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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A83515	The third part of Gangræna. Or, A new and higher discovery of the errors, heresies, blasphemies, and insolent proceedings of the sectaries of these times; with some animadversions by way of confutation upon many of the errors and heresies named. ... Briefe animadversions on many of the sectaries late pamphlets, as Lilburnes and Overtons books against the House of Peeres, M. Peters his last report of the English warres, The Lord Mayors farewell from his office of maioralty, M. Goodwins thirty eight queres upon the ordinance against heresies and blasphemies, M. Burtons Conformities deformity, M. Dells sermon before the House of Commons; ... As also some few hints and briefe observations on divers pamphlets written lately against me and some of my books, ... / By Thomas Edvvards Minister of the Gospel.; Gangraena. Part 3	Edwards, Thomas, 1599-1647.	1646 (1646)	Wing E237; Thomason E368_5; ESTC R201273	294,455	360

to attend to what he should ●ay and now to know it Now if those times be of all others the most perilous where there are false teachers venting errours and here●ies but in a way of creeping into houses how perillous and dangerous are those times where there are false Teachers and seducers holding all sort of errours armed being Commanders and Officers of Regiments and Companies who creep not into houses but openly command houses and abide in them and by their power can and do drive away the faithfull shepheards that should defend the sheep that so the Wolves and Foxes may the more freely devoute them and that when they have ●avened and made havock in one place can march to another and so go into all places by their power forcing and commandi●g what they please All which clearely shewes us we are in a far worse condition then when the enemy was in the height of his successes and victories at the taking of Bristow or ever since the Parliament began God is more dishono●ed pretious soules more destroyed all things tending to Anarchy Confusion and new Broyles worse then before Certainly in God have any delight in this Kingdome or purpose to do it good he will deliver us from this wicked generation of Sectaries one way or other They have these three last yeares been encreasing and growing very bad but this last yeare they have been outragious I am confidently perswaded if a Commission were issued out from both Houses to faithfull godly men and they backed with such power not to fear the Sectarian souldiers to sit in the severall Counties to examine and enquire out the insolencies and enormities of the Sectarian souldiers and Chaplaines that were in the noble Earle of Manchesters Army and now in Sir Thomas Fairfax'es Army with assurance of protection to the complainants and witnesses there would be the dreadfullest and abominablest things found out both in opinions practises that ever were heard of in any Army of Christendom and most of the Cavaliers would be found Saints to them so that t is evident there 's more need of disbanding and cashi●ring the Companies and Regiments consisting most of Antinomians Anabaptists Seekers Antiscripturists c. then of Vand●●sks Regiment of which there were so many outcryes and that justly too as I believe 7. Corollar Hence then by what is laid down in this Booke of the. Errours Heresies Practises insolencies of the Sectaries we may see that never in any age or in any Christian State or Kingdom whether Orthodox or Hetrodox Protestant or Popish hath there been such a sufferance and Toleration of those who have been contrary minded to the Religion established by civill Authority as hath been and is in our Kingdome The Sectaries talke much upon all occasions of Toleration and liberty of conscience in Holland Poland Transylvania France Switzerland Turky but let any man look into those Countries and but understand aright what is allowed in those places and then consider what is daily practised in England and suffered without all questioning and he must needs confesse there 's no such liberty nor Toleration in any of those places enquire and aske after Holland France Poland c. where there are Tolerations whether Sectaries or Dissenters from what 's setled by the civill Sanction do come into publike Churches causing tumults and riots and by violence put by the Ministers from preaching pulling them out of their Pulpits abusing them grossely and preach openly with all kind of reproaches against the established Religion whether Books are suffered to be printed with license and sold openly ●enting all kind of errours blasphemies yea branding with most odions names the Religion established and the supreme Authority who settles it yea daring to present into the hands of and at the doores of the houses where the supreme Judicatories sit Bookes and Pamphlets with Protestations against what themselves have enacted whether great numbers of Emissaries Mechanicks of all sorts are suffered to be daily sent forth into all parts of their Countries and Kingdoms to draw away the people from their Religion and if any man in authority dare be so bold to molest them though they abuse Magistrates to their faces yet they are one way or other delivered and presently fall the faster to their work again whether the way to preferment and places of honour profit trust command be in those Countries to oppose and to be most active against the Religion and Government established and the ready way to be kept out of all such places and by one device or other to be turned out yea to be brought in trouble be for a man to be zealous for the Religion and way of worship setled in that Country whether in any of those Countries if those who be Hereticks and Schismaticks or Dissenters only from what the Magistrates of the Countries have established being cal'd in question by those in highest place for writing against and reproaching their Ordinances and Lawes and thereupon