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For when they're set at liberty,

They're from th' engagement too set free. 290
The Rabbins write, when any Jew

Did make to God, or man, a vow,
Which afterward he found untoward,
And stubborn to be kept, or too hard;
Any three other Jews o' th' nation
Might free him from the obligation:
And have not two saints pow'r to use
A greater priv❜lege than three Jews?
The court of conscience, which in man
Should be supreme and sovereign,
Is't fit should be subordinate
To ev'ry petty court i' th' state,
And have less power than the lesser,
To deal with perjury at pleasure?
Have its proceedings disallow'd, or
Allow'd, at fancy of Py-Powder?

295

300

305

great, should he keep his oath; and changes his former opinion; or any thing should happen which he did not think of when he swore, which will occasion his repentance of it.-Behold, let him consult one wise man, or three of the vulgar, and they shall free him from his oath. But Maimonides observes upon it, that indeed in the written law there is no foundation for this; but we have learnt (says he) only by tradition from Moses our master." (Mr. Professor Chapelow.) Mr. Selden makes the like observation (Table Talk, p. 112.) concerning the promissory oath or vow. See the loose notions of their casuistical rabbins concerning vows, Lightfoot's Works, vol 2. p. 703. Parker's Case of the Church of England, 1681, p. 48.

v. 306. -Py-Powder] Corrupted from the French pie poudrè. See an account of the Py-powder Court, Skene de verborum significatione. Greenwood revised by Wilkinson, 1703. p. 473. Wood's Institute of the Laws of England, p. 497. Manley's Interpreter, and other Law Dictionaries.

Tell all it does, or does not know,

For swearing ex-officio?

Be forc'd t' impeach a broken hedge,

And pigs unring'd at vis. franc. pledge ? 310
Discover thieves, and bawds, recusants,
Priests, witches, eves-droppers, and nuisance;
Tell who did play at games unlawful,
And who fill'd pots of ale but half-full;
And have no pow'r at all, nor shift,
To help itself at a dead lift?

315

v. 308. For swearing ex officio] See an account of the oath ex officio Mr. Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. 1. p. 444, 445, &c. and a defence of it, by Dr. R. Cosin, L. L. D. Apologie for Sundrie Proceedings by Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical, &c. 1593, part 3. chap. 9, 10. Answer to the Millenary Petition by the Vicechancellour of the University of Oxford, 1603, p. 25. King James's Defence of it, Hampton Court Conference, by Bishop Barlow, p. 94, 95. Strype's Life of Archbishop Whitgift book 4. chap. 2. and warranted by Calvin's practice, in the case of a dancing at Geneva, Calvini ep. 71. Farello; Bancroft's Survey of the pretended Holy Discipline, p. 312. See the opinions of the two Lord Chief Justices and Attorney General Popham, in Cartwright's case, when convened before them in the Bishop of London's lodgings: Heylin's Hist. of the Presbyterians, book 9, p. 305, 306. Collier's Ecclesiastical History, part 2. p. 626.

v. 310.at vis. franc. pledge] Frank-pledge, at common law, signifies a pledge, or surety for freemen. For the ancient custom of England, for the preservation of the public peace, was, that every free-born man at the age of fourteen years, (religious persons, knights, and their eldest sons excepted) should find surety for their truth towards the King and his subjects; or else to be kept in prison: whereupon a certain number of neighbours became customarily bound for one another; to see each man their pledge forthcoming, at all times-This the sheriffs were obliged to examine into, that every person at the age of fourteen was combined in one dozen or other. Whereupon this branch of the sheriff's office, was called visus franciplegii: see Cowell, Manley, and Chambers's Cyclopædia and Jacob's Law Dictionary.

Why should not conscience have vacation
As well as other courts o' th' nation;
Have equal power to adjourn,
Appoint appearance and return;

And make as nice distinction serve

320

To split a case, as those that carve,
Invoking cuckolds' names, hit joints;
Why should not tricks as slight, do points?
Is not th' High Court of Justice sworn

To just that law that serves their turn?

325

v. 322, 323. —as those that carve,-Invoking cuckold's names, hit joints] Our ancestors, when they found a difficulty in carving a goose, a hare, or other dish, used to say jestingly, that they should hit the joint if they could think of the name of a cuckold.

"So when the mistress cannot hit the joynt,

Which proves sometimes you know a diff cult point,
Think on a cuckold, straight the gossips cry :
But think on Batt's good carving-knife, say I;
That still nicks sure, without offence or scandal.
Dull blades may be beholden to their handle;
But those Batt makes are all so sharp, they scorn
To be so charmed by his neighbours's horn."

Batt upon Batt, 4th edit. 4to, 1694.

In the British Apollo is the following query: "When a person is joynting a piece of meat, if he finds it difficult to joynt, he is bid to think of a cuckold. I desire to know whence the proverb?

