have continued that discipline in Church affaires which he cals Persecuting so that as yet whatever hath been declared by the people diffusively or collectedly hath been contradictory to our Authours liberty And possibly this may be the cause why though he cries them up for so refined a party and fit to be trusted yet that in this particular he would binde up their hands absolutely not trust them at all I wil hope our Authour is not popishly inclined because of his expressions in the latter end of his seventh Page viz That by what be proposed a great part of the outward exercise of antichristian Tyranny and Bondage would be plucked up by the roots Yet permit me to say if his notion be practised he hath left as free a latitude for the exercise of the profession of the Papists as for the profession of the Truth and this I am confident the Honest party of this Nation never did design and if our Author does he had need truly to shackle and manacle their Representative before they fit since they will never doe that to themselves after they sit But that you may see how little cause our Author hath to be offended in this particular read but the 36 37 and 38. Articles of the Government wherein so large a latitude is allowed in matters of conscience that I think no man hath reason to repine that he hath not enough I wish some good men do not think if any cause of complaint be it be not on the other hand But if our Author will not credit the Government I desire but that he will credit himself to evince the truth of what I assert For in the upper part of his eight Page he makes use of these very words That therein viz. true Freedome in matters of Conscience the present Governours have been willing very eminently to give their testimony in their publique Declarations so that what grievance is found amongst us therein is in probability more from the officiousness of subordinate Ministers than otherwise Our Author not condiscending to set down either wherein such subordinate Ministers have been too officious or the persons who have been so methinks evidences that any cause of grievance therein is rather pretended than acted For if any such really and actually had been t is not likely they had remain'd uncomplained of since thereby one of these two Ends had been attained a Redresse of the ill or failing thereof a clear Discovery that such Declarations and Laws were only intended to delude and not protect such tender consciences either of which carry in them too much cause of satisfaction or complaint to have been unessayed had there been grounds for it And t is very improbable that our Governours should make Lawes not to observe them whereby they must not only have been found guilty of Hypocrifie but also by sleighting their own Rules in some cases have invited the people to have done the like in many if not in all others Having thus Sir expressed unto you my poor apprehensions concerning this one General relating to true Freedome in matters of conscience I shall proceed to the other which is the Peoples just Right in civil things which our Author makes chiefly if not only to consist in enjoying the Freedome to set up meet persons in the place of supreme judicature and authority amongst them In which I believe things being throughly examined there will remain as little cause of complaint as in the former For in that particular the government hath been signally and justly careful to provide as may appeare from the sixth to the twenty-fifth Article of it by which we are more safe therein than ever we yet were and possibly as safe as the nature and quality of such a thing can well admit But perhaps our Author is not satisfied that any which have been against us should be restored after three Triennial Parliaments to a capacity of being elected or of becomming electors of Members in succeeding Representatives If that be the quarrel as some of his expressions seem to inferr I shall desire him to read but his own words about the midst of his seventeenth Page wherein he saies If as the Foundation of all the Soveraignty be acknowledged to reside originally in the whole Body of adherents to this cause whose natural and inherent Right thereunto is of a far antienter date than what is obtained by success of their Armes and so cannot be abrogated even by conquest it self if that were the case c. Which words if true methinks clearly prove that our Governors have done those people whom we through the providence of God have conquered more wrong in debarring them so long then the Good people in debarring them no longer For if it be such a natural and inherent Right that even conquest it selfe cannot abrogate it how come they to lose it And if it be said that none have a Right thereunto but by adhering to the Good cause then our Author contradicts himselfe since he saies this Right is of a far antienter date than what is obtained by successe and armes But in my opinion the Wisdome and Care of those which compiled the Government is signally evident in this particular for so long our enemies are excluded as a competent time to wear out that heat and animosity which they have contracted against their conquerours As also to let them rellish and throughly know the sweet and benefit of this Government above that which they contended for And possibly too as a time for triall of their good behaviour which t is likely they cannot counterfeit so many years And they are excluded no longer nor for ever lest it should perpetually entaile those Divisions which in wisdome and charity we should endeavour to Heale and Cement Besides our Author neere the latter end of his twentieth Page mentions as a necessary thing that when the supreme authority should be convened according to his device one of their first Acts should be to pass an Act of Oblivion which doubtless is not that our enemies should forget they ever had a Right and Title to elect or be elected Or if this be meant I think all things else will appear rather a Name than a Thing But since that contraries being opposed doe the better illustrate and set forth each other let us take a prospect of what ouâ— condition was before the war and our now government and what 't is by it The King was never bound to call a Parliament at least never did but when he could hardly avoid it the Protector iâ— tied to call a Parliament every third yeere sometimes oftner The King when a Parliament was call'd could or did at his pleasure dissolve it the Protector when a Parliament is called cannot dissolve or prorogue it without its own consent till five moneths bâ— effluxt a time competent to make or repeal Laws and call tâ— account and punish the great offenders the true and proper end of
