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

Behaviour not permitting them to stickle with carnal VVeapons against Men of different Opinions in matters of meer Religion but commanding us if possible and as much as lieth in us to live peaceably with all men surely it is possible nay easie in this Case most easie All Yes if they be Men our Brethren as being Sons of Adam though not of our Religion nor of our size and pitch nor of our Features and Complexion though of different Religion or of no Religion yet they are Men and where God makes no Exception how dare we make Exceptions Since we are obliged to have a Charity as Vniversal as Mankind and to live peaceably with all men If this be Gospel what becomes of our Tests and Penal Laws All our Lawyers are agreed that all Statutes are Null and Ipso facto void in themselves if they be contrary to the Laws of God and Laws of Nature or Right Reason And this present Test though Enacted by ten thousand Parliaments is never the more justifiable because it is a prophane Temptation even to Conformists sometimes and to Nonconformists at all times to take their choice chuse them whether either to starve here or at least be kept out of their Birth-rights as men and Christians or else to Eat and Drink it unmeetly to the Holy End Design and Institution of that blessed Sacrament which was not Political Carnal and Worldly but Pure Spiritual Heavenly and Divine and therefore to Eat and Drink for a Political Test and State-Policy is to Eat and Drink it Vnworthily and Vnmeetly and therefore Men so Eating and Drinking it Eat and Drink their own Damnation Away with it for Shame Let it not be such a Scandal to our Holy Protestant Religion SECT III. Of Penal Laws in Matters of meer Religion MAny people cry up the Church of England and drink healths to the Prosperity of the Church of England And yet neither know what makes a true Church of Christ nor who are this same thing of some mens making or marring called the Church What constitutes a true Church but true Doctrine and true Sa●raments according to plain Scriptures The Discipline is left to discretion For I suppose we are all agreed that this or that form of Church Government is not Jure Divino King Charles I. a great Episcopal-man yet denied that Bishops as we have them are Jure Divino other than as Priests or Presbyters and Bishops are one and the same thing and undistinguished in many places of Scripture but yet that wise King held them not to be contra jus Divinum not contrary to Gods Law that is I suppose when they feed the Flocks not Lording it over God's Heritage as if they had Dominion over our Faith which even the Apostles renounc'd imposing what they believe and their attainments upon us to believe whether we can or no or else Anathematize Goal and Imprison them and lot them lye there till they starve and dye What comfort is it with so much strugling to keep out an Italian Bishop Romish cruelty Fire and Faggot that soon dispatches men out of their pain and still to keep something like it Nay a worse if to lye in Prison after Excommunication and there to starve and dye a lingring death like Crucifixion feeling a thousand deaths he and his Family and all this for not paying the Register or taking the Church-wardens Oath or the Holy Sacrament at Easter neither of which the persons durst do for fear of Damnation Then take your choice Death or Damnation a lingring Death Crucifying them and making them and their poor Families feel many deaths And is this amendment I hope our Bishops will now recant these violent and carnal weapons since several of them have done it already promising to be willing to come to a temper in their Petition to the King And thereby confessing that they had been too hot and distempered before and yet even at this day I am afraid that some men are only against Carnal Weapons Prophane-Tests and Penal Laws not because they like them not but because they see they cannot hold them the Genius of the Nation being universally against such a Wild-fire Church St. Paul defind all carnal Weapons in his Spiritual Warfare The Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual Indeed he stood up stoutly in defence of the Priviledge of his Birth-Right when that was invaded by Arbitrary Government Tyranny and Oppression and therefore for Remedy St. Paul sent for an honest General and his Army to come to his Rescue and his Excellency Claudius Lycias after St. Paul had given him to understand that he was a Roman and wrong'd of his Birth-right came with an Army and delivered him out of the hands of his Oppressors having understood the matter of wrong Act. 23.27 Act. 22.29 Then good night Church of England if the Jaylor do not help it will some say and so say I good night And happiness to her and long life for the Gates of Hell Hadou of the Grave shall never prevail against the true Church that is the Church shall never have a Grave it shall never dye but to the