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A78464 Certain considerations: being the legitimate issue of a true English heart: presented to the free-holders, and to the free men of the several corporations in this nation; to regulate their elections of Members to serve in the next Parliament, to be holden the 25. of Aprill, 1660. 1660 (1660) Wing C1691; Thomason E765_8; ESTC R207146 8,330 7

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CERTAIN CONSIDERATIONS BEING The LEGITIMATE ISSUE OF A True ENGLISH Heart Presented to the Free-holders and to the Free Men of the several Corporations in this NATION To Regulate their ELECTIONS OF MEMBERS to Serve in the next PARLIAMENT To be holden the 25. of Aprill 1660. LONDON Printed in the Year 1660. March 26. Certain Considerations being the Legitimate Issue of a true English heart Presented to the Free-holders and to the Free-men of the several Corporations in this Nation to regulate their Elections of Members to serve in the next PARLIAMENT to be holden the 25. of Aprill 1660. TAcitus makes it the bane of the Ancient Britains Quod in Commune non Consulunt That is they had no Common-Councels by which that great Statist meant either Parliaments or something equivalent to them And certainly Parliaments are the best Physick of a sick State but when the Physick shall become the disease and by Factions Interest Atheisme and the Consequents of that Sacriledge and contempt of that just Authority shall make the Nation sick of its own Remedy and turn blessings themselves into curses the wound both of Church and State will grow so wide that none butan Almighty hand can close them And thus hath this poor distracted Nation been near 20 years sick of their Physicians and now lies almost at the last gasp with bleeding hearts and watery eyes we cannot but remember for it is a Misery to remember how happy we were that the last late King Charles the best of Princes the Peoples Martyr and his Martyrdome the Astonishment and Earthquake of all Princes in the world in the 16 year of his Reign did summon a Parliament to be holden at Westminster on the 2. of November in the same year to consult with the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and other great men of the Kingdome concerning the difficult and urgent Affairs of the King and State and of the defence of the Kingdome and Church of England then glorious to the envie of some other States and the Admiration of all To this Parliament according to the summons came the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the several Counties Cities and Burroughs elected by the vertue of the said Writ according to the Custom of England ever since the 9. year of Henry the 3. And this was the first time that the Commons were admitted Members of Parliament and to fit in a distinct House by themselves but let this Truth never be forgotten that they sate then but in the Nature of a Grand Jury to present the grievances and desires of the people and on their behalf to consent to such Lawes as should be there ordained but that House of Commons taking advantage either by the weakness or necessities of their succeeding Kings grew as we have seen to such an exorbitancie of Power till at last they gave Law to their Masters and made the King himself but a Royal Homager But to proceed the Parliament consisting as it ought of Lords and Commons met accordingly in their respective Houses and according to custome did severally take the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacie whereby they swore O remember this all ye that did swear To bear true Faith to the Kings Majesty his Heirs and Successors and to defend him and them against all attempts and conspiracies against them their Persons Crown and Dignity and they did swear that they did abhor that damnable doctrine and a damnable one it is That Princes might be murthered and deposed this they swore But did they keep this Oath when they made their Iniquitie to triumph and erected the Scaffold the sad and unexpected Scean of the late Kings Death upon the very Margin of his Throne and made him goe out of the world at his own Door Poor Cateline whose modest Crimes made Tully eloquent enough to make his Crimes greater by his Eloquence but here Cicero himself would have been bankrupt and amasement become the best Rhetorick The Parliament thus met the King in a Speech declares his willing and ready concurrence to cure all the grievances of his People and to enact such Laws as should tend in order to it And because the Court of Star-chamber High Commission and Councel Table were great eye-sores to some men who liked no power which might control their disregard of Laws and just Authority His Majesty graciously consented to abolish the two first and to regulate the last And more then this devested himself of all Power giving away the Militia both by Sea and Land to those who wanted his Power to destroy him and secure their crimes Tonnage and Poundage were laid at the feet and pleasure of the Parliament and Monopolists and other Delinquents left to Justice and the grant of a Triennial Parliament was made the Monument of the Kings Goodness and the means to the peoples perpetual felicity And might we not stop here and say Happy are the people that be in such a case The people had now nothing to ask nor the King to give that reason could require but this could not satisfie men who scorn'd the Throne and were resolved that their Ambition should trample upon the very Goodness of their King And therefore now Religion and Reformation The usual Masque of Rebellion must be the Engine to earch the people whose power they wanted to oppress their King and the publique Faith must be pawn'd to raise Money to gratifie our Dear Scottish Brethren who must needs be sent for and an Army of 20000. invi●ed to force the people to a New Religion for the Old was condemn'd without the Liberty of speaking for it self But the most of this Design was but in projection as yet such an Embrio could not be produced without the grant of a perpetual Parliament which by the Kings Necessities they soon wrested from him Now was the Oath of Allegiance forgot and the King affronted with all the effects of hold defiance and the six Members accused of Treason by their Prince and in due course of Law impeached in the House of Peers protected and the King traduced with the breach of their priviledges and yet till then never any Member claimed priviledge for Felony or Treason Of which last had those Gentlemen been free the world could not have given them so much Honour as would have grown to them by their Trial. The Innocent never dread the Tribunal the guilty only fear Yet the Members justifie themselves but it is with the numbers of the people and by force and affronts about the Royal Pallace endanger the King to their fury who now devested of of all Power but that of an unconquered Patience makes an Honourable flight to Windsore to give his afflictions breath and to consider the safety of his Royal Consort and hopeful Children The Queen leaves the Land because she could not be safe in it and the King as far as he had any Land accompanies her The King finding the South so tempestuous seeks a Calm in the North but that the