proceedings touching them which in the late Usurpation were out of all places brought to London and no Record thereof in the County or Diocese where the deceased dyed so that the Subject is put to great trouble and charge sending to London when he hath occasion to use any of them and may be forced to sue at London when he would recover his right thereupon That all such Wills Inventories Bonds Accompts and all other proceedings concerning the same or true copies thereof to be made valid and authentick by Act of Parliament be transmitted at the charge of the Register at that time into the Registry of the Bishop of that Diocese where the party deceased dyed or had his principal mansion or dwelling house at the time of his death or rather in regard of the largenesse of some Bishops Dioceses including many Archdeaconries and many Counties they should be so transmitted into the respective Registries of every Archdeacon or Commissary of the said Archdeaconry and that every person concerned may sue for their right thereupon before the Bishop of the Diocese or his Chancellor or such Commissary or Archdeacon or his Official During the late troubles the Episcopal and Archidiaconal power having been de facto abolished or suppressed the Subjects have been forced to their great charge and trouble to prove all Wills and take Administrations c. at London before Commissioners or pretended Judges there for proving of Wills and granting of Administrations c. Degrees of Marriage That the Act of 32 H. 8. about the prohibited degrees of Marriage be by Act of Parliament explained Traytors heads That the late Traytors Heads and Quarters of the Murtherers of our late Soveraign of blessed memory and the others that are set upon wooden stakes should be set upon Iron pikes or stakes as Piercy and Catesby's Heads were upon the Parliament House Touching the suppressing of all Books and Writings published against the Regal Rights or the Right of the Subject About the suppression of seditious books SOme have advised if it be thought sit that a most choice and able Committee be appointed to enquire after all Books and Writings whatsoever which have spoke against the Regal Right or the Right of the Subject that they may as many as can be got either be purged or burnt and declared against by Authority and not remain as apt fuel for a new flame but be buried as far as can be in perpetual oblivion And perhaps in the first place as most pestilent those Tracts that have been writ about that ridiculous contradiction in adjecto of the two Houses coordination with the King the Monarch when as before is specified the King is the Head the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons the three Estates by several Acts of Parliament specified Lippis tonsoribus notum yet urged for designs mischievous abominably as we have felt Spensers Treason As also that trayterous distinction of the Spensers 'twixt the Kings Person and Office by two Acts of Parliament declared Treason yet in these late times maintained by too many Goodwins book justifying the murther of the King Goodwins book for the justification of the murther of the late King and many other of that kind Mr. Bucks book of Richard 3. Mr. Bucks book of Richard the third wherein he seems to impugne the right of the King from the daughter of King Edward the fourth wife to King Henry the seventh too much leaning to if not affirming Richard the thirds right by that monstrous Act of Parliament that illegitimates Edward the fourths issue In Sir Edward Cooks book entituled The third part of the Sir Edw. Cooks Writings Institutes of the Law of England concerning High Treasen and other Pleas of the Crown 1658. Printed at London by M. Flesher for W. Lee and D. Pakeman § Le Roy pag. 7. he puts it down there for Law upon the Statute of 25 E. 3. c. 2. De proditionibus That if Treason be committed against a King de facto and non de jure and after the King de jure cometh to the Crown he shall punish the Treason done to the King de facto and a Pardon granted by a King de jure that is not also de facto is void Strange would have been the consequence of this if Cromwell had been made King as some desired and a loyal man should have killed him in order to the restitution of the true King de jure our dread Soveraign King Charles the second Or should a loyal man for the same end have killed him though he had but de facto non de jure the title of Protector how far would that have extended by the words in the same sect may be considered where he sayes that Statute of E. 3. is to be understood of a King regnant and as follows there and as he sayes most truly a Queen regnant is within these words Nostre Seigneur le Roy for she hath the Office of a King So perhaps it deserves to be examined whether some of note and power in the time of Cromwells Usurpation did not affirm that Cromwell was within these words Nostre Seigneur le Roy. In regard Sir Edward Cooks Writings are by many held in high repute and some have not stuck to style him the Oracle of the Law therefore his Writings require to be more strictly looked into and that if any errors be found therein they may be detected