lineal Subjection And in the next affirms That the Ignorance of the Creation occasioned several amongst the Heathen Philosophers to think that men met together as herds of Cattel Whereas they could not have bin ignorant of the Creation if they had read the Books that Moses writ and having that knowledg they could not think that men met together as herds of Cattel However I deny that any of them did ever dream of that lineal Subjection derived from the first Parents of mankind or that any such thing was to be learnt from Moses Tho they did not perhaps justly know the beginning of Mankind they did know the beginnings and progress of the Governments under which they lived and being assured that the first Kingdoms had bin those which they called Heroum Regna that is of those who had bin most beneficial to Mankind that their Descendents in many places degenerating from their Vertues had given Nations occasion to set up Aristocracies and they also falling into corruption to institute Democracies or mixed Governments did rightly conclude That every Nation might justly order their own Affairs according to their own pleasure and could have neither obligation nor reason to set up one man or a few above others unless it did appear to them that they had more of those Virtues which conduce to the good of Civil Societies than the rest of their Brethren Our Author's cavil upon Aristotle's Opinion That those who are wise in mind are by Nature sitted to be Lords and those who are strong of body ordained to obey deserves no answer for he plainly falsifies the Text Aristotle speaks only of those qualities which are required for every purpose and means no more than that such as are eminent in the virtues of the mind deserve to govern tho they do not excel in bodily strength and that they who are strong of body tho of little understanding and uncapable of commanding may be useful in executing the commands of others But is so far from denying that one man may excel in all the perfections of mind and body that he acknowledges him only to be a King by nature who dos so both being required for the full performance of his Duty And if this be not true I suppose that one who is like Agrippa Posthumus Corporis viribus stolidé ferox may be fit to govern many Nations and Moses or Samuel if they naturally wanted bodily strength or that it decayed by age might justly be made Slaves which is discovery worthy our Author's invention SECT II. Every Man that hath Children hath the right of a Father and is capable of preferment in a Society composed of many I Am not concerned in making good what Suarez says A Jesuit may speak that which is true but it ought to be received as from the Devil cautiously lest mischief be hid under it and Sir Robert's frequent prevarications upon the Scripture and many good Authors give reason to suspect he may have falsified one that few Protestants read if it served to his purpose and not mentioning the place his fraud cannot easily be discovered unless it be by one who has leisure to examin all his vastly voluminous Writings But as to the point in question that pains may be saved there is nothing that can be imputed to the invention of Suarez for that Adam had only an Oeconomical not a political Power is not the voice of a Jesuit but of Nature and common Sense for Politick signifying no more in Greek than Civil in Latin 't is evident there could be no Civil Power where there was no Civil Society and there could be none between him and his Children because a Civil Society is composed of Equals and fortified by mutual compacts which could not be between him and his Children at least if there be any thing of truth in our Author's Doctrine That all Children do perpetually and absolutely depend upon the Will of their Father Suarez seems to have bin of another opinion and observing the benefits we receive from Parents and the Veneration we owe to them to be reciprocal he could not think any Duty could extend farther than the knowledg of the Relation upon which it was grounded and makes a difference between the Power of a Father before and after his Children are made free that is in truth before and after they are able to provide for themselves and to deliver their Parents from the burden of taking care of them which will appear rational to any who are able to distinguish between what a Man of fifty years old subsisting by himself and having a Family of his own or a Child of eight doth owe to his Father The same reason that obliges a Child to submit entirely to the Will of his Parents when he is utterly ignorant of all things dos permit and often enjoyn men of ripe age to examin the commands they receive before they obey them and 't is not more plain that I owe all manner of duty affection and respect to him that did beget and educate me than that I can owe nothing on any such account to one that did neither This may have bin the opinion of Suarez but I can hardly believe such a notion as that Adam in process of time might have Servants could proceed from any other brain than our Authors for if he had lived to this day he could have had none under him but his own Children and if a Family be not compleat without Servants his must always have bin defective and his Kingdom must have bin so too if that has such a resemblance to a Family as our Author fancies This is evident that a hard Father may use his Children as Servants or a rebellious stubborn Son may deserve to be so used and a gentle and good Master may shew that