Oppressions of the People they were found guilty of The Statute under colour whereof they acted ran to this effect Be it enacted that the Justices of the Assizes and Justices of the Peace upon Information for the King before them to be made have full power and authority by their discretion to hear and determine all offences and contempts Having this ground they proceeded against the People upon meer Information in the execution of Penal Laws without any Indictment or Presentment by good and lawful men but only by their own Promoters or Informers contrary to the 29th of Magna Charta which requires That no free-man be proceeded against but by lawful Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land Secondly This Act allowed them to hear and determine arbitrarily by their own discretion which is not according to the Law and Custom of England And Cook sayes 't is the worst and most aggravated oppression of all that is done under the colour of Law or disguise of Justice Such a Statute or Act of Parliament is not only against the light of Reason but against the express letter of unrepealed Statute-Law 42. Edw. 3. 1. It is assented and accorded That the great Charter and the Charter of Forest be holden and kept in all points and if any Statute be made to the contrary that shall be holden for none This also is consonant to the first chapter of the great Charter it self made 9. Hen. 3. We have granted to all the free-men of our Realm these Liberties under-written to have and to hold to them and their heirs of Us and our Heirs for ever But what if this great Charter it self had never been made had England been to seek for righteous Laws and just Liberties nothing lesse The same Liberties and Laws were ratified before that in the great Charter made the seventeenth year of King John and mentioned among others by Matthew Paris And to what yet amounted the matter of all these Grants but what the Kings themselves were bound before to observe by their Coronation Oaths as the antient fundamental Laws or Customs of this Land This we may find in Mr. Lambard's Translation of the Saxon Laws from the time of King Ina who began anno 712 to Hen. 1. who began 1100. Amongst the Saxons King Alfred is reputed the most famous and learned Compiler of our Laws which were still handed along from one King to another as the unalterable Customs of the Kingdom In the 17th chapter of Edward the Confessor's Laws The mention of the duty of a King which if not performed nec nomen Regis in eo constabit is remarkable And Mr. Lambard tells us that even William the Conqueror did ratifie and observe the same Laws that his kinsman Edward the Confessor did as obliged by his Coronation Oath So then neither the great Charter in King John's time nor that of 9. Hen. 3. were properly a new Body of Law but a Declaration of the antient fundamental Laws Rights and Liberties of this Nation in Brittish Saxon Danish and Norman times before This Cook in his Proem to the second part of his Institutes observes where he notes also that this Charter is not called great for quantity of words a sheet of Paper will contain it but for the great importance and weight of its matter Through the advice of Hubert de Burgo Chief Justice of England Edward the first in the eleventh year of his Reign did in a Council held at Oxford unjustly cancel this great Charter and that of Forest Hubert therefore was justly sentenc'd according to Law by his Peers in open Parliament Then 25 Ed. 1. The Statute called Confirmationes Charrarum was made in the first chapter whereof the Mag. Charta is peculiarly called the Common Law 25. Ed. 1. cap. 2. Any Judgment given contrary to the said Charter is to be undone and holden for naught And cap. 4. Any that by word deed or counsel go contrary to the said Charter are to be excommunicated by the Bishops and the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York are bound to compel the other Bishops to denounce sentence accordingly in case of their remisness or neglect The next famous sticklers to Hubert de Burgo for Arbitrary Domination were the two Spencers father and son by whose rash and evil counsel sayes Cook Edward the second was seduced to break the Great Charter and they were banished for their pains By these passages we may observe how the People would still be strugling in and by their Representatives for their Legal Rights and Just Liberties to obviate the Encroachers whereof they procured several new Ratifications of their old Laws which were indeed in themselves unrepealable even by Parliaments if they will act as men and not contradict the Law of their own Reason and of the common Reason of all mankind By 25 Ed. 1. cap. 1. Justices Sheriffs Majors and other Ministers that have the Laws of the Land to guide them are required to allow the said Charter to be pleaded in all its points and in all causes that shall come before them in Judgment This is a clause sayes Cook worthy to be written in letters of gold That the Laws to be the Judges guides and therefore not the Judges the guides of the Laws by their arbitrary glosses which never yet misguided any that certainly knew and truly followed them In consonancy herewith the Spaniard sayes Of all the three learned Professions The Lawyer is the only letter'd man his business and duty being to follow the plain literal construction of the Law as his guide in giving Judgment Pretence of mystery here carries in the bowels of it intents or at least a deep suspition of arbitrary domination The mind of the Law is not subject to be clouded disturbed or perverted by passion or interest 'T is far otherwise with Judges therefore 't is fitter and safer the Law should guide them than they the Law Cook on the last mentioned Statute affirms That this great Charter and the Charter of Forest are properly the Common Law of this Land or the Law that is common to all the People thereof 2 Ed. 3. cap. 8. Exact care is taken that no Commands by the Great or Little Seal shall come to disturb or delay Common Right Or if such Commands come the Justices are not thereby to leave to do Right in any point So 14 Ed. 3. 14. 11 Ric. 2. 10. The Judges Oath 18 Ed. 3. 7 runs thus If any force come to disturb the execution of the Common Law ye shall cause their bodies to be arrested and put into Prison Ye shall deny no man Right by the King's Letters nor counsel the King any thing that may turn to his dammage or disherison The late King in his Declaration at Newmarket 1641 acknowledged the Law to be the Rule of his Power And his Majesty that now is in his Speech to both Houses the 19th of May last said excellently The good old Rules of Law are
to his Majesty that now is and to the Church and People of God in these Nations and to the innocent Blood of all that have been slain in this Quarrel Nothing it seems will now serve unless by the Condemnation passed upon my person they be rendred to posterity Murderers and Rebels and that upon Record in a Court of Justice in Westminster-hall And this would inevitably have followed if I had voluntarily given up this Cause without asserting their and my Innocency by which I should have pulled that Blood upon my own head which now I am sure must lie at the door of others and in particular of those that knowingly and precipitately shall embrew their hands in my innocent Blood under whatever form or pretext of Justice My Case is evidently new and unusual that which never happened before wherein there is not only much of God and of his Glory but all that is dear and of true value to all the good People in these three Nations And as I have said it cannot be Treason against the Law of Nature since the duties of the Subjects in relation to their Soveraigns and Superiours from highest to lowest are owned and conscientiously practised and yeelded by those that are the Assertors of this Cause Nor can it be Treason within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3 since besides what hath been said of no King in possession and of being under Powers regnant Kings de facto as also of the Fact in its own nature and the Evidence as to Overt Acts pretended it is very plain it cannot possibly fall within the purview of that Statute For this Case thus circumstantiated as before declared is no Act of any private person of his own head as that Statute intends nor in relation to the King there meant that is presumed to be in the exercise of his Royal Authority in conjunction with the Law and the two Houses of Parliament if they be sitting as the fundamental Constitutions of the Government do require My Lords If I have been free and plain with you in this matter I beg your Pardon For it concerns me to be so and something more than ordinarily urgent where both my Estate and Life are in such eminent peril nay more than my Life the Concerns of thousands of Lives are in it not only of those that are in their graves already but of all posterity in time to come Had nothing been in it but the care to preserve my own Life I needed not have stayed in England but might have taken my opportunity to have withdrawn my self into forreign parts to provide for my own safety Nor needed I to have been put upon pleading as now I am for an Arrest of Judgment but might have watch'd upon advantages that were visible enough to me in the managing of my Tryal if I had consulted only the preservation of my Life or Estate No my Lords I have otherwise learned Christ than to fear them that can but kill the Body and have no more that they can do I have also taken notice in the little reading that I have had of History how glorious the very Heathens have rendred their names to posterity in the contempt they have shewed of Death when the laying down of their Life has appeared to be their Duty from the love which they have owed to their Country Two remarkable examples of this give me leave to mention to you upon this occasion The one is of Socrates the divine Philosopher who was brought into question before a Judgment-Seat as now I am for maintaining that there was but one onely true God against the multiplicity of the superstitious Heathen gods and he was so little in love with his own Life upon this account wherein he knew the Right was on his side that he could not be perswaded by his friends to make any defence but would chuse rather to put it upon the conscience and determination of his Judges to decide that wherein he knew not how to make any choice of his own as to what would be best for him whether to live or to die he ingenuously professing that for ought he knew it might be much to his prejudice and loss to endeavour longer continuance in this bodily Life The other example is that of a chief Governour that to my best remembrance had the Command of a City in Greece which was besieged by a potent Enemy and brought into unimaginable straits Hereupon the said Governor makes his address to the Oracle to know the event of that danger The answer was That the City should be safely preserved if the chief Governour were slain by the Enemy He understanding this immediately disguis'd himself and went into the Enemies Camp amongst whom he did so comport himself that they unwittingly put him to death by which means immediately safety and deliverance arose to the City as the Oracle had declared So little was his Life in esteem with him when the Good and Safety of his Country required the laying of it down The BILL of EXCEPTIONS translated out of the best Latine form the Prisoner could procure No Counsel learned in the Law daring to assist him in those Circumstances without Assignment from the Court which was denied First Concerning my Imprisonment 1. I Shall here mention my entrance into this new Scene of Sufferings under the present Power after my having been handled at will and pleasure under the six years Usurpation of Cromwel which I conceive not to have been at all according to the Law of the Land as may appear by the 29th chap. of Magna Charta and Cook upon it with many other Statutes and Law-Books In all which it appears that the Law of England is so tender not to say curious in providing for the Subjects Liberty that he is not to suffer the least restraint confinement of imprisonment but by the lawfull Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land Contrary to all which I was committed at meer Will and Pleasure and have been detained close Prisoner these two years without any cause specified or any particular crime laid to my charge Secondly Concerning Transactions at the Grand Jury 2. The Grand Jury of Middlesex without my privity knowledge or presence after I had been kept a close Prisoner two full years did meet take the Depositions of Witnesses and find the Bill against me which inevitably exposed me to a Tryal at the Kings Bench Bar for I knew not what whereas Major Rolph and others have had the Right of Englishmen granted them to be present at the Grand Juries proceedings yea and to have Counsel also present to plead any thing in a way of Reason or Law for invalidating the Testimony or disabling the Witnesses whereby the Indictment hath been immediately quash'd and so the party accused delivered from any shadow of Infamy by so much as appearing in the circumstances of a Male-factor at any publick Bar of Justice That this Prisoner had great need
