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A77411
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A brief collection of some memorandums: or, Things humbly offered to the consideration of the members of the great convention and of the succeeding Parliament.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing B4555A; ESTC R173274
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9,364
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15
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power when setled Yet may it not be judged meet by this Convention in their erecting a new building to lay such foundations while the sense of their danger and deliverance is upon them as may prevent the return of the evils complained of and prevent them more effectually if God be with us than an act of Parliament can do And the humble petition is That it may please this great Assembly not to leave the Protestant Dissenters bound as Felix did Paul but to make Liberty in matters of Religion for them I meddle not with others though I with all men well I say Liberty for Protestant Dissenters a Stone in the Foundation of the New Building than which as the petitioner believeth never will any man find a Squarer Fitter Stronger better to lay in the Foundation of a Government And if this great Convention shall be pleased to do this which it may be harder to get done in another time and way 't is already manifest by the Prince's Declaration and otherwise that to His Highness it would be very acceptable And why should not His Government if that shall be agreed on be hereby Endeared to all the Protestants And does not the Condition and Safety of the Nation require an Union of Protestants not by the harsh and impossible way of an Enforced Uniformity but by a Gracious Liberty Can it be reasonably supposed that Dissenting Protestants will be able chearfully to Engage in their Trades by which the Riches of King and Kingdom are encreased while they are liable every day to undoing Penalties Worshipping of God And will it be a fair Encouragement for them to venture their Lives in the High places of the Field it may be in a Foreign Nation to remember that if they escape Death and return Home the next place they shall lodge in may be a Gaol for Life upon a Capias Excommunicatum and that their Estates may be pulled to pieces upon the Statute of twenty pound a month for not coming to Church or some other Penal Laws And the Petitioner adds his fear that if care be taken only for our Civil Liberties and no pitty shewed to them who have been so long oppressed in their Spiritual or Religious Liberties God's controversy will not yet be at an end with us And shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy Are we stronger than he His late works shew we are not 2. To the ensuing Parliament The humble Petition is That the Government would be pleased to Repeal all the Penal Laws in so far as concerns Protestant Dissenters and that none of them may hereafter suffer for not coming to Church or other Non-Conformity or for Worshipping God in their own Meetings according to their own best light and understanding of God's Word particularly that the Laws against Conventicles the Five-mile Act the Statute of the 35th of Queen Elizabeth a Repeal of which last once already passed both Houses with other the like may be Repealed II. Thus far as to Popery somewhat more is added as to Slavery and the means of preventing it Upon the Restauration of King Charles the Second there seems to have been a Bending of the Stick to the other Extreme and that He coming in without Terms the Prerogative gained much upon the Liberties of the People and has been upon the gaining hand ever since Here is a Gracious and Magnanimous Prince no Friend to Arbitrary Despotic Government Were it not good to procure the repeal of some late Laws which trench upon the Rights of the Subject and the passing of some Laws for their preservation I. One of the chief Fences against Arbitrary Government is the frequent assembling of free Parliaments There are Laws in force for this Two Statutes appoint a Parliament every Year v. 4 Ed. 3.14 and 36 Ed. 3.10 There was also a Law for a Triennial Parliament made in the time of King Charles the first which was repealed if indeed it be repealed for the matter is doubtful and another act for a Triennial Parliament which some esteemed a New Nothing passed in its room 1. Were it not good that for the next Reign there be a Parliament once in a Year and afterwards the old Act for a Triennial Parliament being revived to take place and be observed Frequent Parliaments would make Ministers of State and Judges if any of them should attempt to winde up the Government to a Tyranny afraid of a Day of Account in this World though of that in the next they should be secure 2. And were it not good that this expensive and vile way of compassing a Seat in the House of Commons in Parliament by Hiring the Votes of the Countrey and making people drunk should be laid aside And that whosoever shall in a County spend above or in a City Burrough or Cinqueport above to procure or reward Suffrages should be disabled to Sit and the matter being well proved before a Committee for Elections the Election should be void 3. We have had an Instance of purchasing the Liberties and Money of the Nation by Pensions paid to Members in a Parliament which Posterity will know by a Name taken from that practice Is it not fit that the like be prevented for the future by the Highest Penalties upon the Givers and Receivers of such Pensions 4. Were it not good to appoint Penalties upon Sheriffs and other Officers who shall make false and undue Returns of Members of the House of Commons in Parliament higher than any Law hath yet appointed and more proportionable to so grand and pernicious an Offence with a way for the more easie Levying of such Penalties 5. And if the Privilege of Parliament hath suffered any diminution in the Case of Fitz-Harris or of them who had and pleaded Pardons to defeat impeachments made in Parliament by the Commons of England for High Treason Provision may be made that such things may not for the future be drawn into Example 6. Whether something should not be done if it shall be found needful to reconcile the King's Negative Voice to Bills in Parliament with his Coronation-Oath whereby he swears to consent to or confirm Laws quas Vulgus Elegerit 7. What if Power were given by Law to the Speaker or any Committee of the House of Commons to administer an Oath in matters concerning the Privileges of their own House II. Since the Restauration there hath been such a Determination of the Question which was disputed between King Charles the First and the first Long-Parliament touching the Militia as in effect makes the Government in proximâ potententiâ at least of becoming Arbitrary as some think With respect to that may it be considered 1. Whether it be not meet by Law to Limit the number of the King's Guards 2. To provide against a Standing Army within the Kingdom by Indispensable Laws making it High Treason for any Commanders Officers or Souldiers besides the King 's allowed Guards to enter into such a Standing Army within the
