offensive and defensive war against the King and Kingship but to oppose the Kings interest and Title to that Kingdom * setled on Him his Heirs and Successors for ever by an express Act of Parliament made in Ireland 23 H. 8. c. 1. and by the Statute of 1 Jac. c. 1. made in England yet unrepealed and the Protestant remaining party there adhering to and proclaiming acknowledging him for their Soveraign lest his gaining of Ireland should prove fatal to their usurped Soveraigntie in England or conduce to his enthroning here And by what Authority those now sitting can impose or with what Conscience any loyal Subject who hath taken the Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance and Covenant can voluntarily pay any Contributions to deprive the King of his hereditary right and undoubted Title to the Kingdoms and Crowns of England and Ireland and alter the frame of the antient Government and Parliaments of our Kingdoms * Remonstrated so often against by both Houses and adjudged High Treason in Canterburies and Straffirds cases for which they were beheaded and by themselves in the Kings own case whom they decolled likewise without incurring the guilt of perjury and danger of high Treason to the loss of his life and estate by the very laws and Statutes yet in force transcends my understanding to conceive Wherefore I neither can nor dare in conscience law or prudence submit to this Contribution The 3d. end of this Tax and more particularly of this new Tax of Jan 26. 1659. of one hundred thousand pound the Month for 6 months space after a former Tax levied before hand for the self-same Months is the maintenance of the Armies and Navyes raised and continued for the defence of the twice dissipated Anti-Parliamentarie Conventicle and their Utopian Common-wealth and the necessary and urgent occasions thereof now propounded and insisted on by the sitting Members as the only means of Peace and Settlement both in Church and State when as in truth it hath been is and will be the onlie means of Unsettlement and new divisions wars oppressions confusions in both to their utter ruine and desolation if pursued Which I shall evidence beyond contradiction 1. This project to metamorphoze our antient Hereditary famous flourishing Kingdom into an Helvetian and Vtopian Common-wealth by popular Tumults Rebellion and a prevalent party in Parliament was originally contrived by Father Parsons and other Jesuites in Spain in the year of our Lord 1590. recommended by them to the King of Spain to pursue and was principally to be effected by Jesuites to destroy and subvert our Protestant Monarchs Kingdoms and subject them to the Tyranny and Vassallage of the Jesuites and Spaniards as you may read at large in William Watson his Quodlibets printed 1602. p. 92 94 25 286 389 310 330 332 333 334 322 323 in his Dialogue between a Secular Priest and a Lay Gentleman printed at Rhemes 1601. and in William Clarke both Secular Priests his Answer to Father Parsons Libel p. 75 76 c. 2ly After this it was particularly and by name recommended by Thomas Campanella an Italian Monk and Arch-Machivilian to the King of Spain in the year 1600. as the principal means to sow the seeds of Divisions and Dissentions amongst the English themselves and to engage England Scotland and Ireland in inextricable wars against each other to divert the English from the Indies and his Plate Fleet and reduce them under his universal Temporal and the Popes Spiritual Monarchy at last as you may read at large in his Book De Monarchia Hispanica c. 25. now translated into English 3ly It was again set on foot and vigorously prosecuted by the Jesuites and Cardinal Richelien of France in the years 1639 1640. as you may read in my Romes Master-piece and Epistle to A Seasonable Legal and Historical Vindication c. of the good old fundamental Liberties Laws c. of all English Freemen printed 1655. And specially recommended to the French King and Cardinal Mazarin his Successor at his death Anno 1642. vigorously to pursue and accomplish by the Civil Wars raised between Scotland and England and the late King and Parliament as a Historia Conte de Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato part 3. Venotiis 1648. p. 175 176. and was accordingly prosecuted by the Spanish and French Agents and the Jesuites and Popish Priests and their seduced Proselytes of the Juncto and Army as I evidenced at large in my Speech Dee 4. 1648. and the Appendix to it my soresaid Epistle and True and Perfect Narrative May 1659. by evidences past all contradiction 4ly It is evident That the Jesuites and Jesuited Papists in England Scotland and Ireland with all the b Sectarian Party of Anabaptists Quakers Enthisiasts and Sectaries of all sorts headed by disguised Jesuites Monks Fryers and Popish Priests have been the chiefest Sticklers of all others for this New projected Commonwealth against the King and Monarchy and the only means to extirpate our established Protestant Ministry with their Maintenance Tithes Glebes and embroyl us in endless confusions and revolutions of Governments Wars Distractions till we be beggered destroyed and made a prey to our forein Enemies 5ly The King of Spain was the first of all forein Kings and States who owned couâ—ted and entâ—ed into a League of Amity with our new Common-wealth after the Kings beheading as a Creature of his own in opposition to our King and Kingship and engaged us in a war against the Dutch to make himself Monarch over us both according to Campanella his advice De Monarchia Hisp. c. 25 27. which our Republicans punctuallie pursued from 1649 till 1653. almost to the ruine of us both by the Spaniards Gold and policie 6ly That the French Cardinal Mazarin and other Popish Kings and States complyed and confederated with our Republicans and late Protectors in opposition to our Hereditary Protestant King and Kingship purposely to ruine us and our Religion at home and the Protestant Churches abroad engaged by their policies in unchristian wars against each other 7ly That we have all visibly seen and sensibly felt by twelve years wofull experiment that this Jesuitical project and chymera of a Free-state and Common-wealth was propounded by the c Army-Officers and the sitting Juncto as the only means of our present and future peace and settlement both in Nov. 1647 1648 1649. and yet it hath proved as I then predicted in my Speech and Memento a perpetual Seminarie of new Wars Tumults Combustions Changes Revolutions of Government and Governours Anti-parliamentarie Conventicles Factions Schisms Sects Heresies Confusions and endlesse Taxes Oppressions Ataxies ever since both in Church State Court and Camp almost to our inevitable destruction and of necessity it will and must do so still And is it not then a worse than Bedlam follie and frenzie for our Anti-parliamentarie Juncto Swordmen and Republicans to enforce and impose it on us by mere armed violence against our Judgements Reasons Consciences Experiments and
him secluding all the rest by armed power make themselves an absolute standing Parliament for him his heirs and successors by vertue of this act than those few Commons sitting since his tryal death do or can do 6. The last clause of this act And that all and every â—â—ing or things whatsoever done or to be done to wit by the King or His Authority for the adjournment proroguing or dissolving of this present Parliament contrary to this present Act shall be utterly void and of none effect Now death and a dissolution of this Parliament by the Kings death cannot as to the King be properly stiled a Thing done or to be done by Him for the adjournment proroguing or dissolving of this Parliament contrary to this present Act which cannot make the Kings death utterly void and of none effect by restoring him to his life again Therefore the dissolution of the Parl. by the Kings death is cleerly out of the words and intentions of this Act especially so many years after its Enacting 7. This present Parl. every Member thereof being specially summoned by the Kings Writ by the particular name of CAROLVS REX not REX in general only to be His Parliament and Council and to confer personally with Him of the great and urgent affairs concerning Him and His Kingdom not his Heirs and Successors and these Writs and the Elections upon them returned unto Him and His Court by Indentures and the persons summoned and chosen by vertue of them appearing only in His Parliament for no other ends but those expressed in His Writs it would be both an absurdity and