of Powder Then one Marsh was produced a Witness who proves That Sir Henry Vane proposed the new Model of Government Whitlock being in the Chair in these particulars 1. That the Supream Power delegated by the People to their Trustees ought to be in some Fundamentals not dispensed with 2. That it is destructive to the Peoples Liberties to which by God's blessing they are restored to admit any earthly King or single person to the Legislative or Executive Power over this Nation 3. That the Supream Power delegated is not on trusted to the Peoples Trustees to erect matters of Faith or Worship so as to exercise compulsion therein Tho. Pury proves That he was at the debating of the two last of these Propositions and believes they were proposed to the Chairman Whitlock by Sir Henry Vane but affirms confidently that Sir Hen. Vane gave Reasons to maintain them Tho. Wallis produced proves Sir Henry Vane and Col. Rich in the head of a Company in Winchester Park in Southwark and that the Capt. Leiutenant Linn said to the Souldiers that Sir Henry Vane had given them five pounds to drink that the said Linn sent home a key to his wife to send him four pounds out of his trunk to give the Souldiers John Cook deposeth That he was sent to the Horseshoe-stairs to meet Sir Henry Vane and Col. Rich and that Sir H. Vane delivered five pound to Capt. Linn to reward the Souldiers This was all the Evidence given by the King's Counsel To which Sir Henry Vane was required to make his Defence and to go through with his Case all at once and not to reply again upon the King's Counsel who resolved to have the last word to the Jury Sir HENRY VANE Cook in his Pleas of the Crown fol. 6. saith King is to be understood of a King regnant and in actual possession of the Crown and not of a King when he is onely Rex de jure and out of possession Now an interregnum is confessed by the Indictment All ensigns of Authority and badges of Government were visibly in another name and stile the King 's best friends suing and being sued in another name The Court told him He should first make his Case out in point of Suit and it would be then seasonable to stand upon matter of Law for said they it is a good Rule in facto jus Oritur and enjoyn'd him to call his Witnesses if he had any To which Sir Henry Vane desired Process of Court to summon them and a further time to answer the Charge But it was told him The Jury were to be kept without meat drink fire or candle till their Verdict was delivered in and therefore that could not be granted He then cited the 4th part of Cook 's Institutes concerning the Priviledge of Parliament and that many of these things being transacted there The Court here interrupted him and said If the things charged were done justifie them if not excuse them So he went to give answer to the Fact And as to the first Warrant Jan. 30. 1648 He said that his hand had been oftentimes counterseited and amongst other occasions for two great sums to the value of ten thousand pounds and that he had great reason to believe that this Warrant was forged and produced two Witnesses to prove it Then said Windham Justice It may be your hand may have been forged for receiving of Money but it is not to be conjectured that it should be forged to set Ships to Sea and directed to the Jury to consider of the circumstances Sir H. Vane Neither of the Witnesses ever saw me set my hand to either of these Warrants or Orders nor doth one Witness prove that he ever saw me sit in the Council of State He further said That he absented from the House from Decemb. 3. 1648 till Febr. 7. That he 〈◊〉 â—â—osen a Member of the Council of State without his consent and knowledge and being demanded to take an Oath of Approbation of what had been done to the late King he refused and caused it to be expunged That these Actings in Council if any were were by Authority of Parliament of a Parliament constituted in an extraordinary manner made indissolvable but by Act of Parliament He insisted much on the Preamble of that Act so as that Parliament being co-ordinate with the King for the Government was in the King and the two Houses what-ever he acted by Them or their Authority cannot be Treason within the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. He cited an Ordinance of Parliament in 1642 and said That he hoped these things had been laid asleep by the Act of Oblivion and if they should now rise in Judgment against him he feared they would shake that Security which the People promised themselves under that Act. But if he should be now called in question for those things which were transacted in that Parliament of which he was a Member he shal have the comfort and peace of those Actions to support him in his greatest sufferings He added That if he were excepted then must he be judged for the crime of the whole Nation and that crime must be ravelled into through him That the Case is such as never yet fell out to wit that the Government being entrusted to three Estates they should so fall out among themselves as the People cannot tell which to obey That where these great Changes fall out it is not possible for any man to proceed according to all formalities of Law That there was a Political Power by this Act of 17. Caroli co-ordinate with the King and where these Powers are not in conjunction but enmity to each other no Court inferiour to the Parliament by whose Authority these things were acted ought to be Judges of this Case which certainly never happened before He farther saith he was not the first mover in these actions and that he should be called in question for these matters by a King that was out of possession at the time when these things were acted would be inconvenient to say no more That when the three Estates were disjoyned he thought it the best policy to preserve the Government in its root to wit the Commons by whom it was preserved and at last restored to its former course That as to the Regiment that passed under his name he disown'd it That Reports of Messages are not the fault of the Reporter for his judgment does not always go along with them but he is bound to deliver his Message That he alwayes loved the Government as it is set forth in our ancient Law-Books and that that Parliament so much decried at last restored affairs to the â—â—sture in which they now are As to the Warrants signed by him he said they appear to be signed in the Name and by Order of the Council and his hand that subscribes is not so much active as passive to the Commands of the Council If the Council who commanded the signing were unwarrantable
King is acknowledged to have two capacities in him one a natural as he is descended of the Blood Royal of the Realm and the Body natural he hath in this capacity is of the creation of Almighty God and mortal The other is a politick capacity in respect of which he is a Body politick or mystical framed by the policy of man which is immortal and invisible To the King in both these capacities conjoyn'd Allegiance is due that is to say to the natural person of the King accompanied with his politick capacity or the politick appropriated to the natural The politick capacity of the King hath properly no body nor soul for it is framed by the policy of man In all Indictments of Treason when any one does intend the death and destruction of the King it must needs be understood of his natural body the other being immortal The Indictment therefore concludes contra Legiantiae suae debitum against the duty of his Allegiance so that Allegiance is due to the natural body Admitting then that thus by Law Allegiance is due to the King as before recited yet it is alwayes to be presumed that it is to the King in conjunction with the Parliament the Law and the Kingdom and not in disjunction from or opposition to them and that while a Parliament is in being and cannot be dissolved but by the Consent of the three Estates This is therefore that which makes the matter in question a new Case that never before happened in the Kingdom nor was possible to happen unless there had been a Parliament constituted as this was unsubjected to Adjournment Prorogation or Dissolution by the King's will Where such a power is granted and the co-ordinates thereupon disagree and fall out such effects and consequents as these that have happened will but too probably follow And if either the Law of Nature or England inform not in such case it will be impossible for the Subjects to know their duty when that Power and Command which ought to flow from three in conjunction comes to be exercised by all or either of them singly and apart or by two of them against one When new and never-heard-of Changes do fall out in the Kingdom it is not like that the known and written Laws of the Land should be the exact Rule but the Grounds and Rules of Justice contained and declared in the Law of Nature are and ought to be a Sanctuary in such cases even by the very Common Law of England For thence originally spring the unerring Rules that are set by the Divine and Eternal Law for Rule and Subjection in all States and Kingdoms In contemplation hereof as the Resolve