Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	humble_a	majesty_n	petition_n	2,957	5	9.0583	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56220	A true and perfect narrative of what was done, spoken by and between Mr. Prynne, the old and newly forcibly late secluded members, the army officers, and those now sitting, both in the Commons lobby, House, and elsewhere on Saturday and Monday last (the 7 and 9 of this instant May) with the true reasons, ends inducing Mr. Prynne ... thus earnestly to press for entry, to go and keep in the House as he did, and what proposals he intended there to make for publike peace, settlement, and preservation of the Parliaments privileges / put in writing and published by the said William Prynne ... to rectifie the various reports, censures of this action, and give publike satisfaction ... of his sincere endeavors to the uttermost of his power, to preserve our religion, laws, liberties, the essential rights, privileges, freedom of Parliament, and all we yet enjoy, according to his oaths, covenant, trust, as a Parliament member, against the utter subverters of them ...	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1659 (1659)	Wing P4113; ESTC R937	104,117	112

in his life time long before his death The first by the Executions of Strafford and Canterbury the impeachments censures of the Shipmony-Judges and other Delinquents both in Scotland I●eland The 2d by the Acts abolishing Shipmony the taking of tonnage poundage and other Taxes without Act of Parliament the Acts for the preventing of Inconveniences happening by the long intermissions of Parliament For regulating of the Privy-Counsel taking away the Court of Star-Chamber and High-Commission against divers Incroachments and oppressions in the Stannary court For the certainty of Forests and their meets and bounds for the better ordering and regulating the Office of the Clerk of the Market for reformation of false Weights and Measures for preventing vexatious proceedings touching the order of Knightship for the abbreviation of Michae●mas Term and for the free importation of Gunpowder and Salt-peter from forein parts and making of them in England By all these good Acts passed f●eely by the King soon after or before this Act he fully redressed all Grievances then complained of or intended within this Law The 3d. by the Act of Confirmation of the Treaty of pacification between the two kingdomes of England and Scotland The 4th by the several Acts passed for the Relief of his Majesties army And the Northern parts of this kingdom For the better raising and levying of Mariners and others for the present guarding of the Sea and necessary defence of the Realm not Republike For the Subsidies of Tonnage and poundage granted to the King for the speedy provision of money for disbanding the Armies and setling the peace of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland For securing such monies as are due to the Inhabitants of the Northern Counties where his Majesties Army have been billetted And for securing by publike faith the remainder of the friendly assistance and relief promised to our Brethren of Scotland all passed and published by the King himself Anno 16 17 Caroli 1640. 1641. at least 7. years before his beheading It is most certain that all these ends of making this Law as the Prologue thereof and the word THEREFORE in the Commons prayer infallibly declare were fully accomplished by the King in his life so long before his untimely death Therfore none of thē now remaining to be performed all acted since their accomplishment by those now sitting being diametrically contrary to this Act these ends and occasions of it this Parliament must of necessity be beheaded expired with the King and cannot survive his death 4ly The words That this present Parliament assembled shall not be dissolved unlesse it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose nor shall at any time or times during the continuance thereof twice recited in the subsequent clauses be prorogued or adjourned unlesse it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose can be intended of no other but that present Parliament which passed this Act which consisted of The Kings Maiesty our Soveraign Lord by whom this and all other Acts passed or to be passed was declared and enacted and this intended Act likewise not of his heir or successor after his death and of the Lords and Commons House then in being not any new House of Lords or Commons succeeding after their deaths then sitting Therefore when the King was cut off by an untimely death and thereby an impossibility accruing to dissolve it by an Act of Parliament within the words or intent of this Act it must of necessity be dissolved by his beheading Impossibilities making Acts of Parliament to perform them meerly void as our Lawe makes Impossible conditions 5ly This Act and those who made it must have and had a retrospect to the Writs whereby it and they were summoned and the ends things therein expressed But they all determined and became Impossible after the Kings beheading Therefore the Parliament must be destroyed with him