Parliament The King had or assumed a Negative Voice to alâ— Bills presented to him by the Parliament Or at least denyeâ— them with a French complement Le Roy S'avisera The Protector hath but twenty dayes Deliberation and then if not by common consent altered they pass without him The King in the intervals of Parliament was not yoaked with any council which had a Negative upon him The Protector is The King chose all his Council The Protector excepting the now Council which could not be a avoided in effect chooses no more but the people doe it in their Representatives for they nominate All that are to be chosen though the Protector out of such so nominated does at last choose And for the Council that now are what can Parliaments desire more than if they Govern well to have the people enjoy the Benefit If ill themselves to avoid the Blame to act the redresse and to impose the Punishment Had a Parliament nominated the Council they could have had but the satisfaction of their own opinions that the Council would have acted as they ought and the opinion of an Assembly never made a man other than he is But the Punitive power being ever in their Hands they are as safe as a thing of that nature can admit No authority can prevent a mans being evil it can but punish him for hiâ— having been so The King made all his great Officers in the three Nations without the Knowledge or Consent of the Parliament The Protector can make none without both The King commanded the Militia absolutely and by our desiring it from him even when our Prisoner we implicitely owned that right was in him the Protector can doe nothing with the Militia a Parliament setting without their consent and in their intervals without the councill who are a kind of representative of the people The King not only as such but by vertue of the Laws had thereby so ensnared the consciences of good men that without being Rebels they could not shun being Martyrs if they continued in this Commonwealth the Protector by the government hath taken off those Inquisition-like and severe Lawes and not only doth admit but protects all such as professe faith in God by Jesus Christ though differing in judgement from the doctrine worship and discipline publiquely held forth so that they abuse not this liberty to the civill injury of others nor to the actuall disturbance of the publique peace and do not under this profession hold forth and practice licenciousnesse provided that liberty extend not to Popery A wholesome provision which our Authors liberty hath quite left out or forgot These besides many others are the rich and high fruits of those victories which the Lord in Mercy hath given his people which are such that if any things are capable to compensate the expence of so much time treasure and precious blood these are and indeed wee seem hardly to want any thing but gratefull quiet spirits under what we possesse By all which it is evident that the peoples just rights in civil things which our Author makes chiefely if not only to consist in free national assemblies are not only comprehended in the government but so explicitely set down that he which runs may read which makes mee hardly abstaine from repining at any man that shall endeavour to loose this knot and cast away our present certainties only to try new experiments and conclusions but possibly our Author wil not be satisfied unlesse things of a civil nature be left at as much uncertainty as those of a spiritual for towards the latter end of his 20 page he hath these expressions viz the people represented in their highest state of Soveraignty as they have the Sword in their hands unsubjected unto the rules of civill government but what themselves assembled to that purpose do think fit to make By which he seems to inferre that by our successe we have fought our selves into nothing but what hereafter shall be established I thinke very few men when the war began did engage in it upon that account and for that end for my part I did not though in prayers in counsel in person and in Purse I have been of it from the first day till this houre the Parliament by their declaration stating the grounds of their taking up Armes which invited all the good people thereunto mentioned no such thing but on the contrary enumerated those rights which were denied to them and those wrongs which had been obtruded on them the first of which they sought to obtaine and the last to repaire and vindicate and indeed to my poor capacity it would seem a kinde of enchantment thatthings prosecuted should be real certaine when they were fought for and should turne into shadowes notions when acquired by the defeat of him who denied them It would doubelesse extenuate the crime of the common enemy in doing what they did had they known we designed what our Author doth no doubtlesse we had a known right to fight for before Armes were taken up which by victoriously defending and regaining we have not lost but perhaps some may say our Author ascribes this boundless power to what the people duely assembled in their Representatives may act but I finde what he speakes is not of what they may doe as an effect of their Authority but what is done as an effect of Conquest Our Author prosecutes his treatise in telling us first the qualifications of the persons which have adhered to this cause secondly the capacity wherein they have been found from time to time carrying it on As to the first he sayes they have constantly shewed their forwardnesse in it in Purse Person or counsell as the cause is truly stated in the two branches thereof already spoken unto as it is more largely expressed from the midst of his 8 page to the midst of his 9 page only I am to observe that one marke of their qualifications hath been that in order to those ends they have stood by the Army in defence and support thereof against all opposition whatever that is not only against the common enemy but against the Parliament it selfe first when one of its two estates did not their duty and also when the other sailed in theirs And the Author doth give you an excellent reason for their having so done viz As those that by the growing light of these times have been taught led forth in their experiences to look above and beyond the Letter Form and outward Circumstances of Government into the outward Reason and Spirit thereof therein only to fix and terminate to the leaving behind all empty shadowes that would obtrude themselves into the place of true Freedome Which words are expressed about the midst of his ninth page And I believe are set down by him not only to justifie what is past but to authorize what may be acted in the future for if it be allowable in preceding times it may in parallel
