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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88241	Rash oaths unwarrantable: and the breaking of them as inexcusable. Or, A discourse, shewing, that the two Houses of Parliament had little ground to make those oaths they have made, or lesse ground to take, or presse the taking of them, being it is easie to be apprehended, they never intended to keep them, but onely made them for snares, and cloaks for knavery, as it is clearly evinced by their constant arbitrary and tyranicall practices, no justice nor right being to be found amongst them; by meanes of which they have declaratorily, and visibly lost the very soule and essence of true magistracy, (which is, the doing of justice, judgement, equity ... In which is also a true and just declaration of the unspeakable evill of the delay of justice, and the extraordinary sufferings of Lievtenant Colonell John Lilburne, very much occasioned by M. Henry Martins unfriendly and unjust dealing with him, in not making his report to the House. All which with divers other things of very high concernment, are declared in the following discourse, being an epistle, / written by Lievtenant-Colonell John Lilburne, prerogative prisoner in the Tower of London, to Colonell Henry Marten, a member of the House of Commons of England ... May 1647.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1647 (1647)	Wing L2167; Thomason E393_39; ESTC R201615	53,968	58

They doe declare their high dislike of that Petition their approbation and esteem of their good Service who first discovered it and of all such Officers and Soldiers as have refused to joyne in it and that for such as have been abused and by the parswasion of others drawn to subscribe it if they shall for the future manifest their dislike of what they have done by forbearing to proceed any further in it it shall not be looked upon as any caus to take away the remembrance sence the houses have of the good service they have formerly done but they shall still be retained in their good opinion and shall be cared for with the rest of the Army in all things necessary and fitting for the satisfaction of persons that have done so good and faithfull service and as may be expected from a Parliament so carefull to performe all things appertaining to honour and justice as on the other side it is declared that all those who shall continue in their distempered condition and goe on in advancing and promoting that petition shall be looked upon and proceeded against as enemies to the State and d●sturbers of the publique peace Die Martis 30. Martii 1647. Ordered by the Lords assembled in parliament that this Declaration be forthwith printed and published John Brown Cler. Parliamentorum Now Sir to conclude the tyrannicall house of Lords having most illegally barbarously tirannically and unjustly committed me to prison and sentenced me under wh●se tyranny you are willing to suffer me to perish and then by your and their whifling and buking Curs to bespatter and reproach me in print thereby strongly indeavouring to m●ke me as odiou● in the eyes of the sons of men as Job was in all his botches and alasse pocre I must be kept in pri●… 〈…〉 without pen or inke accesse of friends or any 〈…〉 and so deprived of all means to vindicate my 〈…〉 ●…ce write in my owne behalfe and set my name to wi●… 〈◊〉 ●…ing alwayes ready to owne and iustifie my lines and to seale then with my 〈◊〉 blood yet my wife must be made a prisoner and fetched up to your arbitrary Committees for dispersing of my bookes and the book women in Westminster Hall that sell them must have then shops and houses searched and rob'd of all my bookes by your Catch poules and if you suspect any for printing of them they must be sure to be dealt worse wi●h then if they were Traytors and enemies to their Country and have their houses rob'd and spoyled of their goods and presses with which they earne bread for them and their families and carried away by force before any legall tryall or conviction of any crime contrary to the lawes of the land which possitively declares that no free man of England forfeits his lands goods or livelyhoods tell he be convicted of a crime 1 R. 3.3 Cookes 2. part institutes chap 103. fol. 228. 229. See the Petition of Right yea and their bodies imprisoned most tyrannicall and illegally without baile or maineprize although there be no collour in law for the pretended cause of their commitment nor no power in law for any Committee of your house to commit a printer or any other free man in England to prison See the law authorities mentioned in Judge Jenkins late printed papers And when the prisoner according to the law of the Kingdome sues for a Habias Corpus which legally cannot be denyed to any prisoner whatsoever and by vertue thereof be brought before the present Judges of the Kings bench Justice Bacon and Justice Rowles yet contrary to law and their owne oathes which oaths are before mentioned they refuse to deliver the prisoner so uniustly imprisoned or to take baile for his forthcomming but returne him back to prison againe there contrary to law and iustice to be kept without bail or maineprize Oh horrible tyrannie oppression and iniustice and yet as I am certainly informed this was the case of Mr. Thomas Paine a Printer the last tearme Nay your Catchpoules by their owne power can and have forceably entered and felloniously and illegally carried away my proper and truly com'd by goods to a large value for which though I complained to your Committee yet could I not obtaine from their hands one dram of Justice See my examination before them called the resolved mans resolution pag. 12. Nay this is not all for when your members and the Lords and their catchpoules creatures have sufficient railed at me and reproached me and tyed up my hands by depriving me of all meanes as they thought to publish any thing for my owne defence then they as I