is this a Plot and a Policy to alter and subvert the Frame and Fabrick of this State and Common-wealth This is the great one and it hath others in it that gains it more Greatness For to this end he labours to infuse into the Conscience of His Majesty the perswasion of a Power not bounding it self with Laws which King James of Famous Memory calls in his Speech in Parliament 1618. Tyranny yea Tyranny accompanied with Perjury 2. He endeavours to perswade the Consciences of the Subjects that they are bound to obey illegal Commands yea he damns them for not obeying ' em 3. He robs the Subjects of the property of their Goods 4. He brands 'em that will not loose their property with most scandalous and odious Titles to make 'em hateful both to Prince People so to set a division between Head and Members and between the Members themselves To this end not much unlike Faux and his Fellows he seeks to blow up Parliaments and Parliamentary Power Therefore being duly viewed will make up the main and great Charge a Mischievious Plot to alter and subvert the Frame and Government of this State and Common-wealth And now that you may besure that Mr. Manwaring tho he leave us no Property in our Goods yet he hath an absolute Propriety in his Charge Audite ipsam belluam here Mr. Manwaring by his own words making up his own Charge Here he produced the Books particularly insisting on P. 19 29 and 30. in the first Sermon P. 35 46 and 47. in the second Sermon All which Passages he hightened with much Elequence and Acrimony thus concluding his 〈◊〉 I have shewed you an Evil Tree 〈…〉 forth evil Fruit and now it rests 〈◊〉 you to determin whether the folloâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 shall follow Cut it down and cast it into the Fire Four Days after the Parliament proceeded to his Censure consisting of eight particulars it being order'd by the House of Lords against him as followeth 1. To be Imprisoned during the Pleasure of the House 2. To be Fined a Thousand Pounds 3. To make his Submission at the Bar of this House and in the House of Commons at the Bar there in verbis conceptis a set Form of Words framed by a Committee of this House 4. To be Suspended from his Ministerial Function three Years and in the mean time a sufficient Preaching-Man to be provided out of the profits of his Living and this to be left to be performed by the Ecclesiastical Court 5. To be Disabled for ever hereafter from Preaching at Court 6. To be for ever Disabled of having any Ecclesiastical Dignity in the Church of England 7. To be uncapable of any Secular Office or Preferment 8. That his Books are worthy to be burnt and that His Majesty to be moved that it may be to in London and both the Universities And accordingly he made his humble Submission at both the Bars in Parliament on the 23d of June following and on his Knees before both Houses submitted himself with outward Expressions of Sorrow as followeth I do here in all Sorrow of Heart and true Repentance acknowledg these many Errors and Indiscretions which I have committed in Preaching and Publishing the two Sermons of mine which I called Religion and Allegiance and my great Fault in falling upon this Theam again and handling the same rashly scandalously and unadvisedly in my own Parish-Church in St. Giles's in the Fields the 4th of May last past I humbly acknowledg these three Sermons to have been full of dangerous Passages and Inferences and Scandalous Aspersions in most part of them and I do humbly acknowledg the just Proceedings of this Honourable House against me and the just Sentence and Judgment passed upon me for my great Offence And I do from the bottom of my Heart crave Pardon of God the King and this Honourable House and the Common-wealth in general and those worthy Persons adjudged to be reflected on by me in particular for these great Offences and Errors It is therefore the indispensible Interest and Duty of all true English-men to maintain these Priviledges conveyed from their Ancestors through so many Generations inviolable upon which all our Earthly and in a great measure our Spiritual Happiness Safety and Well-being depends Nor can any Man in his Senses but acknowledg that the only right way to attain that End is to look well to the Means and that is by taking due care what Persons they chuse for their Representatives with whom they must trust their Estates Lives and Liberties Now the Government of a Prince by and with Parliaments when ever the condition and necessities