THE JUST DEFENCE OF JOHN LILBVRN Against Such as charge him with Turbulency of Spirit Job 5.15 But he saveth the poor from the sword from the mouth and from the hand of the mighty ALthough it be a small thing with me now after many yeers of sufferings to be judged of any or of mans judgement knowing now apt men are to judge things hastily before the time before the Lord come who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and wâ—ll make maâ—â—â—st the councels of the hearts yet considering how vehemently at â—â—â—ent my life is sought after as for a long mâ—â—â—â— hath been and that those who so earnestly desire my blood wanting matter in 〈◊〉 to compass 〈◊〉 have by their politick Agents fillâ—d almost every mans mouth 〈◊〉 clamours against me that I have ever been and continue a man of a turbulent 〈◊〉 alwayes opposing striving and flying in the faces of all authorities rest 〈◊〉 and never satisfied whoever is uppermost yea though those whom I my self have labored by might and maine to advance and bring into power and that therefore it is very requisite I be taken off and that otherwise England must never look to rest long in peace yea so turbulent that if there were none in the world but John Lilburne rather then want one to strive withall forsooth John would certainly quarrel with Lilburne Finding that this how slight and unjust soever hoth prevailed more then true Christianity would admit and threatens my life more then any matter that is against me most men of judgement evidently seeing that nothing is laid to my charge worthy either of death or bonds I take my self obliged to vindicate my conversation from all such wicked causless aspersions lest by my silence I should seem guilty and to have nothing to plead in my defence All therefore who have any of the true fear of God in them may please to take notice that as they ought to judge nothing before the time so are they to be careful not to judge according to appearance but to judge righteous judgement the reason is because the appearance of things the gloss and outside is usually made by politicians the Arts-men and Crafts-men of the world for maintenance of their corrupt interests these will be the sole interpreters of men and things raising by art and sophistry such mists before mens eyes as what therewith and by changing themselves into the shape of Angels of light deceive were it possible the very elect but whosoever judgeth according to their Vote is certaine to judge amiss may soon be a slanderer and soon after a murtherer and if he stop not quickly go to hell with them which is the end of all such as love and make a lye especially such lyes as whereby mens lives are put in danger For thus dealt the false prophets with the true and by their craft and policy led many people to destroy them and so likewise dealt the Scribes and Pharisees with the Lord Jesus himself giving out he was a wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners that he cast out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils and that for no other cause but that he published doctrines destructive to their interest of glory and domination And just so dealt they with the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord as may be seen Acts 4. and throughout the whole body of the Scriptures and as Heb. 11.37 were stoned were sawn asunder were tempted were slaine with the sword wandered about in sheep-skins and goats-skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in desarts and in mountaines and in dens and caves of the earth And all these in their several times were reviled and reproached as turbulent persons as Paul and Silas were in Acts 17.6 And when they found them not they drew out Jason and divers brethren unto the rulers of the City crying These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also whom Jason hath received and these do all contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying There is another King one Jesus And thus in every age ever since hath it been as witness all the volumes of the books of Martyrs and the Chronicles of almost every nation and thus sometimes upon a religious and sometimes upon a civil account and very often upon both in one and the same persons the most faithful servants of Christ in every country where they lived being ever the greatest enemies to tyranny and oppression and the most zealous maintainers of the known laws and liberties of their Country as was John Hus in Bohemia Jerom of Prague John Wickliff in England the Martyrs in Queen Maryes dayes the Hugonots or Protestants in France the Gues in the Low-Countryes all not only esteemed Hereticks by the Church but rebels and traytors to their several States and Princes And to come home to our selves and to our own knowledge none have in the least opposed the illegal practices of those that for the time being have been uppermost but as they have been given out to be Hereticks and Schismaticks so also to be factious and seditious men of contentious and turbulent spirits and this for no other cause but for standing for the truth and contending for the known laws of the land the prosecutors and cryers out of turbulency proving ever unjust persons and oppressors and the oppressed and sufferers though through the policies of wicked men they have been supposed to suffer as evil doers yet a short time hath proved they have suffered for truth and right and were both faithful to God to their consciences and truest friends to their native countries and to the laws and liberties thereof which rightly understood give check to all such unjust and evil practices So that if men would but consider whence the cry ariseth and that it cometh ever from those that do the injury and is done purposely to fit and prepare such for destruction as oppose their unjust designs that whom by law they cannot destroy first to kill their reputation and to render them odious that so what violence or bloody injustice is done unto them may be digested if not fully approved I say were these truths considered well-meaning people would not be so easily deluded and drawn in to cry as these politicians cry nor so easily under the notion of turbulent spirits give up in sacrifice the lives and bloods of their dearest and best friends to the lawless lusts and wills of ambitious men untill none are left that dare utter one word in defence of known rights or once open their mouths in opposition of arbitrary and illegal proceedings For wherein can it be made appear that I ever have been or am of a turbulent spirit true it is since I have had any understanding I have been under affliction and spent most of my time in one prison or other but if those that afflicted me did it unjustly and that every of my
