the whole Parliment to remain in the hands of certain Persons which themselves approved of who exceeded their Commission and acted generally as a Parliment And if this was a grand derogation of the state of the Parliament a great damage to the whole Realm and pernitious example for posterity for which in the very next Parliament they impeached deposed him and nulled all these proceedings for ever Then questionless their former sitting acting in the Commons House from December 7 1648. till Apr. 20. 1653. and now again without yea against the consents Votes of the Parliament 3 Estates secluded Members their repealing altering the very Acts Ordinances of the Lords and Commons concerning the Treaty with the King and sundry others their nulling the Act for Trienial Parliments the continuance sitting of the Lords in this Parlament their declaring themselves alone to be the Parliament of England beheading the King himself their dis-inheriting the whole House of Lords and their Heirs for ever of their Parliamentary Session Judicature Privileges as much as in them lyeth and thousands more of their real and personal Estates their forcible secluding securing the greatest part of their Felow-Members then and now again by the Armies power and sitting under their force which by their own Declaration of August 6 and the Armies in pursuit thereof August 8. the Speakers Letter Iuly 29. 1648. yea Sir Arthur Haslerigges own Speech and others of them the very two last dayes they sate in the last Convention nulls all they voted or ordered must needs be a more execrable transcendent crime by thousands of degreees a greater derogation to the state of the Parliament and its Privileges of more fatal consequence to the whole Kingdom and of far more pernicious example than this Act of his eternally to be exploded declared null void to all intents in it self and demeriting the Highest censures that the Justice of Parliament can inflict being a more superlative Treason and High Misdemeanour than this Kings or Canterburies impeached by the whole House of Commons and many of them thus acting sitting That to preserve himself from being questioned for his Trayterous courses he hath laboured to subvert the rights of Parliaments and the antient course of Parliamentary proceedings this being the last Article of his impeachment for which amongst others he lost his head Which Presidents Mr. Prynne would have pressed them viva voce seriously to consider at which they must needs stand mute and astonished not having one syllable to reply 4ly He would have propounded That when all the Members met together They should in the first place debate this point whether the old Parliament were not actually dissolved in point of Law by their beheading the King notwithstanding the Statute of 17 Caroli c. 7 which though themselves by their former and present sitting by pretext thereof the Army-Officers heretofore and now again deny and many secluded Members hold still to be in being yet for his own opinion he held and had published it to be dissolved notwithstanding this Act and to be Casus omissus out of it which he was ready to maintain against all Opponents by these reasons 1. Because it hath been frequently resolved by Parliaments themselves the Reverend Judges and our Law-books as 1 H 4 rot Parl. n. 1 2 3 1 H. 5. Rot. Parl. n. 16.4 E. 4. f. 44. Cooks 4. Instit. p. 44. by King Charles own Declaration 13 Iunii 3 Caroli and his Judges and Counsel then that the deposition and death of the King doth actually dissolve the Parliament and that the new King cannot hold and continue the old Parliament sitting or prorogued at his Ancestors death the Parliament of 22 R 2. being dissolved by his resignation of his Crown and the Parliaments of 14 H. 4. 24. Iacobi by the deaths of these two Kings and by like reason the last Parliament of 16 Caroli by his violent death 2ly Because the Parliament is no standing Court sitting at certain seasons by positive Laws but summoned constituted by the Kings writs of summons and royal Prerogative when and where he pleaseth and adjourned prorogued dissolved by his writ alone in point of Law and practise in all ages at his pleasure sitting sometimes longer sometimes shorter and sometimes prorogued to another day place or countermanded after summons upon just occasions as the Parliament Clause Rolls the Act of 16 Caroli c. 1. and other Statutes resolve Now all writs of summons being actually abated by the Kings death which made them as well as all Commissions Patents of all Judges Justices Sheriffs whatsoever and other writs informations in the Kings name and behalf as the Statute of E. 6. c. 7. Cooks 7 Report f. 29 30. Crookes 1 Part. p 1 2.10.11.97.98 and other Lawbooks collected by Asb Discontinuance de Prâ—ces 16. and Reattachment 7. determine The writs of summons and likewise of Parliament must needs abate likewise And the Lords being made Judges and the Commons Members of that particular Parliament only by the Kings writ his death must determine their Parliamentary Judicature or Authority sitting during the Kings pleasure as well as the Judges Justices Sheriffs Patents and all other Commissions whatsoever 3ly Because every Parliament heretofore in the reign of K. Charls by the very recitals of the Writs is called 1. In the name and by the authoriâ—y only of the King regnant in his natural capacity accompanied with his politick by his Christian name Carolus Dei gratia Rex c. expressed in it not generally by the Office King but Carolus Rex 2ly It recites it to be called De aâ—isamento Consilii nostri 3ly It stiles it quoddam Parliamentum nostrum 4ly That the occasion of calling it was about certain arduous businesses Nos et defensionem Regni nostri Iura coronae nostrae c. in many antient writs contingentibus 5ly That his intention in calling it is Quia cum Praelatis Magnatibus et Proceribus dicti regni nostri or nostris Colloquium habere volumus et Tractatum 6ly It summons them thus Vobis mandamus c. quod personaliter intersitis Nobiscum or ad Nos such a day and place Nobiscom et cum caeteris Praelatis Magnatibus et proceribus praedictis tractaturi vestrumque Consilium impensuri super negotiis antedictis 7ly The Knights Citizens Burgesses and Barons of ports in the Commons House are summoned to doe and consent to those things which shall happen by Gods favour to be then ordained De Communi Consilio supeâ— Negotiis antedictis in sundry Writs stiled by the King Negotia Nostra Negotiorum nostrorum c which clause is thus explained in Claus 36 E. 3. d. 16. cl 37 â— 3 d. 22 cl 38 E. 3. d. 3. cl 39 E 3. d. 2. cl 42 E. 3 d. 22. cl 47 E. 3. d. 29. ad consentiendum biis quae per Nos ac dictos Magnates et Proceres orâ—inati contigerit
these formerly now sitting have performed let their own Consciences resolve After which the Lords and Commons in their humble Petition to his Majesty Iun. 17. 1642. desire That your Majesty having passed an Act That this Parliament shall not be dissolved but by Act of Parliament your Majestie would not do any thing tending thereunto by commanding away the Lords and great Officers whose attendance is necessary thereunto Therefore the sitting Members abolishing the whole House of Lords and their secluding most of the Commons Members by this Petitions concession must dissolve it Both Lords and Commons in their Declaration 26th Maii 1642. adde We hope the people will never be carryed away with a noyse of words against the Parliament to make any such equitable construction of the Act for the continuance of this Parliament as may tend to the dissolution thereof by the Declaration of the King which they Answer in this and their own destruction therein By all which passages it is apparent That this act provided against every thing or things done or to be done by the Kings Will or Prerogative without the Houses consent for the dissolution of this Parl. not against its dissolution by his death 8ly The King and his party too did thus interpret it more than once in these passages In his Majesties own Answer to the Declaration of the Lords and Commons of 19 May 1642. We expressed a great trust in our Houses of Parliament when We devested our Self of the power of dissolving this Parliament which was a Iust Necessary and proper Prerogative to wit when done by vertue of his Prerogative which this Act devests him of not by a Natural much less a Violent death No part at all of this Prerogative but highest Act against it to its and his dissolution In his Answer to the Petition and Propositions of both Houses 2. June 1642. We were willingly contented to oblige our Self for the present exigent to raise monies and avoid the pressure no less grievous to us than them the people must have suffered by a long continuance of so vast a charge as two great Armies and for the greater certainty of having sufficient time to remedy the Inconveniences when during so long an absence of Parliaments as for the punishment of the Causers and Ministers of them We yielded up our Right of dissolving our Parliament expecting an extraordinary moderation from it in gratitude for so unexpected a Grace and little looking that any Malignant party should have been encouraged or enabled to have perswaded them First to countenance the Injustices and Indignities we have endured and that by a new way of satisfaction for what was taken from us to demand of us at once to confirm what was so taken and to give up almost all and now more than all the rest And in his