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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	law_n	write_v	2,881	5	5.4884	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48453	As you were, or, The Lord General Cromwel and the grand officers of the armie their remembrancer wherein as in a glass they may see the faces of their soules spotted with apostacy, ambitious breach of promise, and hocus-pocus-juggleing with the honest soldiers and the rest of the free-people of England : to the end that haveing seene their deformed and fearfull visage, they may be returning to doe their first pretended workes, wipe of their spots, mend their deformities & regaine their lost credit : in a word, save themselves and the gaspeing libertyes of the surprized and enslaved English nation : least enlargement and deliverance arise to the English from another place, but they and their fathers house shall be destroyed : Ester 4. and 14. : all which is contained in a letter directed to the Lord Generall Cromwel, to be communicated to the grandees of his army / written by L. Colonel John Libvrne May 1652 ...	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1652 (1652)	Wing L2084; ESTC R1524	49,801	36

other end but to be his foote-steps to climbe up to the top of absolute and arbitrary Power pretended Authority or unlimited unbounded Kingship And that you my Lord particularly are the man that is guiltie of all this in my judgement and apprehension your owne quondam darling „ and heart-indeared heart secret-knowing Freind the Major of your owne Regiment of Horse Robert Huntington „ in his printed impeachment of you delivered to both house of Parliament against you the 2 of August 1648 hath punctually declared it which impeachment is reprinted in the 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 pages of that Booke for makeing of which I was arraigned for a Traitor at Guildhall October 1649 being intituled An Impeachment of high-Treason against Oliver Cromwell c. and for which Impeachment of his I could never heare that you endeavoured so much as publicly to question him therfore or to put forth a vindication against it Which may well get beleife in un-biased men that you acknowledge all that he hath there said against you to be true And as much as I have said of him and his Impeachment may be said of the Authors of those thre notable bookes and of the bookes themselves called PUTNEY-PROIECTS The LEVELLERS vindicated being the stated case of the late TREACHEROUSLY defeated BVRFORD troopes and the HVE-AND-CRIE of the young men apprentises of London after the lost fundamentall laws liberties of England Vnto which three bookes a great many mens names are set as the avowers justifiers of them and to my knowledge the most of their names are true for I particularly know the most of the men my selfe yet I could never heare that any one of them was so much as questioned for decyfering you there as they have done Although to my knowledge you know some of the men as well as I doe and might severall times since those bookes were writ published as easily have laid your hands upon them to have called them to an account therefore as I can take up the pen inke that I write here with I say laying the forementioned Bookes or discourses together with what followes in this discourse page 13 14 15 to 24 compareing them with your practise I thinke they sufficiently prove you to be the man above mentioned that walks by the Principles of ATHEISME MACHIAVELLSME and holds it lawful to doe any thing in the world that comes in your way that will most serve your turne for the accomplishment of your owne ends be they never so bloodie wicked or tyrannicall But MY LORD you have forced me when I was quiet to come upon the stage againe much against my will and studious indeavours And yet when I did I fairely sought peace with you and sent you in writeing my propositions for peace grounded only upon your owne promises neglecting to insist upon any thing of concernement to my selfe and gave you or your true Freind Mr. William Kiffen to whom I sent it twentie one dayes to returne me an answer at least of his receit thereof all which appeares in the following discourse page 29 30 31. But heareing nothing at all from him and feareing that it is intecepted I am forced to print it The Copie whereof with some small additions thus followeth For my loveing Freind Mr. WILLIAM KIFFIN merchant at his House in Dukes-place London these with hast post hast to be communicated to his Excellency the Lord Generall Cromwell c. Mr. KIFFIN YOu and I have bin long acquainted ād have had much converse together although you were in my late troubles before my triall at GVILD-HALL my adversary in print yet not lookeing upon you by your opposition as a man that out of malice designedly laboured to take away my life but rather at a man surprised in your understanding and thereby induced to beleive the plausible arguments of my pretended Religious adversaries as though by my contest with them an undeniable gap was opened to let in them that are commonly called the public adversaries to devoure all and so were against the then season as unfit and dangerous in your apprehension but not against the things themselves held forth by me and my Camerades which you judged just and righteous and sit to be established in due time when that feare was over In which regard that opposition of yours to me I judged most fit to be buryed in the grave and not with