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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	lord_n	see_v	write_v	3,441	5	5.2956	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88254	Strength out of vveaknesse. Or, The finall and absolute plea of Lieutenant-Col. John Lilburn, prisoner in the Tower of London, against the present ruling power siting at Westminster. Being an epistle writ by him, Sep. 30. 1649. to his much honored and highly esteemed friend, Master John Wood, Mr. Robert Everard, ... whose names are subscribed Aug. 20. 1649. to that excellent peece, entituled The Levellers (falsly so called) vindicated; being the stated case of the late defeated Burford troops. And to Charles Collins, Anthony Bristlebolt, ... whose names are subscribed, August 29. 1649. to that choicest of peeces, entituled An out-cry of the young-men and apprentices of London, after the lost fundamentall-lawes and liberties of England. Which said plea or epistle, doth principally contein the substance of a conference, betwixt Master Edmond Prideaux, the (falsly so called) attorney-generall, and Lievetenant-Colonell John Lilburne, upon Friday the 14 of September 1649. at the chamber of the said Mr. Prideaux, in the Inner-Temple.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.; Prideaux, Edmond, Sir, d. 1659.	1649 (1649)	Wing L2182; Thomason E575_18; ESTC R204577	34,784	27

any thing and every thing to any man and crush him to peices and destroy him but he can have no Right or Iustice against you Why will you say so M. Lilburn said he I am sure the Parliament hath given up their Priviledges in answering mens actions more then ever Parliament did Sir said I I say that which is truth It s true of ancient time when Parliaments were often and short Priviledging of the Persons of Parli●men from arrests might have some pretence of Justice and Equity in it BUT IN AN ETERNAL OR A NINE YEERS PARLIAMENT IT CAN HAVE NONE and I tell you Sir I know it is enough to destroy a man though a Member of your House do him never so much wrong if he do but so much as open his lips against him and how many men have bin undone for complaining of the villanous and visible baseness of your Members It is as the sin against the holy Ghost mong you And as for a pet●y inconsiderable Member of your House now and then OF BOON AND CURTESIE to be ordered in point of debt or the like to answer the Law Alas what is it It is no more then a cheat for it is nor only before a Iudge of his own making who with his Under Officers will find tricks enough to ple●se their Lord and Master And besides Sir The thing that I drive is to shew That it is an inherent Principle in you that this is not done out of Right but permited out of Grace and Favor this remaining still at the bottome That there is an inherent Principle of Arbytrariness Vnboundedness and Absoluteness inherent in you at your pleasure to make absolute slaves of the People if you will and to make your selves absolutely nuaccomptable if you please Why M Lilburn would you have no Government Yes M. Prideaux that I would But yet such a Government as hath not at the root and bottom of it all the Principles of Tyranie in the World to make the People absolute slaves at the Will and Pleasure of their Governors But I would have such a Government that is founded upon the Basis of Freedom Reason Iustice and Common Equity and shall so ty the hand of the Governor that he shall not be able at his Will and Pleasure to destroy the Governed without runing an apparent and visible hazard of destruction to Himself Estate and Family I but M. Lilburn who shall be Iudge said he Sir said I Reason is demonstrable of it self and every man less or more is endued with it and it hath but one ballance to weigh it in or one touch-stone to try it by viz. To teach a man to do as he would be done to The Sun is demonstrable of it self by its heat and light and stands in need of no mans Iudgement when it shines to judge whether it doth so or no or of reasons to prove it the Sun Even so Reason is demonstrable by its innate glory life and efficacy and man being a reasonable creature is Judge for himself But by reason of his present corrupted estate and want of perfection he is somthing partial in his own case and therefore wherein many are concerned Reason tels him Commissioners chosen out and tyed to such rational Instructions as the Chusers give them are the most proper and equallest Judges But yet Sir let me tell you That a Commission given unto them against the Rules of common Reason IS VOYD IN IT SELF and a power exercised by the Commissioners beyond the Rule of Common Reason Is not OBLIGATORY or BINDING in the least Well then Sir said M. Prideaux the Parliament now siting are the Commissioners of the People and they have authorised me to ask you whether this be your Book or no By your favor M. Prideaux you are to quick for you take that for granted which I absolutely again deny and which your self is never able to prove while you live and I tell you again They are no more a Parliament then I am But admit they were a Parliament They cannot authorise you to examine me against my self and therefore Sir I detest the returning you any answer to your question Without doubt said he M. Lilburn you are mistaken for I never yet knew it an evil or illegal to ask a question But by your favor M Prideaux I say it is against the