affronting them to their faces and writing Bookes publikely against them have they notwithstanding continuing in all contempt escaped without punishment and received those favours and priviledges which none before them though never so conformable to the Lawes and State have received and so I might instance in many other like particulars Now I challenge any man in all his reading or travelling to give me any such instances in Holland France Transylvania Turky c. but I can give many proofes in all these kinds within these three last yeares in England In the Bishops times before this Parliament there was great favour shewed towards Papists and persons Popishly affected but did they come into our Churches established by Law and bringing their Priests put by our Ministers from preaching and celebrating the Lords Supper and set up against the will of the Ministers and Parishioners their owne Priests to preach points of Doctrines and to say Masse or did the Bishops when Popery was most countenanced suffer Popish Books railing against our Ministery Church c. to be licensed by their Chaplains and sold openly In the Kings late Armies where as it hath been reported there have been many Papists and Popish Commanders yea and Priests did they ever where they were quartered drive away by force the Protestant Ministers and in the midst of the publike exercises on Lords dayes come with their souldiers and disturbe them in Prayers preaching and put up their Priests in their rooms I never heard of any one such example in this kind O what outcryes would these things have made if done either by Bishops or Papists but these things are ordinarily and daily practised by the Sectaries Indeed the liberty the Sectaries now have in England is rather a Domination then a Toleration a Raigne rather then a sufferance yea their Raigne and Domination is swel'd so high that the godly Ministers and Christians who are for the Church-Government and way established by Parliament have much a

142. pages of this Book I might fill a Book in relating the passages in Discourses Sermons and printed Books spoken in way of boasting of this Army and of particular persons belonging to it of the Independent way calling one Infallible the Saviour of three Kingcomes a second the Terrible a third whom God hath especially fitted for Sea or Land one whom foraigne States would be proud of having such a servant and so of others but I will only point at some expressions in a late Book of Master Burtons called Conformities Deformity wherein the Army is in a sort deified page 17 18. speaking of pressing the Parliament for an Ordinance against Heresies and Schismes he speaks what this Ordinance would do against those men who have prodigally poured their dearest bloud viz. trample upon them and not suffer them to breath in their native aire and thereupon runs out in the extolling of that sort of men in the Army that by them we yet breath that they have beene the preservers of the Land that many glorious victories have made them admirable to the neighbour Nations yea to the whole world and terrible to their professed enemies and ours yea and to pretended freinds too who would master us at home were not these masters of the feild God hath made them the great instruments of the preservation and deliverance of our Country and City from the most desperate bloudy and beastiall enemies that ever the earth bred or hell hatched God hath vouchsafed to cast great favour and honour upon them and as he hath crowned them with so much glory and they have ●ast their crownes at the feet of the Lamb that sits upon the Throne So should we come and first giving all the glory to God gather up those crownes and set them upon the heads of those our Preservers and Deliverers and put chains about their necks so far off should we be from trampling such Pearles under foot or casting them out of our Gates and Ports 8. The Sectaries are guilty of unsufferable Insolencies horrible affronts to Authority and of strange outrages having done those things that all things considered no story of former ages can paralell and here I have so large a feild that I might write a Book in Folio upon this head but I will only give a touch upon the particulars and referre the Reader for further satisfaction to their owne Books 1. Some of the Sectaries have spoken and written that against the Lawes of the Land both Common and Statute as I beleeve neither Papists nor any English men ever did before them I have read divers passages of this kind in divers Pamphlets within these two last yeers as in some books written against Master Pryn but above all Leiutenant Colonell Lilburne in his Just mans Justification page 11 12 13 14 15. and A Remonstrance to their owne House of Commons page 13. 15. 19. damns the Common Law as coming from the Devill and being the great bondage of England the Norman Yoake as the Reader may easily see by these words That which is the greatest mischeife of all and the oppressing bondage of England ever since the Norman Yoak is this I must be tried before you by a Law call'd the Common Law that I know not nor I thinke no man else neither do I know where to finde it or read it and how I can in such a ●as● be punished by it I know not such an unfathomable gul●e have I by a little search found the Law practises in Westminster Hall to be that seriously I thinke there is neither end nor bottome of them so many uncertainties formalilities punc●ilios and that which is worse all the en●ries and proceedings in Latine a Language I understand not nor one of a thousand of my native Country-men so that when I read the Scripture it makes me thinke that the practises in the Courts at Westminster flow not from God nor from his Law nor the Law of Nature and Reason no nor yet from the understanding of any righteous just or honest men but from the Devill and the will of Tyrants The Kings Writs that summons a Parliament implying the establishment of Religion showes that we remaine under