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A88180 England's birth-right justified against all arbitrary usurpation, whether regall or parliamentary, or under what vizor soever. With divers queries, observations and grievances of the people, declaring this Parliaments present proceedings to be directly contrary to those fundamentall principles, whereby their actions at first were justifyable against the King, in their present illegall dealings with those that have been their best friends, advancers and preservers: and in other things of high concernment to the freedom of all the free-born people of England; by a well-wisher to the just cause for which Lieutenant Col. John Lilburne is unjustly in-prisoned in New-gate. Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657. 1645 (1645) Wing L2102; Thomason E304_17; ESTC R200315 41,349 51

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and place committed unto him ipso facto estate the Army in a right of disobedience even by standing on their own defence as the Parliament themselves doe and we also in helping them or else where had they been against the fury of the King which Salomon calleth like the roaring of a Lion except wee thinke that obedience binds men to cut their owne throates or at least their companions so as they truly teach us it is the equitie and not the Letter of the Law unto which wee must have recourse in our greatest necessity as the Parliament themselves were forced to doe and still doth in this their owne extremity But some will say that our bondage is not yet so bad as that of Aegypt was for all the Jewes were in great bondage under the Egyptions and yet many of ours are exempted unto that I yeeld and doe confesse that few of our great and mighty men doe either work the clay or make the bricks but they lay either all or most part of the burthen on the poor by heavy labour and sweat of their browes in the heat of the day not only in working the clay and making of the bricks but if they doe complaine to Higher Powers upon their cruell and Tyrannous Task-masters they are so farre from getting any kind of Justice that because they moaned and complained and groaned under such heavy and grievous burdens that they were not able any longer to beare or indure they are further ordained even for their complaining to gather stubble too because they are so idle Innumerable instances there are throughout these three mourning and bleeding Kingdomes to prove all these businesses but I will onely chuse a Citie instance and let every man who is in his profession after that manner grieved and wronged turne the simile home to himself according to his smart Though the poore Hat-makers who earne their living with heavy and hot labours both early and late doe pay Excise both for all the materialls and fire which they use for the bread they eate for the liquor they drinke and clothes they weare yet when they have made their Hatts and done all they can with great trouble and toyle day and night they are forced to pay Excise over againe out of their very labour notwithstanding it was both so deare and heavy in buying all the necessaries before O cruell pitifull lamentable and intollerable Bondage no longer to be indured suffered nor undergone the burdens being far heavier then the poore labourers can beare and yet the Spirituall Task-masters doe gape and roar like Lions for their prey of Tythes also over above and besides all without any kinde of pitie compassion or commiseration in these grievous daies of affliction When this Kingdom was in any way or possibility of subsistance the auntient custome was that Taxations should be raised by way of Subsidie which is the most just equitable and reasonable way of all for it sets every tub on its owne bottome it layes the burthen upon the strong shoulders of the rich who onely are able to beare it but spareth and freeth the weake shoulders of the poore because they are scarcely able to subsist pay rent and maintain their families But our new invented pay layes the burden heavily upon the poore and men of middle quality or condition without all discretion and scarcely maketh the rich touch it with one of their fingers yea many of them are more and more advanced in their prosperous estate through the great ruines distractions and miseries of the Kingdome by their great salleries they have for executing their places as 500 l. 1000 l. 1200 l. and more per annum besides all the bribes they get and the false Accounts they make So that in this life the rich have their pleasures but poore Lazarus paines Seeing the Parliament ordained that none should be accepted to be a Parliament-man that had been a Monopolizer to the Kings Counsell and false Judges against the Liberties of the free-men of England is it not as unjust to imploy any man in a place of Trust Credit or profit now in Parliament time that have been known to be a Monopolizer in any place or Office to or for the Parliament to the prejudice of the Free-men of England Further it was omitted in the former part of this book where complaint is made both of injustice to well-doers and no justice to evill doers that according to the Parliaments booke of Declarations pag. 259. and 260. Whosoever shall serve or assist the King in these Warres are Traytors by the fundamentall Lawes of this Kingdome and have been so adjudged by two Acts of Parliament 11. Richard 2. 