Law of England to compel a man to answer to a question against himself and your House did so adjudge it in the daies of their Primitive purity in mine own Case in reference to the Star-chamber proceedings against me But said he They never adjudged the Kings Atrurnies General asking you questions to be illegal Yes Sir said I but they did for though in the Star-Chamber I was principally sentenced for refusing in open Court to take an Oath to answer to all the questions that should b● demanded of me the latitude of which oath did not barely extend if I had take it to such questions as the Court siting should demand of me but also to all such questions as the Atturney General by Order from the Court should have demanded of me to whose interrogatories I refused to answer a though he examined me by the Orders of that Court Of which he bitterly complained and I am sure of it The House of Commons and the House of Lords both did not onely judge the Sentence it self but the whole proceeding upon it anteceding as well as following to be illegal most unjust barbarous c. But Sir said he You sent one of these Books meaning the impeachment of Cromwel down to Colonel Ayres at Warwick Castle and ordered the bearer to deliver it to him a● a token from you did you not Sir I scorn to tell you whether I did or I did not it may be I did it may be I did not I will not tell you but if I did this I aver to you I know no evil in so doing So he shewed me the Apprentises Out-cry Sir said he you had a finger too in the making this book had you not Said I it may be I had not onely a finger in it but also a thumb too and what then but it may be I had nor and what then But whether I had or had not I will not tell you But this Sir of mine own voluntary accord I will tell you I have mettle enough in me to set my Name to all Books I write without fear or dread I pray see if you find my name there No Sir saith he it is not but it seems then that all books that hath your name to them are yours Will you own this impeachment for here 's your name to it No Sir with your favor it doth not therefore follow that all books that have my name to them are mine for it is as easie to counterfet my name as to counterfet another mans and it may be it is so now it may be it is not so I will not tell you but this I

will tell you of mine own accord That I have read the Book and there I find the substance of an Impeachment of high Treason against Cromwel that I delivered at your open Bar the 19 of January 1647. for which you committed me to the Tower as a Traytor in general And M. Prideaux I know that you know at your Bar I offered the House upon my life to prove and make good what I said and therefore why did not you or Cromwel then put me to it But it seems he was conscious of his own guilt and durst not do it But M. Lilburn will you own this Book and make it good now for it is yours Sir I scorn to deny any Book that ever I made in my life for I never made a book but upon mature sollid and substantial d●liberation considering well before hand what it would cost me and all the fear in such cases that I am in is onely till I have got it printed that I may keep it close and private from the fingers of your Catch-poles and when it is abroad I have part of mine end and use to tell no body but as many as I can of it and the desperatest book I ever made in my life I was never so unworthy to renounce or deny and I will not say that is not my book neither will I grant it to be mine But me-thinks M Prideaux you are uncivil that you will not receive an answer when again and again it is given you and alas Sir admit it was mine what fair or just play could I expect to fi●d now to make good the things contained in it Seing Cromwel by his sword hath dissolved the Parliament and set up a sew of his slaves among you for a mock-Parliament that dare not do but what he will have you Sir saith he Cromwel is absent and you lay mighty things to his charge methinks you should not be backward to make them good Sir ●aid I if Cromwel were in this room I would tell him to his teeth he is a base unworthy fellow and hath under-hand by base and indirect means for these 2 yeers together sought to take awa● my life and bloud for nothing but my honesty and in his dealing with me hath not so much as manifested one bit of a gallant man or that he hath an ounce of Personal Valour in him for a man of mettle and pure Valour would have scorn●d to have dealt so basely with me as he hath done Well then Sir it seems there is a Personal quarrel betwixt you and General Cromwel Yes Sir said I He hath made it partly so but I am onely Defendant and were he here I would let him know I scorn to give him an inch of ground but would answer him upon equal terms in any way he himself would chuse and Sir I tell you he is the man yea the principal instrument that hath destroyed the Peace and Liberties of this Nation yea and by force of Arms hath null'd and destroyed the Parliament and hath left no Majestracy at all in the Nation for which he is upon both the Principles of I aw and reason a Traitor and ought to dy therefore Sir said he I tell you the Parliament by force cannot be destroyed for it s continued by an Act till themselves please to dissolve themselves I tell you Mr Prideauz I have answered that already and shewed the fallacy and weaknesse of it but seeing you will not be answered I will upon your