our best security The Common Law then or Liberties of England comprized in the Magna Charta and the Charter of Forest are rendred as secure as authentick words can set them from all Judgments or Precedents to the contrary in any Courts all corrupting advice or evil counsel of any Judges all Letters or Countermands from the Kings Person under the Great or Privy Seals yea and from any Acts of Parliament it self that are contrary thereunto As to the Judges no question they well know the story of the 44 corrupt Judges executed by King Alfred as also of Tresillian Belknap and many others since By 11 Hen. 7. cap. 1. They that serve the King in his Wars according to their duty of Allegiance for defence of the King and the Land are indempnified If against the Land and so not according to their Allegiance the last clause of that chapter seems to exclude them from the benefit of this Act. 6 Hen. 8. 16. Knights and Burgesse of Parliament are required not to depart from the Parliament till it be fully finished ended or prorogued 28 Ed. 3. cap. 3. No man is to be imprisoned disherited or put to death without being heard what he can say for himself 4 Ed. 3. 14. and 36. Ed. 3. 10. A Parliament is to be holden every year or oftner if need be 1 Ric. 3. cap. 2. The subjects of this Realm are not to be charged with any new imposition called a Benevolence 37 Ed. 3. c. 18. All those that make suggestions against any man to the King are to be sent with their suggestions before the Chancellor Treasurer and his grand Council and there to find surety that they will pursue their suggestions and are to incur the same pain the party by them accused should have had if attained in case the suggestion be found evil or false 21 Jacobi cap. 3. All Monopolies and Dispensations with Penal Laws are made void as contrary to the great Charters These quotations of several Statutes as Ratifications and Restorers of the Laws of the Land are prefixed to the following Discourses and Pleas of this Sufferer as certain steady unmovable Land-marks to which he oft relates The rouling Seas have other Laws peculiar to themselves as Cook observes on that expression Law of the Land in his Comment on the 29th Chapter of Magna Charta Offences done upon the High Sea the Admiral takes conusance of and proceeds by the Marine Law But have those steady Land-marks though exactly observed and never so pertinently quoted and urged by this Sufferer failed him as to the securing of his Life 'T is because we have had Land-floods of late Tumults of the People that are compared to the raging Seas Psal 65. 7. The first Paper of this deceased Sufferer towards the defence of his Cause and Life preparatory to the Tryal as the foundation of all that follows before he could know how the Indictment was laid and which also a glance back to any crime of Treason since the beginning of the late War that the Attorney General reckoned him chargeable with shews to be very requist take as followeth Memorandums touching my Defence THe Offence objected against me is levying War within the Statute 25 Ed. 3. and by consequence a most high and great failer in the duty which the Subject according to the Laws of England stands obliged to perform in relation to the Imperial Crown and Soveraign Power of England The crime if it prove any must needs be very great considering the circumstances with which it hath been accompaned For it relates to and takes in a series of publick action of above twenty years continuance It took its rise and had its root in the Being Authority Judgment Resolutions Votes and Orders of a Parliament and that a Parliament not onely authorized and commissionated in the ordinary and customary way by his Majesties Writ of Summons and the Peoples Election and Deputation subject to Adjournment Discontinuance and Dissolution at the King's will but which by express Act of Parliamenâ— was constituted in its continuance and exercise of its Power free from that subjection and made therein wholly to depend upon their own will to be declared in an Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose when they should see cause To speak plainly and clearly in this matter That which is endeavoured to be made a Crime and an Offence of such an high nature in my person is no other than the necessary and unavoidable Actings of the Representative Body of the Kingdom for the preservation of the good People thereof in their allegiance and duty to God and his Law as also from the imminent dangers and destruction threatned them from God's and their own Enemies This made both Houses in their Remonstrance May 26. 1642. protest If the Malignant spirits about the King should ever force or necessitate them to defend their Religion the Kingdom the Priviledges of Parliament and the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects with their Swords The Blood and Destruction that should ensue therupon must be wholly cast upon their account God and their own consciences telling them that they were clear and would not doubt but that God and the whole world would clear them therein In his Majesties Answer to the Declaration of the two Houses May 19. 1642. he acknowledgeth his going into the House of Commons to demand the five Members was an errour And that was it which gave the Parliament the first cause to put themselves in a posture of defence by their own Power and Authority in commanding the Trained-Bands of the City of London to guard and secure them from Violence in the discharge of their Trust and Duty as the two Houses of Parliament appointed by Act to continue as above-mentioned The next cause was his Majesties raising Forces at York under pretence of a Guard expressed in the humble Petition of the Lords and Commons May 23. 1642. wherein they beseech his Majesty to disband all such Forces and desist from any further designs of that nature otherwise they should hold themselves bound in duty towards God and the Trust reposed in them by the People and the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of this Kingdom to employ their care and utmost power to secure the Parliament and preserve the peace and quiet of the Kingdom May 20. 1642 The two Houses of Parliament gave their Judgment in these Votes First That it appears that the King seduced by wicked Counsel intends to make War against the Parliament who in all their Consultations and Actions have proposed no other end to themselves but the Care of his Kingdoms and the performance of all Duty and Loyalty to his Person Secondly That whensoever the King maketh War upon the Parliament it is a breach of Trust reposed in him by his People contrary to his Oath and tending to the dissolution of this Government Thirdly That whosoever shall serve or assist him in such Wars are Traytors by the fundamental
before and who is the Proper and Competent Judge Also whether the Laws be not perfectly silent as never supposing such a Case possible to happen by reason that the Power used by the one for Dissolving the other never before suffered the Opposition to rise so high The Fourth Querie is Whether he in this Case that keeps his Station and place of Trust wherein God and the Law did set him with care to demean himself according to the best of his Vnderstanding agreeably to the Law and Customes of Parliament and pursuant to their Votes and Directions so long as they sit and affirm themselves to be a Parliament and uses his best endeavours in the exercise of that publick Trust that no Detriment in the general come unto the Common-wealth by the failer of Justice and the necessary Protection due from Government without any designing or intending the Subversion of the Constitution but onely the securing more fully the Peoples Liberties and just Rights from all future Invasions and Oppressions be not so far from deserving to be judged Criminal in respect of any Law of God or Man that he ought rather to be affirmed One that hath done his Duty even the next best that was left to him or possible for him to do in such a dark stormy season and such difficult Circumstances As to the Right of the Cause it self it ariseth out of the matter of Fact that hath happened and by the Just and Wise Providence of God hath been suffered to state it self in the Contest between the Personal Will and declared Pleasure of the King on the one Hand and the