and popish Priests who have over-reached and instigated them forcibly to prosecute these their Treasonable designâ— and accomplish this their long-expected desired work you must do only as private men not as a Parliament and if so what lesser offence than High Treason against the King Parl and Kingdom your present actings and proceedings will amount to in the conclusion if you persevere and persist in them I leave to a free and full Parliament the learned Å¿ See Mr. Saint-Johns Argument at Law at Straffords attainder and Cooks 3 Instit c. 1. 3 Jac. c. 1 2. Judges and all Lawyers now sitting and voting among you to consider and resolve Which the Officers and Council of the Army considering would cast the Odium and danger of all upon you the better to exempt and acquit themselves if after-reckonings should come as probably they may and t 1 Kings 2.9,10.28 to 46. 2 Kings 14.6 c. 15.30 c. 21.23,24 certainly will do in Gods due time if you and they repent not give over and crave pardon ere it be over-late 8ly Remember That no Protestant Kingdom or State ever yet defiled their hands or stained the purity and honour of their Reformed Religion with the deposition or blood of any of their hereditary Kings or Princes much lesse of a Protestant King or Prince of a temperate and sober life as the King is who never immediately imbrued his own hands in any one mans blood in any Tyrannical or bloody way before or since the Wars for ought I can hear but only in a Military by his forces in the field And for a Reforming Protestant Parliament pretending the most of any to Piety Religion and Loyalty to stain their profession or honour by the deposition or defile their hands with the blood of a Protestant King or for an Army of Saints to do it or they to please a Saint-seeming Army and that against so many fore-mentioned Oaths Protestations Declarations Remonstrances Solemn Leagues and Covenants one after another obliging them to the contrary would be such an unparallel'd scandal to the Protestant Religion and all professors of it who have upbraided the v 3 Jac. c. 4. Dr. John whites Sermon at Pauls Crosse and defence of the Way c. 10 11. Jesuits and Papists with this persidious and Treasonable practice of which they have been deeply guilty and themselves yet innocent both in our own 3. Kingdoms and the whole Christian world as would give the greatest occasion advantage and encouragement to the Jesuits Papists and all licentious persons to join their hands heads purses to suppress and extirpate it and all the * See Ludovicus Lucius Hist Iesuitica Professors of it both at home and abroad that ever yet they had and make Parliaments for ever hereafter execrable and detestable both to Kings and people 9ly Consider that Scotland and Ireland are jointenants at leastwise tenants in common with us in the Kings person as their lawfull Soveraign and King as well as ours and that the Scots delivered up and left his person to our Commissioners at Newcastle upon this expresse condition That no violence should be offered to his Person c according to the Covenant How then you can unking or depose him as to them or take away his life upon pretext of Justice without their concurrent assents is worthy your saddest thoughts If you do it without asking or receiving their consents you engage both Kingdoms to make a just War against you to * This fell out accordingly Proclaim and to Crown the Prince of Wases their King though you should lay him aside as being next heir apparent And no Ordinance you can now make will be any legal bar against him to his * 1 Iac. c. 1. hereditarie declared right to the Crown of England where he will probably find a 1000 persons for one who will join with Scotland and Ireland to set him upon his Fathers Throne as King of England and avenge his blood upon all who shall be aiding or assisting to its spilling or his dethroning And what then will become of you and your army when thus deserted by most opposed by all three kingdoms and all the Kings Queens and Princes Allies united forces Where will your new St. Cromwel St. Ireton St. Pride St. Peters that fast and loose carnal Prophet and Areb-Jesuited incendiary in these present tumults with other Grand Officers of the Army who now force you the General Armie and whole kingdome upon such dangerous Counsels as these by the Jesuites principles and practices then appear to save either themselves or you or their and your posterities from exemplary justice without mercy or hopes of pardon Consider this then seriously if not as Christians yet as Politicians and self ended men and then repent and be wise in time 10ly Remember that you have neither Law nor direct president for what you are going about a Walsingham Hist Ang. 107. 