A SEASONABLE WARNING TO THE Commons of England; Discovering to them Their Present Danger, and the only means of Escaping it, to be by a Prudent Choice of old English Spirits, to serve their King and Country in the Approaching Parliament.  
LET my real Zeal atone my seeming Presumption, if I, who am a part, though but a mean part of you, do humbly offer a Word of Advice to you; If the Members united may submissively advise their Head, I hope a single Member may Jog its Fellows, and mind them of their Danger and Duty. If you be happy, I shall share in your happiness; and if you sink, it will be my lot to sink with you.  
I dare, without Vanity, profess, I have so much old English blood still running in my Veins, as to scorn to outlive the wreck of my Native Country, and had rather sink in the Public Bottom, than by a base Subterfuge, save myself in the Boat; I have no right to sit at the Helm, I have no skill to manage the Tackling, yet let me descry a Rock upon which our Common Interest is ready to be dashed in pieces.  
A Dumb Son once spoke, when the Sword was at his Father's Throat, and can I be silent when a secret Dagger is ready to be sheathed in my Mother's Bowels? The gagling of a Goose (say they) once saved Rome, from the Surprisal of the French; Let not then wholesome Counsel be despised from a Contemptible hand, which may possibly save England from the Designs both of Rome and France.  
There are many things that are importunate with me, to be so with you; and whilst these important Matters sound in my ears, I must Echo them faithfully to yours.  
1. I observe that your Friends and Enemies are agreed in this one point (perhaps 'tis the first time that ever they were, and the last that ever they will) That you have but one Throw more for your All: If you throw it ill; your Enemies are resolved you shall never throw again for't; If well; your Friends hope you shall never need. 'Tis a Critical Moment: Upon your well, or ill Choosing, depends your well, or ill Being; and you had need do that well, which you must never do but once; your Fate will not suffer you to Offend twice in this one particular. I once stood by with trembling, to see the issue of two Condemned Persons throwing Dice for their Lives, I hope you will therefore excuse my concerned Fears, when the Die must be cast for my own too.  
2. Such is the happy Constitution, and frame of your Government, so prudently, so strongly have your wary Ancestors secured Property and Liberty (rescued by Inches out of the Hands of Encroaching Violence) that you can never be Ruined, unless you become the Authors of your own Ruin; you cannot be Enslaved, but with Chains of your own making. As you are never undone, till you are undone by a Law, so you can never be undone by a Law, till you choose the undoing Legislators; And will it not be an aggravation of your misery, that yourselves have made yourselves miserable? Will not your Enemies add Scorn to their Cruelty, and pretend Justice for both, when they can plead, That they had never trampled on your Heads, had you not laid them on the ground? And will not your Friends and Enemies abroad, the one with pity, the other with Scorn, object it to you, O England, thou hast destroyed thyself; whom all the World could not otherwise have destroyed?  
3. And you must consider, that they whom you choose will represent your Qualities, as well as your Persons; And if you send us up a false Glass, it will represent you with an ugly Face; you have hitherto had the repute of an Ancient, and Grave People; but if you choose raw Saplings, green Heads, unexperienced Children, the World will judge of you as they once did of the Grecians, That you were either always Children, or are grown twice Children; you have formerly had the Character of a Sober, Temperate Nation, but if you choose Drunkards to represent you, they will conclude that you are all Drunk; and it has sometimes been your glory, that you were a Generous People, but if you send up a company of sordid, saleable, mercenary Souls to represent (or rather to betray) you, you will forfeit that Glory, and the World will judge that you yourselves were Mercenary.  
4. Upon what terms our Civil and Religious Liberties now stand, your own Fears, which I perceive are grown Universal, by this time have informed you, what brisk Attempts have been made upon Both you know; what gallant Essays the late House of Commons have made to Secure both, you must thankfully own; how your Expectations have been frustrated, your Hopes blasted, you feelingly bewail; by what Counsels you have been defeated, in the Dissolution of Parliaments, you cannot be ignorant; and that the Remedy of all these Evils is in, and from yourselves (under God) there needs no proof; what an Excellent Spirit was poured out upon you in your last Elections, we all admire. That you may keep up the same Spirit, is the Hope of those that Love you, the Terror of those that Hate you, and the only Design of this Humble Address; wherein, that you may be directed, I shall briefly and plainly, 1. Show who are your Enemies. 2. What Designs they have upon you. 3. Lay down those Rules, which if faithfully attended to, will disappoint your Enemies, and make, or continue you yet a happy People.  

