Daniel was by a miracle defended in disobeying Another Exception which they conceive destroyes the whole Act is its contrariety to the Fundamental Laws of the Land in respect of its proceedings for it seems contrary to the best Clause in all that so much magnified Magna Charta viz. chap. 29. Nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur aut disseisietur de libero Tenemento suo vel libertatibus vel liberis consuitudinibus suis aut ut legetur aut exubetur aut aliquo modo destruatur ver super eum ibimus nec super eum mittemus nisi per legale Judicium parium suorum vel per legem terra Nulli vendemus nulli negabimus aut differemus justitiam vel rectum No Free Man may be taken or imprisoned or disseised of his free Tenement or his Liberties or free Customes or Out-lawed or Banished or any way Destroyed Neither will we go upon him or send upon him but by lawful Judgment of his Equals or by the Law of the Land We will sell to none we will deny to none or defer Justice or Right It is to be observed that that great Lawyer Sir Edward Cook 2d Part Inst p. 49. observes upon the Exposition of Per Legale Judicium that the manner of Trial by Juries was by Law before this Statute it self and so is more ancient than Magna Charta And upon these words p. 50. Nisi per Legem terra But by the Law of the Land he saith it is without due Process of Law and that is by Indictment or Presentment of good and lawful men where such deeds be done in due manner or by Writ original of the Common Law Against this Ancient and Fundamental Law I find saith he an Act of Parliament made that aswel Justices of Assizes as Justices of the Peace without any finding or presentment by the Verdict of 12. men upon a bare Information for the King before them made should have full Power and Authority by their discretions to hear and determine all Offences and Contempts committed or done by any person or persons against the Form Ordinance and Effect of any Statute made and not repealed c. By colour of which Act shaking this Fundamental Law it is not credible what horrible Oppressions and Exactions to the undoing of infinite numbers of People were committed by Sir Richard Empson Kt. and Edmund Dudley being Justices of the Peace throughout England And upon this unjust and injurious Act as commonly in like cases it falleth out a new Office was erected and they made Masters of the Kings Forfeitures But at the Parliament holden in the first year of Henry the 8th this Act of the 11th of Henry the 7th is receited made void and repealed and the Reason thereof is yeelded for that by force of the said Act it was manifestly known that many sinister crafty feigned and forged Informations had been pursued against divers of the Kings Subjects to their great damage and wrongful vexation And the ill success hereof and the fearful end of these two Oppressors should deter others from committing the like and should admonish Parliaments That instead of this ordinary and pretious Trial Per Legem Terra they being not in absolute and partial Trials by discretion Thus far Cook Now Sir Inasmuch as this Act allows two Justices of Peace or the chief Magistrate of the place not only to be Witnesses but to pass Sentence of Imprisonment or Fine and make Record of the Offence without any Finding or Presentment by the Judgment of twelve men it being contrary both to the Custome of England Magna Charta and the Statute of Henry the 8th they judge it absolutely nul and of no effect So that those that carry on the execution of it are liable to the same miserable end with Empson and Dudley aforesaid Besides That this Judgment and Record of one or two Justices of the Peace is full two parts of the proceedings whereby 5000. of his poor Neighbours may be Banished from their native Country their dear Wives sweet Babes loving Friends and all other accommodations into another world for seven years yea and if they return before that time expired to be hanged as Felons And all this for nothing but worshipping God according to what they are fully perswaded to be his will Is this according to the so much Celebrated Laws of England Judge O ye Turks and Pagans But suppose we that this Act were as just in every respect as Justice it self and most neccessary to the Weal of the Nation so that at least a third part of the People would be destroyed without it be duly executed as they are likely to be by the execution of it yet it must by no means be executed upon those that are not proved to be guilty of the breach of it Let us see then what is neccessary to be proved against every man or woman that is justly convicted of Breach of this Act. First This Prisoner must be sixteen years of age 2ly He must be a Subject of this Realm 3dly Ae must be present at an Assembly Conventicle or Meeting 4thly Such Assembly Conventicle or Meeting must be held under colour or pretence of some exercise of Religion 5thly He must be present at such Assembly or