That the king shall improve his power for their good and make it his work to procure their safeties and they to provide for his honor which it done to the Commonwealth in him as the Sword and Ensigns of Honor carried before the Lord Major are for the honor of the city now as when any one of this people shall compass the death of the Governor ruling well this is a Treason punishable with death for the wrong done to the Community and Anathema be to such a man so when he or they that are trusted to fight the peoples Battels and to procure their welfare shall prevaricate and act to the inslaving or destroying of the people who are their Liege Lords and all Governors are but the peoples creatures and the work of their hands to be accomptable as their Stewards and is it not senseless for the vessel to ask the Potter by what Law he calls it to account this is high Treason with a witness and far more transcendent then in the former case because the king was paid for his Service and the Dignity of the Person does increase the offence for a great man of noble Education and knowledge to betray so great a Trust and abuse so much love as the Parliament shewed to the king by Petitioning him as good Subjects praying for him as good Christians advising him as good Counsellors and treating with him as the great Counsel of the kingdom with such infinite care and tenderness of his honor a course which Gods people did not take with Rehoboam they never petitioned him but advised him he refused their counsel and hearkened to yong Counsellors and they cry To thy tents O Israel and made quick and short work of it after all this and much more longanimity and patience from the Lord to the Servant for him not onely to set up a Standard of War in defiance of his dread Soveraign The People for so they truly were in Nature though Names have befool'd us but to persist so many years in such cruel persecutions who with a word of his mouth might have made a Peace If ever there were so superlative a Treason let the Indians judge and whosoever shall break and violate such a trust and confidence Anathema Maranatha be unto them Q. But why was there not a written Law to make it Treason for the King to destroy the people as well as for a man to compass the Kings death Resp. Because our Ancestors did never imagine that any King of England would have been so desperately mad as to leavy a War against the Parliament and people as in the Common instance of Paricide the Romans made no Law against him that should kill his Father thinking no childe would be so unnatural to be the death of him who was the Author of his life but when a childe came to be accused for a Murther there was a more cruel punishment inflicted then for other Homicides for he was thrown into the Sea in a great Leather Barrel with a Dog a Jackanapes a Cock and a Viper significant companions for him to be deprived of all the Elements as in my Poor mans Case Fol. 10. Nor was there any Law made against Parents that should kill their children yet if any man was so unnatural he had an exemplary punishment Obj. But is it not a Maxime in Law That the King can do no wrong Resp. For any man to say so is blasphemy against the great God of Truth and Love for onely God cannot erre because what he wills is right because he wills it and 't is a sad thing to consider how learned men for unworthy ends should use such art to subdue the people by transportation of their sences as to make them believe that the Law is That the King can do no wrong First For Law I do aver it with confidence but in all humility That there is no such Case to be found in Law That if the King Rob or Murther or commit such horrid Extravagancies that it is no wrong Indeed the case is put in H. 7. by a chief Judge that If the King kill a man 't is no felony to make him suffer death that is to be meant in ordinary Courts of Justice But there is no doubt but the Parliament might try the King or appoint others to judge him for it We finde Cases in Law that the King hath been sued even in Civil Actions In 43 E 3. 22. it is resolved That all maner of Actions did lie against the King as against any Lord and 24 E. 3. 23. Wilby a learned Judge said that there was a Writ Praecipe Henrico Regi Angliae Indeed E. 1. did make an Act of State That men should sue to him by Petition but this was not agreed unto in Parliament Thelwall title Roye digest of Writs 71. But after when Judges places grew great the Judges and Bitesheeps began to sing Lullaby and speak Platentia to the king that My Lord the King is an Angel of light Now Angels are not responsible to men but God therefore not kings And the Judges they begin to make the king a God and say that by Law his stile is Sacred Majesty though he swears every hour and Gracious Majesty though gracious men be the chief objects of his hatred and that the king hath an Omnipotency and Omnipresence But I am sure there is no Case in Law That if the king leavy a War against the Parliament and people that it is not Treason Possibly that Case in H. 7. may prove That if the king should in his passion kill a man this shall not be Felony to take away the kings life for the inconveniency may be greater to the people by putting a king to death for one