unsuccessefull Warres abroad sometimes the absence of the Prince sometimes Competitions of Titles to the Crowne somtimes perhaps the vices of the King himselfe But let us but rightly weigh and consider the posture the aspect of this state both toward it selfe and the rest of the world the person of our Soveraigne and the nature of our suffering since the third of his Reigne And there can be no cause coulorable inventible wherunto to attribute them but the intermission or which is worse the undue frustration of Parliament by the unluckly use if not abuse of Prerogative in the dissolving them Take in your view Gentlemen a State in a state of the greatest quiet and security that can be fancied not only in joyning the calmest peace it selfe but to improve and secure its happy condition all the rest of the world at the same time in Tempest in Combustions in uncomposable Warres Take into your view Sir a King Soveraigne to three Kingdomes by a Concentring of all the Royall lines in his Person as undisputably as any Mathematical ones in Euclide A King firme and knowing in his Religion eminent in vertue A King that had in his owne time given all the Rights and Liberties of his Subjects a more cleare and ample confirmation freely and graciously then any of his Predecessors when the people had them at advantage extortedly I meane in the Petition of Right This is one Mappe of England Mr. Speaker A man Sir that should present unto you now a Kingdome groaning under that supreme Law which Salus populi periclitata would enact The liberty the property of the Subject fundamentally subverted ravisht away by the violence of a pretended necessity a triple Crown shaking with distempers men of the best conscience ready to fly into the wildernesse for Religion Would not one sweare that this were the Antipodes to the other yet let me tell you Mr. Speaker this is a Mappe of England too and both at the same time true As it cannot bee denyed Mr. Speaker that since the Conquest there hath not been in this Kingdome a fuller concurrance of all circumstances in the former Caracter to have made a Kingdom happy then for these 12. yeares last past so it is most certaine that there hath not beene in all that deduction of ages such a Conspiracie if one may so say of all the Elements of mischiefe thein second Character to bring a flourishing Kingdom if it were possible to swift ruine and desolation I will be bold to say Mr. Speaker and I thanke God wee have so good a King under whom wee may speake boldly of the abuse by ill Ministers without reflection upon his person That an Accumulation of all the publike Grievances since Magna Carta one upon another unto that houre in which the Petition of Right past into an act of Parliament would not amount to so oppressive I am sure not to so destructive a height and magnitude to the rights and property of the Subject as one branch of our beslaving since the Petition of Right The branch I mean is the judgment concerning ship-money This beeing a true representation of England in both aspects Let him Mr. Speaker that for the unmatcht oppression and enthralling of free Subjects in a time of the best Kings raigne and in memory of the best lawes enacted in favour of Subjects liberty can find a truer Cause then the ruptures and intermission of Parliaments Let him and him alone be against the setling of this inevitable way for the frequent holding of them 'T is true Sir wicked Ministers have beene the proximate causes of our miseries but the want of Parliaments the primary the efficient Cause Ill Ministers have made ill times but that Sir hath made ill Ministers I have read among the Lawes of the Athenians a form of recourse in their Oaths and vows of greatest most publique concernment of a three-fold Deity Supplicium Exauditori Purgatori Malorum depulsori I doubt not but we here assembled for the Common-wealth in this Parliament shall meet with all these Attributes in our Soveraigne I make no question but he will graciously heare our Supplications purge away our Grievances and expell Malefactors that is remove ill Ministers and put good in their places No lesse can be expected from his wisdome and goodnesse But let me tell you Mr. Speaker if we partake not of one Attribute more in him if we addresse not our selves unto that I meane Bonorum Conservatori we can have no solid no durable Comfort in all the rest Let his Majesty heare our Complaint never so Compassionately Let him purge away our Grievances never so efficaciously Let him punish and dispell ill Ministers never so exemplarily Let him make choyce of good ones never so exactly If there be not a way setled to preserve and keepe them good the mischiefes and they will all grow again like Sampsons Locks and pull downe the House upon our heads Beleeve it M. Speaker they will It hath been a Maxime amongst the wisest Legislators that whosoever meanes to settle good Lawes must proceed in them with a sinister opinion of all Mankinde and suppose that whosoever is not wicked it is for want only of the opportunity It is that opportunity of being ill Mr. Speaker that wee must take away if ever wee meane to be happy which can never be done but by the frequencie of Parliaments No state can wisely be confident of any publique Ministers continuing good longer then the rod is over him Let me appeale to all those that were present in this House at the agitation of the Petition of Right And let them tell themselves truly of whose promotion to the management of affaires doe they thinke the generality would at that time have had better hopes then of Mr. Noy and Sir Thomas Wentworth both having beene at that time and in that businesse as I have heard most keen and active Patriots and the latter of them to the eternall aggravation of his Infamous treachery to the Common-wealth be it spoken the first mover and insister to have this clause added to the Petition of Right that for the comfort and safety of his Subjects his Majesty would be pleased to declare his will and pleasure that all his Ministers should serve him according to the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme And yet Mr. Speaker to whom now can all the inundations upon our liberties under pretence of Law and the late shipwrack at once of all our property be attributed more then to Noy and those and all other mischiefes whereby this Monarchie hath beene brought almost to the brinke of destruction so much to any as to that Grand Apostate to the Common-wealth the now Lieutenant of Ireland The first I hope God hath forgiven in the other world and the latter must not hope to be pardoned in this till he be dispatcht to the other Let every man but consider those men as once they were The excellent Law for the
is just as reasonable in this as to root up a good tree because there is a Canker in the branches For the bold part of this Petition Sir what can there be of greater presumption than for petitioners not onely to prescribe to a Parliament what and how it shall doe but for a multitude to teach a Parliament what and what is not the government according to Gods word Besides what is the Petition against is it not against the government of the Church of England established by Acts of Parliament Is it not against the Liturgy against severall formes of Divine service ratified by the same Authority 'T is true Mr. Speaker the Parliament may mend may alter may repeale Lawes may make new and I hope in due season wee shall doe so in poynt of Church-government but in the meane time let me tell you Sir I cannot but esteeme it an irreverence an high presumption in any to petition point blank against a Law or Government in force Representment of Inconvenience may bee made as the Ministers have done such as may endure the wisedome of a Parliament to advise Lawes to rectifie to repeale them but it imports the very essence of Parliaments to keepe up the honour of its former Acts and not to suffer them to bee further blasted from abroad Beleeve me Mr. Speaker all the reverence and authority which we expect from future times to our owne Acts hereafter depends upon our upholding the dignity of what former Parliaments have done even in those things which in their due time we may desire and intend to reverse Mr. Speaker you see in what plaine language I have set forth unto you the faults of this Petition notwithstanding as great as they are so they may not obtaine any seeming countenance from us I find my selfe willing to have them past by especially when I consider how naturally prone all mankinde is when it findes it selfe opprest beyond patience to flye unto extreames for ease And indeed I doe not think that any people hath beene evermore provoked then the generality of England of late yeares by the insolencies and exorbitances of the Prelates I protest sincerely Mr. Speaker I cannot cast mine eye upon this Petiâ—ion nor my thoughts on the practises of the Church-men that have governed it of late but they appear'd to me as a scourge imployed by God upon us for the sinnes of the Nation I cannot thinke of that passage in the Booke of Kings He that escapes the Sword of Hazael shal Jehu slay and he that escapes Iehu shall Elisha slay Mee thinkes the vengeance of the Prelates hath bin so laid as if 't were meant no generation no degree no complexion of mankinde should escape it Was there a man of a nice and tender Conscience him have they afflicted with scandall in Adiaphoris imposing on him those things as necessary which hee thinks unlawfull and they themselves knew to bee but indifferent Was there a man of a legall conscience that made the establishments by Law the measure of his religion him have they netled with Innovations with fresh Introductions to Popery Was there a man of a meek and humble spirit him have they trampled to dirt in their pride Was there a man of a proud and arrogant nature him have they bereft with indignation at their superlative insolence about him Was there a man peaceably affected studious of the quiet and tranquillity of his Countrey their incepdiâ—â—riship hath plagued him Was there a man faithfully addicted to the right of the Crowne loyally affected to the Kings Supremacy how hath he beene galled by their new Oath a direct Covenant against it Was there a man tenacious of the liberty and propriety of the Subject have they not set forth Books or Sermons or Canons destructive to them all Was there a man of a pretty sturdy conscience that would not blanch for a little their pernicious Oath hath made him sensible and wounded or I feare prepared him for the Devill Was there a man that durst mutter against their Insolencies hee may inquire for his Lugges they have beene within the Bishops visitation as if they would not onely derive their Brandishment of the spirituall sword from St. Peter but of the materiall one too and the right to cut off Eares Mr. Speaker as dully as faintly as unlively as in Language these actions of the Prelates have been expressed unto you I am confident there is no man heares me but is brim-full of indignation For my part I professe I am so enflamed with the sence of them that I finde my selfe ready to cry out with the loudest of the 15000 downe with them downe with them even to the ground But M. Speaker when I cast mine eye round upon this great and wise Assembly and find my selfe a part too though the most unworthy and inconsiderable of that Senate from whose dispassionate and equall Constitutions present and future times must expect their happines or infelicity It obliges mee to the utmost of my power to divest my selfe and others of all those disturbances of Judgement which arise ever from great Provocations and to settle my thoughts in that temper which I thinke necessary to all those that would judge clearely of such things as have incenst them I beseech you Gentlemen let us not bee led on by passion to popular and vulgar Errors it is naturall as I told you before to the multitude to flie into extreames that seemes ever the best to them that is most opposite to the presentest object of their hate Wise Councells Mr. Speaker must square their Resolutions by another measure by that 's most just most honourable most convenient Beleeve mee Sir great alterations of Government are rarely accompanyed with any of these Mr. Speaker we all agree upon this that a Reformation of Church Government is most necessary and our happy unity of opinions herein should be one argument unto us to stay there but Sir to strike at the Roote to attempt a totall Alteration before ever I can give my vote unto that three things must be made manifest unto me First that the mischiefes which we have felt under Episcopall Government flow from the nature of the function not from the abuses of it onely that is that no Rules no Boundaries can be set to Bishops able to restraine them from such Exorbitances Secondly such a frame of Government must be laid before us as no time no Corruption can make lyable to proportionable inconveniences with that which we abolish And thirdly it must be made to appeare that this Vtopia is practicable For the first Sir that Episcopacy a function deduced through all ages of Christs Church from the Apostles times and continued by the most venerable and sacred Order Ecclesiastical and function dignified by the learning and Piety of so many Fathers of the Church glorified by so many Martyrdomes in the Primitive times and some since our owne blessed Reformation a government admired I speak it knowingly by
