Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	allow_v	evidence_n	forswear_v	36	3	15.9921	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

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

Knowledg or by the Oaths of credible Persons and nothing but the Truth that is what shall come to your knowledg either by the Oaths of credible Persons or from your own sight or observation for nothing else can appear to a Grand-Jury-Man as Truth in Judgment Every Member of a Petit-Jury takes this Oath You shall well and truly try and true deliverance make between our Sovereign Lord the King and the Prisoner or Person at the Bar according to your Evidence So help you God The Witnesses swear They will speak the Truth the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth c. Every Jury-Man and Witness in testimony of his taking that Promisory Oath kisseth the Book thereby only testifying that he calleth God to Witness that he will do that thing which is propounded to him without Malice or Favour and desiring God that he may receive no Mercy from him nor benefit from his Gospel if he doth otherwise 2. The Grand-Jury's Presentment according to these Statutes must be That such a Person for the space of one or more Months being of the Age of sixteen Years and upward did not repair to some Church Ghappel or usual place of Common-Prayer but did forbear the same having no lawful Let nor Impediment contrary to the Statute made in the first Year of her Majesty's Reign They commonly run in a shorter Form but they declare to the Clerk of the Assizes or Sessions that they desire they might be drawn up according to Form Which is done by him nothing material being omitted in the Form mentioned nor added thereunto This is found by the Grand-Jury at the next Assizes or Sessions and being found by them is without alteration transmitted to the Petit-Jury and by them found or rejected without any alteration 3. I grant it possible that there are several cases wherein Jury-Men may find such an Inditement without false swearing Admit they know that such a Person were all those days in his own House or in some Neighbours Houses at an Ale-House or at an Vnlawful Meeting or walking idly in the Fields c. Or that any such thing be sworn before them they may undoubtedly yea and by their Oath are obliged to present him or indict him But if they know no such thing from their own sight or observation nor from the Oath of Persons whom they judg credible That they who have called God to Witness that they will present the Truth and nothing but the Truth that is come to their Knowledg may present any upon that Statute or upon their Oaths aver the Truth of any such Indictment is what no Learned and Sober Divine in the World dare assert Never yet did any Divine assert that it was no forswearing a Man's self for him to affirm upon Oath what he did not know either from his own sight or observation or the credible Testimony of others asserting it upon their Oaths for no Jury ought to hear or regard any other Information How impossible it is that any Grand-Jury-Man should know that A. B. was neither at his Parish-Church nor any other any Sunday or Holy-Day for one or more Months unless he knew that all such Days he was at another place is obvious to the meanest Understanding If he doth not know it he sweareth falsly in presenting the Person for it upon that Oath which he hath taken to present the Truth and nothing but the Truth What he knoweth not can be to him no Truth much less can it be a thing come to his Knowledg And I am sure it is nothing given him in charge None ever in his Wits yet said that a thing which one only presumes suspects or thinks is come to his Knowledg or what he can aver to be Truth 4. It is true sometimes Grand-Juries only offer Constables Presentments upon their Oaths in which case much is to be said in the Excuse of Grand-Juries It is then come to their knowledg upon the Oaths of those whom the Law judgeth credible Persons but such Presentmens use not to be of Persons for not coming to their Parish-Church nor any other they only can speak for their Parish-Church Nor can any Grand-Jury bring in any such Presentments but for absence from their Parish-Church If they add nor to any other they make the Act their own or if it be added by any other who draws such Indictment into Form the next Grand-Jury cannot without false-swearing find it unless they personally know it or it be made good to them by one or more credible Oaths If they do they notoriously violate the Oath they have taken to present nothing but the Truth and what cometh to their Knowledg whatsoever is added to the first Presentment can be said in no sense to come to their Knowledg if they do not know it personally without new Oaths to confirm it 5. These things considered it will pose the subtillest Divines in the World to excuse Persons serving upon Grand-Juries from false-swearing in these Presentments or Indictments who do not personally know the thing to be true which they present or at least know it from the Oaths of others taken before them of whom also it is their Duty according to their Oath diligently to enquire upon what grounds they swear such a thing before they can true Presentment make These things are so obvious that it may justly amaze any understanding Person that any should have any other apprehensions Nor certainly is it possible they should if Mens common Learning in their ordinary Discourse had not banished out of the World all fear and Religion of an Oath 6. For the Petit-Jury they swear to make a true Deliverance according to their Evidence So as the Truth or Falshood of their Oath dependeth upon the Evidence they have It will pose any Person to think what Evidence twelve Men can have that another for all the Sundays and Holy-days in a Month or more hath not been at some Church or Chappel where Divine Service hath been and having no lawful Let or Impediment This every Member of a Petit-Jury who findeth any Indictments of this Nature doth and must affirm or there could be no Conviction And he affirmeth it after his solemn calling God to Witness that in this case he will affirm Truth and that according to his Evidence What Evidence is it possible such a Jury should have but Confession of the Party or the Oath of some Person who hath been with him all those days in other Places any reasonable Person may judg and we shall see anon that in this very Case of Absence from Church the Law of England alloweth no other Proof And every Petit-Jury-Man doth affirm this to be Truth upon no less than his Salvation and desireth that the God of Mercy and his Holy Gospel may so help him as he hath acted truly not according to his Suspicions Fears or Belief but according to his Evidence in saying he is Guilty Hath not think we the Clerk of the Court

