The Fundamental Right Safety and Liberty OF THE PEOPLE Which is radically in themselves derivatively in the Parliament their Substitutes or Representatives Briefly Asserted Wherein is discovered the great Good or Harm which may accrue unto the People by Parliaments according to their different temperature and motions Together with some Proposals conducing towards an equal and just Settlement of the distracted state of this Nation As likewise a touch at some especial Properties of a Supream good Governor or Governors By ISAAC PENINGTON junior Esq The Safety of the People is the Supream most Natural and most Righteous Law being both the most proper End and most adequate Rule of Government London Printed by John Macock and are to be sold by Giles Calvert at the West end of Pauls 1651. To the present Parliament of England THE Righteous God loveth Righteousness and he alone rightly weigheth measureth and administreth in Judgment and Truth Man hath a selfish Principle within which secretly blindeth and draweth him aside in his purest aims and intentions Man knoweth not his own heart how much he is engaged for himself what little truth of love mercy and justice there is in him towards others Every man thinks he minds the publique Good and Interest little seeing or suspecting how straitly he is bound up within the narrow compass of himself Every man pretendeth to be just and very ready to amend the wilful or negligent miscarriages of others but where are the men who once attaining to greatness and power slide not by degrees into the same paths of Injustice which they condemned others for walking in Man cannot observe his own errors nor indeed can he bear to hear of them He loveth himself so well that he cannot discern that evil which is in himself nor endure to be told of it by others but thinks they deal injuriously with him if they take notice of it or warn him against it for it is not evil in him but an evil eye in them which makes them look upon it as so The Powers of this World being so apt to err and their errors being so like themselves powerful have great need of faithful Monitors and plain Dealers but seldom meet with them and their condition makes them little able to bear them Their condition hath commonly this double bad influence upon them it maketh them able to do ill able to do harm but unable to bear the sight or representation of them It blindeth their own eyes in reference to themselves and their actions and maketh them enemies to him who is not equally blinded with them Nor can it be otherwise Man cannot take it well to have others telling him of that evil which he upon search cannot find in himself or to have them still blaming him for that as evil which he himself accounteth as good O ye present great Ones I speak it not in disrespect but in honor acknowledging that God by his providence and dispose of things hath made you great Look upon that Snare which hardly ever man in your condition avoyded Consider this poor Nation its great Cost its great Danger your great Promises to it and let its Right and Liberty be precious in your eyes Consider if it be possible impartially its Right and lead it into the possession of it If ye walk in the way of man ye will come to the end of man If ye be Successors in unrighteousness ye will end in ruine Ye have an harder peece of Self-denyal to practise then yet ye have met with if ye will be safe Your danger is greatest when ye seem most out of danger As there have been hitherto many Cries for you so there are now many Cries to you and Cries against you dayly Complaints have seldom been greater it behoves you to look thorowly that it be without a cause on your part If the poor fatherless people be destitute of help and have none to cry to but the righteous One being wearied out with crying to man it may make him the more regardful of their Cries and the more speedy and strict in exacting an account of your Stewardship from you The FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT LIBERTY AND SAFETY of the People is here presented to your view in general with others to whom also it appertaineth It concerneth you most particularly to take notice of it and to use industry and fidelity answerable to your Power and Trust to instate them in it which how ever they may abuse yet they ought to enjoy And if ye cannot make them happy yet putting things into their due order according to right this will be a comfort unto you that they are only made miserable by themselves whereas if ye detain their Right from them though with never so good an intent that will not excuse you at present nor afford you comfort at the last Ye have expressed a great Sense of the Injuries which the People have suffered by being deprived of their Rights and Liberties and have undertaken to restore them to the possession of them again do it in truth Let not Jealousies of what may happen cause you to turn aside from the direct path of Righteousness Put them as well as ye can into a way of minding and prosecuting their own good but take heed of overthrowing their Right and Liberty though from never so great a desire to do them good I am exceeding-jealous over you lest ye should unwittingly be deceived by your own hearts and unawares deceive the People forgive me this Jealousie It ariseth both from love to you and the People because my desire is so great on the one hand to have the People free and happy and on the other hand to have you the Instruments of it For as my desire was towards those which went before you while their day lasted that they might rather have found the way of administring Righteousness to others then of occasioning ruine to themselves So is my desire now towards you while your day remains and O that ye could see at least in this your day the things that concern your peace and the good of this Nation Every thing is bounded but few things know their bounds and so passing beyond them both give and receive wounds which always smart and afflict be they never so slight but if they be very deep tend to death KINGLY POWER did pass its limits we may now speak it Doth PARLIAMENTARY POWER keep within its limits How shall we resolve this fairly and clearly resolve it indeed we may in our own Judgments and Consciences when the limits of it are not determined And if things should yet devolve lower into the great and confused Body of the People is it likely they would keep their limits O GOD how is man entangled So far from attaining true inward spiritual Liberty that he cannot reach the shadow the outward part the earthly part the liberty of man So far are we from enjoying Liberty under any Government that we can at best but