publick Will or Vote of the People in Parliament on the other declaring it self either in Orders or Ordinances of both Houses or in the single Act of the House of Commons asserting it self a Parliament upon the Grounds of the Act 17 Car. providing against its dissolution This will appear with the more evidence and certainty by considering wherein either part had a wrong Cause or did or might do that which was not their Duty taking the measure of their Duty from what as well the King as the Peoples Representative are obliged unto by the Fundamental Constitution of the Government which binds them in each of their Capacities and distinct Exercises of their Trust to intend and pursue the true good and welfare of the whole Body or Community as their End This in effect is to detain the People in Obedience and Subjection to the Law of God and to guide them in the wayes of Righteousness unto God's well-pleasing and to avoid falling out or disagreeing about the Way or Means leading to that End Hence that party which in his or their actings was at the greatest distance from or opposition unto this end and wilfully and unnecessarily disagreed and divided from the other in the Ways and Means that were most likely to attain this End they were assuredly in the Fault and had a Wrong Cause to mannage under what ever Name of Face of Authority it was Headed and Upheld And such a Wrong Cause was capable of being espoused and mannaged under the face of Authority as might be pretended unto by either part For as the King insisting upon his Prerogative and the binding force which his personal Will and Pleasure ought to have though in distinction from and opposition to his Parliament might depart from the end of Government answerable to his Trust and yet urge his Right to be obeyed So the publick Will of the People exercised in and by the Vote of their Representative in Parliament asserting it self to be of a binding force also and to have the place of a Law though in distinction from the King and Laws also as saith the King whatever otherwise by them is pretended might also depart from the true end of Government answerable to their Trust and yet insist upon their Right to be Obeyed and submitted unto and having Power in their hands might unduely go about also to compel Obedience It is not lawful either for King or Parliament to urge Authority and compel Obedience as of Right in any such Cases where according to the Law of Nature the People are at Liberty and ought to have a Freedom from yeelding Obedience as they are and ought to have when ever any would compel them to disobey God or to do things that evidently in the eye of Reason and common sense are to their hurt and destruction Such things Nature forbids the doing of having for that very purpose armed Man with the defensive Weapon of refusing to consent and obey as that Priviledge whereby Man is distinguished from a Beast which when he is deprived of he is made a Beast and brought into a state of perfect Servitude and Bondage Such a state of Servitude and Bondage may by God's just Judgement be inflicted upon man for sin and the abuse of his Liberty when by God restored The Liberty which man was at first created in is that Priviledge and Right which is allowed to him by the Law of Nature of not being compelled under any pretence whatsoever to sin against God or to go against the true good and welfare of his own Being that is to say of his inward or outward man but in both these cases to have and to use his just Liberty to Dissent and refuse to Obey For this every man hath that in himself which by God is made a proper and competent Judge For as to all sin against God and the righteousness of his Law the Light of Conscience that is to say the Work of the Law in and upon the Mind or inward Sense and in conjunction with it doth lighten every one that cometh into the World accusing or excusing if it be but hearkened unto and kept awake And for all such actings as tend to the ruine and destruction of man in his outward and bodily concerns and as he is the Object of Magistratical Power and Jurisdiction every man hath a Judgement of common Sense or a way of discerning and being sensible thereof common to bruit Beasts that take in their Knowledge by the door of their Senses but is much heightned and enobled in man by the personal union it is taken into with his intellectual part and intuitive way of discerning things through the inward reflectings of the mind compared with the Law of God This inferiour Judgement in man when it is conjoyned with and confirmed by the Judgement of his Superiour part is that which we call Rational or the dictates of right Reason that man hath a natural right to adhere unto as the ordinary certain Rule which is given him by God to walk by and against which he ought not to be compelled or be forced to depart from it by the meer Will and Power of another without better Evidence that is a higher a greater or more certain way of discerning This therefore in Scripture is called Man's Judgement or Man's Day in distinction from the Lord's
of that Statute several Kings have been deposed by Parliaments since the Conquest and as to my compassing or designing the natural death of the King's Person with what colour can I be accused of such intentions in the circumstances the King at that time was in beyond the Seas Secondly The assembling of men together without any hostility or injury offered to any person but for a man 's own security and defence in a time of confusion and distraction is not Levying War or Treason at the Common Law or by that Statute Yea in this Case and at the season wherein such an Act as this is alledged it might be supposed to be done for the King's Restoration as well as in opposition thereunto and the most favourable and advantagious construction ought to be made and put upon the Prisoner's actings or words where there is ambiguity so that they may be taken or interpreted divers wayes For the Law alwayes presumeth actions to be innocent till the contrary be manifestly proved However in a time of vacancy or an Interregnum when the Foundations of Government are out of course by the Law of Reason Nature and Common Prudence every man may stand upon his own guard endeavouring his own security and protection from injury and violence Thirdly To be adherent to the King's Enemies within his Realm c. cannot ought not to be understood of any adhaesion to a Parliament wherein the King by Law is supposed alwayes present as a part thereof Nor can the Long Parliament be called the King's Enemies without overthrowing the Act of Indempnity which the King hath declared to be the Foundation of the Nations present Peace and Security Lastly The Treasons alledged in the Indictment are said to have been committed when the King was out of possession So the Indictments runs to keep out the King c. Now my Lord Cook in the third part of his Institutes fol. 7. saith A King de jure and not de facto is not within this Statute Against such a one no Treason can be committed For if there be a King regnant in possession though he be Rex de facto and not de jure yet is he Seignior le Roy within the purview of this Statute and the other that hath Right and is out of possession is not within this Act. Nay if Treason be committed against a King de facto non de jure and after the King de jure cometh to the Crown he shall punish the Treason done to the King de facto And after in the same place he saith That by Law there is alwayes a King in whose Name the Laws are to be maintained and executed otherwayes Justice would fail The Act also of 11. Hen. 7. was made for security of the Subject on this behalf The word King also may and ought to be taken largely for any Sovereign Power in a King or Queen as Cook in the place fore-quoted shews and why not by the same reason in a Protector though a Usurper or any other persons one or more in whom Soveraignty is lodged or that have all the badges of Soveraignty as the calling of Parliaments enacting of Laws coining of Money receiving Forreign Ambassadors c. His Majesty that now is is granted by the very Indictment to have been then out of possession If so then was there either some other King or what was equivolent some Sovereign Power in actual possession and exercise or none If the former then was there a King de facto so no