tion, God made the world according to that idea or form which was eternally preëxistent in the Divine mind. Moses was commanded to frame the tabernacle after the pattern showed him in the mount. Those actions are seldom well perfected in the execution, which are not first well moulded in the design and proposition.

He said he would labor to contract those manifold affairs both of the Church and State, which did so earnestly require the wisdom and faithfulness of this House, into a double method of grievances and cures. And because there wanted not some who pretended that these things, wherewith the commonwealth is now grieved, are much for the advantage of the King, and that the redress of them will be to his Majesty's great disadvantage and loss, he doubted not but to make it appear, that in discovering the present great distempers and disorders, and procuring remedy for them, we should be no less serviceable to his Majesty, who hath summoned us to this great council than useful to those whom we do here represent. For the better effecting whereof, he propounded three main branches of his discourse. In the first, he would offer them the several

heads of some principal grievances, under which the kingdom groaned. In the second, he undertook to prove that the disorders from whence those grievances issued, were as hurtful to the King as to the people. In the third, he would advise such a way of healing, and removing those grievances, as might be equally effectual to maintain the honor and greatness of the King, and to procure the prosperity and contentment of the people.

In the handling whereof he promised to use such expressions as might mitigate the sharpness and bitterness of those things whereof he was to speak, so far as his duty and faithfulness would allow. It is a great prerogative to the King, and a great honor attributed to him, in a maxim of our law, that he can do no wrong; he is the fountain of justice; and, if there be any injustice in the execution of his commands, the law casts it upon the ministers, and frees the King.

Activity, life, and vigor are conveyed into the sublunary creatures by the influence of heaven; but the malignity and distemper, the cause of so many epidemical diseases, do proceed from the noisome vapors of the earth, or some ill-affected qualities of the air, without

any infection or alteration of those pure, celestial, and incorruptible bodies. In the like manner, he said, the authority, the power, and countenance of princes, may concur in the actions of evil men, without partaking in the injustice and obliquity of them. These matters whereof we complain, have been presented to his Majesty, either under the pretence of royal prerogatives, which he is bound to maintain, or of public good, which is the most honorable object of regal wisdom. But the covetous and ambitious designs of others have interposed betwixt his royal intentions and the happiness of his people, making those things pernicious and hurtful, which his Majesty apprehended as just and profitable.

He said, the things which he was to propound were of a various nature, many of them such as required a very tender and exquisite consideration. In handling of which, as he would be bold to use the liberty of the place and relation wherein he stood, so he would be very careful to express that modesty and humility which might be expected by those of whose actions he was to speak. And if his judgment or his tongue should slip into any particular mistake, he would not think it so great a shame

to fail by his own weakness as he should esteem it an honor and advantage to be corrected by the wisdom of that House to which he submitted himself, with this protestation, that he desired no reformation as much as to reform himself.

The greatest liberty of the kingdom is religion; thereby we are freed from spiritual evils, and no impositions are so grievous as those that are laid upon the soul.

The next great liberty is justice, whereby we are preserved from injuries in our persons and and estates; from this is derived into the commonwealth, peace, and order, and safety; and when this is interrupted, confusion and danger are ready to overwhelm all.

The third great liberty consists in the power and privilege of parliaments; for this is the fountain of law, the great council of the kingdom, the highest court; this is inabled by the legislative and conciliary power, to prevent evils to come; by the judiciary power, to suppress and remove evils present. If you consider these three great liberties in the order of dignity, this last is inferior to the other two, as means are inferior to the end; but, if you consider them in the order of necessity and use,

this may justly claim the first place in our care, because the end cannot be obtained without the means: and if we do not preserve this, we cannot long hope to enjoy either of the others. Therefore being to speak of those grievances which lie upon the kingdom, he would observe this order.

I. To mention those which were against the privilege of parliaments. 2. Those which were prejudicial to the religion established in the kingdom. 3. Those which did interrupt the justice of the realm in the liberty of our persons and propriety of our estates.

The privileges of Parliament were not given for the ornament or advantage of those who are the members of Parliament.10 They have a real use and efficacy toward that which is the end of parliaments. We are free from suits that we may the more entirely addict ourselves to the public services; we have, therefore, liberty of speech, that our counsels may not be corrupted with fear, or our judgments perverted with self respects. Those three great faculties and functions of Parliament, the legislative, judiciary, and conciliary power,11 cannot be well exercised without such privileges as these. The wisdom of our laws, the faithfulness of our