should attribute Order and Stability to it whereas Order doth principally consist in appointing to every one his right Place Office or Work and this lays the whole weight of the Government upon one Person who very often dos neither deserve nor is able to bear the least part of it Plato Aristotle Hooker and I may say in short all wise men have held that Order required that the wisest best and most valiant Men should be placed in the Offices where Wisdom Vertue and Valour are requisite If common sense did not teach us this we might learn it from the Scripture When God gave the conduct of his People to Moses Joshua Samuel and others he endowed them with all the Vertues and Graces that were required for the right performance of their Duty When the Israelites were oppressed by the Midianites Philistins and Ammonites they expected help from the most wise and valiant When Hannibal was at the Gates of Rome and had filled Italy with Fire and Blood or when the Gauls overwhelmed that Country with their multitudes and fury the Senate and People of Rome put themselves under the conduct of Camillus Manlius Fabius Scipio and the like and when they failed to chuse such as were fit for the work to be done they received such defeats as convinced them of their Error But if our Author say true Order did require that the Power of defending the Country should have bin annexed as an Inheritance to one Family or lest to him that could get it and the exercise of all Authority committed to the next in Blood tho the weakest of Women or the basest of Men. The like may be said of judging or doing of Justice and 't is absurd to pretend that either is expected from the Power not the Person of the Monarch for experience doth too well shew how much all things halt in relation to Justice or Defence when there is a defect in him that ought to judg us and to fight our Battels But of all things this ought least to be alledged by the Advocates for absolute Monarchy who deny that the Authority can be separated from the Person and lay it as a fundamental Principle that whosoever hath it may do what he pleases and be accountable to no man Our Author's next work is to shew that Stability is the effect of this good Order but he ought to have known that Stability is then only worthy of praise when it is in that which is good No man delights in sickness or pain because it is long or incurable nor in slavery and misery because it is perpetual much less will any man in his senses commend a permanency in vice and wickedness He must therefore prove that the Stability he boasts of is in things that are good or all that he says of it signifies nothing I might leave him here with as little fear that any man who shall espouse his Quarrel shall ever be able to remove this Obstacle as that he himself should rise out of his Grave and do it But I hope to prove that of all things under the Sun there is none more mutable or unstable than Absolute Monarchy which is all that I dispute against professing much veneration for that which is mixed regulated by Law and directed to the Publick Good This might be proved by many Arguments but I shall confine my self to two the one drawn from Reason the other from matters of Fact Nothing can be called stable that is not so in Principle and Practice in which respect human Nature is not well capable of Stability but the utmost deviation from it that can be imagined is when such an Error is laid for a Foundation as can never be corrected All will confess that if there be any Stability in man it must be in Wisdom and Vertue and in those Actions that are thereby directed for in weakness solly and madness there can be none The Stability therefore that we seek in relation to the exercise of Civil and Military Powers can never be found unless care be taken that such as shall exercise those Powers be endowed with the Qualities that should make them stable This is utterly repugnant to our Author's Doctrine He lays for a Foundation That the Succession goes to the next in Blood without distinction of Age Sex or personal Qualities whereas even he himself could not have the impudence to say that Children and Women where they are admitted or Fools Madmen and such as are full of all wickedness do not come to be the Heirs of reigning Families as well as of the meanest The Stability therefore that can be expected from such a Government either depends upon those who have none in themselves or is referred wholly to Chance which is directly opposite to Stability This would be the case tho it were as we say an even Wager whether the Person would be fit or unfit and that there were as many men in the world able as unable to perform the Duty of a King but Experience shewing that among many millions of men there is hardly one that possesses the Qualities required in a King 't is so many to one that he upon whom the Lot shall fall will not be the man we seek in whose Person and Government there can be such a stability as is asserted And that failing all must necessarily fail for there can be no stability in his Will Laws or Actions who has none in his Person That we may see whether this be verified by Experience we need not search into the dark relations of the Babylonian and Assyrian Monarchies Those rude Ages afford us little instruction and tho the fragments of History remaining do sufficiently show that all things there were in perpetual fluctuation by reason of the madness of their Kings and the violence of those who transported the Empire from one Place or Family to another I will not much rely upon them but slightly touching some of their Stories pass to those that are better known to us The Kings of those Ages seem to have lived rather like Beasts in a Forest than Men joined in Civil Society they followed the Example of Nimrod the mighty Hunter Force was the only Law that prevailed the stronger devoured the weaker and continued in Power till he was ejected by one of more strength or better fortune By this means the race of Ninus was destroy'd by Belochus Arbaces rent the Kingdom asunder and took Media to himself Morodach extinguished the Race of Belochus and was made King Nabuchodonosor like a Flood overwhelmed all sor a time destroy'd the Kingdoms of Jerusalem and Egypt with many others and found no obstacle till his rage and pride turned to a most bestial madness And the Assyrian Empire was wholly abolish'd at the death of his Grandchild Belshazzar and no Stability can be found in the reigns of those great Kings unless that name be given to the Pride Idolatry Cruelty and Wickedness in which they remained constant If
some few may have proved better than was intended it will appear that our Author's Assertions are in the utmost degree false Of this we need no better witness than Tacitus The Civil Wars and the Proscriptions upon which he touches are justly to be attributed to that Monarchy which was then setting up the only question being who should be the Monarch when the Liberty was already overthrown And if any eminent men escaped it was much against the will of those who had usurped the power He acknowledges his Histories to be a continued relation of the slaughter of the most illustrious Persons and that in the times of which he writes Virtue was attended with certain destruction After the death of Germanicus and his eldest Children Valerius Asiaticus Seneca Corbulo and an infinite number more who were thought most to resemble them found this to be true at the expence of their lives Nero in pursuance of the same tyrannical design murder'd Helvidius and Thraseas that he might tear up Virtue by the roots Domitian spared none willingly that had either Virtue or Reputation and tho Trajan with perhaps some other might grow up under him in the remote Provinces yet no good man could escape who came under his eye and was so eminent as to be observed by him Whilst these who were thought to be the best men that appear'd in the Roman Empire did thrive in this manner Sejanus Macro Narcissus Pallas Tigillinus Icetus Vinnius Laco and others like to them had the power of the Empire in their hands Therefore unless Mankind has bin mistaken to this day and that these who have hitherto bin accounted the worst of Villains were indeed the best men in the world and that those destroy'd by them who are thought to have bin the best were truly the worst it cannot be denied that the best men during the Liberty of Rome thrived best that good men suffer'd no indignity unless by some fraud imposed upon the well-meaning People and that so soon as the Liberty was subverted the worst men thrived best The best men were exposed to so many Calamities and Snares that it was thought a matter of great wonder to see a virtuous man die in his bed and if the account were well made I think it might appear that every one of the Emperors before Titus shed more noble and innocent Blood than Rome and all the Commonwealths in the world have done whilst they had the free enjoyment of their own Liberty But if any man in favour of our Author seek to diminish this vast disproportion between the two differing sorts of Government and impute the disorders that happen'd in the time of the Gracchi and others whilst Rome was strugling for her Liberty to the Government of a Commonwealth he will find them no more to be compar'd with those that fell out afterwards than the railings of a turbulent Tribune against the Senate to the Villanies and Cruelties that corrupted and dispeopled the Provinces from Babylon to Scotland And whereas the State never fail'd to recover from any disorders as long as the Root of Liberty remain'd untouch'd and became more powerful and glorious than ever even after the Wars of Marius and Sylla when that was destroy'd the City fell into a languishing condition and grew weaker and weaker till that and the whole Empire was ruin'd by the Barbarians 3. Our Author to shew that his memory is as good as his judgment having represented Rome in the times of Liberty as a publick Slaughter-house soon after blames the clemency of their Laws whereas 't is impossible that the same City could at the same time be guilty of those contrary extremities and no less certain that it was perfectly free from them both His assertion seems to be grounded upon Cesar's Speech related by Salust in favour of Lentulus and Cethegus Companions of Catiline but tho he there endeavoured to put the best colour he could upon their cause it signified only thus much that a Roman Citizen could not be put to death without being heard in publick which Law will displease none that in understanding and integrity may not be compared to Filmer and his Followers 'T is a folly to extend it farther for 't is easily proved that there was always a power of putting Citizens to death and that it was exercised when occasion required The Laws were the same in the time of the Kings and when that Office was executed by Consuls excepting such changes as are already mention'd The Lex perduellionis cited by Livy in the case of Horatius who had kill'd his Sister continued in force from the foundation to the end of that Government the condemnation was to death the words of the Sentence these Caput obnubito infelici arbore reste suspendito verberato intra Pomaerium vel extra Pomaerium He was tried by this Law upon an appeal made to the People by his Father and absolved admiratione magis virtutis quam jure causae which could not have bin if by the Law no Citizen might be put to death The Sons of Brutus were condemn'd to death in publick and executed with the Aquilii and Vitellii their Companions in the same Conspiracy Manlius Capitolinus was put to death by the vote of the People Titus Manlius by the command of his Father Torquatus for fighting without order Two Legions were decimated by Appius Claudius Spurius Melius refusing to appear before the Dictator was killed by Servilius Ahala General of the Horse and pronounced jure caesum Quintus Fabius was by Papirius the Dictator condemn'd to die and could not have bin saved but by the intercession and authority of the People If this be not so I desire to be informed what the Senate meant by condemning Nero to be put to death more majorum if more majorum no Citizen might be put to death Why the Consuls Dictators Military Tribuns Decemviri caused Rods and Axes to be carried beforethem as well within as without the City if no use was to be made of them Were they only vain Badges of a Power never to be executed or upon whom was the Supreme Power signified by them to be exercised within and without the City if the Citizens were not subject to it 'T is strange that a man who had ever read a Book of matters relating to the Affairs of Rome should fancy these things or hope to impose them upon the World if he knew them to be foolish false and absurd But of all the marks of a most supine stupidity that can be given by a man I know no one equal to this of our Author who in the same Clause wherein he says no Citizen could be put to death or banished adds that the Magistrates were upon pain of death forbidden to do it for if a Magistrate might be put to death for banishing a Citizen or causing him to be executed a Citizen might be put to death for the Magistrates were not Strangers but Citizens
had a power like to that of the Sanhedrin and by them Kings were condemned to fines imprisonment banishment and death as appears by the examples of Pausanias Clonymus Leonidas Agis and others The Hebrew Discipline was the same Reges Davidicae stirpis says Maimonides judicabant judicabantur They gave testimony in judgment when they were called and testimony was given against them Whereas the Kings of Israel as the same Author says were superbi corde elati spretores legis nec judicabant nec judicabantur proud insolent and contemners of the Law who would neither judg nor submit to judgment as the Law commanded The Fruits they gathered were sutable to the Seed they had sown their Crimes were not left unpunish'd they who despised the Law were destroy'd without Law and when no ordinary course could be taken against them for their excesses they were overthrown by force and the Crown within the space of sew years transported into nine several Families with the utter extirpation of those that had possess'd it On the other hand there never was any Sedition against the Spartan Kings and after the moderate Discipline according to which they liv'd was established none of them died by the hands of their Subjects except only two who were put to death in a way of Justice the Kingdom continued in the same races till Cleomenes was defeated by Antigonus and the Government overthrown by the insolence of the Macedonians This gave occasion to those bestial Tyrants Nabis and Machanidas to set up such a Government as our Author recommends to the World which immediately brought destruction upon themselves and the whole City The Germans who pretended to be descended from the Spartans had the like Government Their Princes according to their merit had the credit of perswading not the power of commanding and the question was not what part of the Government their Kings would allow to the Nobility and People but what they would give to their Kings and 't is not much material to our present dispute whether they learnt this from some obscure knowledg of the Law which God gave to his People or whether led by the light of reason which is also from God they discovered what was altogether conformable to that Law Whoever understands the affairs of Germany knows that the present Emperors notwithstanding their haughty Title have a power limited as in the days of Tacitus If they are good and wise they may perswade but they can command no farther than the Law allows They do not admit the Princes Noblemen and Cities to the power which they all exercise in their general Diets and each of them within their own Precincts but they exercise that which has bin by publick consent bestow'd upon them All the Kingdoms peopled from the North observed the same rules In all of them the powers were divided between the Kings the Nobility Clergy and Commons and by the Decrees of Councils Diets Parliaments Cortez and Assemblies of Estates Authority and Liberty were so balanced that such Princes as assumed to themselves more than the Law did permit were severely punished and those who did by force or fraud invade Thrones were by force thrown down from them This was equally beneficial to Kings and People The Powers as Theopompus King of Sparta said were most safe when they were least envied and hated Lewis the 11th of France was one of the first that broke this Golden Chain and by more subtil Arts than had bin formerly known subverted the Laws by which the fury of those Kings had bin restrain'd and taught others to do the like tho all of them have not so well saved themselves from punishment James the third of Scotland was one of his most apt Scholars and Buchanan in his life says That he was precipitated into all manner of Infamy by men of the most abject condition that the corruption of those times and the ill Example of neighbouring Princes were considerable motives to pervert him for Edward the fourth of England Charles of Burgundy Lewis the 11th of France and John the second of Portugal had already laid the Foundations of Tyranny in those Countries and Richard the third was then most cruelly exercising the same in the Kingdom of England This could not have bin if all the Power had always bin in Kings and neither the People nor the Nobility had ever had any For no man can be said to gain that which he and his Predecessors always possessed or to take from others that which they never had nor to set up any sort of Government if it had bin always the same But the foresaid Lewis the 11th did assume to himself a Power above that of his Predecessors and Philip de Commines shews the ways by which he acquir'd it with the miserable effects of his Acquisition both to himself and to his people Modern Authors observe that the change was made by him and for that reason he is said by Mezeray and others to have brought those Kings out of Guardianship they were not therefore so till he did emancipate them Nevertheless this Emancipation had no resemblance to the unlimited Power of which our Author dreams The General Assemblies of Estates were often held long after his death and continued in the exercise of the Sovereign Power of the Nation Davila speaking of the General Assembly held at Orleans in the time of Francis the second asserts the whole Power of the Nation to have bin in them Monsieur de Thou says the same thing and adds that the King dying suddenly the Assembly continued even at the desire of the Council in the exercise of that Power till they had setled the Regency and other Affairs of the highest importance according to their own judgment Hottoman a Lawyer of that Time and Nation famous for his Learning Judgment and Integrity having diligently examin'd the antient Laws and Histories of that Kingdom distinctly proves that the French Nation never had any Kings but of their own chusing that their Kings had no Power except what was conferr'd upon them and that they had bin removed when they excessively abused or readred themselves unworthy of that Trust. This is sufficiently clear by the forecited examples of Pharamond's Grandchildren and the degenerated Races of Meroveus and Pepin of which many were deposed some of the nearest in Blood excluded and when their Vices seemed to be incorrigible they were wholly rejected All this was done by virtue of that Rule which they call the Salique Law And tho some of our Princes pretending to the Inheritance of that Crown by marrying the Heirs General denied that there was any such thing no man can say that for the space of above twelve hundred years Females or their Descendents who are by that Law excluded have ever bin thought to have any right to the Crown And no Law unless it be explicitly given by God can be of greater Authority than one which
promote I may go a step farther and truly say that as such vast Powers cannot be generally granted to all who happen to succeed in any Families without evident danger of utter Destruction when they come to be executed by children women sools vicious incapable or wicked persons they can be reasonably granted to none because no man knows what any one will prove till he be tried and the importance of the Affair requires such a trial as can be made of no man till he be dead He that resists one Temptation may fall under the power of another and nothing is more common in the world than to see those men fail grosly in the last actions of their lives who had passed their former days without reproach Wise and good men will with Moses say of themselves I cannot bear the burden and every man who is concern'd for the publick Good ought to let fools know they are not fit to undergo it and by Law to restrain the fury of such as will not be guided by reason This could not be denied tho Governments were constituted for the good of the Governor 'T is good for him that the Law appoints helps for his Infirmities and restrains his Vices but all Nations ought to do it tho it were not so in as much as Kingdoms are not established for the good of one man but of the People and that King who seeks his own good before that of the People departs from the end of his Institution This is so plain that all Nations who have acted freely have some way or other endeavoured to supply the defects or restrain the vices of their supreme Magistrates and those among them deserve most praise who by appointing means adequate to so great a work have taken care that it might be easily and safely accomplished Such Nations have always flourished in Virtue Power Glory and Happiness whilst those who wanted their Wisdom have suffer'd all manner of Calamities by the weakness and injustice of their Princes or have had their hands perpetually in Blood to preserve themselves from their fury We need no better example of the first than that of the Spartans who by appointing such Limits to the power of their Kings as could hardly be transgress'd continued many Ages in great union with them and were never troubled with civil Tumults The like may be said of the Romans from the expulsion of the Tarquins till they overthrew their own Orders by continuing Marius for five years in the Consulat whereas the Laws did not permit a man to hold the same Office two years together and when that rule was broken their own Magistrates grew too strong for them and subverted the Commonwealth When this was done and the power came to be in the hands of one man all manner of evils and calamities broke in like a flood 'T is hard to judg whether the mischiefs he did or those he suffer'd were the greater he who set up himself to be Lord of the World was like to a Beast crowned for the slaughter and his greatness was the forerunner of his ruin By this means some of those who seem not to have bin naturally prone to evil were by their fears put upon such courses to preserve themselves as being rightly estimated were worse than the death they apprehended and the so much celebrated Constantine the Great died no less polluted with the Blood of his nearest Relations and Friends than Nero himself But no place can show a more lively picture of this than the Kingdoms of Granada and others possessed by the Moors in Spain where there being neither Senate nor Assemblies of the Nobility and People to restrain the violence and fury of their Kings they had no other way than to kill them when their vices became insupportable which happening for the most part they were almost all murder'd and things were brought to such extremity that no man would accept a Crown except he who had neither Birth nor Virtue to deserve it If it be said that Kings have now found out more easy ways of doing what they please and securing themselves I answer that they have not proved so to them all and it is not yet time for such as tread in the same steps to boast of their success many have fallen when they thought their designs accomplished and no man as long as he lives can reasonably assure himself the like shall not befal him But if in this corrupted Age the treachery and perjury of Princes be more common than formerly and the number of those who are brought to delight in the rewards of injustice be so increased that their parties are stronger than formerly this rather shows that the balance of Power is broken or hard to be kept up than that there ought to be none and 't is difficult for any man without the Spirit of Prophesy to tell what this will produce Whilst the antient Constitutions of our Northern Kingdoms remain'd intire such as contested with their Princes sought only to reform the Governments and by redressing what was amiss to reduce them to their first Principles but they may not perhaps be so modest when they see the very nature of their Government chang'd and the foundations overthrown I am not sure that they who were well pleased with a moderate Monarchy will submit to one that is absolute and 't is not improbable that when men see there is no Medium between Tyranny and Popularity they who would have bin contented with the reformation of their Government may proceed farther and have recourse to Force when there is no help in the Law This will be a hard work in those places where Virtue is wholly abolished but the difficulty will lie on the other side if any sparks of that remain if Vice and Corruption prevail Liberty cannot subsist but if Virtue have the advantage arbitrary Power cannot be established Those who boast of their Loyalty and think they give testimonies of it when they addict themselves to the will of one Man tho contrary to the Law from whence that quality is derived may consider that by putting their Masters upon illegal courses they certainly make them the worst of men and bring them into danger of being also the most miserable Few or no good Princes have fallen into disasters unless through an extremity of corruption introduced by the most wicked and cannot properly be called unhappy if they perished in their Innocence since the bitterness of Death is asswaged by the tears of a loving People the assurance of a glorious memory and the quiet of a well satisfied mind But of those who have abandoned themselves to all manner of Vice followed the impulse of their own fury and set themselves to destroy the best men for opposing their pernicious designs very few have died in peace Their Lives have bin miserable Death infamous and Memory detestable They therefore who place Kings within the power of the Law and the Law to