Answer to their Petition of 10 Iune 1642. For that part of the Petition which seemed to accuse his Majesty of a purpose to dissolve this Parliament contrary to the Act for the continuance by commanding away the Lords and Great Officers whose attendance is necessary which his Majesty knows to be a new Calumny by which the grand Contrivers of ruine for the State hope to seduce the minds of the people from their affection to and jealousies of his Majesty as if he meant this way to bring his Parliament which may be the case of all Parliaments to nothing It is not possible for his Majesty more to express himself thereunto and his resolution for the Freedom Liberties and frequency of Parliaments than he hath done And who now considers how visible it must be to his Majesty â— that it is impossible for him to subsist without the affections of his people and that these affections cannot possibly be preserved or made use of but by Parliaments cannot give the least credit or have the least suspition that his Majesty would choose any other way to the happiness he desires to himself and his posterity bnt by Parliament From all which premises it is apparent That the King himself and both Houses of Parliament did never intend by this Act to prevent the dissolution of this Parliament by the Kings natural death the Act of God they could not prevent nor yet by his violent beheading which then they neither intended nor foresaw but by his own voluntarie Act and Royal prerogative by which he formerly adjourned prorogued dissolved Parliaments at it his pleasure 9 ly It is resolved in our Law-books That if an Act of Parliament refer to or confirm a thing which is not or a thing which is utterly against Common law Reason Justice as for a man to be a Judge or Witnesse in his own case or a thing that is mis-recited or repugnant or impossible to be performed there the common-Common-law shall controll and adjudge such an Act to be meerly void Plowdon f. 398 399 400. Cook 8 Reports f. 118. a. b. Ash. Parliament 13. Hobards Reports p. 85.86 87. But it is repugnant to Reason Justice Nature the intention of the Writs of Summons yea a thing impossible that the King should treat and confer with his Parliament after his death or the Parliament not determine by it Therefore were it particularlie provided for by this Act it had been void in Law as if this Act of Parliament had declared That a mariage between man and wife shall not be dissolved by the death of either of them but continue indissolvable by death against Nature experience Scripture Rom 7.1 2 3. much more then when not expressed nor intended by this Act as the premises evidence Xly. Admit the Parliament still continuing by this Act yet those now sitting neither are nor can be so much as an House of Commons much less the Parliament within that Act for these unanswerable Reasons 1. The House of Commons within this Act were a full and compleat House consisting of above 500 Members those now sitting in May 7 9. but 42. viz. Mr. Will Lenthal Quondam Speaker Henry Martin Lord Monson Mr. Chaloner Mr. Heningham Alderman Atkins Alderman Penington Th. Scot Corn. Holland Sir Arthur Hasletigge Sir Henry Vane Sir Iames Harrington Mr. Whitlock Mr. Prydeaux Mr. Lisle Col. Ludlow Mich. Oldsworth Iohn Iones Wil. Purefoye Col. White Henry Nevil Mr. Say Mr. Meston Mr. Brewster Col. Bennet Serjeant Wilde Mr. Goodwin Mr. Lechmore Col. Ingoldesby Mr. Blagrave Mr. Gold Col. Sydenham Col. Byngham Col. Ayre Mr. Smith Augustine Skinner Mr. Down Mr. Dove Iohn Lenthal Rich. Salaway Iohn Corbet Col. Walton there being 300. Members more of the old Parliament yet living besides those who are dead 2ly Those then sitting went in openlie like a House upon 40 daies general Summons by Writs setting without Gards secluding none of their Fellow Members by force Those now sitting stole sodenlie into the House in a surreptitious manner without any notice given to the people of the Nation or to those for whom they formerly served or to the
dissipated House of Commons elected impowred only by the Army not People to act what they prescribe to extirpate King Lords Monarchy Magistracy Ministry Laws Liberties Properties and reduce them all under Jesuitisme at first and our forein Enemies Vassallage in conclusion Mr. Prynne then being most clearly convinced thereof by what he formerly published as a Member in his Speech and Memento and since in his Epistle to a New Discovery of Free State tyranny his Ius Patronatus his historical and legal Vindication of the fundamental Laws Liberties Rights Properties of all English Freemen A new Discovery of Romish Emissaries his Quakers unmasked and in his Republicans Good Old Cause truly and fully anatomised wherin he infallibly demonstrates their converting of our late English Monarchy into a new Common-wealth or elective Protectorship to be the antient projected moddles of Father Parsons and other Jesuites and Tho. Campanella the Italian Frier specially recommended by them to the pursuite of the King of Spain who prosecuted it all he could to promote his universal Monarchy and so much rejoyced at it that he was the first foreign King who presently sent an extraordinary Ambassador to congratulate the accomplishment applaud the constitution of enter into a League of Friendship with it whose flattering panygerick in his Great Catholique Kings name in prayse thereof and what an honour it was to them that he was the first forein Prince that owned them for a Common wealth made the Commons House so intoxicated that they gratified him in all his requests and pursued all his designs only to ruine us and the Netherlands layd down by Campanella De Monarchia Hispanica c. 25 27. by furnishing him with many thousands of Irish forces quarrelling with the Hollanders maintaining above three years bloody wars with them with infinite losse and expence to both Nations taking the French Kings Fleet provisions merely designed for the reliefe of Dunkirk whereby he presently regained it to our prejudice And on the other hand Cardinall Richlieu of France the great Incendiary of Christendome and fomenter of all our Domestick wars in his life the French King and Mazarine by his instructions in writing after his death vigorously pursued this very design His instructions to this purpose recorded by Conte de Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato an excellent Italian Historian are very memorable who relates That Cardinal Richelieu Anno 1642. after he had involved the King Parliament and Ireland in a bloody Civil war being near his death delivered these politick instructions for the King his Master to pursue for carrying on his designs in relation to England with successe That above all other things he should endeavour to keep the Government of Great Britain divided and dis-united by ayding the weaker party that the other might not make it self too powerfull By causing the three Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland to be divided either by nominating other Kings elective of another family accomplished by erecting an elective Protector or by moulding them into a Common-wealth as our Republicans have formerly and now done again Yet with this caution That when they are reduced into a Common-wealth so to order the matter That it may not be united into one but divided How punctually Cardinal Mazarine prosecuted these instructions ever since and accomplished them at last the Letters taken in the Lord Digbyes Cabinet printed by the Parliaments order 1646. and O. Cromwels late intimate correspondency with Mazarine discover And how much the Iesuites and Catholicks in France in November 1648. approved applauded the turning of our hereditary Monarchy which they irreconcilably hated envyed as well as the late King and turning the Old Parliament into a new Republican Representative and that all their hopes to effect it were in the Army to whom they wished all prosperity therein you may read in a Letter sent from thence by the Armies Agent to a fitting Republican Member soon after published by Mr. Prynne who got the original Mr. Prynne knowing all this and clearly discovering a fresh combination between the Sectaries Republican Anabaptistical Iesuitical levelling party to pursue their designs afresh and accomplish what they formerly attempted in the short Mock-Parliament of their own election creation Anno 1653. and what was then passionately recommended to them by Iohn Canne the Anabaptist in his Voyce from the Temple dedicated to them as their Generation work which God and all his people then expected and required from them even to extirpate the Church Ministry of England Advowsons Glebes Tithes and demolish all Parish Churches as Antichristian to extirpate the Law root and branch under pretext of reforming and new-moulding it to sell all Corporation and College lands and set up a popular Anarchy or tyrannical Oligarchy among us under the disguise of the Old Dissolved Parliament sitting from 1648. till April 20. 