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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43636	A speech without-doors, or, Some modest inquiries humbly proposed to the right honourable the Convention of Estates, assembled at Westminster, Jan. 22, 1688/9 concerning, I. Bigotism, or religious madness, II. Tests, and the present test in particular, III. Penal laws in matters of religion, IV. The necessity of changing and recanting our opinions in religion, V. Restraint of the press / by Edm. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1689 (1689)	Wing H1827; ESTC R20396	31,636	44

Company of Stationers no despicable nor mean Company or Hall in this splendid City one Stationer was enough for a City before Printing came up and of Book-sellers there were none but Scriveners But now they are become the Numerous Issue of the Press and enabled to make By-Laws for the Regulating their Trade which is their Lively-hood And the Question is Whether it be reasonable and lawful to hinder them of their Lively-hood of their Trade under pretence of Publique-good by shutting up the Press and stopping their Trade by excluding all that have not a Passe and some say you may with as much reason Exclude all men from the Kings-High-Way the Birth-light of every Englisk-man or stop their Mouths and starve them except they bring a Passe Sign'd by Sir Roger the Bishops Chaplain or the like to permit them to Earn their Livings There 's an Act of Parliament for it you 'll say and for that Trick I say I 'll determine nothing positively against it But Acts of Parliament are not like the Laws of the Medes and Persians which cannot be alter'd The Aegyptian Priests told Herodotus that the Sun had chang'd it's course four times within the last Preceding Eleven thousand and odd years an Aera as long before Adam as since But if the Sun change it's course sometimes and the Moon often times and Parliaments change their Acts sometimes twice in Ten Years as afore-said then surely this Act for Restraint of the Press without the License of the Bishops Chaplain or Sir Roger c. is not immutable The Arguments to keep the Press-doors shut center all in this That a Liberty thereof without the Pass of a License may prove pernicious not only to private men but to the Publique to the Church to the State. Libels will fly about to wound mens Reputations and which is a consideration of greater weight The Church and State may thus be shot at and mounded and yet like shooting with White Powder the Wound is felt but none knows whence the Bullets came This is an Inconvenience but if this be all the Argument is fallacious For as in other Trades things that are rare dear and hard to come by are the readiest Commodity so also in the Book-sellers Trade no Books vend so nimbly as those that are sold by Stealth as it were and want Imprimaturs This Restraint by Licensers will not prevent the flying Pamphlets and Reputation-Wounders we may well say it will not because by Experience 't is found it never did But if the By-Law already made by the Stationers Company were Enacted by Parliament with some additions all the Inconveniencies of Restraining the Press from Printing the best Books because it is perh●ps against the Diana of Mr. Licenser or the Craft by which he gets his Wealth will be prevented and all the Reputation-Wounders will be discovered and without further Proof brought to Cendign Punishment Namely A Law that every Author's and Printer's Name and their several places of Residence and the mans Name for whom they were Printed and who Publishes and Vends them be Printed in the Title-Page of every Book or Pamphlet And that such Printed Names shall be a sufficient Evidence as if under their own Hand-Writting provided it be proved by Witnesses and Writing that the Author gave order for it and that the Printer there named did really Print the same And that it shall be Felony or some Crime or Punishment to Print any Book or Pamphlet in other manner or to Print false Names Or with what other Proviso's the Wisdom of a Parliament shall think meet The Pope indeed has some Reason to Restrain all Printing without his Approbation License or Instruction because it is very meet and right so to do granting his Infallibility An Index Expurgatorius is a necessary and just Consequence thereof But Church of England that disclaims all such Impudent pretence what Reason can she give to be the only Door-keeper to the Press except she could also get an Act of Parliament that it shall not be Lawful hereafter for God Almighty to