A second pacquet of advices and animadversions sent to the men of Shaftsbury, occasioned by several seditious pamphlets spread abroad to pervert the people since the publication of the former pacquet.

CONSIDERATOR.

But (saith the Considerator) the King is the onely person that is meant or can be bound: For he it is that is to Sum∣mon or Hold Parliaments, and therefore the Statutes intend to oblige Him, or else they intend nothing, and the Laws for Parliaments that secure our Religion, Properties, and Li∣berties, are become onely Advices and Counsels to the King, with no obligation further than the Kings present thoughts of their expedience.

ANIMADVERSION.

That the Obligation to a Yeerly Parliament lies no fur∣ther upon the King than if in prudence he see there be need, is already proved from a Right Construction of the words of the Statutes; and that this prudential power and part of the Kings Prerogative in Judging the expedience of cal∣ling Parliaments at this or that time, as Affairs shall in His Judgement require, did remain undiminished by the said Statutes: And they intended onely this, which was enough, That seeing the People had an ancient Right by Custom to have frequent Parliaments, the King accordingly should oblige himself to call Parliaments so often as every yeer, or oftner if there should be need: Whereupon it is obser∣vable, that seeing in the interval of Parliament there nei∣ther ought nor can be any Judge of the necessity but the King, these two Laws left the power of judging it in the Prerogative-Royal as they found it; and the then▪Parlia∣ment gained this great Advantage for the People, that whereas they before had a Right by Custom and Common

Law, they now obtain a right by Statute-Law too: which certainly so wise a King as Edw. 3. would never have gran∣ted without a Salvo put in for his Prerogative, by the words IF NEED BE.

Moreover consider, if those Statutes should be other∣wise understood, viz. that the King ex debito were bound every yeer to call a Parliament, whether it would not have been a great Mischief rather than Benefit to the People: For in those days they that served Members in Parliament were wont to take Wages for their Service; and that would have layn heavie upon every poor Burrough to have been bound to pay Wages due once a yeer, sometimes oftner, to their Burgesses, it being recoverable by Law against them; which peradventure would amount to more than their share of payment of Subsidies. Again consider, as this would empty their Purses, so it would lade them with innumerable Laws, which are as grievous almost as to have none, as it hath been found in many Nations by experi∣ence; and therefore it is that Justinian hath been every∣where praised for so excellent an Emperour, because when all the Nations under the Roman Empire were even over-laid with multitudes of Laws, and groaned more under this Yoak than that of Taxes & Tributes, he took care how to deliver the people from that vexatious Burthen, by cutting off the major unnecessary part of the Imperial Statutes, and Digesting the rest into a tolerable Body. Therefore should such yeerly Parliaments be imposed on us by Law, the Statutes would soon swell to the like into∣lerable pass, and tire the people out of fondness after so frequent Meetings as these Writers plead for, and would force Us to admit even against all Sense and Reason. Therefore we have abundant cause to praise the Wisdom of His Majestie and this His Parliament, that in the 16th yeer of his Reign they framed that most prudent Triennial

Law, which placeth a golden Mediocrity betwixt the ha∣ving too frequent Parliaments, and too long delay of them; and I must needs say His Majestie hath therein ap∣peared, by limiting himself to call Parliaments hereafter, at Three yeers time after the determination of this, and after the determination of every succeeding Parliament, to be beyond all our Kings, and most gracious in condescend∣ing, and Indulgence towards his people; that as the Fa∣ction, which set on work this Considerator and his Fellows to delude the Subjects, and beget in them an Opinion as if His Majestie intended to deprive them of their Old Laws and Rights to Parliaments, do appear now to be most un∣grateful towards Him: so I suppose their mouthes will henceforth be stopped, seeing they are secured by that new Triennial Act, in which they ought to bury all such Disputes for the future: which they must needs do, if they will cast an eye upon the said Act before they fall to disputing, and perverting His Subjects.

One Objection more give me leave to answer, because it will be but in short; 'tis this: That though the words [if need be] be in the first Statute, yet they are not ex∣pressed in the Second, which being passed Thirty two yeers after, must be understood therefore to be absolute. But this I say, though the words be not there in terminis, yet other words are there which make those to be necessarily understood; and they are these: [AS ANOTHER TIME WAS ORDAINED BY STATƲTE.] The Statute meant here is the former of the two, which is of the Fourth of Edward the Third. The Issue then is this: That this later Statute, which is of the 36 of Edward the Third, referring, (as by the word AS appears) to the former Statute, no∣thing more is Ordained here, but what was, and AS it was Ordained in the former; and so it can bear no other In∣terpretation than what is proper to the former, and is

onely a Second Confirmation by Statute-Law of the Right by ancient Custom which the People had before to Parlia∣ments, as often as they should be needful; as it is inten∣ded by the first of the said Statutes.

