An Examination of Severall Votes of the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament concerning such as take up Armes against the Parl of England or assist in such War Wherein is declared that all such persons are Traitors by the fundamentall Lawes of this Kingdome and ought to suffer accordingly which the 20 of June 1648. are Ordered by the Commons Assembled in Parliament to be Printed and Published by the Sheriffs in every Market Town AMong the many irregularities of the Houses this Parliament they have taken up an use of printing their Votes which though of no legall efficacie yet were the conduits to convey their seditious plots to the people and prepare them by Traiterous ifusions to assist their attempts the force of them dependinng on the reputation of the contrivers and it s somewhat likely that the present Houses find some diminution of their Authority among the people and rely on that of their first leaders and therefore they now the 20 of June 1648. make use of Votes made the 20 of March 1642. It must be acknowledged that the 20 of March 1642. the People of England had a great opinion of the Honour Wisdome and Integrity of the two Houses of Parliament upon whose words rather then their own sence they did believe that there were things amisse in Government and that from them must come the remedy but they long since found how far their actions and deeds differed from their pretences and now the 20 of June 1648. its evident to all of the meanest understanding that the burdens of the people are multiplied that the moderate Levies of Monies complained of by the two Houses to be done by the King in prejudice of their Liberty are turned into intollerable exactions these Houses seeking not to ease any grievances but to gaine power to lay them and they tell the people by their Actions that their little finger must be heavier then the Kings Loynes The people now see that the reverence and zeal they bare to these Houses was to a false imaginary deity and the service they performed to them abominable to God and odious to all Good men making their sons and daughters passe through the fire the Subjects of England to endure all kinde of misery to please this Idoll They now see that there is no Injustice and Oppression equall to that of their two Houses of Parliament their Government Arbitrary and their proceedings Tyranny their pretences Hipocrysie their cruelties and mercilesse dealings with the King and fellow-Subjects shewing them rather inhumane Canibals then Christians and their multiplyed falseshoods and perjuries exceeding the most professed deceivers but it is like they think that the Votes that deceived once are still of force upon the people and therefore its necessary to discover what truth their Votes contain that are thus relyed on after the many proofs of the uningenuity of those that contrived them p1 1. We observe in the Title that the Votes have the stile of the Lords Commons Assembled in Parliament concerning such as take up Armes against the Parliament of England or assist in such War wherein is declared that all such Persons are Traitors by the fundamentall Lawes of this Kingdome and ought to suffer accordingly If the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament were the Parliament of England the stile need not have been varied but either the Votes might be called the Votes of Parliament or the War they mention against the Parliament might have been called a War against the Lords and Commons but themselves well know that the two Houses are not the Parliament and then to what end are these Votes for they Vote not that War against the two Houses are Treason and War by the King against himself they intend not But the two Houses being vulgarly called the Parliament to abuse the people have industriously laboured to implant a belief in them that the two Houses without the King are the Parliament and that there is a Majesty in it and Treason may be committed against it and whatever efficacie the Acts of the King in Parliament have they arrogate to their own Acts without the King and would have all power annexed to His Person in Parliament elsewhere to belong to themselves without nay against Him because He exerciseth His Supreame power in Parliament Thus these vipers devour their Parent and being called by the King to be His Councell which Title they assume in their Declarations and by the duty of their place to Councell Him only they most Traiterously take Councell against Him and Councell His people to Rebell against Him which is the summe of these Votes a Treason unparalled in former Ages and contrary to their former professions and practice for in all Commissions of this Parliment desired by themselves for the passing of Laws its expresly affirmed that no Act or Ordinance of both Houses can binds or be in force without the Kings consent and consequently can be no Act of Parliament nor can the two Houses in judgement of Law be the Parliament In their Barbarous proceedings