Gentlemen,

I ſtand committed by the Houſe of Commons for high Treaſon, for not acknowledging, nor obeying the power of the two Houſes, by adhering to the King in this War. I deny this to be Treaſon for the ſupreame and only power, by the Lawes of this Land is in the King. If I ſhould ſubmit to any examination derived from your Power, which by the Negative Oath ſtands in oppoſition to the Kings Power, I ſhould confeſſe the Power to be in you, and ſo condemne my ſelfe for a Traitour, which I neither ought nor will do.

I am ſworne to obey the King, and the Laws of this Land: you have not power to examine me by thoſe Laws, by the Kings Writ, Pattent, or Commiſſion; if you can produce either thereof, I will anſwer the queſtions you ſhall propound; otherwiſe I cannot anſwer thereto, without the breach of my Oath, and the violation of the Laws, which I will not do to ſave my life.

You your ſelves, all of you this Parliament, have ſworne that the King is our only and ſupreame Governour: your Proteſtation, your Vow and Covenant, your ſolemne League and Covenant, your Declarations, all of them publiſh to the Kingdome, that your ſcope is the maintenance of the Laws; thoſe Laws are and muſt be derived to us, and enlivened by the only ſupreame Governour, the Fountaine of juſtice, and the life of the Law, the King. The Parliaments are called by his writs; the Judges ſit by his Pattents, ſo of all other Officers; the Cities and Towns corporate, governe by the Kings Charters; and therefore ſince by the Law I cannot be examined by you, without a power derived by His Majeſty, I neither can, nor will, nor ought you to examine me upon any queſtions. But if as private Gentlemen, you ſhall be pleaſed to aske me any queſtions, I ſhall really and truly anſwer every ſuch queſtion, as you ſhall demand.

Aprill 10. 1647. David Ienkins.

No perſon who hath committed Treaſon, Murder, or Felony, hath any aſſurance at all for ſo much as one houre of life, Lands or Goods, without the Kings gracious pardon, 27 Hen. 8. Cap, 24.

The King is not vertually in the two Houſes at Weſtminſter, whereby they may give any aſſurance at all to any perſon, in any thing, for any ſuch offence.

1. The Houſe of Commons hath declared to the Kingdome in their Declaration of the 28 of November laſt to the Scots Papers, pag. 8. That the King at this time is not in a condition to governe. No perſon or thing can derive a vertue to other men, or things, which it ſelfe hath not: and therefore it is impoſſible that they ſhould have a vertue from the King to governe, which they declare he hath not himſelfe to give.

2. The Law of the Land is,5. Elizab. Cap. 1. That no perſon in any Parliament hath a voice in the Houſe of Commons, but that he ſtands a perſon to all intents and purpoſes as if he had never beene elected or returned, if before he ſit in the Houſe, he take not his Oath upon the holy Evangeliſts, that the Kings Majeſtie is the onely and ſupream Governour over all perſons in all Cauſes. All the Members of the ſaid Houſe have taken it, and at all times as they are returned doe take it; otherwiſe they have no colour to intermeddle with the publicke Affaires. How doth this Solemne and Legall Oath agree with their ſaid Declaration, That the King is in no condition to governe? By the one it is ſworne, He is the onely ſupreame Governour; by the other, that he is not in a condition to governe.

3. The Oath is not, that the King was, or ought to be, or had beene, before he was ſeduced by ill Councell, our onely and ſupreame Governour in all Cauſes, over all perſons; but in the preſent tenſe, that he is our onely and ſupreame Governour, at this preſent, in all Cauſes and over all perſons. So they the ſame perſons ſweare one thing, and declare to the Kingdom the contrary of the ſame thing, at the ſame time, in that which concerneth the weale of all this Nation.

4. The Miniſters in the Pulpits doe not ſay, what they ſweare in the Houſe of Commons. Who ever heard ſithence this unnaturall Warre, any of their Presbyters attribute that to his Majeſtie which they ſweare? The reaſon is, their Oath is taken at Weſtminſter amongſt themſelves: that which their Miniſters pray and preach, goes amongſt the people. To tell the people that the King is now their onely and ſupreame Governour in all Cauſes, is contrary to that the Houſes doe now practiſe, and to all they act and maintaine. They, the two Houſes forſooth, are the onely and ſupreame Governours in default of the King, for that he hath left his great Councell, and will not come to them, and yet the King deſires to come, but they will not ſuffer him, but keepe him priſoner at Holmby: ſo well doe their Actions and Oaths agree.

5. They ſweare now King Charles is their onely and ſupreme Governour; but with a reſolution at the time of the Oath taking, and before and after, that he ſhall not be onely or ſupreme Governour, or onely and ſupreme, but not any Governour at all: For there is no point of Government, but for ſome yeares paſt they have taken to themſelves, and uſed his name onely, to abuſe and deceive the people.

6. That this vertuall power is a meere fiction, their Propoſitions ſent to Oxford, to Newcaſtle, to be ſigned by the King, doe prove it ſo. What needs this adoe, if they have the vertuall Power with them at Weſtminſter.