108 109. Polichron 1 cap. 44. See Speed Hollinshed Grafton in Ed. 2. and Rich. 2. Henry the 4th 1 H. 4. Rot. Par. n. 1. to 60. My Plea for the Lords P. 424. to 429. where the whole proceedings are at large related Edward the 2d and Richard the 2d were forced by Mortimer and Henry the 4th to resign their Crowns in a formal manner the one to his Son the other to his conquering successors neither of them to the Parliament then deposed by a subsequent sentence in Parliament as unfit to reign without any formal legal trial or answer and that not in an empty Parliament under a force as now when most Members were forced away and secluded but in a full Parliament wherein the Articles drawn up against them were never so much as read before them and their depositions made upon their own voluntary confessions only to confirm their precedent Resignations Besides neither of these Kings though very bad and Papists were ever condemned to lose their heads or lives but were to be well and honourably treated And those proceedings were onely by Popish Parliaments in times of ignorance who had no such Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance Vows Covenants Protestations and other forementioned considerations to tye their hands as you and we all have now yea this very Parliament hath very solemnly and particularly protested b Exact Col. P 695. 699. That they did never suffer these Presidents to enter into their thoughts and they should never be their practice whatever they suffered from the King or his and that for the honor of our Religion and the most zealous in it But that which is very observable Roger Mortimer the principal actor in deposing King Edward the 2. and Crowning his Son Edward the 3. King in his stead as you must now crown the Prince of Wales in his Fathers stead if you depose the King else you pursue not this President as you should do in the Parl. of 1 E. 3. In which I find no record concerning this deposal was in a
ever shall be dear unto them Now put it to your souls and consciences whether yours and the Armies present Councels and actions do not really justifie the Kings and his parties former suggestions and give the ly to all these Declarations of both Houses who certainly when ever restored to a condition of freedom and liberty of meeting together again will crave publick reparations and justice against you if you violate both their Honor Faith and engagements to the King Kingdom and forre a States against all these their Declarations and Protestations too 5ly Remember that the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament * Exact Collection p. 663. 664 666 687. 686 907 911. Octob. 22. 1642. in the presence of Almighty God which is the strongest obligation that any Christian and the most solemn publick faith that any State or a Parliament can give for the satisfaction of their own consciences and discharge of that great trust that lyes upon them did make this Protestation and Declaration to all this Kingdom and Nation and to the whole world That no private passion or respect No evil intention to his Majesties Person no designe to prejudice his just Honor and Authority engaged them to raise forces or take up Armes That if he would return to his Parliament in peace and by their counsel and advice compose the distempers and confusions abounding in his Kingdoms They would receive him with all Honor yeild him all true obedience subjection and faithfully endeavour to defend his Person and Estate from all danger and to the uttermost of their power establish him in all the blessings of a glorious and happy Reign And that they had no intentions or desire to hurt or injure his Majesty either in his Person or just power Which they seconded by many subsequent Declarations Since which both Houses and the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland have entred into * A Collection c. p. 327. 359. 399. 404. 416. 410 to 418 806. 887. 898. 878 888. 889. Asolemn League and Covenant for the honour and happinesse of the Kings Majesty and his Posterity among other ends therein specified That they shall sincerely really and constantly endeavour with their estates and lives to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion Liberties of the Kingdome that the world may bear witness with their consciences of their Loyalty that they have no thoughts nor intentions to diminish his Majesties just power and greatnesse That they will with all faithfulness endeavour to discover all evil instruments and incendiaries * Those who depose or divide his Head from his shoulders must be most guilty of this dividing dividing the King from his people that they may be brought to publick trial and receive condign punishment And shall never suffer themselves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be withdrawn from this blessed union c. which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King but shall all the days of their lives zealously and canstantly continue therein against all opposition And conclude This Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all hearts with a true intention to observe the same as we shall answer at the great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed This Covenant you have all taken your selves some of you often * A Collection c. p. 420. c. Imposed it on all our three Kingdoms And will it not stare in your faces your consciences and engage God himself and all three Kingdomes as one man against you if you should proceed to depose the King destroy his person or disinherit his posterity yea bring certain ruine upon you and yours as the greatest * 1 Tim. 3.3.4 Covenant breakers and most perjured creatures under heaven O think and think most seriously upon it before you proceed to further perjuries * Rot. Par. An. 24 F. 3. part 3. m. 2. in dor Rot Par. n. 25 E. 3. par 1. m. 17. Rot. Par. 25 E. 3. n. 30. Cooks 3 Instit p. 145. 