thereupon forfeit his Kingship and Crown and became a private person and enemy dissolved the Constitution both of the Kingdom and Parliament and not only violated all Law in the branches but plucked up the very root of it in destroying the Parliamentary Establishment as much as in him lay and thereby introduced another Law of Arms From whence he deduceth 3. Conclusions 1 The Justice of secluding the Members 2ly The Sufficiency of the authority that condemned and executed the King 3ly The Legality of the remaining Members continuing and sitting as the Parliament and Supreme Authority of England which after the Kings beheading and other Members and Lords seclusion descended and was transmitted to them by the Law of war for the people This he determines to be Law and Reason too sufficient to convince both Royallists and Presbyterians of the Lawfulnes of the Power and present sitting acting as a Parliament by those few Members at Westminster secluding all the rest To which I answer 1. That if the Kings death by Law Reason dissolved the Parliament in an orderly cause because his writs of summons abated by his death they could not treat with him concerning his and his Kingdoms affairs nor he consent to any Bills after his decease Which he freely grants Then by the self-same Reason Law his violent death must dissolve this Parliament as I have largely proved 2ly If the Kings levying war against the Parliament did actually dissolve the very Constitution Law of the Parliament and Kingdom and made him no King at all but a private person which he layes for his foundation then it must necessarily dissolve the Parliament and Kingdom too and make them no Parliament no Kingdom at all as well as himself no King For how can the Parliament continue when its very Constitution is dissolved 3ly By this Position it inevitably follows that we had neither King Parliament Kingdom nor any Laws at all but only of Warr from the beginning of the wars or first battel at least between the Kings and Parliaments forces many years before his death But this the King kingdom Parliament the sitting as well as secluded Members both Armies and our whole 3. kingdoms ever denied in all their Votes Orders Ordinances Declarations Remonstrances Petitions Treaties Propositions whatsoever from 1641. till December 1648. and Nedham himself in his Diurnalls and Mercuries In all which the Parliament both Houses and Army-Officers stiled him their KING and the King and his party ever stiled them the Houses of Parliament Therefore this position must be a most Notorious Falshood wherein Interest doth grosly lie 4ly Those he stiles the honest faithfull Members in their very Votes of Non addresses passed by force and fraud in their Knack for the Kings tryalâ— Impeachment Proceedings Sentence of condemnation against him after our seclusion in their Declaration of 17 Martii 1648. after his death and sundry other Papers ever stiled and acknowledged him TO BE KING and ENGLAND HIS KINGDOM notwithstanding the wars between him and the Parliament Therefore the very war did not Vnking nor make him a Private person nor dissolve the Constitution of the Kingdom and Parliament else there could not be a war against or between the King or Parliament if the war it self unkinged him unparliamented them and dissolved all their constitutions 5ly No person by the a Law of God Nature Nations the Great Charter Laws Statutes of England and Votes of Parliament ought actually to forfeit or to be ipso facto deprived of his Office Freehold Liberties Estate Life without a legal proceeding tryal conviction judgement attainder Much less then the King himself the Supreme Magistrate and Governor of the Realm in whom all have a common interest unkinged and made a private person or publike Enemy and totally deprived of his Crown and Soveraignty Therefore his actual levying war against the Parliament without before any legal impeachment conviction or sentence of deposition could not unking nor make him a private person as the cases of Edward the 2. and Richard the 2. and the b Parliaments which deprived them of their Kingships after their resignations clearly resolved against this Jesuitical new Doctrine 6ly If the King by his bare levying war against the Parliament actually lost his Kingship and became a meer private person before any sentence of deprivation then by the self-same reason law every Traitor levying war or conspiring against the King every Murderer Theef Felon corrupt Judge Justice Mayor Sherif Inferior Officer by the very committing of Treason Murder Felony Adultery Bribery Injustice and breach of their respective trusts should be actually attainted of those offences their Lands Offices presently confiscated without any Indictment trial verdict judgement against them yea every act of Adultery by any Husband or Wife should actually dissolve the bond of marriage for ever without and before any Sentence of divorce between them which * Mr. Wheatly publikely recanted as a dangerous error And how destructive such new Nedham Interest Law would prove to all mens lives liberties estates yea to every mans soul since every act of sinne by like consequence should actually damn and make even Saints themselves to fall totally and finally from Grace and Gods favor let all judicious men resolve 7ly If this be Law then had the King and Parliament upon any Treaty after the wars accorded he ought to have been new proclamed installed crowned King again and the Parliament resummoned by new writs 8ly He confesseth this to be the very principle of Barclay the Jesuit from whom he borrows it p. 34. Therefore his present Parliament and Republike built thereon are purely Jesuitical by his own confession 9ly This Jesuits position is not so bad as his He speaks not of every Civil war made by a King upon his Subjects for which there may be just occasions but only of a King warring upon his people of purpose to extirpate and destroy them which he saith it seems almost impossible any King should be so mad as ever to attempt Which the King in his war against the Parliament by his victories proceedings against the Prisoners Members Towns he took during the wars in sparing all their lives actually really and oft times verbally and professedly disclamed in all his Proclamations Speeches Remonstrances Messages to and Treaties with the Houses Therefore his war against them did neither unking him nor make him a private person and publike Enemy by this Jesuites resolution 10ly If the Kings war against the Parliament did really unking him then certainly the Generals Army-Officers and Armies actual levying war upon both Houses of Parliament by secluding securing the Members and King did really uncommission and unarmy them and made them no Officers no Army at all but a rebellious rout and all Members concurring with them therein no Members no Parliament at all The sequel is infallible Therefore Nedham must either now disclaim this desperate Jesuitical position with all his 3. Treasonable
