It cannot choose but be an Unspeakable Consolation to You in the Last Moments of Your Life: Killing No Murder (1657).

 

KILLING NOT MURDER:
Briefly discoursed
in three questions.

By Col. Titus, alias William Allen.

And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet after that they had slain Athaliah with the sword. 2 Chron. xxiii. 21.

Now after the time that Amaziah did turn away from following the Lord, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; but they sent to Lachish after him, and slew him there. 2 Chron. xxv. 27. 

London,
Reprinted in the year M. DC. LXXXIX.

To his Highness
Oliver Cromwell.

It may please your Highness,

HOW I have spent some hours of the leisure
your Highness has been pleased to give me,
this following paper will give your Highness
an account.

HOW you will please to interpret it,
I cannot tell,
but I can with confidence say,
my intention in it is to procure your Highness
that justice nobody yet does you,
and to let the people see 
the longer they defer it,
the greater injury they do both themselves and you.

TO YOUR Highness
justly belongs 
the honour of dying for the people,
and it cannot choose
but be an unspeakable consolation to you
in the last moments of your life
to consider with how much benefit to the world
you are like to leave it.

'TIS then only

- my Lord - 

the titles you now usurp will be truly yours.
You will then be indeed 
the deliverer of your country,
and free it from a bondage little inferior
to that from which Moses deliver'd his.
You will then be that true refomer
which you would now be thought, 
and Parliaments have those privileges
they have fought for.
We shall then hope
that other laws will have place 
besides those of the sword,
and that justice shall be otherwise defined
than the will and pleasure of the strongest,
and we shall then hope men will keep oaths again,
and not have the necessity of being false and perfidious
to preserve themselves and be like their rulers.

ALL THIS we hope from your Highness' happy expiration,
who are the true father of your country,
for while you live, we can call nothing ours, 
and it is from your death that we hope for our inheritences. 
Let his consideration arm and fortify your Highness' mind
against the fears of death,
and the terrors of your evil conscience,
that the good you will do by your death will somewhat balance
the evils of your life. 

AND if in the black catalogue of  high malefactors
few can be found that have lived
more to the affliction and disturbance of mankind
than your Highness has done, 
yet your greatest enemies will not deny
but there are likewise as few 
that have expired more to the universal benefit of mankind
than your Highness is like to do. 

TO HASTEN this great good is the chief end of my writing this paper, 
and if it have the effects I hope it will,
your Highness will quickly be out of the reach of men's malice,
and your enemies will only be able to wound you in your memory,
which strokes you will not feel.

THAT your Highness may be speedily in this security
is the universal wish of your grateful country.
This is the desire and prayer of the good and of the bad,
and it may be is the only thing wherein all sects and factions
do agree in their devotions,
and is our only Common Prayer.

BUT among all that put in their requests and supplications
for your Highness' speedy deliverance from all earthly troubles,
none is mire assiduous nor more fervant 
than he that with the rest of the nation has the honour to be

May it please your Highness,
Your Highness' present Slave and Vassal,

W.A.

To all those officers and soldiers of the army
that remember their engagements
and dare be honest.

I HEARTILY wish for England's sake
that your number may be far greater than I fear it is,
and that his Highness' frequent purgations
may have left any amongst you
that by these characters are concern'd in this Dedication. 

THAT I and all men have reason to make this a doubt,
your own actions,
as well as your tame sufferings,
do but too plainly manifest.

FOR you that were the champions of our liberty, 
and to that purpose were raised,
are not you become the instruments of slavery?

AND your hands,
that the people employed to take off the yoke from our necks,
are not those the very hands that now do put it on?

DO you remember 
that you were raised to defend the privileges of Parliament,
and have sworn to do it;
and will you be employed to force elections,
and dissolve Parliaments,
because they will not establish they Trant's iniquity,
and our slavery by a law?

I BESEECH you,
think upon what you have promised, 
and what you do,
and give not to posterity as well as your own generation
the occasion to mention you with infamy, 
and to curse that unfortunate valour and success of yours
that has gained victories
- as you use them - 
against the Commonwealth.
Could ever England have thought to have seen that army
that was never mentioned without the titles
of religious, zealous, faithful, courageous,
the fence of her liberty at home,
the terror of her enemies abroad, 
become her gaolers?
Not her guard,
but her oppressors?
Not her soldiers,
but a tyrant's executioners,
drawing to blocks and gibbets
all that dare be honester than themselves?

THIS you do, 
and this you are.

NOR can you ever redeem you own honour,
the trust and love of your country,
the estimation of brave men,
or the prayer of good, 
if you let not speedily the world see
you have been deceived,
which they will only then believe
when they see your vengeance 
upon his faithless head that did it.

THIS if you defer too long to do,
you will find too late to attempt, 
and your repentence
will neither vindicate you,
nor help us.

TO LET you see you may do this as a lawful action, 
and to persuade you to it as a glorious one, 
is the princple intent of this following paper, 
which, whatever effect is has upon you, 
I shall not absolutely fail of my ends,
for if it excites not your virtues and courage, 
it will yet exprobrate your cowardice and baseness.

THIS is from one
that was once one amongst you, 
and will be so again
when you dare be as your were. 

Killing No Murder, &c.

IT IS not any ambition to be in print,
when so few spare the paper and press,
not any instigations of private revenge or malice

- though few that dare be honest now want their causes -

that have prevailed with me to make myself 
the author of a pamphlet,
and to disturb that quiet which at present I enjoy
by his Highness' great favour and injustice.

NOR am I ignorant to how little purpose
I shall employ that time and pains
which I shall bestow upon this paper. 
For to think that any reasons or persuasions of mine,
or convictions of their own,
shall draw men from anything
wherein they see profit or security,
or to anything wherein they fear loss or see danger,
is to have a better opinion
both of myself and them, than either of us both deserve. 

Besides, the subject itself is of that nature,
that I am not only to expect danger from ill men,
but censure and disallowance from many that are good;
for these opinions only look'd upon, not looked into

- which all have not eyes for - 

will appear bloody and cruel,
and these compellations I must expect
from those that have a zeal,
but not according to knowledge.

IF therefore I had considered myself,
I had spared whatever this is of pains, 
and not distasted so many, to please so few
as are in mankind,

- the honest and the wise - 

But at such a time as this,
when God is not only exercising us
with a usual and common calamity
of letting us fall into slavery
that used our liberty ill,
but is pleased so far to suffer us
to court our bondage, 
and to place it amongst the requests 
we put up to him.

INDIGNATION makes a man break that silence
that prudence would persuade him to use
if not to work upon other men's minds, 
yet to ease his own. 

A LATE pamphlet 
tells us of a great design discovered
against the person of his Highness
and of the Parliament's coming

- for so does that junto profane that name - 

to congratualte with his Highness,
his happy deliverance 
from that wicked and bloody attempt. 

BESIDES this,
that they have ordered
that God Almighty shall be mock'd
with a day of thanksgiving

- as I think the world is with the plot - 

and that the people shall give publick thanks
for the publick calamity ,

that God is yet pleased to continue his judgements
upon them,
and to frustrate all means
that are used for their deliverance.
Certainly none will now deny 
that the English are a very thankful people.

BUT I think if we had read in Scripture
that the Israelites had cried unto the Lord,
not for their own deliverance, 
but the preservation of their task-masters,
and that they had thanked God with solemnity
that Pharaoh was yet living,
and that there was still great hopes
of the daily increase of the number of their bricks.
Though that people did so many things,
not only impiously and profanely,
but ridiculously and absurdly,
yet certainly they did nothing
we should more have wondered at,
than to have found them ceremoniously
thankful to God for plagues
that were commonly so brutishly untankful for mercies,
and we should have thought that Moses
had done them a great deal of wrong 
if he had not suffered them to enjoy slavery,
and left them to their tasks and garlick.

