upon us and ruine us The Devils designe is to make the most able and eminent Instruments uselesse by idlenesse when the greatest worke is to doe as one sayes of the Crab that seeing the Oyster gape he throwes in a little stone which hinders it from shutting againe so am I and hundreds beside suspicious least Sathan should deale with them that now sit still and gape about as if they had nothing to do by throwing them some temptations or other to stay them here behinde in purchases preserments or pleasures and make them loose their work and opportunity O it is sad if it be so for the best Birds dum morantur in nidis doe moult and loose feathers But my Lord hark the Trumpet sounds and Christ is coming in great glory arise and to your worke It is not notions of Philosophy nor Principles of Policy which will give us to see this for in Philosophy what is so dark as light and the Sun which one would thinke most evident to be seen is hardest to be looked on and so is this glorious approach of Christ and his Fifth Monarchy But Eagles see better then Owles The Lord Jehovah then make you Eagle-eyed and Eagle-winged in this worke which you have to doe for Christ and this Common-weale Cicero expected extraordinary knowledge and practise from his Son because of his conversing and living with Cratippus no lesse doe wise men looke for from you my Lord for that you are so conversant with the Occurrences of these times and seasons and that so eminently too and live as we hope so much with Christ and for Christ yet we know a man may have good cards but loose the game by playing ill But my Lord I leave you to that Spirit which gave Daniel skill Dan. 9. 22. and Ioshua courage the same wisdome that tels us He that understands is of an excellent spirit tels us also That the Prince who wants understanding i. e. in the things of God according to the season of his government is also a great oppressor Wherefore my Lord I beseech you contemne not the Clock that tels you how the time passes a meane Herauld may goe on great errands and on this errand he is contented to be mean contemptible who is sent to you and prays unfainedly for you that you may never be set aside but be of singular use yet in this Generation and then and not till then rest from all your labours as David did Acts 13. 36. The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon together gets the loud suffrage of your suffering From my Study the 8th Month 20th day Tho. Apostles Yet your heartily humble Servant in the service of our Lord Iesus JOHN ROGERS To the Reader of any Faculty whatsoever in the Commonwealth of ENGLAND SIR WHat is your Profession Be what thou wilt I professe that this Treatise concernes thee and bids thee beware of a fall Hold fast especially if thou art any of the Supreame For he that ventures to fall from above with hopes to bee catched below may hap to be dead ere he come to ground this is sat sapienti a Word to the wise Therefore with humility and love to you 1. Are you a Parliament man mind your worke then and the Fifth Monarchy or else the stone Dan. 2. and the wheel Eze. 1. may hap to minde you and grind you too Righteous men know their work of the Generation they live in Gen. 4. 20 21. 22. Gen. 6. 9. Act. 13. 36. So did Abraham Noah Moses Aaron David Daniel Nehemiah and Ezra and all men whom the Lord annointed and appointed to govern And so will you if you be of God for good to this Generation Your worke so absolutely incumbent is obvious to every discerning eye the neglect of which if you be guilty I fear lest it should be more fat all to you then to the last Parliament if that be true in 1 Sam. 15. 26 28. and 16. 14. and may hap to throw you aside as well as your Predecessors and others in all ages that have through carnall Reason and Policy laid aside their worke and duty Now I doe declare to all that hear or read this Treatise and will if my life were on it that your worke is about the Lawes and Tithes to strip the Whore both of her outward Scarlet-array and to rend the flesh off of her bones by thorwing down the standing of Lawyers and Priests It is not enough to change some of these Lawes and so to reforme them as is intended by most of you according to the rule of the Fourth Monarchy which must all to peices O no! that wil be to poore purpose and is not your worke now which is to provide for the Fifth as chap. 5. by bringing in the Lawes of God given by Moses for Re-publique Lawes as well as the Lawes of God given by Christ which must in for Church Lawes Isa. 26. 13. Mark 10. 42. so that seeing the Law-booke of God which hath been lost so long is now found againe therefore like Josiah in 2 King 22. 12 13. Command that the Lord be sought to about it lest the wrath of God be kindled for not hearkening to the words in that Booke and cause these Lawes of God as chap. 23. 