Partnership of the Kingdom These were the Originals of the Roman Empire which for two hundred forty three years was govern'd by cruel Kings and ended under Tarquinius the Proud exil'd for the Rape of Lucrece And as the Posterity of Cain ended in the seventh Generation destroy'd by the Flood so these Roman Successors in the Seventh King from Romulus were driven out of the City by Popular Tumult However though the Romans threw off the Yoak of Kingship yet they could not shake off the Yoke of Servitude For the Kings being now thrown out and the Government translated into the hands of the Nobility Brutus a Nobleman was the first Roman Consul chosen He to establish the Foundations of intended Empire not onely labour'd to equal Romulus the first Founder of the City in Murther but also to outdo him for he slew two of his own Sons and two of his Wives Brothers in the Market-place after he had caus'd 'um to be publickly whip'd After this the Government continued for many Ages sometimes in the hands of the Nobility sometimes of the Commonalty under the power and command of sundry Magistrates and petty Tyrannies at length under Julius Caesar a man I cannot say whether stronger in War or corrupter in Manners and afterwards under Antonius a man inslav'd to Lust and Luxury wholly determin'd After which the whole Command of the Roman Empire fell into the sole hands of Octavianus Augustus In him began the fourth Monarchy of the World but not without Murther for though Augustus was accompted one of the mildest Princes in the world yet he put to death a Son and a Daughter of his Uncle Caesar begot upon Cleopatra though his Uncle had Adopted him and left him his Heir by Will not regarding Name Kindness Affinity nor Childhood And now the Roman Emperours held the Monarchy of the world among whom behold these Monsters of Cruelty and Impiety Nero Domitian Caligula Heliogabalus Galienus and others under whom the whole world was oppress'd till Constantine the Great having slain Maxentius for his Lust and Cruelty hated of the Roman people was proclaim'd Emperour He because he re-edifi'd Byzantium making her equal with Rome or else as it were a new Rome and commanded it to be call'd Constantinople from his own name seems to have translated the Roman Empire to the Greeks and at Constantinople as Romulus at Rome assur'd it to himself by the murther of the two Licinii the Husband and Son of his Sister as also of his own Childe and Wife Thus the Empire remain'd among the Greeks till the time of Charles the Great under whom the name of the Empire onely was remov'd into Germany And thus far for Monarchies Let us make inquiry into the beginnings of some other Kingdoms and we shall finde them founded upon no better principles nor upheld by less impiety nor the occasions of their dissolutions less remarkable I shall omit the Murthers of Dardanus and by what devilish contrivances having besotted the Greeks to be his impious accomplices he laid the Foundation of the Greek Monarchie I omit the Governments obtain'd by the murthers of their Husbands as the stories relate concerning the Amazonians I come to later times and the verges of our own memories In Spain in the time of Theodosius the Emperour Alarick the Goth was the first that raign'd at which time the Vandals also possess'd a great part of the same Country The first King of the Goths that obtain'd the Monarchy of Spain was Sâ—ytilla which Roderick the King because he had ravish'd Julia Daughter of the Prefect of the Province of Tingitana some while after lost to the Saracens or Moors who after him possess'd Spain till Pelagius having again recover'd some places they were then call'd no more Kings of the Goths but Kings of Spain the Seat of the Empire being settled at Leon until the raign of Ferdinando the Holy who first call'd himself King of Castile who having slain his Brother Garsias by means of that parricide obtain'd the Kingdom of Navarre Their Brother Romanus whom their Father had begot upon a Concubine being a warlike and fierce man became the first King of Arragon The first King of Portugal was Alphonsus the Son of Henry of Lorain and Terese the Bastard-daughter of Alphonsus King of Castile A stout man at Arms who slew five Princes or great Governours of the Saracens in one Battel which was the reason that the Kings of Portugal carry five Shields for their Arms yet was this Alphonsus curst and cruel to his Mother whom because she married a second time he cast into perpetual imprisonment nor could be mov'd to set her free by any perswasions intreaties prayers or menaces of Ecclesiastical Censure Thus all the Kingdoms of Spain have been obtain'd by unheard-of Villanies and held by the same Arts. I omit the Kingdoms of the Burgundians and Lombards compos'd of the greatest and most famous people of Germany and begun in Lombardy by Alboynus in Burgundy by Gondaicus and in both places maintain'd and propagated by Murther and Bloodshed Let us view the most Potent Kingdom of the Franks in Gallia whose first Foundations were laid by Pharamond Son of Meroveus who coming out of Germany into France was made King of the Franks excelling in nothing more than in Cruelty and