Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	body_n	breath_n	great_a	16	3	2.1033	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88171	A defensive declaration of Lieut. Col. John Lilburn, against the unjust sentence of his banishment, by the late Parliament of England; directed in an epistle from his house in Bridges in Flanders, May 14. 1653. (Dutch or new still, or the 4 of may 1653. English or old stile) to his Excellency the Lord General Cromwell, and the rest of the officers of his Army, commonly sitting in White-hall in councel, managing the present affairs of England, &c. Unto which is annexed, an additional appendix directed from the said Leut. Col. John Lilburn, to his Excellency and his officers, occasioned by his present imprisonment in Newgate; and some groundless scandals, for being an agent of the present King, cast upon him by some great persons at White-hall, upon the delivery of his third address (to the councel of State, by his wife and several other of his friends) dated from his captivity in Newgate the 20 of June 1653.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1653 (1653)	Wing L2098; Thomason E702_2; ESTC R202747	17,494	20

them or any of them for the mannaging of the Kings designs against the interest and welfare of the Land of my Nativity and in all my actions and carriages beyond the Seas in my cruell banishment I have been to the utmost of my power understanding ability as constant as studious and industrious a reall well-wisher to the prosperity of the people of England in generall as ever I was in my life and I appeal to a late published Letter of mine to Col Henry Martin as a part of my justification in this averment And as for George Lord Duke of Buckingham with whom I was the most conversant I was again and again importuned by the said Captain Wendy Oxford thereunto our first meeting or seeing one anothers faces being at the said Captain Wendy Oxfords Chamber in Amsterdam where we all three dined together and the Duke and my self had a very large and private discourse about his own particular individuall businesse he craving my best advise how he might the most rationall expeditious and honorable way he could make his peace in England and returne thither to breath in the Ayre of the Land of his Nativity which ne avowed he loved above all places in the world and was ready and willing to do any thing that the present power in England could require of a man that had either a grain of honor or honesty in him and to give them any security to the utmost of his power for his future quiet and peaceable living under their Government for the accomplishment of which end I gave him many reasons to believe that his onely way was to make a sure and firm friend to his Excellency the Lord General Cromwel in order unto which I advised him to deale with Captain Wendy Oxford who was a Mercenary fellow and whom I gave him abundance of reasons to believe was very great with Mr. Thomas Scot Secretary of State who I confidently then averred to him was extraordinary great with his Excellency the Lord Generall Cromwel and accordingly the said Duke of Buckingham followed my advise and large instructions in that particular and entered into a contract with the said Oxford to obtain his passe who to my certain knowledge negotiated it both by Letter to his said wife or commonly reputed Whore with Mr. Scot for divers weeks and moneths together and the said Mr. Scot sent over to the said Oxford a Passe at the said Oxfords earnest desire to come from Holland to England to speak with him the said Mr. Scot about the said business which Pass as I was told by a Merchant that in Oxfords hand see it the said Oxford was possessor of but it being accidentally seen in Oxfords hands by some Cavaliers who were drinking hard and ranting it with the said Oxford he judged it his safety and policy immediately to tear and burn it and immediately to fall a cursing and swearing at the Parliament and Army and to call them Rogues Traytors and Villains and to with all the plagues of Heaven and earth to fall upon them for their destruction and damnation And which said Oxford received several sums of money of the said Duke of Buckingham to negotiate his business with the said Mr. Sco● to procure his Pass to come into England and as I have been credibly informed from Col. Leighton then belonging to the Duke of Buckingham and then fully privy to all the said negotiations the said Oxford with Mr. Scot brought his desired Pass to that perfection that if he the said Duke would truly declare all the discourse he had with me at Amsterdam he should have his Pass but the Duke having at our very first meeting ingaged his word and honour to me that his and my discourse together should not be divulged without my consent and according to my instructions refused to tell Mr. Scot the same and so failed of his then obtaining his Pass and thereupon sent his friend Col. Leighton with a Letter and full instructions immediately to his Excellency the Lord General Cromwel to procure his extraordinary much desired Pass and the said Col. Leighton had with his Excellency and the then counsel of State many debates about it as the said Col. fully and particularly at his coming into Flanders told me at Ostend and Bridges the place of my then habitation and this business and the debating from time to time of the honest and just ways and means how to procure the said desired Pass for the said Duke was the true and reall ground of the Duke of Buckinghams and my many converses together ever since our first knowledge