I CAN with justice say
my principal intention in this paper
is not to declaim against my Lord Protector
or his accomplices,
for were it not more to justice others 
than to accuse them,
I should think their own actions did that work sufficiently,
and I should not take pains to tell the world
what they knew before.

MY design is to examine 
whether there has been such a plot
as we hear of,
and that it was contrived
by Mr. Sindercombe
against my Lord Protector,
and not bymy Lord Protector
against Mr. Sindercombe

- which is doubtful - 

whether it deserves those epithets
Mr. Speaker is pleased to give it,
of bloody, wicked, and proceeding from the Prince of Darkness.

I KNOW very well how uncapable
the vulgar are of considering
what is extraordinary and singular in every case,
and that they judge of things,
and name them
by their exterior appearances, 
without penetrating at all
into their causes or natures.
And without doubt
when they hear the Protector was to be killed,
they straight conclude a man was to be murdered,
not a malefactor punished.
For they think the formalities
do always make them the things themselves,
and that 'tis the judge and the crier
that makes the justice
and the gaol, the criminal.

And therefore when they read in the pamphlet
Mr. Speaker's speech,
they certainly think he gives these plotters
their right titles, 
and as readily as a High Court of Justice
they condemn them without ever examining 
whether they would have killed a magistrate,
or destroy'd a tyrant
over whom every man
is naturally a judge and an executioner,
and whom the laws of God,
of nature and of nations
expose,
like beasts of prey
to be destroyed as they are met. 

THAT I may be as plain as I can,
I shall first make it a question

- which indeed is none - 

whether my Lord Protector be a tyrant or not?

Secondly, if he be,
whether it is lawful to do justice upon him
without solemnity,
that is,
to kill him?

Thirdly, if it be lawful
whether it is likely to prove
profitable or noxious to the Commonwealth?

THE civil law makes tyrants of two sorts:
Tyrannus sine titulo
and
Tyrannus exercitio.

The one is called a tyrant
because he has no right to govern,
the other because he governs tyrannically.

We will briefly discourse of them both,
and see whether the Protector
may not with great justice
put in his claim to both titles.

WE shall sufficiently demonstrate 
who they are that have not a right to govern,
if we show who they are that have,
and what it is that makes the power just,
which those that rule have over the natural liberty of other men.

To fathers within their private families,
Nature has given a supreme power.
Every man,
says Aristotle (Pol. l.1. c.1.),
of right governs his wife and children, 
and this power was necessarily exercised 
everywhere whilst families lived dispersed (Gen. 34.24.),
before the constitutions of commonwealths (Arist. ibid.),
and in many places it continued after,
as appears in the laws of Solon,
and the most ancient of those of Rome.

And indeed, 
as by the laws of God and Nature (1. Tim. 5.),
the care, defence and support of the family 
lies upon every man whose it is. 
So by the same law,
there is due unto every man from his family
a subjection and obedience
in compensation of that support. 
But several families uniting themselves together
to make up one body of a commonwealth,
and being independent one of another
without any natural superiority or obligation, 
nothing can introduce amongst them
a disparity of rule and subjection,
but some power that is over them,
which power none can pretend to have
 but God and themselves.

Wherefore
all power which is lawfully exercised
over such a society of men

- which,
from the end of its instituion,
we call a commonwealth - 

must necessarily be derived either
from the appointment of God Almighty,
who is Supreme Lord of all and every part,
or from rhe consent of the society itself,
(vid. Hooker. Eccles. Pol. c.10.),
who have the next power to his
of disposing of their own liberty
as they shall think fit for their own good.

This power God has given to societies of men,
as well as he gave it to particular persons (Exod. 21.5.),
and when he interposes not his own authority,
and appoints not himself who shall be his vicegerents
and rule under himself.
He leaves to none but the people themselves
to make the Election,
whose benefit is the end of all government.

Nay, when he himself has been pleased to appoint
rulers for that people,
which he was pleased particularly to own.
He many times made the choice to the people themselves.

So Saul was chosen by God (1 Sam. 10.1.),
and annointed king by his prophet,
but made king by all the people at Gilgal.
David was annointed king (1 Sam. 12.2.)
by the same prophet (1 Sam. 16.14.),
but was afterwards after Saul's death,
confirmed by the people of Judah (2 Sam. 2.4),
and seven years after by the Elders of Israel (2 Sam. 5.3),
the people's deputies at Hebron.
And it is observable
that though they knew that David was appointed king by God
and anointed by his prophet,
yet they likewise knew that God allowed themselves
not only his confirmation, 
but likewise the limitation of his power,
for before his inauguration
they made a league with him (2 Sam. 5.3),
that is,
obliged him by compact to the performance of such conditions,
as they thought necessary for the securing their liberty.

Nor is it less remarkable
that when God gives directions to his people 
concerning their government,
he plainly leaves the form to themselves,
for he says not
when thou shalt have come into the land
which the Lord thy God gives thee,
Statues super te regem,
but
Si dixeris statuam (Deut. 17.14).
God says not
thou shalt appoint a king over thee,
but if thou shalt say,
I will appoint,
leaving it to their choice
whether the would say so or no.

And it is plain in that place
that God gives the people
the choice of their king,
for he there instructs them 
whom they shall choose,
E medio fratrum tuorum,
one out of the midst of thy brethten.
Much more might we say,
if it were a less manifest truth,
that all just power of govenment,
or the people's consent.
And therefore,
whosoever arrogates to himself that power,
or any part of it,
that cannot produce one of these two titles
is not a ruler,
but an invader,
and those that are subject to that power
are not governed
but oppressed. 

THIS being considered,
have not the people of England much reason
to ask the Protector this question:

Quis constituit te virum principem
et judicem super nos?

Who made thee a prince
and a judge
over us?

If God made thee,
make it manifest to us.

If the people, 
where did we meet to do it?

Who took our subscriptions?

To whom deputed we our authority?

And when and where
did those deputies make the choice?

Sure,
these interrogations are very natural,
and I believe would much trouble his Highness' council,
and his junto to answer.

In a word,
that I may not tire my Reader

- who will not want proofs for what I say,
if he wants not memory - 

if to dissolve their representatives by force,
and disannul their acts;
if to give name of the people's representatives
to confederates of his own, 
that he may establish iniquity by a law;
if to take away men's lives
out of all course of law
by certain murderers of his own appointment,
whom he names a High Court of Justice; 
if to decimate men's estates,
and by his own power to impose upon the people
what taxes he pleases,
and to maintain all this
by force of arms;

if,
I say,
all this does make a tyrant,
his own impudence cannot deny
but he is as complete a one as ever has been
since there have been societies of men.

He that has done,
and does all this,
is the person whose preservation 
the people of England must pray,
but certainly if they do,
'tis for the same reason
that the old woman of Syracuse
pray'd for the long life of the tyrant Dionysius,
lest the Devil should come next.

NOW,
if instead of God's command,
or the people's consent, 
his highness has no other title
but force and fraud,
which is to want all title;

and if to violate all laws,
and propose none to rule by
but those of his own will
be to exercise that tyranny
he has usurp'd,
and to make his administration
conformable to his claim; 

then,
the first question we proposed
is a question no longer. 

But before we come to the second, 
being things are more easily perceived and found
by the description of their exterior accidents and qualities
than the defining their essences,
it will not be amiss to see
whether his Highness has not as well
the outward mark and character 
by which tyrants are known,
as he has their nature and essential properties,
whether not he has not the skin of the lion
and the tail of the fox, 
as well as he has the violence of the one, 
and deceit of the other.

