Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A75434
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An answer to the Lord Digbies speech in the House of Commons; to the bill of attainder of the Earle of Strafford, the 21th. of Aprill. 1641. Written by occasion of the first publishing of that speech of his Lordships. And now printed in regard of the reprinting of that speech.
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1641
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Wing A3420; Thomason E198_3; ESTC R11361
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12,154
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27
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his Lordships owne Not to the law of Nature which in any case where the safety of the whole commeth into question doth not bind it selfe from ordering in the great world that light things shall descend heavy ascend In the little that the whole man upon consultation shall consent to the cutting off of a gangren'd hand or foot though the former bee contrary to that Common Law whereby elementall bodyes are governed in their motions And the latter against that dictate of Nature which inclineth each member to have a compassionate care of the preservation of another so strongly that except in a like case no part nor the rest of the whole may nor can consent to such a mutilation Not to the Law of the Land For in that very Statute of 25. Edw. 3. Cap. 2. whereby Treasons were first declared there is a passage which doth quite overthrow his Lordships distinction and rules squared to his present purpose as is yet plainer by divers subsequent statutes if I understand English and there be no more but that and a little right reason requisite to understand Statute law as there ought to bee I will here transcribe the severall passages wherein I observe that some or all of the latter Statutes are repealed but that is not materiall to the purpose for which I cite them 25. Ed. 3. Cap. 2. And because that many other like Cases of treason may happen in time to come which a man cannot thinke nor declare at this present time It is accorded that if any other Case supposed Treason which is not above specified doth happen before any Justices the Justices shall tarry without geing to judgement of the Treason till the Case be shewed and declared before the King and his Parliament whether it ought to be judged Treason or Felony 21. Rich. 2. Cap. 3. And that this Statute shall extend and hold place as well to them which be judged or attainted for these foure points of the said Treason in this present Parliament as of them which shall be judged or attainted in the Parliament in time to time of any of the foure points of Treason afore said 8. Hen. 6. cap. 6. And that this ordinance extend as well to such hurnings made after the first day of the raigne if our Soveraigne Lord the King till this time as to burnings to be made in time to come 22. Hen. 8. cap. 9. And that the said Richard Roose for the said murther and poysoning of the sard two persons as is aforesaid by authority of this present Parliament shall stand and bee attainted of High treason And because that detestable offence now newly practised and committed requireth condigne punishment for the same It is ordained and enacted by Authority of this present Parliament that the said Richard Roose shall therefore be boyled to death His offence was poysoning a Pot of Pottage By all which I conceive it to be elcere as the Noon-day that the Parliaments of England have heretofore as now used to looke backward as well as forwards if the occasion required it And so that his Lordships distinction hath no ground in the Law of the Land And truly it hath is little in the law of God For in that we reade that Moses and Aaron and all the Congregation to whom the man that was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day was brought at first indeed did only put him in ward because it was not yet declared what should be done to him But when it was declared they then stoned that same man to death for that former fact by a Law made a posteriori The very same proceeding was held with the sonne of the Israelitish woman whose Father was an Egyptian for blaspheming or cursing for he was also stoned to death a posteriori and a generall Law declared upon the occasion that as wel the stranger as he that is borne in the Land when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall be put to death This furnisheth an Answer to the Objection I have heard made to the former Instance that the gatherer of sticks on the Sabbath was put to death by a speciall direction from God which may no more bee drawne into example now then Abrahams going about to sacrifice his Sonne For not to divert into that Question whether that Declaration of God Almightie ought to have beene a direction to the Jewes to punish the breach of the Sabbath with death which for ought appeares was not so understood by them unlesse Nehemiahs threatning Neh. 13.21 may be taken in that sence I humbly conceive that by the generality of the Law which ordained that Blasphemy should be punished with death it is plaine that the execution of that Mungrell Egyptian Jew for that sinne was not extraordinary And from both those Instances that by the example of the God of Heaven it is lawfull for the Assembly of Gods on Earth to put offenders to death for Crimes desorving capitall punishment though committed before they were declared to bee such And it may be so much may also be gathered from that famous place Deut. 17.9.10 which I referre to further consideration Lastly his Lordships owne Rule in his speech for the Tryenniall Parliament is this That the King out of Parliament hath a limitted a circomscribed Jurisdiction But waited on by his Parliament no Monarch of the East is so absolute in dispelling grievances For it is well knowne that if any man how great soever doe once become a publique grievance That is to say A dangerous and insupportable Minister to the State those Easterne Monarchs doe not use to stand upon punctilios of Lawes made or to be made no nor so much as upon the formality of legall proceedings Wherein there hath beene more either right or favour shewed to the Lord Strafford by the King and his Parliament then I beleeve ever was to any like Offender in the whole world before him which I 〈◊〉 to his Majesties and their eternall glory and praise I know well what may bee replyed by so me others not by the Lord Digby of the dangerousnesse of this last mentioned doctrine of his and am as sensible thereof as another man But I doe humbly conceive that there is yet more danger in the Lord Digbies fore-rehearted doctrine And that all that is in the last recited being also as I take it more conformable to the Law of the Land may be prevented by some good Ordinances otherwise needful to be made which is an Argument I must not digresse into here In summe I hope ere this it is plaine that in stead of the Prayer his Lordship made it had beene more needfull for him to have prayed to God to keepe him from making distinctions where God himselfe hath made none which his Lordship knoweth is not well pleasing to God and must needs have observed to have beene the originall of many great divisions and combustions in the Church and so might now have beene in this State if God
