convert all my zeale to presse all the Commons of England out of all the Counties thereof to hasten up to Westminster to the Lords House and there at their dore susser the Lordn to bore them through their cares as their Vass is and slaves being heir actions clearly and dayly declare they never intended them any freedom Law or Justice and absolutely it is a vaine thing and time meerely lost from their hands to expect any so Judge Roll concluded and said they were upon their Oathes and as Judges of the Law they could do no other bat remand me to prison againe unto which ipaciently stooped and came away but had much ados to get out of the Hall by reason of the extraordinary crowde And the next day sending to see what was entered in the booke about me the Clarke or Regester sents me a paper in these words Munday after five weekes of Easter in the 24. of King Charles Tower of London Iohn Lilburne Gentleman brought here into the Court upon an Habeas Corpus by Robert Titchburne Esquire Lieutenant of the Tower of London and the returne of the said Habeas Corpus being read he being committed by the Lords and Commons in this Parliament of England assembled it is ordered that he shall be remitted O superlative Justice was ever any man committed or remanded to prison before by those Judges that in open Court declare he hath been already almost 2. yeares in prison for nothing and now also they have no crime to lay to his charge which is my case but to draw to a conclusion I desire to fulfill my promise and give you a sight of the returne which thus followeth J Robert Titchbourne Esquire Keeper of the Tower of London according to a shore Writ of our Lord the King to this scedule annexed certifie That Iohn Lilbourne Gentleman in the said Writ mentioned was committed and is detained in my custody by vertue of an Order made the eleveth day of Iuly 1646 by the Lords in the present Parliament of England assembled and then sitting the tenour and scope of which Order followeth in these words Die Sabbati undecimo Iulii 1646. ORdered by the Lords in Parl. assembled That John Lilburn being sentenced by this House shall for his high contempt and misdemeanour done to this high Court according to the said sentence stand committed to the Tower of London for the space of 7. yeares next after the date hereof And that the Lioutenant of the said Tower of London his deputy or deputies are to keepe him in safe custody accordingly And that he do take care that the said L. C. John Lilburn do neither contrive publish or sptead any seditious or libellous Pamph lets against both or either Houses of Parliament Iohn Brawne Cler. Parl. To the Lieutenant of the Tower of London his Deputy or Deputies And further I certifie our Lord the King that afterward to wit upon the 18. day of Ian. 1647. It was ordained by the Commons in the said Parl. assembled as followeth in these words Die Martis 18. Ian. 1647. Resolved c. That the Licutenant of the Tower be hereby required to bring up to the Bar of this House to morrow morning at nine of the Clock L. Coll. Iohn Lilburne his Prisoner Hen. Elsynge Clar. Parl. D. Com. By vertue of which I the said Rob Tichbourn the said Iohn Lilbourn brought up to the laid House of Commons in the said Parl assembled by whâ—â—â— afterward the said Iohn Lilburne was againe committed to wit upon the 19. day of Jan. 1647. to my custody and in like manner is detained by vertue of an order made by the said Commons in Parliament assembled the tenour of which order followeth in these words By vertue of an Order of the House of Common these are to require you to receive from the Sergeant at Armes or his Debutie the body of L. Col John Lilbourne into the Tower of London and him there to detaine in safe Custody as your Prisoner in Order to his tryall according to Law be being committed for treasonable and seditions practices against the state and for so doing this shall be your warrant Dated Jan. 19. 1647. Wil. Lenthall Spâ—â—â—â—â— To the Lieutenant of the Tower of London The said Iohn Lilburn is also detained in my Custodie by vertue of another Order made by the said CoÌ„mons in the said Parl assembled the tenour of which Order follovveth inthese words Die Martis 18 April 1648. Resolved c that the 4. Aldermen of London Col Lilburne for Iohn May and do continue in the Tovvervv thout being removed from thence H. Elsing Cler. Parl. D. C. These are the causes of the keeping and detaining the said Iohn Lilburne in my enstody whose bodie before our Lord the King at the day and place in the said vvrit contained I have ready as by the said vvrit is commanded Robert Titchburne Keeper of the Tovver of Lonodn So deare friend with my service presented to you I rest yours faithfully John Lilburne Tower the 15. of May. 1648. FINIS
The LAWES Funerall OR An Epistle written by Lieutenant Col. JOHN LILBURN Prisoner in the Tower of London unto a friend of his giving him a large relation of his defence made before the Judges of the Kings Bench the 8. of May 1648. against both the illegall commitments of him by the House of Lords and the House of Commons and how that the Judges in open Court were necessitated to confesse there is by neither of the commitments any crime in Law laid unto his Charge yet though he was imprisoned for nothing being committed by a superiour Court the Lords and that upon a Sentence they could not release him but remanded him back again Prisoner unto the Tower which is a full Declaration there is no Law left in England now but that the people thereof must be governed by the lust will and pleasure of the House of Lords c. and though they deale never so unjustly with them to the causelesse destruction of their Lives Estates and Families yet the Judges of England being in deed and in truth meere Ciphers cannot remedy it because it is done by their superiours the House of Lords wherefore the said Iohn Lilburne doth declare his sorrowfulnesse in his great mistake in zealously stirring up the people of England to stand up to maintain their Lawes seeing they have none in being but the will of the Lords and therefore according to his promise to the Judges in open Court he provokes all the Commons of England out of all the Counties thereof to hasten up to Westminster to the Lords house and there suffer the Lords who now have conquered and subdued all their Lawes to bore them through their eares as their vassalls and slaves if they can beare it with patience Proverbs 28.1 The wicked flye when none pursueth but the Righteous are as bold as a Lyon Deare Sir AT your earnest desire I cannot chuse but give you and the world as perfect account as I can of all that passed before the Judges of the Kings Bench in reference to my selfe upon Munday last being the 8. of this present May. And in the first place I must intreate you to take notice of the reason or cause of my being there that day which was upon my own earnest desire for looking upon my selfe unavoidably in the roade way of destruction in the continuance of my causelesse and arbitrary imprisonment and finding the generality of the House of Commons who should be the true and faithfull conservators of the Lawes and Liberties of England deafe unto Justice and their eares and hearts sealed up against it so that of them I for my part may almost complain as the Psalmist doth they are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that do good no not one for they eat up the people as they eat bread and call not upon the Lord. Psal 14.3.4 I say at the serious consideration hereof musing with my selfe what to do for my own preservation and the preservation of my wife and little Children which nature and the Law of God teacheth me to endeavour with all my might who are all in the eye of reason unavoidably destroyed in my continuance in prison and I was staved of in my own Conscience from the use of extraordinary meanes for my deliverance till I had attempted what the Judges of the law would do for me whom I lookt upon as my last legall refuge and supposed they might happily do me some good but I durst not feede my thoughts with any confident hopes of Justice from them being they are created and made Judges by the power and authority of my potent adversaries and therefore must needes serve their ends or else be thrown out of their places yet I was resolved to put all the strength I had to the work and for that end I the 4. of April last writ an effectuall letter to the Speaker of the House in print intitulled it The Prisoners Plea for a Habeas Corpus therein print my Petitioned to the Judges of the Kings Bench for my Habeas Corpus and because Councell the last Teime had failed me and durst not move for me I was necessitated to write another Epistle the 7. of April 1648. to all the morall honest Englishmen in and about the City of London whether Episcopall Presbyterian or those commonly called Sectaries and in print intitulled it The oppressed mans importunate and mournfull cryes to be brought to the Barre of Justice in which I earnestly intreat them the first day of the Tearme being April the 19. 