power of Parliaments and in the Assemblies exhortation to take the solemn League and Covenant and other Presbyterian bookes licenced by publicke authority and others fold without controule there be not more said to justifie and maintaine that which Gangraena calls Utoplan Anarchy then in any bookes whatsoever published by these be calls Sectaries Thirdly whether or no that out of my owne words in my booke called INNOCENCY AND TRVTH IVSTIFIED there can any thing be drawn to iustifie the Lords in that which now I condemne them in as Gangraen a affirmes pag. 159. 148. For the first see what the 29. Chapter of Magne Charta saith No free-man shall be 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 wee will not passe upon him nor condemn him but by lawfull judgement of his PEERS or by the Law of the Land See the 3. of E. 1. ch 6. And that no Citie Borough nor Town nor any man be amerced without reasonable cause and according to the quantity of his trespasse 9. H. 3. 14. that is to say every free man saving his free hold 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 booke is published by two speciall orders of the Present Houser of Commons as in the last page thereof you may read who in his expounding the 1â— Chapter of Magna Charta pag. 28 saith Peers signâ—…e Eâ—…lls and pag. 29. be saith the generall divâ—sion 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 Realm 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 ward PARES so of the Commons of the Realme there be Knights Esquires Gentle-men Citizens Yeomen and Burgesses of sever all 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 sever all degree so is it of the Commons and as it bath 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 season or disposed of his freehold that is Lands or livelihood or his liberties or free Customes that is of such franchises and freedomes and free Cusiomes as belong to him by his birth-right unlesse it be by lawfull judgement that is verdict of his equalls that is men of his owne condition or by the law of the Land that is to speak it once for all by the due course and processe of Law No man shall be in any sort destroyed to distroy id est what was first built and made wholly to overthrow and pull down 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 wee passe upon him to be understood but by the judgement of his Peers that is equails or according to the Law of the Land see him pag. 48. upon this sentence per judicium Pacium suorum and page 50. he saith it was inacted that the Lords and Peers of the Realm should not give judgement upon any but their Peers cites Rot. Parl. 4. E. 3. nu 6. but making inquiry at the Recoâ—r Office in the Tower I had this which followes from under the hand of Mr. William Collet the Record-Keeper Out of the Roll of the Parlament 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 Wickednesses 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 four Bishops four Earles and six Barons should abide neere the King for to counsel 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 tooke upon himselfe Royall power and the government of the Realme 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 minde and placed John Wyà rd 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 hee could 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 Kenilwarth by ordinance and assent of the Peers of the Land there to stay at his pleasure for to be served as becommeth such a Lord the said Roger by Royall power taken unto himselfe did not permit him to have any money at his will and ordered that he was sent to Rarkly Castle where by him and his he was traitorously and falsly murthered and slain But that which is this to my purpose is Roll the second being the judgement of Sir Samon 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 âforesaid Roger so was awarded and ajudged to death as it is a known and notorious thing to the said Peers as to that which the King intends The which Earles Barons and Peers came before our Lord the King in the same Parliament and said all with one voice that the foresaid Simon was not their Peer wherefore they were
GANGRAENA he hath fallen so point blanke upon me for no 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 owne 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 neare as I could find was every place where I was mentioned with the Statutes and other Legall Authorities that 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 Peers that is Equalls 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 concernes 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 bloodye 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 〈◊〉 theis mouthes they even prepare warre against him Micah 3.5 And that at present I have to put 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 which will serve in every particular against the present Presbyteriall Ministers and you shall find them thus laid downe in the 23. page of my Book called An Answer of 9. Arguments written by T.B. and printed at London 1645. First That 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 be can be a true Officer in the Church of Christ Acts 1.23 24 25. and 6.3.5 6. and 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 booke 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 Officer doth not prove a man to be a lawfull Officer but a lawfull power instating him into his Office Acts 8.4 and 11.19 20. and 28.24.25 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 Lawfullnesse of their standing in the Ministry but the actions of a Minister and are not in the least able to prove that they are instated in the