1653. after six years violent ejection of them with highest scorn and reproach yet now invited by them to sit again to effect these Romish designs to our utter Confusion but secluding all those who were like to obstruct or defeat them Upon this consideration Mr. Prynne as a secluded Member of the old Parliamemt wherein he detected oppugned all these Treasonable Designs heretofore and since its dissolution by the Kings beheading held it his bounden duty to prevent defeat them now and nip them in the bud whereupon so soon as those now sitting entred the House he assayed to go into it with as many old secluded Members as he could there being 80 of them in London For although his judgement be that this Parliament is quite dissolved by the Kings beheading as he oft declared in print yet since the Army Officers and those now sitting with sundry others pretend it still in being and under that pretext alone have acted all their publick Tragedies and Innovations he conceived himself bound in Conscience upon their Concessions to endeavour to prevent these mischiefs and do all Publick good he might with better warrant and reason than most Ministers Lawyers Justices Magistrates Members of late Parliaments as they style them have prayed for complyed with acted in under those late Governors Governments mock Parliaments as he is confident some now sitting among them in this new Convention believe it dissolved and yet go in only to prevent and allay those mischiefs which others violently pursue which their own Consciences and our laws resolve them without scruple to be utterly illegal whereas this old Parliament whereof he was a Member was most legallie summoned and convened beyond dispute and hath the colour of a legal Act of Parliament for its continuance which those since have wanted of which Act the greatest part of those now sitting taking advantage notwithstanding their new Instruments Declarations Petitions Advises Addresses and Sessions in other new Parliaments since and it being a great dispute now among most secluded Members whether that Parliament was not yet alive though
the King be dead the majority of their Voyces over-ruling his private Judgement as in all other Parliamentary Votes and proceedings gave a present sufficient call warrant to him and others to enter the House to debate it and act what and as they did which will satisfie all those who censure it as unwarrantable or contradictory to his judgement especially when they shall hear what he really intended to propose to the sitting Members when he got into the House had they not gone out to prevent it 1. He intended to inform them of those destructive Jesuitical ends and designs forementioned which they were now purposely called in to accomplish carrying along Thomas Campanella Richilieus Instrnctions with other Books papers of theirs and some printed Copies of the Republicans and others Good Old Cause truly and fully anatamised now put out and published to dis-engage them from its pursute at the first before they were engaged therein by any Votes or Actions if he could but gain audience or patience to hear them pressed on their Consciences Viva Voce But their unparliamentary adjourning on purpose to prevent it when he was in and forcibly resecluding him by armed Gards when once out he held himself bound in Conscience to publish that to them and the the world in print which he was not permitted libertie to speak as he formerlie did when forcibly imprisoned and kept from the House by the Armie as now upon the like account in his Brief Mememto to the present unparliamentary Iuncto from his Pison-Chamber at the Kings Head which they soon after took of Ian. 1. 1648. 2ly He intended to propose That all armed Gards of Souldiers in or near the Cities of London or Westminster might by publick Proclamation be removed to a convenient distance thence according to the antient Custome Presidents and Privileges of Parliament prohibiting not only all armed forces but the very bearing of any Arms or weapons in or near the place where the Parliament did sit under severest penalties lest they should over-awe the Members or any way interrupt their proceedings which the undutifull mutinous Officers Souldiers now in and near the City though raysed purposely to protect the Parliament and its Members from all force whatsoever have frequently done nay forcibly secluded imprisoned ejected the Members themselves sundry times yea turned the now sitting Members out of Doors and now again on Saturday last and this very Morning secluded him and sundry Members when they came to enter in 3ly That all the Lords all secured secluded Members of the old Parliament not sitting after Decemb. 8. 1648. now about the City being double in number to those now sitting might presently be called and freely admitted into the House And all living Members of the old Commons House elected or sitting at or before that time might by the Speakers Letter be desired in all their names to meet together in the Commons House forty daies after the ordinary time limited in most writs of Summons or Resummons of Parliament and nothing acted or voted in the inteâ—val as a House of Commons till they were all assembled after their ten years seclusion dissipation by the Armies force and war upon them This suddain unexpected Clandestine stealing into the Commons House of about 41 or 42. Members alone without any general notice given thereof to all the other surviving absent Members or places which elected them sitting presently as an House of Parliament accompanied with a present forcible seclusion of all but their own Confederates being a most unparliamentary practice conspiracy surprise unworthy Saints or persons of Honour destructive to the very being Privileges of Parliament injurious to the whole Nation as well as absent and secluded Members yea contrary to their own Republican Votes Principles That the Supream Authority of the Nation resides only in the Generality of the people That it cannot be transferred from them to any others in or out of Parliament but by their free consents and elections That their Representatives in Parliament ought to be equally distributed throughout the Nation No Member to be secluded when duly elected and all things to be carryed only by majority of Voyces Contrary to the principles of Law Equity common Iustice Reason which resolve that publick Acts of Parliament bind all men because they all are Parties and Assenters to them by their election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses impowred intrusted by them and present when they passed by their common assent Which they cannot be when the farre greater number are absent secluded and have no notice of their present sitting Contrary to common Right and that just Maxime inserted into some antient Parliament Writs of Summons and elections to Sheriffs quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbetur that which concerns all ought to be approved by all And not only so but this their surreptitious fraudulent suddain sitting and acting by themselves as a Parliament if they proceeded would make them far more criminal and guilty of highest Treason than King Richard the 2d of old impeached and dethroned in the Parliament of 1 H. 4. amongst other Articles for this That the said King in his last Parliament at Salop purposing to oppress his people subtlely procured and caused to be granted That the Power of the Parliament by the consent of all the States of his Realm should remain with certain Persons to determine after the Parliament dissolved Certain Petitions delivered in the same Parliament at that time not dispatched By colour of which Concession the persons so deputed proceeded to other things generally touching that Parliament and that by the Kings will In derogationem status Parliamenti in magnum incommodum totius Regni pernitiosum exemplum In derogation of the State of the Parliament and to the great disprofit prejudice of the whole Realm and pernitious example And that they might seem to have some kind of colour Authority for this kind of their proceedings the King caused the Rolls of the Parliament according to his Vote to be changed and deleted contrary to the effect of the foresaid Concession which is likewise mentioned in the printed Act of 1 H. 4. c. 3. and thus amplyfied That a certain power was committed by authority of Parliament to certain persons to proceed upon certain Articles comprised in the Rolls of the Parliament thereof made and by authority aforesaid divers Statutes Iudgements Ordinances and Stablishments were made ordained and given erroneously and dolefully in great disherison and final destruction and undoing of many honourable Lords and Liege-people of the Realm and their Heirs for ever wherupon that whole Pariament of 21 R. 2. with all the circumstances and dependents thereupon were wholy reversed revoked voyded undone repealed and annulled for ever If this then were so high a crime and breach of royal Trust in King R. 2. even by consent and authority of the whole Parliament and three Estates subtilly to procure the power of
