they know that the crime objected is indeed no crime by the Law of the Land They who give commission under the pretended Seal of England for trying such offenders by nominated Commission ers yet know that very Commission to be illegal and unwarrantable and yet intended as an Engine to remove some out of the way that are before marked for destruction they lastly who prosecute the Prisoners at the Barre of such a Court The Judge also who sits in Judgement upon and pronounceth sentence against them though both Judge Attorney and Sollicitor know the Prisoners not to deserve so much as bonds by the known fundamental Laws of the Land and the Power by which they pretend to Act to be usurped and illegal nay contrary to Law which they in formality are sworn to maintain and execute Justice accordingly all these doubtlesly are a pack of Conspirators against the Innocent bloud which is thus shed by them and most cruel unpardonable murtherers this for less publick butcheries committed upon the score of pretended High Courts of Justice 59. Two private cases remains yet as namely that of Lucas and Lisle and the other of Penruddok and Grove The former were shot to death in cool bloud by sentence of a Court Mattial the latter condemned by that great Prevaricator Glyn who caused them to be indicted for taking up Arms against Cromwell upon that Law which makes it Treason to levy War against the King no Law being then hatched to secure that Usurper and although the Prisoners pleading to the endictment defended themselves unanswerably and made it appear by that very Law that Oliver was the Traytor in making War upon them who proclaimed and fought for that King whom he opposed yet this most unrighteous Judge made the Law violently to speak against it self by his interpretation and so condemned the most innocent Prisoners whom afterwards with others upon the same score he caused to be executed for which if ever Judge in England deserved exemplary death certainly he fell as much if not more 60. Thus most honourable Lords and Gentlemen having spoken concerning the persons who they are give me leave to adde some considerations which speak them uncapable of Indemnity unless we intend such vengeance to follow their Pardon which God if it be his will prevent and by the way I shall obviate what objections may be brought against this impartial Justice or arguments to the contrary 61. Consider I beseech you First the crimes and the men whether or no they be fit objects of Mercy Pardon and Indemnity Secondly if they be whether it is convenient and expedient to let them find so great a measure of it and taste it so largely and I doubt not but upon enquiry your wisdoms will with me conclude in the negative notwithstanding what ever may be indiscreetly argued in favour of them 62. In order then to proceed First presents it self their Fact and next their manner of acting Lastly their behaviour after it in all which it is too manifest that as they are beyond and above Pardon so they are below pity 63. Their crime my Lords and Gentlemen is Murther of it self unpardonable but in them aggravated by Perjury Malice inhumane Cruelty justifying thereof under pretence of Religion and the better to secure themselves from Justice they spared no manner of Villany which a dextrous pernicious wit could prompt or a seared conscience commit Their murther hath this astonishing addition or rather Complement of guilt in that its object was their King to whom they were most sacredly and religiously obliged by reiterated Oaths not only impoled but by themselves voluntarily made and solemnly entred into this is the crime of many nay most of them besides other private murthers which on their part have the aggravations of malice and inhumane cruelty on the sufferers that they were persons of Piety Esteem Honour and Faithfulness to their King and Countrey of whom several excelled in true worth all their Martherers together 64. My Lords and Gentlemen if to murther a private man of no esteem little worth perhaps vicious debauched and a burthen to those with whom he lives deserve death unpardonably and our Law justly condemns and executes in such a case the murtherers though perhaps many and otherwise each far surpassing the party slain shall our King worth ten thousand Subjects our eminent Lords Gentry our godly Divines and Citizens be murthered by the worst of the Nation for real worth and among so many murtherers so few be pick'd out of whom many fled to be made examples when they can be catcht when the whole number if taken amounts not to the fourth part of those who by them have been formally butchered besides the numberless multitude of those who have been otherwise slain starved ruined and destroyed by means of that first Heaven-daring butchery Shall Henry Martin that infamous Lecher who having among Strumpets consumed his Patrimony hath long lain in Gaole to the defrauding his Creditors be accounted when he is taken a competent Sacrifice in lieu of his Sacred Majesty Lord Capel Hamilton and Holland so Cornelius Holland the Linke-boy who hath nothing of Estate but what is the price of bloud and reward of his villanies be given up to Justice when he is catcht also in revenge of Hewits Slingsby's Yeomans and Butchers bloud Thomas Scot that Saint who besides