and expunged as being more dangerous then in other mens Writings not of so great repute Corruptio optimi est pessima Illegal and seditious speeches Also it was advised if it shall be thought fit that such Speeches as have been publickly made by any Judges or noted Lawyers upon the Bench or in any publick Assemblies against the Regal or Subjects Right or the Law of Nations which may give just offence to our Neighbours may be taken notice of and publickly declared against Such us that when that Act of 25 E. 3. was alledged to justifie Cromwells Usurpation and that Seigneur le Roy in that Statute included Cromwell the usurping Protector And that speech of a great Lawyer at the tryal of the Portugal Ambassadors brother when it was alledged that he was by the Law of Nations to be sent back cum postulatu to his Master the King of Portugal to be by him punished for his offence committed here and that that Commission for trying him here without the consent of the Portugal Ambassador was the first Commission that ever was granted here to try any Ambassador or his servant without the Ambassadors consent Even the Bishop of Ross Ambassador from Mary Queen of Scotland though she was de facto deposed or forced to renounce the Crown there when he had committed a great offence yet was onely dismiss'd and not further questioned But to all this and much more that Lawyer replied What have we to do with the Law of Nations if it be contrary to the Law of England One
might not have done before the year of our Lord 1639. or to abridge or diminish the Kings Majestics Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters or affairs nor to confirm the Canons made in the year 1640. I say upon these words some are ready mistaking questionless the words and meaning of that Act to renew that old exploded Opinion or rather groundless Fancy That a several Royal assent to the executing of every particular Canon is required Hereto Doctor Cosin answers That admitting this were true then all the other opinions of those that oppugn the ordinary Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical stand in no stead and might be spared because this would cut off all at once For none that exercise ordinary Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical have it in particularity which by the oppugners seems to be meant otherwise then by permission of Law to every of their proceedings and impossible were it by reason of the infinity of it and troublesomness to procure such particular assent to the execution of every Canon His Majesties Delegates when Appeals are made to His Majesty in Chancery would signifie nothing could not exercise the power to them delegated by reason of the want of such particular assent and it is a gross absurdity to grant as even the Oppugners and Innovators do That Testamentary and Matrimonial causes are of Ecclesiastical cognizance to say nothing of the rest of Ecclesiastical causes and yet cannot by reason of this want be dispatched nor can be dealt in by any other authority according to any Law in force This would speak a defect in the publick Government that the Subject should have a right but no likely or ready mean to come by it and great offences by Law punishable and yet no man sufficiently authorized to execute these Laws Since the abrogation of Papal pretended Supremacy when the ancient rights of the Kings of England of being Supreme Governors over all persons within their Dominions as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal and that no forreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction power superiority preeminence or authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm and so forth as in the Act and the Oath Since these rights were as it were ex postliminio restored and declared to have been as they ever ought to have been in the Kings of England many Laws have been made in several Parliaments for the strengthning of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and the more effectual execution thereof and some of the Ecclesiastical Laws were enlarged astered and explained * 25 H. 8.19 The Statutes for Delegates upon Appeals †27 H 8 130. 32 H 8.7 Not long after two Statutes for assistance of ordinary Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and for the speedier recovery of Tithes in Courts Ecclesiastical * 34 35 H. 8 19. The like for the recovery of Pensions Procurations c. †1 Ed. 6. c. 2. In the time of Edw. 6. in a Statute since repealed by Queen Mary a great number of particular causes of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical are there by the way rehearsed that Ordinaries and other Ecclesiastical Judges might and did then put in execution So 1 Mar. c. 3. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 5 Eliz c. 23. 