Claverton Combe Hampton Toustock Walcot and Wedcombe small parishes in our Hundred and Liberty as they will prove upon Oath and given it me under their hands to 94 li. 4 s. 3 d. charge beside what quarters in other parishes of the Hundred Sir Hardresse Wallers Souldiers upon pretext of collecting arrears of Contribution not due from the hundred put it to at least 30 l. charge more for free-quarter they being very rude and disorderly and no sooner were we quit of them but on the 22 and 23 of May last Col. Hunks his Foot under the conduct of Captain Flower and Captain Eliot pretending for Ireland but professing they never intended to go thither marching from Minehead and Dunster the next Westerne Ports to Ireland further from it to oppresse the Country put Bathwick Langridge Witty Batheaston Eutherin and Ford to 28 l. 7 s. and Swainswicke where I live to about 20 l. expences for three dayes Freequarter by colour of the Generals Order dated the first of May being the rudest and deboistest in all kinds that ever quartered since the Warrs and far worse then the worst of Goring's men whereof some of them were the dreggs and their Captain Flower a Cavalier heretofore in arms as is reported against the Parliament Their carriage in all places was very rude to extort money from the people drawing out their swords ransacking their houses beating and threatning to kill them if they would not give them two shillings six pence three shillings three shillings six pence or at least two shillings a day for their quarters which when extorted from some they took free-quarter upon others taking two three and some four quarters a man At my house they were most exorbitant having as their Quarter-Master told me who affirmed to me they had twice conquered the Kingdom and all was theirs directions from some great ones above from some others in the Country intimating some of the Committee and their own Officers who absented themselves purposely that the Souldiers might have none to controll them to abuse me In pursuance whereof some thirty of them coming to my house shouting and hollowing in a rude manner on May 22 when their Billet was but for twenty not shewing any Authority but only a Ticket Mr. Prynne 20 climbed over my walls forced my doors beat my servants and workmen without any provocation drew their swords upon me who demanded whose Souldiers they were by what authority they demanded free-quarter my house being neither Inne nor Alehouse and Free quarter against Law and Orders of Parliament and the Generals using many high provoking Speeches brake some of my windows forced my strong-beer cellar door and took the key from my servant ransacked some of my chambers under pretext to search for Arms taking away my servants clothes shirts stockings bands cuffs handkerchiefs and picking the money out of one of their pockets hollowed roared stamped beat the Tables with their Swords and Muskets like so many Bedlams swearing cursing and blaspheming at every word brake the Tankards Bottles Cups Dishes wherein they fetched strong beer against the ground abused my maid-servants throwing Beef other good provisions at their heads and casting it to the dogs as no fit meat for Souldiers and the Heads and Conquerors of the Kingdom as they called themselves searched the out-houses for Turkies which they took from their eggs and young ones Veal and Mutton being not good enough for them They continued drinking and roaring before at and after Supper till most of them were mad-drunk and some of them dead-drunk under the Table Then they must have 14 beds provided for them for they would lie but two in a bed and all their linnen washed My Sister answering them that there were not so many beds in the house and that they must be content as other Souldiers had been with such beds as could be spared they thereupon threatned to force open her chamber door and to pull her and her children out of their beds unlesse she would give them three shillings a peece for their beds and next dayes quarters and at last forced her for fear of their violence being all drunk to give them eighteen pence a piece assoon as they were forth of doors and six pence a peece the next day if they marched not whereupon they promised to trouble the House no more Upon this agreement all but eight who were gone to bed departed that night and the rest the next morning But I going to the Lecture at Bath some thirty of them in my absence came about ten of the clock notwithstanding the moneys received of my Sister for their Quarters re-entered the house and would have Quarters again unlesse she would give them three shillings a peece which she refusing they thereupon abused and beat the servants and workmen forced them to drink with them all that day and night swearing cursing roaring like so many Furies and Divels brake open my Parlour Milk-house and Garden-doors