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judgement_n	according_a	judge_n	law_n	4,882	5	5.2868	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62698	Tam quam, or, A attaint brought in the supream court of the King of kings, upon the statutes, Exod. 20. 7, 16 and Levit. 19. 12 against those modern jurors, who have found any indictments upon the statutes of 23 Eliz., 29 Eliz., or 3 Jacobi, against Protestants, for monthly absence from church, without any confession of the parties, or oath of witness against them, or made any presentments of them : contrary to the express letter of their oaths taken in a Court of Judgment, the course of the law of England, or any right reason : wherein is discoursed, whether any Protetant be concerned in that part of those laws? : the contrary is proved : as also whether a grand-jury's finding and indictment, be any evidence to a petit-jury? : the absurdness, and most pernicious consequents of which are detected, and the vengeance of God agaisnt false-swearing is declared / by one who prosecutes, as well for his sovereign lord the King of kings, as for the lives, liberties, and properties of all the subjects of England.	One who persecutes as well for his sovereign lord the King of kings as for the lives, liberties, and properties of all the subjects of England.	1683 (1683)	Wing T133; ESTC R17	24,452	40

them against the Queen The Act 3 Jacobi came forth upon the Powder-Plot I appeal to any Man of ordinary sense whether he can think that the Parliaments of those Times ever intended to put Protestants into a far worse condition than Papists which they apparently are if these Statutes equally concern them as well as Papists and they then were liable to the Act 35 Eliz. out of which Papists are expresly excepted 4. Further yet I do very well know that Votes of Parliament repeal no Laws much less have the force of Laws in them nor are to be mentioned in legal Pleas But the Question here is not whether these Acts be of force or no It is on all hands granted that they are but what is the true sense and meaning of them And as to that under correction I think a great deference is to be given to the Parliaments Judgment declared in them the far greater part of all the gravest and most famous Lawyers of England being generally in every Convention or Session of Parliament It was as I remember either in the latter end of the Year 1677 or the beginning of the Year 1678 that upon the Petition of the Quakers the Parliament at that time sitting first took notice That the Laws made principally against Papists were executed princially upon Protestants and appointed a Committee who spent a great deal of time in examining the Returns of Convictions made upon those Statutes into the Office and applied themselves to his Majesty for favour to his Protestant Subjects as to those Laws About the middle of the Year 1678 the horrid Popish Plot was discovered from Michaelmas that Year till Decemb. 30. the Parliament had enough to do to search into the Popish Plot and they had made but little progress in it when they were Prorogued which was Decemb. 30. and soon after Dissolved The next Parliament began March 6. 1678 9 and sat until May 27.1679 their whole time was also spent in a further discovery of that Hellish Plot. All this while I met with no Declarations of the Parliament's mind or sense in the case of those Acts Nor as I believe were there any complaints of any prosecutions of Protestant Dissenters upon any of those Statutes The next Parliament began Octob. 21. and held unto Jan. 10. 1680. By this time the Popish Party had a little recovered their Courage and began to defame the very Report of a Popish Plot. They had eight months before began to sham it tho' with very ill success But before this time they had began to divert the prosecution of it by obtaining of their Friends who would be thought Protestants every where to prosecute Dissenters upon those Statutes The Parliament that sat down Octob. 21.1680 had intelligence of it The Term before Estreats were given out upon all Convictions upon those Statutes but with express Instructions from the Commissioners of the Treasury to leavy the Forfeitures upon none but known Popish Recusants which 't is likely that in many Counties the Sheriffs observed In others 't is certain they did not but levied them equally if not principally upon Protestants but were inforced to refund some of them and for a great while after this upon a Certificate into the Exchequer that the Persons were Protestants and had taken the Test proceedings against them by order out of the Exchequer were staid This is supposed to have proceeded from his Majesty's Goodness complying with the desires of his Parliament in the Case of the Quakers The House of Commons which sat in the Westminster Parliament Octob. 21. 