she seeks to maintain That mapp of Secrets which she doth abuse Then must Kings by all Tryals gage her Nest So as her Birds may neither Hatch nor Rest. 555. Nor must we give her ear when she propounds Freedom of Conscience that yields others none But work against her on the same strict ground Whereby she would bind strangers to her own Suffring no freedom in Dispute or Book But such as her false Discipline doth brook 556. For if she Conscience plead the like do we And so in Faith the same Religious bands If she doth therein claim Supremacy Soveraignity which under no pow'r stands Plead that we may deal so with forraign pow'rs Here or abroad as they shall deal with ours 557. Lastly when she and her sword-bearers strive In Peace War League or any Combination By fall of other Princes States to thrive We must of force break that association And if they arm in clouds then arme so too And Countermine by doing as they do 558. Or else she by her Contracts without charge As well as War will still divide in gain Where Kings their Crowns she there her Cells enlarge And bring her Harvest home with others pain Making poor Princes by her dreams of spirit Like slaves that onely for their Lord can merit 559. Trust not their Church with her scope infinite As King-ships in this world more in the other Here to seem greater then refined right There both of Grace and Innocence a Mother For God a Pope for Angels Cardinals A Church more over-built then Babels walls 560. An outward Church that must stand as it grew By Force Craft Rapine and Hypocrisie An earthly Faith even every day made new Built on the Base of one's Supremacy A pride born of that Angels pride that fell Prising for Peters pence Heav'n Purgatory Hell 561 Trust not this Miter which forgiveth none But damns all souls that be not of her Creeds Makes all Saints Idols to adorn her Throne And reaps vast wealth from superstitious seeds For must not she with wet or burnt wings fall Which soars above him that created all 562. Suffer not men of this Divine profession Which should be great within Religious True As Heralds sent by God to work progression From Sin to Grace and make the old Man new Let them not with the worlds Moralities Think to hold up their Doctrine with the wise 563. Let them not fall into those common moulds Of frail humanity which scandal give From God they must take notice what they should Men watch not what they speak but how they live Malice soon pierceth pomps mortality The sin derides her own hypocrisie 564. The Clergies praise when they from Pulpit come Is to keep that Decorum in their lives Which wall them in from each unreverend doom Of Libertines who to deface them strive For messengers of Heav'n must still appear As if that Heav'n not Earth were to them deer 565. From Abbies let them not hope to uphold Excess and Riot by the peoples voice Where good and ill alike are cheaply sold And frail Mankind confounded in his choice Good Life and Doctrine are both Light and Food To starve the Ill yet doe the chosen good 566. Now though this Council seem to fit a King And not the steep excess of Tyranny Yet Beams and Bodies being divers things Finely in shadows may resembled be Whence in the outward varying forme of things Tyrants may well use rules set down for Kings 567. Let not Kings therefore on this old foundation Fear to continue Taxe to hazard paid Since War and Crowns consist by reputation Which must not eas'ly from their course be sway'd Either by want of Ship or Sail or Shroud Unless Kings will loose Tides for every Cloud 568. But rather follow Mars in forrain parts Who ever friends the undertaking spirit With honor hope of spoil and all those Arts Which still as Treasure are reserv'd for merit Nor be these helps in Minutes understood Which in the Mass make undertakings good 569. Since here admit the worst that threatens come And causeless Fortune like her felf should raign How can the assistance yet find heavy doom Whose Chance at home is to be cast again And by their neighbors stumbling not their fall Each Monarch taught to have an eye to all 570. Nay grant these mutual succors should at length Engage our own Estates into a war Yet can they never take us in their strength Who in their growings interrupted are And to assail those pow'rs which wounded come Doth certainly pronounce them fatal doom 571. Besides it often falls out in distress Where States by want exhausted are and spent That change of vices give their wounds redress And qualify the common discontent In people who when Peace is turn'd to War Find Subsidies no Taxes but Revenues are 572. Whereby disease grows cure unto diseases A wisdom proper to humanity For while in something she her self ore-peazes Yet stands by equal balla nc't vanity And unto Chance things present sacrificing Finds from those Ashes better times arising 573. And so we see in muddy Northern air Winds Thunders Storms Earths present misery Yet instantly makes foul horizons fair So doth the war and her impiety Purge the imposthum'd humors of a Peace Which oft else makes good government