THe Heaven is thy Throne O Lord and the Earth is thy footstool but to this man wilt thou look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at thy Word Thou O Lord art the great God of Heaven and Earth thou fillest all places with thy presence art the Judge of the whole World and dost Righteousness We are poor unworthy sinful creatures by nature children of wrath as well as others We are wise to do evil but to do good we have no knowledge If to will be present with us yet how to perform and go through with that which is good and not be weary of well-doing we find not Bring us O Lord into the true mystical Sabbath-state that we may cease from our own works rest from our labors not think our own thoughts find our own desire or walk in the way of our own hearts but become a meet habitation of thy Spirit by the everlasting Covenant the place of thy Rest Let the Spirit of God and of Glory that is greater than he that is in the world rest upon us work in and by us mightily to the pulling down of flesh and blood the strong holds of Sin and Satan in our selves and others causing us so to suffer under the Fire-Baptism thereof as that we may cease from sin for ever or from that fleshly mutable temporary state of life and righteousness which at best is liable to roul back into sin again to be intangled overcome and finally triumphed over by the pollutions of this world Deliver us O Lord from the Evil One deliver us from our selves take us out of our own dispose our own liberty and power the freedom the mutable holiness and righteousness of the sons of men at its best and bring us into the most glorious Liberty the most holy immutable and righteous state of the sons of God a freedom to Good only and non at all to evil attended and accompanied with a power in us through thy Spirit of doing all things for the Truth and a disability brought upon us as to the doing of any thing against the Truth in the single power and freedom of our own spirit Then the prince of this world coming to us will find nothing in us at least no prevailing activity of self nature or flesh which at best is capable to be made by him an ergin of opposition to the Kingdom of Christ and our own true blessedness Thou hast laid on thy Son the iniquities of us all by his stâ—ipes we are healed We must all stand before the Judgment-Seat of Christ to give an account of what we have done in the body whether it be good or whether it be evil He will bring every secret counsel to light things that are wrought in darkness he maketh plain and evident Thine eyes O Lord run to and fro through the whole earth Thine eyes do behold thine eye-lids try the children of men The wicked and him that loveth violence thy soul hateth But thou upholdest the poor and needy him that is of a broken heart and of a contrite spirit The humble and lowly thou wilt teach the meek thou wilt guide in Judgment thou wilt beautifie the meek with Salvation Thou art the supream disposer of all the Kingdoms of men giving them to whomsoever thou wilt Whatever cross-blows thou sufferest to be given thy People for a season thou orderest all to thy own glory and their true advantage But thou hast a set time for Sions deliverance in which the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given unto the best and choicest of men the people of the Saints of the most high whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom Let the exceeding near approach of this bear up the spirits of thy poor despised ones in this day of extremity and suffering from sinking and despondency Carry them through their suffering part with a holy triumph in thy Chariots of Salvation How long O Lord holy and true make hast to help the Remnant of thy People Break the Heavens and come down touch the Mountains of prey the Kingdoms of this evil world and let them smoak Let the mouth of all Iniquity be stopped Silence every one that stands up against thee Rebuke the debauched prophane spirits of men that set themselves to work wickedness running with greediness into all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness They eat thy People as they eat bread They are profound to make slaughter skilful to destroy though thou hast been the rebuker of them all But Lord be this dispensation of what continuance it will for the serving of thy most gracious and wise designs let the spirit and resolution of thy Servants be steady and unchangeable that whether they live they may live to the Lord that died for them or whether they die they may die to the Lord who lives for ever to make intercession for them that they may glorifie thee with their bodies and spirits whether by life or by death Thou knowest O Lord that in the Faith of Jesus and for the Truth as it is in Jesus thy Servant desires to die walking in the steps of our father Abraham and for Righteousness and Judgment following the Lord in all his wayes whithersoever he goes worshipping the God of his believing fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob in that way which men call Heresie In this Faith dear Lord I have lived and in this Faith and Profession I die as one that hath herein stood up for the Testimony of JESUS against all Idolatry Superstition Prophaness and Popery or whatever is unsound or unfit to be brought before