The Vnbiassed STATESMAN Laying the Government in an equal BALANCE BEING A SEASONABLE WORD For the Commonvvealth In a seasonable time from a well seasoned Friend viz. A real Lover of his Country Published for the begetting a right understanding between the People their Representatives and the Army LONDON Printed for Livewel Chapman at the Crown in Popes-Head-Alley 1659. The Vnbiassed STATESMAN HOW miserable the State of these three Nations hath been for many years and still is most men are sensible and how far the remedies prescribed for its recovery have fallen short of working a good effect our present Calamities unsettledness and distractions are too clear a proof All remedies hitherto for the curing of our distempers have wrought no other effect but to distemper and make sick the body Politick only raise and cause the peccant humors to boil up and not eâ—â—ate But that which is worse then the former is this the remedies used are so far from true and sound curing that they become in the peoples apprehensions Symptomatical and by them accounted of the nature of the disease it self they are so for from removing the Oppressions Tyrannies and sore Evils under which the good people groan that they are reckoned among the Number of our Calamities This Nation hath been sick and in a languishing condition for some ages We had a Parliament called in 1640. who we believed were able and willing Physitians to cure our Maladies with them did the good people of the Nation engage and faâ—â—ened their expectations and thought they had firmely anchored upon their endeavours but alas the foundation proved sandy our Ship tossed up and down could find no harbour and poor sick England grew sick of the cure and weary of her Physician How far the offence taken against the then Serâ—â—â—â—s was just or unjust I shall not now make Enquity or how far they followed their own wills and pursued their own ends more then the desires and wellfares of them who entrusted them with their power I shall not here determine knowing how many severe judges there were and are of their actions But true it is that after much blood and treasure spilt the King and the common Enemy conquered and a change made in the form of Government a new Image and superscription put upon it which was a matter of great concernment to the three Nations most men grew unsatisfied To wave the complaints and outcries of such as unjustly complained viz. of such as cannot be pleased unless others be crushed whose desires hopes endeavours and ends are various and contrary and so are their welfares for which way soever the scale turns a considerable part sinks groanes and complains of the oppression Tyranny and hardship which they undergo by the ease and exaltation of others As if there were no common good where all honest interests might meet No superiority dignity for some without slavery and contempt for Othes Must one mans reason become another mans rule or arme him to destroy him Had we more true wisedome amongst us contrariety would be better ordered that it might no longer harshly jarre but make up a sweet Harmony Many even too many complain of unrighteousness abroad yet consider not how they nourish cherish dung and water the root thereof in themselves and are unrighteous in judging others for unrighteousness Can such men expect that God should make their superiors just towards them in their actings whilest they are so unjust in the interpretation of their actings Or is it not consentaneous to Justice and Equity that every man in his turn and season should meet with that force oppression and injustice which he in his desire reason and judgment hath measured out to other Waving I say the complaints of such men let us not shut our Ears to the complaints to the fears and jealousies of the good people who willingly served the Parliament and freely offered up their Lives Blood and Estates for them and the Cause who after the expence of their Lives Blood and Treasure grow jealous of their new-erected Goverment and could but expect and desire that they should give the people security that this new mold of Goverment should not prove as burdensome tyrannical and oppressive as the former For wise men saw that multitude of affairs and prolixity of their motions were like to eat up the benefit of the Parliament and swallow up their credit with the people Whilest they tired both themselves and the people they complained of their work and the people complained of their burthens the work grew upon them and the burdens still lay upon the people The attendance the seeking waiting for relief eat up the sweetness of that which the people get from them Oh how could the people be pleased with these their actions Whilest their groanes and complaints under their afflictions pierced not their ears and hearts though their consciences could not but tell them that they ought to have eased them of their pressures Here good people may you behold the beginning of our backsliding and Apostasy for whilest the spirits of most men were elevated with contempt and disdain of their then too lofty Senators whom a little before they had in much a we and reverence The Grandees of the Army whether intending to advance the good Old Cause or their own fortunes I know not put a period to their sitting But mark what followed the contempt of the people towards that famous Parliament gave opportunity to aspiring and ambitious spirits to bring about their own designs and to make the good Old Cause and her Servants as a bawd and her panders to cover and obscure their whoring after honour and Kingly dignity so that by this means the late diverted stream was almost brought into its former chanel of Monarchy and the good Old Cause not only neglected but reproached and denyed and such as continued faithful to the same became the most contemptible of mankind Thus did the common Enemy gain advantage over the good people and the good Old Cause till they were even upon the brink of destruction ready to be rent torn by their hungry greedy jaws and swallowed into their endless gut of malice Till the Army were awakened from their drouzy and careless security and in tenderness to their awakened consciences or to their own welfare and security which had got wing and was flying from them took courage to cut down the Sucker which otherwiâ—e in a short time had grown as high as the former lofty Cedar from whose root it sprang and to evidence in part their repentance called that famous Parliament who before had changed the Goverment from Kingly to a Commonwealth Thus stands the Estate of this Commonwealth we hope freed from Monarchy and delivered from her Aristocratical Ape and that the foundation of Democracie may be firmly laid and our State free indeed give me leave to offer a word or two to the People to the Parliament to the Army I
