would not cause the poor Man to be paid for his shoulder of Mutton without all that ado but I after understood that were not the Forms mixt with so many such absurdities there would be little work for them at the Bar. Of the Law of Transubstantiation of the Children of the Wife into the Children of the Husband if he is within the four Seas at the time of their begetting and no probation admitted to the contrary And of Intails on Marriages Husband within the four Seas no probation admitted that the Children were not his Fiction and Falsity allowed against Truth That no probation is admitted to the contrary appears 18. E. 4.30 where Littleton says That if a Man marries a Woman great with Child by another Man whether he knows it or not knows it and within three days after she is delivered of the Child this Child is legitimate and the true Son of the Man that married her And this by a Fiction in Law and with this agrees Coke Com. 244. So here is a Father made not by god but by the Father of lies and a false Child made Legitimate and the true Child of a Father who never begot him and the true Child if he begot any before he was married without a Priest and Temple made illegitimate and a false yea no Child to him who begot him and all this held very good and sound Divinity If marriage of the great bellied Woman be in facie Ecclesiae a brazen facies Ecclesiae it must be where the Devil gives God the Fiction the truth the lie And Coke and Littleton hold it too for good Law I wonder whose Law they mean and so stiff they are in it that Coke Com. 244. saith No proof shall be admitted to the contrary so here 't is not stabitur praesumptione donec probetur in contrarium but it is the sin of Presumption from which the two Fathers of the Law do not pray as the Patriarch David did Psal 19.13 Keep thy Servant also from presumptuous Sins let them not have Dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression One of them at least defends the sin of Presumption so high that he saith 'T is presumption Juris de jure non admittitur probatio in contrarium and in fictione juris semper est equitas a meer repugnancy and contradiction which never came from the Law of God nor is consistent with it as appears Psal 96.13 For he cometh to judg the Earth he shall Judg the World with righteousness and the People with his truth And not with fictions and much less with lies so punctually forbidden James 3.14 Lie not against the truth and so severely threatned Revel 21.8 All liars shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone And Revel 19.20 The false Prophet is to be cast in amongst them who though he seems to be the greatest lier in the World yet in none greater then in this his lie of Legitimation against which must be admitted no proof to the contrary The Law of Legitimation is further That if a Woman Elope or run from her Husband with an Adulterer and live in Adultery with him and have a Child by the Adulterer if her Husband be within the four Seas when 't was begot this Child shall be Legitimate and shall be adjudged the Husband's Child and no probation shall be admitted to the contrary as appears 43. E. 3.19.7 H. 4 9.44 E. 3.10 1. H. 6.7.19 H. 6.17 Coke Com. 244. A further descant on the words of Littleton and Coke concerning the transubstantiation of Children of Parents within the four Seas And of the Law of Intails When a Common Lawyer hath for his Fees in a Deed of Jointure very formally settled Lands Messuages Houses Tenements and Hereditaments c. To have and to hold the said Messuages Houses Lands Tenements and Hereditaments with their and every their Appurtenances unto the said A. B. and C. D. and to the Heirs of their two Bodies lawfully begotten and the Priest on Banes or Licence as formally per verba de praesenti contracted the said A. B. and C. D. which he calls Marriage You shall next hear what Heirs the Priest and Lawyer confederated to do their Faeminine Client a good turn by their Fictions whereat they are both good one will expound by the Gospel and the other interpret by the Law to be lawfully begotten of the Body of this Woman aforesaid First Littleton 18. E. Fol. 30. hath said If a Man marry a Woman great with Child by another Man and within three days after she is delivered of the Child this Child he saith is a Mulier that is to say Legitimate that is to say lawfully begotten of the Body of the said Woman by the said Man that married her Yet he saith In putting the case he was begot by another man and makes a very great Fiction in the premises and contradiction in the conclusion of his Case but let it be what it will Coke Com. 244. seconds him and