it we will suppose that by his Goths and Northern people he means the Saxons for the Danes were but a very little while I think not thirty years masters of England and so what may be gather'd in favour of his popular Government from them if any thing could would not be much material We will imagine then that our Saxons were of the race of the Goths and that retaining their customs They introduc'd many of them amongst us such as might be the division of the lands into several Feuds which they called Thane lands and were like our Mannors or Lordships under certain Tenures or Services Many also they might have found amongst the Britains and retain'd them under their own Government for it is certain the Britains held lands by several Tenures but whether they were originally of their own Institution or the remains of the Roman Clientela's and Praeda militaria I will not determine I have already told you that the Goths upon their first Transplantation and after they were setled in their new possessions were govern'd by Kings whose power encreas'd despotically according as the people grew secure and civiliz'd and so they continued above a thousand years nor do I find that the people in all this time pretended to any other share in the government than to meet in General Councils when the affairs of the Kingdom oblig'd their King to assemble them And truly I ever thought such National Assemblies when well regulated very conducible to the security and happy subsistence of all Governments and such our antient Monarchs have thought fit to make use of and have transmitted the custom of convoking such Councils which we not call Parliaments even to our days But that these Counsellors should have any right of command is so contrary to the design of their Institution that as this must needs be dangerous to the Government it self so they make their good Institution useless by rendring themselves suspected to the King who alone hath the right to assemble them For what wise Magistrate would by his own authority raise a power which he apprehends might shock his own The sad effects of this we have seen of late days among our selves when our Commoners in Parliament who were meer Counsellors and no more or Representatives with a power to consent have arrogated to themselves a Soveraign authority and under that pretence have forceably and violently subverted our antient Government and destroyed our Lawful and Natural Governour himself and have besides of late spent so much time in unnecessary new disputes concerning their own rights and prerogatives which really do not much concern us that they have totally neglected those main ends of their meeting which are the Security of our Government under our Lawful Soveraign and the peace and happiness of his people and which are the only blessings and benefits which we desire of them Nay they have been so far from procuring those advantages for us to which purposes they have been solely entrusted by us that their disputes concerning the Succession to the Crown of England which is indisputable The Right which the King hath to borrow money upon good Security which was never taken from the poorest of his Subjects shewing mercy upon unfortunate offenders which is his Nature as well as undoubted Prerogative and several such other irregular Heats and Animosities are the most apparent causes of our present horrid Conspiracies troubles and distractions But to return to our Goths I have told you that after their division those that spread toward the West and Southern parts of Europe were in a continual state of war and so their King was but their General whom sometimes they did depose or continue according as they found him capable of that great employment upon whose conduct in their dangerous circumstances their Lives and Fortunes did chiefly depend and such in some respects was the case of our Saxons under their Heptarchy here in England All the world knows that they invaded us without any pretence of title being only call'd in as friends by Vortigern the British King to assist him against the Scots and by degrees encroaching upon the Britains they erected several Kingdoms until at length the Native Inhabitants were totally over-power'd But this made very little alteration in their affairs for wanting a common enemy they were always quarrelling amongst themselves usurping upon one another untill their several little Governments were united under one Soveraign Monarch who was Egbert as some write or Alfred the eighteenth King of the West-Saxons ` T is true that during Vide Chron. Sir R Baker their Heptarchy they chose one amongst themselves who was the Supreme head of the rest and was call'd King of Engle-lond And it is recorded that eight of the Mercian Kings in a continued succession kept the Imperial Crown of the Heptarchy But it was rather a titular honour than a Soveraign right of Government and I do not find but that every particular King in his own Province did generally exercise those two great Regalities of making Laws and levying Taxes by vertue of his own authority But whether they did or not it is little to our purpose since we have no reason to follow the examples of those petty Kings and Vsurpers especially when we consider their circumstances But if we must lay aside the form of Government since the Norman conquest from whence our Aera begins and concerning which our Histories are more certain and Authentick let us then rather consult the Administration of those West-Saxons who solely and Soveraignly enjoy'd the Crown of England And not to be too tedious we will six upon King Edward the Confessor the last except Harold of our English Saxon Kings I shall not trouble you with much neither concerning him because you may find at large whatever can be said of him in our own English Histories I shall only therefore make this remark that we have had no Kings since William the Conqueror nor was he himself more absolute than King Edward the Confessor was I remember nothing of his impositions but rather believe there might have been none during his reign because I find that he remitted to his people the yearly Tribute of 40000 l. that had been gathered by the name of Danegelt But for Laws which now are made by Act of Parliament I observe no such Parliamentary way of proceedings in his days It is true that he called a Councel or Wittena Gemote which some call very improperly a Parliament especially as it is now understood in the second year of his Reign but the Commoners were so far from having any right of power that their presence was not really necessary Minores laici non sammoneri debent sed si eorum praesentia necessaria fuerit c. Which shews plainly that they might be omitted Nay although they were summoned and did not appear nevertheless the Parliament was taken to be full without them Which is a sufficient proof that the Commons
did not expect and hesitating much without giving any satisfactory account of what was demanded he was cast into chains and punish'd according to the hainousness of the offence Mer. And may all the Manlii amongst us be alike confounded Next Sir I cannot approve of the liberty men take of publishing their private sentiments which are generally grounded upon nothing but conjecture and Enthusiastical follies Trav. Certainly nothing would conduce more to our quiet than that the liberty of the press should be restrain'd But since it is not our business to look into those liberties which we enjoy so much as into those which we want let us leave the consideration of these and many other such things to our prudent Governours I shall only note this one thing by the way that since the Act of Habeas Corpus I think I may confidently affirm that even at this time when there is so much danger of a pretended slavery the Subjects of England enjoy a greater liberty than was known to any of our Ancestors before us Pray therefore proceed to the second consideration which is our properties Mer. That is wholly unnecessary for all the world knows that whatsoever we possess is so secured by the Laws of the Land that the King himself doth not pretend in prejudice of those Laws which indeed are his own Laws to touch the least Chattel that belongs to us nor can any Tax be impos'd but such as shall be granted by Act of Parliament which is the very Government that our Author so much approves And in a word Plato himself has clear'd this point telling us p. 127 That the people by the fundamental Laws that is by the constitution of the Government of England have entire freedom in their lives properties and their persons neither of which can in the least suffer but according to the Laws And to prevent any oppression that might happen in the execution of these good Laws which are our Birthright all Trials must be by twelve men of our equals and in the next page lest the King 's Soveraign authority might be urg'd as a stop to the execution of those Laws he tells us That neither the King nor any by authority from him hath any the least power or jurisdiction over any English man but what the Law gives him And if any person shall be so wicked as to do any injustice to the life liberty or estate of any Englishman by any private command of the Prince the person aggriev'd or his next of kin if he be Assassinated shall have the same remedy against the offender as he ought to have had by the good Laws of the Land if there had been no such command given Now dear Cousin in the name of sense and reason where can be the fault and distemper of our Government as it relates to the ease and priviledge of the Subject if this be the constitution of it as at least our Author himself affirms Trav. Faith Sir I could never find it out nor any man else that ever I could meet withal And what is still stranger our great Platonick Physician hath not vouchsafed to give us any one particular instance in what part our disease lyes notwithstanding he alarms us with dismal news of being dead men and that without such a strange turn of Government as his pregnant Noddle hath found out we are ruin'd for ever 'T is true he tells us that the property being in the hand of the Commoners the Government must necessarily be there also and for which the Commoners are tugging and contending very justly and very honourably which makes every Parliament seem a present state of war Mer. But Sir if it be true that we enjoy all those benefits and blessings before mentioned that the Government it self secures these properties inviolably to us which we know to be most certain without the testimony of Plato or any man else what then does this tugging concern us or what relation has it to our happiness which is already as great as we can wish it to be Must the enjoyment of our properties put us into a state of war Must our health become our disease and our fatness only make us kick against our masters what can this contention for Government signifie more than ambition and what could their success produce less than Tyranny should the House of Commons become our masters what could they bestow upon us more than we already enjoy except danger and trouble And what can our present Government take from us except the fears of those fatal consequences which such a popular innovation would induce Let then the property be where it will and if we possess it securely we are the happier for it Trav. Your reasons are too plain and strong to be resisted I shall quit therefore this point and inform you how our Author seems in many places to insinuate that the want of frequent and annual Parliaments is the cause of our distemper and that calling a Parliament every year might prove a pretty cure according to a certain Act in the time of Edward the first and that then instead of hopping upon one leg we might go limping on upon three Mer. Faith Cousin you are now gotten out of my reach and you must answer this your self I can only proceed according to my former rule which is that if we be as happy as we can be a Parliament cannot make us more Trav. That answer is I think sufficient to satisfie any reasonable man However we will speak somewhat more particularly concerning this matter as we find it recorded in History Our Author informs us in p. 110. That by our Constitution the Government was undeniably to be divided between the King and his Subjects which by the way is undeniably and notoriously false for according to our ancent Constitution as well under the Saxon as our Norman Kings the Government or the right of Power was originally and solely in our Kings And that divers of the great men speaking with that excellent Prince King Edward the first about it called a Parliament and consented to a Declaration of the Kingdoms right in that point So there passed a Law in that Parliament that one should be held every year and oftner if need be The same he confirms in p. 159. and in other places Now Sir if after these fine Speeches by those great men whom undoubtedly our Author could have named to this excellent Prince it should happen at last that there was no such Act during the Reign of Edward the first what would you think of our Author Merch. In troth Sir it would not alter my opinion for I already believe him to be an impudent magisterial Impostor Trav. I fear indeed he will prove so for except he hath found in his politick search some loose paper that never yet came into our Statute books we must conclude that he is grossly mistaken For the first Act that is extant of that kind was in the
great Power and Trust in so few hands was look'd upon as a great Obligation to those Lords and a great Security to that King so long as their Interests stood united in their new Conquest yet in the next Age when the heat of that Action was over their Interests divided and the Obligation forgotten it proved to the succeeding Kings so great a Curb and Restraint to Sovereignty that nothing fell more intimately into their Care than how to retrench as much as they durst the Power of that Nobility which they began to suspect and was like in time to mate even Monarchy it self Though others foresaw the mischief in time yet none attempted the Remedy untill King John who no sooner began to reign in his own Right for by the way he practis'd a little in his Brother's time and by that Experience found Mat. Paris his Words true of the Barons viz. Quot Domini tot Tyranni But he bethought himself to frame his Counsel of such a Constitution as he might have Credit and Influence upon it To be short he was the first that durst restrain the tumultuary access of the Barons to Council he was the first that would admit of none but such as he should summon and would summon none but such as he thought fitting and besides he would send out Summons to several of the Commons or lesser Tenants mixing them with the Nobles and engaging them thereby to his Interest and whereas before the Council consisted of the Nobility and Clergy he erected a third Estate a Body of the Commons or lesser Tenants which might in some measure equal the rest and be faithful to him All which appears in the Clause Rolls and Patent Rolls of the sixth Year of this King and in vain before that time shall any Man seek either for Summons or Advice of the Commons in any of these great Councils King John having put this Cheque upon the Councils considers next how to ballance the unequal power of the unruly Barons and first he tampers with the Bishops and Clergy sain he would have drawn them into his Party at least to his Dependency but that Tryal cost him dear In the next place therefore that he might create new Dependances and new Strength to himself he becomes a great Patron and Founder or at least Benefactor to many considerable Corporations as Newcastle Yarmouth Lynn and others insomuch that he is taken notice of by Speed and other of our Chroniclers and stiled particularly the Patron of Corporations Thus you see not only when but for what Reason the Institution of the House of Commons was first thought upon and indeed according to their old or first Constitution their Attendance in Parliament or as we say their serving in Parliament was look'd upon rather as an easier Service due to the King than otherwise as a Priviledge granted to the People as may be seen not only in the Case of the Burgesses of St. Albans in temp Ed. 2. recited by the Worthy Dr. Brady against Petit but also by many other good Authorities too long for this place But begging your Pardon for this long Story I now proceed to the second Parenthesis in which he makes no Scruple to accuse his present Majejesty and his late Sacred Father of breaking the Law in adjourning proroguing and dissolving Parliaments Indeed Cousin I know nothing that reflects more truly upon the Constitution of our Government than that it suffers such pestilent seditious Men as our Author seems to be to live under it For nothing sure is more evident in the whole or any part of the Law whether Statute common or customary than that the Kings of England ever since the first Parliament that ever was call'd have had and exercis'd the same Power in adjourning proroguing and dissolving them as his present Majesty or his Father of Blessed Memory ever did And that you may have Plato's own Authority against himself I must anticipate so much of his Discourse as to inform you That in p. 105. you will find these very Words That which is undoubtedly the King 's Right or Prerogative is to Call and Dissolve Parliaments Nay more so great was the Authority and Prerogative of our Kings over the House of Commons according to their old Constitution That they have in their Writs of Summons named and appointed the particular Persons all over England who were to be returned to their Parliaments sometimes have order'd that only one Knight for the Shire and one Burgess for a Corporation should be sent to their Parliaments and those also named to the Sheriffs and sometimes more as may be seen by the very Writs of Edw. 2. and Edw. 3. fully recited by the aforesaid Dr. Brady from p. 243. to p. 252. Besides Sir what is more reasonable and equitable than that our Kings should enjoy the Power of Adjourning Proroguing and Dissolving that their Council or Parliament when and as often as they please since our Kings alone in Exclusion to all other mortal Power in England whatsoever enjoy â—olely the Prerogative of Calling or Assembling these their Parliaments when and where they alone shall think convenient Mer. I confess we generally say That it is a great Weakness in a cunning Man to raise a Spirit which afterwards he cannot lay and that in such case the Spirit tears him in pieces first who rais'd him And I think we have had the Misfortune to see somewhat very tragical of this kind in the beginning of our late Troubles if it were not possibly the great Cause of his late Majesty's fatal Catastrophe But truly excepting that case I never heard the King's Authority in proroguing or dissolving Parliaments question'd before Trav. Well Sir go forward to the twenty fifth Page for all between is nothing but quacking and ridiculous Complements or Matter as little worth our notice Mer. He tells us there that it remains undiscovered how the first Regulation of Mankind began that Necessity made the first Government that every Man by the Law of Nature had like Beasts in a Pasture Right to every thing That every Individual if he were stronger might seise whatever any other had possessed himself of before Trav. Hold a little Sir that we may not have too much Work upon our Hands at once I think he said before at Page 22. That he would not take upon him so much as to conjecture how and when Government began in the World c. This Cousin I cannot pass by because it seems to be the only piece of Modesty which I observe in his whole Treatise And I should commend him for it much but that I have great reason to suspect that he pretends Ignorance only to cover his Knavery and thereby leave room to introduce several other most false and pernicious Principles which we shall endeavour to refute First therefore I shall take the Liberty not only to conjecture but to tell him plainly when and where Covernment began and how also it continued