conce●ve ioyne together and git some lying Presbyter assemblie man or other for the Author concealing his name and I not able to find it out I apprehend and iustly conceive I have iust cause to lay it to them it being so sutable to the constant meanes they and their Creatures use to set up their new reformed Kingdome to frame contrive and publish to the view of the world a Recantation in my name that J my selfe though my name be to it had not the least finger in or knowledge of thereby to render me odious to the purpose and to declare me a weather cock follow and as fass●l and easie in changing my former avowed just principles as the Lords and Commons and assembly men at Westminster are to change theirs But Sir if God permit I shall take a more fi●t oppertunity to anotomize that grosse peice of Pa●l●…mentary assembly knavery And therefore I must plainly tell you seeing the Lords and Commons at Westm●nster have dealt so ●arb rously and illegally with 〈◊〉 as they have done * And not with me but also with M. Over●on his wife and brother and Mr. Larners man and maid who are all yet in person and can have nor obtain any iustice from either of your houses and are worse then the unrighteous Iudge that upon no importunity will doe me Justice I am now in good sober resolved earnest determined to appeale to the whole Kingdome and Army against them and it may be thereby come quittance with them and measure unto them as they have measured to me and doubt not but to make it evident that though some of your members call the Army Rebells and Traitors for contesting with those that gave them their power and authority that they themselves a●e reall Rebells and Traitors to the trust reposed in them by the free people of England their Empero●rs Lords and Masters And that the Army are really and truly a company of Rogues Knaves and traiterous Villains to themselves and their native Country if they should disband upon any tearmes in the world till they have brought them to examplary Justice and made them vomit up the vast sums of the publiques money that they have swallowed down into their devowring canniball mawes and firmly setled the peace and iustice of the Kingdome which that they may faithfully and cordially doe is and shall be the daily prayer of him that hath been and will be againe your true friend if you will repent of your remissenesse and slacknesse and manifest your selfe to be more firme active and valourous for the good of your Country Iohn Lilburn From my uniust Captivitie in the Tower of London for the visably almost destroyed Lawes and Liberties of England which condition I more highly prize though in misery enough outwardly then the visiblest condition of any member whatsoever that sits in either or both houses being all and every of them apparently palpably and transendently forsworne having all of them taken Oaths upon Oathes to mainetaine the lawes liberties and freedome of the land and yet in their dayly practice overthrow and destroy them of which sin and wickednesse they are all of them guilty in regard you all sit there in silence and doe not publiquely and avowedly to the whole Kingdome according to your duty manfully protest against and declare your dislike of their crooked uniust and Englands destroying wayes this 31. of May 1647. John Lilburne FINIS

wish my Judges were not worse then the unrighteous Judge But Sir seeing it is to no purpose I can no longer now forbeare but must write you my mind to the purpose cost it what it will being now at present as carelesse of you as you are and have been of me and my long but I will not say unsupportable sufferings though I might truly say it if it were not that I had a full faithfull and soule-satisfying God to rest and rely upon and the distresses and hardly to be undergone portion of my wife and little infants But Sir I beseech you give me leave before I lansh into the deep a little mildly to expostulate with you in a friendly way before we fall out and to demand this question of you what I have said or done to you to give you any tolerable cause to deale thus with me as you have done as by your delay of your duty to destroy me and given me too just cause in reference to you to say with David Psal 55.12,13,14 For it was not an enemy that reproached me then I could have borne it neither was it he that hated me that did magnifie himself against me then I would have hid my self from him but it was thou ah man mine equall my guide and mine acqaintance we took sweet counsell together And truly Sir the evill doings of a friend are the most piercing and wounding and the least to be indured and the most odious to God and detestable amongst all rationall and gallant men Jer. 9.4 to the 9. Ch. 12.6 and Ch. 20.10,11,12 But Sir if you have nothing to lay to my charge in reference to your self I desire to know if you have any thing to accuse me of in reference to the publike have I deerted my interest or betraid the Liberties of my fellow Commons of England or have I been sluggish slothfull or cowardly in mannaging the businesse I have in hand or have I been impatient in my sufferings by my madness and folly destroyed my business or given grounded advantage to my adversaries If all or anie of these can be justly laid to my charge I desire not to be spared But Sir if you can say nothing against me by way of miscarriage to you in particular or the publike in generall then I pray you give me leave to demand of you this question What have you to say for your selfe that you have thus delayed to make my report and thereby over and over againe and againe have hazzarded my destruction and utter ruine contrary to law honesty justice reason and conscience If you should say it is not seasonable and that the temper of your House is such that to make it it would do me nor the Kingdome no good but rather a mischief in hazzarding the confirmation of the Lords tyranny towards me by a vote of your House whose