Rash Oaths unwarrantable: And the breaking of them as inexcusable. Or, A DISCOURSE, showing, that the two Houses of Parliament had little ground to make those Oaths they have made, or less ground to take, or press the taking of them, being it is easy to be apprehended, they never intended to keep them, but only made them for snares, and cloaks for knavery, as is clearly evinced by their constant arbitrary and tyrannical practices, no justice nor right being to be found amongst them; by means of which they have declaratorily, and visibly lost the very soul and essence of true Magistracy, (which is, the doing of justice, judgement, equity and right) and are become a dead carcase. In which is also a true and just DECLARATION of the unspeakable evil of the delay of justice, and the extraordinary sufferings of Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburne, very much occasioned by M. Henry Martin's unfriendly and unjust dealing with him, in not making his Report to the House. All which with divers other things of very high concernment, are declared in the following discourse, being an Epistle written by Lieutenant-colonell John Lilburne, Prerogative-prisoner in the Tower of London, to Colonel Henry Marten, a Member of the House of Commons, and Chaire-man to the Committee for consideration of the Liberties of the Commons of England. May 1647.  Eccles. 5.2.4. 
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God; but when thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it: for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed  Numb. 30.2. 
If a ●an vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to hind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.  Deut. 23.21. 
When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee, and it will be sin to thee.  Jer. 4.2. 
And thou shalt swear the Lord liveth, in truth, in judgement, and in righteousness.  Ezek. 17.15,16,19. 
Shal● he break the Covenant, ●nd be delivered? As I live, saith the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die; and my covenant that he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head.  Hos. 4.2,3. 
By swearing, and lying, and killing, and s●…aling, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood; therefore shall the land mourn.  jer. 6.19. 
Hear O earth, behold I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened to my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.   