Government then began with the World and God who had the Sovereign Right of Power over the whole Universe invested Adam with so much as was necessary for the Government of this World and that in such express Words that there can remain no doubt but such as is malicious and willful And God said be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and subdue it and have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Foul of the Air and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth And least those Words every living thing should not yet be general enough to comprehend Mankind God gives Adam the rule over his Wife Eve the only humane Subject that was then upon Earth and from whom all the Race of Mankind was to proceed And surely Adam had naturally a Right of Power over those whom himself begot Unto Cain God gave the rule over his Brother Abel and after God had banish'd him from the Protection of his Father he builds a City and secures it by Walls Can any body be so blind as not to see that Cain was absolutely Governour of the Place and had an undoubted Right of Power over those Subjects which proceeded out of his own Loins I confess the Affairs of that Age before the Flood are a little obscure and since Moses thought fit to pass them over with so great Silence it is reasonable we should do so too But we may most probably conjecture as well from that short History in the Bible as from the Authority of Josephus and after him Grotius That the neglect of Government and of the exercise of Power in those days produc'd the Deluge for formerly Government was but a trouble and as the best of Men cared for no more than was necessary for the Preservation of their particular Families so some were unnatural enough to abandon their Children to the Licentiqusness of their own corrupt Inclinations Whence proceeded Violence as the Text says The Earth was corrupt and filled with Violence And as Grotius tells us Ante Dilâ—vium Gigantum oetate promisoâ—a invaluit coedium Licentia And from thence follow'd the Punishment of their Violence by that universal Cataclisâ— But howsoever it was before the Flood I suppose it will be sufficient for our purpose if we deduce the History of Government and the Right of Power from the Restauration of Mankind to the first Grecian Kingdoms which I hope may be done so plainly and that by the Authority of approv'd Authors that not only Europe Asia and Africa but even America it self according to the imperfect Accounts of Solon Plato and Pliny and of later Authors Josephus Acosta and Herrera will appear to have been repeopled and govern'd absolutely by Fathers of Families But not to embarque into so wide an Ocean as that is we shall keep our selves within the Streights where Affairs being more certainly known they will prove more pertinent to our purpose Which is to shew when and how Governments and the first Regulation of Man began in the World after the Flood I think there are very few who doubt the Truth of the Flood it self Common Experience even in our days in several Countries attesteth it besides most Authors both Greek and Latine agree to it even as it was deliver'd by Moses I confess the Greeks from the Assyrians talk of a Deluge happening under Sythithrus or Xiâ—uthrus as also Ogyges and Deucâ—lion But we are assur'd by Grotius de verit Rel. Christ That they signifie the same in Greek as Noe in the Hebrew Language Philo de proemiis poenis tells us plainly that whom the Chaldaeans call Noe the Greeks call Deucalion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And many other good Authorities there are it being most usual among the Greeks to contrive expressive Names So Plato observes of Solon That he searching into the Force and Signification of the Hebrew Words turned them into the Greek Idiom vim ipsam significationémque nominum personatus ea ipsa nostrâ— vestivit Sermone This being granted I suppose all Men must agree that Noe had a Right of as absolute Power in him as any Man upon Earth ever had Not only as he inherited it from Adam and the rest of Mankind but even from his own Father Otyartes if we will believe Abydâ—us the Assyrian and Alexander Polyhistor who say that Otyartes being dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Son Sisythrus reigned in his stead eighteen Years in which time the Deluge happen'd However a Monarch he was and I do not hear and am confident you will not believe that he receiv'd any Investiture or Right of Power from his Children but that as his Authority was successive so it was divided among his Children according to their Generations by whom the World was progressively re-peopled Mer. But Sir if the World was repeopled progressively as you speak that is to say from Father to Son sure Fathers were more humane than to suffer their Children to live together like Beasts in a Pasture as our Author says Men having not certainly debased their Natures so soon to be equal with the Beasts which perish and turn their young ones out a grazing without any farther Care what became of them Trav. No surely Cousin for besides natural Instinct which we have common with other Creatures and by which we are desirous to preserve our Young God has bestow'd upon us all a rational Soul more than the rest of other Creatures have by which we may find out the best and easiest way to obtain artificially what naturally we thus desire Mer. Methinks then Sir we should easily contrive a way to live happily together and peaceably Peace being undoubtedly more rational and natural than War Nor can I easily believe That naturally we should covet what another hath possess'd himself of before but rather leave that to every Man which he had appropriated to himself and Family Pray Sir is Nature a God or a Devil Trav. Nature is certainly a God or else rather the Opifex Dei whom we call Natura naturata that is the Causa Causata or second general Cause of all sublunary Beings whatsoever God is the first Cause who out of nothing hath made Matter Whether that nothing be a Nothing which to us is incomprehensible Nullam rem è nihilo gigni divinitus unquam or whether it be that Materia prima which some Philosophers have believ'd antecedent to the Elements themselves and which others agreeing with the Rabbins have call'd Hyle Ench. phys Rest Can. 18. by which they seem to mean a kind of Shadow or Darkness incomprehensible the fancy of a thing rather than a thing indeed a Matter without Form yet most desirous and capable of all Form without a Body and yet the Foundation of all Bodies in short a vast abyss of Cold and Night which we cannot comprehend I say whether God created all things out of Nothing which we cannot conceive or out of this materia prima which we can as hardly explain
there reigned any King over the Children of Israel And these are the Names of the Dukes that came of Esau according to their Families after their Places by their Names And Verse the last These be the Dukes of Edom according to their Habitations in the Land of their Possessions he is Esau the Father of the Edomites Now what can be more particular or express than what I have here produc'd Or what can he mean by tracing the Foundation of Polities which are or ever came to our Knowledge since the World began if these will not pass for such He cannot pretend that we should bring a long Roll of Parchment like a Welch Pedigree ap Shinkin ap Morgan and so from the Son to the Father untill we arrive at ap Ismael ap Esau ap Magog ap Javan and so forth that would be too childish to imagine of him for we know very well that all the Kingdoms upon the Earth have oftentimes chang'd their Masters and Families But if he means as surely he must if he mean any thing that we cannot name any such Kingdom or Government that hath been so begun then he is grosly mistaken for the Assyrians the Medes the Ethiopians or Cusoei the Lydians the Jones or Greeks and very many others are sufficiently known and preserve to this day the very names of their first Founders who as is made appear were all Fathers of Families Mer. Cousin I begin to be very weary of this rambling Author Pray therefore let us go on as fast as we can Trav. Read then what follows Mer. As for Abraham whilst he liv'd as also his Son Isaac they were but ordinary Fathers of Families and no question govern'd their Housholds as all others do What have you to say to this Holy Patriarch and most excellent Man Trav. I say we are beholden to our Author that he did not call him a Country Farmer some such a one it may be as in his new Model of the Government is to share the Royal Authority Indeed it is hard that whom the declar'd Enemies to the Hebrew People have thought fit to call a King we who adore the Son of Abraham will not allow to be better than a common Housholder Mer. I confess my Reading is not great but as far as the Bible goes I may adventure to give my Opinion And if I mistake not the Children of Heth own'd him to be a mighty Prince among them Trav. Yes Sir and the Prophet David in the hundred and fifth Psalm calls him the Lords Anointed But because I perceive the Word of God is too vulgar a Study for our Learned Statesman I have found out a Prophane Author who concurs with the History of the Bible And first Justin makes no Scruple to call him in plain Words a King Post Damascum Azillus Mox Adores Abraham Israel Reges fuere lib. 36. Josephus also and Grotius who are Men of no small Repute even amongst the most Learned have quoted Nicolaus Damascenus to vindicate the Regal Authority of Abraham His Words are very intelligible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And tells us moreover that in his Days which was in the Reign of Augustus the Fame of Abraham was much celebrated in that Country and that there was yet a little Town remaining which was called by his Name Mer. I perceive when Men grow fond of their own Imaginations they run over all and neither Reason nor Religion have any Power to stop them Trav. Then he introduceth Samuel upon the Stage chiefly I suppose to insinuate that the People had a Power and did choose themselves a King which is so notoriously false that they never had the least share or pretended any in the election of Saul It is true they chose rather to be govern'd by a temporal King who was to live amongst them and rule as other Kings did than continue under the Government of the King of Heaven and Earth and so the Word chose relates wholly to the Government but not to the Person of the Governour For which Samuel also reproves them and accordingly they acted no farther leaving the Election of their new King wholly to God and their Prophet and God did particularly choose him from the rest of their People and Samuel actually anointed him before the People knew any thing of the matter Afterwards lest some might have accus'd Samuel of Partiality in the Choice he order'd Lots to be cast which in the Interpretation of all men is leaving the Election to God and Saul was again taken What Junius Brutus another old antimonarchical seditious Brother objects concerning renewing the Kingdom at Gilgal where it is said And all the People went to Gilgal and there they made Saul King before the Lord will serve very little to prove any Right of Power in the People no not so much as of Election for confirming and renewing the Kingdom and such like Expressions signifie no more than the taking by us the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which I think were never thought to give the King any Right to the Crown but only a just Right to punish us for our Perjury as well as Disobedience in Case of Rebellion So renewing the Covenant with God as particularly a little before the Death of Joshuah cannot be supposed to give a greater right of Power to God Almighty than what he had before but is only a stricter Obligation for the Peoples Obedience that they might be condemned out of their own Mouths And Joshuah said unto the People See ye are Witnesses against your selves So Samuel makes the People bind themselves to God to their King and to their Prophet that they would faithfully obey him whom the Lord had set over them And behold saith Samuel the Lord hath set a King over you But having spoke more to this purpose elsewhere and the Case being most clear as well by the History it self as by the Authority of Grotius and other learned Men that Saul and the rest of the Hebrew Kings did not in the least depend upon their People but received all their Right of Power wholly from God we will proceed with our Author Only I must note by the way that with the learned Gentleman's leave neither the Sanhedrim the Congregation of the People nor the Princes of the Tribes had any manner of Power but what was subordinate and that only to judge the People according to the Laws and Institutions of Moses And so they continued to the Babylonish Captivity Grotius only observing in favour of the Sanhedrim that they had a particular Right of judging concerning a whole Tribe the High Priest and a Prophet Mer. Well Sir we are now come to our modern despotical Power What say you to Mahomet and Cingis Can. Trav. Prethee Cousin let 's not trouble our selves with those Turks and Tartars they are yet â—ar enough off and not like to trouble us nor does their Government much concern us we have Laws of our own sufficient which
necessary Blessings which Mankind enjoys that Government cannot subsist without Power and that Power is originally in God who is the Fountain of all Power nothing seems more reasonable than that we should deduce all humane Authority from that inexhaustible Source and respect it accordingly I have only one Argument against what you have propos'd which however it may seem strange yet I must beg leave to offer it to you And it is this That I have heard some Learned Men both Ancient and Modern seem to maintain That although God may possibly be the universal Governour of the World or governs the Universe in general as the Sun Moon and Stars and so forth yet that he doth not as being beneath so great a Majesty inspect or mind the little particular Governments of our small Globe of Earth Trav. This is indeed the pernicious Doctrine of the Epicureans which with its Disciples ought to be banish'd all good Governments Qui ex bene moratis urbibus ejecti sunt as Grotius tells us cap. de poenis Ita coerceri posse arbitror nomine humanae Societatis quam sine ratione probabili violant Gassendus I confess in his Treatise de Vita Moribus Epicuri seems too much to favour this Opinion But Grotius whose Judgment I prefer before the Philosophy of both and St. Paul whom we Christians ought to respect before all three tells us Heb. 11. v. 6. That he who cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of those who diligently search him Grotius also in the same Chapter says farther That that Religion which in all Ages has been accounted true is chiefly grounded upon four Principles the third of which he says is this That God takes Care of humane Affairs and determines them according to his most just Decrees à Deo curari res humanas aequissimis Judiciis dijudicari And after he hath quoted to the same purpose Cicero Epictetus Lactantius and others he concludes That Revera negare Deum esse aut negare à Deo curari actiones humanas si moralem effectum respicimus tantundem valet That to deny there is a God or to deny that he regulates humane Affairs is in Effect the same thing And particularly in the same Chapter Sect. 44. he tells us farther that Epicurus when he took away the Providence of God in the Government of the World he left nothing of Justice but the empty Name That Justice is no farther necessary than profitable and that we ought to abstain from hurting one another out of no other Consideration than the Fear that those whom we offend should revenge themselves Epicurus cum Divinam providentiam sustulisset Justitiae quoque nihil reliquit nisi nomen inane c. But these and many other of the Epicurean Principles are rather plausible than solid witty than judicious and striking the Senses are rejected by a sober Vnderstanding Besides Cousin we Christians are obliged by a truer and much more Divine Philosophy to which we have all subserib'd and which is become a publick Law and Rule amongst us and with good Reason for nothing is more dangerous in all Governments than to regulate Publick Actions according to Private Opinions Publick Actions must have Publick Rules and publick Obedience must have Publick Laws under which we must acquiesce untill they be alter'd by Publick Authority otherwise we may eternally wander after the false Lights of foolish Men who from their Extravagancies would be accounted witty Mer. Sir I shall not dispute any farther either your Reasons or your Authorities both which I allow as most authentick pray therefore proceed Trav. Having