power of Parliaments and in the Assemblies exhortation to take the solemn League and Covenant and other Presbyterian bookes licenced by publicke authority and others fold without controule there be not more said to justifie and maintaine that which Gangraena calls Utoplan Anarchy then in any bookes whatsoever published by these be calls Sectaries Thirdly whether or no that out of my owne words in my booke called INNOCENCY AND TRVTH IVSTIFIED there can any thing be drawn to iustifie the Lords in that which now I condemne them in as Gangraen a affirmes pag. 159. 148. For the first see what the 29. Chapter of Magne Charta saith No free-man shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his free hold or Liberties or free Customes or be outlawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed nor wee will not passe upon him nor condemn him but by lawfull judgement of his PEERS or by the Law of the Land See the 3. of E. 1. ch 6. And that no Citie Borough nor Town nor any man be amerced without reasonable cause and according to the quantity of his trespasse 9. H. 3. 14. that is to say every free man saving his free hold a Merchant saving his Merchandise a villain saving his waynage and that by his or their Peers Now here is the expresse Law of the land against the Lords jurisdiction over Commons in criminall cases Now in the second place let us see what one of the ablest expositors of the Law that ever writ in England saith of this very thing and that is Sir Edward Cooke in his exposition of Magna Charta 2. part institutes which booke is published by two speciall orders of the Present Houser of Commons as in the last page thereof you may read who in his expounding the 1â— Chapter of Magna Charta pag. 28 saith Peers signâ—…e Eâ—…lls and pag. 29. be saith the generall divâ—sion of persons by the Law of England is either one that is noble and in respect of his nobility of the Lords House in Parliament or one of the Commons of the Realm and in respect thereof of the House of Commons in Parliament and as there be divers degrees of Nobility as Dukes Marquesses Earles Viscounts and Barrons and yet all of them are comprehended within this ward PARES so of the Commons of the Realme there be Knights Esquires Gentle-men Citizens Yeomen and Burgesses of sever all degrees and yet all of them of the COMMONS of the Realme and as every of the Nobles is one Peere to another though he be of a sever all degree so is it of the Commons and as it bath been said of men so doth it hold of Noble-women either by birth or by marriage but see hereof Chap. 29. And in Chap. 29. pag 46. Ibim he saith no man shall be disseised that is put out of season or disposed of his freehold that is Lands or livelihood or his liberties or free Customes that is of such franchises and freedomes and free Cusiomes as belong to him by his birth-right unlesse it be by lawfull judgement that is verdict of his equalls that is men of his owne condition or by the law of the Land that is to speak it once for all by the due course and processe of Law No man shall be in any sort destroyed to distroy id est what was first built and made wholly to overthrow and pull down unlesse it be by the verdict of his equalls or according to the law of the Land And so saith he is the sentence neither will wee passe upon him to be understood but by the judgement of his Peers that is equails or according to the Law of the Land see him pag. 48. upon this sentence per judicium Pacium suorum and page 50. he saith it was inacted that the Lords and Peers of the Realm should not give judgement upon any but their Peers cites Rot. Parl. 4. E. 3. nu 6. but making inquiry at the Recoâ—r Office in the Tower I had this which followes from under the hand of Mr. William Collet the Record-Keeper Out of the Roll of the Parlament of the fourth yeare of Edward the third The First Roll Records and Remembrances of those things which were done in the Parliament summoned at Westminster on Munday next after the Feast of Saint Katherine in the yeare of the reigne of King Edward the third from the Conquest the fourth delivered into the Chancery by Henry de Edenstone Clerk of the Parliament THese are the Treasons Felonies Wickednesses The judgement of Roger de Mortimer done to our Lord the King and his people by Roger de Mortimer and others of his confederacie First of all whereas it was ordained at the Parliament of our lord the King which was held next after his coronation at Westminster that four Bishops four Earles and six Barons should abide neere the King for to counsel him so alwayes that there may be foure of them viz. one Bishop one Earle and two Barons at the least And that no great businesse be done without their assent and that each of them should answer for his deeds during his time After which Parliament the said Roger Mortimer not having regard to the said assent tooke upon himselfe Royall power and the government of the Realme and encroacht upon the State of the King and ousted and caused to be ousted and placed Officers in the Kings House and else where throughout the Realm at his pleasure of such which were of his minde and placed John Wyà rd and others over the King to espy his actions and sayings so that our Lord