other Presbyterian books licenced by publike authority and others sold without controule there be no more said to justifie and maintain that which Gangrena calles Vtopian Anarchy then in any bookes whatsoever published by these he calles Sectaries Thirdly whether or no that out of my own words in my booke called INNOCENCIE AND TRVTH JVSTIFIED there can any thing be drawn to justifie the Lords in that which now I condemn them in as Gangrena affirmes pag. 157 158. For the first see what the ninth Chapter of Magna Charta saith No freeman shall he taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his free hold or Liberties or free Customes or be outlawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed nor we will not passe upon him nor condemn him but by lawfull judgment of his PEERS or by the Law of the Land See the 3. of E. 1. ch 6. And that no City Borough or Towne nor any man be amerced wiithout reasonable cause and according to the quantity of his trespasse 9. H. 3. 14. that is to say every free man saving his freehold a Merchant saving his Merchandise a villain saving his waynage and that by his or their Peers Now here is the expresse Law of the Land against the Lords jurisdiction over Commons in criminall cases Now in the second place let us see what one of the ablest expositors of the Law that ever writ in England saith of this very thing and that is Sir Edward Cooke in his exposition of Magna Charta 2. part institutes which book is published by two speciall orders of the present House of Commons as in the last page thereof you may read who in his expounding the 14 Chapter of Magna Charta p. 28. saith Peers signifies Equalls and pag. 29. he saith the generall division of persons by the Law of England is either one that is noble and in respect of his nobility of the Lords House in Parliament or one of the Commons of the Realms and in respect thereof of the House of Commons in Parliament and as there be divers degrees of Nobility as Dukes Marquesses Earles Viscounts and Barrons and yet all of them are comprehended within this word PARES so of the Commons of the Realme there be Knights Esquires Gentlemen Citizens Yeomen and Burgesses of severall degrees and yet all of them of the COMMONS of the Realme and as every of the Nobles is one Peere to another though he be of a severall degree so is it of the Commons and as it hath been said of men so doth it hold of Noble-women either by birth or by marriage but see hereof Chap. 29. And in Chap. 29 pag. 46. Ibim he saith no man shall be disseised that is put out of â—eison or dispossessed of his freehold that is Lands or livelihood or his liberties or free Customs that is of such franchises and freedoms and free Customs as belong to him by his birth-right unlesse it be by lawfull judgment that is verdict of his equalls that is men of his own condition or by the Law of the Land that is to speake it once for all by the due course and processe of Law No man shall be in any sort destroyed to destroy id est what was first built and made wholly to overthrow and pull downe unlesse it be by the verdict of his equalls or according to the Law of the Land And so saith he is the sentence neither will we passe upon him to be understood but by the judgment of his Peers that is equalls or according to the Law of the Land see him page 48. upon this sentence per judicium Parium suorum and page 50. he saith it was inacted that the Lords and Peers of the Realme should not give judgment upon any but their Peers and cites Rot. Parl. 4. E. 3. nu 6. but making inquiry at the Record-Office in the Tower I had this which followes from under the hand of Mr. William Colet the Record-Keeper Out of the Roll of the Parliament of the fourth yeare of Edward the third THE FIRST ROLL Records and Remembrances of those things which were done in the Parliament summoned at Westminster on Munday next after the Feast of Saint Katherine in the yeare of the reigne of King Edward the third from the Conquest the fourth delivered into the Chancery by Henry de Edenstone Clerk of the Parliament THese are the Treasons Felonies Wickedensses The judgement of Roger de Mortimer done to our Lord the King and his people by Roger de Mortimer and others of his confederacie First of all whereas it was ordained at the Parliament of our Lord the King which was held next after his coronation at Westminster that foure Bishops foure Earles and six Barons should abide neere the King for to counsell him so alwayes that there may be foure of them viz. one Bishop one Earle and two Barons at the least And that no great businesse be done without their assent and that each of them should answer for his deeds during his time After which Parliament the said Roger Mortimer not having regard to the said assent took upon himself Royall power and the government of the Realm and encroacht upon the State of the King and ousted and caused to be ousted and placed Officers in the Kings House and else-where throughout the Realm at his pleasure of such which were of his mind and placed John Wyard and others over the King to espy his actions and sayings so that our Lord the King was in such manner environed of such as that he would not doe any thing at his pleasure but was as a man which is kept in Ward Also whereas the Father of our LORD the KING was at