Quarrels no nor Fears or Jealousies which are the Devils Engines to Batter down the Peace of the World But the Devil that subtil Adversary of Mankind was too hard for poor Man he put a mist before his eyes made him forget his Maker neglect yhis Duty to his Parents and filled him full of Ambition and unruly Appetites by which the World was grown to that height of Wickedness that God swept them away by an universal Deluge and only left Noah and his Family to replenish it by whose Instructions and good example the Law of Nature revived and for some time duely executed amongst men but at last the Devil that subtil Serpent crept into the Hearts of men and stifled the Law of Nature and brought the World into the old State of Ambition Violence Rapine and all manner of Oppression Yet infinite Goodness had still Compassion for man and that that Law might be better seen and regarded was pleased to write it in two Tables with his own Finger This did prevail a while in the time of Moses and Joshua and some of the Judges only now and then the Devil would put in for his share in the time of Moses who was a very meek Prince and governed the Israelites by God's immediate Direction the Devil had filled Corah full of Ambition which hurried him into a Rebellion that cost him his Life He confederated with some of the Princes and People and gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron and said You take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation is Holy and the Lord is amongst them wherefore then life you up your selves above the Congregation This Rebellion you may observe as all other Rebellions almost that I have heard of began upon pretence of Religion and Liberty The Congregation is Holy and why lift you up your selves Soveraignty is the design and Godliness the Pretence and the People and easily taken in a snare for the appeal is usually made to them that pleaseth and cheats them of their Loyalty Excellent Arbiters in Matters relating to Government who the Crafty and Disloyal make use of but the Wife and Prudent never trust The Israelites as I told you lived in great observance to this Law until they were corrupted by the Canaanites and imbraced their senceless Idols instead of the Ever-living God who suffered the World to remain in sin and darkness for many years At last God had compassion upon Man made one Essay more to try if he could reclaim him and sent his only Son not only to save but likewise to instruct and by his Precepts to restore that Law which man had lost If you observe the Doctrine of our Blessed Saviour it is no other than to explain and enforce the Practice of the Law of Nature The Religion in our Saviour's dayes was to be obedient to Princes to do Justice love Merey and walk humbly before God To visit the Fatherless and Widdows in their affliction and live unspotted from the World His Precepts were Humility Meekness Patience Temperance Brotherly-kindness and Charity and to do as we would be done unto and all this is but the Law of Nature I have read the Laws of other Countries as well as our own and to my understanding their Laws are no other than the Law of Nature drawn out in length with an Addition of Penalties to the Prohibitions for the better enforcing Man's Duty and Obedience And because this excellent Law should not again be lost he was pleased to put it into a way of Practice as the best means to preserve it He chose Twelve Apostles who after Christ left the World were inspired by the Holy Spirit and great power given unto them Then for the better and more sure establishing of the Religion which their Master had taught them sent Overseers which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bishops to several Parts and Places to propagate that Religion and establish God's Church But we do not find that these Bishops had any Superintendency or Supremacy one over another and therefore it is to be admired from whence the Bishop of Rome derives his Supremacy and with so much confidence justifie it There is as little ground for his pretended Infallibility for was not St. Peter himself reproved which he would not have been if he had been infallible Upon these two Pillars of Supremacy and Infallibility the Romish Church is chiefly built a very weak Foundation upon which it is to be wondred that any wise or learned man can build his Faith These Bishops in their several Places and Churches appointed Methods for the decency of Divine Worship and this Church-Government by Bishops is brought down to us of England by a continued Succession and these Methods which are called Ceremonies and the Liturgy of our Church which comprehends the Government of it is not only directed by the Bishops but hath the Sanction of a Parliament so that it hath the Consent and Agreement both of the King and People Which when I have seriously thought upon raiseth my admiration how any man can think himself hardly dealt with when he is required to comply with that to which he hath before agreed or that he should think it reasonable that separate Assemblies or publick Conventicles should be permitted in opposition to the said established Government I cannot understand it otherwise but that those persons who frequent these Conventicles and give themselves up to be ruled and directed by their Teachers allow those Teachers both Infallibility and Supremacy and not only so but also a Legislative Power to make what Orders they think fit which is to make a Prince and a Pope in every Congregation These publick Conventicles and separate Congregations well considered will appear yet more unreasonable for they weaken the Interest both of Church and State The Romish Church is an united Body and not to be withstood but by another united Body where there is strength and truth which must be the Church of England which certainly comes the nearest to the Apostolick and Primitive Institution of Church-Government of any Church in the World and if the People were united and reconciled to this true Protestant Church it was not possible that Popery should prevail here Our Divisions give boldness to that common Enemy to make Attempts upon us Besides these publick Conventicles which proclaim our Divisions to the World at the same time discover our weakness and must cause a potent neighbour-Prince to cast his Eye upon us who will not want the Suggestions of Ambition and Interest to try his Fortune here and if he should what can withstand him we being thus divided The Luxury and Security of Asia gave Alexander the great hopes of Conquest he went thither with 40000 men well disciplin'd and in order Darius met him with ten times the number but they consisted of many Nations not well united nor ordered as they ought to have been This small Army found little resistance from that great