any disgust of mind to be remembred And therfore it is that of late some part of that former familiarity that was betwixt us hath bin renewed and since my banishment I find by several Letters from my wife that you have bin very civil and respectfull to her for which I returne you many AND MY HE ARTIEST thankes ONE OF HER LETTERS dated the 2. of Feb last I have answered in print and caused that answer to be published here as well in DVTCH as ENGLISH which I hope before the date herof is reprinted at London againe since which I have received two Letters more from her the maine substance of both of which are to presume with all the mournfull arguments that possibly thee can use to be quiet and to abstaine from printing and Withall she tells me it is the advice of all my Freindes in generall who come continually to her to gather to write to me about it But haveing in my aforesaid printed Epistle given her undeniable reasons WHY I AM COMPELLED TO PRINT which I hope with my former Letters to her will so qualifie and season her Spirit that I may presume now that both my feares are over which were first that I was afraid through sorrow about me and her owne distressed condition as she calls it the should either miscarry of her childe or else secondly that she should be overwhelmed with greife and so her burthen should become too heavie for her to beare But hopeing that both of these dangers are over I must now confess unto you that that little trouble which used formerly to accompany me thorough the hopes hereof is as good as at an end And therfore to you shall I judge it convenient for me and 1 hope no way mischevous to your selfe to answer freindly and resolutely some other clauses in her latter Letters and some clauses in other Letters of some of my Freindes which I have lately received and then positively to tell you without deceit or flattery my future resolutions by the assistance of God on purpose because I know you are great with the GENERALL and I thinke with the NOW LORD-DEPVTY OF YRELAND LAMBERT but I am sure of it with LENTENANT-GENERALL FLEETWOOD and MAIOR-GENERALL HARRISON that you may shew this Letter unto them all being the great sword men of England that so they may lay their heads together obout it if they please and then let God worke his pleasure In a large Letter to my wise of the 13 of February last I told her and

to judge It s also true I am now banished by the GENERALL HIS MEANES and the public pretended grounds and reasons therof are contained in the Parliaments printed Narrative and Act passed against me recorded in the 49 50 51 62 63 pages of my late Apoligy to the people of the netherlands and I am sure of it in both of them they lay no crime at all in Law unto my charge as I have allready fully proved in my said printed Apologie to the people of the Netherlands page 65 66 67. But if the GENERALL OR ANY OTHER FOR HIM have any thing in imagination feare or supposition to lay to my charge let him or them stand up and say their utmost I crave no favour at their hands but yet I appeale to your Conscience how just it is to disfranchise a man of all his birthrights and bannish him forever out of his native Contrie for things they feare he will act against them It s confest the GENERALL must now needs have something to say for himselfe against me as well as his or HASILRIGGS AGENTS in times by-past had who a little before my tryall at GUILDHALL Octob. 1649 in their printed Bookes against me clothed me in beares and Wolves skins that so the people as their doggs might worry me without compassion or consideration And therfore it was that they printed me to be an Atheist a denier of God and the Scripture given up to all licentiousnes and an absolute confederate with Prince Charles to set up his absolute will prerogative in the English Nation All or any of which things they them selves knew to be as true as the sea burnt But read my Answer thereto Printed at the Latter end of the first part of my tryall at Guildhall page 158 159. It s also true my old Freind Mr. CORNELIUS HOLLAND a little before my second tryall averred to my wife that at the Counsel of State they had Letters of mine under mine owne hand written to the Prince and the LORD BRADSHAW did the same to some eminent Freinds of mine but when I bid defiance to them and challenged them to produce them they were not albe to doe it and it proved no more then some of Mr. THOMAS SCOTS ROTTEN AND POCKIE LIES It s also true that when I was tried for my life at GVILDHALL and confidently and justly alleadged for my selfe that by the two statutes of the first of Edward the sixt Chapter the 12 and the 5 and 6 of Edward the 6 Chapter the 11 still in force there ought to bee two direct plaine evidences or witnesses to prove every fact of treason alleadged against me Yet those two worthles and bloody fellowes ATTORNY GENERALL PRIDEAUX and the LORD KEEBLE could and did falsely and lieingly not haveing the least graine of the feare of God or common-honesty or shame before their eyes averre that there was a statute made after them in the 1 and 2 of Q. Mary that overthrew and abolished those two forementioned statutes of Edward the 6 and that now one witnes to prove the treason alleaged against me was sufficient to take away my life and this they averred againe and againe unto the jurie upon their reputations to be true after that I had often before the Jury and all the populous auditory that then was present to their faces told them it