thinks Littleton hath spoken over conscionably or wasts time to allow three days for cannot a Woman of full and lawful Age though she sup a Virgin if she lie with the Law by her side that Night as well have a Child next Day by dinner as if she stayed three whole days he therefore takes off two of the unnnecessary days and says plainly reserving to the Case of Littleton on the Margent That if the Issue is born a Month or a Day after Marriage between Parties of full lawful Age the Child is Legitimate that is as aforesaid lawfully begot And the reason he gives is Quia filiatio non potest probari from which Premises he makes three Conclusions First Ergo probatio non admittitur in contrarium Secondly Ergo if a Man marry a Woman got with Child by another Man and he is born but one day after the Marriage this Child is lawfully begot by the married Man Thirdly Ergo if a man is on or within the four Seas that is within the Jurisdiction of the King of England and a Child in his absence is begot by another Man on the Body of his Mirmaid he left at home this was lawfully begot by the Man on the four Seas Let any Logician if he dare deny the Sequel for here are two Aristostles for the Law but he hath but one for his Logick And there is a greater Aristotle too for the Gospel the Bishop himself to second my Lord Coke Bishop's Certificate Form hath given his Certificate in his Book of Entries Fol. 181. And the foresaid Bishop by his Letters Patents and Close hath certified to the Justices here That he by virtue of the foresaid Writ to him directed Convocating before him such as of right are to be Convocated hath diligently enquired and certified the truth of the matter that in the Chappel of B. in the County of G. in the
fit opinion for Aretine but for no modest Lawyer or Physician Surely God never commanded these Precontracts nor these Adamite Interviews Marriage to be private and unknown except to the Parties themselves Con-Thalamation before Con-Templation for after Adam and Eve were Married as soon as they understood themselves they got Fig-leaves to cover their Nakedness and Nox amor Night-shades and secret places by Nature joined them rather than the sight of the Sun It is more warrantable therefore as to Precontracts to follow God who never commanded them but Popes and Priests who keep them up for their filthy Lucre and far more modest is it to make Marriage-Contracts in Thalamo than in Templo Conscius omnis abest nutu signisque Loquuntur and the same Poet gives as good further Councel to either Si piget in primo limine siste pedem the Woman may rise up illaesa Virginitate and illaeso pudore and as Boaz bid Ruth Cap. 3.14 Let it not be known that a Woman came into the floor But Si in hoc Convenimus ambo and they agree so well that Conception follows and a Child is born were there neither Priest nor Temple within an Hundred Miles yet it appears God was there who gave Birth to the Child therefore as they will answer it before him this Marriage is indissoluble by Pope or Caesar or any humane Power I conclude therefore Marriage ought by the Law of God to be Private and not Publick and Conthalamation ought to be before Contemplation if the Parties have any Contemplation at all 2. It gives the Bishop the Monopoly of all Women and their Goods For he claiming to be Judg of Marriage and Divorce above Appeal the greatest part of the Year and fittest for Marriage they cannot Marry without his License for which they must pay Money and when Married they lie at his Mercy whether he will part them again or no for what he doth there is thence no Appeal if he do admit them to live together and death part them yet no Jointure no Divorce no Thirds no Aliment unless he will vouchsafe his Certificate for which they must pay Money and this they get if they obey his Canons and are Married by a Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple if they come not to yoak themselves by his Ceremonies then he calls them Whores and exacts from them Money by Penance seeing they would give none for Fees and sets what Rates and Taxes by Fees or Penance as he pleaseth so by his Power of Compulsion to this Ceremony he Levieth his Rents on Obedients and Disobedients and sheers both his Sheep and his Goats by having the Power of Compulsion of them to this Fold of his Temple and without it the same could not be done 3. It gives him the Monopoly of Successions both in Private Families and Kingdoms For he claiming to be Judg of Children as well as Parents above Appeal they all lie at the mercy of his Judgment no Right of Primogeniture no Filial Portion no Rationali parte no Hotch-pot no Collatio bonorum no Aliment can be had although they starve unless he vouchsafe his Certificate of what he knows no more than the man in the Moon Yet could he not exercise this Power over the Children had he not Power to compel the Parents to this Ceremony of their Marriages of a Priest in a Temple 4. It gives him Power to Judg of Marriage Filiation and Successions by Fictions How great and how wicked the Power of Judging by Fictions is hath been before mention'd and the Primary Fictions enumerated 1. That intention of mind and not Conjunctions of Bodies makes Marriage P. 83. 