9. That Perjury or Subornation in a Court Ecclesiastical shall and may be punished by such usual and ordinary Laws as heretofore have been and yet are used and frequented in the said Ecclesiastical Courts Which proveth the usual practice of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical hitherto used without any special assent to be lawful So 13 Eliz. c. 4. c. 10. and many more in the same Queens time and King James and King Charles the First that blessed King and Martyr I say many are the Laws that have been made for the strengthning of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and the more effectual execution of it and some of these Laws were enlarged altered and explained But never was there any Law Custom or Act of Parliament that required a several Royal assent to the executing of every particular Canon Many are the reasons which Dr. Cosens gives in the first Chapter of his Apology against that particular Assent wherein he shews his great candor and ingenuity and desire to give abundant satisfaction to all Opponents though never so unreasonable that were it not as clear as the Noon-tide light that no such particular assent is needful some might think that he fear'd his cause and be ready to say that Defensio nimis operosa reatum quasi arguit But touching the validity of the Ecclesiastical Laws there needs I conceive no more be said then what is expressed in that Act of Parliament 25 H. 8.19 the Ecclesiastical Laws that were in use and practice before that Statute are thereby established thus Provided that such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synods Provincial being already made which be not contrariant nor repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm nor to the damage or hurt of the Kings Prerogative Royal shall now still be used and executed as they were before the making of this Act untill such time as they be viewed c. by the 32. persons mentioned in that Act which is not yet done The Ecclesiastical Laws which have been made since that Act and all that ever hereafter shall be made so long as that Statute stands in force the requisites in that Act being observ'd are thereby I conceive confirmed or to be confirmed The Submission and Petition of the Clergy mentioned in that Act is That they would not enact or put in ure any new Canons c. in their Convocation without the Kings Royal assent and authority in that behalf There it is said That the Convocation in the time coming shall alwayes be assembled by authority of the Kings Writ and that the Clergy must have the Kings most Royal assent and licence to make promulge and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial and Synodal else they may not enact promulge or constitute any such Canons c. And this course hath ever since been observed Every Convocation called by His Majesties Writ and the Clergy had especial license from His Majesty to enact such Canons c. and to execute them The Provision following being observed which is this Provided that no Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in execution in this Realm by authority of the Convocation of the Clergy which shall be contrariant or repugnant to tho Prerogative Royal or the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm any thing contained in that Act to the contrary thereof notwithstanding If any be put in execution contrary to this Proviso and contrary to any after-Acts of Parliament whereby His Majesty hath further power acknowledged in causes Ecclesiastical then 't is illegal but that is much sooner alledged than proved The particular Ecclesiastical Laws in force have by Dr. Cosens and others been sufficiently demonstrated I humbly conceive In case any Jurisdiction
Ecclesiastical or Civil within this Realm be not derived or claimed from the Crown as to the execution of it at least then the former objection were of force but another Act of Parliament 8 Eliz. c. 1. shews the contrary sufficiently where all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is acknowledged United to the Crown as there fully and that very clause 1 Eliz. 1. together with His Majesties Letters Patents directed forth for confirming Archbishops and Bishops is brought in the preamble thereof as a strong proof without scruple or ambiguity that the authority and jurisdiction by the Clergy executed is thereby given them from Her Majesty This also were there nothing else were sufficient to entitle them the Kings Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws as well as other Laws are called the Kings Majesties Laws But they are up and down in the Acts of Parliament called the Kings and the Queens Ecclesiastical Laws 1 Eliz. c. 2. 5 Eliz. c. 25. 25 H. 8.27 c. and even by the Note-gatherer that great oppugner against whom the Doctor writeth they are called the Ecclesiastical Laws of England And in this late Act above mentioned they are called the Kings Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws Yet for executing of these Laws by the Ecclesiastical Judges what out-cries were made against them especially in the beginning of the late Long Panliament by His late Majesty of blessed memory called the Black Parliament Summa imis miscendo and what favours were then afforded to those Boutefeu's as we have since had sad experience of them God grant we may be cafeful of them for the future I am unwilling to recite Ecclesiastical Judges are not onely tyed by their offices and * Canon 117. Canon Constitut 1604. Oaths but at least in some particulars for which