New in this delineation
which I intend to make of a tyrant
all the lineaments, 
all the colours,
will be found so naturally
to correspond with the life
that it cannot but be doubted
whether his Highness 
be the original or the copy,
whether I have in drawing the tyrant
represented him,
or in representing him,
expressed a tyrant.
And therefore, 
lest I should be suspected
to deal unsincerely with his Highness,
and not to have applied
these following characters but made them,
I shall not give you any of my own stamping, 
but such as I find in Plato, Aristotle, Tacitus,
and his Highness' own evangelist, 
Machiavel. 

1.
ALMOST all tyrants have been first captains and generals
for the people under pretences of vindicating or defending
their liberties.

Ut imperium euertant libertatem preferunt,
cum perverterunt,
ipsam aggrediuntur.

Says Tacitus:
To subvert the present government,
they pretend liberty for the people;
when the government is down,
they then invade that liberty themselves.

This needs no application. 

2.
TYRANTS accomplish their ends
much more by fraud than force.

Neither virtue nor force

- says
Machiavel - 

are so necessary to that purpose
as una astutia fortunata,
a lucky craft,
which,
says he, 
without force has been often found sufficient,
but never force without that.

And in another place,
he tells us their way is

Aggirars icervelli
de gli huomini con astutia,
&c.

With cunning plausible pretences
to impose upon men's understandings,
and in the end they master those
that had so little wit 
as to rely on their faith and integrity.

'Tis but unnecessary to say
that had not his Highness 
had a faculty to be fluent in his tears,
and eloquent in his execrations,
had he not had spongy eyes
and a supple conscience, 
and besides,
to do with a people of great faith
but little wit. 

His courage
and the rest of his moral virtues,
with the help of his Janizaries,
had never been able
so far
to advance him out of the reach of justice,
that we should have need to call
for any other hand to remove him
but that of the hangman.

3.
THEY abase all excellent persons,
and rid out of the way
all that have noble minds.

Et terræ filios extollunt,

and advance,
sons of the earth. 

To put Aristotle into other words,
they purge both Parliament and the army
till they leave few or none there
that have either honour or conscience,
either wit, interest or courage to oppose their designs.

And in these purgations

- saith
Plato -

tyrants do quite contrary to physicians,
for they purge us of our humours,
but tyrants of our spirits.

4.
THEY dare suffer no assemblies,
not so much as horseraces. 

5.
IN ALL places,
they have their spies and dilators,
that is,
they have their Fleetwoods,
their Broughals,
their St. Johns

- besides
innumerable
small spies - 

to appear discontented
and not to side with them,
that under disguise
they may get trust
and make discoveries.

They likewise
have their emissaries
to send with forged letters.

If anyone doubt this,
let him send to Major General Brown,
and he will satisfy him.

6.
THEY stir not without a guard,
nor his Highness without his lifeguard. 

7. 
THEY impoverish the people, 
that they may want the power,
if they have the will,
to attempt anything against them.

His Highness' way
is by taxes, excise, decimation, &c.

8.
THEY make war 
to divert and busy the people,
and besides to have a pretence
to raise monies
and to make new levies
if they either distrust their old forces,
or think them not sufficient.

The war with Spain
serves his Highness to this purpose,
and upon no other justice was it begun at first,
or is still continued. 

9.
THEY will seem 
to honour and provide for good men,
that is,
if the ministers will be orthodox and flatter,
if they will wrest and torture the Scripture
to prove hos government lawful, 
and furnish him with titles,
his Highness will likewise
be then contented to understand Scripture
in their favour,
and furnish them with titles.

10.
THINGS that are odious and distasteful
they make others executioners of,
and when the people are discontented,
they appease them by sacrificing
those ministers they employ. 

I leaave it to his Highness' Major Generals
to ruminate a little upon this point. 

11.
IN ALL things
they pretend to be wonderful careful
of the publick,
to give general accounts
of the money they receive,
which they pretend to be levied
for the maintenance of the state
and the prosecuting of the war.

His Highness made an excellent comment
upon this place of Aristotle
in his speech to this Parliament.

12.
ALL THINGS set aside for religious use
they set to sale,
that while those things last,
they may exact the less of the people. 

The Cavaliers would interpret this
of the Dean and Chapter's lands. 

13.
THEY pretend inspirations from gods,
and reponses from oracles,
to authorise what they do.

His Highness
has ever been an Enthusiast.

And as Hugh Capet
in taking the crown
pretended to be admonish'd to it
in a dream by St. Valery and St, Richard,
so I believe will his Highness do the same
at the instigation of S. Henry and S. Richard,
his two sons. 

14. 
LASTLY,
above all things they pretend
a love of God and religion. 

This Aristotle calls
Artus tyrannicariæ potissimam,
the surest and best of all the arts of tyrants,
and we all know
his Highness has found it so by experience.
He has found indeed 
that in godliness there is great gain,
and that preaching and praying,
well managed,
will obtain other kingdoms
as well as that of Heaven. 
His indeed have been pious arms,
for he has conquered most by those of the Church,
by prayers and tears.

But the truth is,
were it not for our honour
to be governed by one
that can manage both the spiritual and temporal sword,
and Roman-like, to have our emperor our high priest,
we might have had preaching at a much cheaper rate,
and it would have cost us but our tithes,
which now cost us all. 

OTHER marks and rules there are
mentioned by Aristotle 
to know tyrants by,
but they being unsuitable to his Highness' actions,
and impracticable by his temper,
I insist not on them,

As among other things,
Aristotle would not have a tyrant
insolent in his behaviour,
nor strike people. 
But his Highness is naturally cholerick,
and must call men rogues,
and go to cuffs.

At last,
he concludes he should so fashion his manners
as neither to be really good,
nor absolutely bad, 
but half one, 
half t'other.
Now,
this half good 
is too great a proportion
for his Highness,
and much more
than his temper
will bear.

But to speak truths more seriously,
and to conclude this first question.

Certainly, whatever these characters make any man,
it cannot be denied
but his Highness is,
and then if he be not a tyrant,
we must confess we have no definition
not description of a tyrant left us,
and may well imagine
there is no such thing in nature,
and that 'tis only a notion and a name.

But if there be such a beast,
and we do at all believe what we see and feel,
let us now enquire,
according to the method we proposed,
whether this be a beast of game
that we are to give law to,
or a beast of prey to destroy
which all means are allowable and fair?

IN DECIDING this question, 
authors very much differ
as it concerns supreme magistrates
who degenerate into tyrants. 

Some think they are to be borne with
as bad parents,
and place them in the number of those mischiefs
that have no other cure than patience.

Others think they may be questioned
by that supreme law of the  people's safety,
and that they are answerable
to the people's representatives
for the breach of their trust.

But none of sober sense
make private persons
judges of their actions,
which were indeed to subvert all government.

But on the other side,
I find none
that have not been frighted or corrupted
out of their reason
that have been so great enemies
to common justice and the liberty of mankind
as to give any kind of indemnity to the usurper,
who can pretend no title
but that of being stronger,
nor challenge the people's obedience
upon any other obligation
but that of their necessity and fear.

Such a person,
as one out of all bounds of human protection, 
all men make the Ishmael,
against whom is every man's hand,
as his is against every man.

To him,
they give no more security
than Cain,
his fellow murderer
and oppressor,
promised to himself
to be destroyed by him
that found him first.

The reason why a tyrant's case is particular,
and why every man has that vengeance given him,
which in other cases is reserv'd to God and the magistrate
cannot be obscure if we rightly consider
what a tyrant is,
what his crimes are,
and in what state he stands
with the Commonwealth, 
and with every member of it.

