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cause_n	great_a	king_n	law_n	4,029	5	4.5431	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43611	The black non-conformist, discover'd in more naked truth proving, that excommunication, confirmation, the two great Episcopal appurtenances & diocesan bishops, are not (as now in use) of divine, but human make and shape, and that not only some lay-men, but all the keen-cringing clergy are non-conformists ... : also a libel, and answer (thereunto) fitted to every man's case (be it what it will) that is cited to ecclesiastical courts, whose shallow foundation is unbared, and a true table of ecclesiastical court fees, as it was return'd into the star-chamber, Anno Domini 1630, by the ecclesiastical fellows themselves, and compar'd with the statutes : also concerning the unlawfulness of granting licences to marry, Quakers-marriages, folly, as well as other evil consequences of that new law-maxim, viz. that no non-conformists ought to be jury-men : shewing also, that, religion, religion, that should have been the world's great blessing, is become the plague of mankind, and the curse of Christendom ... / by Edm. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1682 (1682)	Wing H1797; ESTC R22899	136,499	106

starts Doughty the old Promoter again and threatens what the said Bishop probably would have scorn'd to do for the said Thomas Doughty recovering his place again of which the said Nucourt had really deprived him takes up the Gantlet again and threatens to take from this Defendant his said Rectory of All-Saints a great Eye-sore it seems to him and that for three long Years besides costs of Suit And indeed it is a Threat that does much better become such a doughty Fellow than a Reverend Divine or Bishop who ought to endeavour that the Flock should be fed not starv'd and to encourage the painful Labourers that bear the Burden and sweat of the Day and not suspend stop their Mouths or Handcuff them but to remember that what Power he has should be employed to the utmost for Edification and not for Destruction to do all the Good he can not all the Mischief he can Or if he will be punishing Punish the Drones the idle and ignorant Clergy-Men the Whoremasters the Drunkards the Swearers and blasphemers of God's Holy Name Or if that will not be at least to begin at home and punish the vile Extortions and Oppressions of his Registers Vice-Registers c. in exacting illegal Fees in Probates Letters of Administrations Institutions Inductions Ordinations Excommunications Dispensations Absolutions Visitations c. to the great and groaning Oppression of his Majesties Subjects Especially to find other Work than suspending this Defendant from his Rectory of All-Saints in Colchester of all Places where the chief Men at least nay and the chief Women too as well as the Generality of the People by their Confluence to the said Church of All-Saints should seem to give him but little Thanks for his great Pains therein No more Thanks to him than to his Court that has kept this Defendant two Lord's-Days together from his Ministerial Function there only to attend your Motions This good you do If therefore the said Doughty be not Promoter in this Cause then the said Rectory of All-Saints is not in jeopardy and the proofs of Witnesses are not directed and taken in order thereunto and consequently the eighth Article at least is null and void as being in Doughty's name and at his Promotion and yet not one Witness is sworn nor any Commission directed to swear them at his Promotion and consequently if all the objected Crimes were true and also as proper for your cognizance as they are here proved all of them to be improper for your cognizance and also tho your Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical was never so legal and founded and built upon the Law of the Land And tho you had known Canons legitimated by our Sole Legislators in all which you are deficient Yet then even according to the stile of your Court the Promoter Henry Bishop of London desisting and aiming not at all at the said Suspension and Rectory tho the Crimes were truly prov'd yet his promoted Libel declaring for no Penalty at his Promotion there ought to be a non-suit for that Blunder and the Defendant dismiss'd with costs But if this Court or the said Bishop the Promoter or the Promoter Doughty desire to begin again and have not yet enough of so impertinent and non-sensical Articles let them come single and one by one one after another ne Hercules contra duos If this be fair Play I have no Skill in Play nor understand Trap. But this Defendant is quite tired and so 't is hoped by this time is every body else but the Proctors This Defendant having already been so copious and substantial upon so idle and slender occasion Hereafter if the Promoter or Promoters like the Place Promotion and Preferment let them bring a more solid Charge against this Defendant that he may muster up more and greater Forces than his own to answer the Shock For in this Defence he is single and alone without as well as without need of any other Man's Assistance or Advice but then perhaps he will get better Heads than his own In the Interim here 's enough without a Fee especially upon so slight and trivial an Occasion For is it not subtle for Men to puzzle themselves in a Court about a Crime as here for Barretry an Offence against Common-Law and Statute-Law of which this Court can hold no Plea nor take Cognizance of What have Spiritual Courts to do to decide or try Causes or Cases belonging to common-Common-Law and statute-Statute-Law in derogation of the Courts of our Lord the King as in the Statute of Provisors War-hawk as Fullwood says have a care of a Praemunire have a care of hooking in every thing in ordine ad Spiritualia And is it not subtle to object the very same Instances of Barretry as of old for which this Defendant has already at a fair hearing been honourably acquit As if they had conspired to publish and thereby proclaim to the World the Integrity of the Defendant's Life and Conversation to be so great and without Reproof that in all this time their Invention should be so barren of new Matter and new Accusations whilst at the same time they prove the Fertility of their Malice and Revenge Both which are the worst Privy Counsellors unto whose Suggestions Dictates and Advice whoever hearkens he need no other Enemy they alone will do his Business for him and lead him into such Follies rash and precipitate Counsels and Designs into which like as into all other ways to Hell the Entrance and Descent is easy but no Deliverance from thence but return and timely Repentance which at best brings a Man Shame at the last And is it not subtle to question this Defendant's Title to his ancient and undoubted Rites and Freeholds and in a Court too