Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	chief_a	earl_n	lord_n	8,558	5	4.6217	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88228	The opressed mans opressions declared: or, An epistle written by Lieut. Col. John Lilburn, prerogative prisoner (by the illegall and arbitrary authority of the House of Lords) in the Tower of London, to Col. Francis West, Lieutenant thereof: in which the opressing cruelty of all the gaolers of England is declared, and particularly the Lieutenant of the Tower. As also, there is thrown unto Tho. Edwards, the author of the 3 vlcerous Gangrænes, a bone or two to pick: in which also, divers other things are handled, of speciall concernment to the present times.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1647 (1647)	Wing L2149A; Thomason E373_1; ESTC R201322	33,049	40

Justice which the Law of England affords me which is all I crave or stand in need of no longer to wait upon the destructive seasons of prudentiall men but forthwith to make a formal Appeal to all the Commons of the Kingdome of England and Dominion of Wales and set my credit upon the tenters to get money to print 20000. of them and send them gratis to all the Counties thereof the ingredients of which shall be filled with the Parliaments own Declarations and Arguments against the King turned upon themselues and their present practise and with a little Narrative of my Star-chamber tyrannicall sufferings and those I haue there to complain of are first Dr. Lamb Guin and Aliot for committing me And 2. Lord-Keeper Coventry Lord Privie-Seal Manchester that corruptest of men whose unworthy Son is now and hath been for some years the chiefe Prosecutor of my ruine for no other cause but that I have been honest valiant and faithfull in discharging the trust reposed in me which he himself was not my L. Newburgh old Sir Henry Vane a man as full of guilt as any is in England whose basenesse unworthinesse I shall anatomize to the purpose the L. chiefe Justice Bramston Judg Jones who sentenced me to the Pillory and to be whipt c. And then 3. Canterbury Coventry Manchester Bishop of London E. of Arundel Earl of Salisbury Lord Cottington L. Newburgh Secretary Cook Windebanke who sentenced me to ly in irons and to be starved in the prison of the Fleet With a short Narrative of my usage by Lords and Commons this present Parliament and conclude with a Declaration of what is the end wherefore Parliaments by law ought should be called which is to redresse mischiefes grievances c. but not to increase them 4. E. 3. 14. 36. E. 3. 10. to provide for the peoples weal but not for their woe Book Declar. 1. part pag. 150. and yet notwithstanding all the trust reposed in them and all the Protestations they have in their publique Declarations made faithfully without any private aimes or ends of their own to discharge it And notwithstanding all the bloud and money that hath been shed and spent at their beck and commands I would fain have any of them to instance me any one Act or Ordinance since the wars begun that they have done or made that is for the universall good of the Commons of England who have born the burthen of the day Sure I am they have made several Ordinances to establish Monopolies against the Fundamental Lawes of the Kingdom and thereby haue robbed free-men of their trades and liveli-hoods that at their command have been abroad a fighting for maintaining the Law and in practise annihilated Magna Charta and the Petition of Right So that a man though of their own Party may perish if committed by a Parliament-man or Parliament men hefore he can get the Judges to grant an Habeas Corpus to bring him and his cause up to their Bar there to receive a tryal secùndum legem terrae that is according to the Law of the Land although the Judges be sworn by their oathes to doe it So Sir desiring you seriously to consider of the premises which I could not conveniently send you but in print I rest Your abused Prisoner who is resolved to turn all the stones in England that lye in his way but he wil have right and justice against you JOHN LILBURN semper idem From my illegall and chargeable captivity in Cole-harbour in the Tower of London this 30 Jan. 1646. FINIS