2 3. to be restored and read as he did in the eares of all the people that the people may be subject to those Lawes and then the Lord wil blesse you as he did Israel But if you doe it not I feare you wil be found to neglect your worke and opportunity for God and Christ. Why are there so many perplexable cares about the Lawes Hath not God given you a Booke of Lawes ready to your hand and can men make Lawes better then God then if Moses dare not set up any other Lawes but those given of God for the State or Politicke Government how dare you Now God hath brought you out of the house of Aegypt shal the Aegyptian or Norman Heathenish Lawes yet rule you O God forbid Wherefore seeing you have Gods Law-booke before you if you lay it aside and take up mens before it it wil not be well taken I promise you therefore the Lord open your eyes both as to the Lawes and Tithes and that you may looke before you leap It wil appeare this is your Generation-work 1 By the variety of Providences and Dispensations of God which declare it and have called you to doe it Micha 6. 9. The Lords voyce cryeth the voyce of the Lord from the City for all that common or corrupt Counsel-Petition put in for Tithes August last which was not the voyce of the Lord but the voyce of the Lady the Queen that sits on the Scarlet-coloured Beast full of Blaâ—phemies Rev. 17. 3. abusing the most precious Saints and Servants of Christ with a subtil insinuation of Jesuiâ—s and the like but it is wel knowne they were put on to it by the High Priests of this
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sagrir OR Doomes-day drawing nigh With Thunder and Lightening to LAWYERS In an Alarum For New Laws and the Peoples Liberties from the Norman and Babylonian Yokes Making Discoverie Of the present ungodly Laws and Lawyers of the Fourth Monarchy and of the approach of the FIFTH with those godly Laws Officers and Ordinances that belong to the Legislative Power of the Lord Iesus SHEWING The Glorious Work Incumbent to Civil-Discipline once more set before the Parliament Lord Generall Army and People of England in their distinct capâ—â—ities upon the Account of Christ and his Monarchy Humbly presented to them by JOHN ROGERS an unfained Servant of Christ and this Common-wealth in their best Rights Laws and Liberties lost many years Bread of Deceit is sweet to a man but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with Gravell Prov. 20. 17. Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor he shal cry himself but shal not be heard Prov. 21. 13. They are Brasse and Iron they are all Corrupters the Bellows are burnt the Lead is consumed of the fire the Founder melteth in vain for the Wicked are not plucked away Ier. 6. 28. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When their Judges or the greatest Lawyers are thrown down into stony places they shall hear my Words because then they are sweet Psal. 141. 6. Causidicis Erebo Fisco fas vivere rapto Militibus Medico Tortori occidere ludo Meâ—iri Astrologis Pictoribus atque Poetis LONDON Printed for Tho Hucklescot to be sold at the George in Little Brittain 1654 To the Right Honourable The Lord Gen. CROMVVEL The Peoples Victorious Champion in England Ireland and Scotland My Lord HIs EXCELLENCY the Lord Jesus hath sent out his Summons to other Nations also and the Blade of that Sword whose handle is held in England will reach to the very Gates of Rome ore long but by what Instruments we know not yet for what end we know Psal. 72. 2. 4. 13. viz. to breake in peeces the oppressor and to deliver the poore and needy yea to spoile the weak-hearted and be more excellent then the mightiest mountains of prey Psal. 76. 4. 5. this shall goe on till all the earth be filled with his glory Now my Lord hitherto he hath honoured you in his War let him also doe so in his Work which the War hath made way for viz. in throwing down of Tyranny the Oppression which as you have begun to doe so this Treatise hath unavoydable reference to your Selfe to carry on as our Conquerour upon Christs and the Common-wealths account and not upon your owne Therefore are the eyes of thousands upon you to see what you will doe for their safety and freedome according to the just Rights and Liberties of the People of this Nation which they had before the Norman Tyranny and Conquest for it is far better for us my Lord now to hang us then not to help us against these unsufferable Lawes and Lawyers which rob us of Justice and righteousnesse as it is obvious in the Treatise whiles not one honest man in England dares justifie them the mouthes of all are open against them which like doores without Lock or Key can scarce be shut close againe till there be an alteration Jethro's counsell to Moses my Lord concernes you in Exod. 18 19. Hearken and I will give thee counsell and God shall bee with thee be thou for the People to God-ward that thou mayst bring their causes to God c. we beseech you hearken to the inexorable yea inexuperable cryes and calls of the Communalty for godly Lawes and for justice upon the usurping proud Lawyers for their lying perjury and treachery which is according to the Statute and good Lawes punishable It is without malice to a man of them and meerly out of Conscience to ingage against sin and enemies to Christ and this Common-wealth that I must make such a Character of them as I doe it may be I speake spiritfully yet not spightfully though oppression makes a wise man mad sayes Salomon Eccles. 