Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	justice_n	peace_n	session_n	3,467	5	11.0717	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88241	Rash oaths unwarrantable: and the breaking of them as inexcusable. Or, A discourse, shewing, that the two Houses of Parliament had little ground to make those oaths they have made, or lesse ground to take, or presse the taking of them, being it is easie to be apprehended, they never intended to keep them, but onely made them for snares, and cloaks for knavery, as it is clearly evinced by their constant arbitrary and tyranicall practices, no justice nor right being to be found amongst them; by meanes of which they have declaratorily, and visibly lost the very soule and essence of true magistracy, (which is, the doing of justice, judgement, equity ... In which is also a true and just declaration of the unspeakable evill of the delay of justice, and the extraordinary sufferings of Lievtenant Colonell John Lilburne, very much occasioned by M. Henry Martins unfriendly and unjust dealing with him, in not making his report to the House. All which with divers other things of very high concernment, are declared in the following discourse, being an epistle, / written by Lievtenant-Colonell John Lilburne, prerogative prisoner in the Tower of London, to Colonell Henry Marten, a member of the House of Commons of England ... May 1647.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1647 (1647)	Wing L2167; Thomason E393_39; ESTC R201615	53,968	58

Parliament they are esteemed and made by you of no more worth and strength then Samsons green withes with which he was bound which at his pleasure he brook as a thred of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire Iudg. 16.9 As for instance by the 1. Eliz. cap. 2. it is inacted That whosoever shall not diligently and faithfully having no lawfull or reasonable excuse to be absent indeavouring themselves to resort to their Parish-Churches or Chappels accustomed or upon reasonable let thereof to some usuall place where Common Prayer and such service of God marke it well shall be used shal be dealt with as is contained in the foresaid Statute which Statute is confirmed by the stat of the 23 Eliz cap. 1. and the penalty increased as th●re you may read which Statutes are also c●…firmed by 29. Eliz. 6 35. Eliz. 1.3 Jam. 4. Now Sir I pray you take notice that these and the like laws doth not say He that will not come to Church to hear Sermons or Directory but he that doth not come to some usuall place where Common Prayer and such marke that service of God shall be used shall be punished so and so as in 1. Eliz chap. 2 and by the 23. Eliz. chap 1. He that doth not repaire to some Church Chappell or usuall place of Common-Prayer shall forfeit 20 l. a moneth and be bound to his good behaviour c. And the other Statutes all refer still to the place where Common-prayer is used see the Statute of Conventicles being the 35 Eliz. chap. 1. Now Sir the present Parliament having taken away the Common-Prayer and set up a Directory which these lawes never knew nor mention the sting of these Lawes are gone in that particular for how can I in Iustice be Indited for not comming to heare Common-Prayer when the Parliament that now exerciseth an absolute law-making and regall power will not suffer it under severe penalties to be read or remain in being in Parish Churches And that the Parliament hath taken away Common prayer appears by their printed Ordinance of the third of January 1644. and by their Ordinance of the twenty three of August 1645. Booke Declaration 2 Part Folio 715. 716. yea in the last recited Ordinance the Parliament ordaines that the said Booke of Common-Prayer should not remaine or be henceforth used in any Church Chappel or place of publick Worship within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales and that the Directory for publick Worship should be from thenceforth use pursued and observed And is further ordained there That if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall at any time or times hereafter use or cause the aforesaid Book of Common-Prayer to be used in any Church Chappell or in any other publick place of Worship or in any other private place or Family whatsoever within the Kingdome of England and Dominion of Wales that then every s●o● Person offending therein shall for the first offence for fit the sum of 5. l. for the second offence the sum of ten pound and for the third offence shall suffer one whole yeares imprisonment without baile or main prise And is it therefurther ordained that all Common-Prayer Bookes remaining in Churches or Chappell 's shall within a moneth after the pulishing of this Ordinance be by the Church-Wardens c. under the penalty of forty shilling carried unto the Committes of the respective Countries where they shall be found to be disposed of as the Parliament shall direct And besides the Parliament by Order and Ordinance hath not