say namely In the next place That this Defendant did never marry any without Consent of Parents or Governours nor ever any within the prohibited degrees of Affinity or Consanguinity nor any who had a Suit depending thereon or any the like Impediment Inconvenience evil Circumstance or evil Consequence And moreover To answer more particularly to the said Articles that charge this Defendant for solemnizing Matrimony as in the 7th Article betwixt James Abel and Anne Burnham John Shepherd and Damaris Gillings all of the Parish of St. Leonard in Colchester and also Ed. Hartley of the Parish of St. Bottolphs aforesaid and Mary Groom of St. Leonard's aforesaid and also D. Steeres of the Parish of St. Mary Magdalen in Colchester aforesaid and An. Bloom of St. Leonards aforesaid and also R. Potter of Aldham in the County of Essex and Everet of the same To which this Defendant particularly answereth and saith That all the aforesaid five Couples are poor People that either live in Parishes where there is no Church but what is demolished as are the Churches of St. Bottolph's and St. Mary Magdalen aforesaid and no Cure at all serv'd there since the Siege of Colchester or else no constant Cure served for the space of a month and more together as at the time when the said Potter of Aldham and Abel and the rest of St. Leonard's were married and consequently no Banes could be published in time of Divine Service where there is no Divine Service nor any Profits belonging to the Church of St. Bottolph's or St. Mary Magdalen aforesaid that ever he heard of if the Churches were standing and so little to the Church of St. Leonard's as aforesaid that they have had no Minister sometimes for two or three Years together nor did any body regard it or take care of it for two or three Years together till Mr. Sewell aforesaid took some care of it and if he desert the same they 'll be just served as formerly Canis in Presepi So that the said People who told this Defendant they had not the gift of Continency and therefore Marriage being the only lawful remedy they were loth to come together and lye together unmarried and Money they had none to spare for a Licence and if they had this Defendant had equally transgress'd the Statute if he had marryed them with any pretended Licence except the Banes had been three times published three several Sundays or Holy-Days in time of Divine-Service which was impossible necessitas vincit Legem as aforesaid And this Court had had this Answer sooner but that this Defendant could not in safety or without Affronts approach your Courts having been there but twice and both times by your Clerks Vassals and Rabble without any regard or Reverence to his Quality or the Dignity of his Function assaulted affronted and threatned And had he not accidentally and by good Providence had a great number of Substantial Citizens thither brought perhaps through Curiosity especially the first time of his appearance and followed him out of your Court mischief much mischief might have been done Yet even then your Creatures unprovok'd did with most insolent and opprobrious Language and Threatnings pursue this Defendant and the said Citizens out of the Gates of Doctors-Commons into the Street and there shamefully rail'd and scolded till we were out of hearing There are none of his Majesties Courts in England but both for their own and his Majesties Honour will not only keep the Peace but a Decorum and will protect those especially that they summon before them from Affronts Nor are the King's Subjects obliged to appear in any Courts that will not or cannot protect the Suiters from Jeopardy of their Lives Limbs or Reputations But to cite this Defendant to Doctors-Commons and then to suffer if not to countenance your Vassals to abuse and affront-him is no great Argument for the upholding such a Society but looks like a Trepan at least it is most barbarous and unanswerable Which if you will not amend and secure him from the Affronts of your Creatures for the future he does hereby protest that he does not think himself obliged to obey your Summons or Monitions to attend this Court though he had no other Reason but he has shewn many more to the contrary Nor does he think himself obliged to provide himself of a Life-Guard to secure him from the Affronts of the Men of Doctors-Commons Nor did he at his first appearance speak Greek to affront the Doctors but to shew how ill it did become them to expect that such a Man as this Defendant should stand bare-headed before such as they that being Doctors of the Canon-Law much whereof was writ originally in Greek they might well blush as red as their Scarlet-Gowns to expect and command him to stand bare-headed before them when the Complement is not due from this Defendant to their Master the Arch-Bishop by the Canon-Law which ordains that Episcopus aliquo loco sedens Presbyterum stare non patiatur multo minus nudo Capite In Ecclesia autem concessu Presbyterorum sublimior sedeat intra domum vero Collegam se Presbyterorum esse cognoscat A Bishop for they had no arch-Arch-Bishops in Africa where the Canon was forg'd in those days sit he where he will he shall not suffer a Presbyter to stand before him much less then one would think bare-headed yet in the Church the Bishop shall have the uppermost Seat but in a House he ought to know that he is but a Fellow and Companion of the Presbyters or Hail fellow well met It seems they begun to justle for Superiority and the Place in those days in spite of two Canon Laws more which from a Man you do not love you shall have in a Language you do not love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. XII IT was not therefore Pride nor Arrogance that moved this Defendant to answer you with his Head covered for those only are guilty of Arrogance that like you from this Defendant arrogate that to your selves which is not due to you But a true sense of his Duty his Quality and yours as well as your Master's Quality taught him this demeanour which no Law makes in him a misdemeanour To whom this Defendant is willingly subject in licitis honestis only and not in things unbecoming a Gentleman a Clergy-man and an English-man Lastly One Blunder more is yet behind which this Defendant had almost forgot namely That when the said Promoter Henry Bishop of London seems to desist and give over the Promotion and Prosecution in the end of the 7th Article as being probably weary of the Preferment to which his Vice-Register the said Nucourt so sawcily promoted him unto without his Privity as is conjectured or perhaps weary of the Prosecution fore-seeing the Answers and Reasons already here alleaged But when this Defendant was in hopes the worst had been past then in the 8th Article up starts
he went to visit the Brethren and see how they did and by Preaching confirmed or strengthned the Souls of the young Converts or when his Harbinger return'd with sad News of cold comfort and accommodation stopt his Coach and fac't about to the next good Town 4. Is not the Souls of Villagers and Countrey-Folk as dear to God and ought to be as dear to a Bishop as those of the Citizens and Towns of good Trade and Accommodation 5. If Confirmation be onely a Bishop's work and also a needful work as the Common-Prayer Book seems to say then why is not Confirmation the Bishop's daily work if the People want such daily bread And the Unconfirmed Persons and Children in London Westminster and Lines of Communication cannot possibly by one Bishop be confirmed in Twenty Years though he do nothing else every day in the week without resting the Sabbath although he confirmed Forty every day which are as many as he can well examine as the Law and Reason admonishes they ought to be examin'd though hoth his Chaplains were his Assistants in so solemn and grand Inquest on which the receiving of the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper does depend and to which such serious and previous Precaution is so necessarily requisite And by that time the Bishop and his Chaplains have spent twenty years in so good a work they had need begin their Circuit again for in those 20 years a new Generation will arise that will need their helping hand as much as the former and so for ever would the Bishop of London be employ'd in London onely and then what would become of three Counties more Essex Middlesex and Hertfordshire How should we in the Countrey make shift without Visitations Procurations Confirmations Institutions Inductions Consecrations and Ordinations for which the Bishop could