Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	court_n	justice_n	writ_n	1,630	5	9.1550	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88153	The afflicted mans out-cry, against the injustice and oppression exercised upon; or, An epistle of John Lilburn, gent. prisoner in Newgate, August 19. 1653. to Mr. Feak, minister at Christ Church in London.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1653 (1653)	Wing L2078; Thomason E711_7*; ESTC R212915	13,792	15

There and there onely seemeth to be true liberty which may most appear in the actings of those beings which are most knowing Shew me then the Sphere of mans being and you may quickly find the measure of his freedom his being is by all agreed to be rational and Reason therefore is the proper measure of his liberty for he is then free when his activity is preserved equal or proportional to his Being this is rational and so must that and man is then and then onely free when he can act what he should act according to Right Reason this is the law of his Nature which is rational and Reason is his Royal coller of S.S.S. or Chain of precious Pearls which Nature hath put about his Neck and Arms as a badge of Honour and most happy Freedom This digression will be scarce excusable but that our law doth so adore Right Reason that it is a Maxime What is contrary to Reason is contrary to law And in pag 123. he saith The next thing is the Basiis or Foundation of our law process and of all judicials In all cases saith he accusers parties or Defendants Witnesses and Judges be and must be distinct Neither let the judgments be strange nor celebrated from their Judge or Place or Time neither is judgment to be given in a doubtful Matter or on the party accused being absent Let there be nothing done without an Accuser for God and our Lord Jesus Christ did know Judas to be a Thief but because he was not accused therefore he did not suffer The Witnesses are lawful and present without any infamy or suspition or evident spot The Priests cannot rightly accuse the Lacians neither doth it behove any one to be judged or condemned before he hath lawful present accusers and may receive a place of defending to make his Crimes of no effect And again one that is pressed upon before his Judge if he will he may declare his cause and not pressed upon before his Judge if he will he may hold his peace If any one doth uspect the Judges he may speak against or contradict them affliction or imprisonment ought not to injury him that doth appeal and elevate his Crime by a remedy of appealing every one is to be judged by his equals and of the same P●ovince Whatsoever is against those that are absent neither from their Judges is utterly void An Oath must have its companions Truth Justice and Judgment if those things be wanting it is not an Oath but a Perjury c. Are these saith Mr Sadler the laws of England or of Nature rather these we owe to Beauclerk or Henry the first And in pag. 158 159. speaking of the Kings Exorbitancies he saith But did we labour toyl and sweat so much to keep a little River in its bounds that so we might be drowned by the boundless Ocean or be swept away at once by a destroying and devouring deluge Did we scruple at a little gravel or a pebble that we might be crushed by a Mountain Would we strain at a Gnat that we might be choaked by a Camel or be swallowed whole by Behemoth Have we not all reasoned so much and fought so long with a vast expence of Treasure and of that which is by much more precious life or blood of many hundred thousand free-born Irish Scottish English men to bound our King that he might not presse Us with his Arbytrary power onely that by this we might but plain the way and make it level that some others for I will not say the Parliament might be oppressive more and more unjust and arbytrary more I hope I need not and therefore I would not fear it but I have no art or power to fl●tter And I should have doted on the Roman Poet of the Civil Wars had I not found him blessing his Fates for bringing forth a Nero through those bitter Pangs and Throws And yet I must confesse if I knew where or could be so happy to presage another new Birth of Tyrannie to follow such a long and sore Travel of our State I should also desire and pray for one Nero rather then one hundred or one million for of Evils this is nothing for I speak of Tyrants I did ever hate a Multitude as much as a Magnitude for if I must be forced still to live under a displeasing Tyrannie I chuse it and obey it and am pleased with it in one Tyrant rather then many But again I say I do not believe it and I hope I need not fear it of or in an English Parliament and yet again I say they are at least I think they are but men and men in former times might erre and therefore once again and yet again I bow and beg and humbly pray they may be just and merciful in all and very tender least their little fingers do oppresse Us more then ever did our Princes loines And since I have presumed to speak so long ●hat am so low they will I hope be not offended if I speak a word one word yet more of them that are so much my Elders and Betters It may not be at least it may not seem enough to quiet trembling minds to