Certain weighty CONSIDERATIONS Humbly tendered and submitted TO THE Consideration of such of the Members of the High COURT of JUSTICE For Trial of the KING, As they shall be Presented unto.  
There being only One hundred of the Copies appointed to be Printed for that purpose  
By JOSUAH SPRIG.  
He hath showed thee, o Man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee; but to do justly, to LOVE MERCY, and to walk humbly with thy God.  
Imprinted at London, 1648.   

Certain weighty Considerations humbly tendered and submitted to the Consideration of such of the Members of the High Court of justice for Trial of the KING, As they shall be presented 〈◊〉.  
FOrasmuch as I have appeared. In an Exhomation to tenderness of Blood 〈◊〉 the Clause 〈◊〉 before you; I think it my duty to give on what further grounds and authority I have for the same, which for modesty's sake I did the forbear in the audience, of Others that might make a wrong use of it, and that I might have the better acceptance with you in what I have to say, by presenting it to yourselves alone, who have peculiar Interest in it. For though you have hear what I have said, yet you have not heard all I have to say which therefore I here bring forth to you, desiring that the Father of Lights would so shine unto you, that what is of God here presented ye may own it, may be 〈◊〉 and made One with it, and may 〈…〉 principle, and may not be prevened in it by the People's assuming it but that in this you may (go before the People and may derive the light of it to the people, 〈…〉 ●●●thy of your place to do.  
First then, (not to meddle with your qualification as to an authority given you by man;) I do (Hypothetically) (and only so) acknowledge you to have the Cognizance of this Cause, and to have the right of deciding it; if that the Lord do set up himself in you, and bring forth himself in and by your judgement, that i●, If you be able to search into, and ●●y open the Root of all our Evil, the Root of those Calamities brought upon this Nation by the Evil Instruments therein  
This Root I have laid forth to you; and it is Babylon, the King of Babylon. Babylon is the strange Land in which the Israel of God is Detained Captive from the Lord and his presence: and this Land is Our flesh, 〈◊〉 the dark state of things wherein the Lord is hid, under which he is veiled and lies buried. For He is the breath of our nostrils, and the blood in our Veins; By him Kings reign, and Princes decree Justice, etc. and all forms of Government, and persons o● Governors not in Union with Him (with the Spirit of Justice and righteousness as 'tis in him) are vain Idols, having Eyes but see not, and Hands, but can do nothing that is truly excellent and glorious.  
The King of 〈◊〉 Babylon, Is the glory of our flesh, the goodliness of it, Isa. 40. Which makes us put Confidence in it, we trim and dress up our own way, our own flesh, and fleshly forms, and  them with names of God, and Judges, but these being destitute of the Spirit and power of God, and righteousness, become to us as broken pitchers.  
Now Babylon is a mystery, Rev. 17 5. the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth. I find in Scripture two descriptions or names of Antichrist: He is called, The Man of Sin; All other wickedness is but the weakness, and may be easier Convinced and dealt withal. But Antichrist is the Man of Sin, and hath gotten into the Temple of God, into lawful powers and administrations; and thence is the rise of our present miseries. It hath not been as the Murder Committed by a Thief on the highway, for Lucre-sake, or of an Enemy upon a private grudge, that hath none other but such base pretences of Covetousness or Revenge for itself; but here hath been power against power. One lawful power exercising itself against another lawful power, through the deceit of this Man of Sin, that hath broken off the power and authority of the King from the End of it, which is the good of his people in truth, which is the Law and Compass that should regulate it, and this hath been through that darkness whereby Satan hath blinded his eyes that he could not see his own glory and greatness to lie in, and to be upheld by the flourishing and happy Condition of his People.  
And secondly, Antichrist is called, The Mother of Harlots; all Other wickednesses are but the Daughters, Babylon is the Mother, and this Mother is a Mystery, its hard lighting on her; Indeed, none Can search her out, and deal with her but the Lord; and therefore it is said, He shall Consume Antichrist with the Spirit of his Mouth, and the brightness of his Coming.  