7. 7. and indeed if it be madnesse to ingage against Sinne I will be so for Si natura negat facit indignatio versum but here 's no need of Passion seeing Piety preaches yea the light of Nature presses these lines against that sinfull Society yea the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calls for it The Aegyptian Hieroglyphick for Legislative Power was oculus in sceptro but ours had need to be oculus in ense the eye in the conquering Sword of the people I meane first a full eye to looke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 backward and forward with an open Prospect into the Peoples Liberties and advantages for their safety and freedome and then an able quick eye to deliver the People from oppressors and to defend them in their owne â—ights And indeed my Lord we would have no Law Nisi lex oculata but that Law which sees how and what and to whom to administer in aequilibrio in justice whilst many of our Lawes are the â—lawes of this Common-wealth for as Plutarch sayes Turpe praeceptum non est lex sed in quitas The Chineses would perswade us that they only see with two eyes and other Nations but with one O that we could convince our Neighbour Nations now by our Lawes and Government that we see with both eyes for our selves and friends too if need be wherefore let us fall to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us worke and watch for Christs Monarchy which is now upon the borders and be sure to keep in the Kings Christs Road for that is safest Israels Omen of going on against his enemies was 1 Chron. 14. 15. the voyce in the top of the trees and this is ours also viz. the voyce of God as in Primitive times and in the top-ages of the Church for his Spirit is mighty and growes great every day and when the enemy shall be like a Floud the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against them Isa. 59. 19. and why see Isa. 31. 3. the Lord Gods greatest worke in these dayes is Spirit-worke and none will be found fit to be imployed in it but such as are spirited for it by the Holy Spirit for then our Warres wil be holy Warres our Lawes holy Lawes our Parliaments holy Parliaments c. and not before Wherefore my Lord for Christs sake minde and finde out what your worke is you have not done all yet for now you have won us you must wall us with the good and wholsome Lawes and Liberties of the People as we were before the Norman invasion or rather as Israel of old Deut. 6. 1. or else Gog will arise who sayes in his presumption I will goe to the Land of unwalled Villages I will goe to them that are at rest It is dangerous indeed now to sit still seeing the Wheele full of eyes is in his swiftest motions and may without heed run
you his Character aright and not so Sir I did humbly conceive it requisite to acquaint you that no false aspersions might come upon you unawares I desire you to pardon my boldnesse for I am one who from my heart intirely loves those that professe Christ c. This Letter was sent me by one once his Hearer til he and many others who have their eyes opened durst not abide his dangerous Ant christian Doctrine or unhallowed unchristian spirit Many Ministers of the Gospel have come to me about him and given me such a Character as it is a shame he should be suffered besides severall Country-men Gentlemen and other Citizens that have notoriously known him up and down doing mischief to the reproach of religion But such as these like the Snakes of Syria wil not bite their owne Country-men Yet let him goe on for though he may think like the Fish Sâ—pia to escape in the muddy thick waters of contention he may hap to mistake Thus such as these of Antichrists corrupt Clergy and â—â—ayiâ—y I meane Lawyers I must expect like Mastives that fly ful-mouth on a stranger And indeed I am of opinion that the faithfull Witnesses those whose bodies must lye three dayes and an halfe in the streets spiritually called Aegypt and Sodome I say I am perswaded their slaying or rather falling as is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 11. 