Meeting under such colour or pretence of some exercise of Religion 6thly That exercise of Religion must be in another manner then is allowed by the Lyturgie or Practice of the Church of England 7thly There must be present at this Assembly five persons over and above those of the same houshold If the Witnesses fail in any one of these Particulars the Indictment is void Now Sir I beseech you Where shall we find Witnesses competent for such Evidence Take for example a Meeting of Quakers for they are most free and open in their Worship who will be so daring as to venture his soul upon it That they meet together under pretence or colour of any exercise of Religion in other manner then is allowed by the Liturgy or practice of the Church of England or if any should be so bold and mad as to make no Conscience of Swearing any thing that the Judges should bid him Swear Shall you or I be so mad as to believe him or be satisfied in our consciences that it is so For let us consider what knowledge is requisite in such a Witness and then try the Hackney-Witnesses whether they be so qualified First It is necessary that he know every single person against whom he bears Testimony was there present under colour or pretence of Religion But how should he know this except every such person should tell him so But they do constantly aver That they come not together under any pretence or colour As pretence and colour is opposed to intention and reality and therefore are not guilty I beseech you mark the Act doth not say Whosoever shall be present at any exercise of Religion but shall be present under pretence
The Jury-man charged OR A LETTER To a CITIZEN of London VVherein is shewed the true meaning of the Statute Entituled An Act to prevent and suppress Seditious Conventicles As also the false Glosses and Interpretations detected And it is evinced by Undeniable Reasons that the Quakers and others that are ordinarily committed to Prison by Justices of the Peace and Chief Magistrates of Corporations upon that Statute are not guilty of the breach of it and yet in reason it is impossible to convict any man among us of being present at a Meeting under pretence and colour of any exercise of Religion in other manner than is allowed by the Lyturgy or Practice of the Church of England except those that in then Meetings are manifestly Seditious or otherwise notoriously wicked And that that Juryman that finds any other person guilty is himself guilty of Perjury and liable to the Vengeance of God upon his Family and Trade Body and Soul in this world and that to come Hales of Schism For indeed all Pious Assemblies in times of Persecution and Corruptions howsoever practised are indeed or rather alone the Lawful Congregations and Publick Assemblies though according to form of Law are indeed nothing else but Riots and Conventicles if they be stained with Corruption and Superstition London Printed in Year 1664. The JURY-MAN Charged OR A LETTER to a Citizen of LONDON c. Dear SIR AS it is the nature of true Love and Friendship both to wish and endeavour the Good and VVeal of those we have registred in our hearts for Friends so it cannot be but that the happiness of the one will redound to the other and there will need nothing to the making your Friend partner in your Joyes but the knowledge of them But among all Goods that can beautifie a Fâ—…nd none is comparable to that of a mind habituated to Holiness 〈◊〉 delighting to do the VVill of God And because God speaks to us by our Consciences it must needs be our necessary duty to walk according to the Light we find in that Divine Closet And inasmuch as the Light and Knowledge at least a great part of it comes from without through the windows of our senses we ought by all means to keep those Mediums pure and untinctured for otherwise the Light in our Souls wil not be clear orient How can I then but greatly rejoyce in you whom I find not only willing to obey but diligent to know your Heavenly Masters Wil the former of these Divine Qualities separates you from the multitude of the world that lies in wickedness and disobedience the latter distinguishes you from ignorant Zealots and blindly obedient Not but that I confidently believe that God that gave his Son for us when we were Enemies will much more pardon and save us being weak and in some things ignorant Friends but many and lamentable are the sad Consequences even of pardonable Ignorance much more of the damnable Ignorance of those that in killing and casting out the Servants of God think they do God good Service And I have no slender grounds of fear lest this may be the case of many of those that are forward in executing penal Statutes upon Religious persons for matters relating properly to their Religion and Conscience And lest you may in the least offend through ignorance of any sort you are pleased to ask my advice what you should do if it should be your lot to be called forth on a Grand