that know it already and trouble those that need not know the particular cases for it is one of the Fundamentals of Law That the king is not above the Law but the Law above the King I could easily deraign it from 1 Edward 3. to the Jurisdiction of Courts That the king has no more Power or Authority then what by Law is concredited and committed to him but the most famous Authority is Fortescue Chancellor to H. 6. and therefore undoubtedly would not clip his Masters Prerogative who most Judicially takes a difference between a Government wholly Regal and Seignoral as in Turkey Russia France Spain c. and a Government Politique and mixt where the Law keeps the beam even between Soveraignty and Subjection as in England Denmark Swede and Poland the first where the Edict of a Prince makes the Law resembles an impetuous inundation of the waters whereby the Corn and Hay and other Fruits of the Earth are spoiled as when it is Midwinter at Midsummer the latter is like a sweet smooth Stream running by the pleasant Fields and Meadows That by the Law of England the King ought not to impose any thing upon the people or take any thing away from them to the value of a farthing but by common consent in Parliaments or National meetings and that the people of Common-Right and by several Statutes ought to have Parliaments yearly or oftner if need be for the Redress of publique grievances and for the Enacting of good and wholsome Laws and repealing of old Statutes of Omeri which are prejudicial to the Nation And that the king hath not by Law so much power as a Justice of Peace to commit any man to Prison for any offence whatsoever because all such matters were committed to proper Courts and Officers of Justice And if the King by his verbal command send for any person to come before him if the party refused to attend and the messenger endevoring to force him they fell to blows if the messenger killed the party sent for this by the Law is Murther in him but if he killed the messenger this was justifiable in him being in his own defence so as to sue forth a pardon of course these and many other Cases of like nature are so clear well known that I wil not presume to multiply particulars That the king took an Oath at his Coronation to preserve the Peace of the Nation to do Justice to all and to keep and observe the Laws which the people have himself confesses And it was charged upon the late Arch-Bishop that he Emasculated the Oath and left out very material words Which the people shall chuse which certainly he durst not have done without the kings special Command And it seems to me no light presumption that from that very day he had a Design to alter and subvert the Fundamental Laws and to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government but though there had been an Oath yet by special Office and duty of his place every King of England is obliged to Act for the peoples good for all power as it is originally in the people he must needs be extream ignorant malicious or a self-destroyer that shall deny it so it is given forth for their preservation nothing for their destruction for a king to rule by lust and not by Law is a creature that was never of Gods making not of Gods approbation but his permission And though such men are said to be Gods on Earth 't is in no other sence then the Devil is called the God of this world It seems that one passage which the king would have offered to the Court which was not permitted him to dispute the Supreme Authority in the Nation and standing mute the Charge being for High Treason it is a conviction in Law was That 1 Sam. 8. is a Copy of the kings Commission by vertue whereof he as a king might rule and govern as he list that he might take the Peoples Sons and appoint them for himself for his Chariots and to be his Horsemen and take their Daughters to be his Confectionaries and take their Fields and Vineyards and Oliveyards even the best of them and thair goodliest yong men and their Asses and give them to his Officers and to his Servants which indeed is a Copy and Patern of an absolute Tyrant and absolute Slaves where the people have no more then the Tyrant will afford them The holy Spirit in that Chapter does not insinuate what a good king ought to do but what a wicked king would presume to do Besides Saul and David had extraordinary callings but all just power is now derived from and conferred by the people yet in the case of Saul it is observable that the people out of pride to be like other Nations desired a king and such a king as the Heathens had which were all Tyrants for they that know any thing in History know that the first four Monarchs were all Tyrants at first til they gained the peoples consent Nimrod the great Hunter was Ninus that built Nineveh the first Tyrant and Conquerer that had no Title so were all kingdoms which are not Elective till the peoples subsequent consent and though it be by descent yet 't is a continuation of a Conquest till the people consent voluntarily submit to a Government they are but Slaves in reason they may free themselves if they can In France the king begins his Raign from the day of his Coronation the Archbishop asks the people if he shall be King the twelve Peers or some that personate them say yes they girt the sword about him then he swares to defend the Lawes And is any thing more naturall then to keepe an Oath And though vertuous Kings have prevailed with the People to make their Crownes