7. by the power of Antichrist is not past but hard by however I beleeve it as if I saw it with my eyes now a most terrible tempest of darknesse and confusion is coming and the smoke of Babylon wil put the Air into dark mourning ereâ—â—â—g yea breaking all to peeces breaks in apace upon us i. e. And it is upon the hearts of many in the same manner that it is upon mine divers have been with me about it to tel me that of a truth the time of triall is nigh and they expect yea and desire it to suffer as Witnesses This motion upon many hearts together makes me think the Refiners fire wil quickly be kindled and then wo be to the oppressor whether on Ecclesiastical or Civil account for Judgement wil come upon the People of his curse Isa. 34. 5. in this Day of the Lords vengeance on them and those that know not the Lords Law shall be accursed Jo. 7. 49. Deut. 27. 19. 25 26. but in this day deliverance shall arise to the People of his blessing and as Ier. 23. 7 8 9. They shall no more say the Lord that brought them out of Aegypt but the Lord that brought them out of the North-countries and Norman captivities then shall the Law of the Lord be magnified Isa. 42. 19 21. and as the Sun obscures all the Starres with his bright light so shall Gods Law all mens in the next Monarchy and like Moses Rod swallow all these Magicians Lord hasten this day School-boyes look after Holy-dayes Worldly men after Rent-dayes Chapmen after Market-dayes Travellours after Faire Dayes Professors after Lords Dayes and the People of God long for these dayes of Christ viz. the end of the Foure Monarchies Dan. 7. that the Fifth may come wherein Christ and his Saints shall rule the World Mark it by Aâ—no 1656. the Floud begins and as in Noah's Arke after the doores were shut up there was no mercy though they came wading middle deep so let this be an Alarum to all men to make hast whiles the Doore of the Arke is open in few yeares they wil finde it shut and then though they wade thorow and thorow much danger whether Parliament-men Army-men Merchant men Clergy-men Lawyers or others they may hap to finde it too late and that their delayes have bred dangers for the doore wil be shut shortly My aime herein is to awaken them all up to their worke in the Restoration of Gods Lawes and Government the Peoples Liberties and Priviledges the Common-wealths comfort and advantages in Christs Kingdome and appearances which is and shall be the mark of my Arrow yea the Rain-bow of my Cloud that lookes on the Sun and that which my soule shal pump out apace in all my prayers to God in Christ for this Common-weale whose honest faithfull Servant I am in my heart without the cunning Politick or artificiall composition of complements though I must and doe suffer for my sincerity and simplicity London Tho. Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 19th day of the 8th Month. JOHN ROGERS Doomes-day to LAWYERS OR An Alarme for new LAWS CHAP. I. How the Author comes to ingage in this Work and why And how the Lawyers are Antichrists State-Army of Locusts THE Administrations we are under are either Ecclesiasticall so called or Civil or Spirituall As to the first I have upon the importunity of Church-Members made up my accounts in an Idea of Church-Discipline called a Tabernacle for the Sun c. Sold at the Greyhound in Pauls Church-yard Wherein appears how Ecclesiasticall formes and Administrations must be every day more and more refined and reformed and be more glorious till all selfish sensuall and carnall Prelatick Interests be pared away and till Ecclesiasticall be turned into the spirituall as the higher and Head of that Administration So shal all spiritual which I hope ere long to publish in an Idea of Spirit-Discipline be swallowed up in Christ the Ocean which all spiritual Administrations but lead us into But as to the Civill upon the request of some faithful Commonwealths Members and of those the grave sort of 40 50 60 70 80 years of age and more wherby I much incline could I procure so much time to give an accouâ—â— to all the World in an Idea of Civil Discipline how Civil Forms must be every day too more and more refined and reformed till we have Gold for Brasse and Silver for Iron Isa. 60. 16 17 and violence be no more heard in our Land which will be in the fifth Monarchy now entring But all Civil Formes are as yet accompanied with a world of corrupt close-cleaving Interests which doe deprave the Government and deprive us of that good which is the end of Civill Policy Now as it is Gods Designe in these latter days to pare away and purge Ecclesiasticall Formes and so to make them serve the Spirit I say it is also a glorious Designe of his to purge the civil Administration of those detestable corruptions and dregs which doe attend it and to pare away aâ—â— wicked personal humane selfish Interests and to make the Civil serve the Ecclesiasticall and officious to the Saints and Churches Isa. 60. 3. 10 11. as the lower principle is to observe the higher and be obedient Rev. 21. 24. Wherefore as sure as Israels God will throw down the Tyranny of the Ecclesiasticall Administration so surely will he also crush and throw down the tyranny of the Civill Administrations that our veriest Exactors shall be righteousnesse