of the State require 'em however according to its Primitive Institution it was the best of all others Yet as well in that as in Christianity it self there hath been sound out ways of Corruption and that is when either they sit too long or too seldom or are too frequently dissolved Too frequent Dissolutions being no less dangerous to the Subject than too long Sessions nevertheless it may be in the Electors Power to avoid the Inconveniences of both and that is by making a good choice Whereas if the Country People will sell â—ll that they have for a little Boast Beef a Glass of Sack and a Pot of Ale chosing him that will give them most drink to day tho they know him to be a Person who will sell both their Religion Liberties and Fortunes to Morrow Then frequent Dissolutions we may expect which are as dangerous to the Subject as too long Sessions which will of necessity ruin us and utterly debauch this excellent Constitution For the honest Country Gentleman designs no other private advantage but the true Service of his King and Country hath no reason nor is lie able once in half a year to spend 4 or 500 pounds only to purchase a place full of Labour Charge Trouble and Danger without any profit to himself only to serve those who put him to such an unkind Expence And when honest Loyal Gentlemen are thus discouraged this sottish Humour amongst the Electors continue the Papists and their Faction or necessitous Persons of prostituted Consciences will carry their Votes for they can afford to buy them at large Rates being resolved to repay themselves tho with the ruin of the Nation This is not vain Surmise or idle Speculation but the very Truth of the Case and the meanest Countryman that hath Eyes in his Head and will use them cannot but see it For did you ever know a Coachman or Groom buy his Place unless he design'd to rob his Masters Bin Therefore whoever you put to charge in your Elections blame him not if he makes Money again of what he bought and lays out his Vote in the House not for your good and that of the Publick but that way as will best please the Ministers of State that so he himself may get a good Place or Preferment or Title of Honour by the Bargain I say tho he himself be a base Wretch for so doing yet you cannot blame him since you did not lend him your Trust but sold it him and what a Man hath purchased with his own Money he may lawfully sell again Therefore that Man who does wilfully 〈…〉 endeavour to ruin both his Country and Himself and his Posterity and to be as bad or worse than the Person he chuses and if the greater part of the 〈…〉 to be wiser or honester it 〈…〉 to him he did as much as he 〈…〉 it and therefore for his 〈…〉 one else were concern'd with him 〈…〉 matter if he were forthwith made a Slave and his Children perpetual Vassels The before-mentioned old Lord Treasurer Burleigh who is thought to have been the greatest Statesman that ever this Nation bred did frequently deliver as a Maxim or rather a Prophesy That England can hardly be ruined unless by her own Parliament undoubtedly foreseeing that other Oppressions as being wrought by Violence might perhaps by violence be in time shaken off again whereas when in a Parliamentary way we are undone by a Law that can never be revers'd but by a down-right Rebellion because the Parties advantaged by that Law will never agree to the repealing of it Such is the happy frame of your Government so prudently and so strong have your Ancestors secured Property and Liberty rescued by Inches out of the Hands of encroaching Violence that you cannot be enslaved but with Chains of your own making for as you are never undone till you are undone by Law so you can never be undone by a Law till you chuse the undoing Legislators and may not your Enemies add Scorn to their Cruelty and pretend Justice for both when they can plead they had never trampled on your Heads had not you laid them on the Ground From what has been said it evidently appears of what vast importance it is at all times when ever his Majesty shall be pleased to issue out his Writs for a Parliament to chuse as much as in us lies a good House of Commons as we tender our Religion Liberties Estates and Posterity Upon our well or ill chusing depends our well or ill being 'T is here as in Marriage or War there is no room for second Errors one Act may ruin a Nation beyond retriâ—â—â— FINIS