And certainly,
if we find him an enemy to all human society,
and subverter of all laws,
and one that by the greatness of his villainies
secures himself against all ordinary course of justice,
we shall not at all think it strange,
if then he have no benefit from human society,
no protection from the law,
and if in his case,
justice dispenses with her forms.

We are therefore to consider
that the end for which men enter into society
is not barely to live,
which they may do dispersed as other animals,
but to live happily,
and a life answerable
to the dignity and excellency of their kind.

Out of society
this happiness is not to be had,
for singly we are impotent and defective,
unable to procure those things
that are either of necessity 
or ornament for our lives,
and as unable to defend and keep them
when they are acquired.

To remedy these defects,
we accociate together
that what we can neither enjoy
nor keep singly
by mutual benefits and assistances
one of another,
we may be able to do both.

We cannot possibly accomplish there ends,
if we submit not our passions and appetites
to the laws of reason and justice,
for the depravity of man's will
makes him as unfit to live in society
as his necessity makes him unable
to live out of it,
and if that perverseness be not regulated 
by laws, men's appetites to the same things,
their avarice, their lust, their ambition
would quickly make society as unsafe,
or more,
than solitude itself 
and we should affociate only to be nearer
our misery and our ruin.

That therefore
by which we accomplish
the ends of a sociable life
is our subjection and submission to laws;
these are the nerves and sinews
of every society or commonwealth
without which 
they must necessarily dissolve and fall asunder.

And indeed

- as Augustine says - 

those societies where law and justice is not
are not commonwealths or kingdoms,
but magna latrocinia,
great confederacies of thieves and robbers.

Those therefore that submit to no law
are not to be reputed in the society of mankind
which cannot consist without a law.

Therefore,
Aristotle says,
tyranny is against the law of nature,
that is,
the law of human society
in which human nature is preserved.

For this reason,
they deny a tyrant to be partem civitatis,
for every part is subject to the whole,
and a citizen

- says the same author -

is he who is as well obliged
to the duty of obeying
as he is capable of the power of commanding,
and indeed he does obey whilst he does command,
that is,
he obeys the lawss which

- says Tully - 

Magistratibus præsunt,
ut magistratus præsunt populo,

are above the magistrates,
as the magistrates are above the people.

And therefore
a tyrant that submits to no law,
but his will and lust are the law
by which he governs himself and others
is no magistrate,
no citizen or member of any society,
but an ulcer and a disease that destroys it,
and it it be rightly considered,
a commonwealth by falling into a tyranny
absolutely loses that name,
and is actually another thing.

Non est civitas
quæ unius est viri.

- says Sophocles - 

That which is one man's is no city.

For there is no longer king and people,
or parliament and people, 
but those names are changed

- at least their natures - 

into masters and servants,
lord and slaves,
and 

Servoræ non civitas
erit sed magna familia.

- says Grotius - 

Where all are slaves,
'tis not a city but a great family,
and the truth is
we are all members of Whitehall,
and when our master pleases,
he may send for us thither,
and there bore through our ears
at the doorposts.

But to conclude,
a tyrant,
as we have said, 
being no part of a commonwealth,
nor submitting to the laws of it,
but making himself above all law,
there is no reason he should have the protection
that is due to a member of a commonwealth, 
nor any defence from laws
that does acknowledge none.

He is,
therefore,
in all reason to be reckoned
in the number of those savage beasts,
that fall not with others into any herd
that have no other defence but their own strength,
making a prey of all that's weaker,
and by the same justice,
being a prey to all that's stronger than themselves.

IN THE next place,
let it be considered
that a tyrant making himself above all law,
and defending his injustice by a strength
which no power of magistrates is able to oppose,
he becomes above all punishment, 
above all other justice
than that he receives
from the stroke of some generous hand.

And certainly,
the safety of mankind
were but ill-provided for
if there were no kind of justice
to reach great villainies,
but tyrants should be 
immunditie scelerem tuti,
secured by the greatness
of their crimes. 

Our laws would be then
but cobwebs indeed,
made only to catch flies,
but not to hold wasps or hornets. 

And it might be said of all commonwealths,
what was said of Athens,
that there only small thieves where hanged,
but the great ones were free,
and condemned the rest.

But he that will secure himself of all hands
must know he secures himself from none.

He that flies justice in the court
must expect to find it in the street.

And he that goes armed against every man,
arms every man against himself.

Bellum est in eos,
qui judciis cœrceri non possunt,

- says Cicero - 

we have war with those
against whom 
we can have no law.

The same author,

Cum duo sint decertandi genera, &c.

there being two ways of deciding differences, 
the one by judgement and arbitration,
the other by force, 
the one proper to men, 
the other to beasts. 

We must have recourse to the latter,
when the former cannot be obtained,
and certainly by the law of nature,

Ubi cessat judicium,

when no justice can be had,
every man may be his own magistrate,
and do justice for himself,
for the law

- says Grotius -

that forbids me to pursue my right
but by a course of law,
certainlu supposes,

Ubi copia est judicii,

where law and justice is to be had,
otherwise, 
that law were a defence for injuries,
not one against them, 
and quite contrary to the nature of all laws,
would become the protection 
of the guilty against the innocent,
not of the innocent against the guilty.

Now,
as it is contrary to the laws of God and Nature
that men, 
who are partial to themselves,
and therefore unjust to others,
should be their own judges
where others are to be had,
so is it as contrary to the law of Nature
and the common safety of mankind
that when the law can have no place,
men should be forbidden to repel force by force,
and so be left without all defence
and remedy against injuries.

God himself left not the slave without remedy
against the cruel master,
and what analogy can it hold with reason
that the slave,
that is but his master's money,
and but part of his household stuff,
should find redress
against the injuries and insolences of an imperious master,
and a free people,
who have no superior but their God,
should have none at all 
against the injustice and oppression of a barbarous tyrant?

And were not the incongruity full as great,
that the law of God permitting every man to kill a thief
if he took him breaking open his house in the night,
because then it might be supposed
he could not bring him to justice, 
but a tyrant that is the common robber of mankind,
and on whom no law can take hold on,
his person should be

Sacrosanct,
cui nihil sacrum aut sanctum,

to whom nothing is sacred,
nothing inviolable!

But the vulgar judge ridiculously,
like themselves;
the glister of things dazzles their eyes,
and they judge of them by their appearances,
and the colours that are put on them.
For what can be more absurd in nature,
and contrary to all common sense,
than to call him thief,
and kill him, 
that comes alone or with a few to rob me,
and to call him Lord Protector and obey him
that robs me with regiments and troops?
As if to rove with two or three ships were to be a pirate,
but with fifty an admiral?

But if it be the number of adherents only,
not the cause,
that makes the difference
between a robber and a protector,
I wish that number were defined,
that we might know where the thief ends,
and the prince begins,
and be able to distinguish between
a robbery and a tax.

But sure,
no Englishman can be so ignorant
that it is his birthright
to be master of his own estate,
and that none can command any part of it
but by his own grant and consent,
either made expressly by himself,
or virtually by a Parliament.
All other ways are mere robberies
in other names, 

Auferre, trucidare, rapere,
falsis nominibus imperium, 
atque ubi solitudinem faciunt,
pacem appellant.

To rob, to extort, to murder
tyrants falsely call'd to govern,
and to make desolation,
they call to settle peace.

In every assessment we are robb'd;
the excise is robbery,
the customs robbery,
and without doubt,
whenever 'tis prudent,
'tis always lawful to kill the thieves
whom we can bring to no other justice,
and not only lawful,
and to do ourselves right,
but glorious,
and to deserve of mankind,
to free the world of that common robber,
that universal pirate
under whom and for whom
the lesser beasts prey.

