TWO SPEECHES OF Mr. JAMES GUTHRY BEFORE THE PARLIAMENT One after the reading of his INDICTMENT Feb. 21. 1661. The other immediately after the reading of the PROCESSE April 10. 1661. Printed in the Year 1661. Mr. James Guthry his Speech before the Parliament after the reading of his Indictment Febr. 21. 1661. My Lord Chancellour BEing Indicted at the instance of Sir John Flescher his Majesties Advocate for his Majesties Interest upon things alledged to be Seditious and Treasonable I do humbly desire and from your equity expect that my Lord Commissioner his Grace and this Honourable Court of Parliament will patiently and without interruption allow me hearing as to a few things which I have to say for my self in answer to that Indictment and that I may proceed distinctly therein following the order of the Indictment it self I shall speak a word first to the Laws that are mentioned and cited therein by which I am to be judged then to the things themselves whereof I am accused Concerning these Laws I am glad that the Law of God is named in the first place it being indeed the Soveraign and Supreme Law not only of Religion but also of righteousness to which all other Laws ought to be squared and subordinate and there being an Act of the 1. Parl of K. Ja. 6. whereby all Laws or clauses of Laws or Acts of Parliament repugnant unto the Word of God are repealed an Act most worthy of a Christian King and Kingdome and I hope that your Lordship in all your proceedings will mostly have respect unto this that I may be judged by the Law of God especially and by other Laws in subordination thereunto As to these Laws and Acts of Parliament which are mentioned in the Indictment concerning his Majesties Royal Prerogative and declining his Majesties Judgment and Authority and keeping of Conventions I hope it will not be denied that they are to be understood and explained according to that sense and meaning that is greâ—â— thereof by posterior Acts of Parliament it being a maxime in the Law no less common then true and equitable that where there is any seeming or real contradiction and opposition betwixt Laws Posteriora derogant prioribus otherwayes Laws instead of preservatives to States and Commonwealths might prove nets and snares to intangle the lives reputations and estates of the Subjects And it must also be granted that these Laws and Acts of Parliament are to be understood and expounded by our solemn publick Vows and Covenants contracted with God both by his Majesty and Subjects which are not only declared by the Laws of the Land to have the strength of Acts of Parliament but both by the Law of God and common-Common-Law and light of all the Nations in the world are more binding and indispensible then any municipal Law or Statute whatsoever Thirdly as to these Acts of Parliament which are cited agâ—â—â—â—â— slanderous and untrue speeches to the disdain contempt and reproach of his Majesties Authority I think I need not say that none much less his Majesties Commissioner and this Honourable Court of Parliament do understand them of truths uttered in sobriety by those who have any lawful call thereunto and that these Acts which speak against medling in the affairs of his Majesty and States are not to be understood of such medling as men are bound unto by virtue of their calling and wherein they do not transgress the bounds thereof The next thing I shall speak to is the particulars wherewith I am charged concerning which I shall give your Lordship a true and ingenuous accompt as to my accession thereto knowing that I speak in the sight of him who sits in the Assembly of the Gods Next I shall be bold to offer to your Lordship some humble defence of my doing for vindicaâ—ing of my carriage from the breach of his Majesties Laws and exempting me from the punishment appointed thereby As to matter of fact I am in the Indictment first charged with a general of being culpable of sundry seditious and treasonable Remonstrances Declarations Petitions Instructions Letters Speeches Preachings Declamations c. To which I say that generalia non pungunt they can have no strength in the inferring of any crime of guilt except in so far as they are instanced and verified in particulars but are like unto that universal that having no foundation in re is a meer Chimera or second notion only one thing there is in that general charge that I cannot yea ought not to pass by to wit that I have seditiously and trayterously purposed the eradicating and subverting the Fundamental Government of this his Majesties ancient Kingdome at least the enervating or violating or impairing of his Authority concerning which I am bold to say it is an unjust Charge there was never any such design or purpose in my heart and since I am thus charged I may without vanity or the breach of the law of sobriety affirm that as I had never any complyances with the counsel designs or actings of the late usurping Powers against his Majesties Royal Father or himself or against this Kingdome or the ancient Government thereof or of the Kingdomes of England and Ireland so was there no part of their ungodly unjust actings but I did in my station calling bear open and publick testimony against the same both by word and writ which is a thing better known and more manifest then that can be liable to suspition therein many of these testimonies being given before many and many of them being yet extant in the world and such as will be extant