T is not the tithing of Mint Annise c. Justifies a Man But the weighty matters of the Law Iudgment Mercy Faith these ought ye to have done but not to leave the other undone ye blind guides which strain at a Guat and smallow a Camel T is not a pretence of scruple against ceremonies can Justifie the disobedience to the higher powers and the violent and illegal seizing of others mens Estates in which the Law Justifies them And let me tel them it makes not much for their Justification or Saintedness that they were put into possession by the Arbitrary violence of such a power that terminated in the Murder of the King which without doubt bolstred themselves with such Appendixes as should be necessary to support them to their intended mischeif T is a wonder to me with what impudence men can plead a possession from so villanous a force no more justifiable by Law or reason than any common robbery not see I how any one that holds any benevolence of theirs dffers any more from their crime than the receiver from the Theif that is if they shal stand upon maintaining the possession they had of them possibly some may have been abused by their false Glosses but if they persevere their fault appears not through ignorance but willfulness for the ringleaders of that treasonable Practice could give no better title than they had which was only Violence and Rapine do not then they partake with them that shal Justifie any possession from their Title Nay can they hope that so Free a Parliament as this is can make good the receipt of their roberies No I perswade my selfe too many of them have felt their malice too much and have known their cruelty and injustice too well to be brought to consent to their Villanies for they know very well that Qui non probibet cum licet Iubet And I am confident these men will have a greater task than Hercules's labour to prevaile with so eminent an assembly ever to justifie such villanies The injustice they have seen will make them too fearful of the like againe to give any incouragement to what is past t is time at length to lay aside Private interest and advance the publique which can be no way provided for but by Justice losses will be great enough to the loosers do what can be done so long profits can never be restor'd them they belonged to and on the otherside the gains will be too great to them that have deserved far otherwise how strictly soever they be call'd to account and we may be certain of this that very few of them can be brought to a more desperate fortune that they began withall so that none need fear overdoing on this hand so long ryot upon other mens Purses and labors together with corporal impunity is advantage enough Nay too great for such unacceptable Service as they have done the Nation therefore I think it will be the most reasonable ples that all sufferers can make that they may have Justice and in that their oppressors wil not know how to oppose their desires for to say they desire no Justice though it be like all former impudence of theirs they perhaps are yet ashamed to profess themselves enemies to it but if they say they desire Justice according to the Laws then all English men have their priviledge and one plea will serve us all but by their fruits already brought forth we may partly know what to expect for the future and assure our selves they will pervert the sense of the thing or slink into obscurity least now the light of truth shines freely every where their deformities he made more apparent for Justice is the light and life of the Body Politick and the Law the window to let that light into all parts of that Body to discover the actions of every man so that they that hate the Law hate the light that makes their actions appear and it is a shrowed sign of their own conscience accusing them if they refuse to be tryed by the Laws For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reprooved but he that doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds be made manifest that they are wrought in God Let us therefore with alacrity think on no other Plea than that Justice may be afforded to all alike we desire no more priviledg than other men have and we desire on the contrary they may have no more than we and that no Post-fact Laws may be made to the advantage of any perticular mans interest but that as God hath ordained from the beginning one only truth and one Catholick Church universally dispensable to all so that our Nation in Imitation to his ordering of the Oeconomy of the universe may have one general maintainance of his truth by an equal and general dispensation fo the Laws our property rectified and secured that once again Justice may flourish that so we may receive his best of temperal blessings PEACE and Truth within our Walls and Plenteousness in our Pallaces So let every true English man and Loyal subject pray These Queries I thought fit to add for a Pallisad about what hath been written that if any snarle at what hath been said he may happily first break his Teeth against these following 1. Whether Might without right be not absolute Tyranny and usurpation 2. Whether to argue from the orders and injunctions of violent assemblies be not to set up the power of the Sword above the civil power