offence and miscarriage then the execution of Justice upon him can advantage them But what 's this toa leavying of War against a Parliament never any Judge was so devoid of understanding that he denyed that to be Treason But suppose a Judge that held his place at the kings pleasure did so I am sure never any Parliament said so But what if there had in dark times of Popery been an Act made That the king might Murther Ravish Burn and perpetrate all mischiefs and play Reaks with impunity will any man that hath but wit enough to measure an Ell of cloath or to tell Twenty say That this is an Obligation for men to stand still and suffer a Monster to cut their throats and grant Commission to rob at Suters hill as such and no better are all Legal thefts and oppressions The Doctor says That a Statute against giving an alms to a poor man is void He is no Student I mean was never bound Prentice to Reason that says A king cannot commit Treason against the people Ob. But are there not Negative words in the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. That nothing else shall be construed to be Treason but what is there exprest Res That Statute was intended for
an Indian say to this case A King hath all power in his hands to do justice There is one accused upon strong presumptions at the least for poisoning that Kings Father The King protects him from justice Whether do you believe that himself had any hand in his Fathers death Had the Duke been accused for the death of a begger he ought not to have protected him from a Judicial Trial. We know that by Law it is no lesse then misprision of Treason to conceal a Treason and to conceal a Murder strongly implies a guilt thereof and makes him a kind of Accessary to the fact He that hath no nature to do justice to his own Father could it ever be expected that he should do justice to others Was he fit to continue a Father to the people who was without natural affection to his own Father Will he love a Kingdome that shewed no love to himself unlesse it was that he durst not suffer Inquisition to be made for it But I leave it as a riddle which at the day of Judgement will be expounded and unridled for some sinnes will not be made manifest till that day with this only That had he made the Law of God his delight and studied therein night and day as God commanded his Kings to do or had he but studied Scripture half so much as Ben Johnson or Shakespear he might have learnt That when Amaziah was setled in the Kingdom he suddenly did justice upon those servants which had killed his father Joash he did not by any pretended prerogative excuse or protect them but delivered them up into the hands of that Justice which the horridnesse of the fact did undoubtedly demerit That Parliament 4. Car. proving so abortive the King sets forth a Proclamation That none should presume to move him to call Parliaments for he knew how to raise monies enough without the help of Parliaments therefore in 12 years refuseth to call any In which interval and intermission how he had oppressed the people by incroachments and usurpations upon their liberties and properties and what vast summes of mony he had forceably exacted and exhausted by illegal Patents and Monopolies of all sorts I referre the Reader to that most judicious and full Declaration of the state of the Kingdeme published in the beginning of this Parliament That Judgment of Ship-mony did upon the matter formalize the people absolute slaves and him an absolute Tyrant for if the King may take from the people in case of necessity and himself shall be Judge of that necessity then cannot any man say that he is worth 6d for if the King say that he hath need of that 6d then by Law he must have it I mean that great Nimrod that would have made all England a Forrest and the People which the Bishop call his sheep to be his Venison to be hunted at his pleasure Nor does the common objection That the Judges and evil Counsellors and not the King ought to be responsible for such male-Administrations injustice and oppression beare the weight of a feather in the ballance of right reason For 1. Who made such wicked and corrupt Judges were they not his own Creatures and ought not every man to be accountable for the works of his own hands He that does not hinder the doing of evil if it lies in his power to prevent it is guilty of it as a commander thereof He that suffered those black Starres to inflict such barbarous cruelties and unheard of punishments as Brandings Slitting of Noses c. upon honest men to the dishonour of the Protestant Religion and disgrace of the Image of God shining in the face of man He well deserv'd to have been so served But 2. He had the benefit of those illegal Fines and Judgments I agree That if a Judge shall oppresse I. S. for the benefit of I. D. the King ought not to answer for this but the Judge unlesse he protect the Judge against the complaint of I. S. and in that case he makes himself guilty of it But when an unjust judgment is given against I. S. for the Kings benefit and the Fine to come immediately into his Coffers he that receives the mony must needs be presumed to consent to the judgement But 3. Mark a Machiaveipolicy Call no Parliaments to question the injustice and corruption