despising God's precious Saints but in Heaven there is a good reception for them where are Mansions prepared from the beginning of the world He said You will shortly see God coming forth with Vengeance upon the whole Earth Vengeance upon the outward-man of his Saints and Vengeance upon the inward-man of his and their Enemies and that shall perform greater execution than was heretofore After his Sentence he said to some Friends God brought him upon on three stages to wit before the Court and was now leading him to the fourth his Execution-place which was far easier and pleasanter to him than any of the other three Saturday June 14. 1662 being the day of his Execution on Tower-Hill He told a Friend god bid Moses go to the top of Mount Pisgah and die so he bid him now go to the top of Tower-hill and die Some passages of his Prayer with his Lady Children and other Friends in his Chamber MOst holy and gracious Father look down from the habitation of thy Holiness visit relieve and comfort us thy poor Servants here gathered together in the Name of Christ Thou art rending this Vaile and bringing us to a Mountain that abides firm We are exceeding interrupters of our own joy peace and good by the workings and reasonings of our own hearts Thou hast promised that thou wilt be a Mouth to thy People in the hour of Tryal for thou hast required us to forbear the preparatory agitations of our own minds because it is not we that are to speak but the Spirit of our heavenly Father that speaketh in us in such seasons In what seasons more Lord than when thou callest for the Testimony of thy Servants to be writ in Characters of Blood Shew thy self in a poor weak Worm by enabling him to stand against all the power of thy Enemies There hath been a battel fought with garments rouled in blood in which upon solemn Appeals on both sides thou didst own thy Servants though through the spirit of Hypocrisie and Apostacy that hath sprung up amongst us these Nations have been thought unworthy any longer to enjoy the fruits of that Deliverance Thou hast therefore another day of decision to come which shall be wrought by fire Such a battel is to begin and be carried on by the Faith of thy People yea is in some sort begun by the Faith of thy poor Servant that is now going to seal thy Cause with his Blood Oh that this decision of thine may remarkably shew it self in thy Servant at this time by his bold Testimony and sealing it with his Blood We know not what interruptions may attend thy Servant but Lord let thy Power carry him in a holy Triumph over all difficulties Thou art the great Judge and Law-giver for the sake of thy Servants therefore O Lord return on high and cause a righteous Sentence to come forth from thy presence for the relief of thy despised People This thy Servants with Faith and Patience wait for The working of this Faith in us causeth the Enemy to give ground already If Death be not able to terrifie us from keeping a good Conscience and giving a good Testimony against them what can they do but stumble and fall backwards The day approaches in which thou wilt decide this Controversie not by Might nor by Power but by the Spirit of the living God This Spirit will make its own way and run through the whole Earth Then shall it be said Where is the fury of the Oppressor Who is he that dares or can stand before the Spirit of the Lord in the mouth of his Witnesses Arise O Lord and let thine Enemies be scattered Thy poor Servant knows not how he shall be carried forth by thee this day but blessed be thy great Name that he hath whereof to speak in this great Cause When I shall be gathered to thee this day then come thou in the Ministry of thy holy Angels that excel in strength We have seen enough of this World and thou seest we have enough of it Let these my Friends that are round about me commit me to the Lord and let them be gathered into the Family of Abraham the Father of the Faithful and become faithful Witnesses of those principles and Truths that have been discovered to them that it may be known that a poor weak Prophet hath been amongst them not by the words of his mouth onely but by the voice of his Blood and Death which will speak when he is gone Good Lord put words into his mouth that may daunt his Enemies so that they may be forced to say God is in him of a Truth and that the Son of God is in his heart and in his mouth My hour-glass is now turned up the sand runs out apace and it is my happiness that Death doth not surprize me It is Grace and Love thou dost shew thy poor Servant that thou hastenest out his time and lettest him see it runs out with Joy and Peace Little do my Enemies know as eager as they are to have me gone how soon their breaths may be drawn in But let thy Servant see Death shrink under him What a glorious sight will this be in the presence of many Witnesses to have Death shrink under him which he acknowledgeth to be only by the power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ whom the bands of Death could not hold down Let that Spirit enter into us that will set us again upon our feet and let us be led into that way that the Enemies may not know how to deal with us Oh! what abjuring of Light what Treachery what meanness of spirit has appeared in this day What is the matter Oh! Death is the matter Lord strengthen the Faith and Heart of thy poor Servant to undergo this dayes work with Joy and Gladness and bear it on the Heart and Consciences of his Friends that have known and seen him that they also may say the Lord is in him of a truth Oh that thy Servant could speak any blessing to these three Nations Let thy Remnant be gathered to thee Prosper and relieve that poor handful that are in Prisons and Bonds that they may be raised up and trample Death under foot Let my poor Family that is left desolate let my dear Wife and Children be taken into thy Care be thou a Husband Father and Master to them Let the Spirits of those that love me be drawn out towards them Let a Blessing be upon these Friends that are here at this time strengthen them let them find Love and Grace in thine Eyes and be increased with the Increasings of God Shew thy self a loving Father to us all and do for us abundantly above and beyond all that we can ask or think for Jesus Christ his sake Amen Several Friends being with him in his Chamber this morning he oft encouraged them to chearfulness as wel by his example as expression In all his deportment he shewed himself marvellously fitted to