imperfect things they are While ye cry out so much against any means or instruments on the one hand or so much magnifie any on the other hand as every one almost doth according to his different esteem of them ye cannot so fully be taken up with observing the principal Agent If God intend himself to bestow what ye desire upon you he may hold his hand while ye expect it from man If God intend at last to put forth an excellent peece of strength and wisdom for your rescue he may defer till he hath tired out yours And if that should be his intention ye are out of the way while your expectation is fastened elsewhere 5. And lastly Groan and pant unto him who is skilful to save after your own deliverance and after the deliverance of his people He who wanteth deliverance and knoweth not where to obtain it what is more proper for him then to groan and pant after it The whole Creation is continually in a condition of groaning and travelling after deliverance not of enjoying it Bear a part with the Creation as ye are a part of it yea the higher your extremities grow the greater let your groans be Be content with your travelling pangs which is the common track and rode unto bringing forth And groan likewise for the liberty of the sons of God for what do ye know but your Liberty may spring up with theirs Israel is in bonds the Lord hath smitten him the Lord hath hid his face from him yea the Lord hath made him a reproach and by-word among all the Heathen and while he frowns upon him he knows not how to smile upon any else The people of God have ever had hard usage in this World and particularly in this Nation Can ye expect that God who disposeth of all things should be forward to give you your Libertiâ—s while ye are not willing they should enjoy theirs Can they submit to the Laws Ordinances and Constitutions of man concerning their God while an higher light is set up in them No they cannot though they were in the dark If ye can be content and desire to do so do so quietly live your selves in Egypt if ye like it and ye may better do it for it will not be a Land of bondage to you but let my people go that they may serve me said God concerning his people when alass they knew not how to serve him This is a ticklish point and of more consequence to the Welfare of Nations then they are aware of Therefore if ye love your selves your own Peace 〈◊〉 own Liberties your own Happiness beware of this take heed of enthralling them in spiritual things who were never in that respect but only in outward in things common to man put under your yoke But in stead thereof wish after their Liberty and though ye cannot heartily desire it in respect to them yet do it in reference to the enjoyment of your own your selves because for ought ye know yours may lie wrapped up in it All this have I spoken unto you not from any design in me in reference to any thing or person but truly and faithfully from my very heart commending unto you what to me in this my state of weakness appears best for you Which having done I now take my leave of you wishing you the best benefit this can afford or rather the full fruition of that which this doth but weakly and imperfectly drive at viz. the quietest enjoyment of your selves in your present condition and the safest and swiftest passage to a better This is the heart of him towards you who earnestly desireth to be Yours in true Love and Faithful Service Isaac Penington junior THE Right Liberty and Safety OF THE PEOPLE Briefly Asserted THe Right Liberty and Safety of the People lieth chiefly in these three things in the Choyce of their Government and Governors in the Establishment of that Government and those Governors which they shall chuse and in the Alteration of either as they find cause This belongs to every people though few if any are in possession of it and that people which enjoyeth these enjoyeth its Right is indeed free and safe while it so remaineth 1. The Right Liberty and Safety of the People consists in the Choyce of their Government and Governors It is their Right for in Civil Societies Nature hath not cut out the body into form and shape but hath left it to be done by the will and wisdom of man having imprinted in him a sense of and desire after the enjoyment of Justice Order Love Peace and whatsoever else is good and profitable for him both particularly in himself and in common with others which desire throughly kindled in man and guided by the true light of Reason will lead man to chuse that which is properly good both for himself and others And though man may possibly or probably abuse this yet that is no sufficient ground for depriving him of his right Their Liberty lies in it too They only are a free People who have their Government of their own choyce Such upon whom others do intrude or upon whom other Laws or Regents are imposed then what themselves judg meet and necessary and besides that which they themselves voluntarily and by free consent submit