or force to do what he will but a knowing wise discreete man that opens the Peoples eyes and does not lead them by the noses but governe them with wisedome and discretion for their owne good Therefore Gentlemen-Royalists be not so mad as to misconstrue either the Oaths of Allegiance or Supremacy or any League or Covenant that any man should sweare to give any one leave to cut his throat the true meaning is that the King of England was supreme in this land in opposition to the Pope or any other Prince or Potentate as the words of the Oath do import that no foraigne State Prince or Potentate c. In case of any forraigne invasion the King was by Law to be Generalissimo to command the People for their owne safety and so it was expounded by the Parliament in 13. Eliz. which for some reason of State was not permitted to be printed with the Statutes besides God told those Kings whom he had formerly annoynted what their duty was not to exalt themselves overmuch above their brethren to delight themselves in the Law of God out of which I inferre that the Turkes Tarters Muscovites French Spaniards and all people that live at the beck and nod of tyrannicall men may and ought to free themselves from that tyranny if and when they can for such Tyrants that so domineer with a rod of iron do not governe by Gods permissive hand of approbation or benediction but by the permissive hand of his Providence suffering them to scourge the People for ends best known to himselfe untill he open a way for the people to work out their owne enfranchisements But before I speak of the warre it will be necessary for the satisfaction of rationall men to open and prove the Kings wicked designe wherewith he stands charged Now that he had from the beginning of his raigne such a designe and indeavour so to teare up the foundations of Government that Law should be no Protection to any mans person or estate will clearly appeare by what follows 1. By his not taking the Oath so fully as his Predecessours did that so when the Parliament should tender good laws to him for the Royal assent he might readily answer that he was not by Oath obliged to confirme or corroborare the same 2. By his dishonourable and perfidious dealing with the People at his Coronation when he set forth a Proclamation that in regard of the infection then spread through the Kingdome He promised to dispense with those knights that by an old statute were to attend at the Coronation who were thereby required not to attend but did notwithstanding with in few months after take advantage of their absence and raised a vaste summe of money out of their estates at the Councel Table where they pleading the said Proclamation for their justification they were answered that the law of the land was above any Proclamation like that Tyrant that when he could not by law execute a virgin commanded her to be deflored and then put to death 3. By his altering the Pattents and Commissions to the Judges wch having heretofore had their places granted to them so long as they should behave themselvs therin he made them but during pleasure that so if the Judges should not declare the Law to be as he would have it he might with a wet singer remove them and put in such as should not only say but swear if need werethat the Law was as the king would have it for when a man shall give five or ten thousand pounds for a Judges place during the kings pleasure and he shall the next day send to him to know his opinion of a difference in law between the king and a subject it shal be intimated unto him that if he do not deliver his opinion for the king he is likely to be removed out of his place the next day which if so he knows not how to live but must rot in a Prison for the money which he borrowed to buy his place as was well known to be some of their cases who underhand and closely bought great places to elude the danger of the statute whether this was not too heavy a temptation for the shoulders of most men to bear is no hard matter to determine so as upon the matter that very act of his made the King at the least a potentiall Tyrant for when that shall be law which a King shall declare himselfe or which shall be declared by those whom he chooses this brings the People to the very next step to slavery But that which does irrefragably prove the design was his restlesse desire to destroy Parliaments or to make them uselesse And for that who knowes not but that there were three or four National meetings in Parliament in the first foure yeares of his Reign which were called for supply to bring mony into his coffers in point of Subsidies rather then for any benefit to the People as may appear by the few good Lawes that were then made But that which is most memorable is the untimely dissolving of the Parliament in 4o Car. when Sir John Elliot and others who managed a Conference with the House of Peers concerning the Duke of Buckin ham who amongst other things was charged concerning the death of King James were committed close prisoner to the Tower where he lost his life by cruel indurance Which I may not passe over without a special Animadversion for sure there is no Turk or Heathen but will say that if he were any way guilty of his Fathers death let him die for it I would not willingly be so injurious to the honest Reader as to make him buy that again which he hath formerly met with in the Parliaments Declaration or elswhere in such a case a marginal reference may be sufficient Nor would I herein be so presumptuous as to prevent any thing that happily may be intended in any Declaration for more general satisfaction but