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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88212	The legall fundamentall liberties of the people of England revived, asserted, and vindicated. Or, an epistle written the eighth day of June 1649, by Lieut. Colonel John Lilburn (arbitrary and aristocratical prisoner in the Tower of London) to Mr. William Lenthall Speaker to the remainder of those few knights, citizens, and burgesses that Col. Thomas Pride at his late purge thought convenient to leave sitting at Westminster ... who ... pretendedly stile themselves ... the Parliament of England, intrusted and authorised by the consent of all the people thereof, whose representatives by election ... they are; although they are never able to produce one bit of a law, or any piece of a commission to prove, that all the people of England, ... authorised Thomas Pride, ... to chuse them a Parliament, as indeed he hath de facto done by this pretended mock-Parliament: and therefore it cannot properly be called the nations or peoples Parliament, but Col. Pride's and his associates, whose really it is; who, although they have beheaded the King for a tyrant, yet walk in his oppressingest steps, if not worse and higher.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.; Lenthall, William, 1591-1662.	1649 (1649)	Wing L2131; Thomason E560_14; ESTC P1297; ESTC R204531	104,077	84

The Legall Fundamentall LIBERTIES OF THE PEOPLE of ENGLAND Revived Asserted and Vindicated OR An EPISTLE written the eighth day of June 1649 by Lieut. Colonel JOHN LILBVRN Arbitrary and Aristocratical prisoner in the Tower of London to Mr. William Lenthall Speaker to the remainder of those few Knights Citizens and Burgesses that Col. Thomas Pride at his late purge thought convenient to leave sitting at Westminster as most fit for his and his Masters designes to serve their ambitious and tyrannical ends to destroy the good old Laws Liberties and Customs of England the badges of our freedom as the Declaration against the King of the 7 of March 1648 pag. 23. calls them and by force of arms to rob the people of their lives estates and properties and subject them to perfect vassalage and slavery as he cleerly evinceth in his present Case c. they have done who and in truth no otherwise pretendedly stile themselves the Conservators of the peace of England or the Parliament of England intrusted and authorised by the consent of all the people thereof whose Representatives by election in their Declaration last mentioned pag. 27. they say they are although they are never able to produce one bit of a Law or any piece of a Commission to prove that all the people of England or one quarter tenth hundred or thousand part of them authorised Thomas Pride with his Regiment of Souldiers to chuse them a Parliament as indeed he hath de facto done by this pretended mock-Parliament And therefore it cannot properly be called the Nations or Peoples Parliament but Col. Pride's and his associates whose really it is who although they have beheaded the King for a Tyrant yet walk in his oppressingest steps if not worse and higher JOHN 7. 51. Doth our Law judge any men before it hear him and know what he doth ACTS 24. 23. And he commanded a Centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him although in ver 5. he was accused for a most pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition throughout all the world ACTS 25. 27. For it seemeth to me unreasonable saith the heathen Judge to send a prisoner and not withall to signifie the crimes laid against him ACTS 28. 30. And Paul IN HIS IMPRISONMENT AT ROME UNDER THE HEATHEN PERSECUTORS dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him LONDON Printed in the grand yeer of hypocriticall and abominable dissimulation 1649. SIR FOr distinction● sake I will 〈◊〉 stile you Mr. SPEAKER although it be but to Col. Pride's 〈…〉 Parliament sitting at Westminster not the Nation 's for they never gave him Authority to issue out Writs elect or constitute a Parliament for them and you being their mouth I could not think of any man to whom I could better direct my Lines at 〈…〉 in my gr●●t Oppressions by You and your Lord and Master CROMVVEL then your self And therefore cannot now chuse but put you in minde That the 4th April 1648. when I was like unjustly to be destroyed by Mr. Oliver Cromwell in my late unjust and tyrannicall Imprisonment in the Tower I writ you a large Epistle and stiled it in print The prisoners Plea for a Habeas corpus in the 9 10 11 12 13 pages of which I positively accuse Mr. Oliver Cromwell for a wilfull murderer and desire you there to acquaint your House therewith who then had some little face of a Parliament stamp upon it and That I would engage upon my life to prove him to be so by Law You your selves in your Declaration of the 4th March 1647. in answer to the Scotch-Commissioners Papers Declare p. 5. 