his other villanies most ungraciously paid his wife Grace in the same coin which he in exchange of greater pieces received from his girls at a vaulting School but peppered her so the wrong way that she stank the sooner and lies buried in Westminster be made exemplary when he likewise comes to hand in lieu of Mr. Love Gibbons Bushel Col. Gerard and Vowel and so the rest Or must all these be made the price of Royal bloud only Certainly Gentlemen this will be to value his sacred Person less than the Scots did who sold him in life for two hundred thousand pounds not because they esteem'd him worth no more but because that was all they could get for him Had his murtherers been twise as many his worth and value was so inestimable that all had made too mean a sacrifice for his bloud 65. That murther of his Sacred Majesty brought upon them all the bloud which had been shed in England and was the cause of all the rest which was shed in Ireland and Scotland The King in wisdom foresaw the end of the War levied against him and therefore defended himself So many of the Parliament as were sincere abhorred as by their declarations appeared those very thoughts for which end they framed a vow and protestation and after joyned with the Scots in their League and Covenant not suspecting this Viper hidden under the green hearbs raised therefore as Commissionated all their forces for the Kings defence whereas his murther at last verified the Prediction of his Majesty gave the lye to all the Parliaments pretences and made it appear that this
bring thee to it The proverb is so true of none as of such murtherers as these who destroy not their natural fathers but the father of their Country subvert its lawes and make the land groane with illegall oppressures proscricptions and bloud-shed Should God in judgement suffer them to have such another day as they would certainly hugge and improve the opportunity so you and your posterity should first feel their requitall of this favour in procuring their pardon they of all others would not suffer any to live at least to inhabit among them who could say I or my father saved them or their fathers from deserved executions for the like crimes before and this now is the recompence 98. And perhaps although their children borne long since and men growne before they became involved in such guilt may prove better than their fathers yet from such as hereafter may become fertile among them what a pestilent brood may come into the World who by Gods law stand accursed and lie irremissibly under the bands of death If a bird constantly lay such an Egge as will produce a young one like her selfe we cannot in reason expect children to proceed from them better than the fathers The Jewes have a witty observation nor perhaps untrue That Agag King of Amalâ—k during those two years which he abode with Saul and verily thought the bitterness of death had been past begat a Son from whom lineally came that Haman the Agagite who in Mordecai's time had like to swallow up the whole Jewish Nation in his unsatiable thirst of revenge because one who sate in the Kings gate would not bow to him The morall is very seasonable and sadly to be thought upon these bloud-guilty Traytors who in justice are sonnes of Death whom God would have cut off in the midst of their dayes who are beyond all but foolish pity which as the proverb truly hath it ruines oftimes a City may become the future fathers of such a pisti lent brood as may revenge Gods quarrell in the neglect of justice upon them to the very fourth generation of such who are chiefly concerned in it Nor is it unlikely but our present Lambert may be a branch of that bloudy Archrraytor of his name who long ago did such mischiefe in England 99. Though their lives be spared yet future credit and repute its unlike they or their children ever will get in these Kingdomes till the memory of them be buried in forgetfullness So that whether they have Estates left or no their bare lives will serve to produce much and great mischiefe They have long been accustomed to villanies of a prodigious bigness And scorn now to serve the Devill in sneaking employments Great Rogues too lazy to dig nor will beg so long as England hath enemies They are acquainted with all the petty instruments of villany three in Kingdoms and if they cannot set them on work themselves can and will recommend their abilityes to forreigne Princes that bear England little good will what happiness can we expect but these will obstruct prove Remoras to and retard What mischiefe hatched but they will promote and cherish no trusting their good nature who have discovered themselves prodigies therein no hoping for their repentance who have been seared in their consciences with twelve years practise of the most heart-hardning villanies 100. If any hopes should appear in them of repentance 't is pity but it should be promoted with execution of that deserved doom which God requires to be brought upon them which to differ especially to acquit them from is in effect to cause those who chiefly procure this indemnity for them to injoy neither life or happiness longer than they can hinder it They have been long acquainted with such butcheries and imperious usurpation so as to be courted on that score by Kings dreaded at home