printed papers about the Trial of the late King upon this very subject to make you now abominate of governing by Conquest or any other way like it especially that of the Officers of the Army of the 16 of Novemb. 16â—8 dated at St. Albons and John Cook your Soliciter Generals stated Case of the King And as to the nature and extent of implied and tacid trusts read in the first part of the Parliaments book of Declarations pag. 150 151. And the Armies Declaration of the 14 of June 1647. made immediatly after their League Covenant and Contract made and signed at New market and Triplo heaths and printed in their Book of Declarations about pag. 44 45. And can any man be so irrationally brutish as to imapine and think that those that you account honest people in England whom I am sure with my individual self have adhered with lives and estates to this very day to their fundamental laws and liberties and to the primitivest and best of the Parliaments and Armies Declarations that ever they will be so fellonious to themselves as to assist and enable you with their own power with their own estates with their own lives and blouds to enable you to set up that that shall destroy them and all that 's near and dear unto them if you please and when you please but such a thing for any thing I can apprehend is that Parliament that you tell my Wise you intend speedily to set up which I cannot in the least discern is to be chosen and entrusted by the people or any part even of those that have in all things as firmly as any of your selves adhered unto this very day and ventured their lives and fortunes to maintain their fundamental laws and liberties published and declared in the best of the Parliament and Armies declaration But a Parliament picked and culled by your selves that have not with all the Officers of the Army the honest people of Englands payed and hired servants who therefore ought not by your owne principles and for quoted Declarations to act for their wo in the least but onely and alone for their weal and good any other pretence to set up such a Parl. but the right of Conquest which yet will be one of the most vildest assertions in the world for you to maintain against my self and thousands and ten thousands more that have assisted you and never acted against your declared and honest principles by which you ingaged to maintain our fundamental laws and liberties in reference to the free and secure injoyment of our lives liberties and properties which by your foresaid declared principles and declarations can be no other but a Parliament of force will and pleasure and thereby the perfect badge of Conquest and by consequence by your own acknowledgment onely fit to make lawes amongst Bears and Wolves but not amongst men and what justice or relief I may expect from such a Parliament is beyond my apprehension The third way of governing or way of administration of Government is by a Nation or company of peoples mutual agreement or contract or long setled well approved of and received customs there being not in the least in either of the Oldor New Testament any prescript form of Civil or earthly politick Government left by God to be binding and observed by all Nations and people in all ages and times men being born rational creatures are therefore left by God in or to the choice of their Civil Government to the principles of reason all which centers in general in these two viz. do as you would be done to and ye shall not do evil that good may come thereby and to chuse such a government as themselves or their chosen trustees please to impose upon themselves under which they may in a rational security live happily and comfortably which the very Charter of Nature doth intayl or intitles all men under all Civil government unto and such was our Government in England in a great measure under the establishment of Kings who as in your Declarations and the late Kings own confession it is justly avowed and truly acknowledged was to govern the people of England according to the known and declared fundamental laws and no otherwise made by common consent in Parliament or national common or supreme Councels and to grant such laws for the future as the folk or people for the good and benefit in National common Councels or Parliaments should chuse which I dare avow was with all its imperfections in the constitution of it the best rationalest and for the people of England most securest of declared and setled Governments now extant in the whole world our change for onely a nominal free State or Commonwealth hither toward I will maintain it upon my life in aboundance of particulars against the ablest man or men in England being as yet onely for the worse but not in the least to the generality of the people for the better the late Parliament of Lords and Commons being according to the declared law of England called and summoned by the Kings Writ in whose power by law it was at his pleasure to dissolve them till such time as in the year 1640. he past an Act of Parliament in full and free Parliament That they should sit during their own pleasure and not be dissolved but by their own consents all which ancient legal much approved of long setled government being absolutely and totally dissolved by you there can now according to your foresaid principles and the principles of nature and reason by no power or persons whatsoever in England be summoned called or chosen a new Parliament but by a new and rational contract and agreement of the people of England especially and at least upon your own foresaid principles made amongst those that have adhered with their lives and fortunes to their own fundamental declared laws and liberties according to the rational and just principles of the Parliament and Armies best of Declarations And therefore a Parliament called by you in any other way as you pretend now to be in a Commonwealth in my shallow apprehension can be no other but the perfect demonstration of absolute Conquest which is a title or government fit onely for Beares and Wolves but not for men much less for Englishmen by your own forementioned printed Confession and averment The constant effects of which can in reason and experience be nothing els but murther shedding of bloud war misery pover'y famine pestilence and utter desolation to now more then ever divided poor England from which good Lord deliver poor England my dear and entirely beloved Native Country for whose welfare and freedom as for many years by past to the best of my poor understanding I have been ready and I hope whilest I breath shall never cease to continue willing to become a sacrifice And I also beseech God to cause the eyes of the wise and judicious ordinary people and common souldiers thereof
