Page:Trial of john lilburne (IA trial john lilburne).djvu/18

 said Judge Heath, we will not take advantage of that, to try you by the rules of arbitrary Marshall law, or any other arbitrary waies; but we will try you by the rules of the good old Lawes of England; and whatsoever Priviledge in your Tryall the Lawes of England will afford you, claim it as your Birth-right and Inheritance, and you shall injoy it, with as much freedom and willingnesse, as if you were in Westminster-Hall, to be tryed amongst your own party; and this we will do for that end, that so at London your friends shall not have any just cause to say, we murdered you with cruelty, or denied you the benefit of the Law, in taking away your life by the rules of our own Wills. Nay, further said he, Capt. Lilburn, it is true, I am a Judge made by my Soveraigne Lord the King, according to his right by Law, and soinso in [sic] a speciall maner am his Servant and Councellor, and am to act for his good, benefit and advantage; And yet notwithstanding, it is by the known Laws of this Land my duty, to be indifferent and free from partiallity, betwixt my Master and you the prisoner, and I am specially bound unto it also by my Oath; and therefore you shall have the utmost Priviledges of the Law of England, which is a Law of mercy, and not of rigor, and hath the life of a man in tenderest, and highest estimation; and therefore, it is the duty of a Judge by Law, to be of Councell with the Prisoner, in things wherein by his ignorance, he falls short of making use of the benifit of the Law, especially when he is upon the tryall of his life. Yea, & to exhort him to answer without fear, if he perceive himself daunted, or amazed at the presence of the Court; yea it is my duty, to carry my self with all the fairness and evenness of hand towards you; And wherein that there shall seeme any mistakes to appear, in circumstances or formalities, to rectifie you; For it’s my duty to help you, and not to use any boisterous, or rough language to you in the least, to put you in fear, or any wayes prevent the freedom of your defence: and according to the Lawes of England this is my duty, and this is the Law. And accordingly he gave me liberty to plead to the errors of my Indictment, before ever I Pleaded not Guilty, yea and also became willing to assigne me what Councell, I pleased, to nominate, freely to come to prison to me, and to consult and advise with me and helpe me in point of Law; This last he did immediately upon my Pleading to the Indictment before any fact was proved; all which is consonant to the Declared Judgement of Sir, that great Oracle of the Laws of , whose Bookes are Published by speciall