The oppressed mans importunate and mournful cries to be brought to the bar of Iustice, OR An Epistle writ by Lievt. Col. John Lilburne,( without all shadow of Law and Iustice, imprisoned in the Tower of London.) To all the moral honest English men, in and about the City of London, whether episcopal; Presbyterian, or those commonly called Sectaries of what kind soever, John Lilburne prisoner in the Tower of London, the 7. of April, 1648. sends hearty and respectful salutations. in which he mournfully cries out to all men that have any sense of piety, honour, honesty, pity, compassion, christian simpothy, humanity, or English fellow feeling, to pity and compassionate his pining languishing, and worse then sudden dying estate and condition. And the first day of the next term being the 19 present, deliver his Petition hereunto annexed to the Iudges of the Kings Bench in Westminster Hall, for a Habeas Corpus to bring him before them to receive a legal trial, either to his justification or condemnation, the severity and stricktnesse of the law being all the mercy and pity he craves from all his adversaries choosing and desiring any speedy death in the world rather then to be murdered or starved in prison, which is likely shortly to be his unavoidable portion, if much longer he be continued in his uniufl captivity. The second Edition, with an Addition reprinted the 18. april. 1648. WOrthy Gentlemen, and fellow Country men, the Law of this Land is equally and alike our common birthright and inheritance( for all the distinguishing, dividing names amongst us.) unto which the meanest man in England is at much entitled and intaled unto, as the greatest subject, and the parting with the privileges therof( to any whatsoever) and the stooping or submitting to any arbitrary or unlimited government( in any whomsoever) was by this present Parliament in the day of their straits, adjudged a profaneness like Esaus, in selling their Birthright, and subjecting them and their posterities to vassalage and slavery, for the preventing of which, they exhort all the true hearted patriots of England, to stick close unto them, who then as they declare were ready to lay down their lives for the preservation of their laws and liberties as the greatest earthly treasure and jewel that could here be possessed, 1. part book decl. pag. 660. In the destruction of which we become beasts, and are no more men but in shap, 1. part book decl. pag. 140, 163, 201. And all liberty and property of meum and tuum is thereby totally leveled, destroyed, and confounded, for the avoiding and preventing of which, that much to be honoured Lawyer Sir Edward Cook, which deserves the highest praises from the plain and well minded people of England, of any Lawyer that ever lived therein, for that most inestimable pains of his, in compiling in English his four parts of his Instituts, which discovers so much of the peoples rights by law, that I am confident this present degenerated Parliament, and the present cowardly, corrupt, make-bate, lincie-woolsie generation of Lawyers, wish every one of them burnt, though I hearty wish and desire that every man in England, that hath any spare money and time would buy them, and red, and study them, as the absolutest discoverers of the true mind of the Law of England, of all the Lawyers works that yet are extant in England, in the 2, part of which, in his exposition of the 29. chap. of Magna Charta, so. 51. he exhorts the Parliament itself. That in stead of the ordinary and precious trial by the law of the land, they bring not in absolute, and partial trials by discretion, or will or pleasure, For saith he most excellently, fol. 56. ibim. the law is the right line, whereby iustice distributive is guided and directed, and therefore all the Commissions of Oyer and terminer, of Gaole delivery, of the peace, &c. have this clause, viz. To do what belongs( or appertains) to iustice and law, and the custom of England. And that( saith he) which is called common right in the 2. Ed. 3. is called common Law in the 14. Ed, 3. &c. and in this sense it is taken, where it is said, that the thing or party stands right in the court, that is to say, to the Law in the court. Secondly, The law( saith he) is called right in opposition to wrong, or because it discovereth that which is tort, crooked, or wrong, for as right signifieth law, so tort, crooked, or wrong, signifieth injury, for injury is the contrary of right, and a right line measures itself and a crooked line, hereby the crooked cord of that which is called discretion, appeareth to be unlawful, unless you take it as it ought to be, viz. discretion is to discern by the law what is just. Thirdly, Law( saith he) is called right, because it is the best birth right the subject hath, for thereby his goods, lands, wife, children, his body, life, honour, and estimation are protected from injury and wrong, it being( as he saith) the surest sanctuary that a man can take, and the strongest fortress to protect the weakest of all, to every one of us there comes a greater inheritance by right, and the law, then by our parents. See also fol. 63. 