kindness to faithful and well-deserving Servants which resembles the sweetness of a fatherly rule but neither of them can change their nature a Son can never grow to be a Servant nor a Servant to be a Son If a Family therefore be not compleat unless it consist of Children and Servants it cannot be like to a Kingdom or City which is composed of Freemen and Equals Servants may be in it but are not Members of it As Truth can never be repugnant to Justice 't is impossible this should be a prejudice to the paternal rule which is most just especially when a grateful remembrance of the benefits received doth still remain with a necessary and perpetual obligation of repaying them in all affection and duty whereas the care of ever providing for their Families as they did probably increase in the time of our first long living Fathers would have bin an insupportable burden to Parents if it had bin incumbent on them We do not find that Adam exercised any such power over Cain when he had slain Abel as our Author fancies to be Regal The Murderer went out and built a City for himself and called it by the
I presume no wise man will think I do so if I profess that having observed as well as I can what History and daily Experience teach us concerning the Virtues and Religions that are or have bin from the beginning of the World encouraged and supported by Monarchs the methods they have follow'd since they have gone under the name of Christians their moral as well as their theological Graces together with what the Scriptures tell us of those who in the last days will principally support the Throne of Antichrist I cannot be confident that they are generally in an extraordinary manner preserved by the hand of God from the Vices and Frailties to which the rest of mankind is subject If no man can shew that I am in this mistaken I may conclude that as they are more than any other men in the world exposed to temptations and snares they are more than any in danger of being corrupted and made Instruments of corrupting others if they are no otherwise defended than the rest of men This being the state of the matter on both sides we may easily collect that all Governments are subject to corruption and decay but with this difference that Absolute Monarchy is by principle led unto or rooted in it whereas mixed or popular Governments are only in a possibility of falling into it As the first cannot subsist unless the prevailing part of the people be corrupted the other must certainly perish unless they be preserved in a great measure free from Vices and I doubt whether any better reason can be given why there have bin and are more Monarchies than popular Governments in the world than that Nations are more easily drawn into corruption than defended from it and I think that Monarchy can be said to be natural in no other sense than that our depraved nature is most inclined to that which is worst To avoid unnecessary Disputes I give the name of Popular Governments to those of Rome Athens Sparta and the like tho improperly unless the same may also be given to many that are usually called Monarchies since there is nothing of violence in either the Power is conferr'd upon the chief Magistrates of both by the free consent of a willing People and such a part as they think fit is still retained and executed in their own Assemblies and in this sense it is that our Author seems to speak against them As to Popular Government in the strictest sense that is pure Democracy where the People in themselves and by themselves perform all that belongs to Government I know of no such thing and if it be in the World have nothing to say for it In asserting the Liberty generally as I suppose granted by God to all mankind I neither deny that so many as think fit to enter into a Society may give so much of their Power as they please to one or more men for a time or perpetually to them and their Heirs according to such Rules as they prescribe nor approve the Disorders that must arise if they keep it intirely in their own hands And looking upon the several Governments which under different forms and names have bin regularly constituted by Nations as so many undeniable Testimonies that they thought it good for themselves and their Posterity so to do I infer that as there is no man who would not rather chuse to be governed by such as are just industrious valiant and wise than by those that are wicked slothful cowardly and foolish and to live in society with such as are qualified like those of the first sort rather than with those who will be ever ready to commit all manner of Villanies or want experience strength or courage to join in repelling the Injuries that are offer'd by others So there are none who do not according to the measure of understanding they have endeavour to set up those who seem to be best qualified and to prevent the introduction of those Vices which render the Faith of the Magistrate suspected or make him unable to perform his duty in providing for the execution of Justice and the publick defence of the State against Foreign or Domestick Enemies For as no man who is not absolutely mad will commit the care of a Flock to a Villain that has neither skill diligence nor courage to defend them or perhaps is maliciously set to destroy them rather than to a stout faithful and wise Shepherd 't is less to be imagined that any would commit the same error in relation to that Society which comprehends himself with his Children Friends and all that is dear to him