the army, assumed the supreme power of the

Saviour, by those who had as neere a relation unto him, as Judas had unto Christ: for they were his countrymen, brought up with him, his servants and familiar friends, whom he trusted with his purse, with his counsels, and his person, cherished in his bosome, and inriched with many princely favours. In many respects they were far worse than Judas.

-From Judas come we to the great counsel. The parliament is that great counsel, and hath acted all and more against their lord and sovereign, than the other did against Christ: they consulted how to put him to death, gave money to betray him, sent soldiers to apprehend him. In that great counsel, Annas and Caiphas were chief; in this Cromwell and Ireton; and Cromwell prophesied as Caiphas did, using almost the same words, It is expedient that he die, and unless he die the nation will perish. Bradshaw and Cooke are the scribes and lawyers who fiercely persued him they curse themselves with his blood, as the others did with Christ's: for Bradshaw spoke to this purpose on the bench: Our lives are threatened if we meddle with his blood; but whatsoever shall befall us, we will do justice upon him. And is not this just as the scribes and pharisees said, His blood be upon us and on our children. Fairfax was Pilat the governor, who seemed unwilling to consent to his death, and sought to wash his hands of his blood by laying it upon others. And his wife lady Pilat, who disswaded the murther of our sovereign, more than the other did the killing of Christ. The army are the soldiers who apprehended him, watched him, mocked him, reviled him, crying justice and execution against him, and at last crucified him, and parted his garments amongst them. And London is the great city spiritually Sodome, where our Lord was crucified."The preacher in the conclusion, addressing himself to the king [Charles II.] says, "God in his own good time, will certainly, Sir, look upon the justice of your cause-For your cause is God's cause. And as it is God's cause, so it is the cause of all kings: they are deeply

nation, in the way of a free state. The kingly

concerned in it, and ought to pursue those bloody paracides." This language may sound harsh, but is softer than secretary Nicholas's, who styled them "devils "."

And in an act of parliament passed soon after the restora➡ tion of Charles II. the execution of the king is styled, "An horrid and execrable murder, an unparalleled treason," which the said parliament did "renounce, abominate and protest against:" and it was declared, "That by the undoubted and fundamental laws of the kingdom, neither the peers of the realm, nor the commons, nor both together in parliament, nor the people collectively, nor representatively, nor any other person whatsoever, ever had, have, or ought to have, a coercive power over the persons of the kings of this realm."-And in virtue of this doctrine, Cromwell and many other of the king's judges were attainted of high treason, and some suffered as traytors for consenting to his death. It would be tedious as well as endless to reckon up the reproaches which have been cast on Cromwell for this action suffice it to say that the bigots, the time servers, the party men, and of the honest and sensible men of most denominations, have joined in the cry, and represented him as one of the most wicked of men.--But, though men's prejudices ran very high at the time of Charles's death, yet wanted there not advocates to defend the deed. Some of their reasons the truth of history requires me to recite, though I am no way answerable for the conclusiveness of them.

:

many

1. It was said, "That the people, (I mean collectively taken) have no law of nature, or of God upon them, which prohibiteth them from laying aside a king, or kingly governor, from amongst them, when they have a reasonable cause for it. Such a cause as this they have (I mean that which is just, and reasonable, and competent) for so doing, when either they find, by experience, that government by

power and house of peers, by the authority of

kings hath been a nuisance to the peace or liberties of the people, and apprehend, by reason, that, if continued, it is like still so to be; or find, that the charge of maintaining such a government, hath been, and, if continued, is like to be (for the future) over burthensome to the state, conceiving, upon good grounds, withal, that another form of government will accommodate the interest of the state upon equal or better terms, with less charge and expence; especially when they find, that the government we speak of is gotten into a race or blood, that is unfit for government, as that which, for several descents together, as in father, in son, in son's son, &c. is either boiled up into, and breaks out in oppression and tyranny, or else turns to a water of natural simplicity and weakness, or froths into voluptuousness and luxury, or the like; in all these cases (I say) and many others like unto these, a people or state, formerly governed by kings, may very lawfully turn these servants of theirs out of their doors, as the Romans of old, and the Hollanders of late (besides many nations more) have done, and are blameless "."