SIR, When Israel degenerated from the Law of her Sovereign Lord and King, and followed her own crooked ways, the Lord himself, as one that was not delighted in her destruction, but rather with her preservation, cries out again her, to make her ashamed of the evil of her ways. How is the faithful city b●…come a harlot? it was full of judgement, righteousness lodged in it, but now murd●…ers. Thy silver is became dross, thy wine mixed with water. Thy Princes are rebellion and companions of thiefs: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards; th● judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, ah, I will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of my enemies, Isa. 1.21,22,23,24.  
Sir, an enemy to you he is not, that shall cordially and hearty tell you of your faults, with a desire to reclaim you from the evil of your ways by so doing, Ps●… 141.5. which task though unpleasant in itself, he that never in his life knew ho●… to flatter, nor play the hypocrite and dissembler, is urgently necessitated now 〈◊〉 his own preservation, to undertake.  
And therefore Sir, to give you your due and right, I must ingenuously a●… knowledge, that I have for a long time looked upon you, as one of the great p●…lars of the Liberties of the Commons of England, and your name amongst all ju●… and  men, hath been extraordinary famous this present Parliament therefore, and for this you suffered an expulsion of the House, and a reproachful a●… unjust imprisonment in the Tower of London, by the guilded men of the time who (you then discovered) carried two faces under one hood; & many monet●… (if not some years) you continued an ejected person from your just place in th●… House: And since your readmission again, have there in your Speeches behave● yourself so gallantly for your Country, that your name and fame hath loud been spread abroad by it: Yea give me leave to tell you, that one of your own Members esteemed very honest, but by me too prudential; that is to say, too cowardly, and too much for himself and his selfish interest, in a time when a Northern tempest was likely to arise, told me in the Tower, that the true lover's 〈◊〉 their Country in England were more beholden unto M. Henry Marten for h●… sincerity, uprightness, boldness and gallantry, then to half, if not all tho●… that are called conscientious men in the House. And truly Sir, having had th● happiness (for so I esteemed it) often to be in your company, I have admire● those gallant discourses for the Liberty of this Nation that have flowed from yo● so that when I first made my appeal to the House of Commons the 16. of June 1646. and heard that my business was referred to a Committee where M. Ma●ten had the Chair, I was not a little refreshed, being even where I would hav● wished and desired to be; thinking that you, of all the men in the House 〈◊〉 Commons, would have been the most sensible of me and my condition: But must deal truly with you, I found it otherwise: For after, by the earnest soll●… citation of my wife and friends, you and the Committee had examined my business, and passed (as I was informed) gallant and excellent Votes upon it; but yet you (by your negligence and delay, if not wilfulness) exasperated the spirits of the House of Lords against me, and exposed me to their merciless fury and devouring indignation, by delaying my Report: And truly Sir, I must give this commendation of them, That the tender mercies of the House of Lords are cruelty: For, upon your examining my business, and not reporting it, they took courage to themselves, and locked me up most illegally, barbarously and tyrannically in New gate above three weeks close prisoner, from the society of my wife, children, or friends; and would neither suffer me to receive either meat, drink, money, nor any other necessaries, from the hands of my wife, maid, or friends; nor suffer my wife to come into the Prison-yard to speak with me before my Keepers out of my window; the story of which you may more fully read in the 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. pages of my late printed Book called London's Liberty in chains discovered; and in my Speech before yourself (at the Committee) now in print, and called An Anatomy of the Lords tyranny, pag. 3, 4, 5, 6. and in the second Edition of the Outcries of oppressed Commons, pag. 21, 22, 23. All this while my wife and friends following you day by day, with all the importunity in the world, to beg and entreat of you to make my Report, for want of which I was likely to be destroyed by the devouring House of Lords; but you would not do it: so that in some sense I may complain with job (in reference to you, and the rest of my timorous friends in the House) My kinsfolk have failed me, my familiar friends have forgotten me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me, Job 19.13,14. which did hearten the tyrannical House of Lords, further to go on with their cruelty and tyranny towards me; and then upon the 11. of July 1646. at their Bar, past a most lawless, illegal, and unjust sentence against me, To pay four thousand pound to the King, to be seven years a prisoner in the Tower of London, and for ever to be uncapable to bear any Office or Place in military or in civil government, in Church or Commonwealth, as more at large you may read in the Sentence itself, printed in the 30, 31, 32, 33, 34. pages of a little book called Vox Plebis: and what illegal cruelty and tyranny I have since suffered and endured in my imprisonment in the Tower of London, even to the hazard of my life and being, and the destruction of my wife and helpless children, you may largely read in several printed Books; as Liberty vindicated against Slavery, pag. 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23. London's Liberty in chains discovered, pag. 31, 32, 33, 34. Regal tyranny discovered, pag. 1, 47, 48, 49, 62, 63, to 78. but especially in my late Epistle to Col. West the Lieutenant of the Tower, called, The oppressed man's oppressions declared.  
And after the  Sentence, being committed to the Tower, there to be kept only in safe custody for seven years, as by the Warrant you may read printed in Vox Plebis, pag. 34, 35. I was by the Lieutenant thereof with out ground or cause, most illegally divorced from the society of my wife, fir●… by himself, who afterwards obtained by his own solicitation, an Order for his indemnity from the Lords, the severity of which by him was executed upon me for above eleven weeks together, as by the  Books you may fully understand, and when by my wife's Petition, and my own, both of which yo● may read in the 65, 66, 67. 68, 69, 71, 72. pages of my Book called, London's Liberty in chains, I had obtained the just privilege to be heard before a Committe● appointed by the House of Commons on purpose, where you yourself against (to my then great refreshment) was in the Chair, before whom I had two hear upon two several days, and I must ingenuously confess, I had as fair an● just play before you, as any man in England could desire, having free liberty, with out interruption, to speak whatsoever I in my own understanding, conceive● might be for my benefit and advantage, to your praise and honour, in that particular of your well doing I desire to speak it, and my last discourse then with you and the Committee, was so abundantly satisfactory and well pleasing unto you that yourselves by special order the 6. Novem. 1646. commanded me to brin● it in unto you in writing, upon the 9 of Novem. next, which I accordingly did and since printed it, not doubting then but within fourteen days after, I should have been a freeman, freely set at liberty as unjustly imprisoned, and against th● good and known Law of England, for as high as this, if not higher, I hav● been informed was the result of the Committee then, and the temper of you● House towards justice a thousand times better than now it is.  
Sir, I must confess, I desired you then upon some weighty reasons which gave you, to forbear the Report four or five days, but when I see that thing fell not out according to my expectation, I sent immediately to you with al● earnestness speedily to make my Report, and you gave those I sent to you very fair words, which truly I must tell you, would no●… the bellies of me, my wife nor children, nor procure us money to buy bread to do it; whereupon having high thoughts of your honesty, and your gallant integrity to the love of the Liberties of the Commons of England, grounded (as I conceived) upon a good foundation, and backed with high and resolved resolutions, I did not only with all the honourable respect I could, send my wife unto you, to beseech and entreat you, to be sensible of my trying condition, and to do me and all the Commons of England (who were and are not a little concerned in me) that justice and right, as without further delay to make my Report to the House for me, but I also sent unto several of my friends in the House and City, in the most candidest manner I could, that I knew had a familiar acquaintance with you, earnestly pressing them to improve all their interest in you, to get you to make my Report, and when I could not prevail with you that way, I writ a few importuning lines to you, and the like to others of my friends, which I knew were dear unto you, and when that would not do, I sent some of your own Countrymen unto you, whose Commissioner and representer you are, to improve their utmost interest in you, and I also gave you a gentle touch or two in print of my great suffering by your neglect. Sir, in short, wanted I a wife, I should not I am confident of it, use so much wooing to the fairest and vertuest woman in England, though with a rich portion in Lands and money, to obtain her for my wife, as I have done to you to make my Report, having (I protest it before the presence of God) left no just means (and others though I perish, I will never take) unattempted, that all the wits and brains I have could think of, to obtain this piece of reasonable justice at your hands to make my Report for me to the House, which you are bound in duty, conscience, justice and honour to do for me long since, without one tenth part of that importunate solicitation, that I for the greatest part of a year together have used to you.  
Sir, I pray remember the 29. Chap. of Magna Charta, which requires you not only to do impartial justice, but speedy justice without delay: the unrighteous Judge though at last he did justice, yet he is called the unrighteous Judge because he would not do it speedily, but suffered the poor widow to pump and importune him for it; but say I to you, I wish my Judges were not worse than the unrighteous Judge.  
But Sir, seeing it is to no purpose, I can no longer now forbear, but must write you my mind to the purpose, cost it what it will, being now at present as careless of you, as you are and have been of me, and my long (but I will not say unsupportable) sufferings, though I might truly say it, if it were not that I had a full, faithful, and soule-satisfying God, to rest and rely upon, and the distresses and hardly to be undergone portion of my wife and little infants: But Sir, I beseech you, give me leave, before I lansh into the deep, a little mildly to expostulate with you, in a friendly way before we fall out, and to demand this question of you, what I have said or done to you, to give you any tolerable cause to deal thus with me, as you have done, as by your delay of your duty to destroy me, and given me too just cause in reference to you, to say with David, Psal. 55.12,13,14. For it was not an enemy that reproached me, than I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me, that did magnify himself against me, than I would have hid myself from him; but it was thou, ah man, mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance, we took sweet counsel together: And truly Sir, the evil do of a friend are the most piercing and wounding, and the least to be endured, and the most odious to God, and detestable amongst all rational and gallant men, Jer. 9.4. to the 9 Ch. 12.6. and Ch. 20.10,11,12. But Sir, if you have nothing to lay to my charge in reference to yourself, I desire to know if you have any thing to accuse me of in reference to the public, have I deerted my interest? or betrayed the Liberties of my fellow Commons of England? or have I been sluggish, slothful, or cowardly in managing the business I have in hand? or have I been impatient in my sufferings, & by my madness and folly destroyed my business? or given grounded advantage to my adversaries? If all or any of these can be justly laid to my charge, I desire not to be spared.  
But Sir, if you can say nothing against me by way of miscarriage to you in particular, or the public in general, than I pray you give me leave to demand of you this question, What have you to say for yourself, that you have thus delayed to make my report, and thereby over and over, again and again have hazarded my destruction and utter ruin, contrary to law, honesty, justice, reason and conscience?  
If you should say, it is not seasonable, and that the temper of your House is such that to make it, it would do me nor the Kingdom no good, but rather a mischief, in hazarding the confirmation of the Lords tyranny towards me by a vote of your House, whose spirits are extremely exasperated against me above all men in England. To answer which, what do you else then hereby give me too just cause to say of your House, in which so many that profess honesty sit, though it be but little demonstrative by their actions, that you are a corrupted and degenerated generation of men, that are fallen from doing of Justice to the executing of Tyranny, and from maintaining, defending, and protecting (according to your duty, and the end of your sitting where you do) the Laws and Liberties of the Commons of England, to the betraying, subverting and destroying them, and so have all of you forfeited your trust, and your Parliamentary power, which (as you yourselves say, 1. par. Book Decl. p. 150.) was given you to provide for the People's weals, but not for their woes, and have thereby absolutely absolved and discharged the people from all subjection to you, and given them cause that sent you, to call you home, and choose honester men in your places, to call you to a strict account for all your tyranny, oppression and trechercy, and know what you have done with all their money; which they may justly (by your own arguments against the King) do: See the second Edition of the Outcries of oppressed Commons, p. 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.  
And in case of disobedience from you to your trusters, and empowers the several Shires, Countries, and Corporations that choose you, what do you else, then thereby give them cause to look upon you, as you have this four or five years looked upon the King, and deal by you, as you have dealt with the King, even to wage war against you, for betrayers of your trust, which they and the whole Kingdom reposed in you, who are now degenerated from a just House of Parliament (the end of calling of which by the Law, is to redress mischiefs and grievances that daily happen, 36. E. 3.10. but not to augment and wholly increase them) into a conspiracy and confederacy of lawless, unlimited, and unbounded men, that have actually destroyed the Laws and Liberties of England, and that will have no rule to walk by but their own corrupted and bloody wills, and thereby have set up the highest Tyranny that can be set up in the world, against which, by your own principles, the Kingdom may justly rise up in Arms as one man, and destroy all the foresaid conspirators without mercy or compassion, as a company of devouring Lions, ravening Wolves, and crafty Foxes, that would destroy the poor flocks of lambs, and sheep of this distressed Kingdom, the people and Inhabitants thereof; for take away Law (as the Parliament in a transcendent measure hath done) and deny us justice and right, as is constantly in a great measure done unto us by the Parliament: And what are we now better than the brute beasts of the field? the weakest of which are torn in pieces, devoured, and destroyed by the strongest, for remedie● 〈◊〉 which the Parliament against the King took up Arms, and when they h●d no Law of the Kingdom to warrant them in so doing, they make use of the law of nature and reason, and tell the King, Book Dec. 1 part pag. 207.  
That this Law is as old as the Kingdom, that the Kingdom must not be without a means to preserve itself; but in which of our Statutes this is writ, I never yet could hear, see, nor read of, and am very sure it is not where but in their own Declarations, and engraven in the heart of man as a principle of nature and reason, which as they very well and justly say, teacheth a man or Kingdom to preserve its self, 1 part Book Dec. pag. ●4. 93, 94. 112, 123. 202. 465. 466. 726, 728. see 2. Edition of the Outcries, pag. 12, 13.  
And if this Doctrine be true, as you avouch it is, than it will much more serve against yourselves then the King, because the King is so fenced about with the Laws of the Kingdom, that it is impossible for a man or Magistrate to be more, and if you are but a betrusted power, impowered protempore, by the people, for no other end in the world, but to provide for their weal and happiness, and to redress their mischiefs and grievances unfortified at all, by the established known and declared Law of the Kingdom, degenerate from your trust, destroy their Liberties, and trades, overthrow their Laws, and the Bounds that establish meum & tuum, and tyrannize over their persons ten times worse than ever the King did, or his wicked and evil Ministers of Justice, the Judges and Patentee Monopolizers, especially all of whom you cannot deny but he at the beginning of your Session surrendered up to you to be punished by you according to Law & Justice, which in them you extremely perverted and taken bribes, for the acquitting the capitallest of them, and otherwise made use of them to do more mischief since to the Commonwealth then ever they had done before, by assuring any thing for Law that you would propound to them, by means of which you with your wicked and unbounded Privileges, have dared to exercise the absolutest and grandest tyranny over the lives, liberties, trades, properties, and estates of the Freemen of England, that ever was, I dare positively aver it, since it was a Nation, governed by an established and declared Law, to your eternal and everlasting shame I speak it: so that truly, if the Freemen of England seriously look upon all your late public, and to us visible actions, and compare them with their former enjoyments, they may justly take up Miach's lamentation and say with him to you, The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright amongst you men: they (or you) all lie in wait for blood: they (or you) hunt every man his brother with a net: that they, or you, may do evil with both hands earnestly, the Prince asketh and the Judge asketh for a reward, and the great man he uttereth his mischievous desire, so they wrap it up, (therefore woe unto the Parliament, for) the best of them is as a briar, the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge, the day of thy watchmen, and thy visitation cometh, now (with a vengeance) shall be their perplexity; therefore, O all ye understanding Commons of England, in reference to your Parliament trusties, trust ye not in a friend, put ye no confidence in a guide, for your enemies are the men of your own House, Micah 7.2,3,4,5,6.  
Therefore M. Martin, I profess it before you, and all the world, that were I rationally able, I would make no scruple of conscience to help forward with my sword in my hand, the destruction of every lawless, tyrannical, treacherous man amongst you, that I should groundedly know to be a ringleader in the foresaid transcendent vileness, than I should to help to destroy so many rats or devouring vermin; and by your own  Principles, Declarations, Protestations, Oaths, Actions and do, it will undeniably be justified to be lawful for all the Commons of England's to do the same towards you.  
But now Sir, let us come to some particulars, in the first place the 29. Chap, and the most excellent Petition of right, which I call the Englishman's legal treasure, doth clearly condemn all the practices amongst you, for they expressly say, that no Freeman shall be taken and imprisoned, or be disseized of his freehold or liberties, or free-customs, or be outlawed, or exiled or any otherwise destroyed, nor we will not pass upon him nor condemn him, but by lawful judgement of his Peers, (that is to say equals, or men of his own condition) or by the Law of the Land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either justice or right, and that no man be imprisoned without cause shown, or expressed in his Warrant of Commitment, nor no man refused Habeas Corpus' for any cause whatever, nor no man taken by Petition, nor suggestion made to our Lord the King, nor his Counsel, unless it be by Indictment or Presentment of his good and lawful People of the same neighbourhood where such deeds be done, (25. E. 3.4.) in due manner, or by Process made by Writ Original at the common Law; nor that none be put out of his Franchises, nor of hi● Free-holds, unless he be duly brought in to answer, and forejudged of the same by th● course of the Law, and that no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any gift, bond, benevolence, tax, or such like charge, without common consent by Act of Parliament; Now compare your daily and hourly actions to those good, just, and unrepealed Laws, and blush for shame.  
But to wipe all this off, you will it may be say the same, that is said in your Declaration of the 17 of April 1645, Book Decl. 2 part pag. 879. That the end of the Primitive institution of all government, is the safety and weal of the people, which is above all Laws, and therefore the Kingdom being embroiled in war, necessitated, nacessitie compels you to do many actions contrary to the known Laws of the Land, without the doing of which actions, wanting the puntillo of the King's consent, you could not save yourselves, nor the kingdom, will admit all this for a truth, I pray then why do you impose such illegal, devilsh, impossible to be kept, contradicting Oaths, and Covenants, upon all the Freemen of England? upon such sever penalties that all men must be disfranchised or destroyed that will not take them, and in them without any provisoes, eautions, limitations, or declared exceptions, and reservation, tie them to maintain the Law of the Land, and the lawful rights and liberties of the Subjects of England, is not this to force men to swear to contradict and oppose to the death all your actions, and to destroy you for doing those actions, because they are contrary to the Law, and Liberties of England? O ye, forsworn men, for so I may call you all, that have taken these illegal, damnable, hellish, and soul ensnaring Oaths, because ye do yourselves, and suffer to be done daily, such things as tends to the absolute destruction of the Laws, and the lawful Liberties of the freemen of England, which by all these Oaths you have sworn to maintain and defend, with all your might, and yet there is not one just, nor righteous man amongst you, that dare avowedly and publicly, to the whole Kingdom protest against all the rest, but by parsilent patiented and constant setting there own approve of all their actions: O ye unworthy forsworn men in the highest degree, for this may too justly be the stile, and title of all, and every one of you without exceptions, in the condition of the visablest best of whom, for Millions of Gold I would not be, for if perjuries, swear, and false swear be so odious, abominable, and detestable unto God as in Scripture he declares they are, read Exod 20.7. Leu. 19.11.12 Num. 30.2. Deut. 23.21.22.23. Psal. 15.4. Eccl. 5.4.5. Ezek. 17.13.14.15.16.17.18.19. Jer. 24.10, Zek. 5.3.4.9.8.16.17.  
Then woe, we, and vengeance upon earth is your vadoubted portion, if 〈◊〉 everlasting woe, and indignation in the world to come.  
But that I may not be sentenced for rashness in saying this which is not in your Oaths, and Covenants, I will site your own words, and leave them to your judgement to pass sentence upon them.  
First, in your Protestation of the 5 of May 1641, I find you swear in these words, To maintain and defend the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subject, and every person that maketh this Protestation, in whatsoever he shall do in the lawful pursuance of the same.  
And secondly, in your Vow and Covenant, which you commanded to be taken throughout the whole Kingdom, You vow in the presence of Almighty God the Searcher of all hearts that you do in your Conscience believe, that the forces raised by the two Houses of Parliament, are raised and continue for their just defence, and for the defence of the true Protestant Religion, (which what that is I think never a one of yourselves knows,) And Laws and Liberties of the Subject, against the Forces raised by the King and a little below you all that took that Oath, declare, vow, and covenant, to assist all persons that shall take this Oath, in what they shall do in pursuance thereof and if so, then ●aver it for a truth, that all the men of England that have taken this Oath, are bound to assist me, or any other whatsoever that shall oppose the Lords and Commons sitting at Westminster, for their apparent indeavoring the destruction of the Liberties of the Subject.  
And in the third place, in the preamble to the League and Covenant, framed in Scotland, and most basely, illegally, and unjustly, obtruded upon England, and the Freemen thereof, with an unsupportable penalty, I find that amongst the things, the Fraimers of it had before their eyes, this is one, viz.  
The true public Liberty, safety and Peace of the Kingdom, wherein every ones private condition is included, And in the third Article of the Covenant, you and all those that took it, swear sencerely, really, and constantly, in your several e●ditions, to endeavour with your estates and lives, mutually to preserve the Rights and Privileges of the Parliament; and the leiberties of the Kingdom, and I am sure the Parliament hath often declared (though in action; they have visablely denied it) that they have no Privileges for the destruction of the Kingdom, but for the preservation of it, nor no Privileges for the over-throwing of good and wholesome Laws, but for the defending and preserving of them, nor no Privileges for the trampling under their feet the Liberties of the Kingdom, but to maintain them in their lustre and glory, and what they are, you may in part read before, and in your own Declaration.  
First part book Decl. page 6. 7. 38. 39 77. 123. 201. 202. 209. 277. 278. 458. 459. 548. 660. 720. 845. see the second edition of the outcries of oppressed Commons. page 8.  
I shall give you but one notable instance, of the most rememberable Vengeance of God upon the Hungarians for breaking and violating their Faith and Covenant, made with the Turk, and it is in the Turkish History made of the Life of Amurath the second, the sixth King of the Turks: In which History the fourth edition, printed by Adam Islip, 1631, I read that the Hungarians, were much distressed by inrods and spoils made by the said Amurath, whereupon the States and great men of Hungary choosed Vladislaus King of Polonia, for their King, and Captain General, and he made that, famous man Huniades his General in Transliluania, who obtained several most notable Victories against the Turks▪ as you may read in the foresaid History folio 267. 269. 273. 277. one of which is extraordinary remarkable; that Huniades with 15000. ●ought a pitcht-field with about 80000. Turks and after five hours there fe●… a fierce and bloody fight, totally overthrew the Turks by ●…aine dint of sword, and just about that time Scanderbag that ●amous Warried, and wonder of his age for gallant achevements, revolted from the Turk, which with his great losses be the valiant Hungarians, so te●…fied old Amurath, that in a very great fear of himself and his Kingdoms, he made a peace, (to his own particular great loss,) for ten years with t●… H●…gar●an●, the capulations whereof were, First, that Amurath withdraw all his forces and garrisons, should clearly departed out of Servia, and restore the same unto the possession of George the late Dispot, the right Lord and Owner thereof. (then in arms and confederacy with the Hungarians) Delivering also freely unto him his two sons Stephen and George, who was bereft of their sight, he had long time kept in straight prison. Also, that from henceforth he should make no claim unto the Kingdom of Moldavia, nor to that part of Bulgaria, which he had in the late Wars lost, And finally, that he should not invate nor molest the Hungarians, nor any part of the kingdom, during the whole time of that peace, and to pay 40000. ducats for the Ransom of Carambey one of his Generals, which conditions by solome Oath were confirmed, King, Vlad●…aus taking his Oath upon the Holy Evangle●…s, and Amurath (by his Ambassoders) upon their Turkish Alcoron, inviolable to observe the ten year's peace, and Amurath forthwith faith fully performed those things that he was presently to do, follo 292. but by the perswadtion of divers Princes, but especially of julian the Cardinal, the Pope's Legate, who in his large and set speech in a full convention, urged that against a perfidious enemy, (as the Turk was) it is lawful for a man to use all cunning, force and deceit, deluding craft with craft, and fraud with fraud, and saith he, by craft the Turk first passed into Europe, and by little and little he crept into that Kingdom, and never kept faith with any. It is sometimes lawful for the commonweal sake, neither to stand to our Leagues, neither to keep our faith with them that be themselves faithless; lawful saith he it is to break unlawful Oaths, especially such as are thought to be against right reason, and equity, therefore saith he make no conscience of the League you made with the Infidel, upon which the King Vladislaus condescended to be absolved by the Cardinal, from his Oath and Covenant, and prepaires for wars against the Turks, and the Turk with his army met him, and pitched battle within Arvarna, that fatal place to the Hungarians, and when the battle came close to be joined, it was clear of the Christians sides, who had put to flight both the wings of the Turkish army, insomuch that Am●…th dismayed with the flight of his Soldiers, was about to have fled himself cut of the main battle, had he not been stayed by a common soldier, who laying hands upon the reins of his bridle stayed him by force, and sharply reproved him for cowardice: And Amurath seeing the great slaughter of his men, and all brought into extreme danger, beholding the picture of the crucifix in the displayed ensigns of the voluntary Christians, plucked the writing out of his bosom, wherein the League was comprised, and holding it up in his hand with his eyes cast up to Heaven, said.  
Behold thou crucified Christ, this is the League thy Christians in thy name made with me, which they have without cause violared. Now if thou be a God, as they say thou art, and as we dream, revenge the wrong now done unto thy Name, and me, and show thy power upon thy perjurious people, who in their deeds deny thee their God. Whereupon there began a most cruel and fierce fight, the success of which within alittle while wholly fell to the Turks, who having slain King Vladislaus, and discomforted his Army, Huniades that most valiant Captain was forced to fly for his life, and it is observable, that in this battle were destroyed all the chief Authors and Actors (yea julian himself) in breaking the Oath, Covenant, and League, they had made with the Turk, Folio 297. 298. which overthrow proved a fatal and dismal blow to the Hungarians, which may be a good warning to all men in the world, not rashly to enter into an Oath or Covenant, but delibrately, and with a resolved resolution enviolably to keep and observe it, which is impossible for any man breathing to do yours.  
For first I read in the 1 Eliz. Chapter 1 that all and every Archbishop, Bishop, and all and every other Ecclesiastical Person, and other Ecclesiastical Officer, and Minister, of what estate, dignity pre-eminence, or degree, soever he or they be, or shall be, and all and every temporal Judge, Justice, Mayor, and other lay or temporal Officer, and Minister, and every other person having your highness sees or wags within this Realm, or any your Highness' Dominions etc. shall take that Oath following, viz.  THat the King is the only supreme Governor of this Realm, and of all other his Highness' Dominions and Countries, as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes, as Temporal. 
And a little below all that takes it (which all you Parliament men) must and aught to do, or else you cannot sit, as by the Statute of the 5 Elz. 1. appears, swears and promises, that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true Allegiance to the King's Highness, his Heirs, and lawful Successors, and to my power shall assist and defend all jurisdictions, privileges, prehemanencies, and authorities, granted or belonging to the King's Highness, his Heirs, and Successors, united and annexed to the imperial Crown of this Realm.  
And by the Oath of Allegiance enacted the 3 of Jam. chapter 4. which principally and originally was made for Popish Recusants to take and for such men of England as traviled beyond the Seas to serve any Foreign State, or Prince, though of late years as I am informed, imposed upon all Members of Parliament before they are admitted to sit there, in which Oath, you and every one that takes it, swears and declares in your Conscience before God and the World▪ that our Sovereign Lord King Charles is lawful and rightful King of this Realm, and of all other his Majesty's Dominions and Countries, and that the Pope, neither of himself, nor by any Authority of the Church on Sea of ●ome, or by any other means with any other, (mark the last clause well) hath any power or authority to despose the King, or to dispose any of his Majesty's kingdoms or dommious, or to authorize any Foreign Prince to invade or annoy him, or his countries, or to give lisceuce or leave to any of them to bear Arms, raise Tumults, or to offer any violence or hurt to his Majesty's Royal Person, State, or Government, or to any of his Majesty's Subjects within his Dominions.  
And a little below, he that takes that Oath swears, I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty, his Heirs, and Successors, and him, and them will, defend to the uttermost of my power, against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever, (mark the word whatseover) which shall be made against his or their Persons, their Crown and Dignity, by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration, or otherwise, (make the word otherwise well,) and will do to my best endeavour to disclose or make known unto his Majesty, his Heirs, and Successors, all treasons and treacherous conspiracies, which I shall know or hear of, to be against him or them, And below the Oath saith, I do believe, and in conscience am resolucd, that neither the Pope, nor any person whatsoever, (note the four last words well) hath power to absolve me of this Oath, nor any part thereof, which I acknowledge by good and full authority to be lawfully ministered unto me, and do renounce all Pardons and Dispensations to the contrary, and all these things I do plainly & sincerely acknowledge and swear, according to these express words by me spoken according to the plain and common sense, and understanding of the same words, without any equevocation, or menthall evation, or secret reservation, whatsoever: And I do make this recogniction and acknowledgemeni hearty, willingly and truly, upon the true faith of a Christian. So help me God, And add unto these your  Covenants, and upon them all I conclude it is impossible for any man breathing to keep them.  
Now Sir, set aside the evil ingredients of these two Legal or Statute Oaths , which were easy in my judgement to be evinsed, especially that clause of the Oath of Supreamicy, recorded 1 Eliz. 1 the express words of which are, That the King is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm, and of all other his Highness' Dominions and Countries, as well in all Spiritual or ecclesiastial things or causes, as Temporal.  
To say nothing of the Temporal part of it, I will desire you to satisfy me in two or three things of the Spiritual.  
First, whether or no Jesus Christ, by God the Father was not appointed to be the perfect Lawmaker, and Lawgiver, unto his visible Church on earth under the Gospel? and so to settle it, that there should be no room at all left for Kings, Parliaments, or any other power on earth to add to, or detract from what he by the eternally and everlasting assigament of his Father was to do in that particular?  
Secondly, whether or no he hath been faithful in executing fully the will of his Father in this particular?  
Thirdly, whether or no, to deny his faithfulness, or to set up in the Spiritual Church, House, or City of Jesus Christ; the dictates, laws, or injuntions, or commands of Kings, Parliaments, or any other earthly power whatsoever be not an absolute denial of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, a calling the Scripturea lie, and false thing and a Declaration that he that we own of our anointed Mesias or Seviour is a These Deluder, and false Prophet, and not the true real and great Prophet, professed of old to be sent into the world, as the Atoner of man unto God, the King of Saints, as well as the King of Kings, unto whom all power in Heaven and Earth was to be committed, to make absolute, perfect, spiritual Laws. unalterable, unchangeable, by any King, Parliament, or Potentats whatsoever?  
Fourthly, whether there can be greater treason committed on earth, by man against Jesus Christ, then to disclaim and renounce him and his absolute Kingship? by swearing that either the Pope, or any King, Parliament, or Potentats, are the head, or only supreme Governor in their several Kingdom's Dominions, or Jurisdictions, in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes?  
Lastly, whether Kings, Parliaments, and Magestraites, as Kings, Parliaments, and Magistrates, have any thing at all to do with the Spiritual House, City, or Church of Christ on earth? and whether that if any of them claim any interest, power, or authority, in the Church of Christ, it be not by virtue of their Saintship? not Kingship, and whether or no● the worship and service of the soul, spirit, or inward renewed man, be not the absolute alone and only right of God? and as much his single due without compettitors, as the obedience and subjection of the body, outward man, and estate is the right and due of Caesar, Kings, Parliaments, or Potentats?  
But Sir to return back again unto the Oath; I beseech you let me ask you, whether are not those men forsworn that have taken the formentioned Oaths, and then within a little while after give men commissions to fight with, kill and slay the very same man they had so sworn unto, for the tenor of the Earl of Essex Commission was to kill and slay all those that opposed him, and in the head of that Army who opposed him was the King, who was as possibly to have been killed in the battle as any other in the Army. Nay Sir, is it not the highest of contradictions, that when you have authorized men three or four years to fight against the King and have taken him prisoner and so keep him, yet you shall force men, (although they be freely chosen by their Country before you will admit them to set in your house,) to take the fore recited Oaths to be true to the King: truly for my part the Oaths to me are so notablely penned, that I know not with what evasions or distinctions, you, or any of you that have taken the said Oaths, are able rationally to free yourselves, (considering your actions) from being forsworn and perjured if a man may so call it  conviction. I pray you Sir, give me leave here to recite your late negative Oath, and so whether it be not point blank against the Oaths of Allegience and Supremisie, before recited, the negitive Oath gins thus,  I A. B. do swear from my heart, that I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this cause against the Parliament, nor any forces raised against the two Houses of Parliament in this Cause or War, and I do likewise swear that my coming and submitting myself under the power and protection of the Parliament, is with any manner of design whatsoever, to the prejudice or proceeding of this present Parliament, and without the direction, privity, and advise of the King, or any of his counsel or Officers other then what I have now made known, so help me God, and the contents of this Book. 
This is the Oath that all the Cavaliers take (or by your orders ought to take.) before they can make their composition, therefore I pray you let me ask you these question.  
First, whether or no this Oath called the Negative Oath, be not absolutely point blank opposite against the Oaths called the Oaths of Suppremisie and Allegience?  
Secondly, whether or no, are not all those Cavaliers that take this Negative Oath that have taken the two former absolutely forsworn and perjured, and what trust or confidence is to be put in perjured Persons, I leave you to judge;  
Thirdly, Whether or no, are not the Parliament itself the main instruments of these men's perjury, in forcing many times this negative Oath and others upon them against their wills, minds, and consciences, and so for any thing they know, send them headlong to the devil, which is one of the most wickedest actions in the world:  
Now Sir to conclude this point; I would feign in the third place know, how it is possible for any of you to sw●er in truth, in judgement, and in righteousness, as you ought. jere. 4.2. When you take or make Oaths by forms, the ingredients of which admits in your own understandings of various interpretations, so that you are but in a doubting condition, whether that sense you take it be the true sense, or no? and so hereby the end of an Oath is frustrate in you, for by God's appointment, it ought to be the end of all controversy and strife. Heb. 6.16. but to you these Oaths are but the beginning of them, and so in that preticular alone altogether unlawful.  
Fourthly, Seeing jesus Christ in the fist of Matth. 34.35,36,37. expressly saith, Swore not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil. and the Apostle james, chap. 5 12. saith, but above all things my brethren, swore not neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other Oath: but let your yea, be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.  
And seeing that in all the New Testament, there is not the least rule at all, for any that profess the fear of God, to forswear at all, in any case whatsoever, unless it be, that a ground for swearing can be fetched from that of the sixth of the Hebrews. 16. which if it can, it is but in one case only, namely, for confirmation of that truth which a man delivers for the ending of all strife, as I conceive betwixt party, and party, but that which a man swears, he must be sure of it, and that he knows it in his own knowledge to be true, or else he swears not as God requires, as before is truly observed.  
Now Sir, these things premised and seriously considered, I desire to know of you, from whence you, or any Parliament upon earth fetcheth and derives your Power, Ground, or Authority, to make and impose such forms of Oaths, as the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance are? or the Oaths of your Vows and Covenants before mentioned are? that have not only so many dubious things in every one of them, but also are expressly against the positive command of Christ, the Anointed King of Saints as well as King of kings, and by whom King's rule; for my part I protest it freely before the God of heaven and earth, I think it as lawful for me to cut mine own throat, as to take all or any of your fore nentioned unwarrantable Oaths, for he that hath said, Thou shalt not kill. hath also said, thou shalt not in that manner swear. And I would fain know of you, what confidence the Parliament upon solid grounds, can put upon any men in England that are so ready and willing to swallow your oaths? that now are become nothing else but cloaks of knavery, and breeders of strife and mischief? therefore for shame say them all down and press them no more upon any man whatsoever for he that consciensiously makes nothing of an Oath, will make as little of breaking his Oath whensoever it shall make for his profit, ease or preferment, whereas to h●m that conscientiously scruples an Oath, his bare word, promise, or engagement, is the sencerest tye in the world, which he would not willingly violate for all the earth.  
But Sir, to return to your forementioned grand Objection, That your Houses are not in a temper to hear my report and to do me justice upon it, I pray Sir what is the reason of it? Is it because there is a Faction of great men in it that hates my person? and therefore though my cause be never so just, yet they will do me no right? and if so, than I tell you plainly without fear they are a company of Factious knaves, and not a company of righteous Judges, who ought in judgement to be so impartial that they should not regard or respect persons, but the justness of their cause.  
Or Secondly, it is because I have not the Law of the Land sufficiently on my side, and if so, it is the easier judged against me, but why did you receive and approve of my appeple to your house at first, but know Sir, that although I be no Lawyer, yet I dare throw the gauntlet to all the Lawyers in England; and against them all before any Legal Bar in England will plead my own cause myself, and justify and prove the Lords proceed with me, to be point blank against the good, old, and unrepealed Law of England; and this I will do at my at most, peril, yea let the Lords (in the front) put their lying Champion William Prinn, the basest and lyingest of men who in less than eight lines, hath told and printed twelve or thirteen notorious lies against me, see inocency and truth justified, page 4. 5. 6. and hath such a fiery zeal to my destruction that in his late book called, The Sword of Christian Majestracy supported, he would have the two Houses without Law, by the power of their own wills to hang me, for no other cause in the world, but for being zealous and courageous in standing for the Laws and Liberties of England: which you and he have sworn, vowed, and covenanted, to maintain, preserve, and defend, and for which you have shed (at least in pretence) so much English blood Oh brave Prinn! a fit man indeed to be a Privy-Counseller to the great Turk. whose will is his Law.  
Or in the third place, it is because the Lords are so great that you dare not do me justice and right? for fear of displeasing them, and if so, why do you not tell the Kingdom so (for it is not a ●…t●le conserned in the contest betwixt the Lords and myself) that we may follow your former pattrens, to know the names of them, among them that are enemies to our Liberties and just Free some, and so endeavour to give them their just defer●s: For I read in the 547 548. pages of the first part book Declaration, that upon a lamentable Petition of many thousands of poor people in and about the City of London, the House of Commons apppointed a conference with the Lords, where Mr. Hollis, whose actions demonstrats thereby his ambition is not to be less than a Duke, or a petty King, though not in title yet in power and domination one of the chiefest stickler then against the King, in the whole house, (and one of the chiefest Beginners, Causers, and Promoters of the bypast wars against the King) pressed the Lords at there Bar, to join with the house of Commons in their desire about the Militia, and further (with many expressions of the like nature) desired in words to this effect, that (if that desire of the House of Commons were not assented too) those Lords who were willing to concur in would find some means to make themselves known, that it might he known who were against them, and they might make it known to them who sent them: yea in page 557 ibim it is positively averred, that he required the names of all those of that House which would not discharge that they then ●alledther Kingdom, see the Juncto● notable Declaration at Oxford, the ninteenth of March 1643. page 10. 11. 12. and Mr. Hollis his own printed Speech, and if this fore recited practice were just then, it is also in the like case just now, yea and the rather because our case is ten times worse now than it was then, and our Laws and Liberties (principally by the House of Lords means, and their Arbitrary confederates in the House of Commons) are now a giving up (to the eyes of all rational and knowing impartial men) their last breath; yea, and verily there is but one step betwixt Us the Commons of England and perfect and absolute slavery, which I for my part had rather be hanged, if it were possible, ten thousand times over then endure; but Sir, remember that you in your excellent Declaration of the 19 May 1642. 1. part book Declaration. pag. 207. tell us, that this law is as old as the Kingdom, that the Kingdom must not be without a means to preserve itself; and I say by your own declared principles, that if you, our ordinary and legal means, will not preserve us, but rather destroy us, we may justly by extraordinary and rational means preserve ourselves, and destroy you our treacherous destroyers.  
Or lastly, is it be cause your House hath already done the last Act of Justice that ever they intended to do for the Commons of England, (there Impowerers, Lords, and Masters,) and therefore I cannot expect the making of my report: indeed Sir, I ingniously confess unto you, I think this is the true reason indeed, though you do not in plain English words tell us as much, yet by your actions you undeniablely declare it; for truly many say that there is no justice nor right to be had at your hands; and for our Laws, they only serve you to destroy us at your pleasure, or to serve your ends, when your hot burning malice is incensed against us; which if they serve for your ends, they shall be your engines tu undo us. But they do not in the least serve to defend or protect us against you, but when we should use them against any of you, as justly we may: See your own excellent Declaration of the 26. May 1642. 1 part book Declar. p. 278. Sir Ed. Cooks 4. part institut. chap. of the High Court of Parliament; they are esteemed and made by you of no more worth and strength, then Samsons green withes, with which he was bound, which at his pleasure he brook, as a thread of tow is broken, when it toucheth the fire. judg. 16.9.  
As for instance by the 1. Eliz. cap. 2. it is enacted, That whosoever shall not diligently and faithfully, having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent, endeavouring themselves to resort to their Parish-Churches or Chapels accustomed, or upon reasonable let thereof, to some usual place where Common Prayer, and such service of God (mark it well) shall be used, shallbe dealt with as is contained in the foresaid Statute, which Statute is confirmed by the stat of the 23, Eliz cap. 1. and the penalty increased, as th●re you may read, which Statutes are also c●…firmed by 29. Eliz. 6 & 35. Eliz. 1.3. Jam. 4. Now Sir, I pray you take notice that these and the like laws, doth not say, He that will not come to Church to hear Sermons, or Directory, but he that doth not come to some usual place where Common Prayer, and such, (mark that) service of God shall be used, shall be punished so and so, as in 1. Eliz chap. 2 and by the 23. Eliz. chap 1. He that doth not repair to some Church, chapel, or usual place of Common-Prayer, shall forfeit 20 l. a month, and be bound to his good behaviour, etc.  
And the other Statutes all refer still, to the place where Common-prayer is used, see the Statute of Conventicles, being the 35▪ Eliz. chap. 1.  
Now Sir the present Parliament having taken away the Common-Prayer, and set up a Directory, which these laws never knew, nor mention; the sting of these Laws are gone in that particular; for how can I in justice, be Indicted for not coming to hear Common-Prayer, when the Parliament (that now exerciseth an absolute law-making, and regal power) will not suffer it, under severe penalties to be read or remain in being in Parish Churches.  
And that the Parliament hath taken away Common prayer appears, by their printed Ordinance of the third of January 1644. and by their Ordinance of the twenty three of August 1645. Book Declaration 2 Part, Folio 715. 716. yea in the last recited Ordinance, the Parliament ordains, that the said Book of Common-Prayer should not remain, or be henceforth used in any Church, Chappel, or place of public Worship within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales, and that the Directory for public Worship should be from thenceforth use, pursued and observed; And is further ordained there;  
That if any Person or Persons whatsoever, shall at any time or times hereafter use, or cause the aforesaid Book of Common-Prayer to be used, in any Church, chapel, or in any other public place of Worship, or in any other private place or Family whatsoever within the Kingdom of England, and Dominion of Wales, that then every s●o● Person offending therein, shall for the first offence for fit the sum of 5. l. for the second offence the sum of ten pound, and for the third offence, shall suffer one whole years imprisonment, without bail or main prize.  
And is it therefurther ordained, that all Common-Prayer Books remaining in Churches or Chappells, shall within a month after the pulishing of this Ordinance, be by the Churchwardens, etc. under the penalty of forty shilling carried unto the Commits of the respective Countries, where they shall be found, to be disposed of as the Parliament shall direct.  
And besides the Parliament by Order and Ordinance, hath not as yet to this day appointed any punishment at all, for men that do not come to their parish Churches or Chapples to hear sermons, or the Directory, or that meet in private houses, commonly called Convinticles: Therefore though I stay seven years from Church, and constantly meet in private houses, there is by the Parliaments principals neither Law nor Ordinance in force for any Judge or Justices of the Peace to indict me or any other, or any otherwise to molest or trouble me.  
And as for the Ordinance of the 26 of April 1645 and the Order of the House of Commons, the 31 of December 1646 they only declare they dislike and their intentions to proceed against all such persons as shall take upon them to preach, or expound the Scriptures in any Church or Chapel, or any other public place, except they be ordained either here, or in some other reformed Churches, etc. but it saith not a word to any of those that hear them, or any that comes not to their parish Churches but meet in private houses, neither doth it authorize any Judges, Justices of peace, or any other persons whatsoever, to punish those unordained preaching persons, but reserves the power of punishment to themselves, without declaring as yet what it is.  
And yet notwithstanding all this, That all men that use the Common-Prayer, are liabell to the punishments before recited, multitudes of honest, godly conscientious persons well-affected men to the Parliament, & who have ventured all they have for its preservation, are continually indicted and punished by the Parliaments Judges and Justices of peace, for not coming to there Parish Churches to hear common prayer, for there are no other Statutes to authorize them to punish any for not coming to their parish Churches, but those very Common prayer Statutes, O brave Parliament Justice, what is this else but perfect ingling, or playing at Hocus polus?  
Sir, I beseech you let me ask you this question, if an Ordinance of Parliament be not as strongly valieud, and as forciable to take away a Law, as coutrary to the Law, to create and empower a Judge or Justice to execute a Law in force? and whether or no that Judge that is made by Ordinance of Parliament be not an absolute Murderer, and a Contemner of the Parliaments authority. (in the opinion of all that hold the present Parliaments principals,) if he shall take away a man's life, or otherwise punish him for transgressing of a Law, which the Parliament by Ordinance hath taken away, and I said a sever penalty upon any man that shall observe or do the thing enjoined and commanded by that Law? & how can a Judge in tru●h and righteousness swear to execute the Law when he hat● not all w●… power in him, but is made by a power opposet to the Law, see the 27. Hen. 8.24.  
In the second place by the Statutes of 1 Edw. 6 chap. 12. &. 39 Eliz. chap. 15. the stealing of Horses, Geldings, or Mares, and the felonous taking away in the day time (as well as the night,) of any money, goods, or cattle, being of the value of five shillings, or upwards, in any dwelling house or houses, or any part thereof, or any outhouse or outhouses be longing, and used to, and with any dwelling house or houses, although no person shall be in the said house or outhouses, at the time of such felony committed, shall in both cases lose the benefit of their Clergy, and die without Mercy.  
And yet the present Parliament gives authority to divers persons; to do both the forementioned things, that is to say, to take horses and goods away by force, against the wills and minds of the Owners, and that before they be legally convicted, of any crime, which although they swear to maintain the Law, yet this is absolutely against the Law, as Sir Edward Cook there own magnified author in his third part instituts chapter 103. folio 228. declares, which Book is published by their own authority and command, and he there expressly saith, that regalarly the goods &c. of any Delinquent cannot be taken and seized to the King's use, before the same be fofited.  
Secondly, the same cannot be inventoried, and the Town charged therewith before the Owner be indicted of record.  
And amongst other authorities, as Britton, Fleta, Bracton, etc. which he there makes use of, he fites the 1 Richard the third chapter 3. by which it is enacted and declared that neither sheriff Escheater Bailiff, of franchise, or any other person take or seize the goods of any person arrested, or imprisoned for suspiton of felony, before he be convicted or attaint of the felony, according to the laws of England, or before the goods be other wise lawfully forfeited upon pain to forfeit double the value of the goods so taken to the party grieved.  
From which and the other Authorities he there makes use of, he saith these two conclusions are manifestly proved.  
First, that before indictment, the goods or other things of any Offender cannot be searched, inventored, or in any sort seized, nor after indictment seized, and removed, or taken away before conviction or attainder.  
Secondly, that the begging of the goods or state of any Delinquent accused or indicted of any treason, felony, or any other offence, before he be convicted and attainted, is utterly unlawful, because before conviction and attainder, as hath been said, nothing is forfeited to the King, nor grantable by him: And besides it either maketh the prosecution against the Delinquent more principitate, violent, and undue, than the guiet and eqaall Proceeding of the Law and Justice would permit, or else by some underhand compossition and agreement stop or hinder the due course of Justice, for exemplary Punishment of the Offender.  
And lastly, (saith he) when the Delinquent is begged, it dischargeth both Judge, Jurour, and Witness, to do their duty.  
And yet for all this, many times the Soldiers employed by the Commanders of the Parliaments presents war, are commanded and enjoined be their Commanders authorised thereunto by authority derived from the Parliament, to take away Horse's goods, etc. for the supportation and preservation of the present forces, which it may be at that time were in great necessity and danger, and the soldiers refusing in that particular to obey his or there Commander might by the Articles of War made by Ordinance of Parliament hazard his life, yea and it may be actually hanged first, yet poor men when the Parliament have served their turns of him or them, to pay him his Arrears, for all his hazards and dangers, he is by their Judges and Ministers (made be the Parliament it self) for the very  actions done in obedience to their commands, arraigned, indicted, and hanged as a felon therefore; see the Marginal Notes of the second Apology of Sir Thomas Fairfax's Soldiers, (this is just as the bvilders of Noa's Ark were served) for (or after) their making it: Oh admirable Parliamentary Justice! worthy for their praise to be recorded to future Generations, as an everlasting memorial of their unpresidented justice and gratitude; and yet if any particular man of the Parliament, or any of their vermin Catchpoles, have a spleen at a man, it is easy for him to get a Warrant from the Chaire-man of some particular private Committee, to go and search such a man's house that never professed enmity against the just proceed of Parliament, and break open his doors, and take away (at their pleasure) so many or much of his proper goods, as they please; Oh pure Justice! without spot or blemish!  
Nay, any of their Catchpole Rogues or Caterpillars can forceably enter any freeman's house, when n●ne is in it, and load away divers Porters with his proper goods, and that without the seeming Authority of any Law or Statute, Order, or Ordinance of Parliament, nay without the Warrant of any private Committee, though in Law such a Committees Order is not worth one straw; ●ea, and when this is complained of to a Committee of Parliament, not one ●ram of justice can be had for it: And truly Sir, besides other instances of this, I will only aver it to be lately my own, for one of M. Corbets and Justice Whitakers Catchpoles (Whitaker the Bookseller in Paul's Churchyard London) did the very forementioned thing to me, of which I complained at my last being before a Committee of your House, but could not have one dram of Justice, though 〈◊〉 pressed it hard; see the relation of it in print, called The resolved man's Resolution, pag. 12. 13.  
Sir, I pray, is not this unspotted Justice? and yet, is it not as good as the generality of that which now adays flows from both Houses?  
In the third place, by the Statute of the 27. Eliz. Chap. 2. it is enacted that all and every Jesuits, Seminary Priests, and other Priests whatsoever (mark the word whatsoever) made and ordained out of the Realm of England, or other her highness Dominions, or within any of her Majesty's Realms, or Dominions, mark well the word within, by any Authority, Power or Jurisdiction, derived, challenged, 〈◊〉 pretended from the See of Rome since the first year of her Reign, shall within forty days after the end of that Session of Parliament, depart out of the Kingdom, etc.  
And be it further enacted, That it shall not be lawful to or far any Jesu●…e, Seminary Priest, or other such Priest, Deacon, or religious or Ecclesiaslicall person whatsoever, being borne within this Realm, or any other her highness' Dominions, and heretofore since the said Feast of the nativity of S. John Baptist, in the first year of her Majesty's Reign, made, ordained, or professed or hereafter (mark the word hereafter) to be made, ordained, or professed by any Authority, or Jurisdiction, derived, challenged or pretended from the See of Rome, by or of what name, title or degree soever the same shall be called or known, to come into, be or remain in any part of this Realm, etc. (mark the last sentence well) after the end of forty days, otherwise then in such special cases, and upon such special occasions only, and for such time only as is expressed in this Act: and if he do, that then every such offence shall be taken and adjudged to be high Treason, and every person so offending, shall for his offence be judged a Traitor, and shall suffer loss, and forfeit as in case of high Treason.  
And it is there further enacted, That whosoever shall wittingly or willingly receive, relieve, comfort, aid or maintain any such person , being at liberty out of prison, knowing him to be such as before is expressed, shall also for such offence be adjudged a felon, without benefit of Clergy, and suffer death, lose and forfeits, as in case of one attainted of Felony.  
And this Parliament hath made a solemn League and Covenant, and voted, that no man shall sit in Parliament without taking it, nor no man bear any Office without taking it, and you have voted, and in several places made the Freemen of England uncapable to give a voice to choose an Officer, if they will not take it; in the second Article of which unjust, unrighteous and wicked contradicting Covenant, all those that take it, swear to extirpate Popery, 1 part Book Deel. fol. 425. and yet notwithstanding the Judges and Justices of peace made by the present Parliament, force the Freemen of England against their wills and minds, and the Allegation of the  Law and Covenant, to pay Tithes (the root and support of Popery) to a generation of new upstart Romish Priests, (or Synodian Zion College Jure divino men) that have no other Authority and Power to stand by in their function of Presbytery, but what they challenge and derive from Rome, having already avowedly in print renounced and scorned any Jurisdiction, either from the Parliament, or the people of their Parishes, by virtue of which their own avowed claim, they are ipso facto, within the lash and reach of the  Statute, and may by any Freeman of England be indicted at the Assizes or Sessions, for Traitors, and aught without mercy (by the strength of that Law) to suffer as Traitors; and all those that pay Tithes or otherwise maintain them, after they know they have renounced the deriving of their Power and Jurisdiction from the Parliament, and challenge it Jure divino, derivitive from the Pope, may be indicted as Felons, and aught to die as Felons.  
Now Sir, is it not a piece of gallant justice in the Parliaments Judges, Justices, and illegal Committee-men? to put freemens persons in prison without Bail or Mainprize, and to plunder (and I think I may say rob) divers of them of their goods and cattles, for refusing to support Popery (after they have sworn to extirpate it) by paying of Tithes to a company of Popish Presbyterian Priests, that scorn to derive any power from the people of their Parishes, and have already publicly and avowedly renounced the Parliaments Power and Authority, and do actually and really claim and assume unto themselves an Ecclesiastical or Clergy Authority derivitive from Rome.  
Fourthly the Law of England hath provided an universal remedy, for all the men of England to recover their debts by, from those that are indebted to them, the benefit of which Law, the present Parliament both do and will enjoy, and at their pleasure will sue any freeman in England that is not one of themselves, but are so fortified with their big swollen privileges, that no man shall dare to meddle either with their persons or estates, though they own never so much, and yet divers of them will neither (of themselves) pay use nor principal, although originally the exemption of their persons from Arrests be not a privilege given them for themselves in reference to their particulars, but for the good of the Kingdom and People that choose them, that so by the malice of any prerogative man, or enemy to the just Liberty of the Commons of England, they might not by malicious Arrests be molested, troubled diverted or hindered, for doing their Country faithful service in the place they had chosen them unto: But when this privilege was first given them, (which in its self is just in its institution, though now by the present Parliament-men abused in its execution, it remained in them but for certain weeks, for then Parliaments were very short, being by the ancient and just unrepealed Law of the Land, to be chosen once every year or oftener if need required, 4. E. 3.14. & 36. E. 3.10. it being impossible to be conceived that ever they thought then, that any Parliament in England should remain seven years to the cheating, cozening, and devouring of particular multitudes of men of their particular debts, which now are likely by some Parliament-men, to be so long owing them, that they will not be claimable or recoverable by Law, when this Parliament is ended, which by its long sitting is, and is more evidently like to be the greatest subversion of England's Laws, Liberties, and Freedoms, of any thing that ever was done in England: King Charles his seventeen years' misgovernment before this Parliament (as you in your Declarations call it) was but a flea-biting, or as a mouldhill to a mountain, in comparison of what this everlasting Parliament already is, and will be to the whole Kingdom, and therefore I say, and will maintain it upon the loss of my life, that the Commons of England may bid adieu to their Laws, Liberties, Freedoms, Trades and Properties, unless they speedily take a course for the electing of a new Parliament, for the Members of this Parliament (many of them to my knowledge) judge themselves subject to no rule, nor to be governed by any law, but say, that they are above Magna Charta, and the most excellent Petition of Right, and may abolish them, although there be divers things in them so founded upon the principles of pure reason, (which by the fundamental Maxims of the Law are unalterable, Doctor and Student, Ch. 2. fol. 4, 5. see Innocency and truth justified, p. 62.) and the Moral Law of God, that it is impossible for any power whatsoever to abolish them, that is not greater than God, or hath not derived a just power from him to dispense with his unchangeable Laws, one of which is, That Justice shall never be sold▪ nor impartially administered, which is with other most excellent, rational and unalterable things ratified expressly, in the 29. Ch. of Magna Charta, besides all the rest of most excellent things in those two Laws confirmed, many of which are of universal concernment to all the sons of men, under any just Government in the world: and as for those things contained in them, that are rationally in process of time upon just experimental grounds alterable, and changeable, if you will give us better in their places, do when you will, without the doing of which by your own grounds and principles, you cannot justly change them, being impowered and chosen by us to provide for our weal, but not for our woe, to provide for our better being, but not for our worse being. 1 part Book Dec. p. 150.  
Again, fifthly, the Law of England hath provided, That whosoever breaks the peace shall be punished, or whosoever lays violent hands upon a man, and if any man do it to a Parliament-man he will trounce him for it, but they themselves can break the peace, and lay violent hands without cause upon the Freemen of England, and then make what lying reports to the House they please, and get their bodies committed to prison, and that without hearing them, and all this did M. Hollis and Sir Walter Earl the other day to Major Tuliday.  
Again, sixthly, you yourselves have declared, that you have received Petitions for the removal of things established by Law, and (say you) we must say, that all that know what belongeth to the course and practice of Parliament will say, that we ought so to do, and that our Predecessors and his Majesty's Ancestors have constantly done it, there being no other place wherein Laws that by experience may be found grievous and burdensome can be altered or repealed, and there being no other due and legal way, wherein they which are aggrieved by them can seek redress; 1 part Book Dec. p. 720. Yea, and in several of your Declarations you have defended and maintained, that the concourse of people at Westminster to deliver and wait for answer to their Petitions is both just and lawful, 1 part Book Dec. p. 123. 201. 209.  
And yet now of late you are grown to that pass, that you reject and will not receive Petitions if they cross your humours, although they be for nothing but the obtaining Justice, according to the just and unrepealed long practised Law of England, and this was the case of the honest Buckinghamshire and Hartfordshire men in their late Petition: see the scond Edition of the Outcries of oppressed Commons, p. 9, 10, 11, 12.  
Yea, and when divers honest Citizens of London, and as firm friends to you in the day of your straits as any was in England, were about a Petition for the redress of divers things amiss, and the establishment of their just Laws and Liberties, for which divers of them by your command, have freely ventured their lives: the Petition by one of your informing Catchpoles, was stolen out of M. Thomas Lamb's house, and by M. Glyn Recorder of London, and one of your own Members brought into your House, and there in a great heat voted (as I am informed) a seditious paper, which whether it be so or no, let the world judge by the copy of it, which thus followeth.  