humbly to offer a Students mite which satisfies my self with submission to better judgments How the King first came to the Crown God and his own Conscience best knew It was well known observed at Court that a little before he was a professed enemy to the Duke of Buckingham but instantly upon the death of King James took him into such special protection grace and favour that upon the matter he divided the Kingdom with him And when the Earl of Bristol had exhibited a Charge against the said Duke the 13. Article whereof concerned the death of King James He instantly dissolved that Parliament that so he might protect the Duke from the justice thereof and would never suffer any legal inquiry to be made for his Fathers death The Rabbines observe that that which stuck most with Abraham about Gods command to sacrifice Isaac was this Can I not be obedient unlesse I be unnaturall What will the Heathens say when they heare I have killed my only son What will
King Charls his Case OR AN APPEAL To all Rational Men Concerning His TRYAL AT THE High Court of Iustice Being for the most part that which was intended to have been delivered at the Bar if the King had Pleaded to the CHARGE and put himself upon a fair TRYAL With an additional Opinion concerning The Death of King James The loss of Rochel and The Blood of Ireland By JOHN COOK of Grays-Inn Barrester Justice is an excellent vertue Reason is the life of the Law Womanish pity to mourn for a Tyrant Is a deceitful cruelty to a City London Printed by Peter Cole at the sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange for Giles Calvert at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls 1649. To the READER THe righteous Iudge whose judgement is not onely inevitable but infallible must shortly judge me and all that concurred to bring the capital Delinquent to condign punishment but in the interim I desire to be judged by all understanding men in the world that suffer their judgements to be swayed by Reason and not byassed by private Interest Whether ever any man did so much deserve to dye Cain for the murther of one righteous Abel and David for one Uriah had been men of death had not God pardoned them Those thirty one Kings which Joshua hanged up and Sauls seven Sons which were but at the worst as it seems to me Evil Counsellors were they not innocent nay Saints in comparison of this man Those that crucified Christ did it ignorantly For had they known him they had not crucified the Lord of Glory The Saints under the ten Persecutions suffered by the hands of Heathens the Sicilian Vespers the Parisian Massacre of the Protestants and the Gunpowder-Plot were acted and intended by Papists out of a conceit of Merit But for a Protestant Prince stiled The Defendor of the Faith in a time of light that had sworn to keep the Peace received Tribute to that end and might have had the very hearts of the People if they could have given him them without death the strongest Engagements I say for such a one so long to persecute the faithful destroy and inslave the People by oppressing cruelties And when Machiavel could not do it to levy a War to that wicked end which never any of his Ancestors durst attempt that might at any time with a word of his mouth have stopt all the bleeding veins in the three Kingdoms but would not and for the satisfying of a base lust caused more Protestant blood to be shed then ever was spilt either by Rome Heathen or Antichristian Blessed God what ugly sins lodge in their bosoms that would have had this man to live But Words are but Women Proofs are Men it is Reason that must be the Chariot to carry men to give their concurrence to this ludgement Therefore I shall deliver my thoughts to the courteous Reader as I was prepared for it if Issue had been joyned in the Cause but with some addition for illustration sake desiring excuse for the Preamble because there is some repetition in matter An Appeal to all Rational men that love their God Justice and Countrey more then their Honor Pleasure and Money Concerning the Kings Tryal May it please your Lordship MY Lord President and this High Court erected for the most Comprehensive Impartial and Glorious piece of Justice that ever was Acted and Executed upon the Theatre of England for the Trying and Judging of Charls Stuart whom God in his wrath gave to be a king to this Nation and will I trust in great love for his notorious Prevarications and Blood-guiltiness take him away from us He that hath been the Original of all Injustice and the Principal Author of more mischiefs to the Free-born People of this Nation then the best Arithmetician can well enumerate stands now to give an account of his Stewardship and to receive the good of Justice for all the evil of his Injustice and Cruelty Had he Ten thousand lives they could not all satisfie for the numerous Horid and Barbarous Massacres of Myriades and legions of Innocent persons which by his Commands Commissions and Procurements or at least all the world must needs say which he might have prevented and he that suffers any man to be kill'd when he may save his life without danger of his own is a Murtherer have been cruelly slain and inhumanely murthered in this renowned Albion Anglia hath been made an Aceldama and her yonger sister Ireland a Land of Ire and Misery and yet this hard-hearted man as he went out of the Court down the stairs Jan. 22. said as some of his Gnard told me and others That he was not troubled for any of the blood that hath been shed but for the blood of one man peradventure he meant Strafford He was no more affected with a List that was brought