THE JUST DEFENCE OF JOHN LILBVRN Against Such as charge him with Turbulency of Spirit Job 5.15 But he saveth the poor from the sword from the mouth and from the hand of the mighty ALthough it be a small thing with me now after many yeers of sufferings to be judged of any or of mans judgement knowing now apt men are to judge things hastily before the time before the Lord come who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and wâ—ll make maâ—â—â—st the councels of the hearts yet considering how vehemently at â—â—â—ent my life is sought after as for a long mâ—â—â—â— hath been and that those who so earnestly desire my blood wanting matter in 〈◊〉 to compass 〈◊〉 have by their politick Agents fillâ—d almost every mans mouth 〈◊〉 clamours against me that I have ever been and continue a man of a turbulent 〈◊〉 alwayes opposing striving and flying in the faces of all authorities rest 〈◊〉 and never satisfied whoever is uppermost yea though those whom I my self have labored by might and maine to advance and bring into power and that therefore it is very requisite I be taken off and that otherwise England must never look to rest long in peace yea so turbulent that if there were none in the world but John Lilburne rather then want one to strive withall forsooth John would certainly quarrel with Lilburne Finding that this how slight and unjust soever hoth prevailed more then true Christianity would admit and threatens my life more then any matter that is against me most men of judgement evidently seeing that nothing is laid to my charge worthy either of death or bonds I take my self obliged to vindicate my conversation from all such wicked causless aspersions lest by my silence I should seem guilty and to have nothing to plead in my defence All therefore who have any of the true fear of God in them may please to take notice that as they ought to judge nothing before the time so are they to be careful not to judge according to appearance but to judge righteous judgement the reason is because the appearance of things the gloss and outside is usually made by politicians the Arts-men and Crafts-men of the world for maintenance of their corrupt interests these will be the sole interpreters of men and things raising by art and sophistry such mists before mens eyes as what therewith and by changing themselves into the shape of Angels of light deceive were it possible the very elect but whosoever judgeth according to their Vote is certaine to judge amiss may soon be a slanderer and soon after a murtherer and if he stop not quickly go to hell with them which is the end of all such as love and make a lye especially such lyes as whereby mens lives are put in danger For thus dealt the false prophets with the true and by their craft and policy led many people to destroy them and so likewise dealt the Scribes and Pharisees with the Lord Jesus himself giving out he was a wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners that he cast out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils and that for no other cause but that he published doctrines destructive to their interest of glory and domination And just so dealt they with the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord as may be seen Acts 4. and throughout the whole body of the Scriptures and as Heb. 11.37 were stoned were sawn asunder were tempted were slaine with the sword wandered about in sheep-skins and goats-skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in desarts and in mountaines and in dens and caves of the earth And all these in their several times were reviled and reproached as turbulent persons as Paul and Silas were in Acts 17.6 And when they found them not they drew out Jason and divers brethren unto the rulers of the City crying These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also whom Jason hath received and these do all contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying There is another King one Jesus And thus in every age ever since hath it been as witness all the volumes of the books of Martyrs and the Chronicles of almost every nation and thus sometimes upon a religious and sometimes upon a civil account and very often upon both in one and the same persons the most faithful servants of Christ in every country where they lived being ever the greatest enemies to tyranny and oppression and the most zealous maintainers of the known laws and liberties of their Country as was John Hus in Bohemia Jerom of Prague John Wickliff in England the Martyrs in Queen Maryes dayes the Hugonots or Protestants in France the Gues in the Low-Countryes all not only esteemed Hereticks by the Church but rebels and traytors to their several States and Princes And to come home to our selves and to our own knowledge none have in the least opposed the illegal practices of those that for the time being have been uppermost but as they have been given out to be Hereticks and Schismaticks so also to be factious and seditious men of contentious and turbulent spirits and this for no other cause but for standing for the truth and contending for the known laws of the land the prosecutors and cryers out of turbulency proving ever unjust persons and oppressors and the oppressed and sufferers though through the policies of wicked men they have been supposed to suffer as evil doers yet a short time hath proved they have suffered for truth and right and were both faithful to God to their consciences and truest friends to their native countries and to the laws and liberties thereof which rightly understood give check to all such unjust and evil practices So that if men would but consider whence the cry ariseth and that it cometh ever from those that do the injury and is done purposely to fit and prepare such for destruction as oppose their unjust designs that whom by law they cannot destroy first to kill their reputation and to render them odious that so what violence or bloody injustice is done unto them may be digested if not fully approved I say were these truths considered well-meaning people would not be so easily deluded and drawn in to cry as these politicians cry nor so easily under the notion of turbulent spirits give up in sacrifice the lives and bloods of their dearest and best friends to the lawless lusts and wills of ambitious men untill none are left that dare utter one word in defence of known rights or once open their mouths in opposition of arbitrary and illegal proceedings For wherein can it be made appear that I ever have been or am of a turbulent spirit true it is since I have had any understanding I have been under affliction and spent most of my time in one prison or other but if those that afflicted me did it unjustly and that every of my