I. England's Enemies.  
Some of your Enemies are so open and bare-faced, that the Darkest Night of Politic Reserve cannot hid them from your observance; others again, are so secret, and close, that the brightest day cannot sufficiently discover them, but whoever shall come under these ensuing Characters, you may warrantably set a mark upon them, as your inveterate and sworn Adversaries.  
1. They that would flatter you into a belief, that there is no such thing as a Design upon you, as Men, and Christians, do really Design in both these Interests to undermine you; their Policy lies in making you Secure in yourselves, that you may not be Secure from themselves; could they once sing you asleep, their Work were easy to cut your Throats; could they once lift you up to the Pinnacle of Presumption, they would soon throw you headlong into desperation; and when they have once mounted you above a reasonable Fear, they would sink you below all comfortable Hope.  
2. Especially they whose steeled Impudence has emboldened them to Arraign the Justice of the whole Nation, in denying that horrid and devilish Plot against His Majesty's Person, the Government, and Religion of the Land: It is the glory of an Artist to conceal his Art; and the Masterpiece of Romish Plotters to conceal their Plots: and whilst they would deliver notorious Traitors from deserved Punishment, would as readily expose Loyal Subjects to that which is undeserved.  
3. Since Parliaments are our Catholicon, or Universal Remedy against Universal or Catholic Maladies; you must conclude them Enemies to the Nations Life, who would remove the Physicians in that Critical minute, when the Patient must either speedily recover, or immediately die. What you are then to judge of those Evil Counsellors, who advised the Dissolution of two Parliaments in one year, when we are sure there was never a year of more Danger, nor a Parliament of more ability to prevent it, is easy to determine, but not so easy to resolve, whether the loss of that Excellent Law, for a Parliament once in three years, or the having three Parliaments in one year, was the more pernicious to England's Safety?  
4. If they who reproach your Representatives, do interpretatively reproach you whom they represent, you know amongst what sort of men to discover your Enemies. Such, who in their Scurrilous Pasquil's, have loaded the most Loyal, Zealous, and Wise Patriots, with Scandalous Language, traduced their Persons, misconstrued their Counsels, fastened odious Suspicions of Disloyalty upon them, being outrageous against them; because they were able to rescue an Innocent People out of their Unmerciful hands.  
5. In the same rank you must place those who by subtle Artifices, and finer Sleights, obstructed Parliamentary Proceed: who by unseasonable and unreasonable insisting upon Un-parliamentary, Unpresidented Privileges, did hinder those excellent Bills from passing into Acts, which had been the Bulwarks of the Nation against Popery; who by various, and secret Methods damned up the Current of Justice, that it could not teach the Capital Offenders, who triumph in their present Immunity, and the hopes of future Indemnity.  
6. Forget not to put them into the Black-bill, who being entrusted by the Nation, to represent them in the former Parliament, basely sold themselves, their Votes, and You, for Annual Pensions, Gainful Offices, and can give you a reason too, why they have sold you, because they say, they first bought you: and 'tis but reasonable that they who purchased your Votes at the Election in the Country, should sell their own Votes in the House, and that at as dear rates as they can.  
7. They whose stiffness and Pride would not yield to an accommodation amongst differing Protestants, who have begun, continued, fomented, and increased Divisions amongst ourselves, are the most effectual Friends to the Popish, and therefore Enemies to the English Interest,; who, whilst they do obstinately persist in imposing unreasonable terms of Union, have advanced Dis-union, weakened the hands of Friends, strengthened the hands of Enemies, and learned from Machiavelli their Tutor, and the Devil their Father, to destroy effectually by dividing irreconcilably; and have laid such sinful terms of Peace, as have made Peace desperate, unless Dissenters could purchase a Peace with us at the dear rate of a War with God, wherein Conscience must always be in Arms, and the Soul the Seat of War.  
