benefit by him Now Princes though generally bad doe yet admit of comparisons as you may find the three Degrees in Elizabeth Iames and Charles For though Queen Elizabeth incroached upon the liberty of particulars She maintained Warre in France the Low-Countries with Spaine and Ireland yet never had unlawful tax or more then two Subsidies at once which put to the whole Revenue of the Crown as I have heard did not make 700000l per annum yet she kept a glorious Court paid all debts and was never known to breake her word with the Subject King Iames enters who never paid Army built House or was any way magnificently hospitable yet scrued the Revenue to a double proportion sold and gave away inestimable quantities of Woods and Lands omitting nothing wherein he might poll his Subjects Yet died in debt and scandalous for his breach of Faith besides the incomparable repute lost to the Nation by the sale of the Cautionary Townes to the Dutch King Charles succeeds who answers ths peoples love and vowes for his safe returne from Spaine and assumption to the Throne with a contempt of Parliaments and augmentation of the Revenue Ship-mony cast in to 1800000l yet never equal'd the magnificence of Queen Elizabeth nor the liberality of King Iames summes not be concealed by a more popular State or if possible easy to be retrived by squeezing the purloiners whereas this vast Treasure mouldred away in Masques and other effeminate vanities no waies for the honour or safety of the State Not to say more whose businesse is only to shew the blessings of a Free Regiment not all the curses attending the Government or faults incident to the persons of Kings which are rendred by our Clergy incurable as sheltred under a Divine Right But neither this foolish varnish daub'd on by flatterers nor prescription it selfe back'd by an unquestion'd consent of our Fathers can be of strength enough to dispossesse a people of so inherent a property as nature hath estated all Reasonable creatures in viz. The choise of the Lawes they intend to be governed by No more then a Parliament which is virtually the whole People can bind Posterity longer then shall sute with the will of the same power that did at first establish it And if the Parliament is oftentimes so cautious as to make Lawes probationary Can any think it sutable to the principles of Reason that a King obnoxious to the frailties of other mortals should be borne to a right above them and left to an absolute liberty not only to doe what he please but to cros any thing shall be offered from his Subjects by the inspiration of I know not what negative Power I wonder men are so indiscreet to give that to a child foole or mad man which they deny to a grave wise and experimented Pope whom they call Antichrist for nothing more justly then the arrogance he shewes in advancing his single judgement above a Counsel And if things be rightly considered you shall find them both hang upon the same irrationall string and likely to drop into the same bottomles pit the one vaunting to be Vicar general for things temporall the other for eternall Yet if we look neer we may find markes to demonstrate it was not thus from the beginning that Kings pretended to a Negative power as appears by the modest words he useth at the crossing of a Bill offered to him which are Le Roy s'advisera Though time and neglect may have taken such precedents of the file as they have a number more by which Kings were chalked a way to their duty a thing by them so much abhorred that the Records in the Tower have suffered a continuall suppression Besides it is notoriously known that this Negative Power so much insisted upon and employed by the last King against the peace of the Nation hath in all ages been subordinate to the will of a Wife or Favorite who have not seldome been found to give or sell it to the prejudice of the Common-Wealth Wherefore if the inconveniences of Kings assending without any opposition be so insufferable what mischiefe can escape the imagination if the sense of that people who have all of them according to Regal Law forfeited as Traitors all that is deare to nature either for opposing or want of assisting the dead King should any of his Line succeed which formerly so shackled us but is now unravelled by the same meanes it was twisted by William stil'd though unjustly the Conquerour As for places of Scripture alleadged in favour of wicked Princes by which their Parasites endeavour to remove them out of the way of Question They will upon examination rather prove suborn'd then competent witnesses as taught to speak by intressed Divines whose power and estates were wholly dependant on the Crown The extent of the Jurisdiction of our Monarchs held no proportion with that of Israel confessed by God to be founded in his wrath who used at first to allot them out of his own choice which rendred it if not presumption yet useles to limit them by Lawes But after this prepared Manna of just Government ceased to drop upon them from Heaven They had reason to provide wholsome Ordinances of their own to preserve them from corruption As we find the ten Revolted