as yet to this day appointed any punishment at all for men that doe not come to their parish Churches or Chapples to heare sermons or the Directory or that meet in privat houses commonly called Convinticles Therefore though I stay seven yeares from Church and constantly meet in private houses there is by the Parliaments principalls neither Law nor Ordinance in force for any Judge or Justices of the Peace to indict me or any other or any otherwise to molest or troub●e me And as for the Ordinance of the 26 of Aprill 1645 and the Order of the House of Commons the 31 of December 1646 they onely declare they dislike and their intentions to proceed against all such persons as shall take upon them to preach or expound the Scriptures in any Church or Chappell or any other publike place except they be ordained either here or in some other reformed Churches c. but it saith not a word to any of those that heare them or any that comes not to their parish Churches but meet in privat houses neither doth it authorise any Judges Justices of peace or any other persons whatsoever to punish those unordained preaching persons but reserves the power of punishment to themselves without declaring as yet what it is And yet notwithstanding all this That all men that use the Common-Prayer are liabell to the punishments before recited multitudes of honest godly consciencious persons well-affected men to the Parliament who have ventred al they have for its preservation are continually indicted and punished by the Parliaments Judges and Justices of peace for not comming to there Parish Churches to heare common prayer for there are no other Statutes to authorise them to punish any for not comming to their parish Churches but those very Common prayer Statutes O brave Parliament Justice what is this else but perfect ingling or playing at Hocus po●us Sir I beseech you let me aske you this question if an Ordinance of Parliament be not as strongly valievd and as forciable to take away a Law as coutrary to the Law to create and impower a Judge or Justice to execute a Law in force and whether or no that Judge that is made by Ordinance of Parliament be not an absolute Murtherer and a Contemner of the Parliaments authoritie in the opinion of all that hold the present Parliaments principalls if he shall take away a mans life or otherwise punish him for transgressing of a Law which the Parliament by Ordinance hath taken away and I said a sever penalty upon any man that shall obserue or doe the thing injoyned and commanded by that Law how can a Judge in tru●h and righteousnesse sweare to execute the Law when hee hat● not al w●… power in him but is made by a power opposet to the Law see the 27. Hen. 8.24 In the second place by the Statutes of 1 Edw. 6 chap. 12. 39. Eliz. chap. 15. the stealing of Horses Geldings or Mares and the fellonous taking away in the day time as well as the night of any money goods or cattle being of the value of five shillings or upwards in any dwelling house or houses or any part thereof or any out-house or out-houses be longing and used to and with any dwelling house or houses although no person shall be in the said house or out-houses at the time of such fellonie committed shall in both cases loose the benifit of their Clergy

and die without Mercy And yet the present Parliament gives authority to divers persons to doe both the forementioned things that is to say to take horses and goods away by force against the wills and minds of the Owners and that before they be legally convicted of any crime which although they sweare to maintaine the Law yet this is absolutly against the Law as Sir Edward Cooke there owne magnified author in his third part instituts chapter 103. folio 228. declares which Booke is published by their own authority and command and he there expressely saith that regalarly the goods c. of any Delinquent cannot be taken and seized to the Kings use before the same be fofited Secondly the same cannot be inuentoried and the Towne charged therewith before the Owner be indicted of record And amongst other authorities as Britton Fleta Bracton c. which he there makes use of he fites the 1 Richard the third chapter 3. by which it is inacted and declared that neither Shriffe Escheater Bayliffe of franchise or any other person take or seize the goods of any person arrested or imprisoned for suspiton of fellony before he be convicted or attaint of the fellony according to the lawes of England or before the goods be other wise lawfully forfeited upon paine to forfit double the value of the goods so taken to the party grieved From which and the other Authorities he there makes use of he saith these two conclusions are manifestly proved First that before indictment the goods or other things of any Offender cannot be searched inventored or in any sort seized nor after indictment seized and removed or taken away before conviction or attainder Secondly that the begging of the goods or state of any