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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	king_n	law_n	word_n	3,134	5	4.2980	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96357	Iohn White's defence. In the behalfe of himself, his honoured commander, the lieutenant of the Tower and the other his fellow warders. Against a lying and slanderous pamphlet written by Iohn Lilburne, and intitled Liberty vindicated against slavery. The author of which pamphlet, is here reprehended for his slandering, taxed for his libelling, and incited (the spirit of disaffection abandoned.) to submit himselfe to his rulers, [brace] as he is commanded. To live in unity with his fellow commanders, [brace] as he ought.	White, John, warder of the Tower.	1646 (1646)	Wing W1793B; Thomason E354_4; ESTC R201093	10,171	17

belonging to it neither is any man compelled to give any more then what he listeth but say we did take more accounting also the great care and paines we take so watch and ward all the yeare long day and night for 14. pence a day and of that we are behinde on Arrears almost five yeares some of us haveing nothing else in the world to live on but the Honourable Committee have taken Order for our better payment for the future I would intreat Master Lilburne not to adde to the wickednesse of his friend Master B. who hath already sufficiently wronged the warders and although it pleased his friend aforementioned to say that there were not above two or three in all the company that could be trusted without scruple yet it cannot be proved that ever any one of them failed in his trust or let escape any Prisoner during this dangerous time And here let the Reader take notice of the wavering and unstable minde of my accuser who in this Booke highly advanceth Magna Charta and yet in another standerous lying Libell intituled An ALARVM to the house of LORDS he tearmeth it a beggerly Law and saith also that the Laws were made by Kings to keepe men in slavery and yet the Lord Strafford and the Archhishop of Canterbury lost their heads for going about to alter them and in a Booke of his intituled The Freemans Freedome vindicated page 11. He raileth against all Power and Authority whatsoever and setteth up an absolute Anarchie His words are these A POSTSCRIPT Containing a Generall Proposition GOd the absolute Soveraigne Lord and King of things in heaven and earth the originall Fountaine and cause of all causes who is circumscribed Governed and limited by no rules doth all meerely and onely by his Soveraign and unlimited good pleasure who made the world and all things therein for his owne glory and who by his owne will and pleasure gave man his meere creature the Soveraignty under himselfe over all the rest of the Creatures Gen. 1.26 28 29. and indued him with a rationall understanding and thereby created him after his owne Image Gen. 1.26 27. and 9.6 the first of which was Adam a male man made out of the dust or clay out of whose side was taken a Rib which by the Soveraigne and absolute mighty creating power of God was made a Female or Woman call'd EVE which two are the earthly originall Fountain as begetters bringers forth of all and every particular and individuall man and woman that ever breathed in the world since who are and were by nature a like and equall in Power Dignity Majesty c. none of them having by nature any Authority Dominion or Majesteriall Power one over or above another neither have they or can they execute any but meerely by institution or donation that is to say by mutuall agreement or consent given derived or assumed by mutuall consent and agreement for the good benefit and comfort each of other and not for the mischiefe hurt or dammage of any it being unnaturall Irationall sinfull wicked and unjust for any man or men whatsoever to part with so much of their Power as shall unable any of their ☞ Parliament men Trustees Deputies Viceroyes Ministers Officers or Servants to destroy and undoe them therewith and also unnaturall unjust sinfull and divellish is it for any man whatsoever spirituall temporall Cleargy man or lay man to appropriate and assume unto himselfe power Authority and Jurisdiction to Rule Governe or Reigne over any sort of men in the world without their free consent and whosoever doth it whether Cleargie men or any other whatsoever doe thereby as much as in them lyes endeavour to appropriate and assume unto themselves the Office and Soveraignty of God who alone doth is to rule by his will and pleasure and to be like their Creator which was the sinne of the devils who not being content with their first Station but would be like God for which sinne they were throwne downe into hell reserved in everlasting chaines unto the judgement of the great day Lude v. 6. and Adams sinne it was which brought the curse upon him and