the Statute made in the Parliament of King Richard the Second after the Conquest at Glocester in the Second Year of his Raign held amongst other things it is Enacted and strictly Charged under great pain That none should be so bold as to devise speak or relate of the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons and other Nobles and Great Men of the Realm of England nor of the Chancellor Treasurer or Clerk of the Privy Seal Steward of the King's House Justice of the one Bench or other nor of any Great Officers of the said Realm any false News Lyes or any such Falsities whereof any Scandal or Discord within the said Realm may arise And whosoever this should do should incur the Penalty otherwise thereof ordained by the Statute of Westminster the First as in the said Statute more fully it is contained Yet the said Edmond Hickeringill the Statute aforesaid not regarding nor the Penalty of the said Statute any ways fearing but craftily designing the Good Name State Credit Dignity and Honour of the said Bishop to hurt and blacken and him the said Bishop into great Displeasure Distrust and Discredit of our said Lord the King that now is and of the great Men and great Officers of this Realm of England and also of divers worthy Persons Subjects of our said Lord the King that now is to bring the fourth day of April in the three and thirtieth Year of the Raign of our said Lord the King at Chelmnesford in the County of Essex divers false News and horrible Lyes of the said Henry then and yet being Bishop of London and one of the Prelates of this Realm of England in the presence and hearing of divers of the Subjects of our said Lord the King falsly maliciously and scandalously devised spoke related published and proclaimed in these English Words following viz. The Lord Bishop of London meaning himthe said Lord Bishop of London is a bold daring impudent Man for sending some Heads in Divinity to all his Clergy in those parts meaning the Clergy within the Diocess of London in those parts which are contrary to Law meaning the Laws of the Realm And of his further Malice the said Edmond afterwards to wit the said fourth day of April in the three and thirtieth Year abovesaid at Chelmnesford in the said County of Essex scandalously and maliciously and further to defame and scandalize the said Bishop likewise devised spoke related published and proclamed of the said Henry then and yet Bishop of London upon a Discourse of the said Bishop then and there had these other false News and horrible Lies in these English Words following that is to say His Lordship meaning the said Henry Lord Bishop of London is very ignorant And the said Edmond further craftily designing not only the good Name State Credit Dignity and Honour of the said Bishop to hurt and blacken and him the said Bishop into further great Displeasure Distrust and Discredit â—our said Soveraign Lord the King that now is and of the great Men and â—â—eat Officers of this Kingdom of England and of divers other worthy Subjects of our said Lord the King to bring but also to cause him to endure the pain and peril of the Laws and Statutes of this Realm against Traitors and such Malefactors made afterwards to wit the said fourth day of April in the said three and thirtieth Year of the Raign of our said Soveraign Lord the King that now is at Chelmnesford aforesaid in the said County divers other false News and horrible Lyes of the said Henry then and yet Bishop of London and one of the Prelates of this Realm in the presence and hearing of divers of the King's Subjects scandalously falsly and maliciously devised spoke related published and declared in these English Words following viz. I meaning him the said Edmond Hickeringill can prove His Lordship meaning the said Henry Lord Bishop of London to be concerned in the Damnable Plot meaning the Popish Plot to destroy the King and subvert the Government of this Realm late discovered By Means of which said several false News and horrible Lyes the said Bishop is not only hurt and scandalized in his Reputation Honour and Dignity and the said Bishop hath lost the Favour good Opinion and Esteem which our said Soveraign Lord the King and other great Men and Prelates of this Realm afore towards him did bear and divers Rumors and Scandals between divers of the Nobles of this Realm and great Men and other the King's Subjects upon the Occasion aforesaid within this Realm are risen and spread abroad and great Scandals and Discords by reason of the Premises between the said Bishop and others of this Realm are risen and daily more and more are likely to arise to the great disturbance of the Peace and Tranquillity of the Realm to the Contempt of our said Lord the King and great Scandal of the said Bishop and against the Form of the said Statute of Richard the Second to the Bishop's Damage 5000 l. and therefore he brings this Suit Issue Non Cul This Trial of so great expectation came on about nine a