meet the King of Terrors without the least affrightment But to shew where his strength lay he said he was a poor unworthy wretch and had nothing but the Grace and Goodness of God to depend upon He said moreover Death shrunk from him rather than he from it Upon the occasion of parting with his Relations he said There is some flesh remaining yet but I must cast it behind me and press forward to my Father Then one of the Sheriffs men came in and told him There was no Sled to come but he was to walk on foot He told his Friends the Sheriffs Chaplain came to him at twelve of the clock that night with an Order for his Execution telling him he was come to bring him that fatal Message of Death I think Friends that in this Message was no dismalness at all After the receipt of which I slept four hours so soundly that the Lord hath made it sufficient for me and now I am going to sleep my last after which I shall need sleep no more Then Mr. Sheriff coming into the Room was friendly saluted by him and after a little pause communicated a Prohibition that he said he had received which was That he must not speak any thing against his Majesty or the Government His Answer to this he himself relates on the Scaffold He further told Mr. Sheriff he was ready but the Sheriff said he was not nor could be this half hour yet Then Sir it rests on you not on me said Sir Henry for I have been ready this half hour Then the Shriff at his request promised him his servants should attend him on the Scaffold and be civilly dealt with neither of which were performed for notwithstanding this promise they were beaten and kept off the Scaffold till he said What have I never a servant here After this one of the Sheriffs men came and told him there must be a Sled to which Sir Henry replied Any way how they please for I long to be at home to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all He went very chearfully and readily down the stairs from his Chamber and seated himself on the Sled Friends and Servants standing about him then he was forthwith drawn away towards the Scaffold As he went some in the Tower Prisoners as well as others spake to him praying the Lord to go with him And after he was out of the Tower from the tops of houses and out of windows the people used such means and gestures as might best discover at a distance their respects and love to him crying aloud The Lord go with you The great God of Heaven and Earth appear in you and for you whereof he took what notice he was capable in those circumstances in a chearful manner accepting their respect putting off his Hat and bowing to them Being asked several times how he did by some about him he answered Never better in all my life Another replied How should he do ill that suffers for so glorious a Cause To which a tall black man said Many suffered for a better Cause and may for a worse said Sir Henry wishing That when they come to seal their better Cause as he called it with their Blood as he was now going to seal his they might not find themselves deceived And as to this Cause said he it hath given Life in Death to all the Owners of it and Sufferers for it Being passed within the Rails on Tower-hill there were many loud acclamations of the people crying out The Lord Jesus go with your dear Soul c. One told him that was the most glorious Seat he ever sate on he answered It is so indeed and rejoyced exceedingly Being come to the Scaffold he chearfully ascends and being up after the crowd on the Scaffold was broken in two pieces to make way for him he shewed himself to the People on the front of the Scaffold with that Noble and Christian-like deportment that he rather seemed a looker-on than the person concerned in the Execution Insomuch that it was difficult to perswade many of the People that he was the Prisoner But when they knew that the Gentleman in the black Sute and Cloak with a Scarlet silk Wastcoat the victorious colour shewing it self at the breast was the Prisoner they generally admired that Noble and great Presence he appeared with How chearful he is said some he does not look like a dying-man said others with many like speeches as astonished with that strange appearance he shined forth in Then silence being commanded by the Sheriff lifting up his hands and eyes towards Heaven and then resting his hands on the Rails and taking a very serious composed and majestick view of the great multitude about him he spake as followeth His SPEECH on the SCAFFOLD Gentlemen fellow-Countrymen and Christians VVHen Mr. Sheriff came to me this morning and told me he had received a Command from the King that I should say nothing reflecting upon his Majesty or the Government I answered I should confine and order my Speech as near as I could so as to be least offensive saving my faithfulness to the Trust reposed in me which I must ever discharge with a good Conscience unto Death for I ever valued a man according to his faithfulness to the Trust reposed in him even on his Majesties behalf in the late Controversie And if you dare trust my discretion Mr. Sheriff I shall do nothing but what becomes a good Christian and an Englishman and so I hope I shall be civilly dealt with When Mr. Sheriffs Chaplain came to me last night about twelve of the clock to bring me as he called it the fatal Message of Death it pleased the Lord to bring that Scripture to my mind in the third of Zechary to intimate to me that he was now taking away my filthy garments causing mine iniquities to pass from me with intention to give me change of raiment and that my mortal should put on Immortality I suppose you may wonder when I shall tell you that I am not brought hither according to any known Law of the Land It is true I have been before a Court of Justice and am now going to appear before a greater Tribunal where I am to give an account of all my actions under their Sentence I stand here at this time When I was before them I could not have the liberty and priviledge of an Englishman the grounds reasons and causes of the Actings I was charged with duly considered I therefore desired the Judges that they would set their Seals to my Bill of Exceptions I pressed hard for it again and again as the Right of my self and every free-born English-man by the Law of the Land but was finally denied it Here Sir John Robinson Lieutenant of the Tower interrupted him saying Sir you must not go on thus and in a furious manner generally observed even to the dis-satisfaction of some of their own attendants said that he