each of other unto whom I must most truly and faithfully say this That I do as immediately and instrumently owe my life and being to him as ever David ought his to Jonathan his powerful influence among the desperate Cavaliers being such as that instrumentally under God he principally preserved my life from those many complotted designes that the said Oxford had cunningly laid by their hands to get me murdered and of whom and in his real commendations whether it be gain or loss unto me I am in gratitude compelled to say this That during the time of my banishment I was more really obliged and beholden to him the said Duke of Buckingham for those extraordinary benefits and favours I have received from him then I am to my Father my Brother and all the Kindred and friends I have in the three Nations in England Scotland and Ireland and in whom I have by long experience found so much reason sobriety civility honour and conscience that as to his owne particular if ever it should lye in my power to do him any personal service without detriment to my native country which I am confident he would never desire of me I judge my self bound and obliged in conscience and gratitude to travel in his errand a thousand and a thousand miles upon my feet and if he wanted security and mine might any waies be advantagious unto him in case he should ever live to injoy that which he to me scores of times passionately hath declared to be esteemed by him so great a happiness once again to be admitted to breath in English aire I durst be bound body for body for his punctual and faithful performance of any solemn ingagement he should make for his future and peaceable quiet and obedient living under the present power of England Most noble Lord and honored Gentlemen I am the more bold to be thus large in these particulars with you because being compelled by my own necessities Sir Arthur Haselridge having actually seized all my land and the apparent hazard of death Oxford having in his third or last printed book declared he hath two more to come speedily out against me in which he sufficiently threatens to make it too hot for me to hide my head in any hole in Europe And my wives most urgent importunity grounded as she said to me upon some incouragement she apprehended

A DEFENSIVE DECLARATION OF Lieut. Col. John Lilburn Against the unjust sentence of his banishment by the late Parliament of England directed in an Epistle from his house in Bridges in Flanders May 14. 1653. Dutch or new still or the 4 of may 1653. English or old stile To his Excellency the Lord General Cromwell and the rest of the Officers of his Army commonly sitting in White-hall in Councel managing the present affairs of England c. Unto which is annexed an additional appendix directed from the said Leut. Col. John Lilburn to his Excellency and his Officers occasioned by his present imprisonment in Newgate and some groundless scandals for being an agent of the present King cast upon him by some great persons at Whitehall upon the delivery of his third Address to the counsel of State by his wife and several other of his friends dated from his captivity in Newgate the 20 of June 1653. MY Lord and honored Gentlemen Having seen nothing abroad in print to declare that title that you would have people give you that address themselves to you I must therefore crave your pardon if through ignorance I do not exactly give you being my self in a foraigne nation at so far a distance from you that title that is usually given unto you for upon my word and reputation my present designe is to write with all respect unto you wherefore I crave leave truly to inform you that by the sudden and unexpected arrival of my endeared though greatly afflicted wife with me yesternight I am by her certainly informed of the total dissolution of the Parliament with the necessity of your assuming to your selves the power of the Nation with large and serious promises from you of doing it real good and healing it's rents breaches hazards and dangerous divisions by setting it at real liberty and freedome founded upon the true principles of reason common equity righteousness and justice ' at the sight of which in truth and verity my heart should more truly rejoyce then at the enjoying of all earthly riches and honour that possible it can be imagined the whole world can afford to me particularly And also she very much incourages me to believe that if I can obtaine your pass faith or ingagement for my safe and free returning into England and remaining there which she with confidence assures me by vertue of this letter thus penned and her negotiations thereupon speedily to procure from you I may with confidence rest upon it In which consideration most noble and worthy gentlemen vouchsafe me without distast I beseech you liberty truly to acquaint you That by the late Parliaments Votes of the 15. of January last was twelve Months I was fined seven thousand pound to Sir Arthur Haselridge c. to be banished out of England and its territories for ever and never to return into any of them againe upon pain of death but if I do I am to dye as a fellon without mercy and upon pain of death to be gone within thirty dayes after the said 15 of Januarie And by their Act of the 30 of the same moneth all persons are declared accessary of Fellony after the fact that shall relieve harbour or conceal me in England or any of its territories after the expiration of 20 dayes after the said 15 of January the said day that the judgement of my banishment was past against me the harbors all stopt that none should