open any mans Understanding clearer nor to give him better Eyes then the Licenser For How many Excellent Books both in Divinity and Humanity are Suppress'd because they are excellent and too good to get an Imprimatur This made the Great Duke of Buckingham say That the Clergy have but one Vote for the Inseriour Clergy generally think themselves notably sharp-sighted in Affairs if they can but look up to the Top of the Church-Steeple and see how the Cock stands and as the Wind blows many of them sometimes Conform themselves Thus Haggards listen to the Huntsmans Halloo and Horn but seldome put their Noses to the Ground to examine the Scent For which the Huntsman Whips them smartly sometimes yet 't is all one No men are greater Vassals then small Clergy-men or at least more Oppress'd with unreasonable Assents and Consents in spight of Mathematicks and illegal Procurations Synodals c. even when there is no Synod no Visitation c. yet poor Hearts they out with their Purse and pay the Bishops Silver and the Rich Arch-Deacons Silver though some of them Pawa the Pewter-Dish for it and yet for all this V●ssallage some of them does not so much as Whimper Groan nor Complain nor Vote otherwise then as the Word is Ecchoed amongst them though at such a time as this when a Parliament can help us Thus have I seen a Step-Mother Whip the Child till it Roar again and then take it up again and Whip it for Roaring and then make it go down on its Knees ask Forgiveness Kiss the Rod threatning to give it twice as much if it tell it's Father But come on 't what will I will say God help the while Has any man in the World any other or better Commission to Preach then what Christ gave his Disciples Mat. 28.19 namely To go and teach and make all Nations Disciples by Baptizing them and he will be with such to the end of the World not with those Individual Apostles who are dead but their Successours Lawfully ordain'd to ●ue end of the World. Let any man show me a Reason if he can why a Presbyter Lawfully ordain'd and therefore Commissionated by Christ to Teach all Nations c. should need any other License And is not teaching in Print from the Press the same or better and of more general and universal benefit to all-men and all Nations then the narrow Pulpit though it stand aloft And dare any Christian prefer the Worth of an Act of Parliament before the Words of God and our Lord Jesus who has commanded all Men to let their Light so shine before Men that they may see their good Works in Print the most Excellent Universal and Charitable Good Works in the World if they be agreeable to Holy Scripture and right Reason and glorifie their Father which is in Heaven without leave or License Does not our Law-Books say That all Statutes

Holy Ghosts Words Scripture Words which if Ambiguous let us leave men to their own Master to stand or fall to their own Judgments to Consent or Dissent and never make these Impositions of Creeds an occasion of Scandal or a Stumbling-Block in our Brothers way to make him fall Will men still urge an Act of Vniformity which they themselves keep not made by a King that this present King has published whatsoever he was in his Life a Papist at his Death and made by a Parliament distinguished by a Name Eternally Infamous the Pensioners Parliament from the multitude of Judas's that sold their and their King and Countreys Consciences betray'd their Master by cheating His Exchequer going S●ips with him in his Revenue and like Ambo-Dexter-Lawyers took Fees on both sides took Money of the Countrey to be faithful to their Interest and then rook'd or robb'd the Exchequer to betray the Countrey that entrusted them O abominable Perfidy Never to be forgotten nor forgiven till a Brand be set upon them to mark them out to all Posterity for an Example of Treachery and till they truly repent which cannot be without Restitution Shall a fellow be hang'd for taking a Purse of Five Pounds value by the High-way And shall they go Vnpunish'd that do not only betray their Trust but rob the King and the Countrey too Learned Lawyers have found Treason in it If they had not been Purified by the House of Peers and well Poiz'd by the honest Patriots in the House of Commons what mischief might they not have done Sometimes we read of the Church of Philippi Ephesus Galatia Thessalonia c. There a National there a City-Church and sometimes we read of the Church in thy House all true Churches both the greater and the lesser So that the Church of England are all the Faithful Christians in England and ought not to be Vn-Church'd