THE RIGHT of DOMINION, AND PROPERTY of LIBERTY, Whether Natural, Civil, or Religious.  
Wherein are comprised The beginning and continuance of Dominion by Arms; The Excellency of Monarchy, and the necessity of Taxes, with their moderation.  
As also the necessity of his Highness' acceptation of the Empire, averred and approved by Precedents of P●aeterit Ages, with the firm Settlement of the same against all Forces whatsoever.  
God changeth the times and seasons. He removeth Kings, and setteth up Kings. Dan. 2.21.  
Imperium semper ad optimum quemque à minus optimo transfertur. Sallust. Catil.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Arist. 5. Eth. c. 1.  
Imperatoris foelicitas in Subjectorum foelicitate consistit. Grotius.  
By M. H. Master in Arts, and of the Middle Temple.  
LONDON, Printed by T. C. and are to be sold by John Perry in Green Arbour, and by Tho. Brusler at the three Bibles at the West-end of Paul's. 1655.   

Magno, Magnae Britanniae etc. PRINCIPI &c PROTECTORI, Patri Patriae, & semper AUGUSTO.  
Celsissime Princeps, & semper Auguste,  
CVjus nomen et omen tibi aptè quadrare videantur, sive quod ab augurio & divini Numinis afflatu ad summum Imperium evectus erat; sive ob auctum Imperium, cujus amplitudo illius auspiciis magnopere augebatur. Quis enim sani cerebri inficiari queat? Te coelesti ope & vi divina erectum supremam potestatem aspirasse, & magno illo figulo ultra humanae naturae captum, in te collatam, & firmatam, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Hom.  Efficiebatur vero Dei voluntas: cui quis resistat? vestrâ etiam virtute Rempub. civilibus aerumnis laceratamet distractam in unum corpus coalu-isse nemo non è populo novit: Cumque etiam copiae tuae insuperabiles aegritudine et infesta intemperie Borealis aurae attritae & evervatae fuere, indomitâ tua ment jacentes militum animos & corda in pedes prona Magnanimo tuo impulsu erexisti: Ita ut feroces, & spe victoriae elatos Calydonios, clades & coedes spirantes, et minitantes uno penè ictu prostaverunt, aut in fugam conjecerunt, aut funestâ strage foedarunt, Te equidem summo duce, & Imperatore. Calydoniamque ipsam antea invictam nostri Juris & ditionis fecisti, & herbam porrigere coegisti. Egregium certè Reipub. nostrae augmentum, & tuo Marte patratum. Assiduoq, adhuc omnibus nervis intendis, & summâ diligentiâ satagis per Mare, per Terras, per Saxa, per Ignes, patriae tuae uti indulgens pater aeternam gloriam & opiparum incrementum parere, unde quod Caesar de seipso, de te verè referatur; Nihil te amplius Assecutum esse propter Caesaris dignitatem, quàm ut occupatus viveres. Sed desino ulterius veris encomiis Celsitudinem tuam adornare, quia defessi erunt homines laudando quàm tuipse gloriâ digna faciendo, ut Salustius etiam de Caesare: Addamque solummodo Symmachi consularis ordini● dictum, Specto tuae virtutis augmenta qui defero laudare principiae. Aeternum valeat Celsitudo vestra, diuque populo Britanno intersis, praesis, & prosis, quod faxit tutelaris ille Jehovah.  
Tuae Celsitudini, ut nemo aeque, deditus MICH. HAWK.   

COurteous Reader, it is the Author's post-request, that you be pleased to take notice of the erroneous mistakes have passed the Press, whereby he may be fully conceived, and you satisfied.  
IN the Epistle to the Reader, Page 3. lin. 9 read placebuut. p. 10. l. 25. r. Virg. Egl. p. 15. l. 18. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. p. 16. marg. r. Bak. p. 42. l. 29. deal that. p. 47. marg. r. robur. p. 49. l. 20. r. on the. p. 51. l. 1. r. that it. l. 9, r. defendimus. p. 72. l. 15. r. for as the. p. 86. l. 8. r. intestinas. l. 16. r. ordinavit. p 90. l. 23. r. robore. p. 95. l. 29. r. free Com- p. 104. l. 10. deal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. p. 105. l. 12. r. libertas. p. 108. l. 12. r. Imunitas. p. 120. l. 27. r. existimantes. p. 124. l. 12. impulsion of Christ, r. impulsore Christo. p. 126. l. 4. r. an Objection. p. 131. l. 28. r. forcer. 165. l. 2. r. with heretics. p. 168. l. 29. r. fiebant. p. 169. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 181. l. 8. r. Helvetians.   

To the Indifferent and Diligent Reader.  
OF making many Books there is no end, saith Solomon, which is understood of those (as Judicious and ingenious Cook) that propose to themselves no end, 
In his Preface to the 11th. Report.  and which are vain and fruitless: For in all Actions the end gives the Perfection. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it crownes and perfects the work; 
Acti●●es disting●●n●●●●●nibus-●●inis specific●t a●●●●nes.  besides the excellency of all actions are distinguished and specified by their ends.  
Of such digested Books no number is superfluous, though treating of the same subject; For as Augstine, 
De Trin. l. 1. c. 3.  Vtile est plures libros à pluribus fieri diverso stilo, etiam de quaestionibus iisdem, ut ad plurimos res perveniat, ad alios sic, ad alios autem sic. It is profitable to have books composed of many in a divers stile even of the same question; that the knowledge of the thing may be conveyed to very many; to some after this manner, to others after another.  
Now as touching this present discourse (Non umbraticam causam agimus) it is not nugatory or needless, but presenteth to our view Honourable and Commodious ends, whose Scope is to blazon the Virtue of a Prince, the safety of a Commonweal, and the liberty and tranquillity of the Subject, the three Columns of public felicity; and therefore the more to be desired and affected for the excellency of the ends. Finis enim dat amabilitatem mediis. For the end gives a lustre and loveliness to the means. Wherein though I may seem actum agere, and to prescribe those things have been discussed by others, yet are not some of them without their defects, which may haply here be repaired; For as Cicero, Recentissima quaeque sunt emendata magis. Besides, 
Acad.  many material Glean are added, and novel Collections, which out of superfluity or security were omitted. Howsoever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Quae decies repetita glacebunt. Good says repeated often do often please.  
And it hath been a custom among all Writers, to season their Dictates with other Sentences, that they may seem not to presume on their own Authority, and write with more certainty, and be read with more delight. Assranius was blamed for borrowing many passages of Menander, who confessed he had not only taken from him, but from many others, what was convenient for his purpose, and which he could not better compose; and it is Plutarch's judgement, 
Simples.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. To invent, and inquire, is reasonable; but to collect out of others, is admirable.  
Yet whosoever does insert the inventions of other Authors in his own Editions, and not gratefully acknowledge from whom he hath received them, Reus est legis plagiariae, is guilty of literary filching or robbing the treasury of the Muses. For as Pliny, Ingenui pudoris est fateri per quos profecerimus, & haec quasi merces Authori pensitanda est, ne fures esse videamur. It is the part of ingenuous modesty to profess by whom we profit; and this is a guerdon by all right to be rendered to the Author, lest we may seem to be pilferers.  
Ingenuous and industrious Reader, for to such I communicate my Genius who are embellished with the ornaments of Indifference and Diligence; For he that is void of the first, will be obnoxious to prejudice, which will cast an impostorious mist before his eyes, and delude the minds of the otherwise judicious, that they cannot apprehend and discern things as they are in their very nature, but according to their forestalled conceits; For the will anticipated with prejudice will hurry away the understanding, whereas the understanding should direct and guide the will. A preposterous course in these rash and heady times, which have need of a sound and solid observer; Men for the most part being carried away with the violent stream of their affections, preferring incertain hopes, & blazing shows, before settled certainties and substantial truths.  
The second Virtue required in a a Reader, is Diligence; 
It was Scipio 's saying, Now amo nimium diligentes.  and in this case nimia diligentia will not be displeasing to Scipio himself, who was nunquam minus otiosus, quam cum otiosus; never less idle, but when he was at leisure. Lucian derides an illiterate and negligent Reader, calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: a buyer of many Books, and yet meanly learned, stuffing his study with literary householdstuff, but not with the laborious Student, or stirring Housewife, being diligent to peruse them, or industrious to apprehend them, but percursoriously to run them over without observance or rumination, which causeth him often to stumble at the craggy and crabbed passages of truth, and fall into mischievous mistakes.  
Howsoever, let the Reader be never so supine or partial, and his affections never so far esloined from the apprehension of the truth; yet as at a various Feast may he light on some Cates which may satisfy and please his ; & with Pliny, a studious Surveyor of all sorts of Books, profess that he never ●ead any Book quod non ex aliqua parte prodesset, that did not in some part profit him; and with Virgil, 
Ma●. Nullias' disciplinae expers.  one void of no Science, acknowledge that he hath selected some gold out of Ennius' ordure.   

The Preface.  
OMnes trahimur & ducimur ad cognitionis & scientiae cupiditatem▪ 
Tull. parad. Ar. 1. Met. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  All men are led by the light of Nature to the desire of knowledge; which not only proceedeth from an appetite every one hath to his perfection, Science being the Excellency and perfection of a man; but from a longing he hath, as Aquinas, conjungi cum suo principio, to be conjoined with his Principle. This incited our first Parents to affect the inhibited fruit, that they might be as Gods in knowledge, which is the sole happiness, as the Poet divinely, Hor. l. 1. Ep. 6. 

Nil admirari properes est una, Numice,  
Solaque quae possit facere, & servare beatos.   

To admire nothing is the only thing,  
The which alone to mortals bliss doth bring.   And so deeply is this impression implanted in man, as no peril will deter him from it. Though Eve had divine warning of the danger, yet persisted she in it to her fatal fall. Some say, Aristotle drowned himself in Euripus, because he could not comprehend the reason of the various ebbing and flowing of that Sea; and Alexander's desire to see the Sea, 
Curt. l. 9  had almost lost himself in the Sea. 
Val. Max. l. 4. c. 12.  Homer also consumed himself with grief, because he could not dissolve the knot of a fisherman's Riddle; which hath also pricked on my pen in these knotty & ambiguous times (wherein men's mouths are full of debates and divisions, concerning the Right of Dominion, and Property of Liberty) to commit to writing my Animadversions concerning the same, and that only for the desire of knowledge, (no man understanding any thing so fully as by writing, through the frequent reflection of the Intellect) thereby to instruct myself, if not others, in the certain knowledge of the Origin, Conservation, and End of Dominion, and in the true nature of Liberty; not only as it is natural in the abstract, & proper to every one, but as it reflects on the public Government, be it either Religious, or Civil in the Concrete; Ingenuously professing Meipsum scire propter se petere; 
Arist. 1. Me● ..  That I covet knowledge for itself: 
Ju. Brut.  solo veritatis ob oculos ponendae desiderio; with a singular desire to set forth the truth before your eyes. Not to accommodate Arguments and Assertions to the popular applause, Populo ut placerent, 
Populo ut placerent quas fecifset fabulas Ter. Andr.  who commonly weigh not the matter by the truth, but by fancy and delight. Non rem veritate ponderant sed ornatu, and esteem nothing right, 
Lact. l. 5. Just.  but what is pleasing and delightful. Nil rectum reputant, nisi quod placuit sibi ducunt; Whereas the force of reason, not elegancy of words, is to be considered; as Ambrose against elegant Symmachus; Non verborum elegantiam, sed vim rationis spectandam putes. Wherein if by any conclusion I may seem to discede from the received opinion, so long as it is warranted by reason and venerable Authority, I hope I shall not want a Protector, or a sufficient Apology. For what is more servile then to captivate reason to others conceits, it being equally distributed to all, and which all are to use as the Lydian stone to try the truth?  

Ingenium servile nimis quod dicta Magistri  
(Semper habet certa pro ratione) sui.   

Too servile is the mind which fond weighs  
His Masters dictates, 'bove right reasons rays.   
Howsoever, to discourse of Liberty freely, may seem blameless, especially in a free Commonweal, according to the sentence of Tiberius, In Civitate libera oportet linguam esse liberam, 
Sueton.  Under whom an harmless liberty of disputing was no snare to any one.   

LIB. I. Of Natural Liberty.  

CHAP. I. Of the several significations of Liberty.  
IT is a Canon in Logic, 
Monseca. Just. Leg.  Distinctio vocis ambiguae sit primum in consideratione. The distinction of an ambiguous word is first to be considered, without which to proceed, is wilfully to lose time. The name then of Liberty being ambiguous, ought first to be distinguished, 
Vetle tempus perdere  and to be divided into its several significations. For as it respects the power of Nature, it is natural, and by nature appropriated to every living creature: And as it reflects on the sociable Condition of man in the state of a City or Common-weal, that is either Civil, or Religious. Civil, which consists in the managing and protecting of the people, and their Estates, and is named the Liberty of the Subject: And Religious, as it is conversant about sacred Rites and Doctrines, and is called the Liberty of Conscience.   

CAP. II.  
1. Of the Excellency of Natural Liberty.  
2. Of the Cause of Natural Liberty.  
FRee Agents are by Nature most excellent: 
Praecipuum in omni re est actio. Aust. 9 Eth. c. 9  For the chiefest thing in every thing is Action; and the excellency of Action is Freedom, as when it is more able to act freely, then of necessity: For those things which act by the necessity of nature, want a Superior to order them to their ends: Whereas free Agents prescribe an end to themselves after an imperious manner.  
Sic volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas.  

Jun. Aquinas.   sine causa nihil fit, ita sine ea nihil distinct, cognoscitur. As nothing is without a cause; so nothing is distinctly understood without it; and therefore the cause of liberty is diligently to be enquired, which is natura naturans, or as the Poet saith, melior natura, that is God, who is liberrimum Agens, the freest Agent, acting what he will, 
Eph: 1.11.  and working all things according to the council of his own will: Neither is his power astringed to the course of second causes, as the Stoics dream.  

Non Deus est numen Parcarumc arcere clausum, 
Mel. de Any.   
Quale putabatur Stoicus esse Deus.   

The Divine power is not sure enclosed  
In Fates close prison, as the Stoics supposed.   
For he can produce effects above the operation of nature, as to draw water out of a Rock, and by his absolute power make creatures more noble than these: And in this also doth he transcend all other free Agents; 
Scal. Ex. 249.  that whereas they may be obstructed by opposite Agents from accomplishing their intended ends, Gods aims are no way obnoxious to any prohibition, or coaction; for who can resist his will? And in this sense is the saying of the Poet true: Aeschines. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
There is none free but God.   
That is eminenter & originaliter: For as he is the freest Agent; so all freedom floweth from him: For every Agent produceth to himself the like; and every creature in some sort resembleth the Creator secundum aequalem analogiam, 
Omne agens agit sibi sibi simile. Aqu.  according to the equality of similitude: For as God was first moved by his inward will, and not for any external respect, to constitute the Universe; so hath he without any relation communicated his similitude to some creatures more than others, and more respectively to man: And that reasonable creatures excel others in the free and arbitray motion of the will or appetite, no other cause can be given quam quod illud principium, illa vis, illa potestas insita sit à natura aut naturae fabricatore: 
Bies. de nat.  Then that the said principle, power and faculty is implanted by nature, or the Fabricator of nature, which is God, which Fortescue comprehendeth in one Thesis, 
De laudibus Leg. Angliae. L. 4. c. 2.  Libertas est à Deo homini insita à natura. Liberty is given from God to man by Nature.   

CAP. III.  
That Sensitive Creatures participate of Natural Liberty.  
SEnsitive Creatures are in dignity second to man, and before the Fall were gracious with him, which is manifested by the Serpent's familiarity with him, and his imposition of names on them: The Scripture ascribes to them wisdom, and the Philosopher's Election and Cognition: 
Ricob. in Arist. Eth. L. 3. c. 1. Lud. de anima. Mel. de anima.   monstrent vitae praesidia & contraria: That might show them what was commodious for the preservation of life, and contrary. Copious are the examples of their wondrous wiles, wherein they may seem sometimes to equal man's providence, by way of preventing perils, and preserving their lives and liberties. They are by Nature a free company, and by force only haled to subjection, unless in their tender years made tame, which Experience the Mistress of things learns us: 
Experientia rerum Magistra. Cook Just. l. 60.  For beasts in Forests will fly and fight for their liberties and lives: And whereas some have cicur ingenium, it proceeds from the discipline and industry of man. So Horn: 
Mirror of Justice.  That according to the law of nature all sensitive creatures ought to be free, though by the constitutions of men they are enslaved, as Beasts in Parks, Fishes in Ponds, and Birds in Cages: And Justice Cook, That a man hath a qualified property in those beasts which are free natura, 
Hep. l. 7. f. 17.  and are by industry tamed; but if they cease to be tame, and attain their natural liberty, and have not animum revertendi, their property is lost: with whom the Civilians concur: Feras cap●as, & evadentes, naturalem libertatem recuperare: 
Tholos.  That wild Beasts taken, and escaping, recover their natural liberty: And besides, it is the opinion of the said Justice, That those beasts which are ferae natura, are nullius bona: Neither can any man restrain them of their natural liberty, and enclose them in a Park without licence of the King. 
Iust. 60. b.    

CAP. IU.  
1. That Natural Liberty is more eminently planted in man.  
2. The definition of Natural Liberty.  
SAnctius his Animal, Homo Augustum Dei templum & simulachrum, 
Ovid.  Man is a more sacred creature, of sanctified temple and Image of God.  
Exemplumque Dei quisque est in imagine parva.  
Man is God's pattern in a little shape. 
Man.   
And as by propinquity of similitude man is above all terrestrial creatures, nearest allied unto the Deity; so doth he surmount them in excellency of freedom, as a Vive resemblance of the Divine Agent: For which reason God did invest him with a power over all living creatures, quod dominari in caetera possit, 
Ovid.  that he might rule over them: But in relation of one man to another, he hath equally endowed man with the faculty of Liberty.  
Mortales egit aequali genere.  

Boet.  He made all mortals of an equal mould.  

Wis. 9 v. 6.  And as the Wise man saith, hath the same entrance into life, and the same going out: And Macrobius elegantly, Ex iisdem constant, 
Satur.  & aluntur ●lementis, eundem spiritum ab eodem principio capiunt, eodemque fruuntur coelo, aeque vivunt aeque moriuntur. They are all composed of and nourished by the same Elements, receive the same spirit from the same principle, enjoy the same heavens, live equally, and die equally.  
What natural liberty than is, may be inferred by the premises; To wit, That it is a natural faculty of living or doing as one will: 
Pol. 6. l. 6.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith the Philosopher; which Tully translates, potestas vivendi ut velis, and with whom the Poet concents.  

An quisquam est alius liber, nisi ducere vitam  
Cui licet ut voluit?   Persius. 

Not any one else is free but only he  
That as he list doth live at liberty.   
To which the Civilians add natural, which is the causal difference, and gives the definition its perfection: For freedom flows from God by nature, by which we are made all equally free.   

CAP. V.  
1. That there are no servants by nature.  
2. That all men are more apt to rule then obey.  
3. That men of a mean and servile condition have by nature been raised to the highest dignities.  
4. That such for the most part Ruled best.  
5. That the Origin of great Empires proceeded from rude and mean beginnings.  
NAtura neminem fecit servum aut liberum, saith the Divine Philosopher: 
Seneca. Paul, Ga. 3.28.  and the Philosophical Divine, Nec liberum, nec servum esse apud Deum, There is neither bond or free, with God or nature, or any such distinctions or differences with them, the one having no such degrees in his heavenly Mansion, nor the other in his earthly Manor. And as the Civilians rightly, Servitude is aliunde, from some outward act, or public offence, 
De sur. b. & p l. 3. c. 7. 1 Pol. c. 3. Fortuna haec nomina imposuit. Senec.  whom Grotius follows: Servi natura citra factum humanum nulli: And the Philosopher, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. There are no servants by nature, but either by some humane fact or law; or as Seneca, by fortune.  
And though many by nature seem to be of a servile disposition: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
1 Pol. c. 3.  as the Philosopher, whose conditions are best to be commanded. Such a mind, saith Cicero, is not been informatus à natura; or as Arist. in another sense, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
1 Pol. c. 3.  is not well informed by nature, because it is ill affected, contrary to nature; and as Tholosanus, 
Synt. Ju. unit  imminutum habet animum, they have a decayed, or imperfect soul: So as it is not nature, but ignorance maketh servants, 
Bucid. l. 1. Pol. c. 3.  non natura, sed insipientia.  
Besides, since the introduction of dominion, nature hath been much dulled by servile education.  
Adeo à teneris assuescere multum est.  Virg. En. 
Custom from tender years availeth much.  
Yet there is not any so stupid, or stolid, who would not rather be free then serve; and to be governed by himself, then commanded by another, if he had ability and power; which infinite Commotions in divers Countries have by sad and bloody experience verified: For the first state of mankind was honoured with command, and generally pronounced to all, to which men are still by nature inclining, ad imperandum magis quam ad serviendum apti, 
Juv. Brit.  more proclive to rule then serve; which the Philosopher expresseth more emphatically, 
7 Pol. c. 7.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The mind of man is inexpugnably propense to rule: And Quintilian, Habet enim mens nostra sublime quid & erectum, & impatiens superioris; For our mind hath a certain sublime and stout conceit, and is impatient of a Superior. Whence ariseth, as Xenophon truly, the great difficulty to exercise command over men; for there is no living creature so seditious against his Pastor, that he will not spare him if he deny him necessaries, man only excepted, who is always displeased with those that seek to have dominion over him, and oppress him, 
Patrc. i'd mo. & Arist. Eth. 1.  and upon any occasion will meditate mischief against him; which caused Dioclesian, well practised in the anxieties of Government, to resign up his Empire with this protestation, that Nihil est difficilius quam bene imperar●, there is nothing more difficult then to rule well.  
Hence is it obvious and clear, that all men are more propense to rule then to serve, 
Tholos.  which is ultimus vilitatis humanae gradus, the very depth of humane baseness, the vigour of nature breathing in them.  
Servire cuiquam vile, dominemur magis.  
To serve is base, let us rather rule.  
And though it be alleged that some men are born to rule, and others to obey; and that Jason did thirst after a Throne, and Themistocles said that he knew not how to obey: 
Polit. 3. c. 6.  The Philosopher gives the answer, that they had not learned to live a private life, being constantly employed in public commands; which proceeded from education, not nature: Yet have there many of an obscure birth, and servile education, by the vigorous power of nature ascended to that supreme Celsitude. Romulus, a sacrilegious Bastard, and educated by Shepherds; and Mahomet, a Merchant's bondman, were the Raiser's and Founder's of two matchless Monarchies: Gordius from his Cart, and Camillus from his plough, were advanced to the highest command. Dioclesian was a Senator's Libertine, 
Aur. Victor  and Zeno Isauricus was as basely bred as foully deformed, yet both Emperors.  
And which is more memorable, Such as were raised from inferior places, were more illustrious and famous for their virtues, and surmounted those in more honourable acts were nobly bred. Gordius, though of a low fortune, yet was he of an high wisdom, and perspicacious wit, 
Justin.  vir prudentissimus, sed humilimae sortis. 
Passi. de Mon. Et Arist. l. 1 c. 1.  Cecrops an Egyptian and Alien, yet for his civil and commodious Government both by Sea and Land, was in higher esteem among the Athenians than Pisistratus a native. Arbactes, a subordinate Officer to Sardanapalus, for his virtue and valour was preferred before him, 
Justin.  and exalted to his Throne. Vespasian, 
Suet. gente obscura.  of an obscure Stock, was of all the preceding Emperors most applauded; and as Tacitus, solus in melius mutatus, alone changed into the better. Aurelianus, of a mean parentage, 
Mediocri parente genitus. Aur.  for his celerity in conquering was paralleled to Alexander the great, and Caesar the Dictator. Servius Tullius, born of a Slave, by a wile gained a Kingdom, 
Dolo. Flo.  but ruled it so well, ut jure adeptus esse videatur, that it seemed gotten by right- Probus, descended of a Rustic Race, 
Amn. Vid. patre agresti.  was exceeding famous in the Arts both of peace and war; Belli pacisque artibus longè clarissimus. Martianus, of a low degree, and of a common soldier created an Emperor, 
Vict. humili genere.  yet excelled in Military Arts, and noble Acts. 
Virt. utroque parente ignobilis, suumcustos, deinde boum, postea Lignarii cujusdam minister.  Justine sprung from sordid parents, in his tender years run through all the tenors of baseness, first a Swineard, than a Herdsman, afterwards a Woodmonger, and at the last a common soldier; who for his promptness in handling his Arms, and dexterity in charging the Enemy, ascended to all the degrees of Martial Dignities, and in fine was honoured with the Imprial Ensigns: He was a studious propagator of Christian Religion, and a strenuous oppugnator of the barbarous Invaders; chase the Vandals out of Africa, and forcing the Goths out of Italy.  
If I should muster up all the Auxiliary examples tending to the fortifying of this Assertion, Dies me deficeret & nox, The day would fail me, and the night forsake me, I will only add this serious observation of the Satirical Poet.  

