Dedicated to the Commonwealth in general with this short epistle, As the voice of the people is said to be the voice of God, let the glory of God be the voice and vote of his people. Amen yours Iohn Jones.
The case is.
THat Right once so known ought to be so continued and maintained to the Right heir by the supream magistrate, who is the Immediat vice-gerent of God the Father, Protector of Right and truth, and hater of deceipts, and falsities, nay is all and always himself nothing but Truth, Right, Justice, Love, Mercy, and Equity, unchangeable, everlasting, whose vice-Royes therefore ought not to carrry his sword in vain, but defend Right, and cut off wrong at all times, all opposers and oppositions [Page 2]to the contrary notwithstanding: And to restore and Revive right, if suppressed or mortified by any force or fraud: how or how long soever any false laws, made by false Lawyers, contrary to the laws of God and Nature, and to the great Charter of England notwithstanding, proved by principles of Divinity, maxims of Law, And axioms of Philosophy as followeth.
God is almighty Gen. 17.1.1 yet cannot lie Heb. 6.18. Lawyers can bend their tongue like a bow to speak lyes Jer. 39.5. (In every court it Westminster nothing more common, especially Chancery) They have made their statutes of champertite to deter all men but themselves to take any part of poor mens Rights, to recover the rest from their oppressors, that forciblie and fraudulently detain all from them: their statutes of Fines and Recoveries to Establish the Right of the oppressed in the oppressor, their statute of Limitation to continue that wrong for ever, that cannot be righted within such a time as to their gain by both parties: They spin out with delayes in Law, and [Page 3]make the right that it can be but Remediless by their Law for ever. Their Statutes to imprison men for debt, and make all banckrupts to inrich themselves, and many more, which I shall not here speak of in particular, but wish them for all their Inventions in general, to hear the word of the Lord, saying, ye scornful men that Rule his people, because ye have said we have made a Covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement. When all the over-flowing scourge shall pass through, It shall not come unto us, for we have made lies our Refuge, and under falsehood have we hid our selves; Isa: 28.15. Therefore thus saith the Lord, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone &c. Judgement also will I lay to the line, and Rightcousness to the plummer, and the hail shall sweep away the Refuge of lies &c. And your Covenant with death shall be disanulled &c. When the over-flowing scourge shall Pass through, then ye shall be troden down by it vers. 16.17.18.
God is everlasting Deut. 33.27.2 Immutable in his promise and divine Counsel Heb. 6.18. his truth [Page 4]endureth to all generations Psal. 100.5.117.2.146.6. But the Viperous generation of Lawyers confine and limit it by their Statutes, that it shall by their consents indure no longer, nor reach surther than they please. The lip of truth shall be established for ever. Prov. 12.16. But Lawyers lips and labour run counter. Buy the truth and sell it not Prov. 23.23. But Lawyers sell the Law which in it self is truth, and buy salfe titles. And purchase to themselves great Revenews without Right Psal. 19.8.
God is a god of truth Psal. 31.5.3 Isa. 65.16. Jer. 10.16. 2. Cor. 1.18. And Commandeth his children not to lie one to another, Levit 19.11. Col. 3.9. And a Righteous man hateth lying Prov. 33.5. The devil is the father of lies and liets Jo. 8.44. He that speaketh lies shall not escape Prov. 19.5. but shall perish: vers. 9. If a Ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked: Prov 29.12. our Lawyers love lying and make their livings thereof. Whose sons and servants they be, I leave to the Judgement of God and his Saints.
