at to repaire the utensils of a Crowne which the charge or fate of warre hath exposed to sale or ruine We see it is the fortune of most private Families notwithstanding their severer education to fall within two or three generations under a foole or which is worse one so infatuated with an immoderate thirst of pleasure as to hazard the cutting off the strongest Intaile And can people be pronounced so happy who have no more to shew for their felicity but the crazied and uncertain life of a King rarely found to be indifferently good in the first but ever intolerable in the second or third Descent as a Senate which never dyes but growes daily more acquainted with the Constitution of the Nation being taught by experience how to administer to the peoples necessities Whose children doe not remaine a burden and terrour to the Common-wealth as those of Monarchs Which makes the Great Turke to strangle them like Vermin and the Persian to put out their eyes lest they should bewitch their Kingdomes into seditions as in the Annals of our English Monarchs is legible in red letters though many deepe markes of bloud have beene expunged by their power or covered by the flattery of such as pen'd their Stories And if we would seriously consider it without prejudice we might clearly foresee That no State is able without stocking up the ancient Nobility and Gentry to beare the true much lesse the borrowed issue of three Queenes in succession so fruitfull as our last Mary The pregnancy of whose head for mischiefe hath not yet beene so fatall to this Nation as her wombe may prove hereafter to Posterity that perhaps may be ignorant how few Kings come to the Crowne unspotted with the bloud of their Predecessours And that Nature is so farre buried in their jealousies and feares as oftentimes she cannot be heard in behalfe of her owne Children manifested in Philip the Second of Spain who put his owne Son and Heire to death A Tragedy since revived and acted by the same Kings Players upon the person of Prince Henry in England at the especiall command as was thought of c because he seemed averse from a Match with the Infanta for whose sweet sake his Brother undertooke that honourable journey into Spain by which not to reckon the vast expence and shame it brought the perpetuall quiet of this Nation was in hazard And till any can parallel this with a like absurdity committed by a Senate they must excuse all who thinke Monarchy not the wisest or happiest Government Neither are the progeny of Kings lesse unmindfull of their filiall duty since it is notorious that Lewis the XIth and Charles his Son were found in the head of an Army against their Fathers before discretion could securely intrust them with a Sword for feare of hurting themselves the eldest not having attained the age of twelve yeares What Tragedies the Royall issue have acted in England is well knowne But in Scotland they have beene so frequent and dismall that their Crown seemes rather a snare to catch unadvised fooles then a Symbole of Honour proving as fatall to most have worne it as the Shirt of Hercules the Drab had poysoned Though a Senate may be tempted to severity at first out of care and love to the people and themselves The disturbers of peace being subdued or reformed it is as contrary to their natures and discretions to delight in bloud as for a wise Physician to use Phlebotomy when the distemper is over Whereas under a Monarchy the Nation runs a hazard of blouding upon every change being ready to fall into a Feaver by the contrary humours and claimes of those of the same line who upon the least nicety they are able to create raise a civill and destructive warre as betweene Lancaster and Yorke which lasted so long as the people out of meere poverty and wearinesse were willing to sell themselves for Slaves to the succeeding Pharaohs of the prevalent Line And having found such mischiefes to result from contrary claimes they to perpetuate a single Title made the justest endeavours to oppose it Treason and so entail'd a perpetuall inconvenience unto Posterity that fell into the clutches of the Law upon the least offer they made to free themselves from these arbitrary Taske-masters at whose devotion they have ever since eaten the bread of affliction and constraint which they might have avoided by changing the Government But that like Lucian they lay under so strong a fascination as they were in their abused judgements capable of no cure but first by recovering a Conjunction between the Roses and then an union with Scotland And though the vanity of this conceipt be made apparent by 40 yeares contrary experience yet the generality cannot be wooed to assume their naturall shape of Free-men but desire rather to remain Asses still under the heavy pressures of a King not considering that the old Line is so exasperated That if any of it come to succeed they cannot in Prudence or Safety but so bush up all waies leading never so little towards liberty as we may well groane but shall not have so much as hope to be heard or redressed hereafter When those that stand for Kings shall