Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	heart_n	people_n	10,406	5	4.5799	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88206	The ivst man in bonds. Or Lievt. Col. John Lilburne close prisoner in Newgate, by order of the Hovse of Lords.	Walwyn, William, 1600-1681.; Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657,	1646 (1646)	Wing L2124; Wing W685A; Thomason E342_2; ESTC R200926	4,596	4

THE IVST MAN IN BONDS OR Lievt Col. Iohn Lilburne close Prisoner in Newgate by order of the HOVSE of LORDS SInce this worthy gentle mans case is mine and every mans who though we be at liberty to day may be in Newgate to morrow if the House of Lords so please doth it not equally and alike concerne all the people of England to lay it to heart and either fit both our minds and necks to undergoe this slavery or otherwise thinke of some speedy and effectuall meanes to free our selves and our posterity there from This noble and resolute Gentleman Mr. Lilburne then whom his countrey has not a truer and more faithfull servant hath broke the Ice for us all who being sensible that the people are in reall bondage to the Lords and that the Lawes and Statutes providing to the contrary serving them in no stead hath singly adventured himselfe a Champion for his abused country men nothing doubting but that he shall thereby open the eyes and awake the drowsie spirits of his fellow Commoners or rather Slaves as the case now stands with them and likewise animate the representative body of the people to make use of that power wherewith they are trusted to free us themselves their and our posterities from the House of Lords imperious and ambitious usurpation Object Some through ignorance or poverty of spirit may peradventure judge Mr. Lilburne a rash young man for his opposing himselfe against so mighty a streame or torrent of worldly power which the Lords now possesse To such I answer 1. That the power of the House of Lords is like a shallow un-even water more in noise then substance If we could distinguish between what is theirs of right and what by incroachment we should soone find that they have deckt themselves with the Commoners bravefeathers which being reassumed they would appeare no better arrayed then other men even equall by Law inferior in uprightnesse and honesty of conversation We should then find that they are but painted properties Dagons that our superstition and ignorance their owne craft and impudence have erected no naturall issues of lawes but the extuberances and mushromes of Prerogative the Wens of just government putting the body of the People to paine as well as occasioning deformity Sons of conquest they are and usurpation not of choice and election intruded upon us by power not constituted by consent not made by the people from whom all power place and office that is just in this kingdome ought only to arise 2. Mr. Lilburnes opposing himselfe against this exorbitant and extra-judiciall power of the Lords ought rather to be admired by us as a pitch of valour we are not yet arived too through the faintnesse of our spirits and dotage upon our trades ease riches and pleasures then censured by us as rash or furious He that dares scale the walls of an enemie or venture himselfe upon the utmost of danger in the field is not judged rash but a valiant man unlesse by those low spirits that dares not doe as he hath done Let us therefore rather blame our selves for want of fortitude then accuse him as having too much Consider I pray the great danger we are in if the Lords thus presume to clap a Commoner of England in close prison even now when the Commons of England are sitting in Parliament who are put in trust and enabled with power to protect the people from such bondage yea and so suddainly after they have in effect declared that they will doe it in their Declaration of the 17. of April last what injuries will not these Lords doe to us when the Parliament is ended and the people have none of their owne Commons nor Trustees to protect them heare their cryes nor redresse their grievances What prison or dungeon will then be base enough what punishment or torture great enough for them that are not cowardish enough so to be slaves and bond-men And so is not the last errour like to be worse then the first Death it selfe is more tollerable to a generous spirit then close imprisonment besides the continuall feares that such an inhumane practice brings with it of private murther or poisoning as there are manifold examples of such cruelties of which Overberies was not one of the least who was poisoned in the Tower and to salve or colour that wickednesse it was strongly given out and avouched that he murthered himselfe though afterwards divers were hang'd for it and the Earle of Somerset and his Countesse hardly escaped Sir Richard Wiseman was moped and stupified with his close imprisonment and what mischiefes of divers sorts may be done to honest and faithfull Mr. Lilburne upon this renued opportunitie by the Lords as he had too much formerly by the B●shops though contrary to all equitie and justice yea and even to the Lords owne reparations which lately they voted and alotted to him whiles he is now close prisoner in their owne hands who know him to be their chiefest opposite in all their usurpations and encroachments upon the Commoners freedomes doth it not concerne all the Commons of England to consider and prevent the same especially their great and generall Counsell in Parliament assembled Lay to heart I beseech you O YEE HOVSE of COMMONS that neither your selves nor your children can plead any immumitie or security from this cruelty and bondage of the House of Lords if now yee be slack or negligent but yee may justly expect and feele the smart thereof upon you and your posterity as well as we upon us and ours at least after you are dissolved and dismissed from your Authorities And is not this one of the maine points for which yee have put your selves us and so many of this Nation as stand in your defence to the effusion and expence of so much blood and multituds of estates If yee did intend to expose this Kingdome to the miseries of warre for no other ends but that one kind of Arbitrary government Star-chamber or High Commission Power might be abollished and others of these kinds established over us why would yee not tell us in due time that wee might have both spared our lives and estates and not made so many souldiers Widowes and fatherlesse to mourne at the Parliaments gates for the manyfold wants occasioned by your service and made us sooner like humble vassals to present our selves like slaves upon our knees at the House of Lords Barre and suffer our cares to be bored through with an aule in testimony that wee are heir bond-men for ever But if yee would either free your selves of this suspition or us of those just feares then shew your selves to be such worthies as doe truly deserve that title by using this happy oppertunity which God hath put into your hands and making us free-men it being the maine cause for which wee used and intrusted you and as a present signe of your fidelity and magnanimitie let your reall intentions in the generall appeare