Now if the Lord be Come in this brightness to destroy Antichrist by you, I am sure He will first destroy it in you; and if so, then: believe we shall see you (I am sure I must) judge your self: first of those things for which ye Condemn your Prisoner: and that indeed might lay the foundation of a sweet and holy proceeding, and a happy Conclusion of this Trial. This, if any thing would melt the King, and both He and you would as jacob's sons fall on the neck of joseph the Lord Jesus whom ye have sold; nay whom ye have crucified One aswell as th'other, though your crimes may admit of gradual difference: For have not we through that poor dark selfish spirit, divided ourselves and our good, from the good and greatness of the King; Have not we been that to him, that he hath been to us? Have we not borne him and his greatness as a burden that we would be glad of an occasion to cast off? I do not say but we have liberties, and we may stand for out liberties. Babylon were not a mystery, if it did not get into interests and ways that are righteous in themselves, but whether were not these rights and interests of the people pleaded and managed in the dark, aswell as was the prerogative of the King through which darkness the Consistency of the King's greatness with the people's freedom and the amiable reflection that these mutually Cast one upon the other, and the joy they take one in another was not seen, and so ye opposed yourselves one to another in the dark 〈◊〉 seeking to swallow up the other into itself, which were made not to thrive, but in union together.  
And the Root of all this disowning and incomplyance with one another, is for that we have not held the head, from whom the whole body being knit together by joins and bands, hath nourishment ministered, and increaseth with the increasings of God; which head is the Lord: But our union hath not been in him but in weak compacts of our own: we have not seen ourselves, King and People springing up from one root, and issuing from one fountain, even the Lord; that we are his image and glory in all this variety and subordination of States; and that all these are not so in themselves; but that they are in each other as they are all in unity in their Original.  
For certainly, whatever unlikelihood and disappearance of this there is in what we have known of these subordinations, as they have subsisted and acted in this dark, corrupt and fleshly state; yet I have so much faith to believe; yea in the light of the thing I see it in God, That King and People do subsist and have a glorious interest in each other: and that it shall appear when the Creation that is now in pain is delivered, that all the Majesty that dwells in the person of a King, it is indeed the People's; and all the peace and flourishing of a People, it is the Kings, and they shall possess, and be possessed each of other. The King shall not have an envious eye against his people nor the people against the King; each shall be satisfied with their own, and each shall rejoice in the others wealth. The people shall cast glory upon their King, and Kings shall throw love and riches upon their People, and each shall think, while the other hath it, himself hath it, and that they have not the less for the others having much. Thus it is between the Lord and his Christ, thus it is between Christ and his Church; and thus shall it be between Kings and their People. We have seen and conversed with these Relations only in their weakness, and so cannot believe this of them: But the Lord hath a portion in these things, He made them not in vain, they shall be restored. The Creature (yea, this Creature Magistracy or Polity) shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; and sure the day of its Redemption draws nigh.  
For the Lord hath thrown it into the Furnace, and the flames are hot about it. Fire hath come out of Abimelech, to consume the men of Sechem; and fire is 〈◊〉 out of Sechem to destroy Abimelech. And under this notion, I confess, do I look upon this Trial of the King: and so I can freely acknowledge as the righteous Award and Judgement of the Lord, under whose mighty hand we have suffered all these Wars. For who gave Jacob to the spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the Lord, against whom they had sinned?  
But the end of the Lords judging is purifying. not destroying, and if the Lord have pleasure in you; He may make you not only Tormentors, but Judges; he may bring you forth to act in the light, and to be Instruments in the hand of God, of that judgement upon the King that shall be saving even to pull him as a firebrand out of the fire of Tyranny over his people, which hath thrown him into this fire of the wrath of his people. For a Judge is not sufficiently accomplished and instructed for his Office if he have not a power to release as well as to condemn, to save as well as to destroy, as Pilate could say to our Saviour, Have not I power to Crucify thee; and power to release thee? Otherwise ye answer not your Original pattern the Lord who where there are two parts, as flesh and spirit proceeds with that distinction, as that while his left hand brings destruction to the flesh, his right hand carries salvation to the spirit. And if the day of the Lord be risen upon you and he have made you able to judge and discern the hidden principles of things, ye will exercise this discretion between the lawful Authority invested in the Person of the King and his unlawful usurpation; ye will damn this and save the other bringing it forth from all its dross and flesh (that hath made it not only unprofitable but hurtful) as a vessel for the finer, So shall ye be Repairers of our breaches indeed and Restorers of paths to dwell in: And if ye do this, the Sword whereby ye must do it is the Sword of Christ's mouth; The Spirit of the Lord: If this Spirit have brought forth the Person of our Lord Jesus in you, who is the true pattern of Government, and of all things do ye bring forth this pattern in your judgement; Arraign the King not at the bar of man, but at the tribunal of Jesus Christ; show (for who but a King can judge a King?) what the Spirit and the Government of Christ in union with Man is, and compare the King and his government by this pattern in the mount, and show him his failings his narrowness of Spirit and principle not comprehending his people in himself as Christ does, not living in their wealth and prosperity as his own as Christ does, not bearing wi●h their weaknesses as Christ does, not emptying himself to make them rich and happy as Christ does, and save the King a labour of recriminating you; confess to him you have been in the dark too, and not seeing the person a●d majesty of the Lord in him, ye have not been in such a natural and affectionate compliance with his honour and greatness as the Members are with the Head: But if ye are not able so to deal wi●h him. Th●n turn him over to those that can and to ●he justice and mercy of the Nation and hear what that will speak for him. And in behalf of the life of the King we allege.  
