I Did long ſince make my APPEAL in Parliament (as the fundamentall, Legal birthright of the People) for righteouſneſs and juſtice, and might have expected, that after ſuch glorious and unparallel'd Declarations, Covenants, Imprecations, Engagements, and actions; I ſhould have had a Legal, righteous, Chriſtian, Parliamentary, and impartial hearing, between the General and Me, according to the Ancient and juſt conſtitution of Authority in its firſt inſtitution in Scripture, Deut. 1.16, 17. and according to the many obligations that lye upon you from the Commands thereof, Deut. 16.19, 20. Is not judgement wreſted hitherto, when inſtead of a hearing I have a priſon, and an illegal one too; contrary to the infallible and fundamental Rights of the people, and of juſt Government. Thou ſhalt not wreſt Judgment; Thou ſhalt not reſpect perſons: That which is altogether juſt ſhalt thou follow, 2 Chron. 19.6 • 7. The contrary is abhorred, and judgment denounced againſt it, Eſay 1.23, 24 Jerem. 5.28, 29. & 22.16, 17, 18. & Amos 5.12. & 6.12, 14. Mich. 3.9, 11. Job 20.6, 7, 19. Though his Excellency mount up to the Heavens, and his head reach to the clouds; yet he ſhall periſh for ever like his own dung: they which have ſeen him ſhall ſay, Where is he, becauſe he hath oppreſſed, Acts 10.34. James 2.9.

You have cut off the late King, A juſt, ſubſtantiall and irrevocable Covenant, or Oath cannot be acted contrary unto, without the guilt of perjury & unſpeakable dammage to the people. ſo arbitrarily and forcibly, violating the Lawes and Liberties of the People, you have ſolemnly Sworn and Covenanted to ſight for, and maintain the Laws and Liberties of the people, and wiſhed the wrath and vengeance of Heaven and Earth to fall upon you if you did not maintaine the laws and liberties, as I have declared in my third appeale for Common-wealth-Juſtice, which remaines dead in your hands (as I heare) and he that delivered it to you (viz. Cornet Cheeſeman) was impriſoned by Lieutenant Generall Cromwel, &c.

By Arbitrarineſſe, lawleſſeneſſe, power, force, ſtrength or the ſword (for it will amount to no other as to men) the Lord Jeſus the precious Sonne of the Moſt High, and the head of Saints was Crucified, butchered and maſſacred in his Liberties, Mat. 10.30. Freedoms and Rights of his humanity &c. as appeares by the whole Scriptures of his Life, the confeſſions of his Judge, and his ſufferings. God, the People, the Laws and Conſcience, Mat. 7.12. are to be accounted unto for the loſſe of the meaneſt Member, or of any perſon or perſons unjuſtly deſtroyed; For the Lord and a juſt Law, tender innocent Bloud and the Liberties of his People; Chriſt the glorious Sonne of God perfectly declared the Laws of nature and juſtice.

You profeſſe your ſelves Chriſtians, yet in this you live beneath the Common principles of nature, and in the path of former Tyrants whoſe bloud you have ſpilt as water upon the ground; if you walke contrary to the Law of nature, by power you juſtifie the Crucifying, butchering and maſſacring of the Lord Ieſus, &c. and ſo fill up more and more the meaſure of bloudy abominations.

I have not only been ſtifled in the rights of nature according to the reaſon of God, If a mā ſhould complaine to a Juſtice of Peace that ſuch a man rob'd him or ſought his life, would it be juſt that the Juſtice of Peace ſhould commit the accuſer or complainer, and alſo to the Juriſdiction of him that rob'd him &c. What Law, Scripture, Principles of God or nature is for this? and been dealt with contrary to the Scriptures, and ſent to an unlawfull Priſon, and to the Juriſdiction of him that hath dealt cruell y, barbarouſly, unnaturally, unchriſtian like, and tyrannically with me to my unſupportable dammage, loſſe and prejudice, as to humane conſiderations; But the Warrant by which I am committed is contrary to Law, Generals being no crimes in Law; The Lord Cooks 2 part of Inſt. fol. 52, 53.315.318.511.615.616. 1 par. Book Dec. pa. 38.77.20.845. and the Votes upon the impeachment of the eleven Members and the Petition of Right the third of King C. and the Act that aboliſhed the Star-Chamber. And I am alſo committed (by the words of the Warrant) during pleaſure; whereas if the Warrant had been legall it would & ſhould have bin, Til delivered by due courſe of Law (righteouſneſſe or juſtice.) And here, after I have expended my ſelfe and waſted my precious dayes and time in the Common-wealth in expectation of a glorious iſſue of the bloud that hath been ſhed: I have been barbarouſly kept in priſon without any humane conſideration all the while for my ſubſiſtency, far beyond the dealings of the late King, &c.