Hereditary yet the Coronation shews the shell that the kernell hath been in Samuel was a good Judge and there was nothing could be objected against him therefore God was displeased at their inordinate desire of a King and it seemes to me that the Lord declares his dislike of all such Kings as the heathens were that is Kings with an unlimited power that are not tied to laws for he gave them a King in his wrath therein dealing with them as the wise Physitian with the distempered and impatient Patient who desiring to drink wine tels him the danger of inflammation yet wine he will have and the Physitian considering a little wine will do but little hurt rather then his Patient by fretting should take greater hurt prescribes a little whitewine wherein the Physitian doth not approve his drinking of wine but of two evils chooseth the least The Jewes would have a King for Majestie and Splendor like the Heathens God permits this he approves it not it seems to me that the Lord renounces the very Genus of such Kings as are there mentioned and the old word Conning by Contraction king does not signifie power
an Indian say to this case A King hath all power in his hands to do justice There is one accused upon strong presumptions at the least for poisoning that Kings Father The King protects him from justice Whether do you believe that himself had any hand in his Fathers death Had the Duke been accused for the death of a begger he ought not to have protected him from a Judicial Trial. We know that by Law it is no lesse then misprision of Treason to conceal a Treason and to conceal a Murder strongly implies a guilt thereof and makes him a kind of Accessary to the fact He that hath no nature to do justice to his own Father could it ever be expected that he should do justice to others Was he fit to continue a Father to the people who was without natural affection to his own Father Will he love a Kingdome that shewed no love to himself unlesse it was that he durst not suffer Inquisition to be made for it But I leave it as a riddle which at the day of Judgement will be expounded and unridled for some sinnes will not be made manifest till that day with this only That had he made the Law of God his delight and studied therein night and day as God commanded his Kings to do or had he but studied Scripture half so much as Ben Johnson or Shakespear he might have learnt That when Amaziah was setled in the Kingdom he suddenly did justice upon those servants which had killed his father Joash he did not by any pretended prerogative excuse or protect them but delivered them up into the hands of that Justice which the horridnesse of the fact did undoubtedly demerit That Parliament 4. Car. proving so abortive the King sets forth a Proclamation That none should presume to move him to call Parliaments for he knew how to raise monies enough without the help of Parliaments therefore in 12 years refuseth to call any In which interval and intermission how he had oppressed the people by incroachments and usurpations upon their liberties and properties and what vast summes of mony he had forceably exacted and exhausted by illegal Patents and Monopolies of all sorts I referre the Reader to that most judicious and full Declaration of the state of the Kingdeme published in the beginning of this Parliament That Judgment of Ship-mony did upon the matter formalize the people absolute slaves and him an absolute Tyrant for if the King may take from the people in case of necessity and himself shall be Judge of that necessity then cannot any man say that he is worth 6d for if the King say that he hath need of that 6d then by Law he must have it I mean that great Nimrod that would have made all England a Forrest and the People which the Bishop call his sheep to be his Venison to be hunted at his pleasure Nor does the common objection That the Judges and evil Counsellors and not the King ought to be responsible for such male-Administrations injustice and oppression beare the weight of a feather in the ballance of right reason For 1. Who made such wicked and corrupt Judges were they not his own Creatures and ought not every man to be accountable for the works of his own hands He that does not hinder the doing of evil if it lies in his power to prevent it is guilty of it as a commander thereof He that suffered those black Starres to inflict such barbarous cruelties and unheard of punishments as Brandings Slitting of Noses c. upon honest men to the dishonour of the Protestant Religion and disgrace of the Image of God shining in the face of man He well deserv'd to have been so served But 2. He had the benefit of those illegal Fines and Judgments I agree That if a Judge shall oppresse I. S. for the benefit of I. D. the King ought not to answer for this but the Judge unlesse he protect the Judge against the complaint of I. S. and in that case he makes himself guilty of it But when an unjust judgment is given against I. S. for the Kings benefit and the Fine to come immediately into his Coffers he that receives the mony must needs be presumed to consent to the judgement But 3. Mark a Machiaveipolicy Call no Parliaments to question the injustice and corruption of Judges for the Peoples relief And make your own Iudges and let that be Law that they declare whether it be reasonable or unreasonable it is no matter But then how came it to passe that we had any more Parliaments Had we not a gracious King to call a Parliament