Treason could be committed against him that was King de jure only If the latter then the Government was dissolved no allegiance was due to any persons and so no offence could be properly Treason within the Statute But had the late Protector had the name and stile of a King no Treason could have been committed against the King de jure only Now God forbid that you should give away my Life upon such niceties because a usurping Protector was not clothed with the Title as well as Power of a King The Protector or any Usurper's taking or not taking the Title of a King in case he have the Power cannot alter the state of my supposed crime You ought not to be byassed by popular Reports concerning me 'T is easier to be innocent than so reported The one is in our own power not the other Fifthly Concerning the Evidence 1. No allegation was directly proved by two positive lawful Witnesses as in this case it ought to be 2. One of the Witnesses for the King confessed in open Court that to his knowledge my hand had been counterfeited to my prejudice and dammage in great Sums of Money yet Orders pretended to be signed by me wherein my hand may as well be counterfeited are taken as Evidence against me 3. The Issue of the whole Cause depended on the solution of some difficult Questions of so high a nature and great importance as could not safely be determined but in the high Court of Parliament As 1. Whether the Long Parliament called in Novemb. 1640 were dissolved by the late King's Death 2. Whether the successive remaining Powers that exercised the Royal or Supream Authority from 1648 to the Restoration of his now Majesty were not within the true sense and meaning of 25. Edw. 3. and 11. Hen. 7 As to other pertinent Queries thou mayest see them Reader in other parts of this Tryal That which remains as an Appendix to this Bill of Exceptions is to lay before thee the Grounds which plainly shew that there was a downright Conspiracy in Sir Vane's Tenants and others to prosecute him for Life and Estate under colour and pretence of Justice 1. Presently after I was committed to the Tower for High Treason and made a Close-Prisoner Mr. Oneale Sir William Darcy and Dr. Cradock obtained an Order from the King to seize and take into their possession all the Estates of such persons that were already or should be forfeited to his Majesty Hereupon the said Mr. Oneale and Sir Will. Darcy appointed some under them in the Bishoprick of Durham by name Thomas Bowes Esque now deceased and Capt. William Darcy to joyn with the said Dr. Cradock to put in execution the said Warrant as their Deputies who thereupon went to Raby Castle and demanded the Rent-Books of Thomas Mowbray my Steward offering him his place under them which he refused Contrary to this proceeding Sir Edward Cook expresly declares That before Indictment the Goods or other things of any Offender cannot be searched inventoried or in any sort seized nor after Indictment seized removed or taken away before Conviction or Attainder Institut 3d part chap. 133. concerning the Seizure of Goods c. for Offences c. before Conviction 2. At the Instance and Prosecution of my Tenants and others an Order was made by the House of Commons not of the Lords requiring the Tenants of such persons as were excepted out of the General Pardon to detain their Rents in
even whilst here in the body be made partaker of Eternal Life in the first fruits of it and at last sit down with Christ in Glory at his right-hand Here I shall mention some remarkable passages and changes of my Life In particular how unsought for by my self I was called to be a Member of the Long Parliament what little advantage I had by it and by what steps I became satisfied with the Cause I was engaged in and did pursue the same What the Cause was did first shew it self in the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons Secondly in the Solemn League and Covenant Thirdly in the more refined pursuit of it by the Commons House in their Actings single with what Result they were growing up into which was in the breast of the House and unknown or what the three Proposals mentioned in my Charge would have come to at last I shall not need now to say but only from all put together to assert That this Cause which was owned by the Parliament was the CAUSE of GOD and for the Promoting of the Kingdom of his dear Son JESUS CHRIST wherein are comprehended our Liberties and Duties both as Men and as Christians And since it hath pleased God who separated me from the womb to the knowledge and service of the Gospel of his Son to separate me also to this hard and difficult service at this time and to single me out to the defence and justification of this his Cause I could not consent by any words or actions of mine that the innocent Blood that hath been shed in the defence of it throughout the whole War the Guilt and moral evil of which must and does certainly lye somewhere did lye at my door or at theirs that have been the faithful Adherers to this Cause This is with such evidence upon my heart that I am most freely and chearfully willing to put the greatest Seal to it I am capable which is the pouring out of my very Blood in witness to it which is all I shall need to say in this place and at this time having spoken at large to it in my Defence at my Tryal intending to have said more the last day as what I thought was reasonable for Arrest of the Judgment but I was not permitted then to speak it Both which may with time and God's providence come to publick view And I must still assert That I remain wholly unsatisfied that the course of proceedings against me at my Tryal were according to Law but that I was run upon and destroyed contrary to Right and the Liberties of Magna Charta under the form only of Justice which I leave to God to decide who is the Judge of the whole World and to clear my Innocency Whilst in the mean time I beseech him to forgive them and all that have had a hand in my Death and that the Lord in his great mercy will not lay it unto their charge And I do account this Lot of mine no other than what is to be expected by those that are not of the World but whom Christ hath chosen out of it for the Servant is not greater than his Lord And if they have done this to the green tree they will do it much more to the dry However I shall not altogether excuse my self I know that by many weaknesses and failers I have given occasion enough of the ill usage I have met with from men though in the main the Lord knows the sincerity and integrity of my heart whatever Aspersions and Reproaches I have or do lye under I know also that God is just in bringing this Sentence and Condemnation upon me for my sins there is a body of sin and death in me deserves this Sentence and there is a similitude and likeness also that as a Christian God thinks me worthy to bear with my Lord and head in many circumstances in reference to these dealings I have met with in the good I have been endeavouring for many years to be doing in these Nations and especially now at last in being numbred amongst transgressors and made a publick Sacrifice through the wrath and contradictions of men and in having finished my course and fought the good fight of Faith and resisted in a way of suffering as you see even unto blood This is but the needful preparation the Lord hath been working in me to the receiving of the Crown of Immortality which he hath prepared for them that love him The prospect whereof is so chearing that through the Joy in it that is set before the eyes of my Faith I can through mercy endure this Cross despise this Shame and am become more than Conquerour through Christ that hath loved me For my Life Estate and all is not so dear to me as my Service to God to his Cause to the Kingdom of Christ and the future welfare of my Country and I am taught according to the Example as well as that most Christian saying of a Noble Person that lately died after this publick manner in Scotland How much better is it to chuse Affliction and the Cross than to sin or draw back from the Service of the Living God into the wayes of Apostacy and Perdition That Noble Person whose Memory I honour was with my self at the beginning and making of the Solemn League and Covenant the Matter of which and the holy Ends therein contained I fully assent unto and have been as