upon their Families whereby the Peoples Election will be made of no effect further than for Fashion to mock the poor People and adorn the Triumphs of an aspiring Tyranny as it hath been seen in the Elective Kingdoms of Bohemia Poland Hungaria and Sweden where the Forms of Election were and are still retained but the Power swallowed up and the Kingdoms made Hereditary not onely in Sweden by the Artifice of Gustavus Ericus but also in Poland and the Empire where the peoples right of election was soon eaten out by the cunning of the two Families of Casimira and Austria Let this serve to manifest that a Government by a free Election and Consent of the People setled in a due and orderly succession of their supreme Assemblies is more consonant to the light of Nature and Reason and consequently much more excellent than any Hereditary standing Power whatsoever To take off all mis-constructions when we mention the People observe all along that we do not mean the confused promiscuous Body of the People nor any part of the people who have forfeited their Rights by Delinquency Neutrality or Apostacy c. in relation to the divided state of any Nation for they are not to be reckon'd within the Lists of the People The thirteenth Reason to prove the excellency of a Free-State above any other Form is because in Free-States there are fewer opportunities of Oppression and Tyranny than in the other Forms And this appears in that it is ever the care of Free-Commonwealths for the most part to preserve not an Equality which were irrational and odious but an Equability of Condition among all the Members so that no particular Man or Men shall be permitted to grow over-great in Power nor any Rank of Men be allowed above the ordinary Standard to assume unto themselves the State and Title of Nobility The Observation of the former setures the Peoples Liberty from the reach of their own Officers such as being entrusted with the Affairs of high Trust and Imployment either in Campe and Council might perhaps take occasion thereby to aspire beyond Reason if not restrained and prevented The Observation of the later secures the People from the pressures and Ambition of such perty Tyrants as would usurp and claim a Prerogative Power and Greatness above others by Birth and Inheritance These are a sort of Men not to be endured in any well-ordered Commonwealth for they alwayes bear a Natural and Implacable Hate towards the People making it their Interest to deprive them of their Liberty so that if at any time it happen that any great Man or Men whatsoever arrive to so much Power and Confidence as to think of usurping or to be in a Condition to be tempted thereunto these are the first that will set them on mingle Interests with them and become the prime Instruments in heaving them up into the Seat of Tyranny For the clearing of these Truths and first to manifest the Inconvenience of permitting any persons to be over-great in any State and that Free-States that have not avoided it have soon lost their Liberty we shall produce a File of Examples In Greece we finde that the Free-State of Athens lost its Liberty upon that account once when they suffered certain of the Senators to over-top the rest in power which occasioned that multiplied Tyranny made famous by the name of the thirty Tyrants at another time when by the same Error they were constrained through the power of Pistrâ—tus to stoop unto his single Tyranny Upon this score also the people of Syracusa had the same misfortune under the Tyrant Hiero as had they of Sicily under Dyonlsius and Agathocles In Rome also the case is the same too for during the time that Liberty was included within the Senate they gave both Malius Manlius an opportunity to aspire by permitting them a growth of too much Greatness but by good fortune escaping their clutches they afterwards fell as foolishly into the hands of ten of their Fellow-Senators called the Decemviri in giving them so much power as tempted them unto Tyranny Afterwards when the people scuffled and made a shift to recover their Liberty out of the hands of the Senate they committed the same Error too by permitting of their Servants to grow over-great such as Sylla who by power tyrannized and made himself Dictator for five yeers as Caesar afterwards secled the Dictatorship upon himself for ever and after Caesar's death they might have recovered their Liberty again if they had taken care as they might easily have done to prevent the growing Greatness of Augustus who gaining power first by the courtesie good will of the Senate and People made use of it to establish himself in a Tyranny which could never after be extinguished but in the ruine of the Roman Empire it self Thus also the Free-State of Florence foolishly ruined it self by the greatning of Cosmus first permitting him to ingross the Power which gave him opportunity to be a tyrant then as foolishly forcing him to declare himself a Tyrant by an unseasonable demand of the power back out of his hands Many more instances might be fetch'd out of Milan Switzerland and other places but we have one neerer home and of a later date in Holland whereby permitting the Family of Orange to greaten a little more than beseemed a Member of a Free-State they were insensibly reduced to the last cast to run the hazzard of the loss of their Liberty Therefore one prime Principle of State is To keep any man though he have deserved never so well by good success or service from being too great or popular it is a notable means and so esteemed by all Free-States to keep and preserve a Commonwealth from the Rapes of Usurpation A fourteenth Reason and though the last yet not the least to prove a Free-State or Government by the People setled in a due and orderly succession of their supreme Assemblies is much more excellent than any other Form is because in this Form all Powers are accountable for misdemeanors in Government in regard of the nimble Returns and Periods of the Peoples Election by which means he that ere-while was a Governour being reduced to the condition of a Subject lies open to the force of the Laws and may with ease be brought to punishment for his offence so that after the observation of such a course others which succeed will become the less daring to offend or to abuse their Trust in Authority to an oppression of the People Such a course as this cuts the very throat of all Tyranny and doth not onely root it up when at full growth but crusheth the Cockatrice in the Egg destroys it in the Seed in the principal and in the very possiblities of its being for ever after And as the safety of the People is the Soveraign and Supreme Law so an establishment of this Nature is an impregnable Bulwark of the Peoples safety because without it no certain