2. That Sponsa before a Priest in a Temple is Vxor ib. 86. 3. That Verba de praesenti are Facta de Praeterito Futuro P. 84. The Secondary Fictions and damnable Mischiefs which ensue out of these Primary for as uno absurdo dato mille sequuntur So uno Falso dato mille sequuntur have been likewise before mentioned and shewn at large 1. That if a Man deflower a Virgin with whom he may lawfully Marry and get her with Child or hath many Children by her that he may notwithstanding desert her and Marry another by a Priest in a Temple deflower'd or begot with Child by another Man and the latter and not the first is his Wife and Child P. 88 89. 2. That a Child is not Sib or Kin or of Consanguinity or the Child of the Father who begot or the Mother who bare him or they of him P. 154 155. 3. That by the pronunciation of the words by the Priest that the Man and Woman are Man and Wife the Man is transubstantiated into the Woman and the Woman into the Man and two Persons into one Person and the multitude of mischiefs incident to this Fiction of Transubstantiation are shewn at large before P. 66 67 c. But 't is Compulsion to the Ceremony of Marriage by a Priest and in a Temple is the Causa sine qua non neither the said Primary or Secundary Fictions could be made nor could any of those manifold mischiefs before mention'd ensue from them and if dissentients in Conscience and differents in Convenience had but that liberty permitted which by the Moral and immutable Law of God they ought to have to Marry without the Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple the Bishop could not inslave themselves and their Posterity their Religion Liberty and Propriety to his worse than Arbitrary Judgment to a False Judgment a Lying Judgment a Judgment by Fictions had he not the Power to compel them to this Ceremony of a Priest and a Temple So that were there nothing else to be said against this Compulsion but that it causeth so great a mischief as Judgments by Fictions it were enough to make it abhor'd by God and all good men For grant but one Fiction in Religion it will Spawn a Thousand Heresies and grant but one Fiction in Judicial Proceeding it will Spawn a Thousand Oppressions and let the old Serpent but get in his Head he will draw in his whole Body à Vero non declinabit Justus Justice comes from the God of Truth and not from the Devil who is the Father of Lies 5. It causeth in the Rich Excess and Vanity of Apparel Tilting Turneaments Masking Gluttony Ryot and Drunkenness When there is a Marriage intended by a Priest in a Temple the Bride is drest like a Bartholomew-Baby or one of the Popish Saints to be the Idol of the Place then no Text shall be Preached on but her Clothing is of wrought Gold though far better Doctrine and more proper for such an occasion doth offer it self Isa 3.16 And 1 Pet. 3.3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the Hair and of wearing of Gold or of putting on of Apparel The Turk in his Frugality may rise in Judgment against Christians for one Christians Wife costs him more than
Judicial Proceeding he sits amongst the Barristers and Attornies like an Ass amongst Apes he knows not when Disputes of the Cause ought to be permitted nor when they are to be restrained then lest he should restrain the necessary he lets loose the unnecessary and casts the Reins on the Pleaders necks to run whither they will and on every Trisle multiplies Delays and as the same Author further says p. 610. Vt nunc Status Judiciorum nostrorum habet viginti interdum Triginta dilationes Dari solent eaeque ex causis plerumque levissimis nec ad Prâ—bandum solum sed ad Excipiendum replicandum duplicandum triplicandum c. Sed conclusa Disputatione Judex etiam trium vel quatuor interdum plurium annorum Dilationem sibi sumit ad pronunciandum c. nâ—que ii qui reformandis Judiciis praeficiuntur tam Crassos Errores perspiâ—iunt sed si perspiciunt defendere tamen quà m Emendare malunt Vereor itaque ne juris peritorum eundem quem Clericorum Authoritas Exitum sit habitura As now the state of our Judicial Proceeding stands it useth