seared abroad and admired by nations far distant this hath scrow'd up their minds to that Generous pitch of impiety that rather than live neglectedly or in contempt they will spare two pence at any time although but masters of a groat in all to by a faggot which may fire their native Country then they will warme their hands and rejoyce at the flame 101. Their long experience although in an usurped way hath rendred them dangerous persons to be interested against their native country the hopelesness of their pardon upon any future score of rebellion or Treason would incourage any Prince to trust them very far who shall be ingaged against England These are great incarnate devills every one of them is collective a name of number and there are in these Kingdomes a multitude of close villians of their own complexion who are of inferior ranks and orders yet mischievous enough in their kind whom these formerly State-Angles shining in usurped Glory falling now to be State-Devills will draw along with them as Lucifer did his train after him or as the Dragor in the Apocalyps drew the starrs with his tail these will still by reason of their close agents who will ingratiate themselves as nigh the very Court and grand Counsels of the Nation as possible learne and betray your most choice and secret counsells and resolves to those where it will be little for the Nations advantage to have them known 102. Believe it confidently my Lords and Gentlemen it will be thus besides the probability of the thing you have his Warrant and threatning to assure you of it whom you shall never taxe with breach of his word No sooner shall these be acquitted but of your own number one shall be Lenthall another Haslerigge another Vane a fourth Mildmay a fift Whitlock a sixt Mounson a seventh Saint-Johns and so on in Gods esteem and account and who then so fit to execute his vengeance against you but these very persons because you neglected to do it upon them when God requir'd And every man of you representing a County City or Borough what may be the lot of England I tremble to think 103. Thus my Lords and Gentlemen I have given you some brief but serious considerations not but that I think your wisedomes much more able to ventilate and apprehend them than I to suggest but knowing your many imployments will hardly if at all admit most of you to think on these things out of the walls of your joynt deliberation besides that so many intercessors and friends are dayly made to you in their behalfe as gives you little leisure so profoundly to examine things as one of far inferiour parts to the least of you may do being without interruption I shall in brief touch some things which may be objected in their behalf 104. Those who plead for them do it under the notion of moderation and for the most part use such arguments as these first Gods manner of bringing this about without stroke or bloud and therefore conclude this providence speakes that if any yet as little bloud ought to be shed as possibly
all the Nations round about whom they had spared contrary to command besides all which pretences by Saul no doubt alledged for that slaughter committed upon them the quality of him and them makes his case and ours of no comparison together He a King and they contemptible drudges of a cursed Generation But with us sworn subjects murther'd their Soveraign the very tongues mouths and lips that had vo'wd solemn allegiance to him and to hazard life in his preservation and to defend with him his Queen and Progeny presume to condemn to death the same Royall Person proclaim Traytors his Queen and Sonnes yea all that shall adhere to them and assert their so oft confirmed title by so sacred and religious oaths This certainly next to our blessed Saviours murther was most black and hortible 40. Besides with Majesty fell Nobles and Gentlemen Divines and Citizens of as great repute as any the Land afforded who were as undoubtedly Innocent as cruelly slaughtered yea their crime objected was honesty the pretence of taking them off was a colourable mock-justice yet in their own conscience they knew their Courts to be only Snares and Engines to do such work which by no known Law of the Land nor in any regular form of proceeding could be effected If then Saul's bloudy-fact were revenged with three yeares famine and after that with the death of Seven of his Sonnes I tremble to think what vengeance the Lord may take of us for this bloud unless our most honourable Lords and those other worthy Patriots of the English Nation the House of Commons by their pious wisdom and just severity against unpardonable malefactors scatter that black cloud of Gods judgments which is already gathering and who knowes how soon it may overspread the whole Kingdom 41. Breaking Parliaments subverting Laws horrible Oppression by Confiscations Sequestrations decimations Imprisonments frequent sending out of Town setting up Usurpers making the Nobles more contemptible than any generous Spirits could bear are unparallel'd Treasons and being against man more directly may be famous objects of Pardon even to astonishment but to indemnifie such horrible guilt of bloud is to presume to do that on Earth which God will never set his seal to or confirm in Heaven It is for man to exceed his Commission which