against us and after they were turned out I was called in next and the dore being opened I marched into the Room with my hat on and looking about me I saw divers Members of the House of Commons present and so I put it off and by Sergeant Dendy I was directed to go neer M. Bradshaw that sate as if he had bin Chairman to the Gentlemen that were there present between whom and my self past to this following effect Lieut. Col. Lilburn said he here are some Votes of Parliament that I am commanded by this Councel to acquaint you with which were accordingly read and which did contain the late published and printed Proclamation or Declaration against the second Part of Englands New Chains discovered with divers instructions and an unlimitted power given unto the Councel of State to find out the Authors and Promoters thereof After the reading of which M. Bradshaw said unto me Sir You have heard what hath bin read unto you and this Councel having information that you have a principal hand in compiling and promoting this Book shewing me the Book it self therefore they have sent for you and are willing to hear you speak for your self Well then M. Bradshaw said I If it please you and these Gentlemen to afford me the same liberty and priviledge that the Cavaliers did at Oxford when I was arraigned before them for my liâ—â—… for levying War in the quarrel of the Common-wealth against the late King and his Party which was liberty of speech to speak my mind freely without interruption I shall speak and go on but without the Grant of liberty of speech I shall not say a word more to you To which he replyed That is already granted you and therefore you may go on to speak what you can or will say for your self if you please or if you will not you may hold your peace and with draw Well then said I M. Bradshaw with your favour thus I am an Englishman born bred and brought up and England is a Nation Governed Bounded and Limitted by Laws and Liberties and for the Liberties of England I have both fought and suffered much but truly Sir I judge it now infinitely below me and the glory and excellency of my late actions now to plead merit or desert unto you as though I were forced to fly to the merit of my former actions to lay in a counter-scale to weigh down your indignation against me for my pretended late offences No Sir I scorn it I abhor it And therefore Sir I now stand before you upon the bare naked and single account of an Englishman as though I had never said done or acted any thing that tended to the preservation of the Liberties thereof but yet have never done any act that did put me out of a Legal capacity to claim the utmost punctilio benefit and priviledge that the Laws and Liberties of England will afford to any of you here present or any other man in the whole Nation And the Laws and Liberties of England are my inheritance and birth-right And in your late Declaration published about four or five daies ago wherein you lay down the grounds and reasons as I remember of your doing Justice upon the late King and why you have abolished Kingly Government and the House of Lords you declare in effect the same and promise to maintain the Laws of England in reference to the Peoples Liberties and Freedoms And amongst other things therein contained you highly commend and extol the Petition of Right made in the third yeer of the late King as one of the most excellent and gloriest Laws in reference to the Peoples Liberties that ever was made in this Nation and you there very much blame and cry out upon the King for robing and denying the people of England the benefit of that Law and sure I am for I have read and studied it there is one clause in it that saith expresly That no Free-man of England ought to be adjudged for life limb liberty or estate but by the Laws already in being established and declared And truly Sir if this be good and found Legal Doctrine as undoubtedly it is or else your own Declarations are false and lyes I wonder what you Gentlemen are For the declared and known Laws of England knows you not neither by names nor qualifications as persons endowed with any power either to imprison or try me or the meanest Free-man of England And truly were it not that I know the faces of divers of you and honour the persons of some of you as Members of the House of Commons that have stood pretty firm in shaking times to the Interest of the Nation I should wonder what you are or before whom I am and should not in the least honor or reverence you so much as with Civil Respect especially considering the manner of my being brought before you with armed men and the manner of your close sitting contrary to all Courts of Justice M. Bradshaw it may be the House of Commons hath past some Votes or Orders to authorise you to sit here for such and such ends as in their Orders may be declared But that they have made any such Votes or Orders is legally unknown to me I never saw them It s true by common Fame you are bruted abroad and stiled a Councel of State but its possible common Fame in this particular may as well tell me a ly as a truth But admit common Fame do in this tell me a truth and no ly but that the House of Commons in good earnest have made you a Councel of State yet I know not what that is because the Law of England tells me nothing of such a thing and surely if a Councel of State were a Court of Justice the Law would speak somthing of it But I have read both old and new Laws yea all of late that it was possible to buy or hear of and they tell me not one word of you and therefore I scarce know what to make of you or what to think of you but as Gentlemen that I know I give you civil respect and out of no other consideration But if you judge your selves to be a Councel of State and by vertue thereof think you have any power over me I pray you shew me your Commission that I may know the better how to behave my self before you M. Bradshaw I will not now question or dispute the Votes or Orders of the present single House of Commons in reference to their power as binding Laws to the people yet admit them to be valid legal and good their due circumstances accompanying them yet Sir by the Law of England let me tell you what the House Votes Orders and Enacts within their walls is nothing to me I am not at all bound by them nor in Law can take any cognisance of them as Laws although 20. Members come out of the House and tell me such things are done till they
