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accessories after the fact being still allowed the benefit of clergy in all cases, except horse-stealing and stealing of linen from the bleaching-grounds; which is denied to the principals, and accessories before the fact, in many cases; as, among others, in petit treason, murder, robbery, and wilful burning. Although a man be indicted as accessory and acquitted, he may afterwards be indicted as principal; for an acquittal of receiving or counselling a felon is no acquittal of the felony itself: but it is matter of some doubt, whether, if a man be acquitted as principal, he can be afterwards indicted as accessory before the fact; since those offences are frequently very near allied, and therefore an acquittal of the guilt of one may be an acquittal of the other also.

But it is clearly held, that one acquitted as principal may be indicted as an accessory after the fact; since that is always an offence of a different species of guilt, principally tending to evade the public justice, and is subsequent in its commencement to the other.

CHAPTER IV.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST GOD AND RELIGION.

I Now proceed to distribute the several offences, which are either directly or by consequence injurious to civil society, and therefore punishable by

the laws of England, under the following general heads. First, those which are more immediately injurious to God and his holy religion; secondly, such as violate and transgress the law of nations; thirdly, such as more especially affect the sovereign executive power of the state, or the king and his government; fourthly, such as more directly infringe the rights of the public or commonwealth; and, lastly, such as derogate from those rights and duties, which are owing to particular individuals, and in the preservation and vindication of which the community is deeply interested.

First then, of such crimes and misdemeanors, as more immediately offend Almighty God, by openly transgressing the precepts of religion either natural or revealed; and mediately, by their bad example and consequence, the law of society also; which constitutes that guilt in the action, which human tribunals are to censure.

Of this species, the principal are those which affect the established church. And these are either positive, or negative: positive, by reviling its ordinances; or negative, by non-conformity to its worship.

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I. And, first, of the offence of reviling the ordinances of the church. This is a crime of a much grosser nature than the other of mere nonconformity and it is provided, by statutes 1 Edward VI. c. 1. and 1 Eliz. c. 1. that whoever reviles the sacrament of the Lord's Supper shall be punished by fine and imprisonment; and, by the statute 1 Eliz. c. 2. if any minister shall speak

any thing in derogation of the book of common prayer, he shall, if not beneficed, be imprisoned one year for the first offence, and for life for the second and if he be beneficed, he shall for the first offence be imprisoned six months, and forfeit a year's value of his benefice; for the second offence he shall be deprived, and suffer one year's imprisonment; and, for the third, shall in like manner be deprived, and suffer imprisonment for life.

II. Non-conformity to the worship of the church is the other, or negative branch of this offence. And for this there is much more to be pleaded than by the former; being a matter of private conscience, to the scruples of which our present laws have shewn a very just and christian indulgence.

Non-conformists are of two sorts: first, such as absent themselves from divine worship in the established church, through total irreligion, and attend the service of no other persuasion. These by the statutes of 1 Eliz. c. 2. 23 Eliz. c. 1. and 3 Jac. I. c. 4. forfeit one shilling to the poor every Lord's day they so absent themselves, and L. 20. to the king if they continue such default for a month together. And if they keep any inmate, thus irreligiously disposed, in their houses, they forfeit L. 10. per month.

The second species of non-conformists, are those who offend through a mistaken or perverse zeal. Such were esteemed by our laws, enacted since the time of the reformation, to be papists

and protestant dissenters: both of which were supposed to be equally schismatics in not communicating with the national church. But, by the statute 1 W. & M. st. 1. c. 18. commonly called the toleration act; no penal laws extend to any dissenters, other than papists and such as deny the Trinity provided, 1. that they take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy (or make a similar affirmation, being quakers) and subscribe the declaration against popery: 2. that they repair to some congregation certified to and registered in the court of the bishop or archdeacon, or at the county sessions: 3. that the doors of such meeting-house shall be unlocked, unbarred, and unbolted; in default of which the persons meeting there are still liable to all the penalties of the former acts. Dissenting teachers, in order to be exempted from the penalties of the statutes 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 4. 15 Car. II. c. 6. 17 Car. II. c. 2. and 22 Car. II. c. 1. are also to subscribe to the articles of religion mentioned in the statute 13 Eliz. c. 12. (which only concern the confession of the true christian faith, and the doctrine or the sacraments) with an express exception of those relating to the government and powers of the church, and to infant baptism; or if they scruple subscribing the same, shall make and subscribe the declaration prescribed by statute 19 Geo. III. c. 44. professing themselves to be christians and protestants, and that they believe the scriptures to contain the revealed will of God, and to be the rule of doctrine and practice. Thus, though the

crime of non-conformity is by no means universally abrogated, it is suspended and ceases to exist with regard to these protestant dissenters, during their compliance with the conditions imposed by these acts: and, under these conditions, all persons who will approve themselves no papists or oppugners of the Trinity, are at full liberty to act as their consciences shall direct them, in the matter of religious worship. And, if any person shall wilfully, maliciously, or contemptuously disturb any congregation, assembled in any church or permitted meeting-house, or shall misuse any preacher or teacher there, he shall (by virtue of the same statute 1 W. & M.) be bound over to the sessions of the peace, and forfeit twenty pounds. But, by statute 5 Geo. I. c. 4. no mayor or principal magistrate must appear at any dissenting meeting with the ensigns of his office, on pain of disability to hold that or any other office: the legislature judging it a matter of propriety, that a mode of worship, set up in opposition to the national, when allowed to be exercised in peace, should be exercised also with decency, gratitude, and humility. Dissenters also, who subscribe the declaration of the act 19 Geo. III. are exempted (unless in the case of endowed schools and colleges) from the penalties of the statutes 13 and 14 Car. II. c. 4. and 17 Car. II. c. 2. which prohibit (upon pain of fine and imprisonment) all persons from teaching school unless they be licenced by the ordinary, and subscribe a declaration of conformity to the liturgy of the church,

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