absolute impossibility to assert that the King or both Houses intended by this Act to continue this Parliament in being after the Kings beheading or death unlesse they that maintain this paradox be able to inform me and those now sitting how they can confer and advice with a dead beheaded King of things concerning Him and His Kingdom and that even after they have abjured his Heirs and Successors and Royal line and extirpated Monarchy it self and made it Treason to assert or revive it and how they can continue still His Parliament and Council whose head they have cut off and that without reviving or raising him from his grave or enstalling His right Heir and Successor in His Throne to represent His Person neither of which they dare to do for fear of losing their own Heads and Quarters too for beheading him This Tax therefore being imposed on the Kingdom long after the Kings beheading and the Parliaments actual and legal dissolution by it must needs be illegal and meerly void in Law to all intents because not granted nor imposed in but totally out of Parliament by those who were then no Commons nor Members of a Parliament and had no more authority to impose any Tax upon the Kingdom than any other forty or fifty Commoners whatsoever out of Parliament who may usurp the like Authority by this president to Tax the Kingdom or any County what they please yea the whole 3. Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland as they now presume and then levy it by an Army or force of Armes to the peoples infinite endlesse oppression and undoing This is my first and principal exception against the Legality of this Tax and others they shall impose which I desire the Imposers and Levyers of it most seriously to consider and challenge them all to Answer if they can for our 3. Kingdoms present and posterities satisfaction by other Arguments than Imprisonments close Imprisonments Pistols Swords and armed violence and that upon these important considerations from their own late Declarations First themselves in their own Declaration of the 9th of February 1648. have protested to the whole Kingdom That they are fully resolved to maintain and shall and will uphold preserve and keep the fundamental Laws of this Nation for and concerning the preservation of the Lives Properties and Liberties of the people with all things incident thereunto Which how it will stand with the former and this new Tax imposed by them out of Parliament or in a thin House under force or their Act concerning New Treasons I desire they would satisfie the Kingdom before they levy the one or proceed upon the other against any of their fellow-Subjects by meer arbitrary armed power against Law and Right Secondly Themselves in their Declaration expressing the grounds of their late proceedings and setling the present Government in way of a Free-State dated 17 Martii 1648. engage themselves 1. To procure the well-being of those whom they serve to renounce oppression arbitrary power and all opposition to the Peace and Freedom of the Nation And to prevent to their power the reviving of Tyranny Injustice and all former evils the only end and duty of all their Labours to the satisfaction of all concerned in it 2. They charge the late King for exeeeding all his Predeoeessors in the destruction of those whom he was bound to preserve To manifest which they instance in The Loans unlawfull Imprisonments and othec Oppressions which produced that excellent Law of the Petition of Right which were most of them again acted presently after the Law made against them which was most palpably broken by him almost in every part of it very soon after his Solemn Consent given unto it 1 His imprisoning and prosecuting Members of Parliament for opposing His unlawfull Will and of divers 2 worthy Merchants for refusing to pay Tonnage and Poundage because not granted by Parliament yet 3 exacted by HIM expresly against Law punishment of many 4 good Patriots for not submitting to whatsoever he pleased to demand though never so much in breach of the known Law The multitude of Projects and Mouopolies established by Him His design and charge to bring in 5 German-Horse to awe us into slavery and his hopes of compleating all by His grand project of 6 Ship-mony to subject every mans Estate to whatsoever Proportion He pleaseth to impose upon them But above all the English Army was laboured by the King to be engaged against the English Parliament A thing of that 7 strange impiety and unnaturalness for the King of England to sheath their swords in one anothers bowels that nothing can answer it but his own being a Foreiner neither could it have easily purchased belief but by his succeeding visible actions in full pursuance of the same As the Kings coming in person to the 8 House of Commons to seise the five Members whither he was followed 9 with some hundreds of unworthy debauched persons armed with Swords and Pistols and other Arms and they attending at the Door of the House ready to execute whatsoever their Leader should command them The oppressions of the Council-Table Star-Chamber High-Commission Court-Martial Wardships Purveyances Afforestations and many others of like nature equalled if not far exceeded now by sundry arbitrary Committees and Sub-Committee to name no
A Legal Vindication Of the Liberties of ENGLAND AGAINST ILLEGAL TAXES And pretended Acts of Parliament Lately enforced on the PEOPLE OR Reasons assigned by WILLIAM PRYNNE of Swainswick in the County of Sommerset Esquire why he can neither in Conscience Law nor Prudence submit to the New illegal Tax or Contribution of Ninety thousand pounds the Month Imposed on the Kingdom by a pretended Act of some commons in or rather out of Parliament April 7 1649. when this was first penned and printed nor to the One Hundred Thousand pound per Mensem newly laid upon England Scotland and Ireland Jan. 126. 1659. by a 〈◊〉 of the old Commons House secluding the whole House of Lords and Majority of their hellow Members by armed violence against all rules of Law and Parliament Presidents Esay 1. 7. He looked for Judgement but behold Oppression for Righteousnesse but behold a cry Psal. 12. 5. For the Oppression of the Poor for the sighing of the Needy new will I arise saith the Lord and will set him in safety from him that would ensnare him Exod. 6. 5. 6. I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Aegyptians keep in bandage and I have remembred my Covenant Wherefore say unto the children of Israel I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the Burdens of the Aegyptians and I will rid you out of their Bondage and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great Judgements Eccles. 4. 1 2. So I returned and considered all the Oppressions that are done under the Sun and behâ—ld the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter and in the hand of their Oppressors there was power but they had no Comforter Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive The second Edition enlarged London printed for Edw. Thomas at the Adam and Eve in Little Britain 1660. ERRATA PAge 4. l. 33. to read by p. 8. l. 1. Seclusion l. 29. dele in l. 31. extended p. 41. l. 10. on p. 47. l. 2. only p. 54. l 18. and r. as p. 57. l. 4. it is p. 62. l. 4. obsta p. 71. l. 35. to p. 71. l. 1. resolved l. 8. and r. as p. 79. l. 15. and r. of Margin P. 9. l. 9. 12 r. 17. To the Ingenuous Reader THe Reasons originally inducing and in some sort necessitating me to compile and publish this Legal Vindication against Illegal Taxes and pretended Acts of Parliament imposed on the whole English Nation in the year 1649. by a small remnant of the Commons House sitting under an armed Force abjuring the King and House of Lords and unjustly secluding the Majority of their Fellow-Commoners against the very tenor of the Act of 17 Caroli c. 6. by which they pretended to sit the letter of the Writs by which they were elected and those Indentures by which they were returned Members the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance Protestation Solemn National League and Covenant which they all took as Members the very first Act of Parliament made and printed after their first sitting 16 Caroli c. 1. and many hundreds of Declarations Remonstrances Orders Ordinances Votes from Nov. 3. 1640. to Dec. 5. 