God is a God of peace, yea even the everlasting Father and Prince of peace, of the Increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with Judgement, and with Justice, from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hoasts will perform this Isa. 9.6.7. Now my Lord General, and all you valiant and incomparable Commanders, officers & souldiers of the hoast of God, raised and continued by Gods providence for the Reformation, as well as preservation of this our English, Israel, digest these promises of the Lord of hoasts into your hearts, Act them with your hands, confide in his zeal who telleth you he will perform, & sear not the vain threats of Babling lying Lawyers, who out of the confusion which they find in their Consciences, since they are uncased of their Canting pedlers french, have lately and frequently menaced you behind your backs, that if you should offer to ungown them, they would unsword you: yet perswade you to your faces [Page 6]that their said Statutes and the like were by their predecessours devised, and are by them maintained for preservation of peace. Consider what peace it is thatestablisheth wrong insteed of Right deceipt & falsehood insteed of Truth and Righteousness. Is it a peace for any but themselves and their Adherents, to withhold heir wrongfull possessions from the Right heirs and owners. Doth not the Lord tell you and them, there is no peace to the wicked? Isa. 48.22. And Moses forbid you to seek their peace, Deut. 23.6. Have not you a further promise of God which concerneth not them, saying, the Lord will bless his people with peace Psal. 29.11. Not Scribes and Pharises, the chief Lawyers in Christs time, who denounced eight woes against them. Matth. 27. Luke. 11. And not such peace as can be separated from Righteousness, for saith the Royal Prophet, Righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psal. 85.10. Believe them nor therefore that have healed the daughter of my people slightly, saying peace, peace, when [Page 7]there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abt homination, nay they were not a all ashamed, neither could they blush, Therefore they shall fall amongst them, that fall at the time that I visit them. They shall be cast down saith the Lord Jer. 6.14.15.
God is a God of Love,3 and commandeth each child of his, thou shalt love thy neighbours as thy self, Levit 19.18. Matth. 5.43. Mark. 12.31. were Lawyers Gods children, and loved their neighbours as themselves, how could they cheat them as they do, and possess themselves and their brood by force, fraud and deceipt of all they can of their neighbours rights, and by such means make themselves so potent and numerous a generation, as they are in this land. Yet if thou shalt say in thy heart These nations are more than I, how can I dispossess them. Thou shalt not be affraid of them: But shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did to Pharaoh, and unto all Aegypt Jer. 7.14.15. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge and his Statutes, and [Page 8]his Judgements and his Commandements always. And know you this day, for I speak not with you children, that have not known and which have not seen the Chastisements of the Lord your God, his mighty hand and stretched-out Arm, and his miracles &c. Deut 11.1.2.3. Oh love ye the Lord all his Saints, because he hath set his love upon you. Therefore will he deliver you Psal 91.14. But favour no oppressour, and know that in a magistrate to spare them is to help them: Which who doth, let him hear what the Son of a Prophet asks such a magistrate, and Answers himself. Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord: Therefore is a wrath upon thee from before the Lord 2. Chron. 19.2. And learn of a Prophet these ensuing Characters of the ungodly. Who hate the good and love the evil, who pluck their skins from off them, and their flesh from their bones, and chop them in pieces as for the pot, and as flesh within the Cauldron (who when they shall be visited) Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear [Page 9]them, he will even hide his face from them at that time as they have behaved themselves in their doings, Thus saith the Lord concerning the Prophets that make (his) people err, that bite with their teeth and cry Peace Micah 3.2.3.4.5. More principles of divinity could I alleadge for this purpose, might I think these Joyned with all our experiences should not suffice to delcribe our Westminster Lawyers, in their own kinds and colours, but believieng thus much will serve for this time, I shall apply my self to the Maxims of the Law of England, which I find conducing to the same end as followeth.1
First Right cannot dye saith Littleton, Sect 479. And Cook upon the place fol 279. Yea, although the disseised should Release his Right to the disseisee, or turn Tenant, It is inconvenient that the Right should dye, but live Recoverable in and to his heir. Which if true (as all Maxims are or ought to be) How can our Recent and present Judges and Lawyers, that murther this everlasting Right with their Statutes of Fines, Limitations, [Page 10] &c. maintain their predecessors Inventions against the Law of God, the great Charter, and this Maxim, without appearing manifest subverters of the Law of England, which Doctor & Student affirmeth, and the mirrour of Justice proveth punctually by Analysis. And these men themselves sometimes bragg of to be derived from, and grounded upon the Laws of God, and nature, According to the Advise of Eleutherius the 3. to King Lucius recorded by Mr Fox & others, and consequently Traitors to the Law and Common-wealth, whose estates Real and Personal-ought to be confiscated to the use of the Common-wealth, from which they filched them (as I have proved to be their own censures in my treatise called Judges judged out of their own mouths) And their costly Carrion Carcases, fit to be hanged as 44. of their predecessors were in one year in King Alfreds time, as witness the mirrour page 239. 240. 241. 242. 243. &c.