of Saul and so immediately by proclaiming him with shouts and acclamations and then having had proof of his valour against the Amorites they meet at Gilgal and proclaim him King once again to shew that naturally the validity of the Kingship depended wholly upon the peoples consent and confirmation And so you see the first and most eminent evidence of the institution of Political Government in Scripture doth notoriously demonstrate that its original is in or from the people and therefore I shall wave any further instances in cases of the like nature out of Scripture which are not a few Onely let it be remembred that Peter in his first Epistle calls all Government the Ordinance of man in the Original the creation of man a Creature of a mans making to shew that in all its forms it depends onely upon the will pleasure of the people We might insist farther to evince the Truth of this by strength of Reason but let this serve to assert the right of the thing and as for the rest every man will easily believe it very consonant to reason if he reflect upon the matter of fact and consider that it hath been the unanimous practice of all the Nations of the World to assert their own Rights of Election and Consent as often as they had opportunity in the various turns of institution and alteration of Government In Italy of old they had most Free-States and few Princes now all Princes and no Free-States Naples after many Revolutions is under Spain Rome under a Pope and under him one Senator in stead of those many that were wont to be Venice and Genoa have Senators and Dukes but the Dukes are of small power Florence Ferrara Mantua Parma and Savoy have no Senators but Dukes only and they absolute Burgundy Lorain Gascoin and Britany had once Kings then Dukes but now are incorporated into France so all the Principalities of Germany that now are were once imbodied in one entire Regiment Castile Aragon Portugal Barcelona were once distinct Kingdoms but now united all to Spain save Portugal which fell off the other day France was first one Kingdom under Pharamond afterwards parted into four Kingdoms and at last become one again England consisted of Free-States till the Romans yoked it afterwards it was divided into seven Kingdoms and in the end it became one again Thus you see how the world is subject to shiftings of Government and though it be most true that the power of the Sword hath been most prevalent in many of these changes yet some of them have been chiefly managed as they ought by the peoples Consent and even in those where the Sword hath made way the peoples consent hath ever been drawn and taken in afterwards for corroboration of Title it having been the custom of all Usurpers to make their investitures appear as just as they could by getting the Communities Consent ex post sacto and entring into some compact with them for the better establishing themselves with a shew of legality which act of all Tyrants and Usurpers is a manifest though tacite confession of theirs That de jure the original of all Power and Government is and ought to be in the people Errours of Government And Rules of Policie HAving proved that the Originall of all just Power and Government is in the People and that the Government of the People in a due and orderly succession of their supream Assemblies is much more excellent than any other Form I suppose it falls in of course in the next place to note and observe those common Errors in Policie wherein most Countties of the World especially that part of it called Christendome have been long intangled that when the mystery of Tyrannie is undress't and stript of all its gaudy Robes and gay Appearances it may be hiss't out of the Civill part of Mankind into the company of the more barbarous and brutish Nations The first Errour that we shall observe in antient Christian Policie and which hath indeed been a main foundation of Tyranny is that corrupt Diâ—ision of a State into Ecclesiastical and Civil A fault whereof our latest Refiners of Political Discourse are as guilty in their Writings as any others But that there is the least footstep in the Scripture for Christians to follow such a Division of 〈◊〉 oâ— to allow of a National way â—â— Châ—â—â—â—ing which is the Root of â—â—at Dâ—â—â—sion could never yet be proved by any and the contrary is very clear from the drift and scope of the Gospel We read indeed of the Common-wealth of Israel being thus divided and that it was done according to Rules and Constitutions of Gods own appointment it being Gods way then when he was pleased to make choice of that peopâ—e onely out of all the World to be his own peculiar and so fixed his Church there in a Nationall Form Then it was consined and restrained to that particular Nation excluding all others But if any man will argue from hence that it is lawfull for any Nation now under the Gospel to follow this pattern then it behoves him 1. to prove that God intended the Jewish Government as a pattern for us to follow under the Gospel And if any man will pretend to this then in the second place it will concern him to prove that we are to follow it in every particular or onely in some particulars That we are to follow it in every one no sober man did ever yet affirm And if they will have us to follow it in some particulars relinquishing the â—est then it concerns him to produce some Rule or Command out of Scripture plainly pointing out what parts of it we are to imbrace and what not or else he will never be able to make it appear that the Form of the Commonwealth of Israel was ever intended either in the whole or in part as a Pattern for Christians to follow under the Gospel But never was any such Rule alleadged yet out of Scripture by those that pretend to a Nationall Church And therefore if we seriously reflect upon the Design of God in sending Christ into the World we shall find it was to set an end to that Pompous Administration of the Jewish Form that as his Church and People were formerly confined within the Narrow Pale of a particular Nation so now the Pale should be broken down and all Nations taken into the Church Not all Nations in a lump nor any whole Nations or National Bodies to be formed into Churches for his Church or People now under the Gospel are not to be a Body Political but Spiritual and Mystical Not a promiscuous confusion of persons taken in at adventure but an orderly collection a picking and chusing of such as are called and sanctified and not a company of men forced in by Commands and Constitutions of Worldly Powers and Prudence but of such as are brought in by the Power and Efficacy of Christs Word and Spirit for he himself