though they differ in smaller Ceremonies or greater Matters for in the Church of Corinth some denied the greatest Fundamental in Divinity 1 Cor. 15.12 13 14 15. without which all Preaching Praying Sacraments c. are Null Vold and of no Effect viz. The Resurrection of the Dead and yet they were in the Church and no Apostolical Decree to Excommunicate them or Cast them out How Unjustifiable then is it to Excommunicate a Believer because he Refuses to Take the Church-Wardens Oath or Sacrament or for not Conforming to some Imposition of Trivial Concern Are not they that thus Excommunicate the Schismaticks by laying a Scandal in their Brothers way to make him fall Rom. 15.13 and then by an Unchristian Capias to Imprison him till Iris Purse help him out And a Protestants Absolution after all costs Ten times more Money then is demanded by the Popish-Priests in their Authentick and Printed Table of Fees for Adultery or Incest c. So that what Ease is it to a Protestant that lies starving in a Goal after he has stood Excommunicated 40 days that it is not the Common Enemy has undone him but a Protestant-Friend Not the Brishop of Rome but one at home If my Purse my Liberty or my Goods be taken from me 't is a Cold Comfort to ease my Heart with this Melancholy Contemplation that my Country-man a Protestant did it and not an Italian Priest or to escape the Romish-Fire and Faggot or Bloody M●ss●cres that soon puts us out of Pain and yet be Crucified alive in a J●yle a Man and his House Never do we read in Holy Scripture of a Convocation of Clergy-men that took upon themselves an Authority to make Canons and lay Impositions upon the L●●…ity no not when even all the Chief Apostles were met in Synod at that only Synod that holy Scripture speaks of at Jerusalem without the consent of the Lay-Brothers Acts 15.23 And even there were not an innumerable company of Impositions and Canons Not so much as one Imposition of Creeds to be believed Nor any one Anathema or Curse or Penal Law denounced against Dissenters Yet they had the presence of the Infallable Spirit of Truth which the Church of England does not in the least pretend to and even then also enjoyned only a few necessary things Act● 15.28 And if either Church of Rome or Church of England had not a Bigoted and Priest-ridden Arm of Flesh wherewith to Fight Non-conformity and would be content with such Weapons as Christ and his holy Apostles thought sufficient they might Anathamize and Curse till their Hearts should ake before any Wise and Rational Christian would believe as they believe only because they believed it Who gave them Dominion over our Faith and Consciences What Authority have they to Lord it over Gods Heritage the Layity There 1 Pet. 5.3 called Gods Clergy especially since as shall be shown hereafter they have Erred already both in Doctrine and Discipline That late Doctrine of Passive Obedience they now Smile at and some of them together with all English Protestants have Actually Recanted Repented of and Forsaken or else we had sin'd against the great Law of Nature Self-Preservation Must we Pray against Arbitrary Government and Oppression and not use the means May we not pay men in their own Coyn and give them as good as they bring May we not repell vim vi Force with Force This Doctrine of Passive Obedience is poyut-blanck against the 39 Articles of the Church of England which Curses all that dares deny That it is Lawful to serve in the Wars And if any War be Lawful a Defensive War in defending Ours or our Neighbours Lives Houses Goods or Rights as Men and Christians is by all agreed to be the most Lawful War because it is of absolute necessity For what has God and Nature furnished Men with Eyes and Couragious Hearts and strong Arms To keep our Arms in our Pockets till our Throats be Cut We beg your Pardon Mr. Passiv● Obedience Or if you will not give us Pardon sell it to us as you do other Absolutions SECT IV. Of the Necessity of Changing and Recanting our Opinions in Religion IF any man Pope or Mahomet say he has no Sin he is a Liar and the Truth is not in him saith St. John Then how is it possible for a Man to go to Heaven except he Recant and R●pent for Heaven is fill'd with ●0 glorified Saints except R●canters No Book in the World is Faultless and Infallible except the Holy Bible for either Matter or Manner of Expression or du● Taming the thing or some other Circumstance it has some Errors or Faults in it And if this be true then every Author that writes a Book ought to Recant the same if he be a true Christian I mean the Errors committed therein for I never heard of any Christian Man as yet that ever was so like the Father of Lies as 〈◊〉 desire that any Body would Recant the Truth 's contained in his Ways Books or Works The Truth will shift for its self in spight of all Opposition at long

