be judged and then nothing but that which is righteous in his sight will stand and abide his tryal and then will not that very law which he hath engraven in thine heart judge thee which saith whatever thou wouldest that men shall do unto thee do thou even the same unto them which whether thou dost now practice we leave to the Lord and to his witness in thee and in the Consciences of all sober minded persons within this City to judge and to determine Let me yet further reason with thee and be not offended for in tender love to thine immortal soul the Lord is my witness do I write these things Hast thou the spirit of Christ if not sad is thy condition for he that hath not the Spirit as saith the Scripture is none of his If thou hast it O then where are the fruits the fruits of that holy spirit are love gentleness meekness long-suffering mercifulness forgiveness c. this spirit never prompted or prevail'd with any man to persecute others for conscience sake they in whom this spirit dwelt in all ages were persecuted but never found persecutors envied but not envying hated but not haters of others suffering for the matters of their God but not causing others to suffer Paul who had this spirit speaking of things appertaining to Conscience saith Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind for mark every one of us shall give an account of himself to God Rom. 14.5 12. And as you have received Christ Jesus walk in him Col. 2.6 By this spirit the Apostle Peter said Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake And the same Peter by the same spirit being commanded by the Rulers not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus did chusing rather to obey God than men speak openly and boldly in his name Weigh these things in a cool unprejudiced spirit and hearken to and that thou mightest also know the things that do belong to the peace of thy precious soul in this thy day whilst thou art on this side the grave Remember O remember in whose hands is the breath of thy nostrils who can soon turn thee into dust Thou knowest not how soon the King of Terrours may knock at thy doors with a Commission from the Lord to romove thee from the land of the living and then peace with thy maker against whom thou art now contending will be more worth than the whole world but not then to be purchased with all the Treasures thereof I say therefore again Despise not the friendly advice of him whilst thou hast yet a season who in heart desireth thine eternal welfare lest when thou come to lay thine head upon thy Death pillow and the Terrours of the Almighty seize on thee thou shouldest then cry unto the Lord for mercy and he should say unto thee my love often called unto thee and thou wouldest not hear in the day of thy outward prosperity I would have won thee with kindnesse but thou wouldst not hearken Now therefore I will stop mine ears at thy cry reap the fruits of thine own works and let misery be thy portion until Eternity shall have an end Hear and fear the Lord and dispise not the Counsell of him who is truly breathing in his heart to the Lord for the salvation of thy precious soul and in the Lord wisheth well to thee and thine Tho. Speed This as hath been said was wrote and also delivered to thee and with how much tenderness and an earnest desire of thy welfare and how suitable it was to thy state and how weighty let the sober judge one would have thought that thou wouldest have taken such a man in thine armes and hugged him in thy bosome considering his love and zealous care of thy welfare and never have let him go from out of thy heart whilest thou haddest a being or breathedst on the earth put case there had been a mistake in some particulars as to which there was non and thou shalt one day know it the intent of his heart in such a thing of weight as thine eternal welfare that it might be well with thee for ever would have sunk into an ingenious breast and never would have suffer'd that man to die there who would have thee live for ever and though the expostulations were quick and piercing yet an ingenious man would have considered with himself why he mindes my welfare he judges me to be out of the way and perhaps I am 't is good for me to consider the things as they stand are stated truly granting them as they are stated onely he hath mist and let me see whether indeed he hath done so for I may be in a mistake the application It s good for me to heed whether it be so or no a wrong zeal may carry me forth as it did Saul Who breathed forth threatnings and slaughter and haled men and women out of houses as I have caused to be done and though as I have done he ought to do all things against that name of Jesus and was mad as himself said and am not I as he was then and persecuted them even to strange Cities as I have in the Parliament and in London and Westminster and sought to bespeak them the worst I could and to cut them off from the face of the earth that so neither name nor remnant might be left of them from generation to generation and yet Saul came to see it otherwise and to be knocked down in the way As he was posting to Damascus with Letters from the high Priests