charged upon them by Kings, Grandees, and their Creatures.
A Second Caution is, in relation to their elective power;
that in all elections of Magistrates they have an especial eye
upon the publick, in making choice of such persons onely, as
have appeared most eminent and active in the establishment
or love of Freedom. In such hands the Guardianship of liberty
may be surely placed, because such men have made the
publick interest and their own all one, mi therefore will neither
betray nor desert it in prosperity or adversity; whereas
men of another qualification or temper, if they get into authority,
care not to serve the publick farther then the publick
serves them, and will draw off or on, as they finde their opportunity:
Yea, and take this for a certain Rule, that if any
person be admitted into power that loves not the Commonweal
above all other considerations, such a man is (as we
say) every man's money; any State Merchant may have him
for a Factor; and for good consideration he will often make
returns upon the Publick Interest, have a stock going in every
Party, and (if Occasion be) truck with the common enemy,
and Commonweal both together.
But that you may see I do not speak without book, it is Aristotle's
opinion as well as mine, who saith in the fift of his
Politicks, being thus translated, Per negligentiam mutatur
status Reipublicœ, cùm ad potestates assumuntur illi qui presentem
statum non amant. The form of a Commonweal is
then alter'd negligence, when those men are taken into power,
which do not love the present establishment. It is not
onely a way to preserve a Commonweal to avoid those that
hate it; but those also are as much to be avoided that do not
love it; that is, who are not earnestly wedded to is by an inward
active principle of affection; and the reason is very evident,
because their affections being of an indifferent nature,
remain ready to run out into any other form, interest, or
party, that offers it self upon the least alteration or temptation
whatsoever. For this we might give you instances enough;
but waving them, it may suffice us farther to observe, that
most of the broiles, tumults, and Civil dissentions, that ever