they have though most unjustly been much clamour'd against are most severely by Act of Parliament charged to see the execution of if not of others too yet of one especial Ecclesiastical Law for their care wherein some of them have been well-nigh ruined that is that according to that Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. c. 2. For uniformity of Prayer and Administration of Sacraments every person should diligently and faithfully resort to their Parish Church or Chappel where Common prayer and such Services of God shall be used upon every Sunday and other dayes ordeined and used to be kept as Holy-dayes and then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of Common prayer Preaching or other Service of God to be used and ministred c. Then follows thus And for due execution hereof the Queens most excellent Majesty the Lords Temporal and all the Commons in this present Parliament assembled doth in Gods name earnestly require and charge all the Archbishops Bishops and other Ordinaries that they shall endeavour themselves to the utmost of their knowledge that the due and true execution hereof may be had throughout their Dioceses and charges as they will answer before God for such evils and plagues wherewith Almighty God may justly punish his people for neglecting this good and wholsome Law Who would think had we not sadly felt their designs that the great Magnifiers of Parliaments for which I discommend them not so they keep within due compass would have been so bitter against those that acted but according to these strict Parliamentary charges CHAP. III. The Heads of the several Chapters in that Apologie of Doctor Cosens Part 1. C. 1 THe particular distribution of causes proved to be of Ecclesiastical cognizance besides Testamentary and Matrimonial With a discourse of C. 2 Bishops Certificates against persons excommunicated being a special point of their voluntary Jurisdiction where there is no party that prosecuteth C. 3 That matters in the former Chapter adjoyned to Testamentary and Matrimonial causes though properly they be not of Testament or Matrimony are of Ecclesiastical cognizance and how far C. 4 General proofs out of Statutes that sundry other causes besides Testamentary and Matrimonial are of Ecclesiastical cognizance C. 5 That Suits for Tithes of Benefices upon voidance or spoliation likewise that Suits for Tithes Oblations Mortuaries and Pensions Procurations c. are of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is proved by Statutes especially C. 6 That Suits for right of Tithes belong to the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and how far is shewed out of the books and Reports of the Common Law so of places of Burial and Church-yards and of Pensions Mortuaries Oblations c. C. 7 Of right to have a Curate and of Contributions to Reparations and to other things required in Churches C. 8 Proofs in general that sundry crimes and offences are punishable by Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and namely Idolatry Heresie Perjury or Laesio fidei and how far the last of these is there to be corrected also of disturbance of Divine Service or not frequenting of it and neglect of the Sacraments C. 9 That Simony Usury Defamation or Slander beating of a Clerk Sacrilege Brawling or Fighting in Church or Church-yard Dilapidations or waste of an Ecclesiastical Living and all Incontinency are punishable by Ecclesiastical authority and how far C. 10 Several other matters reckoned in this tenth Chapter as ordeining of real Compositions and disannulling of them suspension ab ingressu Ecclesiae c. Interdiction of a Church Sequestration Excommunication Parish-Clerks fees Goods due to a Church deteined Blasphemy Idolatry Apostasie from Christianity violation and prophanation of the Sabbath Subornation of Perjury Attestation of a womans chastity Drunkenness filthy speech violation of a Sequestration or Induction hindering and disturbance to carry away Tithes enjoyning of Penance corporal contempt of obeying the Decrees of the Ecclesiastical Judge Fees due in Ecclesiastical Courts Curates and Clerks wages Forgery in an Ecclesiastical matter as of Letters Testimonial of Orders of Institution burying of excommunicate persons communicating with excommunicate persons frequenters of Conventicles digging up of Corps buried and generally for any matter Ecclesiastical indefinitely by the Articuls cleri may be cited All these are of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and proofs that any Subjeet Lay or other may be cited in any cause Ecclesiastical C. 11 That Lay-men may be cited and urged to take Oaths in other causes then Testamentary and Matrimonial C. 12 The grounds of the opinions to the contrary examined and confuted C. 13 That judgment of Heresie still remaineth at the Common Law in Judges Ecclesiastical and that the Proviso touching Heresie in the Statute 1 Eliz. 1. is onely spoken of Ecclesiastical Commissioners thereby authorized C. 14 That by the Statute Her Majesty may commit authority and they may take and use for Ecclesiastical causes Attachments Imprisonments and Fines Herein he writes also how the Law was at that time C. 15 That an Ecclesiastical person may be deprived of his Benefice without indictment or prosecution of party C. 16 That after forty dayes an excommunicate person may be otherwise punished then upon the Writ De Excommunicato capiendo and that the said Writ may and ought to be awarded
