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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88228	The opressed mans opressions declared: or, An epistle written by Lieut. Col. John Lilburn, 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 opressing cruelty of all the gaolers of England is declared, and particularly the Lieutenant of the Tower. As also, there is thrown unto Tho. Edwards, the author of the 3 vlcerous Gangrænes, a bone or two to pick: in which also, divers other things are handled, of speciall concernment to the present times.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1647 (1647)	Wing L2149A; Thomason E373_1; ESTC R201322	33,049	40

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 knock your pate as to make use of my own proper weapons to cut you soundly or any other man that shall assault me to the hazzard of my Being this is just my case that you count such a disgrace unto me 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 practise Alas man may not I lawfully seek or receive a good turn from the hands of any man and yet as lawfully do my best to refuse a mischief from him But secondly I answer what though the 4. of May 1641. I stooped to a tryal 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 Cor. 13.11 When I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childish 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 sate was above them especially seeing at all Conferences betwixt both Houses I see 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 discourse upon the Lords jurisdiction which was upon this ground about a moneth or six weeks A Gentleman a Member of the house of Commons and one that I believe wisheth me well bid me look to my self for to his knowledg there was a design 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 terrifie others that they should not dare to stand for their Rights And being thus fore-warned I was half armed which made me discourse upon every opportunity with any that I thought knew any thing of the Lords Jurisdiction and I found by a generall concurrence that the 29. Chap. 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 Cookes Judgment expresly against them and 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 coming prisoner to the Tower one of my fellow-prisoners very honestly told me of the fore-mentioned Record of Sir Simon de Bereford which presently with all speed under M Colets hand I got out of the Record-Office All which just and legall authorities and testimonie 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 the ulcerous Gangrena 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 by the strength of God if once I be engaged in it either go through with it or dy in the midst 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 Commons as now I am against them Yet truly a man of Mr. Gangraenaes coat is the unfittest man in the Kingdom to reprove me for it For his Tribe I mean of Priests and Deacons those little toes of Antichrist now called reformed Presbyters are such a Weather-cock unstable generation of wavering minded men as the like are not in the whole Kingdome For their Predecessours in Henry the 8. dayes were first for the Pope and all his Drudgeries and then for the King and his new Religion and then 3. in his time returned to rheir vomit again and then 4. 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 do aver it will maintain 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 bloudy 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 govern the Consciences of his people which they have nothing at all to do with He having made perfect compleat and unchangeable Lawes himself Esa 9.6 7 and 33.20 22. Acts 1.3 and 3.22 23. and 20.26 27. 1 Cor. 11.1 2. 1 Tim. 6.13 14. Heb. 3 2 3 6 became again a Generation of pure and reformed Protestants and have so continued to this present Parliament But now like a company of notorious forsworn men who will be of any Religion in the world so it carry along with it profit and power after they have for the generality 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 7th time and ingaged the Parliament and Kingdom 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 haue turned fallen from that Covenant and Oath by which they made all swear that took it not onely to root out Bishops but all Officers whatsoever that depend upon them in the number of which are all themselves 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 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

that from thence-forth no person should be compelled to make any Loanes to the King against his will because such Loanes 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 a benevolence nor by such like charge by which the statutes before-mentioned and other the good lawes and statutes of this Realm your subjects have inherited this freedome that they should not be compelled to contribute to any taxe tallage aid or other like charge not set by common consent in Parliament All which the King confirmes And by the statute made this present Parliament that abolished Ship-money All and a very the particulars prayed or desired in the said Petition of Right shall from henceforth 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 Majesty 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 fear or flattery that if your great Masters the Lords the true prerogative-friends of the house of Commons had any true and reall intentions to preserve the Fundamental Lawes and Liberties 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 destroy them from their weighty employment of dividing great and vast summes of the Common-wealths money amongst themselves without either doing justice and right in the like nature to any man breathing unlesse it be themselves or some of their sons kinsmen or near friends whose principles are to serve their ends to the breadth of a haire in all they enjoyn them they would scorn 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 paltery Jaylor in England to do 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 Parlament 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 now is made a cloak for all kind of knavery and villanie which they and you took with your hands lifted up to the most high God and swore to maintain the Fundamental 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 