Kenilworth by ordinance and assent of the Peeres of the Land there to stay at his pleasure for to be served as becommeth such a Lord the sayd Roger by Royall power taken unto himselfe did not permit him to have any money at his will and ordered that hee was sent to Barkly Castle where by him and his he was traiterously and falsly murthered and slain But that which is to my purpose is Roll the second being the judgement of Sir Simon de Bereford which verbatim followeth thus THE SECOND ROLL ALso in the same Parliament our Lord the King did charge the said Earles and Barons to give right and lawfull judgement as appertained to Simon de Bereford Knight who was aiding and counselling the said Roger de Mortimer in all the treasons felonies and wickednesses for the which the foresaid Roger so was awarded and adjudged to death as it is a known and notorious thing to the said Peeres as to that which the King intends The which Earles Barons and Peeres came before our Lord the King in the same Parliament and said all with one voyce that the foresaid Simon was not their Peere wherefore they were not bound to judge him as a Peere of the Land But because it is a notorious thing and known to all that
other cause but for standing for the Fundamentall Lawes of England which if he had not an absolute desire to be notoriously forsworn he might know his Covenant binds him to doe the same But seeing he there playes the simple man to fight with his own shadow and doth not in the least meddle for any thing I can perceive by so much as I have read of his Book which so near as I could find was every place where I was mentioned with the Statutes and other Legall Authorities as I cite in my wives petition and else-where to prove That all the Commoners of England ought in all criminall cases to be tryed by their Peeres that is Equals and that the House of Lords in the least are not the Peeres of Commoners And therefore seeing seemingly by that ulcerous book he hath given me something to answer that concerns me I will really and substantially give him something to answer that in good earnest concerneth him and all the rest of his bloody-minded pretended reformed fellow-Clergy Presbyters that lying deceitfull forsworn and bloody Sect of whom it is true that the Prophet said of the Prophets of old That they make the people to erre and bite with their teeth and cry peace and he that putteth not into their mouthes they even prepare warre against him Micah 3.5 And that at present I have to put to him to answer shall be certain Arguments which I made when I was close prisoner in irons in the Fleet against the then Episcopall Ministers of the Church of England and will serve in every particular against the present Presbyteriall Ministers and you shall find them thus laid down in the 23. page of my Book called An Answer to 9. Arguments written by T. B. and printed at London 1645. First Thtt every lawfull Pastor Bishop Minister or Officer in the visible Church of Christ ought to have a lawfull call and be lawfully chosen into his Office before he can be a true Officer in the Church of Christ Acts 1.23 24 25. 6.3.5 6. 14.23 Gal. 1.1 Heb. 5.4 But the Ministers and Officers in the Church of England as well Presbyterian as Episcopall have not a lawfull call neither are lawfully chosen to be officers in the Church of Christ See the Book of Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons as also the Directory and compare them with the Scripture Therefore all your Ministers are false and Antichristian Officers Rev. 9.3 and 13.2 and 16.13 Secondly the doing of those actions that belong to the execution of an Office doth not prove a man to be a lawfull Officer but a lawfull power instating him into his Office Acts. 8.4.11.19.20 and 18.24 25 26. 1 Cor. 14.29 30 31. 1 Pet. 4.10 But all the Ministers in the Church of England have nothing to prove the lawfulnesse of their standing in the Ministery but the actions of a Minister and are not in the least able to prove that they are instated into their Ministery by vertue of a lawfull power and authority Therefore they are no true Ministers of Christ but false and Antichristian Ministers of Antichrist Thirdly againe in the third place upon your own grounds I frame this Argument Those that by their Ministery do not accomplish the same ends that the Ministery of the Apostles did are no true Ministers But the Ministers of the Church of England do not accomplish the same ends by their Ministery that the Ministery of the Apostles did 1 Cor. 11.2 Therefore your Ministers are no true Ministers of Iesus Christ But Gangrena one word more at present to you seeing in the 217.218 pages of your late 3. Gangrena you fall so exceeding heavie upon me and my honest Camerade Mr. Overton and say that these 2. audacious men their dareing bookes shall escape without exemplary punishment and instead thereof be countenanced and set free I do as a Minister pronouncae but I say it is as one of Sathans that the plague of God will fall upon the heads of those that are the cause of it Come Antagonist let us come to a period for I hope for all your mallice you are not yet so farre gone beyond your selfe as to desire to have me hanged or killed and then condemned and adjudged and therefore I will make you 2. faire propositions First in reference to the