Secondly it is a Maxim of Plouden in his Commentaries upon the Law of England, 2 Resolved in the [Page 11]Earl of Lesters Case. That all humane Laws made contrary, or not consentaneous to the Laws of God and nature, although by Acts of Parliament, are void, and need no Repeal to vacate them: Which if true, how can our filicers maintain their blasphemous Reasons Printed, and published under their hands, and Continue their extortions. And how can the Judges and pleaders of the Law, Countenance or suffer them and their prothonotaries, and the Rest of their ministers, to continue their said extortions, and increase them more than ever before? And do the same themselves without incurring the penalties aforesaid.
Thirdly it is a positive Maxim of Law declared in the great Charter cap 29.3 That no freeman of England shall be disseised of his Inheritance or birth-right, without the Judgement of his peeres and vicine neighbours. Which if so, how can any disseisor disseise or dispossess any freeman of England of his inheritance or birth-right by force or fraud? Or how can any Judge or pleader of the Law countenance, or [Page 12]maintain, or suffer such disseises unrestored by them to the right heirs without incurring like penalties as aforesaid.
Fourthly it is another Maxime declared in the said Charter cap. 11.4 and approved by the mirrour page. 234. That no Common Pleas shall follow the upper bench (which if true) how can the Judges of the upper bench by Law Commit men for debt, which is a Common Plea? That hath no Relation to fellony, trespass upon the case, trespass vi et armis, or any trespass at all, to their marshallsey, or any bayliff arrest them, or any Gaylor Receive & detain them, upon bills of Middlesex, and Latitates (which expresly run for Trespass) and famish them to death (an Incomparable false Imprisonment and murther) in the name of Law and Custom because long practised, not onely without any colour of Law, but expresly against it without incurring like penalty as aforesaid.
Fifthly it is a chief Maxim of the Law of England, 5 that the Law it self is and ought to be the onely Right, full, and sufficient, Rule of [Page 13]all Judges and Lawyers, by which they ought to be ruled, and not offer or presume to over-rule their Rule, which if they could but rightly understand (saith Cook upon Magna Charta) would never suffer them to err; had Baron Tomlius understood this Rule, he had not tumbled himself upon his tellclock seat as he did to convay the poor opinion of a pratling Barrester, which stood on his left hand to another Baron that sate on his Right, to hasten my Commitment to the fleet, in respect of my books, not my cause or had his fellow Barons known how unlawfull it is that I should be examined upon interrogatories, by or before such Judges as declared themselves my adversaries in their open Court. Or how little I care for their malice, I believe they would not have been so hasty to commit me as they were, but shall Judges and Lawyers, that profess knowledge in Law, subvert it when they please, by pleading misprision, that is to say mistake. And their late Statutes made for that purpose, and alleadging, that if they should be hanged, none would be [Page 14]Judges after them. Did King Alfred find it so, did not a heathen King make the Son sit Judge over a cushion, which he had caused to be made of his fathers skin, His Predecessor Judge in the same place, to mind him, that if he would violate the Law as his father did, he would serve him alike? doth not our Law compell men to be Shreiffs and Constables &c. If they Refuse being chosen? And do not we find such Refusers, when they are sworn officers, fittter and honester men than offerers. Are not I gnorant intruders without either choise or approbation of their Countries, worthiest to be hanged of all Interlopers, for taking & keeping places of Judicatures from more knowing Justicers; Baron Thorpe insisted much in Court upon the statutes of misprision, whereof a Judge of his name could make no use to save his hanging, nor did his hanging deter the Baron to become a Judge, & an over-ruler of the exchecquer Court, though not half so knowing a Justicer as his names sake, or Wild his foreman. Who is so Just as to detain 500. l. Land a year from the Right [Page 15]heir, without any good title (as is Reported) And therefore thought it Just to wayve and damane his own Commission to Inquire for such things, and punish me for the excuting of it. To conclude this point, were all prevaricating Lawyers hanged, honester men would be found for their places. And have they not incurred the said penalty by this Maxim.
