacy with which Presbytery justles for Universal Supremacy or any of them with Loyalty Royalty or true Religion for that commands all men every where to be blameless and harmless as the Sons of God to which practice of Innocence however their Appearance may deceive the Credulous and Ignorant their Principles and Actions even those they call Religious being done in contempt of and disobedience to a lawful Authority for a good Action may become sinful by being ill done are as contrary as Light and Darkness Blackness and Whiteness Hell and Heaven or if there by any thing that can possibly be more infinitely distant AND to make this appear shall be my Task Canis ad Nilum remembring they are Crocodiles whose very sighs and tears are treacherous There can be no great pleasure to dwell among Lions and as the same Royal Writer tells us it is unsafe as well as uneasie to sojourn under the Black Curtains and to dwell with them that hate Peace amongst such as are set on fire even the Sons of Men whose Teeth are Spears and Arrows and their tongue a sharp Sword We will therefore examine their Principles and Practice both which we shall see keep a most harmonious Concord if that can be where no other thing but Discord dwells Presbytery inconsistent with Monarchy proved from five of their fundamental Principles THAT their Principles are Antimonarchical will appear from the great Father and Oracle of Presbytery John Calvin with which he has furnished his Disciples in the Book of his Institutions which those apt Scholars have very much improved as will appear by their Spiritual Democratick form of Regiment which they would introduce and impose upon the Christian World Amongst many others these are the Chief and enough in Conscience with the help of that great Name which they write upon them as Druggists do golden Characters upon Poisonous Ingredients to ruine all the Monarchies in the World The first Principle of Presbytery That Monarchy is not the best form of Government Cal. Inst l. 4. c. 20. p. 532. FOR first they hold that Monarchy is not the best form of Government and herein you shall hear Mr. Calvin define as Magisterially against the stream of all the Philosophers and Wisemen of the World in all Ages as if he had rob'd St. Peter to pay St. Paul and had stolen away the Popes infallibility with his Chair to plant it in his new Empire of Geneva Verily and truly saith he if the three forms of Government which Philosophers mention be considered * It is the true Presbyterian English of minimè negaverim I do affirm That Aristocracy or one compounded of that and Democracy is that which does far excel all the rest though not so much for it self as because it rarely happen that Princes are so moderate as not to deviate from what is Just and Right or furnished with so much * Tanto acumine sharpness of Wit and Prudence as to see when all is well The vices therefore and defects of Men make it more safe and tolerable to have the Reins of Government committed to more hands than one Here is a foundation laid by the perpetual Dictator of Presbytery to abolish all Monarchy and to introduce into the World an Aristocratick Democracy in its Room He tells us it is by far the more excellent form of Government and he indeavours to confirm his Position by the most disgraceful saucy contumelious reflexions and calumnies upon all Princes In general they want both quickness of Wit and Prudence to manage affairs of State or to know what is best for the publick that commonly they are defective vitious and debauch'd and that therefore their Government is not very safe or tolerable and that they are not fit to be trusted with the Reins in their hands but the Administration of affairs ought to be committed to more than one IS not here a plain text for his Disciples to write their black Comments and bloody Rubriques upon Monarchy is neither good safe nor tolerable Kings have rarely either Wit Prudence or Honesty and our Modern Presbyterians add Money neither which they may ask long enough before they will supply them by their good wills but are either vitious or defective ergo That Government ought to be abolished and Aristocratick Democracy which good Man he will not deny but it is the best ought to be established as he proceeds Idem ibid. That so they may mutually help one another teach and admonish one another all the Arts of Rapine and Oppression and adds he if any one exalts himself more than he ought there may be more Masters to repress his Insolence Kings it seems have no Cabinet or Privy Counsellors no Parliaments to advise with no great and able Ministers of State nor ever a faithful Friend or prudent Counsellor to be helpful to them in Arduis Regni in any difficult occurrences of Government and not ability enough to do it themselves But I perceive the main of the quarrel is because Mr. Calvin and his pragmatical High-shooes are not permitted to be Masters of Misrule and the grave Censors of Monarchy Pro. 17.26 Eccles 8.4 because they may not take the freedom to strike Princes for equity and be so familiar with Majesty or rather Superior as to give it gentle Correction and to say to their King What dost thou Conference at Hampt Court as the beardless Boyes of whom the Wise King James complains during their Empire in Scotland were wont
