I Acknowledge it a great mercy of God, and a great favour from you, that I am once more suffered to behold this Honourable Assembly, I mean not to make use of it to say any thing in my own defence by Justification or denyall of what I have done, I have already confessed enough to make me appeare, worthy not onely to be put out of this House, but out of the World too. All my humble request to you is that, if I seeme to you as unworthy to live, as I doe to my selfe, I may have the Honour to receive my death from your owne hands, and not bee exposed to a Try­all by the Counsell of Warre: what ever you shall thinke me worthy to suffer in a Parliamentary way, is not like to finde stop any where else.

This (Sir) I hope you will be pleased for your owne sakes to grant me, who am already so miserable, that nothing can be added to my calamity, but to be made the occasion of cre­ating a President to your own disadvantage; besides the right [Page 2] I may have to this, consider I beseech you that the eyes of the world are upon you, you governe in Chiefe, and of you should expose your owne members to the punishment of o­thers, it will be thought that you either want Power, or leisure to chastise them your selves; nor ltt any man despise the ill consequence of such a President as this will be, because hee seeth not presently the inconveniences which may ensue: you have many Armies on Foote, and it is uncertaine how long you may have occasion to use them. Souldiers and Com­manders (though I know well they of the Parliaments Ar­mie, excell no lesle in modesty then they doe in Courage) are generally of a Nature ready to pretend to the utmost pow­er of this kind, which they conceive to be due to them, and may be too apt upon any occasion of discontent to make use of such a President as this. In this very Parliament you have not bin without some tast of the experience hereof; it is now somewhat more than two yeares since you had an Army in the North paid and directed by your selves, and yet you may be pleased to remember they was a considerable number of Officers in that Army, which joined in a Petition or Re­monstrance to his House taking notice of what some of the Members had said as they supposed to their disadvantage [...]nd did little lesse than require them of you; 'tis true, there had bin some tampering with them, but what has happened at one time may wisely be thought posible to fall out againe at ano­ther.

Sir, I presume but to point you out the danger; if it be not just, I know you will not doe me the wrong to expose me to this triall; if it be just your Army may another time require the same justice of you, in their owne behalfe, against some other Member, who perhaps you would be lesse willing to part with. Necessity has of late forced you into untrodden paths; and in such a case as this where you have no president of your own, you may not do amisse to look abroad upon others States and Senates, which exercises the Supreame Power, as you now doe here.

I dare confidently say you shall find none either Antient or Moderne, which ever exposed any of their owne order to be [Page 3] tryed for his life by the Officers of their Armies abroad. for what he did, while he resided among them in the Senate.

Among the Romans the Practice was so contrary, that some inferiour Officers in their Army farre from the City, having been sentenced by their Generall or Commanderm chief, as deserving death by their Discipline of neverthelesse (because they were Senators) appealed thither, and the cause has received a new hearing in the Senate. Not to use more words to perswade you to take heed that you wound not your selves thorough my sides in violating the Pri­viledges belonging to your own persons, I shall humbly desire you to consider likewise the nature of my offence. (not but that I should be much ashamed to say any thing in diminution thereof; God knowes 'tis horrid enough for the evill it might have occasioned) but if you look near it, it may perhaps ap­pear to be rather a Civill then a Martiall crime▪ and so to have Title to a Triall at the Common Law of the Land, there may justly be some difference put between me and others in this businesse.

I have had nothing to doe with the other Army or any in­tention to begin the offer of violence to any body, It was on­ly a civill pretence to that which I then foolishly conceived to he the right of the subject, I humbly refer it to your consider­ations, and to your consciences. I know you: will take care not to shed the blood of Warre in Peace, that blood by the law of Warre which hath a right to be tryed by the Law of Peace. For so much as concernes my selfe and my part in this businesse, (If I were worthy to have any thing spoken or pa­tiently heard in my behalfe) this might truly be said, that I made not this businesse, but found it, twas in other mens hands long before it was brought to me, and when it came I exten­ded it not but restrained it. For the Propositions of lecting in part of the Kings Army, or offering violence to the Mem­bers of this House, I ever disallowed and utterly rejected them.

What it was that moved me to entertaine discourse of this businesse so farre as I did, I will tell you ingeniously and that rather as a warning for others, than that it make any thing [Page 4] For my selfe; it was onely impatience of the inconveniences of the present Warre, looking on things with a carnall eye, and not minding that which chiefly (if not onely) ought to have been considered, the inestimable value of the Cause you have in hand, the Cause of God and of Religion, and the necessities you are forced on for the maintenance of the same; as a just punishment for this neglect, it pleased God to desert and suffer me with a fatall blindnesse, to be led on and ingaged in such Counsells as were wholy disproportioned to the rest of my life; These (Sir) my owne Conscience tells me was the cause of my life; These (Sir) my owne Conscience tells me was the cause of my failing, and not malice, or any ill ha­bit of minde, or disposition toward the Common-wealth, or to the Parliament: for from whence should I have it? If you looke on my Birth you will not finde it in my blood: I am of a Stock which hath borne you better fruite if you looke on my education, it hath been almost from my child-hood in this House, and among the best sort of men; and for the whole practice of my life till this time, if an other were to speake for me, he might reasonably say, that neither my acti­ons out of Parliament, nor my expressions in it, have savou­red of distrust, or malice to the Liberties of the People, or Priviledges of Parliament.

Thus Sir I have set before your eyes, both my person and my case, wherein I shall make no such defence by denying, or extenuating any thing, I have done, as ordinary Delin­quents doe, my addresse to you, and all my Plea shall onely be such as Children use to their Parents, I have offended, I confesle it, I never did any thing like it before; it is a passage unsuitable to the whole course of my life beside and for the time to come, as God that can bring light out of darkenesse, and hath made this businesse in the event usefull to you, so also hath he to me: you have by it made an happy discovery of your Enemies, and God of my selfe, and the evill princi­ples I walke by; so that if you looke either on what I have been heretofore, or what I now am, and by Gods grace assi­sting me, shall alwayes continue to bee, you may perhaps thinke me fit to bee an example of your compassion and cle­mency.

Sir, I shall no sooner leave you, but my life will depend on your breath, and not that alone, but the subsistence of some that are more innocent. I might therfore shew you my Children, whom the rigour of your Justice would make compleat Orphanes, being already Motherlesse. I might shew you a Family, wherin there are some unworthy to have their share in that marke of Infamy which now threa­ten us: But somthing there is, which if I could shew you, would move you more then all this, it is my Heart, which abhorres what I have done more, and is more severe to it selfe, then the severest Judge can be. A heart (Mr. Speaker) so awakened by this affliction, and so intirely devoted to the Cause you maintain, that I earnestly desire of God to in­cline you, so to dispose of me, whether for life or for death, as may most conduce to the advancement therof.

Sir, not to trouble you any longer, if I dye, I shall dye praying for you; if I live, I shall live serving you, and render you backe the use and imployment of all those dayes you shall adde to my life.

After this having withdrawn himselfe, he was called in againe, and (being by the Speaker required therto) gave them an exact account how he came first to the know­ledge of this businesse; as also what Lords were ac­quainted therwith, or had engaged themselves therin.