Lords whose Goliah and Rabshaca-like Champion you are that if you please to joyne with me in a desire to both Houses I will so far go below my selfe and my present appeale now in the House of Commons alwayes provided it may be no prejudice to the benefit I justly expect from my said appeale and joyne with you in this desire that there may be by both Houses a proportionable number thereof mutually by themselves chosen out to set openly and publickly in the painted Chamber where I will against you by the established Lawes of this Land maintaine against you and all the Lawyers you can bring this position which is absolutely the contest betwixt the Lords and me THAT THE LORDS AS A HOVSE OF PEERS HATH NO JVRISDISCTION AT ALL OVER ANY COMMONER IN ENGLAND IN ANY CRIMINALL CASE WHATSOEVER and if you will I will wholly as in reference to the contest betwixt you and me stand to the vote and abide the judgement and sentence of that very Committee whose vote upon the fore-mentioned tearmes if you will tye your selfe I will tye my selfe either actively to execute or passively to suffer and undergo it In the second place because so farre as I am able to understand your meaning in your fore-mentioned pages you would have me dealt withall as the Earle of Strafford and the Bishop of Canterbury was for indeavouring as you say with so much violence the overthrow of the three Estates and the Lawes of the Kingdome and in the stead of the fundamentall Government and constitution of this Kingdome to set up an Vtopian Anarchy of the promiscuous multitude and the lusts and uncertaine fancies of weake people for Lawes and Rules Now in regard of the distractions of the Kingdome which are many and that they might not be made wider by new bookes from either of us I shall be very willing for peace and quiets sake to joyne with you in a Petition to the House of Commons to appoint a select Committee publickly to examin all things that are a misse in your bookes and myne and to punish either or both according to Law and Iustice without partiality and I appeale to all rationall men in the world whether I have not offered fayre or no. But in regard I know not whether you will imbrace my proffer I shall speake a little more for my selfe and reduce all to these three heads First whether the Lords have by the known Law of the Land any jurisdiction of the Commons or no Secondly whether in the Parliaments own publick declarations in Mr. Prinns soveraigne power of Parliaments and in the Assemblies exhortation to the solemn legall Covenant and
THE Oppressed Mans Oppressions declared OR An Epistle written by Lieut. Col. JOHN LILBURN Prerogative-prisoner by the illegall and arbitrary Authority of the House of Lords in the Tower of London to Col. Francis West Lieutenant thereof In which the oppressing cruelty of all the Gaolers of England is declared and particularly the Lieutenants of the Tower As also there is thrown unto Tho. Edwards the Author of the 3. Vlcerous Gangraenes a bone or two to pick In which also divers other things are handled of speciall concernment to the present times Prov. 21.7 The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them because they refuse to do judgment Prov. 21.15 It is joy to the just to do judgment and chap. 29.10 The blood-thirsty hate the upright but the just seek his soule SIR IT is the saying of the Spirit of GOD in the 12. Prov. 10. That a righteous mâ—n regardeth the life of his Beast but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruell How far your actions and carriages with me that am more then a Beast have been point-blank contrary to the first part of that divine Sentence but consonant to the conclusion of it is very easie to demonstrate with Pen and Ink to the â—…ew of the World and as facill to your face before any competent Judges to justifie and prove And this is the Theme I have chosen a little to insist upon at this present time but being resolved to be as concise as I may I shall not now make any ample repetition of your harsh dealing with me at the first in divorcing me by the Law of your own Will from my Wife and getting the Lords to make an Order to bear you out in it after you had done it and that I should speak with none of my friends but in the presence and hearing of my Keeper c. Which cruell Order meerly obtained and got by your solicitation the Reader may read in the 35. p. of Vox Plebis Therfore in regard that the Author of that book hath pretty wel discovered your cruel and illegal dealing with me at my first coming to the Tower especially in the 45 46 47 48 49 pages thereof And the Author of the said book called Regal tyrannie discovered in the 48 49 pages And my self hath pretty well laid it open in the 16 17 18 20. pages of my printed Relation before the Committee of the honourable house of Commons Novemb. 6. 