Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	pay_v	priest_n	tithe_n	4,836	5	10.3389	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88180	England's birth-right justified against all arbitrary usurpation, whether regall or parliamentary, or under what vizor soever. With divers queries, observations and grievances of the people, declaring this Parliaments present proceedings to be directly contrary to those fundamentall principles, whereby their actions at first were justifyable against the King, in their present illegall dealings with those that have been their best friends, advancers and preservers: and in other things of high concernment to the freedom of all the free-born people of England; by a well-wisher to the just cause for which Lieutenant Col. John Lilburne is unjustly in-prisoned in New-gate.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1645 (1645)	Wing L2102; Thomason E304_17; ESTC R200315	41,349	51

this their good service to the Parliament as they did to the Bishops the forme or power of a Stationer-Committee in London among themselves that they may henceforth without either Censure or Resistance of Higher Powers both absolve the wicked and condemne the just and so doe whatsoever they list The next Monopoly it is to be feared will be upon Bread and Beere for as justly may there be a Monopoly upon them as upon the former Oh Englishmen Where is your freedoms and what is become of your Liberties and Priviledges that you have been fighting for all this while to the large expence of your Bloods and Estates which was hoped would have procured your liberties and freedomes but rather as some great ones Order it ties you faster in bondage and slavery then before therefore look about you betimes before it be too late and give not occasion to your Children yet unborne to curse you for making them slaves by your covetousnesse cowardly basenesse and faint-heartednesse therefore up as one man and in a just and legall way call those to account that endeavour to destroy you and betray your Liberties and Freedomes 9 Whether it be not more agreeable to Equitie Law Justice and Conscience that the badge of a Malignant or a man uncapable of hearing Office in the Common-wealth or being chosen to sit in Parliament as one to make Laws should not rather be for being disaffected to common Freedome and having either in purse or person declared his disaffection thereunto in any ways assisting the Common enemy who hath drawne his sword to destroy the freedome of the Common-wealth which by the Law of this Land is granted unto the Free People thereof by means of which all such have disfranchised themselves then for refusing out of Conscience to take the Nationall Covenant Which was first ordained to beget Unity between the Nations but as sad experience teacheth in its effects produceth nothing lesse amongst us setting us at as bitter a Warre and contestation amongst our selves almost as wee have with our professed enemies who before this unhappy make-baite came amongst us were knit together in love and affection as one man against the common enemies of our Liberties Peace and safety and had no upbraiding one another with being a Covenanter or an Anti-Covenanter which breeds constant heart-burnings amongst us and which if it be not by some wise moderate and discreet means prevented is likely to burst out into a dangerous flame in the midst of us so that our being knit faster to God and each to other by a band of Unity is hereby frustrated Secondly the Preamble of the Covenant it selfe saith that the taking of it is not the chiefe part of it but the keeping of it the benefits of it being sure and stedfast to us when wee are sure and stedfast in the Observation of the things Covenanted so that if there be not the Observation of them the ends and intention of it is voide and frustrate but it is observed that many of those that authorised it and first took it within a little after runne both out of the House of Peeres and Commons to the King to Oxford and drew their swords against it to destroy it and so became wilfully perjured and the most part of the rest that still remaine have been very active in setting up things quite contrary to the true and declared intent and meaning of the Covenant As first it tyes all those that take it without respect of persons to indeavour the extirpation of Popery but contrary hereunto there is an Ordinance lately made for the strict payment of Tythes to the Clergy for their maintenance although it be one of the greatest branches of Popery that ever was established in Rome the taking away of which in any place where Popery is professed is a more direct way to root up Popery then the taking away all things else professed by the Papists for the Clergy are such greedy dogges as the Prophet calls them that they can never have enough being sheepheards that cannot understand seeing they all look to their owne way every one for his gaine Esai 56.10 11. that they will be of any Religion where riches or profit is to be had and will be sure to avoide and hate that Religion that brings in no profit to fill and cram their fat guts who bite with their teeth and prepare warre for those that putteth not into their mouthes Micah 3.5 Besides Tythes is a Jewish Ceremony abolished as all the rest by the death of Christ upon the Crosse Heb. 7.5.12.28 8.5 9.9.15.26.28 the establishing of which againe is the denying of CHRIST'S death and a setting up of Moses and the Ceremoniall law for as the Apostle saith Gal. 5.3 For I testifie againe to every man that is Circumcised that hee is a debter to