article! How could I be charged for betraying Newcastle, and also for fighting with the Scots at Newburne, since fighting against them was no possible means of betraying the town into their hands, but rather to hinder their passage thither!

My Lords, I have all along, during this charge, watched to see that poisoned arrow of treason, which some men would fain have feathered in my heart; but, in truth, it hath not been in my quickness to discover any such evil yet within my breast, though now, perhaps, by sinister information, sticking to my clothes.

They tell me of a two-fold treason-one against the Statute, another by the common law; this direct, that consecutive; this individual, that accumulative; this in itself, that by way of construction.

As to this charge of treason, I must and do acknowledge that if I had the least suspicion of my own guilt, I would save your Lordships the pains. I would cast the first stone. I would pass the first sentence of condemnation against myself. And whether it be so or not, I now refer to your Lordships' judgment and deliberation. You, and you only, under the care and protection of my gracious master, are my judges. I shall ever celebrate the providence and wisdom of your noble ancestors, who have put the keys of life and death, so far as concerns you and your posterity, into your own hands. None but your ownselves, my Lords, know the rate of your noble blood; none but yourselves must hold the balance in disposing of the same.*

If that one article had been proved against me, it contained more weighty matter than all the charges besides. It would not only have been treason, but villainy, to have betrayed the trust of his Majesty's army. But, as the managers have been sparing, by reason of the times, as to insisting on that article, I have resolved to keep the same method, and not utter the least expression which might disturb the happy agreement intended between the two kingdoms. I only admire how I, being an incendiary against the Scots in the twenty-third article, am become a confederate with them in the twenty-eighth

"Strafford had no chance of acquittal except by

inducing the Lords, from a regard to their dignity and safety, to rise above the influence of the Commons as his prosecutors, and of the populace, who surrounded Westminster Hall by thousands, demanding his condemnation. In this view, his exordium has admirable dexterity and force. He reverts to the same topic in his peroration, assuring them, with the deepest earnestness and solemnity (and, as the event showed, with perfect truth), that if they gave him up, they must expect to perish with him in the general ruin of the peerage."-Goodrich.

poor judgment, it concerned the very life of the King's authority, and the safety and honour of his kingdom. Nor did I ever see that any advantage could be made by a war in Scotland, where nothing could be gained but hard blows. For my part, I honour that nation, but I wish they may ever be under their own climate. I have no desire that they should be too well acquainted with the better soil of England.

Not

My Lords, you see what has been alleged for this constructive, or rather destructive, treason. For my part, I have not the judgment to conceive that such treason is agreeable to the fundamental grounds either of reason or of law. of reason, for how can that be treason in the lump or mass, which is not so in any of its parts? or how can that make a thing treasonable which is not so in itself? Not of law, since neither statute, common law, nor practice hath, from the beginning of the government, ever mentioned such a thing.

It is hard, my Lords, to be questioned upon a law which cannot be shown! Where hath this fire lain hid for so many hundred years, without smoke to discover it, till it thus bursts forth to consume me and my children? My Lords, do we not live under laws? and must we be punished by laws before they are made? Far better were it to live by no laws at all, but to be governed by those characters of virtue and discretion which Nature hath stamped upon us, than to put this necessity of divination upon a man, and to accuse him of a breach of law before it is a law at all! If a waterman upon the Thames split his boat by grating upon an anchor, and the same have no buoy appended to it, the owner of the anchor is to pay the loss; but if a buoy be set there, every man passeth upon his own peril. Now, where is the mark, where is the token set upon the crime to declare it to be high treason?

My Lords, be pleased to give that regard to the peerage of England as never to expose yourselves to such moot points, such constructive interpretations of law. If there must be a trial of wits, let the subject matter be something else than the lives and honour of peers! It will be wisdom for yourselves and your posterity to cast into the fire those bloody and mysterious volumes of constructive and arbitrary treason, as the primitive Christians did their books of curious arts, and betake yourselves to the plain letter of the law and statute, which telleth what is, and what is not, treason, without being ambitious to be more learned in the art of killing than our forefathers. These gentlemen tell us that they speak in defence of the Commonwealth against my arbitrary laws. Give me leave to say I speak

in defence of the Commonwealth against their arbitrary treason!

