It is almoft incredible to foresee, when any maxim or fundamental law of this realm is altered (as elsewhere hath been obferved) what dangerous in⚫ conveniences do follow; which moft exprefsly appeareth by this most unjust and strange act of the eleventh of Henry the Seventh, for hereby not only Empfon and Dudley themselves, but fuch juftices of the peace (corrupt men) as they caufed to be authorized, committed moft grievous and heavy oppreffions and exactions, grinding the faces of the poor fubjects by penal laws (be they never fo abfolute, or unfit for the time) by information only, without any prefentment, or trial by jury, being the ancient birth-right of the fubject; but to hear and determine the fame by their difcretions, inflicting fuch penalty, as the ftatute not repealed impofed. These, and other like oppreffions and exactions by, or by the means of, Empfon and Dudley, and their inftruments, brought infinite treasure to the king's coffers; whereof the king himself, at the end, with great grief and compunction, repented, as in another < place we have observed.

This ftatute of the 11th of Henry the Seventh we have recited, and fhewed the juft inconveniences thereof; to the end that the like fhould never hereafter be attempted in any court of parliament; and that others might avoid the fearful end of thofe two time-fervers, Empfon and Dudley, Qui eorum vefti giis infiftant, eorum exitus perhorrefcant.

See the ftatute of 8 Edw. 4. chap. 2. A ftatute of liveries, an information, &c. by the difcretion of the judges, to ftand as an original, &c. this act is defervedly repealed, vide 12 R. 2. chap. 13. Punishment by difcretion, &c. vide 5th of H. 4. chap. 6. 8. See the commiffion of fewers; difcretion ought to be thus defcribed, Difcretio eft difcernere per legem quid fit juftum. From whence three things feem moft remarkable:

First, The great equity and juftice of the great charter, with the high value our ancestors have most defervedly fet upon it.

Secondly, The dreadful malediction, or curfe, they have denounced upon the breakers of it, with those exemplary punishments they have not spared to inflict upon fuch notorious offenders.

Thirdly, So heinous a thing was it efteemed of old, to endeavour an enervation, or fubversion, of thefe ancient rights and privileges, that acts of parliament themselves (otherwise the most facred with the people) have not been of force enough to fecure or defend fuch perfons from condign punishment, who, in pursuance of them, have acted inconfiftent with our great charter. Therefore it is, that the great lawyer, the lord Coke, doth more than once aggravate the example of Empfon and Dudley (with perfons of the fame rank) into a juft caution, as well to parliaments as judges, juftices, and inferior magiftrates, to decline making or executing any act, that may in the leaft feem to infringe upon or confine this so often avowed and confirmed great charter of the liberties of England; fince parliaments are faid to err, when they cross it; the obeyers of their acts punished, as time-ferving tranfgreffors; and that kings themfelves (though enriched by those courses) have met with great compunction and repentance, and left among their dying words their recantations.

Therefore most notable and true it was, with which we fhall conclude this prefent fubject, what the king pleased to observe in a speech to the parliament, about 1662. viz. The good old rules of law are our best • fecurity.'

The manner of the court's behaviour towards the prisoners and the jury, with their many extravagant expreffions, muft not altogether flip our obfervation.

1. Their carriage to the jury outdoes all precedents; they entertained them more like a pack of felons, than a jury of honeft men, as being fitter to be tried themselves, than to acquit others. In fhort,

no jury, for many ages, received fo many inftances of displeasure and affront, because they preferred not the humour of the court before the quiet of their own consciences, even to be esteemed as perjured; though they had really been fo, had they not done what they did.