16. that the subduing the enemies forces in the Nation which then were as you there say wholly subdued suppressed though the Parliament keep up an Army in a time of peace when all the ordinary Courts of Justice were open where only and alone all Law and Justice ought to be dispensed to all Englishmen in all cases whatsoever yea even to Soldiers as well as others as in the aforesaid pages and in Mr. Overtons and My printed Epistle to the Generall in Mr. Lockiers behalf of the 27 April 1649. is by Law undeniably proved which Epistle you may read at the last end of the second Edition of my Pictur● of the 〈◊〉 to of State And yet about or upon the 15 Nov. 1647. your W●re in Hertford-shire He 〈◊〉 wilfully and of●et-malice murdered Rich. Arnell a freeborn Englishman and so shed the bloud of War in the time of Peace which was Joabs case in reference to Abner and Amasa 2 Sam. 3. 27. and 20. 10. of whom when David delivered his charge to his son Salomon he saith thus Moreover thou knewest also what Joab the son of Zervich did to me and what he did to the two Captains of the best of Israel 〈◊〉 Abner the son of Ner and unto Amasa the son of Jother whom he slew and shed the blood of war in peace and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins and in his sho●s that were on his feet Doe therefore saith he recording to thy wisdom and he not his bo●ry head get down to the grave in peace 1 Kings 2. 5 6. which charge he accordingly performed and so delivered himself and his Fathers house from the guilt of innocent blood ver 29 30 31 32 33. And you may also remember that upon the 19 of Jan. 1647 at your Barr I openly delivered a formal charge or impeachment of high Treason according to your own Ordinances against the foresaid Mr. Oliver Cromwell and his subtil machevilian son-in-Law Mr. Henry Iveton for their notorious doing that in reference to the King for but the petty acting of which in comparison to theirs they impeached Mr. Denzill Hollis Sir Philip Stapleton c. of high Treason as appeareth in their own Book of Declarations pag. 81 82. Article 2 3. and forcibly expunged them your House as Traytors therefore And in the foresaid pages of my plea for a Habeas Corp●●● I truly acquaint you with the plot and design Master Cromwell laid to take away my life for but a little opposition to the King whose professed and avowed 〈◊〉 he and his The PLEA it self thus followeth May it please this Honourable Committee I Was commanded by you upon Tuesday the 13 day of this present June 1648 to bring in an Answer this day to the Petition and complaint of Henry Wollastone Kepeer of the prison of Newgate in which Petition he complains that I have brought an action at the common Law against him for detaining me in safe custody according to his duty by vertue of a Warrant from the House of Lords and therefore prayes indemnity for his acting therein in obedience to the Authority of Parliament and his trebble damages and that at common Law there may be no further

Kingdom into the originall law of Nature and leave every man to judge within his own brest what is just and righteous and thereby 〈◊〉 me whether I will or no to do that in reference to you which you in your great straits did in reference to the King viz. Appeal to the righ●●● Judge of all the would and the judgment of the people to decide the controversie betwixt you as appears in your own Declarations 1. part Book Doc. p. 192 196 214. 263. 278. 464 491 495. 496 498. 629. 636. 666. 690. 639. 701. 908. and if I perish I perish For what greater tyranny can there be in the world ●● what greater straits can a man be put to then to delayed justice which is worse than to be denyed for above seven yeers together by those that have raised a bloudy war and pretended for justice and then after I have spent above 1000 li. in endeavouring to obtain Justice and my own at your 〈◊〉 and after I have served you faithfully and adventured my life in the field for you and undergone multitudes of other hardships and hazzards at 〈◊〉 for you and carried my self in all my actions towards you unspotted and that upon you own declared principles and after all this to be toss'd and tumbled by you from Gaol to Gaol year after year for nothing but my honesty and can come to no legall tryall although I have endeavoured it with all my might and to have by you thousands of pounds of my own kept from me and not a penny in all my captivitie allowed me to live upon but in the eye of reason exposed to famish and sterve or to eat my Wife and Children O monstrous and unnaturall cruelty which I will maintain upon my life it not to be parallell'd in all Queen Marie's dayes nor in the worst of King Charles his Reign So my Lord I have done with my PLEA and take leave to remain a true hearted Englishman JOHN LILBURN NOw Master Speaker having finished my Plea to the Committee of