F H Van Hove Sculpsit 
CAROLUS Secundus Dei Gratia, Angliae, Scotiae, Franciae, et Hiberniae Rex, Fidei Defensor, etc.  HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE  portrait of Charles II incorporating the royal English blazon or coat of arms   

THE COMMON INTEREST OF KING and PEOPLE: Showing the Original, Antiquity and Excellency OF MONARCHY, Compared with Aristocracy and Democracy, And particularly of Our English MONARCHY: AND THAT Absolute, Papal and Presbyterian Popular Supremacy Are utterly inconsistent with Prerogative, Property and Liberty.  
By JOHN NALSON, LL. D.  
LONDON, Printed for Jonathan Edwin, at the Sign of the Three Roses in Ludgate-street, 1677.   

TO THE READER.  
IN this following Discourse I have endeavoured to pursue the Point I had before made an attempt upon in the Countermine, without any other Passion or Design than a Loyal Zeal to my Prince and Country, and a Conscientious Discharge of my Duty, which because every person is in his station obliged to do, will, I hope, render an Apology as unnecessary as it is disagreeable to  
Your most faithful Servant, JOHN NALSON.   

The CONTENTS.  
CHAP. I. 
THE two great Principles of Nature, Self-preservation and the Ardent desire of Happiness the Foundation of Society and Government. Mr. Hobbs refuted in his Impolitic Position, That Fear was the first Origination of Society. The Origine of Monarchy. The occasion of the Primitive Wars. The Original of Laws, Monarches or the first Leaders of Colonies the Primitive Legislators. The reason of the Coercive power of Magistrates. The Dangerous Error of those who make Law the Foundation of Monarchy: when in truth all Laws were the Concessions of Kings and Legislators. The Ill consequences of this mistake. The Laws of Nature and Nations are of Divine Institution.  CHAP. II. 
Of the danger of Anarchy. The necessity of Laws and Government to prevent it. All People not fit for one kind of Government. Of the three kinds of Government, Democracy, Aristocracy and Monarchy. Some considerations and necessary Animadversions upon our late English Government by a Republic.  CHAP. III. 
The Government of a Republic examined, whether in its own Nature so good for the Ends of Society as it is pretended. The end of all Government the Happiness of the Society, it consists in Protection, Property and distributive Justice. Democracy cannot in probability attain those Ends. It obliges the Supreme Magistrates to maintain a private separate Interest distinct from that of the Public, and the inconveniences that necessarily attend that imperfection. Domestic Peace not secured by Democracy. No security of Property or equal Distribution of Justice in a Republic in regard of the constant Factions which are inseparable from that form of Government.  CHAP. IU. 
Of Monarchy and its excellency, proved from its Antiquity. The first Essay to a Democracy the Rebellion of Corah and his Accomplices. Secondly, from the Universality of Monarchy. The first popular State at Athens, A. M. 3275. Thirdly, Monarchy most agreeable to humane Nature, by answering the three forementioned great Ends of Society, and the Happiness of Mankind.  CHAP. V. 
Of the Excellency of the English Monarchy: It is not apt to degenerate into Tyranny, the King having by his gracious Concessions given Limits to his absolute Sovereignty. Of the Interest which the three Estates have in preparing Bills for the Royal Assent, to be by that past into Laws, and the great obligation which thereby the People have to Subjection and Obedience.  CHAP. VI 
Of the Privileges of the English Government: And first of the prerogative of the King. The Imperial Crown of this Realm Hereditary, Absolute and Independent. The greatness of his power according to Laws. The King's person Sacred. The privileges of the People. First, in sending their Representatives to the Parliament. Secondly, in their Property secured. Thirdly, in the excellent and constant method of Justice. In particular Privileges and Franchises: In all imaginable care to prevent the growth of the Poor, and in providing for such as are so. In committing the Execution of the Laws to such hands as will act with Justice: And of the care that is taken to prevent all abuses of Laws.  CHAP. VII. 
The great misfortune of Religion, which is made the great pretence to ruin Monarchy. A stratagem of the Devil to extirpate all true Religion. The two opposites and enemies of Monarchy, Papacy and Presbytery. The opinion of the Catholic Doctors about Papal Supremacy, and the new Roman Creed to confirm it. Papal Supremacy devests the Prince of his absolute Sovereignty, of his Legislative power, and renders Monarchy insecure of Possession or Succession, by bereaving it of the guard of Laws, of the strength of Alliances, of the Fidelity of their People. Several Impolitic inconveniences which attend that Religion. Papal Supremacy destructive of the people's Liberty and Property.  CHAP. VIII. 
Presbytery inconsistent with Monarchy, proved from five of their Fundamental principles. 1. That it is not the best form of Government. 2. That the Right of Kings is not from God but the People. 3. That Kings may be called in question for their Administration of the Government. 4. That they may by the people be deposed. 5. That they may be punished with Capital punishment.  CHAP. IX. 
Presbytery in reality as great an enemy to Democracy and Parliaments as to Monarchy. A short view of their Tyrannic Consistorian Government over the Magistracy, Clergy and Laity. Of the latitude and power of Scandal to draw all affairs into the Consistory. Of their kindness to their Enemies. The small difference betwixt a Jesuit and Geneva-Presbyter: Both aim at Supremacy.  CHAP. X. 
Presbytery as destructive of the People's Liberty and Property, as it is dangerous to Monarchy and all Government. Some necessary Conclusions from the former Discourse.    

Licenced,  
Sept. 20. 1677.   

THE COMMON INTEREST OF KING and PEOPLE, etc.  

CHAP. I. The two great Principles of Nature, Self-Preservation, and The ardent Desire of Happiness, the Foundation of Society and Government. Mr. Hobbs refuted in his impolitic Position, That Fear gave the first Origination of Society. The Origine of Monarchy. The occasion of the Primitive Wars. The Original of Laws. Monarches or the first Leaders of Colonies the Primitive Legislators. The reason of the Executive and Coercive Power of Magistrates. The dangerous Error of those, who make Laws the Foundation of Monarchy, whereas in Truth all Laws and Establishments were the Concessions and Sanctions of Kings and Lawgivers. The Ill consequences of this Mistake. The Law of Nature and of Nation's an● of Divine Institution.  
AMONGST all those Principles of Nature which Mankind, and indeed the greatest part of the Creation receive at the same Instant with their Being, there are two, which as they are the most Universal, so they are of the greatest Necessity and most constant Use.  

The two great Principles of Nature, Self-preservation and the ardent Desire of Happiness; the Foundation of Society and Government.  THE first is that of Self-preservation, or an inseparable Desire to keep themselves in Being; by the obtaining and enjoyment of all those things which contribute towards the continuance of it; or which give them a Power and Capacity either to escape and avoid, or to overcome and remove, what they know, or but suspect to be dangerous or destructive to their Natures: This is the Foundation of all our Natural and Rational Desires and Aversions; Hope, Fear, Joy, Love, Hatred, and the other Passions of the Mind; And even Reason itself, that Monarch of the Soul, if it may not be said to Obey, yet does most constantly entertain this Principle, as his most faithful Counsellor, and chief Minister of State: So that nothing passes as the Royal Command of the Will, which is not first made Authentic by the approbation of this great Favourite: and even in those Popular Insurrections of the Mind, when the misled Passions (those Common People of the Soul) usurp the Sovereignty for a Time; it is generally with the Vulgar Error of a Design of Self-preservation; and amongst all that unruly Multitude, when they are in the Highest Mutiny, I know no Enemy this beloved Principle has amongst them besides Despair, who yet never appears but in the field of extreme Danger, and not there, till Hope and all his Squadrons and Reserves are totally routed and entirely ruined; and at all such times Despair the Mortal enemy of Happiness, pretends a kindness, and by the present less evil which he offers to our choice, to prevent and secure us from the future greater evil and misery.  
THE second Principle of Nature concerns the Benè Esse of every Being: and is that ardent and Constant Desire of Happiness, and all those Means which may in any measure obtain, promote, increase, continue, protect, and secure it, or recover it, if it happen to be lost. These are the two inseparable Guardians or good Genii of Humane Nature; which attend upon every Mortal Man, from his first entrance into the World; and which with the most serviceable fidelity, accompany him through all the vicissitudes, accidents, and various fortunes of his Life, even to its utmost Period.  
AS there can be no greater Demonstration of such a Supreme Being which we call Providence, than these Principles, which it is impossible should be the effects of undesigning Chance, or fortuitous Atoms, which can never be Parents to what is constantly Regular, and without exception Universal; so there is no doubt to be made, but that the Minds of all Men were stamped with this Divine Impress, for some Ends and Intentions suitable to the goodness and wisdom of that All-powerful and most excellent Supreme Being, from whom they derive their Original: Amongst many others to which they do contribute, they seem to have a particular Address to Society, Community, and Government, those necessary Columns and Pillars of the World, without which there can be no such thing as Happiness on Earth, of which these two Principles are the Foundation.  
AND whoever will trace Society and Government to their first Originals, will easily be convinced, that it was that Love which naturally all men have for themselves, and their own Happiness, which first invited them into mutual Combinations, and cemented several distinct Tribes and Families into one united Body. 
The impolitic Error of Mr. Hobbs refuted, That mutual Fear was the first Origination of Society.  This is a thing so obvious and natural, that I cannot but admire, that a Master of so great Wit and Parts as Mr. Hobbs, should stumble upon an Error directly contrary to it, in the very threshold of his Book De Cive; and lay that down for a firm and solid foundation of his future City, which is a perfect quicksand; and if admitted, will shipwreck all Laws, Society and Happiness. He tells us, 
Hobbs de Cive, cap. 1. tit. Libertas, p. 6. Sect. 2.  That it was only Fear of one another, which gave the Origination to all great and durable Societies of Men. Now this is evident, That I must first Love myself, before I can Fear any thing; all such Fear, being properly the effect of that Love, which teaches me to desire to preserve myself from all Enemies and Injuries. And this mistake immediately rushes him upon a second Error to maintain his first; 
Idem p. 8. Sect. 3.  That there is in all Mankind a mutual desire of doing mischief one to another; proceeding from that equality which by the state of Nature all Men are in: Which second Assertion is false to every Reason; unless he will revive the old Fable of Cadmus in Ovid, and slur it upon us for an Historical Truth; and suppose all Mankind to be like the Harvest sprung from the Serpent's Teeth; unnatural Sons of the Earth, born in Arms; and immediately like fabulous Knights-errant, entering upon martial Actions, and a mutual Combat and slaughter of one another: For there is no such thing as equality by the state of Nature; but the Father by the very Priority of a Natural Cause, must be superior to his Children, etc. I do not design a confutation of Mr. Hobbs, but these two Errors in his Principles, have run him into many dangerous and impolitic errors in all his Writings; which have by many others been severely animadverted upon; only I was obliged to take notice of these, in regard that they contradict the Original of Society, and it may be the End of it, which is Happiness; and are no less dangerous to the very Foundation of all Government and Religion, than contrary to most manifest Truth.  
WE must therefore suppose, what is not only natural and most rationally probable, but most really and unquestionably true; That in the beginning of the World, in regard of the Lawfulness of Polygamy, and the protracted Lives of those Primitive Propagators of Mankind; even after the Deluge, when their Days were stinted to a hundred and twenty Years; that men did mightily increase; and coming from one common stock it was yet some considerable time before their Numbers straitened them so much for Room, as to oblige them to separate and divide? and that they were embodied into one Community there is no question to be made; of this Society Noah (the Saturn and Janus bifrons of the Heathens, said to have two faces, one of which looked to the time before, and the other to that after the Flood) was the Head and Governor; till he was by the Ambitious Nimrod, the Jupiter of the Heathens, (though Berosus makes him the Saturn despoiled of his Sovereignty: 
Beros. lib. 4.  and the reasons that are given for their attempt to build the stupendious Tower of Babe● confirm the opinion: They had two motives still powerful enough in the mind● of men to force them into Societies▪ One was future Fame; the other wa● the necessity of Union, lest they should be dispersed over all the Earth. No● indeed is it possible that Fear should give the occasion to that enterprise; for of whom could they be afraid? there were no other men in the World besides themselves; and they could not be afraid one of another, being of one Language, and one and that so near Relation: and it was particular Self-love▪ and the Love and not Fear one of another, lest they should be separated; and that they might have the glory of such a famous building; together with the advantages of Society, which were the Causes of their early Combination and Design: Had they been jealous, distrustful or fearful one of another, that would naturally have made them separate & fly from one another; but they were fearful of being parted and dispersed, which is the true and proper effect of Love; which always covets an Union with its Object; as Hatred, Fear and Aversion lead us to a desire of separation, from the things or persons we stand in dread of, or do not affect.  
BUT after the most Wise Eternal Being for the accomplishment of his own glorious Designs, had crossed theirs, by confounding their Language and dividing their Tongues; there was then a necessity which obliged them also to divide and separate; and so all those who were of one Language, embodied and joined into one Society, and parted from the rest, who could be of no use or advantage to them, in regard their Dialect was not understood: By which means they spread themselves into several remote Regions; and by degrees, the whole Earth came to be inhabited.  
THE people who were thus separated, in process of Time came to be as different in all other things as in their Language; and still as they multiplied in Numbers, new Colonies were necessitated to part from the old stock; and they also became distinct: Companies and Societies of Men: Now he who undertook to be their Leader, 
The Origine of Monarchies.  and Captain-conductor, in their travels and removes, was therefore the chief and principal man amongst them, and usually gave his Name and Laws to the Nation or People, which he carried with him. This distinction of Nations and People as it restrained the Love and kindness (which before their Parting was common to all) only to those of their own Tribe and Name, thereby manifesting the particular respect they had one for another; so likewise it came to distinguish that Property of Territories and Possessions, 
The occasion of the Primitive Wars.  which every Nation pretended a sole Right, Title and Interest in, as belonging only unto them, and not to any other of their Neighbours. This occasioned Differences and Quarrels about the Limits of their Pastures, Fields, Woods, Rivers, Springs, etc. as appears both by the Sacred and Profane Histories. For this reason parted Abraham and Lot, 
Gen. 13.7, 9  upon a strife that arose betwixt their Servants, which obliged them to separate: And upon this account it was that Romulus and his Young Citizens had so many quarrels with the Sabines, and their other neighbours, concerning the Pomoeria of their new erected City. Rome even from its very Infancy, being born with the desire of Sovereignty, and given to Usurpations and encroachments upon her Neighbours.  
FROM these differences arose Tumults, Wars, hostile Invasions, and Depredations; which did necessitate Men for their own safety, and the preservation of their Property, to enter into mutual promises and obligations, to defend themselves and the Public from the injuries of their Enemies; and such were all looked upon and suspected to be, who had not the same Property in the Territories where they did inhabit: and because many times, even whilst they were at Peace with their Neighbours, they found themselves infested with Domestic Discords, Mischiefs, and Injuries, Thefts, Murders, 
The Original of Laws and Government.  Adulteries, and other violations of the Rights and Properties of the members of their own Community; from hence there sprung a necessity of Laws and Government, to prevent such intestine Quarrels, no less ruinous to the happiness of Society, than foreign force; and to restrain such amongst themselves, whose unbounded Wills rendered their Actions prejudicial and dangerous to the well-being of the Community, in whole and in every part; as also, that by Unity amongst themselves, they might be the better enabled to repress the Insolences and Injuries of their foreign Enemies.  
NOW generally (if not universally) these Primitive Laws were for the reasons named, 
Monarches and Leaders of Colonies the first Legislators.  compiled by the Governors and Rulers, and in probability the first of them, by those who first lead the Colony. Thus Moses amongst the Hebrews, gave directions as supreme Judge in all Civil affairs; as for the Ecclesiastical he had them under Gods own hand-writing. Thus Numa amongst the Romans was their King and Legislator. And in regard experience taught them, 
The reason of the Executive and Coercive Power of Magistrates.  that the best Laws were altogether insignificant to the greatest part of Men, unless they were entrusted in the hands of such who would strictly look to their effectual Execution; therefore the coercive and executive virtue of Laws was always in the disposal of the supreme Magistrate; as being the only Person or Persons, who were vested with such a power, as could give life and activity to those Laws, to which they had first given a Being; and to whose hands could the care of the Government by a just execution of those Laws be more safely committed, had it been originally in the People to dispose of it, than to such Persons, as had manifested their Wisdom, Prudence and ability in framing such good, just, wholesome, and necessary Constitutions? But the true reason is, they as Supreme over the People had the only Power of making Laws, and to exact obedience and subjection to them; by which means, they being the best Interpreters of the Laws which they had made, the Safety, Preservation and Happiness of the Society, was most likely, to be secured, continued and preserved.  
AND this manifests the Fundamental error in Politics, of those Persons, who make Laws to have a priority before Kings and Governors; as if the Laws made Kings & Magistrates, when in truth God & Nature vested Primogeniture with the Right of Kings and Magistrates, and they made the first Laws. This is a mistake of such dangerous consequence, that if it come to be allowed and Popular, it robs all Kings of the most valuable Jewel of their Crowns, and which was set there by God himself who set them upon their Heads; viz a Divine Right and Title to their Sovereignty and Dominion: and this open a way to perpetual Changes and alterations in Government and Governors▪ For all Laws are in their own Nature alterable; and may either for the convenience of the Prince or People, wh● are to Govern or be Governed by them be changed, abrogated, and new one▪ Enacted: and by consequence, the Right of the King, if it be only from them, may be so too. I have often heard it proverbially spoken, New Lords, New Laws; but this would alter the stile, and introduce an unhear● of proverb, New Laws, New Lords which at last by the perpetual uncertainty of Government and alteration both o● Lords and Laws, must of necessity▪ come to No Lords, and No Laws, and indeed nothing but Anarchy, Confusion, and Tyranny.  
BESIDES, the very Foundation of such an Opinion is absurd and unreasonable; for there can be no Laws, till there be some frame of Government, to establish and enact such Laws; nor can any thing have the force or power of a Law, or oblige men to obedience, unless it does proceed from such a Person or Persons, as have a right to command it, and Authority to punish the Disobedience or neglect of those who ought to be subject to it. And to say that this Right is in the People, who by their suffrages Elect the Supreme Magistrate, is so far from mending the matter, that it makes it worse, and more dangerous: for then the People may in reason fairly presume (when ever they please to say, That the Sovereign Power is abused to their prejudice, which was contrary to their Design in granting it,) to reassume their own Right, and either keep the Power themselves, or proceed to a new Election: which is the direct Way to fulfil the prediction of the Necromantic Head, which was once said, at Oxford, 
Bakers Chrons' pag. 167.  to have given this fatal Oracle: 
Caput decidetur, Caput elevabitur,  
Pedes elevabuntur supra Caput.  which was tragically translated into English in the transactions of the late unhappy Times, when 
Monarchy beheaded lay,  
The head of Traitors bore the Sway.  
The feet of 
* Dan. 2.33.  Iron and of Clay  
Became a monstrous head they say.  


K. Charles Martyr  
O. Cromwell.  
Army and Rump Parl.     
BUT further, the universal Testimony of all Ages, Nations, and Places, derive the beginning of Positive Laws, from a Government justly empowered to make, enact, and command Laws; and a superior Power that had a Right to exact Obedience to them: So that it is almost impossible to find the least footsteps of Law, 
Law of Nature and Law of Nations of Divine Institution.  that is by far so ancient as Government. As for that Jus Naturae, and Jus Gentium, they are more properly Common and Universal Principles of Nature and all Nations, than Laws; and own their establishment to a Divine Authority, and not to any Humane Power: and there is a vast difference between the very Words Jus and Lex, though our Language does not admit of it in the common use of Expression; for Jus properly signifies a Right or Propriety, and such a Right, as if it be common (as the Right of Nature and Nations are) every man by virtue of his Being lays a claim unto. The word Lex, or Law, seems derived from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, finem facio, termino, to put an end and determination to things which before were undetermined: or from the Latin word Ligc, to bind and oblige, as Laws do all people to Obedience: or possibly as Tully observes, à Legendo, from choosing what is best for society: So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, distribuo, pasco, rego, to distribute Justice and Right; to feed the people with care and diligence, as a Shepherd his flock; for which reason Homer calls Kings, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Shepherds of the People, who rule and govern them. So the Hebrew word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is rendered Law signifies Doctrina, teaching, instruction; because Laws teach and instruct all people what is their Duty. All which words of the most ancient and universal Languages, plainly intimate, that there must be some person or persons, who must have such Authority, as may enable them to determine Differences, oblige men to Obedience to those Laws they choose as best for them; seed, govern, and teach their Inferiors their respective Duties; and who must therefore by necessary consequence be Governors, before the Laws were made, by which they and their successors afterwards, directed and managed the Societies over which they were the Primitive Rulers, Princes and Lawgivers.   

CHAP. II. Of the danger of Anarchy, the necessity of Government and Laws to prevent it. All People not fit for one kind of Government. Of the three forms of Govenment, Democracy, Aristocracy, an● Monarchy. Some Considerations an● necessary Animadversions upon our la● English Republic.  
THE goodness of the Divine Nature has not more visibly appeared in any thing of humane affairs, than in bestowing this principle of Self-preservation in so high a degree upon Mankind, as to make it universally, out o● Love to themselves, oblige them to enter into Communities and Societies: An effect so Noble, that possibly that, and Religion may more truly be said to distinguish Men from Brutes, than Reason; which though we ambitiously endeavour to engross to ourselves, yet am I to learn, how they can without some injustice be excluded from a share and lower portion of it, some of their Actions being so remarkably Logical and Discursive, as will never be solved either by mere matter and motion, or the higher principles of bare sense and fancy. But for this principle of Self-preservation, though they enjoy a great measure of it in common with us, yet not so much as to teach them for their security, to enter into the mutual obligations of Laws, Government and Society: And 'tis happy for us that this Wisdom was denied them; since there are few Creatures so inconsiderable, but if they had the Policy for their common safety to unite, they would in a little time grow so numerous and powerful, as to be able to enter into open hostility with Men; and in probability either wholly extirpate humane race, or at least as that Monopoliser of Wit and Fancy, the most ingenious Mr. Cowley expresseth it; 
Cowley Pind. Odes upon the 34. Cap of Esay stanz. 6. pag. 50.  
And if of lost mankind  
Ought happen to be left behind,  
If any Relics but remain,  
They in the Dens should lurk,  
Beasts in the Palaces should Reign.  whereas now, if they attempt any Rebellion or Disobedience, they are easily subdued, and kept under subjection by their own Disunion.  
WITHOUT Laws or Government men would be but a more cunning kind of Brutes; and therefore we s●● that where these prevail, there human● Nature is most refined, civilised an● polite; but where Laws are wanting i● any measure, there in proportion me● degenerate into the greatest Barbarism Infidelity, Ingratitude, Treachery, Inhumanity, and almost brutish Anarchy and Confusion: Nay, their very Religion, which is the highest exaltation o● the nature of Man, and possibly the o●ly thing that perfectly and incommunicably differences it, by setting men in 〈◊〉 degree so superior to Beasts, that they can never arrive at it; even Religion 〈◊〉 self, for want of Laws and Government, becomes sensual and Barbarous, if not Devilish.  
THERE has therefore appeared to all the World for self-preservation and mutual advantage, an absolute necessity of Society. 
The danger of Anarchy shows the necessity of Government.  Nor has it been less evident, that it is absolutely impossible there should be any such thing without Government, Superiority and Subjection: For Anarchy is indeed the state of Nature, but it is only of the Nature of Brutes; and most certainly it is the Mother of all Confusion; of which, inevitable Ruin is the undoubted Daughter. But as to the forms and manner of Government, the opinion of the World has been as various as the practice; and so it continues to this day: 
One kind of Government not fit for all People.  Several kinds and frames of Government suit best with the several circumstances and natures of differing People and Nations: So that though it be no great difficulty to determine, which in its own nature is the best Government in the World; yet it would be too hard, if not arrogant, positively to affirm, that even that were universally the best for all sorts of people: Custom and long continuance, which can never admit of any alteration that is sudden and general, without great inconveniences, is certainly one great Rule in all Forms of Government; according to that appearing Paradox, though good State-Divinity. 

Malum benè positum, non est tem●rè removendum.   

Ill well established, to remove,  
A dangerous rashness oft does prove.    

Of the three forms of Government.  However in order to my design, it is necessary that we should briefly consider the three kinds of Government, which have shared the Empire of the World amongst them.  

Of Democracy.  WE will begin then with the lowest, and that which has had the least part, as well as the least reason to have a greater, in the manage of public affairs, as being but one step from Anarchy, and that is Democracy, where all govern, and yet all obey. In this all the People have, or pretend to have an equal Right to Power; and the Laws are the Plebiscita, the Votes of the Common people in general. This way of Government is only practicable in small Bodies and Societies of Men; it being impossible that populous Nations, and of great extent, should either congregate for the dispatch of every little affair of State, or ever be brought to any agreement about them in any tolerable compass of Time: and besides, they must be forced to neglect the private concerns of their Country employs, which are as necessarily to be attended for the good of the Common-weal, as the greatest consultations of State; the Populace being no less able to subsist without Corn, and the other effects of good husbandry, than they are without Counsel and Laws. And supposing they should thus meet in multitudes, all things would be managed by a tumultuary Faction, rather than by Right and Reason, with which necessary Qualifications for Government, the Common sort of people are as seldom well provided, as they are of understanding any thing that goes beyond the limits of their education in Tillage, Husbandry and Mechanic Manufactures. For these and many other Reasons, if ever there was any such kind of Government, it is impossible it should be of any long continuance, which is the reason that it has been long since exploded out of all great societies of Men; and where ever any of it does remain, it is either in some particular small Municipal societies, as with us in Corporations in England; or else this right is committed to Delegates, chosen by the people to represent them and act for them; such as are the Members of the honourable House of Commons, or the Common-Council-men of the City o● London; and several small Republics beyond the Seas.  

Of Aristocracy or Optimacy.  THE second kind of Government is Aristocracy or Optimacy, where the Nobility or principal persons have the charge and management of the public Affairs: This was that form of Government which several of the State's o● Greece, as Athens, Sparta, Thebes, Corinth, etc. did at some times affect. And this was the Government of the Roman Commonwealth, under the Senate and Consuls, 
Senatores à Senioritate; and consuls à Consulendo.  who were chosen out of the Patricii, or principal Nobility, as their name imports, for their age and experience, to consult about the weighty affairs of State; to make Laws according as the present necessity required, and to alter or abrogate the useless or inconvenient.  
THE third sort of Government is Monarchy, 
Of Monarchy.  where all the whole frame of Government lies upon one single person; who has power to make, alter and abrogate Laws, and to exact obedience to them; and this kind of Government, as it is by far the most ancient, so it has been and is the most universal: Insomuch that there is not any People, Nation, Country, Language, who either are not, or have not been under this form of Regiment. And the Original both of Democracy and Aristocracy must be attributed to Usurpation; and will be found upon the search of all the Records of Time to have been founded upon Rebellion and a Regifugium: which certainly if there were nothing besides, were a sufficient Argument to keep all wise and sober men from being in love with such models of Government and Laws, as took their first rise and birth from the breach of Laws, and the apparent ruin of that establishment to which they were born subjects, if not sworn vassals.  