and Liberties were of late more pressing than we were able to bear That our Complaints and Supplications for redresse were answered at last with the terrors of an Army That after a pacification greater preparations were made for war whereby many Acts of Hostility were done against us both by Sea and Land The Kingdome wanted administration of Justice and we constrained to take Arms for our defence That we were brought to this extreme and intolerable necessity either to maintain divers Armies upon our Borders against Invasion from England or Ireland still to be deprived of the benefit of all the Courts of Justice and not onely to maintain so many thousands as were spoyled of their ships and goods but to want all Commerce by Sea to the undoing of Merchants of Saylors and many other who lived by Fishing and whose Callings are upholden from hand to mouth by Sea trade Any one of which evils is able in a short time to bring the most potent Kingdome to Confusion Ruine and Desolation how much more all the three at one time combined to bring the Kingdome of Scotland to be no more a Kingdome Yet all these behoved We either to endure and under no other hope than of the perfect slavery of our selves and our posterity in our souls Lives and means Or to resolve to come into England not to make any Invasion or with any purpose to fight except we were forced God is our Judge our actions are our witnesses and England doth now acknowledge the truth against all suspicions to the contrary and against the impudent lies of our enemies but for our relief defence and preservation which we could finde by no other means when we had essayed all means and had at large expressed our pungent and pressing necessities to the Kingdome and Parliament of England Since therefore the war on our part which is no other but our coming into England with a Guard is defensive and all men do acknowledge that in common equity the defendant should not be suffered to perish in his just and necessary defence but that the persuer whether by way of Legall processe in the time of Peace or by way of violence and unjust invasion in the time of war ought to bear the charges of the defendant We trust that your Lordships will think that it is not against reason for us to demand some reparation of this kinde and that the Parliament of England by whose wisedome and justice we have expected the redresse of our wrongs will take such course as both may in reason give us satisfaction and may in the notable demonstration of their Justice serve most for their own honour Our earnestnesse in following this our Demand doth not so far wrong our fight and make us so undiscerning as not to make a difference between the Kingdome and Parliament of England which did neither discerne nor set forward a Warre against us And that prevalent faction of Prelates and Papists who have moved every stone against us and used all sorts of means not onely their Counsells Subsidies and Forces but their Church Canons and Prayers for our utter ruine which maketh them obnoxious to our just accusations and guilty of all the losses and wrongs which this time past we have sustained Yet this we desire your Lordships to consider That the States of the Kingdome of Scotland being assembled did endeavour by their Declarations Informations and Remonstrances and by the proceedings of their Commissioners to make known unto the Councell Kingdome and Parliament of England and to forewarn them of the mischief intended against both Kingdomes in their Religion and Liberties by the Prelates and papists to the end that our Invasion from England might have been prevented if by the prevalency of the faction it had been possible And therefore we may now with the greater reason and confidence presse our Demand that your Lordships the Parliament the Kingdome and the King himself may see us repaired in our losses at the cost of that faction by whose means we have sustained so much dammage And which except they repent we finde sorrow recompenced for our grief torments for our toyl and an infinite greater losse for the Temporall losses they have brought upon a whole Kingdome which was dwelling by them in peace All the devices and doings of our common enemies were to bear down the truth of Religion and the just liberties of the Subjects in both Kingdomes They were confident to bring this about one of two wayes Either by blocking us up by Sea and Land to constrain us to admit their will for a law both in Church and Policy and thus to make us a precedent for the like misery in England or by their Invasion of our Kingdome to compell us furiously and without order to break into England That the two Nations once entred into a bloody Warre they might fish in our troubled waters and catch their desired prey But as we declared before our coming We trusted that God would turn their wisedome into foolishnesse and bring their devices upon their own pares by our Intentions and Resolutions to come into England as among our Brethren in the most peaceable way that could stand with our safety in respect of our common enemies to present our petitions for setling our peace by a Parliament in England wherein the intentions and actions both of our adversaries and ours might be brought to light The Kings Majesty and the Kingdome right informed The Authors and Instruments of our divisions and troubles punished All the mischiefs of a Nationall and doubtfull warre prevented and Religion and Liberty with greater peace and amity than ever before established against all the craft and violence of our enemies This was our Declaration before we set our England from which our deportments since have not varied And it hath been the Lords wonderfull doing by the wise counsels and just proceedings of the Parliament to bring it in a great part to passe and to give us lively hopes of a happy conclusion And therefore we will never doubt but that the Parliament in their wisedom and iustice will provide that a proportionable part of the cost and charges of a work so great and so comfortable to both Nations be born by the Delinquents there that with the better conscience the good people of England may sit under their own Vines and Fig-trees refreshing themselves although upon our great pains and hazard yet not altogether upon our cost and charges which we are not able to bear The Kingdome of England doth know and confesse that the innovation of religion and liberties in Scotland were not the principall designe of our common enemies but that both in the intention of the workers whose zeal was hottest for setling their devices at home and in the condition so the work making us whom they conceived to be the weaker for opposition to be nothing else but a leading case for England And that although by the power of God which
the State may upon great reason thinke fit to alter Besides the bottomelesse perjury of an c. Besides all this Mr. Speaker men must sweare that they sweare freely and voluntarily what they are compelled unto and lastly that they sweare that Oath in the literall sence whereof no two of the makers themselves that I have heard of could never agree in the understanding In a word Mr. Speaker to tell you my opinion of this Oath it is a Covenant against the King for Bishops and the Hierarchy as the Scottish Covenants is against them onely so much worse then the Scottish as they admit not of the Supremacy in Ecclesiasticall affaires and we are sworne unto it Now Mr. Speaker for those particular heads of grievances whereby our Estates and Properties are so radically invaded I suppose as I sayd before that it is no season now to enter into a strict Discussion of them onely thus much I shall say of them with application to the Countrey for which I serve that none can more justly complaine since none can more justly challenge exemption from such burdens then Dorset shire whether you consider its a Countrey subsisting much by Trade or as none of the most populous or as exposed as much as any to Forraigne Invasion But alas Mr. Speaker particular lamentations are hardly distinguishable in Vniversall groanes Mr. Speaker it hath beene a Metaphor frequent in Parlamant and if my memory fayle me not was made use of in the Lord Keepers Speech at the opening of the last that what mony Kings raysed from their Subjects they were But as Vapors drawn up from the Earth by the Sunne to bee distilled upon it againe in fructifying showers The Comparison Mr. Speaker hath held of late yeares in this Kingdome too unluckily what hath bin raised from the Subject by those violent attractions hath beene formed it is true into Clouds but how to darken the Sunnes owne lustre and hath fallen againe upon the Land only in Hail-stones and Mildews to batter and prost rate still more and more our liberties to blast and wither our affections had the latter of these beene still kept alive by our Kings owne personall vertues which wil ever preserve him in spight of all ill Counsellours a sacred object both of our admiration and loves Mr. Speaker It hath beene often sayd in this House and I thinke can never be too often repeated That the Kings of England can do no wrong but thogh they could Mr. Speaker yet Princes have no part in the ill of those actions which their Judges assure them to be just their Counsellours that they are prudent and their Divines that they are conscientious This Consideration M. Speaker leadeth mee to that which is more necessary farre at this season than any farther laying open of our miseries that is the way to the remedy by seeking to remove from our Soveraign such unjust Judges such pernicious Counsellours and such disconscient Divines as have of late yeares by their wicked practises provoked aspersions upon the government of the graciousest and best of Kings Mr. Speaker let me not be mis-understood I levell at no man with a fore-layd designe let the faults and and those well proved lead us to the men It is the onely true Parliamentary method and the onely fit one to incline our Soveraigne For it can no more consist with a gracious and righteous Prince to expose his servants upon irregular prejudices then with a wise Prince to with hold Malefactors how great soever from the course of orderly justice Let me acquaint you M. Speaker with an Aphorisme in Hippocrates no lesse Authenticke I thinke in the body Politicke then in the Naturall Thus it is Mr. Speaker Bodies to be throughly and effectually purged must have their Humors first made fluid and mâ—oveable The Humours that I understand to have caused all the desperate maladies of this Nation are the ill Minister To purge them away clearely they must be first loosened unsetled and extenuated which can no way bee effected with a gracious Master but by truely representing them unworthy of his protection And this leadeth mee to my Motion which is that a select Committee may bee appointed to draw out of all that hath beene heere represented such a Remonstrance as may be a faithfull and lively representation unto his Majesty of the deplorable estate of this his Kingdome and such as may happily point out unto his cleare and excellent judgment the pernicious Authors of it And that this Remonstrance being drawne wee may with all speed repaire to the Lords and desire them to joyne with with us in it And this is my humble motion THE LORD DIGBIES SPEECH IN THE HOVSE OF Commons to the Bill for trienniall Parliaments Janu. 19. 1640. Mr. Speaker I Rise not now with an intent to speake to the frame and structure of this Bill nor much by way of answer to objections that may be made I hope there will be no occasion of that but that we shall concurre all unanimously in what concerneth all so Universally Onely Sir by way of preparation to the end that we may not be discouraged in this great worke by difficulties that may appeare in the way of it I shall deliver unto you my apprehensions in generall of the vast importance and necessity that wee should goe thorow with it The Result of my sense is in short this That unlesse for the frequent convening of Parliaments there be some such course setled as may not be eluded neyther the people can be prosperous and secure not the King himselfe solidly happy I take this to be the Vnum necessarium Let us procure this and all our other desires will effect themselves if this bill miscarry I shall have left me no publike hopes and once past I shall be freed of all publike feares The essentialnesse Sir of frequent Parliaments to the happinesse of this Kingdome might be inferr'd unto you by the reason of contraries from the wofull experience which former times have had of the mischievous effects of any long intermission of them But Mr. Speaker why should we clime higher then the levell we are on or thinke further then our owne Horizon or have recourse for examples in this busines to any other promptuary then our owne memories nay then the experience almost of the youngest here The reflection backward on the distractions of former times upon intermission of Parliament and the consideration forward of the mischiefes likely still to grow from the same cause if not remooved doubtlesly gave first life and being to those two dormant Statutes of Edward the third for the yearly holding of Parliament And shall not the fresh and bleeding experience in the present age of miseries from the same spring not to be paralleld in any other obtaine a wakening a resurrection for them The Intestine distempers Sir of former ages upon the want of Parliaments may appeare to have had some other cooperative causes as sometimes
