Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	justice_n	sir_n	thomas_n	2,590	5	8.4692	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88232	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 extra-judicial 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.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.; Prince, Thomas.; Overton, Richard, fl. 1646.	1649 (1649)	Wing L2154; Thomason E550_14; ESTC R204431	45,344	56

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

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 th●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

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 li●●… 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

power of armed men For Sir let me tell you The Law of England never made Colonels Lieu. Colonels Captains or Souldiers either Bayliffs Constables * See the Petition of Right in the C. R. and my Book called the Peoples Prerogative p. 67 68 69 70. or Justices of the Peace And I cannot but wonder that you should attach me in such a manner as you have done considering that I have all along adhered to the Interest of the Nation against the common enemy as you call them and never disputed nor contemned any Order of Summons from Parliament or the most irregularest of their Committees but alwaies came to them when they sent for me although their warrant of summons was never so illegal in the form of it and I have of late in a manner de die in diem waited at the House dore and was there that day the Votes you have read past till almost twelve a clock and I am sure there are some here present whose conscience I believe tells them they are very much concerned in the Book now before you that saw me at the dore and stared wishfully upon me as they went into the House and I cannot but wonder there could be no Civil Officer found to summon me to appear but that now when there is no visible hostile enemy in the Nation and all the Courts of Justice open that you that have no power at all over me must send for me by an hundred or two hundred armed Horse and Foot as though I were some monstrous man that with the breath of my mouth were able to destroy all the Civil Officers that should come to apprehend me Surely I had not endeavoured to fortifie my house against you neither had I betaken my self to a Castle or a defenced Garison in hostility against you that you need to send an hundred or two hundred armed men to force me out of my house from my wife and children by four or five a clock in the morning to the distracting and frighting of my wife and children Surely I cannot but look upon this irregular unjust and illegal hostile action of yours at one of the fruits and issues of your new created Tyranny to amuse and debase my spirit and the spirits of the People of this Free Nation to fit me and them for bondage and slavery And Sir give me leave further to tell you that for divers hundreds of men that have often bin in the field with their swords in their hands to encounter with hostile enemies and in their engagements have acquitted themselves like men of valour and come out of the field conquerors for these very men to put themselves in Martial Array against four Mise or Butterflyes and take them captives and as captives lead them through the streets me-thinks is no great victory and conquest for them but rather a diminution to their former Martial Atchievements and Trophies And therefore to conclude this I do here before you all prorest against your Power and Jurisdiction over me in the case in controversie And do also protest against your Warrant you issued 〈◊〉 to apprehend me And against all your martial and hostile acts committed towards me as illegal unjust and tyrannical and no way in Law to be justified Further telling you that I saw most of the Lord of Straffords arraignment and if my memory fail me not as little things as you have already done to me were by your selves laid to his charge as acts of Treason For which I saw him lose his head upon Tower-hill as a Traytor And I doubt not for all this that is done unto me but I shall live to see the Laws and Liberties of England firmly setled in despite of the present great opposers thereof and to their shame and confusion and so M. Bradshaw I have done with what I have now to say Vpon which M. Bradshaw replyed Lieut. Col. Lilburn you need not to have bin so earnest and have spent so much time in making an Apologetical defence for this Councel doth not go about to try you or challenge any jurisdiction to try you neither do we so much as ask you a question in order to your tryal and therefore you may correct your mistake in that particular Vnto which I said Sir by your favour if you challenge no Jurisdiction over me no not so much as in order to a tryal what do I here before you or what do you in speaking to me But Sir seing I am now here give me leave to say one word more and that is this I am not onely in time of peace the Courts of Justice being all open fetcht forc't out of my house by multitudes of armed men in an hostile manner carried as a captive up and down the streets contrary to all Law and Justice but I am by force of Arms still kept in their custody and it may be may be intended to be sent to them again who are no Guardians of the Laws of England no nor so much as the meanest Administrators or Executors of it but ought to be subject to it themselves and to the Administrators of it And truly Sir I had rather dy than basely betray my liberties into their Martial fingers who after their fighting for our Freedoms would now destroy them and tread them under their feet that have nothing at all to do with me nor any pretended or real civil offender in England I know not what you intend to do with me neither do I much care having learned long since to dy and rather for my Liberties than in my bed It s true I am at present in no capacity effectually to dispute your power because I am under Guards of armed muskettiers but I entreat you If you will continue me a prisoner that you will free me from the military Sword and send me to some Civil Goal and I will at present in peace and quietness obey your command and go And so I concluded and was commanded to with-draw which I did and then M. William Wallin was called in and while he was within I gave unto my comrades M. Prince and M. Overton and the rest of the people a summary account of what had past between me and them and within a little time after M. Walwin came ●ut again and M. Overton was called in next and at M. Walwins coming out he acquainted us what they said to him which was in a manner the same they said to me and all that he said to them was but this That he did not know why he was suspected To which M. Bradshaw replyed Is that all you have to say And M. Walwin answered yes So he vvas commanded to vvithdraw And after M. Overton vvas come out M. Prince vvas called in and after he had withdrawn they spent some time of debate among themselves and then I vvas called in again So I marched in sutable to my first posture and went close to M. Bradshaw who said unto me to

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 Tripl●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 cont●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