of all the Judges it was agreed 1. That Allegiance is due to Soveraignty by the Law of Nature to wit that Law which God at the creation of Man infused into his heart for his preservation and direction the Law eternal Yet is it not this Law as it is in the heart of every individual man that is binding over many or legislative but as it is the Act of a Community or an Associated People by the right dictates and perswasions of the work of this Law in their hearts This appears in the Case of the Israelites Judg. 20 21 chapters cited in the 4th part of Cook 's Institutes where mention is made of a Parliament without a King that made War and that with their Brethren They met as one man to do it in vindication of that Justice unto which they were obliged even by the Law of Nature This is that which Chancellor Fortescue calls Political Power here in England by which as by the Ordinance of man in pursuance of the Ordinance of God the Regal Office constituted or the King 's Politick Capacity and becomes appropriated to his natural person Thus Politick Power is the immediate Efflux and Off-spring of the Law of Nature and may be called a part of it To this Hooker in his Ecclesiastical Polity agrees and Selden on that subject The Law of Nature thus considered is part of the Law of England as is evident by all the best received Law-Books Bracton Fleta Lambard upon the Saxon Laws and Fortescue in the praise of the Laws of England This is the Law that is before any judicial or municipal Law as the root and fountain whence these and all Government under God and his Law do flow This Politick Power as it is exercised in conjunction with and conformity to the Eternal Law partakes of its moral and immutable nature and cannot be changed by Act of Parliament Of this Law it is that Magna Charta and the Charter of Forest with other Statutes rehearsed in the Petition of Right are for the most part declaratory For they are not introductive of any new Law but confirmations of what was good in all Laws of England before This agrees with that Maxime Salus Populi suprema Lex that being made due and binding by this Law which in the Judgment of the Community declaring their mind by their own free chosen Delegates and Trustees in harmony with the Eternal Law appears profitable and necessary for the preservation and good of the whole Society This is the Law which is put forth by the common consent of the whole Realm in their Representative and according to the fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom is that with which the Kings of this Land by the joynt co-operation of the three Estates do make and repeal Laws But through the disorders and divisions of the times these two Powers the Regal and Political which according to the Law of England make up but one and the same supream Authority fell assunder and found themselves in disjunction from and opposition to one another I do not say The question is now which of these is most rightly according to the principles of the Law of Nature and the Law of England to be adhered unto and obeyed but unto whether Power adherence is a crime in such an Exigent of State Which since it is such a new and extraordinary Case evidently above the Track of the ordinary Rules contained in the positive and municipal Laws of England there can be no colour to bring it within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. cap. 2. forasmuch as all Statutes presuppose these two Powers Regal and Political in conjunction perfect unity and subserviency which this Case does not cannot admit So exceeding new and extraordinary a Case is it that it may be doubted whether and questioned how far any other Parliament but that Parliament it self that was privy to all its own Actings and Intentions can be an indifferent and competent Judge But however the point is of so abstruse and high consideration as no inferiour Court can or ought to judge of it as by Law-Books is most undeniable to wit Bracton and others This then being the true state of the Case and the spring of that Contest that ensued and received its decision by the late War
it their humble desire to his Majesty that in such case Execution as to my Life might be remitted Unto this his Majesty readily gave his Grant and Assent And I do firmly believe if the Houses had pleased to give me the opportunity and leave of being heard they would never have denied me the Indempnity granted to the rest of the Nation That which remains of further Charge yet to me is the business of a Regiment an imployment which I can in truth affirm mine own inclinations nature and breeding little fitted me for and which was intended onely as honorary and titular with relation to Volunteers who by their application to the Council of State in a time of great Commotions did propound their own Officers and without any seeking of mine or my considering any farther of it than as the use of my Name did among others nominate me for a Colonel which the Council of State approved granting Commissions to my self and all other Officers relating thereunto And the Parliament confirmed my said Commission upon report thereof made to them This will appear by several Witnesses I have to produce in this matter that will be able to affirm how little I took upon me or at all to give any Orders or make use of such my Commission any otherwise than in name only 'T is true indeed that at a certain time when I was summoned to appear at the Committee of the Militia in Southwark whereof I was a Member That which was called my own Company of Foot from the respect which they and their Officers pretended to me were desirous to be in a posture fit for me to see them and as I passed by I took the opportunity at their desire to shew my self to them and only as taking notice of their respect in some few words expressing the reason I had to receive it in good part I told them I would no longer detain them from their other occasions After I was gone from them I appointed my Capt. Lieutenant to give them from me something to drink as might be fitting on such an occasion which to my best remembrance was five pounds and he laid it out of his own money More than this as I remember was not done by me so much as to the seeing any more the Companies of that Regiment gathered together or giving Orders to them which I publickly and avowedly declined perswading the Officers to lay down their Charges in mine own example so soon as I discern'd the intentions of the sitting down of the Committee of Safety and the exorbitant power committed to them to exercise and the way of proceedings by the Army in interesting themselves in the Civil Government of the Nation which I utterly disliked And although I forbore not to keep my station in reference to the Council of State while they sate or as a Commissioner of the Admiralty during the time by them appointed to act by Parliamentary Authority and so had occasion to be daily conversant with the Members of the Committee of Safety whereof my self with others that would not accept were named yet I perfectly kept my self dis-interested from all those Actings of the Army as to any Consent or Approbation of mine however in many things by way of discourse I did not decline converse with them holding it my duty to penetrate as far as I could into their true Intentions and Actions but resolving within my self to hold true to my Parliamentary Trust in all things wherein the Parliament appeared to me to act for the safety and good of the Kingdom however I was mis-interpreted and judged by them as one that rather favoured some of the Army and their power Upon the whole matter There is not any precedent that ever both or either of the Houses of Parliament did commit Treason For though Priviledge of Parliament does not so hold in Treason but that particular Members may be punished for it yet it is unprecedented That both or either Houses of Parliament as a collective Body ever did or could commit Treason All the Acts done in Parliaments have been reversed indeed and repealed as what was done 11. Ric. 2. was repealed 21. Ric. 2 and what was done 21. Ric. 2. was repealed 1 Hen. 4. 