97. ibim. and the 4, 5, 6. pages of my after mentioned Plea for a Habeas Corpus. And truly Gentlemen, I cannot but acquaint you, that almost for this eleven yeares together, I have suffered abundance of lawless, bloody, wicked, cruel, barbarous, and tyrannicall (a) These are the words and Epithits of the Parliaments Votes of the 4. May 1641. in reference to my Star Chamber sufferings, see innocency and truth justified; pag. 65, 72. and my relation before the Lords of the 13. Feb. 1645. pag. 11. where their votes are printed. oppression, and never had legally to this hour any crime laid unto my charge, neither doth my conscience in reference to man accuse me of any, neither now I am confident can any be laid to my charge, unless it be for maintaining myself to be a man and not a beast, and standing for the laws and liberties of my native Country, and keeping up as much as in me lies, the right of property in meum and tuum, from being leveled and destroyed. And yet even in the Tower of London, without all shadow or cullour of law, and iustice, is my body unjustly detained in prison, by the lieutenant thereof, by the power of armed men, who continually rob me of the privilege of an English man, in debarring my friends from having free access to me, so that being in a manner destroyed in outward things, by reason of my long sufferings and large expenses to preserve myself from utter ruin by my great and potent enemies, and having my own to the value of almost 3000. l. kept from me by the powerful inflvence of the present Earls of Salisbury, old Sir Henry vain, my cruel Star Chamber Iudges, Mr. William Lenthall Speaker, my heavy adversary, that hath maliciously and unjustly tost and tumbled me from Gaole to Gaole, and Mr. Oliver cronwell, that usurper and murderer, who by his tyranny and usurped armed power, doth so over awe the mayor part of the Parliament, that they neither can, nor dare do any man justice and right that he hates, being at present fit for nothing so much as to wear blew jackets with Cromwells badges upon their arms, as his vassells and slaves. And having never had to this day any allowance at all( as by law I ought to (b) As J fully proved in my speech of the 19 Ian. 1647. at the house of Commons bar, which you may red in my whip for the Lords. p. 21, 22. have) from those that uninstly committed me, in the eye of reason I must of necessity without your compassionate and resolved help speedily perish in a hole and a corner, which to do in a fearful and amazed silence, I had rather choose to be cut in ten thousand pieces, or perish by the severest hand of iustice, neither indeed can I sit still or acquiese, in the denial of justice or deliverance unto me, till I see it, that the use of any more means is in vain, no more then I can cease to eat my meat, or wear my cloths to keep me warm. For as Christ saith, Mat. 11.17. J have mourned unto them( that would causelessly destroy me) and they will not lament, and I have piped unto them, and yet they will not dance, and what to do the next but what now I do, I know not, secret things belonging unto God, but revealed things to me, and the generation in which I live, and therefore as a rational creature( which is the image of God in which he created man) I act by those dictates, God dictates unto me as such a creature, the dictares of which are, that it is as lawful for me by the light of nature and the law of God( which hath commanded me to do no murder, and if not upon another, then much less upon myself, and a murderer I am if I patiently and sottishly suffer another to murder me, without using all means whatsoever for my own preservation, and therfore I judge it as lawful for me) by all means possible to preserve my life from beastilke, Barish & wolvish men, as from the destruction of savage beasts, bares, and wolves themselves, which for my president in my judgement was continually practised by Paul himself, who in his straits made use of means for his own preservation in as high a nature as I have ever done, yea, and set his Iudges together by the ears. Acts 24. And for my part, I judge the second table as much the law of God as the first table, and as well worth my laying down my life for the preservation of it as the first, knowing amongst men no religion worth owning, commending or embracing, but that which teacheth a man to live justly, honestly, and uprightly amongst the sons of men, and to do to all men as I would be done unto, and if I would have another to do good unto me, much more am I bound to do it unto myself, and therefore for those men that place all their religion in prating and talking of religion, I pray God keep me