spare no time if he have his hands full of Little London onely Wherein are more Professors of Christianity than were in a thousand Bishopricks in the Primitive Times 6. If Confirmation and the said previous examination and capacity be requisite as the Rubrick asserts and enjoins then will not greater Inconveniences necessarily follow Namely either making Diocesses less and after the Primitive Mode and like the Primitive Christians when no Bishop had above one Altar nor more of his Diocess than his Chancel and Church would well hold as is sufficiently and undeniably prov'd by Mr. Baxter in his Treatise of Episcopacy a Parish and a Diocess signifying one and the same thing and some one of our Parishes as Stepney St. Martins St. Gyles's St. Andrews Holborn c. the least whereof would make an Hundred Primitive Diocesses nay it is well if an Hundred Bishops could look well after one of them Parishes as they ought to be look'd after Four hundred years after Christ in Augustine's time at a Conference Provincial there were 286 Bishops and 120 absent and 60 Sees vacant 486 Bishops in one Province Or else if the Diocesses continue so vast then Suffragan-Bishops and Chorepiscopi must necessarily come into Play again or else Confirmation must either not be done or not done as it ought and as is required by the Statute to be done impossible to be done throughout a whole Diocess by any one man or Bishop in such manner as the Law enacts So that necessarily either the Diocesses must be made less or my Lords the Bishops by Bishop-Suffragans augmented in Number or else Confirmation taken out of the Common-Prayer Book or at least altered 'T is a Fable to say That Atlas alone bore up the Heavenly Globe on his single Shoulders 't is a Burden too great for any individual mortal man and so is the Office of a Diocesan-Bishop at this day except his work be made less or his Helps in Government more and greater By Helps in Government I do not mean Excommunicating Helps in Government Lay-Chancellors Doctors Proctors Registers Vice-Registers c. But Saving Helps and Confirming Helps Chorepiscopi Suffragan-Bishops a word no Nusance nor a stranger to our English Language But will that old Remedy of Suffragan-Bishops be ever listned unto What Bishop alive will be guilty of so much Self-denial as conscious of his own Inability or rather Impossibility for the discharge of so great a Cure and work as to take in Partners and Comrades to so high a Chair where some think there 's room little enough in all Conscience for one Corps I confess it would shew great Zeal in my Lords the Bishops and Obedience to the celebrated Act of Vniformitn if to shew their Conformity thereunto and their Love to Episcopal Confirmation they should Surrogate many Suffragan Bishops as Coadjutors in so blessed a work and would chronicle them and renown them to all Posterity and entitule them to the great Honor of being Conformists in After-Ages But some men do not love Honor so well as to purchase it at so dear a Rate For in all Conscience the suffragan-Suffragan-Bishops that share in the Pains might honestly put in their Spoons for a Meals-meat and share in the Gains For that very Trick therefore I do not expect to live to see such a Primitive Face of the Church in this Iron Age nor so much Tenderness and Conscientiousness in the discharge of Duty and Self-denial in any Bishop but I wish I could see it In the Interim as I hap to meet with them I will see if I can persuade them to 't because the Harvest is so great and the Labourers too few no wonder so much good Corn is lost amongst the Nonconformists and Quakers and shakes in the Field for want of more hands to the work the mighty work of Confirmation Nothing can be more apposite and seasonable to conclude this Essay than His Most Gracious Majesties Declaration pag. 11. published Anno Domini 1660. to vindicate it from all appearance of Novelty in these words Because the Diocesses especially some of them are thought to be of too large Extent We will appoint such a Number of Suffragan Bishops in every Diocess as shall be sufficient for the due performance of their work 3. No Bishop shall ordain or exercise any part of Jurisdiction which appertaineth to the Censures of the Church without the advice and assistance of the Presbyters And no Chancellors Commissaries or Officials as such shall exercise any Act of Spiritual Jurisdiction in these Cases viz. Excommunication Absolution c. As to Excommunication Our Will and Pleasure is That no Chancellor Commissary or Official Decree any Sentence of Excommunication or Absolution Yet I my self was Absolv'd by Dr. Pinfold and Dr. Stearnes two Loy-Doctors in the Delegates no Presbyter being present Quaere Whether the Statute aforesaid 25 H. 8.19 which alone constitutes the Delegates gives such Delegates power to Excommunicate and Absolve how come they by the Power of the Keys Nor shall the Archdeacon exercise any Jurisdiction without the Advice of Six Ministers of his Archdeaconry whereof Three to be nominated by the Bishop and Three
by the Election of the Major part of the Presbyters within the Archdeaconry 4. To the End the Dean and Chapters may the better be fitted to afford Counsel and Assistance to the Bishops both in Ordination and other Offices mentioned before c. Moreover an equal Number to those of the Chapter of the most learned pious and discreet Presbyters of the same Diocess annually Chosen by the Major Vote of all the Presbyters of that Diocess present at the Election shall be always advising and assisting together with those of the Chapter in all Ordinations and every part of Jurisdiction which appertains to the Censure of the Church and at all other solemn and important Actions in the Exercise of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction wherein any of the Ministery are concern'd And Our Will is That the great work of Ordination be constantly and solemnly performed by the Bishop and his aforesaid Presbytery 5. We will take Care that Confirmation be rightly and solemnly performed by the Information and with the Consent of the Minister of the place who shall admit none to the Lord's Supper 'till they have made a credible Profession of their Faith and promised Obedience c. This was the Judgment of His Majesty in that Declaration which see at large to which the Parliament that made the Act of Uniformity gave so much Deference and Reverence That they Publickly gave His Majesty Thanks for the same And as to the matter in hand concerning Confirmation they Enacted it almost to a Tittle which see in the Rubrick foregoing that Sacred Office But who is Conformable thereunto and who are the Nonconformists now And who makes a pause in the work 'till first be obtained the Information and Consent of the Minister of the place without which in the Judgment of His Gracious Majesty Confirmation could not be rightly and solemnly performed It has been prov'd that if a Diocesan-Bishop had no other work besides Confirmation only it is impossible that all the Bishops in England should confirm those that want Confirmation in this one only Diocess of London though they did nothing else and left their own Sees vacant if they observe the Rubrick and Act of Uniformity and not do it as is too frequent perfunctorily and shamefully but with such previous caution scrutiny examination and circumspection and with Certificates thereof and Godfathers and Godmothers as the Common-Prayer-Book enjoyns Grant Confirmation to be a good and needful work yet the Law enjoyns Impossibilities if no one man can possibly be sufficient for these things though he shake off all worldly Affairs and Counsels Again If a Diocesan-Bishop had no other work but only to teach and exhort his Flock publickly and from House to House as Ignatius tells us all Bishops did in his time in the second Century before ever any Diocesan-Bishops were heard of for Bishops then were to enquire after every one by name even Man-servants and Maid-servants even this necessary feeding-work of a good Shepherd would be fully employed in a single Parish and in such a Parish as Saint Andrews-Holborn London there would be work enough for the Bishop and his Dean though the Lecturer and Reader came in to help For no Bishop in the Primitive-times nor 'till Pope Silvester I. had more than one Flock one Altar one Church nor then neither except only in Rome and Alexandria Indeed the Apostles that had the Gift of Tongues travelled all Nations and were Itinerant Preachers for the most part but I speak of setled standing Officers