to give Twenty sometimes Thirty Dilations and those on meer Toys and not only for Probation by Witnesses but to Except Duply Triply Quadruply c. As likewise when the Disputations are concluded a Judg will delay Three Four or more Years before he will pronounce Sentence neither do those who are set to preside in Judicial Proceeding see so gross Errors and though they do yet had they rather defend than amend them I fear therefore lest the Lawyers come to the same end which the Popish Judges and Clerks their Predecessors in their Courts did It is certain the Soldiers in the late Troubles were so much enraged that they would have cut all their Fictions and Formalities to pieces if any would have prescribed them a Form of Proceeding which should be intelligible to them Now all these Delays rise from Disputes or pretence of cause of them and all Disputes at Common Law rise from Formalities and how can it be otherwise seeing the Writs on which all Judicial Proceedings are founded are nothing but Formalities and all Demurs and Disputes relate only to the Gist of the Writ or the Form of the Declaration or Plea which are Relative to the Writ and there can be never any Demurrer or Dispute at Common Law on the Writ of the Merits of the Cause which though one Form of Writ will not bear another may and all Equity on which the true merit of all Causes depends is clean Excluded out of all Common Law Courts because to Judg by Formalities is more profitable and raises more Contentions than the Merit or Equity of the Cause 4. It is to be Observed how contradictory these Formalities are to themselves and one another as in the Case of Colour before mention'd a meer unintelligible piece of Non-Sense for what is more insensible than a Lie or Fiction yet will they force the Defendant to this Lie and not to plead the General Issue of Not Guilty not allow him to plead a Special Issue according to his Case as a Formality whereby they take the Cause from the Jury to themselves at their Arbitrary pleasure so as unintelligibly and Arbitrarily in all other Cases they compell poor men to take or leave the General Issue at their Fancy for Formalities so uncertain as they themselves often contradict themselves and sometimes they are all divided what Plea shall amount to the General Issue and what not or what ought to be given in Evidence on the General Issue or what ought to be pleaded specially and not given in Evidence on it and frequently spend the whole Term in unnecessary long tedious and costly Arguments de Lana Caprina on Demurrers on both when if they would give but a Formulary directive and not coercive how they would have men plead men were permitted but to speak the Truth of their Case in such Words and Language as their own Sense and Reason which God hath given to that end prompts them according to the same and where it fitted not their Case to wave it all this were saved and the merits of so many good Causes miserably destroyed for so petty and pitiful insensible Formalities preserved Coke Com. 282. acknowledges that by one mistake of giving matters of Justification in Evidence on the General Issue of Not Guilty the loss of most Causes depends yet would he and others keep it up still to what end none can tell unless to keep the same Piâ— open that so many more Causes might continue perpetually to be lost in it for the gain of Practicers pleading to Juries before whom it being matter of Fact they ought not by Law be suffer'd to speak And this Rule of not giving in Evidence but pleading on the Issue Not Guilty they will force the same man in one end of the same Room to plead his Justification and not give the same Evidence and in the other end of the Room to give it in Evidence and not plead his Justification As in a Trespass for Battery at an Assizes If at the Nisi Prius he will plead Not Guilty and give his Justification in Evidence That he beat the Plaintiff in his own defence he loses all And if at the Crown-side he who hath beaten and kill'd a Robber or Thief in defence of his own Life on the High-way or of his House by Night plead his Justification and will not say Not Guilty and give it in Evidence be he never so Innocent he loses all and well he may when he is to be Judged by those who contradict themselves and are not able in their Fictions to follow that necessary Rule Oportet mendacem esse memorem and forget at one end of the Hall the Formality they Commanded or Prohibited at the other 5. The Fifth Observable may be how great a prejudice and danger it must be to the People to be forced to put all their Estates on the hazâ—rd of such Forms as the Judges themselves understand