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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43613	The ceremony-monger his character in five chapters ... with some remarks (in the introduction) upon the new-star-chamber, or late course of the Court of King's Bench, of the nature of a libel, and scandalum magnatum, and in conclusion, hinting at some mathematical untruths and escapes in the common-prayer book, both as to doctrine and discipline, and what bishops, were, are, and should be, and concerning ordination, humbly proposed to the consideration of the Parliament / by E. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1689 (1689)	Wing H1799; ESTC R20364	90,871	81

the T●uth whatever be the Tune And why do all the People say this Verie There 's no Rule no Rubrick for it Or is it because the Ministers are wise and know better things and therefore will give the loolish unthinking M●mick's leave to tell that false Story But I am quite Tyced It is end●ess to find fault I had much rather see it amended the Common-Prayer Book is the more Amiable to me as Old Gold is more acceptable than New it has been long Tryed and has endured the Test pretty well which is more than can be said of any other Desultory Prayers that like New Guinees may many times be Counterfeit but as the most Tryed Gold will well endure to it may sometimes need the Refiners Fire But as for the said Black-Guard of Sumners Surr●gaces Apparitor's Informers Registers c. that Live by the Sins of the People it is as much beyond the Art of Man to 'mend them as it is to 'mend a broken Cob-Web and when you have u●'d your utmost skill it will not quit cost I have Studied the Point and yet am I not one jot the better Artist at it than I was Seven Years ago when my advice in my Naked Truth was to dress them according to the Vertuoso's Receipt to dress 〈◊〉 viz After you have wash't them in several Waters then Salt them Pepper them and lastly the surest way to prevent their Maliguity is to throw them on the Dunghill A Racr To bring the Pillory in D●sgrace Fruges consumere nati as if they were born for no other end but like Rats M●ce Polcats and other Vermin to cat up the Victuals Hunt about for a Prey and Run Squeaking up and down N●ver was there such Church Discipline and such Ecclesiastical Fellows to Manage it in the whole Christian World except amongst the Papists they indeed have the like Harpyes but every private Priest there is more than a Bishop here can take Confessions search their Entra●s and enjoyn Pennance Whereas we are Cumber'd with the same great Diocesan's but every P●●st there has Power to Rule as well as Feed the Flock and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Pet. 5.2 Si●infies both to Rule and Feed God commands both to every Presbyter but the Bishops Counter-check God's Commands and will take all the Weight upon themselves with the help of Sumners Notaries Register's c. Well God help them and forgive them they can take the Charge and strive for 〈◊〉 and think it a great Honour Ay so it is if rightly d●arged which is impo●s●c in our present Circumstances therefore have a care that the great H●nos ●e not too great an Onus a Burthen heavy enough to break the Back of any Mortal no Apostle duest undertake it but took care to leave Res●●entiary Bishops in Creet one for every Two Parishes when the Tenth part of those were not Christians neither but the generality of our People also differ from ●●fi less only in Name or the Baptismal Vow of Sureties in Baptism if ever they had any and is not worth a Rush nay it is ●orse than nothing by the P●rjury And in Italy at this Day they have many Diocesses that are not half so bigg nor by half so Rich and Populous as the Pa●ish●s of St. Andrews-Holborn St. Margarets-Westminster Sr. Martins Stepney St. Giles and many others yet not any of these is thought a Charge great enough for one single Shoulder under the Bishop whereas good St Augustine knew not how to discharge alone the Eplscopal Work of little Hippo without Co adjutors and in the little Teritory Adjoyning there were many Bishops as one at the Castle Synica near H●ppo another at the Castle Eussula ad Ecclesiae H●pponensis Paraeciam August de Civitate Dei l. 22. c. 8 Epist 261. Epist 68 Ecce Interim Episcopos nosires qui sunt in Regione Hepponensi ubi a vestris tanta mala patimu● convenite Aslemble our Bishops that are in the Territory of Hippo c. B●shops that had a City to Govern did not use to Bishop it in the Ter●ory Adjoyning the Bishop of Rome never pretended that his Diocess of Rome reached beyond the City for at this Day there are Forty Bishops in the Ter●tory of Rome and of old there were Sixty Nine Bishops there and not one of their Diocesles is so Great so Populous and so Rich as St. Andrews-Holborn Pope Innocent I. Epist ad Descentium Episcopum Eugubi Ep c. 4 cum omnes Ecclesi●e nostrae intrae Civitatem Constitutae sunt All the Churches of my Diocess are within the City and Acts 14.23 A Bishop or Elder had but one Church And