146. In 24 E 3 William Thorpe chief Justice of the Kings Bench for taking 80 l. bribes of several persons was by special Commission indicted convicted and condemned to be hanged and to forfeit all his lands Tenements Goods and chattels to the King because thereby Sacramentum Domini Regis quod erga populum habuit custodiendum fregit malicose false rebelliter quantum in ipso fuit which Judgement was affirmed to be just and reasonable in full Parliament where it was openly read by the Kings command as is evident by 25 E. 3. Rot. Parl. nu 10. If then this chief Justice for breaking his Oath to the King and his people as a Judge onely in taking two or three small bribes deserved to be hanged to forfeit all his Lands goods and life by the judgement of a full Parliament then what will such Members deserve to suffer who shall not onlie violate their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to the King his heirs but likewise the several Protestations solemn League Covenant and the multiplied publick Faiths engagements Declarations Remonstrances and promises of both Houses of Parliament made to God the King the whole Kingdoms and people of England Scotland and Ireland the States of the united Provinces and all the world and that maliciously falsely and rebelliously as much as in them lies and their own private Faith Oaths Vows and Covenants involved in them by deposing and executing the King disinheriting the Prince violating the privileges usurping the power of the Parliament to themselves when most of the other Members are violently secluded by the army to the subversion of the Privileges and freedome of all Parliaments this being one article against King R. the 2d in 1 H. 4. Rot. Par. n. 25. 66. 70. when he was deposed That in the Parliament held at Salop intending to oppresse his people he did subtilly procure and cause to be granted by consent of all the States in the Kingdom which you have not that the power of the Parliament should remain with certain persons h 21 R. 2. c. 16. Lords and Commons to determine certain Petitions then delivered but not dispatched after the Parliament ended by colour whereof the said deputed persons proceeded by the Kings pleasure and will to other things generally concerning the said Parliament to the great derogation of the State and Privileges of the Parliament and the great detriment and pernicious example of the whole Realm and to gain some colour and authority to their doings the King caused the Parliament Rolls to be altered and deleted according to his Vote contrary to the effect of the foresaid concession as you have presumed to null repeal and * Dec. 12 and 13. 1648. unvote divers Votes Orders and Ordinances
of both Houses made in pursuance of the foresaid Oaths Protestations the solemn League and Covenant Remonstrances Declarations of both Houses and the Treaty when the houses were full and not under the Armies force or violence And if their proceedings the whole Parliament of 21 R. 2 were declared i 1. H. 4. c. 3. null and void and the King worthy to be deposed for such proceedings then let Serjeant Thorp and other Lawyers now acting with you consider and inform you what punishment you deserve for such breach of faith privilege of Parliament and usurpation of a monopoly of Parliamentary power to your selves whiles sitting under the Armies force and most Members forced thence in which case you ought not to sit vote or conclude any thing but onely to k As the House did in the case of the five Members Exact Collection p. 35 to 56. adjourn till the force removed and all the Members may freely meet in full Parliament as is clear by that memorable Record of 6 E. 3 Par apud Ebor. n. 1. 2. Dor. claus 6. E. 3. m 4. 6 E. 3. apud West Parl. 2. n 1. 13 3 Parl. 2. n. 4. 15 E. 3. n. 5. 17 E. 3. n. 26. 18. E. 3. n. 1. 25. 20 E. 3. n. 5. 21 E. 3. n. 4. 22. E. 3. n. 1. 25 E. 3. n. 1. 29 E 3. n 4. 36 E. 3. n. 1. 37 E. 3. n. 1. 42 E. 3. n. 1. 50 E. 3. n. 1. 51 E. 3. n. 3. 1 R. 2 n. 1. 3 R. 2. n. 1. 4 R. 20 n. 1 5 R. 2 parl 1. n. 1. parl 2 n 1. 6 R. 2. parl 1. n. 1 Parl. 2. n. 1. 8 H. 4. n. 28. 30. 54. 9 H. 4. n. 1. 13 H. 4. n. 1. and many more rolls where the Parliament when any considerable number of the Members of either House were absent was constantly adjourned and refused to sit or-do any thing though not under any force till the houses were full much more then when under the Armies sword it being against Magna Charta as the l Matthew Parts p. 882 885 888. Dan. P. 172. Barons declared in Parl. Anno Dom. 1257. in the reign of K. H. the third for a few Members to sit when the rest are absent 6ly Consider that though many of the Kings of Judab and Israel were extraordinary sinfull Idolatrous bloody tyrannicall and great oppressours of their people yea shedders of Priests of Prophets and other good mens innocent blood not onely in the wars but in peace yet there is not one President in the old Testament of one King ever judicially impeached arraigned deposed or put to death by the Congregation Sanhedrim or Parliament of Judah or Israel That those who slew any of them in a tumultuous or treacherous manner were for the most part slain themselves either in a tumult or else put to death by their children who succeeded to the Crown or by the people of the Land 2 Chron. 