Fierceness His Posterity remain'd till the time of Childerick the Third who for his sloth and libidinous wantonness was depos'd from his Kingdom and thrust into a Monastery In his place was Pipin advanc'd Steward of Childerick's House who having got the Kingdom for himself and his Posterity by treason establish'd his own Power by the Murther of Grifo his Brother His Posterity continu'd to Lewis the Second Son of Lotharius who for adulterating his Wife Blanch's bed was poyson'd by her at which time Hugh Capet laid violent hands upon the Scepter a stout Warrier and there highly esteem'd by the Parisians but otherwise ignoble as being the Son of a Butcher He rebelling against Charles the Uncle of Lewis and right Heir of the Crown scrapes together a loose Band of debauch'd fellows and Vagabonds and having got the said Charles into his hands by treachery thrust him into Prison and there kept him till he di'd and thus having most barbarously murther'd his King and Prince he assum'd the Regal Diadem changing a Kingdom into a Butchers shop whose Succession endures to this day It would be too long and tedious in this place to enumerate the Originals of all Kingdoms and discourse the Histories of all Antiquity I have in another Volume writ more at large of what I have here but lightly touch'd where I have painted out Nobility it self in its proper Colours and Lineaments and I have shewed that there never was nor is any Kingdom in the world or famous Principality the Foundations whereof were not built upon Particide Treachery Perfidiousness Cruelty Murther Slaughter and other most horrid Crimes the Arts and Utensils of Nobility whereof when we see the
perpetual Sabbath and perpetual New-moons However for the sake of the common people and the more illiterate part of the Church the Holy Fathers did institute Holy-days that they might have liberty and vacancie to come and hear the Word and to celebrate Divine Worship and for receiving the Sacraments yet so that the Church should not be subservient to the days but that the days should be subservient to the Church Therefore did the Fathers ordain certain Holy-days wherein the common people were exhorted to abstain from worldly business and bodily labour whereby they might be the more free to serve God the more at leisure to pray and think upon Divine matters to be present at Service and Sermons and to tend such other Duties as might most directly tend to their Salvation But that same perverter of Equity that destroyer of all Order and Decencie that author of all Evil the Devil endeavouring to pull down whatever the Holy Ghost sets up hath neer demolish'd this Tower of Beauty also While we behold the greatest part of Christians not converting this Holy leisure of Holy-days to the exercises of Prayer or hearing the Word of God but spending their pretious time in the corruption of all good Manners Dancing Stage-playes lewd Songs idle Sports and Games Drinking Feasting Visiting and in all worldly and Carnal works quite opposite to Spiritual As Tertullian speaks of the solemn Feasts of the Caesars They were wont saith he to make a great stir to bring forth into the publick street their Fires and their Chorus's to junket in the High-way to make a Tavern of the whole City to pour Wine down one anothers throats by violence then to run headlong to do all manner of mischief and to please themselves in all manner of filthy Lust. Are we not therefore deservedly to be condemn'd who celebrate the Festivals of Christ and his Saints after such a lewd fashion I confess we do not finde many Heretical Disputes concerning Holy-days omitting the madness and Blasphemy of the Manichaeans and the pestiferous opinions of the Cataphrygians yet had they like to have occasion'd a great breach in the Church when Victor the Pope excommunicated all the Eastern and Southern Churches for not keeping Easter-day according to the direction of the Western Decrees who notwithstanding was notably resisted among others by Polycrates Bishop of Asia Ireneus also Bishop of Lions though he observ'd Easter-day as was commanded by Victor yet with great freedom undertook to chide the Pope for that he had contrary to the Example of his Predecessors as a disturber of the Peace lopp'd off so many Limbs of the Church not for any Errour in point of Faith but onely for disagreeing in point of Ceremony from the Church of Rome 'T is true there have been many decrees of Popes and Councils to confirm and settle the observation of Easter-day and many Ecclesiastick Computations have been made for the better finding out of the true day And yet to this very hour they could never find out a certain day or that was Universally observ'd through the whole World at one and the same time A very worthy business indeed that for the humour of one obstinate Pope the whole Church should suffer Shipwrack CHAP. LX. Of Ceremonies OF the Members of Religion the Pomp of Rites and Ceremonies in Habits in Vessels in Lights in Bells in Organs in Singing in Perfumes in Postures in Pictures in the choice of Meats and Fasts and the like have been receiv'd and approv'd with great Adoration and Veneration by the Multitude especially Papistical