decrease 574. Only let Princes that will Martial be Reform that common stained Discipline Which is the Base of unprosperity Sin against nature Chance and Pow'r Divine Wherein I fear the Turk doth us excell They keeping deeds we words of doing well 575. Again for those which unto war are bent To right their wrongs revenge themselves or gain How brave advantageous an instrument A well-fram'd Navy is to entertain Let them be judge who understand how sea For hers like Air doth every where make way 576. For whatsoever odds in Man or Beast Between the Christian and the Turk there be By delicacy hardness industry or rest Our fatal discord or their unity Yet we that thus on disadvantage stand Stand fast because he makes his wars by Land 577. Whereas each man of understanding spirit Knows well that if this Mighty Tyrant would Have chang'd his war and so his ways of merit From Land and made the waving Ocean mould Of all his Expeditions undertaken The Christian Churches had long since been shaken 578. Nay in the Indians East and West again What great things men may with sea forces do Not only in suppressing of the main But in possessing Land and Cities too By undertakings of a Maiden Queen May as in Models to the world be seen 579. So as since seas be Mothers unto Fame Whose bravest Feathers Martial actions be And Mother-like since their breasts nurse that name Which they beget by strange prosperity Let those Kings seek the secret of that womb That will of Riches Right and Wrong give doom The Excellency of Monarchy compared with Aristocracy SECT XIII 580. NOw if the tediousness of Mortal days Which suffers no man
forc't for refuge to one Town They in that one cast Dice for all their Crown 178. Rather must they by providence unite All parties so as none may gage their state Or in their private ends withdraw from might But give their greatest such a yielding rate As like the Earth plow'd up they must not groan Though greedy pow'r exhaust more then their own 179. For Faction else lurking in hopes and fears When it awakes by opportunity Straight Hydra-like in many foreheads bears Horror division multiplicity Nor safe unto it self nor to those Kings That unto mean birds will lend Eagles wings 180. Therefore should this well masked Cockatrice Be carefully even in the egg supprest Before the venome of her poisoning vice Against the Prince and Kingdom be addrest It being not safe for strong-witted might To give subjection any regal right 181. For as we see in deep corrupted airs Each petty sickness turns to pestilence And by infection common ruine bears So in the Orb of Kings omnipotence Faction oft makes each private discontent Swell above Law to plague the government 182. For to make bodies strong proves heads are weak And so two Sects prepared in one Realm Which doth the beauty of obedience break By tempting discontented minds to glean And so force Thrones to one side for protection Whose being is to keep both in subjection 183. Nor holds our rule alike with weak and strong Since weak Kings raigns do very seldom raise Such spirits as dare shuffle right aud wrong At least what breeds them breeds their counterpeaze Corruptions weak birth therefore yielding many Lest Liberty should be ingrost by any 184. Whereas this other Princely stirring stuff Oft by example gives new Laws to Kings With danger to Soveraignity enough By those new fashions which they give to things Therefore are factions here to be supprest Which in mild times support weak Princes best 185. Now how pow'r so should ballance things and minds As all dissentions may in her unite Or from what place Pow'r arguments should find To make the crooked undergo the right How it should pierce the skin of passion And yet in these wounds instantly give fashion 186. Strong hearts learn out of Practick wisdom must Which knowing how to pay each with his own By mixing good and ill with fear and Lust Reap among Thorns Seeds by them never sown And make the people yield up their Estate To add more still to government they hate 187. Which artificial steerage of affection Having but small affinity with good No Essence but an Essence like reflection Will best by opposites be understood The soul excess of ill being only that Which to avoid in Pow'r I level at 188. Therefore as little Bridles to restrain Mans climing mind in Princes boundless might Let Tyrants that think all their acts remain Spread like Apollo's beams in each mans sight Which by the divers fate of good or ill Either produce scorn malice or good will 189. Lastly this Tyrant-pow'r veil of the Man In peoples eyes must not assiduous be What hath respect appears but now and then Reservedness that Art of Tyranny Equally graceth both pain and reward Demission works remission not regard 190. Thus much in brief to temper head-strong vice Which thorow Princes often wounds the Crown To shun which dangerous racking precipice Tyrants should all signs of their selfness drown And yet by odds of place work every man To serve them with the best and worst they can 191. But if Pow'r will exceed then