that these Oaths Ex officio and Purgation should continue in proceeding at Common Law and not in the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Courts or Courts Christian as at Common Law by the Laws of the Land they are styled a Title we like well and surely that Nick-name suitable to such debauched and dissolute persons that gave it because in these Courts their unclean crimes were punished and that did commovere bilem though they were punished there onely as before Medicinally to acknowledge their crimes to aske God and the congregation forgivenesse and to take away the evil and scandal and not mulcted or corporally punished by imprisonment or otherwise I say that Nick-name should it be given at all to any court as it ought not it would rather lean to such courts as inflict corporal punishments and mulcts upon such criminous persons by Imprisonment keeping the Bastard children whipping or otherwise corporally punishing them I wish and hope that as both the professions of both Robes sit as sisters under one Crown derive from one and the same head and draw from one and the same Fountain so each knowing their certain bounds and limits of Jurisdiction which if not clearly and explicitely settled I wish and hope will be may proceed christianly charitably and friendly in their several spheres of activity without clashing or the least dissention to Gods glory the good of this Church and Srate and the just distribution of Justice to the benefit and comfort of all the Subjects in His Majesties Dominions Let us all remember that not long since there was a generation of men then too much in power that had an equal tooth against both the Professions would gladly have seen the destruction of both and made too great a progresse in it The noble Professon and Professors of the common Law could then expect little more favour then Polyphemus promised Vlysses that he should be the last that should be devoured And probably enough some of them stirred up some of the lesse-considerable common Lawyers and such as favoured their side too much for in all Professions there is good and bad to be iustrumental in the abolition of the Civil Law and when that was done when the out-works were taken in then to have a bout with the Fort it self They have shewed their Method No Bishop no King But concord and peace it is to be hoped will duly and indissolubly cement these two Professions if amongst our selves we do not ponere obicem and dis-joyne the union Let us never forget St. Pauls good counsel and caution All the Law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self But if ye bite and devour one another take heed ye he not consumed one of another For the Civilians if they have many enemies and but few friends as was said by one that 't is hoped hath no disaffection to that profession or professors of it but rather in a just resentment of their oppression sutable to his birth and noble disposition if so I say they may comfort themselves in this that they were put to the test in the beginning of the Long Parliament when their factious Accusers were sufficiently numerous and virulent and had they been found guilty they had not then escaped punishment severe and infamous enough They could not easily have been highlier justified then that way which made it appear to all the world that that clamorous party through the sides of the Civilians intended to strike at and wound their Superiors and so serve turns and ends and compasse their long-weav'd design If the Civilians do their parts in their Functions uprightly and diligently which their own consciences doubtlesse will prompt them to and the vigilancy of their factious Adversaries over their actions may serve to keep them awake 't is to be hoped they will every way find comfort and encouragement However that peace at the last and the continual Feast in the interim will buoy them up above the greatest waves of envy or malice Good men will be their friends though the contrary be their enemies and one Cato is better then a Theaire And we cannot but be confident that we shall never have cause to say as some said in another case Non nos Resp. sed defuit nobis Respublica We have a gracious KING whom God protect blesse and prolong his dayes Et Spes Ratio studiorum in Caesare He we doubt not will as before him his Royal Father Charles the first King and Martyr and his Grandfather King James of blessed memory look upon us with a favourable eye according as he finds we endeavour faithfully and diligently to serve the Church and State that is to serve him they who faile therein deserve not to be remembred And besides the general His Sacred Majesty hath in particular demonstrated his gracious favour that way by the addition of honour and honourary revenue to the Masters of the Chancery Civilians for the most part an act that if possibly there can