EVERY MAN'S CASE: Or, A brotherly Support to Mr. LARNER, Prisoner in the new Prison in Mayden-lane.  
My true Friend and Brother,  
BY Reason of your Sufferings, I am much sadded, especially to consider, that good men should still be subject to the Tyranny of the late High-Commission Promoters, and Informers, the Stationers, through whose malice, both You and your Servants are thus Imprisoned: We have known and observed them a long time, how they have been a naughty and vexatious people to all Good Men, as mischievous as any Pattentees in England: In the Bishops, times, they were like Setting-Dogges, to hunt Good Men and Women into the Star-Chamber, and High-Commission Nets; and we see, it is to little purpose to put down those Courts, and not Punish those wicked men; for they hate all that are honest in their hearts, because they that are honest, are against their Patent: and therefore they study night and day: how to undo them, and are like Moths in the State, creeping into employment, upon pretext of doing great service, but indeed, being corrupt themselves, endeavour to make others so too, and misled them that give care to them, into such courses, as will in time make them odious to the: World, so true it is, that those that touch Pitch, shall be defiled therewith.  
And such as they have been, such they continue, for without doubt, they are the principal cause why this inhuman course of examining men upon Intergatories is continued, especially in criminal causes, notwithstanding it hath been so cried out upon by Parliaments, by Martyrs, Ministers, and all true Christian Lawyers, as a thing against the Laws of God, of Nature, Nations, and of this Kingdom, (as was faithfully pleaded the other day in Colonel lilburn's case, at the Lords Bar,) in which Case, and likewise in another of greater moment, about a Petition rejected by their Lordships, their Lordships have dealt so Nobly, and Worthily, as hath put their Honours past all hurt or blemish, from such Paper-pellets, as have unhappily occasioned your sufferings: And if all other Parties, intimated in that Paper, (London's last Warning,) prove when they are tried, as their Lordships have done, the Author will have cause to repent his too hasty Zeal. And certainly their Honours had passed it over, and had not insisted thus upon you, but upon the Stationer's instigation, and misinformation; and will not persist to examine Free Commoners, ex Officio, nor Servants against their Masters, against their Wills: all sorts of People, great and small, aught to do as they would be done by; and God by his Providence faileth not first or last, to render measure for measure; Therefore I hope, their Lordships will give ear no longer to the malicious suggestions, and insinuations of wicked men, but upon consideration of your faithfulness to the Parliament, the affliction of your Wife, and family; and that a small time of imprisonment may undo you and them, they will not retain you longer, but set you free, and look upon the Stationers, as Cankers of the Commonwealth, and destructive to all true Honour.  
However, you do well to stand in the Liberty, wherein God, and the Law of the Land hath made you free, and not to be entangled with any yoke of bondage; the greatest whereof, is for a man to be bound to Accuse himself, or another: and next thereunto, is to be enforced, to be Tried otherwise then by his Peers or Equals, in both which, you have carried yourself like a true Englishman, choosing rather to suffer imprisonment, and great affliction, then betray your native Liberties, and the Liberties of your Country, for which, all good People will ever love and respect you, and all others, who have done, or shall do, as you have done herein.  
Pilate is the first we read of, that endeavoured this cruel distorting of the mind, saying to our Blessed Saviour; I charge thee: by the Everlasting God, tell us who thou art; a bad Precedent for Christians to follow: and strange it is, it should be owned by any but Star-Chamber, High-Commission, or Pattentee-Christians, fare be it from any that would truly deserve that holy Name, to own so unholy a practice, and if any favour thereof, be to be found in any of our Legal Trials, though it be but to Answr Guilty, or not Guilty, as it came, and crept in by Tyranny, (for those who know the Truth, know it to be so,) so ought it to be totally excluded by those, who would be esteemed true Christian Lawmakers, or Reformers.  