presumption he and his Posterity may have cause to bewail with bitter tears when it is too late to remedy 42. My Lords and Gentlemen although in a Parliamentary way of Convention with his Majesties Royal assent concurring you have great I had almost said unlimited power which is true in a sense nothing that is mearly humane can bound you yet there are bounds set even to you by the hand of God himself no less dreadfull than the bounds of Sinai which you cannot transgress but you streight incurre the displeasure of a revenging Deity whose Angel with his flaming sword is forthwith over your head and speedy Judgement ready to overtake you and treading upon your heels Nor will this be your private sin but as persons in trust you contract a fatal score whereof God alone knows how many thousands must be the Pay-masters One of those immovable bounds is the guilt of bloud which debt if you remit as to the penalty it were well if you could cross it out of Gods book but that 's impossible bloud only is to be the payment though it is in your choyce whether this shall be guilty or other innocent bloud which God as a Soveraign Lord perhaps will take and place both the former and latter to their account at whose door neglect lies 43. Believe it my Lods and Gentlemen the persons concerned in that detestable murther of his Majesty are not all comprised in the list of those who sate in the High Court of Mock-justice that day when sentence was past that whole pretended Court or rather pack of Bloud-hounds were but the tool and instrument in the hand of some devilish Workman Journey 〈◊〉 employed by others who contrived the Plot and set them on work among whose number some were more actively daring and openly appeared as well to give countenance to as incourage the rest who were persons qualifyed to serve their turn and pickt here and there as they came to hand others of the grand contrivers were more wary and reserved who for fear of after-reckonings slipt behind the Curtain gave aim unto and directed the Actors Haslerig Vane Lenthall and others of that gang had as deep hand in that Crimson fact as any who were present at sentence or confirmed it under hand and Seal 44. That there is no pleading for murther where all are prin cipalls the Law of our land makes evident less for Royall murther as is clear by that Scripture-rule which saith Who can lift up his hand against the Lords anointed and be guiltless and most plainly confirmed by the pattern of David who commanded that foolish Amalekite forthwith to be slain who in hope of reward accused himself that he had at the request of Saul dispatcht his life when past hope of recovery by reason of his mortall wounds sending him to his long home with this farewell thy bloud be upon thine own head forasmuch as thou hast confest the lifting up thine hand against the Lords anointed 45. Yet as the first plotter and contriver of a horrid fact if especially he stand by and encourage advise assist justify and reward the Actor is the more unpardonably guilty so those who appointed an high Court of Justice nominated the persons commissiâ—â—ated impowered and warranted them in what they were to act were indeed the superlatiue Traytors and most guilty of bloud 46. And among those there are yet degrees some were professed Lawyers and could not be ignorant of the Law of the Land their conscience told them in the very act of endeavouring to try their King for life in such an unheard of Court themselves were above all most transcendent Traytors 47. In which crew as all 〈◊〉 Subjects so many were his Majesties actuall servants as Vane Mildmay Danvers Holland and others whose fact surpasseth so far the rest as it is more detestable for a servant than for a stranger to kill his Master by our Law made petty Treason and more severely punished Some were servants in favour and places of more than ordinary trust and were rewarded so largely as argued a bountifull Prince and them on that account Monsters in nature who durst abet much more actually commit such a villany upon so gracious a Lord so loving and bountifull a Master 48. Their declarations after the fact challenged the imagined repute thereof to themselves for as they mâ—â—e no scruple to call themselves the Parliament and supream power of England so they ascribed to themselves the abolishing Kingship and accordingly rejected the whole line of the murther'd King declar'd for a Common-wealth whithout King or House of Lords fram'd and imposed upon all an engagement to that purpose which argues plainly that