say or prove by Arguments there shall be nothing done but what is just except we also see or know the way and meanes and usual cou●se Our Governors will please to take in doing that which may or is and ever shall I hope be just the way must be both right and clear as well as is the end and of the too unjust and arbitrary power and both seem to be in Processe or in ways or means much rather then in ends or things that be effected by it sure it was at least it might be good to build a gallant fleet of ships and so it might be just that each should contribute a part of such a publick work nor was it only that which then was taken from us for a ship that made us sigh and groan and cry or fear our ruine or a universall Deluge of Oppression but it much or mainly was we did not see the way or mean or legall processe which the Court did take in taxing or assessing such a place a County or a person and it was but thus in Loanes and so in divers if not all the things we so abhorred in the Crown the thing did not so much displease as did the way or meanes to such or such an end I need not say how curious or how scrupulous and tender still our Lawes have been in pointing out the way aswel as the end the processe in Courts of justice as the final judgments so that indeed the very form and life and power or substance of the justest Lawes doth much consist in processe which by some may now be though a shadow or a ceremony left at pleasure for a blustring wind or any furious hand to shake as much as long as it shall please and then to salve it

up by saying to the Root We mean you good and do but lay you bare that so you may the more behold and more admire our justice in the end when all the boughs and branches shall be gone that do but hinder all your Prospect I must but touch and glance there is a Trinity which all our laws do seem to worship here on earth estate liberty and life And in pag. 175. Mr Sadler saith I need not speak how curious our Fathers were in all their process touching life the way was still as punctual as cleer and plain as was the end they loved to be just and to do justly Doth our Law condemn any man without hearing or due Summons to judgment I hope it never will A great man of a good name standeth upon Record as by Parliament condemned to death without hearing or legal Summons But there is a Bl●sh or a Vail of Oblivion drawn upon it by good Writers as a stain and a shame to the Parliament Rolls yet as a just judgment on him that had first moved that another might be so condemned and he so perished by that law which he would have made for others This seemeth also to be written in the law of Nature and doubtless the sins of Sodom were as notorious to God in Heaven as any others can be to men in Parliament and yet he would and did go down to hear and see and proceed in a judicial way nor would he condemn or execute before he had not onely cleared his justice in himself or to his Angels but also to Abraham Lot and other lookers on that he still might be justified both when he judgeth and is judged for he still did and will put his actions on mans judgment as we shall more fully cleer hereafter This Processe also towards Sodome is by many of our old Lawyers brought for the pattern of our laws in that especially that none may be condemned without a legal hearing And in this and divers other things doth Bracton and Fleva borrow much in the laws of Henry the first And be the matter of Fact never so notorious yet there may be some plea that no man can fore-see or ought to fore-judge before he heareth For all men may plead necessity or force upon themselves as well as right and law for any thing they do amisse And for this and other Reasons the law doth suppose all men to be just or excusable till they be legally heard and adjudged This difference there is between the Judges and the Law-makers for these they say do suppose all men to be evil but the Judges should suppose all men to be good till they be proved to be evil The Charge and Accusation by the law of Nature ought to be cleer distinct and particular with time and place or other circumstances else the party accused cannot discharge himself Universals do not presse or oppresse at all Generals do not presse at all or else they are apt to oppresse The Witnesse and the Evidence must also be so cleer that those must condemn rather then the Judge who si●teth as Councel for the party Accused That so he be not oppressed by or against law And besides the Judge in most Cases and in those also of life in Scotland there is Councel allowed by law which may and ought to be heard in particulars of law or what ever may be justly disputable as Treason is by Statute so that of all Crimes by expresse Acts of Parliaments it ought to have no Tryal but clear and plain according to the course and custom of the common law In such Cases therefore should the Judges both in Law and Conscience sit and be in stead of Councel to the party and this they owe to every subject though they had a special Obligation to the King Who to his own Rights and therefore to his Wrongs was ●n Infant in Law and so expresly declared in the old Mirrou● B●sid●s other Books His Politike Capacity never but his