favente Domino From all which particular clauses in the very writs of summons it is undeniable that the Parliament of 16 Caroli was ipso facto dissolved by the Kings death 1. Because this Parliament was summoned particularly by King Charles in his natural as well as politick capacity not in his politick alone nor yet by or for him his heirs successors who ceased to be both Charles and a King of this Realm by his death 2ly The Counsel by whose advice it was summoned was his not his heirs and successors Counsel 3ly The Parliament convened his Parliament alone not his heirs or successors both of them ceasing to be his Counsel or Parliament by his decease 4ly The subject matter for which it was summoned Divers urgent and arduous businesses concerning Us not our heirs or successors and the defence of Our not their Realm of England who was no more Us and the kingdom no more his kingdom so soon as he lost his life 5ly The end of summoning this Parliament was only this for the King himself to have a conference and Treaty with the Prelates and Nobles and for them to be personally present with Us not our heirs or successors to give Us their Counsel c. not our heirs and successors All frustrate made impossible and absolutely ceasing by his death because when once dead they can neither parlie conferr nor treat with the King himself nor the King with them nor be personally present with Him for that purpose unlesse they will averr that a meer dead headlesse King can really confer treat parly consult advise with his living Prelats Lords Parliament and they with him be Parliamentally present with each other in the Lords House neither of which they dare admit into it for fear the King if living and Lords too should afright them out of it as the Kings ghost yea the memorial of it though dead might justly do 6ly The mandatory part being in the Kings name alone to summon them to treat with and give their Counsel unto Us concerning the foresaid businesses relating to Us and the defence of Our Realm Our Businesses aforesaid not our heirs and successors He and his businesses all ending when he expires the Parliament must of necessity determine 7ly The Parliament ceasing to be the Common counsel of the King and his kingdom and nothing possible to be ordained BY US the King not his heirs and successors Prelates Nobles in Parliament without his concurrent Vote or when he is dead unless a dead King can give counsel make Ordinances give his royal assent to Bills when deceased It must inevitably follow that all the Authority causes grounds ends for which the Members of this Parliament were all summoned to treat consult and give their advice to the King himself determining and becoming impossible to be performed by his death the Parliament must of necessity expire and be dissolved even as the natural body ceaseth to be and remain a living man when the Head is quite cut off If then those now sitting who cut off the Kings Head the Head of the Parliament and thereby destroyed that temporary body politick will have their Conventicle revived by this Act they must set on his head again raise him alive out of his Grave and bring him back into the House to impeach condemn decapitate them in this true High Court of Justice for this their beheading him in their Court of Highest Injustice Which Mr. Prynne presumes they dare not doe least his revived Ghost should scare them thence or justly retaliate their transcendent Treachery 4ly If any man by his will deed the King by his Commissions the Parliament by a special Act or Order shall authorize impower any 3. persons joyntly to sell lands give livery and seisin execute any Commission as Iudges Iustices Commissioners Auditors or Committees of Parliament if any one of them die both the survivors joyntly or severally can doe nothing because their authority trust was joynt not several and joyntly nor seperately to be exercised If there be not 40 Commoners in the House they cannot sit or acts as an House nor dispatch the least affair no more can any Committee of either House unless their Number be sufficient to make up a Committee as the orders and custom of Parliament appoint Therfore the Parliament of England being a Corporation compacted joyntly of the King Lords and Commons House and three estates The death of the King necessarily dissolves the Parliament notwithstanding this Act which did not alter the Parliaments Old constitution but establish it The Kings personal absence from his Parliament heretofore and of late was reputed very prejudicial to it and his calling away some Lords Great Offiâ—ers and other Members from it a high way to its present dissolution in his life Therefore it must much more be dissolved by his death and the Lords and Commons forcible seclusion both before and since it by the Army and sitting Members they having Vocem locum in quolibet Parliamento Angliae as our Law-books Statutes and their Patents resolve 5ly The principal end of calling Parliaments is to enact new and necessary Laws and alter repeal such as are ill or inconvenient as the Prologues of our printed Statutes our writs of Summons Law-books attest and all accord But no new Act of Parliament can be made nor no former Acts altered repealed but by the Kings royal assent who hath a Negative voice to deny as well as Affirmative to assent to them as well as the Lords and Commons as all our Parliaments Iudges Law-books Parliament Records Treatises of Parliaments the printed Statutes in each Kings reign more particularly the Statutes of 33 H. 8. c. 21. 1 Jac. c. 1. in the close resolve Yea both Houses acknowledged it in all contests with the late King our Kings Coronation Oaths and all our antient Saxon Kings Lawes attest it Therefore his death must needs dissolve the Parliament notwithstanding this Act because it could make no Act for its dissolution nor declare alter repeal any other Law without his royal assent There are but 2. Objections made by any sitting or secluded Members against these Reasons that his death should not dissolve the Parliament The 1. is this which the Republicans themselves formerly and now insist on That the King doth never die in judgement of Law and that there is no Interregnum because the Crown immediately descends to his right heir who by Law is forthwith King de jure and de facto before his actual Proclamation or Coronation as the Statute of 1 Iacobi ch 1. Cooks 7 Rep. f. 10 11. Calvins case and other Books resolve To which Mr. Prynne Answers 1. That this argument is but an Axe to chop off their own heads and supremacy as they did the Kings and the Objectors now sitting must either renounce their sitting acting Knacks Declaration against the late King Kingship and the House of Lords or quite disclaim the
the Ship-mony Iudges and others not new Delinquents since not then dreamed of 2ly Before publick Grievances redressed those then complained of not others arising afterwards 3ly Before a firm peace between the two Nations of England and Scotland concluded by reason of the former not subsequent breaches between them and the King 4ly Before sufficient provision to be made for the repayment of the said monies to be raised not for the Parliaments subsequent Armyes and occasions but for his Maiesties Army and people in the North the preventing the then imminent danger of this Kingdom not of our new Common-wealth or dangers since arising and for supply of other his Maiesties present not future and urgent occasions But none of these four particulars could be accomplished by the Lords or Commons alone after his Majesties death but by the King alone or by his concurrence with them whiles living Yea they were all actually accomplished in his life time long before his death The first by the Executions of Strafford and Canterbury the impeachments censures of the Shipmony-Judges and other Delinquents both in Scotland Ireland The 2d by the Acts abolishing Shipmony the taking of tonnage poundage and other Taxes without Act of Parliament the Acts for the preventing of Inconveniences happening by the long intermissions of Parliament For regulating of the Privy-Counsel taking away the Court of Star-Chamber and High-Commission against divers Incroachments and oppressions in the Stannary court For the certainty of Forests and their meets and bounds for the better ordering and regulating the Office of the Clerk of the Market for reformation of false Weights and Measures for preventtng vexatious proceedings touching the order of Knightship for the abbreviation of Michaelmas Term and for the free importation of Gunpowder and Salt-peter from forein parts and making of them in England By all these good Acts passed freely by the King soon after or before this Act he fully redressed all Grievances then complained of or intended within this Law The 3d. by the Act of Confirmation of the Treaty of pacification between the two kingdomes of England and Scotland The 4th by the several Acts passed for the Relief of his Majesties army And the Northern parts of this kingdom For the better raising and levying of Mariners and others for the present guarding of the Sea and necessary defence of the Realm not Republike For the Subsidies of Tonnage and poundage granted to the King for the speedy provision of money for disbanding the Armies and setling the peace of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland For securing such monies as are due to the Inhabitants of the Northern Counties where his Majesties Army have been billetted And for securing by publike faith the remainder of the friendly assistance and relief promised to our Brethren of Scotland all passed and published by the King himself Anno 16 17 Caroli 1640. 