Inquest or other Jury for the putting in execution the late Act entituled An Act to prevent and suppress Seditious Conventicles I could wish you had made use of some other in this Question that had been well-skilled in the Laws of England rather than of me that am wholly ignorant in that study but however being assured you will pardon what you know flows from a sincere intention I shall not be afraid to give you my private judgment as a Christian whatever it is in a case that may be my own as well as yours though likely to be yours first We have seen the Title of the Act already it proceeds thus For providing therefore of further and more speedy remedies against the growing and dangerous practices of Seditious Sectaries and other disloyal persons who under pretence of tender Consciences do at their Meetings contrive Insurrections as late experience hath shewed Be it enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Common in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That if any person of the age of sixteen years or upwards being a Subject of this Realm at any time after the first day of July which shall be in the year of our Lord 1664 shall be present at any Assembly Conventicle or Meeting under colour or pretence of any exercise of Religion in other manner than is allowed by the Lyturgy or Practice of the Church of England in any place within the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales or Town of Berwick upon Tweed at which Conventicle Meeting or Assembly there shall be five persons or more assembled together over and above those of the same houshold Then it shall and may be lawful to and for any two Justices of the Peace of the County Limit Division or Liberty wherein the Offence aforesaid shall be committed or for the Chief Magistrate of the place where such Offence aforesaid shall be committed if it be within a Corporation where there are not two Justices of the Peace And they are hereby required and enjoyned upon proof to them or him respectively made of such Offence either by Confession of the Party or Oath of Witness or notorious Evidence of the Fact which Oath the said Justices of the Peace and Chief Magistrate respectively are hereby impowred and required to administer to make Record of every such Offence and Offences under their Hands and Seals respectively which Record so made at aforesaid shall to all intents and purposes be in Law taken and adjudged to be a full and perfect Conviction of every such Offender for such Offence And thereupon the said Justices and Chief Magistrate respectively shall commit every such Offender so convicted as aforesaid to the Goal or House of Correction there to remain without Bail or Main prize for any time not exceeding the space of three months Unless such c. Now Sir give me leave to tell you that there are some that except against the whole Act as null and void in it self as all Statutes are that are made against Piety as this seems to them to be but then they that thus judge take it for granted that it forbids some exercise of Religion which God commands or allows and in that case all Lawyers will readily confess it to be of no more force than King Darius his Decree Dan. 6. against asking any Petition of God or man for thirty dayes save of himself and which Decree
England doth not this allow Again I would fain know whether a man may not invite six poor People to his House and there feed their hungry bodies and instruct their ignorant souls in the knowledge of the Gospel without incurring the penalty of this Law Is not this an Act of Religion Can any man be saved without Charity Doth the Church of England not allow us to go in the way to Heaven except it banish us to Barbados or Jamaico It shall be lawful there to obey God and be Merciful but not in England The holy Apostle Paul bids us Rom. 12.15 Rejoyce with them that rejoyce and mourn with them that mourn and the Apostle James bids us Confess our faults one to another and pray one for another Jam. 5. 16. that we may be healed What must we not do it five or six together without Banishment Doth not the Church of England allow it Have we not just cause to say to these as our Lord said to the Scribes and Pharises Thus have ye made the Commandment of God of none effect by your Tradition Statute Nay besides the Contradiction to our Saviour's Commands Doth not such an Interpretation of this Law forbidding all Religion of six persons but what is performed at Church by hearing a Parson reade the Lyturgy as the never-to-be-forgotten Judge Bridgman expounded it to the ever-to-be-remarked Hartford Juryes Doth it not I say make us inhumane beasts as well as irreligious men and women for how can a man in prudence suffer his wife to go to her neighbours labour when she cryes out for her help lest perhaps there should be four more and they all be taken for Conventiclers for certainly in such extremities it is usual for the Labouring