able to give Law without them For to think that he succeeds unto the Senate or that the power of the Senate may serve his Turn is a presumption will fail him The Senate as such hath no power at all but meer Authority of proposing unto the people who are the Makers of their own Laws whence the Decrees of the Senate of Rome are never Laws nor so called but Senatusconsulta It is true that a King comming in the Senate as there it did to his aid and advantage may remain so they propose not as formerly unto the People but now unto him who comes not in upon the right of the Senate but upon that of the People whence saith Justinian Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem quum lege Regia quae de ejus imperio lata est Populus ei in eum omnes imperium suum potestatem concedat Thus the Senatusconsultum Macedonicum with the rest that had place allowed by Justinian in the compilement of the Roman laws were not Laws in that they were Senatusconsulta or proposed by the Senate but in that they were allowed by Justiman or the Prince in whom was now the right of the People Wherefore the Zelot for Monarchy hath made a pas de clerc or foul step in his procession where he argues thus out of Cujacius It was soon agreed that the distinct decrees of the Senate and People should be extended to the nature of laws therefore the distinct decrees of the Senate are laws whether it be so a greed by the people or by the Prince or no. For thus he hath no sooner made his Prince then he kicks him heels over head Seeing where the Decrees of the Senate are Laws without the King that same is as much a King as the Praevaricator a Politician A law is that which was passed by the power of the people or of the King But out of the Light In this place he takes a Welsh bait and looking back makes a Muster of his Victories like the busling Guascon who to shew what he had thrown out of the Windows in his debauchery made a formal repetition of the whole Inventary of the House CHAP. VII Whether the Ten Commandements were proposed by God or Moses and voted by the People of Israel ONe would think the Guascon had done well Is he satisfied No he will now throw the House out of the Windows The principal stones being already taken from the Foundation He hath a bag of certain windes wherewithall to reverse the super structures The first wind he lets go is but a Puff where he tells me that I bring Switz and Holland into the enumeration of the Heathen Commonwealths which if I had done their Liberties in many parts and places being more Antient then the Christian Religion in those Countries as is plain by Tacitus where he speaks of Civilis and of the Customs of the Germans I had neither wronged them nor my self but I doe no such matter for having enumerated the Heathen Commonwealths I add that the proceedings of Holland and Switz though after a more obscure manner are of the like nature The next is a Storm while reproaching me of rudeness he brings in Doctor Ferne and the Clergy by the head and the shoulders who till they undertake the quarrel of Monarchy to the confusion of the Common-wealth of Israel at least so far forth that there be no weight or obligation in such an Example are posted As if for a Christian Commonwealth to make so much use of Israel as the Roman did of Athens whose Laws she transcribed were against the Interest of the Clergy which it seems is so hostile unto Popular power that to say the Laws of Nature though they be the fountains of all Civil Law are not the Civil Law till they be the Civil Law Or thus that thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal though they be in natural Equity yet were not the Laws of Israel or of England till voted by the People of Israel or the Parliament of England is to assert the People into the Mighty liberty of being free from the whole Moral Law and inasmuch as to be the adviser or perswader of a thing is lesse then to be the Author or Commander of it to put an indignity upon God himself In which fopperies the Praevaricator boasting of principles but minding none first confounds Authority and Command or Power and nextforgets that the dignity of the Legislator or which is all one of the Senate succeeding unto his Office as the Sanhedrim unto Moses is the greatest dignity in a Common-wealth and yet that the Laws or Orders of a Common-wealth derive no otherwise whether from the Legislator as Moses Lycurgus Solon c. or the Senate as those of Israel Lacedemon or Athens then from their Authority received and confirmed by the Vote or Command of the People It is true that with Almighty God it is otherwise then with a Mortal Legislator but through another Nature which unto him is peculiar from whom as he is the cause of being or the Creator of Mankind Omnipotent power is inseparable yet so equal is the goodnesse of this Nature unto the greatnesse thereof that as he is the Cause of welbeing by way of Election for Example in his chosen people Israel or of Redemption as in the Christian Church Himself hath prefer'd before his Empire his Authority or Proposition What else is the meaning of these words or of this proceeding of his Now therefore if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant ye shall be unto me a Kingdom or I will be your King which Proposition being Voted by the People in the Affirmative God proceeds to propose unto them the Ten Commandements in so dreadful a manner that the People being exceedingly affrighted say unto Moses speak thou with us and we will hear thee that is be thou henceforth our Legislator or Proposer and we will resolve accordingly but let not God speak with us lest we die From whenceforth God proposeth unto the People no otherwise then by Moses whom he instructeth in this manner These are the judgements which thou shalt propose or set before them Wherefore it is said of the book of Deuteronomy containing the Covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the Land of Moab beside the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb Haec est lex quam Moses proposuit this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel Neither did God in this case make use of his Omnipotent power nor Christ in the like who also is King after the same manner in his Church and would have been in Israel where when to this end he might have muster'd up Legions of Angels been victorious with such Armies or Argyraspides as never Prince could shew the like saies no more then O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often
therefore there is a common interest of mankind distinct from the parts taken severally But this though acknowledged in part by all Governments yet through their natural frailty is nothing so well provided for in some as in others for if the power be in one or a few men one or a few men we know may be thieves and the rather because applying money that is publick without a consideration that is publick unto uses that are private is thieving But such thieves will not be hanged in this case therefore the Government goeth not upon publick but private interest In the frame of such a Government as can go upon no other then the publick interest consisteth that whole Philosophy of the Soul which concerneth Policy and this whole Philosophy of the Soul being throughout the Commonwealth of Oceana demonstrated For the Prevaricator to insinuate that I have omitted it is to shew what it is that he loveth more then truth The main of this Philosophy consisteth in deposing passion and advancing reason unto the Throne of Empire I expected news in this place that this were to promise more for the Magistrate or the people then hath been performed by Stoicks but two Girles meaning no body any harm have provoked his wrath forsooth to such extravagancy by the way that though in all modesty it were forbidden as he confesseth by their cheeks which discovering the green sickness shew'd that they were past the rod he hath taken them up Tantaene animis coelestibus ire what he may have in school Divinity for so rude a charge I do not know but he shall never be able to shew any Maxime for this kind of Discipline or Philosophy of the soul either in Chevalry or the Politicks The offence of the Girles was no more then that having a Cake by gift of an Uucle or an Aunt or by purchase or such an one perhaps as was of their own making in common or between them the one had most accurately divided and the other was about to choose when in comes me this rude fellow How now Gentlewomen saies he what dividing and choosing will no less serve your turn then the whole mystery of a well order'd Commonwealth who has taught you to cast away passion an 't please you like the Bran and work up Reason as pure as the Flower of your Cake Are you acquainted with the Author of Oceana that hath seen forraign Countries conversed with the Speculativi learnt of the most serene Lady Venetia to work with bobbins makes you a Magistracy like a Pippin pye and sells Butterprints with S. P. Q. R. Have done as you dread Ballads fusty Pamphlets or the Ostracisme of Billingsgate Have done I say will you vy that green in your cheeks with the purple of the State must your mother who was never there her self seek you in the Oven Come when I live to see Machiavil in puff-paste a Commonwealth come out of a Bakehouse where smocks were the boulters let me be a Millhorse But now you must know comes the best jest of all and I need not say that it comes from Oxford he tells them that their Cake is dough let it not be lost I beseech you and so snatching it away eats it for all the world as Jack pudding eats the Custard Did you ever see such a Bestia But whereas either Office that of dividing or choosing was Communicable unto either of the Girles it is not indifferent in the distribution of a Commonwealth because dividing is separating one thing one reason one interest or consideration from another which they that can so discern in private affairs are called discreet but they that can doe it in Publick are prudent and the way of this kind of dividing in the language of a Commonwealth is debating But they that are capable