the Throne of so great and glorious a Majesty 'T is in this Faith that thy Servant dies Now set thy Seal to it and remove the reproaches and calumnies with which thy Servant is reproached for thou knowst his innocency Dear Father thou sentest us into this world but this world is not our home we are strangers and pilgrims in it as all our fathers were We have no abode here but there is a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens that when this tabernacle is dissolved we may enter into In our Fathers house are many mansions Oh! whatever the curses and condemnations of the Law are be thou near to us and spread the Righteousness of Christ over us and we shall be safe Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered Who wil speak who will take on him to say any thing or to plead with Thee upon any other terms but in the Name and Merits of the mighty Redeemer on whom our help is laid We desire to lie low to be abased and take shame confusion of face to our selves as that which properly belongs to us that Thou alone maist be exalted and advanced 'T is of meer Grace O Lord that thy Servant hath now some sign of thy special Salvation even thy free-Grace O God whereby thou dost accept him in thy
the Lord which therefore we should be most willing unto and with greatest longing after desire The strait which the Apostle found himself in was not at all from the least haesitation in his mind which of the two was in it self best and to be preferred but by which Christ might most be magnified and the Church benefitted according to the will of Christ So then unless to live were Christ and a real and clear magnifying of Christ in his Body he cared not for Life but contemned Death He saw evidently how it was his own particular loss and hindrance even not to Die since to be dissolved to depart and be with Christ and in the Society of the blessed Angels and Saints in Heaven was best of all and far more gainful and to be valued by him than any longer continuance or abode in the flesh The magnifying of Christ in his Body whether by Life or by Death was the Consideration with Paul that held the ballance cast the scale and that onely So it ought to be with every true Christian The end of man's coming into the Body and his temporary continuance and abode there according to the Law of his Creation is the magnifying and glorifying Christ either by his Life or by his Death or both the one of which if he do not it must needs be his sin and he is left without excuse For none can violate or corrupt the mind of man by the Law of Nature nor let in Death upon his Spiritual Substance but himself though they dissolve his temporary abode in the flesh break his outward case and shel and rather than do the one we should choose the other choose affliction rather than sin the dissolution of the Body rather than the corrupting of the Mind In so doing and dying Christ is magnifyed Thus Peter was foretold by what Death he should glorify God And to such it is given by Christ not onely to Believe but Suffer and Die for his Names sake as a transcendent priviledge and honour If no restraint then be upon our mind from without what hinders that Christ is not magnified in our Body but something within us in our judgement will and affections that are not right set and fixed nor as yet wrought to this self same thing by God who hath given us the earnest of his Spirit But it may be demanded What is it in which this great duty of man lies as to the magnifying of Christ in his Body by his Life or living in the Body which is a more difficult thing to do than to Die Christ himself tells us when he saith Let your Light so shine before men that they may see feel and sensibly discern your good works and so glorify your father which is in Heaven There are two sorts of signs we read of in those that believe which justifie their Faith in consortship as it were with which their Faith works and is made perfect so as the work of Faith is fulfilled in them with power 1. Signs Extraordinary as Mark 16. 18. with which the Primitive Christians were well acquainted and so may all such again as arrive to any competent maturity in that primitive Christian Spirit 2. Signes Ordinary as those mentioned Gal. 5. 22 23. called the fruits of the Spirit in us that makes us mighty in word and in deed not onely to will but to perform that which is good by being filled with the Spirit in our very Bodies made the Temples of the holy Ghost rich in Faith and Tuch good Works as are the fruit of Faith without which Faith it self is dead and unprofitable and by which Abraham justified his Faith and was called the Friend of God It is in this sense the Prophet urges the sanctification of our Vessels when he saith Be ye clean that bear the Vessels of the Lord. And the Apostle when he saith 1 Cor. 6. 19. What! know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the holy Ghost unto which Redemption by Christ extends as well as to your Spirits therefore glorify God in your Body as well as in your Spirit which is God's and wherein he hath and challengeth a special propriety The Body in Scripture acceptation signifies not onely the material substance from which the Soul is actually separated when it is laid in the Grave but very usually the Soul it self that is to say that part of the Soul which vitally unites the Body to it self whose faculty and operation is in and by the Body and doth properly and immediately exercise bodily Life as that which is co-natural and co-essential to it There is a higher part in man's Soul called Spirit in distinction from Soul and Body expressed 1 Thes 5. 