To the right honourable and supreme Authority of this Nation, the Commons in PARLIAMENT assembled. The humble Petition of many thousands, earnestly desiring the glory of God, the freedom of the Commonwealth, and the peace of all men.  
Shows,  
THat as no Civil Government is more just in the constitution, then that of Parliaments, having its foundation in the free choice of the people; and as ●he end of all Government is the safety and freedom of the governed, even ●o the people of this Nation in all times have manifested most hearty affections into Parliaments as the most proper remedy of their grievances; yet such hath ●een the wicked policies of those who from time to time have endeavoured to ●ring this Nation into bondage; that they have in all times either by the disuse ●r abuse of Parliaments deprived the people of their hopes: For testimony whereof the late times foregoing this Parliament will sadly witness, when it was not only made a crime to mention a Parliament, but either the pretended ●egative voice, (the most destructive to freedom) or a speedy dissolution, bla●ed the fruit and benefit thereof, whilst the whole Land was overspread with ●ll kinds of oppressions and tyranny, extending both to soul and body, and that ●n so rooted and settled a way, that the complaints of the people in general witnessed, that they would have given any thing in the world for one six month's ●…eedome of Parliament. Which hath been since evidenced in their instant & constant readiness of assistance to this present Parliament, excee●ing the Records ●f former ages, and wherein God hath blessed them with their first desires, making this Parliament the most absolute and free of any Parliament that ever was and enabling it with power sufficient to deliver the whole Nation from all kind● of oppressions and grievances, though of very long continuance, and to make i● the most absolute and free Nation in the world.  
And it is most thankfully acknowledged that ye have in order to the freedoms of the people suppressed the high Commission, Star-Chamber, and Councell● Table, called home the banished, delivered such as were imprisoned for matter● of conscience, and brought some Delinquents to deserved punishment. That y● have suppressed the Bishops and Popish Lords, abolished Episcopacy, and that kind of Prelatic persecuting government. That ye have taken away Ship-money and all the new illegal Patents, whereby the hearts of all the well-affected were enlarged and filled with a confident hope, that they should have seen long ere thi● a complete removal of all grievances, and the whole people delivered from all oppressions over soul or body: But such is our misery that after the expense of so much precious time, of blood and treasure, and the ruin of so many thousands of honest families in recovering our Liberties, we still find this Nation oppressed with grievances of the same destructive nature as formerly, though unde● other notions; and which are so much the more grievous unto us, because the● are inflicted in the very time of this present Parliament, under God the hope o● the oppressed. For, as then all the men and women in England were made liable to the summons, attachments, sentences, and imprisonments of the Lords o● the Councell-boord, so we find by woeful experience and sufferings of many particular persons, that the present Lords do assume and exercise the same power, than which nothing is, or can be more repugnant and destructive to the Commons just liberties.  
As then the unjust power of Star-Chamber was exercised in compelling 〈◊〉 men and women to answer to Interrogatoties tending to accuse themselves an● others; so is the same now frequently practised upon divers persons, even yo● cordial friends that have been, and still are punished for refusing to answer 〈◊〉 questions against themselves, and nearest relations. As then the great oppression of the high Commission was most evident in molesting of godly peaceab●… people, for nonconformity, or different opinion and practice in Religion, judging all who were contrary-minded to themselves, to be Heretics, Sectaries Schismatics, seditious, factious, enemies to the State, and the like; and und●… great penalties forbidding all persons, not licenced by them, to preach or publish the Gospel: Even so now at this day, the very same, if not greater molestat●ons, are set on foot, and violently prosecuted by the instigation of a Clergy n● more infallible than the former, to the extreme discouragement and affliction 〈◊〉 many thousands of your faithful adherents, who are not satisfied that controversies in Religion, can be trusted to the compulsive regulation of any: And after the Bishops were suppressed, did hope never to have seen such a power assumed by any in this Nation any more.  
And although all new illegal Patents are by you abolished, yet the oppressive Monopoly of Merchant-adventurers, and others, do still remain to the great abridgement of the liberties of the people, and to the extreme prejudice of all such industrious people as depend on clothing, or other woollen manufacture, (it being the Staple commodity of this Nation,) and to the great discouragement and disadvantage of all sorts of Tradesmen, Sea-faring-men, and hindrance of Shipping and Navigation. Also the old tedious and chargeable way of deciding controversies, or suits in Law, is continued to this day, to the extreme vexation and utter undoing of multitudes of Families; a grievance as great and as palpable as any in the world. Likewise, that old, but most unequal punishment of malefactors, is still continued, whereby men's lives and liberties are as liable to the law, and corporal pains as much inflicted for small as for great offences, and that most unjustly upon the testimony of one witness, contrary both to the law of God, and common equity, a grievance very great, but little regarded. Also tithes, and other enforced maintenance are still continued, though there be no ground for either under the Gospel; and though the same have occasioned multitudes of suits, quarrels and debates, both in former and latter times. In like manner, multitudes of poor distressed prisoners for debt, lie still unregarded, in a most miserable and woeful condition throughout the Land, to the great reproach of this Nation. Likewise Prison-Keepers, or Gaolers, are as presumptuous as ever they were, both in receiving and detaining of Prisoners illegally committed, as cruel and inhuman to all, especially to such as are well-affected, as oppressive and extorting in their Fees, and are attended with under-officers, of such vile and unchristian demeanour, as is most abominable. Also thousands of men and women are still (as formerly) permit●…d to live in beggary and wickedness all their life long, and to breed their children to the same idle and vicious course of life, and no effectual means used to reclaim either, or to reduce them to any virtue or industry.  
And last, as those who found themselves aggrieved formerly at the burdens & oppressions of those times, that did not conform to the Church-government then established, refused to pay Ship-money, or yield obedience to unjust Patents, were reviled and reproached with nicknames of Puritans, Heretics, Schismatics, Sectaries, or were termed factious or seditious, men of turbulent spirits, despisers of government, and disturbers of the public peace; even so is it at this day in all respects, with those who show any sensibility of the forerecited grievances, or move in any manner or measure for remedy thereof, all the reproaches, evils, and mischiefs that can be devised, are thought too few or too little to be said upon them, as Roundheads, Sectaries, Independents, Heretics, Schismatics, factious, seditious, rebellious disturbers of the public peace, destroyers of all evil relation, and subordinations; yea, and beyond what was formerly, nonconformity is now judged a sufficient cause to disable any person though of known fidelity, from bearing any Office of trust in the Commonwealth, whilst Neuters, Malignants, and dis-affected are admitted and continued. And though it be not now made a crime to mention a Parliament, yet is it little less to mention the supreme power of this honourable House. So that in all these respects, this Nation remaineth in a very sad and disconsolate condition; and the more, because it is thus with us after so long a session of so powerful and so free a Parliament, and which hath been so made and maintained, by the abundant love and liberal effusion of the blood of the people. And therefore knowing no danger nor thraldom like unto our being left in this most sad condition by this Parliament, and observing that we are now drawing the great and weighty affairs of this Nation to some kind of conclusion, and fearing that ye may ere long be obstructed by something equally evil to a negative voice, and that ye may be induced to lay by that strength, which (under God) hath hitherto made you powerful to all good works: whilst we have yet time to hope, and ye power to help, and least by our silence we might be guilty of that ruin and slavery, which without your speedy help is like to fall upon us, yourselves and the whole Nation; we have presumed to spread our cause thus plainly and largely before you: And do most earnestly entreat, that ye will stir up your affections to a zealous love and tender regard of the people, who have chosen and trusted you, and that ye will seriously consider, that the end of their trust, was freedom and deliverance from all kind of temporal grievances and oppressions.  