3 as appears by the printed Statutes Yet I do not find that both or either House of Parliament were declared Traitors for what they did in those Parliaments Or that any which acted under them suffered for the same in any inferiour Courts And surely the reason is obvious For they had a co-ordinacy in the Supream or Legislative Power for the making altering and repealing Laws And if so Par in parem non habet imperium and by authorities out of Bracton Fleta and others it may appear what Superiours the King himself hath who yet hath no Peer in his Kingdom nisi Curium Baronum God Law and Parliament And if either or both Houses cannot commit Treason Then those that act by their Authority cannot For plus peccat Author quam Actor the Author offends more than the Actor If those that command do not not can commit Treason how can those that act by their Authority be guilty of it Further I must crave leave to assert by reason of what I see opened upon the Evidence That what is done in Parliament or by their Authority ought not to be questioned in any other Court. For every offence committed in any Court must be punished in the same or in some higher and not any inferiour Court. Now the Court of Parliament hath no superiour Court as is said in Cook 's Jurisdiction of Courts And the reason there given that Judges ought not to give any opinion in a matter of Parliament is because it is not to be decided by the Common Laws but secundum Legem Consuetudinem Parliamenti This the Judges in divers Parliaments have confessed And that reason is not to be waved which the Lord Cook gives That a man can make no defence for what is said and acted there is done in Council and none ought to reveal the secrets of the House Every Member hath a Judicial Voice and can be no Witness The main substance of these Papers was read and enlarged upon by the Prisoner this day of his Tryal He was often interrupted but his memory was still relieved by his Papers so as after whatever diversions caused by the Court or Counsel he could recover himself again and proceed Yet the edge and force of his Plea as to the influencing of the Jurors Consciences may appear to have been much abated by such interruptions as doubtless was intended and will more at large appear when it shall please God to afford us a full Narrative of the Proceedings of the King's Judges Counsel and Jurors about him and of all that he occasionally said upon the digressions by them caused Wednesday June 11. being the Sentence-day AFter some little skirmishings with the Prisoner to dash all the humane weapons of Law
to the first of these The Act for Continuance of the Long Parliament is express That all and every thing or things whatsoever done or to be done for the Adjournment Proroguing or Dissolving of that Parliament contrary to that Act shall be utterly void and of none effect I then thus argue The Judges do upon occasion of this Tryal resolve That the King's Death dissolv'd that Parliament No Act of Parliament hath yet declared it to be so and the Judges ought to have some Law for their guide as Cook well sayes To be sure if in process of time the Parliament shall expresly declare That not the King's Death but the Act for the Dissolution of that Parliament did dissolve it In such case these Judges Resolution by vertue of such Act is absolutely void But innocent Blood in the mean time may be shed and an Estate wrongfully taken away And in case what the Judges assert herein were Law 't is Law not known or declared till many years after the Fact committed At this rate who is secure of Estate or Life As to the second and third Queries or Propositions It does appear out of the third part of Cook 's Institutes fol. 7. and the Statute 11. Hen. 7. cap. 1. That Actings for the King in Fact are not to be questioned by the King in Right If it be said That there was no King in this case it may be replied That they who had the Power and Exercise of the Royal Jurisdiction as to Peace and War Coynage of Money power of Life and Death c. which are the highest Ensigns of Regal Authority must needs be the Powers regnant though not under the name of King and are within the Statute 25. Edw. 3. cap. 2. as a Queen also is adjudged and any sovereign Prince though under the title only of Lord as was the case of Ireland before it was a Kingdom And if so why not in more such persons as well as one that de facto exercise the Royal Power and Sovereign Authority under what name or title soever If upon this Nicety Judgment be given against me because the Powers regnant wanted the name and formality of a King I shall doubtless have very hard measure For the reason and equity is the same if the Powers regnant had the thing though not the Title And where there is the same Reason there is the same Law as is a known Rule Now there is the same Reason the Subject should be equally indempnified that acteth under any Sovereign Authority that hath not the name of a King as if it had If there had been many Kings as a Heptarchy hath been in England heretofore those would have been understood to be within the Statute and the reason and equity of the Statute is the same in all cases For the Law is made for the benefit and security of the Subject whom the Law requires not to examine the right of Soveraignty Nor is the danger less under one Government than another The Statute is for securing the Subject from all dormant Titles that they may safely pay their Allegiance when they receive Protection and that they may not be in danger of being destroyed by two Powers at the same time For that Power which is supream and de facto will be obeyed and make it Treason to do otherwise be it right or wrong And if the Subject be at the same time in danger of committing Treason against the Power de jure then is he in a miserable condition and state of unavoidable necessity which is provided against by the Laws of the Land Otherwise if he be loyal to the King de jure he shall be hanged by the King de facto and if he be faithful to the King de facto he shall die by the King de jure when he recovers possession Against this it was that the Statute of 11. Hen. 7. was provided in the difference betwixt the two houses of York and Lancaster My Case is either the same with that and then I desire the benefit of that Statute or else it is new and then I desire as is provided 25. Ed. 3. that it be referred to the Parliament So that it is either within the Equity of the Statute 11. Hen. 7. or else it is a new Case and not to be judged by this Court If the Judges in the Resolves by them delivered upon any of the particulars before-alledged have not declared that Law that ought to guide them but their particular Judgments or Opinions as undertaking to guide the Law and that in points of so grand concern as touch the Subjects Life in case their Judgments after should prove erroneous the Verdict given upon such Errors must needs be illegal and void Judgment therefore ought to be suspended till such time as the truth and certainty of the Law may be fully argued and cleared and that in the proper Court for the hearing and judging of this Case If this be not done but I be forthwith proceeded against notwithstanding any thing however rationally or legally alledged to the contrary by such undue precipitation and giving Sentence I am contrary to Magna Charta or Law of the Land run upon and destroyed without due form and course of Law And I am like to be deprived of Estate and Life upon no Law or certain Rule which was declared before the Fact no nor before the Tryal Upon these Considerations I desire an Arrest of Judgment and that Counsel may be assigned me and competent time allowed to make good my Averrements As an Argument to press this I desire leave of the Court That the Petition of the two Houses and the King's Assent to it may be read in open Court attested by one that is present who examined and compared it with the Book of Record in the Lords House by which it evidently appears that as well the King as both Houses of Parliament were agreed that admitting I were attainted yet Execution as to my Life should be remitted And if so there is no cause to precipitate the passing Sentence especially when also such weighty points in the Law are yet to be argued and cleared unless the Judges will evidently charge themselves with my innocent Blood III. My third Reason for an Arrest of Judgment is the manifest newness of this Case being such as never happened before in the Kingdom which withal is of so vast a consequence to people of all sorts and conditions within this Realm as nothing more And being so as I doubt not with your Lordships patience I shall make it appear It is the known Law witnessed by Bracton and antient approved Law-Books That in such Cases the Judges in the inferiour Courts ought not to proceed but bring it before the high Court of Parliament To prove therefore the newness of this Case besides what I have already alledged in my Defence before the Verdict give me leave to adde that which yet further shews the newness and