that were in arms against them Besides their destroying of the fundamental lawes and liberties of England contained in that most excellent Law the Petition of Right thereby and so overthrowing all the ends that we pretended to fight for against the King and thereby making us guilty of murdering all the people destroyed in the late Wars In all which considerations c. I was prevailed with the 14 of May last new or Dutch stile to write an address to the General and his Officers of the Army for my Pass to return from my destroying compeld remaining beyond the seas and pend it in rational moderate and respective phrases and terms as by the Copy of it here enclosed in print doth appear It being impossible in reason to imagine that the Officers of the Army should deal so severely with the Parliament their Lords Masters Creators and plentiful Providors for and who were fenced about with several laws to make it treason in all or any of those that should but attempt or endeavour without their own free and voluntary consents to dissolve them upon which very declared and printed statutes I my self was most severely prosecuted and arraigned two days together for my life as a Traitor at Guild Hall in London in Octob. 1649. with the greatest and earnestest persuit that ever was exercised upon a man upon a bare pretence of my endeavouring to dissolve them but by pening and printing as was pretended and if it could have been proved I had died as a Traitor for it arguments and reasons grounded upon the declared printed and published laws of England and the received acknowledged printed and published Rules of reason declared both in the late Parliament and the Armies declarations I say considering which it was impossible in reason to imagine that the General c. should as they have done deal so severely with the Parliament for their wickedness and oppression and deny me a Pass upon my bare desire to them being one of all men in the world that the Parliament it self had dealt most wickedly and oppressive with and banished in that barbarous and tyranical manner that they had done And also considering that I am a man that even in field have adventured my life with as much hazardousness gallantry and bravery as any man whatsoever in the whole Army for those very principles that they constantly in all their Declarations have declared the undoubted birth right and inheritance of all the people of England as well the poorest as the richest And considering that for this 15 or 16 years together I have been more then the General himself and all the Officers in the Army put together in one emptied from vessel to vessel winnowed sifted and tried gagged whipt pillored ironed arraigned for my life several times imprisoned close imprisoned attempted to be starved poysoned violently murthered pistolled daggered often divorced from enjoyment or sight of wife children servants kindred friends or any other relations and have had my friends and acquaintance bribed hired and corrupted with large sums of money and vast proffers besides to lay snares traps and gins to counterfeit my hand to swear falsely against me to take away my life And all this hath been done unto me for no other cause ground nor pretence of crime in the whole world but onely and alone for standing for the foresaid laws liberties declared freedoms and birthrights of the people of England that the Officers themselves in all their declarations have declared themselves to be Patrons of and standers for as things of so much excellency and worth as that they prized them above their lives and all other enjoyments that this world could â—fford unto them The substance of all which they have centured in that excellent piece of theirs as the sum of all their desires and endeavours called The Agreement of the People which they themselves presented to the Parliament about 4 years ago as containing the onely principles mood and way to establish in security for the future the full and safe enjoyment of the liberties and freedomes of the commonly called the free-born people of England Yea a man that by all provocation whatsoever or courtings whatsoever which hath been in both kindes many and great could never be provoked nor induced to turn his back upon the said declared principles of liberty and freedom nor in the day of the many straits of those that stood for them although he hath been never so injuriously dealt with even by divers of the chief pretenders to them And to conclude a man as to men for the worst of all his outward actions ever since he came to mans estate or knowledge the frailties of provoked passion or humane infirmity excepted which the righteousest of meer men are not totally exempted from that never to this day could justly be taxed or blemished with any the least outward baseness in any kinde whatsoever that could in the least spot or stain his outward reputation being confident according to the true fundamenâ—al laws of England for any thing whatsoever from his childehood to this very day acted by him that justly can be laid to his charg he may at the strictest legal bar of Justice in England with clear and confident assurance of the safety of his life limbs liberty or property bid defiance to all his adversaries though never so great that he hath in the whole world I say again upon all these considerations it could not rationally be imagined but upon the Generals and his Officers first knowledge of my addresse to them they would after they had by force dissolved the Parliament immediately have given me a Passe to return from my causelesse and ruining bonishment and my poor credulous wife took her journey from me into England with as much confidence immediately to obtain my longed for Passe upon my foresaid Addresse as she did believe she should live after that to eat or drink But after a tedious delay and a longing expectation she with several of my friends the last Dunkirk Post sent me several Letters thither dated the 27 of your May or old stile which is the sixth of our Flemish present June or new stile in reading of all which at Dunkirk the last Sunday by all which I expresly find the General gives my wife good words which makes her believe him infinitely to be her friend and that in the midst of the debate of my addresse by the Councel of Officers he was sent for by the Councel of State to come from the Councel of Officers to them and that immediately after they rise viz. the Officers or some of them gave my wife c. this answer viz. That they were not willing to break an Act of Parliament in a private case but there would speedily be a power or a new Parliament as they called it that would do it and some of great power inquired or demanded Whether if I came home I would be quiet or no and others said mine
