Certain considerations: being the legitimate issue of a true English heart: presented to the free-holders, and to the free men of the several corporations in this nation; to regulate their elections of Members to serve in the next Parliament, to be holden the 25. of Aprill, 1660.

Certain Considerations, being the Legitimate Issue of a true English heart; Presented to the Free-holders, and to the Free-men of the several Corporations in this Nation, to regulate their Elections of Members to serve in the next PARLIAMENT, to be holden the 25. of Aprill, 1660.

TAcitus makes it the bane of the Ancient Britains, Quod in Commune non Consulunt, That is, they had no Common-Councels, by which that great Statist meant either, Parliaments, or something equivalent to them: And certainly Parliaments are the best Physick of a sick State, but when the Physick shall become the disease, and by Factions, Interest, Atheisme, and the Consequents of that (Sacriledge and contempt of that just Authority) shall make the Nation sick of its own Remedy, and turn blessings themselves into curses, the wound both of Church and State, will grow so wide, that none butan Almighty hand can close them.

And thus hath this poor distracted Nation (been near 20 years) sick of their Physicians, and now lies almost at the last gasp, with bleeding hearts, and watery eyes; we cannot but remem∣ber, (for it is a Misery to remember how happy we were) that the last late King Charles, (the best of Princes, the Peoples Martyr, and his Martyrdome the Astonishment and Earth∣quake of all Princes in the world) in the 16 year of his Reign did summon a Parliament, to be holden at Westminster, on the 2. of November in the same year; to consult with the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and other great men of the Kingdome, concerning the difficult, and urgent Affairs of the King and State, and of the defence of the Kingdome and Church of England, (then glorious to the envie of some other States, and the Admiration of all.) To this Parliament (according to the summons) came the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses, of the several Counties, Cities and Burroughs, elected by the vertue of the said Writ, ac∣cording to the Custom of England, ever since the 9. year of Henry the 3. And this was the first time that the Commons were admitted Members of Parliament, and to fit in a distinct House by themselves; but let this Truth never be forgotten, that they sate then but in the Nature of a Grand Jury, to present the grievances and desires of the people, and on their behalf to consent to such Lawes as should be there ordained: but that House of Commons taking ad∣vantage either by the weakness, or necessities of their succeeding Kings, grew as we have seen to such an exorbitancie of Power, till at last they gave Law to their Masters, and made the King himself but a Royal Homager.

But to proceed, the Parliament consisting (as it ought) of Lords and Commons, met ac∣cordingly in their respective Houses, and (according to custome) did severally take the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacie, whereby they swore, (O remember this all ye that did swear) [To bear true Faith to the Kings Majesty, his Heirs, and Successors, and to defend him and them, against all attempts and conspiracies against them, their Persons, Crown and Dignity, and they did swear that they did abhor that damnable doctrine, (and a damnable one it is) That Princes might be murthered and deposed, this they swore:] But did they keep this Oath when they made their Iniquitie to triumph, and erected the Scaffold, the sad and unexpected Scean of the late Kings Death, upon the very Margin of his Throne, and made him goe out of the world at his own Door? Poor Cateline, whose modest Crimes made Tully eloquent enough to make his Crimes greater by his Eloquence; but here Cicero himself would have been bankrupt, and amasement become the best Rhetorick.

