see no reason why I may not as well take Use for my Money as Rent for my House 'T is a vain thing to say Money begets not Money for that no doubt it does 2. Would it not look odly to a Stranger that should come into this Land and hear in our Pulpits Usury preach'd against and yet the Law allow it Many Men use it pehaps some Church-men themselves No Bishop nor Ecclesiastical Judge that pretends Power to punish other Faults dares punish or at least does punish any Man for doing it Pious Uses 1. THE ground of the Ordinary's taking part of a Man's Estate who dy'd without a Will to Pious Uses was this to give it some body to pray that his Soul might be deliver'd out of Purgatory now the pious Uses come into his own Pocket 'T was well exprest by John O Powls in the Play who acted the Priest one that was to be hang'd being brought to the Ladder would fain have given something to the Poor he feels for his Purse which John O Powls had pickt out of his Pocket before missing it crys out He had lost his Purse now he intended to have given something to the Poor John O Powls bid him be pacified for the Poor had it already War 1. DO not under-value an Enemy by whom you have been worsted When our Country-men came home from fighting with the Saracens and were beaten by them they pictured them with huge big terrible Faces as you still see the Sign of the Saracen's Head is when in truth they were like other Men. But this they did to save their own Credits 2. Martial-Law in general means nothing but the Martial-Law of this or that Place with us to be us'd in Fervore Belli in the Face of the Enemy not in time of Peace there they can take away neither Limb nor Life The Commanders need not complain for want of it because our Ancestors have done gallant things without it 3. Question Whether may Subjects take up Arms against their Prince Answer Conceive it thus Here lies a Shilling betwixt you and me Ten Pence of the Shilling is yours Two Pence is mine By agreement I am as much King of my Two Pence as you of your Ten Pence If you therefore go about to take away my Two Pence I will defend it for there you and I are equal both Princes 4. Or thus two supream Powers meet one says to the other give me your Land if you will not I will take it from you The other because he thinks himself too weak to resist him tells him of nine Parts I will give you three so I may quietly enjoy the rest and I will become your Tributary Afterwards the Prince comes to exact six Parts and leaves but three the Contract then is broken and they are in Parity again 5. To know what Obedience is due to the Prince you must look into the Contract betwixt him and his People as if you wou'd know what Rent is due from the Tenant to the Landlord you must look into the Lease When the Contract is broken and there is no third Person to judge then the Decision is by Arms. And this is the Case between the Prince and the Subject 6. Question What Law is there to take up Arms against the Prince in Case he break his Covenant Answer Though there be no written Law for it yet there is Custom which is the best Law of the Kingdom for in England they have always done it There is nothing exprest between the King of England and the King of France that if either Invades the other's Territory the other shall take up Arms against him and yet they do it upon such an Occasion 7. 'T is all one to be plunder'd by a Troop of Horse or to have a Man's Goods taken from him by an Order from the Council Table To him that dies 't is all one whether it be by a Penny Halter or a Silk Garter yet I confess the silk Garter pleases more and like Trouts we love to be tickled to Death 8. The Soldiers say they fight for Honour when the Truth is they have their Honour in their Pocket And they mean the same thing that pretend to fight for Religion Just as a Parson goes to Law with his Parishioners he says For the good of his Successors that the Church may not loose its Right when the meaning is to get the Tythes into his own Pocket 9. We govern this War as an unskilful Man does a Casting-Net if he has not the right trick to cast the Net off his Shoulder the Leads will pull him into the River I am afraid we shall pull our selves into Destruction 10. We look after the particulars of a Battle because we live in the very time of War Whereas of Battles past we hear nothing but the Number slain Just as for the the Death of a Man when he is sick we talk how he slept this Night and that Night what he eat and what he drunk But when he is dead we only say he died of a Fever or name his Disease and there 's an end 11. Boccaline has this passage of Souldiers They came to Apollo to have their Profession made the Eighth Liberal Science which he granted As soon as it was nois'd up and down it came to the Butchers and they desired their Profession might be made the Ninth For say they the Soldiers have this Honour for the killing of Men now we kill as well as they but we kill Beasts for the preserving of Men and why should not we have Honour likewise done to us Apollo could not Answer their Reasons so he revers'd his Sentence and made the Soldiers Trade a Mystery as the Butchers is Witches 1. THE Law against Witches does not prove there be any but it punishes the Malice of those People that use such means to take away Mens Lives If one should profess