Corporations Vindicated

TO The Right Honorable, The Parliament of the Commonwealth of ENGLAND.

THat after such a harsh rejection of my former Book by some of that Committee to which it was once dedicated; I should adventure upon a new Dedication of both this unfortunate Essay, and its Vindication to your Honorable Patronage, will by all that consider the common carriage of human affairs, be deemed an act of a Philosophical folly, a childish presumption of an unb • llanc'd integrity, not to be found in any Judicature within our subsolars sphere of Vanity, yet hoped for by me in that tribunal, where not only my adversaries themselves, but many more upon several principles obliged (as is supposed) to uphold their repute must sit as Judges.

But having in my whole mangement of this controversy as in all my actings hitherto bottomed myself upon a better persuasion; I cannot by any particular misadventure of mine, occasioned by a small handful, not considerable to your whole body, suffer myself to be shaken in this my belief, that the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England will do impartial Justice.

Besides, to the utmost of that foolhardiness objected, I am not without the Apology of good Precedents; the one of the Apostle. Paul, appealing from the semipharis'd Judgment seat of Caesars D • puty, to Caesar himself; the other of three ancienter Appellants, one of which appealed from the Judge • leeping, to himself wakeing; another from his left ear to his right; the third from the partial censure of one ear to a fuller hearing of both.

And hence it is, that like the Pilot of a well timber'd ship, fearing no storms at open sea, but only the danger of wrack, upon a hostile or unhospitable shore; I have thought it no ill wisdom to set my Cause a floating in the grand Ocean of your more public and supreme cognizance.

In which, though I might justly promise myself all the allowance of favor Impartial Justice can condescend to, having from the very first breaking forth of these civil discords, to this very hour, willingly adventured my whole fortune to sink or swim in the sole and single bottom of the Justice of our Parliamentary Cause; but that person and interest I have stood up to oppose, appearing for the Commonwealth, upon a mere Ecclesiastic score; and that failing, now own your fortune rather then you, as St. Christopher is said to have done Christ, upon the only principle of strength on which they stand vertible like a Weathercock, to face about with every wind of success, and may, if the Scots Caesar prevail, allege that they did but in bending like reeds for a while reserve themselves unbroken for his better fortune: All this notwithstanding, I profess openly with him, whose pattern I follow in this my Appeal, that if in the management of your own principles in this very Controversy, I have transgresit any Law, Divine or Human, or but the rules of common morality, I shall not repine to suffer such proportion of penalty as the Law hath designed for my offense, or your Justice shall think me worthy of: But if I appear no ways a Transgressor, I ought not to lie under the feet of an Arbitrary censure, nor be remanded back to Jerusalem (where my adversaries are so prevalent) to be judged of these matters.

I have appealed to the Parliament.

The Printing of a Committees, or any Courts proceedings without their Licence, which is, I hear, the main thing objected against me, is, as far as I know, a thing neither forbidden by the rule of common Justice, nor any known Law of this Nation; by the plain and evident transgression whereof, and not by doubtful inferences a man is to be judged an offender; and when proved to be such, yet is not that man thereby made obnoxious to whatsoever penalty the Judge shall please to inflict, but to that only penalty allotted by the Law to such particular transgression; and whatsoever Judge deviates from this rule, makes himself in that deviation the highest transgressor.

This is one of the main Characteristicks of a free people, that they are governed by Laws, not the Wills of men; and 'tis a principle no less dangerous to the Parliament itself, and every member of that body, then destructive to public Liberty, to assert the Supremacy even of that supreme Authority, as Paramount to the standing Laws of the Nation; so as to place in them a power of Judicature Independent of any Law, but that of their own wills. For how suddenly even in a moment may not only private men, but many, even of the best members of that Society be surprised by a sudden vote of a major part in the House to a devesting them, not only of their public trusts, but their other legal privileges and possessions? which sadly laid to heart, should, methinks, make an unlimited power in that body, not much less formidable to the members themselves, then any other particular man of the Nation.

I deny not the Legislative power to be an inherent privilege of that Supreme Authority; but the legislative, and the legis-violative: that of making or changing, and that of breaking of Laws, are distinct powers; the first is in the Parliament; the last, I conceive, in no mortal man, or lawful combination of men whatsoever.

'It is, not I hope, obliterated out of our memories, what a numerous generation, of both legal and Evangelical Parasites this Nation once swarm'd with, who that they might be the larger sharers with him whose power they magnified, were not ashamed to extol the Regal Prerogative, to an equality, almost with that of the Supreme Lord of heaven and earth, Preaching and proclaiming everywhere, That the King could do no wrong, that he was above the Laws, an absolute Master of every man's estate and life; that we must be unmurmuringly subject to every beck of his Will; and that to disobey was damnation. And these you know were they that proved the late Kings most dangerous and deadly enemies; 'twas his not disclaiming, but rather owning these Prerogatives raised up that spirit of jealousy which alarm'd the people to make war against him, and dethrone him: And surely such are they, even the most inveterate enemies to the subsistence of this Common-wealth, and its Parliamentary Government, who preach up an absolute unlimited subjection to these Higher Powers, magnifying their power and privileges into a bottomless and boundless Ocean, which can at its own pleasure overflow that Life, Liberty, and property of every particular man of this Nation, which it was ordained to preserve. These make the State, as they call it, Heir apparent to all the Kings either Revenues or Prerogatives usurpit out of the people's Rights, as the King upon his Renouncement of the Popes supremacy made himself of all the Papal usurpations. But surely 'twill not be to the Parliaments either Honor or Safety, to own the revival of those dead & rotten Doctrines, the prop and ruin of our former government.

But if besides this every Committee of Parliament shall assume to itself the like unbounded dominion, then is the danger increased an hundredfold, and there will then want nothing whereon to bottom a perfect jealousy, but every single Parliament man's arrogating to himself the like incontroulable supremacy; which will follow in the end, if wisdom give not a timely stop to the first beginning of exorbitancy.

These incommunciable attributes of the worlds supreme governor, absoluteness and omnipotency when arrogated to themselves by temporal Princes in their Spheres, have always proved like that fire Prometheus stole from Heaven; a corrosive to eat out their own bowels: And whosoever allured with the beauty of those spoils of the fallen Jericho, shall save them from that fire they were devoted to, to embezel them into their own treasuries, will with that Achan, the troubler of Israel, bring in the end a swift destruction upon own their heads.

For such an unwieldy power, besides that it does commonly in a small time grow so insupportable, as to enforce the enraged Multitude by desperation, into conspiracles and attempts for their liberty (of which, History, both Ancient and Modern furnishes us with remarkable Presidents) when it comes to have no extern force to contest with, will inevitably fall foul upon itself, and prove like those Josephus tells of, who having shut themselves up into a Cave, drew lots who should be first killed; and so till it came to the last man, who was by Covenant to kill himself. Or like that Church which by differences and excommunications brought itself from two hundred, to a Duel of two men, and at last ended in the unity of a single person. Or lastly, like that series of the Roman Emperors, who raised to their Thrones by the sole Law of the Sword, and ruling by no other Law, had everyone of them a period put, both to their power and lives, by the same fatal destiny that enthron'd them.

These things, as a Cordial friend to your public interest, I humbly make bold to represent as an antidote against that sweet poison wherewith those trencher Chaplains, your own, and the Common-wealths deadliest enemies, would puff you up to your destruction, persuading you as the regal Sycophants did their Patron, to found your power and proceedings upon the principles not of Justice and common welfare, but only of strength & Conquest, and the people to an absolute submission by the same Tenor; whence our Parl party being looked at by the people leavened with such Doctrines only as prevailing Turks, or Popes, or Lord Danes; how sure a foundation is hereby laid in the people's minds, of joining with a prevailing Scot to set up a Kirk Presbytery in your chair, or themselves conspiring upon the first likely opportunity to cut us all off in one day, I leave to any rational man to judge; and whether these Flatterers, and those other open enemies drive not on the same pernicious interest with this only difference, that the one makes his War like a generous enemy in the face of danger, and thereby gives you warning to take heed; but the other upon pretence of a fawning compliance insinuates himself into your strength, and there out of the danger of gun-shot digs a mine, lays in gun-powder, and leaves it to some fool-hardy Faux, upon hopes of Canonization to give fire to his own, and your ruin. Therefore it much concerns you, and all involved in your interest, that these Doctrines of so pernicious consequence, whether from Press, or Pulpit, be disownd.

