Elmston the 9 of the 11. Month, 1656.  

For Thomas Munnings, John Durance, and the rest of the Commissioners sometimes sitting at Canterbury about tithes.  
The Plea and Protest of Robert Winter of Elmston in the county of Kent, for his nonpayment of tithes.  
May 8 1657 
 My Friends and Countrymen,  
IN my absence some days ago there came a man to my house (as I am informed) with a Note, Paper, or pretended Warrant, to require me to appear before you (as I judge) the Commissioners about tithes, sitting at the Red Lion at Canterbury upon the twelfth day of this present eleventh month, 1656.  
But by way of righteous and conscientious Plea and Protest against your so summoning of me, I solemnly and deliberately declare and say:  
1. That Moses the true servant of the Lord, who was faithful in the House of God under the first Covenant, Heb. 3. in his administration by the infallible unerring spirit of the Lord, professed unto old Israel then the church of the living God, That the time should come, that the Lord their God would raise up unto them a Prophet from the midst of themselves of their Brethren like unto Moses, & that he will put his words into his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that the Lord shall command him; and it shall come to pass, that whosoever (saith God) will not hearken to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him (Deut. 18.15, 18, 19) or he shall be destroyed from amongst the people, or declared a Fugitive and Vagabond from God, yea, and a rebel against him.  
2. That when the fullness of time was come appointed of the Father, he sent and manifested his Son the Lord Jesus Christ, born under the Law or first covenant, and made subject to the Law, yet anointed with the oil of gladness above measure, in whom the Godhead dwelled bodily, whom with great majesty, power, and glory he declared, and by his faithful and true witnesses, witnessed him to be that great Prophet that Moses many hundreds of years before prophesied of, whom the people under the second or new covenant of life, and peace, and power, were to hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto them, upon pain of being destroyed from amongst the people, Acts 3.22, 23. & 7.37.  
That this great Prophet, being so manifested, was the real substance of all shadows, types and figures, in whom, and at whose death they all ceased, and by which there really was made a change of the first or Levitical Priesthood, and so of the whole law, wages and maintenance thereunto belonging, and so the payment of tithes thereby for ever wholly ceased, Heb. 7:  
In all which regards for me to pay tithes now under the gospel, or second and new covenant of life and peace, is as much as in me lies to deny the Son of God manifested in flesh, and life, and power; and also to set up again the first and changeable priesthood, and so to be a real rebel, or a blasphemous Antichrist against the Lords anointed great and true Prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ, which to do I dare not for all the world, though I cause my life and estate thereby.  
And besides, by the standing and binding Parliament-Laws of England, as the 24. of Henry the 8. chap. the 12. the Rights of tithes are plainly declared to appertain to the spiritual Jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical courts.  
Yea, By the last Statute (as I understand) that ever was made in England for the paying to, and receiving of tithes by any Ecclesiastical person, Vicar, Curate, Proprieter, Owner, or other Farmer or Deputy, it is plainly declared, That they, or any of them shall sue for tithes only before the Ecclesiastical Judges in Ecclesiastical Courts, and no where else, as clearly appears by the statute of the second & third of Edward the sixth, chap. 13.  
But all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction being as I understand, for ever in this nation annihilated & abolished by special and solemn act of parliament made in or about the year 1641. and was never since, as I am certainly informed, by any act of parliament past since revived.  
And therefore you have no English humane legal jurisdiction to hold plea for tithes before you, nor so much as justly to summon me before you to show cause wherefore I will not now under the Gospel-administration pay tithes.  
And therefore I hereby solemnly protest before God and Man against your unrighteous molestation of me, in requiring me to appear before you, who have no English humane legal parliamentary jurisdiction residing in you, to hold plea for tithes, or trouble me, or any other that conscientiously and rationally judge ourselves freed from paying of tithes, both by the divine declared Laws of God, and the humane declared parliamentary laws of England, and tothis' the 9th day of the 11th month 1656. I subscribe my name, Robert Winter, and submit my body and estate in patience to your mere wills, so far as the Lord thinks fit to give you power over them,  
R. M.   
A copy of the foregoing paper the said Robert Winter delivered in at the day of his appearance before the Commissioners at Canterbury unto themselves, and although they dismissed him then, yet they have since caused him and his neighbour and friend Abiezer Bokins to appear before them for the nonpayment of their tithes, although them have not the least shadow of pretence of any legal jurisdiction (nor no more hath any of the called Judges in Westminster-hall, or the Barons of the Exchequer) to hold plea for nonpayment of tithes before them.  
And therefore in their forcing and compelling of people without the least shadow of Parliamentary law to pay them, they really commit the same high treason in its kind, that the called Earl of Strafford lost his head for, which was for endeavouring by the late Kings command, or formal commission against law, to subvert the laws, liberties and properties of the people of England, and by his will and pleasure to introduce and arbitrary tyrannical government above law.