spirits are extreamly exasperated against me above all men in England To answer which what do you else then hereby give me too just cause to say of your House in which so many that professe honesty sit though it bee but little demonstrative by their actions that you are a corrupted and degenerated generation of men that are fallen from doing of Justice to the executing of Tyranny and from maintaining defending and protecting according to your duty and the end of your sitting where you do the Lawes and Liberties of the Commons of England to the betraying subverting and destroying them and so have all of you forfeited your trust and your Parliamentary power which as you your selves say 1. par Book Decl. p. 150. was given you to provide for the Peoples weales but not for their woes and have thereby absolutely absolved and discharged the people from all subjection to you and given them cause that sent you to call you home and chuse honester men in your places to call you to a strict accompt for all your tyranny oppression and trechercy and know what you have done with all their money which they may justly by your own arguments against the King do See the second Edition of the Outcries of oppressed Commons p. 4 5 6 7 14 15 16 17 18. And in case of disobedience from you to your trusters and impowers the severall Shires Countreyes and Corporations that choose you what do you else then thereby give them cause to look upon you as you have this foure or five years looked upon the King and deale by you as you have dealt with the King even to wage war against you for betrayers of your trust which they and the whole Kingdome reposed in you who are now degenerated from a just House of Parliament the end of calling of which by the Law is to redresse mischiefs and grievances that daily happen 36. E. 3.10 but not to augment and wholly increase them into a conspiracy and consederacy of lawlesse unlimited and unbounded men that have actually destroyed the Lawes and Liberties of England and that will have no rule to walke by but their owne corrupted and bloody wills and thereby have set up the highest Tyranny that can be set up in the world against which by your owne principles the Kingdome may justly rise up in Armes as one man and destroy all the fore-said conspirators without mercy or compassion as a company of devouring Lions ravening Wolves and crafty Foxes that would destroy the poore flocks of lambs and sheep of this distressed Kingdome the people and Inhabitants thereof for take away Law as the Parliament in a transcendent measure hath done and deny us justice and right as is constantly in a great measure done unto us by the Parliament And what are we now better then the brute beasts of the field the weakest of which are torne in pieces devoured and destroyed by the strongest for remedie● 〈◊〉 which the Parliament against the King took up Armes and when they h●d no Law of the Kingdome to warrant them in so doing they make use of the law of nature and reason and tell the King Book Dec. 1 part pag. 207. That this Law is as old as the Kingdome that the Kingdome must not be without a meanes to preserve it selfe but in which of our Statutes this is writ I never yet could heare see nor read of and am very sure it is no where but in their own Declarations and ingraven in the heart of man as a principle of nature and reason which as they very well and justly say teacheth a man or Kingdome to preserve its selfe 1 part Book Dec. pag. ●4 93 94. 112 123. 202. 465. 466. 726 728. see 2. Edition of the Outcries pag. 12 13. And if this Doctrine be true as you avouch it is then it will much more serve against your selves then the King because the King is so fenced about with the Lawes of the Kingdome that it is impossible for a man or Magistrate to bee more and if you are but a betrusted power impowered protempore by the

and publish them in the English Tongue and that all processes and proceedings therein may be true and also in English and in the most usuall Character of writing without any abreviations that each one who can read may the better understand their owne affaires and that the duty of all Judges Officers and practicers in the Law and of all Magistrates and Officers in the Common-wealth may be prescribed and their fees limited understrict penalties and published in print to the view and knowledge of all men by which just and equitable meanes this Nation shall be for ever freed of an oppression more burthensome and troublesome then all the oppressions hitherto by this Parliament removed 8. That the life of no person may be taken away under the testimony of two witnesses at least of honest conversation and that in an equitable way ye will proportion punishments to offences that so no mans life may be taken his body punished nor his estate forfeited but upon such weighty and considerable causes as justly deserve such punishments and that all prisoners may have a speedy tryall that they be neither starved nor their families ruined by long and lingring imprisonment and that imprisonment may be used onely safe custody untill time of triall and not as a punishment for offences 9. That tythes and all other enforced maintenance may be for ever abolished and nothing in place thereof imposed but that all Ministers may be paid onely by those who voluntarily contribute to them or chuse them and contract with them for their labours 10. That ye will take some speedy and effectuall course to relieve all such prisoners for debt as are altogether unable to pay that they may not perish in prison through the hard-heartednesse of their Creditors and that all such as have any estates may bee inforced to make paiment accordingly and not to shelter themselves in prison to defraud their Creditors 11. That none may be Prison-keepers but such as are of approved honestie and that they may be prohibited under great penalties to receive or detaine any person or persons without lawfull