I speak not this as condemning in any man, especially a conquered Enemy, a submission to that power he is not able to resist, but as a redargution to their hypocrisy that under the penalty of bitter Curses, and almost damnation could conjure up the honest people to a resistance of the former Superior Powers; and yet with the same mouth, and under the same penalties call for the same people's obedience to the present powers upon that only bare title of Superiority by possession and conquest. As likewise to give caution against their too facile credulity, who, upon these crowching compliances are prone to receive in such Ambidexters as the best friends into a copartnership of power and trust in the rearing up of our new Comon-wealth fabric. I know your great wisdom stands not in need of my weak admonitions; and for me thus uncall'd to obtrude them upon you, may perhaps make me obnoxious to the just censure of presumption. But you that are no strangers to common Stories, can tell how one of the wisest Princes of old made choice of not a grave Augur, but a child, to put him in mind of his mortality. And for my own part, I should easily, from the natural bent of my private genius, have followed the dictate of the wise Cato, Ad Concilium ne accesseris antequam voceris. But being now enforcit to fly unto you for refuge; and thereupon to say something, My resolution is, by such freedom of speech as becomes your oppressed friend, not by the fordid and servile courtship of a fawning flatterer to merit your favor and protection.

And surely, if (which I must not doubt of) you be men of that gallantry of Spirit proportionable to the greatness of your Power, and of the same mind and spirit with him whose Vicegerents you should be on earth, an amicable expostulation of known friends with you, about your Principles, and the Justice of your proceedings, will be no ways displeasing. Abraham did this with God himself, so far as to charge him with injustice, should he have done that which his first proposition of bringing an universal destruction upon Sodom without distinction might seem to import: which God was so far from being displeased with, that he rather acknowledges his principle, even to the gradation of an almost Mathematical exactness. See likewise what a difference God makes betwixt honest Job, and his Pharisaical friends. God, as it seemed to Job, dealt out but hard measure to him, and he thereupon challenges him with it, offering to dispute his innocence; his friends labor to patch up the matter with excuses for God; he again tells them they ought not to speak unrighteously for God himself, nor to respect his person in Judgment. And what was the issue? Jobs Argument after redargution of some few passionate redundancies, is highly approved of, and their religious flatteries rejected as sinful dross, not to be expiated, but by the intercession of his free and faithful servant Job.

An excellent Story we have in Plutarch to the same effect, To a poor Philosopher living in a maritim town; it seemed once in a dream that Neptune was angry with him, because he was not daily, like his rich neighbors, loding his altars with fat sacrifices; but that himself answered the God very roundly: Why Neptune art thou angry that I do not rob and cozen, cheat, or play the Pirate to scrape up wealth, and part stakes with thee, by bringing the spoils to thy Altars? Art thou the supreme Judge and Lord at Sea, as Jupiter is in Heaven and Earth? and dost thou command me to worship thee with impiety and injustice? At which answer it seemed to him, that Neptune was extremely well pleased, so far as to promise a remarkable blessing to the whole City for his sake: And if my memory fail not, my Author says, that the event falling out accordingly, made it appear, that it was no idle Dream, but a real Vision.

As is God himself, so are divine men; not like Nabal, such churles, that they cannot be spoke to, especially by those of their own household, but easy to be treated with by those that drive on with them the same interest of common good: well knowing that all their ways will, upon the utmost trial of their seeming adverse reason, gain as gold by the fiery trial a greater refinement.

Thus confident was that noble Trajan, as he durst, for the integrity of his ways appeal to the judgemen even of his Vice-gerents, when delivering the Sword of Justice to the Pretor, he gave him this memorable charge, Take this Sword, and if I Govern well, draw it in my defense; if otherwise, let it be unsheath'd against me. A speech much applauded in the beginning of these Divisions.

God himself requires our obedience and adoration of him as the best, not the strongest of beings; and not so much in relation to his own glory, which receives small, or no additament from us earth-worms, but mainly and principally in relation to our own good, because in his service of love we are possessed of true freedom: But by putting ourselves out of his service, we fall into subjection to that one tyrant and many other his substitutes that will make us everlastingly miserable. His great controversy, with his people, falling from his worship, was, that they had forsaken him the inexhaustible fountain of living water, and dig'd to themselves cisterns, dry empty cisterns, that would hold no water; and challenges them but to give him a rational account of their secession in telling him freely what fault they had found in him.

'It is the greatest happiness of intelligent creatures to know and consider, that 'tis not a fell, sturdy Giant, with a iron Mace, or ireful fury, or Lordly self-seeking Nimrod made up of wrath, pride and covetousness; that 'tis none of these dismal Spectrums, but the Supreme, and most substantially transcendent benignity and goodnese that creates and governs the Universe; and that this Supreme Being is (as a good man adventures to assert it) so far from applauding himself in his immensity of power, or seeking his own selfness in the government of his creature, that if 'twere possible for him to find out any other Being, more wise, more just, more absolutely good, more tenderly compassionate, more lovely every way then himself, he would, were it possible, resign up his own Throne and Scepter, all his power and Supremacy to that better Being, and command all his creatures to adore and obey it.

This saying, however it may by some God-and-man flattering Pharisees be hooted at as blasphemy, I cannot but with some zeal profess that, I rank it amongst the noblest expressions that ever proceeded out of the mouth of a mere man, and such as God, I think, will own in the last day, when those Trencher-scraping superstitions that paint him out as a false hearted dissembling Hypocrite, and a self-seeking Tyrant, shall be discarded, and thrown out as dross and dung.

Nay, for such Declarations of his mind, we shall not need stay so long as the last day: for besides, that many expressions, both of Scripture-Penmen, and other excellent Writers, and large Series of Providences speak much-what to the same effect, That supertranscendent self-denial of the Son of God, in dethroning himself from the Seat of his Fathers Glory, and descending into the despicable condition of a servant, to redeem his poor creature from the captivity it gron'd under, and exalt us into his own Glory, amounts to little less then a practical example of the Theory of this Axiom, demonstrating out of what he hath done, what further he would do in the point of self-inanition in anything possible & needful that could be imagined to the welfare of his creature: showing hence plainly, that the infinite love, goodness, mercy, are indeed the proper and pure God head; and those other attributes of Omniscience, Omnipotence, and vindicative Justice, &c. are only the subservient hands to that heart of the Deity. That God is Love, is an Axiom of his own mouth by St. John the deepest of Divines; but that other received Canon of power, & all else you can attribute to God, being God himself is, but a notion of the Schools made Orthodox (as many were) by a reception into our modern Divinity.

After this instance, then which greater cannot be given, of God's being a creature-seeker, not self-seeker; that other admirable Declaration of our Savior may well be added as a second; that God is one who prefers Mercy above Sacrifice, and that in the last day he will ask, not who have plaid the best Slaves, or Courtiers in exalting his outward Power and Dominion, building him the most sumptuous Temples, forcing in the greatest multitudes vi & armis into his Sheepfold; but who have best demonstrated themselves his genuine sons, by imitating their fathers goodness in relieving the oppressed, showing mercy to the poor, and taking notice of that goodness exhibited to the meanest of his creatures as done to himself. And tis not (as Daniel expresses it) they that turn many to God as a person, but they that turn many to righteousness, that shall shine as the stars of the firmament: and our Savior tells us, That not th • y that court him with a Lord, Lord, but they that work Righteousness shall be owned by him, and makes everywhere the Kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, to walk hand in hand together.

Of this mind and spirit must you be, if you will be the lively images of that supreme Lord, in whose stead you officiate, the advancement of righteousness, should be esteemed your advancement; and your own and the people's interest should not be two but one flesh; and none accounted your friends, that are not really such to the public Interest of Justice, and the Commonwealth.

Such as these must be the arguments that honest Patriots must make use of, like that harp of Orpheus to charm the most vagrant and untamed spirits of this Nation into a complacence in our present Magistacie, and free acquiescence in our true Commonwealth establishments; and 'tis of the greatest tendency to your own and the public interest, that you labor to furnish your friends that own your quarrel, with good undeniable grounds for this persuasion that the desire of your hearts, and sole bent of all your proceedings, is the people's freedom and welfare, not your own dominion; and to take away all objections to the contrary, not by mere verbal Declarations or Vindicative censures upon those that object them; but by such real and actual confutations as may make those ashamed that speak evil of you; and thus to stop the mouths of all Gaine-sayers, and turn even Balaam's curse into a blessing.

One thing more, seeing I am now in a Prophetick posture, I desire likewise to put you in mind of; viz. That you beware of that bane of all, both true Christianity and Honesty; that thing called Reason of State, which our Itallanated Infidels have always much hug'd themselves in, and would never believe 'twould be their ruin till 'twas too late; 'It is by some nicknam'd Discretion, Prudence, or Christian Policy, and wisdom of the Serpent: but by others, and those no fools, ' • is christened, a Doing, or Suffering of Evil, that a good (often but pretended) may come of it.

Your Friend Politicus, Numb. 60. Pag. 959. hath in a nameless Letter from Leyden, limnd out to you its lively portraiture: which ingenious description, lest it should grow out of date among other news tis crowded in with, I have thought it not amiss to translate it hither, as into a proper Sphere.

Thus far your own Weekly Remembrancer.