doe the whole law yea saith he Christ is become of no effect to such a man so say I Hee that compells you to pay Tythes compels you to keep the whole Law which whosoever goes about is fallen from Grace Gal. 5.4 Againe the p●●●ent of Tythes is an unjust and unequall thing in a Civill sense for that the Priests who are not one for a thousand of the rest of the Inhabitants in the Kingdome should have the tenth part yea or rather the seventh part of all things a man hath saving his Children considering that they never labour for it with their hands nor earne it with the sweat of their browes nor bestow any kind of Charges is the most unjust thing in the world and so intollerable oppressing a burthen that the Free-people of England are not able to beare it as the Petitions presented by divers persons already to the House and those many Petititions that are in agitation both in the City of London and many Shires in the Country doe and will fully declare A second thing sworne to in the Covenant as other branches of Popery is to root out and exterpate Prelacy as there it is expressed Church-Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deanes sub-Deanes and Chapiters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiasticall Officers depending on that Hierarchy and yet the same men have established the Bishop's Priests and servants who have no other calling in the world whereby to stand but what they had from them as both the Ordinance and the Priests themselves confesse and yet by vertue of this Papall Prelaticall Call they Institute and ordaine a Generation of Antichristian Officers to fill the Kingdome contrary to the Covenant as full of Popery and Popish Officers as ever it was in the Bishops dayes the drivers on of which designe if they have taken the Covenant are every man of them perjured But you will say though the Parliament and Priests acknowledge the Bishops to be Antichristian yet the present Priests say they were not ordained by them as Bishops but as Presbiters who had their Calling from the Pope not as a Pope but as a

County-Committees and other Magistrates in this Kingdom would compound with all those honest and Free-men that they have at their own Wills unjustly committed to Prison contrary to the true meaning of this Law before by the sentence of the Law they be forced to pay 500 l. to every man they have so unjustly Imprisoned From the equity and letter of which Lawes It is desired that our learned Lawyers would Answer these insuing QUERIES 1. Whether the Letter and equity of this Law doe not binde the very Parliament themselves during the time of their sitting in the like cases here expressed to the same Rules here laid downe Which if it should be denied Then 2. Whether the Parliament it self when it is sitting be not bound to the observation of the Letter and equity of this Law when they have to doe with Free-men that in all their actions and expressions have declared faithfulnesse to the Common-wealth And if this be denied Then 3. Whether ever God made any man law-lesse Or whether ever the Common-wealth when they choose the Parliament gave them a lawlesse unlimmitted Power and at their pleasure to walke contrary to their own Laws and Ordinances before they have repealed them 4. Whether it be according to Law Justice or Equity for the Parliament to Imprison or punish a man for d●ing what they command him and by Oath injoyne him 5. Whether it be legall just or equall that when Free-men doe endeavour according to their duty Oath and Protestation to give in Information to the Parliament of Treason acted and done by Sir John Lenthall against the State and Kingdome and long since communicated to several Members of the House of Common● but by them concealed and smothered and now by Gods Providence brought upon the stage againe and during the time that Inquisition is made of it before the Committee of Examination before any legall charge be fixed upon Sir John Lenthall or be required to make any Answer or Defence that he shall be present to out-face discourage and abuse the Informers and Witnesses in the face of the Committee without any check or controll from them And sometimes while they are sitting about the Examination of his Treason that he shall sit down beside them with his hat on as if he were one of them and that he shall injoy from the Committee ten times more favour and respect then the just honest and legall Informers against him who by some of the Committees themselves while they are sitting are threatned jeared nick-named and otherwayes most shamefully abused Yea and the friends of the Informers for the State are kept without doores and the friends of the accused admitted to come in alwayes without controll and during the Examination of the Information that the Committee shall refuse to remove the Informers out of Sir John Lenthalls custody of Kings-bench to another Prison although they have been truly informed that he hath set Instruments on work to murther them and also importuned to remove them 6. Whether it be nor most agreeable to Law Justice and Equity that seeing Sir John Lenthall having so many friends in the House concerned in the businese that he should not rather be tried by the same Councell of Warre in London where Sir John Hotham and his Sonne were then at the Parliament his principall crime being against the Law Marshall as theirs was 7. Whether to answer to an Indictment when a man is demanded Guilty or not Guilty be not a criminall Interrogatory concerning a mans selfe and so a man not by law bound to Answer to it especially seeing to a Consciencious man