It is now full two hundred and forty years since any man was touched for this alleged crime to this height before myself. Let us not awaken those sleeping lions to our destruction, by taking up a few musty records that have lain by the walls for so many ages, forgotten or neglected.

My Lords, what is my present misfortune may be for ever yours! It is not the smallest part of my grief that not the crime of treason, but my other sins, which are exceeding many, have brought me to this bar; and, except your Lordships' wisdom provide against it, the shedding of my blood may make way for the tracing out of yours. You, your estates, your posterity, lie at the stake!

For my poor self, if it were not for your Lordships' interest, and the interest of a saint in heaven, who hath left me here two pledges on earth, I should never take the pains to keep up this ruinous cottage of mine. It is loaded with such infirmities that, in truth, I have no great pleasure to carry it about with me any longer.

Nor could I ever leave it at a fitter time than this, when I hope that the better part of the world would perhaps think that by my misfortunes I had given a testimony of my integrity to my God, my King, and my country. I thank God I count not the afflictions of the present life to be compared to that glory which is to be revealed in the time to come!

My Lords! my Lords! my Lords! something more I had intended to say, but my voice and my spirit fail me. Only I do, in all humility and submission, cast myself down at your Lordships' feet, and desire that I may be a beacon to keep you from shipwreck. Do not put such rocks in your own way, which no prudence, no circumspection, can eschew or satisfy, but by your utter ruin!

And so, my Lords, even so, with all tranquillity of mind, I submit myself to your decision. And whether your judgment in my case-I wish it were not the case of you all-be for life or for death, it shall be righteous in my eyes, and shall be received with a Te Deum laudamus, we give God the praise.

STATE OF THE NATION.* GENTLEMEN,-When I came hither, I did think that a duty was incumbent upon me a little to pity myself; because, this being a very extraordinary occasion, I thought I had very many things to say unto you, and was somewhat burdened and straitened thereby. But truly now, seeing you in such a condition as you are, I think I must turn off my pity in this, as I hope I shall in everything else, and consider you as certainly not being able long to bear that condition and heat that you are now in.

So far as possible, on this large subject, let us be brief; not studying the art of rhetoricians. Rhetoricians, whom I do not pretend to much

* "No royal speech like this was ever delivered elsewhere in the world! It is with all its prudence, and it is very prudent, sagacious, courteous, right royal in spirit perhaps the most artless, transparent piece of public speaking this editor has ever studied. Rude, massive, genuine; like a block of unbeaten gold. A speech not so fit for Drury Lane, as for Valhalla, and the Sanhedrim of the gods. The man himself, and the England he presided over, there and then, are to a singular degree visible in it; open to our eyes, to our sympathies. He who would see Oliver, will find more of him here than in most of the history books yet written about him."-Carlyle.

concern with; neither with them, nor with what they use to deal in-words!

Truly our business is to speak things! The dispensations of God that are upon us do require it; and that subject upon which we shall make our discourse is somewhat of very great interest and concernment, both for the glory of God, and with reference to His interest in the world. I mean His peculiar, His most peculiar interest, His Church, the communion of the faithful followers of Christ;-and that will not leave any of us to exclude His general interest, which is the concernment of the living people, not as Christians, but as human creatures, within these three nations, and all the dependencies thereupon. I have told you I should speak to things; things that concern these interests: The glory of God, and His peculiar interest in the world-which latter is more extensive, I say more extensive, than the people of all these three nations with the appurtenances, or the countries and places, belonging unto them.

The first thing, therefore, that I shall speak to is that that is the first lesson of nature: being and preservation. As to that of being, I do think I do not ill style it the first consideration which nature teacheth the sons of Adam; and then I think we shall enter into a field large enough when we come to consider that of wel!