The Parliament thus met the King in a Speech, declares his willing and ready concur∣rence to cure all the grievances of his People, and to enact such Laws as should tend in or∣der to it: And because the Court of Star-chamber, High Commission, and Councel Table, were great eye-sores to some men, (who liked no power which might control their disregard of Laws and just Authority,) His Majesty graciously consented to abolish the two first, and to re∣gulate the last; And more then this, devested himself of all Power, giving away the Militia both by Sea and Land, to those who wanted his Power to destroy him, and secure their crimes? Tonnage and Poundage were laid at the feet and pleasure of the Parliament, and Monopolists and other Delinquents left to Justice, and the grant of a Triennial Parliament was made the Monument of the Kings Goodness, and the means to the peoples perpetual felicity: And might we not stop here, and say, Happy are the people that be in such a case! The people had (now) nothing to ask, nor the King to give, that reason could require; but this could not satisfie men, who scorn'd the Throne, and were resolved that their Ambition should trample upon the very Goodness of their King: And therefore now Religion and Reformation (The usual Masque of Rebellion) must be the Engine to earch the people, whose power they wanted to oppress their King: and the publique Faith must be pawn'd to raise Money to gratifie our (Dear Scottish Brethren) who must needs be sent for, and an Ar∣my of 20000. invi••ed to force the people to a New Religion, (for the Old was condemn'd, without the Liberty of speaking for it self. But the most of this Design was but in projection as yet: such an Embrio could not be produced, without the grant of a perpetual Parliament, which (by the Kings Necessities) they soon wrested from him. Now was the Oath of Alle∣giance forgot, and the King affronted with all the effects of hold defiance, and the six Mem∣bers accused of Treason by their Prince, and in due course of Law impeached in the House of Peers protected, and the King traduced with the breach of their priviledges, and yet till then, never any Member claimed priviledge for Felony or Treason: Of which last, had those Gentlemen been free, the world could not have given them so much Honour, as would have grown to them by their Trial. The Innocent never dread the Tribunal, the guilty only fear; Yet the Members justifie themselves, but it is with the numbers of the people, and by force and affronts about the Royal Pallace, endanger the King to their fury, who now devested of of all Power, (but that of an unconquered Patience) makes an Honourable flight to Wind∣sore, to give his afflictions breath, and to consider the safety of his Royal Consort and hope∣ful Children: The Queen leaves the Land, because she could not be safe in it; and the King, (as far as he had any Land) accompanies her. The King finding the South so tem∣pestuous seeks a Calm in the North; but that the Storm may meet him there too Sir John Hotham, the Fatal Father of as Fatal a Son, is sent with 500. Souldiers to keep Hull for them who there denied the King a peaceable Entrance into his own Town: And now a Vote passeth to raise 10000. men upon pretence to defend the Parliament against the King, who was so far from having a Camp, that his numbers scarcely exceeded a Court, nor was there about him any Militiarie appearance as yet: and the Complexion of his Message of the 20. of January, 1641. Courting them to peace, with the offers of more Acts of Grace then could modestly be expected from the most indulgent Prince) is a sufficient Demonstration, how little he delighted in his peoples blood, or his own revenge: But this Message, (though the King often prest for an Answer of it) had none, but what a Battail fought against his very Person at Edge-hill, spoke in the Language of the Cannon, (for by that time their contempt and speedy marching toward him, had summond him, to receive such persons as would hazard their Lives and Fortunes for their Princes preservation.

Now was the whole Kingdome in a jealous trepidation, A war was begun, and the Citty of London doubtful of the Effects of such sad and unnatural Hostility, Petition for Peace, but (with others of the same Inclination and Address) were opposed by the Souldiery (incour∣aged for that purpose) and beaten and wounded, and trodden under the feet of the Horse-Troups, where (in the Pallace yard) some seeking peace lost their lives.

And as the Kings Messages of Peace (so often repeated) were ever sleighted, so his Mes∣sengers for Peace were used, and one carried to London blind-folded through their quarters was thence imprison'd, and after many weeks confinement at last, return'd without the least word of answer; They blinded his eyes who came for the Nations Peace, because they saw not the things which belong'd to their own. For Colbrook, and Oxford, and Uxbridge, are witnesses of the Kings endeavour for Peace, and how unsuccessful all his Treaties were, which could ne∣ver procure so much as a Cessation of Arms. And after all this, he offer'd his Sacred Person among them, (an attempt o•• no smal hazard, yet discovering abundantly how much he thir∣sted after his peoples Happiness) that so his Treaties of Peace might be more prosperous, but could not be admitted, with how little Variation might we say, He would have come to his own, but they would not receive him.