is not nor cannot be accountable by way of crime or offence against his Ruler and Soveraign but may do with his own what he please but still at his peril if he use not this his Liberty as he should to the end for which it is given him which is by voluntary and entire resignation to become an obedient Subject unto him who is the Supream Law-giver and Rightful King without possibility of change or defection Unto this right and the lawful exercise and possession of it this Nation did arive by the good providence and gift of God in calling and assembling the Parliament November 3d. 1640. and then continuing their Session by an express Act 17. Car. with power not to be dissolved but by their own consent which was not so much the introducing of a new Law as declaratory of what was Law before according to Man's natural Right in which he was created and of which he was possessed by God the soveraign giver of all things But the passing that said Act of Parliament alone was not that which restored the Nation to their original Right and just Natural Liberty but onely put them in the capacity and possibility of it That which wanted to make out to the Nation a clearness in having and obtaining this their right was the obligation they had put upon themselves and their posterities to their present Soveraign and his Authority which in justice and by the Oathes of Allegiance they were solemnly bound to in the sight of God as well as of Man And therefore unless by the abuse of that office of Trust to that degree as on his part to break the fundamental compact and constitution of Government they could not be set free nor restored to their original Right and first Liberty especially if together with such breach of Trust both parties appeal to God and put it upon the issue of Battel and God give the decision and in consequence thereof that original Right be asserted and possession thereof had and held for some years and then not rightfully lost but treacherously betrayed and given up by those in whom no power was rightfully placed to give up the subjection of the Nation again unto any whatsoever Unto which is to be added that how and when the dissolution of the said Parliament according to Law hath been made is yet unascertained and not particularly declared by reason whereof and by what hath been before shewed the state of the Case on the Subjects part is much altered as to the matter of Right and the Usurpation is now on the other hand there being as is well known two sorts of Usurpers either such as having no right of consent at all unto the Rule they exercise over the Subject or such who under pretence of a Right and Title do claim not by consent but by conquest and power or else hold themselves not obliged to the Fundamental compact and constitution of Government but gain unduely from the Subject by advantages taken through deceit and violence that which is not their own by Law For a rational Man to give up his Reason and Will unto the Judgement and Will of another without which no outward coercive Power can be whose Judgement and Will is not perfectly and unchangeably good and right is unwise and unsafe and by the Law of Nature forbidden And therefore all such gift made by rational men must be conditional either implied or explicite to be followers of their Rulers so far as they are followers of that good and right which is contained in the Law of the Supream Law-giver and no further reserving to themselves in case of such defection and declining of the Rulers actings from the Rule their primitive and original Freedom to resort unto that so they may in such case be as they were before they gave away their subjection unto the Will of another and reserving also the power to have this judged by a meet and competent Judge which is the Reason of the King and Kingdom declared by their Representatives in Parliament that is to say the Delegates of the People in the House of Commons assembled and the Commissioners on the Kings behalf by his own Letters Patents in the House of Peers which two concurring do very far bind the King if not wholly And when these cannot agree but break one from another the Commons in Parliament assembled are ex Officio the Keepers of the Liberties of the Nation and righteous Possessors and Defendors of it against all Usurpers and Usurpations whatsoever by the Laws of England The Valley of Jehoshaphat considered and opened by comparing 2. Chron. 