that cannot try nor decide such Titles and Controversies except they ●rack a Commandment and hook it in as some do every thing rebus Christi and so bring all temporal matters to Excommunication or the stool of Repentance or else like the Pope and Jesuits compass Sea and Land and drive all in and under their Jurisdiction Kingdoms Titles Freeholds Lands and Patrimonies into St. Peter's Patrimony in ordine ad spiritualia Will Men never take warning nor tremble at the Statutes of Provisors nor leave those old and discoverd Gilsee-tricks And is it not subtile to rip up Peccadillo's against the Act of Uniformity thereby giving occasion to prying Men to search into their own Nonconformity in illegal Rites and Ceremonies universally and without Repentance practis'd whereby they show their wit even in Cathedrals and Universities in defiance of the Act of Uniformity But no Man is too great or overgrown for the Law to which in all Ages the greatest Subjects and Favorites of old have been as well as in our days forc'd to be subject and submit their sturdy Necks and hated Heads unto it but some Men will never take warning Lege Historiam ne sias Historia And is it not subtile to make Henry Bishop of

and no man of my Quality m●…e Blest and Protected depressa resurgo says the Palm-tree more weight more ●…ght like Israel the more they were afflicted the more they grew God give a blessing to my poor endeavours to do much good if at least they have but so much vertue as Common Ink to allay the spreading venom of such Ring●…ms whose fingers itch to be at it in the Portugal and Spanish-mode of Inquisition and Persecution which has made a Desolation Rebellion Poverty want of Trade and Depopulation in those Countries rather than any great Conversion how Hypocritical soever to the Roman Faith But ye fools when will ye be wise saith holy David Psal 94.8 as if he should say Will you ne'r be good 'till you 're beaten to 't with your own rods Go to and let men of little and narrow Souls uncapable of any love or regard to the publick good and their Countries welfare smile at the Improvidence of such as like Lamps and Torches waste scorch and consume themselves to enlighten others And if the Cathedral Highflyers or any Bishops be offended that I have thus publickly rebuk't before all their publick transgressions and defiance of the Act of Vniformity in the said Illegal Rites and Ceremonies they may in part thank the peevishness and frowardness of some that occasion'd it irritated perhaps thereunto by that old inveterate and everlasting piece of malice and hatred S. J. S. who has always though always in conclusion to his own shame and loss endeavour'd to set men upon me by getting false Calumnies and Slaunders invented in his hollow and canker'd Breast to which one-ear'd men giving credit and therewith also prejudic't and pre-possest and knowing my Spirit and Temper not over-patient to bear Affronts he knew there would be what he labour'd for a Quarrel I know it is a Devilish thing and the very daily work of the Devil to devise wicked imaginations and with a proud look lying tongue hands ready to shed innocent Blood and feet that be swift in running to mischief to be a false witness that speaketh lies only to sowe discord amongst Brethren And are the six or rather seven things that are abomination to the Almighty Prov. 6.16 17 18 19. Yet he that created Light out of Darkness and life preservation to Israel ought of the malice of Joseph 's Brethren in selling him to the Gypsies and unity and amity to his people by mens Differences and Dissentions can and I hope will create beauty and order out of our Confusions Chaos Disorders and Discords and out of the eater bring forth meat and out of the strong sweetness and Truth and Light from the Collisions Interferings and mutual strikings of the hardest and blackest Flints Thus the contentions of Paul and Barnabas tended by their Parting and Dissentions to the more nimble Propagation of the Naked Truth Therefore be not all of a flame like that fiery-fac'd bloody Bishop Bonner against all Dissenters and Non-conformists Bandying and Ecchoing the word Heretick Heretick at one another and to and again For the servant of the Lord should not strive should not be a Jupiter Altitonans a Boanerges all for consuming and destroying with fire from Heaven or Earth ye know not what manner of spirits ye are of A Bishop should not be a striker 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is no Persecutor no striking at second hand signifying and giving aim to the Magistrate where and whom and when to strike as well as no Gladiator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a litigious Informer former nor Promoter but a stranger to Law-Suits and Contentions as Plaintiff especially either through covetousness in hopes thereby to enrich themselves by beggaring their Brethren like the said old Bonner that seem'd to be in Fee with the Gaolers and the Hangman But bid farewel to the plum'd Troops and the big Wars that make Revenge vertue but in patience forbearance temperance and in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves or are Non-Conformists concluding as I will with wise Gamaliel that even for your own sakes ye ought to take heed to your selves what ye intend to do as touching these men Act. 5.35 38 39 40. And now I say unto you Refrain from these men and let them alone For if this counsel or work be of men it will come to nought But if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found even to fight against God And to him they agreed Discite Justinian moniti non temnere Divos Omnia cum liceant non licet esse pium Take warning whilst you may and dread Heavens Rod Do not with Gyant-Force brave the Great God Shall he that checks sin have for Tears more Cause Than those Suborning Pimps that break the Laws In Dangers Cowards Bold at Heaven to strike Are these true English-men Tories more like A True Table of all such FEES as are Due or can be Claimed in any Bishops-Courts in all Cases As they were Given in to the Commissioners of His Majesty King Charles I. Nov. 1630. By the Commissaries Registers Proctors c. under their own Hands in the Star-Chamber Necessary to be known by all Persons liable to be Concerned in the said Bishops-Courts 'T IS no part of the Scope of the ensuing Table to debate the Legality Expediency or Inconveniency of those Courts and Jurisdictions commonly called Spiritual or Ecclesiastick as they are now managed Nor whether the Persons that hold them and grant forth Citations in their own Names and Stiles and not in the KINGS do not thereby Incur the Penalty of a Praemunure But its Business is to Present you with an Exact Copy of their FEES as they were stated by themselves to certain Commissioners appointed by King Charles I. to Inspect them Nov. 1630. which Table being long since stifled as much as in them lies it is thought fit to Re-print the same from the Original first Printed Anno Dom. 1631. In cases of Instance that is between Party and Party To the Comissary To the Register To the Apparitor   s. d. s. d. d.   IMprimis For Decreeing the Original Citation and for Sealing of it 00 06 00 06 00   Item For Decreeing the Original Citation in a Matrimonial Cause with an Inhibition and for Sealing of it 01 00 01 00 00   Item For the Decree of every Party principal 00 09 00 09 00   Item For every Decree V●is Modis 00 09 00 09 00   Item Only at the Release For every Excommunication or Suspension in Writing 00 09 00 09 04   Item For every Absolution from an Excommunication or Suspension 00 09 00 09 04   Item For Letters Testimonial to be made upon a Search or any other Cause 06 08 06 08 00   Item For the Oath of every Witness upon any matter 00 00 00 00 02   Item For Examination of every First Witness upon any matter 00 09 00 09 00   Item For Examination of

