avoided but how to make a whole Councel of Officers honest most of whom have sprouted up from no very generous principles this is next of kin to an impossibility What a Corporation of the Army what the Army the Representative of England Must your General as of late be the Archon or Sole Legislator your Councel of Officers our Senate and your small Officers the people of England out upon it this is too bad in all conscience why not a Corporation of the Navie too as much reason every jot What the Supreme Authority of England that pay you your wages that can put in and out at their pleasure and it is reason they should the Lords Keepers of the Great Seal the Judges of the Land the greatest Officers of State yea and besides whom none can give you Commissions but they are Rogues and Robbers as bad as any High-way-men and worse who take upon them to act and have no Commission from them it is the case of some among you T is a Combination and a Conspiracy among you to make a GENERAL and give him Commission and then he to give you Commissions or to set up any number of men as Supreme but such as the good people of the Land chuse and then to take Commissions from them this is Idolatry to fall down and worship the work of your own hands and to cry aha we are warmed aha we are warmed What not the Supreme Authority be able to remove a Lieutenant an Ensigne a Serjeant a Cororal But by your leave most Omnipotent Councel of Officers 't is true it is dangerous trusting a General with this Power he may turn all to his own Interest which most commonly accords but little with that of the Nation you have had wonderful experience of this already but the Parliament whose interest is the interest of the Nation and can be no other that their noses should come under the girdle of an Army Oh sad contrivance What was it the Good Old Cause that the Parliament must have the Militia and not the King was it then reason they should command the Sword who carryed the Purse and carried the Interest of the Nation among them and poor King must he suffer death for standing upon his terms with them And now when the Parliament is by Your selves declared The Supreme Authority of England now they must touch none of your anointed now they must not so much as remove one single Officer of your Army but through the mediation of your grace and favour could the Parliament say Amen to this part of your Petition and Representation and not betray the Nation and their trust and make themselves the scorne and hatred of the Nation and future Parliaments Yea could they understand this private Combination to force this unreasonable desire and proceed with lesse tokens of their displeasure and not give the Nation a jealousie that they would betray them And is this the reason why you hugge these 9. Powder-plotters to effect this most horrid hellish mischief I can imagine nothing so like the truth of the Design if there be any design in it as this well should this be effected for you that you should give Law to England pray what will be the design of it to what end I pray to bewray your deep insight into the affairs of State To gain your selves Honour and Renown for your rare Conduct of the State no I fear shame would be your promotion you would have little better successe then you have had you may joult your Jobernouls together long enough before you can hammer out a Settlement for us no body thinks that saying true of you I am wiser then all my Teachers Where will be the Design if when you have run your selves out of Winde and out of your Wits too you shall be reduced to the like exigency as of late and be forced to bewayl your Blindenesse and Apostasie again I say what is become of the Design then And it is not in reason to foresee how you can manage the Chariot of the State long but all must run into disorder your Sin yea and your Undertaking will be a burden a punishment greater then you can bear Very considerate men think you can hardly carry it a Moon Oh shallow oh incogitant oh pitifull oh foolish Army who hath bewitched you you did run well who hindred you will you now altogether run in vain will you lose the things you have wrought will you sell the righteous for nought Our Lawes Liberties our Good Old Cause for lesse then a pair of Shooes Will you harm us and do your selves no good Oh peevish oh wilfull Are ye Children are ye Fools are ye mad Do you discover your Gallantry by grapling with Impossibilities For shame men for shame give over Oh but you mistake us all this while our Design is To carry on the Refined Interest the Spirit of the Cause Good good is this the businesse what is this new thing nothing you now make sport withall a Refined Interest the spirit of the cause hard words what is the English on 't I wonder whether Sir Henry Vane hath opened these abstruse terms to your understanding you apprehend things more nimbly then it seems then honest old English-spirited Sir Arthur Haslerigge that most highly deserving Patriot I think it will be hard to understand the thing you drive at by the terms you dresse it in you will teach us to speak English after a new cut certainly such an Interest was never till now phrased a Refined one The Refined Interest saith Mr. Harrington is that which carries so much reason in it and so much the Interest of the Nation that it being once understood and we in possession of it needs not a Mercenary Army to keep it up Is your Interest refined in this notion you so much blesse your selves in what course will you take for the carrying on the spirit of the cause the Refined Interest what will you preserve our choice inviolable shall that power rule us and you that we choose so to doe No this would hazard the Refined Interest I le warrant you What then shall all the old Friends of the Parliament that are no more Turn-coals then your selves and have served the State as well as your selves shall these in every County City and considerable Burrough choose their Trustees for the Supreme Authority No there hath been a great Apostasie and Back-sliding honest men shall be chosen who are true to the Cause who are fit to be Kings and Priests and to reign for ever and ever such as have the Spirit and these will know what Israel ought to doe and will make good Lawes and Statutes and execute judgement in the Gate these will hate the Whore and burn her flesh with fire Is this the Refined Interest what such another Gimcrack as that little Mungrell thing that Voted it self a Parliament any thing in the world that will keep our Faction in heart that