But next, let the pretended Causes of the War be considered, and they (as their Decla∣ration of August 1642. told us) was first to defend the true Protestant Religion; and this they defended, by pursuing, and at last destroying them who were the Defenders of it: The Pillars of the Church, the reverend Bishops, and most of the reverend Divines of the Nation (for the defence of Religion) were-suppressed, and their Freeholds (for so were their Benefices) ravish'd from them, they, their Wives and Children turnd out of dores, to seek their Meat in desolate places; and to their Places were preferr'd some of Jeroboam's bleating Calves, to bellow out their Cause among the People, who had not absolutely (as yet) shook hands with Loyalty: And now a race of dumb Asses are raised up, to forbid the p••etended Madness of the Prophets, and an inundation of Sectaries suf∣fered to rush in and overwhelm the Religion these good States men pretended to defend; and the greatest Atheists made the Darlings of the Times, whilest the Children of this our Israel, who durst sacrifice to their God (according to the Discipline and Doctrine of the Church of England) were punish'd and imprison'd: And to defend Religion the bet∣ter, the Birth-day of our Saviour (to gratifie their Brethren the Jews) was profaned, and the Observation thereof made a Crime.

Secondly, they declared to defend the Kings person, whilest their Pulpits and their Presses (and that without control) spoke noth••ng but Treason and Rebell••on: They defended him with Volleys of undistinguishing Shot, Pikes and Canon; and when forc••d from place to place, seeking security, and finding none, he had thought to make the Scots his refuge, this rock dash••d him in peices, and they (the Scots) his own Natural Subjects) sold him to the Parliament, who (more generously wicked than the Jews) gave 1000000 l. for him; a great price, yet less than he was worth; but that vast summe was made the price of Blood, and a Counterfeit high Court (I cannot say of Justice, though they called it so) Arraigned, Condemned, and Murther'd their King, not without the prefaces of many grand indignities, and spitting in his face: His erected Statua which honored the Exchange, thrown down, and an Infamous Inscription (calling him Tyr••n••) for they persecuted him after his Death) became the Monument of their Insolence and Rebellion; and when they had kill'd the Heir, they seised on his Inheritance, selling and sharing his Estate among them.

And thirdly, let it be considered, how well the Priviledges of Parliament (so much declared for) were defended) when by the help of their Janizaries, they secluded a hun∣dred of their own Members at a time, and imprisoned above forty more, for no other known Crime, but that they were wearie of their owne Crimes, and through horror of Conscience thought not fit to oppress their King any more: And that these mens Ambition might reign alone, the House of Peers (the undoubted Birth-right of the Nobility) was dissolved by a Vote, and no footsteps of Nobility were to be found in Parliament, but that the Earl of Salisbury (to honor the Peers House and his owne) in great humility availed his goodness (defying as much the checks of his Blew Garter, as those of his Conscience) was preferred into a Burgess.

And fourthly, let it be considered, how well the liberty and rights of the Subject have been defended by these grand Declarers for their Defence, and that will appear by their inforced Loans, Contributions, Parting Mens Estates, taking the fifth and twentieth part, and by that dishonorable way of Excise; and for the better enjoyment of the Subjects Li∣betties, laying them in prison, and forbidding the Benefit of a Habeas Corpus: And have not the Laws been trampled under foot, and Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right, made the sport and scorn of Cromwell's Ambition, who must be made Protector, that so the Guilty might not want protection, nor the Innocent to be oppress'd? And here let it be considered, Whether the Kings Proclamation of the 24. of October, 1642. were not Pro∣phetical, when he told them, their War was to take away his Life, to Destroy his Poste∣rity, to Change the Religion, to suppress the Laws, and to make the People Miserable by an Arbitrary power? And are there not (as Mr. Prynn's Memento tells us) above one hundred Declarations, Remonstrances, Petitions, and Ordinances of their owne, to witness their Perjuries and Hypocrisies?

And let it be considered, Whether the Solemn League and Covenant (that holy Engine of Division) will not, as Mr. Prynne speaks, stare in their faces, and engage God and the three Kingdoms against them if they should proceed (as since they have done) to De∣stroy the King, and Disinherit his Posterity?