a

2. "Though it should be supposed, that the king simply and absolutely is superiour to his people, yet, having entered into a civil, yea, and sacred covenant and bond with them, the breach hereof on his part giveth unto them a lawfulnesse of right or power, to compel him to the terms of his agreement, or to make satisfaction for his violation of them. And though it should be granted, that a king is either equal or superiour in power to his people in parliament, yet, being degenerated into a tyrant, he is neither. Whether the king be such, it is the right of the people, by their representatives, to declare. For, where there is no opportunity for the interposure of other judges, the law of nature and of nation, alloweth every man to judge in his own case. Even as the late king took upon him to be judge

a Goodwin's Defence of the Sentence passed upon the late King, p. 12. Lond. 4to. 1649.

this commonwealth, were abolished, the lands

in his own case; when he sentenced all those who served in the wars on the parliament's side against him, for rebels and traytors, and commanded execution accordingly.That supposing the parliament (on account of the force put on it by the army, and the abolishing the house of lords) by whose authority the high court of justice was founded and created, was no formal, legal or compleat parliament, yet will not this neither disable the justice or righteousnesse of the sentence; unlesse it could be further supposed (which apparent truth prohibiteth any man to suppose) that there were some other magistrate, one, or more, superiour in place and authority to this parliament, who, probably, would either have erected a like court of justice for the same end (the capital tryall of the king) or else have called him to the bar of some court of justice already established, and prosecuted the same trial here. For doubtlesse, the execution of justice and judgment is so absolutely and essentially necessary to the preservation and well-being of a state, or body politique, that both the law of God and nature doth not only allow it in any member, one, or more, of such a body, in their order, turn, and course, (when those, who are peculiarly deputed for such execution, shall neglect or refuse it, as, viz. magistrates and judges) but even calleth them unto it, and requireth it at their hands, in such cases."

3. As to the clause in the covenant, which bound them to preserve the king's person, it was said, "That, in the then circumstances, neither the preservation of the liberties of the kingdom, nor the bringing delinquents to punishment (to which, by the same covenant, they were bound) were consistent therewith, and consequently was unfit to be observed by them. Late and lamentable experience," says the writer, just quoted, "shewed how near the liberties of the kingdom were to ruin, by occasion of the preservation of the king's person only (and that only for a season) though

of the crown sold, with the jewels and paintings

his authority was kept under hatches. It was the preservation of his person that gave life, and breath, and being, to those dangerous insurrections in Kent, Essex, London, Surry, Wales, &c. by means whereof there was but a step between the liberties of the kingdom and perpetual enslavement. It was the preservation of his person (with hope of restitution of his authority) that administered strength unto Scotland to conceive the conquest of England, and to make the attempt, by invading it with an army of about (if not above) 30000 men: unto whose teeth (doubtlesse) this nation had been a prey, had they not fought from heaven, had not the stars in their courses fought against them. And had his person still been preserved (especially with his authority) according to all experiments which the world hath made, and had, in such cases, yea, according to all princi ples, as well of religion, as of reason and policy, it would have been a spring or fountain of bitter waters unto the land, and a darkening of the light in the heavens thereof. And, instead of bringing delinquents to condign punishment, it cannot, in any rational construction, but be supposed, that it would have been the lifting up the heads of such persons unto undeserved places of honour "."

4. "Never," says Mr. Goodwin, "was any person, under heaven, sentenced with death upon more equitable or just grounds, in respect of guilt or demerit.He that is the architect and master-workman in raising an unnecessary or unjust war, makes himself the first-born of murtherers, and is responsible both to God and men, for all the blood that is shed in this war. If kings might make war upon their sub jects, when, and upon what pretences, they please, and then be justified and acquitted from all outrages of blood, and other villanies, perpetrated in this war, one sin might make an atonement for another; yea one great sin a cloak and covering for many. The late wars, wherein the king, by

"Goodwin's Defence, &c. p. 55.