Licensed Jan. 5. 1693 4. A DISCOURSE OF Government As Examined by Reason Scripture AND Law of the Land OR True Weights and Measures BETWEEN Soveraignty and Liberty Written in the Year 1678. By Sir PHILIP WARWICK Knight LONDON Printed for Samuel Lowndes over against Exeter-Exchange in the Strand 1694. THE Publisher TO THE READER AFter so many pamphlets of false and impious Politicks which have poisoned the minds of people with evil notions of government tending to the overthrow of all establisht rules and orders of justice equity and common honesty in the acknowledgment and practice of which the happiness of a nation doth consist the heat and violence of passion being now somewhat abated and persons more at leisure to attend to the sober counsels and dictates of reason it will not I hope be judged an ill grounded presumption to suppose that this discourse written with great strength of reason and argument after long and serious deliberation and a deep research into the fundamental and essential laws of humane nature and the constitution of the English government and done several years since without any prejudice or partiality or design to gratify a private passion or interest will meet with a reception and entertainment suitable to the great name of the Author and the excellency of the performance among all such as have learning and skill to judge and candor and honesty to submit to the power and convictions of truth For as to the disciples and followers of Buchanan Hobbs and Milton who have exceeded their Masters in downright impudence scurrility and lying and the new modellers of Commonwealths who under a zealous pretense of securing the rights of a fansied original contract against the encroachments of Monarchs are sowing the seeds of eternal disagreements confusions and bloody wars throughout the world for the influence of evil principles hath no bounds but like infectious air spreads every where the peaceable sober truly Christian and Church-of-England-Doctrine contained in this book being so directly contrary to their furious mad unchristian and fanatical maxims it cannot otherwise be expected but that they will soon be alarmed and betake themselves to their usual arts of slander and reviling and grow very fierce and clamorous upon it Whatever shall happen it is not out of a design to caress and flatter one Party or to provoke and exasperate another that this book is at this time published but to do service unto truth and to restore it to its native beauty by taking off those masks and disguises with which it has of late been disfigured and to settle mens minds with true notions of the original of government For discourses of this nature founded upon law and reason will hold at all times and will never be unseasonable I shall not run out into any unnecessary or excessive commendation and praise of the Author nor do I now pretend to write his just and full character it may suffice to say in short that he was a Gentleman of sincere piety of strict morals of a great and vast understanding and of a very solid judgment a true Son of the Church of England and consequently a zealous asserter and defender of the truly Christian and Apostolical doctrine of non-resistence always loyal and faithful to the King his Master in the worst of times whose fortunes he steadily followed and upon whom he had the honour to attend in several places during the course of the wars particularly at Edge-hill Oxford and at the treaty in the isle of Wight and who by his wise conduct and faithful advice and behaviour gained a good esteem in his royal judgment and yet at the same time he was a true hearted English-man a great lover of his Country and one who wished as well to the constitution and to the established religion and laws as any of those demure Pretenders who sat in the same Parliament of forty one with him and raised that rebellion against their rightful Soveraign as he openly called it in the House of Commons after the restoration when some were making excuses for it from which we are to date all the miseries and confusions which we have undergone and do still labour under A reflexion upon those sad times and the villainous principles upon which they then acted put him upon writing this compendious discourse in which he has markt out a plain and certain way to preserve and when lost by fatal miscarriages to recover our peace and happiness together with the honour the strength the riches the trade of the Nation The notions here laid down are true and just and tend to the quiet and advantage of mankind in general and have their weight and use in all Countries where the laws of natural and civil justice prevail It is an exact Scheme or Idea of government derived from its first principles in which he sets forth the necessary and essential powers of Soveraignty the virtues of a Prince the indispensable duty of Subjects the qualifications of a Counsellor of State and the method of a wise administration and conduct in all emergencies whether in relation to domestick or foreign affairs or to the various conditions and professions of men in a well constituted kingdom This great Man after his retiring into the Country where he seemed to live above the world and to be no way affected with the glittering pomp and glory of it which he with a true greatness of mind despised addicted himself to reading study and meditation and that so many serious and wise thoughts as his certainly were might not be wholly lost he put them down in writing for his own private satisfaction in a due method and order one depending upon another to give them greater strength and beauty and being very assiduous in his contemplations if not diverted by the necessary business of life by