A MOST Learned and Eloquent SPEECH, Spoken and Delivered in the HOUSE OF COMMONS, AT WESTMINSTER, By a most LEARNED LAWYER, the 23th June, 1647.  
Mr. Speaker,  
I Know no man weaker than myself; who do acknowledge I am as unfitting to speak in this Honourable House, as Phormio the Philosopher was, to prattle an Oration of War-Discipline to the great Soldier Hannibal, in the presence of King M. _____ Yet out of the debility of my Knowledge, the inability of my Learning, the imbecility of my Judgement, the nobility of this Transcript-Senate, the mutability of their Censures, the instability of Opinions, the timorosity of Offending, the volubility of Scandal, and the impotency of my Utterance, I have, maugre all these perilous Impediments, adventured to unbosom and disburden my mind before these unmatchable Patriots.  
Mr. Speaker, I am not ignorant that you are appointed in the Parliament, to be Ear of the King, and Mouth of the Commons; And I desire that your hearing may not take offence at my words, nor your tongue retort me a reproof instead of an applause. Mr. Speaker, In my Introduction to Grammar, vulgarly called, Accidence, I found Eight Parts of Speech, which is now an Introduction to me to divide my Speech into Eight Parts:  
Viz. 

1. What we have done for Religion.  
2. What for the Church.  
3. What for the King.  
4. What for the Laws.  
5. What for the Kingdom.  
6. What for the Subject.  
7. What for Reformation.  
8. What we have done for ourselves.    
Of all these in order, as my infirm loquacity can demonstrate. Mr. Speaker, I do not herein declare, either of neither, the Opinions of this Honourable Assembly or my own; but I will make plain unto you, how the Malignants esteem us, and into what Odium we are fallen among Foreign Nations.  
First, For Religion, the Malignants say; We have thrust out one and taken in two; that we have thrown down Protestantism, and erected Anabaptism, and Brownism; and that in our Doctrine we abuse the Renowned Memories of Queen Elizabeth, King James, and consequently King Charles; that in their Religions they were Papistically minded, which their Lives and Acts, did and do manifest the contrary. And the Malignants say, it is no less than odious Treason, either of these deceased or surviving Princes, to traduce with such false and scandalous aspersions.  
Mr. Speaker, I would not be mistaken, I say not my own words, but I say what the Malignants say of us, and my Lord Say; And they the Protestant and Protestant Church, was wont to be, and aught to be an inward robe and vesture for the Soul and Conscience of all true Believers; And that the Bishops, Ancient Fathers, and all Orthodox Divines have, and had a care to keep her neat and handsome, in as spotless integrity, as a Militant Church in this imperfect Age could keep it.  
But our Adversaries, they say, That we have in our Religion an outward Garment, or Cloak of any colour, which none do wear amongst us but Sectaries, Fools, Knaves, and Rebels; the said Cloak, being with often turning worn as threadbare as our Public Faith is, full of wrinkles, spots, and stains, neither brushed, spunged, nor made clean, with as many patches as Beggars Coats, and that our preaching or prattling, as they also say, it is kept by Cobblers, Tinkers, Weavers, Wyer-Drawers, and Ostlers; so that all order and decent comeliness is thrust out of the Church; all laudable Ornaments (and indifferent beseeming Ceremonies) are cried down, trod down and banished, under the false and scandalous terms of Popery, and in the place thereof is most nasty, filthy, loathsome and slovenly beastliness or Doctrine, being vented in long and tedious Sermons, to move and stir up the People to Rebellion and Traitorous Contributions; to exhort them to Murder, Rapine, Robbery, Disloyalty, and all manner of mischief that may be, to the confusion of their Souls and Bodies: All these damnable Villainies, our Adversaries say, are the accursed Fruits which our new-moulded Linsy-Woolsey Religion hath produced; for they say, our Doctrine is neither derived from the Old or New Testament, that all the Fathers and Testant Doctors and Martyrs, never heard of it, that Christ and his Apostles never knew it. And for the Book of Common Prayer, they say in Verse of that,  
Ten thousand such as we can ne'er devise,  
A Book so good, as that which we despise,  
The Common-Prayer they mean, if we should sit,  
Ten thousand years, with all our brains and wit,  
We should prove Coxcombs all, and in the end,  
New make so good, 'tis too good for us to mend.  