20. with Joel 3. IT was the saying of Austine Nothing falls under our senses or happens in this visible World but is either commanded or permitted from the invisible and unintelligible Court and Pallace of the highest Emperor and universal King who is the chief over all the kings of the earth For although he hath both commanded and permitted a subordinate external Government over Men administred by man for the upholding of Justice in humane Societies and for the peace welfare and safety of men that are made in Gods Image yet he hath not so entirely put the Rule of the whole earth out of his own hands but that in cases of eminent injustice and oppression committed in Provinces States and Kingdomes contrary to his Lawes to their own and the very end of Magistracy which is the conservation of the Peoples just Rights and Liberties He that is higher than the highest amongst men doth regard and will shew by some extraordinary interposition of his that there are higher than they Such a seasonable and signal appearance of God for the Succor and Relief of his People in their greatest Straits and Exigencies when they have no might visible Power or armed Force to undertake the great company and multitude that comes against them nor know what to do save onely to have their eyes towards him is called in Scripture The day of the Lord's Judgement Then the Battel and cause of the Quarrel will appear to be not so much theirs as the Lord's and the frame of their heart will be humble before the Lord believing in the Lord and believing his Prophets for their good success and establishment This Dispensation is very lively described under the Type and by the Name of The Valley of Jehoshaphat as to the Season and Place wherein God will give forth a signal appearance of himself in Judgement on the behalf of his People for a final decision of the Controversie between them and their enemies It Litterally and Typically fell out thus as is at large recorded 2 Chron. 20. By way of allusion to this and upon occasion of the like yea and far greater Extreamities which God's People in the last dayes are to be brought into is that Prophesie Joel 3. for a like yea a far greater and more signal appearance of God for their Deliverance and Rescue in order to
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
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
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
of being prejudiced thereby against him unless they were as willing to abuse him as the Counsel But here were many things said at random against all Sense Law and Reason as if Tully had been charactering a treacherous Catilâ—ne and the innocent Prisoner must be mute and suffer the Jury to be dismissed and sent to pass their Verdict on his Life without the least possibility of Remedy Put this and all the rest together to wit that the Jury themselves were of the opposit party to him in the late Wars and whole Cause in question depending before them and it had been far better for the Prisoner to have cast lots on a Drum-head for his Life as a Prisoner of War than to be so tryed in a time of Peace unless it can be reasonably presumed that they that would have killed him any time this twenty year in the field should now be like to spare his Life at the Bar. Occasional Speeches before his Tryal HE said there was something in this Cause that could never be conquered and that he blessed the Lord it had never been betrayed by him or conquered in him And before this in a Letter from Silly to a Friend he said God's Arm is not shortned doubtless great and precious Promises are yet in store to be accomplished in and upon Believers here on Earth to the making of Christ admired in them And if we cannot live in the power and actual fruition of them yet if we die in the certain foresight and imbracing of them by Faith it will be our great blessing This dark night and black shade which God hath drawn over his work in the midst of us may be for ought we know the ground-colour to some beautiful Piece that he is now exposing to the light When he came from his Tryal he told a Friend he was as much overjoyed as a chast Virgin that had escaped a Rape for said he neither flatteries before nor threatnings now could prevail upon me and I bless God that enabled me to make a stand for this Cause for I saw the Court resolved to run it down and through the assistance of God I resolved they should run over my Life and blood first June 13. being Friday the day before his Execution On this day liberty being given to Friends to visit him in the Tower he received them with very great chearfulness and with a composed frame of spirit having wholly given up himself to the will of God He did occasionally let fall many gracious expressions to the very great refreshing and strengthning of the hearts of the hearers To wit That he had for any time these two years made Death familiar to him and being shut up from the World he said he had been shut up with God and that he did know what was the mind of God to him in this great matter but that he had not the least recoyl in his heart as to matter or manner of what was done by him And though he might have had an opportunity of escaping or by policy might have avoided his Charge yet he did not make use of it nor could decline that which was come upon him It being told him by a Friend that his Death would be a loss to the People of God He answered that God would raise up other Instruments to serve him and his People And being desired to say something to take off that charge of Jesuitism that was cast upon him He said That he thought it not worth the taking notice of for if it were so he should never have been brought to this A Friend said Sir the Lord hath said Be thou faithful unto Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life The Lord enable you to be faithful He replied I bless the Lord I have not had any discomposure of spirit these two years but I do wait upon the Lord till he be pleased to put an end to these dayes of mine knowing that I shall change for the better For in Heaven there is an innumerable company of Angels the Spirits of Just men made perfect and JESUS the blessed Mediator of the New Covenant There are holy and just Laws a pure Government blessed and good Company every one doing their duty herr we want all these This is that City spoken of Psal 48. 1 2. That strong City that cannot be moved Isa 26. Why therefore should we be unwilling to leave this estate to go that And although I be taken from hence yet know assuredly God will raise up unto you Instruments out of the dust Another said to him Sir There is nothing will stand you in stead but justifying Faith in the Blood of Jesus To which he said There are some that through Faith in the Blood of Christ do escape the pollutions of the world yet afterwards are entangled therein again others there be that are carried through the greatest sufferings by a more excellent spiritual sort of Faith in the Blood of Jesus and endure them with the greatest joy He further said We were lately preaching a Funeral Sermon to our selves out of Heb. 11. 