Indemnity I must acquaint you that I brought it to the said Committee with whom I had some verball expostulations after which I began to open my Plea having it fair writ in my hand which the Committee no sooner saw but presently they left me according to my desire to the ordinary course of the Law where I was necessitated at present to cease prosecution of Woll●ston because I was continually in expectation of my Liberty from the Lords and therefore judged it but wisdom in me not to provoke them and also for perfecting of my Ordinance for my long sought dear bought and hard suffered for reparatious from old Sir H. Vane and the rest of my cruel Star-Chamber Judges which Ordinance with much adoe was as last concluded though to little purpose as before truly is noted in p. 15 16. And for my Liberty I was chiefly beholding for that to my friends in London who in seven dayes got eight or nine thousand hands to a Petition for me in the day of your straits by the Cavaleers and presented it to your House which my true friend and faithfull and couragious fellow sufferer Sir Iohn Maynard took the advantage of and improved the utmost of his interest and thereby became principally instrumentall both in your House and in the House of Lords for my Liberty then unto whom I must and do returne the chiefest thanks for it But now Sir seeing my life for nothing but my honesty and because I will not be a slave to mens lusts is so strongly sought for to be taken away by those that have made the largest pretences and promises that can be made in the world to deliver this Nation from thraldom bondage vassallage and slavery and seeing they are such painted Sepulchers that they are like to cozen all the honest men in England with religious cheaters such as Master Edmond Rozer with whom as teacher to the Congregation where I was a Member I walked many yeares in fellowship and Master William Kiffin who was once my servant and unto both whom the indearedest of my affections run out unto to either of which I never gave a provocation to nor wronged in all my dayes to my knowledge neither of which although the first of them and I have been familiar together for almost twenty years I am confident of it in reference to my actings to the sons of men are able to my face to say black is my eye yet for these men so high and mighty in their pretence of religion and in their former familiarity and friendship to me to persecute me bitterly and write reproachfull books c against me and in the day of my calamity when the great men of the Nation make deep furrows upon my back for nothing when I am as it were in the Kennell and my hands and feet tied then to beat buffe● wound me and pursue my very life O the height not only of unchristianity but even of unmanhood it selfe such actions differing nothing in beastlinesse and brutishnesse from the brutest of Beasts themselves if it had been enemies as David did in the like case Ps 55. 12 13 14. that had done it I could have born it but for my familiar bosome indeared friends to deal thus with me and that in the day of my adversity when my life is hunted for like a Partridge upon the mountains in this they are more unnaturall then the very Pagans and heathens themselves for saith Isaiah cha 21. 14. The Inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty they prevented with their bread him that fled and for their mal●ing a frothy light giddy headed fellow of me in their late book called Walwyns wyles easily deluded and drawn aside being of no depth in my self I am confident there is no two men in England that know me whose consciences are more perswaded of the falsity of that their own assertion in every particular then M. Rozer and Master Kiffin are if they would speak the truth from their very hearts the whole stream of my actions extraordinarily well known to both of them for these twelve or thirteen years together being as a large demonstration that I understand the things I goe about and am not to be biased with favour flattery frowns nor hard usage but act singly and nakedly upon my own principles that I beleeve God distills into my soul I beleeve as the actions of any man upon the face of the earth are having never forsaken nor changed my principles from better to worse the space of one hour from the day 〈…〉 fatherly discovering and distinct and assured making known of his turnall everlasting and unchangable loving kindnesse in the Lord Jesus unto my soul to this day although I am confident it is now above 13 years since I know God at my 〈◊〉 and reconciled father that had particularly wasted and clensed my soul with the 〈◊〉 bloud of Jesus Christ and