receive as severe a doome as the rest out of feare they may another time be as well able and as willing to oppose as now to assist them After having weighed the deeds of the Vnited Provinces and Venice Consider what despicable Nations if capable of that Title these had been under absolute Princes Or what King deduction being made for the expense of his Court only without reckoning the concomitant vanities of Plaie Revels c. in which our last Kings spent more then they have done in bringing home Victory from Spaine or Turkey would be able with so small revenues to pay so many Garrisons and maintain such an Army as the Dutch have done for 80 years Neither is the advantage lessened by objecting the vast sums they stand accountable for to the Subjects of stranger Princes which being intrusted without paune is the greater honour all mens repute in the world having been sutable to their debts Therefore since no Prince was ever thought capable of so much credit with his Neighbours as to be intrusted with the like inestimable sums as these and other Free States are known to be who are made depositaries for the Fatherlesse and Widowes it is an infallible argument of their lesse esteem of Kings never found true to their natur all Subjects which makes none willing to lend to them but out of feare or constraint when mony is by heaps layed voluntarily at the feet of this more free government And what is to be expected frō our redemption out of Monarchical thraldom may be guest by the words of the Kings own Agent who urged as an inducement to Holland to favour his party that if England could be free they would be formidable unto them not only by interrupting their
who being out of possession are not so likely to find friends as enemies especially in this conjuncture when most Nations have need of more swords then their own and therefore likelier to borrow then lend assistance Neither is it a slight omen of their continuance that the wise Spaniard courts them As for France they have worke sufficient cut out already or in case of want we are neere enough to send them more Concerning Danes and Swedes they may like the Cat desire the sweet milke of England but will hardly venture wetting their feet or the encountring an English Navy It being not likely that such Forraine Princes as stood still all the Fathers time who had an Army might secure their landing will in his vanquisht Sons be active who hath now almost nothing left to assure successe but the unarmed discontent of some Subjects which cannot be so unadvised as to venture what is left at the curtesy of strangers much lesse can their hopes be so buried in the dispaire of the moderate government of their countrymen as to think to measure out a better by the splinters of that broken reed Scotland That hath no cleanlier way to redeeme her selfe from being the by-word and hissing of the World for former Treacheries towards their Native Kings then by selling us and our children to a perpetuall slavery under one of their exasperated Sons Neither durst they have ventured so much beating had they not been encouraged by a mouldy Prophecy That England in which you have yet a great share and may keep it if you will be quiet must be one day ruin'd by the basest of people which in their own apprehention can be understood of none but themselves The Apostle Paul commands Christians to submit to the present power for Conscience sake And justifies this Precept so far by his own example as to appeare before a Court of Justice no lesse illegall in regard of the Nation of the Jewes then corrupt in respect of the Judges where by his Rhetoricall expressions he teacheth us to own all Jurisdictions God hath pleased to endow with an Imperative power Else we should deny that to the Magistrate which we make no conscience to concede to Theeves from whom we take our selves to be happily discharged if we escape only with the losse of our mony and a promise never to doe any thing to their prejudice Nor can I think Panl would have shewn lesse compliance or used courser language had his triall fallen out in the daies of Galba Otho or Vitellius the which had no stronger titles then the sword estated them in being all strangers to the line of the first Caesars or any adopted by them Nay had Pisoe's Conspiracy succeeded and Rome by wise Seneca's perswasion been reduced to their ancient Liberty would the Apostles unwillingnesse have been more to subscribe to that then the Title of Nero Can you think he would have pretended antiquitated Oathes Covenants or I know not what Protestations formerly exacted which if offered he could not have avoided a refusall being as unsutable to his Doctrine as safety For we never heard newes till these times of State-Martyrs The primitive Saints thinking all Kingdomes too poore to dye for but that of Heaven Indeed Shimei of the House of Saul would needs be cursing where God blest which gave occasion to Solomon to leave a Precedent under which you are sallen for the like luxuriousnesse of speech And here note by the way how short liv'd the love and forgivenesse of Princes