visits of friends by journies to town for two or three months in the year to attend upon a place which was his first preferment in the Court and by the exercises of an undissembled piety and devotion he had an opportunity of writing several quires of paper upon various subjects for his admirable and inquisitive genius was not confined to any one particular study and learning as Divinity Philosophy History especially that of England Practical Devotion and the like This I now publish was written in the year 1678 and designed as an appendix to his Memoires of the reign of King Charles the first of most blessed memory which hereafter may see the light when more auspicious times shall encourage and favour the publication which he being very exact and curious in his compositions did often refine upon Yet notwithstanding this care there seems to be a defect page 13 which he designed to fill up and questionless did it as I find by a reference made there to some loose paper which I could never meet with But however as it is I doubt not but that this discourse will be highly instructive and useful
too hard a task for one no better verst in both these two Sciences than my self to give the limits unto this may be said that the Prince is obliged since Politicks flow from Ethicks as nigh as possibly he can to suit his Policies with good Morals or rather that he frame them out of at least never contrary unto the Word of God for this will make him truly worship his God and best teach him how to demean himself with men or how to govern himself either in relation to his forreign or home Affairs Not that there are such rules given in God's Word but that a Prince's Policies should not warrant any thing that Word forbids but rather cast himself on Providence Such delineations of a Prince as these are will convince men that not only Government but Governors are the ordinance of God for by me says God Kings raign which Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges when he says to Daniel Your God is a God of Gods and a Lord of Kings and he rules in the Kingdoms of the earth and gives it to whomsoever he will and sets up over it i. e. whenever a people provoke him to send them that curse the basest of men or as Hosea may seem to explain it they cast off his Government for Governments that men have framed for say they give us a King like the other Nations or let us cast off King Charles the first for a Cromwell or Christ for a Barrabbas Thus people will sometimes set up a King but not by God yea and pull down a King to their own confusion which God divert them from doing any more But that they may not thus mischief themselves God's Word describes a King's power by his character A King against whom there is no rising And what is said of a King is said of all Soveraign Persons be they one or more a Monarchy or an Aristocracy a Kingdom or a Common-weal for if Subjects upon discontents and dissatisfactions might change their setled form of Government the politick Body like his Natural that is always giving Physick to himself would be surely purged out of its setled peace and probably into its grave so as Solomon was very wise and spake as well to the States of a Land as unto particular persons when he said Meddle not with those who are given to change c. Fear God therefore and honour the King and curse not the King i. e. speak not evil of him or in discourse revile him Remember he is thy Politick Parent go backward therefore and cover his nakedness Shimei's cursing was but revilings Cut not off so much as the lap of his garment or approach him not with a prophane tongue or hand as if he were not the Lord 's Anointed for he cannot be innocent that lessens his dignity or clouds his Majesty No do not this in thine heart or in thy bed-chamber no nor mingle with those that are given to changes for their calamities shall rise suddenly or a Bird some small or unlook'd-for accident shall betray thy conspiracy or who knows the ruine of them or it shall fall upon them by some providential accident and their ruine shall be as swift as their plots were secret for if God's Word in case of oppression direct men to cry unto him for relief and not to cry unto your Tents O Israel what is our resistance but to cast off our dependance on God's providence and to have recourse unto the Witch of Endor or our own impatience or like an injured man that will not let the Judge give sentence nor the Hang-man execute him that robb'd him but he will do both offices himself Rebellion therefore is like the sin of Witchcraft it removes its dependance on God's Providence and flies as has been said to an ill Spirit or its own disobedient and vindicative humor There is no distinction between the King's person and his power Nor must men subtilize by distinguishing betwixt the power and the person for that Apostle who says Be not afraid of the Power expounds it by the Person for he is appointed by God c. Thus a King's Person and his Power cannot be separate though they may be distinguished or his authority may be where his Person is not but never his authority can be wanting where his Person is Whoever therefore will not do the law of God written in God's book nor of the King written in his statutes let Judgment be executed upon him whither it be unto death or banishment or confiscation or imprisonment And if this command comes from Artaxerxes by Ezra he would not have set it down but as it was warrantable to execute Nay the people of Israel themselves say as much to Joshuah Whosoever resists thy commandments and will not hearken to thy word or Legislative power he shall be put to death for whatever thou commandest we will do and where-ever thou sendest us we will go