frequently to do But he proceeds I do freely confess Idem ibid. that as I think no kind of Government more happy than this where Liberty observe that dangerous word which has cost England so many Millions of Treasure and such Rivers of Blood accompanied with Moderation is established for duration So I think that People most happy who enjoy that condition of Life and Government Do you think so good Mr. John I wish you had thought twice on 't for the Proverbs sake that second thoughts are best before you had as an Institution Printed this fatal principle of Liberty of Conscience and Moderation as you call it or rather it is to be wish'd you had never thought such a pernicious Position I am sure though after all your musing your thought was not worth a penny we have paid dearly for your thinking this Liberty for us and wanted but little of falling by it into the greatest slavery that can be thought of called Presbyterian Liberty and Government in Church and State and by their restless indeavours one may be confident that some of your party and perswasion will want of their wills but they will both think us and act us into the same or a worse condition again if God be not the more propitious to us and it is but little comfort for us to think after all the mischiefs we have and may suffer for this thought that the Disciples of this great Master will repay us with a second thought as bad as the first and the Character of Fools a Non putaram we did not think it would have come to this or who would ever have thought it BUT he goes on to push them vigorously forward in the enterprize and his following words are able to give encouragement to the most languishing Presbyterian and to revive the fainting good Old Cause with a dram of the Bottle of his Aqua Mirabilis otherwise called by the Sons of Hermes Aqua Stygia Stygian Water or Aqua Fortis which will eat the Gates of Brass and the Iron Bars of Monarchy in pieces Idem ibid. For says he if People do most stoutly and constantly indeavour to preserve and keep this Liberty I will grant that they do no more than they ought to do Certainly the Devil of Delphos never gave a plainer Oracle to inspire all People with Rebellion against Princes and to throw off the Government of Monarchy and that ambiguous Sentence directed to Sir John Maltravers and Sir Thomas Gurney concerning King Edward the Second did not more assure them what they were to do with him being interpreted as all such doubtful speeches are according to the desire and interest of the Faction Edvardum nolite occidere timere bonum est To shed your Sovereign Edwards blood Be sure you do not fear is good This double-barrel'd pocket Pistol did not more certainly hit King Edwards Life than these words of Calvin interpreted by the Presbyterian Faction did contribute to the late horrid Rebellion ruine of the Church to introduce this Liberty and Moderation Extirpation of Monarchy Murder of Sacred Majesty in Person in Fame and in Effigie which last I saw with my Eyes in the Old Exchange where the Statue of the Martyr being pull'd down triumphant Treason was in golden Characters exalted and written in these words Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus Anno Libertatis Angliae primo Such a profanation of the Image of the Deity as all Kings are as it seems nothing but those dreadful flames which since laid it in ashes could purge and expiate and as the conclusion of all from hence sprung the model of the Republick The Custodes Libertatis Angliae The Keepers of the Liberties of England as in all their publick Instruments they falsely stil'd themselves AND that this was the natural and easie consequence or to speak in their Cant the Use of Exhortation and Encouragement is plain for it is lawful for all men to seek after Liberty especially of Conscience The People of these Nations are a freeborn People It is the greatest felicity and they the most happy People who may enjoy this Dear Liberty all men are bound to promote their own Happiness they cannot do too much to preserve it and if they do indeavour most stoutly and constantly to maintain it by War and Rebellion they do no more than their duty does command them The King was a Tyrant and under the notion of Prerogative did daily intrench upon the Peoples Priviledge and Liberty he had a design to enslave them The Commons were oppressed both in their Civil and Religious Rights The Parliament were the Peoples Representatives and from them had a power to defend their Liberties and that stoutly with Sword and Pistol Powder and Bullet and to call the King to an account and to judge him for these miscarriages as from Calvins own words I shall presently show The King had rendred himself unworthy to reign as from his words and Knoxes another of their fiery Doctors I shall shew Therefore they might in defence and for the preservation of their Dear Liberties especially Liberty of Conscience and Moderation and the Rights of the People make War against him for Preces Lachrymae the Prayers and Tears those ancient Arms of the Catholick Church are of no request or force with the Church of Geneva they might by the incouragement and prevalency of their prosperous villanies alter the establisht form of Government Civil and Ecclesiastical depose the King take away his Crown and Life banish his Successor and the whole Royal Family which was a favour some of them never intended for I have heard it confidently reported that it was hotly urged by some of those Barbarous Villains to put his Royal Highness the Duke of York Apprentice to some mean Mechanick Trade thereby to bring the utmost contempt and debasement upon that Illustrious Family and Person and in short this taught them to support the mischiefs they had done by doing greater and having murder'd the Possessor to seize upon his Inheritance JUDGE now O Heaven and Earth Ye Princes and all People how consistent this Doctrine is with the safety and security nay the very being of Monarchy and particularly with that of the English Nation A second Principle of Presbytury That Kings have no Divine Right but only from the Peoples Election or the Constitutions and Laws of the Nation A second Principle of Presbytery is That Kings have no divine Right to their Crowns but that the Peoples Election is the only true Title to them or which is as bad that only the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation give them their Right John Knox the Disciple of Calvin who like a Fireship of Rebellion set all Scotland into Combustions and treated Kings and Queens at that Imperious rate as if they had been his Subjects the first Founder of the Kirk Militant in a literal sense seems to have borrowed this from that Pest of Writers Buchanan or else
