then the Prince These things considered and in them the Nature Constitution or Disease of Monarchy by Arms we may consult the more rationally with the Considerer upon the Applications or remedies by him offer'd which are three First that the Guards of the Kings person be not increased beyond the necessity of security But of what security that of his Person or of his Empire or of both for speaking of a Monarchy by Arms in this later sense only it is true and if so then this singular Maxime of State Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora might have been spared Celais'en va sans le dire come les heures de nostre curè Secondly that they be not suffered to stagnate at Court but be by a perpetual circulation drawn out upon service for if there be not perpetual service it should seem Men might be apt to think that Government was instituted for peace as well as War I add no more then is imply'd in his words which as to this of Turkey have chanced well where not the Stagnation of the Janizaries only but of the Court it self which by the institution should always be in exercise of Arms is the cause of that present decay so perceivable in this Empire But the Prince sitting still or stagnating to what the Circulation of the Janizaries whose alienation from the Government or intelligence with the Timariots must needs be of dangerous consequence could tend should have been thought on otherwise to expose the Empire to danger for the safety of the Prince is no cure of the Government But his chief remedy remains this Court Militia must not consist of one intire body united under the same head but be divided under several Colonels Captains Parties Brigades and distributed unto several Quarters As if this were a Cure there were any Army that could be mutinous but where he saies not united under the same head he intimates perhaps divers Generals and divers Armies Now such are the Turkish Beglerbegs and the Provinces under their Governments That these therefore be kept divided so that not any two of them can lay their heads together without having them cut off nor any Son succeed the Father in Government requires that there be always a sufficient force distinct from the interest of the Timariots and Beglerbegs united and still ready upon occasion of this service and the Janizaries with the Spahi's or Court horse being united are no more then sufficient for this service wherefore if these also were so divided as thereby to be weakened they could not be sufficient for this service and their division except such as might weaken them would be of no security to the Prince That the Provinces under this awe are lesse apt to Rebel then the Court guards to Mutiny is no wonder but the Court-guards being cured by the prescription of this Physitian of possibility of Mutiny which without weakening them is impossible the Provinces if Liberty or Riches or Power be desirable would never indure the yoak of this Government Wherefore it being inavoidable in the Empire that either the Janizaries or the Timariots may doe what they list in regard that whether of them be able to give law unto the other must at the same time be able to give law unto the Prince and to bring them unto an equal ballance were to make a Civil war or at least to sow the seed of it the Native wound of Monarchy by Arms remains uncured and uncurable What more may be done for Monarchy founded upon a Nobility comes next to be tried In this the Considerer gives his word that there never riseth any danger unto the Crown but when either a great part of the Soveraign power is put into the hands of the Nobility as in Germany and Poland where it should seem by him that the Electors and the Gentry do not put power into the hands of the Emperor or King but the Emperor or King puts power into the hands of the Electors or Gentry or when some Person or Family is suffered to overtop the rest in Riches Commands and Dependance as the Princes of the bloud and Lorrain not long since in France and of old the Montforts and Neviâ—s in England The first of these he declareth to be a vicious government and a Monarchy only in Name the second he undertakes shall easily admit of this remedy That the great ones be reduced decimo sexto to a lesser volume and levelled into an Equality with the rest of their Order His put-pin is pretty the Emperor puts power into the hand of the Electors and the King of Poland puts power into the hands of the Gentlemen which Governments therefore and all such like as when the King of England put power into the hands of the Barons at such time as he was no longer able to keep it out of their fingers by which means the Antient and late Government of King Lords and Commons was restored are vicious Constitutions and Monarchies only in Name such as he will not meddle with and therefore let them go Well but where is the Patient then if these be not Monarchies by Nobility what do we mean by that thing or what Government is it that we are to Cure why such an One where some Person or Family is suffered to overtop the rest in Riches Commands and Dependance as the Princes of the bloud and Lorrain not long since in France and of old the Montfords and the Nevils in England So then the same again for these are no other upon recollection are those that admit of this Easie cure Let the great Ones be reduced to a lesser volume and levell'd with the rest of their Order But how if they be the weaker party they are not the great ones and if they be the stronger party how will he reduce them Put the case a Man have the Gout his Physitian does not bid him reduce his overtopping toes unto the volume of the other foot nor to levell them unto Equality with the rest of their Order but prescribes his remedies and institutes the Method that should do this feat What is the Method of our Aesculapius Point de Novelle or where are we to find it e'en where you please The Princes of the bloud and of Lorrain in France the Montforts and the Nevils in England overtopped not their Order by their own riches or power but by that of the party which for their fidelity courage or conduct intrusted them with the managing of their Arms or affairs So the Prince that would have levelled them must have levelled their party which in case the controversie be upon the right or pretended right of the Nobility in the Government which commonly makes them hang together may come to the whole Order what then Why then says he the Prince must preserve his Nobility weighty enough to keep the People under and yet not tall enough in any particular person to measure
great boldnesse but if I commit errors in writing these may be known without danger whereas if they commit errors in acting such come not otherwise to be known then in the ruine of the Commonwealth For which cause I presume to open the Scene of my Discourse which is to change according unto the variety of these following Questions Whether Prudence be well distinguisht into Antient and Modern Whether a Commonwealth be rightly defined to be a Government of Laws and not of Men and Monarchy to be a Government of some Man or few Men and not of Laws Whether the ballance of Dominion in Land be the Natural cause of Empire Whether the ballance of Empire be well divided into National and Provincial and whether these two or Nations that are of distinct ballance comming to depend upon one and the same head such a mixture create a new ballance Whether there be any common Right or Interest of Mankind distinct from the parts taken severally and how by the Orders of a Common-wealth this may best be distinguisht from private Interest Whether the Senatusconsulta or decrees of the Roman Senate had the power of Laws Whether the Ten Commandements proposed by God or Moses were voted by the people of Israel Whether a Commonwealth comming up to the perfection of the kind come not up to the perfection of Government and have no flaw in it Whether Monarchy comming up to the perfection of the kind come not short of the perfection of Government and have some flaw in it in which is also treated of the ballance of France of the Original of a landed Clergy of Armes and their kinds Whether a Commonwealth that was not first broken by her self were ever conquer'd by any Monarch Whether there be not an Agrarian or some Law or Laws of that Nature to supply the defect of it in every commonwealth and whether the Agrarian as it is stated in Oceana be not equal and satisfactory to all Interests or Parties Whether courses or Rotation be necessary unto a well Order'd Commonwealth In which is contained the Parembole or courses of Israel before the captivity together with an Epitome of the whole commonwealth of Athens as also another of the commonwealth of Venice Antient and Modern Prudence CHAP. I. Whether Prudence be well distinguished into Antient and Modern THe Considerer where by Antient Prudence I understand the Policy of a Common-wealth and by Modern Prudence that of King Lords and Commons which introduced by the Goths Vandals upon the ruine of the Roman Empire hath since reigned in these Western Countreys till by the predominating of some one of the three parts it be now almost universally extinguished thinks it enough