1646 called An Anatomy of the Lords tyrannie to which I refer the Reader and in regard you are not ashamed of your cruel and illegal carriages towards me but persevere in them as though you would justifie one tyrannie with backing it with continual acts of tyrannie I shal therfore go on as effectually and punctually as I can more fully to anatomise you and your unjust illegal cruel and unrighteous dealing with me and for matter of fact shal say nothing to your charge but what I will justifie before any legal Authority in England But in the first place I desire to let you understand that I am a free-born English-man and have lived a legall man thereof all my dayes being never yet convicted of any attempt or design undertaken or countenanced by me that did tend to the subversion of the Fundamentall Lawes and Constitutions thereof but have alwayes sided with the Parl. it self who hath preteÌ„ded nothing so much as the preservatioÌ„ of the laws liberties Fundamental Freedoms of EnglaÌ„d and the peace and tranquility of the people as you may read in their own Declarations 1 part col Dâ—â— pag. 172 195 214 281 342 464 498 663 666 673 750. for the preservation of which I have constantly couragiously and as freely advetured my life as any of themselues what ever he be And therfore in every particular have just and grounded cause to expect the utmost priviledge and benefit that the Law of England will afford any man whatever that is under the obedience and subjection thereof Nay moreover having to do with those men as my Judges that made all or the most of these Declarations and who have also declared it lyes not in their power to inslave or invasalize the people being trusted for their good not for their mischief to provide for their weal but not for their woe 1 part Col. dec pag. 150. 214. 266. 267. 494. 497. 636. 659. 660. 694. 696. and who in these and other of their own Declarations imprecate and pray that the wrath and vengeance of Heaven and Earth may fall upon them and theirs when they cease actually to performe what verbally they there declare unto which I say AMEN And there they protest vow and swear they will maintain the fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of the people and therefore in that tespect you cannot groundedly in the least think that I should Issacar-like stoope willingly unto any other burthens impositions or Commands layd upon me by you or any other whatsoever that are not warrantable and justifiable by the fundamentall Lawes of the Land and whether your practises have been so with me I will compare them to the Law and leave every rationall man to judge First I do not finde any Law that makes Prisons places of execution punishment or torment but onely places of safe custody for the Law of England as Sir Edward Cooke in the second part of his institutes fol. 28. excellently declares is a Law of mercy yet as he then said so I much more say now it is now turned into a meer shaddow which is the most we now enjoy of it and therefore as the author of the late booke called Liberty vindicated against Slavery very wel saith p. 7. from Sir Ed. Cook in the 1. part of his instit f. 260. that by Law prisons are ordained not for destruction but for securing of mans persons until they be brought forth unto due speedy tryal for being in prison they are under the most especiall protection of the Law and the most tender care thereof and are therefore to be humanly courteously and in all Civility ordered and used otherwise Goalers are not Keepers but tormentors and executioners of men untryed and uncondemned but this were not salvo custodire to keepe men in safety weich the Law implyes and is all it requires but destruere to destroy before the time which the Law abhors and detests yea and that prisoners though never so notorious in their crimes may be the more honestly and carefully provided for and the better and more civilly used and to the end that Goalers and Keepers of prisons should not have any colour or excuse for exacting any thing from prisoners under what colour or pretence soever whether the same be called fees or Chamber-rent who are in custody of the Law It is provided and declared by the Law that all Prisons and Goales what ever be the Kings for the publike good and therefore are to be repaid and furnished as prisons at the common Charge see Cooke on the
1. E. 2. Statutum de frangentibus prisonum in his 2. part institutes fol. 589. and on the 26. Chap. of Magna Charta fol. 74. Ibem and on the statute of Westminster The first Chap. 26. fol. 209. 210. Ibem Yea and the Law takes care that in case the prisoner when he is in prison have no meanes of his own to live upon that then by the publike he is to be maintained 14. Eliz. 5.21 Iames 28. Vox Plebis pag. 57. for a freeman of England as I am is not brought to prison to be starved with cold or hunger but to the end justice upon him may be done The prison at most in Law is but a safe preserver but not a distroyer of the prisoner who with all convenient speed according to Law is to come to his tryall and either according unto Law to be condemned or else to be delivered in convenient time without delay 4 E. 3. 2. See my answer to Mr. Pryn called Innocency and Truth justified pag. 32. who by Law is never to remaine in prison above 6. moneths at most for Goale deliveries are by the 4. E. 3. 2. to be kept and made 3. times a yeare which is once in foure moneths and oftener if need shall be And as the authour of Vox Plebis pag. 55. saith out of Stamf. pl. Cor. f. 30. Imprisonment by Law is neither ought to be no more then a bare restraint of Liberty without those illegall distinctions of close and open imprisonment and therefore Bracton fo 18. saith that if a Goaler keepe his prisoner more close then of right he ought whereof the prisoner dieth this is fellony in the Goaler And Horne in the mirrour of Justice pag. 288. saith that it is an abusion of the Law that prisoners are put into Irons or other paine before they are attainted And pag. 34. 