in Sir Robert 't is prevarication and fraud to impute to Schoolmen and Puritans that which in his first page he acknowledged to be the Doctrine of all Reformed and Unreformed Christian Churches and that he knows to have been the principle in which the Grecians Italians Spaniards Gauls Germans and Britains and all other generous Nations ever lived before the name of Christ was known in the World insomuch that the base effeminate Asiaticks and Africans for being careless of their Liberty or unable to govern themselves were by Aristotle and other wise men called Slaves by Nature and looked upon as little different from Beasts This which hath its root in common Sense not being to be overthrown by reason he spares his pains of seeking any but thinks it enough to render his Doctrine plausible to his own Party by joining the Jesuits to Geneva and coupling Buchanan to Doleman as both maintaining the same Doctrine tho he might as well have joined the Puritans with the Turks because they all think that one and one makes two But whoever marks the Proceedings of Filmer and his Masters as well as his Disciples will rather believe that they have learn'd from Rome and the Jesuits to hate Geneva than that Geneva and Rome can agree in any thing farther than as they are obliged to submit to the evidence of Truth or that Geneva and Rome can concur in any design or interest that is not common to Mankind These men allowed to the People a liberty of deposing their Princes This is a desperate Opinion Bellarmin and Calvin look asquint at it But why is this a desperate Opinion If Disagreements happen between King and People why is it a more desperate Opinion to think the King should be subject to the Censures of the People than the People subject to the Will of the King Did the People make the King or the King make the People Is the King for the People or the People for the King Did God create the Hebrews that Saul might reign over them or did they from an opinion of procuring their own good ask a King that might judg them and fight their Battels If God's interposition which shall be hereafter explained do alter the Case did the Romans make Romulus Numa Tullus Hostilius and Tarquinius Priscus Kings or did they make or beget the Romans If they were made Kings by the Romans 't is certain they that made them sought their own good in so doing and if they were made by and for the City and People I desire to know if it was not better that when their Successors departed from the end of their Institution by endeavouring to destroy it or all that was good in it they should be censured and ejected than be permitted to ruin that People for whose good they were created Was it more just that Caligula or Nero should be suffered to destroy the poor remains of the Roman Nobility and People with the Nations subject to that Empire than that the race of such Monsters should be extinguished and a great part of Mankind especially the best against whom they were most fierce preserved by their Deaths I presume our Author thought these Questions might be easily decided and that no more was required to shew the forementioned Assertions weré not at all desperate than to examine the Grounds of them but he seeks to divert us from this enquiry by proposing the dreadful consequences of subjecting Kings to the Censures of their People whereas no consequence can destroy any Truth and the worst of this is That if it were received some Princes might be restrained from doing evil or punished if they will not be restrained We are therefore only to consider whether the People Senate or any Magistracy made by and for the People have or can have such a Right for if they have whatsoever the consequences may be it must stand And as the one tends to the good of Mankind in restraining the Lusts of wicked Kings the other exposes them without remedy to the fury of the most savage of all Beasts Iam not ashamed in this to concur with Buchanan Calvin or Bellarmin and without envy leave to Filmer and his Associates the glory of maintaining the contrary But notwithstanding our Author's aversion to Truth he consesses That Hayward Blackwood Barclay and others who have bravely vindicated the Right of Kings in this point do with one consent admit as an unquestionable truth and assent unto the natural Liberty and Equality of Mankind not so much as once questioning or opposing it And indeed I believe that tho since the sin of our first Parents the Earth hath brought forth Briars and Brambles and the nature of Man hath bin fruitful only in Vice and Wickedness neither the Authors he mentions nor any others have had impudence enough to deny such evident truth as seems to be planted in the hearts of all men or to publish Doctrines so contrary to common Sense Virtue and Humanity till these times The production of Laud Manwaring Sibthorp Hobbs Filmer and Heylin seems to have been reserved as an additional Curse to compleat the shame and misery of our Age and Country Those who had Wit and Learning with something of Ingenuity and Modesty tho they believed that Nations might possibly make an ill use of their Power and were very desirous to maintain the cause of Kings as far as they could put any good colour upon it yet never denied that some had suffered justly which could not be if there were no Power of judging them nor ever asserted any thing that might arm them with an irresistible Power of doing mischief animate them to persist in the most flagitious Courses with assurance of perpetual Impunity or engage Nations in an inevitable necessity of suffering all manner of outrages They knew that the Actions of those Princes who were not altogether detestable might be defended by particular reasons drawn from them or the Laws of their Country and would neither undertake the defence of such as were abominable nor bring Princes to whom they wished well into the odious extremity of justifying themselves by Arguments that favoured Caligula and Nero as well as themselves and that must be taken for a confession that they were as bad as could be imagined since nothing could be said for them that might not as well be applied to the worst that had bin or could be But Filmer Heylin and their Associates scorning to be restrained by such considerations boldly lay the Ax to the Root of the Tree and rightly enough affirm That the whole Fabrick of that which they call Popular Sedition would fall to the ground if the Principle of natural Liberty were removed And on the other hand it must be acknowledged that the whole Fabrick of Tyranny will be much weakened if we prove That Nations have a right to make their own Laws constitute their own Magistrates and that such as are so constituted owe an account of their Actions
Generations We see nothing in Scripture of Precept or Example that is not utterly abhorrent to this Chimera The only sort of Kings mentioned there with approbation is such a one as may not raise his Heart above his Brethren If God had constituted a Lord Paramount with an absolute Power and multitudes of Nations were to labour and fight for his Greatness and Pleasure this were to raise his Heart to a height that would make him forget he was a Man Such as are versed in Scripture not only know that it neither agrees with the Letter or Spirit of that Book but that it is unreasonable in it self unless he were of a Species different from the rest of Mankind His exaltation would not agree with God's Indulgence to his Creatures tho he were the better for it much less when probably he would be made more unhappy and worse by the Pride Luxury and other Vices that always attend the highest Fortunes 'T is no less incredible that God who disposes all things in Wisdom and Goodness and appoints a due Place for all should without distinction ordain such a Power to every one succeeding in such a Line as cannot be executed the Wise would refuse and Fools cannot take upon them the burden of it without ruin to themselves and such as are under them or expose Mankind to a multitude of other Absurdities and Mischiefs subjecting the Aged to be governed by Children the Wise to depend on the Will of Fools the Strong and Valiant to expect defence from the Weak or Cowardly and all in general to receive Justice from him who neither knows nor cares for it SECT VII Abraham and the Patriarchs were not Kings IF any Man say that we are not to seek into the depth of God's Counsels I answer That if he had for Reasons known only to himself affixed such a Right to any one Line he would have set a Mark upon those who come of it that Nations might know to whom they owe Subjection or given some testimony of his Presence with Filmer and Heylin if he had sent them to reveal so great a Mystery 'Till that be done we may safely look upon them as the worst of men and teachers only of Lies and Follies This perswades me little to examine what would have bin if God had at once created many Men or the Conclusions that can be drawn from Adam's having bin alone For nothing can be more evident than that if many had bin created they had bin all equal unless God had given a Preference to one All their Sons had inherited the same Right after their death and no Dream was ever more empty than his Whimsey of Adam's Kingdom or that of the ensuing Patriarchs To say the truth 't is hard to speak seriously of Abraham's Kingdom or to think any Man to be in earnest who mentions it He was a Stranger and a Pilgrim in the Land where he lived and pretended to no Authority beyond his own Family which consisted only of a Wife and Slaves He lived with Lot as with his Equal and would have no Contest with him because they were Brethren His Wife and Servants could neither make up nor be any part of a Kingdom in as much as the despotical Government both in Practice and Principle differs from the Regal If his Kingdom was to be grounded on the Paternal Right it vanished away of it self he had no Child Eliezer of Damascus for want of a better was to be his Heir Lot tho his Nephew was excluded He durst not own his own Wife He had not one foot of Land till he bought a Field for a burying place His three hundred and eighteen Men were Servants bought according to the custom of those days or their Children and the War he made with them was like to Gideon's Enterprize which shews only that God can save by a few as well as by many but makes nothing to our Author's purpose For if they had been as many in number as the Army of Semiramis they could have no relation to the Regal much less to the Paternal Power for a Father doth not buy but beget Children Notwithstanding this our Author bestows the proud Title of Lord Paramount upon him and transmits it to Isaac who was indeed a King like his Father great admirable and glorious in Wisdom and Holiness but utterly void of all worldly splendor or power This spiritual Kingdom was inherited by Jacob whose Title to it was not founded on Prerogative of Birth but Election and peculiar Grace but he never enjoyed any other worldly Inheritance than the Field and Cave which Abraham had bought for a burying place and the Goods he had gained in Laban's Service The Example of Judah his Sentence upon Thamar is yet farther from the purpose if it be possible for he was then a Member of a private Family the fourth Son of a Father then living neither in possession nor under the promise of the Privileges of Primogeniture tho Ruben Simeon and Levi fell from it by their Sins Whatsoever therefore the Right was which belonged to the Head of the Family it must have bin in Jacob but as he professed himself a keeper of Sheep as his Fathers had bin the exercise of that Emploiment was so far from Regal that it deserves no explication If that Act of Judah is to be imputed to a Royal Power I have as much as I ask He tho living with his Father and elder Brothers when he came to be of Age to have Children had the same Power over such as were of or came into his Family as his Father had over him for none can go beyond the Power of Life and Death The same in the utmost extent cannot at the same time equally belong to many If it be divided equally it is no more than that Universal Liberty which God hath given to Mankind and every Man is a King till he devest himself of his Right in consideration of something that he thinks better for him SECT VIII Nimrod was the first King during the Life of Chush Cham Shem and Noah THE Creation is exactly described in the Scripture but we know so little of what passed between the finishing of it and the Flood that our Author may say what he pleases and I may leave him to seek his Proofs where he can find them In the mean time I utterly deny that any Power did remain in the Heads of Families after the Flood that dos in the least degree resemble the Regal in Principle or Practice If in this I am mistaken such Power must have been in Noah and transmitted to one of his Sons The Scripture says only that he built an Altar sacrificed to the Lord was a Husbandman planted a Vineyard and performed such Offices as bear nothing of the Image of a King for the space of three hundred and fifty Years We have reason to believe that his Sons after his Death continued in the same manner of
Life and the Equality properly belonging to Brethren 'T is not easy to determine whether Shem or Japhet were the Elder but Ham is declared to be the younger and Noah's Blessing to Shem seems to be purely Prophetical and Spiritual of what should be accomplished in his Posterity with which Japhet should be perswaded to join If it had bin worldly the whole Earth must have bin brought under him and have for ever continued in his Race which never was accomplished otherwise than in the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ which relates not to our Author's Lord Paramount As to earthly Kings the first of them was Nimrod the sixth Son of Chush the Son of Ham Noah's younger and accursed Son This Kingdom was set up about a hundred and thirty Years after the Flood whilst Chush Ham Shem and Noah were yet living whereas if there were any thing of Truth in our Author's Proposition all Mankind must have continued under the Government of Noah whilst he lived and that Power must have bin transmitted to Shem who lived about three hundred and seventy Years after the erection of Nimrod's Kingdom and must have come to Japhet if he was the Elder but could never come to Cham who is declared to have bin certainly the Younger and condemned to be a Servant to them both much less to the younger Son of his Son whilst he and those to whom he and his Posterity were to be Subjects were still living This Rule therefore which the Partizans of Absolute Monarchy fancy to be universal and perpetual falling out in its first beginning directly contrary to what they assert and being never known to have bin recovered were enough to silence them if they had any thing of modesty or regard to Truth But the Matter may be carried farther For the Scripture doth not only testify that this Kingdom of Nimrod was an Usurpation void of all Right proceeding from the most violent and mischievous Vices but exercised with the utmost fury that the most wicked Man of the accursed Race who set himself up against God and all that is good could be capable of The progress of this Kingdom was sutable to its Institution that which was begun in wickedness was carried on with madness and produced Confusion The mighty Hunter whom the best Interpreters call a cruel Tyrant receding from the simplicity and innocence of the Patriarchs who were Husbandmen or Shepherds arrogating to himself a Dominion over Shem to whom he and his Fathers were to be Servants did thereby so peculiarly become the Heir of God's Curse that whatsoever hath bin said to this day of the Power that did most directly set it self against God and his People hath related literally to the Babel that he built or figuratively to that which resembles it in Pride Cruelty Injustice and Madness But the shameless rage of some of these Writers is such that they rather chuse to ascribe the beginning of their Idol to this odious Violence than to own it from the consent of a willing People as if they thought that as all Action must be sutable to its Principle so that which is unjust in its practice ought to scorn to be derived from that which is not detestable in its principle 'T is hardly worth our pains to examin whether the Nations that went from Babel after the confusion of Languages were more or less than seventy two for they seem not to have gone according to Families but every one to have associated himself to those that understood his Speech and the chief of the Fathers as Noah and his Sons were not there or wore subject to Nimrod each of which Points doth destroy even in the Root all pretence to Paternal Government Besides 't is evident in Scripture that Noah lived three hundred and fifty Years after the Flood Shem five hundred Abraham was born about two hundred and ninety Years after the Flood and lived one hundred seventy five Years He was therefore born under the Government of Noah and died under that of Shem He could not therefore exercise a Regal Power whilst he lived for that was in Shem So that in leaving his Country and setting up a Family for himself that never acknowledged any Superior and never pretending to reign over any other he fully shewed he thought himself free and to owe subjection to none And being as far from arrogating to himself any Power upon the Title of Paternity as from acknowledging it in any other left every one to the same liberty The punctual enumeration of the Years that the Fathers of the holy Seed lived gives us ground of making a more than probable conjecture that they of the collateral Lines were in number of days not unequal to them and if that be true Ham and Chush were alive when Nimrod set himself up to be King He must therefore have usurped this Power over his Father Grandfather and great Grandfather or which is more probable he turned into violence and oppression the Power given to him by a multitude which like a Flock without a Shepherd not knowing whom to obey set him up to be their Chief I leave to our Author the liberty of chusing which of these two doth best sute with his Paternal Monarchy but as far as I can understand the first is directly against it as well as against the Laws of God and Man the other being from the consent of the Multitude cannot be extended farther than they would have it nor turned to their prejudice without the most abominable ingratitude and treachery from whence no Right can be derived nor any justifiable Example taken Nevertheless if our Author resolve that Abraham was also a King he must presume that Shem did emancipate him before he went to seek his Fortune This was not a Kingly posture but I will not contradict him if 1 may know over whom he reigned Paternal Monarchy is exercised by the Father of the Family over his Descendants or such as had bin under the dominion of him whose Heir he is But Abraham had neither of these Those of his nearest Kindred continued in Mesopotamia as appears by what is said of Bethuel and Laban He had only Lot with him over whom he pretended no right He had no Children till he was a hundred years old that is to say he was a King without a Subject and then he had but one I have heard that Soveraigns do impatiently bear Competitors but now I find Subjection also doth admit of none Abraham's Kingdom was too great when he had two Children and to disburthen it Ishmael must be expelled soon after the birth of Isaac He observed the same method after the death of Sarah He had Children by Keturah but he gave them Gifts and sent them away leaving Isaac like a Stoical King reigning in and over himself without any other Subject till the birth of Jacob and Esau. But his Kingdom was not to be of a larger extent than that of his Father
or Fraud Or is it possible that any one man can make himself Lord of a People or parcel of that Body to whom God had given the liberty of governing themselves by any other means than Violence or Fraud unless they did willingly submit to him If this Right be not devolved upon any one Man is not the invasion of it the most outragious Injury that can be done to all Mankind and most particularly to the Nation that is enslaved by it Or if the Justice of every Government depends necessarily upon an original Grant and a Succession certainly deduced from our first Fathers dos not he by his own Principles condemn all the Monarchies of the World as the most detestable Usurpations since not one of them that we know do any way pretend to it Or tho I who deny any Power to be just that is not founded upon consent may boldly blame Usurpation is it not an absurd and unpardonable impudence in Filmer to condemn Userpation in a People when he has declared that the Right and Power of a Father may be gained by Usurpation and that Nations in their Obedience are to regard the Power not the Means by which it was gained But not to lose more time upon a most frivolous fiction I affirm that the Liberty which we contend for is granted by God to every man in his own Person in such a manner as may be useful to him and his Posterity and as it was exercised by Noah Shem Abraham Isaac Jacob c. and their Children as has bin proved and not to the vast Body of all Mankind which never did meet together since the first Age after the Flood and never could meet to receive any benefit by it His next Question deserves scorn and hatred with all the effects of either if it proceed from malice tho perhaps he may deserve compassion if his Crime proceed from ignorance Was a general Meeting of a whole Kingdom says he ever known for the Election of a Prince But if there never was any general Meetings of whole Nations or of such as they did delegate and entrust with the Power of the whole how did any man that was elected come to have a Power over the whole Why may not a People meet to chuse a Prince as well as any other Magistrate Why might not the Athenians Romans or Carthaginians have chosen Princes as well as Archons Consuls Dictators or Suffetes if it had pleased them Who chose all the Roman Kings except Tarquin the proud if the People did not since their Histories testify that he was the first who took upon him to reign sine jussu populi Who ever heard of a King of the Goths in Spain that was not chosen by the Nobility and People Or how could they chuse him if they did not meet in their Persons or by their Deputies which is the same thing when a People has agreed it should be so How did the Kings of Sweden come by their Power unless by the like Election till the Crown was made hereditary in the time of Gustavus the First as a Reward of his Vertue and Service in delivering that Country from the Tyranny of the Danes How did Charles Gustavus come to be King unless it was by the Election of the Nobility He acknowledged by the Act of his Election and upon all occasions that he had no other right to the Crown than what they had conferred on him Did not the like Custom prevail in Hungary and Bohemia till those Countries fell under the Power of the House of Austria and in Denmark till the Year 1660 Do not the Kings of Poland derive their Authority from this popular Election which he derides Dos not the stile of the Oath of Allegiance used in the Kingdom of Arragon as it is related by Antonio Perez Secretary of State to Philip 2d shew that their Kings were of their own making Could they say We who are as good as you make you our King on condition that you keep and observe our Privileges and Liberties and if not not if he did not come in by their Election Were not the Roman Emperors in disorderly times chosen by the Souldiers and in such as were more regular by the Senate with the consent of the People Our Author may say the whole Body of these Nations did not meet at their Elections tho that is not always true for in the Infancy of Rome when the whole People dwelt within the Walls of a small City they did meet for the choice of their Kings as afterwards for the choice of other Magistrates Whilst the Goths Franks Vandals and Saxons lived within the Precincts of a Camp they frequently met for the Election of a King and raised upon a Target the Person they had chosen but finding that to be inconvenient or rather impossible when they were vastly increased in number and dispersed over all the Countries they had conquered no better way was found than to institute Gemotes Parliaments Diets Cortez Assemblies of Estates or the like to do that which formerly had bin performed by themselves and when a People is by mutual compact joined together in a civil Society there is no difference as to Right between that which is done by them all in their own Persons or by some deputed by all and acting according to the Powers received from all If our Author was ignorant of these things which are the most common in all Histories he might have spared the pains of writing upon more abstruse Points but 't is a stupendous folly in him to presume to raise Doctrines depending upon the universal Law of God and Nature without examining the only Law that ever God did in a publick manner give to Man If he had looked into it he might have learnt That all Israel was by the command of God assembled at Mispeth to chuse a King and did chuse Saul He being slain all Judah came to Hebron and made David their King after the death of Ishbosheth all the Tribes went to Hebron and anointed him King over them and he made a Covenant with them before the Lord. When Solomon was dead all Israel met together in Shechem and ten Tribes disliking the proceedings of Rehoboam rejected him and made Jeroboam their King The same People in the time of the Judges had general Assemblies as often as occasion did require to set up a Judg make War or the like and the several Tribes had their Assemblies to treat of Businesses relating to themselves The Histories of all Nations especially of those that have peopled the best parts of Europe are so full of Examples in this kind that no man can question them unless he be brutally ignorant or maliciously contentious The great matters among the Germans were transacted omnium consensu De minoribus consultant Principes de majoribus omnes The Michelgemote among the Saxons was an Assembly of the whole People The Baronagium is truly said