But in opposition to this sandy foundation of State Policy, I humbly set before you another, and more firm rock to build upon, viz. A simple reliance upon God in the vigorous and present acting of all righteousness, expresit by honest men in some plain language, to this effect; Fiat justitia, fractus illabatur orbis; Deal uprightly, walk close and real to your promises, and principles, though heaven and earths fabric fall upon your heads; the God of heaven is able to support you; and he that has done so strange things for us, expects of us, at least so much faith in him as will counterpoise a grain of Mustardseed.

Besides, in following singly the principle of righteousness, you gain this great advantage, that you can go on boldly, with a mind free from that torturing solicitude of successes; you either prosper to the great good and welfare of this Nation, or die with honor and triumph: But if you follow the other principle of human invention, you may live a while as God's, but shall die like men, and perish like one of the Princes.

You have set before you fire and water, light and darkness; 'tis in your choice, which you will stretch forth your hand to. But

One of these two principles must be singly and sincerely followed; you cannot serve God and Mammon.

This I know will by some be startled at as the language of the beast; that formidable beast called the Leveller, so much dreaded and hated by all that drive on an interest eccentrick, and contrary to that of the public. And because the Doctor my adversary hath, as I hear, in his clandestine whispers, endeavor'd to render me odious with some under that style, thinking by that means to block up my just Petition from finding a propitious reception amongst you: I will so far second his design (if that will do it) as to render myself yet more vile and odious in an open and unreserv'd Declaration of my principle.

'It is this in one word,

I am a Servant of the Respublica, not Curia, Romana, a votary to a true Commonwealth, not a Decemvirate.

In English thus.

I am not, I do both now and have always profesit openly, for the change of our former limited, and mixed Monarchy, into the absolute Oligarchie of a Hogen Mogen. Nor am I (though I own the necessity of the first purge) for a new succession of Military purges. I am in this a little inclinable to their Superstition, who refuse cure by the Sword salve, because there being a mystery of Nature in it, which they understand not, they fear it may prove the Devil in a box of pretended Balsam. 'Its true, those humors that are corrupt and clogs to the good reformation, being thus evacuated, the remaining body may go on with a more sprightly activity; and they that call or think themselves the only religious, or honest men, are then in a free capacity to work wonders; but tis more probable that being mortal and corruptible as well as others, they will drink themselves drunk of that Cup of fornications, an unlimited power, whence corrupted in their Understandings and Wills, they will grow careless of justice and common good, and fall into the same discompos'd motions with those they cast out.

'It is not such shadows of a free Commonwealth, are the object of my hopes or desires; but the true substance, a right Republical Government of the Nation by its own Representatives, or National meetings in Council from time to time, chosen and entrusted for that purpose by the people.

And those that are scandalized at my public holding forth of this profession, would, if they durst, call our faithful and valiant Soldiery, the grand crew of Levellers;

And after that having made a comparison of those two ways, viz. of continuing or purging of the old Parliament, or dissolution of that, and entire election of a new.

They at last botton upon this Heroical Conclusion.

These are a few Apothegmes out of that admirable Declaration, with which at 'its first coming out, I was, as some know, so far transported, as I could scatce contain myself from singing it as a heavenly Ditty in every Congregation, where I had occasion to speak of Commonwealth affairs; And as the convert Jew said of Isa. 53. Millies & millies legendo factus sum Christianus; so may I say of some Parliament and Army Declaration, and of this above all the rest, that by their frequent and serious perusal, I was exalted above the vulgar sphere of a bare and simple Antiroyalism, and was made that which first the politick King and some of his party, (and after them all the Knaves or Fools of England, Scotland, and Ireland ) have nicknam'd a Leveller. But to proceed.

The same principles they fully own likewise in their Agreement of the people. Nor need I send you so far as the Army, now at many miles distance, to find out the owners of this principle, This present Parliament itself, having abundantly declared for the same, viz.

As for any other Levelling, I am far from owning it; for though I think were we a generation of men new sprung out of the earth, and now to be put into what frame we please, many things might be much better ordered; nay, and as things stand at present, that some few changes might be made to the great ennobling of the spirits of this Nation, and better provision for the comfortable subsistence of many lying under the oppression of a sad poverty, without the least impairment to any man's rightful possession; yet 'tis not my opinion, that upon pretence of new Models, and advancements of common good, any man that hath not by some crime merited that forfeiture, ought to be dispossess'd of his property vested in him by the ancient standing Laws of the Nation, no not so much as to burn his House, or cut down his, Wood, take away his Horse, or press way his Servant, for the public safety without reparation to him for his loss out of the common treasury.

No, 'tis not any man's rightful property, that is an eye-sore to honest men; but the thing that has made this Nation miserable, is the unlawful Monopolies, and cheats of self-seeking men, that maintain their pride and sensuality out of the public calamities, or endeavor to throw down those hedges and enclosures made about each man's property, by the wholesome Laws of the Nation, and laying them all level to their unbridl'd lusts and wills. These are the pernicious Levellers whom the Parliament and Army have declared, and fought against throughout the whole series of these intestine Wars, and ought still to be opposed by all men that seek the good and freedom of this Nation, not those honest Patriots who contend for the preservation of liberty and property against these subverters and underminers.

For this honest Levelling (and against the other in King, Lord's, or Commons) I have always declared; this disputed for everywhere, as I have been reasonably called forth to it; in secret corners have I whispered nothing.

And if the scene be so far altered, as that to be thus minded, be to be markit out for your indignation, and made uncapable of my property or trust in the Common-wealth, I freely profess, Christianus sum.

But for my own part I must not with those evil surmisers, who are prone to think you dissemblers like themselves, settle my heart into any such persuasion of you till I see good cause for it.

And now I have with such an unreserv'd freedom laid open my principle in reference to my vindication against the backbiters private whispers: and having proclaimed him not in a conclave, but in public, for a malignant and ungodly person, and a Samaritan complier: I hope 'twill be expected that he, by some open, unreserv'd declaration of his principle will assay to vindicate himself from this imputation; which declaration of his, I shall much wonder, if it amount to any better then that bare savestake neutrality, so much declared against in the Covenant, of Credo ego quod ecclesia credit, i. e. in english, your Honors are wise, and whatsoever you shall ordain while you have the sword in your right hands, and this world's wealth at your disposing in the left, is the Command of God, thoughit should center in the d • struction of liberty, and even restoring of absolute Monarchy; he will not, so you will but let him alone in his warm pluralities once hiss against you; but rather conjure all men to obedience under pain of damnation . But let let him declare his approbation of those heroic Parliament proceedings in first impeaching Henretta Maria of High Treason, in bringing the Grand Delinquent to condign punishment, in removal of the Kingly Office and House of Lord's; and all this in reference to an establishment of the Nations Government in a stated succession of its Representatives; Whether he does it ex animo, I shall not inquire: but let him, while the Wars success hangs yet in suspense, come out of that the Covenant stiles a detestable neutrality, and put off so much of carnal policy, as by such declaration to adventure his whole fortune in a Parliamentary bottom, and cut off from himself all hopes of facing about, and then we shall have some kind of ground to think he may in time prove an Israelite indeed, and no Samaritan complier; I shall then rejoice that this contest hath occasioned the conversion of a sinner; yet when all this is done, I shall not fail, if he shall think fit to challenge me to it, to demonstrate that the Epithet I gave him of malignant, was no efflux of malice or passion, but the words of knowledge, truth, and soberness.

As for his ungodliness, granting me but the principle (which no honest man will deny) that a dishonest man is an ungodly, i. e. an un-God-like-man, I think those his miscarriages I have already brought upon the public stage, are enough to make good the imputation: yet I think I have not uttered the tenth part.

For as I did first take all ways becoming a reasonable man and a Christian to hinder the publication of his faults, both by moderate admonitions in a befitting way, and by offering him before the Committee (so we might have our liberties cleared up and settl'd for the future) an amnesty of what was past; so after that, by his persisting in the maintenance of his evils and prerogatives, I have been engaged to write something, yet hath it been no ways my scope to conjure out of the dust all that might be truly related to his defamation; but I have confined myself to such matter only as was pertinent to those causes of the then present concernment. For I hold it a thing not becoming a Christian to speak evil however deserve'dly of any man, but upon a manifest subserviency to some good end.

But these are far from the total sum, which will see light, when either his answer in print to what hath been already objected, shall occasionally draw them from me by piece-meal, or when I shall see it operae pretium, and my better leisure will permit me to do him the honor to write an entire narrative of his life and government among us; or when a season shall come that they may be drawn forth as arrows to be shot at a certain mark, not aiming at that sneaking up-shot of the defamation of a person so inconsiderable, but at a common good of considerable import, viz. the relief of the College from those evils it hath long groaned under, by the amotion of this unfaithful steward from his office, and assertion of Peter-house to a state of true Common wealth freedom.

But this is a task not to be by me accomplishit legally in our founders way without two or three of the Seniors joining formally in the impeachment, upon whose sole denunciation (that being, as I conceive, by our Founder allowed of as witness of sufficient credibility) without the usual formalities of a Court Judicature, he is, if the Crimes objected be of sufficient weight, to be amov'd from his government.