something more natural to the body of the Nation would with much more reason in lesse time and with lesse hazard restore the pale faced Religion of England and confirm the good Laws of the Nation which necessity hath something weakned of later years and procure a sound indempnity which some think to be in a languishing condition neither of which for ought I perceive yet are in such extremity as to be under necessity of drinking in these Asses milk I have done what I first promised and made it clear That the calling in the late Kings Son is neither a certain nor yet probable means for preservation of the Nation and the Rights and Interests thereof My next business is to produce an Expedient that may do what the other only did pretend which trouble I give my self and my Reader not to prescribe to men in Authority referring it to their judgements what form of popular Government will make this Nation most happy whereunto my opinion shall submit though it should not consent but because our Author put in those tearmes The Only means of Preservation thereby insinuating as if ruine were unavoidable if his King could not save us we must needs perish I think my self thereby fairly provoked not by my silence to consent that the Nation is left in an undone condition having rendred his only preservative fruitless and frustrate but to perswade my Countrymen to cease from the Speeches and Actions of such as are desperate and devoted to ruine by offering a safe and facile way of recovery to a better condition and temper of State then our Nation hath enjoyed in the memory of Man towards which the pulse of the Nation is felt to beat pretty kindly Wherein I shall not be so much an Innovator as some others seeing I do not much magnifie such Propositions as have been made for new modelling foundations and superstructures till it grows up to a Fabrick not unfitly resembling a Windmill which turns round while it stands fast while an English way of a Common-wealth is no farther to seek I should mislike it more then I do if I took a voyage to Venice of any other part of the world to bring in a new pattern since if my chothes did sit as well to my back they would please me no lesse then if they were alla mode a France I say then That the Supream Authority of the Nation being fully vested in Parliaments of England successively and frequently Chosen by the Good People thereof being free and without check upon them this is an Infallible means under God of preservation of the Nation and the Rights and Interest thereof By the Supream Authority I mean the whole Legislative Power and whatever Powers of right belonged formerly to Kings Lords and Commons joyntly I add that this be fully vested in them thereby I understand that they have the sole power of the Militia which was claimed by the King and by the Parliament but whoever could get fastest hold would not let go but would be sure to have and to hold from that day forward without this they would only be complemented The Supream Authority of the Nation as in courtesie we bespeak Sir John and Sir Thomas Knights of the Lord Protector but no such matter In Parliaments of England chosen I intend Knights Citizens and Burgesses By the good people of the Nation I mean such as have not declared themselves for the King against the Parliament in the beginning of the Wars or been discovered in Armes or Plots upon the same account as disturbers of the peace since being such as by Law are capable thereof Successively and frequently I design that the people loose not their benefit of Elections after once chusing by Parliaments sitting time out of minde but that all Parliaments be chosen and often chosen by the people at least once in two years Being free and without check upon them I would have that they be not overpowred by force nor controuled by a Negative voice of Single person or Peers Thus explained I will stand to my tackling That such a Parliament is an Infallible means under God for preservation of the Nation and the Rights and Interests thereof I shall take the lesse pains to clear the equity of my Proposition since the Malecontents of the Nation that have made so great a noise lately seem to make this their only wish and profess to acquiesce in the resolutions of A Free Parliament whose Supremacy they make so little doubt to acknowledge that they or some body for them professe they will be content to be accounted Traytors if they dispute I shall only say this That the Knights Citizens and Burgesses are those and only those in whom we repose our trust as those from whom we expect our benefits they are as it were the Covenant Servants of the Nation are a part and the best part of our selves too if we be not over-ruled in our choice such who if they should harm us must wrong themselves being obliged in every thing they impose upon us our interests being common and inseperable but that of King and Lords distinct yea contrary to our Liberties and so selvish and self-seekers and most unlike to be our Saviours The other are embarqued in the same bottom with us and so are concerned to make the best advantage for us they can When these are bound to maintain their Honours and prerogatives though upon our ruine who are usually never the lesse Pursey and powerful as we are the more flavish and indigent Therefore it concerns us that the Supream Authority be vested as I said I propose them the Militia because it would be poor Providence to betrust them with consulting for our welfare if they have not power to see their resolutions put in effectual execution give a Parliament power of declaring Laws and some other person or persons power to dispute those Laws or to subvert them and then you may save the labour of the first since the latter shall render the Supremacy of the former Subordinate I know there can be no Supream Authority without the Militia t is the same thing but this ad homines to men that would unwillingly part with the Sword yet seem very free the Parliament should be the Supream Authority We remember who disputed the Militia with the late King I would they had it now without dispute I propose that they be successively and frequently chosen because it is most unreasonable that Parliaments or what ever we call that we shall chuse should continue as long as they please this would make way for corruption as it is commonly suggested against some in this Parliament whose blame is very improvidently laid upon all the rest for certainly there is no greater temptation upon a Parliament then Continuance and I would not they should be lead into this temptation this would make Parliaments ten thousand times worse then Monarchy I would have them frequently chosen because it is better for