The Black Non-Conformist DISCOVER'D IN More Naked Truth Proving That EXCOMMUNICATION CONFIRMATION the two Great Episcopal Appurtenances DIOCESAN BISHOPS Are not as now in use of Divine but Human MAKE and SHAPE AND That not only some LAY-MEN but all the Keen-cringing CLERGY ARE NON-CONFORMISTS And Except they Repent Are Liable to be Indicted and Presented by GRAND-JURIES to the Loss of their Spiritual Promotions and Imprisonment without Bayl and the Patrons to PRESENT as if they were Dead when in Defiance of the Acts for Uniformity They Practise ILLEGAL CEREMONIES In Enjoyning to be worn whether Men will or no Ministring Divine-Service The HOOD FORSOOTH Or at any time except at the Communion the SURPLICE Prov'd to be SURPLUS or OVER-PLUS In bowing to the ALTAR at the Name JESUS to the EAST placing insignificant and idle UNLIGHTED CANDLES upon the ALTAR not wearing the COPE at Communion-Times using other Publick Prayers in the Pulpit than what are in the COMMON-PRAYER-BOOK Also a LIBEL and ANSWER thereunto Fitted to every Man's Case BE IT WHAT IT WILL that is Cited to ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS whose SHALLOW Foundation is unbared And a true Table of ECCLESIASTICAL COURT-FEES as it was return'd into the STAR-CHAMBER Anno Domini 1630. by the ECCESIASTICAL-FELLOWS themselves And compar'd with the Statutes ALSO Concerning the Unlawfulness of GRANTING LICENCES To MARRY QUAKERS-MARRIAGES Folly as well as other evil Consequences of that NEW LAW-MAXIM viz. That no Non-Conformists ought to be Jury-Men SHEWING ALSO That RELIGION RELIGION that should have been the World's great Blessing is become the Plague of Mankind and the Curse of Christendom when attended with the BLACK REGIMENT WRITS and LABELS Citations and Libels Cures and Suspensions Silencing and Excommunications Sell-Souls and the Devil of Hell Canonists and Civilians Superstitions and Fopperies Noddings and Cringings Illegal as well as Deformed-Vestments and Scare-Crows Hornings and Stools of Repentance Fire and Fagot Bel and the Dragon the Bloody-Priests and their Surrogates Chancellors and Officials Registers and Gaolers Benches and Executioners Sumners and Promoters Hangmen and Apparitors The Second Edition Dedicated to the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY with all Modesty and Submission By EDM. HICKERINGILL Rector of the Rectory of ALL-SAINTS in Colchester LONDON Printed by G. Larkin and are to be Sold by Richard Janeway and most Booksellers in London M.DC.LXXXII To the most Reverend Father in GOD VVILLIAM Lord ARCHBISHOP of CANTERBVRY Primate and Metropolitan of all ENGLAND And one of His MAJESTIES most Honourable Privy-Counsellors His GRACE SIR IN this Treatise your Grace will find somewhat suitable to you in the Case of Nectarius not Arch-Bishop for that name was not then invented but which did Tatamount Patriarch of the Arch-See of Constantinople Elected thereunto per saltum or rather vaulting and skipping into the Holy-See or uppermost Seat in the Church over the heads of all not only his equals but by many degrees his Superiors contrary to the Canon-Law of Holy-Church himself also being then but a Lay man nay and unbaptized To show us that it is not the first time that the Church has crack't a Commandment to dispense with rigour and summum jus in favour of great and not vulgar merit For many reasons therefore as well as for this great and concern'd example of Lenity against the strict Rules of Law does this little Tract in all lowliness expect as well as flie so high as your Patronage and Protection And Published not so much in mine own behalf for I need not your favour but impartial and equal Justice as in the behalf of the many Dissenters and Nonconformists to the strict Rules of the Act for Vniformity With which if you cannot dispense or grant Indulgences it concerns me as little or less than your self or those Clergy-men that are here prov'd to be Non-Conformists when they too frequently practise Illegal Ceremonies in defiance of the Acts for Uniformity that enjoyns those few Ceremonies in the Common-Prayer-Book and no other mark that no other Ceremonies which other Ceremonies are therefore Illegal Superstitions in enjoyning the Surplice and yet forbearing the Cope wherein none but Popish Priests are Conformists or arayed that I know of at this day and yet the Cope is as much commanded as the Surplice And besides in bowing at the Holy Name of Jesus the impertinence at least whereof I have in all humility undeniably evinc't in my Naked-Truth the second Part except we also bow at the Holy Name of God and the Holy-Ghost names equally venerable so often as we hear them or also bow at the Name of Jesus every time a Blasphemer which is too usual swears by the Name of Jesus and yet no man dops the head much less bows the knee there-at no not in Sermon-time when we hear the Minister 100 times in an hour name Jesus Or as impertinent as that illegal and idle Superstition or Ceremony in defiance of the Act of Uniformity so generally practis'd by bowing to the Altar setting insignificant and unlighted Candles thereon and bowing to the East Nay some have been so sillily and ridiculously Superstitious as to ruine a handsom Pile and Fabrick to their own impoverishment so far as to need or get the Charity of others only by rebuilding it worse to make it face to the left and directly East and West That so Men might bow to the Altar and to the East also with one single Nod Oh! most incomparable Atchievement and no doubt meritorious Whereas Astronomy tells us infallibly that there is no such thing really as East and West but meer imaginary Points and fictitious as the Figures of the heavenly Dog and Bear that being West to some others which is East to us and East to others which is West to us But besides the Folly so it may well be