and their own decla●ed principals give it you a little more fully I find in the Armies Book of Dealarations that upon the 26. of July 1647. the Apprentises of London and some other of the rude Rabble but for a few hour forc'd the House with a few threats without Arms and yet they never came down but one part of a day and when they did come they did not pick and cull and keep out five parts of six as the Army hath done and yet the PRINCES of the Army themselves hath declared that Act Treason and the Actors in it Traitors yea and have declared that that force upon the Parliament tends to the dissolution of all Government and though there was but about forty or fifty of both Houses LIKE VALIANT MEN that ran away from the avowed discharge of their Trust to the Army and left abundantly the major part behind them who the next day of their sitting and the other day after-sat quietly without the Apprentices force yet the Army would not own them BVT CALD THEM A PRETENDED PARLIAMENT A FEW LORDS AND GENTS●MEN SITTING AT WESTMINSTER THAT TREACHEROVSLY ACTED AGAINST THE PEACE AND SAFETY OF THE KINGDOM ASSVMING TO THEMSELVES THE NAME OF PARLIAMENT all whose Acts ORDERS AND ORDINANCES they declared to be null and void and not PARLIAMENTARY NOR BINDING See the Armies Book of Declarations most full in all these particulars page 49. 53 54. 67. 82. 100 101. 106 107. 111. 123. 125 126 127. 134 135 136. 138 139 140 141. 143 144. for being Abbettors to that force See Article 4. yea and impeached some of the eleven Members as Traitors nay and the Speaker himself in his Declaration calls their forced Votes NOT THE VOTES OF THE REPRESENTATIVE BODY OF THE KINGDOM BVT THE VOTES OF A TVMVLTVOVS MVLTITVDE Now Sir if a little force of the Apprentises for a few hours-nutrifie the Votes and Orders of Parliament and make them no Parliament that sit under that force being far more the major part in the place where they ought to sit yea and is so infectious as that it tends to the dissolution of all Government abundantly much more upon their and your own grounds must a far greater force of the Souldiers dissolve the Parliament and nullifie all their Votes and Orders and absolutely tend to the dissolution of all Government Sir saith hee it's very true there were such Declarations that did declare the howse that sate in the absence of us that were forc'd to fly to Hounsloe Heath to bee no Parliament and all their Votes and Orders they made in our absence to bee null and void but yet the Parliament was kept on soote by our comming back and sitting and so was not dissolved Why Mr. Prideaux doe you think I have lost all my braines and reason for the forced Parliament as you call it was either a house of Parliament or no hou●e of Parliament but if a house of Parliament you that adhered to the Army were sa pack of Traytors so voted and declared by them and by consequence all the rest of their votes and Orders were Legall and Binding But if it were no house of Parliament then there was none in England for your house as a house never adjourned to Hounsloe Heath but to the usuall place in Westminster and if those that met and sate there were no house of Parliament then your house was sine die and so dissolved and your coming back from Housloe Heath to sit againe could

either upon the principles of Law or Reason But secondly for Argument sake Admit you to be a Parliament yet by your own Principles and by the Principles of the Law of England Law makers are not cannot nor ought to be Law Executors But thirdly upon your own Principles I answer and do believe you have not bin so long a Lawyer but you have carefully read over the fourth part of Cooks Institutes that great Oracle among you Lawyers and if you please to recollect your memory you may very well remember in several places of his chapter of High Court of Parliament there he often urgeth and presseth and also layeth down Arguments and Reasons to prove That the Parliament ought to be more just and righteous in their proceedings then other Inferior * Courts and ought to be Presidents of Righteousness and Justice to other Courts and I am sure that Book is published by the special Order of the late Parliament for good Law Whose expressions there f. 37 38 39. in the Case of the L. Cromwel in H. 8. time and in the case of Sir Jo. Mortimer in H. 6. time and El. Barton and other in H. 8. time are so just excellent transcendent and glorious that they deserve to be written in letters of gold and posted upon all the publike places of the Nation a witnesses and testimonies of condemnation against the base proceeding of the present large pretenders to righteousness with my self divers other But Sir said M. Prideaux Did you not own that for a Parliament that sate at West-minster before the Armies last coming to London I am sure you ventured your life at their command and to maintain their Authority and also suffered much for them at Oxford It s true M. Prideaux if I had not owned the Lords and Commons siting at West-minster for a Parliamont according to the constitution of England five six or seven yeer ago and also bin satisfied in my own Conscience of the justness of their quarrel with the King I would never have ventured my life so heartily for them as I did for I must truly tell you without much vaunting I fought as resolutely and served them or rather the Nation and its Liberties in them or by them