against persons that have borne Armes against them they have stiled their offence a Levying of War against the King and the attempt of Captaine Burley to deliver the King out of Prison is made by them a Levying War against the King well knowing there is no War else Treason by Law And we ask of them whether the attempt of Sir Thomas Fairfax in removing their Speaker Pelham and other Members and placing Lenthall and others were not a War against the Parliament it must needs be by their grounds or nothing is for they made Orders to revoke what passed in Pelhams time which needed not if it were not a Parliament in their sense and then it must follow that his Excellency is a Traitor by their own rule and themselves that assisted him There is no levying War Treason but such as is made against the King though it be Acted upon His Subjects in Parliament or in any other capacity and that which makes a War Treason and against the King is the want of his Command Mrs. John declared in his Speech against the Earl of Strafford that levying of War upon the Kings Subjects is Treason for its War against Him and are not they all then Traitors which made this War upon the Kings Subjects not only upon such as assisted the King but Neutures All War that is made upon his dominions by His Subjects without His Command is Treason but it s a madnesse therefore to say that a War by His Command is Treason for then if He be overcome by Rebells such as assisted Him must be Traitors for Levying War upon the Kings Subjects A senslesse assertion and would make good that scoffe at Law that Victory only makes Traitors an axiome never owned by Law nor Religion but drawne from the leud practice of Rebells the making of War being the Kings peculiar prerogative and is matter of Supream power not Jurisdiction
such offences they must not stand upon their Guard but submit to legall Triall It s a known truth they ought to be Tryed by the ordinary Courts of Law and their owne Votes to the contrary have neither weight nor credit being against all Law which alloweth not a Malefactor to be his own judge or to testifie in his own cause It s one of the usuall frauds of these men to weakon the opinion and duty of the people of and towards their King to tax Him with a breach of Trust reposed by the People in the King If they should expresse the time when this Trust was reposed their answer is that it must be supposed so when the Monarchy was first constituted and they speak as if all hereditary Monarchies were no other then elective and every of them came in upon trust A perfidious piece of Sophistry No doubt all Kings have a duty to performe and all Subjects hope and pray for their Kings performance of it but the constitution of hereditary Monarchies includes no trust but in the frame and constitution of that forme of Government and they in the beginning could not but foresee that there might come evill Kings yet they resolyed not to break the order but depended rather on Gods providence then open a way to faction and domestick broyles which they esteemed worse then the accidentall evill of a single Prince and which states of another constitution often finde by sad experience and their imaginary trust hath no more ground then the prosecution of Traytors by the King hath to be a breach of it or a War against the Parliament There are duties of parents to children but they are not trusts and in hereditary Monarchies the King is Rex natus non datus and the people cannot upon pretence of any crime precedent refuse their admission of Him much lesse can they withdraw their obedience for any crime subsequent and as the Kings making War against all or any Members of Parliament is no War against the Parliament so were it applicable to such a sence it were not contrary to any title of His Oath when he hath such cause as was formerly exprest For the dissolution of Government Warre by Princes against Rebels is necessary to preserve it but Rebellion against the King dissolves all Government for thereby the KING is made a Subject all His Power despised His Subjects Governed by another Power the submission whereunto is of no lesse guilt then to any forrain Power for it 's as destructive to that of the KING' 's and we now see apparently all Law Liberty and Property is lost and all is arbitrary at the will of Power and no man by Law or Conscience bound to submit to any Magistrate whose power is derived from the KING and it is an odious usurpation to use a pretended derived Power when they suppresse the supreme and the exercise of the Soveraigne power by the two Houses making Commissions in the KING'S Name is all one as if it were their owne and if it be Murder to judge to death by Commissions in their Names is it lesse when they make a Commission in the KING'S They cannot pretend to have any such Power derived to them nor can the Kingly power be possibly in the two Houses for they may differ in Vote which is a condition the Kingdome cnnnot endure nor any Law or Reason