called it is hereafter prov'd to be a sin against the Act of Uniformity to bow to the East or Altar and not only a Peccadillo but so great as to make us except we repent and reform that wicked Error to forfeit all our spiritual Promotions The tender Consideration whereof will I hope make us tender against Nonconformists for our own sakes it had been better tho' for Charities sake to take off our keen and fiery edge against Dissenters and Breakers of some Branch of the Act of Uniformity lest we pronounce our own Suspension and Anathema with the same mouth and for the same Cause for which we censure and sentence others I have here modestly I hope search'd into the Nature and try'd the mettal and mettle of your great and onely Weapon in your Arch-Court or Court of Arches but always under Correction and with submission to better Judgments and the Laws Excommunication So often let flie in your Name in that Court though you seldom or never come there to hear the Merit of the Cause and the Witnesses viva voce and face to face no wonder then if you make many Random-shots and wide and beside the mark if you trust

with implicite Faith in and to Registers Notaries and Advocates those spiritual Hucksters of Souls that live by Fees from sinners whose Purses they take upon the Highway to Heaven or Hell and no Repentance will serve the turn except those motley Ecclesiastical-Lay Merchants for Souls be first pleas'd that is paid their Demands ungodly illegal Demands upon sight at our utmost peril 'T is a pretty Trade indeed invented by the Pope and the Devil delivering to Satan by Excommunication and delivering from Satan by Absolution but not without money in the Case Thus precious Souls for whom Christ dyed are truck't for bought and sold by these Ecclesiastical Merchant-Adventurers a gainful Trade it is too if the Naked-Truth do not spoil the Market which is more than probable And if you would imitate our blessed Saviour how well would so Gospel a work become you to your Eternal Honour in this and succeeding Ages namely to whip these Buyers and Sellers of Souls out of the Temple though you can make a Whip as he did but of small Cords to slash and lash out these Silver-Smiths of Diana that coin Heaven and Hell by that abominable craft getting their wealth making merchandize of Souls to their own as well as others destruction Away with this Foppery out of the Church and Spiritual Wickedness in High places I hate the Folly thereof discern'd now by every Peasant and derided as much as the Hypocriste of it which you in sober sadness must confess and lament as much as nay more than others sitting so high at the Helm God guide your hand I hope you will not draw your spiritual weapons upon me tho' for this Honesty and Plain-dealing instead of slashing the said Chequer-work black and white motley-colour'd Hucksters of Souls and so disparage the Title Vestra Clementia usually given to your Predecessors If you do and I over-live you do not speak to me to write your Epitaph to Posterity And be not angry that I claim Kindred spiritual Kindred and Alliance with you a Man so much above me but of the same Order and Function There are none but bloated big-swollen and imboss'd Vpstarts that are asham'd of their Kindred and Relations because they are poor and low in the world And 't is below me to tell you how equal and alike we were when we were both Fellows of Colledges together in the days of Oliver in the University of Cambridge yet I never took the Covenant or any State-Oath in my life except that of Allegiance and Supremacy Therefore for the Sameness of our Function and your own Coat do not sit unconcern'd and patiently look on whil'st the men of Doctors-Commons seem to make you a Property and a Colour by your great Name and Authority to abuse me as they have done and so crush me by Proxy in your Court of Arches This should not be amongst Brethren I grant you are Rich and I am Poor What then Do not take part with my great Adversary the Bishop of London whom I never offended but by telling Truth because he is rich great and powerful but as the Wiseman counsels you Prov. 22.22 Rob not the poor because he is poor neither oppress the afflicted in the gate But open thy mouth Prov. 31.9 judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor and needy and God-like deliver the poor from him that is too strong for him the poor and needy from him that spoileth him Psal 35.10 The wicked in the pride of his heart Psal 10.2 9 11. doth persecute the poor let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined his mouth is full of cursing Anathematizing and deceit and fraud under his tongue is mischief and vanity he lieth in wait to catch the poor he doth man catch the poor when he draweth him into his net He hath said in his heart God hath forgotten he hideth his face he will never see it The Church-doors in Popish Countries and also the Chappel-doors in Monasteries stand open all the day long to let in to the Altar all those that commit Murder of which there are more than a good many make a Trade and their onely Livelihood and Vocation But to see as I have seen what rejoycing there was by the Parish Priests or the Monasteries whose luck hapned to be best and nearest to the place where the Murder was committed how they would Joy Huzzah and Hallou as at a Prize A Prize For if the Murderer have got 20 Doubloones the common price for a Murder the Altar-keepers will be sure to make him divide share and go Snips And then The Proudest He in Portugal or Spain or Italy dare not touch the Murderer for three days together the time allowed for his Escape no not the King himself can fetch him from Holy Church for he also is afraid of the Inquisition-men But what Conscience is there that a poor Whore should be excluded the Church and Sacraments and yet the Church-doors open and the Altar ready to receive a Barabbas a Robber and a Murderer A meer gore-blood Religion sure that a man must part with his Humanity before he can be proselyted or perverted thereto Indeed the Tolerated and Publick Stews makes the Whores and the unmarried Priests some amends but they cannot play the Whore and Rogue there neither tho' by Authority 'till they get a Licence which must be paid for too I know it And can we think but that it is a hard world for some sinners to be excluded the Church and Sacraments by greater Villains than themselves And does not all the world know that not only gray hairs five or six Caps more than needs Rheums Coughs and distempers of Body but diseases of Soul too by the Simony of Flattery and looking through the fingers at sin are the best lifts to Preferment and helps to Government Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Jurisdiction of the Holy-Chair at Rome Whither the Arch-Priest is no sooner crept by those old Serpentine and Pimping Arts but he writes himself by strange contradiction the Prince of the Apostles who Good Men never had a Prince amongst them but also he stiles himself Arch-slave also or Slave of Slaves Servant of Servants And there he says true for none but the vilest of Slaves will so unman as well as unchristen themselves to pimp to other Mens Lusts thereby to gratifie their own Lusts of Avarice and Pride to which they are first enslav'd Arch-slave or Servant of Servants His Holiness is in the right on 't I profess and therein Infallible whether his Worship considers it or no. But I wonder not at his Greatness and Monstrous Ecclesiasticalship For when the Antichristian Clergy had once made the Silly-Bigotted World believe that they their Commissaries Registers and Sumners were the onely Buyers and Sellers in the Temple and What do you lack Would Men have Estates Real or Personal in Heaven for ever or in Purgatory for a certain term of years for a less Sum or be freed from