desirous to observe but the rigid way of prosecuting it and the oppressing Uniformity that hath bin endeavored by it I never approved This were sufficient to vindicate me from the false Aspersions and Calumnies which have been laid upon me of Jesuitism and Popery and almost what not to make my Name of ill savour with good men which dark mists do now dispel of themselves or at least ought and need no pains of mine in making an Apology For if any man seek a proof of Christ in me let him reade it in his action of my Death which will not cease to speak when I am gone And henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus I shall not desire in this place to take up much time but only as my last words leave this with you That as the present storm we now lie under and the dark Clouds that yet hang over the Reformed Churches of Christ which are coming thicker and thicker for a season were not un-fore-seen by me for many years passed as some Writings of mine declare So the coming of Christ in these Clouds in order to a speedy and sudden Revival of his Cause and spreading his Kingdom over the face of the whole Earth is most clear to the eye of my Faith even that Faith in which I dye whereby the Kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ Amen Even so come Lord Jesus Some Passages of his PRAYER on the Scaffold
THE TRYAL OF Sir Henry Vane Kt. AT The KINGS BENCH Westminster June the 2d and 6th 1662. Together With what he intended to have Spoken the Day of his Sentence June 11. for Arrest of Judgment had he not been interrupted and over-ruled by the Court and his Bill of Exceptions With other Occasional SPEECHES c. Also his SPEECH and PRAYER c. on the Scaffold Printed in the Year 1662. The TRYAL of Sir Henry Vane Knight at the Kings Bench Westminster June the 2d and 6th 1662. READER THou shalt not be detained with any flourishing Preface 'T is true whether we consider the Person or Cause so much might pertinently be said as were the Pen of some ready Writer imployed therein a large Preamble might seem to need but a very short Apolâ—gy if any at all Yet by that time we have well weighed what this Sufferer hath said for himself and left behind him in writing it will appear that there needed not any tongue of the Learned to form up an Introduction thereunto but meerly the hand of a faithful Transcriber of his own Observations in defence of himself and his Cause Rest assured of this thou hast them here fully and clearly represented The necessity of this course for thy information as to the truth of his Case be pleased to consider on these following accounts He was much over-ruled diverted interrupted and cut short in his Plea as to a free and full delivery of his mind upon the whole matter at the Bar by the Judges of the Kings-Bench and by the Kings Counsel He was also denyed the benefit of any Counsel to speak on his behalf And what he did speak at the Bar and on the Scaffold was so disgustful to some that the Books of those that took Notes of what passed all along in both places were carefully called in and suppressed It is therefore altogether unpossible to give thee a full Narrative of all he said or was said to him either in Westminster-Hall or on Tower-Hill The Defendant foreseeing this did most carefully set down in writing the substance of what he intended to enlarge upon the three dayes of his appearance at the Kings-Bench Bar and the day of his Execution Monday June 2. 1662 was the day of his Arraignment Friday June 6. was the day of his Tryal and the Jurors Verdict Wednesday June 11. was the day of his Sentence Saturday June 14. was the day of his Execution on Tower-Hill where limitations were put upon him and the interruptions of him by many hard speeches and disturbing carriages of some that compassed him about upon the Scaffold as also by the sounding of Trumpets in his face to prevent his being heard had many eye and ear witnesses Vpon these considerations I doubt not it will appear undispensably necessary to have given this faithful Transcript of such Papers of his as do contain the most substantial and pleadable grounds of his publick actings any time this twenty years and more as the only means left of giving any tolerable account of the whole matter to thy satisfaction Yet such Information as could be picked up from those that did preserve any Notes taken in Court or at the Scaffold are here also recorded for thy use and that faithfully word for word Chancellor Fortescue doth right worthily commend the Laws of England as the best now extant and in force in any Nation of the world affording if duely administred just outward liberty to the People and securing the meanest from any oppressive and injurious practices of Superiours against them They give also that just Prerogative to Princes that is convenient or truly useful and advantagious for them to have that is to say such as doth not enterfere with the Peoples just Rights the intire and most wary preservation of which as it is the Covenant-duty of the Prince so is it his best security and greatest honour 'T is safer and better for him to be loved and rightly feared by free Subjects than to be feared and hated by injured slaves The main fundamental Liberties of the free People of England are summed up and comprehended in the 29th Chapter of Magna Charta These be the words No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseized of his Freehold or Liberties or free-customs or be out-lawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed Nor will we pass upon him or condemn him but by lawful Judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land We will sell to no man we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right Lord Chief Justice Cook observes here nine famous branches of the Law of England couched in this short Chapter and discourses upon them to good purpose He saith also that from this Chapter as out of a root many fruitful branches of the Law of England have sprung As for the very leading injury to other wrongings of the Subject to wit the restraint or imprisonment of his person so curious and tender is the Law in this point that sayes Cook no man is to be attached arrested taken or restrained of his liberty by petition or suggestion to the King or to his Council unless it be by Indictment or Presentment of good and lawful men of the neighbourhood where such deeds be done This great Charter of Englands Liberties made 9 Hen. 3. and set in the front of all succeeding Statute-Laws or Acts of Parliament as the Standard Touch-stone or Jury for them to be tryed by hath been ratified by about two and thirty Parliaments and the Petition of Right 3. Caroli The two most famous Ratifications hereof entituled Confirmationes Chartarum Articuli super Chartas were made 25 and 28 of Edw. 1. All this stir about the great Charter some conceive very needless seeing that therein are contained those fundamental Laws or Liberties of the Nation which are so undeniably consonant to the Law of Nature or Light of Reason that Parliaments themselves ought not to abrogate but preserve them Even Parliaments may seem to be bounded in their Legislative Power and Jurisdiction by divine Equity and Reason which is an eternal and therefore unalterable Law Hence is it that an Act of Parliament that is evidently against common Right or Reason is null and void in it self without more ado Suppose a Parliament by their Act should constitute a man Judge in his own cause give him a meer Arbitrary power such Act would be in it self void This is declared to be the ground of that exemplary Justice done upon Empson and Dudley as acting contrary to the Peoples Liberties in Magna Charta whose Case is very memorable in this point For though they gratified Hen. 7th in what they did and had an Act of Parliament for their Warrant made the 11th of his Reign yet met they with their due reward from the hands of Justice that Act being against Equity and common Reason and so no justifiable ground or apology for those infinit Abuses and