THE PICTURE OF THE Councel of State Held forth to the Free people of England BY Lievt Col. John Lilburn Mr Thomas Prince and Mr Richard Overton now Prisoners in the Tower of LONDON OR A full Narrative of the late Extrajudicial and Military Proceedings against them Together with the Substance of their several Examinations Answers and Deportments before them at Darby house upon the 28. of March last Printed in the Year 1649. THE PICTURE OF The COUNCEL of STATE Held forth to the Free People of England By Lieutenant Coll. John Lilburn M. Thomas Prince and M. Richard Overton The Narrative of the proceedings against Lieut. Coll. John Lilburn thus followeth ON Wednesday the 28. of March 1649. about foure or five a clock in the morning my Lodging at Winchster-house was beset with about a hundred or two hundred armed men Horse and Foot one of which knocking at my chamber doore I rise and opened him the doore and asked him who he would speak with and what he would have He replyed he was come to take me Prisoner where upon I demanded of him to see his Warrant he told me he had one but had it not here but as soon as I came to Pauls I should see it I told him if he walked by the rules of Justice he ought to have brought his Warrant with him and to have shewed it me and given me leave to have coppied it out if I had desired it but divers of the foot Soldiers rushing into my roome at his heeles I desired him to demeane himself like a Gentleman and not with any incivilities affright my children family for if it were nothing but my person he would have I would but make me ready and go along with him without any more a doe whither he would carry me for his power of armed men was beyond my present resisting or power to dispute so I desired him and another Gentleman with him to sit down which they did and when I was almost ready to go I demanded of him whether it would not fully satisfie his end in my going along with him and one or two more of his company in a boate and I would ingage unto him as I was an Englishman there should be no disturbance to him by me or any in my behalf but I would quietly and peaceably go with him wherever he would have me but he told me no I must march through the streets with the same Guard that came for me I told him I could not now dispute but it would be no great conquest to lead a single captive through the streets in the head of so many armed men who neither had made resistance nor was in any capacity to do it and coming down staires into the great yard I was commanded to stand till the men were marshalled in Rank and File and two other Prisoners were brought unto me viz. my Land-lord Mr. Devennish's two sons but for what they knew not nor could imagine So away through the streets the armed Victors carry us like three conquered Slaves making us often halt by the way that so their men might draw up in good order to incounter with an Army of Butter-flies in case they should meet them in the way to rescue us their Captives from them so coming to Pauls Church I thâ—re meet with my Comrade Mr. Prince and after imbraces each of other and a little discourse we see our acquaintance M. William Walwin marching at the head of another Partie as a captive and having understood that our being seised as Prisoners was about a new addresse by way of Petition to the Parliament intituled the second part of Englands new chains discovered We could not but wonder at the apprehending of M. Walwin about that he having for some moneths by past that ever I could see or hear of never bin at any of our meetings where any such things were managed But Adjutant General Stubber that was the Commander of the Party coming then to view I repaired to him and desired to see his Warrant by vertue of which his men forced me out of my bed and habitation from my wife and children and his Warrant he produced which I read he denying me a coppy of it though both there and at White-Hall I earnestly demanded it as my right the substance of which so neere as I can remember is from the Committee commonly stiled the Councel of State to Authorise Sir Hardresse Waller and Collonel Edward Whalely or whom they shall appoint to repaire to any place whatsoever where they shal heare Lieut. Coll. John Lilburn and M. Prince M. Walwin and M. Overton are them to apprehend and bring before the Councel of State for suspition of high Treason for compiling c. a seditious and scandalous Pamphlet c. And for so doing that shal be their warrant Signed Iohn Bradshaw President And in the same paper is contained Sir Hardress Wallers and Col. Whaley's Commission or Deputation to Adjutant General Stubber to apprehend M. Walwin and my self who with his Officers dealt abundantly more fairly with us then I understand Lieut. Col. Axestell dealt with M. Prince and M. Overton From which Lieut. Col. if there had bin any harmony in his spirit to his profession abundance more in point of civility might have bin expected than