THE TRYAL OF Sir Henry Vane Kt. AT The KINGS BENCH Westminster June the 2d and 6th 1662. Together With what he intended to have Spoken the Day of his Sentence June 11. for Arrest of Judgment had he not been interrupted and over-ruled by the Court and his Bill of Exceptions With other Occasional SPEECHES c. Also his SPEECH and PRAYER c. on the Scaffold Printed in the Year 1662. The TRYAL of Sir Henry Vane Knight at the Kings Bench Westminster June the 2d and 6th 1662. READER THou shalt not be detained with any flourishing Preface 'T is true whether we consider the Person or Cause so much might pertinently be said as were the Pen of some ready Writer imployed therein a large Preamble might seem to need but a very short Apolâ—gy if any at all Yet by that time we have well weighed what this Sufferer hath said for himself and left behind him in writing it will appear that there needed not any tongue of the Learned to form up an Introduction thereunto but meerly the hand of a faithful Transcriber of his own Observations in defence of himself and his Cause Rest assured of this thou hast them here fully and clearly represented The necessity of this course for thy information as to the truth of his Case be pleased to consider on these following accounts He was much over-ruled diverted interrupted and cut short in his Plea as to a free and full delivery of his mind upon the whole matter at the Bar by the Judges of the Kings-Bench and by the Kings Counsel He was also denyed the benefit of any Counsel to speak on his behalf And what he did speak at the Bar and on the Scaffold was so disgustful to some that the Books of those that took Notes of what passed all along in both places were carefully called in and suppressed It is therefore altogether unpossible to give thee a full Narrative of all he said or was said to him either in Westminster-Hall or on Tower-Hill The Defendant foreseeing this did most carefully set down in writing the substance of what he intended to enlarge upon the three dayes of his appearance at the Kings-Bench Bar and the day of his Execution Monday June 2. 1662 was the day of his Arraignment Friday June 6. was the day of his Tryal and the Jurors Verdict Wednesday June 11. was the day of his Sentence Saturday June 14. was the day of his Execution on Tower-Hill where limitations were put upon him and the interruptions of him by many hard speeches and disturbing carriages of some that compassed him about upon the Scaffold as also by the sounding of Trumpets in his face to prevent his being heard had many eye and ear witnesses Vpon these considerations I doubt not it will appear undispensably necessary to have given this faithful Transcript of such Papers of his as do contain the most substantial and pleadable grounds of his publick actings any time this twenty years and more as the only means left of giving any tolerable account of the whole matter to thy satisfaction Yet such Information as could be picked up from those that did preserve any Notes taken in Court or at the Scaffold are here also recorded for thy use and that faithfully word for word Chancellor Fortescue doth right worthily commend the Laws of England as the best now extant and in force in any Nation of the world affording if duely administred just outward liberty to the People and securing the meanest from any oppressive and injurious practices of Superiours against them They give also that just Prerogative to Princes that is convenient or truly useful and advantagious for them to have that is to say such as doth not enterfere with the Peoples just Rights the intire and most wary preservation of which as it is the Covenant-duty of the Prince so is it his best security and greatest honour 'T is safer and better for him to be loved and rightly feared by free Subjects than to be feared and hated by injured slaves The main fundamental Liberties of the free People of England are summed up and comprehended in the 29th Chapter of Magna Charta These be the words No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseized of his Freehold or Liberties or free-customs or be out-lawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed Nor will we pass upon him or condemn him but by lawful Judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land We will sell to no man we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right Lord Chief Justice Cook observes here nine famous branches of the Law of England couched in this short Chapter and discourses upon them to good purpose He saith also that from this Chapter as out of a root many fruitful branches of the Law of England have sprung As for the very leading injury to other wrongings of the Subject to wit the restraint or imprisonment of his person so curious and tender is the Law in this point that sayes Cook no man is to be attached arrested taken or restrained of his liberty by petition or suggestion to the King or to his Council unless it be by Indictment or Presentment of good and lawful men of the neighbourhood where such deeds be done This great Charter of Englands Liberties made 9 Hen. 3. and set in the front of all succeeding Statute-Laws or Acts of Parliament as the Standard Touch-stone or Jury for them to be tryed by hath been ratified by about two and thirty Parliaments and the Petition of Right 3. Caroli The two most famous Ratifications hereof entituled Confirmationes Chartarum Articuli super Chartas were made 25 and 28 of Edw. 1. All this stir about the great Charter some conceive very needless seeing that therein are contained those fundamental Laws or Liberties of the Nation which are so undeniably consonant to the Law of Nature or Light of Reason that Parliaments themselves ought not to abrogate but preserve them Even Parliaments may seem to be bounded in their Legislative Power and Jurisdiction by divine Equity and Reason which is an eternal and therefore unalterable Law Hence is it that an Act of Parliament that is evidently against common Right or Reason is null and void in it self without more ado Suppose a Parliament by their Act should constitute a man Judge in his own cause give him a meer Arbitrary power such Act would be in it self void This is declared to be the ground of that exemplary Justice done upon Empson and Dudley as acting contrary to the Peoples Liberties in Magna Charta whose Case is very memorable in this point For though they gratified Hen. 7th in what they did and had an Act of Parliament for their Warrant made the 11th of his Reign yet met they with their due reward from the hands of Justice that Act being against Equity and common Reason and so no justifiable ground or apology for those infinit Abuses 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
Rule cap 29. Nullus liber homo capiatur c. No free-man shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his freehold or liberties or free-customs or be outlawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed Nor we will not passe upon him nor condemn him but by lawful Judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land We will sell to no man we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right Out of this Chapter as out of a root saith Sir Edward Cook do many fruitful branches of the Law of England spring It contains nine branches some whereof I shall insist upon in my Case First That no man be taken or imprisoned but per Legem Terrae that is by the Common Law or Custom of England which words per Legem Terrae though put last refer to all the precedent branches Secondly The Goods of any Offender cannot regularly be taken and seized to the King's use before Conviction nor be Inventoried nor the Town charged therewith before the owner be indicted of Record Thirdly No man shall be exiled or banished out of his Country not be in any sort destroyed but by the verdict of his Peers This appears by Bracton and other ancient Writers quoted by Cook in the third part of his Institutes fol. 228. Upon the whole matter saith Cook these two Conclusions are manifestly proved First That before Indictment the Goods or other things of any Offender cannot be searched inventoried or in any sort seized nor after Indictment seized removed or taken away before Conviction or Attainder Secondly That the begging of the Goods or Estate of any Delinquent accused or indicted of any Treason Felony or other offence before he be convicted and attainted is utterly unlawful Stat. Ri. 1. cap. 3. And besides it maketh the prosecution against the Delinquent more precipitant violent and undue than the quiet and equal proceedings of the Law and Justice would permit Or else by some under-hand Agreement stops or hinders the due course of Justice and discourageth both Judge Juror and Witness to do their duty Thirdly The Judges are not to give so much as their Opinion before-hand concerning the Offence whether it prove that Offence in that Case Cook in the chap. of Petty Treason fol. 29. expresly saith And to the end the Tryal may be the more indifferent seeing the safety of the Prisoner consists in the indifferency of the Court the Judges ought not to deliver their Opinions before-hand of any Criminal Case that may come before them judicially And he there cites Humphrey Staffords Case that Arch Traitor in which Hussey Chief Justice besought Hen. 7. not to demand of them their Opinions before-hand And in the 4th of his Institutes in the chap. of the High Court of Parliament fol. 37 he fully shews the evil of asking the Judges Opinions before-hand But instead of this The Judges being assistant in the Lords house when all Acts of Parliament passe and whose Advice is taken in them have as appears by what is declared in the said Acts prejudg'd by their Opinions and the Opinions of the Parliament before-hand the merit of the Cause that now appears to be put upon the Issue in my Tryal Hereby the Judges are rendred ex parte and the indifferency the Law requires impossible to be afforded Nor is this all but by the Rules declared in the Act of Indempnity all are disenabled to plead or make use of the