such necessity as he pretends since he useth such Artifices to reduce us to other extremities It is not for nothing that he turns Mutineer and would create jealosies between the Parliament and Army not doubting if he could effect that he might bring in his King upon what tearms he pleased t is therefore that they must believe that the security of the one is founded in the ruine of the other 'T is for no other reason that he tels the Army They have been ill requited for their good services by being stopt in Pay defeated of their Arrears in danger of Disbanding not suffered to communicate Councels or meet at a General Randezvous That their recompence for their greatest merits have been only exposing to new and greater dangers That their certainest pay hath been suspicion affronts and injuries Let any sober and impartial man judge at the drift of this Gentleman especially let not the Army misunderstand him who while he is perswading might and main for an agreement doth what in him lies to break us to pieces and render us uncapable of defending our lives Having then dispatched a great part of his work viz. Shewn our undone condition which he hath Prophesied not Proved and ushered in his expedient as you have seen his next work is to apply his Plaster to the Wounds he had made He begins with the common National interest and pretends to accommodate his expedient to all its distempers wherein he thinks a bare assertion to be sufficient Demonstration goes on like an Emperick or States Mountebanck telling this it is good for that it is good for wherein if I should follow him I should lose my self and my Reader too but I shall give him a turn by and by however this is very observable that he layes much stresse upon the merits of his King being it seems the best reason in his Budget to commend him to the Nation but Needham hath galled him so severely on this wing that I shall make no stay here but put on full speed to the main Battel taking only a slight view of some inconsiderable forces that way-lay me which I shall soon breake thorough First he tels It is the interest of the Roman Catholick to bring in the King for saith he by this means the heavy payments now on their Estates with other burdens will be taken off and as to the pressures of Penal Laws they cannot but remember how far from grievous they were in the late Kings time the Catholicks living here notwithstanding them in more flowrishing condition then they of Italy France or Spain under their respective Princes and would do infinitely more under their natural King then if any forainer should acquire the power by conquest Besides having generally adhered to the late King in his Wars have no reason to distrust finding favorable treatment from his Son and to share that indulgence he is ready to afford even his greatest enemies And yet these are the men that our Author tels us before would restore the Pope his ancient Revenue and Jurisdiction in England and to the Church all that was alienated in Hen. 8. time and would utterly eradicate all he cals Heresie so far you are right we doubt not they will get better terms then the poor Presbyters Secondly It is the Interest of the Royalists c. Yea it is so although he have no reparation for his losses I cannot passe this without a smile our Author tels us before That it is the design of the Royalist to bring in the King a Conqueror and to recover his losses in the late War and in the very next leaf he tels us That he is confident the Cavaliers expect no satisfaction at all It seems then t is their interest though they have no satisfaction I leave them this as a bone to pick in the mean time I want an Interpreter of this mystery The design of the Royalist is to recover his losses in the late War I am confident the Cavaliers expect no satisfaction at all Very well bowled in good earnest they will and they won't Anglice-good skill why all the craft is in catching Thirdly The Presbyterians are concerned also As how for example to leap out of the Fryingpan into the fire for fear of those lesser parties to prostrate themselves unto the revenge of a Pontifical zeal what courtesie is to be expected at their Graces hands Mr. Pryn is yet a memorable example of but the Presbyterians do not consult him as their Oracle for all your hast he having borne his witness with sufficient bitterness against them enough almost to unchristian any man but himself Fourthly It is the interest of the Baptized Churches as also to acquiesce in a Moderate Episcopacy enjoying the liberty of their consciences I wonder how this shall become practicable or sort with the honour of Episcopacy which he throws in the dish of Presbytery to suffer those lesser parties as he cals them to grow up with it who utterly oppose all government in the Church and being of the Ministery No doubt your knowledge of the practices of the Anabaptists in Germany their cruelty and all manner of disorder their taking away all property of Estates founding it in Grace and Saintship with the hard treatment the Papists in Ireland have found from them these are his own words will instruct you into some pretences why you ought to be more partial in your affections towards them and your better Sons of the Church then why a Father should be fond of one Son and discourage another upon pretence of their divers hairs or complexions which our Author would willingly skrew into their belief but it will not be Fiftly It is saith he the interest of the Army Under this head he grows out of measure copious but the wonder is not so much since here lies his work to bring the Army into disorder T is their concernment to be under a single person and consequently to be under his King he proves it thus Because there is scarce a Common Soldier who is not sensible of it Verily this is notable Demonstration the whole Army is sensible that they are concerned to be under a Single Person therefore not long since they restored our Common-wealth and declared unanimously against a Single person without so much as any muttering among the Common Soldiers to the contrary and since all their Commanders have given up their old Commissions and received new from the Parliament Our Author is in very deed a notable Sophister he goes on and tels By this means the Army putting themselves under the Standard of his King they shall be out of danger of being Disbanded and without fear of Wars Very good arguments to Soldiers to be afraid of enemies but better to Christians that when the danger is over they should refuse to disband shall we know our friends from our foes Gentlemen What are they who kill our honours and good names while they court our friendship But