all his Posterity that he was not content in the Station and condition which God had created him but did aspire to a better and more excellent namely to be like the Creator which proved his ruine yea and indeed had been the everlasting ruine and destruction of all his c. Let the wise and understanding Reader judge the Authors intention in framing the Proscript afore recited whether or no his inclination serveth not were the reines in his hand to dissolve the whole Frame of Government to set up confusion and give licence to every evill worke to be acted without controule and yet such was his boldnesse that a the taile of his Proscript he addeth his name as glorying in his Lines Thus per me IOHN LILBURNE Oh Master Lilburne if e're these lines come to your vew peruse them with patience and consider what a rash and unadvised course you have taken having been another ACHAN a troubler of Israel I remember what I once learned at Schoole nunquam sera est ad benos mores via now at length recollect your selve set forth your recantation for the past and your resolution for the future which will for the glory of God and the comfort of his Church But if this shall be hid from your eyes and the spirit of delusion have tane so sure possession on you all I can doe is to deplore your miserable condition and to pray God to open the eyes of your minde that you may see in what a Labyrinth of evils you are involved as also this I le wherein we live by your meanes and those bearing as evill a minde as your selfe was ever a Nation so miserably divided and according as one of our Modern Poets said truly in a Poem of his lately Printed Some for the Parliament partake Some for the King a party make As he is King and some that hee A Tyrant might become to be Some would a * Where the people ruled popular Estate Some * Arbitrary Government Aristocracie Create Some are a Faction for the Pope Some to maintaine the Prelats hope Some for the Presbiterians Vote Some Independencie promote Some strive for this and some for that Some neither know nor care for what So warres goe on and get they may Free Quarter Plunder and their Pay Some fight their liberties to save Some that they others might enslave Some for Religion and for Christ Some that they might doe what they list Some for the Common-wealth availe Some for themselves with Tooth and Naile And they that have the basest end As fairly as the best pretend This is our Posture and whil'st we So foolish false and factious be Or while affaires continue thus Who knowes what will become of us I have read in the Chronicles of a Speech of King HENRY the Eight to

the French Embassadour now being in hand with that glorious worke of abolishing the Popes power If your Master said he will be ruled by me we will not leave Masse in all our Kingdomes O that God would put it into the hearts of our Rulers and Governours not to leave one Heresie in the Kingdome unabollished the smallest capacities may conceive and the blindest eye may discerne that if they be not taken away it will cause God to take away his Gospell from us and prove the inevitable ruine and destruction of this Nation which hath till of late yeeres been renowned through the earth for peace and plenty and peculiarly blessed in having the Gospell sincerely preached voyd of Faction and Schisme But I hope the honourable Houses of Parliament will ere long ayded by him who hath hitherto ayded them in a wonderfull manner wipe away and leave no blemish of this great spot and manifest staine to our Nation in the mean time it were to be wished that the Framers Printers and Divulgers of Slanders Heresies and lies were by some strict course prohibited from their frequent and customary use of spreading abroad bookes and Pamphlets the contents whereof tend to the dishonour of God the breach of peace and the infecting and seducement of the people apt enough of themselves in this wavering age to fall into errours without a prompter I know this will be taken in evill part by some but let them know what a great man of this Realm once said to one that desired him to be a meanes of calling in a booke sharpely but truely rebuking the deeds of some notorious offenders that it was fit THAT THOSE THAT DID WHAT THEY SHOULD NOT SHOULD HEARE WHAT THE WOULD NOT. Was there ever a president since the worlds foundation as this that God and his Christ and his holy word should be so blasphemed and evill spoken of the King the Commons and all sorts of men so abused and railed on as now they are by Paul Best and John Lilburne the one denying the distinction of the Trinity the other averring there ought to be no subjection to any And here I cannot but wonder at the wilfull blindnesse of those men who will not be convinced of their error and in particularly Mr Lilburne who against the cleare light of nature