so that therewith they can alter their speech as they list and imitate Birds in tunes and speak perfectly to two persons and two purposes at once to one with the one part of their tongue and to the other with the other part thereof Now I know none but Lawyers like them in this for they will speak for a Fee for one and yet I know them that have given Advice and Councel to the other and taken the others Fee too They are like the Amphishaena who hath two heads and moves two contrary ways at once The Italians put a Proverb upon Caesar Borgia and his father Pope Alexander saying The one never thought as he spake and the other never spake as he thought So indeed it may be said of many of these Lawyers who like Hebrew Letters must be spelt backward if once we read them aright And now O what Parasites they are as the English Papists in Queen Elizabeths days durst temporize to purpose so do these begin apace but as the Coriander hath a corrupt root an unsavory leaf but a sweet seed so hath this Faction a filthy root unsavory actions but as good words as one would wish if need be Yet let them look to it Gods curse like a Promoter must search for all their ill-gotten goods ere long And as when the crafty Fox that had deceived the Crow of her break-fast hugged himself for joy to think of his project till when he had eaten it he found himself poysoned with it and then he repented and wished the Crow her own again So stoln goods are sweet to these Deceivers and they hug themselves in their cheating tricks and knaveries till their bowels begin to gripe them for it For the day of Christ that is coming will be a terrible time of torment to them And as Christ brought that fish to the Hook that had the money in his mouth Matth. 17. 27. So will these wide mouthed money mongers be hooked for it fearfully ere long They have gotten great Estates and bought Mannors and Lands and taken exact Surveys of them but they have not yet taken an exact survey of their Consciences how they came by this money which purchased these Lands says Dr. Don Ser. fol. p. 818. Our coyn hath the State on one side and God with us on the other and surely if we see not God with us in what riches we have gotten they are but counterfeit and falsly gotten and will gripe us grievously till we have vomited them out When Vespasians covetous Officers had filled themselves like spunges by Rapine and Extortion the Emperor squeezed them out dry again into the common Treasury till they had nothing left Now although many wish for the fall of the tree that they may gather up the chips yet the Lord knows this is not in my heart but beleeve it the Laws of God and Nature require a restitution and that what they have ill gotten from the people be brought into the publick bank again for they have robbed the Nation with a great deal of ravenousness and art One Cacus a cunning theif when he had stoln any Beasts he would drag them to the Cave by their tails backward that by the contrary track of their feet he might be freed from suspition of theevery such art and subtlety have the Lawyers had in deceiving and robbing us that they seems to take another track quite contrary to it and to go under the name of dues and fees And besides their decerts are many in the Law too which like a Cob-web to Spiders whilest they make it their dwelling it is a prison to entangle others in as flies to feed them So many Meanders and Intricacies there are in the Law that like snakes they hide themselves by folding into many doubles Wherefore like the Foxes they must have depth of soyl to Earth the wrongs of their poor Clients and hide their own Crafts which are too many to live much longer seeing the honestest cause must miscarry by their cunning tricks and fallacies and a bad cause shall be so beautifully varnished over by their arts and cheats that the most innocent honest man that is shall suffer ruine by them I have a Neighbor by me who was arrested for two hundred pounds debt to a man whose name he never heard nor face ever saw before and he was laid in prison thereupon to his utter ruine till he proved the Bond forged the Plaintiff a cheat that lived by such tricks and yet he escaped scot-free though there was a knot of them that lived by such cheats Hence Sir Walter Rawleigh upon his tryal hearing the Lawyers for the King plead violently against him he turns to the Jury and sayes Gentlemen I pray consider that these sort of men meaning the Lawyers do usually defend very bad causes every day in their own Courts yea and against men of their own Profession too as able as themselves what then will they not do against me ◠I know now an honest Gentleman that had a good personal estate who lies yet in the Fleet eat up almost with lice and near starved and all his estate taken from him by the meer cheat of