and consequently a changing of goverment from the rule of reason to be ruled by wil 3. Whether they can be freinds to a Nation that indeavour alteration of Goverment by force Contrary to the will of all parties related to such a Goverment 4. Whether Laws are not to be the rule of our actions in this Kingdom 5. Whether it be Justice to dispossess any man of his possession by force who is not first dispossessed by the Judgment of the Law 6. Whether right be any thing else in civil societies than a legal warranting of our actions or claims by the Law of the Land 7. Whether a violent possession against the Laws of the Land be Justifiable by any honest man good Christian or any other than a new fashion'd Saint 8. Whether Vir bonus est quis Qui consulta patrum qui leges Iuraque servat Be not a sufficient character to know an honest man by 9. And Lastly Whether Post-fact Laws be not the most Arbitrary Imposition that can be contrived and whether it be possible to avoid such snares if they should be allowed FINIS Nich. Machiav Disput. de Rep. Cap. 27. Tullij Offic. Lib. 1. Iohn 10. 1. Math. 6. 19 20. Luke 18. 11. Math. 7. 17. Mark 13 20. Math. 6. 23. 1 Kings 3. 27 28. Iohn 5. 31. 33. Math. â—3 v. 23. 27 29. 1 Peter 2. 13. Rom. 13. 1. c. Math. 5. 16. Math. 23. 23 24. Iohn 3. 20.
make one harmonious body of people and not be yeilded up to any severity more than others I answer first that not one of a hundred interressed in any such unjust acquests had the least good liking to this revolution but as much as in then lay both with body mind endeavor'd all such meant to hinder it as was possible for them to contrive by which the Parliament and Nation are not so obliged to them in point of gratitude as some of them pretend And farther though that consideration were eminent enough to obliterate all past disaffections though visibly it be far otherwise yet ought not far greater merits than they can plead for to priviledg them more than the rest of their fellow-subjects for if they be continued in such Possessions as the Common Laws of the land wil not Justifie them in are not they made above Law to their advantage and others whose right the Law saies it is oppressed against Laws so that if it should pass thus breach of Laws Peace Justice c. would be rewarded with privildges above and against Laws and Duty Obedience Conformity to Laws Honesty good Conscience and loyalty which let me tel you is no smal virtue in any Member of a body politicko ppressed contrary to Law and equity which were a pestilent perverting of the very essential constitution of al Governments and a poyson beyond al Antidotes for as Justice is the greatest maintainer efficient cause of the wel being of a Nation so injustice the greatest poyson destroyer that can be permitted but that Government that shal prescribe so broad a way for the propagation of it like a dispairing man provides the readiest instrument for its own destruction that may be and renders it self highly guilty of self murder All this pleads still with the most equitable moderation but for equity on all parts that we may have all the same Laws nor is it my drift to urge rigor at all against the greatest offenders whatsoever but shal while I breath desire so much Justice that Laws may be equally general to all and that upon so little deserts the worst of subjects might not have their unjust actions countenanced nor the truest subjects for their duty and love both to King and Laws Country and Justice be injur'd by post fact laws such things as no honest man that made Conscience of his actions would ever need No modest man that did not arrogantly seek to priviledg his unjustifiable actions could ever have impudence to demand So barbarous are they that there is but one Nation or rather herd of wolvish Tartars that even own'd them These are those Spiders Webs that catch only the laboring Bees but let ravenous Waspes and Hornets go free and since they have been and are still endeavored to be made so mischeivous to this Nation we have as much reason to insert them into our lettany as the Plague Pestilence or Famin and indeed the Judgment that such Laws are like to bring upon us may give all good men just cause to say From Post-fact Laws and the contrivers of them good Lord deliver us Now for the last Asylum Or resuge that those Law breakers have for themselves to say that others are wicked themselves good others profane themselves holy others Devils themselves Saints and many expressions of like Nature first let me tell them t is an ill signe for people to speak well of themselves and no Law either of God or man in any Nation ever accepted of a mans testimony in his own cause and Christ himself denies it of himself though the transcendency of his person might have priviledged him without being an example of the like to us but belike he foresaw of how il consequence it might be to leave such an example therefore saith If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true Mens own words are no testimony in their own cause next let me tel them t is so Pharisaical a trick that though perchance it should proove true it wil make others Judg of them as the Gospel censures the Pharises alwaies joyning the Name of Hypocrites Wo to