CHAPTER VI (5)

After I had got a copy of the indictment, I went to London, visiting Friends as I went. When I came there, some that were earnest to get me out of the hands of those envious justices, that sought to premunire me at Worcester, would needs be tampering again, to bring me before the judges of the King’s Bench: whereupon I was brought again by a habeas corpus before them. I tendered them a paper, in which was contained what I could say instead of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, as follows:—

“This I do in the truth, and in the presence of God declare, that King Charles the Second is lawful king of this realm, and of all other his dominions; that he was brought in, and set up king over this realm by the power of God: and I have nothing but love and goodwill to him and all his subjects, and desire his prosperity and eternal good. I do utterly abhor and deny the Pope’s power and supremacy, and all his superstitions and idolatrous inventions: and do affirm, that he hath no power to absolve sin. I do abhor and detest his murdering of princes or other people, by plots or contrivances. And likewise I do deny all plots and contrivances, and plotters and contrivers against the king and his subjects; knowing them to be the works of darkness, the fruits of an evil spirit, against the peace of the kingdom, and not from the Spirit of God, the fruit of which is love. I dare not take an oath, because it is forbidden by Christ and the apostle; but if I break my Yea or Nay, let me suffer the same penalty as they that break their oaths.”

But the business being so far proceeded in at Worcester, they would not meddle in it, but left me to appear again before the justices, at the next general quarter-sessions at Worcester.

Meanwhile the Yearly Meeting of Friends came on, at which (through the liberty granted me till the sessions) I was present, and exceedingly glorious the meetings were beyond expression; blessed be the Lord.

After the Yearly Meeting I set forward for Worcester, the sessions drawing on, which were held in the 5th month. When I was called to the bar, and the indictment read, some scruple arising among the jury concerning it, the judge of the court, Justice Street, caused the oaths to be read and tendered to me again. I told him, “I came now to try the traverse of my indictment, and that his tendering me the oaths anew, was a new snare.” I desired him to answer me a question or two; and asked him, “whether the oaths were to be tendered to the king’s subjects, or to the subjects of foreign princes?” He said, “to the subjects of this realm.” “Then,” said I, “you have not named me a subject in the indictment, and therefore have not brought me within the statute.” The judge cried, “Read the oath to him:” I said, “I require justice.” Again I asked him, “Whether the sessions ought not to have been held for the king and the body of the county?” He said, “Yes.” “Then,” said I, “you have there left the king out of the indictment; how then can you proceed upon this indictment to a trial between the king and me, seeing the king is left out?” He said, “the king was in before.” But I told him, “the king’s name being left out, here was a great error in the indictment, and sufficient, as I was informed, to quash it. Besides,” I told him, “that I was committed by the name of George Fox, of London; but now I was indicted by the name of George Fox, of Tredington, in the county of Worcester: and I wished the jury to consider, how they could find me guilty upon that indictment, seeing I was not of the place the indictment mentioned?” The judge did not deny that there were errors in the indictment; but said, “I might take my remedy in the proper place.” I answered, “Ye know we are a people that suffer all things, and bear all things; and therefore ye thus use us, because we cannot revenge ourselves; but we leave our cause to the Lord.” The judge said, “The oath has been tendered to you several times, and we will have some satisfaction from you concerning the oath.” I offered them the same declaration instead of the oath, which I had offered to the judges above; but it would not be accepted.

Then I desired to know, seeing they put the oath anew to me, whether the indictment was quashed or not? Instead of answering me, the judge told the jury, “they might go out.” Some of the jury were not satisfied; whereupon the judge told them, “they had heard a man swear that the oath was tendered to me the last sessions:” and then he told them what they should do. I told him, “he should leave the jury to their own consciences.” However, the jury, being put on by him, went forth, and soon came in again, and found me guilty. I asked the jury “how they could satisfy themselves to find me guilty upon that indictment, which was laid so false, and had so many errors in it?” They could make but little answer; yet one, who seemed to be the worst of them, would have taken me by the hand; but I put him by, saying, “How now Judas, hast thou betrayed me, and dost thou now come with a kiss?” So I bid him and them repent. Then the judge began to tell me, “how favourable the court had been to me.” I asked him, “how he could say so? Was ever any man worse dealt by than I had been in this case, who was stopped in my journey, when travelling upon my lawful occasions, and imprisoned without cause; and now had the oaths put to me only for a snare?” And I desired him to “answer me in the presence of the Lord, in whose presence we all were, whether this oath was not tendered me in envy?” He would not answer that, but said, “Would you had never come here to trouble us and the country.” I told him, “I came not thither of myself, but was brought, being stopped in my journey. I did not trouble them, but they had brought trouble upon themselves.” Then the judge told me, “what a sad sentence he had to tell me.” I asked him, “whether what he was going to speak was by way of passing sentence, or of information? For,” I told him, “I had many things to say, and more errors to assign in the indictment, besides those I had already mentioned, to stop him from giving sentence against me upon that indictment.” He said, “he was going to show me the danger of a premunire, which was the loss of my liberty, and of all my goods and chattels, and to endure imprisonment during life.” But he said, “he did not deliver this as the sentence of the court upon me, but as an admonition to me.” Then he bid the jailer take me away. I expected to be called again to hear the sentence; but when I was gone, the clerk of the peace (whose name was Twittey) asked him, as I was informed, “whether that which he had spoken to me should stand for sentence?” And he, consulting with some of the justices, told him, “Yes, that was the sentence, and should stand.” This was done behind my back, to save himself from shame in the face of the country.