1641. at least 7. years before his beheading It is most certain that all these ends of making this Law as the Prologue thereof and the word THEREFORE in the Commons prayer infallibly declare were fully accomplished by the King in his life so long before his untimely death Therfore none of theÌ„ now remaining to be performed all acted â—ince their accomplishment by those now sitting being diametrically contrary to this Act these ends and occasions of it this Parliament must of necessity be beheaded expired with the King and cannot survive his death 4ly The words That this present Parliament assembled shall not be dissolved unlesse it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose nor shall at any time or times during the continuance thereof twice recited in the subsequent clauses be prorogued or adjourned unlesse it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose can be intended of no other but that present Parliament which passed this Act which consisted of The Kings Maiesty our Soveraign Lord by whom this and all other Acts passed or to be passed was declared and enacted and this intended Act likewise not of his heir or successor after his death and of the Lords and Commons House then in being not any new House of Lords or Commons succeeding after their deaths then sitting Therefore when the King was cut off by an untimely death and thereby an impossibility accruing to dissolve it by an Act of Parliament within the words or intent of this Act it must of necessity be dissolved by his beheading Impossibilities making Acts of Parliament to perform them meerly void as our Lawe makes Impossible conditions 5ly This Act and those who made it must have and had a retrospect to the Writs whereby it and they were summoned and the ends things therein expressed But they all determined and became Impossible after the Kings beheading Therefore the Parliament must be destroyed with him since cessante causa cessat effectus cessante primativo cessat derivativum as all our Lawyers Law-books and natural reason resolve 6ly The last Clause of this Act Thaâ— every thing and things whatsoever done or to be done to wit by the King or any other for the Adjournment proroguing or dissolving of this present Parliament contrary to this Act shall be utterly void and of none effect do clearly explain the meaning of this Act to be this That it extends only to things done or to be done by the Kings will and power as to his Commissions Proclamations Writs Warrants Precepts to adjourn prorogue or dissolve this Parliament as he had done others heretofore here declared to be utterly null and void not to his death wherein he was only passive being forcible against his will and the Parliaments too which death no Parliament can make null and void in respect of the Act it self so as to restore him to life though the whole Parliament and our three Kingdomes may and ought to null it in respect of the illegal manner of his Execution not to be paralel'd in any Age. 7ly The Commons themselves in their Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom 15 Decemb. 1641. Declared That the abrupt dissolution of this Parliament is prevented by another this Bill by which it is provided it shall not be dissolved adjourned without the consent of both Houses Yea the Lords Commons in their Declaration of May 19. 1642. declare That excellent Bill for the continuance of this Parliament was so necessary that without it we could not have raised so great sums of monies for his Majesties service and Common wealth as we have done and without which the ruine and destruction of the Kingdome must needs have followed as since of the Kingdom and Parliaments too by pretext thereof And we are resolved the Gracious favour of his Majesty expressed in that Bill and the advantage and security which thereby we have from being dissolved by him shall not encourage us to do any thing which otherwise had not been fit to have done Which whether
absent Members or those then in London or Westminster-Hall who were not of their combination setting Gards of Army-Officers at the Door who conducted them thither and presently secluded Mr. Prynne and the other Members who upon the first notice of their sitting came to know upon what account they sate taking forcible possession with Souldiers and strong hand of the Commons House and keeping themselves in possession thereof by force against the secluded Members majority of the house contrary to the Statutes of 5 R. 2. c. 7.15 R. 2. c. 2. 8 H. 6. c. 9.31 Eliz c. 11. against forcible entries and deteiners the Statute of 7 E. 1. the Libertie Privilege Rights and Usage of Parliaments A practice utterlie unseeming such transcendent Saints Patriots of publick Liberty as they boast themselves that Honor Justice Honestie Synceritie Gravity Wisedom which becomes all Members of a Parliament and Reformers of all publick Grievances Frauds and indirect practises in others 3ly That old House of Commons had a special care of providing for the Kings Armie his urgent and present occasions professed themselves his loyal Subjects and him to be their King and Soveraign Lord humblie besought his most Excellent Majesty that it might be declared and enacted by him that this Parliament might not be dissolved prorogued or adjourned but by Act of Parliament acknowledging they could make no such Act without his Majesties Royal assent and that both the King and Lords House were essential Members of the Parliament within this Act. But those fitting since 1648. till 1653. and now again thus entring the House by pretext of this Act have renounced abjured and professedlie engaged against all this to which they are direct Antipodes Therefore no Commons House within this Act. 4ly The Commons House within this Act was that House which was then in being when this Act passed dulie elected by the people by the Kings Writs not the Armie-Officers and pursued the self-same ends recited in the preamble for which this Act was made and assented to by the King and Lords But this New House was created constituted not by the Kings writs or peoples election but the Armies swords and conspiracie 7 years after this Act first passed then disowned and turned out of Doors above 6 years by the Army and now re-inducted into it by their armed Votes and force to serve their ends not to pursue those mentioned in the Act accomplished many years since and now becoming impossible Therefore they are not so much as an House of Commons within this Act and the Armie-Officers and Souldiers who formerly thrust them out now recall them may do well to consider that Gospel-Text Gal. 2.18 If I build again the thing I destroyed I make my self a Transgressor even against this very Law as well as the law of God and other laws of the Land XI If they are not so much as a Commons House of Parliament much less then are they the lawfull Parliament of England in anie sense within the letter or meaning of this Act no more than so manie of the old Gunpowder Popish-Traitors had their Treason taken so good effect in blowing up King Iames the Lords whole House and majoritie of the Commons House there assembled as their late new Powder-plot hath done had been the onlie lawfull Parliament of 3 Iac. they destroyed in case they had entred then into the Commons House with the Mace before them and created stiled themselves alone the Parliament of England as a right devolved unto them by Conquest or Succession which had they presumed to do no doubt the whole English Nation would have risen up against them as one man and never have so far dishonored themselves their Religion or Countrie as to own and submit to those Jesuitical Romish-Traitors only for destroying of their lawfull King Lords House and English Parliament it self as the onlie true old English Parliament then re-assembled The Reasons are unanswerable 1. Because the whole House of Commons then sitting in its primitive splendor fullnesse freedome was by its own quadruple acknowledgement in it no more but the Commons House and one Member of this Parliament not the Parliament it self never owning but professedlie disclaiming it self to be the Parliament or present Parliament within this Act. 2 ly Because this Act was made not by the Commons alone without the King or Lords concurrence but by the King as their Soveraign Lord declaring and enacting and the Lords and Commons as jointlie assenting thereunto 3 ly Because it is most absurd to conceive that the King and Lords by passing this Act to continue this Parliament as then constituted till dissolved by Act of Parliament did ever intend to seclude themselves quite out of it or to make the Commons House alone an absolute independent Parliament without both or either of them though five times speciallie providing by name for their Parliamentarie interests Or that they or the Commons intended to make each of themselves a distinct Parliament without the other and so to erect three New Parliaments at once by providing against the untimelie proroguing adjourning or dissolving of one The King and Lordâ— both jointlie and severallie having the self-same Arguments from this Act to prove each of them a several or joint Parliament without the Commons by the Commons own intention in passing this law as the Commons have to justifie themselves to be a Parliament now they have secluded and engaged against them both and will admit of neither as Members of their Parliament when as this verie Act preciselie prohibits the King to dissolve prorogue or adjourn the Parliament or either House therof or the Lords to prorogue or adjourn much less dissolve the Commons House or the Commons to prorogue or adjourn much lesse dissolve the Lords House declaring and enacting That at any time or times during the continuance of this Parliament the Lords House shall not be adjourned nor yet the Commons House but onlie by their own respective Orders and by themselves alone declaring enacting everie thing and things whatsoever done or to be done to the contrarie to be utterly void and of none effect 4 ly Because this Act both in the Title prologue and body prevents onlie the untimely proroguing adjourning and dissolving of this present Parliament at any time or times during the continuance of it but by Act of Parliament or themselves stiling it 8. several times this present Parliament and giving it no other Title yea it preciselie describes it to be a Parliament onlie of King Lords and Commons as it was when this Act was made and so to continue till its dissolution But the Parliament now sitting was not this present Parliament being not then known heard of nor imagined ever to start up in After-ages by any who made or consented to this Law it being created onlie by the Armie 7 years after this Act and now revived full 18 years after it without anie King or House of Lords