And so severe is our Founders constitution in this point, that though it appear his miscarriages proceed not from a purposed wickedness, but from an unskillfulness and simplicily : yet because by consulting with the Fellows he might have prevented that default, he is therefore to be amov'd notwithstanding; only in such case, if he will continue in the College, and assist with his Councils, he is to have an allowance answerable to what others of the senior Fellows of the house receive; all which that you may be satisfied of, I have at the close of this preface annexed our Colledgstatute which treats of that theam.

But our Seniors have been hitherto so wise, both of themselves, and by my harm, as however they are sensible enough of the burden, yet will they not be easily inducit to the attempt of an improbable remedy. For how should they hope for the amotion of his person, whose very prerogatives they see so much tendered, as that no effort of the strongest reason can force a removal of them? And these are the formalities I hint at in my preface as only wanting to my charge against him to his amotion. However that you may be convinced that 'tis a common good, and not a private distaste hath engaged me against this man, and that in what I have declared of his miscarriages, I am no slanderer, all our seniour Fellows but one (who I will make good hath in our College upon all occasions in private been the greatest declaimer against his wickedness, but loves not to appear above, board) have been so just as to give me their attestation of the truth of what I have written : I am able yet further to bring good evidence of the whole Society unanimously in one of the fullest meetings I have known in the College, having decla'rd their deep resentment of his not fair dealing with us, in which neither myself, nor any of us, who now seem his adversaries, but one of whom he had never the least ground to think him his enemy, was the first mover.

But I shall at present supersede from troubling myself, or the world, with a further rehearsal of his obliquities.

Mean while, of all the worthy members of this Honorable Parliament, and every man that shall read my books, I desire but this equal favor, that to his clandestine vindications whisper'd into such of your ears as he hath access to, your belief may be suspended, till he shall utter the same in print, that so I may have the opportunity of demonstrating their vanity, or falsehood by a speedy reply. For I may well suspect, that that man will not scruple to vent untruths in corners, who besides his unfaithfulness in the general series of his actings, hath uttered one or two manifest falsehoods in my own hearing, and public audience of the Committee. And I think there are those of our Society can testify of more.

I speak not any of these things to block up his way to equal Justice, a thing not to be denied to the veriest Turk or Pagan, but only to overthrow his Plea of Saintship, which some few of his Brethren of the long Robe, with some others that know him not, would entitle him to; as likewise that of his pretended Statism; by both which and his reverend Scribes assistance, he both claims and possesses such a strong interest in the favor and esteem of many, that I have found it a harder matter to contest with him in London then 'twas thought in former times to contend in Lancash • re with the E. of Darby.

But it not appearing by any declared principle or act of his, that he is one whit more faithful to the interest of the commonwealth of England, then that of Peterhouse, 'twill by all men be thought strange, that besides the new plantation of our College most-what with those of his relations and interest, and their premature exaltation, by the Committee into place of Government among us, he should also have the favor to be suffered in contempt of the Law of Christian Religion, and Orders of the Committee of the Universities to reside at London, and in a flat contradiction both to common Reason, and our Founders express Will, to bear the Title, and reap the whole profits of our Mastership, of which another man is made to bear the burden: And not this only, but that that insupportable power of a Negative voice (too large for even an honest man to be trusted with) should still be left in his hands to oppress us. To say nothing of some fundamental grievances, not yet so much as complained of.

All I have further to present you with, is, my humble request, That my choosing this way of public address, rather then that pack horse-road of private solicitations, may not be imputed to an humor of singularity or disrespect. There are many Members of the Honorable House whom I could go far to do any real service for; yet am truly ashamed, instead of a friendly salute, to betake myself to them in Forma Pauperis to beg their favor, to do this or that for me, as a Curtesie, especially having not now the tenderness of any other man's repute or interest involved with my own as a temptation to me to step out of my way.

I received not my Fellowship at first as an Alms; nor will I regain it by precarious entreaties.

Besides, that Lacquey employment of officious attendances, and tedious trotting from place to place, the daily penance of those that have to do with men of great place, and much business, is a thing in my present happy condition of innocence, as much beneath my spirit as above my bodily strength.

All I desire, is, but some good Empirical medicine that will speedily mend or end me. Delay of Justice is the worst of injustices, and makes the cure worse then the disease; To make addresses to your supreme tribunal almost impossibly difficult, and the redresses intolerably tedious, is in effect to make such Arbitrary or illegal judgments of your Committees final, and such sufferers plain vassals to them, or any five of them without end or remedy. This want of dispatch in matters depending before you, is (as men commonly talk) one of the Nations most fundamental grievances, which makes them even weary of our Patliamentary Government, and to linger again after Pharaoh, and the flesh pots of Egypt.

It was once, a poor, but not unwise Plaintiffs Apothegm,

If you cannot find leisure to do Justice, be not at leisure to govern.

I speak not this upon any particular cause of complaint yet offered to myself in my Addresses, but only as a humble motive to request thus much of favor, that I may not be suffered to grow incurable by a too long waiting at the Pool of Bethesda.

As for this poor Fellowship I am dispossessed of, had not the company rather then place, together with some opportunities of doing good inducit me to stay, I had long ago left it to some other whom the Master and Fellows should have thought most worthy of it: But having behaved myself not unfaithfully in that Charge, I hope 'twill not be thought fit, nor to yourselves honorable, that I should be thus causelessly, and ignominiously thrust out of it as a scandalous person, and an infringer of the Parliaments honor and privileges, whereof I have been always hitherto so faithful and constant an asserter.

Besides, I desire not to depart thence, 'till I have first left a substantial testimony of some real service done to that Community where I have received so much good: And therefore I do again humbly tender to your Wisdoms the necessity of some sure provision for the total abolition of the Masters Negative Voice, root & branch in our College, & of the present Masters either amotion for his former prodigious non-residencies, or at the least, that he be for the future a constant Resident upon his charge, or removed from his Office eo nomine.

And lastly, I crave leave to present my humble Appeal from those by whose censure I conceive myself wronged, to your supreme Justice in this following Petition.

TO The Supreme Authority, The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England. The Humble Petition of Charles Hotham of Peter-house in Cambridge.

THat your Petitioner on the 22 ^th. of May last, appearing before the Honorable Committee for Reformation of the Universities, and owning a Book by him written, and Published, Entitled, The Petition and Argument of Mr. Hotham Fellow of Peterhouse in Cambridge, &c. against the Masters Negative Voice of that College: The said Committee without calling your Petitioner to hear any charge of any scandalous expressions in the said Book, or any other crime whereunto he might have made his Defense, Resolved that the writing and Publishing thereof was scandalous, and against the Privilege of Parliament, and that your Petitioner be deprived of his Fellowship in the said College.

That your Petitioner hath been constantly well affected to the Parliament, and to the Commonwealth of England, as may appear by the testimonial of many eminent and well known persons in the University, hereunto annexed, and hath so expressit himself throughout that very Book.

That by these proceedings (as your Petioner humbly conceives) himself is much wronged, the Reformation of the College obstructed, your Authority dishonored, and common Freedom shaken.

May it therefore please you to take his Cause into your own serious consideration, and to do therein, as shall to your Justice and Wisdom seem most expedient to the righting of your Petitioner, the good of that College, and general interest of the Nation.

STAT. 8. De amotione Magistri propter crimina, vel suos defectus.

UBi periculum majus esse dignoscitur, ibi cautiùs est agendum, & pleniùs consulendum; Cum igitur praedicti Magistri industria, honestas, & diligentia dictae domui sit prae caeteris necessaria, & etiam opportuna, possúntque per ejus negligentiam (quod absit) vel insolertiam eidem domui imminere dispendia & pericula graviora, statuimus, & etiam ordinamus, ut cum ipsius domus Magister, qui pro tempore fuerit, propter dilapidationem, vel aliam causam ad hoc sufficientem, ad regimen ad quod praeficitur, reddatur inhabilis, & tanquam intolerabilis & inutilis amovendus existat: Episcopus Eliensis qui est pro tempore, ad deaunciationem, vel insinuationem duorum, vel trium seniorum scholarium dictae domûs (ad quam omnes, & singuli dictae congregationis scholares sub suae fidelitatis & juramenti debito teneantur) summary, & de plano, abs{que} judiciali strepitu, & figura judicii, (praesertim cùm bona dictae domus litibus deservire non debeant) de causis hujusmodi cognoscat, ipsúm{que} Magistrum amoveat justitiâ suadente, ac praedictae domus scholares, alium idoneum in ipsius amoti Magistri locum, subrogandum nominent, & praesentent praedicto Episcopo, praesiciendum in Magistrum abs{que} morae dispendio, prout supra in nominatione & praesentatione Magistri pleniùs annotatur: Quod si Magister hujusmodi non propter delictum in committendo scienter, seu / sed in omittendo voluntary, videlicet propter negligentiam simplicem, simplicitatem, vel imperitiam ab officio suo contigerit amoveri; volumus, & etiam ordinamus, quod si aliàs in scholasticis been se habuerit, tunc gratiam, & misericordiam assequatur, quae in titulo de Magistro agrotante, sunt benigniter ordinata.