in to Oxford of Five or six thousand slain at Edgehill then to read one of Ben Johnsons Tragedies You Gentlemen Royalists that fought for him if ye had lost your lives for his sake you see he would have no more pitied you by his own confession then you do a poor Worm and yet what heart but would cleave if it were a Rock melt if it were Ice break if it were a Flint or dissolve if it were a Diamond to consider that so much precious Protestant blood should be shed in these three kingdoms so many gallant valiant Men of all sorts and conditions to be sacrificed and lose their lives and many of them to dye so desperately in regard of their Eternal conditions and all this meerly and onely for the satisfying and fulfilling of one mans sinful lust and wicked will a good Shepherd is he that lays down his life or ventures it to save the Sheep but for one to be so proudly wedded to his own conceits as so maliciously to oppose his private Opinion against the publique Judgement and Reason of State and to make head against the Parliament who acknowledged him to be head thereof so far as to give him the Honor of the Royal Assent in settling the Militia and Safety of the People I say for a Protestant Prince so beloved at home and feared abroad that in love and by gentle means might have had any thing from the Parliament for him to occasion the shedding of so much blood for a pretended Prerogative as hereafter will appear nothing in effect but to fix and perpetuate an absolute Tyranny I can say no less But O Lucifer from whence art thou faln and what hereticks are they in politicks that would have had such a man to live much more that think his Actions to have merited love and praise from Heaven and Earth But now to diffect the Charge 1. That the kings of England are trusted with a limited power to govern by Law the whole stream and current of Legal Authorities run so limpid and clear that I should but weary those
the peoples safety that the kings Judges should not make Traytors by the dozens to gratifie the king or Courtiers but it was never meant to give liberty to the king to destroy the people and though it be said That the king and Parliament onely may declare Treason yet no doubt if the king will neglect his duty it may be so declared without him for when many are obliged to do any service if some of them fail the rest must do it Obj. But is there any president that ever any man was put to death that did not offend against some written Law For where there is no Law there is no transgression R. 'T is very true where there is neither Law of God nor Nature nor positive Law there can be no transgression and therefore that Scripture is much abused to apply it onely to Laws positive For First ad ea quae frequentius c. 'T is out of the sphaere of all earthly Law-givers to comprehend and express all particular cases that may possibly happen but such as are of most frequent concurrence particulars being different like the several faces of men different from one another else Laws would be too tedious and as particulars occur rational men will reduce them to general reasons of State so as every thing may be adjudged for the good of the Community 2. The Law of England is Lex non scripta and we have a direction in the Epistle to the 3. Rep. That when our Law Books are silent we must repair to the Law of Nature and Reason Holinshed and other Historians tell us That in 20 H. 8. the Lord Hungerford was executed for Buggery for which there was then no positive Law to make it Felony and before any Statute against Witchcraft many Witches have been hanged in England because it is death by Gods Law If any Italian Mountebanck should come over hither and give any man poyson that should lie in his body above a year and a day and then kill him as it is reported they can give a man poyson that shall consume the body in three years will any make scruple or question to hang up such a Rascal At Naples the great Treasurer of Corn being intrusted with many Thousand quarters at three shillings the bushel for the common good finding an opportunity to sell it for five shillings the bushel to Forraign Merchants inriched himself exceedingly thereby and Corn growing suddenly dear the Counsel called him to account for it who proffered to allow three shillings for it as it was delivered into his Custody and hoped thereby to escape and for so great a breach of Trust nothing would content the people but to have him hanged and though there was no positive Law for it to make it Treason yet it was resolved by the best Politicians that it was Treason to break so great a Trust by the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom and that for so great an offence he ought to dye that durst presume to inrich himself by that which might indanger the lives of so many Citizens for as society is natural so Governors must of necessity and in all reason provide for the preservation and sustenance of the meanest member he that is but as the little toe of the body politique But I know the ingenuous Reader desires to hear something concerning Ireland where there were no less the 152000 men women and children most barbarously and satannically murthered in the first four moneths of the Rebellion as appeared by substantial proofs at the kings Bench at the tryal of Maoquire If the king had a hand or but a little finger in that Massacre every man will say Let him dye the death but how shall we be assured of that How can we know the Tree better then by its fruits For my own particular I have spent many serious thoughts about it and I desire in doubtful cases to give Charity