for the confutation of this distinction to shew out of Thucidides that of Monarchy to be a more Antient policy than that of a Commonwealth Upon which occasion I must begin here to discover that which the farther I go will be the more manifest Namely that there is difference between quoting Authors and saying some part of them without book this may be done by their words but the former no otherwise then by keeping unto their sense Now the sense of Thucidides as he is translated by Mr. Hobbs in the place alleaged is thus The manner saith he of living in the most Antient times of Greece was Thieving the stronger going abroad under the conduct of their most puissant Men both to enrich themselves and fetch home maintenance for the weak for there was neither traffick propriety of Lands nor constant Abode till Minos built a Navy and expelling the Malefactors out of the Islands planted Colonies of his own by which means they who inhabited the Sea coasts becomming more addicted to riches grew more constant to their dwellings of whom some grown now rich compassed their Towns about with walls For out of desire of gain the meaner sort underwent servitude with the Mighty and the Mighty thus overballancing at home with their wealth brought the lesser Cities abroad into subjection Thus Pelops though he were a stranger obtained such power in Peloponesus that the Countrey was called after his Name Thus Atreus obtained the Kingdome of Mycenae and thus Kingdomes with honours limitted came to be hereditary and rising to power proceeded afterwards to the war against Troy After the war with Troy though with much adoe and in a long time Greece had constant rest and land without doubt came to propriety for shifting their seats no longer at length they sent Colonies abroad The Athenians into Ionia with the Islands the Peloponesians into Italy Sicily and other parts The power of Greece thus improved and the desire of money with all their Revenues in what not in money if yet there were no usury therefore except a Man can shew that there was usury in Land being enlarged in most of the Cities there more erected Tyrannies Let us lay this place unto the former when out of desire of gain the meaner sort underwent servitude with the Mighty it caused hereditary Kingdomes with honours limitted as happen'd also with us since the time of the Goths and Vandals But when the people came to Propriety in Land and their Revenues were enlarged such as assumed power over them not according unto the Nature of their Propriety or Ballance were Tyrants well and what remedy why then it was saies the Considerer that the Grecians out of an extreme aversion to that which was the cause of their present sufferings slipt into Popular Government not that upon calm and mature debates they found it best but that they might put themselves at the greatest distance which spirit usually accompanies all Reformations from that with which they were grown into dislike Whereby he agrees exactly with his Author in making out the true force and Nature of the ballance working even without deliberation and whether Men will or no. For the Government that is Natural and easie being in no other direction than that of the respective ballance is not of choice but of necessity The Policy of King Lords and Commons was not so much from the prudence of our Ancestors as from their Necessity If Three hundred Men held at this day the like overballance unto the whole People it were not in the power of Prudence to institute any other then the same kind of Government through the same Necessity Thus the meaner sort with Thucidides submitting unto the Mighty it came to Kingdomes with hereditary honours but the People comming to be wealthy called their Kings though they knew not why Tyrants nay and using them accordingly found out means with as little deliberation it may be as a Bull takes to tosse a Dog or a Hern to split an Hawk that is rather as at the long run they will ever doe in the like case by instinct than prudence or debate to throw down that which by the meer information of sense they could no longer bear
and which being thrown down they found themselves eased But the question yet remains and that is forsooth whether of these is to be called Antient Prudence To this end never Man made a more unlucky choice then the Considerer hath done for himself of this Author who in the very beginning of his book speaking of the Pelopenesian war or that between the Commonwealths of Athens and Lacedemon saies that the Actions which preceded this and those again that were more antient though the truth of them through length of time cannot by any means be clearly discovered yet for any argument that looking into times far past he had yet light on to perswade him he does not think they have been very great either for matter of war or otherwise that is for matter of Peace or Government And lest this should not be plain enough he calls the Prudence of the three Periods observ'd by Mr. Hobbs that from the beginning of the Grecian memory to the Trojan war That of the Trojan war it self and that from thence to the present Commonwealths and Wars whereof he treateth The Imbecility of antient times Wherefore certainly this Prevaricator to give him his own fees hath lesse discretion then a Common Attorney who will be sure to examine onely those witnesses that seem to make for the cause in which he is entertained Seeing that which he affirmeth to be Antient Prudence is deposed by his own witness to have been the imbecility of antient times for which I could have so many more then I have leisure to examine that to take onely of the most Authentick as you have heard one Greek I shall add no more then one Roman and that is Florus in his Prologue where computing the ages of the Romans in the same manner Thucidides did those of the Greeks he affirmeth the time while they lived under their Kings to have been their infancy that from the Consuls until they conquer'd Italy their youth that from hence unto their Emperors their Manly age and the rest with a Complement or Salvo unto Trajan his present Lord their dotage These things though originally all Government among the Greeks and the Romans were Regall are no more then they who have not yet passed their Novitiate in story might have known Yet says the Considerer It seems to be a defect of experience to think that the Greek and the Roman actions are only considerable in antiquity But is it such a defect of experience to think them only considerable as not to think them chiefly considerable in antiquity or that the name of ancient Prudence doth not belong unto that prudence which was chief in Antiquity True saith he it is very frequent with such as have been conversant with Greek and Roman Authors to be led by them into a belief that the rest of the world was a rude inconsiderable people and which is a term they very much delight in altogether Barbarous This should be some fine Gentleman that would have Universities pulld down for the Office of an University is no more then to preserve so much of Antiquity as may keep a Nation from stinking or being barbarous which falt grew not in Monarchies but in Commonwealths or whence hath the Christian world that Religion and those Laws which are now common but from the Hebrews and Romans or from whence have we Arts but from these or the Greeks That we have a Doctor of Divinity or a Master of Art we may thank Popular government or with what languages with what things are Schollars conversant that are otherwise descended will they so plead their own cause as to tell us it is possible there should be a Nation at this day in the world without Universities or Universities without Hebrew Greek and Latine and not be barbarous that is to say rude unlearned and inconsiderable Yes this humour even among the Greeks and Romans themselves was a servile addiction unto narrow Principles and a piece of very pedantical pride What man the Greeks and the Romans that of all other would not serve servile their Principles their Learning with whose scraps we set up for Bachelours Masters and Doctors of fine things narrow their inimitable eloquence a piece of very Pedantical pride The world can never make sense of this any otherwise then that since Heads and Fellows of Colledges became the only Greeks and Romans the Greeks and Romans are become servily addicted of narrow Principles very Pedants and prouder of those things they do not understand then the other were of those they did For say they in this question the examples of the Babylonians Persians and Egyptians not to omit the antient and like modern discoveries of the Queen of the Amazons and of the King of China cannot without grosse partiality be neglected This is pretty they who say nothing at all to the policy of these governments accuse me who have fully opened it of negligence The Babylonian Persian and for ought appears to the contrary the Chinesse Policy is summed up and far exceld by that at this day of Turky and in opening this I have opn'd them all so far from neglect that I everywhere give the Turk his due whose policy I assert to be the best of this kind though not of the best kind But they will bear me down and