Dangerous then the greatest part of the Commons except themselves commonly call'd The Rump then cut off the King's Head and brought all into such Confusions as could never be settled until the old Form was restored again What was it but a Faction which by no less than three several Acts of Parliament engag'd the Clergy the Corporations the Militia and all the great Officers and Magistrates of the Nation in such Declarations as justify or excuse the Adversaries of the late Revolution and make the Severities against them and Pretence of Forfeitures inexcusable unjust and unreasonable What is it but a Faction which hath presum'd with so much Insolence to offer such Indignities to a Prince of so Great Courage and Conduct as hath been commonly believed and talk'd to have been on purpose to affront him How near have such Factions gone to inslave the Nation and set up the Monarchy to be Absolute and Arbitrary And how fairly have they begun to pull down that and the Aristrocratical part and set up the Democracy or themselves and they know not what or rather to introduce an Anarchy and turn all into the like Confusions again What such things may come to in time if neglected no man knows but what may be done to prevent the Mischief is fit to be considered Miscarriages of Juries may be enquir'd into And what is done amiss in one Parliament may be rectified in another And where there is manifestly a Trust reposed and so great a Trust it would be such a Fault in this Constitution as I never suspected if it might be falsisied in such Matters as these and without Remedy I have therefore thought fit to propose the following QUESTIONS to the Consideration of all Persons concern'd who think fit to concern themselves with them But into so great Degeneracy Corruption of Manners and Audacious Impiety is this Nation Sunk That it is rare to meet with Men who dare to do their Duty or so much as assert their Common Rights or the very Religion they Profess notwithstanding the Laws both of God and Man on their side and even where they have not only the greatest Obligation but the greatest Priviledge to do it that can be This is manifest beyond all Contradiction by some late Actions of great Infolence and no less Impiety So that unless another Parliament and a Convocation of the Clergy take the Matter into good Consideration and provide a speedy Remedy there is great Danger that the whole Nation will speedily fall into great Confusion The QUESTIONS are these I. Whether the several Members of the House of Commons be not Authorised to Sit and Act there by their respective Counties Cities and Burroughs by Indenture under the Hands and Seals of the Principal Electors for themselves and the rest as Deputies and Trustees for them all II. Whether they ought not to receive Instructions from and in all Matters of moment consult and advise with their Principals III. Whether it be not the Right and Duty of every Knight Gentleman Freehold and Commoner of England to represent to the House of Commons by their proper Representatives or any other Member of the House all such matters of Publick Concern as are proper to be enquir'd of and considered there IV. Whether any Commoner of England may not require his proper Representative to represent any such Matter to the House V. Whether it be not a Breach of Trust in any such Deputy or Representative not to perform what is so required honestly and faithfully VI. Whether they be not accountable for their Behaviour in Parliament to their Principals by and for whom they are deputed and intrusted that is questionable by those of the Counties in their County Court to which all owe Suit and Service but many neglect it to their common Prejudice and those of the Cities and Burroughs in their respective proper Courts and Assemblies and Punishable for any notorious Breach of their Trust upon Complaint in Parliament VII Whether Matters touching the Honour of Religion the Honour of the King the common Right of all the Commoners of England and the Encouragement or Discouragement of the Execution of the Laws be not proper Matters to be represented enquired and considered there VIII Whether it be not Vnparliamentary a Breach of Trust and great Violation of a Fundamental Right of all the Commoners of England for a small number of the Members with their Speaker before the House be full to Vote that a Petition Exhibited for any such Matter as aforesaid should not be read IX Whether it be Parliamentary or agreeable to the usual Course of Parliaments to Vote a Petition or Letter of Complaint for any Contempt of Religion or Dishonour or Indignity to the King or Factions or Seditious Practices to be a false and scandalous Libel and the Complainant to be prosecuted before he hath been heard at the Bar or had notice to appear and prove his Complaint X. Whether the Fundamental and Common Rights of all the Commons of England be not of greater Importance to be Preserved and Maintained Inviolably than any of the Priviledges of their Deputies which