Ante potestatem Tulli, & ignobile regnum  
Multos saepe viros nullis majoribus ortos,  
Et vixisse pro bos, amplis & honoribus auctos.   Horat. l. 1. Serm. 8. 

Before the power of Tully, and his ignoble reign,  
There many often were of an inferior strain,  
Who virtuously did live, and ample honours gain.   
Neither is it absonant to reason, that men of the meaner sort exalted by degrees to Offices of Authority should discharge their duty more exactly and judiciously, than such as from the cradle have been lifted up unto a Crown, and challenge it as their birthright; which the Philosopher proveth by a well grounded reason, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
3 Pol. c. 3.  That a man cannot rule well that hath not obeyed: For how can one prescribe rules of obedience, that is ignorant of the praxis? no more than a Geneval can rightly compose, order, and command an Army, that is ignorant of the office, having not before led a band of men, or marched under the discipline of a skilful General; unless with presumptuous Phaeton he will undertake to rein the fiery horses of the Sun, or with the silly sow, instruct and order Minerva.  
It was an ancient custom among Princes to nominate their Successors, as Moses did Joshua, and David Solomon, though he had an elder son. Alexander bequeathed the Kingdom of Egypt to Ptolemy, and Attalus made the Republic of Rome his heir; and Prafatagus then King of England, made Nero his heir, which before the Conquest was very frequent; William himself claiming the Kingdom by the nomination of Edward the Confessor, as well as by Conquest: And afterwards, 
Ban. l. 207.  Edward the sixth excluded his two Sisters Mary and Elizabeth, and by his Letters Patents, made the Lady Grace Heir of the Crown; and Henry the 8th. had power granted him by his last Will and Testament in writing, and signed with his hand, 
28. Hen. 8.  to make conditions and limitations what he would concerning the inheritance of the Crown; which also was a constant practice among the Roman Emperors, either by adoption, or arrogation, to nominate those whom they approved worthy to succeed them in the Empire; sometimes whilst they were living to settle it on them, but ordinarily to bequeath it after their decease: To apply this to our purpose, most of them, especially the Roman Emperors, did nurse and educate those they intended to nominate, and arrogate to be their Successors, in the Temple of Virtue, and School and Field of Mars, whom, after that they were sufficiently instituted, they usually adventured in Martial Employments against hostile Forces; as Augustus did Germanicus and Tiberius, by which they obtained the Praxis as well as the Theory of the Art Military: Such, for the most part were advanced to the Imperial Dignity, as worthy and able to discharge that Martial Honour; who by their Military Virtue, Populo Romano nomen, urbi aeternam gloriam, 
Cic. pro Murcima.  orbem terrarum parere huic imperio coegit, Procured to the people renown, eternal glory to the City, and forced the world to their subjection. But to supersede this pertinent digression, and to pursue our proposition.  
Nature is equal to all, and conferreth equal endowments, si quis cognoverit uti, if any one knew how to use them: and commonly, men instigated by necessity, employ them to the best advantages.  Pers. 
Magister Artis Venture.  Plaut. 
Nam ille omnes artes perdocet ubi quem attigit.  
Need is the Mistress of all Arts and Skill,  
Which conjoined with industry and sedulity, commonly produce rare effects.  Virg. 
Labour omniai vincit Improbus.  Hor. 
Perrupit Acheronta Herculeus Labos,  
Nil mortalibus arduum.  
Herculean Labour will all things overcome,  
And force its way through Styx and Acheron.  
Nothing is hard unto a mortal Wight.  
Neither doth virtue descend, but is habitus acquisitus, an habit acquired by deliberation and practice: For good men do not by nature produce good men, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Ar. 1. Pol. c. 4.  but frequently the opposite, whence proceeded the Proverb, Heroicos filios esse pests, Nobleman's sons are pestilential sores, 
Camec. in hist. 1. Ar· polit.  as Caligula, Domititian, Commodus; the Flagitions sons of virtuous Parents, which hath been Historically observed in many, and more particularly in the unnatural attempt of Darius' son of Artaxerxes, on whom his Father having settled his Crown, he in retaliation conspired his father's fate, which he had acted, if not by discovery prevented; which degenerous exorbitancy, saith Justine, proceeded from the parents excessive indulgency: 
Just. l. hist. 10.  Nimia parentum undulgentia corrumpit liberos: who should instruct them as the father doth his son in the Comedy, 
Ego te meum dici tantisper volo  
Dum quod te dignum est facis.  Ter. Eu. 
My son, so long thou shalt be mine,  
Whilst thou in worthiness dost shine.  For it is not the glorious stem of virtuous progenitors doth make men noble, unless they do patrissare in their virtues.  
Nobilitas sola atque unica virtus.  Jun. Sat. 7. 
virtue's the the sole and true nobility.  
But to decline to the set of this Section. Nature distributeth her dole impartially, without any exception of King or beggar; and Seneca saith the proverb is true, Aut Regem aut fatuum nasci oportere, Every one must needs be born an Idiot or an Emperor: Especially if we consider man as a Citizen of the world, 
De morte Claudii Caesaris.  and born to rule: For Homo animal est audax, acutum & multiplex, atque imprimis imperandi, quam parendi cupidus. 
Baccl.  Man is a bold, subtle, and wily creature, more covetous of command then obedience, and will dare to adventure on any thing to accomplish his ambitious designs; and say with Caesar, 
Sever. Theb.  Si violandum est jus, regnandi causa violandum est. Heaven and Earth cannot limit his mind; but with Alexander he will wish for more worlds to conquer; and with the Giants Caelum ipsum petere stultitia, and purchase Royalty at any rate. Imperia pretio quolibet constant bene. And as mighty men have sprung from mean fortunes; so great Commonweals have had their Exordiums from foul foundations. Justine extols the Athenians for their native birth, 
Hist. l. 2.  that they were in eodem solo nati quod incolunt; but saith that other Nations à sordidis initiis ad summa crevere, from sordid beginnings grew to their greatness. Rome, the great Ornament of the world, had its foundation and augmentation from inglorious persons, 
Livy.  the scum of a licentiousous Sanctuary; and the growth of the great Turk had its nutriment from a confused collection of discontented persons: 
Raleigh Hist. of Mahomet.  So equally and without partiality is the power of nature distributed to all men.    

LIB. II. Of Civil Liberty.  

CHAP. I. Of Property.  
The Law of property flows from the Spring of Nature.  Claud. 

Natura beatis  
Omnibus esse dedit si quis cognoverit uti.   

Nature assignet happiness to all,  
If any one knew how to use it.   
GOD, saith St. German, 
Doct. & Student. l. 1. c. 2.  hath in Nature given all men their portion, which they may appropriate, and freely use and dispose at their pleasure: Who likewise, to convince the conceit of Community, addeth an inexpugnable argument. If all things were in common, saith he, it was never of the law of reason, but in great extremity; for the law of reason may not be changed; but it is evident, that the Law of Reason, by which all things should be in common, is changed, and therefore never was of the law of Reason, which is the law of Nature, especially considered; and properly according to the judgement of Grotius, Juris proprie capax est non nisi ratione utens: 
De Jur. b. & p. l. 1. ● c. 2.  with whom Gessendus accords, Jus humanum homini proprium est & naturale, Nothing is capable of law, 
D Philo. E. f. 1549.  but what by nature hath the use of reason; and the law of reason, or humane law, is proper and natural to man.  
Before there was dominion introduced, the first possessor had a propetty in what he possessed; which by Pliny is called proprium habentis, and by Grotius Ius occupantis, 
De Jur. b. & p. l. 1. c. 2.  the property of the haver, and right of the occupier; who addeth quoth jus qui eriperet, faceret injuriam, which right, who should take away, should do injury: For as Gessendus, there is justum & injustum natura, tametsi nulla societas, nulla pactio civium esset, 
De Phil. Epit. f. 17. 56.  There is right and wrong by nature, although there had been no society, or paction of people.  
Cain and Abel were the first Planters and Occupiers; one had a property in the firstlings of his Flock, and the other in the first fruits the ground.  
Abraham and Lot travelling to a new Plantation, had their several goods and occupations. Adam was also in the state of property; for there was one tree whereof he might not eat, in which he had no property: The eating of which, 
Mr. Askam of gover. f. 22.  as Mr. Askam, was a sin against property, and therefore theft, theft being a breach of property; for no man can steal, but from the right owner. And the prime duties of the second Table, which is convertible with the law of nature, are conversant about the right of property; for if women, and all things were in common, there would be no law against Adultery and Theft.  
And for the present, according to the consent of the Civilians, 
Thol. sin. P. un. l. 20. c. 2.  Quae in nullius bonis sunt, occupantium fiunt, What things soever appertain to none, be the occupants. As an Island borne in the the Sea, or a Continent discovered, cedant occupanti, give place to the occupant: A Relic of which remaineth in our Law: As if cestny pour l'autre vie dy before cestny que vie, whosoever entereth first ●fter his decease shall enjoy the land by the title of an occupant: The substance of all which, accurate Gessendus comprehendeth in one sentence, Tol●atur omnis lex, 
De Phi●●s. Ep. c. 1750.  superest tamen lex naturae, ipsumque rationis dictamen; quo cavetur, ne quis in alium, quod in se nolit, peccet, ac ne re prius communi, sed occupatione facta, propria vi, aut dolo spolietur, Take away all laws, yet the law of nature, and dictate of reason remaineth, by which it is provided, that not any one should commit that offence against another, he would not have committed against himself; and that he be not by force or deceit spoiled of the thing which was first in common, but made by occupation his own.   

CAP. II.  
That men have power by Nature not to commit any outward act repugnant to the law of Nature.  
THere are insite in our souls common notions and principles (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) which though we have not from our birth, 
A●istot.  yet will they irresistibly draw the hearer or conceiver into their consent; by which we are instructed to abhor and shun those vices which are offensive to the Supreme Justice: which though, as the Philosopher, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
1 Pol. c. 3.  by reason of an evil affection, contrary to nature, or indeed, per culpam parentum, by our Parent's fault they may be depraved and defaced, yet, are they not utterly extinct or abolished: But as Augustine confesseth, Tua lex, 
Confess.  tua lex scripta est in cordibus nostris, quam non ulla unquam delet iniquitas, Thy law, thy law is written in our hearts, which not any iniquity ever doth blot out; which though it may be impaired, and we thereby become uncapable of the exact and inward performance of the Law, yet in respect of our external Functions, every one hath sufficient power to reign, 
Melan. de ani.  and moderate his outward demeanour, that he commit no outward or civil act repugnant to the law of nature. And in this sense is Mr. Hobbs saying true, that the law of nature is easily kept; and the position of the Philosopher also, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
3 Eth. c, 5.  Virtue is in our power as well as Vice. According to which sense he urgeth this Argument, That whatsoever Masters of Families, or Lawmakers command, or forbidden, must be in our power; but they command virtuous actions, and forbidden those are vicious; therefore such actions must be in our power▪ The which reasons the Divines press more vigorously: For God, say they, hath given unto men Magistrates and Laws, by which their actions should be ruled, whom the Apostle adviseth to obey, and to do that is good, and not that is evil, for fear of the sword. 
Rom. 13.  Vain therefore and injurious were this institution of God, the power of Magistrates, Laws, and the advice of the Apostle, if we were unable externally at the least to fulfil and observe their laws: For that were to enjoin impossibilities, which is tyrannical and absurd, and adverse to the rules and maxims of Laws; for it is a maxim in our Law, Lex non cogit ad impossibilia: and a rule among the Civilians, 
Cook. Inst. f. 921. a. Tholos syntag. Jur. Vniv l. 44. c 10.  Quae possibilia non sunt, non obligant, The Law compels none unto impossibilities; and if it should, impossible precepts do not bind.   

CAP. III. Of Peace.  
NAtura est quietis appetens, saith Bodin, Nature is desirous of quietness; for Peace and Concord are the Union of the Universe; 
Macro●. S m. Sci●. l. ●. c. 14.  witness the harmony of the Heavens, and the mutual coherence of the Elements, and the golden chain which reacheth from the Heavens to the Earth, by which all things are reciprocally tied and knit together. The several Flocks of Birds, and Herds of Beasts, feed and live quietly together, according to their distinct species.  

Horat. Ep. 7. Neque alius lupis mos, nec suit Leonibus  
Vnquam nisi in dispar feris.   

Juv. Saevis inter se convenit ursis.   

Among themselves the Lions, Wolves, and Bears agree.   
Much more should men of the same nature and similary shape, and above all others more sociable and communicable by speech, live quietly and peaceably. 
Doctor. Stud. l 1. c. 4. Mr. Hobc. Philos. Rudiments  And therefore, saith St. German, It is the law of nature that men live peaceably, that they may tend the preservation of their lives, which whilst they are in war they cannot, and which is the first and fundament law of nature, at which all human laws levelly, even the law of war and arms, whose ultimate aim is peace: As the Philosopher, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: 
7 Pol. c. 1.  And as Tully,  in pace vivatur, That we may live in peace. So Sallust, Sapientes pacis causa bellum gerunt, 
Orat. ad Caesarem.  laborem spe otii sustentant, Wise men make war, to purchase peace, and cheer up their labour with the hope of ease. And for this cause do all Commonweals, and especially the law of this Land, carefully provide for the preservation of common peace, and abhor all force, as the capital enemy of peace, and subject the bodies of such to imprisonment, whence all laws are more severe against the violaters of the public peace, 
Hub. Cas. f. 3. Cook.  than the corrupters of private virtues; against Riotors, Robbers, and Homicides, then against Libidinous, Luxurious, and Deboist persons, censuring the one with infamy or pecuniary mulcts, and the other with corporal or capital punishments.   

CAP. IU.  
1 Man by nature is a sociable ereature.  
2. The causes of humane society.  
3. Men primitively ruled by the Light of Nature, lived peaceably.  
4. The original and provoking causes of disorder among men.  
5. The origine of Dominion.  
MEn are by nature sociable, 
Arist. l. 1. Pol.. c. 2.  and more sociable than Animals, which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, congregable creatures, by reason of their language, which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the communicative organ of society. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith Anaxagoras: and Cicero, Pares cum paribus facillime congregantur, Like will to like, 
In Catil.  which proceeds from their natural affections, founded on the similitude of nature, which hath constituted a certain alliance among all men. To which purpose Grotius, 
Tholos. s. 7. Ju. Vniv. quandum cognationem inter homines constituit.  Naturalis juris mater humana natura etiamsi re nulla indigeremus ad societatem natura appetendum ferret, Humane nature itself, the Mother of the natural law, though we wanted nothing, would lead us by nature to the desire of society.  
Conservation also is the cause of socity. Natura enim est rapax similium, quia omne conservatur similitudine. Nature longeth for the like, 
Kekerman.  because it is conserved by the like: And as Gessendus notably, Mutual indigency and imbecility, 
Mutua indigentia quam natura fabricata est, est causa societatis, ut suis rebus uti tutius possit. Gesse. de Philos. Epicurea. Tost. in 10. caput Geneseos.  which nature hath framed, is the cause of natural society, that men may use their substance more safely: And as Tostatus, Necessity was the original of civil communication for the mutual conservation of mankind. Neither were men in the first age dissociable, fusi per agros & dispersi montibus altis, as the Poets feign, scattered in the fields, and dispersed on the mountains; but according to their natural inclinations, had their several Associations and Families: Neither were there any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, vagrants or vagabonds; 
Genes. 4.  for it was inflicted as a punishment on Cain for the slaughter of his brother Abel.  
And in those golden times, and to which the quality of charity and simplicity were proper, 
Askam of the con. & rev. of gov. c 3. f. 4. Mr Hobbs Phil. Rud.  as learned Mr. Askam affirmeth, as men were sociable, so were they peaceable, peace being the first and fundamental law of nature, by which they were led, satisfied and contented with what they gathered and collected to their proper use. That though turfy bye booths and caves were their habitation, 
Annotat. on the bible. Chronologers 〈◊〉 130. years from the creation to the slaughter of Abel.  yet lived they free from mutual molestations; as Cain and Abel seemed to have done for a long space; for we read not of any discontent between them, until the slaughter of Abel, which was above 100 years from the Creation: And so odious were all injuries in that Age to mankind, that every one was naturally a Magistrate to punish the breakers of peace, and the law of nature, which caused Cain to cry, Whosoever shall find me will slay me: Of which times the Poets also truly; 

Petronius. Conservabat opes humilis casa.  
A simple Cottage conserved their goods.   

And Boetius. Odiis nec fusus acerbis  
Cruor arma tinxerat.  
Neither had bloody wounds flowing from bitter hate  
Bedi'de their swords.    
Charity and Simplicity had sudh power over them, that they naturally abhorred rapines and homicides: But when the Earth was replenished, and Families grew numerous, envy and avarice possessed the minds of the naturally illaffected, and incited them to reject the peaceable and golden precepts of the law of nature, & to invade others properties. Then might became right, & id aequius quod validius, he was most just was most powerful, witness the first Tragedy of Abel. And as the Poet, 
Horat. Jura negat sibi nata, nihil non arrogat armis.  
The laws he doth deny as borne to him,  
But with his arms is always conquering.   
The mighty would not permit the feeble to possess those things they had collected and occupied, but ranged with Brennus' Motto in their mouths, 
Omnia sunt validiorum.  
All things belong unto the stoutest.   
And roving up and down, used it as a calling, by force and rapine to oppress the impotent, and enrich themselves, holding it no disgrace, so as it was valiantly performed. To which Cicero, speaking of that Age, assenteth:  tantùm haberent quantum manu ac viribus per eoedem & vulnera eripere, 
Orat. pro Sexto.  aut retinere potuissent, That so much they had, as by force and strength through wounds and slaughters they could obtain or retain. For though man, as the Philosopher, considered in his perfection, is the best of all living creatures; 
Arist. l. 1. Pol. c. 2.  yet having fallen from law and right, is the worst of them all: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a most impious, fierce and cruel creature, far surpassing the wild beasts in malice and immanity.  
Hence arised wars worse than Civil, and horrid Homicides; covetousness on the one side, and desire of revenge on the other, 
Avaritiae & ultionis apperitus aliis in alios arma suppeditavit. Bod. l. 2. c. 6.  furnished them with Arms and weapons.  
Lucian. Et pars vilissima rerum  
Certamen movistis opes.  
And wealth the vilest of all mortal things  
Provoked strife.  
The injured party labouring with all their might to fortify themselves, 
Prosopopaeia.  and recover their losses, had recourse to the redoubtest and wisest of their Families, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Hom. Ila.  of many others the worthiest, imploring his Heroical Assistance, and that he would accept to be their General, which he confidently and courageously undertaken, as well for their good and utility, as his own honour and safety.  

Name tu●● res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet. Virg.   

near is the danger when the next fence is fired.   

Justin. l. 6. de Lacedaemo●iis. Aut vincendum aut moriendum censuerunt. Quasi tempestas quaedam omnia diruit. Iust. de conque.  Who armed with force and virtue, having ordered and encouraged his cohorts and associates (who cohorting one another to the combat, resolved either to die, or gain the Victory) gave the plundering enemy a furious assault, and like a thundering tempest did shatter and shiver their Ranks, and beat down all before them, forcing them to exclaim for ignoble quarter, which upon their disarmed submission was granted. Whereupon the General, with the applause and consent of his Associates and the better party took upon him the Empire of them both, His quidem ut amicis, illis autem ut servis imperans, 
Bodin. l. 2. c. 8. de Rep  Commanding the one as servants, and ruling the others as friends: The one reverencing him as their Lord, and the other honouring him as their Protector: And so settled in his Throne, with the right hand of respect favoured his Allies, and with the left hand of severity kerbed his Enemies, wisely disposing them both to his subjection: A Stratagem as ancient as the Origine of Dominion, and first put in practice by Nimrod; for until his days Noah and his Generations, as Paraeus, per familias suas placide gubernarunt, 
In caput 10. Genesees. In 10. cap. Genes. viribus robustus, & consilio discretus.  did rule gently by their Families.  
But he being a mighty Hunter, as the Scripture styles him, that is, as Tostatus expoundeth, strong in body, and discreet in mind, by the Engine of Wit, and Art of Gratification, in heaping good turns on injured persons, did allure and draw multitudes of people to his party, 
The Sept. call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Vnde dominandi cccasionem nactus Monarchiam usurpavit, & regnum obtinuit. Musc. Ibid.  through whose assistance and Gygantaean force he pursued men, as the hunter pursueth beasts, subdued many Nations, and was the first that obtained a Monarchy and Kingdom; and was so famous for his victorious valour, as it passed for a proverb, As another Nimrod, as we use to style a valiant man alter Caesar, vel alter Alexander. Or as the Poet, Alius Latio jam partus Achilles.  
Which Martial policy hath been subsequently practised by many Martial Heroes: As Justin relates of Philip of Macedon, that by ministering aid unto the wea●er side, Victos pariter victoresque subire regiam servitutem coegit, 
Iust. l. 8.  compelled the Conquerors as well as the conquered, to undergo a royal servitude. And it is recorded of the Romans by Cicero, the studious observator of that State, That by relieving their confederates, they augmented their Commonweal; 
Noster populus sociis defendeadis, terrarum jam omnium potitus est. Vid. Alb. Gentil. de armis Rom.  and by imparting Assistance to other Nations, brought the whole world into subjection. And in our Histories it is by approved Authors affirmed, that the Saxons were called into England by the Britain's to defend and aid them against the incursions of the Picts and Scots; who, though at the first they seemed mercenary and assistant to them, yet in the conclusion became Masters and Conquerors of them.   

CAP. VI  
Dominion by right belongeth to the valiant man.  
IT was the judgement of Polybius, Scipio's Master, That it was a necessary that he who excelleth in strength of body and courage of mind, 
Polyb. l. 6. ipsissimum naturae opus.  do obtain the Principality and Empre; and this is, saith he, the very work of nature, which is apparent in the Regiment of Beasts, among whom the strongest always precede. And it is Aristotle's position, 
Ar. 1. Pol. c. 4.  Alexander's Pedagogue, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whatsoever is superior in power, excelleth in goodness; for without Virtue, Force cannot safely consist: And therefore do the Grecians conjoin them, and call valorous men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, good men: And the Latins derive virtus à viro, virtue from a man, as if Manhood comprehended all Virtue, as it hath been anciently taken, and so is expressed by one of the Ancients.  

Plaut. Amph. Virtus praemium est optimum;  
Libertas, salus, vita, res, parents,  
Patria, & prognati tutantur, servantur.  
Virtus omnia in se habet; omnia assunt bona  
quem penos est virtus.   

Valour is worthy of the best recompense;  
Freedom, Life, Safety, our Friends and parents,  
Our Country, Kindred, are by it preserved.  
Valour hath all things in it, and all things flow▪  
To him who gives the valorous victorious blow. 
3 Pol. c. 12▪    
Such a valorous man, excelling others in virtue, is worthy of an Empire, which by right, saith the Philosopher, appertaineth to such an one: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Then it is right that such an one be Lord of all, and King alone. At which the Poet also pointeth, 

Juv. Ipsius certe ducis hoc referre videtur,  
 qui fortis erit, sit felicissimus idem.   

This certes reflecteth on a General's aim,  
That he who valorous is, thrice happy reign.    
Such a one meriteth a Throne, even by the judgement of the great Macedon, who being demanded by Perdiccas on his fatal Couch to whom he would bequeath his Kingdom, answered, Ei qui optimus esset, To him who should be best.  Honor. Emitur sola virtute potestas. 

Claud. 3.  And Tully, a bitter Antagonist of Caesar's, and Monarchy, for the same reason subscribed to it and him, saying, Demus igitur Caesari Imperium, sine quo res Militaris geri non potest, Let us therefore yield the Empire to Caesar, without whom Military Affairs cannot be managed. So as he who ruled all by his gown and tongue, was coacted to veil to valour and the sword, and to grant a Principality, who b●fore esteemed it a Tyranny: And which Paradox after Caesar's slaughter he re-assumed, and maintained in his Philippick Orations against M. Antony, to his miserable massacre: The Allegory of Antisthen●s lively representing his destiny, which was, That the Hares at a solemn Assembly of Beasts, moved that there might be an equality among them all: To which the Lion replied, he would condescend, if his claws could be taken off: By which Tully, for his invective Orations against Antony, was desperately torn in pieces; and by whose command his head, wherein he forged, and his hand, whereby he pressed his declamations, were fixed to the Pulpit wherein he made them.   

