other Presbyterian books licenced by publike authority and others sold without controule there be no more said to justifie and maintain that which Gangrena calles Vtopian Anarchy then in any bookes whatsoever published by these he calles Sectaries Thirdly whether or no that out of my own words in my booke called INNOCENCIE AND TRVTH JVSTIFIED there can any thing be drawn to justifie the Lords in that which now I condemn them in as Gangrena affirmes pag. 157 158. For the first see what the ninth Chapter of Magna Charta saith No freeman shall he taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his free hold or Liberties or free Customes or be outlawed or exiled or any otherwise destroyed nor we will not passe upon him nor condemn him but by lawfull judgment of his PEERS or by the Law of the Land See the 3. of E. 1. ch 6. And that no City Borough or Towne nor any man be amerced wiithout reasonable cause and according to the quantity of his trespasse 9. H. 3. 14. that is to say every free man saving his freehold a Merchant saving his Merchandise a villain saving his waynage and that by his or their Peers Now here is the expresse Law of the Land against the Lords jurisdiction over Commons in criminall cases Now in the second place let us see what one of the ablest expositors of the Law that ever writ in England saith of this very thing and that is Sir Edward Cooke in his exposition of Magna Charta 2. part institutes which book is published by two speciall orders of the present House of Commons as in the last page thereof you may read who in his expounding the 14 Chapter of Magna Charta p. 28. saith Peers signifies Equalls and pag. 29. he saith the generall division of persons by the Law of England is either one that is noble and in respect of his nobility of the Lords House in Parliament or one of the Commons of the Realms and in respect thereof of the House of Commons in Parliament and as there be divers degrees of Nobility as Dukes Marquesses Earles Viscounts and Barrons and yet all of them are comprehended within this word PARES so of the Commons of the Realme there be Knights Esquires Gentlemen Citizens Yeomen and Burgesses of severall degrees and yet all of them of the COMMONS of the Realme and as every of the Nobles is one Peere to another though he be of a severall degree so is it of the Commons and as it hath been said of men so doth it hold of Noble-women either by birth or by marriage but see hereof Chap. 29. And in Chap. 29 pag. 46. Ibim he saith no man shall be disseised that is put out of â—eison or dispossessed of his freehold that is Lands or livelihood or his liberties or free Customs that is of such franchises and freedoms and free Customs as belong to him by his birth-right unlesse it be by lawfull judgment that is verdict of his equalls that is men of his own condition or by the Law of the Land that is to speake it once for all by the due course and processe of Law No man shall be in any sort destroyed to destroy id est what was first built and made wholly to overthrow and pull downe unlesse it be by the verdict of his equalls or according to the Law of the Land And so saith he is the sentence neither will we passe upon him to be understood but by the judgment of his Peers that is equalls or according to the Law of the Land see him page 48. upon this sentence per judicium Parium suorum and page 50. he saith it was inacted that the Lords and Peers of the Realme should not give judgment upon any but their Peers and cites Rot. Parl. 4. E. 3. nu 6. but making inquiry at the Record-Office in the Tower I had this which followes from under the hand of Mr. William Colet the Record-Keeper Out of the Roll of the Parliament of the fourth yeare of Edward the third THE FIRST ROLL Records and Remembrances of those things which were done in the Parliament summoned at Westminster on Munday next after the Feast of Saint Katherine in the yeare of the reigne of King Edward the third from the Conquest the fourth delivered into the Chancery by Henry de Edenstone Clerk of the Parliament THese are the Treasons Felonies Wickedensses The judgement of Roger de Mortimer done to our Lord the King and his people by Roger de Mortimer and others of his confederacie First of all whereas it was ordained at the Parliament of our Lord the King which was held next after his coronation at Westminster that foure Bishops foure Earles and six Barons should abide neere the King for to counsell him so alwayes that there may be foure of them viz. one Bishop one Earle and two Barons at the least And that no great businesse be done without their assent and that each of them should answer for his deeds during his time After which Parliament the said Roger Mortimer not having regard to the said assent took upon himself Royall power and the government of the Realm and encroacht upon the State