antient Writs of this kinde and their returns with the expresse words of these Oathes resolve with the Protestation League Covenant and manifold Declarations Votes Remonstrances of both Houses to which those sitting from 48. to 53. and now met again gave their full free consents and subscriptions as well as the secluded Members Let heaven earth our whole 3. Kingdoms and our Accusers themselves then now resolve whether I and my secluded Companions who constantly loyally strenuously in the forecited vote and all other our proceedings pursued those Trusts Oathes Duties in despite of all Oppositions or those unsecluded sitting and re-sitting Members and Army-Officers who have most apparently perfidiously violated it in every branch by and since our seclusions to the destruction of our King Kingdoms Kingship Parliament Church all rights and jurisdictions of the Crown and subversion of the Liberty Property Privileges of their fellow Members and all other subjects be the Greatest Trust-breakers Traytors and which of us best deserve to lose not only our right of sitting any more in the House but our very lives heads liberties estates in point of justice and conscience All that is or can be objected against us with any shadow of reflection is the a Vote of January 11. 1648. made upon the Armies Answer touching our securing Jan 3. That the House doth approve of the Substance of the Answer of the General Council of the Officers of the Army to the Demands of this House touching the securing and secluding of some Members thereof And doth appoint a Committee of 24. or any 5. of them to consider what is further to be done upon the said Answer and present the same to the House But doth this Vote fix any breach of trust upon us for which we deserved perpetual seclusion without any hearing impeachment trial Surely not in the least degree For 1. it approves only the substance of the Armies Answer which is general and indefinite 2ly It is not touching the securing and secluding of all the Members then secured or secluded by the Officers but only of some of those Members who were secured as well as secluded without naming any one of them in particular most of them being released before this vote Therefore it can fix no guilt or crime upon any one particular Member of us unlesse those some had been nominated 3ly This Vote was past behind our backs without hearing any of us before it passed 4ly A special Committee was appointed to consider further of their answer and report what was further to be done therein which they never did 5ly This Vote was made above a full Month after our secluding and securing when all the Members but 42. were secluded or driven thence and the rest sitting under the Force Guards of the Army and so by their own Votes and Ordinance of August 20. 1647. this Vote with all their other proceedings were mere Nullities 6ly Ten of those who passed this Vote were the very Army-Officers who made the Answer the chief Contrivers Authors of our seising securing and chief Accusers Therefore most unfit to be our Judges or passe any Vote against us behind our backs especially since they promised to conferr with us at Wallingford House the Evening they seised us and yet lodged us all night on the bare boards in Hell After which they promised to conferr with us the next morning 9. a clock at Whitehall and there kept us waiting in the cold till 7. at night without once vouchsafing to see us sending us away thence through the dirt guarded on every side like Rogues to the Kings head and Swan in the Strand where they promised several times to conferr with us but never came to do it Now whether there can be any credit given to their Votes or Answer who so frequently brake both their trusts words faiths promises to us before this their Answer let the world and our greatest Enemies determin Finally the chief Authors of and instruments in this our Accusation and seclusion were the very self-same Army-Officers and Members who in April 1653 dishoused dissolved those now sitting and then accused branded them twice or thrice in print as farr greater Infringers of their trusts than we as for the House of Lords secluded suppressed by them a there was never the least breach of trust objected against them Neither had the Army b or smaller Garbled remainder of the Commons house the least right or jurisdiction to seclude or eject the Majority of their fellow Members much lesse the whole House of Peers Upon all which premises I here appeal to all the Tribunals of Men on Earth and Gods Christs Tribunals in Heaven before which I summon all our Old and New Accusers whatsoever to judge Whether this Great Charge of breach of our trusts ever justly could or henceforth can be objected against us civilly or criminally without the greatest scandal and whether this could be a lawfull ground for any to justifie our first or last seclusion The 3d Question is this Whether the last Parliament summoned by King Charles his Writ assembled at Westminster 3. Nov 1640. was not totally and finally dissolved by his beheading January 30. 1648. notwithstanding the statute of 17 Caroli c. 7 In this my 2. new Antagonists are divided Rogers p. 7. confesseth it to be dissolved and that I have learnedly proved it in my Narrative p. 24 to 34. Adding How Néedlesse that long Discourse is to prove what we never denied But though he and his wee denied it not yet those who sate from 1648. till 1653. by pretext of their first writs elections and of this Act as they then affirmed in and by their Speeches Declarations Mr. Abbot and Purefoye in their Prynne against Prynne both of them Members and one of them now sitting with their President John Bradshaw who condemned the King and sundry denyed it yea most now sitting denyed it by words and action therefore I unanswerably refelled them and satisfied most others by that long Discourse Therefore it was not needless as this Critick rashly censures it Nedham p. 35 36 37. though he confesseth That according to Law the Parliament was dissolved by the Kings death and that whiles the old Constitution of Parliaments remained without disturbance it is reason this Law should be retained for the reasons I have rendered Yet in this particular case by reason of the warr between King and Parliament he will by no means yeeld the Parliament to be dissolved by the Kings death but to remain intirely in the Members sitting at his death and that it is now again revived in them after above 6. years interruption to prove which strange Chymaera by stronger Mediums he * spends some pages to convince and satisfie all Contradictors I shall a little examin his absurd and most dangerous Principles from whence he draws his Conclusion His main Principle to prove it is this That the King by his actual war against the Parliament did
Conclusions from it or else henceforth disclame the Army-Officers Army and their formerly suppressed now revived Parliament 11ly Admit his Paradox true that the King by his war against the Parliament actually ceased to be a King c. yet his Inference thence that the Parliament was not dissolved by his death but continued after it is most false yea the contrary thence inevitably follows that it was wholly dissolved long before his death so soon as he ceased to be a King and became a private person and that by the expresse resolution of the whole Parliaments of 22 R. 2. and 1. H. 4. rot Parl. n. 1 2 3. in a case most like to ours * Henry Duke of Lancaster raising a great Army to lay Title to the Crown King Richard the 2d bringing an Army to suppresse him the King finding his forces over-weak and the Dukes too potent for him having seised Bristol and other sorts thereupon a Parlee was had between them and agreed King Richard should summon a Parliament at Westminster wherein he should resign his Crown renounce his Kingship and the Duke to succeed him Upon this he accordingly summoned a Parliament where he formally resigned renounced his Kingship and was actually deposed of it by sentence and Henry the 4. who claimed the Crown upon his resignation declared King Which done it was resolved declared both by the Parliament King Lords Commons Judges that this Parliament was actually dissolved by King Richards deposing to all intents and a new Parliament ordered to be summoned by King Henry in his own name wherein he was declared crowned King and the resignation deposing of Richard the 2. ratified and recorded Therefore by the resolution of both these Parliaments by Nedhams own position if