1648. to deliver my Petition for me and get me a Habeas Corpus which now I thank them divers of them did and procured me a Habeas Corpus which the Lieutenant of the Tower withstood and did not carry up my body whereupon I by a new Petition complained of him to the Judges but they in my apprehension grew somwhat deafe upon which I was necessitated the very present to write a rufling letter to Judge Roll which in print is intituled Vpon which letter I had an Alias granted me with a penalty of 40 l. which the Lieutenant obeyed and accordingly upon Munday last sent my body to Westminster where I arrived betwixt 8. and 9. a Clock and found both the Judges and my Grandee Adversary Soliciter Sr. Iohn c. very hard at whispering discourse neare the Chancery Court and upon the Judges going to the Bench I stept to the Barre and presently the Lieutenant of the Tower was called to make a returne of his Habeas Corpus whereupon his Servant Mr. Comport and my Keeper made answer here was the Prisoner Mr. Lilburne at the Barre upon which the Judge asked him for the returne and he told him he was but a Servant and at the Command of the Lieutenant had brought up the body of Mr. Lilburne which was all the returne he had and immediately the Lieutenant himselfe as I conceive gave in the returne and then Mr. Iustice Bacon demanded of me where my Councell was and being standing up upon a high place before the Bench with a loud voice I answered him I had none neither would I have any but desired to cast the weight of my Cause upon my own abilities which were sufficiently able to inable me to plead my cause my selfe before them and therefore Sir said I with a shrill voice I crave and demand at your hands as my naturall and undoubted right the same benefit and priviledge that Paul alwayes injoyed from the hands of the Pagan and Heathen Roman Judges who alwayes gave him free liberty as his Right to plead his Cause before them and to speake in the best manner he could for himselfe but Sir if you will not follow that just example of the Pagan Roman Judges Then in the second place I crave the same priviledge from you that I injoyed from the hands of the Caviliers at Oxford who when I stood before Judge Heath for my life being arrained
me to cease all such expressions unto which I replied Mr Justice Bacon I cannot make my legal defence for my self unless I speak against the non-Jurisdiction of the Lords but to shew my respect to you I shall avoyd all harsh words as much as the weightiness of my business will suffer and therefore Mr Justice Bacon I humbly intreat you I may be suffered to go on and then when I have done pass your Judgment upon my defence so I went on Jurisdiction over them as appears First in Colonel Edward King of Lincolnshire committed by the Lords to the Fleet by the power and interest of his then professed adversarie the Lord Willoughby of Parham and upon his appeal to the House of Commons in high affront to the Lords pretended Jurisdiction they released him out of the Fleet about the year 1644. Secondly Captain Macy belonging to Colonel Manwaring of the City of London being upon his guard at the Works seised upon divers letters of the Scotch Commissioners and broke them open about which the Commissioners grievously complained to the Lords who thereupon clapt the said Captain by the heels in the Fleet and my self with divers others being Solicitors for the Captain to the House of Commons they honorably to him and in high contempt of the Lords usurpations delivered him out of prison about the year 1645. and were upon debate to give him a large sum of money for his unjust sufferings Thirdly upon the Lords committing and censuring of me I appealed to the House of Commons and they received my Appeal and ordered me my liberty De die in diem to follow my Appeal which in my understanding is in Law a supersedias both to their Commitment and Judgment Fourthly Mr Richard Overton who affronted the Lords as much as any man that ever came before them and protested to their faces against their Jurisdiction over Commoners and appealed to the House of Commons for Justice against them and after that appealed to all the Commons of England and particularly to the General and the whole Army and yet notwithstanding the Lords approved of his protestation c. against them by delivering him by their special order out of the prison of Newgate without over-ruling him or punishing him or his stooping to them Fifthly his Wife and his brother Thomas Overton walking in some measure in his steps were justified therein by the House of Commons in receiving their Appeals yea and by the Lords themselves by delivering them without any punishment or judgment out of prison and without any their stooping or submitting to them Sixthly these very proceedings were the case of Mr William Larner Book-seller his brother and maid so that laying all the premises together it is undeniably evident that the present House of Lords have not the least Jurisdiction in the world over me or the meanest Commoner of England in any case whatsoever for if not in Treason the highest much less in Misdemeanors the lowest and therefore all their fines upon b Here I was necessitated by reason of the Judges often falling foul upon me to express my self in general words in this manner and therefore all their fines upon any of the Commons of England for not obeying their Warrants or Orders in order to tryals before them and refusing to kneel at their Bat in contempt of their Jurisdiction are illegal and null and voyd in Law and all those Goalers Officers or Ministers that put them in execution are subject in Law to make the party molested satisfaction for their wrongful molestation Sir John Maynard Sir John Gayer Alderman Adams Alderman Langham and Alderman Bunce for refusing to kneel at their Bar are illegal and voyd and null in law and reason both for all the Lords proceedings with them from first to last are coram non Judice and the Lieutenant of the Tower c. liable at Law to make them satisfaction for his unwarrantable executing of their illegal and unbinding Orders and Warrants upon them And indeed to speak the truth of the arbitrary and tyrannical proceedings of the House of Lords they are so illegal and irrational c Here again the Judges interrupted me and told me they must not hear such language of the Lords and therfore prest me to keep close to my exceptions against the return or else they could not let me go on so after I had expostulated it pretty well with them and being in an extream longing desire to come to the main pinch of the business very well knowing I had a smooth but yet a sharp sting for them in the conclusion I told them at their commands I would at present so far obey them as skip over part of my matter and did it to the next line where you shall find this mark ☞ that to set them up in the way they have lately gone in is to pull down all the Judicatures