of the King and ousted and caused to be ousted and placed Officers in the Kings House and else-where throughout the Realm at his pleasure of such which were of his mind and placed John Wyard and others over the King to espy his actions and sayings so that our Lord the King was in such manner environed of such as that he would not doe any thing at his pleasure but was as a man which is kept in Ward Also whereas the Father of our LORD the KING was at Kenilworth by ordinance and assent of the Peeres of the Land there to stay at his pleasure for to be served as becommeth such a Lord the sayd Roger by Royall power taken unto himselfe did not permit him to have any money at his will and ordered that hee was sent to Barkly Castle where by him and his he was traiterously and falsly murthered and slain But that which is to my purpose is Roll the second being the judgement of Sir Simon de Bereford which verbatim followeth thus THE SECOND ROLL ALso in the same Parliament our Lord the King did charge the said Earles and Barons to give right and lawfull judgement as appertained to Simon de Bereford Knight who was aiding and counselling the said Roger de Mortimer in all the treasons felonies and wickednesses for the which the foresaid Roger so was awarded and adjudged to death as it is a known and notorious thing to the said Peeres as to that which the King intends The which Earles Barons and Peeres came before our Lord the King in the same Parliament and said all with one voyce that the foresaid Simon was not their Peere wherefore they were not bound to judge him as a Peere of the Land But because it is a notorious thing and known to all that
the aforesaid Simon was aiding and counselling the said Roger in all the treasons felonies and wickednesses abovesaid the which things are an usurpation of Royall power Murther of the Liege Lord and destruction of Blood-Royall and that he was also guilty of divers other felonies and robberies and a principall maintainer of robbers and felons the said Earles Barons and Peeres did award and judge as Judges of Parliament by the assent of the KING the same Parliament that the said Simon as a traitor and enemy of the Realm be drawn and hanged And thereupon it was commanded to the Martiall to doe execution of the said judgement The which execution was done and performed the Munday next after the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle In the same Roll. And it is assented and agreed by our Lord the King Agreement not to bee drawn into example and all the Grandees in a full Parliament that albeit the said Peeres as Judges of Parliament took upon them in the presence of our Lord the King to make and give the said judgement by the assent of the King upon some of them which were not their Peeres and that by reason of the murder of the Liege Lord and destruction of him which was so new of the Blood-Royall and sonne of the King that therefore the said Peeres which now are or the Peeres which shall be for the time to come be not bound or charged to give judgement upon others then upon their Peeres nor shall doe it But let the Peeres of the Land have power but of that for ever they be discharged and acquit and that the aforesaid judgement now given be not drawn into example or consequent for the time to come by which the said Peeres may be charged hereafter to judge others then their Peeres against the Law of the Land if any such case happen which God defend Agreeth with the Record WILLIAM COLET It is the saying of the spirit of God Eccle. 4.9.12 two are better than one and a threefold cord is not easily broken so that to prove my position true for all the Rabshaca Language of Gangrena I have first the fundamentall Law point blank on my side and 2. the Judgment of one of the ablest Lawyers that ever writ in England and his Judgment authorised as good and sound by the present House of Commons to be published to the view of the whole Kingdome and 3. the Lords own confession for if you marke well the 2. last lines of the forecited record you shall finde they ingeniously confesse and declare that it it against the Law of the Land for them to judge a Commoner and for further confirmation of this reade Vox Plebis pag. 18. 19. 36 37 38 39 40 41 42. 44. 