transcribing his words and shewing how vilely he is abused by Filmer concluding that if he be in the right the choice and constitution of Government the making of Laws Coronation Inauguration and all that belongs to the chusing and making of Kings or other Magistrates is meerly from the People and that all Power exercised over them which is not so is Usurpation and Tyranny unless it be by an immediate Commission from God which if any man has let him give testimony of it and I will confess he comes not within the reach of our reasonings but ought to be obeyed by those to whom he is sent or over whom he is placed Nevertheless our Author is of another opinion but scorning to give us a reason he adds to Hooker's words As if these Solemnities were a kind of deed whereby the right of Dominion is given which strange untrue and unnatural Conceits are set abroad by Seedsmen of Rebellion and a little farther Unless we will openly proclaim defiance unto all Law Equity and Reason we must say for there is no remedy that in Kingdoms hereditary Birthright giveth a Right unto Soveraign Dominion c. Those Solemnities do either serve for an open testification of the Inheritor's Right or belong to the form of inducing him into the possession These are bold Censures and do not only reach Mr. Hooker whose modesty and peaceableness of spirit is no less esteemed than his Learning but the Scriptures also and the best of human Authors upon which he founded his Opinions But why should it be thought a strange untrue or unnatural Conceit to believe that when the Scriptures say Nimrod was the first that grew powerful in the Earth long before the death of his Fathers and could consequently neither have a right of Dominion over the multitude met together at Babylon nor subdue them by his own strength he was set up by their Consent or that they who made him their Governor might prescribe Rules by which he should govern Nothing seems to me less strange than that a Multitude of reasonable Creatures in the performance of Acts of the greatest importance should consider why they do them And the infinite variety which is observed in the constitution mixture and regulation of Governments dos not only shew that the several Nations of the World have considered them but clearly prove that all Nations have perpetually continued in the exercise of that Right Nothing is more natural than to follow the voice of Mankind The wisest and best have ever employed their studies in forming Kingdoms and Commonwealths or in adding to the perfections of such as were already constituted which had bin contrary to the Laws of God and Nature if a general Rule had bin set which had obliged all to be for ever subject to the Will of one and they had not bin the best but the worst of men who had departed from it Nay I may say that the Law given by God to his peculiar People and the Commands delivered by his Servants in order to it or the prosecution of it had bin contrary to his own eternal and universal Law which is impossible A Law therefore having bin given by God which had no relation to or consistency with the absolute paternal power Judges and Kings created who had no pretence to any preference before their Brethren till they were created and commanded not to raise their Hearts above them when they should be created the Wisdom and Vertue of the best men in all ages shewn in the constitution or reformation of Governments and Nations in variously framing them preserving the possession of their natural Right to be governed by none and in no other way than they should appoint The opinions of Hooker That all publick regiment of what kind soever ariseth from the deliberate advice of men seeking their own good and that all other is meer Tyranny are not untrue and unnatural conceits set abroad by the Seedsmen of Rebellion but real Truths grounded upon the Laws of God and Nature acknowledged and practised by Mankind And no Nation being justly subject to any but such as they set up nor in any other manner than according to such Laws as they ordain the right of chusing and making those that are to govern them must wholly depend upon their Will SECT VII The Laws of every Nation are the measure of Migistratical Power OUr Author lays much weight upon the word Hereditary but the question is What is inherited in an Hereditary Kingdom and how it comes to be hereditary 'T is in vain to say the Kingdom for we do not know what he means by the Kingdom 't is one thing in one place and very different in others and I think it not easy to find two in the world that in power are exactly the same If he understand all that is comprehended within the precincts over which it reaches I deny that any such is to be found in the World If he refer to what preceding Kings enjoyed no determination can be made till the first original of that Kingdom be examined that it may be known what that first King had and from whence he had it If this variety be denied I desire to know whether the Kings of Sparta and Persia had the same power over their Subjects if the same whether both were absolute or both limited if limited how came the Decrees of the Persian Kings to pass for Laws if absolute how could the Spartan Kings be subject to Fines Imprisonment or the sentence of Death and not to have power to send for their own Supper out of the Common Hall Why did Xenophon call Agesilaus a good and faithful King obedient to the Laws of his Country when upon the command of the Ephori he left the War that he had with so much glory begun in Asia if he was subject to none How came the Ephori to be established to restrain the Power of Kings if it could no way be restrained if all owed obedience to them and they to none Why did Theopompus his Wife reprove him for suffering his power to be diminished by their creation if it could not be diminished Or why did he say he had made the Power more permanent in making it less odious if it was perpetual and unalterable We may go farther and taking Xenophon and Plutarch for our guides assert that the Kings of Sparta never had the powers of War or Peace Life and Death which our Author esteems inseparable from Regality and conclude either that no King has them or that all Kings are not alike in power If they are not in all places the same Kings do not reign by an universal Law but by the particular Laws of each Country which give to every one so much power as in the opinion of the givers conduces to the end of their institution which is the publick good It may be also worth our inquiry how this inherited Power came to be hereditary We know that the
whatever to admit of one who is evidently guilty of such Vices as are prejudicial to the State For this reason the French tho much addicted to their Kings rejected the vile remainders of Meroveus his Race and made Pepin the Son of Charles Martel King And when his Descendents sell into the like Vices they were often deposed till at last they were wholly rejected and the Crown given to Capet and to his Heirs Male as formerly Yet for all this Henry his Grandchild being esteemed more fit to govern than his elder Brother Robert was as is said before made King and that Crown still remains in his Descendents no consideration being had of the Children of Robert who continued Dukes of Burgundy during the reigns of ten Kings And in the memory of our Fathers Henry of Navarr was rejected by two Assemblies of the Estates because he differed in Religion from the Body of the Nation and could never be received as King till he had renounced his own tho he was certainly the next in Blood and that in all other respects he excelled in those Vertues which they most esteem We have already proved that our own History is full of the like Examples and might enumerate a multitude of others if it were not too tedious and as the various Rules according to which all the hereditary Crowns of the World are inherited shew that none is set by Nature but that every People proceeds according to their own Will the frequent deviations from those Rules do evidently testify that Salus Populi est Lex suprema and that no Crown is granted otherwise than in submission to it But tho there were a Rule which in no case ought to be transgressed there must be a Power of judging to whom it ought to be applied 'T is perhaps hard to conceive one more precise than that of France where the eldest Legitimate Male in the direct Line is preserred and yet that alone is not sufficient There may be Bastardy in the case Bastards may be thought legitimate and legitimate Sons Bastards The Children born of Isabel of Portugal during her Marriage with John the Third of Castile were declared Bastards and the Title of the House of Austria to that Crown depends upon that Declaration We often see that Marriages which have bin contracted and for a long time taken to be good have bin declared null and the legitimation of the present King of France is founded solely upon the abolition of the marriage of Henry the Fourth with Marguerite of Valois which for the space of twenty seven Years was thought to have bin good Whilst Spain was divided into five or six Kingdoms and the several Kings linked to each other by mutual Alliances incestuous Marriages were often contracted and upon better consideration annulled many have bin utterly void through the preingagement of one of the Parties These are not feigned Cases but such as happen frequently and the diversity of Accidents as well as the humours of Men may produce many others which would involve Nations in the most satal Disorders if every one should think himself obliged to follow such a one who pretended a Title that to him might seem plausible when another should set up one as pleasing to others and there were no Power to terminate those Disputes to which both must submit but the decision must be lest to the Sword This is that which I call the Application of the Rule when it is as plain and certain as humane Wisdom can make it but if it be lest more at large as where Females inherit the difficulties are inextricable and he that says The next Heir is really King when one is dead before he be so declared by a Power that may judg of his Title dos as far as in him lies expose Nations to be split into the most desperate Factions and every man to fight for the Title which he fancies to be good till he destroy those of the contrary Party or be destroyed by them This is the blessed way proposed by our Author to prevent Sedition But God be thanked our Ancestors found a better They did not look upon Robert the Norman as King of England after the death of his Father and when he did proudly endeavour on pretence of Inheritance to impose himself upon the Nation that thought fit to prefer his younger Brothers before him he paid the Penalty of his solly by the loss of his Eyes and Liberty The French did not think the Grandchild of Pharamond to be King after the death of his Father nor seek who was the next Heir of the Merovingian Line when Chilperic the third was dead nor regard the Title of Charles of Lorrain after the death of his Brother Lothair or of Robert of Burgundy eldest Son of King Robert but advanced Meroveus Pepin Capet and Henry the first who had no other Right than what the Nobility and People bestowed upon them And if such Acts do not destroy the Pretences of all who lay claim to Crowns by Inheritance and do not create a Right I think it will be hard to find a lawful King in the world or that there ever have bin any since the first did plainly come in like Nimrod and those who have bin every where since Histories are known to us owed their exaltation to the Consent of Nations armed or unarmed by the deposition or exclusion of the Heirs of such as had reigned before them Our Author not troubling himself with these things or any other relating to the matter in question is pleased to slight Hooker's Opinions concerning Coronation and Inauguration with the heaps of Scripture upon which he grounds them whereas those Solemnities would not only have bin foolish and impertinent but profane and impious if they were not Deeds by which the Right of Dominion is really conferred What could be more wickedly superstitious than to call all Israel together before the Lord and to cast Lots upon every Tribe Family and Person for the election of a King if it had bin known to whom the Crown did belong by a natural and unalterable Right Or if there had bin such a thing in Nature how could God have cauled that Lot to fall upon one of the youngest Tribe for ever to discountenance his own Law and divert Nations from taking any notice of it It had bin absurd for the Tribe of Judah to chuse and anoint David and for the other Tribes to follow their example after the death of Ishbosheth if he had bin King by a Right not depending on their Will David did worse in slaying the Sons of Rimmon saying they had killed a righteous Man lying upon his bed if Ishbosheth whose Head they presented had most unrighteously detained from him as long as he lived the Dominion of the ten Tribes The King Elders and People had most scornfully abused the most sacred things by using such Ceremonies in making him King and compleating their work in a Covenant made between him
destroyed the Kingdoms of Asia Egypt Macedon Numidia and a multitude of others was made a Prey to unknown barbarous Nations and rent into as many pieces as it had bin composed of when it enjoy'd the Stability that accompanies Divine and Absolute Monarchy The like may be said of all the Kingdoms in the World they may have their ebbings and flowings according to the Vertues or Vices of Princes or their Favorites but can never have any Stability because there is and can be none in them Or if any Exception may be brought against this Rule it must be of those Monarchies only which are mixed and regulated by Laws where Diets Parliaments Assemblies of Estates or Senats may supply the defects of a Prince restrain him if he prove extravagant and reject such as are found to be unworthy of their Office which are as odious to our Author and his Followers as the most popular Governments and can be of no advantage to his cause There is another ground of perpetual Fluctuation in Absolute Monarchies or such as are grown so strong that they cannot be restrained by Law tho according to their Institution they ought to be distinct from but in some measure relating to the Inclinations of the Monarch that is the impulse of Ministers Favorites Wives or Whores who frequently govern all things according to their own Passions or Interests And tho we cannot say who were the Favorites of every one of the Assyrian or Egyptian Kings yet the Examples before-mentioned of the different method follow'd in Egypt before and after the death of Joseph and in Persia whilst the idolatrous Princes and Haman or Daniel Esther and Mordecai were in credit the violent Changes happening thereupon give us reason to believe the like were in the times of other Kings and if we examine the Histories of later Ages and the Lives of Princes that are more exactly known we shall find that Kingdoms are more frequently swayed by those who have Power with the Prince than by his own Judgment So that whosoever hath to deal with Princes concerning Foreign or Domestick Affairs is obliged more to regard the humour of those Persons than the most important Interests of a Prince or People I might draw too much envy upon my self if I should take upon me to cite all the Examples of this kind that are found in modern Histories or the Memoirs that do more precisely shew the Temper of Princes and the secret Springs by which they were moved But as those who have well observed the management of Affairs in France during the Reigns of Francis the First Henry the Second Francis the Second Charles the Ninth Henry the Third Henry the Fourth and Lewis the Thirteenth will confess that the Interests of the Dukes of Montmorency and Guise Queen Katherine de Medicis the Duke of Epernon La Fosseuse Madame de Guiche de Gabriele d' Entragues the Marechal d' Ancre the Constable de Luines and the Cardinal de Richelieu were more to be consider'd by those who had any private or publick Business to treat at Court than the Opinions of those Princes or the most weighty Concernments of the State so it cannot be denied that other Kingdoms where Princes legally have or wrongfully usurp the like Power are governed in the like manner or if it be there is hardly any Prince's Reign that will not furnish abundant proof of what I have asserted I agree with our Author that good Order and Stability produce Strength If Monarchy therefore excel in them Absolute Monarchies should be of more strength than those that are limited according to the proportion of their Riches extent of Territory and number of People that they govern and those limited Monarchies in the like proportion more strong than popular Governments or Commonwealths If this be so I wonder how a few of those giddy Greeks who according to our Author had learning enough only to make them seditious came to overthrow those vast Armies of the Persians as often as they met with them and seldom found any other difficulty than what did arise from their own Countrymen who sometimes sided with the Barbarians Seditions are often raised by a little prating but when one Man was to fight against fifty or a hundred as at the Battels of Salamine Platea Marathon and others then Industry Wisdom Skill and Valour was required and if their Learning had not made them to excel in those Vertues they must have bin overwhelmed by the prodigious multitudes of their Enemies This was so well known to the Persians that when Cyrus the younger prepar'd to invade his Brother Artaxerxes he brought together indeed a vast Army of Asiaticks but chiefly relied upon the Counsel and Valour of ten thousand Grecians whom he had engaged to serve him These giddy heads accompanied with good hands in the great Battel near Babylon found no resistance from Artaxerxes his Army and when Cyrus was killed by accident in the pursuit of the Victory they had gained and their own Officers treacherously murder'd they made good their retreat into Greece under the conduct of Xenophon in despite of above four hundred thousand Horse and Foot who endeavour'd to oppose them They were destitute of Horse Mony Provisions Friends and all other help except what their Wisdom and Valour furnished them and thereupon relying they passed over the Bellies of all the Enemies that ventur'd to appear against them in a march of a thousand miles These things were performed in the weakness of popular confusion but Agesilaus not being sensible of so great defects accompanied only with six and thirty Spartans and such other Forces as he could raife upon his personal credit adventured without Authority or Mony to undertake a War against that great King Artaxerxes and having often beaten Pharnabazus and Tissaphernes his Lieutenants was preparing to assault him in the heart of his Kingdom when he was commanded by the Ephori to return for the defence of his own Country It may in like manner appear strange that Alexander with the Forces of Greece much diminished by the Phocean Peloponnesian Theban and other intestine Wars could overthrow all the powers of the East and conquer more Provinces than any other Army ever saw if so much order and stability were to be found in absolute Monarchies and if the Liberty in which the Grecians were educated did only fit them for Seditions and it would seem no less astonishing that Rome and Greece whilst they were free should furnish such numbers of men excelling in all moral Vertues to the admiration of all succeeding Ages and thereby become so powerful that no Monarchs were able to resist them and that the same Countries since the loss of their Liberty have always bin weak base cowardly and vicious if the same Liberty had not bin the Mother and Nurse of their Vertue as well as the root of their Power It cannot be said that Alexander was a Monarch in our Author's sense for the power
it Some being incensed against their Kings as the Romans exasperated by the Villanies of Tarquin and the Tuscans by the Cruelties of Mezentius abolished the name of King Others as Athens Sicion Argos Corinth Thebes and the Latins did not stay for such extremities but set up other Governments when they thought it best for themselves and by this conduct prevented the evils that usually fall upon Nations when their Kings degenerate into Tyrants and a Nation is brought to enter into a War by which all may be lost and nothing can be gained which was not their own before The Romans took not this salutary Course the mischief was grown up before they perceived or set themselves against it and when the effects of Pride Avarice Cruelty and Lust were grown to such a height that they could no longer be endured they could not free themselves without a War and whereas upon other occasions their Victories had brought them increase of Strength Territory and Glory the only reward of their Virtue in this was to be delivered from a Plague they had unadvisedly suffered to grow up among them I confess this was most of all to be esteemed for if they had bin overthrown their condition under Tarquin would have bin more intolerable than if they had fallen under the power of Pirrhus or Hannibal and all their following Prosperity was the fruit of their recover'd Liberty But it had bin much better to have reformed the State after the death of one of their good Kings than to be brought to fight for their Lives against that abominable Tyrant Our Author in pursuance of his aversion to all that is good disapproves this and wanting reasons to justify his dislike according to the custom of Impostors and Cheats hath recourse to the ugly terms of a back-door Sedition and Faction as if it were not as just for a People to lay aside their Kings when they receive nothing but evil and can rationally hope for no benefit by them as for others to set them up in expectation of good from them But if the truth be examin'd nothing will be found more orderly than the changes of Government or of the Persons and Races of those that governed which have bin made by many Nations When Pharamond's Grandson seemed not to deserve the Crown he had worn the French gave it to Meroveus who more resembled him in Virtue In process of time when this Race also degenerated they were rejected and Pepin advanced to the Throne and the most remote in blood of his Descendents having often bin preferred before the nearest and Bastards before the legitimate Issue they were at last all laid aside and the Crown remains to this day in the Family of Hugh Capet on whom it was bestow'd upon the rejection of Charles of Lorrain In like manner the Castilians took Don Sancho sirnamed the Brave second Son to Alphonso the Wise before Alphonso el Desheredado Son of the elder Brother Ferdinand The States of Arragon preferred Martin Brother to John the first before Mary his Daughter married to the Count de Foix tho Females were not excluded from the Succession and the House of Austria now enjoys that Crown from Joan Daughter to Ferdinand In that and many other Kingdoms Bastards have bin advanced before their legitimate Brothers Henry Count of Trastamara Bastard to Alphonso the II King of Castile received the Crown as a reward of the good Service he had done to his Country against his Brother Peter the Cruel without any regard had to the House of La Cerda descended from Alphonso el Desheredado which to this day never enjoy'd any greater honour than that of Duke de Medina Celi Not long after the Portuguese conceiving a dislike of their King Ferdinand and his Daughter married to John King of Castile rejected her and her Uncle by the Father's side and gave the Crown to John a Knight of Calatrava and Bastard to an Uncle of Ferdinand their King About the beginning of this age the Swedes deposed their King Sigismund for being a Papist and made Charles his Uncle King Divers Examples of the like nature in England have bin already mentioned All these transportations of Crowns were Acts performed by Assemblies of the three Estates in the several Kingdoms and these Crowns are to this day enjoy'd under Titles derived from such as were thus brought in by the deposition or rejection of those who according ing to descent of blood had better Titles than the present Possessors The Acts therefore were lawful and good or they can have no Title at all and they who made them had a just power so to do If our Author can draw any advantage from the resemblance of Regality that he finds in the Roman Consuls and Athenian Archons I shall without envy leave him the enjoyment of it but I am much mistaken if that do not prove my assertion that those Governments were composed of the three simple species for if the Monarchical part was in them it cannot be denied that the Aristocratical was in the Senate or Areopagi and the Democratical in the People But he ought to have remembred that if there was something of Monarchical in those Governments when they are said to have bin Popular there was something of Aristocratical and Democratical in those that were called Regal which justifies my proposition on both sides and shews that the denomination was taken from the part that prevail'd and if this were not so the Governments of France Spain and Germany might be called Democracies and those of Rome and Athens Monarchies because the People have a part in the one and an image of Monarchy was preserved in the other If our Author will not allow the cases to be altogether equal I think he will find no other difference than that the Consuls and Archons were regularly made by the Votes of the consenting People and orderly resign'd their Power when the time was expir'd for which it was given whereas Tarquin Dionysius Agathocles Nabis Phalaris Cesar and almost all his Successors whom he takes for compleat Monarchs came in by violence fraud and corruption by the help of the worst men by the slaughter of the best and most commonly when the method was once establish'd by that of his Predecessor who if our Author say true was the Father of his Country and his also This was the root and foundation of the only Government that deserves praise this is that which stampt the divine character upon Agathocles Dionysius and Cesar and that had bestow'd the same upon Manlius Marius or Catiline if they had gain'd the Monarchies they affected But I suppose that such as God has bless'd with better judgment and a due regard to Justice and Truth will say that all those who have attained to such greatness as destroys all manner of good in the places where they have set up themselves by the most detestable Villanies came in by a backdoor and that such Magistrates as were