The same Considerations are of equal force in relation to the Body of every Nation For since the Magistrate tho the most perfect in his kind cannot perform his duty if the people be so base vicious effeminate and cowardly as not to second his good Intentions those who expect good from him cannot desire so to corrupt their Companions that are to help him as to render it impossible for him to accomplish it Tho I believe there have bin in all Ages bad men in every Nation yet I doubt whether there was one in Rome except a Catiline or a Cesar who design'd to make themselves Tyrants that would not rather have wished the whole People as brave and virtuous as in the time of the Carthaginian Wars than vile and base as in the days of Nero and Domitian But 't is madness to think that the whole Body would not rather wish to be as it was when Virtue flourished and nothing upon earth was able to resist their power than weak miserable base slavish and trampled under foot by any that would invade them and forced as a Chattel to become a prey to those that were strongest Which is sufficient to shew that a People acting according to the liberty of their own Will never advance unworthy men unless it be by mistake nor willingly suffer the introduction of Vices Whereas the Absolute Monarch always prefers the worst of those who are addicted to him and cannot subsist unless the prevailing part of the People be base and vicious If it be said that those Governments in which the Democratical part governs most do more frequently err in the choice of men or the means of preserving that purity of Manners which is required for the well-being of a People than those wherein Aristocracy prevails I confess it and that in Rome and Athens the best and wisest men did for the most part incline to Aristocracy Xenophon Plato Aristotle Thucydides Livy Tacitus Cicero and others were of this sort But if our Author there seek Patrons for his Absolute Monarchy he will find none but Phalaris Agathocles Dionysius Catiline Cethegus Lentulus with the corrupted Crew of mercenary Rascals who did or endeavour'd to set them up These are they quibus ex honesto nulla est spes they abhor the Dominion of the Law because it curbs their Vices and make themselves subservient to
Diogenes seeing him at Corinth tho in a poor and contemptible condition said he rather deserved to have continued in the misery fears and villanies of his Tyranny than to be suffer'd peaceably to converse with honest men And if such as these are to be called observers of Justice it must be concluded that the Laws of God and of Men are either of no value or contrary to it and that the destruction of Nations is a better work than their preservation No Faith is to be observed Temples may be justly sack'd the best men slain for daring to be better than their Masters and the whole World if it were in the power of one Man rightly torn in pieces and destroy'd His Reasons for this are as good as his Doctrin It is saith he the multitude of people and abundance of riches that are the glory and strength of every Prince the bodies of his Subjects do him service in War and their goods supply his wants Therefore if not out of affection to his people yet out of natural love unto himself every Tyrant desires to preserve the lives and goods of his Subjects I should have thought that Princes tho Tyrants being God's Vicegerents and Fathers of their People would have sought their good tho no advantage had thereby redounded to themselves but it seems no such thing is to be expected from them They consider Nations as Grasiers do their Herds and Flocks according to the profit that can be made of them and if this be so a People has no more security under a Prince than a Herd or Flock under their Master Tho he desire to be a good Husband yet they must be delivered up to the slaughter when he finds a good Market or a better way of improving his Land but they are often foolish riotous prodigal and wantonly destroy their Stock tho to their own prejudice We thought that all Princes and Magistrates had bin set up that under them we might live quietly and peaceably in all godliness and honesty but our Author teaches us that they only seek what they can make of our Bodies and Goods and that they do not live and reign for us but for themselves If this be true they look upon us not as Children but as Beasts nor do us any good for our own sakes or because it is their duty but only that we may be useful to them as Oxen are put into plentiful Pastures that they may be strong for labour or fit for slaughter This is the divine Model of Government that he offers to the World The just Magistrate is the Minister of God for our good but this Absolute Monarch has no other care of us than as our Riches and Multitude may increase his own Glory and Strength We might easily judg what would be the issue of such a Principle when the Being of Nations depending upon his will must also depend upon his opinion whether the Strength Multitude and Riches of a People do conduce to the increase of Glory and Power or not tho Histories were silent in the case for these things speak of themselves The judgment of a single man is not to be relied upon the best and wisest do osten err the foolish and perverse always and our discourse is not of what Moses or Samuel would do but what may come into the fancy of a furious or wicked man who may usurp the supreme Power or a child a woman or a fool that may inherit it Besides the Proposition upon which he