read in the 17 18 20. pages of that relation now in print and I must confesse unto you I did think that you durst not have run the hazzard of persevering in your illegal dealings with me but in regard you doe it cleerly demonstrates unto me that you judge the streames of Justice so muddy and corrupted by the interest and power of your Lords and their factions who would have no other rule but their own base and corrupt wills to walk by and therefore lay the rule of the Law and Justice aside that they will never run cleer nor purely again to punish such transgressors as you are But that you may know although I have had exceeding hard measure in being so long delayed in the making of my report that I am not out of hopes nor in despaire I give you this fresh charge and tell you that after I had done with the Committee your next illegall designe that you executed upon me was that my friends could not passe your guard unlesse my keeper were there present to conduct them unto me by means of which some of them have been forced to come four severall times before they could find him at the Gate others have been forced to stay and sit in the guard an hour and sometimes two expecting his coming without whose presence they could not have accesse to me and divers of them in the time of their stay at the Guard examined whether they be not Independēts or no whether they never preached in Tubs or no And if they answer crosly to the questions as well they may then they are fallen upon and both they and I in words exceedingly abused and I am told that an old tall man in black with a great staffe in his hand is not wanting to play his part which I judge to be Mr. White Now sir is not this the height of illegality cruelty tyrannie and bloud-thirstinesse in you thus to deal with me indevouring thereby strongly to scare away all my friends from me For who in so many difficulties and abuses would come to visit a man unlesse he bore a very great affection to him the which if he do the continual meeting with these base and unwarrantable affronts in conclusion will make him weary And truly sir let me tell you this is not to use me with civility and humanity in my imprisonment as the Law requires I should but this is to torment punish and destroy me which the Law and all just and honest men abhor and detest In the 7. place being in the condition that I am in and being guilty of no legall crime in the world unlesse it be for being over honest and zealous for the preservation of the just and publique Liberties of the Kingdom I know no reason why I may not enjoy the utmost priviledge and liberty in the Tower that any prisoner in it doth enjoy yet notwithstanding not many weeks agoe I was but going with a fellow-prisoner in the path that leads to the Record-office and coming back to my Lodging under the Gate that is just against the Traytors Gate I met your pretended-Gentleman-Goaler and immediatly Mr. Comport my Landlord and Keeper came and delivered a message from you to me which was to this effect That Mr. Lieutenant did understand that I was beyond the Ring but it was his pleasure that J should forbear to go any more beyond it Vnto which I replyed Landlord I had only thought that to go beyond the Ring had been for a man when he came to it to have turned on the right hand and so to have gone as if he would have gone out at the Gate which I did not in the least for I turned on the left hand with one of my fellow-prisoners and walked in the path that goes to his Chamber and divers other Chambers of my fellow-prisoners which path they do and may walk in every day in the week and every hour in the day And therefore tell your Master from me I shall not obey his order for I have as good right to enjoy any priviledge within the Tower as any prisoner in it and therefore will walk that way again seeing all my fellow-prisoners enjoy the same liberty In the 8. place the other night there being a friend with me about 6 or 7 a clock at night I walked out of my chamber with him which is a priviledge that all my fellow-prisoners enjoy and he having a candle and lanthorn in his hand passing under Cole-Harbour Gate I was roughly and suddenly demanded whither I went And I replyed along with my friend to conduct him as farre as my liberty would extend which was down to the Ring which is as I conceive at least three or foursore yards on this side of the gate where your guard stands I was replyed unto in these words Sir you shall not goe At which looking well about me it being very dark to see who it was that was so malipert I perceived it to be your self who had with you as I conceived some of your Warders unto which I replyed Truly sir I do not like the word shall it is but unhansome language to tell me I shall not go No sir I say said you you shall not go for you ought not to stir out of your chamber after candels are lighted Truly sir said I I know no such order Vnto which you replyed Well then sir I now give you such an order and I bid you give it to those that would obey it for I would not and I gave you the reason of it which was that I was a free-born Englishman a Kingdom that pretends at least to be governed by Law and not by Wil I am not to be subject unto those orders in my imprisonment that have no other Warrant but the Goalers Will. Neither will I willingly be subject in the Tower