Bishop usher Irish Relig. p. 63. says that the Diocess of the Bishop of Duplin in Ireland did not Reach over the City Wall tantum intra muros exercet Episcopale Offi●ium This which I have said is enough to pious Bishops but to such as are given to Filthy Lucre nothing will satisfie but more Mammon more more even Pope Leo himself Condemns such Bishops saying Domìnarì magis quam Consulere subditis quaerunt They make it their business to Dominter but not to Consult the Welfare of those under their Charge Pope Gregory Appointed Twelve Bishops in the County of York Respon ad 8. Interrog Surely our Bishops and great Doctors have contemptible thoughts of the Common Prayers as a Mean Underling Office or else why do they put mean Underling Curates and Singing men Sadlers or Coblers that can Sing and therefore made Deacon's to serve to Road Prayers and ●lo● them to some Tune and as soon as that Drudgery is over then a way goes the Quer●ster to his Shop whilst the Doctor and the Bishop reserve themselves for the Topping Pulpit if they say any thing except benedicite leaving the Common Prayer to Readers some School-boys not yet ●n●ncipated from School-dames will Read more Audibly and distinctly than many of them In short the Common-Prayer if ' mended will serve for a Crutch to the Lame and though I blessed be God need none yet the Crutch must not be thrown out of the Church for then you must throw the Parson after it general'y all England over The Common Prayer Book Oh! 'T is all in all it is a Crutch to the Lame Parson Eyes to the Blind Parson and puts Words into the Mouth of the otherwise Dumb Parson nay it is Ears too to the Deaf Disciples and Musick Ceremony monger the very O●accusticon of the Spirit Therefore here 's my Hand to it it shall have my Vote for my poor Brethrens sake upon condition tho' that it be not G●amb'd down other Men's Throats that need not be so Fed but can Chew what they swallow and also upon condition That we do no longer exclude a great part of Holy Scripture to make Room for Tobit and his Dog I mean The Apocrypha Have we not Apocryphal and unscriptural Ceremony-mongers enow that fill up the Steeples and High Places in the Church l●ke a great Crack't Bell that is good for nothing but to fill up the Vocancy But must Apocryphal books too Justle the Holy Scriptures also

thought the good Woman was Drunk or a Fool to talk to her self but she designed only private prayer But certainly the Master of the Ceremonies is either a Fop or a Mad-man or else takes all the People for a Fop of his own making to have only a handsome gaze at the person whilst he Acts his Mammery in the pulpit Why does the pulpit stand alost But that the preacher should lift his Voice like a Trumpet that all the Church may hear or else what does he do there The papists indeed do vindicate pictures in Churches as being the Lay-man's History though he know not a Letter in the Book his Eyes may read by seeing a picture and thus my Ceremony-monger brings up his Fops in Ignorance and Ignorant Devotion they know nothing of the matter and cannot say Amen to they do not know what It is no matter for that for just like popish Mass called Secreta which the priest mumbles to himself so our Foppish Ceremony-monger that must be like a popish pri●st or else perhaps he had never come to so high a pulpit and place in the Church he must mumble too his prayers though in pulpit to himself because 't is just as the popish priests do that make as if the people need not pray nor believe the priest prays for them and believes for them keep them blind says the priest and then you may lead them by the Nose which way you please O poor English Fops To be fopt by an Old Fop that is as much or more an Hypocritical Knave than a Fool. And I am the more apt to believe it now because the mumbling Hypocrites never mumbled so much and so long in the pulpit-prayer before Sermon as now a days in this Juncture and Revolution in the Kingdom and change in the Throne to pray for the Abdicated King would be to own him and Popery with his Mouth but he dare not do that they have only his heart at present And to pray for their Sacred Majestle's our Soveraign Lord and Lady King William and Queen Mary they are such Strangers to his Heart that he chuses rather not to pray at all in his own prayer before Sermon or not at all to be heard till such time as it may be guess'd he had done it to himself talking as they say Witches do to himself in the Pulpit most prophanely mocking God and the People by pretending to speak when he only mumbles with his Lips for if his Voice be heard the crafty Hypocrite thinks that some Body will tell because the Tongue tells who he is for Where as now the Fox lies learing and lurching to see which King will get the better and then and not till then he will declare himself and in the Interim his Ambo-dexter reserves himself for he is true to no Interest nor to any Religion but that which most tends to the Advancement of his only God Mammon and his Curate only runs the