Country if the Gods had favoured us as much as they did you Therefore you obtained not the Victories by the weapons which you brought from Rome but by the Vices you found in Germany We were not over-run for being cowards but for being wicked and when your Vices are at full and the Gods as angry with you as they are now with us things will succeed better on our behalf Think not to be the more prosperous or victorious by your great Armies or vast Treasures or for that you have more potent Gods to assist you or because you build greater Temples or offer larger Sacrifices For know if you know it not that none are more favoured of the Gods then they who execute Justice and shew Mercy The triumphs of Conquerours are not atchieved by politick Generals experienced Captains valiant Souldiers and numerous Armies For we have found by experience that with all these concurring they can but begin a battle and that then the Gods themselves dispose of the Victory And if I am not deceived the wrath of the Gods towards us is so much appeased since our sufferings and so incensed against you for your cruelties to us and your unthankfulness to them that you who now esteem us to be your slaves may possibly hereafter acknowledge us to be your Lords In my travails hither I have seen high Mountains large Provinces several Nations and barbarous People and finding Rome to be so many miles distant from Germany I wonder what fond toy came into your heads to send to conquer it If it were for desire of Treasure I believe ye spent more in subduing it then the Revenue of all our Country will amount to in many years and yet may perhaps also lose it before you re-imburse what it cost If it were glory that you aimed at great is your vanity for little honour is it to have Forts and Towns where you have not the hearts of the People If you did it to enlarge your bounds it became neither wise nor valiant men to enlarge their dominions and diminish their honour If you say it was done that we should not be barbarous but civilized according to your mode I should be therewith well contented But how can you give good Laws to strangers who neglect and break the best Laws made by your own Predecessors With what credit can they correct others who deserve as much correction How can the blind lead the Lame Why should the proud Romans subdue the innocent Germans And since every man is so corrupt and so alienated from the love of God and Goodness that each taketh what he can and killeth whom he listeth what remedy is like to succeed when neither they who govern will endeavour it nor they who are oppressed dare complain Rulers are so hard to be entreated and so little regard poor mens grievances that it is not more grievous to endure their oppressions at home then to come and exhibit their complaints here because in their own Country they have but one Persecutor and in this place very many they being rich and the Complainants poor Rome if she be the Mistress of Germany ought in equity to preserve us in peace by her Justice Whereas they who go from hence thither despoyl us of our estates there and they who are here rob us of our Good name saying we are a People without laws without Reason without a King and may as Barbarians be made your slaves But in these slanders you are injurious since we being as we are and as the Gods created us remain peaceably in our own Countries without desiring to invade others might more justly and rationally say that you are men without Law or Reason in that not being contented with the sweetness and fertility of Italy you seek to conquer all the world by bloodshed If you say we deserve to be slaves because we have no Prince to command us nor Senate to govern us nor Army to defend us I thereto answer that having no Enemies we need no Armies that being contented with our Lots we wanted not a proud Senate to govern us and being all equals had no necessity to be subjected to the humours of a Prince whose office duly executed being to suppress Tyrants and maintain the People in Peace we wanted not a person to be kept among us to either of these ends and if you therefore say we have in our Country no Common-wealth nor Politie but live as brute beasts in the Mountains therein also you slander as For in our Country we suffer no Liers nor Rebels nor Thieves nor seditious persons nor men who bring us fantastical apparrel or strange Customs from other Clymates But are modest in our Rayment temperate in our meats and feeding and needed no better behaviour then our own Though we have not the Merchandizes of Carthage nor Oyls of Mauritania nor wares of Tire nor steel of Calabria nor Odours of Asia nor the Gold of Spain nor the silver of Britan Amber of Sydonia silk of Damascus corn of Sicilia wine of Candy or purple of Arabia Yet we have a Common-wealth and are not brutish For these and such like things yield more provocations to vice then helps toward a vertuous life Blessed is that Common-wealth and Nation not where riches abound but where Vertues are commanded practised and improved not where light proud and froward persons inhabit and domineer but where sober serious prudent and meek men reside and therefore you may have cause to envy our Poverty and we to pity your condition in being Rich. Would God you were as well contented with your wealth as we could have been with our Poverty before your invasions for then you had not robbed our Country nor had we been forced hither to complain where our tears and complaints are not so much regarded as to effect a diminishment either of your pleasures or of our grievances You may think perhaps I have no more to say but it is not so there yet remains that to be spoken which may astonish you and I will not be afraid to speak it though you have not been ashamed to do it for open offences merit not secret reproofs I marvail Romans what ye mean to send over unto us such ignorant Governours who I swear by the immortal Gods neither seem to know your Laws nor to understand ours Ye send not those who are best able to defend us by executing Justice but those who are best befriended in Rome as perhaps you give to those of the Senate the office of Censors more for favour or importunity then for desert I can say little here in respect of what they do with us What you authorize them to do I know not but what they do is too well known unto me All bribes that are brought unto them they take openly and share and poll us all in secret to the utmost of their power They punish the faults of poor men and connive at rich mens transgressions that they may take