that by turning his Hat thrice and crying Buz he could take away a Man's Life though in truth he could do no such thing yet this were a just Law made by the State that whosoever should turn his Hat thrice and cry Buz with an intention to take away a Man's Life shall be put to death Wife 1. HE that hath a handsome Wife by other Men is thought happy 't is a Pleasure to look upon her and be in her Company but the Husband is cloy'd with her We are never content with what we have 2. You shall see a Monkey sometime that has been playing up and down the Garden at length leap up to the top of the Wall but his Clog hangs a great way below on this side the Bishop's Wife is like that Monkey's Clog himself is got up very high takes place of the Temporal Barons but his Wife comes a great way behind 3. 'T is reason a Man that will have a Wife should be at the Charge of her Trinkets and pay all the Scores she sets on him He that will keep
Parliament was wary what Subsidies they gave to the King because they had no account but now they care not how much they give of the Subjects Money because they give it with one hand and receive it with the other and so upon the matter give it themselves In the mean time what a case the Subjects of England are in if the Men they have sent to the Parliament mis-behave themselves they cannot help it because the Parliament is Eternal 2. A Subsidy was counted the fifth part of a Man's Estate and so fifty Subsidies is five and forty times more than a Man is Worth Simony 1. THE Name of Simony was begot in the Canon-Law the first Statute against it was in Queen Elizabeth's time Since the Reformation Simony has been frequent One reason why it was not practised in time of Popery was the Pope's provision no Man was sure to bestow his own Benefice Ship-Money 1. MR. Noy brought in Ship-money first for Maritine Towns but that was like putting in a little Augur that afterwards you may put in a greater He that pulls down the first Brick does the main Work afterwards 't is easie to pull down the Wall 2. They that at first would not pay Ship-money till 't was decided did like brave Men though perhaps they did no good by the Trial but they that stand out since and suffer themselves to be distrained never questioning those that do it do pitifully for so they only pay twice as much as they should Synod Assembly 1. WE have had no national Synod since the Kingdom hath been settled as now it is only Provincial and there will be this inconveniency to call so many Divines together 't will be to put Power in their Hands who are too apt to usurp it as if the Laity were bound by their Determination No let the Laity consult with Divines on all sides hear what they say and make themselves Masters of their Reasons as they do by any other profession when they have a Difference before them For Example Gold-smiths they enquire of them if such a Jewel be of such a Value and such a Stone of such a Value hear them and then being rational Men judge themselves 2. Why should you have a Synod when you have a Convocation already which is a Synod Would you have a superfetation of another Synod The Clergy of England when they cast off the Pope submitted themselves to the Civil Power and so have continued but these challenge to be Jure Divino and so to be above the Civil Power these challenge Power to call before their Presbyteries all Persons for all Sins directly against the Law of God as proved to be Sins by necessary Consequence If you would buy Gloves send for a Glover or two not Glovers-Hall consult with some Divines not send for a Body 3. There must be some Laymen in the Synod to over-look the Clergy lest they spoil the civil Work Just as when the good Woman puts a Cat into the Milk-House to kill a Mouse she sends her Maid to look after the Cat lest the Cat should eat up the Cream 4. In the Ordinance for the Assembly the Lords and Commons go under the Names of learned godly and judicious Divines there is no Difference put betwixt them and the Ministers in the Context 5. 'T is not unusual in the Assembly to revoke their Votes by reason they make so much haste but 't is that will make them scorn'd You never heard of a Council revok'd an Act of its own making they have been wary in that to keep up their Infallibility if they did any thing they took away the whole Council and yet we would be thought Infallible as any Body 'T is not enough to say the House of Commons revoke their Votes for theirs are but Civil Truths which they by agreement create and uncreate as they please But the Truths the Synod deals in are Divine and when they have voted a thing if it be then true 't was true before not true because they voted it nor does it cease to be true because they voted otherwise 6. Subscribing in a Synod or to the Articles of a Synod is no such terrible thing as they make it because If I am of a Synod 't is agreed either tacitely or expresly That which the major part determines the rest are involv'd in and therefore I subscribe though my own private Opinion be otherwise and upon the same Ground I may without scruple subscribe to what those have determin'd whom I sent though my private Opinion be otherwise having respect to that which is the Ground of all assemblies the Major part carries it Thanksgiving 1. AT first we gave Thanks for every Victory