you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for self Justification when not necessary to vindicate a man from some imputation laid to his charge is a common badg of Hypocrisie and next this as is before mentioned is no Justification of a wrong Nay 't is a notable return that those that intrude upon such specious holiness unjustly are more wicked in such an extortion than all they can object to the wronged party wil render him guilty of and are so very justly disrobed of their own holy Cloak that cover'd their covetousness Such Boasters are very wel resembled by the Peacock which gives a glorious shew with his spread traine forwards sees it himself and walks stately with the conceit of his glorious appearance But to them that veiw him round behind his Feathers are dark colord and unseemly and his Feet black and uncomly which is not so easily discover'd when he gives not standers by occasion to observe him by his pride If therfore these men did not so much cry up their own holiness and others Prophaneness their imperfections might pass less noted but to cure such arrogancy there is no way but to let them see the blackness of the feet they stand on that Peacock like they may let fal their boasting with shame I mean to give them a remembrance of the unjust extortion which they conceald under the specious covering of reformation and zeal for whilest they make these gay pretences they rob others contrary to the Laws foment the divisions of the Nation to the procuring of much effusion of blood and much more mischeif that might be reckoned now if they would look upon these deformities sure they would never boast of their Saint like appearance T is not for a man to boast of godliness and urge breach of Laws or to say they feed the flocks that rob the true Shep-heards put in by the Laws of the Land St. Peter and Paul both give other Ruls Submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supream or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers c. So that t is not mens guilded behavior but their obedience to the Laws of the Land is to give us direction to judg of their goodness this makes a man a good subject without which what ever he pretend to he can never be a Saint indeed Obedience saith Samuel is better than Sacrifice and St. Iames Shew me thy faith by thy Works Appearances are good if they be joyned with inward righteousness for Christ commands it Let your light so shine before men but he adds That they may see your good Works Now the work of obedience to the Laws of the Land is the great and weighty work as is shewed before out of Peter
have such true Titles to their Possessions as the Laws of the land shall justifie we cannot think such injustice can be permitted by his Majesty as to suffer them to be expelled contrary to Laws of which his Royal Proclaimation hath given them assurance but if the Laws of the Land wil not Justifie their possessions 't is great injustice they should hold them both to the detriment of those in present that ought to enjoy them and to be an il example or encouragement to others to enrich themselves out of others ruines for the future for without a Buyer there can be no Seller therefore where the Law did not Justifie that Title at the time of bargain In the name of God let Justice frustrate and restore to the just owner according to the true Title and let not our Age seek to justifie wrong by a post fact Law for which these Kingdoms have already felt such sore Judgments one such Law to take the blood of one man in that nature hath been revenged upon the whole three nations with the blood of many and should post fact lawes be now created to take the Estates of those which were not forfeitable by Laws extant at the time of the forfeiture I pray God do not revenge it after the same manner upon the three Nations and lay al of them desolate Rom. 7. 7. What shal we say then is the Law sin God forbid Nay I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known sin except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet Where there is any forfeiture of an Estate there needs no post fact Law to confirm it for that Law which makes a man an offender hath the forfeiture annexed to it If post fact Laws be allowed Who knows when he does amiss Therefore both dispossessed and Possessors gainers and loosers if ye agree in nothing else agree in this one voyce Fiat Iustitia You would be loath either of you to be accounted unjust ye ought not to be your own Judges the Law ought to be our Judg for as Justice is and ought to be the rule to our Law-makers in making their Laws to shew them what should be Law so should the Law be both to them and us the rule of what is Justice They that fear the Law are partial and of a Tyranous spirit seeking a priviledg for themselves above their fellows whereas Justice and Laws are alwaies general priviledg or punish every man alike in the same case making no difference to any and this is the liberty of the subject to have al in the same capacity with him excepting only such as are impowred with the supream oversight of the whol To prevent those innumerable inconveniences which such should they be in hazard might precipitate the Nation into Nevertheless by that exception are they