23. as if the Spirit were an entire thing in it self though it be that in and with which Soul and Body doth consist as parts of the whole Man I pray God saith the Apostle that your whole Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless to the coming of Christ and that you may be sanctified throughout or in every part of you in your Soul and in your Body which are to be esteemed but as parts comparatively with your whole Spirit Man considered as entire in his Spirit may have and hath being before he partakes of Flesh and Blood as it is written Behold saith Christ I and the children which thou hast given me Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself took part of the same even he who with the children were a mystery hid with the Father before the World was and had their Seminal and radical Being in the Word of Life the Father of Spirits In this Word as in the Image and Mental conception of the invisible God the Souls of all men even of Christ himself as man were comprehended as in their original pattern and rule in order at the time appointed to come into flesh and there make their temporary abode allotted to them By the Condition and Law of Man's Creation he is made a Spiritual essence with two distinct faculties and operations according to which he may be said to be both Immortal and Mortal Immaterial and Material Spirit and Body as Body signifies man's animal rational Soul that is to live in flesh and hath its peculiar desire faculty and operation proportioned thereunto In all this Man bears the Image and Similitude of God the Mediator or of the Godhead in Christ as two Natures in him are Hypostatically united and make but one Compositum or Person This was comprehended in that Counsel which the blessed Trinity took concerning the making of Man in their Image and after their Similitude He was made male and female in his very Spiritual substance First with a faculty and operation of mind superiour stronger and more excellent which is free and independent upon bodily organs exercising Life properly and purely Spiritual and Immaterial above and without the use of sensible signes or shapes Secondly With that inferiour faculty and operation of mind whose subsistence life being and motion is in with and by the body and through the use of bodily organs sensible signes and external mediums on the loss of which this second faculty and operation of man's Soul which is the weaker inferiour and less valuable ceases at least is for a time suspended which in Scripture phrase is called Death even the Death of the Body Yet the more vigorous the exercise of this latter is and the more that thereby we are at home in the Body the more in truth and reality we are dead at least asleep in the earth as to our more Noble and Spiritual part in and through which we enjoy most of the presence of God and of Christ Since therefore mans constitution of Being in such as he cannot live both these Lives together untill the Resurrection but that in the one of them he must be incompleat have his operation much suspended and be as it were dead or asleep To resolve which of these to choose and prefer ought not to be so difficult as commonly it is made On the SUFFERINGS of the Renowned Sir H. Vane Knight GReat Soul ne're Understood Until deciphered by thy Blood A Priest a Prophet and a King Systeme of every worthy thing Dying that Liberty might Live The English Cause he doth retrieve Stating it in no formal dress But in the Spirit of Righteousness Which he from th' earth perceiving fled Dy'd to Return with 't from the Dead Persons or Forms of Government Did little make to his intent To nought was he an Enemy But what was fix'd in Enmity ' Gainst which he fought with eager breath Became Victorious in his Death And this not by necessity It was his Principle to Dye Flesh will resist but Faith can suffer The soft hand 's gone beware the rougher Th' envy and hate of every Form Upon his head pour'd down the Storm Whilst he sublim'd and sav'd the good O' th' lowest and seal'd it with his Blood How great he was his Enemies tell Who while he liv'd could not be well And in what stead his offering stood By resolute silence Friends made good The male o' th' Flock is ta'ne the best To expiate the blame o' th' rest What tears and prayers wanted in strength His crying blood brings down at length Groan English Hearts groan help the cry Lord Jesus Come I come quickly FINIS The Printer to the Reader IT 's very probable thou mayest meet with some faults and misprintings escaped the Corrector which could not be avoided by reason of the distance between the Transcriber and the Press thou art desired to correct them and pass them by with candor One thou mayest find in page 54 and 55 all those words within the Parenthesis should come in after the word Penetent And page 97. in the Title to that part read Case for Cause ☜
