Selected quad for the lemma: law_n
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A76279
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Be merry and wise, or A seasonable word to the nation. Shewing the cause, the growth, the state, and the cure of our present distempers.
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1660
(1660)
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Wing B1555; Thomason E765_6; ESTC R17569
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5,895
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7
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BE MERRY AND WISE OR A Seasonable Word TO THE NATION SHEWING The Cause the Growth the State and the Cure of our present Distempers March 14. 1659 LONDON Printed March 13. in the year 1660. 1659 A Seasonable Word c. I Do not write out of an itch of Scribling or to support a Faction my Duty bids me write Nor do I love Hard words or Many Plain and Few suit all Capacities and Leasures I would be Read by all and Understood by all for my Businesse extends to all Not to spend time in Complement or Apology The Reader 's Wisedom or the Authors Weaknesse is not the Question The Nation is in Distress and every honest English man must lend his hand to save it Nay That must be done Quickly too and Vigorously Delay is Mortal Can any thing be more Ridiculous then to stand Formalizing in a Case where 't is impossible to be too early or too Zealous The event of things takes up our thoughts more then the Reason of them what News more than what Remedy As if it concerned us rather to know whose Fools and Slaves we shall be next than to be such no longer That which completes the wonder and the Oversight is That the Miseries we suffer were before hand as easily to be Fore-seen and Prevented as they are now to be Felt and we are only to look Backward to take a perfect measure of the Future so obvious and formal is the Method that leads to our Destruction If we are not in Love with Beggery and Sondage let us at last bethink our selves of Freedom and from a due Enquiry into the Rise the Growth and present State of our Calamities learn to be wise and Happy for the time to come It may be observed that since Church-men dabled in Politiques and Statesmen in Divinity Law and Religion have been still subjected to the Sword and in effect those same Excursions and Adulterate mixtures are but the workings of a Party already in motion toward that end He that designs a Change of Government must begin by imposing a Delusion upon the People and whatsoever is Necessary to his Purpose must be Accommodate to their Humour The Pulpet by false Glosses and Puzzling distinctions under the doctrine of Conditionate Obedience suggâ—sting Liberty cousens the Multitude into a Rebellion Oaths and Covenants are but like Jugglers knots Fast or Loose as the Priest pleases The weaker sort being thus prepared and poyson'd by a Seditious Clergy 't is then the Statesman's part to push those Mutinous Inclinations into Action and to divide the Cause betwixt Conscâ—ence and Property the better to involve all Interests in the Quarrel Under the Masque of Piety and Publiquenesse of Spirit of Holy men and Patriots the Crafty cheat the Simple engaging by those specious pretenses the Rash mis-judging people with good Intentions but wanting Care and Skill in Sacrilege and Treason This was the very Root and this hath been the process of our Evils Under the Notion of God's glory the Safety and the Honour of the King the Fundamental Lawes and Freedoms of the people the Privilege of Parliaments c. the Kingdom was gulled into a Complyance with an Ambitious and Schismatical Faction The main Pretense was the Assertion of the Subjects Legal Rights against the grand Prerogative and That directed only to the Limitation of an Intended Arbitrary Power the Regulation of such and such Misgovernments c. and all this Saving their Allegiance to His Sacred Majesty whose Person Crown and Dignity thâ—y had so often and so deeply sworn to maintain This was a Bait so Popular it could not fail of drawing in a Party and That produced a warr The Formal Story of the Quarrel is little to my Purpose the Logique of it Lesse How by the same Authority of Text and Law both King and People could be Justified one against th' other I meddle not Let it suffice that after 6. years Conflict a vast profusion of Blood and Treasure The King a Prisoner and his whole party scattered and disarmed the Commons found themselves dispos'd to end our Troubles and passed a vote to Treat with his Majesty in order to a settlement This met with little opposition except from those who having Gorged themselves already upon the publique ruine were not yet satisfied without their Soveraigns Blood The death of Monarchy it self and the subjecting of a Tame and Slavish People to a Conventicle of Regicides There were not many of so deep a Tincture but what these few could not effect by number they did by Force For upon the 6th of Decemb. 