A letter to a member of Parliament on the account of some present transactions. Lightfoot, John, 1602-1675. 1689 Approx. 10 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 2 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2006-06 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A48195 Wing L1679_VARIANT ESTC R23408 12762339 ocm 12762339 93526 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A48195) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 93526) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 921:20) A letter to a member of Parliament on the account of some present transactions. Lightfoot, John, 1602-1675. 1 sheet ([2] p.) s.n., [S.l. : 1689] Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Broadside. Dated: March the 14th, 1689. Attributed to John Lightfoot. cf. Wing. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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HONOVRED SIR , THE Experience I have had of your impartial dealings , encouraged me to make this Address to you ; and however assuming if may be thought , yet I am sure 't is no unseasonable Application : how unhappy soever the several late turns of our Affairs have been , I am sensible you have had no share in them , and therefore when any of those Transactions are brought upon the Stage , I dare in every thing appeal to you as an unprejudiced Spectator . What you have hitherto done , I doubt : not is the Effect of a most deliberate Consideration ; and tho' some Objections are made , yet I hope that evident Necessity , which is always able to over-rule Forms , will easily justifie the Integrity of your Actions . Most Men are by this time satisfied that Popery and Slavery are Vanquished , and that nothing is wanting but a healing Cordial to settle the Constitution , after the strains of a violent Purgation ; But in some Men the Humours are so floating , that when one angry part is relieved , another immediately becomes uneasie ; and this unhappiness of Temper is so afflicting , that there can never be a perfect state of Health , when by all the Lenitives you apply , you cannot make the Pain leave the Man , but only change its station . I was in hopes that our present good Fortune would have made all Protestants so loving , that the memory of former Injuries could never sowre their good Nature ; since Men of all divisions among them have been unwarily injurious to each other ; this should facilitate their Reconciliation , and instead of ripping up old Sores , should rather hide those , which perhaps may appear of a greener Complexion . 'T is too much like the common Artifice of Scolding to be quick in throwing Calumnies : and 't was only the Thief that never entered into Paradice , who could upbraid when he himself was in the same Condemnation . I must confess , there are some Dealings , that are enough to ferment even the Blood of a Stoick : to hear a Regulator Cant against Surrendring of Charters ; to find a Man accused of holding Correspondence with Papists , by one that sat at Meat with the Pope's Nuncio ; to see a late Addressor ( who in spite of all Laws , would allow of the Dispensing Power ) furious for some disputable Customs in particular Corporations ; I say to see Men under these Circumstances prosecuting some few Miscarriages , which are so old , that nothing but Malice could remember ; must tempt a Man to believe that either they have no sense of their own Faults , or else that they are afraid to be call'd to account , and so by putting others first , would willingly Postpone their Punishment . I am told that Sir I. M — r , Sir W. P — d , and some others , are accused for Male Administration in their Offices Seven or Eight years since : So stale a Resentment is not worthy of your Consideration ; and since their Accusers are so good at Recollecting of Crimes , I wonder they had not run back to Original Sin , and prosecuted them for being the Progeny of Adam : this Fault is much more demonstrable ; and if Regeneration be an Excuse , they can in the other Case too produce variety of Pardons . But when the Matter comes before you , I do not doubt but you will transfer such trivial Grievances to their proper place , and not suffer private Peeks to disturb the Settlement of three Kingdoms : This Business is become the Discourse of the whole Town , and doubtless shortly will be that of the Country too ; some rejoyce at these Gentlemen's Misfortune ; others , and perhaps the more considerate , are exceeding Sorry ; such contrariety of Passions must needs be very clashing , and not fit Ingredients for that happy Union , which His Majesty has graciously designed . And indeed such unhappy Recollections must needs breed ill blood ; for these Gentlemen's Actions for which they are Accused , have been Countenanced by many , and Approved of by most ; so that the Censures you pass upon them , will vertually reach all the rest , and upon a fair Poll they will be found too numerous to be disobliged . If several of those Men to whom this Passage may be very pleasing , should perhaps since the Date of these Miscarriages , be found themselves Criminal in a higher Degree ; these provoking Accusations may tempt Men to bring on further Complaints , and when