tenour of the Petition of Right and all our fundamental laws most arbitarily as if the people of England were the most absolute conquered invassalized slaves upon the sace of the whole earth lay a tax of sixscore thousand pound a moneth upon the people to fill his pockets and his fat associates and doth he not do more then all the foregoing Kings and Tyrants of England durst do in chusing by himself and such of his meer mercenary Officers joyned with him as he pleaseth a Parliament or Legislators of whom he pleaseth to make laws for the people without asking their consents in the least Sure I am the Chronicles and Records of England declare that it was one of the Articles for which King Richard the second was discrowned and lost his crown That by himself and his own authority he had displaced but some Burgesses of the Parliament and â—ad placed such oâ—her in their â—oomes as would best fit and serve his own turn See William Martins Chronicle of the last Edition folio 128. Article 21. And in Article 22. He is accused for causing certain laws in Parliament to be made for his own gaine and to serve his own turn And in Article the 20. He is accused for over-awing the Members of Parliament that they durst not speak their minds freely And as for our lives it was Master Peters averment to me long since in the Tower we had no law lest in England and it was his averment yesterday being Sunday the last of July in the presence of the General before some of my acquaintance two of which aver to me that he averred to them we have now no law left or in being in England so that it seems the Generals will must be our rule to walk by and his pleasure the taker away of our lives without any crime or charge in law laid unto our charges or any defence or speaking for our selves permitted to us or required of us which is absolutely and perfectly my case as appears by the Votes of Parliament of the 15. Jan. 1651. printed in my Trial Therefore Judge seriously of your own and consider impartially whether now in your present condition under your great high and mighty pretended Christian master and lawless Lords You are not in a worse condition then ever any of our forefathers were under their Heathen Pagan Papal Episcopal or Presbyterian governours having now to deal with a company of mighty pretended Christians and Saints who yet make it their trade to get their bread and livelihood by shedding the blood and butchering of their neighbours and country-men they know not wherefore whose tables are dayly richly spread and deckt with the price of the blood of the people of England and their back and houses richly clothed and adorned with the same whose laws and liberties they have destroyed and confounded although they receive their daily wages and subsistence from them and that for no other publikely owned and declared cause but for the preserving of them And being it is against the law of God the light of nature reason and the law of England as the Officers of the Army in many of their Declarations have declared for a man to be Judge in his own case as they are with me in constantly picking and nulling my Judges of what persons they please yet in a way of equity and justice I challenge all my adversaries amongst them even from the General to the meanest Officer to chuse 2 3 4 5 or 6 honest friends and I will do the like and in the face of the Sun even to the utmost hazard of life I will refer my self to a bide by their judgement upon a fair and open publike hearing for all manner of things from my Cradle to this hour that they are able to lay to my charge and if they refuse this do they not declare thereby their own guilt which I am confident there is none of them all dare imbrace it but only continue in their belying me behind my back when I am not present to maintaine my own innocency which to preserve amongst you and other honest people in England I shall desire you seriously to read the honest papers already printed and published by my self and friends or well-wishers for my vindication and justification the names of which thus followeth 1 My three addresses to the Councel of State 2 A Jury mans Judgement 3 A defensive Declaration of Lieut. Col. John Lilburn the second Edition published July 1. 1653. 4 A Plea in Law for John Lilburne the second Edition of July 2. 1653. 5 The prisoners mournful cry or an epistle to the Lord Maior of London July 1. 1653. 6 The second Letter to the Lord Major of the 10. July 1653. 7 The fundamental laws and liberties of England claimed 12 My petition to the Parliament of the 12 July 1653. 13 Malice detected 14 A conference with the souldiers or a parley with a party of horse which with drawn swords entered the Sessions al Mr. John Lilburns trial 15 Oyes O yes O yes at the Quest of inquiry holden in the Court of common Reason 16 A cavet to those that shall resolve whether right or wrong to destroy J. L. 17 My friends petition of London of the 9 of July 1653. to the Parliament which hath relation to their large petition formerly delivered with another petition with my letter to the Lord chief Baron on the back of it dated July 14 1653. with a paper to every particular Member of the honorable Parliament to back the former 18 The honest women of Londons petition with their paper to back it unto every Individual Member of Parliament 19. The young men and Apprentices of Londons petition 20 The honest people of Kents petition 21 Tne exceptions of John Lilburne Gentleman to the Bill of Indictment printed by Rich. Moone at the seven Stars neer the great North-door of Pauls 22 The trial of John Lilburn prisoner in Newgate at the Sessions in Old-Baily the 13 14 15 and 16 of July 1653. 