Delinquent accused or indicted of any treason fellony or any other offence before he be convicted and attainted is utterly unlawfull because before conviction and attainder as hath been said nothing is forfeited to the King nor grantable by him And besides it either maketh the prosecution against the Delinquent more principitate violent and undue then the guiet and eqaall Proceeding of the Law and Justice would permit or else by some under-hand compossition and agreement stop or hinder the due course of Justice for examplary Punishment of the Offender And lastly saith he when the Delinquent is begged it dischargeth both Judge Jurour and Witnesse to doe their duty And yet for all this many times the Souldiers imployed by the Commanders of the Parliaments presents warre are commanded and inioyned be their Commanders authorised thereunto by authoritie derived from the Parliament to take away Horses goods c. for the supportation and preservation of the present forces which it may be at that time were in great necessitie and danger and the souldiers refusing in that particuler to obey his or there Commander might by the Articles of Warre made by Ordinance of Parliament hazard his life yea and it may be actually hanged first yet poore men when the Parliament have served their turnes of him or them to pay him his Arreares for all his hazards and dangers hee is by their Judges and Ministers made be the Parliament it selfe for the very fore-mentioned actions done in obedience to their commands arraigned indicted and hanged as a fellon therefore see the Marginall Notes of the second Apology of Sir Thomas Fairfax's Souldiers this is just as the builders of Noa's Arke were served for or after their making it Oh admirable Parliamentary Justice worthy for their praise to be recorded to future Generations as an everlasting memoriall of their unpresidented justice and gratitude and yet if any particular man of the Parliament or any of their vermine Catchpoles have a spleen at a man it is easie for him to get a Warrant from the Chaire-man of some particular private Committee to go and search such a mans house that never professed enmity against the just proceedings of Parliament and breake open his doors and take away at their pleasure so many or much of his proper goods as they please Oh pure Justice without spot or blemish Nay any of their Catchpole Rogues or Caterpillars can forceably enter any freemans house when n●ne is in it and load away divers Porters with his proper goods and that without the seeming Authority of any Law or Statute Order or Ordinance of Parliament nay without the Warrant of any private Committee though in Law such a Committees Order is not worth one straw ●ea and when this is complained of to a Committee of Parliament not one ●ram of justice can be had for it And truly Sir besides other instances of this I will onely aver it to be lately my owne for one of M. Corbets and Justice Whitakers Catchpoles Whitaker the Bookseller in Pauls Church-yard London did the very forementioned thing to me of which I complained at my last being before a Committee of your House but could not have one dram of Justice though 〈◊〉 pressed it hard see the relation of it in print called The resolved mans Resolution pag. 12. 13. Sir I pray is not this unspotted Justice and yet is it not as good as the generality of that which now adaies flowes from both Houses In the third place by the Statute of the 27. Eliz. Chap. 2. it is inacted that all and every Jesuites Seminary Priests and other Priests whatsoever marke the word whatsoever made and ordained out of the Realme of England or other her ●ighnesse Dominions or within any of her Majesties Realmes or Dominions marke well the word within by any Authority Power or Jurisdiction derived challenged 〈◊〉 pretended from the See of Rome since the first yeare of her Reigne shall within forty daies after the end of that Session of Parliament depart out of the Kingdome c. And be it further enacted That it shall not be lawfull to or far any Jesu●…e Seminary Priest or other such Priest Deacon or religious or Ecclesiaslicall person whatsoever being borne within this Realme or any other her highnesse Dominions and heretofore since the said Feast of the nativity of S. John Baptist in the first yeare of her Majesties Reigne made ordained or professed or hereafter marke the word hereafter to be made ordained or professed by any Authority or Jurisdiction derived challenged or pretended from the See of Rome by or of what name title or degree soever the same shall be called or known to come into be or remaine in anie part of this Realm c. mark the last sentence well after the end of forty daies otherwise then in such speciall cases and upon such speciall occasions onely and for such time only as is expressed in this Act and if he doe that then every such offence shall be taken and adjudged to be high Treason and every person so offending shall for his offence be judged a Traytor and shall suffer losse and forfeit as in case of high Treason And it is there further enacted That whosoever shall wittingly