Some Considerations and necessary Animadversions upon our late English Republic.  BUT in regard it is grown to be but too popular an Error amongst us, to entertain very kind thoughts of the Democratick way of Government, which in the time of the late horrid Rebellion, some Men managed by private ambition and insatiable desire of Sovereignty, did endeavour (invita Minerva) to introduce and establish, contrary to the Genius and inclination of the English Nation; though they constantly abused the name of the people to countenance their unjust usurpations: and in regard the same restless and dangerous Faction is as busy as ever to promote the same Design, to the utter subversion of this most ancient, flourishing and well-tempered Monarchy; we will consider this way, and see whether in its own Nature it is so good and excellent, as it is pretended to be by the Factors and Fautors of Antimonarchical principles; who do so industriously labour to alienate the minds of the Subjects of great Britain from their ancient Loyalty and Allegiance to their Sovereign.  
THAT we may therefore take a true and impartial survey of this adored and so much magnified Model of a Republic; and that we may do them (which they never did to any) Justice; we will take our Copy from their own Original, and the most exact and curious draughts and elaborate pourtraicts in several Declarations published, as they pretended, for the satisfaction of the people of these Nations: and more particularly of one presently after the King's Murder, wherein they express the grounds of their proceed, in settling (as they term it) the present Government in the way of a Free State or Commonwealth. Where first they begin with the observation of God's blessing upon Rebellion; showing the excellency of this way of Government from the example of the Romans, who after their Regifugium, for many years prospered far more than under any of their Kings or Emperors; from the State of Venice, the Swiss Cantons, and our Neighbours of the United Provinces.  
IN the next place to make their Way appear the best, they tax the Government by Monarchy with Injustice, Oppression, and a design of enslaving the people; telling them, that if the King and his Party had prevailed, the fate of England was to have been the same with a neighbouring Monarchy, where the Commons are glad of Canvass-cloathing and Wooden-shooes, and look more like Ghosts than Men: and for proof they instance in Forest-lands, as a great oppression, in protections against Arrests, Purveyance, exaction of Money, unnecessary Salaries, Pensions, Gifts, and the luxury of the Court, as they are pleased to call the innocent diversion of Masques and Plays: concluding with the charitable application of a snap out of a Latin Poet; 
— exeat aula,  
Qui volet esse pius—   
In the last place, like most worthy Patriots, truly Zealous for the good and interest of their Country, they promise that these and multitudes of the like grievances will be prevented; the situation and advantages of this Land both for Trade abroad, and Manufactures at home will be better understood, when the dangers of Projects, Monopolies, and other obstructions thereof, are together with the Court the Fountain of them removed, and a free Trade, with encouragement of Manufactures, and provision for the Poor be settled by the Commonwealth, which Monarchy had never yet the leisure effectually to do. Parturiunt Montes! Sure if ever the Proverb was verified it was now, the Devils shearing of his Sheep when he mistook Hogs for them, All Cry and no Wool.  
AS to their first observation, of the blessing of God upon them in their unlawfully established Free State or Republic, they acted the Prophets too soon: and all the World is witness, according to their own measures, who are wont to judge the goodness of Actions by their prosperous successes, how much they were mistaken; and there can be no plainer testimony from their own Topick of observation, how grateful their Government was to God, by his blessing it; and how agreeable it was to the Genius of the English Nation, appears by the long and happy duration of their State. For this young Republic, which seemed to affect and emulate the long-lived Roman Commonwealth, for all its excellencies and advantages, could not outlive one single Roman Lustrum, nor continue so many years as the other did hundreds, before the strong bias run it round into a single (though mistaken) person again. I wish all our stiff Republicans would seriously consider this, and no longer, dirigere Brachia contra torrentem, tire and toil themselves, and trouble our calm Waters, which would run most smoothly, if they did not endeavour to trouble them by perpetually swimming against the strong current of Nature, Law, Reason, Providence and Religion.  
AND for the Roman Commonwealth, which they did so admire, and pretended to imitate; it is well known that was an Optimacy, and no Democracy, as this was, which these men by being the people's representatives did endeavour to establish: and therefore never like to prosper long, or flourish like the Roman Republic; for there was always a distinction betwixt the Plebs or ordinary Rank of People, and the Patres Conscripti, Patricii or Senatorian Order: And upon this account the Roman Senate never owning themselves the people's Delegates or Representatives, many great quarrels arose betwixt them; the Populace endeavouring by Representatives to get a share in the Government, and the Senate as stoutly opposing all such Encroachments and Innovations: From hence arose many mutinies and popular Insurrections, in one of which the whole Commonalty forsook the City, and in a pet run from their houses to the Aventine Mount: 
T. Liv. lib. 2.  and the Senate was forced to Lure the Haggards down again, by gratifying them with the Tribuni Plebis, who were certain persons chosen by the people, to look particulary after their concerns in all the Debates of the Senate. And at another time they contended to have the Election of one of the Consuls; and the dispute was so hot, that the Senators durst not come to the House, but so great was the fury of the enraged Populace, that there was a five years' Anarchy, the true result of Democracy: 
T. Liv. lib. 6.  And at the last the Senate was obliged to condescend to their resolute Importunity, and grant them the choice of one of the Consuls; which plainly manifests that the Government of the Roman Commonwealth was originally Aristocratick.  
BESIDES, it is absolutely false which is said, That the State of Rome flourished more under that Government than under any of their Kings or Emperors; for it is notoriously known and confessed, that Rome never came to its perfect greatness and splendour, till the Empire of Augustus Caesar.  
AS to the State of Venice, which they mention, that likewise is an Optimacy mixed with a restrained and elective Monarchy; for such is the Doge or Duke of Venice; and the same may be said of our Belgic neighbours, who next to the assistance of the English Monarchy under Queen Elizabeth, are obliged for their greatness and duration, to the Illustrious House of Nassau, Ancestors to the present Prince of Orange, their Hereditary Stadtholder. The advantage and necessity of which Office in his present Highness, they have in this War with France been sufficiently made sensible of: and possibly, had not the private envy of a prevailing Party of the French Interest, 
De Witt.  during his Minority, neglected both Him and the Office, with a Design of utterly abolishing it for the future; they might have been in a condition, with the assistance of their Allies, to have put a stop to the victorious Arms of France; whereas by their Intestine disorders, and the great advantages which his most Christian Majesty made of their disagreement, they have unhappily drawn in the greatest part of Christendom into a most fatal and bloody War.  
AND for the States of Switzerland, it was an unlucky Precedent, and not much unlike the Reformation they practised to the ruin of the Nobility and Gentry. But if we may credit Geographers and Travellers (for I never was there, nor desire to see it) the Country will scarcely invite an Enemy to invade, or pay the purchase of a Conquest; and therefore they may be safe with any Government, if they can be secure amongst themselves. And therefore they can never be a pattern for England, a rich, populous, and fertile Nation; who upon that account stand in need of the best Government, to secure us from Intestine quarrels, to which all populous places are most subject, as also to protect us from Foreign force, to which the goodness and riches of the Country, may give the most tempting invitation. So that our Republicans are out in the measures they took of comparing themselves and their new Commonwealth, with any of those mentioned by them in their Declaration.  
FOR the second part of their Charge, wherein they accuse Monarchy with a Design of enslaving the People; and being guilty of Oppression, Injustice and Exactions; if those accusations had been real, (which are most gross abuses and calumnies,) yet still they could have been no more but the exorbitances of some particular persons, who might abuse their Power, but cannot justly be charged upon Monarchy itself: especially our English Monarchy, which is of so just a Temperamentum ad Pondus● if any thing in Nature can be so, as tha● it cannot oppress the meanest subject without his own or the consent of hi● Peers, who will difficultly be brought to do that which may endanger their own privileges, and might one da● come to be a precedent for themselves to suffer by. The truth is, the resty an● fore-plotted humour of some sullen Parliaments, which preceded the fat● 1641, put his late Majesty upon som● extraordinary courses of raising Mon● to supply the pressing and importuna●● necessities of the Crown and Government, with which they refused to ass●● him in the usual, legal, and common Parliamentary way; which yet wa● not done, but with the greatest caution and tenderness, and frequent consultations with the Judges learned in the Laws, whether without breach 〈◊〉 Laws such expedients might be mad● use of? and the money so raised, which they maliciously say was to maintain those luxuries of the Court, Masque and Plays, their Sabbath-days recreations, were in truth for the necessary support of the Government and Royal Dignity; and which yet fell so short o● what the extraordinary occasions at that time were, by reason of the Scottish Invasion brought on by the Factious Republico-Presbyterians, that the King was obliged at last to call and continue that Parliament to grant him supplies, which in conclusion took from him his Revenue, Dignity, Crown and Life.  
AS to the Forests, of which they make such an outcry; it is well known, that they are generally Land of such a Nature as admits not of a tolerable improvement in Husbandry; and therefore cannot be better employed for the public good and safety of the Nation, than in producing Timber for Shipping, which is the only thing which they will well and naturally do: And the keeping of Deer, being an accidental improvement, and the stock they are best capable of maintaining, and the King as well as private Men having a just right and lawful liberty to employ those Lands which by inheritance from his Ancestors descended to him, according to his own pleasure; I know no persons could be offended at him, but such whose covetous Ambition had an eye to the waste of them for themselves, as these men had, who to the irreparable loss of the Kingdom, under pretence of improvement made such spoil in the Forest of Dean, and upon all the Crown Lands, as some Ages of the most diligent and industrious Husbandry will scarcely repair: And which adds to the mischief, those vast quantities of our best Timber, with which they usually over-paid their purchase, were sold to some of our Neighbours, who have since shown us the strength of our English Oak.  
AND possibly their disforesting and disparking so much ground, though it might turn to good account to some of them for the present, yet has insensibly brought down all the Rents of the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom: for our only surfeit at present seems to be of plenty both of Corn and Cattle; we having more communibus Annis, than the consumption of the Nation will admit of; and generally no good markets for these products of our Country amongst our Neighbours abroad; unless in such a conjuncture as these late years of War. Which great plenty has certainly been much increased by their improvement of so many of the Parks of the King, Bishops, etc. So that those chargeable provisions for Sports and Recreations, for which (as they eloquently flaunt it) thousands of Acres, and scores of Miles, and great part of whole Counties have been separated from a much better and public employment; if the Timber which their wasteful Avarice cut down had been standing still, might with far more advantage to the public have continued as they were.  
AND for Oppression, good God certainly the World never knew greater than those Keepers of the Liberties of England were guilty of. It would trouble a public Accountant to cast up those vast Sums and incredible Treasures, which in less than twice seven years they raised and spent to support the worst of all luxuries Rebellion; and to act upon the public Charge and Theatre of the Nation, not Masques and Plays, but the most real and inhuman Tragedies; and many of them upon Sabbath-days too, as these modern Jews call the Lordsday: So that they might well have spared that accusation against the King and Court. It would be endless to recount the Annual Revenue of all the Crown, Bishop, Chapter and Cathedral Lands, besides the Money they received for the purchases of them even at their Rates, the constant and heavy Assessments, Freequarter, Plunder, Sequestrations, Compositions, Decimations, Excise and Customs; besides the voluntary Contributions, the Bodkins, Thimbles, Rings, Plate and Jewels, which Hugh Peter and his confederate Jugglers, preached and prayed from the Holy Sisters and Zealous Brothers; the vast Sums borrowed upon the public Faith, which some of them found to their cost to be Fides Punica; and almost innumerable Ways and Arts they had to squeeze and drain the Treasure of the Nation into their bottomless Gulf. And I am almost confident, that not any three Kings of England from William the Conqueror to this present day were so expensive to England, as that one prodigal Parliament. And they who now complain of the heavy Taxations (which it has ever been observed the Republicans are most guilty of) must know, that we are obliged to them, both for the first invention of those payments, and for the necessity of their continuance. That so the Crown may be secured from such exigencies as might oblige the King to ask supplies from such men, (if these Commonwealthsmen had their desire and design) as had rather take away the Crown itself, than give any thing towards its support and maintenance. And let them but by becoming good Subjects, obedient to their Prince and his Laws, give him demonstrative assurances of domestic Peace and Unity, and they may be confident that neither he nor they need to fear any foreign Force or Power: and so the necessity of these extraordinary supplies for the security of the Peace and Interest of the Kingdoms being removed, they may certainly expect to live in a great measure free from them, or however from their frequency. And if they will not agree to do this, they may thank themselves for those burdens they lay upon their own and other men's shoulders, which they might be eased of, if they would ease the Government of the constant charge it is forced to be at, to secure itself, and those who are under its protection, from the restless and dangerous attempts of their Party against it; and therefore as they can blame no body but themselves, so certainly all the loyal and good Subjects have a great deal of reason to complain of them, who are the principal occasions of those Impositions, which lie so heavy upon them.  
AS for their conclusion, that these and multitudes of other grievance● should be taken away, by turning the Monarchy into a Free State; These were but fair words and fine promises to deceive the ignorant and credulous multitude; for a miserable experience taught us the contrary. And for one King▪ who according to the most mild and easy Laws, governed with the greatest wisdom and clemency; they set up and established an Oligarchical Democratick Tyranny, like that of the Thirty Athenian Tyrants. And every one of these Parliament Demarches, was as absolute by himself as the Law of his own Will could make him: Nor could any person question either their Actions or Authority, without paying his Life and Fortune, or one of them for so great a presumption. And I remember when the late King at his Trial before their pretended High Court of Justice, questioned their Authority, they gave him no other answer, but that they were abundantly satisfied with their own Authority; and from his dreadful example it was easy to conclude, that whoever would not be satisfied with their Power, was certain to follow him in suffering under it; and 'tis easily remembered how arbitrarily all things were managed, and the whole Kingdom brought into a slavery far greater than theirs, who wear Canvass-cloaths and Wooden-shooes, and look like Ghosts; for they did not only (amongst the multitudes of grievances which were redressed) make men look like such, but really made such of all those, whom they either feared, suspected or hated.  
AND for their observation of the situation of the Nation for Trade and Manufactures, it was so pretty a new Nothing to pin upon the people's sleeves, that it could not but please extremely: As if all our Monarches had lived in such profound Oscitancy and Ignorance, that they never knew what Ports, Havens or Creeks they had within their Dominions; or as if the Seamen knew not without this new Chart of discovery, that Portsmouth lay more conveniently for a Trade with France, than Robin Hoods-Bay, or John-a-Groats-house in the remotest Orcades: Or as if the common people, whose great interest and constant employment it is from their very leading-strings, were by these sons of Bacchus to be taught the art of Agriculture; and under Monarchy could not tell the nature of their Lands, or what Countries were fit for such or such Manufactures, or any other thing relating to Trade or Husbandry, but these great Ingeniosoes of the Republic must have the honour of these happy Inventions, which the people understood before far better than they could instruct them; as is but too evident to all those Gentlemen, who of late years having their Lands by the universal fall of Rents thrown upon their hands, could never make those improvements and advantages of them, which the Rustics did, by their better understanding of the Lands, and the methods of Husbandry, in which they had their education; which the Gentlemen who are owners of the Land wanted. And for their taking care for the Poor, in one sense it was true enough, they took all the care they could to keep the Nation as poor as it was possible; that if ever they should have any such intentions or inclinations, they might never have the power or the purse to effect their Design in bringing back their banished Sovereign, to his undoubted Right, the Royal Throne of his Illustrious Ancestors: for which purpose they kept a continual standing Army at Land, and a Navy at Sea, to the incredible charge, oppression, and impoverishment of the Subjects of these Realms, both their Friends and Enemies; though they had the policy to lay the heaviest load upon the backs of their Enemies, if possible to break them; and they kept the Loyal Gentry and Nobility so poor, that many of them have not been able, or ever will to forget the kindness of that Government, which was the utter ruin of them and their families.  
SHOULD the same method be made use of with them, sure than they would make a horrible outcry; but some people may better steal a Horse, than others look over the Hedge; and what was Wisdom, Prudence and Justice in a Republic, would be Tyranny, Oppression, and Cruelty in a Monarch.  
AS for the last clause, that Monarchy never had the leisure effectually to advance or encourage the Trade of the Nation; How comes our Statute-Law to be so full of such Acts, as are for the Improvement and Regulation of all Trades and Manufactures? How come all those Charters and Grants to Corporations, Fairs, Markets, and to the several Companies of the City of London? However, we will agree to them, that some of our late Monarches have not had the leisure effectually to look after these affairs; but who was it that gave the obstruction? and how come they not to have so much leisure? Even these kind  Commonwealthsmen, who from the very moment that our Nation began to look abroad into the World, and by Navigation to advance the Interest of our Country, even these great Merchants of Faction, Sedition and Rebellion, began to set up for themselves, and to spoil our Markets, by giving such disturbances to Queen Elizabeth in the last years of her Reign; to King James during all his, and to the Royal Martyr, whom at last they bought and sold, that Monarchy had something of nearer concern to mind, than Foreign Trade; viz. Domestic Peace: and found work enough to quench those flames, which they saw ready to blaze out, or already broken out in the State; which were kindled and blown up, by the fiery Zeal of these  Republicans: And our Kings by that Charity which gins at home, were obliged first to take care of their own Preservation, which yet (so violent was the rage of that unruly combustion, that they were not able to effect, but all was laid in heaps and ashes) thank the good honest men of the Commonwealth for their industry and successful pains they took about it, God reward them for it.  
BUT God have the praise, who had compassion upon our Ruins, and pitied to see us lie in the Dust! we have seen a glorious Resurrection of Monarchy; we have seen all these frivolous calumnies confuted; We have seen Monopolies taken away and yet the Court remain; Purveyance restrained, and both the Waggoner and Bargeman paid for serving the King to their own content; we have seen unnecessary Protections taken away; and Courtiers obliged to pay their just Debts, which the Democratick Government for all their public Faith never did. We have seen all encouragement given to Manufactures, Navigation and Merchandise; the Poo● taken care of, and all this done mos● effectually. And much more we might see, England the most Potent, flourishing, and quiet Kingdom in th● World, if it were not for those interruptions and disturbances, which th● Devilish spirit of Democracy, that stil● walks, haunts, and possesses so many Men, even after the Body of it is de●● and rotten, has given our present Monarch. And it is the general hope of a● who wish for our peace and prosperity that he will have the leisure, with th● united concurrence of his prudent Counsellors, to do far greater thing than these; and conjure down this tumultuous Spirit, to the Abyss of flam● and confusion from whence it firs● came: and in despite of all their madness and opposition to fulfil the prophetic wish of his Glorious Father; and since he is even by the experience of his greatest and the Nations Enemies Charles le Bon, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Prince of Wales.  he will undoubtedly arrive to be Charles le Grand; to which there is no other visible obstacle beside the unreasonable fury, madness, and eternal malice of these implacable Oligarcho-Democraticks.   

CHAP. III. The Government of a Republic examined, whether in its oven Nature so good for the Ends of Society as it is pretended. The end of all Government, the Happiness of the Society, consists in Protection, Property, and Distributive Justice. Democracy cannot in probability attain those Ends; it obliges the Supreme Magistrates to maintain a private Interest separate and distinct from the Public, whereby they manage affairs rather for their own advantage, than that of the Community. No security against Foreign Force can be expected from a Democratick Republic, especially in the greatest Danger. Domestic Peace not so well preserved by it as by Monarchy. No safety of Property in a Republic, in regard of their constant Factions, nor equal distribution of Rewards and Punishments.  
BUT leaving these Impatient furiosoes, gnawing their Nails for madness, to see their short-lived Commonwealth, with infamy from Heaven and Earth hist off the stage of the World: 
Republic Government in its own Nature considered, whether so useful for the Ends of Society as pretended?  Let us come to examine the Constitution of a Republic way of Government in its self; and see whether in its own Nature it is of so great advantage to the well-being of Society, as it is by some pretended.  
THAT we may do this, we must look into the Ends of Government; 
The end of all Government Happiness of the Society.  now the End of all Government is the Wellbeing and Happiness of the Society; and here I shall only concern myself with this well-being in a Politic sense, and not intermingle any thing of Society as to Religious affairs, further than they have a respect and necessary influence upon the common concerns of Life.  

Wherein it consists.  THE Happiness of any Society does principally consist in these three things. First, 
1. In Protection.  in protection from Foreign Power, and the Injuries of those who are not of the same Body Politic.  

2. In Peace and Property secured.  Secondly, in preserving Domestic Peace, and securing to every Member of the Society their particular Right and Property, free from encroachment or oppression.  

3. In equal distribution of Rewards and Punishments.  Thirdly, in the equal distribution of Justice to all, according to their Merits, by a due proportioning of Rewards and Punishments.  
TO some or other or all of these three Intentions, the Happiness of Mankind in this World must be reduced; for no man can hope or expect a greater happiness in this mortal state, than to live in safety under a Power that is both ready, willing, and able to afford him protection; to enjoy with freedom and quietness what he can justly call his own; and not only to be rewarded & encouraged for his Industry and Diligence in promoting the public, and by consequence his own private good, but to see all such severely punished, who would rob him of his quiet and safety, or dispossess him of his Right or any part of it, either by fraud or violence.  
IN general therefore, as to all the concerns of Government and the happiness of any Society, it must be considered, what kind of supreme Power does most effectually contribute towards the attainment of these Ends? which for this following reason a Republic can never do. 
Democracy cannot in probability attain these Ends in regard the Supreme Magistrates must always maintain a separate interest distinct from the Public, which will oblige them to manage the affairs of State rather to their own advantage, than that of the Commonwealth.  For whether it be Aristocratick or Democratick by Delegates chosen to represent the People, (which is properly Oligarchy, and the form our Republicans dote on) no place in the Government can be Hereditary; nay, many times those places of high Trust are only Annual, or however but for some few Years, and not for term of Life: For (it is their own Argument against the long continuance of this Parliament, which is against the very foundation of a Democratick way) it is highly unreasonable, that any one company of men should for many Years engross so great a trust of the People, as to be their Representatives in the House of Commons, and as good men as these present Members of the Counties and Corporations (who have as much right, according to the principles of Democracy, to have their turn in the Government) should be so long excluded. Now whoever is chosen to such places, must at the same time maintain a separate Interest of his own private affairs, distinct from those of the public. And there being not only a possibility, but the most tempting probability of a private and particular advantage to be made of all public Trusts, where there is Power and Profit, which are rarely to be found so separated, but that they may easily be United; this is a perpetual spur to men of ambitious or craving spirits, by all ways direct and indirect, to make court to those employs of State, which if they can obtain, they assure themselves they will become most serviceable to their particular Interests, by advancing their Reputation, Honour, and private Fortunes. And the best men being not only the fewest, but usually least forward, and most modest, in all probability such persons will generally sit at the Helm of the State, as will steer the public Bottom upon such a course, as shall be most beneficial to themselves: And then the consideration of the shortness of their Power, will undoubtedly put them upon making Hay whilst the Sunshine of their Authority lasts; and forcing all private advantages with the greatest expedition and secrecy, both to avoid the danger of losing their present opportunity, as also to avoid the fear of a future after-reckoning. And in regard it is very possible, that the greatest part of such elective Governors may all be guilty of the same designs, as well the present as those who are Candidates for the future, they will the more easily be induced to connive at one another; and by a joint confederacy pass by all such rapacious arts and methods; and by a common consent, for their mutual advancement, father the great expenses of their Private gains upon the public Necessities, a● well as draw them from the Public stock: Nor will their successors be very forward to call them to a strict account, fearing the like treatment themselves, and to their prejudice to draw it into a precedent for succeeding Authorities.  
FROM hence it is easy to observe with what fidelity the common Interest will be served; which must almost unavoidably fall into the hands of such persons, whose designs will be so fa● from promoting the common good, and protecting it from the Rapacious attempts of others, that they will be sure, to make a certain prey and revenue of it for themselves: and the inconvenience will be so little remedied by frequent Changes and new Elections, that it will rather prove a new increase of the Malady; and the application of fres● and hungry Leeches to the Temples of the Body Politic, will rather be a means to suck out its very heartblood, than to preserve its health and welfare.  
AND that this is not only very natural, but experimentally true, no bare supposition, but a deadly Recipe, to which we can all write a sad Probatum est; we shall need no further proof, than to take a short review of the transactions of the late English Republic; whose great business was to enrich themselves, and their Confederates, by the Ruins of others, and by impoverishing the whole Nation: And to what Estates, by their ill-imployed Power, they did most of them arrive, is still visible; in that, though they were forced to their great affliction, to disgorge a great part of their acquisitions, by restoring the Crown, Bishops, Dean Chapter, and Cathedral Lands, to the right heirs and owners; yet still some of them had so well feathered their Nests out of the public stock, that they or their posterity might have lived in the greatest splendour or plenty; if their fear to be taken notice of, or their narrow, penurious, and covetous humour would have permitted them; or in truth, if the dangerous Curse upon such as make more haste than good speed to be Rich, had not like a secret rust consumed those ill gotten greatness and riches, 
Prov. 20.21.  the end of which (that Royal writer assure us) shall not be Blessed.  
BUT more particularly, as to the happiness of any Society by protection from Foreign Force and Injuries; 
No security against Foreign Force can be expected from a Democratick Republic, especially in the greatest dangers.  it is impossible that any persons should endeavour this so hearty, and with that fidelity of resolution, as to defend it to the utmost with their Lives and Fortunes, who having a distinct Interest from the Public, may therefore hope to save their own stake, and survive the fate of the expiring Government: And this every one who is a sharer in the Government of a Republic may easily hope to do; and though he be devested of his Authority, by an invading Power, that is no greater loss than in a few years (or it may be days) he is sure to do of course, without such violent means; when by resigning his place, he must be reduced to the condition of a private man; yet still he may hope even under the prevailing Power, to enjoy his Life and private Fortune. Nay further, it is possible, that by selling the present Power he does possess, and bartering away the public Interest, he may arrive at a higher pitch of greatness, and a more durable command, than otherways he could ever have hoped for: And certainly there cannot be a stronger temptation to such men, to betray the Liberty of their Country, than assurances that they shall reserve to themselves not only the continuance of the present, but also an additional power and greatness, and all the advantages of it by such a profitable treachery.  
AND though so long as a Commonwealth can keep afloat, the sweetness of Sovereignty, and the other advantages which the present possession of, gives them a greater satisfaction in, than the largest promises of an Enemy, of whole fidelity they cannot be absolutely certain; and such like considerations may make them struggle hard to preserve the Bird in hand, rather than trust to two in the Bush, by resigning their Power; yet most certainly when they see it in manifest danger of sinking, (which is the only season for trial of Courage and Fidelity) they will be so far from employing their utmost efforts, to buoy up the Ship of the Commonwealth, that they will quit the crazy and leaking Vessel, and fairly tack about in their own private Chaloup, and stand in with the next shore of safety; or by striking Sail, and coming under the Lee of the Conqueror, save their own Interest, and it may be obtain honourable and advantageous conditions for their early submission.  
BESIDES, in all Democratick Governments there dwells a certain dangerous and mischievous person which the common people call No Body; who always walks invisible, and shelters himself from discovery amongst the crowd of Governors: So that when there happens any notable miscarriage of State, No body knows the occasion, or Author, or who it was that did it; and if at last the public sink and perish▪ No body must be charged with it; because amongst so many, it will be difficult to fix it upon any particular person or persons; and they who are really guilty, will yet have the confidence to protest their Innocence; and it may be, that they may appear so, will be forward-enough to charge any such miscarriages upon the opposite Faction; which this kind of Government is never without; whereby they do not only shelter themselves, but expose their Enemies to the general Odium, and it may be to the popular Rage; and by that means at the same time secure their treachery and revenge themselves.  
THUS it was with the Roman Senate, who though for above four hundred years they stood many violent shocks, yet still they were never in a manifest danger of an entire Ruin, till such time as the conquering Genius of the mighty Julius had overthrown the great Pompey and his Confederates, who appeared the defenders of the Republic: (though possibly had victory waited upon their Eagles, they would have made the same Quarry of the Commonwealth that Caesar's did) for immediately the Senate gave way to the Conqueror and his fortune, and decreed him a Triumph; the first badge of their cowardice, treachery, and slavery. And though the ingrateful Brutus, and his conspiring Friends, thought by his death, with three and twenty wounds, to have revived the expiring Republic, and healed those which Caesar had given it; yet were they but such convulsive struggles as did presage its certain and near approaching death; for no sooner had Augustus the heir of Caesar's Fortune and Empire, overcome Anthony, but the tame Senate resigned itself and the Government into his hands; and the rather, in regard he permitted them to keep the Name, and to enjoy their private Fortunes, together with many places of trust and advantage in the management of public affairs; though he transferred the absolute Power and Dominion from them to himself. And there is not the least doubt to be made, but since the greatest, most durable, and potent Commonwealth that ever was in the World, did so easily submit; the less and more inconsiderable would soon be persuaded to follow their example.  
NOR would any of our Modern Republics be of long duration, were it not for the assistance of their Neighbours, who to keep the scale even, do not think it fit to let them fall as an addition to the Territories of a neighbouring Prince, lest by the accession of so considerable a Power, he should become too dangerous and formidable: to which policy of State, and not to the goodness of their Constitution they are therefore obliged for their continuance and preservation.  
BESIDES, to the safety of any Government there is necessarily required great unity in Councils, and secrecy in the conduct of many State affairs; neither of which can with any probable reason be expected from a Government which is committed to so many Heads, who have all Tongues, and it may be not brains enough to guard them: Nay, supposing them all wise men, they will very difficultly be brought to agree upon the same expedients, and it may be the more hardly for being such: Since every man's own reason weighs more to himself than all the World, because he apprehends and understands it best. Now they who descent from the rest (which some will generally do) out of envy and private Pique that their advice was rejected and despised, will be apt enough to retard the public affairs, and to divulge the most important secret Counsels of the opposite Faction, thereby to render them ineffectual, and to advance their own Interest, by showing from events, that their Advice, Opinion, and Counsel was the best.  
FURTHER, many times the Debates and Consultations amongst so many different Judgements are so long protracted, that before they can arrive at a resolution, many favourable opportunities for action are irrecoverably lost: And whensoever any great enterprise is to be undertaken for the defence or safety of the Public, in regard they cannot execute their own Commands, and all be Generals or Admirals, therefore the Commissions they grant to those high Officers, are from their fears so limited and restrained, lest they should by too great latitude of power grow absolute, that it frequently occasions great miscarriages: And the fear which their greatest Commanders have to offend so many Masters, though it will infallibly render them most cautelous and wary, yet will it most certainly make them slip the advantages of many sudden unexpected emergencies, which they will be afraid to lay hold of, without advice or command from their many Superiors, lest the success not answering the promises in the attempt, they should fall a sacrifice to an enraged Populace: And thus whilst they wait for an Express, occasion, which will wait no man's pleasure, slips away, and shows them the bald part of his head, which is never to be laid hold of again.  

Domestic Peace not so well secured by a Republic as by Monarchy.  NOR is there a greater probability of expecting Domestic Peace from a Republic, which is the second particular required from all Government, in order to the happiness of any Society. For where there are many who pretend to an equality and parity in Power and Dignity, there will of necessity be jealousies, emulations and animosities arising from the differences of Judgement, as to the conduct and management of all great, weighty or profitable affairs of State: And where all things must be carried by majority of Vote, since all men naturally have a good opinion of themselves, their own wisdom, prudence and ability; every man will judge most advantageously of his own counsel and advice; for otherwise he would not offer it in opposition to others; and therefore in all transactions managed by suffrages, those persons whose opinion is rejected, will look upon it as a lessening of that esteem for Wisdom and Policy, which they think they deserve, because they desire it should be so; and by an unavoidable consequence they will be most certainly dissatisfied, if not exasperated with thoughts of revenge against the prevailing and opposite number. These discontents occasion the making of parties, entering into secret combinations of Faction, and frequently end in popular Insurrections, Tumults, and Disorders, to which, for this very reason, whoever will take the pains to observe it, shall find the Government of a Republic far more obnoxious than any other way. And Affairs being generally (if not constantly) managed by a prevailing Faction, (who endeavour to engross the sole Authority and advantage to their party and favourites) rather than by an even and unanimous consent; it makes that party who think themselves injured and affronted (by being deprived of the fundamental parity of their constitution) restless and industrious in their endeavours to advance their Interest, so as to be able to counterbalance the other.  
THUS it was with the Roman Commonwealth; when ever the busy, active, and ambitious spirits were not employed in foreign Wars, they were always running into Mutinies amongst themselves; Parties, Factions, and popular Insurrections, which would have been more frequent and dangerous, had not the policy of the prevailing part of the Senate taken care to cut out Sword-work for them abroad. 
A. V 281. T. Liv. lib. 2.  The first remarkable Sedition was about the Lex Agraria, immediately upon granting a forty years' truce to the Veientes, which was appeased by raising a War against the Sabines, Aequi and Volsci. No sooner was that at an end, but a greater Sedition arose, 
A. V 297. Liv. lib. 3.  in which ten Tribunes of the common people were created; and this Decemvirate by violence wrested the Government from the Senate and Consuls: And after the creation of the Military Tribunes, 
A. V 311. Liv. lib. 4.  they did for almost seventy years usurp the Government and Authority. And generally all those Tumults and great Disorders happened whilst they enjoyed peace and quiet with their Neighbours; which can be attributed to nothing, but that then the Factions, and Factious spirits had time to mind their Interest at home, whilst they wanted employment abroad. And that there are no greater or more frequent popular Insurrections amongst the modern Commonwealths, is to be attributed to that mixture of Monarchy they have in them, which balances the Factions, and like the natural Salt of the Body keeps those bodies Politic from a Dissolution; as also because they are almost perpetually engaged either as Principals or Confederates in foreign Wars.  

No safety or security of Property in a Republic in regard of their constant Factions.  THERE is nothing more evident, than that the very Essence and Natural Constitution of a Republic inclines it to Faction; and it is as plain, that Government by Faction can never be for the general good of any Community of Men. For all Factions and Parties are constantly for oppression of those who are opposite and contrary to them: Esteeming that the securest method to keep them under, and to disable them from opposing, or however from overthrowing their Power. So that no man can have any assurance of safety or property, but by swimming down the stream of a prevailing Party; and in the beginning of such Factions, it is impossible for any person to prophesy which will be so, or how long their power shall continue, in regard of the frequent change of Governors. He that unluckily espouses the falling side, is sure to be crushed with them; and if for his security any person shall embrace a cunning Neutrality, he does thereby expose himself a prey to both parties; for neither of them will look upon him to be theirs, but will be jealous, that secretly he is of the adverse Faction; and accordingly, whilst he is a declared friend to neither, he will be treated as a secret enemy to both; so that it is impossible there can be any such thing as quiet security, where Property is always left to the mercy of perpetual changes and revolutions of Faction, which inconvenience like its shadow is the inseparable companion of a Commonwealth so long as the Sun of prosperity shines upon it.  
BUT further, where there are many Governors, who as before was said, have a separate Interest, distinct from that of the Public; these Interests are dispersed through the several parts of the Dominions, where their particular Estates and Places of Residence are: And if they are Proud, Ambitious, Covetous or Imperious Men, they will be most absolute and arbitrary in all such places: And if they be not naturally guilty of those Vices, Government and supreme Authority are but too apt to taint all such persons with some measure of them, who are exalted, and not born to the greatness of Sovereignty and Power; for where these are not hereditary, men look upon such promotions to be the pure effects of their merit: and whoever sets that high value upon himself, as to be of that belief, cannot escape the danger of insupportable pride as well as vanity; for all promotion comes from a higher and unseen Power▪ But however there will be found few amongst the ordinary rank of people (let them be great by chance or merit) who will have the spirit or confidence to contradict or oppose them, though they do invade their property, or encroach upon their rights, to advance their own greatness, riches and power; and with very good caution, lest being exasperated by any such treatment from their Inferiors, though but in maintaining their own privileges, they should make use of that power which they have in their hands, to revenge their private quarrels, or however (as they may easily) do them many ill offices: Nor would there be any remedy by complaints; every offence committed against such a person as he would represent it, nay, the very complaint itself would be looked upon as a contempt or affront of Authority, which in probability would procure severe rebukes, if not punishment, rather than redress to such foolish complainants; there being nothing to be expected, but expense of time & money in the pursuance of an affair where the application must be made to those who are both Judges and Parties.  
ALL this and much more was exactly verified by the Members of the late Rebel Faction of a Parliament, and the Officers, nay, the very common Soldiers of the Army: who were such absolute Princes in the several Counties and places of their Residence or Quarters, that no person durst question any of their Actions, though never so unjust, for fear they should question him for a Malignant, and make his Estate a Delinquent; which most certainly they would have done; it being an infallible sign that a man was disaffected to the Government, if he went about to oppose their most Lawless Actions: And to satisfy their private spleen, they would not fail to execute upon him the public revenge; for he that could not submit to be a slave to the Governors, was presently adjudged an Enemy to the Government; and for that was sure to suffer in his Estate, if they were so abundantly super-merciful, to let him preserve his Life in a tedious Prison.  