of State that made Saul to spare Agag and plot the ruine of David It was Reason of State that made Jeroboam to set up Calves in Dan and Bethel It was Reason of State and a shrew'd one too when Achitophel caused Absalom to defile his Fathers Concubines in the sight of all Israel You know what end they both came to It was the same that caused Abner first to take part with the house of Saul and that caused Joab to kil him after he came to be his Rival in Fame and the Favour of David their Ends were both bloudy Hence it was that Solomon having pardoned Adonijah thought fit afterwards to put him to death upon a very slender occasion And Jehu though he had Warrant from God to destroy all the house of Ahab his Master yet because in the Execution of it he mingled Reason of State in relation to his own Interest and minded the Establishment of himself thereby more than the Command and Honour of God in the Execution of Justice therefore God cursed him for his pains threatning by the mouth of the Prophet Hosea to avenge the bloud of Ahabs family upon the house of Jehu It was Reason of State that moved Herod to endeavour the destruction of Christ as soon as he was born It was Reason of State in the Jewes lest the Romans should come and take away their Place and Nation and in Pilate lest he should be thought no friend to Caesar that made them both joyn in crucifying the Lord of Glory and incur that heavy Curse which at length fell upon the Jewish Place and Nation It is Reason of State that makes the Pope and the Cardinals stick so close one to another and binds them and the Monarchs of Christendom in one common Interest for the greatning of themselves and the inslaving of the People for which a sad destruction doth attend them It was Reason of State that destroyed so many millions of men forboth in the Holy War that so Princes might not have time to take notice of the Popes Usurpation nor the People leisure and opportunity to call their Princes to an account for their unbounded Tyranny It was Reason of State that was pleaded in behalf of Borgia to justifie all his Villanies in wading through so much bloud and mischief to a Principality in Italy but he escaped not to enjoy the fruit of all his labour It was the same Devil that made Henry the 4 of France to renounce his Religion and turn Papist to secure himself from Popish Reveng but God purâ—sht him and sent a Popish Dagger through his heart It made Richard the Third in England to butcher his own Nephew for which vengeance pursued him being at last tied a thwart a horse back naked and bloudy like a Calf of the Shambles It made Henry the 7 to extinguish the Line of Plantagâ—nâ—t and his Son after him not onely to dabble his hands in the bloud of many but to persecute the Protestants not withstanding that he fell heavy also upon the Papists It made his Daughter Mary to fill up the measure of her Fathers iniquities as they could not be expiated by the vertues of her sister and Successor whose onely faâ—â—â— was in following Reason of State so far as to serve the Interest of Monarchy above that of Religion by upholding an Order of Prelacy so that in her the direct Line of that Family ended After this it was wicked Reason of State that continued Monarchy and brought in a Scotch-man upon us This was James who was so great an Admirer of Reason of State that he adopted it for its own Darling by the name of King-craft and his Motto No Bishop no King shewed that he prefer'd Reason of State before the Interest of Religion as in other things before honesty witness among many other his quitting the Cause of God and the Patatinate to keep fair with the house of Austria for which and for the same Reason of State put in practice by his Son Charles for the ruine of Religion and Liberty by a bloudly war the whole Family hath been brought to â—ad destruction These Examples are sufficient to shew that Reason of State prefer'd before the Rule of Honesty is an Errour in Policy with a vengeance as they that will not believe shall be sure to feel iâ— since it brings unavoidable Ruine not onely to particular persons but upon whole Families and Nations A fifth Errour in Policy hath been this viz. a permitting of the Legislative and Executive Powers of a State to rest in one and the same hands and persons By the Legislative Power we understand the Power of making altering or repealing Laws which in all well-ordered Governments hath ever been lodged in a succession of the supream Councels of Assemblies of a Nation By the Executive Power we mean that Power which is derived from the other and by their Authority transfer'd into the hand or hands of one Person called a Prince or into the hands of many called States for the administration of Government in the Execution of those Laws In the keeping of these two Powers distinct flowing in distinct Channels so that they may never meet in one save upon some short extraordinary occasion consists the safety of a State The Reason is evident because if the Law-makers who ever have the Supream Power should be also the constant Administrators and Dispencers of Law and Justice then by confequence the People would be left without Remedy in case of Injustice since no Appeal can lie under Heaven against such as have the Supremacy which if once admitted were inconsistent with the very intent and natural import of true Policy which ever supposeth that men in Power may be unrighteous and therefore presuming the worst points alwayes in all determinations at the Enormities and Remedies of Government on the behalf of the People For the clearing of this it is worthy your observation that in all Kingdomes and States whatsoever where they have had any thing of Freedom among them the Legislative and Executive Powers have been managed in distinct hands That is to say the Law-makers have set down Laws as Rules of Government and then put Power into the hands of others not their own to govern by those Rules by which means the people were happy having no Governours but such as were liable to give an account of Government to the supream Councel of Law-Makers And on the other side it is no less worthy of a very serious observation That Kings and standing States never became absolute over the People till they brought both the making and execution of Lawes into their own hands and as this Usurpation of theirs took place by degrees so unlimited Arbitrary Power crept up into the Throne there to domineet o're the World and defie the Liberties of the People Cicero in his second Book de Offic. and his third de Legibus speaking of the first institution of Kings tells us how they were at