obstinately affirmeth his imprisonment is unjust and illegall and seemeth to wonder at his usage as in his booke entituled THE FREE-MANS FREEDOM VINDICATED p. 7. where relating the manner of his owne apprehending and being brought before the Lords he hath this passage My usage to me seems strange for doing my duty in a just way c. Why should it seeme strange to any man if putting his finger in the fire it be burnt or why should it be a wonder to Master Lilburne if that for his false accusations and rebellious proceedings he be called to an account and suffer for unjust and unholy actions All Histories both Morrall and Divine relate that divers for lesse crimes then his have undergone the rigour of the Law In 88 Penree tooke the same way to stir up sedition as you doe now and suffered death as Penree in daies of Queen ELIZABETH and to my knowledge it is the feare of his best Friends that his end will be violent who persisteth without remorse from ill to ill and placeth his Felicity in casting calumnies and aspersions on the innocent as on my selfe who never wronged him in my life any way either by word or deed Did Mr Lilburne consider what a capitall crime it is before God to censure the innocent he would be more wary what he penned or published and it will be surely a blemish to the many pious actions of those who mought but were remisse to prohibit it It therefore behooveth every man the least vertuous to pray unto the Lord God that he will put into the hearts of the ever honoured Lords and Commons to remedy this evill POSTSCRIPT THus not out of any malice or former grudge I take God to witnesse have I wrote this small Tract but onely to vindicate my selfe so grossely and manifestly abused by Mr Lilburne And here perhaps some man may say and that truely that I needed not to have troubled my selfe to have put forth an answer all men knowing his lying humour and his frequent slanders are such that all wisemen count the party so much the more vertuous by how much the more he is calumniated by him but let him be pleased to consider that although his cause would have been so and no otherwise looked upon by the truely judicious yet the vulgar are apt on the least instigation to apprehend the least accusation tending to the defaming of any in Office not looking on the cause of his accusation nor the wickednesse of the party Who hath adventured his life for the Parliament at Marston more and was to be pulled out of the House when the King came for the five members his accuser As for instance how hath his lies taken impression and eate as a Canker into the honour of the right Noble the Earle of Manchester Col. King c. Therefore if those potent and honourable persons could not shake him off without some dammage what could I have looked for if I had sate still and not answered his false accusation And here I cannot but take notice of one passage which Master Lilburne hath in a Letter annexed to his Treatise as if penned by some other man entituled An excellent Letter written by a prisoner to a worthy member of the House of Commons his words are these O where is Justice may not those Royall plunderers as well justifie all the House of Peeres these imprisonments and commitments Let the Reader reading this admire at the unheard of impudence of this man who sticketh not to compare the Acts of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament to be as illegall and unjust sinfull and execrable as the worst of the Royall party Marke how this man maketh the Word of God his rule who commandeth not to speake evill of Dignities muchlesse to affront and vilifie them falsely and on no ground save malice and when they are taxed or suffer the least for their exorbitancies cry out Magna Charta is broken and unheard of cruelties are used the subject is enslaved and brought into Egyptian bondage And yet these men and in particular Mr Lilburne would make the world believe that this is the way that he Word of God alloweth which if it be as every good man will acknowledge how comes it to passe that he and his complices transgresse therefrom He lieth at home every Sabbath if never so good a man do preach venting their own corrupt doctrine in Houses and obscure places contrary to the example of our Saviour who delivered nothing in secret save those things which he had himselfe ordained the Jewes for their wickednesse should not participate of and that so the Scriptures might be fulfilled but else how often is it said And he sate down in the middest of the people and taught them not in houses and corners For my owne part in tempory affaires and as concerning the execution of my duty wherein I am intrusted I dare any man Religious to utter the worst he can of me and for Mr Lilburne he in standering me hath not detracted from my reputation but sinned against himselfe FINIS