as soon as ever 't was obtained but since we have had many now we can stay a good while We are just like a Child give him a Plum he makes his Leg give him a second Plum he makes another Leg At last when his Belly is full he forgets what he ought to do then his Nurse or some body else that stands by him puts him in mind of his Duty Where 's your Leg Tythes 1. TYthes are more paid in kind in England than in all Italy and France In France they have had Impropriations a long time we had none in England till Henry the Eighth 2. To make an Impropriation there was to be the Consent of the Incumbent the Patron and the King then 't was confirm'd by the Pope Without all this the Pope could make no Impropriation 3. Or what if the Pope gave the Tythes to any Man must they therefore be taken away If the Pope gives me a Jewel will you therefore take it away from me 4. Abraham paid Tythes to Melchizedeck what then 'T was very well done of him It does not follow therefore that I must pay Tythes no more than I am bound to imitate any other Action of Abraham's 5. 'T is ridiculous to say the Tythes are God's Part and therefore the Clergy must have them Why so they are if the Laymen has them 'T is as if one of my Lady Kent's Maids should be sweeping this Room and another of them should come and take away the Broom and tell for a Reason why she should part with it 'T is my Lady's Broom As if it were not my Lady's Broom which of them soever had it 6. They consulted in Oxford where they might find the best Argument for their Tythes setting aside the Jus Divinum they were advis'd to my History of Tythes a Book so much cry'd down by them formerly in which I dare boldly say there are more Arguments for them than are extant together any where Upon this one writ me word That my History of Tythes was now become like Pleus's Hasta to wound and to heal I told him in my Answer I thought I could fit him with a better Instance 'T was possible it might undergo the same Fate that Aristotle Avicen and Averroes did in France
Table-Talk BEING THE DISCOURSES OF John Selden Esq OR HIS SENSE of various MATTERS of Weight and high Consequence Relating especially to Religion and State Distingue Tempora The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Judge's Head near the Inner-Temple Gate in Fleetstreet and Awnsham and John Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row 1696. To the Honourable Mr. Justice Hales One of the JUDGES OF THE Common-Pleas And to the much Honoured Edward Heywood John Vaughan AND Rowland Jewks Esquiers Most worthy Gentlemen WEre you not Executors to that Person who while he liv'd was the Glory of the Nation yet I am Confident any thing of his would find Acceptance with you and truly the Sense and Notion here is wholly his and most of the Words I had the opportunity to hear his Discourse twenty Years together and lest all those Excellent things that usually fell from him might be lost some of them from time to time I faithfully committed to Writing which here digested into this Method I humbly present to your Hands you will quickly perceive them to be his by the familiar Illustrations wherewith they are set off and in which way you know he was so happy that with a marvelous delight to those that heard him he would presently convey the highest Points of Religion and the most important Affairs of State to an ordinary apprehension In reading be pleas'd to distinguish Times and in your Fancy carry along with you the When and the Why many of these things were spoken this will give them the more Life and the smarter Relish 'T is possible the Entertainment you find in them may render you the more inclinable to pardon the Presumption of Your most Obliged and most Humble Servant RI. MILWARD THE TABLE ABbies Priories page 1 Articles 3 Baptism 4 Bastard 5 Bible Scripture 6 Bishops before the Parliament 11 Bishops in the Parliament 13 Bishops out of the Parliament 19 Books Authors 25 Canon-Law Ceremony 27 Chancellour 28 Changing Sides 29 Chrismas 30 Christians 31 Church 32 Church of Rome 34 Churches City 35 Clergy 36 High Commission House of Commons 38 Confession 39 Competency 40 Great Conjunction Conscience 41 Consecrated Places 43 Contracts 44 Council 45 Convocation Creed 46 Damnation 47 Devils 48 Self-Denial 51 Duel 52 Epitaph 53 Equity 54 Evil Speaking 55 Excommunication 56 Faith and Works 59 Fasting-Days 60 Fathers and Sons Fines 61 Free-will Fryers 62 Friends Genealogy of Christ 63 Gentlemen 64 Gold Hall 65 Hell 66 Holy-Days 67 Humility 68 Idolatry Jews 69 Invincible Ignorance Images 70 Imperial Constitutions Imprisonment 72 Incendiaries Independency 73 Things Indifferent Publick Interest 75 Humane Invention Judgments 76 Judge 77 Juggling Jurisdiction 78 Jus Divinum King 79 King of England 81 The King 84 Knights Service 86 Land Language 87 Law 88 Law of Nature 90 Learning 91 Lecturers Libels 93 Liturgy Lords in the Parliament 94 Lords before the Parliament 95 Marriage 97 Marriage of Cosin Germans 98 Measure of things 99 Difference of Men Minister Divine 100 Money 107 Moral Honesty 108 Mortage Number 109 Oaths 110 Oracles 113 Opinion 114 Parity Parliament 116 Parson 119 Patience Peace 120 Penance People 121 Pleasure 122 Philosophy 124 Poetry 125 Pope 127 Popery 130 Power State 131 Prayer 134 Preaching 137 Predestination 144 Preferment 145 