A Brief Collection of some Memorandums OR Things humbly Offered to the Consideration of the Members of the Great Convention and of the succeeding Parliament ADVERTISEMENT This Collection was designed for the Great Convention at their first Sitting but by a Miscarriage was delayed however the worthy Author thought it not altogether unseasonable to offer it to the Consideration of the Members of this present Parliament 1. TOuching the Present State of the Kingdom into which we are brought by the most wonderful works of God lately wrought among us The Design of this Paper permits not to enlarge They who please may peruse Psal 2.10 11 12. Psal 102.15 to v. 23. Psal 118.23 Rev. 19.1 2 c. 2. By general consent of the late printed Papers The two great evils lately feared and to be obviated are Popery and Slavery 3. What then is to be done Quid igitur agendum an old Athenian Question fit in this case to be decided only by the Supreme Authority But some Particulars among many which wiser men may suggest are humbly propounded to consideration In a great Fire kindled every one is allowed to bring his Bucket of water I. As to Popery and for preventing its return may it be considered 1. Whether there should not be a Bill of Exclusion Vide 13 Eliz. c. 13. larger than the former endeavoured in Parliament viz. to render any Papist uncapable of Reigning here If the former Bill had passed some think our late and present dangers had been in a great measure prevented They who opposed that Bill do now see what have been the effects and consequents of it s not passing and the extreme danger of the Kingdom has put them and others upon such a course as seems to some to have out-done all the so often decryed proceedings of 1641. One day teaches another and the latter goes to School to to the former And as a branch of such new Bill were it not meet to provide against the Linsey-Woolsey marriages of our Protestant Princes with Papists The World is wide enough Fit Protestant Matches for them may be found 2. That Papists be rendred uncapable of at least great Offices in the Kingdom 3. That it be made very Penal for Jesuites to come upon English ground It may be Castration might be a better remedy than Death They are the known Boutefeu's of the World And even some Popish Governments suffer them not 4. That Great endeavours be used for instructing the People in the principles of Christian Religion and arming them by sound Doctrine and especially by sincere Conversion to God against the errors of Popery 5. That to this end a Godly Ministry be sought and encouraged 'T is a miserable defect in the Ministry of a Nation where any evidence of Regeneration is not so much as desired in the Ministers nor made any qualification of the Persons admitted If with out Regeneration no man enters into the Kingdom of God i. e. becomes a true Christian which seems a considerable part of the meaning of those words of our Saviour to Nicodemus then surely this should be desired in all Candidates to the Ministry Whereas according to ordinary practices a very small portion of saecular learning procures Admission by Ordination And we have too many Ministers who are not Christians in Christ's sense Yea who do not so much as pretend to any internal Regeneration but are far from the Kingdom of God immersed in Vice haters of persons and things which are good This intends no reflection upon the worthy and good Ministers of the Church of England 6. Many good men wish with the principal Bishops in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign such as Jewel Sands Horn Coxe Grindal and before them Hooper That the Popish Vestments with all the other remnants of Popery might be thrown out of the Churches and out of the minds of the People See Dr. Burnet's Letters First Letter pa. 42 43 44. 7. There is nothing which has a more Natural and Moral tendency to both the evils lately complained of i.e. Popery and Slavery than the abounding of wickedness in the Land It may be questioned whether the Nation was more vitious in the ancient times of Paganism or Popery than it hath been of late under Protestancy though this is the Doctrine of God our Saviour Vice and sensuality prepare men to hate and desert the Gospel which condemns them in all those wicked practices that they resolve to persist in and to embrace Popery which offers them so many Wise Medicines and reliefs against sin and its guilt without troubling them with the harder taks of Faith Repentance and Reformation of Life And it 's not much to be doubted but it has been a piece of Modern Policy to prepare the Kingdom both for Popery and Slavery by an industrious promoting of Vice and Immorality That it hath lately fallen out that the whole Nation good and bad as one Man hath been so unanimous and zealous for Protestant Religion in opposition to Popery doth not evince that Vice prepares not for Popery but is to be considered as a Stupendious and Extraordinary working of the Divine Providence such as 't is hard to parallel out of History And besides this may make even the worst of men stand up for Protestant Religion against Popery viz. because Popery threatens the loss of Church-Lands and other emoluments and is a more costly Religion than Protestancy Priestly Absolution admission to the Sacrament Burial in sure and certain hope c. are to be had among some Protestants upon cheaper terms than the undergoing of imposed Penances and Freedom from an imaginary Purgatory among the Papists Popish Pardons must be well paid for and when purchased what are they worth And then secondly How does Vice debase mens spirits and render a Nation tanquam ad servitutem natam Few generous Thoughts tending to their Country's freedom and good lodge in sensual breasts or arise out of the fumes of a constant Intemperance The wise and good Patriots are virtuous and read somewhat else besides Plays Romances or an Observator And as Debauchery naturally disposes to Slavery so also morally For when men give up themselves to be slaves to their Lusts God if they repent not will make them slaves to Rulers 'T is a Grave Observation of Dr. Burnet concerning the City of Strasburgh See his 4th Let. p. 222. That before they lost their Liberty and fell under the French Yoke Corruption in Morals had overspread the whole City together with a popular Pride and Self-confidence To say We are a most vicious and sinful People is not nor is intended to reproach our Nation It 's too manifest to be denyed we declare our sin as Sodom Vice hath from an Impure Fountain over-spread the whole Nation 1. I have known one of the condition but of a Day-Labourer who with impunity and impudence owned himself to keep a Miss in his Cottage in compliance with Great Examples 2. Such Hellish