Worlds end there shall be some always that believe in and confess the Lord Jesus Son of the living God. The Doctrine of the Church of England which is Confirm'd by Act of Parliament is contained in the Comman Prayer-Book and also in the 39 Articles and in the Homilies that are set out or shall be set out by Authority This last is a deep one He must have a wide Swallow that has an implicit Faith and believes as the Church believes when that same Church in whom he doth believe confesseth the truth namely that she may Err or teach what is not truth Now would I in all Humility and Modesty put this sober Query Query 1. How can a Man subscribe to the Doctrine in Homilies that shall be put out except he have a Popish Implicit Faith to believe as the Church believes before he knows what Doctrinal Homilies Authority will put forth And such Authority that has perhaps Err'd in Doctrinal points already put forth by Authority or by their own Confession may Err. as well as the Church of Rome Antioch Jerusalem c. that have Err'd already as the 39 Articles ingeniously and modestly confess Query 2. It is worth a modest Inquiry and now most seasonable to Inquire now I say when things are come to a full stop and in the fairest and most probable way to settle upon a lasting Foundation Is it now high time modestly to Inquire who is the Judge of matters of Faith which all Christian Protestants a new Name only for the old Apostolical and Primitive Christian ought to obey in pain of the Jayle h●re and Damnation hereafter if he persist in his Diss●nt and Non-conformity thereunto though some Bigots call it a wicked Error This is a sawcy Question will some say But I Answer that he that says so is an Impudent Blasphemer

place they rave Thus it is reported of a mad-man that would talk most sensiby in all matters except when he saw or discourst of a Ship for he was craz'd by loosing his Estate by Ship-wrack fancying that all mens Ships that came laden and well-fraught into the Port were his own and was as really overjoy'd when the Rich Cargoes came home as if they had truly been his own His dear Friends pitying his distraction got him cured whether he would or no Whereupon coming to his Right Mind he thus thanked his Friends for their love to him Pol me Periistis amici you have undone me Dear Friends and beggar'd me yet he lost nothing but his Wild Fancy surely he was madder for saying so than he was before But to apply it If any church-of-Church-of-England man puffed up with Bigotism and mad-conceit of the Purity of what some call church-of-Church-of-England both in Doctrine and Discipline and like the whimsical Church of Laodicea fancying that she is Rich and encreased in Goods and hath need of nothing and I amongst others like a true Friend endeavour to cure him of this Wild Fancy and dispel the Cloud that shadowed Right Reason giving him to understand beyond all contradiction and as clear as day how and wherein both in Doctrine and Discipline she is wretched and miserable poor and blind and naked That so she may betake her self to wise Councels and get Gold tryed in the Fire that her Hay and Stubble being burnt up for she must pass through Purgatory here and through the Furnace that she may be rich and White Rayment to cover the shame of her nakedness that it may no longer appear and anoynt the Eyes of our dim Mother with Eye-salve that she may see the better Will any in their wits blame a true Son of the Church for his love and kindness to his pur-blind Mother which is his Duty And say in her name Pol me Peristi mi Fili Verily verily you have undone me dear Son Surely such a mad and unreasonable exclamation would speak her to be incurable and would aggravate the Distraction SECT II. Of TESTS and the Present Test in Particular A Test what 's that 'T is a Touch-stone to try what Metal any thing is of and is as necessary for every Man every House-keeper every Body-Politick every Church or State as is a Touch-stone to a Goldsmith there 's no living well without it A Test is of absolute necessity for every man always to carry about him to try himself and others to try both his own and other mens Opinions Words Works and Ways whether they be right since all is not Gold that glisters A Test is necessary for every House-keeper that wants a Servant a Guest an Apprentice a Journey-man a Bayliff a Steward a Friend or the like for though such a Person is recommended as is in all things fit for his turn except only that he is a Papist who is obliged to hold or else he is no Papist that the Decrees of Pope and General Council conjoyn'd are infallible and particularly that Bloody Decree of the Council of Constance that nulla fides servant cum hereticis no faith is to be kept with a Heretick that is no Faith Oath or Promise is binding if it be made to one that is no Papist For Papists like the Jews the basest and most inhospitable People under Heaven except Papists look upon all that are not of their