of the Kingdom and to destroy all the Laws of the Land in the destruction of which there is a perfect levelling of meum tuum which is totolly overthrown thereby and it is also a re-edifying of an arbitrary tyrannical unlimited and unbounded Government worse then Empsons and Dudleys Straffords or Canterburies for which yet they all lost their lives many stories higher then ever the Star-Chamber High Commission or Councel Table were which yet were arbitrary enough as appears by the Acts made 17. Car. Rex for abolishing them and indeed it behoves all the rich men of England well to look about them in reference to the Lords For if a company of men by vertue of their being made Peers by the King or his will and prerogative may at their pleasure and wills without all shadow of Law or Justice fine one Commoner of England more then he either is or ever was worth as they have done me upon whom they have set a fine of 4000 l. by the same rule of right reason and Justice they may at their pleasures rob all the rich men of England by Fines of all that ever they are worth yea and by the same reason and justice share it and divide it amongst themselves and so have better places abundantly of it then ever the Earl of Dorset had by being a privy Counsellor and Judg of the Star-Chamber which yet if some that well knew him belie him not was worth many thousand pounds per annum to him in an underhand way and besides if the Lords can persevere and hold on as they have lately begun the King was very unwise to call a Parliament and of and from them to seek for subsidies seeing the workmanship of his own hands the Lords by vertue of their having his prerogative stamp upon them is able to fine by their wills a Commoner of England more then he is worth and therefore may much more legally fine all the Commoners of England at their pleasure a quarter half three quarters or all they are worth and so fill the Kings or their own
am that the dealings of the Lords and Commons with me demonstrated by their orders of committments flowes not from any power given them either by the Law of the Laud nor from the Indentures betwixt them and their chusers no nor yet from any word or clause in the Writ of there summons or Elections and therefore fourthly it must flow from there CROOKED IVSTS DEPRAVED VVILLS and ARBITRARY PLEASVRES by which with naked faces they declare themselves to be limitted by no boundary unaccountable and obnoxius to no censures for any possible abuse whatsoever that can becommitted by them for by these committments they evidently declare there is no rule whereby to measure the rectitude or obliquitie justice or injustice of their Government and actions and by consequence they are under an impossibilitie to render an account of their wayes and doings and so by consequence the people of England are in the absolutest road way of perfect slavery that is upon the earth this the Parliament or the Lords and Commons would have the World to beleive they abhord in the King as appeares by there last declaration against him in which they shew the reasons of their votes not to make or to receive any addresses to or from him for in Page 12 they sâ—y the King hath laid a fit foundation for all tiranny by that most destructive maxime of his viz. that he oweth no account of his actions to any but to God alone but by the warrants of my coÌ„mitments it seemes this wicked and heathenish Maxim is Iudged by the makers thereof not to be to sweete a morsell for their own Pallets though in their said declaration they judge it to sweet for the Kings and therefore to conclude this point if this honorable Court of Justice the Judges whereof are sworne to Judge according to the Law and not lust will nor pleasure will Judge these arbitrary Committments of mine to be legal then I make my humble desire unto you the Judges thereof that you would cousen and deceive the people of the Kingdome no longer by assuming unto your selves the name of Judges of the Law but rather translate your Titles into the name of Judges of lust will and pleasure that so the people may expect the legall administration of the Law no longer from you and so I have done with the Fift and last ingredient to a legall Mittimus Now Mr. Justice Bacon seeing it is objected both by you and Mr. Justice Roll that my Commitment from the Lords is rather a Sentence Judgement or Decree hen a bare Mittimus and therefore being a judgement by the Lords a higher Court for 7. yeares imprisonment I cannot be delivered by this Court which being inferiour to it cannot reverse it nor be Judges of it To which Mr. Justice Bacon I answere First I doe not seeke unto you at present for reversement of my Sentence which is 4000. l. fine and perpetuall disfranchisement of the Liberties of an Englishman as well as seven yeares imprisonment But I come unto you as Judges of the Law who are sworne impartially to doe me Law and Justice notwithstanding any command whatsoever by any whatsoever to the contrary for my personall liberty which is my undoubted right by Law for any thing that judicially appeares before you upon the Warrants of my commitments For I have already fully proved unto you there is not legally the least crime in the world laid unto my charge and therefore no rules in Law for you to send me backe againe to prison But secondly I answer that I have already proved the Lords are none of my legall Judges and therefore all their proceedings with me from first to last are corum non judici Yea even their Sentence and Commitment it selfe for being it is against the 29. Chap. of Magna Charta it is void and null in Law which expressely saith That no Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or be dissesed of his Freehould or Liberties or free Customes or be Outlawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed nor past upon nor condemned by the lawfull judgement of his equals or by the Law of the Land which Law of the Land is expounded by the Statute of the 25. Ed. 3.4 37. Ed. 3.18 and Sir Edward Goke in his 2. part instit fo 50.51 to be by due Processe of Law viz That none shall be taken and past upon c. by Petition or suggestion made to our Lord the King or to his Counsell undesse it be by indictment or presentment of good and lawfull men where such deeds be done in due manner or by Writ originall at the Common Law being brought in to answere by due Processes according to the common and olde Law of the Land all which c. is confirmed by the Statute that abolished the Starre-Chamber this present Parliament 17. C. R. and all Acts Ordinances Orders Judgements and Decrees made contrary thereunto or in diminution thereof are thereby declared ipso facto to be null and voide in Law and are to be holden for errors and false judgements which totally barrs and overthtowes all Presidents whatsoever to the contrary yea although the Lords had a million of them And excellent to this purpose is Sir Edward Cookes Commentary upon the 3. Ed. 1. chap. 15 but especially his Commentary upon these words viz. Or Commandement of the King First faith he the King being a body politique cannot command but by matter of Record for the King commands and the Law commands are all one for the King must command by matter of record according unto the Law Secondly When any Judiciall Act is by Act of Parliament referred to the King it is understood to be done in some Court of Justice according to the Law And the opinion of Gascoine Chiefe Justice is notable in this point that the King hath committed all his power judicall to divers Courts some in one Court some in another c. and because some Courts as the Kings Bench are Coram Rege and some coram Justiciariis therefore the Act saith by the commandernent of the King or his Justices Hussey Chiefe Justice reported that Sir John Markham said to King Ed. 4. that the King could not arrest any man for suspition of Treason or Fellony as any of his Subjects might because if the King did wrong the party could not have his action if the King command me to arrest a man and accordingly I doe arrest him hee shall have his action of false imprisonment against me albeit he was in the Kings presence resolved by the whole Court in 16. H. 6. which authority might be a good warrant to defend his said opinion to Ed. 4. The words of the Statute of the 1 R. 2. chap. 12. are unlesse it be by the Writ or other commandement of the King and it was resolved by all the Judges of England that the King cannot doe it by any commandement but by Writ or by order or Rule of some of his Courts