Tribes did by the processe against Naboth whereas Solomon gave no other reason for the death of men then his will by which alone Ioab and his own brother were tried and condemned And if want of wisdome hast or lack of experience made the people forget their own conveniency in the large extent of power they afforded them I know no place of Scripture binds us to follow their indiscretion No more then it warrants our Kings to imitate the vices of theirs And after Solomon I doe not find any bad Prince longer endured then the people were constrained out of meer necessity To whose distruction also they were oftentimes incited by God himselfe whose silence now cannot in reason be taken for his consent because he hath long since forborne to speake unto us otherwaies then by written examples which afford plenty of them Deposed and put to Death The mercinary Lawyers to keepe Kings safe behind the curtaine where they play at boh-peepe with justice as their holy Father the Pope doth by Religion make the King a party in cases touching Life By this meanes shrowding his Person so securely under his Office as nothing could rescue the people from tyranny but a through Reformation of the Common Law For in the condition we stood Magna Charta and all other Lawes extorted from our Kings in favour of the people are rendred invalid if Kings were responsible for no misdemeanors It being the Lawyers position in all cases That the King can doe no wrong Though it is apparent that no mischiefe fell to us but from his unlimited and usurped power Since therefore so many years experience proclaimes it a thing impossible to manacle a Supremacy
but the fearfull apparition of some visible punishment And that other Governments want not the blessings of the best of Monarchies yet stand uncharged with their inconveniences It being possible to be a bad King though a good man in an inferiour Relation The whole masse of History being scarce able to furnish out one in all points accomplished with so many Regall virtues as might compense the damages received from his Predecessour or him that did immediatly succeed Yet dazled with the splendor of a Title whose foule originall continuance hath razed out of the memories of the most The ignorant multitude doe without any scrutiny after worth or conveniency thinke themselves obliged to submit to the untry'd discretion of the next of the same Line So farre intrusted in England before the Conquest that the decision of all controversies lay incumbent in the person of the King onely till corruption and oppression had given cause to mould Reason into a more certaine Law which no respect to their Subjects good but onely their owne trouble or visible constraint was able to tempt them to Yet the people were so simple that upon the least concession of ease they buried the benefit which might have resulted from their expence of bloud and treasure in the same Government if not in the same person they had opposed who was made the more cunning not the better by any thing had pass'd it being the businesse of all politique Princes to rebate the edge of the Lawes towards themselves for whose moderation they were chiefly intended and to render them mortall to the people who in case they were too weake to make good the justest quarrell against their King perished as Traitors when the true treason was perpetrated by their Prince and his evill Counsellours who are ordinarily the first causers of commotions by their cruelty and oppressions Now the indiscretion of our Ancestors hath beene such tempted to it by the miseries incident to Civill Warre as they gave concession to all the Lawes reason or experience could present were likely to strengthen the security of the King in fact So as the justest opposition in the Subject lay under no slighter penalty then the losse of Honour goods lands and life Forgetting That the stronger Fortification was raised before the gates of Kings the more difficult they rendred all accesse to Liberty when ever they were invaded by Tyranny or the peoples conveniency should call for another Government lesse ranting and expensive And I may be confident this could not have been effected with such ease but upon a presumption That the power of Parliaments was thought subordinate to any Law Experience being barren of occasion to make demonstration where the Legislative power should reside in case of a rupture between the King and both or either House never till now in dispute though tacitly implied in the cases of such as t is known they have deposed which questionlesse was done without the Royall assent Therefore not being determinated in expresse words it might be thought impossible a Court so paramount should lye included under generall Rules esteemed in all grants unable to prejudice the Crown and therefore with better Reason unbinding to the Parliament often known not only to dispose of that but the heads that wore it So farre as to determine some unable some unworthy to governe And if any should endeavour to set bounds to the power of this High Court it was as vaine an attempt as to limit the Nation to such an extent of