true the last Parliament of King Charles was so farr from being continued only by his wars even after his death which else would have dissolved it without dispute that it actually dissolved it in his life time six years before his death by degrading him from his Kingship and making him a private person And then his Westminster Juncto sitting from 1648. to 1653. and now again cannot have the least shadow of right law reason to sit act as any part of the last Parliament summoned by the King neither could the whole Parliamentary and supreme power descend or be transferred to them alone by any Law or colour of right whatsoever by the Kings war death or our seclusions as he most absurdly concludes 12ly The sum of all Nedhams discourse to support his present Parliaments and Republikes right title is but this That in civil wars and commotions the conquering or prevailing party gains a legal Supreme Authority and Parliamentary power over over the whole That the Kings royal authority devolved by conquest to the Parliament the whole Parliamentary Authority to his Juncto by their forcible seclusion of the Majority of the Commons and suppression of the House of Lords And if so then by the self-same consequence the whole Kingly and Parliamental Authority was lawfully devolved on the Lord General Fairfax and Army-Officers when they seised the King secluded the Members suppressed the Lords and placed Guards on those that sate in 1648. Or at least to such of them as were then Members of the Commons House not to the Juncto since or now sitting That afterwards it descended devolved to General Cromwell when he conquered and turned the Juncto out of doors April 20. 1653. as he and the Army-Officers then argued who thereupon after some Moneths exercise thereof by making New Laws and imposing New Taxes at Whitehall Anno 1653. afterwards transferred it by deed to their Litle Conventicle elected by them in September part of which resigning back their Supreme power to Cromwell he thereupon claimed it as wholly and absolutely vested ia himself without any limits as he declared in his printed Speeches 1654. and 1657. whereupon he detained it under the Title of A ROYAL PROTECTOR till his death then delegating it to his Son Richard who by this original Title enjoyed it till overpowred by his Brother Fleetwood and other Army-Officers who by this right of the Long Sword alone unprotectored him and then called in the remainder of the Old Juncto to sit and act as a Parliament under them So that by Nedhams Doctrine the Supreme Regal and Parliamental power is legally residing in those Army-Officers who have conquered all the rest till some other greater stronger power shall be able to conquer them and his Westminster Conventicle is but their Substitute to act vote what they shall prescribe And by the self-same principle as the Army-Officers by rebelling against and suppressing the Parliament and their Masters who raised waged them for their defence contrary to all Laws of God man their own Oathes Commissions thereby gained a just and legal Title as he argues to the Supreme Regal and Parliamental Authority of the Nation not the people in whom they pretended it to be vested so any Traytor by killing or dispossessing his lawfull Soveraign any Son by killing or disseising his Father any Servant by imprisoning killing or turning keeping his Master out of doors every Theef plunderer in the world able by force to take away any persons purse goods house lands or shall by power make himself a Judge Justice Magistrate or take away another mans wife shall have a just and legal Title against the owners and all others and Nedhams Parliament and new Republike can neither condemn nor execute any Thief Pirate Murderer Plunderer Adulterer Ravisher nor punish any disseiser or wrong-doer whatsoever that was stronger than the party injured since they all may justifie their force actions to be lawfull against the letter of the 6 7 8 9 and 10 Commandements by the self-same Law Divinity Saintlike Title of the longest Sword the greatest might and prevailing party I hope by this time he and all others clearly discern the desperate fatal consequences of his Jesuitical position and that his Interest will not lie is but a meer sink of Lies and destructive paradoxes If all this will not help to prop up the legal Soveraign Authority of his present Parliament and Republike he hath 3. other Pillars to support them p. 37. 1. The Law of Necessity a pretty bull when as the old proverb resolves Necessitas non habet legem I am sure it will now admit of no Law Justice Conscience Equity 2. Did not the beheaded King plead this Law for Ship-money Excise and other illegal projects yet the long a Parliament adjudged necessity in these cases to be no Law nor Plea at all And shall those very Members plead it in their own case now who then judged it no Law nor Plea in his 3ly This Law was pleaded by Cromwel and the Army-Officers in April 1653. for the dissolution of those now sitting who together with Nedham p. 40. resolve it no Law or Plea at all and can it be justly urged now for their restitution 4ly
Religion the best profession of which I have ever estéemed that of the Church of England in which you have béen educated Yet I would have your own Judgement and Reason now seal to that sacred Bond which education hath written that it may be judiciously your own Religion and not other mens Custome or Tradition which you profess In this I charge you to persevere as coming nearest to Gods word for Doctrine and to the Primitive examples for Government with some little amendment c. Your fixation in matters of Religion will not be more necessary for your Souls than your Kingdoms peace when God shall bring you to them c. If you never see my face again I do require and intreat you as your Father and your King that you never suffer your heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the Religion established in the Church of England I tell you I have tried it and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world not only in the community as Christian but also in the sperial notion as Reformed keeping the middle way between the Pomp of superstitious Tyranny and the meanness of fantastique Anarchy The scandal of the late Troubles which some may object and urge to you against the Protestant Religion established in England is easily answered to them and to your own thoughts Kéep you to true principles of Piety Vertue and Honour you shall never want a Kingdom For those who repent of any defects in their duty towards me as I fréely forgive them in the word of a Christian King so I believe you will find them truly zealous to repay with Interest that Loyalty and Love to you which was due to me In summe What good I intended do you perform when God shall give you power Next in urging how long he was under the wing of his Mothers instructions in France but a few Moneths space at most and what a Nursery Flanders hath been for him since which is the most Jesuited place in the world as his principal reason to perswade both Papists and Protestants to believe him sufficiently affected if not sworn to Popery as if he had been there educated by his own voluntary election and not necessitated yea forced thither by the Army-Officers and those in late and present power professing themselves the most zealous Protestants and eminentest Saints full sore against his will The General Council of Army-Officers in their Remonstrance of Novemb. 20. 