45. But if the Vlcerous Gangrena please to read a late printed booke called Regall Tyranny discovered he shall finde that the author of that Book in his 43 44 45 46 47 86. pages lays down many strong arguments to prove That the House of Lords have no Legislative power at all And in his 94 95 96 97. pages he declares proves That before Will the Conqueror subdued the rights and priviledges of Parliaments the King and the Commons held and kept Parliaments without temporall Lords Bishops or Abbots The two last of which he proves had as true and as good a right to sit in Parliament as any of the present Lords now sitting at Westminster either now have or ever had For the second thing which is Whether or no there be not in the present Parliaments Declarations and in the Assemblies exhortation to take the Covenant and in Mr. Prynnes Soveraigne power of Parliaments and other Presbyterian books publickly licenced and others sold without controll as much if not more said to set up or maintain that which Gangrena calls Vtopian Anarchy then in any Book what ever published by those he calls Sectaries And I averre it positively There is and shall joyn issue with Gangrena to prove it in every particular Therefore let him publish an exact Catalogue of any of our Positions when he pleaseth and I doubt not but to make it evident that it cannot justly by them be counted any vice in us to tread in their steps especially seeing they have accounted them so full of piety truth and honesty as they have done Now first for the Parliaments Declarations read but the Kings answers to them and you shall easily see he layes it as deeply to their charge of endevouring to set up Anarchy as Gangrena doth either to mine or Mr. Overtons yea and instances the particulars and tels them plainly The Arguments they use against him will very well in time serve the people to turn against themselves And as for Mr. Prynnes Soveraigne power of Parliaments I never read more of that Doctrine in any Book in all my life that Gangrena so much condemnes in me c. then in that very Book which is licenced by Mr. White a member of the House of Commons and in his dayes as stiffe a Presbyterian as Gangrena himselfe See his 1. part Sover pag. 5 7 8 9 19 26 29 34 35 36 37. But especially 42 43 44 47 57 92. And 2. part pag. 41 42 43 44 45 46. 73 74 75 76 3. part 11 12 13 14 15 16 17. 61 62 63 64 65. 131 132 133. And 4. part pag. 10 11 15 16. See his Appendix there unto pag. 1 2 3 4 5 and 11 12. 13 c. Besides these see the first and second part of the Observations Maximes unfolded the case of Ship-money briefly discoursed A new Plea for the Parlement A fuller Answer to a Treatise written by Dr. Fern with divers others Now for the third thing which is the tryumph Gangrena makes in his 3 part Gangrena pag. 158. which is that in my book called Innocency and Truth justified which I published the last year 1645. I give that to the Lords which now I in 1646. in many wicked Pamplets would take away from them such new light saith he hath the successe of the new modell and the recruit of the house of Commons brought to the Sectaries Well I will the man stand to this if hee will then I desire the impartiall Reader to judge betwixt us and turn to the 11 12 36 37 74. pages of that book in which pages is contained all that any way makes to his purpose or else turn to the 157 pag. of his book and see if in all my words there quoted by him there is any thing that carryes the shadow of giving that to the Lords that now I would take from them for there I am a reasoning with Mr. Pryn or the house of Commons not upon my principles but their own And therefore I say a Committee of the house of Commons is not the whole Parliament no nor the whole house of Commons it self according to their own principles which is the only clause he can fix
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
return you a more ful answer to this then I did before to you which is this That I for my part for all the gold in London would not give just cause to be counted so base and unworthy to do upon deliberation that action that I would not justifie to the death But if I should in the least step aside I should contract unto my self that guilt which I am confident all the enemies I have in England are not able in the least to fixe upon me For I understand by the Law of this Kingdom that he that is committed to prison for Felony or Treason although really and truly he be guilty of neither yet if he break prison and be taken again he shal dye like a Fellon or Traytor that is legally convicted 1. E. 2. de frangentibus prisonam See Cookes 2. part instit fol. 590 591. For his slight in the eye of the Law argues guiltinesse And besides my friend and I had a horn Lanthorn and Candle which put all out of suspition of going out in the dark But thirdly what ground have you vpon any pretence what ever framed by your self to lock me up in my chamber as soone as candels are lighted seeing I am in a moated and double-walled Prison where you have not only a Train-bond but also great store of your Warders to secure me And therefore I tell you plainly I shal never condescend to bee locked up sooner then that convenient hour of 8. a clock the accustomed hour of the place which is much sooner then they are in other prisons that I have been in Fourthly if under pretence of your security I should give way for you to confine or lock me up in my chamber at candle-light which