good purposes and not only to cast them off but to punish them when the work is done Remember this It is a shame in all and it will be a sinne in you if you doe gaine while the Nation loseth Take heed of driving at the making of your selves a perpetuall Parliament for your own profit Hasten to confute the slander that is frequently cast upon you by doing what in you lyeth though warily and wisely to put a period unto this Session And remember to do such things as that your families may bless you that the next Parliament may not question you If I thought that the words of a worme might have power I would not beseech but Conjure you by the great name of Iustice and Equity that you so cleanse and open the Fountaine of Iustice I meane the Law that so righteousnesse that may run downe amongst us as a mighty streame deliver this Nation from its Normand bondage of slavery let us have our Lawes in our owne language your fathers did well when they gave us our Divine service in our Mother tongue thereby they delivered us from worshiping of an unknown God Doe you give us our Law in our own tongue also that we may know when we offend and how to Obey Blinde obedience is as well dangerous in Civils as Spiritualls Cynthius aurem vel et but Cynthius pulleth me by the Ear therefore I leave yours only because of my Profession let mee whisper out this also eye the Lord Iesus in all your actings advance his Kingdome as much as in you lyeth and beleeve it the advancement of his Kingdome will be the best security unto our Common-wealth Remember the Scepter of his Kingdom I meane the Word take heed while you doe a good worke of easing of the People of Tythes you do not something that shall deprive them of the knowledge of the Truth If you do not provide a Competent maintenance for a settled Ministry you may doe as much hurt to the soules as you can do good to the bodyes of us but you are wise Verbum sapienti and this word shall suffice to have been spoken unto you Secondly Vnto you Oh you righteous Judges for so I dare call you of the high Court of Justice let me say you have done a good worke in Avenging the blood of Innocent ones upon Charles Stuart but let me tell you so did Jehu in avenging the blood of Naboth upon Ahab Take heed Oh take heed that though you have done Iustice that you do not suffer from God as Murtherers In my heart I honour you hence it is that I shall boldly tell you so much God certainly will avenge King Charles his blood upon your head if you did shed it out of a vaine glorious desire to be counted bold Gallant and or from any particular spleen or Malice or ayming at any private or any sinister end That act which is Just in it selfe may be uniust in its end but I hope better things of you and such as accompany righteousnesse and Integrity though I thus speak onely remember to examine your hearts Indeavour that way to cleare your selves i And then let me tell you need not snffer any feare to possesse you for what may befall you for doing of Iustice It will be your honor to dye as Martyrs for sentencing of a Murtherer If so be the same spirit be amongst you all which I have cause to hope is in some of you I shal say no more then this unto you feare not man who can kill the body but after that can doe no more Thirdly unto you whom for distinction sake I must call Malignants I would not use that word of Odium buâ— only for distinction If your eares be not wholly stopped and if you have not so much of the Serpent in you as to refuse to hearken unto the Charmer Let me beseech you be wise once were I to stand upon some high and great Mounnaine as the Father fancied had the voyce of a mighty Trumpet I would take that for my text to preach upon unto you Oh mortall men how long will you delight in vanity and follow after lyes What a mad thing is' t to opose that God who hath againe and againe appeared against you some of you have rid a silly people as Balaam did his Asse and your Asses under you I mean the people seduced by you have seen the Angell of the Lord in the way with a drawn sword Therefore they have been feigne once and againe to turne aside be not so cruell to smite them or to cause them to be smitten by riding on againe Kent and Essex have been smitten for your sakes be so good unto them and to your selves as to cease to make any more Insurrections least that God who hath appeared against you and destroyed your King destroy you also If I say I honour some of you I doe not Complement and if I professe I love you as a Christian to your good my Consience hereto beareth me witnesse that Hye not Oh Commune with your hearts upon your beds and be still consider what you have done and how you have spead and do no more But if you will go on notwithstanding all this my soule shall mourne in secret for you and I shall pray Christ that he would save your soules when you expose your body and Estate to ruine Fourthly I have a word to say to you Oh you discontented friends that word is this what is the matter that you Murmur Are you troubled that the work is done without you should you not rather rejoyce that it is done for you If I should say some of you many years since have longed to see this day nay that I have been in company when you have prayed for it If I should say this your hearts would tell you that I might and not exceed truth Friends the fault was yours you would not be in the worke when invited Let me be friendly unto you and beseech you to search your heart and to see if some roote of bitternesse some particular interest of your own doe not make you to speak evill of that which is good Oh why should you begin to smile upon those that hate you with their hears And why should you think of joyning hand in hand with those who first with your help would destroy us and afterwards devoure you Many of you are Ministers whom I doe honor let me beseech you to tell me seriously whether Christ sent you to preach the Gospel or to vent your thoughts in State Affairs I know you look towards Scotland and I am afraid their Interest makes you over Act your selves I should take it as a Courtesie if you would Quaere some of your Scotch Acquaintance and resolve me in these things First whether the King that came out of Scotland into England had more power here then he had there And why it hath been reputed so lawfull that