to that day are generally pardoned and that the Tenants who ought to have paid them lay hold on that Act and disobey those Orders by which means Officers are only benefited and the suiters more damnified by expences instead of getting relief So that whereas Purchasers are invited to bring in their deeds to be cancelled upon promising that they should receive all Rents due at and before Michaelmas last it would be plainer dealing to tell them they should have a Quarters Rent to relinquish their purchases for in truth it amounts to no more from June 24 to Michaelmas next following Furthermore there being nothing promised by King or Parliament as aforesaid in their Declarations in relation to the Old Tenants of Prelates Lands the said Tenants having had pre-emption before all other when the said Lands were sold enjoying also their full term without interruption during their respective Leases and being no otherwise displaced then they usually were formerly when the said Prelates pleased by Concurrent Leases or otherwise to take these Farms into their own hands or for the benefit of their children and relations at the expiration of their Terms it had been more candid usage to have absolutely signified to the Purchasers that the said Old Tenants should be preferred before them rather then to permit the said Purchasers deluded by a vain hope to consume money and time in seeking for a Composition and to suffer the said Prelates in the mean time to receive their whole Rents to eject the Purchasers by force when they had paid all Taxes with other duties not without great expence bestowed in fencing soyling plowing and sowing the said Lands and also to grant Leases as they have done to the vacating of all the cost and labour of the said Purchasers in pursuing what seemed graciously intended both by King and Parliament on their behalf These and many other passages which this Remonstrant hath observed makes it appear unto him that there is not that care yet taken to preserve the honour of the King and of this Parliament in giving satisfaction to Purchasers as might be wished and that there is not that respect had to Justice and good Conscience in satisfying them as hath been heretofore vouchsafed by Princes States and Parliaments in the like Cases In true Reason which distinguisheth Men from Beasts as Justice and Mercy differences them from Devils this Remonstrant conceives that the whole matter in Fact and Judgement concerning the said Sales and Securities must unavoidably be brought to this Dilemma to wit either the Long Parliament had Power to make such Sales and grant such Securities as aforesaid or else they had not If they had such a Power then their Sales and Securities must be allowed and confirmed or at least if in Law or Equity restitution of what was by them sold ought to be made to the former possessors then recompence must be given another way else injustice is commited GOD and the Nation are dishonoured and many thousand Families and innocent persons will be unmercifully exposed to ruine and that severity and want of compassion for which they were visited in wrath who last abused their Power will be more then doubled GOD is the same he was and if private men for not performing their Covenants made to and with each other though to their own hindrance shall be excluded from his Tabernacle doubtless an equivalent Judgement will be extended to States and Parliaments or those whom they represent Then on the other part it 〈◊〉 should be granted that the foresaid Parliament 〈◊〉 and exercised wilfully a Power not thereto belonging to the damnifying of those who confided in them that Parliaments successors ought then in Justice to award satisfaction out of their estates who arrogated such an unwarrantable Power as far as they will extend if they can be distinguished from those among them who were guiltless And if that distinction cannot be made or the damages exceed their abilities then condign satisfaction should be made out of their Common purse who intrusted those with the Publick-Faith For the greatest part of the People have often been too careless upon whom they impose that confidence and perhaps will be more wary when they have well paid for it what persons they chuse and be so wise as to consider that they who have not wit enough to govern their private estates or they who consume many thousands of pounds in Ale houses Inns and Taverns whose reckonings as this Remonstrant hears are not yet paid to procure themselves to be Elected by Feastings and Drunkenness had probably some worse ends in being so prodigal then a sincere intention to serve GOD the King and their Countrey Yet neither this Remonstrant nor as he believeth many of the said Purchasers and Lenders do expect satisfaction should be made them at full for all their damages though in justice it ought so to be but considering the Publick wants and other private mens necessities as well as their own with how much it may tend at this time to the settlement of Peace and Amity that every man should enjoy a comfortable subsistence they would rest contented with so much only toward a repair as might discharge them from their engagements occasioned by the said Loans and Purchases to the redeeming the loss of their liberties and to preserve a competency proportionable to their several degrees and the condition of their nearest relations which might be raised without overburthening any if such Expedients might be speedily taken into consideration and vigorously prosecuted as may be hereafter proposed whereas the course which is yet pursued will neither be a means of relieving many nor of so reconciling disagreeing Parties but that the Breaches will daily grow wider and encrease Animosities till they become irreconcileable and kindle such an universal flame by private fewds and vexatious suits that it will never perhaps be quenched whilest ought is left unconsumed or whilest any considerable number of them or of their Posterities are living who were unhappily engaged against each other in the late war And for prevention whereof there will be no possibility in nature but by a general Forgiveness on all sides mediated by a moderate course to preserve in some indifferent measure that Interest by which each man may be comfortably maintained For until that be sincerely endeavoured prosecuting the rigour of the Laws by imprisoning suing hanging beheading and quartering will terrisie few of those who have neither estates to lose nor an outward condition of life worth preserveing Nor in such cases will preaching the principles of morality or Evangelical Precepts prevail much but with men naturally meek or perhaps cowardly or such as are of so true a Christian and sanctified a temper that according to the doctrine and example of Christ they can freely forgive their enemies and submit to any thing wherewith it shall please GOD to permit the Supream Power to exercise their Faith and Patience which number is so small
FIDES-ANGLICANA OR A PLEA FOR THE PUBLICK-FAITH Of these NATIONS Lately pawned forfeited and violated by some of their former TRUSTEES to the rendring it as infamous as FIDES-PUNICA was heretofore It is humbly offered to consideration in a Petitionary Remonstrance to all in Authority on the behalf of many thousands to whom Securities were given upon the said Publick-Faith and was prepared to have been put forth during the sitting of the last Parliament By the Author GEORGE WITHER It comprehends likewise an Expedient whereby the Honour of the King and Nations may be preserved in redeeming the same without oppressing private persons or overburthening the Publick And thereto are added two or three Examplary Narratives out of Antiquity evidencing that Neglect of Justice is dangerous and that the freedom of expression assumed by the Author is neither needless in such cases nor unjustifiable by warrantable precedents Veritas non quaerit Angulos LONDON Printed in the year MDCLX FIDES-ANGLICANA OR A PLEA by way of Remonstrance for the Publick-Faith of these Brittish Nations humbly offered to all in Power and Authority joyntly and individually by whatsoever Title or Name they are lawfully active and to whom a care of preserving the Peace and Honour of these Kingdoms doth appertain Psalm 82. v. 1 2 3 4 c. GOD standeth in the Congregation of the mighty he judgeth among the Gods How long will ye judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked Defend the poor and fatherless do justice to the afflicted preserve the poor and needy out of the hands of the ungodly c. WHereas in the Hopes entertained rationally by this Remonstrant and others upon his