1. And that therefore in the first place, ye will be exceeding careful to preserve your just authority from all prejudices of a negative voice in any person or persons whomsoever, which may disable you from making that happy return unto the people which they justly expect, and that ye will not be induced to lay by your strength, until ye have satisfied your understandings in the undoubted security of yourselves, and of those who have voluntarily and faithfully adhered unto you in all your extremities; and until ye have secured and settled the Commonwealth in solid peace and true freedom, which is the end of the primitive institution of all governments.  
2. That ye will take off all Sentences, Fines and Imprisonments imposed on Commoners, by any whomsoever, without due course of Law, or judgement of their equals: and to give due reparations to a●l those who have been so injuriously dealt withal, and for preventing the l●ke for the time to come, that ye will enact all such Arbitrary proceed to be capital crimes.  
3. That ye will permit no authority whatsoever, to compel any [person or persons to answer to questions against themselves, or nearest relations, except in cases of private interest between party and party in a legal way, and to release all such as suffer by imprisonment, or otherwise for refusing to answer to such Interrogatories.  
4. That all Statutes, Oaths and Covenants may be repealed so fare as they tend, or may be construed to the molestation and ensnaring of religious, peaceable, well-affected people, for nonconformity, or different opinion or practice in Religion.  
5. That no man for preaching or publishing his opinion in Religion in a peaceable way, may be punished or persecuted as heretical, by Judges that are not infallible, but may be mistaken (as well as other men) in their judgements, lest upon pretence of suppressing Errors, Sects or Schisms, the most necessary truths, and sincere professors thereof may be suppressed, as upon the like pretence it hath been in all ages.  
6. That ye will, for the encouragement of industrious people, dissolve that old oppressive Company of Merchant-Adventurers, and the like, and prevent all such others by great penalties for ever.  
7. That ye will settle a just, speedy, plain and unburthensome way, for deciding of controversies and suits in Law, and reduce all Laws to the nearest agreement with Christianity, and publish them in the English Tongue, and that all processes and proceed therein may be true and also in English, and in the most usual Character of writing, without any abreviations, that each one who can read, may the better understand their own affairs; and that the duty of all Judges, Officers, and practisers in the Law, and of all Magistrates and Officers in the Commonwealth may be prescribed, and their fees limited understrict penalties, and published in print to the view and knowledge of all men: by which just and equitable means, this Nation shall be for ever freed of an oppression more burdensome and troublesome than all the oppressions hitherto by this Parliament removed.  
8. That the life of no person may be taken away, under the testimony of two witnesses at least, of honest conversation; and that in an equitable way ye will proportion punishments to offences, that so no man's life may be taken, his body punished, nor his estate forfeited, but upon such weighty and considerable causes as justly deserve such punishments; and that all prisoners may have a speedy trial, that they be neither starved, nor their families ruined, by long and lingering imprisonment; and that imprisonment may be used only safe custody until time of trial, and not as a punishment for offences.  
9 That tithes and all other enforced maintenance, may be for ever abolished, and nothing in place thereof imposed; but that all Ministers may be paid only by those who voluntarily contribute to them, or choose them, and contract with them for their labours.  
10. That ye will take some speedy and effectual course to relieve all such prisoners for debt, as are altogether unable to pay, that they may not perish in prison through the hardheartedness of their Creditors; and that all such as have any estates, may be enforced to make payment accordingly, and not to shelter themselves in prison to defraud their Creditors.  
11. That none may be Prison-keepers, but such as are of approved honesty, and that they may be prohibited under great penalties to receive or detain any person or persons without lawful warrant: That their usage of prisoners may be with gentleness and civility, their fees moderate and certain, and that they may give security for the good behaviour of their under-Officers.  
12. That ye will provide some powerful means to keep men, women, and children from begging and wickedness, that this Nation may be no longer a shame to Christianity therein.  
13. That ye will restrain and discountenance the malice and impudence of impious persons, in their reviling and reproaching the well-affected, with the ignominious titles of Roundheads, factious, seditious and the like, whereby your real friends have been a long time, and still are exceedingly wronged, discouraged, and made obnoxious to rude and profane people, and that ye will not exclude any of approved fidelity from bearing office of trust in the Commonwealth for nonconformity; but rather Neuters and such as manifest disaffection or opposition to common freedom, the admission and continuation of such being the chief cause of all these our grievances.   
These remedies, or what other shall seem more effectual to your grave wisdoms, we humbly pray may be speedily applied, and that in doing thereof, ye will be confident of the assistance of your Petitioners, and of all considerate well-minded people, to the uttermost of their best abilities, against all opposition whatsoever, looking upon ourselves as more concerned now at last to make a good end, then at the first to have made a good beginning: For what shall it profit us, or what remedy can we expect, if now after so great troubles and miseries this Nation should be left by this Parliament in so great a thraldom, both of body, mind, and estate?  
We beseech you therefore, that with all your might whilst he have time, freedom and power, so effectually to fulfil the true end of Parliaments in delivering this Nation from these and all other grievances, but none may presume or da●… to introduce the like for ever.  
And we trust, the God of your good success, will manifest the integrity of our intentions herein, and that our humble desires are such, as tend not only to our own particular, but to the general good of the Commonwealth, and proper for this Honourable House to grant, without which this Nation cannot be safe, or happy: And that he will bless you with true Christian fortitude, suitable to the trust and greatness of the work ye have undertaken, and make the memory of this Parliament blessed to all succeeding Generations.  
Shall ever be the fervent desire o your humble Petitioners.   
And the Prerogative-men of London, which are ready to be Associates with you in enslaving the people, petition against it, and had thanks returned to them for it; and M. Lamb sent up for to a Committee as a Delinquent, and divers hundreds of his Fellow-petitioners came up with him, with a Certificate to avow the Petition, which was as followeth.  