The Lords, by the instigation of the Stationers, have taken offence against you, wherein themselves are parties, and if there were no other Reason, it is most unequal, they should be your Judges: But the Law of the Land is express, That you a Commoner, are not to be adjudged of Life, Limb or Liberty, but by Commoners, who are your Peers, and that upon sufficient Testimony of honest and faithful Witnesses, face to face, in open Court. Friend, you are upon a sure ground, for these things are so essential, to the Freedom of the People, as Parliaments will never alter them; nor I hope, act contrary to them.  
And therefore, however the Commons in Parliament, have (upon misinformation,) delivered you up to the Lords, to be tried by them, yet may they as well transfer all the Power they are entrusted with, by the generality of all the Commoners of England, and refer the whole Government, to the sole disposing of the Lords. And indeed, they have done little less in this act, than delivered us all up to the Lords, for there is the same equity for their trying and Imprisoning me, and so of every man, as for their trying and imprisoning you; So that your case in this particular, Is every man's Case, though generally, men are so sottish, as to be sensible of the lash, then, only when it falls upon their own backs, not considering, That they may suffer to morrow that misery and calamity, which to day their Brother groans under. I hope therefore, upon better consideration, the House of Commons will take you to their own Protection, and deal with you, as is justly due to every Commoner, and not hold you in Prison, unless by faithful and credible Witnesses, they find by the Law of the Land, you are guilty of a crime deserving the same.  
And that most be no small one, for believe it, our Forefathers esteemed Imprisonment no small Punishment. Frequent Imprisonment, is an effect of exorbitant Power, by which, sooner than by any other means, plain and mean People are brought to stoop to the Wills of the Mighty: it being the way to destroy them, their Wives, and Families, by keeping them from their trades, husbandry, and other Callings: and hath served more than any one thing to break the Spirits of the people: being a subtle politic punishment, that makes, and keeps men tame, and fit for slavery, whereas all other punishments, if injurious, makes people wild, and therefore this hath been practised by those that have most encroached upon the Liberties of the English, as will appear by Proceed of foarty or threescore year's last passed in Court, City, and all Countries, every trifle hath been sufficient to procure an Imprisonment, and the Land groaneth under this intolerable burden still. But of all other Testimonies of our Bondage, Close Imprisonment is the most manifest: where a man shall be kept from the sight of his Friends, and Comforters in his bonds, and in a ghastly apprehension of he knows not what mischief may befall him, as hath formerly happened to divers great men, (that might be instanced in,) by means of the advantage wicked men have taken from the opportunity of safely doing mischief to a Close Prisoner. Next to the Rack, and Torture, certainly this is the most unchristian, unmanly, and irrational usage of Freemen, and will we hope, in this time of Reformation; be utterly banished out of this Land: Never had Parliament such an opportunity as this hath; Nor are we to doubt, but they will perform the same: and I should be glad to see some fruit thereof in their bearing towards you. And that they would look back upon the Stationers (and all other Monopolizers,) and remember them, when they shall make suit to have the Printing of the Bible, or for other favours, that they have dealt treacherously with the Parliament, and have ministered occasion of much trouble and vexation to them, and many of their most faithful Friends, being as the Amalekites were to the Israelites in their Passage from Egyptian bondage, to the Freedom of Canaan. God, I trust, will at length remember them, and will also, I trust, deliver you out of the power of their malice, and recompense you a hundred fold for these your Sufferings. The Commons in Parliament have a right in you, which they cannot disclaim, other Judges you have not; it is most unequal you should have other, as I could in few lines demonstrate, past all denial; but I will not do it now, and I hope, I shall not have further occasion to visit you in this kind; I do not desire it; I hearty wish you at home with your Family, as knowing a little longer imprisonment, may prove your utter overthrow: which would very much afflict the Spirits of your faithful Friends, and would not be for the honour or profit of any. However, comfort yourself in GOD, and be well assured, he will never leave you, nor forsake you; And when the memories of those Officious men, that solicit against you, shall be odious to all good men; you will be remembered, as one that knew and maintained the just Liberties of England, and shrunk not in time of Trial.