ch 8. and freedom from arrests for them and their servants c. during the sitting of Parliament which the Law supposeth not to be long much less seven years which is a destruction to our fundamental rights viz. Annual Parliaments or at least Annual Elections as appears by the 4. Edw. 3. cha 14. 36. Ed. 3. ch 10. both which are confirmed this present Parliament by the triennial act in 16. Car. Rex and yet if any Parliament-mans servant be imprisoned the House of Commons themselves by Law cannot deliver him but it must be by a Writ out of Chancery and the member must make oath that the party for whom the Writ of priviledg is prayed for was his servant at the time of the arrest made all which appears in the Case of one Mr Hall the 22. of Feb. 18. Eliz. whose servant being arrested and imprisoned a Committee of the House reported to the House they could find no presidents for the delivery of him but in the way before mentioned whereupon Mr Hall was appointed by the House to go to the Lord Keeper and to do accordingly And if they cannot deliver one that belongs to themselves and priviledged by the Law of Parliament but not by the known declared Law of the Land nor punish him themselves that in the execution of the Common Law of England broke their priviledges much less in Reason and Justice can they commit or release one that is far remote from them and doth not by priviledg belong unto them the last of which is my present case and therefore no colour in Law hath the House of Commons to commit me to prison And as for the House of Lords the Petition of Right expresly saith That no man ought to be adjudged to death c. but by the established Laws of the Land and the express established Law of the Land is That no Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or be deseised of his freehold or liberties or free customs or be out-lawed or exiled nor condemned or any otherwise destroyed but by the lawful judgment of his Peers viz a Jury of his Equals of the same neighbourhood where the crime is committed being brought in to answer by due process of Law by Indictment Presentment or Writ original according to the course of Common Law but the Lords are none of my Peers or Equals and therefore are none of my legal Judges nor have not the least Jurisdiction in any case whatsoever in the world over me And though they should have a thousand presidents to shew they have exercised Jurisdiction in the like case of mine they are worth nothing because they are all and every of them against the 29 Chap. of Magna Charta and are therefore expresly declared by the Statute that abolished the Star Chamber 17. Car. Rex this present Parliament to be null and voyd in Law and to be holden for Errors and false Judgments And as for presidents against the Lords and Commons Jurisdiction in my particular case one president against them is of more consequence then a thousand for them and the reason is evident because as Sir Edward Cook often declares all Courts of Judicature are bottomed upon the Law of the Land and it cannot be supposed that any Court can be miscognizant or ignorant of its proper Jurisdiction And for the Lords they have confessed in the 4. of Edw. 3. Rot. Parl. 2. in the case of Sir Simon De Berisford that it is against the Law for Peers to try Commoners and have promised and enacted or at least ordained that they neither shall nor will do the like again though that occasion were superlative viz. about the absolute murther of King Edward the second And Secondly although the Maior c. of the Corporation of Cambridg were by the Kings Writ out of Chancery summoned before King Richard the second in full Parliament and there impeached of horrible Treason committed and acted in levying War against their soveraign Lord and King and being expresly within the Statute of Treasons made in the 25 of Edward the 3. Cha. 2. And though they surrendred up the Charters of Cambridg in open Parliament unto the will and pleasure of the King as forfeited into his hands by their Treason and Rebellion yet as to the point of Treason they by their Councel expresly pleaded that the King and his Lords assembled in Parliament had no Cognizance or Jurisdiction there to medle with Treasons committed by them and saith the Record which under the Register or Record Keepers hand of the Tower I have to shew unto your Honor if you please to have it read they alledged divers reasons therefore and the King and the Lords by their silence allowed of their plea as good in Law and let them go without any punishment there for their notorious Treasons as appeareth Rot. Parl. 5. Rich. 2. membrana 9. num 45.58 59. which is supposed in reason they would never have done if their own consciences and knowledg had not told them that by Law they had not the least Jurisdiction in the world over Commoners in any case whatsoever For if not in Treason the highest then much less in misdemeanors the inferiorest which is the most that ever they layd to my charge And if the King and Lords have not Jurisdiction over Commoners much less the Lords without the King and much less that House of Lords that hath layd the King their fountain of power and honor aside as unfit to be addressed unto any more and yet have not essentially or avowedly altered the Government of the Kingdom seeing by their Writ of summons and all their own Declarations they own nor challenge no power unto themselves but what they derive from him and therefore by their own principles and by the Law it self they have unpowered themselves and totally overthrown and destroyed their Jurisdiction and now cannot legally or rationally be called a Court of Justice or a House of Parliament in any sence as clearly appears by the 4 part Instit chapt High Court of Parliament fo 1.366.46 the King being in Law as Sir Edward Cook there declares the head the beginning and the ending of the Parliament and in reason it is impossible where there is no primitive there should be any derivative and therefore I do positively conclude that the Lords have both by Law and Reason unpowered themselves and destroyed their House from being a House in any sence and therefore have not the least shadow or colour of Jurisdiction over me or any Commoner of England And besides I find in the time of this present Parliament many Presidents of the House of Commons in putting out their extraordinary necessitated power to redeem and rescue the Commons of England out of the devouring paws of the Lords illegal and usurped a Here Judg Bacon interrupted me and told me they could not suffer the Lords to be arraigned before them in that manner that I did and therefore pressed
Cofers at their pleasure full and get in to them all the money of England therefore let rich men look about them in this particular and in a second regard also more dangerous then this forasmuch as it concerns life let all men I say look well about them for I am confident of this that I suffer so much Barbarism from Cromwel and his Creatures who are not willing to come to a tryal with me for the Leiutenant of the Tower hath already denyed me the benefit of the Law of England in not obeying my first Habeas Corpus and would not suffer me without fresh strugling to come to a legal tryal and thereby have before the sun convicted themselves of wickedness and unrighteous dealing with me for saith Christ John 3.20 Every one that doth evil hateth the light neither commeth to the light lest his deeds should be reproved or discovered I say I am confident I suffer so much from Cromwel c. for opposing and throwing down the Lords Tyranny which he did and still is evident he doth intend to make the arbitrary yet seeming legal ax to chop off the head of every man in England he hath a mind to destroy any otherwise then by wilful murder as he did Richard Arnal at Ware and having been under God the chief Instrument to break him of that damnable and wicked design he and his Creatures therefore are as mad at me as so many mad men c. Although they have done so much already in destroying the Law and setting up Arbitrary Tyranny that I will make it good with my life divers of them viz. of the House of Lords c. better deserve Tower hill therefore then ever Srafford did but what a company of foolish silly Creatures are Cromwel and his confederate Grandees who would pretend to give those Commoners of England a tryal according to Law and Justice ☞ whose lives they would take away by a tryal before the Lords * Here I began and said Sir what an errational thing is it for the Lords to go about at their bar to try Commoners for their lives when as men that know the Law c. when as men that know the Law of England fully knows that if the present Lords were a true House of Lords as before I have fully proved they are not yet they were not able legally to try one of themselves for though the body of their House in case they were twelve or eighteen and under they cannot be should be in the nature of a grand Jury and petty Jury and so the Judges of matter of Fact yet they must have a Judg of matter of Law too and that must be a Lord high Steward which they neither have nor are able legally to make and therefore have no colour of power in Law to try one of themselves much less a Commoner that is none of their Peer or equal whom the Law hath again and again expresly prohibited them to meddle with but enough for the Lords at present and now two things more distinctly for the House of Commons First admit they had a Jurisdiction in executing the Law which I have before already fully proved they have not yet all Courts of Justice established by Law in England are bound and tyed to Judg no man but by witnesses sworn according to the Law they being the evidence to the Jury and Judg 3. part instit fol. 163. But they never put Masterson my accuser to his oath in his Information he delivered against me although he were but a single informer never any man of all the large company besides himself appearing against me and therefore no shadow or colour for the House of Commons to adjudg or condemn me to prison thereupon seeing no man whatsoever can be condemned by any Court in England without witnesses sworn against him according to Law but if he had delivered what he did deliver against me upon his oath it had been never the legaller because they have no power nor never had to administer an oath and therefore cannot by the Law of England in the least pretend any Jurisdiction over me in cases Criminal or any power at all to commit me to prison for where the Court hath no authority to hold plea of the Cause there all proceedings are Coram non Judice and there perjury though Masterson had sworn never so falsly cannot be committed and so against all reason a man is left at liberty to say without fear of punishment what he please because it being not in a Judicial Proceeding no perjury can be committed by Law and that the House of Commons hath no power to administer an oath is evident in that the Law gives them none nor they never practised it and therefore if they would now put it in use they cannot legally of themselves now begin to do it For as learned Cook saith in his Chapter of perjury 3. part instit fol. 165. An oath is an affirmation or denyal of any thing lawful and honest before one or more that have authority to give the same for advancement of truth and right calling Almighty God the searcher of all hearts to witness that his Testimony is true so that saith he an oath is so sacred and so deeply concerning the Consciences of Christian men as the same cannot be administred to any unless the same be allowed by the Common Law or by some Act of Parliament neither can any oath saith he allowed by the Common Law or by Act of Parliament be altered but by Act of Parliament no nor a new oath raised and therefore he declares it to be a high contempt of the Law of England for any man to administer an oath without warrant of Law and to be punished by fine and imprisonment and of all a And here I skipped seven or eight lines to this mark ☞ oaths in use in England This oath of Confirmation for deciding and ending of Controversies is the only and alone warrantable oath by the Law of God Mat. 5.34 35 36 37. and Heb. 6.16 17. James 5.12 And as for other oaths I know no use in the world of them for those men that do not love things that are excellent for the excellency inherent in them will never love nor honor them for oaths sake But ☞ the House of Commons wanting a legal power to administer an oath it is a clear demonstration and proof that they have no power or Jurisdiction at all in Law to decide Controversies betwixt a man and his neighbour especially in times of peace when all the ordinary Courts of Justice are open and therefore have no shadow or colour in Law to adjudg or commit any man that is not a Member of them to prison And in b But all this president to avoid disputes I skipt over for the Judges prest that the House of Commons owned the Lords Jurisdiction in some cases to which I answered I owned it as well as they and
of Justice where the cause dependeth And saith Bracton the King can doe nothing but what he can doe by Law So as saith the Lord Cooke the command of the King is as much as to say as by the Kings Courts of justice for all matters of Judicature and proceedings in Law are distributed to the Courts of Justice and the King doth judge by his Justices 8 H. 4. fol. 19. 24. H. 8. chap. 12. and regularly no man ought to be attached by his body but either by proces of Law that is as hath been said by the Kings Writs or by Indidctment or lawfull warrant as by many Acts of Parliament is manifestly inacted and declared which are but expositions of Magna Charta and all Statutes made contrary to Magna Charta which is Lex terrae from the making whereof untill 42 Ed. 3. are declared and inacted to be void and therefore if this Act of Westminster 1. concerning the extrajudiciall commandement of the King bee against Magna Charta it is void and all resolutions of Judges concerning the coÌ„mandement of the King are to be understood of judiciall proceedings a part insti fo 186.187 Therefore Mr. Justice Bacon it is to no purpose for you to tell me I am committed by a higher Court and therefore you cannot legally deliver mee for I aver unto you and have already sufficiently proved it that I am commitmitted contrary to Law and Justice and therefore you being Judges of the Law and not of Presidents grounded upon will and pleasure You are to take notice of nothing but Law and therefore I demand and require my liberty at your hands as my undoubted right and due by Law which you can neither in justice honour nor conscience deny unto me But admit the Lords to be a superiour Court of justice to the Kings Bench in some cases yet if they walke beyond their bounds and limits set them by the Law and meddle with that which by Law they have no Jurisdiction of in that case they are no Court of Justice either to you or me but a company of despisers and contemners of the Law all whose actions and decrees made and done in such cases are but meere affronts unto the Law and unvalid and unbinding either to you or me or any other man in England in disobedience to which they by Law are not capable of a contempt or affront nor cannot legally punish any in such a case either with fine or imprisonment as for instance First if a court of SESSIONS which is a Court in many cases by Law questions me for my Freehould and I give them