Clock in the Morning Wednesday the 8th of March 1681. To prove the Declaration only one single Witness was produced for the Plantiff namely one Samuel Harris Clerk Witnesses sworn on the behalf of the Defendant were The Right Honourable Edward Earl of Lincoln Mr. Benjamin Edgar Mr. Ambrose Flanner Robert Potter Henry Bull Christopher Hill and Daniel Howlet all except that Noble Earl Parishioners of the Parish of St. Buttolph's in Colchester and present when the Words were pretended to be spoken Actions for Words ought to be precisely and punctually prov'd and all the Words together without addition or diminution otherwise as the Defendant who pleaded his own Cause told the Court the Sense must differ except they be taken together with the antecedent and subsequent Discourse in sensu conjuncto not diviso jointly and not severally adding that he had a thousand times said that there is no God and yet that saying that looks so scandalously Atheistically and Blasphemously taken disjointed and severally from the foregoing Words are really innocent and harmless and have been spoken a thousand times by every Man that has a thousand times read or repeated Psal 14. 1. The Fool hath said in his Heart there is no God So also in infinite Instances as to say It is not lawful to love God nor to 〈◊〉 our Neighbour dissemblingly or hypocritically take away the last Words and 〈◊〉 looks scandalously and most prophanely but taken altogether no harm all but good and true and like that of the Apostle Let Love be without Dissimulation The said Harris Witness for the Plantiff had got the Words pretty well by Heart but yet did not swear them so roundly off as was expected For as to the first Words namely The Lord Bishop of London is a bold daring impudent Man for sending some Heads of Divinity to all his Clergy in these
Good Word and Recommendation But the Defendant gave them such smart such nimble and such home Repartees and so free from all Passion and unmov'd that even his Enemies and all the Hearers could not but acknowledg that as he never spoke more at one time so he never spoke better in his Life And yet to no more Fruit than if he had preach'd as St. Bede did to a heap of Stones for the Jury were resolv'd-Men never Men better tutor'd better cull'd and obsequious Paedagogue said to his Imps Ye 'ave con'd your Lessen well stroke them o'th'Head Call them good Boys and buy them Ginger-Bread There is cunning in Dawbing and a Cause slenderly witnessed had need be well-Jury'd or else the 2000 l. had not been worth a Gray-Groat no not worth a Brummingham A plain Countrey Yeoman has neither Hopes nor Fears at Court the wiser and happyer Man he He is neither fearful a Commission to lose nor in hopes of a Commission to get But values his Oath his Soul and his Conscience above all You talk of an Ignoramus-Jury in London we 'll match them in Essex with Billa-vera-Men you talk of a Whigg-Jury we can match them with a Tory-Jury Does not the London-Juries Idolize the Men of Doctor's-Commons Bring Doctor's-Commons-Men into Essex and tho most abominable contemners of Statutes Oppressors Extortioners Buyers and Sellers of Offices and they know all this is true except their Consciences be hardned yet let them come into Essex and as the common Strumpet said to the Fellow that call'd her Whore which she knew as well or better than he you Sirra Villain I would you would prove me a Whore Sirra Bear Witness Neighbours Scandal Magn. he calls me Whore Scarlet Whore bear Witness Sir Thomas Exton must be call'd too as a Witness for his Master the Bishop a very good Witness said the Judge and the Council a Man untainted they meant unattainted unconvicted as yet a Blot is no Blot 'till it be hit if I live it shall be as well as Betts and Morris But what had Sir Thomas to do at a Parish-meeting in the Parish of St. Buttolphs in Colchester No that 's true But he was not produc'd as a Witness to prove the Declaration No no a good reason why he could not swear when he was not there But he was call'd to prove some private Discourse that the Defendant had with him in his private Chamber whither the Defendant came in Doctors Commons they being old Acquaintance and the Defendant desired the said Doctor Exton to mediate an Accommodation betwixt him and the Bishop as a common Friend to both which Sir Thomas undertook to do when the Defendant had ingenuously made a private Confession to him of the truth of the Case to the very same effect that the Defendants Witnesses unanimously swore it namely that the Defendant did speak of a Printed Paper which the Plantiff sent down to every Clergy-man beginning with these Words Good Brother c. and ending with these Words Your Lo. Brother H. London In which Paper the Bishop recommended to the Clergy the Observation of the 65. 