Rome though they were declared and called a Free-state et it was a long time ere they could be free indeed in regard Brutus cheated them with a meer shadow and pretence of liberty he had indeed an Ambition high enough and opportunity fairenough to have seized the Crown into his own hands but there were many considerations that deterr'd him from it for he well perceived how odious the name of King was grown Besides had he sought to Inthrone himself men would have judged it was not love to his Country made him take up Arms but desire of Dominion nor could he forget that serene privacy is to be preferr'd before Hazardous Royalty For what hope could he have to keep the Seat long who by his own example had taught the people both the Theory and practice of opposing Tyranny It was necessary therefore that he should think of some other course more plausible whereby to worke his own ends and yet preserve the love of the people who not having been used to liberty did very little understand it and therefore were the more easily gul'd out of the substance and made content with the shadow For the carrying on this Design all the projecting Grandees joyned pates together wherein as one observes Regnum quidem nomen sed non Regia potestas Româ fuit expulsa Though the Name of King were exploded with alacrity yet the Kingly power was retained with all Art and subtilty and shared under another notion among themselves who were the great ones of the City For all Authority was confin'd within the walls of a standing Senate out of which two Consuls were chosen yeerly so by turns they dub'd one another with a new kinde of Regality the people being no gainers at all by this alteration of Government save onely that like Asses they were sadled with new Paniers of Slavery But what followed The Senate having got all power into their own hands in a short time degenerated from their first Virtue and Institution to the practice of Avarice Riot and Luxury whereby the love of their Country was changed into a Study of Ambition and Faction so that they fell into divisions among themselves as well as oppressions over the people by which divisions some leading Grandees more potent than their Fellows took occasion to wipe their Noses and to assume the Power into their own hands to the number of ten persons This Form of Government was known by the Name of the Decemvirate wherein these new Usurpers joyning Forces together made themselves rich with the spoiles of the people not caring by what unlawful means they purchased either Profit or Pleasure till that growing every day more insupportable they were in the end by force cashiered of their Tyranny But what then The people being flesh'd with this Victory and calling to minde how gallantly their Ancestors had in like manner banished Kings began at last to know their own strength and stomack'd it exceedingly that themselves on whose shoulders the frame of State was supported and for whose sakes all States are founded should be so much vassalized at the will of others that they who were Lords abroad should be Slaves at home so that they resolved to be ridden no longer under fair shews of Liberty They raised a Tumult under the conduct of their Tribune Canuâ—eius nor could they by any perswasion be induced to lay down Arms till they were put in possession of their Rights and Priviledges They were made capable of Offices of the Government even to the Dictatorship had Officers of their own called Tribunes who were held sacred and inviolable as Protectors of the Commons and retained a power of meeting and acting with all Freedom in their great Assemblies Now and never till now could they be called a Free State and Commonwealth though long before declared so for the way being open to all without exception vertue learning and good Parts made as speedy a Ladder to climbe unto Honours as Nobility of Birth and a Good Man as much respected as a Great which was a rare felicity of the Times not to be expected again but upon the dawning of another golden Age. The main Observation then arising out of this Discourse is this That not onely the Name of King but the Thing King whether in the hands of one or of many was pluck'd up root and branch before ever the Romans could attain to a full Establishment in their Rights and Freedoms Now when Rome was thus declared A Free State the next work was to establish their Freedom in some sure certain way in order to this the first business they pitch'd upon was not onely to ingage the people by an Oath against the return of Tarquin's Family to the Kingdom but also against the admission of any such Officer as a King for ever because those brave men who glorified themselves in laying the foundation of a Commonwealth well knew that in a short Revolution others of a less publick Spirit would arise in their places and gape again after a Kingdom And therefore it was the special care of those worthy Patriots to imprint such Principles in mens mindes as might actuate them with an irreconcilable enmity to the former Power insomuch that the very Name of King became odious to the Roman People yea and they were so zealous herein that in process of time when Caesar took occasion by Civil Discords to assume the Soveraignty into his single Hands he durst not entertain it under the fatal Name of King but clothed himself with the more plausible stile of Emperor which nevertheless could not secure him from the fatal stab that was given him by Brutus in revenge on the behalf of the people Our Neighbours of Holland traced this example at the heels when upon recovery of their Freedom from Spain they binde themselves by * Oaths in those dayes were not like an old Almanack an Oath to abjure the Government not onely of King Philip but of all Kings for ever Kings being cashiered out of Rome then the Right of Liberty together with the Government was retained within the hands and bounds of the Patrician or Senatorian Order of Nobility the people not being admitted into any share till partly by Mutinies and partly by Importunities they compell'd the Senate to grant them an Interest in Offices of State and in the Legislative Power which were circumscribed before within the bounds of the Senate Hence arose those Officers called Tribunes and those Conventions called Assemblies of the People which were as Bridles to restrain the Power and Ambition of the Senate or Nobility Before the erection of those whilst all was in the hands of the Senate the Nation was accounted Free because not subjected to the will of any single person But afterwards they were Free indeed when no Laws could be imposed upon them without a consent first had in the Peoples Assemblies so that the Government in the end came to be setled in an equal
to see and beware that Warwick's Ghost be not conjur'd up again to act a Part in some new Tragedie The Right Constitution of a Commonwealth THe Romans having justly and nobly freed themselvs from the Tyranny of Kings and being in time brought to understand that the interest of Freedom consists in a due and orderly Succession of the Supreme Assemblies they then made it their care by all good ways and means to fortifie the Commonwealth and establish it in a free enjoyment of that Interest as the onely bar to the return of Kings and their main security against the subtil mining of Kingly humours and usurpations The puâ—â—ike Rostra or Pulpits sounded out the commendations of Freedom their Augurs or Prophets found Freedom written in the entrails of Beasts and collected it from the flight of the auspicious bird the Sun-daring Eagle spreading her wings aloft over the Capitol the common people also in their common discourses breathed nothing but Freedom and used the frequent mention of it as a Charm against the return of Tyranny Nor was it without reason that this brave and active people were so studiously devoted to the preservation of their Freedom when they had once attained it considering how easie and excellent it is above all other Forms of Government if it be kept within due bounds and order It is an undeniable Rule That the People that is such as shall be successively chosen to represent the People are the best Keepers of their own Liberties and that for these following Reasons First because they never think of usurping over other mens Rights but minde which way to preserve their own Whereas the case is far otherwise among Kings and Grandees as all Nations in the world have felt to some purpose for they naturally move within the circle of domination as in their proper Centre and count it no less Security than Wisdom and Policy to brave it over the People Thus Suetonius tells us how Caesar Crassus and another Societatem iniere requid ageretur in Repub. quod displicuisset ulli e tribus Made a bargain between themselves that nothing should be done in the Common-wealth that displeased either of them three Such another Triumvirate of Grandees was that of Augustus Lepidus and Antonie who agreed to share the world between themselves and traced the same paths as the other did to the top of worldly Tyranny over the ruines of their Countries Liberties they sav'd and destroy'd depress'd and advanc'd whom they pleased with a wet Finger But whilst the Government remained untouch'd in the peoples Hands every particular man lived safe except the Ambitious and no man could be undone unless a true and satisfactory reason were rendered to the world for his destruction Secondly the People are best Keepers of their own Liberty because it is ever the Peoples care to see that Authority be so constituted that it shall be rather a burthen than benefit to those that undertake it and be qualified with such slender advantages of profit or pleasure that men shall reap little by the enjoyment The happy consequence whereof is this that none but honest generous and publick â—pirits will then desire to be in Authority and that onely for the Common good Hence it was that in the Infanâ—y of the Romane Liberty there was no canvasing of Voices but single and plain-hearted men were called intreated and in a manner forced with importunity to the Helm of Government in regard of that great trouble and pains that followed the imployment Thus Cincinnatus was fetch'd out of the Field from his Plow and placed much against his will in the sublime Dignity of Dictator so the noble Camillus and Fabius and Curius were with much adoe drawn from the recreation of Gardening to the trouble of Governing and the Consul-yeer being over they returned with much gladness again to their private employment A third Reason why the People in their Supreme Assemblies successively chosen are the best Keepers of their Liberty is because as motion in Bodies natural so succession in civil is the grand preventive of corruption The Truth of this will appear very clearly if we weigh the effects of every standing Authority from first to last in the Romane State for whilst they were governed by a continued Power in one and the same Hands the People were ever in danger of losing their Liberty sometimes in danger of being swallowed up by Kingly aspirers witness the design of Maelius Menlius and others sometimes in danger of a surprise by a Grandee Cabinet or Junta who by contracting a particular Interest distinâ—t from that which they had in common with the people so ordered the matter in time that partly by their own strength and partly by advantage of Power to gratifie and curb whom they pleased and to wind in other Councils and parties to their own they still brought the lesser into such subjection that in the end they were forced all either to yeild to the pleasure of the Grandees or be broken by them By these practices they oroduced that upstart Tyranny of the Decemviri when ten men made a shift to enslave the Senate as well as the people Lastly by continuing power too long in the hands of particular persons they were swallow'd up by two Triumvirates of Emperors by turns who never left pecking at one another till Julius and Augustus having beaten all Competitors out of the Field subjected all to the will of a single Emperour If this were so among the Romans how happy then is any Nation and how much ought they to joy in the Wisdom and Justice of their Trustees where certain Limits and Bounds are fixed to the Powers in being by a declared succession of the supreme Authoty in the hands of the People A fourth Reason is because a succession of supreme Powers doth not onely keep them from corruption but it kills that grand Cankerworm of a Commonwealth to wit Faction for as Faction is an adhering to and a promoting of an Interest that is distinct from the true and declared Interest of State so it is a matter of necessity that those that drive it on must have time to improve their slights and projects in disguising their designs drawing in Instruments and Parties and in worming out of their opposires The effecting of all this requires some length of time therefore the onely prevention is a due succession and revolution of Authority in the Hands of the People That this is most true appears not onely by Reason but by Example if we observe the several turns of Faction in the Romane Government What made their Kings so bold as to incroach and tyrannize over the People but the very same course that heightned our Kings heretofore in England to wit a continuation of Power in their own Persons and Families Then after the Romans became a Commonwealth was it not for the same Reason that the Senate fell into such heats and fits among themselves Did not Appius Claudius and
his Junta by the same means Lord it over the Senate Whence was it that Sylla and Marius caused so many proscriptions cruelties and combustions in Rome but by an extraordinary continuation of Power in themselves How came it to pass likewise that Julius Caesar aspired and in the end artained the Empire and that the People of Rome quite lost their Liberty was it not by the same means For had not the Senaâ—e and People so long protracted the Power of Pompey and Caesar had Pompey had less command in Asia and Caesar less in Gallia Rome might have stood much longer in the possession of her Liberty After the death of Caesar it was probable enough they â—ight then have recovered their Liberty but that they ran again into the same Error as before for by a continuation of Power in the hands of Octavius Lepidus and Antonie the Commonwealth came to be rent and divided into three several Factions two of which being worn out by each other onely Octavius remained who considering that the Title of perpetual Dictator was the ruine of his Father Julius continued the Government onely for a set-time and procured it to be setled upon himself but for ten yeers But what was the effect of this continuation of Power Even this That as the former protractings had been the occasions of Faction so this produced a Tyranny for at the end of every ten yeers he wanted no pretence to renew a lease of the Government and by this means so played his Cards that at length he easily and utterly extinguished the small remains of the Roman Freedom The Observation then arising from hence is this that the onely way for a people to preserve themselves in the enjoyment of their Freedom and to avoid those fatal inconveniences of Faction and Tyranny is to maintain a due and orderly succession of Power and Persons This was and is good Commonwealths Language and without this Rule it is impossible any Nation should long subsist in a State of Freedom So that the Wisdom the Piety the Justice and the self-denial of those Governours in Free-States is worthy of all honour and admiration who have or shall at any time as willingly resign their Trusts as ever they took them up and have so far denied themselves as to prefix Limits and Bounds to their own Authority This was it that made Brutus so famous in the beginning of the Romane Commonwealth For this also it was that History hath left so reverend a remembrance of Scipio Camillus and Virginus as did Cato likewise of Pompey whilst the ten Grandee Usurpers with Sylla and Caesar and the Names of others that practised the contrary are left as odious upon the Roman Record as the Name of Richard the third will be in our modern Chronicle to all Posterity A fifth Reason to prove the Life of Liberty lies in succession of Powers and Persons is because it is the onely Remedy against Self-seeking with all the powerful Temptations and Charms of self-interest for the attaining of particular ends requires length of time as well as the creating and promoting of a Faction both these designs must lie long in fermentation or else they can never gain the beloved opportunity to bring matters to perfection The Truth of this appears likewise in the Story of the Romane State for as long as all Authority was confined within the Walls of a standing Senate they being more studious of their own than the common good in a short time the Commonwealth was turned altogether into a private insomuch