of Judges for the Peoples relief And make your own Iudges and let that be Law that they declare whether it be reasonable or unreasonable it is no matter But then how came it to passe that we had any more Parliaments Had we not a gracious King to call a Parliament when there was so much need of it and to passe so many gracious Acts to put downe the Starre-Chamber c Nothing lesse It was not any voluntary free Act of grace not the least ingredient or tincture of love or goodaffection to the people that called the short Parliament in 16 but to serve his owne turne against the Scots whom he then had designed to enslave and those seven Acts of grace which the King past were no more then his duty to do nor halfe so much but giving the people a take of their own grists and he dissents with them about the Militia which commanded all the rest he never intended thereby any more good and security to the people then he that stealing the Goose leaves the feathers behinde him But to answer the question thus it was The king being wholly given up to be led by the counsels of a Jesuited Party who indeavoured to throw a bone of dissention among us that they might cast in their net into our troubled waters and catch more fish for St. Peters Sea perswaded the King to set up a new forme of Prayer in Scotland and laid the bait so cunningly that whether they saw it or not they were undone if they saw the mystery of iniquity couched in it they would resist and so merit punishment for rebelling if they swallowed it it would make way for worse well they saw the poison and refused to taste it the King makes warre and many that loved honour and wealth more then God assisted him down he went with an Army but his treasure wasted in a short time fight they would not for feare of an after-reckoning some Commanders propound that they should make their demands and the King grants all comes back to London and burnes the Pacification saying it was counterfeit they reassume their forts he raises a second warre against them and was necessitated to call a Parliament offering to lay down shipmoney for twelve subsidies they refuse the King in high displeasure breakes off the Parliament and in a Declaration commands them not to thinke of any more Parliaments for he would never call another There was a King of Egypt that cruelly opprest the People they poore slaves complaining to one another he feared a rising and commanded that none should complaine upon paine of cruell death
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
the peoples safety that the kings Judges should not make Traytors by the dozens to gratifie the king or Courtiers but it was never meant to give liberty to the king to destroy the people and though it be said That the king and Parliament onely may declare Treason yet no doubt if the king will neglect his duty it may be so declared without him for when many are obliged to do any service if some of them fail the rest must do it Obj. But is there any president that ever any man was put to death that did not offend against some written Law For where there is no Law there is no transgression R. 'T is very true where there is neither Law of God nor Nature nor positive Law there can be no transgression and therefore that Scripture is much abused to apply it onely to Laws positive For First ad ea quae frequentius c. 'T is out of the sphaere of all earthly Law-givers to comprehend and express all particular cases that may possibly happen but such as are of most frequent concurrence particulars being different like the several faces of men different from one another else Laws would be too tedious and as particulars occur rational men will reduce them to general reasons of State so as every thing may be adjudged for the good of the Community 2. The Law of England is Lex non scripta and we have a direction in the Epistle to the 3. Rep. That when our Law Books are silent we must repair to the Law of Nature and Reason Holinshed and other Historians tell us That in 20 H. 8. the Lord Hungerford was executed for Buggery for which there was then no positive Law to make it Felony and before any Statute against Witchcraft many Witches have been hanged in England because it is death by Gods Law If any Italian Mountebanck should come over hither and give any man poyson that should lie in his body above a year and a day and then kill him as it is reported they can give a man poyson that shall consume the body in three years will any make scruple or question to hang up such a Rascal At Naples the great Treasurer of Corn being intrusted with many Thousand quarters at three shillings the bushel for the common good finding an opportunity to sell it for five shillings the bushel to Forraign Merchants inriched himself exceedingly thereby and Corn growing suddenly dear the Counsel called him to account for it who proffered to allow three shillings for it as it was delivered into his Custody and hoped thereby to escape and for so great a breach of Trust nothing would content the people but to have him hanged and though there was no positive Law for it to make it Treason yet it was resolved by the best Politicians that it was Treason to break so great a Trust by the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom and that for so great an offence he ought to dye that durst presume to inrich himself by that which might indanger the lives of so many Citizens for as society is natural so Governors must of necessity and in all reason provide for the preservation and sustenance of the meanest member he that is but as the little toe of the body politique But I know the ingenuous Reader desires to hear something concerning Ireland where there were no less the 152000 men women and children most barbarously and satannically murthered in the first four moneths of the Rebellion as appeared by substantial proofs at the kings Bench at the tryal of Maoquire If the king had a hand or but a little finger in that Massacre every man will say Let him dye the death but how shall we be assured of that How can we know the Tree better then by its fruits For my own particular I have spent many serious thoughts about it and I desire in doubtful cases to give Charity the upper hand but I cannot in my conscience acquit him of it Many strong presumptions and several Oathes of honest men that we have seen the kings Commission for it cannot but amount to a clear proof If I meet a man running down stairs with a bloody Sword in his hand and finde a man stabbed in the Chamber though I did not see this man run into the body by that man which I met yet if I were of the Jury I durst not but finde him guilty of the murther and I cannot but admire that any man should deny that for him which he durst never deny for himself How often was that monstrous Rebellion laid in his dish and yet he durst never absolutely deny it never was Bear so unwillingly brought to the stake as he was to declare against the Rebels and when he did once call them Rebels he would suffer but forty Copies to be printed and those to be sent to him seal'd and he hath since above forty times called them his Subjects and his good Subjects and sent to Ormond to give special thanks to some of these Rebels as Muskerry and Plunket which I am confident by what I see of his height of Spirit and undaunted resolution at his Tryal and since acting the last part answerable to the former part of his life He would rather have lost his life then to have sent thanks to two such incarnate Devils if he had not been as guilty as themselves questionless if the King had not been guilty of that blood he would have made a thousand Declarations against those Blood-hounds and Hell-hounds that are not to be named but with fire and brimstone and have sent to all Princes in the world for Assistance against such accursed Devils in the shape of men but he durst not offend those Fiends and Fire-brands for if he had I verily believe they would soon have produced his Commission under his hand and seal of Scotland at Edenburgh 1641. A copy whereof is in the Parliaments hands attested by Oath dispersed by copies in Ireland which caused the general Rebellion Obj. He did not give Commission to kill the English but to take their Forts Castles Towns and Arms and come over and help him And is it like all this could be effected without the slaughter of the poor English Did the king ever call them Rebels but in forty Proclamations wrung out of him by force by the Parliaments importunity Murthering the Protestants was so acceptable to him and with this limitation That none should be published without his further directions as appears under Nichols his hand now in the Parliaments custody But the Scots were proclaimed Rebels before they had killed a man or had an Army and a Prayer against them injoyned in all Churches but no such matter against the Irish Well when the Rebels were worsted in Ireland the King makes War here to protect them which but for his fair words had been prevented often calling God to witness He would assoon raise War on his own children And men from Popish
principles assist him Well We fought in jest and were kept between winning and losing The king must not be too strong lest he revenge himself nor the Parliament too strong for the Commons would rule all till Naseby fight that then the king could keep no more days of Thanksgiving so well as we Then he makes a Cessation in Ireland and many Irish came over to help him English came over with Papists who had scarce wiped their Swords since they had killed their wives and children and had their Estates But thus I argue The Rebels knew that the king had proclaimed them Traytors and forty Copies were Printed and the first clause of an Oath enjoyned by the General Councel of Rebels wrs To bear true Faith and Allegiance to King Charls and by all means to maintain his Royal Prerogative against the Puritans in the Parliament of England Now is any man to weak in his intellectuals as to imagine That if the Rebels had without the kings command or consent murthered so many Protestants and he thereupon had really proclaimed them Rebels That they would after this have taken a new Oath to have maintained his Prerogative No those bloody Devils had more wit then to fight in jest If the king had once in good earnest proclaimed them Rebels they would have burnt their Scabbards and would not have stiled themselves The King and Queens Army as they did And truly that which the king said for himself