66. and 3. Canons or Constitutions of Forty which the Defendant said again in open Court were so far from being according to Law that it was Non-sence forasmuch as the Constitutions of Forty have not 65 nor 66 Canons nor above eleven and therefore it was Insolence or Impudence to lay upon the Clergy Burdens not to be born and Duties impossible to be observ'd forasmuch as it is Non-sence to bid them observe the 65 and 66 Canons and 3d of the Constitutions of Forty there is not so many and yet there is enow of those Lambeth-Canons which the Defendant said do seem to have a mark of Non-allowance by the 13 Car. 2. 12. For if the Words of that Statute leave those Canons of 1640 only just in statu quo then the mentioning the not confirming them c. in the said Statute signifies nothing at all for so those Canons would have been in statu quo altho that Statute had never been made which Law the Defendant said if the Bishop knew not it was his Ignorance if he did know it it was Insolence to oppose his Sence and Judgment to that of the King and Parliament and to impose impossibilities upon the Clergy And this Defendant confessed again that those Words he did say and if the Bishop be aggriev'd thereat he is at Liberty if he have not enough of this to bring another Action of Scandal Magnat if he pleased but not being the Words of the Declaration that and what Sir Thomas Exton witnessed was nothing as the Judg fairly told the Jury to this present Action But this must be said for Sir Thomas Exton he did his good Will and no doubt but he will reap the Thanks for the same and perhaps be the better for the Defendants Money when they can catch it but no Jusuite could equivocate more than Sir Thomas did when he first gave his Evidence against the Defendant upon Oath For he had the Words Ignorance and Impudence spoken of the Bishop which come pretty near to those Words in the Declaration Impudent Man and Ignorant Man but being not the same could not affect nor ought not to affect the Jury as the Judge honestly told them and less he could not say as to the proof of the Declaration for the all the stress and weight of that lay solely and singly upon little Harris his Evidence And for that cause The Defendant neglected Sir Thomas his Evidence as impertinent to the matter in hand but I thank you Latet Anguis in Herbâ When Sir George perceived that the Defendant had and willingly slighted it and neglected to examine Sir Thomas Exton about the Colloquium and foregoing Discourse preceding the Words Ignorance and Impudence which when afterwards confessed by Sir Thomas upon the Defendants reexamining him and quite altering the Sence to see how Sir George when he thought the Defendant had done and said all and the Plantiffs Counsel claim'd the Privilidg that a sort of Females claim of having the last Word to see and hear I say how Sir George and Sir Francis did mouth and open upon 't Here is Sir Thomas Exton Gentlemen a Man of untainted Reputation he speaks in effect the same thing and almost the same Words And yet the Judg had said before that what Sir Thomas witnessed was nothing to the proof of the Declaration but Sir George spent many Words upon it notwithstanding Whereupon the Defendant interrupted him at which he stared and storm'd and fretted at a great rate but to little purpose for the Judg very mildly bid the Defendant go on to examine Sir Thomas Exton more strictly since they endeavour'd to make work with his Testimony declared Impertinent to the present Cause now in Question as aforesaid Sir Thomas Exton said the Defendant was there no Colloquium no Discourse preceding nor subsequent to to the Words Ignorance
and Impudence Yes replyed Sir Thomas you were discoursing of a Printed Paper and the Statute of 13 Car. 2. 12. which seems to disallow the Canons of Forty which Statute you said if the Bishop did not know it was his Ignorance but if he did know the same it was Impudence to oppose his Sense and Judgment to the Judgment of the King and Parliament And herein when it was almost too late herein when he had almost forgot his Oath which so lately he had sworn to speak the whole Truth as well as nothing but the Truth herein when the Jury and the Court was possest and prejudic'd with his Evidence first given of the Words Ignorance and Impudence three hours together then indeed upon further Examination the Truth was pump'd out of him Oh! the Policy of this wicked World Some are wiser than some at least some are crafty wise to do Evil but to do Good they have no Knowledg a Craft that is easily and readily learn'd for any Man that is not a very Fool may soon arrive to be a Knave tho none but a Fool will be a Knave any Fool has Head-piece enough to be a Machiaveilian if he have so little Wit as to be a Knave and so bad a Heart as to be hard or hardned in Mischief For scarcely any Man wants Wit enough if he have but Wickedness enough to be a Knave or perfidious Then the Defendant bid Sir Thomas Exton say upon his Oath on what occasion these Words were spoken to him by the Defendant in private with him in his Chamber To which the Doctor then and not 'till