that the people became not onely incapable of any Honour and Authority but well-nigh reduced to flat beggery Hence it was that so many Quarrels and Combustions arose one after another for the Great Ones having made use of their time in drawing all to themselves the People were forc'd to live upon borrowing and when they could borrow no longer they fell into a general Mutiny and forsook the City nor could they be pacified till all Accounts were quitted and then with much adoe they were wrought upon with the Eloquence of Menenius Agrippa with his excellent Fable of a Mutiny in a natural Body among the Members against the Belly Thus as the first Insurrection was occasioned by the Usury and Exactions of the Great Ones who by their long continuance in Power had drawn all unto themselves so the second was occasioned by the Lordliness of those ten Persons who being elected to do Justice according to the Laws made use of their time onely to confirm their Power and Greaten themselves by replenishing their own Coffers ingrossing of Offices and preferring their own Kindred and Alliances and at length improved Self-Interest so high that they domineered like absolute Tyrants advancing and depressing whom they pleased without respect of Merit or Insufficiency Vice or Vertue so that having secured all in their own Hands they over-ruled their Fellow-Senators at pleasure as well as the People Many more instances of After-times might be given but these are sufficient whereupon to ground this Observation That as the first Founders of the Roman Liberty did well in driving out their Kings so on the other side they did very ill in setling a standing Authority within themselves for by this means lying open to the Temptations of Honour and Profit which are Sails too big for any humane bulk they were immediately swallowed up of Self and taking their rise from the opportunity of a continued Power made use of the Publick onely to advance their Private whereby they put the Commonwealth into frequent flames of discontent and sedition which might all have been prevented could they have denied themselves at first and setled the State Free indeed as they ought to have done by placing an orderly succession of supreme Authority in the Hands of the People A sixth Reason why a Free-State is much more excellent than a Government by Grandees or Kings and that the People are the best Keepers of their own Liberties is because as the end of all Government is or ought to be the good and ease of the People in a secure enjoyment of their Rights without Pressure and Oppression so questionless the People who are most sensible of their own Burthens being once put into a capacity and Freedom of Acting are the most likely to provide Remedies for their own Relief they onely know where the shooe wrings what Grievances are most heavy and what future Fences they stand in need of to shelter them from the injurious Assaults of those Powers that are above them and therefore it is but Reason they should see that none be interested in the supreme Authority but Persons of their own election and such as must in a short time return again into the same condition with themselves to reap the same Benefit or Burthen by the Laws enacted that befalls the rest of the People Then the issue of such a Constitution must needs be this That no Load shall be laid upon any but
less luxurious than Kings or the Great Ones because they are bounded within a more lowly pitch of Desire and Imagination give them but panem tircenses Bread Sport and Ease and they are abundantly satisfied Besides the People have less means and opportunities for Luxury than those pompous standing powers whether in the hands of one or many so that were they never so much inclined to Vice or Vanity yet they are not able to run on to the same measure of Excess and Riot Secondly as it appears they are less Luxurious so for this Cause also it is cleer They that is their successive Representatives must be the best Governours not onely because the current of succession keeps them the less corrupt and presumptious but also because being the more free from luxurious Courses they are likewise free from those oppressive and injurious Practices which Kings and Grandees are most commonly led and forced unto to hold up the port and splendor of their Tyranny and to satisfie those natural appetites of Covetousness Pride Ambition and Ostentation which are the perpetual Attendants of Great Ones and Luxury Thus much for Reason Now for Example we might produce a Cloud of Instances to shew That Free-States or the People duely qualified with the Supreme Authority are less devoted to Luxury than the Grandee or Kingly Powers but we shall give you onely a few The first that comes in our way is the State of Athens which whilst it remained free in the Peoples Hands was adorned with such Governours as gave themselves up to a serious abstemious severe course of Life so that whilst Temperance and Liberty walked hand in hand they improved the points of Valour and Prudence so high that in a short time they became the onely Arbitrators of all Affairs in Greece But being at the height then after the common fate of all worldly Powers they began to decline for contrary to the Rules of a Free-State permitting some men to greaten themselves by continuing long in Power and Authority they soon lost their pure Principles of Severity and Libertie for upstarted those thirty Grandees commonly called the Tyrants who having usurped a standing Authority unto themselves presently quitted the old Discipline and Freedom gave up themselves first to Charms of Luxury and afterwards to all the practices of an absolute Tyranny Such also was the condition of that State when at another time as in the dayes of Pistratus it was usurp'd in the hands of a single Tyrant From Athens let us pass to Rome where we finde it in the dayes of Tarquin dissolved into Debauchery Upon the change of Government their manners were somewhat mended as were the Governours in the Senate but that being a standing Power soon grew corrupt and first let in Luxury then Tyranny till the people being interested in the Government established a good Discipline and Freedom both together which was upheld with all Severity till the ten Grandees came in play after whose Deposition Liberty and Sobriety began to breath again till the dayes of Sylla Marius and other Grandees that followed down to Caesar in whose time Luxury and Tyranny grew to such a height that unless it were in the Life and Conversation of Cato there was not so much as one spark that could be raked out of the ashes of the old Roman Discipline and Freedom so that of all the World onely Cato remained as a Monument of that Temperance Virtue and Freedom which flourished under the Government of the People Omitting many other Examples our Conclusion upon these Particulars shall be this That since the Grandee or Kingly Powers are ever more luxurious than the popular are or can be and since Luxury ever brings on Tyranny as the onely bane of Liberty certainly the Rights and Priviledges of the People placed and provided for in a due and orderly succession of their Supreme Assemblies must needs remain more secure in their own Hands than in any others whatsoever A tenth Reason to prove the excellency of a Free-State or Government by the People above any other Form of Government is because under this Government the People are ever indued with a more magnanimous active and noble temper of Spirit than under the Grandeur of any standing power whatsoever And this arises from that apprehension which every particular Man hath of his own immediate share in the publick Interest as well as of that security which â—he possesses in the enjoyment of his private Fortune free from the reach of any Arbitrary Power Hence it is that whensoever any good success or happiness betides the Publick every one counts iâ— his own if the Commonwealth conquer thrive in Dominion Wealth or Honour he reckons all done for himself if he sees Distributions of Honour high Offices or great Rewards to Valiant Vertuous or Learned Persons he esteems them as his own as long as he hath a door left open to succeed in the same Dignities and Enjoyments if he can attain unto the same measure of Desert This it is which makes men aspire unto great Actions when the Reward depends not upon the Will and Pleasure of particular Persons as it doth under all standing Powers but is conferred upon Men without any consideration of Birth or Fortune according to merit as it ever is and ought to be in Free-States that are rightly constituted The Truth of this will appear much more evident if ye list a little to take a view of the condition of People under various Forms of Government for the Romanes of old while under Kings as you heard before remained a very inconsiderable People either in Dominion or Reputation and could never inlarge their Command very far beyond the Walls of their City Afterwards being reduced unto that standing power of the Senate they began to thrive a little better for a little time yet all they could do was only to struggle that for a subsistence among bad Neighbours But at length when the People began to know claim and possess their Liberties in being govern'd by a sucession of their Supreme Officers and Assemblies then it was and never till then that they laid the Foundation and built the Structure of that wondrous Empire that overshadowed the whole World And truely the founding of it must needs be more wonderful and a great Argument of an extraordinary Courage and Magnanimity wherewith the People was indued in Recovery of Liberty because their first Conquests were laid in the ruine of mighty Nations and such as were every jot as free as themselves which made the difficulties-so much the more by how much the more free and consequently the more couragious they were against whom they made opposition for as in those dayes the World abounded with Free-States more than any other Form as all over Italy Gallia Spain and Africa c. so specially in Italy where the Tuscans the Samnites and other Emulators and Competitors of the Romane Freedom approved themselves magnanimous Defenders of their
Liberty against Rome that they endured Wars so many yeers with utmost extremity before ever they could brought to bow under the Romane Yoke This magnanimous State of Freedom was the cause also why Charthage was enabled so long not only to oppose but often to hazard the Romane Fortune and usurp the Laurel It brought Hannibal within view and the Gauls within the Walls of the City to a besieging of the Capitol to shew that their Freedom had given them the courage to rob her of her Maiden-head who afterwards became Mistriss of the whole World But what serves all this for but onely to shew That as nothing but a State of Freedom could have enabled those Nations with a Courage sufficient so long to withstand the Romane Power so Rome her self also was beholden to this State of Freedom for those Sons of Courage which brought the Necks of her Sister-States and Nations under her Girdle And it is observable also in after-times when Tyranny took place against Liberty the Romans soon lost their ancient Courage and Magnanimity first under usurping Dictators then under Emperors and in the end the Empire it self Now as on the one side we feel a loss of Courage and Magnanimity follow the loss of Freedom so on the other side the People ever grow magnanimous and couragious upon a Recovery witness at present the valiant Swisses the Hollanders and not long since our own Nation when declared a Free-State and a Re-establishment of our Freedom in the hands of the People procured though not secured what noble Designs were undertaken and prosecuted with success The Consideration whereof must needs make highly for the Honour of all Governours in Free-States who have been or shall be instrumental in redeeming and setting any People in a fulness of Freedom that is in a due and orderly succession of their supreme Assemblies The eleventh Reason is because in this Form no Determinations being carried but by consent of the People therefore they must needs remain secure out of the reach of Tyranny and free from the Arbitrary Disposition of any commanding Power In this Case as the People know what Laws they are to obey and what Penalties they are to undergo in case of Transgression so having their share and interest in the making of Laws with the Penalties annexed they become the more inexcusable if they offend and the more willingly submit unto punishment when they suffer for any offence Now the case is usually far otherwise under all standing Powers for when Government is managed in the hands of a particular Person or continued in the hands of a certain number of Great Men the People then have no Laws but what Kings and Great Men please to give Not do they know how to walk by those Laws or how to understand them because the sense is oftentimes left at uncertainty and it is reckoned a great Mystery of State in those Forms of Government That no Laws shall be of any sense or sorce but as the Great Ones please to expound them so as by this means the People many times are left as it were without Law because they bear no other construction and meaning but what sutes with particular mens Interests and Phant'sies not with Right Reason or the Publike Liberty For the proof of this under Kingly Government we might run all the world over but our own Nation affords Instances enough in the Practices of all our Kings yet this Evil never came to such a height as it did in the Raign of Henry the seventh who by usurping a Prerogative of expounding the Laws after his own pleasure made them rather Snares than Instruments of Relief like a grand Catch-pole to pill poll and geld the Purses of the People as his Son Harry did after him to deprive many Gallant Men both of their Lives and Fortunes For the Judges being reputed the Oracles of the Law and the power of creating Judges being usurp'd by Kings they had a care ever to create such as would make the Laws speak in Favour of them upon any occasion The Truth whereof hath abundantly appeared in the dayes of the late King and his Father James whose usual Language was this As long as I have power of making what Judges and Bishops I please I am sure to have no Law nor Gospel but what shall please me This very providing for this Inconvenience was the great Commendation of Lycurgus his Institution in Sparta who though he cut out the Lacedemonian Commonwealth after the Grandee fashion confirming the Supremacy within the Walls of the Senate for their King was but a Cypher yet he so ordered the matter that he took away the Grandeur that as their King was of little more value than any one of the Senators so the Senate was restrained by Laws walking in the same even pace of subjection with the People having very few Offices of Dignity or Profit allowed which might make them swell with State and Ambition but were prescribed also the same Rules of Frugality Plainness and Moderation as were the Common People by which means immoderate lusts and desires being prevented in the Great Ones they were the less inclined to Pride and Oppression and no great profit or pleasure being to be gotten by Authority very few desired it and such as were in it sate free from Envie by which means they avoided that odium and emulation which uses to rage betwixt the Great Ones and the People in that Form of Government But now the case is far otherwise in the Commonwealth of Venice where the People being excluded from all interest in Government the power of making and executing of Laws and bearing of Offices with all other Immunities lies onely in the hands of a standing Senate and their Kindred which they call the Patrocian or Noble Order Their Duke or Prince is indeed restrained and made just such another Officer as were the Lacedemonian Kings differing from the rest of the Senate onely in a Corner of his Cap besides a little outward Ceremony and Splendor but the Senators themselves have Liberty at random Arbitrarily to ramble and do what they please with the people who excepting the City it self are so extreamly oppress'd in all their Territories living by no Law but the Arbitrary Dictates of the Senate that it seems rather a Junta than a Commonwealth and the Subjects take so little content in it that seeing more to be enjoyed under the Turk they that are his Borderers take all opportunities to revolt and submit rather to the mercy of a Pagan-Tyranny Which disposition if you consider together with the little Courage in their Subjects by reason they press them so hard and how that they are forced for this cause to relie upon Forrain Mercenaries in all warlike Expeditions you might wonder how this State hath held up so long but that we know the Interest of Christendom being concerned in her Security she hath been chiefly supported by the Supplies and Arms of others
