Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A26130
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A seasonable speech made by Alderman Atkins in the Rump-Parliament
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Atkins, Thomas, Sir.
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1660
(1660)
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Wing A4124E; ESTC R28311
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3,537
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6
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A Seasonable SPEECH Made by Alderman Atkins IN The Rump-Parliament Mr. Speaker AFter so many dispensations and out-goings of Providence we are now the third time returned to sit in this Honourable House again but how long we shall do so I believe the wisest of us all cannot tell For the Souldiers have of late set up Governments as Boys do Nine-pins to throw them down again But how oft soever they turn us out hereafter I shall never doubt to get in again for I perceive those Changes and Revolutions as they call them are just like casting of Knaves at Cards where some play and some sit out until the Set be up or the Gamesters fall out and throw up their Cards and then they stand fair to get in again But notwithstanding so many interruptions and disturbances many mighty and great Works have been carried on by us Worms and no Men. You Sir have a new Wainscot Chair and our Seats that were but covered with Mats when we came first to sit here are now lin'd with good Broad-Cloth of 16 s. a yard and the whole House is hang'd in a better manner then any man expected But this is not all that we have done for we have reformed Religion and brought the Church as nigh to what it was in the Primitive times among Jews and Pagans as may be for the Christians have sold all they have long since and laid it at our feet and we begin once more to have all things in common Beside Sir we have done strange Justice on the late Tyrant and transform'd the Kingdom into a Commonwealth as Nebuchadnezzar was into a Beast But there is one thing that we have omitted no less necessary then any thing that we have done and which indeed the people have much more reason to expect from us for Reformation as well as Charity should begin at home To hold forth my meaning in brief to you Sir it is the cleansing of our own House of Office and if that name be not mannerly enough for this place it is in your power to help it for there is a spare name that hath been lately conferr'd on this Honourable House by the people which was once called the House of Parliament as it is now the Rump This name in my opinion we cannot better dispose of then in conferring it on the House I spoke of that not only that but all other Houses of the same quality of which ours is the Representative may in the right thereof hereafter be call'd a Rump as being a name more proper and significant in regard of the relation it hath to that part And truly Sir I believe the wisdom and justice of this House can do no less if you please but to consider the near and intimate correspondence that House has ever held with this as having ever been entrusted with the most urgent and weighty matters that we ever carried on and so necessary that I may boldly say without that recourse which we have had to it in our greatest extremities this House might have suffered for it many a time and oft It is now Sir as full as this Honourable House was once of Members and as unuseful until we take some course to empty it as we did this which I humbly conceive we can by no means avoid For under favour I do not think we can use this House as we did the House of Lords I mean Vote it down when it will serve our turn no longer no this is a matter of a higher nature and more weighty concernment and as the difference is very great in reason of State so is it also in point of Conscience For though it is true we engaged and swore to maintain the House of Lords yet we did it not after a right manner For we read it was a custom among the Jews when they made any solemn Vow to put their hands under one anothers Hams and if we had done so when we swore that and kiss'd the Book I grant we had been bound in conscience to have upheld it longer than we did I mean longer than we had need of it but we quite contrary held up our hands and so are not bound to keep it otherwise than we took it that is hand over head for unless we differ'd from the Jews in other matters more than we do I know no reason why we should in this But now I speak of the Jews give me leave by observing one passage in their History to hold forth unto you the danger of suppressing the aforesaid House Saul for want of such a convenience going into a Cave where David had hid himself had like to have lost his life for if David had been one of us I know what had become of Saul he would rather have cut off his Head than a piece of his Coat as I wonder he did not since being a Prophet he might have made Scripture of purpose to have prov'd him a Tyrant and a Traitor as we did Law to condemn the late King after he was put to death But though David were wiser than his Teachers he was not so wise as we were 'T is true for his own advantage he knew how to make the silly Philistims believe he was mad but I am mistaken if we have not out-done him that way too and made the wisest think us so But to return to the purpose Suppose Sir the Army should have occasion to give this Honourable House a purge again you would be loth it should work here and truly I do not know what other way you have to avoid it unless we should make use of that place where the Assembly of Divines lately sate which for my part I like very well if it were nearer and certainly they have no reason to take it ill for it is according to the example of the best Reformed Churches And I know no reason why we may not as well sit there and make sour faces at our own charges as they did at the charge of the Commonwealth For mine own part did not the common good provoke me to it I have as little reason to speak as another and perhaps less for my Breeches are made close at the knees and so better fitted against a mischance Beside I know the worst of it for I believe you have often heard what I have suffer'd in the service of my Country But let that pass though it were the worse for my Reputation and my Breeches it was the better for my Body and my Soul too for I have edify'd much by it 'T is true the Boys hold their Noses and cry Fogh when they see me in the Streets but What of that A wise man knows how to make an advantage of the greatest disasters and so have I done For there was a time Mr. Speaker when this Honourable House had like to have been a Foul-House And when was that Truly it was when the Prentices came hither to shew us one trick more than ever we taught them Then did I take this worshipful Chain off my Neck and very politickly put it in my Codpiece for I know well enough that no body in this Town where I am so well known would venture to look for it there and I was not mistaken for here you see I have it still The same thing I did at another time and that was when as you may well remember a piece of Plaister falling from the Roof some of the Members cried Treason and many made haste to get out of the House as fast as they could so did not I no Sir I resolved to stay by it and therefore having put my Chain in my Codpiece I crept under the Bench in this very place where I now sit and there I lay close until I heard some that were near me say They smell'd Gun-powder but then I knew it was a mistake and so it prov'd indeed but if it had been otherwise no danger should have made me forsake my duty No Sir I have been so faithful to this House and so constant to my Principles that I have not changed so much as my Seat since the happy beginning of this Parliament In this very place did I then sit on both sides of me sate two Members that afterwards prov'd Malignants for they took snuff at something that fell from me in my zeal to the Cause and ran to Oxford to the King their Estates are long since sold for which the Commonwealth may thank me For verily Sir I have not been altogether an unprofitable Member according to my Talent and the dispensation of what was in me for my Bowels have been often pour'd out for the prosperity of this House and I hope my conversation hath held forth so much of the inward man as may be sufficient to satisfie the well affected by whom I am entrusted And as for my Back-biters I forgive them freely alas they hurt themselves and not me for if they get any thing by dealing with me that way they must have good luck SIR I have us'd the more freedom with you because I have some pretence to your pardon for I believe you have often observ'd that when any thing has fallen from any of my fellow-Members that the House has resented it has presently been laid to my charge and I have always taken it upon me freely for I shall never refuse to serve this House in any sense whatsoever I shall therefore humbly move that you would be pleased to order this Honourable House to adjourn for a convenient time until that House be emptied and made sweet again for if we should sit here before it will not be in the power of any one man to own so much stink as will be laid to my charge FINIS