Oh! Consider then, whether these men be ever to be trusted with Power, or to sit within those Walls again? Meddle not with them that have been given to such Changes as have Crumbled the Nation into so many Parties and Factions: Are they not guilty of the greatest Perjuries, of the greatest Murther (since that of our Saviour) that ever asto∣nish'd the world: Wherefore was it that the Earl of Essex, before his Death declin'd them? Wherefore was it that the Lord Fairfax, the Earl of Manchester, Sir William Waller, Mr. Hollis, Sir George Booth, Coll. Popham, and many others of great note, quitted their Stations, and by that, testified enough, how much they abominated these Impicties in their fellow Mem∣bers, And yet how ready were these men (in the late little pretended Parliament called the RUMP) to make the Nation drink deeper of their Tyranny, had not his Excellency the present Lord General clipt the wings of their Pride and Ambition, by over ballancing them with a return of the formerly oppressed and secluded Members? And though they be now dissolved (though against their wills) yet being most unwearied, and Industrious persuers of their former evil designs, they are earnestly at work in all Counties, using all means, (in which their friends and Partisans, the Anabaptists, Quakers, and other Sectaries are the instruments) to procure themselves to be elected again to serve in the next Parliament. And should you (Dear Brethren) be swayed to such elections (after such a miserable expe∣rience the Nation hath had of them) you would make the last error worse then the first, and by such elections (Justifying what they have done) you would give them the opportu∣nity to make your selves more miserable; and then they had your own consent, to justifie your undoing.

Consider how much the Church and State flourish'd before these Men rooted up the foundations of both; Consider how long the Nation hath groaned under their oppressions: Consider how they would perpetuate their Usurpation and our Thraldom, by endevouring to entail their power upon their Posterities, that so within a generation or two, Tyrany might be natural to them, and slavery to us: Consider whether these Men have made the Nation rich, or themselves? Consider whether these Sacrilegious Men, who have got the Revenews of the Church into their hands, are ever likely to advance Religion, or that those who have used their Prince so ill, can love the people? Consider that there is but one way under heaven to make the Nation happy, and that the guilt of these Men is so great, that they had rather drown the Nation in its own blood, and make your lives the Bulworks to pre∣serve their own, then consent to it, for great Guilt is ever suspitious, and hardly made to believe it is pardoned, though it be so: And now the spare is broken by their dissolution, let not your own hands weave nets to entangle you, but by your Elections shew you are

willing to be redeemed, should you put these Men in power again, your now bleeding Reli∣gion would give up the ghost, your Laws (those great distinguishers betwixt right and wrong) would hang at the point of their swords, your Estates would be no more, then they would spare you from those Multiplied Necessities which their Ambition and guilt will still Create; Consider that in the Elections, you do Consign over all these (and whatso∣ever is dear unto you) to the trust of those you do elect, Trust not those who have so oft deceived you, and believe it, it concerns you next to the Eternal State of your Souls, to make a prudent Election; And do not suffer your selves to be cheared into an opinion of a Free Parliament, when you have no such thing; And consider that these Men took care before they dissolved, to shuffle in such restrictions and Qualifications, as should almost shut out all Men from being Elected but themselves; And consider, that these Men had no power to impose such Qualifications upon you, and you will be but too forward to Seal to your own Mischiefs, if you observe them; And consider besides, that the hatred of these Men to the KING, lives still (though he be dead) in their hatred to those, who (out of Conscience of their duty) hazzarded themselves in defence of his just Cause; For those Qüalifications tell us, that not onely no person who hath been in Arms for the KING shall be elected, but that their Sons shall not be Capeable of being elected, and yet some of those Sons were not eight years old, and possibly some unborn: These great pretenders to Religion, love not to immitate God, in shewing Mercy unto thousands, but yet can visit the Iniquity of the fathers upon the Children, and perhaps (if ever they have power again) to more then the third and fourth Generation: by which they have broke all the engagements of honour, as they have done those of Allegiance: for by the Articles of Oxford (at the sur∣render thereof) and by the Articles of other Garrisons it was agreed that all Comprised in those Articles, should enjoy all the priviledges and Immunities of other subjects; and yet a lawful Election may preferre their Innocent Sons to a forfeiture of a 1000 l. for daring to serve their Country: No Civil war (not that of the Barons) did ever yet abridge the people of their Electing Liberties, but this Act was Contrived, that under the pretence of a Free Parliament, they might be free onely to choose them, who have already offen∣ded the Nostrils of God and Man; and for that ill savour, as well as for that they were but the remaining part of a Parliament, they have been called the Rump: but let the people take heed, for should these Rumpers appear in Parliament again, like Sampson's Foxes they would turn tail to tail, and between every two tails you shall be sure to have such a fire brand, as would kindle new Combustions, they having no way of safety but the Nations general danger.

