ABSTRACT
I Humbly beseech Your Lordships to accept of my Sincerity, for I have always been for the Peace of the Kingdom; and it wounds my Heart for to see the differences between both Houses, and to hear of the Proceedings, for it may be of ill consequence: For the Lords and Commons are great moving Wheels in Government, and they must not contradict the motion of each other; for if they do clash one against another, they are like a Steel and a Flint that produces Fire: and I can assure you the Nation is Tindier, that they will quickly take a Spark, for they are ripe for ruin, and we are so divided, that there will be such varieties of Bellows, that we shall be quickly blown into a J lame, and then it will not be Your Lordships Power that can quench it. But now, how easie may Your Lordships put an end to the difference (if you please) for if words has displeased you, there may be words found out to please you again: For I would have neither Lords nor Commons stand upon nice points, but to bear one with another for the good of the Kingdom. I never knew such proceedings all the time I mov’d in Government, which is above Thirty Years: And when the Duke of Leeds had offended the Commons, he lov’d the peace of the Kingdom, and he did not desire any unlegal way to be acquitted, and if he had, it would a been worse for him, for he could never have been acquitted, for unlegal ways can never be justified: For the Commons is a Power that stands upon their own Legs, and they may be intreated, but not forced, and there is not any thing in Parliament can be done without them. For are you not three Powers, and do you not depend one upon another, and all depend upon Unity? And why then should your Lordships be so hasty with the Commons to stir them up? For, you see the counsel of the Church was, that they should not stir up her Beloved till he pleased, and therefore you should not have stir’d the Commons till they pleased: For what hurt would it have been, if they haddrop’d it, and to havesav’d all this trouble and charge? For they can never be acquitted without the Commons: And I dare say, that my Lord Orford is so good, that he can trust God, and wait the Parliamentsleisure: And I hope my Lord Sommers will be so wise, and all the rest to do the same; and where there is publick differences there is faults on both sides: So pardon one another as you would have God pardon you, and so be reconciled in love, for the Commons deserves to be loved, when they will be Commissioners to serve the Nation for nothing: And that God that inclin’d their Hearts to be so good, will defend them in all just causes against their Opposers. And I would intreat Your Lordships to have a care not to stretch your Power, for that was the Fall of Angels, and the unthroning of King James; and it has destroyed three Kingdoms and the best of Kings, as your Lordships may well remember; and the difference between the Govermours destroyed the Jews: The Lord give Your Lordships Wisdom to prevent it: Which the Lord grant. Amen. Amen.
