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
people but guilty of an unlawful assembly with which thou being not satisfied they withdrew again and thus delivered themselves Not guilty according to the Inditement This gave so great a satisfaction to the Hall and the generality of the people that were therein which was very many that some manifestation thereof was given the people then present being glad in their hearts that innocent men and such as these were and those unto whom they appertained were not found guiltie and that the City thereby so far was unconcerned in a verdict against them it being to their great grief and consternation of spirit that such men for their Consciences should be thus put upon the wrack and sought to be destroyed but this their joy and gladness of spirit vexed thee to the very heart that thou wast so baffled which thou couldst not forbear to manifest and so to prove undeniably thy self what hath been here asserted viz. that thou designedly soughtst their suffering for upon the general shew that past the Hall upon the publication of the verdict as aforesaid thou as a man sensible of thy disappointment in that which thou hadst so designed and laboured to accomplish couldst not contain thy self such was the over-ruling hand of the Almighty for his truth and his people that in vehement passion as a man concerned in the contrary and so didst appear as an unjust Judge which sought the suffering of the Prisoners and was not indifferent which a righteous Judge ought to be and rather inclining which the law doth to the acquitment than to the suffering of the Prisoners saidst tthou couldst not endure to sit there and see thy Sovereigns Laws trampled under soot or words to that purpose who didst trample thy Soveraigns laws under foot in seeking to make them to suffer who by thy Sovereigns laws were acquitted and so didst demand of them whether they would take the oath of allegiance which thou before toldest them thou wouldst do if the Jury did acquit them but in this thou wast disappointed also for the rest of the Justices would not yield to it as judging it a thing unreasonable then to put the Oath to them when they vvere cleared of vvhat they stood indited by their Countrey This dissatisfied the Hall exceedingly to see thee sitting on the Bench as Judge to act so contrary to Justice for thou shouldst rather have shewn thy self as glad of their liberty the law acquitting them hadst thou been unconcerned than to have manifested thy desire to have had them to suffer and hadst thou been a wise man in thy generation thou wouldst have so done But oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his wayes past finding out he knew thy heart and therefore would not suffer thy fig-leaves to cover thee but brought thee forth stark naked to the worlds view in thy Wolfs dresse and then stop'd thee in thy course so that thou couldst not neither prevail in this of the oath yet their liberty thou didst detain who should have been acquitted and to the next day adjournedst them yet neither then nor to this day suffered he thee to have what thou wouldest upon them who bore Testimony to his name for which we glorifie his name for ever Thus passed the proceedings of the first day the next day being the 13th of the 11th month George Bishop Edward Pyot John Gibbons Nehemiah Pool George Oliver Thomas Morris James Sterridge Benjamin Cottle and John Spoor were set to the Bar and an Inditement of the same nature exhibited against them before the Jury who were Richard Codrington foreman Francis Little John Clark the elder William Loop Hump. Barecroft Walter Payne Thomas Wright Peter Rosewell John Collins Dep. Marshall John Bradford Roger Willoughby and Rich. Legg and they were demanded to answer guiltie or not guiltie to which they pleaded not guilty of the Inditement in manner and form as was therein expressed which their plea being entred the Town Clerk asked them whether they would proceed to Tryal now or traverse it they answered presently if they pleased so the witnesses were called to prove them at the meeting and thou calledst for the Depositions that were taken at their commitment as if thou wouldst have had them read the Prisoners said that there must be nothing produced in Court but viva voce by word of mouth the Town Clark said to thee it was so whereupon the reading of them was forborn the witnesses then being called upon to be sworn the prisoners desired that it might be a little laid aside because they had somewhat to say which happily might save them some labour and so they began and said and confessed that they were at the meeting in Broad mead and upon the day mentioned in the Inditement and that they were there to wait upon the Lord and in obedience to him and to testifie to his sovereignty over the Consciences of men as to worship who was Lord of all and soveraign in the conscience who was a spirit and would be worshipped in spirit and in truth not at Jerusalem nor in this mountain as Christ said to the woman of Samaria and that such the Father sought to worship him whose fear towards him is not to be taught by the precepts of men and so began to shew and would have done from the three childrens time and so throughout all Histories to this day how that there were a people that bowed not to the worships of the times but gave testimony unto and sealed with their blood the dominion that is everlasting in the Conscience and the soveraignty of him there who is Lord of all against the laws of men that sought to infringe and did usurp upon his dominion in the conscience who lives for ever and would have given reason and undeniable demonstration for this and have made it out but thou interruptedst them and wouldst not suffer them to speak but with much vehemency didst cry out that thou couldst not endure to sit there and hear a Religion instilled into the Court a Religion contrary to the laws of the Kingdome and that the laws of England were the supreme Conscience of England and suffered them not to speak further as to this ground or reason of their so being there though the attention of the Hall was very great and in deep silence though very full being willing to hear that great point opened viz. the soveraignty of God in the conscience as to worship which was so near to them all for conscience is in every man and every man would worship God according to his Conscience and would not have it dealt withall nor thou thy self to the witnesse of God in thee we speak as thou didst to them This being the matter so much in controversie onely they had so much liberty further to speak and to shew that their meeting was not in contempt of the lawes or with force and arms to
