d assizes_, when every one was to be publicly tried
for his past behavior; and after this trial was over, certain heavy
punishments were to be inflicted on those who should have still
persisted in their rebellion, and certain high premiums were to be
bestowed as a gracious reward upon the penitent and obedient.

It may be proper here to notice, that this king's court differed in
some respect from our courts of justice, being indeed a sort of
court of appeal, to which questions were carried after they had been
imperfectly decided in the common courts! And although with us all
criminals are tried (and a most excellent mode of trial it is) by a
jury of their peers, yet in this king's country the mode was very
different; for since every one of the people had been in a certain
sense criminals, the king did not think it fair to make them judges
also. It would, indeed, have been impossible to follow in all
respects the customs which prevail with us, for the crimes with
which men are charged in our courts are mere _overt acts_, as the
lawyers call them, that is, acts which regard the outward behavior;
such as the acts of striking, maiming, stealing, and so forth. But
in this king's court it was not merely outward sins, but sins of the
heart also which were to be punished. Many a crime, therefore, which
was never heard of in the court of King's Bench, or at the Old
Bailey, and which indeed could not be cognizable by these courts,
was here to be brought to light, and was reserved for this great
day. Among these were pride, and oppression, and envy, and malice,
and revenge, and covetousness, and secret vanity of mind, and evil
thoughts of all sorts, and all sinful wishes and desires. When
covetousness, indeed, put men on committing robbery, or when malice
drove them to acts of murder, then the common courts immediately
judged the criminal, without waiting for these great assizes;
nevertheless, since even a thief and murderer would now and then
escape in the common courts, for want of evidence, or through some
fault or other of the judge or jury, the escape was of little moment
to the poor criminal, for he was sure to be tried again by this
great king; and even though the man should have been punished in
some sense before, yet he had now a further and more lasting
punishment to fear, unless, indeed, he was one of those who had
obtained (by the means I before spoke of) this great king's pardon.
The _sins of the heart_, however, wer