Only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses or be careful to rule thy self by God's law as we will be to rule our selves by thine or contrary not thou thy will established by a law by some sudden or passionate resolve Yet as hath been observed before God who is the single punisher of Prince's faults yet permits as a scourge of his Subjects and Subjects sometimes to be a scourge to their Prince though God hath reserved Princes for his own Tribunal yet he hath shewn by several instances in Scripture very particularly in that of Abimelech and the men of Shechem that he often makes Subjects by permitting it for it is ever evil in the Subject to become scourges to their Princes and both to work each others ruine As a scourge to David he lets the greatest part of Israel rise against him and follow his rebellious son Absalom and it was of the Lord by his permission that nine Tribes and a half forsook Rehoboam and followed Jeroboam for Solomons idolatry However our great Master born King of the world acknowledgeth himself in his humanity born a Subject to Augustus and Tiberius and doth a miracle to pay a tribute and gives to Caesar the things that are Caesar's outward obedience and observance in matters of a secular and indifferent nature and acknowledges the power of Pontius Pilate over his life and will not call for the Legions of Angels as he could to defend him nor doth his Apostles tread in other steps or teach other doctrine Yet doth not all this security authorize a Prince to be arbitrary or tyrannous for God proclaims himself an Avenger nor doth his Word afford such Princes any other appellation than that of a Bear or of a Lion When Nebuchadnezzar would have had his golden Image worshipped what is the answer Not let us resist but Pardon us in this O king Non est nostri juris peccare pati est Tyrannus cum titulo is or may be God's Anointed Tyrannus sine titulo is an Usurper and is to
be looked on so by all those who were born under or had taken oaths of allegiance to a dethroned Prince Thus Athaliah was destroyed to restore Joash and personally Joash proved afterwards not much better than she was however in him was preserved the seed of David Now Princes in their state of Soveraignty as our Prince in Parliament are said to be above the laws because they may change abrogate and dispense with them not because when it pleases them they may violate them If they judge the change conduces unto publick good they are superior to their laws but if they remove a law to satisfie a passion or take off a restraint from themselves or like Nebuchadnezzar will be deifying themselves they may punish their Subjects for not obeying those laws but God will punish them for abuse of their office and other remedy the Subjects by the law of God have none but by the false reasonings of a Junius Brutus and a Buchanan they have many So as Subjects adventure not only their peace but their salvation for their rebellion Rebellion is not a single sin but complicates them It disquiets a whole Nation makes great thoughts of heart no man sits under his own vine It involves the innocent in the misery tho' not in the guilt and tyrannizes over Fellow-subjects over whom they have no just power or right The Ship-money determined by law though probably with all its circumstances not warranted so was far from a justification of arms but rather than indure a Monopoly or a Loan a Civil War must give license for plunder unto the Soldiers of both parties With so Christian a King as Charles the first was had his two Houses been of the same temper or had they not had a malicious and short-sighted policy to alter the whole frame of Government how easily both before the war was begun and after the sword was blooded might they have composed all things suitable to God's laws and the laws of the Nation But these men made themselves Slaves to their Slaves because they would not be loyal Subjects to their Prince It is one thing for a Senate and certainly an honest one and a dutiful one to represent grievances and to withhold Supplies upon no redress of grievances but there is nothing a grievance properly which violates no law in being but it is rebellion to take up Arms upon such pretences As Moses and Christ taught this subjection How ruinous to a pâ—ople affecting new forms of Government is so we see both their doctrines differed not from what right reason makes true Policy for observe whether the Graecians casting off the tyranny of Monarchy or undermining an Aristocracy to set up a Democracy or supplanting that with an Oligarchy or casting off all these for a select 400 or an usurping 30 Tyrants bettered their condition or whether it was not more fatal to them than the arbitrariness of any one or any few select persons Hence Moses Christ and reason must needs have prevailed with the Apostles rather to endure the tyranny of the worst of Princes under whom they lived even Nero than have quitted their sound doctrine Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers And as the Apostles did How loyal the primitive Christians were so did their Successors the primitive Bishops who willingly became Martyrs rather than rebels He that would satisfie himself herein let him but read Tertullian's Apology and he will find it was not weakness or want of courage but strength of faith that kept the primitive Christians quiet under the persecution of the most bloody Heathen Emperors But we have lived to read false Teachers that make the doctrine of resistance a new light which light is a light that leads to darkness setting up the passions of the multitude to be their own guides and their own ruine The Romish doctrine of subjection Our great Adversary the present Church of Rome contrary to St. Paul's