Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	king_n	power_n	sit_v	3,978	5	7.3782	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88232	The picture of the Councel of State, held forth to the free people of England by Lievt. Col. John Lilburn, Mr Thomas Prince, and Mr Richard Overton, now prisoners in the Tower of London. Or, a full narrative of the late extra-judicial and military proceedings against them. Together with the substance of their several examinations, answers and deportments before them at Darby house, upon the 28. of March last.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.; Prince, Thomas.; Overton, Richard, fl. 1646.	1649 (1649)	Wing L2154; Thomason E550_14; ESTC R204431	45,344	56

vvill go in Peace and quietness vvithout any further dispute of your authority For vvhen I come there I know those Goalers have their bound and limits set them by the Law and I know how to carry my self towards them and what to expect from them and if they do abuse me I know how in law to help my self And so Sir I have said what at present I have to say Whereupon M. Bradshaw commanded the Sergeant to put me out at an other dore that so I should no more go amongst the people and immediatly M. Walwin was put out to me and asking him what they said to him I found it to be the same in effect they said to me demanding the same fore-going question of him that they did of me to which question after some kind of pause he answered to this effect That he could not but very much wonder to be asked such a question however that it was very much against his Judgement and Conscience to answer to questions of that nature which concerned himself that if he should answer to it he should not onely betray his own Liberty but the Liberties of all Englishmen which he could not do with a good Conscience And he could not but exceedingly grieve at the dealing he had found that day That being one who had alwaies bin so faithful to the Parliament and so well known to most of the Gentlemen there present that nevertheless he should be sent for with a party of Horse and Foot to the affrighting of his Family and ruine of his credit And that he could not be satisfied but that if was very hard measure to be used thus upon suspition onely And that if they did hold him under restraint from following his business and occasions it might be his undoing which he conceived they ought seriously to consider of Then M. Bradshaw said he was to answer the question and that they did not ask it as in way of Tryal so as to proceed in Judgement thereupon but to report it to the House To which M. Walwin said That he had answered it so as he could with a good Conscience and could make no other Answer and so with-drew And after he came out to me M. Overton was next called in againe and then M. Prince so after we were all come out and all foure in a roome close by them all alone I laid my eare to their dore and heard Lieutenant General Cromwel I am sure of it very loud thumping his fist upon the Councel Table til it rang againe and heard him speak in these very words or to this effect I tel you Sir you have no other way to deale with these men but to break them in pieces and thumping upon the Councel Table againe he said Sir let me tel you that which is true if you do not breake them they will break you yea and bring all the guilt of the blood and treasure shed and spe●t in this Kingdom upon your heads and shoulders and frustrate and make voide all that worke that with so many yeares industry toile and paines you have done and so render you to all rationall men in the world as the most contemptible generation of silly low spirited men in the earth to be broken and routed by such a despicable contemptible generation of men as they are and therfore Sir I tel you againe you are necessitated to break them but being a little disturbed by the supposition of one of their Messengers coming into the roome I could not so well heare the answer to him which I think was Col. Ludlows voyce who pressed to baile us for I could very well heare him say what would you have more than security for them Vpon which discourse of Cromwels the blood run up and down my veines and I heartily wisht my self in againe amongst them being scarse able to contain my self that so I might have gone five or six stories higher than I did before yea as high as I intended when I came to their dore and to have particularly paid Cromwel and Hasleridge to the purpose for their late venome not only against me in the House but my whole family Hasleridge saying as I am informed in the open House there was never an one of the Lilburns family fit or worthy to be a Constable in England though I am confident there is not the worst of us alive that have served the Parliament but he is a hundred times more just honest and unspoted than he himself as in due time I shal make it appeare by Gods assistance I hope to his shame But the faire carriage of the Gentlemen of the supposed Councel to me at the first tooke off the height of the edge of my spirit and intended resolution which it may be they shal have the next time to this effect You your selves have already voted the People under God the Fountain and Original of all just power And if so then none can make them Laws but those that are chosen impowred and be trusted by them for that end and if that be true as undoubtedly it