Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A88204
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The just defence of John Lilburn, against such as charge him with turbulency of spirit.
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Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing L2123A; Thomason E711_10; ESTC R207124
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13,471
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11
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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