they have only in Respect of their Deputation and Trust reposed in them of which some are often Complained of by their Principals as Abused to their Prejudice XI Whether it be not the Common Interest of the Government of England and of all the Commons and the Duty of every Subject to maintain and defend the Honour and Dignity of the King when there is occasion as well as the Rights and Liberties of themselves and their Fellow-Commoners by the Common Law of Loyalty and Allegiance and of all Members of Parliament Magistrates and Officers c. by special Obligation of their Solemn Oath XII Whether all Conspiracies and Practices which have a natural Tendency to dissolve interrupt or abate the mutual Considence that ought to be preserved and maintain'd between the King and the People and to draw the Affections of the People from the King to the Conspirators especially when on the one side there is no special Occasion for them more than ordinary and on the other there are such Popular Matters in agitation as give great Advantage to such a Design may not justly be suspected to be Treasonable and by Consequence ought to be stoutly and resolutely opposed by all Faithful and Loyal Subjects To the Knights Gentlemen Freeholders and Commons of England EDWARD STEPHENS wisheth Prudence Piety Peace and Happiness Gentlemen and Fellow-Commoners VVHat you see here Open to divers Members your Trustees and â—â—â—â—â—sentatives in Parliament being then printed not to be publish'd but only a small number to be presented to them But since they have pubublish d their V. Old English Loyalty p. 13.14 Votes concerning it 'tis fit and but just you should see what it is they have so Censur'd I have many years endeavoured to serve you to the best of my Ability without seeking Preferment or Reward from Men or accepting of
LETTERS and PAPERS Concerning some MATTERS in the last PARLIAMENT Relating to the Common Rights of all the Communs of England Fit to be Considered in the next And by all the said COMMONS In the mean time LONDON Printed for the Author in the Year 1700. To the Knights Gentlemen and Free-Holders of the County of Gloucester Gentlemen THough I have left the Employments of the World I have not left off my Love and Good Will to my Country either the Nation in general or your particular County And therefore since you are e're long to have a New Election of Members of Parliament I think sit to give you Notice of some things fit to be considered in Relation to that Business a Business which deserves to be better considered by all the Commons of England than it has been hitherto But what does concern the Nation in General is fit to be said to all and something of that has been said already 'Tis what does more especially concern your County that I shall here offer to your Consideration The Denial of Justice has been always look upon as a great Grievance in a King but a Capital Crime in a Subject The Preservation of our Rights and of the free Course of Justice is a principal part of the Trust reposed in our Representatives in Parliament To prefer our Petitions for matters of Common Concern to the House of Commons is as much the Right of every Commoner of England as to prefer an Indictment to a Grand Jury in a County And as the Misdemeanors of a particular Grand Jury-man may be presented and enquired of by another Grand Jury and the Misdemeanors of a whole Jury upon an Attaint So the Misdemeanors not only of particular Members but of a whole House or a whole Parliament may be Corrected and Redressed in another and the Crimes of particular leading Members Punished This great fundamental and important Right has been twice within few years violated denied or hindered and abused by Members of your County First by one since deceased who having a Petition to present against the Speaker and another Member for no less a Crime than discouraging the Execution of the Law and Contempt of her late Majesties Authority for Proof of which there were no less than seven Bishops besides other considerable Persons Witnesses did by Contrivance with the Criminals so time it that at last after much delay it was by a small Number of the Members gotten together with the Speaker thrown out without Reading This was soon after complained of at the General Quarter Sessions and the Petition left with the Clerk of the Peace And now again in the last Session of Parliament in such manner as is a Shame to themselves the whole House of Commons and indeed to the whole Nation to have had such a Set of Representatives and most Just it was upon them that they who had no more Regard to the Honour of the King nay to the Honour of God himself should be so infatuated as to expose their own Shame and the Shame of the whole House and to the farther Shame of the Nation if it be suffered to Pass without due Correction The Case is so plain and easie to be understood by the other two Papers hereunto annexed that I need say no more than as to Mr. How whose Name I spared but they Printed that the Words