of this kind of dividing or debating are few among many that when things are thus divided and debated are able enough to choose which in the language of a Commonwealth is to resolve Hence it is that the debate of the few because there be but few that can debate is the wisest debate and the result of the many because every man hath an interest what to choose and that choice which suteth with every mans interest excludeth the distinct or private interest or passion of any man and so commeth up unto the Common and Publick interest or reason is the wisest result Unto this end God who doth nothing in vain hath so divided Mankind into the Few or the Natural Aristrocacy and the Many or the Natural Democracy that there can hardly be upon any Occasion a meeting of Twenty men wherein it will not be apparant or in which you may not see all those lines which are requisite unto the face of a beautiful Common-wealth For example among any Twenty men occasionally met there will be some few perhaps six excelling the fourteen in greatness of parts These six falling into discourse of business or giving their judgement upon persons or things though but by way of meer conversation will discover their abilities whereupon they shall be listned unto and regarded by the Fourteen that is the six will acquire an Authority with and imprint a Reverence upon the Fourteen which Action and Passion in the Roman Commonwealth were called Authoritas Patrum verecundia Plebis Nevertheless if the six endeavour to extend the authority which they find thus acquired to Power that is to bring the Fourteen to Terms or Conditions of obedience or such as would be advantageous unto the few but prejudicial to the many The Fourteen will soon find that consenting they hurt not only themselves by endammaging their own interests but hurt the Six also who by this means come to lose their virtue and so spoil their debate which while such advantages are procurable unto themselves will go no farther upon the Common good but their private benefit Wherefore in this Case they will not consent and not consenting they preserve not onely their own liberty but the integrity of the Six also who perceiving that they cannot impair the Common interest have no other interest left but to improve it And neither any conversation nor any people how dull soever and subject by fits to be deluded but will soon see thus much which is enough because what is thus proposed by the Authority of the Six or of the Senate and resolv'd by the Fourteen or by the People is enacted by the whole and becomes that Law then which though mankind be not infallible there can be nothing less fallible in Mankind Art is the imitation of Nature by observation of such lines as these in the face of Nature a Politician limbs his Commonwealth But saith the Praevaricator the Parologisme lies in this that the Twenty men are first supposed to be a Commonwealth and then it is considered how they would dispose of the Government What is this Art is the imitation of nature therefore Art presumes Nature to
of these a man must be a Gardiner or an Herbalist In this manner the reason why a Common-wealth hath not been overcome by a Monarch hath been shewn in the distribution of Armes those of a Prince consisting of Subjects or servants those of a Common-wealth rightly Order'd of Citizens which difference relates plainly unto the perfection or imperfection of the Goverment But sayes the Prevaricator this seemes intended for a Tryall of our Noses whether they will serve us to discover the fallacy of an inference from the prosperous successe of Armes to the perfection of Government If she who should have some care of the Vineyard of Truth shall lye pigging of wide bores to grunt in this manner and fear with the tush and I happen to ring some of them as I have done this Marcassin for rooring there is nothing in my faith why such tryall of their Noses should be sin but for fallacions inferrences such I leave unto them whose Capps are squarer then their play For all that Great and well policyd Empires saith he have been subverted by People so eloigned from the perfection of government that we scarce know of any thing to tye them together but the desire of booty Where or how came he to know this what reason or experience doth he alledge for the proof of it May we not say of this it is for the tryal of our Noses whether they will serve us to discover that a Conclusion should have some Premisses He gives us leave to go look and all the premisses that I can finde are quite contrary The Arms of Israel were alwayes victorious till the death of Josua whereupon the orders of that Common-wealth being neglected they came afterwards to be seldom prosperous Isocrates in his Oration to the Areopagites speaks thus of Athens The Lacedemonians who when we were under Oligarchy every day commanded us something now while we are under popular Administration are our Petitioners that we would not see them utterly ruined by the Thebans Nor did Lacedemon ruine till her Agrarian the foundation of her Government was first broken The Arms of Rome ever noted by Historians and clearly evinced by Machiavil to have been the result of her policy during the popular government were at such a pitch as if Victory had known no other wings then those of her Eagles nor seeing the Gothes and Vandalls are the Legislators from whom we derive the government of King Lords and Commons were these when they overcame the Roman Empire a people so eloigned from the perfection of Government but their Policy was then farre better than that of the Emperors which having been at first founded upon a broken Senate and a few Military Colonies was now come unto a Cabinet and a Mercenary Army The Judgement of all ages and writers upon the Policy of the Roman Emperors is in this place worthy and through the pains already taken by Erasmus and Sleiden easie to be inserted O miserable and deplorable State saith Erasmus the Authority of the Senate the power of the Law the Liberty of the People being troden under-foot to a Prince that got up in this manner the whole World was a servant while he himself was a servant unto such as no honest man would have endured the like servants in his house the Senate dreaded the Senate dreaded the Emperor the Emperor dreaded his execrable Militia the Emperor gave Lawes unto Kings and received them from his Mercenaries To this is added by Sleiden That the condition of these Princes was so desperate it was a wonderful thing Ambition her self could have the courage to run such a hazard seeing from Cajus Caesar slain in the Senate to Charles the Great there had been above thirty of them murthered and four that had layd violent hands upon themselves For there was alway something in them that offended the Souldiery which whether they were good or bad was equally subject to pick quarrels upon the least occasion raised tumults and dispatcht even such of them as they had forced to accept of that dignity for example Aelius Pertinax But if this be true that of the Gothes and Vandalls when they subdued this Empire must have been the better Government for so ill as this never was there any except that only of the Kings of Israel which certainly was much worse Those of the Britains and the Gauls were but the dregs of this of Rome when they were overcome by the Saxons and Franks who brought in the Policy of the Gothes and Vandalls When Tamerlan overcame Bajazet the Turkish Policy had not attain'd unto that extent of Territory which is plainly necessary unto the nature of it nor was the Order of the Janizaries yet instituted The Hollander who under a potent Prince was but a Fisherman with the restitution of the popular government is become the better Souldier nor hath been matcht but by a rising Common-wealth whose Policy you will say was yet worse but then her ballance being that especially which produceth men was farre better For vastness for fruitfulness of territory for bodies of men for number for courage nature never made a Country more potent then Germany yet this Nation anciently the Seminary of Nations hath of late years meerly through the defect of her policy which in tending one Common wealth hath made an hundred Monarchies in her bowels whose crosse interests twist her gutts been the theater of the saddest Tragedies under the Sun nor is she curable unless some Prince alling to work with the Hammer of Warre be able totally to destroy the old and forge her a Government intirely new But if this come to be neither shall it be said that a well polycy'd Empire was subverted nor by a people so eloigned from perfection of government but theirs must be much better then the other Let me be as ridiculous as you will the World is in faece Romuli ripe for great changes which must come And look to it whether it be Germany Spain France Italy or England that comes first to fix her self upon a firm foundation of policy she shall give law unto and be obey'd by the rest There was never so much fighting as of late dayes to so little purpose Arms except they have a root in policy are altogether fruitless In the Warre between the King and the Parliament not the Nation only but the policy of it was divided and which part of it was upon the better foundation But saith he Ragusa and San Marino are commended for their upright and equal frame of Government and yet have hardly extended their Dominion beyond the size of an handsom Mannor Have Ragusa or San Marino been conquer'd by the Arms of any Monarch For this I take it is the Question though if they had these being Common wealths unarmed it were nothing to the purpose The question of encrease is another point Lacedemon could not increase because her frame was of another nature without ruine yet
