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A80362
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Considerations for the Commons, in this age of distractions.
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1642
(1642)
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Wing C5909; Thomason E112_17; ESTC R22413
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6,839
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8
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CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE COMMONS IN This Age of Distractions OUr present breaches call out to every honest Christian to become a continuall centinell watching against the incessant assaults of such as indeavour to undermine the peace of this Kingdome therefore seeing a storme Inevitably falling its good to meete it with understanding rightly informed that so we may know how to propose the way of truth to others and how to prosecute it our selves It hath ever been and still is the constant practice of the common enemy to set at variance not onely the Princes of severall Nations but each Kingdome against it selfe dividing betwixt Prince and people and incensing subject against subject that so they might the more easyly accomplish their wicked intentions in our divisions and how zealously this designe of the adverse party hath beene carried on of late yeeres in these Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland I thinke there is no intelligent ones but they can readily trace it in sundry particulars and now at last having crowned their endeavours with the accursed fruits of ingaging this Kingdome in a civill war they drive on furiously in the pursuance of this their hellish designe which must of necessity usher in ruine and destructions if not speedily opposed and crushed and let all good Christians be carefull lest by their own backwardnesse they make good that base assertion of some malignants That the Protestant profession is too tame to withstand them Now therefore since our present breaches call for a contribution from every one it s no more then our owne interest requires that wee apply our selves to the common good and that we may the better know our duty and how we are to dispose of our selves either in the assisting of the one side or in resisting of the other as we are thereunto called Let us briefely take a view 1. Of the chiefe authors and fomenters of these unhappy distractions 2. Of the ends they drive at 3. Of the meanes they use to accomplish those ends 4. Of the dangerous inconveniences that will insue if these be not opposed 1. For the Authors of our present miseries the severall Declarations of Parliament tell us that they consist of Papists of an ambitious and dissolute Clergy of delinquents obnoxious to the Justice of Parliament together with some part of the Nobility and Gentry that either feare reformation or else seeke to lay the Foundation of their owne honour and preferment in the ruine of the Kingdome and we appeale to all the World whether all of them or at least the greatest party of them that have withdrawne His Majesty from his Parliament and are now about him do not come within the compasse of this definition being such as have constantly laboured to bury the happinesse of this Kingdome in the ruine of the Parliament and therefore they that trust these Men too much questionlesse they know them too little for surely there is no man unlesse hee bee willfully blinde and stupid but will conculde that the many eyes of those famous Peeres that have sometimes beene adjudged the ablest States-men in this Kingdome accompanied with so many choyce worthies out of all parts in the Land should see more plainely and discerne more cleerely into those things that tend ro the good and safety of King and people then those dimme lights about of Majesty which can see no further then their owne personall preferments and base ambitious aymes do lead them now accordingly let people adhere to the Counsells and commands of the one or the other as in reason they shall finde cause 2. Consider the ends that this malignant party hath hitherto and still continues to drive at and their practices shall be judged one chiefe and maine end they drive at is the destruction of this present Parliament and in it all future Parliaments and together with them the alteration of Religion the subversion of the Lawes of the Kingdome with the utter abollition of the rightfull liberties and priviledges of the Subjects All this will cleerely appeare if you take but a briefe survey of their proceedings from time to time first their love or rather indeed inveterate hatred to this Parliament appeares in the many consultations they had and attempts they made as is plaine by the depositions of many to bring up the Northerne Army against the Parliament and likewise in that unjust charge of Treason which was pretended against some members of both Houses and the Kings comming with a company of Cavaleeres to the House of Commons to fetch them away by force and then that which addes vigour to all the rest their withdrawing of His Majesty from his great and best councell into the Northerne parts of this Kingdome under pretence that His Person was in danger at Whitehall which was a notorious black lye Then for their love to Religion I thinke that is manifest to the World by their conversation their affecting of Blood rapine Torture Oppression and Cruelty their frequent Swearing God damme mee and God sincke mee together with that sweet harmony and mutuall corespondency betwixt Romanists and they the Counsells of Jesuiticall Papists having a cheife influence into their proceedings Judge if these render them defendours of the true Protestant Religion And then the great care they take for upholding and maintaining the Lawes of the Land appeares by their love to Parliaments which are the Lawes protectors as also by their favourable construction of the Commission of Array the puting of the Sword of Justice into the hands of divers Popish and ill affected persons giving them places in the Commissions of the Peace and outing of others which it seemes were too zealous of the good of King and Kingdome And lastly their care of preserving the liberties of the subject appeares by those many illegall taxations of old and of their late endeavours to possesse the World of an absolute and unlimitted power in Princes Thus for the ends 3. Consider the meanes they use to accomplish these their ends the maine whereof is to raise up a spirit of divisions and continually to increase a disunion first betwixt His Majesty and his loyall subjects and then betwixt one subject and another for they well know that where verity is accompained with unity it makes a people invincible and therefore the better to carry on this their truth-detesting designe first the King must be dealt with that the Major part of Parliament being seduced by a few Trayterous factious spirits endeavour to deprive him of his just prerogative and to trample upon his Crowne and having thus impudently suggested a thing as false as the Father of lyers can invent then no stone must be left unrowled whereby this misunderstanding betwixt the King and his people may be increased After this the Subjects they must be dealt with by many specious pretences and smoath expressions and heartlesse Protestations of the zeale of these men both for the good of King and people and of the earning desires