as faithfully as any man in England did yea and did more when I was like to be hanged at Oxford for them then ever I heard of any in England did for them for I pleaded to my Indictment resolutely and understandingly as a man that well knew and understood what I went about and was resolved to dy in the justification of it defyingly to his adversaries And after my deliverance from them I took up Arms again in their service and served them faithfully and heartily till I see them begin to change their Principles and to turn their backs upon their Primitive Declarations and Promises to make the People free and happy yea and see them in their-own persons to practise that that they condemned in the King and pretended they took up Arms against for which when I throughly saw I threw down my sword and could never since be induced to serve them yet I never served against them nor never forsook the Principles that they owned and declared when they first engaged And as for the Lords and Commons since for necessities sake and quietness sake I never since dis-owned them although I never durst act under them especially considering I had so much in my own thoughts to say against them especially the House of Commons who I am sure intentionally were never originally betrusted by the people that chuse them to sit above a year at most and their out-striping their Commission in length of time nullifies their Trust But Sir What of all this to you that sit now Sir said he very much For my self I am sure I am as much chosen and betrusted now as ever That I deny Sir for upon your own single Principles of the Law The Kings single death nullifies you for you were summoned chosen and sent to consult with him which ●ou cannot do when he is dead Well Sir said M. Prideaux if you had no more to say but the Kings death for the dissolution of the Parliament that would be easily answered Sir said I let me tell you with confidence that I am confident it is so strong in Law as all the Law in your brains will never be able to answer it and if you please I will argue the case out with you in Law You know it was so resolved in the case of the death of Henry the fourth and you know it is so declared by the Lord Cook in his fourth part of his Institutes f. 46. and by the whole stream of all the law-Law-books and Lawyers of England without so much as one single contradiction that ever I could hear or read of But besides Sir I tell you There was an UNDENIABLE NULLITY TO YOUR HOUSE BEFORE YOU TRYED THE KING FOR THE POWER OF THE SWORD HAD TOTALLY DISSOLVED YOU So that now you in no sense sit by the Peoples Choise and Trust but meerly and singly by your Masters and Impowrers the Soldiers who broke you all to pieces and kept out above four parts of five and only let such go in as the PRINCES among them thought their servants or did engage so to be and Sir let me tell you to my knowledge you your self were at that t●me as much against the Soldiers proceedings with you as a man could be nor their proceedings against the King and Lords you did not like for you ingaged against none of them visibly although your place of Aturney Generalship led you out to have ●●n the chiefest man in prosecuting of them all Ah M. Liburn said he you are in a great error neither the Kings death nor the Soldiers force upon the House doth dissolve us for we now sit by vertue of an Act of Parliament which impowers us to be a House till we our selves dissolve our selves Well Sir to that I answer thus your trust by those that at first chose you WAS INTENTIONALLY BVT FOR ONE YEER AT MOST for by the Fundamentall Liberties of England and three severall Acts of Parliament yet in force the People of this Nation ought to have a Parliament once every yeer or oftner if need require and Sir let me freely tell you that if the King were an Officer of Trust as you have declared he was and I believe he was then Sir let me tell you that his passing of the perpetual Act was the greatest breach of Trust that ever he committed in his li●e for which he paid deer enough for that single Act alone hath bin the chief instrumental occasion of the Warrs and of both the loss of his Crown and life And Sir let me tell you further or ●ou that were chosen and trusted by the people to make them more free but not less free and authorized by them to continue in that trust but for a yeer at

any pretence of Crime to my Charge but alwaies released mee as an Innocent and honest man I but Sir said hee that was their lenity mercy and compassion towards you No Mr Prideaux by your favour you are very much mistaken for I never craved any from them but alwaies scorned it continually standing upon my Justification and biding defiance to them as in my present imprisonment I am resolved to the death to doe But Mr. Lilburne why may not you as well owne our Authoritie I meane the Parliament as owne Barron Rigby that is made by us for you have call'd him Barr●n Rigby once or twice and I am sure hee was noe Barron till the present Parliament made him one Truly Mr. Prideaux I heartily cry you mercy forgive mee this crime or errour and I doe assure you you shall never catch mee in the like fault but truly Sir to excuse it I must tell you I have many materiall things in my discourse to think upon and I conceive this but a circumstantiall or accidentall one occasioned by meere forgetfullnesse having many things at present in my