36. he reckons the sterving of prisoners by famine to be among the crimes of homicide in a Goaler And we finde in the 3. E. 3. Fitz. H. Tit. pl. Cor. 295. that it was fellony at Common Law in Goalers to compell their prisoners by hard imprisonment to become approvers whereby to get their goods which Law is since confirmed by the statute of 14. E. 3. Chap. 10. with some inlargement as to under keepers of prisons and the penalty of the Law and that Goalers having done this have been hanged for it you may read 3. E. 3. 8. Northampton Fitzh pl. Cor. 295. and else-where but this for a tast to them In the second place I will tell you what the Law saith about Goalers Fees The mirrour of Justice pag 28â— tells us that it is an abusion of the Law that prisoners or others for them pay any thing for their entries into the Goale or for their goings out this is the Common Law there is no fee at all due to any Goalers whatsoever by the common Law See what the Statutes say The statute of Westminster 1. Chap. 26. being the 3. E. 1. 26. saith that no Sheriffe nor other the Kings Officer take any reward to do his Office but shall be paid of that which they take of the King and he that so doth shall yeeld twice as much and shall be punished at the Kings pleasure under which word Officer is concluded Goaler Coronor c. so Sir Edward Cooke 2. part institutes fol. 209. Stamf. pl. Cor. 49. nay by the statute of 4. E. 3 10. Goalers are to receive theeves and fellons taking nothing by way of fees for the receipt of them so odious is this extortion of Goalers that very theeves and fellons are exempt from payment of fees It is true that by an incroaching statute upon our liberties made in the 23. H. 6. 10. there is a fee given to the Goaler to be paid him by his prisoner but yet it is very small the words of the statute are these nor that any of the said Officers and Ministers by occasion or under colors of their Office shall take any other thing by them nor by any other person to their use profit or availe of any person by them or any of them to be arrested or attached nor of any other of them for the omitting of any arrest or attachment to be made by their body or of any person by them or of any of them by force or colour of their Office arrested or attached for fine fee suit of prison mainprise letting to baile or shewing any ease for favour to any such person so arrested or to be arrested for their reward or profit but such as follow that is to say for the Sheriffe 20. d the Bayliffe which maketh the arrest or attachment 4. d and the Gaoler if the prisoner be committed to his ward four pence and that the Sheriffe under-Sheriffe Sheriffes Clerk Steward or Bayliffe of Franchise Seruant or Bayliffe or Coroner shal not take any thing by colour of his office by him nor by any other person to his use of any person for the making of any return or pannell and for the copy of any pannel but 4. d And it followes in the same Statute that all Sheriffes under-Sheriffes Clerks Bayliffes Goalers Coroners Stewards Bayliffes of Franchises or any other Officers or Ministers which do contrary to this Ordinance in any point of the same shall lose to the party in this behalf indammaged or grieved his treble dammages and shall forfeit the sum of 40. l at every time they or any of them do the contrary thereof in any point of the same whereas the King shall have the one half to be employed in the use of the house and in no otherwise and the party that shall sue the other half But as Sir Edward Cook well observes on the 25. chap. of Magna Charta 2. part Institut fol. 74. after the rule of the Common-Law was altered and that the Sheriffe Coroner Goaler and other the Kings Ministers might in some case take of the subject it is not credible what extortions and oppressions have hereupon ensued So dangerous a thing it is to shake or alter any of the Rules or Fundamental points of the Common-Law which in truth are the main Pillars and Supporters of the Fabrick of the Common-wealth as else-where I haue noted more at large viz. fol. 51 210 249. ibim see the Preface to the 4. part of his Reports and the 4 part of his Institutes cap. of the High Court of Parliament f. 41. Now sir having laid this sure foundation I will assume the boldnesse to compare your dealings with mee to the fore-mentioned rules that the Law prescribes you And first to matter of usage you know very well you of your own head at first kept my wife from me and made me a close prisoner as in the fore-mentioned bookes pag. â—… is truly declared And then secondly although you could not but know that by the Lords c. in the Star-Chamber I for about four years together before this Parliament under-went a great destruction