All this considered, dearest Countrey men, stand fix'd to assert your Freedoms, you can∣not be out-numbred, and should not (therefore) be out-vallor'd, and I hope you will not be outvapored: By the self denying Ordinance of the third of April, 1645 never to be repealed (though never yet observed by those who made it) it was ordained that no officer whether Militarie or Civil, should be a Member of Parliament, for the sword will Create occasions to exercise it self, for by that Craft they get their living: And let not the Importment of Barebones Petition be forgot (which was so authenticated by the Speakers sollemn thanks) and that Petition moved the abjuration of King James his line by Act of Parliament, and that a Motion for a Single Person, as also the Motion to revoke that Law (when enacted) should be High Treason, and the thanks of the House so af∣fectionately bestowed upon Barebone, shews what priviledges they would leave to succee∣ding Parliaments, when the Laws of this must be unalterable, of this did I say, I must recant that, for they were none, the KINGS death, the several Interruptions, the Change of Government with several intermediate Parliaments makes them none: And yet they have taken upon them to issue Writs in the Name of the (Invisible Keepers of the Liberties of England) summoning a new Parliament, which notwithstanding by the prudence of the E∣lectors in the fit choyce of persons) may heal all those wounds of which the Nation hath so long Complained: And they cannot manifest that prudence better then in steering the Elections by these rules;

First, that they choose no purchaser of any of the Lands of the late KING, nor of the Bishops, Deans, and Chapters, nor of any Lands (pretendedly) forfeited for delin∣quency.

Secondly, That they choose none who have gained Offices, or made any Advantage by the late troubles.

Thirdly, That they choose none who have been or are, Commanders in the former or present Armies.

Fourthly, That they choose no person who hath been, or is, a Commissioner for Excise, Monethly Taxes, or any other burthens of the people.

And lastly, That waving all Consideration of the new pretended Qualifications (as English Men) they steer by the Laws, which (in short) direct the Electors thus: That the Knights to be chosen shall be notable Knights of the same Shire, * 1.1 or else some notable Esquire, or Gentlemen born, of the same County, and that no Yeoman or Person inferior shall be chosen: And that the Electors, and Knights elected must be such as were resident in the County, for which they serve, on the day of the date of the Writs, and that Citizens and Burgesses be resi∣dent in, and free of the Cities and Burroughs, for which they serve, And the punishment of a Sheriff making a false return, or of a Maior, or Bailiff so offen∣ding, would be Considered also, and may be found in the Statutes cited in the Margin. And now (Dear Country Men) you have (as I may say) Life and Death before you, Good and Evil, Happiness and Mifery, choose Life, and Good, and Happiness: Make the Children yet unborn, to praise God for you, Let your Management of this Election be the Monument of your love to your Country: Make up your breaches, Redeem the Captived Nation, by such a choyce, as may heal all our Distempers, and help those to right, who, (so long have suffered wrong, that there being no leading into Captivity, and no Com∣plaining in our Streets, we may once more make our boast of God, and say, Happy are the People that be in such a Case, yea, blessed are the People, that have the Lord for their God.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Stat. 7. Hen. 4. ca. 15. Stat. 11. Hen. 4. ca. 1. Stat. 1. Hen. 5. ca. 1. Stat. 8. Hen. 6. ca. 7. Stat. 10. Hen. 6. ca. 2. Stat. 23. Hen. 6. ca. 14.