Egypt for ever had not the Lord provided dangers and necessities as strong motives to you to fetch us out deliver your selves You are members of the body and are and must be sensible of its joy and sorrow You cannot say because you wear the Sword that you are unconcerned in the affairs of State Let not your interests stand in Antipathy to the interests of the good people but labour to be faithful to your own and the peoples just interests and the Parliaments Priviledges We earnestly desire you to joyn with the good people of these Nations in addressing your selves unto the Parliament and assisting both them and the people in establishing of peace righteousness and justice among us that as we have laboured so we may rejoyce together and reap the fruit of our labours in peace and tranquillity which that we may do I make bold also to offer three things to you 1. That as we have cause to bless God for the largeness of your power so for the preventing of any evil effects which may be likely to spring therefrom we desire to have see and know a standard bounds and limits of your power also that as you ought not to hold up your Sword in vain so that you may so hold it up as to hold up the honest interest and priviledges both of Parliaments and People 2. That you will advise with the good people and joyn with them and present to the Parliament what may be thought meet as principles of reason and Rules of Law to be bounds and Limits for future Parliaments and hedges and fences for them you and us 3. And that you will make use of your power only to see the fundamental principles and Rules of Reason and Law performed and be ready to joyn with the people when their Liberties just rights are likely to be infringed and that you will not without the consent of the good people and upon apparent breach of the Parliamentary trust intermeddle with their affairs or disturb their proceedings Nor on the other hand we desire you not to act any thing against the people or any particular person contrary to the civil Law or Limits set to you by Parliament nor suffer any to be persecuted who have not transgressed the Civil Law intrenched upon the Parliaments Priviledges or fundamental principles as aforesaid This may be useful both in respect of Parliament People and Army for want of which all three have been drawn to act things displeasing to each other which otherwise they would not have done This is the way to make the three parts Sympahetically labour to build up the body and to employ the power of each for the good of all This is a way to take away all occasions of differences which now continually do arise when every man is left to his own perhaps misbyassed reason and judgment and hath no clear rule to guide his eye and thoughts by This is a triple Cord which if well woven twisted will not easily be broken but be of great use as a fagot-band to hold the little and great short and long and sorts and sizes together Thus far have I vented my self partly for my own but principally for the publick good of which I have been a long time full I conceive it a needfull subject how well it may be relished or find acceptance I patiently wait and cheerfully submit let the Lot be good or bad part of my end I have already viz. the publication thereof if it find acceptance be a means to do good or set abler heads and deeper brains to perform somthing which shall be more excellent and worthy of publick view I have my whole end If it doth neither I desire in patience to possess my soul and rest content till the times be more capable of hearing and submitting to reason or I enabled from above to judge of things better and more effectually to declare them An End
hope I may make bold to begin with the people the ground root and foundation of all power whose representatives Parliaments are who are entrusted with the peoples Liver Liberties and Estates as Pâ—offees in trust as Stewards or Servants not Lords nor unbounded and unlimited Masters To the good people who have adhered to the good Old Cause who have been instrumental to bring the Nation out of its Egyptian Monarchical bondage have continued faithful to this day I say that by you are and ougâ—t Parliaments to be constituted or you your interest our ends and to fulfill your intentions ought they to act and as they receive their being so ought they to be bounded by you Therefore in all humility I offer these things to the serious consideration of the good people First that you would all unanimously declare from every Corner of the Nation that the Legislative power lieth in you and in your representatives by you Legally chosen whom you have entrusted with this power not entailed it upon them and their heirs for ever and for this end and no other that the act and do your wills and not their own 2. That you would all with one consenâ— declare what your wills are and what are the oppressions you groan under that the Parliament may know what they ought to do and if they neglect be left without excuse 3. That your trust be not abused nor the power you have given to the Parliament