by them both in my body goods and trade and since this Parliament have spent many hundred pounds to obtain my just reparations besides other great losse I have had yet have not got a penny and being a younger brother and in Land have not 6. d incoming in the year and being robbed of my trade calling and livelyhood by the Merchant-Monopolizers so that I could not with freedome transport one Cloth into the Low-countries to get any lively-hood thereby all which above a year agoe I was necessitated publikely to declare in answer to William Pryns lyes and falshoods in my book called Innocency and Truth justified which there you may read especially in pag. 39 43 47 48 62 65 75. and how being committed to your custody in the Tower the chargeablest Prison this day in all England and where I am denyed the just and legal usage and allowance that the King himself used to allow all prisoners committed to this place although those that had great estates of their own into their own hands and possession whose allowance was to find them diet lodging and pay their fees Vox Plebis p. 50 56. 57. Nay when I came in and desired you that I might have my diet from my wife out of the town which I did for two reasons First for safety having heard much of sir Thomas Overburies being poysoned when he was a prisoner in the Tower Secondly for the saving of money which stood me much upon but you absolutely denied me that legal and just priviledge and tyed me either to fast or haue my diet from the Cookes in the Tower Thirdly being thus committed to this extraordinary chargeable expensive place and being in so mean a condition as I must ingeniously confesse I was you took in the third place the ready way to sterve destroy me and of your own head ordered your Warders to take the names and places of habitation of all those that came to see me or speak with me a destructive bug-bear to any captived prisoner which the Law of England doth not in the least authorize and inable you to do but this was not all but in the fourth place my friends though they gave their names were by your Warders set on by your self for upon your score I must and do lay it all exceedingly in words abused and divers of them turned away and not suffered to come and speak with me O bloody and cruell man what is this else but an absolute Declaration of your resolved intention to destroy me in my imprisonment under your custody which the Law abhors but if for the sake of the Law or for my sake you will not square your dealings with me according to the known and declared law of the kingdome then for your own sake I desire you to remember your Predecessour Sir Gervase Elmayes who was indicted by the name of Gaoler of the Tower of London and hanged upon Tower-hill for consenting to the poysoning of Sir Thomas Overbury Vox Plebis pag. 48. In the fifth place seeing by all the fore-mentioned wayes meanes you could not scare all my friends from me and so by consequence destroy me Then you devise another way and set one of your old Mastive dogs upon me to baite and to worry me with lyes reproaches and calumniations and for that end printed and published a most base scandalous book against me thereby to make me odious to all men whatsoever that would believe that book which was published against me at such a time when by your self my hands were fast tyed behind my back being kept by your order very strictly from Pen Ink and Paper and so in a condition unable publikely to vindicate my self and much importunity was I forced to use to your selfe before I could obtain leave from you to answer it and necessitated to tye my selfe by promise to such and such conditions and amongst the rest that you should read it all over before it was published And I for my part performed my promise and was necessitated to give the originall into your hands in such haste that I could not take a Copy of it out of whose hands I could not get it til I was in some respect necessitated to an arbitration and being not able to doe what I would for my own vindication I was in a manner compelled by you to be content with what I could do which was to accept a submission from him for my wounded rent and torn reputation by him although if I could have accomplished what I desire I should first have published my answer to his lyes and then if he had had a miâ—â— put it to arbitration but necessity hath no other Law but a stooping to it but I was in hope that I should have found so much candor and ingenuity in you and your Agent old John White aâ— that I should not have had the like abuseâ— from you after that arbitration that I had before it from you both but in regard that he at the gaâ—â—… as my friends informe me doth not cease in his rancour and venim against me I must be necessitated to publish my answer to him especially seeing as I conceive Thos Edwards the cankered Gangrena 〈◊〉 joyâ—â—â— in confederacy with him But â—o this prâ—â—â—â—â—… I shall 〈…〉 with the inserting of his recantation or acknowledgment and referre the Reader for a full relation of that arbitration to the 59 60 61 62 63 pages of my late book called Londons Liberty in Chains discovered the aforesaid acknowledgment thus followeth I John White one of the Warders of the Tower of London doe acknowledge that I have unjustly wronged Lieut. Col. John Lilburn in and by writing and publishing in print in such sort as I did that he was the Writer Author or Contriver of a book called Liberty vindicated against Slavery and of a printed letter thereunto annexed and of a Book or Treatise called An Alarum to the House of Lords for all which and for the unjust and scandalous matters and language alleadged and used by me in my said booke reflecting upon the said Lieut. Col. Lilburn I am heartily sorry and in testimony thereof I haue hereunto subscribed my hand the 8. day of October 1646. Iohn VVhite Subscribed pronounced and accepted the 9. Day of October 1646. in the presence of us John Strangewayes Lewis Dyves John Glanvil William Morton Henry Vaughan Knights Christopher Comport Warder in the Tower Sixthly after all this by meanes of my wifes Petition which was delivered to the house of Commons 23. Septemb. 