Spies being abroad they often met but durst not speake but parted with tears in their eyes which declared that they had more to utter but durst not this struck him to greaterfears he commanded that none should look upon one anothers eyes at parting therefore their griefes being too great to be smothered they fetcht a deep sigh when they parted which moved them so to compassionate one anothers wrongs that they ran in and killed the Tyrant The long hatching Irish treason was now ripe and therefore it was necessary that England and Scotland should be in Combustion least we might help the Irish Protestants well the Scots get Newcastle he knew they would trust him no more he had so often broke with them therefore no hopes to get them out by a treaty many Lords and the City petition for a Parliament the King was at such a necessity that yield he must to that which he most abhorred God had brought him to such a straite he that a few moneths before assumed the power of God Commanding men not to thinke of Parliaments to restraine the free thoughts of the heart of man was constrained to call one which they knew he would breake off when the Scots were sent home therefore got a Confirmation of it that he should not dissolve it without the consent of both Houses of which he had no hopes or by force which he suddenly attempted and the English Army in the North was to have come up to confound the Parliament and this rebellious and disloyall City as the King called it and for their paines was promised thirty thousand pounds and the plunder as by the examinations of Colonel Goring Legge c. doth more fully appeare And here by the way I cannot but commend the City Malignants He calls them Rebels they call him a gracious King He by his Proclamation at Oxford prohibits all commerce and entercourse of trade betweene this populous City the life and interest whereof consists in trade without which many thousands cannot subsist and other parts of the kingdome still they do good against evill and petitioning him so often to cut their throats are troubled at nothing so much as that they are not reduced to that former and a worse bondage then when there was a Lord Warden made in the City and the King sent for as much of their estates as he pleased But surely the Oxford-shire men are more to be commended for when the King had commanded by his Proclamation that what Corne Hay and other provision in the County of Oxford could not be fetcht into the said City for his Garison should be consumed and destroyed by fire for feare it should fall into the hands of the Parliaments friends a cruelty not to be parallel'd by any Infidell Heathen or pagan King nor to be presidented amongst the most avowed and professed enemies much lesâ—e from a King to his Subjects they resolved never to trust him any more But the great Question will be What hath been the true ground and occasion of the War which unless I clear and put it out of question as the Charge imports I shall fall short of what I chiefly aym at viz. That the King set up his Standard of War for the advancement and upholding of his Personal Interest Power and pretended Prerogative against the Publique Interest of Common-Right Peace and Safety and thus I prove it 1. He fought for the Militia by Sea and Land to have it at his absolute dispose and to justifie maintain his illegal Commissions of Array and this he pretended was his Birthright by the Law of England which if it were so then might he by the same Reason command all the money in the kingdom for he that carries the Sword will command the Purse 2. The next thing that he pretended to fight for was his Power to call Parliaments when he pleased and dissolve them when he list If they will serve his turn then they may sit by a Law to inslave the People so that the People had better choose all the Courtiers and Kings Favorites at first then to trouble themselves with ludibrious Elections to assemble the Freeholders together to their great labor expence both of time coyn and those which are chosen Knights Burgesses to make great preparations to take long Journeys to London themselves their Attendants to see the King Lords in their Parliament robes ride in state to the House and with Domitian to catch Flies and no sooner shall there be any breathings or a Spirit of Justice stirring discovered in the House of Commons but the king sends the Black-Rod and dissolves the Parliament and sends them back again as wise as they were before but not with so much money in their purses to tell stories to the Freeholders of the bravery of the king and Lords 3. Well but if this be too gross and that the People begin to murmure and clamor for another Parliament then there goes out another Summons and they meet and sit for some time but to as much purpose as before for when the Commons have presented any Bill for Redress of a publique Grievance then the king hath several games to play to make all fruitless as first his own Negative Voyce that if Lords and Commons are both agreed then he will advise which I know not by what strange Doctrine hath been of late construed to be a plain denyal though under favor at the first it was no more but to allow him two or three days time to consider of the Equity of the Law in which time if he could not convince them of the Injustice of it then ought he by his Oath and by Law to consent to it 4. But if by this means the king had contracted hard thoughts from the people and that not onely the Commons but many of the Lords that have the same noble blood running in their veins as those English Barons whose Swords were the chief Instruments that purchased Magna Charta then that the king might be sure to put some others between him and the peoples hatred The next prerogative that he pretended to have was to be the sole Judge of Chivalry to have the sole power of conferring Honors to make as many Lords as he pleased that so he may be sure to have two against one if the House of Commons by reason of the multitude of Burgesses which he likewise pretended a power to make as many Borough-Towns and Corporations as he pleased were not pack'd also And this is that glorious priviledge of the English Parliaments so much admired for just nothing for if his pretended Prerogative might stand for Law as was challenged by his adherents never was there a purer cheat put upon any people nor a more ready way to enslave them then by priviledge of Parliament being just such a mockery of the people as that Mock-Parliament at Oxford was where the kings consent must be the Figure and