when there was so much need of it and to passe so many gracious Acts to put downe the Starre-Chamber c Nothing lesse It was not any voluntary free Act of grace not the least ingredient or tincture of love or goodaffection to the people that called the short Parliament in 16 but to serve his owne turne against the Scots whom he then had designed to enslave and those seven Acts of grace which the King past were no more then his duty to do nor halfe so much but giving the people a take of their own grists and he dissents with them about the Militia which commanded all the rest he never intended thereby any more good and security to the people then he that stealing the Goose leaves the feathers behinde him But to answer the question thus it was The king being wholly given up to be led by the counsels of a Jesuited Party who indeavoured to throw a bone of dissention among us that they might cast in their net into our troubled waters and catch more fish for St. Peters Sea perswaded the King to set up a new forme of Prayer in Scotland and laid the bait so cunningly that whether they saw it or not they were undone if they saw the mystery of iniquity couched in it they would resist and so merit punishment for rebelling if they swallowed it it would make way for worse well they saw the poison and refused to taste it the King makes warre and many that loved honour and wealth more then God assisted him down he went with an Army but his treasure wasted in a short time fight they would not for feare of an after-reckoning some Commanders propound that they should make their demands and the King grants all comes back to London and burnes the Pacification saying it was counterfeit they reassume their forts he raises a second warre against them and was necessitated to call a Parliament offering to lay down shipmoney for twelve subsidies they refuse the King in high displeasure breakes off the Parliament and in a Declaration commands them not to thinke of any more Parliaments for he would never call another There was a King of Egypt that cruelly opprest the People they poore slaves complaining to one another he feared a rising and commanded that none should complaine upon paine of cruell death
mending his plea or suing in what Court he will and some such prerogatives of a middle indifferent nature that could not be prejudicial to the people but that the Law of England should give the King any such vast immence precipitating power or any such God like state that he ought not to be accountable for wicked actions or Male-Administrations and Misgovernment as he hath challenged and averr'd in his answer to the Petition of Right or any such principals of Tyranny which are as inconsistent with the peoples Liberties and Safety as the Ark and Dagon light and darkness in an intensive degree is a most vain and irrational thing to imagine and yet that was the ground of the War as himself often declared and that would not have half contented him if he had come in by the Sword But some rational men object How can it be murther say they for the king to raise Forces against the Parliament since there is no other way of determining differences between the king and his Subjects but by the Sword for the Law is no competent Judge between two Snpreme powers and then if it be onely a contending for each others Right Where is the malice that makes the killing of a man murther Take the answer thus first How is it possible to imagine two Supreme powers in one Nation no more then two Suns in one Firmament if the king be Supreme the Parliament must be Subordinate if they Supreme then he Subordinate But then it is alleaged That the king challenged a power onely co-ordinate that the Parliament could do nothing without him nor he without them Under favor two powers co-ordinate is as absurd as the other for though in quiet times the Commons have waited upon the king and allowed him a Negative voyce in matters of less concernment where delay could not prove dangerous to the people yet when the Commons shall Vote that the kingdom is in danger unless the Militia be so and so setled now if he will not agree to it they are bound in duty to do it themselves and 't is impossible to imagine that ever any man should have the consent of the people to be their king upon other conditions without which no man ever had right to wear the diadem for Conquest makes a Title amongst Wolves and Bears but not amongst men When the first agreement was concerning the power of Parliaments if the king should have said Gentlemen are you content to allow me any Negative Voyce that if you Vote the kingdom to be in danger unless such an Act pass if I refuse to assent shall nothing be done in that case surely no rational man but would have answered May it please your Majesty we shall use all dutiful means to procure your Royal Assent but if you still refuse we must not sit still and see our selves ruined we must and will save our selves whether you will or no and will any man say that the kings power is diminished because he cannot hurt the people or that a man is less in health that hath many Phisitians to attend him God is Omnipotent that cannot sin and all power is for the peoples good but a Prince may not say that is for the peoples good which they say and feel to be for their hurt And as for the malice the Law implies that as when a thief sets upon a man to rob him he hath no spite to the man but love to the money but it is an implyed