but with one Argument which I beseech you mark that it is absolutely of the best kind for say they it is of a more absolute form hath more of the Man and less of the Law in it then is to be met with in any Kingdome of Europe I am amazed This is that kind of government which to hold Barbarous was in the Greeks and Romans Pedantical pride but would be in us who have not the same temptation of Interest downright folly The Interest of a people is not their guide but their temptation we that hold our land divided among us have not the same temptation of interest that had the servile Hebrews Greeks and Romans but the same that had the free people of Babylon Persia and Egypt where not the people but the Prince was sole Landlord O the Arts in which these men are Masters To follow the Pedantical pride of Moses Lycurgus Solon Romulus were with us downright folly but to follow humble and learned Mahomet or Ottonian in whose only Model the perfection of the Babylonian Persian Egyptian policy is consummated is antient Prudence Exquisite Polititians egregious Divines for the leading of a people into Egypt or Babylon These things considered whether antient prudence as I have stated it be downright folly or as they have stated it be not downright knavery I appeal unto any Court of Claims in the world where the Judges I mean have not more in their Caps then in their heads and in their Sleeves then the scarlet And whereas men love compendious works if I gain my cause the Reader for an answer unto the Oxford book need look no farther then
this Chapter For if Riches and Freedome be the end of Government and these men propose nothing but slavery beggary and Turcisme what need more words CHAP. II. Whether a Commonwealth be rightly defined to be a Government of Laws and not of Men and a Monarchy to be the Government of some Man or few Men and not of Laws THat part of the Preliminaries which the Praevaricator as is usual with him recites in this place fasly and fraudulently is thus Relation had unto these two times that of Antient and that of Modern Prudence the One as is computed by Janotti ending with the Liberty of Rome the other beginning with the Arms of Caesar which extinguishing liberty became the translation of Antient into Modern Prudence introduced in the ruine of the Roman Empire by the Goths and Vandals Government to define it de jure or according unto Antient prudence is an Art whereby a civil Society of Men is instituted and preserved upon the foundation of Common right or interest or to follow Aristotle and Livy it is an Empire of Laws and not of Men. And Government to define it de facto or according unto Modern prudence is an Art whereby some Man or some few Men subject a City or a Nation and rule it according unto his or their private interest which because the Laws in such cases are made according to the interest of a Man or some few Families may be said to be an Empire of Men and not of Laws Hereby it is plain whether in an Empire of Laws and not of Men as a Commonwealth or in an Empire of Men and not of Laws as Monarchy First That Law must equally proceed from will that is either from the Will of the whole People as in a Common-wealth from the will of one Man as in Absolute or from the will of a few Men as in regulated Monarchy Secondly That will whether of one or more or all is not presumed to be much lesse to Act without a Mover Thirdly That the Mover of Will is Interest Fourthly That Interests also being of one of more or of all those of one Man or of a few Men where Laws are made accordingly being more private then comes duly up unto Law the Nature whereof lyeth not in partiality but in Justice may be called the Empire of Men and not of Laws And that of the whole People comming up to the Publique Interest which is none other then Common right and Justice excluding all partiality or private Interest may be truly called the Empire of Laws and not of Men. By all which put together whereas it is demonstrable that in this division of Government I do not stay at the Will which must have some Motive or Mover but go unto the first and remotest Notion of Government in the Foundation and Origination of it In which lies the credit of this Division and the Definition of the several members that is to say of interest whether private or publique The Praevaricator telleth me That this Division of Government having he knows not how lost her Credit the definitions of the several Members of it need not be considered farther then that they come not at all up to the first and remotest notion of Government in the Foundation and Origination of it in which lies all the difficulty and being here neglected there is little hope the subsequent discourse can have in it the light of probable satisfaction much less of force of infallible demonstration Very good Interest it should seem then is not the first and remotest Notion of Government but that which he will out-throw and at this cast by saying that the Declaration of the will of the Soveraign power is called Law which if it out-live the person whose will it was it is onely because the persons who succeed in power are presumed to have the same will unless they manifest the contrary and that is the abrogation of the Law so that still the Government is not in the Law but in the person whose will gave a being unto that Law I might as well say The Declaration unto all men by these presents that a man oweth money is called a Bond which if it outlive the person that entred into that bond it is only because the persons that succeed him in his estate are presumed to have the same will unlesse they manifest the contrary and that is the abrogation or cancelling of the bond so that still the debt is not in the bond but in his will who gave a being unto that Bond. If it be alledged against this example that it is a private one the Case may be put between several Princes States or Governments or between several States of the same Principality or Government whether it be a regulated Monarchy or a Commonwealth for in like Obligation of the States as of the King the Lords and Commons or parties agreeing Authoritate Patrum jussu Populi till the Parties that so agreed to the Obligation shall agree to repeal or cancel it lyeth all law that is not meerly in the will of one Man or of one State or Party as the Oligarchy But not to dispute these things farther in this place let the Government be what it will for the Prevaricator to fetch the Origination of Law no farther then the will while he knows very well that I fetcht it from interest the Antecedent of will and yet to boast that he hath out-thrown me I say he is neither an honest man nor a good Bowler No matter he will be a better Gunner For where I said that the Magistrate upon the Bench is that unto the Law which a Gunner upon his Platform is to his Cannon he goes about to take better Aim and says if the proportion of things be accurately considered it will appear that the Laden Cannon answers not to the Laws but to the power of the person whose will created those Laws which if some of them that the power of the person whose will created them intended should be of as good stuff or Carriage as the rest do nevertheless according unto the Nature of their matter or of their charge come short or over and others break or recoyl sure this Report of the Prevaricator is not according unto the bore of my gun but according unto the bore of such a Gunner Yet again if he be not so good a Gunner he will be a better Anatomist For whereas I affirm that to say Aristotle and Cicero wrote not the rights or rules of their Politicks from the Principles of Nature but transcribed them into their books out of the practice of their own Commonwealths is as if a man should say of famous Hervey that he transcribed his Circulation of the bloud not out of the principles of Nature but out of the Anatomy of this or that body he answers that the whole force of this objection amounts but to this that because Hervey in his Circulation hath follow'd the