Elector than to press you to be for a Man that in your Consciences you think not sit or not so sit as his Competitor for so weighty a Trust Men don't use to lend their Wives or give their Children to satisfy personal Kindnesses nor ought you to make a swop of your Birthright and that of your Posterity's too for a Mess of Pottage a Feast or a lusty drinking Bout There can be no proportion here and therefore none must take it ill that you use your Freedom about that which in its Constitution is the great Bulwark of all your Ancient Liberties Lastly As for you Citizens Burgesses and Freemen of Cities and Corporations in parcicular I shall only say That whosoever is not sit to be chosen Knight of the Shire is likewise unfit to be chosen a Burgess Neither let the more specious Pretences of any Man that shall promise to build a Town Hall and relieve your Poor with Money or out of his adjacent Woods or any such Good-Morrow's deceive you for if so wherein are you wiser than your Horses whom you catch every day and clap a Bridle into their Mouths only by shewing them a few Oats which they are never like to eat Even the very Mice are too wise to be taken by an old Bait but will have the Trap new baited before they will meddle And yet I have known a Corporation which has been taken TWICE with one Bait. But suppose these Men do really perform what they promise what Compensation is that if the same Men should lay a good swinging Tax upon your Estates without any real cause or should give up the very Power you have of taxing your selves for sending your Representatives in Parliament for one bad Parliament may ruin us what good would the Money for your Poor do in such a Case more then that when you are reduced to beggary you might perhaps your selves the Gentry of the Country having no reason to relieve you be found to come in for a small share of this your Hypocritical Charity an excellent Reward for Knavish Folly Neither say Oh! this is but one Man and can have but one Vote he will do our Town a great deal of good and can do us but little hurt if he would And 1st as I told you before one or two Voices have sometimes carried a Vote of great Importance 2. You know not what mischief your bad Example may do in other Corporations and if all should do so what a miserable Case would you be in since the Voices of the Boroughs make two thirds of the House no Man can tell the Influence that one running Talkative ill Man may get over the rest of the House especially over those that weigh words more then Sense Reason and the Interest of the Nation I shall only offer one thing more to your Consideration which is that since His Majesty has in His most Gracious Speech wisely put so great a Stress on the signing of the Association which so firmly united us for our mutual Defence against the common Enemies of our Country it may not be amiss to refresh your Memory with a Copy of that Association and a List of those Members of Parliament which refus'd to sign it and you will by that guess what worthy Patriots they are like to prove if you once more make them your Representatives WHereas there has been a Horrid and Detestable Conspiracy formed and carried on by Papists and other Wicked and Traiterous Persons for Assassinating His Majesty's Royal Person in order to incourage an Invasion from France to subvert our Religion Laws and Liberty We whose Names are hereunto Subscribed do Heartily Sincerely and Solemnly Profess Testify and Declare That His Present Majesty King William is Rightful and Lawful King of these Realms And we do mutually promise and engage to stand by and assist each other to the utmost of our Power in the Support and Defence of His Majesty's most Sacred Person and Government against the late King James and all his Adherents And in case His Majesty come to any Violent or Vntimely Death which God forbid We do hereby further Freely and Vnanimously oblige our selves to Vnite Associate and Stand by each other in Revenging the same upon his Enemies and their Adherents and in Supporting and Defending the Succession of the Crown according to an Act made in the First Year of the Reign of King William and Queen Mary Intituled An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and setling the Succession of the Crown This Association being agreed upon by the House and ordered to be engrossed to be Signed by the Members near 400 of that August Assembly which consists of 513 have already with great Alacrity subscribed it But some at present hesitate some others refuse it their Names you find underwritten Berks. Sends 9 Members WIlliam Jennyngs