8. Whoever have been Neutrals in this last grand Contest between the Protestant Religion and Popery, aught to be more than suspected for your Enemies: He that is not with us in extremity, is certainly against us; These only wait the good hour, when they may safely show their Teeth, and by't, which now they hid.  
9 There is none more implacably your Enemy, than that Person whose Interest it is to destroy you: They therefore that must neither eat nor drink, except you starve, that must go in Rags, except you go naked, are taught to fleece you, that they may keep themselves warm; I mean, as you easily know, the whole List of Pensioners, who sold you once to get Bread, and would gladly sell you once again that they may get Drink; they have betrayed us once, and thereby proved themselves Knaves; if they be trusted, and betray us again, we shall prove ourselves Fools.  
10. Whoever have their Dependence upon Foreign Princes or States, are under a strong Obligation to see you ruined: for your own Reason will tell you, that no Foreign Power will prodigally throw away his Pistols, where he expects not an Harvest answerable to his Seed: These are those Degenerated Englishmen, who having forsaken the Interest of their Native Country, have sold themselves to an Outlandish Interest, that they may the better gratify their own Ambition, and those potent Lusts which their own meaner Fortunes could not otherwise seed and satiate.  
11. Lastly, They that cry up Prerogative against the true Liberty of the Subject, are Enemies both to Prerogative and Liberty, and would swell up the one to the consumption of the whole; for when all the Spirits are drawn to one part, the rest must sensibly waste, for want of their due and proper Nourishment.   

II. What Design these our Enemies have upon us.  
To know our Danger, and our Enemy's Designs, is a good step to prevent the one, and disappoint the other: The Bird will perish without pity, that hastens to the Snare laid in her sight: let me therefore warn you of the Snare, and if you like it, put in your feet.  
1. One great Design is to render Parliaments odious, and thereby useless; which they manage by representing our Representatives, as men of Factious, Seditious, Disloyal Spirits, and when they can say nothing more, turn us over to Forty two, for a parallel: though some wise men have thought they were very imprudent in making the comparison; for if Forty Two had not other design than to secure the Protestant Religion, and our Civil Proprieties, as 'tis evident this of Seventy Nine had not, the Parallel will rather justify That, than condemn This.  
2. What Design there may be of a Standing Army, I had rather any should speak than myself; but this is sure, a more accursed Design against our Peace and Propriety could not be form, when every lousy Red-coat shall pluck the Bread out of our Child's Mouths, and the  off our own Backs, when they are once hungerbitten for want of Pay; and these must be Lurdanes in every House, and the Proprietor wait upon his Trencher. Whether Danby had any such Design upon us, will be seen in his Trial, though we want not frequent Trials that such a Design there is.  
3. That there has been a Design to Corrupt all Elections, and Debauch the Members Elected, that so a Parliament, which in its Pure and Primitive Constitution is the best of things, may by Corruption, become the worst, is too clear from those Voluminous Lists of Pensioners, which, formerly, and of late, have given us our Information.  
4. Though I would not have you Suspicious, yet I would have you Cautelous, and advise with yourselves, whether there be not some Endeavours to make Will and Pleasure triumph over Right and Law? You may warrantably have a vigilant eye upon those who cry up an Absolutely Absolute Power in the Prince; That we are Vassals; That the Prince may Impose Taxes upon the Subjects, which they in Conscience are bound to obey, upon pain of Eternal Damnation: you may do well to take timely notice of this Design: Your All is at Stake, and that too great a Concern to be ventured upon an Aftergame.  
5. And your Religion seems to be in Apparent Hazard; which is more worth than all the rest; and that, for which all the rest are desirable. How difficult is it to get a Law pass, that may effectually barrout Popery, Experience has taught you: What Hopes Papists have of the Succession, you understand; and how to prevent that Blow to Religion, if the Rampant Jesuits should give a Blow to the Life of our present Sovereign, you cannot easily imagine.  