Ordinances Orders and Votes of both or either Houses of Parliament that may have occasion thereof and then by excepting the Prisoner and his fellow out of the said Act and all benefit thereby a door is left open to Arraign bring to Tryal and Sentence the whole Cause from the beginning to the ending in the person of the Prisoner and at the same time deprive him of all means and possibility of Justification and Defence Fourthly It is observable how early hard measure appeared in the way wherein the Prisoner became excepted out of the Act of Indempnity when the Commons his proper Judges declared him in their thoughts not fit to be endangered in the point of Life yet unto the Judgment of the Lords that ought not to judge Commoners unbrought before them by the Commons much less in opposite Judgement to the Commons The Commons were necessitated to yeeld lest otherwise the Act of Indempnity to the whole Nation should stop upon this dispute and essential difference between the two Houses A Competition easily over-ruled although as it proves by the sequel That Act of Indempnity is like to become felo de se or a destroyer of it self if your Lordships shall conceive your selves at liberty notwithstanding that Act not only to bring anew into memory upon the stage the state of all the passed differences from first to last but to try and judge the merit of them in my person and therein call in question the validity of that whole Act and make void the benefit intended by it in case the War undertaken and managed by both or either of the Houses of Parliament be judged unlawful and within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. For this adjudges all the People of England morally guilty of the evil of a sin and offence against the Law of Nature which once done what ever promised Indempnity be granted for the present the Evil of the Action remaining upon Record not only to the Infamy of the whole People of England but their future danger upon pretence they have forfeited the very Indempnity granted Fifthly The length of time taken to search out matter against the Prisoner and the undue practices and courses to find out Witnesses do further evidence how unlike the Prisoner is to have an equal and indifferent Tryal He doubts not this will appear in his two years close Imprisonement six months whereof was Banishment during which time he was never so much as once examined or had any question put to him whereby he might conjecture wherefore he was committed to Prison any further than was expressed in the Warrants of Commitments Now these were so general that nothing certain or particular could be gathered out of them But upon the received opinion that he was excepted out of the Act of Indempnity and in the sence of both Houses a great Delinquent his Estate was attempted to be inventoried his Rentals demanded his Rents were actually seized in the Tenants hands and they forbidden to pay them His very Courts were prohibited by Officers of great Personages claiming the Grant of the Estate and threatning his Officers from doing their duty By these kind of undue proceedings the Prisoner had not wherewithal to maintain himself in Prison and his Debts to the value of above ten thousand pounds were undischarged either Principal or Interest The hopes of private lucre and profit hereby was such in the Tenants and other persons sought out for far and near to be Witnesses that it is no wonder at last something by way
Soveraign or General Vicegerent of his Supremacy over all in Heaven and in Earth He therefore is the true Universal King and Root of all Soveraign and just Governing Power whether in Heaven or on Earth His Soveraignty is unquestionable and unaccountable because of the Perfection of his Person carrying in it an aptitude and sufficiency to Govern without possibility of Error or Defect of any kind Soveraign and Governing Power doth necessarily relate to Subjects that are to be the Ruled and Subjects capable of such Government Therefore when God himself purposes within himself to be Supream Legislator and Governour he doth withal purpose the Being and Creation of both Worlds as the Subject matter of his Kingdom He propounds to Govern his Subjects by and with their own consent and good liking or without and against it in the way of his revenging Justice Governing by Laws clearly stating and ascertaining the Duty or the Offence as also the Rewards and Penalties Herein Just Government consists or the Justice of Government for he that Rules over others must be Just and indeed should be seen to be so in all his Commands so seen as to render the Consciences of the Ruled and those whose duty it is to Obey inexcusable before God and before Men if they Dissent or Resist Inexcusable they are before God because the matter Commanded is the matter of God's Law therefore just to be obeyed They are also Inexcusable before Men that which is required of them being generally acknowledged and affirmed by those in whom the common consent of the Subjects is intrusted to that end to be Just and Reasonable and therefore to be Obeyed For the end of all Government being for the Good and Welfare and not for the Destruction of the Ruled God who is the Institutor of Government as he is pleased to Ordain the Office of Governors intrusting them with Power to command the Just and Reasonable Things which his own Law Commands that carry their own evidence to common Reason and Sense at least that do not evidently contradict it so he grants a Liberty to the Subjects or those that by him are put under the Rule to refuse all such Commands as are contrary to his Law or to the judgement of common Reason and Sense whose trial he allows by way of assent or dissent before the Commands of the Ruler shall be Binding or put in Execution and this in a Co-ordinacy of Power with Just Government and as the due Ballance thereof The Original Impressions of Just Laws are in Mans Nature and very Constitution of Being Man hath the Law in his Mind or the Superior and Intellectual part of him convincing and bringing that into obedience and subjection to the Law of God in Christ himself He hath also that which is a Law in his Members that are on the Earth or his earthly and sensual part whose Power is Co-ordinate with the other but such that if it be not gained into a Harmony and Conjunction with its Head the Spirit or Mind of man hath ability to let and hinder his Mind or Ruling part from performing and putting in execution that which is good just fit and to be acknowledged as the righteous dictates of the Mind which ought to be the Ruling Power or Law to the Man So in the outward Government over Man the secondary or co-ordinate Power concurring with that which is the chief ruling Power is essential to Just Government and is acknowledged to be so by the Fundamental Constitution of the Government of England as well as in the Legal Being and Constitution of Parliaments whether that which hath been usual and ordinary according to the Common Law or that which of late hath been Extraordinary by express Statute for the continuance of the Parliament 17. Car. until dissolved by Act of Parliament For together with the Legal Being which is given to Regal Power and the Prerogative of the Crown there is the Legal Power and Being reserved also unto that Body which is the Peoples or Kingdoms Representative who are the Hands wherein that which is called Power Politick is seated and are intrusted with giving or with holding the common Consent of the whole Nation according to the best of their Understandings in all matters coming before them and are to keep this Liberty Inviolate and Entire against all Invasions or Encroachments upon it whatsoever This second Power in the very Writ of Summons for calling a Parliament is declared to be of that Nature that what the first doth without obtaining the Consent and Approbation of the second in Parliament is not binding but ineffectual And when the Representative Body of the Kingdom in and with whom this Power is intrusted as the Due and Legal Ballance and Boundary to the Regal Power set and fixed by the Fundamental Constitution is made a standing Court and of that Continuance as not to be dissolvable but by its own consent during such its continuance it hath right to preserve it self from all violent and undue Dissolution and to maintain and defend its own Just Priviledges a chief of which is to binde or loose the People in all matters good or hurtful to them according to their best Judgement and discretion In the exercise of this their Trust they are Indemnified by Law and no hurt ought to come unto them that Governing Power which is originally in God and slowes at first from him as the sole and proper Fountain thereof is brought into exercise amongst men upon a differing and distinct account First As it is a Trust and Right derived conditionally from God to his Officers and Ministers which therefore may be lost who being called by him and in the course of his Providence to the exercise of it are to hold it of him the Universal King and to own themselves in the exercise thereof as his Vicegerents to cut off by the Sword of Justice evil-doers and to be a Protection and encouragement to them that do well But because it is part of God's Call of any person to this high Trust to bring him into the possession and free Exercise thereof by the common consent of the Body of the People where such Soveraign Power is set up unless they have forfeited this Liberty Therefore Secondly God doth allow and confer by the very Law of Nature upon the Community or Body of the People that are related to and concerned in the right of Government placed over them the Liberty by their common Vote or Suffrage duely given to be Assenters or Dissenters thereunto and to Affirm and make Stable or Disallow and render Ineffectual what shall apparently be found by them to be for the good or hurt of that Society whose welfare next under the justice of God's Commands and his Glory is the Supream Law and very end of all Subordinate governing Power Soveraign Power then comes from God as its proper Root but the restraint or enlargement of it in its Execution over such or
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