malice that he will kill the people unless they will be Slaves Q. But by what Law is the King condemned R. By the Fundamental Law of this kingdom by the general Law of all Nations and the Unanimous consent of all Rational men in the world written in every mans heart with the Pen of a Diamond in Capital Letters and a Character so legible that he that runs may read viz. That when any man is intrusted with the Sword for the protection and preservation of the people if this man shall imploy it to their destruction which was put into his hand for their safety by the Law of that Land he becomes an Enemy to that people and deserves the most exemplary and severe punishment that can be invented And this is the first necessary Fundamental Law of every kingdom which by Intrinsecal rules of Government must preserve it self and this Law needed not be exprest That if a King become a Tyrant he shall dye for it 't is so naturally implyed we do not use to make Laws which are for the preservation of Nature that a man should eat and drink and buy himself cloaths and injoy other natural comforts no kingdom ever made any Laws for it And as we are to defend our selves naturally without any written Law from hunger and cold so from outward violence therefore if a king would dedroy a people 't is absurd and rediculous to ask by what Law he is to dye And this Law of nature is the Law of God written in the fleshly tables of mens hearts that like the eldest Sister hath a prerogative right of power before any positive Law whatsoever and this Law of nature is an undubitable Legislative authority of it self that hath a suspensive power over all humane Laws If any man shall by express Covenant under hand and seal give power to another man to kill him this is a void Contract being destructive to humanity and by the Law of England any Act or Agreement against the Laws of God or Nature is a meer nullity for as man hath no hand in the making of the Laws of God or Nature no more hath he power to marre or alter them If the Pilot of a Ship be drunk and running upon a Rock if the passengers cannot otherwise prevent it they may throw him into the Sea to cool him And this Question hath received Resolution this Parliament When the Militia of an Army is committed to a General 't is not with any express condition That he shall not turn the mouths of his Canons against his own Soldiers for that is so naturally and necessarily implyed that it 's needless to be exprest insomuch as if he did attempt or command such a thing against the nature of his Trust and Place it did ipso facto estate the Army in a right of disobedience unless any man be so grosly ignorant to think that obedience bindes men to cut their own throats or their companions Nor is this any secret of the Law which hath lyen hid from the beginning and now brought out to bring him to Justice but that which is connatural with every man and innate in his judgement and reason and is as ancient as the first king and an Epidemical binding Law in all Nations in the world For when many Families agree for the preservation of Humane Society to invest any king or Governor with power and authority upon the acceptance thereof there is a mutual Trust and confidence between them
would say He must make him a Bishop He had more learning and dexterity in State Affairs undoubtedly then all the kings in Christendom If he had had grace answerable to his strong parts he had been another Solomon but his wit and knowledge proved like a sword in a mad-mans hand he was a stranger to the work of Grace and the Spirit of God as the poor creature confest to Mr. Knowls after he was condemned and all those Maeanders in State his serpentine turnings and windings have but brought him to shame and confusion but I am fully satisfied none of his Councel durst ever advise him to any thing but what they knew before he resolved to have done and that they durst as well take a Bear by the tooth as do or consent to the doing of any thing but what they knew would please him they did but hew and square the timber he was the Master builder that gave the form to every Architecture and being so able and judicious to discern of every mans merits Never think that the Duke or Pennington or any Judge or Officer did ever any thing for his advantage without his command against Law or Honor Upon all which premises may it please your Lorship I do humbly demand and pray the Justice of this High Court and yet not I but the innocent blood that hath been shed in the three kingdoms demands Justice against him This blood is vocal and cryes loud and yet speaks no better but much louder then the blood of Abel for what proportion hath the blood of that righteous man to the blood of so many thousands If king Ahab and Queen Jezabel for the blood of one righteous Naboth who would not sell his inheritance for the full value were justly put to death what punishment does he deserve that is guilty of the blood of thousands and fought for a pretended prerogative that he might have any mans Estate that he liked without paying for it This blood hath long cryed How long Parliament how long Army will ye forbear to avenge our blood will ye not do Justice upon the capital Author of all Injustice When will ye take the proud Lyon by the beard that defies you with imperious exultations What 's the House of Commons what 's the Army as Pharaoh said Who is the Lord and who is Moses I am not accountable to any power on earth those