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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88227	The oppressed mans oppressions declared: or An epistle written by Lieut. Col. Iohn Lilburne, prerogative-prisoner (by the illegall and arbitrary authority of the House of Lords) in the Tower of London, to Col. Francis West, lieutenant thereof in which the oppressing cruelty of all the gaolers of England is declared, and particularly the lieutenants of the Tower. As also, there is thrown unto Tho. Edwards, the author of the 3d. ulcerous gangræna, a bone or two to pick: in which also, divers things are handled, of speciall concernment to the present times.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1647 (1647)	Wing L2149; ESTC R202786	33,231	28

whole Parliament no nor the whole House of Commons it selfe according to their own principles which is the only clause he can fix upon And good Mr. Gangrena is it not as just and as man-like in me if I be set upon by you when I have no better weapons to cudgell you with then your own to take them from you and knockt your pate as to make use of my owne propper weapons to cut you soundly or any other man that shall assault me to the hazzard of my being and this is just my case that you count such a disgrace untome But say you there I have owned their legislative power and their judicative power over commons Therefore you draw an inference to condemn me from mine own practice Alas man may not I Lawfully seeke or receive a good turn from the hands of any man yet as lawfully doe my best to refuse a mischief from him But secondly I answer what though the 4. of May. 1641. I stooped to arryall at the Lords Barre upon an impeachment against me by the King doth that ever the more justifie their Authority or declare me to be mutable and unstable no not in the least for you cannot but know the saying of that most excellent Apostle Paul 1 Co. 13 11 ' When J was a child J spake as a child I under stood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childesh things So say I to you five or six yeares ago I knew nothing but the Lords Jurisdiction was as much more above the House of commons over Commons as their Robes and Grandeur in which they sat was above them especially seeing at all conferences betwix both Houses I sec the members of the house of commons stand bare before the Lords for which action I now see no ground for especially having of late read so many bookes which discourseth upon the Lords jurisdiction which was upon this ground about a moneth or six weeks before the Lords cast me in prison A Gentleman a Member of the house of Commons and one that I believe which wisheth me well bid me look to my selfe for to his knowledg there was a designe amongst some of the Lords the grounds of reasons of which he then told me to clap me by the heeles and to fall so heavie upon me as to crush me in pieces or else make me at least an example to terrisie others that they should not dare to stand for their Rights And being thus fore-warned I was halfe a med which made me discours upon every opportunity with any that I though knew any thing of the Lords Jurisdiction and I found by a generall concurence that the 29. Ch. of Magna Charta was expresly against the Lords jurisdiction over Commoners in all criminall cases And upon that ground I protested against them and then upon further inquiry I found Sir Edward Cooks Judgement expresly against them as is before recited which book Mr Gangraena I must tell you is published since my first tryall before the Lords and was not publikely in being when I then stooped unto their jurisdiction and then comming prisoner to the Tower one of my fellow-prisones very honestly told me of the fore-mentioned Record of Sir Simon de Bereford which presently with all speed under Mr. Collets hand I got out of the Records office All which just and legall authorities and testimonies makes me so stiffe against the Lords as I am and I hope I shall continue to the death against them in the thing in question betwixt us as unmoveable as a brazen Wall come hanging come burning or cutting in pieces or starving or the worst that all their malice and ulcerous Gangraena Priests put together can inflict for all that I principally care for is to see if the thing I engage in be just and if my conscience upon solid and mature deliberation tell me it is I will not by the strength of God if once I be engaged in it either goe through with it or dye in them dest of it though there be not one man in the world absolutely of my mind to back me in it But lastly admit in former times I had been as absolute a Pleader for the Lords jurisdiction over Commoners as now I am against them Yet truly a man of Mr. Gangraenes coat is the unfittest man in the Kingdome to reprove mee for it For his Tribe I meane of Priests and Deacons those littie toes of Antichrist now called reformed Presbyters are such a Weather-cock unstabled generation of wavering minded men as the like are not in the whole Kingdom For their predecessors in Henry the 8. dayes were first for the Pope al bis Drudgeries and then for the King and his new Religion and then 3. in his time returned to their vomit againe and then fourthly in Edward the 6. dayes became by his proclamation godly reformed Protestants and then 5. in Queen Maries dayes by the authority of her and her Parliament which Parliament I doe aver it and will maintaine had as true a ground to set up compulsive Popery as this present Parliament hath to set up compulsive Presbytery became for the generality of them bloody and persecuting Papists and then 6. by the authority of Queen Elizabeth and her Parliament who had no power at all no more then this present Parliament to wrest the Scepter of Christ out of his hands and usurpedly to assume the Legislative power of Christ to make Lawes to governe the Consciences of his people which they have nothing at all to doe with He having made perfect compleat and unchangeable Lawes himselfe Esay 9.6.7 and 33.20 22. Act 1.3 and 3.22 23. and 20.26 27. 