So I have done with the Considerator: His Fellows, who do but steal out of him, shall be handled in the next place. One of them entitles his Book, THE LONG PAR∣LIAMENT DISSOLVED: But under that Title he means this Parliament, because they have sat Fourteen or Fifteen yeers, by reason of the world of work they have had be∣fore them, to repair the large Breaches made within these Nations by a tedious Civil War: which they might have finished before now, had not many impediments been cast upon them by the Malice and Cunning of a restless im∣placable Faction; whose glory it would be, above all o∣ther things attainable in the World, if they could any way dissolve this Parliament, or contrive how to make it End with disgrace, re infectâ, that they may not have the honour of finishing that glorious Establishment of Church and State which they designe; but that themselves (viz. the Faction) and the Forlorn Hope of their Party, might once more have the opportunity to play the Game they have prepared against the good time of trying their For∣tune at New Elections. In the mean while, their Plot is laid every way to backbite this present House of Commons, and by odious Reflections upon the King and House of Peers, to make as many of the People as they can out of love with our ancient Monarchical Constitution of Parlia∣ments, that they may introduce the New Model of their own. For this is certain, the Spiritual Drivers which they make use of, and must, will neither go nor drive (as the Proverb saith) unless the whole Civil Frame be form'd to a cleverly comportment with the Geneva-Patern; but will

rather flie off and curse them, in stead of Meroz, and all their Undertakings, as the Scotch General Assembly did Duke Hamilton, when by an Authority of Parliament there, he presumed, without their Blessing, to enter Eng∣land, Anno 1648. to have restored His Majestie's Fa∣ther.

No Temporal Lordships must look to thrive by trink∣ling with them, unless they will truckle to 'em too, and comply with their eternal Pride and Ambition in all Se∣natical as well as Classical Concernments; as those un∣happie Lords and leading Commons who staid in the Hou∣ses to act along with them, were fain to do in the yeers 1644, 1645, 1646. 'Tis worth the remembring how the Spiritual Assembly sat and dictated Decrees to the Secu∣lar, which the poor Senate always very tamely obeyed, and shaped into Ordinances as fast as might be, to be hang'd about the necks of the People, who had e'n as good have been hang'd out of the way, as to have suffer'd the Intail∣ment of such a Slavery upon their Posterity; the End whereof must have been, and, if we look not now about us, may, and must be again, to bring King and Parliament to the same truckling condition; which King James once most sadly experienced in Scotland, and in his wisdom saw, after he came to the Crown of England, would cer∣tainly return upon Him and His People here, if ever that Faction got afoot again, or a horsback; forasmuch as 'tis the onely Faction that cannot be mended or put into a consistence with Monarchy. By which you may see what is to be gotten by crying down Bishops; which their Op∣posites of late have most studiously done, both in Prints and by long Speeches: and what those few Lords and o∣thers must bring upon us at last, though perhaps they in∣tend it not, if ever to compass their own Ends they make use of that Malignant Faction: And know, that use them

they must, and be ruled by 'em too, if they weaken the Re∣putation, legal Power, and Reverence due to Bishops; the doing whereof will necessarily make way for the other, and give them the opportunities, for which they have, a∣bove these hundred yeers, been sowing of Tares, and plan∣ting and watering them in England and Scotland. Oh, that I had leisure in this place to give a particular Account of them, what a Thorn they have been in the sides of Princes and People in both the Kingdoms! The preven∣tion of the like is to be expected onely from His Majesty, and this present Parliament, who are sure to Him and the Government by Law established: And that is the reason why this Dissolving Pamphleter, and his Fellows, are so hot for a Dissolution of them, having set their Dice to make us undergo Hap-hazard by a New one; which must needs have less Ability, Experience, and Knowledge, than these that have been long practised, to promote and ma∣nage what is proper Parliamentary work in this difficult season, to heal our Breaches, secure the Government, com∣pose and ease the People. But a new raw one (quoth the Faction) would be more fit for us to practise upon and tu∣tour.

The Author of this Book may be called the Dissolver, because he would Dissolve all immediatly: But having little of a Lawyer in him, he goes another way to work, and in stead of Reasoning, he chiefly betakes himself to Oratory, to try what that will do among the People, with the help of fine Flashes of Wit. Therefore I shall make but short work in dispatching him, as he does to dispatch this Parliament out of the way.