hath said My Kingdome is not of this World it is not from hence c. And therefore that hand which hitherto hath presumed in most Nations to erect a Power called Ecclesiastick in equipage with the Civil to bear â—way and bind mens Consciences to retain Notions ordained for Orthodox upon civill penalties under colour of prudence good order discipline preventing of Heresie advancing of Christs Kingdome and to this end hath twisted the Spiritual Power as they call it with the Worldly and secular interest of State This I say hath been the very right hand of Antichrist opposing Christ in his way Whose Kingdom Government Governours Officers and Rulers Laws Ordinances and Statutes being not of this World I mean jure humano depend not upon the helps and devices of Worldly wisdome Upon this score and pretence the Infant Mystery of Iniquity began to work in the very Cradle of Christianity Afterwards it grew up by the indulgence of Constantine and other Christian Emperours whom though God used in many good things for the suppression of gross Heathen Idolatry yet by Gods permission they were carryed away and their eyes so far dazled through the glorious pretences of the Prelates and Bishops that they could not see the old Serpent in a new Form wrapt up in a Mystery for Satan had a new Game now to play which he managed thus First he led a great part of the World away with dangerous Errours thereby to find an occasion for the Prelates to carry on the mystery of their Profession and so under pretence of suppressing those dangerous errors they easily scrued themselves into the Civil Power and for continuing of it the surer in their own hands they made bold to baptize whole Nations with the name of Christian that they might under the same pretence gain a share of Power and Authority with the Magistrate in every Nation which they soon effected The Infant-being thus nurst grew up in a short time to a perfect man the man of sin if the Pope be the man which is yet controverted by some for the Prelates having gotten the power in their hands began then to quarrel who should be the greatest among them At length he of Rome bore away the Bell and so the next step was that from National Churches they proceed to 〈◊〉 a Mother-Church of all Nations A fair progress and pitch indeed from a small beginning and now being up they defied all with Bell Book and Candle excommunicating and deposing Kings and Emperours and binding mens Consciences still under the first specious pretence of suppressing Heresie to believe onely in their Arbitrary Dictates Traditions and Errours which are the greatest Blasphemies Errours and Heresies that ever were in the World Now they were up see what a do there was to get any part of them down again What a Quarter and Commotion there was in Germany when Luther first brake the Ice And the like here in England when our first Reformers began their Work These men in part did well but having banished the Popes actual Tyranny they left the Seed and Principle of it still behind which was a State Ecclesiastical united with the Civil for the Bishops twisted their own interest again with that of the Crown upon a Protestant Accompt and by vertue of that persecuted those they called Puritans for not being as Orthodox they said as themselves To conclude if it be considered that most of the Civil Wars and Broiles throughout Europe have been occasioned by permitting the settlement of Clergy-Interest with the Secular in National Formes and Churches it will doubt els be understood that the Division of a State into Ecclesiasticall and Civil must needs be one of the main Errors in Christian Policy A second Error which we shall note and which is very frequent under all Formes of Government is this that care hath not been taken at all times and upon all occasions of Alteration to prevent the passage of Tyranny out of one Form into another in all the Nations of the World for it is most clear by observing the Affairs and Actions of past-Ages and Nations that the interest of absolute Monarchy and its Inconveniencies have been visible and fatal under the other Forms where they have not been prevented and given us an undeniable proof of this Maxime by Experience in all Times That the Interest of Monarchy may reside in the hands of many as well as of a single person The Interest of absolute Monarchy we conceive to be an unlimited uncontrolable unaccountable station of Power and Authority in the hands of a particular person who governs onely according to the Dictates of his own Will and Pleasure And though it hath often bin disguised by Sophisters in Policy so as it hath lost its own name by shifting Formes yet really and effectually the thing in it self hath bin discovered under the artificial covers of every Form in the various Revolutions of Government So that nothing more concerns a People established in a state of Freedom than to be instructed in things of this Nature that the means of its preservation being understood and the subtil sleight of old Projectors brought into open view they may become the more zealous to promote the one and prevent the other if any old game should happen to be plaid over anew by any succeeding Generation It is very observable in Athens that when they had laid aside their King the Kingly power was retained still in all the after-turns of Government for their Decimal Governours and their Thirty commonly called the Tyrants were but a multiplied Monarchy the Monarchal Interest being held up as high as ever in keeping the exercise of the Supremacy out of the peoples hands and seating themselves in an unaccountable state of Power and Authority which was somewhat a worse condition than the people were in before for their Kings had Supervisors and there were also Senatick Assemblies that did restrain and correct them but the new Governors having none ran into all the heats and fits and wild extravagancies of an unbounded Prerogative by which means Necessity and Extremity opening the peoples Eyes they at length saw all the Inconveniencies of Kingship wrapt up in new Forms and rather increased than diminished so that as the onely Remedy they dislodged the Power out of those hands putting it into their own and placing it in a constant orderly Revolution of persons Elective by the Community And now being at this fair pass one would have thought there was no shelter for a Monarchal Interest under a popular Form too But alass they found the contrary for the people not keeping a strict Watch over themselves according to the Rules of a Free State but being won by specious pretences and deluded by created Necessities to intrust the management of Affairs into some particular hands such an occasion was given thereby to those men to frame parties of their own that by this means they in a short time became able to
stand upon their own legs and do what they list without the peoples consent and in the end not onely discontinued but utterly extirpated their successive Assemblies In Rome also the Case was the same under every Alteration and all occasioned by the crafty contrivances of Grandising Parties and the peoples own facility and negligence in suffering themselves to be deluded for with the Tarquin's as it is observed by Livy and others onely the name King was expelled but not the thing the Power Interest of Kingship was still retained in the Senate and ingrossed by the Consuls For besides the Rape of Lucrece among the other faults objected against Tarquin this was most considerable That he had acted all things after his own head and discontinued Consultations with the Senate which was the very height of Arbitrary Power But yet as soon as the Senate was in the saddle they forgat what was charged by themselves upon Tarquin and ran into the same Errour by establishing an Arbitrary Hereditary unaccountable Power in themselves and their Posterity not admitting the people whose interest and liberty they had pleaded into any share in Consultation or Government as they ought to have done by a present erecting of their successive Assemblies so that you seethe same Kingly Interest which was in one before resided then in the hands of many Nor is it my Observation onely but pointed out by Livy in his second Book as in many other places Cum à Patribus non Consules sed Carnifices c. When saith he the Senators strove to create not Consuls but Executioners and Tormentors to vex tear the people c. And in another place of the same Book Consules immoderat â infinitaque potestate omnes metus legum c. The Consuls having an immoderate and unlimited Power turned the terror of Laws and punishments onely upon the people themselves in the mean while being accountable to none but to themselves and their Confederates in the Senate Then the Consular Government being cashiered came on the Decemviri Cum Consulari Imperio ac Regio sine provocatione saith my Author being invested with a Consular and Kingly Power without appeal to any other And in his third Book he saith Decem Regum species erat it was a Form of ten Kings the miseries of the people being increased ten times more then they were under Kings and Consuls For remedy therefore the ten were cashiered also and Consuls being restored it was thought fit for the bridling of their Power to revive also the Dictatorship which was a Temporary Kingship used onely now and then upon occasion of Necessity and also those Deputies of the people called Tribunes which one would have thought had bin sufficient Bars against Monarchick Interest especially being assisted by the peoples successive Assemblies But yet for all this the people were cheated through their own neglect and bestowing too much confidence and trust upon such as they thought their friends For when they swerved from the Rules of a Free-State by lengthning the Dictatorship in any hand then Monarchick-Interest stept in there as it did under Sylla Caesar and others long before it returned to a declared Monarchal Form and when they lengthned Commands in their Armies then it crept in there as it did under the afore-named persons as well as Marius Cinna and others also and even Pompey himself not forgetting also the pranks of the two Triumvirales who all made a shift under every Form being sometimes called Consuls sometimes Dictators and sometimes Tribunes of the people to out-act all the Flagitions Enormities of an absolute Monarchy It is also evident in the Story of Florence that that Common-wealth even when it seemed most free could never quite shake off the Interest of Monarchy for it was ever the business of one Upstart or other either in the Senate or among the People to make way to their own ambitious Ends and hoist themselves into a Kingly posture through the Peoples favour as we may see in the Actions of Savanarola the Monk Soderino and the Medices whose Family did as we see at this day fix it self at length in the State of an absolute Monarchy under the Title of a Dukedome Nor can it be forgotten how much of Monarchy of late crept into the United Provinces Now the use that is to be made of this Discourse is this that since it is clear the Interest of Monarchy may reside in a Consul as well as in a King in a Dictator as well as in a Consul in the hands of many as well as of a single person and that its Custom hath bin to lurk under every Form in the various turnes of Government therefore as it concerns every people in a State of Freedome to keep close to the Rules of a Free-State for the turning out of Monarchy whether simple or compound both name and thing in one or many by which means onely they will be inabled to avoid this second Error in Policy so they ought ever to have a Reverent and Noble respect of such Founders of Free-States and Common-wealths as shall block up the way against Monarchick Tyranny by declaring for the Liberty of the People as it consists in a due and orderly succession of Authority in their supream Assemblies A third Errour in Policy which ought especially notice to be taken of and prevented in a Free-State hath bin a keeping of the people ignorantâ— of those ways and means that are essentially necessary for the preservation of their Liberty for implicite Faith and blind Obedience hath hitherto passed currant and been equally pressed and practised by Grandees both Spirituall and Temporal upon the People so that they have in all Nations shared the Authority between them And though many quarrels have â—iâ—en in times past between Kings and their Clergy touching their several Jurisdictions yet the mysteries of Domination have been still kept under lock and key so that their Prerogative remained entire ever above the reach and knowledge of the People by which means Monarchs and other standing Powers have seen their own Interest provided for as well as in the Popes in this mysterious Maxime Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion But these things ought not to be so among a people that have declared themselves a Free-State For they should not onely know what Freedome is and have it repreâ—ented in all its lively and lovely Features that they may grow zealous and jealous over it but that it may be a Zeal according to knowledge and good purpose it is without all question most necessary that they be made acquainted and throughly instructed in the Meanes and Rules of its preservation against the Adulterous Wiles and Rapes of any projecting Sophisters that may arise hereafter And doubtless this endeavour of mine in laying down the Rules of preserving a Free-State will appear so much the more necessary if we consider that all the Inconveniencies that in Times have happened under this Form to imbroyl
length they have been their own executioners and ruined one another And had it been only the destruction of themselves the matter were not considerable but the people having by this means been torn with Civill dissentions and the miseries of War by being drawn into Parties according to their severall humors and affections the usuall event ever was that in the end they have been seized as the prey of some single Tyrant An example of this there was in the State of Athens under the Government of those thirty men who usurped the power into their own hands and were afterwards called the thirty Tyrants for their odious behaviour for Xenophon tells us that they drew the determinations of all things into their own Closets but seemed to manage them calculis suffragiis Plebis by the Votes of the people which they had brought to their own devotion in the Assembly to countenance their proceedings And their custom was if any sort of men complained and murmured at their doings or appeared for the Publique immediately to snap them off by the losse of life or fortune under a pretence of being seditions and turbulent fellows against the peace of their Tyranny These Juncto-men had not been many moneths in possession but they began to quarrel with one another and the reason why the game went not on against one another was because the people took it out of their hands and diverted the course of their spleen against each other into a care of mutuall defence they being assaulted on every side by popular arme and clamors for the recovery of liberty So you see the event of these thirty mens combination was no lesse then a civill War and it ended in their banishment But as great a mischief followed for a new Junto of ten men got into their places whose Government proving little lesse odious than the 〈◊〉 gave an occasion to new changes which never left shifting till at last they fell into a single Tyranny And the wilder sort of people having by a sad experience felt the fruits of their own error in following the lusts and parties of particular powerful persons grew wise and combining with the honester sort they all as one man set their shoulders to the work and restored the primitive Majesty and Authority of their supreme Assemblies Herodotus in his second Book tells us that Monarchy being abolished in Egypt after the death of King Setho and a Declaration published for the freedom of the people immediately the Administration of all Affaires was ingross't in the hands of twelve Grandees who having made themselves secure against the people in a few years fell to quarrelling with one another as the manner is about their share in the Government This drew the people into severall parties and so a civill Warre ensued wherein Psummeticus one of the twelve having slain all his Partners left the people in the lurch and instead of a free State seated himself in the possession of a single Tyranny But of all old instances the most famous are the two Triumvirates that were in Rome The first was that of Pompâ—y Caesar and Crassus who having drawn the affairs of the Empire and the whole World into their own particular hands acting and determining all in a private â— unto of their own without the advice or consent of the Senate and people unless it were now and then to make stalking horses of them for the more clearly