of the Church called Bishops or which is all one in Scripture-Language as Dr. Hammond Jo. Gerson Grotius and most learned men generally agree to be all one with Presbyters for a Sub-Presbyter such as Parish-Priests are made in England is not to be found in the Holy-Scripture of the New-Testament nor the Prime-Primitive-times How then and when did Diocefan-Bishops come into the World and wherefore may some say To which I will answer but not before some body answer me this Question How when and wherefore Hell and Devils came into the Word for from the beginning Hell and Devils were not Some say it was Pride and Ambition that made Angels of Darkness of those that were first Angels of Light Lucifer would be like his Maker ambituis for Rule and Domineering and like God to be Omnipresent and Ubiquitary Therefore Down Lucifer Down to Hell and be condemned said the Almighty to Everlasting Chains of Darkness to the Judgment of the Great Day History Ecclesiastical tells us that the Chorepiscopi or Country-Bishops just like the Rectors of the Parishes saving the Name nay even the Name too of Prelates and Hierarchici was given to Parish-Presbyters though Parishes are no antient Invention Presbyteri qui prasunt Ecclesiis c. Concil Aquisgr and the Learned Filesacus p. 576 577. proves it abundantly that Presbyters were called Prelates as well as Bishops Episcoporum instar suam habebant plebem regendam I say the Chorepiscopi were dismist of their Authority by the rich adjoyning City-Bishopes ne vilescat nomen Episcopi poor Country-Bishops that have no Lordly Equipage will make the name of Bishop cheap and vile and vulgar Ay Ay so it will What Can a Lord-Bishop found like a Lordly Name when poor fellows such as St. Paul the Tent-maker and St. Peter the Fisherman and poor Country Rural Beggarly Bishops pretend to the same Power and Authority in Name and Thing Can the name of a Bishop found Lordly and Domineering over the rost of the Brethren of the Clergy if it be common to every beggarly Minister of Christ and Steward of the Mysteries Therefore make Room and enlarge the Boundaries the Arch-bishoprick of York was glad to swallow seven little Bishopricks at one gulp to make it swell but to the bigness it is now of yet lopt and cropt Can the Tythes of a single Parish maintaian six Lackqueys six Grooms and as many idle Gentlemen or as the Dutch style them idle men Can lean Easter-Offerings buy a guilt Coach Come tell me that Or can a single Acre of melancholly and solitary Glebe-land make fat six Flanders-Jades or Coach-Horses No you must say No why then read the Learned History of the Council of Trent compos'd by Father Paulus a Papist but as great an Enemy of proud Prelacy as any Protestant he will tell you in Page 330 331 332 333. How Grandieur Grandieur And make Room there Sirrah for my Lord Bishop after the Emperors became Christian crept gradually and stole into the Church unknown to the Primitive and New-Testament sanctity I owe the Pope one touch more of my Pen if it be but for bringing in maintaining abetting and promoting Prelatical and Ecclesiastical Lordliness and Domineering in spight of his vaunted Predecessor St. Peter and in spight of our Blessed Saviour 1 Pet. 5.3 Luke 22. to both which he vaunts himself to be the Vicar or Vicegerent Luther's single Pen gave his Holiness such a crock or scratch the wretch
Aye Here 's your Men quoth the Popish Priests Chapmen What do you lack What do you buy Then then and not till then they got the whipping-hand of the superstitious world for he that has got a hank over other Mens Souls and Consciences their Bodies and Estates consequently are without dispute at his Service and Devotion And when a Priest can make a poor Lady believe that he can damn her or absolve her and has the Keys and something else under his Girdle and can let her into or shut her out from the Church and Sacraments so that she will but shew him all her Secrets and unbosome her self in Auricular Confession Cajol'd thereunto superstitiously and bug-bear'd by many lying Miracles in the Legend of many that dyed and got as far as Heaven-gates but were glad to return a long and weary Journey to earth again to be confest by a Priest before they could be let in dying unshriv'd or unhousled can such a Priest that has got the Lock and Key of a Ladies Closet and Secrets have far to go before he come at her heart And I have therefore wondred that the jealous Italians Spaniards and Portugueze that will not suffer any man scarce a Brother to see their Wives face should yet permit them to go to secret and auricular Confession to a young vigorous unguelt piece of Sanctity I had almost said Hypocrisie I could not but wonder 'till now of late to find St. Ambrosie Ora pro nobis in the Popish Letany or Mass For what merit Oh! Captain St. Ambrose was the first Ecclesiastical-Hector or Spiritual-Bravo that in defiance of God and the King durst as malapartly as barbarously and insultingly some say Traiterously shut the doors of the Church against his Prince and Emperor Theodosius the elder not admitting him to the Sacrament nor Divine Service 'till the Emperor submitted to the proud insulting Priest and promis'd upon his knees that for the future he would be rul'd and so he and the Priest became Friends again Well I see St. James the Author the Papists say of their Liturgy and Mass though he was none of the Twelve Apostles yet was a Bishop and a Prophet too if he could so early insert into the Churches Common-Prayer Book stout Captain St. Ambrose and make him pray for himself and all Christen-Souls 400 years before he was born Oh! the merit of some mens Ecclesiastical Insolence But if Captain Ambrose was Canoniz'd and Sainted for shutting the Church-doors and debarring a great Sinner from Divine Service and Sacraments Will not the men of the same Leaven Anathematize me for opening the Church-doors thus to Sinners great Sinners and small Sinners and shut me out But it is better far to eat with Publicans and Sinners as our blessed Saviour did than to partake with Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites to whom he denounced Wo Wo Wo. Thus have I known School-Boys taught in the Church but better fed than taught to barr out their Masters and be Masters of Mis-rule upon pretence of Christmas and a Holy-time and with a Brazen-face make Declamations and Verses in praise of that precious Ecclesiastical Discipline But if I come I 'le open the Church Doors again and spread the Arms of Mercy wide open and outstretched to as great a Latitude and Comprehension as our Blessed Saviour did even to Publicans and Sinners they shall eat with me let the Hypocrites eat alone and as fittest by themselves if they will not vouchsafe to eat with Sinners let them cringe and bow and face to the Left to the Left to the East the East Sinners look you Sinners though they despise Sinners so much in nomine Domini Sinners are the best Gryst that comes to their Mills If it were not for Sinners the Bench Ecclesiastical at least would not be so scarlet as it is their Holinesses might sit alone as well as a cold if it were not for Sinners and look as lean as an Easter-Offering Sinners quoth a Who is this that despises Sinners which our Blessed Redeemer did not despise by God's help this little Book shall open the Church-Doors to let in Sinners in spight of the most self-conceited Hypocrite as far as the Old and New Testament will go I say ipse dixi What shall sin walk barefac't magisterial in open Court and unrebuk't And shall the Naked-Truth be glad to hide its Head Ha shall the wicked Extortioners of Doctors-Commons sin and will you make me suffer and be whipt for their faults upon their Backs whilst they hold me up to you Sir look you my Lord Is there any Conscience in this Look you Sir look you I am got into the Modern Rhetorical Phraze entail'd on some seats of Eloquence can it be Justice look you my Lord that I should suffer because they sin and I only wish and endeavour their amendment Just thus does the unjust World abuse the poor Cuckolds when the Naked-Truth on 't is the great and only fault is in the Cuckold-makers the Whore and Rogue And must he not have a face of Brass look you and a conscience of Steel my Lord that shall vindicate that domineering Popishly invented Prelacy which the Holy Scriptures and our Blessed Redeemer condemns making all his Disciples Spiritual-Levellers Luke 22. Whose Disciples then are the Popish Prelates that in defiance of Christ will domineer over the Clergy their Brethren and vex them