Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A41391
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Good advice to all the free-holders and corporations of England concerning the choice of their representatives to serve the ensuing parliament.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing G1032; ESTC R30417
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9,633
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10
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your selves were either always Children or are now become so Will you intrust those with your Lives Liberties Estates and Religion whom the Law will not trust to dispose of any thing they have of their own Will you inable such to give away all the Securities you enjoy as Englishmen whose Bond in the account of the Law will not be taken for Forty shillings It is in it self an unbecoming thing that they should have any power of laying Taxes upon other Men who cannot lay themselves under any Obligations to their Creditors by reason of their Minority In Q. Eliz. time as Sir Rob. Naunton Master of the Court of Wards Sir Robert Naunton's Fragments Regalia pag. 13. observes in his Account of her Times and Favourites says he I do not find that the House was at any time weakned and pestered with the Admission of too many Young Heads as it hath been of later times which remembers me of Recorder Martin's Speech about the Tenth of our late Soveraign Lord King James viz. 1st when there were Accounts taken of 40. Gentlemen not above 20. and some not exceeding 16 which moved him to say that it was the ancient Custom for Old Men to make Laws for Young ones but that he saw the Case altered Vid. Mr. Prynn's Minor no Senator and that there were Children Elected unto the Great Council of the Kingdom which came to invade and invert Nature and to Enact Laws to govern their Fathers 7thly Chuse such as you are sure will stedfastly adhere to the Ancient and most Excellent Constitution of this Kingdom who will neither be for turning the Government into a Common-wealth nor for advancing the Monarchy as of late into a French Tyranny By the One we shall have nothing but Faction and Sedition Tumults Licentiousness and all Confusion and by the other nothing but Force a Violation of all Laws Dragoons and Standing mercenary Armies and every thing else carried on by Absolute Despotical Unbounded Will and Pleasure But we have sufficiently found already the mischievous effects of both these extreams so as I hope we shall never run into the like again since that would be a Total Subversion of the Fundamental Laws and Laudable Establishments of this Kingdom which hath made this Nation so many Years both Famous and Happy to a great degree of Envy 8thly Make it your great Care to Elect such as you know will do all that lies in their power to redress your Grievances and to assert and maintain your undoubted Rights and call to Account those Kings Speech 1908. 89. who as the King hath most admirably express'd it have so visibly discovered their Designs of destroying your Religion and Liberties That these have been manifestly invaded you all will readily own that a High Commission Ecclesiastical hath been set up contrary to most express Laws that a Power of Dispensing and Suspending of Laws without Consent of Parliament hath been openly declared in Westminster-Hall as a Right belonging to the Crown that Seven Reverend Bishops were committed and prosecuted as heinous Criminals only for offering to the late King an Humble Petition in terms full of Dutiful Respect and not exceeding the Number limited by Law Prince's Declatat that the Charters of most of those Towns that have a Right to be Represented by their Burgesses in Parliament have been either unwarily surrendred or seized on and to omit several other things that undue Return of Juries have been made by illegal Sheriffs and a great deal of Blood hath been shed in many places of the Kingdom by Judges governed by the Direction from Above and not by their own Consdiences against all the Rules and Forms of Law you cannot for shame deny since the Redemption of You from these intolerable Grievances was the Cause of His present Majesty's Espousing your Interest as he was earnestly sollicited by a great many Lords Prince of O. Declaration both Spiritual and Temporal and by many Gentlemen and Subjects of all Ranks therefore is it not your Interest to chuse now such Men to represent you in Parliament as will with a true brave and noble English Resolution endeavour to prevent such great and insufferable Oppressions for the future Establish your just and ancient Rights so as none may dare to invade them hereafter and bring to publick Justice some of the greatest longest and most Notorious Offenders I am not for promoting you to glut your Revenge upon all those Bold Contemners of our Law but certainly to make a few Victims for the Atonement of so much I had like to have said irreparable Mischief as was committed and so much Innocent Blood as was poured out in the two last Reigns would be for the Honour of an English Parliament and a great Justification both of the King and Kingdom I have but one word more to leave with you and that is concerning your Elections 2. Instit 169. 4. Instit 10. where I pray you to remember that it is an Ancient Law and Liberty of England that Elections should be freely and indifferently made notwithstanding any Prayer or Commandment to the contrary 1. Sine prece without any Prayer or Gift and sine praecepto without Commandment of the King by Writ or otherwise or of any other You are Free-men act not as though you were bound Let neither Force nor Menaces nor Malice frame you to make Election of Men unworthy or not Eligible Take this Conclusion with you which His Highness the Prince of Orange our now present Soveraign whom God Almighty long preserve amongst us delivered in his Declaration That according to the Constitution of the English Government and Immemorial Custom all Elections of Parliament-Men ought to be made with an Entire Liberty without any sort of Force or the requiring the Electors to choose such Persons as shall be named to them and the Persons thus freely Elected ought to give their Opinions freely upon all Matters that are brought before them having the Good of the Nation ever before their Eyes and following in all things the Dictates of their Conscience And thus I wish you happy Success in your Elections and a Blessed Issue upon the Unanimous Councils of your REPRESENTATIVES FINIS LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Black Bull in the Old-Baily 1690.