1648. presented to the Commons House as they demanded the King to be brought to speedy Justice so they propounded That the Prince and Duke of York might be declared uncapable of any trust or government in this Kingdom or any Dominions thereunto belonging and thence to stand Exiled for ever as Enemies and Traytors and to die without mercy if ever taken or found within the same After his Fathers beheading when he was called in and crowned King by his Protestant Subjects in Scotland where he took the Solemn League and Covenant according to their Oaths Covenant Duty Laws and principles of the reformed Religion our Republican Grandees and their Gen. Cromwel by a bloudy unchristian unbrotherly invasive war expelled and kept him out thence and out of England too and all his other Dominions by force of arms after the battel of Worcester Septemb. 3. 1651. From whence he was forced to fly disguised to save his life into France where he landed at Newhaven Octob. 2. and some weeks after departed into Holland to the Princess of Orange his Sister a Protestant residing with her and other Protestants there remote from the company and seducements of his Mother and all Jesuites Papists that might any wayes seduce him in his religion living wholly upon the charity of forein Protestants his own Protestant Subjects then and since swaying being so stupendiously unjust uncharitable as not to allow him or his Brothers one farthing out of all the Lands and Revenues of his 3. Kingdoms for their necessary support in forein parts and making it High Treason for any of his Protestant Subjects to contribute any thing towards their support in this their distressed condition so conscientiously did they practise these Gospel precepts Mat. 5. 44 45. c. 22. 21. Rom. 12. 13 19 20 21. c. 13. 1 to 12. c. 15. 26 27. 1 Cor. 16. 1. Matt. 25. 34 35 36 37. for which they may justly expect that fatal sentence v. 40 to 46. Yet not content herewith to deprive Him his Brethren and followers both of the relief company comfort of all their Protestant Friends and Allies in the Netherlands and force them thence into Popish Quarters to the hazard of their Souls as well as Lives exasperate them all against the Protestant Religion and enforce them if possible unto Popery they engaged themselves and the English Nation not only in a most unchristian bloudy costly destructive warr with our antient Protestant Brethren of Scotland til they had totally subdued them but also with our old Protestant allies of the Netherlands which war continued from Jan. 1651. til April 1654. almost to the ruin of both Nations then O. Cromwel concluded a Peace with the Dutch on these terms sufficiently evidencing the true ground end of that bloudy war That Charls Stuart with his Brothers followers adherents should be forthwith banished out of the Low Countries and none of them permitted to reside there or return thither again Upon which by command from the States these distressed Exiles were forced to remove into France much against their wills having no other place of safety to retire themselves to where they enjoyed the company of their Mother and relief of their Popish allies as likewise the comfortable Christian Society Charity assistance of their French Protestant Friends Churches Ministers Ministry to confirm edifie them in the Reformed Religion which Cromwell and their English inveterate Enemies maligning endeavoured to expell them thence and by quarrelling with the French and entring into an intimate League with Cardinal Mazarine by the agency of Sir Kenelm Digby a Jesuited Papist concluded a Peace with France in Novemb. 1655. upon this condition That Ch. Stuart with all his brothers followers adberents should be forthwith removed out of France and all the French Kings Dominions and not permitted to return or reside therein Being thus driven out of Holland and France from the Society of all Protestants they were necessitated sore against their wills to cast themselves upon the protection and charity of the Spaniard and fly into Flanders having no place else to rest their heads and there to sojourn among Papists and Jesuites in great danger and extreme necessity where to their immortal Honour the Admiration of all true Protestants and Papists too and the Envy of their Protestant malicious persecutors who forced them thither they constantly adhere to and publikely professe the Protestant Religion and will not be seduced from it to Popery notwithstanding the
Scorpions in new arbitrary tyrannical Committees High Courts of Justice and other exorbitant Judicatures when as our Kings corrected us but with rods It hath subverted our Kings Parliaments Peers Laws Liberties Properties Great Charters legal Courts Writs Seals Commissions Judges Justices Sheriffs Officers Coyns Government destroyed our publike and private wealth Trade Unitie Amitie Peace Timber Palaces Woods Shipping and many thousands of our gallantest Sea-men Land-men by bloudy wars with our Protestant Brethren Allies and brought us to the very brink of ruin in all our Civil Concernments as Men As Christians by its toleration fomentation of Sects Heresies of all sorts it hath shaken undermined in a great measure the very Deitie of God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost the Trinitie of Persons and Unitie in the Godhead the Authoritie Divinitie of the Scriptures all the Articles of the Creed the Sacraments Ministers and Ministrie of the Gospel the Fabricks of many the Freeholds of all the maintenance of most of our Churches Ministers all now meer Tenants at sufferance and removable sequestrable taxable at our Republican Grandees pleasures yea their new Heralds Baylifs to proclame in Chnrches whatever they prescribe under pain of ejectment or their heaviest indignation In brief the introduction of our unshaped Republike by Perjurie Treacherie Violence bloud fraud Injustice destruction of our Protestant Kings Lords Parliaments hath made many zealous professors of Religion Jesuites in their policies principles practises a Atheists in their works Christ himself and the Gospel as the Atheistical Pope esteemed them a meer Fable in the repute of many yea the Protestant Religion a meer seminary of Treason Rebellion Sedition Hypocrisie Perjury Disloyalty Villany Ataxy Antimonarchy and the zealous Professors of it the meer firebrands of Rebellion Sedition high Treason against their Soveraigns in the estimation of b Foreign Jesuits Papists and Popish Princes who endeavour their total extirpation throughout the world as such And can it be then Englands true Interest as Men or Christians 5. J. Rogers himself the Grand Champion for the Good Old Cause and Commonwealth in his Concertation p. 100 103 104 116 117. informs us That Commonwealths are alwayes subject to frequent changes and alterations every one more oppressive tyrannical cruel bloudy prejudicial destructive to the peoples Liberties properties lives than the others instancing in the Romans and Athenians which committed the greatest outrages upon the people being little better than a daily Massacre of the most eminent Worthies and Hangmen Tormentors of the Commons Which Vicissitudes Alterations proved the Athenians utter destruction and may be a fair warning to us because the Causes of such mutations are the most dangerous Commotions which tend to the Ruine of All as he proves out of Aristotle Polit. l 5. c. 1. for prevention whereof he prescribes 12 Considerations unable to cure the fluctuating uncertain state and mischief of a Commonwealth of which we have already had and shall sodenly have again sufficient experience And can a Commonwealth then be Englands present or future Interest in any sence In brief as it is the beautie safety interest of every natural living body whether of men beasts fowls fishes or creeping things to have only one head to govern one Soul to animate it by Gods own most divine and wise institution a two-headed bodie being an unnatural uselesse Monster and a double-souled man creature unstable in all his wayes Jam. 1. 