studied to find out somthing that might have advanced the Trade of Fishing He of Norwich that might profit the making of Stuff He of Rye what might preserve their Harbour from being choaked up wiâ—h â—heâ—vâ—s of Sand He of Tiverston to further the Manufacture of Kersey's He of Suffolk what produced to the benefit of Cloathing and the Members of Cornwal what belong'd to their Stanneries and so the Respective Members of their several Counties and in doing this they thought to have complyed and discharged the trusts reposed in them without roveing at Universals prying into Arcana Imperii and bringing Religion to the Bar the one as they thought belonging more properly to the Chief Magistrate and his Councel of State as the other to the Bishops and Clergy Let me not here be misconstrued or censured to justifie his Majesty by Reflecting on the priviledges of the Commons for as I would not have the King lose the least Tittle of his Prerogative so neither would I have the Commons one hairs breadth of their priviledges nor do I go to prescribe the late Houses by the Foot-steps of their Predecessors since by the Concession or Connivance of late Princes 't is possible their priviledges may be increased no my only design is partly to satisfie the World that no King of England ever dealt more Candidly with a Parliament then our present Soveraign no not Queen Elizabeth her self who is so much the peoples Darling and partly by the Loyal Moderate example of former Houses to prevent any heats for the future Neither for such a factious age as this is can any Loyal Subject discharge his Duty boâ—h to King and Countrey without endeavouring as much as in him lies to silence those mutineers who having first endeavoured to exasperate the Houses one against another and both against the Kingdo afterwards in the Lobby lye waiting the event of each warm debate with the same Repacious hope as herenofore did Birds of Prey upon a Roman Army when the Signal to Battel was given for the enflaming the two Houses one against another they make use of the Rights and priviledges of Conferences asserting it the undoubted Rights of the Commons as in Fitz-Harris s Case they did at Oxford to confer with the Lords when they please without any denyal Which whether it be so or no I shall not presume to determine any farther then to acquaint you with a Remarkable passage that occurred in the Reign of Henry the fourths When the House of Commons Petition'd the King that they might have advice and Communication with certain Lords about matters of business in Parliament for the Common good of the Kingdom which Prayer as the Record hath it our Lord the King most graciously granted but with this Protestation That he did it not of Duty nor of Custom but of his special Grace and Favour So our Lord the King charged the Clerk of Parliament that this Protest should be entred upon Record in the Parliament Roll. This the King made known to them by the Lord Say and his Secretary who told them That our Lord the King neither of Due nor Custom ought to grant any Lords to enter into Communication with them of matters touching the Parliament but by his special Grace at this time he granted their request in this particular And the said Steward and Secretary brought the King word back from the Commons That they well knew they could not have any such Lords to commune with them about any business of Parliament without special Grace and Command from the King himself In like manner we read in Appian de Bell. Civ lib. 1. That the creation of the Tribune Office was design'd only to ballance the power of the Consuls whose Election then depended only on the Senate and to keep them from exercising the whole Authority in the Administration of their Republick but yet this bred much emulation and many quarrels amongst these Magistrates the one seeing themselves supported by the countenance of the Senate and the other by the favour of the People and each party thought themselves robbed of that which was added to the other Now as about these and the like Priviledges they endeavour to set the two Houses in an opposite flame left otherwise they might comply with his Majesty so is it their principal â—nd were it in their power which God Almighty prevent to unite both Lords and Commons against the King and for this purpose invent all the Calumnies imaginable wherewithall to asperse him Thus first they would have his Subjects believe than the removing of the Parliament to Oxford was an inâ—ustice not to be parallel'd whereas he that knows any thing cannot be ignorant how often Parliaments have formerly been summon'd to meet as well aâ— York Oxford and very many other places as at Westminster and that not out of any cause of Sickneâ—s or the like but meerly out of the Kings will and pleasure â—â— hath power by his Writs to assign their meeting when and where he pleaseth Nay so hellish was the malice of some 〈◊〉 these Commonwealths men that as Colledge himself confesses they would have made the Members believe his Majesty brought them thither to be Murthered a report so incredible and so barbarous that as the wise man laughs at it so every Loyal Subject abhors it That a Prince whose greatest error is his Clemency should draw upon himself the guilt of a whole Nations bloud But now as that