not nor can agree about but are in perpetual Contention and Contest for one with another and the vast charge they must be at to maintain these Disputes to destroy themselves which would not be if Formalities were taken away and only the merit of the Cause examin'd in Judgment Most Noble Fitzherbert the first Flower of Judges which ever sprung in Westminster-Hall we may thank God for thee from Generation to Generation who first didst dare with the Sword of Justice oppose the whole World of Enemies to Truth and to give the monstrâ— us Romish Hydra of Formality and the Devil himself the Father of Lies and Fictions that wound in Judicial Proceedings whereof they shall never be cured 2. The Plaintiff especially if a Poor man is Condemn'd without Hearing by being compell'd to begin his Suits by the Purchase of Original Writs and so likewise the Defendant This excludes the Plaintiffs of the Poor out of
Dioccss of L. the Sixth day of August Anno Dom. 1606 Matrimony true pure and lawful Per verba de praesenti according to the form and rites of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England between the said A. B. and C. D. was Solemnized by one Mr. A. V. Clerk in the presence of J. J. W. B. W. W. R. M. Witnesses in this part by the said Bishop examin'd and sworn and of other Witnesses then present the said Parties A. B. and C. D. his Wife being of lawful Age and from all other Matrimonial Contracts free clear and clean as the Witnesses so sworn and examined believe This is the Form of Certificate which carries the best Circumstances and Face of a Marriage which can be put on any But the Bishop will give his Certificate as full of a true pure and lawful Matrimony to Coke's Woman with the Adulterous great Belly who lays it down the next day though no Witness will compurgate from other Contracts and transubstantiate as well the Child Adulterous as lawfully begot to be Child of the Husband yet is not this Certificate neither free from fiction and falsity contrary to the Law of God for it is already shewn That it is impossible to make a verbal Contract per verba de praesenti praeterito or futuro matrimonio and that Matrimony cannot be before a Mother nor a Mother before Conception of a Child and that 't is impossible to make a Ceremonial Law of Marriage either of the Church of England or Rome to be the Moral Law of Marriage instituted by God and besides if there were a lawful Marriage there can be no Sequel or Ergo infer'd That the Adulterous Child of the Woman is lawfully begot because the Marriage was lawful or ought to be Successor to the Husband 's Goods because born of the Wife for there can be properly no Adultery nor Adulterous Issue born but within lawful Marriage But Logician beware the Bishop's Certificate and a Law of Transubstantiation alter the case if thy profane Reason will dispute Faith or Episcopal Infallibility in Marriage Filiation and Succession thou wilt be Excommunicated The good Woman hath the same advantage whether she go from her Husband's House or stay there for if the good-man leave her at home and march abroad himself a Soldiering or Merchandizing if still it be within the four Seas and his Stock increase and multiply at home the while more then abroad he must not be so ill natur'd as not to bear the charg of his better Factress then himself During the late Civil Wars A Souldier finding his Wives Children transubstantiated into his I was credibly informed of a Soldier who left his Wife at home with one Child and was for divers Years so long out in Service that before he returned home again his Wife had two more to increase his number at length he returned home to the Town where he dwelt and the Neighbours as soon as they understood it went in shew to welcome him home but withal to see how he would like the increase of his Children in his absence where after they had sat a while he appeared very kind to his Wife and very fond of his Child which he had left at home at his departure supposing the other to have been some Children of the Neighbours who were come in to play with his 'till a while after seeing those Children by his Fire-side to draw closer to his Wife then strangers use to do he asked Whose the Children were the Wife and answer'd him Thine whereat he was much amazed and demanded how that could be seeing he had not been at home so many Years The Wife replyed thou might'st have stayed at home then and got them thy self if thou would'st so there being no other Answer to be got the poor man was glad to take up this new Bag and Baggage when he thought to have rested For the fiction of Legitimation dared give the Truth of the