being only from the People For it is not the Persons or Names but the superiority of the Authority against which this Faction of Geneva levels all its aims and though for the accomplishment of their ambitious designs which they vail over with the name of Religion they are pleased in words to vest the Parliament in the name of the People and as their Representatives with Authority both over Church and Crown Yet do they at the same time declare that all men of what degrees ranks or conditions soever must be subject to the Scepter of Christ which Scepter they say is committed to their hands So that here is a Yoke ready for the Neck of a Parliament whose intolerable heaviness has already discovered that it is none of Christs but of these Modern Scribes and Pharisees who lay heavy burthens upon other Men but by advancing themselves into the Chair of Supremacy will not touch them with one of their Fingers For these Saints who pretend to a power of binding Kings in Chains will without scruple so claim the honour of shackling the Nobles with Fetters of Iron That this is most certain will appear if we consider that a Parliament can pretend to no right to Government but a Monarch may do the same and upon far better grounds now you see how all their Doctrines vest the people with a Superiority over Monarchy the same Arts and Arguments which subject the Regal Authority to their Will and Jurisdiction must of necessity bring a Parliament within their Power and it is no more but a Mutato Nomine de te narratur fabula turn the Tables and they will play the same Game at the one as the other for if a King for opposing which they stile persecuting them and their seditious practices may be called in question Excommunicated deposed and deprived of his Royal Authority for the same Crimes a Parliament and the Government by Democracy may be altered abrogated and the several members of it may by the people be punished with loss of Life Estate and all other lesser punishments and disgraces And all this must be fathered upon the Good People who shall be flattered into a belief that they have the Supreme Authority when in truth a few it may be one leading politick Presbyters who shall have gained the Sovereignty over the inferior Clergy and by their means and the severities of their Discipline over all the populace who must of necessity have their heads tyed under their Uncanonical Girdles will have under Christ the whole management of all the affairs of Church and State and whoever will venture to dive to the bottom of the Lake of Geneva wil find the fifth Monarchy of the Church which the Papists have so long been setting up but by an Earthquake was tumbled in thither which the Presbyters are weighing up again in order to the new trimming it and putting in a better figure that so it may pass upon the Princes and People of the World under the Notion of the Scepter of Christ and that it is the defire of Sovereignty under the Colour of Religion at which they aim and to which whatsoever is an obstacle whether King Parliament Prelates Lords or Commons shall all be declared Antichristian and Unlawful Powers THE little respect they have shewn to all Parliaments that have opposed them demonstrates the little value they have either for those Honorable Assemblies or their Constitution and they who could pull down the House of Lords because it stood in their light and are so eager to dislimb the Parliament of the Lords Spiritual cannot in reason be supposed to esteem the lower House further than they frame to themselves a prospect that it may be serviceable to their present Interest I need not go back to fetch instances from former times either in Scotland or England of which I could produce a Cloud of Evidences the rude and insolent treatment which this present Parliament has met with from their blades of the Pen is a conviction beyond exception Nor would a new one of which they appear so fond receive any better entertainment at their hands unless to advance the slavery of the Nation in promoting their interest it should imbarque in their design A short view of their Tyrannick Consistorian Government BUT because some peoples ignorance of their intentions is in probability the reason why they admire this Government let me present them with a short view of it in its proper Colours without the shining varnish which they usually lay upon it to deceive the credulous and unwary THAT they are the true Sons of Ishmael whose hands are against all Men will in short appear if we consider their procedure against all sorts of people whom they indeavour to reduce to Obedience to Christ by the method of their Consistorian Discipline Over the Magistracy WE will begin with the Magistracy If they do not their duty in promoting the Holy Discipline by which name is meant Presbyterian Tyranny of Parochial Ministers and the Lay Elders over their Parishes of the Classis or Presbytery over their Division and of the yearly Assembly over the whole Nation or much more if they oppose it or establish any other Church Government they may and ought to be excommunicated deposed and punished and the rule is Universal as to all and all manner of Magistrates whether Kings Parliaments Judges Counsellors or other inferiour and subordinate