since cessante causa cessat effectus cessante primativo cessat derivativum as all our Lawyers Law-books and natural reason resolve 6ly The last Clause of this Act That every thing and things whatsoever done or to be done to wit by the King or any other for the Adjournment proroguing or dissolving of this present Parliament contrary to this Act shall be utterly void and of none effect do clearly ex●lain the meaning of this Act to be this That it extends only to things done or to be done by the Kings will and power as to his Commissions Proclamations Writs Warrants Precepts to adjourn prorogue or dissolve this Parliament as he had done others heretofore here declared to be utterly null and void not to his death wherein he was only passive being forcible against his will and the Parliaments too which death no Parliament can make null and void in respect of the Act it self so as to restore him to life though the whole Parliament and our three Kingdomes may and ought to null it in respect of the illegal manner of his Execution not to be paralel'd in any Age. 7ly The Commons themselves in their Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom 15 Decemb. 1641. Declared That the abrupt dissolution of this Parliament is prevented by another this Bill by which it is provided it shall not be dissolved adjourned without the consent of both Houses Yea the Lords Commons in their Declaration of May 19. 1642. declare That excellent Bill for the continuance of this Parliament was so necessary that without it we could not have raised so great sums of monies for his Majesties service and Common wealth as we have done and without which the ruine and destruction of the Kingdome must needs have followed as since of the Kingdom and Parliaments too by pretext thereof And we are resolved the Gracious favour of his Majesty expressed in that Bill and the advantage and security which thereby we have from being dissolved by him shall not encourage us to do any thing which otherwise had not been fit to have done Which whether these formerly now sitting have performed let their own Consciences resolve After which the Lords and Commons in their humble Petition to his Majesty Jun. 17. 1642. desire That your Majesty having passed an Act That this Parliament shall not be dissolved but by Act of Parliament your Majestie would not do any thing tending thereunto by commanding away the Lords and great Officers whose attendance is necessary thereunto Therefore the sitting Members abolishing the whole House of Lords and their secluding most of the Commons Members by this Petitions concession must dissolve it Both Lords and Commons in their Declaration 26th Maii 1642. adde We hope the people will never be carryed away with a noyse of words against the Parliament to make any such equitable construction of the Act for the continuance of this Parliament as may tend to the dissolution thereof by the Declaration of the King which they Answer in this

Italian Frier specially recommended by them to the pursuite of the King of Spain who prosecuted it all he could to promote his universal Monarchy and so much rejoyced at it that he was the first foreign King who presently sent an extraordinary Ambassador to congratulate the accomplishment applaud the constitution of enter into a League of Friendship with it whose flattering panygerick in his Great Catholique Kings name in prayse thereof and what an honour it was to them that he was the first forein Prince that owned them for a Common wealth made the Commons House so intoxicated that they gratified him in all his requests and pursued all his designs only to ruine us and the Netherlands layd down by Campanella De Monarchia Hispanica c. 25 27. by furnishing him with many thousands of Irish forces quarrelling with the Hollanders maintaining above three years bloody wars with them with infinite losse and expence to both Nations taking the French Kings Fleet provisions merely designed for the reliefe of Dunkirk whereby he presently regained it to our prejudice And on the other hand Cardinall Richlieu of France the great Incendiary of Christendome and somenter of all our Domestick wars in his life the French King and Mazarine by his instructions in writing after his death vigorously pursued this very design His instructions to this purpose recorded by Conte de Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato an excellent Italian Historian are very memorable who relates That Cardinal Richelieu Anno 1642. after he had involved the King Parliament and Ireland in a bloody Civil war being near his death delivered these politick instructions for the King his Master to pursue for carrying on his designs in relation to England with successe That above all other things he should endeavour to keep the Government of Great Britain divided and dis-united by ayding the weaker party that the other might not make it self too powerfull By cau●ing the three Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland to be divided either by nominating other Kings elective of another family accomplished by erecting an elective Protector or by moulding them into a