abused my Pictures and brake an hole in one of them hacked my Table-boards with their swords from one end to the other threw the chairs stools meat drink about the house assaulted my Sister and her little children and Maid-servants with their naked swords threatning to kill them and kick them to gelly shot at them with their Muskets forced them out of the House to save their lives which I hearing of repaired to my house and finding them all so Bedlam mad and that they would not hearken to any reason nor be quieted I thereupon rode to seek their Captain and Officers at Bath who purposely absented themselves and not finding them till the next morning I acquainted the Captain then as I had done the first night by Letter with all these unsufferable outrages of his Souldiers contrary to the Generals Orders to carry themselves civilly in their quarters and abuse none in word or deed which would render him and them odious not onely to the Country and Kingdom but all Officers and Souldiers who had any civility in them and be a disparagement to the Generall by whose Proclamation he ought to be present with his Company to keep them in good order under pain of cashiering And therefore I expected and required Justice and Reparations at his hands the rather because I was informed by some of his own Souldiers and others that they had not been so barbarously rude but by his incouragement which if he refused I should complain of him to his Superiours and right my self the best way I might After some expostulations he promised to make them examples and cashier them and remove them forthwith from my house But the onely right I had was that more of his company repaired thither making all the spoil they could and taking away some brasse and Pewter continuing there till neer four of the clock and then marched away onely out of fear I would raise the Country upon them many of whom profered me their assistance but I desired them to
a great extraordinary Subsidie then demanded of them though not comparable to this for the necessary defence of the Kingdom against Forraign enemies till they had conferred with the Counties and Burroughs for which they served and gained their assents Yet there is no shadow of reason Law or Equity it should oblige any of the secluded Members themselves whereof I am one or those Counties Cities or Burroughs whose Knights Citizens and Burgesses have been secluded or scared thence by the Armies violence or setting Members illegall Votes for their seclusion who absolutely disavow this Tax and Act as un-Parliamentary illegall and never assented to by them in the least degree since the only l reason in Law or equity why Taxes or Acts of Parliament oblige any Member County Burrough or Subject is because they are parties and consenting thereunto either in proper person or by their chosen Representatives in Parliament it being a received Maxime in all Laws Quod tangit omnes ab omnibus debet approbari Upon which reason it is judged in our m Law-books That By-Laws oblige only those who are parties and consent unto them but not strangers or such who assented not thereto And which comes fully to the present case in 7 H. 6. 35. H. 6.34 Brooke Ancient Demesne 20. Parl. 17.101 It is resolved That Ancient Demesne is a good plea in a Writ of Waste upon the Statutes of Waste because those in Ancient Demesne were not parties to the making of them FOR THAT THEY HAD NO KNIGHTS NOR BURGESSES IN PARLIAMENT nor contributed to their expences And Judge Brook Parliament 101. hath this observable Note It is most frequently found that Wales and County Palatines WHICH CAME NOT TO THE PARLIAMENT in former times which now they do SHALL NOT BE BOUND BY THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND for ancient Demesne is a good Plea in an action of wast and yet Ancient Demesne is not excepted and it is enacted 2. Ed. 6. c. 28. that fines with Proclamation shall be in Chester for that the former Statutes did not extend to it and it is enacted That a Fine and Proclamation shall be in Lancaster 5. 6. E. 6. c. 26. And a Proclamation upon it a exigent is given by the Statute in Chester and Wales 1. E. 6. c. 20. and by another Act to Lancaster 5. 