the upper hand but I cannot in my conscience acquit him of it Many strong presumptions and several Oathes of honest men that we have seen the kings Commission for it cannot but amount to a clear proof If I meet a man running down stairs with a bloody Sword in his hand and finde a man stabbed in the Chamber though I did not see this man run into the body by that man which I met yet if I were of the Jury I durst not but finde him guilty of the murther and I cannot but admire that any man should deny that for him which he durst never deny for himself How often was that monstrous Rebellion laid in his dish and yet he durst never absolutely deny it never was Bear so unwillingly brought to the stake as he was to declare against the Rebels and when he did once call them Rebels he would suffer but forty Copies to be printed and those to be sent to him seal'd and he hath since above forty times called them his Subjects and his good Subjects and sent to Ormond to give special thanks to some of these Rebels as Muskerry and Plunket which I am confident by what I see of his height of Spirit and undaunted resolution at his Tryal and since acting the last part answerable to the former part of his life He would rather have lost his life then to have sent thanks to two such incarnate Devils if he had not been as guilty as themselves questionless if the King had not been guilty of that blood he would have made a thousand Declarations against those Blood-hounds and Hell-hounds that are not to be named but with fire and brimstone and have sent to all Princes in the world for Assistance against such accursed Devils in the shape of men but he durst not offend those Fiends and Fire-brands for if he had I verily believe they would soon have produced his Commission under his hand and seal of Scotland at Edenburgh 1641. A copy whereof is in the Parliaments hands attested by Oath dispersed by copies in Ireland which caused the general Rebellion Obj. He did not give Commission to kill the English but to take their Forts Castles Towns and Arms and come over and help him And is it like all this could be effected without the slaughter of the poor English Did the king ever call them Rebels but in forty Proclamations wrung out of him by force by the Parliaments importunity Murthering the Protestants was so acceptable to him and with this limitation That none should be published without his further directions as appears under Nichols his hand now in the Parliaments custody But the Scots were proclaimed Rebels before they had killed a man or had an Army and a Prayer against them injoyned in all Churches but no such matter against the Irish Well when the Rebels were worsted in Ireland the King makes War here to protect them which but for his fair words had been prevented often calling God to witness He would assoon raise War on his own children And men from Popish
That the king shall improve his power for their good and make it his work to procure their safeties and they to provide for his honor which it done to the Commonwealth in him as the Sword and Ensigns of Honor carried before the Lord Major are for the honor of the city now as when any one of this people shall compass the death of the Governor ruling well this is a Treason punishable with death for the wrong done to the Community and Anathema be to such a man so when he or they that are trusted to fight the peoples Battels and to procure their welfare shall prevaricate and act to the inslaving or destroying of the people who are their Liege Lords and all Governors are but the peoples creatures and the work of their hands to be accomptable as their Stewards and is it not senseless for the vessel to ask the Potter by what Law he calls it to account this is high Treason with a witness and far more transcendent then in the former case because the king was paid for his Service and the Dignity of the Person does increase the offence for a great man of noble Education and knowledge to betray so great a Trust and abuse so much love as the Parliament shewed to the king by Petitioning him as good Subjects praying for him as good Christians advising him as good Counsellors and treating with him as the great Counsel of the kingdom with such infinite care and tenderness of his honor a course which Gods people did not take with Rehoboam they never petitioned him but advised him he refused their counsel and hearkened to yong Counsellors and they cry To thy tents O Israel and made quick and short work of it after all this and much more longanimity and patience from the Lord to the Servant for him not onely to set up a Standard of War in defiance of his dread Soveraign The People for so they truly were in Nature though Names have befool'd us but to persist so many years in such cruel persecutions who with a word of his mouth might have made a Peace If ever there were so superlative a Treason let the Indians judge and whosoever shall break and violate such a trust and confidence Anathema Maranatha be unto them Q. But why was there not a written Law to make it Treason for the King to destroy the people as well as for a man to compass the Kings death Resp. Because our Ancestors did never imagine that any King of England would have been so desperately mad as to leavy a War against the Parliament and people as in the Common instance of Paricide the Romans made no Law against him that should kill his Father thinking no childe would be so unnatural to be the death of him who was the Author of his life but when a childe came to be accused for a Murther there was a more cruel punishment inflicted then for