felicity which could no longer hold in nature or Reason then those that did it were able by love or force to master her strength which wisdome would perswade her to resume upon the first approach of advantage Besides the King owning himselfe but a third Estate as you may find in one of his well-pen'd Declarations he could not by his absence remove power so farre from the other but that it did vertually remain in some hands for the good of the People esteemed the supreme Law supposed in all probability to be more cordially intended by the other by reason they were inseparable companions with the people in any good or evill redounded to them from the Law Then by the Prince whose Interest was single and so farre remote from epidemicall ends that he might by incroachment improve his condition to a selfe-advantage raising a particular gaine at the cost of the Publique not probably to be intended by the Nobility unlesse their reason were quite lost in their dependance on the Crown but impossible to be projected by the Commons who after dissolution and their power returned to those that gave it all markes of distinction cease and they are mingled with the rest of the people being equall sharers in what losse or advantage the Representative in which they did reside produced to the Commonwealth Wherefore if a Parliament falls in pieces as this hath done so much Legall power cannot remaine in both the other as in the House of Commons The fairest most naturall and least partiall Representative of the whole Nation whose true and unquestioned proxcies they are The Lords residing by birth as the Bishops in these latter times by favour And both found by experience rather to intend their owne ends then the publique And for such as maintaine That we owed the liberty of electing Parliaments to the benevolence of our Kings May as well say we were indebted to them for our being or nature which abhorres to hold felicity and what is assigned for supportation at the will of another a servitude impossible to be imposed upon a major part that are Masters of right reason Now for the King I should not have looked for him among the three Estates much lesse have owned him for one of them had he not pleased to name himselfe so and by this confession made empty the formerly unquestion'd seat of the Church By which he rather did weaken then support the unnaturall and destructive pretence he made to a Negative voyce For where there is a Parity in an unseparable union it is impossible to find room for so much difference in power as that the most single and suspected part in regard of an experimented selfe-interest should determine of the fitnesse or inconveniency of what the other should present without giving a stronger Reason then his own Will never known but upon constraint or for want of money to contradict it self for the peoples good And though in cases of equall correspondency there might seeme some colour of Justice yet here there cannot Because the King professeth his Person so farre out of the point-blank of Law as that he is responsible to none but God for the worst not onely that he can doe himselfe but suffer to be done by his Instruments Therefore since no tie can be made strong enough to restraine him from breaking in to his Subjects most sacred immunities this power must needs be too extravagant to mingle with theirs lesse interessed who
This makes me believe you would have as much reason to bewaile an absolute victory as they a totall losse For in that case if the Nation should escape the tyranny of Strangers it were impossible to avoid falling into a greater of her own It being the custome of all Princes to proportion the weight of the peoples fetters to their owne feares Now how the Cavaliers can be free when the Roundheads are slaves is not to be found in the small volumne of my Politicks Though the High Presbyterian so suddenly swel'd with the hope he had swallowed of Soveraignty that he brake in the opiniō of the people before he was able to set up for himself by indeavouring to lay to every single Parish a power judg'd too unweldy for a Dioces Yet I thought not to have taken him so soon in the habit of a Malignant which suits better with his passion then the gravity piety he pretends to or discretion which cannot but dictate to him that he hath sinned past forgivenesse by reducing the Crown to the last extremity And compelling the Army by an unparalleld ingratitude to actions more sutable to his own then the chiefe Commanders former deportment in which if they lean'd too much on worldly policy it was to avoid falling into that visible pit the heads of this party had contrived for them What religious observers of the Covenant they have been what enemies to the known faults of the Bishops they with so much spleen exploded may appeare by the multitudes of preferments and bunch of Steeples the have hung to their purse-strings Besides their ungratefull desertion of that Army who when they durst not trust their own side for feare of being betrayed expunged by their faithfull valour that sentence of death which those they seem to adhere to now had writ upon every wall against them Is it not a sad thing to see Conscience like a cloake-bag stuft with all carriages be they foule or faire Were not the Papists truer friends to their Countries peace who upon a change in Religion and more to their generall disadvantage then this can be to any at enmity with Rome swore Allegeance to those of contrary Tenents The truth of which they so far maintained as in the year 88 many appeared with considerable forces in favour of a Protestant Queen against him they stiled the most Catholick King For those they call Levellers so many of their Propositions as may concern the equall administration of Justice and the Liberty of the People ought no doubt to be harkned unto But their Consciences being possibly agitated by subtiler heads then their own the Divell never being in a greater capacity to act mischiefe then when he is transformed into an Angel of light it behooves them to be wary least pretending to a government more exact then humane corruption is capable of they doe not fall into a worse then ever yet was established For if they create a division in the Army they promote the ends of their enemies and shall set up nothing but tyranny and the destruction of themselves and their Party Then since this Nation hath endured so many severall changes in these later years without any considerable diminution of her splendor and felicity I heartily pray it may not run a severer fortune hereafter which cannot be better prevented then for all Parties in their severall relations quietly to submit to this present Government Which having the only power of Protection cannot in justice be denied the duty of Obedience To perswade which the more easily I most humbly beg of those in Authority To concede to the just desires and Tears of the Nation FINIS A PLEA FOR THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT COMPARED WITH MONARCHY NOTHING makes me more sensible of the wrath of God for sinne then the consideration That want and oppression are become the ill consequents of that primitive Blessing Increase and multiply from whence the Devill taking advantage on our naturall selfe-love raiseth up Covetousnesse the parent of Propriety out of whose bosome result all humane calamities Amongst which this is one of the most severe That it renders us uncapable to be governed without Lawes being too partiall to judge uprightly betweene our owne interest and our neighbours so as where Right is absent Power steps in and supplyes her place This at first necessitated Jurisdiction And the example of one God might present a pattern for Monarchy But Kings did so farre deviate from this precedent that they quite forgot their Election was to encrease the felicity and ease of their Subjects not their owne Which hath caused people in all ages to have recourse to Armes whereby sometimes they impaired seldome mended their Condition Because out of pride ignorance or a superstitious reverence to custome they refused to entrust more then one with their Obedience And we have cause to believe that the exorbitant power and scandalous adoration given to Princes in which like Promotheus they robbe God of his Divinity bestowing the Attributes of Sacred Worship and Majesty upon a sinfull Man grew at the beginning out of the bitter root of Idolatry This dignity being at first found among the Heathen and never taken into one Family by the people of God till in likelyhood the goodnesse of David had allured them and the wisedome of Salomon insnared them into an absolute tyranny under the House of Jesse Which they saw so much cause to repent of as ten Tribes cast it off by a Defection made legitimate by God himselfe And what frequent changes followed appeares in Sacred Story set downe no doubt not onely for the instruction of Kings but as a direction for Subjects what to doe in such cases of oppression Like causes being liable to the like effects Greece and Rome from whom the grounds of Learning are deduced did suffer their wanton Poets to endow their Princes with the powers and names of their Gods and their Gods with the vices of their Kings as Adulteries Rapes Oppressions Thefts c. not sparing Jupiter himselfe whom they chalenge to have wrested the Celestiall Monarchy from his Father Saturne in which is morallized the unnaturalnesse of Ambition breaking through all Relations though never so sacred But as the Idols of the Heathen cannot be distinguished from ordinary stones unlesse by the worship given them by those who yet upon higher illuminations doe breake or cast them away So though Princes such Monsters in power are able to dazle the weake eyes of ignorant men by the false rages of Divinity the flattering Clergy flash in the faces of such as oppose them Yet it is no lesse then miraculous that wise men should be so enamoured on the workes of their owne hands as to place such so near God and to pronounce them unaccountable for personall faults much lesse for those of so epidemicall a nature that they concern the welfare of all forgetting that flesh and bloud is of so wild a condition that nothing can restraine it