contemptuous words for medling with that which they have no Jurisdiction of they by Law can neither fine nor imprison me therefore Secondly the same holds good in the COMMON PLEAS which is an unquestionable administrative Court of Justice in divers cases yet if they go about to hold plea of murder before them if the party refuse to answere them It is in Law no contempt of the Court And if the Court shall therefore fine and imprison him it is illegall erronious and unbinding because in Law they have no Jurisdiction of such cases Thirdly and pertinent to this purpose is BAGGS CASE in the 11. Part of Cooks Reports who being summoned before the Mayer of Plimoth in open Court called him cozening Knave and bade him come kisse c. For which the Mayor Disfranchised him and it was resolved in Law that the the Disfranchisment was illegall and the reason of is was because it was not according to Law for that the Mayor in Law had no power to doe it Fourthly sutable to this is the complaint of ARCHBISHOP BANCROFT and the Judges answer to it which said Archbishop in his 22. Article to the Lords of the Privie Counsell in the 3. of King James complaines against the Judges of the Courts of Justice in Westminster Hall for affronting the actions proceedings and Censures of the High Commission Court which was erected by Act of Parliament viz. 1 Eliz. and had power by King Iames his Letters Patents to Fine and IMPRISON and yet as he complaines as you may read 2 Part. instit fo 615. 4 Part. instit fol. 335. The Judges were growne to that innovating humor of late that whereas certaine lewd persons two for example one for notorious Adultery and other intollerable contempts and another for abusing of a Bishop of this Kingdome by threatning speeches and sundry rayling tearmes no way to be endured were thereupon fined and imprisoned by the High Commissioners till they should enter into bonds to performe further orders of the said Court the one was delivered by HABEAS CORPVS out of the Kings Bench and the other by a WRIT out of the Common Pleas and sundry other prohibition have been likewise awarded to His Majesties said Commissioners upon these suggestions that they had no authority to fine or imprison any man c. Which practices and doings the Judges in their answers thereunto justifie to be legall and no more then that which they are bound unto by their Oath for that the high Commission had gone beyond the legall power of their jurisdiction having no power by law to fine and imprison in those cases and therefore the Law being the surest Sanctuary that a man can take and the strongest fortresse to protect the weakest of all it ought not to be denied to the meanest man that demands it against the greatest seeming legall oppressor that act of violence or wrong being most hatefull of all others when it is done by uncontinuance of justice and therefore that man which legally indeavours deliverance from it ought from the judges of the Law by Magna Charta to have it freely without sale fully without any deniall and speedily without delay in which regard the aforesaid Judges did not only justifie their forementioned legall practice but also fall very foule upon the Arch-Bishop c. for taxing the Judges and Iustice of the Kingdom confidently averâ—ing that for lesse scandalls then his c. in taxing the Iustice of the Kindow divers have been severely punished And Sir Edward Cooke in the 4 part of his institutes Chap. of the high Commission Court in causes Ecclesiasticall fo 331.332.333.334 335. instances divers others that for notable Ecclesiasticall crimes were fined and imprisoned by the high Commissioners and upon demanding their right from the Judges of the Courts of Justice in Weslminster Hall they were relieved and released by them by the strength of those nerves and sinewes of the Law Prohibitions and Habeas Corpusses But above all the rest that he there mensions Iohn Simpsons case in the 42. Eliz. is the most remarkable to my purpose which Simpson being accused for committing adultery with the Wife of Edward Fuste over which case by Law the high Commissioners had Iurisdiction whereupon the high Commissioners issued out there warrent to Richard Butler Constable of Aldrington in the County of Northamton for
attaching and arresting of the body of the said Simpson which in Law is an imprisonment upon the attachment of his body and the Constable takes on William Iohnson servant of the said FVSTE to assist him in the serving of his Warrant which warrrant the Coxstable served upon him and read it unto him notwithstanding the Said SIMPSON resisted him and in his owne dofence shewed him slew the the said Iohnson that came in aide of the said Constables for which he was as a wilfull murderer Committed to Northampton Goale and indicted before the Judge by the coroners inquest of wilfull murder supposeing the said Warrant to Lawfull but the matter being very mighty the Justices of assise thought not good to proceed against him at those assises but deferred it till the next assises at what time after this long time of deliberation and upon conference with other judges of the law it was resolved that the statute of the 1 Eliz. gave no power to the high commissioners to make any warrant to arrest the body of Simpson in that case but that they ought to have proceeded by citation And therefore going beyond there legall power although by the Queens letters patents expresse authority is given to the high comissioners to send for the body of any offender c. Simpson in killing the said IOHNSON had committed no wilfull murder but only defended himselfe and his liberties and so it was found by the Jury he acquitted of murder From all which I observe first that all Iudges of all Courts of Justice in England are bound toact within the compasse of there jurisdiction given them by Law 2 I observe that the Iudges of any Court going beyond their legall Iurisdiction may and ought by Law to be resisted which resistance is no contempt of the law not punishable by it 3 That the Iudges of the Law are bound in duty and concience by Law to judge all causes that comes before them according to Law which both the single order of the Lords and the single order of the Commons is inferiour or in subordination unto as well as the royall letters pattents of â—â—e King or Queen which yet those Noble Iudges according to Law threw behind their backs and acquitted the said SIMPSON of Murder inkilling of IONHSON in his doing actions in pursuance and by vertue of the authority of the said Letters Pattents And therefore much more ought you to acquit and set my body at liberty without any more adoe from the Lords 7. yeares imprisonment being their imprisonment of me though grounded upon their decree or Judgement is contrary to the expresse declared and constant received fundamentall Lawes of England and though divers men in former ages have been so sottish or fearfull to part with their legall Liberties to the Lords and have stooped unto their Iudgements Orders and Decrees yet that is no prejudice or hinderance unto me from the injoyment of mine who now demands them at your hands as my right by Law 4. And lastly seeing as is before undeniably proved that the King the Major is the primitive and the Lords the Minor are but the derivative and seeing it is before also fully proved that the Letters Pattents of the King the primative is not to be set in compitition with the Law it will strongly and undeniably follow that the orders of the single Lords who are but the derivitive cannot keepe me in prison contrary to the Law but that they ought by you without any further delay being illegall in themselves to be judged so by you as well as the King or Queenes Letters Patents were by your predecessours and my body by you to be set at liberty though it hath seemingly affronted their orders as well as the life of the said SIMPSON was saved by your predecessours although he had slaine the said IOHNSON in affront of their superiours Letters