is I desire to know how the present Gentlemen at Westminster can make it appeare they are the peoples Representatives being rather chosen by the wil of him whose head as a Tyrant and Traytor they have by their wills chopt off I mean the King then by the people whose Will made the Borough Townes to chuse Parliament men and there by rob'd above nineteen people of this Nation of their undubitable and inherent right to give to a single man in twenty for number in reference to the whole Nation a Monopoly to chuse Parliament men disfranchising therereby the other nineteen and if so in any measure than this upon their own declared principles they are no Representative of the people no nor was not at the first Again the King summoned them by his Writ the issue of his will and pleasure and by vertue of that they sit to this houre Again the King by his Will and pleasure combines with them by an Act to make them a perpetual Parliament one of the worst and tyranicallest actions that ever he did in his life to sit as long as they pleased which he nor they had no power to do in the least the very constitution of Parliaments in England being to be once every yeare or oftner if need require Quere Whether this act of perpetuating this Parliament by the Parliament men themselves beyond their Commission was not an act in them of the highest Treason in the world against the People and their liberties by setting up themselves an arbitrary power over them for ever Yea and thereby razing the foundation and constitution of Parliament it self And if so then this is nul if at the first it had bin any thing Again if it should be granted this Parliament at the beginning had a legal constitution from the people the original and fountaine of all just power yet the Faction of a trayterous

party of Officers of the Army hath twice rebelled against the Parliament and broke them to pieces and by force of Armes culled out whom they please and imprisoned divers of them and laid nothing to their charge and have left only in a manner a few men besides eleven of themselves viz. the General Cromwel Ireton Harrison Fleetwood Rich Ingolsby Hasleridge Constable Fennick Walton and Allen Treasurer of their own Faction behind them that will like Span el-doggs serve their lusts and wills yea some of the chiefest of them viz. Ireton Harrison c. yea M. Holland himself stiling them a mocke Parliament a mocke power at Windsor yea it is yet their expressions at London And if this be true that they are a mocke power and a mocke Parliament then Quere Whether in Law or Justice especially considering they have fallen from al their many glorious promises have not done any one action that tends to the universal good of the Peolpe Can those Gentlemen siting at Westminster in the House called the House of Commons be any other than a Factious company of men trayterously combined together with Crom. Ireton and Harrison to subdue the Laws Liberties and Freedomes of England for no one of them protest against the rest and to set up an absolute and perfect Tyranny of the Sword Will and pleasure and absolutely intend the destroying the Trade of the Nation and the absolute impoverishing the people thereof to sit them to be their Vassals and Slaves And if so then Quere Whether the Free People of England as well Soldiers as others ought not to contemne all these mens commands as invalid and illegal in themselves and as one man to rise up against them as so many professed traytors theives robbers and high way men and apprehend and bring them to justice in a new Representative chosen by vertue of a just Agreement among the People there being no other way in the world to preserue the Nation but that alone the three forementioned men viz. Cromwel Ireton and Harrison the Generall being but their Stalking horse and a Cifer and there trayterous * For the greatest Traytors they are that ever were in this nation as upon the losse of my head I John Lilburn will by law undertake to prove and make good before the next free Parliament to whom Ihereby appeale faction having by their wills and Swords got all the Swords of England under their command and the disposing of all the great places in England by Sea and Land and also the pretended Law making power and the pretended law executing power by making among themselves contrary to the Laws and and Liberties of England all Iudges Iustices of peace Sherifes Balifes Committee men c. to execute their wills and Tyranny walking by no limits or bounds but their own wills and pleasures And traytorously assume unto themselves a power to levy upon the people what money they please and dispose of it as they please yea even to buy knifes to cut the peoples throats that pay the mony to them and to give no account for it til Doomes Day in the afternoone they having already in their wills and power to dispose of the Kings Queens Princes Dukes and the rest of the childrens Revenue Deans and Chapters lands Bishops lands sequestered Delinquents lands sequestred Papists lands Compositions of all sorts amounting to millions of money besides Excise and Customes yet this is not enough although if rightly husbanded it would constantly pay above one hundred thousand men and furnish an answerable Navy there unto But the people must now after their trades are lost and their estates spent to procure their liberties and freedoms be cessed about 100000. pound a moneth that so they may be able like so many cheaters and State theeues to give 6. 