If this was not so he must think that no Crime was capital but the punishment of capital Crimes or that no man was subject to the Supreme Power but he that was created for the execution of it Yet even this will not stop the gap for the Law that condemned the Magistrate to die could be of no effect if there were no man to execute it and there could be none if the Law prohibited it or that he who did it was to die for it And this goes on to infinity For is a Magistrate could not put a Citizen to death I suppose a Citizen could not put to death a Magistrate for he also is a Citizen So that upon the whole matter we may conclude that Malice is blind and that Wickedness is Madness 'T is hard to say more in praise of Popular Governments than will result from what he says against them his reproaches are Praises and his Praises reproaches As Government is instituted for the preservation of the governed the Romans were sparing of Blood and are wisely commended by Livy for it Nulli unquam Populo mitiores placuere poenae which gentleness will never be blamed unless by those who are pleased with nothing so much as the fury of those Monsters who with the ruin of the best part of mankind usurp'd the dominion of that glorious City But if the Romans were gentle in punishing Offences they were also diligent in preventing them the excellence of their Discipline led the Youth to Virtue and the Honours they received for recompence confirmed them in it By this means many of them became Laws to themselves and they who were not the most excellent were yet taught so much of good that they had a veneration for those they could not equal which not only served to incite them to do well according to their Talents but kept them in such aw as to fear incurring their ill opinion by any bad action as much as by the penalty of the Law This integrity of manners made the Laws as it were useless and whilst they seemed to sleep ignorant persons thought there were none But their Discipline being corrupted by Prosperity those Vices came in which made way for the Monarchy and Wickedness being placed in the Throne there was no safety for any but such as would be of the same spirit and the Empire was ruined by it SECT XIX That Corruption and Venality which is natural to Courts is seldom found in Popular Governments OUr Author's next work is with that modesty and truth which is natural to him to impute Corruption and Venality to Commonwealths He knows that Monarchies are exempted from those evils and has discovered this truth from the integrity observed in the modern Courts of England France and Spain or the more antient of Rome and Persia But after many falshoods in matter of fact and misrepresentations of that which is true he shews that the Corruption Venality and Violence he blames were neither the effects of Liberty nor consistent with it Cneius Manlius who with his Asiatic Army brought in the Luxury that gave birth to those mischiefs did probably follow the loosenss of his own disposition yet the best and wisest men of that time knew from the beginning that it would ruin the City unless a stop might be put to the course of that evil But they who had seen Kings under their feet and could no longer content themselves with that equality which is necessary among Citizens fomented it as the chief means to advance their ambitious designs Tho Marius was rigid in his nature and cared neither for Mony nor sensual Pleasures yet he favour'd those Vices in others and is said to be the first that made use of them to his advantage Catiline was one of the lewdest men in the world and had no other way of compassing his designs than by rendring others as bad as himself and Cesar set up his Tyranny by spreading that corruption farther than the others had bin able to do and tho he Caligula and some others were slain yet the best men found it as impossible to restore Liberty to the City when it was corrupted as the worst had done to set up a Tyranny whilst the integrity of their manners did continue Men have a strange propensity to run into all manner of excesses when plenty of means invite and that there is no power to deter of which the succeeding Emperors took advantage and knowing that even their subsistence depended upon it they thought themselves obliged by interest as well as inclination to make Honours and Preferments the rewards of Vice and tho it be not always true in the utmost extent that all men follow the example of the King yet it is of very great efficacy Tho some are so good that they will not be perverted and others so bad that they will not be corrected yet a great number dos always follow the course that is favour'd and rewarded by those that govern There were Idolaters doubtless among the Jews in the days of David and Hezekiah but they prosper'd better under Jeroboam and Ahab England was not without Papists in the time of Queen Elizabeth but they thrived much better during the Reign of her furious Sister False Witnesses and Accusers had a better trade under Tiberius who called them Custodes Legum than under Trajan who abhorred them and Whores Players Fidlers with other such Vermin abounded certainly more when encouraged by Nero than when despised by Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius But as every one of these manifested what he was by those he favour'd or punish'd and that a man can only be judged by his principles or practices he that would know whether absolute Monarchies or mixed Governments do most foment or punish Venality and Corruption ought to examine the principle and practice of both and compare them one with the other As to the principle the above-mentioned Vices may be profitable to private men but they can never be so to the Government if it be popular or mixed No People was ever the better for that which renders them weak or base and a duly created Magistracy governing a Nation with their consent can have no interest distinct from that of the Publick or desire to diminish the strength of the People which is their own and by which they subsist On the other side the absolute Monarch who governs for himself and chiefly seeks his own preservation looks upon the strength and bravery of his Subjects as the root of his greatest danger and frequently desires to render them weak base corrupt and unfaithful to each other that they may neither dare to attempt the breaking of the Yoak he lays upon them nor trust one another in any generous design for the recovery of their Liberty So that the same corruption which preserves such a Prince if it were introduced by a People would weaken if not utterly destroy them Again all things have their continuance from a principle in
care of his Hens The Monarchy of France must have perished under the base Kings they call Les Roys faineants if the Scepter had not bin wrested out of their unworthy hands The World is full of Examples in this kind and when it pleases God to bestow a just wise and valiant King as a blessing upon a Nation 't is only a momentary help his Virtues end with him and there being neither any divine Promise nor human Reason moving us to believe that they shall always be renewed and continued in his Successors men cannot rely upon it and to alledg a possibility of such a thing is nothing to the purpose On the other side in a popular or mixed Government every man is concerned Every one has a part according to his quality or merit all changes are prejudicial to all whatsoever any man conceives to be for the publick good he may propose it in the Magistracy or to the Magistrate the body of the People is the publick defence and every man is arm'd and disciplin'd The advantages of good success are communicated to all and every one bears a part in the losses This makes men generous and industrious and fills their hearts with love to their Country This and the desire of that praise which is the reward of Virtue raised the Romans above the rest of Mankind and wheresoever the same ways are taken they will in a great measure have the same effects By this means they had as many Soldiers to fight for their Country as there were Freemen in it Whilst they had to deal with the free Nations of Italy Greece Africa or Spain they never conquer'd a Country till the Inhabitants were exhausted But when they came to fight against Kings the success of a Battel was enough to bring a Kingdom under their power Antiochus upon a rufflle received from Acilius at Thermipolae left all that he possessed in Greece and being defeated by Scipio Nasica he quitted all the Kingdoms and Territories of Asia on this side Taurus Paulus Emilius became Master of Macedon by one prosperous fight against Perseus Syphax Gentius Tigranes Ptolomy and others were more easily subdued The mercenary Armies on which they relied being broken the Cities and Countries not caring for their Masters submitted to those who had more virtue and better fortune If the Roman Power had not bin built upon a more sure soundation they could not have subsisted Notwithstanding their Valour they were osten beaten but their losses were immediately repair'd by the excellence of their Discipline When Hannibal had gained the Battels of Trebia Ticinum Thrasimene and Cannae defeated the Romans in many other Encounters and slain above two hundred thousand of their Men with Paulus Emilius C. Servilius Sempronius Gracchus Quintius Marcellus and many other excellent Commanders When about the same time the two brave Scipio's had bin cut off with their Armies in Spain and many great losses had bin sustain'd in Sicily and by Sea one would have thought it impossible for the City to have resisted But their Virtue Love to their Country and good Government was a strength that increased under all their Calamities and in the end overcame all The nearer Hannibal came to the Walls the more obstinate was their resistance Tho he had kill'd more great Captains than any Kingdom ever had others daily stepp'd up in their place who excell'd them in all manner of Virtue I know not if at any time that conquering City could glory in a greater number of men fit for the highest Enterprises than at the end of that cruel War which had consumed so many of them but I think that the finishing Victories by them obtained are but ill prooss of our Author's assertion that they thought basely of the common good and sought only to save themselves We know of none except Cecilius Metellus who after the Battel of Cannae had so base a thought as to design the withdrawing himself from the publick ruin but Scipio asterwards sirnamed Africanus threatning death to those who would not swear never to abandon their Country forced him to leave it This may in general be imputed to good Government and Discipline with which all were so seasoned from their infancy that no affection was so rooted in them as an ardent love to their Country and a resolution to die for it or with it but the means by which they accomplished their great ends so as after their defeats to have such men as carried on their noblest designs with more glory than ever was their annual Elections of Magistrates many being thereby advanc'd to the supreme Commands and every one by the Honours they enjoy'd fill'd with a desire of rendring himself worthy of them I should not much insist upon these things if they had bin seen only in Rome but tho their Discipline seems to have bin more perfect better observed and to have produc'd a Virtue that surpassed all others the like has bin found tho perhaps not in the same degree in all Nations that have enjoyed their Liberty and were admitted to such a part of the Government as might give them a love to it This was evident in all the Nations of Italy The Sabins Volsci AEqui Tuscans Samnites and others were never conquer'd till they had no men lest The Samnites alone inhabiting a small and barren Province suffer'd more defeats before they were subdued than all the Kingdoms of Numidia AEgypt Macedon and Asia and as 't is exprest in their Embassy to Hannibal never yielded till they who had brought vast numbers of men into the Field and by them defeated some of the Roman Armies were reduced to such weakness that they could not resist one Legion We hear of few Spartans who did not willingly expose their Lives for the service of their Country and the Women themselves were so far inflamed with the same affection that they refused to mourn for their Children and Husbands who died in the defence of it When the brave Brasidas was slain some eminent men went to comfort his Mother upon the news of his death and telling her he was the most valiant man in the City she answer'd that he was indeed a valiant man and died as he ought to do but that through the goodness of the Gods many others were lest as valiant as he When Xerxes invaded Greece there was not a Citizen of Athens able to bear Arms who did not leave his Wife and Children to shift for themselves in the neighbouring Cities and their Houses to be burnt when they imbarked with Themistocles and never thought of either till they had defeated the Barbarians at Salamine by Sea and at Platea by Land When men are thus spirited some will ever prove excellent and as none did ever surpass those who were bred under this discipline in all moral military and civil Virtues those very Countries where they flourished most have not produced any eminent men since they lost that Liberty which was the
like delivered their Countries from Tyrants Their Actions carried in themselves their own justification and their Virtues will never be forgotten whilst the names of Greece and Rome are remembred in the World If this be not enough to declare the Justice inherent in and the Glory that ought to accompany these Works the examples of Moses Aaron Othniel Ehud Barac Gideon Samuel Jephtha David Jehu Jehoiada the Maccabees and other holy men raised up by God for the deliverance of his People from their Oppressors decide the Question They are perpetually renowned for having led the People by extraordinary ways which such as our Author express under the names of Sedition Tumult and War to recover their Liberties and avenge the injuries received from foreign or domestick Tyrants The work of the Apostles was not in their time to set up or pull down any Civil State but they so behaved themselves in relation to all the Powers of the Earth that they gained the name of pestilent seditious Fellows Disturbers of the People and left it as an inheritance to those who in succeeding Ages by following their steps should deserve to be called their Successors whereby they were exposed to the hatred of corrupt Magistrates and brought under the necessity of perishing by them or defending themselves against them and he that denies them that right dos at once condemn the most glorious Actions of the wisest best and holiest men that have bin in the world together with the Laws of God and Man upon which they were founded Nevertheless there is a sort of Sedition Tumult and War proceeding from Malice which is always detestable aiming only at the satisfaction of private Lust without regard to the publick Good This cannot happen in a Popular Government unless it be amongst the Rabble or when the Body of the People is so corrupted that it cannot stand but is most frequent in and natural to absolute Monarchies When Abimelech desir'd to make himself King he raised a Tumult among the basest of the People He hired light and vain persons some Translations call them lewd Vagabonds kill'd his Brethren but perished in his design the corrupt party that favour'd him not having strength enough to subdue the other who were more sincere Sp. Melius Sp. Cassius and Manlius attempted the like in Rome they acted malitiously their pretences to procure the publick Good were false 'T is probable that some in the City were as bad as they and knew that mischief was intended but the body of the People not being corrupted they were suppressed It appear'd says Livy Nihil esse minus populare quam regnum they who had favour'd Manlius condemned him to death when it was proved that egregias alioqui virtutes fa'da regni cupidine maculasset But when the People is generally corrupted such designs seldom miscarry and the success is always the erection of a Tyranny Nothing else can please vain and profligate persons and no Tyranny was ever set up by such as were better qualified The ways of attaining it have always bin by corrupting the manners of the People bribing Soldiers entertaining mercenary Strangers opening Prisons giving Liberty to Slaves alluring indigent persons with hopes of abolishing Debts coming to a new division of Lands and the like Seditions raised by such men always tend to the ruin of popular Governments but when they happen under absolute Monarchies the hurt intended is only to the Person who being removed the Promoters of them set up another and he that is set up subsisting only by the strength of those who made him is obliged to foment the Vices that drew them to serve him tho another may perhaps make use of the same against him The consequence of this is that those who uphold Popular Governments look upon Vice and Indigence as mischiefs that naturally increase each other and equally tend to the ruin of the State When men are by Vice brought into want they are ready for mischief there is no Villany that men of profligate Lives lost Reputation and desperate Fortunes will not undertake Popular equality is an enemy to these and they who would preserve it must preserve integrity of manners Sobriety and an honest contentedness with what the Law allows On the other side the absolute Monarch who will have no other Law than his own Will desires to increase the number of those who through lewdness and beggery may incline to depend upon him tho the same temper of Mind and condition of Fortune prepare them also for such Seditions as may bring him into danger and the same corruption which led them to set him up may invite them to sell him to another that will give them better wages I do not by this conclude that all Monarchs are vitious men but that whoever will set up an absolute Power must do it by these means and that if such a Power be already established and should fall into the hands of a person who by his virtue and the gentleness of his nature should endeavour to render the Yoak so easy that a better disciplin'd People might be contented to bear it yet this method could last no longer than his life and probably would be a means to shorten it that which was at first established by evil arts always returning to the same That which was vicious in the principle can never be long upheld by Virtue and we see that the worst of the Roman Emperors were not in greater danger from such good men as remained undestroy'd than the best from the corrupt Party that would not be corrected and sought such a Master as would lay no restriction upon their Vices Those few who escaped the rage of these Villains only gave a little breathing time to the afflicted World which by their Children or Successors was again plunged into that extremity of misery from which they intended to deliver it An extraordinary Virtue was required to keep a Prince in a way contrary to the principles of his own Government which being rarely found and never continuing long in a Family or Succession of men the endeavours of the best became ineffectual and either they themselves perished in them or after their death all things returned into the old polluted Channel Tho the Power of the Hebrew Kings was not unlimited yet it exceeded the rules set by God and was sufficient to increase the number of the worst of men and to give them opportunities of raising perpetual disturbances On the King's side there were Flatterers and instruments of mischief On the other side there were indebted and discontented Persons Notwithstanding the justice of David's cause the Wisdom Valour and Piety of his person none would follow him except a few of his own Kindred who knew what God had promised to him and such as were uneasy in their worldly circumstances After the death of Saul there was a long and bloody War between Ishbosheth and David The former being killed the slightest matters were sufficient to
venture their Lives and Fortunes when their Consciences are not concern'd in the Contest and that they are to gain nothing by the Victory If reason teaches that till this expeditious way of ending Controversies be received the ambition of men will be apt to imbroil Nations in their Quarrels and others judging variously of those matters which can be reduced to no certain Rule will think themselves in Conscience obliged to follow the Party that seems to them to be most just experience manifests the same and that Ambition has produced more violent mischiefs than all the other desires and passions that have ever possessed the hearts of men That this may appear it will not be amiss to divide them into such as proceed from him who is in possession of the Power through jealousy of State as they call it to prevent the enterprizes of those who would dispossess him and such as arise between Competitors contending for it Tarquin's Counsel concerning the Poppies and Periander's heads of Corn is of the first sort The most eminent are always most feared as the readiest to undertake and most able to accomplish great Designs This eminence proceeds from Birth Riches Virtue or Reputation and is sometimes wrought up to the greatest height by a conjunction of all these But I know not where to find an example of such a man who could long subsist under Absolute Monarchy If he be of high Birth he must like Brutus conceal his Virtue and gain no reputation or resolve to perish if he do not prevent his own death by that of the Tyrant All other ways are ineffectual the suspicions fears and hatred thereupon arising are not to be removed Personal respects are forgotten and such services as cannot be sufficiently valued must be blotted out by the death of those who did them Various ways may be taken and pretences used according to the temper of Times and Nations but the thing must be done and whether it be colour'd by a trick of Law or performed by a Mute with a Bowstring imports little Henry the fourth was made King by the Earl of Northumberland and his brave Son Hotspur Edward the fourth by the valiant Earl of Warwick Henry the seventh by Stanley but neither of them could think himself safe till his Benefactor was dead No continued fidelity no testimonies of modesty and humility can prevent this The modesty of Germanicus in rejecting the Honours that were offer'd to him and his industry in quieting the mutinied Legions accelerated his ruin When 't was evident he might be Emperor if he pleased he must be so or die There was no middle station between the Throne and the Grave 'T is probable that Caligula Nero and other Beasts like to them might hate Virtue for the good which is in it but I cannot think that either they their Predecessors or Successors would have put themselves upon the desperate design of extirpating it if they had not found it to be inconsistent with their Government and that being once concluded they spared none of their nearest Relations Artaxerxes killed his Son Darius Herod murder'd the best of his Wives and all his Sons except the worst Tiberius destroy'd Agrippa Posthumus and Germanicus with his Wife and two Sons How highly soever Constantine the Great be commended he was polluted with the Blood of his Father-in-law Wife and Son Philip the second of Spain did in the like manner deliver himself from his fears of Don Carlos and 't is not doubted that Philip the fourth for the same reasons dispatched his Brother Don Carlos and his Son Balthasar The like cases were so common in England that all the Plantagenets and the noble Families allied to them being extinguish'd our Ancestors were sent to seek a King in one of the meanest in Wales This method being known those who are unwilling to die so tamely endeavour to find out ways of defending themselves and there being no other than the death of the Person who is in the Throne they usually seek to compass it by secret Conspiracy or open Violence and the number of Princes that have bin destroy'd and Countries disturb'd by those who through fear have bin driven to extremities is not much less than of those who have suffer'd the like from men following the impulse of their own Ambition The disorders arising from Contests between several Competitors before any one could be settled in the possession of Kingdoms have bin no less frequent and bloody than those above-mention'd and the miseries suffer'd by them together with the ruin brought upon the Empires of Macedon and Rome may be sufficient to prove it however to make the matter more clear I shall alledg others But because it may be presumption in me to think I know all the Histories of the World or tedious to relate all those I know I shall content my self with some of the most eminent and remarkable And if it appear that they have all suffer'd the same mischiefs we may believe they proceed not from Accidents but from the power of a permanent Cause that always produces the same or the like Effects To begin with France The Succession not being well settled in the time of Meroveus who dispossess'd the Grandchildren of Pharamond he was no sooner dead than Gillon set up himself and with much slaughter drove Chilperic his Son out of the Kingdom and he after a little time returning with like fury is said to have seen a Vision first of Lions and Leopards then of Bears and Wolves and lastly of Dogs and Cats all tearing one another to pieces This has bin always accounted by the French to be a representation of the nature and fortune of the three Races that were to command them and has bin too much verified by experience Clovis their first Christian and most renowned King having by good means or evil exceedingly enlarged his Territories but chiefly by the murders of Alaric and Ragnacaire with his Children and suborning Sigismond of Metz to kill his Father Sigebert left his Kingdom to be torn in pieces by the rage of his four Sons each of them endeavouring to make himself Master of the whole and when according to the usual fate of such Contests success had crown'd Clothaire who was the worst of them all by the slaughter of his Brothers and Nephews with all the flower of the French and Gaulish Nobility the advantages of his Fortune only resulted to his own person For after his death the miserable Nations suffer'd as much from the madness of his Sons as they had done by himself and his Brothers They had learnt from their Predecessors not to be slow in doing mischief but were farther incited by the rage of two infamous Strumpets Fredegonde and Brunehaud which is a sort of Vermin that I am inclin'd to think has not usually govern'd Senates or Popular Assemblies Chilperic the second who by the slaughter of many Persons of the Royal Blood with infinite numbers of the Nobility