with Law-Suits having great Interest and great Power and withal Purse-proud to defend in spight of Christ that Antichristian Lordliness and Clergical Tyranny over their Brethren calling it as the Pope contradictione adjecto first call'd it Hierarchy or the Holy Rule But how can that be Holy that the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Jesus decries and condemns and it was first Enacted and made a Law in England when the Pope did what he list both with King and People They had and we have a happy time on 't yet most of these Popish Hierarchical Laws are abolished and that was stoutly attack't though it still stands and let it stand I said in my Naked-Truth Rome was not built and cannot be destroyed in one day it crumbles a pace If you be for Discipline and Spiritual Weapons rather Draw upon the Adulterers and Adulteresses the Extortioners impudent Extortioners in your Spiritual-Courts in Probates Administrations Visitations Ordinations grant ing Licences to Preach Institutions Inductions Procurations and if you have power to Anathematize and Curse Curse the Cursers and Blasphemers of the unparallel'd Age we live in In all the Reign of Edw. 6. I find no man taken upon the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo nor 'till the fifth of Queen Elizabeth nor any legal Cursing or Commination save that in the Common-Prayer-Book denouncing of Gods Anger and Judgments against Sinners Cursed is he that smiteth his neighbour secretly and Cursed is he that lyeth with his neighbours wife c. and all the people shall say Amen Cursed is he that taketh a reward to slay an
Ay ay that 's the right and only way of return to God for manifestation of any Naked-Truth by his Servants to glorifie his Name for the same And why should not the Sanhedrim have glorified God for the same as well as the people Had not they Souls to save as well as the people What was this Sanhedrim or High-Court of Justice made up of Who were the Members of this Council It is answered Acts 4.1 The Priests Ay Ay I should have wondred else at a piece of mischief if I had not found the Jewish-Priests there in the first place next the Captain of the Temple and the Sadduces A fine medley of Priests Soldiers and Atheists for so were the Sadduces the Jewish-Church was like to be well govern'd nor do I wonder they went about in the next Verse Acts 4.2 to suspend the Apostles ab officio or silence them from Preaching being grieved good hearts that they taught the People Whereupon they put them in Jayl for that Night designing to get all or a greater number of their Council together upon so good an occasion too And then appears a great Motley crew made up of Rulers and Elders and Scribes and Annas the High-Priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all the High-Priests Nephews Cousins and Cousin-Germans This is only to show you what the Church was that our Saviour speaks of Matt. 18.17 Tell it to the Church is as much as to say in England Complain in Westminster-Hall Sessions or Assizes For want of the knowledg whereof Excommunication has been counted a sacred Ordinance and every little gather'd Church as well as the great took upon them the Government and thought themselves some-body and would have power over their own Members to interdict deprive cut off c. and woful work they made with it Johnson and others that fled to Holland and had a gathered-Church and cut of and cut off Hereticks and wrong Believers till he left himself alone or but with one that just jumpt with him in all things And indeed as in the Mathematicks when a crooked Line deviates from a streight Line the further it reaches in length still the greater distance and more irreconcileable so here this Text of Matt. 18 17. being mistaken and wrong construed the longer the error lasts the greater mischief and the harder to be reconciled For this Interpretation has leaven'd not only Diocesan Synodical but Presbyterian Independent and Congregational-Churches till they have fought one another with this Spiritual-Weapon most Bloodily and they knew not wherefore they are mistaken in the words of their Commission Father forgive them they know not what they do I deny not but that a Bigot Papist Protestant Presbyterian or any other Sect that believes the Church has this power at this day to bind and loose and knows no better than the old Traditional-Interpretation of these words Tell the Church have and may still if they please be frighted out of their little Wit with the thunder of Excommunication thinking it Jure Divino and that the Thunder comes from Heaven But I doubt not but to prove how far it is a meer earthly Cracker and a Bugbear and frights none but Women and Fools were it not for the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo that follows in the Rear of it I know well how the Emperor Theodosius the younger was frighted out of his little Wit because a silly Monk had Excommunicated him and could not eat drink nor sleep till he absolv'd him there has and will be Bigotted Fools and Coxcombs to the Worlds end Nay men that are in all other things wise yet if they once be possessed with the Spirit of Bigottism and Superstition and be Priest-ridden not minding what the Holy Scriptures say but what comments the Priests for their own lucre and to uphold their Prelatical Hierarchy Dominion and Usurpation put upon it are easily Bugbear'd with this cracker of Excommunication as was that bravest of Men and Warriours the Emperor Theodosius the Elder Excommunicated by Ambrose the greater sinner of the two Not but that the Emperor might be in fault in some fault as what great Warriour and Conqueror as he was can possibly be innocent and have hands clean from any stain of Blood but whether he was in fault or no is not easie to determine read the Story in Nicephorus and though the Emperor did command the Soldiers to humble the City that were certainly Traytors and were Guilty laesae Majestatis in abusing most shamefully the Statues and Picture of his dear Wife and Empress and possibly the Soldiers might they are apt enough to exceed their Commission when there is good plunder in the case But the poor Emperor must pay for all and smart for all For indeed he was not Emperor but a Bigot I mean he did not know his own Strength Power and Authority but suffered himself to be nuzzled by Ambrose that formerly had been a Captain and now was made Bishop of the same Town Milan that he had formerly been Governour of but he forgot not his stout heart though he had put on his Canonical-Weeds read but the Story it is too long here to insert but you will then with me pity the poor Bigot Emperor got into ill-handling and under the clutches of a Priest that well knew the Ascendant he had over him For even in these days a Bishoprick begun to be a stately business and not only a good but a great thing and had been so of 100 years standing namely ever since the good Emperor Constantine had been so wonderfully Enamour'd of them Bishops and therefore he made them rich and riches are apt to make men proud and pride is apt to make men fall And there 's an end on 't But if the Sanhedrim or Synagogue had been a Spiritual-Court only as men make it that thus Construe Tell the Church then certainly it was a Bloody Court as well as a Bawdy Court for St. Paul confesses that he had a Commission from thence to Imprison men and put them to Death which surely was Law or else King Agrippa and Festus the Roman-Governour would have chastised him for it when he confest Acts 26.10 that many of the Holy men he shut up in Prison having received Authority from the Chief-Priests mark that and when they were put to Death he gave his Vote for it and punisht them oft in every Synagogue or Church so that I say Tell it to the Church or Synagogue is Complain to the Justice and no more And it is strange indeed that Christ should in those Words of Matt. 18.17 set up a new Jurisdiction in the World and the Apostles who at that time knew nothing of nulling any of the Law of Moses or that Christ should die and yet should make no exception to it or question to have it more explain'd if it were to be a standing Sacred Ordinance to vouch Excommunication to the Worlds end And as strange that none of the