warrant That their usage of prisoners may be with gentlenesse and civility their fees moderate and certain and that they may give security for the good behaviour of their under-Officers 12. That ye will provide some powerfull meanes to keep men women and children from begging and wickednesse that this Nation may be no longer a shame to Christianity therein 13. That ye will restraine and discountenance the malice and impudency of impious persons in their reviling and reproaching the well-affected with the ignominious titles of Round-heads factious seditious and the like whereby your reall friends have been a long time and still are exceedingly wronged discouraged and made obnoxious to rude and prophane people and that ye wil not exclude any of approved fidelity from bearing office of trust in the Common-wealth for non-conformity but rather Neuters and such as manifest disaffection or opposition to common freedome the admission and continuation of such being the chief cause of all these our grievances These remedies or what other shall seem more effectuall to your grave wisdomes we humbly pray may be speedily applied and that in doing thereof ye will be confident of the assistance of your Petitioners and of all considerate well-minded people to the uttermost of their best abilities against all opposition whatsoever looking upon our selves as more concerned now at last to make a good end then at the first to have made a good beginning For what shall it profit us or what remedy can we expect if now after so great troubles and miseries this Nation should be left by this Parliament in so great a thraldome both of body mind and estate We beseech you therefore that with all your might whilest he have time freedome and power so effectually to fulfill the true end of Parliaments in delivering this Nation from these and all other grievances but none may presume or da●… to introduce the like for ever And we trust the God of your good successe will manifest the integrity of our intentions herein and that our humble desires are such as tend not onely to our owne particular but to the generall good of the Common-wealth and proper for this Honourable House to grant without which this Nation cannot be safe or happy And that he will blesse you with true Christian fortitude suitable to the trust and greatnesse of the worke yee have undertaken and make the memory of this Parliament blessed to all succeeding Generations Shall ever be the fervent desire o your humble Petitioners And the Prerogative-men of London which are ready to be Associates with you in inslaving the people petition against it and had thanks returned to them for it and M. Lamb sent up for to a Committee as a Delinquent and divers hundreds of his Fellow-petitioners came up with him with a Certificate to avow the Petition which was as followeth To the honourable the Committee of Parliament sitting in the Queens Court at Westminster Colonell Lee being Chaire-man The humble Certificate of divers persons here present interested in and avouching the Petition lately referred to this Committee by the right honourable the House of Commons Humbly certifying THat the Petition entituled The humble Petition of many thousands earnestly desiring the glory of God the freedome of the Common-wealth and the peace of all men and directed to the right honourable and supreme Authority of this Nation the Commons in Parliament assembled Is no scandalous or seditious Paper as hath been unjustly suggested but a reall Petition subscribed and to be subscribed by none but constant cordiall friends to Parliament and Common-wealth and to be presented to that honourable House with all possible speed as an especiall meanes to procure the universall good of this long inthralled and distracted Nation And we trust this honourable Committee will in no measure dishearten the People from presenting their humble considerations reasons and petitions to those whom they have chosen there being no other due and begall way wherein those that are aggrieved can find redresse * * Declarat 2. Novemb 1642. 1. part book Decl. p. 720 but rather that you will be pleased to give all incouragement therein In assured hope whereof we shall pray c. But the Citizens with their Certificate could not be permitted to deliver it but were with violence thrust out of the Committee-Chamber and a Guard called for to set them packing with a vengeance and being below in the Court of Requests some of them desired M. Nicolas Tew audibly to read the Certificate to the whole company that so all of them might fully understand it for which action he was by the said Committee without any authority at all then from the House committed prisoner to the Serjeant at Armes where to this day hee remaines a most unjust and illegall action and tending to the utter destruction of the greatly impoverished man by his

unto your wisedomes And as in duty bound we shall pray c. But this Petition being against Mr. Hellis and Sir Philip Stapleton the Captains and heads of the subverters of our Lawes liberties and freedomes after it was debated it was as your Diurnall tells me upon the 20 of May 1647 ●oted 1. To be a high breach of Priviledges 2. That it was seditious 3. That this Petition and the former intituled The humble Petition of many thou●anas c. should be burnt at the Exchange in Cornewell and the Pallace yard at Westminster Saterday next Which as I am informed was accordingly done by the hands of the common hang-man Vpon which the petitioners not being willing to be bafled out of their liberties in making known their grievances without the injoyment of which they are perfect * Read your owne words in Co●…d●… pag. 720. slaves they resolve to attempt a Petition once more though divers of them ●ather desired to remonstrate against you to the whole Kingdome for a company of tyrannicall destroyers and treacherous betrayers contrary to your oaths and the duty of your places