the King was in such manner environed of such as that hee could not doe any thing at his pleasure but was as a man which is kept in ward Also whereas the Father of our LORD the KING was at Kenilwarth by ordinance and assent of the Peers of the Land there to stay at his pleasure for to be served as becommeth such a Lord the said Roger by Royall power taken unto himselfe did not permit him to have any money at his will and ordered that he was sent to Rarkly Castle where by him and his he was traitorously and falsly murthered and slain But that which is this to my purpose is Roll the second being the judgement of Sir Samon de Bereford which verbatim followeth thus The Second Roll. ALso in the same Parliament our Lord the King did charge the said Earles and Barons to give right and lawfull judgement as appertained to Simon de Bereford Knight who was aiding and counselling the said Roger de Mortimer in all the treasons felonies and wickednesses for the which the âforesaid Roger so was awarded and ajudged to death as it is a known and notorious thing to the said Peers as to that which the King intends The which Earles Barons and Peers came before our Lord the King in the same Parliament and said all with one voice that the foresaid Simon was not their Peer wherefore they were
people of God under pretence of hereticall Opinions I will upon the hazard of my life justifie and prove it against you and the present Parliament that you and they therby justifie Queen Mary in murdering and burning the Saints in her dayes yea and all the bloudy persecuring Roman Emperors that caused to be murthered thousanes of the Saints for bearing witnesse to the restimony of Iesus yea and all the persecutions of the Iewes against Christ and his Apostles yea and the putting them to death and so bring upon your owne heads all the righteous blood shed upon the Earth from the dayes of righteous Abel to this present day Matth. 23.29 30.32.33.34 35. which I warrant you will bring wrath and vengeance enough upon you Now Mr. Lieutenant a few words more to you and so conclude I desire you in the next place not only to provide me gratis a prison Lodging for I can pay Chamber tent no longer but also to provide me my diet according to the custome of the place for you cannot but know and if you doe not I now tell you that the King was alwayes so noble and iust as to doe it to all the Prisoners be committed to this place of what qualitie soever of the truth of which * Who as I have lately heard confessed hee spent his Maiesty 1500. l. while hee was a prisoner here Col. Long Col. Hollis and Mr. Selden c. now members of the house of Commons can informe you and how that themselves when they were the Kings prisoners here in the 3. of His Raign for speaking and acting freely in the Parliament were maintained by the King according to their qualities though some of them had great estates of their owne in their owne possessions and enjoyments and now as the newes books tell me are voted 5000. l. pece for their then illegall sufferings And Sir the Lords who committed me hither have in gareat measure the Kings Revenue in their hands at their dispose and therefore I expect now I seek for it they shall be as just as their Master whom they have so much condemned for injustice and provide for me according to my quality And Sir I must tell you that I am very confident I have as many noble qualities in me and as much of a man in every respect as any of those that sent me hither For Titles of Honour without Honesty and Iustice are no excellenter then a gold ring in a Swines snout Yea and have given as large a declaration of it to the view of the world as any of them whatever hath done And therefore Sir if they shall deny me this piece of justice and equity I will by Gods assistance tell them as well of it as ever they were told in their lives But fir in the third place if this faile me I desire you to speake to them to allow me interest for my two thousand pounds it being scarce twice so much as I have spent since I first became a suiter for it that they the last yeare decreed me for my illegall bloody barbarous and inhuman sufferings by the Star-Chamber which I dare confidently say were more tormenting then all the sufferings of the above mentioned Gentlemen and their co-partners See my printed Relation of it made at the Lords Barre 13. Feb. 1645. For which as I understand there is 50000. l. reparations voted them by the House of Commons that so I may have something of my owne to live upon For without all or most of the three fore-mentioned things be done for me I must either perish or run exceedingly into debt which I confesse I am very loath to doe or lastly live upon the almes of my friends which I professe is not pleasant unto me And besides the freest horse or horses in the world with continuall riding thay not only be weatied but also jaded and tyred But if they will not yeeld that I shall have my lodging gratis and my diet found by them nor interest for my many yeares expected and long-looked for 2000 l. that last yeare they decreed me nor the remainder of my just arreares which yet is divels hundreds of pounds that I faithfully valiantly and dearly earned with the losse of my blood to maintain