security of the Subject enacted immediately before their comming to employment in the contriving whereof themselves were principall Actors The goodnesse and vertue of the King they served and yet the high and publique oppressions that in his time they have wrought And surely there is no man but will conclude with me that as the deficience of Parliaments hath bin the Causa Causarum of all the mischiefes and distempers of the present times so the frequency of them is the sole Catholicke Antidote that can preserve and secure the future from the like danger Mr. Speaker let me yet draw my Discourse a little nearer to his Majesty himselfe and tell you that the frequency of Parliament is most essentially necessary to the power the security the glory of the King There are two wayes Mr. Speaker of powerfull Rule eyther by Feare or Love but one of happy and safe Rule that is by Love that Firmissinum Imperium quo obedientes gaâ—dent To which Camillus advised the Romans Let a Prince consider what it is that mooves a people principally to affection and dearnesse towards their Soveraigne He shall see that there needs no other Artifice in it then to let them injoy unmolested what belongs unto them of right If that have beene invaded and violated in any kind whereby affections are alienated the next consideration for a wise Prince that would be happy is how to regaine them To which three things are equally necessary 1. Re-instating them in their former Libertie 2. Revenging them of the Authors of those violations 3. And securing them from Apprehensions of the like againe The first God be thanked wee are in a good way of The second in warme pursuit of But the third as essentiall as all the rest till we be certain of a Trienniall Parliament at the least I professe I can have but cold hopes of I beseech you then Gentlemen since that security for the future is so necessary to that blessed union of affections and this Bill so necessary to that security Let us not be so wanting to our selves let us not be so wanting to our Soveraigne as to forbeare to offer unto him this powerfull this everlasting Philter to Charme unto him the hearts of his people whose vertue can never evaporate There is no man M. Speaker so secure of anothers friendship but will thinke frequent intercourse and accesse very requisite to the support to the confirmation of it Especially if ill offices have beene done betweene them if the raysing of jealousies hath beene attempted There is no Friend but would be impatient to be debarred from giving his friend succour and reliefe in his necessities Mr. Speaker permit mee the comparison of great things with little what friendship what union can there be so comfortable so happy as betweene a gracious Soveraigne and his people and what greater misfortune can there bee to both then for them to bee kept from entercourse from the meanes of clearing mis understandings from interchange of mutuall benefits The people of England Sir cannot open their Eares their Hearts their Mouthes nor their Purses to his Majesty but in Parliament We can neyther heare Him nor Complaine nor acknowledge nor give but there This Bill Sir is the sole Key that can open the way to a frequency of those reciprocall indearments which must make and perpetuate the happinesse of the King and Kingdome Let no man object any derogation from the Kings Prerogative by it Wee doe but present the Bill 't is to be made a Law by him his Honour his Power will be as conspicuous in commanding at once that Parliament shall assemble every third yeare as in commanding a Parliament to be called this or that yeare there is more of his Majesty in ordayning primary and Vniversall Causes then in the actuaâ—ing particularly of subordinate effects I doubt not but that glorious King Edward the Third when he made those Lawes for the yearely Calling of Parliament did it with a right sence of his dignity and honour The truth is Sir the Kings of England are never in their Glory in their Splendour in their Majesticke Soveraignty but in Parliaments Where is the power of imposing Taxes Where is the power of restoring from incapacities Where is the legislative Authority Marry in the King Mr. Speaker But how In the King circled in fortified and evirtuated by his Parliament The King out of Parliament hath a limitted a circumscribed jurisdiction But waited on by his Parliament no Monarch of the East is so absolute in dispelling Grievances Mr. Speaker in chasing ill Ministers we doe but dissipate Clouds that may gather againe but in voting this Bill we shall contribute as much as in us lyes to the perpetuating our Sunne our Soveraigne in his verticall in his Noone day lustre A Speech of the Honourable NATHANAEL FIENNES In the House of Commons the 9. of Febr. 1640. Mr. Speaker TWO things have fallen into debate this day The first concerning the Londoners Petition whether it should bee committed or no. The other concerning the government of the Church by Arch-bishops Bishops c. whether it should bee countenanced or no. For the first I doe not understand by any thing that I have yet heard why the Londoners Petition should not be committed or countenanced The exceptions that are taken against it are from the irregularities of the delivery of it and from the Subject matter contained in it For the first it is alledged that the long taile of this blazing starre is ominous and that such a number of Petitioners and such a number that brought the Petition to the House was irregular Hereunto I answer that the fault was either in the multitude of the Petitioners or in their carriages and demeanours if a multitude finde themselves agrieved why it should be a fault in them to expresse their grievances more than in one or a few I cannot see nay to me it seemes rather a reason that their Petitions should be committed and taken into serious consideration for thereby they may receive satisfaction though all bee not granted that they desire But if wee shall throw their Petition behind the door and refuse to consider it that it may seeme an act of will in us And whether an act of will in us may not produce an act of will in the people I leave it to your consideration Sure I am acts of will are more dangerous there than here because usually they are more tumultuous All Lawes are made principally for the quiet and peace of a Kingdome and a Law may be of such indifferent nature many times that it is a good reason to alter it onely because a great number desires it if there were nothing else in it and therefore I doe not see that the number of Petitioners is any good reason why it should not bee committed but rather the contrary Now for their carriage there came indeed three or foure hundred of the 15000 some of the better sort of them
Speaker who can frame an argument aright unlesse he can tell against what he is to argue Would you confute the Convocation-house they were a holy Synod they were Commissioners will you dispute their Commission they will mingle all power together and perhaps answer they were something else that we neither knew nor imagined unlesse they would unriddle themselves and owne what they were wee may prosecute non-concludent Arguments Mr. Speaker I have conferred with some of the Founders of those Canons but I professe here that I could never meet with any one of that assembly who could well answer to that first question of the Catechisme What is your name Alas they were parted before they knew what they were when they were together The summe of all the severall answers that I have received do all together amount unto this They were a Convocationall Synodicall Assembly of Commissioners Indeed a threefold Chaemera a Monster to our Lawes a Cerberus to our Religion A strange Commission where no Commissioners name is to be found A strange Convocation that lived when the Parliament was dead A strange holy Synod when the one part never saw nor conferred with the other But indeed there needed no conference if it be true of these Cannons which I read of the former Quis nescit Canones Lambethae formari priusquam in Synode ventilentur Well Mr. Speaker they have Innovated upon us wee may say it is Lex talionis to Innovate upon them and so I hope we shortly shall doe In the meane time my humble motion is that every member of that assembly who voted their Cannons may come severally to the Barre of this House with a Book of Cannons in his hand and there unlesse he can answer that Catechisme question as I called it better then I expect he can conceptis verbis in such expresse termes as this honourable house shall then think fit he shall abjure his owne Issue and be commanded to give fire to his owne Canons And this motion I take to be just The fourth Speech of Sir Edward Deering Concerning the Arch-Bishop and divers other Grievances Mr. Speaker YEsterday we did regulate the most important businesse before us and gave them motion so that our great and weighty affaires are now on their feet in their progresse journying on towards their several periods where some I hope will finde their latest home Yet among all these I observe one a very maine one to sleepe sine die give me leave to awaken it it is a businesse of an immense weight and worth such as deserves our best care and most severe circumspection I meane the Grand Petition long since given in by many thousand Citizens against the domineering Clergy Wherein for my part although I cannot approve of all that is presented unto you yet I do clearely professe that a great part of it nay the greatest part thereof is so well grounded that my heart goes cheerefully along therewith It seemes that my Countrey for which I have the honour to serve is of the same minde and least you should thinke that all faults are included within the walls of Troy they will shew you Iliacos intra muros peccatur extrae The same grievances which the City groanes under are provinciall unto us and I much feare they are Nationall among us all The pride the avarice the ambition and oppression by our ruling Clergie is Epidemicall it hath infected them all There is not any or scarce any of them who is not practicall in their own great cause in hand which they impiously doe mis call the Piety of the times but in truth so wrong a Piety that I am bold to say In facinus jurasse putes Here in this Petition is the disease represented here is the cure intreated The number of your Petitioners is considerable being above five and twenty hundred names and would have been foure times as many if that were thought materiall The matter in the Petition is of high import but your Petitioners themselves are all of them quiet and silent at their owne houses humbly expecting and praying the resolution of this great Senate upon these their earnest and thrice hearty desires Here is no noyse no numbers at your doore they will be neither your trouble nor your jealousie for I doe not know of any one of them this day in the towne so much they doe affie in the justice of their Petition and in the goodnesse of this