Risque in praying for King William and Queen Mary In short for I am quite tired and sick of him his Church-Work is just like his Church-Clock moved extraneously by outward Weights Wheels Springs or Plummets but has no inward or spiritual Life or Motion such is his prayers such his Sermons though he have a Budget-full Dead Dull spiritless lifeless frigid and perfunctory Devotion he never converts any Man except to silly Ceremonses Because himself is not converted to any thing else his Words die before they reach the Heart of his Hearers for how can they well come to the Heart of his Auditors when they never came in nor from his own Head nor Heart he is the great Stock-Logg of the Church that has neither Fire nor heat within the little he has is all out-side superficial and without it takes up a great deal of Rome indeed but 't is good for nothing in the World but the dung-hil he is that Salt that has quite lost it's Savour if over he had any and good for nothing but to be troden under Foot of Men and relish'd by none but such as have lost their Taste or never had any I 'll tell you how you may be quit of this Ecclesiastical Copy-holder all his Tenure and Title to the Pulplt is Copy-hold get but his Notes or his Copies from him and the Pulpit will not hold him he must come down and hire a Journey Man of more Skill if any such can be had for Money so to debase himself to be Surrogate to a rich Fop that with his silk Cassock and Scarlet Hood runs away with the Galm whilst poor Thred-bare Crape takes all the pains Yet even these are scarce to be had for Love or Money for the Ceremony-monger has so polluted the Fountain of Learning the Universities that where shall a man sooner meet with noysie Impudence and gingling Nonsence a sounding Brass and rinckling Cymbal than in the two great St. Maries Pulpits in the Universitiis So that if God be not the more merciful and Their Sacred Majesties the more careful of their Academies the generality of the Clergy must be like the Scribes and Pharisees in our Saviour's time painted Sepulchres Gay without fine Ornaments without but within nothing but Rottenness and dead Men's Boues Just as we were in the Church of England I remember fifty years ago in the Reign of that great Master of Ceremonies little Doctor Laud that did so discountenance lively and edifying Sermons or almost any Sermons that a Man must have travell'd for it and far too if he heard any thing but the Common prayer and Organs above four times in a Year Indeed now there is to many Sermons in Print that we have plenty in the Pulpit though generally such discrepant Heterogeneous and Immethodical Stuff as being compos'd of several printed Sermons a patch here and a patch there describ'd that they are like a Beggars Coat or a Tallor's Cloak bag made up of party-colour'd Lists and Parches they are so dis-compos'd by the Plagiary in wise Prudence like a Thief that takes By-Roads for fear of being known pursued sound out and taken by the Hue and Cry. Therefore this Plagiary Reader conscious of Guilt disguises all discovery if possible like the crafty Hare that makes false Steps and Doubles in the Snow when she is near her form for fear of being track'd by her Steps and Trac'd Thus this Chattering Jay has nothing good about him but the Gay Feathers his Carcase is worth nothing but to Dung the Land so that the Church you see can breed Vermine as well as the Barn. CHAP. IV. Of Reading of the Psalms Te Deum Althanasius's Creed c. Alternately every other Verse by the People THis is such another Nonsensical Ceremony that it is Point-blank against Holy Scripture as well as against Reason and edification and neither Canon of the Church nor Rubrick or Rule in the Common-Prayer Book to vouch it and punishable therefore by the Act of Uniformity If so then where

Apparitor to drive them by Shoales to the Play House if they should admit any such dull Tools and Actors that could not say a Word without Book but must read every Word they say or else they are dumb For take away the Play-Book or No●es and they are mute as Fish the Play is at an end though you have paid your Money some small note indeed or prompter the best may need sometimes or some Breviate even so my Reading Don Ecclesiastical is a noteless Fellow without his Notes and worse than an Ass for he can Bray without book nay worse than a Peacok for he can yawl against Rain but this Gay Fowl has nothing that speaks him divine but his gay out 〈◊〉 The Propher Eztkiel calls him Dumb-Dog that cannot bark meaning not that these Dumb Prophets or Dumb-dogs had no Tongue and could make no barking Noise but when he seeth the Sword or a Thief coming he giveth no warning but being senceless and noteless is therefore a dumb dog For he poor Heart has his Lesion before him there is his stint like a Horse in a Mill he cannot go out of the Track if he does he must leav● work if the Notes drop out of the Pulpit or the Candles go out or the Spectacles fall down from his Nose or a dark day or any such woful