then replyed That the Defendant came to him as his old Acquaintance but a false Friend to be sure that he would use his Interest with the Bishop to accommodate those Matters which honest Office of a Peace-maker Sir Thomas undertook and promised to give the Defendant the Bishop's Answer with all convenient speed the Bishop being then at his Country-House at Fullham Ay But when the Defendant came again to his Chamber to hear the Bishop's Answer Sir Thomas begun with wrinckled Brows to tell this Defendant That Did he the Defendant think that after all the Mischiefs he had done to the Bishop's Courts Ay there there it pinch'd in his late Books all the Kingdom over that the Matter could be taken up with a private Submission in a parcel of fair and soft Words Will you quoth Sir Thomas publickly and in Print retract and refute your Books called the Naked-Truth Who I replyed the Defendant what The same Hand that gave the Wound give the Cure What Vulnus opemque tulit continued Mr. Hickeringill Nothing like it quoth Sir Thomas No no replyed the Defendant you are high enough already but I 'll see you all 〈◊〉 high as Pauls first whereupon the Defendant departed from him for ever parted And let all ingenuous Gentlemen judge how un-Knight-like ungenteel un-Christian and Inhumane it was in Sir Thomas to make his Table a Snare and to be an Evidence to improve tho he could not prove the present Action of Scandalum Magnatum from Words ingenuously confessed to him in private as a Common-Friend and Mediator betwixt the Bishop and the Defendant Can any Man imagine or can it be in the least probable that any Man should give more scandalous Words against the Bishop at the very time and to the very Man that undertook to be a Peace-Maker and did not so much as take the least Exceptions against what was spoken but went to treat the Bishop to terms of Accommodation until the Defendant peremptorily refused to retract or write against the Books called the Naked-Truth the Second Part in lieu of which Retraction the Defendant did write again indeed but mended the Matter in the Black-Non-Conformist These are the dear dear Books that has cost the Defendant so dear and must be his Ruine if combined Clergy-Malice and Revenge-Ecclesiastical will do the Feat Barnaby Tak 't for a Warning neither write nor speak as this Defendant has against the vile Corruptions abominable Extortions of the Men of Doctor's-Commons Hem Heu Wo and Alas Devorat Accipiter vexat censura Columbas The Birds of Prey are never vext But the poor Doves must be perplext Or thus Make Rome there for the Birds of Prey But fright the poor Doves quite away Let the Vexations Citations Actions Articles Promotions Writs Supplicavits and Oaths of the Ecclesiastical-Men and Men of Doctor's-Commons the only Affidavit-Men against Mr. Hickeringill be Chronicled to all Posterity together with that unconscionable inhumane and outragious Fine of 2000 l. by a pick'd Jury pick'd and appointed on set purpose together with the Names of the precious Jury-men and let them pray that the righteous God do not deal as severely with them and theirs to their ruine as they have unmercifully and unchristianly ruin'd the Defendant and his Family Wife and Children God is Just not only hereafter but in this World wait and see the Finger of God in this Affair shall he not avenge his own Elect tho he bear long with them Yea he will avenge them speedily he must he will to vindicate his Word his Gospel his Christ and his Apostles publick Enemies to Prelatical Pride against all the Hypocrites that put on Religion Religion the Church the Church for a Cloak to their Tantivee-Avarice and high-flown Ambition Good God! Arise and let thine Enemies be scatter'd and let all that hate thee flee before thee A single Arm has done Wonders when upheld by God We read indeed Eph. 5. 11. that God gave some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry c. But who the Devil brought that Man of Sin that Son of Perdition into the Church 2 Tim. 2. 3 4. that sits in the Temple of God and opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God viz. the Magistrate Away Away with these carnal millenaries the Kingdom of Christ is not of this World nor the true Apostles and Disciples of Christ ambitious to sit neither on the Pinnacle of the Temple nor the Pinnacle of the Palace When Bishops begun to be very Rich then then they begun to be high-minded and to trust in uncertain Riches rather than in the Words of the living God 1 Tim. 6. 17. the Words of our blessed Saviour and his Apostles against Tyrannical and Lordly Prelacy and when they left the Word then they to clap their hands upon the tame Magistrates Sword if one would not the other should this is the plain Truth on 't and observ'd by all that observe any thing For who heeds their Excommunications their Suspensions their Silencings their Ecclesiastical Mischiefs Curses and Anathema's if it were not for the old Writ invented first by Popish Prelates and since and now still made use of to this day to eeke out their Spiritual-Weapons which every Man can take the length of
