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 much advantage motion, as he that addeth wings.

He [that is, the speaker, Pym] said he would labor to contract those manifold affairs both of the Church and State, which did so earnestly require the wisdom and faithfulness of this house, into a double method of grievances and cures. And because there wanted not some who pretended that these things, wherewith the commonwealth is now grieved, are much for the advantage of the king, and that the redress of them will be to his majesty's great disadvantage and loss, he doubted not but to make it appear, that in discovering the present great distempers and disorders, and procuring remedy for them, we should be no less serviceable to his majesty, who has summoned us to this great council, than useful to those whom we do here represent. For the better effecting whereof, he propounded three main branches of his discourse: In the first, he would offer them the several heads of some principal grievances, under which the kingdom groaned. In the second, he undertook to prove that the disorders from whence those grievances issued, were as hurtful to the king as to the people. In the third, he would advise such a way of healing, and removing those grievances, as might be equally effectual to maintain the honor and greatness of the king, and to procure the prosperity and contentment of the people.

The greatest liberty of the kingdom is religion; thereby we are freed from spiritual evils, and