length they have been their own executioners and ruined one another And had it been only the destruction of themselves the matter were not considerable but the people having by this means been torn with Civill dissentions and the miseries of War by being drawn into Parties according to their severall humors and affections the usuall event ever was that in the end they have been seized as the prey of some single Tyrant An example of this there was in the State of Athens under the Government of those thirty men who usurped the power into their own hands and were afterwards called the thirty Tyrants for their odious behaviour for Xenophon tells us that they drew the determinations of all things into their own Closets but seemed to manage them calculis suffragiis Plebis by the Votes of the people which they had brought to their own devotion in the Assembly to countenance their proceedings And their custom was if any sort of men complained and murmured at their doings or appeared for the Publique immediately to snap them off by the losse of life or fortune under a pretence of being seditions and turbulent fellows against the peace of their Tyranny These Juncto-men had not been many moneths in possession but they began to quarrel with one another and the reason why the game went not on against one another was because the people took it out of their hands and diverted the course of their spleen against each other into a care of mutuall defence they being assaulted on every side by popular arme and clamors for the recovery of liberty So you see the event of these thirty mens combination was no lesse then a civill War and it ended in their banishment But as great a mischief followed for a new Junto of ten men got into their places whose Government proving little lesse odious than the 〈◊〉 gave an occasion to new changes which never left shifting till at last they fell into a single Tyranny And the wilder sort of people having by a sad experience felt the fruits of their own error in following the lusts and parties of particular powerful persons grew wise and combining with the honester sort they all as one man set their shoulders to the work and restored the primitive Majesty and Authority of their supreme Assemblies Herodotus in his second Book tells us that Monarchy being abolished in Egypt after the death of King Setho and a Declaration published for the freedom of the people immediately the Administration of all Affaires was ingross't in the hands of twelve Grandees who having made themselves secure against the people in a few years fell to quarrelling with one another as the manner is about their share in the Government This drew the people into severall parties and so a civill Warre ensued wherein Psummeticus one of the twelve having slain all his Partners left the people in the lurch and instead of a free State seated himself in the possession of a single Tyranny But of all old instances the most famous are the two Triumvirates that were in Rome The first was that of Pompâ—y Caesar and Crassus who having drawn the affairs of the Empire and the whole World into their own particular hands acting and determining all in a private â— unto of their own without the advice or consent of the Senate and people unless it were now and then to make stalking horses of them for the more clearly conveyance of some unpleasing design These men having made an agreement among themselves that nothing should be done in the Common-wealth but what pleased their own humor it was not long ere the spirit of Ambition set them flying at the faces of one another and drew the whole World upon the Stage to act that bloody Tragedy whose Caâ—astrophe was the death of Pompey and the Dominion of Caesar The second Trimuvirate was erected after the fatall stab given to Caesar in the Senate between Octavius afterwards Emperor by the name of Augustus Lopidus and Antony these having drawn all Affairs into their own hands and shared the World between them presently fell abandying against one another Augustus picking a quarrell with Lepidus gave him a lift out of his Authority and confined him to a close imprisonment in the City This being done first he had the more hope and opportunity next for the outing of Anthony he picks a quarrel with him too begins a new civill Warre wherein Rome and a great part of the World was engaged to serve his ambition and things being brought to the decision of a Battell and the ruine of Anthony he afterwards seated and secured himself in the injoyment of a single Tyranny Omitting many other instances here in England it is worthy observation that in the great contest between Henry the third and the Barons about the liberties of themselves and the people the King being forced at length to yield the Lords instead of freeing the Nation indeed ingrossed all power into their own hands under the name of the Twenty-foure Conservators of the Kingdom and behaved themselves like totidem Tyranny so many Tyrants acting all in their own Names and in 〈◊〉 of their own wholly neglecting or else over-ruling Parliaments But then not agreeing among themselves there were three or four of them defeated the other twenty and drew the intire management of Affairs into their own hands viz. the Earles of Leicester Gloucester Hereford and Spencer yet it continued so not long for Leicester getting all into his own power fell at enmity with Gloucester and was defeated by him At length Leicester putting his Fortune to a Battel was slain and the King thereupon getting all power back again took advantage of that opportunity for the greatning of himself and Prerogative And so you see All that the people got by the effusion of their bloud and loss of their peace was That instead of one Tyrant they had Twenty Four and then Four and after them a single Usurper which was Monfort Earl of Leicester and he being gone they were forced to serve their old Tyrant Henry the Third again who by this means became the more secure and firm in his Tyranny wherein if they had dealt like men of honour and made the Nation as free as they pretended not ingrossing all into their own private hands but instating the liberty of England Paramount above the regall prerogative in a due and constant course of successive Parliaments without which liberty is but a meere name and shadow then all the succeeding inconveniences had been surely prevented the bloody bickering afterwards might have been avoided their own persons and honors preserved Kings either cashiered or regulated as they ought to have been and the whole Nation freed from those after-gripes and paâ—gs inflicted by that Henry and his corrupt Line of successors The World affords many instances of this kinde but these are sufficient to manifest the fatall consequences that have happened in permitting publick 〈◊〉 and interests to be ingrossed
