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<DATE>2009-12-03</DATE>
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<NAME>Mona Logarbo</NAME>
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<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
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<P>THE SPEECH OF His Highne&s;s the Lord PROTECTOR, MADE To both Hou&s;es of Parliament at their fir&s;t meeting, on <HI>Thur&s;day</HI> the 27th of <HI>January</HI> 1658.</P>
<P>As al&s;o the SPEECH Of the Right Honorable <HI>Nathaniel</HI> Lord <HI>Fiennes,</HI> one of the Lords Keepers of the Great Seal of <HI>England,</HI> made at the &s;ame time.</P>
<P>Publi&s;hed by His Highne&s;s &s;pecial Command.</P>
<P><HI>LONDON,</HI> Printed by <HI>Henry Hills</HI> and <HI>John Field,</HI> Printers to His Highne&s;s the Lord Protector: And are to be &s;old at the &s;ign of the &s;even Stars in <HI>Fleet &s;treet</HI> over again&s;t <HI>Dun&s;tan's</HI> Church.</P>
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<DIV1 TYPE="speech">
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<HEAD>The Speech of His Highne&s;s the Lord Protector, made to both Hou&s;es of Parliament at their fir&s;t meeting, on <DATE><HI>Thur&s;day</HI> the 27^t^h of <HI>Janu|ary,</HI> 1658.</DATE></HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>My Lords and Gentlemen,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>_I Believe there are &s;carce any of you here, who expected &s;ome Moneths &s;ince to have &s;een this great A&s;&s;embly at this time, in this place, in peace; con&s;idering the great and unexpected Change which it hath plea&s;ed the all-di&s;po&s;ing hand of God to make in the mid&s;t of us: I can a&s;&s;ure you, that if things had been according to our own fears, and the hopes of our enemies, it had not been thus with us: And therefore it will become both you and me, in the
<PB N="2" REF="3"><!-- PDF PAGE 33 -->fir&s;t place as to reverence and adore the great God, po&s;&s;e&s;&s;or of Heaven and Earth, in who&s;e hands our breath is, and who&s;e are all our ways, becau&s;e of his Judgements; &s;o to acknowledge him in his goodne&s;s to the&s;e Lands, in that he hath not added &s;orrow to &s;orrow, and made the period of His late Highne&s;s his life, and that of the Nations peace to have been in one day.</P>
<P>Peace was one of the Ble&s;sings of my Fathers Government; a mercy after &s;o long a Civil War, and in the mid&s;t of &s;o great Divi&s;ion which that War bred, is not u&s;ually afforded by God unto a People in &s;o great a mea&s;ure.</P>
<P>The Cau&s;e of God, and the&s;e Nations, which he was ingaged in, met in all the parts of it, as you well know, with many enemies and great oppo&s;ition; The Ar|chers, privily and openly, &s;orely grieved him, and &s;hot at him, yet his Bow aboad in &s;trength, and the Arms of his hands were made &s;trong by the hands of the mighty God of <HI>Jacob.</HI></P>
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As to him&s;elf, He died full of days, &s;pent in great and &s;ore Travail; yet his eyes were not waxed dim, neither was his natural &s;trength abated, as it was &s;aid of <HI>Mo&s;es,</HI> He was &s;erviceable even to the la&s;t.</P>
<P>As to the&s;e Nations, He left them in great Honor abroad, and in full Peace at home: all <HI>England, Scotland</HI> and <HI>Ireland</HI> dwelling &s;afely, every man under his Vine, and under his Fig-tree, from <HI>Dan</HI> even to <HI>Beer &s;heba.</HI></P>
<P>He is gone to Re&s;t, and we are entred into his Labors; and if the Lord hath &s;till a Ble&s;&s;ing for the&s;e Lands (as I tru&s;t he hath) as our Peace hath been lengthned out to this day, &s;o &s;hall we go on to reap the Fruit, and gather the Harve&s;t of what his late Highne&s;s hath &s;own, and laid the foundation of.</P>
<P>For my own part, being by the Pro|vidence of God, and the Di&s;po&s;ition of the Law, my Fathers Succe&s;&s;or, and bear|ing that Place in the Government that I
<PB N="4" REF="4"><!-- PDF PAGE 34 -->do, I thought it for the Publique good to call a Parliament of the Three Nati|ons, now united, and conjoyned together into one Commonwealth, under one Go|vernment.</P>
<P>It is agreeable not onely to my Tru&s;t, but to my Principles, to govern the&s;e Nations by the Advice of my two Hou&s;es of Parliament; I finde it a&s;&s;erted in the Humble Petition and Advice which is the Corner-&s;tone of this Building, and that which I &s;hall adhere to) <HI>That Par|liaments are the great Councel of the Chief Magi&s;trate, in who&s;e Advice both he and the&s;e Nations may be mo&s;t &s;afe and happy.</HI> I can a&s;&s;ure you I have that e&s;teem of them: And as I have made it the fir&s;t Acts of my Go|vernment to call you together, &s;o I &s;hall further let you &s;ee the value I have of you, by the An&s;wers that I &s;hall return to the Advice that &s;hall be given me by you, for the good of the&s;e Nations.</P>