1680. had sat but a Month and two or three odd days before they came to this Vote without one Man's contradiction in Nov. 1680. Resolved nemine contradicente That it is the Opinion of this House that the Acts of Parliament made in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James against Popish Recusants ought not to be extended to Protestant Dissenters Accordingly they made their Application to his Majesty by the Members of their House which were of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council beseeching him That all the Protestant Dissenters prosecuted upon those Acts might be discharged without paying any Fees and that he would recommend this Business to the Judges Upon the 26th of Novemb. 1680. we find it thus in the Votes under the Speaker's Hand Mr. Secretary Jenkins acquainteth the House that his Majesty had been attended by the Members of his most Honourable Privy Council with an Address concerning Protestant Dissenters And that his Majesty's Answer is That they should be discharged and that without Fees as far as might be done according to Law and they shall be recommended to the Judges The Parliament which then sat hath the repute to have been short of none who ever sat within those Walls for Men of Honour Wisdom and Estates Here was plainly their Judgments declared That these Acts concern not nor ought to be extended to Protestant Dissenters After which certainly that single Country Justice or Lawyer who dareth to say they do must arrogate much more to himself than he ought to do considering how many of the greatest Lawyers of England unanimously concurred in that Vote which did not repeal those Laws nor stop or supersede the execution of them but only declared the sense of them If any Person after all this will affirm they do concern them as well as others I have nothing more to say against it but only wish That the Question might be determined by my Lords the Judges and not left to the various determinations of puny Lawyers and many Justices of the Peace who were never bred to the Studies nor exercised in the practice of our Laws This whole Discourse is but a Digression from my proper Theme for admit those Statutes do concern Protestants it is another Question Whether Grand-Juries finding such Indictments be Evidence to a Petit-Jury in the Case The Affirmative part of which I never look to find determined by Judges what-ever be determined as to the other Question CHAP. IV. A Pathetical Conclusion to Jurors to consider what they have done to repent and to their Ability to make satisfaction avoiding the like enormous practices for the future And to such as are Commissioners of the Peace not to be any Temptation to them to bring such Guilt upon themselves their Families and Country WHat can remain further but that as an Orator for the Great God of Heaven and Earth I should admonish all my Country-men who have been deluded by their own Lusts and Passions or over-awed by any others to make any such Presentments of things whereof they had no knowledg or which they could not do in Truth or to find any such Indictments without any Evidence and this after that in Judgment they had called God to Witness that they would present nothing but the Truth and what came to their knowledg and true Deliverance make according to their Evidence And after they had sealed this their

TAM QUAM OR AN ATTAINT Brought in the Supream Court of the King of Kings upon the Statutes Exod. 20. 7 16. and Levit. 19. 12. Against those Modern Jurors who have found any Indictments upon the Statutes of 23 Eliz. 29 Eliz. or 3 Jacobi against Protestants for monthly Absence from Church without any Confession of the Parties or Oath of Witness against them or made any Presentments of them Contrary to the express Letter of their Oaths taken in a Court of Judgment the course of the Law of England or any right Reason Wherein is discoursed Whether any Protestants be concerned in that part of those Laws the contrary is proved As also whether a Grand-Jury's finding an Indictment be any Evidence to a Petit-Jury The absurdness and most pernicious Consequents of which are detected and the Vengeance of God also against False-swearing is declared By one who Prosecutes as well for his Sovereign Lord the King of Kings as for the Lives Liberties and Properties of all the Subjects of England Eccles 5. 