and keep me alive and my wife and small children Then as my last request I intreat from you to desire them to call me out to alegall tryall and by the law of the Kingdome but not their arbitrary wills either to be Justified or condemned And here under my hand I professe I crave nor desire neither mercy nor favour at their hands but bid defiance to all the adversarie I have in England both great and small to doe the worst their malice can unto me alwayes provided I may have a legall tryall by my Peeres my Equalls men of my own condition according to the just established unrepealed fundamentall law of the Land contained in Magna Charta and the Petition of Right And truly Sir if upon these tearmes they will not call me out but resolve to keep me here still I will by Gods assistance before many moneths be expired give them cause with a witnesse to call me out for here if I can helpe it I will not be destroyed with a languishing death though it cost me hewing to peeces as small as flesh to the pot For if it had not been that my report hath lain so long dormant in the hand of Col. Henry Martin the glory of his age amongst Parliament men for a lover of his Country whose credit and reputation I ingeniously confesse I should be very loath in the least if I could avoid it to bespatter But in regard by all the meanes and friends I can use to him I cannot get him to make my report though I desire nothing at his hands but a bate endeavour of the discharge of his duty to quit himselfe of it let the issue be good or bad all is one to me so it were but done or endevoured to be done I had long since made a formal appeal to the people but in regard of my constant hard usage both from divers Lords and Commons and their laylors and other instruments and the many unresistable prickings forward of my own spirit which presseth me rather to hazzard the undergoing of Sampsons portion Judg. 16.21 then to be forced to degenerate from the principles of Reason the King or chiefe of all creatures into the habit of a bruit beast and so to live a slave or vassal under any power under the Cope of Heaven whether Regall or Parliamentary or what ever it be And therefore having now with a long deliberated delibertation committed my wife and children to the tuition care and protection of a powerfull God whom for above these ten yeares I have feelingly and sensibly known as my God in Jesus Christ who with a mighty protection and preservation hath been with me in six troubles and in seven and from the very day of
THE Oppressed Mans Oppressions declared OR An Epistle written by Lieut. Col. IOHN LILBURNE Prerogative-prisoner by the illegall and arbitrary Authority of the House of Lords in the Tower of London to Col. Francis West Lieutenant thereof In which the oppressing cruelty of all the Gaolers of England is declared and particularly the Lieutenants of the Tower As also there is thrown unto Tho. Edwards the Author of the 3d. Vlcerous Gangraena a bone or two to pick In which also divers things are handled of speciall concernment to the present times Prov. 21.7 The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them because they refuse to doe judgement Prov. 21.15 It is joy to the just to doe judgement and chap. 29 10. The blood-thirsty hate the upright but the just seek his soule SIR IT is the saying of the Spirit of God in the 12. Prov. 10. That a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruell How far your actions and carriages with me that am more then a Beast have been point-blanke contrary to the first part of that divine Sentence but consonant to the conclusion of it is very easie to demonstrate with pen and 〈…〉 view of the World and as facill to your face before any competent Iudges to justice and prove And this is the Theme I have chosen a little to insist upon at this present time but being resolved to be as concise as I can I shall not now make any ample repetition of your harsh dealing with me at the first in divourcing me by the law of our own Will from my Wife and getting the Lords to make an order to bear you out in it after you had done it and that I should speak with none of my friends but in the presence and hearing of my Keeper c. Which cruell Order meerly obtained and got by your solicitation the Reader may read in the 〈◊〉 p. of Vox Plebis Therefore in regard that the Author of that Book hath pretty well discovered your cruell and illegall dealing with mee at my first comming to the Tower especially in the 45 46 47 48 49. pages thereof And the Author of a late booke called Regal tyrannie discovered in the 48 49. pages And my selfe hath pretty well laid it open in the 16 17 18 20. pages of my printed Relation before the Committee of the honourable house of Commons Novemb. 6. 