subjected as much or more to the bond of love for their own strength as they could have been by the penal laws but with far more security to the Nation Seeing therefore that Justice is that general priviledg wherein all Just and equal interests are most priviledged let us with one mind think of no other Plea than that which I hope will be so provided for by his Majesty and the Parliament now sitting that there will be no need of promoting any pleas for it for no man petitions at any time for what he hath but what he wants so that it is the part of every man to rest satisfied in expectation of what is preparing by them whom we should very much injure to think would omit or act any thing that Justice should not require but when any such thing is then promote Pleas for Justice according to the known Laws but in your particular Pleas to make such objections as one is out so much monies and is like to be ruined if he be deprived of what he holds or that such were deboist in their lives On the other side that we are brought to poverty those that possest our estates are so or so these savor more of passion than reason for it they that have gamed the sequestred Estates have them by Law the others poverty is no reason they should loose their right but if the others have lost their Estates without Law There is no equity but that Law should restore them 't is not the debauchery laid to their charge which besides is to be proved as wel as said that excuses any man in anothers right for wherof a man is legally possessed of that he is to be deem'd true owner in the same capacity he was at first invested with til the Law disposess him again and whosoever enters without his consent before such declaration be made by Law hath as much title to it as a Thief on the high way to the money in a mans purse for such entries are not by the right door The Laws of the Land are the right door to all manner of possessions Whoso therefore comes not in by the right door the same is a Thief and a Robber saith Christ And though this may have been a Judgment on such as did set their minds too to much upon this world to wean them from laying up treasures to themselves upon earth where moth and rust do corrupt and Thieves break through and steal they should be so deprived that they might lay up treasures in Heaven c. God send all men to make use of his dispensations to his glory he can renew his Judgments on them when they give him the same provocation But as the Infirmities of men if they be true ought not to bar them of the priviledge of the Law so ought not the excellency of any man or Saint-like Godliness to cal it by the usual word priviledg him to do injustice against Law Nay 't is vehemently to be suspected that where a godly man drives on designs of depriving any man of his right before the Law hath divested him of it that his godliness is but seeming not reall for Justice is the fit foundation to build godliness on Justice may be where godliness is not but godliness cannot be where Justice is not therefore such assertors of their own righteousness may wel be conjectured Pharisee like less Justifiable than the poor dejected Publican for though they are more circumspect in Punctillio's yet they omit the weighty matters of doing Justice Obeying Princes and Laws and this their desire of holding what they have without relation had to the Justness of it very much discovers for we Judg by the fruits not the flowers And whereas these may superficially for a mask of such intrusion plead Orders of Parliament to be the Law that authorized their possession 't is very wel known in England that no order of Parlliament was ever pleaded to be in force longer than the Session of that Parliament which made it but that such orders as they hold necessary to continue were drawn into Acts and confirmed by the
Approbation of the King therefore in this respect their Plea for such a Title is now fully void that Parliament after a double resurrection being quite rooted up by their own Act if the death of the late King had not nulled it before next 't is observable that those Orders they can plead in that behalf were made by scarce half the Parliament the other half being removed to Oxford by the Kings Order for though he had released the power of dissolving he had not that of removing it where they joyntly with the consent of the King set out Proclaimation for the Continuance of all Ministers in their benefices til duly convicted and ejected by a lawful authority so that to any unbyassed man such a Proclimation had much more reason to be regarded than any they can plead to the Contrary as to other sequestrations they and these too have only one excuse that there were Wars then in the Land the Justness of which that things may come to a composure is not fit to be examined which procured many things as necessary that could not be Justified in peace for Inter arma silent leges to which nevertheless it may very well be answered that though sequestrations were then necessitated yet since it hath pleased God that the daies of oppression and violence should be shortened by procuring a right understanding between his Majesty and his People God forbid injustice should stil remain or that postfact Laws should be