That this war that h●th been upon us was by the judgement of the Lord, the Lord did bid the Sword devour and Eat flesh: A Kingdom is not so easily, nor ordinarily set on flame by Civil Waris without the special hand of God, the Causes are long a working, and the matter was long a gathering: If the Lord had not sent an evil Spirit universally among us, it was not the Exorbitancy of the will of one man, as ye say the King is that could have thrown us into these flames; The Lord used the King as an Instrument of his wrath towards us, and us as Instruments to pour wrath upon him.  
2 That in the procuring this wrath, had our share with the King, we was overcome of this evil; He could have brought no evil upon us, had not we had it in us. Under the weight of our flesh aswell as his own, did his Government groan and bow down: the Kingdom and its policy (neither King nor People) stood in the Lord, in that Union and glory in Spirit, and so fell and withered was gathered and burnt.  
Therefore now it concerns both him and us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, till he exalt us in his due time, and not to seek satisfaction on one another, other then by being examples to each other of a better carriage grounded on a better principle and union for the future: If we will do justice (as indeed we must) and take revenge, it must be on that King of Babylon, that dark deviding principle that is in both sides, that divided us first f●om God our root, and then from one another in subordination to the Lord. And we ought not to do any other justice upon him then we shall submit to be done by him upon us: (which is only the just and equal settling of our distinct Interests) we being both in the transgression that caused the war meritoriously, for as for the immediate acting of it; I look upon it rather as the judgement of God upon our sin, than the sin itself which went long before.  
3 That the King being supposed in the Law, to be an Infant, and to act always by his Instruments and Officers of State, both in judging what is right and wrong, and in executing, if inquisition be made for the acting this war upon the People, it seems much more equal to be made among those his evil Counselors and Instruments, without whom he could have decreed nothing as Right or Law, nor have executed any purpose of war in his heart, for his supposed rights. And if by the liberty of Conferring honour and greatness on Subjects, he hath been enabled to have such powerful influence on them, as to create evil Instruments for any purpose, that power may be considered and deposited in safer custody till the kingdom shall find their Princes worthy of it.  
4 Not only did his Judges and Privy Counsellors, and evil Instruments about him, that were not of either House Parliament, but also divers Lords and Members of both Houses of Parliament concur to the betraying of the King's Conscience, to the levying and prosecuting the war; and if it was not the mercy of God to him to enable him to distinguish between these evil Counselors, and th●se that dissented, He is the object of pity in himself, as he was thereby the Actor of our misery.  
5. To execute the King for what he did in prosecuion of the War, so undertaken, wherein he hazarded his Person, and put his Cause to the decision of battle, and especially in a Treaty, and after so many invitations to a composure, is to shed the blood of War in Peace (which is condemned by an authentic pen in the like case, though the manner of the execution vary) and seems no way consistent with the honour of the Faith of the Nation, that was given him in several Treaties.  
9 That he being a Prisoner of war, and wholly in our power to regulate the exercise of his prerogative as may make it wholesome to the Nation: we are upon all the advantage that may be desired, to show generosity, and it seems both unsouldierly and unmanly not to be able to give him h●s life at least, and a distrusting of God, (who if he shall despise this goodness of the Lord towards him) can go beyond him again wherein he shall deal proudly.  