13 16. where those blessed Witnesses do declare themselves to be pilgrims and strangers on the Earth and do desire a better Country that is a heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City And if God said he be not ashamed to be called my God I hope I shall not be ashamed to endure his Cross and to bear his Reproach even whatsoever it be that man can impose upon me for his sake Yea he will enable me not to be ashamed I have not the least reluctancy or strugling in my spirit against Death I desire not to live but my will is resigned up to God in all Why are you troubled I am not You have need of Faith and Patience to follow the Lord's Call This ought chiefly to be in our eye the bringing Glory to our heavenly Father Surely God hath a glorious Design to carry on in the world even the building up of David's Throne to all Generations For he is compleating all his precious Stones making them Heaven-proof and then laying them together in the Heavenly Mansions with the Spirits of the Just till it be a compleat City When the Top-stone thereof is laid then will he come in all his Glory This day is a day wherein Christ appears in the Clouds Oh that every one of our eyes may see him and consider how we-have pierced him in his Members that we may mourn Our Lord Jesus said Father I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do and now Father glorifie me with the same Glory I had with thee before the world was Our Lord was capable of his Glory beforehand and although we be not so capable as he yet this we know he wills the same to us that where he is we may be also that we may behold his Glory And he is our Head in
whom we are made capable being chosen in him before the foundation of the world and he hath set us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus The hope of this Glory sweetens all our Sufferings I know a day of deliverance for Sion will come Some may think the manner of it may be as before with confused noise of the Warriour and garments rolled in Blood but I rathe think it will be with burning and fewel of fire The Lord will send a fire that shall burn in the Consciences of his Enemies a worm that shall not die and a fire that shall not go out Men they may fight against but this they cannot fight against It being told him by a Friend that he had delivered him up unto God as a Sacrifice though said he I have day and night prayed that this cup might pass from you He replied That he blessed God he had offered himself up first to God and it was a rejoycing to him that others had given him up also And why said he speaking before all the company should we be frighted with Death I bless the Lord I am so far from being affrighted with Death that I find it rather shrink from me than I from it His Children being then present to take their leave of him he said I bless God by the eye of Faith I can see through all my Relations to Mount Sion and there I shall need none of them I have better Acquaintance in Heaven These Relations are nothing to those I shall meet with there Then kissing his Children he said The Lord bless you he will be a better Father to you I must now forget that ever I knew you I can willingly leave this place and outward enjoyments for those I shall meet with hereafter in a better Country I have made it my business to acquaint my self with the society of Heaven Be not you troubled for I am going home to my Father I die in the certain faith and forefight That this Cause shall have its Resurrection in my Death My Blood will be the Seed sown by which this glorious Cause will spring up which God will speedily raise The laying down this earthly tabernacle is no more but throwing down the mantle by which a double portion of the Spirit will fall on the rest of Gods People And if by my being offered up the Faith of many be confirmed and others convinced and brought to the knowledge of the Truth how can I desire greater honour and matter of rejoycing As for that glorious Cause which God hath owned in these Nations and will own in which so many Righteous souls have lost their lives and so many have been engaged by my countenance and encouragement shall I now give it up and so declare them all Rebels and Murderers No I will never do it That precious Blood shall never lie at my door As a Testimony and Seal to the Justness of that Quarrel I leave now my Life upon it as a Legacy to all the honest Interest in these three Nations Ten thousand Deaths rather than defile my Conscience the chastity and purity of which I value beyond all this world and God is not a little concern'd on my behalf He will certainly judge my Case wherein is the bowels of this good Cause and in the bowels of that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which will speedily be set on foot in these Nations I would not for ten thousand Lives part-with this Peace and Satisfaction I have in my own heart both in holding to the Purity of my Principle and to the Righteousness of this good Cause and the assurance I have that God is now fulfilling all these great and precious Promises in order to what he is bringing forth Although I see it not yet I die in the faith and assured expectation of it Hebr. 11. 13. And the eternal blessedness God hath prepared for me and is ready now to receive me into will abundantly make up all other things Through the power and goodness of God I have had in this Tryal of mine such a proof of the integrity of my own heart as hath been no small joy to me The expressions of grief from his Friends he said were but so many lets and hindrances to him in the view he had of that Glory he was going to possess that heavenly City and Commonwealth where he should behold the face of God and of his Son in a society of Angels and the Spirits of Just men made perfect Some few dayes before his Suffering his thoughts were much fixed upon Psal 118. 