most UNPARALLELL'D TREASON c. and ALL PROCEEDINGS TENDING thereunto how far this last Expression will reach I leave Your Lordship to be Judge Again when King Charles II. is said to be exterminated into Foreign Parts by the most TRAYTEROUS CONSPIRACIES 12 C. 2. c. 14. c. of USURPING TYRANTS and EXECRABLE PERFIDIOUS TRAYTORS than all which nothing can be exprest more Monstrous Yet that whole Revolution was transacted by the two Houses of Parliament with this addition above our late Convention of a Legal Summons to justifie their Meeting and the Royal Assent to Sit in effect 16 C. 1. c. 7. as long as they pleas'd But if that Parliament be not a Parallell I am sure that that Convention which Elected Cromwel to be Protector is so in every respect For did the apparent Necessities of the publick to prevent an Anarchy during the King's Secess require this the same Necessities requir'd that Was this Summon'd by one who was desir'd to take upon himself the Government and had an Army at his Command to support him in it till the Meeting thereof so was that Were the Members of this duly Elected and the Houses full so were they Had these an entire freedom of Debates so had they In the Result of their Consultations indeed they differ Those being abundantly more modest than these For these without any Precedent in any Age in this Kingdom Elect and purely Create a King who had before no pretence of Title to the Crown Whereas they very modestly go no further then to Declare a Protector for which they have many Precedents tho' none throughly adapted to their Case But notwithstanding all these Extremities of the Publick the Summons of the Administrator of the Government the fair Elections the freedom of Debates and the Result of all this the Election of Oliver into the Protectorate yet the Healing Parliament of K. Charles 2. Declare and Enact 12 C. 2. c. 12. that the Names and Stiles which those pretended Powers Usurped and every of them are most REBELLIOUS WICKED TRAYTEROUS and ABOMINABLE USURPATIONS DETESTED by this present Parliament as OPPOSITE in the highest degree to his Sacred Majesty's most JUST and UNDOUBTED RIGHT 13 C. 2. c. 1 12 C. 2. c. 30. c. and upon that Account they Declare all their Pretended Orders and Ordinances to be Null and Void Attaint the Protector himself of High Treason and Brand him with the Titles of USURPER and TYRANT and to express an Indignation effectually 12 C. 2. c. 12. §. 13. after his Death his Body was Hang'd at Tyburn An Vnlucky Omen avertat Deus But as if all this had been foreseen in sufficient to declare no Power in such Mock Parliaments to transact such Matters as this of ours has undertaken That Parliament proceeds 12 C. 2. c. 30. to Declare it does not Enact it a Law for the future tho' even that were Obligatory but Declares it to have been always a Fundamental Law of this Kingdom that not only neither the PEERS of this Realm nor the COMMONS nor BOTH TOGETHER in Parliament or OUT of Parliament but it goes on to Declare that not even the whole People either COLLECTIVELY or REPRESENTATIVELY nor any other Persons whatsoever EVER HAD HAVE HATH or OUGHT to have any COERCIVE POWER OVER the Persons of the Kings of this Realm Here is an express Renunciation of all the Consequences of an ORIGINAL CONTRACT But if that which was Committed against K. James was not a Coercition when he was put under a Foreign Guard driven from his own Palace and appointed his Place of Retirement The Dutch Marcht to Whitehall and mounted the Guard about 12 at Night and not long after the M. of Hallifax the E. of Shrewsbury and my Lord Delamere 't is pity their Names should ever be forgotten rudely prest into the King's Bedchamber and surprisingly wak'd him with this Message That the Prince Design'd to be at St. James's the next day by Noon and that it was therefore His Highness's Pleasure that his Majesty should retire in the Morning to Ham. 