2. Their treatment of the prifoners was not more unchristian than inhuman. Hiftory can fcarce tell us of one heathen Roman, that ever was fo ignoble to his captive. What! to accufe, and not hear them; to threaten to bore their tongues, gag and stop their mouths, fetter their legs, merely for defend⚫ing themselves, and that by the ancient fundamental laws of England too?' O barbarous! Had they been Turks and infidels, that carriage would have ill become a Chriftian court; fuch actions proving much ftronger diffuafives, than arguments to convince them how much the Chriftian religion inclines men to juftice and moderation, above their dark idolatry. It is truly lamentable, that fuch occafion fhould be given for intelligence to foreign parts, where England hath had the reputation of a Chriftian country, by their ill treating of its fober and religious inhabitants, for their confcientious meetings to worship God. But, above all, Diffenters had little reafon to have expected this boorish fiercenefs from the mayor of London, when they confider his eager profecution of the king's party, under Cromwell's government, as thinking he could never give too great a teftimony of his loyalty to that new inftrument: which makes the old faying true, That one renegade is worse than three Turks."

Alderman Bludworth, being confcious to himself of his partial kindness to the popifh friars, hopes to make an amends, by his zealous perfecution of the poor diffenters: for at the fame feffions he moved to have an evidence (of no fmall quality) against Harrifon, the mendicant friar, fent to Bridewell and whipped, he was earneft to have the jury fined and imprifoned, becaufe they brought not the prifoners in guilty, when no crime was proved against them, but

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peaceably worshipping their God. Whence it may be eafy to obferve, that popifh friars, and prelatical perfecutors, are mere confederates.

But what others have only adventured to ftammer at, the recorder of London has been fo ingenuous as to speak most plainly; or elfe, what mean those two fatal expreffions, which are become the talk and terror of both city and country?

Firft, In affuring the jury, That there would be ' a law next feffions of parliament, that no man fhould have the protection of the law, but fuch as con'formed to the church.' Which, fhould it be true, as we hope it is falfe, (and a difhonourable prophecy of that great affembly) the Papifts may live to fee their Marian days outdone by profeffed Proteftants.

But furely no Englishman can be fo fottish, as to conceive that this right to liberty and property came in with his profeffion of the Proteftant religion! Or that his natural and human rights are dependent on certain religious apprehenfions: and confequently he must esteem it a cruelty in the abftract, that perfons fhould be denied the benefit of thofe laws which relate to civil concerns, who by their deportment in civil affairs have no way tranfgreffed them, but merely upon an opinion of faith, and matter of confcience.

It is well known that liberty and property, trade and commerce, were in the world long before the points in difference betwixt Proteftants and Diffenters, as the common privileges of mankind; and therefore not to be measured out by a conformity to this or the other religious perfuafion, but purely as Englishmen.

Secondly, But we fhould rather choose to esteem this an expreffion of heat in the recorder, than that we could believe a London's recorder fhould say an English parliament fhould impofe fo much flavery on the prefent age, and entail it upon their own pofterity (who, for aught they know, may be reckoned among the Diffenters of the next age) did he not encourage us to believe it was both his defire and his judgment, from that deliberate eulogy he made on the Spanish inqui

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inquifition, expreffing himself much to this purpose, viz. Till now, I never understood the reafon of the policy and prudence of the Spaniards, in suffering the inquifition among them: and certainly it will never be well with us, till fomething like unto the Spanish inquifition be in England.' The grofs malignity of which faying is almoft inexpreffible. What does this but justify that hellish design of the Papifts, to have prevented the first reformation? If this be good doctrine, then Hoggeftrant, the grand inquifitor, was a more venerable perfon than Luther the reformer. It was an expreffion that had better become Cajetan, the pope's legate, than Howel, a proteftant city's recorder. This is fo far from helping to convert the Spaniard, that it is the way to harden him in his idolatry, when his abominable cruelty fhall be esteemed prudence, and his most barbarous and exquifite torturing of TRUTH, an excellent way to prevent faction.

If the recorder has spoke for no more than himself, it is well; but certainly, he little deferves to be thought a proteftant, and a lawyer, that puts both reformation and law into the inquifition. And doubtlefs the fupreme governors of the land are highly obliged, in honour and confcience, (in discharge of their trust to God and the people) to take these things into their ferious confideration, as what is expected from them, by those who earnestly with theirs and the kingdom's fafety and profperity.

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