house If now you want any of them here to make avowance of their Petition I am their servant I doe appeare for them and for my selfe and am ready to avow this Petition in their names and in my owne Nothing doubting but fully confident that I may justly say of the present usage of the Hierarchy in the Church of England as once the Pope Pope Adrian as I remember said of the Clergy in his time A vertice capitis ad plantam pedis nihil est sanum in toto ordine Ecclesiastico I beseech you read the Petition regard us and relieve us Master BAGSHAWES Speech in Parliament Febr. 9 th 1640. Concerning Episcopacy and the London Petition Mr. Speaker I Was yesterday and the time before for the retaining of the London Petition and am in the same minde still and therefore doe now rise up against the proposall of that question which is now called for Whether Episcopacy it selfe be to be taken into consideration by the Committee wherein I doe distinguish of a twofold Episcopacy the first in Statu puro as it was in the Primitive times the second in Statu corrupto as it is at this day and is so intended and meant in the London Petition Now I hold that Epistopacy in this latter sence is to be taken into consideration as a thing that trencheth not onely upon the right and liberties of the Subject of which I shall have occasion to speake hereafter But as it is now it trencheth upon the Crowne of England in these foure particulars wherein in I know this House will willingly heare me First it is maintained by the Bishop of Exeter in a Booke which he hath writ to this purpose that Episcopacy it selfe both in the office and in the jurisdiction is de Iure Divino of Divine right which position is directly contrary to the Lawes of England of which I will cite but two or three in stead of many more The Statute of Carlisle 35. Ed. 1. mentioned in Caudries case in the fifth Report saith that the Church of England is founded in the state of Prelacie by the Kings of England and their Progenitors Which likewise appeares by the first Chapter in Magna Charta in these words Concessimus Deo Ecclesiae Anglicanae omnes libertates c. and in the twentie fifth yeare of Edward the third in the French Roll which I have seene there the Archbishop and Clergie petition the King for their liberties in these words thus Englished That for the reverence of God and
holy Church and of his grace and bounty he will confirme all those liberties priviledges and rights granted and given by him and his noble Progenitors to the Church by their Charters which plainly sheweth that they have their Episcopall Jurisdiction from the Kings of England and not Iure divino by divine right and this likewise is acknowledged by themselves in the Statute of 37. H. 8. cap. 17. that they have their Episcopall jurisdiction and all other Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction whatsoever solely and onely by from and under the King The second thing that is trenching upon the Crowne is this that it is holden at this day that Episcopacy is inseparable to the Crowne of England and therefore it is commonly now said No Bishop no King no Miter no Scepter which I utterly deny for it is plaine and apparant that the Kings of England were long before Bishops and have a subsistance without them and have done and may still depose them The third is likewise considerable as trenching upon the Crowne which is that was said under the Gallery that Episcopacy was a third estate in Parliament and therefore the King and Parliament could not be without them This I utterly deny for there are three estates without them as namely the King who is the first estate the Lords Temporall the second and the Commons the third and I know no fourth estate Besides the Kings of England have had many Parliaments wherein there have beene no Bishops at all as for example Ed. 1.24 of his reigne held his Parliament at Edmundbury excluso Clero and in the Parliament 7. R. 2. c. 3. 7. R. 2. c. 12. it doth appeare that they were enacted by the King with the assent and agreement of the Lords Temporall and Commons where the estates of Parliamen are mentioned and not the Clergie Divers other statutes might likewise be named to this purpose which I omit The fourth and last thing is of the Bishops holding of the Ecclesiasticall Courts in their owne names and not in the name of the King nor by Commission from him contrary to the Statute of 1 Edw. 6. cap. 2. and contrary to the practice of Bishop Ridley Coverdale and Ponnet who tooke Commissions from the KING for holding their Ecclesiasticall Courts as may be seene at this day in the Rolles And although it will be objected that by a late Proclamation in the yeare of our Lord God 1637. wherein the opinion of the Iudges mentioned it is declared upon their opinion that the act of 1 Edw. 6. was repealed and that Bishops may now keep Courts in their owne names and send processe under their owne Seales yet it is well knowne that the Statute of 1 Q. Mary which repealed the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. was it selfe repealed by the Statute of 1 Iac. cap 25. Whereupon it was holden upon a full debate of this poynt in Parliament 7 Iac. which I have seene that upon consideration of the Statutes of 1 Iac. and 1. Eliz. cap 1. and 8 Eliz. cap. 1. that the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. was revived and that Bishops ought not to keepe Courts in their owne names So that for these reasons so nearely concerning the right of the Crowne of England in the poynt of Episcopacy I am against the proposall of that question and am for the retaining of the London Petition and for a thorow Reformation of all abuses and grievances of Episcopacy mentioned in the Ministers Remonstrance which Reformation may perhaps serve the turne without alteration of the Government of England into a forme of Presbytery as it is in other Kingdomes of Scotland France Genâ—va and the Low Countries which for mine owne part had I lived in these Kingdomes I should have bin of the opinion of the Protestant party in point of Presbytery because those Kingdomes are governed by the Civill Law which maintaines the jurisdiction of the Pope and Papall Episcopacy which the ancient Lawes of England condemne being likewise in themselves opposite to the Civill and Canon Lawes And if notwithstanding all the Reformation that can be made by the Lawes of this Land a better forme of government may evidently appeare to us concerning which there is no forme now before us it is to be taken by us into consideration according to that imperiall Constitution in these words In rebus nobis constituendis evidens utilitas esse debet ut ab eo jure recedatur quod diu aequum visum est And so Mr. Speaker I shortly conclude that for these Reasons omitting divers more the London Petition is to be retained The Speeches of Sir Benjamin Rudyer in the High Court of Parliament Mr. Speaker WEe are here assembled to doe Gods businesse and the Kings in which our owne is included as wee are Christians as wee are Subjects Let us first feare GOD then shall wee honour the King the more for I am afrayd wee have beene the lesse prosperous in Parliaments because wee have preferred other matters before Him Let Religion be our Primum Quarite for all things else are but Etcaetera's to it yet we may have them too sooner and surer if wee give God his precedence We well know what disturbance hath been brought upon the Church for vain petty trifles How the whole Church the whole Kingdome hath beene troubled where to place a Metaphor an Altar Wee have seene Ministers their Wives Children and Families undone against Law against Conscience against all Bowells of Compassion about not dancing upon Sundayes What doe these sort of men think will become of themselves when the Master of the house shall come and finde them thus beating their fellow servants These Inventions were but Sives made of purpose to winnow the best men and that 's the Devills occupation They have a minde to worry preaching for I never yet heard of any but diligent preachers that were vext with these and the like devices They despise prophesie and as one said They would faine be at something were like the Masse that will not bite A muzzl'd Religion They would evaporate and dis-spirit the power and vigour of Religion by drawing it out into solemne specious formalities into obsolete antiquated Ceremonies new furbish'd up And this belike is the good worke in hand which Dr. Heylin hath so often celebrated in his bold Pamphlets All their Acts and actions are so full of mixtures involutions and complications as nothing is cleare nothing sincere in any of their proceedings Let them not say that these are the perverse suspitious malicious interpretations of some few factious Spirits amongst us when a Romanist hath bragged and congratulated in print That the face of our Church begins to alter the Language of our Religion to change And Sancta Clara hath published That if a Synod were held Non intermixtis Puritanis setting Puritanes aside our Articles and their Religion would soone be agreed They have so brought it to passe that under the name of Puritans all our Religion is branded and under
fully planted in this Kingdome againe and so they are encouraged to persist therein and to practice the same openly in divers places to the high dishonour of God and contrary to the Lawes of the Realme II. Secondly the discouragement and destruction of all good Subjects of whom all Multitudes both Ciothiers Marchants and others being deprived of their Ministers and overburthen'd with these pressures have departed the Kingdome to Holland and other parts and have drawn with them a great part of manufacture of Cloth and Trading out of the Land into other places where they reside whereby Wooll the great staple of the Kingdome is become of small value and vends not Trading is decayed many poore people want work Sea-men lose imployment and the whole Land much impoverished to the great dishonour of this Kingdome and blemishment to the government thereof III. The present warres and Commotions happened betweene his Majesty and his Subjects of Scotland wherein his Majesty and all his Kingdome are indangered and suffer greatly and are like to become a prey to the common Enemy in case the warres goe on which we exceedingly feare will not onely goe on but also encrease to an utter Ruine of all unlesse the Prelates with their dependancies be removed out of England and also they and their practices who as we under your Honours favour doe verily beleeve and conceive have occasioned the Quarrell All which wee humbly referre to the consideration of this Honourable Assembly desiring the Lord of Heaven to direct you in the right way to redresse all these evills FINIS The Resolution of the House of Commons touching the six Demands of the Scots for restitution of their Losses and Dammages THis House thinks fit that a friendly Assistance and reliefe be given towards supply of the losses and necessities of the Scots and in due time this House wil take consideration both of the manner and measure of it The Scottish Commissioners Answer to the resolution of the Parliament AS wee doe with all thankfulnesse receive the friendly and kindly resolution of the Parliament concerning our Demands wee doe therein acknowledge your Lordships noble dealing for which we may assure that the whole Kingdome of Scotland will at all occasions expresse themselves on all respect and kindnesse so doe we entreat your Lordships to present unto the Parliament our earnest desire that they may be pleased howsoever their conveniencie may serve to consider of the proportion wishing still that as wee expect from our friends the testimonies of their kindnesse friendly Assistance so the Justice of the Parliament may be declared in making the burthen more sensible to the Prelates and Papists our Enemies and Authors of all our evills then to others who never have wronged us which will not onely give unto us and the whole Kingdome of Scotland the greater satisfaction but will also as wee can conceive conduce much to the honour of the Kings Majestie and Parliament Wee doe also expect that your Lordships will be pleased to report unto us the Answer of the Parliament that wee may in this as in the former Articles give Account to those who sent us The Peeres Demands upon the aforesaid Answer VVEe desire to understand since as we conceive the particulars are like to require much time whether we may not from you let the Parliament know that whilest they are debating of the proportion and the wayes how they finde assistance may be raised you will proceed to the agreeing to the Articles of a firme