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
instructed in the case of the Prisoners that they departed before they had heard and would not return to hear what they had to say in their own behalves as aforesaid though they did not understand to vvhich the Town-Clerk reply'd to this purpose That it vvas not against any Statute but the Common Law Nevertheless the Lord over-ruled him and them having a regard to his Name and People who were Innocent of any such thing as force and armes c. both in heart and hand in principle and practice vvhich thou endeavouredst still notwithstanding to fix upon them We say the Lord over-ruled them so as that they brought in a verdict in Writing as the Prisoners heard for they saw not the Jury nor heard what they delivered which ought to have been otherwise to this purpose Guilty of an unlawful meeting but not of force and arms and to the terror of the people The same in effect as had been by all the Juries in their Verdicts as aforesaid The Prisoners understanding that a Verdict was delivered demanded What it was The Clerk answered Guilty of an unlawful assembly They said They understood it was also but not of force and Arms c. He answered It was force and arms by consequence being found an Vnlawful assembly the same which thou hadst answered in the like case before for the Clerk is but the servant of the Court But you are mistaken in the Point as before in the case of Geo. Bishop Edw. Pyott c. is declared at large Then thou didst fine them 10 s. a piece and committedst them to Prison till payment Now the Letter wherein their hard usage was rehearsed to thee of which something hath been hinted was as followeth Friend I Am constrained for the clearing of my Conscience towards God and towards Man to write these few lines unto thee in regard that on the 12th of this instant I with many more of my friends were called before thee at the Quarter-Sessions being a full moneth and more in Prison for no other cause but for being at a Meeting to Worship the Lord who will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth out of which all the Worlds Worships are We being then willing to come to our Tryal expecting that we should have been fairely delt withall and we have refer'd our cause to that of God in our Juries consciences which we knew right well would have given Virdict according to the righteous Law which ought to be a Perfect guide to all men but they being incensed by thy many false accusations and the false evidence given by thy servants carried them I mean the Jury probably to manifest themselves so wickedly and so unreasonable towards us For was it ever known that a Jury should refuse to hear the Prisonners or that a Magistrate should suffer a Jury to deale so wickedly and unreasonably contrary to Law since that it was so much desired by my selfe and others which had very much to say to them Was it not like that thou and they were agreed to ensnare the innocent Thinkest thou that the Lord will not visit for these things and that the wicked shall goe unpunished Is this for the Honour of the King or shall it be laid to his charge Remember how thy servants when they gave evidence against us how on their Oathes that they said that they made Proclamation twice in thy Name and thou reprovest them and said they should have done it in the Kings Name Yet when we were brought to our Tryal they on their Oath 's said It was in the Kings Name I declared their deceit to thee thou end eadeavourest to blinde it over by thy consequences declaredst that they being thy Officers and thou being a Subordinate Magistrate under him they declaring in thy Name it was in the Kings Name but these things will not hide thee neither doe I believe that the King will own the evil actions of evil Magistrates which by such evil consequence might be turned upon him but the Lord will in his time finde you out and make you manifest and plead the cause of the innocent in righteousness and avenge himselfe of of his enemies Friend It is well known that we are a people which are of a good life and conversation in this City and thou in thy conscience knows that we have not as to the Common Law deserved either bonds or imprisonments but if for conscience sake we must suffer it is not more then we can exspect from the unrighteous and the disobedient for they always did so and by that character are they known for saith Christ They shall hall yee out of the Synagogues and persecute and dispitefully use you and speak all manner of evil against you for my Names sake and he that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution Did ever the righteous persecute search the Scriptures and be not deceived Was it not he that was born after the flesh that persecuted him that was born after the spirit And was not he that was born after the flesh an envier and a murderer a scoffer and a scorner and a persecutor And is it not so now and was not hee that was born after the spirit Meek and Gentle and of a Lowly heart being persecuted suffered it resisting not evil but doing good for evil Search thy selfe and trie which of these states are thine for assuredly the day will come when thou shalt not hide thy selfe in pretenching only that thou art sworn to keep the Kings Laws and to put them in executions But what Laws is it that thou puttest in execution How doth wickedness abound in this City even almost all manner of profaness How doth Oathes sound in the streets How doe Drunkards reile from Alehouse to Tavern and Alehouses and Taverns and Kettle Allies swarm with profane Persons Take heed that thou art not found to turn the edge of the sword which is for the wicked and for the transgressor against the righteous and so bring innocent blood on thine own head for thou mayst remember that when thou wast speaking of the Law thou saidst it was grounded upon the Scripture then consider our indictment was not proved against us for it was false we having no force of Armes neither was we a terrour to any people and as for our meetings we know rightwel it is according to the will of God and agreeable to the Scriptures it was the practice of the S t s of old who met often together in private houses and in the fields and on the mountaines in season and out of season for the edifying of the body not having any regard to the worshipping in Temples and Synagogues which Christ prophesied against But one thing more concerning our Tryal Is it not according to the Law that the Iury should have given their Verdict in open Court in our hearing and so have been Recorded but it we never heard neither did they all appear in open Court when the