doctrine to the same Romans the thirteenth makes Princes hold their scepters of and Subjects their allegiance to her And the Scotch Presbytery with their Lay-interpreter Buchanan De Jure regni apud Scotos and Junius Brutus subject Princes to the People for which there is as much warrant in Scripture for Presbyters to Lord it over Princes as for the Pope And so these serpents casting their tails into their mouths make extreams meet Calvins But judicious Calvin however biassed was convinced of the unwarrantableness by Scripture of such doctrines therefore about the latter end of his Institutions determines against resistance of Soveraign Princes though he leaves a gap in his strong hedge limiting what he had laid down rather to every single man in a State than to such orders of men as are called the States of a Kingdom for unto these he will neither give warrant because in no Christian State now is there such a constitution as were those of the Ephori Demarchi or Tribunes of the People in Athens Sparta and Rome nor yet doth he make a resolution against them Luther Luther who when the Boors or Peasants in Germany were tumultuously reforming themselves and casting off their Prince's authority disclaims their proceedings I have ever says he from the beginning taught subjection Sleidans Commentaries and abhorred all sedition exhorted to obedience to the higher Powers Yea even to bear with tyranny and wicked government though I perceive that the war is managed on both sides with an evil conscience as Governors to settle tyranny and People to gain their desires by sedition Yet even this happy Instrument of Reformation made this faint reply to some Lawyers who prest upon him that the laws of the Nation in some cases permitted of resistance that he would not say that the Gospel did impugne or dissolve or abolish the politick laws of the Land Which certainly it doth not for the Gospel at the same time obliges the King when it restrains the Subjects from resistance but still it warrants not resistance Whilst the Church of England The Church of England with Moses Christ the Apostles and the primitive Church countenances no tyranny in the Prince nor allows any resistance in the Subject nor recommends any stupid insensibility to them for she allows their orderly and not terrifying way of petitioning nay in the Courts and before the Judges appointed for it she bids them defend themselves she bids them not give up their right but she forbids them to maintain it by force She secures not the Prince the subject will not rise against him since God being singly and properly his Revenger may and often doth make the subjects disloyalty his rod for tyranny and so as both offend he will punish both viz. the one by the other This Church with what sound reason doth on which all sound Politicks are built and what our own Laws assert resolves all single persons are forbid resistance and then farther resolves all Orders or States of men
rabbles or multitudes of Plebeians this is as great a crime in that Body towards him as any fault could be in the person thus brought to judgment because of the danger in its precedent since a Prince may as well force the consent of his two Houses by an Army to declare whom he pleases a Traytor as they can him by multitudes and numbers of the meanest Tradesmen to make laws of any kind This was a case which God grant may never be drawn into example for our judicious Historian Daniel says Where the Prince and States of a Kingdom watch the necessities of each other that they may obtain their several ends and make advantages the true interest of the Nation is lost and as this proceeding is unjust and not sincere so it is ever unsuccessful The Praetors edict says Quod vi factum est ratum non habebo And Bartolus hereupon says Spiritus Sanctus posuit hec verba in ore Praetoris Parliaments are called by the Kings Writ and are adjourned prorogued or dissolved at the Kings pleasure and his death dissolves them without any further signification Which shews how intirely they depend on his Soveraignty and on his Person No Member of it hath priviledge of Parliament for treason felony or breach of peace The two Houses are to act suitable to the call of his Writ The Commons are called ad faciendum or consâ—ntiendum or to perform and consent the Nobles to treat and give counsel or colloquium tractatum habere and they are called not for all but for some or such as he shall please to communicate to them of his affairs tho' when they meet they have liberty to represent any grievance which properly is a violation of any law for that cannot properly be called a grievance which is no breach of a law in being And here they may represent what they suppose would tend to publick utility submitting it to the Royal pleasure In a word the Houses may propose but it is the King that determines for he accepts or rejects and what he accepts is only a law and his law only for his Houses pray a law but he enacts it for authority must be single and therefore our laws call him the beginning head and end of a Parliament which surely excludes all pretence to co-ordination It is never called the high Court of Parliament but with reference to his Royal presence It is true it is the highest Court of Judicature because hither men may appeal from all inferior Courts of Westminster-Hall but whether they may here begin original process is inquirable In this sense it is called the Court of Parliament but not the high Court of Parliament for the Lords House is a Court of Record and can administer oaths and fine c. And it is called the Court of Parliament when the Lords and Commons joyn in an order but thus never to the House of Commons singly for they can administer no oath nor