with himself which abating the figure is the same again and so I have nothing to answer but the figure Now for this the Prince himself is no otherwise tall then by being set upon the shoulders of the Nobility and so if they set another upon the same shoulders as in Henry the 4th or the 7th who had no Titles unto the Crown nor could otherwise have measured with the Prince be he never so low he comes to be tall enough in his particular person to measure with the Prince and to be taller too not only by those Old Examples but others that are younger than our selves though such the Nobility having not of late been weighty enough to keep the People under as derive from another Principle that of Popular ballance A Prince therefore preserving his Nobility weighty enough to keep under the people must preserve in them the ballance of that kind of Empire and the ballance containing the riches which are the power and so the Arms of the Nation this being in the Nobility the Nobility when willing must be able to dispose of the King or of the Government Nor under a lesse weight is a Nobility qualified to keep down the people as by an Argument from the contrary Henry the 7th having found the strength of his Nobility that set him in a Throne to which he had no right and fearing that the tide of their favour turning they might do as much for another abated the dependance of their Tenants and cut off their Train of Retainers which deminution of their weight releasing by degrees the People hath caused that Plain or Level into which we live to see the Mountain of that Monarchy now sunck and swallowed wherefore the ballance of the Nobility being such as failing that kind of Monarchy comes to ruine and not failing the Nobility if they joyn may give Law unto the King the inherent disease of Monarchy by a Nobility remains also uncured and uncurable These are points to which I had spoken before but something concerning France and Forraign Guards was mumbled by the Praevaricator in a wrong place while he was speaking of Turkey where there is no such thing This least I be thought to have courted Opposition for nothing shall open a New Scene while I take the occasion in this place to speak first of the Ballance of the French Monarchy and next of the Nature and use of Forraign Guards The whole Territory of France except the Crown Lands which on this account are not considerable consisteth of three shares or parts whereof the Church holdeth one the Nobility another and the Presidents Advocates other Officers of the Parliaments Courts of Justice the Citizens Merchants Tradesmen the Treasurers receivers of the Customes aids taxes impositions Gabells all which together make a vast body hold a Third by how equal portions I am sorry that I do not know nor where to learn but this is the ballance of the French Monarchy unto which the Paisant holding nothing but living though in one of the best Countrys of the world in the meanest and most miserable Condition of a Labourer or Hiend is of no account at all The parties that hold the ballance in a Territory are those of whom the Government doth naturally consist wherefore these are called Estates so the Clergy the Nobility and the Commons are the three Estates of France Though the Third because the Paisant partaking not of the ballance can in relation to Government be of no account is not called the Commons but only the Third Estate whereas the Yeomanry and Gentry in England having weighed as well in the ballance as the Church and the Nobility the three Estates of England while the Monarchy was in vigour were the Clergy the Nobility and the Commons The Consent of Nations evinceth that the Function of the Clergy or Priest except where otherwise determined of by Law appertaineth unto the Magistrate By this right Noah Abraham Job with the rest of the Patriarchs instructed their Families or sacrisiced There seemeth to have been a kind of Commonwealth in Canaan while Melchisedec was both King and Priest Such also was Moses till he consecrated Aaron and confer'd the Priesthood upon the Levites who are expresly said to succeed unto the first born that is unto the Patriarchs who till then exercised that Function Nor was it otherwise with the Gentiles where they who had the Soveraign power or were in eminent Magistracy did also the Priestly Office omnino apud veteres qui rerum potiebantur iidem Auguria tenebant ut enim sapere sic divinare regale ducebant saith Cicero and Virgil Rex Anius Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos You find the Heroes that is Princes in Poets sacrificing The Ethiopian Egyptian Lacedemonian Kings did the like in Athens constantly and in Rome when they had no Kings occasionally they elected a Rex sacrorum or King-Priest So that a free People had thus far power of electing their Priests is not deny'd by any Man This came it should seem to be otherwise Established by the Law in Egypt where the Priests whose Lands Joseph when he bought those of the People did not buy being great Landlords it may be unto the Third of the whole Territory were one of the three Estates of the Realm And it is clear in Scripture that the People till they Sold their Lands became not Servants unto Pharaoh While Agesilaus was in Egypt they deposed their King which implies the recovery of their ballance but so seeing they set up another as withall shews the ballance of the Nobility to have been predominant These particulars seem to come near unto the account of Diodorus Siculus by whom the ballance of Egypt should have stood thus The whole Revenue was divided into three parts whereof the Priests had the first the King had the second and the Nobility had the Third It seems to me that the Priests had theirs by their Antient right and title untouched by Joseph that the Kings had all the rest by the Purchase of Joseph and that in time as is usual in like cases a Nobility came through the bounty of succeeding Kings to share with them in one half But however it came about Egypt by this means is the first Example of a Monarchy upon a Nobility at least distributed into three Estates by means of a Landed Clergy which by consequence came to be the greatest Counsellors of State and fitting Religion unto their uses to bring the people to be the most superstitious in the whole World Where it not for this Example I should have said that the Indowment of a Clergy or Religious Order with Lands and the erecting of them into an Estate of the Realm or Government were no Antienter then the Goths and Vandals who introducing a like Policy which unto this day taketh place throughout the Christian world have been the cause First why the Clergy have been generally great Counsellors unto
his Verjuce to the Presse hath spurr'd me Where he desires to know my opinion of the way of governing by Councils which he confesseth he hath always thought admirable he doth not mean such as are co-ordinate with the Prince which have been seen in the world but such as those of Spain purely of advice and dispatch with power only to inform and perswade not limit the Princes will For almost all the weaknesses which have been thought incident to Monarchy are by this course prevented and if there be any steadinesse and maturity in the Senate of a Commonwealth this takes it all in To give my Counsel without a fee and deal sincerely with a Prevaricator Let the Prince that is such an one as his hold himself contented with his Divan or Cabinet If this be that he means we are agreed but if he would have more I can make no lesse of his words then an hankering after such Councils as I have proposed and that these are such as he always thought admirable such as prevent almost all the weaknesses incident to Monarchy and take in the steadinesse and maturity of a Commonwealth How may we make this agree with that other place where he saith that there is no frame of laws or constitution of government which will not decay and come to ruine unlesse repaired by the prudence and dexterity of them that govern Now that this may not be expected from a Monarch as well as from a Senate or assembly of men he hath not yet met with any conviction but rather finds it reasonable to think that where debates are cleerest the result of them most secret and the execution suddain which are the advantages of Monarchy there the disorders of a State will soonest be discovered and the necessary remedies best applied In that former place he bethought himself that the debates of Rome were as clear as those of Antiochus that her results were as secret as those of Philip or Perseus and of more suddain execution then either of theirs He doubted it might be true which is affirmed by good Authors and commonly enough known that for the clearnesse of debate and secrecy of result the world never saw any thing like the Senate of Venice and that in all apparence they are for execution as quick with the Divan as the Divan can be with them Now when all this is done to banish so generous thoughts without shewing us for what cause and knock under the table is sad news But he shall find me in any thing that is reasonable most ready to serve him To the question then how such Councils as I have proposed would do with a Prince I answer truly the best of them I doubt but untowardly One that is the Popular Assembly hath no mean but is either the wisest in Nature or hath no brains at all When affairs go upon no other then the Publick interest this having no other interest to follow nor eyes to see withal is the wisest Council but such ways are destructive to a Prince and they will have no nay The Congregation of Israel when Rehoboam would not hearken to their advice deposed him and we know what Popular Councils so soon as they came to sufficient power did in England If a Prince put a Popular Council from this ward He does a great matter and to little purpose for they understand nothing else but themselves Wherefore the Kings of France and of Spain have dissolved all such Assemblies It is true where a Prince is not strong enough to get money out of them but by their cocsent they are necessary but then they are not purely of advice and dispatch but share in the Government and he cannot be meddling with their Purses but they will be meddling with his Laws The Senate is of fitter use for a Prince and yet except he have the way of Tiberius but a ticklish piece as appears by Maximinus who