allow and if these men had any thought of that misery that comes by dissolution of Government they would not have cut assunder all the ligaments of it striving to get the King's consent to establish such a confusion in this poor Kingdome as may never be set in order in any Generations to come seeking to distract the Subjects and pretend that obedience to them is loyalty to their KING though it be against Him and to make Warre for the KING equally penall to warre against Him Such as make these Votes and such as practice such a Power are guilty of the breach of Trust reposed in them by their Countries and Townes that sent them of the Oath of Alleagiance and Supremacy taken at their entrance into the House of all the bloud and miseries that have insued from that damnable position and practice 3. That whosoever shall serve or assist Him in such Warre are Traytors by the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome and have been so adjudged by two Acts of Parliament and ought to suffer as Traytors 11 Ric. 2.1 Hen. 4. And why doe they not expresse against whom it is Treason to assist the KING they know there is no Treason but against the King and if they had told all it must cut the throat of their Votes That Warre by the KING is Treason against the KING which is legible onely by these bloudy Votes for if the KING have power to make Warre He may judge of the cause of it and if He erre in the justice of the cause such as assist Him cannot be punished for doing their duty which is to assist Him in any War within the Kingdome 11 Hen. 7. But these men should have done well to have told what or where these fundamentall Lawes were that men might see them and not be mistaken If the Statute of the 25 Edw. 3. be a fundamentall Law this is no Treason within that Statute And if 1 Mar. be a fundamentall Law nothing is Treason but what is mentioned in that Statute of 25 Edw. 3. so as if there had been such judgment as they pretend the force is wholly taken away We may not imagine that many of these that made these Votes understood the disserence of fundamentall and not fundamentall Lawes nor that any of them knew such fundamentall Lawes as they herein suppose but it was the perfidious contrivance of some of the Leaders of this rout to invent words of an unknown known sense that they might stile any actions crimes against imaginary Laws that were done by any Persons that they had a mind to destroy and have thereby made the Land guilty of bloud judging by Laws they know not and crimes they understand not Martyn Lilburne and others will have fundamentall Law right reason and no reason right but their owne and it s most probable the first Inventers of this terme now in Parliament had that reserve to their owne reason for none of the Judges or men learned could ever yet find what they meant by fundamentall Laws But they say it hath been so judged by two Acts of Parliament the first is 11 of Rich. 2. It hath hapned to Parliaments in England as is incident to all Assemblies to have some whose actions are not for imitation There are Records of disorderly and trayterous Assemblies in Parliament and of wicked Decrees made by them and no honest man will think the Judgements or Acts of Parliament in the time of Hen. 8. touching His Wives and Children and the many sad Executions of Innocent persons are of Authority and these men have declared in this
and belongs not to any Court or Counsell and the two Houses can claime no more then belongs to a Court or Counsell The House of Commons have Ordered the printing of these Votes and t is like they expect Obedience as if it were an Act of Parliament though without the King and Lords Never did one or both Houses of Parliament presume to print before this and we may as well believe they had this Priviledge by the fundamentall Lawes which was never known before these seven yeares last past as that the Lords and Commons are the whole Parliament or that a War made by the King can be Treason But come now to the Votes The first Vote that it appears that the King seduced by Wicked Councell intends to make War against the Parliament who in all their consultations and actions have proposed no other end unto themselves but the care of Kingdomes and the performance of all duty and loyalty to His Person It seemes these men had taken such pleasure in their power of judging that they fell to judiciall Astrologie and would tell fortunes for they adventure to tell the intentions of their King though Solomon saith the Kings heart is unsearchable doubtlesse in point of Duty Subjects ought not to pry into it and we may surely conclude that as they may be deceived in their conjectures of His intentions so they have certainly broken their Loyalty by making such a Vote and run into certaine Rebellion upon certaine suspitions but their case is worse for they had resolved before this pretence on their violence against the King and had in a great part Acted it raising Tumults against Him Threatning Him with