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
his Royal Fathers Condescention to let the Parliament sit during their own pleasure who never quitted their own Reign till they had ended his So dangerous is it for a Prince to fulfil the unsatisfied desires of a Craving Mobile Who being without doors have it not in the Orb of their understandings to Comprehend or Judge aright of the proceedings of a King and Parliament These are the Fomenters of the Common people Who though a moveable Body like the Ocean yet never swell but when blown upon by such intemperate winds or like the Swine in the Gospel are more furiously agitated by the discontented Spirits of others than their own They are like Esop's Trumpeter who set people together by the ears with their Libels or false News and therefore of all others the least deserve Quarter And as heretofore by the names of Roundhead and Cavalier so now again they distinguish and mark out for destruction His Majesty's Subjects by those Factious Epithites of Whig and Tory which like Rogue Rascal and other Opprobrious terms do rarely pass over without a bloudy Nose Like ill Servants betwixt Husband and Wife they endeavour to breed a Jealousy and mis-understanding between King and People hoping to advantage themselves by the quarrel and accordingly use their utmost endeavours to mis-represent his mildest Actions to his People As for instance if His Maiesty grants Liberty of Conscience to the Nonconformists they possess the people it is done in favour of the Papists and on the contrary if he suppresses them then they say he is perswaded to it by the Popish Councels So uncapable are they of being satisfied Again whilst he desists to prosecute the Papists they call him a favourer of them and when he puts out his Proclamation against them then they presently say it is Sugar-plums for the Parliament so humoursom are these men Such Enemies are they to Monarchy that they hate Addresses for the same reason they love Petitions opposition to the King That Petitioning for a Parliament is lawful I do not oppose but to Petition so often for one and the same thing and that too after his Majesty has shew'd his dislike of it is I am sure uncivil and shews as if hereby they would either publish to the World their distrust of his Majesties single Government or else render themselves and their Party formidable to the Royal Authority by the counterfeit number of their Petitioners That the power of Calling and Dissolving Parliaments is solely in the King their very Act of Petitioning confesses and yet if his Majesty complies not with them at a minutes warning they presently complain of Injustice Again for Addresses they are absolute Abhorrers of them as thinking it lawful to give our thanks to any one but the King the Parliaments themselves have often expressed their gratitude and Loyalty to the King Voting him thanks for many of his Speeches and promising to stand by him with their Lives and Fortunes against all his Enemies whatsoever Nay the City of London and many other Corporations Burroughs and Counties have done as much even to their own single Members of Parliament Voting them their thanks and promising to stand by them and yet these men would deny his Majesty tha◠small respect which is so commonly paid to his Subjects and which as well to Foreigners as Natives will make known his Majesties Interest in the hearts of his Subjects then which nothing can be more for the honour of the English Nation to publish the Kings Grandeur and Peoples Loyalty Moreover they are highly offended with his Majesty for dissolving Parliaments but not so much at that as because his Majesty would shew a Reason why he dissolved them for they would have had the People gone away with the opinion that it was an Arbitrary unjust Action and their dissolution purely in favour of Popery and nothing else Whereas his Majesty in a Gracious and voluntary manner comes and appeals to his own People how just his proceeding was in that as in all other things that observing the differences between the two Houses he had reason to fear the ill consequence thereof and therefore to allay those heats was forced to send them home yet was not out of love with Parliaments but would nevertheless call them frequently c. Which reason being satisfactory to all his loving Subjects was therefore the more disapproved of by the Factious who by this means were perhaps disappointed of their intended Tumult and Insurrection so confidently expected by Mr. Colledge The same Factious Party do likewise accuse his Majesty of having a design both to render himself Absolute and to introduce Popery and this is the present Doctrine that they preach in all their Cabals Libels and Pamphlets Now for his design of rendring himself Absolute let any rational man but consider how improbable a thing it is that the King whom his very Enemies accuse of being a too great lover of his ease even in his youth should now when he grows into years attempt a thing of that great trouble and hazard At his first Restauration might he not then have had any thing of his people were not his Subjects at that time so tired out with the late Civil War that he might have fettered them as he pleased himself 〈…〉 and has he not since had a Parliament tha◠supplied him with Monies at his pleasure nay were as ready to grant as he to ask and did the King let go all these opportunities do you think to undertake it now Surely no man of sence can harbour a thought so ridiculous and void of Reason Besides his Majesty as all men know is of so mild and peaceable a disposition that no person upon Earth can be more averse to such a Tyrannical and bloudy undertaking than himself What one Act of severity or cruelty can his greatest Enemy charge him with throughout his Reign nay in his whole life-time Alas 't is our too great ignorance of other Neighbouring Princes makes us not enough esteem our own No English Monarch even King James or Queen Elizabeth her self were ever more tender of and careful to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the People then King Charles the Second now is Parliaments themselves were never handled with that love tenderness and caution by any Prince as by him whose chief and only care is not to violate their Priviledges contrary to the proceedings of many of his Predecessors As for instance in the 23. year of Queen Elizabeth Mr. Paul Wentworth moved in the House for a publick Fast and for a Sermon every morning at seven of the clock before the House sate and it was ordered accordingly But the Queen being informed hereof sent this Message to the House by her Vice Chamberlain That Her Highness much admired the Rashness of the House in committing such an apparent Contempt of her express Command as to put in execution such an Innovation without her privity or pleasure first known Whereupon the
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