with in London who chose Colonel Tichburn Colonel Iohn White Master Daniel Taylor and Master Price the Scrivener And for our party there was by unanimous consent of the Agents from our friends in and about London at a every large meeting chosen Master William Walwyn Master Maximilian Pe●●y Master Iohn Wildman and my Self and for the honest men of the Parliament as they were called they had severall meetings at the Bell in Kings-street and at Summerset-house where as I was informed they chose Colonel Hen●y Martyn Colonel Alexander Rig●y Master Thomas Challi●● and Master Sc●t with one or two more to supply the places of those of them that should be absent at any time about their occasio●s so when we cam● to Winsor the Army men had chosen Commissary Generall Iret●● Sir William Constable and as I remember Colonel Tomlinso● Colonel Baxster Lieutenant Colonel Kelsey and Captain Par●●● 〈◊〉 two of the which last 4 should alwayes make up the number so we had a ●●ting in their Councel-Chamber at the Castle where we were all of all 〈◊〉 present but only the Parliament men for whom only Colonel M●●●●● app●●ed and after a large discourse about the foundations of our agreement we departed to our Lodging where Colonel Martyn and we four nic●-named Lovellers lockt our selves up and went in good earnest to the consideration of of our Agreement but much was not done in it there because of their ha●●●●● London to force and breake up the Parliament which Journy at all was very much opposed by M. Wa●wyn and many reasons he gave against their 〈◊〉 ●● London at all the absolute desolution of which their friends in the 〈◊〉 would no ways admit of although Ireton Harison c. commonly stiled it 〈◊〉 a Parliament that had forfeited its trust a mock Parliament and that if they did not totally dissolve it but purge it it would be but a mock Parliament and ● mockpower however for where have we say they either law warrant or 〈…〉 purge it or c●n any thing justifie us in the doing it but the height of 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 the Kingdom from a new war that they with the conjunction with the 〈◊〉 will presently vote and declare for and to procure a new and free representative 〈…〉 successive and frequent free Representatives which this present Parliament 〈◊〉 never suffer and without which the freedoms of the Nation are l●st 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 doing of which can only justifie before God and man ou● pres●●● 〈◊〉 formr extraordinary actings with and against legall Authority and so all our fighting fruitlesse and this was their open and common discourse 〈◊〉 more of the like nature and to those that objected against their totall ●●●●●ving or breaking the House and the illegalitie of their intended and 〈◊〉 trying of the King which also was opposed by us till a new and unquesti●●●ble Representative was sitting as I am able sufficiently by pluralitie of ●●nesses to prove and justifie yea when they were come to London 〈◊〉 c. and some Members of the House in a Chamber neer the long Gallery i● VVhite-hall had a large conference where and to whom he stifly 〈◊〉 the same to their faces calling this Purg'd Parliament a mocks power and 〈◊〉 Parliament which Members I beleeve if there were a necessiry of it I could produce to justifie it for I am sure one of them told me the substance of all the discourse immediatly after it happened So that if it be treason to 〈…〉 a Pretended Parliament a mockpower a mock Parliament yea and to say in 〈◊〉 English that it is no Parliament at all then they themselves are the pr●●● the 〈◊〉 and originall trayto●● and if this be true as true it is then there 〈…〉 Legall Judges nor Justices of Peace in England and if so then all those 〈…〉 executed at Tiburne c. by their sentences of condemnations given against them ●● meerly marthered and the Judges or Justices that condemned the● 〈◊〉 liable in 〈◊〉 〈…〉 and that justly therefore for acting without a just and ●●gall ●●●mission either from true Regall or true Parliamentary power see for this purpose the notable arguments in the 13 14 but especially 15 page of the second Edition of my late picture of the Councell of State But to 〈◊〉 to our acting to compleat the Agreement all parties chosen of all sides ●●●stantly mett at White-hall after the Army came to town saving the Parliament men failed only Master Mortin was most commonly there and a long and ●●dious ●ug we had with Commissary Generall 〈◊〉 only yea 〈◊〉 whole nights together Principally about Liberty of C●●sci●●●● and 〈◊〉 Parliaments punishing where no law provides and very angry and Lordly in his debates many times he was but to some kind of an expedient in the first for peace sake we condescended in to please him and so came amongst the major part of the 16 Commissioners according to our originall Agreement to an absolute and finall conclusion and thinking all had been done as to any more debate upon it and that it should without any more ●doe be promoted for subscriptions first at the Councell of Warre and so in the Regiments and so all over the Nation but alas poor fools we were meerly cheated