Simon Harcourt Bucks 14. Alexander Denton Mountague Drake Sir James Etheridge Cornwall 44. Henry Lord Hyde John Manley Daniel Eliot Henry Fleming Francis Buller John Tredenham Seymour Tredenham Sir William Coryton John Mountstevens Bernard Granvile Charles Lord Cheney Francis Gwyn Cheshire 4. Sir Thomas Grosvenor Derbyshire 4. Sir Gilbert Clarke Devon 26. Francis Courteney Sir Edward Seymour John Granville Dorsetshire 20. Thomas Strangways Thomas Freke Richard Fownes Chor. 30. Robert Byerly Sir Marmaduke Wivill Sir Michael Wentworth Essex 8. Sir Eliab Harvey Glocester 8. Robert Payne William Frye Richard How John How Herefordshire 8. Robert Price Huntington 4. Anthony Hammond Kent 18. Sir John Banks Lancashire 14. Leigh Banks Thomas Brotherton Sir Roger Bradshaw Peter Shakerley Lincolnshire 12. George Lord Castleton Sir John Bolles Norfolk 12. Sir John Wodehouse Northampton 9. Thomas Cartwright Gilbert Dolben Northumberland 8. William Foster Oxford 9. Mountague Lord Norris Sir Robert Jenkinson Heneage Finch Sir Edward Norris Thomas Rowney James Bertie Sir Robert Dashwood Salop. 12. Edward Kynaston John Kynaston Andrew Newport George Weld Somerset 18. Sir John Trevillian Edward Berkley John Sandford Sir Charles Carterett Sir John Smith Southampton 26. Henry Holmes Thomas Done Staffordshire 10. Robert Burdeâ—t Sir John Leveson Gower John Grey Sir Henry Gough Surrey 14. John Parsons Sussex 28. Sir William Morley John Lewknor Sir Thomas Dyke William Stringer Warwickshire 6. William Bromley Andrew Archer George Bohun Lord Digby Francis Grevill Westmoreland 4. Sir William Twisden Sir Christopher Musgrave Wiltshire 34. Robert Bertie William Harvey Henry Pynnill Thomas Bennet William Daniel Worcestershire 9. Samuel Swist Henry Parker Wales 24. Edward Jones Jeffery Jefferies Sir Richard Middleton Edward Brereton Sir John Conway Thomas Mansel Sir William Williams 〈…〉 have talked Negatives and diâ—â—â—â—ed 〈…〉 are not fit to be chosen Now we come pâ—ssitively to sâ—t before you who are fit for such a Trust especially in such a dangerous Juncture as we are fallen into In order to which we must consider for what ends they serve and they are principally two The first is the Preservation of our Religion from Popery
and the other is to preserve inviolably our Liberty and Property according to the known Laws of the Land without any giving way unto or Introduction of that Absolute and Arbitrary Rule practiced in Foreign Countries which we are neither to imitate or regard Therefore take care to chuse such as are well known to be Men of good Consciences fearing God throughly principled in the Protestant Religion and of High Resolution to maintain it with their Lives and Fortunes And amongst these rather cast your favour upon Men of large Principles I mean in Matters of meer opinion such as will not sacrifice their Neighbours Property Civil Rights to the forwardness of their own Party in Religion Narrow Souls that will own none but those that bear their own Image and Superscription will sooner raise Persecution at home then secure us from Popery and Invasion from abroad The great Interest of England at this day is to tolerate the tolerable to bear with the weak to encourage the Conscientious and to restrain none but such as would restrain all besides themselves 2. As we ought as near as we can possibly judg to Elect good Protestants towards God and just towards Men. Yet since in this corrupt Age wherein we live Men are not so spiritual as they ought to be it is not amiss to seek for those whose Spiritual Interest are seconded by a Tâ—mporal one For tho Men talk high and keep a great noise with Conscience and Love to their Country yet when you understand Mankind aright not as it should be but as it is and I fear ever will be then you will find that private Interest is the String in the Bears Nose it is that governs the Beast And therefore the surest Champions for our Religion Câ—â—teris Paribus Against the Papacy 〈◊〉 our Abby Lâ—nded-men for notwithstanding the register'd Dispensation to King Henry the 8th from the Pope for the seizing of those Monistries and Lands yet of late they pretend the Pope had not power to alien them from the Church so that the present Possessors can never trust nor rely upon that or any new Promises or actuâ—â— Grants thereof especially from him whose everlasting and declared Maxim it is never to keep Faith with Hereticks Undoubtedly to make easy his Assent into the Saddle he will proffer many