STAT. 8. Of the Removal of the Master for Crimes, or his Defects.

WHere there is known to be greater danger, there we should act the more warily, and consult more fully. Therefore seeing the industry, honesty, and diligence of the aforesaid Master is above all others of greatest necessity and convenience to the said House, and that by his negligence (which God forbid) or unskillfulness, losses, and dangers of an important nature may hang over the College: We therefore Decree and Ordain, That when the Master for the time being, for Dilapidation, or other cause sufficient to this end is rendered unfit for the G • vernment he hath charge of, and is as an intolerable & unprofitable person to be removed from his Office: The Bishop of Eli for the time being, at the Denunciation or Insinuation of two or three Senior Fellows of the said House (to which all and every of the Fellows of the said Congregation, are bound by the duty of their fidelity and oath) take cognizance of these causes plainly without any judicial noise, or form of Court Process (seeing the goods of the said House, should not be lavishit out in suit-formalities) and remove the Master from his Office, if Justice persuade.

And that the Fellows of the said House, without delay, name and present another fit man to the said Bishop to be substituted in the place of the Master so removed; as is more fully set down before, where that point of the nomination and Presentation of the Master is treated of. But if this Master shall happen to be removed, not for an offense committed knowingly, but / or of voluntary omission to wit, for a simple negligence, simplicity, or unskillfulness; We Will and Ordain, That if he shall otherwise be well qualified, or have behaved himself well in point of Scholarship , that then he shall have that favor and mercy shewn to him, which are bountifully provided by an Ordinance, Entituled as followeth.

STAT. 9. De Magistro aegrotante, vel impotente.

SI vero Magister praedictus been & laudabiliter se gesserit, in administratione sua, & provide perseveraverit in eâdem, & postea aegritudine abs{que} culpa sua, senio, vel laboribus sit confractus, vel aliàs impotens, vel imbecillis adco sit effectus quod ad dictae administrationis regimen sufficere nequeat, ut deberet: ex tunc cum hoc notorie, vel also modo legitimo constiterit, hujusmodi autoritate constitutionis in locum illius, scholaris, qui in Magistrum praesicitur, succedat; cui in domo praedicta inter socios ejusdem domûs provectiores & meliores scholares, vitae necessaria juxta vires, & facultates ejusdem domûs competenter & decenter ministrentur, ad terminum vitae suae. Ipse vero negotia Domus praedictae tanquam propria salubri consilio suo, dum vixerit juvare tenebitur, suique corporis exercitio, quatenus commode poterit, promovere auxilias opportunis.

Out of these Statutes we may make divers considerable collections;

1. That were the Mastership of our College reducit to its original constitution: and its usurpations, the negative Voice, and double Dividend taken away, a Statutable residence firmly enjoin'd, and he made in some easier way responsible for his miscarriages (for our Visitor with full power of Oyer and Terminer, should come to us, not we to him) it would then be justly said of this Office,

Qui quaerit Episcopatum quaerit opus, [not opes ] There would then be nothing of temptation to any man, either ambition or covetousness, to make it desirable by self seeking men. 'Twould be, as all other Offices in our College (which are annually elective) rather studiously avoided then contended for.

2. See how tender, even in those we call Times of Ignorance, Slavery, Superstition our Founders were of the welfare of a Community above that of a private man. As soon as ever a man, though not through his own fault, appears unserviceable to the Community in his station, he is presently to be removed, and a serviceable man placed in his stead.

3. You may hence gather, That the Mastership of our College was not intended as a Commenda, or Augmentation to a London Ministers Parsonage: and how flatly 'tis against our Founders intention, that one or two men residing upon the place should bear the burdens of the Mastership, and another living at distance, and employed in another charge, should bear the title, and reap the profit due to that service; but that he who supplies the charge is to possess entirely all the profits and privileges of the place. But Doctor Seaman, hath, as I said in my Book, not resided at all, but only made a few short visits upon some urgencies; all which will not amount to one of the whole seven years of his enjoyment of that Mastership; during which time he hath laid near the whole burden of his Office upon a Presidents shoulders, not allowing him one penny for his labor. Nay, hath not only swept away all the profits due to the Executor of that charge, but takes without any warrant of Statute, a double portion (which Doctor Wren did not) upon this only plea, that Doctor Cosins did the same; All which considered, he ought either forthwith to come down, and be resident upon his trust; or be removed from his Office, and another chosen to supply the place.

Its true, our Statute enables him in case of long absence to choose a President; but the whole current of these Statutes is a clear demonstration, that 'tis upon supposition, his absence is with consent, upon College affairs, not his own emolument.

If he will still plead his Assemblymanship; the main business of that place being now at an end, and there sitting but once a week a few of them for small dispatches, for which there are London Ministers enow wi • hout him; it must needs be thought by all men a depth of fraud for him to make use of that title to elude both our Founders Will, and the Parliaments intention in exemption of Ministers from their other charges during their attendance upon that employment.

4. You see by our Statute of Amotion, that even where the Masters removal hath been for simple negligence, want of skill, simplicity; and thereupon he will lay claim, at least to his subsistence among the Senior Fellows; yet 'tis in Domo praedicta, not extra Domum; in, not out of the College-Precincts: besides, it must be upon plea of his making amends in learning for his failings in point of activity and prudence: But we have in that point found him most of all deficient; for though his Office not very many years before he attained this preferment, was (as we hear) a Country Pedagogue, yet has he not attained so much skill in the Latin tongue as to be able rightly to pronounce our Statutes: 'Thas been a common Observation, That when some passages were to be read in public, he would upon pretext of quereing upon the sense, get someone or other of us privately to pronounce those places before him; and that when he hath adventured without this help, he hath most grossly faltered; nay, though he has since a little mended his skil by his study of the Porta Linguarum; yet has he, to the eternal disgrace of our College, left such a miserable piece of Latin upon public Record in one of our College Rowls, as Posterity imagining it could not be written there without the Auditors consent, will brand us for strange Dunces, 'It is this.

Solutiones pro fabricis Collegii non computantur hoc anno ration dubiorum & exceptionum ex parte sociorum, A QUIBUS DEMANDATAE FUERUNT per Magistrum.

This his Latin is as hard for me (without Ignoramus his skill) to translate, as our College Statutes are for him to pronounce; yet because his Dulman is not here to help me, I will use my best endeavor to give you his sense; which if not non sense, must be as follows.

The payments for the College fabrics are not computed this year, by reason of some doubts and exceptions on the part of the Fellows OF WHOM THEY WERE DEMANDED by the Master.

The occasion of the Masters leaving upon Record this famous sentence, is a story too long now to be related. All I will say at present of that matter, is,

That this writing of his pleasure in our public Records, without our common consent, is a thing (I shall make appear) may prove of mischievous consequence, & must inter alia, be one day laid to his charge; Mean while let him be think himself.

An Act of the Commons of England in Parliament assembled, for removing Obstructions in the proceedings of the Common-Council of the City of London.

THe Commons of England in Parliament assembled, do enact and ordain, and be it enacted and ordained by the Authority aforesaid, that in all times to come, the Lord Major of the said City of London, so often, and at such time as any ten or more of the Common-Council-men do by writing under their hands, request or desire him thereunto, shall summon, assemble, and hold a Common-Council. And if at any time, being so required or desired, he shall fail therein, then the ten persons, or more, making such request or desire, shall have power, and are hereby authorized by writing under their hand to summon, or cause to be summoned to the said Council, the members belonging thereunto, in as ample manner as the Lord Major himself usually hath done. And that the members appearing upon the same summons, being of the number of forty, or more, shall become a Common-Counsel. And that each Officer, whose duty it shall be to warn in, and summon the members of the said Council, shall perform the same from time to time, upon the Warrant or Command of ten persons or more so authorized as aforesaid. And it is further enacted and ordained by Authority aforesaid, that in every Common-Council hereafter to be assembled, the Lord Major of the said City for the time being, or in his absence such Locum tenens as he shall appoint, and in default thereof, the eldest Alderman present, if any be, and for want of such Alderman, or in case of his neglect, or refusal therein, then any other person, member of the said Council, whom the Commons present in the said Council shall choose, shall be from time to time President or Chair-man of the said Council, and shall cause and suffer all things offered to, or proposed in the said Council, to be fairly and orderly debated, put to the Question, Voted and determined in and by the same Council, as the major part of the members present in the said Council shall desire, or think fit: and in every Vote which shall pass, and in the other proceedings of the said Council, neither the Lord Major nor Aldermen, joint or separate, shall have any negative or distinct Voice or Vote, otherwise then with and among, and as part of the rest of the members of the said Council; and in the same manner as the other members have: And that the absence and withdrawing of the Lord Major or Aldermen from the said Council, shall not stop or prejudice the proceedings of the said Council. And that every Common-Council which shall be held in the City of London shall sit and continue so long as the major part of the Council shall think fit, and shall not be dissolved or adjourned, but by, and according to the order or consent of the major part of the same Council. And that all the Votes and Acts of the said common-Council, which was held 13. Januarii last, after the departure of the Lord Major from the same Council. And also all Votes and Acts of every Common-Council hereafter to be held, shall be from time to time duly Registred as the Votes and Acts of the said Council have used to be done in time past. And be it further enacted and ordained by the authority aforesaid, that every Officer which shall sit in the said Council, shall be from time to time chosen by the said Council, and shall have such reasonable allowance or salary for his pains and service therein, as the Council shall think fit. And that every such Officer shall attend the said Common-Council: And that all Acts and Records, and Register-Books belonging to the said City, shall be extant to be perused and searched into by every Citizen of the said City, in the presence of the Officer who shall have the charge of keeping thereof, who is hereby required to attend for the same purpose.