and others do still remain to the great abridgement of the liberties of the people and to the extreme prejudice of all such industrious people as depend on cloathing or other woollen manufacture it being the Staple commodity of this Nation and to the great discouragement and disadvantage of all sorts of Tradesmen Sea-faring-men and hindrance of Shipping and Navigation Also the old tedious and chargable way of deciding controversies or suits in Law is continued to this day to the extreame vexation and utter undoing of multitudes of Families a grievance as great and as palpable as any in the world Likewise that old but most unequall punishment of malefactors is still continued whereby mens lives and liberties are as liable to the law and corporall pains as much inflicted for small as for great offences and that most unjustly upon the restimony of one witnesse contrary both to the law of God and common equity a grievance very great but litle regarded Also tythes and other enforced maintenance are still continued though there be no ground for either under the Gospel and though the same have occasioned multitudes of suites quarrels and debates both in former and latter times In like maner multitudes of poore distressed prisoners for debt ly still unregarded in a most miserable and wofull condition throughout the Land to the great reproach of this Nation Likewise Prison-Keepers or Goalers are as presumptuous as ever they were both in receiving and detaining of Prisoners illegally committed as cruell and inhumane to all especially to such as are well-affected as oppressive and extorting in their Fees and are attended with under-officers of such vile and unchristian demeanour as is most abominable Also thousands of men and women are still as formerly permit●…d to live in beggery and wickednesse all their life long and to breed their children to the same idle and vitious course of life and no effectual meanes used to reclaim either or to reduce them to any vertue or industry And last as those who found themselves aggrieved formerly at the burdens oppressions of those times that did not conform to the Church-government then established refused to pay Ship-money or yeeld obedience to unjust Patents were reviled and reproached with nicknames of Puritans Hereticks Schismaticks Sectaries or were tearmed factious or seditious men of turbulent spirits despisers of government and disturbers of the publike peace even so is it at this day in all respects with those who shew any sensibility of the fore-recited grievances or move in any manner or measure for remedy thereof all the reproaches evills and mischiefs that can be devised are thought too few or too little to bee said upon them as Roundheads Sectaries Independents Hereticks Schismaticks factious seditious rebellious disturbers of the publike peace destroyers of all eivill relation and subordinations yea and beyond what was formerly non-conformity is now judged a sufficient cause to disable any person though of known fidelity from bearing any Office of trust in the Common-wealth whilest Neuters Malignants and dis-affected are admitted and continued And though it be not now made a crime to mention a Parliament yet is it little lesse to mention the supreme power of this honourable House So that in all these respects this Nation remaineth in a very sad and disconsolate condition and the more because it is thus with us after so long a session of so powerfull and so free a Parliament and which hath been so made and maintained by the aboundant love and liberall effusion of the blood of the people And therefore knowing no danger nor thraldome like unto our being left in this most sad condition by this Parliament and observing that we are now drawing the great and weighty affaires of this Nation to some kind of conclusion and fearing that ye may ere long bee obstructed by somthing equally evill to a negative voice and that ye may be induced to lay by that strength which under God hath hitherto made you powerfull to all good workes whilest we have yet time to hope and yee power to help and least by our silence we might be guilty of that ruine and slavery which without your speedy help is like to fall upon us your selves and the whole Nation we have persumed to spread our cause thus plainely and largely before you And do most earnestly entreat that ye will stir up your affections to a zealous love and tender regard of the people who have chosen and trusted you and that ye will seriously consider that the end of their trust was freedome and deliverance from all kind of temporall grievances and oppressions 1. And that therefore in the first place ye will bee exceeding carefull to preserve your just authority from all prejudices of a negative voice in any person or persons whomsoever which may disable you from making that