conveyance of some unpleasing design These men having made an agreement among themselves that nothing should be done in the Common-wealth but what pleased their own humor it was not long ere the spirit of Ambition set them flying at the faces of one another and drew the whole World upon the Stage to act that bloody Tragedy whose Caâ—astrophe was the death of Pompey and the Dominion of Caesar The second Trimuvirate was erected after the fatall stab given to Caesar in the Senate between Octavius afterwards Emperor by the name of Augustus Lopidus and Antony these having drawn all Affairs into their own hands and shared the World between them presently fell abandying against one another Augustus picking a quarrell with Lepidus gave him a lift out of his Authority and confined him to a close imprisonment in the City This being done first he had the more hope and opportunity next for the outing of Anthony he picks a quarrel with him too begins a new civill Warre wherein Rome and a great part of the World was engaged to serve his ambition and things being brought to the decision of a Battell and the ruine of Anthony he afterwards seated and secured himself in the injoyment of a single Tyranny Omitting many other instances here in England it is worthy observation that in the great contest between Henry the third and the Barons about the liberties of themselves and the people the King being forced at length to yield the Lords instead of freeing the Nation indeed ingrossed all power into their own hands under the name of the Twenty-foure Conservators of the Kingdom and behaved themselves like totidem Tyranny so many Tyrants acting all in their own Names and in 〈◊〉 of their own wholly neglecting or else over-ruling Parliaments But then not agreeing among themselves there were three or four of them defeated the other twenty and drew the intire management of Affairs into their own hands viz. the Earles of Leicester Gloucester Hereford and Spencer yet it continued so not long for Leicester getting all into his own power fell at enmity with Gloucester and was defeated by him At length Leicester putting his Fortune to a Battel was slain and the King thereupon getting all power back again took advantage of that opportunity for the greatning of himself and Prerogative And so you see All that the people got by the effusion of their bloud and loss of their peace was That instead of one Tyrant they had Twenty Four and then Four and after them a single Usurper which was Monfort Earl of Leicester and he being gone they were forced to serve their old Tyrant Henry the Third again who by this means became the more secure and firm in his Tyranny wherein if they had dealt like men of honour and made the Nation as free as they pretended not ingrossing all into their own private hands but instating the liberty of England Paramount above the regall prerogative in a due and constant course of successive Parliaments without which liberty is but a meere name and shadow then all the succeeding inconveniences had been surely prevented the bloody bickering afterwards might have been avoided their own persons and honors preserved Kings either cashiered or regulated as they ought to have been and the whole Nation freed from those after-gripes and paâ—gs inflicted by that Henry and his corrupt Line of successors The World affords many instances of this kinde but these are sufficient to manifest the fatall consequences that have happened in permitting publick 〈◊〉 and interests to be ingrossed
The EXCELLENCIE OF A Free-State OR The Right CONSTITUTION OF A Common-wealth WHEREIN All Objections are answered and the best way to secure the Peoples LIBERTIES discovered WITH Some Errors of Government AND Rules of Policie Published by a Well-wisher to Posterity London Printed for Thomas Brewster at the three Bibles neer the West-end of Pauls 1656. To the Reader TAking notice of late with what impudence and the more is the pity confidence the Enemies of this Commonwealth in their publick Writings and Discourses labour to undermine the dear-bought Liberties and Freedoms of the People in their declared Interest of a Free-State I thought it high time by counter-working them to crush the Cockatrice in the Egg that so it might never grow to be a Bird of prey in order thereto I have published this following Discourse to the World that so the Eyes of the People being opened they may see whether those high and ranting Discourses of personal Prerogative and unbounded Monarchy especially * Inspections One lately published by Mr. Howel that struts abroad with a brazen Face or a due and orderly succession of the Supreme Authority in the hands of the Peoples Representatives will best secure the Liberties and Freedoms of the People from the Incroachments and Usurpations of Tyranny and answer the true Ends of the late Wars This Treatise is not intended for a particular Answer to Mr. Howel's said Book but yet may obviate that part thereof which he calls Some Reflexes upon Government for his main design is not so much though that be part to asperse the long Parliament and so through their sides to wound all their Friends and Adherents as to lay a Foundation for absolute Tyranny upon an unbounded Monarchy and in order thereunto he advises his Highness to lay aside Parliaments or at best to make them Cyphers and to govern the Nation Vi Armis not â—ut of any Honour or respect he bears to his Person but to bring the old Interest and Family into more credit and esteem with the People His Principles and Precedents they are purely his own for I am confident that the most considerate part of those that did engage for the late King are so far from owning his Tenets that they would rather lay aside the Family and Interest of the Stuarts and declare for a Free-State than indure to be yoked and enslaved by such an absolute Tyranny as he pleads for My reason is this because most of the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation have fair Estates of their own free without any dependence upon the Crown and they would be as unwilling to render up their Estates and Posterities in the paw of the Lion as the Commoners themselves His Precedents are as false as his Principles are bad for proof hereof take one and that a main one for all he saith That until the Reign of Henry the first the Commons of England were not called to the Parliament at all or had so much as a Consent in the making of Laws To prove that this is false there is extant an old Latine Copy speaking of a Parliament in the Reign of King Ethelred which telleth us that in it were Universi Anglorum Optimates Ethelredi Regis Edicto convocata Plebis multitudine collectae Regis Edicto A Writ of Summons for all the Lords and for choice of the Commons a full and clear Parliament My Author saith The proofs of Parliaments in Canute's time are so many and so full that they tire us altogether His remarkable Letter from Rome recorded by the Monk of Malmsbury runs thus To the Arch-Bishops Bishops c. Primatibus toti Genti Anglorum tam Nobilibus quam Plebeis Hoveden is full in this also Cujus Edmundi post mortem Rex Canutus omnes Episcopos Duces nec non Principes cunctosque Optimates Gentis Angliae Lundoniae congregrari jussit Howel saith William the Conqueror first brought the word Parlament A clear summons of Parliament and the very name of Parliament is found saith my Author in his time in the old Book of Edmunds-Bury Rex Canutus Anno Regni 5. cunctos Regni sui Praelatos Proceresque ac Magnates and suum convocans Parliamentum And that it was a full Parliament we may believe from the persons we finde there at the Charter to that Monastery confirmed by Hardicanute but granted by Canute insuo Publico Parliamento praesistentibus personaliter in eodem Archi-Episcopis Episcopis Suffraganeis Ducibus Comitibus Abbatibus cum quam plurimis gregariis Militibus Knights of shires it seems cum Populi multitudine copiosa other Commons also Omnibus tum eodem Parliamento personaliter existentibus Edward the Confessor refers the repairing Mr. Howel would have his Highness lay a Sesment for the repairing of Pauls without consent of Parliament of Westminster to the Parliament at length cum totius Regni Electione they are his own words he sets upon the decayed Minster But they that would know more of the Customs and Constitutions of this Nation let them repair to those large Volumes that are so frequent in print upon that Subject especially that excellent Piece The Rights of the Kingdom This may suffice to prove that the Commons were called to Parliament long before Henry the first I believe none will be offended with this following Discourse but those that are Enemies to publick welfare let such be offended still it is not for their sakes that I publish this exsuing Treatise but for your sakes that have been noble Patriots fellow-Souldiers and Sufferers for the Liberties and Freedoms of your Country that Posterity in after-ages may have something to say and shew to if God shall permit any suceeding Tyrants wherefore their Fathers sacrificed their lives and all that was dear to them It was not to destroy Magistracy but to regulate it nor to confound Propriety but to inlarge it that the Prince as well as the People might be governed by Law that Justice might be impartially distributed without respect of persons that England might become a quiet Habitation for the Lion and the Lamb to lie down and fâ—ed together and that none might make the people afraid it was for these things they fought and died and that not as private persons neither but by the publick command and conduct of the Supreme Power of the Nation viz. the peoples Representatives in Parliament and nothing will satisfie far all the Blood and Treasure that hath been spilt and spent make England a glorious Commonwealth and stop the mouths of all gainsayers but a due and orderly succession of the Supreme Authority in the hands of the Peoples Representatives An INTRODUCTION TO THE Following Discourse WHen the Senators of Râ—me in their publike Decrees and Orations began to comply with and court the People calling them Lords of the world how easie a matter was it then for Gracchus to perswade them to un-Lord the Senate In like manner when Athens was
quitted of Kings the Power was no sooper declared to be in the People â—â—t immediately they took it and made sure of it in their own hands by the advice of Solon that excellent Law-giver for as Cicero saith There is a natural desire of Power and Sovereignty in every man so that if any have once an oportunity to seize they seldom neglect it and if they are told it is their due they venture life and all to attain it If a People once conceive they ought to be free this conception is immediately put in practice and they free themselves Their first care is to see that their Laws their Rights their Deputies their Officers and all their Dependents be setled in a state of freedom This becoms like the Apple of the eye the least grain atome or touch will grieve it it is an espoused virgin they are extreme jealous over it Thus strangely affected were the Roman people that if any one among them though ne'er so deserving were found to aspire they presently fetch'd him down as they did the gallant Maelius and Manlius yea their jealousie was so great that they observed every man's looks his very nods his garb and his gate whether he walked conversed and lived as a friend of Freedom among his neighbours The supercilious eye the lofty brow and the grand paw were accounted Monsters and no Character of Freedom so that it was the special care of the wiser Patriots to keep themselves in a demure and humble posture for the avoiding of suspicion Hence it was that Collatinus one of their Freedoms Founders and of the first Consuls living in some more State than ordinary and keeping at too great a distance from the people soon taught them to forget his former merits insomuch that they not onely turned him out of his Consulship but quite out of the City into Banishment But his Colleague Brutus and that wise Man Valerius Publicola by taking a contrary course preserved themselves and their reputation For the one sacrificed his Children those living Monuments of his House to make the vulgar amends for an injury the other courted them with the Title of Majesty laid the Fasces the Ensigns of Authority at their Feet fixt all appeals at their Tribunals and levelled the lofty Walls of his own stately House for fear they should mistake it for a Castle Thus also did Menenius Agrippa Camillus and other eminent Men in that popular State so that by these means they made themselves the Darlings of the people whilst many others of a more Grandee-humor soon lost their Interest and Reputation Thus you see that when a Peoples Right is once declared to them it is almost impossible to keep it or take it from them It is pity that the people of England being born as free as any people in the World should be of such a supple humor and inclination to bow under the ignoble pressures of an Arbitrary Tyranny and so unapt to learn what true Freedom is It is an inestimable Jewel of more worth than your Estates or your Lives it consists not in a License to do what you list but in these few particulars First in having who esome Laws sured to every Man's state and condition Secondly in a due and easie course of administration as to Law and Justice that the Remedies of Evil may be cheap and speedy Thirdly in a power of altering Government and Governours upon occasion Fourthly in an uninterrupted course of successive Parliaments or Assemblies of the People Fifthly in a free Election of Members to sit in every Parliament when Rules of Election are once established By enjoying these onely a people are said to enjoy their Rights and to be truely stated in a condition of safety and Freedom Now if Liberty is the most precious Jewel under the Sun then when it is once in possession it requires more than an ordinary art and industry to preserve it But the great question is Which is the safest way whether by committing of it into the hands of a standing Power or by placing the Guardianship in the hands of the People in a constant succession of their supreme Assemblys The best way to determine this is by observation out of Romane Stories whereby it plainly appears that people never had any real Liberty till they were possess'd of the power of calling and dissolving the Supreme Assemblies changing Governments enacting and repealing Laws together with a power of chusing and depuring whom they pleased to this work as often as they should judge expedient for their own well-being and the good of the Publike This power is said to be the first born of that Peoples Freedom and many a shrewd fit many a pang and throw the Commonwealth had before it could be brought forth in the world which Gracchus told them was a sore affliction from the gods that they should suffer so much for the ignorance or negligeÌ„ce of their Ancestors who when they drave our Kings forgat to drive out the Mysteries and inconveniences of Kingly power which were all reserved within the hands of the Senate By this means the poor people missing the first opportunity of setling their freedom soon lost it again they were told they were a Free-state and why because forsooth they had no King they had at length nevâ—r a Tarquin to trouble them but what was that to the purpose as long as they had a Caius and an Appius Claudius and the rest of that gant who infected the Senators with an humour of Kinging it from generation to generation Alas when the Romans were at this pass they were just such another Free-state as was that of Sparta in the days of yore where they had a Senate too to pull down the pride of Kings but the people were left destitute of power and means to pull down the pride of the Senate by which means indeed they became free to do what they list whilst the people were confined within straiteâ— bounds than ever Such another Free-state in these daies is that of Venice where the people are free from the Dominion of their Prince or Duke but little better than slaves under the power of their Senate but now in the Common-wealth of Athens the case was far otherwise where it was the care of Solon that famous Law-giver to place both the exercise interest of Supremacy in the hands of the people so that nothing of a publick interest could be imposed but what passed currant by vertue of their consent and Authority he instituted that famous Council called the Areopagus for the managing of State-transactions but left the power of Legislation or law-making in a successive course of the peoples Assemblies so that avoiding Kingly Tyranny on the one side and Senatical incroachments on the other he is celebrated by all Posterity as the man that hath left the onely Patern of a Free-state fit for all the world to follow It is also to be observed when Kings were driven out of