and Rulers to persecute them there and he was told I am Jesus whom thou persecutest It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks and he became a Preacher of the same Jesus And O that it might be so with me if I am as he was and do persecute Jesus he was also an eminent Apostle and converted multitudes to the faith of Jesus and suffered for his name who for his name made others to suffer And when thy holy martyr Stephen was stoned said he I stood by and held the garments of them that did it and consented to his death as I have made them to suffer if so be it be Jesus in them that I persecute And it was his great grief and I must look to it that it prove not to be mine that he persecuted the Church of God And therefore said who am not worthy to be called an Apostle because I persecute the Church of of God Well I will ponder these things wiser men then I and more zealous and of better reputation and profession I see have been mistaken and why may not I well I love the man no harm shall come unto him Such would have been the reasonings of as hath been said an ingenious spirit to one who prayed and intreated when he was defamed by thee abused and persecuted but alas there came no such moysture from thy flinty heart
self and the Deputy Lievtenants who some of them that very night denyed that any such thing was ordered by them had ordered them to be sent to Bridewel so to Bridewel they were brought a place of reproach appointed for Rogues and no Prison of the Kings though they were pretended to be the Kings prisoners though some of them were Citizens and men of quality therein Now it is to be noted That Sheriff Streamer being Major of the Regiment and so having command of the Guard coming to the Guard and understanding who were brought thither whereof one was his near relation viz. his Brother-in-law and his friend viz. George Bishopp if so be his business was to have him up and that that was the end of that dayes work came not into the Guard understanding him to be if not seeing him there but went his way to to the meeting house and there in person dismist the rest without making so much as one a Prisoner Which unnaturalness and high ingratitude he learnt no doubt of thee who as the sequel of this relation signifies wast well skilled in things of that nature and his orders no doubt he received from thee who as thy Buffoon or Martin-ape as men use to say most artificially followed the dictates of thy mad and hasty spirit who hadst not nor had he learnt that moderation which the whole series of transactions in this generation the most remakable of any that had been in the world vvould have taught thee as vvould also the saying of him vvho lives for ever vvho is the Judge of all viz. To do to others whatsoever you would should be done unto your selves that is to say when you are in power so vvarily to extend it as that you may live with your Neighbours and have their love when your power is gone and gain the good reputation of moderate men For the vvheele turns round and as the history of former ages have proved on this Date obulum Belisario For Gods sake give a half-penny to Belisarius comes to be the portion of many which befel that great Captain Belisarius vvho in the dayes of Justinian the Emperor did so behave himself in Persia Affirica and Italy that he had the honour of this Effigies on the other side of the Coin vvith this inscription Gloria Romanorum decus The Glory and Grace of the Romans And of this you vvanted not vvarning if you would have taken heed nor good Examples before you but as it was said in another case in a wrong spirit by Balack to Balaam may be said truly of you The Lord hath kept thee back from honour Numb 24.11 Or the infatuation of the Almighty because of your lust to oppression hath been so upon you that in your day you have not known the things that belong unto your peace that is to say you have not taken the course that wise men have steered in all generations upon the guidance of their observation of the revolutions of this World viz. so to behave your selves whilst ye are in Power as hath been said as that you may live in good reputation with your Neighbours vvhen you are out of it that is to say that you may be men when you have no power And this let us say to you all who are joyned together in this persecution of the innocent if such a hand had been carried toward you and this City in former dayes as you have done in this neither you had been so nor this City that is to say neither had you nor this City been so as at this day And some of them whom with so much despight and ignominy you now rule over have been instrumental that you and the City have not been otherwise and this is the requital you make of all that which hath sought to and hath saved you thus to do But this your work will be your shame and the day is at hand wherein you shall hear of it with both your ears that is to say the Lord will so work as that you shall see both where you are and what you have been doing when repentance with some of you we fear may be too late and the place of repentance you will not find though you seek it carefully with tears But to proceed