This Petition was first presented and read before the Committee March 27. at which time Doctor Seaman urged that this controversy would concern the whole University, and therefore was unfit to be singled out alone, but rather should fall in with the consideration of the whole bulk of the College and University Statutes now under consideration of the Committee of Visitors at Cambridge; but the Committee then looking at this as a dilatory subterfuge, accepted of the Petition, assigned a day for taking it into further consideration, granting me summons for such of the Society as I desired for Witnesses in case of need. The Master having the like liberty to nominate whom he pleased, but pitched upon none. This was the Order.

On the day appointed, being April 10 being desirous to have the cause heard at as full a Committee as might be, I attended some time in the Hall with this following Petition for a revival of the business.

But this short Petition proved useless; for my former large Petition was resum d without any motion of mine, and much sooner then my expectation.

But after the first clause of the Petition was scarce read, Doctor Seaman interposed a motion, that the further reading of it might be suspended, till a private business, which he said was the true original of all these commotions, were first heard. So the Petition was at his motion laid aside, and the private business first brought upon the stage: the issue of which, falling out strangely to his content, the Committee was made believe this was the substance of the whole controversy; there needed now no farther hearing of the public Petition.

Now as for that private business, seeing he hath christened it with the name of public, I have at the latter end of this Narrative made it public for his sake.

But nothing discouraged with this unexpected event of that dispute, I went in again to the Committee, informed a noble Gentleman there present, I had a Petition there of great concernment, which I desired might be read, and myself heard speak to it. So at his motion the Petition was resumed.

After 'twas read, Dr. Seaman, I think, first spake something to it; but to what effect, I have utterly forgotten, and shall be glad to be remembered of it by himself.

When he had done speaking, I moved the Committee, that for laying a clear foundation, whereupon to ground the debate, he might be asked the question, Whether he laid claim to a negative voice, or not.

His answer was, first, that he did not desire to answer to any question, till commanded to it by the Committee; but pausing a while, and perceiving by a general silence of all the members, that a more full answer was expected, He still subtly declining an answer to the question, tells them we had many sorts of College-meetings; that the Master was sometimes to consult with the Deans only, sometimes with 5 or 6 of the Seniors; but in the arduous affairs of the College, he was to consult with the Fellows in common, and to stand to the judgment of the major part. This now seemed, at first view, a clear acknowledgement of his being bound up in the major part, in meetings of the whole Society present.

And any man not acquainted with his methods, would have thought the controversy had been at an end, and that the Doctor was scandal'd in my so much as intimating that he had laid claim to a negative voice.

But as 'twill appear, he meant nothing less. For first, though he acknowledged himself bound in arduis to consult the Fellows in common, yet nothing appeared, but that he still reserved the judgment of that arduity as a prerogative within his own breast; so that the Society for meetings, though never so much needed, must depend upon his pleasure, which was one of the chief grievances, against which a remedy was petition'd for.

Secondly, notwithstanding his seeming acknowledgement of being tied by the major part; yet being further urged to declare whether he did not from that additional expression in our Statute of the sounder part, challenge to himself a decisive judgment which was the sounder part, so as that he might judge the lesser part the sounder, and be thereupon absolved from standing to the judgment of the major part; he could then keep himself in the darkness no longer, but producit two Statutes for his negative voice. The one, extending only to the proof of his negative voice over the two Deans, was an interpretation made a hundred and fifty years, or more, after the first compiling of our Statutes. In these words,

But this proved not at all a negative voice over the major part of the Fellows assembled in a meeting.

The other (being the main pillar of his cause) was the University Statute, which he read to the Committe in these words.

These Statutes he said (but proved it not) were confirmed by Act of Parliament: To which 'twas answered, That its true, the University Charters were confirmed by Act of Parliament, but as I believed, not the Statutes; no further confirmation that I know of appearing, more then by the same Commissioners, who reviewed our College—Statutes; which as far as I knew, there was as good ground to believe were confirmed by Parliament, as those of the Uuniversity.

He further added, that that which I charged as a fault upon him, viz. the relying upon his own wisdom, I was chiefly guilty of it myself, in preferring a Petition of my own head, without first asking the advice and consent of the Fellows, who did not appear any way to own it: to all which allegations of his, my answer, directed to the Chairman of the Committee, was as follows.

This last clause and Petition concerning the Master and Deans were, though here inserted, yet forgotten to be delivered to the Committee.

My Argument ended, the Master made a long reply, the punctual repetition of which I must leave to his own memory and pen. It touched nothing upon any material point of my Argument, But was rather a descant upon my Petition, with some recriminations, consisting to my best remembrance of these heads.

That he had assumed no power that was not his own by Statute: as was the calling of meetings, &c.

That he had never shewn any averseness from meetings, nor ever dissolved any, but when the time itself dissolved them.

That 'its true he had propounded questions according to his own sense, but offered to others the same liberty of propounding questions in theirs.

That we must distinguish between the major part of the whole Society, & the major part of those present, which sometimes being but few in number, were not fit to make Acts obligatory to the whole College.

That the Fellows were the only men averse from Meetings, whom he could not easily get together, but when there was some Lease to be let, &c.

That the party camplainant was himself, though Dean, absent from the last anniversary meeting appointed for reading the Statutes.

That in the clause inserted in his Petition concerning the Senior Fellow's being President, he aimed at his own promotion, being the next Senior himself, and so desirous of this power, that in his or the Presidents absence he might assemble the Fellows about the making of new Models of Government.

This was to my best memory the sum of his reply. To which it might easily have been answered.

That this suggestion of my seeking the Presidentship for myself, was a most groundless scandal, It never having happened all this seven years above twice that I know of, that myself was the Senior Fellow resident, which lasted but for a few days neither.

Besides, the Office being a vast burden, and nothing in it desirable to such eye of ambition or covetousness as he (measuring others by himself) supposed in me, nor myself in any probability of intermeddling with that Office, being (contrary to his allegation) neither the first nor second Senior of the College, both which, with the Master, must be all three absent, before I could be in capacity to act, and that for some longer time then ever yet had been, else no danger of attempting, much less of perfecting any new Model, especially there being but two times a year, wherein the College is enabled to make new, or interpret old Statutes.

For my absence. That 'twas not about any private pleasure or business of mine own, but was solely to seek a removal, and hinder the further progress of those evils brought upon the College by his fraud and breach of trust, and those large opportunities he hath had of acting those treacheries by his own constant residence at London, and his Proctor with the reverend Beard standing always at the Committees elbows, and being admitted (when all others are withdrawn) to their private debates, and to speak in some cases when those most concerned cannot come in to answer, in which though by reason of those vast disadvantages I have been unsuccessful, yet I esteemed both my expense of time and pains, and the double my College-revenue well employed in the endeavor.

That his distinction of the major part of the whole Society, and those present, was a piece of empty Sophistry, himself well knowing there was never yet since our first coming to the College (which is now almost seven years) a full meeting of the whole number of Master and Fellows together, nor can there well be, by reason of sickness, business, or travel allowed of by Statute, perpetually occasioning some two or three men's absence; so that if he may be allowed this salvo for his Negative, he will never want one who shall be absent for his sake.

Besides, he always esteemed the major part of those present, though not the whole society, valid enough to blind the College where himself was present and consenting; an evident sign, 'tis his own only consent, not the number of those absent or present he chiefly values.

That his accusation of the Fellows as slack in coming to meetings, except in cases of Leases, &c. was a groundless scandal, of which fault himself was only guilty, having at those great semestrian meetings appointed for reading, and considering Statutes, been but twice, or at most, thrice present during all the time of his Mastership, and particularly in the last great meeting, to which he summoned all the Fellows, he staid not the reading out of one third part of the Statutes; nor indeed could ever be got from London to any College —meeting, but when his quarterly course in preaching, or auditing the Accounts (being always suspicious of the denial of his double Dividend at those times) enforced his presence.