what is common to all and that always by common consent not to serve the Lusts of any but onely to supply the Necessities of their Country But when it happens that a supreme Power long continues in the Hands of any Person or Persons they by greatness of place being seated above the middle Region of the People sit secure from all windes and weathers and from those storms of violence that nip and terrifie the inferiour part of the World whereas if by a successive Revolution of Authority they came to be degraded of their Earthly Godheads and return into the same condition with other Mortals they must needs be the more sensible and tender of what shall be laid upon them The strongest Obligation that can be laid upon any Man in publick Matters is To see that he ingage in nothing but what must either offensively or beneficially reflect upon himself for as if any be never so good a Patriot yet if his power be prolonged he will finde it hard to keep Self from creeping in upon him and prompting him to some Extravagancies for his own private Benefit so on the other side if he be shortly to return to a condition common with the rest of his Brethren self-Interest bindes him to do nothing but what is Just and Equal he himself being to reap the good or evil of what is done as well as the meanest of the people This without controversie must needs be the most Noble the most Just and the most excellent way of Government in Free-States without which it is obvious to common sense no Nation can long continue in a state of Freedom as appears likewise by Example out of the Romane Story For what more noble Patriots were there ever in the World than the Romane Senators were whilst they were kept under by their Kings and felt the same Burthens of their fury as did the rest of the people but afterwards being freed from the Kingly yoke and having secured all power within the hands of themselves and their posterity they at length fell into the same Absurdities that had been before committed by their Kings so that this new yoke became more intolerable than the former Nor could the people finde any Remedy untill they procured that necessary Office of the Tribunes who being invested with a temporary Authority by the peoples Election remained the more sensible of their condition and were as Moderators between the Power of the Great Ones and the Rights of the People What more excellent Patriot could there be than Manlius till he became corrupted by Time and Power Who more Noble and Courteous and Well-affected to the common good than was Appius Claudius at first but afterwards having obtained a Continuation of the Government in his own hands he soon lost his primitive Innocency and Integrity and devoted himself to all the Practices of an Absolute Tyrant Many others might be reckon'd up And therefore hence it was That when the Senate for some Reasons though to continue Lucius Quintius in the Consulship longer than the usual time that gallant Man utterly refused it and chose rather to deny himself than that a Precedent so prejudicial to the Romane Freedom should be made for his sake by a Prerogative of Authority in his hands beyond the ordinary Custome A seventh Reason why a people qualified with a due and orderly succession of their Supreme Assemblies are the best keepers of their own Liberties is Because as in other Forms those persons onely have access to Government who are apt to serve the lust and will of the Prince or else are parties or compliers with some powerful Faction so in this Form of Government by the People the door of Dignity stands open to all without exception that ascend thither by the steps of Worth and Vertue the consideration whereof hath this noble effect in Free-States That it edges mens spirits with an active emulation and raiseth them to a lofty pitch of designe and action The truth of this is very observable in the Romane State for during the Vassalage of that People under Kings we read not of any notable Exploits but finde them confined within a narrow compass oppress'd at home and ever and anon ready to be swallowed up by their enemies After this Government of Kings was abolished you know that of Grandees in a standing Senate was next erected under which Form they made shift to enlarge their bounds a little but the most they could then do was only to secure themselves from the attempts of the banished Tarquins and those petty neighbours that envied the small increase of their Dominion But at length when the State was made free indeed and the People admitted into a share and interest in the Government as well as the Great Ones then it was and never till then that their thoughts and power began to exceed the bounds of Italy and aspire towards that prodigious Empire For while the road of Preferment lay plain to every man no publike work was done nor any Conquest made but every man thought he did and conquered all for himself as long as he remained valiant and vertuous it was not Alliance nor Friendship nor Faction nor Riches that could advance men but Knowledge Valour and vertuous Poverty was preferred above them all For the confirmation whereof we finde in the same Story how that many of their brave Patriots and Conquerors were men of the meanest Fortune and of so rare a temper of spirit that they little cared to improve them or enrich themselves by their publike employment so that when they died they were fain to be buried at the publike charge We finde Cincinnatus a man of mean fortune fetch'd from the Plough to the dignity of a Dictator for he had no more than four acres of land which he tilled with his own hands Yet so it happened that when the Roman Conful with his whole Army was in great peril being circumvented and straitned by the Equuns and the City of Rome it self in a trembling condition then with one consent they pitch'd upon Cincinnatus as the fittest man for their deliverance and he behaved himself so well with so much magnanimity integrity and wisdom that he relieved the Consul routed and utterly subdued the Enemy and gave as it were a new life to his Countries Liberties which work being over he with all willingness quitted his Authority and returned to the condition of a painful private life This Example might seem strange but that we know it was ordinary in that State till it grew corrupt again for we read also how Lucius Tarquin not of the Tyrants family a man of mean fortune yet of great worth was chosen General of the Horse and drawn to it out of the Country in which place he surpassed all the Romane youth for gallant behaviour Such another plain Country-fellow was Attilius Regulus the scourge of Carthage in his time of whom many eminent points of Bravery were recorded as were also most
upon their Families whereby the Peoples Election will be made of no effect further than for Fashion to mock the poor People and adorn the Triumphs of an aspiring Tyranny as it hath been seen in the Elective Kingdoms of Bohemia Poland Hungaria and Sweden where the Forms of Election were and are still retained but the Power swallowed up and the Kingdoms made Hereditary not onely in Sweden by the Artifice of Gustavus Ericus but also in Poland and the Empire where the peoples right of election was soon eaten out by the cunning of the two Families of Casimira and Austria Let this serve to manifest that a Government by a free Election and Consent of the People setled in a due and orderly succession of their supreme Assemblies is more consonant to the light of Nature and Reason and consequently much more excellent than any Hereditary standing Power whatsoever To take off all mis-constructions when we mention the People observe all along that we do not mean the confused promiscuous Body of the People nor any part of the people who have forfeited their Rights by Delinquency Neutrality or Apostacy c. in relation to the divided state of any Nation for they are not to be reckon'd within the Lists of the People The thirteenth Reason to prove the excellency of a Free-State above any other Form is because in Free-States there are fewer opportunities of Oppression and Tyranny than in the other Forms And this appears in that it is ever the care of Free-Commonwealths for the most part to preserve not an Equality which were irrational and odious but an Equability of Condition among all the Members so that no particular Man or Men shall be permitted to grow over-great in Power nor any Rank of Men be allowed above the ordinary Standard to assume unto themselves the State and Title of Nobility The Observation of the former setures the Peoples Liberty from the reach of their own Officers such as being entrusted with the Affairs of high Trust and Imployment either in Campe and Council might perhaps take occasion thereby to aspire beyond Reason if not restrained and prevented The Observation of the later secures the People from the pressures and Ambition of such perty Tyrants as would usurp and claim a Prerogative Power and Greatness above others by Birth and Inheritance These are a sort of Men not to be endured in any well-ordered Commonwealth for they alwayes bear a Natural and Implacable Hate towards the People making it their Interest to deprive them of their Liberty so that if at any time it happen that any great Man or Men whatsoever arrive to so much Power and Confidence as to think of usurping or to be in a Condition to be tempted thereunto these are the first that will set them on mingle Interests with them and become the prime Instruments in heaving them up into the Seat of Tyranny For the clearing of these Truths and first to manifest the Inconvenience of permitting any persons to be over-great in any State and that Free-States that have not avoided it have soon lost their Liberty we shall produce a File of Examples In Greece we finde that the Free-State of Athens lost its Liberty upon that account once when they suffered certain of the Senators to over-top the rest in power which occasioned that multiplied Tyranny made famous by the name of the thirty Tyrants at another time when by the same Error they were constrained through the power of Pistrâ—tus to stoop unto his single Tyranny Upon this score also the people of Syracusa had the same misfortune under the Tyrant Hiero as had they of Sicily under Dyonlsius and Agathocles In Rome also the case is the same too for during the time that Liberty was included within the Senate they gave both Malius Manlius an opportunity to aspire by permitting them a growth of too much Greatness but by good fortune escaping their clutches they afterwards fell as foolishly into the hands of ten of their Fellow-Senators called the Decemviri in giving them so much power as tempted them unto Tyranny Afterwards when the people scuffled and made a shift to recover their Liberty out of the hands of the Senate they committed the same Error too by permitting of their Servants to grow over-great such as Sylla who by power tyrannized and made himself Dictator for five yeers as Caesar afterwards secled the Dictatorship upon himself for ever and after Caesar's death they might have recovered their Liberty again if they had taken care as they might easily have done to prevent the growing Greatness of Augustus who gaining power first by the courtesie good will of the Senate and People made use of it to establish himself in a Tyranny which could never after be extinguished but in the ruine of the Roman Empire it self Thus also the Free-State of Florence foolishly ruined it self by the greatning of Cosmus first permitting him to ingross the Power which gave him opportunity to be a tyrant then as foolishly forcing him to declare himself a Tyrant by an unseasonable demand of the power back out of his hands Many more instances might be fetch'd out of Milan Switzerland and other places but we have one neerer home and of a later date in Holland whereby permitting the Family of Orange to greaten a little more than beseemed a Member of a Free-State they were insensibly reduced to the last cast to run the hazzard of the loss of their Liberty Therefore one prime Principle of State is To keep any man though he have deserved never so well by good success or service from being too great or popular it is a notable means and so esteemed by all Free-States to keep and preserve a Commonwealth from the Rapes of Usurpation A fourteenth Reason and though the last yet not the least to prove a Free-State or Government by the People setled in a due and orderly succession of their supreme Assemblies is much more excellent than any other Form is because in this Form all Powers are accountable for misdemeanors in Government in regard of the nimble Returns and Periods of the Peoples Election by which means he that ere-while was a Governour being reduced to the condition of a Subject lies open to the force of the Laws and may with ease be brought to punishment for his offence so that after the observation of such a course others which succeed will become the less daring to offend or to abuse their Trust in Authority to an oppression of the People Such a course as this cuts the very throat of all Tyranny and doth not onely root it up when at full growth but crusheth the Cockatrice in the Egg destroys it in the Seed in the principal and in the very possiblities of its being for ever after And as the safety of the People is the Soveraign and Supreme Law so an establishment of this Nature is an impregnable Bulwark of the Peoples safety because without it no certain
Benefit can be obtained by the ordinary Laws which if they should be dispensed by uncontrolable unaccountable Persons in Power shall never be interpreted but in their own sense nor executed but after their own Wills and Pleasure Now this is most certain That as in the Government of the People the successive Revolution of Authority by their consent hath ever been the onely Bank against Inundations of Arbitrary Power and Tyranny so on the other side it is as sure That all standing Powers have and ever do assume unto themselves an Arbitrary Exercise of their own dictates at pleasure and make it their onely Interest to settle themselves in an unaccountable state of Dominion so that though they commit all the injustice in the World their custome hath been still to perswade men partly by strong pretence of Argument and partly by force that they may do what they list and that they are not bound to give an account of their Actions to any but to God himself This Doctrine of Tyranny hath taken the deeper Root in mens mindes because the greatest part was ever inclined to adore the Golden Idol of Tyranny in every Form by which means the rabble of mankinde being prejudicated in this particular and having plac'd their corrupt humour or interest in base fawning and the favour of present Great Ones Therefore if any resolute Spirit happen to broach and maintain true Principles of Freedom or do at any time arise to so much courage as to perform a noble Act of Justice in calling Tyrants to an account presently he draws all the enmity and fury of the World about him But in Common-wealths it is and ought to be otherwise for in the Monuments of the Grecian and Romane Freedom we finde those Nations were wont to heap all the Honours they could invent by publick Rewards Consecration of Statues and Crowns of Laurel upon such worthy Patriots and as if on earth all were too little they inroll'd them in heaven among the Deities And all this they did out of a Noble sense of Commonweal-interest knowing that the life of Liberty consists in a strict hand and zeal against Tyrants and Tyranny and by keeping persons in power from all the occasions of it which cannot be better done than according to the custom of all States that are really free by leaving them liable to account which happiness was never seen yet under the sun by any Law or Custom established save onely in those States where all men are brought to taste of Subjection as well as Rule and the Government setled by a due succession of Authority by consent of the People In Switzerland the people are free indeed because all Officers and Governours in the Cantons are questionable by the People in their successive Assemblies The Inference from the fore-going particulars is easie That since Freedom is to be preserved no other way in a Commonwealth but by keeping Officers and Governours in an accountable state and since it appears no standing Powers can never be called to an account without much difficulty or involving a Nation in Blood or Misery And since a revolution of Government in the Peoples hands hath ever been the onely means to make Governours accountable and prevent the inconveniences of Tyranny Distraction and Misery therefore for this and those other reasons fore-going we may conclude That a Free-State or Government by the People setled in a due and orderly succession of their supreme Assemblies is far more excellent every way than any other Form whatsoever ALL OBJECTIONS Against the Government of the People ANSWERED