happy return unto the people which they justly expect and that ye will not be induced to lay by your strength untill ye have satisfied your understandings in the undoubted security of your selves and of those who have voluntarily and faithfully adhered unto you in all your extremities and untill yee have secured and setled the Common-wealth in solid peace and true freedome which is the end of the primitive institution of all governments 2. That ye will take off all Sentences Fines and Imprisonments imposed on Commoners by any whomsoever without due course of Law or judgement of their equalls and to give due reparations to a●l those who have been so injuriously dealt withall and for preventing the l●ke for the time to come that yee will enact all such Arbitrary proceedings to bee capitall crimes 3. That ye will permit no authority whatsoever to compell any person or persons to answer to questions against themselves or nearest relations except in cases of private interest between party and party in a legall way and to release all such as suffer by imprisonment or otherwise for refusing to answer to such Interrogatories 4. That all Statutes Oathes and Covenants may be repealed so farre as they tend or may be construed to the molestation and ensnaring of religious peaceable well-affected people for non-conformity or different opinion or practice in Religion 5. That no man for preaching or publishing his opinion in Religion in a peaceable way may be punished or persecuted as hereticall by Judges that are not infallible but may be mistaken as well as other men in their judgements least upon pretence of suppressing Errors Sects or Schisms the most necessary truths and sincere professors thereof may be suppressed as upon the like pretence it hath been in all ages 6. That ye will for the encouragement of industrious people dissolve that old oppressive Company of Merchant-Adventurers and the like and prevent all such others by great penalties for ever 7. That yee will settle a just speedy plaine and unburthensome way for deciding of controversies and suits in Law and reduce all Lawes to the nearest agreement with Christianity

They doe declare their high dislike of that Petition their approbation and esteem of their good Service who first discovered it and of all such Officers and Soldiers as have refused to joyne in it and that for such as have been abused and by the parswasion of others drawn to subscribe it if they shall for the future manifest their dislike of what they have done by forbearing to proceed any further in it it shall not be looked upon as any caus to take away the remembrance sence the houses have of the good service they have formerly done but they shall still be retained in their good opinion and shall be cared for with the rest of the Army in all things necessary and fitting for the satisfaction of persons that have done so good and faithfull service and as may be expected from a Parliament so carefull to performe all things appertaining to honour and justice as on the other side it is declared that all those who shall continue in their distempered condition and goe on in advancing and promoting that petition shall be looked upon and proceeded against as enemies to the State and d●sturbers of the publique peace Die Martis 30. Martii 1647. Ordered by the Lords assembled in parliament that this Declaration be forthwith printed and published John Brown Cler. Parliamentorum Now Sir to conclude the tyrannicall house of Lords having most illegally barbarously tirannically and unjustly committed me to prison and sentenced me under wh●se tyranny you are willing to suffer me to perish and then by your and their whifling and buking Curs to bespatter and reproach me in print thereby strongly indeavouring to m●ke me as odiou● in the eyes of the sons of men as Job was in all his botches and alasse pocre I must be kept in pri●… 〈…〉 without pen or inke accesse of friends or any 〈…〉 and so deprived of all means to vindicate my 〈…〉 ●…ce write in my owne behalfe and set my name to wi●… 〈◊〉 ●…ing alwayes ready to owne and iustifie my lines and to seale then with my 〈◊〉 blood yet my wife must be made a prisoner and fetched up to your arbitrary Committees for dispersing of my bookes and the book women in Westminster Hall that sell them must have then shops and houses searched and rob'd of all my bookes by your Catch poules and if you suspect any for printing of them they must be sure to be dealt worse wi●h then if they were Traytors and enemies to their Country and have their houses rob'd and spoyled of their goods and presses with which they earne bread for them and their families and carried away by force before any legall tryall or conviction of any crime contrary to the lawes of the land which possitively declares that no free man of England forfeits his lands goods or livelyhoods tell he be convicted of a crime 1 R. 3.3 Cookes 2. part institutes chap 103. fol. 228. 