then let Mankind Receive oppression as fruits of their error Let them again live in their duties shrin'd As their safe Haven from the winds of terror Till he that rais'd Pow'r to mow mans sins down Please for Pow'rs own sins to pluck off her Crown Of Church SECT VI 192. THus having in few Images exprest The effect which each extremity brings forth Within Mans nature to disturb mans rest What enemies again they be to worth As either Gyves which freedom doe restrain Or Jubiles which let confusion raign 193. There rests to shew what these degrees of vice Work when they fixt be to the moulds of might As what relation to the prejudice Or help they yeeld of universal right Vice getting forces far above her own When it spreads from a perfon to a Throne 194. For as in Princes natures if there be An Audit taken what each kind of passion Works and by what usurp't authority Order and reason's peace they do disfashion Within mans little world it proves the same Which of pow'rs great world doth confound the frame 195. Whence spread Kings self-love into Church or Law Pulpit and Bar streight feel corrupted might Which bounded will not be much less in awe Of Heavenly censure or of Earthly right Besides Creation and each other part Withers When Pow'r turns Nature into Art 196. For as between the object and our sence Look where the mediums do prove dim or cleer Mens minds receive forms of intelligence Which makes things either fair or foul appear So between powers lust and peoples right The mediums help to cleer or dazel light 197. Therefore to let down these high pillar'd Thrones To lower Orbs where Prince and People mixe As Church Laws Commerce Rights well temper'd Zones Where neither part extremity can fixe Either to bind Transcendence by constraint Or spoil mankind of all rights but complaint 198. And where by this well-ballancing of Might Regalities of Crowns stand undeclin'd Whose beings are not to be infinite And so of greater price then all mankind But in desire and function temper'd so As they may current with their people go 199. When Theopompus Lacedemons King Had rais'd up a Plebean Magistrate Like Roman Tribunes which the soaring wing Of Soveraign excesses might abate He therein saw although he bound his Child Yet in a less room he did surer build 200. For infinite ambition to extend The bounds of pow'r which finite pow'rs must weld As vain is as desire to comprehend And plant Eternity in natures field Whereby the idle and the over-doing Alike run on their own destruction woing 201. Active then yet without excess of Spirit Strong Princes must be in their Government Their influence in every thing of merit Not with an idle glorious name content But quick in nimble use and change of wombs Which else prove Peoples snares and Princes tombs 202. Placing the first foundation of their Raigns Upon that frame which all frames else exceeds Religion by whose name the Scepter gains More of the world and greater reverence breeds In Forrainer and home-bred subjects too Then much expence of blood and wealth can do 203. For with what force Gods true Religion spreads Is by her shadow superstition known When Midas having over Phrygia shed Seeds of this Ceremony till then unknown Made Asia safer by that empty word Then his forefathers had done by the sword 204. And is not Mahomets forg'd Alcoran Both with the Heathen in Authority And to
Mans outward vice by Laws Whose por'r can never reach the inward cause 259. Yet do these Laws make spirits of their profession Or such as unto them subject their state Publickly wiser warier of transgression Fitter to traffick or negotiate Both in all other Countreys and their own Far more respected and much better known 260. For as the Man that means to write or draw If he unperfect be in hand or head Makes his straight lines unto himself a Law By which his after-works are governed So be these lines of life in every Realm To weigh mens acts a well-contenting Beam 261. Hence must their Aphorismes which do comprise The summe of Law be published and stil'd In such a common Language as is priz'd And us'd abroad not from the World exil'd Lest being both in Text and Language thrall They prove not Coyns for traffick general 262. For is it meet that Laws which ought to be Rules unto all men should rest known to few Since then how can powr's Soveraignity Of universal justice bear a shew Reform the Judge correct the Advocate Who knowing Law alone command the State 263. After the infancy of glorious Rome Laws were with Church rites secretly enshrin'd Poor people knowing nothing of their doom But that all rights were in the Judges mind Flavius reveal'd this snaring mistery Great men repin'd but Rome it self grew free 264. So with the crafty priesthood was the year Made short or large by their intercalation Selling the time to publicans more dear Till Caesar did reform this computation And brake these threads of a varice they spun Measuring swift time by due course of the Sun 265. Hard is it therefore for men to decree Whether it better were to have no Law Or Law kept onely