23 The honest men of Hartford shires petition for John Lilburn which is the onely thing of all the forementioned that is not printed But in regard I am naming of books for my vindication I beseech you to take notice that there is one of the excellentest pieces that lately I have read in England for clearing up the ancient fundamental laws rights and liberties setled by our forefathers lately published by that sober and rational man Captaine Robert Norwood and printed for the foresaid Rich. Moone Intituled An additional discourse c. which hath much relation to a most laborious piece commonly reputed to be made by Master Sadler the Town-Clark of London and which is Intituled Rights of our Kingdome or customs of our ancestors Printed at London by Richard Bishop 1649. aâ—â— in a special manner mentioned in the 27. pag. of the foresaid Captaine Norwoods book in the diligent reading of which you may exactly see what your
thee to use the contrary thou canst and knowest how to apply thy self thereto And therefore for a great man but especially for one newly attained to his greatnesse it beboves him saith he to have a mind so disposed as to turn and take the advantage of all winds and fortunes and as formerly I said not for sake the good while he can but to know how to make use of the evil upon necessity And therefore let him saith he seem to him that sees and hears him all pitty all faith all integrity all religion but there is not any thing more necessary for him to seem to have saith he then this last quality viz to seem to be religious because all men in generall judge thereof rather by the sight then by the touch for every man can come to see what thou seemest to be but few men come to perceive and understand what thou art indeed and reality For saith he if great men can feign and dissemble throughly other men are so simple and yeeld so much to the present necessities that he that hath a mind to deceive shall alwaies find another that will be deceived it being natural common to the vulgar to be over-taken with the apprehension and event of a thing seldome or never rightly and truly weighing and examining the righteousnesse and Justice of the way and means that great men use to attain to their ends And at the same time when I seriously considered the high pretences of the Major Generals Lambert and Harrison to Justice and Righteousnesse in its purity and height and the seeming contrariety of intrests betwixt them and their General it made me seriously to think of what I have with a great deal of observation read in those most excellent and famous Roman and Greek Historians Titus Livius and Plutark of the Triumvery of Rome consisting of Lepidus Anthony and Augustus Caesar whose intrests the said Authors plentifully shews in many things were as inoonsistent with each other as light is with darknesse yet they all could agree in the main viz. to make a sacrifice of each others choicest and dearest friends that each other of them hated or that they knew were or had bin great lovers of the liberties freedoms of Rome which some 100 of years before then had been one of the most famousest most splendidest and gloriousest Common-wealths in the whole world by means of which they not onely brought into their native Country and City most horrible and bloudy massacres and wars but also totally subdued the liberties of their famous Common wealth the people whereof could never regain them again to this day although it be above 1600 years ago and in conclusion the two eldest Triumveries viz. Lepidus and Anthony were cheated and outed of their Government and one or both of them of their lives and the youngest viz. Augustus Caesar carried the bell away of the whole and thereby made himself Emperour of the world then in subjection to Rome and the grounds and reasons of all these and many more considerations of my then perplexed conceptions arise from your foresaid answer and speeches to my wife c. for can there be any difficulty or danger or dishonour in it if you were willing at all to let me come into England to break a particular Act of Parliament in my particular case of so high and palpable injustice when you have accounted it no difficulty danger nor dishonour unto your to break or at least all of you to approve of the breaking and dissolving of that Parliament by force of arms that made the said particular unjust and unrighteous Act that were setled in their power and secured in the continuance of it by so many Acts of Parliament divers of which made it Treason for any English man or men so much as to go about or but attempt or indeavour to dissolve them without their own free consents and which some of your very selves had been formerly active upon most strict penalties even of losing the benefit of all Law and being esteemed no Englishmen to force the people to take an oath or ingagement to be true to them to maintain preserve them so that I confess this piece of your answer was then such a riddle to me as I could then no otherwise unfold it then as is alredy before declared In the second place as for that part of your Answer that tels her there will speedily be a new Parliament that will relieve me which very thing is a greater mystery to me then the former because that in all the readings that ever I read in my life in divine or humane Authors I reade but of three wayes of governing the world or the poople thereof the First is immediately by inspiration and visible or evident command from God himself and such was Moses Government and the Judges of Israel But I beleeve all of you nor none of you will so much as pretend to so immediate and evident conversing with God as Moses and several of the Judges of Israel did in your governing the people of England if you do I hope you will shew the people of England at least those that you judge honest and have no more upon your own declared principles forfeited their hereditary birth rights of injoyment of their fundamental lawes liberties and freedoms then any one of you have done your commission And also carry them where they shall evidently hear the voyce of God speaking unto you thereby infallibly guiding and directing you after which if then they will not beleeve your special assignation from God to be Englands Law givers and Rulers