ple; and Nero triumphed over the burning city, thinking by that ruin he had prevented his own danger. I know not who the good authors are that commend Domitian for his juftice; but Tacitus calls him "principem virtutibus "infeftum*;" and it is hard to find out how fuch a man can be an obferver of justice, unless it be just, that whoever dares to be virtuous under a vitious and base prince fhould be deftroyed. Another author † of the fame time, fpeaking of him, does not fay he was unjust, but gives us reafon to think he was fo, unlefs it were juft for him, who had a power over the best part of the world, to destroy it; and that he, who by his cruelty had brought it to the last gafp, would have finished the work, if his rage had not been extinguifhed. Many prines not having in themfcives power to deftroy their people, have stirred up foreign nations against them, and placed the only hopes of their fafety in the pulle calamity; and lawful kings, when they have fallen into the first degree of madnefs, fo as to affume a power above that which was allowed by the law, have in fury proved equal to the worst ufurpers. Cleonymus of Sparta was of this fort: he became, fays Plutarch, an enemy to the city, because they would not allow him the abfolute power he affected; and brought Pyrrhus, the fierceft of their enemies, with a mighty and excellently well disciplined army, to deftroy them. Vortigern & the Briton called in * Tacit. in vit. Agric. + Cum jam femianimem laceraret Flavius orbem Plat. vit. Pyrr. Juvenal. the the Saxons with the ruin of his own people, who were incensed against him for his lewdnefs, cruelty, and basenefs. King John for the like reafons offered the kingdom of England to the Moors, and to the pope. Peter the Cruel, and other kings of Caftille, brought vaft armies of Moors into Spain, to the ruin of their own people, who detefted their vices, and would not part with their privileges. Many other examples of the like nature might be alleged; and I with our own experience did not too well prove that fuch defigns are common. Let him that doubts this, examine the caufes of the wars with Scotland in the years 1639, 1640; the flaughters of the proteftants in Ireland 1641; the whole courfe of alliances and treatics for the fpace of fourfcore years; the friendship contracted with the French; frequent quarrels with the Dutch, together with other circumftances that are already made too public: if he be not convinced by this, he may foon fee a man in the throne, who had rather be a tributary to France than a lawful king of England, whilft either parliament or people fhall dare to dispute his commands, infift upon their own rights, or defend a religion inconfiftent with that which he has espoused; and then the truth will be fo evident as to require no proof. Grotius was never accused of dealing hardly with kings, or laying too much weight upon imaginary cafes, nevertheless, amongst other reafons, that, in 'his opinion, justify subjects in taking arms against their princes, he alledges this, "propter immanem fævitiam," and "quando * De jure belli, "rex in populi exitium fertur;" inafmuch as it is "con"trary to, and inconfiftent with, the ends for which governments are inflituted;" which were moft impertinent, if no fuch thing could be: for that which can have no effect. There are therefore princes who seek the deftruction of their people, or none could be juftly opposed on that account. If king James was of another opinion, I could wish the course of his government had been fuited to it. When he faid, that whilft he had the power of making judges and bishops, he would make that to be law and gofpel, which best pleased him, and filled those places with fuch as turned both according to his will and interests, I must think, that by overthrowing justice, which is the rule of civil and moral actions, and perverting the gofpel, which is the light of the spiritual man, he left nothing unattempted that he durft attempt, by which he might bring the moft extenfive and univerfal evils upon our nation that any can suffer. This would stand good, though princes never erred, unless they were "transported with fome inordinate lufts;" for it is hard to find one that does not live in the perpetual power of them. They are naturally fubject to the impulfe of such appetites as well as others, and whatever evil reigns in their nature is fomented by education. It is the handle by which their flatterers lead them; and he that discovers to what vice a prince is most inclined, is fure to govern him by rendering himself fubfervient. Inthis confifts the chief art of a courtier, and by this means it comes to pafs, that fuch lufts as in private men arc Re are curbed by fear, do not only rage as in a wild beast, but are perpetually inflamed by the malice of their own fervants: their hatred to the laws of God or men, that might reftrain them, increafes in proportion with their vices, or their fears of being punished for them. And when they are come to this, they can fet no limits to their fury, and there is no extravagance into which they do not frequently fall. But many of them do not expect these violent motives: the perverfity of their own nature carries them to the extremities of evil. They hate virtue for its own fake, and virtuous men for being moft unlike to themselves. Virtue is the dictate of reason, or the remains of divine light, by which men are made beneficent and beneficial to each other. ligion proceeds from the same spring; and tends to the fame end; and the good of mankind fo intirely depends upon these two, that no people ever enjoyed any thing worth defiring that was not the product of them; and whatsoever any have fuffered that deferves to be abhorred and feared, has proceeded either from the defect of thefe, or the wrath of God against them. If any prince therefore has been an enemy to virtue and religion, he must also have been an enemy to mankind, and most efpecially to the people under him. Whatfoever he does. against those that excel in virtue and religion, tends to the deftruction of the people who fubfift by them. I will not take upon me to define who they are, or to tell the number of those that do this; but it is certain there have been fuch; and I wish I could fay they were few in number, or that they had lived in paft ages. Tacitus does docs not fix this upon one prince, but upon all that he writes of; and to give his readers a taste of what he was to write, he says, "that nobility and honours were dangerous, but that virtue brought moft certain deftruc tion;" and in another place, that "after the flaughter "of many excellent men, Nero refolved to cut down "virtue itself, and therefore killed Thrafeas Petus, and "Barcas Soranus*." And whofoever examines the chriftian or ecclefiaftical hiftories, will find thofe princes to have been no lefs enemies to virtue and religion than their predeceffors, and confequently enemies to the nations under them, unless religion and virtue be things prejudicial or indifferent to mankind. But our author may fay, thefe were particular cafes; and fo was the flaughter of the prophets and apoftles, the crucifixion of Chrift, and all the villainies that have ever been committed; yet they proceeded from a univerfal principle of hatred to all that is good, exerting itself as far as it could, to the ruin of mankind: and nothing but the over-ruling power of God, who refolved to preferve to himself a people, could fet bounds to their rage, which in other refpects had as full fuccefs as our author, or the devil could have wifhed. Dionyfius (his other example of juftice) deferves ob&rvation: more falfehood, lewdnefs, treachery, ingratitude, cruelty, baseness, avarice, imprudence, and hatred to all manner of good, was hardly ever known in a mortal creature. For this reafon, Diogenes fecing him at * C. Tit, hift. 1. i. Ann. I. xvi. 21. Corinth |