Defendant had not been over-ruled by a sort of Lawyers he would have pleaded the Words specially as they were spoken absque hoc c. And not to come upon an Issue Non-Culp against a Fellow that every Body assur'd him would swear right-down Thump and yet his Memory fail'd him for he could not for his Life repeat the first Words right nor any one time repeat them one like another and uniform But let the World judge whether any sorry Witness be not good enough when a Bishop is Plantiff and before such a Jury and such a God help it will not always be thus Let not the Tory Pamphleteers ever henceforth prate of an Ignoramus-Jury Here 's a Billa-vera Jury an Essex-Jury to a Proverb that shall give them half way and yet over-run them But all this long Parenthesis by the way Sir Francis Pemberton goes on to this Effect tho not perhaps in the very Words That the Jury had heard the Defendant's ingenuous Acknowledgment and that he must direct them to find good Damages if they find for the Plantiff saying that the Bishop of London is a worthy and learned Bishop as any in England that 's a large Place and a large Word and a large Comparison I know not how the old Arch-Bishop of Canterhury would take it if he should hear on 't and therefore quoth the Judg you must vindicate his Lordship's Reputation and give good Damages if you find the Words And they are sworn unto by one that is a Clergy-man he is said the Judg a single Witness for what Sir Thomas Exton says he told them they must not take to be any proof of this Declaration but if they find that this single Witness swears true contrary to the other six for the Defendant for he said he must say the Evidence is quite contrary one to the other and cannot both be true then if they find for the Plantiff he told them they might have some respect to Sir Thomas Exton's Evidence in Aggravation of Damages but said again very honestly that Sir Thomas proved nothing as to the Declaration but told them that Sir Thomas Exton is a Man of unstained Reputation the Judg not reflecting in the least upon the known and constant Extortions and Corruptions of Doctor's-Commons nor taking the least notice of Dr. Exton's disingenuity in being a publick Evidence in Aggravation for Words spoken upon treaty of Submission and as to a Friend and without any exception or disgust well liked of by the Doctor at least unmanly to make his Table a Snare except a Man had spoke Treason but this is the Candor of an Ecclesiastical-Lay-Elder or Lay-Vicar General For that is his place he is the Bishop of London's Vicar-General the Bishop cannot help it he has a Patent for it for his Life granted by Humphrey late Bishop of London Good doings when our Souls must be Tutor'd by a Lay-Vicar that cannot preach but has got a Patent to send us to the Devil and at his good Pleasure back again rare doings This is the Man of Reputation who is the Judg goes on unblemish'd in his Repute telling the Jury that he must say as to the Reputation of this single Evidence for the Plantiff for indeed the Cause depends wholly upon his single Reputation and that tho Non-residence be an ill thing and that is prov'd upon him and cannot be denied yet a Man may be a good Witness tho he do transgress a Statute none of us said he but do transgress a Statute some time or other Note by the way this is not the same Direction given at Mr. Rouse's Trial when for the Breach of a Statute of Vniformity the Dissenters could not be admitted to be Jury-men the Black Non-Conformist is good for something yet for since the publishing of the Black Nonconformist those new Laws are not repeated and if they are by the Breach of a Statute uncapable of giving a Verdict surely they are much more incapacitated to give an Evidence But he goes on telling the Jury Non-residence is not good it is an ill thing indeed it is but God forbid but a Man may be believed upon his Oath tho he be Non-resident And no doubt on 't 't is very true and so may a Non-conformist also surely God forbid else and with much more reason For the one sins if Non-conformity be such a Sin out of Weakness but this Non-resident whom the Judg excus'd has sinn'd three Quarters of a Year wilfully and wickedly a vast difference How many Blemishes can Episcopal Favour draw a Curtain over and hide And indeed the Judg if a Body may say so mightily mistook through want of Memory or worse in summing up the Evidence thus to the Jury for the Defendant did not examine and force the Clergy-men to swear Harris's Non-residence as thereby uncapable of being a Witness as the Judg summ'd it the Defendant was never guilty of such Nonsence and Impertinence and therefore the Judg mistook himself but the Defendant made the Clergy-men that brought to support Harris his Credit to swear his Non-residence that with their own Tongues they