Person ever in Nonage or supposed so in law for it may be a child or a woman not able to know the lawes and therefore alwayes had by law a legal mouth assigned in Councel of law And so might any man else of old it seemes for matter of demurs before judgment or for framing of a leg●l appeal by Writ of Error or some other way from any judgment whatsoever But our last King professed himself to know the lawes so well that it seemeth the Judges and others did hold themselves to be excused from speaking for him as else they would or should or might have done In this I might speak too plainly but I may be pardoned It is also the law of this kingdome and of Nature That although there be no Councel assigned yet may any in a good manner move the Court to keep the party from injustice or the Court from errour as Stanford and the third part of Institutes Cap. 2. fol. 63. 101. and in such Cases it may be excused and not censured for rash Zeal if some do or shall appear where or when it may be thought they be not called Neither can the whole Parliament of England I suppose make any Court to condemn without lawful Accusers or lawful Witnesses which by expresse Acts of Parliament is most especially provided in Case of Treason in King Edward the sixth and Queen Maries Reign and Tryal of Treason most expresly tyed to the Course and Custome of the Common-law Nay in full Parliament of Henry the Eighth it was declared That attaint of Treason in or by Parliament was of no more force or strength then it was or ought to be by the Common-law or then as good and strong as that by Parliament Nor can the whole Parliament I think by the law of Nature and right Reason make any children Ideots or all others whatsoever to be so much as Accusers or Witnesses That I say not Indictors Tryors or Judges By expresse Acts of Parliament in Philip and Mary Edward the sixth Hen. 8. Hen. 4. Hen. 1. for to him doth the Mirrour and his lawes lead us as to a cleer Christal Fountain of our Law-process as was shewed before None shall suffer for Treason or other Crime but by lawful Accusers and lawful Witnesses before those that by law might receive Indictments Which with all Inquests are to be made by honest lawfull able men Neighbors to the Fact And in pag. 179. he saith He should mispend his time to shew it to be the great law of the Kingdom as well as of Nature that none may be Judges and Parties in their own Cause Which may ere long be found perhaps to be the reason of the th●ee Estates and very much of our Common-law which is punctual in nothing more then in providing for a cleer distinction of Accusers Witnesses Indicters Tryers and Judges especially in Cases of Treason which upon divers motions of the Commons in Parliament have been so often enacted and

The Afflicted Mans Out-Cry against the Injustice and Oppression exercised upon OR An Epistle of JOHN LILBURN Gent. Prisoner in Newgate August 19. 1653. to Mr. Feak Minister at Christ Church in London Honoured Sir THough I cannot say I am acquainted with you yet I have heard so much worth of you and of your tendernesse and zeal for the honour of the Lord Jehovah my long and sensible injoyed lot and portion that I am imboldned to present you with a few lines by way of complaint of that sad and unjust dealing that I find from those that would be reputed Christian and righteous Judges that now would take away my life upon a most unjust Act of Parliament grounded upon the most notorious Lye in the world and in which I am no more concerned in Law or Truth then the child in the Mothers womb for it is an Act for the execution of a Judgment past in Parliament against one Lieu. Col. John Lilburn the 15 of January 1651. for high Crimes and Misdemeanors but there was never any such Judgment either the said 15 day of Jan. 1651 or any day before or since p●st against me in Parliament in the least And therefore in Law and Verity I cannot be any more concerned to be the man mentioned in that unrighteous Act then the child in the Mothers womb And that there never was any such Judgment past in Parliament against me I give these Reasons for it Fi●st there was never any Charge Indictment or Information in the least filed or preferred in Parliament against me that ever I was summoned unto in the least to answer neither did the Parliament call me by any due process of Law in the least so much as to hear any Charge Information or Indictment read against me nor never so much as called me to their Bar to demand of me what I could say for my self why they should not pass Judgment against me Neither was I ever in all my life out-lawed for not appearing So that I do again with confidence aver it before God and all his People that I am no more in Law Reason Truth or Verity concerned in that Act upon which I am indicted for my li●e then the child in the Mothers womb Neither hath any man of honour conscience or common honesty the least ground in Law to say that I am the man meant in that Act for executing of a Judgment past against one Lieu. Col John Lilburn Jan. 15. 