and protesting engaging against them both as no Members of it Neither can they pursue any one of those ends for which this Parliament was continued Therefore they are doubtlesse beyond dispute no Parliament at all within the words or intention thereof their own Consciences Reason being Judges whatever they pretend nor yet by their own Republican principles a free and equal Representative of the people 6 ly By the Law and Custom of all Nations Nature Reason Justice Equitie the laws of England and of all publick or private Ecclesiastical Civil or Militarie Councils or Corporations the Majority of persons Members Voyces Votes are alwayes reputed the Parliament Council Synod Corporation and do yea ought of right to bind the lesser part as well in making Laws Ordinances as Elections and all else that concerns the publick Yea the General and General Counsel of the Army-Officers in their Petition to those and others now sitting in Parliament and draught of an Agreement of the people for a secure and present peace framed prepared and presented to them to be established and subscribed by the people Ianuary 20. 1649. not onlie subscribed thereto but proposed That 150 Members at least be alwayes present in each sitting of the Representative at the passing of any Law or doing of any Act whereby the People are to be bound saving that the Number of sixty may make the House for Debates or Resolutions that are preparatory thereunto Therefore the 42 Members secretlie skipping into the House secluding the rest May 7 9. being not the 10th part of the Members of the old Parl. now surviving by all Nations Laws Consents can be no Parliament nor House of Commons within this Act nor pass anie thing to bind the Majoritie of the Members or people in anie kind whatsoever what ever anie imprudent illiterate shameless namelesse Scriblers or themselves against their own Reasons Consciences Iudgements principles resolutions pretend to the contrarie but dare not once affirm in good earnest It being a received Maxime in all Ages Populi minor pars Populum non obligit 6 ly It is a rule our Lawbooks That all Statutes ought to be interpreted according to Reason and the true mind meaning intention of those that made them but it is most certain That it is against all reason and the true intents minds meaning of the Makers of this law to make a Parliament without a King or House of Lords or Majoritie of the Commons House Or that all or anie of them when they made this Act did ever dream of such a Iuncto as this now sitting Or to seclude themselves and resign up their own interests freedoms privileges right of sitting in Parliament with them to constitute them the onlie Parliament of England as everie line syllable throughout the Act demonstrates Therefore they neither are nor can be a Parliament within it neither can the Bedlam Turkish Bruitish unreasonable Argument of the longest Sword or Armie-logick nor the petitions addresses of any Crack-brain'd Sectaries and vulgar Rabble of inconfiderable illiterate people nor the presence of anie Lawyers sitting with or acting under them as a Parliament to their own and their Professions dishonour make them so in their own or any Wisemens or Iudicious honest Lawyers Iudgement whatsoever And therefore out of Conscience shame justice prudence and real Christianitie have they anie left they must needs disclaim themselves to be a Parliament and no longer abuse the Nation or others under their disguise All whith Mr. Prynne if admitted would viva Voce have pressed home upon them but being forcibly secluded by their Gards because unable to answer or contradict his Law or Reason he now tenders to their view and the Judgement Resolution of the whole English Nation to whom he appeals with this publick Protestation That if they will freely call in all the surviving Members of the Lords and Commons House sitting till December 1648. without secluding anie by force or new unparliamentarie Impositions or seclusive Engagements which they have no power to impose If they upon a free and full debate shall resolve the old parliament to be still in being and not actually dissolved by the Kings beheading notwithstanding his premised Reasons to the contrarie He will then submit his private Iudgement to their Majority of Voyces in this as well as in all other Parliamentary debates and contribute his best assistance and advice as a Fellow-Member to heal the manifold breaches prevent the approaching ruines of our indangered Church Realms Parliaments Laws Liberties Peace and establish them upon better foundations than those now sitting to promote their own and the Armies interests rather than the peoples or Nations are ever likely to lay Who if they can prove themselves a true and lawfull English Parliament within this Act without either King or House of Lords or this their clandestine forcible entry into and seclusion of their Fellow-Members out of the Honse and Actings in it to be lawfull equitable righteous honorable parliamentarie Christian and such as well becomes either Saints Members or true good Englishmen by anie Records Parliament Rolls Acts Presidents of like kind in former Ages Law-books Customes Common or civil-Civil-law Scripture Divinitie Reason Ethicks Policks except Machiavils and the sole Argument of the longest Sword the most bruitish unjust unchristian Turkish of all others Mr. Prynne will then publicklie declare them to be that in truth which as yet he neither can nor dares to acknowledge them to be so much as in appellation either a Member of the Old Parliament a Covenanter a Protester a Lawyer a Scholar a Man an Englishman or a Christian. And hopes that upon the perusal hereof they will as much disown themselves to be the Parliament within this Act or anie lawfull Parliament of England even in their Judgments consciences much more in actings for the premised Reasons as he or anie other secluded Members do not out of anie spirit of contradiction but Conscience and common dutie to themselves and their native Country That which principallie elevated yea inflamed Mr. Prynnes zeal both now and heretofore with all his might to oppose all late publick Innovations changes of our antient Government Parliaments Laws was this sad and serious consideration which he shall with all earnest importunitie intreat advise all Army Officers Souldiers sitting or secluded Members of the Lords or Commons House with all well-affected persons to the safetie settlement of our Religion Church State throughout our three Nations most seriouslie to lay to heart and engrave upon their Spirits not to read it as they do News-books only to talk of them for a day or two but as they read the evidences of their Inheritances whereby they hold all their earthlie yea heavenly possessions that they may remember act according to it all their lives That William Watson a secular Priest of Rome in his Dialogue between a Secular Priest and a Lay Gentleman printed at Rhemes 1601. in his
little insist on because of a present design against our Laws now eagerly pursued The late Parliament in above one hundred Declarations Ordinances Orders Votes made this their principal Charge against the Kings Iesuitical Counsellors and the Popish Forces raised by him against the Parliament that they endeauoured the subvexsion and extirpation of our antient fundamental Laws Government and that one of the chiefest causes of their taking up arms and raising Armies against them was for the necessary defence and preservation of these antient Good old Laws and Liberties the Inheritance and Birthright of every English Freeman whereby not only his Maiesties Regal Authority but the Peoples security of Lives Lands Livings Privileges Liberty both in general and particular are preserved and maintained and by the abolishing innovating or alteration of which it is impossible but that present confusion will fall upon the whole State and Frame of this Kingdom as the whole Parliament of 1 Iacobi ch 2. expresly declared long since in the Prologue of that Act the late long Parliament in sundry Declarations Yea King Charls himself in his Declaration by advice of his Council to all his Subjects Dec. 15. 1641. Exact Collect p. 28 29. his Answer to the Lords and Commons Petition April 9. 1642. Ibid. p. 140. to their Declaration May 4. 