God 3. Such Appeal answered and the issue decided by Battel the Peoples Delegates still sitting and keeping together in their Collective Body may of right and according to reason refuse the re-admission or new-admission of the Exercise of the former Rulers or any new Rulers again over the whole Body till there be received Satisfaction for the former Wrongs done the expence and hazzard of the War and Security for the time to come that the like be not committed again Until this be obtained they are bound in duty in such manner as they judge most fit to provide for the present Government of the whole Body that the Common-weal receive no detriment 4. In this which is the proper Office of the Peoples Delegates and concerns the keeping and defending the Liberty and Right of the whole People and Nation they may and ought during their sitting to Exercise their own proper Power and Authority the Exigents of the Kingdom requiring it although the other two Estates joyntly instructed with them in the exercise of the Legislative Authority should desert their station or otherwise sail in the Execution of their Trusts yea or though many or most of their own Members so long as a lawful Quorum remains shall either voluntarily withdraw from them or for just cause become excluded In this discharge of their trust for the common welfare and safety of the whole their Actings though extraordinary and contrarient to the right of the other two cannot be treasonable or criminal though they may be tortious and erroneous seeing they are equals and co-ordinate in the exercise of the Legislative Power and have the Right of their own proper Trust and Office to discharge and defend though their fellow Trustees should fail in theirs Nor can nor ought the People as Adherents to their own Delegates and Representatives to be reputed criminal or blame worthy by the Law In the exercise of one and the same Legislative power according to the Fundamental Constitution of the Government of England there are three distinct publick Votes allowed for Assent or Discent in all matters coming before them the Agreement of which is essential and necessary to the passing of a Law the personal Vote of the King the personal Votes of the Lords in a House or distinct Body and the Delegated Vote and Suffrage of the whole People in their Representative Body or the House of Commons Unto each of these appertains a distinct Office and Priviledge proper to them 1. The Regal Office and the Prerogative thereof to the King 2. The Judicial Office to the Lords as the highest Judicature and Court of Justice under the King for the exercising Coercive Power and punishing of Malefactors 3. The Office of the Keepers of the Liberties and Rights of the People as they are the whole Nation incorporated under one Head by their own free and common Consent The Regal Office is the Fountain of all Coercive and Executive Power pursuant to the Rule set to the same by Law or the Agreement of the three Estates in Parliament The Rule which is set is that of Immutable Just and Right according to which penalties are applicable and become due and is first stated and ascertained in the declared Law of God which is the signification or making known by some sign the Will of the Supream Legislator proceeding from a perfect Judgement and Understanding that is without all Error or Defect The Will that flowes from such a Judgement is in its nature Legislative and binding and of right to be obeyed for its own sake and the perfection it carries in it and with it in all its actings This Will is declared by Word or Works or both By Word we are to understand either the immediate Breath and Spirit of Gods mouth or mind or the Inspiration of the Almighty ministred by the holy Ghost in and by some creature as his vessel and instrument through which the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament were composed By works that declare God's Will we are to understand the whole Book of the Creature but more eminently and especially the particular Beings and Natures of Angels and Men who bear the name and likeness of God in and upon their Judgements and their Wills their directing Power and their executive Power of mind which are essential to their Being Life and Motion When these direct and execute in conjunction and harmony with God's Judgement and Will made known in his Law they do that which is right and by adhering and conforming themselves unto this their certain and unerring Guide do become Guides and Rulers unto others and are the Objects of right choice where Rulers are wanting in Church or State The Rule then to all action of Angels or Men is that of moral or immutable Just and Right which is stated and declared in the Will and Law of God The first and highest imitation of this Rule is the Creature-being in the person of Christ The next is the Bride the Lambs Wife The next is the innumerable Society of the holy Angels The next is the Company of Just Men fixed in their natural Obedience and Duty through Faith manifesting it self not onely in their Spirits but in their outward Man redeemed even in this World from the body of corruption as far as is here attainable The Power which is directive and states and ascertains the morallity of the Rule for Obedience is in the Law of God But the original whence all just executive Power arises which is Magistratical and Coercive is from the will or free gift of the People who may either keep the Power in themselves or give up their Subjection into the hands and will of another as their Leader and Guide if they shall judge that thereby they shall better answer the end of Government to wit the welfare and safety of the whole then if they still kept the Power in themselves And when they part with it they may do it conditionally or absolutely and whilst they keep it they are bound to the right use of it In this Liberty every man is created and it is the Priviledge and just Right which is granted unto Man by the Supream Law-giver even by the Law of Nature under which man was made God himself leaves man to the free exercise of this his Liberty when he tenders to him his safety and immutability upon the well or ill use of this his Liberty allowing him the choice either to be his own guide and self-ruler in the ability communicated to him to know and execute Gods Will and so to keep the Liberty he is possessed of in giving away his subjection or not or else upon God's Call and Promise to give up himself in way of subjection to God as his Guide and Ruler either absolutely or conditionally To himself he expects absolute Subjection to all subordinate Rulers conditional While mans Subjection is his own and in his own keeping unbestowed and ungiven out of himself he
to have dissolv'd all the bands of service and confidence between his Majesty and his Parliament of whom the Law sayes a dishonourable thing ought not to be imagined This Conclusion then is a clear Result from what hath been argued That in all Cases of such difficulty and unusualness happening by the over-ruling Providence of God as render it impossible for the Subject to know his duty by any known Law or certain Rule extant his relying then upon the Judgment and Reason of the whole Realm declared by their Representative Body in Parliament then sitting and adhering thereto and pursuing thereof though the same afterwards be by succeeding Parliaments judged erroneous factious and unjust is most agreeable to right Reason and good Conscience and in so doing all persons are to be free and secure from all Account and Penalties not only upon the ground and equity of that Statute 11 Hen. 7. but according to all Rules of Justice natural or moral The day of Arraignment being Monday June 2. 1662. Reader The best account thou canst yet be furnished with as to this dayes proceedings in Court is as followeth SIR Henry Vane was the last Term indicted of High Treason before the Middlesex Grand Jury and the Bill being found by them he was upon Monday the second of June this Term arraigned to this effect That you as a false Traitor against his most excellent Majesty King Charles the second your supream and natural Lord not having the fear of God before your eyes and withdrawing that your duty and allegiance which a true Subject ought to have and bear to our said Leige and sovereign Lord thirteenth of May in the eleventh year of our said sovereign Lord the King at the Parish of St. Martins in the fields in the Country of Middlesex did compass and imagine the Death of our said sovereign Lord the King and the ancient frame of Government of this Realm totally to subvert and keep out our said sovereign Lord from the exercise of his Regal Government and the same the better to effect the said Sir Henry Vane the said thirteenth day of May in the said eleventh your c. at St. Martins aforesaid together with other false Traitors to the Jurors unknown did traiterously and maliciously assemble and sit together and then and there consulted to bring the King unto destruction and to hold him out from the exercise of his Regal Authority and then and there usurped the Government and appointed Officers to wit Colonels and Captains of a certain Army raised against the King against the Peace of our sovereign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity and contrary to the form of the Statute in that case made and provided And the better to effect this the twentieth of December in the said eleventh year with a multitude to the number of a thousand persons to the Jurors unknown in warlike manner assembled and arrayed with Guns Trumpets Drums c. did levy War against the Peace c. and contrary to the form of a Statute Which being read he prayed to have it read a second time which was granted him He then prayed to have it read in Latine which all the Court denyed and Keeling the King's Serjeant said That though all Pleas and Entries are set down on Record in Latine yet the agitations of Causes in Court ought to be in English The Prisoner moved several Exceptions to the Indictment as that the 25. Ed. 3. is not pursued that he had levied no such force as amounted to a levying of War Also the place in which persons with whom are both uncertain and the particular acts of levying War being not set forth he thought therefore the Indictment was insufficient Also he said here is a long time of Action for which I am charged and I may be concern'd for what I acted as a Member in that sovereign Court of Parliament and if any thing concerns the Jurisdiction of that Court I ought not to be judged here at which the Court and King's Counsel took great offence He said also There hath been an Act of General Pardon since that time whereby all Treasons are put in utter oblivion and though Sir Henry Vane were excepted yet none consent that he was that Sir Henry Vane But the King's Counsel said If he would plead that Plea they would joyn that Issue with him if he pleased which if it should be found against him it would be too late to plead not guilty But the Court said in favour of life a man may plead a double Plea and give in his Exception and plead over to the Felony or Treason not guilty But as to the Exceptions taken to the Indictment they gave little heed to them but pressed him to plead or confess Whereupon he pleaded Not guilty and had four dayes to wit till Friday next for his Tryal From another hand take as followeth The Prisoner did much press for Counsel to be allowed him to advise with about any further Exceptions to the Indictment besides those by him exhibited and to put all into form according to the customary proceedings and language of the Law as also to speak to them at the Bar on his behalf he not being vers'd in the punctilio's of Law-writings and Pleas. He further said That the Indictment which so nearly concern'd his Life being long and his memory short it could not well be imagined that he should upon the bare hearing it read be able in an instant to find out every material Exception against it in form or matter He pleaded a good while on this account but Counsel was finally denied him till he should plead guilty or not guilty unto which being a third time urged he pleaded Not guilty The Court having assured him beforehand that after pleading Counsel should be assigned him which yet never was performed Here followeth a Transcript of the Prisoners own Papers containing certain Memorandums pleadable upon his Arraignment Memorandums for and towards my Defence Upon hearing the Indictment read and before pleading FIrst To lay before the Court the impossibility that he humbly conceives is already in view as to the having any such indifferent and equal Tryal as the Law intends him and doth require and command on the behalf of all the free-People of England The Rise for this Conception he takes from what hath been already done in relation to the Prisoner himself unheard unexamined and yet kept close Prisoner for near two whole years This he shall leave to the Judgment of the Court after he hath made known the particulars thereof unto them as necessary to precede the thing demanded of him in pleading guilty or not guilty Secondly What is the indifferency which the Law requires and appoints throughout as well in matters that go before the Tryal as in the proceedings at the Tryal if it self Before the Tryal and in the first step to it which is the keeping and securing his person Magna Charta is clear and gives this