No equal Distribution of Rewards and Punishments can rationally be expected from a Republic which must of necessity be managed by Faction and Interest.  NEITHER is the Government of a Republic much more happy in the thirds particular required to the prosperity and well-being of Society, which is the equal distribution of Rewards and Punishments 3 and it being impossible to separate Faction and Interest from this kind of Authority, it will likewise be impossible, but that there will be the greatest inequality in the administration of distributive Justice; for it will never be proportioned to the real worth or merits of Men or Actions, but according as they shall be judged favourable or advantageous to the Interest of the Ruling Faction; which most commonly will happen to be the worst, the number of good Men in all Ages and Places being much inferior to that of the Vicious and Ill: So that all Offices of Profit and all Places of Trust, Dignity or Honour, will most certainly be conferred upon such persons as are esteemed Friends, and their want of merit or ability to discharge such considerable employs, will be abundantly recompensed by the fidelity they either have or well dissemble to the side and Interest of their Patrons, who will always be willing to gratify such, to depress their Enemies, and to support their own Party and Power; judging that their gratifications will oblige to a firmness and fidelity, lest they should be deprived of those advantages they possess from, by, and under them: Though after all the obligations that can be laid upon them, these Mercenary fidelities are all like Soldiers of fortune, who will certainly list themselves under those Standards where there is the best pay and preferment. Whereas on the contrary, no ability to discharge any Place or Office of trust, no Integrity shall be able to turn the balance of Rewards against the heavy charge, or but suspicion of being no friend to the present overruling Faction, or their proceed: So that in short, all Virtue (if we measure it by what is rewarded or encouraged in a Commonwealth) will consist either in the artifice of a well managed flattery, or a real joining with that party of the Government which is uppermost; without which unmanly compliances no other sort of goodness will recommend any person to the capacity of Rewards; and will scarcely be able to protect him from Injuries and Punishments. And since Virtue is not over natural to Mankind, it is like to thrive but very poorly in a soil where it is not tenderly cherished, and frequently refreshed with the encouraging Dews of Rewards and Benefits; they being very rare and uncommon persons, who will espouse Virtue, though the greatest Beauty in Nature, without any other portion than what she has in herself of excellency and satisfaction: And how happy any Society of men in process of a little time are like to be without Virtue, and how long lived she is like to be upon so thin a diet, where (Probitas laudatur & alget) she is commended and starved, I think I need not spend time, or trouble the sober and judicious Reader with arguments to prove and demonstrate.  
THE same may be said of Punishments as of Rewards: And if it shall be said, that the frequent changes of the Governors will be a means to prevent these inconveniences; I answer, it will indeed change the Governors, but not the nature of the Government, which of itself is inclinable to these Imperfections, and apt to deprave the best Natures into these miscarriages, which do attend the very Essence of its constitution; and though the Governors may be altered, yet it is probable the same Faction and Interest will bear the sway, and in all common Policy will take what care they can of the succession; notwithstanding which, it will so happen sometimes that the contrary Faction will get into the Saddle; and the more frequent such changes are, it will render the condition of all people so much the worse, uneasy and insecure in all the forementioned consequences of Faction; for since first one Party will be uppermost, and then another; the remembrance of the injuries they may have received from their Enemies, will prompt them to the like measure of severities against them, when they are vested with the power of Revenge; which few tempers have the moderation to resist or refuse, when it is not only proportioned to the treatment they formerly received, but necessary to keep their own Power and Authority in safety and Being.  
SO that upon the whole, it will appear, that this way of Government by a Republic, is not in any probability of attaining those excellent ends of Society, which all men propose to themselves when they enter into it; and the hopes and enjoyment of which can only render any Society durable and happy.   

CHAP. IU. Of Monarchy and its Excellency, proved first from its Antiquity: The first Essay to a Democracy, the Rebellion of Corah and his accomplices: Secondly, from the Universality of Monarchy, and the Extent of its Limits. The first Popular State at Athens, Anno Mundi 3275. Monarchy proved the most excellent Government from its agreeableness to Humane Nature; and because it does best answer the three forementioned great Ends of Society and the Happiness of Mankind.  

Of Monarchy.  HAVING thus examined the Government of a Republic, and found it insufficient as to the answering those necessary Ends of Society, the Happiness of the Community; Let us proceed to the Consideration of Monarchy or Government by a single Person: and that we may discover its real Excellencies, and that pre-eminence which it does most justly challenge over all other forms of Regiment, we must take a view of its Antiquity and Original, its Limits and Extent, its agreeableness to Humane Nature; and lastly, its advantageousness as to the three forementioned principal Ends of Society, in order to their Happiness and Duration.  

The Excellency of it proved from its Antiquity.  WE will begin then with the Antiquity and Original of Monarchy; and to do so, we must consult the very beginning of the World and Mankind; and herein we have the Universal Testimony and Consent of all the preserved Records and Monuments of Time, both Sacred and Humane, who all give it in evidence, That Monarchy was the most Ancient, and the Primitive Government of the World: Insomuch, that we never read any thing of the Origine of Nations, but we likewise find mention of Kings and Royal Authority, as the very first form of Government in the World. Thus Sanchoniathon, 
Sanchoniathon ut citatur à D. Stillingfleet. Origin. Sacrae cap. 2.  who as Porphyry affirms of him, is of greater Antiquity than any of the Greek Historians, gives a large account of the Ph●●nician Antiquities and Monarchies, and dedicates his Book to Abibalus King o● Berytus. Thus the Egyptian Maneth▪ Sebennyta (who was the High Priest o●● Heliopolis, as the learned Vossius tells us and lived in the time of Ptolomaeus Philadelphus, 
Voss. de Hist. Graec. lib. 1. cap. 14.  at whose request he compiled the History of the Egyptian Antiquities and Government,) gives us a long at well as fabulous account and Catalogue of the Monarchical succession and Government of God's Hero's, and Men fo● above 50000 years, which he pretend to have taken from the Inscriptions o● the Pillars of Hermes Trismegistus. Th● Greek History gins with Cecrops King of Athens. And the History of the tru● Berosus, who is mentioned by Josephus Eusebius, and others, is concerning the Antiquity of the Babylonian Empire which he affirms to have been the most Ancient and Original Government o● the World. And to this purpose is that of Justin, in his Epitome of Trogus Pompeius, who takes it for a Truth undoubtedly agreed to by all People, when he tells us in the first words of his History, 
Justin. lib. 1.  That Power and Government was from the beginning of the World, and Original of People and Nations wholly and absolutely in Kings. And it is impossible to find any Record that is really ancient, that gives an account of any other kind of Government in the World prior to Monarchy. And though those ancient Authors, Manetho, Berosus, etc. are not only with great reason suspected, but with manifest certainty discovered to be guilty of most irrational, fabulous, and impossible fictions and falsehoods; especially as to the Chronological part of their writings; yet were they never so much as accused by any person as guilty of depraving that part of the Records of Antiquity, which concerns the manner and form of Government: Which with a Nemine contradicente has been affirmed to have been Monarchy; a Government, which by the early approbation of the World, as well as by the constant succession of Time, has ever been esteemed the best. According to that of the Prince of Poets; 

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉   

No good a Commonwealth can bring;  
The best of Governments is a King.    
But in regard as the learned Author o● Origines Sacrae has made it appear, that all these writers are by many year younger than Moses, the Penman o● the Sacred Volumes about the World's Original; and because amongst us he passes for a Divinely inspired Author, (though it were enough for our present purpose if we gave him only the credit● which we afford to any other Historian) we will the more willingly hear him speak; & the rather, because it is grow● a Popular error, and prevailing opinion That the excellency of a Republic 〈◊〉 evidently to be proved from his writings; That form of Government, a● Calvin the great Patron of Free State● and Oracle of Anti-Monarchical Me● would persuade us, 
Cal. Inst. lib. 4. cap. 20. Sect. 8.  being of God own appointment, choice, and establishment, amongst his peculiar people the Tribes of Israel; for whom it aught not to be doubted, but he would choose the best, amongst all the kinds of Government extant in the World.  
LET us therefore hear the opinion of Moses, as to the Antiquity of Kings and Monarchy; and as once a greater than he said of him, They who will not believe Moses and the Prophets, would not believe, though by a miracle one should rise from the dead, to convince and confute them. That Adam, Noah, and the rest of the Ancient propagators of Mankind were Kings, and exercised Regal authority, though his writings do not tell us, yet we must conclude, in regard that their posterity were bound to honour and obey them, both by the Law of Nature, Reason, and the Divine Eternally Moral Law, which did and do for ever command it. But the first mention of a Monarch is Nimrod, 
Gen. 10.10.  who was a mighty Hunter before the Lord, and the beginning of whose Kingdom was Babel: Which Empire according to the computation of Chronology began about 130 years after the Deluge, and is the first established Kingdom and Government that we meet with in the Sacred writings. There is likewise mention made of the Egyptian Kingdom, 
Gen. 12.  another of the most ancient Monarchies. In another place there is an account of a great action that happened, 
Gen. 15.  in which Nine Kings were concerned, and the place of their Kingdoms; as also in the same Chapter o● Melchizedeck King of Salem, beside Abraham, who, as appears by his victory over them, with an Army of hi● own Militia, the Trained-bands 〈◊〉 Troops of his household, was also a gre● King himself, as the Children of He●● style him; My Lord, thou art a mighty Prince amongst us, 
Gen. 23.  etc.  
NOR is there any great doubt to be made, but that at the confusion of Language's, he who undertook to lead a wa● a Company was their Prince; and as afterwards they subdivided themselves for more Room, and convenience 〈◊〉 Pasturage for their Flocks and Herd● the Riches of those Ages, still the pri●●cipal person of note undertook to conduct them, and was their King: And the great increase of these as well as o●● the people, of necessity obliged them as it did Lot and Abraham to part on● from another, and to seek out for their convenience new Lands and unpeopled Regions; and this seems to be the true Reason, why in the early Ages of the World, we find mention of so many little Kings, that every considerable City in the small Continent of Canaan had its distinct King and Kingdom; which did not a little contribute to the facility of their conquest by Joshua and the Israelites, 
Josh. 12.  who is recorded to have subdued one and thirty of them in a few years.  
AND that the Government of the people of Israel after their deliverance from the Egyptian slavery, was Monarchical under Moses, all the time of their Encampments and Decampments in the Wilderness, is evident matter of fact; as appears by that place where there is a description of their manner of Judicature: And it came to pass, 
Exod. 18.13.  that on the morrow Moses sat to judge the People, etc. And though upon the wholesome advice of Jethro the Prince of Midian his Father-in-law, he afterwards chose able men out of all Israel, and made them Heads over the people, Rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and ten, yet the Supreme Power of Judging he reserved to himself; for they Judged the people at all seasons, in every small matter, but the difficult causes they brought unto Moses, for his determination, as being the Supreme Governor, both in Civil and Ecclesiastical affairs. And that Moses did this, not pro arbitrio, & dominandi libidine, of his own Ambitious desire of Sovereignty, but by God's especial appointment, he tell● them; Hereby ye shall know, that th● Lord hath sent me to do all these works, 
Numb. 16.28.  an● that I have not done them of my own mind●● And that he was a great Prince amongst them, is apparent from the Charge of those Rebels, Corah, Dathan and Ab●ram, and their Accomplices, who pretended that his design was not so much to Govern them and Conduct them 〈◊〉 the promised Land, as to make himself absolute. Is it a small thing (say they) that thou hast brought us up out of a La●● that floweth with Milk and Honey, 
Vers. 13.  to k●● us in the Wilderness, except thou make th● self altogether (that is, an absolute Tyrannical) Prince over us? 
The first Essay to a Democracy, the Rebellion of Corah and his accomplices.  Here is the first Essay for a Republic or Democra●● that is upon any Record, which was founded upon Rebellion against the Prince and the Priest, and by consequence (as he declared) against God himself from whom they had that Authority. The 250 who undertook i● seems to be the people's Representatives who were all holy and the Lords people as they styled themselves, 
Numb. 16. v. 41.  and the murmuring Tribes thought them so, though they paid dearly both for their mutiny and mistake; but upon this pretence of sanctity and equality, they were all as fit to Govern as Moses, and to offer Incense as Aaron; and why should they take so much upon them? It is worth our observation how these Primitive Reformers make use of the same popular Charms, with which our Modern Republicans, their true successors in the Art of Wheedling a credulous Populace, do now Act, viz. The fair and taking pretensions of their own Sanctimony, and the people's Liberty of Conscience, from the Tyranny of the Government by a single Person and the Priesthood. How acceptable this their Mutinous design of a thorough Reformation in Church and State was to God Almighty, 
Numb. 16.35.  the sequel of the Rebellion did declare; for this strange Fire which they pretended to offer unto God, but which in truth was the Wildfire of their own Brains with which they intended to sacrifice Government and Religion to their wicked Ambition, brought down Fire from Heaven upon the 250 Cenfor-men; and the very Earth upon which such Monsters of Mankind were unfit to live, 
Numb. 16.34.  opened her mouth and gave them a new and terrible way of Sepulture, making them Eternal Monuments of that confusion and vengeance which both Heaven and Earth conspire to take upon seditious Rebels. I hearty wish, that all our Anti-monarchical and Anti-hierarchical people would soberly consider of it, left whilst they run on headlong in a seeming Religious despising of Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities, 
Judas 11.  they also perish in the gainsaying of Corah.  
AFTER Moses succeeded Joshus, in the same way of Regal, though not Hereditary Government; after him several Judges, whom upon extraordinary occasions God raised up, to Rule, Govern, and Deliver his people; and at such times as there was no extraordinary Judge amongst them, the High Priest was their Supreme and single Governor; from whose determination there was no appeal, protection, or wager of Law; as is plain both from God's command, and matter of fact. From God's command in these words; And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the Priest that stands to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the Judge: even that man shall die; and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel, and all the People shall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously. Now that by the Priest that standeth to minister before the Lord, is meant the High Priest, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is evident in that the High Priest was the Supreme over all the other Priests, and therefore this must be spoken in the case of the ultimate Appeal and Determination; for otherwise this command would have brought in a Parity amongst the Priesthood; and so every little Levite (according to the Calvinian Doctrine) would have had as absolute Power, as he who wore the Golden Mitre, and the now unintelligible Urim and Thummim; which as they were then certainly distinctions of the High Priest, so an equality in the Priesthood was far from both God's command and design in exalting the house of Aaron to the peculiar Dignity of that eminent Office: And matter of fact demonstrates the truth of this; for Eli, who judged Israel forty years, did it by virtue of his Office, 
1 Sam. 4.18.  and not of any extraordinary Call or Commission that can be proved to entitle him to the Government.  
I know those places are urged against the Judges being Kings, that in those days there was no King in Israel. But that is not to the purpose; for though they had not the Title or Ensigns of Royalty, yet they had all the Power, and their Government was Monarchical; and besides the meaning of those places seems to be, that there was at that time no particular Judge, who governed and exercised Regal Authority; as also that the High Priest, whose office it was, was supine, negligent and careless in the management of public affairs; as is apparent both by the History and the many notable miscarriages which happened in those Interregnums. And though those places sound sweetly in the ears of some people, who therefore hate Kings, because they would enjoy the same wicked Liberties which then those Kingless people took; yet how pleasing it was to God will appear by the remark the holy Spirit always adds to those words, viz. When there was no King in Israel, every man did what was good and right in his own eyes: And what a brave time that Liberty afforded is plain, in that we never find it mentioned, but either it introduces, or follows, as the occasion or reason of some remarkable Disorder, intimating that they happened for want of a King or Judge: which was an effect of God's displeasure against his people, and not of his dislike of the Government of Monarchy, or by a single Person. The first time that it is mentioned, it immediately follows as the reason of Micha's Idolatry; making himself a house of Gods, 
Judg. 17.6.  an Ephod and Teraphim, and consecrating one of his own sons to be his Priest. The next place that it is mentioned in, leads us as the consequence of it, to the notable Theft and Sacrilege of the Danites; 
Judg. 18.1.  who stole Mincha's Gods, and his Priest too from him; 
V 25.  and it was well he took their advice, otherways some of the angry fellows had stolen away his Life: This established an Idolatry all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh: 
V 30.31.  And gave encouragement to that remarkable defection of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin by the Golden Calf of Dan; which (as it was the occasion of it) continued till the Babylonish captivity. In the next place it precedes, and is given as the reason of that horrible fact of the Benjamites of Gibeah, 
Judg. 19.1.  against the travelling Levite and his Concubine, not much inferior to that sin for which God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha; and which brought on a Civil War, in which the whole Tribe of Benjamin was extinguished to six hundred men; 
Judg. 20.  and of Israel in two Battles there fell forty thousand men. The last place is the conclusion of the Book of Judges, and follows as the reason of the Politic counsel of the men of Israel, who to prevent their perjury by a rash Oath, gave encouragement and permission to the remaining Benjamites, to commit a Rape upon the daughters of Shiloh at a solemn Feast; so that here is Idolatry, Theft, Sacrilege, Murder, Civil War, Perjury, and an allowed Rape upon six hundred young Women against their wills, and that of their Parents, against a Popular solemn League and Covenant; all admirable, as well as natural and necessary effects of there being no King in Israel: From which mischiefs I think all people who love themselves and their peace and happiness, aught to insert it into their private Litany, with a Good Lord deliver us.  
AND that God was so far from disliking the Government by Monarchy over his own people, that he did design it for them, so soon as they should come to a settled condition in the Land of Canaan, is most evident from the early prophecy of Jacob, 
Gen. 49.10.  That the Sceptre should not departed from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, till Shiloh came; which did plainly foreshow the Royal dignity of the Tribe of Judah; Sceptre being the Ensign of Royalty, and Law-giving the Prerogative of Kings. And therefore God makes provision for their King, and gives such positive directions about him: When thou art come to the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, 
Deut. 17.14, 15.  and shalt possess it, and dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a King over me, like as all the Nations that are about me; Thou shalt in any wise set him over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: One from among thy Brethren shalt thou set over thee; thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy Brother. From which place we may fitly observe, That God Almighty reserves it to himself, as his peculiar Prerogative to appoint Kings: And that the People's Election is not an Original Title to a Crown. God appoints, and the people assent; and for that assent are said to set him over them whom the Lord had chosen. And when the men of Sechem had of their own heads made Abimelech King, 
Judg. 9  it prospered accordingly. And therefore, when the people were resolute to have a King, 
1 Sam. 8.  the choice was not made by suffrages or popular Election, 
1 Sam. 10.20.  but by Lot. Which amongst the Hebrews and many other Nations was a Sacred solemnity, and Divine Invocation of God, to decide and determine any great doubt or difference; as will appear from that place about Saul, 
11 Sam. 14.41.  and Jonathan's eating the prohibited Honey; where Saul said unto the Lord God of Israel, Give a perfect Lot. And therefore Solomon 
Prov. 16.33.  tells us, That the Lot is thrown into the Lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.  
AND though we find Samuel extremely displeased at their proposition, we ought to attribute it to humane frailty, he looking upon it as a rejection of himself from the Government. Yet I do not find in that place, that God was offended at it: Or if from the words of Hosea, I gave them a King in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath; 
Hos. 13.11.  it may be conjectured he was displeased with them: Yet it was not because he did not approve the Government by a King, but because they had rejected him to be King over them; For they have not rejected thee, 
1 Sam. 8.7. 〈◊〉  says God to Samuel, who appeared discontented upon that humane jealousy; but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. And upon their repeated instances to have a King, like the Kings of the neighbouring Nations, who should reign by succession, that so in their distresses they might not be at a loss for a Captain to lead them and fight their Battles, as at that time they were: The Prophet tells them; You have this day rejected your God, 
1 Sam. 10.19.  who himself saved you out of all your adversities and tribulations. And that therefore God was justly displeased with them, was not for desiring such a form of Government as was not agreeable to his will, since by owning himself their King, he visible declares himself for Monarchy; but it was for their Infidelity, upon the approach of Nahash King of Ammon, 
1 Sam. 12.  as is evident from the words of Samuel, where he briefly recounts unto them, that particular care and Providence, which God had all along taken of them and their Fathers; when in all their extremities he raised up eminent persons for their preservation and deliverance, as Moses, Aaron, Jerubaal, Bedan, Jephthah and Samuel. And that it was this Diffidence, and not the Government at which God was displeased, does most manifestly appear from that particular Order, which God took about the succession of the Royal Government, after it was once constituted, by sending Samuel to anoint the son of Jesse, to be by the most extraordinary methods of Providence which he made use of, to preserve David from the hand of Saul, and of all his enemies; and at last in despite of their malice conducting him to the Throne of the promised Kingdom A preservation and establishment which was without a parallel, till the most miraculous Protection and Restauration o● our most gracious Sovereign the present most August Monarch of Great Britain: whom God long preserve with glory to sway the peaceful Sceptre of the English Nation! The extraordinary effects of Providence manifested to these two Illustrious Princes, if they were throughly considered, were enough for ever to stop the mouths of all such as are against Monarchy; being such public and signal Declarations of the kindness and favour of the Supreme Monarch of Heaven and Earth, both to that Government, and to these Persons, that they must be more obdurate than Pharaoh, and more enchanted than his Magicians, if they do not confess that digitus Dei hîc, here was the immediate finger of God. And let them take care lest whilst they refuse to see the hand of his Providence, he force them to feel the heavy hand of his Vengeance. Shimei the son of Gera, though a great example of the clemency of Princes, yet went not to a bloudless grave, but his cursing came upon his own head. And Sheba the son of Bichri, who blew the trumpet of Rebellion against his Sovereign, by the wisdom of a Woman, paid the forfeiture of his own, for attempting against the Supreme Head and Governor. 
2. Sam. 20.22.   
FROM what has been said, it appears evidently from the Testimony of all the oldest Records of Time amongst the Heathens, and from the Sacred writings of Moses, more credible and ancient than any of them; That Monarchy was the Primitive Government of the World, and most agreeable to the will of God; who as S. Chrysostom well observes from the Creation, 
Chrysost. Hom. 34. in 1 Ep. ad Cor. c. 13.  That God made one man, not many, to intimate unto us, that he did design Monarchy not Democracy for the Government of the World. And that his posterity were his subjects, both by the Law of God and of Nature, I cannot think any person will question who has not a desire to teach his own Children disobedience, both to God and Man, by breaking the first Commandment with promise; and that God should by his Charter grant to Adam Dominion over all the inferior Creation, 
Gen. 1.28.  and renew it to Noah with more ample conditions (cum potestate vitae & necis) over every living Creature, and leave the most glorious part of it, which was created in his own Image, under the confusion of Anarchy or Parity, 
Gen. 9.1, 2, 3.  is both most absurd and unreasonable to believe.  

Monarchy proved the most Excellent form of Government from the Universality of its Limits and Extent.  THUS have we seen the first particular, wherein the Excellency of Monarchy consists, viz. Antiquity. Nor i● the Universality and Extent of its Limits less evident, which is the second particular, which shows the goodness of this way of Government; and as before has been proved, all the Ancient Records, do with one consent give us an account of the Monarchical Government of all the inhabited Regions of the Earth.  

The first Popular State at Athens, Anno Mundi 3275.  THE first Popular State we read of, was at Athens, after the expiration of the ten years' Reign of Erixias, which happened about the latter end of the Reign of Manasseh King of Judah, and near the year of the World 3275, according to the computation of Chronologers. And till that time the Earth knew no other power but Monarchy. After that, several other Cities of Greece, as Sparta, Corinth, etc. followed their examples, and expelling their Kings, erected in the room of them little Commonwealths, but great Tyrannies: And as Justin gives us an account of them, they were in continual broils, either amongst themselves about the Magistracy, or with their Neighbours for precedency, till the time of Alexander the Great, and the Macedonian Empire, to whose winged fortune, all these little quarrelsome Republics submitted, and never after recovered that form of Government again; and this happened about the year of the World 3630.  
THE Roman Commonwealth begun upon the Regifugium, and therefore confesseth itself the younger Government; commencing about the year of the World 3457, and for our modern Republics, the date of them is easily known. And let any persons travel a● far as they can in ancient Histories, and they shall find, the higher they rise, th● more Monarchical were those Ages▪ and that there are not the least tracks of the Chariot-wheels of Aristocracy o● Democracy; but that Monarchy for above three thousand years possessed an universal and uninterrupted Empire over all the affairs of the Universe. And if with Columbus we discover new Worlds either in the West, East, North, or South; if there be humane Inhabitants we shall find Monarchy the Government they live under: as is abundantly testified by all the later Discoveries of both the East and Western Regions of the World: So that one may safely affirm. That the Sun that glorious Monarch of the Day, does not in all his travels round the Earthly Globe, behold any spot of ground inhabited by any thing but Brutes, (and even amongst some of them there is a resemblance of Monarchy to be observed) but where Monarchy either is at present, or has been, the Ancient, Original and Fundamental way of Government. And that it was always as well as now, the most universal, will appear to any person that considers, how small a portion of the Earth in comparison of the whole, even the Roman Commonwealth had; and yet was by much the largest and of greatest extent. For of all that vast tract of the greater Asia, they were strangers to the greatest part; they knew little of the Persian; Scythian, Parthian Empires, more than they dearly bought, by some frontier skirmishes, where their Enemies by their own confession routed them by running away.  

Terga conversi, metuendi Parthi.   

The Parthians flight  
Did most affright.   
They were utterly ignorant of the very Names of those large Territories of China, and the Empire of the Great Mogul; besides innumerable Islands, and many smaller Kingdoms and Principalities of the East. And in Africa, they knew as little of the great Empires of Ethiopia, Congo, Angola, or almost any part of the Continent, excepting Egypt, and the two Mauritania's, and the Maritime parts of it along the Mediterranean-Sea. Their victorious Eagles never flew over the Northern parts of Europe, Germany, Poland, Russia, nor any of the later known Northern Regions. Besides all that vast and yet in a great measure unknown double Continent of America; all which Country, for any thing that can be made appear to the contrary, is, and ever was, under the Government of Kings and Emperors. And for the present universality of Monarchy, it is so great, that if we drew Venice, the netherlands, Switzerland, Geneva, and all the other little Sporades of Republics, into one Map, they would hardly equalise one of the smallest Monarchies of Europe; and for Venice and Holland, which are the most considerable, they have such a mixture of Monarchy in their Duke and Stadtholder, as will not suffer them without an impropriety of speech, to receive the Name of pure Aristocracies or Democracies.  