CAP. VI  
1. To reduce the Conquerors with the conquered into one Government, is a prudent part of the Conqueror.  
2. How it may without danger be effected.  
IT is a principal part of the Imperial art, to reduce the Conquerors with the conquered into an uniform model of Government: For which, Romulus, the Founder of the Roman Royalty, is extolled, quod eodem die plerosque populos, & hosts, & cives habuerat, That within the same day he had divers Nations for his enemies and Citizens: 
Senec. l. 2. de Ira. c. 24.  And Caesar, the Founder of the Roman Empire, after the conquest of France, mingled the Gauls among his Legions, whose Auxiliary Forces much availed him in all his Victories; for which, at his return to Rome, in requital he placed some of them in the Senate; which policy Seneca calls salubrem providentiam, an wholesome and healing providence, to t●mper and mix the Vanquishers with the vanquished, and so dispose them into one Civil Body. Concerning which, acute Clapmere propoundeth this caution, 
De arcanis l. 3. c. 2.  That in a new State, which is full of seditious and factious spirits, a more rigid and strict Government is to be exercised by the Prince, lest, as he saith, Serpentem in sinu alet, He shall foster a serpent in his bosom; as Caesar did, who embraced his greatest enemies in the arms of his clemency, to his lamentable destruction; for those whose lives he saved, and honourably preferred, plotted and acted his barbarous slaughter, which made him exclaim in the agony of the act, Men' servasse qui me perderent, Have I saved those should slay me? wherein also Alexander the great failed, who, contrary to the admonishment and precept of his Master Aristotle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to be friendly to his familiars, and severe to strangers; 
Plut. vit. Alexand. Arist. 7. poli c. 7.  and to contain the Grecians by love and respect, and retain the Persians by command and authority; entreated the one not as conquered persons, but as companions of his Victory, Non quasi victos, sed victoriae socios habuit: and handled the other not as his commilitons, and fellow-conquerors, 
Justine. l: 12.  but as slaves and subjects of his cruelty, rashly murdering Clitus, the preserver of his life, and cruelly putting to death Philotas, Parmenio, and divers other noble Grecians, who by their valour had seconded him in all his conquests; for which, and other such ungrateful insolences, he was miserably extinguished by poison; so difficult a task it is to reduce the differing humours of a divided State into a safe and equal temper: Alexander, and Caesar, the greatest Monarches on earth, could not attain to this medium of policy, the one being faulty in fostering his foes, and the other in despising his friends; for as concerning foes, Clapmere concludeth, 
De arcu. imperiis l. 4. c. 15.  that in such cases extreme Counsels are best; Aut enim, saith he, interficiendi sunt, aut praemiis multis molliendi; tertia via nulla est; for either they are to be destroyed, or else by many gifts, gained and quieted: There is no third way; yet Gessendus prescribes a safer rule, 
De Philos. Epi●ur. f: 1468.  Cum ex indulgentia nihil timendum est, rationi, bonitati, & clementiae locus relinquatur; Where nothing is to be feared in being indulgent, let place be given to moderation, goodness, and clemency, which he saith is honourable, and worthy of praise, and as the Poet, the greatest victory.  

Nulla est victoria major,  
Quam quae confessos animo quoque subjugat hosts.   

No greater victory there is,  
Than to subdue the minds of men,  
and make them his.    

CAP. VII.  
1. Dominion was first procured by arms.  
2. That it is not disseisin, robbery, tyranny, or usurpation.  
3. That the Law of Arms, is above all Laws.  
SVbjection is neither natural nor voluntary, neither will any one submit himself freely to the collar of dominion, ut canis ad vincula, but is gained by the prowess of the Conqueror; for every one in the state of nature, hath a right to dominion, and conquest only puts him in possession: and it is averse from reason, that men should expose their natural liberty to imperious subjection, unless incited by fear, or constrained by force; as Judicious Patricius, 
De Mon. & Aristo. f. 6.  nullagens sine metu sese supremo magistratui subjecit; the horse in Aesop's fables, accustomed freely before to wander up and down, would not have submitted himself to the bridle of the Rider, but for fear of the Bull, his enemy, by which means the Rider obtained the dominion of them both, & had vitae & necis potestatem over them both; and it is contrary to the Law of nature, for any one to expose his life to another's censure; for if no man hath power to take away his own life without the guilt of being a murderer, how can any one confer such a power as he hath not himself, upon any one, without being accessary to his own death, which is the most unnatural murder?  
Dominion than was first achieved by valour, and Empires purchased by arms; their creation was by force; though afterwards, some by succession, and others by election, 
Syntag. juris univ. l. 18 c. 2.  were made Kings; as Tholosanus, primus vi constituit imperium, alii partim successione, alii electione facti reges, which afterwards was not perpetual, but sometimes changed, by interposition of arms, which as in many Nations, so in this is most apparent; that Dominion having been by the arms of the Romans, Saxons, Danes, Normans, and other particular forces, often altered: and whereas many supposing the golden age, in which men at the first should live peaceably, and by election advance those to the supreme dignity, who by their prudence drew barbarous and wandering people into societies and Cities, and instructed them in commodious arts, or conferred other benefits on them, as Saturn, Jupiter, 
De repub. l. 2. c. 1.  Bacchus, and Ceros; which as Bodin truly, in Jubilis poetarum, quam reipsa est illustrius, which is more illustrious by poetical figments, than real truths.  
Neither were those times according to their fictions, free from discords and digladiations; for Jupiter by force, 
Bod. m. hist. c. 7.  deprived his father of his Sceptre, and was made famous for his parricides, libidinous escapes, and notorious incests: his brethren also by force attempted to break the frames of heaven, and hale him from his thundering throne; and Bacchus, 
Patric. l.  Jove's spurious imp, is affirmed to have first by force invaded and conquered the East Indies. This was the impious and furious product of that golden and Halcyon age●e and whereas divers otherwise exquisitively learned, following the tract of Herodotus (as Justine, Cicero, and others) (who though for antiquity is styled by Cicero, 
Alber. Gent. de armis Rom. f. 54. Bodin. Metho. histor. f. 65  the father of History, yet by some is called mendacissimus, the father of fables; and by Thucydides, Plutarch, and Diodorus censured in his History, to have respected elegancies and delights, more than truth and substance) conceive that in the Heroic times, Kings were first created by the suffrages of the people: whereas, it is impossible, in any small society, for all the people to agree, or hardly the major part, though they lived so peaceably as to refer all their variances and controversies to one, whom servandae Justitiae causa, 
Cic. offic. l. 2.  as Cicero, to do justice, they constituted a King, as they pretend, which abhorreth from all probability and practice; 
Verissimus historia parens. Bodin. Thucid. lib. 1.  for as Thucydides, the truest father of History relates, that a little before his time, there was so much barbarousness, and savageness in Greece, that by Sea and Land they openly exercised theft and robbery: and Tully himself averreth, Ita rerum naturam tulisse, ut quodam tempore, homines per agros ac dispersi vagarentur, tantumque haber●nt, quantum manu ac viribus per caedem & vulnera accipere, 
Orat. pro. Sext.  & retinere potuissent. That such was the nature of things, that for a certain time, men being dispersed, did wander up and down the fields, and had only so much as they could snatch, and keep; which also in Caesar's time, 
Caesar's, come.  was the condition of the Germans, who held Larceny no infamy, but used it as an exercise for their youth, to keep them from idleness; from which I conceive Mr. Hobbs might collect, that the right of nature, is a condition of war, of every one, against every one, and right of every man to every thing, even to another's body; but if there ever were any such plain and quiet times, as is conceived, yet were they proper only to the first families, and of no long continuance; which is evident by the History of Cain and Abel, and the murdering mind of Lamech: The voice of God also then testifying, that the imagination of the thoughts of man's heart, 
Genes. 6.5.  was only evil continually.  
So as it is above belief, to conceive, that by the unanimous consent of such discrepant and disordered persons, a Prince or a Supreme Sovereign should be quietly elected; or otherwise, that such rude and barbarous people, should be reduced to a civil Government, unless by force & power of a victor, which was first attempted and achieved by Nimrod; 
Mus●ulus, chrys●stom. Cornelius à lapide,  who as hath been premised, in vigour of body, and virtue of mind, 
Tostatus, Mercer. Rivet. upon the 10. of Genes.  surpassing others, by his humanity and benignity to distressed persons, gained to himself a potent party, by which he subdued his opposites, and erected a Monarchy, and which is perspicuous, and received of all, that Nimrod was the first King and Monarch, because as Tostatus, 
In 10. Gen. quia neminem in sacred litteris legimus ante eum vegnasse. Cas. Sph. in Arist. l. 3. c. 10.  we read of none in the sacred Scriptures, to have reigned before him; Quid igitur (saith one, not superficially versed in Politic principles) profanas historias quaero? Legimus in sacris litteris, Nimrod alia via sibi procurasse imperium; venator enim robustus fuit populosque vi, & sceptro subaegit: why therefore do I seek profane Histories? we read in the holy Writ, that Nimrod procured unto himself the Empire another way, for he was a mighty hunter, and subdued Nations by force and arms unto his Sceptre; which also were the orgine and foundation of the vicissitude of succeeding Empires, as of the Medes, Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires, and lately of the Mahometan Turkish Dominion, all which had their source & rise from their victorious arms. They therefore who trace the steps of the founders of Monarchy by suffrages, unadvisedly conjecture, that the achievements and purchases of such as win dominion by arms, are disseisins, rapines, tyrannies or usurpations; whereas they are the work and ordinance of God, who is the Lord of hosts, and naturally reigneth over all by his might; for which reason, Nimrod is said to be a mighty hunter  the Lord, 
Coram Domino, quia rob accepit à Domino. Chrys. Cornelius de lapide, in 10. Genes. Abenezra▪ Paraeus, ib. Melchior Ca●●s Dei nutu & bene placito. Corn. de lap, ib.  and was not only called so, because he excelled in might, but that he nutu & ductu Dei, by the divine impulse and conduct, should force the barbarous and rude people into a civil life, and stoutly rule them by the power of the sword, which is the ordinance of God, who only hath power to give, and take away Kingdoms; with which, the people's obedience must go along and wait on God's providence; and whom to resist, though a Nebuchadnezar, were to fight against God's substitutes and servants, and by the word of God is rebellion; and it is an high presumption to brand those with the title of tyrants, 
2 Chron. 3.13.  whom God honoureth with the name of his servants, and which title is not to be found in the Scriptures, by application to any Governor; and as Musculus well observeth on the aforesaid text, the word Tyrant vulgarly signifieth nothing but a Mornarch, a Prince, or a King, which he saith is the most excellent kind of Government, if it fall to a good man; and therefore is that place perversely by some Expositors abused, 
In 10. Gen. Si cadit in virum bonum.  who with the Anabaptists thence infer dominion to be tyranny, and that it is not the ordinance of God; non coram Domino, sed contra Dominum, contrary to the will of God, and mind of the people; whereas all power in itself is of God, as Samuel said to the Israelites, 
In se. Rivet. ib. Insubjecto.  see ye here, whom the Lord hath chosen: though in the subject it is not always just and lawful for the abuse of it, which turns it into tyranny, 
Arist. 8. eth. c. 10.  and is a vice proceeding aliunde from the malice of men, and as Arist. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a wicked King is a tyrant. Seneca speaks excellently to the same purpose, that a Tyrant differs from a King, 
Senec. de clem. l. 1. c. 11, 12.  factis, non nomine, not in name, but fact; species enim fortunae & licentiae par est, nisi quod tyranni ex voluptate saeviant, reges autem non nisi ex necessitate; for the form of their power and privilege is all one, but that tyrant's use rigour for their will and pleasure, but Kings out of necessity or extremity.  
And whereas, a tyrant is described by some, to be one who rules contrary to the will of the people; by that reason there should be no Kings at all: for it is a popular, not a royal power, when the Common-weal is governed by the arbitrement of the people, and not a King; and by which rule, Moses the most just and wise Prince, may be reputed to be the greatest tyrant, because he enjoined, and prohibited, almost all things contrary to the will and mind of the people.  
Vain also is the distinction; though God ordain the power, yet he allows not the usurpation; for he is the author of the one, as well as the other; nam Regnorum initia, incrementa, & casus à Deo dependent; for the beginnings, increase, 
Philo.  and chances of Kingdoms depend upon God, which is particularly apparent in the conferring of the ten Tribes of Israel on Jeroboam, which in itself was an usurpation, in the right of Rehoboam; 
1 Reg. 11.13  yet notwithstanding, is it by holy Writ, declared to be God's gift: and when Rehoboam had raised a mighty Army, to regain the ten Tribes of Israel from jeroboam, he was deterred from that expedition, by the Prophet Shemaiah, because the Lord by him had demonstrated himself to be the author of that act; A me inquit factum est verbum hoc, for this thing saith he, is from me.  
And in all the records and acts of our Laws, there is no mention of any usurpation, but only of the Pope's usurped authority, 
28. Hen. 8.  who went beyond his last, and pastoral authority, to meddle with any royal jurisdiction; to which, the Church was always subject: else it might have been declared, that William the Conqueror was an usurper; for Edgar was the right heir, and Stephen an usurper, who as primus occupans, 
Baker. 66. Qua ex hostibus capiuntur, jure statim capientium sunt. Grot. De jure b. & p. l. 3. c. 5. Phil. Rud. sect. c. 4.  and by force procured himself to be King; and by the Law of war, whatsoever the Victor obtaineth, is his right: jus est in armis; and as Mr. Hobbs, a sure and irresistible power conferreth the right of dominion and ruling over those cannot resist; and the Conqueror may by right compel the conquered, unless he will choose to die, or give caution of his future obedience, which is a just right and title, surmounting, and swallowing all other rights; as Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: 
Camer. iustit. pol. l. 1. c. 4.  There is no Law so potent, as the Law of arms; for whosoever exceedeth in power, his commands and acts are esteemed most just: and that is a good plea in the Court Martial of all Nations, against all disseisius, tyrannies, usurpations, and all demands whatsoever, that it was obtained by battle and conquest; as when Solyman demanded Rome of the Pope, 
Clap. de arc. imp. l. 2. c. 13.  declaring that was unjustly alienated by Constantine the Great; the Pope did not urge the donation of Constantine to Pope Silvester, but pleaded, Quod jam à tot annis contra omnem vim possidemus, ac ferro defendemus; That at this present, from many years, we possess it against all force, and by the sword defend it.  
Which answer the Venetians transversim returned to the Pope, who requiring of them by what title they held the dominion of the Seas, boldly protested, that they held it bello & victoria, by war and victory.  
And this law saith the Philosopher, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
1 Posit.  is a kind of consent and compact among all Nations, at which the Comedian pointeth, discoursing of a pitch field.  

Plaut. Convenit, utri victi sint eo praelio,  
Vrbem, agros, focos seque dederent.   

It was agreed, that they who conquered flies,  
Should yield their Cities, fields, and families.   
For the Victor hath an universal, not a particular right, 
De jur. b & p. l. 3. c. 6.  and that without any relation to the cause, but only to the bare fact, ex quo jus oritur, saith Grotius, from whom the right ariseth; and which is an eternal Law, and a custom which hath been confirmed by the practice of all Nations, from Nimrod the great Hunter, to Ottoman the great ranger, and so will continue 
Vsque dum Regnum obtinebit Jupiter Feretrius.  
So long as the Lord of Hosts shall reign.    

CAP. VIII.  
1 In the beginning, the decrees of Princes were Laws.  
2. Whether it be better to be ruled by a good Law, or a good man.  
3. That secrecies of State properly appertain to the Prince.  
IN the beginning of Government, the wills and decrees of Princes were Laws, 
Just. l. 1.  So saith Justine of the Assyrian, Arbitria regum pro legibus erant: 
Just. l. 1.  and of the Athenian, Libido regum pro legibus erat, who for their approved moderation and equity, 
Just. l. 2.  were honoured and reverenced as speaking Laws, guiding themselves and others by the law of nature, which they as God's subjects are bound to observe, as well as their subjects them; and which, as Bodin, is Regina utrisque imperans, 
Bodin. l. 3. c. 3. de repub.  a Queen commanding them both; and a Lesbian rule, flexible every way according to the various contigences and vicissitudes in every particular case, which makes it dubitable & disputable, as it is propounded by the Peripatetical disputant, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ 
Arist pol. l. 3. c. 12.  whether it is better to be ruled by a good law, or a good man? who for the latter allegeth this reason, That laws cannot be given for those things fall into debate, as contingent and future things, which defect upon emergent occasions, may be supplied by the presentary prudence of one good man. To which may be added that the Law is a mute rule, and a dead letter, whereas a good Prince is the life of a State, and a living law, whom all for his Majesty are more apt and ready to obey: For which reason Anacharsis derided Solon, when he enterprised to make laws, saying that it was ridiculous to conceive that the injuries and ambitions of men would be reclaimed and restrained by mute and dead letters, which would not differ from spider's cobwebs, that detain the lesser not the greater flies, out of which the potent and richer persons would easily escape, as the Poet, 
Dat veniam Corvis, vexat censurac olumbas.  
Censure doth crows enlarge, and vexeth silly Doves. 
Juven.    
Whereupon Plutarch in the life of Solon relateth, That he by the constitution of his laws, obtained not that happy end he expected, which arrogancy and insolency is regulated and kerbed by the majesty and authority of a good Prince, whose will and edicts, the superior as well as the inferior will more readily observe and obey, especially if they be correspondent to the law of nature: According to which if we all live (as Sir John Davis, 
In his preface to hi●●epor●s  a Precedent of the law, acknowledgeth) we should need few laws, and fewer Lawyers: Do as you would be done to, would rule us all, and every man's conscience would supply the place of both Advocate and Judge, which also, as Sallust, 
In Catil.  was anciently practised among the Romans, Apud quos jus, bonumque non magis legibus quam natura valebat, with whom nature more prevailed to do that which was right and good than law. And howsoever positive and municipal laws being granted, whereby the Commonweal may be governed by subordinate Officers, the Prince's shoulders being of too narrow a compass for so large a burden; yet to a Prince more peculiarly appertaineth the deliberation concerning secrecies of State, which reflect on the present glory and safety of the Empire. Tiberius' callidissimus omnium Imperatorum, 
Bodin de rep.  of all Emperors the craftiest, referred public affairs to the cognisance of the Senate; yet reserved he jus & vim Imperii, 
Suet.  the power and right of the Empire to his secret deliberation. Augustus also when he intended to consult and deliberate about the secret affairs of State, repaired to a private and close place, which he called Syracusas, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Suet▪  And the Emperors generally had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Councel-chamber, or Cabinet-councel, wherein they did ponder and diligently consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Herodian.  the secret and occult occurrences concerning their safety: who also had their special Edicts, which they called peculiaria, & nova Edicta, peculiar & new Edicts, which were promulged upon extraordinary and unexpected occasions, containing in them the vigour of Laws. Not much unlike to our Prince's Edicts and Proclamations, which Mr. Pimm, the prudent and severe observer of passages of State, 
Pims' Speech.  styleth the great and most eminent power of a Prince, & the glorious beams of Majesty, most rigorous in commanding obedience and subjection; which are said to be leges temporis, with which our Princes have used to encounter with sudden and unexpected dangers as would not endure so much delays as assembling the great Council of the Kingdom.   

CAP. IX.  
1. Empire's are conserved by Arms.  
2. The Majesty of a Prince is the safety of a State.  
3. Guards are necessary for the safety of a Prince.  
4. And are not tyrannical, but Basilical.  
5. Laws are protected by Arms.  
THe conservation of an Empire is the maintenance of the Militia: For, Eodem modo quo quid constituitur conservatur: And as Scaliger, 
Scal. de subt. Ex. 3.  Conservari refertur eidem authori, & principio; Every thing is conserved by the same means, author, and principle it was first constituted; but Empires at the first were constituted by Arms, as hath been fully shown, and therefore by Arms are to be conserved, which Pansa and Hirtius in Paterculus resolve, Quod principatus armis quaesitus armis tenendus est, That a Principality acquired by Arms, is to be retained by Arms. For as Sallust, Imperium iis facilè artibus retinetur quibus partum est, 
C●til.  An Empire is easily retained by those means it was obtained. And therefore the Stratocratique and Military Empire is universally more lasting and permanent, because by the power of Arms it is sustained, and maintained against foreign Invasions & intestine Seditions. For as Aristotle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Arist. 7. Pol. c. 9  It is in their powers who are Masters of the Militia, and have the management of Arms, to be a means to continue or not continue the state of the Common-weal; which is confirmed by the practice of all Nations, and the augmentation and duration of all Empires, 
Hor. 1. Ser. 8. Tempora si fastosque velis evolvere mundi.  
If you'll revolve the times and annals of the world.   
And which at this present is more perspicuously eminent in the great growth and constant conservation of the Turkish Empire, 
C●m. in Arist. Pol. l. 3. c. 10.  which as Camerarius, Confusum ex diversis nationibus, & militari manu conservatum, ad maximam potentiam evectum est, composed of divers Nations, and conserved by Military force, is advanced to the greatest power, and also to the highest Title, the Turk styling himself Imperatorum ter maximus, 
Bedi. de Repub. s. 192. Herb: H. 8. f. 337.  and denying the name of Emperor to Charles the fifth, saying there was no Emperor in the world but himself. To which height of dignity and immensity, by the conservation and augmentation of his janissaries and other Military Forces he hath attained, which he hath always in a readiness to defend himself from Insurrections at home, and to invade the Territories of the nearest Princes abroad, to the continual augmentation and duration of the Empire, which consisteth in the power of Arms, 
Plato scripsit intra septing. an. nos magnis rebus pub. definitam esse conversionem. Annot. in Florum. Aristo.  and may by it be made Impeperium sine fine, if it continue invincible, which is not impossible through God's assistance, and man's providence: For the corruptions and conversions of Empires have not their vicissitude from the result of time, and resolve of Fate, as the Platonists and Stoics did divine, but from external or internal force, which by the potent and vigilant power of Arms, the Divine power conniving, may be prevented.  
It is the experimental observation of Augustus, Omnia quae praeclara sunt, tum imprimis summum Imperium cum invidia conjunctum est, 
Cl●p. de art rep. l. 1. f. 1.  All excellent things, especially the Supreme Power, is conjoined with envy, which accompanied with ambition and satiety of the present Governor or Government, do frequently move many factious people to spurn at the Majesty of Authority, and to study new designs; who easily may (if no bar, or preventing obstacle be interposed) lay violent hands on the Prince, and so disturb & surprise the Commonweal: 
Curt. l. 8.  For, Majestas Imperii salutis est tutela, The Majesty of the Empire is the protection of safety: For if the Majesty of a Prince be not maintained, the safety of a State cannot continue, but will fall into divisions and turbulent factions: For as Sir Edward Cook, A Prince is caput & salus Reipublicae, & à capite bona valetudo transit in omnes, The head and safety of a Commonweal; 
Cook repo. l. 9 f. 124.  and from the head health is conveyed to all. And for this cause is his person sacred, that whosoever offereth it violence, reus est laesae Majestatis; & pereat unus ne pereant omnes; is guilty of high Treason, and let one suffer, rather than all perish. And therefore do all Laws provide for the safety of a Prince, because the safety of all depends on it: And though all power is of God, yet ought not a Prince to presume only on God's providence for his protection, and rely on the reason of Antoninus, Si Divinitùs ipsi debetur Imperium, non poterimus ipsum interficere, etiamsi velimus, If the Empire was due to him by gift of God, we cannot destroy him if we would; nor on the resolution of Vespasian, who admoneshed the Conspirators of his life, that they should desist from treacheries; Si fato ipsis deberetur Imperium, si iis adjumento futurum, If the Empire should be due to them by destiny, and that it would be an assistance to such. 
Barcl. contra monarch. l. 3. c. 2.  For the eternal opifex of all things from the origin of the world, would that all things should arise and proceed from second causes in a firm and constant order, whereas he is able of himself, without any ordinary means, to produce all the effects of natural things; So would he that Kings and Emperors be provident and circumspect to use all ordinary means by Arms, or otherwise to secure and guard their persons: For as Cato, Vigilando, agendo, bene consulendo, prosper dii omnia concedunt: 
Sallust. Catil.  ubi socordiae & ignaviae te tradideris, nequaquam Deos implores, irati infensique sunt; The Gods grant all things prosperously to those who watch, act, and consult well; when that you shall give yourself to negligence and idleness, do not implore the Gods, they are angry and displeased. For as Solomon, The slothful man killeth himself, 
Prov. 21.25. & 14.23.  but in labour there is profit: Dii omnia laboribus vendunt, To which Gods power is always and many times miraculously assisting, as it was to Samson, and David. And therefore have all Prince's ductu Dei, by God's direction, used all diligence and the ordinary power of God for their preservation, and fenced their Royal persons with Military Forces, to prevent competition and conspiracy: For as Livy, Parum tuta est sine viribus Majestas, Majesty without might is seldom safe. 
Navius calls them regalis corporis custodias. ●●vy.  For which reason, Romulus in the beginning of his Royalty, selected 300. Light Horsemen for the custody of his Royal body, whom he retained tam pace quam bell●, as well in peace as war; which solemn guard his Successors constantly maintained. And Augustus in the beginning of the Empire, premonished by the slaughter of Caesar, armed with a coat of mail, guirded with a sword, and guarded with military forces, repaired to the Senate, besides the Praetorian cohorts which were continually in a readiness to prevent seditions; which provident postures the succeeding Emperors observed; the which also at this present is practised by most Princes; And in England was first instituted by Henry the seventh, 
Bacon Hist. Henry. 7.  whom Sir Francis Bacon graceth with the Elegy of a wise Prince, who made it to hold in succession for ever. And more rare and singular was the providence of Massinissa, who, though he was fortified with fifty four valorous sons, and strengthened by the friendship of the Romans; yet as Valerius Maximus, Parum fidei in pectoribus hominum reponens, 
Val. M. l. 7. c. 3.  reposing little faith in the breasts of men, environed his person with a pack of dogs, placing most confidence in his Vlyssean Guard.  
And therefore was it justly accounted a State solecism in Caesar, though otherwise in Military Discipline an exquisite Grammarian; who, notwithstanding he continued his perpetual Dictatorship, dismissed the Praetorian cohorts, and careless and fearless of any peril, presented himself naked and open to the sword of his Enemies. In which State-Criticisme, Alexander, though an expert and skilful General, was fond overseen; who notwithstanding he had divested Antipater of the Praefecture of Macedonia, Thessalia, and Thracia, yet did he appoint Philippus and Jolas his sons to be his cupbearers, 
Curt. l. 10. Praegustatores.  and foretasters, a place of eminent trust, and imminent peril, whom Antipater suborned to take away his life by poison.  
Neither is this State-policy a tyrannical device, as some detractors from majesty affirm; for by the judgement of Aristotle a perstringer of tyrants, a guard is as well basilical as tyrannical; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, such a guard is royal, and not tyrannical; and he putteth this difference between them, 
Ar. l. 3 po. c. 10.  that the one is guarded by foreigners and strangers, and the other by natives and Citizens; wherein Alexander also forgetting his Master's precepts, drew upon himself the suspicion of tyranny, in committing the custody of his person to the Persians, which the Macedonians could not endure: Jactantes, as Justine, hosts suos in officium suum à rege subactos, that he had substituted their enemies in their places; with which exorbitancy the late King of England was charged, 
Declar. of Parl. May 22, 1644.  for having a design to bring in German horse, as a presumption of tyranny. Other differences also the Philosopher addeth, that a tyrant respects his potent power, and private commodities, and a King his Princely honour, and public utility; that the one fortifieth himself to the destruction of the people, and the other to defend his person against conspiracies, and to protect the people from injuries.  
Arms are also necessary for the protection of the Law, which as the Philosopher, 
Arist. 1. Rhet. Poli.  is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the safety of a City; and in another place, is more necessary than bread, by which the people are sustained and preserved from the injuries of the unjust, as the Poet, 
Hor. Jura inventa metu injusti fateare necesse est.  