8. 10. 12. 14. 16 thousand pounds a peice over again to one another as they have done already to divers of themselves to buy the Common wealths lands one of another contrary to the duty of Trustees who by law nor equity can neither give nor sel to one another at two or three years purchase the true and valuable rate considered as they have already done and to give 4 or 5000 l per annum over again to King Cromwel as they have done already out of the Earle of Wrocesters estate c. Besides about four or five pounds a day he hath by his places of Lieut. General and Collonel of Horse in the Army although he were at the beginning of this Parliament but a poore man yea little better than a begger to what he is now as well as other of his neighbours But to return those gentlemen that would have had us bailed lost the day by one vote as we understood and then about 12. at night they broke up we went into their pretended Secretary found our commitments made in these words our names changed viz. These are to will and require you to receive herewith into your custody the person of Lieut. Col. John Lilburn and him safely to keep in your Prison of the Tower of London until you receive farther order he being committed to you upon suspition of high Treason of which you are not to faile and for which this shal be your sufficient Warrant Given at the Councel of State at Darby-house this 28. day of March 1649 Signed in the name and by the Order of the Councel of State 〈◊〉 appointed by authority of Parliament Jo. Bradshaw President To the Lieut. of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of London Note that we were committed upon Wednesday their fast day being the best fruits that ever any of their fasts brought out amongst them viz. To smite with the fist of wickedness For the illegality of this Warrant I shall not say much because it is like all the rest of the Warrants of the present House of Commons and their unjust Committees whose Warrants are so sufficiently anatomised by my quondam Comrade M. Iohn Wildman in his books called Truths Tryumph and the Laws subversion being Sir Iohn Maynards case truly stated and by my self in my late Plea before the Judges of the Kings Bench now in print and intituled The Laws Funeral that it is needless to say any more of that particular and therefore to them I refer the Reader But to go on when we had read our Warrants we told M. Frost we would not dispute the legality of them because we were under the force of Guards of Armed musquettiers So some time was spent to find a man that would go with us to prison Capt. Ienkins as I remember his name being Capt. of the Guard and my old and familiar acquaintance was prevailed with by us to take the charge upon him who used us very Civilly and gave us leave that night it being so late to go home to our wives and took our words with some other of our friends then present to meet him in the morning at the Angel Tavern neer the Tower

R. Overt Sir I humbly desire a word or two more Lieut. Gen. Let him have liberty Presid Mr. Overton You may speak on R. Over Gentlemen for future peace and securitie sake I shall humbly desire to offer this unto your consideration namely that if you think it meet That you would chuse any four men in England pick and chuse where you please and we for my part I speak it freely in my own behalf and I think I may say as much in theirs shall endeavour to the utmost of our power by a fair and moderate Discourse to give the best account and satisfaction concerning the matter of difference betwixt us that we can that if possible peace and agreement may be made And this after the weaknesse of my small understanding I judge to be a fair and reasonable way if you shall be pleased to accept of it you may if not you may use your pleasure I am in your hand do with me as you think good I am not able to hinder you Presid Mr. Overton If this be all you have to say withdraw R. Overt Sir I have said So I was commanded into a little withdrawing room close by the Councel and I supposed they would have taken my motion into consideration But after I had been there a while I was ordered to the Room again where Lieut. Col. Lilburn Mr. Walwins c. were And now that it may be clear unto the whole world that we heartily desire the prevention and cessation of all differences and divisions that may be bred and break forth in the Land to the hazard if not actuall imbroilment thereof in a new exundation of blood in the prosecution of this controversie wee do freely from the heart that heaven and earth may bear witnesse betwixt our integrity to the peace of the Common-wealth and their dealings with us make this proffer as to be known to the whole world that wee in the first place I may best speak for my self and I so far know the minds of Lieutenant Col. John Lilburn Mr. Walwine and Mr. Prince that I may as freely speak it in their behalfs wil by the Assistance of God give any four men in England that they shall chuse although the Lieutenant General and the Commissarie Generall be two of them a free and moderate debate if they shall think it no scorn touching all matters of difference betwixt us as to the businesse of the Common-wealth for therein doth consist the controversie betwixt us that if possibly new flames