that were murthered at Brainford knockt on the head in the water and those honest souls that were kild in cold blood at Bolton and Leverpool in Lancashire at Bartomley in Cheshire and many other places their blood cryes night and day for Justice against him their wives and children cry Justice upon the murtherer or else give us our fathers and husbands again nay should the people be silent the very stones and timber of the houses would cry for Justice against him But my Lord before I pray Judgement I humbly crave leave to speak to two particulars 1. Concerning the Prisoner When I consider what he was and how many prayers have been made for him though I know that all the world cannot restore him nor save his life because God will not forgive his temporal punishment yet if God in him will be pleased to adde one example more to the Church of his unchangeable love to his elect in Christ not knowing but that he may belong to the election of grace I am troubled in my spirit in regard of his eternal condition for fear that he should depart this life without love and reconciliation to all those Saints whom he hath scorned under the notion of Presbyterians Anabaptists Independents and Sectaries It cannot be denyed but that he hath spent all his days in unmeasurable pride that during his whole raign he hath deported himself as a God been depended upon and adored as God that hath challenged and assured an Omnipotent power an earthly Omnipotence that with the breath of his mouth hath dissolved Parliaments his Non placet hath made all the Councels of that Supreme Court to become Abortives Non curo hath been his Motto who in stead of being honored as good Kings ought to be and no more hath been idolized and adored as our good God onely ought to be A man that hath shot all his arrows against the upright in the Land hated Christ in his members swallowed down unrighteousness as the Ox drinks water esteemed the needy as his footstool crusht honest publique spirited men and grieved when he could not afflict the honest more then he did counted it the best art and policy to suppress the righteous and to give way to his Courtiers so to gripe grinde oppress and overreach the free People of the Land that he might do what he list the remembrance whereof would pierce his soul if he knew the preciousnesse of it but all fins to an infinite mercy are equally pardonable therefore my prayer for this poor wretch shall be That God would so give him repentance to life that he may beleeve in that Christ whom he hath imprisoned persecuted and murthered in the Saints that he which hath lived a Tyrant and hated nothing so much as holinesse may die a convert and in love to the Saints in England that so the tears of the oppressed and the afflicted may not be as so many fiery stinging serpents causing an eternal despairing continual horror to this miserable Man when all Tyrants shall be astonisht and innocent blood will affright more then twelve legions of Devils All the hurt I wish to him is That he may look the Saints in the face with comfort for the Saints must judge the world and however it may be he or this adherents may think it a brave Roman spirit not to repent of any thing nor expresse any sorrow for any sin though never so horrid taking more care and fear not to change their countenance upon the Scaffold then what shall become of them after death Yet I beseech your Lordship that I may tell him and all the Malignants now living but this Charls Stuart unlesse you depart this life in love and reconciliation to all those Saints and godly men whom you have either ignorantly or maliciously opposed mockt and persecuted and still scorn and jeer at as Heretiques and Sectaries there is no more hopes for you ever to see God in comfort then for me to touch the Heavens with my finger or with a word to annihilate this great building or for the Devil to be saved which he might be if he could love a Saint as such No Sir it will be too late for you to say to those Saints whom you have defied Give me some of your holiness that I may behold Gods angry countenance You can expect no answer but Go buy Sir of those Soul-hucksters your Bishops which fed you with chaff and poyson and now you must feed upon fire and brimstone to all eternity 2. Concerning my self I bear no more malice to the Mans person
then I do to my dear Father but I hate that cursed principle of Tyranny that hath so long lodged and harbored within Him which hath turned our waters of Law into blood And therefore upon that Malignant principle I hope this High Court which is an habitation of Justice and a Royal Palace of principles of Freedom will do speedy Justice That this Lyon which hath devoured so many Sheep may not onely be removed out of the way but that this Iron Scepter which hath been lifted up to break this poor Nation in pieces like a Potters vessel may be wrested out of the hands of Tyrants That my honorable Clients for whom I am an unworthy Advocate The people of England may not onely taste but drink abundantly of those sweet Waters of that Well of Liberty which this renowned Army hath digg'd with their swords which was stopt by the Philistines the fierce Jew and uncircumcised Canaanite the hopes whereof made me readily to hearken to the call to this service as if it had been immediately from Heaven being fully satisfied That the prisoner was long since condemned to dye by Gods Law which being more Noble and ancient then any Law of