alledged to have been spoken by him to my self I can safely Testifie upon Oath if there were occasion but I presume he will not deny them And as for Sir Richard Cox I had by a former Letter imminded him of the former Case but it seems he was not so much concerned for your Rights as ever to move any thing concerning that But upon the motion of this by a Person if I be not misinformed who had given such Proofs of his Dis-respect at several times both to King and Commons that I have before now wondered that he hath been so long permitted to have any Place in an English Parliament he was not only pleased to make a Wise Speech as he thought in the House but to repeat it out of the House in Coffee-houses and Taverns with so much Vanity and so palpable Falsity that the very perusal of these Papers are sufficient to detect it and as gave Offence to divers who heard him and made some think a little Addition to his Name at the end more proper for him than that before it I presume you know who are concerned in the Case and hope you will do at your County Court what may be a sufficient Indication of your Sense of Religion of your Loyalty and Regard to the Noble Constitution of our Government and your Concern for the Common Rights of the Commons of England And indeed it is a kind of unavoidable Test of all these Your Humble Servant Edw. Stephens QUESTIONS OF Common Right Proper and Necessary to be considered by all Knights Gentlemen Free-holders and Commoners of England and especially those of the Honourable Profession of the Law THE true English Government excellently composed of the three Simple Species Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy I have long thought and still think to be in its Constitution one of the Best Governments in the World and not more excellent in it self than well Accommodated to the Genius of the People and which is but the consequence of these most Easy to be Exercised This I think very true tho' it hath already within our Memory suffer'd such dismal Concussions and Confusions and in my apprehension is in in so great Danger of more as if there was nothing of Truth in it But this doth not proceed from the Constitution but from other Causes Whereof one is Secret The Judgment of God for a secret Root of Bitterness little regarded by those who ought to be most Skilful in discerning and most Active in amending such Matters But there are others manifest enough One is a General Corruption of the Manners of the People Another notorious Corruption of their Deputies and Representatives both in Manners in general and in respect of Justice and the Trust reposed in them in which respect I have known some of themselves laugh and say that they are the true Representatives of the Nation indeed And tho' this of it self hath a Tendence to the Dissolution of the Government yet there is another more dangerous than this if it be not look'd to in time and that is by Popular Factions For as Monarchies are apt to degenerate into Tyranny so Democracies are as apt to be dissolv'd by Factions And tho' in the English Constitution there is as good Provision against both these as Humane Affairs are capable of yet are the Parts of which it is constituted subject in some sort to the Corruptions of those simple Species from which they are derived What was it but a secret Faction in the Long Parliament which first cast out the Bishops as Popishly affected then the Lords as Useless and
Conspiracy of a most wicked Faction of Apostates Deists Socinians and Latudinarians to subvert the Government under pretence of Preserving the Rights of the People and to cast out Christianity under pretence of Securing the Protestant Religion And how little there is of true Religion amongst any of them all is Notorious by their Actions in the two last Parliaments upon the Letters in Print to Sir Richard Cocks and to the Knights Gentlemen and Freeholders and Commons of England What a Charge of Impiety is there upon the whole House of Commons And what a silly and impious Vote was pass'd upon it And how Hypocritically and Scandalously have this last deservedly short-liv'd House of Commons behaved themselves in their Formal Address for a Solemn Day of Fasting and Prayer for the Blessing of God upon their Consultations and yet not one of them all so much as open his Mouth for a due Correction of so great Impiety It is certain and unquestionable that being ashamed of Christ or his Words and giving Offence or Scandal to Religion are Two Capital Crimes in the Laws of the Gospel and terrible and severe Judgments denounced against them And nothing can be more Scandalous to Religion than for a Man to make a high Profession of Religion and be ashamed or afraid to speak for it when there is so just and necessary occasion So that the Sin and Danger of such Persons in the House I take to be the greatest of all and that which is like to seal up some Judgment of God upon the whole Nation if some proper Course be not speedily taken to prevent it God hath already