And so much they say, we have done for Religion, it being the First Part of my Eighth Part of Speech, as my weakness and your patience will permit; I will more briefly and compendiously proceed to the second.  
Secondly, For the Churches, we are taxed by the Malignants with profane and more than barbarous pollutions of the Churches, or Houses dedicated to God's Service: they say, we never built any, but have taken too much accursed pains to deface and pull down many, or perverting the right use of them, into Stables, Brothels, Receptacles for Strumpets, Luxurious Villainies, and infernal stinking smoke of Mundungus, as a Common Stable, destroying those things which were with great maturity of Judgement, Learning, and Wisdom, enacted by former Parliaments, most execrably spoiling all by the usurping Power of this Parliament.  
Mr. Speaker, It is a rigorous medicine for the , to knock out the brains of the Patient, he is no wise man that takes violent Physic, and kills himself to purge a little phlegm, nor is he a prudent Builder, that if his House do want some slight repair, will pull it all down; a man that loves his Wife will not cast her away for a few needless black patches that her face is disfigured withal. In like manner the Malignants conceive, if any things were amiss, either in Ornament, Gesture, Ceremony, Lyturgy, or whatsoever might have been proved unfitting, scandalous, or justly offensive, as is conceived, it might have been removed or reconciled in a more Christian way, than by Ruinating, Demolishing, Tearing, and Violating, Defiling and Spoiling, all without regard of either, Humanity, Christianity, Charity, Law, or order from God or man, as too many Parishes and other places in this Famous Kingdom, can most truly, woefully testify. And these sweet pieces of services our Adversaries say, we have done for the Churches.  
Thirdly, Concerning our Loyalty and Obedience to the King; It is manifest, we have all taken the Oath of Allegiance to His Majesty, and that we have also lately taken Oaths and Covenants to make War against Him; our Enemies would fain know, who had power of dispense, to free us from these Oaths, and likewise by what authority? The latter Covenant and Oaths, were imposed upon the consciences of men; for my own part, if there were no wiser men than myself, this ambiguous Aenigma should never have gone so far; but it is reported by them, that if we had kept our first Oaths religiously, and not taken the second most perjuriously, and performed them so impiously, than we had never so rebelliously offended so Gracious a Majesty.  
Mr. Speaker, Our Adversaries do further allege, that our Obedience to His Majesty is apparently manifest many strange ways: we have disburdened Him of His large Revenues, we have cased Him of the charge of Royal Housekeeping, we have cleared Him from repairing of it, or repairing to His Stately Palaces, Magnificent Mansions, and Defensive Castles and Garrisons, and we have put Him out of care of repairing his Armouries, Arms, Ammunition and Artillery; we have been at the charge of the keeping of His Children, and most trusty Servants from or for Him; we have taken order and given ordinances, that He shall not be troubled, either with much money or meat, and that His Queen and lawful Wife shall not so much as darken His doors, and we have striven by open Rebellion to release Him of troublesome Life and Reign, by hunting Him like a Partridge over the Mountains, and by shooting Bullets at His Person for His majesty's Preservation, on purpose to make Him glorious in another World; we have also eased Him of a great number of His Friends, Subjects, and Servants, by either charitable famishing, brotherly banishing, liberal and free imprisoning, Parliamental Plundering, friendly throat-cutting, and unlawful beheading and hanging, or utterly ruinating as many as we could lay hold of, that either loved, served, or honoured Him.  
All these heavy Burdens we have eased Him of, and overloaded ourselves with the usurped ponderosity of them; so our Adversaries say, that the weight of them will shortly either break our backs, or sink us for ever.  
And they further say, that since the World's Creation, never so good a King was so bardly used, or so traitorously abused and dealt withal.  