Common-wealth as our Republicans have formerly and now done again Yet with this caution That when they are reduced into a Common-wealth so to order the matter That it may not be united into one but divided How punctually Cardinal Mazarine prosecuted these instructions ever since and accomplished them at last the Letters taken in the Lord Digbyes Cabinet printed by the Parliaments order 1646. and O. Cromwels late intimate correspondency with Mazarine discover And how much the Iesuites and Catholicks in France in November 1648. approved applauded the turning of our hereditary Monarchy which they irreconcila●ly hated envyed as well as the late King and turning the Old Parliament into a new Republican Representative and that all their hopes to effect it were in the Army to whom they wished all prosperity therein you may read in a Letter sent from thence by the Armies Agent to a sitting Republican Member soon after published by Mr. Prynne who got the original Mr. Prynne knowing all this and clearly discovering a fresh combination between the Sectaries Republican Anabaptistical Jesuitical levelling party to pursue their designs afresh and accomplish what they formerly attempted in the short Mock-Parliament of their own election creation Anno 1653. and what was then passionately recommended to them by John Canne the Anabaptist in his Voyce from the Temple dedicated to them as their Generation work which God and all his people then expected and required from them even to extirpate the Church Ministry of England Advowsons Glebes Tithes and demolish all Parish Churches as Antichristian to extirpate the Law root and branch under pretext of reforming and new-moulding it to sell all Corporation and College lands and set up a popular Anarchy or tyrannical Oligarchy among us under the disguise of the Old Dissolved Parliament sitting from 1648. till April 20. 1653. after six years violent ejection of them with highest scorn and reproach yet now invited by them to sit again to effect these Romish designs to our utter Confusion but secluding all those who were like to obstruct or defeat them Upon this consideration Mr. Prynne as a secluded Member of the old Parliamemt wherein he detected oppugned all these Treasonable Designs heretofore and since its dissolution by the Kings beheading held it his bounden duty to prevent defeat them now and nip them in the bud whereupon so soon as those now sitting entred the House he assayed to go into it with as many old secluded Members as he could there being 80 of them in London For although his judgement be that this Parliament is quite dissolved by the Kings beheading as he oft declared in print yet since the Army-Officers and those now sitting with sundry others pretend it still in being and under that pretext alone have acted all their publick Tragedies and Innovations he conceived himself bound in Conscience upon their Concessions to endeavour to prevent these mischiefs and do all Publick good he might with better warrant and reason than most Ministers Lawyers Justices Magistrates Members of late Parliaments as they style them have prayed for complyed with acted in under those late Governors Governments mock Parliaments as he is confident some now sitting among them in this new Convention believe it dissolved and yet go in only to prevent and allay those mischiefs which others violently pursue which their own Consciences and our laws resolve them without scruple to be utterly illegal whereas this old Parliament whereof he was a Member was most legallie summoned and convened beyond dispute and hath the colour of a legal Act or Parliament for its continuance which those since have wanted of which Act the greatest part of those now sitting taking advantage notwithstanding their new Instruments Declarations Petitions Advises Addresses and Sessions in other new Parliaments since and it being a great dispute now among most secluded Members whether that Parliament was not yet alive though the King be dead the majority of their Voyces over-ruling his private Judgement as in all other Parliamentary Votes and proceedings gave a present sufficient call warrant to him and others to enter the House to debate it and act what and as they did which will satisfie all those who censure it as unwarrantable or contradictory to his judgement especially when they shall hear what he really intended to propose to the sitting Members when he got into the House had they not gone out to prevent it 1. He intended to inform them of those destructive Jesuitical ends and designs forementioned which they were now purposely called in to accomplish carrying along Thomas Campanella Richilieus Instructions with other Books papers of theirs and some printed Copies of the Republicans and others Good Old Cause truly and fully anatamised now put out and published to dis-engage them from its pursute at the first before they