you will shew them your signes and wonders that by the power of God therein and thereby you will confound and destroy as Moses did grand unbeleevers and rebellers For without all these things all your pretences to walk in Moses and the Judges arbitrary steps in giving a law unto and by will and pleasure governing the people of England will be but meer impostorisms for which you can expect from God and the people of England no other recompence but what Impostors received in Moses time The second kinde of Government or way of administration of Government is by Conquest and such was Nimrods the mighty Hunter which is so mightily condemned even by the declarations of your own selves for a beastly inhumane and unnatural government as nothing can be more and therefore although at present I have not your printed papers or declarations at Calis by me yet by the strength of my memory I dare avow that in one of your printed papers published by you to justifie your late proceedings against the late executed King Conquest is called a title or government fit to be amongst Bears and Woolves but not amongst men and say I much less Christians but much less of all other amongst the pretended refined'st of Christians as you would have men judge you to be Reade but your late Acts Declarations and
seriously and constantly to be fixed in their thoughts upon the miseries of those unexpressible murthers devastations and desolations that were occasioned and brought upon poor England by the Conquest of the Romans and Julius Caesar as their first Captain and some hundreds of years after by the conquest of the Saxons and several yeares after that by the Conquest of the Danes and some hundreds of years after that by the conquest of the Normans under the leading of William the Conquerour afterwards admitted King of England about 600 years ago to the people or inhabitants of which he three several times took formal or solemn eaths inviolably to maintain their laws and liberties all which the said people and private souldiers may particularly reade in our English Chronicles but especially in that excellent History or Chronicle of famous and laborious John Speed that so their souls may for ever loath the exposing of themselves and their poor Native Countrey with their fundamental laws and rational and just liberties to the conquest and unlimited will of any forreign or domestique power in the world though never so specious in their religious pretences of godliness and piety All men by reason of Adams fall and his own corruption thereby being naturally if left to their own wils and pleasures more brutish bloudy and barbarous then the brutishest or savagest of wilde Beasts that seldom or never prey upon and devour their own kinde may plentifully be seen even in the civil moralised and much refined Commonwealth of Rome in the bloudy proscriptions massacres and barbarismes of savage Marius and Sylla when they got absolute and uncontroulable sword-power into their own hands and the bloudy and most unmatchable Plot and Conspiracy of Catiline and his accomplices Therefore I have read amongst the wisest and rationallest speeches of the high esteemed for reason and justice Parliament men at the be-beginning of the late Parliament that they do avow in their long since printed Speeches for constant successive Parliaments that all rational just imperial and wise Law-givers or Law-makers in the making of Laws must proceed with a sinister opinion of all Mankinde as supposing it impossible for a just man to be born either to have them to be executed upon or to be an executer of them and therefore should proceed to make them so rational just and exactly strickt as that as little as possible in reason should be left to the discretion will or pleasure of the Administrator or he upon whom they are to be administred so that as much as rationally may be they should become a rational and equitable bridle and curb upon them both to keep them off for their own safety and well being sake from incroaching upon one anothers rights or destroying of one anothers bâ—ings In the third place As to that demand whether if I come home I will be quiet or no I answer First I am as free born as any man breathing in England and therefore should have no more fetters then all other men put upon me And I have actually done as much in my poor contemptible sphere for the real preservation of the FVNDAMENTAL LAWS liberties and freedoms of England held out in the best and choisest of the Parliaments and Armies Declarations as any man breathing in England I dare with confidence and truth avow it what ever he be excepting never a one nor never coveted nor desired either gain or riches therefore but onely my bare common share in the enjoyment of the felicity and happiness that would redound to the universality of the people in general by a rational setling and for the future securing to them the free enjoyment of their lives liberties and estates and that so I might truly and solidly upon good grounds call that my own which with the sweat of my brewes the labour of my hands or in dustry or honesty of my brains or tongue I had justly got And that it might not be taken in the least from me but onely in a common equal just way for a common end and good or for a transgression of a rational and just declared law reaching the universality as wel as me and that I might truly and upon rational grounds call my wife that great and chiefest earthly delight of many men my own and the children that I got by her or at least confidently beleeve so my own and not have me taken from them nor them from me by will and pleasure as often hath been practised upon me already which give me leave truly to aver and avow is more the propper issue of the Government of Bears and Wolves then of rational and just men Secondly I answer it is ridiculous and foolish to ask me such a question if honesty justice righteousness and the true freedom and liberty of the Nation be in the least your real intentions for if I come home and finde you as before is expressed it is my interest which is that great thing that swayes and rules the world and all the men therein not onely to be quiet with you but hazardously venter my life and all that ever in this world I have in common with you for the good of the whole Nation And give me leave with confidence and as much modesty as I can to aver it my interest is none of the meanest in England but even amongst the hob-nails clouted shooes the private souldiers the leather and woollen Aprons and the laborious and industrious people in England is as formidable as numerous and as considerable as any one amongst your whole selves not excepting your very General let him but lay down his sword and become disarmed as I am a cleerer proof for the manifestation of which cannot be given in the world then was given at my fore-mentioned late Tryal at Guild-Hall London in Octob. 