disaster befal him his busi●eis is done he needs no Bishop to silence him Come Sir you may even come down out of the Pulpit The Play is done N●y his very Prayers to Alrighty God in the Pulpit he is glad to read them too except perhaps he has like a Pariot got a few words by ●ote which all the people of the Church can say as well as himself for like a Turn-spit Dog in a Wheel he keeps ado but makes no Progress For alas for Shame and Sorrow how should he speak to God who is a Spirit From his Heart or Spirit or to the People's Hearts that never had any Divinity in his Head or Heart It is sufficient that he has It in the Book of Homilles or in his Notes stylo novo of another Sermon book that is more in Yogue and 〈◊〉 because more adapted to our present Language and Age● Stole said I he 'll bring his Action against me of Scandalum magnatum perhaps but I 'll prevent him for I recant He did not steal his Sermon nor Sermon Notes for they were his own upon a double account First because he lawfully bought and paid for the● six pence a piece witness the Book seller Secondly because all the Sermons in Print are dedicated to him To the Reader All To the Reader sometimes to Coaks him out of six pence To the curteous Reader If Parents have a Ricketty Son and crook'd legg'd and Baker-knee'd he 'll serve to make a Parson his Cassock will hide his Legs Is the poor Child Pur-blind also He 'll serve to make a Parson say his Parents If he have but Eye enough to spy Advent Sunday the day of the Month and the first and second Lessons for the day Is he a half witted Lad He 'll serve poor Child say his Parents well enough for the Pulpi● if he but hold his Notes to his Pur-blind Eyes it is but holding them the Closer and the bunness is done especially if his Parents or Friends scrape Acquaintance with a Patron I know how or buy 〈◊〉 Advousion or the next Avoydance And then make room for the Parson a true Son of the Church Why do you smlle It is too serious too great and too dismal a Truth and Mischief to draw Tears from your Eyes by laughing you have more cause to be weeping Jeremies and make Lamentations at so mischievous a Constitution of a Church in making Watchmen that are blind and lame and dumb being ordained unto Holy Orders by blind Implicite Faith which we all condemn in the Papists but in the Church of England draw a new Scene and it is received with Applause Oh poor English A foolish people and unwise though the most Courageable and best Hearts as well as the most plain hearted Nation under Heaven You think now that this is a Romance and not literally true well then so let it go 'T is so much the fitter for this Character of a Ceremony-monger which is all a Romance A Romance What 's that It comes from Roma Rome the Ground and Platform of the truest and best Histories of Truth and the Scene of the greatest Acts the Sun ever saw And a Romance is as like a true Roman History as my Ceremony-Monger is like a Papist he is not a Papist he says no he is not a bare-sac'd Papist I 'll do him right but to see to he is as like a Papist as ever he can look and his Devotion as like Popery as ever it can look He does not say the Mass indeed in Latine but his Hood his Cope his Surplice his Rocker his Altar Rall'd in his Candles and Cushions and Book thereon his bowing to it his bowing or rather Nodding at the name Jesu his Organs his Violins his Singing Men his Singing-Boys with their Alternate Jabbering and Mouthings as Unintelligible as Latine-Service and so very like Popery that I profess when I came from beyond Sea about the year 1660. to Pauls and White-Hall I almost thought at first blush that I was still in Spain or Portugal only the Candles on our Altars most Nonsensically stand unlighted to signifie what The darkness of our Noddles or to tempt the Chandlers to turo down-right Papists as the more suitable Religion for their Trade for ours mocks them seeds them with Hopes only he gapes and stares to see the lucky Minute when the Candics should be lighted but he is cheated for they do not burn out in an Age. But the Foppery is Homogeneal all of a piece foolish and illegal Ceremonies all over only my Ceremony-monger has got Law of his side for his Surplice and his Common-Prayers which are both very good things and though perhaps he may be perswaded to part with the former if you take away the latter viz. the Common-Prayer-Book ye had is good cut out his Tongue nay even few up his Mou●h also for he has no occasion for it nor for his Teeth neither for his Body most starys and be as clean and jejune as his Soul Therefore as you love his Life and Soul let him have his Common-prayer Book or else his Curate will have nothing in the World to do but must be forc'd to turn Sexton why should not the Dead bury the Dead The dead in Sin bury the Dead for Sin to so liseless and spiritless a thing is Religion reduc'd by my Ceromony-Monger nay some of them in their pretended prayer before Sermon do mock both God and the people praying or pretending to pray as the mouth of the people in the pulpit and yet like good Hannah's private prayer their Lips only move but their Voice is not heard Old Eli