of Charge comes to be exhibited And as this is the Case of the Person before his appearance at this Bar with respect to the foresaid unequal proceedings towards him and the great disadvantages put upon him and all these as it were in a continued series of Design so the matters and things themselves with which it now appears he is charged in the Indictment make his Case still very extraordinary and unusual involving him in difficulties that are insuperable unless God's own immediate Power do shew it self in working his deliverance The things done are for many years past in a time of Differences between King and Parliament and Wars ensuing thereupon Many extraordinary Changes and Revolutions in the State and Government were necessitated in the course of God's Providence for wise and holy ends of his above the reach of humane wisdom The Authority by which they are done is prejudged The Orders Votes and Resolutions of Parliament are made useless and forbidden to be produced Hereby all manner of defence is taken away from the Prisoner and that which was done according to Law as the Laws of those times were is endeavoured to be made unlawful and so the persons acting according to such Laws are brought to punishment The Judges as hath been shewed are forestalled in their Judgements by the declared sence of Parliaments given ex post facto The Jurors are put upon difficulties never known before for twelve Commoners to judge the Actions of all the Commons of England in whom they are included as to whose Judgment is the right the one or the others and whether their Representatives be trusty The Party indicted is under an incapacity to bring Witnesses as well from the nature of the place wherein the things were done within the Walls of the House as from the shortness of time having heard nothing of his Charge and being kept a close Prisoner to the last day His Solicitors and persons imployed in his Law-businesses were also restrained from him It is also most evident that the matters for which he is questioned being the Product of so many years Agitations of Parliamantary Counsels and Arms cannot be of a single concern nor be reputed as the actions of a private man done of his own head nor therefore come within any of the six Classes of Treason contained in 25. Ed. 3. It is a Case most unusual and never happening before in this Kingdom yet it is alledged in the Indictment to be a levying War within that Statute and so comes to have the name of High Treason put upon it thereby if possible to deprive him of the use and benefit of Counsel as also of competent time to prepare for his Defence and all fitting and requisit means for the clearing of his Innocency Unto this unless some remedy be afforded by the justice candor and favour of this Court it may be better for the Prisoner for ought he yet knows to be immediately destroyed by special Command if nothing else will satisfie without any form of Law as one to whom Quarter after at least two years cool blood is thought fit to be denied in relation to the late Wars This may seem better than under a colour and form of Justice to pretend to give him the benefit of the Law and the King's Courts whose part it is to set free the Innocent upon an Equal and Indifferent Tryal had before them if their Cause will bear it but it is very visible beforehand that all possible means of Defence are taken and withheld from him and Laws are made ex post facto to fore-judge the merit of the Cause the Party being unheard And when he hath said all this that as a rational man does occur to him and is fit for him to represent in all humility to the Court he craves leave further to adde That he stands at this Bar not only as a man and a man clothed with the Priviledges of the most Sovereign Court but as a Christian that hath Faith and reliance in God through whose gracious and wise appointment he is brought into these circumstances and unto this place at this time whose Will he desires to be found resigned up into as well in what He now calls him to suffer as in what He hath called him formerly to act for the good of his Country and of the People of God in it Upon this bottom he blesses the Name of his God he is fearless and knows the issue will be good what ever it prove God's strength may appear in the Prisoner's weakness and the more all things carry the face of certain ruine and destruction unto all that is near and dear to him in this world the more will divine deliverance and salvation appear to the making good of that Scripture That he that is content to lose his life in God's Cause and Way shall save it and he that instead thereof goes about to save his life upon undue terms shall lose it Far be it therefore from me to have knowingly maliciously or wittingly offended the Law rightly understood and asserted much less to have done any thing that is malum per se or that is morally evil This is that I allow not as I am a Man and what I desire with stedfastness to resist as I am a Christian If I can judge any thing of my own Case The true reason of the present difficulties and straits I am in is because I have desired to walk by a just and righteous Rule in all my Actions and not to serve the lusts and passions of men but had rather die than wittingly and deliberately sin against God and transgress his holy Laws or prefer my own private Interest before the Good of the whole Community I relate unto in the Kingdom where the lot of my residence is cast Here follow the chief Observables as to matter of new Argument on the day of his Tryal being Friday June 6. 1662. ON this day the Sheriff returned forty eight Freeholders of the Country of Middlesex After thirty two were challenged by the Prisoner he had a Jury of Twelve men sworn to wit Sir William Roberts junior Sir Christopher Abdy John Stone Henry Carter John Leech Daniel Cole Daniel Browne Thomas Chelsam Thomas Pitts Thomas Vpman Andrew Bent and William Smith The Attorney-General's Speech to the Jury The Indictment is for traiterously imagining and intending c. the Death of the King This very imagination and compassing c. is Treason Yet forasmuch as the intentions of the heart are secret the Law cannot take notice of them till they are declared by Overt Act. Therefore we shall give in Evidence That for the accomplishing of these Intentions the Prisoner sate with others in several Councils or rather Confederacies incroached the Government levied Forces appointed Officers and at last levied open and actual War in the head of a Regiment If any of these crimes be proved it is sufficient to make him guilty within this Indictment
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
The next Consideration is how far I have had my share and part therein that by the Laws is not warrantable or by what appears in way of proof to the Jury For the first I shall crave leave to give you this account of my self who have best known my own mind and intentions throughout and would not now to save my life renounce the principles of that Righteous Cause which my conscience tells me was my duty to be faithful unto I do therefore humbly affirm That in the afore-mentioned great Changes and Revolutions from first to last I was never a first mover but alwayes a follower chusing rather to adhere to things than persons and where Authority was dark or dubious to do things justifiable by the Light and Law of Nature as that Law is acknowledged part of the Law of the Land things that are in se bona and such as according to the grounds and principles of the Common Law as well as the Statutes of this Land would warrant and indempnifie me in doing them For I have observed by Precedents of former times when there have arisen disputes about Titles to the Crown between Kings de facto and Kings de jure the People of this Realm wanted not directions for their safety and how to behave themselves within the duty and limits of Allegiance to the King and Kingdom in such difficult and dangerous seasons My Lord Cook is very clear in this point in his Chap. of Treason fol. 7. And if it were otherwise it were the hardest case that could be for the people of England For then they would be certainly exposed to punishment from those that are in possession of the supream power as Traitors if they do any thing against them or do not obey them and they would be punishable as Traitors by him that hath right and is King de jure in case they do obey the Kings de facto and so all the people of England are necessarily involved in Treasons either against the Powers de facto or de jure and may by the same reason be questioned for it as well as the Prisoner if the Act of Indempnity and the King's Pardon did not free them from it The security then and safety of all the People of England is by this means made to depend upon a Pardon which might have been granted or denied and not upon the sure foundations of Common Law an opinion sure which duly weighed and considered is very strange to say no more For I would gladly know that person in England of estate and fortune and of age that hath not counselled aided or abetted either by his person or estate and submitted to the Laws and Government of the Powers that then were and if so then by your Judgments upon me you condemn in effigies and by necessary consequence the whole Kingdom And if that be the Law and be now known to be so it is worth consideration whether if it had been generally known and understood before it might not have hindred his Majesties Restoration Besides although until this Judgement be passed upon me the people have apprehended themselves as free from question and out of danger by reason of the Act of Indempnity and General Pardon yet when it shall appear to them that such their safety is not grounded on the Common Law nor upon the Law of Nature but that against both these in their actions they are found faulty and tainted with a moral guilt and that as principals also since in Treason there are no Accessories what terrifying Reflexions must this needs stir up in the mind of every man that will be apt to believe his Turn will come next at least once in two years as hath befallen me in my pâ—rson who however I have been misjudged and misunderstood can truly affirm that in the whole series of my Actions that which I have had in my eye hath been to preserve the ancient well-constituted Government of England on its own basis and primitive righteous foundations most learnedly stated by Fortescue in his Book made in praise of the English Laws And I did account it the most likely means for the effecting of this to preserve it at least in its root whatever changes and alterations it might be exposed unto in its branches through the blustrous and stormy times that have passed over us This is no new doctrine in a Kingdom acquainted with Political Power as Fortescue shews ours is describing it to be in effect the Common Assent of the Realm the Will of the People or whole Body of the Kingdom represented in Parliament Nay though this Representation as hath fallen out be restrained for a season to the Commons House in their single actings into which as we have seen when by the inordinate fire of the times two of the three Estates have for a season been melted down they did but retire into their Root and were not hereby in their Right destroyed but rather preserved though as to their exercise laid for a while asleep till the season came of their Revival and Restoration And whatever were the intents and designs of others who are to give an account of their own actions It is sufficient for me that at a time critical and decisive though to my own hazard and ill usage I did declare my Refusal of the Oath of Abjuration which was intended to be taken by all the Members of Parliament in reference to Kingly Government and the Line of his now Majesty in particular This I not only positively refused to take but was an occasion of the second thoughts which the Parliament reassumed thereof till in a manner they came wholly at last to decline it a proof undeniable of the remoteness of any intentions or designs of mine as to the endeavouring any alteration or change in the Government and was that which gave such jealousie to many in the House that they were willing to take the first occasion to shew their dislike of me and to discharge me from sitting among them But to return to what I have before affirmed as to my being no leading or first Actor in any Change it is very apparent by my deportment at the time when that great Violation of Priviledges happened to the Parliament so as by force of Arms several Members thereof were debarred coming into the House and keeping their seats there This made me forbear to come to the Parliament for the space of ten weeks to wit from the third of Decemb. 