Soldier the Lie to his face yet he knew not whom to send a Challenge or a Duel to In no better case had he been had he in the Service of his King and Country lost his life in a fight at Sea if within the four Seas what he had got with his own Blood must have gone to an Adulterous Blood at the pleasure of his Wife and the Certificate of the Bishop Of the Law of Intails on Marriage and the mischiefs insuing by them Law of Intails causeth Adulteries and disinherits true Heirs It is before shewen how mischievously the true Heirs are dis-inherited and destroyed by Intails to two Bodies and by Littleton Coke and the Bishops fictions on the same who in despight of Truth Religion Sence and Reason God and Nature will have the Adulterous issue of the Woman preferred before the true and lawful Children of the Man in Succession to the Man's inheritance I shall likewise here touch some other few but fatal mischiefs which the Chains and Fetters of Estates by Intails to two Bodies on Marriages whether these Intails are made by the Pontificial or Temporal Laws do cause for it is to be noted that the Laws of Theodora and the Popes which Enact That no Children shall be capable of Succession to the Father but where the Father and Mother were contracted by a Priest in a Temple is an Intailing of the Inheritance of the Man to the Heirs of the Body of the Woman and an excluding of the Heirs of the Man if she prove adulterous So there cannot properly be said to be any Fee-simple in England No Fee-simple in England for Fee-simple it self is by the Popish Law Intailed to the Heirs of the Body of the Woman begotten beget them who will and the Priest who would not therefore be married himself to a Wife lest she should put a cheat on him and bring forth a yâ—ung Lay-man but take a Curtezan put cunningly the Fee-simple cheat on the simple Lay-man and his Fils de prestre too by making a Law That none should be his Heirs unless begotten on the Body of such Woman as he should give him in a Temple Littleton deceived in Fee-simple So Littleton in his Chapter of Fee-simple and his Commentator on him understood not the words his Heirs for every Fee-simple where a Woman is married by a Priest in a Temple is to go to her Heirs of her Body begotten and not to his and let her have as many Heirs as she will begotten by the Adulterer the Husband's Land shall go to her Heirs but let the Husband who is perhaps turned off by the Wife get as many as he will by another Woman none of those shall be his Heirs For which reason in favour of the true and natural Children and that the Father might have power by Act executed in his Life-time to provide for his own especially where he found his Wives Adulterous as Britton fol. 122. saith That the Forms of Deeds of Feoffment
Title of very good if it had been put in Latine might have been more Complementally express'd Optimo had it not been a Danger lest Maximo would have been added whether the Title of very good given to man is always as great a Fiction as the Titles of Sanctus Clemens and Pius given to Popes may be always doubtful in regard Christ himself in Humility refused the Attribute of Good which is a degree under very good Luke 18.19 And Jesus said unto him Why callest thou me good None is good but One that is God but this Title very good is sometimes certain and not doubtful to be a Fiction when it is attributed to the Leudest Person known the Letter begins After my very hearty commendations to your Lordship This when there is a Mortal Feud between the Chancellor and the Lord must be a Fiction Whereas there hath been of late a Bill of Complaint exhibited into the Court of Chancery against you by H. O. Gent. I have thought good to give you notice thereof rather by these my private Letters than by awarding his Majesties Ordinary Process This if no Bill is come in is as great a Fiction and Falsity in a Private Letter as in a Subpoena and it were far fairer dealing with any Noble-man as well as a Poor man if J. O. first took his Oath of Calumny to his Bill and then made him according to the Precept of Christ an Oblatio Libelli and sent him a Copy of his Bill by his own Letter before he troubled him with a Chancellors Subpoena or Letter and made Use of them only on Probation and declaratory Sentence of Contumacy first obtained and after that obtained far fairer dealing it were with J. O. or any Poor man to grant the same Process of Contumacy that a Noble-man shall have against a Poor man and not put him to the extraordinary cost and incertainty of a Chancellors Private Letter to a Noble-man seeing by Law he ought not to receive any Private Letter from him and