from the other though he fell much short But when we were in Pauls Church-yard I was very earnest with the Adjutant General and his Ensigne that apprehended me as I understood by the Adjutant he was that we might go to some place to drink our mornings draughts and accordingly we went to the next dore to the School-house where we had a large discourse with the Officers especially about M. Divinish sons we understanding they had no warrant at all to meddle with them in the least nor nothing to lay to their charge but a private information of one Bull their fathers tenant between which parties there is a private difference we told them we could not but stand amazed that any Officer of an Army durst in such a case apprehend the persons of any Free-man of England and of his own head and authority drag him or them out of his house and habitation like a Traytor a Thief or a Rogue and they being ashamed of what they had done to them at our importunity let both the yong men go free So away by water we three went to White-hall with the Adjutant General where we met with our friend M. Overton And after we had staid at White-hall till about 4. or 5. of the clock in the afternoon we were by the foresaid Adjutant carried to Darby house where after about an hours stay there were called in Lieu. Col. Goldegne a Coalyard keeper in Southwark and as some of good quality of his neighbours do report him to have bin no small Personal Treaty man and also Capt. Williams and M. Saul Shoe-maker both of Southwark who are said to be the Divels 3. deputies or informers
be published and declared by sound of Trumpet Proclamation or the like by a publike Officer or Magistrate in the publike and open places of the Nation But truly Sir I never saw any Law in Print or writing that declares your power so proclaim'd or published and therefore Sir I know not what more to make of you then a company of private men being neither able to own you as a Court of Justice because the Law speaks nothing of you nor as a Councel of State till I see and read or hear your Commission which I desire if you please to be acquainted with But Sir give me leave further to aver unto you and upon this Principle or Averment I will venture my life and being and all I have in the world That if the House had by a Proclaimed and Declared Law Vote or Order made this Councel as you call your selves a Court of Justice yet that proclaimed or declared Law Vote or Order had bin unjust and null and void in it self And my reason is because the House it self was never neither now nor in any age before betrusted with a Law executing power but only with a Law making power And truly Sir I should have lookt upon the people of this Nation as very fooles if ever they had betrusted the Parliament with a law executing power and my reason is because if they had so done they had then chosen and impowred a Parliament to have destroyed them but not to have preserved them which is against the very nature and end of the very being of Parliaments they being by your own declared doctrin chosen to provide for the peoples weale but not for their wo And Sir the reason of that reason is because its possible if a Parliament should execute the Law they might doe palpable injustice and male administer it and so the people would be robd of their intended extraordinary benefit of appeales for in such cases they must appeale to the Parliament either against it self or part of it self and can it ever be imagined they will ever condemne themselves or punish themselves nay will they not rather judge themselves bound in honour and safety to themselves to vote that man a Traytor and destroy him that shall so much as question their actions although formerly they have dealt never so unjustly with him For this Sir I am sure is very commonly practised now a dayes and therefore the honesty of former Parliaments in the discharge of their trust and duty in this particular was such that they have declared the power is not in them to judge or punish me or the meanest free-man in England being no Member of their House although I should beat or wound one of their Members nigh unto their dore going to the House to discharge his duty but I am to be sent in all such cases to the Judge of the upper * See 5. H. 4. 6. 11. H. 6. Ch. 11. see also my plea against the Lords jurisdiction before the Judges of the Kings Bench called the Laws Funeral Pag. 8 9. and my grand Plea against the Lords jurisdiction made before M. Maynard of the house of Commons and the foure imprisoned Aldermen of Londons plea against the Lords jurisdiction published by M. Lionel Hurbin 1648. Bench unto whom by Law they have given declared rules and direction in that particular how to behave himself which are as evident for me to know as himself now Sir if reason and justice doe not judge it convenient that the Parliament shal not be Iudges in such particular cases that is of so neere concernment to themselves but yet hath others that are not of their House that are as well concerned as themselves much lesse will reason or justice admit them to be judges in particular cases that are farther remote from their particular selves and doth meerly concern the common wealth and sure I am Sir this is the declared Statute Law of England and doth stand in ful force at this houre there being I am sure of it no law to repeale it no not since the House of Commons set up their new Common-wealth Now Sir from all this I argue thus that which is not inherent in the whole cannot by the whole be derived or assigned to a part But it is not inherent neither in the power nor authority of the whole House of Commons primarily and originally to execute the Law and