Jaylors are so impudent and oppressive as they are and go so scot-free from punishment though often complained of as they do Truly for my part I am not able to render any more probable one 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 of some of them See the 99 100 101 102 103 c. pages of the fore-mentioned book called Regall Tyrannie discovered and therefore must and do improve their interest and power to protect them in their knaveries and oppressions For within these few daies 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 Goaler about this Citie that makes of his Prison above 20000 l a year and commits all manner of villanies and yet no Justice can be had against him though hee hath often and powerfully been complained against to the Parliament it self where he said he had more favour countenance and protection then the honest 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 daies after I came to him demanded chamber-rent of me at a great deale higher rate then I pay and I told him necessitie 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 bare Lodging but in regard it was with me as it was conditionally that hee for his part would use me and those my friends that should come to to see me with civilitie and humanitie 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 ingenuously confesse I have no cause in the least to complain of the man in point of civilitie 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 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 me 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 entred 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 opportunity publickly to cleare my own unspotted innocency in reference to the Lords and to anatomize their tyranny both of which my soul thirsted after and therefore if I had been able I would have purchased an opportunity to have done it though it had cost me 20. l a week And-truly Sir I have done my doe and in despite 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 Chains 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 Cōmons of England and called it An Anatomy 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 self or any torture or torment that their malice can inflict upon me and seeing that I cannot by any means I can use get my report made to the House of Commons and so enjoy justice and right at their hands which I 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 into the House Commons to divert them from the great affaires 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 Interest 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 from 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 again be established although by the second Article of the Covenant now more magnified by the sonnes of darknesse add blindnesse then the Book of God they have expresly sworn to root up that Function by the roots The words of the Covenant are That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endevour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical officers depending on that Hierarchy superstition heresie schisme prephaneness 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 Kingdom that officiate by vertue of their Ordination which they had from the Bishops or any by vertue of their Authority And I will maintain it with my life that he is a forsworn man whether he be Parliament-man or other that hath taken the Covenant and doth contribute any of his assistance to maintain preserve and uphold that Ordination of the Presbyterian Ministers that they received from the Bishops or punish any man for writing preaching or speaking against it or any other wayes endevouring the destruction 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 fro them But if they shal 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 as Pope or Bishops but quatenus as Presbyter or Presbyters and so are in every particular as lawfull Ministers as any of these men that have their ordination from them and yet have endevoured to draw the whole Kingdom into a Covenant sinfully to extirpate them that are Christs Ministers upon their own 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 fountain Sure I am Job demands this question Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean And by the same Spirit of God he answers Not one Job 14.4 And James interrogates saying Doth a Fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter Or can the Fig-tree my brethren beare Olive-berries either a Vine Figges Therefore in a positive negation he concludes that no Fountain can both yeeld salt water and fresh And therefore seeing THOMAS THE GANGRENA the Rabshakeh Champion of the new sprung-up Sect in England of Presbyters who may more truly and properly be called Schismatickes then any of those he so brands for they have separated from their Ghostly Fathers the Bishops and yet are glad to hold their ordination and are therefore schismaticall And therefore seeing in his last GANGRENA he hath fallen so point-blank upon me for no

but he 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 Bishops for their Ordination for they have no other and what is this else but to punish every one that shal 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 bear any office in the Kingdome if they will not take the Covenant And then if they do take it it shall be as bad if they will not forswear themselves every moment of time that the Assembly shal judg it convenient and the house of Commons vote it And truly there is in my judgment a good stalking-horse for this practise in the Assembly of Dry-vines alias Divines Deut. 32.32 33. Esa 44.52 Exhortation 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 Oaths call for rapentance not particularly 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 the Land and so by this Synodian Doctrine a man may take a hundred Oaths in a day and not be bound by any of them if he please Besides I would fain know if by the Parliaments so eager pressing of the Covenant they do not presse the hastening of many of their own destructions For by the Covenant every man that takes it is bound thereby to maintain and preserve the fundamental lawes of the Kingdome with us every day troden under foot by some of the members of both Houses arbitrary practices not onely towards Cavaliers for which they have some colour by pleading necessity but also towards those of their own 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 chalenge 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 finde time enough since I came prisoner to the Tower to share about 200000. l of the Common-wealths mony amongst themselves as may clearly be particularized by their owne newes bookes licenced by one of their own Clerkes O horrible and 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 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 thē never intended I am cōfident of it good to the generality of the people but that they should be as absolutely their vassals slaves if not more as ever they were the Kings O thou righteus and powerfull Judge of Heaven and Earth that of all the base things in the world hatest abhorrest dissemblers hypocrites Jer. 7.9 10 11 12. to 16. Matth. 