for thou must throughly be dealt with ere this is finished Having lodged the aforesaid Prisoners at Bridewell the next morning thou hadst them to the Council house the Keeper of Bridewell being their leader and having set guards of Musquetiers at the Tolzey door contrary to Law which is that Courts of Justice and Proceedings at Law be open keeping out whom they pleased thou saidst to them what came into thy mind And though they in moderation told thee that they had done no new thing but what they had many years before even ever since they had been a people And that experience had shewn in the greatest revolutions that had been in this Nation that they and what they professed and did was not inconsistent with the publique peace but that they and the peace of the place and Nation might be And that what they did was not in obstinacy and contempt as thou wouldst have rendred it but in Conscience to the Lord whose worship was in Spirit and he sought such to worship him viz. in Spirit and in truth Joh. 4. And that their suffering Chearfully whatsoever might be done to them in reference to this thing who had Estates Relations Families Callings who knew as your selves might judge what it was to get and to loose their Estates Libertie Countries did speak that there was something more in it then of this world that made them willing thus to offer it up And though they told thee moreover that as to Government they were not against but did own the Second Table as well as the Frst Masters Parents Magistrates c. but all in the Lord and that where they could and not sin against the Lord they were obedient and where they could not they did quietly suffer And that ye had experience of them in such things as they could do that they rather went before you then otherwise And though they asked thee what thou would have them to do seeing their Conscience was not satisfied Suppose said they to thee that we are mistaken which said they we are not but are certain of what we do wouldst thou have us to do that which our conscience is against because of what may be done to our bodies before we are convinced of the contrary Said not the Apostle Happie is he that condemneth not himself in the thing that he allows Yet thou wouldst not hear and though thou pretendedst to a great deal of fairness at first and that thou hadst received a Letter from the Kings Council giving thee direction to take up the Heads of us and secure them till the Assizes unless they should give Security for their appearance And told that there vvas the ‖ Not
the Terrour of the people it being a thing contrary to their principle and practice So the witnesses were sworn and examined who testified that they were at the meeting at such a place and at such a time but as to force and armes c. proved nothing for though thy Sergeant Jones would needs have argued the matter being put upon it by thee in the Court and no doubt had before received from thee his instruction and thus would have brought it about viz. that it was a Terrour to him to see the Kings laws broken and he thought it being so with him that it could not but be so to every good subject or words to this purpose which signified nothing for it was pleading and so he was told that he pleaded and so his testimony in that particular signified not for thereby he shewed himself a party and not a witness who ought to be a person in his Testimony leaning to neither side but declaring the certain truth in certain words and not by argumentation and so to leave it to the Court. And though thou endeavouredst to make something of the Testimony that was against one Samuel James who coming up the stairs at the time when thy Sergeant Jones aforesaid and and the Musqueteers were at the meeting aforesaid and being presently commanded down and he not in the very minute observing it but looking about him being somewhat agast at that unusual company was endeavoured to be knocked down the stairs so musquets being about his ears and many men upon him and he not knowing what they meant to do with him it seems as the witnesse swore he laid hands on one of the souldiers sword in the scabbard and endeavoured to draw it which thou wouldst have converted as an act of theirs and so wouldst have had it to bear the interpretation of a Riot which no doubt was the reason why thou causedst them to be indicted on that dayes meeting and not on that in the street at which they were taken when last committed But this proved not to thy purpose for unawares its like in thee but otherwise in the ordering of the Lord thou droppedst this word when the matter was in Examination speaking of James and what he was a Ranter saidst thou which was observed afterwards by the Prisoners to the Jury besides it could not bear such an interpretation in Reason or Equity that a mans action and what the action was hath been said in a publick meeting where none are kept out who was none of the people which usually there met should be attributed to be the Action of that people whose principle and practice is contrary to to that action and who owned it not nor abetted it and it being transient not between those people and him or he and those