and cozened it being the principall unhappinesse of some of us as to the flesh to have our eyes wide open to see things long before most honest men come to have their eyes open and this is that which turns to our smart and reproach and that which we Commissioners feared at the first viz. that no tye promises not ingagements were strong enough to the grand Juglers and Leaders of the Army was now made cleerly manifest for when it came to the Councel there came the Generall Crumwell and the whole gang of creature Colonels and other Officers and spent many dayes in taking it all in pieces and there Ireton himself shewed himself an absolute King if not an Emperor against whose will no man must dispute and then ●●ittlecock 〈◊〉 their Scout Okey and Major Barton where Sir Hardres●e VVa●●er sate President begun in their open Councell to quarrell with us by giving some of us base and unworthy language which procured them from me a sharpe retortment of their own basenesse and unworthinesse into their teeth and a CHALLENG from my selfe into the field besides seeing they were like to fight with us in the room in their own Garison which when Sir Hardresse in my eare reproved me for it I justified it and gave it him again for suffering us to be so affronted And within a little time after I took my leave of them for a pack of dissembling juggling Knaves amongst whom in consultation ever thereafter I should scorn to come as I told some of them for there was neither saith truth nor common honesty amongst ●hem and so away I went to those that chose and trusted me and gave publikely and effectually at a set meeting appointed on purpose to

spoyling or breaking of vessels falling of the price of sope or none vending of it besides many other ac●identall casualties yet out of the very s●et of his brows and the industry and labour of the very fingers ends there must Excise be paid of so much a Barrell and that which is worst of all is this my House which used to be my Castle and so it is by Law night or day must be at the Knave Excise mans pleasure to search and break open for unsealed soape when he pleaseth nay notwithstanding all this I must be had to take my oath after they will not trust me but have searched what they can at the Excis● Office that I have made no more but so and so and it may be I judge such an Oath altogether unlawfull and therefore cannot take it and therefore to prison without any more adoe I goe and must be fined at the will of the chief Excisers and pay a noble a day to the Serjeant at Armes besides his mans fees and if I do take my oath can forswear my self I hazard the Pillory for perjury besides the wounding of my conscience but if I be consciencious that I cannot set my conscience upon the tenter-hooks by forswearing of my self then I am destroyed in my trade by others that will undersell me by this stealing Excise and swearing soundly to the contrary too judging i● with Cromwell as Major Huntington in his impeachment of him declares no sinne in may be to deceive the de●●iver or oppress●●y and all this lyes upon us in the first year of Englands Freedom by the Conservators of the Liberties thereof who yet ●ealously and for the peoples welfare chopt of the Kings head for tyranny oppression although his ●oynes were never so heavy as their little finger is O brave unerring unsinning and everlasting none such Parliamen And therefore last of all I had thoughts towards Winter to buy of my Unkle at S●●derland to lay up some coals at my habitation in Winchester-house to fell in January and February and in the mea●●ime to lay out my mony in some adventure for Holland and there I met with these difficulties First although I was as wary as any man in England could be to see that Master Devenish title to the house was good in Law and so I might justly and quietly expect the injoyment of my bargaine from him And thereby I see First his deeds and the Parliaments Ordinances thereupon and Secondly I went and spoke with Master Iohn Cook the Lawyer who drew up the conveyances betwixt Master Devenish and Master Young of whom Master Devenish for his life bought all Winchester House in Southwa●k by all which but especially from M●ster Cooks owne mouth I cleerly and evidently found Master Levenish had as good a right in all Winchester house for Master Youngs life both by Law and Ordinance as its possible for any man in England to have to the cloaths he wears or any thing else that he possesseth although he takes the advice of twenty Lawyers in the buying and purchasing of them which incouraged me to strike a bargaine with him for three years for as much of the House as I am to pay annually almost 20l. and yet since a Committee of Members with the Trustees of Bishops Lands will needs turne me and the honest man by force of Armes out of his Legall possession without any valuable consideration or rendring at the least