of Penal Laws they cannot but remember how far from grievous they were in the late Kings time the Catholicks living here notwithstanding them in more flourishing condition then they of Italy France or Spain under their respective Princes and would do infinitely more under their natural King then if any forainer should acquire the power by conquest Besides having generally adhered to the late King in his Wars have no reason to distrust the finding favorable treatment from his Son and to share in that indulgence he is ready to afford even his greatest enemies i. e. such are Presbyterians and Independents this is Authentick Yea and besides all this who can tell he hath not sucked in some of his Mothers milk Thirdly The defence of Property is the common interest of the Nation I will not mispend a word to prove this least I should reproach my Countreymen of so much easiness as ignorance of such a foundamentall in reason as this Whether Properly be in danger of being invaded by the calling in the late Kings Son is more worthy of our enquiry How many purchasors are there of Bishops Lands Dean and Chapters Lands Delinquents Lands and Crown Lands whose Fee-simple would be no very wise title but much worse then Tenure in Villenage let any man of reason imagine this will not only concern Roundheads but many who in other matters are at no great distance with Episcopacy have their hands full of them they being bought and sold over and over many to whose hands this will come will no doubt be sufficiently sensible hereof that these are alienated upon as good if no better reason then were the Abby Lands c. in Hen. 8. time none that were the first buyers had I believe any jealousie to the contrary nor hath any man any thing material to object against it King and Delinquents Lands were justly forfeited for raising and levying War upon the Parliament the Bishops Lands because those men involved us into those Distractions and abetted and adhered unto that party and drove the Chariot of the Church so furiously that they were like to overthrow all wherefore the State found it good prudence to take down their mettle by making better use of their Lands to satisfie publick debts and so to leave them disabled for the future to disturbe our peace which if their Lands had been reserved they would have been alwayes attempting to recover and therewith the Government of Church and State too the other Church lands went in company to help pay debts being exposed to forfeiture by the general malignancy of the incumbents besides were of no other signification then to maintain a company of lazy Lubbers the Nation is hereby generally concerned to secure them their purchases as those were secured and untouched in Hen. 8. time that Qeen Mary could do the Pope no courtesie in the former my Author denies not that if any should go about to attempt the latter it would cost him hot water I do most willingly believe however as the one was attempted so most certainly would the other and with much more violence the temptation being now far greater since he must be a sorry King that hath lost his Estate Queen Mary was not altogether so nearly concerned Is it imaginable when he shall return King of these Nations he will endure to see the Crown Lands fallen into the fingers of John an Oakes and John a Stiles himself King of England and not a foot of Land could he say soul take thine ease while those Loyal hearts that followed him through thick and thin in peril at Land in peril at Sea remain fleeced of thousands and some it may be of ten thousands per annum all the Church Lands gone and nothing left to oblige those props of Prerogative would this give his Majesty a competent satisfaction to sit down and let it rest thus I trow not How can he look upon himself as other then a burden to his Countrey if he must live upon the Charity of well disposed people such too would be the case of his Sequestered adherents and could this comport with the honour of his Majesty could he see his Bishops Deans and Chapters thus brought to desolation so far from having their kâ—ngdom in this world that they should have scarce a hole to put their head in and would not this be a hard Chapter Could he look upon himself under the first consideration and believe he were The high and mighty Prince CHARLES King of England Scotland c. or under the second and not think he had lost the Crown of his Crown could he believe himself Defender of the Faith It is come to this issue Either Purchasers must be robbed of their Estates for which some of them have paid dear enough and ready money or he must live upon a general Contribution which latter I have so honorable thoughts of him as to believe he would not endure the former would be dishonest the latter ignoble the former would be an oppression the ruine of many the latter an intolerable burden upon all How well then they will befriend him that shall put him upon this Dilemma let our adversaries themselves be the judges Besides no body knowes how many new Delinquents must be made it would be no easie matter to perswade every man that hath adhered to the Parliament that their Estates should be so much their own as at the pleasure of Prerogative yea should the strongest obligations immaginable be fastned on him to bind up his hands from doing these Roundheads and Puritans harme yet would they hardly bind Him and his Heirs for ever Whence must come those rewards that our Author promiseth they shall be sure to finde that have served him in any kinde especially they that are instrumental in his restitution Certainly want of money which he must needs be reduced unto to gratifie them being abundance almost innumerable swarmes of crawling croaking creeping things that helped to undo his Father and him in the late Wars will make invincible necessity good reason of State for some arbitrary proceedings and then this decayed threedbare Courtier will beg that Roundheaded dog for a Ward and that beggarly Cavalier will beg this Puritan that Presbyterian the other Independent or Anabaptist for a fool and veryly I would have them beg us all for fools when we have no more wit And however he may be engaged to forgive us yet can hardly be obliged to forget us we shall be as bad as bound to our good behaviour it must needs be enough being added to our former transgression to entitle us to beggery if not to the Gallows to pisse against a Church wall The Cavaliers that cannot contain themselves from looking us through and through and cursing us to our faces while they are scarce yet in so good condition as to call it a State Militant will make no great trouble of it when they arrive at their State Triumphant to pick a hole in our