Affections and to be One of your Humble Remembrancers For every man is now or never concern'd to put to his helping Hand at this Dead Life and you concern'd to accept kindly the Service even of the Weakest at least surely the least you can do is to thank them for their Love and good Will though no otherwise serviceable unto you Besides A Slip now may be fatal or at best not so cureable hereafter as now and as is more particularly insisted on in the Conclusion of this Treatise I well know that in this Crisis every Politick Noddle is pregnant with Projects never at rest till it be delivered of his Minerva which perhaps proves a Maggot Yet if what is now said be evidenc'd beyond all Contradiction and Confutation other than the old Antichristian Engine a Jayl be pleased to protect the Author from such Vnchristian Vn-Scholar-like Vnreasonable Confutation until these Inquiries be oppugned with the only proper weapons in Spiritual matters Holy Scripture and Right Reason My Lords the present Bishops for the generality of them have approved themselves in this juncture not only most excellent Englishmen but excellent Christians notwithstanding the Now-Church-of England's-Doctrine of Passive Obedience without exception and the only Weapon-salve of Prayers and Tears a good Doctrine for him indeed that is uppermost right or wro●g and finding the necessity of Recanting the same some of them at least have in good time betaken themselves to a keener weapon and the rest and those the best of them are willing to come to a temper Whereby they do by Implication confess a too feavourish and hot distemper that has been 't is now time to come to the cooler and milder Galaxye or milkye way the only Way to Heaven And if any thing in these modest Inquiries may tend to our Cure no moderate Church of England man can possibly be offended except they are past cure and past ' mending to such we have nothing to say but to write Lord have mercy upon their Doors Not only the welbeing but the being of these Nations depend much upon the success of this most August and most Honourable Convention which has so many and those so great Friends and Enemies And is it not now high time to enlarge our Interest and widen the Church of England's Pale and not exclude out of the Church and the Priviledges of it the better half of the Nation Is not this Piety Nay Is not this true wisdom and honest Policy Now now I say when the Irreconcileable Enemies of our Holy Religion are by cruel and bloody Confederacy bandied and knotted together to destroy us and our Religion Root and Branch Brittain was never conquer'd but by her self How By her divided Parties saith Tacitus the best Roman Historian of the Romish Conquest over Britain smiling Dum singuli pugnabant omnes victi Is it not now therefore time to open the Church-doors as wide as Christ and his Holy Apostles opened them Shall Filthyluere Pride or Malice shut them up whilst monopolized to a few that share all the Gains though the Poor Dissenter must partake the hazzard and the Pains in our Common Defence Even Private Soldiers fight coldly without any Pay or any hopes of Reward in the Booty after Victory Very excellent men as it happens which seldom happens in such a Constitution of a Church are now uppermost But surely we are not obliged to believe all that they say who happen to be uppermost only because they are uppermost For though at present we have for the generality of our Fathers in the Church at this time very good men yet sometimes the very Froth and Skum may be uppermost And therefore if some errors in our Church both peradventure in Doctrine as well as Discipline be humbly inquired into if they appear upon moderate deliberation to be Errors must we continue in them or curse our selves to an eternal continuance therein or as in the Office of Commination in the Common-Prayer-Book say Amen still so be it Amen Is it not better to say Amend Amend For this Cause the Author humbly hopes that you will pardon the nice formality of Printing this without an Imprimatur which cannot in any likelyhood be obtained from the present Licensers if any thing here thwart their Interest and spoil their Trade To your Unbyassed and Impartial Reasons therefore the Author humbly appeals And what Book or Author