pass without a pass And yet though I went to the Speaker Master Lenthal at his own house and with all the earnestness and importunity that my tongue possibly could express to him begged a pass of him as for my life but it was again and again absolutely by him denied me So that I ran apparent hazards of being hanged in England before I could get away forwant of a pass to go into my banishment For at Dover the Maior of that Corporation absolutely and resolutely denied to let me go without a pass although I had been at the charges to carry thither from London with me several witnesses judicially to depose upon their oaths that I was the individual Lieut. Col. John Lilburn mentioned and named in my banishing votes which were publikely printed by special order of the Parliament one of which copies I then delivered to him till his wife a meer stranger to me and one that to my knowledge I had never seen before upon my mournful expostulation with him burst out into crying and begged and desired of her husband to let me pass and rather by so doing to run the hazard of his own ruine then of my apparent death by his means And all this is done unto me I do here solemnly avow it and dare ingage with the utmost hazard of life judicially legally fully and evidently to make it good without any the least shadow af law reason justice conscience or provocation without so much as ever laying any pretence of a crime unto my charge or ever letting me know my accuser or any accusation or ever by sending forth any manner of process of law calling me to any answer whatsoever or ever permitting me though in the face of the Parliament sitting I most earnestly prest it and desired it upon the twentieth of Jan. being the very day that by their fifth vote past against me I was called to their bar to hear their sentence read to me to speak so much as one word in my own defence or expressing any manner of cause in my foresaid banishing votes either general or particular wherefore they so banished and fined me seven thousand pound The foresaid Act of the thirtieth of January past also against me was made after it was publickly known I was upon my journy to Dover to go into my banishment and yet that Act expresseth no particular crime in the least in law against me but onely generals which by the law of England and the Armyes Declaration signifie nothing 2 Part Cooks Inst fol. 52 53 315 318 591 615 616. and 1. part of the Parliaments book of Declarations p. 38 77 201 845 and the votes upon the impeached 11 Members see the Petition of Right and the late act that abolished the Star-chamber and those excellent printed arguments upon the Writ of Habeas Corpus in the Court of Kings Bench in the Case of Sir John Eliot and other Parliament-men committed to prison in the third of King Charles The unparallel'd strangeness and high injustice of which sentence by no laws of nature rules of reason nor foundations of English government can no way I am confident be justified nor any man that had really a finger or vote in causing or procuring of it by any man indued either with one grain of honor true understanding conscience or common honesty the justification of my own innocency and every way causeless suffering in every particular against that most unrighteous sentence I dare venture my life to the uttermost hazard to justifie and vindicate

fully against the learnedest ablest or rationalest writer or lawyer in England that shall in the least open his mouth in the defence of that Sentence which yet with all respect I leave to you further to judge of And yet by vertue of this very Sentence Sir Arthur Haselridge many weeks since hath actually seized and is actually possessed by his tenents or other agents of all my land and corn sown upon the ground turned all my servants out of house and home By means of which sentence I being but a new beginner by reason of my many and long continued chargeable troubles and imprisonments to take root in any outward settlement in the world for the future subsistance of me my wife and helpless little babes I have been already so destroyed in my estate as that really and truly I am already several thousands of pounds damnified thereby besides all the constant hazards of my life And already I profess bona fide as in the presence of God exposed to so great straights which till now for my own reputation sake I never durst divulge as that I have already been forced in a land of strangers for many moneths together to borrow here every peny that bought me ●…ead while my wife in England for the subsistance of her our children being forced to sell a great part of her houshold-stuffe and to pawn other of it yet unredeemed and also to borrow several sums of money of her friends being in point of payment of moneys unto her so dealt with by almost all persons in a manner that she may justly say they have dealt unhonestly and unworthily with her they taking advantage of my absence and great afflictions yea to procure money to buy her and her poor young babes bread she hath already been necessitated to part with my interest in one house in London for one hundred thirty five pounds that stands me in much above three hundred pounds and yet by my Landlord of that house being one of that most corrupt tribe of Lawyers is basely unconscionably and unworthily dealt with by reason of which a great part of the said one hundred thirty five pound is kept from her And yet all this put together is the least of my present sad affliction and banishment For at Dover was clapt upon me a spye a Rogue called Captaine Wendy Oxford