1 Cor. 11.1.2.1 Tim. 6.13.18 Heb. 3.2 3 6. became againe a Generation of pure and reformed Protestants and have so continued to this present Parliament But now like a company of notorious forsworne men who will be of any Religion in the world so it carry along with it profit and power after they have for the generallity of them taken and sworn six or seven Oaths that the Bishops were the only true Church-government and that they would be true to them to the death Yet have now turned the 7. time and engaged the Parliament and Kingdome in an impossible-to-be-kept oath and Covenant to root up their ghostly Fathers the Bishops as Antichristian from whom as Ministers they received their life and Being Yea and now the 8th time have turned and falne from that Covenant and Oath by which they mode all swear that took it not onely to root out Bisheps but all Officers whatsoever that dependeth upon them In the number of which are all the m●…lves having no other ordination to their Ministery but what they had from them and so are properly really and truly dependents upon them and yet now of late have by themselves and instruments as it were forced the House of Commons to passe a vote to declare

that from thence-forth no person should be compelled to make any Loanes to the King against his will because such Loane were against reason and the franchise of the Land and by other Lawes of this Realme viz. 1. E 3.6.11 R. 2.9.1 R. 3.2 it is provided That none shall be charged by any charge or imposition called abenevolence nor by such like charge by which the statutes before-mentioned and other the good lawes and f●at●teo of this Realm your subjects have inherited this freedome that they should not be composed to contribute to any taxe tallage aid or other like charge not fet by common consent in Parliament All which the King confirmes And by the statute made this present Parliament that abolished Ship money All and every the particulars prayed or desired in the said Petition of Right shall from hence sorth be put in execution accordingly and shall be firmly and strictly holden and observed as in the same Petition they are prayed and expressed yea in this very statute it is declared and enacted to be against Law for his Maiesty upon any pretence what ever to levie money of the people of England without common consent in Parliament And truly sir let me tell you without feare or flattery that if your great Masters th Lords and their true prerogative friends which fill nor up a few places in the House of Commons had any true and reall intentions to preserve the Fundamentall Lawes and Lioerties of England or had any time to spare to punish those that justly and groundedly infringe them and doe as much as in them lies to destrey them from their weighty employment of deviding great and vast sums of the Common wealths money amonst themselves without either doing justice and rightin the like nature to any man breathing unlesse it be themselves or some of their sons kinsmen or neare friends whose principles are to serve their ends to the breadth of a haire in all they enjoyne them they would scorne to give cause to be reputed so base and unworthy as they are to deny the King the power unto whom ever and anon they give such glorious and transcendent titles unto to levie and raise money without common consent in Parliament when they allow every paultery Iaylor in England to doe it at his pleasure yea and for any thing I can perceive abet and countenance him in it for they will not nor have not done all this long Parliament any man any effectuall justice against them that have complained of them but every man is crushed and in a manner destroyed that meddles any thing to the purpose with them I pray sir tell me whether this be to Keep the Solemn League and Covenant which is now made a cloake for all kind of knavery and villanic which they and you took with your hands lifted up to the most high God and swore to maintaine the Fundamentall Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome But this I dare boldly tell you you never intended it as by your practises appears But sir in the second place I should desire to know of you the reason why laylors are so impudent and oppressive as they are and go so scot free from punishment though often complained of as they doe Truly for my part I am nor able to render any more probable on then this That it may be some powerfull Parliament-man or men are sharers with them in their profits for as grose if not groser things are commonly reported yea printed o● some of them See the 99. 