8. So it is the safetie beautie interest ligament of every Politick bodie whatsoever Hence we find not only in all Monarchies but in all Republikes themselves one Master over every Family one Mayor over every City one Rector over every College School Hospital Fraternitie one Sheriff over every County one Governor over every Province one Rector over every Parish Church and Congregation as there is but ‖ one King Lord Head Mediator Jesus Christ over the Catholike Church one Pilot over every ship one Admiral in chief over every Fleet and in Armies themselves one General and Chief Commander over every Army Brigade Partie one Colonel over every Regiment one Captain over every Companie Troop one Governor over every Fort Garison both abroad and at home a Pluralitie of Lords Masters Generals Governours Rectors c. being alwaies in all and every of these not only dangerous troublesom inconvenient chargable but distractive and destructive too as all Ages Nations have concluded from reason and experience Therefore a Monarchical hereditarie Kingly Government let Rogers Nedham and our Innovating frantick Republicans prate what they will must be Englands true and only Interest honor safety felicity both as Men and Christians so long as there shall be but * one Sun in the heavens to rule the day and one Moon the night Monarchy and One-nesse being the only Ground ligament of Peace Unity Safety both in Church State but Polarchie the cause of ruin confusion as God only wise resolves against all brain-sick Novellers Ephes. 4. 3 4 5 6 1 Cor. 8. 6. c. 12. 4 5 6 11 to 31. Pro. 28. 2. Isay 19. 2 3. c. 9. 19 20 21. Ezech. 37. 22 to 28. 1 Kings 14. 30. c. 15. 7. 16. Let this last Question be now put to all the Freemen of the English Nation and of Scotland Ireland too whom it all alike concerns and the a Army with those b now sitting have formerly voted TO BE THE ONLY SUPREME AUTHORITY OF THE NATION and themselves to be but their Servants not their Soveraigns and therefore cannot in reason justice conscience deny them or any of them the freedom of their voices herein in the present juncture of our affairs and then I dare pawn my reputation life against my Antagonists I shall have above a thousand voices concurring with me to one consenting with them And having both Vox Populi and Vox Dei too thus suffragating with me in the Supreme universal Parliament of all English Freemen without the House I hope no private Persons not commissioned by the peoples free elections will presume to contradict or repeal their Major Vote within the Commons House though they have thrice secluded me out of it by armed guards before any legal Accusation trial or conviction whatsoever from pleading of this their publike cause therein which I wholly submit to their Universal Censure and Decision till we can gain a full and free much-desired legal Parliament in both houses to resolve this doubt which Gods wonder working Providence I trust will ere long effect by dashing the Army and their new Juncto sudainly in pieces against each other and turning them all out of dores with greater contempt violence hatred dissipation than before April 20. 1653. It being a principle in Law Policy Nature Eodem modo quo quid constituitur dissolvitur and a just Judgement of God to cast them out of the House for their most treasonable Vsurpation of a Regal and Parliamental power over the whole three Kingdoms and secluding
A Brief Necessary VINDICATION Of the Old and New SECLUDED MEMBERS from the false malicious CALVMNIES AND Of the Fundamental Rights Liberties Privileges Government Interest of the Freemen Parliaments People of England from the late avowed Subversions 1. Of John Rogers in his Un-christian Concertation with Mr. Prynne and others 2. Of M Nedham in his Interest will not lie Wherein the true Good Old Cause is asserted the false routed The old secluded Members cleared from all pretended breach of trust The old Parliament proved to be totally dissolved by the Kings death The sitting Juncto to be no Parliament and speedily to be dissolved by the Army-Officers The Oathes of Supremacy Allegiance Fealty to the King his Heirs and Successors to be still binding continuing The New Commonwealth to be the Iesuites Project Ch. Stewart not sworn to Popery as Nedham slanders him The restitution of our Hereditary King and Kingly Government not an Vtopian Republike evidenced beyond contradiction to be Englands true Interest both as Men and Christians and the only way to peace safety settlement By WILLIAM PRYNNE of Swainswick Esq a Bencher of Lincolns-Inne Jer. 51. 9 10. We would have healed ENGLISH BABYLON but she would not be healed forsake her and let us go every one to his own Country for her judgement reacheth unto heaven and is lifted up even to the skies The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God Ps. 63. 11. But the mouth of them that speak Lies shall be stopped London Printed and are to be sold by Edward Thomas at the Adam and Eve in Little Britain 1659. A brief necessary Vindication of the Old and New secluded Members c. ON the 17. of this instant September during my private retirement in the Country for my health and quiet I received 2. Books fraught with malicious calumnies bitter scoffs insufferable Reproaches against my Self and other secluded Members yea destructive to the very fundamental Rights Liberties Privileges Government Interest of the Freemen Parliaments and Realm of England for which we have so many years contested The 1. of these thus intituled A Christian Concertation with M. Prynne M. Baxter M. Harrington for the true Cause of the Commonwealth c. by J Rogers A most scurrillous Pasquil fraught with absurd impertinencies conjuring canting new-coyned a swelling words of vanity odious comparisons bitter scoffs rayling Epethites b loathsom stinking obscene Queres defiling the very air c boyish tricks playing with mens names and reputations which he d severely censures in others yet is most guilty of himself displaying him to be rather a e conjuring Sorcerer than Gospel-Minister an Apostate scoffing Lucian than sober real Christian standing much in need of the f several Pills he prescribes Mr. Baxster to purge his filthy stomack spleen brain heart pen from such rotten stinking humors for the future almost every page in his book being either g Scandalum Magnum or Scandalum Magnatum to use his own expressions often distilling from him but his h egregious flattery of his own faction The 2. Interest will not lie Or a View of Englands True Interest by Mar Nedham which had he intituled Interest will lie Or a View of Englands False Interest by Mar. England it had been a true Character of it The first most furiously chargeth me and my secluded companions in the Van the later in the Rear The one with whole Vollies of fired squibs more like a Whiffler than a Muskateer shooting nothing but wild-fire and i bitter words without bullets The other like a Trumpeter rather than a Trooper sounding a fierce charge against us with his Trumpet without wounding us with his Lance or Sword which are very obtuse To avoid prolixity impertinence and repetitions I shall reduce all the material Differences between us into 6. distinct Questions wherin I shall refute what they have published relating to my self the other secluded Members the Rights Privileges Interest of our Parliaments and Nation with all possible Brevity omitting their personal scoffs and scurrilities The 1. Question between J. Rogers and Mr. Prynne wherein Nedham hath no share is but this Whether the Defence maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Kings royal person authority government posterity the privileges and rights of Parliament consisting of King Lords and Commons the Laws Statutes of the Land the Liberty Property of the Subject and peace safety of the Kingdom were the only True and Good Old Cause for which the long Parliament and their Armies first took up Arms in 1642. and continued them till the Treaty with the King 1648. as Mr. Prynne asserts and proves like k a Lawyer by punctual Evidences Witnesses Votes Declarations Remonstrances Ordinances of both Houses yea of the Army-Officers Generals Council during all the wars in his Good Old Cause rightly stated his True and perfect Narrative The Re-publicans and others spurious Good Old cause briefly and truly anatomized and in his Concordia Discors Or whether the erecting of a New Commonwealth and Parliament without a King and House of Lords and Majority of the Commons House upon the ruines of the late King Kingdom Parliament since 1648. to 1653. and the reviving of it May 7. 