6. E. 6. c. 26. And the Statute of Justices of Peace extended not to Wales and the County Palatine and therefore an Act was made for Wales and Chester 27. H. 8. c. 5. who had Knights and Burgesses appointed by that Parliament for that and future Parliaments by Act of Parliament 27. H. 8. cap. 26. since which they have continued their wages being to be levyed by the Statute of 35. H. 8. c. 11. Now if Acts of Parliament bound not Wales and County Palatines which had anciently no Knights nor Burgesses in Parliament to represent them because they neither personally nor representatively were parties and consenters to them much lesse then can or ought this Leavie Tax and illegall Act to binde those Knights Citizens and Burgesses or those Counties Cities and Burroughs they represented who were forcibly secluded or driven away from the Parliament by the confederacy practice or connivance at least of those now sitting who imposed this Tax and passed this strange Act especially being for the support and continuance of those Officers and that Army who trayterously seised and secluded them from the House and yet detain some of them Prisoners against all Law and Justice The rather because they are the far major part above six times as many as those that sate and shut them out and would no wayes have consented to this illegall Tax or undue manner of imposing it without the Lords concurrence had they been present And I my self being both an unjustly imprisoned and secluded Member and neither of the Knights of the County of Somerset where I live present or consenting to this Tax or Act one or both of them being forced thence by the Army I conceive neither my self nor the County where I live nor the Burrough for which I served in the least measure bound by this Act or Tax but cleerly exempted from them and obliged with all my might and power effectually to oppose them If any here object That by the custome of Parliament 40 Members onely are sufficient to make a Commons House of Parliament and there were at least so many present when this Tax was imposed Therefore it is valid and obligatory both to the secluded absent Members and the Kingdom I answer First That though regularly it be true that forty Members are sufficient to make a Commons House to begin prayers and businesses of lesser moment in the beginning of the day till the other Members come and the House be full yet forty were never in any Parliament reputed a competent number to grant Subsidies passe or record Bils or debate or conclude matters of greatest moment which by the constant Rules and usage of Parliament were never debated concluded passed but in a free and full House when all or most of the Members were present as the Parliament Rolls Journals Modus tenendi Parliamentum Sir Edward Cooks 4. Institutes p. 1.2.26.35.36 Cromptons Jurisdiction of Courts f. 1. c 39. E. 3.7 Brook Parliament 27. 1. Jacobi c. 1. and the Records I have cited to this purpose in my Levellers levelled my Plea for the Lords and Memento p. 10. abundantly prove beyond contradiction for which cause the Members ought to be fined and lose their wages if absent without special Licence as Modus tenendi Parliamentum as 5. R. 2. Parl. 2. c. 4. 9. H. 8. c. 16. and A Collection of all Orders c. of the late Parliament pa. 294.357 with their frequent summoning and fining absent Members evidence Secondly Though forty Members onely may peradventure make an House in cases of absolute necessity when the rest through sicknesse and publick or private occasions are volutarily or negligently absent and might freely repair thither to sit or give their Votes if they pleased yet forty Members never yet made a Commons House by custome of Parliament there being never yet any such case till now when the rest being above four hundred were forcibly secluded or driven thence by an Army through the practice or connivance of those forty sitting of purpose that they should not over nor counter-vote them much lesse an House to sequester or expell the other Members or impose any Tax upon them Till they shew me such a Law Custom or President of Parliament not to be found in any age all they pretend is nothing to purpose or the present case Thirdly Neither forty Members nor a whole House of Commons were ever enough in any age by the Custom of Parliament or Law of England to impose a Tax or make any Act of Parliament without the King and Lords us I have n already proved much lesse after they
from going yet take free-quarter on the Country and pay too under that pretext And to force the Country to pay Contribution and give Free-quarter to such Cheaters and Impostors who never intend this Service is both unjust and dishonourable 4. If the Relief of Ireland be now really intended it is not upon the first just and pious grounds to preserve the Protestant party there from the forces of the bloody Popish Irish Rebels with whom if report be true these sitting Anti-Monarchists seek and hold correspondence and are now actually accorded with Owen Ro-Oneal and his party of blodiest Papists but to oppose the Kings interest and title to that Kingdome and the Protestant remaining party there adhering to and proclaiming acknowledging him for their Soveraign least his gaining of Ireland should prove fatall to their usurped soveraignty in England or conduce to his enthroning here And by what Authority these now sitting can impose or with what conscience any loyall Subject who hath taken the Oaths of Supremacy Allegiance and Covenant can voluntarily pay any contribution