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You are come up from your &s;everal Countreys, as the Heads of your Tribes, and with hearts (I per&s;wade my &s;elf) to con&s;ult together their good: I can &s;ay I meet you with the &s;ame de&s;ires, ha|ving nothing in my de&s;ign, but the maintenance of the Peace, Laws, Liber|ties, both Civil and Chri&s;tian, of the&s;e Nations; which I &s;hall always make the Mea&s;ure and Rule of my Govern|ment, and be ready to &s;pend my life for.</P>
<P>We have Summoned you up at this time to let you know the &s;tate of our Af|fairs, and to have your Advice in them: And I believe a Parliament was never Summoned upon a more important oc|ca&s;ion.</P>
<P>It is true, as I have told you, We are, through the goodne&s;s of God, at this time in Peace; but it is not thus with us becau&s;e we have no Enemies: there are enough both within us and without us, who would &s;oon put an end to our
<PB N="6" REF="5"><!-- PDF PAGE 35 -->Peace, were it in their powers, or &s;hould it at any time come into their powers.</P>
<P>It will be becoming your Wi&s;doms to con&s;ider of the &s;ecuring of our Peace again&s;t tho&s;e, who, we all know, are, and ever will be our implacable Enemies; what the means of doing this are, I &s;hall refer unto you.</P>
<P>This I can a&s;&s;ure you, That the Ar|mies of <HI>England, Scotland</HI> and <HI>Ireland,</HI> are true and faithful to the Peace and good Intere&s;t of the&s;e Nations, and it will be found &s;o, and that they are a con&s;i&s;ting Body, and u&s;eful for any good ends; and if they were not the be&s;t Army in the world, you would have heard of incon|veniencies, by rea&s;on of the great Arrear of Pay which is now due unto them, whereby &s;ome of them are reduced to great nece&s;&s;ities: But you &s;hall have a parti<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="missing" EXTENT="1 letter">ular account of their Arrears, and I doubt not but con&s;ideration will be had thereupon, in &s;ome &s;peedy and effectual way. And this being matter of Money,
<PB N="7" REF="5"><!-- PDF PAGE 35 -->I recommend it particularly to the Hou&s;e of Commons.</P>
<P>You have, you know, a War with <HI>Spain,</HI> carried on by the advice of Par|liament; He is an old enemy, and a potent one, and therefore it will be ne|ce&s;&s;ary, both for the honour and &s;afety of the&s;e Nations, that that war be vigo|rou&s;ly pro&s;ecuted.</P>
<P>Furthermore, the Con&s;titution of Af|fairs in all our neighbor Countreys, and round about us (as well friends as ene|mies) are very con&s;iderable, and calls upon us to be upon our Guard both at Land and Sea, and to be in a po&s;ture able to maintain and con&s;erve our own State and Intere&s;t.</P>
<P>Great and powerful Fleets are pre|paring to be &s;et forth into the&s;e Seas, and con&s;iderable Armies of &s;everal Na|tions and Kings are now di&s;puting for the Ma&s;tery of the <HI>Sound</HI> with the ad|jacent I&s;lands and Countreys; among which is the Roman Emperor, with
<PB N="8" REF="6"><!-- PDF PAGE 36 -->other Popi&s;h States; I need not tell you of what Con&s;equence the&s;e things are to this State.</P>
<P>We have already interpo&s;ed in the&s;e Affairs, in &s;uch manner as we found it nece&s;&s;ary for the intere&s;t of <HI>England;</HI> and matters are yet in &s;uch a condition in tho&s;e parts, that this State may, with the a&s;si&s;tance of God, provide that their differences may not prejudice us.</P>
<P>The other things that are to be &s;aid I &s;hall refer to my Lord Keeper <HI>Fiennes,</HI> and clo&s;e up what I have to &s;ay with onely adding two or three particulars to what I have already &s;aid.</P>
<P>And fir&s;t, I recommend to your care the People of God in the&s;e Nations, with their Concernments. The more they are divided among them&s;elves, the greater prudence &s;hould be u&s;e to cement them.</P>
<P>Secondly, The good and nece&s;&s;ary work of Reformation, both in Manners and in the Admini&s;tration of Ju&s;tice, that Profanene&s;s may be di&s;countenan|ced
<PB N="9" REF="6"><!-- PDF PAGE 36 -->and &s;uppre&s;&s;ed, and that Righte|ou&s;ne&s;s and Ju&s;tice may be executed in the Land.</P>
<P>Thirdly, I recommend unto you the Prote&s;tant cau&s;e abroad, which &s;eems at this time to be in &s;ome danger, having great and powerful Enemies, and very few Friends; and I hope and believe that the old Engli&s;h zeal to that cau&s;e is &s;till among us.</P>
<P>La&s;tly, My Lords, and you Gentle|men of the Hou&s;e of Commons, That you will in all your Debates maintain and con&s;erve Love and Unity among your &s;elves, that therein you may be the patern of the Nation, who have &s;ent you up in Peace, and with their Prayers, that the Spirit of Wi&s;dom and Peace may be among you: and this &s;hall al&s;o be my prayer for you; and to this let us all add our utmo&s;t endeavors for the making this an happy Parliament.</P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
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