therefore they cannot derive it to a part of them selves But yet Sir with your favour for all this I would not be mistaken as though I maintained the Parliament had no power to make a Court of justice for I do grant they may errect a Court of justice to administer the Law provided that the Iudges consist of persons that are not Members of their House and provided that the power they give them be universal that is to say to administer the law to all the people of England indefinitely and not to two or three particular persons solely the last of which for them to do is unjust and altogether out of their power And therefore Sir to conclude this point It being not in the power of the whole Parliament to execute the Law they can give no power to you their Members to meddle with me in the case before you For an ordinary Court of Justice the proper Administrator of the Law is the onely and sole Judge in this particular and not you Gentlemen no nor your whole House it self For with your favour M. Bradshaw the fact that you suppose I have committed for till it be judicially proved and that must be before a legal Judge that hath cognisance of the fact or confessed by my self before the Judge it is but a bare supposition is either a crime or no crime A crime it cannot be unless it be a Transgression of a Law in being before it was committed acted or done For where there is no Law * Rom. 4.15 See the 4. part of the L. Cooks Instituts Ch. 1. high Court of Parl. fol. 14. 35. 37. See also my printed Epistle to the Speaker of the 4. of April 1648. called The Prisoners plea for a Habeas Corpus p. 5 6. and Englands Birth-right p. 1 2 3 4. and the second edition of my Epistle to Judge Reeves p. 11 12 13 14 15. and M. John Wildmans Truths Tryumph p. 11 12 13 14. and Sir John Maynards Case truly stated called The Laws Subversion p. 9.13 14 15 16. 38. there is no Transgression And if it be a Transgression of a Law that Law provides a punishment for it and by the Rules and method of that Law am I to be tryed and by no other whatsoever made ex post facto And therefore Sir If this be true as undoubtedly it is then I am sure you Gentlemen have no power in Law to convene me before you for the pretended crime laid unto my charge much less to fetch me by force out of my habitation by the
which we did accordingly and so marched with him into the Tower where coming up to the Lieut. house and after salutes each of other with very much civility the Lieut. read his Warrants and M. Walwin as our appointed mouth acquainted him that we were Englishmen who had hazarded all we had for our Liberties Freedoms for many yeers together and were resolved though Prisoners not to part with an inch of our Freedoms that with strugling for we could keep and therefore we should neither pay fees nor chamber rent but what the Law did exactly require us neither should we eate or drink of our own cost and charges so long as we could fast telling him it was our unquestionable right by Law and the custom of this place to be provided for out of the publike Treasure although we had never so much mony in our pockets of our own which he granted to be true and after some more debate I told him we were not so irrational as to expect that he out of his own money should provide for us but the principal end of our discourse with him was to put words in his mouth from our selves he being now our Guardian to move the Parliament or Councel of State about us which he hath acquainted us he did to the Councel of State who he saith granted the King or former times used to provide for the Prisoners but I say they will not be so just as he was in that particular although they have taken off his head for tyranny yet they must and will be greater Tyrants than he yea and they have resolved upon the Question that he shall be a Traytor that shall but tell them of their tyranny although it be never so visible So now I have brought the Reader to my old and contented Lodging in the Tower where within two or three dayes of our arrival there came one M. Richardson a Preacher amongst those unnatural un-English-like men that would now help to destroy the innocent and the first promoters in England as Cromwels beagles to do his pleasure of the first Petition for a Personal Treaty almost 2 yeers ago and commonly stile themselves the Preachers to the 7 Churches of Anabaptists which Richardson pretending a great deal of affection to the Common wealth to Cromwel to us prest very hard for union and peace and yet by his petition since this endeavors to hang us teling us men cryed mightily out upon us abroad for grand disturbers that sought Crom. bloud for al his good service to the Nation and that would center no where but meerly laboured to pul down those in power to set up our selves And after a little discourse with him being all 4. present and retorting all he said back upon those he seemed to plead for before several witnesses we appealed to his own conscience whether those could intend any hurt or tyrannie to the people that desires and earnestly endeavours for many yeers together that all Magistrates hands might be bound and limited by a just law and rule with a penalty annexed unto it that in case they outstrip their rule they might forset life estate and that al Magistrates might be chosen by the free people of this Nation by common consent according to their undubitable right often removed that so they might not be like standing waters subject to corruption and that the people might have a plain easie short and known Rule amongst themselves to walk by but such men were all we and therefore justly could not be stiled disturbers of any but onely such as sought to rule over the