more Priests than Judges nor David any more a Prophet than a Captain or King nor Solomon the Wise any more a King than a Preacher or Ecclesia●●●● In the New Testament Annas and Cajaphas were Judges and Priests also whether were they Lay-men then or Clergy-men The priest sat Judge upon the Bench and the Judge Preacht or gave the Charge Yea but not in the Pulpit and the Church What then does that make the least difference He is not fit for the Pulpit that understands not the Law of the Land and Nations where he preaches nor is he fit for the ●ench that cannot Preach Gospel from thence as well as from the Pulpit Caesar was ●ontifex Maximus Chief Priest and chief General or Emperour Amongst the Jews the Scribes and Lawyers were Judges on the Bench and Preachers in the Synagogues also In all Nations it is generally so in T●ky they have no Judges but their Preachers nay our Bishops rule not the Church otherwise than by Lay-Elders the worst that ever were ●un●ers Registers Scribes Notaries Canonists Officials Vica●generals Chancellours Commissaries and that Ecclesiastical Crew at Doctor 's Commons never was Church in the World ●o Disciplin'd What Repentance What Penance The purse is punish't That pays the Reckoning Oh brave Church Oh! brave Keys of the Church Fine Golden Keys and Dainty Gay Porters Door-keepers Key-keepers or Ciaviger's In the first four Hundred Years after Christ till ●ishops and afterwards The Pope made such encroachments upon the Layety as ignorant persons so esteem'd so called and so treated never was any Man let in to the Church till approved By who By the Bishop No by the whole Church Nay St. Austin after he was Thirty Years of Age continued a Probationer or Catechumenist before he could get Admittance into the Church as a Church-member Attended at the Door and waited as he confesses in his Book of Confessions and Rec●●●ations Three or Four Years and then most Votes of the House carried it not Mr. Speaker's alone as with us nay The Speaker or Bishop or Arch-bishop knows nothing of the matter with us but leaves all by implicite Faith to Registers c. Was ever any Church of Christ under the Copes of Heaven Govern'd at this loose filly and perfunctory rare The Papists have much the better on 't for every Priest Rules as well as Feeds uses both Doctrine and Discipline of Confession and Penance but the great Diocesan Bishops permit no such matter to protestant presbyters And why are not they fitter than Sel-soul Registers Sumners Officials Yes much fitter but then people would say that the great Archbishop that preaches little or nothing of Doctrine or Bishops that preach no better if so well and so often as when they were Presbyters only are good for nothing more than common Parsons except for ruling the Church And how do they rule by Implicite Faith in the Black-guard at Doctor 's Commons Bless us What Discipline is here For above three hundred years after Christ the peoples Vote ordain'd and where the only Clavigers porters and Key-keepers to let them in and turn them out of the Church So that the King who is Father of the Countrey is Father also of the Fathers Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal whether they know it or no. And if I were of Council with or for the Bishops I would perswade them to alter their popish-like Style in sending Process and keeping Courts in their own names contrary to the express words of the Statute of Edw. 6. in that Case made and provided as I have proved as yet unanswerably in my Book called The Test seven years ago have a Care of a Praemunire A blot is not a blot till it be hit but if it chance to be hit the Game is at an end Let them not strive to be Independent are they Subjects in Spirituals as well as Temporals If Subjects then act in the King's name as other Commissioners do who are authorised by him but if they dare pretend to a Jurisdiction Episcopal Jure divino more than a Presbyter have a care of the Statute of provisors as aforesaid But some Men scar nothing till it fall as heavy as Inevitably Do we blame Arbitrary power in a King and allow it in a Bishop Or would any Bishop that knows what true Canonical obedience is write in that Magisterial and Apostolical style with Saint Paul when perhaps the business is a mee● wanton or trivial Injunction I might enjoyn you on your Canonical obedience but for love sake I rather beseech you We owe obedience to Bishops and Judges and Kings alike in this namely to obey them in licitis honestis in all lawful and honest things Loyalty is Legality if I be legal I am loyal Cononical obedience say all the Canonists is obedientia secundum Canonem If Bishop's whom I reverence and respect heartily as the Kings Commissioners so that they do not exceed and transgress their commission should command me to say twenty pater Nosters every day before breakfast it is mandatum honestum but not licitum quia lex