may appear I was so far from what would in me have been interpreted turbulency that I contended not till in my own particular I was assaulted and violated Neither did I appear to the Parliament in their prime estate as a turbulent person though under as great suffering as ever since but as none grievously injured contrary to the Laws and Rights of England and as one deserving their protection and deliverance out of that chraldom wherein I was and of large and ample reparation as they did of Mr. Buâ—lon Mr. Pryn and Dr. Bastwick and which their favourable and tender regard to persons in our condition gained them multitudes of faithful friends who from so just and charitable a disposition appearing in them concluded they were fully resolved to restore the Nation to its long lost liberty without delay Being delivered by them and understanding their cause to be just the differences between them and the late King daily increasing I frequently adventured my self in their defence and at length the controversie advancing to a war I lest my Trade and all I had and engaged with them and did what service I was able at Edge-hill and afterwards at Branford where after a sharp resistance I was taken prisoner and refusing large offers if I would renounce them and serve the King I was carryed a pinioned prisoner to Oxford where I endured sorrows and afflictions inexpressible yet neither by enemy nor friend was ever to that time accounted turbulent though I there insisted for my Rights as earnestly and importunately as ever and as highly disdained all their threats or allurements and again found so much respect from the Parliament as when my life was most in danger to be once more preserved by them though then not so freely as at first but upon the earnest and almost distracted solicitation of my dear wife violently rushing into the House and casting her self down before them at their Bar for now their hearts were not so soft and tender as at first but so far was I then from this new imputation of turbulency either in City Country Parliament or Army that I had every ones welcom at my return and my Lord General Essex to express his joy and affection to me though he knew me a noted Sectary a people he was so unhappy to disaffect that he gave me no less then betwixt 200 and 300l in mony and offers of any kindness which I shall ever thankfully remember to his just honour But Col. Homsteed and all non-conformists Puritans and Sectaries being daily discouraged and wearied out of that Army and the Earl of Manchester Major General of the associate Counties giving countenance unto them I put my self under his Command my then most dear friend as much honored by me as any man in the world the now Lord General Cromwel being then his Lieut. General what services I performed whilst I continued under their command will not become me to report I shall onely say this that I was not then accounted either a coward or unfaithful nor yet of a turbulent or contentious spirit though I received so much cause of dislike at some carriages of the said Earl as made me leave the service and soon after coming for London discovered so great a defection in the Parliament from their first Principles as made me resolve never to engage further with them until they repented and returned and did their first works from which they were so far as that there had not been any corrupt practice formerly complained of either in the High-Commission Star-Chamber or Councel-Table or any exorbitancies elsewhere but began afresh to be practised both by the House of Lords and House of Commons without any regard to those Antient fundamental Laws and Rights for the violation of which they had denounced a war against the King Nor did they thus themselves but countenanced and encouraged the same throughout the Land illegal imprisonments close-imprisonments examinations of men against themselves everywhere common and upon Petitions to Parliament in stead of relief new Ordinances made further to intangle them and all still pointed against the most Conscientious peaceable people such as could not conform to Parliament-Religion but desired to worship God according to their own Judgements and Consciences a just freedom to my understanding and the most just and reasonable and most conducing to publick peace that could be and in the use whereof I had in some yeers before enjoyed the comfortable fruition of a gracious God and loving Saviour and which occasioned me so soon as the Controversie about liberty of Conscience began to appear with my pen in its just defence against my quondam fellow-sufferer Mr. Pryn as a liberty due not onely according to the word of God which I effectually proved but due also by the fundamental Laws of the Land which provide that no man be questioned or molested or put to answer for any thing but wherein he materially violates the persons goods or good name of another and however strange the defence thereof then appeared time hath proved that it is a liberty which no conscientious man or woman can spare being such as without which every one is lyable to molestation and persecution though he live never so honestly peaceably and agreeable to the Laws of the Land and which every man must allow that will keep to that golden rule to do as he would be done unto And though my ready appearing also for this my native Right and the Right of every man in England gained me many adversaries for men will be adverse to the best and justest things that ever were till through time and sound consideration the understanding be informed yet neither for this was I accounted turbulent or of a contentious spirit My next engagement was as a witness against the Earl of Manchester upon Articles exhibited by his Lieutenant-General Cromwel wherein I being serious as knowing matters to be foul opened my self at large as thinking the same was intended to have been thorowly prosecuted but the great men drew stakes and I was left to wrestle with my Lord who what by craft as setting his mischievous Agent Col. King upon my back and the Judges of the Common Pleas and upon that the power of the House of Lords as got me first an imprisonment in New-gate and after that in the Tower Against which oppression for urging the fundamental Laws of England against their usurped and innovated powers I then began to be termed a factious seditious and turbulent fellow not fit to live upon earth For now by this time both House of Lords and House of Commons were engaged in all kindes of arbitrary and tyrannical practices even to extremity So that I must pray the judicious Reader well to mark the cause for which I was first accounted turbulent viz. for urging the fundamental Law of the land against those that thought themselves uppermost in power and above the power of Law as their practices