people by their absolute Wills and pleasures and would have no bounds or limits but their lusts and so sought to set up a perfect tyranny which we absolutely did and stil do charge upon the great men in the Army and are ready before indifferent Judges to make it good And as for seeking ourselves we need no other witnesses but some of our present adversaries in the House whose great preffered places and courtship by themselves and their Agents some of us have from time to time slighted scorned and contemned till they would conclude to come to a declared and resolved center by a just Agreement of the People there being no other way now in the World to make this Nation free happy or safe but that alone And as for Cromwels bloud although he had dealt basely enough with some of us in times by-past by thirsting after ours without cause of whom if revenge had bin our desire we could have had it the last yeer to the purpose especially when his quondam Darling Maj. Huntington Maj. to his own Regiment impeached him of Treason to both Houses yet so deer was the good of our native Country to us to whom we judged him then a serviceable Instrument to ballance the Scots that we laid all revenge aside hoping his often dissembled Repentances was real indeed and M. Holland himself now his favorite if his 1000. or 1500. l. per annum of the Kings Lands that now he enjoys did not make him forget himself can sufficiently testifie and witness our unwearied and hazardous Activity for Cromwels particular preservation the last yeer when his great friends in the House durst not publikely speak for him And whereas it is said we will Center no where we have too just cause to charge that upon them the whole stream of all our Actions as we told Richardson being a continued Declaration of our earnest Desires to come to a determinate and fixed center one of us making sufficient propositions to that purpose to the Councel of State at our last being there and all our many and late proffers as to that particular they have hitherto rejected as no waies consistent with their tyranical and selfish ends and designs and have given us no other answer in effect but the sending our bodies prisoners to the Tower and therefore we judged it infinitely below us as we told him and that glorious cause the Peoples Liberties and Freedoms that we are now in bonds for for which we suffer to send any message but a defiance by him or any other to them Yet to let him know as one we judged honest and our friend we were men of reason moderation and justice and sought nothing particularly for our selves more than our common share in the common freedom tranquility and peace of the land of our Nativity We would let him know we had a two fold Center and if he pleased of and from himself to let our Adversaries know we were willing our adversaries should have their choise to which of the two they would hold us to And therefore said we in the first place The Officers of the Army have already compiled and published to the view of the Nation an Agreement of the people which they have presented to the present Parliament against which we make some exceptions which exceptions are contained in our Addresses Now let them but mend
their Agreement according to our exceptions and so far as all our interest extends in the whole Nation we wil acquiesce and rest there and be at peace with them live and dy with them in the pursuance of those ends and be content for Cromwel and Iretons security c. for the bloud of war shed in time of peace at Ware or any thing else and to free our selves that we thirst after none of their bloud but onely our just Liberties without which we can never fit down in peace That there shall be a clause to bury all things in oblivion as to life and liberty excepting onely estate that so the Common-wealth may have an account of their monies in Treasurers hands c. Or secondly if they judge our exceptions against their Agreement or any one of them irrational let them chuse any 4. men in England and let Cromwel and Ireton be 2. of them and take the other 2. where they please in the whole nation and we 4. now in prison will argue the case in reason with them and if we can agree there is an end as to us and all our interest but in case we cannot let them said we all chuse any 2. members of the House of Commons and we will chuse 2. more viz. Col. Alex. Rigby and Col. Henry Martin to be final umpires betwixt us and what they or the major part of them determine as to us in relation to an Agreement and all our interest in the whole land we will acquiesce in be content with and stand to without wavering and this we conceive to be as rational just and fair as can be offered by any men upon earth and I for my part say and protest before the Almighty I will yet stand to this and if this will content them I have done if not fall back fal edge let them do their worst I for my part bid defiance to them assuredly knowing they can do no more to me than the divel did to Iob for resolved by Gods assistance I am to spend my heart bloud against them if they will not condescend to a just Agreement that may be good for the whole Nation that so we may have a new and as equal a Representative as may be chosen by those that have not fought against their freedoms although I am as desirous the Cavaliers should enjoy the benefit of the Law for the protection of their persons and estates as well as my self I know they have an Army at command but if every hair on the head of that Officer or Souldier they have at their command were a legion of men I would fear them no more than so many straws for the Lord Iehovah is my rock and defence under the assured shelter of whose wings I