extraordinariness thereof And I beseech your Lordships to let me go on without interruption in my endeavouring to make it out as clearly as God shall enable me and as briefly also not to spend too much of your time In general I do affirm of this Case That it is so comprehensive as to take in the very Interests of Heaven and Earth First Of God the Universal Soveraign and King of Kings Secondly That of earthly Soveraigns who are God's Vicegerents as also the Interests of all Mankind that stand in the relation of Subjects to the one or both those sorts of Soveraigns This is general More particularly within the bowels of this Case is that Cause of God that hath stated it self in the late Differnces and Wars that have happened and arisen within these three Nations and have been of more than twenty years continuance which for the greater certainty and solemnity hath been recorded in the form of a National Covenant in which the generality of the three Nations have been either implicitly involved or expresly concern'd by the signing of their Names The principal things contained in that Covenant were the known and commonly received Duties which either as Men or as Christians we owed and stood obliged to perform either to God the highest and universal King in Church and State or to our natural Lord and Sovereign the Kings of this Realm in subordination to God and his Laws Again It contains as well the Duties which we owe to every particular and individual person in their several stations and callings as to the King in general and our Representative Body in Parliament assembled These Duties we are thereby obliged to yeeld and perform in consistency with and in a just subordination and manifest agreeableness to the Laws of God as is therein expressed And this also in no disagreement to the Laws of the Land as they then were By this solemn Covenant and Agreement of the three Nations giving up themselves in subjection to God and to his Laws in the first place as the Allegiance they owe to their highest Soveraign as the Creator Redeemer Owner and Ruler of all Mankind they have so far interested the Son of God in the the Supream Rule and Government of these Nations that nothing therein ought to be brought into practice contrary to his revealed Will in the holy Scriptures and his known and most righteous Laws This Duty which we owe to God the universal King Nature and Christianity do so clearly teach and assert that it needs no more than to be named For this subjection and allegiance to God and his Laws by a Right so indisputable all are accountable before the Judgment-seat of Christ It is true indeed men may de facto become open Rebels to God and to his Laws and prove such as forfeit his Protection and engage him to proceed against them as his professed Enemies But with your Lordships favour give me leave to say that that which you have made a Rule for your proceedings in my Case will indeed hold and that very strongly in this that is to say in the sence wherein Christ the Son of God is King de jure not only in general over the whole World but in particular in relation to these three Kingdoms He ought not to be kept out of his Throne nor his visible Government that consists in the Authority of his Word and Laws suppressed and trampled under foot under any pretence whatsoever And in the asserting and adhering unto the Right of this highest Soveraign as stated in the Covenant before mentioned The Lords and Commons joyntly before the year 1648 and the Commons alone afterwards to the very times charged in the Indictment did manage the War and late Differences within these Kingdoms And whatever defections did happen by Apostates Hypocrites and Time-serving worldlings there was a party amongst them that continued firm sincere and chast unto the last and loved it better than their very lives of which number I am not ashamed to profess my self to be not so much admiring the form and words of the Covenant as the righteous and holy ends therein expressed and the true sense and meaning thereof which I have reason to know Nor will I deny but that as to the manner of the prosecution of the Covenant to other ends than it self warrants and with a rigid oppressive spirit to bring all dissenting minds and tender Consciences under one Uniformity of Church-discipline and government it was utterly against my Judgment For I alwayes esteemed it more agreeable to the Word of God that the Ends and Work declared in the Covenant should be promoted in a spirit of love and forbearance to differing Judgments and Consciences that thereby we might be approving our selves in doing that to others which we desire they would do to us and so though upon different principles be found joynt and faithful advancers of the Reformation contained in the Covenant both publick and personal This happy Union and Conjunction of all Interests in the respective duties of all relations agreed and consented to by the common suffrage of the three Nations as well in their publick Parliamentary capacity as private stations appeared to me a Rule and measure approved of and commanded by Parliament for my action and deportment though it met with great opposition in a tedious sad and long War and this under the name and pretext of Royal Authority Yet as this Case appeared to me in my conscience under all its circumstances of Times of