to deprive the King of his hereditary right undoubted Title to the Kingdoms and Crowns of England Ireland and alter the frame of the ancient Government Parliaments of our Kingdoms p Remonstrated so often against by both Houses and adjudged High Treason in Canterburies and Strafffords cases for which they were beheaded and by themselves in the Kings own case whom they decolled likewise without incurring the guilt of Perjury and danger of High Treason to the losse of his life and estate by the very laws and statuts yet inforce transcends my understanding to conceive VVherfore I neither can nor dare in conscience law or prudence submit to this contribution Fourthly The coercive power and manner of levying this contribution expressed in the Act is against the Law of the Land and Liberty of the Subject which is threefold First Distresse and sale of the goods of those who refuse to pay it with power to break open their Houses which are their Castles doores chests c. to distrain which is against Magna Charta cap. 29. The Petition of Right The Votes of both Houses in the case of Ship-mony 1 R. 2. c. 3. and the resolution of our Judges and Law-books 13. Ed. 4.9.20 E. 4.6 Cook 5. Report f. 91.92 Semaines case 4. Inst. p. 176 177. Secondly Imprisonment of the body of the party till he pay the contribution being contrary to Magna charta The Petition of Right The resolution of both Houses in the Parliament of 3 Caroli in the case of Loanes and 17 Caroli in the case of Ship-mony the judgment of our Judges and Law-Books collected by Sir Edward Cook in his 2 Insti. p. 46. c. and the Statu. of 2 H. 4. Rot. Par. n. 6. unprinted but most expresse in point Thirdly Levying of the contribution by souldiers and force of arms in case of resistance and imprisoning the person by like force adjudged High Treason in the cases of the Earl of Strafford and a levying of war within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. by the late Parliament for which he lost his head and so proved to be at large by Master St. Iohn in his Argument at Law at the passing the Bill for his attainder Printed by Order of the Commons House Fourthly Which heightens the illegality of these illegall means of levying it if any person whose goods are destrained or person imprisoned for this illegall tax shall bring his Action at Law or an Habeas corpus for his relief The Committee of Indempnity will stay his legall proceedings award cost against him and commit him a new till he pay them and release his suits at Law and upon an Habeas corpus their own Sworn Judges created by them dare not bayle but remaund him against Law An oppression and Tyranny far exceeding the worst of the Beheaded Kings under whom the Subjects had Free-Liberty to sue and proceed at Law both in the cases of Loanes Shipmony and Knighthood without any Councel-Table Committee of Indempnity to stop their suits or inforce them to release them and therefore in all these respects so repugnant to the Laws and Liberty of the Subject I cannot submit to this illegall Tax but oppugn it to the utetrmost most invasive on our Laws and Liberties that ever was Fifthly The time of opposing this illegall Tax with these unlawfull ways of levying it is very considerable and sticks much with me it is as the Imposers of it declare and publish in many of their new kind of Acts and devices in the first yeare of Englands Liberty and redemption from thraldom And if this unsupportable Tax thus illegallly to be levied be the first fruits of our first years Freedom and redemption from thraldom how great may we expect our next years thraldome will be when this little finger of theirs is heavier by far then the Kings whole loynes whom they beheaded for Tyranny and Oppression Sixthly The Order of this Tax if I may so term a disorder or rather newnesse of it engageth me and all lovers of their Countries Liberty unanimously to withstand the same It is the first I finde that was ever imposed by any who had been Members of the Commons House after a Parliament dissolved the Lords House voted down and most of their fellow-Commoners secured or secluded by their connivance or confederacy with an undutiful Army VVhich if submitted to and not opposed as illegall any forty or fifty Commoners who have been Members of a Parliament gaining Forces to assist and countenance them may out of Parliament now or any time hereafter do the like and impose what Taxes and Laws they please upon the Kingdom and the secluded Lords and Commons that once sate with them being incouraged thereto by such an unopposed precedent VVhich being of so dangerous consequence and example to the constitution and priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the people we ought all to endeavour the crushing of this new Cockatrice in the shell lest it grow to a fiery Serpent to consume and sting us to death and