1646. called An Anotomy of the Lords tyrannie to which I refer the Reader and in regard you are not ashamed of your cruel and illegall carriages towards me but persevere in them as though you would justifie one tyrannie with backing it with continuall acts of tyrannie I shall therefore goe on as effectuall and punctuall as I can more fully to anotamise you and your unjust illegall cruell and unrighteous dealing with me and for matter of fact shall lay nothing to your charge but what I will justifie before any legall Authority in England But in the first place I desire to let you understand that I am a free-born Englishman and have lived a legall man thereof all my dayes being never yet convicted of any attempt or design undertaken or countenanced by me that did tend to the subversion of the Fundamentall Lawes and constitution thereof but have alwayes sided with the Parliament it selfe who hath pretended nothing so much as the preservation of the lawes liberties and Fundamentall Freedomes of England and the peace and tranquility of the people as you may read in their owne Declarations 1 part col Dec. pag. 172. 195. 214. 281. 342. 464. 498. 663. 666. 673. 750. for the preservation of which I have constantly couragiously and as freely adventured my life as any of themselves what ever he be And therefore in every particular have just and grounded cause to expect the utmost priviledge and benefit that the Law of England will afford any man whatever that is under the obedience and subjection thereof Nay more over having to doe with those men as my Iudges that made all or the most of these Declarations and who have also declared it lyes not in their power to inslave or invasalize the people being trusted for their good not for their mischiefe to provide for their weal but not for their woe 1 part Col. dec pag. 150. 214 266. 267. 494. 497. 636. 659. 660. 694. 696. and who in these and other of their own Declarations imprecate and pray that the wrath and vengeance of Heaven and Earth may fall upon them and theirs when they cease actually to performe what verbally they there declare unto whtch I say AMEN And there they protest vow and sweare they will maintain the fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of the people and therefore in that respect you cannot groundedly in the least thinke that I should Issacar-like stoop willingly unto any other buthens impositions or commands layd upon mee by you or any other whatsoever that are not warrantable and justifiable by the fundamentall Lawes of the Land and whether your practises have been so with me I-will compare them to the Law and leave every rationall man to judge First I doe not find any Law that makes prisons places of executions punishment or torment but only places of safe custody for the Law of England as Sir Edward Cooke in the second part of his institutes fol. 28. excellently declares is a Law of mercy yet as he then said so I much more say now it is now turned into a meere shaddow which is the most we now enjoy of it and therefore as the Author of the late booke called Liberty vindicated against Slavery very well saith p. 7. from Sir Edward Cooke in the 1. part of his instit f. 260. that by the Law prisons are ordained not for distruction but for securing of mens persons untill they be brought forth unto due and speedy tryall for being in prison they are under the most especiall protection of the Law and the most tender care thereof and are therefore to be humanly courteously and in all Civillity ordered and used otherwise Goalers are not keepers but tormentors and executioners of men untryed and uncondemned but this were not salvo custodia to keep men in safety which the Law implyes and is all it requires but diseruere to distroy before the time which the Law abhors and detests yea and that prisoners though never so notorious in their crimes may be the more honestly and carefully provided for and the better and more civilly used and to the end that Goalers and Keepers of prisons should not have any colour or excuse for exacting any thing from prisoners under what colour or pretence soever whether the same be called fees or Chamber-rent who are in custody of the Law It is provided and declared by the Law that all prisons and Goales what ever be the Kings for the publike good and therefore are to be repared and furnished as prisons at the common Charge see Cook on
to the Tower I was refreshed at the hopes of my being freed from my close imprisonment but your falling so heavily upon me as you did struck me to the heart and made me beleeve it was possible I might have been destroyed before I should have an oppertunity publickly to cleare my own unspotted innocency in reference to the Lords and to anotamize their tyranny both of which my soul thirsted after and therefore if I had been able I would have purchased an oppertunity to have done it through it had cost me 20. l. a week And truly Sir I have done my doe and in dispite of all the Lords published and truly and faithfully stated my cause to the view of the whole Kingdome First in my Wives Petition delivered by her to the House of Commons Septem 23. 