23 deal with these the greatest of Dissemblers thy self who like so many bloudy and cruell men have ingaged this poor Kingdom in a bloudy and cruell war pretendedly for the preservation of their lawes and liberties when as God knowes by a constant series of actions they declare they never truly and really intended any such thing but meerly by the bloud 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 it 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 duty in conscience by vertue of my oath to do 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 Liberties of England and prosecute them with as much zeal as ever any of them prosecuted the King for tyrannie is tyrannie 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 leaf for what is tyrannie but to admit no rule to govern by but their own wils 1 part col declar pag. 284 694. But Tho Gangrana one word more to you your threatning to write a book against liberty of Conscience and toleration of Religion I pray let me ask you this question if the Magistrate quatenus as Magistrate be Judge of the Conscience and thereby is indowed with a power to punish all men that he judgeth conceiveth or confidently believeth are erroneous and hereticall or because in Religion he differeth from the magisterial Religion in the place where he lives Then I pray tell me whether all Magistrates quatenus as Magistrates have not the very same power 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 burn those Heretiques that dissented from her established Religion who were as grose 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 shal ingage the present Parliament and Magistracie to prosecute the Saints and people of God under pretence of heretical Opinions I wil upon the hazzard of my life justifie and prove it against you and the present Parliament that you and they thereby justifie Q. Mary in murdering and burning the Saints in her dayes yea and all the bloudy-persecuting Roman Emperors that caused to be murdered thousands of the Saints for bearing witnesse to the

testimony of Jesus yea and all the persecutions of the Jewes against Christ and his Apostles yea and the putting them to death and so bring upon your own heads all the righteous bloud shed upon the Earth from the dayes of righteous Abel to this present day Mat. 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-rent no longer but also to provide me my diet according ro the custome of the place for you cannot but know and if you do not I now tell you that the King was alwayes so noble and just as to do it to all the Prisoners he committed to this place of what quality soever of the truth of which * Who as I have lately heard confessed hee spent his Maj. 1500. l while he was a prisoner heere Col. Long Col. Hollis and Mr. Selden c. now members of the house of Commons can informe you and how that themselues 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 own in their own possessions and enjoyments and now as the newes-books tell me are voted 5000. l a piece for their then illegal sufferings And Sir the Lords who committed me hither have in a great 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 Justice 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 what ever hath done And therefore Sir if they shall deny me this peece of justice and equity I will by Gods assistance tell them as well of it as ever they were told in their lives But Sir 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 year decreed me for my illegall bloody barbarous and inhumane 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 own to live upon For without some of the three fore-mentioned things be done for me I must either perish or run exceedingly into debt which I professe I am very loath to to doe or lastly live upon the alms of my friends which I confesse is not pleasant unto me And besides the freest horse or horses in the world with continuall riding may not onely be wearied 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 Arrears which yet is divers 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 a legall tryall and by the law of the Kingdome but not their arbitrary wils 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 adversaries I 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 Equals 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 help 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 hands of Col. Henry Martin the glory of his Age amongst Parliament men for a lover of his Countrey 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 bare indeavour 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 endeavoured 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 Jaylors and other instruments 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 frō 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 Regal or Parliamentary or what ever it be And therefore having now with a long deliberated deliberation committed my wife and children to the tuition care and protection of a powerful God whom for above these ten years I haue feelingly and sensibly known as my God in Jesus Christ who with a mighty protection preservation hath been with me in six troubles and in seven and from the very day of my publique Contest with the Bishops hath inabled me to carry my life in my hands and to have it alwayes in a readinesse to lay it down in a quarter of an hours warning knowing that he hath in store for me a mansion of eternal glory All these things considered I am now determined by the strength of God if I speedily haue not that