be content to be any thing or nothing to be base and dishonourable to get rich s in a way of Trade and so begin to overstock a Monarchy with Traders and Trade then follows all manner of Gabels and Impositions that if they will be doing they shall be sure to have no more then their labour for their pains How much the flourishing of this City hath been envyed some do yet very well remember and how it was feared London should grow too big for England It hath alwayes been a maxime with Monarkes to keep the unruly Plebeans from being over pursey least their wits should increase with their wealth and they should begin to contend for their Priveledges and therefore to make the Conquest compleat those Projectors and Pattentees were encouraged with their Monopolies to eat out the heart of Trade and keep the Merchant as bare as my nail which with some other grievances was the very beginning and ground of our late Quarrel when although some did arrive to vast Estates by reason of the paucity of Trades-men scarcely any minding a Trade but such as had very low fortunes to begin and these living in times of Peace and Court jollity Yet was not this so general a good for the reasons beforementioned but so little encouragement was given that if any Gentleman of a considerable Reputation had engaged any of his younger children in a Trade he should be looked upon to have debased his family for ever and marred the generosity of his childe being only in a capacity to be put in Couples with a Hat and a Coif a convenient match for a pair of Spatterdashes and Leather Breeches for such were generally those saving only some few more serious then the rest that occupied any Trade when they first began their employment How well the Citizens of London would be rewarded by calling in the Scottish King for not being like the men of Izachar crouching under their loads in the late Kings time let those threatning letters of his late Majesty to this City informe those who are so sollicitous for the return of Monarchy Who ever would have Trade to flourish in England must dis-franchise two parts in three of those that have served Apprentiships since 1640. or must think of some better expedient then our old Monarchy for its advancement it being abundantly manifest there are too too many Trades-men and well willers to Trade to thrive under that Monarchy and receive that benefit by it they expect who if there were such reasonable encouragement as might be given would go near to be every second man in the Nation Trade is now grown and growing into so good esteem which can never sort with the interest and continuance of Monarchy nor Monarchy with it Sixtly T is the common interest of the Nation that the Soveraign powers and authority of Parliament be vindicated and maintained and their freedom and priviledges secured This is indeed Salus populi all that we have to shew for the securing of whatsoever we can call ours Let Parliaments be rendred useless and unable to serve us and all is cancelled that we hold by we must become the most perfect slaves and villains that can be How well our Parliaments have been treated by our Monarkes our Histories are not silent having ever been looked upon with an evill eye as the bane of their Prerogative and therefore were sure never to be Summoned but upon most important and urgent occasions for money when all other artifices and contrivances failed And if they durst be so bold as to meddle with the general Grievances of the Nation and were so sturdy as vigorously to prosecute their Redress should not fail to be turned out of service What ever boones they procured for the people were wrung like drops of bloud from the noses of their most excâ—llent Majesties and seldom or never without venturing at least or pouring out their own bloud in the purchase All the possibility they had to do us good was disputed by inches and got now a little and then a a little out of the very fire and at a hard push at last came to signifie just nothing Parliaments being utterly dissolved and broken up by meer Will and Pleasure whensoever they sinned against the good liking of their Driver A happy condition no doubt and well agreeing with the Liberty of the Subject We need look no further back then the late King Charles though whole Volums could not contain what might be written and we shall finde more then enough to our purpose all the Parliaments that ever he called in his life till his last being quickly broken to pieces by his arbitrary will and not suffered to do the Nation any service This is so notorious that no man will have the face to deny it and therefore this Parliament finding that by no other way they could be made useful to the Nation made tearms for themselves not to be dissolved but by their own Consent and Act. Mr. Pryn in his Narrative asserts this self same thing The King being hard put to it for Money and sorely vexed by the irresistible clamours of the people was forced to make a virtue of necessity and to strike a bargain with them Having tyed up his hands that he could not dissolve them he must needs be pecking at them one by one but finding himself prevented not more by the Act he had passed for their continuance and the priviledges they claimed for their Five Members then by the honesty of the City who would not suffer him to do them harm He soon discovered how much security his Act for continuance should have yielded them for departing the City he sets up his Standard and declares them Rebels and what not again and again and fights them to his own ruine Yea after he was beat out of the field and could bear up against them no longer he runs in disguise to the Scots hoping thereby to set us together by the ears which after fell out to their very little honour Wherein had he prevailed upon the Parliament either by his Forces or his last reserve of Policy in turning himself over to the Scots the most mischievous and malicious design could be put in practice and worse in mine opinion then any of the rest having been the ground of all our mischief since and verily they must presse the Covenant lustily that after all this can perswade us we were bound to preserve his Person and Honour and Authority and his Heirs for ever I say had he prevailed upon the Parliament we had been the most absolute Vassals of Europe we should have had amends made us for dissolving former Parliaments and the ruine of this by never seeing another But no question the Son is otherwise enlightened and seeing the Rock upon which his Father split will be sure to avoid it and will think it his happiness and honour to be governed by his Parliaments and therefore is willing to agree to