Persons and of Revolutions inevitably happening by the hand of God and the course of his wise Providences I held it safest and best to keep my station in Parliament to the last under the guidance and protection of their Authority and in pursuance of the Ends before declared in my just Defence This general and publick Case of the Kingdoms is so well known by the Declarations and Actions that have passed on both sides that I need but name it since this matter was not done in a corner but frequently contended for in the high places of the Field and written even with characters of Blood And out of the bowels of these Publick Differences and Disputes doth my particular Case arise for which I am called into question But admitting it come to my lot to stand single in the witness I am to give to this Glorious Cause and to be left alone as in a sort I am yet being upheld with the Authority before asserted and keeping my self in union and conjunction therewith I am not afraid to bear my Witness to it in this great Presence nor to seal it with my Blood if called thereunto And I am so far satisfied in my conscience and understanding that it neither is nor can be Treason either against the Law of Nature or the Law of the Land either malum per se or malum prohibitum that on the contrary it is the duty I owed to God the universal King and
railed against the Judges and that it was a lye and I am here sayes he to testifie that it is false Sir Henry Vane replied God will judge between me and you in this matter I speak but matter of Fact and cannot you bear that 'T is evident the Judges have refused to sign my Bill of Exceptions Then the Trumpets were ordered to sound or murre in his face with a contemptible noise to hinder his being heard At which Sir Henry lifting up his hand and then laying it on his breast said What mean you Gentlemen is this your usage of me did you use all the rest so I had even done as to that could you have been patient but seeing you cannot bear it I shall only say this That whereas the Judges have refused to seal that with their hands that they have done I am come to seal that with my Blood that I have done Therefore leaving this matter which I perceive will not be born I judge it meet to give you some account of my Life I might tell you I was born a Gentleman had the education temper and spirit of a Gentleman as well as others being in my youthfull dayes inclined to the vanities of this world and to that which they call Good-fellowship judging it to be the only means of accomplishing a Gentleman But about the fourteenth or fifteenth year of my age which is about thirty four or five years since God was pleased to lay the foundation or ground-work of Repentance in me for the bringing me home to himself by his wonderful rich and free Grace revealing his Son in me that by the knowledge of the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent I might even whilst here in the body be made partaker of Eternal Life in the first-fruits of it When my Conscience was thus awakened I found my former course to be disloyalty to God prophaneness and a way of sin and death which I did with tears and bitterness bewail as I had cause to do Since that foundation of Repentance laid in me through Grace I have been kept steadfast desiring to walk in all good Conscience towards God and towards men according to the best light and understanding God gave me For this I was willing to turn by back upon my Estate expose my self to hazards in Forreign parts yea nothing seemed difficult to me so I might preserve Faith and a good Conscience which I prefer before all things and do earnestly perswade all people rather to suffer the highest contradictions from men than disobey God by contradicting the light of their own Conscience In this it is I stand with so much comfort and boldness before you all this day and upon this occasion being assured that I shall at last sit down in Glory with Christ at his right hand I stand here this day to resign up my Spirit into the hands of that God that gave it me Death is but a little word but 't is a great work to die it is to be but once done and after this cometh the Judgment even the Judgment of the great God which it concerns us all to prepare for And by this Act I do receive a discharge once for all out of Prison even the Prison of the mortal body also which to a true Christian is a burdensom weight In all respects wherein I have been concerned and engaged as to the Publick my design hath been to accomplish Good things for these Nations Then lifting up his eyes and spreading his hands he said I do here appeal to the great God of Heaven and all this Assembly or any other persons to shew wherein I have defiled my hands with any mans Blood or Estate or that I have sought my self in any publick capacity or place I have been in The Cause was three times stated 1. In the Remonstrance of the House of Commons 2. In the Covenant the Solemn League and Covenant Upon this the Trumpets sounded the Sheriff catched at the Paper in his hand and Sir John Robinson who at first had acknowledged that he had nothing to do there wishing the Sheriff to see to it yet found himself something to do now furiously calling for the Writers-Books and saying he treats of Rebellion and you write it