builds his Conclusion proves often false for as the Riches Power Number and Courage of our Friends is for our advantage and that of our Enemies threatens us with ruin those Princes only can reasonably believe the strength of their Subjects beneficial to them who govern so as to be assured of their Affection and that their Strength will be employ'd for them But those who know they are or deserve to be hated cannot but think it will be employ'd against them and always seek to diminish that which creates their danger This must certainly befal as many as are lewd foolish negligent imprudent cowardly wicked vicious or any way unworthy the places they obtain for their Reign is a perpetual exercise of the most extreme and ruinous Injustice Every man that follows an honest Interest is prejudic'd Every one who finds the Power that was ordained for his good to be turned to his hurt will be angry and hate him that dos it If the People be of uncorrupted manners this hatred will be universal because every one of them desires that which is just if composed of good and evil the first will always be averse to the evil Government and the others endeavouring to uphold it the safety of the Prince must depend upon the prevalence of either Party If the best prove to be the strongest he must perish and knowing himself to be supported only by the worst he will always destroy as many of his Enemies as he can weaken those that remain enrich his Creatures with their Spoils and Confiscations by fraud and rapine accumulate Treasures to increase the number of his Party and advance them into all places of power and trust that by their assistance he may crush his Adversaries and every man is accounted his Adversary who has either Estate Honor Virtue or Reputation This naturally casts all the Power into the hands of those who have no such dangerous qualities nor any thing to recommend them but an absolute resignation of themselves to do whatever they are commanded These men having neither will nor knowledg to do good as soon as they come to be in power Justice is perverted military Discipline neglected the publick Treasures exhausted new Projects invented to raise more and the Prince's wants daily increasing through their ignorance negligence or deceit there is no end of their devices and tricks to gain supplies To this end swarms of Spies Informers and false Witnesses are sent out to circumvent the richest and most eminent men The Tribunals are fill'd with Court-Parasites of profligate Consciences Fortunes and Reputation that no man may escape who is brought before them If Crimes are wanting the diligence of well-chosen Officers and Prosecutors with the favour of the Judges supply all defects the Law is made a Snare Virtue suppress'd Vice fomented and in a short time Honesty and Knavery Sobriety and Lewdness Virtue and Vice become Badges of the several Factions and every man's conversation and manners shewing to what Party he is addicted the Prince who makes himself head of the worst must favour them to the overthrow of the best which is so streight a way to an universal ruin that no State can prevent it unless that course be interrupted These things consider'd no general Judgment can be made of a Magistrate's Counsels from his Name or Duty He that is just and become grateful to the People by doing good will find his own Honour and Security in increasing their Number
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
Princes that have bin in the world who having their power for life and leaving it to descend to their children have wanted the Virtues requir'd for the performance of their duty And I should less fear to be guilty of an absurdity in saying that a Nation might every year change its Head than that he can be the Head who cares not for the Members nor understands the things that conduce to their good most especially if he set up an Interest in himself against them It cannot be said that these are imaginary cases and that no Prince dos these things for the proof is too easy and the examples too numerous Caligula could not have wished the Romans but one Head that he might cut it off at once if he had bin that Head and had advanced no Interest contrary to that of the Members Nero had not burn'd the City of Rome if his concernments had bin inseparably united to those of the people He who caused above three hundred thousand of his innocent unarmed Subjects to be murder'd and fill'd his whole Kingdom with fire and blood did set up a personal Interest repugnant to that of the Nation and no better testimony can be requir'd to shew that he did so than a Letter written by his Son to take off the penalty due to one of the chief Ministers of those cruelties for this reason that what he had done was by the command and for the service of his Royal Father King John did not pursue the advantage of his people when he endeavoured to subject them to the Pope or the Moors And whatever Prince seeks assistance from foreign Powers or makes Leagues with any stranger or enemy for his own advantage against his people however secret the Treaty may be declares himself not to be the Head but an enemy to them The Head cannot stand in need of an exterior help against the Body nor subsist when divided from it He therefore that courts such an assistance divides himself from the Body and if he do subsist it must be by a life he has in himself distinct from that of the Body which the Head cannot have But besides these enormities that testify the most wicked rage