they have after a reformation as heretofore established and that all their counsells and designes tend this way And then they secretly stab the sides of those worthies in Parliament by their calumniations and false aspersions telling you of their countenancing or at least not suppressing the Tumults of Sectaries Anabaptists and Brownists that swarm in the Kingdome and hence they will affirme that all our distractions have their rise It s well we know to the contrary however grant it were so yet these men will be found to be the cause of the cause of our distractions for had not they by their divellish subtleties ingaged the Kingdome in this intestine broyle and brought our religion lives and liberties and all to the stake wee need not to have doubted but that the Parliament with the assistance of the assembly of Divines would by this time in so me good measure have composed the divisions in the Church But the truth is the Malice of these men is so generall against all goodnesse that it had beene a slander if these worthies in Parliament had not beene slaundered by them for envy and slaunder do alwaies attend good deeds in a bad age Many other meanes that these malignants have used in the pursuance of their destructive designes might bee added Their frequent attempts of fetching in forreigne Forces to invade us and providing great supplyes of amunition beyond Seas to destroy us Their complying with Papists Atheists fugitives and other notorious delinquents to the end they might enslave us if these be not sufficient to render their intentions many miles distant from their Protestations of endeavouring the common good let the World judge Lastly that the crafty devices and fraudulent pretences of these arch impostours may not be believed nor their impudent expressions threatned violence and seeming courage may not bee feared It were good that people were rightly informed of the manifould benefits that must needs redound to themselves and posterity by declining the wayes and Counsells of these men and by adhering to the faithfull Counsells and obeying the just commands of the Parliament by whose Wisdome and industry so many excellent workes have beene wrought for us whose proceedings from their first meeting to this instant have beene so spotlesse that the enemys of the State have beene angry with them because they could not be angry with them finding no just cause wherein to accuse them whereupon they have beene forced to broach many notorious untruths from time to time thereby scandalizing the proceedings of Parliament which time having confuted and given them the lye to their Teeth hath not a little redowned to the disgrace of themselves and the cause they favour And doubtlesse those that have vented their minds against this Parliament by such invective speeches upon all occasions they would not be backward to nominate that factious party in both Houses acording to the promise made in a Message c. had they had either ground or reason for it But as hitherto wee can neither heare the crimes of such as have beene impeached nor the Names of such as are thus threatned for could wee see any thing but mere words wee should the sooner believe that the King was necessitated to desert the Parliament I would wish the Commons of England were able to build their hopes upon any probable grounds that they should receive good from these men that have thus shamefully and despightfully spit their venome upon the heads of our Tribes Nay I feare there is few that can apprehend a possibility that His Majesty should really make good those solemne Protestations of defending our Religion Lawes and Liberties so long as these Achitophels are about him In the late breach betwixt Scotland and us doubtlesse had not the Kings eares been shut against the wholsome advice of his Scottish subjects whilst they were open to the destructive counsels of some evil affected ones in England the fidelity of the Scots and the treachery of those counsellers had been sooner discovered Therefore if we doe not stand to the cause now and render our selves loyal to our Soveraigne and faithful to the State wherein we live by withstanding and opposing the destructive counsels and waies of those about his Majesty who endeavour nothing more then to enslave the free subjects of this Nation and to keepe them continually under the harrow of oppression we may forever bid adieu to all that we now enjoy It ought therefore to be every mans wisdome and care seriously to consider that in forsaking this Parliament they forsake themselves their Religion Lawes and Properties and all that can properly be called theirs for our Liberties receive their life from the Law and the Law its life and protection from Parliaments so that in case we refuse to protect them that protect the Lawes which are the protection of our Liberties of necessity all must fall to the ground and the will of the Prince and Favourites shall be the Law of the people and so honest men will be out of hopes and delinquents out of feare of justice There is not any age that can produce a story of a Parliament freely elected and held that ever did injure a whole Nation neither have we ever heard of Prince or people that casting themselves upon this well constituted Assembly that they were ever defrauded or prejudiced by them But some we have heard of that never prospered having once diserted this great Councell And indeed it may seeme strange to any reasonable man that the Lords and Commons who are so deeply interressed in the Kingdome and who must of necessity have a large share in the miseries thereof that they should take such pains early and late in contributing to their owne inevitable destruction and to the ruining of the freedoms of this Nation But put the case that we by our wilfulnesse and grosse stupidity should so farre provoke the Parliament as to desert us and our interest and to pursue their owne by complying with those Councels that are now about his Majesty let the World judge what were likely to be the portion of the Communalty of this Kingdom should the Parliament betray that trust we have reposed in them themselves might live like Princes but we like slaves It hath of late been the maine designe of our adversaries by their subtill insinuations to render the Parliament a voyd assembly because the King refuses to joyne with them This was well answered by him that said if the Parliament might not save the Kingdome without the King he was sure the King might destroy the Kingdome in despight of the Parliament It must needs sound harsh in the eares of a free people that the King withdrawne by evill Councell may at pleasure take away the very essence of Parliaments meerely by his owne dissent thereby stripping them of all power in matters of judicature that they may not determine any thing for the good and safety of the Kingdome If this be true it must