unto for their good and welfare are so far under slavery and such a miserable subjection as Nature never appointed them unto Their Safety likewise lies in it for to be sure they will chuse nothing but what in probability will conduce to their own good and happiness whereas others making Laws for them or setting Governors over them may respect their own particular benefit and advantage and not so much the good of the People which is the main end why Laws Governments and Governors are appointed and to which they should in a direct line be guided And upon this ground I conceive it very requisite that men who are chosen to sit in Parliament to make or alter Laws to set up or alter Governments or Governors for and in behalf of the People should as soon as any lie open to the force of all the Laws they make or of any thing they do in that kind that no Law they make should take effect till they be dissolved and come to lie as liable to it as any otherwise they will not be sensible enough of the Peoples condition and consequently not fit to stand in their stead or to act for them in cases that concern them so nearly The greatest security the People have concerning their Parliaments is that they chuse persons whose condition will keep them from injurying them for if they prejudice them they prejudice themselves if they neglect their good they neglect their own good This security is good while the people chuse them that are of their own rank and while these make no Laws for them which shall have any life or vertue to do good or hurt till they come also to be exposed
intended for their greatest relief may turn to their greatest prejudice O how miserable is man whose remedies against multitudes of dangers are so few and even those few all along so subject to miscarry A Parliament may be prevented that it may not be to be had when there is most need of it A Parliament may be corrupt before it hath a Being it may be so ill constituted in respect of the materials of it that it may be a fitter engine of slavery and misery then of freedom and happiness to a poor enthralled people And yet this is not all the danger that Parliaments are exposed unto as also the people in relation to that good they hope for by Parliaments 3. Short continuance of Parliaments Suppose the people have Parliaments have a fair and free choyce without being over-powered therein or swayed aside nay suppose yet more that they chuse well for themselves yet the Power they are to deal with may overbear them and if they cannot bend them aside enforce their dissolution And hereby the people must needs be deprived of reaping that good they desired and hoped for by their endeavors Parliaments are great Bodies and consequently flow in motion which is their proper pace and advantage for they can hardly do any thing well but what they do slowly for motions that require swiftness Nature hath cut out other kind of bodies Again Parliaments are to act very warily as the things they are to do are of great concernment and require much circumspection and consideration and therefore in both these respects must have time convenient to act accurately in the discharge of so great a Trust and in the managing of so weighty Affairs which if it be not answerably allotted them they must of necessity be defective in 4. Want of Power to Parliaments Parliaments have a difficult piece of work viz. to chastise the greatest Oppressors and to strike at the very root and foundation of oppression in any kind and unless they have Power answerable they cannot possibly go through with it Oppositions and interruptions from other Powers they must expect to meet with which if they be not able to graple with and overcome they cannot exercise the full Right and Liberty of the People either in punishing Offenders against the People or in chusing establishing or altering Governments Laws or Governors for the People This must necessarily much hinder if not put a stop to their work for if any fall short of those means which are proper to an end they cannot possibly attain that end If the hand which imposeth and would keep burthens upon the back be stronger then that which would remove them If the hand which would supply defects be weaker then that which stands in its way to stop it in its course vain and fruitless will all its endeavors be The Power that relieveth from oppression must of necessity be greater then the Power that oppresseth And this was the condition of this present Parliament there was visibly such a Power over them as they could do nothing to purpose for the good of the People This doubtless they had great reason to strive to get loose from and the people had great reason to stick to them in it as also to expect from them their own freedom after they were made free the freedom of the people being the end theirs but the means and therefore most to be eyed 'T is to no purpose at all to have never so free a Parliament unless we have also a People put into the possession of their freedoms by the Parliament 5. Over-long-duration of Parliaments This was glanced at before but yet it will be requisite to consider of it further because after those many changes which of late we have been much driven and necessitated into we may at present lie more open to the ill influence of this then of any of the former and it should be the especial wisdom and care of man to take most heed of that danger which he lieth most open to Every thing hath its appointed seasons bounds and proper way of operation within which it is very beautiful and profitable but beyond it very uncomely and dangerous Parliaments in their season may bring forth a most sweet and excellent kind of fruit which may vigorously refresh the spirits and recover the decaying Liberties of a dying Nation but continuing longer then its season