7 All the power of Arms being now in the hands of that party in the Kingdom, that are commonly reputed more famous for their Religion and tenderness: O let him not be cried down by you! who should be able to bring forth the mercy of the great God to sinners, if not you that have found mercy? Let not your way wherein you walk in a difference from the more careless sort of professor be written to generations in this bloody Letter. To this I shall add that if God have appeared yet, and come forth to you, no otherwise then as upon Mount Sina; there are some standing and walking amongst you daily, that have seen him upon Mount Zion, and have found such mercy, that they are able to show as great mercy as this, that is now asked for the King: and if you have it not; you must give them leave to say, That might their Votes be heard, No man should fall in Israel this day; for do we not now know that the Lord Jesus hath obtained the Kingdom this day in their hearts, and is bringing forth his new Heavens and his new Earth, wherein righteousness shall dwell; yea, they see his footsteps taking hold of the world, to set up a new Administration of Justice and every thing, for with the sword of his mouth ●ill he slay the wicked: he is so coming in his People, as shall  them with terror to their enemies, that they shall not need the Sword of man to defend them, but the majesty and brightness of the Lord clothing their Persons, shall judge and reprove the world ei●her into love and union with them, or in●o subjection under them. To this administration that is holy, pure, and gracious, and not in letter, but in spirit, not in form but in power; have all former dark and earthly administrations hitherto served, and till th●s we groan and are afflicted under the manifold and woeful miscarriages of all Administrators in the dark, and in the letter only. And in the in●erest of ●he glory of this Image and appearance of God to be made forth among men in this first handsel of saving the King (as well) as out of tenderness to ●he justice of the thing do I plead thus:  
I have not spoken all this as forgetting or unsensible of the great and high provocations of the King, in the late horrid War, as well as his former miscarriages in Government, if the Lord intent mercy to his soul, He will accuse and judge himself more than I can or is meet to detain you by: and the world shall hear of his unfeigned sorrow and repentance, as it hath been filled with the story of his sins; but this I know through the Lord's mercy, and confess I am one with him (that is my flesh is) in all the wickedness he hath done: and out of my own heart must I copy forth my accusation against him, and so let every one think that judges another.  
1 If it be objected this plea may be against all Execution of justice though for the horridst facts as murder etc.  
I answer no, the Case is fare different between the Exercise of an unlawful act by no authority, as in the case of Thiefs and murderers by the high way, and the abuse of a lawful authority as the King did in his misdeeds. This latter Crime is aggravated towards God, but not so liable to the stroke of man. Or if a divorce may be made between that person and the exercise of that authority he hath so abused (which I leave to others to judge) it's not so clear that it should be expiated with the loss of life, because the person offended not, but the King, and not the King, but his instruments. I speak not as to the Lord.  
2 If it be objected, that blood is required by the law of God for blood; I answer, first, for blood shed in war we find no account exacted in the case of Abner, 2 Sam. 3. but Abners' blood avenged on Joah by David's appointment after Solomon had the Kingdom.  
2 Nor for bloodshed in Peace is there an indispensable necessity of making expiation by blood: for though I am not of their mind, that think it not lawful or Christian like, to shed blood in any Case, for any Crime; yet I think it not to be indispensably charged upon the maigstrate, to shed blood for blood, but there may be divers causes to over rule it: The execution of Justice being for the Commonwealth, and not the Commonwealth for the execution of Justice, and therefore the Magistrate hath power to save and remit capital Crimes as well as to punish them, when it is for the Commonwealth.  
Nay thirdly, I conceive that whensoever blood may be spared, that is, those evils may be avoided, and those advantages obtained without shedding of blood, it ought to be spared: And that the Kingdom cannot be settled, and the like mischiefs prevented (so fare as in man) for the future without shedding of the King's blood doth not appear to me, nor I dare say to many more, as the probability of as great evils to ensue from home, from abroad (which God prevent) by taking away the King's life, able to balance the security we promise ourselves thereby is evident to all men: Therefore policy calls not for this piece of Justice. And for that conceit of a Sacrifice to God it is legal and Jewish, having nothing in it of the light and grace of the Gospel, much less suitable to the elevation of these times, it's to deny the sacrifice of Christ; than which there is no other but the sacrifice of praise and of a broken and contrite Spirit, which is also his.  
May we beg the life of the King, we may be thought to run a great hazard, should he come again to be a scourge to the Kingdom, but the love of God that comes forth in us to save him will provide better things in him. We have travailed of him once already by our Prayers, it may be we must travail of him a second time, We are content.  
He that is without sin, let him throw the first stone.  
Finis.