The agreeableness of Monarchy to Humane Nature.  THIS Universality and Antiquity, as it shows the excellency of the Monarchick Government, so likewise it proves the third Assertion concerning it, That it is the most agreeable to Humane Nature: And here, though I might bring many Arguments to prove it the most Natural, I shall only insist upon some few, which to me appear most considerable.  
WE must therefore consider Mankind in general, as naturally desirous of peace, and a quiet enjoyment of what they do possess and challenge a Property in: Now in regard there will of necessity happen some differences and controversies about these Rights; that Government which does most easily and effectually determine such disputes, and restores them the possession of their Peace and Property, must therefore be most desirable and agreeable to the constant and universal inclination of Humane Nature, which always has a prospect to this end of Government, as a means to obtain that Happiness at which all men aim. This final determination of Differences can never be so effectually done by Many, as by one Person, from whose Definitive sentence there shall lie no appeal. For instance, In an Aristocracy or Democracy a Difference is carried from one inferior Judicature to another, till at last by appeal it is brought before the highest Authority of the chief Magistrates; when it is with a vast charge and fatigue to both parties brought thither, it is very possible that there may be such an equality of Votes, for the one side and for the other, that the scale of Justice shall hang without a possibility of determination; and whilst both parties judge they are in the right, and obstinately refuse to recede from it, they both lose one principal end of Government; and if it be of great concern and necessity of determination, men will at last be forced, by the irregular ways of Violence to do themselves that Right, which they may think Authority will not, when indeed by reason of this Natural imperfection it cannot come to a determination. But supposing this so rare a Case that it is but just possible, yet still it is an essential defect in the way of Government; and which cannot by all the art of man, by a double Vote for the Chairman, be remedied without great dangers and inconveniences; for if the Beam be turned by his single suffrage, the other party who were over-voted, being so considerable, and who did believe their side and judgement had a better Right, and is injured by the determination, though they must be forced to acquiesce for the present, yet in regard of the mutability of the Governors, they will not be without hopes, but they may have another and more favourable day for it, when the opposite party shall either decline, or be devested of their power: which will likewise, if the difference be of public concern, make them restless in making a party, so as to be able to overpower the other, and bring the determination to their interest and opinion; and thus all grand controversies will roll from one Faction to another, with almost an impossibility of determination.  
THIS was the true reason of those long disputes and seditions at Rome, about the Lex Agraria, the division of their Fields and Commons; and this is the undoubted reason, why all our Antimonarchical Factious people stickle and labour so for a New Parliament: even the hopes they entertain, that having made such a party, as will at a new Election advance persons of their own Principles and Persuasion, they shall be able to make some progress towards those alterations both in Church and State of which they are so desirous. But it is to be hoped, we have seen revolutions enough to make us wiser; certainly we have parted with blood and money enough to have purchased more wit, than to permit a turbulent sort of seditious people to roll us, like Regulus, in his nailed Barrel, till we fall into utter ruin and confusion.  
BUT now on the contrary, where the Government is in one single Person, from whom there is no appeal; as in probability he will not pass his determinations without a great measure of caution and due examination, so it is very unlikely he should be persuaded to make any alterations of his Judgement, in regard that there is nothing that can prostitute Authority, so as to make it cheap and contemptible, like easiness and instability, frequent changes and alterations in things established with due deliberation: For this represents the things so determined, not good, necessary o● expedient, and by consequence the Legislators either very unwary or unwise: Which are as low thoughts as can be entertained of the worst things, or most inconsiderable persons. And therefore the establishments and determinations made by Monarchy, are in probability likely to be most durable; and people are likely to enjoy the greatest settlement, peace and quiet; in regard it cuts off the hopes of many, great, sudden or frequent changes; to which, for the  reasons, a single Person is not so liable as a popular State; which must of necessity be composed of dissenting Parties and Interests; and which by its very fundamental Constitution must frequently change the Persons Governing, and by an unavoidable consequence many determinations of the former Government. And let it be observed where you will, this effect is so natural, that those persons who are so Zealous for change of Governors in a Common wealth, are always for some change in the Government itself; hoping for effects answerable to their desires from the New ones which they have not tried, which they cannot from those whom they have, and whom by experience they find resolute to oppose their Interests and Designs. And as certainly those who in a Monarchy are for an alteration in any of its fundamental Constitutions, Privileges, or Supporters, are in reality against the Monarchy itself: And therefore we may conclude, that they who do so industriously endeavour to pull the Mitre (which has ever been a sure friend to it) from the Crown, design by weakening of its Interest to pull the Crown from off the Royal head of Majesty that wears it.  
BUT further, Monarchy will appear the most natural Government, if we consider how all other Governments do of their own accord insensibly fall into it, which apparently shows that the Genius of Humane Nature grows this way: And though it may by force, violence, custom, or convenience be bend and strained to some other form of Government; yet upon the least relaxation and native liberty, like a bow unbent, it returns to its natural and proper state and position. Thus we see that the so famous Roman Commonwealth could not subsist without a Dictator; an Office that for six months had all the Power, and wanted only the Title of a King or Emperor: And when ever the Senate was in danger, Trepidi ad Dictatorem confugiunt, their fear made them seek for a sanctuary in the Courage, Counsel, and Conduct of a single Person; though when the storm was over, the Saint was most usually forgotten; and those services which were above their reward, by their greatness became crimes, and did most commonly prove fatal to their great Defenders, who though they had freed the Republic from their dangers and Enemies, could not free them from their fears and jealousies of such grand abilities, courage and merit. And even in times of peace and calmest deliberation in a popular Senate, all affairs are generally managed by one leading active Man, who draws the rest after him, either with the strength of his Parts, or the power of his Party: So that when any public Debate happens, it is always determined by the prevailing opinion of one Person, who by the power of his Eloquence, or the strength of his Arguments, induces the rest, or at least so many of them as are necessary to join with him in their Opinions: For of all the variety of Judgements which may be propounded, one only can be chosen, and that must certainly proceed from one Man at first, to whom after it is weighed by deliberation, if it be by the major part approved, they give their assent, whereby it is established. Thus when the Senate of Rome was in a warm debate, An delenda esset Carthago? whether Carthage should be utterly destroyed? Cato by showing them the Grapes which grew at Carthage not many hours before, from the dangerous vicinity of such potent Rivals as had thrice contested with them for the Universal Empire, and wanted but only the skill of an Uti victoria, 
Vincere scit Hannibal uti victoria nescit.  to pursue their point to have succeeded in the attempt; he brought the whole Senate to an Affirmative determination, That Carthage was utterly to be demolished, which was accordingly put in execution by the great General Scipio Africanus. Thus Cicero upon many occasions both at the Bar and Senate-house, carried the Senate in the determination of differences, by the force of his prevailing Rhetoric, in those Orations of his upon several occasions, which are so deservedly famous, as to remain to this day the true standards of the Roman Language and Eloquence. A thousand instances of the like nature might be brought to show, That the Results of all the Counsels and Debates of a Republic are generally, if not universally, the effects of a single Judgement and Persuasion, to which the rest accord, and who therefore is pro tempore, the Monarch of the Council.  
BUT there is nothing that manifests Monarchy to be so Natural to Mankind, as that all Commonwealths do sooner or later run back again into that Ocean of Government Monarchy, which is the Fountain from whence, like other Rivers from the Sea, they first took their original: and into which therefore all these wand'ring Politic Meanders of Aristocratick and Democratick Government do insensibly slide. Thus all the little Commonwealths of Greece fell at last to the prevailing Throne of Macedon. The Roman run into the Empire: And it is the necessary Fate of all Commonwealths, their very fundamental principles, as before has been manifested, inclining them to it. And the Head of a Faction in a Republic is a King in disguise, or rather enjoying and using the Power, whilst he wants the true Title, he is a Tyrant Incognito, in the dress of a private Man. And that perpetual separate Interest and distinction of Parties, which is inseparable from a Commonwealth, must at last occasion its fall and ruin, if a change into a better Government may be called so. For it is a Maxim in Politics as well as Divinity, That neither Kingdom nor Republic divided against itself can possibly stand. And if a Commonwealth falls, it must be either into Anarchy and Confusion, or Monarchy, as the first principle from which it came, and into which all other forms of Government must be resolved.  
AND if the State of Venice has lasted a considerable time above a thousand years; or if our Neighbours of the Belgic Union hope to do the same; the first is obliged already, and the last must be, if it expects to continue, to that little mixture of Monarchy amongst them, which Government in its own nature is only capable of Duration and long Continuance: And this will appear upon the first view to all such as will consider the nature of causes by their proper effects; and how short the continuance of the most potent Commonwealths has been, in comparison of that of Monarchy. The several Grecian, and even that proud Roman Commonwealth, who thought herself Lady and Mistress of the Universe, even the longest liver of them could not reach five hundred years, and during that term they were many times Governed, and oftener preserved or rescued from apparent Ruin, by the Prudence, Courage, Counsel or Conduct of a single Captain, a Manlius, a Cunctator, or a Scipio, and by consequence were obliged to that little salt of Monarchy, which preserved them so long from Corruption and a final Dissolution: But whether we consider the Assyrian, Egyptian, Scythian, Aethiopian, Roman, or the lesser Monarchies of the World, we shall find that most of them, according to the computation of the most creditable Chronologists, have in their Duration far surpassed the most aged Commonwealths.  

Monarchy does best answer the three Great Ends of Government. wherein the Happiness of Society consists.  THE fourth and last Assertion, That Monarchy is the most Excellent form of Government, because it does most effectually answer the three forementioned great Ends of Government, by advancing the happiness of Society, does most naturally flow from the three former. For if Monarchy be the most Ancient, the most Universal, the most Natural, Agreeable, and Durable form of Government, it must be of necessity so, because all People in all Ages, and all Places, have by constant experience sound it most conducive to their Happiness and well-being from the first foundation of it to this present day: And had there been any other manner of Government established, or to be established in the World, by which Mankind could rationally have promised to themselves, either more, or more certain Happiness, than from and under this; so great and natural, so constant, passionate and ardent is the love which all men have for their own Happiness, that there is no question to be made, but that by degrees all Humane Race would long before this have hit upon it, and there would have been an Universal Regifugium over all the habitable Earth. Whereas on the contrary, after trial and experience the most competent Judge, which is the best Government, we have seen many Commonwealths retreat into Monarchy to avoid Misery and Confusion; and it is not impossible, but the World may yet see more.  
FOR the proving of this Assertion, I shall not need to run over a long repetition of all the particulars mentioned in the three great Ends of Government and Society; but desire the sober and judicious Reader to consider that which is most material in them: which is, That Hereditary Monarchy (not Elective, which for that reason is the worst kind of it) has no separate Interest, or distinct design from the good of the Public; for whether it be Peace; Plenty, Glory, Riches, Trade, War, Happiness or Misfortune, the People can have none of these in general, but the Prince must have his share of them too, so that the Prince cannot be miserable and his People truly happy, nor the Prince happy whilst his People are really miserable. And therefore a Monarch in consulting the safety, honour, welfare, peace, and prosperity of his People, does at the same time consult his own Interest in every one of them: And this must of necessity oblige him to act vigorously and constantly in all his endeavours for the attainment of these ends; This will make him look to the equal distribution of Justice in Rewards and Punishments, to encourage the Good, and discourage the Ill, to remove the Turbulent and dangerous, who oppose the happiness of the Community, and by consequence his own; This will render him watchful and vigilant against the attempts of foreign Powers, assiduously diligent in promoting Domestic peace, because otherwise he can have no security of his own Happiness, which is so inseparably united to the prosperity of his People. Insomuch that the State cannot fall either by intestine Discords or foreign Force, but he must fall with it: And which rarely happens, though he should escape with his Life, yet he must part with his Dignity, Dominion and Fortune, without which, Life to a Prince is so far from being grateful, that it is scarcely supportable; and in all the History I have read I have only met with the single Instance of Dionysius the Syracusian Tyrant, who had the humour to laugh after the loss of a Kingdom, and to please himself with playing the Rex amongst Boys in a School at Corinth. And I am apt to believe, that Life would scarce be tolerable to a dethroned Prince, were it not that the greatest extremities of misfortune do yet in Princes as well as private persons, admit of Hope, the only flatterer that does not forsake them with their prosperity: And that faithful Friend brings in Reason, Examples and Experience to persuade the most inconsolable, if they will permit her Audience, that as it frequently has, so the Wheel of fortune may turn round again; as that King in Harness told the great Sesostris. Of the truth of this we might produce many Tragical instances in great Princes, who have chosen to turn the fatal points of their vanquished Swords upon their own breasts, for being unable to defend their Sceptres, rather than to over-live the disgraceful loss of their Crowns and Kingdoms: And having resigned themselves to the first violences of unreasoning Despair, that has not permitted them patience enough to furl their Sails, and with the Anchors of Hope to weather out the Storm of a sudden and great misfortune: though possibly had they waited upon what they called Fortune and Destiny, and we Providence, they might not only have out lived their present Disasters, but might have reascended to their pristine Glory, Rank and Dominion: Many great Men having by their constancy under, and compliances with their unkind Fortune, overcome her first malicious efforts by yielding to them, and have been reserved to a far better, and more Glorious Destiny afterwards; a most pregnant instance of which we have in our Henry the Third, who in the former part of his life was plunged into as great misfortunes as ever attended a Crowned Head, which yet he overcame with Patience and Constancy, and afterwards enjoyed the satisfactions of a long, happy, and prosperous Reign. And if my wishes may be prophetic, after Ages will find a second Example in the miraculous Adventures of the glorious Reign of our present Illustrious Monarch.  
IN a word, as the late Usurping Powers styled themselves, The Members or Representatives of a Republic may be Custodes Libertatis Patriae, (I will not as one wantonly, though too truly English it, The Jailers of the Liberty of their Country) but the Guardians, and as such, many times commit great Wastes; but a Monarch is truly Pater Patriae, the Father of his Country; and as such, must have a certain Natural tenderness, care and concern for its Safety, Peace and Happiness, which he looks upon (as it is) to be his own.  
BESIDES, it is to be considered, That there is an Art in Governing, which Monarches from their very Infancy are trained up and accustomed to; which makes them by Experience, and the second Nature of Custom, come to a true Understanding of the great Affairs and secret Reason of State; and therefore more ready in all public dispatches, more quick, apprehensive and sagacious in perceiving what is conducive to the Common Good, and what not, than such who have not been Educated with all those advantages to Govern. And then their Continuance for Life, and the succession of their Posterity, gives them the desire of Designing well for the public good, safety and security, and the opportunities of finishing what was well begun. Whereas all Governors in a Commonwealth must at first be much to seek in all great Affairs; and one may as well expect that a man taken from the Plough should be able to Conn a Ship, and carry her an East-India Voyage, as that a Person, though of the greatest Natural or acquired parts, should at first be fit to Pilot the Government, or skilful and dexterous in so great a Charge as is the steerage of the important affairs of a public State. And by that time that he is arrived to a competent skill, he must resign his Place and Power to others as Raw and Unexperienced as he was, and so must leave that Work which it may be was well laid and designed, to the conduct and management of such Persons, who possibly neither understand it, nor how to conduct it if they did, or if they do both, yet may have envy enough to cross or ruin it, because they had not the Glory of the first Invention.  
SO that upon all accounts Monarchy appears to have been the most Ancient, the most Universal, the most Natural the most Useful, and by unavoidable consequence, the most excellent Government, for promoting, preserving and continuing the Common Happiness of all Mankind.   

CHAP. V Of the Excellency of the English Monarchy and Government: It is not apt to degenerate into Tyranny; The King having by his gracious Concessions given Limits to his absolute Sovereignty. Of the Interest which the three Estates have in preparing Bills for the Royal Assent to be by that past into Laws, and the great obligation which thereby the People have to Subjection and Obedience.  

Of the Excellency of the English Monarchy.  THUS have we taken a view of the several Governments in the World, amongst which Monarchy justly challenges the precedency in all respects. And against which there can be no objections made, but such as may with ease be retorted upon any other form of Government; and not only so, but many more, and more rational and just Exceptions may be made against all other kinds of Regiment.  
AS for that threadbare Topick out of Aristotle, which is so perpetually in the mouths of all Democratick Factious people, That Monarchy is apt to degenerate into Tyranny: It is only possible to be true, where Monarchy is absolute, Arbitrary and unbounded: But in our English Monarchy the case is clearly different; for though the King be so absolute, that where he has not precluded himself by his gracious Concessions to his People, 
It is not apt to degenerate into Tyranny, the King having by his gracious Concessions given Limits to his absolute Sovereignty.  his will is his Law, and is not to be limited by any other Power than that of his own Royal pleasure: Yet in this particular, the condescensions of our English Sovereigns have been so many and so great; and those compliances having been form into Laws, as measures and standards of Government; are the Bounds and Limits which Monarchy has no less prudently than indulgently been pleased to give itself; thereby to ease the Subjects of any just occasion of Fears or Jealousies which might receive their birth from the formidable redundancy of their absolute Power: And by this means the Government is secured from the danger of falling into an Arbitrary and Tyrannical way of Ruling; and the minds of the Subjects are freed from the dreadful apprehensions of slavery under it. And as by this incomparable method of goodness and generosity in our Princes, the people their Subjects of all degrees and conditions, are the more powerfully obliged to all dutiful Allegiance to their Temperate Government; so the Government itself is thereby rendered more capable of effectually answering all the Ends and Intentions of Society. Let us therefore take a short view of this most admirable Monarchy, which will discover unto us the matchless excellency and goodness of our present. Government as it is now Established.  

The English Monarchy Hereditary, and admits of no Interregnum.  NOW the Excellency of it appears, first in that the Monarchy is Hereditary and not Elective: But the Son or Daughter, or in defect of them the nearest of the Royal Line does upon the expiration of the former King so immediately succeed, that our Law does not allow the Interregnum of one moment's space; and therefore holds it as an established Maxim, Rex non moritur: The King of England is Immortal; and the young Phoenix stays not to rise from the spicy ashes of the old one, but the Sour of Royalty by a kind of Metempsychosis passes immediately our of one body into another. And this certainly is not the least of the advantages of our Monarchy: For wherever there happens an Interregnum, not only all Laws are for that time at a stand as to force and execution, but also all lawless and disorderly persons take the greatest and most unlawful Liberties. Thus at the death of the Ottoman Heir, they Janissaries and other Martial men rifle and plunder the houses of the Jews and Christians at Constantinople; and cease not to commit all manner of outrages, till the new Grand Signior by his public appearance and bounty to them puts an end to those Disorders: Which may chance at that new Rome to verify the saying of the Pope's Jester, who being asked which was the best Holiday to the people of Rome? replied, The day on which the Pope dies, because there likewise the common people by prescription plunder the Palace of that Cardinal who is elected Pope. And this custom amongst the Turks, which is become a certain expectance to them, and which they look for at the death of their Emperor, as a privilege and part of their salary, though at first permitted them in malice to the Jews and Christians, may in time prove so ill policy, as may occasion the dispatch of the Ottoman Family, one after another to their great Prophet and his Paradise, in greater haste than ever Nature did intent, or the safety of that great Monarchy can allow.  
AND for the disadvantages of Elective Monarchies, we need not travel so far back as to unravel all the Germane History, the late ruinous affairs of the Crown of Poland, (which being one of the Bastions of Christendom seems to have been therefore preserved from the Infidels by a miracle and most miraculous Prince) are capable to satisfy any person who is the fondest of Elective Monarchy. And if he has not either deposed Reason the King of his Soul, and elected in its place Prejudice or Passion to Govern there; or if he dare credit the Universal experience of the World, he may easily be convinced of the great, necessary, and desperate inconveniences of a long Interregnum and Elective Monarchy.  
BUT to proceed secondly, from this bounty of our Princes, and for the advantage of Counsel, and that all Estates and Conditions who are under the obedience of this happy Monarchy may receive such ample satisfaction as they can rationally desire, 
Of the Interest which the three Estates have in preparing Bills for the Royal Assent, to be by that past into Laws.  the King is pleased, according as in his wisdom he judges it expedient, and the necessity of public affairs requires it, to call together the Nobility of the Realm, the great Lords both Spiritual and Temporal (who are two of the three Estates of Parliament) to sit in common consultation, and to advise about the weighty and difficult affairs of State. And by their prudent deliberations and suffrages to discharge that duty they own to their Prince and the Public, by preparing wholesome Bills in order to their passing into Laws by the Royal Assent, for the good, safety and prosperity of the Community: As also to remonstrate to Royal Authority what former Laws are by experience found to be useless or inconvenient, in order to their alteration, repealment or abrogation.  
THIS privilege the Spiritual Lords enjoy by virtue of their Temporal Baronies, to which for their eminent Piety, Learning, Prudence and Integrity, they are by the Bounty of their Sovereign and his Illustrious Predecessors elevated and promoted: And they are more particularly in that Place interessed and consulted in all debates which may arise about the affairs of Religion and the Holy Church: though they are not at all excluded from a voice in the concerns of all Civil and Politic Sanctions. And this cuts off the hopes of Turbulent, Factious, Ambitious Spirits from aiming at those High places of Trust and Council in Church and State, to which none are in a probable capacity of arriving, who do not tread the paths of sublime virtue and merit, which are the only steps and ascents which lead to this excellent Temple of Honour: into which any persons rarely are permitted to enter, of whose ability and fitness for such high and honourable Offices, a long tract of knowledge and experience, has not given a fair character, and advantageous testimony, and where no person arrives, but by the gradual progressions of several lower employs as a state of probation to fit him for those high advancements and eminent dignities.  
AND however the malice of some people may suggest the contrary, who are enemies to their Office, and eo nomine, not to be credited, yet is there not the least probability that any persons should arrive at these great Temporal Honours and Ecclesiastical Offices, by the favour and bounty of their Prince, but that they must be such as have either highly obliged him by their eminent fidelity and services in a lower sphere; or who for their excellent qualifications draw the discerning and judicious eye of Majesty upon them; and are by those Honours and Estates enabled to be more serviceable to his, which is the public Interest, than they could possibly be in the meaner condition of private men, and narrow fortunes.  
I KNOW this is not a Rule without an Exception: and that it has been the great misfortune of the best and wisest of Princes sometimes to have been mistaken in conferring Honours and Favours both upon Temporal and Ecclesiastical persons, who in the succeeding actions of their lives have manifested that they did not deserve them: But these are rare and extraordinary examples of Ingratitude rather than Inability; and they must be extraordinary Artists in Hypocrisy and Dissimulation, who appearing the best whilst they are the worst of men, do thereby sometimes deceive the best and most wary and cautelous Princes; and certainly they must have tempers of the basest allay, upon whom the bounty and Majesty of a Prince are not able to make such impressions, as are capable by such high obligements to change their Natures into what he mistook them for, when he conferred his kindnesses upon them: Which doubtless no Prince ever does upon any person; but he rationally supposes, either that he does, or at least will most zealously endeavour to merit that bounty and esteem by all possible fidelity and future services.  
THE Temporal Lords by a Right of Hereditary succession enjoy this Favour of their Prince as a privilege of their Illustrious Birth and honourable Extraction, and therefore being sensible from their early Age of the Honour and Dignity to which they are entitled, and the heavy as well as honourable charge they are to sustain in those great deliberations about public affairs, it puts their Parents upon the performance of their duty, in giving them that generous and virtuous Education, which may render them the ornaments of their Noble families, and may qualify them to be useful to their King and Country: to which they are encouraged by the consideration, that there is no Subject so great, but may still hope for advantages, and accession both of Honour and Estate, upon the account of serviceableness and merit, either as to Counsel in times of Peace, or Conduct and Courage in time of War. Which are such considerable encouragements to virtue and greatness of mind, as will quickly give the young Nobility a delightful and tempting prospect of the High, Honourable and advantageous Employments at which they may arrive, and by what ways and methods they must hope to obtain them.  
AND if we could uncharitably suppose them either to be defective, as to the natural endowments of mind, or apt to be misled by the heats and prevailing extravagancies of warm and full veins, or the luxuriant spirits of youthful years; yet certainly there is no such School either for Wisdom or Virtue as that Illustrious Assembly of the English Nobility in Parliament. And the repeated wise deliberations of those great Senators, are capable of elevating even the lowest parts beyond all expectation: And constant experience in the conduct and management of the greatest Affairs, will in a little time be capable of advancing the slowest Natures to be prompt and addressful in the dispatch and performance of them. And besides those constant Lectures and Examples which they will there meet with of Justice, Temperance, Magnanimity, Honour, Fidelity, and Loyalty, must (if any thing be capable of effecting it) be able to change the very Natures of Men of Reason; and not only to civilize and cultivate, but to moralise tempers more fierce, wild and extravagant, than it is almost possible for any Noble person after such elaborate Education, to be found guilty of.  
AND though it is the envious humour of the vulgar of the English Nation (and particularly of some who pretend by the Art of Detraction, to establish an opinion that they are the only Saints themselves, from the great and religious enmity which they maintain and propagate against Mitres, Coronets and Crowns) to be curious in discovering any thing which may lessen their Superiors; and that it is very rare to hear them speak with that duty and veneration which becomes them, in their censures and opinions of those who are above them either in Birth or Fortune; yet it ought to be attributed to the height of their quality, which exposes them to such a public view, that their very privacies and retirements can scarcely deserve those names, rather than to any extraordinary miscarriages they can be accused of, by which they do justly purchase the ill opinion of those envious Detractors, the Malicious poisoners of a credulous Populace. And probably tattling same the greatest of all Liars, of which the Poet says most truly, — vires acquirit eundo, does not a little contribute to their design, in multiplying and magnifying, even smaller miscarriages, till by distance and the insensible addition of every Relator, they swell into the appearance of the greatest crimes. And it is not to be doubted, but that there are few of the common rank of people, but according to their talon and opportunities, either do, or have exceeded the Nobility in those extravagancies, which with such unbecoming freedoms they condemn them for: And had they the full reins of Liberty and Revenue which the other do possess, there is little question to be made, but wanting the advantages of ingenuous Education, they would far outdo them; and which though possibly under their present circumstances they now may do, yet their private condition conceals their vices and follies as well as their Names, which are confined to the knowledge only of a few of their obscure confederates. Thus the Sun and Moon, those noble Luminaries of the World, cannot suffer the least Eclipse or Diminution in their Light, nay there is not the least spot or freckle that happens to appear in their glorious faces, but the whole Earth stands gazing at it and takes notice of it, whilst the twinkling Plebeians of the Sky, though subject to the same accidents, by reason of their smallness and obscurity, not only pass unregarded, but are said to compose and travel in the milky way of Innocence.  
I WOULD not be thought to write this as an encouragement to any thing that is not Generous, Honourable and Virtuous in those Illustrious ranks of men; nor would I debase myself to flatter them either in, or into any miscarriages, or unmanly vices, though I were assured that I should thereby obtain not only their favour, but their Honours and Estates. My intention is perfectly the effect of a true and undesigning Zeal to serve them, and of that real veneration my duty obliges me to cherish for them. And to give the young Nobility this , that so they may discover where the rock lies under water, which has split their Reputations, whilst their sails were under the most prosperous gale of a full blown Hope, that so by the knowledge of it they may endeavour to avoid it. As also to do them that reason to the World, which I know they do deserve, though through the prejudice which is thrown upon their fame by a pretended sanctimonious but really envious Populace, it is rarely their good fortune to meet with or obtain it.  
BUT to proceed, Thirdly, The Sun of Majesty does not confine his kind beams only to the Stars of the first magnitude, but diffuses his light and warm influences to the meanest and lowest of his Subjects. Insomuch that the remotest sphere of the Populace is animated, and receives a most agreeable and harmonious motion from the Primum Mobile of Royal Authority. For by his gracious Writ of Summons the Honourable House of Commons, the last of the three great Estates of the Kingdom are convened and assembled, and act as the Representatives of the whole Body of the Commons of the Nation, in order to the preparing Bills, which having received the concurrence of the most Honourable House of Lords, are as their joint Petition, tendered to his most Excellent Majesty, that by his Royal Assent they may become necessary and obliging Laws, to all his Subjects of what degrees or conditions soever. And for this very reason the Statute Laws of England must of necessity be supposed to be most easy, useful, and convenient for the People; being such Rules of Government as are not only established with their good liking, but with their own free choice and voluntary consent, 
The great obligations which the People have to Subjection and Obedience.  and according to the best method of their own freely deliberated and debated consideration and preparation, whereby they may be best accommodated to every man's private, and the public Interest and advantage of the Nation. And hereby all just occasion not only of disobedience but complaint are removed and extinguished, since no people can in reason be dissatisfied with those Laws and Rules of Government which are of their own choice, preparation and approbation, and to the establishment of which, having contributed all that lay in their power to do, they are therefore more strictly obliged to submit and yield all willing and ready obedience to them.  
FOR this great Employment from every County, and from those ancient Burroughs whose Charters (the Indulgent Grants of former Kings) entitle them to that Right by choice of the Freeholders and Freemen, persons eminent for their Ability, Integrity and Judgement in the affairs of the Nation in reference to Foreign Trade and Domestic Manufactures or Improvements of Lands, etc. and such whose Estates give them a great Interest in promoting the Wellbeing of the Community, and a near concern for the good of the public, are or aught to be Elected as the people's Representatives to be Members of that Honourable Senate.  
AND though some restless, factious and turbulent Democratick spirits, and others of mean and ungenerous principles have of late endeavoured to deprave the ancient and excellent liberty and freedom of Elections, by some mercenary methods of courting the people agreeable enough to low Tempers and ill designs, though utterly unworthy of the high spirits of the ancient and honourable English Gentry, as well as the gravity and sobriety of the wealthy Burgesses, yet it is to be hoped that neither the practice nor its threatening consequences are entailed upon them and their posterity. I am abundantly satisfied that these inconveniences are not unknown to the best, and that it is the difficulty of doing it, rather than want of desire or resolution, which may hitherto have deferred the redress. I am not willing by an overzealous confidence to erect a Trophy upon the Ruins of my modesty; and if I transgress the limits of the decency which ought to bond every private quill, I hope it will be attributed to fear and apprehension of danger, which sometimes authorises, or at least renders a freedom pardonable, which it may be cannot be reconciled to the severe rules of prudence or discretion. And that this practice is not without most manifest danger, former experience, in whose severe School we have lately been disciplined into an unhappy certainty, does sufficiently convince us. Since it is beyond denial, that we own all those desperate misfortunes of our late dreadful revolutions to this great Art of Faction and making a party: which by the secret and successful Industry of some people gave a prevalency to those Men, who being in their principles opposite to the Interest of the Church and Crown, in a short time by their furious practices ruined and overturned them both. And the present prospect of the restless and unwearied Machinations of the same Faction, may likewise make it appear no less necessary now; it having always been esteemed as a wise and approved Maxim in the Physic of the Body Politic as well as Natural, in times of spreading and Epidemic Contagions to prescribe Prophylacticks as well as Alexipharmacks, one of which has and ever will be, 
Principiis obsta, venienti occurrite Morbo.  For, 

Fatal Dangers, Ill Events  
Early Prudence oft prevents.    
And because I would show a good precedent for these little shreads of the Muses, I have seen it upon a quarry of Glass in the window of a public house at Huntingdon, written with the hand of the late glorious Martyr our Sovereign Charles the First, agreeable to this purpose, 

Errors in time may be redressed,  
The shortest Follies are the best.    
What from a Tragical experience he found fatally true, certainly cannot be ill resented, when from so great an authority offered as a necessary Caution for the future.   

CHAP. VI Of the Privileges of the English Government, and first of the Prerogative of the King. The Imperial Crown of these Realms absolutely Independent. The greatness of his Power according to Laws. The King's Person Sacred. The Privileges of the People. First, in sending their Representatives to the Parliament. Secondly, in having their property secured. Thirdly, in the Excellent and Constant method of Justice. In particular Privileges and Franchises. In all imaginable care to prevent the growth of the Poor, and in providing for such as are so. In committing the Execution of the Laws to such hands as will act with Justice, and the care that is taken to prevent all abuses of Laws.  
THUS have we taken a view of those choice Ingredients which compose the Government of the British Isles, in which there appears the very refined extract and most sublime quintessence of all the several forms of Regiment in the World: And from such a noble and well-tempered mixture, it is impossible there should naturally result any thing but the most sound and healthful Constitution in the Body Politic, and a frame of Government built for wonder and Ages. Certainly that bright Star to whose shining glories we own the Day, does not in all his travels round the Earthly Globe survey a more happy spot of Ground! And if any place since the loss of Paradise can pretend to it, this may justly challenge the name of Albion the Happy, the Fortunate Island!  O nimiùm foelices bona si sua nôrint Anglicolae! 
Pardon kind Reader the Pedantry of this little remaining Apollo, which warms me with these fragments of his almost extinguished fire.  

O more than Happy british Land,  
If our own Good we understand!   
Happy by Nature, Happy by Arts, but much more Happy by the best Laws and Government that the whole Earth can show.  
THERE is nothing does so evidently demonstrate the excellency of a Cause as the noble effects which it does produce; nor can any thing so plainly speak the goodness of a Covernment as the mutual happiness of the Governed and Governors. To manifest this, I wish my power carried a just proportion to my will, and that my Pen were capable of keeping pace with my Intentions, and both with the real worth and merits of this most incomparable Government.  
IT is not without some degrees of arrogance to attempt it, but it would be the most insupportable vanity, and certain indication of a crazed fancy to pretend to the accomplishment of such a 〈◊〉 design: He that will undertake to draw the picture of the Sun when he is mounted in his Meridian Chariot of Light, and attended with all his dazzling guards of Brightness, can expect no other reward of his audacious folly, but to lose his labour and his eyes: The best and safest prospect of that glorious Planet, is in his agreeable Reflections and benign Influences. And for my own particular, I am not so familiar with Majesty as to approach it, though but with my Pen, without some certain tremble of my hand, occasioned by that awful veneration which the very name of Dread Sovereign raises in my mind. Nor can I believe that Great things and greater Persons are to be treated, or so much as treated of, but with the greatest respect and deference, caution and the most profound submissions. And therefore, if whilst I endeavour to display their amazing glories and excellencies, with a design of rendering them the greatest services I am capable of I draw them in the Miniature of this short Discourse, I retain some faint hopes, that the imperfections of so small a Piece being so much more pardonable by being little, will be attributed to my timorous haste: Fear is a passion which is apt not only to disorder the Fancy, but even to discompose Reason itself: And it is not uncommon for great Persons, and generous Spirits, to pardon with a gracious smile, the effects of that veneration which they have occasioned, and which is apt to give such confusions to their Inferiors, as sometimes makes them mistake the necessary decencies of their Duty, even whilst they would endeavour most respectfully to preserve themselves within its Limits. Let us therefore with all due humility look upon the Robes of Majesty, the Ornaments and Ensigns of Royal Dignity, those unvaluable Jewels whose radiant Lustre adorn the English Diadem, and which is itself adorned by the Head that wears it: Which will with ease convince us how happy that People must needs be, who live under the kind Beams of such a Monarchy and such a Monarch.  