judgement were not obnoxious unto punishment he shews that every man had Liberty of Conscience Secondly asto Law If Demetrius and the Crafts-men which are with him have a matter against any man the Law saith he is open Thirdly as to the matter of Government which appears to be of two parts the one provincial the other Domestick for the former saith he there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pro-Consuls he speaks in the plural number with relation unto the Legates by whom the Pro-Consul sometimes held his Courts Otherwise this Magistrate was but one in a Province as at this time for Asia P. Suilius and to the latter saith he if you desire any thing concerning other matters that is such as appertain unto the Government of the City in which the care of the Temple was included it shall be determined in a lawful Ecclesia or Assembly of the people By which you may see that notwithstanding the Provincial government Ephesus though she were no free City for with a free City the Pro-Consul had nothing of this kind to do had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the government of her self as those other Cities mentioned in Plynies Epistles by the Senate and the people for wherever one of these is named as the Senate by Pliny or the people by Luke the other is understood When the Chancellor had thus spoken he dismissed the Ecclesia It is Lukes own word and so often as I have now repeated it so often hath he used it upon the same occasion Wherefore I might henceforth expect two things of Divines first that it might be acknowledged that I have good Authors St. Luke and the Chancellor of Ephesus for the word Ecclesia in this sense and secondly that they would not perswade us the word Ecclesia hath lost this signification least they condemn this place of Scripture to be no more understood The manner of Provincial Government being thus proved not only out of prophane Authors but out of Scripture it self and the Cities that were least free having had such power over themselves and their Territories why if the Romans took no more of them for this protection than was paid unto their former Lords did they not rather undertake the patronage of the World than the Empire seeing Venice and Dantzig while the one was Tributary to the Turk the other to the King of Poland were nevertheless so free Estates that of a King or a Common-wealth that should have put the rest of the world into the like condition no less in our day could have been said And yet that the Romans when the nature of the Eastern Monarchies shall be rightly considered took far less of these Cities than their old Masters will admit of little doubt Cicero would not lye He when he was Pro-Consul of Cilicia wrote in this manner concerning his Circuit to his friend Servilius Two dayes I stand at Laâ—dicea at Apâ—mea five at Sinnadae three at Pilomelis five at Iconium ten then which Jurisdiction or Government there is nothing more just or equall Why then had not those Cities their Senates and their Ecclesiae or Congregations of the people as well as that of Ephesus and those whereof Pliny gives account to Trajane Corinth was in Achaia Perga of Pamphilia Antioch of Pisidia Iconium Lystra Derbe of Lycaonia were in Cilicia and with these as some reckon Attalia Ephesus and the other Antioch were in Syria Achaia Cilicia and Syria were Roman Provinces at the time of this perambulation of the Apostles The Cities under Provincial administration whether free are not free were under popular Government whence it followeth that Corinth Ephesus Antioch of Syria Antioch of Pisidia Perga Iconium Lystra ` Derbe Attalia being at this time under Provincial administration were at this time under popular Government There hath been no hurt in going about though indeed to shew that these Cities had quandam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were under popular government we needed to have gone no farther than the Text as where the Chancellor of Ephesus to get rid of a tumultuous Ecclesia or Assembly of the people promiseth them a lawful one In Iconium Lystra Derbe and the rest you hear not of any King as where Herod stretched out his hand to please the Jews and vex the Church but of the people of their Rulers of their Assemblies and of their tumults The people at Lystra are now agreed to give the Apostles divine honours and anon both at Iconium and Lystra to stone them Now to determine of divine honour or of life and death are acts of Soveraign power It is true these nevertheless may happen to be usurped by a meer Tumult but that cannot be said of these Congregations which consisted as well of the Magistrates and Rulers as of the people and where the Magistrates shew that they had no distinct power whereby to restraine the people nor other means to prevail against them than by making of parties which passages as they prove these Common-wealths on the one side to have been ill constituted evince it on the other that these Cities were under popular Government CHAP. III. The deduction of the Chirotonia from Popular Government and of the Original Right of Ordination from the Chirotonia In which is contained the institution of the Sanhedrin or Senate of Israel by Moses and of that of Rome by Romulus DIvines generally in their way of Disputing have a byass that runs more upon words than upon things so that in this place it will be necessary to give the interpretation of some other words whereof they pretend to take a strong hold in their Controversies the chief of these hath been spoken to already Chirotonia being a word that properly signifies the suffrage of the people wherever it is properly used implies power wherefore though the Senate decree by suffrage as well as the people yet there being no more in a Decree of the Senate than Authority the Senate is never said to Chirotonize or very seldom and improperly this word being peculiar unto the people and thus much is imply'd in what went before The next word in controversie is Psephisma which signifies a Decree or Law and this alwayes implying power alwayes implyes the suffrage of the people that is where it is spoken of popular Government for though a Psephisma or decree of the Athenian Senate was a Law for a year before it came to the suffrage or Chirotonia of the people yet the Law or constitution of Solon whereby the Senate had this power originally derived from the Chirâ—tonia of the people The third word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to constitute or ordain this in the political sense of the same implyeth not power but authority for a man that writeth or proposeth a Decree or form of Government may be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to propose or constitute it whether it be confirmed by the Chirotonia of the people or not nay with Halâ—carnâ—ssaeus the word signifies no more than barely to
their policy And why is not Ordination in the Church or Common-wealth of Christ as well a political thing as it was in the Churches or Common-wealths of the Jews or of the Heathens Why is not Election of Officers in the Church as well a political thing as election of Officers in the State and why may not this be as lawfully performed by the Chirotonia in the one as in the other That Moses introduced the Chirotonia is expresly said by Philo though he oppose it to the ballot in which I believe he is mistaken as not seeing that the ballot including the suffrage of the people by that means came as properly under the denomination of the Chirotonia as the suffrage of the Roman people which though it were given by the Tablet is so called by Greek Authors All ordination of Magistrates as of the Senators or Elders of the Sanhedrin of the Judges or Elders of inferior Courts of the Judge or Suffes of Israel of the King of the Priests of the Levites whether with the ballot or viva voce was performed by the Chirotonia or suffrage of the people In this especially if you admit the authority of the Jewish Lawyers and Divines called the Talmudists the Scripture will be clear but their Names are hard Wherefore not to make my Discourse more rough then I need I shall here set them together The Authors or writings I use by way of paraphrase upon the Scripture are the Gemara Babylonia Midhar Rabba Sepher Siâ—â—ri Sepher Tanchuma Solomon Jarchius Chiskuny Abarâ—inel Ajin Israel Pesiktha Zoertha these and many more being for the Election of the Sanhedrin by the ballot I might have spoken them more briefly for the truth is in all that is Talmudical I am assisted by Selden Grotius and their quotations out of the Rabbis having in this learning so little skil that if I miscalled none of them I shewed you a good part of my acquaintance with them Nor am I wedded unto Grotius or Selden whom sometimes I follow and sometimes I leave making use of their learning but of my own reason As to the things in this present controversie they were no other in Athens and Rome than they had been in the Common-wealth of Israel When Moses came to institute the Senate he asked counsel of God And the Lord said Gather unto me seventy men of the Elders of Israel and Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord that is proposed the Dictate of the supream Legislator unto the Chirotonia of the Congregation what else can we make of these words of Moses to the people Take ye wise men and understanding and known among your Tribes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I will constitute them Rulers over you Now how the people could otherwise take or chuse these Rulers or Magistrates thus proposed than by their Chiro oxia let Divines shew or notwithstanding the constitution of Moses both the Senate of Israel and the inferior Courts were decreed by the Chirotonia of the people For the people upon this proposition resolved in the affirmative or answered and said the thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do This then was the Psephisma or decree of the people of Israel whereupon saith Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I constituted or ordained them Governors In which example you have the three words or the three things again nor as to the things is it or ever was it otherwise in any Common-wealth whence it is admirable in our Divines who will have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constituted to be the word of power that they do not see by this means they must make two powers in the same Government