other Homicides for he was thrown into the Sea in a great Leather Barrel with a Dog a Jackanapes a Cock and a Viper significant companions for him to be deprived of all the Elements as in my Poor mans Case Fol. 10. Nor was there any Law made against Parents that should kill their children yet if any man was so unnatural he had an exemplary punishment Obj. But is it not a Maxime in Law That the King can do no wrong Resp. For any man to say so is blasphemy against the great God of Truth and Love for onely God cannot erre because what he wills is right because he wills it and 't is a sad thing to consider how learned men for unworthy ends should use such art to subdue the people by transportation of their sences as to make them believe that the Law is That the King can do no wrong First For Law I do aver it with confidence but in all humility That there is no such Case to be found in Law That if the King Rob or Murther or commit such horrid Extravagancies that it is no wrong Indeed the case is put in H. 7. by a chief Judge that If the King kill a man 't is no felony to make him suffer death that is to be meant in ordinary Courts of Justice But there is no doubt but the Parliament might try the King or appoint others to judge him for it We finde Cases in Law that the King hath been sued even in Civil Actions In 43 E 3. 22. it is resolved That all maner of Actions did lie against the King as against any Lord and 24 E. 3. 23. Wilby a learned Judge said that there was a Writ Praecipe Henrico Regi Angliae Indeed E. 1. did make an Act of State That men should sue to him by Petition but this was not agreed unto in Parliament Thelwall title Roye digest of Writs 71. But after when Judges places grew great the Judges and Bitesheeps began to sing Lullaby and speak Platentia to the king that My Lord the King is an Angel of light Now Angels are not responsible to men but God therefore not kings And the Judges they begin to make the king a God and say that by Law his stile is Sacred Majesty though he swears every hour and Gracious Majesty though gracious men be the chief objects of his hatred and that the king hath an Omnipotency and Omnipresence But I am sure there is no Case in Law That if the king leavy a War against the Parliament and people that it is not Treason Possibly that Case in H. 7. may prove That if the king should in his passion kill a man this shall not be Felony to take away the kings life for the inconveniency may be greater to the people by putting a king to death for one offence and miscarriage then the execution of Justice upon him can advantage them But what 's this toa leavying of War against a Parliament never any Judge was so devoid of understanding that he denyed that to be Treason But suppose a Judge that held his place at the kings pleasure did so I am sure never any Parliament said so But what if there had in dark times of Popery been an Act made That the king might Murther Ravish Burn and perpetrate all mischiefs and play Reaks with impunity will any man that hath but wit enough to measure an Ell of cloath or to tell Twenty say That this is an Obligation for men to stand still and suffer a Monster to cut their throats and grant Commission to rob at Suters hill as such and no better are all Legal thefts and oppressions The Doctor says That a Statute against giving an alms to a poor man is void He is no Student I mean was never bound Prentice to Reason that says A king cannot commit Treason against the people Ob. But are there not Negative words in the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. That nothing else shall be construed to be Treason but what is there exprest Res That Statute was intended for
would say He must make him a Bishop He had more learning and dexterity in State Affairs undoubtedly then all the kings in Christendom If he had had grace answerable to his strong parts he had been another Solomon but his wit and knowledge proved like a sword in a mad-mans hand he was a stranger to the work of Grace and the Spirit of God as the poor creature confest to Mr. Knowls after he was condemned and all those Maeanders in State his serpentine turnings and windings have but brought him to shame and confusion but I am fully satisfied none of his Councel durst ever advise him to any thing but what they knew before he resolved to have done and that they durst as well take a Bear by the tooth as do or consent to the doing of any thing but what they knew would please him they did but hew and square the timber he was the Master builder that gave the form to every Architecture and being so able and judicious to discern of every mans merits Never think that the Duke or Pennington or any Judge or Officer did ever any thing for his advantage without his command against Law or Honor Upon all which premises may it please your Lorship I do humbly demand and pray the Justice of this High Court and yet not I but the innocent blood that hath been shed in the three kingdoms demands Justice against him This blood is vocal and cryes loud and yet speaks no better but much louder then the blood of Abel for what proportion hath the blood of that righteous man to the blood of so many thousands If king Ahab and Queen Jezabel for the blood of one righteous Naboth who would not sell his inheritance for the full value were justly put to death what punishment does he deserve that is guilty of the blood of thousands and fought for a pretended prerogative that he might have any mans Estate that he liked without paying for it This blood hath long cryed How long Parliament how long Army will ye forbear to avenge our