induce the Imposers of it to lade us with new and heavie Taxes of this kinde when this expires which we must expect when all the Kings Bishops Deans and Chapters Lands are sold and spent if we patiently submit to this leading Decoy since q Bonus Actus inducit consuetudinem as our Ancestors resolved Anno 1240. in the case of an universall Tax demanded by the Pope whereupon they all unanimously opposed it at first r Opprime dum nova sunt subiti mala semina morbi Principiis obsta serò medicina paratur Cum mala per longas invaluere moras being the safest rule of State-physick we can follow in such new desperate Diseases which endanger the whole Body-politick Upon which grounds the most consciencious Gentlemen and best Patriots of their Country opposed Loans Ship money Tonnage Poundage Knighthood and the like late illegall
shall any time or times DVRING THE CONTINVANCE THEREOF BE PROROGVED OR ADJOVRNED unless it be By ACT OF PARLIAMENT to be likewise PASSED FOR THAT PURPOSE And that THE HOUSE OF PEERS shall not at any time or times DURING THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT BE ADJOURNED unless it be BY THEMSELVES or BY THEIR OWN ORDER And in like manner that THE HOVSE OF COMMONS shall not at any time or times DVRING THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT be adjourned unless it be BY THEMSELVES or BY THEIR OWN ORDER Whence it is undeniable 1. that this act was only for the prevention of the untimely dissolving Proroguing and adjourning of that present Parliament then assembled and no other 2. That the King himself was the Principal Member of his Parliament yea our Soveraign Lord and the sole declarer and enacter of this Law by the Lords and Commons assent 3. That neither this Act for continuing nor any other for dissolving adjourning or proroguing this Parliament could be made without but only by and with the Kings Royal assent thereto which the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in their * Remonstrance of the 26. of May 1642 oft in terminâ—s acknowledge together with his Negative voice to bils 4. That it was neither the Kings intention in passing this act to shut himself out of Parliament or create Members of a Parliament without a King as he professed in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. 5. p. 27. Nor the Lords nor Commons intendment to dismember him from his Parliament or make themselves a Parliament without him as their foresaid Remonstrance testifies and the words of the act import Neither was it the Kings Lords or Commons meaning by this act to set up a Parliament only of Commons much less of a remnant of a Commons House selected by Colonel Pride and his confederates of the Army to serve their turns and vote what they prescribed without either King or House of Peers much less to give them any supertranscendent Authority to vote down and abolish the King and House of Lords and make them no Members of this present or any future Parliaments without their own order or assent against which so great usurpation and late dangerous unparliamentary encroachments this very act expresly provides in this clause That the House of Peers wherein the King sits as Soveraign when he pleaseth shall not at any time or times during this present Parliament be adjourned much less then dissolved excluded or suspended from sitting or voting which is the greater and that by their inferiours in all kinds a Fragment of the Commons House who can pretend no coulor of Jurisdiction over them before whom they alwayes stood bare-headed like so many Grand-Jury-men before the Judges and attended at their Doores and Barr to know their pleasures unlesse it be by Themselves or by their own Order 5. That neither the King Lords nor Commons intended to set up a perpetuall Parliament and intayl it upon them their Heirs and Successors for ever by this Act which would cross and repeal the Act for trienniall Parliaments made at the same time and on the same * day in Law but to make provision only against the untimely dissolving of this till the things mentioned in the Preamble were accomplished and setled as the Preamble and those oft repeated words any time or times during the continuance of this present Parliament conclude and that during His Majesties Reign and life not after his death as these words coupled with The relief of His Majesties Army and People and for supply of His Majesties present and urgent occasions in the Preamble manifest Therefore this Act can no wayes continue it a Parliament after the Kings beheading much less after the exclusion both of the King and Lords House out of Parliament by those now sitting contrary to the very letter and provision of this Act by which devise the King alone had he conquered and cut off or secluded by his Forces the Lords and Commons house from sitting might with much more colour have made himself an