TWO SPEECHES MADE BY JOHN PYMM Esquire; the one after the Articles of the Charge against the Earl of STRAFFORD were read.  
THE OTHER, AFTER THE ARTICLES of the Charge against Sir GEORGE RATCLIFFE were read.  
LONDON, Printed for JOHN BARTLET, and are to be sold at the gilt Cup, near St. Austin gate. 1641.   

Mr. PYMS SPEECH MADE THE 25 th'. of Novemb. 1640; After the Articles of the Charge against the Earl of STRAFFORD were read.  
My LORDS,  
THese Articles have expressed the Character of a great and dangerous Treason; such a one as is advanced to the highest degree of malice and of mischief: it is enlarged beyond the limits of any description or definition: it is so heinous in itself, as that it is capable of no aggravation: a Treason against God betraying his Truth and worship; against the King, obscuring the glory, and weakening the foundation of his Throne; against the Commonwealth, by deshroying the Principles of safety and prosperity. Other Treasons are against the Rule of the Law; this is against the being of the Law: It is the Law that unites the King and his People; and the Author of this Treason hath endeavoured to dissolve that Union; even to break the mutual, reversal, indissoluble band of protection and Allegiance, whereby they are, and I hope ever will be bound together.  
If this Treason had taken effect, our souls had been enthralled to the spiritual Tyranny of Satan; our Consciences to the Ecclesiastical Tyranny of the Pope; our Lives, our Persons and Estates, to the Civil Tyranny of an arbitrary, unlimited, confused Government.  
Treason in the least degree, is an odious and a horrid Crime: other Treasons are particular; if a Fort be betrayed, or an Army, or any other treasonable fact committed, the Kingdom may outlive any of these: this Treason would have dissolved the frame and being of the common wealth; it is an Universal, a Catholic Treason; the venom and malignity of all other Treasons, are abstracted, digested, sublimated into this.  
The Law of this Kingdom makes the King to be the fountain of justice, of peace, of protection; therefore we say, the King's Courts, the King's Judges, the King's Laws: the Royal Power and Majesty shines upon us in every public blessing and benefit we enjoy: but the Author of this Treason would make him the fountain of Injustice, of confusion, of public misery and Calamity.  
The Gentiles by the light of Nature had some obscure apprehensions of the Deity, of which they made this expression that he was Deus optimus maximus, an infinite goodness, and an infinite greatness. All sovereign Princes have some Characters of Divinity imprinted on them; they are set up in their dominions to be Optimi, Maximi, that they should exercise a goodness proportionable to their greatness.  
That Law term, Laesa Majestas, whereby they express that which we call Treason, was never more thoroughly fulfilled then now: there cannot be a greater laesion or diminution of Majesty then to bereave a King of the glory of his goodness. It is goodness (my Lords) that can produce not only to his people, but likewise to himself honour and happiness. There are Principalities, Thrones and Dominions amongst the Devils; greatness enough; but being uncapable of goodness, they are made uncapable both of honour and happiness.  
The Laws of this Kingdom have invested the Royal Crown with Power sufficient for the manifestation of his goodness and of his greatness: if more be required, it is like to have no other effects but poverty, weakness, and misery, whereof of late we have had very woeful experience. It is fare from the Commons to desire any abridgement of those great Prerogatives which belong to the King; they know that their own Liberty and Peace are preserved and secured by his Prerogative, and they will always be ready to support and supply his Majesty with their lives and fortunes for the maintenance of his just and lawful power.  
This (My Lords) is in all our thoughts, in our prayers, and I hope will so be manifested in our endeavours; that if the proceed of this Parliament be not interrupted as others have been the King may within a few months be put into a clear way, of as much greatness, plenty and glory as any of his Royal Ancestors have enjoyed.  
A King and his people make one Body: the inferior parts confer nourishment and strength, the superior sense and motion: If there be an interruption of this necessary intercourse of blood and spirits, the whole Body must needs be subject to decay and distemper: Therefore obstructions are first to be removed before Restoratives can be applied: This (My Lords) is the end of this Accusation, whereby the Commons seek to remove this person whom they conceive to have been a great Cause of the obstructions betwixt his Majesty and his People: for the effecting whereof they have commanded me to desire your Lordship that their proceed against him may be put into as speedy a way of dispatch, as the Courses of Parliaments will allow.  
First, that he may be called to answer, and they may have Liberty to reply, that there may be a quick and secret examination of witnesses: and they may from time to time be acquainted with the depositions: that so when the cause shall be ripe for Judgement: they may collect the several Examinations and represent to your Lordships in one entire Body the state of the proofs, as now by me they have presented to you the state of the charge.