That he hath been sometimes, when there was great cause of meeting, near a fortnight together, not calling any meeeing till just a day or two at most before his departure, whereby himself was eased, and the President wholly charged with the cares of such businesses as should have been then dispatched by himself.

That in meetings it hath been observably his custom when he had a mind to dispatch a business in deed, to sit him down, and call us formally to the table, and to cut out his work for the debate, with all dexterity and expedition.

But when a business was to come on which he liked not, then to let us alone by the fire, or to leave his Chair, and us, to dispute at random, otherwhile to spin out the time with us in discourses of lesser affairs, or if pressed to come home to the main business, then to fall a shuffling, and cutting, and winding us from the point by some non-significant, or dividing questions, of which Artifices he hath oft shewn himself a well skilled Architect.

And for propounded of questions, his duty is, after the laying open before us the businesses he hath to acquaint us with, not to lean upon his own prudence in proposing to us like School-boys such questions as himself only shall think fit, but to be in that main point of the scrutiny ruled by the advice of the whole or major part of the Society.

And therefore what he acknowledges, viz. that he did take upon him in the first place to propound questions of his own sense, was a great usurpation; but that he gave others the like liberty, is an Apology nothing to the purpose; for our Statute appropriating it to the Masters Office, to ask the Fellows advice; if any other do it but he, it renders the whole vote of the Society a mere nullity: Now its true, the Master once at a meeting, when one excepted against some litigious qu • stions of his propounding against the sense of the Society, promised he would afterwards propound those questions he had nam d in terminis, but when it came to the point, told the party, he might now propound those questions himself, if he pleased, (which he knew well had been a thing illegal and void) but refused utterly in purpound of his promise and duty to prosuance them himself.

These things I know will to a superficial view seem but inconsiderable brangles; but to men of piercing judgments, and well versed in Parliamentary debates, that see daily what a King the Speaker would be, if solely entrusted with this Prerogative above the Parliament; and how great a weight of business is oft turned upon the hinge of one small punctill'o, in the stating of a question; these things cannot but appear of high concernment.

Yet I had very many materials of a much higher nature to charge him with, which being provoked by his challenge, I was then as I told the Committee, ready to produce, having for witnesses most of the Senior Fellows then present before them to make them good. But as I was just entering upon that task, a worthy member of the Committee propounded it as a question to be first debated by themselves, whether they should single out the point of Statute to be determined, as they should see just upon weighing the Arguments of both parties laid before them in theory, or take in with it the consideration of the practic, consisting of personal charge. Another Gentleman seconding him, propounded likewise as fit to be considered, whether they would admit of recriminations, which are like to be endless (each party still deeming himself obliged to reply and answer at large to each others, though non-pertinent objections) or rather as the fi • st Gentleman propounded, would fall singly upon the point of Theory. This motion the whole Assembly seemed to assent to; so according to the custom of the Committee we were commanded to withdraw, and the doors shut. The product of the private debate was this.

The private business upon which at Doctor Seamans Motion the grand Petition was at first laid aside, though indeed it nothing concerned it, yet is a story worth the reading, and therefore take it as follows.

WE had a Fellowship in our College kept vacant for many years, as the Master pretended for the College necessities, but as the Fellows well know, for the defraiment of his double Dividend; this Fellowship one Sir Conyers, Scholar of our College, observing the Committee had before in a parallel case, taken the disposal of such dormant vacancies into their own hands, petition'd to have confer'd upon him; whereupon the Committee ordered the Master and Seniors, or any two of them, to certify the true state of the case; which Order being read at a public meeting, the Master was very urgent with the Society to certify it as kept void for the College-necessities; which the Fellows as not agreeable to truth, generally refused to do: so the Master (and one of the Society concurring with him so far) made only this general return, that it had ever since our coming to the College been kept vacant, but for just reasons. But the Master alone makes another return, specifying some particular reasons, as namely a debt of above one hundred pounds owing to him by the College. Upon which Allegations he made a large descant before the Committee; which ended,

I put in some exceptions in writing, detecting somewhat of his fraudulent dealing with the College, and further added some enlargements, as I remember to this effect.

1. That the Fellowship had not been kept vacant by any public vote, nor for those reasons he produced.

2. As to the debt, that once in a meeting, knowing our stock behind hand, and we in an incapacity of disbursing money, he pressed hard upon us for this debt, and took the advantage to say, that if we did not presently pay, or clear him of it, he would be at liberty, if he pleased, to dispose of the Lands as himself should think good. And being answered, that the present Revenue of the Land would near amount to the payment of moderate Interest for his money, and that for his security he should have the College-Seal, upon which one of the Society had formerly lent the College an hundred pounds; he slighted all, and nothing would content him, but either the money presently, or some of our particular Bonds, or the Land to be at his own dispose. So we being in this strait, myself, to give some breathing time to the business, presently offered upon that very security, viz. the College-Seal, which the Master had so unbecoming • y sl • ghted, to lend the College fifty pounds for some months, till we might think of some betber way; and another, (I think 'twas Mr. Quarles ) seconding me, offered the loan of forty pounds; which ninety pounds, together with another income then mentioned, would make up the whole debt. But the Master seeing his pretence of seising the Land to himself thus defeated, neither accepted our offer, nor spoke more of the business at that time.

And further, that this debt he now mentions as a plea for keeping void this Fellowship, was a mere pretence made use of for by-ends, might hence appear. That he had formerly in a College-meeting twitted us again with this debt as a plea for keeping void another Fellowship against our common Consent, yet gave way to his own man to defeat the College of that Fellowship, not once appearing (though acquainted with his man's intentions) by Petition or otherwise in behalf of the College right, which to have done was both the duty of his place, and his solemn promise before the Society, as many can witness.

Thirdly, That the Bishop of Eli himself, in whose power the Committee was to act as to this cause, could not by our Statute give way to the keeping vacant any Fellowship without the desire and Counsel of the Master and major part of the Fellows; but here there appeared no desire of so much as one of the Fellows to have it kept longer vacant. But the Master did it alone of his own head, contrary to the sense of the major part of the Society, and contrary to our express Statute, which says the Master should not headily rely upon his own wisdom, but stand to the discretion of the major part.

To these things the Master having replied what he thought fit, we were commanded to withdraw, and the Committee being, it seems, sensible that the Fellowship being void by death was not theirs, but the Colleges right to dispose of, made this following Order.

The College having received this Order, proceeded according to their usual form within eight days, unto an Election. The result of which was the Election of Sr. Conyers into the said vacancy; to which Election the President, and all the Fellows were consenting, excepting only three Juniors brought in lately by the Masters interest at London, and who indeed according to our College Statutes being in their state of minority, and not out of their year of Probation, should have had no voices in the Election; yet these three not agreeing, neither, in any one man for a Competitor.

The reasons moving the Society to the Election of Sr. Conyers, were these:

First, he was one in a special manner designed out to us for that perferment by our College Statute, both in regard of poverty, a thing generally favored in all Statutes, and likewise in regard of his Country, our Statute allowing two Fellowships for each County, and but one of them supplied with men of his qualification, and this Fellowship belonging to the Northern Division, which we were bound in the first place to see supplied.

Secondly, Our Statute commands us to choose the ablest man we know of, or can find out. Now Sr. Conyers was known to be one of the greatest eminency for learning and parts in our whole College, insomuch, that though we had a general Order made some years ago for examination of such as should stand for Fellowships, yet was it unanimously agreed even by those that dissented from the Election, that they were all so well satisfied of his learning and sufficiency, as that the former Order for Examination might well be suspended for that time, except some man should declare to the President his intent to stand as a Competitor against him, in which case there should be an examination; but no man adventured upon the trial.

Thirdly, He was well known to us for the general course of his life to be one of a pious and virtuous conversation; Excepting only that once growing a little elated by a sudden promotion, and falling acquainted with a malignant, he began to be a little seduced, in which time, (which was about two years ago,) 'twas his ill hap to be in the company of some Rakels of another College, who drank the Kings Health, and he with them: But for this fault, with some concurring circumstances, he did then receive most severe punishment, every way answerable, if not greater then the offense: And for the malignant distemper, that held him not above two months; he was by his Tutors and Fathers Counsels soon reclaimed from it: and as his life had been before this one unhappy misdemeanor, so was it all the time of his abode in the College after, which was for above a year, exemplarily pious and virtuous. And he had both to his Tutor, and to some honest Scholars of his acquaintance given that full evidence of his change of mind both in reference to piety, and good affection to the State (which he had likewise evidenced by that ordinary way of taking the Engagement) that there could not be now left any scruple in any rational man's breast concerning either his piety or good affection to the Commonwealth. Besides all this, he had a most ample testimony both of his piety and good affection to the State, such as is not ordinarily given to any man, from some godly and well-affected Gentlemen and Ministers in Norfolk, where he had lived the last year of his discontinuance from the College.