the Lawyers upon a forged Bond too for another onely a man whose face he never saw before pretending his hand to be in that Bond But to finish this O how miserably tyrannical they make the Law to the free-born Englishman They make it like a Milstone which they drive about with a wheel artificially full of cogs and spoaks under which they grinde the innocent and harmless ones to powder And can we hear their groans sighs sad complaints and fearful cryes and we sit still like senceless stones shall we Sixtly Lawyers unsufferable Fees fill all mouths with wofull exclamations and eyes with willing expectation of their fall For as no sooner was the Apple in Adams mouth but the Devill was in his Maw So no sooner does one Fee them with an Earth-Angel in their hand but the Devil doubles fees with Hel angels in their hearts and they fall to lying pleading cheating wronging and oppressing as fast as they can without fear of Heaven or Hell It would make an honest mans heart to ake to hear how fast and confidently they will lye and like it well too We laugh at the Indians for casting in such store of Gold every yeare into the River Ganges as if the streams would not run currently without it and others laugh at the English as much for when the current of Justice is stopped as 't is oft in many Courts the foolish people can as yet it seems find no better way then that the Indians use to open them and shal we never be wiser Indeed Pliny reports of Apis the Aegyptian God that he never gave answers to private men but è manu consulentium cibum capiendo by taking meat out of the hands of such as were his
Commonwealth upon this account first for the principle and then secondly for restitution which the people upon the alterable Laws of Religion are raised high to expect 5. For oppression too the people as religious are resolved against them For as Aquinas sayes A tyrannical interest having no proper address for the publick welfare but onely to satisfie a private will and to bring in particular profit to those that appertain to that interest cannot in a reasonable or religious construction be accounted and continued as lawful and therefore the rising against such an ungodly selfish interest and the disturbance of it is not unlawful nor ungodly neither may men be esteemed Rebellious or Seditious for so doing He speaks honestly for us let the Lawyers then look to it for hitherto have leane kine as Pharaoh saw it in his dream eaten up the fat and they have made gain of oppression Isa. 33. 15. So that whilst we looked for judgement behold oppression and for righteousness behold a cry Isai. 5. 7. Some of my honest Countrymen of threescore yea of fourscore years of age have with weeping told me of the tyranny and infinite injustice and oppression of these Godless especially if Goldless Lawyers and how they have devoured and destroyed them how long they have been suing for their right and at last gone without it how they have been hurried out of one Court into another and used as the Cat that flings the Mouse out of one claw into another to make sport and then at last devours it Several in a day have suspired out such stories of these wicked intruders as would make a tender heart to ake and quake Ministers have been stung with these Scorpions terribly and I could name some who have been with me about it when meerly through malice they were arrested by ill neighbors or enemies and of all men they have been most abused beaten bruised and uncivilly handled by these Locusts and their tails i. e. Serjeants Bailiffs or the like Yea the widow hath come crying and wringing her hands to me for that the Lawyers had inveigled and gotten in her son a Swash or the like and so perswaded him by good words full of hopes to arrest the poor widow on purpose to bring the estate into the Lawyers hands that neither of them should have it but spend it out in Fees and Laws How many hundred of these stories could I tell but if every Englishman that hath suffered by them should but print it to the world they would appear the most odious Tyrants that ever the Earth bare As I was taking Boat to Westminster the other day a Yeomanly man desired to go in the same Boat with me who sate and sighed as if his heart would break all the way having an honest face and he telling me he was a Lincolnshire man I asked him the cause and he told me how he was undone by the Lawyers how he had a good estate and mony but now all was gone and â—â—te up by going to law and he was put off from one time to another and out of one Court into another and came up every Term with all the mony he could make and that he had continued in law these twelve years and yet his businesse was as far off as at first sighing and weeping and wishing that he had never seen their faces and earnestly praying that he might be the last might suffer by them Thus by chance sometimes severall in a