thing Either the Statute 23 or 29 Eliz. or that 3 Jac. Nay the Statute determineth the quite contrary and that for this Crime of not coming to some Church And that where the Punishment cannot exceed 4 s. it saith Vpon proof made of such default by confession of the Party or Oath of Witness 3 Jacobi 4. Now will not the Law of England in this Case allow so little a sum as 3 or 4 s. to be taken from any Subject without either the accused Person 's confession of his Fault or Oath of Witness And shall any pretending to know the Law impose upon a Jury to believe Or shall any reasonable Man that can but read be ever made to believe that there need no Proof no Confession but they must find the Indictment for 20 l. or it may be 200 l. according to the number of the Months especially when the consequence of their finding it will be the Party 's paying of 240 l. every Year after it or losing all his Goods and two thirds of his real Estate or lying in Prison all his Life unless the Party accused can prove himself Guiltless and this after that such Jury-Men have called God to Witness they will give in their Verdict according to their Evidence And the Law hath in this particular Crime made other Evidence necessary and no where directed or allowed any such thing as the accused Persons not clearing himself for Evidence Do such Jury-men believe there is a God or expect any thing from this God or advantage from his Gospel when they have dared God to shew them no Mercy if they do not do that the quite contrary to which they do in an hours time Will any Divine say these Men are not desperately forsworn Let any of them bring their Pleas and let us see if they can speak sense in the Case let them produce their Divines that dare justify this not to be false-swearing and the most abominable forswearing to the prejudice of their Brother as well as the most impudent pollution and prophanation of the most holy and dreadful Name of God and what wickedness may be presumed they will startle at who in such a degree proclaim they have no fear of God before their eyes nor any belief of the Being Power Omniscience Truth or Justice of God in their Hearts 9. But they will say The Petit-Jury hath Evidence for the finding of the Indictment by the Grand-Jury is sufficient Evidence to the Petit-Jury This new Notion is so false in it self and of so dangerous Consequence as it perfectly subverteth the whole Law of England in Criminal Causes and destroyeth one of the greatest pieces of the English Liberty 1. It is a fundamental Point in our Government that unless it be by Parliament No Man's Life shall be touched but by the Judgment of 24 Men twelve of which make the Grand-Inquest and are the Jury to inquire of Facts whereof any are accused twelve make the Petit-Jury for trial of the Issue None can at Assizes or Sessions for their Life or any part of their Estate be put upon trial before the Grand-Inquest hath found the Indictment to be a true Bill So as it is impossible that the Grand-Jury as a Grand-Jury should be any Evidence to the Petit-Jury for they have no Oath of Witnesses administred to them they are only sworn to enquire and to make a true Presentment to the Court. If any Persons know any thing of their personal knowledg they may leave their capacity of Grand-Jury-Men and come down and give their Oaths in Court before the Petit-Jury and may be Witnesses but as a Grand-Jury they can be no Evidence nor have they any Oath administred to them to that purpose nor can the Petit-Jury propound any Questions to them a liberty allowed them as to all their Evidence to make a Grand-Jury Evidence is to allow the Persons to be Judges and Witnesses a thing never heard of in any just Court. The Work of Witnesses is to prove a Fact the Work of Judges is to determine according as the proof is made 2. This were to make Petit-Juries perfectly needless and of no use for if the Grand-Juries finding an Indictment be Proof sufficient Reason will tell us they are the fittest Men to determine the Fact being ordinarily both a greater number and Men of more Reason and Vnderstanding and of better Quality than those who appear on Petit-Juries And if Petit-Juries have no power to bring in Not Guilty as a Verdict upon any Indictment by them found they are perfectly of no use at all Thus this seems a new Art to deprive the Subjects of all Trials by Juries 3. The Grand-Juries who find these Indictments find them of course ordinarily without the least proof of the truth of them and know no more than that a former Grand-Jury upon their Oaths made such Presentments whether true or false is still left to a Proof before the Petit-Jury 4. The Indictments as they come to the Petit-Jury have ordinarily more in them than the Presentments of the first Grand-Jury in the Case The first Grand-Jury either presenteth upon some of their own particular Knowledg of the Thing or upon some Constable's Presentment brought into them let it be the one or the other they are only for not coming to their Parish Church No Constables will upon their Oaths present more nor can it be presumed of any Grand-Jury-Man because it is impossible for them to know that they neither came to their own nor to any other These words Nor unto any other Church which are essential words to the Charge upon the truth of which the heavy Penalty lieth are put in by the Clerks who draw up the Indictments in Form and neither sworn before or to one Grand-Jury or another So as of them there is not the least Evidence to the Petit-Jury 5. Nor is it reasonable that the finding of an Indictment by a Grand-Jury which is formed upon a Presentment by a former Grand-Jury should be allowed as the least Evidence of the Truth of the Fact contained in the said Indictment because Grand-Juries tho' by their Oath they are bound to present the Truth and nothing but the Truth and what is given them in Charge and shall come to their Knowledg yet with what faithfulness to their Oaths deserves their second Thoughts and may hereafter come to be examined take upon them to present what none of them doth know nor can know nor is made by the Oaths of any to appear to them but what they suspect or have heard from others not upon Oath counting that a thing comes to their knowledg tho they have catched it from the tittle tattle of the Town or the mouths of any malicious Persons not considering that they also swear to present the Truth and nothing but the Truth and have disclaimed all hopes of Salvation if they do otherwise than according to such an Oath Many of them have been so easily deluded to invoke