That he would have adventure d himself to have gone in Person into Ireland to suppress that Rebellion is but a poor Argument to inforce any mans belief That he was not guilty of the Massacre For it makes me rather think That he had some hopes to have returned in the head of 20 or 30000 Rebels to have destroyed this Nation For when the Earl of Leicester was sent by the Parliament to subdue the Rebels Did not the king hinder him from going and were not the cloaths and provisions which were sent by the Parliament for the relief of the poor Protestants there seized upon by his command and his men of War and sold or exchanged for Arms and Ammunition to destroy this Parliament And does not every man know That the Rebels in Ireland gave Letters of Mart for taking the Parliaments Ships but freed the kings as their very good friends And I have often heard it credibly reported that the king should say That nothing more troubled him but that there was not as much Protestant blood running in England and Scotland as in Ireland And when that horrid Rebellion begun to break forth How did the Papists here triumph and boast that they hoped ere long to see London streets run down in blood and yet I do not think that the king was a Papist or that he designed to introduce the Popes Supremacy in Spiritual things into this kingdom But thus it was A Jesuitical party at Court was to prevalent in his Counsels and some mungrel Protestants that less hated the Papists then the Puritans by the Queens Mediation joyned altogether to destroy the Puritans hoping that the Pa pists and the Laodicean Protestant would agree well enough togeth er And lastly if it be said that if the king and the Rebels were never faln out what need had Ormond to make a pacification or peace with them by the kings Commission under the Great Seal of Ireland Truly there hath been so m uch daubing and so little plain dealing that I wonder how there comes to be so many beggars Concerning the betraying of Rochel to the inslaving of the Protestant party in France I confess I heard so much of it and was so shamefully reproached for it in Geneva and by the Protestant Ministers in France that I could believe no less then that the king was guilty of it I have heard fearful exclamations from the French Protestants against the king and the late Duke of Buckingham for the betraying of Rochel And some of the Ministers told me ten years since That God would be revenged of the wicked king of England for betraying Rochel And I have often heard Deodati say concerning Henry the fourth of France That the Papists had his body but the Protestants had his heart and soul but for the king of England The Protestants had his body but the Papists had his heart Not that I think he did believe Transubstantiation God forbid I should wrong the dead but I verily believe That he loved a Papist better then a Puritan The Duke of Roan who was an honest gallant man and the kings God-father would often say That all the blood which was shed in Daulphin would be cast upon the king of Englands score For thus it was The king sent a Letter to the Rochelers by Sir William Breecher to assure â—hem That he would assist them to the uttermost against the French king for the liberty of their Religion conditionally That they would not make any peace without him and Mountague was sent into Savoy and to the Duke of Roan to assure them from the king That 30000 men should be sent out of England to assist them against the French king in three Fleets One to land in the Isle of Ree a second in the River of Bourdeaux and a third in Normandy whereupon the Duke of Roan being General for the Protestanrs not suspecting that the French durst assault him in Daulphin because the king of England was ready to invade him as he had promised drew out his Army upon disadvantage Whereupon the French king imployed all his Army into Daulphin against the Protestants who were forced to retreat and the Duke of Roan to flie to Geneva and the Protestants to accept of peace upon very hard conditions to stand barely at the Kings devotion for their liberties without any cautionary Towns of assurance as formerly they had being such a peace as the Sheep make with the Wolves when the Dogs are dismist And the Protestants have ever since cryed out to this very day It is not the French King that did us wrong for then we could have born it but it was the King of England a profest Protestant that betrayed us And when I have many times intreated Deodati and others to have a good Opinion of the King he would answer me That we are commanded to forgive our enemies but not to forgive our friends There is a French Book printed about two years since called Memoires du Monsieur de Roan where the Kings horrid perfidiousness and deed dissimulation is very clearly unfolded and discovered To instance but in some particulars The King having solemnly ingaged to the Rochelers that he would hazard all the Forces he had in his three Kingdoms rather then they should perish did in order thereunto to gain credulity with them send out eight Ships to Sea commanded by Sir John Pennington to assist the Rochelers as was pretended but nothing less intended for Pennington assisted the French King against the Rochelers which