the Ordinance although the most wicked and debaucht except haply they were Circumcised before upon another score then indeed I do not know how they should be Circumcised again And God commanded Joshua not Eleazar to Celebrate the Sacrament or Passeover as soon as they had got over Jordan nor from that Sacrament was the most vitious debarr'd that ever we read of the greatest Sinner sure had most need of it for the whole have no need of Physick but them that are sick Ely was Lord-Chief-Justice and Chief-Priest too and so was Samuel King David also was the Prophet David 1 Chron. 23.5 6. 1 Chron. 24.3 and King Solomon the Wise was Ecclesiastes or the Preacher and both of them order'd the House of God and how matters should be carried on there and plac'd and displac'd the Priests and set them their Lessons and told them their business and their errand and when Solomon's Temple was Built he Consecrated it himself 2 Chron. 6. Indeed good King Jehosaphat made a Council of State or Sanhedrim or Synagogue of a mixt Company parte per pale Priests among the Lords Judges a compound of Clergy and Lay-Elders for the Judgment of the Lord and for Controversies 2 Chron. 19.8 9 10 11 and all Causes that should come before them between Man and Man City and City Blood and Blood according to the Law and Commandment Statutes and Judgment But afterwards the Chief-Priest got the superintendency and was the chief Magistrate But our Blessed Saviour did not like that Spiritual Men should dirty themselves with the World and Worldly matters and therefore refused to be a Judg when the Preferment was proferr'd him in Civil-matters and charges his Disciples that they likewise should not exercise Dominion nor Lordship as the Princes of the Gentiles Luke 22.25 26. And St. Peter reads the Bishops or Presbyters for a Bishop was a Presbyter in those days just such another Lecture 1 Pet. 5. But who minds what he or our Blessed Saviour either do say in the Case And yet we all pretend to be Christians Certainly that Constitution and Frame of Government that cometh nearest to the Platform and is most agreeable and suiting with the Laws of God and is the best Form and Frame of Government Keep therefore and do them says God by Moses Deut. 4.6 7 8. For this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these Statutes and say Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people For what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this Law which I set before you this day And in all that Law I will maintain it against the World we do not read that any man living was for wickedness depriv'd of the benefit of the means of Grace of the comfort and help of the Sacraments Words Sacrifices or shut out and excluded the Church or Temple Indeed the Leper and the Unclean c. were debarred from the Crowd and Assembly for fear of Infection in that hot Country but no man's wickedness or ill life and conversation or misdemeanor or contempt or scandalous behaviour was punished by depriving him of the Word or Sacraments or means of Grace that we read of in the whole Scriptures either Old or New Testament And if it be not found in Holy-Writ you may easily know whose invention it was For the truth is Covetousness invented it and Pride together the Pope invented it and being greedy and rapacious with his Legions of Lordly Priests and Cardinals that topt the whole World and Money being a kind of necessary Utensil in the Grandieur of Courts as well as the sinew of War and crocking himself in vain by smutty Chymistry to find the Philosophers-stone he turn'd his Keys of Heaven and Hell into 't and made a Philosophers-stone of them and made them turn every thing they touch't to Gold Has any man a mind to go to Heaven you must ask the Porter leave he keeps the Keys he says of Heaven-gates Come enter in but first pay the Porter leave your Purse behind you you 'l need no money there therefore Deliver your Purse Our Blessed Saviour indeed does say to Peter Behold I give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whosoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven But what 's all that to the Pope more than other Presbyters For Christ gives the same Commission to all the Disciples after he had first breathed upon them the Holy-Ghost Joh. 20.22 23. Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And when the Pope or any other Popelings or any other sort of people are Successors to these gifts of the Holy-Ghost or that Christ would vouchsafe to breathe upon them or send down the Holy-Ghost upon them as he did upon the Disciples then and not till then has any Mortal man power upon Earth to forgive sins For who can forgive sins but God only said the Pharisees truly but they applied it wrongfully through their ignorance of the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour which he endeavoured to Discover unto them by that saying to the Cripple Thy sins be forgiven thee but they were blind and could not see Can any man in his wits imagine that God should give such power unto men the wickedest and vilest of men to forgive sins Can any man be a good man or indeed any thing in Religion in true Christian Religion without true Charity 1 Cor. 13. 't is impossible be his other qualifications and endowments never so great be he Pope or Bishop or Priest or what he will And yet the Pope makes the silly Papists believe that he can fetch Souls not only out of Purgatory but also make All-Souls in Hell All-Saints in Heaven and leave the Devils alone if he list Can he so the more uncharitable Devil he then by his own showing Had that wicked Levite a grain of Charity that seeing a poor distressed man miserably wounded and that fell among Thieves and turn'd his face hard heart and lookt another way and went on the other side of the way for fear he should reach a helping-hand give me the Samaritane for all such Levites Much less can the Pope have a grain of Charity or therefore any goodness indeed or Religion or any Christianity when he can if he do not lie redeem all the damned out of Hell now roaring in torments and will not and all the Souls out of Purgatory and the fire of Purgatory the Papists hold is hotter than Nebuchadnezzar's fiery Furnace but I cannot tell nor I hope never shall know and yet groaning and frying as they lie there the