absolute Parliament to impose what Taxes and Lawes he pleased without Lords or Commons on the people by vertue of this Act then those few Commons now sitting since his tryall and death doe 6. The last clause of this Act And that all and every thing or things whatsoever DONE OR TO BE DONE to wit by the King or His authority for the adjournment proroguing or dissolving of THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT CONTRARY TO THIS PRESENT ACT SHALL BE VTTERLY VOID and of NONE EFFECT Now death and a dissolution of this Parliament by the Kings death cannot as to the King be properly stiled A thing done or to be done by Him for the adjournment proroguing or dissolving of this Parliament contrary to this present Act which cannot make the Kings death utterly void and of none effect by restoring him to his life again Therefore the dissolution of the Parliament by the Kings death is clearly out of the words and intentions of this Act especially so many years after its Enacting 7. This present Parliament and every Member thereof being specially summoned by the Kings Writ only to be HIS Parliament and Councell and to conferre with HIM of the great and urgent affaires concerning HIM and HIS Kingdom and these Writs and Elections of them returned unto HIM and HIS COURT by Indenture and the persons summoned and chosen by vertue of them appearing only in HIS Parliament for no other ends but those expressed in HIS WRITS it would be both an absurdity and absolute impossibility to assert that the Houses intended by this Act to continue this Parliament in being after the Kings beheading or death unless they that maintain this paradox be able to inform me and those now sitting how they can conferr and advise with a dead King of things concerning Him and His Kingdom and that even after they have extirpated Monarchy it self and made it Treason to assert or revive it and how they can continue still HIS Parliament and Councell whose head they have cut off and that without reviving or raising him from his grave or enstalling His right Heir and Successor in His Throne to represent His Person neither of which they dare to doe for fear of losing their own Heads and Quarters too for beheading him This Tax therefore being imposed on the Kingdom long after the Kings beheading and the Parliaments dissolution by it must needs be illegall and meerly void in Law to all intents because not granted nor imposed in but out of Parliament by those who were then no Commons nor Members of a Parliament and had no more authority to impose any Tax upon the Kingdom then any other forty or fifty Commoners whatsoever out of Parliament who may usurp the like authority by this president to Tax the Kingdom or any County what they please and then Levy it by an Army or force of Armes to the peoples infinite endless oppression and
forbear till I saw what their Officers would do who in stead of punishing any of them permitted them to play the like Rex almost in other places where they quartered since marching but three or four miles a day and extorting what moneys they could from the Country by their violence and disorders Now for me or any other to give moneys to maintain such deboist Bedlams and Beasts as these who boasted of their villanies and that they had done me at least twenty pounds spoil in Beer and Provisions drinking out five barrels of good strong Beer and wasting as much meat as would have served an hundred civill persons to be Masters of our Houses Goods Servants Lives and all we have to ride over our heads like our Lords and Conquerours and take Free quarter on us amounting to at least a full yeares contribution without any allowance for it and that since the last Orders against Free-quarter and warrants for paying in this Tax to prevent it for the future issued is so far against my reason Judgement and conscience that I would rather give all away to suppress discard them or cast it into the fire then maintain such graceless wretches with it to dishonour God enslave consume ruine the Country and Kingdome who every where complain of the like insolences and of taking free quarter since the 9 of June as above two hundred of Colonel Coxe his men did in Bath the last Lords day who drew up in a body about the Majors House and threatned to seise and carry him away prisoner for denying to give them free quarter contrary to the New Act for abolishing it Lastly this pretended Act implies that those who refuse to pay this contribution without distress or imprisonment shall be stil oppressed with freequarter And what an height of oppression and injustice this will prove not only to distrain imprison those who cannot in conscience Law or prudence submit to this illegall Tax but likewise to undoe them by exposing them to free-quarter which themselves condemne as the heighst pest and oppression let all sober men consider