and fury in the highest degree there is another practice which no man that knows the world can deny to be common with Princes and incompatible with the nature of a Head The Head cannot desire to draw all the nourishment of the Body to it self nor more than a due proportion If the rest of the parts are sick weak or cold the Head suffers equally with them and if they perish must perish also Let this be compared with the actions of many Princes we know and we shall soon see which of them are Heads of their people If the Gold brought from the Indies has bin equally distributed by the Kings of Spain to the body of that Nation I consent they may be called the Heads If the Kings of France assume no more of the Riches of that great Kingdom than their due proportion let them also wear that honourable name But if the naked backs and empty bellies of their miserable Subjects evince the contrary it can by no means belong to them If those great Nations wast and languish if nothing be so common in the best Provinces belonging to them as misery famine and all the effects of the most outragious oppression whilst their Princes and Favorites possess such treasures as the most wanton prodigality cannot exhaust if that which is gained by the sweat of so many millions of men be torn out of the mouths of their starving Wives and Children to foment the vices of those luxurious Courts or reward the Ministers of their lusts the nourishment is not distributed equally to all the parts of the body the oeconomy of the whole is overthrown and they who do these things cannot be the Heads nor parts of the Body but something distinct from and repugnant to it 'T is not therefore he who is found in or advanced to the place of the Head who is truly the Head 'T is not he who ought but he who dos perform the office of the Head that deserves the name and privileges belonging to the Head If our Another theresore will perswade us that any King is Head of his People he must do it by Arguments peculiarly relating to him since those in general are found to be false If he say that the King as King may direct or correct the people and that the power of determining all controversies must be referred to him because they may be mistaken he must show that the King is infallible for unless he do so the wound is not cured This also must be by some other way than by saying he is their Head for such Powers belong not to the office of the Head and we see that all Kings do not deserve that name Many of them want both understanding and will to perform the functions of the Head and many act directly contrary in the whole course of their Government If any therefore among them have merited the glorious name of Heads of Nations it must have bin by their personal Virtues by a vigilant care of the good of their People by an inseparable conjunction of interests with them by an ardent love to every member of the Society by a moderation of spirit affecting no undue Superiority or assuming any singular advantage which they are not willing to communicate to every part of the political body He who finds this merit in himself will scorn all the advantages that can be drawn from misapplied names He that knows such honor to be peculiarly due to him for being the best of Kings will never glory in that which may be common to him with the worst Nay whoever pretends by such general discourses as these of our Author to advance the particular Interests of any one King dos either know he is of no merit and that nothing can be said for him which will not as well agree with the worst of men or cares not what he says so he may do mischief and is well enough contented that he who is set up by such Maxims as a publick plague may fall in the ruin he brings upon the people SECT XL. Good Laws prescribe easy and safe Remedies against the Evils proceeding from the vices or infirmities of the Magistrate and when they fail they must be supplied THOSE who desire to advance the power of the Magistrate above the Law would perswade us that the difficulties and dangers of inquiring into his actions or opposing his will when employ'd in violence and injustice are so great that the remedy is always worse than the disease and that 't is better to suffer all the evils that may proceed from his infirmities and vices than to hazard the consequences of displeasing him But on the contrary I think and hope to prove 1. That in well-constituted Governments the remedies against ill Magistrates are easy
than what is suffer'd or must in a short time fall upon those who are in this condition They who are already fallen into all that is odious shameful and miserable cannot justly fear When things are brought to such a pass the boldest counsels are the most safe and if they must perish who lie still and they can but perish who are most active the choice is easily made Let the danger be never so great there is a possibility of safety whilst men have life hands arms and courage to use them but that people must certainly perish who tamely suffer themselves to be oppress'd either by the injustice cruelty and malice of an ill Magistrate or by those who prevail upon the vices and infirmities of weak Princes 'T is in vain to say that this may give occasion to men of raising tumults or civil war for tho these are evils yet they are not the greatest of evils Civil War in Macchiavels account is a Disease but Tyranny is the death of a State Gentle ways are first to be used and 't is best if the work can be done by them but