are so modest as to confesse themselves and their judgements implicitly contain'd in the suffrages of the Major part though the Law pass'd be never so contrary to their sense And I cannot but admire from whence this Infallibility should at first be derived which were no lesse madnesse for the people to give then presumption in any below a God to receive Such as allow the King a Negative voyce forget they place the Abstract of all the Prudence Power and Probitie of the Nation in one Individuall Juells of too high a value to be packt up in so single and weake Vessels as our English Monarchs appeare to have beene But were they better they might upon this account enervate the gravest results of the Supreme Councell yet denied by Law and Custome the ability to quash the sentence of an inferiour Court of Justice Then if no Example can be produc'd of any King that hath voluntarily and out of no more impulsive respect then meer conscience and indulgency to his poor prince-trodden people offered a Bill to abate the power he found so abused by his Predecessours and not likely to be better employed by such as might succeed What greater Impudence can there be then to maintaine That this Negative vote is claimed only to avoid the abolition of good lawes and to hinder the passing of worse Since it is notoriously knowne that all the customes people complaine of have beene intruded and still kept in being by the countenance of an exorbitant power pretended by Kings And therefore such a prerogative cannot be look'd upon as naturall and convenient but destructive to the very essence of Liberty and consequently void in it selfe In case of Minority Madnesse and Folly the triall of the Kings sufficiency is without question in the Parliament and if that be allowed to determine the extent of his power in contingencies no wayes chargeable upon any as faults Shall wicked contumacious and destructive principles and practises be exempt from their cognizance Since the fool or mad man cannot be lyable to so severe a censure as he that imployes his wit wholly to the destruction of his people And if we trace our Kings through all the paths their incroachments have made over the peoples immunities we shall find it was not Charity hath kept them from being more tyrannicall but Weapons and constraint all our priviledges having beene first written and in all ages forced to be copied out in the peoples bloud An argument sufficient to prove that little is to be expected from them in favour of the Publique but by constraint Kings intending nothing more then the augmentation of their owne Arbitrary power Therefore Flattery rather then Truth fonted them Fathers of their Country to which they are in nothing sutable unlesse in correction the severest and least hospitable part of Justice They indeed as domestique Fathers are oftentimes suborn'd by a particular naturall love to doe that which is destructive to the generall well being of a Nation as where an equall affection to their children shall cause a division of their Kingdome into severall Cantons by which the whole is weakned in regard of the expence of more Courts and expos'd to ruine by division as is not without a precedent in Story Next the affection they beare to their female issue makes them raise great taxes to marry them not onely sutable to their birth but unlimited ambition By which meanes a people are often made subject to the curse of a forrain Jurisdiction And in case it should happen to light upon France or Spaine or any Prince else unwilling to remove his Throne further from the Sun they must run the fortune of Naples Sicily Millan Navarre c. who are so miserable as to be under the Regiment of unnaturall Strangers And say they should be so mad as to follow their ambitious humours in quest of honour out of their owne territories as Francis and John of France did they may like them fall into captivity and tie their Kingdomes to harder conditions and a greater Ransome then all the particular benefits redounding from that government are able to compense or all the inconveniencies objected to a Popular State parallel who are confess'd on all sides to be responsible for their misgovernment in parcell as particular Members or in grosse as the whole Councell when dissolved Whereas the flattering Clergy and Courtiers by perverting the Scriptures have in a single person situated Regality out of the reach of all question so as he may shake or kicke about the world without any feare of other danger then what the Poets faine fell to Phaëton from Jupiter himselfe Which cannot but perswade wise men to keepe it out where it never was and upon all advantages to explode it where misfortune hath brought it in Queene Elizabeth though an excellent Prince yet incroach'd upon the English Liberty by denying them to enquire who should be her Successour The unnaturalnesse of this tyranny being hid from the eyes of the people whose interest it was to know it by the delicate and soft hand she carried over them defective in nothing in their imagination but that it was fraile earth and so subject to mortality which made the Commons winke at the commitment of Pigot