the Norman yoake of an unlawfull power from which we ought to free our selves Ye know the Lawes of this Nation are unworthy a free people and deserve from first to last to be considered and seriously debated and reduced to an agreement with common equity and right reason which ought to be the forme and life of every Government Magna Charta it selfe being but a beggerly thing containing many marks of intolerable bondage and the Lawes that have beene made since by Parliaments have in very many particulars made our Government much more oppressive and intolerable The Conquerer erected a trade of Judges and Lawyers to sell justice and injustice at his owne unconscionable rate and in what time he pleased the corruption whereof is yet upon us from which we thought you should have delivered us we cannot but expect to be delivered from the Norman bondage and from all unreasonable Lawes made ever since that unhappy conquest By which passages t is evident the Sectaries aime at a totall change of the Laws and Customs of this Kingdom 2. They have spoken and written much against the King speaking of him as a Delinquent terming him the great Delinquent and that he should not come in but as a Delinquent when news hath beene of messages and gracious offers from the King and when his late Letter to the City was spoken of they have slighted all saying we can have them without him and what can he do for us he is a Delinquent They have taken one of his titles from him and given it to that unworthy mean man Lilburne stiling him Defendor of the Faith they have taken other of his Titles as Soveraign Leige Lord Majesty Kingship Regality and given them to the H. of Commons and to the common people making the Universall people to be the King Creator and the King their meer creature servant and vassal and as they have taken from him his Titles so his power denying him all Legislative power and to be one of the Estates of Parliament yea they have pleaded for the King to be deposed and justice to be done upon him as the grand murtherer of England and not only that he should bee beheaded but the Kingdome also viz. this Kingdome deprived of a King for ever and Monarchie turned into Democracie And as they have endeavoured to strip him of all his Titles and power as a King so to take from him all priviledges as a man and a Christian speaking against Ministers praying for him and that he should be excommunicated from all Christian society For proofe of which particulars let the Reader read over the late Remonstrance of many thousand Citiznes to their owne House of Commons and among other passages that in page 6. It is high time we be

statesman in his Polit. tels us The same Last will not fit an English and a Scottish foot The English must be ruled more by love Now if two nations so neer in one Iland are not alike free but must be differently governed then certainly Nations remote from one another are not alike free Besides to particular persons yea bodies of people many providences accidents may fal out to make one and the same people and particular persons not so free as sometimes they have been there are some Parents who were free but having incurred the Law are tainted in bloud so their children also some are taken captivs or have sold themselves for a necessity and so their children are servants to A nation having bin saved by some Prince from ruine though before a free state may now make him and his Heirs according to such Lawes King over them nay Amesius in his Cases of Conscience saith It cannot be denied but that a people forced by necessity may sell themselves to a King to be all his servants Gen. 47. 23. 5. T is apparent that in one and the same Nation as England all the subjects have not the same priviledges and freedoms but some have more then others some are not liable to be pressed to war to bare such Offices serve in Juries c. as others are some have voices viz. Freeholders to chuse Knights of Shires others have not some Cities Towns have Charters and large priviledges in severall particulars to send Burgesses to Parliament which other Towns have not and certainly the Peerage of England have priviledges and liberties which every Jack-straw hath not 6. I demand of the Sectaries whether in their Pamphlets speaking of election and consent they meane an immediate present choyce and consent of the present men now to be governed or else an election consent in the first constitution of this Kingdom and Government by our Ancestors many hundred yeers ago Now if they mean this last how do they know but that this Government wherein the King and Lords have such a power was by consent and agreement it being consented such a man should be King and such persons Nobles who by birth should have such power and then such people according to such agreements should have power to chuse some men who together with King and Nobles should make Laws by which the Nation governed the King should have such power Nobles such priviledges and people such liberties but now if they meane the first an immediate election of the present peopl that they are to obey none but so chosen 't is most false and a principle destructive to the sundamentall government of this Kingdom and destroying the House of Commons as well as the King and Lords and for the clearing of that I would propound two things 1. That in this Common-wealth of England none have any power of Government at all either in a lower or higher Sphere either by election of the whole body of the people for all chuse not but some onely or founded upon election as the sole cause and ground for none of the people can chuse neither are men capable to be chosen till according to Lawes Writs are granted forth or Charters given by Princes and Lawes to such Corporations and yet then the peopl must go in chusing not according to their wills but to such rules agreed on by Laws and after men are chosen some conditions also and rules must be observed before the persons so chosen have