it must not be left undone if they fail 'T is good to use supplications advices and remonstrances but those who have no regard to justice and will not hearken to counsel must be constrained 'T is folly to deal otherwise with a man who will not be guided by reason and a Magistrate who despises the Law or rather to think him a man who rejects the essential principle of a man or to account him a Magistrate who overthrows the Law by which he is a Magistrate This is the last result but those Nations must come to it which cannot otherwise be preserved Nero's madness was not to be cured nor the mischievous effects of it any otherwise to be suppressed than by his death He who had spared such a Monster when it was in his power to remove him had brought destruction upon the whole Empire and by a foolish clemency made himself the Author of his future villanics This would have bin yet more clear if the world had then bin in such a temper as to be capable of an intire liberty But the antient foundations had bin overthrown and nothing better could be built upon the new than something that might in part resist that torrent of iniquity which had overflow'd the best part of the world and give mankind a little time to breath under a less barbarous Master Yet all the best men did join in the work that was then to be done tho they knew it would prove but imperfect The sacred History is not without examples of this kind When Ahab had subverted the Law set up false Witnesses and corrupt Judges to destroy the innocent killed the Prophets and established Idolatry his house must then be cut off and his blood be lickt up by dogs When matters are brought to this pass the decision is easy The question is only whether the punishment of crimes shall fall upon one or a few persons who are guilty of them or upon a whole Nation that is innocent If the Father may not die for the Son nor the Son for the Father but every one must bear the penalty of his own crimes it would be most absurd to punish the people for the guilt of Princes When the Earl of Morton was sent Ambassador to Queen Elizabeth by the Estates of Scotland to justify their proceedings against Mary their Queen whom they had obliged to renounce the Government he alledged amongst other things the murder of her Husband plainly proved against her asserted the antient right and custom of that Kingdom of examining the actions of their Kings by which means he said many had bin punished with death imprisonment and exile confirmed their actions by the examples of other Nations and upon the whole matter concluded that if she was still permitted to live it was not on account of her innocence or any exemption from the penalties of the Law but from the mercy and clemency of the people who contenting themselves with a resignation of her right and power to her Son had spared her This discourse which is set down at large by the Historian cited on the margin being of such strength in it self as never to have bin any otherwise answered than by railing and no way disapproved by Queen Elizabeth or her Council to whom it was made either upon a general account of the pretensions of Princes to be exempted from the penalties of the Law or any pretext that they had particularly misapplied them in relation to their Queen I may justly say that when Nations fall under such Princes as are either utterly uncapable of making a right use of their power or do maliciously abuse that Authority with which they are entrusted those Nations stand obliged by the duty they owe to themselves and their posterity to use the best of their endeavours to remove the evil whatever danger or difficulties they may meet with in the performance Pontius the Samnite said as truly as bravely to his Countrymen That those Arms were just and pious that were necessary and necessary when there was no hope of safety by any other way This is the voice of mankind and is dislik'd only by those Princes who fear the deserved punishments may fall upon them or by their Servants and Flatterers who being for the most part the Authors of their crimes think they shall be involved in their ruin SECT XLI The People for whom and by whom the Magistrate is created can only judg whether he rightly perform his Office or not T IS commonly said that no man ought to be the Judg of his own case and our Author lays much weight upon it as a fundamental maxim tho according to his ordinary inconstancy he overthrows it in the case of Kings where it ought to take place if in any for it often falls out that no men are less capable of forming a right judgment than they Their passions and interests are most powerful to disturb or pervert them No men are so liable to be diverted from justice by the flatteries of corrupt Servants They never act as Kings except for those by whom and for whom they are created and acting for others the account of their actions cannot depend upon their own will Nevertheless I am not afraid to say that naturally and properly a man is the judg of his own concernments No one is or can be deprived of this privilege unless by his own consent and for the good of that Society into which he enters This Right therefore must necessarily belong to every man in all cases except only such as relate to the good of the Community for whose sake he has devested himself of it If I find my self afflicted with hunger thirst weariness cold heat or sickness 't is a folly to tell me I ought not to seek meat drink rest shelter refreshment or physick because I must