to posterity My Lord albeit it doth become me to adore God in the holiness and wilsdome of his dispensations yet I can hardly refrain from expressing some grief of spirit that my house and family should not only have been possest for many moneths together by a number of English souldiers and my seâ—f kept from the Pulpit for speaking and preaching against the tender and incorporating of this Nation in one Commonwealth with England and that I should thereafter in the time of Oliver Cromwell as usurping the Government to himself under the name of Protector been delated by some and challenged by sundry of his Councel in this Nation because of a paper published by me wherein he was declared to be an Usurper and his Government to be Usurpation that I should have been threatned to be sent to the Tower for writing a paper against Oliver Cromwell his Usurping of the Crown of these Kingdomes that I should have been threatned with banishment for concurring in offering a large testimony against the evils of the time to Richard Cromwell his Councel immediately after his usurping of the Government I say my Lord it grieves me that notwithstanding of these things I should now stand indicted before your Lordship as intending the eradicating and subverting of the ancient Civil Government of this Nation and beign subservient to that Usurper in his designs the God
the Land and keeped without multitude or tumult such as that was needs no particular Warrant from Authority as may be instanced in sundry other meetings up and down the Land day by day for several sorts of business Be there not many meetings kept by persons of all sorts in all the parts of the Country in reference to applications to Judicatories and to the Supreme Magistrate for the civil interests and rights and if so how much more may Ministers meet for supplicating his Majesty for the interests and right of Jesus Christ keeping themselves for the matter of their supplication within the bounds of the Covenant and of these things that are established by Law Thirdly such meetings are clearly exempted from the breach of these Acts of Parliament by a posterior Act of Parliament to wit by the 29th Act of the 2 Parl. of King Charles the first As to the last particular in the Indictment to wit my declining of his Majesties Authority at Perth I do acknowledg that I did decline the Civil Magistrate as competent Judge of Ministers Doctrine in the first instant his Majesties Authority in all things civil I do with all my heart acknowledge and that according to the Confession of the Faith of this Church the conservation and purgation of Religion belongs to him as civil Magistrate and that Ecclesiastick persons are not exempted from obedience to Civil Authority and the just commands thereof not from punishment in case of their transgression but that declinators of the Civil Magistrate his being Judge of Ministers Doctrine in the first instant are no treason nor sedition but lawful and warrantable I do humbly offer first that such declinators are agreeable to the rule of Gods Word and to the Confessions of Faith and Doctrine of this Church which are confirmed and ratified in Parliament by many several Acts and therefore have the strength both of divine and humane Law that they are agreeable to the rule of Gods Word is evidents from this that the Scriptures do clearly hold forth that Jesus Christ hath a visible Kingdome which he exercises in or over his visible Church by the spiritual office bearers thereof which is wholly distinct from the civil powers and government of the world and not depending upon nor subordinate unto these governments and the Acts thereof John 18.36 37. Mat. 16.19 John 28.23 That they are agreeable to the Confessions of Faith and Doctrine of this Church is evident because these do acknowledge no Head over the visible Church of Christ but Jesus Christ himself nor any Judgement nor Power in nor over his house but that which he hath committed unto the spiritual office-bearers thereof under himself and therefore it hath been the ordinary practise of this Church in such cases to use such declinators since the time of Reformation from Popery as may appear from many clear and undeniable and proven instances extant in the Acts of the Gen. Assemblies and Records of this Church particularly these of Mr. David Black in the year 1596. which was owned and subscribed by three or four hundred Ministers besides sundry others which are well known and I do believe my Lord that not only is this the doctrine of the Church of Scotland but also of many sound Protestant Divines who give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Secondly such declinators are agreeable unto and founded upon the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant by which the Kings Majesty himself and all the Subjects of this Kingdome are bound to maintain the doctrine worship discipline and government of this Church which with solemn vows and publick Oaths of God have alwayes in all Kingdomes States and Republicks been accompted more sacred and binding then any municipal Law or Statute whatsoever and being posterior to the Act of Parliament 1584. do necessarily include a repealing thereof Upon these grounds it is that I gave in and do assert that declinator for vindicating the Crown dignity and Royal Prerogative of Jesus Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords but with all due reverence and respect to his