non jubet It is a good thing but I am not obliged to do every good thing no nor sometimes not obliged to do the best thing He that marries does well but he that keeps his Virginity does better If I do well when I marry let the Fryars or Nuns do better that like and if my Bishop command me not to Marry which is an honest command but not a legal command but an arbitrary lustful imperious Tyr●annical command for which the Bishop has no Warrant and he talks without Book which is more perhaps than he can do in the pulpit when he prates of his power to command yet for love's sake he rather beseeches let him first learn to obey the Word and to understand the mischief of Impositions poor Heart Before he come to give a Magisterial and Dogmatical Command and to his Reverend Brethren so In complement he calls them but uses them perhaps like Slaves that must do his bidding with Cap in Hand let him command his Servants and go himself I am his Reverend Brother if he do not speak against his conscience mentire est contra mentem ire like the pope who is the greatest Tyrant under Heaven enslaving Souls and consciences as well as J●●ling their Bodies till they be Carcases yet his stile is Servus Servorum Servant and Reverend Brother but I hate the Hypocrisy and dissimulation It looks like Joab's complement to Abner Art thou in Health my Brother And then stabs him Go Judas Mind the Bag mind thy God Mammon mind the bagg and keep your popish Complement Dear Brother to your self till you use him in respect as a Brother comest thou to betray the Son of Man with a Kiss Thou Hypocritical Judas can any Man look into our Chronicles and not see the insufferable Arrogance of priests in the Reign of popery and since also in the Reign of the popish like

see them at the further end of the Court let it Hail Snow or Blow this inclines Men to be pedantickly proud ever after I knew it too experimentally being made a fellow of Gonvil and Cajus Colledg in Cambridge when I was but Junior-Batchelor and not 19 Years of Age till Travel and Experience in the World which all Bishops have not refines this Insolence and makes it more sociable and complaisant But let no Man envy the Liberality of our Ancestors in endowing the Bishops and Universities so plentifully a few that are truly worthy and Learned Men may well compound for the generality of a contemptible Clergy that would not have been so truly contemptible but that my Ceremony-monger in bad Reigns got possession too often of the Steeple the lostiest Piece of the Church by Popish-likes and Foppish Ceremonies and then it behov'd him to keep open the Door by which he enter'd to such only as were like him and followed his Steps and ezclude all others to his uttermost whose Vertues and true Learning must necessarily if set near him ruddy his Cheeks and make him blush for shame But crafty young Lads finding that easy way to the Wood and that it was much more easy and profitable to go to a Dancing-school than to the Laborious Schools of Worth and Crabbed Learning to which it is so difficult and not so unprofitable as times hath been to bend the ●●nd and also so very s●cile honourable and beneficial to bend his Body in filly Cringings and Bowings farewel Books saith he and dry unprofitable Studies I 'le go to the Ecclesiastical Dancing-school and commence Doctor Ignoramus Hence it is that our Wise Men of England have made our English Bishopricks out of two poor words in Tit. 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill understood in every City making Elders or Bishops saith St. Paul to Titus as I have appointed thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●u every City Thence it is that such a pother wa● made to make such a little Town ' as Carlisle a City for why Forsooth and Colchester an Ancient City and twenty times bigger than Carlisle to dwindle to a Village for why Forsooth Because every Bishops See must be a City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and but one City in a Bishop●ick and therefore little Ca●lisle must be a City and Colchester which to my knowledge is Ten times bigger and Forty times more Rich and Populous must dwindle from a City as Antiently it was the only City of Essex and why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has done its business City and Bishopricks must be Convert●es and London being the greater City and Bishops See or Seat E●go c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I confess Origen lib. 8. contrae Celsum does Paraphra● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much like Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tom. Homil. 1 in every City thus the Lifeless Feather of on 〈◊〉 consumes an other Feathers that are near it and in the Nest whereas not only the hest Greek Authors but the Holy Scripture confounds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Village and a City in several places both in the Old and New Testament as for Instance in 1 Chron. 