8. If thou seest the Oppression of the Poor and violent perverting of Judgment and Justice in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be an higher than they LONDON Printed and are to be sold by L. Curtis 1683. CHAP. I. The Mischief arising to the Nation from the loss of the Religion of Oaths The Nature of an Oath The Religion of an Oath lost by prophane and common Swearing more by false Swearing especially in Judgment whether by Jurors or Witnesses The Vengeance of God declared against it The Discourse restrained to the Oaths of Jurors and more especially those Oaths upon which they bring in Presentments and find Indictments against Protestants upon the Statutes 23 Eliz. 29 Eliz. and 3 Jacobi 1. AMongst other melancholick Considerations relating to the Nation which at this time affect the Souls of thinking Men who believe there is a God that judgeth the Earth there is none more sad or justly afflictive than the Consideration how much we have lost the Religion of an Oath and by that means broken the Ligament of Humane Society and upon the point invalidated the Institution of God for the end of all Strife For according to the present use of Oaths they will be the end of no Strife or at least but a legal end while no Man's Mind can acquiesce in an Assertion or Promise confirmed by it For how is it possible that the Mind of any should acquiesce upon the Oaths of others when he discerns how many there are that make no Conscience of swearing what is false or what is impossible they should know to be true Nor is there a greater Evidence of the stupid Atheism of a multitude of Persons For how can any think that those believe there is a God so omniscient just and potent as the Supream Being must be who dare call him to be a Witness that they speak Truth or that they will do this or that thing and challenge him to be their Judg in case they do it not and desire that He and his holy Gospel may do them no good if they do it not and by and by dare to speak what they either know to be false or do not know to be true It is not possible that Men indeed should believe there is a God and do any such things Every false Swearer must either declare himself to be ignorant of what he doth when he taketh an Oath or to be an Atheist 2. It being more charitable to judg such persons ignorant than to determine them absolute Atheists Charity will oblige every good Man to instruct his Relations or Neighbours in this great Point All Divines agree that the nature of an Oath lies in the calling of God to witness either to the truth of a Man's Assertion or the Sincerity of his Heart as to his Promise and his faithfulness in the performance of what he promiseth It was God's Ordinance Deut. 6. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt Swear by his Name Repeated again Deut. 12. 20. To him thou shalt cleave and Swear by his Name Isa 65. 16. He that sweareth in the Earth shall swear by the God of Truth Jer. 12. 16. And it shall come to pass if they will diligently learn my ways and swear by my Name The Lord liveth The Scriptures are full of Reproofs and Threatnings of and against any other Swearing by those that are no Gods Jer. 5. 7. Josh 23. 7. Exod. 23. 13. Nor indeed is it reasonable that any other than the living God should be invoked in Swearing who else can know the correspondency of our Hearts and Actions or the sincerity of our Intentions Who else hath a power in multitudes of cases hidden from Men to punish him who sweareth falsely So as an Oath by any other than by the living God is no security to our Neighbour Hence all swearing by any Creatures is prophane Swearing and not only a violation of a Divine Command but also of the very nature and end of an Oath giving no security to the Person for whose security of our Truth it is taken Indeed it is no better than Idolatry if Idolatry be a worshiping of that for God which is no God For Swearing is a Worship tho indeed a less ordinary piece of the Worship of God than Prayer and Praise are 3. An Oath being so grave a thing as a Divine Institution The Name of God being in it and a solemn Invocation of him to witness our Truth essential to it and the end of its Institution being to determine Strife and to give our Neighbour the highest Security imaginable of our Truth and Faithfulness Common Reason will instruct Mankind that it ought not to be used lightly and rashly for besides that such use of an Oath tendeth to make it useless to its end it is also an high prophanation of the holy and dreadful Name of the Lord our God Which of us would not judg himself affronted to have our Neighbours make use of any of our Names upon every light and trivial occasion or to be called on to witness every silly and impertinent discourse or piece of Mens common Talk Nor can that thing be any security to my Neighbour in any weighty Concern which I lay to pawn at every Alehouse and expose at every Stall much less that which hath proved to be no security a thousand times but made use of to seal a Lie Besides that such common use of the Name of God takes away all the Aw and Reverence of it and who so thinks that any Man will make more Conscience of an Oath in a Judicial Testimony for or against his Neighbour than he doth in his common discourse must at least think that the person who doth it hath more Charity towards Men than Piety towards God which is very unreasonable considering that all Charity is the Daughter of Piety or else he