appears a malicious story and is already confuted by its not happening so let us esteem of their Reports for the future Secondly these disaffected persons who are all descended from the right Forty one breed endeavouring to â—rect another perpetual Parliament insinuate into the Peoples ears how unnatural it is for the Government to go hopping upon one Leg whereby they mean the King as also that he ought to summon a Parliament whenever two or three of the Houshold of Faith desire him and then never dissolve them so long as any grievances are depending when if so they shall never be without some grievance or other to perpetuate their sitting how small soever and for this very reason although no man is a greater lover of Parliaments then my self that expedient seem'd to me of dangerous consequence which to fetter the Duke of York enabled the Parliament then in being to convene and fit six months after this Kings death since if they had not power to act as a Parliament they could do us no good and if they had then by virtue of the same power wherewith they pass'd other Acts they might also pass an Act to perpetuate themselves for frequent and not long Parliaments must render this Nation prosperous old Members being too apt to hunt soul after they have run many Chaces Thirdly and lastly these Malecontents encourage the most hainous Criminals and those who have more personally and particularly offended his Majesty to Petition the House of Commons thereby thinking either to force
the King as it were against his own inclinations to release such his Enemies or else to put him upon a necessity of disobliging the House by his denial and so on the contrary they too often excite them to Address themselves to his Majesty for the Removal of such Ministers who are chiefly in his favour as if it were a thing of that small concern to a Prince to sacrifice his most intimate Friends to whom he hath unbosomed his most secret Councels and who perhaps is so charged only for executing his Masters Precepts Alas let every man but make it his own Case and see how uneasie he should be to part with or give credit to any evil report against an old Friend Relation or Servant without some convincing undeniable proof made out against him Not but that such Addresses may be lawful and many times expedient also Ministers of State too often faulty Nevertheless such Votes and Petitions ought not to be rashly undertaken but first duly weigh'd and considered with the grounds and evidences against them and this more especially now since his Majesty hath been pleased to declare as he will not govern Arbitrarily himself so neither shall his Subjects one towards another Which puts me in mind of the story of the two Roman Embassadors Valerius and Horatius who being sent by the Decem-viri to the People to enquire of their grievances the People amongst other things complained of the Tyranny of the Decem-viri desiring to have them deliver'd up into their hands that they might burn them alive But the Embassadors not consenting to their demand replyed Crudelitatem damnatis incrudelitatem ruitis you condemn Cruelty and practise it your selves I do not find that the House of Commons was ever Petition'd till about the middle of Henry the seventh's Reign which Petition is inserted among the Statutes But though the Petition be directed to the House of Commons in its Title yet the Prayer of the Petition is turn'd to the King and not to the Commons The Petition begins thus To the Right Worshipful Commons in this present Parliament assembled Shews to your discreet wisdoms the Wardens of the Fellowship of the Craft of Vpholsterers within London c. But the conclusion is Therefore may it please the Kings Highness by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and his Commons in Parliament c. Again I find many Examples to prove that though the cognizance and debating of great State-affairs belong to the High Court of Parliament yet heretofore the Lords have oftentimes transmitted such business to the Kings Privy-Council amongst others let this suffice When one Mortimer who stiled himself Captain Mendall otherwise called Jack Cade came with a Rabble of the Vulgar with a Petition to the Lower House the Commons sent it up to the Lords and the Lords transmitted it to the Kings Privy-Council to consider of But to conclude this point the difference between King and Parliament is that the one represents God the other the People the Consultative power by the Kings permission is in Parliament but the Commanding power remains inseparable in him the results and productions of Parliaments at best are but Bills 't is the Kings breath makes them Laws which are till then but dead things they are like Matches unfired 't is the King that gives them Life and Light The Lords advise the Commons consent but the King ordains they mould the Bills but the King makes them Laws Having thus now sufficiently vindicated our most Royal Soveraign against all the malicious aspersions of his Enemies who would falsly and treacherously charge the best-natur'd Prince under Heaven with having a design to introduce an Arbitrary Government here amongst us give me leave in the next place to speak to their no less Devillish and wicked Reproach of his being a Papist which these Traytors cast