told you then what Power is I come now to Force and as the first is the spiritual part of Government so the latter is the material part Force is the Arm and Nerve which being animated by lawful Authority produces Power in the general Acceptation which is properly and in a good Sense the Vnion of both Force without this Right is Vis injusta or Violence With it it becomes the just Defence which Nature hath given all Creatures as well as Man to preserve to themselves their Lives Liberties and Possessions Without it that is when we invade the Possessions of another it becomes Robbery and Rapine and is no more excusable in Alexander than the Pyrate Tully de Officiis 3. and Grotius who cites him besides many others tell us the same Truths in plain Words Vt quisque malit sibi quod ad vitae usum pertineat quam alteri acquiri concessum est non repugnante natura Illud natura non patitur ut aliorum spoliis nostras facultates opes copias augeamus And Grotius adds this Consequence Non est ergo contra Societatis naturam sibi prospicere atque consulere dum jus alienum non tollatur Ac proinde nec vis quae jus alterius non violat injusta est It is Right of Power therefore which makes Force justifiable both according to the Laws of Nature and the Laws of Man To conclude Power or Authority and Force are generally so united that they oftentimes are mistaken and pass for one another But they are also sometimes separated as a Right may be from the Possession and by this Instance we may easily distinguish them A lawful Prince hath first Power and Authority to which Force is added A Rebel first procures a Force or Strength and afterwards usurps a Power Mer. This is plain enough and I have nothing to reply Trav. Having then made these necessary Distinctions I affirm That the People which is the Force and Strength of all Kingdoms by how much their Strength is great whether in Land or Personal Estate by so much their Power which is Authority or Right of Government ought to be the less And this not only because it is incongruous and unnatural that the Governed should become their own Governours or that the several destructive Appetites of the Members should train after them the Reason which ought to regulate all but it is also very imprudent and against all the Rules of true Polity and Government For it hath been ever the Rule and Endeavour of wise Men so to ballance Power and Force that neither may offend the other but that by the harmonious Accord of just Commands and faithful Obedience a State may become most happy invincible and eternal Hence Power never ought to assume an adventitious Force such as Mercenary Souldiers which have generally prov'd destructive both to Prince and People nor the People usurp a Power which belongs not to them such as the Seditious Tribunes of Rome often pretended to which lost them both that Power and Liberty which they had Government consists in Command and Obedience whence Empire is defin'd by some to be certus ordo in jubendo parendo Command is the Effect of Power Obedience the Result of both and Peace Happiness and Security the end of all The general Interruption proceeds from
King of Judah to Zachariah the Prophet And they Conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the command of the King 2 Chron. 24. 21. and several other instances there are On the other side when the Sanhedrim intreated Zedekiah that they might put Jeremiah to death by his own single authority he preserv'd him against them Merch. Under favour Sir I have heard this very case of Jeremiah urg'd against the Soveraign power of the Hebrew Kings and produced as an instance to shew the independent right of the Sanhedrim For when they sollicited the King that they might put him to death Zedekiah answered Lo he is in your power the King is not he that can do any thing against you Trav. I confess I have read this example in Junius Brutus and know not which most to wonder at his impudence or his impious knavery The words in the Vulgar Translation which Scaliger esteems the best run thus Ecce in potestate vestra est nam contra vos Rex nihil potest In hoc negotiorum genere scilicet saith Grotius But our brute Author by an unparallell'd wickedness perverts both the sence and words of the Holy Scripture and translates it Ipsis contradicere nulla in re posse And so would make the Sanhedrim so absolute that the King could not contradict them in any thing but we shall discover his imposture by the History it self and practice of Zedekiah even in this very case And it is first certain that the King meant nothing more by this answer than that he left Jeremiah to be Tried by his Judges according to Law And indeed as his affairs stood he was unwilling to displease the Princes in a case which they thought so nearly concerned the good of the people and safety of the King which they believ'd was indanger'd by the discouraging Prophecies of Jeremiah Rex Zedechias says Josephus nè in Principum invidiam tali tempore incurreret voluntati eorum resistens permisit eis ut de Propheta Jeremia quicquid libent facerent lib. 10. c. 10. Yet our Villanous Presbyter is so shameless an Author as to affirm from hence that the Sanhedrim was superiour to the King Rege superiorem q. 3. p. 73. Nay and could judge the King himself Illi Regem judicare possunt which I am confident was never found in the whole History of the Bible But to return to this case We find first that Zedekiah had by his own authority imprison'd Jeremiah ch 30. v. 3. And Jeremiah the Prophet was shut up in the Court of the prison which was in the King of Judah's house For Zedekiah King of Judah had shut him up Next we may observe that the Princes applied themselves to the King that they might have leave to put the Prophet to death and that in terms respectful enough Jer. 38. 4. Therefore said the Princes unto the King We beseech thee let this man be put to death Now what needed this impertinent and indeed abusive complement to the King if the whole authority was in the Sanhedrim or Princes themselves But to take away all manner of dispute we find not only application made to the King to release Jeremiah and his own order thereupon Ebedmelech went forth out of the Kings house and spake unto the King saying My Lord the King these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the Prophet whom thou hast cast into the dungeon c. Then the King commanded Ebedmelech the Egyptian saying Take from hence thirty men with thee and take up Jeremiah the Prophet out of the dungeon before he dies cap. 38. I say besides this we read also in the same chap. That Jeremiah made his address to the King that he might not dye which most assuredly being a Prophet of the Lord he would never have done had it not been in the Kings power to have granted his request or had it been an infringement of the lawful power of the Sanhedrim And thereupon Zedekiah without asking leave of the Elders promis'd him that he should not dye and in terms which sufficiently express his Soveraign authority Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah If I declare it to thee wilt thou not surely put me to death So Zedekiah the King swore secretly to Jeremiah saying As the Lord liveth that made us this soul I will not put thee to death neither will I give thee into the hands of these men that seek thy life v. 15 16. I think these words need no explanation I shall only add this remark to shew the fourberie of our Author which is That in case this story could have pass'd according to his own sense of it yet it would not have prov'd what he design'd it should have done For Zedekiah at that time was not absolute as the former Kings of Judah had been but was tributary to the King of Babylon And when the year was ended c. King Nebuchadnezzar made Zedekiah King over Judah and Jerusalem 2 Chron. 36. 10. Which is confirm'd by Josephus in these words Nebuchadnezzarus exprobat ingratitudinem Zedechiae quod cum à se accepisset regnum accepta potestate abusus esset in authorem beneficii It being then most clear that the Hebrew Kings were absolute or enjoy'd a Soveraign right of power and yet notwithstanding this the property was divided amongst the people who had yet no share in the right of Government but what was subordinate I must conclude that Plato Redivivus is no less impudent and false than his master Junius Brutus was when he affirms universally that if the people had a share in the property they had a share in the Government or where the King had no companions in the Soveraign power he had no sharers likewise in the Dominion or possession of lands Mer. Sir So many men amongst us have asserted an Independent right of power in the Sanhedrim that I cannot yet get off from that opinion unless you can shew me somewhat more particular than yet you have done concerning their institution and that they receiv'd not their power from God but from man which in such case will make them subordinate and subjects Trav. I have already told you that at the request of Moses God was pleas'd to admit of such a Council or Court of Judicature and that then they receiv'd their power not only from the hand of Moses but even from that power which Moses himself had and no new power immediately from God But if this be not plain enough I will offer you another passage by which we shall determine the two main points First whence the Court of Seventy Elders received their authority And secondly How large it was In the first of Deut. v. 13. you shall find Moses thus speaking to the people Take ye wise men and understanding and known amongst the Tribes and I will make them rulers over you So I took the chief of the Tribes wise men c. and I charg'd the Judges
at that time saying c. Here you see the authority proceeding wholly from himself and for its extent you read immediately after that Moses reserves all appeals to himself which is the undoubted mark of Supreme Authority And the cause which is too hard for you bring it unto me and I will hear it And so you see in the forementioned cases of David Jehosaphat Zedekiah and others that the practice was conformable to the institution where the Kings of Judah exercised their Soveraign power even in those cases which belonged most particularly to the knowledge of the Sanhedrim This Brutus confesses in express words who contradicts himself as such false men do in most that he says Propterea boni Reges quales David Jehosaphat caeteri quia omnibus jus dicere ipsi non potuissent etsi in gravioribus causis ut è Samuele apparet supremum sibi judicium recipiebant nil prius vel antiquius habuerunt quam ut Judices bonos peritos ubique locorum constituerent q. 3. p. 89. Of these Judges the greater Court was call'd Sanhedrim Gedola the Supreme Senate the lesser Sanhedrim Ketanna the lesser and inferiour Court The lesser was again subdivided and out of these were Judges distributed into most of the Cities for the ease of the people From them appeal might be made to the Court or Sanhedrim Gedola which always was at Jerusalem and who had many priviledges above the others possibly not much unlike our House of Lords at this day Now Cousin if I understand Latin and English I think the case is plain that the Hebrew Kings notwithstanding the Sanhedrim had the sole Soveraign right of power But I refer all to your better Judgment Mer. I have nothing to reply against Scripture arguments especially when they are so clear as these seem to be I am only afraid that this great trouble which I have given you hath taken away the pleasure you might have had in viewing our Country and talking of some other more diverting subject But presuming still upon your goodness I must desire that you would compleat the Reformation which you have more than begun in me and by giving me some account of the Gothick Government which it seems hath prevail'd in a great part of Europe you may make me capable of defending the doctrine and the good constitution of our Government against all hot-brain'd and ambitious innovators Trav. Sir I have no greater pleasure than in obeying your commands nor have I lost thereby the advantage of this fine evening The Goths therefore if we may believe Jordanes who was himself of that race and whom Procopius writing only of the latter Goths no where contradicts broke out of the Island Scanzia or Scandinavia and with all their substance men women and children advanc d south-east And after several Skirmishes and Victories by the way they at last sat down about the palus Moeotis Here they inhabited many years and following the warmth of the Sun spread Eastwards towards the South of Scythia and the lower Asia Their Government all this while which lasted many hundred of years was an absolute Monarchy and the Tenth part of the lands were generally appropriated to the support of their Prince who descended from father to son as at this day amongst us and in Ottofrising you have a long catalogue of their names and an account of their memorable actions But in process of time those Northern people propagating very much under a warmer climate than their own a great detachment past over into Europe whence came the distinction of the Visigoths and Ostrogoths which is as much as to say the Southern and the Western Goths The latter spread themselves over Germany and France and erected several Kingdoms Their Government was Arbitrary enough and somewhat more than that of the Germans Paulo jam addictius regnantur quam caeterae Germanorum gentes saith Tacitus de moribus Germ. Yet we find the Germans themselves under a Kingly Government the lands divided and yet neither their Noblemen nor people had any other share in the Government than by way of Council or a subordinate authority for the Administration of Justice whch is much different from a right of Power or Command Agri pro numero cultorum ab universis per vices occupantur quos mox inter se secundum dignitatem partiuntur These were like great Farms which they chose according as the situation pleas'd them Colunt discreti ac diversi ut fons ut nemus ut campus placuit Their Councils were compos'd of the Commoners and of the Nobility but were distinct and the Noblemen had the greatest interest De minoribus rebus Principes consultant de majoribus omnes Ita tamen ut ea quoque quorum penes plebem arbitrium est apud Principes pertractentur But in all these elder Governments we must consider their circumstances which were confus'd and much different from those which are at this day established generally all the world over The people were more barbarous than now they are unsetled and much addicted to wars Whence they appear'd more like the children of Israel in the Wilderness than the people of God in Jerusalem And I cannot think that their polities though they make little against us ought to be propos'd by any sober man as examples for our imitation We come now to the Ostrogoths as nearer to our time and purpose A great body then of these passing the Danube possessed themselves of Hungary or Pannonia and some of Thrace where they inhabited sorty eight years In Hungary they had their Kings and paid them too such an awful obedience that they esteemed it the greatest impiety so much as to whisper any thing that detracted from their honour Solummodo susurris lacerare nefas ducunt And if by chance any of the Noblemen should have offended their King though in never so small a matter and even unjustly accus'd yet the poorest Scullion belonging to and sent by the King had a power though alone to seize that Nobleman encompassed and guarded by all his friends and adherents And thus without Messenger or Serjeant both imprisoneth or otherwise punisheth the unhappy offender according to the Order of the Prince whose Will passeth amongst all for an unquestionable Law Quod si aliquis ex comitum ordine regem vel in modico offenderit quando etiam iniustè infamatus fuerit quilibet infimae conditionis lixa a Rege missus Comitem licet satelliâ—ibus suis stipatum solus comprehendit c. Sola Principis voluntas apud omnes pro ratione habetur Ottofris de reb gest Fred. primi lib. 1. ca. 31. Now if Plato Redivivus will needs produce ancient customs among the Goths and impose them without any farther consideration upon us I hope he will give me leave also to offer the example of these Loyal Ostrogoths which I am sure if duly followed would prove a better cure for us whatever our disease be than