Governours Now what is the duty of the Magistrate and whether he performs this duty as he ought what means ways and methods of Government are conducive to the Salvation of Men and the good of the Society in order to the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ they are the only Judges and though they pretend to follow the direction of the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures yet will they put their own Interpretation upon them which though manifestly contrary to the construction of the most learned men in all Ages and to the universal practice of the Church as is plain in the Case of Episcopal Government Yet herein must they be obey'd under pain of Excommunication and though nothing be more manifest that herein their Will is their Law yet must the Magistrate as well as the People submit to this Arbitrary Supremacy premacy which hereby is manifestly vested in the Presbytery as to direction ultimate Judgment and final determination and the secular Magistrate is no more but the Executioner of their Commands No Law can be binding which they declare contrary to the great design of promoting the Gospel though by seditions violence and tumults and this interest of the Gospel is in reality their own absolute Sovereignty No Obedience is due to the Magistrate further than they assure the People the things commanded are lawful To them may be made all appeals even from the highest Courts of Judicature So that down goes Magistracy and its Power or however must receive its limits bounds measures and rules of Government
help and assistance of their tumultuous Power the Leaders of Faction are exalted to Dignity Riches and Authority none are more Arbitrary and Imperious than the one or greater Slaves than the other For Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum Exalted meanness still we see Proves the most rugged Tyranny And it can be nothing but their ill destiny in the common People of England who appear so inclinable to have a good esteem of these Ring-leaders of the Faction of Presbytery which blinds their Eyes with pretences of Sanctity from seeing that these People are the most malicious Enemies they have in the World who will not permit them quietly to enjoy that happiness which they do at present possess under a most peaceable and excellent Monarchy and Monarch but with the Witchcraft of Liberty of Conscience fears and jealousies of Popery and I know not what fine words to please Children and Fools they drill them still on towards the Confines of Rebellion into which if they do unluckily plunge them their Lives Liberties and Estates must either fall a Sacrifice to the offended and prevailing Justice of their exasperated Sovereign or become a prey to Ambitious Usurpation should they happen to be unfortunately victorious so that what side soever gets the better they are certain still to be losers and go by the worst For even those persons to whom they have made themselves a footstool to mount them into the supreme Power will be sure to keep them down and trample them underfoot lest they should turn to some other Party for the same Reasons and by the same Arts by which they before gained them to be of theirs there being nothing more certain which these men know well enough and that the People are never contented with their present condition than that a discontented Populace who have made no difficulty to shake hands with their Allegiance to their Lawful Prince will upon the least disgust wheel about either to their King again or to any other Power which speaks them fairest and bids most for their kindness by promises never intended to be kept AND if the Commons of England who are infected with this Lunacy of Presbytery will not be perswaded to believe this but that all their Prophets must have poor Cassandra's Fate Nunquam credita Teucris never to be credited when they speak the greatest truths it must be because to use their own word they are predestinated to Ruine according to the Adage Perdere quos vult Jupiter prius dementat Where Jove to ruine has design'd First he does always strike Men blind SO the Presbyterians first blind the common people with pretences of Piety and Liberty that they may more securely lead them either into certain Ruine or Democratique Slavery None so bold as blind Bayard is a great Proverb amongst the Countrymen I wish they could apply it to themselves and their present circumstances THAT the practice of these People carries a just proportion and exact correspondence respondence to these Principles all their former Actions have manifested beyond the possibility either of excuse or evasion It would be an ingrateful task to rip up all the transactions of the Late Times and it would be happy for us if they could be so buried in the Grave as well as with the Act of Oblivion as not to afford an Eternal precedent to succeeding Ages to dance a second Jigg to the same tune of these py'd Pipers as 't is said the Boyes and Girls of a City in Germany did after the Rat-Catcher till they lead them into the Gulph of Ruine and give occasion to date a new Aera Anno libertatis amissae though they should say as they did before restauratae But it is but too evident that the Presbyterian Anabaptist c. however in other things they differ'd as to Judgment yet they did all agree in the practice and though in the end they fell out amongst themselves and verified the Proverb That when Thieves fall out honest Men come by their own yet they were unanimous in the pursuance of those Principles and all the distances in the circumference of Religion met kindly together in the central point of Rebellion Nor were their odious practices any other thing but a manifest demonstration of their belief of this Doctrine That Kings are inferior to