you are once beset with Indictments , ( besides the loss of your time ) you must either lye under the Censure of being Partial , or extend your Animadversions perhaps further than you at first intended . The great Objection against these Gentlemen is , That what they did , was to serve a Popish Interest : I must confess that I think the Papists have been a long time undermining us , but I believe when these Gentlemen were in Office , they lay deeper under Ground than they have done some time since , when others became the Favourites ; and when the design began visibly to appear , they worthily refus'd their Assistance : So that how foul soever you may fall upon their mastakes , their Integrity is Spotless ; and tho excess of Loyalty might induce them to be influenced by the King , 't is plain they had nothing to do with the Papists . If these Gentlemen consented to some things which were fatal in their consequence , 't is plain that others receiv'd what they had done , and improved them to greater inconveniencies : They are accused for an undue Choice of two Sheriffs , others had consented to put upon us four Parliament Men by illegal Elections ; now after a due consideration of Circumstances , that which appears to be the most dangerous mistake , ought in reason to be the Subject of your first Enquiry ; and then in common construction , which do you think is most to blame , he that unwarily sets a House on Fire , or another who feeds the Flame when he sees it kindled . Perhaps those Persons who would have you censure these Gentlemen , may think their crimes to be Notorious , and that there is nothing to be found on their own side but Innocence . Whereas 't is difficult to imagine , that men in such great heats , always kept within their due compass ; and if Men of all sides have been faulty , this unreasonable Prosecution will oblige these Gentlemen to discover for their defence , what they are willing to conceal out of Charity ; so that the natural consequence of this contest , will be the reviving of old Quarrels , the very thoughts of which to an honest Man must be but a very uncomfortable prospect . To prosecute old Grudges , at a time when we have Criminals of so high a Nature to encounter , will be both a scandal to our selves , and a comfort to our Enemies ; 't will shew that revenge with us is not so much a Passion , as a Principle ; and that we can at any time let Popery gather strength , so that we can but humble one another . Indeed these Gentlemens Accusers may think it too early to call to Account the late Instruments of our Miseries , and since crimes are to be punished according to their Antiquity , ten Years hence may be the proper time of their reckoning . But wise and indifferent Men will think that crimes are to be considered , more according to their bulk than standing ; for an old fault has lost its Malignity , time has wiped off the Stain , and the man is become Innocent by Prescription ; so that to pursue a man with Anger , after a long Truce and a tacit Reconciliation , is neither Just nor Generous ; 't is too much like French Faith , to fall upon the Allies as soon as the common Enemy is vanquished . Neither can it be for the Interest of their Majestys , to have their Subjects pickeering one with another ; their Affairs are not yet so well settled , as to bear the effects of private Animosities ; and if their Enemies may expect tenderness from the mildness of their Reign , 't is a little too preposterous to bring perhaps their best Friends immediately into Trouble . You are now upon a noble project of uniting Protestants , and therefore I hope you will not think that Anger is a convenient preparative to love , and that the best expedient to make them Friends , is to divide them into factions . That this will be the probable consequence of so ungrateful a review of former proceedings , seems very evident ; for First , a great part of the Nation have not so terrible an Idea of the matter in Question , and then to be severe upon Persons for a moot fault will sound very harsh , especially when their late worthly behaviour had sufficiently attoned for greater miscarriages ; and Secondly , a great many considerable men of the same , and other Corporations are in the same instances culpable ; so that if you extend your punishments only to these Gentlemen , and your pardon to the rest , yet you involve them too in the same Guilt , which to a generous mind is equally afflicting ; and tho you do not punish , yet you will be thought to insult , and expose them to the reproaches of every insolent reflector . And therefore I hope for the safety of the Nation , for the sake of their Majesties , and the interest of Religion , you will not countenance every angry Spirit , which by its long continuance seems to be stiffned into Malice and Revenge ; that your Glorious Endeavours may not be frustrated by the remembrance of former Misunderstandings , which I am afraid on all sides are easier forgot then justified ; that we may henceforth avoid the contrivance of the Jesuite , which is always active and working ; for he who hath not strength to conquer , may yet have the cunning to divide . March the 14th , 1689. I am Sir , Your much obliged Servant .