Sixthly,6 it is a Maxim of truth and common reason, chief grounds of our Common-Law, That force, sraud and deceipt are the greatest opposites and enemies to all Just Laws. And that all Just Laws are or ought to be sufficiently powerfull to subdue and supplant them. And that therefore it is that the sword is put into the Magistrates hand not to hold in vain. And wisdom put in his head to discern and prevent, or punish frauds and deceipts more dangerous than force, because more clandestinely acted, & under colour of Law, while force thrusteth it self to sight, and defies Justice to her sace, chance what will. This is Justice Northyes Resolution, the other Bayliff, and Willmot. [Page 16]But do not all such Judges, as prefer wrong before Right, and falshood before truth, Incurr the said penalty.
Seventhly, it is a Maxim of Reason,7 that all nations are or ought to be governed by Just Laws. And that their supream Magistrates should want no Power or means to execute their Laws, so that their Subjects should have Right at all times without delay or partiallity, or more cost than the cure is worth. And thus much was agreed upon between the Kings people of England, in and by the great Charter cap 29. And is not the great Charter confirmed by above 33 Parliaments, corroborated upon the Petition of Right Tertio Caroli, and Ratified by this Parliament, which if it be so, how can it be said that any Statutes made contrary to the Law of God and nature, and the great Charter, shall stand up against them, although not expresly Repealed. Or how can they be alleadged to bind the supream Magistrates, that are sworn to do and maintain Right and Justice to all men, at all times, in all places [Page 17]of the land by their proper subordinates in every County from so doing, but by traitors to God and the Common-Wealth? or how can the Judges at Westminster confine and contract all the Law of England in and to Westminster, and into 4 terms yearly to be onely determined by them, that surcharged with multiplicity & aboundance, end not a Rich cause in 7 years, nor a poor mans while he lives. And when they seem to finish a cause or decree or Judgment, it is more to their gain than their necks are worth, and cost to their Judicated than their causes are worth, (nor do they commonly finish any cause at any time, but leave it upon a quillet, whereupon to revive it at their pleasures without their incurring like penalties as aforesaid.
Eightly,8 and lastly, It is a common Maxim, not onely of common reason, but also of the express Law of England. That by the Law of the Land no man is bound to accuse himself; If so, what meaneth the Jesuitical Spanish Inquisition, Introduced to the Exchecquer and Chancery of England to [Page 18]interrogate men against themselves, and imprison them untill (to attain their liberties) many faint-hearts are forced to perjure themselves, to accuse themfelves of things whereof they are guiltless. That Judges and Lawyers and their Impes may beget causes to extort Fees as well by Innocent mens forced Oaths against themselves, as by their own wilfull and malitious perjuries against all men but themselves. Whereby contrarie to Saint Pauls Doctrine, that an Oath for confirmation is unto men an end of all strife, Heb. 6.15. Lawyers make it a beginning, and contrarie to Gods commandment, saying, love no false Oath, Zachar. 8.17. Lawyers love to force, procure, and multiply them. And shall they not incurre the said penalty by this Maxim?
So much for Law Maxims for this occasion at this time, to conclude with Axioms of Philosophy conducing to this matter.
Health is the greatest happiness man can desire.1 Sphinx Theologica Philosophica de Medicina, pag. 539. It is two fold, that is to [Page 19]say, first of the Soul, for which Christ is the onely Physician, who to ease man of his sin, the chief cause of all diseases, both Ghostly and humane, took upon himself, that had none, all the sins of the World. And died to redeem all penitents from eternall death, the due punishment for sin. The second is of the body, for which the best man Physician called by God to that vocation, and gifted accordingly, is to be honoured before many, because by his faculty with Gods assistance the Corporal afflictions of many are restored to sound health, the agony of others qualified; And which is most of all worthy consideration, stayes the Souls of many in the prisons of their bodies (by Gods Providence) untill longer and seasonable times of Repentance & amendment of their lives. And these are the gifts of God, and endeavours of good Physicians.