am safe and secure and therefore will sing and be merry and do hereby sound an eternal trumpet of defiance to all the men and divels in earth and hell but only those men that have the image of God in them and demonstrate it among men by their just honest merciful and righteous actions And as for all those vild Actions their saint-like Agents have fixed upon me of late I know before God none is righteous no not one but only he that is clothed with the glorious righteousness of Iesus Christ which I assuredly know my soul hath bin and now is clothed with in the strength of which I have walked for above 12 yeers together and through the strength of which I have bin able at any time in al that time to lay down my life in a quarter of an hours warning But as to man I bid defiance to all my Adversaries upon earth to search my waies and goings with a candle and to lay any one base Action to my charge in any kind whatsoever since the first day that I visible made profession of the fear of God which is now above twelve yeares yea I bid defiance to him or them to proclaim it upon the house toâ—e provided he will set his hand to it and proclaim a publique place where before indifferent men in the face of rhe Sun his accusation may be scand yea I here declare that if any man or woman in England either in reference to my publique actions to the States money or in reference to my private dealings in the world shal come in and prove against me that ever I defrauded him or her of twelve pence and for every twelve pence that I have so done I will make him or her twenty shillings worth of amends so far as all the estate I have in the world will extend Curteous Reader and deer Countryman excuse I beseech thee my boasting and glorying for I am necessitated to it my adversaries base and lying calumniations puting me upon it and Paul and Samuel did it before me and so I am thine if thou art for the iust Freedoms and Liberties of the land of thy Nativity IOHN LILBVRN that never yet changed his principles from better to worse nor could never be threatned out of them nor courted from them that never feared the rich nor mighty nor never despised the poor nor needy but alwaies hath and hopes by Gods goodness to continue semper idem From the Tower of London April 3. 1649. Postscript CVrteous Reader I have much wondered with my self what should make most of the Preachers in the Anabaptist Congregations so mad at us foure as this day to deliver so base a Petition in the intention of it against us all four who have bin as hazardous Sticklers for their particular liberties as any be in England and never put a provocation upon them that I know of especially considering the most if not all their Congregations as from divers of their own members I am informed protested against their intentions openly in their Congregations upon the Lords day last and I am further certainly informed that the aforsaid Petition the Preachers delivered is not that which was read by themselves amongst the people but another of their own framing since which I cannot hear was ever read in any one of their Congregations So that for the Preachers viz. M. Kiffin M. Spilsbury M. Patience M. Draps M. Richardson M. Constant M. Wayd the Schoolemaster c. to deliver it to the Parliament in the name of their Congregations they have delivered it a lye and a falshood and are a pack of fauning daubing knaues for so doing but as I understand from one of M. Kiffins members Kiffin himself did ingenuously confesse upon Lords day last in his open Congregation that he was put upon the doing of what he did by some Parliament men who he perceived were willing and desirous to be rid of us four so they might come off handsomely without too much losse of credit to themselves and therefore intendded to take a rise from their Petition to free us and for that end it was that in their Petition read in the Congregations after they had
sufficiently bespattered us yet in the conclusion they beg mecy for us because we had bin formerly active for the Publique Secondly I have bin lately told some of the Congregationall Preachers are very mad at a late published and licensed booke sold in Popes head Alley and Cornhill intituled The vanity of the present Churches supposing it to be the Pen of some of our friends and therefore out of revenge might Petition against us I confesse I have within a few houres seen and read the booke and not before and must ingenuously confesse it is one of the shrewdest bookes that ever I read in my life and do believe it may be possible they may be netled to the purpose at it but I wish every honest unbyased man in England would seriously read it over John Lilburn April 4. 1649. The Proceedings of the Councel of State against Richard Overton now prisoner in the Tower of London UPon the twenty eigth of March 1649 a partie of Horse and Foot commanded by Lieut. Colonel Axtel a man highly pretending to religion came betwixt five and six of the morning to the house where I then lodged in that hostile manner to apprehend me as by the sequel appeared But now to give an account of the particular circumstances attending that action may seem frivolous as to the Publick but in regard the Lieutenant Colonel was pleased so far to out-strip the the capacity of a Saint as to betake himself to the venomed Arrows of lying calumnies and reproaches to wound through my sides the too much forsaken cause of the poor oppressed people of this long wasted Common-wealth like as it hath been the practice of all perfidious Tyrants in all ages I shall therefore trouble the Reader with the rehearsall of all the the occurrant circumstances which attended his apprehension of me that the