Majesties late voluntary and gracious condescentions without any care taken for our Indempnity at his Restauration by the Trustees of these Nations they rested thankfully therewith contented being much comforted in the Kings prudent and tender respect vouchsafed to their sad condition and have ever since though it be now about eight or nine Moneths waited in a patient expectation of some timely settlement according to his Royal Declaration Speeches References and Commission notwithstanding many of them have in the mean time been almost quite destroyed in their estates and credits and some utterly ruined by the impatience of their Creditors by the violence of untimely Intruders upon their possessions by vexatious suits commenced against them and by paying great taxes and other duties for those Lands by them purchased which are intruded upon contrary to an Order of Parliament and other Prohibitions as also because some of the said Purchasers have been so impoverished by former Oppressions that to the Publick damage as well as to their own much of the said Lands lyeth waste in regard they have neither wherewith to stock those which came lately into possession nor means to demise them to Tenants whilest their Titles are disparaged Which with other destructive grievances daily multiplying have constrained this Remonstrant who in his own person is made sensible of other mens afflictions well near in every kind both for preventing the utter undoing of himself with his Relations and of many thousands more together with their Creditors and Relations humbly to Remonstrate as follows That the long delayed and justly expected Relief of the said Purchasers and Lenders of which this Remonstrant is one seems to him prolonged by the sinister endeavours or neglects of some from whom they hoped better things occasioning no less dishonour and hazard to the King and Nation then injury to their patience whose dammages are multiplyed thereby For instead of what was rationally hoped for this Remonstrant and many more are among other frequent upbraidings and provocations jeered with this untimely and unsavoury caution Caveat emptor which hath obliquely a worse reflection upon Venders then Buyers in their condition implying rather Caveant Venditores in regard it is a Caveat to be given before-hand and to those only who contract with persons justly suspected to be either Cheaters or Beggars and ought not to be applyed to them who were Purchasers from States or Parliaments who have engaged the Publick Faith of a whole Nation to confirm their Sales and Securities For they should with reverence be confided in by all under their Authority lest such become guilty of exposing it to contempt and therefore the said Purchasers and Lenders were not till really damnified to suspect or question Whether the Grants and Securities to them offered would be valid or invalid or Whether the Estates exposed to sale by the Parliament were justly or unjustly bargained and sold because it was to be presumed that States and Parliaments are not only at all times able to make good their Bargains and Securities or to give full recompence to those who shall be thereby damnified if it prove otherwise but that being thereto obliged both in honour and justice they will also punctually perform the one or the other without receding from their Bargains or hagling like broken debtors And therefore by one of these wayes the said Purchasers and Lenders presume they shall accordingly be saved harmless And it is their humble desire it may be timely and effectually done in respect of those destructive necessities afore-mentioned whereinto many of them are plunged and that they may not be listened unto who seek to perswade those who should relieve them that as affairs now stand there is no obligation upon the Supream Power or upon the Representatives of this Nation to take cognizance of those engagements For whatsoever they think the Publick Peace and the honour of the whole Nation together with their Kings and Parliaments will therein be much concerned whether their Power who granted those Estates and Securities were justly or unjustly constituted or exercised considering it was then the sole visible Power in being assented and submitted unto as an authentick Authority by the greatest number of the people of every degree and qualification in these three Nations without any open contradiction which implies an universall assent or what is so equivalent thereto that a factious or rebellious combination could not be justly thereto imputed It was acknowledged to be then the Supream Power not only by popular voices in the air but by voluntary subscriptions also under the hands of well near all the Magistrates Knights Citizens and Burgers of all Counties Cities and Corporations in these Dominions without any open protest made against it and de non apparentibus non existentibus eadem est ratio Those things which when they should appear appear not reputed are among the things that are not Moreover it was actually owned and obeyed by the Nobility as the Supream Authority and by the reverend Judges of our Land in every Court of Record by the Pastors of Parochial Churches and Congregations of each several judgement to be by divine Precepts and the examplary practise of Christ and his Apostles that Power being then the Power which had sole visible being whereto obedience was due
long as they shall be a people will in conscience be liable thereunto And it seems to this Remonstrant by matter of Fact since the sitting of this present Parliament that even in their judgement the Sales and Securities granted and given by the long Parliament should be made good according to their intention For they caused or ordered payment to be made of very great summs to the now Lord Maior of London and to Major General Massey persons who heretofore were of the same judgement with other men now called Phanatiques and who then opposed the Kings armed power both in Field and Garrison as vigorously as any in the beginning of the late war and were instrumental in that which enabled others to prosecute him to death These had no other but the very same Security which the Remonstrant and the rest afore-mentioned had for money lent lands bought and services done by the commands of that Representative of this Nation and which to make good the said Securities was by a peculiar positive Law to have been continued as aforesaid to that purpose till they were dissolved by an Act of Parliament with their own consent The loss of which Power whether occasioned by their own default or other mens or by GOD's immediate justice upon them is no bar in equity to the Purchases claimed Securities or Debts aforesaid in regard the Nation in whose name they were made and contracted to whose use the said money was raised by the said Sales Loans and Condescentions and upon whose credit also they were granted by their own Acts personated by their Trustees is the same Nation by whom all this was transacted and to whom the injustice and dishonour of violating those Securities will be imputed And if the Representative thereof now in being or some other hereafter impowered provide not an expedient whereby to disoblige it from the said Securities it will be a blot upon it yea worse whilest it is a Nation For it will be liable to the Judgements which are due to such a failing in what ought to be performed Also if those Securities be rendred void for whose confirmation such extraordinary provision was made nothing will hereafter be reputed a good Security which can be thereby given For in probability States