A. Thomas Webb, a carver to a Lord Mayor of London, in King Charles the First's Reign, was famous for his being a cuckold, as for his dexterity in carving: therefore what became a proverb was used first as an invocation, when any took upon him to carve." British Apollo, vol. 2, No. 59, 1708. (ED.)

v. 325. Is not th' High Court of Justice sworn] This was a Court never before heard of in England, erected by forty or fifty members of the House of Commons, who with the assistance of the army, had secluded the House of Peers, and the rest of the members of their own House, (namely seven parts in eight) that would not go their lengths. It was

Make their own jealousies high-treason,
And fix 'em whomsoe'er they please on?
Cannot the learned councel there

Make laws in any shape appear?

330

first erected for the tryal of the King: and their villainous behaviour upon that occasion, is notably girded by the writer of Dunstable Downs, (Butler's Spurious Remains, p. 104.)

This is mere trifling, Sir, (says Ralph)
And ne'er will bring your worship off';

This court is independent on

All forms and methods, but it's own ;

And will not be directed by

The person they intend to try;

And I must tell you, you're mistaken
If you propose to save your bacon,
By pleading to our jurisdiction,
Which will admit of no restriction.
Here's no appeal, nor no demurrer,
Nor after judgment writ of error :
If you persist to quirk and quibble
And on our terms of law to nibble,
The court's determined to proceed,
Whether you do, or do not plead.

(see Walker's Hist. of Independency, part 3. p. 33.) Afterwards they set it up to try several lords and gentlemen for serving his Majesty and as it was a new court unknown to our laws, so it had no regard to law in it's tryals. (see Lord Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, v. 3. p. 188) See the form of the oath administered to them upon the trial of Sir Henry Slingsby, and Dr. Hewet in 1658. Mercurius Politicus, No. 414. p. 501. Dr. South speaks of this court, upon it's first erection for the King's trial, in the following manner: (30th of January, Serm. vol. 5. p. 79) "A new court was set up, and judges packed, who had nothing to do with justice, but so far as they were fit to be objects of it-such an inferior crew, such a mechanic rabble were they, having not so much as any arms to shew the world, but what they wore and used in the rebellion-some of whom came to be the possessors of the King's houses, who before had no certain dwelling, but the King's high-way." In this

Mould 'em as witches do their clay,
When they make pictures to destroy?
And vex 'em into any form

That fits their purpose to do harm?

court, as Sir R. L'Estrange observes, (part 2. fab. 212. intitled, Great Rogues hang up Little Rogues) "The Bench deserved the gallows better than the prisoners, which is no more than a common case, where iniquity takes upon itself both the name and administration of justice." See the form of the oath administered to them upon the trial of Sir Henry Slingsby, and Dr. Hewet in 1658. Mr. Walker (History of Independency, part 1. p. 105.) speaking of the Rump Parliament, says, "should they vote a turd to be a rose, or Oliver's nose a ruby, they expect we should swear to it, and fight for it: this legislative den of thieves create new courts of justice, neither founded upon law nor prescription." And in part 2, p. 87. he calls this court, The New Thing. See part 3, p. 9. ib. p. 14, &c. p. 41, 42, 43, &c.

v. 331. Mould'em as witches do their clay] Buchanan mentions this kind of witchcraft, (Rer. Scoticar. lib. 6. cap. 21.) Veneficarum ad Regem Duffum Artificium: ejus effigiem ceream lento igne torrentem. Dr. Dee (vid. Append. J. Glastoniens. Chronic. 1726, p. 52.) speaks of such a practice upon Queen Elizabeth. "My careful and faithful endeavour was with great speed required to prevent the mischief which divers of her Majesty's privy council suspected to be intended against her Majesty's person, by means of a certain image of wax, with a great pin stuck in the breast of it, in Great Lincoln's Inn Fields, wherein I did satisfy her Majesty's desire, and the lords of the honourable privy council in few hours, in godly and artful manner." Of this kind was the incantation of Elinor Cobham, to take off Henry the Sixth. (Michael Drayton's Heroical Epistles, p. 55.) An account of an incantation by Amy Simson, and other nine witches in Scotland to destroy King James the Sixth; Sir J. Melvil's Memoirs, p. 194. and an attempt of this kind upon the life of Sir James Maxwell and others; Glanvil's Sadducismus Triumphatus, p. 291. 137, 138. (See more, Chaucer's Third Book of Fame, 1602, fol. 267. Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, book 12. p. 257, &c.) To this kind of incantation Dr. Heywood alludes, Hierarchie of Angels, book 4. p. 447.

VOL. II.

The school of Paris doth that art thus tax,
Those images of metal, or of wax,
Or other matter wheresoever sought
Whether by certain constellations wrought;

H

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