number and did little more than walk through them to Conquest Methinks the ill Consequences which may be easily foreseen to arise from such plain demonstrations of a divided Nation should prevail upon the most tender Conscience not to be guilty of any thing that should bring such certain ruine upon his King Countrey and Protestant Religion especially having liberty according to Law to exercise his Religion in his own way in his own House with his own Family and an addition under sive more I have made it my business to preserve Dissenters from being prosecuted upon the Penal Laws for not coming to Church because I had a regard to tender Consciences but since the King and Parliament have been so kind to indulge them the Toleration I have mentioned I cannot but esteem it rather Humour than Conscience when they will yet offend against the Law by these publick Conventicles which are so destructive to the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom and are not suffered in any Countreys or Kingdoms that I know of I cannot tell what to say more to you upon this Matter but if I had the Tongue of Men and Angels I would make use of it to perswade and adjure you for Gods sake and your own to lay aside these publick Conventicles and keep to your own Houses and serve God there in your own way These publick Separations I must confess I take to be one Cause and that a great one of our present Troubles and if you Gentlemen of the Bench and Grand Jury be of that opinion I hope we shall kindly agree together in the remedy of this Evil. The Law of Nature which I have recommended to you teacheth us to unite and live sociably together and to do those things which may contribute to Self-preservation Gentlemen The next thing which I am to recommend unto you is the consideration of Juries I mean Grand Juries I shall desire the Statute of the 3d. of Henry the 8th for the regulating those Juries may be read The Clerk of the Peace did read it The Act the Justices may return Impannels for the King by their discretions WHereas great extortions and oppressions be and have been within the more party of all the Counties and Shires within this Realm of England by the subtilty and untrue demeanour of Sheriffs and their Ministers committed and done unto many persons in great number of the Kings Subjects by mean and making and returning at every Sessions holden within the said Counties and Shires for the body of the Shire in taking and putting in and returning of names of such persons as for the singular advantage benefit and gain of the said Sheriffs and their Ministers will be wilfully forsworn and perjured by the sinister labour of the said Sheriffs and their Ministers by reason whereof many and divers substantial persons the Kings true Subjects contrary to good equity and rightwiseness have divers times and many wrongfully been indicted of divers Murders Felonies and other Misbehaviour by their covin and falshood to the utter undoing of their Lives loss of their Goods and their Lands by reason whereof they and every of them in avoiding the untrue trouble and vexation which to them might come and ensue by reason and occasion of the same false Indictments and also sometime by labour of the said Sheriffs divers great Felonies and Murders concealed and by the said persons also by the said Sheriffs and their Ministers partially returned not presented be and have been compelled to make Fines and give rewards to the said Sheriffs and their Ministers Wherefore be it enacted ordained and established by the King our Sovereign Lord and by the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of this present Parliament assembled and by authority of the same That all Pannels to be returned which be not at the Suit of any party that shall be made and put in by every Sheriff and their Ministers afore any Iustice of Goal-delivery or Iustice of Peace whereof one to be of the Quorum in their open Sessions to enquire for the King shall be reformed by putting to and taking out of the names of the persons which so be empanelled by every Sheriff and their Ministers by discretion of the same Iustice before whom such Panels shall be returned And that the same Iustice and Iustices shall command every Sheriff and their Ministers in his absence to put other persons in the same Panel by their discretions and that the same Panels so resormed by the said Iustices be good and lawful And that if any Sheriff or any their Minister at any time do not return the same Panel so reformed that then every such Sheriff or Minister so offending for every such offence shall forfeit xx li. Sterling Maney of England the one half thereof to our Sovereign Lord the King or his Heirs and the other half to him or them of his Subjects that will Sue for the same by Action of Debt at the Common Law or Bill or Complaint where it shall fortune any such to fall and be and that none Essoin ne Protection be allowed for the Defendant or Defendants in that Action or Plaint nor that the said Defendant nor Defendants therein be admitted to wage their Law And that the Kings Pardon shall be no bar against the party and parties in the same that any such Action shall Sue Gentlemen Juries are a Hedge about our Liberties and Lives and the Wisdom of our Ancestors took great care