Who cannot but confess that  
Laws first given were for  
fear of the unjust?    
Yet as a Lawyer saith, Lex otiosa est, 
Danaeus Aphor. f. 559  & inutilis potestas, & quasi Campana sine pistillo, The Law is a vain and useless power, and as it were a bell without a clapper, which yieldeth no sound, and produceth no effect, unless it be impowered by the Prince and sword, from which it receiveth its life and authority; so saith the Apostolical Lawyer, 
Rom. 13▪  If thou dost that is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword for nought. Arms and the sword are the Protectors of the Laws, as their great Protector Justinian declareth, who discoursing of their mutual assistance, putteth it down in his Institutes: Illorum alterum alterius auxilio semper eguit, & tam res militares legibus, quam ipsae leges armorum praesidio servatae sunt; The one hath always needed the others help; and as well military affairs are preserved by the Laws, as the Laws by the protection of Arms; 
Mr. Pim. Arist.  and herein doth the majesty of a glorious Prince appear, that as he is the clear fountain of Justice, and guardian of the Law, so he should protect them; for therefore are Kings called Custodes legum, 
Cas. 3. pol. c. 11.  Wardens of the Laws; quia illas elingues elumbesque gladio defendant, because they being speechless and heartless, should be defended with their edicts and sword, and they with that famous Emperor, protest and practise, 
Ferdin.  

Nec me regnante▪ licebit  
Gunt. Has cuiquam nostras impune lacessere leges:  
At ●si quis tumidus praesumpserit obvius i re  
Supplicium praesens manifestaque poena docebit  
Non magis invictum bello quam legibus ess●.   

It lawful shall not be whilst we do reign,  
That any one should slight our Laws in vain;  
And whosoe'er shall proudly them oppose,  
Present and public punishment shall disclose  
Us both by Laws and Arms to be invincible.    
Which also hath been the Sovereign care of our Albion Princes, who by oath protested themselves Protectors of the Laws; some of them using all diligence to abbreviate their volumes, and purge them from irregularities; for which Edward the Confessor is magnified, who out of an indigested rhapsody and cento of numerous Laws (which the Romans, 
Cook 3. rep. ep. ad. Lect.  English and Danes had ordained) selected the best, and compiled them into a compendious system, some of which William the Conqueror approved, disallowed others, and added some new; and so did Henry the third abolish some, decree others, 
Baker.  and was the first constituted Parliaments; for which also the indulgent care of our present Prince is to be extolled, who hath proved himself a real Protector of the Law, which when it was totally to be abrogated by the violent part of the last Assembly, he through the assignment of the rest, Delphico suo gladio, dissolved it, and routed them; the people's inheritance as well as the Lawyer's advancement being by it preserved; 
Ployd. Com. Wisbish. ca f. 55.  and like another Justinian hath his Highness called together persons of great ability and integrity, as are in these Nations, to consider how the Laws may be made plain, short, and less chargeable to the people; by whom the Courts of the Upper Bench and Common Pleas are judiciously reform, and the Chancery more accurately regulated, and which might have been exactly completed by the last Parliament, if they had left the Government as they found it, there being Bills prepared to that purpose: to some of which, though the Government seemed a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yet according to the direction of the Philosopher, Laws are to be conformed according to the condition of the present State, 
Clap. de arc. imp. f. 66.  which is warranted by approved Precedents: Augustus the most r●nowned of all the Emperors, as Tacitus in the name of the Romans relates, potentiae securas, quae in triumviratu gesserat abolevit, deditque jura quae pace & principe uteremur, being secured by power, abolished whatsoever he had enjoined in his Triumvirate, and gave Laws which we should use for the peace of the Common-weal, and safety of the Prince. And so did William the Conqueror, who after the establishment of his royalty, 
Cook. 3. Rep. ad Lectorem.  as Sir Edward Cook, introduced some new Laws, quae ad regni pacem tuendam efficacissimae viderentur, which were efficacious for the settlement of peace in the Kingdom; which Laws are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Clap. de art. Imp. l. 1. c. 10.  & fundamenta imperii, the elements, and fundamentals of the Empire and Government, and are conversant about assemblies, and Parliaments, Magistrates, and Jurisdiction, and concerning Arms, and the Exercise of them, which as the Philosopher, 
Arist. l. 4▪ Pol.  appertain to him is the head and chief of the Commonweal.   

CAP. X.  
1. Monarchy was the first Government.  
2. It is ordained by God, and settled by nature.  
3. It is the best Government.  
THe Government of one was the first Government on earth by man, 
Barc. count. Monarch. ib. Chrysost.  as it is the Government in heaven and earth by God; for God created Adam alone, out of whom all Nations should arise, and made not woman of the earth, but of man, that there should be one head and father of mankind: so as Adam, the father of all men, had a Monarchical power over them by a general ordinance, settled by God in him; and therefore as Chrysostom, Monarchy is more excellent than other forms, because first ordained by God: Adam then was the first Monarch and King of his family, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Homer said of Telemachus, 
Homer Odyss. α.  which Government continued in families, until the reign of Nimrod, who first changed the paternal Monarchy into National; Though by Herodotus the Egyptians are reported to be the Ancients of all mortals, 
Herod. l. 2:  and that they never lived without a King, of whom Menes was the first.  
And that Monarchy was the first Government, appeareth also by the Testimony of other approved authors: Principio rerum, gentium, nationumque imperium penes reges erat, saith justine, and Sallust, 
Justin l. 1. Catal.  lu teuris nomen imperii primum fuit: and Aristotle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: The Government of all Countries, Cities, and Nations, first resided in Kings, and therefore is it feigned saith he, that all the Gods were ruled by one King, 
Pol. l. 1. c. 1.  which continued as a custom among all Nations, and therefore doth Aristotle add, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Nation● also now do. In Abraham's time, not three ages distant from the flood, there were five Kings at one time, 
Gen. 14.  in a small part of Asia; and joshua in the same Country which God gave unto the Israelites, subdued 31. King's: and in those days Abimelech forced seventy Kings to his subjection; and not many ages after, there were thirty two Kings auxiliaries to Benadab, King of Syria; and it is related, 
Josh. 8.12.  that in Greece, no less than seventy Kings joined their forces to invade the Trojans; and that before Caesar's expedition into France, 
Caesar c●m. de bell. Gall. 10.  there were more Kings than Provinces; and that in Kent, which is but one of the thirty seven Counties in England, at one time there reigned four Kings: and though the Government of Gods own people varied under the several titles of Patriarches, Captains, judges, and Kings; yet in all these, the supreme power rested still in one person only, which is the same with Monarchy, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  it being the Government of one alone, as the notation of the word declares.  
Which Government of one, proceedeth from a natural inclination man hath thereunto, or as if the soul of man is a parcel of the divine essence, & ●vel●ti Deus in humano corpore habitans, so is there an innate propensity in man, 
Seneca.  to applicate himself to that divine form of Government, to which all Nations, though rude, and barbarous, are and have been by it incited; which moved the Israelites to desire such a King as the Nations than had: and if we survey the present State of Europe, we shall find the Emperors from Julius Caesar, the Hungarians from Aitila, Danes from Danus, the Suevians from Mugosa, the Scots from Fregusius, and the Britain's from Brutus, to have derived and continued their Monarchies; which instinct by some is called jus naturale: 
Jus naturae est, quod commune est animalibus.  For what is common to all sensitive creatures, is said to be the law of nature; & whatsoever beasts act by natural instigation, if the same be done by reasonable creatures, is said to be jure naturali: And so saith Seneca, Natura commenta est Regem, quod ex aliis animantibus, & apibus licet dignoscere; Nature invented a King, which may be collected from Bees, and other animals, who in their herds, flocks and swarms, have a principal and leader. The Cranes, litterato ordine, 
Arist. de anim· c. 1.  in a composed order have a Conductor, who, as Aristotle saith, agit & moderatur gregem, leadeth and ordereth the flock; which is most remarkable in the wondrous oeconomy of the Bees, and their singular observance to the Majesty of their Prince; 
Pliny l. 11. nat. hist. c. 17.  of which Pliny fully, and the Mantuan Poet sweetly, 

Virg. Geor Regem non sic Aegyptus, & ingens  
Lydia, n●● populus Parthorum,  
aut Medus Hydaspes observant.   

Egypt & Lydia do not so  
observe their Kings,  
Nor Medes, nor Persian people,  
as these humming things.    
Who instructed them in this principle of Policy, but the Genius of Nature? which if it may not be properly called a law, as Grotius believeth, because reasonable creatures are only capable of it; yet as they have a shadow and resemblance of reason, may a law improperly be ascribed to them; which by Gessendus is called jus animale, the law of sensible creatures.  
And it is Aristotle's observation, that in all things which are cemented, and composed of many parts, and made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Arist. l. 1. Pol. c. 3.  a certain common thing, whether living or not living, there is a certain principality: As in man, the mind, which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, governing the affections: And in beasts, as Tully saith, quiddam simile menti, something like unto the mind, 
Camerius ibidem.  which ruleth and ordereth their appetites: As also in Vegetatives, and those things which are produced out of the Earth, the Roots have the Principality. So is it in things without life; As the Sun hath the principality of the Stars, and rules and governs their influences by his light; from whence the Civilians collect, that according to the course of nature, there is a principality in those things which are not concrete, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, only conjoined and obliged: as in a Flock a Shepherd, in an Army an Emperor, and in a Society a Governor. To which, Alexanders answer to Darius, offering him part of his Empire, is not impertinent, Mundum d●●bus solibus non posse regi, 
Justin l. 11.  neque orbem summa regna terrarum habere; That the world could not be ruled by two Suns, nor the Earth safely have two great Kingdoms. And that of the Senators to Tiberius, pretending to have the Empire divided, Vnum esse reipub. corpus, 
Tacit. An.  & unius animo regendum, The body of the Commonweal is one, and aught by one soul to be ruled. Rome could not brook two Twins, though Brothers: Esau and Jacob were at variance in one womb: There is one Pilot in a ship, one Master in a family, one General in an army. And therefore as the Prince of Poets, 
Hom. ●, b. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
The rule of many is not good,  
Let there be then  
One Ruler, or one King, to reign  
the wills of men.   
And the Prince of Philosophers discoursing of the forms and species of government, 
Arist. Ethic. l. 8. c. 10.  resolves, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But of these Royalty is the best.   

CAP. XI.  
1. Monarchy is the cause of Concord, and Polyarchy of Discords.  
2. The Events of both.  
UNitas est Mater & Fundamentum Concordiae; 
Prid. Metaph.  Unity is the Mother and Foundation of Concord; and the dominion of one more peaceable and quiet then that of many: For in many an unity is required to all Consultations, Acts, Elections, which cannot so easily be obtained as by the result of one person, quia rarius secum unus quam multi inter se dissident, 
Cas. Sph.  One doth more rarely differ with himself, than many among themselves: For among many, frequent dissensions and debates arise; the wills of men being various and dissonant.  Velle suum cuique est, nec voto vivitur uno. 
And many Governors, as Bodin judiciously, though they know the truth, 
Bod. de repub. l. 8. c. 4  tamen invicem sibi sunt impedimento, yet are they obstructive one to the other, and severally biased by their affections. And if we take an exact Survey of the intestine seditions which did tear and rend the bowels of the Roman State, few or none will appear in the Reigns of their Kings whilst it was subject to the dominion of one. But after the extirpation of Royalty, dangerous discords did infest their State. The common people first in a furious sit departed from the City to the sacred Mount, and could not be recalled until their debts were remitted, and Tribunes constituted with power to impede any proceed in the Senate, which might be prejudicial to them; and grew to that height of ambition, by virtue of their Tribunitial power, that nothing would content them but a parity and equality with the Patricians, and the Nobles; not much unlike to our late ambitious Levellers. Then the Tribunes elevated and animated with their negative power, pretending the benefit of the people, chief aimed at their own dominion, and were the cause of many turbulent commotions, which like Hydra's heads, one being lopped, others instantly sprouted up; of which the Gracchis, Apuleius, and Drusus were the principal actors, by whose daily seditions and rapines, 
Horus L. 3. c. 13.  the Commonweal was much impoverished and endangered, Justice violated, and the Treasury exhausted. Infinite were the distractions which molested their manyheaded Government, whose particular repetition would stuff a vast volume; as their social and servile wars; the desperate conspiracies of Spartacus, Sertorious, and Catiline; the bloody and envious discords between Marius, Sylla, Cinna and Corbo; and the fatal wars between Pompey and Caesar, Brutus, Cassius; and Augustus; and afterwards between Antony, Lepidus, and Augustus.  

Hora.— adeo sunt multa, loquacem  
Del●ssare valent Fabiu●●.   

There are so many be enough to tyre  
The longwinded Fabius.   
It is the judgement of Seneca, Ibi semper est Victoria, ubi est Concordia; Concord and Victory are twins, and always march together, and with Castor and Pollux have divine success. The Unanimity of seventy Grecian Princes at the last vanquished the almost inexpugnable City of Troy, though the event was much retarded by the difference of Achilles: And whereas ten equal Commanders appointed severally in their courses to command in chief, were elected to encounter the confident and formidable Army of the Persians, Aristides presaging and perceiving the discords which from the diversity of their Commanders might arise, through his sage advice prevailed to have the whole charge conferred on Miltiades; by which union, and the powerful command of Miltiades, the famous Victory of Marathon was obtained: And the contentions between Themistocles and Euribiades had almost delivered the Istmique victory into the hands of the Persians. The three Military Tribunes appointed by the Senate to besiege Veios, through their differences were disgracefully defeated. The Sicilian Expedition was frustrated by the discords of Nicias and Alcibiades. The variances between Sempronius and Scipio precipitated the Thebaean Victory on Hannibal. The debate between Terentius and Paulus occasioned the miserable overthrow at Cannae, whence to escape by flight was a glory, so fiercely were they pursued.  Virg. Ecl. En quo discordia cives Perduxit miseros. 
And as small and mean States have by their Union flourished; so have mighty and glorious Commonweals through their strifes fallen to ruin. Thucydides writes of Pyrocles, that so long as Athens was ruled by him, it flourished; but through the difference of the Praetorian Officers it did run to ruin. 
Horat. ed.  Ruit & ipsa Roma viribus suis, And Rome certainly had by their civil broils been consumed, had not their divided State been happily reduced to the dominion of one. 
Tacitus An. 1.  When the Turk had besieged Cyprus, and the Pope, the King of Spain, and the Venetian had sent a mighty Navy to its relief, the Captains by the way disagreeing, stayed at Crete whilst the Turk took the Town: whereupon Turselinus truly collects, 
Turseli. hist l.  Quod Turca semper discordiis nostris crescit, That the Turk always increaseth by our discords, 
Luc. l. 1.  Quae populos semper mersere potentes. And may be the ruin of Christendom, as they were of Carthage, which stood in competition with the Romans for the dominion of the world; yet were they through their divisions subdued, 
Patric. de princip. f. 513.  and compelled to serve that people they otherwise might have subjected; which also were the cause of the subjecting the Britan's to the Romans, 
Vita Agric.  as Tacitus impartially relates, describing their condition, Quod Principes factionibus, & studiis trahuntur, in common non consultant; ita dum singuli pugnant, universi vincuntur; That their Princes were drawn, and divided by their factions and affections, and never consulted in common, insomuch as whilst they fight severally, they are universally overcome.   

CAP. XII.  
1. That Civil Wars can hardly be composed, but by the revolution of the Government to one person.  
2. The necessity of Caesar's and Augustus' acceptation of the Empire, to whom his Highness condition, and necessary occasions of taking upon him the Government, is fitly compared, with other pertinent passages.  

Barc. contra Mo. l. 44.  IT is the Animadversion of Dio, a man of exquisite Learning and long experience, That if any Commonweal hath sometimes flourished under a popular government, it continued so long until it had attained to the height of its greatness: Then from its prosperity did arise ambition, envy, and from them contentions and civil dissensions, which can hardly be composed but by the devolution of the Empire to one Governor, as Clapmere acutely observeth; Seditiones, & bella civilia componi vix possunt nisi Imperio ad unum devoluto: 
Clap. de arc. Imp. ff. 77.  Which is confirmed by the Oracle of Apollo, whom the Phrygians, almost consumed by intestine seditions, consulted how and by what means they might put a period to them, who were by it advised, and answered, Regi discordiis opus esse, 
Just. l. 11.  That they had need of a King to appease their discords: which afterwards was prosperously effected by Gordius their allotted and deputed King, by whose prudence and prowess, peace and concord were established. And the Polonians from Lechus were ruled by Kings for the space of one hundred and fifty years; but the Royal Issue failing, 
Joannes Herbert l.  the Supreme Power was conveyed unto twelve persons, who in the beginning made some fair proof of their just Government; but in process of time, they being carried away with ambition, and a sordid desire of amplifying their private fortunes, so disturbed the Common-weal with their discords, that a lamentable Ataxy of all things had ensued, and the dissolution or the State, unless it had been maturely prevented by the reduction of the Government to the power of one person. But more illustrious is this experiment in the various vicissitude of the Roman State, which by degrees had run through all forms of government; yet at the last, through their continual seditions, and as Tacitus, ob certamen potentium, by the conflicts and contests of the potent, it was so torn and racked with convulsive distractions, that it had utterly been ruined, if it had not been miraculously reduced by the invincible power of Caesar and Augustus to the Supremacy of one Prince. So the great Statesman Tacitus, Neque aliud discordantis patriae remedium fuit, 
Ann. l. 1.  quam si ab uno solo regeretur; Neither was there any other remedy for that discordant Nation, than that it should be ruled by one. The which also Cicero, though a professed Patron of Polyarchy, was at the last forced to acknowledge; 
L. 1. de nat. Deo.  Quod is esset reipub. status, ut eam unius consilio & cura gubernari necesse est; That such was the state of the Commonweal, that of necessity it must be governed by the council and care of one. And therefore was Caesar, as Plutarch affirmeth, 
Vit. Caesar.  created perpetuus dictator, hoping thereby ab intestinis discordiis respirare, to breath from their intestine discords; for which reason his barbarous slaughter was condemned as a detestable parricide, and of a dangerous consequence to the State, 
Clap. de arc. Imp. l. 5. c. 19 Patri. de Princip. l. 1. tit. 13.  new Civil Wars thereupon ensuing, which Caesar prophesied of himself, Non tam sua quam reipublicae interesse ut salvus fieret; That it reflected not so much upon his own good as the welfare of the Commonweal, that he should be safe; which Dio, Tacitus, and Pomponius also aver, Quod ita evenit, ut necesse esset reipub. per unum tantum consuli; That it so fell out, as that it was necessary for the Commonweal to be swayed by the advice of one alone: And therefore did the divine vengeance pursue that inhuman slaughter, not any of the Assassinates long surviving, but every one of them within the space of three years perishing most miserably by the pursuit and prowess of Augustus, who, 
Plut. vita Caesaris.  as Tranquillus, Omnium bellorum initium & causam hinc sumpsit, nihil convenientius ducens, 
Vit. Aug.  quam necem avunculi vindicare, tuerique acta, From thence did ground the cause and beginning of all the wars, deeming nothing more convenient then to vindicate the slaughter of his Uncle, and to defend his Acts. Which after he had happily effected, perceiving, as Tacitus,  pacis interesset omnium potestatem ad unum conferri; 
Ann. 1.  That it appertained to peace to have the power of all conferred on one, under the name of a Prince, took upon him the Empire; Distractions in a State being dolores & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, pains and pangs of one labouring for delivery, and in the end bringing forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one and a great one. Such an one was Caesar, Qui continuo seditiones intistinas compressit, 
Patric. de Princ. l. 1. t. 13.  & pacem non modò urbi, sed etiam Italiae, & universo terrarum orbi praebuit; Who presently suppressed intestine seditions, and did make and give peace not only to the City and Italy, but to all the world. Such a one was Augustus, Qui (as Florus) sapientiâ suâ, & solertiâ perculsum undique & perturbatum ornavit Imperii corpus, 
Flo. l. 4 c. 4  quod haud dubio ita coire & consentire non potuisset, nisi unius praesidis nutu quaesi anima, menteque regeretur: who by his wisdom and care reduced into order the confused and disjointed body of the Empire, which without doubt could never have consented and come together, unless it had been by the will and prudence of one precedent, as by one soul and mind.  
And such an one is our Prince, a Caesar for valour, Augustus for fortune, and for prowess and prudence second to neither: whose noble acts are engraven in the late perilous and epidemical wars, spread over the Territories of three Nations; wherein he was constantly a principal Actor, and a perpetual Victor: Hostis ubique, & semper Victor. By whose valorous virtue England was quieted, Ireland settled, 
De jure Reg. apud Scotes.  and Scotland subdued and brought under subjection; which from two thousand years before, as Buchanan brags, was liberum regnum ab externarum Gentium Imperio, A Kingdom free from the dominion of Foreign Nations. And as Edward the first was called Malleus Scotorum, the Mauler of the Scots, so may Oliver the first be styled Scotorum Domitor, The Conqueror of the Scots.  
But after the fury of the war was allayed by his invincible virtue, all discords ceased, as after a tempestuous storm the winds become calm and pleasant: Though not long after many insolences and corruptions began to reign in the Senate, aiming at an arbitrary perpetuity to act what it pleased, and proposing to themselves private respects before the people's profit, which was the just cause of its dissolution. And afterwards that an hopeful Assembly was convocated & constituted; wherein, contrary to the expectation of the best, more pernicious absurdities and dangerous errors did sprout up, to the depravation of the true Religion, and subversion of the Civil Government, which worthily wrought its dissipation and assignment: All which are more exactly and amply deciphered in that judicious Tractate entitled, The Case of the Cowmonweale stated as now it standeth by a Protector. Then the generous and ingenuous spirit of our General, instigated by the importunity of necessity, and at the entreaty of divers persons of honour and quality, and chief Officers of the Army, with the approbation of the chief Magistrates of this Commonweal, and divers other Gentlemen, Citizens, and persons of worth, under the name of a Protector did take upon him the Government, as well for the prosperity and tranquillity of the turbulent and distempered State, as also for the safety and dignity of his own person, being enviously undermined by some ambitious persons, as Caesar was by Pompey, and Augustus by Antony. 
Cook Rep. D was C se.  Foelix necessitas quae ad meliora conducit; Happy is the necessity which produceth better things: And happy those who studious of the public good are sheltered under his protection, by whose providence are received more commodious and blessed things: Insomuch as what was was said of Augustus upon the like occasion, may aptly be applied to his present condition, Nunquam pacis facultas, tantaque omnium copia affluxit, 
Patric. de princ. l. 1. c. 13.  quantum suppeditavit ille postquam Imperii habenas accepit; Never so much freedom of peace and plenty of all things did abound, as he hath given and ministered since he took upon him the reins of the Empire. Our swords fat with slaughters, and our lands lean with plunderings, are turned into profitable siths, and fertile plowshares; peace is within our gates, and plenteousness within our palaces, every one sitting under his own Vine and Figtree, without fear or dread of any Enemy:  non solum, as Tully in the same sense, two quibus natura sensum dedit, sed etiam tecta & agri mihi laetari videantur; As not only creatures to whom nature hath given sense, but the houses and fields also seem to rejoice.  
And, which exceeded the expectation of the Sagest, hath his Highness through the divine assistance, and humane providence, quelled the high and mighty Masters of the Seas, and by his magnanimous 
* Blake, Monk, and Pen. Vantrump. quasi d●as Maris.  Argonauts calmed the fury of the maritine & raging * Belgian Triton's; who, maugre the mountainous waves and tempestuous winds, 
Augustus' invito Neptuno dixit se victoriam adepturum. Tranq.  invito Neptuno, engaged themselves to gain the Victory; the which at the last, after many horrid and dismal conflicts, was obtained, and the confident Assailants compelled to lore their resolutions, and stoop to their ancient homage and fealty, submitting themselves to glorious & laudable conditions of peace; for which noble & famous act he meriteth to be styled Imperator Oceani, as Queen Elizabeth was Regina Oceani: 
Canba. vit. Eliz.  By whose example, and fame of his virtue, divers Foreign Potentates, auditu modo cogniti, known unto him only by report, have been invited to seek his amity. Whose prudence in his courteous comport, and equal transactions of peace, may seem to parallel, if not transcend his skilful stratagems in war; Tam belli, pacisque artibus longè clarissimus; 
Turselinus.  as it was said of the Emperor Probus: for which his fame will live, 
Tiber. Vivit dum robora tellus,  
Dum coelum stellas, dum vehit amnis aquas;  As long as the Sun, Moon and Earth endureth; and which are able to wrest Eulogies out of reluctant and refractory spirits.  
Yet such is the condition of Principality, that it is commonly accompanied with hatred and envy.  
Senec. in Thyestes. Ista mundi conditor posuit simul  
Odium atque regnum.  
And our pious Aeneas wants no malignant and envious conspirators; but this is no wonder or terror to his undaunted and invincible mind, well knowing rancour to be the prosecutor of honour. Hercules after his unparallelled labours, 
Horat. s. 2. Ep. 1. Comperit invidiam supremo fine domari.  
Did find the Monster envy in the end untamed.   
Who out of malice vent their venom against those, whose memory, if deceased, they would honour.  Hor. l. 2. Ep. 1. Exhaustus amabitur idem. 
It was the stout reply of Queen Katherine to Wolsey, 
Godw hist. He 1.8.  Quid est tam firmum quod invidia non ausit oppugnare? What is so firm that envy dare not assault? Alexander was not free from Conspiracies, neither could Caesar escape them, and hardly Augustus; who as Suetonius, Ne ultimae quidem sortis hominum conspiration & periculo caruit; wanted not the dangerous conspiracies of the meaner sort of men; Yet he was so circumspect, that he discovered and suppressed all their plots, priusquam invalescerent, before they were of any growth, or mature: Even so fareth it with our Augustus, a circumspect and vigilant observer of malignants and malcontents; who also is so well respected of the Sager and melior party, as Augustus was, that he wants not Inquisitors to search into their secret treacheries, which are always in their birth detected, and suffocated in their infancy, Et in herbâ oppressae. 
Oculeus totus.  Besides, the Alleyed Speculator of the Universe surveyeth all their imaginations, and will not permit them to prosper in their impious machinations, but to wove and work their own destructions, and to fall headlong into that fatal pit they prepared for others.  

