ABSTRACT
ALTHO I fear, lest, if in defending the People of England, I should be as copious in Words, and empty of Matter, as most Men think Salmasius has been in his Defence of the King; I might seem to deserve justly to be accounted a verbose and silly Defender; yet since no Man thinks himself obliged to make so much haste, tho in the handling but of any ordinary Subject, as not to premise some Introduction at least, according as the weight of his Subject requires; if I take the same course in handling well-nigh the greatest Subject that ever was, without being too tedious in it, I am in hopes of attaining two things, which indeed I earnestly desire: e one, not to be at all wanting, as far as in me lies, to this most Noble Cause, and most worthy to be recorded to all future Ages. e other, at I shall appear to have avoided my self, that frivolousness of Matter, and redundancy of Words, which I fi nd fault with in my Antagonist. For I am about to discourse of Matters, neither inconsiderable nor common, but how a most Potent King, after he had trampled upon the Laws of the Nation, and given a shock to its Religion, and was ruling at his own Will and Pleasure, was at last subdu’d in the Field by his own Subjects, who had undergone a long Slavery under him; how afterwards he was cast into Prison, and when he gave no ground, either by Words or Actions, to hope better things of him, he was fi nally by the Supreme Council of the Kingdom condemned to dye, and beheaded before the very Gates of the Palace.54 I shall likewise
relate, (which will much conduce to the easing mens minds of a great Superstition,) by what Right, especially according to our Law, this Judgment was given, and all these Matters transacted; and shall easily defend my Valiant and Worthy Countrymen, and who have extremely well deserved of all Subjects and Nations in the World, from the most wicked Calumities both of Domestick and Foreign Railers, and especially from the Reproaches of this most vain and empty Sophister, who sets up for a Captain and Ringleader to all the rest. For what King’s Majesty sitting upon an Exalted rone, ever shone so brightly, as that of the People of England then did, when shaking off that old Superstition, which had prevailed a long time, they gave Judgment upon the King himself, or rather upon an Enemy, who had been their King, caught as it were in a Net by his own Laws (who alone of all Mortals challenged to himself impunity by a Divine Right) and scrupled not to infl ict the same punishment upon him himself, being guilty, which he would have infl icted upon any other. But why do I mention these things as performed by the People? which almost open their Voice themselves, and testify the Presence of God throughout. Who, as often as it seems good to his Infi nite Wisdom, uses to throw down proud and unruly Kings, exalting themselves above the Condition of Humane Nature, and utterly to extirpate them and all their Family. . . .