was false and untrue and that there was no such law made in Queen Maries time and holding the statute booke in mine hand I challenged them againe and againe to name the Chapter that it might be read the which they could not doe and yet like most bloodie and false men they would have taken away my life by their lies if I had not understood the Law as well as themselves and had not had CONFIDENCE ENOUGH TO HAVE TOLD THEM THEY LIED TO THEIR FACES before the jury and all that great auditorie of People all which you may fully read at large in the first part of the booke of my triall page 124 125 141 142 143 147. Now I say laying all these things together and considering that these three base unworthy men are still as great with the Generall as ever they were I doe not wonder if he have relations enough at his fingers end to make me odious But upon what foundation or bottome they should be grounded seeing mine owne Conscience is clare and innocent I cannot imagine unless it be something in relation to that averment of Mr. REYNOLDS the sollicitor Generall who lately at a Committee of Parliament as by a Letter from London I am informed openly averred I held correspondency with the Scottish King but whether he charged it upon me as done by me before my banishment or since the letter doth not declare And therfore at present I can answer it but by Guess and say I beleive my adversaries have some pangs of Conscience in them For I am confident the wickedest and most seared Atheist or machiavel or doer of despight unto the Spirit of grace in the World is not totally without them that now and them pricks them as it did profane Esau who for one morsell of meat sold his birth-right and afterward when he would have inherited the blessing was rejected and found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with teares Heb 12 17. the same may be said of wicked Cain and cursed Iudas for that injustice which they have done unto me in banishing me without a Cause and thereby as much as in them lies not only destroying of me but also of my poore wife and harmeles babes Which crueltie of theirs it may be either flies in their faces for if wee sinn willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaines no more sacrifice for sin but a certaine fearfull lookeing for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devoure the adversaries and it is a fearfull and dreadfull thing to fall in wrath into the hands of the liveing God Heb. 10.26 27 31. Or they feare may be much resented and laid to heart as I know it is by the People of England of all sorts who in time it may be may make some of them smart for their unjust and barbarous dealeing with me For saith the present Lord cheife Justice St. John in his Argument of late against the Earle of Strafford printed and published by the speciall order of the house of Commons in the year 1641 pag. 43 he that would not have others to have law why should he have any himselfe why should not that be done to him that his selfe would have done to others It 's true saith he we give law to hares and deers because they be beasts of chase it was never accounted either cruelty or foule play to knock foxes and wolves on the head as they can be found because these be beasts of pray And it is a righteous and just thing both in the sight of God and man to measure unto them

knave to be a spy at Middelborow who now is forced to fly to Westminster for Shelter and render him uncapable to receive any more bills of exchange from Mr. Thomas Scot for the paying him his sallery to inable him to drinke drunke night and day to feast whore it swear rant it and domineer rather like a bedlam then a man or to send one of his sluts over to give Mr. Scot if he want it a tast of hir which kind of flesh is notoriously at Westminster knowne he loves as well as Oxford doth as well as to convey his intelligence over and to solicet him if he ly not in sicke of the French Pox to procure him a passe to come over and to meet him at Graves-end or Dover c. and to discourse with him for setling all his affairs And yet my Lord this is not all but that which is the highest of aggrevations is that all this that is done unto me and principally by your selfe is inflicted upon me without I doe avow it and upon my life dare ingage to make it good all shaddow of ground cause provocation or cullour of law or Justice For alas my Lord I was at most upon your owne principles but an accessarie and not principal And to inflict a higher and greater punishment upon me then upon Mr. Primat the principall and now to set him at liberty from his imprisonment and to keepe me still in my banishment and under the lash of my foresaid extraordinary great fine where is in England either the Law equity or justice to avow and warrant it And my LORD admit Mr. Primates Petition about which I am banished had bin all false and not proved which yet I avow to the contrary and admit it conteines in it so high things against Sr. ARTHVR HASELRIGE as if proved would have occasioned as great a sentence to him as you have given to me and therefore per legem talionis you have done by me as you have done Truly MY LORD I will joyne yssue with you there if that be your ground as by some of your members while I was in England I understood it was one of your principallest Yet remember you say in your Declarations that the Law of England is the Inheritance and birth-right of the MEANEST MAN therof as well as of the GREATEST and that you are bound