Some buzzings there were of some Heterodox opinions which he was said to hold, but neither did the Master, nor any one of the Society, even of those that discented from the Election, lay anything publicly to his charge, and the utmost that any of us could hear, so much as by rumor, was only of some innocuous, though unwary expressions uttered once at a hudling dispute in the Schools, and at an after-supper discourse at one of the Sophister Feasts; at which times all men know how ordinary it is, and how inoffensive to maintain by way of dispute the greatest Paradoxes.

Fourthly, The Order for Election being made upon his Petition, and sent down to us, with our own and the Norfolk testimonial annexed, we looked at him as one recommended to us by the committee, as the godly and learned person intended (though in tenderness to the liberty of our Election, not nominated) by their Order. This Election thus made, upon those solid reasons, with a full accompt of all our proceedings in it, we did according to Order make a return of to the Committee, not for confirmation (for the Election being every way full and legal, needed it not) but only to show, that in obedience to their Order, the Fellowship was forthwith supplied by Election.

But the Master, who would neither according to his duty come down to be present at the Election, not so far own the College, whose Rights he is by the fundamental Statute to be a Patron of, as to acquaint us with any exceptions he had against the person in view: (only as we hear, he sent some private Letters to the President, without any communication to the Society, that Sir Conyers might not be Elected; together with some other private instructions to a creature or two of his own,) like an Enemy, rather then Master of the College, comes to the Committee to accuse the person elected, bringing with him one of his own creatures, who being present at the Election, would not before the Society produce any exception against Sir Conyers, but it seems, according to the Masters instructions, reserved them to be produced as a scandal to the College (who were the Electors) before the Committee.

The Masters exceptions were much to the same effect with those before mentioned.

First, that he had been a malignant, and had drunk the Kings health upon his knees, and for these misdemeanors had been publicly corrected, and was sent away into the Country by his Tutor as incorrigible.

2. I hat he had been guilty of Heresy and blasphemy, and upon that account was refused at St. Johns College, where he once stood for a Fellowship.

In answer to which, I being his Tutor, made before the Committee this summary relation of his life.

That he being recommended to me by his Father, a godly Minist • r in York-shire, and one who had suffered much for the Parliament; I took him at his first admission into the College about the age of sixteen years to be my poor Scholar, in which service he demeaning himself with all faithfulness and diligence, and showing himself in the quick apprehension of what ever was laid before him, one of extraordinary parts and industry; that his further proficiency might not be hindered by those necessary diversions of service, I desired to promote him to the degree of a Pensioner; in which way he being not able to maintain himself without some concurrent helps, I was a suitor to the Master to confer upon him the Chapel Clerks place then vacant. The Master, as I was told by a third person, who made the motion to him, was willing to it, if I would have truck'd with him; i. e. if I would have received one of his recommendation to be my poor Schoolar in his place; but I being otherwise engaged, could not do it, and so could not obtain the Masters consent; yet was dismissed with this intimation of hopes, That there would be ere long more vacancies of these places, which fell out accordingly; but he whom I had spoke for was never the nearer; for still one or other was promoted before him. Which observing, I took my opportunity, upon a vacancy that happened, to represent the case to the President and Deans, who convinced of the poor Lads deservings, elected him without the Masters concurrence. This the Master resented so deeply, as at his return he did (as I have been certainly informed) call the President (a man of more standing and worth then himself) by such a foul name, as I am ashamed to mention. And in passion would, had not I withstood him, under pretence of translation, have thrust this poor youth out of his place of eight or nine pounds a year, into poor a place of three or four pounds a year; and has ever since that time born him an implacable malice.

The poor youth being something elated with this sudden promotion, began a little to lay himself open to temptation, and as was before related, through the seducement of a malignant, whom he fell acquainted with, was something infected, and by chance a Rakel of Pembroke -Hall coming in to our Butteries, and beginning the Kings health, 'twas his unhappiness (as of some other simple Lads there present, who were no malignants) to pledge it, yet not upon his knees, as was alleged: hearing of this, I sent for him, and finding the original of this distemper to proceed from a Chamber-fellow with whom without my privity he had associated himself, I commanded him back to his former Chamber, but he refusing, that the example of his misdemeanor and disobedience might not further infect the College by his impunity, I corrected him publicly before two or three of the Scholars in my Chamber; and because I conceived a Fathers admonitions might be most powerful with him, I sent him down to the Country with Letters to his Father, informing him how the case stood, that if a real reformation should appear in him, he should be welcome to me again; if not, that he must dispose of him some other where, for I would own none such as he was in that present condition: so after some reasonable stay in the Country, his Father returned him up to me again, as a reformed man, of which he gave good evidence by a whole years pious and religious conversation. And besides, better to satisfy myself, I inquired concerning him of some honest and religious lads whom I durst trust, who professed to me, that he had divers times in their hearing testified his great sorrow for his former miscarriages; and that to them he then appeared as much as could be, of a truly pious disposition. Hereupon the youth having taken his degree of Bachelor of Arts, I began to look out for some preferment for him, and knowing the Masters malice to him was such as 'twas impossible without higher contests then I was willing to engage in, to prefer him in our own College, and hearing of a way open in St. Johns College, I made a suit to some of that College in his behalf, acquainting them sully with the worst of this which the Master now objects, and received from them good encouragement.

But the day before their sitting, I received a note from one of the Fellows there, of a report they had heard of some Arminian tenent which he had maintained in the Schools, whereupon I sent for Sir Conyers, and charged him with it; chid him for that he had, contrary to my counsels, troubled his head in his unriper years with the study of the contentious part of Divinity; yet withal charged him with all severity, that whatsoever opinion, though never so heterodox, he was possessed of in his judgment, he should not deny it for any worldly preferment; but if those things which he was said to have disputed for in the Schools were not his judgment, he should then expose himself to examination to clear himself of those aspersions: his answer to me was, that he had not maintained anything that way as his judgment, and that he doubted not of giving satisfaction in any reasonable way that could be expected: Whereupon I w • it to St. Johns College, that I wondered anything uttered by way of dispute in those tumultuary velitations, should be esteemed an argument of a man's judgment, and that Sir Conyers was ready to give satisfaction to ought could be alleged against him: But I was answered, that the time of election being now come, the suspicion that was conceived of him could not be removed in such an instant, and that therefore it was better to forbear sitting; which counsel of his was accordingly followed.

So the poor young man distitute of maintenance, was not able to continue longer in the College, but retired to a poor employment into Norfolk, where he hath lived near the space of a whole year; during which time, what his behavior hath been, and what opinion the religious, and wellaffected of that place have of him, this testimony of men well known to some members of this Committee, which I desire may be rehearsed before you, will make it appear.

So you see the man was no original malignant, nor was he ever any drunkard, or otherwise scandalous person, but only for a short time seduced, and quickly cured of his distemper: as for a scandal which 'twas his unhappiness to fall into, he received then condign punishment, and therefore ought not to be punished again for the same, especially his life both before and after being exemplarily virtuous; and besides, having voluntarily upon the first coming out of the Act of Parliament for that purpose, subscribed the engagement, which in other cases hath been adjudged alone sufficient to qualify a man for keeping his old, or acquiring new preferment.

As for Blasphemy, 'tis by the Master only alleged, not proved; nor do I believe he was ever guilty of 〈◊〉 in the least. But with Episcopal spirits every petty difference in opinion is a capital crime: and not to say Amen (though without understanding) to each article of their voluminous Creed, is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. They not considering, that the passage of religious spirits is, as through many tribulations into the Kingdom of God, so through many errors into the true knowledge of God.

Besides, it might have been considered, that his election was only as Probationer, during which time, being a whole year, he was to stand upon his good behavior, and if in all that time he gave just cause of offense, was by our Statute to be denied admittance into perpetuity ot his possession. And therefore the danger of him, if there were any, was not considerable. But that we have one in our College put in by this Committee, who since the date of this misdemeanor▪ was so malignant, as publicly, in the face of all the College assembled together, to parallel the Parliament for their proceedings with the King, &c. with the Powder treason of the Jesuits and Papists, contrived and carried on under pretence of Religion. Now this man being made Fellow by this Committee, we did not, in regard he was otherwise a man of good desert, oppose ourselves against his admittance, only in regard of his late disaffection, petitioned this Committee that he might according to our Statute stand upon his good behavior for one year, before a final settlement in his place: But in this case, the Master neither regarding the obligation upon him by our Statute, nor by his engagement to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth of England, would neither petition himself, nor join with us in that petition: whence 'tis apparent, that the great object of his distaste here was not the malignancy, but only the person now clear enough from that disease.

Lastly, though I will not take upon me to enqure into the hidden mysteries of a Superior Power; yet this I shall say, that that power which can eject a man out of his legal possession for a misdemeanor of a date of near two years old, committed and punished in the days of his minority, long before his entrance into that possession, must sure be very transcendent, and above that of any, either common Law or Chancery, that I have heard of.

The Committee having heard what they thought fit on both sides, we were commanded according to custom, to withdraw, and the doors to be shut.

What was said pro, or con at the private debate, the man with the great Beard only knows. But the result was as followeth.