Laws of this Kingdom and have been so adjudged by two Acts of Parliament and ought to suffer as Traitors Die Jovis Octob. 8. 1642. In the Instructions agreed upon by the Lords and Commons about the Militia They declare That the King seduced by wicked Counsel hath raised War against the Parliament and other his good Subjects And by the Judgment and Resolution of both Houses bearing date Aug. 13. 1642 upon occasion of his Majesties Proclamation for suppressing the present Rebellion under the Command of Robert Earl of Essex They do unanimously publish and declare That all they who have advised declared abetted or countenanced or hereafter shall abet and countenance the said Proclamation are Traytors and Enemies to God the King and Kingdom and guilty of the highest degree of Treason that can be committed against the King and Kingdom as that which invites his Majesties Subjects to destroy his Parliament and good People by a Civil War and by that means to bring ruine confusion and perpetual slavery upon the surviving part of a then wretched Kingdom The Law is acknowledged by the King to be the onely Rule by which the People can be iustly governed and that as it is his duty so it shall be his perpetual vigilant care to see to it Therefore he will not suffer either or both Houses by their Voâ—es without or against his Consent to enjoyn any thing that is forbidden by the Law or to forbid any thing that is enjoyned by the Law The King does assert in his Answer to the Houses Petition May 23. 1642. That He is a part of the Parliament which they take upon them to defend and secure and that his Prerogative is a part of and a defence to the Laws of the Land In the Remonstrance of both Houses May 26. 1642. They do assert That if they have made any Precedents this Parliament they have made them for posterity upon the same or better grounds of Reason and Law than those were upon which their Predecessors made any for them and do say That as some Precedents ought not to be Rules for them to follow so none can be limits to bound their Proceedings which may and must vary according to the different condition of times And for the particular with which they were charged of setting forth Declarations to the People who have chosen and entrusted them with all that is dearest to them if there be no example for it in former times They say it is because there never were such Monsters before that attempted to disaffect the People towards a Parliament They further say His Majesties Towns are no more his care than his Kingdom nor his Kingdom than his People who are not so his own that he hath absolute power over them or in them as in his proper Goods and Estate but fiduciary for the Kingdom and in the paramount right of the Kingdom They also acknowledge the Law to be the safeguard and custody of all publick and private Interests They also hold it fit to declare unto the Kingdom whose Honour and Interest is so much concerned in it what is the Priviledge of the great Council of Parliament herein and what is the Obligation that lies upon the Kings of this Realm as to the passing such Bills as are offered to them by both Houses in the name and for the good of the whole Kingdom whereunto they stand engaged both in Conscience and Justice to give their Royal Assent First In Conscience in respect of the Oath that is or ought to be taken by them at their Coronation as well to confirm by their Royal Assent all such good Laws as the People shall chuse whereby to remedy such inconveniencies as the Kingdom may suffer as to keep and protect the Laws already in being The form of the Oath is upon Record and asserted by Books of good authority Unto it relation is had 25 Ed. 3. entitiled The Statute of Provisors of Benefices Hereupon The said Commons prayed our said Lord the King sith the Right of the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm is such that upon the mischiefs and dammages which happen to this Realm he ought and is bound by his Oath with the accord of his People in Parliament to make Remedy and Law for the removing thereof That it may please him to ordain Remedy This Right thus claimed by the Lords and Commons the King doth not deny in his Answer thereunto Secondly In Justice the Kings are obliged as well as in Conscience in respect of the Trust reposed in them to preserve the Kingdom by the making of new Laws where there shall be need as well as by observing of Laws already made a Kingdom being many times as much exposed to ruine for want of a new Law as by the violation of those that are in being This is a most clear Right not to be denyed but to be as due from his Majesty to his People as his Protection In all Laws framed by both Houses as Petitions of Right they have taken themselves to be so far Judges of the Rights claimed by them That when the King's Answer hath not been in every point fully according to their desire they have still insisted upon their Claim and never given it over till the Answer hath been according to their demand as was done in the late Petition of Right 3. Caroli This shews the two Houses of Parliament are Judge between the King and the People in question of Right as in the Case also of Ship-money and other illegal Taxes and if so why should they not also be Judge in the Cases of the Common Good and Necessity of the Kingdom wherein the Kingdom hath as clear a Right to have the benefit and remedy of the Law as in any other matter saying Pardon and Grants of Favour The Malignant Party are they that not only neglect and despise but labour to undermine the Law under colour of maintaining it They endeavour to destroy the Fountain and Conservators of the Law the Parliament They make other Judges of the Law than what the Law hath appointed They set up other Rules for themselves to walk by than such as are according to Law and dispence with the Subjects obedience to that which the Law calls Authority and to their Determinations and Resolutions to whom the Judgment doth appertain by Law Yea though but private persons they make the Law to be their Rule according to their own understanding only contrary to the Judgment of those that are the competent Judges thereof The King asserts That the Act of Sir John Hotham was levying War against the King by the letter of the Statute 25 Ed. 3. cap. 2. The Houses state the Case and deny it to be within that Statute saying If the letter of that Statute be thought to import this That no War can be levied against the King but what is directed and intended against his Person Or that every levying of Forces for the defence
of the King's Authority and of his Kingdom against the personal Commands of the King opposed thereunto though accompanied with his presence is Treason or levying War against the King Such Interpretation is very far from the sense of that Statute and so much the Statute it self speaks beside the authority of Book-cases For if the clause of levying War had been meant only against the King's Person what need had there been thereof after the other branch in the same Statute of compassing the King's death which would necessarily have implied this And because the former doth imply this it seems not at all to be intended at least not chiefly in the latter branch but the levying War against his Laws and Authority and such a levying War though not against his Person is a levying War against the King whereas the levying of Force against his personal Commands though accompanied with his Presence and not against his Laws and Authority but in the maintenance thereof is no levying of War against the King but for him especially in a time of so many successive plots and designs of Force against the Parliament and Kingdom of probable Invasion from abroad and of so great distance and alienation of his Majesties affections from his Parliament and People and of the particular danger of the Place and Magazine of Hull of which the two Houses sitting are the most proper Judges In proclaiming Sir John Hotham Traitor they say The breach of the Priviledge of Parliament was very clear and the subversion of the Subjects common Right For though the Priviledges of Parliament extend not to these cases mentioned in the Declaration of Treason Felony and breach of the Peace so as to exempt the Members of Parliament from Punishment or from all manner of Process and Tryal yet it doth priviledge them in the way and method of their Tryal and Punishment and that the Parliament should first have the Cause brought before them that they may judge of the Fact and of the grounds of their Accusation and how far forth the manner of their Tryal may or may not concern the Priviledge of Parliament Otherwise under this pretext the Priviledge of Parliament in this matter may be so essentially broken as thereby the very Being of Parliaments may be destroyed Neither doth the sitting of a Parliament suspend all or any Law in maintaining that Law which upholds the Priviledge of Parliament which upholds the Parliament which upholds the Kingdom They further assert That in some sense they acknowledge the King to be the only person against whom Treason can be committed that is as he is King and that Treason which is against the Kingdom is more against the King than that which is against his Person because he is King For Treason is not Treason as it is against him as a man but as a man that is a King and as he hath and stands in that relation to the Kingdom entrusted with the Kingdom and discharging that Trust They also a vow That there can be no competent Judge of this or any the like case but a Parliament and do say that if the wicked Counsel about the King could master this Parliament by force they would hold up the same power to deprive us of all Parliaments which are the ground and pillar of the Subjects Liberty and that which only maketh England a free Monarchy The Orders of the two Houses carry in them Law for their limits and the Safety of the Land for their end This makes them not doubt but all his Majesties good Subjects will yeeld obedience to his Majesties Authority signified therein by both Houses of Parliament for whose encouragement and that they may know their Duty in matters of that nature and upon how sure