the Root it self may easily grow corrupt and the fruit prove sowre harsh and deadly yea may tend to a more bitter death then it was ordained to prevent Many dangers Parliaments are exposed to by long continuance whereby their nature and constitution may be depraved or they induced to act after a different nature or in other ways then is proper for them or good for the people Those dangers which more principally in this respect represent themselves to my eye I shall here make mention of 1. Parliaments by long continuance will be subject to fall into factions which is the foundation of so many breaches and divisions in the whole upon which they cannot but have an influence to conform them unto themselves the eye of the people being still upon the fountain-head We have had sufficient experience to evidence the truth of this for still as the Parliament hath been divided there have also been divisions throughout the whole Nation Persons who act joyntly and uniformly at first having one and the same sense upon their spirits one and the same end in their eye one and the same desire in their hearts may in process of time lose this sense this desire this end and be drawn aside to another sense desire end and differ also in their new choyce which may insensibly creep in upon them and according to this difference there will ensue a division among them both in their motions and actions Now how dangerous this is to have a breach in the Root to have a seed of division in the heart working there springing forth from thence and diffusing it self throughout the whole body I think it will be needless to express 2. Parliament men by the long continuance of a Parliament will be exposed to the temptation of seeking themselves of minding and prosecuting their several particular ends and interests A Parliament man as he is chosen to be so he should set himself to be a publique person as it were forgetting himself and giving up himself to be taken up only with the publique good for the season of this work This a good Patriot may find somewhat easie to do for a while but if the Parliament last long Self which is very strong in him and may challenge a right to be looked after will revive its right pleading both reason and necessity in its own behalf That man that could be content to lay all aside and bend himself wholly for the publique for a short time cannot hold out in doing so but will be enforced to look after himself his own affairs his own
care be not used to prevent it to have an influence upon the choyce of Parliament men and will be molding the Parliament to it self which if it cannot do it will hardly look upon it as its friend I must confess the changing of the form of Government is not so considerable in my eye but the fixing of so strong and safe bounds and limits as a good Governor or Governors may delight to keep within and a bad or bad ones may not be able to break through which may be much helped by the frequent use of Parliaments if they can be kept within their bounds or else that will be worst of all according to that known Maxim Corruptio optimi pessima the best thing being corrupted proveth worst When this is done for I do not look upon it as yet done till all reviews which in reason and equity can be desired are first over and the supreme Governor or Governors fully agreed upon then it will be seasonable just and requisite to restore to them those Rights and Priviledges which belong unto them and which it is the minde of the People they should have as particularly his or their consent in making Laws It is great reason the People should make their own Laws and it is as agreeable to Reason that he who is to govern by them should consent unto them As the People so far as they understand themselves cannot but be unwilling to be made slaves by their Governor to be governed by such Laws as he should make at his pleasure so neither should they desire to make him a slave by putting what Laws they please into his hand requiring him to take care of the observation of them but a mutual agreement transaction in things of this nature is fairest and most just Yea this would be most advantagious to the people for he who constantly weilds the Scepter is in likelyhood best able to give advice concerning Laws and may put them into a better way by vertue of his experience of attaining their ends and desires then they of themselves can light upon If the chief Governor or Governors shall refuse to assent to such Laws as are evidently good and necessary a better remedy may be found out then the depriving of him from this Liberty The true way of curing is difficult requiring much skill care and pains the common way of man is by running out of one extream into another which he is apt to please himself much in because he observeth himself at such a distance from that which he found so inconvenient and perhaps so mischievous before But this is neither just in it self nor can prove either easie or safe in the issue To draw to a conclusion I shall onely mention some few properties of a good Governor to which the people should have respect in their choyce and to which he who is chosen by the People to that degree and honor should have respect in his acting There are two properties or proper ways of motion which contain in them several properties of a good Governor which if he will be furnished unto will make him very useful and serviceable in his place 1. To manage his Trust with all care and fidelity To neglect himself his own particular ease pleasure advantage and apply himself to the good of the whole To minister Justice equally fairly freely speedily and mercy tenderly To punish meerly for necessity sake but to relieve from his heart 2. To settle the Foundations so far as lies in his way and within his reach of the Peoples Liberty