popular furies unlesse He consented to mischievous Lawes of their contriving They had Levied an Army for the guarding of Persons against an Accusation of Treason they had caused diverse Members of both Houses of Parliament to be assaulted menaced whereby they were enforced to leave the Houses they had seized the Navy disposed the Militia fortified Townes and now to blear the eyes of the poor multitude tell them the King intends to make War upon the Parliament never King had greater cause to right himselfe nor ever people lesse cause to make war on him They would perswade the people that if their war be defensive against their King its lawfull and if that they say it s so it s then out of question If selfe defence be lawfull in Subjects against Supreame power then they are not bound to assist their King against Malefactors or Rebels unlesse they first know the cause whereby all Government is at an end and obedience must follow private perswasion not publique Authority and the King doth in vaine proclaime an enemy abroad or Rebels at home and then he cannot hope long to weare a Crowne and if Subjects adhere to an enemy the King may not make War upon them but first send for a Judge to Indite them and a Malefactor may as well use force against the sentence of the Judge upon pretence of Injustice as Subjects against their King upon pretence of want of just cause of making of War it being as essentiall to Supreame power which these men sweare to be in the King as civill decisions to any Judicatory and if it were not as most certainly it is the foundation of all Government yet by Law and practice most undeniably in the King of England we cannot hope to find modesty where we see disloyalty and Rebellion and in these mens reiterated Remonstrances they take it for a ground in Law that the King cannot doe evill and if the Law will not suppose he can doe evill can there be any Law to make Warre upon Him upon pretence of doing evill and if by the policy and constitution of any Kindgome the Supreame Governor be exempt from punishment by Law as of necessity He must it is a most absurd opinion that He should be subject to private violence and if the Members of Parliament be corrupt and entertaine negotiations with foraigne Princes their Kings enemies and adhere to them as is more then possible and the King declare a Warre against such persons may they take Armes against Him to defend themselves then all Rebellions will be selfe defences and none that have force will submit to Law and so it must follow that if any commit Treason the force that the King useth for His owne preservation or their punishment shall be called War against the Parliament or War against the Subject but when ordinary wayes of Justice are shut up by force the King hath recourse to His Regall power and if His Counsell in such a case should not advise Him to make War upon such persons it might well be judged of them that they were an unfaithfull and wicked Counsell and though the King had taken no resolution of War notwithstanding the great violence offfered Him as He made appeare by many witnesses reasons yet these men reproch Him to his face with these Trayterous Votes and adde that the King seduced by wicked Counsellors so odious an expression in the mouths and pens of Subjects as cannot consist with duty and Loyalty and their professions of their care of the Kingdomes and performance of all duty and Loyalty to His Majesties Person so contradictory to these Votes can get no beliefe but were devised to give colour only to their courses being no part of their purposes and these Houses consisting of a great number who for age education or parts being no way qualified to judge of Counsels and being seduced by wicked counsels to reproach their King and seeke His ruine are no more to be trusted for their care of the Kingdome which they have brought to shame impotency and beggery then for performance of their duty to their King whom they have abused with all immaginable contumelies deposed from Government shut up in Prison and out of horror of their guile and fear of punishment have plotted how they may take away his life by poyson or assassination and these shamelesse wretches would have it believed that making War upon Him attempts to kill and depose Him imprisoning of Him and offering of violence to His Person are no Treason but that endeavouring to defend Him free Him from Imprisonment preserve His life are Treason Prodigious impudence and they might as well Vote He were no King and that England never had a King by Law That whensoever the King maketh War upon the Parliament it is a breach of the trust reposed in Him upon His people contrary to His Oath and tending to the dissolution of this Government It s apparent that the King may justly make War upon all or any Members of Parliament for Disloyall and Traiterous Acts when ordinary justice is shut up and that it is neither breach of trust reposed in Him by His people contrary to His Oath nor tending to the dissolution of this Government and if the King charge either any or all of them with