27. where are these words God is the Lord which hath shewed us light bind the Sacrifice with cords even unto the horns of the Altar From this he said that God gives light and is light to his People under their darkest circumstances and sufferings and when he calls them forth to suffer he binds them as Sacrifices with cords in three respects First by the Cord of his Love to us for he loved us first Secondly by the Cruelty of our Enemies Thirdly by our Resignation-duty and love to him These three Cords have bound me so fast I cannot stir Upon Friends perswading him to make some submission to the King and to endeavour the obtaining of his Life he said If the King did not think himself more concern'd for his Honour and word than he did for his Life he was very willing they should take it Nay I declare said he that I value my Life less in a good Cause than the King can do his Promise And when some others were speaking to him of giving some thousands of pounds for his Life he said If a thousand farthings would gain it he would not give it And if any should attempt to make such a bargain he would spoil their market For I think the King himself is so sufficiently obliged to spare my Life that it is fitter for him to do it than my self to seek it He rejoyced exceedingly that God assisted him so eminently in bearing his Testimony with faithfulness even unto Death and that he as willingly laid down his Life and with as much satisfaction as ever he went to bed For in a natural sickness Death seized on the body without any consent of the mind but this was a free action of his mind without any constraint upon his body Mention being made to him of the cruel proceedings against him Alas said he what ado they keep to make a poor creature like his Saviour In discourse he said If the shedding of my Blood may prove an occasion of gathering together in one the dispersed Interests and Remnant of the Adherers to this Cause of whatever differing perswasions I should think ten thousand Lives if I had them well spent in such a service He was much pleased in this consideration That he was hastening to a place where God nor none of his would be ashamed to own and receive him Here is nothing in this world saith he but reproaching and
railed against the Judges and that it was a lye and I am here sayes he to testifie that it is false Sir Henry Vane replied God will judge between me and you in this matter I speak but matter of Fact and cannot you bear that 'T is evident the Judges have refused to sign my Bill of Exceptions Then the Trumpets were ordered to sound or murre in his face with a contemptible noise to hinder his being heard At which Sir Henry lifting up his hand and then laying it on his breast said What mean you Gentlemen is this your usage of me did you use all the rest so I had even done as to that could you have been patient but seeing you cannot bear it I shall only say this That whereas the Judges have refused to seal that with their hands that they have done I am come to seal that with my Blood that I have done Therefore leaving this matter which I perceive will not be born I judge it meet to give you some account of my Life I might tell you I was born a Gentleman had the education temper and spirit of a Gentleman as well as others being in my youthfull dayes inclined to the vanities of this world and to that which they call Good-fellowship judging it to be the only means of accomplishing a Gentleman But about the fourteenth or fifteenth year of my age which is about thirty four or five years since God was pleased to lay the foundation or ground-work of Repentance in me for the bringing me home to himself by his wonderful rich and free Grace revealing his Son in me that by the knowledge of the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent I might even whilst here in the body be made partaker of Eternal Life in the first-fruits of it When my Conscience was thus awakened I found my former course to be disloyalty to God prophaneness and a way of sin and death which I did with tears and bitterness bewail as I had cause to do Since that foundation of Repentance laid in me through Grace I have been kept steadfast desiring to walk in all good Conscience towards God and towards men according to the best light and understanding God gave me For this I was willing to turn by back upon my Estate expose my self to hazards in Forreign parts yea nothing seemed difficult to me so I might preserve Faith and a good Conscience which I prefer before all things and do earnestly perswade all people rather to suffer the highest contradictions from men than disobey God by contradicting the light of their own Conscience In this it is I stand with so much comfort and boldness before you all this day and upon this occasion being assured that I shall at last sit down in Glory with Christ at his right hand I stand here this day to resign up my Spirit into the hands of that God that gave it me Death is but a little word but 't is a great work to die it is to be but once done and after this cometh the Judgment even the Judgment of the great God which it concerns us all to prepare for And by this Act I do receive a discharge once for all out of Prison even the Prison of the mortal body also which to a true Christian is a burdensom weight In all respects wherein I have been concerned and engaged as to the Publick my design hath been to accomplish Good things for these Nations Then lifting up his eyes and spreading his hands he said I do here appeal to the great God of Heaven and all this Assembly or any other persons to shew wherein I have defiled my hands with any mans Blood or Estate or that I have sought my self in any publick capacity or place I have been in The Cause was three times stated 1. In the Remonstrance of the House of Commons 2. In the Covenant the Solemn League and Covenant Upon this the Trumpets sounded the Sheriff catched at the Paper in his hand and Sir John Robinson who at