of the King's Authority and of his Kingdom against the personal Commands of the King opposed thereunto though accompanied with his presence is Treason or levying War against the King Such Interpretation is very far from the sense of that Statute and so much the Statute it self speaks beside the authority of Book-cases For if the clause of levying War had been meant only against the King's Person what need had there been thereof after the other branch in the same Statute of compassing the King's death which would necessarily have implied this And because the former doth imply this it seems not at all to be intended at least not chiefly in the latter branch but the levying War against his Laws and Authority and such a levying War though not against his Person is a levying War against the King whereas the levying of Force against his personal Commands though accompanied with his Presence and not against his Laws and Authority but in the maintenance thereof is no levying of War against the King but for him especially in a time of so many successive plots and designs of Force against the Parliament and Kingdom of probable Invasion from abroad and of so great distance and alienation of his Majesties affections from his Parliament and People and of the particular danger of the Place and Magazine of Hull of which the two Houses sitting are the most proper Judges In proclaiming Sir John Hotham Traitor they say The breach of the Priviledge of Parliament was very clear and the subversion of the Subjects common Right For though the Priviledges of Parliament extend not to these cases mentioned in the Declaration of Treason Felony and breach of the Peace so as to exempt the Members of Parliament from Punishment or from all manner of Process and Tryal yet it doth priviledge them in the way and method of their Tryal and Punishment and that the Parliament should first have the Cause brought before them that they may judge of the Fact and of the grounds of their Accusation and how far forth the manner of their Tryal may or may not concern the Priviledge of Parliament Otherwise under this pretext the Priviledge of Parliament in this matter may be so essentially broken as thereby the very Being of Parliaments may be destroyed Neither doth the sitting of a Parliament suspend all or any Law in maintaining that Law which upholds the Priviledge of Parliament which upholds the Parliament which upholds the Kingdom They further assert That in some sense they acknowledge the King to be the only person against whom Treason can be committed that is as he is King and that Treason which is against the Kingdom is more against the King than that which is against his Person because he is King For Treason is not Treason as it is against him as a man but as a man that is a King and as he hath and stands in that relation to the Kingdom entrusted with the Kingdom and discharging that Trust They also a vow That there can be no competent Judge of this or any the like case but a Parliament and do say that if the wicked Counsel about the King could master this Parliament by force they would hold up the same power to deprive us of all Parliaments which are the ground and pillar of the Subjects Liberty and that which only maketh England a free Monarchy The Orders of the two Houses carry in them Law for their limits and the Safety of the Land for their end This makes them not doubt but all his Majesties good Subjects will yeeld obedience to his Majesties Authority signified therein by both Houses of Parliament for whose encouragement and that they may know their Duty in matters of that nature and upon how sure a ground they go that follow the Judgement of Parliament for their guide They alledge the true meaning and ground of that Statute 11. Hen. 7. cap. 1. printed at large in his Majesties Message May 4 This Statute provides that none that shall attend upon the King and do him true service shall be attainted or forfeit any thing What was the scope of this Statute Answ To provide that men should not suffer as Traitors for serving the King in his Wars according to the duty of their Allegiance But if this had been all it had been a very needless and ridiculous Statute Was it then intended as they seem to make it that print it with his Majesties Message that those should be free from all crime and penalty that should follow the King and serve him in War in any case whatsoever whether it were for or against the Kingdom or the Laws thereof That cannot be for that could not stand with the duty of their Allegiance which in the beginning of this Statute is expressed to be to serve the King for the time being in his Wars for the defence of him and the Land If therefore it be against the Land as it must be if it be against the Parliament the Representative Body of the Kingdom it is a declining from the duty of Allegiance which this Statute supposes may be done though men should follow the Kings Person in the War Otherwise there had been no need of such a Proviso in the end of the Statute that none should take benefit thereby that should decline from their Allegiance That therefore which is the Principal Verb in this is the serving of the King for the time being which cannot be meant of a Perkin Warbeck or any that should call himself King but such a one as whatever his Title might prove either in himself or in his Ancestors should be received and acknowledged for such by the Kingdome the Consent whereof cannot be discern'd but by Parliament the Act whereof is the Act of the whole Kingdom by the personal Suffrage of the Peers and the Delegate Consent of the Commons of England Henry 7th therefore a wise Prince to clear this matter of contest happening between Kings de facto and Kings de jure procured this Statute to be made That none shall be accounted a Traitor for serving in his Wars the King for the time being that is him that is for the present allowed and received by the Parliament in behalf of the Kingdom And as it is truly suggested in the Preamble of the Statute It is not agreeable to reason or conscience that it should be otherwise seeing men should be put upon an impossibility of knowing their duty if the Judgment of the highest Court should not be a Rule to guide them And if the Judgment thereof is to be followed when the question is who is King much more when the question is what is the best service of the King and Kingdom Those therefore that shall guide themselves by the Judgment of Parliament ought what ever happen to be secure and free from all account and penalties upon the ground and equity of this Statute To make the Parliament countenancers of Treason they say is enough
Rule cap 29. Nullus liber homo capiatur c. No free-man shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his freehold or liberties or free-customs or be outlawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed Nor we will not passe upon him nor condemn him but by lawful Judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land We will sell to no man we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right Out of this Chapter as out of a root saith Sir Edward Cook do many fruitful branches of the Law of England spring It contains nine branches some whereof I shall insist upon in my Case First That no man be taken or imprisoned but per Legem Terrae that is by the Common Law or Custom of England which words per Legem Terrae though put last refer to all the precedent branches Secondly The Goods of any Offender cannot regularly be taken and seized to the King's use before Conviction nor be Inventoried nor the Town charged therewith before the owner be indicted of Record Thirdly No man shall be exiled or banished out of his Country not be in any sort destroyed but by the verdict of his Peers This appears by Bracton and other ancient Writers quoted by Cook in the third part of his Institutes fol. 228. Upon the whole matter saith Cook these two Conclusions are manifestly proved First That before Indictment the Goods or other things of any Offender cannot be searched inventoried or in any sort seized nor after Indictment seized removed or taken away before Conviction or Attainder Secondly That the begging of the Goods or Estate of any Delinquent accused or indicted of any Treason Felony or other offence before he be convicted and attainted is utterly unlawful Stat. Ri. 1. cap. 3. And besides it maketh the prosecution against the Delinquent more precipitant violent and undue than the quiet and equal proceedings of the Law and Justice would permit Or else by some under-hand Agreement stops or hinders the due course of Justice and discourageth both Judge Juror and