Majesty and his just greatness and Authority Fourthly as to that Act of Parliament 1584. was made in a time wherein the setled Government of this Church by Presbyters and Synods was wholly over-turned and their meetings utterly discharged and the deposition of Ministers and things properly spiritual and Ecclesiastick put into the hands of the Civil Magistrate so we do assert that that Act in so far as concerns such declinators hath since the making thereof been often repealed and rescinded and was standing repealed and rescinded at the down sitting of the Parliament First it was ranversed and annulled by a posterior Act in the year 1592. to wit the first Act of the 12. Parl. of King Ja. the 6. which in the last Section thereof doth expresly declare that that Act in the year 1584. shall no wayes be prejudicial nor derogate any thing to the priviledge that God has given to the spiritual office-bearers in the Kirk concerning heads of Religion matters of Heresie collation or deprivation of Ministers or any sick-like essential censure specially grounded and having Warrant from the Word of God but so it is that the freedome and independency of the spiritual office-bearers of the Kirk of God in things Ecclesiastical that concern their calling is a special priviledge of the Kirk and a special head of Religion and that the free discovering of the sins of all persons by Ministers in their Doctrine from the word of God is an essential censure grounded upon and having warrant in the Word of God and according hereto King James the 6. in the year 1585. considering the great offence given and taken by that Act in the year 84. did for removing thereof send a Declaration penned and signed with his own hand to the Commissioners of the Kirk of Scotland at Linlithgow Decemb. 7. which he sayes shall be as good and valid as any Act of Parliament whatsoever In which Declaration he hath these words I for my part shall never neither my Posterity ought ever cite summon or apprehend any Pastor or Preacher for matters of Doctrine Religion Salvation Heresies or ton interpretation of the Scriptures but according to my first Act which confirmeth the liberty of preaching of the Word Ministration of the Sacraments c. I avouch the same to be a matter meer Ecclesiastical and altogether impertinent to my calling therefore never shall I nor never ought they I mean my posterity acclaim any power or Jurisdiction in the foresaids It is also to be considered that that Act 1584. is also repealed by the 4th Act of the 2d Parl. of King Charles the 1. which reckons it amongst the evils that had sore troubled the peace of the Church and Kingdome that the power of the Keys and Kirk-censures was given to persons meerly civil and therefore doth provide that for
preservation of Religion and preventing all such evils in time coming Gen. Assemblies rightly constitute as the proper and competent Iudges of all matters Ecclesiastical hereafter be keeped yearly and oftner pro re naia as occasion and necessity shall require The same Act in the year 1584 is also repealed by the 6th Act of the 2d Parl. of King Charles the First called the Act rescissory which expresly provides and declares that the sole and only power and jurisdiction within this Kirk stands in the Kirk of God as it is now reformed and in the General Provincial Presbyterial Assemblies with Kirk Sessions established by Act of Parliament in Jan. 1592. which Act is expresly revived and renewed in the whole heads points and Articles in the foresaid Act rescissory and is appointed to stand in full strength as a perpetual Law in aâ—l time coming notwithstanding of whatsoever Acts or Statutes made in the contrary thereof in whole or in part which the Estates by that Act rescissory casses and annulls in all time coming and rescinds and annulls all and whatsoever Acts of Parliament Laws and Constitutions in so far as they derogate and are prejudicial to the spiritual nature jurisdiction discipline and priviledges of this Kirk by which it is evident that not only that that Act in the year 1584. but also the first Act of the 18 Parl. of King James the 6th and 3d Act of the first Parl. of King Charles the First whcih ratifies and establishes the Royal Prerogative over all estates persons and causes within this Kingdome is declared to be of no force in so far as the same may be extended to make the Supreme Magistrate the proper and competent Iudge of matters Spiritual and Ecclesiastick Sixthly it is to be observed that it hath been lawful and in continual practise that his Majesty and secret Councel in sundry causes have been declined and the cause drawn to the ordinary competent Iudge as matters Civil to the Lords of the Session matters criminal to the Chief Iustice matters of divorcement to the Commissaries yea the meanest regality in the Country hath power to decline the Supreme Iudicatories As to what is alledged in the close of the Indictment of protesting for remedy of Law against his Majesty for a seasment c. of that protestation was but an Appendix and Consequent of the other made only in reference thereto and a protestation against any particular Act for remedy according to his Majesties Laws cannot be treason against his Majesty there being no Act of Parliament declaring it to be so and it being not Authority it self that is protested against but only a particular Act of the Authority against which protestations in many cases are ordinary Lastly it