1648. Sir Hardresse Waller Pride and Hewson Seized and imprisoned 41. of the Commons House Clapp'd Guards upon all passes leading to it Some 160. more were given in upon a List to those that kept the Door with an expresse direction from several Leading Members to oppose their entrance a matter of 40. more withdrew for fear of violence Their Crime was only the carrying of a Vote for Peace already mentioned the day before This Action was so Enormous that the very Contrivers of it were ashamed to own it transferring that upon the Army-Officers which was done by their own appointment They passed however a Formal disallowance of the violence and ordered their discharge which yet the Officers refused upon a Combination now most evident Observe this That which in 48. they told us was an Act of the Army-Officers in 59. they call a Judgement of Parliament and they justifie and continue that very seclusion by a Vote of Jan. 5.59 Which they themselves Condemned and Discharged by several Orders in Dec. 48. The Particulars of these Transactions are excellently delivered by Mr. Prynne the Honour of the age in his true and perfect Narrative as also in the Declaration of the true state of the Secluded Members and in the History of Independency two other choice pieces Return we now to the great Test of the Spirits and Designs of the several Partyes and Members of the House and from that Judgement and Discrimination of Persons and Humours we may learn seasonably to provide against After-claps This Blow brake the House of Commons into Three Pieces One Party adhered to the Vote opposed the Violence Declared against it Claimed from time to time their own and the Peoples Rights Pleaded the Covenant and their Declarations and stood it out The Second sort was not so well prepar'd for Martyrdom a kind of Barnacle neither Fish nor Flesh This was a Party that Flew off at first but soon retracted Hearded again and went along for Company my Charity perswades me well of diverse of them and that they mixed rather in hopes to moderate the Rest then in Design to strengthen them A Party rather Weak and Passive than Malicious But nothing can excuse those sons of Belial the perjur'd Remnant no nor express them Beside their Oathes and Covenant they have above an hundred times in Printed Declarations renounced the very Thought of what
they since have executed Read the Exact Collections We are say they so far from altering the Fundamental Constitution and Government of this Kingdom by King Lords and Commons That we have only desired that with the consent of the King such Powers may be setled in the Two Houses without which we can have no Assurance c. These are the very words of their Declaration April 17. 1646. published by the House of Commons alone toward the end of the war and most remarquably entituled A Declaration of their True Intentions concerning the Antient Government of the Nation and securing the People against all Arbitrary Government Let this Qâ—otation serve for All lest I exceed my Limits Nor to insist upon things known and publique How faithfully these People have managed their Original Trust how strictly they have kept their Oaths and Promises how tenderly they have observed the Laws and asserted our Freedoms how Poor they have made themselves to make us Rich how Graciously they have assumed the Legâ—slatâ—ve power and then how modestly they have exercisâ—d it In fine How Free happily we lived under their Government till Oliver play'd Rex among them and threw them out by a Trick of their own Teaching This was in April 1653. It were worth the while to enquire into the good they did us during that 6 years Session but that I leave to Needham Nor shall I far examine the Protectors Reign by whose advice by what assistance or by what Laws he Ruled how many of our late Republicans forgate themselves and sware Allegiance to a single Person How many things like Parliaments he dispersed for the Army has gotten a Jadish Trick and will hardly leave it It is enough at last he Dyed Dyed in Despight of Priests and Poets Goodwin and Waller the former telling him from Heaven that he should scape that Fit the Other telling us so needlessely His Highnesse having other things to think on left his successor doubtfull till as they say His Secretary Then one of Ours now with Goodwin His Prophetique Confessour Swore his son Richard into the Protectorship But he Good Gentleman did not much hurt but peaceably resigned to Fleetwood and Disborough not a word of Sir Henry Vane for he desires to be private and They quite at a Losse for want of Brains and Courage call'd in the Fag-end of the old House to their assistance So that those Members which Dived in April 53. came up again upon the 7th of May 59. and acted as impetuously as ever Till they were once again unseated by the Army the 13. of Octob. last and then the Committee of Wallingford house was invested with the Supreme Authority 'T is but a slippery Title that of the Sword This Change gave General Monk occasion to shew his Charity to his Native Country by whose Generosity and Conduct the Honest and Suffering Party was relieved and the Phanatique Army dispersed without Blood Hereupon the Souldjery tack'd about once again Lamented their Back slidings and on the 26th of Decemb. following the Good-Old-Cause men re-enthron'd themselves more eager now than formerly against the Re-admission of the secluded Members This barbarous and Arbitrary proceeding put the whole Nation upon a necessiâ—y of procuring a Free and Full Representative to whiâ—h end they proposed Modestly and Fairly the Restoring of the Excluded Members and filling up the House or else the Liberty of a New and Legal choice For bringing Letters to this purpose Sir Robert Pye and Major Fincher were imprisoned This was an Insolence too grosse to doe much Mischief but to themselves Are these the men the People cryed that put the King to death only upon pretence of a Design to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and Tyrannical power to Rule according to his wâ—ll and to overthrow the Rights and Liberties of the People Yea to take away and make void the Foundations thereof and of all redresse and Remedy of Mis-Government which by the Fundamental constitutions oâ— this Kingdom were rese ved on the Peoples