Peace and Welfare that it may be in a thriving condition growing still more and more For the welfare of the People doth not so much consist in a quiet prosperous setled state at present as in a good seed for future growth whereby alone the Government can come to yeeld the good fruit of a present good setling It may cost much at present to manure the ground and plant a good Government the benefit is to be reaped afterwards which will lie much in the Governor who may help much to cherish or blast it The main thing in a Governor which will much fit him unto both these is to keep within his bounds Not to think or undertake to do all the good which is needful to be done but that good which belongs to his place and office Not to avoyd bonds but to desire to be bound as fast as may be He who is indeed unwilling to transgress to do evil is willing to be tyed up as fast and close as can be from all temptations and advantages thereunto Good honest plain-dealing-hearts are too apt to desire scope thinking onely to improve it for good and others are too apt to trust them little suspecting that they will do otherwise till at length on a sudden so evident snares and temptations overtake them as give too plain a proof of the contrary This experience is so deep that it may well be questioned Whether it were better to have a bad Governor being fast bound or a good Governor being at liberty which would be very difficult to resolve because on the one hand it is so hard to finde bonds to binde a bad Governor fast enough and so difficult on the other hand for a good Governor being left at liberty to act well He who hath had experience what he is when he is left at liberty and what others are when they are left at liberty how easily his or their Judgment Will and Affections are perverted will neither desire to be left at liberty himself nor to have others left at liberty A good Governor might do great service in this respect namely both by a ready compliance with his bonds for the good and necessary use of them which is very rare as also by seeking further bonds where he can discover starting holes which is yet more rare Man naturally seeketh liberty from bonds desireth to avoyd them He would binde others but be without bonds himself Others need bonds but he can act well without them yea he can do more good without them then with them They may be a fit curb for others but they will be but a clog to him in the pursuit of the peoples happiness whereby he shall be hindered from doing that good service which he would and otherwise might Thus the best men many times come to do most hurt least suspecting themselves and being least mistrusted by others Who would not beleeve his own heart that if he were in place and Power he would not do thus or thus but amend this and that and the other thing and the more scope he had the better and more swiftly would he do it But to seek bonds to desire to be hedged up from every thing that is unlawful or unfit to seek where one might evade and prepare before-hand strength to resist it engines to oppose and keep it back this is as unusual an undertaking in Governors as needful and profitable for the people There would one great advantage from this arrive unto Posterity besides that which the People themselves might enjoy under it at present for it would make the fruit of a good GOVERNORS Government extend it self to future Generations in this respect because by this means there would be bonds prepared to tie up such as should afterwards succeed who might be more inclinable to break forth into unjust and by-ways then a present Governor or Governors There are none who have such advantage to espy starting-holes as those who are penned up and if they be careful in espying and faithful in stopping up those holes by putting the Parliament upon setting such fences of Laws so made about them as may best secure the People in this respect the Administration will soon prove both regular and safe as also in a thriving condition in so much as that the Liberty Safety and sound Prosperity of the People will grow more and more upon them FINIS
to them but otherwise it is very invalid if not wholly lost They who are to govern by Laws should have little or no hand in making the Laws they are to govern by for Man respects himself in what he does The Governor will respect himself his own ease advantage and honour in Government and lay loads upon the people but make his own burthen light Therefore things should be so oâ—dered in the behalf and for the security of the people that such as are chosen and appointed to act in this kind should lay no load upon the people but what their own backs may come as soon and as fully in their degree and station to bear as any of the peoples 2. The Right Liberty and Safety of the People consists in the Establishment of their Government and Governors As they have right to chuse so they have right to confirm what they chuse to establish that Government and such kind of Governors as they judg or find most convenient and necessary for them Without this the people can be neither free nor safe no more then without the other nay without this their right to chuse would be to little purpose the end of choyce in things of this nature being for the duration of its appointed season 3. Their Right Liberty and Safety lieth also in enjoying and exercising as need requires the Power of altering their Government or Governors that when they find either burdensom or inconvenient they may lay it aside and place what else they shall judg lighter fitter or better in the stead of it Nature still teacheth every thing as it groweth to reach further and further towards perfection No man is bound to that which he chuseth or establisheth further then he findeth it suitable to the end for which he chose and established