rabbles or multitudes of Plebeians this is as great a crime in that Body towards him as any fault could be in the person thus brought to judgment because of the danger in its precedent since a Prince may as well force the consent of his two Houses by an Army to declare whom he pleases a Traytor as they can him by multitudes and numbers of the meanest Tradesmen to make laws of any kind This was a case which God grant may never be drawn into example for our judicious Historian Daniel says Where the Prince and States of a Kingdom watch the necessities of each other that they may obtain their several ends and make advantages the true interest of the Nation is lost and as this proceeding is unjust and not sincere so it is ever unsuccessful The Praetors edict says Quod vi factum est ratum non habebo And Bartolus hereupon says Spiritus Sanctus posuit hec verba in ore Praetoris Parliaments are called by the Kings Writ and are adjourned prorogued or dissolved at the Kings pleasure and his death dissolves them without any further signification Which shews how intirely they depend on his Soveraignty and on his Person No Member of it hath priviledge of Parliament for treason felony or breach of peace The two Houses are to act suitable to the call of his Writ The Commons are called ad faciendum or consâ—ntiendum or to perform and consent the Nobles to treat and give counsel or colloquium tractatum habere and they are called not for all but for some or such as he shall please to communicate to them of his affairs tho' when they meet they have liberty to represent any grievance which properly is a violation of any law for that cannot properly be called a grievance which is no breach of a law in being And here they may represent what they suppose would tend to publick utility submitting it to the Royal pleasure In a word the Houses may propose but it is the King that determines for he accepts or rejects and what he accepts is only a law and his law only for his Houses pray a law but he enacts it for authority must be single and therefore our laws call him the beginning head and end of a Parliament which surely excludes all pretence to co-ordination It is never called the high Court of Parliament but with reference to his Royal presence It is true it is the highest Court of Judicature because hither men may appeal from all inferior Courts of Westminster-Hall but whether they may here begin original process is inquirable In this sense it is called the Court of Parliament but not the high Court of Parliament for the Lords House is a Court of Record and can administer oaths and fine c. And it is called the Court of Parliament when the Lords and Commons joyn in an order but thus never to the House of Commons singly for they can administer no oath nor fine nor imprison but their own Members or they may for violation of their own priviledges commit to their own Serjeant a Forreigner who hath violated their priviledges This is said not to diminish their ancient and just jurisdiction nor to lessen the great use of them but to keep each Court within its bounds which is truly to preserve the general peace and welfare of the Nation In this high Court of Parliament the King meets with his three States of the Realm viz. Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons To have a good intelligence with this Body of men The necessity of a good intelligence betwixt the King and his two houses of Parliament surely is one of the greatest policies a Prince can shew for by them he is best represented unto his people The supplies they give Him are best paid when granted by them Here appears the good constitution of Government or that harmonious Justice as Bodin calls it of a State where every order of men see themselves represented as members of the Politick Body or have a value put on them or thus they are not excluded from having an interest in the State These are the men who walk the perambulations of the Government and part of whose charge is to keep the true and old boundaries and land-marks of the State and not to set up new or who are to guard prerogative priviledge and liberty so as none of them intrench upon the other for Subjects wound themselves as much as they do their Prince when they invade his prerogatives And if the people were capable of judging they would find as the Government cannot want in some measure and in some things an arbitrary Power so when this for some time hath been wrested out of the Prince's hand it hath been more oppressive upon them in their hands than His. The usefulness and unavoidableness of arbitrary prerogative It is a piece of ignorance to think because a decision is arbitrary therefore it is unjust for cases that cannot be foreseen or that come seldom and clothed with divers circumstances or fall under no certain rule or are of great import or danger and can stay for no formal council all these must have an expedite determination but still as just a one and as conform to right reason as may be for reason of State is to warrant no injustice Nor can it be limited unto strict forms or process of Law therefore say the Civilians Jus