power of government these chosen Commons must be returned and sworne take such oaths before they can ●it or if they do their election is ipso fact● nul and they made uncapable ever to fit again so that t is evident that election of some part of the people not the whole is only a partiall cause not the totall and plenary cause or rather the true cause is because such a man according to Lawes and Customes of this Kingdome is now in such a place whereof one of the conditions for such a place is election so and so determined by former Lawes but now in many Officers of this Kingdome who have power of government to heare judge and do many Acts no sort of the common people have any power at all to chuse as in Justices of Peace they have been alwayes and still are made without any such election so the Judges of the Land Sheriffs with divers other Officers and therefore much more may the King and Peers who by the fundamentall Lawes of the Land have an hered●tary power in Parliament to which the Kingdom hath agreed and yeelded obedience so many hundred yeers exercise their power without any electon of the people 2. That certainly people are bound and tied to Lawes Rules as well as Kings and Nobles and that Covenants Compacts Oaths of Allegiance c. made on their part bind them as well as Princes oaths I ever took it for granted that Princes had not been bound and their people left at liberty and freedome to do what they pleased I alwayes thought fundamentall constitutions of Government made many hundred yeers before and ancient bounds set by Lawes with birth-right inheritance having gone through an uninterrupted succession of many P●ogenitors had been a right and interest to Princes which the meer will and pleasure of common people could not have taken from them and I conceive that according to the conssitution and Lawes of this Kingdome which gives all sorts their rights though some more some lesse 't is agreed on that the Peers of this Land should have a Legislative and judiciall power and they and their heirs be in such ranck born with such and such priviledges over others 7. This Position of the Sectaries the Universal people having such a power without whose election all Government is void their Dagon and great Image which they fall down before and worship is a meer Chim●ra a monstrum horrendum a Babell which I could shatter and break so to peeces as not one stone should be left of it nor so much as the stump but I may not now give all my thoughts for feare of being too voluminous only I will hint a few things in this place by way of Question and referre the Reader to what I further say in page 154 155. c. 1. I Desire to know of these Sectaries what or who is this state Universall whether all the men women and children born in England men-servants maid-servants poore people and beggars together with those of the better sort and whether if all these or the greater part of these taken one equally as well as th' other be the state universall have they the like Soveraigne power over the King and Parliament 2. Whether in what this state Uuniversall will do with the King Lords and their owne House of Commons it must be carried by the most voices of this state universall so that if all the beggars poor people servants children be a

with them who are in carnality he hath given out that Master Angelo and the other Priests at Bristoll durst not dispute with him he makes nothing of any Minister nor of those whom he formerly received most good from and that the Reader may have a true character of this Sectary I shall set down a Relation given me in writing from an understanding godly man who came this Summer from Bristoll and those parts which is as followes ' I was lately at Bristoll wher I saw one Lieutenant B. who as I was credibly informed by ●are witnesses hath publikly contradicted Master Pa●le and Master Angelo where they have preached once the Deputy Governour and the Major of the City being present his carriage towards the godly Ministers being generally disliked by the Citizens ●ieutenant B. was confined to his Chamber upon which he writes to the Deputy Governour that he cared not for Priests Governours nor Committees or words to the same effect The same Lieutenant hath formerly preached publikly in his searlet Coat laced with silver lace I was told by one of the Committee and a godly man that he and Mr Angelo had heard one Thomas Web pr●ach Blasphemy in Ratcliffe Church Bristoll which Web doth go from place to place in Glocester and Summersetshires seducing people as I am informed by credible persons There is a godly understanding man come from New-England this year who lived there many yeares and knowes well the Ministers Magistrats and state both of their Church and Common-wealth who also is drawing up a Tractate of their Church way and practises illustrated by examples and experiments made upon many there which hath been communicated to me so farre as he had proceeded in it Now this m●n related to me July 27. in the presence of a godly Gentleman that he saw and read a Manuscript which was in the hands of many and made by some of their Magistrats as it was conceived for an Arbitrary Government in the Common-wealth that in crimes and offences committed there should not be certain penalties appointed by Laws to which the Governours and Magistrate should keep but it should be left to the discretion and wisdome of the Magistrate what he thought ●it to inflict in case of such and such crimes and in this written Book many reasons were given for this Arbitrary Government and against being tied to Laws as the instance of Solomon in commanding to divide the child upon the complaint of the true and false Mother as that Magistrates were Gods so call'd especially in regard of their wisdome Now how or wherein should their wisdome and gifts be manifested if a liberty were not left to them for a boy migbt read the Law and pronounce the sentence according to that and therefore that the gifts