any reason wherefore but only their Soveraigne wills and pleasures O BRAVE PARLIAMENT JUSTICE without all doubt this is the liberty of the people and the Law of the Land that we have been contesting and fighting for these seven yeers together or at least as much as they intend now they have conquered us with our own mony and our own hands we shall possesse and enjoy this unrighteous molestation which with their illegall imprisoning of me hath spoyled a coal-Merchant of me for the present And in the second place as my adventuring to Holland when I came to inquire after the nature of that I found these difficulties therin First A strict Mon●poly that none whatsoever shall ship any white cloth for that place but the Monopolisers themselves and Secondly a general monopoly upon woollen commodities whatsoever that unlesse you do as good as tell a lye I found merchants still continued to be the chief customers who it ●seems have a trick to steal whole ship loads of custome for their own use by mean● of which they undersell any other merchant yea and thereby break the backs of new beginners for being at my first inquiring thereinto with Master William Kiffin my quondam servant though now my prof●st and blood thirsty enemy he told me a little before he was one day at the Custome-house and the chief men there had catcht a poor man that had stolne some custome for which they were about fining and punishing him why Master faith he to one of them in Kiffins hearing as he averred to me will you be so angry with me and so harsh to punish me for a small ●oy when I am but your own scholler for I am sure it s but the other day fin●e by your own directions I help● you to steal in a manner a whole ship load of uncustomed good● and you being so well pleased with that my thinks you should not be so angry with me for stealing a little custome for my self But then Fourthly The Prince was Master of the Sea then so that I durst not venture it in a English bottom some of which had laid in the Thames divers weeks loaded and du●st not stirre out for want of convoy which they had fought much for then to the Parliament but could get none and to ship it in a Dutbh bottom it did not only give the traid of shipping to the Dutch and so destaoy our English Ma●iners but also by law to ship it in Du●th bottom it is consiscated or at least must pay the custome of Aliens or strangers as appeares by the statutes of 5 R 2. ch 3 6 K 2 cha 8. 4 H. 7 ●b 10. 5. 6. E. 6 cha 18. 1 H. 13. But having bought some cloth and stuffs I was necessitated to run the hazard of ●hipping them in Dutch bottom but English woollen commoditie being so great a drug in Holland as they are by reafon of the merchant monopolisers alias mercha●t adventurers that ingrosse the trade to themselves and buy their cloth here at what rates they please and sell it in Holland as dear a list and so care not how little they vend so they get mony enough by that they sell and disable all others from trayding by meanes of which the poor people here that depend upon cloth-making wanting work are necessitated to leave the land of their nativity and goe to Holland to make cloth for the dutchmen to get bread to keep them alive whereby they have almost got the English cloth making traid

had cansed the grace of God to appear in my soul to 〈◊〉 me as a reciprecall duty spread abroad in my heart by the overflowings of the fountaine of love within me to abstaine from all ungodlinesse and worldly best and to live soberly and righteously in this present evill world doing good to all his especially to the houshold of Faith Ingraving with his Spirit upon my heart as with a point of a Diamond those Divine Laws viz. to doe to all men as I would they should do to me and in all the carriages of my life to be watchfull over my actings and not to be evill that good may come of it and thirdly that seeing that I am bought with a pri●● by Redemption that therefore I should not be the servant of men to serve their best and wills but entirely and solely the servant of God to glorifie him with my body in rightous and just actions amongst the sons of men as well as in my soul in speculation imgra●tion or adoration and so at present I leave them to the reflections of their own consciences if the vanity of the world and the fadeing promotions thereof hath not eat out the life and sensible part of them into whose secrets 〈◊〉 let not my soul O Lord enter into But as for the rest of their subscribing Comrades being in all six or seven I know not some of them only 〈◊〉 Price and Richard Arnold I know to be men fitly to deserve the name of 〈◊〉 Baristors or known Eves-dropers so detestable and abominable therefore to all truly really honest unbialed men that know them that a man shal but defile himselfe to touch them with a paire of tongs deserving no other answer from me for their indefatigable and restlesse