as a mystery In their breasts that revenue from it draw Whether to bar all Mandates be not one With spreading them in Dialects unknown 266. For as when Liturgies are published In forrain tongues and poor souls forc't to pray The tongue is trusted without heart or head To tell the Lord they know not what they say But only that this Priest-obedience 'Twixt Grace and Reason damns th' intelligence 267. So when our Law the beams of Life and Light Under a cloud or bushel shall burn out The forrain accents which are infinite Obscuring sence and multiplying doubt We blinded in our ways by this Eclipse Must needs Apologize for many slips 268. Again Laws order'd must be and set down So cleerly as each man may understand Wherein for him and wherein for the Crown Their rigor or equality doth stand For Rocks not Seamarks else they prove to be Fearful to men no friends to Tyranny 269. As making Judges and not Princes great Because that doubtful sence which they expound Raiseth them up above the Princes seat By offring Strength Form Matter and a Ground To fashion all degrees unto their end Through mens desires which covet Law to friend 270. For as the Papists do by Exposition Of double sences in Gods testament Claim to their Chair a Soveraign condition So will these Legists in their Element Get above Truth and Thrones raising the Barr As high as those unerring proud chairs are 271. All which just ballancing of Judge and Law Be matks of wise and understanding Might As it is under Orders Lines to draw These Courts Supream which manage wrong right Well auditing ill Councels of Estate And giving each degree his proper rate 272. Prohibiting those lawless Marts of place Which by permission of a careless Crown Corrupt and give the Magistrate disgrace With servile purchase of a selling Gown And so rate Justice at as vile a price As if her state were peoples prejudice 273. Again the length and strange variety Of Processes and Trials Princes must Reform for whether their excesses be Founded upon Judges or Pleaders Lust The effect of either ever proveth one Unto the humble Subjects overthrown 274. In course of Law beside pow'r must advise Whether for tryal of mens private right It will be found just equal fit or wise To give the Judges any other light Then in mens Titles by cleer evidence In case of Crime by testimony of sence 275. Again if common justice of the King Delay'd dishonor'd or corrupted be And so the subject rackt in every thing By these word-mongers and their liberty Whether Gods Government amongst his own Was not more wise which Advocates had none 276. The warlike Lacedemon snffered not In her Republick any Advocate The Learned Athens neither used Lot Nor Plea but party and their Magistrate As if these Courts would never stainless be Which did allow that gaining mistery 277. Because their end being meerly Avarice Winds up their wits to such a nimble strain As helps to blind the Judge not give him eyes And when successively these come to Raign Their old acquainted traffick makes them see Wrong hath more Clyents then Sincerity 278. Hence these new Judges made sometimes adhere Unto the plain words sometimes sence of Law Then bind it to the Makers of their chair And now the whole Text into one part draw So that from home who shall but four years be Will think Laws travell'd have aswell as he 279. Moreover to give Justice ready eyes Kings here and there in Provinces remote Should to establish proper Courts devise That their poor Subjects might not live by vote Nor yet by charge of Cares far fetched right Give more advantage to oppressing might 280. Such be those Seven Sinews mystical In the French Monarchy sent from the Brain To spread both sence and motion thorough all And over sence opinion custome raign Paris Grenoble Tolous Bourdeaux Rone Dijon and Aix Seven pillars of a Throne 281. Which were they not oft subject to infection From noisome Mists beyond the Alpes arising Would keep the health of that State in perfection As well from falling as from tyrannizing But fate leaves no man longer quiet here Then blessed peace is to his neighbor dear 282. Pow'r then stretch no grounds for grace spleen or gain But leave the Subject to the Subjects Law Since equals over equals glad to raign Will by advantage more advantage draw For Throne-examples are but seldom lost And follow'd ever at the publick cost 283. People by nature love not to obey By force and use yet grow their humours mixt Now soft like wax now hardned like the clay And so to make or marre soon mov'd or fixt As these two Moderators Wit and Might To their ends wave or let them stand upright 284 Craft though unpunished in Majesty Yet never Governs but works by deceit Base instrument of Humane frailty Which Audits not by Standard Number Weight But with false Lights makes Tyranny descend To do and hide by which stairs none ascend 285. Crowns therefore keep your oaths of Coronation Succession frees no Tyranny from those Faith is the Ballance of pow'rs reputation That Circle broken where can man repose Since Scepter pledges which should be