1659. by some swaying Army-Officers and the farr Minor part of the old Commons House confederating with them by meer armed power secluding the greatest Number of the surviving Members and whole House of Lords Which J. Rogers endeavors to prove like a Logician without any evidence witness but his own Ipse scripsit though l professedly disclamed by both Houses of Parliament and the Army too in sundry printed Declarations as the highest scandal never once entring into their loyal thoughts When this Logician with all his Sophistry Anatomy Pills Physick can make that which was never in being but since 1648. as we all know and himself asserts in his Concertation p. 7 9. to be the Good Old Cause in being m long before the last Parliament of King Charles for whose defence they first took up arms in 1642. Or that cause which never once entred into their thoughts and was professedly disclamed till 1648. to be the cause they proclamed and fought for from the wars beginning he must yeeld up his Spurious Good Old Cause as desperate his scurrillous Goos-quils to use his n own words dashing the GALL of his ink upon Mr. Prynnes former papers to little purpose in this particular but to blot them a little not to answer them a line nor the Argument of them in the least The 2. Question is this Whether Mr. Prynne with the Majority of the Commons House and whole House of Peers were forcibly secluded the Parliament by the Army for any real breach and forfeiture of their trusts in 1648. or ever legally impeached convicted thereof either then or since before any lawfull Judicature This Rogers briefly and not very positively
All of them kissing the Kings left cheek The Homage being ended they all touch the Crown with their hands by way of Ceremony as promising to support it with all their power Which done they All holding up their hands together in token of their Fidelity with one voyce on their knees say We offer to sustein and defend you and your Crown with our Lives lands and goods against all the world and with one voyce cry God save King CHARLES Which all the people follow with reiterated shouts and acclamations After the Coronation of every King and of our last King Charles in all Churches Chapels and religious Families throughout his Dominions and in both Houses of Parliament every day they sate as well after as before the wars constant publique and private prayers were continually made to like effect for Him and His royal posterity as the Liturgy Collects in the Book of Common Prayer the Directory it self the Practice of Piety and other Prayer-books prescribing forms of Prayer for private persons and Families morning and evening and every mans experience attest yea such was our zeal and devotion in this kinde that most persons concluded all their Graces before and after meat with this prayer or the like in effect God save his Church our King Prince the Royal issue and Realms God send us peace in Christ our Lord Amen As being Englands true Interest both as Men and Christians How can how dare we then unpray renounce abjure engage subscribe vote fight against all those publike private prayers Graces we thus constantly fervently made to God for sundry years together and the Oathes Homage Fealty Protestation Solemn League and Covenant we successively swore in the name presence of Almighty God with hands and hearts lifted up to him by praying engaging subscribing voting fighting against the Kings right Heir Successor and Royal Issue and banishing dishinheriting renouncing abjuring secluding them out of all our Churches Prayers Realms for ever to set up an Vtopian Republike without * mocking God himself to his very face willfully violating this Evangelical precept contradicting the practice of all the Churches Saints of God in all ages places yea disclaiming Englands publike with our own private Interest and forfeiting our own eternal Interest in heaven as we are Saints and Christians I beseech all Christian Englishmen in the name and fear of God most seriously to consider and lay it close to their consciences without delay and examin how they can justifie excuse it either to God or man 3ly By the extraordinary inundation growth increase of all sorts of Blasphemies Heresies Errors Religions Sects Atheism Irreligion prophanesse contempt rejection denial of Gods word Sacraments Ministers Ordinances Prayer singing of Psalms Catechising repetition of Sermons Apostacy Lukewarmnesse Hypocrisie Perjury Spiritual and outward pride effeminacy luxury whoredom incest hypocrisie formality envy hatred malice back-biting slandering sacrilege libertinism covetousness oppression cruelty all sorts of sins and wickednesses whatsoever The strange decay decrease of true real Christian zeal piety devotion saith love charity brotherly kindnesse heavenly-mindednesse contempt of the world fear of Gods threatnings judgements and all other Christian graces virtues substractions of Ministers Tithes Dues Glebes Rewards Pensions Benefices Augmentations scorned reviled railed against disturbed persecuted by Sectaries Quakers sequestred suspended ejected silenced by Arbitrary Committees as meer Tenants at will of their Ministry and Freeholds ever since the abolishing of Kings their Nursing-Fathers by those various Step-Fathers and Plunderers of the Church and Ministers who have hitherto succeeded them and given publike toleration protection to all Religions Sects Seducers almost to the total extirpation of the true Orthodox Reformed Religion throughout our Dominions To this I shall adde that as there neither is nor can be any possible ease or cure of dislocated fractured joints bones limbs in the natural body nor restitution of health and soundnesse to it by any unguents cerots balms bolsters or artifices whatsoever but only by the timely speedy restitution of every bone joynt member to its proper place and keeping them therein by strong astringent medicaments and ligaments So all our new State-physicians Chirurgions a Politicians Councils at Westminster Whitehall or in the Army with all their art skill for near 12. years space together by all their New-projected models of Republikes Parliaments Governments since the abolishing Kings and Kingship could not hitherto ease cure or restore to health the inverted broken bodies of our Church State which have grown every year more and more consumptive convulsive decrepit incurable disquieted tormented and lie now at the very point of death under all their several applications as we feel by sad experience because they have not endeavoured to restore the fractured dislocated chief Members bones joynts thereof to their proper places but laboured all they could to keep and put them further out When as there neither is nor can be any probable or possible way of restoring ease health soundnesse safety prosperity to them but by a speedy restauration of their lawfull hereditary Head and Noblest Members to their due places offices in them This consideration not only the secured and secluded Members made the ground-work of their premised Vote Decemb. 