Religion as Dogs nay the worst of Dogs good for nothing but to be proselyted or knockt i' th' head either to be turned to their Religion or turned out of the World not that every Papist thinks so but by their Religion they are obliged so to believe For which Cause Tacitus calls the Jews erudelissima vilissima servientium pars the bloodiest and basest Slaves in all the Roman Empire Therefore the Jews Test is Is be a Jew And the Papists Test as at this day in Ireland and France is shortly this only Is he a Papist If it be answered when closeted No no then turn him out let him not be trusted either with Arms a Red coat or any Office of Trust or Benefit bar the Door exclude him shut him out or perhaps kill him where they are strong and not afraid of their own Throats for if they be the weaker Party as in some Cantons in Switzerland there they are for liberty of Conscience but go but over the next Hills the Alps into Piedment where the Papist is ten to one then the word is Peter kill and eat This makes the World joyn hands against the Jew and Papist either they totally keep them out with Tests made for that purpose or confine them to a certain habit or to a certain Street or Place as Dukes-place to inhabit as we deal with the Feracious and Bloody Tigers and Lyons in the Tower keep them we do but in a grate keep them fast and have a watchful eye over them as you love your lives for they are inhospitable and Common Enemies to mankind stand upon your guard then keep off and out of their Claws except you pare their Nails For this Cause there was so many Penal-Laws and Tests made against Papists in the Reigns of the four last Kings which by the way has sinely been turn'd against Protestant-dissenters who were out of these Statutes because out of the meaning of those Statutes oh the dexterity of a Jesuit when in conjunction with one of his own complexion and face saving that this Latter looks not altogether so Sanguine because a Protestant-Persecutor But will some say this present Test of making all men take the Sacrament and certifie the same has done notable service against the Papists in these times and therefore though some Dissenters be kept out for Company it is no great matter But is it lawful then to do Evil that Good may come thereby Is not this that wicked Principle that with one mind and one mouth we decry and blame in the Jesuit Or is it lawful to maintain our Religion or Church by prophane-means and by mocking of God Who would not hate a Religion and Church that cannot be kept up without blasphemy and sinful methods But will some say God forbid We never did nor ever will keep up a Church by such ungodliness Then listen what we have done already in imposing this said Present Test of making an Earthly Door or Political Door-bar of the Holy Spiritual and Heavenly Sacrament of the Lord Jesus The Present Test is the more suspiciously Profane and to be abominated by all true Christians because it is said to be the Project of a Polititian that was always reckon'd to have more wit than grace more of Machiavel than of Christ And who made Religion and the blessed Sacraments Politick-tools and that was all at least the chief use he made of Religion and said if he be not belied that That was all that Religion was good for well said Machiavel A more

c. that would not leave worshiping of God according to the Common-Prayer-Book wouldst not thou thou Weapon'd-Vniformity Bigot Exclaim at least grumble at such a Test But with what reason canst thou grumble Except thou conclude that Church of England is infallible in spight of her own 39 Articles to the contrary or except thou art not content to take such measure as now thou metest to others that are as Pious and Learned as thy self Where is the Justice of such Grumbling Thou art for Uniformity one Mind and one Mouth so are all Rational Men but thou art also for Weapon'd Uniformity that 's unreasonable and unscriptural and unapostolical and also because of another little thing called Impossibility It is not to be done by Sword or Gun Tests or Penal Laws Have we not been trying Conclusions and Experiments about it in the Body Politick many years even to the Consumption of the Body Politicks And who has got any thing by it saving a few Priests But we must always be tampering with ungodly unreasonable and Antichristian Physick only to enrich the Physitian and keep up his Practice and his Hand in Ure Do we de claim against Arbitrary Power and Tyranny and yet suffer such Tests to take away our Birth-rights Queen Maries Fives consum'd the Heats between Con and Noncon when in Prison together they shook Hands and were Friends Ay says Bigot most true therefore we would have them like us Vniform and of one Mouth meaning that every Mouth should be alike and one with his Wide Mouth But suppose that Little Mouth let that be his Name stretches and stretches his Mouth that so it may be Vniform and like to Great Mouth and cannot do it for his Heart