might swear that they themselves were not Men of Credit nor sit to be believed and therefore more unfit to prop another Man's Credit that had ruin'd for ever their own by swearing contrary things and impossible to be true namely That they never knew any ill thing by him and yet they were forced after that to swear him a Non-resident that contrary to his Oath Canonical and his Duty to God and his Flock had left them to a Log-river that cannot read his Accidence much less supply his own Cure the said Mr. Sylls The Nonconformists have not got all the Mechanick Preachers the Church of England hath got some Log-rivers Broken Trades-men and I know who But listen to the Judg how he goes on but takes no notice of what the Earl of Lincoln swore against Harris no notice of his forswearing himself for the Company of a Wench no notice of his being a Maudlin-Drunkard no notice of Harris his Design to ensnare the said Earl out of the Fee-simple of the Manor of Throckingham 300 l. per annum by a Deed writ in Court-hand which he thought the Earl could not read when the Earl intended only to settle the Mannor of Throckingham and for this piece of Knavery the Earl swore that he was credibly informed that Harris was to have if it succeeded a hundred Guinnies Nemo repentè fit improbus No Man can be a great Rogue per saltum suddenly Villany like Youth must have time to grow gradatim But the Honest Judg took no notice of the Villany sworn against this Harris and thus particulariz'd by that Noble Earl that scarce a Jury in the World would hang a Dog upon such Evidence But listen to what the Judg said to this effect telling the Jury that he left it to them But on the other side said the Judg the Defendant has made indeed a very
against all the rest of the Company who are so positive in what they heard and then swore unto unanimously and constantly like honest Men when no Persuasions no Motives no Temptations could alter them for they had all been tamper'd with and Mr. Edgar Mr. Hill and Daniel Howlet were subpoena'd for the Plantiff But all would not do to win them for the Bishop's side and make them face about 7. Lastly What Jury alive except this could against the Evidence of so many substantial Witnesses credit one single Creature that was so infamous First For deserting his Flock that he swore to feed and was bound by Oath by Law of God and Man Justice Conscience Equity and Christianity to look after and mind the Cure of them and take the Care and Charge but neglected by him three Quarters of a Year together and whilst the Fleece grows he is hired to another Flock staying till Summer till the Wooll be grown before he goes down to clip them Secondly Infamous because he had forsworn himself before this time as the Right Honourable the Earl of Lincoln there in Court testified upon his Oath When Harris was his Chaplain and having often broke his Word with the Earl and told him many a Lie he was not willing any more to trust him upon the Security of his bare Word whereupon Harris takes up a Greek Testament that lay upon the Table and solemnly imprecates by all the Mercies and Benefits that he should receive by the Contents of that Holy Book he would return to the Earl at furrhest on the next Saturday and so be ready the next day to officiate except Sickness prevented But the Gentleman came not home till the Tuesday following and then came with Tears in his Eyes that is as the Earl upon his Oath explain'd it drunk maudline-drunk And the Earl said it was some considerable time and not till his Servants took notice of it to him that Weeping was the certain Symptom of his being in Drink that as other Men rant and tear and swear when they are drunk this little Episcopal Tool always wept when he was drunk Whereupon the Earl one time when he saw him weep ask'd him What ail'd him Harris answered That he had a Sister an Apprentice in the Exchange and that he had heard sad News of her namely that her Mistress and she had quarrell'd and had some hard Words together Another time he said he wept because he had an Vncle lately dead This was over-night but the next day when the Earl ask'd him of the Quarrel betwixt his Sister and her Dame and of the Death of his Vncle at another time Harris star'd at him and ask'd his Lordship what he meant by these Matters for he could not imagine what the Earl should mean by such Questions he said indeed he had a Sister an Apprentice he had an Vncle but never heard of his Death nor at the other time of the said Female-Bickering And as for the Solemn Oath that he had took and broke he told the Earl There was a Cause for his Stay for he was in pursuit of a Girl whom he intended also to marry and he was as good as his Word in that for this Episcopal Implement has her much good may she do him Body and Bones But would any Jury that were not of Tory-Consciences credit the single Testimony of this Bishop's Engine when it was prov'd that he abandon'd all his Interest that he