imprisonments were unlawful and that in all my sufferings I have not suffered as an evil doer but for righteousness sake then were they turbulent that afflicted and imprisoned me and not I that have cryed out against their oppressions nor should my many imprisonments be more a blemish unto me then unto the Apostle Paul who thought it no dishonour to remember those that somewhat despised him that he had been in labours more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths oft And truly though I have not wherewith to compare with those glorious witnesses of God that in the Apostles times sealed the testimony of Jesus with their bloods nor with those that in the ages since down to these times who have with the loss of their own lives brought us out of the gross darkness of Popery into a possibility of discerning the clear truths of the Gospel yet as I have the assurance of God in my own conscience that in the day of the Lord I shall be found to have been faithful so though the policies of the adversaries of those truths I have suffered for do blinde many mens understandings for a season concerning me yet a time will come when those that now are apt to censure me of rashness and turbulency of spirit will dearly repent that ever they admitted such a thought confess they have done me wrong and wish with all their hearts they had been all of my judgement and resolution There being not one particular I have contended for or for which I have suffered but the right freedome safety and well-being of every particular man woman and child in England hath been so highly concerned therein that their freedome or bondage hath depended thereupon insomuch that had they not been misled in their judgements and corrupted in their understandings by such as sought their bondage they would have seen themselves as much bound to have assisted me as they judge themselves obliged to deliver their neighbour out of the hands of theevs robbers it being impossible for any man woman or child in England to be free from the arbitrary and tyrannical wills of men except those ancient laws and ancient rights of England for which I have contended even unto blood be preserved and maintained the justness and goodness whereof I no sooner understood and how great a check they were to tyranny and oppression but my conscience enforced me to stand firme in their defence against all innovation and contrary practices in whomsoever For I bless God I have been never partial unto men neither malicing any nor having any mans person in admiration nor bearing with that in one sort of men which I condemned in others As for instance the first fundamental right I contended for in the late Kings and Bishops times was for the freedom of mens persons against arbitrary and illegal imprisonments it being a thing expresly contrary to the law of the land which requireth That no man be attached imprisoned c. as in Magna Charta cap. 29. but by lawful judgement of a Jury a law so just and preservative as without which intirely observed every mans person is continually liable to be imprisoned at pleasure and either to be kept there for moneths or yeers or to be starved there at the wills of those that in any time are in power as hath since been seen and felt abundantly and had been more had not some men strove against it but it being my lot so to be imprisoned in those times I conceive I did but my duty to manifest the injustice thereof and claime and cry out for my right and in so doing was serviceable to the liberties of my country and no wayes deserved to be accounted turbulent in so doing Another fundamental right I then contended for was that no mans conscience ought to be racked by oaths imposed to answer to questions concerning himself in matters criminal or pretended to be so The ancient known right and law of England being that no man be put to his defence at law upon any mans bare saying or upon his own oath but by presentment of lawful men and by faithful witnesses brought for the same same face to face a law and known right without which any that are in power may at pleasure rake into the brests of every man for matter to destroy life liberty or estate when according to true law and due proceedings there is nought against them now it being my lot to be drawn out and required to take an oath and to be required to answer to questions against my self and others whom I honoured and whom I knew no evil by though I might know such things by them as the oppossors and persecutors would have punished them for in that I stood firm to our true English liberty as resolvedly persisted therein enduring a most cruel whipping pilloring gagging and barbarous imprisonment rather then betray the rights and liberties of every man did I deserve for so doing to be accounted turbulent certainly none will so judge but such as are very weak or very wicked the first of which are inexcusable at this day this ancient right having now for many yeers been known to all men and the latter ought rather to be punished then be countenanced being still ready to do the like to me or any man I then contended also against close imprisonment as most illegal being contrary to the known laws of the land and by which tyrants and oppossors in all ages have broken the spirits of the English and sometimes broken their very hearts a cruelty few are sensible of but such as have been sensible by suffering but yet it concerns all men to oppose in whomsoever for what is done to any one may be done to every one besides being all members of one body that is of the English Commonwealth one man should not suffer wrongfully but all should be sensible and endeavour his preservation otherwise they give way to an inlet of the sea of will and power upon their laws and liberities which are the boundaries to keep out tyrany and oppression and who assists not in such cases betrayes his own rights and is over-run and or a free man made a slave when he thinks not of it or regards it not and so shunning the censure of turbulency incurs the guilt of treachery to the present and future generations Nor did I thrust my self upon these contests for my native rights and the rights of every Englishman but was forced thereupon in my own defence which I urge not but that I judge it lawful praise-worthy and expedient for every man continually to watch over the rights and liberties of his country and to see that they are violated upon none though the most vile and dissolute of men or if they be speedily to indeavour redresse otherwise such violations breaches and incroachments will eat like a Gangrene upon the common Liberty and become past remedy but I urge it that it