day I meet with that tell such lamentable stories of the Lawyers as it is a wonder to hear who are grown so griping that they touch and take and will quickly squeeze out the intrals of the fattest purse into their own pawnches leaving nothing behind but skin It was but a fained tradition that Brittain bred no Wolves for there were such store saies Abbot that Kings laid it as an imposition upon the Kings of Wales to bring in certain hundreds yearly So it is a meer fable to fancy all Tyrants and oppressors cut off with the late Tyrants head why alas how many hundreds of them may we meet at Westminster every Term time But saith the Lord I will feed them that oppresse thee with their own â—lesh and they shall be drunken with their own blood and all shall know that I am the Lord thy Saviour Isa. 49. 26. This the people look for 6. Their pride is intollerable and their Goliah-like looks fright the timorous Israelites who dare not behold them but with Cap and Leg yet let them know for all their French or Spanish or Curtizans Meal-tub powdred upon their hair I say they may know that a Silken Halter is but a halter for pride So their haughtiness shall be laid low when the Lord shall be exalted Isa. 2. 17. God shall bring down their pride together with the spoil of their hands Isa. 25. II. Their crown of pride shall be troden under foot chap. 28. 3. with Sodom-suffering for this Sodom sin Ezek. 16. 49. I beleeve they will look like Caligula upon me when they meet me now and as the Bore whets and sharpens his tusks in his own foam so will these proud Sparks whose garbs like the Sicilians are sinful and luxurious they will whet and sharpen their hands heads hearts tongues and all against me in foam and anger for revenge They are already so inraged against me that it hath been said Wo to me if ever I fall into their hands and I beleeve it but my God will be too hard for them all within a little while and he that shall come will come i. e. in his fifth Monarchy as may appear in the last Chapter and then as Jere. 48. 29 30. We have heard his pride c. For these and hundreds more Reasons all Englishmen whether rational or religious call aloud for deliverance from this Norman yoke and it is chiefly for this end the peoples eyes and cryes are directed to the Lord General as the Instrument by whom they are recovered out of the Norman Tyranny and have conquered the Norman and therefore are to return out of captivity and to be restored to their Laws Liberties and Priviledges that the Lawyers may be reduced and squeezed into their first poor and beggerly principles that the Temples and Inns of Court be sold that the Lawyer go home to his calling in the Country that he was in at first before he grew up into an interest that Terms be down and Justice dispersed into all Counties and Hundreds that men may have justice at home And if our Conquest produce not this deliverance from the Norman tyranny and injustice we had better have been hanged up at our own doors for Justice is delayed the Law corrupt and full of intricacy and unknown to most and people oppressed undone and put to death upon trivial occasions and many destroyed for want of a Formality or Punctilio in Law and
come to the tryal of the Sword So in Anno 1195 1200 1269 1297 1303 1325 1330 and 1360. we shall finde how faithfull the Frenchmen were to their own nation against strangers yea at any time when strangers had gotten any portion of their Land they kept their right and the command and the Laws to themselves so they did when any was in the English hands and if strangers as the English obtained their Rights Laws and Liberties by force and so took away their Soveraignty and Command as at the Treaty of Bretaigny c. yet that Treaty was not kept neither were they bound by the Law of Nature to hold to such an agreement wherein strangers were greatest or Governors in their own Land any longer then till they could get deliverance out or recovery of such alienations And shall we after recovery lie under the Norman Laws and their Outlandish tyrannies Will not all the World then count us fools But some may object O but this hath been so long for time that now it is too late to recover Answ. It is true so great hath been the tyranny all along to keep up Kingly or Lordly Prerogative that the poor people have been banged and bandied about like Balls so as that hardly a great man or good man might be found in an age that had so much sence of the peoples sufferings as to lend a helping hand to them that were beaten abused imprisoned starved banished stead or burnt to their very bones by insolent and insupportable oppressions but if by chance one dared to venture it to appear for the poor inslaved peoples rights he was presently in post attached impeached and condemned to a most miserable death or at least banished for a factious seditious Rebel or Traitor or one thing or