'T is true he went another way to Rochester but not till he had sent after his Goalors and ask'd their leave or rather Confinement and lastly when Deposed by a Vote of the Convenvention and his Throne declar'd Vacant if all this I say be not Exercising a Coercive Power I know not what is But should you still deny all this to be applicable to the late Convention you will surely allow this to be a Natural and a just Deduction that since it is less injurious to the King to restrain his Person for a time then to Judge and Depose Him the whole People of England as is above Confest and Declar'd having no Coercive can have therefore no Judicial Power over their Kings Yet this Power our Convention has arrogated to themselves and Acted solely by the pretence hereof contrary to this Fundamental Law 13. C. 2. c. 1. I will add but this one Statue more It is Prohibited under the pain and Penalty of a Premunire to affirm That both Houses of Parliament or either House of Parliament have or hath a Legislative Power without the King If then a Parliament has no Right to this surely much less to that whereby they may Judge or Constitute the Legislature it self These Declarations and Statutes which I have cited are of so late Date and the occasions of them so well known that I profess I can no more bring my self to believe that I cannot read or do not understand them and thereby Sacrifice my Notions in a Fact so Notorious â—…ge 19. to the Decision of a Convention at Westminster then I can all my Senses in the controversy about Transubstantiation to the Decree of a pretended General Council at Trent for I look upon both equally a Contradiction to Common sense And â—…ge 19. § 11. And now My Lord we are come to your last Refuge the Right of Conquest But this is a Plea so disrespectful to the whole English Nation as none but Your Lordship or one inflam'd with a National Antipathy against it one born in Scotland and Naturaliz'd in Holland would have vented Had this Plea been urg'd by the Dutch themselves it had been Vngrateful and Impudent Vngrateful because they owe their Being to the English Protection and Impudent because they never yet could boast a Victory except the Bloody Massacre at Amboyna were one This Plea is equally disrespectful too to the Prince of Orange whom it is produc'd to Vindicate for it makes him at once both Treacherous and Vnnatural Treacherous to the States General and all the Forreign Princes in Amity with them to whom he protested he meant nothing less then an Attempt upon the Crown and Treacherous to the English even beyond thought to whom he so often Declar'd that he came as a Friend and not an Enemy as a Protector and not an Invader or a Conqueror It makes him also
Master before his Death or swore the Military Oath to an Vsurper against Him Yet this is the Circumstance which alone concludes in favour of the Opinion here in question But the truth is my Lord St. Paul's Doctrine of Obedience to Caligula notwithstanding his black Vsurpations and Tyranny Page 1◠and his Attemtps upon all the remaining Freedoms of Rome as also the practice thereof by the Primitive Christians under many Emperours not only Tyrants and Vsurpers but even Apostates too are unanswerable Arguments for Non-Resistance to the Supream Magistrate And if so the Guilt of Treason and all those threats which God has denounc'd against it lye hard upon those who Rebell'd against their undoubted Rightful Soveraign and Advised and Procur'd this unparallell'd Revolution I shall only add for Conclusion to this whole Argument that if Rebellion be as the Sin of Witchcraft Rom. 13.2 and to Resist the Supream Magistrate without Repentance be to receive Damnation surely all such as have been Instrumentall in the unjust Exclusion of King James are bound in Conscience as they love themselves and their Eternal Happyness to return to their forsaken Allegiance and to make Restitution the one great part and instance of true Repentance in the Case of Injuries to the Injur'd King by Endeavouring to Restore him to the Possession of his own These returning Penitents if they would Unanimously Return joyn'd with those who were always ready to serve him as a KING tho not as a PAPIST would be of such force that a Forreign Army of Dutch and others should not be able to support the Usurpation against him alone without the further Assistance of French or Irish Page 14. § 9. The Succession to the High-Priesthood your Lordship owns to be Forreign to this matter but if not it Concludes very little for your Assertion For there was not an Absolute Necessity that the Eldest Son should Succeed his Father tho most usually he did since the Succession might be Interrupted by the King's Prerogative 1 Kings 2.27 Thus Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being Priest unto the Lord and although he had a Son 2 Sam. 15.36 1 Kings 2.35 yet the King put Zadok into his room * Atque ita Summum sacerdotium a familia Ithamaris ad familiam Eleazari rediit Usser An. ad an 2990. Page 16. §. 