from their airy and Kemero religion, and continue me one of the practisers of the actions of religion, it being Christs rule, to know the three by its fruit, and James, to judge of the faith by the works. And as for those men, that care for no more but to get liberty to meet freely together, to prate and discourse of religion, and will let others without any cause, perish, rot, and be destroyed in prison, without using any means for their deliverance or preservation, J think may justly be numbered amongst the Goats which Christ sets upon his left hand, and commands to depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his Angells, Mat. 25.32, 33. to the end, whose condemnation was not for committing evil, but for not doing good to those that were in prison, or nakedness, &c. And if it be the Apostles rule, that he that will not work shall not eat, then he deserves without doubt to starve, that will willingly suffer another to tie his hands, and so keep him from working, and sit down in patient silence without the use of all means to get his hands untied, that so he may go to work again to earn his bread again. And if he be worse then an infidel, as the Apostle avers, that doth not provide for his own family, then surely he is the same, if not worse, if worse can be, that suffers any man by will and pleasure, to take by force and violence, without his consent, that away from him that he hath provided for his family, and sits down in silence and patience without using all possible means to get it again, especially if it be his trade, or his liberty, which while by imprisonment it is restrained, he cannot follow his trade, upon which the life and being of his family depends, all which in every particular is my case, and therefore J both must and will stir for my liberty and my right, without the speedy inioymen: of which, I and my family unavoidably perish, therefore in my own thoughts woe be unto me if J do sit still, and yet in my actings J judge it my duty and wisdom to go gradually to work, in the most justest ways that is suitable to christianity and humanity, and more then J have already done in a formal, magisterial way, J cannot see J have to do, saving the flying to the ordinary Judges in Westminster Hall for justice according to the laws of England, and if there J get it not, then J must of necessity appeal to the body of the people, though it may be it may not help me, yet J must in duty and conscience do it,( and justify it by the Parliaments doing it * 1. book pag. 197. 255. 278. 496. 636. 666. 700. themselves) though all their ears should be dease to my cries and lamentations, and if J perish I perish, but yet I know my portion is with the Lord of glory in heaven, where to go is for me best of all, yet J must work, and all my potent adversaries shall not let me: till J have fully finished my course, appointed in the secret decree of my father in order to which it was, that J lately penned and printed my Epistle to the Speaker, daited the 4. April, 1648, called the prisoners plea for a Habeas Corpus, in the 7, and 8, pages of which, I have partly expressed my desires to you, as there you may red, and also there printed a petition, which I there do, and still shall earnestly entreat all those amongst you,( in the Parliaments words) that have any sense of piety, honour, honesty, pity, compassion, christian simpethy, humanity, or English fellow feeling within your breasts, to go up in person the first day of the next term, by six or seven a clock in the morning, with that my petition, to the Iudges sitting on the Kings Bench in Westminster hall, being Wednesday the 19 of this present April, About which petition J further earnestly desire to propound these ensuing things to your serious consideration. 1. That upon the next Lords day, and the Lords day after, being the 9. and 16. of this present April, that you improve vigorously, your several interests to make the petition, &c. as public as possible you can, either by getting it publicly red, with the preamble, before it, or else near or at the meeting places, nail up the plea itself, so that the Petition and preamble to it may be red. 2. Appoint frequent meetings in your several stations, that so you may understand one anothers minds about it, and make your number as considerable as possible you can, for it concerns all your lives, liberties and estates, as well as mine, for suffer yourselves to be robbed of the law, or to be murdered in prison, without due trvall or legal conviction, as without your speedy help J am like to be, and I will not give 6 d for all your estates. 