must have some odd thoughts of God imagining him more severe in revenging a Wrong done to Man than in the Vindication of his own Glory whose Name is invoked as much in idle and common Swearing as in a Judicial Testimony and who is as much called to Witness and whose Power is as much challenged to revenge a Falshood in the one as the other case So that the many Precepts of God against common and ordinary Swearing in light and trivial matters Exod. 20. 7. Deut. 5. 11. Mat. 5. 34. Jam. 5. 12. Levit. 19.12 are but consonant to the common Reason of Mankind And indeed the Judicial Swearing of a common Swearer in all his light and ordinary discourse will from hence appear to a deliberate Man but a very doubtful and suspicious Evidence For why should I think the Man speaks Truth any more when in a Court he saith So help me God and his holy Gospel than when in a Tavern Alehouse or Market he saith God damn me it is so or I will do such or such a thing when I know it is not so and am a witness to his not doing of it after such Imprecations so as in truth there could not be a juster Law than to make common Swearers legally infamous which might probably reduce Mens Tongues to a better decorum and recover amongst us the Religion of an Oath upon the upholding the Religion of which depend all our Lives and Properties 4. A false swearing by the Name of the most high God especially in Judgment will easily from hence appear to be one of the highest Crimes and daring pieces of Impudence that a mortal Man can be guilty of A Guilt incurr'd not only when the thing we confirm by our Oaths is false but when we do not know it to be true And in promisary Oaths when we do not do the thing which we have sworn to do Thou shalt swear the Lord liveth in Truth in Righteousness and in Judgment Jer. 4. 2. This is the Law of God concerning an Oath I must not call God to witness that a thing is true and disclaim any hopes in him or desire of help from him or the Word of Salvation if it be not true if the thing be false or unless I know it to be true for I cannot say a thing is true which doth not so appear to me Nor must I call God to witness that I will do such or such a thing and disclaim any hopes or desire of any benefit from him or the Word of Salvation if I do it not and then not do it Under the Levitical Law Lev. 5.4 God indeed appointed a Trespass-Offering for him that had sworn to do Evil or to do Good if it were hid from him confessing that he had sinned in that thing but in that Confession was required in the case and not Confession only but a Sacrifice the Sin of those who swear falsly tho ignorantly is evident enough and in that we read of no Sacrifice appointed for those that swear falsly knowing thereof when they sware we may be assured that was a Guilt God did not expect from any of his People or at least which he would not easily forgive or purge by Sacrifice And indeed what punishment can we suppose too great for that person who shall dare to call God to Witness that he speaketh Truth when he knows it is a Lie or doth not know that what he saith is true Or who dares to disclaim all Benefit from God or the Word of his Grace if he doth not do this or that and then doth it not His Blood is upon his own head if God strikes this Man dead in the place if he immediately throws him into the Bottomless-Pit and concludes him under his Wrath to all Eternity he doth but deal with him according to his own Prayer and Desire He hath asked no further Grace Mercy or Favour from God than according to the Truth of his Heart and Actions in such or such a thing wherein he hath wilfully suffered his Truth to fail and that it may be not only in the highest contempt and defiance of God but may be to the no small hurt and prejudice of his Neighbour tho that be much the lighter thing in the Case for what can the Interest of a Man be considered with that of the Lord's Name and Glory Out of his own mouth he is condemned he hath spoken words against his own life Whosoever he be that solemnly calleth God to be his Witness That in such or such a thing he speaketh the Truth and that he shall or will do a thing in such a manner and disclaimeth all Help or Salvation from God if he doth it not and in the same matter after such a solemn Invocation of the Divine Name and bold Challenge of the Divine Power shall dare to affirm what he cannot say is Truth or to do the quite contrary to what he hath promised with such an Imprecation what doth he do less than say I value not what the Almighty God can do unto me I desie his Power and deny his Being and Omnisciency 5. These things considered we need not wonder at Jeremiah's telling us Jer. 23. 