where I might properly discuss the point but I have learnt to obey and to mind only mine own business CHAP. V. I Have heard some Lawyers say that all Laws of man which are contrary to Gods Laws are void ipso facto as soon as made But what 's that to this affair But there are worse consequences of an Excommunication amongst us than Imprisonment or the Fees or rather Fines severer consequences than what attends the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo for if I mistake not an Excommunicate Person and signified under the Bishops Seal to be such shall not sue at Law for his Debts Lands nor Estate nor make a Will to dispose of the same or if he do the Spiritual-Courts will not prove it nay some would have it that they shall not give their Suffrages and Votes in the choice of Parliament-men nor be suffered to Trade nor to Buy or Sell nay in Popish Times and Countries none may buy any thing of any Excommunicate person Rev. 13.16 17. in pain of being also Excommunicate neither give nor sell them meat nor drink For which cause it was that Jane Shore was starv'd and dyed in Shore-ditch no body durst relieve her because she was Excommunicated And most of the Rebellions in the Reign of Henry VIII was because the Pope by his Bull of Excommunication dated Decemb 7. Anno Domini 1538. had deprived the King of his Kingdom and had absolved his Subjects from their Obedience Hard is the case both of Kings and People when they lie at the mercy of the Clergy except they will be content to be Gospel-Ministers and Servants of Christ and his People 1 Pet. 5.3 and not Lords to tyrannize and domineer over God's Heritage such Pride so contrary to the Gospel will have a Fall nay it has had a Fall yet some Men will never take warning nor believe in God Isa 26.11 but trust to broken Cisterns and their own Subtleties which are Foolishness with God I think every Man that has Liberties or Properties to lose and the poorest Man in England has Liberty to lose though he have no Freehold I say it is of Concernment to all Men to look about them and have a care God knows whose turn it may be next For my part I had rather anger the Great Turk than a peevish proud Surrogate Register or Summer And indeed my private Concerns was the first occasion to tell you true of making me look and pry into their nasty privy ways Extortions Oppressions under which His Majesties Subjects poor Widows and Orphans groan remediless to this day notwithstanding so many Acts of Parliament for their Relief Does not the Statute of 31 Edv. 3 4. tell us That the Ministers of Bishops and other Ordinaries of holy-Holy-Church take of the People grievous and outrageous Fines where note by the way that by outrageous Fines is meant by the Statute unjust Fees for the Probate of Testaments c. And the Statute of 3 Hen. 5 8. begins thus Whereas the Commons of the Realm have oftentimes mark that in divers Parliaments mark that complained of that that divers Ordinaries do take for the Probate of a Testament c. against Right and Law c. therefore that Statute reduc'd them to Two shillings six-pence or Five shillings at the most A likely matter that Spiritual Men can be held bound by a Statute that could bind and loose all the Commons and Nobles too at their pleasure A Statute Law bind them No no no more than Samson's Wit hs or New Cords could hand-cuff the Gyant that is so long as and no longer than he list Therefore the Statute of 21 Hen. 8 5. complains and complains and tells how often these Ecclesiastical Men had baffled the Statute enumerating and particularly naming the two former Statutes here now recited and reduces then for the Probate and Inventory Sometimes to 6 d. sometimes to 2 s. 6 d. at most but 5 s. as I have more particularly given you a Table of Fees in my Vindication of the Naked Truth The Second Part And all this in pain of 10 l. one Moyety to the King and the other to the Party grieved together c. Then you 'll say Why do they still take 20 s. 30 s. 40 s. and sometimes 50 s. for a Probate sometimes much more I answer Because they are Impudent as their Predecessors are complain'd of Statute after Statute Parliament after Parliament and to little purpose Go bind Samson but you had best have a care you come not within his Clutches Go and complain against them To whom you 'll say perhaps write Naked Truths against them that at length our Superiors may hear the Complaints of the Widow and the Orphans opprest grievously by their Extortions in Probates c. Does not God Almighty say concerning the crying Sins of Sodom and Gomorrah Gen. 18.20 21. Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because cause their sin is very grievous I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will hear Well then publish their known Extortions as the said Statutes already mentioned confesses that the Commons did grievously complain of the Extortions and Oppressions of the Spiritual Court And will not this way do Write against them and Print against their impudent sinning in deflance of the Statutes the Laws and Justice of the Realm And what then Will that do Yes that will do one thing namely undo the Author I 'll assure you experto crede Roberto I am in a fair way to it if Actions brought by my great Bishop in Common-Law Courts and in Ecclesiastical Courts and Citation upon Citation in Arches in Delegates if all these and Power into the bargain will not sink one Poor Man sure then there 's more than humane help and more than a humane hand in it But you may well say Godly Bishops should not be angry and touchy nor enrag'd at nor become an Enemy an open Enemy against any Man for telling the Naked Truth of the Vileness and Extortions of their Ministers and Vnder-Officers against the known Laws of the Land but love and cherish such and if they will be angry they should vend their spleen against the said wickednesses of their Vnder-Officers and correct and amend and take shame to themselves and shew signs of Repentance But I am not bound to answer this Objection only it brings to my mind the temper and opinion the King and Parliament were of concerning the Bishops and their Visitations some years after the Pope's Supremacy and Prelacy was cut down in the beginning of the Reformation in H. VIII's time expressed by the coupling together of two words in 35 H. 8.21 namely Visit or Vex as if they were Synonyma's or the one explanatory of the other Visit or Vex good The King and Parliament had a good opinion of the Bishops Visitations in the interim to
of the Act of Uniformity by the Bishops and Clergy especially Namely In the Rubrick before the order of Morning Prayer we find these words namely And here is to be noted That such Ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers thereof at all times of their Ministration shall be retained and be in use mark that as were in this Church of England by Authority of Parliament in the second year of the Reign of King Edward VI. Now the great Question will be What Ornaments they were that were in use in the Reign of King Edward the sixth A question that I hope few Countrey or City Clergy-men of ordinary Rank know how to answer for it is to be hoped that they sin through ignorance and not through stubbornness and contempt of the Act of Vniformity and are rather ignorant Nonconformists than wilful Nonconformists in using other Rites and Ceremonies and other Ornaments at all times of their Ministration than what were in use in the time of the 2d of Edward the sixth enjoined by Act of Parliament For in the Rubrick in the Communion Service made in the said 2d of Edward the sixth after the Title which is in these very words The Supper of the Lord and the Holy Communion commonly called the MASSE We have this Commandment namely Upon the day and at the time appointed for the ministration of the Holy Communion the Priest that shall execute the Holy Ministery shall put upon him the Vesture appointed for that Ministration that is to say A white Albe plain with a Vestment or Cope And where there be many Priests or Deacons there so many shall be ready to help the Priest in the Ministration as shall be requisite And shall have upon them likewise the Vestures appointed for their Ministry that is to say Albes with Tunicles And to make the matter plainer in the Act for the Uniformity of Common-Prayer and Service in the Church and Administration of the Sacraments 1 Eliz. It is enacted That every manner of Parson Vicar or other whatsoever Minister that ought or should sing or say Common-Prayer mentioned in the said Book or minister the Sacraments c. shall minister the same in such order and form mark that as they be mentioned and set forth in the said Book Or shall wilfully or obstinately standing in the same which I hope they will not hereafter venture to do use any other mark that Rite Ceremony Order Form or Celebrating the