THE CASE Of Colonel John Lambert, Prisoner in the TOWER Of LONDON.  
LONDON, Printed for S. S. in St. Pauls Church-yard, in the Year 1661.   

THE CASE OF Colonel John Lambert, Prisoner in the TOWER of LONDON.  
FRom the level of that ambitious prospect, which presented Castles, Palaces, Thrones, built by a glorious imagination in the fixed Element of the Earth; View and behold the realities of those abasements and miseries, which have in lieu of trains and retinue, attended this unfortunate person,( yet in a Princely Mansion) the Tower of London.  
Behold and consider the vast and unlimited designs of a more unbounded mind, penned up, and confined with his body within a narrow compass, and scantling of place, where the Plot of Aspiring, hath worried itself to the quiet desire of Respiring.  
Consider him yet further, ruminating and harshly digesting those crude and raw morsels of an intended Usurpation; the disgusts whereof, in the greatest freedom of Air, the meanest fugitives of his party( enjoy not but) breath in, would surfet and kill any one but Lucifer.  
Reckon lastly, the throws of his disappointment, his ambition brought to the birth, and then wanting strength to bring forth; all his honour and greatness laid in the dirt, and himself stuck fast in the mire; and then you cannot but favourably reflect on these stately ruins.  
In the tracing of which, it will be requisite to deduce them from their fair originals, the account whereof, take in brief. His Ancestry were of a very ancient, and as noble extraction, inhabiting for some ages past, part of the East-Riding of Yorkshire, having there valuable Possessions, and a Mannor place, called Craven, where he last projected his grand enterprise,( after the Cheshire business) of raising himself upon the ruins of that wretched Commonwealth. Thither( as he supposed) he resorted, for the more auspicious commencement and laying of his design, out of a superstition to the Genij and Penates of that native place of his Family, the better to succeed in his new intended greatness, and advancement of his House; A Custom observed very religiously by the noble Romans, and performed by them with sacrifices and adoration.  
His immediate Ancestor( his Father,) was a Gentleman very well beloved in this Country, much respected by one of the honourablest Families in that part of England; in which noble acquaintance, this Colonel had the honour to be concerned, and to say the truth, did in the unhappy time of our troubles, discharge all these obligations which had been accumulated on his Family, by a powerful timely intervening, and preventing the late, and consequently the present ruin of their Estate.  
He took arms at first under my Lord Fairfax, induced by the same specious pretences which deluded half the Kingdom; But the War growing to be a Trade, and he preferred to several Commands, that deceit, by the lies long  told, was Alchymisted into a persuasion of Truth, which confirmed by Money and Advancement, never after would admit any Doubts or Disputes within him. nevertheless through all the War be behaved himself as a generous Enemy, nor was there any Treachery or baseness ever laid to his charge.  
In that monstrous Conspiracy against the Life of our Late sovereign, he would not be engaged privately, nor did he act any thing publicly in that matter, further than as an Officer of the Army, in their Councils of War; and that business was to be transacted by another kind of power, which he wisely and prudentially avoided, and perhaps innocently.  
He was never a spiteful malicious Foe to the Cavalier Party, declining all Employments and Commands which required asperity and harshness towards them; but doing them( as far as was Convenient and Consistent for an Enemy) all the Courtesies and Kindnesses that lay in his way. Some affirm that this was out of afore-casted Design of Cajoling them: On the contrary, others affirm that he was more Sincere and Noble.  
This is most certain, that being made governor of Oxford, after the Surrender in 1646. where after six Months, the Parliament were left to their will, in the ordering both of University and City. He personally acted nothing there, as foreknowing what an ungrateful and barbarous work he should be put upon, but remitted it to his Deputy, not being so hardy himself as to venture upon the sharp points of the Scholars Pens, and beget himself a perpetual Hatred and Infamy: Though out of all question he was then, and is yet a lover of Arts and Learning, and might, and probably did forbear that Province more out of Reverence to them, than through any Policy.  
To his Civility add his Courage, which was Superlatively eminent in him. These two virtues seldom meet in Conjunction, but their Influences are very benign, and portend much good; but they were in him it seems moved by a superior Orb; His Ambition like other spheres a contrary way, The Moralists therefore say, That that is not properly Courage, by which bold men Invade and Usurp, that being a virtue, and Conversant only either in vindictive arms, when Injuries and Hostilities are revenged by War: Or in assisting an Auxiliary, to succour and defend the oppressed. But setting aside the Philosophical niceties, for Valour and presentness of mind, no man during the War out-went him, witness Naseby, Marston Moor, Preston, particularly Dunbar, where the Honour of that Day( if any there were, or could be in such a War against their Prince) may be equally shared betwixt him and the most Noble 〈◇〉 For cromwell was more a Spectator, and Director, than Actor in that fatal Field.  
Leave we the Army, and their eulogies, and high Commendations for him, for the civilest bravest Captain that ever Commanded amongst them; And view him next as a States-man, called and culled out to assist Oliver in that dangerous Attempt of altering the Government from a Common-wealth, to a single Tyranny.  
And in this particular he may well be said to have obliged his Cavalier Enemies, for a more grateful favour, and better resented by that Party, ever in or after the War, was not, nor could be done them. 'twas the first step, through unseen by themselves, that lead to that general ruin we saw involved them altogether. This cromwell durst never upon his single Reputation in the Army have ventured upon, and therefore this mayor General became his Adjutant General by his great Interest in the Army.  