such Noble-man ought to be punished by the Civil Law de Ambitu and by the Common Law for Maintenance if he send any and this Justice would prevent Fictions both of Poor and Rich and bring forth Righteousness and Truth The Letter goes on and says Wherefore these are to pray your Lordships to give order for the taking out of the Copy of a Bill and for the putting in of your Answer thereunto according to the usual course in such Cases accustom'd at or before Octab. Hill next ensuing By this Prayer here is a Fiction that the old Episcopal Chancellor had an Imperial Authority over the Commons and only Precarious over the Nobles and was a Fiction if he derived his Authority from the King of the weakness of the Royal Power and of a Dishonour to it as if it was not able to do Justice to the Commons against the Nobles as well as to the Nobles against the Commons if a Sheriff at Common Law should Execute his Praecipe quod reddat and his Praecipe quod faciat whereby he is will'd by the King to command those against whom those Writs are directed by writing his humble Letters when he perceives they concerned Noble-men to pray their Lordships to do what he was appointed to command the Law makes him liable to high punishment and why a Chancellor should not be liable to the same who commits the same offence and having the Kings Process to command in his hand will not or dares not administer Equity by the same equal Process to his Majesties Subjects both Poor and Rich appears no reason or rather an higher Quanto Major qui peccat habetur by how much greater the Power of a Chancellor is extending to a Kingdom than of a Sheriff confined to a single Countrey The next in the Letter is Nothing deubting but that your Lordship will have the care and regard which appertaineth but another man may doubt whether he spake Truth or Fiction He concludes well if not in Hypocrisie I leave your Lordship to the most Merciful keeping of the Almighty from Saint A. the 9th of May 1654. Your very loving Friend J. P. Prolixity caused by Fiction The Bill in Chancery for want of the Oath of Calumny is known to be commonly a Pack of Lies from beginning to the end which is full of infinite Mischiefs and destructive to all Justice and makes it of such immense Prolixity for Lies may be infinite but Truths are few and short that it compels the Answer to be longer than it self for every Lie must be Answer'd as well as the Truth and by reason of such Prolixity neither the Chancellor as he ought to do will take the pains to read nor the Councel to be instructed in either but the Truth like a Grain of Mustard-feed thrown into an heap of Tares is lost and impossible to be found and Sentences and Decrees pass'd both Interloquutory and Final without the least Merit of the Cause Started Stated or Debated The Process of the Chancery is almost as mischievous a Fiction as the Outlawry at Common Law which is the Commission of Rebellion that on non-appearance the most Loyal Subject that is may be Feigned Proclaimed and Imprisoned as a Rebel so the Chancellor needs nothing but a Fiction to elude Magna Charta and the Petition of Right and an Hundred Acts of Parliament more if they were made to that purpose to which the Fiction is point blank contrary and destructive and as inconsistent with all the Fundamental Laws of Liberty and Propriety as Darkness with Light yet is there no necessity of it at all for where it is not necessary to take the Defendants Oath but the Plaintiff can prove his Bill by Witnesses full Justice may be done either by Missio in Possessionem where the Action is Real or where it is to stop Suits by the English Injunction or Scotch Suspension and where the Defendants Oath is necessary either for Discovery or Probation on proof made of the Bill and of the Countumacy and Sentence Declaratory a Capias may be awarded against the Defendant as after a Judgment pass'd Fictions of Latitats If we go to the Common Law Process that is as bad infected with Fictions as the Court of Conscience The Latitat is a meer Lie first it supposeth a Bill of Middlesex to precede where there is no such matter then the Defendant is slander'd Latitare discurrere when he lives as openly as any of his Neighbours and never stirs from his home the suggested Latitations are therefore Lies Then it saith De placito Transgr ' Ac etiam for if the Ac etiam be true of Debt then it is false as to Trespass for there can be no Joindure in Action of Debt and Trespass in the same Writ and so the Kings-Bench ought to have no Jurisdiction of Debt notwithstanding this Fiction except on a Writ of Error which is upon the matter confess'd by Coke himself