were engaged therein by any Votes or Actions if he could but gain audience or patience to hear them pressed on their Consciences Viva Voce But their unparliamentary adjourning on purpose to prevent it when he was in and forcibly resecluding him by armed Gards when once out he held himself bound in Conscience to publish that to them and the the world in print which he was not permitted libertie to speak as he formerlie did when forcibly imprisoned and kept from the House by the Armie as now upon the like account in his Brief Mememto to the present unparliamentary Juncto from his Pison-Chamber at the Kings Head which they soon after took of Jan. 1. 1648. 2ly He intended to propose That all armed Gards of Souldiers in or near the Cities of London or Westminster might by publick Proclamation be removed to a convenient distance thence according to the antient Custome Presidents and Privileges of Parliament prohibiting not only all armed forces but the very bearing of any Arms or weapons in or near the place where the Parliament did sit under severest penalties lest they should over-awe the Members or any way interrupt their proceedings which the undutifull mutinous Officers Souldiers now in and near the City though raysed purposely to protect the Parliament and its Members from all force whatsoever have frequently done nay forcibly secluded imprisoned ejected the Members themselves sundry times yea turned the now sitting Members out of Doors and now again on Saturday last and this very Morning secluded him and sundry Members when they came to enter in 3ly That all the Lords all secured secluded Members of the old Parliament not sitting after Decemb. 8. 1648. now about the City being double in number to those now sitting might presently be called and freely admitted into the House And all living Members of the old Commons House elected or sitting at or before that time might by the Speakers Letter be desired in all their names to meet together in the Commons House forty daies after the ordinary time limited in most writs of Summons or Resummons of Parliament and nothing acted or voted in the interval as a House of Commons till they were all assembled after their ten years seclusion dissipation by the Armies force and war upon them This suddain unexpected Clandestine stealing into the Commons House of about 41 or 42. Members alone without any general notice given thereof to all the other surviving absent Members or places which elected them sitting presently as an House of Parliament accompanied with a present forcible seclusion of all but their own Confederates being a most unparliamentary practice conspiracy surprise unworthy Saints or persons of Honour destructive to the very being Privileges of Parliament injurious to the whole Nation as well as absent and secluded Members yea contrary to their own Republican Votes Principles That the Supream Authority of the Nation resides only in the Generality of the people That it cannot be transferred from them to any others in or out of Parliament but by their free consents and elections That their Representatives in Parliament ought to be equally distributed throughout the Nation No Member to be secluded when duly elected and all things to be carryed only by majority of Voyces Contrary to the principles of Law Equity common Justice Reason which resolve that publick Acts of Parliament bind all men because they all are Parties and Assenters to them by their election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses impowred intrusted by them and present when they passed by their common assent Which they cannot be when the farre greater number are absent secluded and have no notice of their present sitting Contrary to common Right and that just Maxime inserted into some antient Parliament Writs of Summons and elections to Sheriffs quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbetur that which concerns all ought to be approved by all And not only so but this their surreptitious fraudulent suddain sitting and acting by themselves as a Parliament if they proceeded would make them far more criminal and guilty of highest Treason than King Richard the 2d of old impeached and dethroned in the Parliament of 1 H. 4. amongst other Articles for this That the said King in his last Parliament at Salop purposing to oppress his people subtlely procured and caused to be granted That the Power of the Parliament by the consent of all the States of his Realm should remain with certain Persons to determine after the Parliament dissolved certain Petitions delivered in the same Parliament at that time not dispatched By colour of which Concession the persons so deputed proceeded to other things generally touching that Parliament and that by the Kings will In derogationem status Parliamenti in magnum incommodum totius Regni pernitiosum exemplum In derogation of the State of the Parliament and to the great disprofit prejudice of the whole Realm and permitious example And that they might seem to have some kind of colour Authority for this kind of their proceedings the King caused the Rolls of the Parliament according to his Vote to be changed and deleted contrary to the effect of the foresaid Concession which is likewise mentioned in the printed Act of 1 H. 4. c. 3 and thus amplyfied That a certain power was committed by authority of Parliament to certain persons to proceed