of Government might be exercised sentences and penalties should be left to the Magistrates This man tells me many others read this Manuscript as well as he and so great notice was taken of it that some in New-Engl when they were a going to Boston or speaking of going thither would say le ts take heed what we do there least we loose our heads for what offences the Governour shall think an● say deserves beheading Now as Independency and many other opinions being first broached in New-England have come over into Old so I have reason to suspect by the Arbitrary Government exercised by too many in these times and the great workings of many to uphold Arbitrary power and to keep all things from being setled in Common-wealth as well as in Church there are some Sectaries of that opinion among us especially when I lay to that opinion broached in New-England some passages preached in a Sermon by Master Peters August 2. 1646. at Islington on that Text on the fourth of Colos vers 12. in which Sermon Master Peters speaking of perfect men used these words and such like Yee talk of Laws Laws the Kingdome is not to be maintained by Lawes but by perfect men August 13. two Booksellers of Pauls Church-yard told me that a Bookseller offering to exchange Books as Master Dents P●th-wayes to Heaven for some of Saltmarshes Books answer was made by a Sectarie what do you bring such Books for you may stop bottles with them we will take none of your old Divinity we have new light and new Divinity now A woman who sometimes was a Member of a Church of the Anabaptists acquainted me in June fifth she was of one Blunt Emmes and Wrighters Church one of the first and prime Churches of Anabaptists now in these latter times This woman thought there was somthing more excellent in this company and that way 〈…〉 en in other men and that she might have trusted her life with them but after awhile she found them a wreched people The Church broke into peeces and some want one way some another divers fell off to no Church at all She married a husband a Box-maker one of Lams company who got from her all he could and set up a Boxmakers-shop on purpose as she conceives to get what she had to furnish a shop with and after a time went away from her into the Army and though he came out of the Army a long while agoe yet he keeps from her and will not live with her nor allow her any maintenance and she having followed him to his Church and meetings the Church maintaines him in it as she reports to me saying she is an unbeleever and of the world what have they to do with her with other words to that effect and when she goes to any place where shehears he is or thinks she may find him they abuse her are ready to offer her violence andsome of these Sectaries will deny he is married to her and bid her prove it Now she tells me that in those Anabaptists Churches of which she sometimes was they are not married by Ministers nor by any other man speaking words to each party which they assent to but before some of their way they professe to take each other to live together and one of their company writes down in a paper with some hands subscribed to it of two such going together on sucha day which writing this woman had in her keeping but her husband coming in one night late after she was a bed got it out of the place where she had laid it and now she is troubled how she shall prove him to be her husband There is one Mr Saltmarsh a man who hath of late writ many trashie Pamphlets full stuffed with all kind of Errors ignorance and impudency and hath been well answered and bas●ed by three Learned Divines two of them grave and ancient Master Gataker and Master Ley the third a young man Master W. and I am still in his debt for some passages in his Groa●es for Liberty and Reasons for Vnity Love and Peace against my first and second parts of Gangraena but resolve to come out of it For besides what I

vindication of the just Legall power of the King the House of Lords yea and of the Commons undertaking to make it good that according to the Sectarian Principles now vented in so many Books daily and so much countenanced by too many the power and priviledge of the House of Commons would be overthrowne and cut short as well as the Kings and Lords For instance to say nothing of that that the Commons power is not only by being chosen by the severall Counties and Townes but by the vertue of Writs under the Great Seal and by vertue of Lawes and Rules according to which the severall Electors must goe or else their Elections give them no power at all If this Principle were true the House of Commons should have no power over me nor over many thousands more in the Kingdome and we might all say the same things to the House of Commons which Lilburne Overton and all the Sectaries say to the House of Lords for we never chose them had no voyces in their Elections they are not our chosen ones as the Sectaries say of the Lords I and many Ministers of the Kingdome with hundred thousands of people who have not so much free land per annum are excluded from election of Knights of the Shires and not being free-men of Towns have no voyces in choyce of Burgesses and so may refuse subjection to their Orders resist their Officers who come with their Warrants and refuse to live by the Lawes they make as not being chosen by us who no question are the greatest number of persons in the Kingdom I beleeve there are more men of years of understanding without so much free land per annum then there are those who have so much Besides if this Principle were true That all subjection and obedience to persons and their Lawes stood by vertue of electing them then besides all non-free-holders exempted from the Jurisdiction of the House of Commons all women at once were exempt from being under Government and all youths who were under age at the beginning of this Parliament six years ago though now men and had no voyces in the choyce of Parliament men yea if this Parliament sit many years