fine nor imprison but their own Members or they may for violation of their own priviledges commit to their own Serjeant a Forreigner who hath violated their priviledges This is said not to diminish their ancient and just jurisdiction nor to lessen the great use of them but to keep each Court within its bounds which is truly to preserve the general peace and welfare of the Nation In this high Court of Parliament the King meets with his three States of the Realm viz. Lords Spiritual Temporal and Commons To have a good intelligence with this Body of men The necessity of a good intelligence betwixt the King and his two houses of Parliament surely is one of the greatest policies a Prince can shew for by them he is best represented unto his people The supplies they give Him are best paid when granted by them Here appears the good constitution of Government or that harmonious Justice as Bodin calls it of a State where every order of men see themselves represented as members of the Politick Body or have a value put on them or thus they are not excluded from having an interest in the State These are the men who walk the perambulations of the Government and part of whose charge is to keep the true and old boundaries and land-marks of the State and not to set up new or who are to guard prerogative priviledge and liberty so as none of them intrench upon the other for Subjects wound themselves as much as they do their Prince when they invade his prerogatives And if the people were capable of judging they would find as the Government cannot want in some measure and in some things an arbitrary Power so when this for some time hath been wrested out of the Prince's hand it hath been more oppressive upon them in their hands than His. The usefulness and unavoidableness of arbitrary prerogative It is a piece of ignorance to think because a decision is arbitrary therefore it is unjust for cases that cannot be foreseen or that come seldom and clothed with divers circumstances or fall under no certain rule or are of great import or danger and can stay for no formal council all these must have an expedite determination but still as just a one and as conform to right reason as may be for reason of State is to warrant no injustice Nor can it be limited unto strict forms or process of Law therefore say the Civilians Jus privatum vocatur quia reddendo cuique quod suum est versatur eo quod normae aequalitatis justitiae congruat This therefore must be steddy and unalterable and where it is so preserved Subjects are happy for the known laws preserve their own lives liberties and properties Wherein prerogative is exercised and the written and known laws are the Standards of all these But to prevent attempts against the Government and Governors and in order to the safety of the people prerogatives or extraordinary powers were never wanting and for these reasons only laws were subjected to prerogative and no wise people ever grudged it for treasonable attempts are often perfected or a Prince assassinated or a State everted before formalities of law can be pursued or satisfied the Government therefore and the Governors must have their security as well as private men And better men be terrified from coming nigh the bounds of this mount than admitted with safety to approach it so nigh that they may project a hope to perfect that which they would venture lives and all they had if they saw but a fair possibility to effect Hence it is that we say Jus publicum legum convenientiam aptitudinem semper expedit sed non semper aquitatem but this is not to be wrested or made a patronage for any tyrannical action Princes ought to be as morally just as private men but under another law for what will protect one will not the other reason of State should never be made a pretence Thus we see
powers of soveraignty or the prerogatives of it First A power though not to prescribe a religion for God had done that yet to protect it and to look unto the good administration of it so as natural piety were cherisht and God's word or revelations such as every nation esteemed so at least were reverenced and by publick authority maintained and thus far every state or government as well Gentile as Jew have interested themselves in matters of religion Secondly A power to make laws or such as related to the civil concerns or good and safety of that people Thirdly A power to maintain all soveraign prerogatives which were necessarily lodged in the Soveraign in maintenance of his own authority for in vain had been the first two if there had been no provision made for the last For if Innovators and Conspirators might act securely and Government be undermined and Governors exposed private mens peace would soon be overthrown and new laws and new governors frequently obtruded upon them therefore every one was bound with life and fortune to defend the prerogatives of the Government he lived under as much as the municipal laws by which he was maintained in his life liberty and property Fourthly A power to pardon the breach of laws since mercy adorns the throne as well as justice and no hand is to hold forth this scepter but his who holds the sword that so the Soveraign might be as well loved as feared Fifthly A power to execute the penalties of the laws that thus authority might be feared for its power as it was to be beloved for its clemency And the forfeiture or advantage that accrued by the penalty if pecuniary was answerable to the Exchequer since the offence was against the Government Sixthly A power to dispense with laws for circumstances often make this power equitable in relation to times as well as persons who may stand in need of or merit such dispensations Seventhly A power of equity was necessarily