the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or constitution of the Legislator the Chirotonia or suffrage of the people or else say that the Common-wealth of Israel was instituted by the power of the Legislator and the authority of the people then which there is nothing more absurd But the people staid not upon their first Psephisma or result that the thing was good for them to do but did accordingly The manner of their proceeding at different times was somewhat different for it was sometimes viva voce sometimes by the lot without the suffrage and sometimes by the ballot which consisted not of the lot only but of the suffrage Also each of these are equally popular for neither of them giveth any advantage unto any person or party but not equally prudent wayes of proceeding the lot committing too much unto For tune except in some kinds of businesses as first in the division of Lands whence the suffrage was properly excluded for the civisions being made by three Deputies out of each Tribe if there happened to fall some advantage or disadvantage unto any man by the lot it was equal or impartial whereas if it had fallen by the suffrage it must have bin unequal or partial such was the cause why the lot in the division of the land of Canaan was used wthout the suffrage In case of a crime committed by an unknown Author but among many of whom some one or more must have been guilty as in the cases of Achan and Jonathan the lot was also used without the suffrage somewhat after the manner of decimation in an Army when many that are guilty throw the dice and he on whom the lot falls is punished yet with considerable difference for whereas decimation is not used but for punishment where the persons are as well known as the guilt this use of the lot in Israel was for the discovery of the unknown Author of some known crime that some one of many being put to the question who if either by his own confession or other proof he were found guilty was punished accordingly otherwise not Men might have less encouragement that their crimes would be the more hidden or less punishable for company or the shadow of it When the people were set upon the introduction of a new Magistracy and cared not at all who should be the man as in the Election of Saul at which time the Philistines lay hard upon them and they looked upon the Ease they hoped from a King without coveting the trouble which he was like to have it seemeth unto me that there was a third use of the lot without the suffrage But that the common use of the Lot in Israel implyed also the suffrage and was of the nature of the ballot at this day in Venice is little to be doubted or you may satisfie your self when you have considered the manner how the Senate or Sanhedrin was first elected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or constituted by Moses Upon the Psephisma or decree of the Legislator and the people the thing which thou hast spoken is good for us to do they proceeded unto Election of Competitors in this manner Each of the twelve Tribes to be hereafter as well locally as they were yet but geneologically divided were to make the
a God would govern by love and be not only obeyed but worshipped or if he were ill as the Divel and had as much power to do mischief he would be dreaded as much and so govern by fear To which later the nature of man hath so much nearer approaches that albeit we never saw upon Earth a Monarchy like that of Heaven yet it is certain the perfection of the Turkish Policy lies in this that it cometh nearest to that of Hell Object 3. God instituted a Monarchy namely in Melchizedec before he instituted a Commonwealth Answer If Melchizedec were a King so was Abraham too though one that paid him tithes or was his subject for Abraham made War or had the power of the Sword as the rest of the Fathers of Families he fought against So if Canaan were a Monarchy in those days it was such an one as Germany is in these where the Princes also have as much the right of the Sword as the Emperor which comes rather as hath been shewn already to a Commonwealth but whether it were a Monarchy or a Commonwealth we may see by the present state of Germany that it was of no great good Example nor was Melchizedec otherwise made a King by God then the Emperor that is as an Ordinance of Man FINIS Epistle to the Reader WHo so sheddeth Mans bloud by Man shall his bloud be shed for in the Image of God made He Man If this Rule hold as well in shedding the bloud of a Turk as of a Christian then that wherein Man is the Image of God is Reason Of all Controversies those of the Pen are the most Honourable for in those of Force there is more of the Image of the Beast but in those of the Pen there is more of the Image of God In the Controversies of the Sword there is but too often no other reason then Force but the Controversie of the Pen hath never any Force but Reason Of all Controversies of the Pen next those of Religion those of Government are the most honourable and the most useful the true end of each though in a different way being that the will of God may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Of all Controversies of Government those in the vindication of Popular Government are the most Noble as that from whence all we have that is good is descended to us and which if it had not been Mankind at this day had been but a Herd of Beasts The Prerogative of Popular government must be in an ill hand or is a Game against which there is not a Card in the whole Pack for we have the Books of Moses those of the Greeks and of the Romans not to omit Machiavel all for it what have they what can they have against us A Sword but that rusts or must have a Scabbard and the Scabbard of this kind of Sword is a good frame of Government A Man may be possessed of a Piece of ground by force but to make use or profit of it he must Build upon it and Till it by reason whatever is not founded upon Reason cannot be permanent In reason there be two parts Invention and Judgement As to the later in a Multitude of Counsellors say both Solomon and Machiavel there is strength For Judgement there is not that Order in Art or Nature that can compare with a Popular Assembly The voice of the People is the voice of God Hence it is that in all well Order'd Policies the people have the ultimate result but unless there be some other to invent a Popular Assembly can be of no effect at all but confusion Invention is a solitary thing All the Physicians in the world put together invented not the circulation of the bloud nor can invent any such thing though in their own Art yet this was invented by One alone and being invented is unanimously voted and embraced by the generality of Physicians The Plough and Wheels were at first you must think the invention of some rare Artists but who or what shall ever be able to tear the use of them from the people Hence where Government is at a loss a sole Legislater is of absolute Necessity nay where it is not at a loss if it be well modelled as in Venice the Proposers though frequently changeable as in that case is Necessary are very few as the Counsellers the Savi the Provosts Where ever a Common-wealth is thus proposed to the ballance or Popular Assembly will doe her duty to admiration but till then never Yet so it hath been with us of late years that albeit in Royal Authority there was no more then the right of proposing and the King himself was to stand legibus consuetudinibus quas vulgus elegerit to the result of the People the popular Council hath been put upon Invention and they that have been the prevailing party have used means to keep the Result unto themselves quite contrary unto the nature of popular Administration Let one speak and the rest judge Of what ever any one Man can say or doe Mankind is the Natural and competent Judge in which is contained the very reason of Parliaments through the want of this Understanding came in Confusion Man that is in Honour and hath no understanding is like the Beasts that perish Nor can we possibly return unto Order but by mending the hedge where it was broken A prudent intire and fit proposition made unto a free Parliament recovers all To them who are of the greatest Eminency or Authority in a Commonwealth belongs Naturally that part of Reason which is invention and using this they are to propose but what did our Grandees ever invent or propose that might shew so much as that themselves knew what they would be at and yet how confidently do they lay the fault upon the people and their unfitness forsooth for Government in which they are wondrous wise For this I will boldly say where there was an Aristocracy that performed their duty there never was nor ever can be a people unfit for Government but to the contrary where the Aristocracy have failed the people being once under Orders have held very often But while they are not under Orders if they fail it is not their fault but the fault of the Aristocracy for who else should model a government but Men of Experience There is not in England I speak it to their shame one GRANDEE that hath any perfect knowledge of the Orders of any one Commonwealth that ever was in the World A way with this same grave complection this huff of wisdom maintain'd by making faces The people cannot doe their duty consisting in judgement but by virtue of such Orders as may bring them together and direct them but the duty of the Aristocracy consisting in invention may be done by any one man and in his study and where is there that one man among all the Grandees that studies They are so far from knowing their