may appear I was so far from what would in me have been interpreted turbulency that I contended not till in my own particular I was assaulted and violated Neither did I appear to the Parliament in their prime estate as a turbulent person though under as great suffering as ever since but as none grievously injured contrary to the Laws and Rights of England and as one deserving their protection and deliverance out of that chraldom wherein I was and of large and ample reparation as they did of Mr. Buâ—lon Mr. Pryn and Dr. Bastwick and which their favourable and tender regard to persons in our condition gained them multitudes of faithful friends who from so just and charitable a disposition appearing in them concluded they were fully resolved to restore the Nation to its long lost liberty without delay Being delivered by them and understanding their cause to be just the differences between them and the late King daily increasing I frequently adventured my self in their defence and at length the controversie advancing to a war I lest my Trade and all I had and engaged with them and did what service I was able at Edge-hill and afterwards at Branford where after a sharp resistance I was taken prisoner and refusing large offers if I would renounce them and serve the King I was carryed a pinioned prisoner to Oxford where I endured sorrows and afflictions inexpressible yet neither by enemy nor friend was ever to that time accounted turbulent though I there insisted for my Rights as earnestly and importunately as ever and as highly disdained all their threats or allurements and again found so much respect from the Parliament as when my life was most in danger to be once more preserved by them though then not so freely as at first but upon the earnest and almost distracted solicitation of my dear wife violently rushing into the House and casting her self down before them at their Bar for now their hearts were not so soft and tender as at first but so far was I then from this new imputation of turbulency either in City Country Parliament or Army that I had every ones welcom at my return and my Lord General Essex to express his joy and affection to me though he knew me a noted Sectary a people he was so unhappy to disaffect that he gave me no less then betwixt 200 and 300l in mony and offers of any kindness which I shall ever thankfully remember to his just honour But Col. Homsteed and all non-conformists Puritans and Sectaries being daily discouraged and wearied out of that Army and the Earl of Manchester Major General of the associate Counties giving countenance unto them I put my self under his Command my then most dear friend as much honored by me as any man in the world the now Lord General Cromwel being then his Lieut. General what services I performed whilst I continued under their command will not become me to report I shall onely say this that I was not then accounted either a coward or unfaithful nor yet of a turbulent or contentious spirit though I received so much cause of dislike at some carriages of the said Earl as made me leave the service and soon after coming for London discovered so great a defection in the Parliament from their first Principles as made me resolve never to engage further with them until they repented and returned and did their first works from which they were so far as that there had not been any corrupt practice formerly complained of either in the High-Commission Star-Chamber or Councel-Table or any exorbitancies elsewhere but began afresh to be practised both by the House of Lords and House of Commons without any regard to those Antient fundamental Laws and Rights for the violation of which they had denounced a war against the King Nor did they thus themselves but countenanced and encouraged the same throughout the Land illegal imprisonments close-imprisonments examinations of men against themselves everywhere common and upon Petitions to Parliament in stead of relief new Ordinances made further to intangle them and all still pointed against the most Conscientious peaceable people such as could not conform to Parliament-Religion but desired to worship God according to their own Judgements and Consciences a just freedom to my understanding and the most just and reasonable and most conducing to publick peace that could be and in the use whereof I had in some yeers before enjoyed the comfortable fruition of a gracious God and loving Saviour and which occasioned me so soon as the Controversie about liberty of Conscience began to appear with my pen in its just defence against my quondam fellow-sufferer Mr. Pryn as a liberty due not onely according to the word of God which I effectually proved but due also by the fundamental Laws of the Land which provide that no man be questioned or molested or put to answer for any thing but wherein he materially violates the persons goods or good name of another and however strange the defence thereof then appeared time hath proved that it is a liberty which no conscientious man or woman can spare being such as without which every one is lyable to molestation and persecution though he live never so honestly peaceably and agreeable to the Laws of the Land and which every man must allow that will keep to that golden rule to do as he would be done unto And though my ready appearing also for this my native Right and the Right of every man in England gained me many adversaries for men will be adverse to the best and justest things that ever were till through time and sound consideration the understanding be informed yet neither for this was I accounted turbulent or of a contentious spirit My next engagement was as a witness against the Earl of Manchester upon Articles exhibited by his Lieutenant-General Cromwel wherein I being serious as knowing matters to be foul opened my self at large as thinking the same was intended to have been thorowly prosecuted but the great men drew stakes and I was left to wrestle with my Lord who what by craft as setting his mischievous Agent Col. King upon my back and the Judges of the Common Pleas and upon that the power of the House of Lords as got me first an imprisonment in New-gate and after that in the Tower Against which oppression for urging the fundamental Laws of England against their usurped and innovated powers I then began to be termed a factious seditious and turbulent fellow not fit to live upon earth For now by this time both House of Lords and House of Commons were engaged in all kindes of arbitrary and tyrannical practices even to extremity So that I must pray the judicious Reader well to mark the cause for which I was first accounted turbulent viz. for urging the fundamental Law of the land against those that thought themselves uppermost in power and above the power of Law as their practices