1649. where the Officers of the Army and in manner the whole Parliament and Councel of State and Magistrates of London were universally my bitter enemies yet at my deliverance from death by the Verdict of my honest Jury the private Troopers of the very Guard there upon the very place made their Trumpeters as from good hands I have been informed in spight of their Officers sound Victoria themselves shouting and discharging of their pistols for joy of my deliverance from complotted death yea and some of their Comrades begun to build bone-fires at Fleet bridge which all my then bloody Judges nor their Officers of the Army that to their Lodgings guarded them for fear of the peoples rage and sury with many Troopes and Companies of Horse and Foot could not prevail with the souldiers either of Horse or Foot to put out the said bone-fires nay nor none of the Parliament nor Councel of State nor Lord Major nor Court of Aldermen of London durst none of them appear to hinder the people from filling the streets of London in a wonderful manner with bone-fires that very night of my deliverance thousands and ten thousands of the
shall undoubtedly make England to be either honoured courted and respected by all neighbouring Princes and Commonwealths round about her even Holland it self or else undoubtedly shall make her to be feared and dreaded of all those that refuse to do the former and that this shall be done by honourable and just ways in every particular 2. I will lay down such honest just rational and feasible grounds as if speedily and effectually persued in the eye of reason shall undoubtedly make England in Trade and Traffick in one year or two at the most more to flourish in Trade and Traffick then ever it did before the late Wars yea even to equallize and go beyond Amsterdam and Holland in its greatest glory which in their true and natural effects shall much increase the people and inhabitants of England and in particular shall make thousand and ten thousands of Watermen more then now they have which are and must be now the Bulworks of England shall raise the price of Land and by consequence of all commodities produced by it the Loans of which at the present is like to break the poor Husband-man and in a very short time shall ease the people of three quarters at least of their present charges in Taxes and Excize and for the future the middle sort of people shall not bear half so much as they do now in proportion nor the richest be opprest at all nor compelled to pay above their proportion which with Gods blessing in a very few moneths shall produce to whole England such peace and plenty as shall evidently yielde an unoppressive way and means to give to every Souldier now in Arms in England c. and settle upon him and his heirs for ever without alienation so many Acres of Land as shall be worth ten pound or fifteen pound sterling a year and upon every poor decayed house keeper like the Law Agraria amongst the Romans shall settle for ever so many Acres of Lands as shall be worth after the first years husbandry to him and his heirs for ever five pound or fixe pound sterling per year and shall also provide for all the old and lame people in England that are past their work and for all Orphans and Children that have no estate nor parents that so in a very short time there shall not be a Beggar in England nor any idle person that hath hands or eyes by meanes of all which the whole Nation shall really and truly in its Militia be ten times stronger formidabler and powerfuller then now it is all which if you get me home in safety and thereby free me from the murtherous dealings of Mr Thomas Scot and his cursed and blood thirsty Associates if by evident reason and demonstration I do not make all the abovesaid things apparent to your Commissioners chosen by you to discourse with me upon the premises let me dye and be esteemed for ever by you all the veriest Cheat and Rogue that ever in your lives you had to deal withall Therefore as you love your own welfare and the welfare and happinesse of the Land of your Nativity act vigorously stoutly industriously and unweariedly night and day for the preservation of your own interest liberties and welfare very much concerned in your speedy getting me a Pass for which I shall account my self as much obliged to you all that are vigorous actors in it as ever man did to a generation of men in the world so with my honest and truest love to you all I rest Yours faithfully if his own J. LILBURN From my present Lodging at the Silver Lyon in Ca â—â—is this present Saturday June 4th 1653. And because in the latter end of my fore-going Address from Calis Pag. 19. there is mention made of one Letter being written from Dunkirk which probably may come to the knowledge of the Councel of State which will not please them and seeing the said Letter is constantly hit in my friends teeth as my information tels me by Major Packer himself and other of his great Masters as if it were fully fraught with treason felony or the highest manifestation of malice and hatred to my native Country that possible can be expressed and though since my coming into England I have made it my studied work rather to heal and close up breaches betwixt me and my potent adversaries then to make them in the least wider and therefore in my three first Addresses to the Councel of State I did in sincerity and truth proffer them what ever in my imagination could be proffered by a rational peaceable just and honest man but yet notwithstanding that my life and innocent bloud ever since hath been with that eagerness persued and stil is ordered to be persued and no ear at all in the least will be given to any of those many Petitions or thousands and ten thousands well affectâ—d people that hath constantly been endeavoured to be presented to the Parliament