1. Hen. 4. And pag. 576. of the said book It is declared by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that whereas the King seduced by wicked Counsell doth make warre against his Parliament and People and for the promoting of that war divers forces both of horse and foot have been and are leavied and raised by severall persons and his Majesties good Subjects are most cruelly robbed spoiled and slaine To the end that no man may be misled through ignorance the Lords and Commons in Parliament declare that all such persons as shall upon any pretence whatsoever assist his Majestie in this warre with Horse Armes Plate or money are Traytors to his Majestie the Parliament and the Kingdome and shall be brought to condigne punishment for so high an offence Yea and according to the book of Articles for Warre pag. It is enacted to be death unto any whosoever who holdeth Intelligence and correspondency with the enemy All which Sir John Lenthall and the Speaker his Brother have done and yet it must neither be proved against them nor they tryed nor arraigned but altogether excused cleered and freed even by Vote of Parliament and the accusers both prisoned and arraigned for them yea a Committe chosen to devise and inflict punishments against the Accusers so that still the just are condemned and the wicked absolved Psal 9.18 19. For the needy shall not alway be forgotten the expectation of the poore shall not perish for ever Arise O Lord let not man prevail let the Heathen be judged in thy sight And 12.5 For the oppressions of the poor for the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the LORD I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him And 35.10 All my bones shall say LORD who is like unto thee which delivereth the poore from him that is too strong for him yea the poore and the needy from him that spoileth him And 37.14 The wicked have drawne out the sword and have bent their bow to cast downe the poor and needy and to stay such as be of upright conversation And 62.9 10. Surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lie to be laid in the ballance they are altogether lighter then vanity Trust not in oppression become not vaine in robbery if
was altogether such a one as thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in Order before thine eyes Now consider this yee that forget GOD lest I teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God But as the Prophet Jeremiah saith chap. 23. c. But this people hath a revolting and rebellious heart they are revolted and gone neither say they in their heart let us now feare the Lord our GOD that giveth rain both the former and the latter in his season hee reserveth unto us the very appointed weeks of the harvest your iniquities hath turned away these things and your sinnes have withdrawen good things from you For among my people are found wicked men they lay wait as hee that layeth snares they set a trap to catch men As a cage is full of birds so are their houses full of deceit therefore they are became great and waxed rich They are grown fat they shine yea they overpasse the deeds of the wickod they judge not the cause the cause of the fatherlesse yet they prosper and the right of the needy doe they not judge Shall I not visite for these things saith the Lord shall not my soul be revenged on such a Nation as this A wonderfull and horrible thing is committed in the Land the Prophets Prophesie falsly and the Priests heare rule by that means and my people love to have it so and what will yee doe in the end thereof But to returne to our former matter especially the grievances of the Nation through the mistake of the Printer in omitting of some Manuscripts and the absence of the Author when the Monopolies in the former part of this Book were expressed as chiefly that soul-starving or murthering Monopoly in hindering the free passage of the Gospel by extorting the prices of Bibles which the false self-loving Stationers as deadly enemies to all goodnesse have been enterprizing a long time to obtaine and against all common freedom to engrosse into their owne hands the sole and only selling of them by which meanes they intend to sell at what rates soever they please though already they sell at double the rate that honest wel-affected Common-wealths men may print and sell them and also be conscionable gainers by them So of all Monopolies or Patents next the monopolizing of ingrossing the Preaching of Gods Word into the Tything and gripeing clawes of the Clergy this is the most wicked and intollerable because it deprives many both poore servants and others of meane condition to buy any Bibles at all by reason of the extraordinary dearth or dearnesse of them that thereby they might be instructed in the way to heaven and happinesse and taught their duty also towards their Masters and the Magistrates whereby it is evident that those Stationers thus enterprising are self-seekers and as great enemies to the Common-wealth as they are to all goodnesse And besides they employ the Bishops old Theeves and Roagues about their robbing affaires as Hunscott their Beadle for one and a tall pale-faced fellow for another who lately with their base crue of robbing Partners under pretence of Parliamentary Authority to search for dangerous Bookes have robbed divers honest mens houses in London who have been the Parliaments best freinds and servants and particularly Lievtenant Colonell Lilburnes house who being Prisoner in New-gate and his wife with