Ovid. 1. de art. am. Nec lex est justior ulla,  
Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.   

Neither is there any law so right,  
That whoso plotteth death be deprived of light.   
And it was the sentence of Cicero; Quem discordiae, 
Cic. Phylip.  quem civile bellum delectant, ex numero hominum ejiciendum, ex finibus humanae naturae exterminandum; Whom discord and civil war delight, let him be cast out of the number of men, and banished the bounds of humanity. But what need he fear whom the Lord of Hosts favours? Me thinks I hear the Lord encourage him as he did his servant Joshua, 
Josh. 1.9.  Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, nor be dismayed; For the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.  Virgil. Nunc animis opus Aenea, nunc pectore firmo.  

CAP. XIII.  
All Governments turn to Monarchy, from whence they came.  
MOnarchy was from the beginning; Et primum in unoquoque genere, est causa reliquorume ejudem generis, & that which is the first in the same kind, is the cause of all the rest of the same kind; and as Monarchy was the first Government, so all other Governments are derived of it, and return to it, as the principles of things to one cause, and the rivers to one Sea: For whereas, through the Tyranny of Princes, commotions of the ambitious, or mobility of the people, Monarchy is sometimes changed into Polyarchy, and never ceaseth until it falleth to the lowest, as the Poet, Si paulo summo decessit, vergit ad imum; Which is apparent in the various vicissitudes of States, and especially in the Roman; which after the expulsion of royalty, never rested until it had run through all the forms of regiments, from Consuls to Decemviri, from Decemviri to Consuls and Tribunes, and sometimes to Dictator's, or Triumvirs; yet in conclusion, after the various trial of them all; they have been enforced to have recourse to the principality of Monarchy: for though the splendour of Monarchy for a season, through the interposition of seditious objects be eclipsed, and its prerogative obscured, yet will it by degrees break forth into its majesty, and in its Meridian and Throne seem more glorious. The Athenian Democracy had its fate, and the Roman Commonweal its period; all in the end subscribing to Monarchy, the world's prime dignity: all Nations acknowledge this verity; Jun. Noverunt Mauri, atque Indi.  
And though there be some revolted States, which veil not to this principality, yet are there but few, 

Jun. Vix tot itidem quot  
Thebarum portae, vel divitis ostia Nili.   

Scarce so many,  
As there be gates of Thebes, or fertile mouths of Nile;    
Here one, or there one, in comparison not considerable, and in probability not perpetual; the great Turk gaping for Venice, and the Catholic King for the Netherlands, two of the strongest; though Buchanan styleth the Duke of Venice nihil aliud quam legitimus Rex, 
De J. reg. S●o.  nothing else but a lawful King; and another doubts whether Venice sine duce floreat: 
Cas. Joh. 201.  and Daniel Eremita denieth Helvetia to be a Common-weal, because it is mercenary, which is auctoramentum servitutis, 
Descr. Helvet. f. 512.  a sign of servitude; for he is not free saith he, qui arma, vitamque non propriae virtuti, sed aliorum commodis emancipavit, who subjecteth his arms and life to the commodity of others, and not to his own virtue.   

CAP. XIV.  
1. The Counsel of one is more secret; and secrecy is the safety of a State.  
2. The providence of one is more speedy, and active, and less subject to dangerous delays.  
3. One is less subject to corruption, and is sooner satisfied than many.  
MAny arguments offer themselves in defence of Monarchy; some of which in so clear a case I omit, lest I might seem candelam accendere in meridie; and will only touch those are most material.  
1. The Counsel of one is more secret and effectual; for though in a multitude of Councillors there be safety, yet in the conduct of State affairs, especially in Marshal, wherein secrecy and speed are essentially requisite, a number of Counsellors is an incubrance. Scipio, contrary to the decree of the Senate, transported his Legions from Sicily into Africa: Et nisi plus in ea re suo, 
Val. Max. l. 8. c. 17.  quam Patrum scriptorum consilio credidisset, secundi belli Punici finis inventus non fuisset: And if in that Expedition he had not believed his own Counsel rather than the Senates, an end of the second Punicque war had not been found. And it is a safe rule, Quod fieri debet, cum multis; quod facturus es, cum paucissimis; What ought to be done, consult with many; but what you are to do, communicate to few, for fear of discovery: For secrecy of council is the safety of a State, which constantly produceth happy events: As Tacitus, Primum & praecipuum eorum quae ad faelicem exitum requiruntur est silere: 
Ann. 3.  The first and chiefest thing of those that are required to an happy end, is silence. No man knew where Scipio marched but C. Laelius: 
Admovis annulum Labiis Curt.  And Alexander imparting letters of secrecy to Ephestion, sealed up his lips with his ring: And it is Seneca's counsel, Alium silere si vis, prius sile; If you will have another silent, say nothing to him:  
2. The providence of one is more speedy and active, which in all affairs is most available; for commonly the opportunity of the design cannot brook delays.  
Ovid. Nam mora damnosa est; nec res dubitare remittit.  
For dangerous is delay, wherein the matter cannot permit debate.  
If Themistocles and Aristides, Scipio and Fabius Maximus had spent their opportunity in Ratiocinations, when the peril was eminent, the enemy had surprised them ere they had concluded what to act. Celeritas in conficiendo was one of the Eulogies of Pompey the Great, which Curtius principally ascribeth to Alexander, and Suetonius to Caesar, who were so sudden in their exploits, that Justin relates of Alexander,  quem venire non senserunnt, videre vix crederent; That whom they perceived not to come, they scarcely believed to see him when he was come: And Florus of Caesar, Ante victum esse hostem quàm visum: That the enemy was overcome before he was seen.  
3. It is more facile to find one good man then many, and less subject to corruption or avarice! Rari quippe boni; Whereas many are more impious and ravenous, ever sucking and never satisfied. Though among the Romans there were severe Laws against corruption, and bribery; yet prevailed they little with the Senate and people: for which Jugurth opbraided them with this Sarcarsme. O urbem venalem, & mature perituramsi emptorem invenerit; O mercenary and corrupt City, which soon would perish if it should find a Chapman: And Marius well experienced in their conditions, brought into the Common Court bushels of Silver to purchase the people's Suffrages; for which reason Plato calleth the popular Government of the Athenians Nundinas venales, merchandizing Marts, 
Synt. Vae. Jur. l. 47. c. 15.  wherein poverty and ignorance so prevailed, that what they did vote one day, they altered the other; as within one day they condemned and absolved the Mytelenians. Wherefore as Tholosanus, it is more tolerable to live under the Dominion of one, then of many, and to bear what Taxes, and Subsidies shall by him be imposed; because the necessity of one is soon satisfied, whereas the necessity of many is insatible; who if they should be satisfied one after another, the substance of the State might be exhausted. The witty fable of Aesop is not impertinent to this purpose: 
Arist. Rhet. ad Alex. c. 20  who feigneth a Fox swimming over a River to fall into a pitfal, out of which for a long space being unable to extricate herself, many Dog-flyes seized on her and sucked out her blood: whose misery the Hedgehog pitying, offered to pull off those Flies; but the Fox refused it, saying, that those Flies being full did draw little blood; whom being pulled off, many hungerstarved ones would succeed, and suck out all the blood remaining: The which they know to be true by practice, who are experienced in the mutations of many Governors. It is therefore more eligible and profitable to have one bloodsucker rather than many, one Tyrant rather than more; for as Gessendus, 
De Philo. Epi. c. f. 1648.  In polyarchia sunt tyranni plures, in Oligarohia pauci, in Monarchia unus; ergo ex pessimis melior. In the government of many there are many Tyrants, in the government of a few are few, in the government of one but one: And therefore of the worse the better, and consequently of the better the best: for Contrariorum eadem est ratio: which Patricius though he lived under the Senate and people of Sienna, 
De Mon. & Arist l. 1. Tel. 1.  ingenously acknowledgeth; with whose sweet sentence I will shut up this Section, Quid enim suavius aut magis optandum mortalibus, quam sub optimo rege, & principe privatam agere vitam sine injuria, & populi ambitione: What is more sweet, or more to be desired of mortals then to to lead a private life under a very good King and Prince, without injury, or ambition of the people?   

CHAP. XV.  
1. The end of Government.  
2. What Civil Liberty is.  
3. Good Princes are the people's Servants: and to live under such is the only Liberty.  
THe foundation, and conservation of Empires and Government being premised, the end is to be inferred, which as the Philosopher, is causa causarum, 
3. Met. c. 2.  because all things are for it.  
The end then of Government is the people's felicity: 
Arist. 7. Pol. c. 2.  and that government is best, according to whose ordinances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, every one may live happily: which happiness as Cicero, consists in these two things, in their Protection, and in their Procuration of convenient necessaries: 
Tull. off. 1.   enimtutela, sic procuratio reipub. ad utilitatem eorum qui commissi sunt, non ad eorum quibus commissa est, gerendae est. For as the Protection, so the Procuration of the Commonweal is to be managed to the utility of those who are committed to its charge, and not to the utility of those to whom it is committed. And herein saith the Philosopher, the excellency of a Prince shineth, that he hath a care of his Subjects. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Arist. 8. Eth. c. 11.  that they may do well; as a Pastor hath of his Flock: hence saith he, Homer called Agamemnon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the the Pastor of the people: for which reason also Kings were anciently called Abimelech, that is pater meus; and lately by the Romans patres patriae, Fathers of their Countries for their paternal Procuration, 
L. 1. de repub. c. 1.  and provident tuition, as by Seneca tutores status publici: The Greecians styled them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Barcl. l. 1. contra Monarc f. 206.  quod sint basis & firmamentum populi: because they be the foundation, and stability of the people; & columen populi, and their supporters. 
Jun. Brut.  Sir Edward Cook calleth the King of England Sponsus regni, the Spouse of the Kingdom, who by the Ceremony of a Ring was wont to be married to the Kingdom; intimating thereby the love and care Princes ought to have and bear to their Spouse and State: and further addeth that Kings are ex officio to govern and preserve their people: which is the essential difference the Philosopher putteth between a King, and a Tyrant; 
Arist. 8. Eth. c. 10.  for a Tyrant saith he, proposeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is profitable to himself, but a King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, what is commodious to his subjects, whom Buchunan seconds, 
De Jur. reg. apud Scotoi.  saying: Qui sibi gerunt imperium, non reipub. utilitati, qui regnum non dei donum, sed praedam oblatam credunt, tyranni sunt, & Dei & omnium hosts: who govern for their own good, & not for the good of the Commonweal, who believe a Kingdom not to be the gift of God, but an adventitial booty are Tyrants and enemies of God and all men.  
And as the end of Government is the people's felicity; so the felicity of a Prince consisteth in the felicity of the people, as Grotius: 
Grot. d. I. b. and p. 4. 92.  Imperatoris felicitas in subditorum felicitate consistit: And therefore are Tyrants certainly much distempered in their judgements, who by impoverishing and oppressing their Subjects produce their own ruin: for it is the Prince's profit to preserve his people; and the want of people is the destruction of a Prince. 
Prov. 14.28.  Sint quibus imperet.  
2. A Prince therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith the Philosopher, 
Arist. 8. Eth. c. 11.  if good, hath a pastoral care of his Subjects: and as Bodin, Subditorum libertatem et rerum dominia aeque ac sua tuetur, 
De Rep. l. ●. c. 3.  defendeth the Liberty of the Subject, and property of their substance, as his own: And this kind of Government is called by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: 
Arist. 8. Pol. c. 5. De Jure regni apud Sco.  Civil, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of freemen; and as Buchanan, est niter liberos principatus a principality among Freemen: and is therefore called Civil Liberty, or the Liberty of the Subject by which the right and liberty of the Subject is protected, and preserved; and in this sense is Nerva said Conjunxisse libertatem & principatum, to have conjoined liberty and principality, which is a mean between an abrupt service under the Dominion of a Tyrant, and dissolute licentiousness, not much differing from an Ataxy, nor unlike unto the Parthians, 
Clap. de arc. Imp. l. 3. c. 3. Silust. Cal. 4. H●st.  who lived at random, magis sine domino quam in libertate, or as the Aborigines, Genus hominum agreste, sine imperio liberum, & silutum, a wild kind of people living loosely and freely without Government: But as Tacitus, Optimis principibus modus libertatis placet. To the best Princes the mean of Liberty is most pleasing: and so to rule their subjects by reason and law, that they do live civilly without injury, and enjoy quietly their properties, and liberty. Gessendus discourseth tightly of the O●igine and Nature of this Liberty. Men at the first being subject to none, 
De phillip Epi c. f. 463.  but living as they list, many debates, and dissensions intervened, that no man could assure any thing for his own use, but that another might snatch it from him: Neque possit dici libertus cum tot interveniant obstacula: unde efficitur vera naturalisque libertas deprehenditur potius in societate, in quâ modo quis pareat, societatisque legibus in commodum suum approbatis, agit quod superest quicquid lubet, & jus habet in bona propria, quae nomo potest capere propter publicam potestatem. Neither can this be called Liberty, because so many obstacles interpose: Hence it is inferred that true Natural Liberty is rather to be found in a Society: In which so as one obey, and approve the Laws of the Society for his own good, whatsoever remaineth he may dispose at his pleasure, and hath right to his proper goods, which no man can take from him by reason of the public power. So as true Natural Liberty is not to be found but in a Society, Commonweal, or Empire: whi●h is the Social and Civil Liberty, free only from Service, Rapine, and Injury.  
As the Philosopher: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, For it ought not to be reputed service but safety, to live under the Government of a Commonweal, or Civil State: and as the Poet of a Prince, 

Claud. 3. Still. Fallitur egregio quisquis sub principe credit  
Servitium; nunquam libertas gratior extat  
Quam sub rege pio.   

He is deceived who doth repute it slavery under a good King to live: There is no Liberty more sweet and gracious then under such a King.    
And another to the same sense.  

Gunt. Quae tibi libertas poterit contingere major  
Quam regi servire tuo?   

What greater Liberty can happen unto thee then to do service to thy King?   
But I have rolled this stone long enough, and will conclude this point with the complete description of Heremita Belga, 
De Helu. repub.  Illa demum vera est libertas, quae sub patrocinio ductuque principis, à vicinorum incursu tuta, liberé suis fruitur bonis: That only is true Liberty which under the direction and protection of a Prince is safe from foreign incursions, and freely enjoyeth his Estate.  
3. And if we weigh in equal Balance the condition of a good Prince, with the quality of a loyal subject, service may ●●ly and truly be ascribed to them both: Princeps enim, as Joannes as Sasburiensis, 
De nug. Cur. l. ●. c. 1.  in eo praefertur caeteris, quod cum singuli teneantur ad singula, principi onera imminent universa: For a Prince in this is preferred before others, that whereas they are tied to several duties, the universal burden depends on the Prince: and another to that purpose: Nec rex à populo magis differt, quam ut majora onera far, 
Jun. Brut.  ac plura pericula obire teneatur: Neither doth a King in more differ from the people, then that he is bound to bear greater burdens, and undergo greater dangers: An Empire is onus as well as honos, or onus honorarium; A burden sweetened with honour, and so ponderous as Saules shoulders were unable, and Dioclesian's unwilling to bear: & which david's shoulders though equal to Goliahs', stooped under; for Prince's brows are girded with a Crown of Thorns as well as a Crown of Gold. Homer induceth Agamemnon complaining of the greivances of a Prince in this manner: 
Patric. de Pric. f. 275.  Vitae nostrae dominam multiudivem sortiti sumus, turbaeque omnino inservire cogimur: We have taken upon us the charge of a multitude, which is Lord of our life, and are altogether compelled to serve the multitude; which moved Tiberius when he accepted the Empire, to exclaim onerosam sibi injungi servitutem; that a burdenous service was enjoined him.  
Antigonus at the best esteemed a Crown but a noble service, who observing his Son to insult over a Subject, rebuked him, saying: Anon nosti regnum nostrum nobile esse servitium? Know you not that our Kingdom is a noble service? It was wise Counsel was given to Rehoboam: If thou wilt be their servant to day, they will be thy servants for ever.  

Jun. Brut.  To rule well then is not Immanitas, but munus; non vacatio, sed vocatio; non licentia, sed publica servitus: not a privilege, but an office, 
Lib. de Civit. dei. Qui aliorum utilitati nonsulunt, two vere serviunt.  not a vacation, but a vocation, not a private licence, but a public service, which Augustine proveth by an infallible argument, That whosoever doth provide for the utility of others, doth truly serve them; who rule well provide for the utility others; therefore who rule well do truly serve them: And it is the Philosophers, that a right Prince ought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to respect and have a care of the Common good; and such a Prince, saith he, ruleth rightly, and such Commonweals must need be right. 
Lips. polit?  Lipsius styleth an Empire so governed Verum & legitimum imperium; and Cicero justum, & legitimum imperium, a right, just, true, and lawful government, which is undertaken, and ordered for the good and utility of the people: And he is a right, just, true and lawful Governor, who chief casteth his eye on the public good, and believeth that only to be lawful in his government, which he believeth to be expedient for the subject: 
Si ea libenter feceris quae velles alium facere si ejus imperio subjectus esses. Clap l. 3. c. 3. 5. De arc. imp. Epiphonema.  And it was Maecenas advice to Augustus, that a Prince could err in nothing, if he did those things willingly, that he would have another do, if he were subject to his Empire.  
Great Caesar's, it is a grand burden you bear on your shoulders, your glory is short, and mixed with peril: for it is a true Apothegme, that he that will command many, must contend with many; be right, true, just, and lawful Princes.  Virg. Ae. 6. Discite justitiam moniti & netemnite Divos. 

Arist. l. 5. Eth. c. 1. vid. Ricob. Ibid.  Learn justice, which containeth in it all virtue, and is the Royal Prince's virtue: as admirable as Hesperus, & Lucifer, saith the Philosopher, and as glorious as the Sun, saith Picolominy; which is ordained for preservation of the Commonweal, as the Sun for the conservation of the Universe; with which being armed and adorned, ye may rule the people in equity, and protect them in their rights and properties, without any intestine disturbance, or foreign insolence: The glory and utility of the Nation being the ambitious scope of the princely Dignity.   