us Trav. Sir you may easily believe that if the people were Masters of the Government they would not fail to give themselves large proportions of the lands But this made their Government so irregular and subject to so many inconveniencies that instead of being setled according to the exact rules of the Polities as our Author thinks it was most insupportable and not capable of any long subsistence And in effect we see both their name and government so totally extinct that those people who possessed almost all Europe are not now to be found in any part of it Such was the case of the once flourishing Kingdom of the Jews which when the Seditious people as Menahemus Eliazarus and others endeavoured to set up a popular Government was utterly destroy'd and of two such mighty Nations nothing is left but some few wandring remains or old rustick monuments which serve only to testifie that they once have been I confess had the authority of the Gothick Kings been Absolute and Independent I know no great inconvenience that their distribution of the lands could have produced Yet that too ought to be done with discretion and good consideration or many mischiefs and ruine in the end may ensue To this purpose our Author I thank him hath put us in mind of a memorable example For Plutarch tells us that Cleomenes King of Sparta endeavouring to make himself Absolute slew the Ephori And the better to ingratiate himself with the people divided the lands amongst them But being desperately attack'd by Antigonus King of Macedon before he had well established his Soveraign Authority he could not raise money to pay either his Mercenary soldiers or his own Citizens Whence for want of that power he was totally routed Lacedemon sack'd and the whole Kingdome became a Province to the Macedonians Mer. Without doubt many Contingencies may happen in which an Absolute Power in the Prince may prove the greatest security to a Kingdom against a Foreign Invasion For whilst the people are consulted withal or intreated to contribute toward the necessary expences of war by an untimely frugality and indiscreet husbandry the whole may be lost I remember a story very apposite to this purpose in the wars between the Greeks and Turks under Constantine the Fifteenth and last Christian Emperour of Greece The numerous Army of the Turks had so wasted the besieged in Constantinople that Constantine had no hopes of preserving the City but by a supply of Mercenary Soldiers To procure these a considerable sum of mony was requisite But the brutal and covetous Greeks would not be prevail'd upon to part with any thing at present though they had no other hopes to preserve all for the future So the unfortunate Emperour was slain and the City taken and sack'd from top to bottom with all the insolences that might be expected from a Pagan Conquerour Among the Greeks the Admiral Notaras was accounted the most rich and had been the most solicited by the Emperour to prevent by a chearful contribution and his good example the fatal hour of the Grecian Empire But cursed avarice doth often blind our reason so much that we are forc'd to yield That to our enemies which might have once preserv'd our friends And so it happened For Notaras burying all his Treasure whilest the Siege endured at last to preserve his life and complement the New Emperour Mahomet the second he raised his dead money from the grave and presenting iâ— with himself at the Emperour's feet offer'd the one to secure the other But the generous Turk looking sternly upon him Thou dog said he I take thy Treasure not as thy gift but as my due by right of conquest Which hadst thou in time given to thy poor Prince whom thou hast perfidiously betray'd thou mightest have preserv'd both thy Country and thy King Go then with a mischief and receive the just reward due to thy Treachery So he commanded him to be executed with no less severity than if he had been a Traytor even to Mahomet himself But Sir Begging your pardon for this Digression let us return to the Goths of whom I think you were saying That they have left little behind them which retains the memory that they once have been Pray what say you to those Tenures which are yet extant in many parts of Europe Were they not of the Gothick institution and do they not sufficiently testifie not only that they were but that they were also a wise people since their Government has remain'd so long after them Trav. Sir I perceive you use the word Government promiscuously as indeed our Author himself does Sometimes he makes it signifie the Supreme right of power sometimes the Subordinate and sometimes neither but only the effects of Government as in this case Now though these Tenures have remained in some Kingdoms yet they prove little of the wisdom and nothing of the excellent Government of those Goths For the last it is either totally lost or else so changed that it is not any more to be known For I do not hear or read of any such precarious Kingdom as theirs was extant at this day in Europe Nor is it probable there should for as hath been already observed such a constitution is so irregular and contrary to the nature of Government that it cannot continue long in that neutrality For either the people will take all the power into their hands whence some little Commonwealths have sometimes sprung up or else the King will by degrees become absolute and independent such as most of the Monarchs are at present throughout the whole world And for their Tenures you will easily find how they were continued if you consider that many little Kingdoms have been built upon the ruines of the declining Roman Empire which had been overrun by the Goths and Vandalls Roman paulatim coepit minui jam gentes quae Romanorum provincias non regna habitabant Râ—ges creare jam ex illorum potestate subduci in proprii arbitrii authoritate stare discunt These new Princes thought nothing more conducible to the establishment of their new Governments than to make as little innovation as they could but rather leave the conquered who were afterwards to become their Subjects in the same condition as they found them And those Tenures having no great matter of ill in them provided their Lords had no right in the Soveraign Authority as they had not many of them have continued with little alteration to this day This Cousin is I think sufficient to prove that contrary to our Author's proposition most Kings which have been in the world though they had an absolute and an independent right of power yet they have permitted the Lands to be divided and in the possession of the people And that though in the mixt Monarchy of the barbarous Goths and Vandalls some part of the power as well as possessions were in the Commonalty yet that is no reason to us why
the King hath inherently antecedently and by Birth-right a Soveraign authority over all his people and this is confirm'd to him both by Statute Common Law and Custom according to that of 19. H. 6. 62. The Law is the inheritance of the King and people by which they are rul'd King and people But if the Commonwealths men gain their point if the Association and its brat bloody murder had taken its damnable effect then Government had most plainly signified the People and that is truly our Authors meaning for the words which immediately follow are these Nor is it to be imagin'd that they would give him more power than what was necessary to govern them What can be the antecedent to They and Them but the word Subjects which precedes in the beginning of the Sentence This is the true Presbyterian or Phanatick way of speaking their most mischievous Treasons which like a Bizzare with a little turn of the hand represents ether the Pope or the Devil But since we are so plainly assured of his meaning I 'll take the liberty for once to put it plainly into words and I think it will then run thus That our King having neither by birthright nor by a long undoubted Succession of above six hundred years any Authority of his own but only that which the people have intrusted in him for they would give him no more than what was just necessary to govern them p. 119. the people in whom the Soveraign power resides may call this their minister otherwise called King to an account for the administration of this his trust and in case he should not acquit himself according to their expectation the Soveraign Subject might punish this their Subject King turn him out of his office as all Supreme governours may their subordinate officers nay and set up any other form of Government whatsoever without doing any manner of injustice to their King This is our Authors doctrine as appears not only by inevitable consequences drawn from this mâ—tuated or fide-commissary power which he hath placed in the King but from the whole context and course of his Libel Now though Hell it self could not have invented a proposition more notoriously false though the whole Association could not have asserted a more Traiterous principle though the Supreme power or Soveraign right of Government hath been fixed to the imperial Crown of England ever since the beginning of History or Kings amongst us or the memorial of any time though more than twenty Parliaments which are the wisdom and Representatives of the whole Nation have by several explanatory Acts and Statutes confessed declared and affirmed that this Soveraign Authority or power of England is solely in the King and his laâ—â—ul Heirs and Successors in exclusion to all other mortal power whatsoever Rex habet potestatem jurisdictionem super omnes qui in regno suo sunt Nay although all the Power Priviledges Liberties and even the Estates of the people proceeded originally from the meer bounty of our Kings as both ancient and modern Authors and Histories have evidently made it appear And after all notwithstanding our Author hath not produced one single authority or one little peice of an Act Statute or Law to prove that the Soveraign power is in the people or that the King held his authority only in trust from them as he plainly affirms or when they entrusted him with it or had it in themselves to grant yet by an unparallelled piece of impudence and vanity he dares to bring his own private opinion in competition with the wisdom learning practice decrees and justice of the whole Nation condemn our Ancestors as betrayers of the peoples rights and priviledges and by a single ipse dixit prove himself the only true Physician learned Statesman and except some who in most Ages have been Executed for their most horrid Treasons the only worthy Patriot of his Countrey and Defender of its rights Now lest some of our ignorant and infatuated multitude like the Children of Hamel should dance after our Authors popular and Northern Bagpipe until he precipitates them all into inevitable ruin and destruction I am resolved not to insist at present upon his Majesties Hereditary and undoubted Soveraign right of power which he now possesses not only by prescription and a Succession of more than eight hundred years but by all the Laâ—s of the Land as hath been already declared and the universal consent of all his good Subjects confirmed by their Oaths of Allegeance from which none but Rebels and perjured men can depart I will not I say at present urge those arguments which are sufficient to convince opiniastrete and wilful ignorance it self but will attack him in his strongest Gothick â—orts and the rational part upon which he seems most to value himself And first for these Goths I cannot find in any History when it was they came over into England nay I am confident that all Learned men will agree that there is no probable conjecture from any Author that they ever have been here or crost our Seas or came nearer us than Normandy one argument amongst others is the flourishing condition of our Island above France where the Goths and Vandalls had made some ravage in point of Learning and Sciences insomuch that Alcuinus an Englishman and Scholar to the Venerable Bede was sent unto Charles the Great to whom he became Doctor or Professor in Divinity Astronomy and Philosophy and by his direction erected the University of Paris But to return to our Goths it is certain that at first they travelled South-East which is very different from South-West such as iâ— our situation from theirs And yet our politick Author tells us positively according to his usual method that they establish'd their government in these parts after their conquest p. 93. And endeavouring to prove in p. 46. and 97. that according to their institution the people had an influence upon the Government he tells us that the Governments of France Spain and England by name and other countries where these people setled were fram'd accordingly Here we see our Country conquer'd and an excellent form of Government establish'd by the Goths so good and admirably just that we in this age must quit our happy Monarchy which hath subsisted most gloriously many Hundreds of years only to run a wool-gathering after these precarious Gothick Princes and yet no man could ever tell us when this conquest happen d nor by whom nor what became of them nor indeed any thing more than what the extravagant fancy of our Author hath imagin'd As for the Romans who conquer'd us sure they were neither Goths nor Northern people and so nothing can be pretended from that Conquest nor are the Saxons who next invaded us to be called Northern people by us at least who lye so much North to them our selves But forgiving Plato all his absurdities and incongruities the rather that we may find out the Truth and confound him with
away the Kings Prerogative in the Affirmative Yet notwithstanding this and ten times more that may be said to this purpose our King is advised and perswaded nay almost necessitated as our Author would have it not only to quit some One of his Prerogatives but to make short work to release and give them up all at once In the next place let us consider Plato's excellent new model it self and here like a wise Politician he hath made Three co-ordinate powers in being at the same time that is to say King Lords and Commons I confess for the King he says little of him and with great reason for indeed he signifies nothing more than a Cypher which as in Arithmetick is only to make the Commons more valuable But to do our Author right he hath yet a farther use to make of this his otherwise useless Prince that is to say whilest neither his own Right nor his Power nor our Laws can secure himself his Name nevertheless is to preserve these his Masters With that they hope to prevent all opposition and civil wars at home For should they forceably depose him they justly apprehend that his Loyal Subjects in England would endeavour to revenge such an insupportable wrong Nor can they believe that the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland would again tamely submit their Necks to the servile yoke of a few ambitious English Commoners or that foreign Princes themselves would even for their own securities sake quietly and unconcern'd countenance this horrid injustice and outrage done to the sacred dignity of Kings But if they can perswade his Majesty willingly to depose himself and at the same time disinherit his Heirs and Successors they imagine that none can pretend to disapprove much less blame or impute to them the volunry act of a King For as Volenti non fit injuria and by consequence no offence in them so they will certainly reserve to themselves the honour of punishing in the King as their master-piece and last act of justice the Treason which he shall have committed against himself To facilitate all this our Author hath taken from his Majesty his Militia and his Revenue that is men and monâ—y which are the strength and sinews of Power and in the Commoners he hath plac'd the Royal authority of Calling Proroguing and Dissolving themselves And left the King in this miserable condition should have yet any hopes left even of securing his own Person he hath taken from him the power of making his own Officers and bestowing those imployments which have always depended upon the Regal authority Nay the Lords themselves are no more to receive their Honours from the Fountain of all Honour but must lick the dust from the shooes of their once obsequious vassals So our poor Master having nothing now to give must lose the hopes even of a grateful friend who in his extremity might at least wish him well and speak a good word for him to his insolent Governours Mer. But Sir our Author leaves most of these things in the disposition of the Parliament by which he tells us that he ever understood the King Lords and Commons so that neither his Militia nor Revenue can be said to be so absolutely taken from himself as granted to the Parliament in general of which he is still to be the head Trav. Ah Cousin there is deadly poison in this his varnished treacherous Cup and you will easily perceive it when you consider Plato cares not so much that the Militia should be in the power of the Commons as out of the King For whilest the King cannot dispose of it without the consent of his Lower House judge you whether they will ever agree to the raising any force which they shall not themselves command If then any difference arise upon that or any other point which unavoidably and designedly will happen then are the Commoners become immediately masters of all For what can the King do though joyn'd with the House of Lords without a right of command or force against a multitude and that so unequal too that if the House of Commons in Parliament represent the whole Nation as they pretend they do then are they at least ten thousand men against one though all the Nobility be included with the King The necessary consequence of all this must be that if on the one hand the King and Lords agree with the Commons in all things then the Commons govern more absolutely than if there were neither the one nor the other because there is no pretence against them On the other hand if they in any thing differ from the Commons then undoubtedly the disagreeing Lords as formerly shall be turned out of doors the King set aside and the Votes made by the House of Commons Jan. 4. 1648 revived and confirmed which being very short but plain I shall here repeat First That the people under God are the original of all just power Secondly That the Commons of England assembled in Parliament being chosen by and representing the people have the Supreme Authority of this Nation Thirdly That whatever is enacted and declared for Law by the Commons of England assembled in Parliament hath the force of a Law Fourthly That all the people of this Nation are included thereby although the consent and concurrence of the King and House of Peers be not had thereunto What think you now Cousin of these four Votes even whilst the King and Lords were yet in being Do they not look as if they designed a Commonwealth or rather to establish an arbitrary Tyrannical power in the House of Commons and yet their propositions all along to the King were the same which Plato hath again offered us that is leaving the Militia the publick revenue nomination of officers and such like to the Parliament by which was always meant King Lords and Commons This is the politick web which our Author pretends to have spun out of his own shallow brains and indeed it is so very wondrous thin that if our present Statesmen could not with half an eye see through it I should be apt to agree with our Author p. 22. that they ought in conscience to excuse themselves from that sublime imployment and betake themselves to callings more suitable to their capacities as Shoomakers Tailors and such other mechanick professions Merch. Sir the Sun at noon day is never more clear than that he designs at best a Commonwealth And indeed where three co-ordinate powers are in being at the same time it is impossible they should continue long in that state but some one or two must certainly in time over balance and get the advantage of the other I think Lucan confirmed this long ago when he said Nulla fides regni sociis omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit And the King having neither power strength money nor officers it is ten thousand to one as you observe on the Commons side who are actually possessed of all Pray therefore proceed