was destroyed by Pupienus and Balbinus Captains set up against him by this Order To go unto the Root These things are not otherwise in prudence or choice then by direction of the ballance where this is Popular no remedy the Prince must be advised by the People which if the late King would have endured the Monarchy might have subsisted somewhat longer but while the ballance was Aristocratical as during the great Estates of the Nobility and the Clergy we find not the People to have been great or wise Counsellors In sum if a King govern by a Popular Council or an house of Commons the Throne will not stand long If he governs by a Senate or an house of Lords let him never fear the Throne but have a care of himself there is no third as I have said often enough but the Divan CHAP. X. Whether a Commonwealth that was not first broken by her self were ever conquer'd by the Arms of any Monarch I Come in this Chapter to resume the discourse where I broke off in the former making good my assertion that a Commonwealth is the Goverment which from the beginning of the world unto this day was never conquer'd by any Monarch For if the Commonwealths of Greece came under the yoak of the Kings of Macedon they were first broken by themselves When I speak of a Commonwealth in relation to this point I am no more to be argued against out of the Little Cities in Asia or those of Ragusa and San Marino which cannot be shewn to have had the Command of any considerable Army then I argue against the Praevaricator where he asserts Monarchy to consist of a mixture of Arms and of a Nobility from the King of Yuetot who had neither This assertion in the judgement of any rational Man ought not to be encountered but where there was a Natural possbility of defence in regard that a City which hath no Army at all as Geneva which yet being invaded by the Duke of Savoy found means to defend her self or such an one as is not considerable should be subdued by some potent Monarch if we could find the Example concerns the Government no more then if it had been overwhelmed by some inundation or swallowed up by some Earthquake And yet all that is Opposed by the Considerer amounts not unto thus much The testimony he brings out of Pausanias comes far short for it is recorded saith the Author speaking of the Lucedemonians that being corrupted by the bounty of Craesus they were the first that contracted Amity with the Barbarians at the time when that King added the Territories inhabited by the Dorians upon the border of Caria with other Commonwealths in Asia unto his Empire So that Craesus corrupted the Lacedemonians with gifts Pausanias is express but whether he obtain'd the Asiatick Cities likely in this case to have been easilier corrupted then the Lacedemonians by Arms or by Purchase he is not express and the presumption of the later as in other regards so in this is the stronger that
of these a man must be a Gardiner or an Herbalist In this manner the reason why a Common-wealth hath not been overcome by a Monarch hath been shewn in the distribution of Armes those of a Prince consisting of Subjects or servants those of a Common-wealth rightly Order'd of Citizens which difference relates plainly unto the perfection or imperfection of the Goverment But sayes the Prevaricator this seemes intended for a Tryall of our Noses whether they will serve us to discover the fallacy of an inference from the prosperous successe of Armes to the perfection of Government If she who should have some care of the Vineyard of Truth shall lye pigging of wide bores to grunt in this manner and fear with the tush and I happen to ring some of them as I have done this Marcassin for rooring there is nothing in my faith why such tryall of their Noses should be sin but for fallacions inferrences such I leave unto them whose Capps are squarer then their play For all that Great and well policyd Empires saith he have been subverted by People so eloigned from the perfection of government that we scarce know of any thing to tye them together but the desire of booty Where or how came he to know this what reason or experience doth he alledge for the proof of it May we not say of this it is for the tryal of our Noses whether they will serve us to discover that a Conclusion should have some Premisses He gives us leave to go look and all the premisses that I can finde are quite contrary The Arms of Israel were alwayes victorious till the death of Josua whereupon the orders of that Common-wealth being neglected they came afterwards to be seldom prosperous Isocrates in his Oration to the Areopagites speaks thus of Athens The Lacedemonians who when we were under Oligarchy every day commanded us something now while we are under popular Administration are our Petitioners that we would not see them utterly ruined by the Thebans Nor did Lacedemon ruine till her Agrarian the foundation of her Government was first broken The Arms of Rome ever noted by Historians and clearly evinced by Machiavil to have been the result of her policy during the popular government were at such a pitch as if Victory had known no other wings then those of her Eagles nor seeing the Gothes and Vandalls are the Legislators from whom we derive the government of King Lords and Commons were these when they overcame the Roman Empire a people so eloigned from the perfection of Government but their Policy was then farre better than that of the Emperors which having been at first founded upon a broken Senate and a few Military Colonies was now come unto a Cabinet and a Mercenary Army The Judgement of all ages and writers upon the Policy of the Roman Emperors is in this place worthy and through the pains already taken by Erasmus and Sleiden easie to be inserted O miserable and deplorable State saith Erasmus the Authority of the Senate the power of the Law the Liberty of the People being troden under-foot to a Prince that got up in this manner the whole World was a servant while he himself was a servant unto such as no honest man would have endured the like servants in his house the Senate dreaded the Senate dreaded the Emperor the Emperor dreaded his execrable Militia the Emperor gave Lawes unto Kings and received them from his Mercenaries To this is added by Sleiden That the condition of these Princes was so desperate it was a wonderful thing Ambition her self could have the courage to run such a hazard seeing from Cajus Caesar slain in the Senate to Charles the Great there had been above thirty of them murthered and four that had layd violent hands upon themselves For there was alway something in them that offended the Souldiery which whether they were good or bad was equally subject to pick quarrels upon the least occasion raised tumults and dispatcht even such of them as they had forced to accept of that dignity for example Aelius Pertinax But if this be true that of the Gothes and Vandalls when they subdued this Empire must have been the better Government for so ill as this never was there any except that only of the Kings of Israel which certainly was much worse Those of the Britains and the Gauls were but the dregs of this of Rome when they were overcome by the Saxons and Franks who brought in the Policy of the Gothes and Vandalls When Tamerlan overcame Bajazet the Turkish Policy had not attain'd unto that extent of Territory which is plainly necessary unto the nature of it nor was the Order of the Janizaries yet instituted The Hollander who under a potent Prince was but a Fisherman with the restitution of the popular government is become the better Souldier nor hath been matcht but by a rising Common-wealth whose Policy you will say was yet worse but then her ballance being that especially which produceth men was farre better For vastness for fruitfulness of territory for bodies of men for number for courage nature never made a Country more potent then Germany yet this Nation anciently the Seminary of Nations hath of late years meerly through the defect of her policy which in tending one Common wealth hath made an hundred Monarchies in her bowels whose crosse interests twist her gutts been the theater of the saddest Tragedies under the Sun nor is she curable unless some Prince alling to work with the Hammer of Warre be able totally to destroy the old and forge her a Government intirely new But if this come to be neither shall it be said that a well polycy'd Empire was subverted nor by a people so eloigned from perfection of government but theirs must be much better then the other Let me be as ridiculous as you will the World is in faece Romuli ripe for great changes which must come And look to it whether it be Germany Spain France Italy or England that comes first to fix her self upon a firm foundation of policy she shall give law unto and be obey'd by the rest There was never so much fighting as of late dayes to so little purpose Arms except they have a root in policy are altogether fruitless In the Warre between the King and the Parliament not the Nation only but the policy of it was divided and which part of it was upon the better foundation But saith he Ragusa and San Marino are commended for their upright and equal frame of Government and yet have hardly extended their Dominion beyond the size of an handsom Mannor Have Ragusa or San Marino been conquer'd by the Arms of any Monarch For this I take it is the Question though if they had these being Common wealths unarmed it were nothing to the purpose The question of encrease is another point Lacedemon could not increase because her frame was of another nature without ruine yet