in duty and conscience both to God and Man to dispense it EQUALLY to all WITHOUT FAVOUR OR AFFECTION and therfore be but just to me my Lord and I have done with you For your Attorney Generall PRIDEAUX that unbrac't Drum that makes a great sound noyse without any tune or harmony accused INDICTED me of high-treason and had 〈◊〉 tryed before about 40 judges at Guildhall London in October 1649 for my life therefore and if he had proved it against me I must have died therfore as a traytor and have forfeited all my estate And therfore by your owne rule and your owne Law of proceedings with me in my present case because he accused me could not prove it „ he ought to be hanged therefore and to forfeit 4 parts of 7 of his estate to me „ which when I was at London by common repute he was judged by his Land Postmaster-Generall-ship attorney Generall-ship and the most vast fees that he being a Parliament man OF AN UNACCOUNTABLE PARLIAMENT and thereby so great takes to plead all manner of base Causes to the threatening OUT FACEING overaweing both JUDGES Iurors and Lawyers to have incomeing thereby annually about twenty thousand pounds Although a few yeares agoe since this eternall Parliaments first sitting I could never heare he was judged to be worth two hundred Pounds per annum Now I say my Lord performe this to me I will pay you my seven-thousand-pound fine without any more to doe But besides remember also were not you My Lord at Darby-house in Cheynel-row with the Councel of State upon the 28 of March 1649 the cheife man to mannage an accusation of high-treason against me and got me committed therefore The Narrative of which in breife is conteined in the 8 9 10 11 12 pages of the second edition of the Picture of the Councel of State printed at London 1649. and yet when it came to the yssue there could never one word of it be proved all though I lay prisoner in the Tower almost a yeare there upon and therfore by your owne rule and law of proceedings with me ought not you your selfe my Lord to be HANGED therefore and to forfeit 4 parts of seven of your great estate to me therefore For shame my LORD once in your life learne to be just and remember what you said against Mr. Herbert the Kings attorney Generall in the Case of the LORD KIMBOLTON and the 5 MEMBERS 1 part of the booke of the Parliaments Declarations page 52 53 101 123 201 203 208 210 278 459 660 and give me not too much cause to picture-draw you so that all the artificial or pensil-limners in the world SHALL NOT BE ABLE TO COMPARE WITH IT You know I have a quick sharpe pen My Lord and therefore give me not cause to challenge you or any of your Champions to draw into a short Epitomy or into a larger charge all that evill that in your owne thoughts you can colourably imagine the Buyshops Starr-chamber Counsell-table High-commission or any persons therein were guilty of nay or any persons since their downe-fall by you executed for the highest of treasons tyrannyes oppressions were guilty of yet comparatis comparandis for me to aver that you outstrip them all and in particulars to undertake upon my life to make it good and that those sayings of God by the Prophet Ezekiel chap 16 48 51 52 mentioned on the Title-page may as truly and as justly be verified of you as they were of Iudah or Ierusalem that you have outstrip't comparatis comparandis all those whome you your selfe count the most wicked men that you have pulled downe „ and thereby have done in actions as much as in you lies to justifie all their wickednes „ that in words you have condemned And besides my Lord what faith what truth what honesty can be imagined to be in that man or that generation of men that by a constant series of his or their actions visiby and apparently declare he or they hold it lawfull to commit any manner of wickednes basenes whatsoever that can be named under the sunn for the accomplishment of his or their proposed end whether in it selfe it be wicked or righteous yea to cheat breake faith with and murther the nighest relations a man can converse with when they cross his ends Yea for that end onely to raise warrs upon warrs to the devastation of Kingdomes Nations The gulled cheated abused peoples lives really truly being of no more value with him or them then so many dead doggs serving him or them for no

God should suffer the Prince to follow the advice conteined in the three foresaid pages that in one three or 4 moneths after he would not give SIXE PENCE for all the Parliaments Interest in England And least I should faile of my purpose in maintaineing the peace of mine owne Conscience and my Interest among my foresaid honest Freinds in England I have for many yeares together and still doe give unto my selfe this mot to „ that honesty is the best Policy „ as being the truest most lasting and successfull ïn the world all things being truly and duly weighed and confidered from first to last In the maintaining of which I have for many yeares walked and doe resolve by the assistance of God allmighty so to doe to my dieing day all though all the sorrowes of the world should be my portion therfore And therfore it is that I have fixed my resolution „ to be irrevocably „ one of those that doe and shall hold forth such a thing to the people of England as is truly able to take of all their jealousies and feares from them that if I should get up with my Interest I intend by my selfe or by my Interest to doe that with them which the forementioned persons did when they had obteined their ends to get uppermost which was to ride the people and abuse them rather worse then those that were before them whom they had pulld downe and walke in larger way ies of wickednes then their predecessors as may be clearly seen in ABSALOM and JEHU for which God cut them short as is verified by 2 Sam 15 10 11 12 14 23. and Chap. 16 20 21. and Chap. 17. 