whole Nation when joyn'd with so considerable a part as the Church of England they were both overcome by the Dissenters it was morally impossible Besides they had generally taken the Oath of Allegiance which for ought I can hear they have not broken generally I suppose for if there be any of them who refuse the Oath of Allegeance I look upon them as out of the Kings Protection and little better or full as dangerous as open enemies Nor can I imagine what other Government they could or were ever suppos'd to introduce contrary to that which was then establish'd and which they swore to maintain I am apt enough to believe that they might hope for some ease or exemption from the rigour of the penâ—l Laws which neither you nor I can blame in them if they had desir'd Mer. But though they have taken the Oath of Allegeance yet you see that they will not be prevail'd upon to take the Oath of Supremacy And you know that according to our Law the King is no less head of the Ecclesiastical than of the Civil Government Trav. True Sir But this is as much an argument against the Dissenters as the Papists For it is not a greater crime in them nor prejudice to the State to tolerate men who by the principles of their Religion are taught to submit their Consciences to another Spiritual guide in Spiritual matters as many Soveraign Princes themselves do at this day than those who owning the King to be Supreme head of the Church by their words disown him by their actions that is in not obeying his Laws or Rebelling against him as such Besides it is well known that the general opinion of the Popish Recusants the Laity I mean concerning the Pope's Supremacy hath no ill influence upon our Civil Government which is that which I chiefly intend in this discourse but that they think themselves indispensably oblig'd to defend our Lawful Kings and their Civil Authority not only against all temporal powers whatsoever but even against the Pope himself Mer. This Sir I have heard much controverted and the contrary opinion affirm'd by some of their own Writers that is to say That the Pope may and doth Excommunicate heretick Kings as he calls them By which act their Subjects are no more bound to pay them their obedience nay and can absolve the people from their Oath of Allegeance and impower them to depose their natural and lawful Prince and set up some other in his stead Now Sir this is such a doctrine as makes the Papists uncapable of ever being trusted under any Protestant Government Trav. I confess Sir I have heard that some private men have maintain'd some such erroneous and perniciouâ— Principles and flattering the Pope have endeavoured to raise his power to a much sublimer pitch than ever Christ himself or any of his Apostles pretended it should arrive But Sir as Temporal Princes have been ever usurping upon one another and by most unchristian ways sacrificed the innocent blood of many thousands of men for the promoting their own greatness and satisfying their ambitious designs so these Spiritual Emperours have follow'd too much the ill examples of Temporal Princes And being it may be more solicitous to extend their power than encrease the number of true believers have perverted the good use of St. Peters Keys and have rather opened by them the door of dissention and discord upon earth than the gates of the Heavenly Paradise For some years these holy Fathers exercised their arms against one another and how much blood and horrid troubles the dispute between the Bishop of Rome and Patriarch of Constantinople concerning Primacy hath cost Christendom is sufficiently recorded in History I may add farther that this their contention became at last the ruine of the Greek Empire but hitherto the Temporal Princes enjoy'd their rights and Prerogatives undisturb'd until Hildebrand otherwise called Gregory the seventh arrogated to himself a Soveraign authority over all Christian Kings and Emperours as may be seen at large in the History of Henry the fourth Emperour of Germany who was the first unfortunate example of the Papal usurpation which is confirm'd by a learned Roman Catholick Bishop and one who lived in the Reign of Fred. the first his words are these Lego relego saith he Romanorum Regum Imperatorum gesta nunquam invenio quenquam eorum ante hunc à Romano Pontifice excommunicatum vel regno privatum nisi forte quis pro Anathemate habendum ducat quod Philippus ad breve tempus à Romano Episcopo inter poenitentes collocatus Theodosius à beato Ambrosio propter cruentam caedem à liminibus Ecclesiae sequestratus sit Ottofrising c. 35. After this several encroachments were made upon other Princes and the Popes making use as well of St. Paul's Sword as St. Peter's Keys reduc'd most of them under their obedience and as the same Author expresses it destroy'd them by that very power which they had first receiv'd from the benevolence of the Emperours themselves seeming to imitate therein the Prophet David who first overcame the Philistine by the providence of God and then cut off his head with his own Sword Videntur culpandi Sacerdotes per omnia qui regnum suo gladio quem ipsi à regum habent gratia ferire conentur nisi forte David imitari cogitent qui Philistinum priâ—o virtute Dei stravit postmodum prâ—prio gladio jugulavit Now Sir after the Popes were in possession of these great Prerogatives and had perswaded the people to contribute as well to their own as their Princes slavery by granting them this universal right of power it is no wonder if some of their own Clergy have endeavoured by false arguments to maintain this usurp'd authority But Cousin it is well known that this is now become no more than an old antiquated title and gives him no right over Soveraign Princes at this day It is true those Princes who submitted themselves to the constitutions of the Council of Treâ—t permit the Pope to exercise some Spiritual Jurisdiction in their Kingdoms But it is universally and publickly declared that the Popes have no Civil or Temporal Authority over Soveraign Princes nor can they by their Spiritual power or authoritate clavium Ecclesiae depose any King or absolve any Subject from their Faith Obedience or Oath of Allegeanâ—e Mer. Can you give an instance of 〈…〉 made by any Popish Kings and consented to by the Roman Clergy Trav. Yes Sir and that so fully that there can remain no scruple or difficulty and it is by the most Christian King of France and eldest son of the Roman Church and a severe persecutor of the Protestant Religion I will give you the words of the Declaration it self as far as it concerns this particular that you may the better judge your self of the truth It is Declared by the Gallick Church Primum beato Petro ejusque successoribus Christi Vicariis ipsique
so necessary to be effected that it was morally impossible to succeed in the former until the latter was actually executed It being then most certain that our Authors intention was to establish a Common wealth I shall now give you my reasons why we ought not upon any terms to admit of it And first I shall not insist much upon those vulgar inconveniences which are visible to all men As for example the inevitable consequences of most bloudy wars For can any rational man believe that all the Royal family should be so insensible of their right and honour as never to push for three Kingdoms which would so justly belong to them or could they be supposed to leave England under their popular usurpation what reason hath Scotland to truckle under the Domination of the English Commonalty What pretence hath the English Subject supposing they were to share in the English Government over the Kingdom of Scotland All the world knows that that Kingdom belongs so particularly to our King that the late Rebells themselves did not scruple to call him King of the Scots Why should Ireland also become a Province to an English Parliament Or should both Kingdoms be willing to shake off the Government of their Natural Lawful and antient Monarchy why should they not set up a Democracy or an Aristocracy or what else they pleas'd amongst themselves Is there never a Statesman in the three Kingdoms but Plato Redivivus Can none teach them to Rebel but he No rules to maintain an usurpt Authority but what we find among his extravagancies I am confident you do not believe it Shall these people notoriously known to have hated one another whilst formerly they were under different Governours become the strictest friends when they shall return unto those circumstances under which they were the greatest enemies Will the French King take no advantage having so good a pretext of our Divisions Or should we unite against him under our popular Governours was it ever known that a Confederate army was able to defend themselves long against an Army of equal strength commanded by one sole absolute Monarch Can we foresee any thing but most desperate wars and can wars be supported but by most heavy taxes Were not our Thimbles and Bodkins converted in the late times into Swords and Mortar pieces and by a prodigious transmutation never before heard of were not our Gold and Ear-rings turn'd into a brazen Idol These consequences Cousin and dismal effects of a Commonwealth besides many other are so obvious that I shall not spend any more time to mind you of them Supposing then that none of those former horrid inconveniences might happen I must mind you by the way that one reason why our Author and the Associators desire a Commonwealth proceeds from the fear of a certain Arbitrary power which they pretend the King would introduce as may be seen pag. 161. 208 and in several other places Now Though nothing be more extravagant than such a groundless imagination our Author having assured us that his Majesty never did one act of Arbitrary power since his happy restoration And moreover pag. 176. That our laws against Arbitrary power are abundantly sufficient Yet that we may no more dispute this point I must produce Plato's own authority against himself in these words That the King fears his power will be so lessened by degrees that at length it will not be able to keep the Crown upon his head pag. 208. Nay farther in pag. 214. he shews us That it is impossible he should ever become an Arbitrary King For his present power as little as it is is yet greater than the condition of property can admit and in a word from his beloved Aphorism and the whole course of his Libel he endeavours to prove that Dominion being founded on the property and the property being in the people the King can have no manner of hopes upon earth of becoming absolute nor introducing an Arbitrary Government but by some Army of Angels from Heaven who must procure him an Authority which he cares not for The next and main reason why our Author would set up a Democracy at least as far as I can collect from the whole scope of his discourse is because the State inclines to popularity Now Sir for this last time I must make use of our Author 's own reasons against his own positions and do affirm that for this very reason were there no other all sober men and true Politicians ought to oppose with their utmost endeavours a Popular Government I will not recount to you the many mischiefs desolations and destructions which a popular power hath brought along with it whereever it goâ—â—he better of the antient Established Government of the place Somewhat hath been already said to this purpose in our discourse and much more may be read in the Histories of most parts of the world to which I refer you and shall only mind you of some inevitable consequences which will follow such an innovation amongst our selves And first if it be true that the King hath no power to make himself absolute then we have no cause to apprehend an Arbitrary power in him and by consequence no reason to change But if the inclination of the people be such that they will take advantage of the King's want of power and introduce their own Government what moderation may we expect from men towards those who are to become their Subjects who shaking off all sense of Justice Law Religion and temper dare usurp the Soveraign authority over their natural Governour Where shall we appeal for mercy when having cut the throat of the most merciful King in Europe we expose our own to our ambitious and unmerciful Tyrants Where shall we expect compassion towards our selves when we shall become Parricides and Regicides to our father and our King Where shall we seek after Eqâ—ity when the House of Lords the supreme Court of Equity are most unjustly turn'd out of doors and what end of our miseries can we ever hope for when our Tyrants by our villanous Authors constitution have not only got all the Wealth and Militia into their hands but have perpetuated their usurpation by annual Parliaments never to end Who being Judges of their own priviledges p. 254. may regulate elections as they shall think fit p. 249. Sit Adjourn Prorogue and Dissolve as they alone shall judge expedient What more barbarous villany was ever propos'd and publish'd under a lawful and peaceable Government besides our own upon earth But suppose our poor Country thus enslav'd and our antient Kingdom turn'd into a Common-wealth what can our new masters do for us more than is already done Can our libâ—rties be greater as to our persons and estates It is impossible to suppose it Will our properties be more secur'd all the Laws that ever were upon earth under any Government cannot make them more inviolable Nothing then can remain but liberty in Religion which we call of
to the Origines Sacroe of Dr. Stillingfleet or Mr. Gale's Court of the Gentiles For the Reason of his History especially as it relates to the Creation of Man nothing seems more just than that God Almighty who is the Fountain of all Wisdom and Goodness should have rather chosen to propagate the World at first as he did at last after the Flood by Succession than by such a promiscuous Production of the Earth as is before mention'd that even thereby he might prevent as he did that State of War suppos'd by our Author and those many Mischiefs and Inconveniences which would attend an Equality intolerable and never yet known upon the Earth And notwithstanding the ridiculous Arguments of Mr. Hobbs and some others they could never yet produce any good Authorities or Examples where this Equality was ever to be found except in their own Understandings The Learned Pompenatius in his Treatise de immort Animoe tells us That if the Inequality which is amongst Men were taken away the Race of Mankind would be destroy'd or at best subsist with great Inconvenience and that it is not the occasion of Discord but rather of the most perfect Harmony Hoecque inoequalitas si toleretur aut genus hâ—manum periret aut non commodè constaret Neque inoequalitas inter homines commensurata tamen debet discordiam parare imo sicut in symphonia vocum commensurata diversitas concentum delectabilem facit siâ— commensurata diversitas inter homines perfectum pulchrum decorum delectabilem generat On the other side by this successive Propagation God hath secur'd Man's Preservation and that by introducing a natural form of Government and Obedience so certain and so reasonable that it might have continued even to this day had not the Negligence of the Governours in the first Age permitted a Confusion And the Ambition and Avarice both of the Governours and Governed in the latter Age so entangled the Reins that they have made it sometimes as hard to drive as to be driven In the next place the compiling of the Law of Moses shews so demonstrably the Wisdom and Reason of the Law-giver that his Laws have been the Ground and Patterns for the best and most ancient both of the Attick or Greek as well as Roman Institutions And lastly for Testimony concerning the Veracity of his History we find even the very Particulars confirm'd by the most ancient Authors Hesiod Homer and Euripides declare That Man was made out of Clay Callimachus calls Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lutum Prometheum The History of Adam and Eve of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Serpent are attested by Sanchuniathon In the most ancient of the Grecian Ceremonies and Mysteries they used to shew a Serpent crying out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Eva Hesychius Clemens in protreptico and Chalcidius ad Timoeum tell us that according to the account of Moses God forbad our Fore-fathers the eating of the Fruit of certain Trees left thereby they should come to the Knowledge of good and Evil ex quibus notitia boni malique animis eorum obreperet The Story of the Gyants is attested by Pausanias Philostratus and Pliny Berosus and Abydenus the Assyrian with many others give a perfect Account of the Deluge Trogus Pompeius Polemones Manetho Lysimachus and others of the flight of the Children of Israel out of Aegypt under the Conduct of Moses himself All which and a great deal more to this purpose abundantly confirm the Authority of Moses his History and oblige our Approbation and Belief even without the express and indisputable Command both of God and Man Mer. I am perfectly satisfy'd and shall reap this advantage from the long Trouble I have given you that I shall henceforward apply our Authors Propositions to the History of Moses and according as they are conformable to it approve them or otherwise if contrary totally reject them and for the present am sufficiently convinc'd that the first Regulation of Mankind began from paternal Governments For his Necessity universal Right to all things the regulating of Ownership and Property and the Mediation of some wise men for the consenting to the establishing a Government I shall look upon them hereafter as canting Terms contriv'd by some Commonwealths Men and not at all consonant to Reason or Truth especially since he hath not produc'd one Instance of any Government originally so begun against twenty which you have and I believe can produce for the deducing many great Governments from Fathers of Families Trav. You will find that the force of all his reasoning quite through his Book depends chiefly upon such canting Propositions as you have here repeated But pray proceed Mer. He tells us then p. 31. That could we trace all Foundations of Polities that now are or ever came to our Knowledge since the World began we shall find none of them to have descended from Paternal Power Trav. Did you ever meet with a more impudent or more ignorant Author You remember I suppose those Instances which I have already produc'd to demonstrate the repeopling the World by Fathers of Families which are confirm'd to us by approv'd and irreproachable Authors Besides what is more notoriously known than the History of the Edomites or the Posterity of Esau or Edom and the Hatred which continued in his Family against the Sons of Jacob when they deny'd the Israelites Passage through their Country Nay so certain is it that that great Nation descended from Edom who was the eldest Son of Isaac and Father of his Family and that they spread as far as the Red Sea that the Greeks themselves from his Name Edom which they interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have left the Name of Mare Erythroeum even to this day Nor less known is the Genealogy of Ismael the Son of Abraham from whence the Ismaelites or Arabians whom Epiphanius calls the Saracens are lineally descended And as a constant Mark of their unquestionable Descent from Ismael they have to our Age retain'd the Custom of being circumcised after the thirteenth Year according to what we find written of their Father Ismael himself There are besides as I told you many more undoubted Instances in those Authors which I have already nam'd to you And if our Politician hath any respect for the Holy Bible and History of Moses let me recommend him to the twenty fifth Chap. of Genesis where Moses numbring the Children of Ismael concludes These are the Sons of Ismael and these are their Names by their Towns and by their Castles twelve Princes according to their Nations And they dwelt from Havila unto Shur that is before Egypt as thou goest towards Assyria And whilst he hath the Book in his hand let him turn forward to the thirty sixth Chapter of Genesis where after a long Catalogue of the Dukes and Kings which descended lineally from Esau it is said ver 31. And these are the Kings that reigned in the Land of Edom before