be an addition adds to the just obligation of duty service and gratitude which they owe his most excellent Majesty And all due thankfulnesse and honour the same Profession must ever acknowledge and render to the Right Honourable the Earl of Clarendon Lord Chancellor of England for his special favours to that Profession and Professors and for his mediation and being instrumental as none I believe can suppose otherwise in the obtaining that favour and bounty to the Masters of the Chancery and by furthering the continuance of His Majesties gracious inclination towards them We blesse God and His Majesty and his Lordship for it and are I hope and ever shall be most thankful for it and rejoyce and comfort our selves in it and Rumpatur quisquis rumpitur invidia Now as in the Preface I thought fit to subjoyn that little Manuscript touching the Oath ex officio with that Determination touching the same by that glory of our Church the late Lord Bishop Lancelot Andrews Bishop of Winchester A Manuscript treating of the Oath Ex officio said to be Doctor Davenants late Lord Bishop of Sarisbury 1. THat which the Commons House complained of is that the Commissioners Ecclesiastical proceed Ex officio that is say they without a known Accuser 2. And that they cause men to answer upon their oath that which they would have is this 1. That no man should be dealt with but an Accuser should stand forth and that no Oath should be ministred to a man in his own cause That which your Lordships have enjoyned me is to shew my opinion whether the courses complained of be warrantable by the Word of God or no. Two parts there are distinctly to be spoken to the one of proceeding without a known Accuser the other of proceeding by way of Oath I begin with them generally at large and after as they concern Ecclesiastical proceedings 1. The end of all Judgments in all Courts is to remove evil The
memory King Henry the eighth because that many inconveniences had chanced in this Realm by breaking and dissolving good and lawful marriages yea whereupon also sometime issue and children had followed under the colour and pretence of a former contract made with another the which contract divers times was but very slenderly proved and often but surmised by the malice of the party who desired to be dissolved from the marriage which they liked not and to be coupled with another there was an Act made that all and every such marriages as within the Church of England should be contrcted and solemnized in the face of the Church and consummate with bodily knowledge or fruit of children or child being had betwéen the parties so married should be by authority of the said Parliament déemed judged and taken to be lawful good just and indissoluble notwithstanding any precontract or precontracts of Matrimony not consummate with bodily knowledge which either of the persons so married or both had made with any other person or persons before the time of contracting that marriage which is solemnized or consummated or whereof such fruit is ensued or may ensue as by the same Act more plainly appear Sithence the time of the which Act although the same was godly meant the unrulinesse of men hath ungodly abused the same and divers inconveniences intolerable in manner to Christian ears and eyes followed thereupon women and men breaking their own promises and faiths made by the one unto the other so set upon sensuality and pleasure that if after the contract of Matrimony they might have whom they more favoured and destred they could be contented by lightnesse of their nature to overturn all that they had done afore and not afraid in manner even from the very Church door and Matriage feast the man to take another spouse and the espouse to take another husband more for bodily lust and carnal knowledge then for surety of faith and truth or having God in their good remembrance contemning many times also the commandment of the Ecclesiastical Iudge forbidding the parties having made the contract to attempt or do any thing in prejudice of the same Be it therefore enacted by the Kings Highnesse the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled that as concerning Precontracts the said former Statute shall from the first day of May next comming cease be repealed and of no force or effect and be reduced to the estate and order of the Kings Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm which immediately before the making of the said Estatute in this case were used in this Realm so that from the said first day of May when any cause or contract of marriage is pretended to have béen made it shall be lawful to the Kings Ecclesiastical Iudge of that place to hear and examine the said cause and having the said contract sufficiently and lawfully proved before him to give sentence for Matrimony commanding solemnization cohabitation consummation and tractation as it becometh man and wife to have with inflicting all such pains upon the disobedients and disturbers thereof as in times past before the said Statute the Kings Ecclesiastical Iudge by the Kings Ecclesiastical Laws ought and might have done if the said Statute had never béen made any