privatum vocatur quia reddendo cuique quod suum est versatur eo quod normae aequalitatis justitiae congruat This therefore must be steddy and unalterable and where it is so preserved Subjects are happy for the known laws preserve their own lives liberties and properties Wherein prerogative is exercised and the written and known laws are the Standards of all these But to prevent attempts against the Government and Governors and in order to the safety of the people prerogatives or extraordinary powers were never wanting and for these reasons only laws were subjected to prerogative and no wise people ever grudged it for treasonable attempts are often perfected or a Prince assassinated or a State everted before formalities of law can be pursued or satisfied the Government therefore and the Governors must have their security as well as private men And better men be terrified from coming nigh the bounds of this mount than admitted with safety to approach it so nigh that they may project a hope to perfect that which they would venture lives and all they had if they saw but a fair possibility to effect Hence it is that we say Jus publicum legum convenientiam aptitudinem semper expedit sed non semper aquitatem but this is not to be wrested or made a patronage for any tyrannical action Princes ought to be as morally just as private men but under another law for what will protect one will not the other reason of State should never be made a pretence Thus we see
too hard a task for one no better verst in both these two Sciences than my self to give the limits unto this may be said that the Prince is obliged since Politicks flow from Ethicks as nigh as possibly he can to suit his Policies with good Morals or rather that he frame them out of at least never contrary unto the Word of God for this will make him truly worship his God and best teach him how to demean himself with men or how to govern himself either in relation to his forreign or home Affairs Not that there are such rules given in God's Word but that a Prince's Policies should not warrant any thing that Word forbids but rather cast himself on Providence Such delineations of a Prince as these are will convince men that not only Government but Governors are the ordinance of God for by me says God Kings raign which Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges when he says to Daniel Your God is a God of Gods and a Lord of Kings and he rules in the Kingdoms of the earth and gives it to whomsoever he will and sets up over it i. e. whenever a people provoke him to send them that curse the basest of men or as Hosea may seem to explain it they cast off his Government for Governments that men have framed for say they give us a King like the other Nations or let us cast off King Charles the first for a Cromwell or Christ for a Barrabbas Thus people will sometimes set up a King but not by God yea and pull down a King to their own confusion which God divert them from doing any more But that they may not thus mischief themselves God's Word describes a King's power by his character A King against whom there is no rising And what is said of a King is said of all Soveraign Persons be they one or more a Monarchy or an Aristocracy a Kingdom or a Common-weal for if Subjects upon discontents and dissatisfactions might change their setled form of Government the politick Body like his Natural that is always giving Physick to himself would be surely purged out of its setled peace and probably into its grave so as Solomon was very wise and spake as well to the States of a Land as unto particular persons when he said Meddle not with those who are given to change c. Fear God therefore and honour the King and curse not the King i. e. speak not evil of him or in discourse revile him Remember he is thy Politick Parent go backward therefore and cover his nakedness Shimei's cursing was but revilings Cut not off so much as the lap of his garment or approach him not with a prophane tongue or hand as if he were not the Lord 's Anointed for he cannot be innocent that lessens his dignity or clouds his Majesty No do not this in thine heart or in thy bed-chamber no nor mingle with those that are given to changes for their calamities shall rise suddenly or a Bird some small or unlook'd-for accident shall betray thy conspiracy or who knows the ruine of them or it shall fall upon them by some providential accident and their ruine shall be as swift as their plots were secret for if God's Word in case of oppression direct men to cry unto him for relief and not to cry unto your Tents O Israel what is our resistance but to cast off our dependance on God's providence and to have recourse unto the Witch of Endor or our own impatience or like an injured man that will not let the Judge give sentence nor the Hang-man execute him that robb'd him but he will do both offices himself Rebellion therefore is like the sin of Witchcraft it removes its dependance on God's Providence and flies as has been said to an ill Spirit or its own disobedient and vindicative humor There is no distinction between the King's person and his power Nor must men