and Blood by Scripture-Rule He that is strong should stoop and bear the Infirmities of the weak and condescend and to keep my Allegory Wide Mouth should meet Little Mouth half way contracting his large Gape and Swallow that so they may be of one Mouth But what cares some Men for Scripture If that will not do what do you say to Reason Is it reasonable that if Little Mouth should happen to get into the Saddle and get the Staff in his Hand and thou be dismounted for Arbitrary Government wilful and un-scriptural and unreasonable Impositions and Oppressions wouldst thou think it reasonable that he should pare and cut and pinch thy Wade Mouth to the scantling of his Narrow Chaps If not then out of thine own Wide mouth will I judge thee thou wicked Servant Shouldst not thou have Compassion on thy Fellow-servant like thy self erroneous as thou wouldst have him or Almighty God have Pity on thee To our Comfort God seeth and he that is higher than the Highest regardeth and there are Higher than they Eccles 5.8 But will some say though it be a Test suspiciously Prophane if any Holy thing in the World can be prophan'd by making Religion and the Sacraments the most Venerable and Sacred of all the Parts or Offices in Religion Tools and Tricks of State yet this Test has done good Service against the Common Enemy the irreconcileable Enemies of our Religion It has kept out the Papist from Offices in Church and State Navy and Army Never I answer it never did keep out any Papist nor any but Dissenters yet if all this should be as true as it is evidently false yet this Test is not justifiable because we may not lay an evident Temptation of stumbling in our Brothers way to make him fall nor do Evil that good may come thereon as aforesaid nor thus keep up Gods Church What is the bringing the Abomination of Desolation into the Holy Place but making Holy things and the Lord Jesus Christ a Drudge and Slave to Machiavel O Prophanation abominable Must the blessed Sacrament of Divine Love his Institution made on purpose to Incorporate us with him and one with another in Divine Love be the only Entrance and means to let us in to a Body Politick or Corporation or into the Door of Preferment Sacra Sacris Sacri Sacris was the Old Rule Wickedness may make a man unfit to be employed in the State but is it not prophane to make the blessed Sacrament a Political Engine or Qualification to let a Man into Money and Mammon but we cannot thus serve two Masters God and Mammon Besides I deny that this Test of the Sacrament did any good at any time in keeping so much as one Papist out of any Office Employment or Preferment either in Church or State. And if this be true then Hatred against Popery is but a Colour wherewith Hypocrisie paints the ugly Face and Deformity of Hatred and Malice against Dissenters that have not so wide a Swallow as themselves with the pretence of Vniformity and Zeal against Popery Otherwise why did this Test-Bill pass so readily and the Exclusion-Bill thrown out without a Conference which is not usual There may be many good Reasons which I will not now inquire into But was it Loyalty and a Religious Awe to hurt no man in his Goods and Birth right upon the score of Religion That 's impossible to be a Reason that prevailed with those Lords and Gentlemen that stood to their Arms and Power till the King was divested of both which are His Birth-Right now at this day as much nay more than at the time of the Exclusion-Bill for no man that spoke best and most against the Exclusion-Bill did touch upon that String namely that the King and Parliament cannot dispose of the Crown of England for fear I supose of the Penalty mentioned in the Statute of Queen Elizabeth to that purpose And to repeat the words of that most Excellent Speaker in the House of Commons If there were a Lyon in the Lobby shall it be still a Question amongst Wise men Whether it were better to keep him out now he is out or to open the Door and let him in and then bind him Some wise men chose the latter and if God had not been miraculously kind to us to show his Grace and Finger when some thought we had neglected the means if the Lion had prov'd a Rampant Lion or had had a Lion's Heart and the Cruelty of a Lion there might have been Scratching Work and Thousands had e'er this followed those otherwise Incomparable Patriots Essex Russel Sidney and Cornish c. for who has not had a Hand upon his Hilt to Fight the King's Guards his Irish Souldiers when the word was They are a coming VVhereas the Lord Russel was condemn'd for being only in the Room where there was some discourse of Surprizing the Kings Guards But we must leave these things to him that judgeth Righteously The Iniquity of the Amorites was not then full Popery was not drunk enough with Blood. The Papists have for a hundred years last past been kept out of the Government and have been Exluded all Offices Ecclesiastical Civil and Military by that Ancient and Honest Test