23.14,15,21 c. 24.25,26 c. 25.3,4 c. 33.24,25 that the Israelites after their revolt from Reho boam had never any one good King or good day almost among then but were over run with idolatry prophanesse tyranny invaded by enemies involved in perpetual Wars Civil or Forein and at last all destroyed and carried away Captives into Babylon as the Books of Kings and Chronicles will inform you That the rule in the Old Testament is not to take any wicked Kings from their Thrones and behead them but n Prov. 25.5 Take away the wicked from before the King and his Throne shall be established in righteousness And the rule in the New Testament o Rom. 13.1,2 c. Tit. 3.1,2 1 Pet. 3.13,14,17 1 Tim. 2.1,2,3 To be subject to Kings and the Higher Powers and to submit unto them even for Conscience and the Lords sake and to make Prayers Supplications and Intercessions for them that under them we may lead a peacable and quiet life in all Godliness and honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour not to depose or shed their blood for which there is no precept nor president in the Gospel but only of the bloody Jewes who with p wicked hands crucified Jesus Christ THE KING OF THE JEWES by birth right and Lord of Glory whom they rejected and disclaimed for their King before they crucifyed him Acts 2.23 c. 13,14,15 John 19.12 to 23. Mat. 27.27 Luk. 23.38 which brought speedy and exemplary desolation upon their whole Nation ever since till now And is not this plain way of God the safest for you and the Army Saints to follow yea the short cut to Peace and settlement Ruminate upon it and then be wise both for your souls good and the Kingdomes too 7thly Consider that you now meet and sit under the armed force and violence of a mutinous Army who have leavyed Warre against the Houses to dissolve them imprison'd many of your Members forcibly secluded more and driven away almost all from the Houses That till the removal of this horrid force and re-assembling of all your scattered Members with freedom and safety in the Houses all you Vote Act Order or Ordain by the Armies own Doctrine in their Remonstrance of August 18. and the Declaration and Ordinance of both Houses made at the Armies instance August 20. 1647. is null and void even at and from the time it was voted acted ordered ordained and so declared by your selves even by this unrepealed Ordinance and by former Parliaments too as 21 R. 2. c. 12. 1 H. 4. c. 3. 31 H. 6. c. 1. 39 H. 6. c. 1. And however you may take upon you the name and power of the Houses of Parliament and unvote vote order and ordain what you please yet take it for an infallible Truth that none of the secluded and absent Members none of the Counties Cities and Boroughs for which they serve See the Protestation Dec. 11. 1648. not those for whom you serve and represent nor yet the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland who have as great yea greater shares and interests by far than your selves in the Person of the King as their lawful Soveraign and are engaged by Oathes Protestations Covenants and all the premises to protect his Person and Crown with their lives and estates against all violence and danger nor yet his Queen Children and Allies in forein parts of what Religion soever will ever own you in your present condition and constitution to be a legal English Parliament but rather a Conventicle or Juncto nor any thing you vote order or ordain to be r See A Collection c. p. 93 221 222 225 253. valid And therefore whatever you vote Order or Ordain concerning the Treaty the deposing or executing the King the Disinheriting or Banishing the Prince dissolving the present Parliament setting up a new confused Representative or new form of State-Government only to please the Officers and Army or rather those Jesuits
full Parliament within four years after with some other of his Confederates c 4 E. 3. Rot Par. n. 1. to 7. 23 E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 9. to 14. Plea for the Lords p. 275. to 283. impeached condemned and executed as a Traytor and Enemy to the King and Kingdom by the Judgement of the Lords and that by King Edward the third his own assent without any legal hearing or triall just as he had there deposed this King without it for murthering King Edward in Berkley Castle after his deposall and d 4 E. 3. n. 16â— Sir Thomas de Berkley in whose Castle he was slain being indicted of Treason likewise for the same murther before the Lords in Parliament pleaded not guilty thereunto and was tried at the Lords Bar in a legal manner by a Jury of 12 Knights there sworn and impanelled and by them acquitted upon full evidence and trial when as e 4 E 3. n. 35 Sir Simon de Bereford was impeached condemned and executed by a Judgement given