100 101 102 103. c. pages of the fore-mentioned book called Regall Tyranny discovered and therefore must and doe improve their interest and power to protect them in their knaverys and oppressions For within these few dayes I was talking with an understanding knowing Gentleman that came to visit me and he told me he durst venture his life to make it evident to any rationall man in the world that there is one Gaoler about this City that makes of his Prison above 20000 l. a yeare and commits all manner of villanies and yet no Justice can be had against him though he hath often and powerfully been complained against to the Parliament it selfe where he said he had more favour countenance and protection then the honestest man that complained of him yea more then them all put all in one Now sir in the last place I come to acquaint you what monies I have paid since I came to the Tower for my Chamber-rent only the 10. of July last I came hither and you sent me to the Lodging where I am with extraordinarie strict and severe command upon my Keeper who within certain dayes after I came to him demanded chamber-rent of me at a great deale higher rate then I pay and I told him necessity had no law and I therefore desired him to ask me reasonably and he should see what I would say to him So at last he asked me 15. s. a week I told him I knew well the lawes of all prisons in England and 15. s. a week was a great deale of money for beare Lodging but in regard it was with me as it was conditionally that he for his part would use me and those my friends that should come to see mee with civilitie and humanity I would give him 15. s. a week and find my own linnen besides protesting unto him that the first time he used me or any that came to see me churlishly I would not pay him one peny more of money and I must ingeniously confess I have no cause in the least to complaine of the man in point of civility nor he of me in performing my promise for I have paid him though it hath been with some straights to me betwixt 20. and 30. l. which I am now able no longer to pay And therefore I desire you according to your duty which by law you are bound unto to provide me a prison lodging gratis for I professe unto you no more rent I can nor will pay though it cost me a dungeon or as bad for my pains And truly Sir I shall deale ingeniously with you and give you the true reason wherefore I condescended to pay chamber rent at first and have done it so long it was because I had extraordinary potent adversaries to deale withall viz. the House of Lords or Peeres as they are called who had pretty well managed their dealings with like tyrants in keeping very strictly my friends from me and also pen ink and paper that so I was debarred of all ability in the world to publish to the view of the whole Kingdome my own innocency and their inhumane and barbarous tyranny which they knew well enough I would doe if I had not been debarred of all meanes to doe it and then fell upon me and transcendently sentenced me to pay 4000. l. c. and illegally and unjustly entered notorious crimes against me in their records And you know I told you at my first comming

to the Tower I was refreshed at the hopes of my being freed from my close imprisonment but your falling so heavily upon me as you did struck me to the heart and made me beleeve it was possible I might have been destroyed before I should have an oppertunity publickly to cleare my own unspotted innocency in reference to the Lords and to anotamize their tyranny both of which my soul thirsted after and therefore if I had been able I would have purchased an oppertunity to have done it through it had cost me 20. l. a week And truly Sir I have done my doe and in dispite of all the Lords published and truly and faithfully stated my cause to the view of the whole Kingdome First in my Wives Petition delivered by her to the House of Commons Septem 23. 1646. which I pen'd and framed my selfe without the help or assistance of any Lawyer in England And secondly in my Book called Londons Liberty in Chaines discovered And thirdly twice before the Committee of the Honorable House of Commons The last discourse of which I published to the view of all the Commons of England and called it An Anotamy of the Lords tyranny And besides some of my friends or well-wishers have done it excellent well for me in those two notable discourses called Vox Plebis and Regall Tyranny discovered which will live when I am dead and be I hope as good as winding sheets unto the Lords and therefore I am now ready for a Dungeon or Irons or Death it selfe or any torture or torment that their malice can inflict upon me and seeing that I cannot by any meanes I can use get my report made to the House of Commons and so enjoy justice and right at their hands which J beg not of them as a Boon but chalenge of them as my due and right by reason of the Lords and the rest of their Prerogative Co-partners influence in the House of Commons to divert them from the great affairs of the Kingdome in doing justice and right unto the oppressed and putting them upon making Lawes Edicts and Declarations to persecute and destroy the generation of the righteous and so bring the wrath and vengeance of heaven and earth upon them and theirs Read Mr. Thomas Goodwins Sermon preached before them Feb 25. 1645. called The great Jnterest of States and Kingdomes and also lay a great blot of reproach upon them by all the rationall men in the world for endevouring to destroy a generation of peaceable and quiet-minded men that have contributed all they had and have in the world for their preservation and by whose undaunted valour and blood-shed as principall instruments they enjoy liberty at this day to sit in the House of Commons and to be what they are Sure I am the Spirit of God saith That he that rewardeth evill for good evill shall not depart feom his House Prov. 17.13 And yet for any thing I can perceive the best reward is intended these men from those they have done so much for is ruine and destruction that so that Antichristian office and function of Priesthood newly transformed into a pretended godly and reformed Presbyter may againe be established although