Ecclesiaticall and Politicall and this to be endeavoured after by all joyntly and severally in so vigorous and resolved a manner as that whatsoever formes or persons in the one or other should be found prejudiciall thereunto or inconsistent herewith should be laid aside And also that all such as were or should appeare to be enemies unto this should be brought unto condigne punishment This I say I am perswaded was the end of the Covenant And while this is pursued the Covenant liveth It is true indeed the preservation of the King when the Covenant was made did seem to conduce in part unto this great end But since it appeareth altogether inconsistent therewith The Justice executed upon him in my eye is no more a breach of Covenant then the throwing of a Logge out of the way is a deviation from that Journey the Arrivall unto the end of which the logge did hinder Thus may the Captaine of the Scruplous party be taken and conquered And now incold thoughts tell me hath this Captain any more then the bare Covenant Is not the scruple built upon it as the House upon the sands or is it any better then a specious Sophisme that as an Argument hath only a name that it lives but is dead Doth not the Covenant in the full spirit and vigour of it live though the King be dead But I forbear as remembring that the scruple taken from the Covenant is not so much your own as others therefore I proceed The next Pile of Sand upon which a scruple is built is this what power say you had that high Court of Justice to try the King Let it be supposed the King was a Criminall Offender guilty of death And let it be supposed say you the Covenant had not a binding power upon us to hinder proceedings against him yet Quo Jurê Qua Potestaté did that Court so adjudge him to put a Malefactor to death without Law is as well unjust as to punish an Innocent person under pretence of Law As unto this you know my Profession is not Law therefore as unto that querck I shall be but briefe referring you unto the Speeches both of the President and the Solicitor of that Court for ampler satisfaction therefore onely thus First If Charles Stuart held his Crown by Conquest of Armes as by his Plea of succession from the Conqueror he did pretend and as some of his friends though the peoples foes have urged Then without doubt by the same Right in which upon this plea he urged he ruled by the same he suffered Himself was conquered and a Prisoner of Warre It s true that he surrendred himself a faire way of giving up unto mercy when he could hold out no longer and that unto the Scots Army but under English pay and so a Prisoner unto Englands Sword An Army of Switzers serving the King of France for his money may as well pretend that such Prisoners or Towns as they take are properly their own as the Scots under English pay may pretend that the King was theirs So that still I say he was a Prisoner unto Englands State and the case is no whit altered but the same Therefore if he held by Conquest then as he held so he was or might be tryed But Secondly It was and is the power of a Parliament to erect such a Court as in this case they did A lawfull Court by a lawfull power authorized and by law proceeding may try any Prince in the world Therefore the power by which and the way in which the King was tryed being so just why should any presume to question it Object Objection But say you how could that House be called a Parliament when the Lords joyned not with the Commons and when most of the Commons were kept out Answ I Answer I thank Mr. Prione for that light which in particular I have gaired from his Soveraign power of Parliaments whereby I understand well enough that the Commons may act without the Lords also that the House of Commons though under fifty may act without the rest supposing them to be absent Obiect And whereas you me pleased to say they were under restraint and kept out who otherwise would have been in Answer To that I reply onely as in my last that that restraint was lawfull The late Parliament in Scotland who gave Authority to Hambleton to invade England was not in part but in whole forc'd from Edenburgh and the present Parliament that now sitteth there sitteth by the power of the Sword And yet I am confident you are so good a friend to the Scotchman as that you will not think the driving away of the former or the setling of this Parliament there to be unlawfull I told you and I still tell you necessity is the Law Royall It dispenceth with all Lawes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rabbâ—â—s have a saying the mercifull God doth not hold the necesstated guilty there was a necessity for what the Army did as to the taking out of those rotten Members and that necessity was their Law Obiect Obiection But they which sit are not free Answ Answer Why should any presume to say so when they do not they are of yeres sufficient as Christ said in another case Let them speak for themselves Nay they have and they do speak once and again they are free Did they not before and doe they not now sit free And unto this day since more are come in Doe they either disclaim the Authority of the High Court of Justice or so much as hint that they were under a force Altum Silentium here is not a word of this and therefore I passe from it let this suffice to satisfie that peece of the scruple that questioneth the power whereby that honourable peece of Justice was acted As to the next of President it is so poore a scruple that a Puffe bloweth it away Presidents are good incâ—…rragements but bad Rules It is lawfull to act in businesses of this nature as in others without a President We have been beholding to former Ages for Presidents in so … things neither have they left us without foot steps in this And why may it not be our glory to give a brighter and clearer President unto future Ages in this as it hath been theirs to give us in others But First of all though Presidents are not recorded shall we therefore conclude the thing was not many things have been which we know not off A non dici ad non esse is a kind of Argument husht at by boyes It is too weake in any thing to say such a thing was not spoken therefore it was acted Secondly Histories both of Forraigne and of our own Nation abound much with Presidents of this nature The Jewes who had at first the best Common wealth and afterwards the best Kingdome that ever was are presidentall unto us in this businesse in trying those who either were Superiours as the Judges in the time