COnsidering That in times past the People of this Nation were bred up and instructed in the brutish Principles of Monarchy by which means they have been the more averse from entertaining Notions of a more noble Form and remembring that not long since we were put into a better course upon the declared Interest of a Free-State or Commonwealth I conceived nothing could more highly tend to the propagation of that good Interest and the Honour of its Founders than to manifest the Inconveniences and ill Consequences of the other Forms and so to root up their Principles that the good People who but the other day were invested in the possession of a more excellent way may in order to their re-establishment understand what Commonwealth-Principles are and thereby become the more resolute to defend them against the common Enemy learn to be true Commonwealths men and zealous against Monarchick-Interest in all its appearances and incroachments whatsoever To this end we have set down our Position That a Free-State or Government by the People setled in a due and orderly succession of their supreme Assemblies is the most excellent Form of Government which I humbly conceive hath been sufficiently proved both by Reason and Example but because many pretences of Objection are in being and such as by many are taken for granted therefore it falls in of course that we may refute them which being done with the same evidence of Reason and Example I doubt not but it will stop all the Mouths not onely of Ignorance but even of Malice and Flattery which have presumed to prophane that pure way of a Free-State or Government by the People That Objection of Royalists and others which we shall first take notice of is this That the erecting of such a Government would be to set on Levelling anâ— Confusion For answer If we take Levelling in the common usage and application of the term in these days it is of an odions signification as if it levell'd all men in point of Estates made all things common to all destroyed propriety introduced a community of enjoyments among men which is a Scandal fastned by the cunning of the common Enemy upon this kinde of Government which they hate above all others because were the People once put in possession of their Liberty and made sensible of the great Benefits they may reap by its injoyment the hopes of all the Royal Stickler would be utterly extinct in regard it would be the likeliest means to prevent a return of the Interest of Monarchy for no Person or Parties seeking or setting up a private Interest of their own distinct from the Publick it will stop the Mouths of all Gain-sayers But the Truth is This way of Free-State or Government by the People in their successive Assemblies is so far from introducing a community that it is the onely preservative of Propriety in every particular the Reasons whereof are plain for as on the one side it is not in Reason to be imagined that so choice a Body as the Representative of a Nation should agree to destroy one another in their several Rights and Interests on the other side all Determinations being carried in this Form by common Consent every Man 's particular Interest must needs be fairly provided for against the Arbitrary disposition of others therefore whatever is contrary to this is levelling indeed because it placeth every Man's
the Conspirators seeing also that upon the close of a Civil War they have a Right and not onely a Right but usually a very great Resolution to keep out those Enemies of Liberty whom they conquer from a participation of any Right in Government therefore in this case also as well as the former we may conclude That they in their successive Assemblies are so far from levelling the Interest of Government into all hands without distinction that their principal care is ever to preserve it in their own to prevent the return of new Wars old Interests and Confusion But there is a third Objection against it drawn from a pretending inconvenience of such a succession alledging That the management of State-Affairs requires Judgement and Experience which is not to be expected from new Members comming into those Assemblies upon every â—lection Now because the very Life of Liberty lies in a succession of Powers and Persons therefore it is meet I should be somewhat precise punctual by way of answer to this particular Observe then that in Government two things are to be considered Act a Imperi and Arcan a Imperii that is Acts of State and Secrets of State By Acts of State we mean the Laws and Ordinances of the Legislative Power these are the things that have most influence upon a Commenwealth to its ill or well-being and are the onely Remedies for such bad Customes Inconveniences and Incroachments as afflict and grieve it Whereforâ— matters of grievance being matters of common sense and such are obvious to the people who best know where the shooe pinches them certainly there is no need of any great skill or judgement in passing or applying a Law for Remedy which is the proper work of the people in their supreme Assemblies and such as every ordinary Understanding is instructed in by the Light of Nature so that as to this there can be no danger by instituting an orderly succession of the people But as for those things called Arâ—ana Imperii Secrets of State or the executive part of Government during the Intervals of their Supreme Assemblies these things being of a Nature remote from ordinary apprehensions and such as necessarily require prudence time and experience to fit men for management Muâ—h in Reason may be said and must be granted for the continuation of such Trusts in the same hands as relate to matter of Counsel or Administration of â—ustice more â—r less according to their good or ill-behaviour A prudential continuation of these may wiâ—hout question and ought to be allâ—wed upon discretion because if theâ— do amiss they are easily accountable to the peoples Assemblies But now the case is otherwise as to these Supreme Assemblies where a few easie necessary things such as common sense and reason instruct men in are the fittest things for them to apply themselves unto and there the Peoples Trustees are to continue of right no longer than meer Necessity requires for their own redress and safety which being provided for they are to return into a condition of Subjection and Obedience with the rest of the people to such Laws and Government as themselves have erected by which means alone they will be able to know whether they have done well or ill when they feel the effects of what they have done Otherwise if any thing happen to be done amiss what way can there be for remedy since no Appeal is to be had from the Supreme Body of the People except a due course of Succession be preserved from hand to hand by the Peoples choice and other persons thereupon admitted upon the same terms into the same Authoâ—ity This is the truth as we have made manifest both by Reason and Example therefore we shall adde a little to our former Discourse by way of Illustration In Athens when govern'd by the People we finde it was their course to uphâ—ld constant returns and periods of Succession in their Supreme Assemblies for remedy of Grievances and they had a standing Council called the Areopâ—gâ—â— to whom all their Secrets of State were committed together with the administration of Government during the Intervals of those Assemblies at whose return they were accountable and warily continued or excluded as the People found cause In Sparta they had the like as also in Rome after the People had once got their successive Assemblies wherein they passed Laws for Government and not knowing how to be rid of their hereditary Senate they permitted them and their samiâ—ies to continue a standing Council but yet controllable by and accountable to their Assemblies who secluded and banished many of them for their misdemeanours so that by this means the people had an oportunity to make use of theiâ— Wisdom and curb their Ambiâ—ion In Florence when free the Government was after the same Mode In Holland also and Switzerland they have their Supreme Assemblies frequent by Election with exceeding benefit but no prejudice to Affairs for the frequencie of those successive Meetings preserves their Liberty and provides Laws the Execution whereof is committed to others and affairs of State to a Council of their own choice accountable to themselves where their State-concernments very seldom miscarry because they place and displace their Counsellors with extraordinary care and caution By these particulars you may perceive the vanity of the aforesaid Objection and how slender a pretence it is against that excellent course of Successive Assemblies since affairs of State are as well disposed or rather better under this Form than any other A fourth Objection commonly used against the Constitution of a Free-State or Government by the People in their successive Assemblies is this That such a Government brings great Damage to the Publike by their frequent Discontents Divisions and Tumults that arise within it For answer to this it is requisite that we take notice of those Occasions which are the common causes of such humours in this Form which being once known it will easily appear whence those Inconveniences do arise and not from any default in the nature of the Government they are commonly these three First when any of their fellow-Citizens or Members of the Common-weal shall arrogate any thing of Power and Priviledge unto themselves or their Families whereby to Grandize or greaten themselves beyond the ordinary size and standard of the People We finde thiâ— to be most true by the course of affairs in the Romane State as they are recorded by Livy who plainly shews that upon the expulsion of the Tarquins though the Senate introduced a new Government yet their retaining the power of the old within the hands of themselves and their Families was the occasion of all those after-Discontents and Tumults that arose among the People For had Brutus made them free when he declared them so or had the Senate a little after followed the advice and example of Publicola and some others as honest as he all occasion of Discontent had been taken away but when the People
under standing Powers of Great ones who make it their grand Engine to remove or ruine all persons that stand in the way of them and their designes And for this purpose it hath ever been their common custom to have Instruments ready at hand as we see in all the Stories of Kings and Grandees from time to time yea and by Aristotle himself together with the whole train of Commentators it is particularly mark'd out inter flagitia Dominationis to be one of the peculiar enormities that attend the Lordly interest of Dominion The Romane State after it grew corrupt is a sufficient Instance where we finde that not onely the ten Grandees but all that succeeded them in that domineering humour over the People ever kept a Retinue well stock'd with Calumniators and Informers such as we call Knights of the Post to snap those that in any wise appeared for the Peoples Liberties This was their constant trade as it was afterwards also of their Emperours But all the while that the People kept their power entire in the Supreme Assemblies we read not of its being brought into any constant practice Sometimes indeed those great Commanders that had done them many eminent Services were by reason of some after-actions called to an account and having by an ingroâ—ment of Power render'd themselves suspected and burthensome to the Commonwealth were commanded to retire as were both the Scipio's And in the Stories of the Athenian Commonwealth we finde that by their lofty and unwary carriage they stirr'd up the Peoples fear and jealousie so far as to question and send divers of them into Bâ—â—ishment notwithstanding all their former merits as we read of Alcibtades Themistocles and others whereas if the Rules of a Free-State had been punctually observed by preserving a discreet revolution of Powers and an equability or moderate state of particular persons there had been no occasion of Incroachment on the one part or of Fear on the other not could the prying Royalist have had the least pretence or shadow of Invective against the Peoples Government in this particular Thus much of Calumniation which is less frequent under the Peoples Form than any other Now as to the point of Accusing or liberty of Accusation by the People before their Supreme Assemblies it is a thing so essentially necessary for the preservation of a Commonwealth that there is no possibility of having persons kept accountable without it and by consequence no security of Life and Estate Liberty and Property And of what excellent use this is for the publike benefit of any State appears in these two particulars First it is apparent that the reason wherefore Kings and all other standing Powers have presumed to abuse the People is because their continuation of Authority having been a means to state them in a condition of Impunity the People either durst not or could not assume a liberty of Accusation and so have linger'd without remedy whilst Great Men have proceeded without control to an Augmentation of their misery whereas if a just Liberty of Accusation be kept in ure and Great Persons by this means lie liable to questioning the Commonwealth must needs be the more secure because none then will dare to intrench or attempt ought against their Liberty and in case any do they may with much ease be suppress'd All which amounts in effect to a full confirmation of this most excellent Maxime recorded in Policie Maximè interest Repub. Libertatis ut liberè possis â—vem aliquem accusare It most highly concerns the Freedom of a Commonwealth that the People have liberty of accusing any persons whatsoever Secondly it appears this Liberty is most necessary because as it hath been the onely Remedy against the Injustice of great and powerful persons so it hath been the onely means to extinguish those Emulations Jealousies and Suspicions which usually abound with fury in mens mindes when they see such persons seated so far above that they are not able to reach them or bring them as it becomes all earthly Powers to an account of their actions of which Liberty when the People have seen themselves deprived in time past it is sad to consider how they have flown out into such absurd and extraordinary courses in hope of Remedy as have caused not onely Distraction but many times utter Ruine to the Publike Most of those Tumults in old Rome were occasioned for want of this liberty in ordinary as those that happened under the Decemviri so that the People not having freedom to accuse and question their Justice were enflamed to commit sudden Outrages to be revenged upon them But when they had once obtained power to accuse or question any man by assistance of their Tribunes then we meet with none of those heats and fits among them but they referr'd themselves over with much content to the ordinary course of proceeding A pregnant Instance whereof we have in the Case of Coriolanus who having done some injury to the people they finding him befriended and upheld by the Great ones resolved to be revenged upon him with their own hands and had torn him in pieces as he came out of the Senate but that the Tribunes immediately step'd in and not onely promis'd but appointed them a day of Hearing against him and so all was calm again and quiet whereas if this ordinary course of Remedy in calling him to account had not been allow'd and he been destroy'd in a Mutiny a world of sad Consequences must have befallen the Commonwealth by reason of those Enormities and Revenges that would have risen upon the ruine of so considerable a person In the Stories of Florence also we read of one Valesius who greatning himself into little less than the posture of a Prince in that Republike he so confirm'd himself that the people not being able to regulate his extravagancies by any ordinary proceedings they betook themselves to that unhappie remedy of Arms and it cost the best blood and lives in that State before they could bring him down involving them in a world of Miseries which might have been avoided had they taken care to preserve their old Liberty of Accusation and Queâ—â—ion and being able to take a course with him in an ordinary way of progress Thus also in the same State Soderino a man of the same size interest and humour when the People saw that they had lost their Liberty in being unable to question him ran like mad-men upon a Remedy as bad as the Disease and called in the Spaniard to suppress him so that turned almost to the ruine of the State which might have been prevented could they have repress'd him by the ordinary way of Accusation and Question From these Premises then let us conclude That seeing the crooked way of Calumniation is less used under the Peoples Form of Government than any other and since the retaining of a Regular course for admitting and deciding of all Complaints and Controversies by way of Accusation is of