a ground they go that follow the Judgement of Parliament for their guide They alledge the true meaning and ground of that Statute 11. Hen. 7. cap. 1. printed at large in his Majesties Message May 4 This Statute provides that none that shall attend upon the King and do him true service shall be attainted or forfeit any thing What was the scope of this Statute Answ To provide that men should not suffer as Traitors for serving the King in his Wars according to the duty of their Allegiance But if this had been all it had been a very needless and ridiculous Statute Was it then intended as they seem to make it that print it with his Majesties Message that those should be free from all crime and penalty that should follow the King and serve him in War in any case whatsoever whether it were for or against the Kingdom or the Laws thereof That cannot be for that could not stand with the duty of their Allegiance which in the beginning of this Statute is expressed to be to serve the King for the time being in his Wars for the defence of him and the Land If therefore it be against the Land as it must be if it be against the Parliament the Representative Body of the Kingdom it is a declining from the duty of Allegiance which this Statute supposes may be done though men should follow the Kings Person in the War Otherwise there had been no need of such a Proviso in the end of the Statute that none should take benefit thereby that should decline from their Allegiance That therefore which is the Principal Verb in this is the serving of the King for the time being which cannot be meant of a Perkin Warbeck or any that should call himself King but such a one as whatever his Title might prove either in himself or in his Ancestors should be received and acknowledged for such by the Kingdome the Consent whereof cannot be discern'd but by Parliament the Act whereof is the Act of the whole Kingdom by the personal Suffrage of the Peers and the Delegate Consent of the Commons of England Henry 7th therefore a wise Prince to clear this matter of contest happening between Kings de facto and Kings de jure procured this Statute to be made That none shall be accounted a Traitor for serving in his Wars the King for the time being that is him that is for the present allowed and received by the Parliament in behalf of the Kingdom And as it is truly suggested in the Preamble of the Statute It is not agreeable to reason or conscience that it should be otherwise seeing men should be put upon an impossibility of knowing their duty if the Judgment of the highest Court should not be a Rule to guide them And if the Judgment thereof is to be followed when the question is who is King much more when the question is what is the best service of the King and Kingdom Those therefore that shall guide themselves by the Judgment of Parliament ought what ever happen to be secure and free from all account and penalties upon the ground and equity of this Statute To make the Parliament countenancers of Treason they say is enough
Parliament he desired he might have Counsel assigned him to argue them before their Lordships Some of these points he instanced in to wit 1. Whether a Parliament were accountable to any inferiour Court 2. Whether the King being out of possession and the Power Regent in others Here they stopt him not suffering him to proceed nor admitting that the King was ever out of possession To which Sir Henry replied The words of his Indictment ran thus that he endeavoured to keep out his Majesty and how could he keep him out of the Realm if he were not out But when he saw they would over-rule him in all and were bent upon his Condemnation he put up his Papers appealing to the Righteous Judgment of God who he told them must judge them as well as him often expressing his satisfaction to die upon this Testimony which Keeling one of the King's Counsel insultingly answered So you may Sir in good time by the grace of God The same person had often before shewed a very snappish property towards the Prisoner and Sir Henry sometimes answered him according to his folly For when he would have had the Book out of the Prisoner's hand wherein was the Statute of Westminster 2d. 31. Sir Henry told him he had a very officious Memory and when he was of Counsel for him he would find him Books Whereby was verified what was said to be spoken by him at first in answer to one of his Brethren on the Arraignment day Though we know not what to say to him we know what to do with him After Sentence given Chief Justice Forster endeavoured to take off the King from any Obligation by that Grant to the Petition of both Houses saying That God though full of mercy yet intended his mercy only to the penitent Reasons for an Arrest of Judgment writ by the Prisoner but refused to be heard by the Court. I. I Have been denied so much as to hear the Indictment read in Latine as it is the Original Record of the Court yea so much as a Copy of it in English hath been denied me during the whole time of my Tryal by the fight whereof I might be able to assign the defects of Law that may be in it Counsel also hath been denied not only before I pleaded but after and all points by me offered in Law to the Judges of the Court have been over-ruled without admitting me Counsel to argue the same and better inform the Judgment of the Court I have demanded that I might put in a Bill of Exceptions upon the Statute of Westminst 2d. cap. 31. This likewise is denied me over-ruled and judged as out of that Statute Neither will Counsel be allowed me in this to shew cause why it ought to be admitted as of Right And as no Counsel was allowed so neither were the Judges Counsel to me as they said themselves they would and ought to be but rather suffered me to wrong and prejudice my self some of them saying Let him go on the worst will be his own at last And they neither checked nor restrained the King's Counsel in their high and irritating expressions to the Jury to find me guilty One of whom were seen to speak privately with the Foreman of the Jury immediately before the Jurors went from the Bar after he had spoken openly That the Prisoner was to be made a publick Sacrifice in reference to the Actions done against his Majesty that now is All this is very far from that Indifferency in Tryal and from that Equality which the Law requires and they are bound by their Oath to afford me besides the undue proceedings in the business of the Petty Jury A List of forty eight persons was presented to me who being to me unknown and no time allowed me to gain any knowledge of them though I was permitted to challenge and refuse three Juries without shewing cause yet could not that refusal be upon such rational grounds as the Law supposes which doubtless intends substantial relief to the Prisoner in allowing him the liberty of such refusal whereas through my ignorance of the persons I might refuse the best and chuse the worst as to my safety And then whereas the Law further allows me the refusal of any other beyond the thirty five on just and exceptionable cause shewen what just exception was I capable to alledge in a sudden hurry against persons to me altogether unknown unless it would be taken for a just one that they were unknown to me All these things being so contrary to the Right which the Judges stand obliged to do to every one as they are for that purpose entrusted by God and the King is just cause for an Arrest of Judgment and a good Reason why they should yet at length allow me a Copy of the Indictment and assign Counsel to argue for the Prisoner against the defects in Law that may be found therein Without this Law is denied me which is my Birthright and Inheritance the best Birthright the Subject hath sayes Cook on Mag. Charta for thereby sayes he his Goods Lands Wife Children his Body Life Honour and Estimation are protected from injury The Life Birthright or Inheritance we have from our parents may soon be gone if this Fence thereof be broken down How great a wrong then it is for the Court to withhold it from me is manifest Are they not therefore in effect chargeable with my Blood by such unequal Proceedings as I have had in my Tryal II. My second Reason for an Arrest of Judgment is drawn from the Issue that is joyned in my Case which seems to depend chiefly upon matter of Law and that in such tender and high points as are only determinable in the high Court of Parliament For it is become the question Whether I am guilty or not guilty according as these Propositions following are truly or erroneously resolved 1. Whether the Parliament that began Novemb. 3. 1640 were dissolved by the King's Death and whether this Court may judge things done in Parliament 2. Whether the Powers regnant and de facto that successively were in being from Jan. 30. 1648 to Decemb. 20 1659 were such Powers de facto as are the King or Seigneur le Roy within the purview of the Stat. 25. Ed. 3. having the exercise of Regal Power in all the particulars of it though not the name 3. Whether during that time fore-mentioned his Majesty that now is were properly King de facto or whether he were not out of possession and without all exercise of his Regal Authority within the Realm 4. Whether the Case now in question be a Treason literally within the words of the Statute 25. Ed. 3. or at most any other than an interpretative and new Treason not declared before the very time of my Tryal and that only by the Judgment of the Court or opinion of my Judges eleven years after some of the things charged on me are alledged to have been committed As