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
murther is a sin that seldom goes unpunisht in this world and never did any Jesuit hold it meritorious to kill men for bringing tyrants and murtherers to Justice or to do such horrid acts in the sight of the Sun It was a noble saying of the Lord President That he was afraid of nothing so much as the not doing of Justice and when he was called to that High place which was put upon him he sought it not but desired to be excused more then once not to decline a duty to God and the people for fear of any loss or danger being above such thoughts by many Stories as actions testifie but alledging That of himself out of an humble spirit which if others had said of him I am sure they had done him a great deal of wrong And though he might have been sufficiently discouraged because it was a new unpresidented Tribunal of condemning a King because never did any king so Tyrannize and Butcher the People finde me but that in any History and on the other side the leaf you shall finde him more then beheaded even to be quartered and given to be meat to the fowls of the Air yet the glory of God and the love of Justice constrained him to accept it and with what great wisdom and undauntedness of Resolution joyned with a sweet meekness of spirit he hath performed it is most evident to all the Malignants themselves being Judges Concerning this High Court to speak any thing of this glorious Administration of Justice is but to shew the Sun with a candle the Sun of Justice now shines most gloriously and it will be fair weather in the Nation but alas the poor Mole is blinde still and cannot see it but none so blinde as they that will not see it however it is not proper or convenient for me at present to speak all the truth that I know the Generations that are to come will call them blessed concerning the Integrity and Justice of their proceedings lest I that a maâ— servant should be counted a Sycophant which I abhor in my soul as my body does poyson and this I will be bold to say which I hope God guides my hand to write This High Court hath cut off the head of a Tyrant and they have done well undoubtedly it is the best action that they ever did in all their lives a matter of pure envy not hatred for never shall or can any men in this Nation promerit so much Honor as these have done by any execution of Justice comparable to this and in so doing they have pronounced sentence not onely against one Tyrant but Tyranny it self therefore if any of them shall turn Tyrants or consent to set up any kinde of Tyranny by a Law or suffer any unmerciful domineering over the Consciences Persons and Estates of the Free People of this Land they have pronounced Sentence against themselves But good trees cannot bring forth bad fruits therefore let all desperate Malignants repent ere it be too late of any such ungodly purposes and fight no longer against God Every man is sowen here as a seed or grain and grows up to be a tree it behoves us all to see in what ground we stand holy and righteous men will be found to be timber for the great building of God in his love when Tyrants and Enemies to Holiness and Justice will be for a threshold or footstool to be trodden upon or fit for the fire Lastly for my self I bless God I have not so much fear as comes to the thousand part of a grain it is for a Cain to be afraid that every man that meets him will slay him I am not much solicitous whether I dye of a Consumption or by the hand of Ravilliacks I leave that to my heavenly Father If it be his will that I shall fall by the hand of violence it is the Lord let him do what he pleaseth If my Indentures be given in before the term of my Apprenticeship be expired and that I be at my Fathers house before it be night I am sure there is no hurt in all this If I have but so much time left I shall pray my Father to forgive the Murtherer the blood of Christ can wash away sins of the deepest stain but when he sees his childrens blood sprinkled upon the bloody wretch he loves every Member as he loves himself But know this ye that have conceived any desperate intentions against those Honorable Justices who have made you Freemen unless you will return to Egypt If God in wrath to you and love to any of his people should suffer you to imbrue your hands in any of their innocent blood either you will repent or not if you repent it will cost you ten times more anguish and grief of heart then the pleasure of the sin can cause delight and what a base thing is it to do that which must be repented of at the best But if you repent not it had been better for you to have never been born But let every man be faithful in doing his duty and trust God with the success and rejoyce in Christ in the testimony of a good Conscience for he that hath not a soul to lose hath nothing to lose but blessed be God I have no soul to lose therefore I desire onely to fear him whom to fear is the beginning of wisdom And for all Malignants to come in and joyn with honest men in settling this Nation upon Noble Principles of Justice Freedom and Mercy to the poor will be their best and greatest understanding FINIS 2 Sam. 21. In 1571. 1. Book of Ord. fol. 2 King 12. 20. 14. 1 5. 27 Mar. 5. Car. Darlingrub 15. Apr. 20. Car. Com E Leicesters Case