And therefore it was not unlike the Disciples of Machiavell to drive us from a settlement hoping to crumble us to dust before we could arrive to a better constitution If it were their plot as I know no great ground to believe and Mr. Rogers hath well answered more then to distract us I suppose they meant us no good by it but they are fallen into the pit they digged for us the Lord is known by the Judgements he executeth the wicked are snared in the work of their of their own hands Higgaion Selah We are now in a hopefull way of setling a Common-wealth and we shall quickly understand what advantage such a settlement would yield to the Papist It is not at all to be disputed but another Queen Mary would do their businesse as well as a Common-wealth who would hardly be perswaded to joyn our Nation to Saint Peters Patrimony I appeal to all the World whether their designs be not more easily wrought out of a private interest then a publique Whether it should be harder to make one person for them or the whole Nation We are no strangers to the genius of our Native Countrey If the single person should deny to pleasure them it were no hard matter to take their revenge there by Poyson Ponyard or Pistoll They could quickly remove out of their way an Edward the Sixth or a Prince Henry if they were like to spoyl their designs Were they not more likely to advantage themselves by matches of our Kings with Popish Women Doth not Mr. Pryn acknowledge the Jesuites had a great number of Colledges in England in his forecited Book Do we not all know the Papists had as much countenance as they can imagine under our Free State Remember what my Author saith which I mentioned before Yea have not our Parliaments been their greatest Enemies I appeal to Mr. Pryn If the House of Commons have been any of their best friends since our Nation hath been Protestant He tells us himself How angry the Papists were at the Propositions of the Isle of Wight which the King consented to against the Papists We all know whose was the contrivance Yea all the Papists of England appeared for the King in his warres against the Parliament you will judge then whether they be for a Common-wealth against Monarchy or whether they mean us a settlement of our Common-wealth especially since Monarchy is now cryed up hotter then ever by that party and their Agents or any thing rather then we should settle in the way of an equal Common-wealth which certainly if ever they put us in pursuit of they never meant we should reach or overtake But let my Expedient be put in practice the Nation setled upon the Foundations of Parliaments and my life for it the Papists shall receive their deadly wound which shall not be healed nor shall they have power to vex our Nations any more for they have been the mortall enemies of Parliaments engaged in wars against them all along and alwayes practising sedition against them Instances are familiar here and in Ireland whereby they have engaged the Parliaments their everlasting foes so that those of the Parliament that would have restored the King shewed their good will unto the Papists by causing the King to agree to their persecution Yea Parliaments ever since Queen Mary especially have shewn their teeth at them and bitten too as often as they have been able to reach them till they have been rated off by their Masters And it cannot be but their sins must come in remembrance before our Parliaments And then falling into their hands whom they have obliged not to befriend them they may expect what will follow even the wages of their iniquities which I see by their bustling they are well aware of their Religion is an enemy to our Peace They have done nothing to merit the Parliaments favour nor can finde any advocates in that Assembly that dare speak out for them no Cottington no Digby There shall be Episcopal Presbyterian Independant and Baptized all vying their zeal against them who shall most fervently express his anger at them Yea and he shall think he hath sufficiently purged himself from all Damnable Errors that shall wouâ—d the Hairy Scalp of the Scarlet Whore The Papist will have good luck if they do not receive at their hand double for all their villanyes being more like to give them bloud to drink who have drunk bloud in abundance then to give them any encouragement or toleration among us Yea the very Fift Monarchy-men who of late years have been mentioned with as much detestation and indignation as if they maintained some damnable Opinions or Doctrines of Devils are as forward as any to shew their zeal in this particular Thirdly Defence of Property This Parliaments must necessarily make good for their own credits 'T is irrationall to fear that Property in generall should be endangered by a Parliament but those Estates which have been sold by former Parliaments must be made good by following Parliaments else they crack their reputation and undo their credit They who have been faithfull to the Parliament need not fear no nor the Cavaliers for having compounded there will remain no more sacrifice for their sin if they live peaceably in the Land Besides for Crown-lands and Church-lands they can have no temptation to alienate them from the Purchasors since it cannor be but they will have a Stock going in them themselves and Kings Bishops Deans and Chapters being outed the Nation there will be no occasion of those Lands to maintain their Grandeur And for Delinquents Estates that are sold there can be no thought of their restitution for care will be had that their Provender do not prick them to sedition against the State However if any of their Estates have been sold without due proof of their Delinquency as it is pretended of some God forbid but their estates be restored them the Purchasors receiving their Money from the State or satisfaction some other way So that without peradventure Every man shall enjoy the purchase of his Penny under the Supremacy of Parliaments And yet would there be no cause of Contest but it would be a matter of generall content and applause if the Parliament should be so highly just as to enquire in good earnest into the frauds of the Common-wealth and make them pay the full value of their Purchases who have plaid the Knaves and cheated both the Souldier and the State and then they too may enjoy their Purchases when they have paid the same rate for them with other men who were forced to pay to such a value or go without them Fourthly Easing of Taxes This is so absolute a benefit that we have had by the House of Commons formerly so called that our Kings looked upon them only as our Pursers And our last Lord Protector in his Speech to the other House and the Commons assembled in the late Lords House directed himself to