subtilize by distinguishing betwixt the power and the person for that Apostle who says Be not afraid of the Power expounds it by the Person for he is appointed by God c. Thus a King's Person and his Power cannot be separate though they may be distinguished or his authority may be where his Person is not but never his authority can be wanting where his Person is Whoever therefore will not do the law of God written in God's book nor of the King written in his statutes let Judgment be executed upon him whither it be unto death or banishment or confiscation or imprisonment And if this command comes from Artaxerxes by Ezra he would not have set it down but as it was warrantable to execute Nay the people of Israel themselves say as much to Joshuah Whosoever resists thy commandments and will not hearken to thy word or Legislative power he shall be put to death for whatever thou commandest we will do and where-ever thou sendest us we will go Only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses or be careful to rule thy self by God's law as we will be to rule our selves by thine or contrary not thou thy will established by a law by some sudden or passionate resolve Yet as hath been observed before God who is the single punisher of Prince's faults yet permits as a scourge of his Subjects and Subjects sometimes to be a scourge to their Prince though God hath reserved Princes for his own Tribunal yet he hath shewn by several instances in Scripture very particularly in that of Abimelech and the men of Shechem that he often makes Subjects by permitting it for it is ever evil in the Subject to become scourges to their Princes and both to work each others ruine As a scourge to David he lets the greatest part of Israel rise against him and follow his rebellious son Absalom and it was of the Lord by his permission that nine Tribes and a half forsook Rehoboam and followed Jeroboam for Solomons idolatry However our great Master born King of the world acknowledgeth himself in his humanity born a Subject to Augustus and Tiberius and doth a miracle to pay a tribute and gives to Caesar the things that are Caesar's outward obedience and observance in matters of a secular and indifferent nature and acknowledges the power of Pontius Pilate over his life and will not call for the Legions of Angels as he could to defend him nor doth his Apostles tread in other steps or teach other doctrine Yet doth not all this security authorize a Prince to be arbitrary or tyrannous for God proclaims himself an Avenger nor doth his Word afford such Princes any other appellation than that of a Bear or of a Lion When Nebuchadnezzar would have had his golden Image worshipped what is the answer Not let us resist but Pardon us in this O king Non est nostri juris peccare pati est Tyrannus cum titulo is or may be God's Anointed Tyrannus sine titulo is an Usurper and is to
was Gods Anointed as well as David Another sort of them say 2. None have right unto the creature but the godly though God makes his sun to shine and his rain to fall on the bad as well as the good and they will judge likewise who are those and then what becomes of the property of their fellow subjects whom they account usurpers thereof 3. An impulse of a brain-sick or vindicative spirit must be by a third sort a command from God and who then is secure of life Neither doth there want those who would be as holy in other mens opinions as they are are in their own and therefore their words must be accepted as an oath and so government lamed in a principal sinew and the reverence and awe which mankind hath ever exprest of God's name to extract truth must be laid aside that their sanctity might be justified But such men as these by their superstitions may contradict sense philosophy natural and instituted religion and fall so low in their very demeanors as are our Quakers and Seekers outward carriage that that which is ridiculous and irrational must be accounted religious or the government must be overthrown 4. Nay a soberer sort of men will so venerate their own interpretations and dogma's that if Civil or Ecclesiastical authority restrained the divulging their opinions though contrary to that of their national Church their petty and small truths if truths must be justifications to them to disquiet the peace of the government Upon this whole representation besides condolement which might lead all these sorts of men unto some modesty what have we to say but that all this is contradictory unto that Gospel-spirit most of these men pretend unto for if Christ in his own person and his Apostles in theirs would not resist secular Governors for that great truth on which all other Evangelical truths depend i. e. that God was reconciled unto the world by his Son Jesus Christ but chearfully submit themselves unto authority and undergo the punishent that was laid on them then if Pope Presbyter or Phanatick would now think themselves bound to the same submission it might be well thought it would prove the best cure for the two first 's usurpations and the last's delusion But in order to a remedy if we will hear a wise man's opinion there