A true Copy of the SPEECH, Made BY THE HONOURABLE DENZELL HOLLES, ESQUIRE, At a Conference by a Committee of both Houses of Parliament in the Painted Chamber:  
Concerning the Protestation framed by the House of Commons, which was solemnly made by every member of the same.  
Wherein is set forth the Protestation itself, and the reasons inducing them to make it; Together with their desire, that the Lords would concur with them in the same zeal and affection for the public safety.  
With an explanation upon some doubts made upon the said Protestation.  
LONDON.  
Printed, M.DC.XLI.   

A Speech made by the Honourable DENZELL HOLLES, Esquire, at a Conference by a Committee of both Houses of Parliament in the painted Chamber, May 4. 1641. in the presenting of the Protestation.  
My Lords,  
THe Knights, Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons, having taken into their serious consideration the present estate and condition of this Kingdom, they find it surrounded with variety of pernicious and destructive designs, practices, and plots against the well-being of it, nay, the very being of it, and some of these designs hatched within our own bowels, and, viperlike, working our destruction.  
They find Jesuits and Priests conspiring with ill Ministers of State to destroy our Religion: they find ill Ministers conjoined together to subvert our Laws and Liberties.  
They find obstructions of Justice, which is the life blood of every State, and (having a free passage from the Sovereign Power, where it is primarily seated, as the life blood in the heart, and thence derived through the several Judicatories, as through so many veins, into all the parts of this great collective Body) doth give warmth and motion to every part and member, which is nourished and enlivened by it: but being once precluded, stopped, and seared up, as the particular must of necessity faint and languish, so must the whole frame of Government be dissolved: and consequently Sovereignty itself, which as the heart in the body, is Primum vivens, & ultimum moriens, must die and perish in the general dissolution, and all things return, as in the beginning, in antiquum Chaos.  
They find the propriety of the subject invaded and violated, his estate rend from him by illegal Taxations, Impositions, Monopolies and Projects (almost upon every thing which is for the use of man) not only upon superfluities, but necessaries; and this to enrich the vermin and caterpillars of the Land, and to impoverish the good subjects, to take the mean from the children, and give it to dogs.  
My Lords, If we find these things so, we must conceive, they must be ill counsels which have brought us into this condition: These counsels have put all into a combustion, have discouraged the hearts of all true English men, and have brought two Armies into our bowels, which (as the Vulture upon Prometheus) eat through our sides, and gnaw our very hearts.  Hinc dolour: sed unde medicina? 
Heretofore Parliaments were the Catholicon, the Balm of Gilead which healed our wounds, restored our Spirits, and made up all the breaches of the Land; But of late years they have been like the Figtree in the Gospel, without efficacy, without fruit, only destructive to the particular members, who discharge their duties and consciences, no way beneficial to the Commonwealth; Nobis exitiabile, nec Reipub, profuturum, as he said in Tacitus; commonly taken away, as Elias was, with a whirlwind, never coming to any maturity, or to their natural end; whereas they should be like that blessed old man, who dyeth (plenus dierum) in a full age, after he hath fought a good fight, and overcome all his enemies; as the shock of wheat which cometh in in due season, to fill our Granaries with Corn, uphold our lives with the staff of bread.  
For, Parliaments are our panis quotidianus, our true bread; all other ways are but Quelques choses, which yield no true nourishment, breed no good blood.  
This very Parliament which hath sat so long, hath all this while but beaten the air, and striven against the stream; for I may truly say, wind and tide have still been against us.  
The same ill counsels which first raised the storm, which almost shipwrackt the Commonwealth, do still continue; they blow strong like the East-wind that brought the Locusts over the land.  
These counsels cross our designs, cast difficulties in our way, hinder our proceed, and make all that we do to be fruitless and ineffectual; they make us to be not masters of our business, and so not masters of money, which hath been the great business of this Parliament, that we might pay the Armies according to our promises and engagements.  
For, (My Lords) our not effecting of the good things which we had undertaken for the good of the Church and Commonwealth, hath wounded our reputation, and taken off from our credit.  
Is it not time then (my Lords) that we should unite and concentrate ourselves in regard of this Antiperistasis and circumvallation of hurtful and malicious intentions and practices against us? (My Lords) it is most agreeable to nature, and I am sure, most agreeable to reason, in respect of the present conjuncture of our affairs: for one main engine by which our enemies work our mischief, is by infusing an opinion and belief into the world, that we are not united amongst ourselves; but that, like Sampsons' Foxes, we draw several ways, and tend to several ends.  
To defeat then the counsels of these Achitophel's, which would involve us, our Religion, our King, our Laws, our Liberties, all that can be near and dear unto an honest soul, in one universal and general desolation; to defeat (I say) the counsels of such Achitophel's, the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of the House of Commons (knowing themselves to be specially entrusted with the preservation of the whole, and in their consciences persuaded that the dangers are so imminent that they will admit of no delay) have thought fit to declare their united affections, by entering into an Association amongst themselves, and by making a solemn Protestation and Vow unto their God, that they will unanimously endeavour to oppose and prevent the counsels, and the Counsellors which have brought upon us all these miseries, and fears of greater; to prevent the ends, and bring the Authors of them to condign punishment, and thereby discharge themselves both before God and man.  
The Protestation your Lordships shall have read unto you, together with the grounds and reasons which have induced the House of Commons to make it, which are prefixed before it by way of Preamble.  