answered them in their own kind for he hath the Hearts of Kings in his hands and turns them as the Rivers of Water And if the People have not now a Care that they choose none of them again they who do otherwise may possibly find the Curse cleave to themselves and to those they choose And as the King has done well to Dissolve them so if he please to consult his Judges and the Learned in the Law it is like he will find matter enough to Correct the Insolence of some of the most active Conspirators And then it may be hoped we may see a true English Parliament again And then it may also be hoped we may see the Decays which have been too long neglected effectually repaired Part of the Letter to Sir RICHARD COCKS In your House I observe such abominable Impiety and Contempt of Religion as greater hath rarely been known I have heard it complained of by Members of the House that a Man can hardly mention any thing of God or Religion there but he shall be in danger to be ridicul'd or laught at And when I have asked Why no body moved the House that some of them might de called to the Bar and made Examples The common Answer hath been It would be to no purpose Which is the Shame of the whole House and notorious Evidence of their Impudence and Ignorance of what becomes such Assemblies in one part of them and of such Baseness as makes them unworthy of the Name of Christians in the rest as if the generous Discharge of so great and noble a Duty was not of it self a thing to great purpose as if the Fearful or such as are ashamed of Christ or his Words are not to have their part with Infidels and Unbelievers that is with such as the rest of their Fellow-Members of whom they complain as if their Baseness might not reasonably be imputed by the others to Infidelity and Disbelief of the Religion which they profess to the Scandal of Religion and Hardening those poor Creatures in their Impiety It is no wonder if the whole Nation abound in Infidelity and all kind of Wickedness when there is no more Religion in those who should correct it The Letters at Large with other Papers may be had at the New-Inn Coffee-House Printed in the Year 1701. To the Knights Gentlemen Freeholders and Commons of England Gentlemen and Fellow-Commoners THO I have given sufficient Demonstration to all those few who know me of my good Will Readiness and Resolution for your Service yet such has been the Malice of some wicked men to defame me which I could have born patiently did it not disable me to serve you as I would that I'm compel'd as St. Paul was to say those things for my self but for your sake which nothing less should have extorted from me I have liv'd now in the World above the ordinary Age of Man My principal Study from my Youth has been the Service of God and of my Country upon all Occasions which I always look'd upon as Calls to me I always hated Knavery and Falshood and was zealous for Truth and Righteousness tho I have sometimes been mistaken in matters of fact of others yet never in my Principles that I remember or varied from them in deliberate Actions so as to be justly charg'd by Man tho I dare not justify my self before the strict Justice of God I have spent my Life in this Service without soliciting for Preferment or so much as accepting what has been offer'd me both in Church and State And to say nothing of former times I prov'd my self a Faithful Monitor to the late King and Queen and to my Country all his time from first to last and so as I doubt not but Posterity will approve whatever the present Generation doth and should have done the like in the present Reign had I had the like Opportunities nor have I been wanting in what I could do I drew a Specimen of a Declaration against Debauchery before the Prince came to London which being approv'd by considerable Persons was soon after deliver'd to him and the Care of it recommended to one whose Advantages were no less than his Duty to have promoted it After he came to the Crown I presented him with a most faithful Admonition of what most concern'd him and not only then complain'd in print of the shameful neglect of the Propagation of Religion in Foreign Parts and of Reformation of Manners at home but some time after actually begun that necessary Work and had undoubtedly brought it to a good Effect speedily had not such as were actually engag'd in it and such as were most of all oblig'd to promote it unworthily deserted it and set up a little superficial Formality instead of it which hath more expos'd it to Contempt by great Ones than promoted it among Inferiours I gave you not only Notice but Example too how to correct the Miscarriages of your Trustees in Parliament and to make them know that they are not your Masters but your Servants but such as are most like to undo you if you look not better to them and consider their Behaviour at your County Courts and General Quarter Sessions Considering of how great importance it is to have a Good Cause in all Differences and how much Religion is really concerned or