is no better way to stop the rising of new Sects than to reform I have forgot his words gross and known abuses or troublesome niceties and to compound smaller differences and to proceed mildly rather by gentleness than violence and to convert or win over the principal Authors by some countenance or preferment than to imbitter them by scorns But all this is to be meant towards modest Dissenters and such as revile neither governments for if God lead his people by the hand of Moses and Aaron and have ty'd men to them by religion or religious observances of them and any sort of men in matters that are not immoral may rise up against them and say ye take too much upon you ye sons of Levy or what have we to do with Moses all government is at at end And when the religion established in a land is rent by discords and the holiness of the Professors of that religion is much abated and grown hypocritical and so to honest minds scandalous as it was about Mahomet's time for then the Nestorian and Arian heresies much abounded both in Asia and Africa then says this great Chancellor you may look not only for a new Sect but possibly for a new religion And no disobediences to government are so dangerous as those that are grounded upon religion nor no Sect so likely to prevail as those who complain of the present management of affairs and promise great liberties and exemptions I am far from believing The mind cannot be forced yet it may be restrained there is any power in a Prince or a Church to force a man to believe for no man can force himself but in civil or ceremonial concerns if a Prince or a Priest require that which another thinks not prudent or is of an indifferent nature in it self Subjects are bound to nothing or they are bound in matter of this nature to submission for such compliance can never truly wound conscience A Prince may make a civil law about Husbandry which an experienc'd Husbandman may know will not work its end and yet he is bound to an obedience and the Church may enjoyn an imprudent rite and Christian liberty may censure it so and nevertheless it requires an outward conformity And thus we see how religion conduces to civil quiet by admitting a liberty in judging the injunctions of authority and yet making innocent the obedience thereunto For if God in things relating to his own honor exempted not the subject from the civil authority but submitted him to a passive obedience then it is reasonable to judge he doth it much more in all things which concern only mens sociable and civil concerns And this is enough to prove how strong a pillar religion is unto the house of government It is a great observation of Valerius Maximus's whatever the Augurs declared from the Gods the Senate determined not against Religionique summum imperium cessit omnia namque post religionem nostra civitas duxit etiam in quibus summae majestatis conspici decus voluit And they took care religion should be truly taught amongst them insomuch that they gave to the forreign cities under their government Sons of their Prophets to instruct them says this good Author Decem filii singulis Etruriae populis percipiendae sacrorum disciplinae gratia c. Scipio Africanus is said never to have gone about any business but first he went to the temple Governments or bodies politick are as subject to diseases as bodies natural are for a State may be free from violent convulsive fits and yet may fall into a paralytick or hectick distemper or an atrophy for it is an ill sign in a State when subjects dare not rebel and yet grow sullen for such mutinies make no noise and yet loosen all the joynts and ligaments of policy Besides these hardly to be discerned sicknesses of State there are periods of times and revolution of things which have ripened a State for a death even when it seems in a good condition of health or whilst it hath marrow in its bones or a good condition of plenty and peace for so was the time of our late change begun in 1640 when we saw in few years after that there was but one step betwixt the highest and the lowest condition So as unless Providence keep the City the Watchman waketh but in vain and nothing keeps Subjects out of the way of rebellion nor Princes in the way of justice as doth religion Justice the next pillar of Government Justice religion and justice both spring immediately from God for it was the eternal wisdom that formed the ligament or bond