Lord's Supper openly or privity or Martins Evensong Administration of the Sacraments or other open Prayers than is mentioned and set forth in the said Book The Penalties for the first Offence The profit of the Benefice Benefices and all the Spiritual Benefits and Promotions the Offender hath for one Year next after conviction is thereby forfeited and gone together with six Months Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprise For the second Offence Deprivation ipso facta of all the Spiritual Promotions and one whole Years Imprisonment and that it shall be lawful for all Patrons and Donors c. to present or collate to the same as if the Offenders were really dead And for the third Offence Deprivation as aforesaid and Imprisonment during Life And if the Offender be not benefic'd or promoted for the first Offence Imprisonment for one year without Bayl. And for the second Offence Imprisonment during Life So 14 Car. II there is an Act of Uniformity that to the same effect enjoyns no other Rite Ceremony Form or Order of Common-Prayer Ornaments c. This is mentioned to humble the rigid Conformist that he do not plume himself and be exalted above measure over other Nonconformists without any Mercy or Compassion to human Nature human Frailty human Error and human Kind lest he himself by the next Grand Jury be presented and found guilty of using other Rites and Ceremonies than what are enjoyned in the Act of Uniformity and Common-Prayer-Book of King Edward VI or this Common-Prayer-Book And consequently get a Prison on his back the same Prison whereinto he has so often endeavoured to put other Nonconformists and for the same Sin too of Nonconformity and Transgression of the same Act of Uniformity that he has so extoll'd and cry'd up For to bow towards the Altar to bow at the Holy Name of Jesus to force the Inferiour Clergy except in Cathedrals to were the Surplice or to wear the Hood during the Ministration of Baptism Burial Morning-Prayer Letany or Evensong are other Rites and Ceremonies and other Ornaments than were forced on the Clergy to use in 2 Edw. 6th as aforesaid Indeed upon the day and at the time and only at the time of Ministration of the Lord's Supper the Priest was enjoyned to put on the Albe or Surplice and Cope But not till the Letany was read and just before he began to read the Common-Service and administer the Communion at the Altar for so says the Rubrick in the said Communion-Service in the Common-Prayer-Book of 2 Edw. 6th just after the Prayer for fair Weather in these Words And tho there be none to communicate with the Priest yet these days namely Wednesdays and Fridays afore-named in the said Rubrick after the Letany ended the Priest shall put upon him a plain Albe or Surplice with a Cope and say all things at the Altar appointed to be said at the Celebration of the Lord's Supper until after the Offertory So that all are Nonconformists and liable to Indictments and loss of their Liberty as well as loss of their Livings that pray before or after Sermon in other Form or Order than is set down in the Common-Prayer-Book And all that force the Country or City Ministers except in Cathedrals to wear the Surplice during Mattens or Morning-Prayer Letany Baptism Burial Evensong or Evening-Prayer And all that bow towards the Altar and set great Candles thereon and all that bow at the Name of Jesus And all that wear or force Men to wear Hoods at any time except Sermon-time whether Scarlet Black Lamb-skin or Taffety according to their degree except in Cathedrals they may if they please only it is seemly so to do in Sermon time but for that it ought to be left to every Man's Liberty For so says the Rubrick of the second Common-Prayer Book which I confess seems strangely worded in these very Words In the saying or singing of Mattens and Even-song Baptizing and Burying the Ministers in Parish-Churches and Chappels annexed to the same shall I suppose it should have been printed may use a Surplice and in all Cathedral-Churches and Colledges the Arch-Deacons Deans Provosts Masters Prebendaries and Fellows being Graduates may here it is may not shall use in the Quire besides their Surplices such Hoods as pertaineth to their several degrees which they have taken in any University within this Realm But in all other places mark that every Minister shall be at Liberty to use any Surplice or no. It is also seemly that Graduates when they do preach mark that
then made per saltum as at leap-frog skipping over 3 or 4 Heads none vaulted into the Holy See or Seat nor leapt so high at one Jump but mounted as to the Altar and Holy of Holies by Stairs Steps and by Degrees Because a Bishop should be a Preshyter or Elder 1 Tim. 3.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a young Novice And why And why what stops his Grace The Apostle shews cause for his Non-placet in the next words lest be fall into Temptation or the Condemnation of the Devil by being puffed up with Pride 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swelled like a Bladder with the Windy and Fanatical Self-conceit of his own merit when in truth that Bigness is nothing but windy Emptiness and being discovered or let out will fall and flag as Lucifer did from Heaven That is the meaning of the Condemnation of the Devil namely the same Sin of being swell'd with Pride and Self-conceit will have the same Punishment that Lucifer had But notwithstanding all this the Church made bold to crack a Commandment in the case of Nectarius who having great Friends and Relations was chosen Patriarch of Constantinople whilst he was a Souldier a Layman and unbaptized And I can tell you the Patriarch or Pope of Constantinople would have scorn'd in those days to have given the Wall to the Pope of Rome Also stout Captain St. Ambrose that would scorn to bend to the Emperour Theodosius but flatteringly cring'd to the Usur per Eugenius was chosen Notwithstanding the Canon-Law to be Bishop of Milan whilse he was a Souldier and Governonr of the same City and Metropolis of Milan nay also unbaptized as I remember Thus when the Church can nail the Canons or crack a Commandment for Men of great Parts Interest Relations and Friends surely to show its Charity it may condescend a little from its rigorous Constitution and reach a helping-hand themselves also being frail and tardy and Indulgence in this my case to me a poor little Man that has neither great Friends great Relations great Parts great Learning nor indeed great any thing save a great Adversary To the 2d Question namely Quest 2. If Christ or his Apostles did ordain such an Ordinance as Excommunication who were the Administrators Answ The Answer is easy namely such as had Ability to judg and discern Right from Wrong Truth from Falshood and an Orthodox-man from an Heretick by the Gift of the Holy Ghost called discerning of Spirits For we shall be in fine taking if upon a fair Trial and Issue what colour is such a Horse white or brown we should place a blind Man upon the Bench or Jury or Men-purblind and short-sighted The Pope craftily foresaw this before ever he applyed that of Tit. 3.10 to his Jurisdiction namely a Heretick after the first or second Admonition reject And therefore he first made himself the Infallible Judge that cannot be mistaken but alwayes discerns Right from Wrong Truth from Falshood an Orthodox-man from an Heretick for then and then only is Excommunicating a Heretick rational when built and only then when built upon Infallibility take that away and down comes the lofty Fabrick or Fortress or Cittadel of Excommunication that has so aw'd and overaw'd the whole Christian World For what a Blunder is it in Ratiocination to say the Church of Rome Alexandria Antioch have erred and the Church of England may erre and yet these same Churches shall as stifly decide and positively assert what is and what is not Truth as if they were not Seekers Searchers and Viatores but Infall ibility men For supposing a Church or Church-men may err as did the greatest Council of Bishops that ever was in the World about 700 at Ariminum Sirmium c. who were Arrians and denied the Divinity of our Saviour the Orthodox and Protestants had a good time of it to be burnt by the Bishops as Hereticks for asserting the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour Lawn-sleeves then nor all those Reverend Habits and Accoutrements of the Bishops whether the Most Reverend or the Right Reverend Fathers in God we see by many Experiments are no infallible Marks or Signs of Truth without all peradventure