1648. have constrained me now to reprint it with some necessary and usefull Additions in the year 1659. above ten years after its first Publication Those very Rumpers who on the 7th of April 1649. imposed a Tax of Ninety thousand Pounds the Month on England alone having on the 26. of January 1659. presumed to lay a new Tax of no lesse than One hundred thousand pounds the Month for six Months next ensuing on England Scotland and on Ireland too never taxed in former Ages by intire undubitable English Parliaments when as by their former Order they advanced and paid in before hand a heavy Tax illegally imposed on them by a Protectorian Conventicle during those very Months for which they are now taxed afresh far higher than before though totally exhausted with former incessant Taxes Free-quarter Militia expences Imposts of all sorts and utterly undone for want of Trade and all to keep them in perpetual Bondage under armed Gards and Iron yoaks under pretext of making them a New Free-State and Common-wealth of the Jesuites projection perpetually to subvert our antient hereditary Monarchy Kingdom and true old English * Common-wealth under which we formerly lived and flourished with greater freedom splendor honour peace safety unity and prosperity than we can ever expect under any new Form of Government or Utopian Republick whatsoever our whimsical Innovators can erect When our Parliaments under our antient and late Kings granted any Aydes Subsidies Imposts to supply the publick Necessities as they were alwaies moderate and temporary not exceeding the present Necessities and the Peoples abilities to pay them so they ever received some Acts of Grace and Retribution from our Kings and New Confirmations of their Great Charters and Fundamental Laws and Liberties recorded in our Parliament Rolls and Statutes at large But our New Republicans worse than the old Aegyptian Pharoes and Tax-Masters double our Bricks Taxes yet deny us straw and materials to make or defray them redressing none of all our publick Grievances nor easing us of any unjust burthens or oppressions whatsoever nor indulging any Graces or Favours to us nor yet so much as preserving or confirming our old Grand Charteâ—s Fundamental Laws Statutes for the preservation of our Lives Liberties Properties Franchises Freeholds but violating them all in a far highe and more presumptuous degree than Strafford Canterbury the Shipmony Judges or any of our Kings whom they brand for Tyrants and that after all our late wars and contests for their defence Upon which account I held it my bounden duty to enlarge and reprint this Vinaication nor out of any Factious or Seditions design but from the impulse of a true Heroick English publike spirit and Zeal to defend my Native Countries undubitable Hereditary Rights against all arbitrary Tyrannical Usurpations and Impostors whatsoever though arrogating to themselves the Title and power of The Parl. of England when their own Judgements Consciences as well as all our antient Statutes Parliament Rolls Laws Judges Law-Books and Treatises of English Parliaments resolve them to be no Parliament at all but an * Anti-Parliamentary Conventicle If I now lose my life as I have formerly done my Liberty Calling and Estate for this publike cause I shall repuâ—e it the greatest earthly Honour and 〈◊〉 to dye a Maâ—â—â—â— for my dying Country to redeem her lost Libertiâ—s with the losse of my momentary life which will be more iâ—ksome to me than the 〈◊〉 Death if protracted only to behold those ruines and desolations which some Grandees Tyrannies and Bedlam exorbitances are like speedily to bring upon her unlesse God himself by his Miraculous Proviâ—â—nâ—â—s reflrain their Fury abate their Power and confound their Destructive Desâ—gns beyond all
Concessions and taking their new treasonable Engagements against the King Kingship and House of Lords An usurpation not to be paralel'd in any age destructive to the very being of Parliaments i Where all Members of both Houses are ex debito Justitiae wiâ—h equal Freedom to meet and speak their mindâ— injurious to all those Counties Cities Boroughâ— whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses are secluded and to the whole Kingdom yea contrary to all rules of reason justice policy conscience and their own Agreement of the people which inhibit the * far lesser part of any Councel Court or Committee to oversway seclude or fore-judg the major number of their Assessors and fellow-members over whom they can no ways pretend the least jurisdiction it being the high way to usher Tyranny and confusion into all Councels and Realms to their utter dissolution since the King alone without the Lords and Commons or the Lords alone without the King or Commons may by this new device make themselves an absolute Parliament to impose Taxes and enact Laws without the Commons or any other forty or fifty Commoners meeting together without their companions and secluding them by force do the like as well as this remnant of the Commons make themselves a complete Parliament without the King Lords or Majority of their fellow-Members if they can but now or hereafter raise an Army to back them in it as the Army did those sitting 1648. and 1649. and those sitting in 1659 have done secluding the majority of their old fellow-Members by meer armed Violence 4. Suppose this Tax should bind those Counties Cities and Burronghs whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses sate and consented to it when imposed though I dare swear much against the minds and wills of all or most of those they represent who by the k Armies new Doctrine may justly question and revoke their authority for this high breach of Trust the rather because the Knights and Burgesses assembled in the first Parliament of 13. E. 3. Rot. Parl. n. 8. did all refuse to grant a great extraordinary Subsidie demanded of them though not comparable to this for the necessary defence of the Kingdome against foraign Enemies till they had conferred with the Counties and Burroughs for which they served and gained their assents Yet there is no shadow of Reason Law or Equity it should oblige any of the Secluded Members themselves whereof I am one or those Counties Cities Burroughs whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses have been secluded or scared thence by the Armies or sitting Members fraud force violence or illegal Votes for their seculsion who absolutely disavow this Tax and Act as un-parliamentary illegall and never assented to by them in the least degree since the onely l reason in Law or equity why Taxes or Acts of Parliament oblige any Member County Burrough or Subject is because they are parties and consenting thereunto either in proper person or by their chosen Representatives in Parliament returned and authorized by Indentures under their Seals it being a recieved Maxime in all Laws m Quod tang it omnes ab omnibus debet approbari Upon which reason it is judged in our n Law-books That By-Laws oblige only those who are parties and consent unto them but not strangers or such who assented not thereto And which comes fully to the present case in 7. H. 6. 35. 8. H. 6. 34. Brook Ancient Demesne 20. Patl. 17. 101. it is resolved That ancient Demesne is a good plea in a Writ of Wast upon the Statutes of Wast because those in ancient Demesne were not parties to the making of them FOR THAT THEY HAD NO KNIGHTS NOR BURGESSES IN PARLIAMENT nor contributed to their expences And Judge Brook Parliament 101. hath this observable Note It is most frequently found that Wales and County palatines WHICH CAME NOT TO THE PARLIAMENT in former times which now they do SHALL NOT BE BOUND BY THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND for ancient Demesne is a good Plea in an action of Wast and yet ancient Demesne is not excepted and it is enacted 2. Ed. 6. cap. 28. That Fines and Proclamations shall be in Chester for the former Statutes did not extend to it And it is enacted That a Fine and Proclamation shall be in Lancaster 5. 6. Ed. 6. c. 26. And in a Proclamation upon an eâ—igent is given by the Statute in Chester and Wales 1 E. 6. c. 20. And by another Act to Lancaster 5. 