absolute necessity to the safety and well-being of a Commonwealth Therefore this Objection is of as little weight as the rest so as in any wise to diminish the Dignity and Reputation of a Free-State or Government by the People in their successive Assemblies A sixth Objection against the Form of a Free-State or Government by the People is alleadged by many to this effect That People by nature are factious inconstant and ungrateful For answer first as to the point of being Factious we have already shewn that this Government stated in a succession of its Supreme Assemblies is the onely preventive of Faction because in creating a Faction there is a necessity that those which endeavour it must have oportunity to improve their slights and projects in disgnising their Designes drawing in Instruments and Parties and in worming out Opposites the effecting of all which requires some length of time which cannot be had and consequently no Faction form'd when Government is not fixed in particular persons but managed by due succession and revolution of Authority in the hands of the People Besides it is to be considered that the People are never the first or principal in Faction they are never the authors and contrivers of it but ever the parties that are drawn into Sidings by the influence of standing Powers to serve their interests and designes Thus Sylla and Marius Pompey and Caesar continuing power in their own hands cleft the Romane Empire at several times into several Parties as afterwards it was cleft into three by the Triumvirate wherein the people had no hand being as they are alwayes purely passive and passionately divided according as they were wrought upon by the subâ—il Insinuations of the prime Engineers of each Faction Thus Italy was divided into Guelph and Gibâ—llâ—ne and France torn in two by the two Families of Orleance and Burgundi also by the Guisians and their Confederates wherein the people had no further hand than as they were acted by the perswasions and pretences of two powerful parties The case also was the same in England in times past when the Grandee-Game was in action between the two Families of Yorke and Lancaster So that it is clear enough The people in their own nature are not inclined to be Factious nor are they ever ingaged that way farther than as their Nature is abused and drawn in by powerful persons The second particular of this Objection is Inconstancy which holds true indeed in them that are debauched and in the corrupted State of a Commonwealth when degenerated from its pure Principles as we finde in that of Athens Rome Florence and others but yet in Rome you may see as pregnant instances of that peoples constancy as of any other sort of men whatsoever for they continued constant irreconcilable Enemies to all Tyranny in general and Kingly power in particular In like manner when they had once gotten their successive Assemblies they remained so firm stiff to uphold them that the succeeding Tyrants could not in a long time nor without extraordinary cunning and caution deprive them of that onely Evidence of their Liberty Moreover it is observable of this people That in making their Elections they could never be perswaded to chuse a known Infamous Vitious or unworthy Fellow so that they seldom or never erred in the choice of their Tribunes and other Officers And as in the framing of Laws their aim was ever at the general Good it being their own Interest quatenus the people so their constancy in the conservation of those Laws was most remarkable for notwithstanding all the crafty Devices and Fetches of the Nobles the people could never be woo'd to a consent of abrogating any one Law till by the alteration of Time Affairs and other Circumstances it did plainly appear inconvenient But the case hath ever been otherwise under Kings and all standing Powers who usually ran into all the extreams of Inconstancy upon every new Project petty Humour and Occasion that seemed favourable for effecting of their by-designs And in order hereunto Stories will inform you That it hath been their Custome to shift Principles every Moon and cashier all Oaths Protestations Promises and Engagements and blot out the Memory of them with a wet Finger This was very remarkable in the late King whose inconstancy in this kinde was beyond compare who no sooner had passed any Promises made Vows and Protestations fix'd Appeals in the High Court of Heaven in the behalf of Himself and his Family but presently he forfeited all and cancell'd them by his Actions As to the third point of Ingratitude it is much charged upon this Form of Government because we read both in Athens and Rome of divers unhandsome Returns made to some worthy Persons that had done high services for those Commonwealths as Alcibiades Theâ—istocles Phocion Miltâ—ades Furius Camillus Coriolanus and both the Scipio's the cause of whose misfortunes is described by Plutarch and Livy to be their own lofty and unwary carriage Having say they by an ingrossment of power rendred themselves suspected and buthensome to the Common-wealth and thereby stirred up the peoples fear jealousie where as if they had kept themselves within the Rules of a Free-State by permitting a disceet Revolution of power in particular hands there had been no occasion of incroachment on the one part nor of fear on the other Of all the Scipio's indeed were most to be pitied because their only fault seems to be too much power and grearness which indeed is the greatest fault that Members of a Commonwealth can be guilty of if seriously considered insomuch that being grown formidable to their Fellow-Senators they were by them removed and so it appears to have been the act of the Nobles upon their own score and Interest and not of the people But as for Camillus and Coriolanus they sufficiently deserved whatsoever befel them because they made use of the power and reputation they had gotten by their former merits onely to maligne and exercise an implacable hate towards the peoples Interest Nevertheless the people restored Camillus again to his Estate and Honour after some little time of Banishment And though this accident in a Free-State hath been objected by many as a great deffect yet others again do highly commend the humour For say they it is not onely a good sign of a Commonwealths being in pure and perfect health when the people are thus active zealous and jealous in the behalf of their Liberties that will permit no such growth of power as may endanger it but it is also a convenient means to curb the Ambition of its Citizens and make them contain within due bounds when they see there is no presuming after Inlargements and Accessions of Powers and Greatness without incurring the danger and indignation of the people Thus much of the Reason why the people many times cast off persons that have done them eminent services yet on the other side they were so far from Ingratitude
This therefore was a principal point of State among the Romans Ne duo vel plures ex una familia magnos Magistratus gerant eodem tempore Let not two or more of one Family bear great Offices at the same time And a little after it follows Ne magna Imperia ab unâ familiâ praescribantur Let not great Commands be prescribed or continued by one Family That little liberty which was left to the Romans after that fatal stab given to Caesar in the Senate-house might have been preserved had they prevented his Kinsman Octavius from succeeding him in the possession of an extraordinary Power The effecting whereof was Ciceroes work and indeed his principal errour as he often afterwards acknowledged which may serve to shew That the wisest man may be sometimes mistaken For he brought the other into play whertas had he quitted his spleen and consulted his brain he must questionless have seen that a siding with Anthony had been more convenient then with the other who being once admitted into Power soon drew the Parties and Interests of his Uncle Julius to become his own and with a wet finger not onely cast off his friend Cicero but contrived the ruine of the Republick and Him both together The Florentine Family of the Medices who hold an absolute Command at this day made themselves by continuing Power in their hands in a short time so considerable that they durst openly bid defiance to Publick Liberty which might have continued much longer had not Casinus been so easily admitted to succeed his Cousin Alexander It is observable also of the same Family that one of them being Pope they then hatched Designs upon several parts of Italy not doubting but to carry them by favour of the Pope their Kinsman but he dying before their Ends were effected they then made a Party in the Conclave for the creating of Julian de Medicis who was Brother to the former Pope and had like to have carried it till Pompeius Columba stood up and shewed them how dangerous and prejudicial it must of necessity prove to the Liberties of Italy that the Popedom should be continued in one house in the hands of two brothers one after another What Effects the continuation of Power in the Family of Orange hath had in the Vnited Provinces is every mans observation and that Nation sufficiently felt long before the Project came to maturity in this last mans dayes and had he left a son of sufficient years behind him to have slept immediatly into his place perhaps the Design might have gone on but certainly that People have wisely improved their opportunity the Cockatrice being not flech'd in reducing that Family into a temper more suitable to a State and Interest of Liberty What made the antient Roman Senate in a short time so intollerable to that People but because they carryed all by Families as the Senate of Venice doth now at this day where if the Constitution were otherwise the people would then perhaps be much more sensible what it is to be in a State of Freedom Fifthly It hath bin usual in Free-States to hold up the Majesty and Authority of their Suffrages or Votes intire in their Senators or supream Assemblies for if this were not look'd to and secured from controle or influence of any other Power then Actum erat de libertate Liberty and Authority became lost for ever So long as the Roman people kept up their credit and Authority as sacred in their Tribunes and Supream Assemblies so long they continued really free but when by their own neglect they gave Sylla and his Party in the Senate an opportunity of power to curb them then their Suffrages once esteemed as sacred were troden under foot for immediatly after they came to debate and act but by courtesie the Authority left being by Sylla after the expiration of his Dictatorship in the hands of the standing Senate so that it could never after be regained by the People Nor did the Senate themselves keep it long in their own hands for when Caesar marched to Rome he deprived them also of the Authority of their Suffrages onely in a formal way made use of them and so under a shadow of legality he assumed that power unto himself which they durst not deny him Just in the same manner dealt Cosmus with the Flerentine Senate he made use of their Suffrages but he had so plaid his Cards before-hand that they durst not but yield to his Ambition So also Tiberius when he endeavored to settle himself first brought the Suffrages of the Senate at his own Devotion that they durst not but consent to his Establishment and then so ordered the matter that he might seem to do nothing not only without their consent but to be forced to accept the Empire by their intreaty so that you see there was an Empire in Effect long before it was declared in Formality From hence therefore we may clearly deduce the necessity of this Rule in a Free-State from the practice of times past that no State can preferits Freedom but by maintaining the free Suffrage of the People in full vigour untainted with the influence or mixture of any Commanding Power A sixth Rule in Practice hath been this to see that the people be continually trained up in the Exercise of Arms and the Militia lodged onely in the Peoples hands or that part of them which are most firm to the Interest o◠Liberty that so the Power may rest fully in the Disposition of their Supream Assemblies The happy conscquence whereof was ever to this purpose That nothing could at any time be imposed upon the people but by their consent that is by the consent of themselves or of such as were by them intrusted this was a Rule most strictly practised in all the Free-States of Greece For as Aristotle tells us in his fourth Book of Politicks they ever had special care to place the Use and Exercise of Arms in the people because say they the Common-wealth is theirs who held the Arms. The Sword and Soveraignty ever walk hand in hand together The Romans were very curious in this particular after they had gained a plenary possession of Liberty in their Tribunes and successive Assemblies Rome it self and the Territories about it was trained up perpetually in Arms and the whole Common-weal by this means became one formal Militia a generall Exercise of the best part of the people in the use of Arms was the onely Bulwark of their Liberty This was reckoned the surest way to preserve it both at home and abroad the Majesty of the People being secured thereby as well against Domestick Affronts from any of their own Citizens as against the forraign Invasions of bad Neighbors Their Arms were never lodged in the hands of any but such as had an Interest in the Publick such as were acted by that Interest not drawn only by Pay such as thought themselves well paid in repelling Invaders that they might
so in the days of Julius Caesar even in that barbarous Country of Gallia appeares by Caesars own Commentaries who tells how that it was the main Office of those famous men amongst them called Druides to breed up their Youth not onely in Religion but also to instruct them in the Nature of a Common-wealth and mould them with Principles answerable to the Government If we reflect upon the two Grand Turns of State in Rome the first from a Monarchy to a Free-State and then from a Free-State to a Monarchy again they minister matter of notable Observation in this particular In the first we find how difficult it was for the Romans to preserve their Freedom when they had gotten it because most of the Youth had bin educated in Monarchical Principles and such Tutors were ever inclining that way upon the least opportunity so that the sons even of Brutus himself who was the Founder of their Liberty quitted that natural affection which they owed unto their Father and Councrey and being sway'd by the Monarchick Principles of corrupt Education drew in a great part of the Roman Youth like themselves to joyn with them in a Design for the bringing back of the Tarquins to the Kingdom It is very observable also what a do that Common-wealth had to settle so long as any of the old stock of Education were living because those corrupt points of Discipline and Government wherewith they were seasoned when young could not be worn out with Age but hurried many of them along with the storm of every Insurrection and Invasion of the publike Enemy On the other side in the Turn of a Free-State to a Monarchy again we see with what difficulty Caesar met in setling his own Domination over a People that had been educated in a Free-State and in Principles of Freedom insomuch that in the end it cost him his life being stab'd for his Usurpation by a combination of some of the Senators and the Fact applauded not onely by the People but by Cicero and all the Roman Writers and others that had been bred up under the Form of Freedom And afterwards when Augustus took upon him the Inheritance and Title of his Uncle Caesar he did it lentopede very slowly and warily for fear of conjuring up the same spirit in the people that had flown into revenge against his Uncle for his Rape upon their Liberty And it is Noted by Tacitus that among the other advantages that Augustus had for his Establishment there was this That he never declared himself till after many delayes and shifts for the continuation of Power in his own hands he got insensibly into the Throne when the old men were most of them dead and the young Generation grown up having been pretty well educated and inured to his Lordly Domination The words of Tacitus are these All saith he was quiet in the City the old names of the Magistrates remained unchanged the young men were all born after Augustus his Victory at Actium and the greatest part of the old men during the Civil Wars when the Free-State was imbroiled and usurpt in effect though retained stil in name by powerful and ambitious persons so that when he assumed and owned the Empire there was not one man Living that had so much as seen the ancient Form of Government of a Free-State which indeed facilitated his Design very