1651. for high Crimes and Misdemeanors And yet upon the Tryal for my life although the said Judgment be the foundation of the Act and the Act the foundation of the Indictment yet am I denied by the Court at Old bayley the hearing or seeing of that Judgment which is and ought to be the foundation and ground of all and which saith all the Councel I can speak with or hear from is the highest injustice that can be acted against a man in England by those that in the least professe themselves to be Judges or Executors of the Law Yea and when I desire from the Court but liberty from the pure and undefiled Law of God the true fundamental laws of England and multitudes of the late Parliaments own Declarations to prove that I ought to see and hear the said judgment And when in the first place I begun with Gods righteous and just dealing with Adam and although God was absolute supream over him yet he would clear up the justice of his wayes even to Man and therefore gave Adam a plain law to walk by Gen 2. And when Adam had transgressed and broken it although God knew well enough he had so done yet he abhorred to deal unjustly with him and condemn him without summoning him to answer for himself and therefore he sits him by saying Adam where a●t thou as much as if he had said Come forth and stand up for thy self and answer to the Bill of Indictment against thee for breaking the pure and undefiled Law of Me thy Soveraign Lord and King and speak the utmost that thou canst why thou shouldst not be condemned for thy Rebellion against me thy endeared Lord and Master But Sir while I was thus speaking steps up Col. John Barkstead the present Lieutenant of the Tower of London who as he is a souldier no more fit to be a Judge in a legal Court for a mans life then a Surgeon or a Butcher is to be a Jury-man for a mans life and he cryes out to me and commands me to hold my vain babling for what have we saith he to do with the law of God O rare Judge indeed and a fit man under the colour of justice and magistracy to murder the innocentest man in the whole world for the best and chiefest of the law-books of England do aver and glory in it that the foundations of the true law of England is built upon the pure law of God And saith the notable and ancient law-book called The Doctor and Student chap. 2. pag. 4. The law of God or law of Reason is written in the heart of every man eaching him what is to be done and what is to be fleed and because it is written in the heart therefore saith he it may not b● put away no it is never changeable by no diversity of place no time And therefore against this Law Prescription Statute nor Customs may not prevail And if any be brought in against it they be no Prescriptions Statutes nor Customs but things void and against justice And he saith this law of God or Reason ingraven in the heart of man teacheth that good is to be loved and evil is to be fleed also that thou shalt do to another that thou wouldst another should do to thee and that we may do nothing against Truth and that a man must live peaceably with others that justice should be done to every man and also that wrong is not to be done to any man In which Opinion that great and excellent Oracle of the law of England the Lord Cook sully concurs and therefore stiles the true and fundamental law of England the perfection of Reason But above my du●l commendation is that learned rational laborious and excellent piece or law-book entituled Rights of the Kingdom Or Customs of our Ancestors printed in London by Richard Bishop 1649. and commonly called Mr Sadler the Town Clerk of London's Works who is now a Parliament man and member of the Council of State Whose rare expressions in that excellent useful and profitable book especially in the first part pag. 91. and the 2d part pag. 60 63 68 74 123 159 160 161 164 168 170 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 184 185 186 188. are worthy to be written and printed in letters of Gold some of which although Time at present is exceeding precious to me I shall think it very profitable and useful here to insert and the first shall be out of his second part pag. 63. where he saith

declared to be only tryable by the course and custome of the Common-law and no otherwise Nay in Parliament it self and Parliament men there was and for ought I found alwayes and the like course observed For in case of a Peer the Custom of the Kingdom is to proceed by a special Commission to one as Lord Steward and 12 others at least for a Jury ●f Tryers besides Accuse●s and witnesses and a formal indictment and all from Record to Record or all is illegal if it be onely by the House of Peers If a Charge come from the House of Commons they are as Indictors being more then 12 sworn men Trustees to the whole Kingdom and Neighbors to the fact or party or both to which also there must be a legal proof by lawful Witnesses or else the Charge will not suffice And in pag. 181 he saith That for any thing done abroad I hope they do not use to tabe rumours and reports though from their own members to be sufficient for or equivol●nt to a legal Indictment an Oath seeing there scarce is or can be any Case so notorious but it may be pleaded unto by somewhat of law or necessity And although I should yield the Commons to be the Masters of the law in making it yet they●● pleased to allow others to be Judges by