6. E. 5. c. 26. And the Statute of Justices of Peace extented not to Wales and the County palatine and therefore an Act was made for Wales and Chester 27. H. 8. c. 5. who had Knights and Burgesses appointed by that Parliament for that and future Parliaments by Act of Parliament 27. Hen. 8. cap. 26. since which they have continued their wages being to be levyed by the Statute of 35. H. 8. c. 11. Now if Acts of Parliament bound not Wales and Counties Palatines which had anciently no Knights nor Burgesses in Parliament to represent them because they neither personally nor representatively were parties and consenters to them much lesse then can or ought this heavy Tax and illegal Act 1649 or those of 1659. to bind those Knights Citizens and Burgesses or the Counties Cities and Burroughs they represent who were forcibly secluded or driven away from the Parliament by the confederacy practice orders commands or connivance at least of those now sitting who imposed these Taxes and passed these strange Acts as the recited Lawbooks and the later Clauses in all Writs for electing Knights and Burgesses resolve much lesse to oblige Scotland Ireland who have * Parliaments of their own and have yea ought to have no Members sitting for them in the English Parliaments who seldom or never imposed Taxes on Scotland or Ireland heretofore whose taxes were only imposed by their own Parliaments as is evident by claus. 46 E. 3. m. 25. claus. 47 E. 3. m. 3. My Plea for the Lords p. 426 427 2 R. 2 f. 11 12. Brook Parliament 98. 20 H. 6. f. 8. Fitz. Prescription 7. and Brook Prescription 4. They being not so much as a Parliament of England much lesse of Scotland Ireland as they stile themselves and having no authority by their writs of Elections and Indentures to treat or consult of any businesses but only such as touch and concern the Kingdom of England not the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland not mentioned in the Writs or Indentures of their Elections Especially because those Taxes are thus imposed by them for the support and continuance of those Officers and that Army who trayterously seised and secluded the Members from the House and yet detain some of them Prisoners against all Law and Justice and have oft secluded them since and because the secluded Members are the far major part above six times as many as those that sate and shut them out by force and would no waies have consented to
of mony must of necessity be speedilie advanced and procured for the relief of his Majesties Army and People not his Heirs or Successors in the Northern parts c. And for supplie of other his Majesties present and urgent occasions not his Heirs or Successors future occasions which cannot be so timely effected as is requisite without credit for raising the said monies which credit cannot be attained untill such obstacles be first removed which are occasioned by Fears Iealousies and Apprehensions of divers of his Majesties Royal Subjects that the Parliament may be adjourned prorogued or dissolved not by the Kings sodain or untimelie death of which there was then no fear jealousie or apprehension in any his Majesties loyal Subjects but by his royal Prerogative and advice of ill Counsellors before Justice shall be duly executed upon Delinquents then in being not sprung up since publique Grievances then complained of not others introduced since this Act redressed a firm peace betwixt the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland concluded and before sufficient provisions be made for the repayment of the said Monies not others since borrowed so to be raised All which the Commons in this present Parliament assembled having duly considered do therefore humbly beseech your Majestie that it may be declared and enacted c. All which expressions related TO HIS late Majestie onlie not to his Heirs and Successors and the principal scope of this Act being to gain present credit to raise monies to disband the Scotish and English armies then lying upon the Kingdom manie years since accomplished yea Justice being since executed upon Strafford Canterbury and other Delinquents then impeached the publick Grievances they complained of as the Star-Chamber High-Commission Ship-mony Tonnage and Poundage Fines for Knighthood Bishops Votes in Parliament with their Courts and Jurisdictions and the like redressed by Acts soon after passed a firm peace between both Nations concluded before the Wars began and this preamble's pretensions for this Act all fullie satisfied divers years before the Kings beheading it must of necessity be granted that this Statute never intended to continue this Parliament on foot after the Kings decease especially after the ends for which it was made were all fully accomplished and so it must necessarily be dissolved by his Death Fourthly This is most clear by the body of the Act it self And be it declared and enacted by the King our Soveraign Lord with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same That this present Parliament now assembled shall not be dissolved unlesse it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose nor shall any time or times during the continuance thereof be prorogued or adjourned unless it be by Act of Parliament to be likewise passed for that purpose And that the House of Peers shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own order And in like manner that the House of Commons shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own order Whence it is undeniable 1. That this act was only for the prevention of the untimely dissolving Proroguing and adjourning of that present Parliament then assembled and no other 2. That the King himself was the Principal Member of his Parliament yea our Soveraign Lord and the sole declarer and enacter of this Law by the Lords and Commons assent 3. That neither this Act for continuing nor any other for dissolving adjourning or proroguing this Parliament could be made without but only by and with the Kings Royal assent thereto which the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in their * Remonstrance of the 26. of May 1642. oft in terminis acknowledge together with his Negative Voyce to Bills 4ly That it was neither the Kings intention in passing this Act to shut himself out of Parliament or create both or either House a Parliament without a King as he professed in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. 5. p. 27. Nor the Lords nor Commons Intendment to dismember him from his Parliament or make themselves a Parliament without him as their foresaid Remonstrance testifies and the words of the Act import Neither was it the Kings Lords or Commons meaning by this Act to set up a Parliament only of Commons much lesse of a remnant of a Commons House selected by Colonel Pride and his Confederates of the Army to serve their turns and vote what they prescribed without either King or House of Peers much lesse to give them any super-transcendent authority to vote down and abolish the King and House of Lords and make them no Members of this present or any future Parliaments without their own order or assent against which so great usurpation and late dangerous unparliamentary encroachments this very Act expresly provides in this clause That the House of Peers wherein the King sits as Soveraign when he pleaseth shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned much less then dissolved excluded or suspended from sitting or voting which is greater and that by their inferiours in all kinds a Fragment of the Commons House who can pretend no colour of Jurisdiction over them before whom they alwaies stood bare-headed like so many Grand-Jury-men before the Judges and attended at their Doors and Bar to know their pleasures unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own Order 5. That neither the King Lords nor Commons intended to set up a perpetual Parliament and intail it upon them their heirs or successors for ever by this act which would cross and repeal the Act for triennial Parliaments made at the same time and on the same * day in Law but to make provision only against the untimely dissolving of this till the things mentioned in the Preamble were accomplished and setled as the Preamble and these oft repeated words any time or times during the continuance of this present Parliament concludes and that during His Majesties reign and life not after his death as these words coupled with The Relief of his Majesties Army and People and for supply of his Majesties present and urgent occasions in the Preamble manifest Therefore this Act can no waies continue it a Parliament after the Kings beheading much lesse after the forcible exclusion both of the King and Lords House and majority of the Commons out of Parliament by those now sitting contrary to the very letter and provision of this act by which device the King alone had he conquered and cut off or secluded by his forces the Lords and Commons Houses from sitting might with much more colour have made himself an absolute Parliament to impose what Taxes and Laws he pleased on the people without Lords or Commons or any 40. of the Commons House or any 7. or 8. Lords concurring with