Patents and not to necessitate me for my reliefe and preservation to SIMPSONS remedy which though bloody in it selfe yet is justifiable by Law and reason by which I may defend my liberties and life against all those that in the executing of urjust illegall orders and decries would rob me of them and if in my own defence to save my life I be necessitated and compelled to destroy him or them that without Law would keep me in prison and so destroy me by famine or by sicknesse c. his life be upon his owne score for in such a case I am free from his Blood and therefore Mr. Iustice Bacon to wind up all I shall conclude in the words of learned Sir Edward Cooke in his epilogue to the 4 part of this institutes which I read thur And you honourable and reverent Judges that do sit in the high tribunals and courts or sâ—ates of Justice feare not to do right to all and to deliver your oppinions Iustly according to the Laws for feare is nothing but a betraying of the succors that reason should afford And if you shall sincerely execute Justice be assured of three things First though some may maligne you yet God will give you his blessing Secondly that though thereby you may offend great men and favourites yet you shall have the favourable kindnesse of the Almighty and be his favourites And lastly that in so doing against all scandalous complaints and pragmaticall devises against you God will defend you as with a shield for the Lord will give a blessing unto the righteous and with his favourable kindnesse he will defend him as with a shield And now dear Sir having done with my set speech being often as before I declare interrupted by both the Judges and compelled to skip over divers remarkable things in it as I have before also noted and declared which in my judgement was not fairely not justly done of the Judges unto me who ought to have given me freedom of speech * As the Lords in 1641. did give me and the Commons in Ian. last as you May reade in my Whip for the Lords pag. 10. 11. 19. and then to have judged what I said so as soone as I had done with a conge made unto them both though I confesse I spoke most commonly to Mr. Justice Bacon because I judged him to be the corum or the senior I said now Sir I have done and shall submit what I have said and pleaded unto your Judgements and Consciences desiring that if you conceive the businesse to be of that weight that it requires any more debate that you will take the time of 2. or 3. seriously to consider of it whereupon Judge Bacon asked me if I had any counsell to maintain what I had said and I told him no neither did I need any for I was able enough my self to do it and did offer him not only in Law but with my life to make it good professing unto him that I was very consident that Lawyer was not in England that durst or would say one quarter of that for
me that now before them I had said for my self because my adversaries were transcendantly pocent who by their wills and pleasures had in some kind destroyed men of more power and greatnesse then all the Lawyers at the Bar and therefore Sir though I am acquainted with some Lawyers that sometimes plead at this Bar. yet peradventure my respects and obligations may be such unto them that it cannot stand with honour justice or conscience for me to desire them to plead my cause seeing I am confident they cannot do it with safety and for me to expect that from them or put that upon them that in mine owne conscience I do verily believe will be their ruine in their practise and lively hoods when I am not able in any reasonable manner to requite them I should in my owne thoughts render my selfe the basest and unworthiess of men Whereupon Mr. Justice Bacon begun to speake and to make a kind of reply or answer unto divers of the things I had infisted upon and told me that Sir Edward Cooke in the 4. Part of his instituts whom he did see I had very much studied saith That no inferiour Court could meddle to question Judgements of Parliament and after a pretty large speech told me I was committed upon a centence from a Superiour Court whose judgements by Law they neither were able nor could controule and therefore must of necessity remand me back again and after he had done I replyed Sir it is true the Judgements of Parliament is not to be questioned by inferiour Courts alwaies provided they meddle with that which by Law appertaines to the Judgement of the Parliament which the executing of Lawes in the Originall Judgeing and desiding of deferences doth not the least And besides Mr. Justice Bacon you doe not I hope in Law Judge the Lords House singly or the House of Commons single to be the Parliament true it is sir severall statutes in Queene Elizabeths time as the 27. Chap. 8. 31. ch 1. provides That if any find himselfe agreeved by false judgements in the inferior Courts he shall if he please by a Writ of Error sue in the high Court of Parliament which I cannot beleeve in Law is meant the Lords House *âŽ* And it is the most irrationall thing in the world to say that legally no Law can be binding but that which is made by the consent of the King Lords and Commons and yet to prefor a single judgement of the Lords made without all forme shaddow colour or pretence of Law above all the Acts of Parliament made for 3. or 400. yeares together for this I will offer to all the Lawyers in England and challeng them to shew me one Statute or a peece of a Statute to justifie the Lords proceedings against me in Law and I will be willing to lose my head and to bee cut in ten thousand peeces and besides it is most irrationall for the Lords who never pertended to any power but what they derived from the King to immagine or go about to make the world beleeve that they can by their wills destroy all the Lawes of England as in their dealing with me they have done when the King their fountain of power can doe no Judiciall action but by his Courts of Justice and that in the legall method manner or processe of the Law although by Law a thousand times more is given and instated into him then unto all the Lords of England and for the truth of this see the 2. part inst f. 168 186. 187 yea if the King imprison me illegally by his owne Warrant either in matter or form I have my remedy against him at law as appears by the Act that abolished the Star-Chamber and therefore it is the height of erationally to conceive or say that the Lords will shall be Lord Paramount above the will of the King their Fountain and Creator and the power of the Law which is above Him from whom they derive all they have or can pretend vnto and I am sure the law tells me that in the Courts of Justice which is established and bounded by the law and is administred adjudged and executed by sundry Judges and Ministers of the Law is betrusted a full and ample power for tryall of property of lands and goods and for the conservation of the people of this Realm in peace and quietnesse but I am sure by the Judges remitting of me back to prison there is a failer of Justice which the Law abhors and an insufficiency in the Law to deliver me from destruction by lust will and pleasure and therefore without dispute slaves are the people of Eng. in the highest and slaves they must continue if they spedily rouse not up their spirits stand stifly for their rights single for the further and due examination of the said judgement in such manner as is used in erroneous judgments in the Court of Kings Bench but the law gives not the Parliament much lesse the single House of Lords the least cognizance in the world originally to meddle with any thing betwixt party and party and if they doe I am sure by the law in force at this day it is corum non judicii but the Lords originally summoned me to their Bar be for any charge exhibited or any indictment proferred or any visible complanant or prosecutor appearing and their high commission and Spanâ—sh Iâ— quisition-like examined me upon interrogatories and so committed me to prison for which they have no shadow of