is to be observed that this declinatur was buried in silence by his Majesty and the Committee of Estates after the in-giving thereof and M. Guthry sent home without their challenging of him for the same and permitted the exercise of his Ministry at Sterling These few things my Lord I thought fit at present to say in vindication and defence of my own innocency notwithstanding of any thing contained in the Indictment now read against me the sum of what I have said is shortly in these two first that I did never purpose nor intend to speak or write or act any thing disloyal or seditious or treasonable against his Majesties person or Authority or Government God is my witness and that what I have spoken or written or acted in any of these things wherewith I am charged hath been meerly and singly from a principle of conscience that according to the weak measure of light given me of God I might do my duty in my station and calling as a Minister of the Gospel Next because conscience barely taken is not a sufficient plea though it may extenuate yet it cannot wholly excuse I do assert that I have founded my speeches and writings and actings in these matters upon the Word of God and the Doctrine and Confessions of Faith and Laws of this Church and Kingdome and upon the National Covenant of Scotland and the Solemn League and Covenant betwixt the three Kingdomes of Scotland England and Ireland if these foundations shall fail I must fall with them but if these sustain and stand in judgment as I hope they will I cannot acknowledge my self neither I hope will his Majesties Lord Commissioner and the Honorable Court of Parliament judg me guilty of sedition and treason notwithstanding of any thing contained in the Indictment After this Speech before the Parliament Mr. James Guthry was appointed to give in writing his legal defences or what he had to say in Law for his own defence against the things contained in his Indictment which legal defences he gave in to the Lord Advocate the fourth of March These defences contain five sheets of paper to which having received a Reply from the Lord Advocate about fifteen daies thereafter he did return a Duply thereunto the fifth of April consisting of seven sheets of paper and being called before the Parliament the tenth of April his whole Process consisting of the Indictment and his Defences and the Lord Advocates Reply was read after which having liberty to speak again for himself he did by word of mouth deliver what is contained in the following Speech Mr. James Guthry his Speech before the Parliament immediately after the reading of the Process April 10. 1661. My Lord Chancellour I Did at my first appearance before his Majesties Commissioner and this Honourable Court of Parliament give an accompt of my accession to the particulars contained in the Indictment and of the grounds and reasons thereof and have now done it more fully in my Defences and in my Duplies to the Replies given by my Lord Advocate thereunto in all which I have dealt ingeniously and without shifting holding it the duty of a Christian especially of a Minister of the Gospel in the matters of his duty and calling so to do I have only now to add these few words 1. That I hope I have made it sufficiently to appear that what I have spoke or written or acted in these matters was from no malicious or sinistrous intention against his Majesties person or his Government but from a principle of true piety towards God and true loyalty towards his Majesty as I have demonstrated this from the tenor of my carriage and actings under the Usurpers so I have herein confidence towards God and in the perswasion of the integrity of my Soul in this particular may with a good conscience not only make this Declaration before your Lordship but also hazard to step into Eternity 2. Next my Lord I hope I have made it to appear that besides the conformity that my accession to these things have with the Word of God so they have a foundation in the National Covenant and in the Solemn League and Covenant the obligation whereof I dare not but profess to own as binding
and standing upon these Kingdomes and that they are agreeable unto the actings of publick Authority before the Englishes invading of this Nation to the Canons of the Church and the Laws of the Kingdome and the publick declared judgment both of Church and State before that time And my Lord if this may not plead an Indempnity and Oblivion for me but that notwithstanding thereof I shall be judged a seditious person and a Traytor not only shall the whole Church and Kingdome of Scotland be involved in the guilt of Sedition and Treason and few or none have any security for their lives and honours and estates further then the Kings mercy doth give them but also a very dangerous foundation shall be laid for the time to come for men of differing judgments upon every emergent revolution to prosecute the worsted party unto death notwithstanding that they have the publick Authority and the Laws then standing to plead in the defence of their actings I know my Lord that it lyeth upon the spirits of some as a prejudice against me that I am supposed to have been a chief instrument or a Ring-leader in these Declarations and Canons and Laws and publick actings of the Church and Kingdome which I do now plead in my own defence I shall not say that this hath any rise from any who to lighten their own burthens would encrease mine holding that to be unworthy