4.32 their Villages were Five Cities Exam ● So in the New Testament St. Luke calls Bethlehem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the City of David Luk. 2.4 but St. John calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Village of David and I'l● call Bethlebem as I 'le give Colchester a Name too why not Since I have help't to Christen a great part of the Town these Seven and Twenty Years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City Town though the Bishops See or Seat at the great City of London has taken its good Name from it most Scandalously and nureasonably to give it to little Carlisle for the sake of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word the Ceremony mongers never right understood they were so busie about Ceremonies they had no more leisure to understand Tit. 1.5 than Philip. 2.10 both of them falsely Interpreted and the latter falsely constructed and falsely Translated either through Ignorance or fraud to make room for a Nonsensical Ceremony There were 1000 Bishops in Armenia says Baron●us ad An. 1145. And Justinian the Emperour Petravon and Novel 31. c. 1. says there were but Twenty Cities in Armenia in his time and they have decreast ever since how could 1000 Bishops then Sit in Twenty Cities except there were many Bishops in one City or many Bishops in Villages and small Towns Nay to go no further than Ireland St. Patrick Founded there 365 Churches and as many Bishops saith Nemius and also Bishop Usher late Primate of Armagh and yet there never were 365 Cities and now but Ninteen In St. Augustin's Time there were 900 Bishops in Africa August Tom. 7. de ●estis cum Emerit And yet not half so many Cities and many of the Cities in St. Augustin's Time were Heathens nay the Inhabitants of the famous City in Syriae called Heliopolis were all Idol● to or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodores lib. 4. c. 29. Eccles Hist. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor a Man of them would hear saith Peter of Alexandria the Name of Christ And yet there was then a Bishop of Heliopolis says Bishop Eusebius Pamphilus vit Constantine l. 3. c. 5.6 a Bishop that had a Flock like that of Bishop Mills in Arabia who had not got one Convert in his City nor any thing else but blows Sozom. l. 2 c. 12. these two Bishops had fewer Souls by Seven in their Diocess to Excommunicate than Bishop Ischyras who had but just Seven whereas our Diocesses are as much too big nay Moustrously too big as the other too little Is there no measure in us No Medium No midle way for true Vertue which always sits Enthron'd betwixt the two Extreama In Gospel Times the Bishops were chosen by the People and most Voices carried it for two of which God chose one by Lot the Lot fell upon Matthias and 260 Years after Cyprian tells us that all the People that is the Majority consented or else no Bishop was chosen Cyprian l. 2. Epist 5. Convocat● plebe tot● de universae fraternitatis suffra●io and Caec●lianus was chosen Bishop of Carthage totius populi suffragio Optat. lib. 1. by the general Vote of the People No Man was Excommunicated Cyprian lib. 3. Ep. 14. nisi causam acturus apud universam plebem Not every sneaking Register and peaking Surrogate could send a Soul to Satan for refusing or neglecting to give the Knave a Groat or the like brave Ecclesia●●ical Discipline of Church of England It is just so in Spain and Portugal but not so bad as here in our said to be Reformed Church of England Reform'd In what Oh! the Service Book is in English and made Intelligible by the Peoples alternate babling like those illegal Irrational and unscriptural Mock-songs of the Singing-men and Singing

out of the Church You 'l say the mass-Mass-book did it before we did it Yea that 's true so a Popish interest also possibly brought this great Crack't Bell into a Protestant Steeple What does it do there there it hangs but had never been hang'd so high but that it was crack't and good for nothing but to give an unintelligible and Jarring sound to keep out a better and in room of a better it will serve well enough to make up the number of the Yea's and the No's Well may this Crack't Ceremony monger dread a wise and a pious and honest English Parliament more than he sears either God or the Devil more than Heaven or Hell lest they spy this Church-Cobweb though it hang alost and sweep it down or new Cast this useless Crack't Bell. You may know him by this certain mark for conscious of Guilt and of his own uselessness and Futility through well-grounded sear like the murmuring Israelites he longs for the Flesh pots of Egypt again Egyptian or Popish d●rkness which has cover'd as darkness does all his faults this Pope Joan in the dark has been as good as my Lady and a Popish King he joyes in to chuse rather than Angels food Manna What is it he knows not he relishes it not For he loves Popery in his heart as the Carpenter loves his Ladder because it helps him up so high to overlook his betters Well! let him even march then after his Brother Cartwright he is fit for