1648 till towards the middle of February following or to meddle in any publick transactions And during that time the matter most obvious to exception in way of alteration of the Government did happen I can therefore truly say that as I had neither consent nor vote at first in the Resolutions of the Houses concerning the Non-Addresses to his late Majesty so neither had I in the least any consent in or approbation to his Death But on the contrary when required by
and Reason out of his hands by force or noise for half an hour or more they finally refused to hear his following Plea and Reasons for an Arrest of Judgment or forbearing their sudden and rash proceeding to Sentence They had promised him before Verdict they would hear any thing in that kind he had to offer as they had also before his pleading not guilty promised him Counsel which never was granted neither They drew him on step by step first to plead on his Arraignment-day then to admit the Juries Verdict on his Tryal-day so called for he never owned it for a Legal Tryal to his last breath and after that out comes the Judgement or Sentence of Death against him pronounced by the Lord Chief Justice Forster and that of the worst complexion and most infamous famous circumstances to wit that he should be hang'd drawn and quartered at Tyburn the common Execution-place for Theeves and Robbers But in the Order for his Execution for reasons best known to them that made it the manner of his death was altered into a beheading only on Tower-hill to which place they carried him on a Sled drawn with horses a circumstance very singular and never used for those that die there and which he was kept ignorant of till the very time one of the Sheriffs men having that morning a little before told him there was to be no Sled but that he was to walk on foot Some farther Remarques of this last dayes Proceedings of the Court with him besides what is already mentioned received from one that was present and did hear and see all being what he could best remember take as followeth After the customary formalities of the Court The Clerk demanded of Sir Henry Vane what he had to say why Sentence of Death should not be passed upon him Sir Henry Vane first alledged that he had not yet heard the Indictment read in Latine The debate upon this took up some time At length some of the King's Counsel desired that the Prisoner might be satisfied in that point Sir Henry desired that Counsel then might also be assigned him to make Exceptions thereto if they found cause otherwise he valued not the hearing of it read in Latine This was over-ruled by the Court he soon therefore desisted from any further urging it The next thing Sir Henry offered in his own defence was the Bill of Exceptions which he brought with him ready drawn and offered it to the Judges desiring them according to the Statute of Westminst 2. 31. made 13. Ed. 1. to sign it This he urged so home that the Statute was consulted and read in open Court running in favour of the Prisoner to this effect That if any man find himself aggrieved by the proceedings against him before any Justices let him write his Exception and desire the Justices to set their seals to it This Act was made sayes Cook that the party wronged might have a Foundation for a legal Process against the Justices by a Writ of Error having his Exception entred upon Record in the Court where the injury is done which through the Justices over-ruling it they could not before procure so the party grieved was without remedy for whose relief this Statute was made The Justices refusing to set to their seals the party grieved may have a Writ grounded on this Statute commanding them to set their seals to his Exception This Exception extends not only to all Pleas dilatory and peremptory c. but to all Challenges of any Jurors and any material Evidence given to any Jury which by the Court is over-ruled As in this Prisoners Case the Testimony about falsifying of his hand to writings c. was by what was offered to the Jury by Justice Windham Further sayes Cook on this Statute If the Justice or Justices die their Executors or Administrators may be proceeded against for the injury done And if the Judge or Judges deny to seal the Exception the party wronged may in the Writ of Error take Issue thereupon if he can prove by Witnesses the Judge or Judges denied to seal it Notwithstanding all this the Judges over-ruled this Plea also by such interpretation as themselves put upon that Statute to wit that it was not allowable in Criminal Cases for Life This makes the Law less careful for the preservation of a man's Life than any particulars of his Estate in controversies about which this Statute is affirmed by them to hold whereas Life is the greater and innocent Blood when spilt is irreversible as to the matter it cannot be gathered up again the Estate is the lesser and if an erroneous Judgment pass about it 't is reversible upon Traverse Writ of Error or otherwise The Reason they alledged for their pretended Opinion was this That if it be held in Criminal Cases for Life every Felon in Newgate might plead the same and so there would be no Goal-delivery Sir Henry answered his Case was not the Case of common Felons alledging the Grant of his Majesty to the Petition of both Houses for his Life in case he should be attainted There is no need therefore sure said he of fearing the consequence of spinning out the time a little with a person in his circumstances Besides he said he had been a Prisoner two years and never call'd on to give any account of himself and his actions so is it not with Felons which with other considerations may sufficiently evince that there is no need of such hasting his Death He told them withal that he desired not this for his own sake only but for theirs and for posterity that they might on a more leisurely and unprejudiced hearing of what may be said on all hands prevent the bringing of innocent Blood upon themselves and the Land But being in this also over-ruled by the Court say what he could He only desired he might understand whether they would all give it as their Common Judgment they would stand to That what he desired was not his due by the Law By this means they were all put upon it one by one to declare themselves in that point unanimously denying him the benefit of that Act. To the by-standers their chief Reason seemed to be that it had not been practised this hundred or two of years The third thing Sir Henry desired was That the Petition of both Houses with his Majesties Answer thereunto might be read in the Court which after some dispute was concluded to be a thing they were not bound to take notice of not being an Act of Parliament Yet what is any Act of Parliament but a Bill presented with the Petition of both Houses to his Majesty with his Royal Assent thereto upon Publick Record At length they condescended to reade it and that was all The fourth and last thing Sir Henry offered to the consideration of of the Bench was this That in regard there were questions touching matter of Law in his Case which must receive their determination in
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
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
even whilst here in the body be made partaker of Eternal Life in the first fruits of it and at last sit down with Christ in Glory at his right-hand Here I shall mention some remarkable passages and changes of my Life In particular how unsought for by my self I was called to be a Member of the Long Parliament what little advantage I had by it and by what steps I became satisfied with the Cause I was engaged in and did pursue the same What the Cause was did first shew it self in the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons Secondly in the Solemn League and Covenant Thirdly in the more refined pursuit of it by the Commons House in their Actings single with what Result they were growing up into which was in the breast of the House and unknown or what the three Proposals mentioned in my Charge would have come to at last I shall not need now to say but only from all put together to assert That this Cause which was owned by the Parliament was the CAUSE of GOD and for the Promoting of the Kingdom of his dear Son JESUS CHRIST wherein are comprehended our Liberties and Duties both as Men and as Christians And since it hath pleased God who separated me from the womb to the knowledge and service of the Gospel of his Son to separate me also to this hard and difficult service at this time and to single me out to the defence and justification of this his Cause I could not consent by any words or actions of mine that the innocent Blood that hath been shed in the defence of it throughout the whole War the Guilt and moral evil of which must and does certainly lye somewhere did lye at my door or at theirs that have been the faithful Adherers to this Cause This is with such evidence upon my heart that I am most freely and chearfully willing to put the greatest Seal to it I am capable which is the pouring out of my very Blood in witness to it which is all I shall need to say in this place and at this time having spoken at large to it in my Defence at my Tryal intending to have said more the last day as what I thought was reasonable for Arrest of the Judgment but I was not permitted then to speak it Both which may with time and God's providence come to publick view And I must still assert That I remain wholly unsatisfied that the course of proceedings against me at my Tryal were according to Law but that I was run upon and destroyed contrary to Right and the Liberties of Magna Charta under the form only of Justice which I leave to God to decide who is the Judge of the whole World and to clear my Innocency Whilst in the mean time I beseech him to forgive them and all that have had a hand in my Death and that the Lord in his great mercy will not lay it unto their charge And I do account this Lot of mine no other than what is to be expected by those that are not of the World but whom Christ hath chosen out of it for the Servant is not greater than his Lord And if they have done this to the green tree they will do it much more to the dry However I shall not altogether excuse my self I know that by many weaknesses and failers I have given occasion enough of the