of any man of an ingenious spirit and most unworthy of a Christian As I charge no man in particular with accession to any of these things so as to my self I do for the truths sake ingenuously acknowledge that throughout the whole course of my life I have studied to be serious and to deal not with a slack hand in what I did look upon as my duty and yet my Lord lest I should attribute unto my self what is not due unto me I must for shunning of pride and vain-glory also say that I was not honoured to be of these who laid the first foundation of the work of Reformation in this Church and Kingdome I am not ashamed to give glory to God in acknowledging that until the beginning of the year 1638. I was treading other steps and though God did then graciously recover me out of the snare of Prelacy and the Ceremonies and Service-book and a little thereafter put me into the Ministry yet did I never judge my self worthy to be accompted a Ring-leader in any of the superstructures of that blessed work there being a good many elder for years and more eminent for piety and prudence and parts and faithfulness and zeal whom I did reverence and gave the precedency unto in these things 3. It may also happily my Lord be and a little I have been informed of it that besides any thing contained in the Indictment there be some other things that bear weight upon the spirits of some of the Members of this House from reports that have passed of my carriage towards his Majesties Royal Father and towards himself and some others As to these things my Lord if there be any thing of that kind I do most humbly and seriously beg and think that I may justly expect both in order to Justice and to the peace of their own consciences that seeing they have no proof of it but at best have taken it upon information that they would either altogether lay it aside and lay no weight upon it or else before they give Judgment of me they would let me know of it and allow me a fair hearing upon it and if I cannot vindicate my self let me bear the burdning of it 4. In the next place my Lord knowing that it is wondred and offended at not by a few of the Members of this Parliament that I should stand to my own justification in the things whereof I am challenged and that this I looked upon as a piece of peremptory and wilful humour which if I pleased I might easily lay aside My Lord I humbly beg so much charity of all who now hear me as to think that I have not so far lost the exercise of all conscience towards God and of all reason towards my self and my dearest relations in the world as upon deliberation to hazard if not cast away both my life and soul at once God knows it is not humour but conscience that sticks with me and could I lay it aside and not sin against God not dissemble with men by confessing or professing what I think not I should not stand to the defence of any of these things for the minute of an hour but my Lord having with prayer and supplication unto the God of truth searched the Word of God and consulted the judgement and practise of the Reformed Churches especially of our own Church since the time of Reformation from Popery and writings of many sound and Orthodox Divines and having frequently conversed and conferred with the godly Ministry and praying people of this Nation and try the pulse of their spirits anent the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant the particulars contained in them and superstructures that have been built upon them anent sin and duty and the power of the Civil Magistrate in matters Spiritual and Ecclesiastical I find my practise and profession anent these things agreeable unto all these and therefore cannot reckon my light for humour and delusion but must hold it fast until better guides be shown me to follow 5. My Lord I shall in the last place humbly beg that having brought so pregnant and clear defences from the Word of God so much divine reason and humane Law and so much of the common practise of Kirk and King done in my own defence and being already cast out of my Ministry thrust out from my dwelling and maintenance my self and my family put to live upon the charity of others and having now suffered eight moneths imprisonment your Lordship would not put more burdnings upon me I shall conclude my Lord with the words of the Prophet Jeremy in a like case Behold saith he I am in your hands do with me what seemeth good unto you but know ye for certain that the Lord hath commanded me to speak all these things and that if you put me to death you shall bring innocent blood upon your selves and upon the inhabitants of this City My Lord my conscience I cannot submit but this old crazy body and mortal flesh I do submit to do with it whatsoever you will whether by death or imprisonment or banishment or any thing else only I beseech you to ponder well what profit is in my blood it is not the extinguishing of me or of many others that will extinguish the Covenant and work of Reformation since the year 1638. My blood bondage or banishment will contribute more for propagation of these things then my life or liberty could do though I should live for many years I wish to my Lord Commissioners Grace and to all your Lordships a spirit of judgement and wisdome and understanding and of the fear of the Lord that you may judge righteous judgement in which he may have glory and the King honour and happinâ—ss and your selves peace in the day of your accompts FINIS