Kings while the People are led into superstition Secondly by planting a Religious Order in the Earth why Religion hath been brought to serve worldly ends And thirdly by rendring the Mitre able to make War why of later Ages we have had such a thing as War for Religion which till the Clergy came to be a Third State or Landlords was never known in the World For that some Cities of Greece taking Arms upon the usurpation or violation of some Temple have called it the Holy war such disputes having been but upon matter of fact and not of faith in which every Man was free came not to this Account Moses was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians but a landed Clergy introduced he not in Israel nor went the Apostles about to lay any such foundation of a Church Abating this one Example of Egypt till the Goths and Vandals who brought in the Third Estate a Government if it were unequal consisted but of two Estates as that of Rome whether under the Kings or the Commonwealth consisted of the Patritians and Plebeians or of the Nobility and the people And an equal Commonwealth consisteth but of One which is the people for Example of this you have Lacedemon and Venice where the people being few and having many Subjects or Servants might also be called Nobility as in regard of their Subjects they are in Venice and in regard of their Helots or Servants they might have been in Lacedemon That I say which introducing two Estates causeth division or makes a Commonwealth unequal is not that she hath a Nobility without which she is deprived of her most especial Ornament and weakned in her conduct but when only the Nobility is capable of Magistracy or of the Senate and where this is so ordered she is unequal as Rome But where the Nobility is no otherwise capable of Magistracy nor of the Senate then by Election of the People the Commonwealth consisteth but of one Order and is Equal as Lacedemon or Venice But for a Polititian commend me to the Considerer He will have Rome to have been an equal Commonwealth and Venice to be an unequal one which must be evinced by Wyre-drawing For having elsewhere as hath been shewn admitted without-opposition that the ballance of Empire is well divided into national and provincial the humour now takes him to spin that wedge into such a thred as by intangling of these two may make them both easie to be broken Hereunto he betaketh himself in this manner As Mr. Harrington hath well observed p. 5. where there are two parties in a Republique with equal power as in that of Rome the people had one half and the Nobility had the other half confusion and misery are there intayled For remedy whereof or to avoid this there can be no way but to make the Commonwealth very unequal In answer to this there will need no more then to repeat the same things honestly Mr. Harrington speaketh of the National ballance of Empire p. 5. unto this sense where the Nobility holdeth half the propriety or about that proportion and the people the other half the shares of the Land may be equal but in regard that the Nobility have much among Few and the People little among Many the Few will not be contented to have authority which is all their proper share in a Commonwealth but will be bringing the People under power which is not their proper share in a Commonwealth wherefore this Commonwealth must needs be unequal and except by altering the ballance as the Athenians did by the Sisacthia or recision of debts or as the Romans went about to do by an Agrarian it be brought to such equality that the whole power be in the People and there remain no more then Authority unto the Nobility where is no remedy but the one with perpetual fewd will eat out the other as the People did the Nobility in Athens and the Nobility the People in Rome Where the Carkass is there will be the Eagles also where the Riches are there will be the Power So if a few be as rich as all the rest a few will have as much power as all the rest in which case the Commonwealth is unequal and there can be no end of staving and tayling till it be brought unto equality This for the National ballance for the provincial there power doth not follow propriety but to the contrary This the Praevaricator having acknowledged le ts slip to the end that he may take a grip of Venice which because the three or four thousand of which originally consisted and now consisteth that whole government having acquired Provinces and encrease of their City by later comers do not admit these unto participation of power he saith is an unequal Commonwealth He will be a Mill-Horse whether the Cake be dough or not for this is to draw in a circle and Rome which by his former arguments should have been equal by this again must be unequal seeing Rome as little admitted her Provinces into the body of the Commonwealth as doth Venice This clash is but by way of Parenthesis to return therefore unto the businesse in present Agitation The estates be they one or two or three are such as was said by vertue of the ballance upon which the Government must naturally depend Wherefore constitutively the Government of France and all other Monarchies of like ballance was administred by an Assembly of the three Estates and thus continued untill that Nation being vanquished by the English Charls the 7th was put to such shifts as for the recovery of himself in the greatest distresse he could make unto which recovery while the Estates could not be legally called he happening to attain without them so ordered his affairs that his Successors by adding unto his Inventions came to rule without this Assembly a way not suiting with the nature of their ballance which therefore required some Assistance by force and other concurring Policies of like nature whereof the forraign Guards of that Monarchy are one The great baits alluring the Nobility another and the Emergent interest of the Church a Third To begin with the last of those the Church except it be in a War for Religion as when they joyned with the Princes of Lorrain and what party of the French Nobility were made or they could make against the King of Navarre are not of themselves so hot at hand or prompt unto Arms but the King being to use their word no Heretick through their great apprehension of the third Estate as that which is most addicted unto the Protestant Religion may be confident they will never side with the People So by this Emergent interest or accident he hath the Church sure enough For the Nobility which is exceeding gallant this Change hath the greatest baits for whereas the Church being not spared the Third Estate is laden and the Paisant overladen with taxes the Nobility is not only at better ease
Those in England France and Spain introduced by the Gothes Vandals Saxons and Franks which were Aristocratical or such as produced the Government of King Lords and Commons Thirdly those in the East and Turkey introduced by Nimrod and Mahomet or Ottoman which were purely Monarchial Examples of the Ballance introduced by civil Vicissitude alienation or alteration of Propriety under Government are in Florence where the Medices attaining to excessive wealth the ballance altered from Popular to Monarchial In Greece where the Argives being Lovers of equality and liberty reduced the power of their Kings to so small a matter that there remained unto the Children and Successors of Cisus little more than the Title where the ballance altered from Monarchical to Popular In Rome about the time of Crassus the Nobility having eaten the People out of their Lands the ballance alter'd from Popular first unto Aristocratical as in the Triumvirs Caesar Pompey and Crassus and then to Monarchical as when Crassus being dead and Pompey conquer'd the whole came to Caesar In Tarentum not long after the Warre with the Medes the Nobility being wasted and overcome by Iapyâ—es the ballance and with that the Common wealth changed from Aristocratical to Popular the like of late hath discovered it self in Oceana When a ballance commeth so through civil Vicissitude to be changed that the change cannot be attributed unto humane Providence it is more peculiarly to be ascribed unto the hand of God and so when there happeneth to be an irresistible change of the ballance not the old Government which God hath repealed but the new Government which he dictateth as present Legislator is of Divine right This volubility of the ballance being apparant it belongs unto Legislators to have eyes and to occur with some prudential or legal remedy or prevention and the Lawes that are made in this Case are called Agrarian So an Agrarian is a Law fixing the ballance of a Government in such manner that it cannot alter This may be done divers wayes as by entailing the Lands upon certain Families without power of Alienation in any case as in Israel and Lacedemon or except with leave of the Magistrate as in Spain but this by making some Families too secure as those in possession and others too despairing as those not in possession may make the whole People lesse industrious Wherefore the other way which by the regulation of purchases ordains only that a Mans Land shall not exceed some certain proportion for example two thousand pounds a year or exceeding such a proportion shall divide in descending unto the Children so soon as being more than one they shall be capable of such division or sub-division till the greater share exceed not two thousand pounds a year in Land lying and being within the Native Territory is that which is received and established by the Common wealth of Oceana By Levelling they who use the word seem to understand when a People rising invades the Lands and Estates of the richer sort and divides them equally among themselves as for example No where in the World this being that both in the way and in the end which I have already demonstrated to be impossible Now the words of this Lexicon being thus interpreted Let us hearken what the Praevaricator will say and out it comes in this manner To him that makes propriety and that in Lands the foundation of Empire the establishing of an Agrarian is of absolute necessity that by it the power may be fixed in those hands to whom it was at first committed What need we then proceed any farther while he having no where disproved the ballance in these words gives the whole cause For as to that which he faith of money seeing neither the vast treasure of Henry the 7th altered the ballance of England nor the Revenue of the Indies alters that of Spain this retrait except in the cases excepted is long since barricadoed But he is on and off and any thing to the contrary notwithstanding gives