6. And who knows what Danger you are in of losing your Parliaments? These frequent Dissolutions, with some prognosticate an Annihilation; and then the Nation, whose Eyes are scarce dry from their Lamentations for their Short-lived Parliaments, must weep, as if it were but one great Eye, for the Funeral of our Ancient Government.   

III. The Means to prevent our Utter Ruin.  
You are now (Dear Countreyment!) upon the Brink of the Brink of Ruin, and cannot be undone but by your own Choice: Let it not be said, when both are set before you, You have chosen Misery before Felicity.  
1. Keep a tender Eye in your present Choice upon those Worthy Persons which answered the Trust Reposed in them the last Parliament; and where you find yourselves mistaken (and in some you were sadly mistaken) rectify your Error, and let your Second-Thoughts compensate whatever Failing you were guilty of in your last Choice.  
2. Be resolved (against all Temptations) to choose no Minors: Can you judge them fit to dispose of your Liberties, Lives, Estates and Religion, who cannot legally dispose of their own Estates, or themselves? What Security can they give you, that they will not give away yours and you, whose Bond in the Eye of the Law will not be taken for Forty Shillings?  
3. Set a black Brand upon those notorious Pensioners (now well known to all the World) who would sell their God, their King, their Country, for morsels of Bread: What Protection do you expect from them, who cannot show their Faces with confidence, without a Protection, either in, or out of Parliament? Will you secure them within the Walls of the House of Commons, who were better secured within the Walls of the Common Gaol? Who can never pay their Debts contracted by their Prodigality, but out of your Purses; and must run you in, to get themselves out of their Mortgages?  
4. Do not once think of opening your mouths for such as are not their own men; who are pre-engaged to their great Masters, and must follow their Whistle: Their Offices, Preferments, Salaries, Court-employments lie so near their hearts, that they have no room for their Country.  
5. Suspect them who by Terror and Threats would awe you, or by Bribery, Feast, Entertainments would allure you to prostitute your Voices for their Elections; you may be assured they would never bid so high for your Suffrages, but that they know where to make their Markets. Choose the worthy unwilling person, before the complementing unworthy man, whose extraordinary forwardness prognosticates he seeks not your Good, but his own, separate from the Public.  
6. Let not Beggars be your Representatives; they will cut large Thongs out of your Hides, to spare their own; 'tis a pleasure to them to become Levellers, and to make you as poor as themselves: How can they judge what is expedient for the Nation to spare, whose only care it is to get a piece of Money to spend?  
7. Get men of Courage, who will not be Hectored out of their Duties by the Frowns and Scowls of men: never had you more need to pitch upon the old English Spirit, that durst be faithful and just against all Temptations. 'Tis God's own Counsel, that you Elect men after his own heart, such as fear God, and not the Faces of Great ones. Remember who they were that could never yet resist Smile or Frown, but tamely sunk below their own Convictions, and knew the evil they did, yet durst not but commit it.  
8. Set your eyes, fix your hearts upon persons of as large principles as the Gospel will warrant you. Narrow Souls that will own none but those that bear their own Image and Superscription, will sooner raise Persecution at home, than secure us from Popery, and Invasion from abroad: The great Interest of England at this day, is, to tolerate the tolerable, to bear with the weak, to encourage the conscientious, and to restrain none but such as would restrain all besides themselves.  
9 Make your Trust as easy a Burden as may be, to them you Elect. The Trust itself is Burden enough, the Charges of their Attendance great enough; and 'tis disingenuous to suffer them to sink in their Estates, who zealously endeavour to preserve you from sinking.  
10. Lay Obligations upon those you choose, that they labour to secure the True Protestant Religion for the future, that they examine the present Plot, pursue the Plotters, and impartially bring them to ' condign punishment, how high soever they look, and with whatsoever Supports they bear up their confident Faces: Let them be entreated also, when Grievances are redressed, Religion secured, the Nations Peace settled and established, liberally to supply the Government, to discharge Public Debts, that there may be the most happy Closure between His Sacred Majesty and His People, that ever any Age could yet boast of.  
These things being humbly laid before you, I shall join with you all in wishing a Happy Success to your Elections, and a Blessed Issue upon the Unanimous Counsels of your REPRESENTATIVES.  
FINIS.