unto any other orders but what are consonant and agreeable to the fundamental Laws of the Kingdome Vnto which you replyed Sir you shall obey my orders and I will make you Sir said I I will not obey your orders nor you shall not make me And I tell you to your face I scorn both you and your orders and that I value you not the paring of my naile Vnto which you replyed Sir I will make you for I will locke you fast enough in your chamber And I bid you do your worst that either you could or durst do I cared not a straw for you But I bad you take notice of this by the way that if you locked me up by the power of your own unbinding will and did not make your doores very strong I would make work for your Carpenters by breaking them into as many pieces as I could You replyed you would make them up again And I told you I would break them again You told me you ordering us to keep our Chambers after candle was lighted was for your own security I shall now take liberty to

the hopes of my being freed from my close imprisonment but your falling so heavily upon me as you did struck me to the heart and made me beleeve it was possible I might have been destroyed before I should have an opportunity publickly to cleare my own unspotted innocency in reference to the Lords and to anatomize their tyranny both of which my soul thirsted after and therefore if I had been able I would have purchased an opportunity to have done it though it had cost me 20. l a week And-truly Sir I have done my doe and in despite of all the Lords published and truly and faithfully stated my cause to the view of the whole Kingdome First in my Wives Petition delivered by her to the House of Commons Septem 23. 1646. which I pen'd and framed my selfe without the help or assistance of any Lawyer in England And secondly in my Book called Londons Liberty in Chains discovered And thirdly twice before the Committee of the Honorable House of Commons The last discourse of which I published to the view of all the Cōmons of England and called it An Anatomy of the Lords tyranny And besides some of my friends or well-wishers have done it excellent well for me in those two notable Discourses called Vox Plebis and Regall Tyranny discovered which will live when I am dead and be I hope as good as winding-sheets unto the Lords and therefore I am now ready for a Dungeon or Irons or Death it self or any torture or torment that their malice can inflict upon me and seeing that I cannot by any means I can use get my report made to the House of Commons and so enjoy justice and right at their hands which I beg not of them as a Boon but chalenge of them as my due and right by reason of the Lords and the rest of their Prerogative Co-partners influence into the House Commons to divert them from the great affaires of the Kingdome in doing justice and right unto the oppressed and putting them upon making Lawes Edicts and Declarations to persecute and destroy the generation of the righteous and so bring the wrath and vengeance of heaven and earth upon them and theirs Read Mr. Thomas Goodwins Sermon preached before them Feb. 25. 1645. called The great Interest of States and Kingdomes and also lay a great blot of reproach upon them by all the rationall men in the world for endevouring to destroy a generation of peaceable and quiet-minded men that have contributed all they had and have in the world for their preservation and by whose undaunted valour and blood-shed as principall instruments they enjoy liberty at this day to sit in the House of Commons and to be what they are Sure I am the Spirit of God saith That he that rewardeth evill for good evill shall not depart from his House Prov. 17.13 And yet for any thing I can perceive the best reward is intended these men from those they have done so much for is ruine and destruction that so that Antichristian office and function of Priesthood newly transformed into a pretended godly and reformed Presbyter may again be established although by the second Article of the Covenant now more magnified by the sonnes of darknesse add blindnesse then the Book of God they have expresly sworn to root up that Function by the roots The words of the Covenant are That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endevour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical officers depending on that Hierarchy superstition heresie schisme prephaneness c. Mark the sentence And all other Ecclesiasticall Officers depending on that Hierarchy In the number of which are those pretended reformed presbyter-Ministers that either sit in the Assembly or are in any other place in the Kingdom that officiate by vertue of their Ordination which they had from the Bishops or any by vertue of their Authority And I will maintain it with my life that