CAP. XVI.  
1. Taxes are necessary in a Commonweal, or Empire.  
2. A Moderation in their imposition to be observed.  
3. Especially in the beginning of Government.  
AS Arms are necessary for the conservation of an Empire; so are Taxes necessary for the provision of Arms, without which they can neither be, or act. According to the golden Sorites of Tacitus Nam neque quies gentium sine armis, 
Hyst. l. 4.  neque arma sine stipendiis, neque stipendia sine tributis haberi queant. For neither the quiet of Nations can be had without arms, nor arms without pay, nor pay without Tribute: which is paid for the fruition of peace, that the people may safely in quiet possess their Estates: So the Apostle, 
Rom. 13.  For this cause also pay you Tribute; for they are Gods ministers attending continually on this very thing; which Augustine expoundeth,  necessarium militi stipendium praebeatur, That necessary stipend be paid unto the Soldier; by which the Militia is maintained, and peace and quiet preserved: 
2 Ki●. 9.12.  For which reason Solomon imposed Tributes, to fortify Men and Cities: And our Saviour Christ commanded Tribute to be paid, and paid it himself to Caesar: yet was it an arbitrary Tax, and the production of an Arbitrary power. And as Curtius, pecuniae sunt nervi belli, moneys are the Nerves of War; and as men cannot walk without Sinews, no more can Military men march without money, Quarum ob defectum saepius armaè mànibus excutiuntur, a●t frigide tractantur: for the defect of which arms are often dashed out of our hands, 
Scorb. pol. 12.  or weakly handled: For though as Machiavelli, valour is the principal cause of Military success, yet are monies the instrumental; And as Cicero, adjumenta belli: by which the action of the principal agent is completed. Nero upon the importunate supplications of the people was moved to abolish Tributes, and Taxes, glorying therein, Quod pulcherrimum donum mortalibus daret: That he should confer a goodly gift on the people: of which the Senate having notice, 
Tac. hist. l. 13.  by their sage advice diverted him from his intention, Dissolutionem imperii docendo, si fructus quibus respub. sustineretur, diminuerentur: Instructing him that the desolation of the Empire would ensue, if the revenues by which it should be sustained, 
Flo. l. 3.  were diminished. And therefore doth Florus call them patrimonium reipub. the inheritance of a Commonweal by which it is sustained and maintained: which Publicola an honourer of the people well knew, 
Tholosan. Synt. Ju. Vniv l. 3. c. 2.  who augmented the public Treasury by the people, for the good of the people and Commonweal; And which for the utility of it he called Sanctum aerarium, 
Summus ille administrandae Reipub. Magister.  A Sacred Treasury; and it, but in case of necessity, to diminish was Sacrilege: Whence Cicero the great Master of the Roman Commonweal, inferreth this conclusion, 
Cic. Ep. ad Q. fratrem.  Cum enim Imperium sine vectigalibus nullo modo retineri possit, aequo animo cives parte aliqua suorum fructuum pacem sibi aeternam & otium redimere possunt; Seeing therefore Empires can by no means be retained without Tributes and Taxes, the people ought with a contented mind to purchase their eternal peace and quiet with some part of their revenues: For as Joannes Sarisburiensis, 
De nugis Curi. l. 4. c. 6.  Populo nihil utilius quam ut principis necessitas suppleatur, Nothing is more profitable to the people, then that the Prince's necessity be supplied. And though it is urged by some factious persons, that it is an unjust act in any Prince upon any occasion to force the people to part from any part of their property; yet in favorem Reipub. 
Clap. de arc. Imp. f. 115.  for the benefit and emolument of the Commonweal it is to be allowed and approved; for God seldom giveth any good things in this life which are free from all evils: As the Poet truly, 

Omnia cum quodam veniunt incommoda fructu:  
Commoditas omnis sua fert incommoda secum.   

There's no incommodity without some gain,  
And all commodity with it bringeth pain.    
And therefore that we may have the fruition of such public blessings, we ought quietly to bear with such private discommodities.  
Aut haec cum illis sunt habenda, aut illa cum his amittenda.  

Either are these things to be had with the other,  
Or else the other with these things are lost together.   
Which was the resolve of Levinus Consul of Rome; 
Liv. d. 16.  Quod respub. incolumis privatas res facile praestat; publica perdendo tua nequicquam serves: The Commonweal being safe, preserves your private substance safe; but being spoiled, your goods cannot be safe.  
In the imposition of tributes and taxes a moderation is to be observed, and not with heavy and unnecessary taxations, to exasperate the minds of the people: For as Taiitus, 
3. Histor.  we have seen many Princes, pecuniis acerbe conquirendis, plus sibi invidiae, quam virium addidisse, by the bitter acquisition of moneys to have gained more envy than power. 
5 Pol. c. 6. Perablationes rerum conjuratioones instituuntur. Turselinus.  And as the Philosopher, by taking away the goods of the people, conjurations have often been invented, by which many good Princes have been molested, and others ruined. Augustus, so called for his sanctity, by imposing a new and grievous tax on the Libertines, that they should bring into the Treasury the eighth part of their Estates, was the cause, as Dio saith, of Tumults, slaughters, and burning many houses; and, as the same Author writeth, 
Lib. 56.  was compelled to remit the military taxation of the 20th part, which he laid on the inheritances and legacies of such successors and possessors as were not next of kin, because it seemed grievous and intolerable to the people. And it was a dangerous oversight in Henry the seventh, otherwise a wise Prince, who, as Sir Francis Bacon, crushed his treasure out of his subjects purses, caring not to plume the Nobility and people to feather himself; for which Perkins in his Proclamations opbraided him; and which incited the Cornish men to take up Arms against him, 
Bacon Hen. 7.  who with their confident forces did shake the frame of his greatness, which in all probability might have fal●en to the ground, had not fortune taken his part: Who, as the same Author saith, was grown such a partner with fortune, that none could tell what actions the one, and what the other owned: The Catastrophe of Dionysius is famous, 
Justino.  who was slain by his subjects for his intolerable taxes, having by them within five year's space exhausted the wealth of Syracuse: 
Tholos. Synt. Jur. Vniv. l. 3. c. 4.  And Parthenius, who was the Founder of new impositions among the Franconians, was by them stoned to death: And what was the principal cause of the revolt of the Netherlands from the Catholic King, but the immense and unsufferable taxations imposed on them by the Duke of Alva? who exacted the tenth part of their vendible goods; by which device in a short space he had almost swallowed up all the Merchant's Estates, 
Bodin de Repub.  they using to sell the same thing ten times over in a small time.  
Quanto rectior Trajanus? who, for his good government might almost be preferred before all the Roman Emperors, 
Qui ita gessit Imperium, ut omnibus prope Romanis Imperatoribus praefertur. Turselinus.  and especially for his protestation against extreme exactions; who compared the public Treasury to the Spleen, by whose excessive increase and swelling, the other parts of the Politic body did consume & languish: Contrary to the conceit of Richeleus, who resembled the French to Columbus geese, out of whom the old feathers being plucked, new ones would grow up the faster. But Adrian, the Successor of Trajan, both for justice & goodness, so governed the Empire,  sciat populi rem esse non propriam, & suam, That he conceived it to be the people's Weal, not properly his own. 
Ludovici pii Regis Galliae. Bod. de rep. f. 767.  A golden precious Legacy was it of a dying King to his succeeding Son; A vectigalibus & tributis abstineto, nisi te summa vis necessitatis, & utilitatis publicae justissima causa ad hoc impellit; Abstain from Subsidies and Tributes, unless the exceeding force of necessity, or a very just cause of public utility compel thee thereunto. For if it could be, that the safety and glory of a State might consist without extraordinary taxes, the subjects would be more happy, and also the Princes.  
The moderate indiction of Tribute is especially to be practised by a Prince in the beginning of his Government: As Tacitus, Novum Imperium inchoantibus utilem esse clementiae famam, That the report of clemency is profitable to those have newly taken upon them the Empire; which Germanicus wisely observed, who, after he had reduced Cappadocia into the form of a Province, diminished some of the Imperial taxes, Quo mitius Romanum Imperium speraretur, 
Ann. 2.  whereby they might expect from the Romans a milder government.  
Which policy Mithridates neglected, and is for it censured by Tacitus, acriorem fuisse, quam novo Imperio conduceret to have been more sharp, then conduced to the settlement of a new Empire: wherein Rehoboam also erred; who, upon the Inauguration into his Royalty, did not hearken to the supplications of the Israelites concerning the diminution of their grievous taxes as heavy burdens.    

LIB. III. Of Religious Liberty.  

CHAP. I.  
1. The knowledge of God, and worship of God, are coincident and inseparable.  
2. Religion is the gift of God, and not the invention of man.  
3. Religion is the foundation of Humane Society.  
4. Those Empires flourished best, were most addicted to Religion.  
SOme put a difference between Religion and Piety; as if Piety should denotate the knowledge of God, and Religion the Worship of God; the one being Practical, that God is to be worshipped; the other Theorical, that there is a God; which are promiscuously used, but indeed coincident and inseparable; for the Godhead being granted, worship doth necessarily follow, Habet enim venerationem justam quod excellit; 
Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 1.  for whatsoever excelleth hath his due worship, either civil, or religious.  
Religion is not a subtle invention of the creature, nor organum politicum, a State's Figment, or Political Engine, as Matchavel feigneth, forged only to temper and quiet the minds of men in the times of peace, or to incite and stir up their affections in the times of war; but it is a divine gift shed into the souls of men, and so naturally rooted in the heart of man, 
Phil. Morn. l. 1. de vera religione.  that it can with less difficulty be extracted out of the heart, than the heart out of the body.  
It is a Celestial Chain whereby God is linked to man, and one man to another, and is derived à religando, from binding, which signifieth all the offices of piety by which we are bound to God and our Neighbours; 
Cicero.  for which it is said to be Fundamentum Humanae Societatis, the Foundation of Humane Society, by whose precepts and religious offices men are united together in a Society, and conjoined in peace and amity, which are the foundation and conservation of a Common-weal, which caused Romulus the Founder of the City, and Empire of Rome, to begin his Empire by divine predictions, as old Ennius, 
Ennius.  Augusto augurio postquam inclyta condita Roma est.  
And Numa Pompilius his Successor, 
Flor.  ob inclytam viri Religionem, for his integrity in Religion, was by the Romans requested to accept the Empire, who by Religion and Justice, did sway and keep a Marshal and fierce people in peace and concord, which are the two Pillars of a State, without which it cannot stand; as the Poet truly, 

Senec. Thy. Act. 1. Vbi non est pudor,  
Non cura juris, sanctitas, pietas, fides,  
Instabile Regnum est.   

The State's unstable where virtue doth not reign,  
Nor Faith, nor Justice, nor Sanctity remain.   All which are comprehended under the notion of Religion, as Bodin tightly, 
De Rep. f. 798.  Ab ea enim subditorum fides in principes, obedientia erga Magistratus, pietas in Parents, charitas in singulos, justitia in omnes pendent: For from it depends the loyalty of Subjects towards their Prince, their obedience towards Magistracy, piety towards parents, charity towards every one, and Justice towards all; whence it ariseth, that those Empires flourished best were most addicted to piety. The Roman without question was the most magnificent and glorious Empire the Sun ever shined on, and for its spacious extent above compare: As the Poet, 

Mart. Terrarum Dea gentiumque Roma,  
Cui par est nihil, & nihil secundum.   

Rome of all Nations is the Lady Queen,  
To which the like, or second is not seen.   Romanae spatium est urbis & orbis idem. Vid. 2. F. Which as it surmounted all others in excellency, so yet exceedeth all others in piety, ascribing all their Noble Acts to the Divine Power, believing thereby to gain the Government of humane things: As Valerius Maximus. 
L. 1.  Ita humanarum rerum futura regimina existimantia, si Divinae Potentiae bene fuissent famulata: And which they obtained through their unfeigned devotion in Religion, Hac enim sola Romana gens totum terrarum orbem subegit: 
Scorbon. Pol. l. 11. c. 11.  For by this alone the Roman Nation subdued the whole world. Which Augustine also conceived, Qui existimavit auctum à Deo Imperium Romanum, quod cordi illis fuerat Religio, licet falsa; Who believed that the Roman Empire was augmented by God, 
Grot. de Jur. bell. & pa. fo. 408.  because they did hearty reverence Religion, though a false one. Of which Lactantius giveth the reason, Quia licet summum hominis officium non reipsa, tamen proposito tenerent. Though they did not really apprehend the chief duty of man, yet had they a purpose so to do; for a willing mind availeth much with God. 
2 Cor. 8.2.   
In the next rank to the Roman Empire, for its exceeding greatness, may be placed the Mahometan, out of whose ashes and ruin it first did sprout, and for its vast magnitude and immense power, may be second to it, 
Europe. Spec. f. 208.  being much larger than all the Territories of the Christian Princes, embracing, as it is esteemed, eight thousand miles in Land, and of Sea as many; whence their Prince is commonly called the Great Turk, and styled Imperator ter Maximus, the very greatest Emperor; which Empire, at this day, is the greatest the earth ever bare, except the Roman; and continually doth his half Moon increase, and likely still so to do, unless the Christian discords do decrease, he being ambitions, and vigilant upon any such opportunity to invade any Nation near him, 
Europe. Spec.  and that for his very exercise to keep the soldiers in action abroad, and to avoid tumults at home.  
And as the Romans were, so are they, wondrous religious and devout in the exercise of their Religion: The Sultan reverently respecting the Priests, and attempting nothing without the advice of his Mufty. The people also being attentive and observant to their Ministers, and are so fervently zealous in their offices, and duties of piety and charity, that if we truly weigh, 
In his admonition to the Koran.  saith Mr. Rosse, their justice, temperance, and other moral virtues, we may well blush at our coldness in devotion and charity, and neglect of virtuous actions, for which it may justly be feared, that those men will rise up in judgement against us; And further addeth, that surely their devout piety and works of mercy, are a main cause of the growth of Mahometism and the Turkish Empire.   

CAP. II.  
The Roman and Turkish Empires permitted the exercise of divers Religions, without any pressure of conscience, unless they entrenched on the principles of State or civility; and the objection answered, that among the Infidels many errors did bear with one another, and that truth cannot stand with error.  
THough the Romans abounded in the multiplicity of Gods, yet permitted they all of what Nation soever to worship any of them, without restraint or pressure of mind; so as the exercise of their Religion did not entrench upon the principles of State or Civil Government. And such a reverend esteem had they of strange Gods, as when they besieged any Town, 
Godw.  by certain enchanting prayers they would call them out, because otherwise they believed it a matter impossible to captivate the City.  
The Jews were much favoured by Augustus, to whom he not only opened the fountains of his bounty, but enjoined them to offer perpetual Sacrifices at his own expenses for the safety of himself and Common-weal. 
Sueton. Tac. l. 2. Ann. Huic calamitati occasionem fraudes praebuisse tectas nomine religionis. Lips. ibid. Sueton. vit. Cl.  But Tiberius for their frauds and uncleanness, covered with the Cloak of Religion, fired their religious vestments, confined thousands of their youths to the Island of Sardinia, and prohibited the rest.  
And Claudius Caesar expelled them the City for their continual Commotions, impulsion of Christ, moved by the confidence of Christ's coming, from whom they expected a temporal Kingdom, as they now do.  
Tiberius also incited by such uncivil insolences removed the Egyptians out of Rome, who were, as Adrian the Emperor describeth them, Genus hominum seditiotissimum, 
Crinit. de honest. disciplina l. 12. c. 1.  vanissimum, & injuriosissimum, a most seditious kind of people, most vain, and most injurious. Claudius' utterly abolished the Religion of the Druids (which under Augustus, 
Suet.  was only interdicted the Citizens) because it was dirae immanitatis, 
Caesar Com. de bello Gallic.  a Religion of inhuman cruelty, and profaned their Altars with humane Hosts, sacrificing their living friends, and clients to the souls of the deceased: otherwise all sects, of what Religion soever, with their ceremonies, were allowed their private exercises, whom the Aediles, 
Bodin. de Repub.  whose charge was to have a care of the true worship of the Roman Gods, were not to molest.  
And as the Romans, so do the Mahometans also condescend to the free exercise of all Religions, and suffer all strangers, of what quality soever, to live according to their several Religions, 
Clapmer de art. Imperii.  whether Roman, Persian, Greek, or Aethiopian; insomuch as Solyman, of all the Turks most famous for his moderation and mild Government, could not be induced, though importuned by the ardent requests of many, to force any religious Person to the precepts of the Koran; whether it was by reason of the Doctrine of Elharus, by whom the Turks were persuaded, that the Religions of all men were acceptable and pleasing to God, 
Bod. de Repub. f 740.  quae à pura ment proficiscuntur, which proceed from a pure mind, or else did deem it a barbarous act to impose violence on resolved minds, but rather by gentle and mild means to draw their affections to their Constitutions; 
Bod. ib.  for which reason some of the Christians are succoured by the Turks charitable largitions: Also that they pray hearty every day in their temples, 
In his admonition to the Alcoran.  that the Christians may embrace their Alcoran, and become their Proselytes, as M. Ross relateth.  
But here is another objection to be refelled, 
Tholos. Jur. univ. f. 368.  which is strongly pressed, That liberty of Religion among infidels might with less peril be permitted, because their religions were erroneous, & saepe errores plures se compatiuntur, and often many errors do bear one with another; but truth cannot stand with error; which experience convinceth of falsehood. For among the Romans the Religion of the Jews was permitted, which then was the true Religion: and afterward there were many Christians in Rome, of whom Paul was one, which then was the true Religion, who were so far from opposition, that they professed themselves subject to that power, and made prayers and supplications for it. So are there among the Turks many Christians who are true professors of the Gospel, and live peaceably without any reluctancy. And whereas it is averred, that truth cannot stand with error: the opposite is manifest: for among the Jews there were divers Sects, Scribes, Pharises, Essaes', and Sadduces, of which that of the Sadduces was notoriously erroneous, denying the resurrection of the dead; yet lived they under one Government, and were admitted to one Temple.  
Among the Christians also there always were some errors. Peter denied the calling of the Gentiles, which Paul preached, 
Gal. 2.11.  yet were they both Apostles and Coadjutors in the Church: And in the Church of Corinth there were divers errors concerning the Doctrine of Baptism, 
1 Cor. 1.13.  yet were they of one Congregation. The selected Apostle determineth this doubt, who upon such differences resolveth the Corinthians, 
1 Cor. 11.19.  that there must be heresies, which from the plantation of the Church have been, and so shall continue unto the harvest, the envious man always sowing tares among the wheat, which by our Saviour's rule are not to be plucked up, lest you root up the wheat also.   

CAP. III.  
That religious liberty was practised in the Primitive times among Christians, and in after-ages permitted by many Christian Princes.  
AS liberty of Religion was permitted by the greatest Heathen Emperors, so was it allowed by the most prudent Christian Princes: 
Bodin. de Repub. l. 4. c. 7.  For if we survey the state of the Church as it was in its minority before the constitution of Christian Princes, it will appear that in Tertullia's time there were one hundred and twenty several sects in the Christian Church, and every one permitted the exercise of their several professions without any disturbance or discord: And afterwards, whenas under Theodosius reign there chief flourished in the Church two sects, 
Nihil est periculofius quam in dusas sententias s●indi civitatem. Bodin. de rep. f. 743.  Catholics and Arrians, which number, by the judgement of Bodin, is more obnoxious to civil dissensions, then that of many; for one by nature is contrary to one, and not many to one; so as when many differ among themselves, certain means are interjected between the extreme contraries, which makes them less perilous, and more peaceable; yet did the prudence of Theodosius so moderate and temper them, that they by his Edicts were induced quietly to practise their several Religions; and though all the Provinces were full of Arrians, 
Perpiu.  ut nullus fuit angulus orbis terrae, ubi non fuerint Arriani de bacchati, that there was no corner of the earth where there were not raving Arrians, yet did the moderate Emperor abstain from coercive violence, and used only pious and gentle means to reclaim them, and especially by maintaining the Council of Nice, and educating and instructing his issue and Alliance in the Catholic Religion, having therein good hope, that they in time might be drawn to follow his Royal and pious example; by which mild and godly means he by degrees did attenuate and enervate the vigour of that numerous and furious Sect, and prevailed more with his goodness and clemency, than all the Arrian Princes did with their severity or cruelty; for which Athanasius, who by them was thrust into exile, inveigheth against them, for that they used the judicial power against those contradicted them, & whom they could not persuade by argument, they laboured by stripes and imprisonment to hale unto them. 
Grot. de J. B. & P. f. 78.  Atque ita inquit, seipsam, quàm sit pia, & Dei cultrix, ostendit. And therein, saith he, their religion manifesteth itself how pious and godly it is: alluding to that place of the Apostle, 
Galat.  as Grotius conceiveth, where it is said, But as then he that is born of the flesh persecuted him that is born of the spirit, even so is it now. Theodoric a prudent and valiant Prince, though otherwise censured for his cruelty, extended his goodness and indulgence to the divided Christians then differing in opinions: and gave them free licence to profess their several religions without any interdiction; which liberty of religion is at this day allowed in Transilvania, Valachia, and the remains of Hungary, with Poland: of which it is said, If any one hath lost his religion, let him seek it in Poland, and there he shall be sure to find it: 
Europe. spec. f. 159  And it was a worthy saying of Stephen King of Poland, That God had reserved two things unto himself, in which he cannot have his equal, Ex nihilo aliquid facere, & dominari conscientiis, To make something of nothing, and command consciences.  
So Maximilian, that famous Emperor maintained this Doctrine, that it was an intolerable tyranny to domineer over men's consciences; and it was his advice to Henry the third, King of France, that there was no sin so great as to force men's consciences.  
And Charles the fifth his Successor, though of a contrary opinion, yet permitted he the Religion of the Augustane Confession in all Countries, Cities, 
Sleyden.  and places of the Empire, and commanded that all the associates of that Religion should peaceably use, and freely enjoy their estates, possessions, requisites and privileges, and afterwards by advice of his Theologues employed those of that Religion in his military affairs, whom he called his black Bands.  
And Henry the third King of France, (after many civil wars and bloody massacres, occasioned by the enthralling of devout consciences, in which were forty thousand Huguenots miserably slaughtered) observing, 
Jeam. de Seris.  that notwithstanding their holy leagues, and dubious battles, the Huguenots still prevailed, learned this lesson, Que le bras, & le chaire ne peuvent forrer les ames; Que les maux spirituelles requirent remedes spirituelles, que la foy ne se plante point avec violence aux caeurs des homes. That the arm and flesh cannot force minds, that spiritual maladies require spiritual remedies, that faith doth not plant itself by violence in the hearts of men; for which reason he granted to the Huguenots freedom and liberty of conscience; to which the Divine Resolve of the late Parliament of England, etc. may be annexed, contained in their Declaration in answer to the Letters of the Scotch Commissioners, Feb. 17. 1648. As for the truth and power of Religion, it being a thing intrinsicate between God and the soul, and the matter of Faith in the Gospel being such as no natural light can reach unto, we conceive there is no humane power of coercion thereunto, not to restrain men from believing what God suffers their judgements to be persuaded of.   

CAP. FOUR  
1 Liberty is either external, or corporeal, and may be forced; or internal, and mental, and cannot be compelled.  
2 Our Saviour compelled none to receive his Doctrine, and his Disciples had no Commission to command, but to teach and instruct.  
3 It is Irreligion and tyranny to force the consciences of men.  
THe power of doing what one will, is the liberty opposite to servitude; and is external, and possible to be forced. The liberty which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, within us, 
Ar. l. 1. de An. G●ffend. ne philof. Epicur. in f. 1594.  as Epicurus, is internal in the will and mind, and is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impatible; Quod adeò solum sit verè liberum ut impediri perturbarique nullatenus queat; which alone is so truly free, that it can by no means be impeded or molested. The soul is invulnerable and impregnable, and cannot be conquered or enslaved; which caused some to scorn death; as among the Heathens, Cato, Antony, Cleopatra, Brutus, Cassius, and many more; and among Christians, the glorious Army of Martyrs, who triumphed over death.  

Currius of Alexander.  The mind of man is by arms invincible, and was not conquered by the great Conqueror, who could not imperare animis & linguis. And only by ratiocination and argument it may be convinced, or by consent or belief persuaded; for Liberty of Conscience is a natural right; & therefore our Saviour compelled none to receive his Doctrine; 
Grotius.  but est Dominus non cogens, he is not a constraining Lord, but committing his liberty to the will, said publicly to all, If any man will come after me; and to his Apostles, Will ye also go away? And his Disciples were not Commanders, but Instructers and Teachers, which was their Commission: Compulsion and terrene penalties are out of his Jurisdiction, whose Kingdom was not of this world, which he acknowledgeth, not only in speech, but in practice; for when the Disciples would have commanded fire from heaven to have consumed the Samaritans, 
Luk. 9.36.  he rebuked them: And when he was apprehended by the Chief Priests and Elders, 
Mat. 26.53.  he could have commanded legions of Angels, but would not. It is Irreligion to take away the liberty of Religion. So Tertullian, 
Clap. the act. imp. f. 139.  ad irreligiositatis elogium concurrit: This concurreth to the commendation of Irreligion to take away the liberty of Religion, and strictly to forbid the opinion of Divinity, that it may not be lawful for me to worship whom I will, but shall be compelled to worship whom I will not; 
2 Cor. 1.29.  and therefore saith the Apostle, We have not Dominion over your faith.  
The history and Doctrine of Christ is not comprehended by reason and argument, but by belief and faith, which at the first hearing is not admitted into the minds of men, unless by the secret assistance of the Spirit of God; the which to whomsoever it is given, or denied, is for some peculiar internal causes to us unknown; and therefore as Grotius, 
Grot. de Ju. B. & P l. 2. c. 20.  non humano judicio punibilis, is not punishable by humane judgement: And for this reason doth the fourth Council of Toledo decree, 
Concil. Tolet. 4. Can. 55.  Nemini deinceps ad credendum vim infer; cujus enim vult miseretur Deus, & quem vult indurat. That henceforth no man be enforced to believe, for God hath mercy on whom he will, 
Clap. de arc. imperit.  and whom he will not he hardeneth; and therefore is such unconscionable force called by Nazianzen, animorum carnificina, a torture of minds, and is indeed a spiritual tyranny.   