Of the Privileges of the English Government, and first of the Prerogative of the King.  THE Excellency of the Ancient, Flourishing and August Monarchy of Great Britain (which God long preserve in Peace, Glory and Prosperity) consists principally in this; That it is absolutely Independent; and That the Sovereign and Imperial Crown of these Realms, 
The Imperial Crown of this Realm absolute and Independent.  though it does admit of Foreign Equals, knows no Superior; nor owes either Tribute or Homage to any other besides the Almighty Sovereign, the Supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth, from whom as the King receives it, so to him only is he accountable for the managery and administration of it. The King is the sole Fountain of all Honour, 
The greatness of his Power according to Laws.  and the Foundation of all Law; nay the very Soul and Life of it; for by his Royal word he gives it a Being, and by his 
* Le Roy le veult.  Affirmative breath, that which before was a dead and inanimate Bill, becomes a living and an Active Law. And in like manner, by his powerful negative, or 
‖ Le Roy s' avisera.  suspending his consent, any intended Sanction becomes abortive and never sees the Sun. And as it is both his and his People's happiness, that his Will is not his Law, but that his Law is his Will; so it is but highly reasonable, that he should have the liberty and freedom of the choice of those Laws, by which he obliges himself to Rule and Govern. In him is the sole Power of the Sword, the Power of making Peace and War, and in order thereunto of raising Forces, granting Commissions both for Land and Sea. In him is the sole Power of Calling, Adjourning, Proroguing, and dissolving Parliaments, when and where he judges it most expedient. In his power it is to remit the severities of the Penal Laws, whereby he may manifest his goodness and clemency as well as his greatness and justice, by graciously pardoning both the smaller breaches of his Laws, and the more capital offences which he might most justly punish. From him all metals receive their Impress, and according to the Standard he puts upon them, they become valuable and currant Coin. From him all places of high Trust derive their Authority, by his Commission they Act, and put his Commands and the Laws in execution: And in short, without him or against his Will and Consent nothing can be legally acted or done.  

The Person of the King most Sacred.  AND as his Power is thus Great, so his Person is most Sacred, and is therefore most strictly guarded by the Laws, which like Solomon's Lions, stand on each side of the steps and ascents of his Imperial Throne; 
13 Car. 2.  and with no less Terror than Majesty declare, That it is High Treason, within or without the Realm to Compass, Imagine, Invent, Devise or Intent Death or Destruction, or any bodily harm, tending to death or destruction, maim or wounding, imprisonment or restraint of the Person of the King, or to deprive or depose him from the Style, Honour, or Kingly Name of the Imperial Crown of this Realm, or any other of his Dominions or Countries, or to levy War against him, within or without the Realm, or any other of the King's Dominions or Countries being under his Obeisance.  
THESE amongst many others are the principal Jewels which adorn the glorious Diadem of the English Sovereigns; whose Government being so remote from Arbitrary, that it is altogether by the exact Rule of Law, Justice and Equity, as it must needs be easy for the people, so it contributes extremely to the Happiness and prosperous tranquillity of the Prince's Reign. And were it possible to add one Prerogative more to the Crown, That the King might rule in the Hearts and kind affections of his People as well as over their Persons, certainly there could no greater happiness befall both the King and his Subjects in this World: And as such a blessed Union and Agreement would be their great and Common Interest, where the one ruling with Love, the other should obey their Ruler from a principle of affection; so it is to be hoped that time and a right understanding of the most obliging Temper of their Prince, or some other wise expedients will at last allay that dangerous Democratick fury, the only present visible obstacle to this desired Happiness, which wherever it prevails or enters, possesses men with the principles of Usurpation upon many other, but more especially upon this fundamental prerogative of the Sovereign, by divesting him of the loyal and sincere affections of his People.  
HAVING thus taken such a short view of it as the dazzling Lustre of Majesty will permit, let us pass from the Sovereign to the Subjects, and there likewise we shall most convincingly see the effects of the most prudent, easy, safe, and happy constitution of the English Government: under which there is no person who lives in obedience to it, who escapes the particular care and cognizance of the Laws.  

The Privileges of the People, first in the sending their Representatives to the Parliament.  THE first great and fundamental Privilege of the Subjects consists in the free Choice which the Commons of England have of Delegates or Representatives, to be sent to the most Honourable Assembly of the Parliament, there to make known the just grievances of the People, and to offer such good, wholesome and necessary Bills, in order to their being promoted into Laws by the Royal Will, as may be most for the advantage and happiness of those whom they represent. By reason whereof all those Laws by which the people are governed for the present, or are to be Governed for the future, are such as they themselves have a share in the propounding and preparing, there being nothing that can by the Royal assent pass into an obliging Statute or Act of Parliament, either against or without their knowledge and consent, as is evident from the Proem to most of those Acts which compose our Statute-Law, which are in these or the like words; Be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty, by the Advice, and with the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled, and by the Authority of the same. So that they must be the most unreasonable amongst mankind, who are not contented to be obedient to those Laws which are by their King Enacted and Established, not only according to their own preparation, and with their free and full assent, but at their earnest request and humble Importunity.  
NOR are they only highly irrational, but most barbarously treacherous and perfidious, who make no account of such mutual stipulations, and lawful contracts, with which they have obliged themselves, as the whole Nation does when by the Parliament they Petition the King to make such or such Laws; and upon that condition that he will please to give them the force and power of Laws, they will live in obedience to him, according to the direction of those Laws: For Obedience is the end of all Laws, and solemn Faith of Contracts is the essential Foundation upon which all Government and Happiness in this World does depend; and there can no Bill pass into an Act of Parliament, but it obliges Universally all Subjects to obedience, by virtue not only of Royal Authority, but of every individual persons promise. For whoever gives his Voice for such a person to represent him in Parliament, (as all the Freeholders in behalf of the rest of the inferior Commons do) does thereby transfer his own right to the Representative, and gives him as ample power and Authority to act for him and in his Name, as to him shall seem expedient both for his private and the common Interest, as if he did act in his proper person for himself. And he who did not give his voice for the elected Representative, being engaged in an opposite interest to give his suffrage for another; yet upon the prevailing number of the Poll, even he likewise gives his suffrage for him, and the person so elected is as much and truly the Representative of those who voted for another, as of those who gave their voices for him: For though there may be many Candidates to the office, but one only can be chosen, and it is by the common consent of all such as have a vote in such Elections, tacitly beforehand agreed, that he who has the plurality of voices shall be their Representative in Parliament: And therefore in hopes of the benefit of that implied agreement, all the several Interests and Parties at such Elections repair to the usual time and place appointed, to see the decision and final determination of that affair: So that the person who is chosen a Knight or Burgess by the major part, though my voice was against him for another, is after such a trial as much a Knight or Burgess, and as truly my Delegate, and has as full power to act in my Name as if I had given my Vote for him; in regard I did not come to that Election, before I had given my consent to that Preliminary contract, that he should be the common Representative or Parliament-man for the whole Body of the people of that place, who should by the greatest number of qualified voices appear to have the justest Right. And those persons who do not think themselves obliged to stand to such a solemn Contract as this or that, they are not bound in Foro Conscientiae, to be obedient to those Acts of Parliament, which as is plain, are by their Petition and Assent as much their proper Acts and Contracts, as if they were under their most authentic Hand and Seal, however they may pretend Religion and Conscience for their Disobedience, are so far from being true Christians, that they are not yet good enough for Heathens, and scarcely deserve the name of Men, if Rationality be the thing that differences them from Brutes; for amongst all Nations it has been esteemed a Maxim, upon which the security of Mankind is built; Fidem esse servandam, That Fidelity in solemn Contracts is to be observed and preserved sacred and inviolable; for otherwise Men could have no Commerce, no Government, no Peace, no Safety, no Property, no Laws, because no confidence one of another, or of any truth in the most deliberate Contracts and mutual Stipulations. 
Cicer. Off. I.  To this purpose is that of Tully; The Foundation of all Justice (says that excellent Heathen) is Faith: And Faith or Fidelity is the Constancy and Truth of all our Words, Promises, and Contracts. 
Off. 3.  And he tells us, That Regulus returned to Carthage, although he was not ignorant that he went back again to his most cruel Enemies, and most exquisite Torments, only because it was his judgement, that Faith in solemn Promises and Contracts ought to be observed and kept. How will these Generous Heathens rise up in Judgement against the Men of this Generation, who are so far from making it a scruple of Conscience, to break their Faith as to Obedience to Laws and Government, their own voluntary Contracts and Stipulations, that they esteem it the greatest and most Essential part of their Religion to break the Laws and be disobedient to Government. Certainly that Heroic Seneca was much a better Saint than such Christians, and almost persuades me to believe he will either have a share in Heaven, or a more tolerable Hell than they, who could so nobly say, 
Senec. Ep. 88  Solemn Faith is a Good so Sacred to Humane Nature, that it cannot (that is, it ought not to) be compelled by any necessity, nor corrupted by any Rewards; Burn, Cut, Kill me, I will not be a Traitor to my Faith, bat the further and deeper these torments search for it, by so much will I more diligently and safely endeavour to preserve and hid it. Expressions capable of making many who call themselves Christians, blush at their Religious Treachery, Disobedience, and Infidelity to their own Promises and Contracts, if they had not at once abandoned all remainders of Modesty as well as Loyalty and Fidelity.  
IT is a subject capable of giving astonishment rather than admiration, that there should be any persons who enjoy so fair a Privilege, as to be admitted by their Sovereign to consult their own concerns, and to offer unto him such Bills as they judge most advantageous for their own Interest, and Petition him to establish them as Laws; who yet when he has condescended to gratify them in it, cannot be contented unless they may have a Prerogative, with the guilded Title of Liberty of Conscience, whereby at their pleasure they take the freedom to break and abrogate those very Laws; and thereby do not only exalt their power above that of their Sovereign, but subject all that is great and sacred in Laws and Government to the idle Caprichio of every private Humorist, who has but the confidence to face it with Religion. Let them take care lest the dangerous consequences of this later Privilege, so destructive to all Society, and which they maintain by Usurpation, do not in the end oblige Authority for its own preservation, and the public security, to disrobe such dangerous people of that which they do, and may, if they will be quiet with it, long and lawfully enjoy. Let them remember Aesop's Dog, and the Moral of the Fable in our English Proverb, All covet, All lose.  

The second Privilege of the English Subjects, Property secured  A SECOND privilege of the Subjects of England consists in their Property secured, which is so surrounded with the Laws, that one may truly say of an English Commoner as the malicious spirit the envious surveyor of his happiness said to God Almighty concerning his upright servant Job, Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? In some Monarchies the Subjects cannot say their Estates are their own, as under the Ottoman, Mogul, Russian and Tartarian Empires; in others they cannot say their Bodies are their own, as amongst all the barbarous Indian Nations; and in some places, according to our Adage, men dare scarcely say their Souls are their own, certainly not their lives amongst all the Governments before named, and many others, so great are the Arbitrary Tyrannies, and lawless, and sometimes even wanton cruelties of their Superiors, to whom they are as absolute slaves, and of as little estimation as the Brutes. But in our happy England every man, even the meanest Subject may confidently say, that whatsoever according to the Laws he does possess and enjoy, it is solely, properly, and absolutely his own, to all intents and purposes of possession. And so tender is our Government in this particular of property, that it provides a certain defence, security and protection of Laws, for all men's Persons, Relations, Honours and Estates; and not only so, but for their good Name and Reputation, that if they have any, it may be preserved from Injury, there being severe penalties as well for a Defamation of the meanest Cottager, (whose greatest Riches it may be consists in that little Jewel) as for a Scandalum Magnatum against the greatest Peer. Nor can any person dispossess them of a thing of the meanest value without their consent, either by fraud or violence, without making a just commutation either, of current money, or what is as good, but he is liable to the punishment of the Laws in all such cases provided, some of which are in their penalties for such crimes more severe and ignominious than in any other Nation of the World; which has made some people of Ingenuity wish the King of England had more Galleys, and that they might receive many serviceable Lives of Criminals who perish at the Gallows.  
NAY, so great and absolute is the Property of the English Subjects, that the extraordinary occasions of the public cannot by Law be supplied out of their Estates, without their consent and concurrence by their Representatives in the House of Commons; who for that purpose prepare and transmit all Bills for supply of Money to the House of Lords for their Concurrence and the Royal Assent. Certainly these Freedoms and Privileges are so great, that the Subjects in other Nations would think themselves Princess if they might enjoy them: And are such, as the greatest Princes in Foreign parts, who are not absolute and Independent Sovereigns, can scarcely pretent o be possessors of.  
THE third Privilege (and not the least, 
The third Privilege, the Excellent and Constant Method of Justice.  though the last that amongst a multitude of others we shall take notice of) is the excellent and constant method of the Administration of Justice to all Degrees and Conditions of Men, which twice in every year is as it were brought home to their door. And in this the Government shows itself to be truly good, great and generous, even to those who least deserve it, such as are all Criminal; who, how notorious soever, are not yet debarred from having Justice done them before it be done upon them. So that no delinquent can be punished either as to loss of Life, Limb or Estate, Imprisonment or Banishment, but by a regular, public method and process of Law, secuadum allegata & probata, according to the evidence of such as are believed to be credible persons, and able to give a true and valid Testimony. And according to the ordinary procedure of Law, in all cases that touch an offender's Life or a considerable part of his Estate, he is to receive his sentence according to the Verdict of his Peers or Equals in Condition, who are at the fewest Twelve good Men and true, or so reputed, and if possible known to the Criminal and he to them: Who when they are Impanell'd upon his Trial, are by a solemn Oath sworn to proceed without favour or affection to the best of their knowledge: From which procedure, he may therefore in probability expect all the Right and Justice he can hope for or deserve; and lest there should be any opportunity for Malice, Pique or Envy then to revenge themselves upon the Prisoner, he has the liberty to make a challenge, or except against so many of the Jury as he can suspect: And in all cases of Life and Death, by a particular Proviso, persons of those professions, who by their Trade of slaughter, and being enured to shed the blood, though but of Beasts, lest by that custom they should be obdurate or less compassionate and tender of humane Life, are debarred from being of such Juries.  

Many Immunizies and Municipal Franchises besides possessed by the People.  THERE are almost innumerable other Privileges, Municipal Franchises and Immunities, which by Custom or Charter are enjoyed both by particular Persons and Corporate Bodies, all which it were endless as well as needless to recount. These which I have mentioned as they belong in common to the English Subjects, so they are sufficient to manifest the excellency of the Government of this Nation beyond all just exceptions. As for those discontented Factious spirits, who murmur and repine because they have no more, such Ingrates of all others certainly cannot deserve so many: And 'tis great pity they do not know the price of Salt in France, or the frequent Two Hundred penny of the neighbouring States, besides all other Imposts and Excise upon all manner of necessaries and conveniencies of Life: And they who so much admire the Government and Liberty of those people of the Belgic Union, and especially their Liberty of Conscience, if I am not mistaken in their Humour, love their Money too well, to be much in love with their Religion, or even that envied Liberty, if they understood how high the Exchange and Market of it runs in those Provinces; and I am apt to believe they would scarce turn the penny by becoming Merchant adventurers in that Trade, if they were truly sensible that they must purchase it at such excessive Rates. Bought wit is the best, provided the price be according; but even that which they call Religion and Liberty as well as Gold may sometimes be bought too dear. It is experience that teaches wisdom, though the usual saying is but too true, that she is the Mistress of Fools; intimating that all those people run the hazard of that Infamous character, who will not take up Truth upon the credit of other men's Trial and Damages; and whom nothing is able to convince, but the dear certainty which they purchase at the expense of their proper Loss, and too late Repentance, others may if they please; but for my own part I have had too great a share in it, to admire this Phrygian wisdom, 
Serò sapiunt Phryges'.  which in plain English is the greatest folly.  
THE familiarity even of Happiness renders it contemptible with some people; and we daily see, that Light and Health, the one of which is the Salt of Life, that gives a poignant relish to all we do enjoy, and the other the great comfort and satisfaction of our days, are yet rarely estimated according to their real and intrinsic value, but by being so familiar to us, are many times not thought worth our taking notice of, till by their absence or diminution we are made sensible of their great necessity and pleasing excellency. Assuredly here are privileges sufficient to prove the goodness of our Laws, Government and Governors, and to satisfy any modest, regular and unambitious desires. And far more and greater would not be capable to satisfy the ambitious and unbounded Humour of perpetually craving Democracy; which is like the meager and ill-favoured Cows in Pharaoh's dream, 
Gen. 41.  the very picture of envy and ill luck, or rather the thing itself, which would devour all our fat, well-favoured and pleasant years of Plenty, and be never the better itself after so full a Meal; but in stead of the Liberty which it does flatteringly promise us, would oblige us like the Egyptians in that dreadful Famine, to pawn all for bread to eat, and at last to offer up ourselves and posterity its voluntary, or rather necessary slaves for ever: And in which it would exceed the severities of that calamitous time; the Lands of the Priests, which there met with a favourable exemption, would here be the first Morsel with which rapacious Democracy would feast itself. The truth is, this Factious Republican Humour is like the hideous Gulf, into which the noble Curtius leapt to satisfy the more cruel than ambiguous Oracle, which cannot be persuaded to close its terrible Jaws with the richest appeasments of Silver, Gold, Pearl or Jewels, unless it drink in whole Rivers of Innocent Blood, and at last, the best Man become an atonement and Victim to that voracious Prodigy of a Factious Populace, when inspired with a Religious Rebellion, called a thorough Reformation.  
TO conclude this particular, 
All imaginable care used to prevent the growth of the Poor, and to provide for such as are so.  the goodness of the English Government does not appear more in protection of the Rich, Great and Noble, than in providing for the Poor: In which affair, it is the constant care of the Government, first, if possible, to prevent the growth and increase of them, by encouraging Industry, providing of stocks to set them at work upon, and punishing all dissolute Idleness: And in the next place, by making such competent, necessary and constant provision for all such as are truly Poor, Aged or Decrepit, or who by unavoidable accidents or misfortunes come to be distressed and necessitous; that in some Places, and amongst some Natures, the certainty of a future provision for them and their posterity by the respective Parishies and Places of their abode, does rather make them careless and improvident, than thankful and Industrious; which at the same time manifests the compassionate and charitable temper of the Government, and the slothful Ingratitude of those persons, who take a Commission to be careless and Idle, from the encouragement of those Laws which were intended in pure compassion to preserve them from misery and starving.  

All possible care taken to commit the Execution of Laws to such hands as will act with Justice, and to prevent all Abuses, Frauds, Perjuries and Delays of Law and Justice.  IN short, as the Laws are in their own nature, choice, prudent, safe, advantageous and universal, and by long experience found to be such as correspond to all the Intentions of the durable happiness of Society; so there is the most exact Government by those Laws, and a constant administration of Justice, by persons of the greatest Integrity and ability; as also a constant care taken to prevent all miscarriages, oppression, or perverting of Justice by Bribes, Forgery, Perjury, or Partiality: and there can scarcely a speck of Rust appear upon the bright sword of Justice, or the least grain of corruption be thrown in to turn the equal balance of the Law, but by the curious eye of vigilant Authority, it is taken notice of, corrected, prevented, and amended for the future. And what can be more desirable, or desired in any humane Society, who pretend to be bounded either with Modesty or Reason, I am yet to learn. If there be any thing wanting to make the Happiness of the Subjects of the English Monarchy complete, they must expect it from themselves, and their own peaceable acquiescence under the Laws and Government: And if they are not utterly Incapable of satisfaction, his most gracious Majesty has made his repeated Instances to the two Houses of Parliament, that they would consider what is wanting; and has given such constant and unquestionable assurances of contributing all his Authority to whatsoever shall be thought fit to be offered for a further security of every man's Interest as to Property and Religion, as will not permit the least scruple, but that we live at present under the best of Princes, as well as under the best of Laws and Government.   

CHAP. VII. The great misfortune of Religion, which is made the great pretence to ruin Monarchy. A stratagem of the Devil to extirpate all true Religion out of the World. The two Opposites and Enemies of Monarchy, Papacy and Presbytery. The Opinion of the Catholic Doctors about Papal Supremacy, and the new Roman Creed to confirm it. Papal Supremacy devests the Prince of his Legistative Power, of his absolute Sovereignty; and renders Monarchy insecure as to Possession or Succession, bereaving it of the Guard of Laws, of the Strength of Alliances, of the Fidelity of the People. Several Impolitic inconveniences which attend that Religion. Papal Supremacy destructive of the People's Liberty and Property.  
FROM what has been most truly said, as being matter of most evident fact, and of so public demonstration, that no person can deny it, who will not at the same time manifest shameless Confidence, and notorious Ignorance of that Constitution and those Laws the benefit of whose Goodness he does continually enjoy; it does appear that there can be nothing wanting to complete the happiness of all sorts and conditions of Men, who live under this admirable Government, but the knowledge of it, which would bring them to a real belief that they are the most Happy People in the World; that so they might be satified of the great obligations they have to Unity amongst themselves, and all ready compliances of Obedience to the Commands of the Supreme Authority in those Laws, which are so much both their own Choice and Interest: which is the only rational way to continue▪ increase and secure their Happiness, and to render this most happy Government impregnable against all the malicious attempts of theirs, because its implacable Enemies.  
ONE would difficultly be persuaded, (if unerring Experience did not afford an unquestionable conviction) that it were possible to find either so great Malice or Mistake, as could be capable to transport any person so far beyond the confines of Reason, as to endeavour so much as in a thought, much less by their actions, to alter or subvert a frame of Government so beautiful, and in all its parts most exact and excellent. And if nothing besides were able, one would judge, That the impregnable strength of so well a built and fortified a Constitution, were sufficient to discourage the most daring Villains and desperate Natures amongst Mankind. To attempt such an enterprise, as appears in all Humane probability, the very next thing to impossible to be effected, must suppose the Designers to act according to the Principles, not of hope or reason, but of a brutal Rage, or rather desperate Fury, and revengeful Frenzy. For an impatient Bajazet, who was once a mighty Monarch, to dash out his despairing brains against the Bars of his Iron Cage, admits of some reason and excuse; but for people to do it who are free and happy, is certainly a most unaccountable madness, And whoever goes about to undermine and overthrow a Pile of that weight and bigness, if they do unfortunately succeed in the strange attempt, cannot in probability expect to rejoice in those Ruins, which in all likelihood will fall upon them and crush them to Atoms: And certainly only such who have lost the eyes of their reason, can be ambitious of such a rude Mausoleum as that of Samson, who pulled down the house to be revenged of his enemies; and thereby gave himself an uncommon Monument amongst the perishing crowd. And one would believe that Eternal infamy were no tempting Epitaph to be written upon such Tombs of Rubbish as are raised by the fall of the State and Government. But if they do not succeed, but happen from their high attempts and lofty expectations, to fail of their designs and fall upon the well-built Pyramid, they must unavoidably run the fate of Phaeton, and cool those flames which their wild ambition has thrown abroad in the World (by attempting upon the reins of Government) in the Ocean of Ruin. Notwithstanding all which affrighting considerations, yet such men there are (if they who are divested both of Reason and true Religion can deserve that Name) or rather Monsters in Humane shape, and too many of them there are to be found: Inhuman and Unnatural! whom no Happiness is able to content, but what is built upon the Ruin and Misery of others; No Government can please, but whose foundation is laid upon the subversion of the present, and cemented with blood: And whose very principles are destructive of themselves, because of all Government, Society and Happiness in this World.  

The great Misfortune of the World, which▪ makes Religion the great pretence to ruin Monarchy.  BUT the greatest of all our Misfortunes is, That these dangerous Enemies to our present Peace and future Happiness pretend to draw both their Principles and Practice, not from Politics, but Religion, which certainly was designed by the Almighty Creator, to oblige men to Obedience, and intended to be the great support of Government. See the unhappy Chemistry of overheated Brains, and Religion (or Fancy rather under that Sacred Name) run out of its Wits! which by the late discovery of New Regions of Faith, and New Lights of Religion, has given such disturbances to the Old; and can force that which in its own Nature is undoubtedly the greatest security of Crowns, and the Interest of any People, to become the greatest Traitor to the one, and Treachery to the other: which can make even Religion, not only stoop to wicked Designs, but turn Renegado, and deny the Ancient Catholic Faith of Christ. But alas! it is not Religion: That is all Bright, Peaceful and Innocent! It is a Cloak, a Vizor, a Form of Godliness, or an appearance without the Power, the Soul of Piety, which Counterfeit and Impostor works all these dismal effects. That Wisdom which is from above, is like its Author, and the blessed Regions from whence it comes, 
5. Jam. 3.14.  Pure and Peaceable, full of Good works: But that is Earthly, Sensual, Devilish, which is the Mother of our Strife, Confusions and every evil Work: And however with the most fair appearances, and sanctimonious pretences, it may deceive the Unwary, and cover the Malicious, yet certainly it is one of the most refined stratagems of the Primitive Arch-rebel the degraded Lucifer, that implacable Enemy of Mankind, and the perpetual envious disturber of their Happiness: For under this pretence of Religion, he does but too successfully endeavour to ruin it; and whilst he persuades the Credulous, that there is no other design in a New Faith, or through Reformation, but to repair the House, he certainly knows he shall pull it down, or at least deface it. Thus some unforeseeing people, overcome with the old temptation, whilst they would know Good and Evil, and become like Gods, by tasting the forbidden Apple of State, they run the hazard of making themselves and posterity become like the Tempter, malicious and miserable, to a degree below the Beasts that perish.  
NOR can this old guilded Serpent, with all his Generation of Vipers, 
A stratagem of the Devil to extirpate all true Religion.  by feeding upon the Mother that brought them forth, propose any Way more probable to undo the Reputation of the true Religion, than by making others as like in appearance as may be, and endeavouring to obtrude their shining and painted Glass upon the World, as the true and inestimable Jewel of Piety. By which Artifice, the true and innocent Religion shall become chargeable, with the Wars, Tumults, Seditions and Disorders of the World; which in reality are the products of the Counterfeit: And whilst by Disobedience and Rebellion, Disloyalties and Treasons, Plots and Conspiracies under the pretences of Conscience, such disturbances are given to the safety and security of Sovereign Princes and Mankind in general, a fair train is laid to blow up all Piety, and to introduce Atheism, and at once to extirpate all Religion from the minds of Men, who must look upon it as a pernicious Impostor, which pretends one thing, and acts another directly contrary to it: And if once men come to hate it, and wish there were no such thing in the World it would not be long before it would be so; nor can any thing bid fairer to effect this, than such Actions as may persuade the Monarches of the Earth to entertain aversions against it, as a principle which runs their Subjects into Mutinies, Disobedience and Rebellion, and which intrecches too much upon the Royal Prerogative, by a continual cutting off the skirts of the Robes of Majesty, and not being always innocent of attempting against their Lives and Crowns. And could this transformed Angel of Light, and his reforming Ministers of Righteousness, but effect this, which with all their, I wish I could say mistaken Zeal, they so industriously labour to do, and are in the ready way for it, The fatal consequences may without difficulty not only be conjectured, but most certainly foretold.  
THERE is no creature so innocent, that is without its particular enemies, to whose violences, that does often give encouragement and invitation: Neither is there any virtue without its opposites and extremes, which manage a continual either open hostility or secret war against it. The soundest Constitutions, and most healthful Bodies are not without a mixture of such fermenting Spirits and Humours, as are the stamina morborum, which sometimes rush them into violent and dangerous distempers; and if we will credit the sons of Aesculapius, there is no state of Body so near to sickness, as that which stands upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the very tiptoes of most perfect Health. This is the condition of this most irreprehensible Government of the English Monarchy, whose eminency renders it obnoxious to Envy, and whose Excellency and Innocence are not able to secure it from Malice, those two mortal Gangrenes of all that can be called Great, Good or Happy in humane Life. Undoubtedly it is lawless Ambition, and insatiable Desire of Sovereignty, which are the true ground and foundation of all Rebellion and Disobedience, though Innocent Religion and Christian Liberty are perpetually made the cloak of this malicious Wickedness, and usurping Covetousness, the root of all evil: which are constantly made use of by all such deceivers, who, as S. Peter has well observed of them, will not submit themselves to the King as Supreme, and by their obedient honouring him, by all quiet subjection to his Laws and Government give a manifest evidence that they really and truly fear God who commands that Duty to be done.  

The two Opposites and Encmics of Monarchy, Papacy and Presbytery.  THERE may be many Interests which may be disadvantageous to the safety, security and happiness of the Imperial Crown of this Realm of Great Britain, and its other Dominions, as well as to the liberty and property of the people, but there are two which are directly and fundamentally opposite and contrary to them, both in their principles and practices: and these are the pretensions of an Universal Supremacy, and Spirituo-Temporal Monarchy of the Court of Rome, or Papacy on the one hand, and the Democratick Presbyterian on the other. That both these are utterly inconsistent with the Safety and very Essence of Monarchy, and particularly with that of these Nations, as also with the Peace, Happiness, Liberty and Property of the Subject, is that which I hope to prove by such undeniable Reasons, and convincing Arguments as may oblige the consent of all such who are not willing to quit their share and claim to common Reason, rather than the favour of their Interest, Party or Opinion.  
WE will begin then with the Papacy, as being the ancient competitor for Sovereignty with all the Crowned Heads of Europe. And in regard of the great concern of the Controversy, this has been the Theatre of all the Polemic Wits of Christendom, I hope it will not therefore be expected that I should repeat the Cram in a Tedious discourse; it can never be diverting to the Reader, (and I fear what is not so, will rarely be profitable to him,) to swell this Discourse with long rehearsals of what has been so often better and more nicely discussed, by the most famous Pens; I will therefore succinctly and nakedly propose the thing; it may be rather to satisfy some people that I am not a Papist, than to pretend to offer any thing new in a point that has been so often treated of, as will not permit me to entertain the vanity, that I am able to say either more, or more to the purpose, than has already, to the satisfaction of the World, been said. 
The Opinion of the Catholic Doctors about the Papal Supremacy, and the New Roman Creed to confirm it.   
NOW that by what they call the Pope's Supremacy in Spirituals, the Faction of the Roman Court do not only affect, but endeavour to impose and establish an Universal Empire and Dominion over all Princes, Kings, Emperors, and their Subjects, and ●o propagate Sovereignty rather than Religion, we will in short endeavour to manifest out of their most Authentic Records and Justified Confession. Ex ore tuo can certainly be liable to no exceptions. They who speak most modestly, as Cardinal Bellarmine, 
Bell. lib. 5. de Ro. Pontisice cap. 1.  and those he calls the Catholic Doctors of the middle Opinion, give the Pope indirecte quandam potestatem, even over all Temporal affairs, and by consequence a Supremacy over all Men. But some of them whose confidence does a little outrun their discretion, 
Aug. Triumph. Sum. de potest. Ecc. q. 1. ar. 1. & q. 40. ar. 1. & passim alibi. Alu. Pel. de planctu Ecc. l. 1. cap. 1. ●.  as Augustinus Triumphus, Alvarus Pelagius, and others, loudly proclaim the Pope to have the fullness of all Power in all Temporal concerns whatsoever. And a whole Volume of Names swim down this stream, overborn with the impetuous Torrent of a Fancy overflowing with the pleasure of Terrestrial Empire and Dominion of the Church, or the flattery of Popes, from whom possibly they had great future expectancies and present dependencies.  