1646. which I pen'd and framed my selfe without the help or assistance of any Lawyer in England And secondly in my Book called Londons Liberty in Chaines discovered And thirdly twice before the Committee of the Honorable House of Commons The last discourse of which I published to the view of all the Commons of England and called it An Anotamy of the Lords tyranny And besides some of my friends or well-wishers have done it excellent well for me in those two notable discourses called Vox Plebis and Regall Tyranny discovered which will live when I am dead and be I hope as good as winding sheets unto the Lords and therefore I am now ready for a Dungeon or Irons or Death it selfe or any torture or torment that their malice can inflict upon me and seeing that I cannot by any meanes I can use get my report made to the House of Commons and so enjoy justice and right at their hands which J beg not of them as a Boon but chalenge of them as my due and right by reason of the Lords and the rest of their Prerogative Co-partners influence in the House of Commons to divert them from the great affairs of the Kingdome in doing justice and right unto the oppressed and putting them upon making Lawes Edicts and Declarations to persecute and destroy the generation of the righteous and so bring the wrath and vengeance of heaven and earth upon them and theirs Read Mr. Thomas Goodwins Sermon preached before them Feb 25. 1645. called The great Jnterest of States and Kingdomes and also lay a great blot of reproach upon them by all the rationall men in the world for endevouring to destroy a generation of peaceable and quiet-minded men that have contributed all they had and have in the world for their preservation and by whose undaunted valour and blood-shed as principall instruments they enjoy liberty at this day to sit in the House of Commons and to be what they are Sure I am the Spirit of God saith That he that rewardeth evill for good evill shall not depart feom his House Prov. 17.13 And yet for any thing I can perceive the best reward is intended these men from those they have done so much for is ruine and destruction that so that Antichristian office and function of Priesthood newly transformed into a pretended godly and reformed Presbyter may againe be established although by the second Article of the Covenant now more magnified by the sonnes of darknesse and blindnesse then the book of God they have expresly sworn to root up that Function by the root The words of the Covenunt are That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endevour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-government by Arch Bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiasticall officers depending on that Hierarchy superstition beresie schisme prophanenesse c. Mark the sentence And all other Ecclesiasticall Officers depending on that Hierarchy In the number of which are those pretended reformed Presbyter-Ministers that either sit in the Assembly or are in any other place in the Kingdome that officiate by vertue of their Ordination which they had from the Bishops or any by vertue of their Authority And I will maintaine it with my life that he is a for sworn man whether he bee Parliament-man or other that hath token the Covenant and doth contribute any of his assistance to maintaine preserve and uphold that Ordination of the Presbyterian Ministers that they recerved from the Bishops or punish any man for writing preaching or speaking against it or any other wayes endevouring the distruction or extirpation thereof For the expresse words of the Covenant are that we must endevour the extirpation of all Officers without exception depending on that Hierarchy part of which all the fore-mentioned Ministers are being ordained Priests and Deacons by the Bishops and have no other Ordination to this very day but what they had from them But if they shall say they were ordained by them not as Bishops but as Presbyters I answer This is a simple foppish distinction For as well may the Bishops say They were not ordained by the Pope or his Bishops quatenus Pope or Bishops but quatenus Presbyter or Presbyters and so are in every particular as lawfull Minister as any of these men that have their ordination from them and yet have endevoured to draw the whole Kingdome into a Covenant sinfully to extirpate them that are Christs Ministers upon their owne Principles as really truly and formally as any of themselves But in the second place if they were ordained Presbyters by the Bishops not as Bishops but as Presbyters then are these present reformed Ministers lesse then Presbyters For the Author to the Hebrewes chap. 7. v. 7. saith without all contradiction the lesse is blessed of the better or greater And I desire the learned Presbyters to shew me one example in all the New Testament that ever any Officer ordained another Officer in the same Office and Function that he himselfe was in Thirdly I desire to know of these reformed Presbyterian Ministers that seeing as they themselves confesse the Bishops Office and function was and is AntiChristian how is it possible their Ministeriall Function or Ordination can be Christian that like a streame flowed from them the fountaine Sure I am Iob demands this question Who can bring a cleane thing out of an unclean And by the Spirit of God he answers Not one Iob 14 4. And Iames interrogates saying Doth a fountaine send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter Or can the Fig tree my brethren beare Olive-berries either a Vane Figges Therefore in a positive negation he concludes that no fountaine can both yeeld salt water and fresh Iames 4.11.12 And therefore seeing THOMAS THE GANGRAENA the Râ—abshaksh Champion of the new sprung-up Sect in England of Presbyters who may more truly and properly be called Schismatickes then of those he so brands for they have separated from their Ghostly Fathers the Bishops and yet are glad to hold their ordinatien and are therefore schismaticall And therefore seeing in his last