Fourthly, Mr. Speaker, It is questioned what we have done for the Law, there are some Malignants, that are not afraid to say, that we have transformed and metamorphosed the Common-Law of the Land, into the Lands common calamity; that instead of the common benefit, which the Laws in community should yield to all, we have now perverted the same, to the private profit of ourselves and some particular Persons; The Civil War is turned to uncivil War, Blasphemies, Atheism, Sacrilege, Obscenity, Profaneness, Incest, Adultery, Fornication, Leignany, Polligany, Bastard-bearing, Cuckold-making, and all sorts of beastly bawdry, is so far from being punished, that it is greatly connived at, or totally tolerated; and that those, who should be punishers of these gross and crying Crimes, as Judges, Officials, Doctors, Proctors, and Apparitors, these are scorned, reviled, libelled against, cried down, and made to be the shooting stake and laughingstock of every libidinous incontinent Whore and Whoremonger.  
The Law of God, contained in the Decalogy or Ten Commandments, they say, we have cast out of the Church, not so much as suffering it to be read; and the New Testament, which was the last that Christ commanded, That we should love one another; we have turned the clean contrary way, to the spoiling and murdering of one another; and for the Law of Nature, it is most unnaturally changed, to a Brutish, Heathenish Inhumanity, Parricide, Intricide, Fratricide, and Homicide, and hath been, and is by us defended maintained, and rewarded; no Affinity, Consanguinity, Alliance, Friendship, or Fellowship, hath or can have any true Protestant or Loyal Subject, either of Life, Goods, Safety or Freedom: These are the best Reports our Adversaries the Malignants do give us, to have done for the Laws.  
Nay, they say further, we have infringed and violated the Law of Arms here, and the Law of Nations abroad; for whereas Messengers and Ambassadors, have always had, and aught to have free and safe passage, with fair and courteous accommodation and entertainment; but we, contrary to them, and repugnant to Christianity and Christians, have suffered Ambassadors to be Rifled, Rob, and Ill-intreated, and we have caused His majesty's Messengers to be hanged, whom he most graciously hath sent to us with Conditions of Peace, by Vox Populi, or common Vote of the People, without we are pleased, to call Malignants Popish Enemies to the State, with other scandalous names, reproachful words and Epithets, which they utterly deny, and we know both in their words and practise: we are justly taxed to be the mean independent and pestilent propogation of all mischiefs that this afflicted miserable Kingdom groans and bleeds under; for they say that the Old Statutes of Magna Charta are overthrown by us, under the colour of supporting them by our Votes and Ordinances, Precepts and Proclamations, Edicts, Mandates and Commands; we have countermanded, abrogated, annihilated, abolished, violated, and made void all the Laws of God and Nature, of Arms and Arts too, and instead of them we have unlawfully erected Marshal Law, Club-Law, Strafford's-Law, and such Laws as make most for Treason, Rebellion, Murder, Sacrilege, Envy and Plunder; but as for the King, we have not allowed Him so much Law as a Huntsman allows a Hare; these are our Enemy's words, and thus much say they we have done for the Laws.  
Fifthly, The first Question or Quere is, what we have done for the Kingdom.  
It is spoken, we have done and undone the Kingdom; this Ancient Famous Kingdom, the Envy of the World for happiness, this Eden of the Universe, this Terrestrial Paradise, this abstract of Heaven's blessing, and Earth's content, the Epitome of nature's glory, this exact extraction of Piety, Learning, and magnanimous Chivalry, this nursery of Religion, Arms, Arts, Laudable Endeavours, this brood of men, this wonder of Nations, formerly renowned, feared, loved and honoured, as far as ever our Sun and Moon did shine, this England, which hath been a Kingdom, a Monarchy many hundred years under the Reigns of 168 Kings and Queens, this Kingdom that hath conquered Kingdoms, that hath made, India, Palestina, Cyprus, tributary tremblers, hath made France shake, Spain quake, relieved and defended Scotland from French Slavery, that saved and protected the Netherlands from Spanish Tyranny, Now we have made this Kingdom of England a most miserable Slave to itself, an universal Golgotha, a purple gore Ackeldema, a Bloody Field, a Gehenna, a Den of Devils, or Infernal Furies, and finally an Earthly Hell, were it not for these differences, that here the best men are punished, and in Hell the worst only are plagued; here no good man escapes torments nor any bad man is troubled, the Gracious King is abused, for being good and just, and his true and loyal Subjects and Servants massacred, and maligned for their fidelity, the Protestants are called Papists, because they will not be Brownists, Anabaptists and Rebels, and Adversaries are so bold to say, that we have plotted and laboured long to turn this glorious Monarchy into a pelting holy polly Independent Anarchy, and to make the Kingdom to be no Kingdom, so much they say we have done for the Kingdom.  