Contrary-wise our Judges and Lawyers, and their monstrous many headed whelps requite their patient profitablest clients with, [Page 20]not onely sickness both of souls & bodies, but also the death of both, so far as in their power lieth, as is proved by wofull experience thus. Debters, not able to pay their debts, are committed for their debts upon capiases, Latitates, and out-laries for trespass, by the Judges of the upper bench, being no Judges in that case, to their marshallsie; become there sickned in their minds and souls upon such their commitments, considering there is no Law to Warrant such doings, but the willfull Customs and practise of the said supposed Judges, to murther men in and under the name of their Law, for their own gain and superfluities, worse than high-way-men that act manfully to relieve their wants. By the name and Custom of Lawless necessity, for which, if convicted of the fact, they submit to the Law, which Lawyers would defeat by calling their facts misprisions, which in effect are prises less lawfull than Robbers, and more abusefull to the Law and Common-Wealth, because committed under colour of Law [Page 21]and Justice. Further the sickness of the minds and souls imprisoned, is aggravated with the consideration of the wants, and miseries which their wives, children and families (that were wont to be sustained by their libertie to care and provide for them) must indure by their Captivitie, their bodies and their families participating of these and more griefs of their souls. But more sensible of their hunger and thrist, cold, and nakedness when they have sould even their apparrell as well for night as day, to pay their Goalors and their masters extortions; and prolong their own miseries so farr as their abilities last. And the cruelty of their Goalers (when they fail to bribe them) in crouding them in dungeons where they must infect on another, with a necessitated Contagion caused by their Goalers covetousness, to gain by hiring all the Rooms and liberties of the prison, ordained by Law to lawfull prisoners, to cheators, voluntary prisoners, & willfull assumers of the denomination of prisoners, to defeate their Creditors of their Rights [Page 22]by which they live Riotously upon their Creditours charge, & their Creditours perish for want of their own. Judges, Lawyers, Gaolers live, & flourish by the ruine of them both, granting liberties to all such said cheatours, contrary to all Law, to walk and take their pleasures as they list, some throughout England, and others to the East and West-Indies. And thereby feasting their bodies and their Impes upon the fast of their finders, and thriving in their wickedness till God rebuke them. The Warden of the Fleet I find by Law is no Goaler within the Statute of H. 6. And by experience a Gentleman mercifull and affable to the poor, satiable and unburthensom to the Rich, compassionate, and comfortable to all his prisoners, so that (by Gods providence and his clemency,) he and we live wholsom in our bodies, and cheerfull in our hopes. I write not this digression in flattery; but in duty to declare truth as I find it. So returning to my tenet, it is the sickness and death of the Souls and bodies of all their Clyents and their Families, (except those of their [Page 23]Consorts) that the Art of our modern Lawyers practiseth upon, And if perchance they ease a Rich clyent of some part of his pain for their own extraordinary gain (except their deed be taken for their will) they shall hardly obtain heaven by their merit. These are the instigations of the Devil, & indeavours of bad Lawyers. It is the health of their patients souls and bodies that the art of Physitians worketh upon. And although some Medicasters, that have not the art, Intrude into the profession, and kill more than they cure for want of skill, not good will, their will being taken for their deed pleads more in mercy than Lawyers misprisions.
It is an Axiom which Theodectes a famous Philosopher,2 Cited by Stobaeus in his 66. Sermon, That all men endowed with natural abillities desire 2 things before they have them, which many when they have them, desire to be rid of. That is to say old age and wives. Cicero upon Cato Major maintaineth the same in effect. The causes of these 2 desires are twofould. That is to say in good men for [Page 24]divine ends, In bad men for their worldly pleasures, Their summum bonum, beyond which they have neither hopes nor desires: But for the desires of good men to be old men, Ambrose Hex lib 1. saith, that although old age, in most men, is most subject to corporal Infirmities, It sooner endeth the miseries of this life, and openeth the gates to a happier. In good manners it is most decent, In Counsel most subtile, in constancy to imbrace death most stable, in Repressing lusts most strong, and finally the Infirmitie of the body, is the sobriety of the mind.