whole Parliament no nor the whole House of Commons it selfe according to their own principles which is the only clause he can fix upon And good Mr. Gangrena is it not as just and as man-like in me if I be set upon by you when I have no better weapons to cudgell you with then your own to take them from you and knockt your pate as to make use of my owne propper weapons to cut you soundly or any other man that shall assault me to the hazzard of my being and this is just my case that you count such a disgrace untome But say you there I have owned their legislative power and their judicative power over commons Therefore you draw an inference to condemn me from mine own practice Alas man may not I Lawfully seeke or receive a good turn from the hands of any man yet as lawfully doe my best to refuse a mischief from him But secondly I answer what though the 4. of May. 1641. I stooped to arryall at the Lords Barre upon an impeachment against me by the King doth that ever the more justifie their Authority or declare me to be mutable and unstable no not in the least for you cannot but know the saying of that most excellent Apostle Paul 1 Co. 13 11 ' When J was a child J spake as a child I under stood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childesh things So say I to you five or six yeares ago I knew nothing but the Lords Jurisdiction was as much more above the House of commons over Commons as their Robes and Grandeur in which they sat was above them especially seeing at all conferences betwix both Houses I sec the members of the house of commons stand bare before the Lords for which action I now see no ground for especially having of late read so many bookes which discourseth upon the Lords jurisdiction which was upon this ground about a moneth or six weeks before the Lords cast me in prison A Gentleman a Member of the house of Commons and one that I believe which wisheth me well bid me look to my selfe for to his knowledg there was a designe amongst some of the Lords the grounds of reasons of which he then told me to clap me by the heeles and to fall so heavie upon me as to crush me in pieces or else make me at least an example to terrisie others that they should not dare to stand for their Rights And being thus fore-warned I was halfe a med which made me discours upon every opportunity with any that I though knew any thing of the Lords Jurisdiction and I found by a generall concurence that the 29. Ch. of Magna Charta was expresly against the Lords jurisdiction over Commoners in all criminall cases And upon that ground I protested against them and then upon further inquiry I found Sir Edward Cooks Judgement expresly against them as is before recited which book Mr Gangraena I must tell you is published since my first tryall before the Lords and was not publikely in being when I then stooped unto their jurisdiction and then comming prisoner to the Tower one of my fellow-prisones very honestly told me of the fore-mentioned Record of Sir Simon de Bereford which presently with all speed under Mr. Collets hand I got out of the Records office All which just and legall authorities and testimonies makes me so stiffe against the Lords as I am and I hope I shall continue to the death against them in the thing in question betwixt us as unmoveable as a brazen Wall come hanging come burning or cutting in pieces or starving or the worst that all their malice and ulcerous Gangraena Priests put together can inflict for all that I principally care for is to see if the thing I engage in be just and if my conscience upon solid and mature deliberation tell me it is I will not by the strength of God if once I be engaged in it either goe through with it or dye in them dest of it though there be not one man in the world absolutely of my mind to back me in it But lastly admit in former times I had been as absolute a Pleader for the Lords jurisdiction over Commoners as now I am against them Yet truly a man of Mr. Gangraenes coat is the unfittest man in the Kingdome to reprove mee for it For his Tribe I meane of Priests and Deacons those littie toes of Antichrist now called reformed Presbyters are such a Weather-cock unstabled generation of wavering minded men as the like are not in the whole Kingdom For their predecessors in Henry the 8. dayes were first for the Pope al bis Drudgeries and then for the King and his new Religion and then 3. in his time returned to their vomit againe and then fourthly in Edward the 6. dayes became by his proclamation godly reformed Protestants and then 5. in Queen Maries dayes by the authority of her and her Parliament which Parliament I doe aver it and will maintaine had as true a ground to set up compulsive Popery as this present Parliament hath to set up compulsive Presbytery became for the generality of them bloody and persecuting Papists and then 6. by the authority of Queen Elizabeth and her Parliament who had no power at all no more then this present Parliament to wrest the Scepter of Christ out of his hands and usurpedly to assume the Legislative power of Christ to make Lawes to governe the Consciences of his people which they have nothing at all to doe with He having made perfect compleat and unchangeable Lawes himselfe Esay 9.6.7 and 33.20 22. Act 1.3 and 3.22 23. and 20.26 27. 