7. To affirme that the Kings power (which is the vertue they talke of) is ſeparable from his perſon, is high Treaſon by the Law of the Land; which is ſo declared by that learned man of the Law, Sir Edward Cooke; ſo much magnified by this preſent Parliament, who in the 7 part of his Reports in Calvins caſe, fol. 11. ſaith thus. In the reigne of Edward the ſecond, the Spencers, the Father and Son, to cover the Treaſon hatched in their hearts, invented this damnable and damned opinion, that homage and Oath of Ligeance was more by reaſon of the Kings Crowne, (that is, of his politicke capacity) then by reaſon of the perſon of the King upon which opinion they inferred 3. execrable and detestable conſequences. 1. If the King doe not demeane himſelfe by reaſon in the right of his Crowne, his lieges are bound by Oath to remove the King. 2. ſeeing that the King could not be reformed by ſuit of Law, that ought to be done per aſpertee that is by force. 3. That his lieges be bound to governe in aid of him, and in default of him: All which were condemned by two Parliaments, one in the raigne of Edw. 2. called exilium Hugonis le Spencer; and the other in Anno 1. Edw. 3. cap. 2.

And that the naturall body and politicke makes one indiviſible body, and that theſe two bodies incorporate in one perſon make one body, and nor divers, is reſolved as the Law of England. 4. Eliz. Ploydon Com. fol. 213. by Sir Cobert Catlin, Lord Chiefe Juſtice of England, Sir Iames Dier, Lord chiefe Juſtice of the Common Pleaſe, the Lord Sanders, Lord Chiefe Baron of the Exchequer, and by the reſt of the Judges, viz. Juſtice Raſtall, Juſtice Browne, Juſtice Corbet, Juſtice Weſton, Baron Frevyll, Conne and Pewdrell, Sergeant Gerrard Atturny Generall; Carell Atturry of the Dutch: Plowdon the learnedeſt man of that age, in the knowledge of the Law, and Cuſtomes of the Realm.

8. The Law in all ages without any controverſie is and hath beene: That no Act of Parliament bindes the Subjects of this Land without the aſſent of the King, either for Perſon, 9. Hen. 3. Magna Charta. So in every age till this day, & in every Kings time, as appeares by the Acts in Print 1 part of the Inſtit Sect. 234. in fine where many of the Law-Bookes are cited. 7 Hen. 7. 14. 12. of Hen. 7. 20. Lands, Goods, or Fame. No man can ſhew any ſillable, letter, or line to the contrary in the bookes of the Law, or printed Acts of Parliament, in any age in this Land. If the vertuall Power be in the Houſes, there needes no aſſent of the Kings. The ſtiles of the Acts printed from 9. Hen. 3. to 1. Hen. 7. were either, The King ordaines at his Parliament, &c. or the King ordaineth by the advice of his Prelates and Barons, and at the humble Petition of the Commons, &c. In Hen. 7. his time the Stile altered, and hath ſithence continued thus, It is ordained by the Kings Majeſty, & the Lords ſpirituall and temporall, and Commons in this preſent Parliament aſſembled. So that always the Aſſent of the King giveth the life to all, as the ſoul to the body; and therefore our Law-Bookes call the King, the Fountaine of Juſtice, and the life of the Law.

9. Mercy as well as Juſtice belongs by the law of the Land only to the King. 2 Hen. 4. Cap. 22. 4 pars inſtit. 42. Mr. Prin in his Treatiſe of the great Seale Fol. 17. 27. Hen. 8. • Chap. 24. This is confeſſed by Mr. Prynn, and it is ſo without any queſtion: The King can only pardon, and never more cauſe to have ſufficient pardons then in ſuch troubleſome times as theſe, and God ſend us pardons & peace. None can give any pardon, but the King by the Law of the Land: the whole and ſole power of pardoning Treaſons and Felonies belongs to the King, are the words of the Law, and it is a deluſion to take it from any other and utterly invalid. 27. H. 8. Cap. 24.

10. Queen Elizabeth ſummoned her firſt Parliament, to be held the 23 of Jan. in the firſt yeare of her Majeſties Raigne. The Lords and Commons aſſembled by force of the ſame writ, the 23 day the Queene fell ſicke and could not appeare in her perſon in Parliament that day, and therefore prorogued it untill the 25. of the ſame Month of January. Reſolved by all the Iudges of England, 3 of Eliz. Dier. 203. that the Parliament began not the day of the returne of the writ, viz. the 23 of Ianuary, when the Lords and Commons appeared, but the 25 of the ſaid moneth when the King came in perſon: which ſheweth evidently that this virtuall preſence is a meere deluding fiction that hath no ground in Law, reaſon, or ſenſe. They have the King now a priſoner at Holmby, with guards upon him, and yet they governe by the vertuall Power of their Priſoner. Theſe are ſome few of the cauſes & reaſons which moved me to deliver that paper to M. Corbet, which I am ready to juſtifie with my life, and ſhould hold it a great honour to die for the honorable and holy Lawes of the Land: That which will ſave this Land from deſtruction, is an Act of Oblivion, and His Majeſties gracious generall pardon, the Souldiers their Arriers, and every man his owne, and Truth and Peace eſtabliſhed in the Land, and a favourable regard had to the ſatisfaction of tender Conſciences.

Aprill 29. 1647. David Ienkins.