upon certain Articles comprised in the Rolls of the Parliament thereof made and by authority aforesaid divers Statutes Judgements Ordinances and Stablishments were made ordained and given erroneously and dolefully in great disherison and final destruction and undoing of many honourable Lords and Liege-people of the Realm and their Heirs forever wherupon that whole Pariament of 21 R. 2. with all the circumstances and dependents thereupon were wholy reversed revoked voyded undone repealed and annulled for ever If this then were so high a crime and breach of royal Trust in King R. 2. even by consent and authority of the whole Parliament and three Estates subtilly to procure the power of the whole Parliment to remain in the hands of certain Persons which themselves approved of who exceeded their Commission and acted generally as a Parliment And if this was a grand derogation of the state of the Parliament a great damage to the whole Realm and permitious example for posterity for which in the very next Parliament they impeached deposed him and nulled all these proceedings for ever Then questionless their former sitting acting in the Commons House from December 7 1648. till Apr. 20. 1653. and now again without yea against the consents Votes of the Parliament 3 Estates secluded Members their repealing altering the very Acts Ordinances of the Lords and Commons concerning the Treaty with the King and sundry others their nulling the Act for Trienial Parliments the continuance sitting of the Lords in this Parlament their ●eclaring themselves alone to be the Parliament of England beheading the King himself their

Frauds and indirect practises in others 3ly That old House of Commons had a special care of providing for the Kings Armie his urgent and present occasions professed themselves his loyal Subjects and him to be their King and Soveraign Lord humblie besought his most Excellent Majesty that it might be declared and enacted by him that this Parliament might not be dissolved prorogued or adjourned but by Act of Parliament acknowledging they could make no such Act without his Majesties Royal assent and that both the King and Lords House were essential Members of the Parliament within this Act. But those sitting since 1648. till 1653. and now again thus entring the House by pretext of this Act have renounced abjured and professedlie engaged against all this to which they are direct Antipodes Therefore no Commons House within this Act. 4ly The Commons House within this Act was that House which was then in being when this Act passed dulie elected by the people by the Kings Writs not the Armie-Officers and pursued the self-same ends recited in the preamble for which this Act was made and assented to by the King and Lords But this New House was created constituted not by the Kings writs or peoples election but the Armies swords and conspiracie 7 years after this Act first passed then disowned and turned out of Doors above 6 years by the Army and now re-inducted into it by their armed Votes and force to serve their ends not to pursue those mentioned in the Act accomplished many years since and now becoming impossible Therefore they are not so much as an House of Commons within this Act and the Armie-Officers and Souldiers who formerly thrust them out now recall them may do well to consider that Gospel-Text Gal. 2.18 If I build again the thing I destroyed I make my self a Transgressor even against this very Law as well as the law of God and other laws of the Land XI If they are not so much as a Commons House of Parliament much less then are they the lawfull Parliament of England in anie sense within the letter or meaning of this Act no more than so manie of the old Gunpowder Popish-Traitors had their Treason taken so good effect in blowing up King Iames the Lords whole House and majoritie of the Commons House there assembled as their late new Powder-plot hath done had been the onlie lawfull Parliament of 3 Iac. they destroyed in case they had entred then into the Commons House with the Mace before them and created stiled themselves alone the Parliament of England as a right devolved unto them by Conquest or Succession which had they presumed to do no doubt the whole English Nation would have risen up against them as one man and never have so far dishonored themselves their Religion or Countrie as to own and submit to those Jesuitical Romish-Traitors only for destroying of their lawfull King Lords House and English Parliament it self as the onlie true old English Parliament then re-assembled The Reasons are unanswerable 1. Because the whole House of Commons then sitting in its primitive splendor fullnesse freedome was by its own quadruple acknowledgement in it no more but the Commons House and one Member of this Parliament not the Parliament it self never owning owning but professedlie disclaiming it self to be the Parliament or present Parliament within this Act. 2 ly Because this Act was made not by the Commons alone without the King or Lords concurrence but by the King as their Soveraign Lord declaring and enacting and the Lords and Commons as jointlie assenting thereunto 