Gen. Monk by a Vote of their Council of State at Whitehall afterwards ratisied by a Vote at Westminster when executed the 9. of this instant February to march with all his Forces into the City of London to seize and imprison 2. of their Aldermen and sundry of their Common-Council men in the Tower to pull down and destroy the Gates and Portcullesses of the City To discontinue null and void the Common-Council of the City of London for this year by ordering a Bill for the choice of another Common-Council with such Qualifications as the Juncto shall think fit which was accordingly executed and then ratified and approved by their Votes and by commanding him afterwards to demand the City Arms to disarm them by force if they deliver them not upon demands s and all because the Common-Council upon a Petition of the Citizens and Remonstrance of the Gentlemen Ministers and Freeholders of Warwickshire and other Counties Febr. 8. voted and resolved That no Person or Persons whatsoever might impose any Laws or Taxes upon the City and Citizens untill the Authority thereof be derived from their Representatives in a full and free Parliament And all this without and before the least hearing or examination of the City and Common-Council a Tyranny Indignity Dishonour and Ingratitude not to be paralleld and never offered in any age to the City and Citizens before by any of our Kings for the highest Treasons against them at least before hearing and convictiâ—â— much lesse only for demanding and claiming the benefit of those Fundamental Laws and Privileges for whose defence they had so lately expended so many Millions of Treasure and Thousands of their lives to defend them according to these their fresh Declarations and Acts encouraging them thereunto and that after all their former Obligations and Indearments to the City upon all occasions and the beheaded Kings free Confirmation of all their former Charters Liberties Privileges Militia and enlargements of the same at the Treaty in the Isle of Wight notwithstanding their taking up Armes against him in the Parliaments defence may now justly irritate and engage the City of London and all other Cities Boroughs Corporations and Counties of this Realm unanimously to oppose the present and all other Taxes and Excises whatsoever imposed on them by these Oppressors and put their own Act in vigorous execution against them as the worst of Tyrants and Invaders of their Liberties Thirdly Both Houses of Parliament joyntly and the House of Commons severally in the late Parliament with the approbation of all and consent of most now sitting did in sundry ¶ Romonstrances and Declarations published to the Kingdom not only Tax the King and his evil Counsellors for imposing illegal Taxes on the Subjects contrary to the forecited Acts the maintenance whereof against all future violations and invasions of the Peoples Liberties and Properties they made one principal ground of our late bloody expensive war but likewise professed * That they were specially chosen and intrusted by the Kingdom in Parliament and owned it as their duty to hazzard their own lives and estates for preservation of those Laws and Liberties and use their best endeavours that the meanest of the Commonalty MIGHT ENJOY THEM AS THEIR BIRTH-RIGHTS as well as the greatest Subject That every honest man especially those who have taken the late Protestation and Solemn League and Covenant since is bound to defend the Laws and Liberties of the kingdom against Will and Power which imposed what payments they thought fit to drain the Subjects Purses and supply those Necessities which their ill Counsel had brought upon the King and Kingdom And that they would be ready to live and dye with those worthy and true-hearted Patriots of the Gentry of this Nation and others who were ready to lay down their lives and fortunes for the maintenance of their Laws and Liberties with many such like expressions Which must needs engage me a Member of that Parliament and Patriot of my Country with all my strength and power to oppose this injurious Tax imposed out of Parliament though with the hazard of my life and fortunes wherein all those late secluded Lords and Members who have joyned in these Remonstrances are engaged by them to second me under pain of being adjudged unworthy for ever hereafter to sit in any Parliament or to be trusted by their Counties and those for whom they served And so much the rather to vindicate the late Houses honour and reputation from those predictions and printed aspersions of the beheaded King now verified as undeniable experimented truths by the Antiparliamentary sitting Juncto * That the maintenance of the Laws Liberties Properties of the People were but only gilded Dissimulations and specious pretences to get power into their own hands thereby to enable them to destroy and subvert both Laws Liberties and Properties at last and not any thing like them to introduce Anarchy Democracy Parity Tyranny in the Highest degree and new forms of arbitrary Government and leave neither King nor Gentleman all which the people should too late discover to their costs and that they had obtained nothing by adhering to and complyance with them but to enslave and undo themselves and to be at last destroyed Which royal Predictions many complain and all experimentally â—ind too trulie verified by those who now bear rule under the Namâ— and visour of the Parliament of England since its dissolution by the Kings decapitation and the Armies imprisoning and seclusion of the Members and Lords who above all others are obliged to disprove them by their Actions as well as Declarations to the people who regard not words but real performances from these new Keepers of their Liberties especially in this FIRST YEAR OF ENGLANDS FREEDOM engraven on all their publick Seals which else will but seal their Selfdamnation and proclaim them the Archest Impostors under Heaven and now again in their 3. Session after their two sodain and forcible Dissolutions Secondly Should I voluntarily submit to pay this Tax and that by vertue of an Act of Parliament made by those now sitting some of whose Elections have been voted void others of them elected by new illegal Writs under a new kind of Seal without the Kings Authority Stile or Seal and that since the Kings beheading as the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Edward Howard uncapable of being Knights or Burgesses by the Common-law or Custom of Parliament being Peers of the Realm if now worthy such a Title as was adjudged long since in the Lord Camoyes case Claus. Dors. 7 R. 2. m. 32. asserted by Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honor part 2. c. 5. p. 737. seconded by Sir Edward Cook in his 4. Institut p. 1 4 5 46 47 49. and I have proved at large in my Plea for the Lords and House of Peers As I should admit these to be lawfull Members and their unlawfull void Writs to be good in Law so should I tacitly admit ex
compel us to maintain Armies and Navies by this New insupportable Tax to set up this Romish Babel which hath been is and will be the most certain Remora and Obstacle of our Peace and Settlement and most apparent Jesuitical Romish Spanish Engin to create more and greater Confusions Distractions than before and effect our inevitable destruction both as men and Protestants 8ly That this pretence of erecting a Common-wealth was first pretended by Cromwell and carried on with specious pretexts to blind the credulous people onlie to make way for his own tyrannical and ambitious usurpation of a more than Regal and Monarchical power over our Kingdoms and settle it on himself and his posteritie in conclusion which he effected by degrees And what intelligent person discerns not the self-same design now couched under it in other ambitious Grandees now in power most eagerly crying up a Free-state and Common-wealth upon the same account 9ly The Anti-parliamentary Unchristian Atheistical if not Diabolical means by which this Utopian Republick was at first endeavoured to be erected established and now again re-edified must needs draw down the full vials of Gods wrath and furie upon it and all its Projectors and our 3. Nations too if they voluntarily submit unto it It was first ushered in by ambitious treacherous perjurious rebellious Army-Officers seduced by Romish Emissaries and their Confederates in the Commons House forcibly secluding securring and ejecting the