1646 and which you may read in the last mentioned book pap 65 66 67 68 c. by means of which there was a Committee of the honourable house of Commons appointed to hear and receive my complaint against the Lords and the 6. of Novemb. 1646. was the last time I was before the Committee where I had an opportunity in part to declare unto them your illegal dealing with me which Declaration you may
the aforesaid Simon was aiding and counselling the said Roger in all the treasons felonies and wickednesses abovesaid the which things are an usurpation of Royall power Murther of the Liege Lord and destruction of Blood-Royall and that he was also guilty of divers other felonies and robberies and a principall maintainer of robbers and felons the said Earles Barons and Peeres did award and judge as Judges of Parliament by the assent of the KING the same Parliament that the said Simon as a traitor and enemy of the Realm be drawn and hanged And thereupon it was commanded to the Martiall to doe execution of the said judgement The which execution was done and performed the Munday next after the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle In the same Roll. And it is assented and agreed by our Lord the King Agreement not to bee drawn into example and all the Grandees in a full Parliament that albeit the said Peeres as Judges of Parliament took upon them in the presence of our Lord the King to make and give the said judgement by the assent of the King upon some of them which were not their Peeres and that by reason of the murder of the Liege Lord and destruction of him which was so new of the Blood-Royall and sonne of the King that therefore the said Peeres which now are or the Peeres which shall be for the time to come be not bound or charged to give judgement upon others then upon their Peeres nor shall doe it But let the Peeres of the Land have power but of that for ever they be discharged and acquit and that the aforesaid judgement now given be not drawn into example or consequent for the time to come by which the said Peeres may be charged hereafter to judge others then their Peeres against the Law of the Land if any such case happen which God defend Agreeth with the Record WILLIAM COLET It is the saying of the spirit of God Eccle. 4.9.12 two are better than one and a threefold cord is not easily broken so that to prove my position true for all the Rabshaca Language of Gangrena I have first the fundamentall Law point blank on my side and 2. the Judgment of one of the ablest Lawyers that ever writ in England and his Judgment authorised as good and sound by the present House of Commons to be published to the view of the whole Kingdome and 3. the Lords own confession for if you marke well the 2. last lines of the forecited record you shall finde they ingeniously confesse and declare that it it against the Law of the Land for them to judge a Commoner and for further confirmation of this reade Vox Plebis pag. 18. 19. 36 37 38 39 40 41 42. 44. 45. But if the Vlcerous Gangrena please to read a late printed booke called Regall Tyranny discovered he shall finde that the author of that Book in his 43 44 45 46 47 86. pages lays down many strong arguments to prove That the House of Lords have no Legislative power at all And in his 94 95 96 97. pages he declares proves That before Will the Conqueror subdued the rights and priviledges of Parliaments the King and the Commons held and kept Parliaments without temporall Lords Bishops or Abbots The two last of which he proves had as true and as good a right to sit in Parliament as any of the present Lords now sitting at Westminster either now have or ever had For the second thing which is Whether or no there be not in the present Parliaments Declarations and in the Assemblies exhortation to take the Covenant and in Mr. Prynnes Soveraigne power of Parliaments and other Presbyterian books publickly licenced and others sold without controll as much if not more said to set up or maintain that which Gangrena calls Vtopian Anarchy then in any Book what ever published by those he calls Sectaries And I averre it positively There is and shall joyn issue with Gangrena to prove it in every particular Therefore let him publish an exact Catalogue of any of our Positions when he pleaseth and I doubt not but to make it evident that it cannot justly by them be counted any vice in us to tread in their steps especially seeing they have accounted them so full of piety truth and honesty as they have done Now first for the Parliaments Declarations read but the Kings answers to them and you shall easily see he layes it as deeply to their charge of endevouring to set up Anarchy as Gangrena doth either to mine or Mr. Overtons yea and instances the particulars and tels them plainly The Arguments they use against him will very well in time serve the people to turn against themselves And as for Mr. Prynnes Soveraigne power of Parliaments I never read more of that Doctrine in any Book in all my life that Gangrena so much condemnes in me c. then in that very Book which is licenced by Mr. White a member of the House of Commons and in his dayes as stiffe a Presbyterian as Gangrena himselfe See his 1. part Sover pag. 5 7 8 9 19 26 29 34 35 36 37. But especially 42 43 44 47 57 92. And 2. part pag. 41 42 43 44 45 46. 