and durable peace that thereby both time may be saved and both sides proceed mutually with the more cheerefulnesse and alacrity The Scottish Commissioners Answer to the Peeres Demands AS wee desire a firme Peace so is it our desire that this Peace may be with all mutuall Alacrity speedily concluded and therefore let 's entreat you all to shew the Parliament from us that how soon they shall be pleased to make the proportion knowne to us that wee may satisfie the expectation of those who have instructed us which wee doe conceive may be done in a short time since they are already acquainted with all the particulars of our Demands wee shall stay no longer upon the manner and wayes of raising the assistance which may require a longer time and yet we trust it will be with such conveniencie as may serve for our two moneths reliefe but remitting the manner and wayes to the oportunity of the Parliament shall most willingly proceed to the considerations of the following Articles especially to that which wee most of all desire a firme and setled Peace 26. Ian. 1640. FINIS Articles of the House of Commons in Parliament against Secretary WINDEBANKE INprimis Seventy foure Letters of grace to Recusants within this foure yeares signed with Secretary Windebankes owne hand 2 Sixty foure Priests in the Gate-house within this foure yeares discharged for the most part by Secretary Windebanke 3 Twenty nine discharged by a verball warrant of Secretarie Windebanke 4 A warrant to protect one Muffon a condemned Priest and all the houses he frequented 5 One committed by the Kings owne hand and discharged by Secretarie Windebanke without signification of the Kings pleasure therein 6 A Petition of Saint Giles in the Fields neere London to the King of the encrease of Popery in their Parish wherein twenty one persons were seduced and turned by two Priests the which Priests were both discharged by Secretary Windebanke Die Lunae 21. Decembris 1640. A Speech made by John Lord Finch Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England in the Commons house of Parliament Master Speaker I Do first present my most humble thanks to this Honourable Assembly for this favour vouchsafed me in granting me admittance to their presence and doe humbly beseech them to beleeve it is no desire to preserve my selfe or my fortune but to deserve the good opinions of those that have drawne mee hither I do professe in the presence of him that knoweth all hearts that I had rather go from dore to dore and crave Da obulum Belizario c. with the good opinion of this Assembly then live and enjoy all the honours and fortunes I am capable of I doe not come hither with an intention to justifie my words my actions or my opinions but to make a plaine and cleare narration for my selfe and then humbly to submit to the wisedome and justice of this House my selfe and all that concernes me I doe well understand Master Speaker with what disadvantage any man can speake in his owne cause and if I could have told how to have transmitted my thoughts and actions by a clearer representation of another I doe so much defie my owne judgement in working and my wayes in expressing that I should have beene a most humble suiter another might have done it But this House wil not take words but with cleare and ingennous dealing and therefore I shall beseech them to think I come not hither with a set or
make it such as the harme had not beene much if it had beene depressed the most frequent subjects even in the most sacred auditories being the Jus divinum of Bishops and tithes the sacrednesse of the clergie the sacriledge of impropriations the demolishing of puritanisme and propriety the building of the prerogative at Pauls the introduction of such doctrines as admitting them true the truth would not recompence the scandall or of such as were so far false that as Sir Thomas Moore sayes of the Casuists their businesse was not to keepe men from sinning but to enforme them Quam propè ad peccatum sine peccato liceat accedere so it seemed their worke was to try how much of a Papist might bee brought in without Popery and to destroy as much as they could of the Gospell without bringing themselves into danger of being destroyed by the Law Master Speaker to goe yet further some of them have so industriously laboured to deduce themselves from Rome that they have given great suspition that in gratitude they desire to returne thither or at least to meet it halfe way Some have evidently labour'd to bring in an English though not a Roman popery I meane not onely the outside and dresse of it but equally absolute a blind dependance of the people upon the Clergie and of the Clergie upon themselves and have opposed the papacy beyond the sea that they might settle one beyond the water Nay common fame is more then ordinarily false if none of them have found a way to reconcile the opinions of Rome to the preferments of England be so absolutely directly and cordially Papists that it is all that fifteene hundred pounds a yeare can doe to keep them from confessing it Master Speaker I come now to speake of our liberties and considering the great interest these men have had in our common Master and considering how great a good to us they might have made that interest in him if they would have used it to have informed him of our generall sufferings and considering how little of their freedome of Speech at Whitehall might have saved us a great deale of the use wee have now of it in the Parliament-house their not doing this alone were occasion enough for us to accuse them as the betrayers though not as the destroyers of our rights and liberties Though I confesse if they had been onely silent in this particular I had beene silent too But alas they whose Ancestors in the darkest times excommunicated the breakers of Magna charta did now by themselves and their adherents both write preach plot and act against it by encouraging Doctor Beale by preferring Doctor Mannering appearing forward for Monopolies and ship-mony and if any were slow and backeward to comply blasting both them and their preferment with utmost expression of their hatred the title of Puritans Master Speaker wee shall find some of them to have labour'd to exclude both all persons and all causes of the Clergy from the ordinary jurisdiction of the temporall Magistrate and by hindring prohibitions first by apparent power against the Judges and after by secret agreements with them to have taken away the onely legall bound to their arbitrary power and made as it were a conquest upon the common law of the Land which is our common inheritance and after made use of that power to turn their brethren out of their free-holds for not doing that which no law of man required of them to doe and which in their opinions the law of God required of them not to doe Wee shall finde them in generall to have encouraged all the Clergy to suites and to have brought all suites to the Councell-table that having all power in Ecclesiasticall matters they laboured for equall power in Temporall and to dispose as well of every Office as of every Benefice which lost the Clergy much revenew and much reverence whereof the last is never given when it is so asked by encouraging them indiscreetly to exact more of both then was due so that indeed the gaine of their greatnesse extended but to a few of that order though the envy extended upon all We shall find of them to have both kindled blown the common fire of both nations to have both sent and maintained that booke of which the Author no doubt hath long since wish'd with Nero Vtinam nescissem literas and of which more then one Kingdome hath cause to wish that when hee writ that hee had rather burnd a Library though of the value of Ptolomie's We shall finde them to have beene the first and principall cause of the breach I will not say of but since the pacification at Berwike We shall find them to have beene the almost sole abettors of my Lord of Strafford whilest hee was practising upon another Kingdome that manner of government which hee intended to settle in this where he committed so many so mighty and so manifest enormities and oppressions as the like have not beene committed by any Governour in any government since Verres left Sicily And after they had called him over from being Deputy of Ireland to bee in a manner Deputy of England all things here being govern'd by a Juntillo and that Juntillo govern'd by him to have asisted him in the giving of such Councells and the pursuing of such courses as it is a hard and measuring cast whether they were more unwise more unjust or more unfortunate and which had infallibly beene our destruction if by the grace of God their share had not beene as small in the subtilty of Serpents as in the innocency of Doves Master Speaker I have represented no small quantity and no meane degree of guilt and truly I beleeve that wee shall make no little complement to those and no little apologie for those to whom this charge belongs if wee shall lay the faults of the men upon the order of the Bishops upon the Episcopacy I wish we may distinguish betweene those who have beene carried away with the streame and those who have beene the streame that carry'd them betweene those whose proper and naturall motion was towards our ruine and destruction and those who have beene whirl'd about to it contrary to their naturall motion by the force and swinge of superiour Orbes and as I wish wee may distinguish betweene the more and lesse guilty so I yet more wish wee may distinguish betweene the guilty and the innocent Master Speaker I doubt if we consider that if not the first Planters yet the first Spreaders of Christianity and the first and chiefe Defenders of Christianity against Heresies within and Paganisme without both with their inke and with their bloud and the maine conducers to the resurrection of Christianity at least here in the reformation and we owe the light of the Gospell wee now enjoy to the fire they then endur'd for it were all Bishops and that even now in the greatest perfection of that order there are yet some who
the Citizens at London and also by a Petition of worthy Gentlemens sons Apprentices thereof so reputed to be All which show the whole estate of our Church and Common-wealth to be grievously diseased of a Plurisie and must have a present and good cure or else England is overthrown which is the mother and Almoner of the Kings well-fare and his posterity Which disease the King not fearing nor knowing he had some ill counsell to let it run so farre in jeopardy of trouble and distresse And herein give me leave to tell you the story of Noah a King in the the Ark yet after he was over-shot and taken by the Vines of his own planting and brought himself to some dishonour thereby as some use our English Kings heretofore have done by their favourites untill they saw it and this is it that made the Papists and Prelates rejoyce in their own wisedom and honour like Chams that saw his father so deceived but such deserve a curse for it both of God and man in respect of the matters contained in the foresaid Petitions of our English Lords as also for that the former Parliament might have settled all things in quiet enriched the Kings Coffers enabled to withstand all powerfull pretences and no doubt but to have qualified the humour of the Scots to all our contents Therefore these deserve the curse of Cham that were movers and stoppers and hinderers of it When things might have been composed convenient without warre or strife and not upon so extreme necessity which is now brought upon us and maketh the Scots proverb in use necessity hath no 〈◊〉 for their defence But now our Proverb is drawn frâ—â— thence we must make a vertue of necessity a hard case for a good take heed and counsell For since the plot of an after intended warre had an ill policy that would wrong good Noah their father and his children in such a manner of proceeding and then in glory and defence of it against this House of Commons cause a booke to be published against our proceedings these men which were the cause of publishing of it are fit to publish 't as Noahs cursed son Cham shamelesse And we for our parts in the House of Commons together with the higher House of Lords I hope will not so leave them but be rejecters of them as good Shem and Japheth acknowledging them to be vain members that go about to supplant our wrong the Vineyard our just King and his Kingdom Now therefore consider the former it shall be fit before we enter upon conference to be strengthened and enabled for discharge of our well meaning both to our King and Country answerable to his late speech to gain and obtain