Majoritie of their Fellow-Members 4. parts of 5. at least only for their Vote to proceed to settle the peace of the Kingdom upon the Kings Concessions after 7. years intestine wars By the close imprisonment of sundry of them in remote Castles for divers years without examination hearing or cause expressed by their suppressing voting down the whole House of Lords without hearing or impeachment over whom they had no Jurisdiction by murdering their Protestant King in a strange Court of Highest injustice by exiling and disinheriting his royal Issue and right Heir to the Crown to make way for their own Usurpation of Soveraign Power by subverting the fundamental Government of the Kingdom and the constitution rights privileges of English Scotish Irish Parliaments and their Members by seising upon disposing and dissipating all the Crown Lands Revenues Customs Forts Forces Navies of our three Kingdoms by imprisoning disinheriting sequestâ—ing exiling destroying murdering manie thousands of their Protestant Brethren and Allyes of England Scotland Ireland Holland merely for their Loyalty and Allegianee by keeping a perpetual Army to over-awe our 3. Nations as conquered Vassals bond-slaves and governing them by armed lust tyrannie militarie Committees High Courts of Justice Major Generals and fleying off their verie Skins by giving a boundlesse libertie to all Religions Sects Heresies Blasphemies Jusque datum seâ—leri c. against all laws of God and Man the fundamental Laws Statutes Liberties Franchises of the Realm the Oaths of Homage Fealty Supremacy Allegiance the Protestations Vows Solemn League and Covenant they had frequently taken themselves and prescribed to others yea against many hundreds of Votes Orders Ordinances Acts Declarations Remonstrances they had successively made and published to the World and all sorts of civil and sacred Obligations to God their King Country the Trusts reposed in them by their Indentures and Commissions as Members or Souldiers by exercising a more lawlesse Tyranny and boundlesse Military power than the worst of all our Kings in any age exacting vaster sums of mony sroÌ„ the exhausted people in lesse than 10. years space than all our Kings since the Norman Conquest And it now carried on again after so many sodain strange admirable demonstrations of Gods indignation against our new Babel-Builders and their Posterities by his various and successive Providences beyond all human apprehensions by the self-same violent exorbitant unrighteous courses unbeseeming Englishmen or Christians and now by re-excluding and ejecting all the old secured and secluded Members by armed force and injurious Votes without accusation hearing crime or impeachment against all rules of Law Justice and Parliamentarie Presidents and of the whole House of Lords against the expresse Letter of the Act by which they pretend to fit By bidding open defiance to the Addresses and Desires of the generality of the Nobility Gentry Ministry Freeholders Commoners Citizens Burgesses of most Counties Cities and Boroughs of England declaring for a Free-Parliament or restitution of all the Secluded Members by imprisoning some * Gentlemen Souldiers of Quality for delivering such Addresses to their Speaker by putting far higher affronts and force upon the City and Common-Council of London after all their former Obligations to them than ever they received from the worst of our Kings in any age before the least hearing or legal conviction of them as Delinquents by moving in the House That all who have declared or made Addresses for a Free Parliament shall be disabled to elect or be elected Members By taking away the peoples freedoms of Election by prescribing new illegal Qualifications against * all Laws and Statutes concerning Elections and all forms of antient Writs both for the persons electing and to be elected to recruit their empty House of which themselves alone not the people will be the only Judges before they shall be admitted when chosen whereby they will like Cromwell and his Council of State keep out any the people shall elect that is not of their confederacy and admit none but when and whom they please to perpetuate the Parliamentary Power and all places of Trust and Gain in themselves and their Creatures And because few or none but Novices shall sit amongst them in Parliamentarie affairs whom they can easily over-reach and rule at their pleasure being Strangers to each other and Parliament proceedings they have voted out all the old Secluded Members though twice their number and disabled them to be new elected or if elected to be re-admitted unless they will fully submit to the Test of their new * Qualifications and Engagements Which will re-seclude all or most of them if elected and prove fatal to the Peoples freedom in their Elections and to all Parliaments and Members in succeeding Ages if submitted to For if a combined Majority of the Commons House who have violated all their primitive Oaths Trusts Protestations Covenants Remonstrances Declarations and so * disabled and disfranchised themselves from sitting any more as Members or the peoples Trustees may without any new election at all by the people after their renuntiation and nulling of their first elections by destroying and engaging against that Regal power by which they were first elected and sitting only by power of the Sword without any Qualifications prescribed to themselves which they impose on others and would seclude most of them from being Electors or Elected Members having gotten forcible possession of the Commons House by armed Tyranny and Usurpation after so many Declarations and bloody wars for the defence of the Privileges Rights and Members
and them odious not only to the Countrie and Kingdom but to all Officers and Souldiers who had any civilitie in them and be a disparagement to the General by whose Proclamation he ought to be present with his Company to keep them in good order under pain of cashiering And therefore I expected and required Justice and Reparations at his hands the rather because I was informed by some of his own Souldiers and others that they had not been so barbarouslie rude but by his incouragement which if he refused I should complain of him to his Superiours and right my self the best way I might After some expostulations he promised to make them examples and cashier them and to remove them forthwith from my house but the only right I had was that more of his Company repaired thither making all the spoil they could and taking away some Brasse and Pewter continued there till near four of the clock and then marched away only out of fear I would raise the Country upon them many of whom profered me their assistance but I desired them to forbear till I saw what their Officers would do who instead of punishing any of them permitted them to play the like Rex almost in other places where they quartered since marching but three or four miles a day and extorting what monies they could from the Country by their violence and disorders Now for me or any others to give monies to maintain such deboist Bedlams and Beasts as these who boasted of their villanies and that they had done me at least twenty pounds spoil in Beer and Provisions drinking out five barrels of good strong Beer and wasting as much meat as would have served an hundred civil Persons to be Masters of our Houses Goods Servants Lives and all we have to ride over our heads like our Lords and Conquerors and take Free-quarter on us amounting to at least a full years contribution without any allowance for it and that since the last Orders against Free-quarter and Warrants issued for paying in this Tax to prevent it for the future is so far against my Reason Judgement and Conscience that I would rather give all away to suppresse discard them or cast it into the fire than maintain such gracelesse wretches with it to dishonour God enslave consume ruine the Country and Kingdom who every where complain of the like insolencies and of taking Free-quarter since the ninth of June as above two hundred of Colonel Cox his men did in Bath the last Lords day who drew up in a Body about the Maiors house and threatned to sâ—ise and carry him away for denying to give them Free-quarter contrary to the New Act for abolishing it Lastly This prâ—tended Act implies that those who refuse to pay this contribution without distresse or imprisonment shall be still oppressed with Free-quarter And what an height of oppression and injustice this will prove not only to distrain