he is a forsworn man whether he be Parliament-man or other that hath taken the Covenant and doth contribute any of his assistance to maintain preserve and uphold that Ordination of the Presbyterian Ministers that they received from the Bishops or punish any man for writing preaching or speaking against it or any other wayes endevouring the destruction or extirpation thereof For the expresse words of the Covenant are that we must endevour the extirpation of all Officers without exception depending on that Hierarchy part of which all the fore-mentioned Ministers are being ordained Priests and Deacons by the Bishops and have no other Ordination to this very day but what they had fro them But if they shal say they were ordained by them not as Bishops but as Presbyters I answer This is a simple foppish distinction For as well may the Bishops say They were not ordained by the Pope or his Bishops quatenus as Pope or Bishops but quatenus as Presbyter or Presbyters and so are in every particular as lawfull Ministers as any of these men that have their ordination from them and yet have endevoured to draw the whole Kingdom into a Covenant sinfully to extirpate them that are Christs Ministers upon their own Principles as really truly and formally as any of themselves But in the second place if they were ordained Presbyters by the Bishops not as Bishops but as Presbyters then are these present reformed Ministers lesse then Presbyters For the Author to the Hebrewes chap. 7. v. 7. saith Without all contradiction the lesse is blessed of the better or greater And I desire the learned Presbyters to shew me one example in all the New Testament that ever any Officer ordained another Officer in the same Office and Function that he himselfe was in Thirdly I desire to know of these reformed Presbyterian Ministers that seeing as they themselves confesse the Bishops Office and Function was and is Antichristian how is it possible their Ministeriall Function or Ordination can be Christian that like a streame flowed from them the fountain Sure I am Job demands this question Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean And by the same Spirit of God he answers Not one Job 14.4 And James interrogates saying Doth a Fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter Or can the Fig-tree my brethren beare Olive-berries either a Vine Figges Therefore in a positive negation he concludes that no Fountain can both yeeld salt water and fresh And therefore seeing THOMAS THE GANGRENA the Rabshakeh Champion of the new sprung-up Sect in England of Presbyters who may more truly and properly be called Schismatickes then any of those he so brands for they have separated from their Ghostly Fathers the Bishops and yet are glad to hold their ordination and are therefore schismaticall And therefore seeing in his last GANGRENA he hath fallen so point-blank upon me for no

other cause but for standing for the Fundamentall Lawes of England which if he had not an absolute desire to be notoriously forsworn he might know his Covenant binds him to doe the same But seeing he there playes the simple man to fight with his own shadow and doth not in the least meddle for any thing I can perceive by so much as I have read of his Book which so near as I could find was every place where I was mentioned with the Statutes and other Legall Authorities as I cite in my wives petition and else-where to prove That all the Commoners of England ought in all criminall cases to be tryed by their Peeres that is Equals and that the House of Lords in the least are not the Peeres of Commoners And therefore seeing seemingly by that ulcerous book he hath given me something to answer that concerns me I will really and substantially give him something to answer that in good earnest concerneth him and all the rest of his bloody-minded pretended reformed fellow-Clergy Presbyters that lying deceitfull forsworn and bloody Sect of whom it is true that the Prophet said of the Prophets of old That they make the people to erre and bite with their teeth and cry peace and he that putteth not into their mouthes they even prepare warre against him Micah 3.5 And that at present I have to put to him to answer shall be certain Arguments which I made when I was close prisoner in irons in the Fleet against the then Episcopall Ministers of the Church of England and will serve in every particular against the present Presbyteriall Ministers and you shall find them thus laid down in the 23. page of my Book called An Answer to 9. Arguments written by T. B. and printed at London 1645. First Thtt every lawfull Pastor Bishop Minister or Officer in the visible Church of Christ ought to have a lawfull call and be lawfully chosen into his Office before he can be a true Officer in the Church of Christ Acts 1.23 24 25. 