and Parliaments will so lose their credit that they will not only be reputed the greatest cheaters in the world and the most cruel and most foolish destroyers of their own honour and relations but also in whatsoever necessity they shall be will never more be confided in notwithstanding all their specious pretences plausible Speeches Declarations Protestations and Engagements and then their Magisterial slighting contemning and condemning just and reasonable Proposals Cautions and humble requests of oppressed Supplicants will have evil Consequents though they may serve their ends for a while The Remonstrant fears this Result and that there are some endeavouring to make invalid the said Securities together with the Kings gracious condescentions if it be possible both to the Remonstrant and others who can hardly walk the streets without abusive affronts and provocations in which considerations it is presumed he is allowed by the Law of Nature and shall be permitted by your humanity to plead and insinuate in a peaceable manner such Motives as reasonably tend to their timely relief especially when they are made almost careless of their lives by being totally deprived of that whereupon life dependeth through their neglect of Justice to whom they conscientiously adhered But much more weight may be laid upon the Argument drawn from that tender respect that ought to be had to the honour of the King and his Parliament which this Remonstrant cannot chuse but frequently touch upon as being of very high concernment A Gentleman of the lowest rank who hath any sense of his true honour is no less careful to keep his word and promise then to perform what he is obliged unto by an Instrument confirmed with hand and seal yea more because he to whom he stands engaged by the latter confided less in him and hath a legal security whereby he may probably be saved harmless howsoever he be inclined to make performance who gave him credit And it ought to be remembred that by his Majesties Declaration from Breda concerning Sales by a Declaration made in this Parliament the 8. of May last by his Majesties Proclamation the 6. of June last by an Order in Parliament last August restraining Ecclesiasticks from granting Leases of any of the said lands by them claimed by his Majesties Speech at the end of the first Session of this Parliament and by the L. Chancellours Speech seconding the same which gave hope that som good proceed should be made toward the relief promised before the Members of this Parliament were arrived at their Countrey-Houses It seemed to be the intent both of the King and of this Parliament that the said Purchases should and ought to have been confirmed to the late Purchasers and that in the mean time their possessions should be quieted and their Rents and Arrears paid unto them by their Tenants Nevertheless to the dishonour both of the King and Parliament the Prelates not only slight the Orders and Acts of the Commons alone and the Ordinances of the Lords and Commons joyntly with that which was declared by the King as aforesaid but do many other wayes act so violently and arbitrarily repugnant to these condescentions as if they would make the People believe that they knew the King and this Parliament intended not what they declared except only in things relating to the benefit of them the said Prelates For the first Votes of this House of Commons for restoring them to their Mansion-Houses and the Votes of the Grand Committee excluding persons under several Qualifications not excepted in the Act of Oblivion from the benefit of the intended Act for confirmation of Sales they observe and impose as Laws upon the People but on the contrary the Votes of the same House for prohibiting them the said Ecclesiasticks to grant any Leases until the intended Act of Sales was passed as also for the Augmentation of Vicaredges and the Votes of the said Grand Committee for satisfying the Purchasers their money and Interest before they did part with their possessions they reject as of no force the Parliament being dissolved and regard the said Ordinances of the Lords and Commons and the said Acts and Orders of the Commons alone much less Moreover if in any thing his Majesties Commissioners encline to give the least satisfaction to any Purchaser the said Ecclesiasticks cry out against it as an Arbitrary Prerogative Commission though in cases relating to their advantage they cry up the Prerogative against the Laws Also upon Petitions of some of the Purchasers as the Remonstrant is informed Orders are made seeming to enable them to receive all Arrears due before the 24. of June last when it is well known perhaps to themselves that by the Act of Oblivion Arrears
in respect of the rest of those who are at this time exasperated in relation to their Estates Credits and Consciences as they will pretend at least that the Publick charge which the present Government may be constrained yearly to continue will amount to more then that which would suffice to calm their spirits by a repair of their destructive damages And yet their suppression by violence may paradventure also be prolonged until some advantage be gotten by the changeableness of humane affairs to let their fury break forth in such a time as may destroy or endanger that peace which they desire to preserve For an Army is a security which hath in it neither certainty nor safety It being therefore this Remonstrants principle not only to seek the preservation of that visible Power whereto God subjects him out of prudence and moral gratitude because it protects him but even for conscience sake also though it should oppress him as the last did he thinks it his duty to give a Caveat whereby they whom it shall concern may take it into consideration whether both Parties which have opposed each other are not in some respect so equally guilty of the sins occasioning the Judgements under which they have lain together or by turns and whether it will not be their next and safest way to a general peace to divide the burthen which now lies destructively upon many to be born by the whole Nation and to make it as easie as Justice and Prudence will permit by an impartial respect to the interest of all Parties concerned To which end somewhat shall be proposed before the conclusion of this Remonstrance not Magisterially to be strictly so or so prosecuted but rather to be a hint of something to that purpose to be deliberately determined by wiser men It will be pertinent to common peace to take notice how many hundred thousands are at this time exasperated by being nigh totally destroy'd or much impoverished by the loss of their livelihoods liberties with little hope of remedy Some by imprisonment upon malicious suggestions only without any cause of offence given some by being deprived of their monies exacted lent or contributed upon the Publick Faith to that Power whereto they heretofore submitted conscientiously or by compulsion some by being ejected forcibly out of Lands Offices or other Estates by them Purchased and formerly belonging to the King Queen Prince Prelates and such as were then reputed Delinquents some by taking up on valuable considerations those Lands or Offices from the first or second Purchasers and Possessors in satisfaction or in relation to debts jointures childrens portions or other collateral Contracts Securities or Engagements and some by great summs expended in buildings or other improvements borrowed from many who are quite undone by their disability to repay it occasioning suits and quarrels no less destructive to them then to the original Purchasers