ungodliness hath ensnared us and a restoration made because we can no longer hinder it nineteen of twenty shall have peremptory pardon the rest law fly if they can but if unavoidable they be catcht they shall have fair tryall themselves who never allowed others any come my Masters find but you consciences and here are all the incouragements to monstrous villany that are possible 73. My Lords and Gentlemen as to the heynousness of this fact I humbly intreat you to consider it is that which you would have your Kings by agreement disabled to pardon and justly because God is positive therein whoever shedds mans bloud by man shall his bloud be shed Will you restrain your King yet your selves do it shall not a private man be murther'd but his bloud requir'd and shall your King If so woe to thee England What will be thy doom London Would God you had the Art to confine divine Judgments within your own walls if needs you will pluck them down with such Cartâ—ropes 74. You are my Lords and Gentlemen every one of you put in a publick capacity do not I humbly entreat you offer your selves now as bayle to Gods Justice for such impardonable offenders The doom of Ahab is not to be neglected Because thou hast let go a man whom I appointed to destruction thy life shall go for his A discreet man would hardly ingage life for life for an infamous thief or high-way man Better be bayle for ten such than for one of these high Court of Justice men those especially who are guilty of Royall bloud where God himself keeps the recognisance strickly and will not fail to require it severely 75. Your wisdoms are I doubt not advised that forfeiture of estate if it could be totall is no adequate satisfaction nor competent recompense either to the Law or Gods Justice where both life and state are due and confiscate the one legally given to the King for his loss of a Subject the other indispensably due to that vengeance which will take no triffe in recompence but only life for life and bloud for bloud 76. To conclude this head concerning the nature of their offence it is to be minded universally that punishment is a glass in which we contemplate and discover either the true nature of the crime or the unanswerable sense of the judg perhaps the joy of restoration hath obliterated the remembrance of our deliverance nor will suffer us to reflect upon our former slavery and misery with their causes if so God who when he was leading his people unto Canaan reminded them of the house of Bondage with thunder lightning and Earthquakes may also rub up our memories both with a witness and vengeance 77. From the crime I beseech your wisdomes to cast your eye upon the persons and see how well they appear deserving mercy How have they heapt villanies one upon another as the Giants in their Warre against Heaven heapt Pelion upon Ossa or as waves in a storm follow one upon the neck of another Believe it Gentlemen they are not men of David's spirit whose heart smote him for cutting off Sauls skirt but when it was motioned to go over to him and slay him sleeping he rejected the offer with detestation from Monstrous impieties they came to that amazing Butchery committed on the King not after found they any stroke at heart but only of grief that they had not all the Royall branches in their power to chop down in one day 78. Prodigious Malefactors they are who took their first rise of Monstrous villany at the rending up the two howses of Parliament by the Root not considering the first pretended ground of the Warre was because the King demanded to tryall secured not nor secluded five Commoners and one Peer no bones at last were made of either protestations or pretences nothing accounted by them sordid they pretended a fear and fled to the Army from petitioning unarmed apprentises spirits oft before by themselves conjured up and laid again without dread while they came and requested bloud warre and confusion but now they are dreadfull when they petition for settlement a thing hatefull to those who had been and expected to be such gainers by trouble and distraction 'T was that in Church and state they aimed at in such waters they longed to fish and rather then Cromwell Heslerigge Vane Lenthall Scot c. would lose their longing they resolved with their father Pluto as he is brought in thus speaking by Claudian Patefacta ciebo Tartara Saturni veteres laxabo catenas Obducam tenebris lucem compage solutâ Fulgidus umbroso mâ—scebitur axis averno 79. My Lords and Gentlemen consider what a coal you are scraping to give your names to posterity an indelible smut or mark and what unfeigned repentance is requisite from you as soon as this act is concluded in reference to the warres past If it be most certain Bonus Civis initia belli Civilis invitus susscipit extrema non libentèr persequitur there is need of all the heart-breaking possible on their side who rose in Arms hazarded so many lives spent so much treasure and blood to restrain his Majesty of Sacred Memory from vexing the people with those Flea bites in comparison of the devouring extortions which these villains afterwards oppressed yea almost destroyed them with To prohibit his infringing the Parliamentary priviledges impeaching five Members while these impeach eleven at once and compell them beyond Sea without prosecution or Tryall after secure above forty force away two hundred discard the House of Peers cashiere their priviledges murther the King root up the Law set up Arbitrary Taxes impositions Excises c. Commission monstrous unheard of Courts and in them hunt to death as many and for what they please where no Law of the Land speakes them so much as Criminall yet for all these Treasons and murthers scarce ten of the most infamous Commoners in England are thought fit to die when for the life of one man Parsons by Name Lievetenant Collonel to the Drayman Pride and of as obscure originall as his Collonel slain by accident on the High way not a man concerned in that Robbery escaped the Gallows and when for one House-Robbery it is frequent to hang nine or ten sometimes sixteen or twenty yet all of them infinitely short of these Villains in crimes 80. How for future dare a Judge sit on the Benth and condemn a poor petty Thief a Coyner of money one in a passion guilty of stabbing or a poor Wenth for a Child thrown into a Jakes which none knows if or no it were born alive nay any murther when such unparallel'd Theeves Traytors beyond president Murtherers to amazement and ashonishment are either judged not fit to die or at least not convenient his Majesty should loose so many Subjects 81. Blesse us good God! Subjects of which no King need beproud or desirous A way to make a happy Prince when he shall scarce go
