There hath now a great and weighty busines bin presented to this house, & a Letter hath bin read importing a dicesion of the Kings naturall Subjects.

Mr. Speaker, this is a great case, and very worthy of the consideration and advisement of this great Counsell; but J am very much mistaken, if there be not a case here at home, of as great a danger as that now put to be abroad, the one stands without the doore (for so dangers from thence, in all our histories, have ever bin termed:) but the case that I would put, is a case of danger already upon our backs.

And in those great cases of danger, which so much concerne the wellfare of the body politique we ought to doe in them like skillfull Physitians that are not led in their judgments so much by the outward expressions of a Disease, as by the inward Symptomes, and causes of it. For it fares with a body politique, as it doth with a body naturall: It is impossible to cure an ulcerous body, unlesse you [Page] first cleanse the veines, and purge the body from those obstructions, and pestilentiall humours that overcharge Nature, and being once done too, bot­ches, blaines, and scabs, that grew upon the super­ficies and out-side of the body, dry up, shed, and fall away of themselves.

Mr. Speaker, the danger that hath now bin pre­sented to the house, it standeth at a far distance, & J wish heartily, that it were further off; yet as it stands at a far distance, it is so much the lesse dan­gerous. But the case that J shall put, is a case of great danger here at home, domestique: & there­fore so much the more dangerous, because it is home-bred, and runnes in the veines.

And, Mr. Speaker, if the one shall appeare, to be of as great danger, as the other, J hope it will not bee thought unreasonable at this time, to put the one aswell as the other; And the case that I would put, is this.

The Charter of our liberties called Magna Charta was granted unto us by King Iohn,; which was but a re­novation and a restitution of the ancient Lawes of this Kingdome. This Charter was afterwards in the succession of severall ages, confirmed unto us above thirty severall times, and in the third yeere of his Majesties reigne that now is, we had no more then a bare confirmation of it. For we had an Act declaratory past, and then to put it out of all question and dispute for the future, his Majesty by his gtatious answere, Soit droit comme est desire, invested it with the title of Petition of right,

[Page]Master Speaker.

It may be some may object, Parturiunt montes &c I promised to present the house with a case of very great danger here at home, but the Mountain at last hath brought forth nothing but a Mouse, That this case is not worthy the name of a case, and so not worthy the put­ting.

And truly, for mine owne part, J should have bin of the same opinion (had not some expositors, con­trary to the Lawes of God, and Man, and reason, & J am sure contrary to the Dictamen of their own Consciences) marred the text with their expositi­ons, undermining the liberty of the Subjects, with new invented subtile distinctions, and assuming to themselves a power (I know not where they had it) out of Parliament, to supercede, annihilate and make voyd the Lawes of this Kingdome.

What sad effects, these wayes and opinions have produced, I am confident, his Majesty hath neither seene nor heard, as wee have felt them. And it is now his Majesties goodnesse and Piety, to give us leave to speake them, and to present them with our Greevances, which are not few.

Mr. Speaker, the Common-wealth hath bin mise­rably torne and macerated, and all the proprie­ties, and Liberties shaken: the Church distracted, the Gospell and Professors of it persecuted, and the whole Kingdome over-run with Multitudes, and swarmes of projecting Cater-wormes, and Ca­terpillars, the worst of all the Aegyptian Plagues.

[Page]Then as the case now stands with us, I conceive there are two poinis very considerable.

The first is, what hath bin done any way to impeach the Liberty of the Subject, contrary to the Petition of Right.

The second is, who have bin the Authors and Causers of it.

Mr. Speaker, the serious examination and decisi­on of those two questions, doe highly concern his Majesty in the point of Honour, and his subjects in the point of Interest: and all that I shall say to it is but the words that Ezra did to King Artaxerxes, to the setlement of that State: which at that time was as much out of frame and order▪ as ours is at this present; and which cured theirs, I hope will cure ours. His words were these.

Whosoever hath not done the Law of God, and the Law of the King, let judgment be speedily executed upon him, whether it be unto death, or unto banishment, or unto Confi­cation of goods, or to Imprisonment.

Now, M. Speaker, it may be some doe think this a strange text, and is't possible! Some may thinke it as strange a case. As for the text, every man may reade it, that will. And for the case, I am afraid there are but few here, which doe not experimen­tally know it, to be as bad as I have put it: And how to mend a bad case, is part of the busines wee met about. His Majesty hath graciously confirmed unto us, our great and ancient priviledge of Free­dome af Speech: and having his Kingly word for it, J shall rest confidently upon it, as the greatest security under heaven. And whilst J have the ho­nour [Page] to have a place here, I shall with humility be bound to expresse my selfe as a Free-man.

The Diseases and Distempers that are now in our body politique, are growne to that height, that they pray for, and importune a Cure. And his Majesty out of his tender care, and Affection to his people, like a nursing Father, hath now freely offered himselfe to heare our prayers and Com­plaints.

Mr. Speaker,

We cannot complaine that we want good Lawes; for the wit of man cannot invent better then are already made; There want only some Examples, that such as have beene the Authors, and causets of all miseries, and distractions in Church and Common wealth, contrary to those good Lawes which be like TREAKLE to expell the poyson of mischiefe out of others,

But my part is but ostendere Portam, and rherefore having put the Case, I must leave it to the judgement of this house, whether our dangers here at home be not as great and considerable; as that which was even now pre­sented.