10. That because of Swearing the Land mourneth nor yet at the Prophet Hosea telling the Israelites from the Lord That the Lord had a Controversie with the Inhabitants of the Land because there was no Truth nor Mercy nor Knowledge of God in the Land By Swearing and Lying and Killing and Stealing and committing Adultery they break out and Blood toucheth Blood Nor at the Prophet Zecheriah's flying Roll Zech. 5. twenty Cubits long and ten Cubits broad which v. 3. is expounded to be the Curse that goeth over the face of the whole Earth for every one that stealeth shall be cut off on this side according to it and every one that sweareth shall be cut off on that side according to it I will bring it forth saith the Lord God of Hosts and it shall enter into the house of the Thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsly by my Name and it shall remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it with the Timber thereof and the Stones thereof Nor shall we need wonder if we see this Curse entering into many houses in this Nation and remaining in them until it hath consumed the Timber thereof and the Stones thereof For swearing falsly is no less than a prophaning the Name of the Lord our God Levit. 19. 12. a taking of his Name in vain who hath said He will not hold him guiltless who taketh his Name in vain And God hath said I will come near unto you in Judgment and I will be a swift Witness against the Sorcerers and against the Adulterers and against the false Swearers Mal. 3. 5. 6. It is true the Law of England makes a distinction betwixt false-swearing or forswearing and Perjury and will not allow forswearing to be Perjury punishable by the

Statute-Law unless it be malicious and in a Case betwixt Party and Party The Law of God maketh no such distinction false-swearing is the Crime which the Divine Law denounceth the Judgment of God against And he that readeth my Lord Cook 's Chapter of Perjury in his Pleas of the Crown will find that according to the old Law of England though one sware what was Truth but not what he could know to be true was not punishable in other Courts yet he was punishable in the Star-Chamber of which he gives us an Instance in that Chapter And without doubt so it ought to be for I cannot truly swear that Thing to be or to have been done which I do not know is or hath been done In Palmer's Reports is an Instance of one indicted and punished for swearing a Thing so and so which indeed was so because he did not know it to be so Guide to Juries p. 33. 7. It is not my design to discourse this Theme in the latitude but only so far as concerneth Jurors in the Courts of Assizes and Sessions and that only with respect to Criminal Cases Our Law was not so confident of twelve or 24 Men in a Grand Jury or a Petit-Jury but that it hath provided against false-swearing in them by two Acts of Attaint by the one 11 Hen. 7.21 provision is only made for the City of London by the other for the whole Nation 23 Hen. 8. 3. Which Statute alloweth the Person wronged by an untrue Verdict to bring an Attaint against the Persons giving such Verdict if it amounted to the value of forty Pounds and recover of every one of them twenty Pounds ten for the King ten for himself but this must be only in Cases betwixt Party and Party It seemeth a defect in our Law that if the King be a Party the Jury shall not be attainted for every one will apprehend it very unreasonable that Jurors should be attainted and their Verdicts again be examined by 24 Men in an Attaint where the Subject is a loser forty Pounds or upwards and that they should be liable to no punishment for an untrue Verdict where the Dammage amounteth to much more I remember in a parallel Case of Perjury in a Witness where the Law determineth no Indictment on the Statute shall lie because the Statute is restrained to Oaths between Party and Party My Lord Cook determineth that though no Indictment upon the Stat. 5 Eliz. will lie in the Case yet an Indictment shall lie at Common Law and that hath been often experienced and that great Oracle of the Law gives an unanswerable Reason for it Because it is not reasonable that the King's Name who is the Fountain of Justice should patronize Injustice Whether an Attaint at the Common Law doth not lie against Jurors bringing in false Verdicts which indeed is nonsense though they find for the King deserves the study of Lawyers Sure I am my Lord Cook in his Chapter of Perjury gives us an account That by the old Law of England Jurors bringing in untrue Verdicts were most severely punish'd by Imprisonment seisure of all their Estates turning out their Wives and Children pulling down their Houses and being made infamous their Oaths never more to be admitted in any Court This Law is surely not so extinguished but some punishment yet remains for all such Persons if once we could hit upon the Methods that shall bring them to it 8. But my business is only to shew them that there lies an Attaint against them in the Court of Heaven the punishment of which is not only the eternal damnation of their Souls according to their own desire in the Oath they take but the Curse of God entring into their Houses and abiding in them until it hath consumed the Timber thereof and the Stones thereof Nor shall I meddle with all their Verdicts only such as they have brought in against dissenting Protestants upon the Statutes 23 Eliz. and 29 Eliz. and 3 Jacobi This is the only Point I design to put in Issue being assured That if the Conviction of these Men upon those