Jure proprietatis or In patrimonio imperantis that is properly or in Property or in chief or how else you please to render these Words in English Which Grotius in the same Chapter explains by a Jus regendi non aliunde pendens A Right of Government not depending upon any other humane Authority whatsoever Mer. But Sir since you have founded Empire upon a Supreme Right of Government or Power over Men how comes it to pass that we find a Right of Power and Priviledges and Government too so founded in the Possession of several Lands that the Possession of those Lands alone gives a Man several Rights and Prerogatives For example amongst us 't is said That whosoever hath the Right and Possession of the Barony of Burgaveny besides some others becomes thereby a Baron of England and enjoys those Priviledges which belong to it In France I have heard say That nothing is more common than for Men to receive their Titles according to their Lands whether Count Baron Marquess and so forth Is it not plain then That the Right of Command or Power which is Empire may be founded upon Property according to our Author's Interpretation that is the Possession of Lands Trav. I agree to what you have urg'd that is to say That several Priviledges and Right of Power are annexed to several Lordships or Terres Nobles that they have thereby haute basse Justice and their Jurisdiction extends to Life and Death Nay more in several parts of Italy and particularly in Lombardy there are several Imperial Feuds which Grotius seems to call Regna Feudalia which have almost as great Prerogatives as some other Kingdoms have They make Laws raise Taxes and mint Money as other greater Kingdoms do And yet all this makes little for our Author's Aphorism as by him interpreted Mer. The Reason if you please Trav. Because all those little Lordships or Principalities whether they were instituted at first by the Goths and Vandals or Lombards or granted afterwards by several later Emperours and Kings or both as is most probable yet they did and still do at this day depend upon a Superiour Power and pay Homage and Fealty for those Priviledges which they enjoy which is much different from Empire or a Sovereign Right of Power And yet even in this Case this subordinate Power is so far from being founded upon the Possession of all the Land belonging to the Feud which is our Author's Proposition that very often their Liberties depend only upon the old Walls of a ruinated Castie and a very inconsiderable Number of Acres which represent the whole Feud or Mannor the rest of the Land having been sold away and become the Property of others some small Rent only or Acknowledgment being reserv'd And after this manner the Supreme Power may as well tye Priviledges to a Post and grant the Possessor of that Post such Royalties as the Proprietor of such a Castle or Land Which is very far from proving that the Possession of Lands doth thereby originally create a Sovereign Right of Power Mer. Cousin I have heard and read too I think that the Sea hath formerly eaten up a considerable part of your ancient Patrimony and from thence it may be you are no Friend to Lands But for my part I will stand up for Land as long as I can and must therefore ask you Why those Rents or Acknowledgments were reserv'd if not to testifie that they came originally from the Lord and that thereby he still keeps up a kind of Sovereign Right to the Lands themselves knowing well enough that his Power according to our Author is founded upon them Trav. This yet signifies nothing for although the Reservation of these Rents or Services do preserve the Memory of the Benefactor and continue the Respect due from the Tenant yet this is personal only and hath no Relation to the publick Right of Power or Government For when this Rent was not reserv'd yet whosoever lives within the Jurisdiction of such a Fewd or Mannor is always subject to him who enjoys the Lordship So in England Services and Quit-Rents have been generally receiv'd and paid untill the late King and his present Majesty were pleas'd to dispose of them But to believe that this hath lessened his Sovereign Right of Government is a Fancy that sure cannot enter into the Head of any sober Man But let us put a plain Case Suppose the Kingdom of England were at any time obtain'd by absolute Conquest as I conceive it was more than once and that such Conquest gives the Conquerour a Sovereign Right not only to our real and personal Estates which we find to have been wholly in the hands of some of our Kings but also over our Liberties and Lives as may be fully seen in Grotius de Jur. B. P. Now Sir supposing a People in this Condition and having nothing of their own submit themselves and all they have to the Mercy of the Conquerour as the Carthaginians did to the Romans you will grant I imagine that this Conquerour is an Emperour to all Intents having an absolute Right of Power over the People and their Land also Mer. Yes certainly as long as he keeps himself and People in that Condition there cannot want any thing to make him an absolute Monarch Trav. But we will farther suppose That our Conquerour being of a more noble and more humane Temper than it may be our Author would have been orders diligent Inquisition to be made into the Value of his conquer'd Lands Which being done and enter'd into a Register such as we call Doomsday Book the Conquerour divides most of these Lands between the Conquerours and the Conquered some he returns to their former Owners upon certain Conditions or Services others he changeth To his Noblemen and Favourites he grants great Titles and Priviledges to the Gentry less and to the vulgar or common sort some small Possessions which with a little Labour and Diligence will enable them to live easily and peaceably the rest of their days All these become an Inheritance to themselves and their Heirs according to their several Tenures which the Conquerours have generally created and which we call Property These Sir being thus established and the Lands of the Kingdom setled after this manner the Conquerour or King himself reserves it may be a small part which we call Crown Lands and in Consideration of his Right of Conquest and those Benefits which he hath bestowed upon his People in granting them their Liberties Lives and Lands he continueth to himself the Power of making and abolishing Laws according as he shall think most fit and proper for the Peace Honour and Safety of his Government He creates Magistrates for the due Execution of these Laws who in his stead and by his Authority have a Power to judge between his Subjects and in some Cases between his Subjects and himself or his Attorney Besides these he retains the sole Power of making Peace and War of
Nation in point of Strength yet whilst the Tenures are preserv'd such as were formerly in England the Prince had a stricter Tye upon the People than when having relinquish'd them he hath no other Obligation upon them than his Parchment Right of Power and if you please their Oaths of Allegiance both which are cancell'd in a Moment while the Lands remain eternally in the People Trav. I have already told you That publick Right of Government or if you will the Right of publick Government doth not in the least depend upon Tenures for they are only particular Services and Royalties which Princes have sometimes thought good to reserve to themselves more or less according as they alone have thought fit and may be alter'd or relinquish'd without diminishing their Publick Right of Government over the Nation they being such as regard rather the private Person of the King as Lord of a Mannor than his Politick Capacity as Supreme Magistrate or Governour of the State And indeed many of these Services and Tenures were rather very inconvenient and burthensome to the People than beneficial to the Government Many such were anciently known in England and Scotland as well as France Amongst others what was more inhumane than that the Lord should have a Right to lye with his Tenants Wife the first Night they married which in France they call Droit de Jambage Some Services were very ridiculous and some extravagant So I have heard of a Tenure in France by which the Tenant is oblig'd at certain Times to drive a Cart with twelve Oxen round the Court of the Mannor House In which time if any of the Oxen happen to dung in the Court the Cart with the twelve Oxen was forfeited to the Lord of the Mannor but if none of the Oxen should dung untill they were driven out of the Court then the Lord was to receive only one Egg. Now how do these and many other such Services relate to a Right of Government So many Mannors were held of the King to accompany him in his Wars in England or in France or elsewhere some were obliged to carry his Spear some his Sword others his Helmet and such like which are all merely private Obligations and which any private Man might reserve upon consideration of Lands given It is true the King had then a stronger Tye upon particular Persons than since he hath released them But this I say hath no influence upon his Publick Right of Power for the Supreme Magistrate is always notwithstanding any such Release Master both of our Estates and Persons as far as they are necessary for the Preservation of the Government So you see Care is taken that all Lands shall pay their Quotas towards Horses and Footmen which is in use at this day which Forces so paid we call the Militia His Majesty may press Souldiers and by the Consent of his great Council the Parliament charge our Estates and Persons with such Sums as shall be thought expedient for the Occasion And this brings me to the third Point which is That all Sovereign Princes have a Right of Power over the Lands notwithstanding the Property be divided amongst the People And this proceeds from the Dominium Supereminens which is eternally in all Supreme Magistrates or Magistrate whatsoever whose Duty it is to look after and by all means secure the Preservation of the Whole in which every particular is involv'd Nor is it a sufficient Objection to say That Laws or Impositions may lye very heavy upon particular Men if such an Arbitrary Power should rest in any Government for Laws cannot be always made so easie but that Occasions may happen which may make them seem very hard to some Id modò quoeritur si majori parti in summo prosint Hence Grotius from Thucydides remarks an excellent Passage of Pericles to this purpose Sic existimo saith he etiam singulis hominibus plus eam prodesse civitatem quoe tota rectè se habeat quam si privatis floreat utilitatibus ipsa autem universim laboret Qui enim domesticas fortunas bene collocatas habet patria tamen eversa pereat ipse necesse est c. All which Livy thus briefly expresses Respublica incolumis privatas res salvas facile proestat Publica prodendo tua nequicquam serves That whilst the Commonwealth is safe in general our particular Concerns may be also easily secur'd But by deserting the publick Interest of the Nation we do thereby no ways preserve our own Nothing therefore seems more reasonable and indeed necessary than that the Government should have always a Power to compell every particular Subject who standing upon their private Rights and Properties would thereby suffer the Whole to be destroy'd For though naturally every Man hath a Right to maintain what is his own and by consequence might oppose whosoever would endeavour to take his Property from him yet Grotius tells us That Government which is instituted for the publick Tranquillity of the Whole or Tranquillitas publica in qua singulorum continetur acquires thereby a more Sovereign Right even â—ver our Persons as well as Possessions than we our selves can pretend to that is as far as shall be necessary for obtaining that great end of publick Preservation Civili societate ad tuendam Tranquillitatem instituta statim civitati jus quoddam majus in nos nostra nascitur quatenus ad finem illum id necessarium est Whence Seneca observes That the Power of all is ever in the Supreme Magistrate but the Property remains nevertheless in the Hands of particular Subjects Ad Reges Potestas omnium pertinet ad singulos Proprietas And so as hath been said the King in Parliament hath a Right to dispose of our Estates and Persons as shall be thought necessary for our publick Security And where Sovereign Princes act without Parliaments they have in themselves the same Authority I have spoke already of the Power which the Government hath over our Estates and for our Persons Grotius hath furnish'd us with a Case very strong to shew the great Extent of Sovereign Authority He puts a Question Whether an innocent Citizen may be abandoned ad Exitium even to Destruction for the Common Good Without doubt says he such an innocent Citizen may be so abandon'd Dubium non est quin deseri potest And going still on how far such a Citizen is oblig'd to deliver himself he concludes That he may be forc'd to it and sacrific'd too to prevent an imminent Mischief both against his Will and entirely innocent Quare in nostra controversia verius videtur cogi posse civem for saith he Though one Citizen cannot compell another to any thing more than what is strictly just according to Law yet the Superiour hath a lawful Authority as Superiour to force an innocent Man to suffer for the Common Good Par parem cogere non potest nisi ad id quod jure debetur strictè dicto
usos non est dubium From the first Egyptian King to Chencres Pharaoh who was overwhelm'd in the Red Sea for Pharaoh like Augustus is only a title of honour Authors have reckoned a Succession of Ten Kings a time long enough to have establish'd a firm Government And yet we see in the days of Joseph's Administration his Subjects had an undoubted property in their lands which at last they sold with their freedom also to purchase bread Quibus agri fuere saith Josephus partem aliquam in praetium alimentorum Regi decidebant And again Non solum corpora sed animos gentis in servitutem redegit necessitas Which servitude we must interpret slavery and was now distinguish'd from subjection for there is no question but that Subjects in those days were free both in their persons and estates which they enjoy'd in property and only liable to such Impositions and Services as concern'd the publick happiness and security of the Government We can by no means agree with our Author that the Egyptian Kings held a kind of precarious Kingdom such as the Heraclides in Sparta But being absolute according to Grotius or summa potestate praediti were not yet so barbarous as to appropriate to themselves all the possessions belonging to their Territories or otherwise enslave their Subjects than according as misfortunes or necessity forc'd them to sell their Liberty Yet even in this case we find that Pharaoh return'd the Lands to most of them upon payment of the Sixth part only of the usufrute which he retein'd as Josephus tells us Jure Dominii which conditions they most gladly accepted Laeti insperata restitutione agrorum And to conclude let me inform you from good Authorities that the Egyptian Kings were so far from retaining or reserving all the lands to themselves that after the general division of their Territories their Lands were distributed into Three Equal parts One part was appropriated to the Kings use and was Demesne or Crown-lands the Second part was assign'd to their Priests for their Subsistence and the support of the necessary charges of their Sacrifices and other Offices belonging to the Worship and Service of their Gods And the Third part was allotted to their Calasiri or Milites which were those who professed arms for the defence of their Country In the next place The Romans who held the Soveraign Empire of so great a part of the world had it so little in their thoughts to make themselves Proprietors of all the land belonging to their Empire that as well in their first as latter Monarchy they seldom took away more from the Conquered than was almost necessary for preserving their Dominion over them by the maintaining of Garrisons or planting such Colonies and Praeda militaria amongst them as might at their own expence and charges preserve their fidelity to the Romans and secure the publick peace Hence Petilius Cerealis reproaching the French after his victory over them for their folly and defection from the Roman protection he tells them That although the Romans had been often provoked yet they added nothing more to what they might claim from their right of Conquest than such conditions as might secure their publick peace For saith he there can be no peace without arms nor can armies be maintain'd without pay nor can pay be procured but by Tribute and Taxes Nos quanquam toties lacessiti Jure victoriae id solum vobis addidimus quo pacem tueremur nam neque quies gentium sine