it Now several states and conditions of things and persons changing there must of necessity be an answerable change in Laws Orders Governments or Governors also or man will be instrumental to introduce slavery misery and tyranny upon himself which Nature teacheth every thing both to abhor and as much as may be to avoyd It is the desire of most men both in reference to Church and State as men commonly speak to have Laws and Ordinances after the manner of the Medes and Persians which cannot be altered I cannot but approve the desire since it is written in mans nature It is natural to man and a stamp of the divine Image upon him to press after unchangeableness both in himself and in the things which appertain unto him But yet it is not suitable to his present condition which will in no wise admit of it because it is continually subject to change and alteration And as it still changeth so do his needs and desires as also his experience and wisdom and so must the Laws and Orders which he prescribes to himself and others or he will be grievously cruel to himself and others Ages have their growth as well as particular persons and must change their garments their Customs their courses c. for those which are still suitable to their present state and growth Laws are but temporary and as they are founded upon Reason so they are no longer to last then the Reason of them lasteth to which they ought to give place and admit of such a succession as it appoints Only herein hath Nature provided well for the people if they could fairly come to their Right and had wisdom to use it which sense and experience is continually instructing them how to do in that she doth allot them to make and alter their own clothes to shape out their own burdens to form renew or alter that yoke of Government which is most necessary and convenient for their necks All this or any part of this either the chusing establishing or altering Governments Laws or Governors the people cannot do in a Body an whole Nation is too unweildy to act together themselves therefore Nature hath taught them to do it by Substitutes whom they themselves chuse to stand in their stead to do any of these things for them as their present condition and need requires which Body of persons is with us called a Parliament who are picked out by the whole to be the Representative of the whole to do that for the whole which they would have to be done and would do themselves if they were a Body in a capacity to act And from this first rise of things may best be discovered the nature ends proper use and limits of Parliaments all which are necessary to be known both that they may move according to their nature pursue their ends be rightly used keep within their compass and that the people may clearly discern that they so do whereby they will come to rest satisfied in their proceedings and in their expectations of good thereby We see here of what kind of persons the Parliament is to consist viz. of the common people that they may be fit to represent their burdens and desires We see here of what use and for what end they are viz. to relieve the people to redress any occasion of grief or burden to them to make Laws alter Laws set Laws in a due way of Administration set up or alter Governments and Governors dispose of every thing in such a way as the people may freely enjoy their Rights in Peace and Safety We see also their bounds in general viz. the exercising the power of the People in such ways as were proper for the people to exercise it in were they capable of joynt and orderly acting We see likewise their Nature or Constitution what they are They are the ELECTIVE POWER the CONSTITVTIVE POWER the ALTERATIVE POWER What lies confused and unuseful in the people is treasured up in them in order and in a fitting way for use Is there a Government wanting The people cannot orderly or wisely debate or chuse that which is likely to be most commodious and safe Are there any Laws wanting The people cannot well set about making Laws Are there any Laws Customs or Encroachments burdensom The people cannot rightly scan how far they are so or proceed to a regular alteration of them So that the whole Right Freedom Welfare and Safety of the People consists in Parliaments rightly and duly called constituted and ordered towards acting faithfully in the discharge of the Trust reposed in them Yea lastly Here we may see in a direct line the proper course and way of Parliaments which speaks out it self and would easily be discerned by us if our eyes were kept fixed here and not entangled with other intermixtures which are apt to seize upon every thing and interweave with every thing hardly any thing keeping its own pure nature or proper current Take it thus with a little kind of Circuit for the better illustration of it yet very briefly All Governments though intended for and directed towards common good are still declining and contracting private