Bulla Pii 4. super forma Juramenti, in appendice Concil. Tridentini.  BUT that which appears most considerable, is the Bull of Pope Pius quartus, where this Supremacy is made an Article of the Faith equal to that of the Apostles, in these words or to this effect; 
Vide si libet etiam Act. Concil. Trident Sess. de reformatione cap. 2. & cap. 19  I N. N. believe that the Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches; I acknowledge, vow and swear true Obedience to the B. of Rome, the successor of S. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and Vicar of Christ Jesus, etc. And a little after; And this true Catholic Faith (out of which no man can be saved) which at this time I do willingly profess and truly hold, I will be careful with Gods help that it be constantly retained and confessed whole and inviolable to the last gasp.  
FROM this new confession of Faith these two Corollaries follow, First, That all Christian Kings, Princes and People own unto the Roman See, all Temporal Obedience. For there is no limitation, but Obedience to the Pope in general and inclusive words is made a necessary Article of Faith, and where any thing is spoken in general words, it is always to be construed to extend to all that can be signified by those words, in favour of that Power which it is designed to declare and promote.  
SECONDLY, If no man can be saved out of that Faith which are the express words of the Oath, Kings and Emperors not being excepted; the Pope is made the Supreme upon Earth, and he can be no Christian who does not believe him to be so, by which determination this is made a Heresy of the blackest Dye, and subjects all persons who are guilty of it to all the Censures of the Church, Excommunication, Interdiction, and all their dreadful consequents both here and hereafter.  
NOR will it be of avail, to endeavour to cover the dangerous fraud of the general words which are of such ambiguous latitude, by pretending to restrain them and the Papal Power only to Temporals, in ordine ad Spiritualia. Since all Humane Actions, being either Virtuous or Vicious in some degrees more or less, must be brought within the Verge of the Spiritual Supreme Power and Jurisdiction: And which must therefore finally vest the Papacy with a most absolute unlimited. Sovereignty over all Temporal affairs.  
LET us now consider how inconsistent this fundamental Article of the Roman Faith is with the Monarchy of the Prince, and the Liberty and Property of the people, which we shall easily discover by considering the practical Inferences which are necessarily to be deduced from it.  
AND first this devests the Prince of his absolute and Independent Sovereignty. 
Papal Supremacy devests the Prince of his absolute Sovereignty.  For it is impossible there should be two Supremes in being at the same time over the same places, persons and things. If the King be Supreme, the Pope ought to obey him, if the Pope be Supreme, the King owes obedience to him, and by plain consequence is no more than a greater and Crowned subject, and must have a dependence on the Papal power; which if it be admitted only purely in Spirituals, will yet take away the Divine Right of Kings; and if once you remove that foundation, down goes Monarchy: For it must have either a Divine or Humane right; if their right be from Men, as it must necessarily be if we admit a superior to it, or a dependency upon any humane Creature, the power upon which it has a dependency and is superior to it, may whensoever it pleases reassume that Right. Which would render the condition of Kings more unhappy, because more uncertain than that of the meanest private Man, by subjecting them to the Caprichio of any humane Authority, whereby they may be deposed; a degraded greatness being more subject to the greatest inward agonies and affliction, and outward contempt, than downright poverty, and no misery being comparable to a fuisse foelicem.  
NAY further, if once you admit this superiority of the Papacy over Kings, they thereby become only his Vice-Roys and Deputies, and if he judges it expedient to exercise the Authority himself, he may supersede theirs as superfluous; and you destroy the absolute necessity of inferior Monarchy, and the Kingly Office, according to the doctrine of Zamorensis, 
Rod. Sanccius Ep. Zamor. ut citatur à Carrerio lib. de potest. Rom. Pont. p. 131.  who boldly tells us, That the Papal Sovereignty being the of the World in Temporals, as well as Spirituals, the Secular Power is neither of pure nor expedient necessity, but only where the Church cannot Act. Which in explicit terms is, that it is absolutely unnecessary where the Government of the Church is established. There is but one step between the unnecessariness and uselessness of Princes, and their abolition. Thus the second Rome bids fair for a Regifugium in order to the establishment of her Spiritual Empire and Temporal. Dominion, which can never be effected without destroying this Claim and Title of Princes to the Supreme and absolute Authority within their own Dominions.  
BUT secondly, This does entirely ruin and abolish the Legislative power, 
Secondly, it ●●●es away the Legislative Power of Princes.  and Executive Dominion of the Prince. For if the Pope be superior to him, all Laws must depend upon him for their ratification: For no inferior Power can make a Law without or against the consent of the superior, every such action being a manifest infringement of the Right and Prerogative of that Power which is Supreme, nor can any Establishment or Law be put in execution by the Prince, but there will lie an appeal against him, if there can be any exception found, which will never be very difficult; Thus Bellarmine tells us, That the Pope has power to make or abrogate Laws, not as a Political but a Spiritual Prince, if they be for the health of Souls, or he may repeal them, if he judged them dangerous in that particular: So that it seems he may do it, nor is it material how it is done, whether as a Political or Spiritual Prince, since how much soever he gains the Prince loses; his Legislative power being thereby taken from him and vested ultimately in the Pope. And the Gloss upon the Roman Law is clear in the case; That if the Imperial Law contradicts the Papal, if there may be the danger of Souls, the Imperial Law is ipso facto abrogated by the Pontificial. Now to disbelieve the Pope's Supremacy being against an Article of Faith, must needs be dangerous to Souls, and by consequence to believe he may not make, alter or abrogate any Temporal Law; which would be a manifest Heresy and damnable Sin. Laws are the Guard of Princes; and the sword of Justice is one of their principal securities; and if once they come to be disarmed, they must lie at the mercy of all Enemies, Affronts, Insolences and Injuries, which the Envious, Ambitious or Discontented, with the ungenerous baseness of prevailing Cowards will dare to throw upon naked and exposed Majesty.  
AND without all dispute the belief of this Doctrine of the superiority of the Papal Power, and that for Heresy, Disobedience, and many lesser Crimes, 
Bos. de Sig. Eccl. l. 17 c. 3, 4. pag. 406.  and even unpardonable old age, if Eosius be a Catholic Doctor, Princes may be excommunicated, deposed, and punished with Capital punishments; as it gave encouragement to the Infamous writings of Pope Urban the second, 
Bar. Ann. vit. urb. 2. Ann. 1089. n. 11. Marian. Inst. Reg. pag. 61. Suarez. Def. Fid. Cath. adv. Angl. l. 6. c. 4. n. 18. Sect. Ergo.  Mariana, Suarez, and others, not fit to be named amongst Christians, and at which the very Heathens and savage Indians would turn pale; so if we will give any credit to the Catholic Historians, Sigonius, Nauclerus Urspergensis, Guicciardine, and the French Chronicles, the practice has not come short of the principle; Instances of which are amongst a multitude, Leo Isaurus, Henry the Fourth of Germany, John King of England, Henry the Third of France, and Henry the Fourth, the most Illustrious Life, and greatest Character in Europe, and it may be in the whole World; and since Treason, Rebellion, and even the murders of Princes, if done in defence of the Papal supremacy, will not only find Advocates, but narrowly miss of Canonization; no Prince can promise himself any security against the Dangers of this Doctrine, which is always able to inspire the Race of Ravailac to adventure at the fatal blow.  

Thirdly, it renders them insecure as to Possession and Succession.  AND this conducts us to the third consequence of this Faith, That no Prince can be secure either as to Person, Possession or Succession of his Crown, which by admitting a Power superior to his own, must of necessity depend upon its pleasure, supposing the Papacy in a condition by Coercion to justify the Right it claims.  

It bereaves them of the guard of Laws.  TO manifest this, we must consider upon what humane grounds the Establishment of Crowns depends, and they are principally these, Laws, Consederations and Alliances, or the Love and Fidelity of their people upon the account of Conscience and Religion: As for the Divine Right we see that is not allowed to any Crowned head by the Roman Doctrine; and for Laws you have heard their sense already. 
Of the strength of Alliances.  Nor can the Royal Masters of the Universe expect more security from the strictest Alliances and strongest Confederations; which knots cannot be so closely drawn, but the Papal breath can effect that which the great Alexander was obliged to do with his conquering Sword. Hear the Determination of Pope Urban the Sixth, sent to Charles the Emperor, 
Bull. urb. 6. Ann. Pontif. ●.  and Wenceslaus King of Bohemia, before the Council of Constance, in which he declares, That all Contracts, Confederations, Leagues and Alliances, made with Heretics, who are separated from the Unity of the Holy Church, or who shall afterwards come to be so, are by the Divine Law, Rash, Unlawful, Null and Void, even though they be confirmed by giving the most solemn Faith, and strengthened by Apostolical confirmation. What Prince can now be secure in any of his Leagues or Alliances, unless he will tamely take the Roman Yoke of Supremacy, which to refuse is Heresy, and that debars of any advantage of solemn Faith, Leagues, and Apostolically confirmed confederations; if these be Tow, Flax, and green Withs, what Bonds will avail against the Roman Samson? sure nothing but cutting off the winding Curls of this overgrown Supremacy.  

Of the Fidelity of the People.  NOR shall the Sovereign Princes of the Earth find any Refuge by retreating to the Fidelity and Allegiance of their people, founded upon the principles of Conscience. For if this be taken for a Rule of Conscience, which by being an Article of Faith it must necessarily be, That the Papal Authority is Superior to the Imperial, all men are bound to obey the Supreme power before the Inferior. And so soon as a King for disobedience or any other Crime is declared Excommunicate, his subjects are obliged not only to a nonobedience, but to disobedience: so that Rebellion and Treason are not only established by a Law, but cease to be Crimes, and become necessary Duties. This gave the Original to all those Conspiracies and Treasons against Qu. Elizabeth and her miraculous Successor King James. Viz. The Excommunicatory Bull of Pius the Fifth, afterwards revived by Gregory the Thirteenth: If we dare believe Hieronymus Gatena, who writ the Life of the said Pope, which was by licence from Sixtus Quintus then Pope, printed at Rome, Anno 1588. So that if kind Heaven, as hitherto it has constantly done, did not appear the solicitous Defender and Revenger of injured and oppressed Innocence, and more particularly the Refuge and Protection of sacred Sovereignty, which wearing its immediate character, has rarely been exposed to contempt, or been manifestly affronted without remarkable vengeance; and were there not more Fidelity to be expected and found in the Generosity of Humane Nature, than in this Religion, all Kings would by this new Roman Faith be stripped, not only of all their Royal Robes, their Divine Right and Title, but left naked and exposed, despoiled of all Humane helps and assistances, to assure their Sceptres in their hands, or to recover them should they be lost.  
NEITHER is it possible that they should be upon much better terms for their Succession and Posterity: He who cannot assure himself of his own security and establishment, is in little probability to do it for another, though his Son, and by right immediate lawful Successor. You shall hear Bellarmine's opinion, and judge whether I put an abusive construction upon their Faith. If to this, 
The Roman Church for Elective Kings. Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 1. cap. 3.  says he, were added, that neither the chief King nor those inferior Princes should enjoy these as Hereditary Dignities, but that the best Men should by the choice of the People be promoted to them, it would be the best, and in this mortal life most to be desired Government in the World. Undoubtedly to the Roman Court, to whose absolute will this pretended popular Right of Elections would presently devolve; but a material Quaere, whether to any other. But adds he, It would certainly be most agreeable to all Mankind, (I beg of his Eminence to except Sovereign and Successive Princes out of the number of the All, for it would not be very agreeable to them who are the most considerable, though not the Most) because all love that sort of Government best of which they may hope to have a share, such as without doubt this proposed by us is, where Power shall be annexed to Virtue and not Descent. The Cardinal might at least in his Levelling proposal have spared this last reflection upon those Illustrious persons, as if generally they wanted that virtue which should be the ornament to a Crown.  
THERE are several other most Impolitic inconveniencies, which of necessity do attend the admission of the Roman Religion, and are directly against the Interest of Princes, as first, that Hereby the Pope maintains a constant Intelligence and exact Correspondency with his Votaries of the Religious Orders, who own a dependence only upon him; for the Generals of every Order being usually resident at Rome, receive a constant account from those of their Order (who are Confessors to Kings, Queens, and great Ministers of State) of all the affairs of those Courts where they are permitted the greatest freedoms, which if it be of moment, is immediately communicated to the Pope or Cardinal Patron.  
SECONDLY, He has a Spiritual Militia in constant pay of the Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, and other Orders, who do not only strangely influence the people, but are able of themselves to compose a formidable power, if another Julius or Boniface the Eighth, 
Plat. in vita Bon. 8.  should, as Platina writes of him, repeat the design of striking a terror into Kings, Princes, Emperors, Nations and People.  
IN the last place, Hereby a vast and immense Treasure is Yearly drawn out of any Kingdom, (whilst men purchase from Rome Heaven and Earth) by Pardons, Indulgences, 
Templa, Saccrdotes, Altaria, Sacra, Coronae, Ignes, Thura, preces, Coelum est venale Deusque. Mantuan. Calam. lib. 3.  Dispensations, Investitures, Palls, Suits, Appeals, etc. So that a Martial Pope has all the furniture of War, Men, Money and Intelligence provided at the cost of the Prince and his People, to keep them under, or reduce them to Obedience, if they venture to affront his absolute Power and Supremacy.  
HAVING thus seen what treatment Sovereigns must expect from the Papal Supremacy, 
Papal Supremacy destructive of the People's Liberty and Property.  it is easy to conjecture what must become of the Subjects; and that Power which pretends to Excommunicate and Depose Princes, and dispose of their Crowns, must make no difficulty to be most Arbitrary in the disposal of all private fortunes; and if it be Heretical to think that our Lord God the Pope has not Power to Enact what he does, 
Extra. Jo. 22. Sect. cum inter nonnullos. Gloss. ibid. Sect. declare.  as the Extravagant (properly so called) and the Gloss there tells us, the Power of the Papacy is not only Unlimited but Almighty; and Property is but a trifle; 
Dist. 40 Sect si Papa.  for if the Pope should lead innumerable People by whole Troops to Hell with him, no mortal man ought to presume to question him for so doing. If this New Roman Faith can work such Miracles as to remove the Mountains of Government, it may with ease trample upon the little Ant-hills of the World and their busy inhabitants. The Councils of Lateran and of Trent give him power over all men's Estates, 
Concil. Lat. Sess. 9 Concil. Trident. Sess. 25. cap. 19  and to impose pecuniary Mulcts upon all degrees and conditions of people from the highest to the lowest. And how great oppressions were formerly brought upon the people of these Nations, 
Matt. Paris, p. 844.  that Pope can best tell, who thought that England was Puteus inexhaustus; and sure the pressures were intolerable, when the Commons exhibited their complaint with a Satius esset nobis mori, better die outright, than be pressed to death by such intolerable exactions, when a single Pall for Walter Grey Archbishop of York, 
Man p. 274, & 667.  went at the Rate of Ten thousand pounds, and there went out of this Realm Six Hundred Thousand Marks per Annum; the Papacy was then but young, and the Jurisdiction of the Pope was not defended as an Article of Faith. Let the words of Theodorick à Niem suffice in short, upon which I leave all sober and judicious men to Comment. Camera Apostolica, etc. The Chamber of the Apostolic See of Rome is now become the Sea of Rome into which all Rivers flow, and yet it never overflows. 
Theod. à Niem. in Nem. Tract. 6. cap. 37.  It is a Gulf which can swallow up the Crowns and Coronets of Princes, and Mitres of all other Patriarches and Prelates, those greater Rivers of Riches and Honour, undoubtedly therefore the smaller Brooks of narrow and private fortunes, though they be querulous, and murmur in their shallow passage, yet must they all fatally and finally slide into this Mother Ocean, and pay their Tribute to this Great Queen who sits upon many Waters.  
I AM sensible that at present the Court of Rome runs at low-water-mark in the affairs of Europe; which possibly is the great reason why our English Romanists who pretend to be good Subjects and lovers of their Prince, apprehend no danger in the Church of Rome, and would persuade others to be of their Opinion. But let them consider what our English Miracle of Wisdom and Learning King James has observed of the Genius of the Supremacy; and they will be convinced, that the Church of Rome leads them insensibly to the Court of Rome, and all those Consequences which attend it, which they pretend to abhor. 
K. James Def. of the Right of Kings against Card. Perron, pag. 286, 287.  Pope's always court the amity of great and prosperous Princes, but let a Kingdom fall into Disasters, or Civil Wars, who rushes sooner into the troubled streams than the Pope? who runs soonér to raise his gain by the Public wrack than the Pope? and all under colour of a heart wounded and bleeding for the Salvation of Souls. For this Doctrine of the Pope's Supremacy gives the Western Patriarch an Eternal Title, and the unfortunate circumstances of Princes a strong Temptation, and all the advantages of laying in his Claim to the disposal of Crowns and Kingdoms. And there are too many precedents of this Nature, to afford us a possibility of not foreseeing the dangerous Mischief. And that though at present it may lie Dormant, yet nullum Tempus occurrit Ecclesiae, when occasion fairly offers the Pope may rouse the sleeping Lion of his Supremacy, which will not fail to seize upon the desired Prey, the Crown of a Weak or Unfortunate Prince.  
THE Grandeur of the first Rome was not the product of a Moment, and our Proverb tells us, It was not built in a Day. And the beginnings and gradual progressions of this second Roman Empire are easily discovered, and largely discoursed of by many Learned Pens: It was the Piety and not the Policy of Princes, which first moved them to bestow their bountiful Donations and Favours upon that Church; and it is now the Policy and not the Piety of the Papacy, which endeavours to make those voluntary Gifts, become Duties and Precedents for their unjust encroachments upon the Rights, Privileges and Possessions of the Successors of their Benefactors and their Subjects. And by a prodigious Ingratitude, he who had nothing Temporal but by their Gift, will now have All, and would allow them nothing but by his. Quantum mutatus ab illo?  
What a vast difference there is betwixt S. Peter and his Successors? Silver and Gold he had none, they are not satisfied unless they may have all.  
SO that from this necessary chain of Consequences and Effects, it is most apparent that the Church of Rome by this Doctrine of Absolute Papal Supremacy, is absolutely Inconsistent with the very being, security, and succession of Monarchy, the Liberty, Happiness and Property of the People.  
AFTER all this, I must be unjust if I should not do the English Roman Catholics that Reason which they may in common Equity challenge, as to Fidelity and Loyalty to their Prince: Nor can I do it upon a better Testimony, than that of the late Martyred Monarch; who was so sensible of it, as to complain, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Sect. 15. upon the many Jealousies raised, and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against him.  He was sorry the Papists should have a greater sense of Allegiance than many Protestant Professors; who seemed to have learned, and to practise the worst Principles of the worst Papists. Nor do I know any Considerations that can be powerful enough with me, against Truth and Justice; and much less, the common Bugbear of being reputed, by the Presbyterians, a favourer of Papists; which Censure I know none that can escape who is not a Schismatic: And if there were nothing more, yet their open avowing of Loyalty against all foreign Interests, is of good weight; since generally they are persons of Quality, Worth and Honour, who set the same value upon their Word, that some others do upon the most solemn Oaths.  
BUT the Statute of Praemunire made by Papists against this Usurpation of the Papal Supremacy, 
26 Ric. 2.5.  is sufficient in a great measure to justify them, as to former times; and the Fidelity and Loyalty of the Party to his late Majesty, wherewith they sacrificed their Lives and Fortunes to his Interest; and their assistance to his present majesty's escape from the fatal Fields of Worcester; as they deserve this allowance, so will they be an Eternal Reproach to all Schismatics; not one of which ever struck a stroke in defence of the invaded Crown, thereby to make the least atonement for the Infamy of those Multitudes who were confederated against it. Nor do I imagine, that the bare Primacy of the Pope as Patriarch of the West, which is the thing they only seem to own, is inconsistent with Monarchy, (which would be to believe against the evidence of sense) but, That absolute Supremacy which is maintained by the Court of Rome, (into which by unlimited Obedience, to the Pope and his Jurisdiction, they appear in danger insensibly to slide) which certainly is utterly inconsistent with Monarchy and Loyalty, and the true Ancient Catholic Religion, which never intended the Pope to be more Supreme to the Imperial Power, than we intent the Archbishop of Canterbury to be above the King, because he is Primate and Metropolitan of all England.   

CHAP. VIII. Presbytery inconsistent with Monarchy, proved from five of their fundamental Principles. 1. That it is not the best form of Government. 2. That the Right of Kings is not from God but the People. 3. That Kings may be called in question for their Administration of the Government. 4. That they may by the People be deposed. 5. That they may be punished with Capital punishments.  
LET us now come to take a view of the Younger Antagonists of Monarchy, The Popular Supremacy of Presbytery, that Lerna Malorum, that revived Hydra of the Lake of Geneva, with its many headed Progeny, Anabaptists, Quakers, Levellers, etc. all which Unnatural offspring of this Monster are as kind to their Dam as Vipers, and as inconsistent with Monarchy as they pretend to be with the Papacy (with which Presbytery justles for Universal Supremacy) or any of them with Loyalty, Royalty, or true Religion: for that commands all men every where to be blameless and harmless as the Sons of God; to which practice of Innocence, however their Appearance may deceive the Credulous and Ignorant, their Principles and Actions, even those they call Religious, being done in contempt of and disobedience to a lawful Authority (for a good Action may become sinful by being ill done) are as contrary as Light and Darkness, Blackness and Whiteness, Hell and Heaven, or if there by any thing that can possibly be more infinitely distant.  
AND to make this appear shall be my Task, Canis ad Nilum, remembering they are Crocodiles, whose very sighs and tears are treacherous. There can be no great pleasure to dwell among Lions, and as the same Royal Writer tells us, it is unsafe as well as uneasy to sojourn under the Black Curtains, and to dwell with them that hate Peace, amongst such as are set on fire, even the Sons of Men, whose Teeth are Spears and Arrows, and their tongue a sharp Sword. We will therefore examine their Principles and Practice, both which we shall see keep a most harmonious Concord, if that can be, where no other thing but Discord dwells.  

Presbytery inconsistent with Monarchy proved from five of their fundamental Principles.  THAT their Principles are Antimonarchical will appear from the great Father and Oracle of Presbytery John Calvin with which he has furnished his Disciples in the Book of his Institutions, which those apt Scholars have very much improved, as will appear by their Spiritual Democratick form of Regiment which they would introduce and impose upon the Christian World. Amongst many others these are the Chief, and enough in Conscience (with the help of that great Name which they writ upon them as Druggist's do golden Characters upon Poisonous Ingredients) to ruin all the Monarchies in the World.  

The first Principle of Presbytery, That Monarchy is not the best form of Government. Cal. Inst. l. 4. c. 20. p. 532.  FOR first they hold that Monarchy is not the best form of Government, and herein you shall hear Mr. Calvin define as Magisterially against the stream of all the Philosophers and Wisemen of the World in all Ages, as if he had robbed St. Peter to pay St. Paul, and had stolen away the Pope's infallibility with his Chair, to plant it in his new Empire of Geneva, Verily (and truly saith he) if the three forms of Government which Philosophers mention be considered, 
* It is the true Presbyterian English of minimè negaverim.  I do affirm, That Aristocracy or one compounded of that and Democracy, is that which does far excel all the rest; though not so much for itself as because it rarely happen that Princes are so moderate as not to deviate from what is Just and Right; or furnished with so much 
* Tanto acumine.  sharpness of Wit and Prudence, as to see when all is well: The vices therefore and defects of Men, make it more safe and tolerable to have the Reins of Government committed to more hands than one. Here is a foundation laid by the perpetual Dictator of Presbytery, to abolish all Monarchy, and to introduce into the World an Aristocratick Democracy in its Room. He tells us, it is by far the more excellent form of Government: and he endeavours to confirm his Position by the most disgraceful, saucy, contumelious reflections and calumnies upon all Princes. In general they want both quickness of Wit and Prudence to manage affairs of State, or to know what is best for the public; that commonly they are defective, vicious, and debauched, and that therefore their Government is not very safe or tolerable; and that they are not fit to be trusted with the Reins in their hands, but the Administration of affairs ought to be committed to more than one.  
IS not here a plain text for his Disciples to write their black Comments and bloody Rubriques upon? Monarchy is neither good, safe, nor tolerable, Kings have rarely either Wit, Prudence, or Honesty, (and our Modern Presbyterians add Money neither, which they may ask long enough before they will supply them by their good wills) but are either vicious or defective; ergo, That Government ought to be abolished, and Aristocratick Democracy (which good Man! he will not deny but it is the best) ought to be established, as he proceeds; 
Idem ibid.  That so they may mutually help one another, teach and admonish one another (all the Arts of Rapine and Oppression) and (adds he) if any one exalts himself more than he ought, there may be more Masters to repress his Insolence. Kings it seems have no Cabinet or Privy Counsellors, no Parliaments to advise with, no great and able Ministers of State, nor ever a faithful Friend or prudent Counsellor, to be helpful to them, in Arduis Regni, in any difficult occurrences of Government, and not ability enough to do it themselves. But I perceive the main of the quarrel is, because Mr. Calvin and his pragmatical High-shooes, are not permitted to be Masters of Misrule, and the grave Censors of Monarchy: 
Pro. 17.26. Eccles. 8.4.  because they may not take the freedom to strike Princes for equity, and be so familiar with Majesty (or rather Superior) as to give it gentle Correction, and to say to their King, What dost thou? 
Conference at Hampt. Court.  as the beardless Boys of whom the Wise King James complains during their Empire in Scotland were wont frequently to do. But he proceeds, I do freely confess, 
Idem ibid.  that as I think no kind of Government more happy than this, where Liberty (observe that dangerous word, which has cost England so many Millions of Treasure, and such Rivers of Blood) accompanied with Moderation, is established for duration; So I think that People most happy who enjoy that condition of Life and Government. Do you think so, good Mr. John? I wish you had thought twice on't for the Proverbs sake, that second thoughts are best, before you had as an Institution, Printed this fatal principle of Liberty of Conscience and Moderation as you call it, or rather it is to be wished you had never thought such a pernicious Position. I am sure though after all your musing your thought was not worth a penny, we have paid dearly for your thinking this Liberty for us; and wanted but little of falling by it into the greatest slavery that can be thought of, called Presbyterian Liberty and Government in Church and State, and by their restless endeavours, one may be confident that some of your party and persuasion will want of their wills, but they will both think us and act us into the same or a worse condition again, if God be not the more propitious to us: and it is but little comfort for us to think after all the mischiefs we have and may suffer for this thought, that the Disciples of this great Master will repay us with a second thought as bad as the first, and the Character of Fools, a Non putaram, we did not think it would have come to this, or who would ever have thought it?  
BUT he goes on to push them vigorously forward in the enterprise; and his following words are able to give encouragement to the most languishing Presbyterian, and to revive the fainting good Old Cause, with a dram of the Bottle of his Aqua Mirabilis, otherwise called by the Sons of Hermes, Aqua Stygia, Stygian Water or Aqua Fortis, which will eat the Gates of Brass, and the Iron Bars of Monarchy in pieces. 
Idem ibid.  For says he, if People do most stoutly and constantly endeavour to preserve and keep this Liberty, I will grant, that they do no more than they ought to do. Certainly the Devil of Delphos never gave a plainer Oracle to inspire all People with Rebellion against Princes, and to throw off the Government of Monarchy; and that ambiguous Sentence directed to Sir John Maltravers and Sir Thomas Gurney, concerning King Edward the Second, did not more assure them what they were to do with him, being interpreted as all such doubtful speeches are according to the desire and interest of the Faction.  

Edvardum nolite occidere timere bonum est.   

To shed your Sovereign Edward's blood  
Be sure you do not fear is good.   
This double-barreled pocket Pistol did not more certainly hit King Edward's Life, than these words of Calvin interpreted by the Presbyterian Faction, did contribute to the late horrid Rebellion, ruin of the Church to introduce this Liberty and Moderation, Extirpation of Monarchy, Murder of Sacred Majesty in Person, in Fame, and in Effigy; which last I saw with my Eyes in the Old Exchange, where the Statue of the Martyr being pulled down, triumphant Treason was in golden Characters exalted and written in these words, Exit Tyrannus, Regum ultimus, Anno Libertatis Angliae primo. Such a profanation of the Image of the Deity (as all Kings are) as it seems nothing but those dreadful flames which since laid it in ashes could purge and expiate, and as the conclusion of all from hence sprung the model of the Republic, The Custodes Libertatis Angliae, The Keepers of the Liberties of England, as in all their public Instruments they falsely styled themselves.  
AND that this was the natural and easy consequence, or to speak in their Cant the Use of Exhortation and Encouragement is plain: for it is lawful for all men to seek after Liberty, especially of Conscience; The People of these Nations are a freeborn People: It is the greatest felicity, and they the most happy People who may enjoy this Dear Liberty; all men are bound to promote their own Happiness, they cannot do too much to preserve it, and if they do endeavour most stoutly and constantly to maintain it, by War and Rebellion, they do no more than their duty does command them. The King was a Tyrant, and under the notion of Prerogative, did daily entrench upon the People's Privilege and Liberty, he had a design to enslave them; The Commons were oppressed both in their Civil and Religious Rights; The Parliament were the People's Representatives, and from them had a power to defend their Liberties, and that stoutly, with Sword and Pistol, Powder and Bullet, and to call the King to an account, and to judge him for these miscarriages, as from calvin's own words I shall presently show. The King had rendered himself unworthy to reign, as from his words and Knox's another of their fiery Doctors I shall show; Therefore they might in defence and for the preservation of their Dear Liberties, especially Liberty of Conscience and Moderation, and the Rights of the People, make War against him (for Preces & Lachrymae, the Prayers and Tears those ancient Arms of the Catholic Church are of no request or force with the Church of Geneva) they might by the encouragement and prevalency of their prosperous villainies alter the established form of Government, Civil and Ecclesiastical, depose the King, take away his Crown and Life, banish his Successor, and the whole Royal Family, which was a favour some of them never intended; for I have heard it confidently reported, that it was hotly urged by some of those Barbarous Villains, to put his Royal Highness the Duke of York Apprentice to some mean Mechanic Trade, thereby to bring the utmost contempt and debasement upon that Illustrious Family and Person, and in short this taught them to support the mischiefs they had done, by doing greater, and having murdered the Possessor to seize upon his Inheritance.  
JUDGE now O Heaven and Earth, Ye Princes and all People how consistent this Doctrine is with the safety and security, nay the very being of Monarchy, and particularly with that of the English Nation.  