Rome though they were declared and called a Free-state et it was a long time ere they could be free indeed in regard Brutus cheated them with a meer shadow and pretence of liberty he had indeed an Ambition high enough and opportunity fairenough to have seized the Crown into his own hands but there were many considerations that deterr'd him from it for he well perceived how odious the name of King was grown Besides had he sought to Inthrone himself men would have judged it was not love to his Country made him take up Arms but desire of Dominion nor could he forget that serene privacy is to be preferr'd before Hazardous Royalty For what hope could he have to keep the Seat long who by his own example had taught the people both the Theory and practice of opposing Tyranny It was necessary therefore that he should think of some other course more plausible whereby to worke his own ends and yet preserve the love of the people who not having been used to liberty did very little understand it and therefore were the more easily gul'd out of the substance and made content with the shadow For the carrying on this Design all the projecting Grandees joyned pates together wherein as one observes Regnum quidem nomen sed non Regia potestas Româ fuit expulsa Though the Name of King were exploded with alacrity yet the Kingly power was retained with all Art and subtilty and shared under another notion among themselves who were the great ones of the City For all Authority was confin'd within the walls of a standing Senate out of which two Consuls were chosen yeerly so by turns they dub'd one another with a new kinde of Regality the people being no gainers at all by this alteration of Government save onely that like Asses they were sadled with new Paniers of Slavery But what followed The Senate having got all power into their own hands in a short time degenerated from their first Virtue and Institution to the practice of Avarice Riot and Luxury whereby the love of their Country was changed into a Study of Ambition and Faction so that they fell into divisions among themselves as well as oppressions over the people by which divisions some leading Grandees more potent than their Fellows took occasion to wipe their Noses and to assume the Power into their own hands to the number of ten persons This Form of Government was known by the Name of the Decemvirate wherein these new Usurpers joyning Forces together made themselves rich with the spoiles of the people not caring by what unlawful means they purchased either Profit or Pleasure till that growing every day more insupportable they were in the end by force cashiered of their Tyranny But what then The people being flesh'd with this Victory and calling to minde how gallantly their Ancestors had in like manner banished Kings began at last to know their own strength and stomack'd it exceedingly that themselves on whose shoulders the frame of State was supported and for whose sakes all States are founded should be so much vassalized at the will of others that they who were Lords abroad should be Slaves at home so that they resolved to be ridden no longer under fair shews of Liberty They raised a Tumult under the conduct of their Tribune Canuâ—eius nor could they by any perswasion be induced to lay down Arms till they were put in possession of their Rights and Priviledges They were made capable of Offices of the Government even to the Dictatorship had Officers of their own called Tribunes who were held sacred and inviolable as Protectors of the Commons and retained a power of meeting and acting with all Freedom in their great Assemblies Now and never till now could they be called a Free State and Commonwealth though long before declared so for the way being open to all without exception vertue learning and good Parts made as speedy a Ladder to climbe unto Honours as Nobility of Birth and a Good Man as much respected as a Great which was a rare felicity of the Times not to be expected again but upon the dawning of another golden Age. The main Observation then arising out of this Discourse is this That not onely the Name of King but the Thing King whether in the hands of one or of many was pluck'd up root and branch before ever the Romans could attain to a full Establishment in their Rights and Freedoms Now when Rome was thus declared A Free State the next work was to establish their Freedom in some sure certain way in order to this the first business they pitch'd upon was not onely to ingage the people by an Oath against the return of Tarquin's Family to the Kingdom but also against the admission of any such Officer as a King for ever because those brave men who glorified themselves in laying the foundation of a Commonwealth well knew that in a short Revolution others of a less publick Spirit would arise in their places and gape again after a Kingdom And therefore it was the special care of those worthy Patriots to imprint such Principles in mens mindes as might actuate them with an irreconcilable enmity to the former Power insomuch that the very Name of King became odious to the Roman People yea and they were so zealous herein that in process of time when Caesar took occasion by Civil Discords to assume the Soveraignty into his single Hands he durst not entertain it under the fatal Name of King but clothed himself with the more plausible stile of Emperor which nevertheless could not secure him from the fatal stab that was given him by Brutus in revenge on the behalf of the people Our Neighbours of Holland traced this example at the heels when upon recovery of their Freedom from Spain they binde themselves by * Oaths in those dayes were not like an old Almanack an Oath to abjure the Government not onely of King Philip but of all Kings for ever Kings being cashiered out of Rome then the Right of Liberty together with the Government was retained within the hands and bounds of the Patrician or Senatorian Order of Nobility the people not being admitted into any share till partly by Mutinies and partly by Importunities they compell'd the Senate to grant them an Interest in Offices of State and in the Legislative Power which were circumscribed before within the bounds of the Senate Hence arose those Officers called Tribunes and those Conventions called Assemblies of the People which were as Bridles to restrain the Power and Ambition of the Senate or Nobility Before the erection of those whilst all was in the hands of the Senate the Nation was accounted Free because not subjected to the will of any single person But afterwards they were Free indeed when no Laws could be imposed upon them without a consent first had in the Peoples Assemblies so that the Government in the end came to be setled in an equal