Sixthly, Mr. Speaker, we are questioned what good we have done for the Benefit and Liberty of the Subject: Some of them say nothing at all, which they find by lamentable experience, that we have turned their Liberty into Bondage, their Freedom into Slavery, and their Happiness into Unhappiness and Misery; nay, it is reported we have found no way to Hell for them, which we are persuaded to be the way to Heaven, which is to Rebel or Perjure, to fight in Person against the King, and to be forsworn, to owe Him no Duty and Allegiance; tush, these are but trifles, and may be answered at any easy rate, a small matter will clear the hearing; it's no more than everlasting damnation, from which Speech, Master Speaker, I am bold to make use of a Speech in the distasteful Litany, Good Lord deliver us.  
Master Speaker, the Malignants do compare the Commonwealth to an Old Kettle, with here and there a fault, a hole, a crack, or a flaw in it; and that we in imitation of our blessed Brethren of Banbury, were entrusted to mend the said Kettle, but like deceitful heatings, Tinkers, we have instead of stopping one hole made three or fourscore: For the People chose us for to ease them of some idle and tolerable Grievances, which we have done so cunningly and superficially, that all the Subjects cry out and complain, that the Medicine is forty times worse than the Disease, and the Remedy an hundred times worse than the Medicine, and so much is reported we have done for the Subject, which is either enough or too much.  
Seventhly, Master Speaker, the seventh Malignant's Question or Quere is, what we have done for Reformation? what by our industrious care and long sitting we have Reform? how the Sermon and Word of God is by us religiously, sincerely, zealously, frequently and orderly preached and practised? what we have amended either in the Church or Kingdom? how either the King is by us honoured, or the Subject eased? or what we have done these four or five years? the Malignants would fain know with what faces we can look on the Freeholders' and Corporations in every Shire, County, City, Town, and Burrough in this Kingdom, who cried us up with their voices, and carried us up like Popes, on their shoulders with an Elle, to be Elected Knights and Burgesses: which way, Mr. Speaker, can we answer them, for our many Breaches of that great Trust which they entrusted us withal? (I tell you, Mr. Speaker, these are home Questions) and that they say plainly, that our Reformation is Non-confirmation, and by sure Confirmation, true Defamation, and that we have by cunning Transformation turned all to Deformation, so that our Predecessors and Ancestors that are deceased this Life, to a better or worse, should or could they arise out of their Graves, and see the change, alteration and unmannerly manners, that hath overspread this Church and Kingdom, they would think they were in Turkey, Barbaria, Cerilia, Tartary, or some Land that is inhabited by Infidels, Pagans, or Devils; for England as it is, looks no more like England, as it was six years ago, than a Camel or a Cockle are like an Owl or a Red-herring.  
Eighthly and lastly, Mr. Speaker, the Malignants question us, what we have done for ourselves? It is true, Charity gins at home, and we ought to make much of and strengthen ourselves; but we have run as the Adversaries say, to the hazarding of our Estates, to be justly forfeited for Rebellion against so just, merciful, and truly religious a King, our Lives are liable to the censure of such Laws as former Parliaments have Enacted against Rebels and Traitorous Rebellion, and our souls are in danger of perdition, if submission, contrition, and satisfaction be not humbly, hearty, speedily performed; for we and only we have altered this Kingdom's Felicity to confusion and misery; from a blessed merry Comedy, to a doleful bloody Tragedy, which may fill a large History of perpetual memory to the everlasting oblivion, shame, and indignity of Us and our Posterity: And thus, Mr. Speaker, with as much brevity as I could, I have run over my Eight Parts of Speech, whereby may be perceived how our Malignant Adversaries do esteem of Us, and our Actions: I could speak more than I have said, and I could say more than I have spoken, but having done I hold it manners and discretion to make an end.  
FINIS.