To the honourable the Committee of Parliament sitting in the Queen's Court at Westminster, Colonel Lee being Chaire-man, The humble Certificate of divers persons here present interested in, and avouching the Petition lately referred to this Committee by the right honourable the House of Commons:  
Humbly certifying,  
THat the Petition entitled, The humble Petition of many thousands earnestly desiring the glory of God, the freedom of the Commonwealth, and the peace of all men; and directed to the right honourable and supreme Authority of this Nation, the Commons in Parliament assembled, Is no scandalous or seditious Paper, as hath been unjustly suggested, but a real Petition, subscribed, and to be subscribed by none but constant cordial friends to Parliament and Commonwealth, and to be presented to that honourable House with all possible speed, as an especial means to procure the universal good of this long enthralled and distracted Nation. And we trust this honourable Committee will in no measure dishearten the People from presenting their humble considerations, reasons, and petitions to those whom they have chosen, (there being no other due and begall way wherein those that are aggrieved can find redress 
* Declarat. 2. Novemb. 1642. 1. part book Decl. p. 720 ) but rather that you will be pleased to give all encouragement therein: In assured hope whereof we shall pray, etc.   
But the Citizens with their Certificate could not be permitted to deliver it, but were with violence thrust out of the Committee-Chamber, and a Guard called for to set them packing with a vengeance: and being below in the Court of Requests, some of them desired M. Nicolas Tew audibly to read the Certificate to the whole company, that so all of them might fully understand it; for which action he was by the said Committee (without any authority at all then from the House) committed prisoner to the Sergeant at Arms, where to this day he remains; a most unjust and illegal action, and tending to the utter destruction of the greatly impoverished man, by his often late and most illegal and unjust vexatious imprisonments, first, by the House of Lords to the Fleet, secondly, he was most illegally by the present Lord Mayor of London, fetched out of his shop and committed to New gate, for having had in his custody one of the Petitions promoted by the Citizens of London: and now thirdly, most illegally committed by M. Hollis, and the rest of his arbitrary and tyrannical Committee, who had not the least power either by Law or from the House so to do it.  
And when the said Committee rise, the said Citizens by M. Denzill Hollis Sir Philip Stapleton, Sir Walter Earl, and reverend Sir Samuel Luke, with other of their right worthy comrades, the planters of tyranny, injustice and oppression, were abused and called by some of them rogues, villains, seditious, factious fellows, and violent hands laid upon them, offering to beat and cane them, and to draw their swords upon them, and haled and pulled some of them to make them prisoners by the law of their own will, and then the  Members of the House made a most false, unjust and untrue report the next day unto the House of the said Citizens carriage, and particularly of Major Tulidah, by means of which the House of Commons outstripped the Pagan Judges of Paul in injustice, Act. 25.17. and past a vote to commit or condemn Major Tulidah to prison, without hearing or examining any witnesses against him, or so much as hearing him to speak one word for himself, although he waited then at the door of purpose expecting to be called in to speak for himself, which was not afforded unto him, (his  adversaries being both Informers, Jurors and Judges) but without any more ado clapped by the heels.  
Which act of the House of Commons is an act of so much baseness and injustice, that the very Heathen and Pagan Romans will rise up in judgement against these imaginary pretended Christians, who by the single light of nature were able to answer Paul's adversaries, when they would unjustly have had judgement against him, that it is not the manner (or Law) of the Romans (than Infidels, Pagans, and Heathens,) to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused, have the accuser's face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him, Act. 25.17.  
But Major Tulidah being in prison as well as M. Nicholas Tue, their foresaid friends and fellow-Citizens the next day framed a Petition to the House of Commons.  
Upon the reading of which Petition, M. Denzill Hollis, and Sir Philip Stapleton, knowing their own guilt and how basely and unworthily they had abused not only the said Major Tulidah and his friends, but also the House, in telling and reporting unto them such lies and falsehoods of them as they themselves had done, they themselves being the truly guilty persons, and knowing very well that if Major Tulidah, etc. had comed to the Bar, as both he and his friends desired, their baseness, lies, and falsehoods, would have been laid open to their faces before the whole House: to prevent which they themselves became and were the principal instruments at the hands of the House to get him his liberty, although themselves were the principal instruments to get the House to clap him by the heels, yea and have set their agents and instruments also upon honest M. Tue, to get him to frame a few lines by way of Petition to the House for his liberty, which he absolutely refusing, to this very day remains in the messengers hands a prisoner at Westminster, to the apparent ruin and destruction of the poor man, contrary to all Law and Justice, there being no colour of law or justice for his first commitment, and as little law for the continuation of it; which clearly appears by the Speakers arbitrary and tyrannical Warrant, which thus followeth.  