This firebrand
I would have any way extingish'd,
this ulcer
I would have any hand to lance,
and I cannot doubt
but God will suddenly sanctify some hand to do it,
and bring down that bloody and deceitful man
who lives not only to the misery
but the infamy of our nation. 

I should have reason
to be much less confident
of the justice of this opinion,
if it were new,
and only grounded upon
collections and interpretations
of my own.

But herein,
if I am deceived,
I shall however have the excuse
to have been drawn into that error
by the examples
that are left us 
by the greatest and most virtuous,
and the opinions
of the wisest and gravest men,
that have left their memories to posterity.

Out of the great plenty of confirmations
I could bring for this opinion
from examples and authorities,
I shall select a very few,
for manifest truths 
have not need of those supports,
and I have as little mind
to tire myself as my Reader.

FIRST THERFORE, 
a usurper,
that by only force possesses himself of government,
and by force only keeps it,
is yet in the state of war with every man,
says the learned Grotius.

And therefore everything is lawful against him
that is lawful against an open enemy,
when every private man has a right to kill.

Hostis hostem occidere volui,

says Scavola to Porsena
when he was taken,
after he had failed in his attempt to kill him:
I am an enemy,
and an enemy I would have killed,
which every man has a right to do.

Contra publicos hostes,
et majestatis reos,
omnis homo miles est,

- says Tertullian -

against common enemies,
and those that are traitors to the commonwealth,
every man is a soldier.

This opinion
the most celebrated nations have approved
both by their laws and practices.

The Grecians

- as Xenophon
tell us - 

who suffered not murderers
to come into their temples,
in those very temples
they erected statues
to those that kill'd tyrants,
thinking it fit to place their deliverers
amongst their Gods.

Cicero 
was an eyewitness
of the honours 
that were done such men,

Græci homines, &c.

The Greeks

- says he -

attribute the honours of the Gods
to those that killed tyrants.
What have I seen in Athens
and other cities of Greece!
what religion paid to such men!
what songs!
what eulogies!
by which they are consecrated to immortality,
and almost deified!

In Athens,
by Solon's law,
death was not only decreed for the tyrant
that oppress'd the state,
but for all those that took any charge,
or did bear any office
while the tyranny remained.

And Plato tells us
the ordinary course
they took with tyrants in Greece:
If

- says he -

the tyrant cannot be expuls'd
by accusing him to the citizens,
then by secret practices they dispatch him.

Amongst the Romans,
the Valerian Law was

Si quis injussu populi, &c.

Whosoever took magistracy upon him
without the command of the people,
it was lawful for any man to kill him.

Plutarch makes this law more severe,

Ut injudicatum occidere eum licet,
qui dominatum concupisceret.

That it was lawful
by that law
before any judgement past
to kill him that but aspired to tyranny.

Likewise the Consular Law, 
which was made after the suppression of
the tyranny of the Decemvirate,
made it lawful to kill any man
that went about to create magistrates

sine provocatione, &c.

without reference and appeal
to the people. 

By these laws,
and innumerable testimonies of authors,
it appears that the Romans,
with the rest of their philosophy, 
had learned from the Grecians
what was the natural remedy against a tyrant,
nor did they honour those less
than durst apply it.

Who
as Polybius says

- speaking of conspiracies
against tyrants -

were not

deterrimi civium,
sed generosissimi quique,
et maximi animi,

not the worst and meanest of the citizens,
but the most generous,
and those of greatest virtue.

So were most of those
that conspired against Julius Cæsar.
He himself thought Brutus worthy
to succeed him in the Empire of the World.

And Cicero,
who had the title of Pater Patriæ,
if he were not conscious of the design,
yet he at least affected the honour of being thought so,

Quæ enim res unquam, &c.

what act

- says he - 

O Jupiter, more glorious!
more worthy of eternal memory,
has been done not only in this city,
but in the whole world!

In this design,
as the Trojan Horse,
I willingly suffer myself 
to be included with the princes.

In the same place
he tells us 
what all virtuous Romans
thought of the fact as well as he,

Ones boni, 
quantum in ipsis fuit,
Cæsarem occiderunt,
aliis consilium,
aliis animus,
aliis occasio defuit,
voluntas nemini.

All good men

- says he - 

as much as lay in them,
killed Cæsar,
some wanted capacity,
some courage, 
others opportunity,
but none the will to do it.

But yet we have not declared
the extent of their severity against a tyrant.
They exposed him as a fraud,
as well as force,
and left him no security
in oaths and compacts,
that neither law nor religion
might defend him that violated both.

Cum tyranno Romanis nulla fides,
nulla jurisjurandi religio,

says Brutus in Appian,
with a tyrant
the Romans think no faith to be kept,
observe no religion of an oath.

Seneca gives the reason,

Quia quicquid erat,
quo mihi cohæreret, &c.

for whatever there was
of mutual obligation betwixt us,
his destroying the laws of human society
has dissolved.

So these that thought
that there was 

in hostam nefas,

that a villainy might be committed 
against an enemy.

These that professed,

Non minus juste quam fortier arma genere,

to manage their arms
with justice as well as courage.

These that thought
faith was to be kept even with the perfidious, 
yet they thought a tyrant could receive no injustice,
but to be let live,
and that the most lawful way to destroy him
was the readiest,
no matter whether by force or fraud,
for against beasts of prey,
men use the toil and the net,
as well as the spear and the lance.

But so great was their detestation of a tyrant,
that it made some take their opinions from their passions,
and vent things which they could but ill justify to their morality.
They thought a tyrant 
had so absolutely forfeited all title to humanity,
and all kind of protection they could give him or his,
that they left his wife without any other guard
for her chastity but age and deformity,
and thought it not adultery
what was committed with her.

Many more testimonies might I bring,
for 'tis harder to make choice
than to find plenty.
But I shall conclude with authorities
that are much more authentick,
and examples we may much more safely imitate.

THE LAW of God itself
decreed certain death to that man
that would do presumptuously,
and submit to no decision of justice.

Who can read this,
and think a tyrant ought to live?

But certainly,
neither that nor any other law were in any effect,
if there were no way to put it in execution. 
But in a tyrant's case,
process and citation have no place,
and if we will only have formal remedies against him,
we are sure to have none. 

There's small hopes of justice
where the malefactor has a power
to condemn the judge. 

All remedy, therefore, against a tyrant
is Ehud's dagger,
without which all our laws were fruitless,
and we helpless.
This is the High Court of Justice
where Moses brought the Egyptian,
whither Ehud brought Eglon,
Samson the Philistines,
Samuel Agag,
and Jehoiada the she-tyrant Athaliah.

Let us a little consider in particular
these several examples, 
and see
whether they may be proportioned to our purpose.

FIRST, 
as to the case of Moses and the Egyptian.

Certainly, 
every Englishman has as much call as Moses,
and more cause than he to stay this Egyptian
that is always laying on burdens,
and always smiting both our brethren and ourselves,
for as to his call,
he had no other that we read of, 
but the necessity his brotherhood stood in of his help.

He looked on his brethren's burdens,
and seeing an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew,
knowing he was out of reach of all other kind of justice,
he slew him.

Certainly, 
this was and is as lawful for any man to do
as it was for Moses,
who was then but a private man, 
and had no authority for what he did,
but what the Law of Nature gives every man,
to oppose force to force,
and to make justice where he finds none.

As to the cause of that action,
we have much more to say than Moses had.
He saw one Hebrew smitten,
we many Englishmen murder'd;
he saw his brethren's burdens and their blows,
we our brethren's burdens, imprisonments and deaths.