Statutes prove to be upon their false-swearing it hath in it all the aggravations almost imaginable being done in a Court of Justice and issuing in the ruin of so many thousand Persons and Families Hoping also that if it so proves those who have urged instructed and taught them so to do will reflect upon themselves in time and consider whether they are not like to come under our Saviour's Censure of being the least in the Kingdom of God for teaching if not forcing ignorant Souls to break the Commandment of God and that in Matters where his Glory as well as the Good of their Neighbours are most eminently concerned CHAP. II. The Forms of the Oaths administred to Grand-Jurors Petit-Jurors and Witnesses at the Assizes or General Quarter-Sessions The Presentments of Grand-Juries upon the aforesaid Statutes with the Form of the Indictments found either by them or Petit-Juries Their Method in proceeding Grand-Jurors by their Oath can present nothing but what they know to be Truth either of their own Knowledg or the Oaths of credible Persons but they must be forsworn Petit-Jurors are forsworn if they find without Evidence The Law no where casts the Proof upon the Party accused but in this Case directs other Evidence expresly Grand-Juries finding an Indictment no Evidence to the Petit-Jury of the Truth of it proved by six Arguments The pernicious Consequents of the allowing them to be Evidence as a Grand-Jury It confounds Accusers and Evidence in some Cases Judges and Evidence in other Cases The Law allows it in no Case Nor can Petit-Jurors without being forsworn find an Indictment upon no other Evidence 1. THis Issue cannot be better tried than by an enquiry into the Oaths taken by all Jury-Men and then into the Indictment upon these Statutes and lastly into the Evidence brought before them of the Fact The Oath which every Person of Grand-Juries takes is in this Form You shall diligently inquire and true Presentment make of all such Things and Matters as shall be given you in Charge or shall come to your knowledg concerning this present Service The King's Counsel and your Own and your Fellows you shall well and truly keep secret You shall present nothing for Malice Lucre Ill-will nor leave any thing unpresented for Love Favour or Affection Reward or any hopes thereof but in all things that concern this present Service you shall present the Truth the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth So help you God This every one of them promiseth and testifieth his Promise by kissing the Book of God I desire it may be observed that the Oath saith not You shall true Presentment make of such things as you think or suspect or presume but that shall come to your Knowledg You shall present the Truth not your Fancies or Surmises and what you have no knowledg of either from your personal certain

Promisory Oath by disclaiming any desire of help or Salvation from God and his Gospel if they do present any thing but the Truth that should come to their knowledg or find any otherwise than according to their Evidence That they would every one make haste and bring their Trespass Offering to the Lord by a serious confession of an Iniquity than which hardly any is capable of higher aggravation and make satisfaction to their Neighbours for the wrong they have done them by forswearing themselves in which Case no Divines will say Repentance is true without what Satisfaction we are able to give our Neighbours upon their Souls will lie the cries of Parents Husbands Wives and Children imprisoned or ruined and undone by their going expresly contrary to their Oaths in Judgment and let them be assured there is Wrath against them from the Lord and if those Texts Zech. 5. 4. and Mal. 3. 5. be pieces of Holy Writ God will be a swift Witness against them and the Curse of God will enter into their Houses and abide there until it hath consumed the Timber thereof and the Stones thereof If therefore you believe there is a God or that the Scriptures are the Word of God If you believe that both your Bodies and Souls are subject to the Power and Justice of God both in this Life and that which is to come shew it by fearing to swear and not punctually doing according to what you have sworn There is no greater indication of Atheists than swearing falsly or not performing punctually what they have sworn Nor is it possible that there should be a more infamous Pest of Humane Society True Oaths in Judgment preserve and uphold it false swearing destroys it and turneth it into an Herd of Beasts for it is not possible Justice should be supported where the Religion of an Oath is lost Whosoever sweareth falsly to the prejudice of his Neighbour whether as a Juror or a Witness is condemned in the Law of God and though his Judgment may sleep awhile yet it is not probable it should sleep long when demanded of the Righteous Judg by the importunate Cries of so many as are oppressed by it 2. And let it not be accounted presumption in me