extraordinariness thereof And I beseech your Lordships to let me go on without interruption in my endeavouring to make it out as clearly as God shall enable me and as briefly also not to spend too much of your time In general I do affirm of this Case That it is so comprehensive as to take in the very Interests of Heaven and Earth First Of God the Universal Soveraign and King of Kings Secondly That of earthly Soveraigns who are God's Vicegerents as also the Interests of all Mankind that stand in the relation of Subjects to the one or both those sorts of Soveraigns This is general More particularly within the bowels of this Case is that Cause of God that hath stated it self in the late Differnces and Wars that have happened and arisen within these three Nations and have been of more than twenty years continuance which for the greater certainty and solemnity hath been recorded in the form of a National Covenant in which the generality of the three Nations have been either implicitly involved or expresly concern'd by the signing of their Names The principal things contained in that Covenant were the known and commonly received Duties which either as Men or as Christians we owed and stood obliged to perform either to God the highest and universal King in Church and State or to our natural Lord and Sovereign the Kings of this Realm in subordination to God and his Laws Again It contains as well the Duties which we owe to every particular and individual person in their several stations and callings as to the King in general and our Representative Body in Parliament assembled These Duties we are thereby obliged to yeeld and perform in consistency with and in a just subordination and manifest agreeableness to the Laws of God as is therein expressed And this also in no disagreement to the Laws of the Land as they then were By this solemn Covenant and Agreement of the three Nations giving up themselves in subjection to God and to his Laws in the first place as the Allegiance they owe to their highest Soveraign as the Creator Redeemer Owner and Ruler of all Mankind they have so far interested the Son of God in the the Supream Rule and Government of these Nations that nothing therein ought to be brought into practice contrary to his revealed Will in the holy Scriptures and his known and most righteous Laws This Duty which we owe to God the universal King Nature and Christianity do so clearly teach and assert that it needs no more than to be named For this subjection and allegiance to God and his Laws by a Right so indisputable all are accountable before the Judgment-seat of Christ It is true indeed men may de facto become open Rebels to God and to his Laws and prove such as forfeit his Protection and engage him to proceed against them as his professed Enemies But with your Lordships favour give me leave to say that that which you have made a Rule for your proceedings in my Case will indeed hold and that very strongly in this that is to say in the sence wherein Christ the Son of God is King de jure not only in general over the whole World but in particular in relation to these three Kingdoms He ought not to be kept out of his Throne nor his visible Government that consists in the Authority of his Word and Laws suppressed and trampled under foot under any pretence whatsoever And in the asserting and adhering unto the Right of this highest Soveraign as stated in the Covenant before mentioned The Lords and Commons joyntly before the year 1648 and the Commons alone afterwards to the very times charged in the Indictment did manage the War and late Differences within these Kingdoms And whatever defections did happen by Apostates Hypocrites and Time-serving worldlings there was a party amongst them that continued firm sincere and chast unto the last and loved it better than their very lives of which number I am not ashamed to profess my self to be not so much admiring the form and words of the Covenant as the righteous and holy ends therein expressed and the true sense and meaning thereof which I have reason to know Nor will I deny but that as to the manner of the prosecution of the Covenant to other ends than it self warrants and with a rigid oppressive spirit to bring all dissenting minds and tender Consciences under one Uniformity of Church-discipline and government it was utterly against my Judgment For I alwayes esteemed it more agreeable to the Word of God that the Ends and Work declared in the Covenant should be promoted in a spirit of love and forbearance to differing Judgments and Consciences that thereby we might be approving our selves in doing that to others which we desire they would do to us and so though upon different principles be found joynt and faithful advancers of the Reformation contained in the Covenant both publick and personal This happy Union and Conjunction of all Interests in the respective duties of all relations agreed and consented to by the common suffrage of the three Nations as well in their publick Parliamentary capacity as private stations appeared to me a Rule and measure approved of and commanded by Parliament for my action and deportment though it met with great opposition in a tedious sad and long War and this under the name and pretext of Royal Authority Yet as this Case appeared to me in my conscience under all its circumstances of Times of Persons and of Revolutions inevitably happening by the hand of God and the course of his wise Providences I held it safest and best to keep my station in Parliament to the last under the guidance and protection of their Authority and in pursuance of the Ends before declared in my just Defence This general and publick Case of the Kingdoms is so well known by the Declarations and Actions that have passed on both sides that I need but name it since this matter was not done in a corner but frequently contended for in the high places of the Field and written even with characters of Blood And out of the bowels of these Publick Differences and Disputes doth my particular Case arise for which I am called into question But admitting it come to my lot to stand single in the witness I am to give to this Glorious Cause and to be left alone as in a sort I am yet being upheld with the Authority before asserted and keeping my self in union and conjunction therewith I am not afraid to bear my Witness to it in this great Presence nor to seal it with my Blood if called thereunto And I am so far satisfied in my conscience and understanding that it neither is nor can be Treason either against the Law of Nature or the Law of the Land either malum per se or malum prohibitum that on the contrary it is the duty I owed to God the universal King and
Judgement and the Lord's Day And this is that in every individual man which in the collective Body of the People and meeting of Head and Members in Parliament is called The Supream Authority and is the publick reason and will of the whole Kingdon the going against which is in Nature as well as by the Law of Nations an offence of the highest rank amongst men For it must be presumed that there is more of the Wisdom and Will of God in that publick Suffrage of the whole Nation than of any private Person or lesser collective Body whatsoever not better quallified and principled For Man is made in God's Image or in a likeness in Judgement and Will unto God himself according to the measure that in his nature he is proportioned and made capable to be the receiver and bearer thereof Therefore it is that the resisting and opposing either of that Judgement of Will which is in it self Supream and the Law to all others or which bears so much proportion and likeness to the Supream Will as is possible for a Society and community of Men agreeing together for that end to contrive and set up for an administration thereof unto them is against the duty of any member of that Society as well as it is against the duty of the Body of the whole Society to oppose its Judgement and Will to that of the Supream Law-giver their highest Soveraign God himself The highest Judgement and Will set up by God for Angels and Men in their particular beings to hold proportion with and bear conformity unto in the capacity of Ruled in relation to their chief Ruler sinnes forth in the person of Christ the engrafted Word And when by the Agreement or common Consent of a Nation or State there is such a Constitution and Form of Administration pitched upon as in a standing and ordinary way may derive and conveigh the nearest and greatest likeness in humane Laws or Acts of such a Constitution unto the Judgement and Will of the Supream Legislator as the Rule and declared Duty for every one in that