CAP. V.  
1 Kings and Emperors were from the beginning, as well Priests as Kings.  
2 They had the ordering of the affairs of the Church, as well as of the State.  
3 They nominated Bishops, and deposed Popes upon just causes.  
4 That the Pope first arrogated to himself Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and encroached also on the civil, endeavouring by force to abrogate the Royal freedom of Princes, and to subject their Consciences by his Bulls of Excommunications to his tyranny.  
IF we revolve the ancient Monuments of the Christian Church, many examples will occur, in which, as in a glass, may clearly be seen the bloody and fatal events which usually attended the enforcement of religious consciences; wherein the Pope, who proudly proclaimeth himself the Head of the Church, was the principal Author and Actor, as by the sequel may appear.  
Kings and Emperors originally were mixed persons, as well Priests as Kings. Mos apud Judaeos fuit ut eosdem reges & sacerdotes haberent: 
Justia. l. 13.  It was a custom among the Jews, that Kings and Priests were accounted the same: As the Poet of Annius.  Virg. Rex idem hominum Phoebique sacerdos. 
So was it in the Heroic and ancient times among the Grecians, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For the King was an Emperor, 
3 Pol. c. 3.  and a Judge, and Lord of those things concerned Religion: And among the Latins and Romans, 
Virgil Aene. inferretque Deos Latio.  King Faunus was the first instituted Religion in Italy, from whence their Temples were called Fana, which after was propagated by Aeneas, and at the last reduced into an order by Romulus and Numa; 
Clap. the arc. imp. fo. 311.  whence it was a Law among the Romans, Rex sacrorum praeses esto, Let the King be Precedent of sacred things.  
And after the expulsion of the Kings of Rome, the same honour was resiant in the Emperor, from the time of Julius Caesar who first united them, and so continued in the Christian Empire till Gratian, who first refused the Pontifical habit, as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unlawful to a Christian; and after Theodosius had dissolved the College of Pontifices, and all the rest of the Priests, did the Emperors notwithstanding retain the Supreme power over the Christian Church; as Isaiah prophesieth, 
Isa. 49.23.  Kings shall be their nursing fathers, and their Queens their nursing mothers; which Leo in his letter to Leontius intimates; 
Clap. the arc. imp. f. 32.  Debes, inquit, incunctanter advertere Regiam potestatem, tihi non solum ad mundi regimen, sed maxime ad ecclesia praesidium esse collatam. You ought, saith he, undoubtedly to observe, that the Royal Power is not only conferred on you for the Government of the world, but especially for the rule and safeguard of the Church. And as another, 
Demetrius Comatenu Clap. ib.  Solo sacrificandi excepto ministerio, reliqua Pontificalia privilegia imperator repraesentat: The ministerial exercise of sacred duties only excepted, the Emperor representeth all other Pontifical privileges, who is to dispose and order the affairs of the Church: (a relic, of which in these corrupted times still remains; of which Mr. Herbert 
Herbert, Hen. 8. fo. 291.  maketh mention, that the Emperor must first put on the habit of a Canon of Sancta Maria Dellate in Rome, and after that of a Deacon, before he can be completely invested in his Imperial Dignity) And heretofore the Popes when they were installed, 
Pier. de Moulin. b. d. l. foy.  paid to the Emperor, as their Sovereign Prince for their investiture twenty pounds in gold, and were by the Emperor punished, and deposed, as subjects to the Emperor: As Constantius, the Son of Constantine the Great chased Pope Liberius out of Rome, and substituted Faelix in his place.  
Whence it is probable, the English Maxim, as many other, dimaned: Rex est persona mixta cum sacerdote: The King is a mixed person with a Priest, in whom is comprised both Jurisdictions, as well Ecclesiastical as civil, which caused William the Second to urge the said privilege of the Emperors against Anselm, desiring to be an Archbishop, & conspiring to have his Pale from the Pope, as Matthew Paris historizeth it: Rex Willielmus Secundus allegavit, quod nullus Archiepiscopus, aut Episcopus Regni sui curiae Romanae, aut Papae subessent; praecipus cum ipse omnes libertates haberet in Regno suo, quas imperator vindicabat in imperio. King William allegeth, that no Archbishop or Bishop should be subject to the Pope or the Court of Rome, especially seeing he should have all the liberties in his Kingdom, which the Emperor challenged in his Empire; which was to choose Popes and Bishops when he would.  
Yet though the Sceptres of Kings and Princes were primitively free by all right, and honoured with the Supreme authority in all causes whatsoever, yet hath the Pope in these later days, blown up with boiling ambition, through the lenity and piety of Princes involated on their Rights and Liberties, and not only arrogated to himself Ecclesiastical Supremacy, but encroached also on the civil Jurisdiction, claiming to himself the deposing of Princes, and disposing of their Kingdoms, 
Bellar.  either in ordine ad bonum spirituale, in order or relation to a spiritual good, or else in regard of his Pastoral Authority from Christ, under which notion he conceiveth all the world to be subject to him; 
Azorius.  In quo alii sunt actu, ut Christiani, alii potestate & jure, ut Pagani; In which some are actually subject to him, as Christians, and others in possibility and right, as Pagans; and by such subtle relations is he maintained to be Totius orbis Dominus, The Lord of all the earth. 
Europe. spe.  And to that purpose doth he take upon him the highest place of honour, far above all Princes and Monarchies of the world, 
Pier. de Moulin. praef. ib. Buck de le foy.  setting the Emperors at his feet, ordaining and declaring that all Kings ought to kiss his feet, and that there is no other name under heaven but that of the Pope. Thus doth he labour to mancipate the divine liberty of Princes to his humane inventions, and usurped Dominion, and as Christ's Vicar, which title he affects, would be reputed Lord of all the world, whereas Christ's Kingdom was not of the world.  
An insufferable tyranny imposed on this Royal freedom of Princes, which the Pope from the times of Gregory the seventh hath injuriously usurped, and for the space of two hundred and threescore years, nothing hath been more frequent with him, than the Excommunications of Kings and Emperors, and the Oblations and Donations of their Empires and Kingdoms, 
Pier. de Moulin. b. d. l f 7●  unless of such who have by might maintained their rights and liberties against his usurpations, whence proceeded infinite bloody wars, above one hundred battles, and the surprising and sacking innumerable Cities; 
Clap. the arc. imp. f. 32.  from whence proceeded the common Proverb, as by Guichardine is observed: Caesares timere & odisse proprium est Ecclesiae: It is proper to the Church to fear and hate all Princes, 
John White in the way to the Church.  and that truly, for the Pope hath excommunicated, deposed, and murdered forty several Princes: And I deem it neither exorbitant nor impertinent to give you a taste of some of his notorious and abominable tyrannies, and primarily of that against John King of England, whom for maintaining his privilege in nominating the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Monks of that Convent, 
Innocent Third.  he menaced to excommunicate, and interdict his Kingdom; and the King in requital threatened to abolish the Pope's authority, and to expel the Clergy, which they both acted; but the Pope not only excommunicated him, but conferred his Kingdom on the King of France, to conquer it at his own charge and peril, by whose invasion he was enforced to renounce his rights and liberties, and to subscribe to the Pope's tyrannical demands, who gave him Absolution, upon condition to yield himself Vassal to the Pope, 
Math. Par.  and his Kingdom fewdary to the Church of Rom; and that he should pay yearly a thousand mark in silver, as an obligation of his servitude. And most presumptuous was the arrogancy of Julius the Second, 
God. Hist. Hen. 8. f. 1.  who was more like to Julius Caesar, whose name he assumed, then to Peter, whose Successor he pretended to be, but indeed was like to him in nothing, more than in cutting of Malcus his ear, of whom the Poet pithily.  

Gunterus. Jam nec ferre crucem Domini, sed tradere Regna  
Gaudet, & Augustus' mavult, quam praeses haberi.   

To bear the Cross of Christ he doth not now rejoice,  
But to give earthly Kingdoms is his heavenly choice.   
He deposed the King of Navarre, and gave his Kingdom to Ferdinand King of Castille, the which he obtained, and his Successors as yet retain; who having Spain on the one side, and the Pyrenaean Mountains on the other, was unequal to the Pope's fury, and the Spanish force.  
He also vaingloriously enterprised to crush and suppress Lewis the XII. King of France, 
God. Hist. Hen. 8.  to which design he invited many Princes, and more especially Henry the Eight King of England into a confederacy against him; but Lewis, swifter than opinion, marched with all celerity to Ravenna, and in one battle defeated him and his Allies, 
Primum Pontificium fulmen à Gallis removit. Barr.  and boldly assembled a Council at Pisa against him, and rounded his French Crowns with this inscription, Perdam Babylonem, I will destroy Babylon, who was the first that removed the Pontifical thunder from France, whose glorious steps the Duke of Saxony follows, and became the Pope's terrible Antagonist, who animated by the powerful pen of Luther, and principally moved with the ridiculous impostures of his avaricious indulgences, first in Germany opposed him, and abandoned his usurped authority, and within a few years after through Luther's fowl discoveries of his abominable impieties, and Antichristian inventions, he grew so odious and obnoxious to the pious and devout Princes of Germany, that his Papal power was slighted and exploded by the better part of it.  
Then Henry the Eight of England, (the Pope's Quondam Champion, who by his pen and sword protested to defend him) having by various experiments discovered his perfidious and ambitious practices, and that he made use of his power for his own designs, shook off the Pontifical yoke, and declared himself Supreme Head of the Church, 
God. Hist. Hen. 8. f. 98.  & maugre his fulminant Bulls called him Tyrannum, praedonem orbis terrarum, & incentorem Bellorum: A Tyrant for his presumptuous usurpation on the privileges and liberties of Princes, contending by his Excommunications to force their consciences to his tyrannical will; and a plunderer of the Christian world by his Masses Auxiliary and Propitiatory, visiting of Relics, Obits, fees of dispensation for prohibited Marriages, and especially by his Indulgences of Grace to remit sins, and free souls out of Purgatory, by which spiritual Monopolies he had raked to himself and Clergy the most flourishing Manors of England, besides huge masses of money, which therefore in the Statute of Henry the Eight against the Papal Authority, are called, 
28. c. 16.  the great impoverishing of the Realm of England.  
And lastly, an Incendiary, or an Alarm of war, 
God Hen. 8. f. 4.  dividing the Christian Princes, and moving them to denounce war against those he disaffects.  tanquam Nero alter sedens otiosus, orbem terrarum incendiis conflagraret. That as another Nero sitting in his Chair should fire the world with the flames of war, increasing his own strength by diminishing others. For which detestable enormities he abolished the Pope's authority, demolished their superstitious Convents, and conferred their Revenues and substances on his deserving Subjects, and so became the terror and Quartane Fever of the Papal power; that whereas England in derision by it was reputed the Pope's Ass, is now transformed into a Lion, and is an horror to the Pope, whose magnanimous resolution, his virtuous Heir Edward the sixth pursued, and had utterly extirpated all the Relics of Popery, had he not been unfortunately prevented by an immature fate; yet was it after prosecuted by the incomparable Spirit of a Feminine Regent, 
Queen Elizabeth.  who stoutly withstood the Pope's ambition, whom though he degraded and deposed, exposing her Dominions to conquest, yet did she subdue , and others his Substitutes in Ireland, and sink and rout the Spanish invincible Armado, destinated by him to her destruction: So as that famous Queen's Motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense, Evil be to him that evil thinks; and the common proverb, Malum consilium Consultori pessimum, Evil counsel is worst to the Councillor, square fitly with the Pope's evil resolutions and deserved confusion; for he that enterprised and expected with his tyrannical Bulls to have enslaved the consciences of Christian Princes, was by the divine power prevented, and his usurped authority abandoned, abolished, and abhorred by the better part of Christendom, and by vindicating to himself an extorting power over Princes, lost a main part of his own, which like Sejanus his horse, overthrew his own Master. 
Jean. de Seres.  In whom is exemplified the observation of Henry the third King of France, Que ceux que veulent les consciences Mastister pensens Conquerir le ciel, perdont souvent ceque possede en la terre: That those who would master the consciences of men, thinking to conquer heaven, lose often that which they possess on earth. As the Pope, besides all the reformed Churches, hath lost the Supremacy of Venice, the Spaniard the rule of the Netherlands, and the Emperor the command of the Helvetians and Basileans, and all for Tyrannical Impositions on free conscientious minds. And which also is abundantly verified in the deserved confusion of the late King, which calamity originally proceeded from the prelatical tyrannising over men's consciences, who not only chased some sincerely pious persons out of their native country into foreign parts, and howling wildernesses, and imprisoned others, but also attempted to subject the rigid and resolved consciences of the Scots to the Prelatical Discipline, which fomented and bred a dangerous and tempestuous storm in the North, though happily calmed by the prudence of moderate Mediators; yet upon the like occasion for liberty, the eradicating of Episcopacy, and abrogating the Pontifical authority, an implacable war was raised by the provocation of the Prelates; and the public pretence, No Bishop, no King; which therefore is truly by Mr. Needham called Bellum Episcopale, as derived from the corruption and tyranny of the Bishops, and which the late King, being Episcoporius, with all his might maintained; so as by degrees it infested all the parts and corners of this Commonweal. For which our puissant Armies, and victorious General opposed him, marching with this Motto in his mouth, Liberty to all tender and oppressed consciences; his army also for the most part being composed of such conscientious, devout, and piously disposed persons, whom all the money of this Nation would not have tempted to have passed through such desperate dangers, if they had not had confident hopes of an uncontrolled freedom of conscience; the which after many fierce encounters, and dismal disputes, with his conquering arm, supported by the divine power, he obtained: and which at this time by many Declarations, Ordinances, and Acts is settled in this State, worthily permitting liberty to those who have won it with their blood, and gained civil and religious liberty also; whence proceeded the Tragical Catastrophe of the capital Actor, and the expulsion of his issue out of these flourishing Islands, which is by act irrevocable, and by reason unalterable.  Virg. Dicam equidem licet arma mihi mortemque minantur. 
For God doth not an extraordinary act without an extraordinary end. Now how the Lord hath favoured the acts of our renowned General, and worthy Protector, none can better perceive then his enemies, who by their impatient zeal to introduce Popery, protect Prelacy, and to corrupt and confound the purity of Religion have settled the one, and extirpated the other: and whom in their scurrile rhymes they derided with the name of a Scenical King, have been a means to raise him to this height of dignity; and may say as juno said of Hercules, In laudes suas mea vertit odia. Do you think that God did all these things for nothing? For whosoever shall in his heart ponder and consider the evident graces and blessings the Lord hath poured on him, cannot believe he will leave him, but complete and accomplish this wondrous work in him. For the great works of the Lord are contrary to the conceits of men: and though extraordinary miracles be ceased, yet the divine power is always assistant to the ordinary power of nature, by which many times are produced extraordinary acts above the reach of humane apprehension; which is apparent in the various and marvellous victories obtained by him in the name of the Lord of Hosts, whose providences among us are not to be out matched by any story: And if we impartially and judiciously examine the present postures of the State, we shall clearly see the Lord's workmanship shining in it according to the power of nature, or rules of policy. For though the malignant and incessant enemy is sedulous in forging stratagems to its disturbance and distraction, yet is it by the divine finger so firmly founded on the faithful and pious affections of the more potent party, that they are presaged before conceived, and prevented before perpetrated. For though there remain in it many factions, of which the Royal and Papistical party are most seditious, and both numerous; the one containing in number forty thousand fight persons, 
Europe. Spec.  and the other perhaps more: yet are the first by their just censures of sequestrations discouraged, and by their late compositions so obliged, that they tremble to enterprise any public act against the State, unless such as are fugitives, whose estates are exposed to sale, and no way considerable. As also the second is much diminished by their recantations, and acceptance of the oath of abjuration. Many, and some of the chiefest, preferring the blessings of their estates, before the curses of Rome: and both the less perilous, because irreconciliably divided as Opposites in Religion, which hath a potent sway over the minds of men; and besides are unarmed, and upon any pregnant suspicion safely secured, either by transporting them into foreign Islands, or by removing them to remote places, according to the ancient custom of the Romans, who were wont so to dispose of their seditious Delinquents: The considerable party only remaineth, which generally profess themselves Protestant's, and concord for the most part in the principal Doctrine of Salvation by Faith in Christ, though they otherwise vary concerning some disputable questions, and less material, and are the less turbulent, b●cause permitted severally without restraint to exercise their consciences: Besides, most of them are by strong and Politic ties linked unto the State, either by public employments, or private interests; many of them having at a considerable rare purchased the Revenues and Lands of the late King, Praelates, or Delinquents: that though some of them through envy, or other sinister conceit distaste the present proceed, and others vary among themselves concerning some niceties of Religion, yet will they upon any turbulent or seditious occasion, as one man, unite their forces to repel the common enemy, 
Compellit in unum commune periculum etiam inimicissimos. Ar. Pol. l. 5. c 5.  as common dangers use to d●aw and force together the greatest adversaries, and not to expose themselves and estates to the cruelty and tyranny of merciless Invaders, and the rapine and spoil of a necessitous and ravenous rabole of desperate malcontents, who suborn furious Emissaries to scatter the seeds of discord and sedition in every place, which may make all things opportune for their rebellious incursions, of which we have received an ocular testimony in the last tumultuous hurley-burley, which was but momentary, by reason that the Royal Party, for fear of future censures were dismayed, and the confiding party by rewards and interests incited, whereby that tempestuous sedition was suddenly suppressed, and like a thundering storm, after a clap or two, vanished into vanity: So stable is the settlement of this State founded on the rock of a confident and trusty party, with the truehearted Militia, that the impetuous winds of commotions, and outrageous tempests of rebellions, cannot shatter or shake it; but the more violently they beat upon it, the more miserably are they dissipated; which is opposite to the conceit of the Royalists, who are led with a fond hope that the inheritance of the Crown is indissolubly entailed to the issue, and cannot be cut off; whereas succession was lately invented to avoid competition and interregnum, and hath often been interrupted by arms, and that Gordian knot cut in pieces by the Sword. As Canutus with his Sword did cut off the right of Edmond, and was by it crowned King of England: and so by it did Stephen disinherit Maud the right heir; and in the bloody wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster, wherein fourscore of the Royal blood perished, he who had the sharpest sword carried the Crown; and as Baron Thorp, of all those five and twenty Kings and Queens, which have since William the conquerors time ruled among us, there were scarcely seven of them who could pretend legally to succeed their former Predecessors, either by lineal or collateral title; and it is malum omen, 
Turselius  to the Royal Issue, that such Princes as have been for tyranny expelled by their Subjects, have never been remitted, though they had stronger forces to attempt it. Though Tarqvinius Superbus had valiant sons to second him, 
Florus.  and the redoubted King of Porsenna with a proud Army to assist him, and force Rome to his subjection, yet were they ignominiously repelled, and for fear forced to retreat: And after that, he through the powerful Alliance of Manlius, had drawn into a confederacy with him thirty several Potentates to restore him to his Royalty, yet were they by the Dictator Aurelius Posthumus vanquished, and forced to flight, and the Tarquinian hopes thereby utterly frustrated. The like was attempted by Hippias, the brother of the Tyrant Pisistratus for his tyranny slain by Harmodius and Aristogiton, who endeavouring to vindicate his brother's slaughter, was expelled Athens, and thereupon procured Darius with formidable forces to invade Athens in his behalf, and for his restitution; yet were they by the invincible virtue of Milti●des profligated, and two hundred thousand of the enemies destroyed. Atque horret animus meus memoria repetere; and it makes my heart tremble and bleed to remember how many horrible and deadly battles (which the large and copious pen of Livy is scarce able to repeat) the late King and Prince have undertaken to regain their forfeited and lost Royalty, wherein they have been continually discomfited, to the destruction of the one, and exclusion of the other, and to the lamentable ruin of a great part of the Nobility and Gentry.  Quicquid delirant Reges, plectuntur Achivi. 
Quae igitur intemporiae illos tenent? What kind of frenzy therefore possesseth these men, who being not void of reason, will not be instructed by experience, the Mistress of unreasonable creatures? for the Fish escaping the hook, will carefully beware of the fatal bait: And as the Satirist, Hor. l. 2. Sat. 7. Quae belluaruptis Cum semel effugit, reddit se prava catenis?  
But these vanquished, subdued, captived, do still persist in their obstinacy, and daily subject themselves to inevitable hazards and mischiefs; how much better and safer were it for them to submit to God's providence, and not to fight against heaven, and his Ordinance, or kick against the prick? How happy would they be to live in peace and unity, and under the Sovereign wings of his Highness' protection, to enjoy the public blessings of peace, plenty, liberty, and prosperity, by which mutual intercourse his Highness may be the more encouraged to make this Commonwealth the most glorious Empire in the Christian world? the which through the Omnipotent assistance, his Highness with all his nerves, both by Sea and Land, contendeth to accomplish, and perform that which was heretofore proffered to the late King by him and others, whereby, maugre the might of any foreign force, he may render Britain incomparable as well as invincible, which indeed in itself it is; as the Roman Poet acknowledgeth, Tib. El. 4. Invicti Romano Marte Britanni. 
Alb Gent. de armis Ro.  Unless that it be betrayed by ourselves, Per dolos malos, aut per malitias malas, by wicked treacheries and malicious practices, which may by providence, and a stable settlement of the State, be prevented, as now it is: As also by an offensive and defensive league with some foreign Nation, which is easily obtained, because by it advanced; according to the Motto of Henry the Eight, Cui adhaereo praeest, 
Herb H●n. 8.  whose part I take prevaileth; by which policy he became an honour to his Allies, and horror to his enemies, comparing Spain and France to a pair of Scales, and England to the Tongue, which turned either of them it assisted. Howsoever England with his wooden brazen walls hath not been unable to withstand them both, and to defeat the Spanish invincible Armado, which at this present never were more potent and victorious, being daily augmented by the care and providence of our Themisthocles.   