has bin in force for so many Ages What the beginning of it was is not known But Charles the sixth receding from this Law and thinking to dispose of the Succession otherwise than was ordained by it was esteemed mad and all his Acts rescinded And tho the Reputation Strength and Valour of the English commanded by Henry the fifth one of the bravest Princes that have ever bin in the world was terrible to the French Nation yet they opposed him to the utmost of their power rather than suffer that Law to be broken And tho our Success under his Conduct was great and admirable yet soon aster his death with the expence of much Blood and Treasure we lost all that we had on that side and suffer'd the Penalty of having unadvisedly entred into that Quarrel By virtue of the same Law the Agreement made by King John when he was Prisoner at London by which he had alienated part of that Dominion as well as that of Francis the first concluded when he was under the same Circumstances at Madrid were reputed null and upon all occasions that Nation has given sufficient testimony that the Laws by which they live are their own made by themselves and not imposed upon them And 't is as impossible for them who made and deposed Kings exalted or depressed reigning Families and prescribed Rules to the Succession to have received from their own Creatures the Power or part of the Government they had as for a man to be begotten by his own Son Nay tho their Constitutions were much changed by Lewis the 11 th yet they retained so much of their antient Liberty that in the last Age when the House of Valois was as much depraved as those of Meroveus and Pepin had bin and Henry the third by his own Lewdness Hypocrisy Cruelty and Impurity together with the baseness of his Minions and Favorites had rendred himself odious and contemptible to the Nobility and People the great Cities Parliaments the greater and in political matters the sounder part of the Nation declared him to be fallen from the Crown and pursued him to the death tho the blow was given by the hand of a base and half-distracted Monk Henry of Bourbon was without controversy the next Heir but neither the Nobility nor the People who thought themselves in the Government would admit him to the Crown till he had given them satisfaction that he would govern according to their Laws by abjuring his Religion which they judged inconsistent with them The later Commotions in Paris Bourdeaux and other places together with the Wars for Religion shew that tho the French do not complain of every Grievance and cannot always agree in the defence and vindication of their violated Liberties yet they very well understand their Rights and that as they do not live by or for the King but he reigns by and for them so their Privileges are not from him but that his Crown is from them and that according to the true Rule of their Government he can do nothing against their Laws or if he do they may oppose him The Institution of a Kingdom is the act of a free Nation and whoever denies them to be free denies that there can be any thing of right in what they set up That which was true in the beginning is so and must be so for ever This is so far acknowledged by the highest Monarchs that in a Treatise published in the year 1667 by Authority of the present King of France to justify his pretensions to some part of the Low-Countries notwithstanding all the Acts of himself and the King of Spain to extinguish them it is said That Kings are under the happy inability to do any thing against the Laws of their Country And tho perhaps he may do things contrary to Law yet he grounds his Power upon the Law and the most able and most trusted of his Ministers declare the same About the year 1660 the Count D' Aubijoux a man of eminent quality in Languedoc but averse to the Court and hated by Cardinal Mazarin had bin tried by the Parliament of Tholouse for a Duel in which a Gentleman was kill'd and it appearing to the Court then in that City that he had bin acquitted upon forged Letters of Grace false Witnesses powerful Friends and other undue means Mazarin desired to bring him to a new Trial but the Chancellor Seguier told the Queen-Mother it could not be for the Law did not permit a man once acquitted to be again question'd for the same Fact and that if the course of the Law were interrupted neither the Salique Law nor the succession of her Children or any thing else could be secure in France This is farther proved by the Histories of that Nation The Kings of Meroveus and Pepin's Races were suffer'd to divide the Kingdom amongst their Sons or as Hottoman says the Estates made the Division and allotted to each such a part as they thought fit But when this way was found to be prejudicial to the Publick an Act of State was made in the time of Hugh Capet by which it was ordain'd that for the future the Kingdom should not be dismembred which Constitution continuing in force to this day the Sons or Brothers of their Kings receive such an Apannage they call it as is bestow'd on them remaining subject to the Crown as well as other men And there has been no King of France since that time except only Charles the sixth who has not acknowledged that he cannot alienate any part of their Dominion Whoever imputes the acknowledgment of this to Kingcraft and says that they who avow this when 't is for their advantage will deny it on a different occasion is of all men their most dangerous Enemy In laying such fraud to their charge he destroys the veneration by which they subsist and teaches Subjects not to keep Faith with those who by the most malicious deceits show that they are tied by none Human Societies are maintained by mutual Contracts which are of no value if they are not observ'd Laws are made and Magistrates created to cause them to be performed in publick and private matters and to punish those who violate them But none will ever be observed if he who receives the greatest benefit by them and is set up to oversee others give the example to those who of themselves are too much inclin'd to break them The first step that Pompey made to his own ruin was by violating the Laws he himself had proposed But it would be much worse for Kings to break those that are established by the Authority of a whole People and confirmed by the succession of many Ages I am far from laying any such blemishes on them or thinking that they deserve them I must believe the French King speaks sincerely when he says he can do nothing against the Laws of his Country And that our King James did the like when he
be a guide to Kings equally provide for the good of King and People Whereas they who admit of no participants in power and acknowledg no rule but their own Will set up an interest in themselves against that of their People lose their affections which is their most important Treasure and incur their hatred from whence results their greatest danger SECT XXXI The Liberties of Nations are from God and Nature not from Kings WHatsoever is usually said in opposition to this seems to proceed from a groundless conceit that the Liberties enjoy'd by Nations arise from the Concessions of Princes This point has bin already treated but being the foundation of the Doctrine I oppose it may not be amiss farther to examin how it can be possible for one man born under the same condition with the rest of Mankind to have a Right in himself that is not common to all others till it be by them or a certain number of them conferred upon him or how he can without the utmost absurdity be said to grant Liberties and Privileges to them who made him to be what he is If I had to do with a man that sought after Truth I should think he had bin led into this extravagant opinion by the terms ordinarily used in Patents and Charters granted to particular men and not distinguishing between the Proprietor and the Dispenser might think Kings had given as their own that which they only distribute out of the publick Treasury and could have had nothing to distribute by parcels if it had not bin given to them in gross by the Publick But I need not use our Author so gently The perversity of his judgment and obstinate hatred to Truth is sufficient to draw him into the most absurd errors without any other inducement and it were not charity but folly to think he could have attributed in general to all Princes without any regard to the ways by which they attain to their Power such an authority as never justly belonged to any This will be evident to all those who consider that no man can confer upon others that which he has not in himself If he be originally no more than they he cannot grant to them or any of them more than they to him In the 7th 8th 9th and subsequent Sections of the first Chapter it has bin proved that there is no resemblance between the paternal Right and the absolute Power which he asserts in Kings that the right of a Father whatever it be is only over his Children that this right is equally inherited by them all when he dies that every one cannot inherit Dominion for the right of one would be inconsistent with that of all others that the right which is common to all is that which we call Liberty or exemption from Dominion that the first Fathers of Mankind after the Flood had not the exercise of Regal Power and whatsoever they had was equally devolved to every one of their Sons as appears by the examples of Noah Shem Abraham Isaac Jacob and their Children that the erection of Nimrod's Kingdom was directly contrary to and inconsistent with the paternal right if there was any regality in it that the other Kingdoms of that time were of the same nature that Nimrod not exceeding the age of threescore years when he built Babel could not be the Father of those that assisted him in that attempt that if the seventy two Kings who as our Author says went from Babylon upon the confusion of Languages were not the Sons of Nimrod he could not govern them by the right of a Father if they were they must have bin very young and could not have Children of their own to people the Kingdoms they set up that whose Children soever they were who out of a part of Mankind did within a hundred and thirty two years after the Flood divide into so many Kingdoms they shewed that others in process of time might subdivide into as many as they pleased and Kingdoms multiplying in the space of four thousand years since the 72 in the same proportion they did in one hundred and thirty two years into seventy two there would now be as many Kings in the World as there are men that is no man could be subject to another that this equality of Right and exemption from the domination of any other is called Liberty that he who enjoys it cannot be deprived of it unless by his own consent or by force that no one man can force a Multitude or if he did it could confer no right upon him that a multitude consenting to be governed by one man doth confer upon him the power of governing them the powers therefore that he has are from them and they who have all in themselves can receive nothing from him who has no more than every one of them till they do invest him with it This is proved by sacred and prophane Histories The Hebrews in the creation of Judges Kings or other Magistrates had no regard to Paternity or to any who by extraction could in the least pretend to the right of Fathers God did never direct them to do it nor reprove them for neglecting it If they would chuse a King he commanded them to take one of their Brethren not one who called himself their Father When they did resolve to have one he commanded them to chuse him by lot and caused the Lot to fall upon a young man of the youngest Tribe David and the other Kings of Israel or Judah had no more to say for themselves in that point than Saul All the Kings of that Nation before and after the Captivity ordinarily or extraordinarily set up justly or unjustly were raised without any regard to any prerogative they could claim or arrogate to themselves on that account All that they had therefore was from their elevation and their elevation from those that elevated them 'T was impossible for them to confer any thing upon those from whom they received all they had or for the People to give power to Kings if they had not had it in themselves which Power universally residing in every one is that which we call Liberty The method of other Nations was much like to this They placed those in the Throne who seemed best to deserve so great an honour and most able to bear so great a burden The Kingdoms of the Heroes were nothing else but the Government of those who were most beneficent to the Nations amongst whom they lived and whose Virtues were thought fit to be raised above the ordinary level of the World Tho perhaps there was not any one Athenian or Roman equal to Theseus or Romulus in courage and strength yet they were not able to subdue many or if any man should be so vain to think that each of them did at first subdue one man then two and so proceeding by degrees conquered a whole People he cannot without madness ascribe the same to Numa who being sent for
ever were committed may pass for laudable and innocent But if Saul were not to be blamed for killing the Priests why was David blamed for the death of Uriah Why were the Dogs to lick the blood of Ahab and Jezebel if they did nothing more than Kings might do without blame Now if the slaughter of one man was so severely avenged upon the Authors and their Families none but such as Filmer can think that of so many innocent men with their Wives and Children could escape unreproved or unpunished But the whole series of the History of Saul shewing evidently that his Life and Reign were full of the most violent cruelty and madness we are to seek no other reason for the ruin threatned and brought upon him and his Family And as those Princes who are most barbarously savage against their own people are usually most gentle to the Enemies of their Country he could not give a more certain testimony of his hatred to those he ought to have protected than by preserving those Nations who were their most irreconcileable Enemies This is proved by reason as well as by experience for every man knows he cannot bear the hatred of all mankind Such as know they have Enemies abroad endeavour to get Friends at home Those who command powerful Nations and are beloved by them fear not to offend Strangers But if they have rendred their own people Enemies to them they cannot hope for help in a time of distress nor so much as a place of retreat or refuge unless from strangers nor from them unless they deserve it by favouring them to the prejudice of their own Country As no man can serve two Masters no man can pursue two contrary Interests Moses Joshua Gideon and Samuel were severe to the Amorites Midianites and Cananites but mild and gentle to the Hebrews Saul who was cruel to the Hebrews spared the Amalekites whose preservation was their destruction and whilst he destroyed those he should have saved and saved those that by a general and particular command of God he should have destroyed he lost his ill-govern'd Kingdom and left an example to posterity of the end that may be expected from pride folly and tyranny The matter would not be much alter'd if I should confess that in the time of Saul all Nations were governed by Tyrants tho it is not true for Greece did then flourish in Liberty and we have reason to believe that other Nations did so also for tho they might not think of a good Government at the first nothing can oblige men to continue under one that is bad when they discover the evils of it and know how to mend it They who trusted men that appeared to have great Virtues with such a power as might easily be turned into Tyranny might justly retract limit or abolish it when they found it to be abused And tho no condition had bin reserved the publick Good which is the end of all Government had bin sufficient to abrogate all that should tend to the contrary As the malice of Men and their Inventions to do mischief increase daily all would soon be brought under the power of the worst if care were not taken and opportunities embraced to find new ways of preventing it He that should make War at this day as the best Commanders did two hundred years past would be beaten by the meanest Souldier The Places then accounted impregnable are now slighted as indefensible and if the Arts of defending were not improved as well as those of affaulting none would be able to hold out a day Men were sent into the World rude and ignorant and if they might not have used their natural Faculties to find out that which is good for themselves all must have bin condemn'd to continue in the ignorance of our first Fathers and to make no use of their understanding to the ends for which it was given The bestial Barbarity in which many Nations especially of Africa America and Asia do now live shews what human Nature is if it be not improved by art and discipline and if the first errors committed through ignorance might not be corrected all would be obliged to continue in them and for any thing I know we must return to the Religion Manners and Policy that were found in our Country at Cesar's landing To affirm this is no less than to destroy all that is commendable in the world and to render the understanding given to men utterly useless But if it be lawful for us by the use of that understanding to build Houses Ships and Forts better than our Ancestors to make such Arms as are most fit for our defence and to invent Printing with an infinite number of other Arts beneficial to mankind why have we not the same right in matters of Government upon which all others do almost absolutely depend If men are not obliged to live in Caves and hollow Trees to eat Acorns and to go naked why should they be for ever obliged to continue under the same form of Government that their Ancestors happened to set up in the time of their ignorance Or if they were not so ignorant to set up one that was not good enough for the age in which they lived why it should not be altered when tricks are found out to turn that to the prejudice of Nations which was erected for their good From whence should malice and wickedness gain a privilege of putting new Inventions to do mischief every day into practice and who is it that so far protects them as to forbid good and innocent men to find new ways also of defending themselves from it If there be any that do this they must be such as live in the same principle who whilst they pretend to exercise Justice provide only for the indemnity of their own Crimes and the advancement of unjust designs They would have a right of attacking us with all the advantages of the Arms now in use and the Arts which by the practice of so many ages have bin wonderfully refined whilst we should be obliged to employ no others in our just defence than such as were known to our naked Ancestors when Cesar invaded them or to the Indians when they fell under the dominion of the Spaniards This would be a compendious way of placing uncontrol'd Iniquity in all the Kingdoms of the World and to overthrow all that deserves the name of Good by the introduction of such accursed Maxims But if no man dares to acknowledg any such except those whose acknowledgment is a discredit we ought not to suffer them to be obliquely obtruded upon us nor to think that God has so far abandoned us into the hands of our Enemies as not to leave us the liberty of using the same Arms in our defence as they do to offend and injure us We shall be told that Prayers and Tears were the only Arms of the first Christians and that Christ commanded his Disciples to pray
resolved upon by another Power The Jewish Doctors generally agree that the Kings of Judah could make no Law because there was a curse denounced against those who should add to or detract from that which God had given by the hand of Moses that they might sit in Judgment with the High Priest and Sanhedrin but could not judg by themselves unless the Sanhedrin did plainly fail of performing their duty Upon this account Maimonides excuses David for commanding Solomon not to suffer the grey hairs of Joab to go down to the grave in peace and Solomon for appointing him to be kill'd at the soot of the Altar for he having killed Abner and Amasa and by those actions shed the blood of war in time of peace the Sanhedrin should have punished him but being protected by favour or power and even David himself fearing him Solomon was put in mind of his duty which he performed tho Joab laid hold upon the horns of the Altar which by the express words of the Law gave no protection to wilful Murderers The use of the military Sword amongst them was also moderated Their Kings might make War upon the seven accursed Nations that they were commanded to destroy and so might any other man for no peace was to be made with them but not against any other Nation without the assent of the Sanhedrin And when Amaziah contrary to that Law had foolishly made war upon Joash King of Israel and thereby brought a great slaughter upon Judah the Princes that is the Sanhedrin combined against him pursued him to Lachish and killed him there The Legislative Power of Sparta was evidently in the People The Laws that go under the name of Lycurgus were proposed by him to the general Assembly of the People and from them received their Authority But the discipline they contained was of such efficacy for framing the minds of men to virtue and by banishing Silver and Gold they so far banished all manner of Crimes that from the institution of those Laws to the times of their Corruption which was more than eight hundred years we hardly find that three men were put to death of whom two were Kings so that it seems difficult to determine where the power of judging did reside tho 't is most probable considering the nature of their Government that it was in the Senate and in Cases extraordinary in the Ephori with a right of appealing to the People Their Kings therefore could have little to do with the Sword of Justice neither the Legislative nor the Judicial Power being any ways in them The military Sword was not much more in their Power unless the excellency of their Virtues gave them the credit of perswading when the Law denied the right of commanding They were obliged to make war against those and those only who were declared Enemies by the Senate and Ephori and in the manner place and time they directed so that Agesilaus tho carrying on a glorious War in Persia no sooner received the Parchment Roll wherein he was commanded by the Ephori to come home for the defence of his own Country than he immediately returned and is on that account called by no less a man than Xenophon a good and faithful King rendring obedience to the Laws of his Country By this it appears that there are Kings who may be feared by those that do ill and not by such as do well for having no more power than what the Law gives and being obliged to execute it as the Law directs they cannot depart from the Precept of the Apostle My own actions therefore or the sense of my own guilt arising from them is to be the measure of my fear of that Magistrate who is the Minister of God and not his Power The like may be said of almost all the Nations of the world that have had any thing of Civil Order amongst them The supreme Magistrate under what name soever he was known whether King Emperor Asymnetes Suffetes Consul Dictator or Archon has usually a part assigned to him in the administration of Justice and making War but that he may know it to be assigned and not inherent and so assigned as to be employ'd for the publick good not to his own profit or pleasure it is circumscribed by such rules as he cannot safely transgress This is above all seen in the German Nations from whom we draw our Original and Government and is so well described by Tacitus in his treatise of their Customs and Manners that I shall content my self to refer to it and to what I have cited from him in the former part of this Work The Saxons coming into our Country retain'd to themselves the same rights They had no Kings but such as were set up by themselves and they abrogated their Power when they pleased Off a acknowledged that he was chosen for the fence of their Liberty not from his own merit but by their favour and in the Conventus Pananglicus at which all the chief men as well Secular as Ecclesiastical were present it was decreed by the King Archbishops Bishops Abbots Dukes and Senators that the Kings should be chosen by the Priests and by the Elders of the People In pursuance of which Egbert who had no right to the succession was made King Ethelwerd was chosen in the same manner by the consent of all Ethelwolf a Monk for want of a better was advanced to the same Honor. His Son Alfred tho crowned by the Pope and marrying without the consent of the Nobility and Kingdom against their Customs and Statutes acknowledged that he had received the Crown from the bounty of the Princes Elders and People and in his Will declared that he left the People as he had found them free as the inward thoughts of Man His Son Edward was elected to be his Successor Ethelstan tho a Bastard and without all Title was elected by the consent of the Nobility and People Eadred by the same Authority was elected and preferred before the Sons of Edmond his Predecessor Edwin tho rightly chosen was deposed for his ill life and Edgar elected King by the will of God and consent of the People But he also was deprived of the Crown for the Rape of a Nun and after seven years restored by the whole People coram omni multitudine populi Anglorum Ethelred who is said to have bin cruel in the beginning wretched in the course and infamous in the end of his Reign was deposed by the same power that had advanced him Canutus made a Contract with the Princes and the whole People and thereupon was by general consent crown'd King over all England After him Harold was chosen in the usual manner He being dead a Message was sent to Hardi Canute with an offer of the Crown which he accepted and accordingly was received Edward the Consessor was elected King with the consent of the Clergy
and People at London and Harold excused himself for not performing his Oath to William the Norman because he said he had made it unduly and presumptuously without consulting the Nobility and People and without their Authority William was received with great joy by the Clergy and People and saluted King by all swearing to observe the antient good and approved Laws of England and tho he did but ill perform his Oath yet before his death he seemed to repent of the ways he had taken and only wishing his Son might be King of England he confessed in his last Will made at Caen in Normandy that he neither found nor left the Kingdom as an Inheritance If he possessed no right except what was conferred upon him no more was conserred than had bin enjoy'd by the antient Kings according to the approved Laws which he swore to observe Those Laws gave no power to any till he was elected and that which they did then give was so limited that the Nobility and People reserved to themselves the disposition of the greatest Affairs even to the deposition and expulsion of such as should not well perform the duty of their Oaths and Office And I leave it to our Author to prove how they can be said to have had the Sword and the Power so as to be feared otherwise than as the Apostle says by those that do evil which we acknowledg to be not only in the King but in the lowest Officer of Justice in the world If it be pretended that our later Kings are more to be seared than William the Norman or his Predecessors it must not be as has bin proved either from the general right of Kings or from the Doctrine of the Apostle but from something else that is peculiar and subsequent which I leave our Author's Disciples to prove and an answer may be found in due time But to show that our Ancestors did not mistake the words of the Apostle 't is good to consider when to whom and upon what occasion he spoke The Christian Religion was then in its infancy his discourses were addressed to the Professors of it who tho they soon grew to be considerable in number were for the most part of the meanest sort of People Servants or Inhabitants of the Cities rather than Citizens and Freemen joined in no civil Body or Society nor such as had or could have any part in the Government The occasion was to suppress the dangerous mistake of many converted Jews and others who knowing themselves to be freed from the power of Sin and the Devil presumed they were also freed from the obligation of human Laws And if this Error had not bin crop'd in the bud it would have given occasion to their Enemies who desired nothing more to destroy them all and who knowing that such Notions were stirring among them would have bin glad that they who were not easily to be discovered had by that means discovered themselves This induced a necessity of diverting a poor mean scatter'd People from such thoughts concerning the State to convince them of the Error into which they were fallen that Christians did not owe the same obedience to Civil Laws and Magistrates as other men and to keep them from drawing destruction upon themselves by such ways as not being warranted by God had no promise of his Protection St. Paul's work was to preserve the Professors of Christianity as appears by his own words I exhort that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates to be ready for every good work St. Peter agrees with him fully in describing the Magistrate and his Duty shewing the reasons why obedience should be pay'd to him and teaching Christians to be humble and contented with their condition as free yet not using their Liberty for a cover to malice and not only to fear God and honor the King of which conjunction of words such as Filmer are very proud but to honor all men as is said in the same verse This was in a peculiar manner the work of that time in which those who were to preach and propagate the Gospel were not to be diverted from that Duty by entangling themselves in the care of State-affairs but it dos in some sense agree with all times for it can never be the duty of a good man to oppose such a Magistrate as is the Minister of God in the exercise of his Office nor to deny to any man that which is his due But as the Christian Law exempts no man from the Duty he ows to his Father Master or the Magistrate it dos not make him more a Slave than he was before nor deprive him of any natural or civil Right and if we are obliged to pay Tribute Honor or any other thing where it is not due it must be by some Precept very different from that which commands us to give to Cesar that which is Cesar's If he define the Magistrate to be the Minister of God doing Justice and from thence draws the Reasons he gives for rendring Obedience to him we are to inquire whose Minister he is who overthrows it and look for some other reason sor rendring obedience to him than the words of the Apostles If David who was willing to lay down his life sor the people who hated iniquity and would not suffer a liar to come into his presence was the Minister of God I desire to know whose Minister Caligula was who set up himself to be worshipped for a God and would at once have destroyed all the people that he ought to have protected Whose Minister was Nero who besides the abominable impurities of his lise and hatred to all virtue as contrary to his Person and Government set fire to the great City If it be true that contrariorum contraria est ratio these questions are easily decided and if the reasons of things are eternal the same distinction grounded upon truth will be good for ever Every Magistrate and every man by his works will for ever declare whose Minister he is in what spirit he lives and consequently what obedience is due to him according to the Precept of the Apostle If any man ask what I mean by Justice I answer That the Law of the Land as far as it is Sanctio recta jubens honesta prohibens contraria declares what it is But there have bin and are Laws that are neither just nor commendable There was a Law in Rome that no God should be worshipped vvithout the consent of the Senat Upon vvhich Tertullian says scoffingly That God shall not be God unless he please Man and by virtue of this Law the first Christians were exposed to all manner of cruelties and some