Prince's Ministers be men of a good reputation so as securely intelligence may be held with them And by such means as these discords may be raised among the rebellious and they may be put upon such rash or such cautious councils as may ruine them Arms in the Politicks is like fortitude in the Morals it is the guard and security of all the other virtues Civil justice grounded on and managed by religion is the soul of Government but the inseparable prerogatives of it are treasure and arms for these are properly the sinews that make the members of Government move As Government is the ordinance of God these three are inseparable from soveraignty therefore none can make laws but with the Prince nor raise treasure but for the Prince for common reason shews men are bound unto the defence of Government with life and fortune but experience shews when a corrupt degenerate man or men whom Providence hath given soveraignty unto have both the soul and body as we may call it of Government in his or their hands or arbitrarily at his or their dispose unwholsome laws may be made i. e. such as are partial or ricketed swelling the head too big or a hectick or preternatural heat of the Soveraignty be it Monarchy or State may draw strength too fast from the habit of the body therefore divers mixt Governments reserve a general consent to accompany soveraign authority both in making laws and raising moneys though in neither of these nothing can be done by any but the soveraign persons thus assisted But arms or the Militia of the Nation to shew the danger of co-ordination is every where singly in the Prince or State since if any but the Soveraign hath the power of raising the arms they will be soon supposed to have the power of using them and therefore no man how loyal soever even for the safety of the Prince's person can raise arms without his commission These remarks may appear trivial and pedantick yet for want of such a foresight or some grains of such a powder I have seen the affairs of a great King in convulsive sits Thus much for arms as they concern the civil administration of justice and the repression of rebellion at home or as these being opposed by subjects arise unto a civil war Forreign war Now we will consider arms as by them one equal or who hath no authority over the other endeavours to reduce the other unto justice i. e. to observe those laws of Nations which are binding either by the law of Nature or Nations or which are obligatory by reason of some league or treaty of commerce made between two Nations Thus by the law of nature even when both persons are subjects and under one and the same law if one by a sudden assault invade the other so as he is in danger of life by him and cannot have recourse unto that law by which both of them are to be judged nature authorizes the assailed to use a counter-force against the assailant and to be his own justiciar but this is but accidental and may be properly called a natural authority to repel force by force or is a private war But that which Grotius calls a publick war O◠publick war is betwixt two equals who are both Soveraigns neither having jurisdiction over the other Now all Soveraigns are equals though the one be never so much inferior unto the other in territories wealth or strength for where Soveraignty is unequal in power it is equal in right and because these may injure one another therefore they have a right to exact justice by arms from one another and this is that which we call publick war The root of this war springs from injustice 〈…〉 The root of war thus springing from injustice or the lusts of men it is no marvel that the fruit is so barbarous and inhuman and yet even this monster which is too often an offence against justice cannot be managed but by justice for Princes ought never to war one upon another but upon a belief that the ground of their war is just Nay Yet the ground of it must be just they ought not to begin a war until sincerely they have endeavoured to obtain a satisfaction by way of peace Humanity then obliges to avoid it and necessity only warrants the undertaking it Says Moses therefore When thou goest to war enquire of the Lord or go unto his Oracles or Word or thine own conscience and reflect whether the occasion of the war be just and lawful Consult not the pravity of human nature which would lay land to land or upon an unreasonable fear that others will invade thee which hath been the common but improsperous practice of mankind as Mr. Hobbs phrases it Anticipate not or invade not another's power who hath not wronged thee for fear by that power he may wrong thee which as Thucidides sets forth was such a justifying argument amongst the Athenians who warranted themselves therein because it was the practice of most men as if it had been the wisdom and rectitude of the nature of mankind though they found both the Lacedemonians and all their smaller Allies confederating against them because they made this their boundless ambition to be a child of justice Since that could not be the off-spring of justice which by more men than those that used it was complained of as an axiom of injustice Neither use those modern Policies which propose a forreign war as a Scavingry of the surplus of the people Nor let thy plenty arise out of others misery by keeping two neighbors in the calamity of war that thou may'st enjoy the plenty of peace But above all Several considerations relating unto a war let not thy vanity or thy glory prevail to exercise thy strength upon thy Neighbors since it is not power but justice that makes a Prince truly glorious True it is the luxury of one Prince and the covetousness of another State may be scourged by the rapacity and vain-glory of a third but God permits what he allows not and Princes are innocent in the acts they do not from the suitableness of their deeds with