Society to observe It is thereby that Government or Supream Power comes to receive Being in a Nation or State and is brought into exercise according to God's Ordinance and Divine Institution So then it is not so much the Form of the Administration as the thing Administred wherein the good or evil of Government doth consist that is to say a greater likeness or unlikeness unto Judgement and Will of the highest Being in all the Acts or Laws flowing from the Fundamental Constitution of the Government Hence it is that common Consent lawfully and rightfully given by the Body of a Nation and intrusted with Delegates of their own free choice to be exercised by them as their Representatives as well for the Welfare and good of the Body that trusts them as to the Honour and Well-pleasing of God the Supream Legislator is the Principle and Means warranted by the Law of Nature and Nations to give Constitution and Admission to the exercise of Government and Supream Authority over them and amongst them Agreeable hereunto we are to suppose that our Ancestors in this Kingdom did proceed when they constituted the Government thereof in that form of Administration which hath been derived to us in the course and channel of our Customes and Laws amongst which the Law and Customes in and of the Parliaments are to be accounted as chief For Hereby First The Directive or Legislative Power having the Right to State and Give the Rule for the Governors Duty and the Subjects Obedience is continued in our Laws which as well the King as People are under the Observation of witness the Coronation Oath and the Oath of Allegiance Secondly The Coercive or Executive Power is placed in one Person under the Name and Style of a King to be put forth not by his own single personal Command but by the signification of his Will and Pleasure as the Will of the whole State in and by his Courts of Justice and stated publick Counsels and Judicatures agreed on for that purpose between him and his People in their Parliamentary Assemblies The Will of the whole State thus signified the Law it self prefers before the personal Will of the King in distinction from the Law and makes the one binding the other not So that the publick Will of the State signified and declared by the publick Suffrage and Vote of the People or Kingdom in Parliament Assembled is a Legal and Warrantable ground for the Subjects Obedience in the things commanded by it for the good and welfare of the whole Body according to the best Understanding of such their Representative Body by it put forth during the time of its sitting The Body with whom the Delegated Vote and publick Suffrage of the whole Nation is Intrusted being once Assembled with Power not to be Dissolved but by their own consent in that capacity the highest Vote and Trust that can be is exercised and this by Authority of Parliament unto ex Officio or by way of Office are the Keepers of the Liberties of England or of the People by the said Authority for which they are accountable if they do not faithfully discharge that their duty This Office of keeping the Liberty which by the Law of God and Nature is due to the Community or whole Body of the People is by way of Trust committed by themselves to their own Delegates and in effect amounts unto this 1. That they may of right keep out and refuse any to exercise Rule and Command over them except God himself who is the Supream and Universal King and Governour or such as shall agree in their Actings to bear his Image which is to be Just and shew for the Warrant of their Exercise of Soveraignty both a likeness in Judgement and Will unto him who is Wisdom and Righteousness it self and the Approbation and common Consent of the whole Body rationally reposing that Trust in them from what is with visible and apparent Characters manifest to them of an aptness and sufficiency in them to give forth such publick Acts of Government that may bear the Stamp of God's Impression upon them in the Judgements they do and execute especially being therein helped with a National Counsel of the Peoples own choosing from time to time 2. They may of right keep hold and restrain him or them with whom the Coercive or Executive Power is intrusted unto a punctual performance of Duty according to the Fundamental Constitution the Oath of the Ruler and the Laws of the Land And if they shall refuse to be so held and restrained by the humble Desires Advice and common Consent in Parliament and the Peoples Delegates be invaded and attempted upon by force to deter them from the faithful discharge of this their Duty they may in asserting their Right and in a way of their own just Defence raise Armes put the issue upon Battel and Appeal unto
a final Decision of the Controversie between his People and the Inhabitants of the earth by his own Judgement This is there called The Valley of Jehoshaphat in which the Lord will sit to Judge all his enemies round about In this Battel and great Decision of his Peoples Controversie he will cause his Mighty Ones to come down from Heaven to put in their sickle as reapers in this Vintage and Harvest when the wickedness is great Unto this Revel 14. 14 20. refers which doth plainly evidence that this grand Decision is to fall out in the very last of times and probably is that which will make way to the Rising of the Witnesses and will be accompanied with that Earthquake in which shall be slain of men seven thousand and the tenth part of the City will thereupon fall Rev. 11. It is expressed Joel 3. That in this day of the Lord wherein he will be near in the Valley of Decision the Heavens and the Earth shall shake by the Lords own roaring out of Sion and he himself will be the Harbour Hope and Strength of his People The Sun and Moon of earthly Churches and Thrones of Judicature that contest with them shall be darkened and the Stars even the choicest and most illuminated gifted Pastors Leaders in the earthly Jerusalem Churches with their most refined Forms of Worship resisting the power of true spiritual Godliness shall withdraw their shining Even their holy flesh will pass off from them and consume away upon their spiritual lewdness and confident opposing the Faith of Gods Elect Jer. 11. 17. Their very Eyes will consume away in their holes with which they say we see and for which Christ tells the Pharisees in like case that therefore ther sin remaineth John 9. 41. Or there remaineth no more benefit from Christ's Sacrifice for their sin and therefore onely a fearful looking for of the fiery and devouring indignation Heb. 10. 26 27. Here 's that the great confidence and boast of many professing Churches and eminent Pastors in the earthly Jerusalem Fabrick or House on the sand will come to Ezek. 13. and Mat. 7. Their very Eyes their high enlightenings and excellent spiritual Gifts their supernatural or infused humane Learning that 's admitted only as an adorning and accomplishment of the natural man unaccompanied with that Fire-Baptisme that 's performed by the unspeakable gift of the Spirit it self for the transforming of the natural man into spiritual even these Eyes becoming evil Mat. 6. 23. and this light opposing and preferring it self to the more excellent discerning and marvellous light in spiritual Believers are turned by the just Judgement of God into the greatest and most fatal blindness and darkness of all Their tongues also though the tongues of men and angels for excellency and dexterity of expressing what they see with the forementioned eyes will consume away in their mouth Zech. 14. 12. and leave them exposed to become and accordingly be dealt with as meer sounding brass and tinckling Cymbals 1 Cor. 12. 31. and 13. 1. giving no certain sound and right warning to the Battels of the Lord the good sight of Faith This comes to pass through their confidence in those attainments which may be and oft are turned into an Idol of jealousie and spiritual whoredom Ezek. 16. 