BY virtue of an Order of the House of Commons, these are to require you, that Nicholas Tue now in your custody, be continued in safe custody until the pleasure of the House be signified to you to the contrary: And for so doing this shall be your Warrant.  
Dated the 19 of March, 1646. William Lenthall, Speaker.   

To Edward Birkhead Esquire, Sergeant and Arms attending the House of Commons.  
I do nominate and appoint George Brag, and Henry Radley, Gentlemen, to be my lawful Deputies, for the due execution of this Warrant, dated the 19 of March, 1646.  
Edward Birkhead Sergeant at Arms.   
I pray Sir, be judge yourself, whether this Warrant of M. Speakers be not absolutely point-blank against the Law, (which you have all sworn to maintain) and against the very words of the most excellent Petition of right, made in the third year of the present King, which expressly requires, that in all commitments, the cause of the commitment shall be expressed, which is not in this, and so poor M. Tue is deprived of his legal and hereditary privilege, to seek at Kings-Bench Bar, etc. for a habias corpus, and the rather because this tyrannical warrant hath no legal conclusion as it ought to have, viz. and him safely to keep until he be delivered by due course of Law, as Sir Edward Cook your own learned Oracle of the Law declares in his 2. part of Institutes fol. 52. which is printed by your own special order, and yet by your House (or at least your Speaker) who ought to be the Conservators of the Law, and severe punishers of the violators of it, poor M. Tue must be without the least shadow of cause disfranchised, spoilt and rob of the benefit of the Law, and must by your wills remain in prison till it be the pleasure of your House to do justice, which I am confident in the way you go, and have lately gone, must be till doomsday in the afternoon, for I am sure, you have lost the very soul, essence, and being of true Magistracy, which is to do justice, judgement, and right, and to relieve the afflicted, the helpless, fatherless, and widow, and to let the oppressed go free; and are I will maintain, degene rated into the notoriousest pack of Tyrants that ever in the world were assembled together since Adam's creation, that professed Humanity, Morality, and Christianity, minding visibly nothing in the world, but pleasure, oppression, tyranny, cheating and cozening the whole Kingdom of its treasure and revenue, trades, lives, bloods, liberties, and properties; for which (I protest before the Almighty God) in my judgement, you deserve nothing ●…t to be pulled out by the ears, and thrown out to the dunghill, and be trodden underfoot by all men that have but the least sparks of justice, honour, conscience or honesty in them, & I profess I cannot fully acquit one man of you that sits there, being all of you (in the eye of both law and reason) Accessaries unto the Principals, by your base, silent, tame and patiented sitting there, and not protesting against their Actions professedly and publicly to the whole Kingdom, Acts 7.58. compared with Chapter 8.1, & Ch. 22.24. where Paul positively accuseth himself, for being guilty of the murder and blood of righteous Stephen, although we read not that he either was an actor in throwing him out of the City, or stoning him, but only that he stood by and see it, but declared nothing against it; therefore say I to you, partake not with them in their evils by continuing with them, but be divided from them, lest you partake of their plagues, which must unavoidably, speedily, and powerfully come upon them, to their transcendent and exemplary destruction, if God be (as undoubtedly he is) a God of righteousness, justice, and truth.  
But now Sir, seeing that to maintain the good Laws of the Land and to abolish the bad ones, and to redress the mischiefs and grievances that daily happen, 4. E. 3.14. & 36. E. 3.10. see The resolved man's Resolution, pag. 19 are the main and principal ends wherefore Parliaments are called, and being it is impossible for you the peoples chosen and betrusted Stewards or Commissioners to know the grievances of the people, your Empowerers, earthly Creators, Lord and Masters, if you take away the liberty of declaring them unto you, which you have done, let me a little demonstrate, whether or not that you, by your late burning their Petitions &c. refusing to hear their grievances, have not positively an● visibly declared that you have forfeited your essence and being, & absolutely nullified the end of your sitting, and are from a company of faithful and careful Shepherds, appointed to preserve the being and well-being of this poor Commonwealth, become to be a company of devouring Lions and ravening Wolves who deserve to have all the Mastie Dogs in the Kingdom let lose about your ears, to worry and pull you in pieces, and so destroy you, before you have totally wasted and destroyed this poor Kingdom, already in the high road way to be destroyed by you.  
But to return to the Citizen's Petitions to your House, after they had been so slighted about their Certificate, by the aforesaid Committee, and so abused by M. Hollis, Sir Philip Stapleton, and Sir Walter Earl, that base coward, that ran away, betrayed, or at least in a ground less panic fear, deserted Dorchester in Dorsetshire, when it was well and plentifully provided with Ammunition, etc. and also so behaved himself at Corfe-Castle, that he deserves to be styled the chief of base, unworthy, and cowardly men; and after that M. Nicholas Tue, and Major Tuliday, was (as is before declared) most unjustly imprisoned, the said honest Citizens presented the House with a Petition, which thus followeth:  

To the Right Honourrable, the COMMONS of ENGLAND assembled in PARLIAMENT. The humble Petition of divers well-affected Citizens.  
Shows,  
THat as the oppressions of this Nation, in times foregoing this Parliament were so numerous and burden some, as will never be forgotten; so were ●he hopes of our deliverance by this Parliament, exceeding great and full of confidence, which as they were strenthned by many Acts of yours in the beginning, specially towards conscientious people, without respect unto their judgement's ●r opinions; So did the gratitude of well-minded people exceed all precedent or example, sparing neither estates, limbs, liberties, or lives, to make good the au●hourity of this Honourable House, as the foundation and root of all just freedom.  
And although we many times observed to our grief, some proceed holding resemblance rather with our former bondage, then with that just freedom we expected: yet did we impute the same to the troublesomeness of the times of ●…ar, patiently and silently passing them over, as undoubtedly hoping a perfect ●…medy so soon as the wars were ended: but perceiving our expectations altogether frustrate, we conceived ourselves bound in conscience, and in duty to God, to set before you the general grievances of the Commonwealth, and the earnest desires of ingenuous well-minded people: and for that did engage in promoting the Petition in question, in the usual and approved way of gathering subscriptions, with full intention to present the same to this Honourable House so soon as it should be in readiness: but as it appeareth, a Copy thereof was unduly obtained, and tendered to this Honourable House under the notion of a dangerous and seditious Paper: Whereupon this House was pleased to order the Petition to the Committee, whereof Col. Lee is Chairman; and Mr. Lamb at whose House it was said to be found, to be there examined concerning the same.  
Whereupon your Petitioners conceived it their duty to own and avouch the said Petition, & for that end, in a peaceable manner attended that Committee with this humble Certificate herunto annexed, to be offered ro their wisdoms as oppor tunity should be ministered: but through some small miscarriage of some few persons (for which your Petitioners were much grieved) your Committee took so sudden and high displeasure, as to command your Petioners to withdraw threatening to remove them with a guard, before they had time to turn themselves.  
Whereupon your Petitioners caused the Certificate to be publicly read in the Court of Requests, to take the sense and allowance of many persons who had not before seen the same, with intent still to present it; which though endeavoured to be utmost, was absolutely refused to be received, but to our astonishment, occasion was taken against our friend M. Nicholas Tue that read the same, so far, as that he stands a prisoner to that Committee, and much harsh language, with threaten and provocations issued from some of the Committee, towards some other of our friends purposely (as we verily believe) to get some advantage, to represent us odious to this Honourable House, whose persons and authority hath been as dear in our esteem as our very lives. And therefore, we have just cause to complain to this Honourable House,  

1. Of unjust usage from those that endeavoured to interrupt the gathering of hands in a peaceable way, or to possess this Honourable House with evil suggestions concerning the intention and purpose of the said Petition.  
2. Of hard measure from your Committee in the particulars  contrary to what we have deserved, or should have found in former times.  
3. Nevertheless, our liberties, to promote Petitions to this Honourable House is so essential to our freedom, (out condition without the same being absolute slavery) and our hope of justice from this Honourable House, is so essentials to our freedom, our condition, without the same being absolute slavery: And our hope of justice from this Honourable House so great, in protecting us therein that we are not discouraged by what hath passed, but in confidence thereof, do humbly entreat, 

First, That ye will be pleased to declare our freedom, to promote, and your readiness to receive the said Petition, which we cannot but still look upon, as tending to the general good of this Nation.  
Secondly, That our friends may be enlarged and that Ye will discountenance the officiousness of such overbusy informers, as have disturbed the just progress of that Petition.     
We are not ignorant, that we have been, and are like to be represented unto you, as Heretics, Schismatics, Sectaries, seditious persons, and Enemies to civil-government, and the like: but our said Petition is sufficient to stop the mouths of such calumniators, and declare us to be not only solicitors for our own particulars, but for the general good of the Commonwealth, and will minister a just occasion to suspect the designs of those, that so frequently asperse us, though their pretences be never so specious. And we trust your wisdoms will timeously discover and prevent any evil intended against us.  
And whereas Major Tuledah stands committed by Order of this Honourable House, for some conceived misbehaviour towards some Members of your said Committee; we humbly entreat, that he may be forthwith called to your Bar, and be permitted to answer for himself, and that witnesses may be also heard on his behalf, which justice could never yet be obtained, that so this honourable House may be rightly and fully informed, concerning his cause and demeanour of those Members, the sudden imprisonment of our friends ●eing very grievous unto us.  
And your Petitioners shall pray.   
The specified certificate you will read before in pag. 35.  
But finding no benefit to themselves by this Petition, although they followed it extraordinary close, and at the doote presented it to all the Members in print, and therefore immediately upon it they frame another, and having got a competent number of hands to it, they presented it in writing, And afterwards in print, to all the Members that would receive it, the true copy of which thus followeth.  