people with the officers but between the officers and him and that chiefly down the stairs and in a lower room where they say the sword was endeavoured to be drawn by him not in the place where those people were met But this strained interpretation would serve for little else than to shew how eager thou wast and industrious to find something that indeed might have a reflection upon them so the matters being turned up and down and many things being spoken the Jury came at length to be addressed unto to whom the prisoners summed up the Evidence and repeated how that nothing of force and arms was proved against them for there was indeed none and how that that of James had no other reflection nor could have but as between himself and the officers the Mayor himself as was said to them telling them that he was a Ranter and so none of those people and how that their having been at the meeting they had confessed and upon what ground viz. that it was in obedience to the Lord and not in contempt to them or to the Law moreover that they had considered of the matter and if any thing on this side their peace with the Lord would have done it they had not been at that which vvas the occasion of their being thus brought thither that the son of God was the soveraign of the Conscience and the worship of the Father was in spirit and truth and his fear was not to be taught by the precepts of men but here thou interruptedst him that spake which was G. B. of that any further but he turning to the Juay said to them Neighbours and Friends we have nothing now to do with these and so turned his hand to the Court and to you I shall speak you have Consciences of your own according unto which you would worship God and you would not take it well if some such thing as hath been done and is now doing to us should be done to you for worshipping God according to your Conscience Now what saith the Judge of all whatsoever yee would that men should do unto you do even the same unto them for this is the law and the Prophets And so I shall leave you Edward Pyot also spake to the Jury and said you by the Court are made our Judges and the matter of fact for which we are called in question this day is nothing criminal nor any matter of dishonesty but onely for our meeting together in the worship and service of God and nothing more than barely meeting together is proved against us to which our selves have confessed before proof vvas made and as our meeting together in such manner and to such ends as is declared in the Inditement hath been by us denied so it is altogether without proof to you that which you are chiefly to consider of in order to your verdict is whether or not we were met together in manner and form according as is declared in the Inditement As to the manner of our meeting it was not with force and armes as you your selves in your own consciences know but we meet together in the fear of the Lord and to no other end than onely in Gods Worship and Service and therefore take heed what you do lest you be found striving against the Lord for God vvill be worshipped and served as himself pleaseth and by his own direction and prescription in spirit and in truth and not as man pleaseth nor by mens prescriptions and directions for things may be highly esteemed amongst men which are abomination in the sight of God and it is not in the power of any Creature to prescribe to his maker how his maker shall be served and worshipped It is enough for the greatest of men to prescribe their own Homage and to direct their own service and to leave that which concerns the worship and service of God unto God himself and to his own prescription and direction who alone is Law-giver to all and the Judge over all in all the matters and things which concerns his own vvorship and service and vvhom we chuse to obey rather then men Here thou rosest from thy seat
which was held the 18th of the 12th Moneth 1664. and thou being come down as aforesaid to attend it two Bills of Indictment were drawn and presented the Grand Jury the one against those seaven whom thou sentest to Bridewell and then committed them to Newgate when thou wast thy self at Meeting and the other against Joan Hiley That against the seaven the Grand Jury cast out and the other against Joan Hiley had like to have been too had not Heyward the Taylor one of the Grand Iury in the breach of his Oath given information to one of the Sheriffs and so to thee that it would be so if more Evidence vvere not brought in hereupon thou bestirs thy self and caused the Priest to be sent for in prosecution of thy old design which was to make us to suffer and thy expectations was so on tiptoe that thou couldst not forbear to ask the Foreman Whether the Bill was found before he came to deliver it in who gave thee an answer as became a man in his place whose name is Iohn Tyler though thou vventest out of thy place though yet not out of the persecuting spirit that was in thee unbecoming a Magistrate to ask the question So the Court wan adjourned this being the fore-part of the day to the after-noon Then she was had to the Court and set to the Bar and thou faine would'st have had the