ill usage I have met with from men though in the main the Lord knows the sincerity and integrity of my heart whatever Aspersions and Reproaches I have or do lye under I know also that God is just in bringing this Sentence and Condemnation upon me for my sins there is a body of sin and death in me deserves this Sentence and there is a similitude and likeness also that as a Christian God thinks me worthy to bear with my Lord and head in many circumstances in reference to these dealings I have met with in the good I have been endeavouring for many years to be doing in these Nations and especially now at last in being numbred amongst transgressors and made a publick Sacrifice through the wrath and contradictions of men and in having finished my course and fought the good fight of Faith and resisted in a way of suffering as you see even unto blood This is but the needful preparation the Lord hath been working in me to the receiving of the Crown of Immortality which he hath prepared for them that love him The prospect whereof is so chearing that through the Joy in it that is set before the eyes of my Faith I can through mercy endure this Cross despise this Shame and am become more than Conquerour through Christ that hath loved me For my Life Estate and all is not so dear to me as my Service to God to his Cause to the Kingdom of Christ and the future welfare of my Country and I am taught according to the Example as well as that most Christian saying of a Noble Person that lately died after this publick manner in Scotland How much better is it to chuse Affliction and the Cross than to sin or draw back from the Service of the Living God into the wayes of Apostacy and Perdition That Noble Person whose Memory I honour was with my self at the beginning and making of the Solemn League and Covenant the Matter of which and the holy Ends therein contained I fully assent unto and have been as desirous to observe but the rigid way of prosecuting it and the oppressing Uniformity that hath bin endeavored by it I never approved This were sufficient to vindicate me from the false Aspersions and Calumnies which have been laid upon me of Jesuitism and Popery and almost what not to make my Name of ill savour with good men which dark mists do now dispel of themselves or at least ought and need no pains of mine in making an Apology For if any man seek a proof of Christ in me let him reade it in his action of my Death which will not cease to speak when I am gone And henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus I shall not desire in this place to take up much time but only as my last words leave this with you That as the present storm we now lie under and the dark Clouds that yet hang over the Reformed Churches of Christ which are coming thicker and thicker for a season were not un-fore-seen by me for many years passed as some Writings of mine declare So the coming of Christ in these Clouds in order to a speedy and sudden Revival of his Cause and spreading his Kingdom over the face of the whole Earth is most clear to the eye of my Faith even that Faith in which I dye whereby the Kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ Amen Even so come Lord Jesus Some Passages of his PRAYER on the Scaffold
such a Body is sounded in the common consent of that Body The Office of chief Ruler or Head over any State Common-wealth or Kingdom hath the Right of due Obedience from the People inseparably annexed to it It is an Office not onely of Divine Institution but for the Safety and Protection of the whole Body or Community and therefore justly and necessarily draws to it and engages their Subjection This Office of the Soveraign according to the Laws and Fundamental Constitutions of the Government of England is ministred by the King in a twofold Capacity as his Will and personal Command is in Conjunction and Agreement with his People in Parliament during the Session thereof or as it is in Conjunction and Agreement with the Law the Parliament not Sitting But his Will and Personal Command single in dis-junction and disagree from the Parliament or the Laws hath not the force of a Law saith Fortescue and gives the Reason of it Because this is a limitted Monarchy where the King's Power as to the exercise of it is onely a Power Politick The Obedience then which from the Subject is due to the King and which they are sworn to perform by the Oath of Allegiance is to him in the ministry of the Royal Office according to the reason and intent of the Fundamental Compact and Constitution and according to his own Oath which is to Govern by Law that is to Exercise his Rule or Royal commanding Power in Conjunction and Agreement with the Parliament when sitting and in Conjunction and Agreement with the Laws of the Land they not sitting To exercise his Power otherwise is and hath been alwayes judged a grievance to the People and a going against that which is the original Right and just Liberty of the Community who are not to be bound to such personal Commands at will and pleasure nor compelled to yield Obedience thereunto The contrary hereunto was the Principle at bottom of the Kings Cause which he endeavoured to uphold and maintain in order to decline and lay aside the Legal Restraints as aforesaid which the Government of England by the Fundamental Constitution is subjected unto as to the exercise and ministery of the Royal Office From the Observation and Experience which the Pople of England had and made many years together by their Representatives in Parliament of a desire in the King to shake off these Legal Restraints in the Exercise of the Regal Power and on their having tried the best wayes and means that occurred to their Understandings to prevent the same and to secure to themselves the enjoyment of their Just Rights and Liberty they at last pitch'd upon the desiring from the King the continuance of the sitting of the Parliament called November 3d 1640 in such sort as is expressed in that Act 17. Car. wherein it is provided That it shall not be Discontinued or Dissolved but by Act of Parliament This was judged by them the greatest Security imaginable for keeping the ministry of the Royal Office within its due Bounds and for quieting the People in the enjoyment of their Rights But experience hath shewed that this yet could not be done without a War the worst and last of Remedies For although their Continuance as the Representative Body of the Kingdom with the Right to exercise the Power and Priviledges inherent in and inseparable from that Supream Court and Chief Senate whereof the King is Head both making but one Person or Politick Body in Law yet they themselves as well as the King were bound by the Fundamental Constitution or Compact upon which the Government was at first built containing the Condition upon which the King accepted of the Royal Office and on which the People granted to him the Tribute of their Obedience and due Allegiance This Condition as the Lawes and Experience declare is that the King shall exercise his Office of Rule over them according to the Laws as hath been shewed and as he and his People shall from time to time agree in Common Council in Parliament for that end assembled In respect hereof the Laws so made are called the Concords or Agreements passed between the King and the Subject in the 3d part of Cooks Institutes These Agreements then are the Standard unto the Kings Rule and the Peoples Obedience signifying the justice of his Commands and the dueness of their Allegiance But the case so happening that this Conjunction and Agreement which ought to be found between the personal Will of the King and Representative Will of the Kingdom failing and these two Wills declaring themselves in Contrariety and Opposition both of them becoming standing Powers Co-ordinate and distinct parts of the Supremacy as the two Channels wherein the Supremacy is placed and appointed to run as to its exercise by the Fundamental Constitution hence sprang the War each asserting and endeavouring to defend and maintain their own part and right which ought not to be kept up in dis-junction and contrariety but in Unity and Agreement each with other These two Parties with their Adherents in this Case may be according to the Law Contrarients one towards another as the Law affords an Example in the Preamble to Cook 's 4th Part of his Institutes not properly Traytors being co-ordinate Powers parts of the Supremacy that are the Heads to each Party and by consequence have a right of making a War as their last Appeal if they cannot otherwise agree Being once entred thus into a state of War and actual Enmity they do as it were become two Nations and cease to be under the Obligations they were in before for during this state of War and Enmity the standing Laws in a sort cease and a new way of Rule each Party Forms to himself and his Adherents as may best consist for each of their Safeties and Preservations Upon this Dis-junction of the two Wills in the Harmony and Agreement whereof the Supremacy is placed these following Queries do naturally arise First To which or Whether of these by Law is the Allegiance required as due Is it to be yeilded to the Personal Will of the King single in disjunction from the Will of the Representative Body of the Kingdom or to the Will of the People in dis-junction from the Will of the King Or is it to the Personal Will of the King in conjunction with the Laws though in opposition and contrariety to the Will of the Kingdoms Representative in Parliament Assembled Or is it to the Will of the Kingdomes Representative in conjunction with the Laws though in opposition to the Personal Will of the King The Second Querie is In whose Judgement in this case are the People by Law to acquiesce as to the declaring with whom the Laws are Whether the Personal Judgement of the King single or the Vote of the Senate that is the Kingdoms Representative Body The Third Querie is With whom will the Laws be found to go in this Case so rare unusual and never happening