by the second Article of the Covenant now more magnified by the sonnes of darknesse and blindnesse then the book of God they have expresly sworn to root up that Function by the root The words of the Covenunt are That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endevour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-government by Arch Bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiasticall officers depending on that Hierarchy superstition beresie schisme prophanenesse c. Mark the sentence And all other Ecclesiasticall Officers depending on that Hierarchy In the number of which are those pretended reformed Presbyter-Ministers that either sit in the Assembly or are in any other place in the Kingdome that officiate by vertue of their Ordination which they had from the Bishops or any by vertue of their Authority And I will maintaine it with my life that he is a for sworn man whether he bee Parliament-man or other that hath token the Covenant and doth contribute any of his assistance to maintaine preserve and uphold that Ordination of the Presbyterian Ministers that they recerved from the Bishops or punish any man for writing preaching or speaking against it or any other wayes endevouring the distruction or extirpation thereof For the expresse words of the Covenant are that we must endevour the extirpation of all Officers without exception depending on that Hierarchy part of which all the fore-mentioned Ministers are being ordained Priests and Deacons by the Bishops and have no other Ordination to this very day but what they had from them But if they shall say they were ordained by them not as Bishops but as Presbyters I answer This is a simple foppish distinction For as well may the Bishops say They were not ordained by the Pope or his Bishops quatenus Pope or Bishops but quatenus Presbyter or Presbyters and so are in every particular as lawfull Minister as any of these men that have their ordination from them and yet have endevoured to draw the whole Kingdome into a Covenant sinfully to extirpate them that are Christs Ministers upon their owne Principles as really truly and formally as any of themselves But in the second place if they were ordained Presbyters by the Bishops not as Bishops but as Presbyters then are these present reformed Ministers lesse then Presbyters For the Author to the Hebrewes chap. 7. v. 7. saith without all contradiction the lesse is blessed of the better or greater And I desire the learned Presbyters to shew me one example in all the New Testament that ever any Officer ordained another Officer in the same Office and Function that he himselfe was in Thirdly I desire to know of these reformed Presbyterian Ministers that seeing as they themselves confesse the Bishops Office and function was and is AntiChristian how is it possible their Ministeriall Function or Ordination can be Christian that like a streame flowed from them the fountaine Sure I am Iob demands this question Who can bring a cleane thing out of an unclean And by the Spirit of God he answers Not one Iob 14 4. And Iames interrogates saying Doth a fountaine send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter Or can the Fig tree my brethren beare Olive-berries either a Vane Figges Therefore in a positive negation he concludes that no fountaine can both yeeld salt water and fresh Iames 4.11.12 And therefore seeing THOMAS THE GANGRAENA the R●abshaksh Champion of the new sprung-up Sect in England of Presbyters who may more truly and properly be called Schismatickes then of those he so brands for they have separated from their Ghostly Fathers the Bishops and yet are glad to hold their ordinatien and are therefore schismaticall And therefore seeing in his last

themselves all forsworn that had a finger in that vote and so a people not fit to be trusted For by their late vote no man what ever must preach and declare Jesus Christ but be that is Ordained that is to say unlesse they be depending on the Bishops by Ordination or else on the Presbyters who are no Presbyters unlesse they depend on the Bispops for their Ordination for they have no other and what is this else but to punish every one that shall truly endeavour the true and reall performance of the Covenant Truly we have lived to a fine forsworn age that men must be punished and made uncapable to be are any office in the Kingdome if they will not take the Covenant And then if they doe take it it shall be as bad it they will not forsweare themselves every moment of time that the assembly shall judge it convenient and the house of Commons vote it And truly there is in my judgment a good stalking horse for this practice in the Assembly of Dry-vines alias Divines Deut 32.32.33 Esa 44.25 Ehortation to take the Covenant in these words and if yet there should any oath be found into which any Ministers or others have entred not warranted by the Lawes of God and the Land in this case they must teach themselves and others that such Oathes call for repentance not partinary in them that is to say that neither the Covenant nor any other Oath whatsoever that they have before or hereafter shall take binds them any longer then the time that they please to say it is not warrantable by the Lawes of God and the Land and so by this Synodian Doctrine a man may take a hundred Oathes in a day and not be bound by any of them if he please Besides I would faine know if by the Parliaments so eager pressing of the Covenant they doe not presse the hastning of many of their owne destructions For by the Covenant every man that takes it is bound thereby to maintaine and preserve