then was before five a clocke may not you as well and as groundedly upon the same pretence if you please to say it is for your security keep me locked vp in my chamber till 12. a clocke yea the whole day if you please And if I should suffer this in the least what am I lesse then traitorous to my selfe and to my liberties to give you a power by your own meer will to make and impose a Law upon me whensoever you shall please to say that it s for your securitie when the Law provides and enjoynes you no more but to keep me in safe custodie within your prison and to use me and all that come to me civillie and with all humanitie and leaves me not in the least to your will but only in some extraordinarie cases as in doing or offring violence to the Goaler or Goalers or to my fellow-prisoners to the apparent breach of the peace of the prison and yet in this the Law is extraordinarie tender of the prisoners safetie but none of this I have not in the least done either to you or the poorest boy belonging to you not by Gods assistance wil not but yet on the contrarie before you shal make me a slave to your will you shal have the heart-bloud out of my body Now in the last place I wil compare the fees taken and demanded in the Tower with those the Law gives and what they are you may fully read before Now by the Author of Vox Plebis who to mee seemes to bee a knowing man in the practises of the Lieutenants of the Tower who in his 48 49. pages saith That there is demanded for the admittance of an Earl 100. l for a Baron 80. l for a Knight and Baronet 70. l for a Baronet 60. l for a Knight 50. l and for an Esquire 40. pound and 30. s a week of every prisoner for liberty to buy and dresse his owne diet and 10. s 15. s 20. s per weeke for their Chamber-rent and of some more For Sir Richard Gurney sometimes Lord Mayor of London now prisoner in the Tower hath paid as I have heard him aver it 3. l a week for his chamber-rent and in the time of a Predecessour of yours dieted 3 weeks at the Lieutenants table for which hee had the impudencie to demand of him for it 25. l per week ô horrible and monstrous extortion and oppression and yet this is not all for the last mentioned euthor in his 48. pag. saith There is a new erected Office and an intruded Officer called the Gentleman Goaler one Yates a busie fellow who pretends to a fee of 50. s to be paid him at the going away of every prisoner pag. 51. ibim But yet this is not all for in p. 49. of the late printed book called Regal Tyrannie discovered he saith that the Gentleman Porter demands for his fee 5. l and a mans upper garment 40. s to the Warders 10. s to the Lieutenants Clarke 10. s to the Minister and divers of my fellow-prisoners tell me that their Keepers have and do demand of them either their diet or 5. s a week for locking them up at night in their Chamber and opening their chamber-dores O horrible and monstrous injustice oppression and crueltie to demand and take these fees whereas by Law there is not one farthing taken of all these fees due to be paid by the prisoner but one bare great at most and that given away by an oppressing and incroaching law upon our antient and just liberties as is before truly observed And yet prisoners are detained in prison by your will after they are legally discharged because they will not pay these undue and unjust fees which at this very day is Sir Henry Andersons case and hath formerly been others as the Author of Vox Plebis truly observes although the arrantest Rogue Thief that ever breathed had or hath as true a right to any purse that ever he did or shal take from an honest man upon the high-way by force and violence as you or any other hath to any of the fore-mentioned fees O yee proud and impudent man that dare assume unto your selfe of your own head more then a regal power to levie and raise mony by the law of your own will vpon the free people of England Sir let me tel you this very thing was one of those things that was the Earl of Straffords great Crimes for which hee paid very dear and it is not impossible but you and others that use it may pay as dear for it in conclusion therefore look to it and thinke of it And if you please to read the Petition of Right made by the Lords and Commons unto this King in the 3. of his Raign you shall find in the beginning of it they shew him that by the statute of the 34. E. 1. called Statutum de tallagio non concedendo that no tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by the King or his Heires in this Realm without the good will and assent of the Arch-bishops Bishops Earles Barons Knights Burgesses and other the free-men of the Commonalty of this Realm and by authority of Parliament holden in the 25. E. 3. it is declared and enacted
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
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