world may cleerly judge betwixt us And what I here deliver from my pen as touching this matter I do deliver it to be set upon the Record of my account as I will answer it at the dreadfull day of judgment when the secrets of all hearts shall be opened and every one receive according to his deeds done in the flesh and God so dead with me at that day as in this thing I speak the truth And if the rankorous spirits of men will not be satisfied therewith I have no more to say but this to commit my self to God in the joyful rest of a good conscience and not value what insatiable envie can suggest against me Thus then to the businesse it self In the House where I then lodged that night there lived three families one of the Gentlemen being my very good friend with whom all that night hee and I onely lay in bed together and his Wife and childe lay in another bed by themselves and when they knock'd at the door the Gentleman was up and ready and his Wife also for she rose before him and was suckling her childe and I was also up but was not completely drest And of this the Gentleman himself her Husband hath taken his oath before one of the Masters of the Chancery And we three were together in a Chamber discoursing he and I intending about our businesse immediately to go abroad and hearing them knock I said Yonder they are come for me Whereupon some books that lay upon the table in the room were thrown into the beds betwixt the sheets and the books were all the persons he found there in the beds except he took us for printed papers and then there were many and the Gentleman went down to go to the door and as soon as the books were cast a to-side I went to put on my boots and before the Gentleman could get down the stairs a girl of the house had opened the door and let them in and so meeting the Gentleman upon the stairs Axtel commanded some of the souldiers to seize upon him and take him into custodie and not suffer him to come up And I hearing a voice from below that one would speak with me I went to the chamber door it being open and immediatly appeared a Musketier Corporal Neaves as I take it and he asked me if my name were not Mr. Overton I answered it was Overton and so I sat me down upon the bed side to pull on my other boot as if I had but new risen the better to shelter the books and that Corporal was the first man that entered into the chamber and after him one or two more and then followed the Lieutenant Colonel and the Corporal told me I was the man they were come for and bade me make me ready and the Lieutenant Colonel when he came in asked me how I did and told me they would use me civilly and bid me put on my boots and I should have time enough to make me ready And immediately upon this the Lieutenant Colonel began to abuse me with scandalous language and asked me if the Gentlewoman who then sate suckling her childe were not one of my wives and averred that she and I lay together that night Then the Gentleman hearing his Wife call'd Whore and abused so shamefully got from the souldiers and ran up stairs and coming into the room where we were he taxed the Lieutenant Colonel for abusing of his Wife and me and told him that he and I lay together that night But the Lieutenant Colonel out of that little discretion he had about him took the Gentleman by the hand saying How dost thou brether Cuckcold using other shamefull ignorant and abusive language not worthy repeating Well upon this his attempt thus to make me his prisoner I demanded his Warrant and he shewed me a Warrant from the Councell of State with Mr. Bradshaw's hand to it and with the Broad Seal of England to it as he call'd it to apprehend Lieutenant Colonel Lilburn Mr. Walwine Mr. Prince and my self where-ever they could finde us And as soon as I was drest he commanded the Musketiers to take me away and as soon as I was down stairs he remanded me back again into the chamber where he took me and then told me he must search the house and commanded the trunks to be opened or they should be broken open and commanded one of the souldiers to search my pockets I demanded his Warrant for that He told me he had a Warrant I had seen it I answered That was for the apprehension of my person and bid him shew his Warrant for searching my pockets and the house and according to my best remembrance he replyed He should have a Warrant So little respect had he to Law Justice and Reason and vi armis right or wrong they fell to work inconsiderately devolving all law right and freedom betwixt man and man into their Sword for the consequence of it extend from one to all and his party farmed Horse and Foot joyned to his over-hairy exorbitant will was his irresistible Warrant And so they searched my pockets and took
Time as after the language of their new fangled Saint-ships I may speak it they have brought their seasons to perfection even to the Season of Seasons now to rest themselves in the large and full enjoyment of the creature for a time two times and half a time resolving now to ware out the true asserters of the peoples freedom and to change the time and laws to their exorbitant ambition and will while all their promises declarations and engagements to the people must be null'd and made Cyphers and cast aside as wast paper as unworthy the fulfilment or once the remembrance of those Gentlemen those magnificent stems of our new upstart Nobillity for now it is not with them as in the dayes of their engagement at New-market and Triplâ—e heath but as it was in the days of old with corrupt persons so is it in ours Tempora mutantur But to proceed to the story the Lievtenant Collonel did not only shew his weakness or rather his iniquity in his dealing with me