1 15. All these considerations of Church and State put together afford great ground of enquiry as to the Condition of the times in which we live how far the face which they bear and which God hath put upon them in the course of his Providences for some years now past doth speak or signifie the near approach of any such extraordinary and signal appearance or day of Gods Judgement for the Decision of his own or his Peoples quarrel and controversie with the prophane Heathen that are round about them waiting for an advantage utterly and universally to remove and root them out from off the face of the whole earth That which hath been acted upon the Theater of these Nations amongst us in the true state of our Controversie seems to be reducible to this following Querie Whether the Representative Body of the Kingdom of England in Parliament assembled and in their Supream Power and Trust made indissolvable unless by their own Consent and free Vote and this by particular and express Statute have not had a just and righteous Cause A Quarrel more God's than their own 1. It may appear they had First from the Ground of their undertaking the War Was it not in their own and the Kingdoms just and necessary defence and for the maintaining of the publick Rights and Liberties of both 2. Secondly Was it not undertaken upon mutual Appeals of both Parties to God desiring him to judge between them to give the Decision and Issue by the Law of War when no other Law could be heard as the definitive Sentence in this Controversie from the Court of Heaven 3. Thirdly Pursuant to such Decision did they not recover and repossess the Kingdoms original and primitive freedom Did they not endeavour to conserve and secure it as due to them by the Law of God and of Nature For man was made in God's Image and all Adams Posterity are properly one Universal Kingdom on earth under the Rule and Government of the Son of God both as Creator and Redeemer By virtue of this original and primitive Freedom so recovered they were at their own choice whether to remain in and retain this their true freedom unresigned and unsubjected to the Will of any Man under the Rule of the Son of God and his Lawes or else to set up a King or any other Form of Government over them after the manner of other Nations In this latter case it is acknowledged that when a Common-wealth or People do choose their first King upon condition to obey him and his Successors Ruling justly they ought to remain subject to him according to the Law and tenor of the Fundamental Compact with him on whom they have transferred their Authority No Jurisdiction remaineth in them after that free and voluntary Act of theirs either to Judge the Realm or determine who is the true Successor otherwise than is by them reserved and stipulated by their Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of Government And though the righteousness of this Cause contained in the forementioned particulars be such as carries in it its own evidence yet as as things have fallen out it is come to be oppressed and buried in the grave of Malefactors in the room of which a contrary Judgement and Way is visibly owned upheld and intended to be prosecuted to the utmost for its own fast-rooting and establishment and this by the common Consent and Association of Multitudes What then remaines for the recovery and restitution of that good old Cause and Way but such a seasonable and signal appearance of God as aforesaid in the Valley of Jehoshaphat What but the taking things immediately into his own hands for administration
folly to be alwayes but beginning to Live Life is but a sorrowful state a perpetual issue of Errors 'T is a Web of unhappy Adventures A pursuit of divers Miseries enchained together on all sides Solum id certum nil esse certi Nec miserius quicquam homine nec superbius Vanity is the most essential and proper quality of Man's first Nature The World is not worth that Labour and Pains Man exercises in and about it which caused that saying A wise man should do nothing but for himself T is not reason wise men should put themselves in danger for Fooles much less for Knaves The Will onely is truly Mans own and the considerable part of the reasonable Soul On it depend the issues of Good or Evil Life or Death All the rest of a Man his Understanding Memory Imagination may be taken from him altered troubled by a thousand accidents But the Will is so much in our own power that it cannot be taken away though its action may be hindred 'T is our own till we knowingly and freely give it away which may be And he that hath once absolutely given up his Will to another is no more his own man He hath left himself nothing of his own T is by the Will we are good or evil happy or unhappy Concerning Government He that gives up his Will to the Rule and Government of another becomes subject to that other Men that are born equal come to be made subject two wayes either by the free giving up of themselves to others or by others violent assuming and exercising power over them because they are strangers as Nimrod the mighty hunter of men served his fellow mortals Government is either Royal or Seignioral and Tyrannical as the Turks 'T is then properly Royal be it administred by one by many or by all their Representatives when he or they that have Soveraign Power obey the Laws of Nature preserve the natural Liberty and propriety of the Goods and Persons of the Subjects which no reasonable men acted by sound judgement will ever absolutely give away but secure their right in and power over by fundamental Contracts and Agreements with their Governors Absolute Soveraignty is a perpetual power over all without any restraint limitations or conditions put upon the Soveraign This consists in a power of giving Laws to all in general and to every one in particular without the consent or gift of any others and requiring universal and undispensable obedience to all his Commands under just penalties This Soveraignty is proper onely to the highest Being not at all to Creatures though where the Government is Despotical and Seignioral it is assumed and exercised But Government Royal is that which is consonant to the immutable Laws of Nature and Dictates of right Reason which require a conservation of the Subjects Liberty and Propriety in their goods and persons as well as the preservation and upholding of Empire and Authority in the Prince and find out the Medium through the mutual Agreements of Soveraign and Subjects for both to consist In Quarrels between Subjects and Soveraigns about the Subjects Liberty and the Kings Prerogative 't is seldom seen but the Error lies on the Soveraign's part who is apt to be flattered into the presumptuous exercise of such an absolute Soveraignty and Legislative Dominion over them as becomes no creature and exceeds all the bounds of that Contract he made with them at his Inauguration All just Power and Authority is from God and by virtue of his Ordinance and Institution He therefore that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God But all contrarient actings against the Prince are not to be accounted a resisting of the Power especially when the whole State is concerned and the business is managed by publick Trustees called and authorized by Law as Conservers of the State and Defenders of the publick Liberties and Lawes thereof In such a publick capacity to stand in the gap when a Breach is made and hinder any charge or attempt that would ruinate the State is Duty In such case they ought to withstand and hinder the violent proceedings of any either by way of Justice in a Legal tryal or by force For the Prince is not Master of the State but onely a Guardian and Defender thereof from injuries and evil Yet these affaires for redress of Grievances in case of Princes failers belong not to all but to the Tutors and Maintainers of the State or those that are interested therein as Electors in Elective States and in Hereditary States the States General and Representative Body of the Kingdom according to the tenor of their fundamental Laws In this case it is generally acknowledged lawful to resist a Tyrant Under the cross Accidents issuing from such Contests to which man is subject through others arbitrary Domination he may carry himself well two wayes 1. By a strong and vigorous resistance thereof to the last for diverting or blunting the point of it so as either to escape or force it 2. The other way and that perhaps the surest is to take and receive these Accidents at the worst let them prove what they will though to the loss of Life and all that 's dear to him in this World To resolve within himself to bear them sweetly and patiently and peaceably to attend whatever shall happen without tormenting himself about it or loosing the calmness and serenity of his mind in going about to hinder or prevent it He that takes the first course labours to escape he that takes the latter is content rather to suffer This many times proves the better bargain 'T is possible to incur greater inconveniency and loss in pleading and contending than in loosing or in flying for safety than in suffering Concerning Friendship Perfect friendship is a very plain and universal complication or enfolding of two Soules in one so that the Conjunction is most intimate and inseparable They can no more be divided nor would they if they might Secondly It is very free being built upon the pure choice and liberty of the Will without any other obligation or forreign motive Thirdly Without any exception of things goods honours judgements thoughts wills Life Marriage it self is some resemblance of this divine knot as saith the Apostle who from thence mounts in his contemplation to the great mysterie of this kind between Christ and his Church Abraham is called the friend of God Concerning Enemies In reference to our Enemies we must take care not to meditate Revenge Yet in some sense we may account it an excellent and worthy revenge to slight the worst they can do whereby we take away the pleasure which they think to have in vexing us We must in suffering Injuries have respect to our selves and to him that offends us Touching our selves we must take heed that we do nothing unworthy or unbecoming us that may give the enemy advantage against us As to him that offends us we should be wise as