inftead of preserving your liberties made use of to instinge them And that the priviledges of Parliament swallow not up your rights and Liberties which they ought to defend and maintain that you would with one heart endeavour that there may be some bounds and Limits set before the Parliament beyond which they ought not to pass Let there be some standing Priviledges Principles of Reason or Rules of Law extant whereto any person doubting might address himself for satisfaction and to which the actions and acts of Parliament ought exactly to answer To the Parliament I say O that you would be wonderous watchful over your selves and wary in the managing of yours and the peoples affairs for there is a far severer Eye upon you now then formerly Labour to be faithful Stewards in that which the people hath entrusted you with You have and that justly too blamed your predecessors for unjustice and you have seen the Judgment of God follow them you have been also sensible of your own unjustice and the Judgment of God upon you in so much that after you had been owned by the good people had in reverence awe love esteem and fear of all you became suddenly a scorn and reproach to all sorts of people and in conclusion cast out with scorn reproach scarce one among all your friends that had one drachm of pitty for you You have since seen the Judgment of God fall upon your interruptors for their unrighteousness and unjustice And the Lord hath been so merciful to you as to set you once more in a capacity to act for the peoples good Which if you do O how will good men blesse God for you and Chronologize you to posterity and your faithfulness to God and your Country be founded forth from one generation to another On the contrary if you slight the Cause of God and the peoples good the affections of your friends will soon decayâ— the presence of the Lord will depart from you and the Judgement of God which you already have had a sence of will inevitably fall upon you Oh now consider what opportunities you have had what you now do enjoy to do the people good do your work throughly go to the bottome let the Nation be free indeed you have thrown down one power for its arbitraryness do not set up another but let a foundation of freedome and Righteousness be laid in the laying of which singly eye the good and welfare of the people in general not particular persons and interests For the effecting of which I conceive three things principally to be minded The first is good Laws The second is proper fit hands for the executing those Laws And thirdly an exact rule or way whereby their hands may be guided to a due and speedy execution of those Laws Let the Laws be bounds of right and Liberty and determine what every man shall enjoy for his own what he may act for himself and what he must act for the Publick Let the Laws be certain and suited to the State of the Nation Let them be clear and easy to be known by the people Lest a foundation of injustice and misery lie at the bottome that they become not Snares to them whom it should preserve from ensnaring nor give occasion to cunning and crafty heads to crush and perplex the plain hearted The next thing is execution without which the Law signifies nothing it is the life of the Law without which the Law is neither terrour nor encouragement For the best Laws are to little purpose if they be not placed into fit hands for the faithful execution of them And indeed we are subject more to complain and have most cause so to do concerning the Non-execution of the Laws we have then the Non-addition of the Laws we want After good Laws and fit hands to execute them it is meet that there be a clear Rule prescribed to them that are to execute lest being left to their own wills in the determination of things to follow their own apprehensions and judgments being furnished with corruption to draw them aside and advantages of security beyond others as authority power and greatness do alwayes afford they lay an arbitrary foundation and reare a Tyrannical Government Therefore the people are bound in respect to their own safety and those they entrust in matters of Government First to provide good Laws for themselves to be governed by Secondly due bounds to keep them in who are to execute those Laws For the making of good Laws to provide for execution and to keep the executors within due bounds the people have provided workmen and given them authority viz. to wit Parliaments they have as yet had but a slender account of their Stewardship much do they expect from this present Parliament or a strict account for the breach of trust from every particular member Right honourable you are the Supream Authority you have an extraordinary power entrusted you with for extraordinary ends and purposes if you do safely apply it it may produce excellent effects but if it be extended too far and to cases contrary to the good peoples appointment it will produce a great mischief instead of a remedy for the greatest power misapplyed must needs be the greatest oppression I pray you consider that a Parliament may more easily Erre then a King or Ordinary Councel for they have or ought to have a rule to walk by but you act by meer Supremacy from your own determinations where you do but vote and