ground in law Whereupon Mr. Justice Roll stept up confirmed that which his Brother Bacon had already said telling me that the Chancery and the Court of Admirals proceedings were diverse from those statutes I had alleadged as well as the proceedings in Parliament were and yet were Lex terrae and it is positively said he the law of the Land that an inferiour court as ours is cannot reverse the judgment of a superiour Court as the Lords are which we must of necessity do if we should release you which we cannot doe if we would without medling with the merit of the cause from the beginning and then the way ought to be by writ of Errour which said he will not lye in this Court in a Judgment given in the Lords House and therefore you must rest content it had been well for you you had pleaded these things before the Lords in your plea there aaginst their jurisdiction Sir said I I did so and they sent me to prison therfore not only so but in Newgate close imprisoned me therefore and would not suffer my wife to come into the Prison yard so much as to speak with me I also appealed to the House of Commons and solely put my selfe upon their Justice and Judgement but I sound them for almost these two years together deaf both unto Justice Law and reason and now as my last legall refuge I come to you after I have been almost two years in
where there is no law there can be no transgression Rom. 4.15 he ought not to be attainted by generall words of high treason by authority of Parliament as sometime hath been used but the high treason ought to be specially expressed seeing that the Court of Parliament is the highest and most honourablest Court of Justice and ought as hath been said to give example to inferiour Courts And besides all this seemes to me to be clearly and evidently held forth by those 2. notable statutes viz. The Petition of Right 3. Car. Rex the Act that abolished the Starre-Chamber in 17. Car. Rex So that from all that hath been said to this 4. head alone I am confident I may in Law challenge my liberty and freedom from your honours hands without bayle as my undoubted and unquestionable right by Law and which you neither can nor ought by Law to denye unto me seeing that by both the Warrants of my Commitments I am rendred a just and an innocent man there being by them not the least pretence of a legall crim laid unto my Charge for Generalls is as is already fully proved no Charge nor crimes in Law And also hath been so adjudged and declared by the present two Houses of Parliament as if it were requisite I could particulerâ—â—se fully unto you 3. instances at present I shall only give you viz. the 5. Members and the Lord Kimbolton and the Lord Major Pennington and the late 11. Members whose cases you may reade 1 part Booke Decler pag. 38. 77. 201. 845. but being I am here principally to pleade Law and not Ordinances I shall forbeare to inlarge my selfe thereupon and yet before I conclude shall with your Honours leave speake a few words to the fift and last ingredient to make a Mittimus lawfull Viz. That it have a legall conclusion in these words and him safely to keepe untill he be delivered by due course of Law and not for 7. yeares nor untill the party committing doth further order which legall conclusion is wanting in both my Commitments and therefore illegall Which most desperate CoÌ„mitments being illegall in all the 5 essentialls I may call and doe call them impoysoned Arrowes shot through the principall vitall of Englands liberty but here both the Judges interrupted me to the purpose and would not let me goe on with my Retorick so that I was necessitated for leare I should not be suffered to plead my conclusion which I looked upon to be the strength of all my work therefore was forced to skip over divers leaves to the objection and the cheife authors of them not deserving to be named or stiled the patrons of their Country no not so much as well wishers to the liberties thereof for here is Law equitie and Justice dethroned and absolute will or blinde lust challinging the proper imperiall seate of England the Commitments drawes the black line over the name of Englands Freedom yea the line of confusion upon the Kingdom if the Parliament or both Houses shall thus actually avow that they are to governe loose without the restraint of any lawes mocking the Kingdome thereby in making Judges to execute the Law yea and absolved from all Laws of government as though it were in their power to dispose of the persons of all the people of England at there will and pleasure the granting or challenging of which can be no lesse then the absolute distroying of all the mutuall relations and dependancy in a Kingdom or common wealth yea the levelling of all termes of destinction betwixt ruler ruled yea hereby the very foundation of property of meum tuum is totally overturned no man can call any thing he possesseth his owne for my person is nearer to me then my Estate and he that at his will may dispose of my person may much more at his will and pleasure dispose of my Estate And therefore Mr. Justice Bacon this manner of imprisoning is no better then a two edged sword whereby the liberties of England is mortally wounded if not actually cut in peeces and the Prime Authors of these Commitments in the eye of God and all rationall men deserve the highest exempliariest of punishments in thus subverting the very bases and foundations of government so unavoydably imbroyling the Kingdom a new in Warrs to preserve themselves from totall vassellage or distruction especially considering that they themselves have done these things after they themselves have chopt off the heads of Straford and Canterbury for the very same things and therefore by the strength of reason if there were no other law in being they deserve their own executed punishment Againe the Law never instituted a Goale for punishment and destruction but for a place of safe keeping of a criminall person that could find no better bayle where he ought to be kept and intreated with all humanitie civillity and respect till he be brought to a speedy tryall all Goales in England by Law being to be delivered 3. times a yeare at least or more oftener if neede require * 1 part instit lib. 3. ch 7. Sect. 438. fo 260. and 2. part instit fo 42.43.115.186.189.315 and 3. E. 1. ch 25. But I have been almost two yeares in prison and never to this houre had any legall Crime laid unto my Charge nor cannot be suffered to come to a legall Tryall though to my extraordinary expences toyle hazard and trouble I have indeavoured it withall my might but cannot be admitted to have any benifit of the law which I do averre is the highest of tiranny being kept in Goale in a languishing condition worse then anysuddaine death being ever dying and yet not dead And therefore I do positively averre that the Arbitratiness of the Conclusions of my Commitmants is that wich strikes the Fatall Stroke through the heart Roote of Freedome and Justice yea it overturnes overturnes the Foundations of the Kingdome this very sivgle act if drawne into president hath a seminall vertue in it whereby is contained in its selfe all the distinct species of injustice whereof the Sun was ever yet spectator Yes this arbitrary Commitment doth Ipse facto enervate yea evanuate null all established lawes of the land renders all rowles records no better then waist papers fit for nothing but to light Tobacco Pipes for to what purpose serves Magna Charta the Petition of right and other wholsom Lawes which say no man shall be imprisoned past upon c. or any other wayes destroyed but by the Lawfull Iudgement of his equalls or by due processe of Law when as the rule to punish supposed or reall transgressors shall be mens wills lusts as in my case by my Commitments c. it is so that if 500. men shall assume and arrogate to themselves the absolute dominion over the people of the Land then it may be England shall have 500. distixct lusts unto which they must conforme their actions And sure I