who dare not lie it is a great snare who if he be indicted of a thing he hath done or spoken dare not plead Not Guilty for feare of lying and if he plead guilty he shall become a self-destroyer contrary to the law of Nature which teacheth a man to preserve but not destroy himself in declaring that which peradventure all his Adversaries would never be able to prove against him And Whether it be not more suitable and agreeable to the true intent of Magna Carta expressed in the 28. Chap. thereof where it is said No Bailiffe from henceforth shall put any man to his open Law nor to an Oath upon his owne bare saying without faithfull Witnesses brought in for the same and to the true intent and meaning of the Petition of Right and the Act made this present Parliament for the abolishing the Star-Chamber c. For a free-man to have a charge laid against him and his Adversaries brought face to face to prove it and then the Accused to have liberty to make the best defence for himself he can which was the practise amongst the very Heathen Romans who had no light but the light of Nature to guide them Act. 25.16 Yea Christ himself when his enemies endeavoured to catch him by Interrogatories he puts them off without an Answer Luke 22.67 68.70 Chap. 23.3 Yea when the High Priest asked him about his Disciples and his Doctrine He answers Hee ever taught openly and therefore saith he Why aske ye mee aske them that heard me for they know what I said John 18.20 21. Hence justly it is conceived that the Parliament may not condemne that man for contemning their Authoritie who refuseth to answer to Interrogatories before them the supreame Court who answereth to Interrogatories in the like case before an inferiour Court but you will say it is the usuall practise of the COMMON-LAW the Question is whether that practise be just or no or whether any Law in practise in the KINGDOME of England doth binde the Free-men thereof but what is made and declared by Common Consent in Parliament and whether or no is there or ought there not to be a plaine platforme agreed on and laid down by the Parliament concerning things of so high consequence to all the Commons of England and seeing the Parliament hath taken care that the Bible shall be in English that so Lay-men as they call them may read it as well as the Clergy ought they not also to be as carefull that all the binding Lawes in England be in English likewise that so every Free-man may reade it as well as Lawyers seeing they have Lives Liberties and Estates as well as the other and peaceably enjoy them no longer then they continue in the observation of the Laws of this Kingdom whereof they are Members and seeing the Lawyers are so full of broyles and contentions and grow so rich and great thereby have not the people cause to beleeve they drive on an Interest of their owne distructrive to the Peoples well-fare yea juggle and put false glosses upon the Law meerly for their own ends Seeing so great a part of it is in an unknown tongue which the Commons call Pedlers-french or Heathen-Greeke even as our State Clergy did in the daies of old before the Scripture was tollerated to be in English in which dayes they could easily make the

foule and hainous a businesse as this is be smothered up againe I am very confidently perswaded some one or other will publish all the particulars of it ere long in print to the view of all the Commons of England that so they may see and judge how they are jugled with by some of those they have reposed their greatest trust in although Sir Jo. Lenthall and the Speaker have as it may justly be supposed set Dr. Bastwick at worke to publish to the view of the world the innocency of the parties accused saying in the 8. page of his late book against Mr. Lilburne that there is nothing made good against them so much as with a seeming probabilitie much lesse proved and so busy and earnest is the said Bastwick to defend their rotten Reputations and their wicked and unjust dealings towards the State and Kingdome that he thinks with his lies and base and sordid language to salve up their credits and to baffle and justle the just and honest prosecuters out of their just wayes and pathes they tread in to doe the Kingdome faithfull service in bringing treason to light Yea so bold and impudent is hee being back'd by their Authoritie and Interest that rather then truth shall come to light and their wickednesse be discovered he will lay such a blot upon the Parliament that will render them ridiculous to all that seriously read his Book and consider that the Parliaments owne Authority hath licenced him to call them Ninneys and Grols For saith he in the last page of his Book For as there is no family though never so honest that hath not a Whore or a Knave of their kindred so it is impossible in such a great Counsell as the Parliament is but they should have some Ninnyes and Groles and men that have no more wit then will reach from their nose to their mouth It were well Dr. Bastwick would doe the Common wealth that service as to name those men that so some men may begge them for fooles to take upon them so high a calling as to be Law-makers to so great and knowing a People as England is and to have so little wit in them Surely this Parliament will be contempteous not onely to their foes but also to their freinds and will never shake off this blot while they sit unlesse they call him to an account and make him name whom he meanes and punish that Licencer that durst be so bould to let such a book be published cum privilegio to the dishonour of the very Parliament it selfe surely Sir John