1642. p. 163 164. and elswhere the Defence whereof against invasion subversion he made the ground of raising Forces against an Anabaptistical party faction in the Parliament intending to subvertand extirpate them root and branch as you may read at large Ib. p. 326 443 451 514 515 555 556 561 562 579 619. A Collection of Ordinances p. 28 38 39 116 117. Yet notwithstanding all these Parliament Declarations and Commissions in pursuance of them the Army-Officers Souldiers by the Iesuits suggestions have been so farr intoxicated as to attempt the utter subversion and extirpation both of our Laws and Lawyers too for whose defence they were principally raised in pursute of Father Parsons forementioned design under pretext of reforming them though the bare indirect attempt to subvert them in a farr inferiour degree was adjudged HIGH TREASON in Straffords and Canterburies cases for which they both lost their Heads AS TRAYTORS and in the Case of the Ship-mony Judges in the long Parliament That they have prosecuted this design in England to subvert our Fundamental Common Lawes and Great Charter of our Liberties is most apparent by their proceedings in their Mock Parliament and printed Vote 20 August 1653. Ordered there should be a Committee selected To consider of a New Body of the Law and the Government of this Commonwealth Compared with A True state of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland c. printed 1654. p. 15 16 17 18. which assures us That there was a strong prevailing party in that Assembly whom nothing would satisfie But a total eradication of the whole Body of the Good Old Laws of England the Gardians of our Lives and Fortunes to the utter subversion of Civil Right and Propriety c. And our two Jesuitical Prognosticators were so confident of it as if the Stars in heaven had concurred herein with the Iesuites and Anabaptistical Conventicle then on earth that in their scurrillous Prognostications they predicted the downfall not only of all our Ministers and their Tithes but of our Laws and Lawyers Prognosticating in the moneths of Ianuary February September October and December 1654. That the Lawes Lawyers of the Nation should be pulled down to the ground That the Great Charter it self should be called into question with other Liberties as not suting with English mens brains at this time That the Crabtree of the Law should be plucked up by the roots to hinder the future growth thereof There being no reason we should now be governed by the Norman Law since the Norman Race is taken away by the same instrument the sword of Conquest which brought it in They are the very words of these false Prognosticators who have many such like passages in them both before and since Which compared with the late speeches of many Common Souldiers That there should be no more Terms in Westminster Hall That they hoped very speedily to see not only the Lawyers gowns but the Lawyers themselves hanged vp over the Courts in Westminster Hall where the decayed Scots coulours hung to supply their vacant places That it would be a goodly sight to see all the Trees in St. Iames's Park hung with Lawyers and their gownes with sundry such like speeches since May 6. 1659. All these compared together with what Mr. Prynne hath frequently heard the Soldiers say during his neer 3. years close Imprisonment under them and their New Republike in Dunster Taunton and Pendennys Castles That they hoped ere long to see and leave neither one Lawyer nor Parish Priest throughout England Nor yet steeple steeple-house or Bells which they would sell or cast into Ordinance to fight against the Dutch c. with some Petitions and Pamphlets now on foot to the like tune and the Army-Officers fresh Proposal to those now sitting and their Votes thereon for the reformation of our Laws c. Are an infallible evidence to him that all our former late and present cbanges of this Nature for which this formerly eiected Republican Conventicle is now reassembled are the meer proiections of the All-swaying Iesuits to work our Laws speedy ruine It being their professed practice even in other forein Popish kingdoms to subvert their fundamental Lawes especially those which concern the inheritance succession of the Crown and Liberties of the Subjects for which take these two Testimonies even from forein Papists themselves The 1. in that memorable Peece Consilium de recuperanda et in posterium stabilienda Pace Regni Poloniae per Iesuitarum ejectionem presented to the Parl. of Poland An. 1607. out of which they were soon after banished Hic autem vos notare velim ejusdem pestis Iesuitici non minorem efficatiam esse in oppugnanda et expugnanda Republica atterendis Legibus quoties nempe sentiunt se ab his in instituta sua venatione impediri Et quod ad Leges attinet hae politicae tineae Illas praecipue arrodere consueverunt et exedere quibus jus successionis in regno continetur Liberiasque et Pax publica firmatur Which he proves by several presidents of their shaking abolishing the very fundamental Laws of this Nature in France Hungary Styria Austria Câ—rinthia and elsewhere and that with such success ut obtritis legibus praedictarum Nationum libertas nitebatur partem earum penitus oppresserint partem ad extremam desperationem adigererint In praedictis Provinciis alicubi Illustribus et Antiquissimae Nobilitatis Familiis publice diem dictum esse intra quem se aut coram Iesuitarum Tribunali sistant aut relictis patriis sedibus alio migrent And is not this the sad desperate condition of
against the Earl of Strafford printed by the Commons house special Order p. 64. In this I shall not labour to prove That the endeavouring By Words Counsels and Actions to subvert the fundamental Lawes and Government of the Kingdom is Treason by the Common Law If there be any Common Law Treasons left nothing Treason if this be not to make a Kingdom no Kingdom And then consider Sir Edward Cooks memorable Observation published by the Commons Order 3 Instit. c. 2. p. 35 36. It appeareth in the holy Scripture That TRAYTORS never prospered what good soever they pretended but were most severely and exemplarily punished in conclusion which he proves by the examples of Corah Dathan and Abiram Num. 16.31 32. c. 27. 3. Athaliah 2 Kings 1.1.16 Bigthan and Teresh Esth. 2.21.23 c. 6.2 Absolom 2 Sam. 18.9.14 Abiathar 1 King 2.26 27. Shimei 2 Sam. 6.5 6. 1 Kings 2.8.46 Zimri 1 Kings 16 9.18 Theudas Acts 5.36 37. and Iudas Iscariot the Traytor of Traytors Acts 1.18 Mat. 27.5 Peruse over all our Books Records Hisâ—ories and you shall finde a principle in Law a rule in Reason and a trial in experience That Treason doth ever produce fatal and final destruction to the Offender and never attaineth to the desired end two incidents inseparable thereunto And therefore let all men abandon it as the most poisonous Bait of the Devil of Hell and follow the precept in holy scripture Fear God honor the King and have no company with the Seditious Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum So he Now because Mâ— P. finds some Grandees of his own Profession sitting in the House to countenance and make up this Vnparliamentary Iuncto he shall desire them in the first place seriously to consider how much they have formerly and now again dishonoured themselves and the whole profession of the Law in sitting in complying with acting under such illegal Anti-Parliamentary Conventicles Powers Changes Changers yea crying them up for legal English Parliaments Powers obeying executing all their illegal new Knacks Orders Ordinances as Acts of Parliament in civil criminal real or personal Causes against all Records Law-books Presidents of former Ages their own Judgments Oaths Science Consciences to the intollerable scandal of their Robe the injurie abuse of the whole Nation the prejudice of all their lawfull Superiours and the Publick the encouragement of usurping Traytors Tyrants Oppressors in their waies of wickedness the ill example of most others and their own just reproach 2ly To observe How God in his retaliating Justice hath recompensed this their wilfull prevarication upon their own heads by turning many of them out of their respective places of Judicature honor profit the ground of this their sinfull complyance with infamy dishonour reproach even by the very Persons with whom they unworthily complyed and those especially in present power who had neither been an House of Commons much lesse a mock Parliament without their presence and complyance 3ly That the base unworthy unchristian complyance of the Lawyers and Clergy of England with our late trayterous Innovators Usurpers out of base fear sordid covetousnesse ambition self-saving or self-seeking to the prejudice ruine of King Kingdom Parliament Lords Law hath brought an universal odium upon them with those with whom they most complyed as well as others the Army Officers and present Iuncto under a pretext of Reformation designing both their ruines through the Jesuites Politicks who now bear greatest sway having turned many of them with scorn and contempt out of their former places of Judicature beyond their expectations and reviled both their persons and professions to their faces as a Generation of sordid Temporizers and useless faithless persons not fit to be entrusted any more but discarded out of their new lawlesse Republick which hates both Law and Gospel as warranted by neither and repugnant unto both 4ly That the only way now to regain their lost Honour and preserve both our Laws Liberties Religion establish future peace settlement and prevent impendent ruine is to endeavour to restore our antient hereditary just legal Kingship Kings Governors Government with all their necessary invaded Prerogatives Lands Revenues Rights Jurisdictions and inviolably to preserve them with their lives and estates against all conspiracies of Popes Jesuits and foreign enemies to subvert and undermine them in any kind as the several memorable Parliaments and Statutes of 29 H. 6. c. 1.31 H. 6. c. 1.39 H. 6. c. 1.25 H. 8. c. 22.2 E. 6. c. 26.7 E. 6. c. 12. 