Hereupon six Note-Books were delivered up The Prisoner was very patient and composed under all these injuries and soundings of the Trumpets several times in his face only saying 'T was hard he might not be suffered to speak but sayes he my usage from man is no harder than was my Lord and Masters And all that will live his life this day must expect hard dealing from the worldly spirit The Trumpets sounded again to hinder his being heard Then again Robinson and two or three others endeavoured to snatch the Paper out of Sir Henry's hand but he kept it for a while now and then reading part of it afterwards tearing it in pieces he delivered it to a Friend behind him who was presently forced to deliver it to the Sheriff Then they put their hands into his pockets for Papers as was pretended which bred great confusion and dissatisfaction to the Spectators seeing a Prisoner so strangely handled in his dying words This was exceeding remarkable in the midst of all this disorder the Prisoner himself was observed to be of the most constant composed spirit and countenance which he throughout so excellently manifested that a Royallist swore he dyed like a Prince The Prisoner suspecting beforehand the disorder afore-mentioned writ the main Substance of what he intended to speak on the Scaffold in that Paper they catched at and which he tore in pieces delivering it to a Friend from whom the Sheriff had it as above-said the true Copy whereof was by the Prisoner carefully committed to a safe hand before he came to the Scaffold which take as followeth THe Work which I am at this time called unto in this place as upon a Publick Theater is to Die and receive a Discharge once for all out of Prison to do that which is but once to be done the doing or not doing of which well and as becomes a Christian does much depend upon the life we have been taught of God to lead before we come to this They that live in the Faith do also die in it Faith is so far from leaving Christians in this hour that the work of it breaks forth then into its greatest power as if till then it were not enough at freedom to do its office that is to look into the things that are unseen with most steadfastness certainty and delight which is the great Sweetner of Death and Remover of its Sting Give me leave therefore in a very few words to give you an account of my Life and of the wonderful great Grace and Mercy of God in bringing me home to himself and revealing his Son in me that by the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent I might
Son Lay him low and humble abase his soul for his sins and all his unworthinesses before thee Men cannot speak evil enough of our sins In this perswasion this abasement and humiliation thy Servant desires to die And dear Lord thou seest knowst all things and art able to witness to the truth integrity of thy Servant When his blood is shed upon the Block let it have a voice afterward that may speak his Innocency and strengthen the Faith of thy Servants in the Truth Let it also serve for conviction to the worst of thy Enemies that they may say Surely the Lord knows and the Lord owns his Servant as one that belongs to him The desire of our soul is to hasten to thee O God to be dissolved that we may be with Christ Blessed be thy Name that this great strait that we were before in is now determined that there is no longer abode for me in this mortal body Our great Captain the great General of our souls did go in a way of affliction before us to Heaven Come Lord declare thy Will that thy poor Servant may manifest a readiness to come to Thee Prepare his heart that in his access to Thee may he be brought down at thy feet in shame confusion for all the evil is so of hul but Thou art his salvation Let thy Servant speak something on the behalf of the Nation wherein he hath lived Lord did we not exceed other Nations in our day Great things have been done by thee in the midst of us Oh that thou wouldst look down in pity compassion and pardon the sins of this whole Nation and lay them not to their charge shew them what is thy good and acceptable Will and bring them into subjection thereunto We humbly pray thee O Lord look down with compassion upon this great populous City cleanse away the impurity sinfulness and defilements thereof cause their souls to delight in thy Word that they may live Let a spirit of Reformation and Purity spring up in and amongst them with power make them willing to lay down all that is dear to them for thee that Thou mayst give them a Crown of Life that they may always desire chuse affliction and to be exposed to the worst condition hardest circumstances that can be brought upon them in this world rather than sin against him that hath loved them and bought them with a price that they might live to him in their bodies and in their spirits We are assured Thou knowest our suffering case and condition how it is with us We desire to give no just occasion of offence nor to provoke any but in meekness to forgive our Enemies Thy Servant that is now falling asleep doth heartily desire of thee that thou wouldest forgive them and not lay this sin to their charge Before the stroke he spake to this effect I bless the Lord who hath accounted me worthy to suffer for his Name Blessed be the Lord that I have