and imprison those who cannot in Conscience Law or Prudence submit to this illegal Tax but likewise to undo them by exposing them to Free-quarter which themselves condemn as the highest pest and oppression let all sober men consider and what reason I and others have to oppose such a dangerous destructive president in its first appearing to the world In few words As long as we keep an Army on foot we must never expect to be exempted from Free-quarter or Wars or to enjoy any peace or settlement and as long as we will submit to pay contributions to support an Army we shall be certain our new Lords and Governors will continue an Army to over-awe and enslave us to their wils Therefore the only way to avoid free-quarter and the cost and trouble of an Army and settle peace is to deny all future contributions Ninthly The principal end of imposing this Tax to maintain the Army and Forces now raised is not the defence and safety of our ancient and first Christian Kingdom of England its Parliaments Laws Liberties and Religion as at first but to disinherit the King of the Crown of Engl. Sootl and Irel. to which he hath an undoubted Right by the Laws of God and Man as the Parliament of 1 Jacob ch. â— resolves and to levy War against him to deprive him of it To subvert the antient Monarchical Government of this Realm under which our Ancestors have alwaies lived and flourished to set up a New-Republick the oppressions and Grievances whereof we have already felt by increasing our Taxes setting up arbitrary Courts and Proceedings to the taking away the lives of the late King Peers and other Subjects against the fundamental Laws of the Land creating new monstrous Treasons never heard of in the world before and the like but cannot yet enjoy and discern the least ease or advantage by it To overthrow the antient constitution of the Parliament of England consisting of King Lords and Commons and the Rights and Privileges thereof To alter the fundamental Laws Seals Courts of Justice of the Realm and introduce an Arbitrary Government at least if not Tyrannical contrary to our Laws Oaths Covenant Protestation a publick Remonstrances and Engagements to the Kingdom and forein States not to change the Government or attempt any of the Premises All which being no lesse than High Treason by the Laws Statutes of the Realm as Sir E. Cook in his * Inst. Mr. St. John in his Argument at Law upon passing the Bill of Attainder of the E. of Strafford both printed by the Commons special order have proved at large by many Presidents reasons records and so adjudged by the last Parliament in the Cases of Strafford and * Canterbury who were condemned and executed as Traytors by judgement of Parliament and some of those now sitting but for some of these Treasons upon obscurer Evidences of guilt than are now visible in others I cannot without incurring the Crime and Guilt of these several High Treasons and the eternal if not temporal punishments incident thereunto voluntarily contribute so much as one penny or farthing towards such Treasonable and disloyal ends as these against my Conscience Law Loyalty Duty and all my Oaths Covenants and Obligations to the contrary Tenthly The payment of this Tax for the premised purposes will in my poor judgement and conscience be offensive to God and all good men scandalous to the Protestant Religion dishonourable to our English Nation and disadvantagious and destructive to our whole Kingdom hindering the speedy settlement of our peace the re-establishment of our King Laws the revival of our decayed Trade by renewing and perpetuating our bloody uncivil Wars engaging Scotland Ireland with forein Princes and Kingdoms in a just War against us to avenge the death of our late beheaded King the dis-inheriting of his Posterity and to restore his lawfull Heirs and Successors to their just undoubted Rights from which they are now forcibly secluded who will undoubtedly molest us with continual Wars what-ever some may fondly
of the precious redeemed lambs of Christ are ready to starve for want of bread I cannot but wonder with my self whether they have any conscience at all within them or no and what they think of that saying of the spirit of God That who so hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him which he absolutely doth that any wayes takes a little of his little from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 1 John 3. 17. These actions and practises are so far from being like the true and real children of the most High that they are the highest oppression theft and murther in the world to rob the poor in the day of their great distress by Excise Taxations c. to maintain their pomp superfluities and debauchery when many of those from whom they take it do perish and starve with want and hunger in the mean time and be deaf and Ad mant-hearted to all their TEARS CRYES LAMENTATIONS MOURNFUL HOWLINGS GROANES Without all doubt these pretended Godly Religious Men have got a degree beyond those Atheists or Fools that say in their hearts there is no God Psal. 14. 1. and 13. 1 3. In quite destroying the peoples essential Liberties Laws and and Freedomes and in leaving them no Law at all as M. Peters their grand Teacher averred lately to my face we had none but their meer will and pleasures saving Fellons Laws or Martial Law where new Butchers are both Informers Parties Jury men and Judges who have had their hands imbrewed in blood for above these seven years together having served an Apprentiship to the killing of men for nothing but many and so are more bloody than Butchers that kill â—â—eep and calves for their own livelyhood who yet by the Law of England are not permitted to be of any jury for life and death because they are conversant in the shedding of blood of beasts and thereby through a habit of it may not be so tender of the blood of men as the Law of England Reason and Justice would have them to be Yea do not these men by their swords being but servants give what Laws they please to their Masters the pretended Law-makers of your House now constituted by as good and legal a power as he that robs and kills a man upon the high way And if this be the Verdict of their own Complices and Partizans concerning them and their proceedings especially touching their exhausting our Estates by Taxes and sharing them among themselves in the time of famine and penury as the great Officers of the Army and Treasurers who are Members now do who both impose what Taxes they please and dispose of them and all power honour profit to themselves and their creatures as they please without rendering any Accompt to the Kingdoms contrary to the practise of all former ages and the rules of reason and justice too are not all others in the three Nations especially the secluded Lords and Members bound by all bonds of conscience Law and Prudence to withstand their impositions and Edicts unto death rather than yield the least submission to them Sixthly He there avers proves and offers legally to make good before any indifferent Tribunal that the h h Pag. 2. 15 27 29. 33. 34. 35. 41. 53. 57 58 59 64 65. 75. Grandees and over-ruling Members of the House and Army are not onely a pack of dissembling Jugling Knaves and Machevillians amongst whom in consulation hereafter he would ever scorn to come for that there was neither faith truth nor common honesty amonst them but likewise Murtherers who had shed mens blood against Law as well as the King whom they beheaded and therefore by the same Texts and arguments they used against the King their blood ought to be shed by man and they to be surely put to death without any satisfaction for their lives as Traytors Enemies Rebels to and i i See Pag. 39. 52. conspirators against the late King whom they absolutely resolved to destroy though they did it by martial Law Parliament Kingdome and the peoples Majesty and Soveraignty That the pretended House and Army are guilty of all the same crimes in kind though under a new Name and notion of which they charge the King in their Declaration of the 17. of March 1648. That some of them more legally deserve death than ever the King did and considering their many Oathes Covenants Promises Declarations and Remonstrances to the contrary with the highest promises and pretences of good for the people and their declared Liberties that ever were made by men the most perjured pernicious false Faith and Trust-breakers and Tyrants that ever lived in the world and ought as many of you have been and now are by all rational honest men to be most detested and abhorred of all men that ever breathed by how much more under the pretence of friendship and brotherly kindnesse they have done all the mischief they have done in destroying our Laws liberties there being no treason like Judas his Treason who betrayed his Lord and Master with a kisse c. And shall we then submit to their Taxes and new Acts or trust them with our estates lives liberties and the supreme power or acknowledge them for our legal Parliament and soveraign Lords of the three Kingdomes if such now in their own late adorers eyes Seventhly He there asserts k k P. 57. 