of the Lawes Liberties and Freedomes of England And having discoursed my selfe with some of them and perceiving they were resolved to petition once again I told them I conceived they had nothing else to petition for as things at present stood with your house but these two things viz. That seeing the House had voted they had broken their priviledges by petitioning unto them for redresse of their grievances without declaring wherein how or after what manner or giving any reasons at all wherefore they burnt their honest Petition that therefore they would be pleased forthwith publiquely and distinctly to declare unto the whole Kingdome what their priviledges are and when how and after what manner they came by them that so in future time through ignorance in not knowing their priviledges they might not run upon the pricks of their iudignation and the Hang-Mans 2. That they would also be pleased to declare and dictate to them what how and after what manner they should petition for the next time they would vouchsafe to give them leave to Petition to them that so their Petition might not againe be burnt by the hands of the common Hang-man and I withall told them the house of Commons answer to their last Petition did necessarily and iustly lead them as it were by the hand to such a petition as this but they rejected it and framed one of their owne the Copy of which thus followeth To the Right Honourable the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament The humble Petition of many thousands of well affected People Sheweth THat having seriously considered what an uncontrouled liberty hath generally been taken publiquely to reproach and make odious persons of eminent and constant good affection to Parliament and common wealth how prevalent indeavours have been to withhold such from being chosen into places of trust or Counsell how easie to molest or get them into prisons how exceedingly liable to misconstruction their motions and Petitions in behalfe of the publique have lately been When we consider what grudgings and repinings have sinistrously been b●gotten against your most faithfull and successefull Army what arts and devises to prov●ke you against them and to make y●u je●lous of them what hard measure some of th●m both Offic●rs and Soldiers have found in divers respects in sundry places When we consider what change of late hath importunately th●ugh caussessely been procured of the Committee of Militia in the City of London and how that new Committee hath already begun to remove from Command in the Train'd bands and Auxiliaries persons not to be suspected of di●affection or ●ewerality but such as have been most zealous in promoting the safety of Parliament and City When we consider how full of Armies our neighbour Countries are round about us and what threatning of forrain forces wee are even astonished with griefe as not able to free our selves from apprehension of eminent danger but are strongly induced to feare some evill intentions of some desperate and wilfull persons yet powerfully working to blast the just ends of this Parliament and re-imbroile this late bleeding and much wasted Nation in more violent warres distempers and miseries And as our earnest desires of the quiet and safety of the Common wealth hath necessitated these our most sad observations So are we constrained to beleeve that so dangerous an alteration could not so generally have appeared but that there is some great alteration befaln both in Counsels and authorities throughout the land which we verily conceive ariseth from no other cause but from the treacherous policie of enemies and weaknesse of friends in chusing such thereinto as have been unfit for those imployments some whereof as is credibly reported having served the enemie in Armes some with moneys horse ammunition or by intelligence some in Commission of Array some manifesting constant malignity in their actions speeches or standing Newters in times of greatest tryall some culpable of notorious crimes others lying under heavie accusations some that are under age or such who are at present ingaged in such courses as in the beginning of this Parliament were esteemed Monopolies Now may it please this honourable House if such as these should remain or may have privily crept into our Counsells or Authorities as by the forecited considerations we humbly conceive cannot but be judged what can possibly be expected by those who have been most active and faithfull in your servi●… but utter ruine or the worst of bondage For prevention whereof and of those dangers warres and troubles that are genera●…y feared we are constrained earnestly to intreat 1. That you will be p●eased instantly to appoint a Committee of such worthy members of this honourable H●use as have manifested most sincere affections to the well affected and to authorize them to make speedy ●n ●…ict inquir●e after all such as are possessed of places of Counsell trust auth●rity or command who according to law Ordinances Reason or ●o●ty ought not to be admitted and that all persons without exception may be permitted and incouraged to bring in accusations witnesses or testimonies for the more speedy perfecting of the wo●ke and that you will forthwith exclude all such out of all offices of counsell trust Authority or command against whom sufficient cause shall be proved without which we cannot see how it is possible for the well affected to live either in peace or safety 2. That you will countenance protect and succour the cordiall well affected in all places according to their severall cases and conditions especially in their addresses with petitions 3. That you will be pleased to condiscend unto all the just and reasonable desi●es of your Commanders Officers and Soldiers by whose courage and faithfulnesse so great services have been performed and severely to punish all such as have any way sought to alienate you from them 4. That the Militia of L●ndon