upon him in Revenge to alienate were such a thing possible the hearts and affections of his Loyal Subjects from that Duty and Allegiance they owe to him They first pretended his Majesty to be in a Plot against his own Life and now because that seems too ridiculous they give out that whereas there were two parts of the Popish Plot the one to introduce Popery the other to kill the King his Majesty was made acquainted only with the former part of it viz the introducing of Popery and not with his own death But here let any Rational man consider for what end they should design to take off the King unless it were that he would not aid and assist them in bringing in the Popish Religion into this Kingdom for if he were as these men say privy and assisting to their Plot of subverting the Government for what purpose should they then conspire against his Person we must therefore either suspend our belief of the one or the other at least Secondly in favour to the Popish Party they would make the world believe that in an unnatural manner his Majesty should for his Royal Brothers sake consent to the destruction of his own natural Son the D. of M. and accordingly possess his Grace with an opinion that he was sent into Flanders on purpose to be destroyed hoping by this means to set the Son against his Father and render him like that worst of Men Darius who together with Fifty of his Bastard Brethren Plotted against the Life of his most Indulgent Father Artaxeâ—xes that good King of Persia in which Conspiracy as the Historian says it was prodigious that in so great a Number Parricide could not only be contracted but concealed and that amongst Fifty of his Children there was not one found whom neither the Majesty of a King nor the reverence of an Ancient man nor the Indulgency of so good a Father could recall from so horrible an Act. Justin lib. 10. We read how Themistocles used to say That such men as He resembled Oaks to whom men come for shelter when they have need of them in Rain and desire to be protected by their Boughs But when it is fair they come to them to strip and peel them Aelian lib. 9. ch 18. In the same manner do the Brotherhood by the D. of M. make all their present Applications to him as thinking him a fit Pole to support those helpless Hops and the only person of whom for Quality and Courage they may make use as a General against a Popish Successor they make him the Claw to take the Chesnut out of the Fire which being done they will as ignominiously cashier him their design being undoubtedly to erect a Geneva Republick and no other Nay did they yet intend a Monarchy their malice would after such a Rebellion reject him even for his Royal Fathers sake Therefore as his Grace must draw his Virtue from His Bloud so I doubt not but e're long to hear the fatted Calf is kill'd especially since he is blessed with so merciful a King and so indulgent a Father But thirdly Another Argument which
they urge to prove the King a favourer of Popery is his being unwilling to disinherit his only Brother and if his Majesty die before him without Issue his next lawful Successor On this subject out of Doleman's Succession of the Crown though a Popish Book they steal many Protestant Arguments which to be thought Learned men they vent for their own as indeed upon all other subjects their Speeches are nothing but fragments out of old Parliament Pamphlets collected pack'd together and vented for their own Ephemeris Parliamentaria is a Book of main use to them for this purpose But to return to our subject Now let any man make this his own Case and consider whether he should not think it a hard put upon him to be forced to dis-inherit his own Son the objection lying as well against a Son as a Brother only for his changing his Religion and that too as well for turning Presbyterian Anabaptist or Quaker as for turning Papâ—st they being alike Recusants and equally offenders against the established Law and Government of this Land witness the 35 of Eliz. Nay to Sacrifice and deliver up a Brother who hath so often exposed his Life amongst crouds of Bullets and to the raging of the boisterous Seas for the Security and Honour both of King and Kingdom a Brother who was an equal sharer with him in all his late Afflictions as well in the loss of a Father as in other sad effects of the late dreadful Rebellion this must be no small violence to his Nature especially since it was never yet made appear that his R. H. was in the least privy to any Plot or Conspiracy against the Person of his Sacred Majesty nay by Dr. Oates his confession it appears that these bloudy-minded Papists had as well designed to take away the Duke's Life as the King 's had they not found him fitting for their turn which shews that they were never assured of his Highnesses joyning with them but rather that he was altogether ignorant of their Intrigues which made them question his adherence since it may be very possible for a younger Brothers Servant to conspire the death of his Masters elder Brother in hopes to better his Service without ever acquainting his Master with the design Which things considered it seems to me very unreasonable to censure his Majesty for his unwillingness to dis-inherit his Brother purely upon a surmise and no proof also to argue from the ill