as propitious unto us in an other warre and in other tumults as formerly Thirdly Confident I am that if Ireland and Scotland joyne together and if which God prevent all the Murmuring and disaffected Persons in England should Contribute to Invite and Assist them in an Invation yet notwithstanding all this England should not dye but live to shew forth all the works of God who hath delivered us who doth and who yet will deliver us What Nation ever perished in the Worke of righteousnesse and in the pursuing thereof Suffer for a little and shake a while peradventure we may but surely those sufferings will be turned unto joy and those shakings unto setling Yet my friend let me tell you England was never in better posture to secure it self and Scotland never worse to invade us but I am above the arme of flesh I have learnt to cease from men t is the Lord alone that hath been and will be exalted amongst us though we fall we shall rise 't is the Priviledge of just and righteous people that no weapon formed against them shall presper As touching the Government intended by the House of Commons in time of Parliament and Committee of Estate in the Intervale I doubt not to affirme but that time will discover it as good a way for the Publique as possibly the wisdome of man can devise It is true if men be mad it will be chargeable to settle it but if setled the benefit of it will quit the Cost Either I have been very unhappy in the Authors that I have read or else upon my little reading I can rationally conclude that the best of Governments is that which Aristotle calleth Aristocracy especially if it be in part mixed with Democracy Let there be so much of the Democratick way as to acknowledge all Power fundamentally in the People and all Persons intrusted with it as their Trustees and accordingly let it surely be provided that such Trustees be questioned for betraying or ill managing their trust and in Order hereunto let a Councell of State mannage all affaires in the Intervall of Parliament and yet let those also be questionable for ill management in time of Parliament I say let this be once setled and the Lawes of this Nation reduced I shall have reason to beleeve that England will quickly be a happier Common-wealth then it hath been a Kingdome There be three things which for fourescore Yeares I looked upon as indubitable Aphorismes of State which ascented unto and pursued would soone end our Murmurings and render us a Happy People First That The Supreame Power of all Law whatsoever is in the whole body of the People defused as the soule through the whole body aturall not confined unto any particular It was therefore both well and rationally resolved by Mr. Mead That the Scepter did no waies depart from Judah nor the Law-giver from between his feet though without a King of Davids race when the Shiloh came therefore it was in the People It is a Conceit not fit to be quartered in the braine of man that Kings make Scepters The truth is that Scepters doe declare Kings yet so as that Scepters may be where Kings are not Scepters may be and Power of all Lawes and Authority They are as the Spirit of life running through the whole body of a Nation which albeit it put forth it selfe in some Members more eminently then another yet it is not because it is in those Members so Originally but onely because it is used by them Organically Organically Kings and Princes are but Persons they are not Powers Secondly all the Power of any State in Generall and particular is therefore derived from the people of that State and so power or Majesty is properly there In truth Majesty is in the People as in the King but it is only in the King as in their Herald It is recorded that at Jerusalem in the midest of the Synedrion Cuneus in Repub. Jud. lib. 1. cap. 9. there was hung a Scepter which saith my Author was an Ensigne of that Majestie which Marcus Tullius observeth to be in the people And it is therefore well observed by the same Author that not the Kings or the Princes but the Consuls and the Senates the Romane Common-Wealth it self did act then when this Law was given unto their confederate that they should preserve without fraud the Majestie of the Romane People Thirdly That Power therefore that is in any particular person is in them but as in Feofees in trust for the people And when they abuse it as their persons may be punished for that abuse Criâ—…en laesae Majestatis quod adversus populuns Romanum lib. 1. sect 1. ad legem Jul. Majest so the power it self may be recalled Vlpian doth therefore well note that it is a Crime against Maiesty which is against the people of Rome or against it's security Seneca my friend said well when he said that Common-wealths were not made for Kings but Kings for Common-wealths who is there so little read in Hystory that knoweth not that people were before Princes the first Government in the world was by Families then in time it grew to Cities and Townes and afterwards it extended it selfe further And who is there so Irrationall that I say not Irreligious as to immagine that ever the great wise Just and gracious God should make the world and the Nations thereof for the sake of a few Princes and having made all should vassalize all unto the wills of them