clause article or sentence in the said Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Provided alwayes and be it enacted that this Act do not extend to disannul dissolve or break any marriage that hath or shall be solemnizated and consummated before the said first day of May next ensuing by title or colour of any Precontract but that they be and be déemed of like force and effect to all intents constructions and purposes as if this Act had never béen had ne made any thing in this present Act notwithstanding Provided also that this Act do not extend to make good any of the other causes so the dissolution or disannulling of Matrimony which he in the said Act spoken of and disannulled But that in all other causes and other things there mentioned the said former Act of the two and thirtieth year of the late King of famous memory do stand and remain in his full strength and power any thing in this Act notwithstanding Stat. 1 Eliz. 1. By these the inconveniency appeareth of taking away or altering an ancient long-settled Law practised long in all Christian Countries as this was which had it not been good probably the inconveniency and hurt of it had appeared in so long a time and the Law for the Oath Ex officio and Purgation is of like antiquity and practice in all Christian Countries without inconvenience or hurt thereby arising as yet that I ever could hear of therefore such Laws ought to be deeply weighed and considered of before they be repealed or altered And now that I am speaking of repealing and altering old Laws and making new I thought fit to close this Tract with some Notes of mine drawn up almost all of them in the time of the usurped Government and some after His Majesties restauration and communicated to the sight of some of Quality touching the repealing or altering of some old Laws and making new Some are already past and effected as that for the Lords the Bishops sitting again in the Lords House in Parliament and other things These I offer with all humility to be considered of if it shall by those in Authority be thought fit otherwise to be as unsaid Protesting that I retract as before any thing which is here mentioned that shall appear contrary to Gods Word His Majesties Prerogative or the Laws of the Land or the just policy and government of any of His Majesties Dominions Touching Parliaments Parliament proceedings AS a Parliament well constituted and acting regularly conduces much to the happinesse of King and Subject so any exorbitancy or deviation therein of which surely all unbiassed men cannot but confesse we have had too much sad experience in the Long Parliament works the contrary corruptio optimi pessima In the time of the Long Parliament some as it were idoliz'd it even almost to an opinion even of Infallibility of which they have made too much advantage to the misery of King and People Some advised then that that great Wheel that great Court should have had its sphere of activity it s known certain bounds publickly declared and not have been like a great River prodigiously overflowing all its banks and bounds Such a Parliament acting regularly is' t not probable the Members thereof would not so much have thirsted to lengthen much lesse to perpetuate it They were called up to consult may not he that calls his Counsellor forbear consulting him when he pleases and dismisse him Ordinance of Parliament The extent of an Ordinance of Parliament having by some been tentor'd then even almost to Infinity might it not have been precisely circumscribed and the exact definition of an Ordinance given Privileges of Parliament As
be rejected Qui semel est malus semper praesumitur esse malus presertim in eodem genere delicti Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy explained And also if thought fit that the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy should have had some explanation alteration or emendation especially in that point of not resisting the King In the second Homily of Obedience which book is confirmed by Act of Parliament it is there expressed in terminis as the Doctrine of the Church of Engl. that it is not lawful in any case to resist the King That this should expresly have been put into these Oaths and that all persons whatsoever which are to take the Oaths of Allegeance or Supremacy or that have taken them may take them with such emendations it being too notorious what strange interpretations have been made of these Oaths as that they were made onely against the Papal power and as though nothing else were to be resisted And in the beginning of the Rebellion in Scotland the orthodox Divines of Aberdeen maintaining according to that Doctrine of the Church of England That in no case the King is to be resisted and that so to do was contrary to Gods Word and to the opinion and practice of the primitive Christians The other Divines fomentors of that Rebellion expresly denied this and alledged that the reason why the primitive Christians resisted not was because deerant illis vires the very same reason that Bellarmine gives for the same so well do these two Factions concur Though by the History of those times it appears and