his pleasure but from the conformity of them to his law Neither was one Prince to surprize another but first to send his Herauld and denounce hostility and to use those other ceremonies which the uprightness of elder times observed or condemned when not observed For since the lives and estates of so many innocent persons are involved in a war humanity requires that if possibly it can it be declined Since the villainous nature hereof could not avoid the allowing frauds ambushes false intelligences and many more stratagems nay knew not how to avoid cruelties and inhumanities and conflagrations which in all other cases would be abhorred for the Soldier like the Huntsman was allowed his gin as well as his bow and might corrupt his enemies men as well as employ his own All which
circumstances attend on one Prince and fail another insomuch as more is to be attributed unto Providence or good fortune than unto conduct Such conjunctures as a Prince cannot foresee yet when he discerns may fitly lead him to be less obstinate for usually such prosperities are but like a torrent which carry all before them but e're long have their ebb for fortune usually lets no long leases and the greatest potentates are but her Tenants at will Martial-law Where-ever an Army marches there is a necessity of Martial law for this is a body of brush-wood which one spark sets on fire and therefore needs such an arbitrary power we may say rather to stifle by a sudden suppressing it than to extinguish it by water or any formal means A veterane army the use and the danger of it Few kingdoms or places can be reckoned safe without some standing veterane army but this will ever influence the Civil Government for though armies should wait on laws and execute upon disobedience the civil decrees yet the robust servant often endangers the weak estate of the Master Rome was in an ill case when this secret was disclosed that a Prince could be made elsewhere than within her walls or that too common Soldiers even within her walls could transfer her empire and give her an Otho for a Galba Thus the soveraign Person and Government hath been changed and endangered by her own Guards The conclusion Having thus laid the foundation that all civil power and the Soveraign Persons that execute it are of divine ordinance and that the prerogatives belonging to both are in intuition of the peace and safety of the whole society and in honour and security of the head of that Politick Body and therefore that they are not to be resisted but both power and person to be held sacred or so set apart that the power in its prescript or laws be indisputable and the person in the execution thereof unquestionable we may say here is firm ground to raise our pillars or vital principles of Government upon and on these we may rear the roof of wisdom's house and assert that honesty is the best policy since by the light of nature or common reason it is agreed as Epictetus says that the Gods justly and wisely administer all things and that they have ty'd children and subjects unto Parents and Princes not as they are good but as they are Parents and Princes and therefore for such blessings men are more to depend on their providence than their own choice or wisdom For remove Government and Governours from this divine ordinance and the principles of Policy shall like the atoms of Lucretius make mankind of such an unquiet nature that he shall be governed by his sensitive appetites and present advantages rather than by those innate principles which by the moral virtues of his mind have fitted him to exercise his own goodness and to bear with other mens especially Governors failures or vices and rather to pray for a good Prince than resist a bad And the same virtues will teach Princes that there are no such policies as those that are ethical others being but like the pleasures of titillation earnestly sought for or delightfully used but soon repented of Marcus Aurelius's fame will be desireable by a thinking man when Alexanders and Julius Caesars will be esteem'd worthless and when Neroes and Caligula's will be found ignominious And when the ambitions of Charles V. and Philip II. and Francis I. and the great Henry's and Lewis's are considered it may be feared that Asia and Gentilisme owe more thereunto than doth Christendom or Christianity Macchiavilian principles of policy there can be none steady and yet there may be many prosperous because they look after the end and despise the means and most unnaturally they do often make prosperous a vice by the exercise of some seeming virtue and thus by some immoral means drive at some politick end for quocunque modo rem is their axiom Such sort of men as these think it no dishonour if they can sweep the stake tho' they be found playing with false dice. Nor have they any remorse that by treachery they have deceived their friend or benefactor Nothing of all this is said to make the Physicians of State so cautious as not to know how in composition of a cordial to make use of the serpents flesh for a nice piety or a scrupulous policy I think at least is not expected even by God himself from