came in the said Parish not once since June last but hired out himself a Curate in London under Dr. Grove to this day so that the Defendants said Parish of which he is Patron is miserably abus'd the Cure deserted the Flock neglected the Fleece only expected and neither His Majesties Tenths paid nor the Vicaridge disburthen'd thereof for the payment of which Tenths to His Majesty this Defendant desires this Court to sequester the Profits and better provide for the Cure both which the Bishop of London the said Promoter neglects to do so that great harm but no good is done by this Interruption and Fingringhoe has also cause to say Seldom comes a better Nor is it any great additional Honour to the Pastoral Staff that pretends a whole Diocess to be its Flock Cure and Charge even of All the Souls therein a pretty great burden and weight for a single shoulder that not satisfied to be well paid for sitting still must be doing and medling though it had much better do nothing than do mischief and harm 'T is well the Archbishop is the Bishop of Bishops and as much superior and elevated above the common or ordinary Bishop as a Bishop above the little Presbyters And 't is proper in this Case to let the Archbishop know that he may take notice and correct the neglect of the said Promoter the said Bishop of London in neglecting to collect His Majesties Arrearages of the Tenths aforesaid due from the said Harris the said little Vicar of Fingringhoe and his sin of omission in neglecting personally to demand the said great Arrearages of Tenths of the said Harris when he has as he has frequently met with him or upon refusal and non-payment to have declared the said Vicaridge ipso facto void of the said Incumbent as if he was dead as is enjoined by and in the said Statute 23 H. 8. That so the Patron might present a better man and the neglect of His Majesties said Revenue be no longer conniv'd and wink'd at nor the Cure of Souls in Fingringhoe aforesaid be so neglected and abandoned and much worse provided for by the said Bishop the Promoter in this Case than ever Whil'st there is none to Administer the Holy Sacraments there nor to Baptize or Catechize their Children Bury the Dead Read Divine Service nay nor so much as a Sermon read by the said Curate Harris or rather Reader for he can do nothing else but read whil'st the honest Parishioners have cause to bewail these Contrivances and bemoan the fruits of this Discord that whil'st the said Promoter intended to strike this Defendant he mist his blow and hit none but the harmless Parishioners who good men pay for all and All for nothing For though the said Harris has let out himself to work a kind of Journey-work under the said Dr. Grove yet he has not quite so forgot his Parishioners but that he has most magisterially commanded them to send him money for half a years Tythes or else he has threatned them that he will Ay that he will 'T is meet that this Court of Arches or Archbishop if it can do any thing that it should correct the faults of Bishops We must even turn the Tables Nor will any Body pity those busie Medlers and Master-workmen that cannot be content to oversee the Labourers hard at work and well wrought and employed but they must be placing and displacing stones in the Building and set them a tumbling and rowling 'till they fall upon their own Pates Nay no matter Harm watch Harm catch So that the 2 3 4 and 5th Articles are already answer'd by Statute Law and so shall all the rest besides what has been already pleaded and professed together with another Law that has no Law Necessity Therefore CHAP. X. 7thly AS to the 6 7 and 8 Articles or last Articles they urge a Transgression in solemnizing or rather prophaning Matrimony well-worded and cunningly but if the Register and Sir Thomas Exton had had eight shillings for every Marriage as they have had for many years together above 40 l. of this Defendant upon that Score and at that Rate then bonas noches and not a word of prophaning Matrimony without Banes or Licence contrary to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England Alas Poor Church of England Thou must be made a Skreen a Pretence and a Colour for Mens Avarice Oh Hypocrisie To which this Defendant answereth particularly and saith First That this Charge against him is in its self null and void in Law Reason Equity and Conscience for the uncertainty in not naming what particular Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England are thereby transgrest since the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England that go under that Name Colour and Title are contrary to one another in many Particulars too long here to recite But in this particular Case of solemnizing Matrimony without Banes or Licence the Canons or Constitutions that go under the name of Queen Elizabeth and King James in Print are vastly different one from the other Queen Elizabeth's Canons and Injunctions ordaining for such Offence a Suspension ab officio onely and so particularly exprest onely for the space of six months But those under the names of King James ordain for the like Offence a Suspension for three long years a long time for a painful and laborious Minister to live with his mouth stopt and upon such an occasion too that not one word is said to it nor any body aggrieved if the said Registers and Commissaries go but swips in the pretended Licence and have a feeling in the hand Which makes it more than probable that those said Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England are not truly Printed nor is any man bound to take notice of them except they be Recorded in a Court of Record and a true Copy be produced in such Court and particularly in this Court upon this Suit and this occasion and the Truth thereof sworn upon Oath of good and creaible Witnesses which this Defendant does hereby require in this Case and Suit according to the Rules and Methods of Law and Justice Reason and Equity Besides the said pretended Canon of King James ordaining Suspension in general ought by the Rules of the Civil Law Reason and Common Law be taken in the mildest sense For there being two kind of Suspensions namely 1. Ab Officio 2. A Beneficio The first only damages the Flock and Parish The second also starves the poor Priest and all his Family oh Cruelty for a Peccadillo when no man is damnified thereby but a greedy Register and Commissary they that buy must sell and if their mouths be but stopt with Guinees the Minister's shall never be stop't the Fault 's alledged against this Defendant for solemnizing or rather prophaning Matrimony without Banes being only in the years 1680 and 1681. when he took but about 5 s. for the same the People being the gainers