3. I earnestly entreat you at your first meeting amongst any of you, to resolve to sand some of you to me, that so J may deliver unto you the original of my petition under my own hand, and acquaint you who I have alreadit fixed upon to speak to it when it is delivered in open Court, and see whether you approve of the party or no, for abilities and resolution, and also that I may deliver three or four copies of my plea for a Habeas Corpus, corrected with my own hand( for the printer hath made divers erratas) with a desire unto you, with so many of you as yourselves shall think fit, to carry one of them to Mr. Iustice Bacon, and another to Mr. Iustice Rowles, the Iudges of the Kings bench: and desire them to red it, and consider seriously of it against the term, that so they may be fitted with courage and resolution enough not to break their oaths, but to do me iustice and right, according to the good, old, and just law of the land, whosoever shall command I them to the contrary. And I also shall further entreat you to carry a third copy to Mr. Speaker, and deliver it to his own hands at his house, or else where, with your earnest desire to him, that he will discharge his duty in acquainting the house with my just and legal desires therein contained, that so they nor none of them may run upon the rock;( but at their perils) by commanding the Iudges to forswear themselves, in not granting me a Habeas Corpus to bring or command my body and cause before them in open court, which is my right by law, As I have largely and fully proved in the foresaid plea, which command I shall look upon( if any such shall be) to be as traitorous a subversion of the fundamental laws and government of England, as in the first Article of their impeachment they charge the earl of Strafford with who lost his head as a traitor therefore, as by his bill of Attainder you may red, printed in the 29. pag. of my late book, called the Peoples Prerogative, for I find by the notes of some present at the earl of Straffords Arraignment, that the principal witnesses against the earls first article, was Mr. Musgrave( who witnessed to this effect, that the said earl made his will and pleasure Lord paramount above the law of England about prohibitions, and was angry with judge Hutton for granting them,( as Mr. Thorp witnessed he had heard the judge say) and in the hearing of Mr. jo. Musgrave( late prisoner in the Fleet) did about the year 1632. Threaten to clap close by the heels all them that brought them into the Court to pled them before him, though they were & still are part of the ancient and just law of England, upon whose crime for the endeavouring to subvert the law, and introduce an arbitrary tyrannicall government of will and pleasure. Mr. John Pim in his first speech against the earl upon Tuesday the 23. March, 1640. and the second day of his trial, had these words, viz. that the earl of Straffords crime was a treason far beyond the reach of words, and that no punishment could be thought upon sufficient to expiate crimes of such a transcendent nature. And Mr. Glyn upon Wednesday the third day of the trial told the Lords at the bar, that the Lord of Strafford was impeached not with simplo, but accumulitive Treason, in the mass of which taken in one view, he( the said Earl) should be undoubtedly found the most wicked and exorbitant traitor that ever was arraigned at the Lords bar, and I am sure to stop habeas Corpesses is as great a Crime in law as to stop prohebitions; but if you should ask me the question whether J did not sand my Plea to the Speaker in writing before I printed it. J answer no, and the reason was, because if I had so done it is possible my adversaries might have prevented the printing, and publishing of it, neither have I yet sent him one in print, and the reasons of that are, First, because if I should have sent it by a single friend it is possible he might have been clapped by the heels, or have come to some other trouble about it, or if he had not, yet he would not well have dared to have closlly followed the Speaker for answer to it, which I much desire, & must strongly endeavour for. And Secondly, to sand it by my Wife is to no purpose at all but to throw it away as wast paper. First, because that about September 1646. as she was following a Petition for me( being then with Child) at the House of Commons door, she had like to have been murdered( without any offence in the world given by one Richard Vaughin a gold smith in Foster lain, and then ensign to that dayes guard, at which the members of the House were no whit offended, but rather rejoiced at it, the story of which you may read in the 32, 33. pages of my book called Londons liberties in Chains. Secondly, because that by Col. Baxster and his Soldiers, she had like to have been run through with their swords, for doing that which nature and humanity teacheth her to stick close to her husband in his adversity and affliction, the 19. of Jan. 1647. being that very day, that I myself had like to have been murdered by them for no other Crime, but for standing for my legal liberties, given me by the law my Country, as you may red in the relation thereof 24, 25, 26. pages