much the Generation then Living being by his Artifice and Power bred up to his own Monarchy-Interest and Devotion We might be larger but this is enough to shew of what consequence the careful Education of Youth is in the Constitution of Government and therefore without doubt it is one essential point to be observed in the Establishment of a Free-State that all wayes and meanes be used for their seasoning and instruction in the principles of Freedom The Eighth Rule is that which more especially relates unto the People themselves in point of behaviour viz. That being once possessed of Liberty they ought to use it with moderation lest it turn to licentiousness which as it is a Tyranny it self so in the end it usually occasions the corruption and conversion of a Free State into Monarchical Tyranny And therefore by way of prevention it is necessary to set down a few Cautions First That in a Free State it is above all things necessary to avoid Civil Dissention and to remember this That the uttermost Remedy is not to be used upon every Distemper or Default of those that shall be intrusted with the Peoples Power and Authority for if one Inconvenience happen in Government the correction or curing of it by violence introduceth a thousand And for a man to think Civil War or the Sword is a way to be ordinarily used for the recovery of a sick-State it were as great a madness as to give strong Waters in a high Feaver or as if he should let himself blood in the Heart to cure the aking of his Head And therefore seeing that Enormity of Tumult Dissention and Sedition is the main that hath bin objected by Tyrants their Creatures against the Peoples Government the onely Expedient to confute it is That those People that are or shall be setled in a State of Freedom do upon all occasions give them the Lie by a diserâ—eâ— and moderate behaviour in all their proceedings and a due reverence of such as they have once elected and made their Superiors And as this is most requisite on the one side so on the other side if there be just but they must be sure it be just cause to use sharp and quick Remedies for the Cure of a Common-wealth then seeing all Majesty and Authority is really and fundamentally in the people and but Ministerially in their Trustees or Representatives it concerns the people by all means to see to the Cure And that is in a word in such cases onely as appear to be manifest intrenchments either in design or in being by men of Power upon the Fundamentals or Essentials of their Liberty without which Liberty cannot consist What those Essentials are may be collected out of the past-discourse the sence of all shall be illustrated by one instance It is that famous Contention which lasted for three hundred years in Rome betwixt the Senate and the People about the dividing of such Lands as were conquered and taken from the Enemy The Senators they sharing the lands amongst themselves allowed little or none unto the people which gave such Discontents that the people made a Law to curb them enacting That no Senator should possess above 500 Acres of Land The Senators cryed it was against their Liberty thus to be abridged by the people And the people cryed it was inconsistent with Liberty that the Senators should thus greaten themselvs by an ingrosment of wealth and power into their own hands Livy saith The people in this said right and the Senators did wrong but that they both did ill in making it a ground of Civil
comfortable enjoyment of their Freedome A third Caution is That in all their Elections of any into the Supream Court or Councels they be not led by any bent of Faction Alliance or Affection and that none be taken in but purely upon the account of merit The former course hath ever bin the occasion of discontents sidings and Parties The latter stops the mouths of men that perhaps are contrary minded and draws the consent and approbation of all the World when they see men put in Authority that have a clear reputation of transcendent Honesty and Wisdom A fourth Caution is That as it is the secret of Liberty that all Magistrates and publike Officers be kept in an accountable state liable to render an account of their Behaviour and Actions and also that the people have freedom to accuse whom they please so on the other side it concerns them above all things to avoid false Charges Accusations Calumniations against Persons in Authority which are the greatest abuses and blemishes of Liberty and have been the most frequent Causes of Tumult and Dissention The Banishment called Ostraoism among the Athenians was instituted at first upon a just and noble ground so was that called Petatism among the Lacedemonians to turn such out of the Common-wealth who had rendered themselves suspected against the common Liberty but yet the abuse of it afterwards proved most pernicious to the imbroyling of those States with Civil Dissention whenit was perverted by some petulant spirits to an opposition of some few and but few of their best deserving Citizens The Romans also in their state of Liberty retained this freedom also of keeping all persons accountable and accusing whom they pleased but then they were very cautious also to retain that Decree of the Senate called Turpilianum in full forde and vertue whereby a severe-Fine was set on the Heads of all Calumniators and false Accusers The due Observation of this Rule preserved that State a long time from Usurpation by men in power on the one side and from popular clamour and Tumults on the other side A fifth Caution is That as by all means they should beware of Ingratitude and unhandsome Returns to such as have done eminent services for the Common-wealth So it concerns them for the publike peace and security not to impose a Trust in the hands of any person or persons further than as they may take it back again at pleasure The Reason is because as the Proverb saith Honores mutant mores Honours change mens manners Accessions and Continuations of Power and Greatness expose the mind to temptations They are Sailes too big for any Bulk of Mortality to steer an even course course by The Kingdoms of the World and the Glories of them are Baites that seldome failes when the Tempter goes a fishing and none but he that was more than man could have refused them How many Free-States Common-wealths have paid dear for their Experience in this particular who by trusting their own servants too far have been forced in the end to receive them for their Masters Nor is it to be wondred at by any considering that immoderate Power soon lets in high and ambitious thoughts and where they are once admitted no Design so absur'd or contrary to a mans principles but he rusheth into it without the least remorse or consideration for the Spirit of Ambition is a Spirit of Giddiness ir foxes men that receive it and makes them more drunk than the spirit of Wine So that were they never so wise just and honest before they afterwards become the contrary meer sots non compos mentis being hurried on without fear or wit in all their undertakings And therefore without question it highly concerns a People that have redeemed and rescued their Liberties out of the hands of Tyranny and are declared a Free-State so to regulate their Affairs that all Temptations and Opportunities of Ambition may be removed out of the way or else there follows a necessity of Tumult and Civil Dissention the common consequence whereof hath ever been a Ruine of the publike Freedome This Caesar who first took Arms upon the Publick Score and became the Peoples Leader letting in Ambitious Thoughts to his unbounded Power soon shook hands with his first Friends and Principles and became another man so that upon the first fair Opportuniry he turn'd his Armes on the Publick Liberty Thus did Sylla serve the Senate and Marius also the People being the same Tyrant in effect though not in name nor in an open manner Thus did Pisistratus at Athens Agathocles in Sicily Cosmos Soderino and Savaranola in Florence Castrucio in Luca and others in many other places Nor must it be forgotten what the Family of Orange would have done in Holland for upon the very same account have Usurpations bin commenced in all Free-States throughout the World The Ninth and last Rule for preservation of the Publick Freedome is this That it be made an unpardonable Crime to incur the guilt of Treason against the Interestand Majesty of the People And for the clearing of this it will be requisite to muster up those various Particulars that come within the compass of Treason according to the Practice and Opinion of other Nations The 1. remarkable Treason in old Rome after its Establishment in a State of Freedome was that of Brutus his sons who entered into a formal Conspiracy for the bringing back of the Tarquins to the Kingdom by force of Arms. This Brutus was the Founder of the Roman Liberty and therefore one would have thought the young men might have obtained an easie pardon But such was the zeal of the Romans for the preservation of their Freedom that they were all put to death without mercy and that all others in time to come might be deprived of the least hope of being spared upon the like occasion their own Father was the man most forward to bring them to Execution This was Treason in gross but in after-time there started up more refined pieces of Treason as may be collected out of the Actions of Maelius and Manlius two persons that had deserved highly of the Common wealth but especially the latter who saved it from ruine when the Gauls had besieged the Capitol Nevertheless presuming afterwards upon the People because of his extraordinary Merits He by greating himself beyond the size of a good Citizen and entertaining Thoughts and Counsels of surprising the Peoples Liberties was condemned to death but yet not without the Peoples pitty as indeed it was an unhappy Necessity that they should be forced to destroy him that had saved them from destruction To the same end came Maelius also upon the like occasion Another sort of Treason there was contrived likewise against that People And that was by those Magistrates called the Decemviri touching whose Actions and the Ground of their Condemnation I onely let you know That you may be sufficiently informed by other Pens then mine such as the Historian
not onely advised but inclined to the latter then it concernes any Nation or people to secure themselves and keep Great men from degenerating into beasts by holding up of law liberty priviledge birth-right elective power against the ignoble beastly way of powerfull domination If of all beasts a Prince should some times resemble the Lyon and somtimes the Fox then people ought to observe great ones in both the disguises and be sure to cage the Lyon and unkennel the Fox and never leave till they have stript the one and unrais'd the other If a Prince cannot and ought not to keep his faith given when the observance thereof turnes to disadvantage and the occasions that made him promise are past then it is the Interest of the people never to trust any Princes nor ingagements and promises of men in power but ever to preserve a power within themselves either to reject them or to hold them to the performance whether they will or no. And if Princes shall never want occasions to give colour to this breach then also it concernes the people ever to make sure of the Instance and not suffer themselves to be deluded with colours shadows and meere pretences Lastly if it be necessarie for great ones to fain and dissemble throughly because men are so simple and yield so much to the present necessity as Machivel saith and in regard he that hath a mind to deceive shall alwayes finde another that will be deceived then it concerns any people or Nation to make a narrow search ever into the men and their pretences and necessities whether they be fained or not and if they discover any deceipt hath been used then they deserve to be slaves that will be deceived any longer Thus I have noted the prime Errors of Government and Rules of Policy I shall now conclude with a word of Advice in order to the chusing of the Supreme Assemblies Since it appears that the right liberty welfare and safety of a people consists in a due succession of their supreme Assemblies surely then the right constitution and orderly motion of them is of the greatest consequence that can be there being so much imbarqued in this Vessel that if it should miscarry all is irreparably lost unless it can be recovered again out of the Sea of confusion Therefore as at all times there ought to be an especiall care had to the Composure and Complexion of those great Assemblies so much more after the confusion of a Civil Warre where it is ever to be supposed there will be many discontented humours a working and labouring to insinuate themselves into the body of the people to undermine the settlement and security of the Common-wealth that by gaining an interest and share with the better sort in the supreme Authority they may attain those corrupt ends of Policy which were lost by Power In this case without question there are severall men that ought to be taken into a strict consideration There is the old Malignant and the new against whom not only the doores are to be shut but every hole and cranny ought to be stopt for fear they creep into Authority There is likewise a came Beast more dangerous than the other two which is that Amphibious animal the neutrall of Laodicea that can live in either Element sail with any winde on every point of the compasse and strike in with Malignants of every sort upon any occasion This is he that will undoe all if he be not avoided for in the form of an Angel of Light he most slightly carries on the works of darkness Let not him then as to our present case be so much as named upon an Election Thus much for the Constitution of the supreme Assembly or the manner of setling Authority upon the close of a Civil Warre for the recovery of Liberty What remains then but that upon due caution for excluding the wilde Geese and the came the Malignant and the Neutrall such a people may reasonably be put into possession of their right and interest in the Legislative power and of all injoyment of it in a succession of their supreme Assemblies The onely way to preserve liberty in the hands of a people that have gained it by the Sword is to put it in the peoples hands that is into the hands of such as by a contribution of their purses strength and counsells have all along asserted it without the least stain of corruption staggeringâ— apostasie for in this case these only are to be reckoned the people the rest having either by a trayterous Engagement Compliance Neutrality or Apostasie as much as in them lies destroyed the people and by consequence made a forteiture of all their Rights and immunities as Members of a people In this case therefore men ought to have a courage and to have a care of the course of Election and trust God with the success of a righteous Action for nothing can be more righteous and necessary than that a people should be put into possession of their native right and freedom However they may abuse it it is their right to have it and the want of it is a greater inconvenience and drawes greater inconveniencies after it than any can be pretended to arise from the injoyment though they were presented in a multiplying glasse to the eyes of discerning men But now as this holds true at all times in all Nations upon the like occasions of Liberty newly purchased so much more in any Nation where freedom in a successive course of the peoples Assemblies hath once beeâ— solemnly acknowledged and declared to be the interest of the Commonwealth for then a depriving the people of their due is a foundation for broils and divisions and as Cicero defines faction to be a deviation from the declared interest of State so in this case if it happen that any shall desert a Common-wealth in its declared Interest they immediately lose the name and honour of Patriots and become Parties in a Faction FINIS There is lately Printed these Bookes and sold by Tho. Brewster at the Three Bibles by Pauls viz. THE Retired Mans Meditations or the Mystery and Power of Godliness shining forth in the Living Word to the unmasking the Mystery of Iniquity in the most refined and purest Formes And withal representing to view 1 The Riches and Fulnesse of Christs Person as Mediator 2. The Naturall and Spiritual Man in their proper distinctions 3. The Raign and Kingdom of Christ in the Nature Limits and extent thereof By Henry Vane Knight A Breviary of the History of the Parliament of England in Three Parts First the Cause and Beginning of the Civil Warres of ENGLAND Secondly A short mention of the progress of that Civill Warre Thirdly a Compendious Relation of the Originall and Progress of the Second Civil Warre written by T. May Esq Lazarus and His Sisters Discourse of Paradice Or A Conference about the excellent things of the other World