and combustions may be quenched and a thorow and an hearty composure be made betwixt us upon the grounds of an equall and just Government And that the businesse may be brought to a certain issue betwixt us let them if they please chuse two Umpires out of the House or else-where and we will chuse two and for our parts we shall stand to the free determination or sentence that these four or any three of them shall passe betwixt us Or else if they please but to center upon The Agreement of the People with amendments according to our late sad Apprehensions presented to the House upon the 26 of February 1648 for our parts we shall seal a Contract of Oblivion for all by-past matters relating either to good name life libertie or estate saving of making Accompt for the publick Monies of the Common-wealth And in such an Agreement we will center to live and die with them in the prosecution thereof And if this be not a fair and peaceable motion let all well-minded people judge But if nothing will satisfie them but our bloud we shall not through the might of God be sparing of that to give witnesse to the Right and Freedom of this Common-wealth against their Usurpation and Tyranny but let them know this That Building hath a bad Foundation that is laid in the bloud of honest men such as their own knowledge and consciences bear them record are faithfull to the common interest and safety of the People out of our ashes may possibly arise their destruction This I know God is just and he will repay the bloud of the innocent upon the head of the Tyrant But to return to the Narrative After some small space that we had all been before them we were called in again first Lieut. Col. John Lilburn then Mr. Walwine and then my self And coming before them the second time Mr. Bradshaw spake to this effect Presid Mr. Overton The Councel hath taken your Answer into consideration and they are to discharge their dutie to the Parliament who hath ordered them to make enquity after the Book intituled The second part of England's new Chains c. and thereof they are to give an account to the House And the Councel hath ordered me to put this question unto you Whether you had an hand in the contriving or publishing this Book or no R. Overt Sir I well remember that since you cut off the King's head you declared or at least the Parliament from whence you pretend the derivation of your Authoritie that you would maintain the known fundamentall Laws of the Land and preserve them inviolable that the meanest member of this Common wealth with the greatest might freely and fully enjoy the absolute benefit thereof Now Gentlemen it is well known and that unto your selves that in cases criminall as now you pretend against me it is against the fundamentall Laws of this Common-wealth to proceed against any man by way of Interrogatories against himself as you do against me and I beleeve Gentlemen were you in our cases you would not be willing to be so served you selves what you would have other men do unto you that do you unto them So that for my part Gentlemen I do utterly refuse to make answer unto any thing in in relation to my own person or any man or men under heaven but do humbly desire that if you intend by way of Charge to proceed to any Triall of me that it may be as before I desired at your hands by the known established Law of England in some ordinary Court of Justice appointed for such cases extraordinary waies being never to be used but abominated where ordinarie waies may be had and I shall freely submit to what can be legally made good against me But I desire that in the mean time you would be pleased to take notice that though in your eye I seem so highly criminal as by those Votes you pretend yet am I guiltie of nothing not of this paper intituled The second part of England's new Chains in case I had never so much an hand in it till it be legally proved for the Law looketh upon no man to be guiltie of any crime till by law he be convicted so that I cannot esteem my self guiltie of any thing till by the Law you have made the same good against me And further Sir I desire you to take notice that I cannot be guiltie of the transgression of any Law

us they juggle with the Churches present it in the name of the Churches of God in London called Anabaptists and in their names Remonstrate that they meaning the Churches as by the title they speak neither had nor have heart nor hand in the framing contriving abetting or promoting of the said Paper which though read in several of our publick Meetings we do solemnly professe it was without our consent being there openly opposed by us Notwithstanding it is notoriously evident That the generality of the People Dissented from their Petition against us and as upon good intelligence I am informed They had scarce ten in some Congregations to sign it in some not above 2 or 3 in some none and in the main they had not the Tythe of the people and yet those men like a Consistory of Bishops a Synod of Presbyters or a New-England Classis presume upon the Assumption of the name of Several Churches of God as if to themselves they had purchased the Monopolie or Pattent thereof or as if the persons of Mr. Kiffin Mr. Patience c. were so many several Churches hence sprang the papal Prelatical and Presbyterial Supremacie over the Consciences of people and therefore it behoveth the people to have a care of