and his Brother the Speaker have feed Bastwick well and are not very sound that they put him their pack-horse upon such desperate courses to salve up their credit and he hath as little wit or honesty in him to be so earnest for Sir John Lenthall in particular who is notoriously knowne and reputed so grand a Knave and Tyrant by thousands that know him as England hath not his fellow being at this present Outlawed and hath so continued 3. yeers and of whom for murder Cruelty Bribe●y and Arbitrary Government and what not there hath so many complaints been made to this present Parliament though little effect they have taken by reason of the Speakers Power and Interest whose common practise it is to walke in a constant contempt and violation of the knowne Laws of the Kingdom and to the making of them null and of none effect as much as in him lies to the ruine and destruction of thousands of the free Denizons of England For though the Law provide that if a man in Execution escape or walke abroad out of Prison the Jaylor is lyable to pay his debt yet for his own gaine he doth constantly doe both and the undone and wronged Creditor can have no satisfaction of him neither Law nor Justice against him by reason of the Speaker his great faction in the House supporting of him Sir John Lenthal besides his Outlawries hath dozens of executions upon him and yet walkes abroad and continues keeper of Kings-Bench Prison and Justice of Peace and as it is reported is Chairman of a Committee by means of which he is invested into a Power to crush and destroy every honest man that but opens his mouth to speake of his basenesse and injustice the height of his injustice and of his Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government scarcely in Strafford to be parralell'd which is so insupportable to the poor oppressed Prisoners in Kings Bench that they have got a proverbe amongst them in these words The Lawyers rule Committees the Speaker rules the Lawyers Sir John Lenthall rules the Speaker Thomas Dutson rules Sir John Lenthall and the Devill rules Dutson But for all Bastwicks brags of Sir John Lenthalls innocency if he please to doe the State so much service as to prevaile with his good friend the Speaker to procure the same Court Marshall in London that sate upon the Hothams as soon as the Ordinance is past hee shall have the names of some of reputation in the Kingdome that will before that Counsell accuse Sir John Lenthall of High Treason and hazard the losse of their lives upon the proof of it In the last place the Parliament men swear to be at enmitie with indifferencie or newtrallity which newtrallitie in the Covenant is branded as detestable by them and yet notwithstanding divers of them cannot indure them that would have an end of these warres speedily but hate and abhorre all those who with all their might indeavour the end of them and though such men walke by better principles then taking the Covenant even by Principles ingraven upon their soules by God himself yet unlesse they will take this impossible to be kept Covenant the framers and makers of which have runne into wilfull perjury themselves they must be turned out of Committees and their Regiments disbanded as in Hartfordshire c. and Newters put in their places that are neither hot nor cold nor have any other principle whereby to walke but base pecuniary principles and self-Interrests and by this meanes the Kingdome is in danger to be utterly destroyed even by such covetous newtrall indifferent Committie-men and men of excellent publique principles disfranchised and undenized contrary to the fundamentall Constitutions of the Kingdome which doe allow none to be so dealt with but only for an act done or committed against the welfare of the Publique And though many conscientious men have laid out their witts their time their paines their purses their blood yea and all that in this world is most precious to them for the preservation of the Publique yet they must not sit in Parliament though never so fit and able unlesse they will take this make-bate persecuting soul-destroying Englands-dividing and undoing Covenant I shall therefore desire all the Commons of England and the Parliament themselves seriously to read over some part of their owne words in their Exhortation to the taking of the Covenant the words thus follow

into the Chaires of all Committees where being accustomed to take fees they will under-hand protect delinquents and their concealed Estates with tricks and devices 4. The Reformation of Courts of Justice is a worke of absolute necessity without which though the sword of the Lord returneth again into its scabbard so that you have no warre yet you shall have no Peace but if you have many Lawyers they will never suffer any effectuall Law to passe for this purpose Because they yet move by the corruption and delayes of the Law then by the Law it self 5. It is necessary to make a Law for limitation of exorbetant fees extortion and prevarication or collusion amongst Lawyers as it is used in other Countries 6. It is necessary to limit the certaine number of practisers in each Court that they swarme not like Locusts over the land devouring and impoverishing it These blessings you will never attaine unto unlesse God give you the wisedom to avoide such Elections lay to your hearts sinne as well as the shame and smart of oppressions and transgressions of lawyers and you will finde that the cries of the oppressed have been a principall motive to draw downe Gods vengeance upon this mournfull Land Was ever so desperate a wound given to the Lawes Liberties