Right under the Will of another and is no less than Tyranny which seating it self in an unlimited uncontrollable Prerogative over others without their Consent becomes the very bane of propriety and however disquieted or in what Form soever it appears is indeed the very Interest of Monarchy Now that a Free-State or successive Government of the People c. is the onely preservative of Propriety appears by Instances all the World over yet we shall cite but a few Under Monarchs we shall finde ever That the Subjects had nothing that they could call their own neither Lives nor Fortunes nor Wives nor any thing else that the Monarch pleased to command because the poor people knew no remedy against the levelling Will of an unbounded Soveraignity as may be seen in the Records of all Nations that have stoop'd under that wretched Form whereof we have also very sad Examples in France and other Kingdoms at this very day where the People have nothing of Propriety but all depends upon the Royal Pleasure as it did of late â—ere in England Moreover it is very observable That in Kingdoms where the People have enjoyed any thing of Liberty and Propriety they have been such Kingdoms onely where the frame of Government hath been so well tempered as that the best share of it hath been retained in the Peoples Hands and by how much the greater influence the People have had therein so much the more sure and certain they have been in the enjoyment of their Propriety To pass by many other Instances consider how firm the Aragonians were in their Liberties and Properties so long as they held their hold over their Kings in their supreme Assemblies and no sooner had Philip the second deprived them of their share in the Government but themselves and their properties became a prey and have been ever since to the Will and Pleasure of their Kings The like also may be said of Erance where as long as the Peoples Interest bore sway in their supreme Assemblies they could call their Lives and Fortunes their own and no longer for all that have succeeded since Lewis the eleventh followed his levelling pattern so far that in short time they destroyed the Peoples Property and became the greatest Levellers in Christendom We were almost at the same pass here in England for as long as the Peoples Interest was preserved by frequent and successive Parliaments so long we were in some measure secure of our Properties but as Kings began to worm the People out of their share in Government by discontinuing of Parliaments So they carried on their levelling design to the destroying of our Properties and had by this means brought it so high that the Oracles of the Law and Gospel spake it out with a good levelling Grace That all was the King's and that we had nothing we might call our own Thus you see how much Levelling and little of Propriety the people hâ—â—e had certain under Monarchs and if any at all by what means and upon what terms they have had it Nor hath it been thus onely under Kings but we finde the People have ever had as little of Property secure under all other Forms of standing Powers which have produced as errant Levellers in this particular as any of the Monarchies In the Free-State of Athens as long as the People kept free indeed in an enjoyment of their successive Assemblies so long they were secure in their Properties and no longer For to say nothing of their Kings whose History is very obscure we finde after they were laid side they erected another Form of standing Power in a single Person called a Governour for Life who was also accountable for misdemeanours but yet a Tryal being made of nine of them the People saw so little security by them that they pitch'd upon another standing Form of Decimal Government and being oppress'd by them too they were cashier'd The like miseries they tasted under the standing power of Thirty which were a sort of Levellers more rank than all the rest who put to death banishâ—d pill'd and poll'd whom they pleased without Cause or Exception so that the poor people having been tormented under all the Forms of standing Power were in the end forced as their last remedy to take Sanctuary under the Form of a Free State in their successive Assemblies And though it may be objected That afterwards they fell into many divisions and miseries even in that Form yet whoever observes the Story shall finde it was not the fault of the Government but of themselves in swerving from the Rules of a Free-State by permitting the continuance of Power in particular hands who having an opportunity thereby to create Parties of their own among the People did for their own ends inveigle ingage and intangle them in popular Tumults and Divisions This was the true Reason of their Miscarriages And if ever any Government of the People did miscarry it was upon that account Thus also the Lacedemonians after they had for some yeers tryed the Government of one King then of two Kings at once of two distinct Families afterwards came in the Ephori as Supervisers of their Kings after I say they had tryed themselves through all the Forms of a standing Power and found them all to be Levellers of the Peoples Interest and Property then necessity taught them to seek shelter in a Free-State under which they lived happily till by a forementioned Error of the Athenians they were drawn into Parties by powerful Persons and so made the Instruments of Division among themselves for the bringing of new Levellers into play such as were Manchanidas and Nabis who succeeded each other in a Tyranny In old Rome after the standing Form of Kings was extinct and a new one established the people found as little of safety and property as ever for the standing Senate and the Decemviri proved as great Levellers as Kings so that they were forced to settle the Government of the People by a due and orderly succession of their supreme Assemblies Then they began again to recover their propertie in having somewhat they might call their own and they happily enjoyed it till as by the same Error of the Lacedemonians and Athenians swerving from the Rules of a Free-State lengthning of power in particular hands they were drawn and divided into Parties to serve the lusts of such powerful men as by craft became their Leaders so that by this means through their own default they were deprived of their Liberty long before the dayes of Imperial Tytanny Thus Cinna Sylla Marins and the rest of that succeeding Gang down to Caesar used the Peoples favour to obtain a continuation of power in their own hands and then having sadled the people with a new standing Form of their own they immediately rooted up the Peoples Liberty and Property by Arbitrary Sentences of death Proscriptions Fines and Confiscations which strain of levelling more intolerable than the former was maintained by the same