it shall be so and the people are bound to stand to it Therefore if you go out of the Circumference if you step without the bounds of clear Reason and Justice you do unavoidably make the people Slaves Therefore it is much to be bewailed that Parliaments are not bounded that the trust reposed in them is not clearly known either to the people or to themselves that they have so large a road to walk in that they may easily erre nay it is almost impossible for them to walk aright for the heart of man is deceitful and prone though he hath a rule to bend it to his miscarriages much more when he is left to his Liberty it is ill trusting unbounded power it is so sharp a tool it quickly eats up all but it s own Soverainty and hard keeping limited power within its bounds Few men there are that know any thing of themselves that are not sensible that they have in them a principle to mislead them and he that knows it and is not willing to be chained up as a Lion or Wolf is from doing harm nourisheth up in himself a desire to be a Tyrant And the people by calling persons to office without bounds or limitations and a standard to measure their Actions by do carelesly sow the seeds of Tyranny and to their sorrow too soon reap the fruit Though the people of this Nation have been too negligent of their own security do not you that are their Representatives I beseech you take an advantage thereat but put them in a way now and joyn with the good people that will be ready to advise with you that they may have somewhat whereunto they might have recourse in matter of controversie between them and the Parliament upon whose faithful discharge of trust the welfare of the people doth depend by whose care they may be set and preserved in a flourishing condition when on the contrary they may easily be impoverished and enslaved Equity allows wisdom and self-preservation teacheth all to look after the managing of their trust and have satisfaction whether it be managed faithfully speedily and carefully for their advantage How shall the people know this how can they be satisfied if any controversie arise about it and how can you gainsay when the people charge you with slighting and betraying your trust and swallowing up their Rights and Liberties by your Priviledges how will it be decided whether the reproaches cast upon you by the people be true or false or whether you have faithfully discharged your trust or betrayed it if there be not some standing priviledges and Rules of Law extant to which the people may have recourse for satisfaction The want of this without doubt was the bottom root of all our disturbances and distractions The want of this made the case between this present Parliament and the late King so difficult you charged him with violating the Laws and extending his Prerogatives even to the extirpating of the priviledges of Parliament and much to the damage and hurt of the people He charged you with overturning the Laws and extending your priviledges to the hurt both of him and the people c. this made a great clashing between those two great powers neither had any standard to determine which were truly guilty each justifie themselves as it is usual with men so to do for want of this standard the people took part with one or with the other as their mindes led them The same difference may happen between the Parliament and People as did between the King and Parliament the people may declare their thoughts and minds that the Parliament doth not discharge their trusts that they do meddle with things with which they were not entrusted and neglect that which they were entrusted with c. and so make use of an Army to throw them out of the House The Parliament on the other hand may justifie themselves and say They have been faithful to the people ran great hazards for them and have denyed themselves much for the people and therefore are ill requited by them from whom they deserved better things what then shall the Parliament make use of an Army to stop the peoples mouths or curb their insolence or were it not better that there should be a standard between them by which any man though of a mean capacity might end the controversie Therefore in all Humility I do present these three things to this present Parliament First that you will publish to open view a true measure of Parliamentary trust from the principles of Law and reason whereby the members of Parliament may know what they ought to do and what not to meddle with and the people know what to expect what not when to complain and when they ought to be silent And that these principles of reason and rules of Law may be so plain that it may not be easy to wrest it to the favour of any particular person and not to be abrogated by Parliaments without a general consent of the good people Secondly that a Committee be appointed by the Parliament to hear all persons who are capable of advising them and the Parliament and men known to be sensible of publique dangers and ready to improve their utmost abilities for the publick good to advise them in the framing these fundamental principles of reason and rules of Law and that the Parliament will take care that this Committee may meet at such times and take such care in hearing all addresses that the persons attending on them be not tired with over-tedious waiting Thirdly that you will appoint a certain limited time for the sitting of Parliaments and that they be chosen by the good people and no others and that in the interval of Parliament the Laws may be executed by a Councel of State made up with the Members of Parliament of the Peoples Electing and that they every year be removed And that especial care may be taken that the work of Parliaments may be dispatched with more ease and speed that their work grow not faster upon them then it can be dispatched by them By this means the safety and prosperity of the people might be preserved the Parliaments priviledges preserved and maintained and their persons honoured and respected and all people fearing the Lord will have cause to bless God for your faithful and honest endeavours and the fruits thereof I cannot pass by the Army and take no notice of them who the Lord hath made use of to do great and mighty things in the throwing down of his and our Enemies and freeing us of the Norman yoke under the pressure of which we so long groaned Yet dear friends as we cannot but love you so we dare not but mind you of your backsliding slighting the good Old Cause and forgetting your faithful friends whom after all our familiarity and Godly Society you have like Josephs Brethren sold us to the Ishmaclites and truly we might have remained in