The PREAMBLE.  
We the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of the Commons house in Parliament, finding, to the great grief of our hearts, that the designs of the Priests and Jesuits, and other Adherents to the See of Rome, have of late been more boldly and frequently put in practice then formerly, to the undermining and danger of the ruin of the true reformed Protestant Religion in His Majesty's Dominions established: And finding also that there have been, and having just cause to suspect that there still are, even during this sitting in Parliament, endeavours to subvert the fundamental Laws of England and Ireland, and to introduce the exercise of an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government, by most pernicious and wicked Counsels, Practices, Plots, and Conspiraces: And that the long intermission, and unhappy breach of Parliaments hath occasioned many illegal Taxations, whereupon the Subject hath been prosecuted and grieved: And that divers Innovations and Superstitions have been brought into the Church; multitudes driven out of His Majesty's Dominions, Jealousies raised and fomented betwixt the King and His people, a Popish Army levied in Ireland, and two Armies brought into the bowels of this Kingdom, to the hazard of His Majesty's Royal Person, the consumption of the Revenues of the Crown, and Treasure of this Kingdom: And lastly, finding great cause of Jealousy, that endeavours have been, and are used to bring the English Army into a misunderstanding of this Parliament, thereby to incline that Army, with force to bring to pass those wicked Counsels, Have therefore thought good to join ourselves in a Declaration of our united affections and resolutions, and to make this ensuing Protestation.   

The PROTESTATION.  
I A. B. do in the presence of Almighty God promise, vow, and protest to maintain and defend, as fare as lawfully I may, with my life, power, and estate, the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England, against all Popery and Popish Innovations within this Realm, contrary to the same Doctrine; and according to the duty of my Allegiance, His Majesty's Royal Person, Honour, and Estate; As also the Power and Privileges of Parliament; The lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subject, and every person that maketh this Protestation, in whatsoever he shall do in the lawful pursuance of the same. And to my power, and as fare as lawfully I may, I will oppose, and by all good ways and means endeavour to bring to condign punishment, all such as shall either by Force, Practice, Counsels, Plops, Conspiracies, or otherwise, do any thing to the contrary of any thing in this present Protestation contained. And further, that I shall in all just and honourable ways endeavour to preserve the Union and Peace between the three Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland; And neither for hope, fear, nor other respect, shall relinquish this Promise, Vow, and Protestation.   
NOte, That because some doubts were raised by several persons out of the Commons House, concerning the meaning of these words contained in the Protestation lately made by the Members of that House, viz. The true Reformed Protestant Religion, expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish Innovations within this Realm, contrary to the same Doctrine; The House of Commons did declare, That by those words, was and is meant only the public Doctrine professed in the said Church, so fare as it is opposite to Popery and Popish Innovations; And that the said words are not to be extended to the maintaining of any form of Worship, Discipline, or Government, nor of any Rites or Ceremonies of the Church of England.  
MY Lords, The House of Commons have commanded me to present unto your Lordships this Protestation: Every member in that House hath made it, not one refusing it; and they have sent it unto your Lordships, with an assurance of your Lordship's concurrence in the same zeal and affection for the public safety. And it is their desire your Lordships would likewise make the same Protestation, which I humbly leave to your Lordship's wisdoms.  

Directions for more orderly making of the foresaid Protestation.  
IT is thought fit that the Protestation which the Parliament lately made be taken by the City of London, in the several Parish Churches, in the afternoon of some Lord's day, after Sermon, before the Congregation be dissolved, by all Masters of Families, their sons, and man-servants, in manner and form following, viz.  

First, That forthwith notice of this intention be given to the Minister, Churchwardens, and some other meet persons of each Parish in London, Liberties, and adjacent Parishes, and some of them to give notice to the rest of the Parishioners.  
Secondly, That the Minister be entreated (if he please) to acquaint his Parish in his Sermon, either forenoon or afternoon, with the nature of the business, more or less, as he shall think fit, for the better and more solemn taking of the said Protestation; or if the Minister refuse it, that some other be entreated to preach that will promote the business; or if neither of these may be had, that some other convenient course be taken by some well affected to the business, to stay the Parish, and communicate, the matter to them.  
Thirdly, That the Minister or Ministers of every. Congregation first take it in his or their own person, reading the said Protestation in so distinct a voice, that all present may conveniently hear it, and than all the Assembly present do make the same Protestation distinctly after this manner, every man taking this Protestation into his hand. 
 I A. B. do in the presence of Almighty God freely and hearty promise, vow, and protest the same which the leading person took, naming the person.  
Fourthly, That there be a Register Book wherein every man taking this vow or Protestation subscribe his name, with his own hand or mark, and that the names be taken of such as do refuse the fame.  
Fifthly, That all the Parishioners abovesaid; whether in Town, or out of Town, be earnestly requested to be present at their own Parish Church in the afternoon of that Lords day whereon it shall be taken, that every man may take it in their own place; and if any be necessarily absent, that they may be desired to take it the next Lord's day after, or so soon as may be with convemency.  
Sixthly, and lastly, That all whom it doth not immediately concern, be earnestly requested to departed.    
FINIS.