A second Principle of Presbytury, That Kings have no Divine Right but only from the People's Election, or the Constitutions and Laws of the Nation.  A second Principle of Presbytery is, That Kings have no divine Right to their Crowns, but that the People's Election is the only true Title to them, or which is as bad, that only the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation give them their Right. John Knox the Disciple of Calvin, who like a Fireship of Rebellion, set all Scotland into Combustions, and treated Kings and Queens at that Imperious rate as if they had been his Subjects, the first Founder of the Kirk Militant in a literal sense, seems to have borrowed this from that Pest of Writers Buchanan, or else to have lent it him; for the Monster lies betwixt them, and I shall not pretend to determine the challenge who is the true Parent. Knox says, It is not birthright nor propinquity of blood that makes a King lawfully to Reign; 
Knox to England and Scotland, p. 77. Buch. de jure Reg. p. 13. & p. 61.  and Buchanan boldly, Populo jus est, ut imperium cui velit deferat, The Right of bestowing Crowns is in the People, who he tells us are greater and better than their Sovereign; and upon this Postulatum, with a true Scotch Presbyterian confidence, Knox proceeds to a treasonable determination: 
Knox Hist. of Res. of Scotl. cap. 5. p. 77.  If the people (quoth he) have either rashly promoted any manifestly wicked Person, or else ignorantly chosen such a one as afterwards declareth himself unworthy of Regiment above the People of God, and such (saith he) be all Idolaters and cruel Persecutors, most justly may the same men depose him and punish him. Have a little Patience to see this put in mood and figure, and you will find the true Elenchus motuum nuperorum in Anglia, without consulting Doctor Bates; and the old Chain to draw up new Flames of Rebellion out of the Mon Gibell of Presbytery, or rather out of the bottomless Abyss of Fire and Brimstone where the Prince of Rebels keeps his Flaming Court. The Presbyterians are the only Saints and People of God; The Worship and Government of the Church of England is Antichristian and Idolatrous; The King joins in Communion with that Church, and persecutes the People and Saints of God; Idolaters and Persecutors are unworthy of Regiment, and may most justly be deposed and punished by the People, from whose Election they claim their Title; Ergo— shall I need to make the Conclusion? I need not: they have done it themselves by their practice, to the shame of not only the Reformation, but even Christianity itself: and indeed the Conclusion is so impious and horrible, that I dare not write so much abominable Treason as it will amount to, though with the perfectest horror and detestation of it, and a design to expose it to the public Odium of the whole Earth.  
NOR is the other Position less dangerous or destructive of Monarchy, which places their Right and Title upon the human foundation of Laws and the Constitutions of any Government; as the Author of a Printed Speech not long since published does, wherein he asserts, That he is obliged to this Race of Kings, only by virtue of the Laws of the Land, and no longer than they Govern by those Laws; which is so great and fundamental an error in Politics, as draws after it innumerable and intolerable mischiefs in the consequences and practice. For it is not the Law that makes the King, which if it did, might unmake him, but it is the King that makes the Law; and though both for his own and the public interest which are inseparable, he ought to act according to those Laws, which do the more powerfully oblige him by being his voluntary establishments, and the effects of his Will, yet was he a King in his Ancestors before they were Laws, and would be so if they were not at all, or if they were changed by consent for others. For Monarchy and Government derive their title and Pedigree from an Original much before the Age of the most ancient Laws, even from him by whom King's Reign, the Eternal Monarch of the World.  
AND whereas the Penman of the foresaid Speech endeavours to confirm his Opinion by a smart reflection upon the English Episcopal Clergy, as being the first broachers of this Doctrine of the Divine Right of Princes, telling us he does not find that the Romish Doctors own it, he is possibly better read in Law than in Divinity, otherways he might easily have satisfied himself of the reason why the late Romish Writers do disown it, which is because they would vest the Papal jurisdiction with the sole Monopoly of a Divine Right, that so all Princes may be obliged to borrow their confirmation from the fullness of the Church's Treasury: for to affirm that any Prince reigns by Divine Right, absolutely ruins their great Design, since being proved, it vacates the pretensions of the Papal Authority over him; it being as absurd to pretend a Supremacy over him who is next to God, as it would be superfluous for a King who is so, to expect a better Title from any mortal man how great soever, than he has from the Great Charter and Grant of Heaven.  
NOR ought this to be fixed upon the English Clergy as an odious badge of servile, officious, or designing Flattery, since had they been so Principled, it lays so firm a foundation for Government, obedience, the peace and happiness of the world, it would have been so far from being infamous or dishonourable, that they would have deserved golden Statues and the eternal gratitude and commemoration of all mankind; but the honour is too great for them, and they are too modest to arrogate such a happy invention to themselves. It is to God himself and Christ the Eternal Son of the blessed, and to his holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul that this honour is justly due, who being inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, give this Divine Right to Kings and Government, commanding Universal Obedience to them because they are ordained of God. What was Canonical Scripture to the Primitive Ages must be so to us, and if Kings had then a Divine Right they have so still; and whoever will deny this Doctrine must undertake to prove, that those Apostolical Commands and Assertions were only temporary directions for Obedience; and must show us when and where they were by Gods command repealed or superseded: for no Law can be abrogated but by the same or a greater Power than that which did establish it; and till this be done, This positive divine right of all lawful Powers, will remain a firm unshaken and  foundation for the Crowns of Princes.  
THEY must certainly be the Enemies of Crowns who would set them upon the heads of Monarches by the tottering right of human Laws and pleasure; and from hence we may conjecture at the Geneva kindness, for this is the Universal Judgement of all true Presbyterians: and the misfortune of it is, that they who are only so as to some other Doctrines, but may abhor both this and the practice of it, yet do this mischief by their separation from us and Union with that Party, that by their numbers they swell the Tide, and when it has once broke the Banks of Loyalty and Obedience, then for their own security, they must be obliged either to swim down the impetuous inundation of Rebellion, or else resolve by opposing it when it is too late, to be drowned in those turbulent Wa●●●●, which they helped to raise: as some of them to their cost in the late Times found to be true by dear experience, who endeavouring to make a tack towards the Coast of Loyalty, made Shipwreck of their Lives and Fortunes, as before they had done of their Allegiance and a good Conscience, witness Mr. Love and several others, with whose Martyrdom as they called it, and some other trifling assistances to his Majesty's happy Restauration which they could not avoid, they would persuade the World, that they have made such an atonement for the last, that now they may run upon the score with us, and have credit enough for a new Rebellion.  
THAT they believe the People to be above the King which is a fair step towards one, is plain: for they take it for a fundamental of Government and the Liberty of the People, That they may appeal from the King to the Parliament as did the Scottish Kirk whose words are, That the Parliament ever retained a Jurisdiction in itself both over the Church and Crown; though as I shall show hereafter this is but a Presbyterian wheedle to a Parliament to make them give the King the Mate; and the People I say, the Good People are the Men in whom the Supreme Power resides, that is the Presbyters and Elders assembled in the Great Sanhedrim, who represent both Church and State, which the Parliament as they would have it being dismembered of the Episcopal Clergy cannot properly do. But to take them at their word for once, though I know they do not mean as they speak, and let it pass for one of their piae frauds, at which art they are more dexterous than an old Jesuit; we know no appeal with hopes of redress can lie but from an inferior to a superior Power; and all they aim at in it, is to ruin Monarchy by advancing a Popular Supremacy above it, which till by them they have accomplished their design, they make Semblance as if it were in the Parliament, yet Ultimately they intent it for themselves and the Spiritual Cabal; for if the Parliament as the People's Representatives, be Superior to the King, all his Right as to Possession, Power, and Succession, depends upon them; and how incompatible a Superior Jurisdiction within the same Dominions is with absolute Monarchy, we have already made appear; since it is the same thing whether the Pope or Parliament in the name of the People have the Supremacy over the Unfortunate Prince.  

The third Principle of Presbytery, That Kings may by the People be called in Question for their Administration of the Government.  A third Principle of Presbytery, and which is the natural consequent of the former is, That Kings may by their People, or their Representatives the Parliament, (by which word they always understand the Commons, the Lay-Lords as well as the spiritual being in truth their great aversion and abomination as experience has told us) be called in Question for their Miscarriages, or ill Administration of the Government. This is the Doctrine of Calvin and of Devils those Primitive Rebels, and perpetual Incendiaries of the World, the malicious disturbers of the peace and happiness of Mankind. Our blessed Jesus the Everlasting Prince of Peace, taught no such Doctrine; for the word which God sent, was preaching Peace by Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all) Obedience to Magistrates, 
Acts 10.36.  and to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, which by his great Example in paying tribute and working a Miracle for himself and St. Peter, he confirmed, and it may be in that single instance has cut the sinews of the Papal as well as popular Plea to Supremacy over Earthly Sovereigns. But what says Mr. Calvin with his new Geneva Gospel? 
Cal. Inst. lib. 4. p. 540. cap. 20. §. 31. Audiant Principes & terreantur. " Hear O ye Kings and be terrified (and well they may at what follows, if what he says be as true as the Gospel, which though his believers credit, I must beg their excuse if I dare not) for (saith he) if there be any popular Magistrates appointed to moderate the lawless lusts of Kings (such as were formerly the Ephori opposed to the Kings of Sparta, the Tribunes of the people to the Roman Consuls, the Demarchi to the Athenian Senate, and with which Power (it may be) as things now stand, the three Estates in all Kingdoms are vested when they meet in Parliament) I do not forbid them to interpose as it is their duty against the fierceness of Kings; so that if their impotent rage trample upon, or insult over the meanest of the Populace, and they wink at it; I do affirm that such their dissimulation cannot be excused from a most wicked perfidiousness; because they do thereby fraudulently betray the Liberty of the People of which they know themselves by God's appointment the Preservers or Defenders, according to the Commonwealth translation of the place the Keepers, or as Nol rendered it, the Protector of the Liberty of the People. Private Men indeed he there teaches must submit, but a Parliament may, nay must Rebel by their own Authority and of necessity.  
HERE is in little a true Landscape, and prophetical direction of all our late Rebellion, The Parliament (he says the three Estates, but his Disciples are greater Artists than their Master, and can effect their design with a quarter of one of them) are by God's appointment the Keepers of the Liberties of the People, they must not betray their trust by a base and wicked perfidiousness; The King (as they foreplot their suggestion to bait the people into Rebellion) designs to take away these Liberties of the people, and to enslave them under Episcopal Hierarchy in the Church, Monopolies, Purveyance, Protections, etc. in their politic Liberties, he insults over, and tramples upon the Populace, therefore the Parliament may and aught to defend them: all Remonstrances and Petitions are in vain; all the fair offers of Majesty in order to their satisfaction and a pacification are but pretences of kindness, revocable at his pleasure; and therefore there is a necessity, to throw the fatal die of War, and do themselves Justice by the Sword, that Vltima Ratio Perduellionis, rather than betray the trust reposed in them; and which, if it be true that he affirms, that they know themselves appointed by God, they have a Divine Authority to do, and the Sovereign Power resides in them, and the King is to be accountable for his ill administration of the Government, and so farewell Monarchy, for it is come to its Conclamatum est, and must expire beyond all hope of recovery or resurrection.  

A fourth Principle of Presbytery, That Kings may by their People be deposed for miscarriages in Government.  AND this leads them to a fourth Principle by an unavoidable necessity: for he that draws his Sword against his Prince must throw away the old Scabbard, and find a new one for his own security in his Sovereign's breast. Such dangerous Quarrels as are Competitions for Empire, are not to be determined but by the fall of one Party, and there is no hopes of comprimising where supreme Sovereignty is the apple of Contention. Caesar aut nullus is the word, and therefore in order to the necessary security of Rebels, or such who intent to be so, who can never apprehend themselves safe, so long as their Prince retains a power to punish them; therefore they hold, That if Kings be found guilty of Miscarriages, they may by the people be deposed from the Government and deprived of their Crowns. This is the Doctrine of John Knox which he brought from the Divinity Schools of Geneva. 
Knox Hist. of Refor. or Scotl. p. 392, 393.  That Subjects may not only lawfully oppose themselves against their Kings whensoever they do any thing that expressly oppugns God's Commandment, but also that they may execute judgement upon them according to God's Law; so that if the King be a Murderer, Adulterer, or Idolater, he shall suffer according to God's Law, not as a King, but as an offender. Excellent Scottish Presbyterian Divinity! borrowed from the Cobbler of Collen, of whom I have somewhere read, who taught his fellow Mutineers so neatly to distinguish betwixt the Prince Elector and the Archbishop! Great pity it was that this Perillus of Presbytery did not try the first experiment of his nice distinction, in his own fiery brazen Bull which he invented for Monarchy, and in reality all Government which is not agreeable to their humour and design.  

— Nec Lex est justior ulla  
Quam Necis Artifices arte perire suâ.   

Rebellious Artists ought to try  
Their own Art first and by it die.   
And if John Knox had been hanged, drawn, and quartered for Treason, not as Godly and zealous John Knox, but as a most desperate Incendiary and impudent Traitor; possibly the succeeding Rebels, would have thought the difference betwixt the King and the Person so little, as not to have granted Commissions to destroy the one, whilst they pretended to honour and obey the other: and it may be they would have considered, that it might one day come to be their own Case, to suffer as Traitors and notorious Malefactors though not as Men; which measure since they could never have approved for themselves, possibly they might have judged unfit for their Royal Master. The former Principles bring the King to be a fellow Subject, a Royal Slave in golden Shackles, and submits him to the supreme popular Authority; this leads him to the High Court of Justice, and from thence conducts him to the Scaffold and the fatal Block.  
NOR will worthy Mr. Calvin (which title I will give him though it be plain Peter and Paul, in his and his Disciples mouths, who it seems reserve the Saintship only to themselves) he I say will not want an Oar in the Boat of a Rebellion, or a hand in establishing a Principle of High Treason against Sovereign Princes. Let us hear him Comment upon the Text. 
Cal. in Dan. 6.22.25.  Earthly Princes (saith he) 
* Abdicant se.  divest themselves of all right to power, when they rebel against God, and are unworthy to be accounted in the number of Men (that is in plain English, they do not deserve to live) and men ought rather to spit in their faces, than to obey them, when they become so 
* Vhi sit protoralant.  saucily proud or froward, as to endeavour to despoil God of his Right. And. I wonder what he did deserve, who was so saucy, as to endeavour to spoil Princes of theirs, and God too, who is their only Judge and Superior, and not Mr. Calvin or his People? Let us once more reduce this Calvinistical Logic into Syllogisms, and you shall plainly see the Presbyterian Conclusion.  
THAT King who is an Idolater or a Persecutor, is a Rebel against God, and has disrobed himself of all Right to Reign or Live, according to God's Law he is to be punished not as a King but as a Man, in which number too he scarcely deserves to be accounted.  
BUT the King of— is an Idolater and Persecutor of God's people the Saints of Presbytery, Ergo.  
THE major or first proposition, you see is their positive Doctrine and own words, the minor is thus proved by them.  
KNEELING at the Sacrament and bowing at the name of Jesus is Idolatry, and punishing the Godly is Persecution.  
BUT the King of— knelt and punishes, Ergo.  
AND though both the branches of the first proposition concerning Idolatry and persecution be false; yet being decreed in the infallible Consistory, all the arguments and demonstrations in the World are in vain to persuade them to the contrary. And therefore from this abominable Divinity and new State Logic of Presbytery, they draw the dismal Conclusions, That Kings may be Excommunicated by the Presbyters for those Imaginary Crimes, and may by the people be deposed, as whoever will consult Knox, 
Buch. de Jure Reg. p. 58.62.70. Knox Hist. Ref. p. 372. Goodman in his Book of obedience, or rather Treason, passim, praecipue p. 180, 184, 185.  Buchanan, Goodman, etc. may sufficiently be convinced; and that they esteem their deposition not only lawful, but their public Murders or private Assasination: and though a 
* Dr. Bilson Warden of Winchester, p. 509.  learned man of the Church of England endeavours to excuse this Doctrine, and mitigate these harsh words of Mr. Calvin; it was before he saw the Conclusion, nor did he apprehend it would ever be drawn into practice; and his Plea for Calvin is rather to be attributed to his great aversion to the Papacy, which mistake still prevails with too many, who by bending themselves too far from the one extreme of Popery which they hate, break into Presbytery as the most opposite Interest, whose malicious Calumniations make all people Papists who are not Schismatics; though all the advantage such deceived Zealots purchase by running away from the Church of England under that abusive notion of Popish and Antichristian which her Enemies brand her withal, is that 

Incidit in Scyllam dum vult vitare Charybdim.   

Whilst swift Charybdis they avoid,  
They into fatal Scylla slide.   And had the worthy Gentleman and many others who are imposed upon by the same stratagem, either seen or foreseen the tragical consequences of this Doctrine, I persuade myself he had too much Loyalty to become its Advocate, and the other have too much honesty and love for Monarchy to advance the interest of Presbytery which is as mortal an Enemy to it as the Papacy.  

King Charles the First, who was thus like our Saviour rudely affronted by the barbarous Red-Coats.  WHEN the Son of God came to be spit upon, he was very near his Crucifixion: and a dreadful example has taught us, that when a glorious Monarch felt the fatal effects of this rude and barbarous Divinity, and in Westminster-Hall received the same insolent treatment from the impious Soldiers, he was at no great distance from his Martyrdom; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Medit. upon death after the Vote of Non-addresses.  for if as he makes it his observation, if there be but few steps betwixt the Prisons of Princes and their Graves, there cannot be many betwixt their being deposed, brought to Trial, and Execution; and therefore you shall see the Conclusion of the whole matter, and what a certain Catastrophe unavoidably follows and must fall upon Princes from the former premises.  

The Conclusion of the former Principles of Presbytery, That Kings may be brought to Capital punishments.  THE last result of all their Positions may more properly be called a conclusion than a principle of Presbytery; That Princes may be punished with Capital punishments and loss of Life, as well as Dignity and Power.  
I need not give myself the trouble, or the Reader the Fatigue by a long proof of the truth of this horrible and tragical Assertion which is the natural and proper effect of the former Principles which you see bring a King to the Infamous Block; from whence there is no instance of any Prince that ever returned alive. They have done it themselves, 
Vestigia nulla retrorsum, must be the devilish policy of such procedures.  and their late actions are still so fresh in all men's Memories that it were an endless pain— Infandos renovare Dolores, to repeat them over again: and the very rehearsal of such unexampled miseries, when the breath of our Nostrils, the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their Pits, 
Lament. 4.20.  of whom we said under his shadow we shall be safe and live among those Heathens, would be so sensible an affliction, as would be next to the suffering of them. The deep Tragedy to the Eternal Infamy of the Villainous Actors, was not done in a Corner, or behind the Curtain, but by a prodigious Excess of remorseless Impudence, upon the public Theatre of the World, and by the glorious Lamp of Heaven, which with amazement beheld an Action, to the Parallel of which, his bright Beams had never before contributed their Assistance, and I hope he will never see such another gloomy Day.  
I am not willing to do that over again and by an Ingrateful task Copy over this Horrid Piece, which has been so well and often done by others, and particularly by Mr. Fowlis, in his History of the Wicked Plots and Conspiracies of our pretended Saints, to which Book, if any persons can want satisfaction in these too well known Truths, they may have recourse, and there receive it in most ample measure from the Records and Evidences of the Actors themselves.  
AND though I cannot think them so dangerous to the State whose Principles and natural subdivisions will crumble them into confusion, yet must not the offspring of Presbytery think to plead exemption from the guilt of being Antimonarchical, or scape , more than their Brethren in Iniquity of the Kirk. The common saying has but too much truth in it to excuse them from the Plea of Not guilty; That the Presbyterians brought the late King to the Scaffold, and held him by the Hair, whilst the Independants cut off his Royal Head. For a short taste of their Natures (and a little of this is enough to surfeit a Loyal Ear) take the words of one of the Chief of them, who pretends to be a great Friend to the Parliament, Army, and Congregational Churches, but a greater to himself in concealing his name to one of the most Infamous Pamphlets that ever blotted Paper, 
Printed by J.M. and Lodowick Lloyd, and H. Cripps, and sold at their Shops in Popes-Head Ally, 1650. p. 57  which he Entitles, One blow more at Babylon, etc. It is well known (saith he) that the late King was not Murdered by the Parliament, but fell by the stroke of Justice, and that so Legally and righteously administered for his bloody Crimes he became guilty of in the Face of Heaven, that we doubt not but God was well pleased with it; and will clear the inflicters of it (if they keep their Integrity) against all their Accusers and Condemners whatsoever.  
HERE is a short Diagram of the Religion of Independency. The King (they say) was guilty of bloody Crimes (though never any one could be proved against him) It was lawful for the Parliament to Question, Judge and Condemn him; this was Righteous and Legal Judgement, and acceptable to God: the taking away his life was not Murder, but the stroke of Justice righteously administered. All the misfortune is, this man either was a false Prophet, or God was not well pleased, or the inflicters of this dismal stroke did not keep their Integrity: for Divine vengeance, by the miraculous and peaceable Restauration of the Gracious Son, not only eagerly pursued, but quickly overtook these villainous Murderers of the glorious Father; and their Crimes were so publicly notorious and infamous to the whole world, that they found not so much as a possibility of being cleared against all their accusers and condemners, or of the benefit of that general amnesty and pardon, which speaks the Son as great and generous in forgiving, as the unshaken Father was in suffering: as some of their traitorous Heads still tell the World without a Tongue, and make better speeches upon London bridge and the Prinnacles of the Parliament-House, than ever they or any like them made within it; whilst in their grinning Language, they speak a terrible Talis eris to all Fire-brained Traitors; and read a constant Lecture of Horror, and Eternal Infamy, to all perfidious and audacious Rebels, who in those Monuments of Justice, may see the inevitable destiny of Treason and Usurpation. So that you may see, Qualis Pater, talis Filius, Like Father, Like Son. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Egg and Bird, Independency the true though undutiful Son of Presbytery is as like it, as if it had been spit out of its mouth: but with this difference, in the truth of the Case, that the Presbyterians murdered the King; the Independants only the Man.  
As for the Anabaptist, Leveller, Quaker, etc. let Munster eternally complain of the first, and England of them all. The Rebel Army was a moving Amsterdam, where it is said if a man has lost what he calls his Religion, he may either find it or a new one every whit as good; and most of these Sects and Opinions drew their Original from those Nurseties of Rebellious Saints: and the People are like to be well tutored in Loyalty and the Principles of Allegiance, who blinded by their bright pretences to light and sanctity commit themselves to the guidance and instruction of them scum and spawn of those traitorous Legions; who are little inferior either in malice or design (at least eventually) to those, who by the powerful command of divine humanity, having quitted the miserable inhabitant of the Tombs, entered by his permission into the prohibited Herd of the Gadarenes: 
St. Mark cap. 32.  for having once possessed their followers and Disciples with their Devilish Doctrines, they are not at quiet till they rush them violently down the steep Precipice of Rebellion, to be drowned and swallowed up in the Ocean of Ruin and Confusion; and the miseries we were so lately delivered from by a Miracle, makes even that appear small in comparison of our being again deluded, by those Persons, whose hands were washed in Rebellion and Murder instead of Innocence, whose tongues are tipped with lies, calumnies, and blasphemy, and whose Garments (over which they throw the Prophet's Mantle to keep them from discovery) yet wear the indelible stains of that humane blood (in which they were rolled) of so many thousands of Illustrious and Innocent Lives, as in that Unnatural War, whereof they were the Occasions, Maintainers and Defenders, fell as Sacrifices to their fury, and their Sovereigns Right and Country's Liberty.  
I shall not attempt a solemn confutation of these Positions, judging them far more fit for the conviction of the Law than of the Gospel, to both which they are directly contrary; as also in regard it has been so often done by others of greater abilities and better oppertunities. However that King's Reign by a Divine Right (and if they do, than all these Positions are Treason, Rebellion, and Usurpation, not only against them but God) I refer these Haters of Monarchy and Plagues of Mankind, the implacable Enemies of our Peace and Happiness, to that place in Daniel, 
Dan. 4.25.  to which if they do not assent they are Insidels and no Christians, and deserve the strange doom of Nabuchadnezzar, to be driven from amongst Men, and to have their dwelling amongst the Beasts of the Field, to eat grass as Oxen, and to be wet with the dew of Heaven, till they know and acknowledge, that the most highest ruleth in the Kingdom of Men, and giveth it to whomsoever he pleaseth. From which place it is as clear as the brightest Day, That the sole Sovereignty and disposal of Crowns, is immediately in the hands of the most high God, and that they who have them hold them of his Gift: and if that be not a Divine Right, there is no such thing in Nature; and if they have a Divine Right, no People, or Parliament, or Earthly Power, can pretend by calling them to an account, deposing or punishing them, to rob Kings of this Title and Authority, which they hold by the immediate Grant of Heaven, but at the same time they invade the Prerogative of the most High Ruler of Heaven and Earth, and rob him of his incommunicable Right in the disposal of Crowns.  
I cannot believe them so ignorant, but that they know what must be the end of such an audacious Sacrilege. If they admit Kings to have a Divine Right (which they must either do, or deny this to be Scripture) they cannot pretend to any Power to take it from them, for nothing can invalidate any Grant, but the same or a greater Power, than that which gave it; and therefore, if Kings offend, though Subjects may in all humility Remonstrate and Petition for Redress, yet are they by the Laws of Religion utterly prohibited to make use of force or violence, either to obtain their desires or satisfy their Revenge; for as our learned Bracton religiously observes, Deum expectat Vltorem. And if God Almighty reserves vengeance as his peculiar Prerogative, and will not permit us to execute it upon private men, Dear Beloved avenge not yourselves, for vengeance is mine saith the Lord and I will repay it; how can any person in reason think, that private Men and Subjects, should have a power to execute it upon Princes, who bear his immediate Characters, and are his Vice-gerents, and as he himself styles them Earthly Gods? Or if they dare attempt to do it; 
1 Sam. 26.9.  Or if they dare attempt to do it; Who can lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless? Undoubtedly whoever does it is guilty not only of Treason against the King, but of Rebellion against God; and whoever is so audacious to draw his Sword against his Sovereign, does so far as he is able endeavour to wrest the dreadful Sword of the Lord out of the hand of Omnipotence, to carve out vengeance for himself: and I dare boldly say, that whoever takes that Sword against his Will, shall perish by the Sword; for this is an Honour which he will not part with. Hear him speak himself, and he who will not believe God when he speaks is not to be believed to have any Religion which is properly the fear of God, whatever he may pretend. 
Deut. 22.34.35.40.41.42.  Is not this (saith the Almighty) laid up in store with me, and sealed up amongst my Treasures? To me belongeth vengeance and recompense, for I lift up my hand to Heaven, and say, I live for ever; if I whet my glittering Sword, and my hand take hold of Judgement, I will render vengeance to my Enemies. And what greater Enemies to God than such persons as endeavour to rob him of that which he has not only laid up, but sealed amongst his Treasures? And they who are so audacious as to attempt this Sacrilegious Felony against Heaven, to break up his treasury, whatever they may say of themselves, cannot be supposed to fear either God or the Devil: and certainly all Mankind have a great deal of reason to fear, and endeavour to suppress men of such daring confidence and mischievous Principles.   

CHAP. IX. Presbytery in reality as great an Enemy to Democracy and Parliaments as to Monarchy. A short view of their Tyrannique Consistorian Government over the Magistracy, Clergy, and Laity. Of the latitude and power of scandal to draw all affairs into the Consistory. Of their kindness to their Enemies. The small difference betwixt a Jesuit and Geneva Presbyter. Both aim at Supremacy.  
THUS have we seen that Presbyterian Supremacy is by its avowed Principles not only inconsistent with but destructive of Monarchy. Let us examine it a little more severely, and we shall find that it is absolutely inconsistent with all Government (except it's own oligarchique Spiritual Tyranny) and even that adored Democracy, 
Presbytery in reality as great an Enemy to Democracy and Parliaments as to Monarchy.  which it pretends to hug and embrace with so much tenderness and affection: and the kindness which it seems to have espoused to a Parliament which has so unfortunately decoyed some people into that party, is nothing else but a politic flattery, and temporising godly fraud: the real design is to dash a Parliament against a King, to break them both in pieces; and like the Ape in the story to make a Cat's foot of a House of Commons, to pull the Nut out of the Hot Ashes of Rebellion into which they shall have reduced the Monarchy; for when once by that assistance they shall have procured their own establishment they will render it as absolute a Slave, as they would do Monarchy. For according to the Model of their Consistorian Government, the supreme and ultimate underivative Authority is resient in the High and Mighty Sanhendrim or annual Assembly of Presbyters and Elders, to whose definitive sentence a Parliament must be subordinate; the Authority of that being from Christ, the Power of the Parliament being only from the People. For it is not the Persons or Names, but the superiority of the Authority against which this Faction of Geneva levels all its aims; and though for the accomplishment of their ambitious designs, which they veil over with the name of Religion, they are pleased in words to vest the Parliament in the name of the People, and as their Representatives with Authority both over Church and Crown; Yet do they at the same time declare, that all men of what degrees, ranks or conditions soever, must be subject to the Sceptre of Christ, which Sceptre they say is committed to their hands. So that here is a Yoke ready for the Neck of a Parliament, whose intolerable heaviness has already discovered that it is none of Christ's, but of these Modern Scribes and Pharisees who lay heavy burdens upon other Men, but by advancing themselves into the Chair of Supremacy will not touch them with one of their Fingers. For these Saints who pretend to a power of binding Kings in Chains, will without scruple so claim the honour of shackling the Nobles with Fetters of Iron.  
That this is most certain, will appear if we consider that a Parliament can pretend to no right to Government but a Monarch may do the same, and upon far better grounds; now you see how all their Doctrines vest the people with a Superiority over Monarchy; the same Arts and Arguments which subject the Regal Authority to their Will and Jurisdiction, must of necessity bring a Parliament within their Power; and it is no more but a Mutato Nomine de te narratur fabula, turn the Tables and they will play the same Game at the one as the other: for if a King for opposing (which they style persecuting) them and their seditious practices may be called in question, Excommunicated, deposed, and deprived of his Royal Authority, for the same Crimes a Parliament and the Government by Democracy, may be altered, abrogated, and the several members of it may by the people be punished with loss of Life, Estate, and all other lesser punishments and disgraces. And all this must be fathered upon the Good People, who shall be flattered into a belief that they have the Supreme Authority, when in truth, a few (it may be one) leading politic Presbyters, (who shall have gained the Sovereignty over the inferior Clergy, and by their means and the severities of their Discipline over all the populace, who must of necessity have their heads tied under their Uncanonical Girdles) will have under Christ the whole management of all the affairs of Church and State, and whoever will venture to dive to the bottom of the Lake of Geneva, will find the fifth Monarchy of the Church which the Papists have so long been setting up, but by an Earthquake was tumbled in thither, which the Presbyters are weighing up again, in order to the new trimming it and putting in a better figure, that so it may pass upon the Princes and People of the World, under the Notion of the Sceptre of Christ; and that it is the desire of Sovereignty under the Colour of Religion at which they aim; and to which whatsoever is an obstacle, whether King, Parliament, Prelates, Lords or Commons, shall all be declared Antichristian and Unlawful Powers.  
THE little respect they have shown to all Parliaments that have opposed them, demonstrates the little value they have either for those Honourable Assemblies, or their Constitution; and they who could pull down the House of Lords because it stood in their light, and are so eager to dislimb the Parliament of the Lords Spiritual, cannot in reason be supposed to esteem the lower House further than they frame to themselves a prospect that it may be serviceable to their present Interest. I need not go back to fetch instances from former times, either in Scotland or England, of which I could produce a Cloud of Evidences; the rude and insolent treatment which this present Parliament has met with from their blades of the Pen, is a conviction beyond exception: Nor would a new one of which they appear so fond, receive any better entertainment at their hands, unless to advance the slavery of the Nation in promoting their interest, it should embark in their design.  