who understand no more than what they see with their Eyes Numa Pompilius first Instituted Ceremonies among the Romans thereby to invite a rude and fierce People that had obtain'd a Kingdom by Violence and Rapine to Piety Truth Justice and Religion such were the Ancylia and Palladium the Sacred Pledges of the Empires Safety the double-Fronted Janus Arbiter of Peace and War The Fire of Vesta over which a she Flamin did continually Watch The Year also divided into Twelve Months with the variety of Good and Evil Days The Sacerdotal Dignity divided into Pontifexes and Augurs their various Ceremonies of Sacrifices Supplications Shews Processions Temples of which the greatest part as Eusebius testifies has been Translated into our Religion But God himself who delights not in Flesh and Humane Signes contemns and despises these Carnal and Exteriour Ceremonies For he is not to be Worship'd with Corporal Actions Eye-pleasing Works or Carnal Adoration but in Spirit and Truth by Christ Jesus For he looks upon the Faith considering the inward Thoughts and Intentions of Men the searcher of Hearts that sees the very Secrets of the Soul Therefore those Carnal and outward Ceremonies no way advance us toward God with whom there is nothing acceptable but Faith in Jesus Christ with a perfect imitation of his Charity and an unshaken hope in his Salvation and Reward This is the true Worship spotless from all Contamination of External and Carnal Ceremonies wherein St. John instructing us saith That God is a Spirit and to be worship'd in Spirit and Truth This some of the Ethnick Philosophers were not ignorant of therefore Plato forbid that any Ceremonies should be used in the Worship of the most high God For there is nothing wanting to him who is all things himself only it is requisite that we should adore him by returning our thanks to him for all things Neither have we any thing more grateful to return to God than Praise Glory and Thanks Neither will it serve for an Objection to insist upon the Sacrifices Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law as if God had taken delight in them For God brought them not out of Aegypt to offer up Sacrifices and Incense to him but that forgetting the Idolatry of the Aegyptians they might hear the Voice of God and obey him in Faith and Truth to the obâ—aining of their Salvation Now the reason that Moses Instituted Sacrifices and Ceremonies among them was that he bare with their Infirmities and yielded to the hardness of their Hearts indulging a small Error to recal them from things more unlawful directing their Sacrifices to God and not to Devils For those things were not principally Instituted but by consequence neither could that Law oblige them otherwise than as it was approv'd by the people Therefore Moses when he produc'd the Laws of Ceremonies he collected the suffrages of the Elders and the people whereby to render them more pliable to his commands Therefore might that Law be chang'd according to the alteration of times and manners and was at last totally abrogated but the Law of God delivered in the Tables of Stone that is perpetual For so God spake by Jeremiah Why do ye offer to me Frankincense of Saba and Cynamon fetch'd from a far Country Your Holocauâ—ts and your Sacrifices have not pleased me And again by the same Prophet Thus saith the Lord Put your burnt offerings to your sacrifice
Tongue hath been too free in Discourse yet I have said what it was impossible for me not to have said But I will put my hand upon my mouth and speak no more of 'um and therefore let us depart the Court and fall to the consideration of those more useful parts of Oeconomy Merchandizing Agriculture and Warfare CHAP. LXXII Of Merchandizing MErchandizing being the most subtile searcher after hidden gain the most Covetous Devourer of her detected Prey is never happy in Enjoyment but alway most miserably Tormented with the desire of more And yet it is not a little profitable to the Commonwealth and usefully conducing to Contracts of friendship between Forraine Princes and not a little advantageous to private Life and as some have thought absolutely necessary So that Pliny relates it to have been invented for the support of Living And therefore many famous and wise men have not disdain'd to follow it Of which number as Plutarch testifies were Thales Solon Hippocrates But whatsoever Arts and Sciences we follow some we admit for Pleasure some we esteem for the Exercise some we follow for Virtue and Honesties-sake some for their Truth and Justice we admire but Arts how gainful how pleasant how necessary how laborious soever are not therefore to be presently accompted Laudable and Honest. Thus the Trades of Merchandizing Usury Money-changing Bankers are both necessary profitable and laborious and yet they are accompted illiberal srdid and base ways of getting because they are not Arts but laborious Cheats that are bought and sold which is the Office and Trade not of a clear-spirited well-meaning ingenuous just good man but of a crafty close deceitful knavish dealer For all Merchants buy in one place that they may sell dearer in another and he is accompted the wisest that can gain most