Nor was _Piety_ the only false Pretence, they wou'd make a show of _Justice_ too: They would seem to do that by _Law_, which was an open Violation of all the Laws both of God and Man. To this End was erected a Mock-Tribunal of Self-created Judges, who by Vertue of that usurp'd and imaginary Authority, presum'd to set before 'em as a Criminal, their unquestionably rightful Sovereign. They had false Witnesses, _Sons of Belial_, ready at hand to have born their Testimony against him, and to have charg'd him with such Things, as he not only, in Fact, was clear of, but which he was not capable of committing. _Naboth_ indeed might, 'tho' he did not, have Curs'd _God and the King_. [Note: So the Hebrew Verb should be rendred here, as it is elsewhere. The _Arabick_ and _Chaldee_ express it by two different Words. Thou didst _Blaspheme_ God, and _Curse_ the King.] There were really such Offences, tho' there was no such Offender. Whereas in the Case of our Martyr'd Prince, the Crime its self was as Fictitious as the Personal Charge. He not only was not, but cou'd not be guilty of that Treason they accus'd him of, since by our known Constitution, it was against himself only that any Treason cou'd be committed. We find in no Records the mention of such a Crime, as the _Lese-Majesty of the People_, nor that the cruellest Tyrants were ever tax'd with being _Rebels_ to their own Subjects. 'Tis possible for 'em to Misgovern, to subvert Fundamentals, to abuse their Trust, or to forsake it, and drive the People to a Necessity of transferring their Allegiance (of which our own Times have furnish'd us with an Instance:) But they can never be guilty of _Treason_, nor suffer the Punishment of _Traytors_. When therefore the good King disown'd this illegal Judicature, and refus'd (as he well might) to Plead his Cause before 'em; they still went on with a Mask of Justice, and in Mock-Representation of a legal Process, to Sentence and Condemn him, and Sign a Bloody Warrant for his Execution. Another Thing in which his Case does nearly resemble that of _Naboth_ is, that they both were Murder'd for the same Cause, because they wou'd not part with the _Inheritance of their Fathers_. _Naboth_ might have compounded for his _Life_, by relinquishing his _Vineyard_, nay he might have had an equivalent too. But as he conceiv'd himself bound in Conscience, religiously to preserve his original Patrimony, he was under an unhappy Necessity of making such a Refusal, as brought him to that untimely End.