him and the great with Childe neer her time those robbers took advantage of their absence And none being in the House but an old Gentle-woman at that time whom they much frighted as they did a young Gentle-woman in another place to the great danger of her life insomuch that she cryeth out in her extreame-Fever Hunscott Hunscott they ranne up into the Chambers stole out of his wives Drawers divers pieces of her Child-bed linnen and such other things as they pleased and refused to shew the Old-woman what they had stollen though shee earnestly intreated them And in other the Parliaments freinds houses under the colour of Parliamentary Authority they at least doe rob all choice old books as well as new upon all occasions of such grievous oppressions and unexpected persecutions And not only hath this base fellow Hunscott this so needfull and profitable Office of Robbing but it is reported that hee hath also another as needfull and profitable for he gathereth the Excise for Cattell and Hats c. which with the former is esteemed to be worth 500 l. per annum to him Oh! what a cleer demonstration of future and intended slavery may be well and cleerly perceived by any who have but halfe an eye to begin againe among us though after more hidden and obscured wayes then formerly when such sturdy Roagues bold Robbers shamelesse covetous and impudent Tyrants as this or his fellows are authorized and sent from high Judicatories upon such ungodly barbarous designes inhumane enterprizes yet found good enough also to be imployed in the great Affaires of the Kingdom Is there never a conscientious nor honest man left unkilled exiled or imprisoned that hath the feare of God done good faithfull service to the State there would be some colour of excuse that such abjects and off-scourings of mankind should be accepted and well-deserving worthy men quite rejected Well these are brave times for the wicked who are advanced by the ruine of the godly the allowed thiefe permitted to rob and destroy the honest man the rich to rob plunder and sequestrate the poore untill they can get no more but when they have gotten all and done with all what they please it rests only that the poore also in their turne render them the like measure and finde out their Riches for the States service which all this heavy time they have saved whiles poore mens estates have been exceedingly destroyed But as the Water-men at Queen-hive doe usually cry Westward hough hough so according to the present current of the times most honest men have more then cause to cry in the Water-mens language Aegypt hough hough the house of Bondage slavery oppression taxation heavy and cruell heavy and cruell wee can no longer beare it we can no longer beare it wee can no longer beare it wee are as much provoked forced to cast off all our yoakes and crosses from our shoulders except only that of Persecution as ever any people or Nations though no People or Nation under heaven have been more free beneficiall and helpfull to those whom wee intrusted to help and deliver as from Oppression which saith the Wise-man is enough to make wise-men mad According to the Parliaments Declaration in their own words expressed on the second page of this book is it not justly said that in the Generall of an Army should turn the mouthes of his Cannons against his owne Souldiers would not that his attempt contrary to the nature of his trust
riches increase set not your hearts upon them And 74.19 O deliver not the soul of thy Turtle Dove unto the multitude of the wicked forget not the Congregation of thy poore for ever And 82.3 4 5. Defend the poore and fatherlesse doe justice to the afflicted and needy Deliver the poore and needy rid them out of the band of the wicked they know not neither will they understand they walk on in darknesse all the foundations of the earth are out of course And 92.6 7. A bruitish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this When the wicked spring as the grasse and when all the workers of iniquity doe flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever And 118.8.9 It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in man It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in Princes And 146.3 Put not your trust in Princes nor in the sonne of man in whom there is no helpe Isaiah 10.1 2 3 4 5 6. Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees and write grievous things which they have prescribed To turn aside the need from judgement and to take away the right from the poor of my people that Widdows may be their prey and that they may robbe the fatherlesse And what will ye doe in the day of Visitation and in the desolation which shall come from farre to whom will ye seek for help and where will ye leave your glory Without me they shall bow down under the Prisoners and they shall fall under the slaine for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is s●retched out still O Assyrian the rod of mine anger and the staffe in their hand is mine indignation I will send him against an hypocriticall Nation and against the people of my wrath I will give him a charge to take the spoile and to take the prey and to tread them downe like the myre in the streets FINIS The chiefe faults escaped in the printing either through the Authours absence or the Correctours negligence In page 4. l. 22. read the last but one of p. 5. l. 2. read and that l. 7. read for the same p. 7. l. 37. r. and justly for