man if there had been a Statute that he should not dye yet he ought to be put to death not withstanding and that this High Court was but to pronounce the Sentence and Judgment written against him And though I might have been sufficiently discouraged in respect that my reason is far less then others of my profession yet considering that there are but two things desireable to make a dumb man eloquent namely A good Cause and good Judges The first whereof procures the Justice of Heaven and the second Justice upon Earth And thinking that happily God might make use of one mean man at the Bar amongst other learned Counsel that more of his minde might appear in it for many times the less there is of man the more Gods glory does appear and hitherto very much of the minde of God hath appeared in this action I went as chearfully about it as to a Wedding And that the glory of this administration may be wholly given to God I desire to observe to the praise of his great name the work of God upon my own spirit in his gracious assistance and presence with me as a return of Prayer and fruit of Faith believing that God never calls to the acting of any thing so pleasing to him as this most excellent Court of Justice is but he is present with the honorable Judges and those that wait upon them I have been sometimes of Counsel against Felons and Prisoners but I never moved the Court to proceed to Judgement against any Felon or to keep any man in Prison but I trembled at it in my thoughts as thinking it would be easier to give an account of mercy and indulgence then of any thing that might look like rigor but now my spirits are quite of another temper and I hope it is meat and drink to good men to have Justice done and recreation to think what benefit this Nation will receive by it And now my Lord I must as the truth is conclude him guilty of more transcendent Treasons and Enormous Crimes then all the Kings in this part of the world have ever been And as he that would picture Venus must take the eyes of one the cheeks of another beautiful woman and so other parts to make a compleat beauty so to delineate an absolute Tyrant the cruelty of Richard the third and all the subtilty treachery deep dissimulation abominable projects and dishonorable shifts that ever were separately in any that swayed the English Scepter conspired together to make their habitation in this Whited-wal therefore I humbly pray That as he hath made himself a president in committing such horrid acts which former Kings and Ages knew not and have been afraid to think of That your Lordship and this High Court out of your sublime wisdoms and for Justice sake would make him an example for other kingdoms for the time to come That the Kings of the Earth may hear and fear and do no more so wickedly That he that would not be a patern of Vertue and an example of Justice in his life may be a president of Justice to others by his death Courteous Reader for thy full satisfaction in Reason of Law how the late King was by the Law of the Land accountable for his Tyrannous and Trayterous Exorbitances I refer thee to my Lord Presidents most Learned and Judicious Speech before the Sentence read And I have one word to adde That High Court was a Resemblance and Representation of the great day of Judgement when the Saints shall judge all worldly powers and where this Judgement will be confirmed and admired for it was not only bonum but bene not onely good for the matter but the maner of proceeding This High Court did not onely consult with Heaven for wisdom and direction a president for other Courts to begin every solemn action with Prayer but examined witnesses several days upon Oath to inform their consciences and received abundant satisfaction in a judicial way which by the Law of the Land was not requisite in Treason the Prisoner standing mute as Judges which before was most notorious and known to them as private persons and having most perspicuously discerned and weighed the merits of the Cause in the Ballances of the Sanctuary Law and right Reason pronounced as righteous a sentence as ever was given by mortal men And yet what Action was ever so good but was traduced Not onely by unholy men but by the holy men of the world that professors should pray for Justice and then repine at the execution of it Blessed Lord How does the God of this world storm now his kingdom is shaking An enlightened eye must needs see that it is the design of Heaven to break all humane glory with an iron Scepter that will not kiss his golden Scepter and to exalt Justice and Mercy in the Earth I confess if the greater part of the world should approve such High and Noble Acts of Justice it might be suspected because the most people will Judge erroneously but that Christians that have fasted and prayed many years for Justice should now be angry to see it done what is it but like foolish passengers that having been long at sea in dangerous storms as they are entring into the quiet haven to be mad with the Pilot because he will not return into the angry Seas but I shall observe one passage in the Lord Presidents Speech as a Schollar may presume to say a word after his Master concerning the many menaces minatory dangerous speeches wch are given forth concerning this High Court If men must be kill'd for the faithful discharge of their duties to God their Countrey I am sure the murtherer will have the worst of it in conclusion if he should not be known here though