1 Cor. 11.1.2.1 Tim. 6.13.18 Heb. 3.2 3 6. became againe a Generation of pure and reformed Protestants and have so continued to this present Parliament But now like a company of notorious forsworne men who will be of any Religion in the world so it carry along with it profit and power after they have for the generallity of them taken and sworn six or seven Oaths that the Bishops were the only true Church-government and that they would be true to them to the death Yet have now turned the 7. time and engaged the Parliament and Kingdome in an impossible-to-be-kept oath and Covenant to root up their ghostly Fathers the Bishops as Antichristian from whom as Ministers they received their life and Being Yea and now the 8th time have turned and falne from that Covenant and Oath by which they mode all swear that took it not onely to root out Bisheps but all Officers whatsoever that dependeth upon them In the number of which are all the mâ—…lves having no other ordination to their Ministery but what they had from them and so are properly really and truly dependents upon them and yet now of late have by themselves and instruments as it were forced the House of Commons to passe a vote to declare
my publique Contest with the Bishops hath enabled me to carry my life in my hands and to have it alwaies in a readienesse to lay it downe in a quarter of an hours warning knowing that he hath in store for me a mansion of eternall glory All these things considered I am now determined by the strenght of God if I speedily have not that Justice which the Law of England affords me which is all I crave or stand in need of no longer to waît upon the destructive seasons of prudentiall men but forthwith to make a for mall Appeale to all the Commons of the Kingdome of England and Dominion of Wales and set my credit upon the tenters to get money to print 20000. of them and send them gratis to all the Counties thereof the ingredients of which shall be filled with the Parliaments owne Declarations and Arguments against the King turned upon themselves and their present practise and with a little narrative of my Star-chamber tyrannicall sufferings and those I have there to complain of are first Dr. Lamb Guin and Aliot for committing me And 2. Lord Keeper Coventry Lord Privie Seal Manchester that corruptest of men whose unworthy Son is now hath been for some yeares the chiefe Prosecut or of my ruine for no other cause but that I have been honest valiant and faithfull in discharging the trust reposed in me which he himselfe was not my Lord Newburgh old Sir Henry Vane a man as full of guilt as any is in England whose basenesse and unworthinesse I shall anotamize to the purpose the Lord chiefe Iustice Bramstone and Judge Jones who sentenced me to the Pillory and to be whipt c. And then 3. Canterbury Coventry Manchester Bish of London E. of Arundel E. of Salithury L Cottington L. Newbnrgh Secretary Cook and Windebank who sentenced me to lye in irons and to be starved in the prison of the Fleet With a short Narrative of my usage by Lords and Commons this present Parliament and conclude with a Declaration of what is the end wherefore Parliaments by law ought and should be called which is to redresse mischiefes and grievances c. but not to increase them 4. E. 3.14 36. E. 3.10 to provide for the peoples weal but not for their woe Book Declar. 1. part pag. 150. and yet notwith standing all the trust reposed in them and all the Protestations they have in publique Declarations made faithfully without any private aimes or ends of their owne to discharge it And notwithstanding all the bloud and money that hath been shed and spent at their beck and and commands I would faine have any of them to instance me any one Act or Ordinance since the wars begun that they have done or made that is for the universall good of the Commons of England who have born the bu then of the day Sure I am they have made severall Ordinances to establish Monopolies against the Fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome and thereby have robbed free men of their trades and livell hoods that at their command have been abroad a fighting for maintaining the Law and in practise annihilated Magna Charta and the Petition of Right So that a man though of their own Party may suffer much if commited by a Parliament-man or Parliament men before he can get the Iudges to grant an Habeas Corpus to bring him and his cause up to their Bar there to receive a tryall secùndum legem terrae that is according to the Law of the Land although the Iudges be sworn by their oathes to doe it So Sir desiring you seriously to consider of the premises which I could not conveniently send you but in print I rest From my illegall and chargeable captivity in Cole-harbour in the Tower of London this 30. Ian. 1646. Your abused Prisoner who is resolved to turne all the stones in England that lye in his way but he will have right and iustice against you Iohn Lilburne semper idem FJNJS