73 74 75 76 3. part 11 12 13 14 15 16 17. 61 62 63 64 65. 131 132 133. And 4. part pag. 10 11 15 16. See his Appendix there unto pag. 1 2 3 4 5 and 11 12. 13 c. Besides these see the first and second part of the Observations Maximes unfolded the case of Ship-money briefly discoursed A new Plea for the Parlement A fuller Answer to a Treatise written by Dr. Fern with divers others Now for the third thing which is the tryumph Gangrena makes in his 3 part Gangrena pag. 158. which is that in my book called Innocency and Truth justified which I published the last year 1645. I give that to the Lords which now I in 1646. in many wicked Pamplets would take away from them such new light saith he hath the successe of the new modell and the recruit of the house of Commons brought to the Sectaries Well I will the man stand to this if hee will then I desire the impartiall Reader to judge betwixt us and turn to the 11 12 36 37 74. pages of that book in which pages is contained all that any way makes to his purpose or else turn to the 157 pag. of his book and see if in all my words there quoted by him there is any thing that carryes the shadow of giving that to the Lords that now I would take from them for there I am a reasoning with Mr. Pryn or the house of Commons not upon my principles but their own And therefore I say a Committee of the house of Commons is not the whole Parliament no nor the whole house of Commons it self according to their own principles which is the only clause he can fix
Justice which the Law of England affords me which is all I crave or stand in need of no longer to wait upon the destructive seasons of prudentiall men but forthwith to make a formal Appeal to all the Commons of the Kingdome of England and Dominion of Wales and set my credit upon the tenters to get money to print 20000. of them and send them gratis to all the Counties thereof the ingredients of which shall be filled with the Parliaments own Declarations and Arguments against the King turned upon themselues and their present practise and with a little Narrative of my Star-chamber tyrannicall sufferings and those I haue there to complain of are first Dr. Lamb Guin and Aliot for committing me And 2. Lord-Keeper Coventry Lord Privie-Seal Manchester that corruptest of men whose unworthy Son is now and hath been for some years the chiefe Prosecutor of my ruine for no other cause but that I have been honest valiant and faithfull in discharging the trust reposed in me which he himself was not my L. Newburgh old Sir Henry Vane a man as full of guilt as any is in England whose basenesse unworthinesse I shall anatomize to the purpose the L. chiefe Justice Bramston Judg Jones who sentenced me to the Pillory and to be whipt c. And then 3. Canterbury Coventry Manchester Bishop of London E. of Arundel Earl of Salisbury Lord Cottington L. Newburgh Secretary Cook Windebanke who sentenced me to ly in irons and to be starved in the prison of the Fleet With a short Narrative of my usage by Lords and Commons this present Parliament and conclude with a Declaration of what is the end wherefore Parliaments by law ought should be called which is to redresse mischiefes grievances c. but not to increase them 4. E. 3. 14. 36. E. 3. 10. to provide for the peoples weal but not for their woe Book Declar. 1. part pag. 150. and yet notwithstanding all the trust reposed in them and all the Protestations they have in their publique Declarations made faithfully without any private aimes or ends of their own to discharge it And notwithstanding all the bloud and money that hath been shed and spent at their beck and commands I would fain have any of them to instance me any one Act or Ordinance since the wars begun that they have done or made that is for the universall good of the Commons of England who have born the burthen of the day Sure I am they have made several Ordinances to establish Monopolies against the Fundamental Lawes of the Kingdom and thereby haue robbed free-men of their trades and liveli-hoods that at their command have been abroad a fighting for maintaining the Law and in practise annihilated Magna Charta and the Petition of Right So that a man though of their own Party may perish if committed by a Parliament-man or Parliament men hefore he can get the Judges to grant an Habeas Corpus to bring him and his cause up to their Bar there to receive a tryal secùndum legem terrae that is according to the Law of the Land although the Judges be sworn by their oathes to doe it So Sir desiring you seriously to consider of the premises which I could not conveniently send you but in print I rest Your abused Prisoner who is resolved to turn all the stones in England that lye in his way but he wil have right and justice against you JOHN LILBURN semper idem From my illegall and chargeable captivity in Cole-harbour in the Tower of London this 30 Jan. 1646. FINIS