Tertullian openly pleads it against the Emperor that it was not for want of strength for they had enough but that it was contrary to their conscience guided by Gods Word so to resist And therefore why not much need that all persons whatsoever should take this Oath to declare their opinion in this point And also Robbery the Law to be altered if thought fit that the Law concerning Robbery ought to be in many cases and especially for the first offence mitigated and not made capital but that restitution be made to the party robbed and if the Robber be not able to do it then to be forced to work it out Which course some think would probably more terrifie idle persons that turn thieves who had rather dye desperately then lead perhaps a long and wearisom life Hereby many may repent and amend and do good service to their King and Countrey The party robbed also hereby gets restitution which seldom or never happens as the Law now is Our Law contrary to the practice in other parts of the Christian world hereby becomes harder then the Levitical Laws Some have hereupon said that the Gospel the Spirit killeth and the Letter giveth life contrary to St. Paul which seemeth something Anti-Evangelical The yoke of the Gospel should be easie And also if thought fit Against condemnation upon a single testimony that none should be condemned to dye upon a single testimony when there is no other kind of proof by circumstances or violent or vehement presumptions equivalent to a witness that makes a kind of semiplena probatio at the least as in the Canon Law In the mouth of two or three witnesses every saying shall be confirmed sayes the Levitical Law which is repeated in the New Testament and in a manner at least is made Lex Evangelizata The Law-maker Truth Justice in the abstract could as well have said In ore unius vel duorum testium as duorum vel trium if he had thought it so fitting and yet as before the Gospel seems to pinch harder then the Law To that Objection That then many Malefactors would escape it may be answered That secret things belong to the Lord and to him they are to be left and that it is better ten Knaves should escape then one guiltless man should be hanged We have seen and heard how even in a manner miraculously God hath often revealed murther and great crimes that we may suppose that when such crimes cannot be in the ordinary way detected it pleases God they shall be done extraordinarily Many instances might be given of the sad consequences by putting to death upon the testimony of a single witnesse Judge Fortescue in his book De laudibus legum Anghae relates a passage about a Gentlewoman in Sarisbury that was put to death even burnt at a stake for murdering her husband and that sentence given upon the testimony of a single witness which witness not long after upon his death voluntarily and in a most penitent manner confessed he had given false witness against that Gentlewoman and that she was no wayes guilty of that murther for which she was put to death And Judge Fortescue there speaking of the Judge that gave sentence against her hath these words as I take it or to this effect the book is not now by me as they are there in the Latine version out of the Law French Soepius iste judex mihi fassus est quod nunquam in vita sua animum suum super hoc facto purgaret A notable instance this way to relate no more being numerous happened in London not many years since as 't is credibly reported A young man a Lawyers Clerk made love to a Gentlewomans Chamber-maid and a fellow-servant of the Chamber-maids keeping company much with her and the young man using also kind dalliance towards her she conceived that he loved her better then the Chamber-maid but afterwards perceiving she was mistaken she boyled with revenge against him and the Devil watching as a roaring Lion whom he may devour instigated her to accuse him of theft that he had stoln from her Masters house and taken away under his Cloak a Silver Boll Upon this bare single testimony of hers the Jury found him guilty he was condemned and dyed for it Not long after the Chamber-maid grieving for the loss of her espoused husband seeing her fellow-servants Trunk or Box unlocked lift up the Cover and there saw that very Boll which she very well knew for which the young man was condemned and suffered she calls up her master who found it to be the same Boll which she he shewing it to her could not deny upon this she was prosecuted condemned and suffered death and the Chamber-maid fell mad with grief and dyed And all this came from this judgment upon the testimony of a single witnesse Should any object That this might happen upon the testimony of two or more witnesses It is possible but not so probable and the safe way is to follow the Rule afore-mentioned In the case of Treason two witnesses are required and very requisite and in other crimes capital especially when also in many cases that are not capital two witnesses are required why might it not be reasonably expected though the atrocity of Treason is high yet as to the person offending and suffering the punishment by losse of life is little different Touching Juries And also if