before and who is the Proper and Competent Judge Also whether the Laws be not perfectly silent as never supposing such a Case possible to happen by reason that the Power used by the one for Dissolving the other never before suffered the Opposition to rise so high The Fourth Querie is Whether he in this Case that keeps his Station and place of Trust wherein God and the Law did set him with care to demean himself according to the best of his Vnderstanding agreeably to the Law and Customes of Parliament and pursuant to their Votes and Directions so long as they sit and affirm themselves to be a Parliament and uses his best endeavours in the exercise of that publick Trust that no Detriment in the general come unto the Common-wealth by the failer of Justice and the necessary Protection due from Government without any designing or intending the Subversion of the Constitution but onely the securing more fully the Peoples Liberties and just Rights from all future Invasions and Oppressions be not so far from deserving to be judged Criminal in respect of any Law of God or Man that he ought rather to be affirmed One that hath done his Duty even the next best that was left to him or possible for him to do in such a dark stormy season and such difficult Circumstances As to the Right of the Cause it self it ariseth out of the matter of Fact that hath happened and by the Just and Wise Providence of God hath been suffered to state it self in the Contest between the Personal Will and declared Pleasure of the King on the one Hand and the publick Will or Vote of the People in Parliament on the other declaring it self either in Orders or Ordinances of both Houses or in the single Act of the House of Commons asserting it self a Parliament upon the Grounds of the Act 17 Car. providing against its dissolution This will appear with the more evidence and certainty by considering wherein either part had a wrong Cause or did or might do that which was not their Duty taking the measure of their Duty from what as well the King as the Peoples Representative are obliged unto by the Fundamental Constitution of the Government which binds them in each of their Capacities and distinct Exercises of their Trust to intend and pursue the true good and welfare of the whole Body or Community as their End This in effect is to detain the People in Obedience and Subjection to the Law of God and to guide them in the wayes of Righteousness unto God's well-pleasing and to avoid falling out or disagreeing about the Way or Means leading to that End Hence that party which in his or their actings was at the greatest distance from or opposition unto this end and wilfully and unnecessarily disagreed and divided from the other in the Ways and Means that were most likely to attain this End they were assuredly in the Fault and had a Wrong Cause to mannage under what ever Name of Face of Authority it was Headed and Upheld And such a Wrong Cause was capable of being espoused and mannaged under the face of Authority as might be pretended unto by either part For as the King insisting upon his Prerogative and the binding force which his personal Will and Pleasure ought to have though in distinction from and opposition to his Parliament might depart from the end of Government answerable to his Trust and yet urge his Right to be obeyed So the publick Will of the People exercised in and by the Vote of their Representative in Parliament asserting it self to be of a binding force also and to have the place of a Law though in distinction from the King and Laws also as saith the King whatever otherwise by them is pretended might also depart from the true end of Government answerable to their Trust and yet insist upon their Right to be Obeyed and submitted unto and having Power in their hands might unduely go about also to compel Obedience It is not lawful either for King or Parliament to urge Authority and compel Obedience as of Right in any such Cases where according to the Law of Nature the People are at Liberty and ought to have a Freedom from yeelding Obedience as they are and ought to have when ever any would compel them to disobey God or to do things that evidently in the eye of Reason and common sense are to their hurt and destruction Such things Nature forbids the doing of having for that very purpose armed Man with the defensive Weapon of refusing to consent and obey as that Priviledge whereby Man is distinguished from a Beast which when he is deprived of he is made a Beast and brought into a state of perfect Servitude and Bondage Such a state of Servitude and Bondage may by God's just Judgement be inflicted upon man for sin and the abuse of his Liberty when by God restored The Liberty which man was at first created in is that Priviledge and Right which is allowed to him by the Law of Nature of not being compelled under any pretence whatsoever to sin against God or to go against the true good and welfare of his own Being that is to say of his inward or outward man but in both these cases to have and to use his just Liberty to Dissent and refuse to Obey For this every man hath that in himself which by God is made a proper and competent Judge For as to all sin against God and the righteousness of his Law the Light of Conscience that is to say the Work of the Law in and upon the Mind or inward Sense and in conjunction with it doth lighten every one that cometh into the World accusing or excusing if it be but hearkened unto and kept awake And for all such actings as tend to the ruine and destruction of man in his outward and bodily concerns and as he is the Object of Magistratical Power and Jurisdiction every man hath a Judgement of common Sense or a way of discerning and being sensible thereof common to bruit Beasts that take in their Knowledge by the door of their Senses but is much heightned and enobled in man by the personal union it is taken into with his intellectual part and intuitive way of discerning things through the inward reflectings of the mind compared with the Law of God This inferiour Judgement in man when it is conjoyned with and confirmed by the Judgement of his Superiour part is that which we call Rational or the dictates of right Reason that man hath a natural right to adhere unto as the ordinary certain Rule which is given him by God to walk by and against which he ought not to be compelled or be forced to depart from it by the meer Will and Power of another without better Evidence that is a higher a greater or more certain way of discerning This therefore in Scripture is called Man's Judgement or Man's Day in distinction from the Lord's
is not nor cannot be accountable by way of crime or offence against his Ruler and Soveraign but may do with his own what he please but still at his peril if he use not this his Liberty as he should to the end for which it is given him which is by voluntary and entire resignation to become an obedient Subject unto him who is the Supream Law-giver and Rightful King without possibility of change or defection Unto this right and the lawful exercise and possession of it this Nation did arive by the good providence and gift of God in calling and assembling the Parliament November 3d. 1640. and then continuing their Session by an express Act 17. Car. with power not to be dissolved but by their own consent which was not so much the introducing of a new Law as declaratory of what was Law before according to Man's natural Right in which he was created and of which he was possessed by God the soveraign giver of all things But the passing that said Act of Parliament alone was not that which restored the Nation to their original Right and just Natural Liberty but onely put them in the capacity and possibility of it That which wanted to make out to the Nation a clearness in having and obtaining this their right was the obligation they had put upon themselves and their posterities to their present Soveraign and his Authority which in justice and by the Oathes of Allegiance they were solemnly bound to in the sight of God as well as of Man And therefore unless by the abuse of that office of Trust to that degree as on his part to break the fundamental compact and constitution of Government they could not be set free nor restored to their original Right and first Liberty especially if together with such breach of Trust both parties appeal to God and put it upon the issue of Battel and God give the decision and in consequence thereof that original Right be asserted and possession thereof had and held for some years and then not rightfully lost but treacherously betrayed and given up by those in whom no power was rightfully placed to give up the subjection of the Nation again unto any whatsoever Unto which is to be added that how and when the dissolution of the said Parliament according to Law hath been made is yet unascertained and not particularly declared by reason whereof and by what hath been before shewed the state of the Case on the Subjects part is much altered as to the matter of Right and the Usurpation is now on the other hand there being as is well known two sorts of Usurpers either such as having no right of consent at all unto the Rule they exercise over the Subject or such who under pretence of a Right and Title do claim not by consent but by conquest and power or else hold themselves not obliged to the Fundamental compact and constitution of Government but gain unduely from the Subject by advantages taken through deceit and violence that which is not their own by Law For a rational Man to give up his Reason and Will unto the Judgement and Will of another without which no outward coercive Power can be whose Judgement and Will is not perfectly and unchangeably good and right is unwise and unsafe and by the Law of Nature forbidden And therefore all such gift made by rational men must be conditional either implied or explicite to be followers of their Rulers so far as they are followers of that good and right which is contained in the Law of the Supream Law-giver and no further reserving to themselves in case of such defection and declining of the Rulers actings from the Rule their primitive and original Freedom to resort unto that so they may in such case be as they were before they gave away their subjection unto the Will of another and reserving also the power to have this judged by a meet and competent Judge which is the Reason of the King and Kingdom declared by their Representatives in Parliament that is to say the Delegates of the People in the House of Commons assembled and the Commissioners on the Kings behalf by his own Letters Patents in the House of Peers which two concurring do very far bind the King if not wholly And when these cannot agree but break one from another the Commons in Parliament assembled are ex Officio the Keepers of the Liberties of the Nation and righteous Possessors and Defendors of it against all Usurpers and Usurpations whatsoever by the Laws of England The Valley of Jehoshaphat considered and opened by comparing 2. Chron. 20. with Joel 3. IT was the saying of Austine Nothing falls under our senses or happens in this visible World but is either commanded or permitted from the invisible and unintelligible Court and Pallace of the highest Emperor and universal King who is the chief over all the kings of the earth For although he hath both commanded and permitted a subordinate external Government over Men administred by man for the upholding of Justice in humane Societies and for the peace welfare and safety of men that are made in Gods Image yet he hath not so entirely put the Rule of the whole earth out of his own hands but that in cases of eminent injustice and oppression committed in Provinces States and Kingdomes contrary to his Lawes to their own and the very end of Magistracy which is the conservation of the Peoples just Rights and Liberties He that is higher than the highest amongst men doth regard and will shew by some extraordinary interposition of his that there are higher than they Such a seasonable and signal appearance of God for the Succor and Relief of his People in their greatest Straits and Exigencies when they have no might visible Power or armed Force to undertake the great company and multitude that comes against them nor know what to do save onely to have their eyes towards him is called in Scripture The day of the Lord's Judgement Then the Battel and cause of the Quarrel will appear to be not so much theirs as the Lord's and the frame of their heart will be humble before the Lord believing in the Lord and believing his Prophets for their good success and establishment This Dispensation is very lively described under the Type and by the Name of The Valley of Jehoshaphat as to the Season and Place wherein God will give forth a signal appearance of himself in Judgement on the behalf of his People for a final decision of the Controversie between them and their enemies It Litterally and Typically fell out thus as is at large recorded 2 Chron. 20. By way of allusion to this and upon occasion of the like yea and far greater Extreamities which God's People in the last dayes are to be brought into is that Prophesie Joel 3. for a like yea a far greater and more signal appearance of God for their Deliverance and Rescue in order to
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