3 ly Because it is most absurd to conceive that the King and Lords by passing this Act to continue this Parliament as then constituted till dissolved by Act of Parliament did ever intend to seclude themselves quite out of it or to make the Commons House alone an absolute independent Parliament without both or either of them though five times speciallie providing by name for their Parliamentarie interests Or that they or the Commons intended to make each of themselves a distinct Parliament without the other and so to erect three New Parliaments at once by providing against the untimelie proroguing adjourning or dissolving of one The King and Lords both jointlie and severallie having the self-same Arguments from this Act to prove each of them a several or joint Parliament without the Commons by the Commons own intention in passing this law as the Commons have to justifie themselves to be a Parliament now they have secluded and engaged against them both and will admit of neither as Members of their Parliament when as this verie Act preciselie prohibits the King to dissolve prorogue or adjourn the Parliament or either House therof or the Lords to prorogue or adjourn much less dissolve the Commons House or the Commons to prorogue or adjourn much lesse dissolve the Lords House declaring and enacting That at any time or times during the continuance of this Parliament the Lords House shall not be adjourned nor yet the Commons House but onlie by their own respective Orders and by themselves alone declaring enacting everie thing and things whatsoever done or to be done to the contrarie to be utterly void and of none effect 4 ly Because this Act both in the Title prologue and body prevents onlie the untimely proroguing adjourning and dissolving of this present Parliament at any time or times during the continuance of it but by Act of Parliament or themselves stiling it 8. several times this present Parliament and giving it no other Title yea it preciselie describes it to be a Parliament onlie of King Lords and Commons as it was when this Act was made and so to continue till its dissolution But the Parliament now sitting was not this present Parliament being not then known heard of nor imagined ever to start up in After-ages by any who made or consented to this Law it being created onlie by the Armie 7 years after this Act and now revived full 18 years after it without anie King or House of Lords and protesting engaging against them both as no Members of it Neither can they pursue any one of those ends for which this Parliament was continued Therefore they are doubtlesse beyond dispute no Parliament at all within the words or intention thereof their own Consciences Reason being Judges whatever they pretend nor yet by their own Republican principles a free and equal Representative of the people 6 ly By the Law and Custom of all Nations Nature Reason Justice Equitie the laws of England and of all publick or private Ecclesiastical Civil or Militarie Councils or Corporations the Majority of persons Members Voyces Votes are alwayes reputed the Parliament Council Synod Corporation and do yea ought of right to bind the lesser part as well in making Laws Ordinances as Elections and all else that concerns the publick Yea the General and General Counsel of the Army-Officers in their Petition to those and others now

sitting in Parliament and draught of an Agreement of the people for a secure and present peace framed prepared and presented to them to be established and subscribed by the people January 20. 1649. not onlie subscribed thereto but proposed That 150 Members at least be alwayes present in each sitting of the Representative at the passing of any Law or doing of any Act whereby the People are to be bound saving that the Number of sixty may make the House for Debate or Resolutions that are preparatory thereunto Therefore the 42 Members secretlie skipping into the House secluding the rest May 7 9 being not the 10th part of the Members of the old Parl. now surviving by all Nations Laws Consents can be no Parliament nor House of Commons within this Act nor pass anie thing to bind the Majoritie of the Members or people in anie kind whatsoever what ever anie imprudent illiterate shameless namelesse Scriblers or themselves against their own Reasons Consciences Iudgements principles resolutions pretend to the contrarie but dare not once affirm in good earnest It being a received Maxime in all Ages Populi minor pars Populum non obligit 6 ly It is a rule in our Lawbooks That all Statutes ought to be interpreted according to Reason and the true mind meaning intention of those that made them but it is most certain That it is against all reason and the true intents minds meaning of the Makers of this law to make a Parliament without a King or House of Lords or Majoritie of the Commons-House Or that all or anie of them when they made this Act did ever dream of such a Juncto as this now sitting Or to seclude themselves and resign up their own interests freedoms privileges right of sitting in Parliament with them to constitute them the onlie Parliament of England as everie line