consequence that must attend the Dominion of a Popish Successor were to disown that Precept of Christianity which forbids us to do evil that good may come of it Nevertheless as the House of Commons voted I cannot but acknowledge that the unfortunate pervertion of his Royal Highness may have been a great encouragement of that Party to hope once more to establish their Superstitious Worship amongst us and for that purpose they may contrary to his Highnesses knowledge enter into Plots and Conspiracies to divide and set us altogether by the Ears when in the mean time like the Kite in the Fable they would come and seize upon us both for the Consistory and Jesuits maintaining throughout the World a Traffick of Sedition and privy Conspiracy have yet had so much wit as to Land it in Presbyterian Bottoms fit Vessels for Rebellion and to cover their disobedience to Governours under the Attempts of the Anabaptists who naturally acknowledge none so that to ruine this Popish Fabrick we must extirpate this Fanatick Foundation Therefore I could heartily wish and I do believe that most moderate men are now of the same opinion that if the Parliament had embraced his Majesties gracious offers of hampering and fettering a Popish Successor by Laws so as to render him as much as was possible uncapable of Altering the Government either in Church or State and that by some Parliamentary expedient they had taken away his Sting since now by refusing to accept any thing because we cannot have every thing we expose our selves both at home and abroad to danger we miss the opportunity of making other good Laws both against Popery and a Popish Successor who might have come upon us in this Interim when we had no Law to oppose Him and his Majesty whom we daily think in so much danger done otherwise then well also for fear of this uncertain danger of a Popish Successor whom with Gods blessing his Majesty may survive we expose not only our selves but also all Holland Flanders and all the Protestants of Christendom to the merciless rage and fury of the French King Whereas did we agree amongst our selves and assist His Majesty in his Alliance with other Protestant Princes and States we might happily prevent the effusion of that Protestant Bloud which will otherways be shed as the Dutch Memorial Complains Moreover excepting this Bill of Succession which never came to his hands what other Security for the Protestant Religion has His Majesty ever denyed the Parliament has he not offered to pass any expedient that could be proposed has he not put out what ever Proclamations they desired either to banish the Papists so many miles or to encourage more Witnesses to come in with promises of Rewards and pardon In Fine what has he left undone that might tend to promote further Discovery to extirpate Popery and to secure the Protestant Religion Now as to the truth of the Popish Plot in general to subvert the Government both in Church and State introducing the Roman Catholick Religion into this Kingdom c. is a thing beyond all possibility of doubt and hath already been so declared by King and Parliaments Nay the several Circumstances belonging to it which I value more then the Credit of the Witnesses makes it as visible as the Sun at noon-day and besides the interest of the Jesuits who are certainly the wickedest of all sorts of mâ—n 't is natural for all persons to covet to bring over Converts to their own Opinions in Civiel maâ—ters vain glory And in Sprituals the Reward for doing an Act of Charity prompts them to it for if either Papist or Sectary believe their Faith to be the only saving Faith how then say they can we love our Neighbours as our selves unless we endeavour to draw them over to our own perswasion wherein we think men can only be Saved And this I make no question has been one main reason together with their promise of Salvation to the Converter that allured many of the most vertuous sort of Papists into this Conspiracy of introducing Popery amongst us Another reason which may have prompted their Clergy and the most dissolute sort of Papists to this undertaking was perhaps the vast Rich Abbies and Revenues which did heretofore belong to the Church of Rome and the which they cannot but with envy now behold in the possession of their Enemies neither would they give themselves the least trouble for our Conversion were it not more for our Estates-sake then for our Souls
as Duty obliges us to promote Peace and though we should as we have no reason to do apprehend our selves to be under some small grievance yet let us esteem it as a Scab that oftentimes breaks out in the most wholesom constituted Bodies of States and may with less smart be continued on then picked off If hopes of raising a Fortune be any motive to engage you to a Party remember first that the sole power of rewarding Virtue and punishing Vice is in the Kings Breast all Imployments both of Honour and Profit solely at his Majesties disposal and Secondly remember that the Die of War seldom turns to their advantage that first cast it Thus Oliver who was not known or heard of at the beginning of the late War nevertheless went away with the Prize Therefore saith a late Author 't is good to have patience and see the Tree sufficiently shaken before you run and scramble for the Fruit