229. See the Petition of Right yea and their bodies imprisoned most tyrannicall and illegally without baile or maineprize although there be no collour in law for the pretended cause of their commitment nor no power in law for any Committee of your house to commit a printer or any other free man in England to prison See the law authorities mentioned in Judge Jenkins late printed papers And when the prisoner according to the law of the Kingdome sues for a Habias Corpus which legally cannot be denyed to any prisoner whatsoever and by vertue thereof be brought before the present Judges of the Kings bench Justice Bacon and Justice Rowles yet contrary to law and their owne oathes which oaths are before mentioned they refuse to deliver the prisoner so uniustly imprisoned or to take baile for his forthcomming but returne him back to prison againe there contrary to law and iustice to be kept without bail or maineprize Oh horrible tyrannie oppression and iniustice and yet as I am certainly informed this was the case of Mr. Thomas Paine a Printer the last tearme Nay your Catchpoules by their owne power can and have forceably entered and felloniously and illegally carried away my proper and truly com'd by goods to a large value for which though I complained to your Committee yet could I not obtaine from their hands one dram of Justice See my examination before them called the resolved mans resolution pag. 12. Nay this is not all for when your members and the Lords and their catchpoules creatures have sufficient railed at me and reproached me and tyed up my hands by depriving me of all meanes as they thought to publish any thing for my owne defence then they as I conce●ve ioyne together and git some lying Presbyter assemblie man or other for the Author concealing his name and I not able to find it out I apprehend and iustly conceive I have iust cause to lay it to them it being so sutable to the constant meanes they and their Creatures use to set up their new reformed Kingdome to frame contrive and publish to the view of the world a Recantation in my name that J my selfe though my name be to it had not the least finger in or knowledge of thereby to render me odious to the purpose and to declare me a weather cock follow and as fass●l and easie in changing my former avowed just principles as the Lords and Commons and assembly men at Westminster are to change theirs But Sir if God permit I shall take a more fi●t oppertunity to anotomize that grosse peice of Pa●l●…mentary assembly knavery And therefore I must plainly tell you seeing the Lords and Commons at Westm●nster have dealt so ●arb rously and illegally with 〈◊〉 as they have done * And not with me but also with M. Over●on his wife and brother and Mr. Larners man and maid who are all yet in person and can have nor obtain any iustice from either of your houses and are worse then the unrighteous Iudge that upon no importunity will doe me Justice I am now in good sober resolved earnest determined to appeale to the whole Kingdome and Army against them and it may be thereby come quittance with them and measure unto them as they have measured to me and doubt not but to make it evident that though some of your members call the Army Rebells and Traitors for contesting with those that gave them their power and authority that they themselves a●e reall Rebells and Traitors to the trust reposed in them by the free people of England their Empero●rs Lords and Masters And that the Army are really and truly a company of Rogues Knaves and traiterous Villains to themselves and their native Country if they should disband upon any tearmes in the world till they have brought them to examplary Justice and made them vomit up the vast sums of the publiques money that they have swallowed down into their devowring canniball mawes and firmly setled the peace and iustice of the Kingdome which that they may faithfully and cordially doe is and shall be the daily prayer of him that hath been and will be againe your true friend if you will repent of your remissenesse and slacknesse and manifest your selfe to be more firme active and valourous for the good of your Country Iohn Lilburn From my uniust Captivitie in the Tower of London for the visably almost destroyed Lawes and Liberties of England which condition I more highly prize though in misery enough outwardly then the visiblest condition of any member whatsoever that sits in either or both houses being all and every of them apparently palpably and transendently forsworne having all of them taken Oaths upon Oathes to mainetaine the lawes liberties and freedome of the land and yet in their dayly practice overthrow and destroy them of which sin and wickednesse they are all of them guilty in regard you all sit there in silence and doe not publiquely and avowedly to the whole Kingdome according to your duty manfully protest against and declare your dislike of their crooked uniust and Englands destroying wayes this 31. of May 1647. John Lilburne FINIS