longer all those who were boyes and children when they come to years of understanding must be exempt too as having had no voyces in election nay yet further so weak a Principle this is upon which the Sectaries would overthrow all the power of the King and Lords and give all power to the Commons that if it were true none were bound to any obedience of those Knights and Burgesses whom they chose not but opposed with all their might so that by this rule all Free-holders in each County who dissented from him that was chosen should not submit to that man but set him up whom they have chosen and though there be four hundred Members in the Com. House yet they who have voyces in chusing and they whose voyces carry it for such a man because they chuse but one or two viz. in that County where they live and have estates therefore they should be subject only to the determinations of those two men but for all the rest they chuse them no more then they do the House of Lords And yet further if this Principle were good that subjection and obedience is due from none and to none but those who are chosen and represent all strangers who come into or live for a time in a Kingdome when sent for upon suspitions or reall crimes may answer the House of Commons What have they to do with them they chose them not they gave them no power over them they are not their Representors And last of all upon this Principle all we who are born within this fifty sixty or seventy years may refuse obedience and subjection to all the Lawes made by Parliaments before we were born or by such Parliaments whereof we chose not the Members and when men clip money and counterfeit coyn or men steal horses and are sent for by Justices and brought to the Bars they may with as much reason and more appeal from those Courts of Justice because they never chose these men that made such Lawes nor ever consented to them as Lilburne Overton Larner c. did from the Lords to the present House of Commons their Representors their chosen ones c. and I dare undertake to shew that all those seeming Arguments and rambling Discourses in Overtons and Lilburnes Books have as much strength for justifying all Delinquents appeals from those Lawes made so many years agoe and Judges going according to them as for their declining the House of Lords Many other instances I could give of those who have by the Lawes of England and other Kingdomes power of Government and that most justly without any immediate election of the people and persons to be governed by them so that we must look for some other foundations and grounds of giving one man or more power in Government over all besides this immediate Election and Representation which will be found firm and strong and which indeed give the force to Election and which in severall cases without any immediate Election of the present persons to be governed binds them before God and men to obedience and subjection in all lawfull things and according to the Lawes but I must de●errre the giving of more Instances about Election with the Reasons thereof and of laying downe the just grounds of lawfull Authority and Power of one man or many and of one and many without any immediate Election either of a part or of the whole present people till the Fourth Part of Gangraena only I will adde two things First to shew the Witnesses do not agree but the great Leaders of the Sectaries di●fer among themselves in this point yea the same men as Lilburn and the Authors of those Pamphlets Englands Birth-right c. Secondly propound some Queres to Lilburne Overton Larner and the rest of that generation to consider of in the mean time For the first However that Lilburne Overton and the Sectaries use the House of Lords thus denying them power over Commoners and a Legislative power with an Interest in saving the Kingdome and put all the whole Supreme power upon the Commons making the House of Lords stand for a Cypher because not chosen by the common people as the Knights and Burgesses yet till wit● in this year and an half they in writings and actions declared the contrary viz. before the recruit of the House of Commons with new Members and the successe of the new Modell as is evident by many Pamphlets written before wherein they abused the House of Commons and particular Members crying out of them for making the free subjects slaves and for ruling in an arbitrary way as much as they do now of the House of Lords yea the Lords are pleaded for and cryed up above the House of Commons for their justice and their

readinesse to hear the grievan●s of the subjects and their power pleaded for and that by Lilburne himself pag. 74 75. of his Pamphlet call'd ●nnocency and ●ruth justified where pleading to have his businesse of his sentence in Star-Chamber to be transmitted up to the Lords from the He use of Commons by way of Answer to Objections against it he hath these words If I be transmitted up to the Lords I confidently beleeve I shall get forward out of the former experiences of that Justice that I have found there and I will instance two particulars first when I was Prisoner in the Fleet c. but that 's too long for me to write down and I shall rather ref●rre the Reader to the Book pag. 74. Secondly May 4. 