armis Tac. Hist 4. Salluste tells us That the ancient Pious Romans took nothing from the Conquered but the liberty of doing injury or wrong Majores nostri religiosissimi mortales nihil victis eripiebant praeter injuriae licntiam And that they encreasd their Empire by their goodness and mercy Ignoscendo auxisse Pop. Rom. magnitudinem Certain it is that Romulus and some others of those first Roman Monarchs us'd their victories with so much moderation that the Conquered were scarce sensible or sorry they were overcome whence Claudius blaming in his Speech to the Senate the severity of the Athenians and Lacedemonians At conditor noster Romulus saith he tantum sapientia Tac. Ann. xi valuit ut plerosque populos eodem die hostes dein Cives habuerit But our Founder Romulus was so prudent a Prince that he caus'd many to become Citizens of Rome who the same day had been the Roman enemies And Grotius takes notice particularly out of Appian that the Romans when they subdued Italy took but a part even of those Italian lands Grot. de I. B. p. l. 3. from the Conquered Romani cum Italiam armis subegissent victos parte agri mulctarent and again etiam victis hostibus terram non omnem adimebant sed partiebantur And this hath been done as is already observ'd for their support and security And it hath been universally a Custom amongst all Nations that howsoever the Conquerors might differ concerning the Persons or Personal estate of those whom they overcame or what might fall to them nomine praedae they generally left the Lands in the possession of their ancient Proprietors and Inhabitants of the Country except sometimes in the case of Colonies upon the payment only of certain Tributes or Taxes Very many examples occur in all Histories I shall only therefore take notice of what Tacitus observes of our ancient Britains They paid saith he their Tribute readily enough and performed such other Duties as were commanded them provided they had no affronts or injuries put upon them for those they could not bear being brought only to obey but not to serve Ipsi Britanni dilectum ac Tributa c. in vita Agrip. These then were the Customs of the Romans and Greeks too concerning Lands between themselves and the Conquered let us now see how they dispos'd of their Lands between themselves and their Natural Subjects and we find that Romulus made the first general distribution of his Free men into Tribes and that Those again he distinguished into Patres and Plebes who were afterwards called Patricians and Plebeians or Lords and Commons the Patricians were compos'd of such as were eminent either in Birth Courage Wealth or any other remarkable Virtue and to these many great Priviledges and Possessions were granted out of these alone were chosen their Priests as well as Senators and other inferiour Magistrates The Plebeians minded only Tillage and Husbandry and other mechanical employments and were called Commoners or Roman Citizens which title became afterwards an honour of no small esteem and was much affected by their neighbours and purchased by particular Admission or Denization many such were chosen out of the Sabins Volscians Samnites and others but lest this distinction between Patricians and Plebeians might beget on the one side Insolence and on the other Envy those prudent Monarchs thought fit to unite them by a more endearing Relation whence the Patricii were called Patroni or Patrons of the People and
or subject to any other mans right or authority so as that they may be made void according to the will or pleasure or decrees of any other mortal man Potestas summa illa dicitur cujus actus alterius juri non substunt ita ut alterius humanae voluntatis arbitrio irriti reddi possunt De jure B. P. p. 47. But with submission to so great authorities These do not reach the definition of an absolute Monarch in a good sense as it ever ought to be taken For though they have given their Prince exemption from all Laws and power enough to command yet they have not excluded Tyranny which indeed is oftentimes mistaken for absolute power I confess it seems hard to destroy the Tyrant and yet preserve the absolute Monarch However I shall presume to give such a definition as may do both which I refer to the impartial judgment of those who shall consider it An absolute Monarch then is he who having receiv'd a just authority executes the Laws of God and Nature without controul By receiving a just authority I exclude one principal mark of a Tyrant which is intrusion or usurpation In the next place I oblige the absolute Monarch to execute the Laws of God and Nature and nothing contrary to them By this also Government is freed from Tyranny in the use or exercise of authority For he who governs according to the Laws of God and Nature I speak of a Natural Monarch or a Monarch in the state of Nature does no unjust thing and is by consequence no Tyrant And lastly as I have secur'd the absolute Prince from Tyranny so I have plac'd him above all conditional limited Governments by these words without controul For he who commands or governs as far as the Laws of God and Nature permit hath certainly as ample and as absolute a Jurisdiction as any mortal man can justly possess This is so large a power that he who acts beyond it that is contrary to it is deservedly esteem'd a Tyrant and in such case the people are not oblig'd to obey And the reason is because the Prince having never receiv'd an authority to command that which is unjust that is to say contrary to the Laws of God and Nature the people are acquitted from their obediences as to that particular command All that we have now to do is but to apply this definition to the Hebrew Kings and from thence we shall be able to judge of their absolute power And first it is certain that they receiv'd their right of power from God himself and no other which continued by Succession especially after David unto the Babylonish captivity I have not time at present to inlarge upon this point and answer those frivolous objections which some men have brought against it You will find this done more fully in another place and confirm'd by the authority of Josephus Grotius and the History of the Bible I know some have pretended that David received his authority from the people and would prove it by a passage in 1 Chron. 11. where it is said that the Elders anointed David King over Israel But we must observe that David was Anointed first by Samuel and that by the express command of God himself and next this second Anointing by the people signified nothing more than to exclude by this publick act the pretensions of Isbosheth eldest Son to Saul Who without the special reveal'd will of God would have succeeded his father And this was ever practised where there was any interruption or dispute in the Succession So Solomon was anointed because of the difference between him and Adonijah otherwise that Ceremony was not absolutely necessary and was many times totally neglected Besides in the case of David it is plain that he received no right of power from the people but from God and that by their own confession both before and after their anointing And the Lord thy God said unto thee thou shalt feed my people Israel and thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel And again They anointed David King over Israel according to the word of the Lord by Samuel 1 Chron. 11. 2 3. Hence Grotius observes that David gave God thanks for that God had subjected his people unto him David Deo gratias agit quod populum suum sibi subjecerit Taking it therefore for granted that David received no right of power from the people by consequence he depended upon none but God as all the most Soveraign Princes do and this is one great mark of an absolute Monarch In the next place he executed the laws of God and nature without controul I never heard any question made of this except in the case of judgment concerning a Tribe the High Priest and a Prophet Which judgments Grotius supposed were taken from the Hebrew Kings Aliqua judicia arbitror regibus adempta But I rather think under favour that they were more properly Principibus concessa which makes a considerable difference For I find no mention of any time or power who could take those judgments from the King On the contrary we read of several Kings erecting Courts of Judicature and making Judges both in Gods cause and in the Kings And these three points being of the highest consequence the judgment of them might most probably be granted by the King to the determination of the highest Court of Justice In the first of Chron. chap. 26. v. 5. We find David making Rulers over the Reubenites the Gadites and the half Tribe of Manasseh for every matter pertaining to God and the affairs of the King but more particularly in the second of Chron. chap. 19. Jehoshaphat does the same thing but in terms more plain And he set Judges in the Land through all the fenced Cities of Judah City by City And said to the Judges take heed what you do c. Moreover in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites and of the Priests and of the Chief of the Fathers of Israel for the judgments of the Lord and for controversies when they return'd to Jerusalem And behold Amariel the Chief Priest is over you in all matters of the Lord and Zedekiah the son of Ishmael the Ruler of the house of Judah for all the Kings matters Indeed I should think that this is plain enough to prove that their Kings had in them the Supreme right of administring justice through their territories and made their Subordinate officers who wholly depended upon them and I am the more confirm'd in this opinion because I find both the High Priests and Prophets too judged condemned and pardoned even against the judgment of the Sanhedrim by the Kings single authority So Solomon banished the High Priest Abiathar Solomon Abiatharem Pontiâ—icem in exilium misit says Josephus lib. 8. so Jehoiakim slew the Prophet Vriah And they sent forth Vriah out of Aegypt and brought him unto Jehoiakim the King who slew him with the Sword Jer. 26. 23. The same did Joash
for personal estate the subjects may enjoy it in the largest proportion without being able to invade the Empire and that the subjects with their Money cannot invade the Crown This is the first time that I remember to have observed where lay the weak side of invincible Gold Indeed till now I should have laid the odds for money against land and I am the more confirm'd in that opinion because I remember very well that in an election of a Knight for the Shire a certain money'd Merchant not having three hundred pound per Annum lands in the world was able nevertheless to carry the Election against a worthy Gentleman of an ancient Family who had at that time above four thousand pounds per Annum lands of inheritance And it was thought that the force of money procured the advantage Many such cases I suppose have happened in other Counties which argument sure will hold in a Kingdom as well as in a County since the former is composed of the latter But our Author who has the legislative power in his head makes there what card trump he thinks sit And from his unerring judgment there is no appeal Merch. I think Plato is mistaken But Sir you have slipt a remark a little before this and it is that Modern writers are of opinion that Aegypt till of late was not a Monarchy and the only conjecture which he produces is that originally all Arts and Sciences had their rise in Aegypt which they think very improbable to have been under a Monarchy Trav. O silly truly for our Authors reputations sake I thought to have passed by so childish a conjecture I will not go about to prove that really all Arts and Sciences had their rise in that Countrey because our Author hath confessed it Nor tell you that Aegypt was an absolute Monarchy many hundred years before because I have already given you good authorities for it Neither will I trouble you with a long Catalogue of most excellent men for all manner of learning who lived as well under the elder Monarchies as later ones of Rome Germany Spain France England and many others Let our Authors own profound Learning rise up in judgment in this case against himself since it is plain that his vast politick knowledge sprang up bloom'd brought forth fruit withered and decayed and all under a Monarchical Government For whether we consider him in the days of King Charles the I st or under Oliver or at Rome or since his present Majesties happy Restoration he hath still sucked in a Monarchical Air. I do not hear that all was effected at Geneva though most probably the first sowre Grapes came from thence which have set his teeth on edge ever since Merch. Indeed I think so sober a politician might have spared such a little malicious remark But to go on he tells us p. 45. That Rome was the best and most glorious Government that the Sun ever saw Trav. Our Statesman hath coupled best and glorious together as Poulterers use to do a lean and a fat Rabbit that one may help off with the other But his vulgar cheat must not pass For glorious we will admit of that Epithete and good Authors give us the reason how it came to be so which is not much to our purpose But for best we must examine that a little farther I could cite many Authorities to prove that the Roman Commonwealth was one of the worst Governments that ever subsisted so long But because I would speak somewhat to our noble Venetian who ought to have read his own Authors concerning Government at home before he came to judge of another abroad I will refer him for full satisfaction in this point to the Discorsi politici of Paulus Paruta a Nobleman and Senator of Venice and Procurator of Saint Marco Who in his first discourse comparing several Antient Commonwealths with that of Venice when he comes to Rome he tells us plainly That the Sun never saw a more confused State That it was really no regular government at all and that its chief default proceeded from the exorbitant power of the people Whence Tacitus calls it lib. 3. Corruptissima Respublica Now Sir if this noble Senator who also had been Ambassador abroad understood any thing of Government as I believe he did even more than the English Gent. Young Venetian and learned Doctor put all together then we must conclude that our Author is mistaken But since it is not the first time we will put it to account Mer. Well Sir he saith next p. 52. That Moses Theseus and Romulus were founders of Democracies What say you to that Trav. If I mistake not he tells us the same thing in p. 28. 32 69. In some of which he calls their Democracy in plain English a Common-wealth For Moses I have already prov'd his authority to have been Independent even in the highest measure upon any but God and that in the exercise none ever us'd it more arbitrarily witness the severe punishments against the Idolaters when he came down from Mount Sinai Where without any farther Ceremonies or legal trial he call'd the Sons of Levi to him and said Put every man his sword by his side and go in from gate to gate throughout the Camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbour And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses and there fell of the people that day about 3000. men Many other instances there are of his Despotical power besides the Text saith in plain words that Moses was King in Jeshurun For the calling together the Congregation of the Lord by sound of Trumpet all men who ever read the Bible know that it was generally to tell them some message from God reproach them for their misdeeds exhort them to amendment and such like But I am confident they never did any one act which proceeded from a right of power while Moses liv'd Nay on the contrary when the Seditious Princes Corah Datban and Abiram as also Aaron and Miriam murmured against Moses's Soveraign authority being desirous to have shar'd with him in the Government we find that God punished their Sedition most severely and the two last escaped the Justice of Gods sentence only through the great intercession of Moses Who knows not that his Praesecti Jethroniani were only subordinate Judges appointed by his own order and for his own ease All which besides the common consent of learned men makes it clear that Moses held the Supreme Civil power wholly in himself call him King or Captain or what you please Next Theseus being own'd after his long Travels by his father Aegeus found Attica Tributary to Minos King of Candia and the Kingdom divided in it self into several little Burgs which set up for so many particular several Governments Theseus therefore being a discreet Prince endeavour'd to reduce them to their former obedience by peaceable means To that purpose