kept a conscience void of offence to this day I bless the Lord I have not disserted the Righteous Cause for which I suffer But his very last words of all at the Block were as followeth Father glorifie thy Servant in the sight of men that he may glorifie thee in the discharge of his Duty to Thee and to his Country It was observed that no signs of inward fear appeared by any trembling or shaking of his hands or any other parts of his body all along on the Scaffold Yea an ancient Traveller and curious observer of the demeanor of persons in such publick Executions did narrowly eye his Countenance to the last breath and his Head immediatly after the separation he observed that his Countenance did not in the least change and whereas the Heads of all he had before seen did some way or other move after severing which argued some reluctancy and unwillingness to that parting-blow the Head of this Sufferer lay perfectly still immediately upon the separation on which he said to this purpose That his Death was by the free consent and act of his mind which Animadversion notably accords with what the Sufferer himself had before expressed in differencing a death by rational choice from that by sickness which is with constraint upon the body He desired to be dissolved to be with Christ The Names of the Grand Jury in the Case of Sir Henry Vane SIr John Cropley of Clarkenwel London Knight and Baronet Thomas Taylor of St. Martins in the Fields London Esq Francis Swift of St. Gyles in the Fields Esq. Jonas Morley of Hammersmith Gent. George Cooper of Covent Garden Gent. Thomas Constable of Covent Garden Gent. Edward Burrows of East-Smithfield Gent. Michael Dibbs of the same Gent. Edward Gregory of St. Gyles in the Fields Gent. Richard Freeman of Istington Gent. Thomas Pitcock of the same Gent. Richard Towers of Clarkenwel Gent. Robert Vauce of Paddington Gent. Thomas Benning of Wilsdon Gent. Francis Child of Acton Gent. Isaac Cotton of Bow Gent. Peter Towers of Mile-end Gent. Thomas Vffman of Hammersmith Gent. Matthew Child of Kensington Gent. Bryan Bonnaby of Westminster Gent. George Rouse of St. Gyles in the Fields Gent. Twenty one in all The Names of the Petty Jury Sir William Roberts Sir Christopher Abdy John Leech Daniel Cole John Stone Daniel Brown Henry Carter Thomas Chelsam Thomas Pitts Thomas Upman Andrew Brent William Smith Judges of the King 's Bench. Chief Justice Foster Justice Mallet Justice Twisden Justice Windham The Kings Counsel against the Prisoner no Counsel being permited to speake one word in his behalf to the matter or form of the Indictment or any thing else Sir Geoffry Palmer the King's Attorney General Sir Henneage Fynch the King's Sollicitor General Sir John Glyn. Sir John Maynard Sir William Wild. Serjeant Keeling Witnesses against Sir Henry Vane Marsh a Papist 't is said who witnessed what was accounted most dangerous against the Prisoner as to change of Government William Dobbins Mathew Lock Thomas Pury Thomas Wallis John Coot The Peoples Cause Stated HE in whom is the Right of Soveraign and to give Law is either so of himself or in the Right of another that may derive the same unto him which shews that there are two sorts of Soveraings A Soveraign in the first sense none is nor can be but God who is of himself most absolute And he that is first of all others in the second sence is the Man Christ Jesus to whom the Power of Soveraign in the Right of the Father is committed over all the Works of Gods hands Christ exercised the same in the capacity of David's Root from before the beginning of the World He owne himself thus to be long before he became David's Seed This his being in Spirit or hidden being even as a Creature the first of all Creatures in personal Union with the Word David saw and acknowledged Psal 110. 1. Thus Christ may be called God's Lieutenant
God 3. Such Appeal answered and the issue decided by Battel the Peoples Delegates still sitting and keeping together in their Collective Body may of right and according to reason refuse the re-admission or new-admission of the Exercise of the former Rulers or any new Rulers again over the whole Body till there be received Satisfaction for the former Wrongs done the expence and hazzard of the War and Security for the time to come that the like be not committed again Until this be obtained they are bound in duty in such manner as they judge most fit to provide for the present Government of the whole Body that the Common-weal receive no detriment 4. In this which is the proper Office of the Peoples Delegates and concerns the keeping and defending the Liberty and Right of the whole People and Nation they may and ought during their sitting to Exercise their own proper Power and Authority the Exigents of the Kingdom requiring it although the other two Estates joyntly instructed with them in the exercise of the Legislative Authority should desert their station or otherwise sail in the Execution of their Trusts yea or though many or most of their own Members so long as a lawful Quorum remains shall either voluntarily withdraw from them or for just cause become excluded In this discharge of their trust for the common welfare and safety of the whole their Actings though extraordinary and contrarient to the right of the other two