Ministry 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 owne grounds I frame this Argument Those that by their Ministry doe not accomplish the same ends that the Ministry of the Apostles did are no true Ministers But the Ministers of the Church of England doe not accomplish the same ends by their Ministry that the Ministery of the Apostles did 1 Cor. 11.2 Therefore your Ministers are no true Ministers of Iesus Christ But Gangraena one word more at present-to-you seeing in the 271 281. p. of your late 3 d. Gangraena you fall so exceeding heavie upon me and my honest Comrade Mr Overton and say that if these two audacious men their daring bookes shall escape without exemplary punishment and instead there of be countenanced and set free I doe as a Minister pronounce 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 two faire propositions First in reference to the Lords whose Goliah and Rabshaka-like Champion you are that if you please to joyne with me in a desire to both Houses I will so for goe below my selfe and my present appeale now in the House of Commons always provided it may not be no prejudice to the benefit I shall justly expect from my said appeale and joyne with you in this desire that there may be by both House a proportionable number thereof mutually by themselves chosen out to sit 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 HOUSE OF PEERS HATH NO JURISDICTION 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 J will tye my selfe either actually to execute or passively to suffer and undergoe it Jn the second place because so farre as J 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 Utopian Anarchy of the promiscuous multitude and the lusts and uncertain 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 books from either of us J shall be very willing for peace and quiet sake to joyne with you in a Petition to the House of Commons to appoint a select Committee publickly to examine all things that are amrsse in your bookes and mine and to punish either or both according to Law and Justice without partiality and J 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 knowne Law of the Land any jurisdiction over the Commoners or no Secondly whether in the Parliaments own publick declarations in Mr. Prinns soveraign
THE Oppressed Mans Oppressions declared OR An Epistle written by Lieut. Col. IOHN LILBURNE 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 3d. Vlcerous Gangraena a bone or two to pick In which also divers 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 doe judgement Prov. 21.15 It is joy to the just to doe judgement 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 man 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-blanke contrary to the first part of that divine Sentence but consonant to the conclusion of it is very easie to demonstrate with pen and 〈…〉 view of the World and as facill to your face before any competent Iudges to justice 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 can I shall not now make any ample repetition of your harsh dealing with me at the first in divourcing me by the law of our 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 〈◊〉 p. of Vox Plebis Therefore in regard that the Author of that Book hath pretty well discovered your cruell and illegall dealing with mee at my first comming to the Tower especially in the 45 46 47 48 49. pages thereof And the Author of a late booke called Regal tyrannie discovered in the 48 49. pages And my selfe 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 Anotomy of the Lords tyrannie to which I refer the Reader and in regard you are not ashamed of your cruel and illegall carriages towards me but persevere in them as though you would justifie one tyrannie with backing it with continuall acts of tyrannie I shall therefore goe on as effectuall and punctuall as I can more fully to anotamise you and your unjust illegall cruell and unrighteous dealing with me and for matter of fact shall lay nothing to your charge but what I will justifie before any legall Authority in England But in the first place I desire to let you understand that I am a free-born Englishman 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 constitution thereof but have alwayes sided with the Parliament it selfe who hath pretended nothing so much as the preservation of the lawes liberties and Fundamentall Freedomes of England and the peace and tranquility of the people as you may read in their owne Declarations 1 part col Dec. pag. 172. 195. 214. 281. 342. 464. 498. 663. 666. 673. 750. for the preservation of which I have constantly couragiously and as freely adventured my life as any of themselves what ever he be And therefore 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 more over having to doe with those men as my Iudges 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 mischiefe 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 whtch I say AMEN And there they protest vow and sweare they will maintain the fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of the people and therefore in that respect you cannot groundedly in the least thinke that I should Issacar-like stoop willingly unto any other buthens impositions or commands layd upon mee 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 doe not find any Law that makes prisons places of executions punishment or torment but only 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 meere 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 well saith p. 7. from Sir Edward Cooke in the 1. part of his instit f. 260. that by the Law prisons are ordained not for distruction but for securing of mens persons untill they be brought forth unto due and speedy tryall 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 Civillity ordered and used otherwise Goalers are not keepers but tormentors and executioners of men untryed and uncondemned but this were not salvo custodia to keep men in safety which the Law implyes and is all it requires but diseruere to distroy 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 repared and furnished as prisons at the common Charge see Cook on