Now, 
sure if it were lawful for Moses to kill that Egyptian
that oppress'd one man,
being there was no way to procure
an ordinary course of justice against him,
it cannot be but absurd to think it unlawful
to kill him that oppresses a whole nation,
and one that justice as little reaches as it defends.

THE EXAMPLE of Ehud shows us the natural,
and almost the only,
remedy against a tyrant,
and the way to free an oppress'd people
from the slavery of an insulting Moabite.

'Tis done by prayers and tears,
with the help of a dagger,
by crying to the Lord,
and the left hand of an Ehud. 

Devotion and action
go well together,
for believe it,
a tyrant is not of that kind of Devil
that is to be cast out by only fasting and prayer,
and here the Scripture shows us 
what the Lord thought a fit message
to send a tyrant from himself:
a dagger of a cubit in his belly,
and every worthy man that desires to be an Ehud, 
a deliverer of his country,
will strive to be the messenger.

We may here likewise observe in this
and many places of Judges
that when the Israelites fell to idolatry,
which of all sins certainly is one of the greatest, 
God Almighty,
to proportion the punishment and the offence,
still delivered them into the hands of tyrants,
which sure is one of the greatest of all plagues.

IN THE story of Samson,
'tis manifest 
that the denying him his wife,
and after the burning her and her father,
which though they were great,
yet were but private injuries,
he took for sufficient grounds
to make war upon the Philistines,
being himself but a private man,
and not only not assisted,
but opposed by his servile countrymen.
He knew what the Law of Nature allowed him,
where other laws have no place,
and thought it a sufficient justification
for smiting the Philistines hip and thigh
to answer for himself,
that as they did unto him
so had he done unto them.

Now,
that which was for Samson to do
against many oppressors,
why is it unlawful for us
to do against one?
Are our injuries less?
Our friends and relations
are daily murder'd before our faces,
have we other ways for reparation?
Let them be named 
and I am silenc'd.

But if we have none,
the firebrands 
or the jawbone,
the first weapons our just fury
can lay hold on,
may certainly be lawfully employed 
against that uncircumcised Philistine
that oppresses us.

We have too
the oppositions
and discouragements
that Samson had,
and therefore have the more need
of his courage and resolution.

As he had the men of Judah,
so we have the men of Levi
crying to us from the pulpit
as from the top of the rock Etam,

Know you not
that the Philistine
is a ruler over you?

The truth is,
they would fain make him so,
and bind us with Samson in new cords,
but we hope they will become as flax,
and that they will either loose from our hands,
or we shall have the courage to cut them.

UPON the same grounds of retaliation
did Samuel do justice with his own hand
upon the tyrant Agag.

As thy sword

- says the Prophet - 

hath made women childless,
so shall they mother be childless
among women.

Nor is there any law more natural
and more just.

How many mothers has our Agag,
for his own ambition,
made childless?
How many children fatherless?
How many have this reason
to hew this Amalekite in pieces
before the Lord?

And let his own relations,
and all theirs
that are confederates with him,
beware lest men come at last
to revenge their own relations on them.

They make many a woman husbandless,
and many a father childless;
their wives may come at last to know
what 'tis to want a husband,
and themselves to lose their children.

Let them remember 
what their great apostle Machiavel tells them,
that in contestations 
for the preserving of their liberty,
people many times use moderation,
but when they come to vindicate it, 
their rigor exceeds all mean;
like beasts that have been kept up,
and are afterwards let loose,
they always are more fierce and cruel.

TO CONCLUDE
with the example Jebiada
is left us,

Six years
he hid the right heir of the crown
in the house of the Lord,
and without all doubt
amongst the rest of God's services,
there he was all that time 
contriving the destruction of the tyrant,
that had aspired to the crown
by the destruction of those
that had the right to it.

Jehoiada had no pretence
to authorise this action,
but the equity and justice 
of the act itself.
He pretended no immediate command
from God for what he did,
nor any authority from the Sanhedrim,
and therefore any man might have done
what Jeboiada did as lawfully,
that could have done it as effectually as he.

Now,
what citation was given to Athaliah,
what appearance was she call'd to
before any court of justice?
Her fact was her trial,
she was without any expostulation
taken forth of the ranges,
and only let live till she got out of the Temple,
that holy place might not be defiled
by the blood of a tyrant,
which was fitter to be shed on a dunghill,
and so they slew her at the horsegate.

And by the King's house,
the very Whitehall 
where she had caused the blood royal to be spilt,
and which herself had so long unjustly possess'd,
there by providence did she receive her punishment,
where she had acted so great a part of her crimes.

How the people appov'd of this glorious action
of destroying a tyrant, 
this chapter tells us at the last verse:

And all the people of the land rejoiced,
and the city was quiet,
after that they had slain Athaliah with the sword.

And that it may appear they no less honoured
the authors of such actions,
than other nations did,
as in his lifetime
they obeyed Jeboiada as a king, 
so after his death,
for the good he had done in Israel,

- says the Scripture - 

they likewise buried him
amongst the kings. 

I must not conclude this story
without observing that Jeboiada commanded
that whosoever followed Athaliah
should be put to death,
letting us see what they deserve
that are confederates with tyrants,
and will side with them,
and but appear to defend them,
or allow them.

His Highness' counsel,
his junto,
and the Agas of his Janazaries,
may, if they please, take notice of this
and repent,
lest they likewise perish.
And likewise 
his Highness' chaplains and tryers,
who are to admit none into the ministry
that will preach liberty with the Gospel
may, if they think fit, observe
that with the tyrant fell
Mattan the priest of Baal.

And indeed
none but Baal's priests
will preach for tyrants,
and certainly those priests
that sacrifice to our Baal,
our idol of a magistrate,
deserve as well to be hanged 
before their pulpits,
as ever Mattan did fall
before his altars.

I SHOULD think now
I had said much more
than enough to the second question,
and should come to the third
and last I proposed in my method,
but I meet with two objections
lying in my way.

The first is
that these examples out of Scripture
are of men that were inspired of God,
and that therefore
they had that call and authority
for their actions,
which we cannot pretend to,
so that it would be unsafe for us
to draw their actions into examples,
except we had likewise 
their justifications to allege.

The other objection is
that there being now no opposition
made to the government of his Highness,
that the people following their callings
and traffick at home and abroad,
making use of the laws
and appealing to his Highness' courts of justicce.

That all this argues
the people's tacit consent to the government,
and that therefore now 'tis to be reputed lawful,
and the people's obedience voluntary.

To the first I answer with learned Milton,
that if God commanded these things,
'tis a sign they were lawful,
and are commendable.

But secondly,
as I observed in the relations
of the examples themselves.
Neither Samson nor Samuel
alleged any other cause or reason
for what they did,
but retaliation
and the apparent justice
of the actions themselves.

Nor had God appeared 
to Moses in the Bush
when he slew the Egyptian,
nor did Jeboiada allege
any prophetical authority
or other call 
to do what he did,
but that common call 
which all men have
to do all actions of justice
that are within their power,
when the ordinary course of justice ceases.

To the second
my answer is 
that if commerce and pleadings
were enough to argue the people's consent,
and give tyranny the name of government,
there was never yet any tyranny 
of many weeks standing in this world.

Certainly, 
we then extremely wrong
Caligula and Nero
in calling them tyrants,
and they were rebels
that conspired against them,
except we will believe
that all the while they reigned
that in Rome they kept their shops shut,
and opened not their temples
or their courts.