34. That whosoever stoops to their new change of Government and Tyrany and supports it is as absolute a Traytor both by Law and Reason as ever was in the world If not against the King PRINCE CHARLES heir apparent of his Fathers Crown and Throne yet against the peoples Majesty and Soveraignty And if this be true as it is that this purg'd Parliament IS NO PARLIAMENT AT ALL then there is neither legal Judges nor Justices of peace in England And if so then all those that are executed at Tiburn c. by their sentence of condemnation are meerly murthered and the * * Let our Gownmen sitting at Westminster and other places in high courts of Justice too there condemning and executing men consider it Judges and Justices that condemned them are liable in time to be hanged and that justly therefore for acting without a just and legal Commission either from TRUE REGAL OR TRUE PARLIAMENTARY POWER except in corporations only where they proceed by ancient Charters in the Anâ—ient Legal form And if this be Law and l l Luk. 19. 14. 27. c. 12. 13. 14. Gospel too as no doubt it is then by the same reason not onely all legal proceedings Indictments Judgements Verdicts Writs Tryals Fines Recoveries Recognisances and the like before any Judges and Justices since the Kings beheading in any Courts at Westminster or in their Circuits Assises or quarter Sessions held by new Commissions with all Commissions and Proceedings of Sheriffs are not only meerly void illegall coram non
judice to all intents with all Bills Decrees and Proceedings in Chancery or the Rolls and all Judges Justices Sheriffs now acting and Lawyers practising before them in apparent danger of High-treason both against King and Kingdom they neither taking the Oaths of Judges Supremacy or Allegiance as they ought by Law but only to be true and faithful to the new erected State without a King but likewise all votes and proceedings before the pretended House or any of their Committees oâ—sub-Committees in the Country with all their Grants and Offices Moneys Salaries Sequestrations Sales of Lands or Goods Compositions c. meer Nullities and illegal acts and the proceedings of all active Commissioners Assessors Collectors Treasurers c. and all other Officers imployed to levy and to collect this illegal tax to support that usurped Parliamentary Authority and Army which hath beheaded the late King dis-inherited his undoubted Heir levyed war against and dissolved the late Houses of Parliament subverted the ancient Government of this Realm the constitution and Liberties of our Parliaments the Lawes of the Kingdome with the Liberty and property of the people of England no less than High-treason in all these respects as is fully proved by Sir Edward Cook in his 3 Institutes ch. 1. 2. and by Mr. St. John in his Argument at Law at the attainder of the Earl of Strafford and Declaration and Speech against the ship-mony Judges published by the late Commons House order which I desire all who are thus imployed to consider especially such Commissioners who take upon them to administer a new unlawful Ex-officio Oath to any to survey their Neighbours and their own estates in every parish and return the true values thereof to them upon the new proun'd rate for the 3 last months contribution to fine those who refuse to do it a meer diabolical invention to multiply perjuries to damn mens souls invented by Cardinal Woolsey much enveighed against by Father Latimer in his sermons condemned by the express words of the Petition of Right providing against such Oathes and a snare to enthral the wealtheir sort of people by discovering their estates to subject them to what future taxes they think fit when as the whole House of Commons in no age had any power to administer any Oath in any case whatsoever much lesse then to confer any authority on others to give such illegal Oathes and fine those who refuse them the highest kind of Arbitrary Tyrany both over mens Consciences Properties Liberties to which those who voluntarily submit deserve not only the name of Traytors to their Country but to be m m Exod. 21. 5. 6. boared through the ear and they and their posterities to be made Slaves for ever to these new Tax-masters and their successors and those who are any ways active in imposing or administring such Oaths yea treasonable Oaths of the highest degree abjuring and engaging against King Kingship Kingdome and House of Lords and that with constancy and perseverance against their former Oathes of Homage Fealty Supremacy and Allegiance the Protestation Vow Solemn League and National Covenant the most detestable Perjury and High treason that ever mortal men were guilty of or assistant in imposing assessing collecting and levying illegal taxes by distresse or otherwise may and will undoubtedly smart for it at last not onely by Actions of trespasse false imprisonment Accompt c. brought against them at the Common Law when there will be no Committee of Indempnity to protect them from such suits but likewise by Indictments of High treason to the deserved losse of their Estates Lives and Ruine of their families and that by the Junctoes own Votes and Declaration Octob. 11. 1659. when there will be no Parliament of purged Commoners nor Army to secure nor legal plea to acquit them from the guilt and punishment of Traytors both to their King and Country pretended present forbid fear of imprisonment loss of Liberty Friends Estate Life or the like being no n n See 1. H. 4. Rot. Par. n. 97. excuse in such a case and time as this but an higher aggravation of their crime nor yet to exempt them from Hell it self and everlasting Torments in it for their Perjuries Treasons Oppressions Rebellions and actings against their Consciences out of fear of poor inconsiderable mortals who can but kill the body at most nor yet do that but by Gods permission contrary to the express commands of God himself Ps. 3. 6. Ps. 27. 1. Ps. 56. 11. Ps. 112. 7 8. Isa. 44. 8. c. 51. 7. 12. ler. 1. 8. Ezek. 2. 6. 12. 4. 5. Mat. 10. 28. 1. Pet. 3. 4. Heb. 13. 6. the o o Rev. 21. 8. FEARFUL being the first in that dismal list of Malefactors who shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death even by Christs own sentence JOHN 18. 34. To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witnesse unto the truth FINIS * See Fortescue de Laudibus Legum Angliae and Sir Thomas Smith De Republica Anglicana 16 Car. c. 1. See Rastal Title Taxes Tallages The Acts for Subsidies of the Clergy and Temporalty * See My Memento to the pâ—esent Un-Parliamentary Juncto Prynne the Member reconciled to Prynne the Barresteâ— and True and perfect Narrative May 7. 9. 1659. a See my Humble Remonstrance against Ship-money Jan. 26. 1659. b See 1 E. â— cap. 7. Cook 7. Report 30 31. Dyer 165. 4 Ed. 4. 43 44 1 E. 5. 1 Book Commission 10 21. c Cromptons Jurisdiction of Courts fol. 1. Cook 4. Instit. c. 1. d 5 E. 3. m. 6. part 2. Dors. Claus. Regist. f. 192. 200. e 4 Ed. 4. 44. 1 E. 5. 1. Brook Commissions 19. 21. Officer 25. Dyer 165. Cook 7. Report 30. 31. 1 E. 6. c. 7. Daltons Justice of Peace c. 3. p. 13 Lambert p. 71. * See my Plea for the Lords and House of Peers f 14 R. 2. n. 15. 11 H 4. n. 30. 13 H. 4. n. 25. g 4 H. 7. 18. b. 7 H. 7. 27. Fortescue c. 18. f 20 Dyer 92. Bâ—ook Parliament 76 197. Cooks 4. Institut p. 25. h See the Freeholders grand Inquest My Plea for the Lords The 1 and 2 Part of my Register of Parliamentary Writs and exact Ab. idgement of the Records in â—â—e Tower my Historical Collection part 1 2. c. 3. See my Speech Dec. 4. 1648. and a full Declation of the true state of the Case of the Secluded Members i i Cooks 4. Institutes p. 1. 5 R. 2. Stat. 2. c. 4. * Populi Minor pars Populum non obigit Grotius de Jure Belli l. 2. c. 15. sect. 3. Alexander ab Alexandro Gen. dierum l. 4. c. 11. a Declarat Nov. 28. 30. 1648. l 39. Ed. 3. 7. 4. H. 7. 10. Brook Parl. 26. 40. Cook 4. Instit. p. 1. 25 26. 1 Jac. cap. 1. m Claus. 23. E. 1.