the 1. E. 2. Satutum de frangent bus prisonum in his second part institutes fol. 589 and on the 26. Chap. of Magna Charta fol. 74. Ibim and on the statute of Westminster The first Chap. 26. fol. 209. 210. Ibim Yea and the Law takes care that in case the prisoner when he is in prison have no meanes of his owne 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 destroyer 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 the 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 three times a yeare which is once in foure moneths and oftner if need shall be And as the Author 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 keep 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 Iustice 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 find 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 be come 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 beene hanged for it you may read 3. E. 3.8 Northampton Fitzh pl. Cor. 295. and else where but this for a rast to them In the second place I will tell you what the Law saith about Gaolers Fees The mirrour of Iustice pag. 288. 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 going out this is the Common Law there is no see 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 doe his Office but shall be paid of that which they take of the King and he that so doth shall yield twice as much and shall be polished at the Kings pleasure under which word Officer is concluded Goaler Coroner c. so Sir Edward Cooke 2. part institutes fol. 209. Stam. 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 statures are these nor that any of the said Officers and Ministers by occasion or under colour of their Office shall take any other thing by them nor by any other person to their use profit or avaise 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 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 or 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 Clerke Steward or Baylife of Franchise Servant or Bayliffe or Coroner shall 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 panell and for the copy of any panel but 4. d. And it followes in the same Statute that all Sheriffes under-Sherffes Clerks Bayliffes Goalers Coroners Stewards Bayliffes of Franchises or any other Officers or Ministers which doe contrary to this Ordinance in any point of the same shall lose to the party in this behalfe indammaged or grieved his treble dammages and shall forfeit the sum of 40. l. at every time they or any of them doe the contrary thereof in any point of the same where of the King shall have the one halfe to be imployed in the use of his house and in no otherwise and the party that shall sue the other half But as Sir Edward Cooke 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 subiect it is not credible what extortions and oppressions have hereupon ensued So dangerous a thing it is saith he to shake or alter any of the Rules or Fundamentall points of the Common Law which in truth are the main Pillors and Supportars of the Fabrick of the Common-wealth as else-where I have 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 capof the High Court of Parliament f. 41. Now Sir having laid this sure foundation I will assume the boldnesse to compare your dealings with me to the fore-mentioned rules that the Law prescribe you And first to the matter of usage you know very well you of your owne head at first kept my wife from me and made me a close prisoner as in the fore-mentioned bookes pag. 2. is truly declared And then secondly although you could not but know that by the Lords c. in the Star-Chamber I for about foure yeares together before this Parliament under-went a
not bound to judge him as a Peer of the Land But because it is a notorious thing and known to all that the aforesaid Simon was aiding and counselling the said Roger in all the treasons felonies and wickednesses abovesaid the which things are in usurpation of Royall power Murther of the Liege Lord and distruction of Blood-Royall and that he was also guilty of divers other felonies and Roberies and a principall maintainner of Robbers and felons and the said Earles Barons and Peers did award and adjudge as judges of Parliament by the assent of the KING in the same Parliament that the said Simon as a Traytor 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 full Parliament that albeit the said Peers 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 Peers and that by reason of the murther of the Liege Lord and distinction of him which was so new of the blood-Royall and Sonne of the King that therefore the said Peers which now are or the Peers which shall be for the time to come be not bound or charged to give judgement upon others then upon their Peers nor shall doe it But let the Peers of the Land have power but of that for ever they be discharged and aquit and that the aforesaid judgement now given be not drawn into example or consequent for the time to come by which the said Peers may be charged hereafter to judge others then their Peers 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 then one and a threefold cord is not easily broken so that to prove my position true for all the Rabshâ—ka Language of Gangraena I have first the fundament all Law point blank on my side and secondly the judgement of on of the ablest Lawyers that ever writ in England and his Iudgement authorised as good and sound by the present House of Commons to be published to the view of the whole Kingdome and thirdly the Lords owne confession for if you marke well the two last lines of the fore-cited record you shall find they ingeniously confesse and declare that it is against the Law of the Land for them to judge a Commoner and for further confirmation of this read Vox Plebis pag. 18 19. 