blood will ye not do Justice upon the capital Author of all Injustice When will ye take the proud Lyon by the beard that defies you with imperious exultations What 's the House of Commons what 's the Army as Pharaoh said Who is the Lord and who is Moses I am not accountable to any power on earth those that were murthered at Brainford knockt on the head in the water and those honest souls that were kild in cold blood at Bolton and Leverpool in Lancashire at Bartomley in Cheshire and many other places their blood cryes night and day for Justice against him their wives and children cry Justice upon the murtherer or else give us our fathers and husbands again nay should the people be silent the very stones and timber of the houses would cry for Justice against him But my Lord before I pray Judgement I humbly crave leave to speak to two particulars 1. Concerning the Prisoner When I consider what he was and how many prayers have been made for him though I know that all the world cannot restore him nor save his life because God will not forgive his temporal punishment yet if God in him will be pleased to adde one example more to the Church of his unchangeable love to his elect in Christ not knowing but that he may belong to the election of grace I am troubled in my spirit in regard of his eternal condition for fear that he should depart this life without love and reconciliation to all those Saints whom he hath scorned under the notion of Presbyterians Anabaptists Independents and Sectaries It cannot be denyed but that he hath spent all his days in unmeasurable pride that during his whole raign he hath deported himself as a God been depended upon and adored as God that hath challenged and assured an Omnipotent power an earthly Omnipotence that with the breath of his mouth hath dissolved Parliaments his Non placet hath made all the Councels of that Supreme Court to become Abortives Non curo hath been his Motto who in stead of being honored as good Kings ought to be and no more hath been idolized and adored as our good God onely ought to be A man that hath shot all his arrows against the upright in the Land hated Christ in his members swallowed down unrighteousness as the Ox drinks water esteemed the needy as his footstool crusht honest publique spirited men and grieved when he could not afflict the honest more then he did counted it the best art and policy to suppress the righteous and to give way to his Courtiers so to gripe grinde oppress and overreach the free People of the Land that he might do what he list the remembrance whereof would pierce his soul if he knew the preciousnesse of it but all fins to an infinite mercy are equally pardonable therefore my prayer for this poor wretch shall be That God would so give him repentance to life that he may beleeve in that Christ whom he hath imprisoned persecuted and murthered in the Saints that he which hath lived a Tyrant and hated nothing so much as holinesse may die a convert and in love to the Saints in England that so the tears of the oppressed and the afflicted may not be as so many fiery stinging serpents causing an eternal despairing continual horror to this miserable Man when all Tyrants shall be astonisht and innocent blood will affright more then twelve legions of Devils All the hurt I wish to him is That he may look the Saints in the face with comfort for the Saints must judge the world and however it may be he or this adherents may think it a brave Roman spirit not to repent of any thing nor expresse any sorrow for any sin though never so horrid taking more care and fear not to change their countenance upon the Scaffold then what shall become of them after death Yet I beseech your Lordship that I may tell him and all the Malignants now living but this Charls Stuart unlesse you depart this life in love and reconciliation to all those Saints and godly men whom you have either ignorantly or maliciously opposed mockt and persecuted and still scorn and jeer at as Heretiques and Sectaries there is no more hopes for you ever to see God in comfort then for me to touch the Heavens with my finger or with a word to annihilate this great building or for the Devil to be saved which he might be if he could love a Saint as such No Sir it will be too late for you to say to those Saints whom you have defied Give me some of your holiness that I may behold Gods angry countenance You can expect no answer but Go buy Sir of those Soul-hucksters your Bishops which fed you with chaff and poyson and now you must feed upon fire and brimstone to all eternity 2. Concerning my self I bear no more malice to the Mans person
then I do to my dear Father but I hate that cursed principle of Tyranny that hath so long lodged and harbored within Him which hath turned our waters of Law into blood And therefore upon that Malignant principle I hope this High Court which is an habitation of Justice and a Royal Palace of principles of Freedom will do speedy Justice That this Lyon which hath devoured so many Sheep may not onely be removed out of the way but that this Iron Scepter which hath been lifted up to break this poor Nation in pieces like a Potters vessel may be wrested out of the hands of Tyrants That my honorable Clients for whom I am an unworthy Advocate The people of England may not onely taste but drink abundantly of those sweet Waters of that Well of Liberty which this renowned Army hath digg'd with their swords which was stopt by the Philistines the fierce Jew and uncircumcised Canaanite the hopes whereof made me readily to hearken to the call to this service as if it had been immediately