to beseech such worthy Gentlemen as his Majesty hath thought fit to dignify with the Commission of the Peace to consider what they do in Causes of this Nature Those Noble and Worthy Gentlemen cannot but know that it is most notoriously contrary to the Law of England for those who are Judges in any case to influence Jurors or Witnesses who being under Oaths ought to be left free to the true Observance of them and not urged either to what is certainly or is in their opinion a violation of them Witnesses ought not to be instructed and to be so instructed is enough according to all just Laws in the World to invalidate their Testimony Constables in their Presentments given in at Assizes and Sessions are Witnesses they are generally all the Evidence Grand-Jurors have unless some Informers which is very rare swear such Informations or Indictments before them Or some of their own Body know the Matter of Fact to be true which as rarely happeneth To instruct them and much more to threaten and fright them into such Presentments is the boldest violation of all Laws both of God and Men that is imaginable Judges have no more to do than to declare the Law and to receive such Presentments of Facts contrary to it as Persons upon Oath shall give freely according to their Consciences If Persons under Oaths to make Presentments do not make them truly they may be legally prosecuted for their Concealments but to force them being upon their Oaths to make Presentments which they profess they cannot do in Truth is what is neither justifiable to God nor Men. That Jurors are not finable by Judges for their Verdicts hath been resolved twice within these few Years once by Parliament in the Year 1677 in the Case of my Lord Chief Justice Keeling who had fined a Grand-Jury in Somersetshire for not finding an Indictment of Murder for which they saw no Evidence The Parliament judged That the Presidents and Practices of fining Juries in and for not giving their Verdicts is Illegal and the Chief Justice was then for it brought upon his Knees to the Bar of the House of Commons The other by the Justices of the Common Pleas in Brown Bushel's Case largely reported by my Lord Chief Justice Vaughan and certainly they are no more to be over-awed and threatned than to be fined The Wise Man commandeth us saying Prov. 23. 10. Remove not the old Land-mark and enter not into the Fields of the Fatherless The removing of old Land-marks in Judgment and entring into the Fields of the Fatherless usually follow the one the other they are seldom or never removed but in order to some notorious Oppression The Curse of God therefore is against them that do it Deut. 27. 17. Our Fore-fathers set these as Land-marks for Publick Justice That no Persons in our Publick Courts of Judicature should be deprived of Life Liberty or Property but by the Judgment of at least 24. Persons twelve or more to enquire whether there were any probably just ground so much as to call in Question such a Person for such a Crime for which any such Punishment should be inflicted other twelve to try the thing in issue according to such Evidence as they should have upon Oath given of it That neither the first nor second of these Juries should be awed or threatned into their Verdict nor fined for it but left to their Consciences upon their Oaths That nothing should be found against any but upon good and sufficient Evidence of honest and legal Witnesses If these ancient Land-marks be removed we shall soon see entring into the Fields of the Fatherless 3. I shall conclude with another saying of Solomon Eccles 10. 8. He that diggeth a Pit shall fall into it and whoso breaketh an Hedg a Serpent shall bite him Those that alter the just Order and Boundaries of Law founded upon Reason and Justice usually pay for their Folly cutting up a Bridg which at one time or other they or their Children will want for themselves to pass over for the avoiding of the hands of Violence and Oppression We shall observe that the Righteous God punisheth no Sins so frequently by Retaliation as those which are against Justice and Charity and therein he infinitely commendeth his Love to humane Society for the preservation and upholding of it against the brutish Passions of those who will deny their own reason to disturb it and abjure their Manhood to prove themselves Creatures meerly under the conduct of their concupiscible or irrascible Appetite from which sottishness let every good Man deliver himself FINIS There is lately published a useful Treatise for this present Juncture Intituled The Case and Cure of Persons Excommunicated according to the present Law of England With some Friendly Advice to Persons pursued in Inferior Ecclesiastical Courts by Malicious Promoters both in order to their avoiding Excommunication or delivering themselves from Prisons if imprisoned because they have stood Excommunicated Fourty days With an account of their several Fees due in those Courts Sold by Richard Janeway