1641. the King accused me of high Treason and before the Lords Barre was I brought for my life where although one Litleton servant to the Prince swore point blanck against me yet had I free liberty to speak for my selfe in the open House and upon my desire that Master Andrewes also might declare upon his Oath what he knew about my businesse it was done and his Oath being absolutely contradictory to Master Litletons I was both freed from Litletons malice and the Kings accusation at the Barre of the whole House and for my part I am resolved to speak well of those that have done me justice and not to doubt they will deny it me till such time as by experience I find they doe it And in pag. 56. of Lilburnes Innocency and Truth justified he writes thus Againe I say a Commi●tee of the House of Commons is not the whole Parliament no nor the whole House of Commons it selfe according to their owne Principles and therefore in my judgement they are not to act contrary to a known and received Law and therefore cannot justly imprison any man contrary thereunto neither by a Committee of theirs nor by the whole House of Commons it self they being not according to their own Principles the whole Parliament but a part of it and therefore that which is established by the whole as a Law is by 3. Estates and 〈◊〉 Ordinance by 2. Estates cannot justly be contradicted by a part namely the H. of Com. but one Estate much lesse by one of their Committees which is but a branch of that one Estate and therefore for my part I judge a Law to be a Law untill it be made voide by all the three Estates that made it or at least by the two Estates joyntly that takes vpon them to make Ordinances in this time of necessity to make voide a Law at present c. And therefore I am abs●lutely of this minde that neither a Committee of the House of Commons nor the whole House of Commons together can justly imprison me or any other contrary to law against which at present there is not some Ordinance made both by them and the Peers publike at present to overthrow it But I have severall times been imprisoned both by Committees and by vote of the House of Commons it self contrary to a known Law made this present Parliament by themselves against which there is at present no Ordinance published and declared by them and the Peers for the cognizance Ergo I say they are tyed in justice according to the tenor of this Law to give me reparations against those persons that were cheife instruments either in Committees or in the House of Commons it self to vote and take away my liberty from me contrary to this L●w and for my part I do accordingly expect my reparations for my late causelesse molestations and imprisonments And as Lilburne in these passages gives the House of Lords an equall legislative power with the Commons making them one of the three Estates as well as the Commons and expresly saith the Commons are but a part of the Parliament and that the Commons cannot make void a Law unlesse it be by the two Estates joyntly viz. the Lords and Commons all which are contrary to the many wicked Pamphlets printed in this year 1646. by which the Reader may observe what difference there is between the same Sectaries in the year 1645. and the year 1646. such new light hath the successe of the new Modell and the recruit of the House of Commons brought to the Sectaries so Lilburne and the Sectaries by many actions of theirs have owned and established the power of the House of Lords as well as of the Commons as In their severall Petitions to the Lords House as well as Commons for abolishing Episcopacy and in severall other particulars which clearly proves the legislative power of the Lords as well as Commons for is not that a part of legislative power to repeale former Lawes Statutes as wel as to make new and if the Lords had not a power over Commoners that of Judicature why was Lilburne so earnest with the House of Commons and in print expresses to the great and high abuse of the House of Commons their delaying of having their votes transmitted concerning his sentence in Sar-chamber yea and that against some Members of the House of Commons by name Again if all the power were in the House of Commons why did he not rest contented with their votes but desire the Lords concurrance and that for the punishing even of Members of the House of Commons as in page 75. pressing the Commons to transmit their votes by way of answer to an objection What justice can you expect from the Lords seeing Master Smart hath spent foure or five hundred pounds he shewes his cause to be different from Master Smarts in that he is to have justice upon those whose estates are not sequestred as Master Smarts Adversaries were but some of them still sit in both Houses And lastly if the House of Lords have no power to try or judge Lilburne a Commoner but their offering so to do be a high usurpation invasion of the Commons rights why did not Lilburne when he was accused of high treason before the Lords Barre upon his life as himself makes the relation page 74. appeale then from the House of Lords to the House of Commons And as Lilburne himself the head of the Sectaries in these Anti-Parliamentary principles owned the power of the Lords equall with the Commons and prefer'd their justice before that of the House of Commons though not chosen by the people so Cretensis alias * Master John Goodwin brings Arguments from the House of Commons being chosen by the people against their power of making Lawes in matters Ecclesiasticall and the peoples submitting to them because they are chosen by the riffe raffe of the Land all sorts of men worldly men drunkards c. having a right of nominating persons to a Parliamentary trust and power These are a secular root out of which Cretensis conceives an impossibility that a spirituall extraction should be made For who can bring a cleane thing out of an