or ought it to be otherwise appli'd than as to the matter in hand that whatsoever the Pope do yet God gives no Indulgences Licences or Priviledges either to sin or to sin impunè Besides Piety is the greatest Policy in the World and the most easy as well as most safe certain and sure way of governing Mankind in Mercy Goodness Meekness Compassion Justice in not being over-rul'd with Popular or Parasitical Applause or distast of the greatest Favorite Especially in England of all the World who are sturdy generally hard to be forc'd or driven but easily drawn like a great Ship in calm Water with a Twine-Thred Besides the Defence of the King and Kingdom consists not in impregnable Fortresses Forts and Citadels as in the Low Countries but in the Limbs and Hands Heads and Hearts of the happy Natives I mean our Main-guard under God consists in Castles of Bones and not in Castles of Stones CHAP. XVI FRiday Novemb. 25th 1681 was the day appointed and agreed upon on both sides to argue the said Pleas Protestations and Answer and to that purpose Sir Philp Lloyd upon the 21st Instant being their Court-day did bid me nominate and chuse what Advocates I thought most meet to argue and improve my said Prostestations Pleas and Answer Advocates Replied I Advocates what shall I ask Advice of the Fox how to preserve my Chickens Advocates indeed have the Advantage of me in Skill Eloquence Pleadings and Subtilties but all that will be abundantly supplied by the Advantage of the Ground on which my Innocence has plac'd me Let Criples go on Crutches I told them and that I doubted not by God's help but I should stand on my own Legs and against them all if I might but be allowed fair play and the benefit of the Laws which was fairly promised and honestly performed yet on the day time and place appointed in Doctors-Commons to argue this mighty Case before the Judg came into the Room I was most insolently affronted and my Hat pluck'd off in great Rudeness and tumultuously by a Proctor's Clerk unworthy the naming who being reproved for the sawcy Attempt by some Citizens there present all strangers and unknown to me upon the Stir comes in Sir Philip Lloyd and inquiring the Cause of such Disturbance and Noise was told by one of the Citizens and who caused the same He very honestly check'd and severely chid the Fellow and bid him be gone out of the Room and that otherwise he might have been thought privy or at least to countenance such Rudeness when Men come upon their Affairs Citations and Monitions to Doctors-Commons but that was poor Satisfaction for so great and publick an Affront 't is well we have his Majesties Laws and his Majesties Courts to vindicate and secure us from such barbarous Assaults and probably the Fellow has heard from me concerning it before this time In the Interim to proceed Sir Philip takes a Chair and sits down and so did all the Advocates and very courteously the Judg desires me also to take a Chair amongst them and sit down and great Expectation there was by the By-standers to hear this mighty Argument But when it came to Sir Thomas Exton of Counsel for the Promoter instead of arguing admitted my Pleas and there 's an end of an old Song except at the next Term the Term Probatory further Debate or Debait arise so away I came out of their Room with the stifling Crowd after me who were defeated of their hopes to hear soome Proof or good Foundation for their Spiritual's Courts which Sir Thomas Exton said I denied and my Reasons for the same you have heard in my Answer which was not argued but admitted and so the By-standers lost their Longing as well as I lost my time detain'd for a Nonni-no above a Fortnight at London from my Parish my Family my Cure and Charge But how I employed my self in that Fortnight you have read thus far in this Book all writ at London in that time and the next day coming to Colchester weary and tir'd and bemir'd I immediately to show my Love to Peace and Quietness writ by Saturday Post this following Letter to Sir Thomas Exton not amiss here to insert in these very Words Colchester November 26th 1681. Right Worshipful I Expected Yesterday that you would have argued as the Bishop's Advocate against my Allegations but since you chose to admit them I have resolved once more thus to perswade you rather to be a Moderator which is in your Power to reconcile the Differences betwixt the Bishop of London and my Self rather than to espouse a Party and be a Stickler tho for a Lord Bishop against your old Friend and Vniversity-Acquaintance of 35 Years Continuance If you think this motion for Peace and Accommodation proceeds from fear the Impartial-Consideration of my Answer will undeceive you And this is the last Overture I will ever make for an Accommodation except you answer it and me effectually within a Week And by your neglect which is probable for Passion and Rage is deaf and hath no Ears I shall then think my self absolv'd not only in my own Conscience and Honour but in the Opinion and Sentence of all good Men if after these amicable Overtues rejected Differences grow to that height that in my just defence I be forc'd to reach some unhappy Blowes that may otherwise against my will hit an old Friend Thus you see how I study to be quiet and to avoid Disputes especially with my Diocesan though he cannot possibly contrive a way to make my Name and Fame so Eminent and considerable as by thus publickly entring into the Lists of Contests with me Wherein if I be foyl'd no great Honour can he get by the Victory after such great advantage of the ground he has got to stand on above me But if he come off with loss how will he have cause to blame those Counsels that irritated him to this unseemly Encounter Revenge is God's Attribute and can no more be safely and honourably handled by any Man then burning-Coals which leave at best unhandsome Scars and uncomely Cicatrizes though healed never so cleaverly But Harm watch Harm catch And if nothing else will serve then let all our Faults be rip'd up and expos'd upon the Publick-Stage to make sport for the By standers and currat Lex I am Your Servant Edm. Hickeringill It was and is yet a Canon agreed on all hands in the first General Council of Nice which the Church of England ownes That no Bishop shall quit a small Bishoprick for a bigger and therefore better But who heeds the Canon when an useful Man a Man of great Parts great Improvements great Learning and also which I had almost forgot great Relations and Friends in the Case It was a Canon Concil Sardic that none should be made a Bishop but gradually and passing through all the Inferiour Orders and had also continued in them for some considerable time there was no