his free love consent power on these three points and cautions handled and moved the last meeting First free liberty of speech Secondly each ones right to our selves Thirdly for reformation of Religion And these things granted to proceed freely without delay of time or matters to the cure of such deadly diseases if they be let alone First I would conceive under favour of bette judgements to begin with Sathans Roots of evill viz. All Papists because they are of the most dangerous seed of the Serpent to the hurt of the Church and Common-wealth herein that we agree with a generall consent of Parliament to search see and finde out all the Jesuits Priests Friars Cappuchines and all such Romish factions and by order to all the Justices of Peace in England to imprison them or to send them all to some out-Townes to banish them all out of the Land speedily while you be in other Councell here sitting and thence to ship them away at their owne chages and upon good bonds and security that they never return into England Scotland or Ireland and if they should both the bonds and the Lawes to be executed upon them And for other long Inhabitants Papist and Recusants such as may seeme honest Subjects only for Religion the old orders and Statutes to be put in execution without the abatement of the penalties till they shall conforme to our Religion and if any have wincked or underhand compounded for the time past to be punished and made pay so much unto the Kings Cofers as justly due by the Statute ever since King Charles his Raigne The first course and Act of Parliament being speedily put in execution whilest we sit here will not only excuse the pretended charity that Papists hope for from the King and Queen but will also manifest the true piety against their heresies for ever and will be a good satisfaction to the Scots which make these one of the chiefest intents and causes of their comming into this Kingdome which we wish they had no worse intents and sure it will be a means to try their intents and our owne too and then we have hope to entreat the Scots to stay our leisures Sir John Wray his Speech touching the Canons the 15. of December 1640. Mr. Speaker A Man may easily see to what tend all these innovations and alterations in Doctrine and Discipline and without perspect time discover a farre off the active toylsomenesse of these spirituall Ingineeres to undermine the old and true foundation of Religion and establish their tottering heresie in Rome thereof which least it should not hold being built with untempered morter You see how carefull they are by a past oath to force mens consciences not to alter their government Archiepiscopall And Master Speaker the thoughts of the righteous are right but the counsells of the wicked are deceits and nothing else in their hearts but destructions and devastations but to the counsellors of peace is joy so long as they kept themselves within the circle of the spirituall commerce and studied to keepe mens hearts upright to God and his Truth there was no such complaining in our Streets of them nor had we never seene so many thousand hands against them as now there are come in And no marvell though God withdrawes so many hearts and hands from them who had turned so many out of the way of truth vita tuta they have stopt up but via devia they have enlarged and layd open as appears by their crooked Canons Master Speaker I shall not goe about to overthrow their government in the plurall but to limit it and qualifie it in some particulars For Sir Francis Bacon long since well observed there two things in the government of Bishops of which he could never be satisfied no more can I the first was the sole exercises of the authorities And secondly by the deputation of that authority But Master Speaker I shall not now dispute of either for mine own part Master Speaker I love some of them so well and am so charitable to the rest that I wish rather their reformation then their ruine But let me tell you withall that if we should finde amongst them any proud Becket or Wolsey Prelates who stick not to write
in the North yet I dwell in England Sir BENJAMIN RUDYERDS Speech concerning the QUEENS Joynture Jan. 1640. Mr. SPEAKER GOD hath blessed the Queens Majestie with a blessed Progeny already whereby she hath relieved and fortified this Kingdome which may put us in minde in a fit time to provide according to their birth and interest Shee is the daughter of a great and famous King she is the wife of our King which to us includes all expressions But in one thing Mr. Speaker her Majestie is singular in that she is the Mother to the greatest Prince that hath beene borne amongst us above these hundred yeers which cannot but work a tendernesse in us The Queene likewise may be another Instrument of happinesse to us in her good affection to Parliaments by a good hansell in this And I beleeve we shall see effects of it for it neerly and wisely concernes her Majestie even in all the Relations that are most deare to her to contribute her best Assistance to Uphold the Government and greatnesse of the kingdome By which meanes also the king will be better enabled to make a further enlargement of his bounty towards her in some degree proportionable Wherefore Mr. Speaker it will become this House to shew our cheerfulnesse in passing of the Bill Articles against Doctor Piercie Bishop of Bath and Wells exhibited by Mr. James Minister within his Diocesse 1 HEE hath Ex officio convented mee before him for having two Sermons preached in my Church on Michaelmas day to the great disturbance hinderance of the sale of the Church Ale as his Lordship pretended and further examined me upon Oath whether I had not the said Sermons preached for the same purpose and intent admonishing me for the future neither to preach my selfe nor suffer any other to preach in my Cure in the afternoon of either the Lords-day or holy dayes 2 I heard him say to his Register That whereas Information had been given concerning certain Ministers that they expounded upon the Catechisme this Information was too narrow to catch them and therefore it should have runne thus that they Catechised or expounded upon the Catechisme Sermon-wise and then they would have been obnoxious to censure 3 At the meeting to elect Clerks of the Convocation he threatned to send forth Censures of the Church against all that would not pay in the Benevolence late granted in the late Synod within a fortnight after the second day of November last past And further at the said election his sonne gave eight single voyces two as Arch-Deacon of Bath two as Prebend of the Church of Wells two as Parson of Buckland Saint Mary two as Vicar of Kingsbury and many others also there present gave as many double voyces as they had Benefices and Dignities against which one Mr. Rosnell protested saying that it was illegall The Bishop replyed that they gave in severall capacities and thereupon commanded him silence saying that he was a young man 4. That upon the meer Information of Mr. Humphry Sydenham Rector of Buckington that in a certain Sermon Preached at the Visitation of the Arch Deacon of Taunton I bespattered the Clergie The Bishop summoned me before him down to Wells and there objected unto mee that I had preached a scandalous Sermon wherein I had cast some aspersions on some of the Clergy Upon which charge I proferd to bring in an exact Copy of the Sermon I preacht and to depose that I spake neither more nor lesse then was contained in the said Copy This the Bishop would not accept of saying that he would not have the Ministers who came to witnesse against mee troubled with a second journey One of my Proctors desired time till the next Court day for me to give in my answer the Bishop commanded him to hold his Peace and the other Proctor though he was retained by me had received a Fee never opened his mouth pretending unto me that because the Bishop was so highly displeased with mee he durst not appeare in my behalf being denyed time to give in my answer at the next Court day I desired respit untill the afternoon this also was denyed In fine contrary to the rules of their own Court he examined witnesses against me and proceeded to Censure me before he received my full answer he would not heare the answer which I could give to the Articles objected to me which I proferd to give and which he had by oath required me to give further by vertue of the oath he administred unto me he questioned me not only concerning matters of outward fact but also concerning my most secret thoughts intentions and aymes Moreover whereas the witnesses confessed that I only said in the foresaid Sermon that some put the Scriptures into a staged dresse the Bishop perswaded them that that expression was equivalent with the Article objected that some mens Sermons were Stage Playes and they by his perswasion swore down right that I saidsome mens Sermons were Stage Playes The Doctor made an Act and Order that I should make publique retractation which I refused to doe and appeald unto the Arches But upon either the Bishops or M. Sidenhams Information my Procter Hunt renounced my appeale and Sir John Lambe dismissed the same cause without hearing unto the Bishop againe 5 The Churchwardens of my Parish by order from the Bishop were enjoyned to turn the Communion Table and place it Altar-wise c. Now they that they might neither displease the Bishop nor transgresse against the Rubrick of the Liturgie made it an exact square Table that so notwithstanding the Bishops order the Minister might still Officiate at the North side of the Table M. Humphry Sydenham informed against this and upon Information the Bishop sent to view it and upon his view he certified the Bishop that it was like an Oyster Table whereupon the Bishop ordered the Churchwardens to make a new one 6 Upon M. Humphry Sydenhams Information that M. John Pym was a Parliamenteer the Bishop would not suffer me any longer to sojourn in his house although before such Information he gave me leave And when I demanded of some of his servants the reason why his Lordship had thus changed his minde they told me that his Lordship was informed by M. Sydenham that M. Pym was a Puritane The Lord Andevers speech in March 1640. concerning the Star-Chamber MY Lords since your Lordships have already looked so farre into priviledges of Peers as to make a strict inquisition upon forraign honours Let us not destroy that among our selves which we desire to preserve from strangers And if this greivance I shall move against have slept till now It is very considerable lest custome make it every day more apparent than other your Lordships very well know there was a Statute framed 3 Hen. 7. Authorizing the Chancellor Treasurer and Privy Seale and the two Chiefe Justices calling to them one Bishop and a temporall Lord of the Kings Councell to receive complaints