for me that I am confident I may justly say the persecution raised and persued against my innocent life is farre beyond the persecution in bloudy Queen Maries time that was raised and persued against the righteous and just Martyrs or any of them For in the first place she dealt in that particular so justly with them that she made them known and declared Laws to walk by and to take heed of before that ever she went about in any the least kiâ—de to punish them but no such thing in the least is there in my case although our Governours pretend to be a thousand times more righteous and godly then she was and yet in actions even in my present particular are abundantly more abhominable in wickedness and thirsting after innocent bloud then she was And besides we have in England been fighting pretendedly for the securing of our Lawes and Liberties for this ten or eleven years together and yet fall far short of bloudy and wicked Queen Mary in outward justice and righteousness Who secondly would never have any of the righteous Martyrs condemned but she would have them to have due process of Law and fair hearings and trials and their crimes and offences laid unto their charges and either proved against them face to face or confessed by them But no such things at all in the least is there in my case for I never had any due process of Law in my life about my banishment nor no crime in the least laid unto my charge nor never saw accuser nor witness against me nor never was asked the question what I could say for my self nor never permitted to speak one word for my self and yet Major William Packer and his great pretended Religious Masters General CROMWEL Major Genereal HARRISON and Major General DESBOROVGH are the onely men that principally persue my life upon this score to have it taken away from me which is a deliberated and a consulted action of higher tyranny I am confident of it them ever was acted by the greatest Tyrannical
wrath and malice in your own heart as rather sooner as I have often told my poor simple wise to hazard your life and well-being then ever suffer me again to breath in Englands Ayr in peace security and quietness In which regard I told her if she were wise she would willingly permit me according to my own well and rationally grounded genius to scuffle neither with small nor great but you alone as the chief author of my banishment and chief Patron and true earthly causer of all the grand mischiess and Tyranny acted in poor England yet though I could not draw her to that I so penned my said Address as that if upon the speedy delivery of it my Pass were denyed or delayed I could in my own thoughts make sufficient use of the publishing and printing of it and therefore confidently believing you would be like that grand Tyâ—ant Pharoah hardened in heart to your own destruction I got 1000 of them in these parts printed in Dutch and English and immediately sent another copy to Paris to be printed in French and English there and also sent another copy to Amsterdam to be printed in Dutch and Latin there which I hope if it be not already done it will be speedily done and another copy by another hand then my wife to be printed besides the original I sent to London but my wife having heard of it hath most irrationally hindered it so that now I must take some other course to get it printed whether she will or no let the issue be good or bad I care not and fully understanding by this Post by six or seven several Letters that my desired Pass is delayed which I have cause by the length of time to take for an absolute denyal and also have too just cause to judge that you alone are the principal cause of it in which regard not to complement with you which now I scorn but in my own imagination to leave you amongst all rational men the more without excuse I send you these lines upon which most particularly I do most heartily and earnestly entreat you who I know is able with the bare lifting up of your finger if you please to send me speedily without any the least further delay my Pass to return into the Land of my nativity from my causless illegal and unjust banishment and if when I come into England you have any thing to say to me for any evil I have done you either in word or action or any way else I do hereby engage to give you real satisfaction face to face either first as a Christian or secondly as a rational man or thirdly as a sturdy though very much wounded and cut fellow that dare yet subscribe himself From Dunkirk Monday the 2 of June 1653. Dutch or New stile Honest and stout JOHN LILBURNE that neither fears death nor hell men nor Devils A second piece that I intended when I begun this to have produced to evince my strong and earnest affection to my native country and its liberties and freedomes and my constant study to indeavour its welfare even while I was beyond the seas whilst I was daily strugling with the complotted-designes of my death by the barbarous wicked and most vile agents of Master Thomas Scot the Generals Secretary of State and as I am informed is yet his bosome cabinet and darling friend although in all manner of wickedness and baseness he is so vile and putrified that I am confident honest Job would have scorned to have set so unworthy a man with the dogs of his flock I say the second piece that I intended to produce was an Epistle writ by me from Bridges in Flanders the last of October last English stile unto Colonel Martin which is printed beyond Sea at the latter end of a book Intituled John Lilburn revived and which hath so many clear demonstrations in it of my true affection to my Native Country and its welfare and prosperity and that in the way of a Commonwealth rightly constituted that by no understanding man that shall read it can I I am confident of it in the least be judged a man in league with any manner of Royallist in the world to do England or its liberties and freedoms the least hurt in the earth but it would make this Epistle much too long and take up too much of my precious time to look after my second tryal drawing on so nigh at hand as Wedensday come seven dayes is and that with that fury and rage that I understand the General c. drives it on with and therefore I shall here earnestly desire some of the seriousest amongst you for your further satisfaction in this point to make a journey to London to one very well known