We are likewise
with no less absurdity to imagine
that the whole eighteen years' time
which Israel served Eglon,
and six years that Athaliah reigned,
that the Israelites quire desisted from traffick,
pleadings and all publick acts,
otherwise Ehud and Jeboiada
were both traitors,
the one for killing his king,
the other his queen.

Third Question

Having shown what a tyrant is,
his marks and practices,
I can scarce persuade myself to say anything
to that I made my third question,
whether the removing him
is like to prove of advantage
to the Commonwealth or not?

For methinks
'tis to enquire
whether 'tis better the man die
or the impostume be lanc'd,
or the ganreen'd limb be cut off?

But yet there be some
whose cowardice and avarice
furnish them with some arguments
to the contrary,
and they would fain make
the world believe,
and what is in truth a servile fear,
they falsely call a Christian patience.

it will not therefore amiss
to make appear that there is indeed
that necessity which we think there is,
of saving the vinyard of the Commonwealth,
if possible, 
by destroying the wild boar
that is broke into it.

We have already showed
that it is lawful,
and now we shall see
whether it is expedient.

FIRST, 
I have already told you
that to be under a tyrant
is not to be a commonwealth,
but a great family
consisting of master and slaves.

Vir bonæ,
servorum nulla est unquam civitas,

says an old poet,
a number of slaves make not a city.

So that whilst this monster lives,
we are not members of the Commonwealth,
but only his living tools and instruments,
which he may employ to what use he pleases.

Servi tua est fortuna,
ratio ad te nihil,

says another,
thy condition is a slave's,
thou art not to enquire a reason.
Nor must we think we can continue long
in the condition of slaves,
and not degenerate into the habit and temper
that is natural to that condition.
Our minds will grow low
with our fortune,
and by being accustomed to live like slaves,
we shall become unfit to be anything else.

Etiam fera animalia
si clausa teneas
virtutis obliviscuntur,

says Tacitus,
the fiercest creatures
by long constraint
lose their courage.

And says 
Sir Fr. Bacon,
the blessing of Issachar
and that of Judah
falls not upon one people,
to be asses crouching under burdens,
and to have the spirit of lions.
and with their courage
'tis no wonder
if they lose their fortune
as the effect with the cause,
and act as ignominously abroad
as they suffer at home.

'Tis Machiavel's observation
that the Roman armies
that were always victorious under Consuls,
all the while
they were under the slavery of the Decemviri
never prospered.
And certainly people have reason
to fight but faintly,
where they are to gain the victory
against themselves,
when every success
shall be a confirmation of their slavery,
and a new link to their chain.

But we shall not only lose our courage,
which is a useless and unsafe virtue under a tyrant,
but by degrees we shall,
after the example of our master,
all turn perfidious,
deceitful, irreligious, flatterers, 
and whatever else
is villainous and infamous
in mankind.

See but to what degree
we are come already.
Can any oath
be found so fortified
by all religious ties,
which we easily find not 
a distinction to break,
when either profit or danger
persuades us to it?
Do we remember
any engagements,
or if we do,
have we any shame to break them?
Can any man think
with patience upon
what we have professed,
when he sees what we wildly do,
and tamely suffer?

What have we of nobility amongst us
but the name,
the luxury,
and the vices of it?
Poor wretches,
these that now carry that title
are so far from having any of the virtues,
that should grace
and indeed give them their titles,
that they have not so much
as the generous vices
that attend greatness,
they have lost all ambition and indignation.

As for our ministers,
what have they,
or indeed desire they,
of their calling,
but the tithes?

How do these horrid prevaricators
search for distinctions to piece contrary oaths?

How do they rake Scriptures for flatteries,
and impudently apply them to his monstrous Highness?

What is the city
but a great tame beast
that eats and carries,
and cares not who rides it?

What's the thing call'd a Parliament,
but a mock,
composed of a people
that are only suffered to sit there
because they are known to have no virtue,
after the exclusion of all others
that were but sus[ected to have any?

What are they
but pimps of tyranny,
who are only employed 
to draw in the people
to prostitute their liberty?

What will not the Army fight for?
What will they not fight against?
What are they but Janizaries,
slaves themselves,
and making all others so?

What are the people in general
but knaves, fools and cowards,
principled for ease, vice and slavery?

This is our temper
this tyranny has brought us to already,
and if it continues,
the little virtue that is yet left to stock the nation
must totallu extinguish,
and then his Highness has completed
his work of reformation.

And the truth is,
till then his Highness cannot be secure.

He must not endure virtue,
for that will not endure him.

He that will maintain tyranny
must kill Brutus,
says Machiavel.

A tyrant,
says Plato,
must dispatch all virtuous persons,
or he cannot be safe,
so that he is brought to that unhappy necessity
either to live amongst base and wicked persons,
or not to live at all.

Nor must we expect any cure from our patience.

Inxanno si gli huomini,

- says Machiavel - 

credendo con la humilit a vincere la superbia.

Men deceive themselves,
that think to mollify arrogancy with humility.
A tyrant is never modest but when he is weak,
'tis in the winter of his fortune
when this serpent bites not.
We must not therefore suffer ourselves
to be cozened with hopes of his amendment,
for

Nemo unquam Imperium flagitio
quæsitum bonis artibus exercuit.

Never did any man manage the government with justice
that got it by villainy.

The longer the tyrant lives,
the more the tyrannical humour increases in him,

- says Plato - 

like those beasts 
that grow more curs'd as they grow old..

New occasions daily happen
that necessitate them to new mischiefs,
and he must defend one villainy
with another. 

But suppose the contrary of all this,
that his Highness were

vi dominationis convulsus,
et mutatus,

changed to the better by great fortune

- of which
he gives no symptoms -

what notwithstanding
could be more miserable
than to have no other security for our liberty,
no other law for our society,
than the will of a man,
though the most just living?

We have all
our beast within us,
and whatsoever

- says Aristotle - 

is governed by a man without a law,
is governed by a man and by a beast.

Etiam si non sit molestus dominus,
tamen est miserrimum possesi velit, 

- says Tully - 

though a master does not tyrannize,
yet 'tis a most miserable thing
that 'tis in his power to do so
if he will.

If he be good,
so was Nero for five years,
and how shall we be secure 
that he will not change?

Besides,
the power that is allowed 
to a good man
we may be sure
will be claimed and taken by an ill,
and therefore
it has been the custom of good princes
to abridge their own power.
It may be distrusting themselves,
but certainly fearing their successors
to the chance of who's being virtuous,
they would not hazard the welfare of their people.

An unlimited power,
therefore,
is to be trusted to none,
which if it does not find a tyrant,
commonly makes one,
or if one uses it modestly,
'tis no argument 
that others will.

And therefore
Augustus Cæsar
must have no greater power
given him
than you would have
Tiberius take.

And Cicero's moderation
is to be trusted with a consideration
that there are others to be Consuls
as well as he.

But before I press this business farther,
if it needs be any farther press'd
that we should endeavour to rescue
the honour, the virtue and liberty of our nation,
I shall answer to some few objecrions
that have occurred to me.
This I shall do very briefly.

SOME I find of a strange opinion,
that it were a generous and a noble action
to kill his Highness in the field,
but to do it privately,
they think it unlawful,
but know not why,
as if it were not generous
to apprehend a thief
till his sword were drawn
and he in a posture
to defend himself
and kill me.

But these people do not consider
that whosoever is possessed of power anytime
will be sure to engage so many
either in guilt or profit
or both
that to go about to throw him out
by open force
will very much hazard
the total ruin of the Commonwealth.

A tyrant is a devil
that tears the body 
in the exorcising,
and they are all of Caligula's temper,
that if they could,
they would have the whole frame of nature
fall with them. 