Parliaments and the People nay to the very fragments shreds and excrements of a Parliamentary Name That Subjects may take up Arms against them that they may enter into Leagues Covenants Combinations and associations against them and all the rest before-recited which I am tir'd with repeating IF the present Presbyterians c. are not of the same Judgment let them testifie to the World in a publick Manifesto and be ready to subscribe and confirm it with sacred Oaths that they do willingly renounce all these trayterous Positions and seditious Principles and Practices which is the least vindication they can make for themselves the smallest reparation they can make for the mischiefs they have done and the least satisfaction and assurance they can give to Authority that they will not do so again or indeavour it and let their actions go along with their words that we may believe them without which they are so low in Reputation by the monstrous breach of all their Promises Vows Protestations and solemn Oaths to the late King except the making him a glorious King that no person in his wits will now take their word any more so that they must get their Actions to become their Sureties for their good abearing towards the Kings Majesty and all his Liege People BUT instead of all this which is no more than if they mean honesty toward the Government they would willingly do they are taking a course by their present practice to manifest that they are still the same Men and as true to their Principles as steel or as Rebellion is to those Principles as if they were resolved to verifie the saying of a worthy Gentleman That men may possibly repent of Presbytery but Presbytery never yet repented of any thing And that they are plying their Sails and Oars for a second prize it is almost past time of day now to make a doubt do they not boldly print and spread abroad in publick their seditious Pamphlets Speeches Letters to their Friends from persons of Quality Benchers and God knows what who or where those are reflecting upon the Government the great Ministers of State the Learned Pious and Innocent Bishops not sparing even the King himself with which pocket Pistols hand Granadoes and Fire-balls of Rebellion they indeavour to murder the Government and set all into Flames and Combustion pestering the Country with those pernicious Pamphlets as the City is with their Writers the design of all which restless Indeavours and devilish Industry is only to delude the Subjects of these Nations by perswading them that they are upon the very brink of Slavery and Ruine to withdraw them from
their Loyalty and Allegiance to their King and Obedience to the Laws and Government whenas in truth no People in the World in humane probability are at a greater distance from those imaginary dangers than we unless by believing these men and their Principles we precipitate our selves headlong into them nor is there any thing wanting to render us compleatly happy and secure at home and abroad besides Unity amongst ourselves and Loyalty towards our Prince of both which it is the main design of these Enemies of our Peace Prosperity and Happiness at once to rob us and whoever will take the pains to consider the rise growth and continuance of this Doctrine of Calvinism will find it a meer Salamander of Religion bred in the Flames of Rebellion nourisht with the fire of mistaken Zeal at best and that it constantly delights to dwell in the blaze of Contention The peace and settlement of the Nation are its utter Enemies and opposites and no wonder then if the Patrons of it are the Enemies of our Peace and as a Pope once said to Charles Brother to the French King concerning Conradine King of Naples and Sicily which gave him his Death The Life of Conradine is the Death of Charles Vrsper p. 11. and the Death of Conradine is the Life of Charles so may we truly say The Peace and Unity of our Monarchy is the Death and Ruine of Presbytery and the Death of Presbytery is the Life of Monarchy which is the true reason why they struggle for their Life to keep up discords differences and animosities and it may be are all of the sudden become so Zealous for a Foreign War the discovery of their Plot having put them out of hopes of one at home So long as the Government is but busie and the Crown necessitous they do not only think themselves secure but are in hopes that the expences or unforeseen accidents of War may at last occasion differences at home upon which ill humors of the body Politick like Plagues and Gangrenes they always feed and increase and hope in the end to prove fatal to it for they know by experience that Corruptio Vnius est Generatio Alterius A dead Monarchy fly-blown by Presbytery breeds the short-liv'd Maggots of a putrified Common-wealth But these things have been so well taken notice of and their whole Intrigue discovered by the charitable hand of the Author of the two Pacquets of Advices c. that a clearer exposing of them is altogether needless IT is the wishes prayers and hopes of the best subjects of these Nations that the dangerous noise and clamours which they make themselves will oblige Authority to take notice of them and their mischievous intentions and that this very Parliament which they fear and therefore hate with all their Hearts as is plain by their Ringing so loud its passing Bell and perswading the World it is Dead that their Cruelty may be satisfied with the Revenge of burying it alive will take notice of such an affront to a King and his Parliament as no Age can parallel nor any persons be guilty of but Presbyterians and offer some expedients according to their Wisdom and Prudence to ease the Loyal and faithful Subjects amongst which they challenge the first rank themselves of those just fears and