Now that which plainly seeks the destruction of the being of these nations is, out of doubt, the endeavour and design of all the common enemies of them. I think, truly, it will not be hard to find out who those enemies are, nor what hath made them so. I think, they are all the wicked men in the world, whether abroad or at home, that are the enemies to the very being of these nations; and this upon a common account, from the very enmity that is in them to all such things. Whatsoever could serve the glory of God and the interest of His people, which they see to be more eminently, yea, more eminently patronised and professed in this nation (we will not speak it with vanity) than in all the nations in the world: this is the common ground of the common enmity entertained against the prosperity of our nation, against the very being of it. But we will not, I think, take up our time contemplating who these enemies are, and what they are, in the general notion; we will labour to specificate our enemies, to know what persons and bodies of persons they practically are that seek the very destruction and being of these three nations.

And truly I would not have laid such a foundation but to the end I might very particularly communicate with you about that same matter. For which above others, I think, you are called hither at this time: that I might particularly communicate with you about the many dangers these nations stand in from enemies abroad and at home, and advise with you about the remedies, and means to obviate these dangers-dangers which, say I, and I shall leave it to you whether you will join with me or no, strike at the very being and vital interest of these nations. And therefore, coming to particulars, I will shortly represent to you the estate of your affairs in that respect in respect namely of the enemies you are engaged with; and how you come to be engaged with those enemies, and how they come to be, as heartily, I believe, engaged against you.

Why, truly, your great enemy is the Spaniard. He is a natural enemy. He is naturally so; he is naturally so throughout, by reason of that enmity that is in him against whatsoever is of God. Whatsoever is of God which is in you, or which may be in you; contrary to that which his blindness and darkness, led on by superstition, and the implicitness of his faith in submitting to the see of Rome, actuate him unto.

to justify them too, as well as to excuse them, upon the ground of necessity. And the ground of necessity, for justifying of men's actions, is above all considerations of instituted law; and if this or any other state should go about-as I know they never will to make laws against events, against what may happen, then I think it is obvious to any man, they will be making laws against Providence; events, and issues of things, being from God alone, to whom all issues belong.

The Spaniard is your enemy; and your enemy, as I tell you, naturally, by that antipathy which is in him, and also providentially, and this in divers respects. You could not get an honest or honourable peace from him; it was sought by the Long Parliament; it was not attained. It could not be attained with honour and honesty. I say, it could not be attained with honour and honesty. And truly when I say that, I do but say, He is naturally throughout an enemy; an enmity is put into him by God. "I will put an enmity between thy seed and her seed" (Gen. iii. 15); which goes but for little among statesmen, but is more considerable than all things. And he that considers not such natural enmity, the providential enmity, as well as the accidental, I think he is not well acquainted with Scripture and the things of God. And the Spaniard is not only our enemy accidentally, but he is providentially so; God having in His wisdom disposed it so to be, when we made a breach with the Spanish nation long ago.

No sooner did this nation form what is called (unworthily) the reformed religion after the death of Queen Mary, by the Queen Elizabeth of famous memory-we need not be ashamed to call her so !-but the Spaniard's design became, by all unworthy, unnatural means, to destroy that person, and to seek the ruin and destruction of these kingdoms. For me to instance in particulars upon that account, were to trouble you at a very unseasonable time. There is a declaration extant which very fully hath in it the origin of the Spaniard venting himself upon this nation; and a series of it from those very beginnings to this present day. But his enmity was partly upon that general account which all are agreed about. The French, all the Protestants in Germany, all have agreed that his design was the empire of the whole Christian world, if not more; and upon that ground he looks, and hath looked, at this nation as his greatest obstacle. And as to what his attempts have been for that end, I refer you to that declaration, and to the observations of men who read history. It would not be difficult to call to mind the several assassinations designed upon that lady, that great queen: the attempts upon Ireland, the Spaniards' invading of it; their

designs of the same nature upon this nation, public designs, private designs, all manner of designs to accomplish this great and general end. Truly King James made a peace; but whether this nation, and the interest of all Protestant Christians, suffered not more by that peace than ever by Spain's hostility, I refer to your consideration!