entrusted with Soveraigns because there would be often occasion to abate the severity of laws for if extremities in contracts and penalties in laws should be always taken laws would often be snares and often too burthensome to be born Eighthly A power to stamp monies or to appoint some one thing which should be the standard unto all Commodities or which should equal the value of them Which is a great evidence of Soveraignty since here is a power that in a Prince's own dominions and upon such conjunctures of times as may be when such a power even for want of treasure and for common safety may require it he can appoint this standard to be of an inferior value to the thing it is changed for the authority of the Prince making that valuable among buyers and sellers at home though not abroad which answers not to the intrinsick value of the thing bought Ninthly A power to raise tribute customs and taxes for the support of the government viz. the expences and splendor of a Court the guards of a Prince the fortifications by land and navies by sea and expences of Ambassadors c. For all these must be maintained by a publick treasure which must arise from single mens private wealth which proves property for if single men had no property there could be no such distinction as private wealth and publick treasure Tenthly A power to call together Assemblies and Synods and to dissolve them so as no men in numbers because danger may arise to the peace thereby have in any well ordered State liberty to meet together but as warranted thereunto by authority least multitudes should tumultuate or innovate and bring petitions on their spears head or make private judgment stand in competition with publick authority Eleventhly A power to create a Nobility the Prince being the fountain of all honor as likewise to make all Ministers of State at home as great Officers Judges Councellors and all subordinate Magistrates for supream power must be the root of all other powers and of all titles And it must be but one in it self for power that is to preserve peace is capable of no rivalship or co-ordination for that would distract obedience at home and abroad for no foreign nation can entertain treaties with any other nation whole soveraignty or singleness of power appears with uncertainty where it is lodged So as co-ordination is inconsistent with all kinds of Government for two of equal powers since they may be of divers minds must distract cannot settle or make peaceable any government Twelfthly A power of sending Ambassadors unto foreign Princes the Ambassadors office being to represent the Prince as the Prince doth his whole nation And by this means commerce about trade leagues offensive and defensive are made with other nations Lastly A power of making war and peace for it is fit that none judge of the proper reasons and seasons for these great engagements but that Person or those persons in whom the supremacy and soveraignty is lodged Princes are prudent when they observe the bent and inclination of their people in affairs even of this great consequence but subjects invade the Princes right when they intermingle herein more than humbly shewing their sentiment of it These are the necessary qualifications of all kind of Soveraignty and these are called prerogatives or regal powers for no Kingdom Common-weal or State can want these and these powers must be lodged in one or select persons and so the Government and the Governors stand both by the order of God or by his divine institution Now to acknowledge supream Governors and yet to undermine them in these rights is a subtil part of disloyalty for give them a great title and no power to determine the most important concerns of it or not to dispense rewards and punishments and they will soon be reputed but as idols be first despised and then dethroned How they may herein be limited unto the end that he or they may the more deliberately execute these powers shall be shewed hereafter These powers the Prince or State nay the people if they understood their own concern are as much bound to defend as they are the municipal laws of the land made in behalf of themselves for prerogatives are to be kept as sacred as laws One is to defend the government the other the subjects under the government One ought to be as truly made use of for the safety and utility of the whole body of the people as the other for particular men for true publick safety was the mother of all royal prerogative and Salus populi suprema lex Thus we see these powers to the end they may be executed Sovereign persons must be lodged in persons and no Government can want these powers or persons so as whoever invades either of them overthrows all government or disables it to provide for the safety of the people or body politick If the powers be lodged in one person then the form of Government
advices nay with some respectfulness bear their follies and he must be unconcerned even when his own councels are not complied with or are laid aside Above all a Privy Councellor should be secret for without secresie neither arms nor councel are like to be successful Augustus valued Mecoenas for his secresie Agrippa for his laborious patience and Virgil for his pleasurable and learned conversation If there be a chink in a Council-Chamber it discovers or gives as much light as a window doth in another room Our great Chancellor Bacon recommends it unto Princes to beware that they themselves unsecret not their own affairs for crafty men will lay trains by discourses of one kind to find the secret resolutions of another kind so it is dangerous for Princes personally to treat with foreign Ambassadors But lest this should seem a Platonick Republick or rather a speculation How