and properties as the predetermined judgement of Ship-mony Who gave that blow Judges What were they Theeves cum privilegio Rege majestatis who bought Justice by whole-sale and sold it by Retaile Who assisted them Lawyers who undertaking to pleade for their Clyants against it pretending one thing and doing another thing for the most part and betrayed the Cause all to get favour and preferrment and yet such proceedings were both against the Judges and the Coronation Oath upon an extrajuditiall opinion collusively given for saith the Record Sacramentum Domini Regis erga populum suum habent ad custodiendum But our Judges though more wicked have the happinesse to live in a more wicked age and out-live their crimes paying onely a small part by way of fine and enjoying there to their stollen treasures and after they had made Peace as devouring as warre and the Law as cruell as the Sword who 's that is not a better Christian then these Brothers of the Coyfe brothers in evill will not cry out with Epicures that God takes no more care what men doe on this earthly balke then man doth what Ants doe on an Em●n●t-hill when Verres being Consull of Cicily had pilled that Province and other Pro-Consulls and Pro-Praetors were puni●hed for lesser Extortions he laughing at their foolish moderation vaunted to his Brother Ty●●●●kedes that he had got enough to buy the freindship of the Senate and commendation of a rich and Honourable man So our Judges enjoy their crimes and the prize and reward of them Nay they grow fatt and prosper upon the anger of God and man whilest this Land groanes under the sad weight of the Sword Pestilence and famine the effects of their inju●tice but through whose favour is it they have not expiated their Crimes with their blood and washed away the Guilt of the Land but the Lawyers who wisely consider it may be their own Case another day I have shewed you how unsafe it is to trust Mercinary-men with making or keeping of your Lawes I will epitomize what I have said in Pleniea's words in Panegyr ad Trajanum Heretofore we were laden with our Crimes now we are oppressed with our Lawes and it is to be feared least the Common-wealth though founded by the Lawes be confounded by the Lawes or rather by the Lawyers Likewise to this purpose read what the Authour reputed to be a member of the Assembly as well as he that writes the Brotherly and friendly Censure of Mr. Prinnes 4. late Queries in his Antidote against the same 4. dangerous Queries pag. 3. saith That if the thing be granted that he disputes for Judges will be taught That they judge not for man but for the Lord who is with them in judgement people will grow more peaceable and free from continuall contentions Lawyers shall not get the wealth of the Land into their hands by fishing in troubled waters incouraging men in unlawfull and quarrelous suites pleading wicked Causes for large Fees prolonging suites and making men spend in long suite unto twise the value of their just Right and debt for which they sue and by taking treeble fees and keeping them though they faile their Clyant and have beene imployed at other Barres when his Cause was to be pleaded Godlinesse and true Religion being increased by faithfull Preaching and godly Discipline in the hearts of men will make the Common-wealth free from the necessity of many Lawyers which the learned Philosopher held to be a Plague in a State and Kingdome and therefore it is no marvell that the corrupt ones of that Profession are deadly enemies to the Maintenance Honour and other incouragements of the true Ministery of the Gospel Also Read what that honest Author and true principl'd Common-wealths man of the little booke intituled A Helpe to the Right understanding of Mr. Wil. Prynne saith of Lawyers and lay all the aforecited Authors together and you will easily finde they make it evidently appeare that there is as little use of Lawyers to be in the House of Commons as there is of a Plague or Pestil●nce or of the Bishops and Popish Lords in the Honourable House of Peeres their Interest being both as Delatory and as destructive to the true Peace Prosperity and well-fare of the Common-wealth of distressed England for the procuring of which as principall helpes and meanes under the powerfull and wise disposing Providence of the Lord JEHOVAH who in his owne due time as Mordecai said to Esther Est 4.14 and Isa 63.3 when all means faileth is alone able without and beyond all meanes to bring Salvation by his owne out-stretched Arme Yet let not us be idle or secure but observe and indeavour these insuing means for our part I. By Petitioning and by all other lawfull wayes and addresses strive to procure from the Parliament and all other just Authority that they according to their duty Oath and Profession yea and our trust reposed in them will Administer JVSTICE impartially according to that loud and earnest desire of distressed and Imprisoned Lieutenant Colonell LILBVRNE in that late Letter which frequently is called his and according to those sad and lamenting Expressions in that just complaining Epistle of an Utter Barrester to his speciall freind called Englands Misery and Remedy and that without turning either to the right hand or to the left or knowing of any Relation either to Father Mother Sister Brother Kinsman or other or without regarding of any Faction either Popish Episcopall Presbyterian Independant Separate or Anabaptist but Cordially to doe every one Justice because it is just and severely to punish all perverters of Justice whosoever they be one Moneths doing of which would procure the Parliament