Praemunire Prerogative 148 Presbytery 149 Priest of Rome 151 Prophecies 152 Proverbs Question 153 Reason 154 Retaliation Reverence 155 Non Residency 156 Religion 157 Sabboth 163 Sacrament Salvation 164 State 165 Superstition Subsidies 166 Simony Ship-Money 167 Synod Assembly 158 Thanksgiving Tythes 171 Trade 174 Tradition Transubstantiation 175 Traitor Trinity 176 Truth 177 Trial 178 University 179 Vows 180 Usury Pious Uses 181 War 182 Witches Wife 186 Wisdom 187 Wit 188 Women 189 Year 190 Zelots 192 THE DISCOURSES OF John Selden Esq Abbies Priories c. 1. THE unwillingness of the Monks to part with their Land will fall out to be just nothing because they were yielded up to the King by a Supream Hand viz. a Parliament If a King conquer another Country the People are loath to lose their Lands yet no Divine will deny but the King may give them to whom he please If a Parliament make a Law concerning Leather or any other Commodity you and I for Example are Parliament-Men perhaps in respect to our own private Interest we are against it yet the major Part conclude it we are then in volv'd and the Law is good 2. When the Founder of Abbies laid a Curse upon those that should take away those Lands I would fain know what Power they had to curse me 'T is not the Curses that come from the Poor or from any Body that hurt me because they come from them but because I do something ill against them that deserves God should curse me for it On the other side 't is not a Man's blessing me that makes me blessed he only declares me to be so and if I do well I shall be blessed whether any bless me or not 3. At the time of Dissolution they were tender in taking from the Abbots and Priors their Lands and their Houses till they surrendred them as most of them did indeed the Prior of St. John's Sir Richard Weston being a stout Man got into France and stood out a whole Year at last submitted and the King took in that Priory also to which the Temple belonged and many other Houses in England they did not then cry no Abbots no Priors as we do now no Bishops no Bishops 4. Henry the Fifth put away the Friars Aliens and seized to himself 100000 l. a Year and therefore they were not the Protestants only that took away Church Lands 5. In Queen Elizabeths time when all the Abbies were pulled down all good Works defaced then the Preachers must cry up Justification by Faith not by good Works Articles 1. THE nine and thirty Articles are much another thing in Latin in which Tongue they were made than they are translated into English they were made at three several Convocations and confirmed by Act of Parliament six or seven Times after There is a Secret concerning them Of late Ministers have subscribed to all of them but by Act of Parliament that confirm'd them they ought only to subscribe to those Articles which contain matter of Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as appears by the first Subscriptions But Bishoâ— Bancroft in the Convocation held in King Jame's days he began it that Ministers should subscribe to three Things to the King's Supremacy to the Common-Prayer and to the Thirty Nine Articles many of them do not contain matter of Faith Is it matter of Faith how the Church should be govern'd Whether Infants should be baptized Whether we have any Property in our Goods c. Baptism 1. 'T Was a good way to persuade Men to be christned to tell them that they had a Foulness about them viz. Original Sin that could not be washed away but by
to be taken off and offer'd any Preferment in the Church that he would make choice of Luther answered if he had offer'd half as much at first he would have accepted it but now he had gone so far he could not come back In Truth he had made himself a greater thing than they could make him the German Princes courted him he was become the Author of a Sect ever after to be call'd Lutherans So have our Preachers done that are against the Bishops they have made themselves greater with the People than they can be made the other way and therefore there is the less Charity probably in bringing them off Charity to Strangers is enjoyn'd in the Text by Strangers is there understood those that are not of our own Kin Strangers to your Blood not those you cannot tell whence they come that is to be charitable to your Neighbours whom you know to be honest poor People Christmass 1. CHristmass succeeds the Saturnalia the same time the same number of Holy-days then the Master waited upon the Servant like the Lord of Misrule 2. Our Meats and our Sports much of them have Relation to Church-works The Coffin of our Christmass-Pies in shape long is in Imitation of the Cratch our chusing Kings and Queens on Twelfth-Night hath reference to the three Kings So likewise our eating of Fritters whipping of Tops roasting of Herrings Jack of Lents c. they were all in Imitation of Church-works Emblems of Martyrdom Our Tansies at Easter have reference to the bitter Herbs tho' at the same time 't was always the Fashion for a Man to have a Gammon of Bacon to shew himself to be no Jew Christians 1. IN the High-Church of Jerusalem the Christians were but another Sect of Jews that did believe the Messias was come To be called was nothing else but to become a Christian to have the Name of a Christian it being their own Language For among the Jews when they