jealousies and those uneasinesses which afflict them by reason of the growth increase and confidence of these implacable malicious sanguinary and restless Antimonarchical and Anti-Parliamentary spirited People and their Principles TO conclude From the former Discourse these necessary consequences follow Some necessary consequences from the former Discourse First That no person whatsoever let him pretend never so much Religion Sanctity or Innocence can possibly be a good Subject so long as he continues a true Presbyterian or of their off-spring in regard they always carry about with them as the main of their Religion such Principles as are directly contrary to Monarchy and destructive of Loyalty to which he can never be a firm true and assured Friend who owns a Power Superior to that of his Prince within his Dominions and that such a Power may of right depose him and take away his Crown and Life which has been proved to be the avowed Doctrine of the Consistorians of Geneva Scotland and England both in Print and Practice Secondly That no Monarch can be safe or his best Subjects at ease and secure so long as this faction is either owned tolerated permitted or favoured publickly or privately within his Dominions especially the Ring-leaders of the Party which guilded Snakes can no sooner be warm in the Bosom of Indulgence but they begin to hiss and sting and are constantly either the Whisperers or Trumpeters of Sedition and Rebellion the very practice of what they call their Religion in prohibited Conventicles and Assemblies being but the younger Brothers of Tumults and Insurrections and Rebellion against the King and Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical in a demure dress and garb of Innocence which is so far from making it better than that in the Field with Drums and Colours that it renders it worse because more dangerous and apt to deceive many people being willing to become Volunteers to the Pulpit as Hudibras calls it The drum Ecclesiastick When beat with fist instead of a stick Hudibr Cant. 1. Who would not list themselves into open and barefac't Rebellion till from thence they hear the dreadful thunder of a Curse ye Meroz or The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon AND let them not call this necessary Caution for the publick and all honest mens preservation the effect of a persecuting Spirit since though they may charge the Government with Cruelty it is they who are cruel to themselves and the whole Community by being evil doers busie bodies seditious trayterous heady high minded opposers of Government disturbers of Order Enemies to our Peace Unity and Happiness and to the very Fundamental Laws Establishments Constitution and whole Frame of the National Government both in Church and State I appeal to all the Records of time both our own and of other Nations which will witness That whoever did act thus contrary to the publick Interest have in all Ages in all Places by all Laws and Persons in Authority been esteemed justly and deservedly punished as being the common mischiefs of nature directly opposite to the security and happiness of all mankind in general not excepting themselves out of the number whose restless uneasie discontented humor certainly renders them the most unfortunate of all humane race because ever most unquiet and unpleased being indeed utterly uncapable of satisfaction the concessions and condescensions of Authority to day emboldening them to demand greater tomorrow and Indulgence being so far from making them grateful that it gives them the pain to invent new Requests their desires being therefore boundless and unlimited because they neither know positively what they would have nor are able to determine what it is
effected must suppose the Designers to act according to the Principles not of hope or reason but of a brutal Rage or rather desperate Fury and revengeful Frenzy For an impatient Bajazet who was once a mighty Monarch to dash out his despairing brains against the Bars of his Iron Cage admits of some reason and excuse but for people to do it who are free and happy is certainly a most unaccountable madness And whoever goes about to undermine and overthrow a Pile of that weight and bigness if they do unfortunately succeed in the strange attempt cannot in probability expect to rejoyce in those Ruines which in all likelihood will fall upon them and crush them to Atoms And certainly only such who have lost the eyes of their reason can be ambitious of such a rude Mausoleum as that of Sampson who pull'd down the house to be revenged of his enemies and thereby gave himself an uncommon Monument amongst the perishing croud And one would believe that Eternal infamy were no tempting Epitaph to be written upon such Tombs of Rubbish as are rais'd by the fall of the State and Government But if they do not succeed but happen from their high attempts and lofty expectations to fail of their designs and fall upon the well-built Pyramid they must unavoidably run the fate of Phaeton and cool those flames which their wild ambition has thrown abroad in the World by attempting upon the reins of Government in the Ocean of Ruine Notwithstanding all which affrighting considerations yet such men there are if they who are divested both of Reason and true Religion can deserve that Name or rather Monsters in Humane shape and too many of them there are to be found Inhumane and Unnatural whom no Happiness is able to content but what is built upon the Ruine and Misery of others No Government can please but whose foundation is laid upon the subversion of the present and cemented with bloud And whose very principles are destructive of themselves because of all Government Society and Happiness in this World The great Misfortune of the