inclining and returning to Popery and the Religion of Antichirst as hath most cleerly appeared even in our daies as well as before since the restoring of Religion I shall for this time instance onely in three places of the Rubrick corrupted by Bishops In the Rubrick confirmed by act of Parliament in the beginning of it It is directed that prayer shall be in such place of the Church or Chancell and the Minister shall so turne him as the people may best heare In the Rubrick as it is now Printed prayer shall be used in the accustomed place c. except it shall be otherwise determined by the Ordinary Whereby they have introduced the Popish practice of reading Prayers at the upper end of the Chancell at their Altar where few in the Church can see them and fewer heare them and turning their faces to the East and their backs to the people in reading in the Desk and colour all with the determination of the Ordinary Secondly in the Letany there are these words in the book of Common prayer confirmed by the Statutes of 5. and 6. Ed. 6. and of 1 Eliz. From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities good Lord deliver us and that the Bishops in the latter books have caused to be left out wholly Thirdly in the Rubrick concerning the administration of the Lords Supper as it stands now altered an excellent declaration of the reason why kneeling at this Sacrament was left in the reformation and a renunciation of Transubstantiation Consubstantiation adoration of the bread and wine as abhominable Idolatries are wholly obliterate and left out that the use of that gesture there might be rendred the more suspicious and superstitious and a more clear way might be made to induce the Popish superstitious innovations that have been since obtruded upon us concerning the Table Altar supreminent presence of God almighty there cringings Altar-worship and the like And I conceive alterations were made by the Bishops as appeares unto me by the Proclamation they procured to be set forth 5. Martii 1. Jac. concerning the booke of Common prayer And how can things prosper better in the hands of the Episcopacy when Gods blessing alone giveth out prosperity and the Lord disposeth his blessing in his owne way only and not in any other And this being no plant planted by God in his Church how can it be expected it should yeeld us any better fruits then we have received from it Againe if I be not much deceived the Episcopacy in whatsoever it exceeds the Presbyters office in which sense only I speak of it is abranch of the Hierarchy of Rome and of the Antichrist and of that consider what is prophesied Revel 14.11 They shall not have any rest day nor night that receive any print of the name of the Beast and examine the former and present times whether the same hath not been verified among us and in all such places where that Hierarchy hath been entertained whether the most troubles and miseries of the Churches and in great part also of the Common-wealth have not sprung from the said Episcopacy and the fruites thereof Therefore let us proceed to the perfecting of the Reformation of our Church and to the gathering out of it every stone that offends even whatsoever is not according to God and the standard of his word and reduce every thing in the government to the rule and walke in it in Gods way which is the sure way to have his presence with us and blessing upon us and ours for ever It hath ever been a point of higher honour from God and of greater acceptance and esteem with him to advance the reformation of his Church and worship 2 Cro. 17.6 3. iIâ— 1 Kings 15.14 2 Kings 12.3 1 Cron. 28.16 Zac. 4.7 and was ever will be a reproach from him and blot upon such as have left any thing not agreeable to his word unreformed and not taken away Up then let us be doing and the Lord will goe before us and make plain all mountains that may occurre in our way and give a blessed issue and successe To the honorable Houses of Parliament now assembled The humble Petition of many of the Inhabitants within his Majesties County of Kent Most humbly shewing THat by sad experience we doe daily finde the Government of the Church of England by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons with their Courts Jurisdictions and Administrations by them and their inferiour Officers to be very dangerous both to Church and Commonwealth to be the occasions of manifold Grievances unto his Majesties Subjects in their Consciences Liberties and Estates and likely to be fatall unto us in the continuance thereof the dangerous effects of which Lordly power in them have often appeared in these particulars following 1 They doe with a hard hand over-rule all other Ministers subjecting them to their cruell Authority 2 They doe suspend and deprive many godly Religious and painfull Ministers upon sleight and upon no grounds whilest in the mean time few of them preach the Word of God themselves and that but seldome but they doe restrain the painfull preaching of others both for Lectures and for afternoon Sermons on the Sabbath day 3 They doe countenance and have of late encouraged Papist Priests and Arminian books and persons 4 They hinder good and godly books yet they doe license to be published many Popish and Arminian and other dangerous Books and Tenents 5 They have deformed our Churches with Popish Pictures and seated them with Romish Altars 6 They have of late extolled and commended much the Church of Rome denying the Pope to be Antichrist affirming the Church of Rome to be a true Church in Fundamentals 7 They have practised and enforced antiquated and obsolete Ceremonies as standing at all Hymns and at Gloria patri turning to the East at severall parts of the Divine Service Bowing at the Altar which they term the place of Gods Refidence upon earth the reading of a second Service at the Altar and denying the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist to such as have not come up to the new set rayl before the Altar 8 They have made and confirmed new illegall Canons and Constitutions and framed a most pernitious and desperate Oath an Oath of covenant and confederacy for their own Hierarchicall greatnesse besides many other very dangerous and pernitious passages in the said Canons 9 They doe dispense with pluralities of Benefices they doe both prohibit and grant Marriages neither of them by the rule of Law or Conscience but doe prohibit that they may grant and grant that they may have money 10 They have procured a licentious liberty for the Lords day and have pressed the strict observation of the Saints Holydayes and doe punish suspend and deprive godly Ministers for not publishing that book for liberty of sports on the Sabbath day 11 They doe generally abuse the great Ordinance of Excommunication making a great gain of it
God had endowed the Church of England with which God himself hath given by his Law unto the universall Church and in that which the Kings of England by their Charter have bequeathed to the particular Church of England and this we doubt not was the cause that moved Hen. 8. so effectually and powerfully to bend himselfe against the Popes Supremacy usurped at that time over the Church of England for saith the King we will with hazard of life and losse of our Crown uphold and defend in our Realms whatsoever we shall know to be the will of God The Church of God then in England not being free according to the great Charter but in bondage and servitude to the See of Rome contrary to the Law of God the King judged it to stand highly with honour and his Oath to reform redresse and amend the abuses of the same See If then it might please our gracious Soveraign Lord King Charles that now is in Imitation of that his noble Progenitor to vouchsafe an abolishment of all Lordly Primacy executed by Archepiscopall and Episcopall authority over the Ministers of Christ his Highnesse in so doing could no more rightly be charged with the violation of the great Charter then might King Henry the eight with the banishment of the Popish Supremacy or then our late Soveraign Lady Q. Elizabeth could be justly burdened with the breach of her Oath by the Establishment of the Gospell Now if the Kings of England by reason of their Oath were so straitly tied to the words of the great Charter that they might not in any sort have disanulled any supposed Rights or Liberties of the Church used and confirmed by the said Charter unto the Church that then was supposed to be the Church of God in England then be like King Henry 8. might be attainted to have gone against the great Charter and against his Oath when by the overthrow of Abbeys and Monasteries he took away the Rights and Liberties of the Abbots Priers for by expresse words of the great Charter Abbots and Priers had as large and ample a Patent for their Rights and Liberties as our Archbishops and Bishops can at this day challenge for their Primacy If then the Rights and Liberties of the one as being against the Law of God be duely and lawfully taken away notwithstanding any matter clause or sentence contained in the great Charter the other having but little reason by colour of the great Charter to stand upon their pantofles and to contend for their painted sheaves for this is a Rule and Maxime in Gods laws that In omni Juramento semper excipitur authoritas majoris Unlesse then they be able to justifie by the holy scriptures that such Rights and Liberties as they pretend for their spirituall Primacy over the Ministers of Christ be in Deed and Truth inferred unto them by the holy law of God I suppose the Kings Highnesse as successor to Hen. 8. and as most just inheritour of the Crown of England by the words of the great Charter and by his Oath is bound utterly to abolish all Lordly Primacy as hitherto upheld and defended partly by ignorance and partly by an unreasonable and evill Custome My Lord DIGBIES Speech in Parliament 1640. Master Speaker THis happie meeting is to bemoane and redresse the unhappie State of this Common-wealth Let me have I beseech you your leave to give you in a word a short view of our griefes then see whence they flow Our Lawes our liberties our lives and which is the life of all our Religion all which have been by the endeavours of so many Ages secured and made so much our owne can scarce be called ours Our Lawes the only finews and ligeaments of our estates which should run in an even streame are now made to disdaine their bancks and to overflow and drown their fields which they should gently redresse our liberties the very spirit and essence of our weale which should differ us from slaves and speake us English-men are held away by them that even whiles they take them from us cannot but confesse they are our proper dues Are not our lives in danger when an enemy disguised like a friend provoked is as it were suffered because indirectly and in vaine resisted to come almost into our bosomes to rifle some of their goods others of their loyalty which perhaps they could not neither would have touched might we with united force have resisted And lastly which is the soule of all our grievances our Religion which should have beene our Cordiall in all our distempers like a forced Virgin laments ever that her pure innocencie is taken from her and sure all these effects must have their causes That we have just and wise Lawes we may thanke those good Kings that made them the settled exposition of just circumscribed Lawes to binde and defend the Subject That they are so well framed and usefud and to containe enough to make a good King and people be perfect be safe and happie What do we owe to these grave Councellors who sate here before us and that they out-live the malice of some unbounded spirits we are beholding to them that Reprieved them from ruine with their lives and fortunes we call them ours because we are freely born to them as to the Ayre we breath in we claime them and should possesse them under the Protection of our gracious King who is their great Patron and disposes them not inconsiderately but by the advice of those learned expositors of the Lawes the Judges and those whom he trusts to be his great and faithfull Councellors If those pervert the ground and meaning of the Law and contract â—he power of it or make it speake lowder or softer as they themselves are tuned for it the blame should deservedly fall on those mistrusted ministers who are the base betrayers of his Majesties honor and his Peoples right to vindicate which necessitie hath here assembled you Mr. Speaker Is not this offence and m lice as great who should undermine my Tenour and surruptiously deprive me of my evidence by which I held my Inheritance as he who by violence should wrest it from me The Scots we have heard branded as Traytors because they have contrary to the law of Nations and their loyaltie invaded our Kingdome in Arms what other title have they merited who have invaded our Lawes and liberties the precious evidence by which we should freely enjoy our selves and our estates The first we may resist and drive forth by united force and it will be called pietie to the King and Countrie if force be lay'd against the other it will be stiled Rebellion What now remaines but that we should use the Law which because it hath beene inverted and turned against us contrary to its owne naturall and plaine disposition should now right us and it self against our Adversaries Surely the Law is not so weak and improvident to take care for others and never provide