any orderly debate To which I return That such a number as cannot understand that cannot make out to one another the benefit of mankind are too many to make good the interest of mankind in away of reason and if in any particular they hit upon it t is more by hap then any good cunning Therefore I believe that so many and no more as may among themselves be well informed of their own and the peoples in crest being universally the same are the only men and number of men to preserve the interest of mankind When a fire breaks out t is the interest of the whole neighbourhood to quench it but they may be too many to be useful therefore the supernumeraries had better be at home that they be no hinderance That may be the interest of the whole Nation that doth not call for so great numbers to keep it on foot therefore those that may be well enough spared let them keep at home too many are troublesome and stand in one anothers light Why 1050 and no lesse to look to the interest of England besides 300 to be the light of England Or why the light of mankind must be separated from the interest of mankind is very dark to me If the one body be all eye where is its tasting and its feeling if the other be all lasting and feeling where is its seeing this is not altogether so good contrivance as where two half-blind Coachhorses are so placed that this may see on the one side and that on the other though they can scarce see each other their blinde sides being next together The people saith Mr. Harrington can feel but they cannot see well then the light of this Body is the eye that is the Senate if then the Eye be at Westminster and the Body be at St. Pauls Church for a little place cannot hold 1050 men I perswade my self this body must be full of darkness Why 1050 pray a lesse number was formerly thought enough to assert the interest of mankinde against the light of mankinde the Lords spiritual and temporal and the Judges to boot which was the interest of some men besides when yet the Commons were thought to have and were found to have the light of mankinde in them too yea and have so well asserted and made good the interest of mankinde against those lights and private interests that leaves no man great cause to except against their number Why 500 or thereabouts being equally distributed for elections according to the interest of every part of England should not as well preserve the interest of mankinde as 1050 especially when hereby the Body hath its eyes in its head hath in it self the light of mankind and the interest of makind can see and feel both I know not And unlesse we should put out our eyes because some say they that see best here worst sometimes and they that hear worst seebest oft times the losse of one sense being the increase of another and so because the Great Counsel is blinde it should feel the better or the Senate because it doth not feel so much must see the better unlesse this be good reason I am bound to think best of A single Assembly But stay The Senate is the light reason or learning of mankinde and how easie it is for reason and learning to delude sense let any one imagine It is true there are some things so sensibly certain that they are not to be over ruled by any shew of reason but reason seldome busieth its selfe about these nor are these the things that so frequently occur unto the consideration of our Representatives if these were the things there would be the lesse necessity for the light of mankinde the reason of a Senate being to debate hard matters things that are not so liable to sense This difficulty will yet remain Whether since Mr. Harrington saith a Senate alone will not be honest it be like to be ever the honester hereby while by their light of reason and learning it will be no hard matter in many things to dazle the weak sight of that vast Animal if both parties do at all agree whereby the benefit to result will be this only that iniquity be established by a Law by a more seeming or pretended reason and interest Sense doth not much foresee the benefit of a Law to be made though it feels the good of a Law that hath been sometime in force therefore it will be no hard matter for seeming reason to seduce common sense This great Counsel wherein it may be some may be found to have scarce common sense had need to be well instructed better then a Senate can inform them by an Oration or Preachment where every ones tale is good till anothers is told or else they are like enough to do they know not what for I doubt me every man hath not a light within him to a certain knowledge of good or evill the interest or prejudice of the State that without any more adoe we should be left to do as God shall direct us let me put a case 1050 are chosen for the Great Councel and 300 for the Senate according to Mr. Harringtons free way of Election for fear of fixing any in opposition The 300 propose That CHARLES STUART be made King of England I may suppose this for Mr. Harrington saith in effect The Senate will not be honest if they can chuse and a King might not do much amisse with these two Counsels well what will the sense and interest of the 1050 say to this supposing there must be no debating this businesse there but every one must put their mindes in a box without telling tales there be some in the world that would lay two to one their sense would soon inform them that it is their interest to make him King I leave the Reader to a free judgement once more the 300 would seem wiser and in their grave judgements propound to the 1050 to settle some Sectary as we call them Lord Archon and Sole Legislator of England and signifie to them that it is the National interest so to do without debating the matter but away presently to the Balloting box I conceive their sense would hardly convince them that either the one or the other were their interest the sense of people in many things is a kinde of prepossession they must be soundly convinced here if they believe any thing but what they thought before be it true or false but in other things they are more facile and ductile and not so hard to be imposed on If they are prepossessed with an error then the work is done to hand 't is but proposing and 't is presently resolved If they are prepossessâ—d with their true Interest if the contrary be not of necessity to the design of the Senate it may lie still till better leasure but if it be of absolute necessity I hope it will be held fit that this be introduced