6.3.5 6. 14.23 Gal. 1.1 Heb. 5.4 But the Ministers and Officers in the Church of England as well Presbyterian as Episcopall have not a lawfull call neither are lawfully chosen to be officers in the Church of Christ See the Book of Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons as also the Directory and compare them with the Scripture Therefore all your Ministers are false and Antichristian Officers Rev. 9.3 and 13.2 and 16.13 Secondly the doing of those actions that belong to the execution of an Office doth not prove a man to be a lawfull Officer but a lawfull power instating him into his Office Acts. 8.4.11.19.20 and 18.24 25 26. 1 Cor. 14.29 30 31. 1 Pet. 4.10 But all the Ministers in the Church of England have nothing to prove the lawfulnesse of their standing in the Ministery but the actions of a Minister and are not in the least able to prove that they are instated into their Ministery by vertue of a lawfull power and authority Therefore they are no true Ministers of Christ but false and Antichristian Ministers of Antichrist Thirdly againe in the third place upon your own grounds I frame this Argument Those that by their Ministery do not accomplish the same ends that the Ministery of the Apostles did are no true Ministers But the Ministers of the Church of England do not accomplish the same ends by their Ministery that the Ministery of the Apostles did 1 Cor. 11.2 Therefore your Ministers are no true Ministers of Iesus Christ But Gangrena one word more at present to you seeing in the 217.218 pages of your late 3. Gangrena you fall so exceeding heavie upon me and my honest Camerade Mr. Overton and say that these 2. audacious men their dareing bookes shall escape without exemplary punishment and instead thereof be countenanced and set free I do as a Minister pronouncae but I say it is as one of Sathans that the plague of God will fall upon the heads of those that are the cause of it Come Antagonist let us come to a period for I hope for all your mallice you are not yet so farre gone beyond your selfe as to desire to have me hanged or killed and then condemned and adjudged and therefore I will make you 2. faire propositions First in reference to the Lords whose Goliah and Rabshaca-like Champion you are that if you please to joyne with me in a desire to both Houses I will so far go below my selfe and my present appeale now in the House of Commons alwayes provided it may be no prejudice to the benefit I justly expect from my said appeale and joyne with you in this desire that there may be by both Houses a proportionable number thereof mutually by themselves chosen out to set openly and publickly in the painted Chamber where I will against you by the established Lawes of this Land maintaine against you and all the Lawyers you can bring this position which is absolutely the contest betwixt the Lords and me THAT THE LORDS AS A HOVSE OF PEERS HATH NO JVRISDISCTION AT ALL OVER ANY COMMONER IN ENGLAND IN ANY CRIMINALL CASE WHATSOEVER and if you will I will wholly as in reference to the contest betwixt you and me stand to the vote and abide the judgement and sentence of that very Committee whose vote upon the fore-mentioned tearmes if you will tye your selfe I will tye my selfe either actively to execute or passively to suffer and undergo it In the second place because so farre as I am able to understand your meaning in your fore-mentioned pages you would have me dealt withall as the Earle of Strafford and the Bishop of Canterbury was for indeavouring as you say with so much violence the overthrow of the three Estates and the Lawes of the Kingdome and in the stead of the fundamentall Government and constitution of this Kingdome to set up an Vtopian Anarchy of the promiscuous multitude and the lusts and uncertaine fancies of weake people for Lawes and Rules Now in regard of the distractions of the Kingdome which are many and that they might not be made wider by new bookes from either of us I shall be very willing for peace and quiets sake to joyne with you in a Petition to the House of Commons to appoint a select Committee publickly to examin all things that are a misse in your bookes and myne and to punish either or both according to Law and Iustice without partiality and I appeale to all rationall men in the world whether I have not offered fayre or no. But in regard I know not whether you will imbrace my proffer I shall speake a little more for my selfe and reduce all to these three heads First whether the Lords have by the known Law of the Land any jurisdiction of the Commons or no Secondly whether in the Parliaments own publick declarations in Mr. Prinns soveraigne power of Parliaments and in the Assemblies exhortation to the solemn legall Covenant and