10 Since therefore the King had this Power to Depose the High-Priest and to change the Succession what could be objected against Caiaphas when call'd to the Priest-Hood by that Power which alone pretended to be the Supream 2. I have now My Lord gone through all the Arguments Your Lordship has produc'd for Possession only without Right And I think I have sufficiently Evinc'd that there is nothing therein Conclusive to us This Your Lordship seems to be sensible of when you advance the State of the Question a little further and throw it upon the Decision of a Convention which you say are the only proper Judges But here also I can find no Satisfaction for allowing your Difference to be good between all Speculative points of Opinion and all Questions that relate to matters of Fact Allowing also that in all Bodies who make Decisions the Minority is concluded by the Majority as if they had been Actually consenting to the Decision yet for all this there still remains insuperable difficulties in the present Case 1. You permit us to retain our former Opinions Page 18. Declaration to be Subscrib'd by all the Clergy 14 Car. 2. c. 4. to be sworn by all Mayors Aldermen c. St. 2. 13 C. 2. c. 1. 3,4 and by all Lords Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants c. 14 C. 2. c. 3. and therefore you give us leave to adhere to our Subscriptions that It is not Lawful to take up Arms against the King upon any pretence whatsoever even not upon the account of Religion and that the contrary Position is Trayterous How then can we who have Subscrib'd this Declaration and who are all of this Opinion or at least have profest our selves to be of it own those to be our Lawful Superiors who have been Instrumental contrary to this Declaration in Deposing the King till they are Absolv'd from their Treasonable Injustice against him by his most Gracious Pardon or have made him Restitution by endeavouring his Restauration much less as far as in us lies Aid and Support them in this which according to our declar'd Opinions is the highest Injury and Affront to Majesty yet these are the Chief and most considerable part of the Nation who are now set over us both in the Civil and Military State 2. But tho' the Business of Succession be allow'd a Matter of Fact as also the King 's Original Power Page 18. yet the late pretended Convention of Estates were not the Proper much less the Only competent Judges of it 1. Because most of the Members in both Houses were uncapable and unqualifi'd to sit there For 25 E. 3. c. 2. 1. It is Declar'd Treason to levy War against our Lord the King in his Realms or to be Adherent to the Kings Enemies giving to them Aid and Comfort in the Realm or Elsewhere It was also further Adjudg'd High Treason by the Lords in Parliament under K. Richard 2. To surrender from the King Homage and Allegiance and to PVRPOSE to Depose him Cott. Rec. p. 376 377 c. And as if to preclude that groundless Evasion hereof on the pretence of a Defensive War against the King a late Parliament has Declar'd 13. C. 2. c. 6. and 14 C. 2. c. 3. that The sole Supreme Government Command and Disposition of the Militia and of all Forces by Sea and Land and of All Forts and Places of Strength is and by the Laws of England Ever Was the Vndoubted Right of His Majesty c. and that both or either of the Houses of Parliament Cannot nor ought to Pretend to the same nor Can nor Lawfully may Raise or Levy any War Offensive or Defensive against His Majesty So that it is evident from hence that many of the Members in the late Convention were formally TRAYTORS Every Offendor shall lose and forfeit to the King c. all such Lands c. which any Offendor shall have c. at the TIME of any such Treason committed 5 6 Ed. 6. c. 11. 3 Eliz. c. 1. It may be urg'd indeed in their Defence that they were not legally Convict But since Treason ipso facto forfeits all Estates it is very reasonable to conclude that it also forfeits all other Rights and Priviledges of Free Subjects and since the matter of Fact was so Publick and Notorious it is a just Exception to the Legality of their whole Proceedings that such Members were suffer'd to Sit and Vote there For it is Ridiculous that those Men should Judge and Depose the King who had before forfeited their own Lives to him 2. They were incapacitated by express Acts of Parliament