that is nothing to the present Question For if it was ill done to drive Nero to despair or to throw Vitellius into the common Shore it was not because they were the Ministers of God for their Lives were no way conformable to the character which the Apostle gives to those who deserve that Sacred Name If those only are to be feared who have the Power there was a time when they were not to be feared for they had none and if those Princes are not obliged by the Law who are not under the coercive Power it gave no exemption to those for they fell under it and as we know not what will befal others who walk in their steps till they are dead we cannot till then know whether they are free from it or not SECT XII The Right and Power of a Magistrate depends upon his Institution not upon his Name 'T IS usual with Impostors to obtrude their deceits upon men by putting false names upon things by which they may perplex mens minds and from thence deduce false Conclusions But the points above mention'd being settled it imports little whether the Governors to whom Peter enjoins obedience were only Kings and such as are employ'd by them or all such Magistrates as are the Ministers of God for he informs us of their Works that we may know them and accordingly yield obedience to them This is that therefore which distinguishes the Magistrate to whom obedience is due from him to whom none is due and not the name that he either assumes or others put upon him But if there be any virtue in the word King and that the admirable Prerogatives of which our Author dreams were annexed to that name they could not be applied to the Roman Emperors nor their substituted Officers for they had it not 'T is true Mark Anthony in a drunken fit at the celebration of the impure Lupercalia did offer a Diadem to Julius Cesar which some flatterers pressed him to accept as our great Lawyers did Cromwel but he durst not think of putting it upon his Head Caligula's affectation of that title and the ensigns of Royalty he wore were taken for the most evident marks of his madness and tho the greatest and bravest of their men had fallen by the Wars or Proscriptions tho the best part of the Senate had perished in Thessaly tho the great City was exhausted and Italy brought to desolation yet they were not reduced so low as to endure a King Piso was sufficiently addicted to Tiberius yet he could not suffer that Germanicus should be treated as the Son of a King Principis Romani non Parthorum regis filio has epulas dari And whoever understands the Latin Tongue and the History of those times will easily perceive that the word Princeps signified no more than a principal or eminent man as has bin already proved and the words of Piso could have no other meaning than that the Son of a Roman ought not to be distinguished from others as the Sons of the Parthian Kings were This is verified by his Letter to Tiberius under the name of Friend and the answer of Tiberius promising to him whatsoever one friend could do for another Here was no mention of Majesty or Soveraign Lord nor the base subscriptions of Servant Subject or Creature And I fear that as the last of those words was introduced amongst us by our Bishops the rest of them had bin also invented by such Christians as were too much addicted to the Asiatick Slavery However the name of King was never solemnly assumed by nor conferred upon those Emperors and could have conferred no right if it had They exercised as they pleased or as they durst the power that had bin gained by violence or fraud The exorbitances they committed could not have bin justified by a Title any more than those of a Pyrat who should take the same It was no otherwise given to them than by way of assimilation when they were guilty of the greatest Crimes and Tacitus describing the detestable Lust of Tiberius says Quibus adeo indomitis exarserat ut more Regio pubem ingenuam stupris pollueret nec formam tantum decora corporis sed in his modestam pueritiam in aliis majorum imagines incitamentum cupiditatis habebat He also informs us that Nero took his time to put Bareas Soranus to death who was one of the most virtuous men of that age when Tiridates King of Armenia was at Rome That he might shew the Imperial Grandeur by the slaughter of the most illustrious men which he accounted a Royal Action I leave it to the judgment of all wise men whether it be probable that the Apostles should distinguish such as these from other Magistrates and dignify those only with the Title of God's Ministers who distinguished themselves by such ways or that the succeeding Emperors should be ennobled with the same Prerogative who had no other Title to the name than by resembling those that had it in such things as these If this be too absurd and abominable to enter into the heart of a man it must be concluded that their intention was only to divert the poor People to whom they preached from involving themselves in the care of Civil matters to which they had no call And the Counsel would have bin good as things stood with them if they had bin under the power of a Pyrat or any other villain substituted by him But tho the Apostles had looked upon the Officers set over the Provinces belonging to the Roman Empire as sent by Kings I desire to know whether it can be imagined that they could think the subordinate Governors to be sent by Kings in the Countries that had no Kings or that obedience became due to the Magistrates in Greece Italy or other Provinces under the jurisdiction of Rome only after they had Emperors and that none was due to them before The Germans had then no King The brave Arminius had bin lately kill'd for aiming at a Crown When he had blemish'd all his Virtues by that attempt they forgot his former Services They never consider'd how many Roman Legions he had cut in pieces nor how many thousands of their Allies he had destroy'd His Valour was a crime deserving death when he sought to make a Prey of his Country which he had so bravely defended and to enslave those who with him had fought for the publick Liberty But if the Apostles were to be understood to give the name of God's Ministers only to Kings and those who are employ'd by them and that obedience is due to no other a domestick Tyrant had bin their greatest Benefactor He had set up the only Government that is authorized by God and to which a conscientious obedience is due Agathocles Dionysius Phalaris Phereus Pisistratus Nabis Machanidas and an infinite number of the most detestable Villains that the world has ever produced did confer the same benefits upon the
folly than we are to live in that wretched Barbarity in which the Romans found our Ancestors when they first entred this Island If any man say that Filmer dos not speak of Monsters nor of Children Women or Fools but of wise just and good Princes I answer that if there be a right inherent in Kings as Kings of doing what they please and in those who are next in blood to succeed them and inherit the same it must belong to all Kings and such as upon title of blood would be Kings And as there is no family that may not and dos not often produce such as I mentioned it must also be acknowledged in them and that power which is left to the wife just and good upon a supposition that they will not make an ill use of it must be devolved to those who will not or cannot make a good one but will either maliciously turn it to the destruction of those they ought to protect or through weakness suffer it to fall into the hands of those that govern them who are found by experience to be for the most part the worst of all most apt to use the basest arts and to flatter the humors and foment the vices that are most prevalent in weak and vicious Princes Germanicus Corbulo Valerius Asiaticus Thraseas Soranus Helvidius Priscus Julius Agricola and other excellent men lived in the times of Tiberius Caligula Claudius and Nero but the power was put into the hands of Sejanus Macro Tigellinus and other Villains like to them and I wish there were not too many modern examples to shew that weak and vicious Princes will never chuse such as shall preserve Nations from the mischiefs that would ensue upon their own incapacity or malice but that they must be imposed upon them by some other power or Nations be ruined for want of them This imposition must be by Law or by Force But as Laws are made to keep things in good order without the necessity of having recourse to force it would be a dangerous extravagance to arm that Prince with force which probably in a short time must be opposed by force and those who have bin guilty of this error as the Kingdoms of the East and the antient Roman Empire where no provision was made by Law against ill-governing Princes have found no other remedy than to kill them when by extreme sufferings they were driven beyond patience and this fell out so often that few of their Princes were observed to die by a common death But since the Empire was transmitted to Germany and the Emperors restrain'd by Laws that Nation has never bin brought to the odious extremities of suffering all manner of Indignities or revenging them upon the heads of Princes And if the Pope had not disturb'd them upon the account of Religion nor driven their Princes to disturb others they might have passed many ages without any civil Dissension and all their Emperors might have lived happily and died peaceably as most of them have done This might be sufficient to my purpose for if all Princes without distinction whether good or bad wise or foolish young or old sober or mad cannot be intrusted with an unlimited power and if the power they have ought to be limited by Law that Nations may not with danger to themselves as well as to the Prince have recourse to the last remedy this Law must be given to all and the good can be no otherwise distinguished from the bad and the wise from the foolish than by the observation or violation of it But I may justly go a step farther and affirm that this Law which by restraining the Lusts of the vicious and foolish frequently preserves them from the destruction they would bring upon themselves or people and sometimes upon both is an assistance and direction to the wisest and best so that they also as well as the Nations under them are gainers by it This will appear strange only to those who know not how difficult and insupportable the Government of great Nations is and how unable the best man is to bear it And if it surpass the strength of the best it may easily be determined how ordinary men will behave themselves under it or what use the worst will make of it I know there have bin wise and good Kings but they had not an absolute Power nor would have accepted it tho it had bin offer'd much less can I believe that any of them would have transmitted such a power to their posterity when none of them could know any more than Solomon whether his Son would be a wise man or a fool But if the best might have desired and had bin able to bear it tho Moses by his own confession was not that could be no reason why it should be given to the worst and weakest or those who probably will be so Since the assurance that it will not be abused during the life of one man is nothing to the constitution of a State which aims at perpetuity And no man knowing what men will be especially if they come to the power by succession which may properly enough be called by chance 't is reasonably to be feared they will be bad and consequently necessary so to limit their power that if they prove to be so the Commonwealth may not be destroy'd which they were instituted to preserve The Law provides for this in leaving to the King a full and ample power of doing as much good as his heart can wish and in restraining his power so that if he should depart from the duty of his Office the Nation may not perish This is a help to those who are wise and good by directing them what they are to do more certainly than any one mans personal judgment can do and no prejudice at all since no such man did ever complain he was not suffer'd to do the evil which he would abhor if it were in his power and is a most necessary curb to the sury of bad Princes preventing them from bringing destruction upon the people Men are so subject to vices and passions that they stand in need of some restraint in every condition but most especially when they are in power The rage of a private man may be pernicious to one or a few of his Neighbours but the fury of an unlimited Prince would drive whole Nations into ruin And those very men who have lived modestly when they had little power have often proved the most savage of all Monsters when they thought nothing able to resist their rage 'T is said of Caligula that no man ever knew a better Servant nor a worse Master The want of restraint made him a Beast who might have continued to be a Man And tho I cannot say that our Law necessarily admits the next in Blood to the Succession for the contrary is proved yet the facility of our Ancestors in receiving children women or such men as were not more
better or worse one than another cannot spring from any other root than the consent of the several Nations where they are in force and their opinions that such methods were best for them But if God have made a discrimination of people he that would thereupon ground a Title to the dominion of any one must prove that Nation to be under the curse of Slavery which for any thing I know was only denounced against Cham and 't is as hard to determine whether the sense of it be temporal spiritual or both as to tell preeisely what Nations by being only descended from him fall under the Penalties threatned If these therefore be either intirely false or impossible to be proved true there is no discrimination or not known to us and every People has a right of disposing of their Government as well as the Polanders Danes Swedes Germans and such as are or were under the Roman Empire And if any Nation has a natural Lord before he be admitted by their consent it must be by a peculiar act of their own as the Crown of France by an act of that Nation which they call the Salique Law is made hereditary to Males in a direct Line or the nearest to the direct and others in other places are otherwise disposed I might rest here with full assurance that no Disciple of Filmer can prove this of any people in the world nor give so much as the shadow of a reason to perswade us there is any such thing in any Nation or at least in those where we are concerned and presume little regard will be had to what he has said since he cannot prove of any that which he so boldly affirms of all But because good men ought to have no other object than Truth which in matters of this importance can never be made too evident I will venture to go farther and assert That as the various ways by which several Nations dispose of the succession to their respective Crowns shew they were subject to no other Law than their own which they might have made different by the same right they made it to be what it is even those who have the greatest veneration for the reigning Families and the highest regard for proximity of blood have always preferr'd the safety of the Commonwealth before the concernments of any Person or Family and have not only laid aside the nearest in blood when they were found to be notoriously vicious and wicked but when they have thought it more convenient to take others And to prove this I intend to make use of no other Examples than those I find in the Histories of Spain France and England Whilst the Goths governed Spain not above four persons in the space of three hundred years were the immediate successors of their Fathers but the Brother Cousin German or some other man of the Families of the Balthei or Amalthei was preferred before the Children of the deceased King and if it be said this was according to the Law of that Kingdom I answer that it was therefore in the power of that Nation to make Laws for themselves and consequently others have the same right One of their Kings called Wamba was deposed and made a Monk after he had reigned well many years but falling into a swound and his friends thinking him past recovery cut off his hair and put a Monk's Frock upon him that according to the superstition of those times he might die in it and the cutting off the hair being a most disgraceful thing amongst the Goths they would not restore him to his Authority Suintila another of their Kings being deprived of the Crown for his ill Government his Children and Brothers were excluded and Sisinandus crowned in his room This Kingdom being not long after overthrown by the Moors a new one arose from its ashes in the person of Don Pelayo first King of the Asturia's which increasing by degrees at last came to comprehend all Spain and so continues to this day But not troubling my self with all the deviations from the common rule in the collateral Lines of Navarr Arragon and Portugal I find that by fifteen several Instances in that one series of Kings in the Asturia's and Leon who afterwards came to be Kings of Castille it is fully proved that what respect soever they shew'd to the next in blood who by the Law were to succeed they preferred some other person as often as the supreme Law of taking care that the Nation might receive no detriment perswaded them to it Don Pelayo enjoy'd for his life the Kingdom conferred upon him by the Spaniards who with him retired into the Mountains to defend themselves against the Moors and was succeeded by his Son Favila But tho Favila left many Sons when he died Alphonso sirnamed the Chast was advanced to the Crown and they all laid aside Fruela Son to Alphonso the Catholick was for his cruelty deposed put to death and his Sons excluded Aurelio his Cousin German succeeded him and at his death Silo who married his Wives Sister was preferr'd before the Males of the Blood Royal. Alphonso sirnamed El Casto was first violently dispossess'd of the Crown by a Bastard of the Royal Family but he being dead the Nobility and People thinking Alphonso more fit to be a Monk than a King gave the Crown to Bermudo called El Diacono but Bermudo after several years resigning the Kingdom they conceived a better opinion of Alphonso and made him King Alphonso dying without issue Don Ramiro Son to Bermudo was preserred before the Nephews of Alphonso Don Ordonno fourth from Ramiro left four legitimate Sons but they being young the Estates laid them aside and made his Brother Fruela King Fruela had many Children but the same Estates gave the Crown to Alphonso the Fourth who was his Nephew Alphonso turning Monk recommended his Son Ordonno to the Estates of the Kingdom but they resused him and made his Brother Ramiro King Ordonno third Son to Ramiro dying left a Son called Bermudo but the Estates took his Brother Sancho and advanced him to the throne Henry the First being accidentally killed in his youth left only two Sisters Blanche married to Lewis Son to Philip August King of France and Berenguela married to Alphonso King of Leon. The Estates made Ferdinand Son of Berenguela the youngest Sister King excluding Blanche with her Husband and Children for being Strangers and Berenguela her self because they thought not fit that her Husband should have any part in the Government Alphonso El Savio seems to have bin a very good Prince but applying himself more to the study of Astrology than to affairs of Government his eldest Son Ferdinand de la Cerda dying and leaving his Sons Alphonso and Ferdinand very young the Nobility Clergy and People deposed him excluded his Grandchildren and gave the Crown to Don Sancho his younger Son sirnamed El Bravo thinking him more fit to command them against
the Moors than an old Astrologer or a Child Alphonso and Sancho being dead Alphonso El Desheredado laid claim to the Crown but it was given to Ferdinand the Fourth and Alphonso with his descendents the Dukes de Medina Celi remain excluded to this day Peter sirnamed the Cruel was twice driven out of the Kingdom and at last killed by Bertrand to Guesclin Constable of France or Henry Count of Trastamara his Bastard-Brother who was made King without any regard to the Daughters of Peter or to the House of La Cerda Henry the Fourth lest a Daughter called Joan whom he declared his Heir but the Estates gave the Kingdom to Isabel his Sister and crowned her with Ferdinand of Arragon her Husband Joan Daughter to this Ferdinand and Isabel salling mad the Estates committed the care of the Government to her Father Ferdinand and after his death to Charles her Son But the French have taught us that when a King dies his next Heir is really King before he take his Oath or be crowned From them we learn that Le mort saisit le vif And yet I know no History that proves more plainly than theirs that there neither is nor can be in any man a right to the Government of a People which dos not receive its being manner and measure from the Law of that Country which I hope to justify by four Reasons 1. When a King of Pharamond's Race died the Kingdom was divided into as many parcels as he had Sons which could not have bin if one certain Heir had bin assigned by nature for he ought to have had the whole and if the Kingdom might be divided they who inhabited the several parcels could not know to whom they owed obedience till the division was made unless he who was to be King of Paris Metz Soissons or Orleans had worn the Name of his Kingdom upon his forehead But in truth if there might be a division the Doctrine is false and there was no Lord of the whole This wound will not be healed by saying The Father appointed the division and that by the Law of nature every man may dispose of his own as he thinks fit for we shall soon prove that the Kingdom of France neither was nor is disposeable as a Patrimony or Chattel Besides if that Act of Kings had bin then grounded upon the Law of nature they might do the like at this day But the Law by which such Divisions were made having bin abrogated by the Assembly of Estates in the time of Hugh Capet and never practised since it follows that they were grounded upon a temporary Law and not upon the Law of Nature which is eternal If this were not so the pretended certainty could not be for no man could know to whom the last King had bequeathed the whole Kingdom or parcels of it till the Will were opened and that must be done before such Witnesses as may deserve credit in a matter of this importance and are able to judg whether the Bequest be rightly made for otherwise no man could know whether the Kingdom was to have one Lord or many nor who he or they were to be which intermission must necessarily subvert their Polity and this Doctrine But the truth is the most Monarchical men among them are so far from acknowledging any such right to be in the King of alienating bequeathing or dividing the Kingdom that they do not allow him the right of making a Will and that of the last King Lewis the 13th touching the Regency during the minority of his Son was of no effect 2. This matter was made more clear under the second race If a Lord had bin assigned to them by nature he must have bin of the Royal Family But Pepin had no other Title to the Crown except the merits of his Father and his own approved by the Nobility and People who made him King He had three sons the eldest was made King of Italy and dying before him lest a Son called Bernard Heir of that Kingdom The Estates of France divided what remained between Charles the Great and Carloman The last of these dying in few years left many Sons but the Nobility made Charles King of all France and he dispossessed Bernard of the Kingdom of Italy inherited from his Father so that he also was not King of the whole before the expulsion of Bernard the Son of his elder Brother nor of Aquitain which by inheritance should have belonged to the Children of his younger Brother any otherwise than by the will of the Estates Lewis the Debonair succeeded upon the same title was deposed and put into a Monastery by his three Sons Lothair Pepin and Lewis whom he had by his first Wife But tho these lest many Sons the Kingdom came to Charles the Bald. The Nobility and People disliking the eldest Son of Charles gave the Kingdom to Lewis le Begue who had a legitimate Son called Charles le Simple and two Bastards Lewis and Carloman who were made Kings Carloman had a Son called Lewis le faineant he was made King but afterwards deposed for his vicious Lise Charles le Gros succeeded him but for his ill Government was also deposed and Odo who was a stranger to the Royal Blood was made King The same Nobility that had made five Kings since Lewis le Begue now made Charles le Simple King who according to his name was entrapped at Peronne by Ralph Duke of Burgundy and forced to resign his Crown leaving only a Son called Lewis who fled into England Ralph being dead they took Lewis sirnamed Outremer and placed him in the Throne he had two Sons Lothair and Charles Lothair succeeded him and died without Issue Charles had as fair a title as could be by Birth and the Estates confessed it but their Ambassadors told him that he having by an unworthy Life render'd himself unworthy of the Crown they whose principal care was to have a good Prince at the head of them had chosen Hugh Capet and the Crown continues in his race to this day tho not altogether without interruption Robert Son to Hugh Capet succeeded him He left two Sons Robert and Henry but Henry the younger Son appearing to the Estates of the Kingdom to be more fit to reign than his elder Brother they made him King Robert and his descendents continuing Dukes of Burgundy only for about ten Generations at which time his Issue Male failing that Dutchy returned to the Crown during the Life of King John who gave it to his second Son Philip for an Apannage still depending upon the Crown The same Province of Burgundy was by the Treaty of Madrid granted to the Emperor Charles the fifth by Francis the first but the People resused to be alienated and the Estates of the Kingdom approved their refusal By the same Authority Charles the 6th was removed from the Government when he appeared to be mad and other examples of a like nature