they may be such as they ought to be as you may see by this Statute 'T is not reasonable that the Lives and Fortunes of the People should be at the dispose of an under-Sheriff certainly all men must think them more safe in the hands of Judges who are sworn and are Learned in the Laws and Justices of the Peace who are men of Estates and Interests in their Countrey An under-Sheriff as the Statute expresseth may be corrupted how can then either the King or his Subjects depend upon the Justice of the Law if the under-Sheriff shall have the absolute power to return Juries and no room left to reform the Pannel after the Sheriff hath returned it Certainly the Statute never intended this but so it would be if the Sheriffs refusal to alter it be a barr to the alteration of it For what signifies the Penalty of 20 l. nothing at all The Statute never could intend the Matter should rest there for if so it is useless and the mischief recited in the Preamble remains When a Sheriff hath returned a Pannel into the Court the Court is then possessed of it and the Hand to put out any returned and put in others is but a Circumstance in my opinion and to be done by any the Court shall direct if the Sheriff should refuse I hope the Judges who are Expositors of the Law will consider this Point which is so important both for the King and all his Subjects I never heard that any
Sheriff ever refused to alter the Pannel when the Court directed it until of late It hath been always done I my self with divers other Gentlemen by the direction of the Judge have gone off the Bench to serve upon the Grand Jury although we have not been returned and our Names put into the Pannel in the Court If it should not be in the power of a Court to do this farewel the Security and Liberty of the People of England But we in this County are yet in a worse condition than any other we cannot say we have a Sheriff The Bench last Sessions desired the Sheriffs company and assistance to do that Right which belongs to that Office they refused and sent word by Mr. Recorder that they were obliged to attend the Lord Mayor and could not stir out of the City If this be so what a melancholy posture is this County in where there are so many of the Nobility and Gentry and where for the most part the King himself resides with his whole Court If there should be a Tumult or Rebellion who could raise the Posse Comitatus to suppress it As sometime since there was in Naples where the Persons Houses and Estates of the Inhabitants were subject to the Rage and Violence of the meanest of the People Very ill Masters I hope both you and we shall consider this and since we can have no other relief more closely apply our selves to those legal ways and means which may prevent Riots and Tumults We have a common Enemy the Papists which notwithstanding all the Care which hath been taken we are informed still swarm about this part of the Town His Majesty hath been pleased to send Order to us about them which we shall communicate to you Mr. Clerk of the Peace pray read the Orders of the King in Council which were read viz. At the Council-Chamber VVHITEHALL the 5th of October 1681. Present His Highness Prince Rupert Lord Archibishop of Canterbury Lord Privy Seal Earl of Bathe Earl of Craven Viscount Fauconberg Lord Bishop of London Mr. Secretary Jenkins VVHereas there was this day presented at the Board a List of the Names of several Tradesmen who are Papists residing in the Parishes of St. Martins in the Fields St. Giles in the Fields St. Pauls Covent-Garden and places adjacent contrary to the Laws of this Kingdom and his Majesties Proclamations for reinforcing the same It was thereupon Ordered by their Lordships That the said List be forthwith sent to his Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex and the City and Liberties of Westminster who at this present Sessions of Peace are to proceed against the said Popish Tradesmen according to Law and to give the Board an account of what they shall do thereupon John Nicholas At the Court at VVHITEHALL this 11th day of November 1681. By the Kings most excellent Majesty and the Lords of his Majesties Honourable Privy-Council IT was this day Ordered by his Majesty in Council that the Justices of Peace of Middlesex and the City and Liberties of Westminster do give an account as soon as conveniently may be to this Board of their proceedings in pursuance of an Order of Council heretofore transmitted to them together with a List of several Papists who inhabit and keep Shops and exercise Trades hereabouts contrary to Law Francis Gwyn Gentlemen You see what Care the King and Council take of us I hope we shall take some Care of our selves The Papists are our known and common Enemy and watch all opportunities to disturb the Peace of this Kingdom pray be industrious to find them out and present them that they may be dealt with according to Law Gentlemen At the Command of the Bench I have as well as I can delivered you their Sence and Commands and my own Opinion who God Almighty knows have no other design than the Safety and Honour of the King the Preservation of the true Protestant Religion as it is established by Law in the Church of England and the Peace and Prosperity of the Kingdom in the preservation of their Liberties and Properties I doubt not but you and all men will joyn with us to these Ends which cannot be effected unless these Conventicles which add presumption to our Enemies be laid aside and the King who by his Power is to preserve us be with due Reverence obeyed and kindly assisted by us Gentlemen of the Bench I am but your Servant and I hope I have spoke your Sence to which the Court unanimously agreed Note That the Justices observing a person in Court to write sent for him to see what he writ which was in Short-hand They commanded him to transcribe in length which being read to them they finding it to be truely took declared it their Sence and ordered it to be printed and published to the intent the whole Kingdom may see their Opinion Per Cur. Adderley