Parliament That they hold the Parliament that Deposed this Ric. 2. or any other King were no lawfull Parliaments which must be intended in regard they were unlawfully called or their trayterous Acts and this Parliament of 11 Rich. 2. was assembled by a trayterous and prevailing Faction in Warre as that was and its Authority was onely Force and its Acts dis-loyall and extorted and were the ground-work of the distractions of that KING'S Reigne and of His trayterous Deposition and execrable Murder and these Voters chuse to tread in their steps and no man may doubt if they be not prevented will arrive to the same end and yet so desperate is thein case that it cannot be maintained from this odious example These men having exceeded the worst of Traytors and though they pretend they have not yet killed their KING it wanted not their will as appears by the manner of their proceedings against ROLFE upon the discovery of the practice against His Life That unhappy Prince Rich. the 2. came young to His Crowne and was check'd and over awed by the power of His Uncles and other great Princes of His bloud and imbroyled with the factions of a potent Nobility who made the then assemblies of Parliament to act all their ambitious projects sorced the KING to entrust powers to some of them who thereby became Masters of Him and raised Forces against Him and prevailed over Him killed and destroyed divers of the KING' 's most faithfull Subjects enfonced Him to call this Parliament of 11. and proceeded tumultuously and rebelliously in it and threatned to Depose the KING unlesse he consented to make an Act to atteint and punish divers men that they accused of a Conspiracy to destroy the KING a known untruth but there is no mention that they were accused for assisting the KING making a Warre against the Parliament there being no such case for it were a madnesse to think the KING would make a Warre upon the Parliament understood the Houses that He could Dissolve them with His breath nor any mention of fundamentall Lawes whereby such case was Treason so lewdly false are these Men in their Quotations and in the same Parliament they got likewise a generall Pardon from the KING fot their proceedings upon this reason That it was done for the Weale of the Kingdome that is in their opinions let any honest or knowing man that reads those Records judge where the Treason lies either in these that were thus pardoned or in others that were illegally destroyed And when Henry the 4. being one of the chiefe Conspirators against Him and Deposing Him confirms in his Parliament after he had Imprisoned his lawfull KING the acts of that lawlesse Parliament no man can think it other then a meanes to assure his wicked Usurpation and former Treason and of no more authority but of no use at all in the present question And if we had no clearer demonstrations of those mens corruptions the use they make of this odious example might sufficiently instruct all men of their intentions and the sad story of the successe of that detestable usurpation may warne us to prevent the progresse of these men for from that yeare of the 11 of Richard the second the Kingdome had no rest for almost an hundred yeares constant faction among the Nobility bloudy executions of such persons as the jealousie of the Usurper made him feare of continuall Tumults and civill broyles at home or warre abroad and which ended not but in the finall extirpation of the numerous Male Line of our Kings the destruction of the very Famisies of the greatest part of the Nobility besides the great change that fell on the minds of men the Nation was grown barbarous and the many inhumane cruelties and injustices that daily occurred may strike horrour into any man of Honour Piety or Honesty to thinke on such a condition which these Voters have in a great measure now introduced And for conclusion they agree to the former Votes and think that it is a double testimony as the Stature of 11 Richard the 2. and Henry the 4. and having served themselves of ridiculous complaints of the KING'S intentions rumours of jealousies and feares to begin this Warre upon Him continue the same shamelesse exclamations when they have Imprisoned and Dethroned Him and they may as well be believed if they Vote that the KING is not in prison and that they have made no War against Him as in Voting a Warre against them to deliver the KING is a Warre against the Parliament If they had made conscience of Treason these Votes had never been nor this Warre But they have gotten Force and that 's their Law however it 's to be hoped that their Kingdome gotten by falshood and exercised by tyranny will end suddenly and then they will be as odious to themselves as they have been insolent over others and as they have Cain's curse will wish for his marke lest every one that meets them should prove their Executioner Printed at Paris and re-printed at London 1648. FINIS