men of this condition without there were an assurance of a clear openness and integrity on the other part Therefore Macchiavel and Tacitus and men of that form are excellent Authors to give caution when they are dangerous Guides to follow The honest man therefore is not the fool for he can let live in his house the serpent but not in his breast and he can shake off animal policy to entertain Ethical He hath these mixt in his own compositum for as in himself he is both animal and rational so in his politick constitution he is made up of the serpent or sensitive part and the rational and dove-like These are not to be kept apart in him but he is to be compounded of but the dove must be the soul of his policy If we would seek another topick to prove all this we would have recourse to the whole Histories of the world and through all of them we shall find that those carnal policies which are to corrupt mens councels are very useful to be known since it is as necessary for a Traveller to be well hatted booted and coated against foul weather and ways as to be well horsed to carry him his direct road But observe all Histories and they do as Comedies do or at least should do discover many treacheries and vices but in their conclusion they make them improsperous and give the reward to virtue And this further light we may borrow from them that both Greek and Roman and if the subtil wit of the one and the courage of the other could not or did not prevent it no succeeding nations or times ever did or will attain it who most opposed Monarchical Power never attained their Idol liberty by manacling of Monarchy Disasterous it was to Athens and it cost more blood and interrupted more the prosperity of Rome than any thing else for both Livie and Tacitus set forth how when Kings abused their soveraignty that people sought to find their liberty in two Consuls to whom soveraign authority was necessary to be intrusted and these as no men living ever did or could make their affairs ever prosperous became soon not only to be complain'd of in improsperous times but to be envied when they had the most success for inferiors especially when they think they create their Superiors never want their passion So as the Consuls fell soon into their displeasure and jealousie and a short liv'd Decemviri must rectifie as they did disorder this state of government and the people in whom the soveraign power was said to be lodged must be protected by Tribunes chosen from the Commons and then by Tribunes Military that might give check untô the Consulary authority But all this was but a rolling of a sick man in his bed and the best medicin they ever took was a Dictator who silenced all other powers and singly exercised all power so as here was Monarchy in its heighth or achme for the Dictator was a Prince bound by no law nor clogged with any partnership only it was temporary and short-liv'd which is proof enough thô extremity and necessity teach the doctrine that all trust is safeliest lodged in one and that failures in government will attend the best constitution of government and that variety of changes are but so many infirmities of a state and at last so dishearten all wise and good men from depending on a populacy that a Cinna or a Sylla a Pompey a Crassus or a Caesar will in a disguise or by a barefac'd challenging it at last so weary and weaken by civil discords the people that they will rather choose the change of their condition with security than endeavor to recover their old pretended liberty with danger It is the want of good eyes or the weakness of the Optick nerve that makes men not perceive the usefulness of soveraign prerogatives even in relation to the benefit and well governing of subjects For the terror of power often keeps the State quiet and secure when the belief of liberty breeds that irreverence unto the wisdom of Governors that they kindle those sparks of contumacy which set all into a flame Few men have learnt this lesson but those who have lived in times of civil distraction and therefore the conclusion shall be Government is an ordinance of God whose wisdom having designed men to live in society made politick like natural bodies consist of a head and divers members lodging life in the body and sense and motion in the head so as human laws grounded on sound reason and adapted to the genius of the people and unto the various publick and private concerns and derived as nigh as might be from the moral virtues or the equity of them by nature implanted in mankind were like the salt in the natural body which tied all parts together by prudence promoting publick before private good or interest and by justice preserving the harmony of tenderness and beneficence communicated from the head and of cheerful and ready obedience yielded from the body and by patience a most necessary and eminent virtue in this corrupted and laps'd state of man like mortification on which even religion her self is now founded each bearing the others infirmities for without such a temper the publick peace or health of state is lost Unto which temper O Lord restore this poor giddy Nation FINIS