cannot be treasonable or criminal though they may be tortious and erroneous seeing they are equals and co-ordinate in the exercise of the Legislative Power and have the Right of their own proper Trust and Office to discharge and defend though their fellow Trustees should fail in theirs Nor can nor ought the People as Adherents to their own Delegates and Representatives to be reputed criminal or blame worthy by the Law In the exercise of one and the same Legislative power according to the Fundamental Constitution of the Government of England there are three distinct publick Votes allowed for Assent or Discent in all matters coming before them the Agreement of which is essential and necessary to the passing of a Law the personal Vote of the King the personal Votes of the Lords in a House or distinct Body and the Delegated Vote and Suffrage of the whole People in their Representative Body or the House of Commons Unto each of these appertains a distinct Office and Priviledge proper to them 1. The Regal Office and the Prerogative thereof to the King 2. The Judicial Office to the Lords as the highest Judicature and Court of Justice under the King for the exercising Coercive Power and punishing of Malefactors 3. The Office of the Keepers of the Liberties and Rights of the People as they are the whole Nation incorporated under one Head by their own free and common Consent The Regal Office is the Fountain of all Coercive and Executive Power pursuant to the Rule set to the same by Law or the Agreement of the three Estates in Parliament The Rule which is set is that of Immutable Just and Right according to which penalties are applicable and become due and is first stated and ascertained in the declared Law of God which is the signification or making known by some sign the Will of the Supream Legislator proceeding from a perfect Judgement and Understanding that is without all Error or Defect The Will that flowes from such a Judgement is in its nature Legislative and binding and of right to be obeyed for its own sake and the perfection it carries in it and with it in all its actings This Will is declared by Word or Works or both By Word we are to understand either the immediate Breath and Spirit of Gods mouth or mind or the Inspiration of the Almighty ministred by the holy Ghost in and by some creature as his vessel and instrument through which the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament were composed By works that declare God's Will we are to understand the whole Book of the Creature but more eminently and especially the particular Beings and Natures of Angels and Men who bear the name and likeness of God in and upon their Judgements and their Wills their directing Power and their executive Power of mind which are essential to their Being Life and Motion When these direct and execute in conjunction and harmony with God's Judgement and Will made known in his Law they do that which is right and by adhering and conforming themselves unto this their certain and unerring Guide do become Guides and Rulers unto others and are the Objects of right choice where Rulers are wanting in Church or State The Rule then to all action of Angels or Men is that of moral or immutable Just and Right which is stated and declared in the Will and Law of God The first and highest imitation of this Rule is the Creature-being in the person of Christ The next is the Bride the Lambs Wife The next is the innumerable Society of the holy Angels The next is the Company of Just Men fixed in their natural Obedience and Duty through Faith manifesting it self not onely in their Spirits but in their outward Man redeemed even in this World from the body of corruption as far as is here attainable The Power which is directive and states and ascertains the morallity of the Rule for Obedience is in the Law of God But the original whence all just executive Power arises which is Magistratical and Coercive is from the will or free gift of the People who may either keep the Power in themselves or give up their Subjection into the hands and will of another as their Leader and Guide if they shall judge that thereby they shall better answer the end of Government to wit the welfare and safety of the whole then if they still kept the Power in themselves And when they part with it they may do it conditionally or absolutely and whilst they keep it they are bound to the right use of it In this Liberty every man is created and it is the Priviledge and just Right which is granted unto Man by the Supream Law-giver even by the Law of Nature under which man was made God himself leaves man to the free exercise of this his Liberty when he tenders to him his safety and immutability upon the well or ill use of this his Liberty allowing him the choice either to be his own guide and self-ruler in the ability communicated to him to know and execute Gods Will and so to keep the Liberty he is possessed of in giving away his subjection or not or else upon God's Call and Promise to give up himself in way of subjection to God as his Guide and Ruler either absolutely or conditionally To himself he expects absolute Subjection to all subordinate Rulers conditional While mans Subjection is his own and in his own keeping unbestowed and ungiven out of himself he