1 2 18 23 26. and 2 Kings 10 29 30 31 32. and „ who ever shall read but the Parliaments first Remonstrance „ dated December 1641 „ printed in the first part of the booke of their declarations „ page 3 4 5 c. „ and their declaration of the 19 of May 1642 page 207 214. and their declaration of the 26 of May 1642 page 263 264 267 270. and their declaration of August 1642 page 491 492 494 496 and their Reply to the Kings answer of theirs of the 26 of May 1642 page 693. and read also their said booke page 36 342 656 660 690 and their declarations of the 6 of May 1643 and of the 17 of April 1646 in the 2 de part of the booke of their declarations „ fol 95 879 and you shall clearly find they held forth most glorious expressions to the People of regaining their „ lost Lawes liberties and freedomes „ as that which was not only their principal aime but also as that which was their obliged duty and say they „ woe be to us „ if we discharge not our duty in order to which they adjure and call out upon all those that have any sense of piety honour or compassion to come in and helpe a distressed state But they walkeing in too nigh an affinity „ to Absaloms and Iehues „ latter steps the Army layes seige unto them and tells them soundly and particularly of it and holds forth in effect the same things which they had done before them but with a great deale of more lustre and glorie then they had done As appeares by the Booke of the Armies declarations page 23 25 26 35 37 39 42 43 44. Which pages being red with seriousnes will make it clearly appeare that their words were smoother then oile nay dropped like the hony combe into the mouths of the hungry oppressed People How were their words seemingly bedewed with teares of pitty and compassion to the distressed people how did they represent their hearts divided and rent in sunder with heareing the doleful cryes and beholding the bloodie teares of the oppressed what professed gallant resolutions did the seeming deepe impressions that the peoples miseries had made upon their hearts beget in them how did they appearingly slight their estates and the injoyment of their nearest relations yea and of their dearest blood in comparison of the Peoples liberties what gallant principles of freedome and righteousnes did they then profess how lowd were their cries against all arbitrary powers whatsoever and all seekers of private and particular Interests how positive and absolute were they in their resolutions to have all the Liberties of the Nation cleared and secured how did they seeme impatient of any delaies or protraction of time What Valiant Champions did these men appeare to bee for Englands Freedome how did old English valour and undaunted courage to oppose the stoutest enemies of the Public Interest and advantage sparkle forth in them upon June 4 5 1647. When they boldly engaged in opposition to the Parliament and their special orders not to disband nor to divide nor suffer themselves to be disbanded or divided untill they had security that the free borne people of England should not be subject to the like injury oppression and abuse as had bin lately attempted to be exercised upon them Did ever the most faithfull patriots to the most noble Nation of England pass a larger engagement to their Countrie then this who could have forborne to conclude that these would have bin our worthy Ehuds of whose valour and bravery for his Country you may read in Judges the 3.12 13 14 c. that would have peirced the bowells of every oppressour and destroyer of England who could upon the sight of this engagement but imagin that these would never have given themselves rest untill they had seen the top-stone laid in the beautyous Fabric of Englands native Freedome did they not oblige themselves in this ingagement to bid defiance to every oppressor and abuser of the People in Parliament Committees amongst Iudges or Lawyers and all others whatsoever were they not hereby bound to stand like the Jewes with good Nehemiah with their swords in their hands not only untill Englands breaches were repaired but also untill the strongest possible iron gates were composed and set up to defend the Conscientious Persons Liberties and Estates of all English men from oppressors indeed could any engage to procure more perfect Freedome for the People then they did in this engagement can more be said then this that they would have security that the People should not be subjest to the like injuries or abuses as had bin attempted All men know there had bin attempts to offer all kinds and degrees of wrong and abuse to the people and therfore they promised and engaged to secure them for the future from them all Secondly how were the purest and most exact principles of Freedome and of righteousnes professed by these to be the only grounds upon which they thus engaged even against the Parliament The undefiled Law of Nature was declared to be the rule of their proceedings In their Declaration of June 14 1647. the establishment of common and equall right and Freedome to the whole Nation was promised should be their Study all purposes and designes to advance