and Wentworth valuing the satisfaction of her mind before the Members of their owne Body Neither could they well have found weapons to have revenged this unparallel'd outrage she standing so faire painted in her Subjects hearts Therefore though they did well to passe by a fault they could not punish yet the goodnesse of her raigne cannot be said to expiate the curse she brought in by this example the unnaturalnesse of the Scotch Line tooke advantage of which I believe had never come in especially without Caution but that the feare of the Londoners wanting time to secure their wealth and the basenes of the Nobility tempted them to betray themselves into the hands of those who were ever enemies to this Nation Now if there was so little care found in a Queene raised from a prisoner and goodnesse in a King taken from the barren mountaines of Scotland Who could expect more gratitude then we have found in his Son that to make good his Fathers Monopolies and his own illegall taxes covered the Kingdome with a Sea of blood It is impossible for a Popular Government to be so expensive as these two last Kings though with Ieroboam they should sell themselves to work wickednesse not having whereupon to bestow it without making so palpable a demonstration of their Covetousnesse as the people would soon take notice thereof and redresse it by their change or ruine which might be obtained at an easier rate then by a Warre without which no Monarch though never so bad is able to be removed who commonly hath a power to defend him proportional to his prodigality and the Honours he throws about by which those multitudes who only hope are as strongly taken as the few that enjoy
in one single individual it cannot but be most safe to divide it amongst more Many not being so apt as one to be intoxicated by the fumes of power and flattery The childish Love the Common people beare the gaudy person of a King gives occasion to beleeve that popular Goverments are rather results of Princes disorders then the naturall effects of the peoples inclinations and therefore founded with the more difficulty But after establishment easiest maintained wise men being apter to connive at a fault in this Goverment out of hope to have one day the happinesse to mend or commit it themselves The first Monarchies were purely tyrannicall as Babylon and Persia who used to try both Plaintif and Defendant in a Starchamber of Beasts Yet though absolute tyrants over their people so much enslaved to their own passions as what was uttered against the life of the Prophet in folly was not after repealable in judgement And under these arbitrary Monsters the world laboured till necessity the pregnant Mother of all conveniency taught their Subjects to temper them with Lawes But sinding absotute Princes of so faithlesse a nature that they were not tenable by compact delighting like the Demoniaques in the Gospell to rome in the estates and among the graves of their Subjects some Nations exploded them quite as formerly severall Citties of Greece and Rome c. and of later years the united Provinces who having obtained their liberty and so not being exhausted by the exorbitant and vast expences of a King nor shackled by the distracted and contrary interests of a foolish and suborn'd Counsel were able from their infancy to teare such morsells out of the throat of his great Catholick Majesty as the weakenesse of France suffered him to swallow and the feares of King James caused him to sell to prevent the danger he was perswaded by his jealousies and some of his Counsellors more servants unto that State then to him wayted upon the delivery or deniall of the Cautionaâ—y townes to the King of Spaine which this poore spot of Earth doth not only dare to owne as their birthright But have brought him to that passe as he hath twice concluded peace with them under the free notions of an Independant State And some Nations never at all admitted any Kings and such as are celebrated for most wisdome felicity and continuance Apparent in the State of Venice who hath outliv'd the story of her own birth and seen the often repeated funeralls of all the Kingdomes in Europe being now by her account onward of her twelfth Century And though France seems to boast of little lesse continuance deriving her originall from the uncertain history of Pharamond supposed her first King Yet the impartial reader may find her subject to the discipline of strangers and her own inferior Princes till Lewis the eleaventh's wisdome had compounded for her wardship and if Edward the fourth his contemporary had been owner of so much prudence as the Free Cantons of the Swisse he had mis'd of his marke Fulnes of bread that inclines a people to Idolatry makes them so proud and wanton as to think any of their own body too mean to Governe choosing rather with the Froggs in the Fable a Storke for their King though it be his nature to devoure them then a selected number of their own tied in reason to preserve them Not perceiving that Monarchy is a sacrilegious overcharging a single person with more honour and power then so fraile a creature is able to beare