Witness to do their duty Thirdly The Judges are not to give so much as their Opinion before-hand concerning the Offence whether it prove that Offence in that Case Cook in the chap. of Petty Treason fol. 29. expresly saith And to the end the Tryal may be the more indifferent seeing the safety of the Prisoner consists in the indifferency of the Court the Judges ought not to deliver their Opinions before-hand of any Criminal Case that may come before them judicially And he there cites Humphrey Staffords Case that Arch Traitor in which Hussey Chief Justice besought Hen. 7. not to demand of them their Opinions before-hand And in the 4th of his Institutes in the chap. of the High Court of Parliament fol. 37 he fully shews the evil of asking the Judges Opinions before-hand But instead of this The Judges being assistant in the Lords house when all Acts of Parliament passe and whose Advice is taken in them have as appears by what is declared in the said Acts prejudg'd by their Opinions and the Opinions of the Parliament before-hand the merit of the Cause that now appears to be put upon the Issue in my Tryal Hereby the Judges are rendred ex parte and the indifferency the Law requires impossible to be afforded Nor is this all but by the Rules declared in the Act of Indempnity all are disenabled to plead or make use of the Ordinances Orders and Votes of both or either Houses of Parliament that may have occasion thereof and then by excepting the Prisoner and his fellow out of the said Act and all benefit thereby a door is left open to Arraign bring to Tryal and Sentence the whole Cause from the beginning to the ending in the person of the Prisoner and at the same time deprive him of all means and possibility of Justification and Defence Fourthly It is observable how early hard measure appeared in the way wherein the Prisoner became excepted out of the Act of Indempnity when the Commons his proper Judges declared him in their thoughts not fit to be endangered in the point of Life yet unto the Judgment of the Lords that ought not to judge Commoners unbrought before them by the Commons much less in opposite Judgement to the Commons The Commons were necessitated to yeeld lest otherwise the Act of Indempnity to the whole Nation should stop upon this dispute and essential difference between the two Houses A Competition easily over-ruled although as it proves by the sequel That Act of Indempnity is like to become felo de se or a destroyer of it self if your Lordships shall conceive your selves at liberty notwithstanding that Act not only to bring anew into memory upon the stage the state of all the passed differences from first to last but to try and judge the merit of them in my person and therein call in question the validity of that whole Act and make void the benefit intended by it in case the War undertaken and managed by both or either of the Houses of Parliament be judged unlawful and within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. For this adjudges all the People of England morally guilty of the evil of a sin and offence against the Law of Nature which once done what ever promised Indempnity be granted for the present the Evil of the Action remaining upon Record not only to the Infamy of the whole People of England but their future danger upon pretence they have forfeited the very Indempnity granted Fifthly The length of time taken to search out matter against the Prisoner and the undue practices and courses to find out Witnesses do further evidence how unlike the Prisoner is to have an equal and indifferent Tryal He doubts not this will appear in his two years close Imprisonement six months whereof was Banishment during which time he was never so much as once examined or had any question put to him whereby he might conjecture wherefore he was committed to Prison any further than was expressed in the Warrants of Commitments Now these were so general that nothing certain or particular could be gathered out of them But upon the received opinion that he was excepted out of the Act of Indempnity and in the sence of both Houses a great Delinquent his Estate was attempted to be inventoried his Rentals demanded his Rents were actually seized in the Tenants hands and they forbidden to pay them His very Courts were prohibited by Officers of great Personages claiming the Grant of the Estate and threatning his Officers from doing their duty By these kind of undue proceedings the Prisoner had not wherewithal to maintain himself in Prison and his Debts to the value of above ten thousand pounds were undischarged either Principal or Interest The hopes of private lucre and profit hereby was such in the Tenants and other persons sought out for far and near to be Witnesses that it is no wonder at last something by way
for Government-sake it self it is requisit it should be so because none are Judges of the Power and Priviledges of Parliament but themselves For admit once that their Judgment may be called in question and disputed by private persons or by inferiour Courts whose Votes are included in theirs the Fundamentals of Government are plucked up by the roots Par in pares non habet Imperium multó minus in eos qui majus Imperium habent An Equal has no command over his Equal much less over those that have a greater command or authority His late Majesty in his Answer to the nineteen Propositions does very briefly and exactly state the nature and kind of Government that is exercised in this Kingdom saying The Laws in this Kingdom are made by a King a House of Peers and a House of Commons chosen by the People all having free Votes and particular Priviledges These three Estates making one incorporate body are they in whom the Soveraignty and Supream Power is placed as to the making and repealing of Laws And the Government according to these Laws is trusted to the King who in the Interval of Parliaments is sole in the exercise of Government which the Parliament sitting he is to exercise in conjunction with the two Houses And his said Majesty asserting three sorts of Government Absolute Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy does most rightly distinguish the Monarchy of England from all those three and commends the Constitution of this Kingdom as it is a mixture of all three having the conveniencies of them all without the inconveniencies of any one as long as the ballance hangs even between the three Estates that they run joyntly on in their proper channels and that the overflowing of either on either side raise no deluge nor inundation By the passing of the foresaid Act for the continuance of the forementioned Parliament the Intervals of Parliament were no longer as before at the will and pleasure of the King but the Power to continue the said Parliament without Adjournment Prorogation or Dissolution resided in the two Houses with the King joyntly and in none of them severally so that in effect the Government of the Kingdom during the continuance of that Parliament was in conjunction of the three Estates and in their common consents and agreements among themselves given in Parliament the assembling and meeting whereof was appointed and fixed to a place certain by Law By reason hereof it is not the attendance of any of the Members in Parliament for discharge of the Trust reposed in them confirm'd and enlarged by the said Act that is faulty or censurable by the Law but those that unwarrantably depart and desert that their Trust and station are to be blamed 6. Hen. 8. 