are Since the best though he could forget Jonathan his friend was sure to remember Shimei his enemy both secured by Covenant the first of Amity the latter of Charity in acknowledgement of his kindnes in meeting him Now if David could not dye quietly intestate to Revenge what huge Legacies may we expect from the Heire of a Faher who lost not only his Crowne but the Head that ware it or if so much temperance might be found in his Successor as might mortify so high provocations Yet the daily cryes and clamours of the Widows and Fatherlesse whose Husbands Fathers and Estates were lost in his defence could not choose but call revenge up againe It being an ordinary course for Princes to esteem that part of their assistance as is lost in ill successe so little below enimies as they oftentimes confiscate their Estates only to encrease the encouragement of those from whom they hope to receive better And if it be not the complexion of Kings to be ingratefull I pray give me the Reason why Henry the 7th cut off Stanlies head after he had set the Crown upon his own Therefore let not the sound of your discontent be heard in other Nations to the prejudice of the happinesse of your own By which the eares of all that delight in warre are so tickled that the Sea this Iland is encompassed with were too shallow to keep them out but that t is assisted by a greater depth of Gods mercy Such as oppresse unnecessarily the people shall never want enemies nor those that truly stand for Liberty friends Therefore have patience and assure your selves that God which harh taught the Army the waies to so much miraculous successe will suddainly after this generall submission I perswade to inspire them with an Enstablishment may make us happy or in case they neglect it undoubtedly send as exemplary a ruine upon their own heads Let me therefore entreat you to imitate your Ancestors who suffered the Crown of England with more patience to be transferred from one Strangers head to another then you doe contribute to the setting it on your own and your childrens There being nothing able to render you uncapable of it but an unseasonable desire to wring it out of their hands who I hope have no more ambitious ends in retaining it so long then to make it fit and easy for you Neither can any be in a right capacity to receive it till brought to such a temper as it is indifferent to them either to obey or command If you are so desirous the letter of the Law should be exactly observed doe nothing contrary to the sense of it which is the preservation of the Government in being whose quiet it is now as naturally to intend as it was formerly that of Kings Alter but the Name and contribute the like obedience and you are just where you were But if this be denied doe not wonder that new trials are opposed to new offences For if ordinary Jurers will assigne no punishment for them which act by the Kings Authority it is fit the State should provide others to take care that in case it be employed against their safety such as doe it may not escape without punishment Since God that hath given them such vast successes hath also endued them with more Prudence then to be ruin'd by niceties Neither are they lesse resolved to defend themselves from unavoidable ruine then you to obtaine a more uncertaine reward
Clergy or feare of refunding the profits made of Abby Lands did offer to cover her blemishes with the Crowne must conclude there could be no better refuge for her in prudence then to side with such as did maintaine the Church of Rome it selfe to be Basterdized And for the dangers probability might threaten to such a totall defection all being avoided by her tyrannicall Father her Councell in whom she was the happiest ever waved the English Scepter thought a dispencing with them lesse prejudiciall to her affaires then the tedious ceremonies incident to a Reconciliation with Rome Neither was the progresse the Protestants made in Germany France and Switserland a small provocation who by letters instigated her to this resolution the hopes of the Councell of Trent not being quite lost because they found a generall desire in all Princes to see the power of Rome moderated And that she was rather throwne by necessity then fell of her owne accord from the Church of Rome appeares by the Ceremonies used at her Inauguration all purely Catholique so as though she was not unwilling to give the new Profession hope she could not be brought suddenly to put the old in despair not indeavouring to bring in a greater Reformation then she found but suffered the Bishops to besprinkle her Raigne with the bloud of some and inrich her Exchequer with the livelyhoods of many more that were so zealous as to desire a review of such errours as they presumed the base ends of Henry the Eighth had let slip And these were then persecuted though of most exemplary lives whose followers God hath in our daies beene pleased to requite with the most miraculous successe that ever crowned the endeavours of an Army And for a farther confirmation that this totall separation from the Pope grew rather in the