expected in the Mercies and Benefits of the Gospel and the Merits of our blessed Redeemer for a Fit of Wooing or in pursuit of a Wench Or set a profligate Clergy-man in competition with six honest substantial Laymen and Men of unstained Honesty and Reputation except the Tories are Eagle-sighted nimble and quick to foresee the Inundation of Popery that they senslesly imagine is coming tumbling in apace But I hope God will preserve his Majesty with longer Life than any of his Father's Children that as he is the Alpha he may be the Omega the last as well as the first of his Father's Children Thus I prophesy as I would have it not I confess according to the Course of Nature nor according to the bloody Principles and bloody Plots of Papists who as it is undoubtedly known even by them that ridicule the Popish Plot never spare any Prince that is not at least in Heart Heretical and of whose Inclination they have not good Assurance longer than they think good or can come at him I say the Jury possibly were quicker-sighted than other Mortals and could foresee the speedy Appearances of approaching Popery if all be Gospel and infallible that comes from a Clergy-man tho he be as lewd and bad as the Irish Friar Teague O Divelly but Lay-men are not to be believed against a Clergy-man this is the Council of Trent right just right nor to have the Benefit of the Clergy You must not expect it Gentlemen never look for it you Lay-men till you come to be hang'd From a Tory-Jury Good Lord deliver us That 's as honest a Letany as that Letany that used to be read or sung just before the Mass I do not mean that Letany where 's Harris with his Innuendo the Popish Suffer me to explain my self do not lie at catch and at snap I do not mean that Letany wherein was the Suffrage now blotted out and thought by the Wise who think themselves wise enough to make our Prayers for us in spite of our Teeth to be omitted and left out for fear no doubt of displeasing his Holiness namely From the Bishop of Rome and all his vile Enormities good Lord deliver us But since neither the Act of Vniformity nor the Common-prayer-Book does license us as once it did to pray so against the Popeâ— yet I will take liberty without asking leave of an Act of Uniformity or a Common-prayer-Book to pray From a Tory Jury of forlorn desperate and hardned Consciences Good Lord deliver us I once thought the Defendant might have ventur'd his Life in the hands of this Genteel Jury one Moyety Knights I 'le assure you but as Coleman said at the Gallows when his Devil fail'd him There is no Truth in Men. When Power and Interest does but plead against it there is no Oath so sacred but some sort of Judges and Jury-men will break it without any regard Ay ay the honest Lord Chief Justice Hale is dead and gone in his Room seldom comes a better came Sir Will. Scroggs but as thought unmeet discharged but to mend the Market who comes there who comes next Sir Francis Pemberton the present Judg in this Cause With whom we will as he did conclude this Trial for I have enough on 't if you knew all whatever the Reader has Sir Francis summing up the Evidence and directing the Jury to this effect namely That this Action was brought by the Bishop of London against Mr. Hickeringill upon the Statute Scandal Magnat for speaking scandalous Words of
I have made to your Lordship that all Differences as well as the Action of Scandalum Magnatum brought against me by your Lordship may be amicably composed before the utmost Extremity be tried If I had spoke the Words modo formâ as they are laid in your Declaration I know not whether upon any Submission your Lordship would find Mercy enough to remit them But my Lord if you will vouchsafe me a Hearing with or without your own Witness or Witnesses I doubt not but he or they will evidence my Innocence that I never spoke the Words as they are laid but without any Interruption or Intermission in a continued Discourse I did explain and explain and express what horrid Plot it was which I said your Lordship had a hand in viz. against my righteous Name and Reputation in the Barretry And that those ungrateful Words of Impudent and Ignorant which are odious if considered abstractly had reference only to a Discourse we had of a printed Paper your Lordship recommended to the Clergy of Essex in your last Visitation and amongst other things the Observation of the Canons of 40 by Name disallowed by 13. Car. 2. 