Thus a state which you can neither have peace with nor reason from-that is the state with which you have enmity at this time, and against which you are engaged. And give me leave to say this unto you, because it is truth, and most men know it, that the Long Parliament did endeavour, but could not obtain satisfaction from the Spaniard all the time they sat: for their messenger was murdered: and when they asked satisfaction for the blood of your poor people unjustly shed in the West Indies, and for the wrongs done elsewhere; when they asked liberty of conscience for your people who traded thither satisfaction in none of these things would be given, but was denied. I say they denied satisfaction either for your messenger that was murdered, or for the blood that was shed, or the damages that were done in the West Indies. No satisfaction at all; nor any reason offered why there should not be liberty of conscience given to your people that traded thither. Whose trade was very considerable there, and drew many of your people thither; and begot an apprehension in us as to their treatment there; whether in you or no, let God judge between you and Himself. I judge not: but all of us know that the people who went thither to manage the trade there were imprisoned. We desired but such a liberty as that they might keep their Bibles in their pockets, to exercise their liberty of religion for themselves, and not be under restraint. But there is not liberty of conscience to be had from the Spaniard; neither is there satisfaction for injuries, nor for blood. When these two things were desired, the ambassador told us, "It was to ask his master's two eyes;" to ask both his eyes, asking these things of him!

Now if this be so, why truly then here is some little foundation laid to justify the war that has been entered upon with the Spaniard! And not only so but the plain truth of it is, Make any peace with any state that is popish and subjected to the determination of Rome and of the Pope himself,-you are bound, and they are loose. It is the pleasure of the Pope at any time to tell you that though the man is murdered, yet his murderer has got into the sanctuary! And equally true is it, and hath been found by common and constant experience, that peace is but to be kept so long as the Pope saith Amen to it. We have not now to do with any popish state except France: and it is certain that they do not think themselves under such a tie to the Pope; but think themselves at liberty

to perform honesties with nations in agreement with them, and protest against the obligation of such a thing as that of breaking your word at the Pope's bidding. They are able to give us an explicit answer to anything reasonably demanded of them: and there is no other popish state we can speak of, save this only, but will break their promise or keep it as they please, upon these grounds: being under the lash of the Pope, to be by him determined, and made to decide.

In the time when Philip II. was married to Queen Mary, and since that time, through Spanish power and instigation, twenty thousand Protestants were murdered in Ireland. We thought, being denied just things, we thought it our duty to get that by the sword which was not to be had otherwise. And this hath been the spirit of Englishmen; and if so, certainly it is, and ought to be, the spirit of men that have higher spirits! With that state you are engaged. And it is a great and powerful state; though I may say also, that with all other Christian states you are at peace. All these your other engagements were upon you before this Government was undertaken: war with France, Denmark, nay, upon the matter, war, or as good as war, with Spain itself. I could instance how it was said in the Long Parliament time, "We will have a war in the Indies, though we fight them not at home." I say we are at peace with all other nations, and have only a war with Spain. I shall say somewhat further to you, which will let you see our clearness as to that, by-and-by.

Having thus said we are engaged with Spain, that is the root of the matter; that is the party that brings all your enemies before you. It doth; for so it is now, that Spain hath espoused that interest which you have all along hitherto been conflicting with-Charles Stuart's interest. And I would but meet the gentleman upon a fair discourse who is willing that that person should come back again! but I dare not believe any in this room is. And I say it doth not detract at all from your cause, nor from your ability to make defence of it, that God by His providence hath so disposed that the King of Spain should espouse that person. And I say further, No man but might be very well satisfied that it is not for aversion to that person. And the "choosing out" (as was said to-day") "a captain to lead us back into Egypt," what honest man has not an aversion to that? if there be such a place; I mean metaphorically and allegorically such a place. If there be, that is to say, a returning on the part of some to all those things we have been fighting against, and a destroying of all that good (as we had some hints to-day) which we have attained unto. I am sure my speech and defence of the Spanish war will signify very little if such grounds go not for good. Nay, I will say this to you, Not a man

* In Dr Owen's sermon, preached that day.

in England that is disposed to comply with Papists and Cavaliers, but to him my speech here is the greatest parable, the absurdest discourse. And in a word, we could wish they were all where Charles Stuart is, all who declare that they are of that spirit. I do, with all my heart; and I would help them with a boat to carry them over who are of that mind. Yea, and if you shall think it a duty to drive them over by arms, I will help in that also.