but he converts the aforesaid Souldier of Leivtenant Generalls Regiment before divers of the Officers at White-hall and there he renders the reason wherefore he made him a prisoner because said he he takes Overtons part for he came and asked him how he did and bid him be of good comfort and he lay last night with a woman To which he answered It is true but the woman was my wife then they proceeded to ask when they were married and how they should know shee was his wife and he told them where and when but that was not enough they told him he must get a Certificate from his Captain that he was married to her and then he should have his liberty Friends and Country-men where are you now what shall you do that have no Captains to give you Certificates sure you must have the banes of Matrimony re-asked at the Conventicle of Gallants at White-hall or at least you must thence have a Congregationall Licence without offence be it spoken to true Churches to lye with your wives else how shall your wives be chast or the children Legitimate they have now taken Cognizance over your wives and beds whether will they next Judgement is now come into the hand of the armed-fury Saints My Masters have a care what you do or how you look upon your wives for the new-Saints Millitant are paramount all Laws King Parliament husbands wives beds c. But to let that passe Towards the evening we were sent for to go before the Counsell of State at Darby-house and after Lievtenant Collonel John Lilburne and Mr. Wallwine had been before them then I was called in and Mr. Bradshaw spake to me to this effect Master Overton the Parliament hath seen a Book Intituled The Second Part of Englands New-Chains Discovered and hath past several Votes thereupon and hath given Order to the Councel to make inquiry after the Authors and Publishers thereof and proceed upon them as they see Cause and to make a return thereof unto the House And thereupon he Commanded Mr. Frost their Secretary to read over the said Votes unto me which were to this purpose as hath since been publickly proclaimed Die Martis 27 Martis 1649. THe House being informed of a Scandalous and Seditius Book Printed entituled The Second Part of Englands New-Chains Discovered The said Book was this day read REsolved upon the Question by the Commons assembled in Parliament That this printed Paper entituled The Second Part of Englands New-Chains Discovered c. doth contâ—in most false scandalous and reproachful matter and is highly Seditious and Destructive to the present Government as it is now Declared and setled by Parliament tends to Division and Mutiny in the Army and the raising of a New War in the Common-wealth and to hinder the present Relief of Ireland and to the continuing of Free-Quarter And this House doth further Declare That the Authors Contrivers and Framers of the said Papers are guilty of High Treason and shall be proceeded against as Traytors And that all Persons whatsover that shall joyn with or adhere unto and hereafter voluntarily Ayd or Assist the Authors Framers and Contrivers of the aforesaid Paper in the prosecution thereof shall be esteemed as Traytors to the Common-wealth and be proceeded against accordingly Then Mr. Bradshaw spake to me much after this effect Master Overton this Councel having received Information That you had a hand in the Contriving and Publishing of this Book sent for you by their Warrant to come before them Besides they are informed of other Circumstances at your Apprehension against you That there were divers of the Books found about you Now Mr. Overton if you will make any Answer thereunto you have your Liberty To which I answered in these words or to the like effect Sir what Title to give you or distinguish you by I know not Indeed I confesse I have heard by common report that you go under the name of a Councel of State but for my part what you are I cannot well tell but this I know that had you as you pretend a just authority from the Parliament yet were not your Authority valuable or binding till solemnly proclaimed to the people so that for my part in regard you were pleased thus violently to bring me before you I shall humbly crave at your hands the production of your Authority that I may know what it is for my better information how to demean my self Presid Mr. Overton We are satisfied in our Authority Ric. Overt Sir if I may not know it however I humbly desire that I may be delivered from under the force of the Military power for having a naturall and legall title to the Rights of an Englishman I shall desire that I may have the benefit of the Law of England which Law taketh no cognizance of the Sword And in case you or any man pretend matter of crime against me in order to a tryall I desire I may be resigned up to the Civil Magistrate and recceive a free and legall tryall in some ordinary Court of Justice according to the known Law of the Land that if I be found a transgressor of any established declared Law of England on Gods name let me suffer the penalty of that Law Further Sir In case I must still be detained a prisoner it is my earnest desire that I may be disposed to some prison under the jurisdiction and custody of the Civill Authority For as for my own part I cannot in conscience to the common right of the people submit my self in any wise to the tryall or custody of the Sword for I am no Souldier neither hath the Army any Authoritie over me I owe them neither dutie nor obedience they are no Sheriffs Justices Bailiff Constables or other Civil Magistrates So that I cannot neither will I submit unto their power but must take the boldnesse to protest against it Presid Mr. Overton If this be your Answer you may withdraw