subscribing our National oath which was not only impiety and injustice in it self and an utter undoing of his Majesties Subiects but was a weakning of the Scots Plantation to the prejudice of that Kingdome and his Majesties service and was a high scandall against the Kings honour and intolerable abuse to his Majesties trust and authority his Majesties Commission which was procured by the Lievetenant bearing no other penalty then a certification of noting the names of the refusers of the oath But by this his restlesse rage and insatiable cruelty against our Religion and Countrey cannot be kept within the bounds of Ireland By this means a Parliament is called And although by the six subsidies granted in Parliament not long before and by the base means which himself and his Officers did use as is contained in a late Remonstrance that Land was extreamly impoverished yet by his speeches full of oathes and asseverations That we were Traytors and Rebels casting off all Monarchicall Government c. he extorted from them foure new Subsidies and indicta causa before we were heard procured that a Warre was udertaken and forces should be levied against us as a rebellious Nation which was also intended to be an example and president to the Parliament of England for granting subsidies and sending a joynt Armie for our utter ruine According to his appointment in Parliament the Armie was gathered and brought down to the Coast threatning a daily invasion of our Countrey intending to make us a conquered Province and to destroy our Religion liberties and Lawes and thereby laying upon us a necessity of vast charges to keep forces on foot on the West coast to wait upon his comming And as the War was denounced and forces leavied before we were heard So before the denouncing of the War our Ships and goods on the Irish Coast were taken and the owners cast in prison and some of them in Irons Frigats were sent forth to scour our Coasts which did take some and burn others of our Barques Having thus incited the Kingdome of Ireland and put his forces in order there against us with all haste he commeth to England In his parting at the giving up of the Sword he openly avowed our utter ruine and desolation in these or the like words If I returne to that honourable Sword I shall leave of the Scots neither root nor branch How soon he commeth to Court as before he had done very evill offices against our Commissioners cleering our proceedings before the poynt So now houseth all means to stir up the King and Parliament against us and to move them to a present war according to the precedent and example of his own making in the Parliament of Ireland And finding that his hopes failed him and his designes succeeded not that way in his nimblenesse he taketh another course that the Parliament of England may be broken up and despising their wisedome and authority not onely with great gladnesse accepteth but useth all means that the conduct of the Army in the expedition against Scotland may be put upon him which accordingly he obtaineth as generall Captain with power to invade kill slay and save at his discretion and to make any one or moe Deputies in his stead to do and execute all the power and authorities committed to him According to the largenesse of his Commission and Letters Patents of his devising so were his deportments afterwards for when the Scots according to their declarations sent before them were comming in a peaceable way far from any intention to invade any of his Majesties Subiects and still to supplicate his Majesty for a setled peace he gave order to his Officers to fight with them on the way that the two Nations once entred in bloud whatsoever should be the successe he might escape triall and censure and his bloudy designs might be put in execution against his Maiesties Subiects of both Kingdomes When the Kings Maiesty was again enclined to hearken to our petitions and to compose our differences in a peaceable way and the Peers of England conveened at Yorke had as before in their great wisedome and faithfulnesse given unto his Maiesties Counsels of peace yet this firebrand still smoaketh and in that honorable Assembly taketh upon him to breath out threatnings against us as Traytors and enemies to Monarchiall government that we be sent home again in our bloud and he will whip us out of England And as these were his speeches in the time of the Treaty appointed by his Maiesty at Rippon that if it had been possible it might have been broken up So when a Cessation of Arms was happily agreed upon there yet he ceaseth not but still his practises were for war His under officers can tell who it was that gave them Commission to draw near in Arms beyond the Teese in the time of the Treaty at Rippon The Governour of Barwicke and Carlile can shew from whom they had their warrants for their Acts of hostility after the cessation was concluded It may be tryed how it cometh to passe that the Ports of Ireland are yet closed our Country-men for the oath still kept in prison traffique interrupted and no other face of affairs then if no cessation had been agreed upon We therefore desire that your Lordships will represent to the Parliament that this great incendiary upon these and the like offences not against particular persons but against Kingdomes and Nations may be put to a tryall and from their knowne and renowned justice may have his deserved punishment 16. December 1640. THE SCOTTISH Commissioners Demand concerning the Sixt ARTICLE COncerning our Sixt demand although it hath often come to passe that these two have been joyned by the bonds of Religion and nature have suffered themselves to be divided about the things of this World and although our Adversaries who no lesse labour the division of the two Kingdomes then we do all seek peace and follow after it as our Common happinesse do presume that this will be the partition wall to divide us and to make us lose all our labours taken about the former demand wherein by the help of God by his Maiesties Princely goodnesse end Iustice and your Lordships noble and equall dealing we have so fully accorded and to keep us from providing for a firm and well grounded Peace by the wisedome and justice of the Parliament of England which is our greatest desire expressed in our last Demand We are still confident that as we shall concerning this Article represent nothing but what is true just and honorable to both Kingdomes So will your Lordships hearken to us and will not suffer your selves by any slanders or suggestions to be drawn out of that straight and safe way wherein ye have walked since the beginning It is now we suppose known to all England especially to both the honorable Houses of Parliament and by the occasion of this Treaty more particularly to your Lordships That our distresses in our Religion
head should swell too great and monstrous It may be easily thought for Monarchy againe may sooner groan under the weight of an Aristocracie as it once did then under Democracie which it never yet either felt or fear'd Sir John Hollands Speech in Parliament 1640. Mr. Speaker THe time of actions are not for rethorick and elocution which emboldens me to rise And though I must acknowledge my selfe to be one of the yongest Schollers and meanest proficients in this great Schâ—ole of wisedome yet I conceive it a great part of my duty at this time both to deliver my suit and conscience We are called hither Master Speaker by the Royall power we sit here by the Kings Majesties grace and favour and since his Majesty hath beene graciously pleased to leave the government of all in our hands I doubt not but we shall lay such a foundation in the beginning of this Parliament that we shall make it a happy Age a long lasting one since the dangers of these times the present distempers of this State and therein both his Majestie and our necessities yea and the whole Kingdomes safety do require it We are called now Master Speaker as I conceive from the reports you have made of his Majesties gracious Declaration for foure principall causes First for supply of his Majesties wants Secondly for the relief of our Brethren in the Northern parts Thirdly for the remove of the Scots forces Fourthly for redresse of ourowne grievances That his Majesties wants are great and many Master Speaker I thinke there is no man doubts it and it is as cerâ—ain out grievances are so to they are great and many both in Church and Common-wealth I shall but touch them in either since they have been so fully remonstrated in both First in the Church by the usurping power of some Prelates and their adherents by which means many great dangers innovations of doctrines of discipline of government have been thrust upon us Secondly in the Church by publique sufferances of Priests and Jesuits not only to come into the land by which means the number of Romish Catholiks are dangerously multiplied Idolatry increased and Gods heavie judgements highly provoked Thirdly in the Common-wealth by the late inundations of the Prerogative Royall which have broken out and almost overturned all our liberties even those which have been best and strongest fortified the Grand Chartea it self Mr. Speaker that which hath been so oft so solemnly confirmed in the Succession of so many Princes ratified in his Majesties name founded by the wisedome of former ages purposely to keepe the beame over and between Soveraignty Even this Master Speaker the dearest and chiefest part of our inheritance hath been infringed broken and set at nought in the Common-wealth by the over-potencie of some faire great ones sacred Councellors of State by whose advices it is thought the greatest part of these present distempers under which the body of this Common-wealth at this time labours doe deprive their originalls Fourthly in the Common-wealth by the mischievous practises and policies of some subtill Projectors and under the title of the Kings profit and the publique good they have entitled themselves to great and vast estates and that by the dammage of the whole Kingdome They are Master Speaker the very moths and cankers that have fretten and eaten out all Trade and commerce the very beauty strength and health of this famous Island In the Common-wealth by the entertainment of Forraigners and strangers and that at his Majesties excessive charge by which means his Majesties Coffers are emptied his Revenues shortned and the whole Kingdome many other wayes oppressed But Master Speaker I shall not trouble my selfe any further in so vast so large a field I shall now represent my owne weak apprehensions for our progressions in all the particulars for which we have been called and in all humility submit unto them First of supply in his Majesties wants I do humbly desire we may proceed there within its due time and that with as much loyall dutie and liberality as ever any people expressed towards their Prince I think I may say the present affairs of the Kingdome require it For the reliefe of our Brethren in the Northern parts with a sense of charity and fellow feeling of the miseries afflictions and losses In the removing of the Scottish Armie with a soft and gentle hand of mediation purification and reconciliation if possible it may be wrought with his Majesties honor and the Kingdomes safety if not then to repell and repulse them with stout and resolute spirits with valiant and united hearts and hands such as shall best suite with our duty to God our King our Country such as shall best become his honor and ancient renowne of this English Nation In redresse of our grievances in those of the Church which ought to have priority in our consultation as well in respect of necessity as dignity In these Master Speaker I do humbly desire and doubt not but we shall proceed with all true piety and well grounded on each guiding Helve towards Gods House and his truth In those of the Communalty with a religious care of our Countries freedom in the faithfull performance of the trust reposed in us by them that sent us in the preservation of our rights our ancient rights the rights of our inheritance our liberties our priviledges our properties Yet in all Mr. Speaker I do humbly desire we may proceed as best suiting the matter and condition of these distempered times or as best becoming the honour dignity and wisedom of this so great a Court so great Councell with all temper modesty and all due moderation SIR EDWARD HALE HIS SPEECH Mr. Speaker HIs Majesty hath been graciously pleased to call us together again to consider freely of all matters of grievances both of this Church and Common-wealth of England and for to be assistants in our Counsels and helps unto him about the Scottish Nation that forceably have entred into our Kingdom so as they may be ordered into their own Country or chased away out of this without any dishonour to the Kings Majesty and this Kingdome all which matters are of great importance moment and consequence and will crave great consideration and debating in our best wills wisedoms and discretions and that must be freely to give us leave First therefore under your favour I do conceive it fit to make this a happy Parliament to begin at home For better it were the Scots come unto us than the devill should raise his Army to overthrow us both in Church and Common-wealth For it is too plaâ—â—â— he is come with great power and his malice is great and his policy strong put into the heads of the Papists no mean ones and Prelates Schismaticks and Atheists in severall Bands which hath and seeketh to prevail so much by their severall designes Carefully lovingly and dutifully mentioned and rightly too by the Lords Petition at York and by a Petition of