pains to bespatter and destroy me but either the highest of scorn or a good cudgell in due time and so at pres●●● I leave them to the serious perusal of their own ugly forms and shapes lively pictured out in that most excellent and masculine Anatomy of them by Doct. Brooks in his Law Book entituled the Charity of Churchmen or a Vindication of my most choice and honest Comrade and Fellow-sufferer Master William Walwyn But in regard my grand adversaries and their little Boagles in London doe continually report me to be a man of contention and one that is never 〈◊〉 from broyls nor never content with any Government but full of self ●●●ceitedness malice and revenge it will be very necessary for me to return a● effectuall answer to this before I come to the main thing I intend And therefore in the first place When I was a childe as Paul saith I thought as a childe I did as a childe but after I came to have any discretion well ngh twenty years agoe my Father brought me to London and bound me Apprendes to Mr. Thomas Hewson near London-stone whom I served as faithfully about six years as every Apprentice served a Master And though he had no more but my self and had many thousands of Pounds went through my hands driving a large Whole-sale trade yet directly nor indirectly I cannot remember that ever I wronged him of a Groat or the value of it or that ever all the 〈◊〉 I was with him I was ever branded or taxed with one bafe visible action or that I either gave or took a box on the eare or any thing like it or ever quarrelled with any Flesh alive all the time I was there although I had then as much mettle life and spirit as most young men in London had only I must confess my old Master offered me sometimes some abuse for which I carryed him before the Chamberlain of London and ever after lived in peace with him And after that in all the dayes of my calamity by the Bishops had the truest and cordiallest friend of him that ever servant had of a Master in the day of his tryall And though in his service keeping only a Ware-house severall days in the week I had spare time enough yet I never misspent it but continually spent it in reading the Bible the Book of Martyrs Luthers Calvins Bezaes Cartwrights Perkins Molins Burtons and Rogers Works with multitude of other such like Books that I had bought with my own money till the foresaid Mr. Edmond Rozer my familiar friend and neighbour and fellow-professor of Religion conversant at my Masters house from the beginning of my coming to him brought me in anno 1636. acquainted with Dr. Bastwick then prisoner in the Gatehouse whom after I visited constantly and for whose service I could have laid down my life and for my true affection to him I was forced by the Bishops and their Catchpoles to fly into the Low-Countreys for refuge just about the time of his Banishment where I was divers months and where the Kings Ambassador Sir VVilliam Boswell laid for me as I was informed severall designes to put me a Ship board and send me over to England to the Bishops here for my visible activity there against them which forced me continually to wear my sword about me yet in all my time there I never gave nor took a box on the eare nor had so much as a single quarrell and at my coming to England I was in danger enough and therefore went like a swaggerer disguised and yet was betrayed by my pretended bosome friend John Chilliburn servant to old Mr. VVharton in Bow-lane and so fell into the devouring clutches of the High-Commission Councell-board and the Star-Chamber all three of which had a sting at me But in all my troubles and tryals by them for divers years together I never saw or heard of any other prosecutor but only two most desperate forsworn false Oaths of my then familiar acquaintance Edmond Chillington then Button seller in Cannonstreet and now a forsworn lieutenant in Colonell Whaleys Regiment of Horse which false Oaths he was hired unto by the Bishops and their Chaplins Mr. Baker c. and by means of which he got his own Liberty and this he did for my curtesie and kindnesse to him in his then captivity c. owing me at this day I am confident of it upon that account well nigh 30 pounds by meanes of which Oathes I had above 500 stripes with knotted cords given me by the bloody decree ofold Sir Henry Vane c. and endured a world of other unheard of miseries and barbarous cruelties for three yeers together and at my deliverance by the Parliament I could have had his eares for perjury as easily as to have kissed my hand if I had been revengefull but so far was I from that that I never questioned him for it but contrarily I requited him good for evill when he was prisoner in Oxford Castle with me and ready to starve being destitute both of money and friends there and to save him alive I readily lent him both gold and silver as he very well knowes by the same token I was without my money