lest instead of Profit or Honour you meet with a Cudgel or Stone and then too see that you fall in rather by Compulsion then Design The example of Brutus rather then Cato is to be followed in bad times it being safer to be patient then active or appear a Fool then a Malecontent Should you ever live to be reduced under the extremity of a Tyrants Reign and he should exact an acknowledgment of Obedience from you I see not how either in Conscience or Interest you could refuse him it being the highest frenzy imaginable to dispute your Innocency with those able to convert the greatest into a fault no Plea is sufficient to bar the Lyon of his Right Also if it be no dishonour to submit to a stronger Party though of Thieves when fallen into their hands then let not the example of a few Fools who like Lice thrive no where so well as in a Prison tempt you to oppose your felicity against the Imperative power under which the disposure of your person doth wholly remain and therefore madness to deny it words It is most dangerous to be the Pen or Mouth of a multitude congregated by the Jingling of their Fetters lest a Pardon or Compliance knock them off and all the Reckoning left for you to pay when if you expect relief from the Common people you will then too late find the wise Florentine's words true That he who builds upon the People builds upon dirt since the zeal of the Rabble is not so soon heated by the real oppressions of their Rulers but may be as easily cooled by the specious promises and breath of Authority Massianello adored by the Mobile one day is torn in pieces by the same the next therefore Nurse not Ambition with your own Bloud nor Sacrifice a Gallant Person for the Applauses of an ungrateful unthinking Croud which Fame like Venus is formed only out of the foam of the People Neither are any grown'd more in this Warlike Mill of Vicissitudes then such obstinate Fools who glory in the repute of State-Martyrs after they are dead which concerns them no more then what was said an hundred years before they were born it being the greatest odds their Names will not be Registred or if they be after death they are no more sensible of Honour then any dead Animal whatsoever Most persons have enough to do about their own private concerns of Family and Estate therefore what greater folly can there be then to send to Market for troubles as those do that vex themselves about State-affairs Foreign Wars and the like Finally Now as both from Duty and Interest I have used the best of my endeavour to perswade Obedience and Loyalty to King and Government and Unity and Peace amongst one another so let me conclude with this disswasive from any contrary attempts by shewing you the happy difference betwixt our present condition and that of 41. First God be thanked our Enemies want such a Factious Parliament with malice and cunning to invent mischief Secondly God be praised for it they want such a perpetual Parliament with power to countenance and support all Factious designs without fear of being dissolved Thirdly That Providence which I trust will defend both King and Kingdom hath denied them at present such a Popular General and Officers to carry on the Sedition for them in the Field without which their Treason must soon fall to the ground for a Multitude without a Head is altogether unserviceable as appear'd upon the Accident of Virginius When the People having taken Arms and reâ—â—red to the Holy Mount the Senate sent to them to know upon what account they had abandoned their Officers and betaken themselves to that Mount But the Authority of the Senate was so venerable among the People that having no Head among them there was no body durst return Answer Titus Livius tells us Non defuit quid responderetur deerat qui responsum daret They wanted not what to say but who to deliver it For having no certain Commander every private person was unwilling to expose himself to their displeasure whereby we may understand how useless a thing is a Multitude without a Head Fourthly and Lastly Astrea since his Majesties happy Restauration hath descended and fixed the Militia upon its right Owner which Militia under pretence of belonging to the People was before made use of against the King Now all these Considerations together with the never-to-be-forgotten smart of the late Civil War may I hope conduce to that everlasting Peace and Union of King and Kingdom which is so continually and earnestly implored of Almighty God by Gentlemen Your humble Moderator and Servant PHILANGLUS A. D 1642. Kent Essex Chelmfâ—â—d Bucks Middlesex Essex Reading Bedford Warder Castle Northamtonshire Sudley Castle Exeter Rutlandsh Kent Berks. Windsor Lincolnsh Herefordsh Salust Ques mâ—nus atque lingua perjurio aut Gâ—vilâ— sâ—ng 〈…〉 alebat Salust Aâ—d 〈…〉 Principiâ— sensus 〈◊〉 siquid â—â—cultius pâ—rat exquirere illicitum est Tacit. 48 Bills rejected in one Session by Q. Eliz. 〈◊〉 est â—â—strum â—estimare quem sâ—pra c 〈…〉 terâ—s quibus de causâ—s extollat Sibi summum rerum Judicium Dii dâ—dere nobis obsequâ—â— gloria reâ—icta est Tacit. Nec quies gentium sine armis nec arma sine stipendio nec stipendia sine Tributiâ— haberi queunt Taâ—it Delatores genus hominum publico exitio repertum paenis quidem nunquam satis coercitum pâ—r praenis elici bantuâ— Tacit. ☜ ☞