Many of the justices, and the generality of the people, were moderate and civil; and John Ashley, a lawyer, was very friendly, both the time before and now, speaking on my behalf, and pleading the errors of the indictment for me; but Justice Street, who was the judge of the court, would not regard, but overruled all. This Justice Street said to some Friends in the morning before my trial, “that if he had been upon the bench the first sessions, he would not have tendered me the oath; but if I had been convicted of being at a conventicle, he would have proceeded against me according to that law; and that he was sorry that ever I came before him;” and yet he maliciously tendered the oath to me in the court again, when I was to have tried my traverse upon the indictment. But the Lord pleaded my cause, and met with both him and Justice Simpson, who first ensnared me with the oath at the first sessions; for Simpson’s son was arraigned not long after, at the same bar, for murder. And Street, who, as he came down from London, after the judges had returned me back from the King’s Bench to Worcester, said, “Now I was returned to them, I should lie in prison and rot,” had his daughter, whom he so doted on that she was called his idol, brought dead from London in a hearse, to the same inn where he spoke those words, and brought to Worcester to be buried within a few days after. People took notice of the hand of God, how sudden it was upon him; but it rather hardened than tendered him, as his conduct afterwards showed.

After I was returned to prison, several came to see me; and amongst others, the Earl of Salisbury’s son, who was very loving, and troubled that they had dealt so wickedly by me. He stayed about two hours with me, and took a copy of the errors in the indictment in writing.

The sessions being now over, and I fixed in prison by a premunire, my wife came out of the North to be with me; and the assizes coming on, in the sixth month, the state of my case being drawn up in writing, she and Thomas Lower delivered it to Judge Wild. In it were set forth the occasion of my journey; the manner of my being taken and imprisoned; the proceedings of the several sessions against me; and the errors in the indictment by which I was premunired. When the judge had read it, he shook his head, and said, “we might try the validity or invalidity of the errors, if we would;” and that was all they could get from him.

While I lay in prison, it came upon me to state our principle to the king; not with particular relation to my own sufferings, but for his better information concerning our principle, and us as a people.

“To the King.

“The principle of the Quakers is the Spirit of Christ, who died for us, and is risen for our justification; by which we know that we are his. He dwelleth in us by his Spirit; and by the Spirit of Christ we are led out of unrighteousness and ungodliness. It brings us to deny all plottings and contrivings against the king, or any man. The Spirit of Christ brings us to deny all manner of ungodliness, as lying, theft, murder, adultery, fornication, and all uncleanness, debauchery, malice, hatred, deceit, cozening, and cheating whatsoever, and the devil and his works. The Spirit of Christ brings us to seek the peace and good of all men, and to live peaceably; and leads us from such evil works and actions as the magistrates’ sword takes hold upon. Our desire and labour are, that all, who profess themselves Christians, may walk in the Spirit of Christ; that they, through the Spirit, may mortify the deeds of the flesh, and by the sword of the Spirit cut down sin and evil in themselves. Then the judges and other magistrates would not have so much work in punishing sin in the kingdom; neither then need kings or princes fear any of their subjects; if they all walked in the Spirit of Christ; for the fruits of the Spirit are love, righteousness, goodness, temperance, &c.

“If all, that profess themselves Christians, walked in the Spirit of Christ, and by it did mortify sin and evil, it would be a great ease to the magistrates and rulers, and would free them from much trouble; for it would lead all “to do unto others, as they would have others to do unto them;” and so the royal law of liberty would be fulfilled. For if all, that are called Christians, did walk in the Spirit of Christ, by it to have the evil spirits and its fruits mortified and cut down in them; then, not being led by the evil spirit, but by the good Spirit of Christ, the fruits of the good Spirit would appear in all. For as people are led by the good Spirit of Christ, it leads them out of sin and evil, which the magistrates’ sword takes hold of, and so would be an ease to the magistrates. But as people err from this good Spirit of Christ, and follow the evil spirit, which leads them into sin and evil; that spirit brings the magistrate into much trouble, to execute the law upon the sinners and transgressors of the good Spirit. That Spirit which leads people from all manner of sin and evil, is one with the magistrates’ power, and with the righteous law; for the law being added because of transgression, that Spirit that leads out of transgression, must needs be one with that law that is against transgressors. So that Spirit which leads out of transgression, is the good Spirit of Christ, and is one with the magistrates in the higher power, and owns it and them; but that spirit which leads into transgression, is the bad spirit, is against the law, against the magistrates, and makes them much troublesome work.