Tryal put off and spakest to her Husband so to do and to enter into a new Recognizance for that purpose but she could not consent to that so thou wentest on to Tryal and the Iury was sworn and the Priest set by her and the Indictment was read and she pleaded to it Not Guilty and the Evidence was produced of which the Priest was one who said He heard some body speak but could not say it was her And the Iury went aside and much expectation was on the issue for ye thought your Jury would serve your turner and the names of the Jury being looked over they were judged to be all right and Sheriff Streamer as was said was very confident of the matter and was over heard as is said to lay a Wager with Capt. Hicks that it would be so which John Hicks distrusting the other is said to say He would lay his life they would find her guilty and that there were four of them that would dye but they would do it Which appeared to have something in it for the Baily Errand when he spake to the Court said That the Jury were all agreed save four what Working here is to make the innocent to suffer yet the Iury brought her in Not Guilty the Indictment being not laid in the words of the Statute as the Council made appear and as for the Words of the Statute there was not sufficient Evidence to prove that what she said was according to those words So the Lord wrought for his innocent servants which waited upon him and so two petty Juries the Sessions before having failed thee and now the grand and petty Jury made thee misse of thy end and so that thy hands hitherto could not bring to passe the thoughts of thine heart for the Lords arme was against thee and indeed the Citizens began to nawseat this unusual trade of thine in putting them upon the tumbling their fellow Citizens into holes and corners and so thereby thou mightst serve thy will and pleasure upon them and now thou thoughtst it time to hie thee to London again to get some new strength and to recruit thee who hitherto hadst missed and to work thou wentst above to get the matters finished out of the old way of England which was by Juries to the conviction of two Justices as aforesaid and the Bill was past and now thou wast glad and as is reported wept for joy for now thy work thou thoughtest was not likely Sisyphus his stone of which Histories speak to return still upon thee and thou to be laught at which was the thing thou fearedst and therefore its like bespeakest the Citie to be in an ill condition and as if it were ready to be in a tumult which was as still as the stones in the street and thou art said to have suggested that thou couldst not undertake the safetie of the place vvithout some such additional power and vvouldst fain have made it the same through England and now thou vvast paramount and dovvn thou camst and here thou thoughtst to make short vvork And as to other offices vvhereto some of us vvere called to serve thou turn'st them by as a people vvhom thou intendedst to make clear vvork vvith asking vvhy they did choose us for such offices giving the people so to understand and intimating that a shorter course would be taken with us which might put us out of the Capacity of bearing Office and so thou wouldst have us reserved to the greater blow hoping at once to make riddance of us and to quit us the Nation But we shall have a place and name therein when thou art forgotten except it be to shame and obloquie Thus thy heart was lifted up and thou preparedst thy self for the season wherein the Act should take place viz. the first day of the 5th month called July following hoping then and afterwards at once to do thy work upon us and so high were thy spirits boyed to this attempt that thou hadst not patience to stay until the day but before the day thou wentst to work and yet we think thee not very wise in so doing but the Lord suffered thy haste to befool thee and on the 12th of 4th month down thou sentest thy officers who to the meeting came and there played the mad men some of them Jones c. halling and pulling striking and dragging and thy said Serjeant Jones put off his Gown and to work he went for he must do something one way as thou hadst done another and why not seeing he was executioner as thou wast Magistrate and about he swings his Mace and had bruised one our Friends hands therewith in pieces in all likelihood at which he struck if it had not been taken away and here the peace came to be broke on a peaceable people and those of the officers that could not be as mad as he but had some reluctancy against such usages to people of qualitie and their loving Neighbours he used as he pleased in particular William White an old Royalist whom he much in words abused and because we could not bow to his commands he caused some of us to be dragged and had away and carried to Prison as if he were Mayor and Justice and King and Parliament and all and above them all in breaking the Peace which the Law is against whose Names are as follows William Ford Nath. Milner John Love Sam. Taylor Will. James Jos Moor John Johns Israel Bird Robert Claxton Tho. Jaques alias Jackson Will. Emblin Jos Canings Hen. Prichard And. Sole and Tho. Atkins and these