Having done this acceptable service to the Kingdom, the necessitudes which had conciled that Intimacy and Friendship betwixt cromwell and him being removed, and the Col. growing every day more popular in the Army and Kingdom, it was high time for the aspiring Protector, to quit all those private Engagements and Conditions that had past between them; Upon the first overture thereof, the Col. roundly and freely taxed him with breach of promise, insisting upon public good chiefly, but yet insinuating, but that discoverately enough the looseness of his Faith towards himself.  
This gave an open occasion of dismissing him first from his Company and Converse, and soon after from his Council and Command in the Army, to cisable him totally from attempting any Considerable thing against him. This highly incensed the overreached Col. but help himself he could not; To thwart cromwell in his Usurpation, lay things in his way to his greatness●, was the most he could effect; and therefore to that he applied himself with all earnestness and Industry. Thus he made apparent to cromwell in the first Parliament he called, where he and his Party flickled so against the Instrument of Government( the Finical Model of the Protectorship) that Oliver mist of his aim of settling himself in his new Usurpation by the Authority of that Parliament. And indeed no man knows where the Extravagancies of that wird Tyranny would have terminated, had not the fear of Lamberts Potency in the Army, the strength on which they both relied, kept him in some Decorum; So that now the Col. was cried up for a Patriot, and esteemed a very honest man, and certainly such an Enter osi ion as this, could not merit less than that Character for him.  
This was a Thorn on one side to the Protectors Entrusions: Soon after he goaded him on the other. Oliver would as certainly have been King, had the danger from Lambert not been too evidently ap●arent, upon his acc●ptation of that Title, as sure as he is now a Prisoner, And what an immortal shane had it been to this Nation, if the Majesty Imperial of England, had been restend in such an Impious and base Fellow, or his pitiful Race after him. doubtless it was an Extraordinary Indulgence of Heaven, to save us from that scandalous Ignominy. And though the politicians of the Times, Divined and Consulted, that as the most ready and powerful expedient way to his ruin, yet we see it was not so in Gods Eye, who by keeping up this person Esteem, prevented that Contumely, and choose a better way to our Restitution and Settlement, wherein also he made this man in one sense, the principal and chief Instrument.  
For with what a dismal look did the Face of Things appear, when the Hunger-starved Rumpers, sevenfold more Devils in ill qualities than before, repossess themselves of their Seats in Parliament? Who can without affrightment think of that 7th. Day of May, when they resumed their power? This black storm did this person drive from us, and dispended those Clouds which impended over us. This is he whose Interest and Faction so divided the Army, that all Endeavours of uniting them came to nothing. This is he, who by erecting an Arbitrary Committee of Safety, a name so much a S ringer to the people of England, both to its Name, and their Condition, that it awakened the most Indifferent, nay very Enemies of our Ancient Government, to bethink themselves how they might shake off this yoke, and return to Obedience, and the protection of the Laws. This is be, who by marching so far Northward, gave opportunity to the King and Kingdoms Friends to lay the Foundation of that Settlement, which was soon afterwards so gloriously accomplished. In a word, this is he, without whose unjust Ambition, we probably, could never have obtained our just Desires.  
Necessary Evils were never yet abhorred, nay some we commonly term, so are much our Delight and Contentment. The World cannot be, nor consist without them, no more than the Sea would keep sweet and not putrifie, if boisterous Winds did not violently move it.  
Men have their Fates and Inclinations born with them, and 'twas this unfortunate Persons Destiny, to be designed for a trouble World, whom yet Providence not only restrained from doing harm, but all along brought forth a sovereign good from his worst Actions and Intentions; And now since there is no use of him, let us not cast him away, but lay him aside.  
It may also be considered, that he hath had no deep hand in the blood of any, but what was spilled in the Field; remembering also how civilly he treated and used the Cheshire men, after their defeat, so bidding either to kill or plunder, a favour never practised by any Commander in chief of that Party, where they had Power and V●ctory.  
But still his Ambition, and eagerly prosecuted Usurpation, a crime not sufferable by a Prince( you'l say) reclaims against all pardon and forgiveness, and that it stands not with his honour and safety to grant it. 'tis true, but in his behalf it may be alleged, that he never admitted or entertained such treasonable or presumptuous thoughts, till such time as the inveterate mischief of Anarchy had infected him, by the conceit of his own worth, that he was as fit and capable to govern as the best of them; And when once Oliver had beaten the tract, he that was as deeply rooted in the affections of the Army, might easily be lead to undertake the same Grandeur; and this done in a time too,( from the beginning of his projected Supremacy, to the end of it) when the Right of His Majesty was Conclamatum, and as was thought by them utterly vacated; His Authority here being as invincible as his Person.  
No doubt before the final conclusion of his imaginary greatness, he would have come over and complied; but he found the business was done elsewhere before him, and then his closure would be but ridiculous, which the greatness of his spirit could not brook, having never thitherto learned obedience to the King.  
To conclude, Henry the seventh, Royal Progenitor of His Sacred Majesty, pardonned two persons, laurence Simnet, and Perkins Worbeck, who presumed( the King then in Regno) to to usurp the Name, style, and Title of King of England, and kept the first about His Person; The other, after many relapses into his fond vain-glorious Opinion, was Executed. There is no fear of this in this Gentleman; And therefore to the Kings mercy we leave him.  
FINIS.