more There was an intentional bending of the Parliament as was expresly declared by them who were the instruments to bend it there was a culling out of those who stood in the way of what the Army thought just safe and necessary to be done And this was done purposely that the Parliament might be put into another posture and act other things different from what as they were then constituted they could be drawn unto Now though there should be a violent detention of divers Members of the Parliament from doing that service which they ought and desire to do according to their Judgments and Consciences yet if the Parliament be not bent hereby but go on in the same path it was walking in before it hath the greater advantage thereby to argue and to make good its freedom But if by this force it be visibly and apparantly bent put into another posture and into contrary ways and motions the evidencing of its freedom will in this case be more difficult There might yet be further added the Judgment of the Army concerning this action of their own who were likely to look favorably upon it being their own but I purposely wave it for I do not go about to make the most of these things but desire only the granting of thus much to me that this Parliament is not unquestionably free and so the people who are sensible thereof cannot rest fully satisfied in their spirits that this present engine is their evidently-genuine and proper engine And as this present Parliament is not unquestionably free no more is it an unquestionably equal Representative of the people neither in respect of the number of the persons nor in respect of the qualification of the persons First for the number of the persons Every County City Borough having their stock going their right and interest concerned in the whole their particular advantage or disadvantage while Parliaments sit so they ought to have their proper Substitutes or Representers to appear for them to stand in their stead to have an influence in the managing of their particular cases and their right in the whole which as the case now stands many do want Secondly for the qualification of the persons For it is not a number of persons though chosen by the people simply considered that do or can represent the people They are but shadows not the true Representatives of the People though designed by the people to that end unless they be rightly qualified How is that Why thus by understanding the condition and desires of those they stand for and by representing those desires seasonably in their stead for they are chosen to be common persons and therefore ought to have the common sense of the Rights Liberties Safeties Needs Desires of those they stand for If a man undertake to appear for me and doth not know or care to know what I need or desire he doth me a double injury both putting me to the loss of that which I might obtain and depriving me of the means I might otherwise have attained it by Now there is a great exception against these present Representers in this respect the state of things and consequently burthens being much changed since they were chosen to represent them It is a long while since the first sitting of this Parliament and the change of Power with other things may have caused many new burthens which they being in power cannot so fully feel nor seem so fit to be Judges of The burthens of the People still arise from the present Power that power from which they did formerly arise is removed another hath succeeded Now they who are the greatest in the succeeding Power seem no way fit to represent the burthens of the people under that power but such of the common people as lie most under them and most feel them are likely to be most fit to represent the sense of them These indeed might be fit when they were chosen to be Judges of former burthens and oppressions but they seem not now so fit to be Judges concerning present burthens and oppressions Not that which manageth the power can so fairly clearly and sensibly judg whether it be easie or grievous but that which lieth under it And here I may not unfitly add one thing concerning the way of managing affairs in Parliament so much in use viz. by Votes the necessity whereof in some cases and the multitude of transactions may have been an occasion to draw into more common use then is either fit or safe My ground of excepting against it is this The actions of the people and so of the Parliament who are the collective body of the people should be very clear and evident to the eye of common sense so as to bear down all opposition or gainsaying The people should desire the removal of nothing but what is evidently burthensom the addition of no Law but what is evidently good the punishment of none but him who hath evidently been an offender But the putting things to Vote is an argument against this clearness and evidence and doth seem to whisper if not to speak out that things are doubtful and that the determination is also doubtful arising not necessarily from the strength of reason but perhaps from the number of voyces I confess it is impossible for such a body to manage many affairs without this course but I cannot conceive that ever Nature cut out such a body for the managing of many affairs It is a body of the common people who are not supposed to be skilful in administring Government nor intended to meddle in managing of affairs but only to set them in a right posture and in a fair way of administration A few easie necessary things such as common sense reason and experience instructeth the common sort of men in are the fittest things for them to apply themselves unto Indeed the people should have no more hand in or rather about Government then necessity requires for their own preservation safety and welfare and dispatch quickly what they have to do as a few plain things may quickly be done and so return into subjection unto Government again whereby alone they will be able to know whether they have done well or ill in what they have done Again as it is a Body of the common people so it is of a great bulk it cannot be otherwise formed and therefore not fited for many motions but only for such as are flow and sure Yet their slowness of motion the right order of nature being observed will be neither burdensom to themselves nor others being recompenced by the fewness of those things which Nature I mean the nature of their end call and trust hath appointed for them to do 4. A regular way of Elections that the people might be put into a fair clear understanding way of managing this that they might not be urged from favour to the present administring power to make their choyce according to their desires