to live as they list without controule Surely did not selfe-love Private Jnterrest and the rest of that unworthy Gang blind our understandings we should quickly see and understand that were Princes as usefull in their places as possible they might be yet if once they turned to be uselesse and hurtfull they may be laid aside I could never yet thinke a king more if so much unto a body Politique then a right Eye or hand unto the body naturall yet you doe know who said if a right eye or a right hand offend thee pluck it out and cast it off I am apt to thinke you will deale with this as you did with the former and expose it unto publique view I shall therefore ere I close it up offer a few seasonable words to all sorts amongst us First as meet is I shall begin with the Parliament were I neere them and had the advantage of their eare I should humbly whisper thus much Honoured Worthies you have begun well go on your actings are good let not your Actings be bad Take heed of selfe Interest the fatall Rock of all Statists if you drive that it will destroy you you are but men and so may erre you should be Christians and so wise to prevent what may be God hath already discovered many rotten Members amongst you and be sure if any of you be such he will discover you also The divine Wisdome knoweth how to use bad men unto
I say not laudable for the Scotchmen to try and put their Kings some of them to death and yet they Question the same in us surely we have ever thought that King Iames and his race had as little reason to be unjust in England as in Scotland And if they might Question him as they have former Kings why may not we Secondly I desire to know whether or no the Actions of the Army in keeping out sundry of the Members of the House of Commons may not be as lawfull as the Act of their Kirke in raising of an Army not only with but against their Parliament the last Summer Thirdly One Question more I would aske suppose a yeare hence a full Parliament should declare what this Parliament hath done and the high Court of Justice against the King to be law why may not this be as valide and as good as when a Parliament of theirs did declare that the putting of James the 3 to death though in a private way by private persons was right and lawfull and that Declaration of theirs made it Valid I will leave these Questions with you if you shall not be so kind as to resolve them I hope I shall not be distracted in my thoughts about them Onely let me beseech for by that deare bond in which I hope I am bound up with many of you to be wise And if in all things you may not be so clear for present in the actions of the Parliament and Army take heed how you blow up such a fire as happily may burne yourselves yet not consume us Lastly I will conclude with one word to all the people of this Land and Nation That word is this I beseech you my fellow country men lay hold on that opportunity of peace which now presenteth it self unto you sweet peace blessed peace beginneth to court you you have long longed for it it now beseecheth you to embrace it Oh that you were wise in this your day to know the things that belong unto your peaee which are doubtlesse Justice and Righteousnesse What would you have ease from Taxes settlement of our shaking security to enjoy your proprieties Why you have all these present in themselvs they seem to beseech you to accept of them Oh that God would make you wise to take hold on them you have to lonâ— befool'd your selves already by hearkening unto those that would seduce you unto tyranny take heed of giving eare unto any that speâ—â— to you of Levelling and Levellers as if there were a designe to 〈◊〉 all mens Estates levell that one should have no more then another I dare assure you that if such a generation of fools to say no wone be any where they are so inconsiderable that what they say doth but declare in them their own madnes then any thing else Or else this let me tell you there are some whom you have hearkened too much to already who if they could engage you to endeavour to suppresse this Parliament and Army they would not only Levell your Estates but take them away altogether To conclude remember it will be your safety to sit still Take you but heed of Tumults and Jnsurrections and the like and you need not fear but peace will settle it self with you Let me speak this great word which I have good ground to speak if God will make you so wise as patiently to waite a while you shall see England a happy Nation Other parts of the world looke upon you as you go on they will follow It will be a glory unto the English Nation to give an example unto all the people of the Earth to free themselves from Tyranny and Slavery I fear not to say however for our sins may permit some tumults among our selves to scourge us yet within a few years we shall injoy truth peace and prosperity which shall make us I had almost said unalterably happy I have even now done my dear friend and I confess if you blame me I will thank you for it that I have spent so much time about these things You and I I hope look after higher things then these of this nature and a greater delivery from slavery and bondage then that of the body we pant after and expect We shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and ere long we shall be translated into the glorious liberty of the children of God The whole Creation together with us travailes in paine and groanes for this The day of Redemption is at hand erre long we shall see him who wilsettle all things Doth not the Spirit it self make Intercession for us with groans that cannot be uttered Doth not the spirit and the Bride cry come Surely ere long the Lord whom we looke for shall come In the mean time we know all things worke together for good unto them that love God even unto them who are called according unto his purpose I shall break off and close up all with this subscription that I am still Your friend and Servant N. T. Febr. the 20. 1648. FINIS March 12 1648-49 Imprimatur Theodore Jennings