you this for certain The Examples of an Agrarian are so infrequent that Mr. Harrington is constrained to wave all but two Common-wealths and can finde in the whole extent of History only Israel and Lacedemon to fasten upon A man that hath read my Writings or is skilled in History cannot chuse but see how he slurs his Dice nevertheless to make this a little more apparent It hath seemed to some sayes Aristotle the main point of institution in Government to order riches right whence otherwise derives all Civil discord Vpon this ground Phaleas the Calcedonian Legislator made it his first work to introduce equality of goods and Plato in his Lawes allowes not increase unto a possession beyond certain bounds The Argives and the Messenians had each their Agrarian after the manner of Lacedemon If a man shall translate the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 virtus facultas civilis Political virtue or faculty where he findes them in Aristotles Politicks as I make bold and appeal unto the Reader whether too bold to do by the words Politicall ballance understood as I have stated the thing it will give such a light unto the Authour as will go neerer than any thing alleadged as before by this Praevaricator to deprive me of the honour of that invention For Example where Aristotle saith If one man or such a number of men as to the capacity of Government come within the compasse of the Few excel all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in ballance or in such manner that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Political faculties or Estates of all the rest be not able to hold weight with him or them they will never condiscend to share equally with the rest in power whom they excell in ballance nor is it to any purpose to give them Lawes who will be as the Gods their own Lawes and answer the People as the Lions are said by Antisthenes to have answer'd the hares when they had concluded that every one ought to have an equall portion For this cause he adds Cities that live under popular power have instituted the Ostracism for the preservation of equality by which if a man increase in riches retinue or popularity above what is safe they can remove him without losse of honour or estate for a time If the Considerer think that I have strained courtesie with Aristotle who indeed is not alwayes of one minde further then is warrantable in relation to the ballance be it as he pleaseth I who must either have the more of Authority or the lesse of Competition in the point shall lose neither way However it is in this place enough that the Ostracism being of like nature was that which supplyde the defect in the Grecian Cities of an Agrarian To proceed then unto Rome that the People there by striving for an Agrarian strove to save their Liberty is apparent in that through the want of such a Law or the non-observance
the hereditary succession and dignity of the Princes of the Tribes and the Patriarchs and that the Senate was for life differs not from the former for as to the divers working up of the superstructures in divers Common-wealths according unto the diversity of occasions it comes unto no Accomptable difference and much I conceive of this carving or finishing in Israel which had it been extant would perhaps have shewn a greater resemblance is lost For the Senates as to their Numbers that of the 300 in Oceana considering the Bulk of the People exceedeth not that of the Seaventy in Israel the succession and dignity of the Princes of the Tribes and of the Patriarchs was Ordain'd for the preservation of the Pedegrees which Christ being born are not any more to be of like consequence And that the Senators were for life derived from a former Custome of such a Number of Elders exercising some Authority in Aegypt though not that of the Senate till it was instituted by God from the descent of the Patriarchs into that Land who being at their descent seâ—venty persons and governing their families by the right of Paternity as the people increased and they came to dye had their Successors appointed in such manner that the number of Seaventy in remembrance of those Patriarchs was diligently preserved And forasmuch as the Patriarchs governing their own Familied which at first were all in their own right were consequently for life this also pleased in the substitution of others These things rightly considered I have not varyed from the Authority of Israel in a tittle there being neither any such necessaty use of Pedigrees nor uninterrupted succession of Elders for life in Oceana and unlesse a Man will say That we ought to have the like Effect where there is not the like Cause which were absurd the Authority of a Common wealth holdeth no otherwise then from the cause to the effect Oceana I say cannot be wounded but by peircing the Authority of Israel with which she is armed Cap a pie It is true as the Praevaricator saith in another place that Law can oblige onely those to whom it was given and that the Laws of Israel were given as to the power or Obligation of them onely to the Children of Israel But the power as hath been shewn of a Common-wealth and her Authority are different things her power extends no farther than her own people but her Authority may govern others as that of Athens did Rome when the later writt her twelve Tables by the Copy of the former In this manner though a Man or a Common-wealth writing out of Antient governments have liberty to choose that which sutes best with the occasion out of any yet whether we consider the wisedome and Justice of the Legislator supremely good or the excellency of the Lawes the Prerogative of Authority where the nature of the thing admitts must needs belong unto Israel That this opinion should go sore with Divines is strange and yet if there be any feeling of their pulse by this their Advocate or Attorney as true For while he finds mee writing out of Venice he tells me I have wisely put my self under her Protection or Authority against whom he dares not make warre lest he should take part with the Turk But when he finds me writing out of Israel he tells me that he is not aware of any Prerogative of Authority belonging to the Israelitish more then any other Republick which is to take part with the Devill So much for Israel Now for Lacedemon but you will permitt me to shake a friend or two by the hand as I goe The first is Aristotle in these words Inequality is the source of all Sedition as when the riches of one or the few come to cause such an overballance as drawes the Common-wealth into Monarchy or Oligarchy for prevention whereof the Ostracism hath been of use in divers places as at Argos and Athens But it were better to provide in the beginning that there be no such Disease in the Common wealth then to come afterwards unto her Cure The second is Plutarch in these words Lycurgus judging that there ought to be no other inequality among Citizens of the same Common wealth than what derives from their vertues divided the Land so equally among the Lacedemonians that on a day beholding the Harvest of their lots lying by Cocks or Ricks in the field he laughing said that it seem'd unto him they were all Brothers The third should have been the Considerer but he is at fewd with us all The design of Lycurgus he professes was not so much to attain an equality in the frame of his Government as to drive into Exile riches and the effects of them Luxury and Debauchery Gentlemen What do you say you have the Judgement of three great Philosophers and may make your own choice Only except he that hath but one hundred pounds a year can have Wine and Women at as full Command and Retainers in as great plenty as he that hath ten thousand I should think these advantages accrued from inequality and that Lycurgus had skill enough in a Common-wealth to see as much No sayes the Praevaricator it appeares far otherwise in that he admitted of no money but old Iron a Cart-load of which was worth little Well but in Israel where Silver and Gold was worth enough my Gentleman would have it that One man in the Compasse of fifty years might purchase the whole Land though that Countrey was much larger then this and yet where if the People had used money they would have used Trade and using both such a thing through the straightness of the Territory might have happened he will not conceive the like to have been possible No though he have an example of it in Lysander who by the spoil of Athens ruined the Agrarian first by the over-ballance that a mans money came to hold unto his lot then by eating out the lots themselves and in those the equality of the Common wealth But these things he interpreteth pleasantly as if the vow of voluntary poverty so he calls it being broken the Common-wealth like a forsworn wretch had gone and hanged her self a Phancy too rank I doubt of the Cloyster to be good at this woyk But whereas Plutarch upon the narrowness of these lots which had they been larger must have made the Citizens fewer then thirty thousand and so unable to defend the Common wealth and upon the use of this same old and rusty Iron instead of money observes it came by this means to passe that there was neither fine Orator Fortune-teller Bawd nor Goldsmith to be found in Lacedemon Our Considerer professeth That it is to him as strange as any thing in History that Lycurgus should finde credit enough to settle a Government which carryed along with it so much want and hardship unto particular men that the totall absence of Government could scarce