other and then it may be such a faithful man for his Country should scarce finde a Brother a Friend a Reuben among all to say of such a poor afflicted Joseph O! let us not kill him for he is our Brother But by this means I say viz. the craft and cruelty of great ones and the ignorance and connivence of others in this Nation have the people been so long abused and imbondaged but notwithstanding there is no presumption of time nor prevarication that can prejudice the people of their right No tyrannous intrusion or continuance of invasion can by any length of time I say prescribe against our lawful Liberties and Rights which we now lay claim to The Commonwealth lives and never dies notwithstanding daily and alternative revolutions or resolutions no lapse or lask of times or turn of individuals can deprive the people of their just right which we hope our Brethren of the Army will help us with as our own and free us from strangers It is no time as yet to leap after Grashoppers or slie after Butter-flies that is work for boyes and not men nor should they sit down as if they had done enough now because they have gotten Arrears to purchase Lands and Mannors insomuch as one great man I could name amongst them was taking care in my hearing for no less then a whole County to pay him But Brethren do ye forget what ye fought for why do ye not set the poor people your Fellow English men and Country-men free then from the Norman Tyrants and restore to them their Goods Laws and Liberties again What though some great men may hap are content as they are and are in the conspiracy combined with others to betray us and to leave us now in the lunch to sit in the suds yet I tell you Sirs this treachery will be rewarded one day for they cannot make the free Commoners lose their Right nor Liberties and as sure as God is righteous these prevaricators and people-cheators will be remembered and shall have their Right although now their Hairs are gum-powdered their Hearts may be gun-powdered one day for the people are now past children and fools to be so cheated by the Normans as they have been And if the people of Rome condemned their Captains and Generals of their Armies for capitulating with the Enemies to the disadvantage of the publick and peoples right though necessitated to it sometimes how then shall the free-born people of England think you be able to endure this yoke of tyranny and these Norman intruders to enthral them and this to be suffered too by our Brother-Countrymen that could and should redeem us being not compelled but rather complemented not forced but rather flattered into this woful omission of their duty to their Country Wherefore for Gods sake and the good peoples sake let my Lord General with the Army be awakned to the sighs groans prayers tears and continual cryes of the faithful people for freedom from this Norman iron-hearted yoke which crushes hundreds of honest hearts to death The Lord knows it it is my conscience makes my compassion boil over thus on their behalf 3. This Liberty from the Norman tyranny in Laws and Lawyers c. we be all born to it is our own due by birth-right which appears by variety of Records Chronicles and Statutes besides what was said before we finde it acknowledged by the Norman corrupt Judges themselves as in the case of Sir William Herbert reported by Sir Edward Cook Now a mans House or Land may be let leased morgaged or seised on by Usurpers that have no right to it for some time but he holds his right as his inheritance in hopes to recover it again one day so do we our Liberties and indeed if we be not now restored unto them our Brethren will be little better then the Norman Tyrants to us seeing they may deliver us and restore us to our right but will not Sirs you know the Merchants non-payment of his custom due forfeits all his goods I say no more 4. The people are in absolute expectation hereof from the many solemn engagements and protests made by my Lord and the Army in the sight of God Men and Angels to deliver them out of Tyranny and to restore them to their Rights and Liberties I might name New-Market Triple Heath Dunbar Worcester c. It is true William the Conqueror made many promises and protests to the people too to defend their Laws and Liberties and took solemn oaths so to do three several times as all the Chronicles tell us but the difference in the peoples hopes and hearts of these two Conquerors engagements must be this That whereas William the Tyrant regarded not his Engagements to keep them but on the contrary most cursedly introduced his own Laws and Lusts and robbed like a Beast of prey the people of all their Right and Liberties and so set up that bondage of Terms Judges and Outlandish Lording practises over the poor bleeding people yet that now Oliver their Conqueror a better Christian will keep out of conscience to God and them being a man fearing God