syllable throughout the Act demonstrates Therefore they neither are nor can be a Parliament within it neither can the Bedlam Turkish Bruitish unreasonable Argument of the longest Sword or Armie-logick nor the petitions addresses of any Crack-brain'd Sectaries and vulgar Rabble of inconsiderable illiterate people nor the presence of anie Lawyers sitting with or acting under them as a Parliament to their own and their Professions dishonour make them so in their own or any Wisemens or Judicious honest Lawyers Judgement whatsoever And therefore out of Conscience shame justice prudence and real Christianitie have they anie left they must needs disclaim themselves to be a Parliament and no longer abuse the Nation or others under their disguise All with Mr. Prynne if admitted would viva Voce have pressed home upon them but being forcibly secluded by their Gards because unable to answer or contradict his Law or Reason he now tenders to their view and the Judgement Resolution of the whole English Nation to whom he appeals with this publick Protestation That if they will freely call in all the surviving Members of the Lords and Commons House sitting till December 1648. without secluding anie by force or new unparliamentarie Impositions or seclusive Engagements which they have no power to impose If they upon a free and full debate shall resolve the old parliament to be still in being and not actually dissolved by the Kings beheading notwithstanding his premised Reasons to the contrarie He will then submit his private Iudgement to their Majority of Voyces in this as well as in all other Parliamentary debates and contribute his best assistance and advice as a Fellow-Member to heal the manifold breaches prevent the approaching ruines of our indangered Church Realms Parliaments Laws Liberties Peace and establish them upon better foundations than those now sitting to promote their own and the Armies interests rather than the peoples or Nations are ever likely to lay Who if they can prove themselves a true and lawfull English Parliament within this Act without either King or House of Lords or this their clandestine forcible entry into and seclusion of their Fellow-Members out of the House and Actings in it to be lawfull equitable righteous honorable parliamentarie Christian and such as well becomes either Saints Members or true good Englishmen by anie Records Parliament Rolls Acts Presidents of like kind in former Ages Law-books Customes Common or Civil-law Scripture Divinitie Reason Ethicks Policks except Machiavils and the sole Argument of the longest Sword the most bruitish unjust unchristian Turkish of all others Mr. Prynne will then publicklie declare them to be that in truth which as yet he neither can nor dares to acknowledge them to be so much as in appellation either as a Member of the Old Parliament a Covenanter a Protester a Lawyer a Scholar a Man an Englishman or a Christian And hopes that upon the perusal hereof they will as much disown themselves to be the Parliament within this Act or anie lawfull Parliament of England even in their Judgments consciences much more in actings for the premised Reasons as he or anie other secluded Members do not out of anie spirit of contradiction but Conscience and common dutie to themselves and their native Country That which principallie elevated yea inflamed Mr. Prynnes zeal both now and heretofore with all his might to oppose all late publick Innovations changes of our antient Government Parliaments Laws was this sad and serious consideration which he shall with all earnest importunitie intreat advise all Army-Officers Souldiers sitting or secluded Members of the Lords or Commons House with all well-affected persons to the safetie settlement of our Religion Church State throughout our three Nations most seriouslie to lay to heart and engrave upon their Spirits not to read it as they do News-broks only to talk of them for a day or two but as they read the evidences of their Inheritances whereby they hold all their earthlie yea heavenly possessions that they may remember act according to it all their lives That William Watson a secular Priest of Rome in his Dialogue between a Secular Priest and a Lay Gentleman printed at Rhemes 1601. in his Quodlibets printed 1602. and William Clerk a Secular Priest in his Answer to Father Parsons Libel 1604. p. 75. c. then best acquainted with the Iesuites designs against England of all others did in precise terms publish to the English Nation in these their printed Books a That Father Parsons the English Jesuite the most active professed enemie to our English Kingship Kings Realm Church Religion his Consederate Iesuitical Society did so long since give out and prophesied That they have it by Revelation and special command from God that their order and Society was miraculously instituted for this end to work a dismal change amongst us wherein all Laws Customes and Orders must be altered and all things turned upside down and that they being the only men who have the name Title and authority of Jesus by them it is that this marvelous change and alteration shall be wrought in such sort as