Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	call_v	true_a	word_n	4,830	5	4.2286	3	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

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

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

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

reason to part with these Juries after such Verdicts with the same Prayer or Complement that he doth sometime part with condemned Prisoners with and the Lord have Mercy upon your Souls For not one Indictment of many hundreds of this nature are found upon any such Evidence or indeed upon any Evidence at all which is either such in its own Nature or according to the Law of England in all other Cases as also in this very Case 7. Proofs ought to be clear and perspicuous saith my Lord Cook and it is impossible any thing should be an Evidence which doth not make the Thing clear and evident Indeed none that useth to speak Sense will call any thing less Evidence Now what is there can be imagined in Nature to make a matter of Fact evident to others but either the confession of the Party or the Oath of Witness or the personal knowledg of the Truth of it to the Persons to whom it is so to be made evident Those that serve upon Grand-Juries may according to their Oaths look upon the last as an Evidence for them sufficient to present upon that a Petit-Jury may I never heard affirm'd none of them can be Witnesses because they are Judges in the Matter of Fact The Law of England indeed alloweth another conviction in this Case viz. In case a Person presented indicted and proclaimed doth not appear in Person at the next Sessions or Assizes and put himself upon his Traverse The Reason is because the Law takes such a Person to confess the Fact And it may be this is righteous enough provided that such persons have Summons to appear truly served upon them But if they have not it is the highest Vnrighteousness imaginable For though the Law supposeth all his Majesties Subjects to be present at Assizes and Sessions yet every one knows how impossible a thing it is that all Men and Women above sixteen years of age should so appear and know what is done Upon which account our Law ordereth Summons of the Party upon every Presentment and if the Party be not summoned to proceed against him can be no Righteousness for our Law condemneth none before the Executioners of it have heard him speak or at least given him an opportunity that if it be not his own fault they may hear him speak for himself Yet multitudes are thus Presented and Convicted and great portions of their Estates seized who never so much as knew they were Presented or Accused till the Sheriff and Bayliffs come and make a Seisure of their Estates which certainly is in the Officers an Iniquity to be punished by the Judge and an Act of Vnrighteousness from which every one ought to be relieved for tho the person 's not appearing if he be summoned and proclaimed and hath notice of such Proclamation may be a ground of a Righteous Conviction yet if he hath no such Summons or notice of such Proclamation no such Conviction can be righteous For it is the condemning a Person before they have heard him speak or given him a liberty to speak for himself a thing abhorred by the Heathens who had no more than the Light of Nature to guide them in the things which they ought to do and avoid But this is a digression from my Argument 8. There are some so absurd in this case as to affirm there needeth no Evidence it is a thing which cannot be proved And if the Person presented and indicted cannot prove that within the time for which he is so presented and endicted he was at some Church or Chappel and that during the time and the whole time of Common Prayer or had some lawful impediment the Petit-Jury ought to find such Indictment The Absurdities of this Assertion are so many that it is not easie to number all of them I will hint at some few 1. If the Oath administred to the Petit-Jury were You shall well and truly try and true deliverance make betwixt our Sovereign Lord the King and the Person at the Bar without any Evidence Though it would be a strange Oath for any to administer or take yet it might excuse the Petit-Jury from the infamous crime of false swearing though they found such Indictments But their Oath being to find according to their Evidence it is impossible to excuse them finding without any Evidence for none ever called Silence Evidence nor yet the extorted Confession of the Party The Law of England requireth no Man to speak any thing to accuse himself nor to prove himself guiltless unless some Attempts have been first made to prove him guilty which he can disprove 2. Again This Assertion obligeth every Subject of England to have Witnesses ready to prove he was at Church at least one time within every 28 days throughout the year if not he may it seems be Presented Indicted and ought to be found guilty The Statute gives twelve months time to prosecute upon these Statutes Suppose persons presented and indicted for absence the first 28 days in that year how many thousand of innocent persons may not be able to bring Proof of their presence at Church after eleven months any one day within that month 3. There is no such Proceeding allowed in any other Criminal Cause Is the Man indicted for Robbery or Murder bound to prove he was at another place in another company at that time when the Murder or Robbery was done before it be first proved to the Jury upon Oath that he was at that time in that place where such a fact was committed I cannot understand but by these Mens Law the very same Persons found guilty of this Crime may when they please be found guilty of Murder robbing by the High Way or any other Capital Crime if this be sufficient Evidence to the Petit-Jury that the Party accused having no Evidence against him yet shall not acquit himself by proving the Place where he was at that Time which after nine or ten Months who is able to do And these very Jury-men who are so liberal of their Souls as to find without Evidence in these Cases may one day by God's righteous Retaliation find themselves thus dealt with Nec Lex est justior ulla Quàm necis artifices arte perire suâ To allow Persons guilty of a Crime without any other Evidence but because they will not or perhaps cannot acquit themselves by proving Circumstances of Time and Place where they were after 3 5 6 10 Months time having no prospect of such an Accusation is a thing which may prove of most fatal Consequence to every Mother's Child in the Nation 4. Yet if the Law of England which alloweth it in no other Case did by any Clauses in it allow this to be a sufficient Evidence in this something might be said The Civil Power may be allowed when themselves create a Crime to set down what shall be Evidence of that Crime But doth any of the Statutes made in this Case ordain any such

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