without falling into the distempers of excesse which renders industrious Nations more capable of freedome as neerer to a parity then such as time and luxury have overstock'd with Nobility and Gentry who scorning to be subject to those of their own quality and not so well able to tyrannize over inferiours upon their own single score cry up Princes whose faults they cover with a false varnish made up of an imaginary Divine Right glistering only in the eyes of fooles wise men owning it as borrowed from the Easterne Idolaters who were never better pleased then when they saw something carried before them gloriously adorned with the eare-rings jewels and spoyles of the people Which gives all Politians occasion to to pronounce that a Prince cannot disparrage his affaires more then by suffering his power to fall under a popular contest Nor a Republick decline sooner into a tyranny then by continuing that shadow which decency constraines Free Governments to retain of Monarchy too long in one Family as the Dutch did without change or some vigorous opposition For however Insurrections like thunders are terrible for the present They render Liberty more serene and cleere Princes being apt with Alexander to apprehend themselves more then humane unles they be now and then besprinkled with their own blood Affliction and opposition being better able to put them into the way of duty then flattery or prosperity so as if Feare were not more prevalent with them then Love Subjects would be farre more miserable since it is without question that the interest of Princes lookes with a contrary aspect to that of the People His gaine being for the most part their losse as in case of illegall taxes which if once carried cleer without question are conveyed as an inheritance to their posterity who improve rather then diminish any thing layed in charge by their Predecessours Therefore Governours out of their own body in reason should be more naturall then these fathers in Law who see nothing about them but what they falsely imagine to be their own Now though a Senate may have inclusively the same power they are more tender of using it for feare the evill consequence should reach their Children who in these impartiall Governments mingle among the people and participate of all their inconveniencies unles wisdome and good parts makes them capable of their Fathers dignities which happens rarely Able Statesmen finding their virtues commonly wanting in their Children And this discovers another grosse inconvenience in successive Kingdoms where not only Law and Custome but Religion if you trust Regall divinity teacheth the people to cry Hosanna to the next Heyre Though nature or which is worse his wicked inclinations render him unworthy the government of a Asse Whereas a Senate is continually fill'd with the most able men Not to loose time in casting up the account Antiquity made of this Government upon whose approbation it is the nature of men to looke through the prospective of multiplying opinion as they doe upon lesse remote verities with the eies of envy and contradiction The progresse and vertues of the State of Venice are patterns not found in the greatest or match'd by the best of Kings Who hath received nothing her situation only excepted but from the benevolence of Heaven and her own vertue which hath inabled her though but a Pamphlet in comparison of the Voluminous power of other Nations to beare the opposition of all her Neighbours in their turnes and
Fishing and all other Maritine advantages but by robbing them of Trafick as they had done the Venecians and not only so but give Law to all Christendome by reason of the commodiousnesse of their harbours and multitudes of their ships Yet our bl brethren of Scotland were so liquerish after the dainty shadow of being sharers with us in England by the mediation of a King they meant to have set over us that they let fall the substance of as great a felicity of their own having Sea roome and greater advantages then the Hollander began with or can yet purely call his own To that obvious objection That reason did alwaies concede an advantage to the absolute Jurisdiction of a single person in the field prescribing to that end but one Generall to an Army for feare of divisions upon contrary Counsels and Commands May be replied that no King had ever greater successe waited on his person then this Government hath been ordinarily presented with from her Subjects Who are not only heated with as great a sense of Honour but also moderated by that of Feare being subject to question as well for Victory if attained under too hazardous or improbable an adventure as Losse Whereas Princes take liberty to expose their people without controle upon all occasions and pretences though never so triviall disadvantagious or unjust Neither are Generalls taken up on trust as Kings are in successive Monarchies who have nothing more to shew for their Legitimacy then the word of their Mother nor better Reason and sufficiency for the execution of their Regality then that his Majesties Father had rendred the people miserable before him And here I am