12. Which Statute if your Lordship knew not I said you were ignorant thereof or if you knew it it was impudent to confront the said Act of King and Parliament opposing your Sence against theirs All which my Lord are not scandalous taken together nor against the Statute if true but the last Words were very rashly and irreverently spoken and I am so far from justifying the Irreverence and Indecency of the Expressions what Provocation soever I might have that I will give your Lordship what Satisfaction your Lordship shall reasonably require with all Humility and Contrition And I am the rather hopeful of the good Success of this my humble Submission because I hope your Lordship intended nothing else in bringing the Action but only to bring me to Acknowledgment of the Irreverence of the Expressions and not with a design to enrich your self by any Money of mine or undoing me and my Family Yet my Lord I doubt not but to make it appear if you will admit me to your Lordship that the Action against me is ill laid and that you wlil certainly be non-suited tho it be no Policy to tell your Lordship how and wherein at this time of Day However it will approve me ingenuous towards your Lordship and that I do as industriously avoid a Conquest as well as all Contest with your Lordship and that this Submission proceeds from nobler Principles than Fear can suggest But I have had so ill Success in all my former Applications to your Lordship that I have but little Faith or Hope in the Success of this however nothing on my part shall be wanting to an Accommodation And since Almighty God in Mercy does not send a Thunderbolt for every rash Oath or every irreverent Word against his holy Name your Lordship I faintly hope will after his Example find Mercy and Grace enough to remit My Lord Your Lordship 's humble Servant EDM. HICKERINGIL Now let the Reader judg whether any soft Concession or Submissions can mollify this sort of Men Flints will break upon a Feather-Bed but the Bishop and his Clerks near the Isle of Scilly are harder than Flint harder than the Adamant or the nether Milstone What Advantage did Sir Francis Pemberton the Lord Chief Justice take at the Defendant's ingenuous Concessions which were more than needed in the Case For there are not any Words laid in the Declaration if never so true and well-prov'd that are actionable or within that Statute but are justifiable as they were spoken And upon a Writ of Error it will appear for the Oath of the Judges is to have no respect of Persons in Judgment That the Words in all the three several Counts are not actionable nor scandalous and if so then all this Noise is like the Shearing of Hogs a great Cry and a little Wooll To say His Lordship is very ignorant 't is too true and if he be wise he will confess it as aforesaid St. Paul did and so Socrates and all the wise Men before or since Agur or Solomon one of them says I am more brutish than any Man I have not the Vnderstanding of a Man That Danger is over the other is easy For to say in sensu conjuncto nay in sensu diviso That his Lordship is a bold Man A Souldier should be so much more when he is a Souldier of Christ much more when he mounts so high as to be a Prelate he had need be bold or daring because of the many Oppositions he must expect to encounter The Apostle bids us stand to our Arms and put on the whole Armor of God and stand and when we have done all to stand Aristotle and all the Philosophers make Fortitude to be one of the four Cardinal Vertues I never heard it was scandalous before to say a Man is bold and daring if it had on the contrary been said his Lordship is fearful a Coward and then Then then indeed the Scandal magnat would be greatly scandalous and within the Statute and the Action would well lie but not to say His Lordship is a bold daring Man though you add a bold daring impudent Man for sending some Heads of Divinity in a printed Paper contrary to Law Is it not Impudence to live in the Practice and Office Episcopal acting contrary to those Methods Rules and Rubricks commanded in the Statutes by King and Parliament and contrary to the Common-Prayer Book and Act of Uniformity Yes you must say for a Bishop cannot plead Ignorance nor Frailty for then his Lordship would indeed be very ignorant The Defendant is the Man that will prove if any Body have the Face to deny it and when Time shall serve that there is a Bishop within a Mile of an Oak that has liv'd in the Practice and Office Episcopal acting contrary to those Methods Rules and Rubricks commanded in the Statute by King and Parliament and Common-Prayer Book and Act of Uniformity As for Instance He that confirms all Comers Hand over Head without Exception without Examination without Certificate without knowing that they are Baptiz'd or Catechis'd is not this abominable bold daring and impudent No great Man if he be a Subject is too great for the Law not too great to be corrected reform'd and better taught not too great for King and Parliament and their Statutes It is Treason to deny this Truth What shall Confirmation of which the Papists make a Sacrament and Protestants make an Ordinance and Statute-Law be slubber'd over against the very Design of it be slubber'd over by confirming such as have neither Sureties there nor any Witness nor any God-Father or God-Mother nor any Minister to testify that ever they were baptized O abominable What is bold daring and impudent if this be not The Canon Law says Episcopus non potest statuere contra