16. The King in conjunction with the Parliament is maxime Rex and is supported in the Throne and exercise of his Regal Power by the joynt concurrence of both Houses And because as his late Majesty well observed the happiness and good of the Constitution of this Government lies in keeping the ballance even between the three Estates containing themselves within the bounds of their proper channels therefore in attempts of either to overflow those bounds they being co-ordinate the Office of a Parliament is by the very fundamental constitution of the Government to keep this ballance well poised And to that end as was before mentioned his Majesties own words are in his said Answer to the nineteen Propositions That there was legally placed in both Houses a Power more than sufficient to prevent and restrain the Power of Tyranny If so then are they the legal Judges when there is danger of Tyranny and have legal power to require their Judgment and Resolves to be obeyed not only when Arms are actually raised against them but when they discern and accordingly declare a preparation towards it else they may find it too late to prevent the power of Tyranny There is no greater attempt of Tyranny than to arm against the Parliament and there is no visible way for the restraining such Tyranny but by raising Arms in their own and the Kingdoms defence Less than this is not sufficient and therefore far from more than sufficient for the punishment of Delinquents and restraint of Tyranny Unto the King in conjunction with his two Houses according as is provided by the Law in this capacity of his as maxime Rex was the duty of Allegiance to be yeelded by his Subjects during the indissolved state of that Parliament For they were the King 's great Council and supream Court exercising the known Power and Priviledges that time out of mind have appertained to them and been put forth by them as the Exigents of the Kingdom have required when differences have happened about the very title of the Crown in declaring the duty of the Subject by yeelding their Allegiance to Kings de facto when Kings de jure have been kept out of possession This our Chronicles and the Histories of former times do plentifully inform The causes that did happen to move his late Majesty to depart from his Parliament and continue for many years not only at a distance and in a disjunction from them but at last in a declared posture of Enmity and War against them are so well known and fully stated in print not to say written in characters of blood on both parts that I shall only mention it and refer to it This matter was not done in a corner The Appeals were solemn and the decision by the Sword was given by that God who being the Judge of the whole World does Right and cannot do otherwise By occasion of these unhappy differences thus happening most great and unusual Changes and Revolutions like an irresistible Torrent did break in upon us not only to the disjoynting that Parliamentary Assembly among themselves the head from the members the co-ordinates from each other and the houses within themselves but to the creating such formed divisions among the people and to the producing such a general state of Confusion and Disorder that hardly any were able to know their duty and with certainly to discern who were to command and who to obey All things seemed to be reduced and in a manner resolved into their first elements and principles Nevertheless as dark as such a state might be the Law of England leaves not the Subjects thereof as I humbly conceive without some glimpses of direction what to do in the cleaving to and pursuing of which I hope I shall not be accounted nor judged an offender or if I am I shall have the comfort and peace of my Actions to support me in and under my greatest sufferings The Resolutions of all the Judges in Calvin's Case entituled Post-nati in the 7th Book of Cook 's Reports and the learned Arguments thereupon afforded me instruction even in this matter It may be 't is truly thence affirmed that Allegiance is due only to the King and how due is also shewed The
of that Priviledge of being present himself or having Counsel and other Friends present at the Grand Jury will appear hereafter by the subdolous and injurious handling of matters there Thirdly Concerning the Jurisdiction of the Court. 3. The Offences supposed to be committed by me are things done not of my own head but as a Member of the Long Parliament or in pursuance of their Authority The matters done by me in the one respect or the other if they be deemed Offences are punishable only in Parliament and I ought not to be questioned for them in any inferiour Court As Cook shews in the 4th part of his Institutes chap. 1. concerning the high Court of Parliament For the Parliament is not confined in their Actings by the Law which inferiour Courts are tied up to but in divers cases are priviledged to act extraordinarily and unaccountably to any but themselves or succeeding Parliaments Moreover That Parliament was extraordinarily commissioned qualified and authorized by express Act of Parliament beyond all preceding Parliaments for the Causes and Ends declared in the Preamble of the Act for their Establishment accorded and passed by the joynt Consent of King Lords and Commons whereby they became unsubjected to Adjournment Prorogation or Dissolution but by their own respective voluntary Consents to be by them expressed and passed for that purpose with the Royal Assent which occasioned his late Majesty in his Answer to the nineteen Propositions to say That the Power hereby legally placed in both Houses was more than sufficient to prevent and restrain the Power of Tyranny And further The bringing of this Case under the Jurisdiction of this Court or of any other but a Parliament may prove of very dangerous consequence in point of Precedent and most disagreeing to all Rules of Justice For First By the same reason that I am questioned in this Court not only every Member of Parliament but the very Houses themselves with all their Debates Votes and Orders may not only be questioned but referred to a Petty Jury and so come to be judged and sentenc'd by a Court inferiour to themselves which Judges in all times have disclaimed and acknowledged to be out of their power according to the known Rule Par in pares non habet imperium multo minus in eos qui majus imperium habent Secondly In such case the Parties accused will be debarred of Evidence or Witness for their Justification and Defence For no Members c. present at Debates in Parliament who are the onely eye and ear-witnesses of what is said and done there ought to discover the Counsels of the House Fourthly Concerning the Indictment 1. I have not been permitted to have a copy or sight of the Indictment nor so much as to hear it read in Latine which is the original Record of the Court and ought to be the foundation of their whole proceeding with me I often desired these things of the Court yea or at least to have but the Transcripts of some particular clauses in the Indictment to enable me to shew the deficiencies thereof in Law all which others in such cases have often obtained but nothing would be granted herein This then was my hard lot and usage I was put after two years close Imprisonment to answer for my Life to a long Indictment read in English which whether it were rightly translated how should I know that might not hear the Original Record in Latine Counsel also learned in the Law were denied me though pressed for by me again and again before I pleaded And had they been granted what could they have said as to defects of Law in the Indictment unless they might have a Copy of it What can any Counsel say to any petty business concerning any part of a man's Estate that 's in controversie unless they may have a leisurely view and perusal of the Writings thereabouts much more sure will it appear requisit to the reason of all mankind when a man 's whole Estate Life and all are at stake 'T is true before I pleaded this Court promised I should have Counsel assigned me after pleading God forfend else said the Lord Chief Justice but 't is as true I never could yet see that promise made good All things tending to a fair Tryal were promised me in general before pleading but every material particular for the just defence of my Life hath been denied me ever since And my Tryal for Life was hudled up the next day of my appearing before you The Jury as was told me must not eat or drink till they had done their work so the more than forty Jewry-men that resolved to kill Paul Act. 23. 21. But why such haste and precipitancy for a man's Life that 's more than Meat or Estate when you can let Civil Causes about mens Estates depend many years and if an erroneous Judgment be passed in such matters 't is reversible But if innocent Blood be spilt it cannot be gathered up again as the wise woman of Tekoah said 2 Sam. 14. 