first had acknowledged that he had nothing to do there wishing the Sheriff to see to it yet found himself something to do now furiously calling for the Writers-Books and saying he treats of Rebellion and you write it Hereupon six Note-Books were delivered up The Prisoner was very patient and composed under all these injuries and soundings of the Trumpets several times in his face only saying 'T was hard he might not be suffered to speak but sayes he my usage from man is no harder than was my Lord and Masters And all that will live his life this day must expect hard dealing from the worldly spirit The Trumpets sounded again to hinder his being heard Then again Robinson and two or three others endeavoured to snatch the Paper out of Sir Henry's hand but he kept it for a while now and then reading part of it afterwards tearing it in pieces he delivered it to a Friend behind him who was presently forced to deliver it to the Sheriff Then they put their hands into his pockets for Papers as was pretended which bred great confusion and dissatisfaction to the Spectators seeing a Prisoner so strangely handled in his dying words This was exceeding remarkable in the midst of all this disorder the Prisoner himself was observed to be of the most constant composed spirit and countenance which he throughout so excellently manifested that a Royallist swore he dyed like a Prince The Prisoner suspecting beforehand the disorder afore-mentioned writ the main Substance of what he intended to speak on the Scaffold in that Paper they catched at and which he tore in pieces delivering it to a Friend from whom the Sheriff had it as above-said the true Copy whereof was by the Prisoner carefully committed to a safe hand before he came to the Scaffold which take as followeth THe Work which I am at this time called unto in this place as upon a Publick Theater is to Die and receive a Discharge once for all out of Prison to do that which is but once to be done the doing or not doing of which well and as becomes a Christian does much depend upon the life we have been taught of God to lead before we come to this They that live in the Faith do also die in it Faith is so far from leaving Christians in this hour that the work of it breaks forth then into its greatest power as if till then it were not enough at freedom to do its office that is to look into the things that are unseen with most steadfastness certainty and delight which is the great Sweetner of Death and Remover of its Sting Give me leave therefore in a very few words to give you an account of my Life and of the wonderful great Grace and Mercy of God in bringing me home to himself and revealing his Son in me that by the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent I might
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
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
the Lord which therefore we should be most willing unto and with greatest longing after desire The strait which the Apostle found himself in was not at all from the least haesitation in his mind which of the two was in it self best and to be preferred but by which Christ might most be magnified and the Church benefitted according to the will of Christ So then unless to live were Christ and a real and clear magnifying of Christ in his Body he cared not for Life but contemned Death He saw evidently how it was his own particular loss and hindrance even not to Die since to be dissolved to depart and be with Christ and in the Society of the blessed Angels and Saints in Heaven was best of all and far more gainful and to be valued by him than any longer continuance or abode in the flesh The magnifying of Christ in his Body whether by Life or by Death was the Consideration with Paul that held the ballance cast the scale and that onely So it ought to be with every true Christian The end of man's coming into the Body and his temporary continuance and abode there according to the Law of his Creation is the magnifying and glorifying Christ either by his Life or by his Death or both the one of which if he do not it must needs be his sin and he is left without excuse For none can violate or corrupt the mind of man by the Law of Nature nor let in Death upon his Spiritual Substance but himself though they dissolve his temporary abode in the flesh break his outward case and shel and rather than do the one we should choose the other choose affliction rather than sin the dissolution of the Body rather than the corrupting of the Mind In so doing and dying Christ is magnifyed Thus Peter was foretold by what Death he should glorify God And to such it is given by Christ not onely to Believe but Suffer and Die for his Names sake as a transcendent priviledge and honour If no restraint then be upon our mind from without what hinders that Christ is not magnified in our Body but something within us in our judgement will and affections that are not right set and fixed nor as yet wrought to this self same thing by God who hath given us the earnest of his Spirit But it may be demanded What is it in which this great duty of man lies as to the magnifying of Christ in his Body by his Life or living in the Body which is a more difficult thing to do than to Die Christ himself tells us when he saith Let your Light so shine before men that they may see feel and sensibly discern your good works and so glorify your father which is in Heaven There are two sorts of signs we read of in those that believe which justifie their Faith in consortship as it were with which their Faith works and is made perfect so as the work of Faith is fulfilled in them with power 1. Signs Extraordinary as Mark 16. 18. with which the Primitive Christians were well acquainted and so may all such again as arrive to any competent maturity in that primitive Christian Spirit 2. Signes Ordinary as those mentioned Gal. 5. 