A short view of their Tyrannic Consistorian Government.  BUT because some people's ignorance of their intentions, is in probability the reason why they admire this Government, let me present them with a short view of it in its proper Colours, without the shining varnish which they usually lay upon it to deceive the credulous and unwary.  
THAT they are the true Sons of Ishmael, whose hands are against all Men will in short appear, if we consider their procedure against all sorts of people, whom they endeavour to reduce to Obedience to Christ by the method of their Consistorian Discipline.  

Over the Magistracy.  WE will begin with the Magistracy. If they do not their duty in promoting the Holy Discipline, by which name is meant Presbyterian Tyranny of Parochial Ministers and the Lay Elders over their Parishes, of the Classis or Presbytery over their Division, and of the yearly Assembly over the whole Nation; or much more if they oppose it or establish any other Church Government, they may and aught to be excommunicated, deposed and punished; and the rule is Universal as to all, and all manner of Magistrates, whether Kings, Parliaments, Judges, Counsellors, or other inferior and subordinate Governors. Now what is the duty of the Magistrate, and whether he performs this duty as he ought, what means, ways, and methods of Government are conducive to the Salvation of Men, and the good of the Society in order to the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ, they are the only Judges; and though they pretend to follow the direction of the Holy Spirit, and the Scriptures, yet will they put their own Interpretation upon them, which though manifestly contrary to the construction of the most learned men in all Ages, and to the universal practice of the Church, as is plain in the Case of Episcopal Government; Yet herein must they be obeyed, under pain of Excommunication; and though nothing be more manifest that herein their Will is their Law, yet must the Magistrate as well as the People submit to this Arbitrary Supremacy, premacy, which hereby is manifestly vested in the Presbytery, as to direction, ultimate Judgement, and final determination: and the secular Magistrate is no more but the Executioner of their Commands. No Law can be binding which they declare contrary to the great design of promoting the Gospel though by seditions, violence and tumults: and this interest of the Gospel is in reality their own absolute Sovereignty. No Obedience is due to the Magistrate further than they assure the People, the things commanded are lawful. To them may be made all appeals even from the highest Courts of Judicature. So that down goes Magistracy and its Power; or however must receive its limits, bounds, measures and rules of Government from their Arbitrary will and determination: So that hereby the Great Assembly and the Moderator for the time being is the absolute and supreme Sovereign Power of the Nation where Presbytery bears the sway.  
HAVING thus by the Power of the Keys, locked up the Temporal Sword in their Ecclesiastical Scabbard, and made sure that they will be out of the danger of its Correction; Let us see how they manage their Empire and Government towards their Brethren of the Clergy, their friends of the Laity, and their Enemies of both, such as differ or descent from them in Opinion or Practice, though but in the most indifferent things.  

Their Tyranny over the Clergy.  It was a saying of a wise man, That no Government was so happy, as where either Kings were Philosophers, or Philosopher's Kings; and which certainly deceives many of the Spiritual Function, they think and are made believe by the Arch-Presbyters, that those would be Golden and Halcyon days indeed, where Presbyters who are all equal and may hope for a turn in it, should come to have the sole and supreme management of all affairs, and not be subject to the temporal Power of the Laity on the one hand, nor the Tyranny of the Episcopal Hierarchy on the other: but being equal in their Function, calling and office, should all be Brethren and sharers of the Common Happiness of Rule and Government over the People of God: But soft my Masters, lest a great and sudden joy prove dangerous! Great expectations are often defeated by contrary events. I must tell you there is a little mistake. The Metropolis or Capital City is the Watchtower, and the rural Presbyters for all their haste and the parity, must not only give the Wall to the grave City divine, but must be wholly at the direction and will of the Synod, the Synod at the will of the great Assembly, and the Assembly at the will of the Moderator and his Faction, during the Session, and in the Interregnum of the Session, at the disposal of the virtual Council, which is the Grand Cabal in Epitome, who rule the roast all the year long: the Inferior Presbyters must believe such things as he or they shall command, teach such Doctrines as they shall appoint, use such modes, gestures and habits as they enjoin and command, though never so much against his Judgement or Conscience: for if he trips never so little into a wilful disobedience, against a commanded Punctilio of Opinion or Practice, up goes little Don Presbyter's heels, and a more edifying, that is a more slavish Brother is clapped into his Benefice, unless he will openly recant and do Penance at their discretion; and if he has a good and inviting Living, let him resolve either to be a bustler and busy stickler, and by those Talents exalt himself and make a Party, which is the best way to be secure and somebody, or otherwise he must resolve to be an absolute Slave, and by perpetual presents (which is a very safe Tenure and a kind of Post Simony) keep in with the top and top Gallant of the Junto; for otherwise he shall be sure of a remove to a leaner Parish. And pray what is now become of the Glorious Parity of Presbyters, of the Dear Liberty of Conscience, and Liberty of Prophesying? What difference now betwixt a Lord Bishop and a Lord Precedent of the Assembly, good Mr. Rural Minister? Only this, that what the one is falsely said to do, to Lord it over the flock of Christ, the other outdoes in reality. Methinks I see a second Peter's strutting in querpo beaten Velvet like a lofty Cedar of Presbytery overlooking and over-shaddowing all the little bramble Brethren of the Wood, condemning, reproving, placing, displacing, injoining and punishing like a Geneva Massanello, with the wink of his Eye, or the motion of his Finger; and like that Insolent Fisherman, wanton with his unbounded and most dreadful Power. Then should you hear the groaning Presbyters, and whining Elders, sighing under the heavy burden of Arbitrary Spiritual Government; and lamenting the loss of Episcopal Liberty. Leaving therefore these Ruling Elders and their Lay Brethren, with a shadow of Liberty, Equality and Rule, but the substance of the most servile slavery, let us see after what rate this Government will treat their Friends of the Laity, by whose industrious folly they have obtained their Dignity and Power.  

Their Tyranny over the Laity.  And here you shall see, that these high obligations can raise no sense of Gratitude in the Rigid Presbyter; the People whom but just now they flattered with the supreme Authority, have done no more but their duty in defeating themselves of it to bestow it on the Ministers; and you shall see into what a condition those people plunge themselves who put their tame necks under the Yoke of the Consistory: for first the Parish Minister and his Elders are absolute Judges and Lords of all their Actions, and if they be refractory can bring before the Lords of the Synod, and they hoist them up to the Grand Assembly, and there they are sure to be swinged for contumacy, or contempt tempt of their Authority: So that though a man could keep the whole Decalogue, yet can he not be secure against Malice or Envy, but by the trap of Scandal he shall be drawn into this Geneva Inquisition. 
The Latitude and Power of Scandal to draw all affairs into the Consistory.  It is easily remembered what a Tumult a poor Ball or Dancing meeting made at Geneva, and how the Gentleman that made it, though a principal person of the City, and a Soldier too, and a man of a good ruffling Spirit, yet was at last forced to dance into banishment for that horrible scandal. If your goods commit a rape upon Mr. Elders Corn or Hay, and you will not make him an unreasonable recompense, 'tis odds but he claws you off with a Scandalum Magnatum against his Elderships' freehold: if a young Lady refuses Mr. Booby the Elder's Son for a Husband, let her have a care how she converses with another, for if she do he will clap a scandal upon her back, which if their tongues be any slander, may spoil her Reputation and her Marriage as long as she lives, and the report is credited: and in truth so great is the Latitude of the Power of Scandal, that I am persuaded if Virtue herself could be tempted to converse with the Elders, as once the surprised Susanna did, they would treat her with the same measure as those their brethren did that Innocent Lady, and bring her into the Consistory for a scandal. Nay so long Ears and Arms has this Scandal, that your House which is your Castle, your Table, nor your Bed can be secure from it; but if you be so indiscreet to discover your follies to your Wife, and she in pet or zeal reveals it to the good Minister, he will not fail to make you do public Penance for your fault and folly. If you make a contract with a Saint, that is a puling favourite and flatterer of the Presbytery, and he is minded Religiously to do himself a kindness called cheating you; though you produce Deeds, Evidences, or Speacialties; all's one, if he does but whine out the suspicion of a scandal of Forgery, and appeal from the rigour of the Law, to the Court of Conscience, the Equity of the Consistory, by their Decree you shall lose not only your money but your Credit too. If a Merchant trade to the Papal Dominions, and in a time of Famine furnish them with Corn, he may chance to suffer Shipwreck at home, for feeding and maintaining Gods Enemies abroad; and it will never be forgotten what a horrible Sin the transporting of Wax from Scotland to the Spanish Territories was adjudged, because it was employed to Idolatry, and making Tapers to the Altars of the Saints.  
SEE now the kindness of this Government; here's a new way to pay old Debts, out of the bank of Scandal. A free trade opened to enrich the People of the Nation, by forcing them to keep the glut and surplusage of their Native Commodities at home, for fear of Scandal. And indeed there is no Law, Sanction, Action or Profession, Civil or Political, that may not easily be brought to be cognizable before them, under the notion of Scandal; Nor will there be any Right or Justice, but according to the partiality of their belief of the Integrity of the Parties, that is if they be men of their Interest, the affair shall be managed in favour of them, in despite of Law, Justice, Right or Equity.  
AND now my neighbours of the Laity, what think you of Monarchy, and the good old Common and Statute Law, and Episcopacy? is not this Scandal the servant of the Consistory a more dangerous and troublesome Fellow, than an Apparitor, or a Pettyfogger? I leave it to your Consideration and Judgement.  

Of their kindness to their Enemies.  IF this be the Entertainment of their Friends, what may we expect will become of their Enemies? and such are all those who either oppose them or descent from them, whether of the Laity or Clergy, Papists or Episcopal Protestants, Sectaries or Dissenters: I need not be tedious, they are to expect as much favour at their hands, as the Enemies of God and Religion can hope for: and that is punishment in all its terrible dresses, shapes and degrees, as far as Banishment, loss of Estate, Liberty, Fame, Reputation, and Life will go: and further, if they have any Power of the Keys they are sure to be given up to the Devil, and shut out from their Kingdom in Heaven.  
I wish, that all our Dissenters would consider this, and reunite with the Church of England, where they may expect pity and compassion for their Errors, and a right information of their Understandings in those mistakes about the Circumstantials and Ceremonies, which are the principal occasions of our differences and their separation; certainly whilst they raise the Interest of the Presbyters by swelling their Party, and agree with them in opposing the Church, they act directly against their own; which is to unite with the Episcopal Party against the Consistorian, the common Enemy both of Conformist and Nonconformist, and which should it prevail, would show equal kindness to the one as to the other; and though they now cry out against Persecution and Compulsion, it is only for their own sakes; and had they the supreme Power at which they aim, and which the other dissenters (though beyond their intention) whilst they oppose Monarchy and Episcopacy assist them in, they would not fail to execute the rigours and severities of all Penalties, upon all such as should descent from them and their Opinions, Doctrines, Faith, Discipline, and Practice.  
FROM all which considerations it is most clear and evident, as well as from their practice at Geneva, and in Scotland, from the Authentic Records of their proceed, 
The small difference betwixt a Jesuit and a Presbyter of Geneva, both aiming at Supremacy.  in which place all and much more than I have said may be justified; That Presbytery aims secretly at Supremacy, and that there being no great difference between those of the foundation of Loyola and Geneva, but that the latter have by their horrible Actions brought that Infamy upon the Protestant Cause and Reformation, which the other had in vain attempted; they are both inconsistent with Monarchy, and indeed all Government: over which they pretend a Power and Jurisdiction from Christ, the one for the Pope, and the other for the Presbytery; from which there lies no appeal; and the Genevian Faction who pretend to detest and abhor Rome for her Tyranny, do even outdo her, at least in pretensions to absolute Temporal Sovereignty and Dominion over all Persons, Cases, Actions, and things, which must submit to the Sceptre of Christ which they tell us is their Holy Discipline.   

CHAP. X. Presbytery as destructive of the People's Liberty and Property, as it is dangerous to Monarchy and all Government. Some necessary Conclusions from the former discourse.  
FROM the Premises of this excellent frame of Spiritual Government of Presbytery, it is easy to conclude, That this Doctrine is every whit as dangerous and destructive of Property as Prerogative, of Liberty in the People, as Authority in the Prince or Government. For if it be a good and sound way of Reasoning, that the Power which can do the greater, can certainly do the less, than they who can for any crimes against the Law of God, (of which they are the only Judges and Interpreters) take away the Crown and Life of a Prince, the Power and being of a Parliament; may undoubtedly for any scandals or offences against themselves and their Divine Authority, take away the Life, Liberty, and Property of any private Man: and it is easily remembered, and ought never to forgotten, how all those were treated in the Late Times, who were either declared, supposed, or suspected, to be Enemies to the State, as they called that Eaction of a Parliament which was embarked in their Holy League and Covenant: and though their Friends 'scaped with their lives, their Estates paid many Millions Ransom, for those and their pretended Liberty. It is true some particular persons were strangely advanced both in Power and Riches; so are some Pirates and Highwaymen by rich prizes and good Booties: but it is all out of the public stock of the Nation, which was just so much Poorer as they were Richer. Nor had the principal of the Faction any other design then, or have they any other now, but their own private revenge or advantage. Discontent and Ambition are constantly at the bottom of Faction and Innovation, and Oppression always at the top: For though these men pretend to be the great Patrons of the People's Liberty, and Defenders of Religion, they have no real value for the one or the other, further than to serve their own designs; which is only to wheedle the credulous Populace into their Party: and when by the help and assistance of their tumultuous Power, the Leaders of Faction are exalted to Dignity, Riches, and Authority, none are more Arbitrary and Imperious than the one, or greater Slaves than the other. For 

Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum.   

Exalted meanness still we see,  
Proves the most rugged Tyranny.    
And it can be nothing but their ill destiny in the common People of England, who appear so inclinable to have a good esteem of these Ringleaders of the Faction of Presbytery, which blinds their Eyes with pretences of Sanctity, from seeing that these People are the most malicious Enemies they have in the World, who will not permit them quietly to enjoy that happiness which they do at present possess under a most peaceable and excellent Monarchy and Monarch; but with the Witchcraft of Liberty of Conscience, fears and jealousies of Popery, and I know not what fine words to please Children and Fools, they drill them still on towards the Confines of Rebellion; into which if they do unluckily plunge them, their Lives, Liberties, and Estates must either fall a Sacrifice to the offended and prevailing Justice of their exasperated Sovereign; or become a prey to Ambitious Usurpation, should they happen to be unfortunately victorious; so that what side soever gets the better, they are certain still to be losers and go by the worst. For even those persons to whom they have made themselves a footstool to mount them into the supreme Power, will be sure to keep them down, and trample them underfoot; lest they should turn to some other Party, for the same Reasons and by the same Arts, by which they before gained them to be of theirs; there being nothing more certain (which these men know well enough, and that the People are never contented with their present condition) than that a discontented Populace, who have made no difficulty to shake hands with their Allegiance to their Lawful Prince, will upon the least disgust, wheel about, either to their King again, or to any other Power which speaks them fairest, and bids most for their kindness by promises never intended to be kept.  
AND if the Commons of England who are infected with this Lunacy of Presbytery, will not be persuaded to believe this, but that all their Prophets must have poor Cassandra's Fate— Nunquam credita Teucris, never to be credited when they speak the greatest truths, it must be, because (to use their own word) they are predestinated to Ruin; according to the Adage, 

Perdere quos vult Jupiter, prius dementat.   

Where Jove to ruin has designed,  
First he does always strike Men blind.    
SO the Presbyterians first blind the common people with pretences of Piety and Liberty, that they may more securely lead them either into certain Ruin, or Democratique Slavery. None so bold as blind Bayard, is a great Proverb amongst the Countrymen; I wish they could apply it to themselves and their present circumstances.  
THAT the practice of these People carries a just proportion and exact correspondence respondence to these Principles, all their former Actions have manifested beyond the possibility either of excuse or evasion: It would be an ingrateful task to rip up all the transactions of the Late Times, and it would be happy for us if they could be so buried in the Grave as well as with the Act of Oblivion, as not to afford an Eternal precedent to succeeding Ages, to dance a second Jig to the same tune of these pied Pipers, as 'tis said the Boys and Girls of a City in Germany did after the Rat-Catcher, till they lead them into the Gulf of Ruin; and give occasion to date a new Aera, Anno libertatis amissae, though they should say as they did before restauratae. But it is but too evident that the Presbyterian, Anabaptist, etc. however in other things they differed as to Judgement, yet they did all agree in the practice; and though in the end they fell out amongst themselves, and verified the Proverb, That when Thiefs fall out honest Men come by their own; yet they were unanimous in the pursuance of those Principles, and all the distances in the circumference of Religion, met kindly together in the central point of Rebellion: Nor were their odious practices any other thing but a manifest demonstration of their belief of this Doctrine, That Kings are inferior to Parliaments and the People, nay to the very fragments, shreds, and excrements of a Parliamentary Name. That Subjects may take up Arms against them, that they may enter into Leagues, Covenants, Combinations and associations against them, and all the rest before-recited, which I am tired with repeating.  
IF the present Presbyterians, etc. are not of the same Judgement, let them testify to the World in a public Manifesto, and be ready to subscribe and confirm it with sacred Oaths, that they do willingly renounce all these traitorous Positions, and seditious Principles and Practices; which is the least vindication they can make for themselves, the smallest reparation they can make for the mischiefs they have done, and the least satisfaction and assurance they can give to Authority, that they will not do so again, or endeavour it: and let their actions go along with their words, that we may believe them; without which, they are so low in Reputation, by the monstrous breach of all their Promises, Vows, Protestations, and solemn Oaths to the late King (except the making him a glorious King) that no person in his wits, will now take their word any more; so that they must get their Actions to become their Sureties, for their good abearing towards the King's Majesty and all his Liege People.  
BUT instead of all this, which is no more than if they mean honesty toward the Government they would willingly do, they are taking a course by their present practice, to manifest that they are still the same Men, and as true to their Principles as steel, or as Rebellion is to those Principles; as if they were resolved to verify the saying of a worthy Gentleman; That men may possibly repent of Presbytery; but Presbytery never yet repent of any thing. And that they are plying their Sails and Oars for a second prize, it is almost past time of day now to make a doubt; do they not boldly print, and spread abroad in public their seditious Pamphlets, Speeches, Letters to their Friends from persons of Quality, Benchers, and God knows what, who, or where those are? reflecting upon the Government, the great Ministers of State, the Learned, Pious, and Innocent Bishops, not sparing even the King himself; with which pocket Pistols, hand Granades, and Fire-balls of Rebellion, they endeavour to murder the Government and set all into Flames and Combustion; pestering the Country with those pernicious Pamphlets as the City is with their Writers: the design of all which restless Endeavours, and devilish Industry, is only to delude the Subjects of these Nations; by persuading them, that they are upon the very brink of Slavery and Ruin, to withdraw them from their Loyalty and Allegiance to their King, and Obedience to the Laws and Government: whenas in truth, no People in the World in humane probability are at a greater distance from those imaginary dangers than we, unless by believing these men and their Principles, we precipitate ourselves headlong into them: nor is there any thing wanting to render us completely happy and secure at home and abroad, besides Unity amongst ourselves, and Loyalty towards our Prince, of both which it is the main design of these Enemies of our Peace, Prosperity, and Happiness, at once to rob us; and whoever will take the pains to consider the rise, growth, and continuance of this Doctrine of Calvinism, will find it a mere Salamander of Religion, bred in the Flames of Rebellion, nourished with the fire of mistaken Zeal at best, and that it constantly delights to dwell in the blaze of Contention. The peace and settlement of the Nation are its utter Enemies and opposites, and no wonder then if the Patrons of it are the Enemies of our Peace; and as a Pope once said to Charles Brother to the French King, concerning Conradine King of Naples and Sicily, (which gave him his Death) The Life of Conradine is the Death of Charles, 
Vrsper. p. 11.  and the Death of Conradine is the Life of Charles: so may we truly say; The Peace and Unity of our Monarchy is the Death and Ruin of Presbytery; and the Death of Presbytery is the Life of Monarchy: which is the true reason why they struggle for their Life, to keep up discords, differences and animosities; and (it may be) are all of the sudden become so Zealous for a Foreign War, the discovery of their Plot having put them out of hopes of one at home. So long as the Government is but busy, and the Crown necessitous, they do not only think themselves secure, but are in hopes, that the expenses, or unforeseen accidents of War, may at last occasion differences at home; upon which ill humours of the body Politic, like Plagues and Gangrenes, they always feed and increase, and hope in the end to prove fatal to it; for they know by experience, that Corruptio Vnius est Generatio Alterius; A dead Monarchy flyblown by Presbytery, breeds the short-lived Maggots of a putrified Commonwealth. But these things have been so well taken notice of, and their whole Intrigue discovered, by the charitable hand of the Author of the two Pacquets of Advices, etc. that a clearer exposing of them, is altogether needless.  
IT is the wishes, prayers, and hopes, of the best subjects of these Nations, that the dangerous noise and clamours which they make themselves, will oblige Authority to take notice of them, and their mischievous intentions; and that this very Parliament which they fear and therefore hate with all their Hearts; (as is plain by their Ringing so loud its passing Bell, and persuading the World it is Dead, that their Cruelty may be satisfied with the Revenge of burying it alive) will take notice of such an affront to a King and his Parliament as no Age can parallel, nor any persons be guilty of but Presbyterians; and offer some expedients according to their Wisdom and Prudence, to ease the Loyal and faithful Subjects, amongst which they challenge the first rank themselves, of those just fears and jealousies, and those uneasinesses which afflict them, by reason of the growth, increase, and confidence of these implacable, malicious, sanguinary, and restless Antimonarchical, and Anti-Parliamentary spirited People and their Principles.  
TO conclude; From the former Discourse these necessary consequences follow.  

Some necessary consequences from the former Discourse.  First, That no person whatsoever, let him pretend never so much Religion, Sanctity or Innocence, can possibly be a good Subject, so long as he continues a true Presbyterian, or of their offspring; in regard they always carry about with them as the main of their Religion, such Principles as are directly contrary to Monarchy and destructive of Loyalty; to which he can never be a firm, true, and assured Friend, who owns a Power Superior to that of his Prince within his Dominions; and that such a Power may of right depose him, and take away his Crown and Life, which has been proved to be the avowed Doctrine of the Consistorians of Geneva, Scotland, and England, both in Print and Practice.  
Secondly, That no Monarch can be safe, or his best Subjects at ease and secure, so long as this faction is either owned, tolerated, permitted, or favoured, publicly or privately within his Dominions; especially the Ringleaders of the Party, which guilded Snakes can no sooner be warm in the Bosom of Indulgence, but they begin to hiss and sting; and are constantly either the Whisperers or Trumpeters of Sedition and Rebellion, the very practice of what they call their Religion in prohibited Conventicles, and Assemblies, being but the younger Brothers of Tumults and Insurrections, and Rebellion against the King and Government, both Civil and Ecclesiastical, in a demure dress and garb of Innocence; which is so far from making it better than that in the Field, with Drums and Colours, that it renders it worse; because more dangerous and apt to deceive; many people being willing to become Volunteers to the Pulpit, as Hudibras calls it.  
The drum Ecclesiastic,  
When beat with fist instead of a stick.  
Hudibr. Cant. 1.  
Who would not list themselves into open and barefaced Rebellion till from thence they hear the dreadful thunder of a Curse ye Meroz; or The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon.  
AND let them not call this necessary Caution for the public and all honest men's preservation, the effect of a persecuting Spirit; since though they may charge the Government with Cruelty, it is they who are cruel to themselves and the whole Community, by being evil doers, busy bodies, seditious, traitorous, heady, high minded, opposers of Government, disturbers of Order, Enemies to our Peace, Unity, and Happiness, and to the very Fundamental Laws, Establishments, Constitution, and whole Frame of the National Government both in Church and State.  
I appeal to all the Records of time, both our own and of other Nations, which will witness, That whoever did act thus contrary to the public Interest, have in all Ages, in all Places, by all Laws and Persons in Authority, been esteemed justly and deservedly punished, as being the common mischiefs of nature, directly opposite to the security and happiness of all mankind in general; not excepting themselves out of the number, whose restless, uneasy, discontented humour, certainly renders them the most unfortunate of all humane race, because ever most unquiet and unpleased, being indeed utterly uncapable of satisfaction; the concessions and condescensions of Authority to day, emboldening them to demand greater tomorrow: and Indulgence being so far from making them grateful, that it gives them the pain to invent new Requests, their desires being therefore boundless and unlimited, because they neither know positively what they would have, nor are able to determine what it is that will satisfy them.  
I appeal to their own practice when in Power; That this is a great, necessary, and Universal Truth, That Lawful Government is not to be disobeyed in Lawful Commands: but that therefore the Violators of Laws, especially the Principal, aught for example, and in terrorem, to feel the force and penalties of those Laws they break: since to be merciful to those few, were to be cruel to the whole Body of the Society, and to ruin the very Foundation of all Government. For what was it, that brought so many Noble Heads to the infamous Scaffold, and some illustrious Lives to most ignominious Deaths? was it not for transgressing their Ordinances, opposing their Way, Government and Usurpations, in defence of the Ancient, Established, Fundamental Laws, Privileges, Rights and Liberties, both of the Prince and People? What was Justice, Prudence, and of necessity to be done by them, for the safety and support of their illgotten Dominion, must much more be so now; unless they can convince us that their Power was Lawful, but the present is not: which how good soever their will may be, and though it appears to be what they believe and aim at, yet they will never be able to prove, by Law, Reason, or Religion; and I hope they will never be in the Capacity to demonstrate it a second time by force and violence, the rude and compulsive Logic of the Sword or Cannon Law.  
Lastly it follows, That this generation of Men the Presbyters with their Confederates, are never to be trusted, but upon the Demonstration of their sincere Repentance and Conversion, attested by their Actions; in regard that whosoever owns a Power Superior to his Prince, does at the same time find an easy refuge and evasion against all the verbal Assurances he can give, or that can be taken of him, that he will be a good Subject. For no person can oblige himself to an inferior Power, against the Right of a Superior: for if a Country Justice of the Peace, a Judge of Assize, a Deputy or a Viceroy, should exact any subscriptions or promises of fidelity from any Persons, or by threaten and severities compel them to give such, to the prejudice of the King his Lawful Superior in Power, there is no Person but knows, that the one having no lawful Authority to require it, nor the other to consent to give away the Right of his Prince over him, all such Actions, Promises, etc. must therefore be as null and void, as if I should promise to give the City of London to the King of Spain.  
THIS is the plain Case, The King (as with good reason for his own security and the safety of the public he may) expects assurances from these People, they for fear of the Laws, make some faint promises (for an Oath of Allegiance to renounce their Traitorous Positions is too binding to be taken) with this reserve, That the Presbytery, or Popular Authority, is superior to the King; and that therefore he has no just right to require such promises and assurances from them, to the prejudice of that supreme Power, nor they to give it away; and that therefore, they are not binding in foro Conscientiae; but being prejudicial to the right of such a Power as may call him to an account, and by the Grand Charter of Salus Populi, both free them from all such Obligations, and punish him for exceeding his limits, by entrenching upon their native right of being a freeborn People, all such stipulations being forced and violent, the effects of fear, without the consent of the will, are therefore null and void. And their Actions speak this Language, however their Tongues may sometimes seem to be of so ill breeding as to give them the Lie, by protestations of great Kindness, Love, and I know not what to his Majesty and the Government; of which they are in some humours prodigal enough, only to deceive the credulous and cover their ill designs.  
LET them not therefore think to deceive us by the smooth flatteries of soft words, their usual blandishments and pretences of Innocence, and that they mean us no more harm than they do their own Souls; which is true in their sense; for they would have us believe that it is much for our advantage to be settled upon the true Fond and Basis of Popular, or Consistorian Supremacy. If they do believe these Principles, we cannot be too secure against their dreadful and necessary consequences; and if they do not believe them, let us see it in their Actions, by a hearty submission to the King and his Laws and Government Ecclesiastical and Civil, and let them never pretend the obstacle of Conscience; for if they were as really tender against Rebellion, as they are against Loyalty, they might, nay they must do this, without prejudice to the most nice and scrupulous amongst them; nor can they refuse to do it, if they mean honestly, and to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and all Men. And if they persist in the refusal of giving this Authentic, and only creditable testimony of their Innocence and Loyalty, and continue obstinately in the old road of their former practices, no person can judge, but that they are still managed by the same desperate Principles; and though it is easy to determine (from their own methods upon all that opposed them when in Power) what they deserve according to the strictness of the Lex Talionis; yet I will not pretend to Prophecy what they will receive: they know by Experience, (which ought to have had another effect upon them, and not this disingenuous encouragement which they have taken from it) that our Government is mild and gentle, and has not taken any of its measures towards them, from their proceed. But this they may assure themselves, that their actings are too hot to hold long; and they drive on too furiously in their desperate designs: the dust which rises in such Clouds will give notice that their Troops are upon a hasty march, and that the Conspirators of the zealous Reformer Jehu that furious driver, are mounted in the Chariot of Rebellion, which is drawn by the wild Horses of Ruin and Confusion.  
In short, I desire, that all Judicious, Sober, and considering persons will without prejudice and partiality, weigh in the just balance of sacred Truth and convincing Reason, whether the  Principles do not infallibly lead to the fatal consequences which have been shown? and if I have not been able to accomplish so great an affair as clearly to demonstrate the truth of it, the defect is in my understanding, not in my will, and therefore may be my affliction, but can never be my Crime. However, I flatter myself with the hopes of having the pleasure to see this small Essay, give encouragement to some other hand which is furnished with more ability, better opportunities and advantages, than my present circumstances will allow me, to evidence the greatness of these necessary truths; and to give finishing strokes to this piece, which I have according to my talon only rudely designed; and though to some it may possibly appear too rough and bold, yet the Masters of the Pencil say, that freedom is no fault where it draws to the Life; The imperfections are my own, and no person shall be more ready to charge me with them, than I shall be, not only to own them, but to endeavour to correct and amend them; and from how inconsiderable a Person soever it comes, Saepè & olitor est valdè opportuna locutus; Fools and Children speak Truth, nor is it, or ought it to be less considerable because it comes from them: yet let it be remembered, That Presbyterian Popular Consistorian Supremacy, is, and ever will be, the unchangeable, irreconcilable Enemy, of Monarchy, Law, Liberty, Peace, Property, and the true Protestant Catholic Religion.   
FINIS.   

Some Books Printed and Sold by Jonathan Edwin, at the three Roses in Ludgate street.  
THE Countermine: or, a short but true discovery of the dangerous Principles, and secret practices of the Dissenting Party, especially the Presbyterians: showing that Religion is pretended, but Rebellion is intended. And in order thereto the Foundation of Monarchy in the State, and Episcopacy in the Church, are Undermined.  
The true Liberty and Dominion of Conscience vindicated, from the Usurpations and Abuses of Opinion, and Persuasion.