behalf in the Right and power of FREQUENâ— AND SUCCESSIVE PARLIAMENTS these are the words of the charge That which was Treason in our Lawfull Prince how coms it to be Law now with these Fellows They took away the Kings life for but Intending the very thing they Act and we are to be Hang'd for Asking only That they sware they Fought for No they are a Pack of Cheats they Murthered Him that they might Rule themselves The Plot was grown so Rank the Commune-People smelt it and without more ado associated to free themselves from an Infamous and perpetual Bondage Witnesse that Union in their Declarations both of Demand and Resolution against the Equity whereof no man hath hitherto pretended the least Objection The Supreme Trifle perceiving an Universal Application to the General in his Passage and all speaking the same Sense Finding withall that his Excellence suspended till he might hear Both Parties and Conscious to themselves of no Imaginable Reason to oppose Beside Seeing themselves Declined and Hated Nay and Endangered by a Peremptory Agreement of the Nation They did at last most graciously descend to promise us a fâ—ll Representative but no Secluded Members to be admitted nor in effect any other then Phanatiques His Excellency well weighing what was Reasoned pro con made way for the Return of the Secluded Members This Justice brake the neck of a Design just then on Foot This is the short on 't the People were to be held at Gaze in expectation of a further satisfaction till those Troops which the Backside had ordered to that purpose should have sersed all the considerable Persons of the Kingdom Nay they were impudent enough to tempt the General himself into a Complication with them But he was too discreet not to distinguish where to observe and where to leave them In fine That providence which stills the raging of the Sea and the madnesse of the People hath put a check to their Impetuous and Brutish Fury Next to our Gratitude to Heaven let 's have a Care not to be wanting in point of prudence to our Selves Nothing undoes us but Security We see who are our Friends and who our Enemies whom we may trust and whom we must not We have paid dear for our Experience and sure we have a Title to the Benefit of it We must look Back and learn from Thence the manage of the Future It is a tedious while this Nation ha's been toss'd betwixt two Factions One in the Army the Other in the Counsel Both well enough Agreed to destroy Us but Jealous still One of the Other as Don sayes of Ignatius concerning his Competitor in Hell He was content he should be damn'd but loath he should govern That 's all the Quarrel the Vizor of Religion is thrown aside long since The Conventicle cheats the Souldjour This day and he falls upon the Rump the next In short they do 〈…〉 â—â—her at the Publique Charge they may snarle where they please but they bite none but Us and at the worst forgive their Fellow-Theeves for robbing Honest men This hath been their practice near these dozen years Are we not yet convinc'd that 't is impossible it should be otherwise while the same people Govern us with the same Aym and bound up by no other Laws than their Own Wills I do not presse any Resistance now but certainly a Readinesse to protect Honester men in Case of an Attempt were not amisse We see how dirtily they have used the General and how unworthily their Instruments have laboured the Army into a direct Tumult And all this in order to a New Violence upon the House We see what Juggling is used in the MILITIA as foysting in false Lists to cast the strength of the Nation into the hands of mean and Factious Persons What Industry to hold us still unsetled by throwing in Impertinent and dangerous Scruples to divert at the Fairest if not disturb the long desired Peace we pray for He that ha's either Honor in his Blood or Honesty in his Heart is reproached with a King in his Belly Then for the Qualifications these goodly Squires would have thrust upon us are they not pleasant One Man of Forty shall be allowed to Vote or sit and the other 39. must call That a Free-Parliament and swear it Represents the People We are not so Blind yet nor so Forgetfull as not to see and know some Foxes and some Asses in the Medly All are not Saints we call so We do remember who they were that ruled in 48. and we are sensible what they would do still if they had Power We know who brought in who but the Market's raised our Heads will not off now at Fifty shillings a Hundred as formerly In fine let the General the secluded Members and the Honest Souldjers live long happily and beloved and let the Rest take their Fortune I could only wish his Excellency had been a little civiller to Mr. Milton for just as he had finished his Model of a Common-wealth directing in these very terms the Choyce men not addicted to a Single Person or House of Lords and the work is done In come the secluded Members and spoyl his Project To this admirable discovery he subjoyns a suitable Proposition in favour of the late sitting Members and this is it having premised the Abilities and Honesty desirable in Ministers of State he recommends the Rumpers to us as so Qualified advises us to Quit that fond Opinion of successâ—ve Parliaments and suffer the Persons then in Power to perpetuate themselves under the name of a Grand or General Counsell and to rule us and our Heirs for ever It were great pirty these Gentlemen should lose their Longings One word and I have done We live in daily Expectation of Writs for another Session if they leave us as free as they found us 't is well if not 't is but to turn the Tables and try their menage of a Losing Game FINIS