Those in England France and Spain introduced by the Gothes Vandals Saxons and Franks which were Aristocratical or such as produced the Government of King Lords and Commons Thirdly those in the East and Turkey introduced by Nimrod and Mahomet or Ottoman which were purely Monarchial Examples of the Ballance introduced by civil Vicissitude alienation or alteration of Propriety under Government are in Florence where the Medices attaining to excessive wealth the ballance altered from Popular to Monarchial In Greece where the Argives being Lovers of equality and liberty reduced the power of their Kings to so small a matter that there remained unto the Children and Successors of Cisus little more than the Title where the ballance altered from Monarchical to Popular In Rome about the time of Crassus the Nobility having eaten the People out of their Lands the ballance alter'd from Popular first unto Aristocratical as in the Triumvirs Caesar Pompey and Crassus and then to Monarchical as when Crassus being dead and Pompey conquer'd the whole came to Caesar In Tarentum not long after the Warre with the Medes the Nobility being wasted and overcome by Iapyâ—es the ballance and with that the Common wealth changed from Aristocratical to Popular the like of late hath discovered it self in Oceana When a ballance commeth so through civil Vicissitude to be changed that the change cannot be attributed unto humane Providence it is more peculiarly to be ascribed unto the hand of God and so when there happeneth to be an irresistible change of the ballance not the old Government which God hath repealed but the new Government which he dictateth as present Legislator is of Divine right This volubility of the ballance being apparant it belongs unto Legislators to have eyes and to occur with some prudential or legal remedy or prevention and the Lawes that are made in this Case are called Agrarian So an Agrarian is a Law fixing the ballance of a Government in such manner that it cannot alter This may be done divers wayes as by entailing the Lands upon certain Families without power of Alienation in any case as in Israel and Lacedemon or except with leave of the Magistrate as in Spain but this by making some Families too secure as those in possession and others too despairing as those not in possession may make the whole People lesse industrious Wherefore the other way which by the regulation of purchases ordains only that a Mans Land shall not exceed some certain proportion for example two thousand pounds a year or exceeding such a proportion shall divide in descending unto the Children so soon as being more than one they shall be capable of such division or sub-division till the greater share exceed not two thousand pounds a year in Land lying and being within the Native Territory is that which is received and established by the Common wealth of Oceana By Levelling they who use the word seem to understand when a People rising invades the Lands and Estates of the richer sort and divides them equally among themselves as for example No where in the World this being that both in the way and in the end which I have already demonstrated to be impossible Now the words of this Lexicon being thus interpreted Let us hearken what the Praevaricator will say and out it comes in this manner To him that makes propriety and that in Lands the foundation of Empire the establishing of an Agrarian is of absolute necessity that by it the power may be fixed in those hands to whom it was at first committed What need we then proceed any farther while he having no where disproved the ballance in these words gives the whole cause For as to that which he faith of money seeing neither the vast treasure of Henry the 7th altered the ballance of England nor the Revenue of the Indies alters that of Spain this retrait except in the cases excepted is long since barricadoed But he is on and off and any thing to the contrary notwithstanding gives you this for certain The Examples of an Agrarian are so infrequent that Mr. Harrington is constrained to wave all but two Common-wealths and can finde in the whole extent of History only Israel and Lacedemon to fasten upon A man that hath read my Writings or is skilled in History cannot chuse but see how he slurs his Dice nevertheless to make this a little more apparent It hath seemed to some sayes Aristotle the main point of institution in Government to order riches right whence otherwise derives all Civil discord Vpon this ground Phaleas the Calcedonian Legislator made it his first work to introduce equality of goods and Plato in his Lawes allowes not increase unto a possession beyond certain bounds The Argives and the Messenians had each their Agrarian after the manner of Lacedemon If a man shall translate the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 virtus facultas civilis Political virtue or faculty where he findes them in Aristotles Politicks as I make bold and appeal unto the Reader whether too bold to do by the words Politicall ballance understood as I have stated the thing it will give such a light unto the Authour as will go neerer than any thing alleadged as before by this Praevaricator to deprive me of the honour of that invention For Example where Aristotle saith If one man or such a number of men as to the capacity of Government come within the compasse of the Few excel all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in ballance or in such manner that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Political faculties or Estates of all the rest be not able to hold weight with him or them they will never condiscend to share equally with the rest in power whom they excell in ballance nor is it to any purpose to give them Lawes who will be as the Gods their own Lawes and answer the People as the Lions are said by Antisthenes to have answer'd the hares when they had concluded that every one ought to have an equall portion For this cause he adds Cities that live under popular power have instituted the Ostracism for the preservation of equality by which if a man increase in riches retinue or popularity above what is safe they can remove him without losse of honour or estate for a time If the Considerer think that I have strained courtesie with Aristotle who indeed is not alwayes of one minde further then is warrantable in relation to the ballance be it as he pleaseth I who must either have the more of Authority or the lesse of Competition in the point shall lose neither way However it is in this place enough that the Ostracism being of like nature was that which supplyde the defect in the Grecian Cities of an Agrarian To proceed then unto Rome that the People there by striving for an Agrarian strove to save their Liberty is apparent in that through the want of such a Law or the non-observance
Princes of the Tribes in their Provinces that are left in the Land of Israel and with them also to the Priests and Levites which are in their Cities and Suburbs that they may gather themselves unto us And let us bring again the Ark of our God to us for we enquired not at it in the dayes of Saul And all the Congregation gave their suffrage in the Affirmative said that they would do so for the thing was right in the Eyes of the People Nulla lex sibi soli conscientiam Justitiae sua debet sed et à quibus obsequium expectat Now that the same Congregation or representative gave the vote of the People also in the Election of Priests Officers and Magistrates Moreover David and the Captaines of the Host separated to the service of the Sonnes of Aâ—aph and of Heman and of Jeduthun who should Prophesy with Harps with Psalteryes with Cymballs But upon the occasion untowhich we are more especially beholding for the preservation and discovery of this admirable order David having proposed the businesse in a long and pious speech the Congregation made Solomon the Sonne of David King the second time and annoynted him unto the Lord to be Chief Governor and Zadok to be Preist For as to the first time that Solomon was made King it happened through the sedition of Adoniae to have been done in hast and tumultuously by those onely of Jerusalem and the reason why Zadoc is here made Priest is that Abiathar was put out for being of the Conspiracy with Adonia I may expect by such Objections as they afford me it should be alleadged that to prove an order in a Common-wealth I instance in a Monarchy as if there were any thing in this Order Monarchiall or that could if it had not been so received from the Common-wealth have been introduced by the Kings to whom in the Judgement of any sober man the Praevaricator onely excepted who hath been huckling about some such Councill for his Prince no lesse could have follow'd upon the first frown of the people then did in Rehoboam who having used them