You are engaged with such an enemy-a foreign enemy, who hath such allies among ourselves this last said hath a little vehemency in it; but it is well worth your consideration. Though I seem to be all this while upon the justice of the business, yet my desire is to let you see the dangers and grand crisis this nation stands in thereby. All the honest interests, yea, all interests of the Potestants, in Germany, Denmark, Helvetia, and the Cantons, and all the interests in Christendom, are the same as yours. If you succeed, if you succeed well and act well, and be convinced what is God's interest, and prosecute it, you will find that you act for a very great many who are God's own. Therefore I say that your danger is from the common enemy abroad, who is the head of the papal interest, the head of the Antichristian interest, who is so described in Scripture, so forespoken of, and so fully, under that characteral name of Antichrist given him by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Thessalonians, and likewise so expressed in the Revelations, which are sure and plain things. Except you will deny the truth of the Scriptures, you must needs see that that state is so described in Scripture to be papal and Antichristian. I say, with this enemy, and upon this acccunt, you have the quarrel with the Spaniard.

And truly he hath an interest in your bowels; he hath so. The Papists in England, they have been accounted, ever since I was born, Spaniolised. There is not a man among us can hold up his face against that. They never regarded France; they never regarded any other Papist state where a hostile interest was, but Spain only. Spain was their patron. Their patron all along, in England, in Ireland, and Scotland; no man can doubt of it. Therefore I must needs say, this Spanish interest is also, in regard to your home affairs, a great source of your danger. It is, and it evidently is, and will be more so, upon that account that I told you of. He hath espoused Charles Stuart, with whom he is fully in agreement; for whom he hath raised seven or eight thousand men, and has them now quartered at Bruges: to which number Don John of Austria has promised that as soon as the campaign is ended, which it is conceived will be in about five or six weeks, he shall have four or five thousand added. And the Duke of Neuburg, who is a popish prince, hath promised good assistance, according to his power, and other popish states the

like. In this condition you are with that state of Spain, and in this condition through unavoidable necessity; because your enemy was naturally an enemy, and is providentially too be

come so.

And now, further, as there is a complication of these interests abroad, so there is a complication of them here. Can we think that Papists and Cavaliers shake not hands in England? It is unworthy, unchristian, un-English-like, say you. Yes; but it doth serve to let you see, and for that end I tell it you that you may see, your danger, and the source thereof. Nay, it is only thus, in this condition of hostility, that we stand towards Spain, and towards all the interest which would make void and frustrate everything that has been doing for you; namely, towards the popish interest, Papists, and Cavaliers; but it is also

That is to say, your dan

ger is so great, if you will be sensible of it, by reason of persons who pretend other things. Pretend, I say; yea, who, though perhaps they do not all suit in their hearts with the said popish interest, yet every man knows, and must know, that discontented parties are among us somewhere. They must expect backing and support somewhere. They must end in the interest of the Cavalier at the long-run. That must be their support. I could have reckoned this in another head, but I give you an account of things as they arise to me. Because I desire to clear them to you. Not discoursively, in the oratoric way; but to let you see the matter of fact, to let you see how the state of you affairs stands.

Certain it is, there was, not long since, an endeavour to make an insurrection in England. It was going on for some time before it broke out. It was so before the last Parliament sat. Nay, it was so not only from the time of the undertaking of this Government, but the spirit and principle of it did work in the Long-Parliament time. From that time to this hath there been nothing but enterprising and designing against you. And this is no strange or new thing to tell you; because it is true and certain that the Papists, the Priests, and Jesuits, have a great influence upon the Cavalier party; they and the Cavaliers prevail upon the discontented spirits of the nation, who are not all so apt to see where the dangers lie, nor to what the management of affairs tends. Those Papists and Cavaliers do foment all things that tend to disservice; to propagate discontentments upon the minds of And if we could instance, in particulars, those that have manifested this, we could tell you how priests and Jesuits have insinuated themselves into men's society; pretending the same things that they pretended; whose ends, these Jesuits' ends, have, out of doubt, been what I have told you.

men.

We had that insurrection. It was intended first to the assassination of my person, which I would not remember as anything at all consider