A letter from Sir John Suckling to Mr. Henry German, in the beginning of the late Long Parliament, anno 1640 Suckling, John, Sir, 1609-1642. 1679 Approx. 9 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 3 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A61948 Wing S6132 ESTC R625 11944932 ocm 11944932 51306 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. A61948) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 51306) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 516:8) A letter from Sir John Suckling to Mr. Henry German, in the beginning of the late Long Parliament, anno 1640 Suckling, John, Sir, 1609-1642. 4 p. s.n., [London : 1679] BM dates this "1660?" Caption title. Refers to the duties of the King. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. 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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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Kings and rulers -- Duties. 2002-09 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2002-10 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-11 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2002-11 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-12 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A LETTER FROM Sir John Suckling TO Mr. HENRY GERMAN , In the beginning of the late Long Parliament , Anno 1640. SIR , THat it is fit for the King to do something Extraordinary at this present , is not onely the Opinion of the Wise , but the Expectation . Men observe him more now than at other times : for Majesty in an Eclipse [ like the Sun ] draws Eyes that would not so much as have look'd towards it , if it had shined out , and appeared like it self . To lie still now , would at the best shew but a Calmness of Mind , not a Magnanimity ; since in matter of Government to think well at any time , ( much less in a very Active ) is little better than to dream well . Nor must he stay to act till his People desire , because 't is thought nothing relishes else ; for therefore hath nothing relish'd with them , because the King hath for the most part staid till they have desired , done nothing but what they have or were Petitioning for . But that the King should do , will not be so much the question , as what he should do . And certainly for a King to have right Counsel given him at all times , is strange , and at this present impossible . His Party for the most part ( I would that were modestly said , and it were not all ) have so much to do for their own Preservation , that they cannot ( without breaking a Law in Nature ) intend anothers . Those that have Courage have not perchance Innocence , and so dare not shew themselves in the King's Business ; and if they have Innocence , they want Parts to make themselves considerable ; so consequently the things they undertake . Then in Court they give much Counsel as they believe the King inclin'd , determime his Good by his Desires ; which is a kind of setting the Sun by the Dial ; interest which cannot err , by Passions which may . In going about to shew the King a Cure , now a Man should first plainly shew him the Disease . But to Kings as to some kind of Patients , 't is not always proper to tell how ill they be . And it is like a Country Clown , not to shew the way , unless he know from whence , and discourse of things before . Kings may be mistaken , and Counsellors corrupted ; but true Interest alone ( saith Monsieur de Rohan ) cannot err . It were not amiss then to find out the Interest ; for setting down right Principles before Conclusions , is weighing the Scales before we deal out the Commodity . Certainly the great Interest of the King is , A Union with his People ; and whosoever hath told him otherwise , ( as the Scripture saith of the Devil ) was a Seducer from the first . If there ever had been any one Prince in the whole world , that made a Felicity in this Life , and left fair Fame after death , without the Love of his Subjects , there were some colour to desp●se it . There was not among all our Princes a greater Courtier of the People than Richard the Third , not so much out of Fear , as out of Wisdom . And shall the worst of our Kings have striven for that , and shall not the best ? ( it being an Angelical thing to gain Love. ) There are two things in which the People expect to be satisfied , RELIGION and JUSTICE ; nor can this be done by any little Acts , but by Royal and Kingly Resolutions . If any shall think , that by dividing the Factions ( a good Rule at other times ) he shall master the rest now , he will be strangly deceived ; for in the beginning of things that would do much , but not when whole Kingdoms are resolv'd . Of those now that lead these Parties , if you could take off the major Number , the lesser would govern , and do the same things still : nay , if you could take off all , they would set up one , and follow him . And of how great consequence it is for the King to resume this right , and be the Author himself , let any body judge ; since ( as Cumneus said ) Those that have the Art to please the People , have commonly the Power to raise them . To do things so that there shall remain no Jealousie is very necessary , and is no more than really reforming , that is , pleasing them . For to do things that shall grieve hereafter , and yet pretend Love ( amongst Lovers themselves , where there is easiest Faith ) will not be accepted . It will not be enough for the King to do what they desire , but he must do something more . I mean by ( doing more ) doing something of his own , as throwing away things they call not for , or giving things they expected not . And when they see the King doing the same things with them , it will take away all thought and apprehension that he thinks the things they have done already ill . Now if the King ends the differences , and takes away Suspect for the future , the Case will fall out to be no worse than when two Duellists enter the Field , where the worsted Party ( the other having no ill Opinion of him ) hath his Sword given him again , without further hurt after he is in the others power . But otherwise it is not safe to imagine what may follow ; for the People are naturally not Valiant , and not much Cavalier . Now it is the nature of Cowards to hurt where they can receive none . They will not be content ( while they fear and have the upper hand ) to fetter onely Royalty , but perchance ( as Timorous Spirits use ) will not think themselves safe while that is at all . And possibly this is the present state of things . In this great Work ( at least to make it appear perfect and lasting to the Kingdom ) it is necessary the Queen really joyn ; for if she stand aloof , there will still be Suspicions : it being a received Opinion in the world , That she hath a great Interest in the King's Favour and Power . And to invite her , she is to consider with her self , whether such great Vertues and eminent Excellencies ( though they be highly admir'd and valu'd by those that know her ) ought to rest satisfied with so narrow a Payment as the Estimation of a few : And whether it be not more proper for a great Queen to arrive at Universal Honour and Love , than private Esteem and Value . Then how becoming a Work for the sweetness and softness of her Sex , is composing of Differences and uniting Hearts ? and how proper for a Queen , reconciling King and People ? There is but one thing remains , which whisper'd abroad busies the King's Mind much ( if not disturbs it ) in the midst of these great Revolutions , and that is , The Preservation of some Servants , whom he thinks somewhat hardly torn from him of late ; which is of so tender a nature , I shall rather propound something about it , than resolve it . The first Quaere will be , Whether as things now stand ( Kingdoms in the Balance ) the King is not to follow Nature , where the Conservation of the more general still commands and governs the less . As Iron by particular sympathy sticks to the Loadstone , but yet if it be joyned with a great Body of Iron , it quits those particular Affections to the Loadstone , and moves with the other to the greater , the common Countrey . The second will be , Whether if he could preserve those Ministers , they can be of any use to him hereafter ? since no man is served with a greater prejudice , than he that imploys suspected Instruments , or not beloved , though able and deserving in themselves . The third is , Whether to preserve them there be any other way , than for the King to be first right with his People ? since the Rule in Philosophy must ever hold good , Nil dat quod non habet . Before the King have Power to save , he must have Power . Lastly , Whether the way to preserve this Power be not to give it away ? for the People of England have ever been like Wantons , which pull and tug as long as the Princes have pull'd with them , as you may see in Henry III. King Iohn , Edward II. and indeed all the troublesom and unfortunate Reigns ; but when they have let it go , they come and put it into their hands again , that they may play on , as you may see in Q. Eliz. I will conelude with a Prayer , ( not that I think it needs at this present ; Prayers are to keep us from what may be , as well as to preserve us from what is ) That the King be neither too insensible of what is without him , nor too resolved from what is within him . To be sick of a dangerous Sickness , and find no Pain , cannot but be with loss of Understanding , ( 't is an Aphorism of Hippocrates ; ) and on the other side , Opiniastry is a sullen Porter , and ( as it was Wittily said of Constancy ) shuts out oftentimes better things than it lets in . FINIS .