Sir, I have only this as my laſt unto you or your Houſe (ſeeing I have been ſo much neglected by you in the cauſe of Juſtice, and conſequently of the people, ſo that neither love to juſtice, nor importunity, hath moved you from me nor from others, neither for me nor for others) that you would move the Houſe that I may have freedom from my oppreſſive and illegal Impriſonment and bonds, and have reparations for the ſame according to declared principles of the Almighty God, Nature, Scripture, the ſplendid Declarations of your ſelves and my Adverſary, acknowledged reaſon, and the fundamentall Juſtice, Law, and Conſtitution of the Nation; and that I may have the undoubted freedom of a Commoner, a Chriſtian, and member of the People, to follow my Appeal in freedom, temperance and judgment (which is certainly to come, at which Felix trembled) and to have a lawful, impartial and publick hearing, according to the nature of Law, Righteouſneſs, and the being and honour of Authority: and if neither wil be heard by your Houſe, I deſire you to acquaint them that the Nature of Juſtice, and the aforementioned principles do requre a juſt reſpect from them to me, and for my ſubſiſtency in priſon (which the King himſelf granted to his priſoners, and ſo was more juſt and merciful as to humane conſiderations) I having not had any juſt allowance from them ſince my barbarous and arbitrary impriſonment; knowing that I have been cruelly and arbitrarily dealt with by the General, to my great dammage, as my third Appeal expreſſes. Which cruelty and injuſtice (conſidering my almoſt ſeven yeers Service in the Wars, for the cauſe of the kingdom) is one of the manifold occaſions and engagements to an adamanine heart, much more to a true Patriot. And therefore now I will (the Lord willing) ſhut up my mouth, if I cannot have juſtice by this laſt Addreſs, and will ſurrender up my Body, Spirit and Cauſe to the high and mighty God, Judg, and Father, before whom all things are naked & bare; and appeal to the next free Repreſentative or Parliament, in whom I hope there wil be faithfulneſs, holineſs, wiſdom and juſtice. And however my enemies may deal with my body, whether by murther, or otherwiſe (I being under the illegal Juriſdiction of my Adverſary, who hath dealt cruelly and unjuſtly with me) yet my Cauſe ſhall live in the preſence of the Lord, and the Generations preſent and to come, and ſhall be brought forth in the eternal judgment, where my Adverſary ſhall not appear in his gallant Equipage, and where his large Summs and Lands of the Common-wealths, or being Generall of an Army (which ſhould be the Peoples) ſhall be found too light; and where he ſhall have no Parliaments to terrifie from the doing of juſtice.

And if they do murther me, I ſhal go before, The Grandees of the Armie ſaid in Deel of the 14. of June, That Juſtice is one of the witneſſes of God in the earth. Beware. and they wil follow after. And moreover, let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, my blood may as ſenſibly riſe, as living blood in the hearts (if not faces) of your Houſe who have unjuſtly committed me to the Juriſdiction of my adverſary, who, its probable, thirſts after my blood, aſwel as to rob and deprive me of my liberties and rights. But I truſt, the Lord wil make me willing to reſigne up my blood aſwel as my Liberties to ſatisfie his pleaſure aſwel as the crueltie and inhumanity of Juſtice-enemies, for in a due and ſerious conſideration it is the Lords and the Peoples. Sir, I hope you will excuſe me, that I ſpeak what I do, and conſider that the Lord hath given me an opportunity to hold forth his Excellency and Soveraignty againſt one that is called Excellency; and nature hath given me an occaſion, as to my Country, and my ſelf, and alſo that the Tyranny and cruelty I am under is no ſmall force upon my ſpirit. So leaving you and your Houſe to the judgment of the great day of the Lord, and the Lords faithful people in the Land, I take my laſt farewel, and reſt,