we find declared in the Reasons of the Judgment that such words were spoken with an intent to withdraw the Affections of the People from the King and to excite them against him that in the end they might rise up against him in mortem Destructionem of the King Several Cases hereof might be produced to shew that in all of them the Treason was for words only words by private persons and in a more private manner but once spoken and no more But I forbear I would rather heal than exasperate Only this Note I would leave to the Consideration of such as have thought it unlawful to take the New Oaths that through the whole Series of our Kings it hath often happened that Ground sufficient hath been given to question the Right of their Succession and in the Cases of Edward the 2d and Richard the 2d the lawfuiness of their Deposition and yet no scruple ever was made of taking an Oath of Allegiance to the King who had possession of the Government Nor do I remember that ever the Bishop of Carlisle refused the Oath of Allegiance But I come now to tell you who I think are the Men that would be fit for you to fix your thoughts upon for Members to serve you in this approaching Parliament and whom you may have very great Reason to reject and therefore I desire you seriously to weigh these following Particulars 1. If you have any regard to God's Providence in giving you so great and miraculous Deliverance when as a late Author has truly observed you saw your selves upon the brink of Ruin your Rights and Liberties Invaded Last Y ars Transactions Vindicated pag. 3. your Religion within an Ace of being overturned your Laws and Constitution renversed the whole Scheme of your Ancient Government unhinged and to compleat your Misery you saw ne probable way of Escape I say if you have any regard to this stupendious mercy of Divine Providence take especial care that you chuse such as you know have full Zeal and Affection for him who under God hath been the Glorious Instrument of your Deliverance such who will to the utmost of their Abilities be ready to express their Gratitude to his Majesty for so Great and Generous an Vdertaking which was no less necessary for the Support of the Protestant Interest in Europe than for the recovering and maintaining the Civil Rights and Liberties of these Nations Lords and Commons Address to the King 5. Mar. 89. so notoriously invaded and undermined and who will unanimously declare that they will stand by and assist their Majesties with their Lives and Fortunes in supporting their Alliances abroad and in defence of the Protestant Religion and Laws of the Kingdom Such as there will bring their own Recommendations with them they will come full fraught with Affections for the Publick Good and will not carry on a Separate Interest between the King and People for they know that the Good of One is the Good of Both so that the King will think Himself safe in their Councils they will be highly honoured in his Considence in them and nothing can lay so sure a Foundation of a Good Agreement between the King and his People in Parliament Kings Answer to the Address as such a MUTUAL TRUST The Constitution of this Kingdom is the most happy that Humane Prudence can invent the Ancient Government is as Temperate as the Climate we live in therefore from the sence of the Miserable Desolations which have of late been made upon almost every thing we accounted dear and valuable to us we have all the Motives and are under all the Obligations that can be to secure now and advance the Interest of this most Excellent Constitution And who can you think more capable of procuring this Happiness to the Nation than such who have a just and due sence of this Wonderful Deliverance and a becoming Zeal and Affection for the only Person under Heaven that could and hath through the Divine Benignity wrought this Salvation for us He came by his Power to defend Vs from our Enemies and by his Justice to give Vs the Full Enjoyment of our Lates and Liberties 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 kâ—â—â—'s Speech 12. 〈◊〉 1689. and which is the Inestimable Blessing of all by his continual care to maintain the Protestant Religion to us These will come with Hearts full charged with Gratitude to him with sixed Resolutions to give Him all the Assistances his necessary Engagements may require and with Consciences faithful to the Interests of those Counties Cities and Boroughs for which they serve and strict in the due performance of all their Obligations Thus will there be a Blessed harmony between the Head and the Members These will with great Wisdom consult how to restore that Happiness which you have been so long deprived of and we are assured that the King will concur in every thing that may procure the Peace and Happiness of the Nation which so free and lawful a Parliament shall determine Prince's Declaration Hereby you will be put into so good a Settlement as will mightily conduce to the Disappointment of our Enemies both abroad and at home But if any of you should be prevailed with upon any pretence whatsoever to make choice of other persons you must not think it strange if it should be looked upon as a manifest Testimony of your Disaffection to their present Majesties 2dly That you may the more expect the Blessing of God to attend your Choice see that you pitch upon Men of Religious Principles I mean of the Church of England as by Law Established You need not doubt but those will act well for your Interest that have the true fear of God and a due sence of Religion in their Minds They are the Men that dare not be Distoyal as the word truly signifies to the King nor the Government These are they that will shew most Zeal to maintain the pure Religion of the Church of England The Montrchy and the Church will be secure in them These having a true sense of the Goodness of Almighty God to themselves in setling such a happy Constitution here as is mot agreeable to their own Consciences will not be without a due sense of the Right of all Mankind to the Liberty of their Consciences and therefore will allow other Men the same freedom whose Principles are not destructive to the Peace of the Government Says a Great and Reverend Prelate that now is some nine years since in a Sermon he Preached before the Aldermen of London Some have thought they could not be esteemed Loyal if they appeared Devout Dr. Burne's 30. Jan. 81. pag. 10 and therefore to purchase the one Character were willing not only to throw off but openly to reproach the other all they could What ill effects this hath had how the Nation has been much corrupted by these Maxims and God highly offended is so obvious to every Man's Observation that