the Fundamentall lawes of the Kingdome which is every day trodden under foot by some of the members of both Houses arbitray practices not only towards Cavaliers for which they have some colour by pleading necessity but also towards those of their owne party that have as freely and uprightly adventured their lives to preserve the lawes and liberties of the Kingdome as any of themselves for justice and right effectually they have scarce done to any man that is a suiter to them And therefore I here challenge all the Members of both Houses from the first day of their sitting to this present houre to instance me that man in England that is none of themselves nor dependance upon themselves that they have done effectuall justice to though they have had thousands of Petitioners and Complainants for grand grievances before the Parliament some of which have to my knowledge even spent themselves with prosecuting their businesse before them and run themselves many hundred pounds thick into debt to manage their businesse before them and yet to this houre not one peny the better and yet they can find time enough since I came prisoner to the Tower to vote or share about 200000 l. of the Common wealths money amongst themselves as may cleerly be particularized by their owne newes books c. licensed by one of their Clerks O horrible tyrannicall wickednesse Was a Parliament in England ever called for that end as to rob and poll the poore common people and to force those that have scarce bread to put in their mouthes to pay excise and other taxations or else to rob and poll the poore common people and to force those that have scarce bread to put in their mouthes to pay excise and other taxations or else to rob and plunder them of all they have and then share it amongst the members of both houses as 10000. l. to one man 6000. l. to another 5000. l. c to another and this many times to those that never hazarded their lives for the Weal-publique no nor some of them never intended I am confident of it good to the generality of the people but that they should be as absolutely their vassals and slaves if not more as ever they were the King O thou righteous and powerfull Iudge of Heaven and Earth that of all the base things in the world hatest and abhorrest dissemblers hypocrires Ier. 7.9 10 11 12. to 16. Mat 23. deale with these the greatest of Dissemblers thy selfe who like so many bloody and cruell men have ingaged this poor Kingdome in a bloody and cruell war pretendedly for the preservation of their lawes and liberties when as God knowes by a constant series of actiont they declare they never truly and really intended any such thing but meerly by the blood and treasure of the people to make themselves tyrannicall Lords and Masters over them So that for my part if I should take the Covenant I protest ●t before the God of Heaven and Earth without fear or dread of any man breathing I should judge it my duty and that I were bound unto it in conscience by vertue of my oath to doe my utmost to prosecute even to the death with my sword in my hand every member of both Houses that should visibly ingage in the destruction of the Fundamentall Lawes and liberties of England and prosecute them with as much zeale as ever any of them prosecuted the King for tyranny is tyranny exercised by whom soever yea though it be by members of Parliament as well as by the King and they themselves have taught us by their Declarations and practises that tyrannie is resistable and therefore their Arguments against the King may very well serve against themselves if speedily they turn not over a new leafe for what is tyranny but to admit no rule to govern by but their own wills 1. part col declar pag. 284. 694. But Thomas Gangraena one word more to you and your threatning to write a booke against liberty of Conscience and toleration of Religion I pray let me aske you this question if the Magistrate quatenus Magistrate be Judge of the Conscience and thereby is indowed with a power to punish all men that he judgeth conceiveth or confidently beleeveth are erroneous and hereticall or because in religion he differeth from the magisteriall Religion in the place where he lives Then I pray tell me whether all Magistrates quatenus Magistrates have not the very same powe● And if so then doth it not undeniably follow that Queen Mary and her Parliament did just in her dayes in making a law to bu●ne those Heretiques that dissented from her established Religion who were as grosse in their tenents in the then present Magistrates eyes as any of your Sectaries tenents are now in the present Magistrates eyes and if you and your bloody brethren of the Clergy-Presbytery shall ingage the present Parliament and Magistracie to persecute the Saints and

people of God under pretence of hereticall Opinions I will upon the hazard of my life justifie and prove it against you and the present Parliament that you and they therby justifie Queen Mary in murdering and burning the Saints in her dayes yea and all the bloudy persecuring Roman Emperors that caused to be murthered thousanes of the Saints for bearing witnesse to the restimony of Iesus yea and all the persecutions of the Iewes against Christ and his Apostles yea and the putting them to death and so bring upon your owne heads all the righteous blood shed upon the Earth from the dayes of righteous Abel to this present day Matth. 