be that there were none and they forthwith disbanded But before I proceed farther permit me I beseech you to observe one expression more in the same page viz The good peoples Army raised by them wherein he doth sure allude to what should be if his Utopla tooke place consequently that a new Army should be raised or else why is it said raised by them Continued by them had been more significant clear if his sense had not been such as I understand it to be and indeed all his expressions are so full of strength and light in what he doth set down that this expression makes me the more confident I have hit upon his intentions in those his words which if I have many genuine Inferences may be thereby collected which may well manifest the designe our Author drives at but indeed are too voluminous for a Letter But I cannot omit one passage of his in his 11. page towards the midst of it viz The Army putting themselves with their fellow Adherents to the cause under the Rule and Authority of their own supream Judicature they lose not their Power or soveraignty but by becomming one civil or Politique incorporation with the whole party of honest men they doe keep the soveraignty as originally seated in themselves and part with it only but as by deputation and representation of themselves when it is brought into an orderly way of exercise by being put into the hands of Persons chosen and intrusted by themselves to that purpose By which words he would infuse into the people that the Army believe they have acquired the soveraignty over all which if true might justly render us worthy of the hatred even of our friends and brethren nay by his words he not only makes us enslavers of the people in this age but may possibly make us the like in ages to come for if the original right is in us as the Army and we part with it but by deputation we may as well recall our right from those to whom we shall depute it Whereby the Army shall become indeed the supreame Authority and as our Author hath designed it the Army shall alwaies be We are the Lord knows but too ill of our selves and need no such Painters who through designe or ignorance draw us worse than through mercy we are or I trust ever shall be he sayes we are lovely in those clothes he hath Clad us with but makes all others to be monsters which shall weare the like Having now I hope evinced unto you that by the government we are now through providence under the people enjoy true freedome in matters of conscience their just right in civil things those to be conveyed to them by their Representatives duely chosen and not fettered or manacled as our Author would have them I shall now proceed to what remaines He tells us in his first and 2 pages That this cause hath still the same goodnesse in it as ever and is as much as ever in the Hearts of the good people who have adhered unto it that it is not lesse to be valued now than when neither blood nor treasure were thought too dear to carry it on that the persons engaged in it are stil the same as before with the advantage of being more tryed more inured to danger hardship c. All which being granted methinks doth clearely infer that the good people by their continuing quiet do evidently confesse they have got what they chiefly contended for or that what remaines unacquired is not worthy to be solicited by engaging in new warres or hazarding what through mercy they now possess possibly we have not all we aimed at and possibly it is well for us as well as others that we have not There are many things men would endeavour to obtain when a war is made which they wil not make a war to obtain besides it is likely we are but too positive in not acquiescing in any thing short of all we drove at which may have justly provoked the Lord to have denied us our hearts wish that we might have more of dependency upon his good wil less of estimation for our own designs resolutions Our Authour tels us that if a supreame representative were constituted as aforesaid hardly afterwards any new thing would stick as to the forme of administration and descends to a standing councill of state settled for life whose orders should bebinding in the intervalls of national assemblies as far as they were consonant to the settled Lawes the vacancy or death of any of which to be supplied by the vote of the Major partof themselves but herein the people are more beholding to the government than to our Authour for by it the people in their Representatives choose such counsellors and do not permit them to choose themselves which if allowed might entaile both them Faction upon the people Nay he continues would there beany just exception to be taken if it should be agreed as another part of the fundamentall constitution of the government to place the branch of soveraignty which chiefly respects the execution of the Lawes in the hands of one single Person and for the greater strength and honour unto this office that the execution of all Lawes and orders that are binding may goe forth in his name and all disobedience thereunto and contempt thereof be taken as done to the peoples soveraignty whereof he bears the Image or representation c. And then again in the same 18 page Would such an office as this thus stated carry in it any inconsistency with a free state Nay if it be well considered would it not be found of excellent use to the well-being of Magistracy founded upon this righteous bottome that such a Lieuetenancy of the peoples soveraignty in these three Nations may alwaies reside in some one or some more persons in whose administration that which is reward and punishment may shine forth By all which Sir you may evidently perceive he is so far from being against those main hinges and Pillars upon which our Government moves and by which it is supported that he gives pregnant and strong arguments for them only he would have the people doe it and I say they have done it already even in the choice of their last Parliament and in the Parliament it selfe nay I dare averre that never any Government in the three Nations was more fully and explicitely owned by the people than this now in exercise hath been neither ever yet was any forme of Government more clearly exposed to the peoples judgements nor received by them than this hath been I am certain that Common-wealth was not which we so lately have extricated our selves out of and which possibly our Author may not be undesirous to have us revert unto for that mutation was made only by the remnant of a Representative in which too many of the people had none to speake or act for them But this forme of