head but truly Sir having the other day occasion to write him a Letter at a time when my braine was troubled with nothing else I stiled him only Collonel Alexander Rigby and if you will not beleeve mee I have the copie of it about mee which I will reade to you if you please which though I did not then yet because I was unawares catch's upon the hip take heere the copie of it For my honoured Friend Col. Alexander Rigby at his lodging in Sarjeants Inne either in Fleete-street or Chancery lainc Honoured Sir MY Particular obligations to your selfe in times by past I cannot but in Ingenuitie acknowledge have beene very many and I could wish it had beene in my power really to expresse them in any other manner then words Sir the Reason of my troubling you with these lines is because I understand your man was at my house a few houres agoe as from your selfe as my wife tells mee therefore although I had rather bee silent then my scribling give distast to a man I have found so much reality in as I have done in your selfe yet out of the lowest degree of Civiltie and ingenuitie I cannot doe lesse though I must freely let you know I looke upon you and my selfe as now positively ingaged in two contrary Interests that can never subsist one by th'othe without continuall Warres each with other then tender my hearty respects personally to you and further let you know that I should bee very desirous if you conceive it might not bee prejudiciall to your selfe to waite upon you at the time and place you please to appoint to exchange a few words with you and so I commit you to God and rest Yours particularly very much Oblieged John Lilburne Winchester house this 24. of August 1649. But Sir I must confesse unto you Col. Righy is a man setting his present place aside I have a great deale of cause to love and honour hee hath beene my faithfull and true friend and I have alwaies to mee in particular found him a very just righteous and obliging man and in that regard being my selfe but a fraile man may bee like the rest of the men of the world and out of partiallity give him on a suddaine a stile more then is his due but as I said before Sir so I continue still beging your pardon for this one fault and I doe assure you you shall not catch mee commiting the like So Mr. Prideaux it seemes being almost wearied with discourse takes up my booke against Sir Arthur Haslerig and reads a preparrative to an Hue and Cry after Sir Arthur Haslerig a late Member of the forceable dissolved house of Commons and now the present wicked bloody tyrannicall governour of New Castle upon Tyne Saith hee in Lataine to this purpose good words would have done well and have beene better Mr. Lilburne Beleeve mee Mr. Prideaux for any thing I know those very words are too good for his base actions towards me as I beleeve you will cleerely find it so when you read the booke seriously through which I earnestly intreat you to doe and then it may bee it will take off the heare of your prosecuting me for can any words hee too bad for a man that by his will without legall cause casts another man in prison and when hee hath him there indeavours to hire false witnesses to take away his life yea and robs him of his Estate by will and power that should buy him and his bread to keepe them alive So hee spake another sentence in latine which I being not able to understand intreated him to speake in English for I was but a ba●e English man understanding no Latine but a company of common words and therefore intreated him to speake only English if hee would talke any more but if hee was weary hee might give over when hee pleased but for my part I was not weary nor would not give over the discourse so long as hee pleased to hould it Truly Mr. Lilburne saith hee for my surious prosecuting of you the duty of my place requires mee to doe what I doe and I doe assure you I doe not know that ever personally I did you any wrong did I. Truly Mr. Prideaux at present I doe not remember but if ever you did I doe not call to mind at present that ever personally I gave you a provocation or did you personally any wrong but it is likely Mr. Prideaux when you doe mee wrong either personally or officially that you shall heare sufficiently of it Whereupon he took up my book and looking upon it said to this effect Mr. Lilburn without doubt you scarce sleep for studying and writing of books doe you Yes Mr. Prideaux that I doe as well and as heartily as you or any man in England and as or such a book as that is if I be well in my health and my eyes and be in the vein of studying I can mak such a book upon any subject in 3 or 4 daies space I but sa●h he preces lacremae in your suffernigs were better I confesse Sir to you it were so for then you might commit all manner of oppression and Tyranny towards mee without seare or dread of ever-beeing told of it againe but Sir I know no man hath so much cause to use Prayers and teares as oppressors and Tyrants for the wrong and injury they doe to other men but Sir this Argument was the Bishops old weapon which they used to keepe the People in peace with but sure I am Paul made use of his Reason to defend himselfe against his adversaries as well as Prayers and Teares yea and with it to save himselfe with it set them together by the eares Act 23.6 7 8 9. But I pray Sir why did not you your selve I mean the house of Commons make use of these weapons and none