World which makes Religion the great pretence to ruine Monarchy BUT the greatest of all our Misfortunes is That these dangerous Enemies to our present Peace and future Happiness pretend to draw both their Principles and Practice not from Politicks but Religion which certainly was designed by the Almighty Creator to oblige men to Obedience and intended to be the great support of Government See the unhappy Chymistry of over-heated Brains and Religion or Fancy rather under that Sacred Name run out of its Wits which by the late discovery of New Regions of Faith and New Lights of Religion has given such disturbances to the Old and can force that which in its own Nature is undoubtedly the greatest security of Crowns and the Interest of any People to become the greatest Traitor to the one and Treachery to the other which can make even Religion not only stoop to wicked Designs but turn Renegado and deny the Ancient Catholick Faith of Christ But alas it is not Religion That is all Bright Peaceful and Innocent It is a Cloak a Vizor a Form of Godliness or an appearance without the Power the Soul of Piety which Counterfeit and Impostor works all these dismal effects That Wisdom which is from above is like its Author and the blest Regions from whence it comes 5. Jam. 3.14 Pure and Peaceable full of Good works But that is Earthly Sensual Devilish which is the Mother of our Strife Confusions and every evil Work And however with the most fair appearances and sanctimonious pretences it may deceive the Unwary and cover the Malicious yet certainly it is one of the most refined stratagems of the Primitive Arch-rebel the degraded Lucifer that implacable Enemy of Mankind and the perpetual envious disturber of their Happiness For under this pretence of Religion he does but too successfully endeavour to ruine it and whilest he perswades the Credulous that there is no other design in a New Faith or thorough Reformation but to repair the House he certainly knows he shall pull it down or at least deface it Thus some unforeseeing people overcome with the old temptation whilest they would know Good and Evil and become like Gods by tasting the forbidden Apple of State they run the hazard of making themselves and posterity become like the Tempter malicious and miserable to a degree below the Beasts that perish NOR can this old guilded Serpent with all his Generation of Vipers A stratagem of the Devil to extirpate all true Religion by feeding upon the Mother that brought them forth propose any Way more probable to undo the Reputation of the true Religion than by making others as like in appearance as may be and endeavouring to obtrude their shining and painted Glass upon the World as the true and inestimable Jewel of Piety By which Artifice the true and innocent Religion shall become chargeable with the Wars Tumults Seditions and Disorders of the World which in reality are the products of the Counterfeits And whilest by Disobedience and Rebellion Disloyalties and Treasons Plots and Conspiracies under the pretences of Conscience such disturbances are given to the safety and security of Sovereign Princes and Mankind in general a fair train is laid to blow up all Piety and to introduce Atheism and at once to extirpate all Religion from the minds of Men who must look upon it as a pernicious Impostor which pretends one thing and acts another directly contrary to it And if once men come to hate it and wish there were no such thing in the World it would not be long before it would be so nor can any thing bid fairer to effect this than such Actions as may perswade the Monarchs of the Earth to entertain aversions against it as a principle which runs their Subjects into Mutinies Disobedience and Rebellion and which intrecches too much upon the Royal Prerogative by a continual cutting off the skirts of the Robes of Majesty and not being always innocent of attempting against their Lives and Crowns And could this transformed Angel of Light and his reforming Ministers of Righteousness but effect this which with all their I wish I could say mistaken Zeal they so industriously labour to do and are in the ready way for it The fatal consequences may without difficulty not only be conjectured but most certainly foretold THERE is no creature so innocent that is without its particular enemies to whose violences that does often give encouragement and invitation Neither is there any vertue without its opposites and extremes which manage a continual either open hostility or secret war against it The soundest Constitutions and most healthful Bodies are not without a mixture of such fermenting Spirits and Humours as are the stamina morborum which sometimes rush them into violent and dangerous distempers and if we will credit the sons of Aesculapius there is no state of Body so near
to sickness as that which stands upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very tiptoes of most perfect Health This is the condition of this most irreprehensible Government of the English Monarchy whose eminency renders it obnoxious to Envy and whose Excellency and Innocence are not able to secure it from Malice those two mortal Gangrenes of all that can be called Great Good or Happy in humane Life Undoubtedly it is lawless Ambition and insatiable Desire of Sovereignty which are the true ground and foundation of all Rebellion and Disobedience though Innocent Religion and Christian Liberty are perpetually made the cloak of this malicious Wickedness and usurping Covetousness the root of all evil which are constantly made use of by all such deceivers who as S. Peter has well observed of them will not submit themselves to the King as Supreme and by their obedient honouring him by all quiet subjection to his Laws and Government give a