Government we now are under viz. by a single person and a Parliament was sent down into every Shire and County of the Nations that none except enemies and people not worth 200. l. might pretend ignorance or be denied his opinion and vote and upon such proofe and tryal the people not only embraced it but even tied every individual of their Representative not to alter it But our Author may say that indenture by which they did so was sent down to them to sign and I say but it was signed by them the Government did but offer the condition but 't was the people did accept it Our Author may farther say 't was a few of the people did so to which I answer that either those which did it were the greater or the lesser number of the people If the lesser how comes it about the greater did not oppose it if the greater the objection ceases If all are summon'd and all doe not appear those which do are to be reputed as all else no election could be made or esteemed valid Our Author speaks of a general Council or Convention to be called by the present power but considered as general which Convention though chosen by the Body of all the Adherents to this Cause are not yet to exercise their Legislative power but only to debate freely and agree upon the particulars that by way of fundamental constitutions shall be laid and inviolaby observed as the condition upon which the Body so represented doth cast it self into a Civil and Politique Incorporation c. as is more at large set down in his 20th page I beseech you Sir take notice of these words the Body of all the Adherents to this Cause without taking care as anciently that none but freeholders should choose or be chosen in Shires or as our Government hath now well provided that none shall choose or be chosen but persons worth 200 l. that is men who probably by their substance have not only some competent degree of understanding who to choose but also some interest and cause to choose well as having purses which are likely and capable to feel it if they do otherwise By which wild Latitude if allowed we might come to have as odde work in things of a civil concernment as our proposed liberty in spirituals is like to leave us in in soul concernments Indeed a civil Authority so chosen is likelier to introduce such dangerous liberties than a Representative chosen either by the old or the new rules But though I must commend our Author who having proposed the end sets up the readiest way to attain it yet I more commend our Government which hath so well provided against our great Representative's being in a capacity to be chosen by the Refuse of the people or to be composed of them Having made this I think needful digression I shall now beg your leave Sir to speak a few words both to the thing propounded and to the manner of acting it To the thing It is to be an assembly to agree upon fundamentals of Government which were in effect to do less well for the people then the Government hath already done for there is no question if 't were practicable for all the people of the three Nations to transact their own business by themselves without Representatives it would be more clear and satisfactory for them to do it in that way than in the other And though the people do choose those people for their Representatives which they most trust in yet they trust more in themselves than in such so chosen Besides it often so falls out that many of the people are unavoidably Represented by persons whom they have not chosen nay against whose choise they have actually declared as is evident in the voices for Knights and Burgesses where the majority of votes though but in one excludes all others that are voted for These being irrefutable truths I cannot but commend the wisedom and ingenuity of the Government and the happiness of the people that an affair of this nature should be ordered so advantagiously that in the main form of the Government viz. whither it should be by a single person and a Parliament they have not been left implicitely as our Author proposes to the sense of their Representatives but have been made the clear and proper Judges thereof themselves by which it would be hard to tell whither the people are more actually obliged in what the Government hath done or intentionally disobliged in what the Author proposes Let this model proposed be but well considered and let every reasonable man be judge our Author would have an assembly chosen by all the Honest Party which should agree upon fundamental constitutions of Government which for ever after the supream Legislative power should be obliged unto and should not have power to alter Doe but see in this what a weak thing all our Authors discourse turns upon These fundamentals are to be agreed upon by the peoples Representatives and to oblige the supream Legislative power which is to be the peoples Representatives also so that the peoples Representatives once met are to oblige their Representatives for ever after which is a thing not only absurd in it self in the nature of it but of the highest improbability in the practice of it for who can dream that Representatives of the people when chosen and met will ever hold themselves obliged by any constitutions of former Representations farther then they shall according to time and circumstance agree with their liking since they all stand upon one foot of power as entrusted by the people and the latter may as well and by as good right alter constitutions and laws agreed by the former as the former could make such so that if our Author will trust the peoples Representatives at first to make fundamentals by as good reason he may trust them ever without any at all since that the power and choice of observing or not observing those fundamentals will alwayes rest in themselves and this unavoidably so Doubtless the best way to convince our Author were a liberty given him to put in practice his own new-framed Government for then he would not fail to find and experiment that unreasonableness and impracticability in it which he doth not now see Let but all matters of Government be left as rasa tal ula to all the Honest Party who have adhered to this good Cause and I believe whither you respect them by themselves or in their Representatives they will so little agree with any of our Authors principles from the beginning to the end of his Booke that I doubt he would recurre again to that growing light he speakes of to make but letter and forme of such conventions as he seems formerly to have done and find out some other way to justifie and bring about those things he aimes at Certainly our Author may design the overthrow of the present Government by defacing and blemishing of