against him by the Lords alone without any Trial for murthering this deposed King Thomas de Gourney William Ocle adjudged Traytors by them for the same offence without any evidence appearing on record These Presidents then will be of very hard digestion and not parallel'd to our times or the Kings case Who having upon the late Treaty granted us for the speedy settlement and security of our bleeding Kingdoms Churches and Religion whatever we could in honour justice or reason desire and far greater advantages and security than any of our ancestors or any Kingdom under Heaven from the creation to this present demanded or enjoyed from any of their Princes as I dare make good to you and all the world and that which the Commons House after above two whole daies and one whole nights debate thought and voted f See My Speech Dec. 4. 1648. and vindication of the secured and secluded Members Jan. 20. 1648. a sufficient ground for them to proceed with the King to the speedy setling of the Kingdoms peace how you or the Army after such large concessions contrary to the Votes of both Houses of Parliament when full and free can in honour justice reason discretion or conscience proceed to depose or decapitate the King as a violater of his faith a Traytor c. without making your selves more perjured treacherous and greater Traytors in all kinds than you repute the King and without g Rom 2.1,2,3 incurring the same judgement and execution as you shall passe and inflict upon him I leave to your saddest consultations to advâ—…e of I have thus freely faithfully and plainly discharged my mind and conscience to you without fear or flattery for the Kings the Kingdoms Parliaments Protestant Religions I am certain for Irelands almost irrecoverably lost Scotlands your own and the Armies weal and safety too if God in mercy please to give you heads or hearts to make timely use of this Memento and not suffer your selves to be Jesuit-ridden any longer Consider you have most of you Estates all of you heads or lives and souls to save or lose both here and hereafter If this and all the precedent considerations will not prevail with you to take you off from your present desperate Counsels and proceedings for your own the Kingdoms Churches Religions Irelands Scotlands the Parliaments your own posterities and the Armies Honour Peace Welfare and safety too Ride on triumphantly still in Ignatius Loyola his fiery Chariot like so many young Phaetons till you fall and perish It is sufficient for me however you digest this present friendly Memento to you that I can truly say liberavi animam meam what ever becomâ— of you or me Who do here solemnly protest to all the World against these your proceedings as altogether null void unparliamentary illegal unchristian antichristian if not Perfidious and Treasonable in these respects I shall close up all with that Golden sentence of God himself and the wisest of men King Solomon which is twice repeated verbatim that it might be the better remembred and considered by you and all others in such Exigences of publick affairâ— as we are now fallen into Prov. 22.3 and 27.12 A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself but the simple passe on and are punished And with that which is parallel to it Pro. 14.14,15,16 The simple believeth every word but the prudent mâ—n looketh well to his goings A wise man feareth and departeth from evil but the fool rageth and is confident and shall be filled with his own wayes which is thus interpreted Prov. 1.18,16,32,33 They lye in wait for their own blood they lurk privily for their own lives whose feet run to evil and who make â—aste to shed others blood For the turning away of the simple shall sâ—ay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them But who so hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil From the Kings head in the Strand Jan. 1. 1648. Your affectionate friend and servant as far as you appear to be Gods your Soveraigns the Kingdoms the Parliaments Religions theirs who have intrusted you or your own true Friends WILLIAM PRYNNE Prov. 28.23 He that rebuketh a man afterward shall find more favour than he that flattereth him with his lips A POSTSCRIPT I Am confident that if the Members now meeting at Westminster will but perswade the General and his Protestant Officers immediately to tender the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance the solemn League and Covenant and the New Oath of Abjuration for the better discovery and speedier conviction of Iesuits Popish Priests and Papists consented to by the King in the late Treaty to all the Officers Agitators and Souldiers in the Army they will presently discover an whole Conclave of Jesuits Popish Priests and Iesuited Papists amongst them who have instigated them to disobey and force both Houses imprison their Members to impeach try execute the King dissolve the present Parliament subvert our Kingly Government and constitution of Parliaments betray Ireland to the Rebels and involve us in new Wars and confusion instead of Peace and settlement the practices designs and studies of none but Iesuits and Papists which all true Protestants cannot but abhor FINIS