CAP. VI  
1. Man's understanding is imperfect, especially in spiritual things.  
2. It is the cause of many sects in Philosophy, and more in Theologie.  
3. Among Philosophers, arguments, not torments, were their moderators.  
4. Among Christians in the primitive times, admonitions, not persecutions, were the weapons of their warfare.  
5. The Arrians and other Heretics first used force to maintain their opinions, and afterwards the Pope and his adherents.  
THe object of the mind is verity, which is properly attributed to the divine mind; as that which is credible, to the humane: For truth is the adequation of the notions of the mind, with the very nature of things; and that is said to be true, when the mind representeth the express image of the very thing, which the wife Artifex of the Universe had with him from eternity, and therefore cannot be ignorant of any thing: But there is so great obscurity in the nature of things, and in the minds of men such obliquity and variety, that oftentimes they assent to falsities and uncertainties, which they conceive to be true and firm: and therefore he is said to be happy and wise who can apprehend the causes of things.  
And because sempiternal, spiritual, and matters of faith are remote from sense, therefore is the knowledge of them more uncertain and obscure, 
Scalig. de Sub. Exer. 1.  and as it were umbratilis. To the intellection of which the sharpness of our conceit being directed, is as weak as the eye of an Owl to the beholding of the Sun, and which the natural man receiveth or discerneth not, 
1 Cor. 1.14  and are such as no natural light doth reach unto.  
Which natural imbecility hath been the impulsive cause of all the Sects in Philosophy, and heresies in Divinity: And though never so strange, or absurd, yet have their authors and founders invented probable arguments, or inferred sacred sentences in their defence.  
There are several sects in Philosophy, and more in Theology, because more remote from sense: The first amounts to the number of ten, and the other to ten times more. Epiphanius writes against 80. heresies in his time, and Augustine against 90. general Councils have erred: The Council of Nice condemned Arrianisme, and the Council of Arminium confirmed it. 
Pier. du Moulin in his preface to the Boucl. d'le Foy.  And the day is not more contrary to the night, than the ancient Councils are to the new. Et fuit hoc omnium aetatum commune malum, saith one truly: And this hath been the common calamity of all ages; heresies and schisms daily sprouting up in the Church, and like Africa, 
Perpin.  aliquid novi semper pariens, always bringing forth one new error or another.  
Among Philosophers, arguments were their arms, who friendly contended to find out the truth: So did the Prince of the ancient Philosophers deal with Socr. & Plato, 
Arist. 1. Ethic. c. 6.  professing, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Though they were both his friends, 
De Sub.  yet he deemed it more sacred to honour the truth: and so the Prince of the modern Philosophers Scaliger protested, Amicus Plato, amicus Aristoteles, sed magis amica veritas. Plato was his friend, Aristotle his friend, but truth his dearest friend. Such inquisitors of the truth used no torments to extort it, but arguments, non bacillinis sed Philosophicis to find it, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was their victory.  
Among Christians also in the primitive time, though there were sometimes divisions, questions, envy, and strife of words, yet were they through the Apostles admonitions contained in charity: And after the Apostles age their Successors did not use arms and violence to propagate and settle the Gospel; the weapons of their warfare were not carnal, but spiritual, who did not contend with Bands of Disciplined Soldiers, but with aid implored of God, not with arms, but with the Spirit, not by beating, but by admonishing and reproving.  
But after the Church was corrupted, and disceded from the Apostolical Doctrine, and that by divine Authority they could not maintain their novelties, arms and all instruments of cruelty were invented for the establishing of their strange Doctrine, and became more barbarous and inhuman, then ever Nero, Domitian, 
Niceph. l. 11. c. 3.  Decius, and Dioclesian were: As the Arrians and the Donatists under the Reign of Valens, and tyranny of the Vandals, exceeded all the Heathen Persecutors in cruelty and immanity.  
And in these last and worst days, whenas the Bishop of Rome had usurped the pre-eminency, and began to lord it over other Christian Churches, imposing greater and heavier burdens on Christian consciences; as Prayers for the Dead, Purgatory, Indulgences, and other impostorious trumperies: Then began the Pope's tyranny imperiously to reign over Christendom, which did not only infest the privileges of Princes, as hath been asserted, but afflict the purest professors of the Gospel: Then did his Phalaris Bulls thunder and roar about the Christian Horizon, fire and sword were the arguments he ejaculated against devout consciences: The Hussits first come upon the Stage, who submissively imploring of Ferdinand the Emperor to be admitted to receive the Sacrament under both Species, 
Ludou. Aurel. Ann. Eccles. f. 460.  were by Pope Martin interdicted, and a sacred war denounced against them, wherein Zisca their blind, yet quicksighted Captain (who saw as much in military affairs, as Homer did in Poetical Lays, and became so terrible to the enemy, that he supposed a Drum of his skin would fright an Army) behaved himself so skilfully and stoutly, that he overthrew the Emperor's Army, and forced him to veil to their conscientious demands, and not only to grant them the sacred mysteries under both kinds, 
Id. 46●.  but to permit them to possess those goods they had taken out of Popish Churches, until they were with the value redeemed, with many other reformed immunities.  
Next ensued the Scene of the Lutherans, the Hussits Successors, who were, as one styleth them, 
Id. f. 445.  Lutheranorum Antesignani: They likewise marched under their Sacred Banners, and were confident propugnators and defenders of the Primitive purity; and in spite of the Pope's thundering power, acted their parts so courageously and piously, that they withdrew Denmark, Swethland, and Norway, with the Duke of Saxony, Lantsgrave of Hesse, and some other Princes of Germany, from the Popes Sup emacy, whose pious precedent the Huguenots in France, and the Protestants in England, with the reformed Netherlands did follow, to the Pope's perpetual detriment, and preparation to his downfall; the which he fearing, and finding upon this defeat many in all his Jurisdictions to fall from him, repaired to his Vulcanian Conclave, 
Europe. Spec. f. 112.  and there forged the infernal Inquisition, which he per antiphrasin, calls the Holy House; wherein is executed the more than barbarous tortures on men's consciences, apprehending any upon the least suspicion of any their supposed Heresies, of affinity or connivance which Heretics, and the bare reproving sometimes of the Clergy's lives, or the having any book or edition prohibited, and especially a Bible in the vulgar language: discovering men by the pressing of all men's Consciences, whom they charge under an high degree of mortal sin, 
Ib. v. 113.  and damnation to appeach their nearest and dearest friends: and if they know or suspect them to be culpable therein, proceeding against the detected with such secrecy, and severity, as that they never shall have notice of their accusers, but shall be urged to reveal their very thoughts and affections.  
The which though he intended to have propagated through all the Catholic Dominious: yet was it not only rejected by Germany and France, 
Europe spe. ib.  and solely retained in Italy, and Spain: but also most of the Catholics within their Precincts (who perhaps if need were, would die for Religion) abhored the very name, and mention of the Inquisition, as being the greatest slavery the world hath tasted: And which inhuman, and unnatural violence of planting and propagating of Religion was execrably detested of the virtuous Heathens, and is abominated of devout Christians, as opposite to pious Principles. For if it were approved, and grateful to God: why did he send his Son unarmed and indigent of any external power? why did he restrain, and rebuke Peter endeavouring with his drawn Sword to defend his Master? why did he send his Disciples as Sheep among the midst of Wolves, and naked into all parts of the World, as his Father sent him? And when did it come into the mind of the Apostles to persuade, and allow of any such violence, or their Successors, in the Primitive Church to practise any such force? neither is the distinction of any force, that the Christians deposed not Nero, Dioclesian, Julian, and Valens, because they were unequal to them in Military power, otherwise it was a strange dissimulation in Paul to instruct the Romans to obey the power of Nero, if he lawfully having had power, might have deposed him. Prayers were their arms, and admonitions their Inquisitors: The Churches Chief Master prayed for his enemies: and Paul his Selected Apostle exhorteth us to pray for all men, which is acceptable to God our Saviour, who would have all men come to the knowledge of the truth: And it is also his admonition, instruct with meekness those that oppose themselves: if God peradventure would give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth; 
2 Tim. 9.25.  For they who like lost sheep go astray, may be drawn to the fold, and the rank Tares may become sweet Corn.   

CAP. VI  
1. Knowing and obstinate Heretics are after the first or second admonition to be rejected.  
2. What Excommunication is.  
3. It was rarely executed in the Primitive Church.  
4. 
Qui argumentis convicti persistunt tamem in heresy propugnanda. Whit. de sacra script. l. 1. c. 2. Grot. de Jur. Bel. & pac. f. 505  The abuse of it by the Pope and Prelacy, hath caused it to be neglected in most reformed Churches, and to be utterly abrogated in ours.  
THere are Heretics Scientes, who know themselves to be Heretics: and who convinced by arguments as Whitaker, persist in the defence of heresy: either for some temporal commodity, or desire of vain glory: And who being carried away with self-love, ambition, or popular applause, build the City of the Devil upon false and new opinions: not respecting the truth but their positions, because their own inventions, whom Augustine only placeth in his Catalogue of Heretics: Such Heretics after the first and second admonition are to be avoided and rejected, as the Apostle prescribeth. 1. Tim. 3 10. who offend not from ignorance and infirmity, but from voluntary malice and obstinate industry.  
From the admonishment of such a one we are to abstain, and to leave him to himself as one condemned by himself, as the Apostle speaketh, and Turtullian interpreteth, Elegit sibi in quo damnetur, He hath chosen to himself his own damnation.  
Excommunication is a separation from the Communion and Congregation of the Church: 
C. 8.  and of it is understood that of Matthew, If he shall not hear the Church, let him be as an Heathen and a Publican; 
1. Tim.  whose body as the Apostle speaketh, is delivered to Satan: That is, put out of the Church, out of which Satan is Lord and Master; as among the Jews grievous offenders aposynagogi fiant, were cast out of the Church, which was to shun their Communion, as the Jews did the Samaritans.  
Neither doth Anathema the greater and more grievous Excommunication, signify much more; of which in the Gospel we have no example, only a general Precept 1 Cor. 13. Whosoever loveth not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be an Anathema: which by the Glossary is expounded, Esse execrationem extra Communionem honorum usque ad adventum domini: To be a vehement spitting out from the Communion of the good, until the coming of the Lord; and it is rendered by Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 execrable, and unsociable, as one unworthy the society of good men: and according to the Greek Original, signifieth Deo dicatum, dedicated to God, and so separated from the Communion of men for his impiety, that he is only left to God's judgement: All which only sets forth unto us a separation from the Communion of the good, & the dereliction of them so separated to the judgement of the Lord: 
Tac. An. 1. l. 1.  Deorum enim injurias Diis curae esse; for offences against God are by him to be censured: Upon which ground Tiberius dismissed one to the sentence of Jupiter, who was accused for a contempt against Jupiter: and all heretical opinions are properly offences against God, and therefore to be referred to his judgement: & as the Civilians in the like case, Satis deum ultorem habent, have God a sufficient revenger; and how such errors shall be punished at the day of of Judgement, 
Grotius de Jur. b. et p.  nemo potest scire nisi Judex, saith Salvianus, no man can know but the Judge. And therefore doth Christ, Mar. 6.12. refer the judgement of such as refuse his Doctrine, until the day of Judgement: and whosoever, as Mr. Ashkam, shall think himself competent to judge of it here, is nimis Curiosus in aliena republica.  
Excommunication was rarely executed in the Primitive Church, of which we have but two examples in the Gospel: the one against the Incestuous one, whom Paul commanded to be delivered to Satan: 
1 Cor. 5.  a sin abhorred of the Heathens, and severely punished by them. The other against blasphemers, 
1 Tim. 1.20.  Hymeneus and Alexander, whom Paul also delivered to Satan. An offence mortal under the Law, Levit. 24. and dangerous under the Gospel, if not repent of: Math. 12.31. And of all offences the highest, because it is an impiety against God himself, whereas other offences are transgressions against the Law. 
Tholos. Synt. Jur. Vniv. l. 33. c. 12. contra ipsa deitatem impie agis.  And this was Paul's rod of Correction which he rarely used; so rare a censure was Excommunication in the purest times: For the excess of which St. John condemneth Diotrephes in casting his Brethren out of the Church.  
But how Excommunication the last, and grievous punishment of the Church, 
In his Adieu.  as Mr. Whitgift calleth it, hath been abused under Popery and Prelacy, is notoriously evident: and especially by the Pope, whose continual practice was to inflict it on any one as a Delinquent, either in matters of Faith, or Manners; 
Pier. de Moul. Buc. de la foy. f. 506.  or by it to press men to restore things lost, and to pay their debts within a certain time: and sometimes without any cognisance of the cause. Kings and Emperors were most obnoxious to this censure, who being Excommunicated as the Pope pretendeth, could not without sinning exercise their jurisdiction: and what Acts and Sentences during the Excommunication they pronounced, were null and void; by which rule he also deposed them: From whose institutions the Prelates originally derive their jurisdiction; and in their discipline do not much vary, setting the Papal Altitude and Latitude aside: and therefore was our Arch-Prelate styled Alterius orbis Papa: who likewise transgressed in the excessive abuse of excommunications, as Whitgift a Patron of Praelacy acknowledgeth in these words; 
In his Admonition.  That excommunication, the last and greatest punishment in the Church, is commonly used in many trifling matters, and therefore is commonly neglected and contemned: I pray God, saith he, restore it to its first purity: neither was by either of them the pious end of Excommunication respected, 
1 Tim. 5.  which was that for shame of the separation, the separated should be drawn to repentance: as the Apostle saith of the Incestuous one, That his flesh may be destroyed, and the spirit saved in the day of the Lord Jesus: and also of the blasphemers, 
1 Tim. 1.20.  That they may learn not to blaspheme; whereas their ultimate drift was to heap up monies and enrich themselves by formal Absolutions and pecuniary Satisfactions, supposing gain to be godliness, and through covetousness by feigned words to make merchandise of men's souls, 
1 Tim. 5.6.  as the Apostle speaketh: For such and like abominable abuses, the Pope's Excommunications are slighted, and despised of most Princes, and the Papal and Prelatical jurisdicton neglected in all Reformed Churches; and in our Church utterly abolished: as it was resolved in the late Parliament by the declaration of the Lords and Commons in answer to the Scotch papers, the fourth of March 1647. That the discipline of Ecclesiastical censures, and other punishments for matters in Religion are disclaimed, as grounded on Popish and Preletical Principles, and not to be revived again under any Image and shape whatsoever.   

CAP. VIII.  
1. Who out of ignorance and infirmity err, are not to be rejected, but to be instructed with meekness.  
2 Such as abuse their liberty, are to be punished.  
THere are others, who out of ignorance and infirmity err; 
Grot. de Iu. b. & pa. l. 2. c. 20.  and are called by Salvianus, Haeretici non scientes, qui bono animo errand & affectu Dei; who err with a good mind & affection towards God, believing that they honour & love God; and such, saith Whitaker, are not Heretics, though they harbour a false and erroneous opinion: 
De sacr. scrip. l. 1. non est haereticus, qui falsam & haereticam opinionem colit.  For else Cyprian had been an Heretic, who defended Anabaptism; and Augustine, who had been a Maniche; and Peter also, who denied the calling of the Gentiles, and that they were to be excluded the communion of Saints; yet was it false, Et in ea Petrum errasse, saith Whitaker; and therefore are such falsities properly errors, as Augustine said of himself, Errare possum, haereticus esse nolo: For an erroneous conscience may be a good conscience, as Paul's was when he was a Jew, 
Bar. Ann. 173.  and Tertullian whilst he was a Montanist.  
Such consciences are tenderly to be cured, not to be cauterised; and as the Apostle adviseth, 
2 Tim. 2.25.  are to be instructed with meekness, and gently to be entreated, or convinced by arguments, as Augustine did the Manichees, whose divine reasons for their Elegancy and Excellency merit a literal repetition: Illi saeviant in vos qui nesciunt, 
Grotius de Jur. bell. & pac. l. 2. c. 20.  saith he, quocum labore verum inveniatur et quam difficillime caveantur errores: Illi saeviant in vos qui nesciunt quam rarum, & arduum sit carnalia phantasmata piae mentis serenitate superare: Illi in vos saeviant qui nesciunt quanta difficultate sanetur oculus interior is hominis: Illi in vos faeviant qui nesciunt quantis gemitibus, & suspiriis fiat, ut ex quantulacumque parte intelligi possit Deus: Postremo illi in vos saeviant qùi nullo tali errore decepti sunt, quali vos deceptos vident: Ego verô in vos saevire non possum, quos sicut meipsum illo tempore, ita nunc debeo sustinere, & tanta patientia vobiscum agere, quantum mecum egerint proximi mei, cum in vestro dogmate rabiosus, & caecus fui; Let those tyrannize over you who are ignorant with what labour truth is to be found, and how hardly errors be avoided: Let those tyrannize over you who are ignorant how rare and painful a thing it is to overcome carnal imagination with the serenity of a pious mind: Let those tyrannize over you, who are ignorant with what difficulty the eye of the inward man may be cured: Let those tyrannize over you, who are ignorant with what great groans and sighs it may be effected that God may in part be known, how small or little soever: Lastly, let those tyrannize over you, who are not deceived with any such error wherewith they see you deceived: But I cannot tyrannize over you, whom I ought to endure as others did me upon the same occasion, and entreat you with so much patience as my neighbours entreated me when I was outrageous and blind, in the same opinion. And thus did the Apostle Paul also deal with the Jews, who before his conversion was exceeding zealous in their Religion, and by it had learned to bear with the infirmities of his brethren, who heretofore was in the same kind weak himself. And therefore exhorteth he himself and others who are strong, to bear with the infirmities of the weak; and not to please themselves, 
Rom. 14.1.  but to receive the weak in faith, and not to doubtful disputations, lest by such scruples they drive them away in more doubt than they came; but to apply arguments to their capacities, and in charity to comply with their simplicity.  
Yet are we not to bear with the looseness of such ungodly men, as the Apostle calls them, 
Jud. v. 4.  who turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, and prefer natural liberty before religious and Christian: Not unlike to the Cynique Philosophers, who supposed nothing to be obscene or dishonest, which was according to the liberty and course of nature; and what they were not ashamed openly to profess, they blushed not in the eyes of all men to act; 
Lud. Aurelius. Ann. Eccles. f. 475.  or rather like unto the Adamites, Quibus, as Aurelius, nullum indumentum, promiscua erant connubia, vagi concubitus, nulla temporis locique habita ratione; who wore no apparel, used confused and promiscuous marriages, & common uncleanness, without any respect to time or place. And such indeed are the Libertine, Antinomians, Quakers and Ranters in these latter days, who, under the pretence of piety and Christian liberty, practise all obscenity and impiety, licentious persons, and lose in all wicked and abominable actions. Whereas such liberty is slavery, Nam qui facit peccatum, 
Joh. 8.34.  servus est peccati, He that commits sin, is the servant of sin: And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty: And therefore such Libertines are not to be suffered, but aught to be eslaved to the sword of the Magistrate, which the late Parliament of England, in the Declaration of the 27. of November 1649. doth signify and pronounce in the sight of God and man, That by whomsoever they shall find this liberty abused, they shall be ready to testify their displeasure and abhorrency thereof, by a strict and effectual proceeding against such offenders: And accordingly, by the Act of August 1650. hath it provided for the removal and punishment of such transgressors, whose blasphemies are in the said Act recited and severely censured. In pursuance whereof, by the Government of the Commonwealth of England Art. 37. is liberty denied to those who abuse it, to the civil injury of others, and the actual disturbance of the public peace on their parts, or to such as under the profession of Christ hold forth the practice of Licentiousness.   

CAP. IX. The Epilogue, or Conclusion of all.  
SEeing then it is clear, that through the weakness of our understanding in natural as well as spiritual things, which are only preceptible by the light of the spirit, many errors and heresies of necessity must arise, and that the envious man continually soweth tares among the wheat, and tyrannical impositions on men's consciencs have augmented and increased the Schisms of the Church, and have been the fomenters of bloody broils, to the detriment of the authors; and that Christ and his Apostles in all their teachings and practice abstained from external violence, in gentleness and meekness instructing all men, we ought to refrain from all unnatural and unchristian force, and not to constrain the will of man to believe, or seem to profess that which he knoweth not, but to put on the meekness and gentleness of Christ, and above all things Charity, which is the bond of Christian perfection, and to become all to all men, to save some, and to pleasure our neighbour for his good to edification. Which charitable course (the God of love and charity be blessed for it) is at this present practised in the purest Christian Churches. As first in Germany, in which, though wives in doctrine descent from their husbands, and parents and children follow divers Sects, and brothers and sisters sometimes in one and the same family nourish discrepant opinions, touching many heads of Divinity; yet as Scorbonerius, one of that Nation writeth, 
Pol. l. 3. c. 11  In politicis & domesticis rebus concordes vivere comprehenduntur, in politic and domestic affairs are observed to live peaceably, otherwise hoping that the unbelieving man may sanctify and save the unbelieving woman, and believing brothers and sisters the unbelievers. Then in France are the Huguenots, and the Catholics as they distinguish them, by the prudency of their Princes reduced into a charitable and peaceable condition; who wisely by an Edict have provided that all illiberal revile and unworthy contumelies on either part should be removed, and not any thing said or acted which might tend to uncivil commotions, but that it should be lawful for every one to follow the judgement of his own mind; whereupon a blessed & placid calm ensued: And as one, Coalescunt mutuâ concordiâ mentes omnium, The minds of all by mutual concord grow together: 
Perpinian.  And so rare is their moderacy and temperate behaviour, that notwithstanding the provoking commemorations of the late intestine wars, they have mutual commerce, 
Moderator. f. 27.  and frequently dispute together, not only the Clergy, but the Tradesmen one with another, and defend every one his opinion civilly and peaceably, without any convitious distemper, in a friendliness, and mutual compassionate part, and perfect charity, each hoping and praying for the others conversion.  
In the Netherlands also, though there be within a small compass professed divers Religions, 
Europae specu. f. 176.  and that the Papacy there hath two thirds in it; yet doth every one peaceably profess the liberty of his mind without any molestation and contradiction, which have always been a Receptacle and saving Sanctuary for such afflicted consciences.  
The Helveteans likewise, though of different judgement in matters of Religion, yet are they united by concord and charity: 
Daniel Heremita de rep. Helu.  and in civil and public Affairs which concern the safety of the Country, Ne quic quam nisi in common consultant, They act nothing but by consultation in common. And also in Transilvania, Valachia, and the remains of Hungary and Poland, in which many Religious do abound, notwithstanding their conscientious diversities, do they embrace each other in the drmes of civility and charity. And whensoever wars and massacres have been made for the cause of Religion, inquire from whence they have proceeded? whether from the Roman, or from the Reformed Churches; and we shall understand that the Romanists first provoked them, and they only took up arms in their own defence. Which in it itself is apparent, if we call to mind the Sacred Wars, as they call them, but indeed accursed, both in Germany and France, which were principally, as hath been before intimated, indicted by the Pope and his Confederates, or Holy Leagues, as they style them. And whence dimaned that abominable and execrable massacre at Paris, wherein forty thousand persons were inhumanely butchered, which is notorious and odious to all Christendom, whose children are often frighted with the memory of it. Neither is the horrible and lamentable slaughter to be superseded in silence, which lately was perpetrated by Papal Forces on the innocent and innoxious Protestants in Savoy, where they who by flight escaped their fury, were driven from their comfortable habitations, and so eagerly prosecuted, that they were compelled to hid themselves in Caves, or wander on the Mountains, and either perish for want of food, or common with the Beasts. Who now begin to revive the bloody differences have a long time been buried in the bowels of Charity, and to provoke the conscientious Christians to defensive arms? Woe be to them from whom the offence cometh, saith our Saviour, who without doubt will raise the spirits of pious Princes, as he always hath, to protect his own cause, and to vindicate the persecutions of his Church. And in this doth their Religion show itself from whence it cometh; not from God, qui odit crudelitatem, who hateth cruelty, and abhorreth all humane hosts, and bloody devotions: The sacrifice of God is a spiritual sacrifice, and the weapons of his warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, yet mighty through God for the pulling down of strong holds, and casting down of imaginations, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ: Prayers, persuasions & tears are the arms of the Church, by which kind of weapons, 
Perjin. Orat. f. 528.  as an ingenious Jesuit confesseth, Terrarum orbis sub Christi ditionem potestatemque subjectus erat, the whole earth was subjected under the power and dominion of Christ. And which kind of Christian combat the Parliament in answer to the Scotch papers March 13. 1647. preferreth, declaring it to be better to leave God to deal against many Errors, then to use his authority for the suppressing of one truth, the weapons of fasting and prayer being both more Christian and available in such cases. Tyrannical Force, and infernal Inquisitors, being the Devils Instruments to support Error, and too weak and feeble to withstand spiritual arms, and the power of Christ. The counsel of Gamaliel therefore which he gave unto the Jews, and persecuters of the Apostles, in this case is worthy the observation and practice, 
Acts 5.38.  to abstain from force, and let them alone; For if this Counsel, saith he, or work be not of God, it will come to nought; and if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found to fight against God. 
Ovid.  Exitus acta probat, saith the Poet; neque ulla res quale quidque sit magis ostendit, quam quae quidque sequatur; The end approveth the acts; neither doth any thing more demonstrate the quality and quiddity of the thing then the consequence of that thing.  

Esd. 4.41.  Magna est veritas, & praevalet: Great is truth, and mighty above all things, It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Cansabon.  as it were an immersable Rock that cannot be drowned; and though through swelling and ambitious waves it may be obscured, and overwhelmed, and not appear to the sight of such as respect only the present; yet will it without doubt remain invincible, and at the length gain a full and glorious Victory; 
Euro. spect. c. f. 148.  Truth being by infinite degrees stronger than falsehood, having God to bless it, Heaven and Earth and all the Creatures of God to witness it, that maugre the malice of all enemies, and craft of all inventions, it must needs in the end prevail, and have the Victory: So as it may well be hoped, That Universal Liberty thus moderated, in process of time, the foundation of Heresy may be rooted out, and whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine, by drawing their followers and adherents by gentle instructions, and powerful persuasions; and Truth being left to the decision of the Conscience, and operation of the spirit which is one, may in the end prove Universally Victorious, and Christendom reduced to Unity, and Truth; The contrary effects whereof continually happen by the Tyrannous impositions of opinions on men's Consciences: from whence intestine and bloody Wars arise, as have been clearly, and fully demonstrated.  
But I am stricken with an ingenuous fear, 
Jun. Sat. 1.  nudis pressit qui calcibus auguem,  
Aut Lagdunensem Rhetor dicturus ad naram.  lest carried away with an unsatiable desire of the investigation of the truth, I should incur the popular censure of prolixity and as the Poet, Mart. Ne nimius videar seraque coronide longus,  
And that my discourse should go beyond its last, and the favourable respect of the Reader; for as Patricius, Non tam dicendi mihi ratio habenda, quam audiendi; And therefore have I superseded many animadversions, which opportunly might have been added, and have chosen rather to offend in brevity, then forgetful of a mediocrity to transgress in superfluity; In which according to Varro's judgement I shall seem void of reprehension, who averreth, Neminem reprehendendum esse, qui ad spicelegium reliquit spiculam: That no man is to be reproved who out of the abundance of a Crop shall leave some ears of Corn for the Gleaner; And so conclude with the close of the Poet, 
Horat. Jam satis est; ne me Crispini sciria Lippi  
Compilasse putes. Verbum non amplius addam.    
FINIS.