woman to cry to God for help which is a plain Act of Religion nay I hear it is common to the good Women after they have finished their work for the Midwife or some other to give thanks and pray solemnly in other manner than is any where to be found in the Lyturgy Let it therefore be considered that the Travelling-woman or any other for her be henceforth prohibited to pray unto God in such cases lest she bring upon her Neighbours for their good-will and humanity the penalty of three or six months imprisonment or Banishment for seven years Or for better security let the Parson alwayes be sent for as soon as the Midwife to act his part among the good women till their work be finished Again how will it be safe for a man to go to his deceased Neighbours funeral lest some body should salute the surviving Relative with a I pray God comfort you or I pray God give you Joy after your Sorrow and so make the whole company liable to a penalty The like may be said for praying Joy to a new married Couple or saying God be with you to our friend taking a Journey by Land or a Voyage by Sea or much more for five persons going to their neighbours to dinner except the Priest be there to say Grace But lastly I know not how any persons meeting together upon any Occasion whatsoever can escape taking Judge Bridgman's Sentence for Law that is saith he You must not expect a plain punctual Evidence against them for any thing they said or did at their Meeting for they may speak to one another though not with or by auriculer sound but by a cast of the eye or a motion of the head or foot or gesture of the body c. if you find or believe in your hearts that they were in the Meeting under colour of Religion in their way though they sate still only and looked upon each other seeing they cannot say what they did there it was an Unlawful Meeting c. If they are sworn to give Verdict according to Evidence may proceed to condemn men without Evidence according to what they believe in their heart and if they may without hearing or seeing what they did judge them according to what may be in their hearts or gestures then may the Judge have his skin pulled over his ears for false Judgment for it may be he knows in his own conscience it was so But saith he their use and practice was not according to the Lyturgie of the Church of England for it allows and commands when people meet together in the Church that Divine Service should be read c. Is it not rarely well argued the Lyturgy commands that when people meet together in the Church Divine Service shall be read therefore it doth not allow that when people are met together in a private house Divine Exhortations should be given or that people should sit together without saying or doing any thing This is not Lawyers Latin but Lawyers Logick and the great and dreadful God of Heaven and Earth will try it whether it be made in any true mode or figure of Justice I have proved to you that in many cases and might in many more that if the Lyturgy be not contrary to the Scriptures and it self it allows of Meetings and Acts of Religion the manner whereof is not determined by the Lyturgy of the Church of England The Judge might as well have argued thus The Lyturgy allows men to eat and drink Bread and Wine given by the hand of a Priest at Church Therefore men may not eat and drink Bread and Wine with thanksgiving at their own Tables If a Sophister in the Schools should use such a Fallacy he might be hissed at for a Dunce and there 's an end on 't but to delude God and Jury-mens Consciences and to banish harmless and meek men from their Native Country Husbands from their dear Wives Parents from their tender Babes Kinsfolk from Kinsfolk and loving Neighbours and Friends from the sweet society of their Neighbours and Friends this is intolerable and a Judgment that God will judge and I perswade my self you will ever keep your self from partaking in such gross Iniquity And this leads me to the consideration the Equitableness of the punishment and the proportion that is between that and the Offence for in all just Laws the penalty is not greater than the nature of the Fault requires Now supposing the Fault to be such as the Interpreters would make us believe that is that men and women from an erroneous perswasion do meet together to worship God in other manner than is allowed by the Church of England can it be imagined the Parliament would punish such an Error as this with horrid Banishment for seven years far be it from us to think so unworthily of an English Parliament No the Intention of the Parliament is manifest from the Title and Preface of the Act the Title An Act to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles but what Sedition in worshipping God erroneously The Preface For remedy against Seditious Sectaries and other disloyal persons who under pretence of Tender Consciences do at their Meetings contrive Insurrections c. and therefore the matter