Assurances and Grants but if these Abby Land-men be not the most silly of all others they will never believe him for when he is once firmly settled then will he with his Cannon Law Distinctionâ— like Fire under Quick-Silver evaporate away all his Promises and violently resume the Lands glorying in his own Bounty if he require not the mean Profits ever since they have been Sacreligiously withheld from Holy Church 3. Endeavour to chuse Men of Wisdom and Courage who will not be he hectored out of their Duties by the Frowns and Scowles of Men Never had you more need to pitch upon the old English Spirit that durst be faithful and just against all Temptations What a degenerate Race have we known that could never yet resist Smile or Eâ—oâ—n but tamely sunk below their own Conuictions and knew the evil they did yet durst not but commit it 4. Make it your business to chuse such as are resolved to stand by and maintain the Power and Priviledges of Parliaments for they are the Heart-Strings of the Common-wealth together with the Power and Just Rights of the King according to the Laws of the Kingdomso as the one may not entrench upon the other And such as with a becoming true English Courage will prosecute all Traitors whether already impeach'd or to be impeach'd and to secure us from Popery hereafter and to get removed all Corrupt and Arbitrary Ministers of State and wicked Judges and all Stiflers of the Discovery of the late accursed Conspiracy against His Majesties Life and Suâ—â—mers and Vile Pamphleteers that endeavour so industriously to clear the Papists and expose the Protestant Religion and poison the People Lastly Take particular notice of those who are Men of Industry and Improvement for such as are Ingenious and Laborious to propagate the growth and advantage of their Country will be very tender of yielding to any thing that will weaken or impoverish it If you conduct your selves thus prudently honestly and gallantly in your Choice without putting the Gentleman whom you â—huse to serve you to Charges The Consequence will be that as you will be sure to have a good Parliament when ever His Majesty shall please to call one and such as will be zealous for the Protestant Religion and Prosperity of the Nation if they shall continue to sit and act so on the other side if they shall be dissolved and never so many new Parliaments call'd yet you run no hazard for the same Canditates will be still ready to serve you And so we shall conclude our discourse of Parliaments when I shall first have observed that anciently all Freemen of England tho not Freeholders had a Right to chuse their Representatives to the same was alter'd and limited by the following Statute for the Reasons therein mentioned The Statute Anno 8 Hen. 6. Cap. 7. What sort of Men shall be Cqosers and who shall be chosen Knights of the Parliament Item WHereas the Elections of Knights of Shires to come to the Parliament of our Lord the King in many Counties of the Realm of England have now of late been made with very great outragious and excessive Numbers of People dwelling within the same Counties of the Realm of England of the which most was of People of small Substance and of no value whereof every one of them pretend a Voice equivolent as to such Elections to be made with the most Worthy Knights and Esquires dwelling within the same Counties whereby Manslaughters Riots Batteries and Division among the Gentlemen and other People of the same Counties shall very likely rise and be unless convenient and due remedy be provided in this behalf 2. Our Lord the King considering the Premisses hath provided ordained and established by Authority of this present Parliament that the Knights of the Shires to be chosen within the said Realm of England to come to the Parliament of our Lord the King hereafter to be chosen shall be chosen in every County of of the Realm of England by People dwelling and resident in the said Counties whereof every one of them shall have Land or Tenement to the value of 40 s. by the Year at the least above all Charges 3. And that they which shall be so chosen shall be dwelling and resident within the same Counties 4. And such as have the greatest number of them that may expend 40 s. by the Year and above as afore is said shall be returned by the Sheriffs of every County Knights for Parliament by Indentures sealed betwixt the said Sheriffs and the said Chusers to be made 5. And every Sheriff of the Realm of England shall have power by the said