Commons the Knights and Burgesses assembled in Parliament by the voluntary choyce and free election of the people thereof with whom and in whose just defence I le live and die maugre the malice of the House of Lords and in page 18. he in way of de●ision calls the Lords House the Superlative House and speaking of the Lords laughing at his answers he saith of that House such carriage such a Court For indeed Comedies Tragedies Masks and Playes are more fit for such idle kind of men And above all other Demonstrations of the outragious insolencies of the Sectaries against the House of Peeres let the Reader peruse that Pamphlet entituled An Anatomy of the Lords tyranny and injustice exercised upon Lieutenant Colonel Lilburne which is throughout insolent both for matter and manner particularly page 12 13. Lilburne writes that he being in the painted Chamber desired Master Brisco one of his Keepers to go and tell the Lords from him that seeing they had the impudencie and boldnesse to tread the Lawes and Liberties of England under their feet and did so contemne and undervalue the authority of the Honorable House of Commons to whom he had appealed as yet to go on in their illegall courses with him with whom by Law they had nothing to doe that he must be forced in the highest nature he could to contemne and despise their proceedings and therefore was resolved not to come to their Bar without a forcible compulsion and to come in with his hat on his head and to stop his eares when they read his charge in detestation and bearing witnesse against their usurpations and injustice page 14 15. Lilburne writes he thus spake to the Lords And my Lords I tell you to your faces that by right the House of Commons are your Judges as well as mine in this case and I doe not doubt but to live to see the day that they will make you to know whether you will or no that they are so and of their justice and protection I doe not in the least doubt And therefore my Lords seeing you have dealt so illegally and tyrannically with me as you have done I now bid defiance to your power and malice to doe the worst you can And therefore my Lords I protest here before the God of Heaven and earth if you shall be so unworthy as to persevere in endeavouring the destruction of the fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of England as at present you doe I will venture my life and bloud against you to oppose you with as much zeale and courage as ever I did any of the Kings party that you set us together by the eares with page 21. Lilburne saith all his catriage and expressions before the House of Lords in the case now betwixt them to be as justifiable by the Law of this Kingdome and in the eyes of all understanding men as for a true and just man to draw his sword and cut the theif or rogue that sets upon him upon the high-way on purpose to rob him of his life and goods and in page 23. hee earnestly beseeches the Honorable Committee to remember the Commoners and improve all their interest to punish or at least effectually to curb the Lords House Thus the Sectaries in their Petitions and all their Pamphlets printed speaking of the Lords House and of their proceedings they give such kind of termes as these Barbarous Tyrannicall Arbitrary Illegall unjust dealings worse then the unjust Stat-chamber it selfe Insolent unheard of usurpations intrusions and many such like And in divers Pamphlets now of late the Parliament being spoken of is understood only the Commons of England they call'd the Parliament by way of exclusion of and opposition to the H. of Peers and Books written on purpose and dispersed given freely to stir up the people to adhere to the Comons as considered apart and distinct in interest power from the Lords with unworthy reflections upon the Lords as The last warning to all the Inhabitants of London p. 7. Mind your own good and cleave fast to the House of Commons let no sorcery or sophistry divide you from them the Lords are not to go before the Commons in determining what concerns the Nations their large answer to your last City Petition for Church-government and suppression of Conventicles insinuates they would allure you from the Commons therefore observe them watchfully and trust them accordingly So A word in season to all sorts of well-minded people in this distracted Nation with Answers to the City Remonstrance and divers other Pamphlets 4. The Sectaries have been guilty of and daily are of abusing contemning and taking away the power of the House of Commons given it by the Lawes Constitutions and Customes of this Kingdome and though in many Pamphlets especially this last yeere they cry up the House of Commons and seeme to give them not only their owne power but the power of the King and House of Lords making both them meere ciphers yet it will be found by many of their principles laid downe they have destroyed the House of Commons and doe break their Priviledges speak their pleasure of them both by words and writing as often as they please Many Pamphlets and whole Books have beene written by Sectaries against the House of Commons it selfe and not only against Committees or particular Members charging the House with tyranny injustice oppression horrible pride seeking of particular interests Arbitrary Governm 〈…〉 breaking of Magna Charta and going against the Liberties of the subject resembling them to the Star-chamber High Commission Court to Strafford and Canterbury refusing to answer any questions upon the command of the House scorning to Petition the Commons either to sue for their favour or to acknowledge their justice and after such favour shown as to release without petitioning yet taxing them with dishonesty and demanding reparations for imprisonment for the abundant proofe of which I referre the Reader to many Pamphlets written by Sectaries as Englands Birthright The Copie of a Letter from Lieutenant Colonel Lilburne to a friend Lilburnes Innocency and truth justified Englands lamentable slavery with other Letters printed about that time Another word to the wise written by M. John Musgrave A Pamphlet entituled An exact collection of the Parliaments Remonstrances Declarations c. A Remonstrance of many thousand Citizens and other free borne people of England to their owne House of Commons out of which I shall faithfully transcribe some passages that the insolencies of the Sectaries against the House of Commons may be observed Lilburn in his Letter to his freind writes thus page 1 2. That Master Corbit being in the chaire and telling him he was commanded by the House to demand a question of him Lilburn instead of answering him desired to know the cause of his commitment and M. Corbit replying the House was not bound to declare unto him the cause of his commitment thereupon Lilburne answered Then I have beene a long