data concio Laelio est processit ille Graecus apud Graecos non de culpa sua dixit sed de paena quaestus est porrexerunt manus Psephisma natum est The Prytans and their Magistrates had right to assemble the Senate and propose unto them and what the Senate determined upon such a Proposition if forthwith to be offer'd unto the People as in private cases was called Proboulema but if not to be proposed till the People had a year's tryall of it as was the ordinary way in order unto Lawes to be enacted it was called Psephisma each of which words with that difference signifies a Decree A Decree of the Senate in the latter sense had for one year the power of a Law after which tryall it belonged to the Thesmothetae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hang it in writing upon the Statues of the Heroes and assemble the Congregation These Magistrates were of the number of the Archons which in all were nine the chief more peculiarly so called was Archon Eponymus he by whose name the year was reckon'd or denominated his Magistracy being of a Civil concernment the next was the King a Magistrate of a Spirituall concernment the third the Polemarch whose Magistracy was of a Military concernment the other six were the Thesmothetae who had several functions common with the Nine Others peculiar or proper to themselves as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give the People by ply-carts notice when the Judicatories were to assemble that is when the People were to assemble in that Capacity and to judge according to the Law made or when the Senate or the People were to assemble upon an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a crime that was not provided against by the Law as that of Alcibiades the wits about that time in Athens being most of them Atheists for laughing at Ceres discovering her secrets and shaving of the Mercury's If an Archon or Demagogue were guilty of such a Crime it belonged unto the cognizance of the Senate otherwise unto that of the People whom the Thesmothetae were also in like manner to warn when they were to come unto the suffrage These six like the Electors in Venice presided at all Elections of Magistrates whether made by the lott as the judges or by suffrage as the new Archons the Strategus or Generall and most of the rest They also had the hearing and introducing of all causes into the Judicatories But the right of assembling the Ecclesia or Congregation belonged to the Prytans by whom the Senate proposed unto the People The Congregation consisted of all them that were upon the role of the Lexiarcha that is to say of the whole People having right unto the City The Prytans seated upon a Tribunal were Presidents of this Assembly The Assembly having sacrificed made Oath of fidelity unto the Common-wealth the Proedri or Presidents of the Prytans proposed by Authority of the Senate unto the People in this manner July the 16th Polâ—cles being Archon and the Tribe of Pandion in the Prytaneate Demosthenes Peaneus thought thus or was of this Opinion The same Custom whereby the first Proposer subscribes his Opinion or Parte with his name is at this day in Venice Proposition being made such of the People as would speak were called to the Pulpit they that were fifty years of age or upwards were to come first and the younger afterwards which Custom of prating in this manner made excellent Orators or Demagogs but a bad Common wealth From this that the People had not only the result of the Common wealth but the debate also Athens is called a Democracie and this kind of Government is opposed unto that of Lacedemon which because the People there had not the power of debate but of result only was called Aristocracy sometimes Oligarchy thus the Greeks commonly are to be understood to distinguish of these two while according to my Principles if you like them debate in the People maketh Anarchy and where they have the result and no more the rest being mannaged by a good Aristocracy it maketh that which is properly and truly to be called Democracy or Popular Government Neither is this Opinion of mine new but according to the Judgement of some of the Athenians themselves for saith Isocrates in his Oration unto the Areopagites for reformation of the Athenian Government I know the main reason why the Lacedemonians flourish to be that their Common wealth is popular But to return As many of the People as would having shewed their Eloquence and with these the Demagogues who were frequently bribed concealed their knavery the Epistata or Provost of the Proedri put the Decree or Question unto the Vote and the People gave the result of the Common wealth by their Chirotonia that is by holding up their hands the result thus given was the Law or Psephisma of the People Now for the functions of the Congregation they were divers as first Election of Magistrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Namely the Archons the Strategus or Generall the Field-Officers the Admiralls with divers others all or the chief of them Annuall and commonly upon Termes and Vacations though it be true as Plutarch hath it that Phocion was Strategus four years together having that honour still put upon him by the Congregation without his seeking The next Office of this Assembly was to elect Judges into five Courts or Judicatories for the People being in the Bulk too unweildy a body for the performance of this duty they exercised the supreme Judicature by way of Representative into which Election was made by Lottery in such manner that five hundred one thousand or 1500. of them according to the importance of the occasion being above thirty yeares of age and within the rest of the qualifications in that case provided by the Law became the Soveraign Judicatory called the Heliaea In all Elections whether by lot or suffrage the Thesonothetae were Presidents and ordered the Congregation Farthermore if they would amend alter repeal or make a Law this also was done by a Representative of which no man was capable that had not been of the Heliaea for the rest elected out of the whole People this amounting unto one thousand was called the Nomothetae or Legislators No Law received by the People could be abrogated but by the Nomothetae by these any Athenian having obtained leave of the Senate might abrogate a Law provided that withall he put another in the place of it These Lawes the Proedri of the Prytans were to put unto the Suffrage First the old whether it agreed with the Athenian people or not then the new and whether of these hapned to be chirotonized or voted by the Nomothetae was ratified according to that piece of the Athenian Law cited by Demosthenes against Timocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what hath been said of the Common-wealth of Athens in relation unto the present purpose amounts unto thus much that not onely the Senate and
dead though he soon after recovered and went thence with Barnabas unto Derbe when they had propagated the Gospel there also they returned unto Lystra Iconium and Antiochia confirming the Disciples whom they had converted Now because the propagation of the Gospel required that the Apostles should be moving through divers Nations They chirotonizing them Elders in every Congregation or Church that is ordaining them Elders by the votes of the people in every City left them to perform the duties of the absent Apostles and when they had fasted and prayed commended them unto the Lord. These things being brought to a conclusion or finished at Antioch in Pisidia when they had perambulated this Country they also visited Pamphylia sowing the Gospel where it was not yet sown and confirming those who already believed till they came to Perga where having ordered their affairs they proceeded to Attalia being a Maritimate City of Pamphylia and from thence they sailed back unto Antioch of Syria whence first they set out with Commission from the Elders to preach the Gospel unto the Gentiles and where by the Chirothesia or Imposition of Hands Prayer and Fasting they had been recommended to the grace of God and designed unto the work now finished In this Narrative you have mention both of the Chirotonia and of the Chirothesia or Imposition of Hands but of the former as of Ordination For by that such were made Presbyters or Church Officers as were not so before of the latter not I think as of Ordination at least in the sense we now take it but as of designation of Persons unto an occasional and temporary Imployment that had been ordained before for so sure had Paul at least howsoever that which is offered by this Narrative unto present consideration is no more than the bare story CHAP. II. That the Cities or most of them named in the Perambulation of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas were at that time under popular Government In which is contained the administration of a Roman Province THe Romans of all Nations under Heaven were indowed as with the highest vertues so with the greatest humane glory which proceeded from this especially that they were in love with such as were in love with their Libertie as to begin with their dawn The Privernates a free People inhabiting the City and parts adjoyning which at this day is called Piperno some fifty miles from Rome and five from Sâ—sse being the second time conquered by the Romans It was consulted in the Senate what course should be taken with them where while some according unto the different temper of Men shewed themselves hotter and others cooler One of the Privernates more mindfull of the condition wherein he was born than of that wherein he was fallen happen'd to render all more doubtfull for being asked by a Senator of the severer Judgement what punishment he thought the Privernates might deserve Such sayes he as they deserve that believe themselves worthy of Liberty At the courage of which answer the Consul perceiving in them that had been vehement enough before against the Privernates but the greater animosity to the end that by a gentler interrogatory he might draw forth some softer answer replyed And what if we inflict no punishment at all but pardon you what peace may we expect of you why if you give us a goodone said the other a steddy and perpetual peace but if an ill One not a long One. At which a certain Senator falling openly upon ruffling and threatning the Privernate as if those words of his tended unto some practise or intention to stir up the Cities in peace to sedition the better part of the Fathers being quite of another mind declared That they had heard the voice of a Man and of a Freeman For why said they should it be thought that any Man or people will remain longer under such a