may be alledged From which we may safely conclude that if the death of one King do really invest the next Heir with the Right and Power or that he who is so invested be subject to no Law but his own Will all matters relating to that Kingdom must have bin horribly confused during the reigns of 22 Kings of Pharamonds race they can have had no rightful King from the death of Chilperic to King John and the Succession since that time is very liable to be questioned if not utterly overthrown by the house of Austria and others who by the Counts of Hapsburg derive their Descent from Pharamond and by the house of Lorrain claiming from Charles who was excluded by Capet all which is most absurd and they who pretend it bring as much confusion into their own Laws and upon the Polity of their own Nation as shame and guilt upon the memory of their Ancestors who by the most extreme injustice have rejected their natural Lord or dispossessed those who had bin in the most solemn manner placed in the Government and to whom they had generally sworn Allegiance 3. If the next Heir be actually King seized of the power by the death of his Predecessor so that there is no intermission then all the Solemnities and religious Ceremonies used at the Coronations of their Kings with the Oaths given and taken are the most profane abuses of sacred things in contempt of God and Man that can be imagined most especially if the Act be as our Author calls it voluntary and the King receiving nothing by it be bound to keep it no longer than he pleases The Prince who is to be sworn might spare the pains of watching all night in the Church fasting praying confessing communicating and swearing that he will to the utmost of his power defend the Clergy maintain the union of the Church obviate all excess rapine extortion and iniquity take care that in all judgments Justice may be observed with Equity and Mercy c. or of invoking the assistance of the Holy Ghost for the better performance of his Oath and without ceremony tell the Nobility and People that he would do what he thought fit 'T were to as little purpose for the Archbishop of Rheims to take the trouble of saying Mass delivering to him the Crown Scepter and other ensigns of Royalty explaining what is signified by them anointing him with the Oil which they say was deliver'd by an Angel to St. Remigius blessing him and praying to God to bless him if he rightly performed his Oath to God and the People and denouncing the contrary in case of failure on his part if these things conferred nothing upon him but what he had before and were of no obligation to him Such ludifications of the most sacred things are too odious and impious to be imputed to Nations that have any virtue or profess Christianity This cannot fall upon the French and Spaniards who had certainly a great zeal to Religion whatever it was and were so eminent for moral Virtues as to be a reproach to us who live in an Age of more Knowledg But their meaning is so well declared by their most solemn Acts that none but those who are wilfully ignorant can mistake One of the Councils held at Toledo declared by the Clergy Nobility and others assisting That no man should be placed in the Royal Seat till he had sworn to preserve the Church c. Another held in the same place signified to Sisinandus who was then newly crown'd That if he or any of his Successors should contrary to their Oaths and the Laws of their Country proudly and cruelly presume to exercise Domination over them he should be excommunicated and separated from Christ and them to eternal judgment The French Laws and their best Writers asserting the same things are confirmed by perpetual practice Henry of Navarr tho certainly according to their Rules and in their esteem a most accomplish'd Prince was by two General Assemblies of the Estates held at Blois deprived of the Succession for being a Protestant and notwithstanding the greatness of his Reputation Valour Victories and Affability could never be admitted till he had made himself capable of the ceremonies of his Coronation by conforming to the Religion which by the Oath he was to defend Nay this present King tho haughty enough by nature and elevated by many successes has acknowledged as he says with joy that he can do nothing contrary to Law and calls it a happy impotence in pursuance of which he has annulled many Acts of his Father and Grandfather alienating the demeasnes of the Crown as things contrary to Law and not within their power These things being confirmed by all the good Authors of that Nation Filmer finds only the worst to be fit for his turn and neither minding Law nor History takes his Maxims from a vile flattering discourse of Bellay calculated for the personal interest of Henry the fourth then King of Navarr in which he says That the Heir apparent tho furious mad a fool vicious and in all respects abominably wicked must be admitted to the Crown But Bellay was so far from attaining the ends designed by his Book that by such Doctrines which filled all men with horror he brought great prejudice to his Master and procured little favour from Henry who desired rather to recommend himself to his People as the best man they could set up than to impose a necessity upon them of taking him if he had bin the worst But our Author not contented with what this Sycophant says in relation to such Princes as are placed in the Government by a Law establishing the Succession by inheritance with an impudence peculiar to himself asserts the same right to be in any man who by any means gets into Power and imposes the same necessity of obedience upon the Subject where there is no Law as Bellay dos by virtue of one that is established 4. In the last place As Bellay acknowledges that the right belongs to Princes only where 't is established by Law I deny that there is was or ever can be any such No People is known to have bin so mad or wicked as by their own consent for their own good and for the obtaining of Justice to give the power to Beasts under whom it could never be obtain'd or if we could believe that any had bin guilty of an act so full of folly turpitude and wickedness it could not have the force of a Law and could never be put in execution for tho the rules by which the proximity should be judged be never so precise it will still be doubted whose case sutes best with them Tho the Law in some places gives private Inheritances to the next Heir and in others makes allotments according to several proportions no one knows to whom or how far the benefit shall accrue to any man till it be adjudged by a Power to which the parties
must submit Contests will in the like manner arise concerning successions to Crowns how exactly soever they be disposed by Law For tho every one will say that the next ought to succeed yet no man knows who is the next which is too much verified by the bloody decisions of such disputes in many parts of the world and he that says the next in blood is actually King makes all questions thereupon arising impossible to be otherwise determined than by the Sword the pretender to the right being placed above the judgment of man and the Subjects for any thing I know obliged to believe serve and obey him if he says he has it For otherwise if either every man in particular or all together have a right of judging his title it can be of no value till it be adjudged I confess that the Law of France by the utter exclusion of Females and their descendents dos obviate many dangerous and inextricable difficulties but others remain which are sufficient to subvert all the Polity of that Kingdom if there be not a power of judging them and there can be none if it be true that Le mort saisit le vif Not to trouble my self with seigned cases that of Legitimation alone will suffice 'T is not enough to say that the Children born under marriage are to be reputed legitimate for not only several Children born of Joan Daughter to the King of Portugal Wife to Henry the Fourth of Castille during the time of their Marriage were utterly rejected as begotten in Adultery but also her Daughter Joan whom the King during his life and at the hour of his death acknowledged to have bin begotten by him and the only Title that Isabel who was married to Ferdinand of Arragon had to the Crown of Spain was derived from their rejection It would be tedious and might give offence to many great Persons if I should relate all the dubious cases that have bin or still remain in the World touching matters of this nature but the Lawyers of all Nations will testify that hardly any one point comes before them which affords a greater number of difficult Cases than that of Marriages and the Legitimation of Children upon them and Nations must be involved in the most inextricable difficulties if there be not a power somewhere to decide them which cannot be if there be no intermission and that the next in blood that is he who says he is the next be immediately invested with the right and power But surely no people has bin so careless of their most important Concernments to leave them in such uncertainty and simply to depend upon the humour of a man or the faith of women who besides their other Frailties have bin often accused of supposititious Births and mens passions are known to be so violent in relation to Women they love or hate that none can safely be trusted with those Judgments The virtue of the best would be exposed to a temptation that flesh and blood can hardly resist and such as are less perfect would follow no other rule than the blind impulse of the passion that for the present reigns in them There must therefore be a judg of such disputes as may in these cases arise in every Kingdom and tho 't is not my business to determine who is that judg in all places yet I may justly say that in England it is the Parliament If no inferiour Authority could debar Ignotus Son to the Lady Rosse born under the Protection from the inheritance of a private Family none can certainly assume a power of disposing of the Crown upon any occasion No Authority but that of the Parliament could legitimate the Children of Catherine Swinford with a proviso not to extend to the inheritance of the Crown Others might say if they were lawfully begotten they ought to inherit every thing and nothing if they were not But the Parliament knew how to limit a particular favour and prevent it from extending to a publick mischief Henry the Eighth took an expeditious way of obviating part of the Controversies that might arise from the multitude of his Wives by cutting off the heads of some as soon as he was weary of them or had a mind to take another but having bin hinder'd from dealing in the same manner with Catherine by the greatness of her birth and kindred he left such as the Parliament only could resolve And no less power would ever have thought of making Mary and Elizabeth capable of the succession when according to ordinary rules one of them must have bin a Bastard and it had bin absurd to say that both of them were immediately upon the death of their Predecessors possess'd of the Crown if an Act of Parliament had not conferred the right upon them which they could not have by birth But the Kings and Princes of England have not bin of a temper different from those of other Nations and many Examples may be brought of the like occasions of dispute happening every where and the like will probably be for ever which must necessarily introduce the most mischievous confusions and expose the Titles which as is pretended are to be esteemed most sacred to be overthrown by violence and fraud if there be not in all places a Power of deciding the controversies that arise from the uncertainty of Titles according to the respective Laws of every Nation upon which they are grounded No man can be thought to have a just Title till it be so adjudged by that power This judgment is the first step to the Throne The Oath taken by the King obliges him to observe the Laws of his Country and that concerning the succession being one of the principal he is obliged to keep that part as well as any other SECT XIX The greatest Enemy of a just Magistrate is he who endeavours to invalidate the Contract between him and the People or to corrupt their Manners 'T Is not only from Religion but from the Law of Nature that we learn the necessity of standing to the agreements we make and he who departs from the principle written in the hearts of men Pactis standum seems to degenerate into a beast Such as had virtue tho without true religion could tell us as a brave and excellent Grecian did that it was not necessary for him to live but it was necessary to preserve his Heart from deceit and his Tongue from falshood The Roman Satyrist carries the same Notion to a great height and affirms that tho the worst of Tyrants should command a man to be false and persar'd and back his injunction with the utmost of Torments he ought to prefer his integrity before his life And tho Filmer may be excused if he often mistake in matters of Theology yet his Inclinations to Rome which he prefers before Geneva might have led him to the Principles in which the honest Romans lived if he had not observed that such Principles as make men
most regular Commonwealths that ever were in the world And it can with no more reason be pretended that the Goths received their privileges from Alan or Theodoric the Francs from Pharamond or Meroveus and the English from Ina or Ethelred than that the liberty of Athens was the gift of Themistocles or Pericles that the Empire of Rome proceeded from the liberality of Brutus or Valerius and that the Commonwealth of Venice at this day subsists by the favour of the Contarini or Moresini which must reduce us to matter of right since that of fact void of right can signify nothing SECT XXXII The powers of Kings are so various according to the Constitutions of several States that no consequence can be drawn to the prejudice or advantage of any one merely from the name IN opposition to what is above said some alledg the name of King as if there were a charm in the word and our Author seems to put more weight upon it than in the reasons he brings to support his cause But that we may see there is no efficacy in it and that it conveys no other right than what particular Nations may annex to it we are to consider 1. That the most absolute Princes that are or have bin in the world never had the name of King whereas it has bin frequently given to those whose powers have bin very much restrained The Cesars were never called Kings till the sixth age of Christianity the Califs and Soldan of Egypt and Babylon the Great Turk the Cham of Tartary or the Great Mogol never took that name or any other of the same signification The Czar of Moscovy has it not tho he is as absolute a Monarch and his People as miserable slaves as any in the world On the other side the chief Magistrates of Rome and Athens for some time those of Sparta Arragon Sweden Denmark and England who could do nothing but by Law have bin called Kings This may be enough to shew that a name being no way essential what title soever is given to the chief Magistrate he can have no other power than the Laws and Customs of his Country do give or the People confer upon him 2. The names of Magistrates are often changed tho the power continue to be the same and the powers are sometimes alter'd tho the name remain When Octavius Cesar by the force of a mad corrupted Soldiery had overthrown all Law and Right he took no other title in relation to military Affairs than that of Imperator which in the time of liberty was by the Armies often given to Pretors and Consuls In Civil matters he was as he pretended content with the power of Tribun and the like was observed in his Successor who to new invented Usurpations gave old and approved names On the other side those titles which have bin render'd odious and execrable by the violent exercise of an absolute power are sometimes made popular by moderat elimitations as in Germany where tho the Monarchy seem to be as well temper'd as any the Princes retain the same names of Imperator Cesar and Augustus as those had done who by the excess of their rage and fury had desolated and corrupted the best part of world Sometimes the name is changed tho the power in all respects continue to be the same The Lords of Castille had for many Ages no other title than that of Count and when the Nobility and People thought good they changed it to that of King without any addition to the power The Sovereign Magistrate in Poland was called Duke till within the last two hundred years when they gave the title of King to one of the Jagellan Family which title has continued to this day tho without any change in the nature of the Magistracy And I presume no wise man will think that if the Venetians should give the name of King to their Duke it could confer any other power upon him than he has already unless more should be conferr'd by the Authority of the Great Council 3. The same names which in some places denote the supreme Magistracy in others are subordinate or merely titular In England France and Spain Dukes and Earls are Subjects in Germany the Electors and Princes who are called by those names are little less than Sovereigns and the Dukes of Savoy Tuscany Moscovy and others acknowledg no Superior as well as those of Poland and Castille had none when they went under those titles The same may be said of Kings Some are subject to a foreign power as divers of them were subject to the Persian and Babylonian Monarchs who for that reason were called the Kings of Kings Some also are tributaries and when the Spaniards first landed in America the great Kings of Mexico and Peru had many others under them Threescore and ten Kings gathered up meat under the table of Adonibezek The Romans had many Kings depending upon them Herod and those of his race were of this number and the dispute between him and his Sons Aristobulus and Alexander was to be determined by them neither durst he decide the matter till it was referred to him But a right of Appeal did still remain as appears by the case of St. Paul when Agrippa was King The Kings of Mauritania from the time of Massinissa were under the like dependence Jugurtha went to Rome to justify himself for the death of Micipsa Juba was commanded by the Roman Magistrates Scipio Petreius and Afranius another Juba was made King of the same Country by Augustus and Tiridates of Armenia by Nero and infinite examples of this nature may be alledged Moreover their powers are variously regulated according to the variety of tempers in Nations and Ages Some have restrained the powers that by experience were found to be exorbitant others have dissolved the bonds that were laid upon them and Laws relating to the institution abrogation enlargement or restriction of the regal Power would be utterly insignificant if this could not be done But such Laws are of no effect in any other Country than where they are made The lives of the Spartans did not depend upon the will of Agesilaus or Leonidas because Nabuchodonosor could kill or save whom he pleased and tho the King of Marocco may stab his Subjects throw them to the Lions or hang them upon tenterhooks yet a King of Poland would probably be called to a severe account if he should unjustly kill a single man SECT XXXIII The Liberty of a People is the gift of God and Nature IF any man ask how Nations come to have the power of doing these things I answer that Liberty being only an exemption from the dominion of another the question ought not to be how a Nation can come to be free but how a man comes to have a dominion over it for till the right of Dominion be proved and justified Liberty subsists as arising from the Nature and Being of a man Tertullian speaking of the
and safe 2. That 't is good as well for the Magistrate as the People so to constitute the Government that the Remedies may be easy and safe 3. That how dangerous and difficult soever they may be through the defects of the first Constitution they must be tried To the first 'T is most evident that in well-regulated Governments these Remedies have bin found to be easy and safe The Kings of Sparta were not suffer'd in the least to deviate from the rule of the Law And Theopompus one of those Kings in whose time the Ephori were created and the regal Power much restrained doubted not to affirm that it was by that means become more lasting and more secure Pausanias had not the name of King but commanded in the War against Xerxes with more than regal Power nevertheless being grown insolent he was without any trouble to that State banished and afterwards put to death Leontidas Father of Cleomenes was in the like manner banished The second Agis was most unjustly put to death by the Ephori for he was a brave and a good Prince but there was neither danger nor difficulty in the action Many of the Roman Magistrates after the expulsion of the Kings seem to have been desirous to extend their Power beyond the bounds of the Law and perhaps some others as well as the Decemviri may have designed an absolute Tyranny but the first were restrained and the others without much difficulty suppressed Nay even the Kings were so well kept in order that no man ever pretended to the Crown unless he were chosen nor made any other use of his Power than the Law permitted except the last Tarquin who by his insolence avarice and cruelty brought ruin upon himself and his family I have already mentioned one or two Dukes of Venice who were not less ambitious but their crimes returned upon their own heads and they perished without any other danger to the State than what had passed before their Treasons were discovered Infinite examples of the like nature may be alledged and if matters have not at all times and in all places succeeded in the same manner it has bin because the same courses were not every where taken for all things do so far follow their causes that being order'd in the same manner they will always produce the same effects 2. To the second Such a regulation of the magistratical Power is not at all grievous to a good Magistrate He who never desires to do any thing but what he ought cannot desire a Power of doing what he ought not nor be troubled to find he cannot do that which he would not do if he could This inability is also advantageous to those who are evil or unwise that since they cannot govern themselves a Law may be imposed upon them lest by following their own irregular will they bring destruction upon themselves their families and people as many have done If Apollo in the Fable had not bin too indulgent to Phaeton in granting his ill-conceiv'd request the furious Youth had not brought a necessity upon Jupiter either of destroying him or suffering the world to be destroy'd by him Besides good and wise men know the weight of Sovereign Power and misdoubt their own strength Sacred and human Histories furnish us with many examples of those who have feared the lustre of a Crown Men that find in themselves no delight in doing mischief know not what thoughts may insinuate into their minds when they are raised too much above their Sphere They who were able to bear adversity have bin precipitated into ruin by prosperity When the Prophet told Hazael the Villanies he would commit he answer'd Is thy Servant a dog that I should do these things but yet he did them I know not where to find an example of a man more excellently qualified than Alexander of Macedon but he fell under the weight of his own fortune and grew to exceed those in vice whom he had conquer'd by his virtue The nature of man can hardly suffer such violent changes without being disorder'd by them and every one ought to enter into a just diffidence of himself and fear the temptations that have destroy'd so many If any man be so happily born so carefully educated so established in virtue that no storm can shake him nor any poison corrupt him yet he will consider he is mortal and knowing no more than Solomon whether his Son shall be a wise man or a fool he will always fear to take upon him a power which must prove a most pestilent evil both to the person that has it and to those that are under it as soon as it shall fall into the hands of one who either knows not how to use it or may be easily drawn to abuse it Supreme Magistrates always walk in obscure and flippery places but when they are advanced so high that no one is near enough to support direct or restrain them their fall is inevitable and mortal And those Nations that have wanted the prudence dence rightly to balance the powers of their Magistrates have bin frequently obliged to have recourse to the most violent remedies and with much difficulty danger and blood to punish the crimes which they might have prevented On the other side such as have bin more wise in the constitution of their Governments have always had regard to the frailty of human nature and the corruption reigning in the hearts of men and being less liberal of the power over their lives and liberties have reserved to themselves so much as might keep their Magistrates within the limits of the Law and oblige them to perform the ends of their institution And as the Law which denounces severe penalties for crimes is indeed merciful both to ill men who are by that means deterred from committing them and to the good who otherwise would be destroy'd so those Nations that have kept the reins in their hands have by the same act provided as well for the safety of their Princes as for their own They who know the Law is well defended seldom attempt to subvert it they are not easily tempted to run into excesses when such bounds are set as may not safely be transgressed and whilst they are by this means render'd more moderate in the exercise of their Power the people is exempted from the odious necessity of suffering all manner of indignities and miseries or by their destruction to prevent or avenge them 3. To the third If these rules have not bin well observed in the first constitution or from the changes of times corruption of manners insensible encroachments or violent usurpations of Princes have bin render'd ineffectual and the people exposed to all the calamities that may be brought upon them by the weakness vices and malice of the Prince or those who govern him I confess the remedies are more difficult and dangerous but even in those cases they must be tried Nothing can be fear'd that is worse