the righteous that is such as would be wise and righteous if it were not for the Gift or Reward But wo wo Wo be to them saith the Prophet that decree unrigteous decrees Isa 10.1 2 3. and that write grievousness which they have prescribed To turn aside the needy from judgment and to take away the right from the poor of my people that widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless And what will ye do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from far to whom will ye flee for help and where will ye leave your glory Loth very loth will such men be that such measure as they meet it shall be measured unto them again then will they curse the keeping of false weights and false measures one to buy by and another to sell by except they indeed intend to be Weathercocks that is true Conformists yet never true nor stable but only true to every Wind that blows strongest But this is the wisdom the honesty and the policy mean while men might blush if they had any blush or grace in them this is a kind of blind Devotion or Implicite Faith Thus have I known a willing Court yare and ready at an Execution right or wrong upon a Bishop's significavit send a man to Gaol when the Bishop to my knowledg granted that significavit of one Excommunicate and knew no more of the matter or whether just or the merit of the cause more than the Man in the Moon but by Implicite Faith in the Register or his Eccho I mean Mr. Formality called a Surrogate or Official Sinner you ought to be Excommunicate Suspended saith Register or Vice-Register Excommunicetur Suspendatur quoth Eccho-Surrogate Wonderful Ecclesiastical-Policy and Kirk-Discipline Is there any Wit or Grace Law Reason Conscience or Equity in these Proceedings What Curse men Damn them Gaol them and all by Implicite Faith in a Silly Covetous Wretched Extorting Lack-Latin Register Sir How came you by the Keys of the Church These Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth These Keys that let in and out to Hell and the Gaol Did you come honestly by them speak man How came you Sir to say First Take him Devil Secondly and consequently Take him Magistrate Thirdly and lastly Take him Gaoler And in Gaol he must there lie and die without Bayl or Mainprize by 3 Edw. 1.15 How long Until he first please that is pay this same extorting Register 'till 1. He be pleas'd and as much he pleases at the will of this Lord or rather Tyrant of Souls and Purses 2. He must swear to obey the Ordinary and staremandatis Ecclesiae commandments of Holy-Church 3. He shall then be Absolv'd and have a Certificavit thereof to the Bishop who then in course grants a Significavit and then by Writ to the Sheriff the poor Excommunicate gets out of Hell and the other Hell the Gaol So that the Register the Vice-Register with Formality-Eccho have all the Keys at their Devotion for what the Bishop does by Significavit of Excommunication or Absolution delivering to and fro the Devil and the Gaol and all that the King's-Courts consequently do thereupon are all by blind Implicite-Faith in the Register and Eccho all in course only For these little Sell-souls do the feat vulnus opemque tulit the same hand again they Wounded you and they cure you the Bishop's Significavit and the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo are but necessary Consequents and things in Course So that I say again it is safer 1000 times safer to anger the Great Turk or Great Mogull than a sneaking rascally covetous extorting Register or Vice-Register that buys or hires the Sell-soul-place to my knowledg and if he buys the Devil he must sell him Thus I think we English men are at a fine pass when our Souls our Bodies our Properties and Liberties lye at this loose lock whilst a Register or Sumner keeps really and truly the Keys of all To see an old Formality-Priest sit in the Court of Arches behind Noon as if forsooth they could do nothing without the Keys for fashion-sake which Mr. Necessity-Priest has at his Girdle hanging and represents the Archbishop who is absent about greater matters than Markets of Souls and looks just like the Divinity-man amongst the Civil Lawyers in Trinity-Hall in Cambridg called Mr. Necessity because he has no Law but they are troubled with him poor man because they cannot pray without him Quite contrary in Doctors-Commons they must they must upon necessity be troubled with this Hackney-Journey-man-Divinity-driver because the mischief is the Doctors good Souls are willing enough but alas they cannot Curse and Deliver to the Devil without him nor Absolve without him although the Money for Absolution be not only agreed upon but they have the Livery and Seizin thereof in their Pocket Why What must be done then give the Word for Mr. Necessity the Arch-Bishops Representative or in inferiour Coutts the Bishops Representative or the Arch-Deacons Representative Come hither Mr. Necessity nay hold up your head and look like a Man sit down put on your Hat Mr. Necessity you must Subscribe this Curse or Anathema yea quoth Necessity give me my Spectacles and Pen and Ink. This fellow makes no more Bones of a Soul than if it had not a Bone in it nor knows wherefore it is delivered to Satan or more of the matter or merit of the Cause than the most Reverend Arch-Bishop Lord-Bishop or Mr. Arch-Deacon that are miles off and absent I 'le depose for Mr. Necessity he knows no Law Civil-Law nor Uncivil-Law all he minds or knows or enquires is only Wher 's my Gray-Groat for subscribing the Anathema or Curse Is it a good Groat I take no Brumiughams no Brumingham I. Then if ever the Soul be Absolv'd then Mr. Necessity has a Groat more for the Absolution-Oath he cares not how many are delivered to Satan so many Souls so many Groats in his Pocket ready Money but his vertue is he Prays as hard for their Absolution for every Soul Absolv'd is as good as a Groat in his Pocket Mr. Necessity to Curse takes pains But Registers and Doctors get the gains Copy-hold at the will of the Lord is the basest Tenure but that is regulated and bounded by custom and kept within the limits of reason But in this case upon the good will pleasure or displensure of these Ecclesiastical-fellows depends all we have all our Liberties and Properties of Noblemen Gentlemen Yeomen all all are held at the will of these Spiritual Lords or rather Holy-Tyrants I mean Summers and Registers and such bran such Sell-souls we none of us can be assured of any thing we have if they be not curb'd in their career we cannot say our Souls are our own Are we not at a fine pass The thoughts hereof did so perplex the King and Parliament saith the Lord Cook Inst 1. Sect. 201. that though in antient time every Official