A modest plea for an equal common-wealth against monarchy.: In which the genuine nature and true interest of a free-state is briefly stated: its consistency with a national clergy, mercenary lawyers, and hereditary nobility examined; together with the expediency of an agrarian and rotation of offices asserted. Also, an apology for younger brothers, the restitution of gavil-kind, and relief of the poor. With a lift at tythes, and reformation of the lawes and universities. All accommodated to publick honour and justice, without injury to any mans propriety, and humbly tendered to the Parliament. By a lover of his country in order to the healing the divisions of the times.

Of an Agrarian.

1. FIrst, that there may be an Agrarian fixed, for stinting and setting bounds to the vast unsatiable desires that are found in greedy men after riches; which makes them not onely lay field to field, and joyn house to house (as was the complaint of the old Prophets) but to lay Town to Town, Parish to Parish, County to County, and Island to Island. May we ever expect a more righteous administration of things, while there are no bounds set to the waves of this raging passion, that is ready to swallow, not onely the houses of the widow, but whole Countreys? while there is no check upon co∣vetousness, the root of all evils; upon the immoderate desires of men, that like the daughters of the Horsleach, cry, Give, give; that are more unsatiable then Hell, or the Grave. Shall a price be set on the poor mans sweat and labour, and shall the growth of families have no bound? shall they raise their houses (according to the design of Babel) to the Heavens? as if having filled the earth with oppression, they would take Heaven also by violence. Is this suitable to a Commonwealth? or was this the design of our Reformation, to put the whole Land into the hands of a few Proprietors? was it for this end Abbeys were demolished, & the Hierarchy taken down, that a few Gentlemen, or elder Brethren, might have their lands, because they had not enough before? Is this the purchase of all our blood and treasure? to set up a few more gr••at families, to encrease the number of our Masters; who when they have ingrossed the lands and wealth of the whole Nation, there will remain nothing

for either of them to purchase, or us to sell, but our selves to be their slaves, and so restore vassallage, that hath been so long abrogated. We have had great disputes and sharp controversies; first, about a House of Lords, and since a Senate: But, in my apprehension, not worth a bulrush; for the case is the same, whether Lords or not Lords, when as the great Landlords in each Country, shall be constantly chosen by their Tenants, to be our Le∣gislators. Were it not as good they should have patents to sit for life, since we cannot suppose they will willingly accept of a Writ of Ease, or sit out of play (having to great stakes in the game) so long as they can so easily be shouldered in by their Tenants: Or if at any time they be kept out, have we not experience that they will leavy war against the present power? Doth not the war at this present day witness thereto? is it not then all one, whe∣ther we have an everlasting Parliament, or successive, if elections are but a new choice of the same men, and that it be not difficult to prick a Parliament, before the Writs are gone forth? And were this all the inconvenience, the evil were more tolerable; but do we not see how apt these Gentlemen of such vast and rank Estates are to leavy war, and imbrue the Land in blood? doth not this pro∣ceed from the greatness of their retinue, the multi∣tude of their tenants, the asfluency of their estates and fortunes?

Now what better expedient can be devised for this mis∣chief then an Agrarian? is it not more just and equira∣ble then the Grecian ostracism, or the Roman proscripti∣ons? can a Commonwealth be fixed without it? is it not absolutely necessary, that the proportion of lands be st••nt∣ed, lest otherw••••e the whole Island in process of time fall

into the hands of one or few Proprietors? what then will become of our Free-state? will not our Landlords erect what Government they please over us? moreover, will not this give great encouragement to hospitality, & works of charity, that men should know the bounds of their E∣states, the pillars on which is wrote their ne plus ultra? how can we ever expect good laws, or a more righteous State, while those worms of the earth, that possess the greatest dunghills, must be our Senators, because they have the greatest rout of tenants to voyce them into the saddle of Authority. Is this suitable to a Free-State, or becoming Christians? To what purpose is more wealth then what may with credit bear up the port of a chief Minister of State, and furnish forth the comforts and enjoyments of this life? is not he a Leviathan, and more greedy then Death, Hell, or the grave, that desires more? Now that such an Agrarian (which for its proportion, is submitted to the wisdom of our Senators) may be introduc'd, with∣out breaking down the hedge of any mans propriety, it is humbly proposed, that there may be a time assigned, wherein they that want posterity, or a noble spirit to part with any of their wealth to their poor relations, may con∣vert their lands into a personal estate, or otherwise dispose of them, by reason that an excess or redundancy in that, as exposed to greater casualty and hazard, so is of less dan∣ger to the Commonwealth then the other, which time ex∣pired, that all taxes & publike charges may be laid on such as have not conformed thereto, til their estates be crumbled down to the common standard, or due proportion, & that the State or Commonwealth may be declared heir, and to inherit whatever beyond the just proportion of the fixed Agrarian any man shall leave unto his heir or posterity.