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OF ENGland assembled in Parliament. The Humble Petition of divers well affected people in and about the City of London.  
Shows,  
THat as the Authority of this Honourable House is entrusted by the people for remedy of their grievances, so hath it been their uncustomed and undoubted liberty in a peaceable manner to present unto this House what soever they deemed to be particular or general grievances: And as ye gave encouragement unto others in the use of this just Liberty, reproving such as endeavour to obstruct the peaceable promoting of Petitions, so did we verily hope to have found the like countenance and protection in promoting our large Petition: but no sooner was the promoting thereof discovered, but Mr. Glin Recorder as is commonly reported, hastily and untimely brought it into the House, exclaiming against it, as a most dangerous and sedition, paper, and shortly after the Common Counsel in like manner prejudged it, as guilty of danger and sedition, though both without any grounds or reasons affixed, that we know of.  
And as the work of Mr. Recorder was the occasion (as we conceive) of an inquiry after the promoters, so also of the hard measure we found at Col. Lieghs' Committee, where occasion was suddenly taken to threaten or remove by guard, to imp●ison Nicholas Tew, one of the Petitioners, the rest being reviled with odious titles of factious and seditious Sectaries and Major Tulidah another of the Petitioners, not only reviled and reproached as the rest, but violently hauled, and most boisterously used by Sir Philip, Stapleton, and Col. Hollis, who made offer as if they would draw their Swords upon the Petitioners, and Sir Walter Earl lifting up his Caen in a most threatening manner, took another by the shoulder: all which is ready to be certified by sufficient witnesses, and which we do verily believe was done purposely, out of their hatred to the matter of the Petition, to render us as a turbulent people to this Honourable House, to begit a mislike of our Petition, and to frustrate our endeavours in promoting thereof.  
Unto which their misinformation of this honourable house, as we have cause to suspect, may be imputed the occasion of the sudden imprisonment of Major Tulidah without heating of him, and our so long and tedious attendance for answer to our last Petition and Certificate, and the misapprehension of this honourable house of our desires in that Petition: For we did not desire (as your answer importeth) that this house should declare their liking or disliking of our large Petition, being not then promoted nor presented by us, but that you will be pleased to vindicate our Liberty, to promote that Petition, notwithstanding the hard measure we had found, and the aspersions cast upon it, to release the party imprisoned by the Committee, meaning Nicholas Tew, to discountenance those that obstructed the gathering of subscriptions, to call Major Tulidah to your Bar, and to hear witnesses on his behalf, that so he might be also rightly informed, as of his cause, so of the demeanour of some members of that Committee.  
Now for as much as the more we consider the general grievances of the Common wealth, the greater cause we still find of promoting of the large Petition, as not discerning any thing of danger therein▪ except in some corruptions yet remaining, nor of sedition, except as before this Parliament it be in some mens esteems seditious to move, though in the most peaceably manner for remedy of the most palpable grievances; and for as much as we are hopeful this Honourable House will in due time have good use thereof, for the discovery of such as are engaged either directly or by Relations in those corruptions, for removal whereof the Petition is intended, and not knowing for what end so great an effusion of the blood of the people hath been made▪ except to procure at the least the particulars desired in that Petition, and that we might know ourselves so fare at least to be free men and not slaves, as to be at liberty to promote Petitions in a peaceable way, to be judges of the matter thereof, and for our time of presenting them to this Honourable House, without let or circumvention.  
We humbly entreat that ye will be pleased  

1. To weigh in equal Balance the carriage of Mr. Recorder, and that of the Common Counsel in this weighty cause of prejudging Petitions, and to deal with them as the cause deserveth.  
2. To consider of how evil consequence it is, for your Committees to to assume a pour of imprisoning men's persons, without your Commission, and that ye will not pass over this in this Committee.  
3. To receive the Testimonies concerning Sir Philip Stapleton, Col. Hollis, and Sir Walier Earl, and to deal with them according to the ill consequences of their violent demeanour, and misinformation of this Honourable House, tending to no less than the obstruction of Petitions the gleatest mischief that can befall a people in time of Parliament.  
4. That Nicholas Tew may be wholly enlarged, and that no man may hence forth be committed by an Arbitrary power, as he at the first was, nor without cause shown, though by lawful Authority.  
5. That ye will as yet suspend your sense of our Large Petition, until such time as the Petitioners shall judge it fit to present the same as a Petition unto your wisdoms.   
And as in duty bound we shall pray, etc.   
But this Petition being against Mr. Hellis, and Sir Philip Stapleton, the Captains and heads of the subverters of our Laws, liberties, and freedoms, after it was debated, it was, as your Diurnal tells me, upon the 20 of May, 1647 ●oted, 1. To be a high breach of Privileges. 2. That it was seditious. 3. That this Petition and the former, entitled, The humble Petition of many thou●anas, etc. should be burnt at the Exchange in Cornewell, and the Palace yard at Westminster, Saturday next. Which as I am informed was accordingly done, by the hands of the common hangman.  
Upon which the petitioners not being willing to be baffled out of their liberties in making known their grievances; (without the enjoyment of which they are perfect 
* Read your own words, in Co●…d●…. pag. 720.  slaves) they resolve to attempt a Petition once more, though divers of them ●ather desired to remonstrate against you to the whole Kingdom, for a company of tyrannical destroyers, and treacherous betrayers (contrary to your oaths, and the duty of your places) of the Laws, Liberties, and Freedoms of England And having discoursed myself with some of them, and perceiving they were resolved to petition once again, I told them I conceived they had nothing else to petition for, as things at present stood with your house, but these two things, viz. That seeing the House had voted they had broken their privileges, by petitioning unto them for redress of their grievances, without declaring wherein, how▪ or after what manner, or giving any reasons at all, wherefore they burned their honest Petition, that therefore they would be pleased forthwith, publicly and distinctly to declare unto the whole Kingdom, what their privileges are, and when, how and after what manner they came by them, that so in future time through ignorance, in not knowing their privileges, they might not run upon the pricks of their iudignation, and the Hangman's.  
2. That they would also be pleased to declare and dictate to them, what, (how and after what manner) they should petition for; the next time they would vouchsafe to give them leave to Petition to them, that so their Petition might not again be burnt by the hands of the common Hangman; and I withal told them the house of Commons answer to their last Petition, did necessarily and justly lead them as it were by the hand, to such a petition as this; but they rejected it, and framed one of their own, the Copy of which thus followeth.  

To the Right Honourable the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament. The humble Petition of many thousands of well affected People.  
Sheweth:  
THat having seriously considered what an uncontrolled liberty hath generally been taken, publicly to reproach, and make odious persons of eminent and constant good affection to Parliament and common wealth, how prevalent endeavours have been, to withhold such from being chosen into places of trust or Counsel, how easy to molest, or get them into prisons, how exceedingly liable to misconstruction, their motions and Petitions in behalf of the public have lately been.  
When we consider what grudge and repine, have sinistrously been begotten, against your most faithful and successful Army: what arts and devises, to provoke you against them and to make y●u jealous of them; what hard measure some of th●m, both Officers and Soldiers have found in divers respects in sundry places?  
When we consider, what change of late hath importunately (though caussessely) been procured of the Committee of Militia in the City of London, and how that new Committee hath already begun to remove from Command, in the Trained bands and Auxiliaries, persons not to be suspected of disaffection or ●ewerality but such as have been most zealous, in promoting the safety of Parliament and City.  
When we consider how full of Armies our neighbour Countries are round about us, and what threatening of foreign forces, we are even astonished with grief as not able to free ourselves from apprehension of eminent danger, but are strongly induced to fear some evil intentions of some desperate and wilful persons, yet powerfully working to blast the just ends of this Parliament, and re-imbroile this late bleeding and much wasted Nation in more violent wars, distempers and miseries.  
And as our earnest desires of the quiet and safety of the Common wealth, hath necessitated these our most sad observations: So are we constrained to believe, that so dangerous an alteration, could not so generally have appeared, but that there is some great alteration befallen, both in Counsels and authorities throughout the land; which we verily conceive ariseth from no other cause, but from the treacherous policy of enemies, and weakness of friends, in choosing such thereinto, as have been unfit for those employments, some whereof (as is credibly reported) having served the enemy in Arms, some with moneys, horse, ammunition, or by intelligence, some in Commission of Array, some manifesting constant malignity in their actions, speeches, or standing Newters in times of greatest trial, some culpable of notorious crimes; others lying under heavy accusations, some that are under age, or such who are at present engaged in such courses as in the beginning of this Parliament were esteemed Monopolies.  
Now may it please this honourable House, if such as these should remain, or may have privily crept into our Counsels or Authorities (as by the forecited considerations, we humbly conceive cannot but be judged) what can possibly be expected, by those who have been most active and faithful in your servi●… but utter ruin or the worst of bondage.  
For prevention whereof, and of those dangers, wars and troubles that are genera●…y feared: we are constrained earnestly to entreat.  

1. That you will be pleased instantly to appoint a Committee of such worthy members of this honourable H●use, as have manifested most sincere affections, to the well affected, and to authorise them to make speedy ●n ●…ict inquir●e after all such as are possessed of places of Counsel, trust, authority or command, who according to law, Ordinances, Reason, or ●o●ty, ought not to be admitted: and that all persons without exception may be permitted and encouraged, to bring in accusations, witnesses, or testimonies for the more speedy perfecting of the wo●ke: and that you will forthwith exclude all such out of all offices of counsel, trust Authority or command, against whom sufficient cause shall be proved, without which we cannot see how it is possible for the well affected to live either in peace or safety.  
2. That you will countenance, protect, and secure the cordial well affected in all places, according to their several cases and conditions, especially in their addresses with petitions.  
3. That you will be pleased to condescend unto all the just and reasonable desi●es of your Commanders▪ Officers, and Soldiers, by whose courage and faithfulness▪ so great services have been performed, and severely to punish all such as have any way sought to alienate you from them.  
4. That the Militia, of L●ndon may be returned to the custody and disposing of those persons of whose faithfulness and wisdom in managing thereof, you have had great experience, and that none may be put out of Command in the Trained Bands, or Auxiliaries, who have been and are of known good affection to the Common wealth.   
All which we humbly entreat may be speedily and effectually accomplished, according to the great necessity and exigency of these distracted times, and as in duty bound, we shall pray, etc.   
And having presented it in writing, a day, two or three after they presented it publicly in print to the members of the House, the issue of which as I have it out of your own Diurnal was thus.  

Die Mercuris 2 Junii. 1647  
A Petition styled, the humble Petition of many thousands of well affected people, was this day read.  
The question being put, whether an answer shall be given to this Petition at this present, the house was divided the yea went forth  
Sir John Evelin of Wilts, Sir Michael Levisay tellers for the yea, with the yea, 112.  
Mr. Hollis, Sir William Luis, tellers for the no, with the no●s 128 so that the question passed with the negative.   
But the Petitioners going up s●me few days after for an answer to their petition, and being extremely in base provoking and insufferable language abused by that worshipful Gentleman, Major General massy, etc. which provoked divers of them to send in a paper to Mr. Speaker as their last farewell, the copy of which thus followeth.  
Mr Speaker, divers Citizens have been here attending for an answer of a Petition delivered by Sir William Waller on Wednesday last, their desire is that the house may be acquainted that the petitioners have seen the Vote of the House, and have discharged themselves from further attendance for the present, and will notwithstanding still seek just and equitable means for to ease the grievances of this poor distracted Kingdom, and comfortably put an end to the groan of this miserable distressed nation.  
And having sent it in, away they came, and now in my apprehension have no other course to take, but to remonstrate and justly to declare to all the Commons of England, and the Army, the unpartaleld, illegal and tyrannical dealing of the House of Commons with them, and to press them by force of Arms to root up and destroy these tyrants, which without any scruple of conscience they may do, if it were lawful for the two Houses to levy war against the King for tyranny declared by them, seeing I am sure there is a hundred times greater and more visibler, and if it be true as Sir Simon Synod, and the John of all Sir john's now cries out and says that it is not lawful in any case to fight against the legal Magistrate, than I am sure Sir John and Sir Simon are a company of grand Traitors, and ought principally to be hanged, for being the chief Incendiaries in their Pulpits, etc. to the by past wars against the King, who I will justify it upon the loss of my life, by the established law of England, the declared government thereof, is a thousand times more fenced about and secured, (so fare as Law can secure) then the unjust, law and liberty destroying Lords and Commons assembled at Westminster are.  
And secondly, I will justify it, that if the principals, or law of reason and nature for preservation take be a sufficient ground to take up Arms against the King and his party as the H●… Parliament have declared they are, than the Kingdom and Arm, have much more true grounds to take up Arms against them for tyranny visibly, avowedly, and professedly acted, a hundred times more higher and transendent then ever he did, that is yet declared. And a most real difference there is betwixt the action of them two in this particular.  
I clearly find by all that I can yet read of either side, published to the view of the Kingdom, (and I think that I have read and weighed almost all that is extant) that the King by the law of his will did not impose Monopolies and Ship money, etc. upon the free men of England, but was made to believe by his Judges and Counsel at Law, (being those helps or assistance that the law of the Kingdom had appointed him to be counselled by out of Parliament) that he might impose those things by right, or force of the Law of the Kingdom. See the dispute in Mr. Hamdens' case of Ship-money, in the latter end of Judge Huttons Judge Crookes arguments against Ship money, pag. 2 3. 4, 5 printed by authority of this present Parliament, and the Declarations of both sides, 1. and 2. part Col. Decl. And indeed to speak according to the declared Law of England, the judges and his counsel at Law were principally to be blamed, and not the King. See your own Remonstrance of the 19 May, 1642. 1. part book Decl. pag. 199. 304. and the reason in Law is because, " the Law commands the Judges and Justices of peace, and all the rest of the Administrators of it, not to delay or disturb common justice and right, for any command from the King, for any other) signified by the Great Seal, or privy Seal, or any other ways, and though such commands do come the judges and justices shall not therefore leave to do right in any point, but shall do common right, according to the common Law, as though never any such command had been, see the 29 chap of Magna Charta, and 2. E. 3 8. and 14. E. 3.14. and 11. R. 2.10 And to perform this in every particular, every judge and justice of peace is sworn, as appears by their oaths recorded in Poultons' book of Statutes, folio 144. and made in the 18. year of Edward 3. Anno; 1344. which also you may verbatum read, in the 29: pag. of a late printed book called Rega● tyranny. And it was the duty by law that this Parliament ought to the whole Kingdom, to have made all those false and wicked Ship-money Judges examples of terror to future generations. (As King Alfred before the conquest did for as Andrew Horn in his miror of justice pag. 296. saith, " that judges and their Ministers who destroy men by false judgement, aught to be destroyed as other murderers, which King Alfred did, who hanged in one year 44. judges as murderers, for their false judgements against the Law, whose particular crimes and names he specifieth pag. 296. 297 298 299 300. etc. But to your everlasting shame be it spoken, you took bribes of some of them, after the King had surrendered them up to your justice, and after that you had impeached them of high Treason, and imprisoned them, you set them at liberty to sit upon the seat of justice 
* Which if they had been made examples of terror you would have got no judges to have executed your arbitrary, illegal and tyrannical commands.  to pass sentence upon the lives, liberties and properties of the freemen of England, and if I mistake not, one of them continues a Judge in your Commission to this very day, by means of which base and wicked practices of yours, (I mean the two Houses) this poor Kingdom under the pretence of Law, hath been by you filled ●th more oppression & injustice, than ever it underwent in so short a time since the Norman Conquest, there being neither pure justice nor Right to be had according to law at the hands, either of your judges or justices of peace, being in every particular as corrupt as either the House of Lords or Commons, Tyburn, or at least to row at Oars as slaves, being the fittest portion for the most part of them, there being never such outcries in the King's time against has Judges and Justices, as you●s denying daily the benefit of Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right, to any freeman that a knavish Parliament man appears against; as I could easily enumerate divers instances if it were seasonable, but I will keep it in bank for a representation for the Army or the next Parliament, where I hope they will take special care, what ever they do with the present base Judges and justices of peace; to provide an act of Parliament, that we may have our laws (where they a●e ambigues and doubtful) made as plain as can be made, and all our proceed in law in English, brief and short, in plain English words, and quickly to be decided. And that it shall be treason in any judge, or justices, by virtue of any command whatsoever, to pervert the Common law, and the Common justice of the Kingdom, and without such a law, and an Annual Parliament to see it executed, the constitution of which in point of Elections, had extraordinary need to be amended, for now some Counties choosing about 50. As Cornewell and others none, as the County of Durham, and their corporations many times made by bribes given to corrupt Courtiers, to obtain the King's Letters, patents, (which merely flows from his will) to enable them to choose two Burgesses for Parliament, in divers of which petty and paultery Corporations throughout the Kingdom, any base fellow, for 20. or 30 I may by so many voices as will make him a Burgess of Parliament▪ and divers of th●se corporations, consisting for a great part of Inns and Ale houses, will be sure to choose no other Parliament men▪ but such as are given to deposednesse, expensiveness, wickedness, and drinking, or at least some Ninnie and Grose, wrictor by a great man, that as Dr. Bastwick saith, hath no more wit in him, then will reach from his nose to his mouth. And this is the true reason why our Parliament men in all ages have so little regard to the Common and just liberties of the Kingdom, or to the justice and equity of the laws they make. And therefore as I said in the 54. pag. of London's Liberties, so I say now to you, that it would be more rational and a great deal fuller of justice and equity, to destroy all these illegal Corporations, and fix upon them the certain number of Parliament men, be they 600. 500 or 400. or more or less, as by the common consent shall be thought most fit, and equally to proportion to every Country, to choose a proportionable number, suitable to the rates, that each County by their books of rates, are assessed to pay towards the defraying of the public charge of the Kingdom, and then each County equally and proportionably, by the common consent of the people thereof, to divide itself into Divisions, Hundreds, or Weapontacks, that so all the people (without confusion or tumult) may meet together in their several divisions, and every free man of England, as well poor as rich, whose life estate etc. is to be taken away by the law, may have a Vote in choosing those that are to make the law, it being a maxim in nature, that no man justly can be bound without his own consent, and care taken that this may be once every year without fail, and to hold for a certain number of days, without which this Kingdom will never be free from wars, misery and commotions; but from this present Parliament, I neither look for good to my particular self, or the Kingdom in general, the constant and uninterrupted serious of all your visible actions, being a visible and clear demonstartion to the eyes of every unbiosed, impartial and rational man in England, of an absolute violation of the laws and liberties of England, and setting up a perfect tyranny, declaring thereby both in the sight of God and man, that you have sold, and given up yourselves to work and act all manner of wickedness and impiety, admitting no other rule either of reason, law, or justice, to square your actions by, but your own perverse and crooked wills, being an absolute kind of monsters of the Devils, but not of God's creation, who never made any man lawless as you avowedly profess yourselves to be, robbing and poling the poor Kingdom by all manner of illegal taxations, Excise, etc. and then sharing it amongst yourselves, making nothing of fifty thousand pounds at one breakfast in one morning, for ten of your own Members, viz. Mr Denzel Hollis. Mr Walter Long, etc. and for all your Hypocritical, cheating, and self denying Ordinance, within a little while after, (as I am informed) in state Mr. Long (as I am told) worth five thousand pounds per Annum, viz. the Register of the Chancery, and make the two Speakers, (both of whom have been impeached if not of treason, yet of high misdemeanours, & were never yet justly cleared and acquitted) keepers of the great Seal of England, to raise up their justly lost repute with the people, thereby declaring that it is your study and delight, to make use of the corruptest and basest of men amongst you, to tyrannize over the people, and yet the worst amongst you are so pure and holy, that you must not be touched, questioned, or called to an account for any thing that you say or do, so that your pretence to all our liberties, estates, trades proprieties and lives, is not the law of the kingdom, 
* For Col. Burch a Member of the House of Commons, before another Member and the Lieutenant of the Tower, did aver before them the other day to judge jenkin's when he questioned the legality of their proceed, that they did not stand upon the Law, nor warrant their actions thereby, but saith he we have conquered you by the Sword, and by the Sword we will hold it. Therefore look about you Free men of England, give the Tyrants their deserts.  but your own inherent corrupt lusts, and unbounded wills, so that the d●fference betwixt you and the King is visible enough, and that we have got by our exchange of our former government for your tyrannical domination, for I never read not heard that the King in the worst of his reign, within itself simply considered, was I think bad enough and not to be justified, and which I myself felt as much as any man in England, (yet compared to yours was glorious and beautiful) for did he ever cause to be burnt by the hands of the Common hangman, the Petitions of those that he by his Declarations had invited to Petition to him, and who in his greatest straits, had been most hazardous for him, and truest and firmist to him, both of which you have done, as is before proved. Neither in the second place, did I ever read that he did proclaim and declare such men to be Rebels and Traitors, but for going about to make their just and pressing grievances known, which you have done to the Army, (yea, to such an Army, as I think I may justly say in every particular the world never had any) as may larger appear by their Petition, and your declaration, which as it is printed by themselves, or some of their friends, thus followeth.  