as if all their Placets must must must needs be right whilst they are frail like other Mortals And therefore Excommunication like Scanderbeg's Sword is but a common Weapon except it be wielded by Scanderbeg's Arm Judgment and Dexterity A Crieple would make but bungling work with it nay perhaps lose it to the Enemy and then we shall have it turn'd upon us fatally Good Crieples sit still and be quiet till you get Apostolical Arms Judgment and Dexterity for fear this two-edged Sword with which you do so cut and hack dismember and mangle the Body of Christ for a Guinee a cut be one day turned upon your selves with the fatal Edge towards you if the Enemy recover it and get it in his hand again The Enemy the common Enemy the Papists first from Tit. 3.10 Excommunicate a Heretick that is they deliver him over to Satan as the Apostles did but finding Satan would not take the Excommunicate as he did in the Apostles days then the Pope by an Arrogance as petulant as the Sarcasme surrogates the Magistrate instead of Satan to take the Excommunicate for the destruction of the Flesh and that in the most compendious way by Fire and Faggot for the destruction of the Flesh Body and Bones in the Flames And though amongst us the Heretick shall not now be delivered over to the Magistrate to be burnt since the Abolition of the Writ de Heretico comburendo yet even at this day when holy Church which yet confesses her self subject to error signifies a Man to be Excommunicate for Heresy the Magistrate takes him with the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo for the Destruction of the Flesh not with the fierce Fire and Faggot but still with a lingring death a Goal until he Repent and Recant that his wicked Error As for example Suppose a man should not with both his eyes which are good as other mens and with which he can see as far into a Milstone as any man should assert that though it be the positive Law of the Land to Excommunicate and Deprive men of the blessed Sacrament yet he cannot see in Holy Writ that Christ debarr'd Judas the Traytor nor that the Apostles ever did by Practise or Injunction command such a Discipline by some called an Ordinance of God in depriving them of the Ordinances of God as if a Physician should command that the Patient should never take a Cordial or Sanative Medicine because he is sick Alas Alas Cordial Medicines are made for the very nonce for the sick as the Sacraments for sinners and the whole if there be any such have no need of this Physick but them that are sick And if all sinners must be deprived of the blessed Sacrament and Excommunicate I doubt the Bishop and his Chancellor that Excommunicate sinners must be
lay their Heads together yet with all this Aid 't is impossible to prevail against God and his Truth Did you never see a Grey-Hound stare when he had lost a Hare in an unhappy Bush that stood by the way just when he was at the very clique and gaping to mouth her even so have I seen a cunning Politician stare as if out of his Wits or at least at his Wits end when some sudden cross Providence by him call'd strange acciden has given his Devilship the go-by then then to see him stare and stamp fret and curse rave and roar like a Lyon in a Graté that would be mouthing but for the Barriers Go then you subtile Persecutors fret and be molt in your own fat and live like the Green-land Bears in Winter upon your own Grease as long as it lasts whilst Truth like Muscovy-Wives and th' Walnut-Tree The more they are beaten still the better they be Well this I 'le say for the Pope and a sig for him but we ought to give the Devil his due much more the Arch-Bishop of all Bishops the Pope I say give him his due builds the Fabrick of his Ecclesiastical Policy rationally if his Foundation were true But Protestants do not that consess themselves and their Churches fallible and frail as does the Church of England in her 19th Article of the 39. For what non-sence is it for any Man or Church to Curse and Damn a Man for a Heretick when we confess our selves that we are fallible and consequently may err in our Judgment of the Man or his Faith Shall blind men shoot a Crow I hate this Hitty-missy Whereas the Pope grant him this Theoreme that he and his Church is infallible is in the right on 't let him Curse who he will and from Morning to Night for ever and aye for if he be infallible he only can draw this Sword of the Lord Excommunication and yet be secure that he fights not against God which Protestants that confess they may err even in matters of faith can never be sure of 'Till the Church then can get eyes to see and discern right from wrong infallibly and a Sinner from a Saint and a Believer from an Infidel and Truth from Falshood indisputably and not fallibly and uncertainly let them down on their knees and pray for the Conversion of one whom they judg an Infidel and then leave him to his Maker to stand and fall and pray to God to tye up their hands to the good Behaviour to Charity Meekness and Humility wherein they can never err which would well become them better than all this Ecclesiastical-Artillery which has ruin'd Christendom and rather let them break than uphold this Money-Trade and Merchandize of Souls especially in this her weak and Militant State How have the Churches the Councils the Fathers the Canons Clash't and Thwarted Curst and Condemn'd one another to the Pit of Hell it would make a man's heart ake to read Ecclesiastical Histories and to hear the pious Bishops complain that they never knew any good come of any Convocation of Bishops Councils nor Synod-men and one Guelt himself to make himself Canonically uncapable of Lawn-Sleeves How did the whole Christian World who were all Arrians and deny'd the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour Curse that poor single Non-Conformist Athanasius Nick-naming him Sathanasius Banish't him and Suborn'd false Witnesses against him and try'd him for his Life for Murder whilst on the contrary our Church of England declares that no man can be saved that does not believe all the Creed of Athanasius and the Comment in words of his own not in Scripture-words of the Holy and Sacred Trinity made by him Though a man does believe the Holy Trinity declar'd in Scripture yet if he will be saved he must believe all the Athanasian-Creed I do not know any man that does not believe it But all the Common-Prayer-Books in the World and all the Acts for Uniformity nor all the Kings and Parliaments in the World can never make any thing true that is really false nor make any thing false which the Holy Scriptures plainly says to be true As for example suppose there be some mistakes in the Common-Prayer-Book by salfe Printing or in the Table to find Easter for ever yet it is Statute-Law But that cannot make a thing true which is Mathematically false nor can any Statute make a Child of God a Child of the Devil though Anathematiz'd for a Heretick And how good Bishops have bewail'd the Diocesan-frame in our days see pious Bishop Hall's Consession of the Corruptions in Church-Governours and Goternment I am not singular in his Modest Osser and Peace-maker See the Incomparably Learned Bishop Vsher's Model See Mr. Alesbury's Confession especially p. 21 24 28 104 169. See Mr. Baxter of Episcopacy or in short the Postscript thereof See Dr. Stillingsleet's Irenicon how does self-interest hoodwink the wise writ before he became a Dignitary-Ecclesiastical Or see Bishop Ganden's Hiera Epist particularly p. 263 and 287. with which I 'le conclude I neither approve or excuse the Personal faults of any particular Bishops as to their exercise of their Power and Authority which ought not in weighty matters to be managed without the Preseuce Counsel and Suffrages of the Presbyters such as are sit for that Assistance The want of this St. Ambrese St. Hierome and all sober men mark that justly reprove as unsafe for the Bishops and Presbyters and the whole Church Now I have done at the long run with my Naked Truth expos'd to the World without Power without Friends without Worldly Interest to support it It is usually thus those that worst may are often put to hold the Candle to their betters yet like Link-boys many times get not of the Gallants but a kick for their pains But I 'le shift the better having a King to Friend a Glorious King to Patronize me and vouch against all Bloody Religions Charles I. Eik Basil Advice to his Son our Gracious Soveraign Charles II. in these words In point of true conscientious tenderness I have often declared how little I desired