5. 1648. upon the long Debate but likewise both Houses Kingdoms and those now sitting together with them the basis of their Protestation League Covenant Petitions to and Treaties with the late King and of these two Memorable Protestations Passages in their b Declarations of October 22. and Novemb. 2. 1642. worthy consideration We the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled do in the presence of Almighty God for the satisfaction of our Consciences and the Discharge of that great trust which lies upon us make this Protestation and Declaration to the Kingdom and Nation and the whole World That no private passion or respect no evil intention to his Majesties person no design to the prejudice of his Just Honor and Authority engaged us to raise forces or take take up Arms against the Authors of this war wherewith the Kingdom is now enflamed and We have alwaies destred from our hearts and souls manifested in our astions and proceedings and in several humble Petitions and Remonstrances to his Majesty professed our Loyalty and obedience to his Crown readiness and resolution to defend his Person and support his Estate with our lives and fortunes to the uttermost of our power And by our loyal affections actions and advice lay a sure and lasting foundation of the greatness and prosperity of his Majesty and his royal posterity in future time Mark their reason For though the happiness of this and all other Kingdoms dependeth chiefly upon God Yet we acknowledge that it doth so mainly depend upon His Majesty and the Royal Branches of that Root that as we have heretofore so we shall hereafter esteem no hazard too great no reproach too vile but that we shall willingly go through the one and undergo
at the Fast in Margarets Church the Wednesday following discoursing with Sir Ralph Ashton Sir Benjamin Rudyer and 4. more Members sitting with him between the two Sermons told them of his own accord That there was a scandalous report raised in Town that he meant to leave the House and run away to the Army but for his own part he had not any such thought or intention but resolved to continue in Town and to live and die with the other Members in the House if there were cause On Thursday morning most of the Members appeared at the House expecting the Speakers coming till near 11 of the clock and sent 2 or 3 Messengers for him At last they were informed that he was sent for and gone that morning to the Army Whereupon Sir Ralph Ashton and those who sat with him at the Fast related his words in my hearing being then casually in the House to the other Members and sundry times since to the House and to my self Hereupon the Members present were necessitated to chuse another Speaker pro tempore as they had oft times done in case of sickness or absence both before and since to supply his place adjourn and dispatch the businesse of the House So as the Speaker and Members then departing to the Army without the Houses leave or privity voluntarily secluded themselves and were neither secluded by the Apprentices nor their fellow-members who were so farr from secluding that they sent sundry Messengers to call them to the House and were highly discontented at this their causless departure from it 5ly These Apprentices came without any arms at all to the House only with a Petition occasioned by the Army-Officers encroachments upon the Cities Militia and Privileges without any intention to seclude or secure any one Member departing from the House that day and never returning to disturb them after But the undutifull Army-Officers who so much declame against this unarmed force as Treasonable against both Houses Votes Orders Letters to them not only brought up the Army to Westminster placed whole Regiments of them in arms at their very doors who secluded the whole House of Peers and above two parts of three of the Commons House giving the Captains of the guards a particular list whom to secure whom to seclude and whom only to admit but likewise continued their forcible great armed guards upon the Houses several weeks yea moneths and detained me with other Members Prisoners under them two or three moneths and that after this pretended force of the Apprentices no wayes parallel to theirs who were purposely raised to guard us not seclude us which they so much condemned and the Speaker himself in his printed Letter of July 29. with the rest upon their return to the House in their Ordinance of August 20. 1647. so far branded as to make and declare all proceedings during their absence voyd by reason of it Therefore what ever other men may do Nedham to use his own words p. 29. and his now sitting party the Army-Officers and all their adherents must henceforth be silent and for shame lay their mouthes in the dust for ever as to this particular For if our falsly pretended encouraging conniving at this unarmed sodain tumult of the Apprentices in July 1647. were a sufficient ground for our seclusion from the House as infringers of our trusts then their evident apparent fore-plotted encouraging conniving at and justifying the Armies force upon the House it self and the XI Members twice or thrice Anno 1647. and on the Majority of the Commons and whole House of Lords 1648. and now again on Mr: P and others of them May 7. 9. 1659. must for ever disable and seclude them to sit or act as Members in the House by their own Law and Plea 3ly All the rest of his Objections p 29 30. taken out of the Officers Answer Jan 3. as they concern not Mr: Prynne being then no Member so they were so satisfactorily answered refelled as most false and scandalous by the secured and secluded Members themselves in their Vindication in answer thereunto printed 1649 p. 7 to 22. that impudency it self might blush to revive them now to which I referr the Reader for satisfaction Only whereas the Officers then and Nedham now Object That the Malignant and Neutral party in the House to gain the Major Vote upon new elections by indirect means brought in a floud of Malignants or Neuters into the House I shall adde to what the secluded Members then replied unto this forged Aspersion in their Vindication p. 7 8. First That all the secluded Members came in upon fair and unquestionable elections upon the new recruit but many of those who sate both before at and after our seclusion upon most foul ones voted voyd long before by the Committee of Privileges as Humfry Edwards and Fryes elections were continued sitting 2. That most of these new Members were brought in by the force power and menaces of the Army and solicitation of their Solicitor General and Chaplain Hugh Peters who like an Vbiquitary was present at the elections for most Counties Cities and Boroughs throughout England and well bribed for his pains to Canvas for voices for the Armies Instruments 3ly That 22 of those 42 Members called in by the Army-Officers May 7. 1659. and above half of those who sat with them since came in upon this new Recruit of Malignants and Neuters 4ly Col Ireton Harrison Skippon Rich Ludlow Ingoldesby Mountague White Sydenham Bingham Jones yea Fleetwood himself the swaying Army-members when we were secluded and chief Actors in it came all in upon these New elections some of them being prime Authors Members of this New Convention invited in Fleetwoods name and Army-Officers to sit and authors of our new seclusion Therfore the Armies and Nedhams slander of our pretended filling the house upon the new recruit with Malignants as these have proved to us at least must recoyl wholly upon themselves as such and be a real ground for their not our seclusions Lastly if our filling the House by New Elections to get a Major Vote were a Crime demeriting seclusion from it Certainly their emptying the House then and now to get a Major vote by secluding most of the Members must be a Crime and practice demeriting an expulsion 5. The Army-Officers themselves in their very answer waved all these Calumnies as no ground of our seclusion declaring to the sitting Members That the sole ground of our seclusion was The Vote we passed upon the long nights debate That the Answers of the King to the Propositions of both Houses was a ground for the House to procéed upon for the settlement of the Peace of the Kingdom Which Vote being passed a after 3 dayes and one whole nights solemn debate without dividing the House notwithstanding the Armies march to the very doors Hereupon the Army-Officers to wrest both the Regal and Parliamental power Kings Revenues into their own hands prevent all