The Army's Petition. TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR THOMAS Fairfax, General for the Parliaments Forces The humble Petition of the Officers and Soldiers of the Army under your Command.  
Shows,  
THat ever since our first engagement in the service for the preserving the power of this Kingdom in the hands of the Parliament, we have in out several places served them with all faithfulness, and although we have lain under many discouragements, for want of pay and other necessaries, yet have we not disputed their commands, disobeyed their Orders, nor disturbed them with petitions, nor have there any visible discontents appeared amongst us, to the encouragement of the enemy, and the impediment of their affairs, but have with all chieerfulness done Summer service in Winter seasons, improving the utmost of our abilities, in the advancement of their service, and seeing God hath now crowned our endeavours with the end of our desire (viz. the dispercing of the pulique Enemy, and reducing them to their obedience) the King being now brought in, our brethren the Scots now satisfied and departed the Kingdom, all danger seemingly blown over, and peace in all their quarters.  
We (emboldened by the many fold promises and Declarations to defend and protect those that appeared and acted in the service) do herewith humbly present to your Excellency, the annexed Representation of our desires, which we humbly beseech your Excellency to recommend or represent in our behalf unto the Parliament, and your Petitioners shall ever honour and pray for your Excellency, etc.  

The humble Representation of the desires of the Officers and Soldiers of the Army, under the command of his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax, presented first ●o his Excellency, to be by him presented to the Parliament.  

1. Whereas the necessity and exigency of the war hath put us upon many actions, which the law would not warrant, nor we have acted in a time of settled peace, we humbly desire that before our disbanding, a full and sufficient provision may be made by Ordinance of Parliament, to which the royal affent may be desired) 
* In this we desire no more than the City and Parliament have done before us, notwithstanding their many notable and home Declarations against the King  for our indemnity and security in all such cases.  
2. That Auditors and Commissioners may be speedily appointed and authorized to repair to the Head quarters of this Army, to audite and state our accounts, as well for our former service, as for our service in this Army, and that before the disbanding of the Army, satisfaction may be given to the Petitioners for their Arrears; that for the charge trouble and loss of time, which we must otherwise necessarily undergo in attendance for obtaining of them, may be prevented, we having had experience that many have been reduced to miserable extremity, even almost starved for want of relief, by their tedious attendance, and that no Officer may be charged with any thing in his accounts, that doth not particularly concern himself.  
3. That those who have voluntarily served the Parliament in the late war, may not hereafter be compelled by press or otherwise, to serve as Soldiers out of this Kingdom, nor those who have served as Horsemen, may be compelled by press, to serve on foot in any future case.  
4. That such in this Army, as have lost their lives, and the wives and children of such as have been slain in the service, and such Officers and Soldiers as have sustained losses. or have been prejudiced in their estates, by adhering unto the Parliament, or in their persons, by sickness or imprisoment under the Enemy, may have such allowance, and satisfaction, as may be agreeable to justice and equity.  
5. That till the Army be disbanded as aforesaid▪ some course may be taken for the supply thereof with money, whereby we may be enabled to discharge our quarters, that so we may not for necessaries be forced to be beholding to the parliaments Enemies, burdensome to their friends, or oppressive to the Country, whose preservation we have always endeavoured, and in whose happiness we shall still rejoice.     
Courteou-Reader,  
The foregoing is a true copy of the Petition promoting in the Army, which the Parliament are too much offended with, and therefore let the righteous God and all ingenious men judge, if the desires of this Army be not rational, just and equitable, and let the Lord of Heaven and Earth behold what here is desired, to occasion such a Declaration against this innocent Army 〈◊〉 any the Officers thereof, as is here unto annexed, and let men that love 〈◊〉 ●…edome and hate tyrants, look about and consider if it be not the deug●… of those few men that abuse the Parliament, maliciously making odious reports 〈◊〉 the House of the actions of that Army, in the worse sense they can devise, as Stapleton, Hollis, Luke, and Earl, lately did in the like c●… 〈◊〉 abominable act of committing Ma. Tulidah without ever he●ring what a 〈◊〉 say for himself, an●niurie so much formerly complained of by the●…, 〈◊〉 and ●…act of the highest injustice in the world to condern●… 〈…〉 ●…aring, and when both his friends and himself did most 〈…〉 ●e might be brought to their barie, that the hon●… 〈…〉 ●…tly informed of the demeanour of these Members 〈…〉 ●…ri●g ●hat Ma●or Tulidah should discover them at th●… 〈…〉 ●…emies to the legal and just liberties of the people, (which to prevent) they became the only instruments to get him his liberty, and with ut hearing they forthwith got him released.  

A Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament. Die Martis, 30. Martii. 1647.  
THat the two Houses of Parliament having received information 
* The informers are said to be Col. Rossiter, and Col. Harlow, both members of the House of Commons, and the Army likewise.  of a dangerous Petition, with representations annexed, tending to put the Army in a distemper and mutiny, to put conditions upon the Parliament, and obstruct the relief of Ireland, which hath been contrived and promoted by some persons in the Army. They do declare their high dislike of that Petition, their approbation and esteem of their good Service, who first discovered it and of all such Officers and Soldiers as have refused to join in it, and that for such as have been abused, and by the parswasion of others drawn to subscribe it; if they shall for the future manifest their dislike of what they have done, by forbearing to proceed any further in it, it shall not be looked upon as any cause to take away the remembrance & sense the houses have of the good service they have formerly done, but they shall still be retained in their good opinion, and shall be cared for with the rest of the Army in all things necessary and fitting for the satisfaction of persons that have done so good and faithful service, and as may be expected from a Parliament, so careful to perform all things appertaining to honour and justice; as on the other side it is declared, that all those who shall continue in their distempered condition▪ and go on in advancing and promoting, that petition shall be looked upon and proceeded against as enemies to the State, and disturbers of the public peace.  
Die Martis 30. Martii. 1647. Ordered by the Lords assembled in parliament, that this Declaration be forthwith printed and published. John Brown Cler. Parliamentorum.   
Now Sir to conclude the tyrannical house of Lords having most illegally, barbarously, tyrannically, and unjustly committed me to prison, and sentenced me, under wh●se tyranny you are willing to suffer me to perish and then by your and their whifling, and buking Curs to bespatter and reproach me in print, thereby strongly endeavouring to m●ke me as odious in the eyes of the sons of men, as Job was in all his botches, and alas pocre I, must be kept in pri●… 〈…〉 without pen or ink, access of friends or any 〈…〉 and so deprived of all means to vindicate my 〈…〉 ●…ce write in my own behalf, and set my name to wi●… 〈◊〉 ●…ing always ready to own and justify my lines, and to seal then with my 〈◊〉 blood, yet my wife must be made a prisoner, and fetched up to your arbitrary Committees for dispersing of my books, and the book women in Westminster Hall that sell them, must have then shops and houses searched and robbed of all my books, by your Catch pauls, and if you suspect any for printing of them, they must be sure to be dealt worse wi●h than if they were Traitors and enemies to their Country, and have their houses robbed, and spoilt of their goods and presses, with which they earn bread for them and their families and carried away by force, before any legal trial, or conviction of any crime, contrary to the laws of the land, which positively declares, that no free man of England forfeits his lands, goods or livelyhoods, tell he be convicted of a crime. 1 R. 3.3. Cooks 2. part institutes, chap 103. fol. 228. 229. See the Petition of Right, yea and their bodies imprisoned most tyrannical and illegally, without bail or mainprize, although there be no colour in law for the pretended cause of their commitment, nor no power in law for any Committee of your house to commit a printer, or any other free man in England to prison. See the law authorities mentioned in Judge Jenkins late printed papers. And when the prisoner according to the law of the Kingdom sues for a Habias' Corpus, which legally cannot be denied to any prisoner whatsoever, and by virtue thereof be brought before the present Judges of the King's bench, Justice Bacon, and Justice Rolls yet contrary to law and their own oaths (which oaths are before mentioned) they refuse to deliver the prisoner so unjustly imprisoned, or to take bail for his forthcoming, but return him back to prison again, there contrary to law and justice to be kept without bail or mainprize. Oh horrible tyranny oppression, and injustice, and yet as I am certainly informed, this was the case of Mr. Thomas Pain a Printer the last term.  
Nay your Catchpoules by their own power, can and have forceably entered and feloniously and illegally carried away my proper and truly comed by goods to a large value, for which though I complained to your Committee, yet could I not obtain from their hands one dram of Justice, See my examination before them, called the resolved man's resolution, pag. 12.  
Nay, this is not all for when your members and the Lords and their catchpoules creatures, have sufficient railed at me, and reproached me, and tied up my hands; by depriving me of all means (as they thought) to publish any thing for my own defence, than they as I conceive join together, and get some lying Presbyter assembly man or other, (for the Author concealing his name, and I not able to find it out, I apprehend, and justly conceive I have just cause to lay it to them, it being so suitable to the constant means, they and their Creatures, use to set up their new reformed Kingdom) to frame, contrive and publish to the view of the world, a Recantation in my name (that I myself, though my name be to it, had not the least finger in, or knowledge of) thereby to render me odious to the purpose, and to declare me a weather cock follow, and as fass●l, and easy in changing my former avowed just principles, as the Lords and Commons, and assembly men at Westminster are, to change theirs; But Sir, if God permit, I shall take a more fi●t opportunity to anatomize that gross piece of Pa●l●…mentary, assembly knavery. And therefore I must plainly tell you, seeing the Lords and Commons at Westm●nster have dealt so ●arb rously and illegally with 〈◊〉 as they have done, 
* And not with me, but also with M. Over●on his wife and brother, and Mr. Larners man and maid, who are all yet in person, and can have nor obtain any justice from either of your houses.  and are worse than the unrighteous judge, that upon no importunity will do me Justice, I am now in good sober resolved earnest, determined to appeal to the whole Kingdom and Army against them, and it may be thereby come quittance with them, and measure unto them as they have measured to me, and doubt not but to make it evident, that though some of your members call the Army Rebels and Traitors, for contesting with those that gave them their power and authority; that they themselves a●e real Rebels and Traitors, to the trust reposed, in them by the free people of England, their Emperors, Lords, and Masters. And that the Army are really and truly a company of Rogues, Knaves, and traitorous Villains to themselves and their native Country, if they should disband upon any terms in the world, till they have brought them to exemplary Justice, and made them vomit up the vast sums of the publiques money, that they have swallowed down into their devowring cannibal maws, and firmly settled the peace and justice of the Kingdom, which that they may faithfully and cordially do is and shall be the daily prayer of  
him that hath been and will be again, your true friend if you will repent of your remissness and slackness, and manifest yourself to be more firm, active, and valorous for the good of your Country, john Lilburn. From my unjust Captivity in the Tower of London, for the (visably almost destroyed) Laws and Liberties of England, which condition I more highly prize though in misery enough outwardly, than the visiblest condition of any member whatsoever, that sits in either or both houses, being all and every of them, apparently, palpably and transendently forsworn, having all of them taken Oaths upon Oaths, to maintain the laws, liberties and freedom of the land and yet in their daily practice overthrow and destroy them, of which sin and wickedness, they are all of them guilty, in regard you all sit there in silence, and do not publicly and avowedly to the whole Kingdom according to your duty, manfully protest against, and declare your dislike of their crooked, unjust and England's destroying ways, this 31. of May 1647. John Lilburne.  
FINIS.