created at their own unjust desires to confirm injustice because it hath been made good by a strong hand for a while But here may be infer'd the old Objection to Law and Justice that sumum jus is summa injuria which I to avoid other Objections willingly in general grant but if these use this as a reasonable Objection in this case that exactness in doing right be great wrong what is extremity of wrong surely an oppression beyond a name Christ useth this kind of Argument If the light that is in them be darkness then how great is that darkness so if the very extremity of Justice pressed against these men shal be thought great wrong what wrong do they think those suffered that lost wrongfully all they had thus long certainly they may be somthing sensible when they think and reflect on these things I wish they may and repent for somthing else than that they are permitted to do injustice no longer for as hitherto that hath appeared their greatest trouble not for what ill they have done but for what they cannot do But this is no Godly sorrow But having admitted the Objection made against the beauty and benefit of true Justice I say England hath made Happy provision in that behalf for in deciding controversies we have the High Court of Chancery to mitigate the rigor of the Law of proprieties and in matters Capital because they are all Culpae lesae Majestatis they have their mitigation in the Kings breast whose perogative is to remit punishments that are against his royalty or Person as he shall in his clemency see reason for it not medling usually with any mans propriety But neither of these can give any relief in this case to them that plead for mitigation for these can but moderate the rigor of the Law by extenuating or remitting the penalty that is subject to their prerogatives but cannot lay it on the shoulders of them that ought not to bear it for 't were a miserable doing of equity to the guilty by obtruding injustice on the guiltless We have many Commands and examples for being mercifull in our Justice but none that our mercy to offenders should make us unjust and cruel to the innocent 't were a strange sentence if a Judg from the Bench giving Judgment on a Criminall guilty of Burglary or such like offence should say By the Law thou oughtest to die nevertheless that mercy may abate this rigor thou shalt but be half hanged and he whom thou hast robbed shal be half hanged with thee but far worse if he should hang the innocent and let the offender enjoy his booty the transferring the sentence or part on the innocent is of the same nature and holds proportion very wel if the Innocent must lose their whole or part of their estates against Law to save the losses of such as ought to be punished for their unjust intrusion besides the loss of the estates so gotten But if these lay a farther stress on the argument of his Majesties referring all to the sentence of the Parliament I say God forbid that there could be such a thing in England as an unjust Parliament Unjust Factions and pieces of mock Parliaments we have too sensibly felt but to imagine that a whole Parliament free from force or fear can be so perverted is a kind of Blasphemy against the dignity of so Eminent an Assembly so fundamental in our Constitution of Governments as that is And although his Majesty hath been gratiously pleas'd in his clemency to submit these matters of Controversie to their composure his yeilding to their arbritration will not by them be deemed a sufficient warrant for them to be unjust in their umpirage If the matter in Controversie belong to one of the parties 't is not to be called an equal Arbitration if the Umpire shal part it between both parties Equity consists in doing Justice but stil upon lawful considerations so it suffers not the Morgagee to take the forfeiture of the Morgager but it alwaies provides that the morgagee shal have no loss neither in principal nor interest because the Law makes the bargain a just bargain on both parts but when the Law Justifies not the alienation why one man should be justified in buying anothers right of them that had nothing to do with it not any thing to color such sales or disposures more than a Thief that it too strong for a man wil never seem reasonable God be thanked Right and Might were never made termini convertibiles til of late when our nation through the violence of the Feaver it labored withal suffered a delirium hideous Fancies crept into the seat of Reason misinforming the whol Solomon hath given us a very imitable example to follow in our arbitrations for though like a wise Arbitrator he pretended the division of the Child between the true Mother and the false yet having by that found out the truth he restord the Child whol and living to the right Mother with the applause of all for his Justice and Wisdom my hopes and prayers shal be that God wil not suffer either his Wisdom or Justice to shine less in our Senators than in Solomon Now if they make that other general Plea that their acquiesing to the return of his Majesty ought to be Considerable in mitigating the Rigor of Justice his return ought to procure such an Union as to take away all animosities and distinctions whatsoever that they together with others might