would desire to live if cast and condemn'd by such Judges And who dare condemn whom your better Judgments think meet to save These following Essays are most seasonable as to the subject matter inquired into But if for want of dexterity they be ill handled yet be pleased not to discourage this well-meant and humble attempt here laid at your Feet since at worst it may serve for a Prompter to put better Heads in mind and to set better Tongues at work to discourse the point more accurately within your Walls which is now only A Speech without-Doors by Your Ready Servant E. Hickeringil SECT I. Of Bigotism or Religious Madness A Bigot What 's that 'T is a Spiritual Narcissus a Self-conceited Religious Coxcomb that falling in love with the shadows and Whimses Opinions and Imaginations of his own dear Crazy Skull in matters of Religion Espouses them to that height of Dotage that he will Bustle and fight like mad and in the Quarrel wilingly dye a silly Martyr too at least will freely venture Life and Limb Goods and Lands though he had Kingdoms to stake yet neither knowing why nor wherefore For this Spiritual Bankrupt takes up all his stock of Religion upon Trust and at all adventures without ground or reason other then Education or some wilder chance and therefore believes a Lye as eagerly and firmly as the greatest Truth and had been a Mahometan if born in Turky a Papist Moor or Jew if born in Portugal and an Infidel in China If this Spiritual Lunatick wants Power and Authority he plays his Religious Pranks and Freaques only in apish Tricks and devout Mimickry skiping perhaps from the Shop board to the Pulpit where the mad Ape makes such Faces and Grimaces quoting of Holy Scripture and Commenting thereupon as Frenzically impertinently and Fanatically as Olivers Porter in Bedlam and if a stranger that is not us'd to it should spy him there he might Swear and safely too in the words of Hosea The Prophet is a fool and the Spiritual man is mad or more properly and according to the original The man of the Spirit is mad and being craz'd with a notion like Archimedes runs skiping about Crying Eureka Eureka I have it I have found it when nothing is found but the soft place in his head But if Magistracy and Authority shall happen at any time to be possest with this mad spirit of Superstitious Lunacy Then for Propagation nothing less will serve then to encrease and multiply this spurious Issue and Bastard Minerva of their Priest-ridden Brayns amongst

run but the Errours of which no Man nor Book is free ought to be Re●●nted and publickly too if required yea as publickly as the Books that have been Publick St. Augustine has a large Recantation and a Heavenly one in Print called His Books of Confessions so the Learned and Excellent B●z● and a Man worth them all St. Paul. Confessing and Recanting his Persecuting Spirit It is not in any Mortal Man's Power to be free from Sin or Error Homo sum Humanum a me nibil alienum puto at Humanum est Errare was an old and too true a Proverb If we be Mortals we are subject to 〈◊〉 and then if we be Christians or hope for Mercy we must Recant For though we may Err the Frail●y of our Vaderstandings yet we need not be guilty of Heresie or Obstinacy in B●ro● the fault of our Wills. Thus the Church of England makes us all Recant publickly in the Church twice a Day in sober sadness if we do not Dissemble saying We have left undone these things which we ought to have done and we have done those things which we ought not to have done and there is no Health in us The most Learned and Elaborate Authors in our Age need no other Confutation of their humane Frailties and Errors than their own contradicting-Contradicting-Books his pretty to show if it more worth the while how the Dean gives the Parson the Lie and the Arch-Deacon the Bishop and how desperately they stabb themselves and are Felones de se in some sence if a Lie deserves a stab they need to other Dagger than their own which is enough to abate the Hussing Pride of the greatest S●hollars and Noblest Souls amongst us as well as to Mortifie the Bigot that is so full and puffe up with his present Notion Nay Parliaments Lords Spiritual and Temporal and House of Commons have Recanted publickly bewailing begging Pardon and asking forgiveness of the Popes Nuntio Cardinal Pool on bended Knees when frighted with the Apprehensions of Queen Maries Smithfield-F●res and which is worst of all did for fear also Recant God's Truth at least they Recanted what the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and House of