who had stood upon the Pillory for wilful perjury in two several places and yet at the same time was hired and pensioned by Master Thomas Scott Sir Arthur Haselridges bosome and most indeared friend who hath held a constant though many wayes seemingly disguised correspondency with the perjured Rogue Oxford ever since as to Master Scotts face I am able still in a great measure to prove and allowed him vast sums of money therefore of the payment of some of which much more then circumstantial I am able to bring proof And which Oxford hath had a dispensation from the said Master Scott or at least hath made it his practice to fall down upon his knees with his dublet and hat on the floor to drink healths to the damnation and confusion of the Parliament and Army as I have been informed by one of his own Comrades even during the receipt of his well paid large Pension from Master Scott in which time also he hath avowedly writ and caused to be printed several books with his name to them proclaiming in foraigne Nations the Army and Parliament traytors against the King and vigorously excited and stirred up all the Princes of Europe to joyn together in one body and by force of arms to cut them in peeces as a pack of the grandest traitors and tyrants that ever breathed in the world and who to his knowledge had their agents in all the Kingdomes of Europe to stir up their subjects against their Soveraigns and to reduce their Kingdomes into Commonwealths or Anarchies but the maine and evident scope of all his said books and constant plotted dissembling devises and actions being principally to exasperate the body of the mad or Ranting Cavaliers in these parts to cut my throat as the present greatest enemy the present King or his Father ever had in the world And yet at the same time or under the same employment of M. Scot c. hath writ over to the said Mr. Scot I was become a Cavalier or at least a mighty great man with the chief leaders of the Kings party here whose Agent or Agents of Sir Arthur Haslerig and Mr. Scot even at Parliaments Committees or Committee have made their open and proclaimed use of it to the great and extraordinary detriment of me and my friends and Clyents that had business of many thousand pounds consequence then depending and in actual agitation before the said Committee or Committees By means of which with much more of as dangerous and sad nature to me that I am able if it were now fit most truly to relate all my brains valour and mettle hath been scarce able several times to preserve my life from the murderous hands of the various plots and wicked contrivances of Mr. Scots known Agents and their greatly deluded credulous accomplices the pistol of some of whom viz. Hugh Rily a common reputed Irish Rebel and lately a piece of a Quarter-master-General to Sir Charls Lucas in Colchester whose tyranny the said Rily exercised as I am credibly informed upon abundance of people in Colchester and particularly upon his Landlord Mr. Beakon and which Rily for his most villanous roguery cheating cozening treachery and running from one side to another hath several times hardly escaped hanging in Flanders c. beyond Seas as I have for certain been informed by some of his own Country-men and Associates at Colchester from whose mouth especial in the particular of treachery I have heard so much vildness related by them of him as I never in all my days heard of one man and yet this very man is one of Mr. Scots great Agents and Negotiators beyond the Seas to promote the interest and freedom of Englands Commonwealth though Job saith of such most wicked and profane men he would not set them with the dogs of his flock and righteous Paul saith The damnation of such men is just that say as Mr. Scot constantly practises they must do evil that good may come of it all such vile dissembling wicked actions having no foundation at all from God or his Volumn of Truth but from the devil and his Machiavilian principles which are notably excellently and politickly described by that subtile wise man Nicholas Machiavel his most rememorable book called his Prince in his whole 18 chapter extreamly well worth reading and taking special notice of and yet as my wife informs me the said wicked Hugh Rily hath lately to the Councel of State by Mr. Scots instigation as I imagine presented a strange lying and false Petition against me a copy of which I know not how to come by to return an answer

to and therefore do humbly intreat your honours joyntly or several to help me to a true copy of the said Petition that so in the face of the Sun I may be freely admitted to make my just defence against it truth hating holes and corners with most bitter and fearful oaths immediately to kill me hath several times been almost even at my very breast and that without any real provocation Yea and Mrs Oxford a common notorious reputed whore and who commonly passeth once every month for above these twelve months together betwixt her husband the said Captain Wendy Oxford from Amsterdam and Delfe to and from Mr. Thomas Scot at White-hall hath from time to time avowed to several persons from whom I have my relations that I am confident will justifie it that if all the interest she had in the world would get me pistolled or stab'd she would have it done having as from several I have been informed boasted that she hath already on purpose brought with her into Flanders several stout men to do it and to dispatch me yea even at Dunkirk about fourteen days ago being newly come from White-hall from Mr. Scot she vowed protested and swore and most