22 23. called the fruits of the Spirit in us that makes us mighty in word and in deed not onely to will but to perform that which is good by being filled with the Spirit in our very Bodies made the Temples of the holy Ghost rich in Faith and Tuch good Works as are the fruit of Faith without which Faith it self is dead and unprofitable and by which Abraham justified his Faith and was called the Friend of God It is in this sense the Prophet urges the sanctification of our Vessels when he saith Be ye clean that bear the Vessels of the Lord. And the Apostle when he saith 1 Cor. 6. 19. What! know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the holy Ghost unto which Redemption by Christ extends as well as to your Spirits therefore glorify God in your Body as well as in your Spirit which is God's and wherein he hath and challengeth a special propriety The Body in Scripture acceptation signifies not onely the material substance from which the Soul is actually separated when it is laid in the Grave but very usually the Soul it self that is to say that part of the Soul which vitally unites the Body to it self whose faculty and operation is in and by the Body and doth properly and immediately exercise bodily Life as that which is co-natural and co-essential to it There is a higher part in man's Soul called Spirit in distinction from Soul and Body expressed 1 Thes 5. 23. as if the Spirit were an entire thing in it self though it be that in and with which Soul and Body doth consist as parts of the whole Man I pray God saith the Apostle that your whole Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless to the coming of Christ and that you may be sanctified throughout or in every part of you in your Soul and in your Body which are to be esteemed but as parts comparatively with your whole Spirit Man considered as entire in his Spirit may have and hath being before he partakes of Flesh and Blood as it is written Behold saith Christ I and the children which thou hast given me Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself took part of the same even he who with the children were a mystery hid with the Father before the World was and had their Seminal and radical Being in the Word of Life the Father of Spirits In this Word as in the Image and Mental conception of the invisible God the Souls of all men even of Christ himself as man were comprehended as in their original pattern and rule in order at the time appointed to come into flesh and there make their temporary abode allotted to them By the Condition and Law of Man's Creation he is made a Spiritual essence with two distinct faculties and operations according to which he may be said to be both Immortal and Mortal Immaterial and Material Spirit and Body as Body signifies man's animal rational Soul that is to live in flesh and hath its peculiar desire faculty and operation proportioned thereunto In all this Man bears the Image and Similitude of God the Mediator or of the Godhead in Christ as two Natures in him are Hypostatically united and make but one Compositum or Person This was comprehended in that Counsel which the blessed Trinity took concerning the making of Man in their Image and after their Similitude He was made male and female in his very Spiritual substance First with a faculty and operation of mind superiour stronger and more excellent which is free and independent upon bodily organs exercising Life properly and purely Spiritual and Immaterial above and without the use of sensible signes or shapes Secondly With that inferiour faculty and operation of mind whose subsistence life being and motion is in with and by the body and through the use of bodily organs sensible signes and external mediums on the loss of which this second faculty and operation of man's Soul which is the weaker inferiour and less valuable ceases at least is for a time suspended which in Scripture phrase is called Death even the Death of the Body Yet the more vigorous the exercise of this latter is and the more that thereby we are at home in the Body the more in truth and reality we are dead at least asleep in the earth as to our more Noble and Spiritual part in and through which we enjoy most of the presence of God and of Christ Since therefore mans constitution of Being in such as he cannot live both these Lives together untill the Resurrection but that in the one of them he must be incompleat have his operation much suspended and be as it were dead or asleep To resolve which of these to choose and prefer ought not to be so difficult as commonly it is made On the SUFFERINGS of the Renowned Sir H. Vane Knight GReat Soul ne're Understood Until deciphered by thy Blood A Priest a Prophet and a King Systeme of every worthy thing Dying that Liberty might Live The English Cause he doth retrieve Stating it in no formal dress But in the Spirit of Righteousness Which he from th' earth perceiving fled Dy'd to Return with 't from the Dead Persons or Forms of Government Did little make to his intent To nought was he an Enemy But what was fix'd in Enmity ' Gainst which he fought with eager breath Became Victorious in his Death And this not by necessity It was his Principle to Dye Flesh will resist but Faith can suffer The soft hand 's gone beware the rougher Th' envy and hate of every Form Upon his head pour'd down the Storm Whilst he sublim'd and sav'd the good O' th' lowest and seal'd it with his Blood How great he was his Enemies tell Who while he liv'd could not be well And in what stead his offering stood By resolute silence Friends made good The male o' th' Flock is ta'ne the best To expiate the blame o' th' rest What tears and prayers wanted in strength His crying blood brings down at length Groan English Hearts groan help the cry Lord Jesus Come I come quickly FINIS The Printer to the Reader IT 's very probable thou mayest meet with some faults and misprintings escaped the Corrector which could not be avoided by reason of the distance between the Transcriber and the Press thou art desired to correct them and pass them by with candor One thou mayest find in page 54 and 55 all those words within the Parenthesis should come in after the word Penetent And page 97. in the Title to that part read Case for Cause ☜