minds of the people then the Prince All the endeavours they could use were not able to abrogate the ceremonies of Crosse Ring and Surpleece though confess'd by all of no more absolute necessity then what they derived from the breath of Authority But their true end was to discover such consciences as were irreconcilable to Rome unto which they had then and doe still drive on a designe of returning Provided they could by an universall conjunction of Princes bring the Pope to renounce the power he pretends to have over Kings in that which is meerly temporall And if I am not fouly mistaken the too vigorous prosecution of this project was the cause of the murdering the two last Henryes of France Therefore such as hinder the establishing a Free State oppose the most probable way of suppressing Superstition and discovering Truth which in time will by the blessing of God worke it selfe into Vnity I doe not write this out of an humour of singularity or to cast dirt upon the Memory of Queene Elizabeth who in my opinion deserves to be celebrated above all the Princes I ever heard of but to manifest this truth That Monarchs look upon all Religions with love or disdaine as they find them sute with their worldly concernments The like may be said of most of the Princes in Germany who tooke part with Luther to have a pretence to seize upon the rich Monasteries and Lands of the Church And though humane policy may inject the same thoughts into the minds of Senatours yet purity of Religion is likelier to find friendship among many then one Neither is the small countenance the French give to those of the Reformation under a shallower policy then to balance all partiality which the Pope may be terrified out of a dread of his power to shew the King of Spaine to the French King's disadvantage being allwayes able by their assistance to make the like booty of the Gallican Church as Henry the Eighth did of the English Neither had the rich revenues of the Roman Profession which Christian Princes have long since surveyed as too great a patrimony for a few Priests beene untaken in but that the Catholique King is tied not onely by a contrary but a stronger interest to keepe up the Pope from a totall suppression because he hath nothing to shew for the possession of divers of his territories and the dispensation of so many incestuous Matches but the power his Holinesse arrogates to make any thing lawfull towards God or Man Yet if any desire farther satisfaction Why Spaine remaines so true to the bondage of Rome whilst other Nations are in labour with divisions it may be said That besides the Inquisition her naturall pride and affected gravity renders her proofe against Innovation especially in order to a Profession lesse splendid then her owne being like the Jewes more delighted with well drest Ceremonies then naked Truth Neither have they any generall propensity to the study of Controversies or the writing of any thing besides Romances to which the Roman Religion best sutes being replenished with the high Rhodomontadoes of Saints and miraculous Stories A Monarchy both in Church and State is most sutable to the English Clergy whose maintenance being raised out of the sweat of the Labourer can find none so ready the Pope excluded as Princes to protect them Commonwealths making no such roome for flattery as Kings to whom those Churchmen are dearest and readiest to be preferred by them as having the faculty to discover Virtues where none are and hide Vices where they most abound to which qualities James and Charles were the indulgentest Princes since the Reformation For Queene Elizabeth standing faire in her Subjects opinions was bold to make exchanges with them to their disadvantage The cause the sweetnesse of her Raigne is no more legible This proves it madnesse to expect a pure Reformation under Kings the Roman Religion being in all policy most necessary for them because they have his Holinesse ready at any time as an honourable Vmpire friendly to cement them together by fair means or in case they will not agree to excommunicate the contumacious party No small advantages to Kings who participating of the same vindictive humours with other private mortals fall upon most destructive wars onely to revenge personall affronts As the last quarrell we had with Spaine rose from no more serious a bottome then a misprision the Duke of Buckingham stumbled upon in his lust And the same Kings Expedition to the Isle of Reez had as noisome a source which are things below a Senate not apt to run a madding like unadvised Princes who are distempered upon the least bite of a passion Adde to what hath beene said the vast summes correspondent to the charge of a Court and wanton affections incident to Kings James of England having throwne away upon Dunbarre Carlisle Sommerset and Buckingham only according to computation two millions and you cannot but conclude a Free State the thriftiest Government for the people about whom no such summes can be found but under the hazard of a present or future question Besides consider the excessive expence the Nation would be