bitterly damn'd her self to the pit of hell to the very face of an acquaintance and friend of mine that if by any of all the hands of all the friends she had in the world she could get me pistolled or stab'd it should speedily be done or if by any other ways and means that she could invent she could get me murdered it should undoubtedly and speedily be done All which murdering conspiracies I have too much ground and cause really to believe doth most wickedly take its original true and malicious cowardly rise from Mr. Scot and Sir Arthur Haslerig the former and often practices of both of them against me even in this very kinde hath been as wicked bloody treacherous and barbarous even while I was in England as in a great measure I am able truly to evince and punctually demonstrate All which seriously considered I humbly and earnestly entreat you to cast a just favourable speedy and compassionate eye upon my causless unjust and sad suffering condition being constantly in a strange land by reason of the wicked and cowardly plots and devices aforesaid of Mr. Scot Sir Arthur Haslerig his grand and most indeared friend accompanied with constant ●…d daily hazards of death and to afford me such speedy and effectual remedy and deliverance from it as your present exercised power will best enable you with and particularly that you will immediately give such a Pass and such security for my speedy free and safe returning into the Land of my Nativity and there to live in security from the hazard of all or any part of my aforesaid sentence or any actions done depending thereupon as may be ground of security and confidence unto my faithful and beloved friends Major General John Lambert Colonel Bennet late a Member of Parliament Colonel Thomas Pride Mr. Henry Duel my Father in law Mr. Feake and Mr. Powel Ministers or publike preachers Mr. William Walwin Mr. Thomas Prince Mr. William Kiffin Mr. Boulton Mr. George VVard Citizens of London and Clement Oxenbridge Esquire or the major part of them with your Passe to send me under their hands their encouragement that I may freely with security of my life from any danger by reason of any action whatsoever depending upon the said sentence return into England for which favour I shall judge my self obliged to remain My Lord and Noble Gentlemen Your obliged friend in all just and righteous ways heartily to serve you JOHN LILBVRN From Bridges in Flanders this 14 of May 1653 new or Dutch stile or May 4 1653 old or English stile An Additionall Appendix by the penner of the foregoing Address MY Lord and honored Gentlemen it hath been my hard fortune often to be misunderstood by divers of you and which I am confident of it many times hath principally flowed from the cunning and in●inuating artifice of corrupt persons without you whose own particular guilt and fear required them for their own safety to calumniate and asperse me and to do the utmost that in them lay to set you or some of the chiefest of you and me together by the ears and such was some of their mischievous practises even with his Excellency himself at his late being at Scotland which made and compell'd me after the battel of Worcester to wait upon his honor at his own house in the Cock-pit who very well knows he was pleased to honor me so far and to take me with himself into a Gallery where without a third person present his Excellency very well knows we had hand to hand above an hours friendly and rationall discourse at the beginning of which discourse I do verily believe his Excellency cannot chuse but very well remember I expressed my self unto him in this manner My Lord with all respect and sincerity of heart I am come to wait upon you and humbly to beg that honor from you that you would vouchsafe to give me leave a little friendly to speak with you which being with all willingnesse granted by his Excellency I proceeded to this effect my Lord through misapprehensions and a kind of partaking in other mens quarrells you and I have for some time by past been ingaged in severall disgusts against each other although my Lord I think a greater and realler familiarity could not possibly be betwixt two friends then was betwixt your honor and my selfe in the years 1643. 1644. 1645. and part of 1646. And at your late going to Scotland and my self accompanying you 25. miles on your journey by reason of a very great Obligation you had put upon me in the Parliament House and Councell of State the day before there seemed to be a very solemn and friendly reconciliation betwixt us which on my part hath beene faithfully honestly and justly ever since both privately and publikely inviolably kept and preserved to your honors very great advantage and safety and yet notwithstanding from Scotland c. by severall of my friends I have been often informed that Mr. Scot and others at White-Hall hath writ severall Letters to you and therein informed you that I was a mannaging and had joyned in destructive designs against you and the Army with the Kings Party in which regard I have judged my selfe obliged in conscience and duty to my own safety to wait upon your Excellency and face to face to aver unto you upon my reputation and credit that I am absolutely free in any kind either directly or indirectly of doing the least action that may give you distast or be prejudiciall in any kind to your interest and therefore doe most humbly and earnestly entreat you to do your selfe that Right and me that Justice as to call Mr. Scot or any other that hath endeavoured to accuse me to you and thereby to incens● your indignation against me face