and Lenders And not a few thousands are as much discontented upon other civil and conscientious accounts whom to provoke altogether may be of dangerous consequence though the Kings Indulgence hath much qualified and settled the minds and estates of some For little advantaged will they be by a pardon for life who needed it or for ought else criminal who are put into a worse condition by living then to be executed ten times by the hang-man The natural temper of this Nation is for these respects much to be regarded and they are accordingly to be dealt withall as it was prudently counselled by King Henry the fourth upon his death-bed to his Son whose words I will here insert as not impertinent I charge thee said he before God to minister the Law indifferently to all to ease the oppressed to beware of flatterers not to deferr Justice nor yet to be sparing of mercy punish the oppressors of thy people so shalt thou obtain favour of God and love and fear of thy Subjects who whilest they have wealth so long shalt thou have their obedience but made poor by oppressions will be ready to make Insurrections Rejoyce not so much in the glory of thy Crown as meditate on the burthenous care which accompanies it Mingle Love with Fear so thou as the heart shalt be defended in the midst of the body but know that neither the heart without the members nor King without the Subjects help is of any force Speed pag. 763. This Remonstrant conceives he might have procured many thousand hands subscribed to attest the reasonableness of this Caution and of what else is in this Remonstrance expressed or desired but he endeavoured it not because he thinks it will be needless to wise men who very well know that common cheat signifies little or nothing as hands are usually procured When Reason prevails not more then Voices there is small hope of Justice And as it was said to Dives They who will not believe Moses and the Prophets will not believe one sent from the dead So may this Remonstrant say They who will not be moved to do conscionable and righteous things for the sake of Justice and Mercy will little regard Remonstrances or Petitions subscribed with many thousand hands till they feel them about their ears or until the vengeance of GOD seizes on them as it lately did on those who neglected good Cautions until they had not power to put them in execution Misconster not this as a secret threat to any in Authority for it is humbly and soberly intended to be only a Memorandum useful at this time wherein all have not the patience of Saints who are grieved or oppressed That which hath been may be again hereafter and there be among those who are now depressed some of those Anointed-ones of the LORD whom he will not permit to be harmfully touched without Vengeance For he hath other Anointed-ones beside Kings whom he often reproves for their sakes and verily he will not forget the poor for ever though to humble them for their transgressions he hideth his face from them for a season at least his Everlasting Mercies he will not take from them God preserve us from seditious and mutinous repinings and give us all grace from the lowest to the highest joyntly and severally to endeavour that which prevents desperate Activities and take away every occasion of temptations thereunto For though meek and conscientious men will as they ought to do wait patiently upon GOD in all their sufferings yet meer natural men of which sort the greatest number of those many thousands consist who are made almost desperately careless of their lives will not easily conform to Evangelical principles as is before implyed but perhaps when their personal wants are aggravated with the importunings and upbraidings of Creditors the neglects of friends and the scorn of enemies the jears of neighbours and the cries of perishing wives and children it may so provoke them that in such extremities they will have as a little regard to Reason Religion and Civil duties as they had
permitting it or to say better we for saking God Jerusalem which was Lady of all the Cities in Asia and Mother of all the Hebrews in Palestine is now servant and tributary to Rome whereat we Jews need not to marvel nor ye Romans to be proud thereof for the highest trees are soonest blown down by violent winds Great were those Armies whereby Pompey vanquished us but greater have our offences been for which we were forsaken of GOD I would have you to hear by words but rather to know it by experience that we have a merciful God who can do more alone then all your Gods together and who sheweth compassion though among fifty thousand there be but ten good men They are our great offences only which have made you to be Lords over us and not your Power or Vertues For whilest we agreed in the Unity of Faith in one only God he prospered us and so long as the wrath of God is upon us for our sins so long shall you be Lords over us and no longer Then shall we recover what we have lost and ye shall lose what you have won And as we are now Commanded so shall we be then Obeyed but at present and whilest we are swayed one way and ye another neither can you encline me to the worship of your Gods neither shall I be able to draw you to believe only in in that one God the Creator of all things to whom I refer the disposing of all things Touching that which I have chiefly to say Know you that in times past Rome had peace with Judea and Judea with Rome and being friends preserved each other in peace but now it is otherwise and whilest we sigh for peace we see you make preparations for war whereas if you would expell those who bear us evil will and we could know and take heed of them who provoke us to rebell neither should Rome so much oppress Judea nor Judea hate Rome Friendship is lost not so much for the interest of the one or other as by their indiscretion who pretend to be Mediators for if they who take upon them that office be greater enemies then those between whom a war is begun they do but cast wood into that fire which they should quench with water Since the banishment of Archelaus from Judea in whose place you sent unto us Pomponius Marcus Rufus and Valerius we have had four Plagues the least wherof was sufficient to poyson all Rome What greater calamity could happen unto us then to have Judges sent from Rome who took up all the evil customs of wicked men and were themselves Inventors of new Vices And when they who ought to punish the lightness of youth are the Ringleaders of Levity It is openly said in Asia that the Thieves of Rome do hang the Thieves of Jewry and I must plainly tell you we fear not the Thieves which rob us in the woods so much as those Judges who spoyl us in our houses We dread not Robbers on the high-way nor those who make open war upon us nor the Plague of Pestilence half so much as your corrupt Judges To that which is here heard in the Senate and not seen with us you give more credit though reported by one who hath been but three Moneths in the Province then to that which is reported by many who have governed thirty years Consider ye Senators that if ye were advanced to this dignity because you were the wisest the most honest and moderate among the people it would appear in your being so just and vertuous as not to believe all you hear since you have to do with many of divers Nations whose ends and intentions are variable I speak the truth unto you your Judges have done so much injustice and shown such ill examples that they have taught the youth of Judea those vices which our Fathers never heard of nor we ever saw or read of before And ye being mighty and reputed