so sure to be rooted out that it is among their Politicks to remove all that have been the Instruments of their Advancement least they should presume that their good Services had for ever obliged their Master or Masters and so should not be so wholly at their devotion as others that they should gratifie with their places who were more bound to deserve that which they received without any merit Are the pretenses fairer now then before No there is not half that pretense that was on old Olivers side Can you not see through them No single Person no by no meanes we abominate the thoughts of that What then No body knowes unlesse something that is a thousand times worse Three Ten Thirty or it may be Seventy Tyrants for a while till some one can get above the rest The Second Generall Officer is an unlucky place it was Lieutenant Generall Cromwell once and then he was a Saint a precious Saint could preach and pray and promise strange matters then it was Is thy servant a dog that he should do so and so what be Protector be King rule by my meer will no by Gods grace I will never do it Put case Fleetwood will not act as General nor grant Commissions to them that have none them the Parliament Voted out and those that shall be brought into the place of those honest Commanders that did their part for the Parliament the salt of the Army who being put out as certainly that will be their fate if the weather clear towards the North the Army will stinck in the noses of all Europe I say if Fleetwood will not I hope somebody else will what 's next then why not a King one King or another King and then what is the benefit Richard Lord Protector is laid aside and King JOHN the Second comes up in his place At first it may be a Senate but then something for the honour of England a Duke of Venice Elective Election will do the work to get into the Throne but when once up it must be theirs and their heirs for ever if it be not made hereditary I 'le warrant you they know whom to nominate their Successor for it will not be prudence to leave that matter undetermined and go out of the world least these Disciples should fall together by the ears about this question Who should be greatest If you will not believe your own experience who can help it I hope by this time your Commander in chief may make bold to put in and pull out who he please out with an Overton a Rich a Harrison and in with my Son Falconbridge my Cozen Lockhurt and the rest of his well affected kindred and I shall not pity you a jot But if it should hap to Lamberts chance to be Dominus fac totum I hope those thorough paced Protectorians who laughed so heartily when his Lordship was turned out of service by the Old Protector some of whom told me when I complained of my Lord Protectors carriage to him that it was no matter never was any man lesse pityed or lamented after he was all for himself he hoped to be next Protector and because nominating the Successor was agreed of therefore he was discontented I say certainly these men will now be contented to yeeld their places to men that were better affected and are the more endeared friends of his Lordship hitherto then you have notably well projected for your selves ye are shrewd Politicians What then shall you Govern the Nation your selves a great purchase a burden to any honest man more then a benefit how many of you are like to share in this if that were true two or three of your Grandces and there 's your design no you hate the thought of this we mistake the matter and do you a great deal of wrong to suspect this What then you shall be better paid that 's well guessed in good sooth how will you have it why one way or otheâ— any how rather then fail we will have it by foul means if it will not come fairly no no you abuse us nothing shall be gathered but what is levyed by the people in Parliaments so far you are right and if ever you see a Parliament in England that will take so much care of you as this Parliament hath taken and was a taking for you that will raise you 120000 l. per mensem or 100000 l. per mensem as they have done for you if you could have kept your selves honest then spit in my face and tell me I lie No t is this Parliament that must hazard their Reputations to pay your Arrears and the Debts of the Nation and then future Parliaments may be more easily perswaded to grant such a Tax as may keep us alwayes out of your Debt What then hath the Parliament Voted 9 of your Commanders out of their places doth this anger you and is this the bottom of the business and is this all your design to be avenged of them and the Nation for it goodly great ones What are these men trow that their particular concernments to be kept in Pay and Command should stand in campetition with the Ruine of Three Nations a huge reach indeed But pray was it without good reason could the Parliament do lesse had not some of them promoted a General being of the Northern Brigade notwithstanding after the Parliaments dislike of it and after the Petition and Representation of the Army was presented and debated in the House which though it did not expresly require a GENERAL yet did strongly imply it and reqiured some things of worse consequence I say after this these 9 Grandees combined together in a Letter signed by them all to engage the subscriptions of a Regiment thereunto which was produced in Parliament and could have no other construction but if the Parliament would not grant their commands they should be made to do it which deserved a greater severity then being put out of their places The like practice they also set on foot in divers other Regiments If this became faithful servants I wonder who are Masters but for the honesty of the matter they thus combined to effect to instance only in one particular No Officer must be displaced but by a Councill of Officers What is the mystery of this iniquity why all must turn out that will be faithful to the interest of the Nation and the trust reposed in them they would pack their Officers to their own mindes shuffle and cut both verily then if they should Petition in a peaceable way as they call it a priveledge not to be debarred the meanest Englishmen I wonder what Supreme Authority durst say them Nay this is a thousand times worse providence then to grant them a General and to give him power to place and displace at pleasure worse providence for the Nation I am sure we might possibly finde one honest man in England whom we might trust if it could not otherwise be