but as one Canon proof as is used to be said against all Exhortations and love in this kind the most pathetical and convincing argumentations have no place with thee but as a man hath hardened his heart against love and reproof and so must fall without remedy he and his letter were unworthily rendred in the City and it was as was that aforesaid of George Bishops put into the hand of another who had been their very great enemy and much was spoken of the Letters which caused great inquiries after the letters by some of their friends to see what was in them because they were so rendred which therefore are now made publick that all that please may see their contents as it also concerns the relation to take notice of them and let the sober in heart who have heard thereof and do now read judge as hath been said whether they were worthy of such report as was made of them And whether the spirit of sobernesse and truth did not write them and whether they deserved that which they received at thy hands But to proceed Having lodg'd the persons above named in the place of suffering and took them from their callings and occasions which thou knewest was not a little in the outward as hath been said and placed them among and as transgressors for their consciences for otherwise then as to the law of their God thou haddest nothing against them and so put them into a capacity of thy farther mischief who thus hadst reached them as thou thoughtst who never did thee wrong nor suffered'st thou by them at any time thou didst mind in thy self how thou mightest do them farther harm and accomplish thine own design upon them which thou haddest thus began in their mine To this purpose because the Sessions was now drawing on least thou shouldest be left in the lurch and thine own hands faile thee who hadst put thy self upon what necessity or ground if any let sober men judge on their fall or thine and so be laught at the necessity of which as hath been said thou puttest thy self upon or madest it a necessity to thy self when no other thing did for the new Act said it should be lawful but did not so much as require thee to put it in execution and the Oath of Alegiance was made for Papists and that for Conventicles was old and a doubt amongst the learned in the Law whether in force or not and the common Law took no notice of religious meetings or religion but the breach of the peace by some overt or manifest act or deed by force and armes or words spoken to that purpose so thou madest it as hath been said again and again of necessity which was not so in it self and for this purpose thou diddest consider with thy self how thou should have been fit to answer thy end to passe upon them and because the City was large and the prisoners had relations and dealings therein and were well known in the City least such a grand Jury should be chosen as might cast out the Bill and so blast thine enterprize in the bud thou art said to get the book of the Burgesses into thy custody and to pick out a grand Jury thy self which was not thine but the office of the Sheriff and it ill becomed a Judge to be a prosecutor and the Jury should be indifferently taken as they lay in the neighbourhood and not pickt out on purpose against the prisoner moreover it being matter of conscience It should be of men that are able to judge of conscience for how can men be Judges of actions done from that which they do not understand so a Jury it seems thou did get and the men out of those that were summoned to appear for the grand Jury pitched upon by thee were Daniel Adams foreman a new made Captain of the Militia and a man concerned with thee as a party whose souldiers brought the first prisoners from our peaceable meetings kept them on the guard without a warrant and brought them to Bridewell aforesaid George Gibbs an inveterate man against them and sometimes a Lievtenant of the Militia that had been to force our meetings formerly from which his souldiers brought away then divers and some of them then that were now to be tried and so he was of the same spirit and might well be reckoned as a party or a man that ought not to have been chosen to pass upon them William Jaine Christopher Brunsden Nathaniel King Simon Bowyer Thomas Prestwood Samuel Wedlack Thomas Smalt Captain Lieutenant to the Colonel of the Militia Regiment another of the same of whose drodigious Barbarisme exercised a little before to some of us on the guard will be mentioned by and by William Haman John Thruston Thomas Wells Thomas Stratton Thomas Edwards Matthew Stephens Abraham Barnes Richard Clifford Samuel Dobbins and Matthew Rogers These on the day of the Sessions viz. the 12th of 11th moneth 1663. were called and sworn and a charge was given them and the Bills against the prisoners which they quickly found and now thou didst set thy self as one determined to trie for the Mastery over a people that did neither wrong nor resist thee and thy weapons were thus prepared ready for thy hands and so thou didst cause the Court to be adjourned and gavest order for the prisoners to be brought in the afternoon and then thou didst arise to Eat and to Drink Multitudes were the people that in the afternoon were gathered to the Hall and the street in the which it was to see the issue of this great and before never known day in Bristol wherein men for their Conscience only to God knowing men understanding men substantial men able men men peaceable of good repute of good desert of good conversation of good example were thus ordered to be brought before the Judgment seat of thee John Knight to the rending of the City and the hearts of the sober therein to see Citizens set against Citizens to destroy their fellow Citizens and to seek their ruine and for no other cause but their Conscience to God and that in relation to his Worship when as wickedness passed without controul and met with no reproof in the gate this was indeed a day of sadness to such a day of darkness and blackness and of gross darkness especially to see thee in the head of it working it contriving it soliciting it prosecuting it making it thy business to effect it putting thy fall or rise as it were upon the accomplishing or not of what thou wast about who wast Major of the City then and shouldst have done otherwise and mens Expectations were on tiptoe to see the issue So between the second and third hours in the afternoon the Prisoners were brought as thy Triumphs and at thy Chariots wheels as we may say were dragged who unless thus bound when they did not resist thou didst never overcome the streets were filled and so