and what reason I and others have to oppose such a dangerous destructive president in its first appearing to the world Ninethly The principal end of imposing this Tax to maintain the Army and forces now raised is not the defence and fafety of our ancient and first Christian Kingdom of England its Parliaments Laws Liberties and Religion as at first but to disinherit the King of the Crown of England Scotland and Ireland to which he hath an undoubted right by common and Statute Law as the Parliament of 1 Jacobi ch. 1. resolves and to levy war against him to deprive him of it To subvert the ancient Monarchical Government of this Realm under which our Ancesters have always lived and flourished to set up a New republick the oppressions and greivances whereof we have already felt by increasing our Taxes setting up arbitrary Courts and Proceedings to the taking away of the lives of the late King Peers and other Subjects against the Fundamental Laws of the Land creating new monstrous Treasons never heard off in the world before and the like but cannot yet enjoy or discern the least ease or advantage by it To overthrow the ancient constitution of the Parliaments of England consisting of King Lords and Commons and the Rights and Priviledges thereof To alter the fundamental Laws Seales Courts of Justice of the Realm and introduce an arbitrary Government at least if not Tyrannical contrary to our Lawes Oathes Covenant Protestation a publick Remonstrances and Engagements to the Kingdom and forraign States not to change the Government or attempt any of the premises All which being no less then High Treason by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm as Sir Edward Cook in his 4 Institutes ch. 1. and Mr. St. John in his Argument at Law upon passing the bill of Attainder of the Earl of Strafford both printed by the Commons special order have proved at large by many presidents Reasons Records and so adjudged by the last Parliament in the cases of Strafford and Canterbury who were condemned and executed as Traytors by judgement of Parliament and some of these now sitting but for some of those Treasons upon obscurer Evidences of guilt then are now visible in others I cannot without incurring the Crime and Guilt of these general High Treasons and the eternal if not temporal punishments incident thereunto if I should voluntarily contribute so much as one peny or farthing towards such Treasonable and disloyal ends as these against my Conscience Law Loyalty duty and all my Oathes and obligations to the contrary Tenthly The payment of this Tax for the premised purposes will in my poor judgment and conscience be offensive to God and all good men scandalous to the Protestant Religion dishonourable to our English Nation and disadvantagious and destructive to our whole Kingdom hindering the speedy settlement of our Peace the re-establishment of our Laws and Government establishing of our Taxes disbanding of our Forces revivall of our decayed Trade by the renewing and perpetuating our bloudy uncivill Warrs engaging Scotland Ireland and all forreign Princes and Kingdoms in a just War against us to avenge the death of our late beheaded King the dis-inheriting of his posterity and restore his lawfull Heirs and Successors to their just undoubted Rights from which they are now forcibly secluded who will undoubtedly molest us with continuall Warrs what-ever some may fondly conceit to the contrary till they be setled in the Throne in peace upon just and honorable terms and invested in their just possessions And therefore I can neither in conscience piety nor prudence ensnare my self in the guilt of all these dangerous consequences by any submission to this illegall Tax Upon all these weighty Reasons and serious grounds of Conscience Law Prudence which I humbly submit to the Consciences and Judgments of all conscientious and Judicious persons whom they do or shall concern I am resolved by the assistance and strength of that Omnipotent God who hath miraculously supported me under and carried me through all my former sufferings for the Peoples publick Liberties with exceeding joy comfort and the ruine of my greatest enemies and Opposers to oppugne this unlawfull Contrbution and the payment of it to the uttermost in all just and lawfull wayes I may And if any will forcibly levie it by distresse or otherwise without Law or Right as Theeves and Robbers take mens goods and Purses let them doe it at their own utmost perill And I trust God and men will in due season doe me justice and award me recompence for all the injuries in this kinde and any sufferings for my Countries Liberties How-ever fall back fall edge I would ten thousand times rather lose life and all I have to keep a good conscience and preserve my native Liberty then part with one farthing or gain the whole world with the losse of either of them and