specious design Who perceiving at length the ambition and irregular proceedings of their great Patron the injustice of their pretensions and the little good the restitution of these lands would do themselves they totally deserted him Insomuch that Caius when his fatal hour drew near fell down before the Statue of Diana praying That the people who had so basely abandon'd him might never enjoy that liberty which he endeavour'd to have obtain'd for them Mer. I am much satisfi'd with this story and am apt to believe that many of our own worthy Patriots who cry up so much for Liberty and Property and the interest of the people intend more really their own particular advancement yet nevertheless you see our Author calls these men Illustrious and renowned persons their actions and undertakings Heroick Trav. He doth so and undoubtedly he would say the same thing if he durst not only of Brutus but of the Dominican Friar Ravillac and Hugh Peters himself or whoever else it was that murder'd our late Soveraign But you have heard the opinion of Florus with whom Plutarch agrees and all the ancient Authors that I have yet met withal And to conclude Tacitus who seems to have been friend enough to a Democratical Government calls them disturbers of the people Hinc Gracchi Saturnini turbatores plebis Ann. l. 3. Merch. T is well We come now to Agis and Cleomenes Who were they Trav. They were Kings of Sparta and their Designs and Fates much the same with the Gracchi The difference was chiefly this that the former being already Kings they endeavoured by the same means that is to say by abolition of debts or novae tabulae distribution of lands and favour of the people to procure to themselves an absolute authority against the usurped power of the Ephori The Gracchi being truly Subjects followed the same course to usurp the Empire but against the lawful Authority of the Senate This is only to be observed of Cleomenes that at the same time when he endeavoured to possess the Soveraign power he thought it nevertheless no Solecism in the Politicks to give the property of the Lands among the people In a word the same wheel troublesome and dangerous ambition moved equally all four against which Plutarch inveighs most severely in his introduction to the Lives of those Spartan Kings Merch. And may all ambitious disturbers of our peace meet with the same Catastrophe Next our Author tells us that alteration of the property is the Vnica corruptio politica Trav. I grant it Sir if you apply property to the right of power in Government but not if restrained to Lands as hath been already proved And for the favourable opinion which he hath of confusion or Anarchy may himself be confounded in this world I mean by his own loose principles and ungovernable unquiet Spirit Merch. What say you of the Laws and Government of Switzerland and the Low Countries Trav. Little Sir their Laws and Governments are as notoriously known as their Rebellions and several Authors have writ fully of both Merch. Very good we come next to the most famous Republick of Venice where amongst other things vulgar enough our Nobleman tells us that the great difficulty in the administration of that Republick hath been to regulate their Nobility and to bridle their Faction and ambition which can alone breed a disease in the vital part of their Government And this they do by most severe Laws and a very vigorous execution of them Trav. Right But because he hath not been pleased to let you know what those Laws are give me leave to inform you I shall not speak of little Mutineers those poor Rogues are easily cut off But come to the great and noble Villains and concerning such their Law is this when any eminent man whose relations and dependences are commonly very great shall using as yet no other weapon than his tongue defame the Government by calumnies and opprobrious Speeches and thereby endeavour to draw off first the affection and next the obedience of the people to their lawful Magistrate and that the Government thinks not fit to call him publickly to account lest some disturbance might happen through the interest of his friends or least the municipal Laws of the State might not be sufficient to reach his life for any particular thing though his complicated ills make him obnoxious in general to the Government and dangerous in it or that a perjured Jury should acquit him which would make him more malicious than before knowing full well that when a man becomes so purged the Devil enters into him again with nine Spirits worse than himself I say under such circumstances their method of proceeding is this First information being given to some of the Consiglio di Dieci and sufficient evidence concerning matter of fact his process is made which requires very little time and by majority of votes he is condemned to die the offender being all this while ignorant of what is doing and at liberty as at other times This done the business comes into the hands of the Inquisâ—tori del Stato who are three annual officers chosen out of the Dieci as also the Gao or Capo di Dieci who are also three but chosen monthly and out of the same body These Inquisitori are to see the Sentence executed which is left to their discretion and which they manage according to the circumstances of the offender If there be no difficulty in taking him at home then the way is this the Inquisitori or any two of them send for a file of Musketeers or more who accompanied with an Officer Confessor and Executioner and in the most quiet time of the night they force if need be the house of the offender where being apprehended he is acquainted at the same instant both with his offence and punishment It is too late and in vain to plead or dispute but being carried away into a Gondola prepared to receive him they put off accompanied with another toward the Sea and being come to the place they design the offender having received absolution from his Confessor they place him upon the midst of a Plank laid between the two Gondola's with a Stone about his neck then putting off their Boat the criminal falls for ever forgotten to the bottom of the Sea nor is there a man in the whole state of Venice who dares ever after inquire what is become of this Great Nobleman sometimes in such case they are strangled But if the offender happens to be a person having a great retinue as many have of Bravos and that the forcing of his Palace may prove troublesom and make too great a noise from the opposition which the officer may meet withal from the number of the Domesticks then the Inquisitori send for some of the most daring and notorious of the Banditi and at the same time accompany the message with a pass or safe-conduct both for his coming to Venice and return Upon
were not so much as an essential part of the Parliament and it is certain that Edward the Confessor took the same course about his Laws as the Greeks and Romans formerly had done the first fetching their institutions from the Aegyptians and the latter from the Greeks So King Edward having gathered together the Laws of the Mercians West Saxons Danes and Northumbrians he selected the best and compiled them into one body which being approved in Councilâ— by his own authority he commanded they should be observed and they were the fountain of those which we call at this day the Common Law Canutus the Danish Vsurpeâ— called also a Council or Parliament at Oxford in which he made several good Laws but I do not find that the Commoners pretended any right in the Supreme authority at that time any more than afterwards But however I cannot believe that their example is any argument for us to forsake the present constitution of our English Monarchy to hunt after the polity of an Invader who with his Successors enjoyed not the Crown of England the fiftieth part so long as the Norman Line hath done Now Cousin you see what is become of those great expectations which we might have had from the noise and bustle which our Author makes of the Northern polities and their exact rules of Government but so it falls out that in our days mountains are no less apt to bring forth mice than formerly And that when there is a great cry there is not always the more wooll For in this case contrary to his undeniable Aphorism though it may possibly be true that the Saxons made some division of the Lands amongst the people for our present division of Lands and Tenures also were generally made and instituted by the Normans yet they retained the Soveraign authority themselves Merch. Sir I am obliged to you for remembring me of what I had read before but could not apply it so well to our present purpose as you have done But believing that you are clearly in the right I shall not trouble you any farther concerning those Northern polities but desire that you would proceed and let me know what you mean by the rational part Trav. By the rational part I mean this that granting all to be true which our Author hath affirmed concerning those Goths and Northern people and that in the original constitution of our Government the people had a share in the Supreme Authority and that the prerogative which our King at present lawfully possesses hath been by degrees gained from the people All which is so notoriously false that on the contrary the people have lately encroached upon the prerogative yet I say at this time and as our present circumstances stand it is more rational that all honest and sober men who laying aside ambition and malice consider impartially the just rights and liberties of the people together with the preservation of our Government and the general happiness of the Nation should rather endeavour by all lawful means to increase the power of his present Majesty than diminish it And supposing we were at liberty to choose what form of Government we pleased rather continue it a Monarchy as it is than set up such a Democratical form or phantastical model as our Author having stoln it in a great measure from the propositions of the Rebels sent to the late King in the Isle of Wight and the transactions of Forty Eight hath proposed to us Merch. The performance of this Sir will be such a full satisfaction to us all that nothing will remain farther for our consideration but to contrive a means how we may better secure our present Government and by enacting farther good Laws if necessary with a strict execution of them reduce our pestilent Republican disturbers of our peace unto a due obediencâ— to their Natural and Lawful Prince One thing more I must beg of you by the way which is to let me know why you suppose all along that ouâ— Author would set up a Common-wealth since he tells us plainly p. 209. That he abhorrs the thoughts of wishing a Democracy much less endeavouring any such thing during these circumstances we are now in that is under Oaths of obedience to a Lawful King Trav. I thank you Sir for putting me in mind of it but indeed I thought you had by this time sufficiently understood how to distinguish a Presbyterian or otherwise Phanatical Commonwealth man's publick declaration from his more private meaning I must therefore mind you of this observation by the way that I never yet met with any of those Authors who was not demonstrably a wilful malicious Knave in his writings But truly in this case I think our Author is frank and plain enough I shall therefore mind you of some passages which I shall leave to your own Interpretation He tells us p. 182. That our present estate inclines to popularity and I do not find but that he inclines as much to comply with our estate as they could wish but let us come to his declaration against it where he protests that he hates the thoughts of wishing a Commonwealth but yet insinuates from the story of Themistocles his firing the Grecian ships That nothing could be more advantagious and profitable for us which surely shews his good inclinations plain enough But I am fully perswaded that our Governours have taken no less care to secure us against the literal than the metaphorical sence of his â—ine tale and will as well preserve our Navy as our Government from his Diabolical designs But now he gives us the reason why he cannot think of a Common-wealth because conscientious good man he is loth to break his oath of obedience to a Lawful King But for this Lawful King himself it is no matter if he be perjur'd to the very bottom of destruction who having no less sworn and that solemnly too to maintain the antient Monarchical Government as at present by Law confirmed and establish'd with all the rights and prerogatives belonging to the Imperial Crown of England may break all betray his poor Subjects their rights and liberties abandon them to the mercy of unmerciful Tyrants and be damn'd if he pleases Nay our Author kindly advises him to it and rather than his cursed project should fail he perswades him it is the best thing he can do Whereas it is plain That the power of the Kings of England is restrained or limited as we may say in nothing more considerable than this viz. That they cannot by their own Grant sever their Prerogatives from the Crown nor communicate any part thereof to any one no not to the Princes their eldest Sons as may be seen more at large in Sir J. Davies upon Impositions cap. 29. besides many other good Authors Nay more he tells us there That neither the Kings Acts nor any Act of Parliament can give away his Prerogative and farther that no Act of Parliament in the Negative can take
produce good reason and authority for this my opinion Mer. Pray Cousin use all manner of liberty in your discourse for I only minded you of your Profession yesterday not that I question your sincerity but as being an impartial Judge neither a Papist nor a Dissenter I might oblige you to settle this point equally between them Trav. I do not pretend to be a Judge but shall endeavour to open the case faithfully and leave the rest to your more prudent determination First then we must state the difference between these two parties as they relate to us and not to descend to particular points I shall only say that the Papists differ from us in the doctrinal part of Religion that is to say in points which they believe absolutely necessary to Salvation The Dissenters in the Discipline only viz. Ceremonies and Church Government which they declare may be either used or neglected without the necessary consequence of damnation Mer. Right Sir and from hence I should conclude that the Dissenters agreeing more nearly with us than the Papists ought rather to be tolerated than they who differ so much and so materially from us Trav. And I for that very reason hold the contrary Mer. Pray Sir proceed and unriddle this Paradox Trav. Next then we must agree that the doctrinal parts of the Popish Religion in which they differ from us as Transubstantiation and some others supposing them right and necâ—ssary as they believe they are consist of such high speculative points as cannot possibly be made demonstrable by humane reason nor otherwise be seen than by the eyes of faith but require a supernatural revelation or the special Grace of an invisible omnipotent power working in our hearts Hence Grotius tells us that Doctrina hâ—c penitus in animum admitti nequeat nisi sanctis Dei auxiliis accedentibus lib. 2. â—4 20. This then supposed I must affirm that outward force is not a proper means to convince a mans reason of speculative truths For a man cannot always believe just when he says he will but rather oftentimes when he pretends he will not he is then forc't to believe if proportionate arguments be used even whether he will or no and these proportionate arguments are such as force the reason only and whilst they perstringe the mind do not constrain the body such as oblige by way of â—atiocination to consent to certain propositions and necessary consequences which they cannot avoid arguments which reach the inward man but leave the outward man untoucht Now how improper a means â—orporal violence is to obtain such a spiritual end I leave to your judgment If it be then necessary that a mans reason should be convinc't of a speculative truth before he can beleive it it will follow that those who use violence and force to oblige a people to embrace an opinion which they do not or can not understand commit either the greatest injustice towards man or the greatest impiety toward God The injustice towards man lies in this that they either force them to profess what they do not believe which is hypocrisie and a lie or they punish them for not doing that which is not in their power to do which is the height of Tyranny And Grotius tells us in his Cap de poenis that it was provided in the Council of Toledo That thenâ—eforward no man should be forc'â— to believe for God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he pleaseth to harden he hardeneth Praecipit sancta Synodus nemini deinceps vim inferri cui enim vult Deus miseretur quem vult indurat And he adds quod perinique faciunt that they do most wickedly who punish men amongst Christians for not believing or erring in some speculative points which they do not understand St. Augustine also Athanasius Hilarius and Salviâ—nus are all of the same opinion as may be seen there more at large in the same Cap. de poenis where Grotius farther informs us that the French Bishops were condemned by the Church for using violence against the Prisciliâ—nistâ— In the next place if it be not injustice towards man it is impiety towards God and must suppose that the gift of the holy Spirit â—raâ—e oâ— Illâ—mination which is necessary for the understanding these Divine mysteries is in the power of mortal man which was the sin of Simon Magus son to buy the holy Ghost for money or to oâ—tain it by force is equally injuriouâ— and dishonourable to a Deity And we find that although the Sadduces differed from the rest of the Jewes in so material a point as that of the Resurrection which they totally denied yet they received no manner of punishment upon that account nor was there any force used to perswade them to embrace and believe so necessary a doctrine when yet at the same time Sabbath-breakers because it related to the discipline and Government of the Church were punished with Death Merch. I thank you Sir and do assure you that I was ever of this opinion But I do not yet understand why you do not apply the same reasons for Dissenters and other people as well as the Papists Trav. I thought Sir the last instance would have answered that question which is that the Dissenters differ only in point of discipliâ—… and Government which according to our constitution they agree command nothing damnable or impossible to be understood or contrary to the hopes of Salvation And in such case outward force is the proper means to reduce obstinate men to their duty and a compliance with that Government which they ought and which they confess they may obey So in some Roman Catholick Countries the Protestant Religion is tolerated and its professors secured by many Grants and Priviledges because their difference consists in speculative points whereas those Roman Catholicks themselves who agreeing in the Doctrinal part shall differ in the Discipline or Church Government are punished with the extreamest rigour We must distinguish therefore between Discipline and Doctrine as also between faith and obedience And in confirmation of this we may remember another reason why a toleration is more allowable to Popish Recâ—sants than to the Dissenters viz because it is notoriously known that the Papists have ventured both their lives and fortunes to support our present Government as it is by Law established even against these very dissenters who rebell'd against it and by force of arms and open hostility endeavour'd totally to subvert it And having obtain'd a victory did actually destroy both our lawful King and Governour as well as government Mer. This is too true and it were impudence to deny any part of it But it hath been said that the Papists in our late troubles ventur'd their lives more out of hopes of their own establishment than of the Government Trav. That under favour is a malicious and a frivolous objection For what grounds of hopes had they to alter the Government against the consent of the