36. 37 38. 39 40. 41 42 44 45. But if the Vicerous Gangraena please to read a late printed booke called Regall tyranny discovered he shall find that the Author of that Book in his 43 44 45 46 47 86. pages layes downne many strong a guments to prove That the house of Lords have no legislative power at all And in his 94. 95 96. 97 pages he declares and proves That before Will the Conquerer subdued the rights and Priviledges of Parliaments that the King and the Commons held and kept Parliaments without temporall Lords Bishops or Abbets The two last of which he proves had as true and goed 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. Prynns Soveraign 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 cals Vtopian Anarchy then in any Books what ever published by those he calls Sectaries And I averre it positively There is and shall joyn issue with Gangraena 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 endeavon ring to set up Anarchy as Gangraena doth either to mine or Mr Overtons yea and instances the particulars and tells 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 Gangraena 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 Gangraena 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. and 73 74 75 76. and 3. part 11 12 13 14 15 16 17. and 61 62 63 64 65. and 131 132 133. And 4. part pag. 10 11. 15 16. See his Appendix there unto pag. 1 2 3 4 5. 11 13 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 Treatife written by Dr. Fern with divers others Now for the third thing which is the tyrumph Gangrena makes in his 3 part Gangrena pag. 1â—8 which is that in my Book called Innocency and truth justified which I published the last yeare 1645 I give that to the Lords which now I in 1646 in many wicked Pamplets would take a way from them such new light saith he hath the successe of the new modell and the recruit of the house of Commons brough to the Sectaries Well! will the man stand to this if hee will then I desire the impartiall Reader to judge betwixt us and turne 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 esle turne 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 shaddow of giving that to the Lords that now I would take from them for there I am areasoning 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
my publique Contest with the Bishops hath enabled me to carry my life in my hands and to have it alwaies in a readienesse to lay it downe in a quarter of an hours warning knowing that he hath in store for me a mansion of eternall glory All these things considered I am now determined by the strenght of God if I speedily have not that Justice which the Law of England affords me which is all I crave or stand in need of no longer to waît upon the destructive seasons of prudentiall men but forthwith to make a for mall Appeale 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 owne Declarations and Arguments against the King turned upon themselves and their present practise and with a little narrative of my Star-chamber tyrannicall sufferings and those I have 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 hath been for some yeares the chiefe Prosecut or 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 himselfe was not my Lord Newburgh old Sir Henry Vane a man as full of guilt as any is in England whose basenesse and unworthinesse I shall anotamize to the purpose the Lord chiefe Iustice Bramstone and Judge Jones who sentenced me to the Pillory and to be whipt c. And then 3. Canterbury Coventry Manchester Bish of London E. of Arundel E. of Salithury L Cottington L. Newbnrgh Secretary Cook and Windebank who sentenced me to lye 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 and should be called which is to redresse mischiefes and 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 notwith standing all the trust reposed in them and all the Protestations they have in publique Declarations made faithfully without any private aimes or ends of their owne to discharge it And notwithstanding all the bloud and money that hath been shed and spent at their beck and and commands I would faine 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 bu then of the day Sure I am they have made severall Ordinances to establish Monopolies against the Fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome and thereby have robbed free men of their trades and livell 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 suffer much if commited by a Parliament-man or Parliament men before he can get the Iudges to grant an Habeas Corpus to bring him and his cause up to their Bar there to receive a tryall secùndum legem terrae that is according to the Law of the Land although the Iudges 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 From my illegall and chargeable captivity in Cole-harbour in the Tower of London this 30. Ian. 1646. Your abused Prisoner who is resolved to turne all the stones in England that lye in his way but he will have right and iustice against you Iohn Lilburne semper idem FJNJS