hence justly and read may condemne for may not condemne p. 9. l. 20. r. of which you may and l. 32. r. are culpable p. 10. l. 19. r. publick for bublick p. 15. l. 18. r. that call evill good and good evill and adde to the next line Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an uncleane not one read 25.4 and Psalm 51.5 p. 16. l. 16. r. to prison without cause shewed and l. 18. r. to force him to commit a crime l. 26. r. and then make for and then to make p. 17. l. 14. r. strengthned for streightned l. p. 37. l. 18. r. suites for suite p. 39. l. 1. r. according to those for according those p. 40. l. 23. r. consider for cnsider p. 43. l. 16. r. If there were for Is there THE POSTSCRIPT Containing divers sentences belonging to severall passages of this Book which were in their due places omitted and here at last remembred ADde to page 16. l. 29. So that first he was committed by Order and Vote of Parliament without cause shewed and then secondly for refusing to answer upon Interrogatories to their Committee of Examinations which is contrary 1. To the Great Charter of England 2. To the very words of the Petition of Right 3. To the act made this present Parliament for abolishing the Star-chamber 4. To the solemne Oath and Protestation of this Kingdome 5. To the great Covenant and Solemne Vow made upon paine of eternall damnation for uniting the two Kingdomes together 6. And most principally of all contrary to the infallible Rules of Gods own most sacred Word which forbids that any man should answer upon questions to accuse condemne and consequently to kill and destroy himself or that any man should be condemned before he be heard And 7. Contrary to all justice equity conscience sense reason the very practise of the Romish Heathens love duty brotherly affection Christianity Reformation Comiseration or Compassion 8. Contrary to the Kingdoms great trust committed by their grand Commission to the Parliament for defending and improving and no wise for destroying nor disannulling their Liberties and so alwayes for the Weale but never for the woe of the Free-men of England otherwise they are not only to be bidden take heed to their injustice but to be called to an account and censured accordingly That in regard the Kingdome is in so pittifull and great distresse and that the most and best things that ever this Parliament did were first motioned by private men and then authorised and established by them it would be excellent and needfull if they would ordaine that every free-man of England who is able would bestow his servico one yeere at least freely for the good of the Civill State in any Place or Office of Trust whereof his skill and breeding doe fit him to be most capable according as they shall be chosen and those who are not able to serve freely for a yeere and to have competent maintenance allowed unto them to the value of 50. or 60 l. a yeere according to their charge if such be chosen for their skill and diligence though they want outward means for which allowance those that are conscienscious will doe as good service at least as some others who have 1000. or 2000. a yeere The like rule is no lesse but rather farre more excellent and needfull to be observed and established in matters concerning the Church-state wherein her servants are to performe their duties freely they being able to maintain themselves and those with them whether by means obtained formerly or industry used daily otherwise to have the like allowance of 50. or 60 l. a yeere according to their charge And that the remainder of all Church-living obtained by the subtilty of Antichrist be n●w wholly imployed to the supply of the Kingdomes manifold present necessities and after the Warres are ended to the payment of the Kingdoms great debts contracted upon the publick faith But if in case that the Clergy or any of them shall not be content with the aforesaid allowance which is sufficient for as honest men that then it might be free for those whom God shall be pleased to fit with sufficient abilities to supply their places freely to the intent it may not be said of them as of the Scribes and Pharisees that they shut up the Kingdome of heaven and will neither enter in themselves nor yet suffer those that would Matth. 23.13 Luk. 14.52 In the Appendix of one of Mr. Prinnes bokes authorized by the Parliament called The Soveraign power of Parliaments and Kingdoms beginning at pag. 1. It is manifested by sundry Histories Authours that in the ancient Roman Kingdome and Empire in the Greek and German Empires derived out of it in the old Grecian Indian Egyptian Realmes in the Kingdome of France Spaine Italy Hungaria Bohemia Denmark Poland Swethland Scotland yea of Judah Israel and others mentioned in the Scripture the supreame Soveraignity and Power resided not in the Emperours and Kings themselves but in their Kingdomes Senates Parliaments People who had not onely power to restrain but censure and remove their Emperours Princes for their tyranny and mis-government Where also there is an answer to the principall Arguments to prove Kings above whole Kingdomes and Parliaments and not questionable nor accountable to them nor censurable by them for any exorbitant actions The 4. page 6. 7. 10. 11. 13. 17. 101. 112. 123. 125. 150. 151. 153. 154. 159. are most excellent for deciding those differences which I referre to the juditious and courteous Reader to peruse at his leisure FINIS Printed Octob. 1645.