of my Whip, in which regard, especially being great with child, she dare go no more to the House of Commons to follow my business there, least for so doing she be murdered in good earnest, but besides if she durst go again yet, Thirdly, I being so much at enmity with Baxster his under Officers and Soldiers as I am( who are on purpose( against all law and iustice) set as a guard to keep the people of England from having free access to the House of Commons to seek for justice from them which is such a practise that all Pagan Judges in the world may justly blushy at) they will be sure to deny my Wife any access at all, and therefore have I judged it altogether in vain to sand her any more to follow my business there, for me, And therefore in this straight I must a little rest upon some of you. And therefore in the last place, seeing by law that the Parliament itself hath often declared, though your number be never so great that goes up, there is no danger in law unto you carrying yourselves( as in the least I doubt not but you will) quietly and peaceably. First part book Decl. page. 201, 202, 209, 548, 691. 720. so on the contrary, misbehaviour in Westminster Hall the Court sitting is very dangerous by the Common Law, as, Sir Edward Cook declares in the 2. part instituts. fol. 549. & 3. part institutes chap. 101. fol. 218. viz. to strike, is the lose of the right hand, &c. Therefore to wind up all I most humbly entreat you speedily to publish this in print amongst you to some purpose, that so by the knowledge hereof, your company may be the more considerable, and all of them the better know, how without detrimene to themselves, or me, to behave themselves when they got up, the effectual publishing of which, with the petition to it if you please. I shall take for a very great Obligation, and tie to remain. Your faithful and engaged Country-man to serve you in the real service of his Country, zealously and courageously to the last drop of his heart blood. John Lilburne. From my most illegal restraint and imprisonment in the armed garrison of the Tower of London this 7. of April 1648. The Petition thus followeth. To the honourable the Judges of the Kings bench, The humble Petition of Lievt. Col. John Lilburne Prisoner in the Tower of London, Sheweth, THat your Petitioner is an Englishman, and thereby entailed and entitled to the benefit of all the laws of England which by your Oaths (†) Which is printed in Pultons collect. of Statutes fol. 144. and the peoples prerogative. p. 10. you are sworn indifferently and equally without fear or partiality to administer gratis to all persons rich and poor, without having regard to any person notwithstanding any command whatsoever to the contrary. Now forasmuch as a Habeas Corpus is part of the law of England, and ought not by law to be denied to any man (*) See 2. H, 5. ch. 2. Petition of right, 3. C. R, & the act that abolisheth ship money, 17. C. R. 2. partin. fo. 53. 55. 189. 615. 616. 4. part f. 7●. 2. pat inst. f. 56, 63, 97. 526. whatsoever that demand it, which though your petitioner earnestly endeavoured the last term to obtain, yet could not prevail with his counsel to move for it, although he hath almost this two yeares been detained in prison in the Tower of London, without all shadow of Law or iustice, and by the lieutenant thereof, hath been divorced from the society of his wife, debarred from the free access of his friends, deprived of the use of pen, ink and paper: all which usages are against the express laws and Statutes of this land, your petitioners birth right and inheritance. Therefore your petitioner humbly prayeth, according to his right, and your oaths, the benefit of a Habeas Corpus,( and that be may have it gratis † See the 26. of Magna Charta. and Sir Ed. Cookes exposition upon it. fol. 42. & 3. Ed. 1. ch. 26. and the expofition upon it in 2. par. in. f. 210. & f. 74. 533, 535. and the stat. of the 11. H. 4. N. 28. not printed in the Stat. book, but is printed in the 3. part inst. fol. 146, 224, 225. according to the law of the land and your Oaths) to bring his body and cause before you in open Court, there to receive your award and iudgement according to the declared Law of England. John Lilburne. And your Petitioner shall pray, &c. dear Country-men; Since I writ this Letter to y●u I fully understand my Cromwellish-Adversaries have a design speedily to sand me Prisoner to a Castle, many miles remote from London: Where I cannot but believe they intend absolutely to murder me in good earnest: And therefore, in the bitterness of my soul, and the anguish of my spirit, I mournfully implore the effectual presence, of as many of you as possible can be at Westminster-Hall to morrow morning, by six or seven a clock without Stafe or Sword, to deliver my Petition for me, and I shall rest, Yours in so doing much obleidged, John Lilburne. Tower, this 18. april, 1648. FJNJS.