manifest evidence that they really and truly fear God who commands that Duty to be done The two Opposites and Encmics of Monarchy Papacy and Presbytery THERE may be many Interests which may be disadvantageous to the safety security and happiness of the Imperial Crown of this Realm of Great Britain and its other Dominions as well as to the liberty and property of the people but there are two which are directly and fundamentally opposite and contrary to them both in their principles and practices and these are the pretensions of an Universal Supremacy and Spirituo-Temporal Monarchy of the Court of Rome or Papacy on the one hand and the Democratick Presbyterian on the other That both these are utterly inconsistent with the Safety and very Essence of Monarchy and particularly with that of these Nations as also with the Peace Happiness Liberty and Property of the Subject is that which I hope to prove by such undeniable Reasons and convincing Arguments as may oblige the consent of all such who are not willing to quit their share and claim to common Reason rather than the favour of their Interest Party or Opinion WE will begin then with the Papacy as being the ancient competitor for Sovereignty with all the Crowned Heads of Europe And in regard of the great concern of the Controversie this has been the Theatre of all the Polemick Wits of Christendom I hope it will not therefore be expected that I should repeat the Crambe in a Tedious discourse it can never be diverting to the Reader and I fear what is not so will rarely be profitable to him to swell this Discourse with long rehearsals of what has been so often better and more nicely discussed by the most famous Pens I will therefore succinctly and nakedly propose the thing it may be rather to satisfie some people that I am not a Papist than to pretend to offer any thing new in a point that has been so often treated of as will not permit me to entertain the vanity that I am able to say either more or more to the purpose than has already to the satisfaction of the World been said The Opinion of the Catholick Doctors about the Papal Supremacy and the New Roman Creed to confirm it NOW that by what they call the Popes Supremacy in Spirituals the Faction of the Roman Court do not only affect but endeavour to impose and establish an Universal Empire and Dominion over all Princes Kings Emperors and their Subjects and â—o propagate Sovereignty rather than Religion we will in short endeavour to manifest out of their most Authentick Records and Justified Confession Ex ore tuo can certainly be liable to no exceptions They who speak most modestly as Cardinal Bellarmine Bell. lib. 5. de Ro. Pontisice cap. 1. and those he calls the Catholick Doctors of the middle Opinion give the Pope indirecte quandam potestatem even over all Temporal affairs and by consequence a Supremacy over all Men. But some of them whose confidence does a little out-run their discretion Aug. Triumph Sum. de potest Ecc. q. 1. ar 1. q. 40. ar 1. passim alibi Alv. Pel. de planctu Ecc. l. 1. cap. 1. â— as Augustinus Triumphus Alvarus Pelagius and others loudly proclaim the Pope to have the fulness of all Power in all Temporal concerns whatsoever And a whole Volume of Names swim down this stream over-born with the impetuous Torrent of a Fancy overflowing with the pleasure of Terrestrial Empire and Dominion of the Church or the flattery of Popes from whom possibly they had great future expectancies and present dependencies Bulla Pii 4. super forma Juramenti in appendice Concil Tridentini BUT that which appears most considerable is the Bull of Pope Pius quartus where this Supremacy is made an Article of the Faith equal to that of the Apostles in these words or to this effect Vide si libet etiam Act. Concil Trident Sess de reformatione cap. 2. cap. 19. I N. N. believe that the Holy Catholick Apostolick Roman Church is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches I acknowledge vow and swear true Obedience to the B. of Rome the successor of S. Peter the Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Christ Jesus c. And a little after And this true Catholick Faith out of which no man can be saved which at this time I do willingly profess and truly hold I will be careful with Gods help that it be constantly retained and confessed whole and inviolable to the last gasp FROM this new confession of Faith these two Corollaries follow First That all Christian Kings Princes and People owe unto the Roman See all Temporal Obedience For there is no limitation but Obedience to the Pope in general and inclusive words is made a necessary Article of Faith and where any thing is spoken in general words it is always to be construed to extend to all that can be signified by those words in favour of that Power which it is designed to declare and promote SECONDLY If no man can be saved out of that Faith which are the express words of the Oath Kings and Emperors not being excepted the Pope is made the Supreme upon Earth and he can be no Christian who does not believe him to be so by which determination this is made a Heresie of the blackest Dye and subjects all persons who are guilty of it to all the Censures of the Church Excommunication Interdiction and all their dreadful consequents both here and hereafter NOR will it be of avail to endeavour to cover the dangerous fraud of the general words which are of such ambiguous latitude by pretending to restrain them and the Papal Power only to Temporals in ordine ad Spiritualia Since all Humane Actions being either Vertuous or Vicious in some degrees more or less must be brought within the Verge of the Spiritual Supreme Power and Jurisdiction And which must therefore finally vest the Papacy with a most absolute unlimited Sovereignty