may Secondly his sacred Majesty of royall memory charging his son not to revenge his bloud Thirdly the penitence of some and expression of contrary affections since by signal duty Fourthly the pity they conceive so much bloud should be shed in a time of Generall rejoycing And Fiftly the safety of the Nation which they imagine best secured by this mercy and would be hazarded by the contrary severity These are the frequent objections I meet withall except some which are brought in the behalf of particular individuall persons which I shall not here take notice of 105. The first argument is well brought but misapplied it rather argues Gods intent to have them made examples who therefore preserved them that they should not fall otherwayes which had things come to blows might have prov'd likely enough Achan who troubled the Camp himself escaped being reserved by God to publick Justice where God had declared a Nation devoted and accursed Joshuah used no lesse severity though the victory hapned without blood than where men fell in battle Jericho with all it's Inhabitants Cattle plunder and Houses was utterly destroyed although it fell at the sound of Ramms Horns and the shout of the Army as well as Ai where Joshuah found a repulse Gods command is to be attended concerning notorious Malefactors as well though they be taken by unexpected surprizall as if they had been subdued fighting Yea rather had they been in the field and defended by a strong Army yet in fear of a greater force they might have made terms for themselves which better than hazard both mens lives and the cause it self might have been granted but as God disposed affairs as they deserve no pardon so they can plead no Articles They resisted to the last nor yeilded till they were of all hands relinquished and deserted yet even then where force would do no good they attempted Treachery and wanted little of dashing all our hopes by sowing divisions in the Army 106. The second argument is a clear proof of that blessed Kings Piety who with Steven could from his heart forgive his murtherers but is no rule for his successor and Parliament to take him at his word Though it be in villains power to murther their King it is out of his power to pardon them and though it argue his true Christian piety to beg their forgivness heartily from God and to express the same at the hour of death yet there is a Law of God and man to be satisfied for the fact and it would be a cruell kindnesse in the successor to muzzle the mouth of the Law to indempnifie such villains whose crime although God pardon and remit as to future judgement upon signall and true Repentance yet if man upon any such consideration acquit the temporall guilt God will revenge it to purpose 107. To this may be added that these wretches far exceeded what his Sacred Majesty thought or could expect He pious King hoped that those who were so desperately cruel to him would in compunction of heart relent toward his Sonne and feele such a sting in their conscience as might ingage them with so much greater zeal to study his Sonns good and observe his just commands by how much they were more cruelly barbarous to him But alas it proved otherwise the Murtherers of the Father rejected the Son and continued his implacable enemies with such obstinate impenitency that nothing but a Divine miraculous course of proceeding did restore to us our Royall exile 108. As to the third argument I grant that years of indiscretion a weak Judgement importunacy of friends concerned Sophisticate arguments especially the Divine Oracles pretending the thing to be of God The Prophets prophesying this to be the way time of confounding the man of sin whose supporter they interpreted regal power to be false witnesses affirming that his Majesty had committed unapparel'd tyrannies Solicitors thereupon praying sentence against him But above all Lawyers affirming such proceedings to be just and regular and the power commissionating them legall together with their giving peremptory authority to try the King Divines also who pretended themselves Casuists resolving oaths no longer to bind vows to be upon such junctures enervated when the King was Captivated maintaining the power to be from and in the people originally with such like Aphorismes broached and confidently defended by State and Pulpit Boutefeus I wonder not if many were ingaged in his Sacred Majesties Tragedy where treason is only indeed their fault and is by man pardonable but the sinn of murder and perjury they before God stand acquitted off being seduced by Divines and Lawyers whose reverence gravity and reputed