their Lawes and if they re-assume this also yet it may be more easie to judge of some law then of any fact at least it may be cloathed so as a curious Search or Inquest may be requisite to lay it cleer and naked Neither can I see how it may be necessary to proceed against any by force or illegal process when it is so easie as well as just to go rightly as to do right For who can imagine a case so dark or intricate but it may be contrived so that particular men may be Accusers and others Witnesses with a cleer and reall distinction between Indictors Tryors and Judges most of all in Cases notorious and evident for in such there may be lesse fear of the Juries Verdict against Evidence or of the Judges Sentence against the Verdict And in pag. 184. he saith I will not I cannot say the Commons of England cannot chuse or constitute their Judges yet of this again ere long But this I say or believe their Delegates ought to be exceeding curious I had almost said exceeding scrupulous in making Judges and bounding them to law and justice both in way as well as end I must again repeat it that it may not seem enough to settle Judges just and wise and good nor onely to provide that they may do what is just I speak of ends but men are men and ought in cases of such consequence to have their way their Rule and Square by which they must proceed to be prescribed in their Pattents or Commissions that they may do justly too aswell what is just to me it seemeth to be reason or the law of Nature unto men that the supream Court should so limit all inferiors that it may not be left at large to their list or pleasure to condemn or sentence without Hearing Accusation Witnesse or without such processe and Tryall as shall be cleer and plain and so prescribed in the Pattent or Commission If it be not so done and expressed I know not what Appeal can be but from the Court before judgment for what Appeal what Writ of Errour or what Plea can a man frame upon their Judgment who have no Rule no way of processe prescribed and so cannot erre transgresse or exceed their Commission No not if they should without all legal Accusation Proof or Witnesse condemn one to be sliced and fryed with exquisite Tortures They are Judges unlimitted in way of processe infinite and purely arbitrary No they are men and so they must be rational and just which was presupposed by them that gave so vast a power They may be just indeed and so they should but yet no thank for this to their Commission if it doth not bound and limit out their way and manner or processe as it doth their work and object or their end which was the wont of English Parliaments who were so just and wise themselves that they did see or fear it might be possible for their Committees to be both unjust and arbytrary if they were not most exactly limited of all Commissions None were more curiously drawn and pointed out by our Ancestors then those of especial Oyer and Terminer because the Cases were not onely heynous so they ought to be but such as for some extraordinary cause emergent seemed to be as it were extrajudicial and such as could not stay and abide the usual processe of the setled Courts of justice yet of these also did our Fathers take most especial care they might be just in way as well as end and that they might not be too high in justice for it seems that they had also learned a usual saying of the Antients sumum iis est injuria so that in divers of the Saxon lawes we finde high justice summum jus to be as much forbidden as injustice and I should tremble at it as an ill Omen to hear authority command the Kings Bench or any other Court should be now stiled The Bench of high justice for injustice the higher men go up the worse or so at least it was esteemed by our Ancestors their constant limitation was in every such Commission thus and thus you shall proceed but still according to the Laws and Customs of England secundum legem consuetudinem Angliae and no otherwise that is as Fortescue well saith You shal be pitiful in justice and more merciful then all the world besides this Kingdom And if such a limitation were not expressed this was enough to prove the Commission unjust and illegal which is so well known to all Lawyers that I need not cite N. B. or the Register Commissions or Scrogs Case in Dyer or so many Elder Cases in Edw. 3. Hen. 4. and almost all Kings Reigns Nay in King Iames among the great debates of uniting Scotland to England when it was driven up so close that instead of according to the Law and Custome of England it might be according to the law and custom of Brittain it was resolved by all the Judges that there could not be that little change but of one word that doth so limit such Commissions but by consent of Parliament of both kingdoms and in divers Parliaments of Ed. 1. Ed. 3. and Hen. 4. there were many Statutes made to limlt all Commissions of Oyer and Terminer as that they must never be granted but before and to some of the Judges of the Bench or of the grand Eire nor those to be named by parties but by the Court and with this usual restriction according to the known cause of the Statute of Westminster in the 2d Reign of Edw. the first And the Lord Cook in the 4 part of his