of his mercy and by his over-ruling power had not prevented it contrary to his Lordships prudentiall judgement who I perceive would else have found a wrong Father for those seared distractions of the Kingdome Or if all I have yet said bee not enough let this suffice that the Lord Digby himselfe not only in a former speech made before he altered his mind but in this very speech doth clearely allow of this very kind of proceeding which he would faine see me to disallow For after all the expression of his so nice tendernesse of conscience in this point even his Lordship notwithstanding moved that laying aside the Bill of Attainder the House would thinke of another such a one as might secure the state from the Lord of Strafford saving only his life Which under favour had not onely beene to condemne him a posteriori to worse then death That is either to have lived in perpetuall imprisonment or to have become an ignominious fugitive and vagabond after hee had beene branded by the House of Commons by his Lordship and by his most sacred Majestie in such a manner as might well have put the same thoughts into him that every-one that met him would have killed him which made Caine cry out That his punishment was greater then he could beare But for ought his Lordship hath expressed the Bill he moved for might have trenched as deep to the ruine of his innocent posterity as the Bill of Attainder Nay I pray tell mee how but by a Law a posteriori could his Lordship have condemned the Lord Strafford of high treason as he hath professed that hee should and might have done with Innocence if that of the Irish Army had beene proved to his understanding For I doe not know whether as the case may bee put those words touching the Irish Army had beene treason as yet declared by the Statute of 25. Edw 3. But it they be then I am sure the former words are a much vaster treason And to leave no lease of his Lordships defence unventilated his reason drawne from the marking of a house infected with the plague being the same in other words with the Lo. Straffords taken from a boy is of a little shew but no force at all For under favour these comparisons shew no more but that no action in it selfe indifferent such as that the old Rhetoricians make use of the going up to the top of the wals of a Towne of Garrison ought to bee made capitall to any man that had no knowledge of that Law which I allow to bee good reason But am sure his Lordship will not allow that the Lord Strafford was charged with any such slight Article and much lesse that the result of them all is a matter of indifference or such a one to which the Lord Strafford could plead ignorance of the hainousnesse of the crime For there is no man capable of committing the treason for which hee hath suffered but must needs know That as the safety of the people is the supreme Law so the attempting to introduce any new forme of government without their consents especially an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall one is the greatest wrong can be done and the highest Treason can bee committed against a State And sure Sir Thomas Wentworth who as the Lord Digby himselfe hath noted in his foresaid speech for the Trichniall Parliament was the man that whilome in the House of Commons first moved for the inserting of that clause in the Petition of Right And that your Majestie would bee also graciously pleased for the further conmfort and safety of your people to declare your Royall will and pleasure that in the things aforesaid all your Officers and Ministers shall serve you according to the Loves and Statutes of this Realme as they tender the honour of your Majestie and prosperity of this Kingdome was not ignorant of the greatnesse of this offence If the Lord Wentworth and the Lord Strafford were as indeed a man may well thinke they were that in their Story shall hereafter observe that they no sooner were admitted to the honour of being in the number of his Majesties Officers and Ministers but they began and so continued to bee the great transgressors and violaters of all the heads of the same Petition of Right in the Kingdomes of England or Ireland and of most of them in both I cannot observe any thing more in the Lord Digbies speech that without wrong to his judgement may be thought to have beene a ground of his so solemne Protestation that his vote went not to the taking away of the Lord Straffords life But I have observed two passages which may give a little light how his judgement so neat in other things came to bee corrupted in this The first is an ungrounded apprehension that neither the Lords nor the King would have passed the Bill and consequently that the passing of it in the House of Commons would be cause of great divisions in the State For there is no passion doth multiply faster or which in shorter time will raise a greater mist in the mind of a wise man then groundlesse feare The second is His Lordships having upon this occasion much inculcated to his owne conscience the height and weight of the Crime of committing murther with the sword of Iustice But for ought appeares in his Speech having quite forgotten to put in a due Counterpoyse thereunto from a no lesse serious consideration of that saying of the Wise man Hee that justifieth the wicked and hee that condemneth the just Even they both are abomination to the Lord. And the president made upon King Ahab recorded in those words Because thou hast let goe out of thy hands a man whom I appointed to utter destruction thy life shall goe for his life Wherein notwithstanding I would not be so understood as if I who am a private man did take upon me to judge of the Lord Staffords Cause For as I declared at the beginning my intention throughout hath beene only to vindicate the publike proceedings from scandall and to cleare that Lord Digby from his scruples The first of which now I have done with the zeale that became me I shall henceforth with aequanimity expect to see what grounds there was of the Lord Straffords hopes that hee may hereafter appeare lesse guilty of the death hee died then as yet he doth to me And though in the later I have used necessary freedome in expressing my present conceits of the Lord Digbyes Reasons yet I reserve a thought that the weaknesse may bee in my own understanding and that though of my selfe I am not yet by his Lordship I may be made capable of them being one that hath his eminent abilities in no lesse admiration then any other whatsoever FINIS