among whom Lying Imposing Cheating and Perjury is most frequent neither is there any way of attaining Profit which they think disdainful Nay they affirm it to be Lawful to Cheat their Chapmen half their just price neither is it to be doubted but that seeing the whole course of their Lives is fitted to follow after Gain and to seek Riches that they are forc'd many times for Lucres-sake to do many ugly and dishonest Actions For no men grow Rich without Deceit as saith St. Austin And far beyond the value raises The Wares he striveth to put off with Praises And as another Poet hath it The Merchant only worthy Stygian Lake Vpholdeth Perjury for Lucres sake One buyes another sells one carries another brings this man is Creditor another Debtor one pays another receives another casts up the Accompts but all of 'um guilty of Perjury Cheating and Deceit hazarding Soul Body and Estate in hopes of Gain respecting neither Kindred Friends nor Allies but only for profits sake and thus all of 'um all their Life-long run after Gain and Riches as if Rest and the Comforts of Living were no where else to be found The painful Merchant to the Indies runs And proudly thorough Fire and Surges Shuns What Cheats Merchants put upon the World in Wool Linnen Silk Cloth Purple Gems Spices Wax Oyl Wine Corn Horses and many other Creatures and indeed in all sorts of Commodities there is no person who is ignorant who sees not who feels not that is not altogether stupid and insensible But these are small matters there are far greater behind These are they who importing hurtful Commodities which either for wantonness or rarity being coveted by Women though they are of no use to humane Life but only for the support of Luxury Pride for Sport Effeminacy and wanton Pleasure bring from the utmost ends of the Earth all Allurements to Wickedness Kingdomes and whole Provinces every Year they empty of great sums of Money they corrupt Native Good Manners by introducing Forraine Vices and quite Abolishing wholesome Paternal Customes always inquisitive after new Inventions fill the Land with most depraved Fashions Thefe are they who in Guilds and Companies contrary to Right and Law set up Monopolies trying endeavouring searching out all wayes and devices to rake to themselves the Wealth of the People by vertue of their large Stocks out-buying others preventing others deterâ—ing others by holding up or enhauncing Prizes they themselves engrossing all which they retail again at their own Rates and Pleasures many times having borrow'd great Sums of Money they break Faith and Promises flye their Country and seldome or never returning undo their Creditors who oft-times thereupon despair and Hang themselves These are they who prying into the Secrets of Princes the Councels of City-Senates and laden with the news of their own Country reveal all to the Enemy many times for considerable Rewards lye in wait for the Princes Life there being nothing which for love of Money they will not enterprise endeavour do or suffer All the whole mystery of their Calling consists in Lying dark Sentences Siftings Shiftings Treachery Cheating and Deceipt This was the reason that the Carthaginians provided distinct Residences for Merchants because they should not live in Common with their Citizens The way was open for them to the Market but where their Ships rode and to the more secret parts of their City they allow'd them not so much as to cast an Eye The Grecians did not receive 'um within their Cities but that their Inhabitants might be free from the suspicion of danger they always kept their Markets for Merchandise in the Suburbs Most other Nations forbid the Access of Merchants as being the great depravers of all Good Manners The Epidaurians as Plutarch Witnesses when they saw their Citizens corrupted by Commercing with the Illyrians fearing the Contagion growing from strangers and a change of Government with the change of Manners Elected every Year one grave and circumspect Person out of their whole City whom they sent to Buy for the rest of the Citizens whatever Commodities of the Illyrians they stood in need of Plato very much blames Merchandizing as the chiefest corruption of Good Customs and therefore would have it Ordain'd in a well-constituted Commonwealth that the wanton Exuberancies of Forraign Countries should not be imported into such a one and that no Citizen should be permitted to Travel under the Age of Forty Years and that all Forreigners should be sent home knowing that there was nothing which sooner caus'd the People to forget and hate the frugality of their Ancestors and their old Country-Customes then the Contagion of Novelty brought in by Strangers which generally makes Cities most wicked filling 'um full of all sorts of Fornications Adulteries Luxury and Lust. Such are Leiden and Antwerp at this time Cities of the greatest Trade of any in these Parts And Aristotle exhorts Magistrates to take all diligent care of keeping their Cities from being corrupted by the mixture of Forrainers For though Merchants may be necessary they ought not to be receiv'd into the number of Citizens and therefore to be detested because they live altogether by Lying