skill learning and piety was their share for whom what tongue can plead 109. Where in conscience the Honourable Lords or worthy Commons can excuse the party concerned to be thus deluded God forbid but pardon may as a true act of Grace be granted severity involving them also But upon this pretence to pardon Lawyers as Lenthal St. Johns Cook c. or men known of acute wits as Haslerigge Vane Martin c. or those who were his Majesties servants as Mildmay Holland Danvers c. or indeed any either Voters of the High Court of 〈◊〉 or Judges therein who cannot make appear they were deluded 〈…〉 no way be discovered but either by their voluntary 〈…〉 Act afterward or espousing the contrary interest and manging it with fidelity and vigorous prosecution is to justifie the villany and to draw the guilt upon the Nation inevitably 110. The fourth argument is unsound and rotten Our deliverance if it make us forget our misery and duty God will remind us of both with a vengeance But further if the number punished be not greater than appears most desperate Malefactors they are not too many to be exempted as may appeare from these instances 1. Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft how much more when aggravated with blood yea desperate blood-guiltinesse Forty Witches at a time were counted no pitty to suffer where perhaps all of them were not convicted of ten mens death that only conjecturally These are guilty of more than forty innocent mens lives befides Royall blood valuable at ten thousand and those slain in battle to bring these murders about a number not to be reckoned t is to be lamented the Land affords so many villains but no pitty to part with them 2. Corah and his Complices were many more who only emulared slighted and contemned Authority yet they their Wives Children Servants Tents and all they had went at once to perdition by the immediate hand of God himself From whom separation was made by Divine command upon penalty of partaking in their punishment Certainly then if these who destroyed and trampled down all Authority that was Lawfull and set up arbitrary tyranny instead thereof dy an ordinary death or in peace those who let them go may fear lest themselves be cut off in the midst of their dayes to save these is a cruell friendship and may prove worse than an hereditary plague to their families who are concerned in their impunity 3 Those who underwant punishment for Aarons Calf were three thousand Ahabs Family Jâ—zabels Prophets and Balaams Priests many more than our offenders In a word those who pay for their obstinacy in too long holding out a garrison Castle or with their lives are of thirty times their number The multitude of our slain in these Warres which this prevarication of theirs hath rendred them guilty of hath been a thousand for one of them No pitty is to be had of the number where a man cannot be excused with safety to the Nation Prudent Generalls make no scruple to execute forty for the safety of ten thousand as is apparent in mutinies where oft the tenth man dies mercilesse for terror to the rest yet for these much may be pleaded in defence or at least excuse for our murderers nothing 111. The last argument is also grounded upon a cleare mistake the safety of this Nation is no more concerned in their pardon than in suffering unquencht fire in the roofe or Timberworke of an house as may appear 1. First if they could have checkt our hopes â—â—other'd these happy proceedings or diverted counsells we had never seen this happy day nor do we injoy it now with their good will their power is at present blessed be God less though their malice as to the generality full as much no fear of them now if we be carefull who could not hinder this our approaching prosperity then 2 But Secondly they are not out of hope still may they but scape with life they yet have tricks to try nor count the game quite lost while a gappe is still open for fraud If at last they can thrive by a cheat they value not their present loss at downright play For this end they will disoblige if possible the old cavalty instigate new favourites to disgusting carriages in a word there shall be no settlement if they can disquiet the State 3. But lastly to echo againe what I oft said before I beseech you take heed lest this Carnall device to settle the Nation provoke Gods Judgement to send such a spirit of unsettlednesse in these Kingdomes and that through their meanes as may cause once more a sword to be drawn in England not to be sheathed in many ages 112. Thus my Lords and Gentlemen I have freely expressed my mind unto you wherein if passion in the least hath biassed me I am much mistaken that I have plainly declared my conscience I crave humbly your pardon not intending the edge or point of any thing by me written should so much as threaten you for I hope from your Honours better things and therefore whatever is exprest here presupposeth that from your Honors which I believe not and my prayer is that God who is the wonderfull Counsellor may direct and advise you what may be for his Glory his sacred Majesties Honour Your peace and comfort and the whole Kingdomes welfare and happiness So prayes My Lords and Gentlemen Your Honours most observant though unworthy Orator GEORGE STARKEY St. Thomas Apostles June 18. 1660. FINIS