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A29561 The third speech of the Lord George Digby to the House of Commons concerning bishops and the citie petition the 9th of Febr. 1640 Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677. 1640 (1640) Wing B4775; ESTC R210026 6,494 18

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THE THIRD SPEECH OF THE LORD GEORGE DIGBY To the House of Commons Concerning Bishops and the Citie Petition the 9th of Febr 1640. Printed for Tho Walkley 1640. The Lord Digbies Speech to the House of COMMONS concerning Bishops and the Citie Petition the ninth of Febr. 1640. Mr. SPEAKER I Know it is a tender subject I am to speake of wherein I beleeve some within these walls are engaged with earnestnesse in contrary opinions to mine and therefore it will bee necessary that in the first place I beseech the patience of this House that they will bee pleased to heare mee without interruption though somewhat I say should chance to bee displeasing I hope there will bee somewhat from mee ere I conclude that may bee of service to this House Sir if I thought there were no further designe in the desires of some that this London Petition should bee committed then merely to make use of it as an Index of grievance I should winke at the faults of it and not much oppose it There is no man within these walls more sensible of the heavy grievance of Church government then my selfe nor whose affections are keene to the clipping of those wings of the Prelates whereby they have mounted to such insolencies nor whose zeale is more ardent to the searing them as that they may never spring againe But having reason to beleeve that some ayme at a totall extirpation of Bishops which is against my heart and that the committing of this Petition may give countenance to that designe I cannot restraine my selfe from labouring to divert it or at least to set such notes upon it as may make it ineffectuall to that end Truly Sir when this Petition was first brought into the House I considered it in its nature in the manner of the delivery in the present conjuncture of affaires both Ecclesiasticall and Civill to be a thing of the highest consequence that any age hath presented to a Parliament and the same thoughts I have of it stil I professe I looked upon it then with terrour as upon a Commet a blasing starre raised and kindled out of the stench out of the poysonous exhalation of a corrupted Hierarchy Me thought the Commet had a terrible tayle with it Sir and pointed to the North the same feares dwell with mee still concerning it and I beseech God they may not prove Propheticall I feare all the Prudence all the Fore-cast all the Vertue of this House how unitedly soever collected how vigorously applyed will have a hard worke of it Yet to hinder this meteor from causing such distempers and Combustions by its influence as it then portended by its appearance what ever the event be I shall discharge my conscience concerning it freely and uprightly as unbyast by popularity as by any Court respects Sir I could never flatter the sense of this House which I reverence so much as to suppresse a single no that my heart dictated though I knew the venting of it might cast prejudices upon mee had my fortune plac't mee neere a King I could not have flattered a King And I doe not intend now to flatter a multitude I shall desire those worthy Aldermen and the rest here of the Citie of London not to take any thing I shall say in the least way of disparagement or reflection on the Citie I looke not upon this Petition as a Petition from the Citie of London but from I know not what 15000. Londoners all that could bee got to subscribe When this Petition was first presented there might bee more reason for the Commitment of it as being then the most comprehensive Catalogue wee had of Church grievance but now that the Ministers by their remonstrance have given us so faire and full an Index of them without those mixtures of things contemptible irrationall and presumptuous wherewith this Petition abounds I doe not know I professe to what good end it can bee committed being full of contemptible things but first let me recall to your mind the manner of its deliverie And I am confident there is no man of judgement that will thinke it fit for a Parliament under a Monarchie to give countenance to irregular and tumultuous assemblies of people bee it for never so good an end Besides there is no man of the least insight into nature or Historie but knowes the danger when either true or pretended stimulation of conscience hath once given a multitude agitation Contemptible things Sir swarme in the 8. 13. 14. 15. 16. ●7 Articles of this Petition Did ever any body think that the gaites of Ovid or Tom. Caryes muse should by 15000. have beene presented to a Parliament as a motive for the extirpation of Bishops the scandall of the Rochet the Lawne sleeves the foure corner Cap the Cope the Surplesse the Tippet the Hood the Canonicall Coat c. may passe with arguments of the same weight onely thus much let me observe upon it Mr. Speaker that one would sweare the Penners of the Article had the pluming of some Bishops already they are so acquainted with every feather of them In a word I know not whether bee more preposterous to inferre the extirpation of Bishops from such weake Arguments or to attribute as they doe to Church government all the civill grievance not a patent not a Monopolie not the price of a commodity raised but these men make Bishops the cause of it For the irrationall part Mr. Speaker first they petition us in a Method onely allowable with those whose Iudgement or Iustice is suspected that is Inquum petere ut aequum feras There is no Logick no reasoning in their demands It were want of Logick in mee to expect it from a multitude but I consider the multitude in this is led by implicite faith to that which hath beene digested and contrived but by a few and in them truly I cannot but wonder at the want of Reconciliation here A Petition Mr. Speaker ought in this to be a kind of Silogisme that the Conclusion the prayer ought to hold proportion with the premisses that is with the Allegations and Complaints and to bee reasonably deduc't from them But what have wee here a multitude of Allegations a multitude of Instances of abuses and depravations of Church government And what inferred from thence let the use bee utterly abolisht for the abuses sake As if they should say that because Drunkennesse and Adultery are growne so epidemicall as is alleadged in the Petition Let there bee no more use of Wine nor of Women in the Land Christs discipline hath beene adulterated 't is true the whole Church inebriated by the Prelates therefore inferre our Petitioners let not so much as the chaste the sober use of them bee suffered Give mee leave to continue one of the Comparisons a little further should it be demonstrated unto us that Wine could not be made use of without drunkennesse and withall some such liquor presented as healthy and as nourishing from which no