YOur Profession being a Lawyer , and as you are Recorder of Lond●n , you are often the mouth of the Court in Old-Bayly , and have several days been so in my case ; and as I hear , you are like to be so again upon Wednesday next : In which consideration I judge it the most prop●r for me in my present condition to writ● unto you , and to acquaint you , that I finde Moses the mouth of God , charging the Judges of Israel , that they shall hear the causes between their brethren , and judge righteously betwixt every man and his brother , and the stranger that is with him : Ye shall not , saith he , respect persons in judgement , but ye shall hear the small as well as the great , you shall not be a●rai● of the face of man , for the judgement is G●ds , Deut. 1.16 , ●7 . and in Deut. 16.18 , 19.20 . they are expresly commanded to do that which is altogether just , that they may live long , and inherit the Land which the Lord hath given them .

And saith the wise man by the Spirit of God , Prov. 28.4 . A Land is established by Judgement .

Sir , by the Law of England , I know you know a Judges Office , and a Prisoners right by Law ; and according to Law , you have , as my right , assigned me Counsel , to fit my self to plead matter of Law for my life .

Yet while I am a pursuing my business according to your late Order at the Sessions , and am peaceable and quiet in my imprisonment , and neither indeavoring to make an escape , or any way quarrelling with my fellow prisoners , or my Keepers : I am by Capt . Dike the Keeper of Newgate , served with an Order in these words :

Upon which Order the said Mr. Dike was pleas●d to take upon him to render such an interpretation of it , as I dare presume my head to a farthing teaken , that is no way warranted by the Law of England , in any kinde whatsoever ; ( viz ) Tha● I must be such a close Prisoner , as that he must keep all my friends ●●om m● , and he and his under Keeper with strictness ha●h accordi●gly ex●cuted it ever since ; although truly , I cannot in r●ason and c●a●ity b●l●eve , that the Parliament themselves by the said Order intend any such thing , because in their late Declaration of the 12 of July last , and the second page thereof , they declare , That they will dem●an themselves in all things , as becometh those who are set by God for the go●d of all , and in all , to be as tender of the lives , estates , liberties , just rights and pr●perties of all others , as we are ( say they ) of our selves and posterities . But if this close restraint of mine from the visits of my Friends , Lawyer● , Atturneys , Solicitors , or Messengers to go up and down about my affairs , be their int●n ions by the said Order , I must not only aver their said Order to be against all the d●clared Laws of Liberties and Freedom in England , against the Rules of Justice amongst Heathens , Pagans and Tyrants , but against the very tenor of their own foresaid promises , and thereby themselves rendred to be men void of faith or truth , whose solemn words and promises are not in the least to be regarded , should it be suppos●d that such an interpretation by their consent , so contrary t● Law , should be rendred of their foresaid Order , as to keep me close Pris●ner from speaking with my Friends , Counsellors , Solicitors or Messengers , when I am upon tryal for my life .

Sure I am , the late Parliament in the purest of their days , before they were corrupted and defiled , in their grand and first Remonstrance of December , 1641. complains of such cl se imprisonment , acted upon my self and several oth●rs by the la e King and his Minister● , as the acti●ns of most barbarous ●njustice , oppression and tyranny , as y●u may read in the first part of the Parliaments Books of Declarations , page 8. although neither my sel● then , nor any of my there menti●ned fellow sufferers , were then in the least upon tryal for our lives , when such cl●se rest●aint as is there complained of was exercised upon us ; neither were any of us there in that Declaration mentioned , in the least condemned by the said King , or his Male Administrators of Justice , without some Process of Law , even in misdeamenors ; as I have been for Felony by the late Parliament without any process of Law at all , if the Act of Banishment upon which you strongly endeavor to take away my life , should concern me in the least .

And sure I am , the then Parliament or House of Commons , upon the fourth of May 1641. voted such unjust close imprisonment , and other the like illegal proceedings against me ( which yet never rea●hed to any sentence for the loss of life ) to be not only illegal , but also bloody , wicked , cruel , harbarous and tyrannical , and that I ought to have reparations there ore .

And sure I am , at the Tryals of Strafford , Canterbury , Hamilton or Capel , and that for Acts of the highest of Treasons , the late Pa●liament never exercised any such cl●●e imprisonments upon them as is now done upon me .

And also sure I am , that although I was taken as a Pris●ner of War , sighting most resolutely against the King , and carried from Brandford a Prisoner to Oxford Castle , and there at one time sufficiently c u●ted from him by the present Earl of Kingstone , th● late Earl of Arundel , the Lord Dunsmore , and the Lord Andover , to all whose alurements and threats I sufficiently held our and avowed flag of defiance and scorn , upon which I was laid in I●ons , and kept close Prisoner from the visits of my friends , which when I came before Judge Heath for a tryal for my life at the common Law , and complained of the aforesaid usuages as against Law : he justly acknowledged them to be so , and immediately at the Bar ordered me present release from them both , which I legally enjoyed , and thereby had an opportunity presently to post away a Letter to Mr. Lenthal the Speaker of the Parliament , another to yong Sir Henry Vane , and a third to my wife , which said Letters produced a Declaration from the Lords and Commons of the 17 of December 1652 , printed in the first part of their Books of Declarations , page 802. that instrumentally then saved my life .

And sure I am , that the Apostle Paul was accused by his most malicious advers●ries , of higher things then any is pretended to be laid unto my charge , even to be a pestlien● f●llow , a mover of sed●tion among the Jews throughout the world , and a Ring lea●er of the Sect of the Nazarens , y●t his Heathen Roman Judges examined the matter legally , and strictly , and expresly , notwithstanding the said grievous accusation ordered Pauls K●●per or Jayl●● , to let him have liberty : and that he should forbid none of h●s acquaintance to minister or come unto him , Acts 24 , 5 , 8 , 2● y●a , when upon his Appeal to Caesar as Supreme ( the li●erty of the ●amous Commonwealth of Rome by Julius and Augustus Caesar b●●ng lately overthrown and subdued ) he came to Rome , the grand Tyrant Nero being , as I judge , by his expre●sions in his Epistle to the Philippians , the present Emperor , permitted Paul 〈◇〉 dwell two whole years in his own hired house , and to receive all with freedom , without the least restraint , that came unto him , Acts 28 , 30.

Sir , as my undoubted ●ight by Law , you assigned me Counsel to fit me with a plea t● preserve my life at this next Sessions : and yet the Jay●or of your Court d●prives me of all the means that tends to that end And so deals as bad with me , as the old Tyrant Pharoah dealt with the poor Israelites , when he made them make brick without straw ; for which hard and cruel bondage , they sighed and groaned unto the Lord , and he glori●usly delivered them , to the destruction of Pharoah , and all his cruel Tyrannical inslaving Task-mast●rs : Wherefore Sir , I cannot do less in conscience to the welfare of my own life , and the Nations liberties and freedoms , then to demand of you upon sight and knowledge hereof , your Order , as I had fr●m J●dge Heath ( who was stiled and called a Traytor judge at Oxford ) to deliver me from my pr●sent illegal , unjust and tyrannical testraint ( in my hard and unquiet imprisonment ) from speaking with my Friends , Counsel , Solicitors and Messengers ; or else the great and mighty God of heaven and earth judge betwixt you and me , and all the rest of your Associates , that with force and violence , without all shadow or pretended colour of Law or Justice , pursue the last drop of my innocent blood , and so I rest ,