roughly was deposed by the Congregation or the Major part It is true that while Israel was an Army the Congregation as it needed not to assemble by way of Election or representative so I believe it did not but that by all Israel assembled to this end should be meant the whole people after they were planted upon their lots and not their Representative which in a politicall sense is as properly so called were absurd and impossible Nor need I go upon presumption onely be the same never so strong seeing it is said in Scripture of the Korathites that they were keepers of the gates of the Tabernacle and their fathers being over the Host of the Lord were keepers of the Entry That is according to the interpretation of Grotius the Korathites were now keepers of the gates as it appears in the Book of Numbers their Ancestors the Kohathites had been in Camp or while Israel was yet an Army But our Translation is lame of the right foot as to the true discovery of the Antient manner of this service which according to the Septuagint and the Vulgar Latine was thus they were keepers of the gates of the Tabernacle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 familiae eorum per vices and their fathers by turnes or Rotation So that offices and services by courses turnes or Rotation are plainly more auntient then Kings in the Common-wealth of Israel though it be true that when the courses or Rotation of the Congregation or Representative of the people were first introduced be as hard to shew as it would be how after the People were once planted upon their lotts they could be otherwise assembled If writers argue well and lawfully from what the Sanhedrim was in the institution by Jehoshaphat unto what it had more auntiently been to argue from what the Congregation was in the institution by David unto what it had more auntiently been is sufficiently warranted These things rightly considered there remaines little doubt but we have the courses of Israel for the first Example of Rotation in a Popular Assembly Now to come from the Hebrew unto the Grecian prudence the same is approved by Aristotle which he exemplifies in the Common-wealth of Thales Milesius where the people he saith assembled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by turnes or rotation Nor is the Roman prudence without some shadow of the like proceeding where the Prerogative pro tempore with the jure-vocatae being made by Lot gave frequently the Suffrage of the whole people But the Gothick prudence in the policy of the Third State runs altogether upon the collection of a Representative by the suffrage of the People and though not so diligently regulated by terms and vacations as to a standing assembly were necessary by Turns Rotation Parembole or courses As in the Election of the late House of Commons and the constitutive vicissitude of the Knights and Burgeses is known by sufficient experience When the Rotation of a Common-wealth is both in the Magistracy and the People I reckon it to be of a fourth kinde as in Israel where both the Judge and the Congregation were so elected The fifth kinde is when the Rotation of a Common-wealth is in the Magistracy and the Senate as in those of Athens of the Achaeans of the Aetohians of the Lycians and of Venice upon which examples rather for the influence each of them at least Athens may have upon the following Book than any great Necessity from the present occasion I shall inlarge my self in this place The Common wealth of Athens was thus administred The Senate of the Beane being the proposing-Assembly for that of the Areopagites called also a Senate was a Judicatory consisted of four hundred Citizens chosen by Lot which was performed with beanes these were annually removed all at once By which meanes Athens became frustrated of the natural and necessary use of an Aristocracy while neither her Senators were chosen for their parts nor remained long enough in this function to acquire the right understanding of their proper Office These thus elected were subdivided by Lot into four equal parts called Prytanys each of which for one quarter of the year was in Office The Prytany or Prytans in Office elected ten Presidents called Proedri out of which Proedri or Presidents they weekly chose one Provost of the Council who was called the Epistata The Epistata and the Proedri were the more peculiar Proposers to the Prytans and to the Prytans it belonged especially to prepare businesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Senate they gave also audience unto any that would propose any thing concerning the Common wealth which if reported by the Prytans it were approved by the Senate the party that proposed might promulgate the business and promulgation being made the Congregation assembled and determined of it Sic
saying hear the Causes and judge righteously The next Magistrate whose Election comes to be considered is the Dictator or Judge of Israel Where it is said of this people that the Lord raised them up Judges which delivered them out of the hands of those that spoiled them it is to be understood saith Sigonius that God put it into the mind of the people to elect such Magistrates or Captains over them For example when the children of Ammon made war against Israrael God raised up Jephtha whose Election was after this manner the Elders went to fetch Jephtha out of the Land of Tob and when they had brought him unto Mizpeh which in those dayes was the place where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Congregation of Israel usually assembled the people made him Head and Captain over them Now that the Election of the King was as much in the Chirotonia of the people as that of the Judge is past all controversie seeing the Law speaking of the people sayes thus One from among thy brethren shalt thou set King over thee and accordingly when the Government was changed to Monarchy it was not Samuel but the people that would have it so thus Saul was chosen King by the Lot Where the contradiction of Grotius is remarkable who in this place to shew that the Lot is of popular institution quotes Aristotle and yet when he comes to speak of the Lots that were cast at the Election of Mathias says it was that it might appear not whom the multitude but whom God had ordained as if the Magistrate lawfully elected by the people were not Elected by God or that the lot which thus falleth into the lap were not at the disposing of the Lord. But if the League by which the people received David into the throne or the Votes by which first the people of Jerusalem and afterwards the Congregation of Israel as was shewn in the former Book made Solomon King were of the Lord then Election by the people was of the Lord and the Magistrate that was elected by the Chirotonia of the people was elected by the Chirotonia of God for as the Congregation of Israel is called in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ecclesia or Congregation of God so the Chirotonia of this Congregation is called by Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chirotonia of God who as I noted before out of Capellus was in this Common-Wealth Political King or Civil Legislator Sans comparison as Solon in Athens and Romulus in Rome that is to propose unto the people Haec est lex quam Moses proposuit and whatever was proposed by God or the lawful Magistrate under him and chirotonized or voted by the people was Law in Israel and no other Nay and the people had not only power to reject any Law that was thus proposed but to repeal any Law that was thus Enacted for if God intending popular Government should have ordained it otherwise he must have contradicted himself wherefore he plainly acknowledgeth unto them this power where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they rejected him whom they had formerly chirotonized or chosen King that he should not reign over them and elected Saul This if God had withstood by his power he must have introduced that kind of Monarchy which he had declared against wherefore he chose rather to abandon this sottish and ingrateful people unto the most inextricable yoke of deserved slavery telling them when he had warn'd them and they would not hear him that they should cry unto him and he would not hear them one tittle of whose words passed not unfulfill'd By this time I have shewn that all the Civil Magistrates in Israel were chosen by the Chirotonia of the People or to follow Josephus by the Chirotonia of God which is all one for the Chirotonia of the President of the Congregation as I have instanced in that of the Proedri of the Thesmothetae of the Consuls of the Tribunes and the Chirotonia of the Congregation is the same thing and of the Congregation of Israel God except onely at the voting of a King was President To come then from the Civil Magistrates unto the Priests and Levites these were chosen in two wayes either by the lot or by the Chirotonia The office and dignity of the High Priest being the greatest in Israel and by the institution to be hereditory caused great Disputes in the Election to this Moses by the command of God had designed Aaron his Brother which designation the command of God being at first either not