from Heaven being fully satisfied That the prisoner was long since condemned to dye by Gods Law which being more Noble and ancient then any Law of man if there had been a Statute that he should not dye yet he ought to be put to death not withstanding and that this High Court was but to pronounce the Sentence and Judgment written against him And though I might have been sufficiently discouraged in respect that my reason is far less then others of my profession yet considering that there are but two things desireable to make a dumb man eloquent namely A good Cause and good Judges The first whereof procures the Justice of Heaven and the second Justice upon Earth And thinking that happily God might make use of one mean man at the Bar amongst other learned Counsel that more of his minde might appear in it for many times the less there is of man the more Gods glory does appear and hitherto very much of the minde of God hath appeared in this action I went as chearfully about it as to a Wedding And that the glory of this administration may be wholly given to God I desire to observe to the praise of his great name the work of God upon my own spirit in his gracious assistance and presence with me as a return of Prayer and fruit of Faith believing that God never calls to the acting of any thing so pleasing to him as this most excellent Court of Justice is but he is present with the honorable Judges and those that wait upon them I have been sometimes of Counsel against Felons and Prisoners but I never moved the Court to proceed to Judgement against any Felon or to keep any man in Prison but I trembled at it in my thoughts as thinking it would be easier to give an account of mercy and indulgence then of any thing that might look like rigor but now my spirits are quite of another temper and I hope it is meat and drink to good men to have Justice done and recreation to think what benefit this Nation will receive by it And now my Lord I must as the truth is conclude him guilty of more transcendent Treasons and Enormous Crimes then all the Kings in this part of the world have ever been And as he that would picture Venus must take the eyes of one the cheeks of another beautiful woman and so other parts to make a compleat beauty so to delineate an absolute Tyrant the cruelty of Richard the third and all the subtilty treachery deep dissimulation abominable projects and dishonorable shifts that ever were separately in any that swayed the English Scepter conspired together to make their habitation in this Whited-wal therefore I humbly pray That as he hath made himself a president in committing such horrid acts which former Kings and Ages knew not and have been afraid to think of That your Lordship and this High Court out of your sublime wisdoms and for Justice sake would make him an example for other kingdoms for the time to come That the Kings of the Earth may hear and fear and do no more so wickedly That he that would not be a patern of Vertue and an example of Justice in his life may be a president of Justice to others by his death Courteous Reader for thy full satisfaction in Reason of Law how the late King was by the Law of the Land accountable for his Tyrannous and Trayterous Exorbitances I refer thee to my Lord Presidents most Learned and Judicious Speech before the Sentence read And I have one word to adde That High Court was a Resemblance and Representation of the great day of Judgement when the Saints shall judge all worldly powers and where this Judgement will be confirmed and admired for it was not only bonum but bene not onely good for the matter but the maner of proceeding This High Court did not onely consult with Heaven for wisdom and direction a president for other Courts to begin every solemn action with Prayer but examined witnesses several days upon Oath to inform their consciences and received abundant satisfaction in a judicial way which by the Law of the Land was not requisite in Treason the Prisoner standing mute as Judges which before was most notorious and known to them as private persons and having most perspicuously discerned and weighed the merits of the Cause in the Ballances of the Sanctuary Law and right Reason pronounced as righteous a sentence as ever was given by mortal men And yet what Action was ever so good but was traduced Not onely by unholy men but by the holy men of the world that professors should pray for Justice and then repine at the execution of it Blessed Lord How does the God of this world storm now his kingdom is shaking An enlightened eye must needs see that it is the design of Heaven to break all humane glory with an iron Scepter that will not kiss his golden Scepter and to exalt Justice and Mercy in the Earth I confess if the greater part of the world should approve such High and Noble Acts of Justice it might be suspected because the most people will Judge erroneously but that Christians that have fasted and prayed many years for Justice should now be angry to see it done what is it but like foolish passengers that having been long at sea in dangerous storms as they are entring into the quiet haven to be mad with the Pilot because he will not return into the angry Seas but I shall observe one passage in the Lord Presidents Speech as a Schollar may presume to say a word after his Master concerning the many menaces minatory dangerous speeches wch are given forth concerning this High Court If men must be kill'd for the faithful discharge of their duties to God their Countrey I am sure the murtherer will have the worst of it in conclusion if he should not be known here though