Commons had about six years before by Statute-Law Declared to be Gods Truth 2 3 Edw. 6. c. 1. and made by the Aid of the Holy Ghost surely you 'll say then that must be the Bible which they recanted And so one would think indeed but it was a far Inferiour Business viz. only the Common Prayer-Book saying 1 and 2. Phil and Mar. c. 8. Seeing by the goodness of God our own Errors have knowledged the same to the said most Reverend Father Cardinal Pool the Popes Legate Therefore We the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled in this present Parliament Representing the whole Body of the Realm of ENGLAND c. Do Declare our selves very sorry and Rep●ntant Poor Hearts of the Schism and Disobedience c. against the See Apostolick c. And all this Recantation the Bishops and Parliament when the times turn'd Re●ant again about five years after in 1 Elig 1. Resuming again this same Common-Peayer-Book and setting up a High-Commission-Court c. which was for Cruelties and Oppressions Condemn'd by 17 Car. 1.2 And when the King and Parliament were offended because Bishops were too busie or too much busied in Temporal Employments Powers and Authorities they were Disabled by 17 Car. 1.27 but made Capable again by 13 Car. 2.2 What Variation of the Compass is here What Turnings and Windings and Returnings again Then Facing about as you were of which I might give many hundreds of Instances let this suffice for England And if we cross the Seas and make a Progress to Rome to the Infallible Chair we shall find that even that too stands as unsteady or more unsteady than any other In proof whereof I 'll have no other Vouchers than Papists and Cardinals and for Cleanliness sake give but a small Touch at the dirty Work. Was not the Bones of Pope Formosus digged up by the Pope his Successor his Decrees Rescinded and the poor Dead Pope thrown into Tyber for a Heretick not worthy of Christian Burial c Platina Theodore 197. and John 10.897 tells us That Pope Theodore II. made Null and Void the Decrees of Romanus And did not Pope John X. do as much for him I care not which was in the Right it sufficeth my present purpose to shew That one of the Infallible Don 's did Err and was Fallible And does not Cardinal Baronius ad an 900 on this Score cry out Alas For Shame and Sorrow that so many Monsters a horrible thing to see should mount that Chair which deserves Sir Reverence of Angels Was not Pope Bennet IX made Pope at twelve years of Age by the means of his Father the Marquess of Tuseta and could not so much as read Mass And afterwards skill'd in nothing but the Black Art by which the Letcher as Cardinal Benno affirms enticed pretty Wenches into the Woods and there Debanch'd them Well might Cardinal Barronius ad An. 1033. call him The Shame of the Romish Church Ecclesiae Opprobrium Does not Luithrand lib. 2. c. 3. tell us That the Council of Lateran did Depose Pope John XII First for Ordaining Deacons in a Stable Secondly For making Boys but ten years of Age Bishops Thirdly For Praying to the Devil to help him when he was at Dice to a lucky Throw Fourthly For making his House the L●teran-Palace a Common Stews Fifthly For lying with Stephana his own Fathers Whore. Sixthly For Drinking a Health to the Devil Does not Platina Silvest 2. An. 998. tell us That Pope Sylvester II. made a Bargain with the Devil to give him Body and Soul upon two Conditions First That the Devil would help him into the Infallible Chair Secondly That he should never die but in Hierusalem whither he was resolved never to come The Contract thus made the Devil helpt him to the Popedom Pontificatum adjurante Diabolo consecutus est hâc tamen lege ut post Mortem totus illius esset But the Devil was as crafty as a Jesuice for he cheated with an Equivocation the Pope himself who Died horribly C. Malmesbur 2.10 whilst he was saying Mass in Rome in the Church called Jerusalem I might fill Volumns with these Instances to shew that even Popes ought to change and Recant if ever they hope to be Saved for there are no good Men here on Earth nor Glorified Saints in Heaven except Recanters Honest Parliaments have Recanted St. Peter St. Paul St. Augustine Beza and all Honest Men have Recanted And must not all good Protestants then come into the Fashion of all good Men in Heaven and Earth SECT V. Of the Restraint of the PRINTING-PRESS PRinting though reckon'd amongst the New Inventions is now become an Old Trade in London and has begot one or two more Trades the Book-sellor and Stationer which are all Incorporated into a Body-Politick called The