my Laws and Scepter should entrench on God's Soveraignty who is the only King of Consciences ' My Counsel and Charge to you is that you seriously consider the former real or objected miscarriages which might occasion my Troubles that you might avoid them Will nothing but Sanguinary Counsels yet please Are we no further yet from Rome Not yet Dost thou not feel me Rome Not yet Is Night So heavy on thee or my weight so light May Church of England say Have we so long Been quitting Rome yet not quite from among Christ and his Church by Blood are glorious grown But not by others Blood but by their own Whilst Antichrist and 's Church are Monstrous grown By shedding others Blood but not their own Bless us the Monster Yawns and Glares don 't start In nomine Domini stand speak say What art A Bishop sayst the Devil thou art more like Or Munster's Bishop made to hew and strike Black mouth to damn and Bloody Arms to fight When Hand-cuff't good we 'll do the Devil right Of Flaming-Comet long since have you heard With Tayl hung down to Earth and grisly Beard I 'm skill'd i' th' Language of the Stars and know That horrid Meteor what it meant 't was thou Thou Bonner London's Bishop seem'd to be Arm'd with this Hellish Black-Guard Cap-a-pee Ordain'd it seems and good for naught but harms Like the French Bishop Odo clad in Arms That Coat of Mail ill suits that Coat so Gay Filii tui Haeccine Tunica Satan once came like a Py'd-Piper now This was a Fiend in Jeast in Earnest Thou By the Black-Regiment Martyrs chose to die That Naked Truth might live and so will I. After the French Religion must we Dance Now Persecution's A la mode de France Or shall the French find fairer Quarter here Than we to one another make appear A Bishop sayst Thou ly'st Him Cornet call Of the Black Regiment that Gaols us all FINIS ERRATA THE Introduction Page 4. Line 30. for every word in that weeks Read most words in the two Weeks p. 42. l. 14. for efflagitantes sollicitescit read efflagitates and sollicites it with several other escapes by reason of the Author's absence from the Press but not many
count them vexatious and to make provision for the King's Churches and Chappels to be freed and exempt from their Visitations I shall never forget it Visit or Vex nay I know it experimentally a most admirable Couple or Conjunctive Copulative Visit or Vex good incomparable well since that wise King and Parliament put them together let them go Visit or Vex. Yet let no Man mistake me as the Vulgar Translation does the Text in St. Luke's Gospel reading Evertit domum instead of Everrit domum that is She overthrew the house instead of She swept the house No no I love a Bishoprick too well to wish its ruine the worst I wish them is to 'mend not end them Again You may well say That as Great as they are they are not Too Great Burly and Overgrown for the Law that has prov'd an Overmatch to the greatest Favourites and arbitrary Judges in England in all Ages and has brought some of them to the Block I doubt it not why then you 'll say Indict them and bring Informations in the Crown-Office against them Indict them Sh them There are so many starting holes in the Statute and they are Cunning and Rich and do you not know that Riches can make Friends I thought you had known it I have heard of some Highway-men and Robbers in other Kingdoms that when they Rob a Man of a 1000 l. they 'll be content to be taken and tryed for their Lives if you give them but 600 l. more why so what will the money do them good if they are hang'd true But they know a way worth two on 't for for 500 l. given to Madam she can procure a Reprieve But you 'll say What 's all this to the purpose or to the Men of Doctors Commons or do you think you tell us News or what 's this to Excommunication and the power of the Keys I answer with a late learned Author Why may not a Man be suffered to talk Impertinently now and then 'T is the mode the very Gazet-mode and the fashion of every weekly Pamphlet And yet by your favour though the Extortions and notorious Oppressions in the Probate of Wills c. be no news since Edward III's Reign a very very old Disease it 's well if it be capable of Cure yet treating here of the Power of the Keys and Excommunication I cannot be Impertinent if I shew you how Vice corrects Sin And as my private concern as I said before occasion'd my search into their Ways and Authority so I doubt not but the Reader will be abundantly satisfied in reading the whole Libel and Articles against me and my Answer Proximus ardet It may be your own case e're long or your friends and if it be by my Answer you 'l know the better how to handle them For for all my whining for the loss of my said Guiney I assure you I fear them not as I us'd to say in my old Motto like a Tortoise in his Shell Vertute mea me Involvo I am safe rowl'd up in mine own Innoconce and in the Integrity I bless Almighty God of mine unblemish't Life and Conversation unblemish't I say that would not say it nor should not say it but on this occasion in mine own just defence I say again unblemish't except by Lies and Libels and a pack of Hircling-villains that for the sake of Money and a Fee be-slander me but Nubecula est evanescit 't is like a Vapor or a morning Cloud it vanishes and must and shall before I have done with them they 'l know me better I wish I could impart my Fortitude in suffering I mean to all that are oppressed they shall find I am Shot-free and Malice-proof and for my Guiney aforesaid let it go at present I 'le fetch some of it again with a vengeance to them and have Arrested or order'd to be Arrested the said Vice-Register Nucourt for it already I cannot endure to part with my Money no not upon the Road but I must know why and wherefore if they tell mo a Lye they must shew me a reason for 't before we part if I be not Godfreydiz'd or Arnoldiz'd the World 's wicked enough But my Answer cannot be understood except I give you first an account of the Libel exhibited against me in the Arches Thomas Doughty Gent. the Promoter but upon second thoughts it was deem'd meet to make Henry Bishop of London Promoter but their Councels being coufus'd and the men Ruffled with my appearance in that Heathenish Language Greek which I spoke not in ostentation but because many of the Canons were made originally in Greek and the Interpreters thereof the Doctors of the Canon Law had need blush as Red and Scarlet as their Gowns of being ignorant of the Original they profess to interpret besides I did it to shew how well their Caps became them whil'st I forsooth must stand bare before the Gallants a very comely sight and a great deal of reason But so pudled they were some of them that when I came first into Court Thomas Doughty was the Informer and Promoter but he not being thought big enough or for what other reasons I cannot tell nor do I desire to be a privy Councellor amongst them but Doughty was scor'd out by the Bishop of London's said Vice-Register the said Nucourt and in his place by Interline was inserted Henry Bishop of London for the Promoter but that also was another blunder for in the last Article Doughty gets the honour of the place again and is made Promoter again against me in this terrible Libel following viz. CHAP. VI. IN Dei Nomine Amen Nos Robertus Wyseman Miles Legum Doctorê° Almae Curiae Cantê° de Archubus Londonê° Officialis Principalis Legitime constitutus tibi Edmundo Hickeringill Clerico Rectori Rectoriae Ecclesiae Parochialis omnium Sanctorum in villa Colcestriae Dioc. Londonê° Cantq Provincê° Articulos Capitula sive Interria meram animae tuae salutem morumque excessuum suorum reformationem praesertim crimina delicta tua infrascriptê° concernenê° ex Officio nostro ad promotionem Reverendi in Christo Patris Domini Domini Henrici Londonê° Episcopi objicimus Articulamur prout sequitur viz. 1. IMprimis Objicimus Articulamur That in the Months of March April May June July August September October November December January February and March in the years of our Lord 1674 1675 1676 1677 1678 1679 1680. and in the Months of March April and May 1681. You the said Edmund Hickeringill were and still are Rector of the Rectory and Parish-Church of All-Saints in Colchester aforesaid And as and for the Rector of the said Rectory and Parish-Church aforesaid you were during the time aforesaid and still are commonly accounted reputed and taken Et Objicimus Articulamur conjunctim divisim de quolibet 2. Item We Article and Object that you the said Edmund Hickeringill to promote differences between Samuel Bridge