to the most if not all of you and that is Master William Kiffin one judged even by my great adversaries sufficiently well-affected to the present interest that now rules and ask him but these two questions First whether since my aboad in Flanders c. beyond the seas he did not receive divers letters from me Secondly desire to know of him the particular contents of those letters and particularly whether divers of them were not fill'd with as clear demonstrations of my real affection to the welfare of England as any letters possible could be filled and whether they did not selve him often to use for the good of England or no. But now my friends should I put you upon a serious consideration of the publike wayes of Major William Packer and his great masters truly I think I might truly aver that all the histories of the whole world will not afford a generation of men that in printed Declarations have promised more to a people of good and in actions done less then they there being not the least suitableness in the world betwixt their publike Declarations and their Actions for although it was onely Law and Liberty that declaredly we fought to secure for these eleven together against the King yet I would now but ask any ingenious man in England this question Whether there be any law in reality liberty or propriety left in England but the Generals will and pleasure who although he was but a mean man a while ago and now at most but the peoples daily hired and paid mercenary servant Doth he no pick and cull Parliaments at his pleasure and when those that he hath left hath given him and his associates out of that that is none of their own many thousand pound lands of inheritance a yeer doth he not at his pleasure pluck them up by the tooâ—s although by his consent and seeking they had hem'd themselves about with divers laws to make it treason for any man or men of England whatsoever but to indeavor to raise force against them to dissolve them and doth not he and his Officers when they have created necessities of their own making without the least shaddow of Parliamentary authority expresly against the
banished then in the eye of the Law of nature he should have endeavoured to preserve the well-being of his native Country and did not David go with the Philistians to battel against Saul as is recorded when he was forced to flye for his life to escape the fury of Saul and doth not David call Saul and all that took part with Saul enemies and God doth not lay any sin to Davids charge for it as it may be observed in the Scriptures 1 Sam. 21.10 11. 29.1 2 3.6 And 1 Chro. 12.19 Neither ought John Lilburn to be accused as a malefactor for what he said or did against those that sought to take away his life as Saul did or would have done to David when he was in an exile condition seeing that they then esteemed him as an enemy But Objection the second John Lilburn is come to England to embroyl this Nation in a new war and to destroy most of our States-men as is reported or said Answ When there is no action committed there is no transgression to be charged and where no transgression is charged no Law condemneth for neither the Law of God nor the Law of Nature condemneth before some transgression be committed for Adam was not condemned before he had transgressed but was forewarned that he should not transgress that he might not be condemned Gen. 2.16 17. and if a horse look over a hedge where Corn is and break not in the horse is not presently pounded unless he committed some actions by breaking into the Corn and so be under transgression then he is liable to be pounded saith the Law Neither can it stand in Reason with men of Reason that ever Mr. John Lilburn could or can embroyl this Nation in a new war again with it self for in reason how can it be hath not the people or Parliament thousands of foot and horse now in Arms both in England and other places and a great Navy at Sea and besides the constancie of Mr Lilburn to the trust reposed in him for the publick or common good might let all men see and fully understand thereby that those aspersions cast upon him is meerly out of malice against the person of the man Nay all men that have but natural understanding may see the good intentions of Mr. Lilburn by his many sufferings in the days of the Bishops and late King and often since not that Mr Lilburn ever did oppose powers or Magistrates as powers but the abuse of their power which they inflict and exercise upon the people whom both by the Law of God and Nature they are bound to preserve and comfort but when Powers make their lusts to be their Wills and their Wills to be Laws then honest Mr. John Lilburn opposeth that corruption and for opposing Vice and not Vertue Mr. John Lilburn is often contemned and counted a turbulent man but the truth is tyranny is resistible in whomsoever it is found it is the Armies and grandees own Doctrine and they have preached and practised it in the highest and wil and ought to be resisted by all well principled and minded men both by the light and Law of God and Nature Also if Mr. John Lilburn had been of such a base Spirit as some great in place are that when he was employed for the Parliament to revolt and then turn to the King and his Faction and from the King to the Parliament again and had now under his command great store of ships at Sea or souldiers on Land then there might be some colour of shew that he would put forth himself for the Kings interest but Mr. Lilburn never stained as yet his reputation by betraying the trust reposed in him for the good of this Nation but valiantly and honestly hath performed his part in all actions as hath been offered him So it may be expected and feared that some who make a fair shew of the peoples Freedoms and Liberties do intend the peoples Bondage as may appear by those unjust dealings and proceedings against Mr. John Lilburn that stands for nothing so much as the peoples Liberties Freedoms and Laws although his life is dear unto him and his wife and children yet he hath acted more for the true Freedoms of the people then ever he did for them So having answered these your Objections I remain yours and the peoples well wisher of Freedom and Liberty both according to the Law of God and Nature and that to do as men would that others should do to them which is both the Law and the Prophets Matth. 7.12 FINIS