1 Eliz. c. 3.4.20 5 Eliz. c. 1.29.30 1 Eliz. c. 1.2 23.24 18 Eliz. c. 21.22 23 Eliz. c. 1.13.14 27 Eliz. c. 1.2.28.21 29 Eliz. c. 7 8. 31 Eliz. c. 14 15. 35 Eliz. c. 2.12 13.39 Eliz. c. 26 27. 43 Eliz c. 17 18. 1 Jac. c. 1. 3 Jac. c. 1 2 4 5 25 26. 7 Jac. 6 22 23. 21 Jac. c. 32 33. 3 Car. c. 5 6. in their respective preambles and bodies worthy our most serious review in the Statutes at large resolve being more to be credited pursued than all the rash Jesuitical suggestions votes and inconsiderable resolutions of any unparliamentarie Conventicle or upstart Pseudo-Polititians advancing themselves to the helm of our new Republick by colour of the Statute of 17 Car. 7. Which Bill by the Commons House resolution in their Remonstrance of 15 Dec. 1641. seems to be some restraint of the Regal power in dissolving of Parliaments not to take it out of the Crown but to suspend the execution of it for the time and occasion only which was so necessary for the Kings own security and the Publick peace that without it they could not have undertaken any of those great things but must have left both the Armies to disorder and confusion and the whole Kingdome to blood and rapine Therefore the Parliament must needs determine by the Kings death as he hath infalliby evidenced beyond contradiction In the last place Mr. Prynne shall most importunately beseech all the antient Nobility secluded Members well-affected Gentry Clergy Commonalty of the English Nation which had never so many effeminate false heads and hearts as now many Jesuite Priest Monk lurking under the disguise of womanish Perewigges brought into fashion by them as they now tender their own private or the publick safety weal settlement and preservation of our endangered Church Religion Kingdom Parliament Laws Privileges Properties and prevention of their impendent ruine First of all seriously to consider lament cast off reform their own late present monstrous sottish stupidity sleepinesse self saving self-seeking Spirits and most unworthy un-manly un English unchristian pusillanimity cowardize fear of a few contemptible Mercinary mortal men who shall shortly dye and become as dung upon the earth and their grosse breach of all publick Oaths Protestations Leagues Covenants in not opposing resisting them manfully in their several places and callings Which hath been the principal cause of all the publick Changes Innovations Oppressions Grievances
Exorbitances Insolencies they have hitherto suffered by their own armed hirelings and are the saddest symptomes of our approaching imminent desolation if not speedily repented redressed ere it be over late 2ly To pursue these Gospel advises 1 Cor. 16.13 Watch ye stand fast in the Faith quit ye like men be strong Gal. 5.1 Phil. 1.27 28. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free and be not intangled again with the yoke of Bondage in one Spirit striving together with one mind for the Faith of the Gospel the fundamental Laws Liberties Government Privileges of the Nation And in nothing terrified by your Adversaries which will be to them an evident token of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God 3ly Do you all now publickly resolutely constantly unanimously according to the tenor of the Solemn League and Covenant claim assert vindicate and endeavour to preserve with your Lives and Fortunes the Reformed Religion Worship Doctrine of the Churches the Rights and Privileges of the Parliaments the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and the Kings Majesties Person Authority and Posterity in the defence and reformation of the true Religion and Liberties of these Kingdoms And with all faithfulnesse endeavour the discovery of all such as have been are or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from the other making any factions or parties among the People contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick Tryal and receive condign punishment assisting defending each other in the maintenance and pursuit thereof without any division withdrawing defection or detestable indifferency or neutrality whatever For which end in a brotherly friendly christian yet stout and resolute manner demand publickly of the General Counsel of Army Officers and their Westminster Conventicle 1. By what lawfull Commission Authority or Warrant from God our Laws or the generality of the people of England whom they have voted the Supream Authority and whose Servants they pretend themselves they have formerly and now again forcibly secluded the whole House of Lords and Majority of the Commons House from sitting in our Parliamentary Counsels or the Old Parliament if yet in being and made themselves not only a Commons house but absolute Parliament without a King or them contrary to the very Letter scope of the Act of 17 Car. c. 7. by which they pretend to sit 2ly By what Authority they presume to turn our most antient glorious famous honourable first Christian Kingdom into an infant base ignoble contemptible Sectarian Free-State or Commonwealth and disinherit our hereditary Kings and their Posterity against all our Laws Statutes Declarations Remonstrances Oaths Vows Protestations Leagues Covenants Customs Prescription time out of minde Liturgies Collects Canons Articles Homiliâ—s Records Writs Writers and their own manifold obligations to the contrary for their inviolable defenâ—e support and preservation only in pursuit of the Jesuites Popes Spaniards and French-Cardinals forecited plots And who gave you this Authority The rather because the whole English-Nation and High Court of Parliament wherein the whole Body of the Realm is and every particular Member thereof either in person or representation by their own Free-elections are deemed to be present by the Laws of the Realm did by an expresse Act 1 Iacobi c. 1. worthy most serious consideration with all possible publick joy and acclamation from the bottom of their heart recognize and acknowledg as being thereunto obliged both by the Laws of God and Man that the imperial Crown of this Realm with all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to them immediately after the death of Queen Elizabeth did by inherent birth-right and lawfull and undoubted Succession descend come to King Iames as next and sols Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm And therunto by this publick Act oâ— Parliament to remain to all Posterity they did humbly and faithfully submit and oblige themselves their Heirs and Posterity for ever untill the last drop of their bloods be spent as the First fruits of this High Court of Parliament and the whole Nations Loyalty and Faith to his Majesty and his Royal Posterity for ever upon the bended knees of their hearts agnizing their most constant Faith Obedience and Loyalty to his Majesty and his Royal Posterity for ever After which the whole English Nation and all Parliaments Members of the Commons House ever since and particularly all Members of the Parliament of 16 Caroli continued by the Statute of 17 Car. c. 7. pretended to be still in being did by their respective Oaths of Allegiance Fealty Homage and Supremacy containing only such Duty as every true and well-affected Subject not only by his duty of Allegiance but also by the comâ—â—mandement of Almighty God ought to bear to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors as the Parliament and Statute of 7 Iac. c. 6. declares joyntly and severally oblige themselves To bear Faith and true Allegiance not only to his Majesty but his Heirs and Successors and him and them to defend to the uttermost of their power against all Attempts and conspiracies whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity or any of them and to maintain all Iurisdictions Preheminences Authorityes justly belonging united or annexed to the Imperial Crowu of this Realm Which all Members of the long Parl. those now sitting ratified not only by hundreds of printed Declarations Remonstrances Ordinances but likewise by a Religious Protestation Vow and Solemn National League and Covenant publickly sworn and subscribed with all their hands in the presence of God himself and by all the well-affected in these three Kingdoms but by all our ordinary publick Liturgies Collects Directory Articles Homilies Prayers before Sermons in all or most of their Families Closet-Prayers yea Graces before and after meaâ— wherein they constantly prayed to God according to the practise of the Saints in the Old and new Testaments the Primitive Church of God and Heathen Nations of the Church Parliaments of England themselves in all Ageâ— not only for the health life wealth safety prosperity preservation salvation of our Kings and their Realms but likewise of their Royal Issue and Posterity That there might not want a man of that Race to sway the Scepter of these Realm so long as the Sun and Moon shall endure or to the like effect And if they cannot sufficientlie satisfie your judgements consciences in this particular nor answer the precedent reasons in defence of our hereditary Kings Kingship against their Vtopian Republick Then take up the peremptory resolution of all the Elders and Tribes of Israel when oppressed by Samuels Sonnes Mis-Government turning aside after filthy lucre and perverting Iudgement 1 Sam. 8. and say resolutely to them We will have no New Common-wealth nor Vnparliamentary Conventicle to rule