burthen as they are not able to bear then till they can throw it down There a peace is faithfull where it is voluntary if you will have slaves you are not to trust them but their fetters To this opinion the Consul especially inclining inclined others while he openly professed That they who had no thought but upon their liberty could not but be thought worthy to be Romans whereupon the Decree past by Authority of the Fathers which was afterwards proposed unto the Congregation and ratified by the Command of the people whereby the Privernates were made Citizens of Rome Such was the Genius of the To man Common-wealth where by the way you may also observe the manner of her debate and result Authoritate Patrum Jussu populi by the advice of the Senate and the Chirotonia of the people But that which in this place is more particularly offer'd unto consideration is her usual way of proceeding in case of Conquest with other Nations for albeit bearing an haughty brow towards such as not contented to enjoy their liberty at home would be her Rivals abroad she dealt far otherwise as with Carthage This case excepted and the pilling and polling of her Provinces which hapned through the Avarice and Luxury of her Nobility when the ballance of popular Power being broken her Empire began towards the latter end to languish and decline the way which she took with the Privernates was that which she usually observed with others throughout the course of her Victories and was after the change of Government made good at least in some part by the Roman Emperors under whom were now those Cities mentioned in the present perambulation of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas Strabo for his Credit among Humane Autors is equall unto any he lived about the time of this perambulation and being a Greek is less likely to be partial Of that therefore which I have affirmed to have been the course of the Romans in their Victories I shall make choice of this Author for a Witness first where he Epitomiseth the Story of Athens after this manner When the Carians by Sea and the Baeotians by Land wasted Attica Câ—crops the Prince to bring the people under shelter planted them in twelve Cities Cecropia Tetrapolis Epacrea Decelea Eleusis Aphydna Thoricus Brauron Cytherus Sphettus Câ—phissia Phalerus which Theseus is said to have contracted into one called Athens The Government of this City had many changes at the first it was Monarchical then popular This again was usurped by the Tyrants Pisistratus and his Sons whence recover'd it fell afterwards into the hands of the Few as when the four hundred once and again the thirty Tyrants were imposed by the Lacedemonians in the war of Peloponesus which yoke the Athenians by means of their faithful Army shaking off restored their popular government and held it untill the Romans attained unto the Dominion of Greece Now though it be true that they were not a little disturbed by the Kings of Macedon unto whom they were forced to yeild some kind of Obedience they nevertheless preserved the form
call or assemble the Senate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now if these words be sometimes otherwise taken what words be there in any language that are not often used improperly but that understood politically they must of necessity be understood as I have shewn or will so intangle and disorder Government that no man shall either make head or foot of it is that which I make little question to evince in the surest way that is by opening the nature of the things whence they derive and whereof they are spoken by the best Authors And because the words though the things they signifie were much more antient derive all from Athens I shall begin by this constitution to shew the proper use of them Chirotonia in Athens as hath been shewn out of Suidas who speaking of Rome relates to this was Election of Magistrates or Enacting of Laws by the suffrage of the people which because they gave by holding up their hands came thence to be called Chirotonia which signifieth holding up of Hands The Legislative Assembly or Representative of the people called the Nomothetae upon occasion of repealing an old Law and Enacting a new one gave the Chirotonia of the people And yet saith the Athenian Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the Proedrigive or make the Chirotonia unto either Law The Proedri as was shown in the former book were the ten Presidents of the Prytans which Prytans upon this occasion were Presidents of the Nomothetae Again whereas it was the undoubted right and practice of the people to Elect their Magistrates by their Chirotonia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is nevertheless shewn by Pollux to have been the peculiar Office of the Thesmothetae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Chirotonize the Mágistrates For as the Proedri were presidents of the people in their Legislative capacity so were the Thesmothetae upon occasion of Elections thus the Chirotonia of the Proedri or of the Thesmothetae signifies nothing else but the Chirotonia of the people by which they Enacted all their Laws and elected all their Civil or Ecclesiastical Magistrates or Priests as the Rex Sacrificus and the Orgeones except some by the lot which ordination as is observ'd by Aristoile is equally popular This whether ignorantly or wilfully unregarded hath been as will be seen hereafter the cause of great absurdity for who seeth not that to put the Chirotonia or soveraign power of Athens upon the Proedri or the Thesmothetae is to make such a thing of that Government as can no wise be understood What the people had past by their Chirotonia was called Psephisma an Act or Law And because in the Nomothetae there were alwayes two Laws put together unto the Vote that is to say the Old one and that which was offered in the room of it they that were for the old Law were said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pronounce in the Negative and they that were for the new 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pronounce for the Affirmative These Laws these Propositions or this frame of Government having been proposed first by Solon and then ratified or established by the Chirotonia of the Athenian people Aristotle saith of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he instituted or constituted the popular Government with constitution implyeth not any power in Solon who absolutely refused to be a King and therefore the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to him implies no more than authority I have shewed you the words in controversie and the things together in the Mint Now whether they that as to Athens introduced them both understood either I leave my Reader by comparing them to judge It is true that the things expressed by these words have been in some Common-wealths more in others less antient than the Greek Language but this hindreth not the Greeks to apply the words unto the like constitutions or things wherever they find them as by following Halicarnassaeus I shall exemplifie in Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Romulus when he had distributed the people into Tribes and into parishes proceeded to ordain the Senate in this manner the Tribes were three and the parishes Thirty out of every Tribe he elected three Senators and out of every parish three more all by the suffrage of the people These therefore came to ninety nine chosen by the Chirotonia unto which he added one more not chosen by the Chirotonia but by himself only Which Election we may therefore say was made by the Chirothesia for as in this Chapter I am shewing that the Chirotonia is Election by the Many so in the next I shall shew that the Chirothesia is Election by One or by the Few But to keep unto the matter in hand the Magistrate thus chosen by Romulus was praefectus urbi the Protector of the Common-wealth or he who when the King was out of the Nation or the City as upon occasion of War had the Exercise of Royal Power at home In like manner with the Civil Magistracy were the Priests created though some of them not so antiently for the Pontifex maximus the Rex Sacrificus and the Flamines were all ordained by the Suffrage of the people Pontifex Tributis Rex centuriâ—â—tis Flamines Curiatis the latter of which being no more than Parish Priests had no other Ordination than by their Parishes All the Laws and all the Magistrates in Rome even the Kings themselves were according unto the orders of this Common-wealth to be created by the Chirotonia of the people which nevertheless is by Appian sometimes called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Chirotonia of the Tribunes whether that these Magistrates were Presidents of the Assemblies of the people or Elected by them Sic Romani historici non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untur conâ—ulem qui comitia habuerit creasse â—â—vos Magistratu non aliam ob causam nisi quia suffragia receperit populum moderatus est in eligendo What passed the Chirotonia of the people by the Greeks is called Psephisma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the Congregation of the people was to be dismissed Marcus standing up said your Psephisma that is your Act is exceeding good c. This policy for the greater part is that which Romulus as was shewn is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have instituted or ordained though it be plain that he ordain'd it no otherwise than by the Chirotonia of the people Thus you have another Example of the three words in controversie Chirotonia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psephisma still applyed in the same sense and to the same things Have I not also discovered already the Original right of Ordination whether in Civil or religious Orders This will be scandalous How derive Ordination as it is in the Church of Christ or asit was in the Church of the Jews from the Religion or rather superstition of the Heathens I meddle not with their Religion nor yet with their superstition but with their Ordination which was neither but a part of