In bad men their desire of old age is to prolong their earthly pleasures in their enjoyment of other mens Rights, which they possess by force, or fraud or both, and famishing the Right heirs in dungeons, while they pamper their own bodies and their Impes in their sumptuos Pallaces, built upon their prisoners Inheritances. Living in which Condition we may observe them in their health secure, in their sickness timorous, and Commonly distracted, in their [Page 25]deaths desperate, in manners riotous, in counsel wicked, in lusts insatiable, finally the strength of their bodie is the madness of their minds. And are not these the true Characters of our Lawyers and their adherents. To the next point, good men love to meet with good Wives, like Isaac and Rebecca, to be their Consorts, Comforts and helpers in goodness, to propagate Saints as well by their examples of life and Conversation, as by their naturall endowments to accomplish the end of their Creations, that is to say, to fullfill the number of the elect, to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven by the merits of their Saviour. And in the time of their pilgrimage, and way thither, to indeavour the Increase of the glory of God, and the Peace, Love, and Unity, of his people in this world. Bad men desire wealthy wanton mercenary Wives, to be their Companions and helpers in mischiefs, as Isabel was Achabs. To incarnatè and multiply Devils as well by their examples of life and Conversation, as by their natural endowments to accomplish [Page 26]the end of their miscreancie. Briefly to cooperate with them in all endeavours to increase the delusions and dominion of the Devil, and the sedition, hatred and enmity of this world. So that at last they must as brothers in Iniquity, with Antichrist, become possessed of hell, where there is endless sorrow and gnashing of teeth, a place provided for them before the world began, from which God deliver us: But are not these also true characters of our Lawyers?
Popes, that have thought themselves as omnipotent as Common Lawyers, never offered to divorce men from their Wives, but where they Judged the marriage unlawfull for some Reason, or pretence of Reason in their Laws. But our Lawyers and their Goalors &c by fetching men from the Remotest parts of England to Westminster, and Committing and detaining of them for debts, or most commonly for supposed debts or trespasses without any colour of Law, while their adversaries (most frequently Lawyers Attorneys) &c. Insinuate, sollicite, and at last, by [Page 27]their diligence, lies, false messages from their husbands, and other diabolicall practises, overcome their feminine frailties, and make them their Whores, get their consents to possess themselves of all their husbands estates, reall and personall, consume part of the personall to feast their Whores at the lower end of their tables, where their own Wives sit at the upper, and their families between. While they contrive Conveyances with fines and proclamations to assure their prisoners Reall estates to themselves and their heirs, to which their bewitched Whores give way, and their Imprisoned husbands never hear of the matter till too late to be remedied by our Lawyers Law. Is not this more and worse than a popish divice: Others they fetch from nearer parts Prisoners to their Marshallseas, suffer their Wives to boord and bed with them untill they have sould beds and all, and then failing to satisfie extortions, their husbands are dungened and their Wives cast & kept out in the street, except yielding to the lust [Page 28]of a turn-key, such as he liketh, be let in to serve his turn and after turned again to the rest in the street, where often they and their children starve, not daring when they find any scraps to aneer their husbands and parents, to relieve them with any till all be starved. In streets and dungeons Husbands Wives and Children. Creditors look after your debts, what might have payed you part, if nor all in time, had you taken a lawfull Course, Goalers and their partners have parted in fees, usurer dye with grief, not for the loss of thy debters but the debt and boast of thy Revenge, thou hast dice of his bones. Is not this more and worse than the Popes divorce, yet more and worse then this, Judges and Goalers do in diverting and restraining the Saints of God from his service, and hearing of his word preached, by which faith commeth and is maintained, so farr as in them lieth, except when in malice to some Orthodox minister, not love to the prisoners they cast him amongst them, not to the end to better them, but to worse himself.
The premisses considered, Let all men assure themselves, God hath a greater quarrel with this Nation than can be appeased till the land be cleared of such Achans. Parliament spue them out, Army drag them out, to quarter them is freer for thee than any free quarter in the Countrey. Because their wealth, filched from the Common-Wealth, ought to be restored to it, and to thee first that best deservest thy share therein Read the Histories of England, and find Lawyers the causes of all our Civil Wars in all ages, observe what success we have at this present by imploying men of that profession to mediate with forriners for Peace, and so souldiers look to your own, and fare well upon your own, which the Law maketh and will maintain to be your own as shall be made good to his death, by your faithfull and loving friend