constrained by truth to attect That no Nation was ever more blest in the conduct and successe of a Generall then England is now whose valour and judgement hath not only broke through such difficulties for which Kings were wont to Triumph but is become so familiar with Victory as it may seem shee dares not leave Him for feare of being overcome her selfe Neither is the good use may be made of Kings excluded in a Free State but continued as in the Duke of Venice and heretofore in the Prince of Orange c. Who have the custody of such Honours and Ceremonies as are not with decency or conveniency communicable to more then one And such a Prince is not likely nor in my poor judgement fit to be kept from a Common-Wealth Provided his admittance be with that Caution as no trespas may be committed upon the Peoples Liberty Free States have been alwaies looked upon as most auspicious to men of parts Whereas Monarchs preferre a good face the importunate recommendations of a Mistres or their own solitary affection before all the desert attending upon parts or breeding because empty themselves they feare to be sounded by those more sufficient Being as unable to resolve as unconstant in the prosecution of the better councells of others which wise men communicate to Kings with much caution as knowing that what they advise is upon no lighter penalty then their ruine if it be not as sutable to the Favorites humours as their Masters own safety which makes them either conceal their true judgement or comply with such as preferre their single interest before the Publick This renders the best designes of Princes addle exposing their Subjects to a succession of evill events in the midst of their most probable advantages A punishment inflicted upon the generality of Kings for their Murthers Rapines and Blasphemies it being rare for any of them to hold their Principalities from a more legitimate Tenure then Poyson or the Knife their births being so sophisticated by the surer side That they have oftentimes no more of the bloud Royall in them then the consent they lent to their Predecessors destruction hath clog'd their consciences withall And if the possession of the Crowne alone be esteemed sufficient in the sense of the Law to expunge the grossest spots yet found in any that wore it may it not as well charifie a Republick from any imputation can be objected to the means they ascended by It being the custome of all supreme powers to shape their Result to the patterne Prudence and successe hath cut out for them and not according to the fashion of old formalities so little regarded by Princes as the oath was never yet sworne but they have broken nor Stipulation so strong as to hold when they saw the least advantage before them They have therefore the lesse cause to complaine being only whipt with their own Rod or like Haman rather who was the justlier executed because it was upon the same Gibbet he had set up for the people of God Therefore if men will not render themselves deafe to the voyce of Providence in no worldly thing so audible as a continued successe They may conclude what is done is by the approbation of God himselfe He having manifested his power as well on the high and barren hills of Scotland as in the fat and rich vallies of England and Ireland Neither are his blessings wanting in the deepe where our Navies are no lesse successefull then our Armies on the Land Though looked on with an evill eye and cursed by the Kings of the Nations whom the same God hath so weakened or employed as they have had no power or leisure to doe us hurt So as he that after all this shall seem to apprehend more Divinity lost in a King succeeding by Conquest c. Then may be found in a State using as decent a proceedure as can be expected in such a conjuncture and from so many implacable humours and oppositions cannot but be blinded by Passion or some selfeish interest For though Government may be by Divine Institute yet This or That is as indifferent as whether your cloathes be made after the Dutch or the French fashion It being sufficient if They defend us from the injuries of the Weather and This protect us against our enemies and prevent Sin and Disorder the true occasions of all Government I doe not find particular Interests that are usefull and safe much worsted by this change For if our ancient Nobility consider how basely they were trampled upon by those two beggerly Princes Rupert and Maurice who had nothing to beare the charges of their Pride but the charity of those they scorned and the gracious aspect of a Vnkle who could not love them but for his own ends What precedency or Honour could they have expected had the Royall Issue been dilated to the probable number in three Descents it might have attained to whereas now there is no likelyhood any more will be made it not being sutable to Republiques to give honours of that Magnitude Though those few the cruelty of the Catholick King left in the Netherlands still retain the same Dignities and Possessions the State found them in As I doubt not but thâ—se may doe here if the implacablenesse of their Spirits doe not render