so obvious as that relation or the ambition of others so blind that they could not or would not see it caused great combustion First through the conspiracy of Korah Dathan and Abiram and next by the murmuring of the Princes of the Tribes all Emulous of this honour Korah being not onely a great man but of the Tribe of Levi could not see why he was not as worthy of the Priesthood consideration had of his Tribe as Aaron and if any other Tribe might pretend to it Dathan and Abiram being descended from Reuben were not only of the Elder House but troubled to see a younger preferr'd before them Wherefore these having gained unto their party three hundred of the most powerful men of the Congregation accused Moses of affecting Tyranny and doing those things which threatned the liberty of the Common-wealth as under pretense of Divination to blind the eyes of the people preferring his Brother unto the Priesthood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the suffrage of the Congregation of which charge Moses acquitting himself in the Congregation tells the people that Aaron was chosen both by God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by their suffrages which Korah being upon this occasion miraculously destroy'd were thereupon once more given by the people Nevertheless the Princes of the Tribes continuing still discontented and full of murmur God decided the controversie by a second miracle the budding of Aarons rod and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being thrice confirmed by the Chirotonia of God he was confirmed in that honour Now that the Chirotonia of God in this place of Iosephus signifies the Chirotonia of the people is plain by that in Scripture where they made Solomon King and Zadock to be Priest After the captivity as in other things so in this power the Sanhedrin came as I conceive to over-reach the people Joshua the Son of Josedech being thus elected High Priest by the Sanhedrim and this honour thenceforth as appears by Maymonides being at the disposing of this Court Nor could any inferior Priest serve at the Altar except he had acquired that right by the lot as is not only delivered by the same Author and by Josephus but in Scripture Now the lot as was shewn giving no prerogative either unto any person or party is as popular an institution as the Chirotonia So in election of Priests the Orders of Israel differed
that not onely they who had received advantage could suffer Martyrdome but they that had lost by it would be utterly lost for it were admirable in the case of this people if it were not common in the case of most in the world at this day custom may bring that to be received as an Ordinance of God for which there is no colour in Scripture For to consult Maimonides a little better upon this point Whereas saith he they grant in case it should happen that in all the Holy Land there remained but one Presbyter that Presbyter assisted by two other Israelites might ordain the seventy or great Sanhedrim and the Sanhedrim so constituted might constitute and ordain the lesser Courts I am of opinion that were there no Presbyter in the Land yet if all the wise-men of Israel should agree to constitute or ordain Judges they might do it lawfully enough But if so then how comes it to pass that our Ancestors have been so solicitous least Judicature should fail in Israel Surely for no other cause than that from the time of the Captivity the Israelites were so dispersed that they could not upon like occasions be brought together Now I appeal whether the clear words of Maimonides where he saith that out Master Moses ordained the Sanhedrim by the Chirothesia be not more clearly and strongly contradicted in this place than they are affirmed in the other since acknowledging that if the people could assemble they might Ordain the Sanhedrim he gives it for granted that when they did assemble they had power to Ordain it and that Moses did assemble them upon this occasion is plain in Scripture Again if the power of Ordination fall ultimately unto the People there is not a stronger argument in Nature that it thence primarily derived To conclude the Chirothesia of the Presbyterian party in Israel is thus confessed by the Author no otherwise necessaty than through the defect of the Chirotonia of the People which ingenuity of the Talmudist for any thing that hath yet past might be worthy the imitation of Divines In tracking the Jews from the restitution of their Common-wealth after the Captivity to their dispersion it seemeth that the later Monarchy in Israel was occasioned by the Oligarchy the Oligarchy by the Aristocracy and the Aristocracy by the Chirothesia But that this Monarchy though erected by Magnanimous and Popular Princes could be no less than Tyranny deriv'd from another principle that is the insufficiency of the ballance For albeit from the time of the Captivity the Jubilee was no more in use yet the Virgin Mary as an Heiress is affirmed by some to have been Married unto Ioseph by vertue of this Law Every Daughter that possesseth an inheritance in any Tribe of the Children of Israel shall be Wife unto one of the Family of the Tribe of her Fathers c. By which the popular Agrarian may be more than suspected to have been of greater vigour than would admit of a well ballanced Monarchy The second Presbytery which is now attained unto a well ballanced Empire in the Papacy hath infinitely excelled the patern the Lands of Italy being most of them in the Church This if I had leisure might be tracked by the very same steps at first it consisted of the seventy Parish Priests or Presbyters of Rome now seventy Cardinals creating unto themselves an High Priest or Prince of their Sanhedrim the Pope but for the Superstition whereunto he hath brought Religion and continues by his Chirothesia to hold it a great and a Reverend Monarch established upon a solid foundation and governing by an Exquisite policy not only well ballanced at home but deeply rooted in the greatest Monarchies of Christendom where the Clergy by vertue of their Lands are one of the three States The maxims of Rome are profound for there is no making use of Princes without being necessary unto them nor have they any regard unto that Religion which doth not regard Empire All Monarchies of the Golthick model that is to say where the Clergy by vertue of their Lands are a third estate subsist by the Pope whose Religon creating a reverence in the people and bearing an awe upon the Prince preserveth the Clergy that else being unarmed become a certain prey unto the King or the people and where this happeneth as in Henry the Eighth down goes the Throne for so much as the Clergy looseth falls out of the Monarchical into the Popular scale Where a Clergy is a third estate Popular Government wants earth and can never grow but where they dye at the root a Prince may sit a while but is not safe nor is it in nature except he have a Nobility or Gentry able without a Clergy to give ballance unto the people that he should subsist long or peaceably For where-ever a Government is founded upon an Army as in the Kings of Israel or the Emperours of Rome there the saddest Tragedies under heaven are either one the stage or in the Tiring-house These things considered the Chirothesia being originally nothing else but a way of Policy excluding the people where it attaineth not unto a ballance that is sufficient for this purpose bringeth forth Oligarchy or Tyranny as among the Jews And where it attaineth unto a ballance sufficent unto this end produceth Monarchy as in the Papacy and in all Gothick Kingdomes The Priests of Aegypt where as it is described by Siculus their revenue came unto the third part of the Realm would no question have been exactly well fitted with the Chirothesia pretended unto by modern Divines Suppose the Apostles had planted the Christian Religion in those parts and the Priests had been all converted I do not think that Divines will say that having altered their Religion they needed to have deserted their being a third estate their overballance to the people their lands their preheminece in the Government or any part of thir Policy for that and I am as far from saying so as themselves On the other side as Paul was a Citizen of Rome let us suppose him to have been a Citizen of Athens and about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to constitute the Christian Religion in this Gommon-wealth where any Citizen might speak unto the people Imagine then he should have said thus Men of Athens that which you ignorantly seek I bring unto you the true Religion but to receive this you must not alter your former belief only but your ancient Customes your political Assemblies have been hitherto called Ecclesiae this word must loose the ancient sense and be no more understood but of spiritual Consistories and so whereas it hath been of a popular it must henceforth be of an Aristocratical or Presbyterian signification For your Christonia that also must follow the same rule insomuch as on whomsoever one or more of the Aristocracy or Presbytery shall lay their hands the same is understood by vertue of that Action to be Chirotonized How well would this have sounded