nothing so well as to read Common-Prayer in the French Protestant Chappel in the Castle of Merli Thus have I run him to an Inavoidable Dilemma one of the Horns whereof must Gore my Ceremony-monger for it he obstinatly persist in his irrational and illegal Ceremonies the Law and the next Jury deprives him by his own Celebrated Act The Act of Uniformity which condemns all Ceremony mongers and all Ceremonies not contained in the Common-Prayer Book and then the King may in the Vacancy without Invading any mans propriety like Queen Elizabeth put this unprofitable and impossibly to be performed Nusance to its proper use and to a good use But if he Recant Abhor Repent and Forsake his Illegal and Popish-like Ceremonies we have got the day he is converted to be a good man and will then voluntarily relinquish that burden which no mortal can bear for fear of the Torments Eternal which none can bear the saying of St. Chrysostome in Heb. 13 7. H●mil ult 24 will penetrare his hard Heart and ●cared Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I wonder in my heart 〈…〉 〈◊〉 it is posh 〈◊〉 for a chief Bishop in the Church to be saved c. High Priest Aaron said Nolo Episcopari Moses also was as loath to come into the Collar Send by the hand of whom thou wilt send said he in a Pet to God Almighty foreseeing the dreadful burthen St. Chrysostome in that Homily says in effect concerning a great Bishop as one said of an Executor viz. If I had a mind to send a man to the Devil I would make him my Executor and if I had a mind to send a man to the Devil I would make him a great Lord Bless me That vain ambitious man should hope to comb Heaven by that very sin of Haughtiness and Pride which made Lucifer a Devil I well know that in this Juncture every Projector is full of his Notion which may do well to in Utopia but is not practicable here And I 'le Answer such well-meaning Noddles is a grave Senator of Old Rome did his pious Friend that brought him an excellent Model of Government my Friend This would do well in Plato's Common-wealth but it is not feazable for us who live in the Dregs of Romulus But nothing is here propos'd but what is easie good for all sound pure primitive and practicable as well as profitable and hurts no body no not the great Diocesan and sleepy fat Prebend in their present Incumbencies and Possessions if they can with a safe Conscience continue them For St. Chrysostome is bolder with such Bishops as are so addicted to filthy Lucre that he quite incapacitates their for the place 〈…〉 in Ep. ad Tat. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hic ut indigenus Sacerdotio est removendus Let him be Depos'd nay Degraded as unworthy of that holy Function Some Repairs of necessity must be done as the Wisdom of a Pious King and Parliament shall think meet upon those that have by their filly illegal and foppish and Popish-like Constitutions and Ceremonies reduc't all true Devotion to a meer Pharisaical and Out-side Superstition which is also very silly and non-sensical to boor Does not St. Cyprian tell us Ep. 68. That in the Ordination of Sabinus the Bishoprick was conferred upon him by the Suffrage that is the Vote of the whole Fraternity or Brethren and by the Judgment of the Bishops that mee together in our presence c. That Exhortation in the Common-Prayer-Book before the Communion concerning the quieting of a troubled Conscience when the guilty person thinks himself not qualified sufficiently for the receiving that blessed Sacrament gives the Minister power of Absolution that is power of the Keys the Church Keys good reason of his own Church whereby I judge that every Minister has power to loose what any R●gister or Bishop or Surrogate has ●ound if he think fit tho' they also have bound the Spirit down to Hill or his body afterwards lies bound for want of Absolution in a ayl I think a Minister has power like Orphtus to setch him back from Satan but not from the Jaylor is not this to give the power of the Keys to a Minister by the Stature or Common Prayer Book which the common practice or Canons do not allow or admit This is to give and take again this is to give we do not know what this is to give the great Bishop more eyes than those same large eyes called Archdeacons this is to give Ministers the power that Christ gave them to Ru●e and Feed for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Pet. 5 2. Signifies both Feed and Rule and one as much as the other God has joy ' d them together and wo be to him that sepatates those whom God hath joyned together only to gratifie his own ambitious and avaricious Claw that grasps more than it can possibly hold and by endeavouring to be Mr. Do all becomes Mr. Do ill this is to mock the Presbyrery give and take again this is just like the silly Charm In-Dock Out Nettle Ye shall saith the Stature Ye shall not says the Present Discipline here is wise work and most cousounded clashing and irreconeileable Ministrations Ecclesiastical well it is well in Apology that we can say it was made in