23.29 30.32.33.34 35. which I warrant you will bring wrath and vengeance enough upon you Now Mr. Lieutenant a few words more to you and so conclude I desire you in the next place not only to provide me gratis a prison Lodging for I can pay Chamber tent no longer but also to provide me my diet according to the custome of the place for you cannot but know and if you doe not I now tell you that the King was alwayes so noble and iust as to doe it to all the Prisoners be committed to this place of what qualitie soever of the truth of which * Who as I have lately heard confessed hee spent his Maiesty 1500. l. while hee was a prisoner here Col. Long Col. Hollis and Mr. Selden c. now members of the house of Commons can informe you and how that themselves when they were the Kings prisoners here in the 3. of His Raign for speaking and acting freely in the Parliament were maintained by the King according to their qualities though some of them had great estates of their owne in their owne possessions and enjoyments and now as the newes books tell me are voted 5000. l. pece for their then illegall sufferings And Sir the Lords who committed me hither have in gareat measure the Kings Revenue in their hands at their dispose and therefore I expect now I seek for it they shall be as just as their Master whom they have so much condemned for injustice and provide for me according to my quality And Sir I must tell you that I am very confident I have as many noble qualities in me and as much of a man in every respect as any of those that sent me hither For Titles of Honour without Honesty and Iustice are no excellenter then a gold ring in a Swines snout Yea and have given as large a declaration of it to the view of the world as any of them whatever hath done And therefore Sir if they shall deny me this piece of justice and equity I will by Gods assistance tell them as well of it as ever they were told in their lives But fir in the third place if this faile me I desire you to speake to them to allow me interest for my two thousand pounds it being scarce twice so much as I have spent since I first became a suiter for it that they the last yeare decreed me for my illegall bloody barbarous and inhuman sufferings by the Star-Chamber which I dare confidently say were more tormenting then all the sufferings of the above mentioned Gentlemen and their co-partners See my printed Relation of it made at the Lords Barre 13. Feb. 1645. For which as I understand there is 50000. l. reparations voted them by the House of Commons that so I may have something of my owne to live upon For without all or most of the three fore-mentioned things be done for me I must either perish or run exceedingly into debt which I confesse I am very loath to doe or lastly live upon the almes of my friends which I professe is not pleasant unto me And besides the freest horse or horses in the world with continuall riding thay not only be weatied but also jaded and tyred But if they will not yeeld that I shall have my lodging gratis and my diet found by them nor interest for my many yeares expected and long-looked for 2000 l. that last yeare they decreed me nor the remainder of my just arreares which yet is divels hundreds of pounds that I faithfully valiantly and dearly earned with the losse of my blood to maintain and keep me alive and my wife and small children Then as my last request I intreat from you to desire them to call me out to alegall tryall and by the law of the Kingdome but not their arbitrary wills either to be Justified or condemned And here under my hand I professe I crave nor desire neither mercy nor favour at their hands but bid defiance to all the adversarie I have in England both great and small to doe the worst their malice can unto me alwayes provided I may have a legall tryall by my Peeres my Equalls men of my own condition according to the just established unrepealed fundamentall law of the Land contained in Magna Charta and the Petition of Right And truly Sir if upon these tearmes they will not call me out but resolve to keep me here still I will by Gods assistance before many moneths be expired give them cause with a witnesse to call me out for here if I can helpe it I will not be destroyed with a languishing death though it cost me hewing to peeces as small as flesh to the pot For if it had not been that my report hath lain so long dormant in the hand of Col. Henry Martin the glory of his age amongst Parliament men for a lover of his Country whose credit and reputation I ingeniously confesse I should be very loath in the least if I could avoid it to bespatter But in regard by all the meanes and friends I can use to him I cannot get him to make my report though I desire nothing at his hands but a bate endeavour of the discharge of his duty to quit himselfe of it let the issue be good or bad all is one to me so it were but done or endevoured to be done I had long since made a formal appeal to the people but in regard of my constant hard usage both from divers Lords and Commons and their laylors and other instruments and the many unresistable prickings forward of my own spirit which presseth me rather to hazzard the undergoing of Sampsons portion Judg. 16.21 then to be forced to degenerate from the principles of Reason the King or chiefe of all creatures into the habit of a bruit beast and so to live a slave or vassal under any power under the Cope of Heaven whether Regall or Parliamentary or what ever it be And therefore having now with a long deliberated delibertation committed my wife and children to the tuition care and protection of a powerfull God whom for above these ten yeares I have feelingly and sensibly known as my God in Jesus Christ who with a mighty protection and preservation hath been with me in six troubles and in seven and from the very day of