Empire If the disputes between Durstus Evenus the third Dardannus and other Kings of Scotland with the Nobility and People might have bin determined by themselves they had escaped the punishments they suffer'd and ruined the Nation as they designed Other methods were taken they perished by their madness better Princes were brought into their plaees and their Successors were by their example admonished to avoid the ways that had proved fatal to them If Edward the second of England with Gaveston and the Spencers Richard the second with Tresilian and Vere had bin permitted to be the Judges of their own cases they who had murdered the best of the Nobility would have pursued their designs to the destruction of such as remained the enslaving of the Nation the subversion of the Constitution and the establishment of a mere Tyranny in the place of a mixed Monarchy But our Ancestors took better measures They who had felt the smart of the vices and follies of their Princes knew what remedies were most fit to be applied as well as the best time of applying them They found the effects of extreme corruption in Government to be so desperately pernicious that Nations must necessarily perish unless it be corrected and the State reduced to its first principle or altered Which being the case it was as easy for them to judg whether the Governor who had introduced that corruption should be brought to order removed if he would not be reclaimed or whether he should be suffer'd to ruin them and their posterity as it is for me to judg whether I should put away my Servant if I knew he intended to poison or murder me and had a certain facility of accomplishing his design or whether I should continue him in my service till he had performed it Nay the matter is so much the more plain on the side of the Nation as the disproportion of merit between a whole people and one or a few men entrusted with the power of governing them is greater than between a privat man and his servant This is so fully confirmed by the general consent of mankind that we know no Government that has not frequently either bin altered in form or reduced to its original purity by changing the families or persons who abused the power with which they had bin entrusted Those who have wanted wisdom and virtue rightly and seasonably to perform this have been soon destroy'd like the Goths in Spain who by omitting to curb the fury of Witza and Rodrigo in time became a prey to the Moors Their Kingdom by this means destroy'd was never restored and the remainder of that Nation joining with the Spaniards whom they had kept in subjection for three or four Ages could not in less than eight hundred years expel those enemies they might have kept out only by removing two base and vitious Kings Such Nations as have bin so corrupted that when they have applied themselves to seek remedies to the evils they suffered by wicked Magistrates could not fall upon such as were proportionable to the disease have only vented their Passions in destroying the immediate instruments of their oppression or for a while delay'd their utter ruin But the root still remaining it soon produced the same poisonous fruit and either quite destroy'd or made them languish in perpetual misery The Roman Empire was the most eminent example of the first many of the monsters that had tyrannized over them were killed but the greatest advantage gained by their death was a respit from ruin and the Government which ought to have bin established by good Laws depending only upon the virtue of one man his Life proved to be no more than a lucid interval and at his death they relapsed into the depth of Infamy and Misery and in this condition they continued till that Empire was totally subverted All the Kingdoms of the Arabians Medes Persians Moors and others of the East are of the other sort Common sense instructs them that barbarous pride cruelty and madness grown to extremity cannot be born but they have no other way than to kill the Tyrant and to do the like to his Successor if he fall into the same crimes Wanting that wisdom and valour which is requir'd for the institution of a good Government they languish in perpetual slavery and propose to themselves nothing better than to live under a gentle Master which is but a precarious lise and little to be valued by men of bravery and spirit But those Nations that are more generous who set a higher value upon Liberty and better understand the ways of preserving it think it a small matter to destroy a Tyrant unless they can also destroy the Tyranny They endeavour to do the work throughly either by changing the Government intirely or reforming it according to the first institution and making such good Laws as may preserve its integrity when reformed This has bin so frequent in all the Nations both antient and modern with whose actions we are best acquainted as appears by the foregoing examples and many others that might be alledged if the case were not clear that there is not one of them which will not furnish us with many instances and no one Magistracy now in being which dos not owe its original to some Judgment of this nature So that they must either derive their right from such actions or confess they have none at all and leave the Nations to their original liberty of setting up those Magistracies which best please themselves without any restriction or obligation to regard one person or family more than another SECT XLII The Person that wears the Crown cannot determine the Affairs which the Law refers to the King OUR Author with the rest of the vulgar seems to have bin led into gross errors by the form of Writs summoning persons to appear before the King The common stile used in the trial of Delinquents the name of the King's Witnesses given to those who accuse them the Verdicts brought in by Juries coram domino Rege and the prosecution made in the King's name seem to have caused this And they who understand not these Phrases render the Law a heap of the most gross absurdities and the King an Enemy to every one of his Subjects when he ought to be a Father to them all since without any particular consideration or examination of what any witness deposes in a Court of Justice tending to the death confiscation or other punishment of any man he is called the King's Witness whether he speak the truth or a lie and on that account favour'd 'T is not necessary to allege many instances in a case that is so plain but it may not be amiss to insert two or three of the most important reasons to prove my assertion 1. If the Law did intend that he or she who wears the Crown should in his or her person judg all causes and determine the most difficult questions it must like our
a Proclamation for their utter extirpation and not long after being informed of the truth he gave them leave by another Proclamation to kill whom they pleased which they executed upon seventy thousand men The Books of Ezra Nehemiah and Daniel manifestly discover the like fluctuation in all the Counsels of Nabuchodonosor Cyrus Darius and Artaxerxes When good men had credit with them they favour'd the Israelites sent them back to their own Country restored the sacred Vessels that had bin taken away gave them all things necessary for the rebuilding of the City and advanced the chief of them to the highest employments But if they fell into ill hands three just men must be thrown into the burning Furnace sor refusing to worship an Idol Daniel must be cast to the Lions the holy City esteemed rebellious and those who endeavoured to rebuild it enemies to Kings Such was the state of things when their Proclamations passed for Laws and numbers of flattering slaves were ready to execute their commands without examining whether they were just or unjust good or bad The life and death of the best men together with the very being of Nations was exposed to chance and they were either preserved or destroyed according to the humor of that man who spoke last to the King or happened to have credit with him If a frantick fancy come into the head of a drunken whore Persepolis must be burnt and the hand of Alexander is ready to execute her will If a dancing wench please Herod the most venerable of all human heads must be offered in a dish for a sacrifice to the rage of her impure mother The nature of man is so frail that wheresoever the word of a single Person has had the force of a Law the innumerable extravagances and mischiefs it has produced have bin so notorious that all Nations who are not stupid slavish and brutish have always abominated it and made it their principal care to find out remedies against it by so dividing and balancing the powers of their Government that one or a few men might not be able to oppress and destroy those they ought to preserve and protect This has always bin as grateful to the best and wisest Princes as necessary to the weakest and worst as I have proved already by the examples of Theopompus Moses and many others These considerations have given beginning growth and continuance to all the mixed Governments that have bin in the world and I may justly say there never was a good one that was not mixed If other proofs of their rectitude were wanting our Author's hatred would be enough to justify them He is so bitter an enemy to mankind as to be displeased with nothing but that which tends to their good and so perverse in his judgment that we have reason to believe that to be good which he most abhors One would think he had taken the model of the Government he proposes from the monstrous Tyranny of Ceylon an Island in the East-Indies where the King knows no other Law than his own will He kills tears in pieces empales or throws to his Elephants whomsoever he pleases No man has any thing that he can call his own He seldom fails to destroy those who have bin employ'd in his domestick Service or publick Offices and few obtain the favour of being put to death and thrown to the dogs without torments His Subjects approach him no otherwise than on their knees licking the dust and dare assume to themselves no other name than that of dogs or limbs of dogs This is a true pattern of Filmer's Patriarchical Monarch His Majesty as I suppose is sufficiently exalted for he dos whatever he pleases The exercise of his power is as gentle as can reasonably be expected from one who has all by the unquestionable right of usurpation and knows the people will no longer suffer him and the Villains he hires to be the instruments of his cruelty than they can be kept in such ignorance weakness and baseness as neither to know how to provide for themselves or dare to resist him We ought to esteem our selves happy if the like could be established among us and are much obliged to our Author for so kindly proposing an expedient that might terminate all our disputes Let Proclamations obtain the power of Laws and the business is done They may be so ingeniously contrived that the antient Laws which we and our Fathers have highly valued shall be abolished or made a snare to all those that dare remember they are Englishmen and are guilty of the unpardonable crime of loving their Country or have the courage conduct and reputation requir'd to defend it This is the sum of Filmer's Philosophy and this is the Legacy he has left to testify his affection to the Nation which having for a long time lain unregarded has bin lately brought into the light again as an introduction of a Popish Successor who is to be established as we ought to believe for the security of the Protestant Religion and our English Liberties Both will undoubtedly flourish under a Prince who is made to believe the Kingdom is his Patrimony that his Will is a Law and that he has a Power which none may resist If any man doubt whether he will make a good use of it he may only examine the Histories of what others in the same circumstances have done in all places where they have had power The principles of that Religion are so full of meekness and charity the Popes have always shew'd themselves so gentle towards those who would not submit to their Authority the Jesuits who may be accounted the Soul that gives life to the whole body of that Faction are so well natur'd faithful and exact in their morals so full of innocence justice and truth that no violence is to be fear'd from such as are govern'd by them The fatherly care shew'd to the Protestants of France by the five last Kings of the House of Valois the mercy of Philip the second of Spain to his Pagan Subjects in the West-Indies and the more hated Protestants in the Netherlands the moderation of the Dukes of Savoy towards the Vaudois in the Marquisat of Saluzzo and the Vallies of Piedmont the gentleness and faith of the two Maries Queens of England and Scotland the kindness of the Papists to the Protestants of Ireland in the year 1641 with what we have reason to believe they did and do still intend if they can accomplish the ends of their Conspiracy In a word the sweetness and Apostolical meekness of the Inquisition may sufficiently convince us that nothing is to be feared where that principle reigns We may suffer the word of such a Prince to be a Law and the people to be made to believe it ought to be so when he is expected Tho we should wave the Bill of Exclusion and not only admit him to reign as other Kings have done but resign the whole power into
manifest this by the words Be it enacted by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled and by Authority of the same But King James says Filmer in his Law of free Monarchy affirms the contrary and it may be so yet that is nothing to us No man doubts that he desired it might be so in England but it dos not from thence appear that it is so The Law of a free Monarchy is nothing to us for that Monarchy is not free which is regulated by a Law not to be broken without the guilt of Perjury as he himself confessed in relation to ours As to the words cited from Hooker I can find no hurt in them To draw up the form of a good Law is a matter of invention and judgment but it receives the force of a Law from the power that enacts it We have no other reason for the paiment of Excise or Customs than that the Parliament has granted those Revenues to the King to defray the publick Charges Whatever therefore King James was pleased to say in his Books or in those written for him we do not so much as know that the killing of a King is Treason or to be punished with death otherwise than as it is enacted by Parliament and it was not always so for in the time of Ethelstan the Estimates of Lives were agreed in Parliament and that of a King valued at thirty thousand Thrymsae And if that Law had not bin alter'd by the Parliament it must have bin in force at this day It had bin in vain for a King to say he would have it otherwise for he is not created to make Laws but to govern according to such as are made and sworn to assent to such as shall be proposed He who thinks the Crown not worth accepting on these conditions may refuse it The words Le Roy le veult are only a pattern of the French fashions upon which some Kings have laid great stress and would no doubt have bin glad to introduce Car tel est nostre plaisir but that may prove a difficult matter Nay in France it self where that Stile and all the ranting expressions that please the vainest of men are in mode no Edict has the power of a Law till it be registred in Parliament This is not a mere ceremony as some pretend but all that is essential to a Law Nothing has bin more common than for those Parliaments to refuse Edicts sent to them by the King When John Chastel had at the instigation of the Jesuits stabb'd Henry the fourth in the Mouth and that Order had designed or executed many other execrable crimes they were banished out of the Kingdom by an Arrest of the Parliament of Paris Some other Parliaments registred the same but those of Tholouse and Bordeaux absolutely refused and notwithstanding all that the King could do the Jesuits continued at Tournon and many other places within their Precincts till the Arrest was revoked These proceedings are so displeasing to the Court that the most violent ways have bin often used to abolish them About the year 1650 Seguier then Chancellor of France was sent with a great number of Soldiers to oblige the Parliament of Paris to pass some Edicts upon which they had hesitated but he was so far from accomplishing his design that the People rose against him and he thought himself happy that he escaped with his Life If the Parliaments do not in all parts of the Kingdom continue in the Liberty of approving or rejecting all Edicts the Law is not altered but oppressed by the violence of the Sword And the Prince of Condé who was principally employ'd to do that work may as I suppose have had leisure to reflect upon those Actions and cannot but find reason to conclude that his excellent valour and conduct was used in a most noble exploit equally beneficial to his Country and himself However those who are skilled in the Laws of that Nation do still affirm that all publick Acts which are not duly examined and registred are void in themselves and can be of no force longer than the miserable People lies under the violence of Oppression which is all that could reasonably be said if a Pirat had the same power over them But whether the French have willingly offer'd their ears to be bor'd or have bin subdued by force it concerns us not Our Liberties depend not upon their will virtue or fortune how wretched and shameful soever their Slavery may be the evil is only to themselves We are to consider no human Laws but our own and if we have the spirit of our Ancestors we shall maintain them and die as free as they left us Le Roy le veut tho written in great Letters or pronounced in the most tragical manner can signify no more than that the King in performance of his Oath dos assent to such Laws as the Lords and Commons have agreed Without prejudice to themselves and their Liberties a People may suffer the King to advise with his Council upon what they propose Two eyes see more than one and human judgment is subject to errors Tho the Parliament consist of the most eminent men of the Nation yet when they intend good they may be mistaken They may sefely put a check upon themselves that they may farther consider the most important matters and correct the errors that may have bin committed if the King's Council do discover them but he can speak only by the advice of his Council and every man of them is with his head to answer for the advices he gives If the Parliament has not bin satisfied with the reasons given against any Law that they offer'd it has frequently pass'd and if they have bin satisfied 't was not the King but they that laid it aside He that is of another opinion may try whether Le Roy le veut can give the force of a Law to any thing conceived by the King his Council or any other than the Parliament But if no wise man will affirm that he can do it or deny that by his Oath he is obliged to assent to those that come from them he can neither have the Legislative power in himself nor any other part in it than what is necessarily to be performed by him as the Law prescribes I know not what our Author means by saying Le Roy le veut is the interpretative phrase pronounced at the passing of every Act of Parliament For if there be difficulty in any of them those words do no way remove it But the following part of the paragraph better deserves to be observed It was says he the antient custom for á long time until the days of Henry the fifth for the Kings when any Bill was brought to them that had passed both Houses to take and pick out what they liked not and so much as they chose was enacted as a Law But the custom of the
latter Kings hath bin so gracious as to allow always of the intire Bill as it passed both Houses He judiciously observes when our Kings began to be gracious and we to be free That King excepting the persecution for Religion in his time which is rather to be imputed to the ignorance of that age than to any evil in his own nature governed well and as all Princes who have bin virtuous and brave have always desired to preserve their Subjects Liberty which they knew to be the mother and nurse of their Valour fitting them for great and generous Enterprizes his care was to please them and to raise their Spirits But about the same time those detestable Arts by which the mixed Monarchies in this part of the world have bin every where terribly shaken and in many places totally overthrown began to be practised Charles the seventh of France under pretence of carrying on a War against him and his Son took upon him to raise Mony by his own Authority and we know how well that method has bin pursued The mischievous sagacity of his Son Lewis the 11th which is now called King-Craft was wholly exerted in the subversion of the Laws of France and the Nobility that supported them His Successors except only Lewis the 12th followed his example and in other Nations Ferdinand of Arragon James the third of Scotland and Henry the seventh of England were thought to imitate him the most Tho we have little reason to commend all the Princes that preceded Henry the fifth yet I am inclined to date the general impairing of our Government from the death of that King and his valiant Brothers His weak Son became a prey to a furious French woman who brought the Maxims of her own Country into ours and advanced the worst of villains to govern according to them These measures were pursued by Edward the fourth whose wants contracted by prodigality and debauchery were to be supplied by fraud and rapine The ambition cruelty and persidiousness of Richard the third the covetousness and malicious subtilty of Henry the seventh the violent lust rage and pride of Henry the 8th and the bigotted fury of Queen Mary instigated by the craft and malice of Spain perswaded me to believe that the English Liberty did not receive birth or growth from the favour and goodness of their gracious Princes But it seems all this is mistaken Henry the sixth was wise valiant and no way guided by his Wife Edward the sourth continent sober and contented with what the Nation gave him Richard the third mild gentle and faithful Henry the 7th sincere and satisfied with his own Henry the 8th humble temperate and just and Queen Mary a friend to our Country and Religion No less praises sure can be due to those who were so gracious to recede from their own right of picking what they pleased out of our Laws and to leave them intirely to us as they passed both Houses We are beholden to our Author for the discovery of these mysteries but tho he seems to have taken an Oath like that of the Gypsies when they enter into that virtuous Society never to speak one word of truth he is not so subtle in concealing his Lies All Kings were trusted with the publication of the Laws but all Kings did not falsify them Such as were not wicked and vicious or so weak as to be made subservient to the malice of their Ministers and Flatterers could never be drawn into the guilt of so infamous a cheat directly contrary to the Oath of their Coronation They swear to pass such Laws as the People chuse but if we will believe our Author they might have pick'd out whatever they pleased and falsly imposed upon the Nation as a Law made by the Lords and Commons that which they had modelled according to their own will and made to be different from or contrary to the intention of the Parliament The King's part in this fraud of which he boasts was little more than might have bin done by the Speaker or his Clerks They might have falfified an Act as well as the King tho they could not so well preserve themselves from punishment 'T is no wonder if for a while no stop was put to such an abominable Custom 'T was hard to think a King would be guilty of a fraud that were infamous in a Slave But that proved to be a small security when the worst of Slaves came to govern them Nevertheless 't is probable they proceeded cautioufly the first alterations were perhaps innocent or it may be for the best But when they had once found out the way they stuck at nothing that seemed for their purpose This was like the plague of Leprosy that could not be cured the house infected was to be demolished the poisonous plant must be torn up by the root the trust that had bin broken was to be abolished they who had perverted or frustrated the Law were no longer to be suffered to make the least alteration and that brave Prince readily joined with his People to extinguish the mischievous abuse that had bin introduced by some of his worthless Predecessors The worst and basest of them had continual disputes with their Parliaments and thought that whatever they could detract from the Liberty of the Nation would serve to advance their Prerogative They delighted in frauds and would have no other Ministers but such as would be the instruments of them Since their Word could not be made to pass for a Law they endeavoured to impose their own or their Servants inventions as Acts of Parliaments upon the deluded people and to make the best of them subservient to their corrupt Ends and pernicious Counsels This if it had continued might have overthrown all our Rights and deprived us of all that men can call good in the world But the Providence of God furnished our Ancestors with an opportunity of providing against so great so universal a mischief They had a wise and valiant Prince who scorned to encroach upon the Liberties of his Subjects and abhorred the detestable Arts by which they had bin impair'd He esteemed their courage strength and love to be his greatest advantage riches and glory He aimed at the conquest of France which was only to be effected by the bravery of a free and well-satisfied People Slaves will always be cowards and enemies to their Master By bringing his Subjects into that condition he must infallibly have ruined his own designs and made them unfit to fight either for him or themselves He desired not only that his People should be free during his time but that his Successors should not be able by oblique and fraudulent ways to enslave them If it be a reproach to us that Women have reigned over us 't is much more to the Princes that succeeded our Henry that none of them did so much imitate him in his Government as Queen Elizabeth She did not go about to mangle Acts