'Tis an opinion
that deserves no other refutation
than the manifest absurdity of itself,
that it should be lawful for me to destroy a tyrant
with hazard, blood and confusion,
but not without. 

ANOTHER opinion,
and more common,
is the fear of what may succeed
if his Highness were removed,

One would think the world
were bewitched.

I am fallen into a ditch,
where I shall certainly perish if I lie,
but I refuse to be helped out
for fear of falling into another.

I suffer a certain misery
for fear of a contingent one,
and let the disease kill me,
because their is hazard in the cure.

Is not this that ridiculous policy,

Ne moriare, mori,

to die for fear of dying?
Sure, 'tis frenzy not to desire a change,
when we are sure we cannot be worse,

Et non incurrere in pericula,
ubi quies centi paria metuuntur,

and not then to hazard
when the danger and the mischiefs
are the same in kying still.

HITHERTO,
I have spoken in general to all Englishmen;
now, I address my discourse
particularly to those 
that certainly best deserve that name,
ourselves that have fought,
however unfortunately,
for our liberties under this tyrant,
and in the end,
cozened by his oaths and tears,
have purchased nothing but our slavery
with the price of our blood.

To us particularly,
it belongs to bring this monster to justice,
whom he has made the instruments of his villainy,
and sharers in the curse and detestation
that is due to himself from all good men.

Others only have their liberty to vindicate,
we our liberty and our honour.

We engaged to the people with him,
and to the people for him,
and from our hands 
they may justly expect
a satisfaction of punishment,
being they cannot have that of performance.

What the people at present endure,
and posterity shall suffer,
will be all laid at our doors,
for only we,
under God, 
have the power to pull down this Dagon
which we have set up, 
and if we do it not, 
all mankind will repute us 
approvers of all the villainies
he has done,
and authors of all to come.

Shall we,
that would not endure a king attempting tyranny,
shall we suffer a profess'd tyrant?
We that resisted the lion assailing us,
shall we submit to the wolf tearing us?

If there be no remedy to be found,
we have great reason to exclaim,

Utenam te potius

- Carole -

retinuissemus quam hunc habuissemus,
non quod ulla sit optanda servitus,
sed quod ex dignitate Domini minus turpis est
conditio servi.

We wish we had rather endured thee,

- O Charles - 

than have been condemned
to this mean tyrant,
not that we desire any kind of slavery,
but that the quality of the master
something graces the condition of the slave.

But if we consider it rightly,
what our duty,
our engagements,
and our honour exact from us,
both our safety and our interest oblige us to.
And 'tis unanswerable in us
to discretion as 'tis to virtue
to let this viper live.

For first,
he knows very well
'tis only we that have the power 
to hurt him,
and therefore of us
he will take any course
to secure himself.

He is conscious to himself
how falsely and perfidiously
he has dealt with us, 
and therefore he will always fear
that from our revenge,
which he knows he has so well deserved.

Lastly,
he knows our principles,
how directly contrary they are
to that arbitrary power
he must govern by,
and therefore he may reasonably suspect,
that we that have already 
ventured our lives against tyranny
will always have the will
when we have the opportunity
to do the same again.

These considerations will easily persuade him
to secure himself of us, 
if we prevent him not,
and secure ourselves of him.
He reads in his Practice of Piety,

Chi diviene patron, &c.

He that makes himself master of a city
that has been accustomed to liberty,
if he destroys it not, 
he must expect to be destroyed by it.

And we may read too in the same author,
and believe him,
that those that are the occasion
that one becomes powerful
always ruins them,
if they want the wit and courage
to secure themselves.

Now,
as to our interest,
we must never expect
that he will ever trust 
those that he has provoked
and fears.
He will be sure to keep us down,
lest we should pluck down him.

'Tis the rule
that tyrants observe,
when they are in power,
never to make much use of those
that helped them to it,
and indeed 'tis their interest and security
not to do it,
for those that have been
the authors of their greatness,
being conscious of their own merit,
they are bold with the tyrant,
and less industrious to please him.

They think all he can do for them
is their due,
and still they expect more,
and when they fail 
in their expectations

- as 'tis impossible
to satisfy them - 

their disappointments
make them discontented,
and their discontents dangerous.

Therefore,
all tyrants follow 
the example of Dionysius,
who was said to use his friends
as he did his bottles.

When he had use for them,
he kept them by him;
when he had none, 
that they should not trouble him
and lie in his way,
he hung them up.

BUT TO conclude
this already over-long paper,
let every man to whom God
has given the spirit of wisdom and courage
be persuaded by his honour,
his safety,
his own good and his country's,
and indeed the duty he owes
to his generation and to mankind
to endeavour by all rational means
to free the world of this pest.

Let not other nations
have the occasion to think
so meanly of us,
as if we resolved to sit still
and have our ears bored,
or that any discouragements
or disappointments
can ever make us desist
from attempting our liberty,
till we have purchased it, 
either by this monster's death,
or by our own.

Our nation
is not yet so barren of virtue
that we want noble examples
to follow amongst ourselves.
The brave Sindercombe has showed
as great a mind as any old Rome
could boast of, 
and had he lived there,
his name had been register'd
with Brutus and Cato,
and he had his statues as well as they.

But I will not have 
so sinister an opinion of ourselves

- as little generosity
as slavery has left us -

as to think so great a virtue
can want its monuments
even amongst us.

Certainly,
in every virtuous mind,
there are statues rear'd to Sindercombe.

Whenever we read the eulogies of those
that have died for their country,
when we admire 
those great examples magnanimity,
that have tired tyrant's cruelties,
when we extol their constancy,
whom neither bribe 
nor terrors could make betray their friends,
'tis then we erect Sindercombe statues,
and grave him monuments,
where all that can be said 
of a great and noble mind,
we justly make an epitaph for him.

And though the tyrant
caused him to be smothered,
lest the people should hinder 
an open murder,
yet he will never be able 
either to smother his memory,
or his own villainy.

His poison
was but a poor and common device
to impose only on those 
that understood not tyrants' practices,
and are unacquainted

- if any be -

with his cruelties and falsehoods.

He may therefore,
if he please, 
take away the stake from Sindercombe's grave,
and if he have a mind
it should be known how he died,
let him send thither the pillows and feather-beds
with which Barkstead and his hangman smothered him.

BUT to conclude,
let not this monster think himself
the more secure
that he has suppress'd one great spirit,
he may be confident that

Longus post illum sequitur
ordo idem petentium decus.

There is a great roll behind,
even of those 
that are in his own muster-rolls,
and are ambitions of the name
of the deliverers of their country,
and they know what the action is
that will purchase it. 

His bed, his table,
is not secure,
and he stands in need of other guards
to defend him against his own.

Death and destruction
pursues him
wherever he goes, 
they follow him everywhere,
like his fellow-travellers,
and at last they will come upon him
like armed men.

Darkness is hid
in his secret places,
a fire not blown shall consume him,
it shall go ill with him
that is left in his tabernacle.

He shall flee
from the iron weapon,
and a bow of steel
shall strike him through.

Because he has oppressed,
and forsaken the poor,
because he has violently 
taken away a house
which he builded not.

We may be confident,
and so may he,
ere long all this will be accomplish'd,
for the triumphing of the wicked
is but short,
and the joy of the hypocrite
but for a moment.

Though his Excellency
mount up to the Heavens,
and his head reaches unto the clouds,
yet he shall perish forever
like his own dung.

They that have seen him
shall say,

Where is he?

POSTSCRIPT.

Courteous Reader,

Expect another sheet or two of paper on this subject, if I escape the tyrant's hands, althoug he gets - in the interim - the crown upon his head, which he has - underhand - put his confederates on to petition his acceptance thereof. 

FINIS.