or ruine it have proceeded as we have formerly proved either from the peoples neglect or rather ignorance of those Meanes and Rules that should be committed unto them both for Practice and Observation having therefore made brief Collections out of the Monuments of this kind of Learning I shall here insert them that the People of every Common-wealth which mean to preserve their Freedom may be informed how to steer their course according to such Rules as have bin put in practice heretofore by divers Nations First it hath bin a Custom not only to breed up all the young Fry in Principles of Dislike and Enmity against Kingly Government but also to cause all that were capable of swearing to enter into an Oath of Abjuration to abjure a toleration of Kings and Kingly Power in time to come Thus Brutus bound the Romans by an Oath against Kings That they should never suffer any man again to reign at Rome Thus the Hollanders preserved themselves also entering into an Oath of Abjuration not onely against King Philipâ— and his Family but all Kings for ever And Brutus to make sure work did not onely do this but divided the Royal Revenues among the People which was a good way to make them resolute to Extremity knowing That if ever any King came in play again He would take all away again by vertue of his Prerogative and Crown He brake also all the Images and Statues of the Tâ—rquint and he levell'd their houses with the ground that they might not remain as Temptations to any ambitious Spirits Suitable to this Policy was that of Henry the 8th who when he disposed of the Revenues of Abbies demolished also the Building osaying Destroy the Nests and the Rockes will ne're return again Which questionless was a most sure way both in him and Brutus to be imitated or neglected as there may be occasion But they thought in a ease of this Nature that the convenience in keeping them could not counterâ—ail the danger Secondly It hath bin usual not to suffer particular persons to Grandise or great â—n themselves more than ordinary for that by the Romans was called affectatio Regnt an aspiring to Kingship Which being observed in Mâ—lius and Manlius two noble Romans that had deserved highly of the State yet their past-merits services could not exempt them from the just anger of the People who made them Examples to Posterity Yea the Name of the latter though Livy cals him an incomparable man had he not lived in a Free-State was ever after disowned by his whole Family that famous Family of the Manlii and both the Name and Memory of Him and of his Consulship was rased out of all publike Records by Decree of the Senate The not keeping close to this Rule had of late like to have cost the Low-countries the loss of their Liberty for the Wealth of the House of Orange grown up to excess and permitting the last man to match into a Kingly Family put other thoughts and designs into his head than beseemed a member of a Free-State which had he not been prevented by the Providence of God and a dark night might in all probability have reduced them under the Yoak of Kingly Power Thirdly Especial care hath been taken non Diurnare Imperia not to permit a Continuation of Command and Authority in the hands of particular persons or families This point we have been very large in The Romans had a notable care herein till they grew corrupt Livy in his fourth Book saith Libertatis magna custodâ—a est â—si magna Imperia esse non sinas temporis modus imponatuâ— It is a grand preservative of Liberty if you do not permit great Powers and Commands to continue long and if so be you limit in point of time To this purpose they had a Law called the Emilian Law to restrain them as we find in the Ninth Book where he brings in a Noble Roman saying thus Hoc quidem Regno simile est And this indeed is like a Kingship That I alone should bear this great Office of the Censorship Triennium sex menses three years and six moneths contrary to the Emiliam Law In his third Book also he speaks of it as of a monstrous business That the Ides of May were come which was the time of their years choice and yet no new Election appointed Id-verò Regnum haud dubiè videre deploratur in perspetuum libertas It with doubt seems no other than a Kingdom and Liberty is utterly lost for ever It was Treason for any man to hold that high Office of the Dictatorship in his own hand beyond six moneths He that would see notable stuff to this purpose let him read Ciceroes Epistles to Atticus concerning Caesar The care of that people in this particular appeared also that they would not permit any man to bear the same Office twice together This was observed likewise as Aristotle tells us in all the Free-States of Greece And in Rome we find Cincinnatus one of the brave Romane Generals making a Speech unto the People to perswade them to let him lay down his Command Now the time was come though the Enemy was almost at their Gates and never more need than at that time of his valour and prudence as the people told him but no perswasion would serve the turn resign he would telling them There would be more danger to the State in prolonging his Power than from the Enemy since it might prove a President most pernicious to the Romane Freedome Such another Speech was made by M. Rutilius Censorinus to the People when they forced him to undergo the Office of Censor twice together contrary to the intent and practice of their Ancestors yet he accepted it but as Plutarch tell us upon this condition That a Law might pass against the Title in that and other Officers least it should be drawn into President in time to come Thus the People dealt also with their own Tribunes the Law being That none of them should be continued two years together So tender were the Romans in this particular as one principal Rule and Means for the preservation of their Liberty A fourth Rule not to let two of one Family to bear Offices of High Trust at one time nor to permit a Continuation of great Powers in any own Family The former usually brings on the latter And if the latter be prevented there is the less danger in the former but however both are to be avoided The reason is evident because a permission of them gives a particular Family an opportunity to bring their own private Interest into competition with that of the Publique from whence presently ensues this grand inconvenience in State the Affairs of the Commonwealth will be made subservient to the ends of a few persons no Corn shall be measured but in their bushel nor any Materials be allowed for the Publick Work unless they square well with the building of a private Interest or Family