much it is in the power of a Prince to make good Councâ—llors for himself than any thing that was probably practical or might dishearten Princes from looking after such men to make Councellors of we will only say if custom and habits can change nature Princes can do as much for if the Prince will chiefly favour men of good natural endowments and of a moral honesty which will soon turn into piety and if he encourage industry and let young men perceive that they must walk up unto preferment by stairs and degrees and begin with the lower offices before they can hopefully pretend unto the highest if he find not good men to serve him he will make men fit to serve him So as it is much the Princes own fault when he thinks a Favourite of pleasure or sports conversation and divertisement must presently be fit to be made a guide in business for he can give the place but he hath not omnipotency to give the abilities or when he will look upon no man himself but through the glass or as the image of a man is reflected unto him from a Favourite or some great Officer for this is to strengthen their root and to weaken his own For here tho' the gift is his the obligation is anothers this makes him have many attendants but few servants for servants placed about him by great men are rather their spies than his servants Such an unconcernedness as this who is about him makes him appear like a town block'd up he can freely receive no provisions he stands in need of and his own servants are disheartened by perceiving great mens friends and servants every day preferred or gratified before them This course chills all publick spiritedness for men introduced by Favourites think they shall last no longer than their Patrons who are often changed or in the wain and so they come unto a Court like harvest men who serve only in a short time to reap that which others ploughed sowed and harrowed for or they work only in fair weather and when the corn is carrying into the barn If a Prince therefore have ill servants he owes much of it unto his own negligence or not valuing that which he stands most in need of And thus from his great Councellors and Ministers of State A Princes menial Servants or small family we will come to reflect upon his menial Servants and say a little of his little Family or Court and then of his great Family or Common-Weal or the several orders of men in the Common-Weal each of them being to be a part of his Regal study for by them he may be served or he may be endangered and neither Servant nor Subject will be long useful when he observes there is no observation of what he doth And nothing may shew a Prince more his declension than when both these sorts of men are unconcerned whether he be pleased or displeased with their service And very often the irreverence that is paid him in his own Court is the mother of the neglect of his commands out of it or that the discontents of the one breed the malevolence of the other yet it is a great evidence that a Government is off its hinges when a few forward and daring men openly oppose his affairs and many cautious ill willers are pleased at it and scarce any ready to assert his rights or rather as Tacitus expresses it in his terms Is habitus animorum fuit ut pessimum facinus auderent pauci plures vellent omnes paterentur Libels and licentious discourses are ill Symptoms and false news easily spread and when men in place speak fearfully and those that invade the Government boldly it is a sign reverence is lost Tacitus expresses it when they speak liberius quam ut Imperantium meminissent or quando mallent mandata Imperantium interpretari quam exequi Discontents among the Vulgars and broken estates among the great ones or if there be other combustible matter no man knows how small a spark or from whence it may come that will set all on fire When fear is greater than feeling jealousies will admit of no reasoning And when there is a general dissolution of manners there is seldom found authority enough to reclaim that people but some notable change follows for there is in a State in some conjuncture of time as discernible a publick madness as there is in private men and perchance I have lived to see it abroad or at home I think more than once A Princes Court is a little Republick and it is a great sign that the Prince is in the affection of his people when his servants are respected through his whole Kingdom for the reverence they bear him Which if it be paid by some few great men of the place where they come it is soon imitated by all the rest of the Country therefore his Servants usually called Courtiers must be as courteous and civil in their sphere as they are willing to be kindly treated when they are in other mens So as a Princes family ought to be of persons well chosen and of good reputation and behaviour and the nigher in relation or service the person is unto the King the more humanity and kindness he should shew to those who come to Court especially those who come rather to pay a duty than make a suit for this last sort are to be answered friendly but still according unto the nature of their request Access ought to be easie and answers made with gentleness as well as reasonableness for the hand of haughtiness is not to reach even a courtesie for where the receiver is discontented in the manner of it the favour conferred is never half acknowledged A Prince should not admit about his Person men of bold tempers and who dare openly avow immoral tenents or principles for these men will soon call that which is good indifferent and then they will not be long before they will call that which is vicious reasonable and artificially insinuating into his favour by keeping intelligence with his passions they will