noble disdain to take counsel of men that be poor as if to know much and to have little wealth or esteem were never found together As ye have given counsel to us so be pleased to take counsel from us and know that though your Captains have won many Realms by shedding blood the way to keep them is by clemency and mildness without bloodshed and therefore pray and advise your Judges whom ye send to govern strange Provinces that they be more diligent to preserve the Common peace then to employ themselves in taking Fines and Forfeitures lest else they slander you who send them and destroy those whom they should govern and protect for the reason why they are not justly obeyed is because they command unjust things Righteous impositions and just commands make men humble and obedient whereas unrighteous commands make meek and humble men obstinate and froward and the more evil things are commanded the less good things are obeyed when such persons enjoyn them Believe this Oh ye Romans that from the levity of those in Authority springs the shamelesness and disobedience of the People The Prince who imposeth Government upon those whom he knoweth not to be qualified for such a trust intendeth not so much that they should do Justice to his People as that they should increase his treasure and serve his lusts but let him be well assured that when he least thinketh of it his honour and credit will be turned into infamy his treasure consumed and some notable vengeance fall upon him or his posterity I having other matters to speak of in secret will here conclude with this advice that ye keep us and our Countrey in safety for which you have hazzarded your selves and that ye do Justice impartially for then we shall reverence your commands Be mercifull and we shall be meek be not cruel in punishing our weakness and we shall willingly obey your just commands Command not with proud severity and you shall find in us the Love which Fathers may expect from children and not that treason which oppressive Lords usually find in their servants These words though bold and sharp were as the Author saith heard with admiration and approbation of all the Roman Senate The other speech which I will here make use of was reported by Marcus Aurelius to have been spoken in the Senate of Rome in the first year of his Consulship by a poor Countrey-man living near the River Danubius who came to ask Justice of the said Senate against a Censor who sorely oppressed the Germans This Rustick was in outward appearance in some respects more contemptible then this Remonstrant For he is described to have been a man who had a small face great lips hollow eyes of a Sun-burnt complexion having curled hair on his head and a long thick beard his rayment and coat was of beasts skins his shooes of Porcupine-leather his girdle of Bull-rushes his head bare and a club in his hand In this equippage he entred the Senate whereon though many
persons were there attending to have their affairs dispatched this poor man was admitted before all others and spake in this manner Oh Fathers conscript I Mileno a Plow-man dwelling near the River Danubius salute you worthy Senators of Rome beseeching the immortal Gods so to govern my tongue this day that I may speak that which may be for the welfare of my Countrey and encline you to do that which may be for the Publick honour of this Empire for without the help of GOD we can neither obtain that which is good nor avoid what is evil By divine permission and our wrathful GOD's forsaking us such was our evil and your good hap that your proud Captains of Rome took our Countrey of Germany by force of Arms of which ye had been prevented if we had timely appeased the wrath of God Great is the glory you have atchieved by your Conquests but greater will be your Infamy by the Cruelties which you have committed For you shall know if you know it not that when the wicked Victors went before the triumphant Chariots crying Live Live invincible Rome the poor Captives walked after saying in their hearts Justice Justice Give me leave to speak plainly your covetousness Oh ye Romans in taking away other mens goods hath been so extream and your commands in strange Countries have been so extravagant that neither the depths of the Seas can suffice you nor the wideness of the earth secure us and there is no other consolation left us in our troubles but our hope that the Gods who are just will execute Justice on those who are unjust which assurance being wanting we should with our own hands destroy our selves to avoid the inhumanity of our enemies But I hope in the just Gods that you who without just cause have cast us out of our houses and possessions shall by them be cast out both of Italy and Rome In my Country we take it for an infallible Rule That he who taketh from another man his right ought in reason to lose his own and I trust that what we have for a Proverb in Germany you shall have here by experience By my blunt language and by the homely apparrel that I wear you may well imagine me some rude and barbarous Groom Yet I want not reason to know who is righteous in keeping his own and who a tyrant in possessing what is another mans For though we plain Country-men cannot speak eloquently we are not ignorant of the difference between good and evil or that the Gods will take away in one hour what Tyrants have been gathering many dayes and restore in one minute that which good men have lost many years Believe me Ob Romans Goods unlawfully gotten by the Fathers are the undoing of their Children and it is impossible that a wise man should find any contentment in that which is gained unlawfully and with an ill conscience I wonder how he that keepeth another mans goods can sleep or rest one hour knowing he hath done injury to the Gods scandalized his neighbour pleased his enemies lost his friends and put his person in peril by endamaging those whom he hath robbed He that taketh away my goods unjustly will the same day take away my life if he can I say and affirm not caring whether he be Greek Barbarian Roman present or absent who shall be offended thereat that he is and shall be accursed of the Gods and hated of men who will turn a good fame to an infamy Justice into Wrong Rule into Tyrannie Truth into Lyes certainties into things doubtful and destroy his own happiness by depriving other men of their contentment You Romans are naturally proud and your pride blinds you or else you would perceive that being Lords of great Provinces you are slaves to your own Riches and that they both deprive you of your honour contentment and rest Hearken to what I shall say and I beseech the Gods to make you so understand it that I lose not my labour I hear all the world exclaim against Pride and yet none embrace Humility every man condemns Adultery yet I see few who live Chastly most men curse Excess yet I perceive not any who is Temprate all men praise Patience yet none will patiently suffer They blame sloth yet spend their time in idleness All exclaim against Avarice nevertheless every one robbeth his neighbour and I speak it here openly in the Senate not without grief every mans tongue extolleth Vertue yet they enslave all their members to Vice and this I object not against those Romans which are in Iliria alone but against those also which I see here in this Senate In your Houses and about your Arms you have this Motto Romanorum est debellare superbos parcere subjectis but you might more truly have written Romanorum est spoliare Innocentes reddere subjectos What just occasion brought you from the banks of Tiber to invade us who lived peaceably