first left to govern at their own discretion without Laws Then their Wills and their Words were Law the maâ—â—ing and execution of Lawes was in one and the same hands But what was the consequence Nothing but Injustice and Injustice without Remedy till the People were taught by Necessity to ordain Lawes as Rules whereby they ought to govern Then began the meeting of the People successively in their supream Assemblies to make Laws whereby Kings in such places as continued under the Kingly Form were limited and restrained so that they could do nothing in Government but what was agreeable to Law for which they were accountable as well as other Officers were in other Forms of Government to those supream Councels and Assemblies Witness all the old stories of Athens Sparta and other Countries of Greece where you shall find that the Law-making and the Law-executing Powers were placed in distinct hands under every Form of Government For so much of Freedom they retained still under every Form till they were both swallowed up as they were several times by an absolute Domination In old Rome we find Romulus their first King cut in pieces by the Senate for taking upon him to make and execute Laws at his own pleasure And Livy tells us that the reason why they expel'd Tarquin their last King was because he took the Executive and Legislative Powers both into his own hands making himself both Legislator and Officer inconsulto 〈◊〉 without advice and in defiance of the Senate Kings being cashier'd then their Standing-Sonates came in play who making and executing Laws by Decrees of their own soongrew intolerable and put the people upon divers desperate Adventures to get the Legislative Power out of their hands and place it in their own that is in a succession of their Supream Assemblies But the Executive Power they left part in the hands of Officers of their own and part in the Senate in which State it continued some hundreds of years to the great happiness and content of all till the Senate by sleights and subtilties got both Powers into their own possession again and turned all into confusion Afterwards their Emperors though Usurpers durst not at first turn both these Powers into the Channel of their own unbounded Will but did it by degrees that they might the more infensibly deprive the people of their Liberty till at length they openly made and executed Laws at their own pleasures being both Legislators and Officers without giving 〈…〉 and so there was an end of the Roman Liberty To come nearer home let us look into the old Constitution of the Common-wealths and Kingdomes of Europe We find in the Iâ—â—lian States Venice which having the Legislative and Executive Power confined within the narrow Pale of its Nobility in the Senate is not so free as once Florence was with Siena Millan and the rest before their Dukes by arrogating both those Powers to themselves worm'd them out of their Liberty Of all those States there onely Genoa remains in a free posture by keeping the Power of Legislation onely in their supream Assemblies and leaving the Execution of Law in a titular Duke and a Councel the keeping of these Powers asunder within their proper Sphere is one principal Reason why they have been able to exclude Tyranny out of their own State while it hath run the Round in Italy What made the Grand Seignior absolute of old but his ingrossing both these Powers and of late the Kings of Spain and France In ancient time the case stood far otherwise for in Ambrosio Morales his Chronicle you will finde that in Spain the Legislative power was lodged onely in their supreme Councel and their King was no more but an elective Officer to execute such Laws as they made and in case of failing to give them an accompt and submit to their judgements which was the common practice as you may see also in Mariana It was so also in Aragon till it was united to Castile by the Mariage of Ferdimand and Isabel and then both States soon lost their liberty by the projects of Ferdimand and his successors who drew the powers of Legislation and Execution of Law within the verge and influence of the Prerogative Royall whilest these two powers were kept distinct then these States were free but the ingrossing of them in one and the same hands was the losse of their Freedom France likewise was once as free as any Nation under Heaven though the King of late hath done all and been all in all till the time of Lewis the eleventh he was no more but an Officer of State regulated by Law to see the Laws put in execution and the Legislative Power that rested in the Assembly of the 3. Estates but Lewis by snatching both these Powers into the single hands of himselfe and his successors rookt them of their Liberty which they may now recover again if they have but so much manhood as to reduce the two Powers into their ancient or into better Channels This pattern of Lewis was followed close by the late King of England who by our ancient Laws was the same here that Lewis ought to have been in France an Officer in trust to see to the execution of the Lawes but by aiming at the same ends which Lewis attained and straining by the ruine of Parliaments to reduce the Legislative Power as well as the Executive into his own hands he instead of an absolute Tyranny which might have followed his project brought a swift destruction upon himself and Family Thus you see it appears that the keeping of these two Powers distinct hath been a ground preservative of the peoples Interest whereas their uniting hath been its ruine all along in so many Ages and Nations A sixth errour in Policy observable in the practices of other times and Nations hath been a reducing transactions and in Inetrest of the Publick into the disposition and power of a few particuler persons The ill consequences where of have ever bin these that matters were not wont to be carried by fair freindly and legal debates but by Design and Surprisal not by freedom and consent of the people in their open Assemblies but according to the premeditated Resolutions and forestalments of Crafty prijectors in private Cabinets and Junto's not according to the true Interest of State but in order to the serving of mens ends not for the benefit and improvement of the people but to keep them under as ignorant of true Liberty as the Horse and Mule that they might be Bridled and Sadled Ridden under the wise pretences of being Governed and kept in Order But the Grand and worse consequences of all hath been this that such Collegues Partners and Ingrossers of Power having once brought about their ends by lying practies upon the people have ever â—aâ—n into fits of Emulation against themselves and the next design hath ever bin to rook their fellows and rid themselves of competitors so that at