hopes of future peace settlement and involve us in endless wars changes revolutions as visible sad experience hath evidenced ever since mutinying the common soldiers against us by misreports the very next morning Dec 6. marching with several Regiments of horse and foot to the doors of both Houses guarding all accesses to them where they seised my Self with above 40 Members more at the House door going to discharge their trusts pulled two Members out of the House it self secluded and chased away above 200 Members more besides the Lords whole House And whether the passing of this vote alone after 6. years intestine wars at the earnest desire of our whole 3 Kingdoms almost ruined by them according to our judgements consciences Oaths Protestation Covenant Duty and the trust reposed in us by our electors upon such ample Concessions of Liberty benefit to the Subjects security to Religion and safety to our 3 Kingdoms the Army Parliament all adhering to them as our ancestors selves never formerly possessed expected desired and we never since enjoyed nor can expect under any New Republike or Parliamentary Conventicle whatsoever was a breach of our Parliamentary trusts and a closing with the King upon his own terms and such as within a short time would of necessity have yeelded up betrayed our lives liberties and whole cause contested for into the Kings tyrannical power as these Army-Officers and this impudent Mountebank most scandalously affirm let their own consciences and our whole 3 Nations judge the secured and secluded Members in their Vindication and I in My Speech in Parliament and Epistle before it having so largely resuted it that the Devil himself the a Father of lies would blush to revive such a Lie and Slander as this And how destructive it is and hath been not only to the privileges and freedom but being of Parliaments for Soldiers and those who are no Members without hearing or accusation to pull the Major part of the Members out of the House only for voting according to their consciences after free and full debates against the votes or designs of the lesser inconsiderabler part confederating with the Army let all wise men and the sad effects thereof ever since determin 6ly These Army-Officers never impeached any of the then secluded Members for breach of their trusts to those few sitting Members they left behind of their own party by way of Charge or Article to which they might give a legal answer and be brought to a publike trial and when they were pressed to charge some of them they secured as the greatest Delinquents in this kind with particular breaches of their trusts they answered They had yet no charge at all ready against any of them but hoped to provide one in due time which they never did to this day As for their scandalous Answer Jan 3. being no legal Charge against the Members but a pittiful false excuse of their own breach of trust faith duty in seising and secluding them Mr. Prynne in particular in his Epistle to his Speech and the other Members in their Vindication gave such a satisfactory Answer to all the Calumnies in it as they never yet replyed to And therefore must stand clear from this Scandalum Magnum Magnatum in the sight of God and Man 7ly Sundry of the Members sitting since our seclusion and now again have confessed to me that our seclusion was most unjust and that their forcible seclusions since April 20. 1659. and in 1654. was but a just retaliation and punishment of God upon them for consenting to our unjust seclusion in December 1648. yea a means to deprive us from all future hopes of a free Parliament so long as we had any standing Army in England And yet must we be guilty of breach of trust 8ly Major Packer himself an Anabaptist then and now again a Member of the Army in the last Convention at Westminster publikely acknowledged in the House in a long Speech that he and others of the Army who had a hand in securing and secluding us were seduced and instigated thereunto by Cromwels and Iretons suggestions that wee were dishonest men who pursued our own private interests and the Kings to the prejudice of the publike But afterwards he clearly discerned That we were very honest Gentlemen pursuing nothing but the publike Interest acting according to our consciences and that he had often cryed God mercy in private and did there again and again cry them mercy in publike and hoped they would all forgive him for having a hand in secluding us which he oft repeated And others have acknowledged they were knaved and fooled into this Action by slanderous Misinformations Wherefore malice it self must needs acquit us from this forged Calumny 9ly Those principal Officers of the Army who accused and secluded us as Trust-breakers in Dec. 1648. both accused those who sate from 1648. till April 20. 1653. turned them all out of doors and declared them actually dissolved for sundry years as farr greater Infringers of their Parliamentary trusts than we stiling them in a two printed Declarations A Corrupt party carrying on their own Designs to perpetuate themselves in the Parliamentary and Supreme Authority never answering the ends which God his People and the whole Nation expected from them c. Therefore if their single accusation of us alone by way of Answer which we refuted in print disabled us for ever to sit in the House since 1648. and now again since May 7 1659. by Nedhams and Rogers resolutions and the Army-Officers who secluded us Then much more this their doubled and trebled Accusation against all sitting after our seclusion and now resitting by way of Declaration which they never yet answered must much more disable them now to sit and act again as a House especially without us as Members of that Parliament if continuing still in being 10ly The trust reposed in all Members of the Commons House secluded or unsecluded in the last Parliament of King Charles is punctually expressed comprised in the Writs and Indentures by which they were chosen returned empowred trusted to sit and act as Members by the Commonalties who elected them and in the Oathes of Supremacy and Allegiance which they all took and ought to take by the Statutes of 5 Eliz. c. 1. 7 Jac. c. 6. before they could sit or vote as Members Now this trust was wholly and solely to do and consent to those things which should happen to be ordained by Common Consent of the King Lords and Commons by Common counsel of the Realm concerning certain arduous and urgent affairs touching the Defence State Crowns of the King and his Kingdom and of the Church of England to bear faith and true Allegiance to the King his heirs and successors and him and them to defend with all rights jurisdictions annexed and belonging to the Imperial Crown of England against all attempts and conspiracies whatsoever As the Writs and Returns themselves with all a