Upon this I was fetched out of bed and house by a party of horse and foot in such a dreaded manner as if I had been the greatest traitor to the laws and liberties of England that ever was the souldiers being raise onely against such traitors and not to seize upon men that strove for their restoration but now the case was altered ' and I must be no less then a traitor and so taken and so declared all over England with my other fellow-sufferers and all clapt up prisoners in the Tower and after a while close prisoners and then not only aspersed to be factious and turbulent but Atheists and Infidels of purpose to fit us for destruction And though after a long and tedious imprisonment they could never finde whereof legally to accuse us for any thing they put us in prison yet scrap'd they up new matter against me from the time they gave me liberty to visit my sick and distressed family a thing heathens would have been ashamed of but who so wicked as dissembling Christians and upon this nâ—w matter small as it was what a Tryal for my life was I put upon what an absolute resolution did there appeare to take away my life but God and the good Consciences of twelve honest men preserved me and delivered me of that their snare which smote them to the heart but not with true repentance for then had they ceased to pursue me but just before that my Tryal it is not to be forgotten how a Declaration was set forth by the then Councel of State signifying my complyance with young Charles Stuart just as now was published in print upon the very morning I was brought to the Sessions-house yea and the same papers brought into the now Parliament of purpose to bespeak and prevent the effect of those Petitions then presented in my behalf and to turn the spirits of the House against me so that nothing is more evident then that the same hand still stones me and for the same cause and that I may be murdered with some credit first they kill me with slanders but as they in wickedness so God in righteousness and the Consciences of good men in matter of Justice is still the same and I cannot doubt my deliverance God and the Consciences of men fearing him more then men freeing me from this danger I endeavoured to settle my self in some comfortable way of living trying one thing and another but being troubled with Excise wherein I could not snerk like other men I was soon tired and being dayly applyed unto for Counsel by friends I resolved to undertake mens honest causes and to manage them either as Sollicitor or Pleader as I saw cause wherein I gave satisfaction And amongst others I was retained by one Master Jos Primate in a cause concerning a Colliery which I found though just to have many great opposers and chiefly my ingaged adversarie Sir Arthur Haselrige one that did what he could to have starved me in prison seizing one my moneys in the North when I had nothing to maintaine my self my wife and children this cause had many traverses between the Committee in the North and the Committee for sequestration at Haberdashers-Hall And so much injustice appeared unto me to have been manifestly done that I set forth their unworthiness as fully as I was able and at length the cause being to recerve a final determination before that Committee I with my Client and other his councel appeared daily for many dayes proving by undeniable arguments from point to point the right to be in Master Primate but Sir Arthur Haselrige a Member of Parliament and Councel of State and a mighty man in the North and in the Army so bestirred himself That when Judgement came to be given it was given by the major Vote against my Clyent quite contrary to the opinions of most that heard it and to my Clients and my understanding against all equity and conscience Whereupon my Client by his petition appealed to the Parliament wherein he supposeth that Sir Arthur had over-awed the Committee to give a corrupt Judgement And being questioned avowed the petition to be his own and cleared me from having any hand therein The house were in a great heart and quarrelled my giving out the petitions before they were received by them though nothing was more common but order a rehearing of the whole matter by a large Committee of Members of the house in the Exchequer-Chamber where notwithstanding the right appeared as clear as the Sun when it shines at noon-day to be in my Clint to all by-standers not preingaged yet whilst it was in hearing long before the report was made I had divers assured me I should be banished and when I demanded for what cause I could get none but that I was of a turbulent spirit It was strange to me nor could I believe a thing so grosly unjust could be done and provided nothing against it But upon the report of Master Hill the lawyer most false as it was the House was said to have passed Votes upon me of seven thousand pound fine and perpetual banishment And upon the Tusday after called me to their Bar and commanded me to kneel once twice and again which I refusing and desiring to speak they would not suffer me but commanded me to withdraw and the next news I heard was that upon paine of death I must within twenty depart the land which though altogether groundless yet finding all rumors concurring in their desperate resolutions thought it safest to withdraw for a season into some parts beyond the seas and so I did where I had been but a very short time but I saw a paper intituled An Act in execution of a Judgement give in Parliament for the banishment of Lieut. Col. John Lilburne and to be taken as a felon upon his return c. at which I wondered for I was certaine I had received no Charge nor any form of trial nor had any thing there laid to my Charge not was never heard in my defence to any thing Nevertheless there I continued in much danger and misery for above sixteen moneths my estate being seized by Sir Arthur at length understanding the dissolution of the Parliament I concluded my danger not much if I should return and having some incouragement by my wife from what my Lord General Cromwell should say of the injustice of the Parliaments proceedings and of their pretended Act I cast my self upon my native country with resolutions of all peaceable demeanor towards all men but how I have been used thereupon and since the Lord of heaven be judge between those in power and me It being a cruelty beyond example that I should be so violently hurried to Newgate and most unjustly put upon my trial for my life as a Felon upon so groundless a meer supposed Act notwithstanding so many petitions to the contrary And now that all men see the grosness of their cruelty and bloody