nigh the River of Danuby Were we friends to your foes or enemies to you Did we go to conquer other Counrites or were disobedient to our own Lords Did we either despise your friendship or defy you as Adversaries Did any of our deceased Princes bequeath our Lands unto you as their heirs thereby entituling you to a rightful claiming us for your subjects Have we destroyed your Armies wasted your Fields spoyled your People or done any outrage or injury which might provoke you to revenge Of a truth none of these or of any such occurences have happened as usually give occasion of controversies betwixt neighbours but meer Covetousness and Ambition were sole causes of your intrusions For in Germany we felt your Tyrannie as soon as we heard of your Fame If you be offended with what I have said be pleased with what I will say which is this that the Name of Romans and the Cruelties of Tyrants arrived together in one day upon our People They who have much do oppress them who have little Covetousness produceth Malice and Malice makes way to open Robbery I conjure you Romans by the immortal Gods to heed what I say and consider what you have done For either the words of the Gods are not true or else men with their oppressions and the world must come to an end Fortune must fix a Pin in her wheel or else that which you have gotten in eight years will possibly be lost in eight dayes since nothing is more just then that the Gods should make you slaves who have made your selves Tyrants Do not think though you have subdued Germany and are Lords thereof that it was by your warlike prowess For you are no more warlike nor more couragious nor more able to endure hardship then we Germans But we as is aforesaid provoked the Gods to wrath and they to punish our sins have ordained that you should be a scourge to our persons You are not so strong nor we so weak that you had enjoyed the spoyl of our
occasion and encouragement to commit greater and whereas they should use means to diminish reproach and slanders they encrease them To demand Justice without a bribe is the certain course not to obtain it Will your Tyrannie and Avarice never have an end Though you wrong us in words oppress us not also in deeds Our bodies are able to bear those irons with which you load us but the Tributes and Taxes which you impose are greater then we can sustain If nothing will content you but all that we have in Germany go thither and take it for we affect not as you do to live poorly that we may die rich and to deprive our selves of contentment during life that others may squander away our superfluities when we are dead If our service content you not strike off our heads for your swords are not so dreadful to our eyes as your tyrannies are abominable to our hearts Do ye know Oh Romans what you have done if not I will tell you Verily you have caused many of us to swear that we will forbear to cohabit with our wives and slay our children as soon as born rather then leave them in the hands of such wicked and inhumane Tyrants as ye are Yea we determine as desperate men to resist the natural motions of the flesh all our life time rather then get our wives with child thinking it better to restrain our lusting twenty or thirty years then to leave our posterity to be your perpetual slaves But to what end is this complaining Perhaps you will sometimes hear us as now you hear me but when you have heard us you will be still slow in relieving I will tell you some of those things which I have observed that you may reform them If a poor man come to complain and demand Justice if he hath no money to give nor Wine or Oyl to promise nor a Revenue to maintain his expences nor Friends to mediate for him then after he hath declared his grievances you for awhile give him fair words seem to pity his sufferings and promise him speedy relief But in the mean time make him totally spend that little which he had and wast the best part of his life in vain hopes and tedious prosecutions without any effect at all to his profit Yea on the contrary they who at first promised him favours do at last joyn hands with his oppressors and quite undo him Most say in the beginning his cause is good yet though upon his tryal they find it so proved they give sentence against him at the last so that he who came at first hither to complain against one returns home complaining against many yea against all and crying out to the immortal Gods for vengeance I will declare unto you my life Oh Romans that ye may understand how we now live and subsist in my Country I get my livelihood by gathering Acorns in the Winter by Fruits in the Summer and reaping Corn Sometimes I fish both for pleasure and to supply necessaries spending most part of my time alone in Woods Fields and Mountains because I would not behold the outrages which are perpetrated by your Officers in our Country whose oppressions if I could fully declare them would appear so many and so hainous that either they would be deprived of their Employments or my punishment would certainly ensue But what good success can I hope for When I consider the things which I have seen within these fifteen dayes now passed away since my arrival in Rome where such things have been committed that if they had been done in Germany the Gallows and Gibbets had worthily hung as thick with malefactors as Vines with clusters of Grapes For I have observed beside other things observable such immodesty in apparrel such intemperance in your feeding and such disorder in your lives and affairs that having beheld as much as I desired and my heart being at rest by spitting out that poyson which was in it I am ready to make recompence for it with my head if I have offended c. This and somewhat more which for brevity sake I omitted was spoken in this bold manner by a person as contemptible as this Remonstrant to a greater and a more absolute Power then we live under on the behalf of himself and Country-men who were thereby oppressed and who though reputed the greatest Tyrants of the world were not so Tyrannous as to be enraged by his upbraidings bold expressions whom oppression had exasperated For we find it attested by that famous Emperour who occasionally related this Speech that it was highly approved both by the whole Senate and by him as well becoming the Speaker in such a case yea notwithstanding the tartness thereof His testimoniall after he had said much in praise of this Oration to those unto whom he declared it was delivered in words to this effect By the faith of a good man said he I saw this German stand boldly on his feet and undismayed a whole hour whilest all we in the Senate sate beholding the earth with shame not able to answer him one word because indeed he had astonished us to see the little regard he had of his life But the Senate agreed altogether said he the next day to send new Governours and Judges into Germany commanded him to deliver unto us in writing all that he had said to be registred among the good sayings of strangers made him a Free-man of Rome chose him to be a Senator and appointed him a maintenance out of the common Treasury By this it appears that there is a way whereby a prudent Senate or Supream Authority may advance their honour if they please by hearing with patience and good acceptation those bold and free speakings tending to the execution of Justice which Fools mis-interpret as scandalous and tending to their dishonour or disadvantage And the Remonstrant hath made use of these Ethnick precedents and testimonies that they who profess Christianity may be the more ashamed to hear that Heathens and meer natural men should surpass them in generousness in zeal to Justice and in compassionately permitting grieved Supplicants boldly plainly and openly to signifie their grievances and particularize their Oppressors if need be not only without blame but also with Approbation Remedy and Reward Here this Remonstrant purposed to conclude But as many times he knows neither when he shall begin to write nor what he shall write untill he hath begun So be knows not sometimes when he shall make an end untill he hath done Whilest he was transcribing what is last added Providence offered to his view an Epistle written by Marcus Aurelius then Censor to his friend Catullus concerning the news which was at that time in Rome Which comprehendeth so many particulars pertinent to our consideration at this present which have such resemblances to occurrences in this our generation that he could not omit it Therefore it is here epitomized in these words preserving the true