2. But secondly then As to defects in the Indictment which I was in some measure enabled to observe from that broken hearing thereof that was afforded me here in the Court I say there are many and those very considerable and by the Law of England I ought not to have been urged to plead or make answer to such an illegal and defective Indictment 1. There is no sufficient Overt Act therein alledged of the Prisoner's imagining the King's Death or that he had any the least intention that way 2. The Levying of a War is alledged in Southwark and cannot therefore be tryed by a Jury of Middlesex Dyer fol. 234. and the 3d part of Cook 's Institutes fol. 34. 3. There is uncertainty and obscurity in the main thing alledged against me in the Indictment to wit That I together with a multitude of persons to the number of a thousand unknown to the Jury c. whereas no Criminal Act can be tryed that is not certain Certa res debet esse quae deducitur in Judicium 4. The Treason laid to my charge is alledged to have been committed with a multitude of other false Traitors which were pardoned by the Act of Indempnity such supposed crimes therefore of theirs cannot be remembred or alledged without a manifest breach of the Act of Indempnity and Oblivion The Indictment is or ought to be founded on some clause or branch of 25. Ed. 3. chap. 2. But no such Overt Act is alledged in the Indictment or proved by Witnesses as doth discover that I had any intention to kill depose or hold out the King from the possession and exercise of his Regal Power Whereas I am accused of compassing or imagining the Death of the King this must be understood of his natural or personal not politick capacity for in this latter sence the Law sayes the King cannot die First then to compass only the Deposition of the King is not within the words
a final Decision of the Controversie between his People and the Inhabitants of the earth by his own Judgement This is there called The Valley of Jehoshaphat in which the Lord will sit to Judge all his enemies round about In this Battel and great Decision of his Peoples Controversie he will cause his Mighty Ones to come down from Heaven to put in their sickle as reapers in this Vintage and Harvest when the wickedness is great Unto this Revel 14. 14 20. refers which doth plainly evidence that this grand Decision is to fall out in the very last of times and probably is that which will make way to the Rising of the Witnesses and will be accompanied with that Earthquake in which shall be slain of men seven thousand and the tenth part of the City will thereupon fall Rev. 11. It is expressed Joel 3. That in this day of the Lord wherein he will be near in the Valley of Decision the Heavens and the Earth shall shake by the Lords own roaring out of Sion and he himself will be the Harbour Hope and Strength of his People The Sun and Moon of earthly Churches and Thrones of Judicature that contest with them shall be darkened and the Stars even the choicest and most illuminated gifted Pastors Leaders in the earthly Jerusalem Churches with their most refined Forms of Worship resisting the power of true spiritual Godliness shall withdraw their shining Even their holy flesh will pass off from them and consume away upon their spiritual lewdness and confident opposing the Faith of Gods Elect Jer. 11. 17. Their very Eyes will consume away in their holes with which they say we see and for which Christ tells the Pharisees in like case that therefore ther sin remaineth John 9. 41. Or there remaineth no more benefit from Christ's Sacrifice for their sin and therefore onely a fearful looking for of the fiery and devouring indignation Heb. 10. 26 27. Here 's that the great confidence and boast of many professing Churches and eminent Pastors in the earthly Jerusalem Fabrick or House on the sand will come to Ezek. 13. and Mat. 7. Their very Eyes their high enlightenings and excellent spiritual Gifts their supernatural or infused humane Learning that 's admitted only as an adorning and accomplishment of the natural man unaccompanied with that Fire-Baptisme that 's performed by the unspeakable gift of the Spirit it self for the transforming of the natural man into spiritual even these Eyes becoming evil Mat. 6. 23. and this light opposing and preferring it self to the more excellent discerning and marvellous light in spiritual Believers are turned by the just Judgement of God into the greatest and most fatal blindness and darkness of all Their tongues also though the tongues of men and angels for excellency and dexterity of expressing what they see with the forementioned eyes will consume away in their mouth Zech. 14. 12. and leave them exposed to become and accordingly be dealt with as meer sounding brass and tinckling Cymbals 1 Cor. 12. 31. and 13. 1. giving no certain sound and right warning to the Battels of the Lord the good sight of Faith This comes to pass through their confidence in those attainments which may be and oft are turned into an Idol of jealousie and spiritual whoredom Ezek. 16. 1 15. All these considerations of Church and State put together afford great ground of enquiry as to the Condition of the times in which we live how far the face which they bear and which God hath put upon them in the course of his Providences for some years now past doth speak or signifie the near approach of any such extraordinary and signal appearance or day of Gods Judgement for the Decision of his own or his Peoples quarrel and controversie with the prophane Heathen that are round about them waiting for an advantage utterly and universally to remove and root them out from off the face of the whole earth That which hath been acted upon the Theater of these Nations amongst us in the true state of our Controversie seems to be reducible to this following Querie Whether the Representative Body of the Kingdom of England in Parliament assembled and in their Supream Power and Trust made indissolvable unless by their own Consent and free Vote and this by particular and express Statute have not had a just and righteous Cause A Quarrel more God's than their own 1. It may appear they had First from the Ground of their undertaking the War Was it not in their own and the Kingdoms just and necessary defence and for the maintaining of the publick Rights and Liberties of both 2. Secondly Was it not undertaken upon mutual Appeals of both Parties to God desiring him to judge between them to give the Decision and Issue by the Law of War when no other Law could be heard as the definitive Sentence in this Controversie from the Court of Heaven 3. Thirdly Pursuant to such Decision did they not recover and repossess the Kingdoms original and primitive freedom Did they not endeavour to conserve and secure it as due to them by the Law of God and of Nature For man was made in God's Image and all Adams Posterity are properly one Universal Kingdom on earth under the Rule and Government of the Son of God both as Creator and Redeemer By virtue of this original and primitive Freedom so recovered they were at their own choice whether to remain in and retain this their true freedom unresigned and unsubjected to the Will of any Man under the Rule of the Son of God and his Lawes or else to set up a King or any other Form of Government over them after the manner of other Nations In this latter case it is acknowledged that when a Common-wealth or People do choose their first King upon condition to obey him and his Successors Ruling justly they ought to remain subject to him according to the Law and tenor of the Fundamental Compact with him on whom they have transferred their Authority No Jurisdiction remaineth in them after that free and voluntary Act of theirs either to Judge the Realm or determine who is the true Successor otherwise than is by them reserved and stipulated by their Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of Government And though the righteousness of this Cause contained in the forementioned particulars be such as carries in it its own evidence yet as as things have fallen out it is come to be oppressed and buried in the grave of Malefactors in the room of which a contrary Judgement and Way is visibly owned upheld and intended to be prosecuted to the utmost for its own fast-rooting and establishment and this by the common Consent and Association of Multitudes What then remaines for the recovery and restitution of that good old Cause and Way but such a seasonable and signal appearance of God as aforesaid in the Valley of Jehoshaphat What but the taking things immediately into his own hands for administration