their Leaders We have had the name of King the name of Parliament the name of the Armie c. surprised abused and usurped against us by the hand of our exorbitant enemies but never before the name of Several Churches of God and those stiled Anabaptists Hear O Heavens and judge O Earth Was there ever the like Fact attempted or perpetrated amongst the Churches of God such wickedness is not once to be named amongst them And I do not doubt but the wel-minded Christian people of those several Churches presented by that Petition will vindicate themselves from the Aspersion thereby laid upon them For I cannot beleeve till I see it That those people would do any thing or own any thing that might but so much as seemingly tend to our bloud or our imprisonment I am confident they abhorre it● And they cannot in Conscience do less then to disavow that Bloudy Petition as to its tendency against us and till they do it they will be sharers in the publick guilt of our imprisonment yea and of our Bloud for ho●ever God may divert the wicked purposes of men that Petition is guiltie of our Bloud I confesse for my part I am a man full of Sin and personal Infirmities and in that Relation I will not take upon me to cleer or justifie my self but as for my Integrity and uprightnesse to the Common wealth to whatsoever my understanding tels me is for the good of mankind for the safety freedom and tranquillity of my Country happinesse and prosperity of my Neighbours to do to my neighbor as I would be done by and for the freedom and protection of Religious people I say as to those things according to the weak measure of my understanding and judgment I know my integrity to be such that I shall freely in the might of God sacrifice my life to give witnesse thereunto and upon that Accompt I am now in Bonds a protestor against the Aristocratical Tyrannie of the Counsel of State scorning their Mercy and bidding defiance to their Crueltie had they ten millions more of Armies Cromwels to perpetrate their inhumanities upon me for I know they can pass but to this life when they have done that they can do no more and in this case of mine he that will save his life shall loose it I know my life is hid in Christ and if upon this accompt I must yeild it Welcome welcome welcome by the grace of God And as for those reproaches and scandals like the smoke of the bottomlesse pit that are fomented against me whereby too many zealous tender spirited people are prejudiced against my person readie to abhorre the thing I do though never so good for my person sake I desire such to remove their eies from persons to things if the thing I do be good it is of God and so look upon it and not upon me and so they shall be sure not to mistake themselves nor to wrong me And I further desire such to consider That tales rumours slanderings backbitings lyes scandals c. tost up and down like clouds with the wind are not the fruits of the Spirit neither are they weapons of Gods warfare they are of the devil and corruption and betray in the users of them an evil mind It is a certain badge of a Deceiver to take up whispering● and tales of mens personal failings to 〈◊〉 them to the cause those persons 〈◊〉 by such means to gain advantage upon them Consider whether the things I hold forth and professe as in relation to the Common-wealth be not for the good of mankinde and the preservation of Gods people and if they be my personal failings are not to be reckoned as a counter-balance against them As I am in my self in respect to my own personall sins and transgressions so I am to my self and to God and so I must give an account the just must stand by his own faith But as I am in relation to the Common-wealth that all men have cognizance of because it concern● their own particular lives livelihoods and beings as well as my own and my failings and evils in that respect I yeeld up to the cognizance of all men to be righteously used against me So that the businesse is not how great a sinner I am but how faithfull and reall to the Common-wealth that 's the matter concerneth my neighbour and whereof my neighbour is only in this publick Controversie to take notice and for my personal sins that are not of Civill cognizance or wrong unto him to leave them to God whose judgment is righteous and just And till persons professing Religion be brought to this sound temper they fall for short of Christianity the spirit of love brotherly charity doing to all men as they would be done by is not in them without which they are but as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymball a whited wall rottenness and corruption let their ceremonial formall practice of Religion be never so Angel-like or specious There is a great noise of my sins and iniquities but which of my Aspersers Oxe or Asse have I stollen which of them have I wronged the value of a farthing They taxe me with filthinesse and strange impieties but which amongst them is innocent he that is innocent let him throw the first stone otherwise let him lay his hand on his mouth I have heard of as odious failings even of the same nature whereof they tax me and it may be upon better evidence amongst them laid open to me even of the highest in present power as well as amongst eminent persons in Churches which I ever have counted unworthy to be used as an engine against them in the Controversie of the Common-wealth But