that you lay off those Arms which may hurt one and put on those which destroy all the world What avails it us that you enter the Senate without sword or dagger whilest you are armed with malice in your hearts Know ye Romans we dread you not as armed Captains but as malitious Senators we fear not your swords and dâ—ggers but your hearts and tongues It were less injury if going armed into the Senate you took away our lives then to suffer Innocents to be destroyed by not dispatching their affairs I neither understand what ye intend nor can suffer with patience what I see you do In my Country we disarm Fools Now whether your Arms be taken from you as Fools or Mad-men I know not If it be done because ye are Fools surely it is not the Law of the Gods that three hundred Fools should govern three hundred thousand wise men I have tarried here for my answer a long season and by your delayes I am further from a dispatch then I was the first day We bring you hither Hony Oyl Saffron Wood Salt Silver and you send us away to seek Justice elsewhere You have one Law whereby to gather your Tributes and another whereby to determine Justice For we must pay our Tributes in one day but you will not discharge our Arrands in a whole year Either take away our lives that our businesses may have an end or hear our complaints that we may live to serve you If you think my words extravagant and find them offensive so you will do Justice to my Country take my life and so I make an end These were his words Catullus which I got in writing and may now say that the same boldness and high spirit which Romans exercised heretofore in other Countries Strangers now dare to express in Rome For this Speech some would have had him punished but God forbid that any man should suffer for saying Truth in my presence seeing that is more then enough which men suffer though we then persecute them not when they boldly inform us of their grievances The sheep cannot be preserved from wolves if the Shepherds dogs bark not and there is no Law of Gods or mans which awardeth punishment for Liars that will permit any one should be punished for speaking Truth Yet now men are chastised more for murmuring against one Senator then for blaspheming all the Gods at once We need not seek to the Gods in our Temples For the Senators take upon them to be Gods but there is great difference betwixt them For the Gods do nothing that is evil and the Senators nothing that is good The Gods never lie and the Senators never speak truth The Gods pardon often and they never forgive The Gods are content to be honoured five times in a year and the Senators would be honoured ten times in a day The Gods are constant in every thing and fail in nothing the Senators are stedfast in nothing and fail in all things and when they intend not to amend their faults they cannot endure their Suppliants should inform them of the Truth But be it as it may be this I am sure of that it is impossible for them to be just or sincerely to apply themselves to any vertue who withdraw their ears from listning to the Truth And no mortal man be he Orator or Consul or Censor or Emperour how well soever he takes heed to his wayes and orders his desires but he shall other while have need of some Reproof and Counsel Now I have written concerning others I will inform thee of somewhat concerning my self because thou desirest it Know that in the Kalends of January I was made Censor in the Senate which I neither desired nor deserve No wise man will spontaneously take upon himself the burthen and charge of looking to other mens affairs for it is an hard task to please every man in such an office and he who undertakes it must often make shew in countenance of that which is not in his heart Good men only ought to be put into office and in the eighth Table of our antient Laws it is enjoyned That charge of Justice be never given to him who seeks or desires it but that men be chosen to such places with great deliberation because few men are so vertuous and loving to their Country as to take offices upon themselves so much for the benefit of other men as for their own utility Unhappy is Rome if I be one of those who best deserveth such an office I had no need of it but accepted thereof to fulfill the command of Antonius my Grandfather and to be obedient to the Senate who had thereto elected me of their own accord c. This Remonstrant leaves it to your grave wisdoms who are in Authority and to all other prudent Readers to make that Use and Application of these preceding Fragments of Antiquity as they shall find cause and to consider whether these be not Exemplary Precedents which may excuse at least if not justifie those plain and free expressions which both his private necessities and the constitution of Publick Affairs do require at this present in relation to the Common Peace to the preservation of Publick Honour and to himself Howsoever he will now conclude adding only an humble Prayer to all you who are in Power and one reasonable request to them on whose behalf he was chiefly induced and emboldened to draw up this Pleading His Prayer to you in Authority is that by your mediation and endeavours in your several capacities means may be prosecuted whereby to the honour of GOD those Covenants Contracts and Securities made and granted by this Nations Representative may be preserved without infringement according to the Tenour of his Divine Law That the Honour and Priviledges of the Humane Nature may be duely tendred by acting according to the Law of Reason and that the credit of the English Nation may be kept from being violated and disparaged by making good what their elected Representative engaged to perform either in Specie or by a Recompence nobly and generously vouchsafed and not by that irrational way of Discount which is by some proposed For it is not only impossible after so many years and so many transactions of which no memorials were kept in expectation of a future accompt but it will be very injurious also unless the said Purchasers and Lenders may be allowed to demand and receive satisfaction upon Account and Discount for all their losses their hindrances by expences in time and their suits solicitations and forbearances occasioned without their default by those engagements which necessitated them to be Purchasers or Lenders as also for all improvements by them made at their proper cost together with the charges of prosecuting a Composition before the Commissioners lately authorised to mediate the same and for dammages sustained by Interest of money and loss of the profits of those Lands which are intruded upon and left unoccupied the