made a Doctor of Law 't was said he was called 2. The Turks tell their People of a Heaven where there is sensible Pleasure but of a Hell where they shall suffer they don't know what The Christians quite invert this Order they tell us of a Hell where we shall feel sensible Pain but of a Heaven where we shall enjoy we can't tell what 3. Why did the Heathens object to the Christians that they worship an Asses Head You must know that to a Heathen a Jew and a Christian were all one that they regarded him not so he was not one of them Now that of the Asses Head might proceed from such a Mistake as this by the Jews Law all the Firstlings of Cattle were to be offered to God except a young Ass which was to be redeemed a Heathen being present and seeing young Calves and young Lambs kill'd at their Sacrifices only young Asses redeem'd might very well think they had that silly Beast in some high Estimation and thence might imagine they worshipped it as a God Church 1. HEretofore the Kingdom let the Church alone let them do what they would because they had something else to think of viz. Wars but now in time of Peace we begin to examine all things will have nothing but what we like grow dainty and wanton just as in a Family the Heir uses to go a hunting he never considers how his Meal is drest takes a bit and away but when he stays within then he grows curious he does not like this nor he does not like that he will have his Meat drest his own way or peradventure he will dress it himself 2. It hath ever been the Gain of the Church when the King will let the Church have no Power to cry down the King and cry up the Church But when the Church can make use of the King's Power then to bring all under the King's Prerogative the Catholicks of England go one way and the Court-Clergy another 3. A glorious Church is like a magnificent Feast there is all the Variety that may be but every one chuses out a Dish or two that he likes and lets the rest alone how glorious soever the Church is every one chuses out of it his own Religion by which he governs himself and lets the rest alone 4. The Laws of the Church are most favourable to the Church because they were the Church's own making as the Heralds are the best Gentlemen because they make their own Pedigree 5. There is a Question about that Article concerning the Power of the Church whether these Words of having Power in Controversies of Faith were not stoln in but 't is most certain they were in the Book of Articles that was confirm'd though in some Editions they have been left out But the Article before tells you who the Church is not the Clergy but Coetus sidelium Church of Rome 1. BEfore a Juglar's Tricks are discover'd we admire him and give him Money but afterwards we care not for them so 't was before the Discovery of the Juggling of the Church of Rome 2. Catholicks say we out of our Charity believe they of the Church of Rome may be saved But they do not believe so of us Therefore their Church is better according to our selves First some of them no doubt believe as well of us as we do of them but they must not say so Besides is that an Argument their Church is better than ours because it has less Charity 3. One of the Church of Rome will not come to our Prayers does that agree he doth not like them I would fain see a Catholick leave his Dinner because a Nobleman's Chaplain says Grace nor haply would he leave the Prayers of the Church if going to Church were not made a Mark of Distinction between a Protestant and a Papist Churches 1. THE Way coming into our great Churches was anciently at the West-Door that Men might see the Altar and all the Church before them the other Doors were but Posterns City 1. WHat makes a City Whether a Bishoprick or any of that Nature Answer 'T is according to the first Charter which made them a Corporation If they are incorporated by Name of Civitas they are a City if by the Name of Burgum then they are a Burrough 2. The Lord Mayor of London by their first Charter was to be presented to the King in his Absence to the Lord Chief Justiciary of England afterwards to the Lord Chancellor now to the Barons of the Exchequer but still there was a Reservation that for their Honour they should come once a Year to the King as they do still Clergy 1. THough a Clergy-man have no Faults of his own yet the Faults of the whole Tribe shall be laid upon him so that he shall be sure not to lack 2. The Clergy would have us believe them against our own Reason as the Woman would have had her Husband against his own Eyes What! will you believe your own Eyes before your own sweet
Wife 3. The Condition of the Clergy towards their Prince and the Condition of the Physician is all one The Physicians tell the Prince they have Agaric and Rubarb good for him and good for his Subjects Bodies upon this he gives them leave to use it but if it prove naught then away with it they shall use it no more So the Clergy tell the Prince they have Physick good for his Soul and good for the Souls of his People upon that he admits them But when he finds by Experience they both trouble him and his People he will have no more to do with them what is that to them or any body else if a King will not go to Heaven 4. A Clergy-man goes not a Dram further than this you ought to obey your Prince in general if he does he is lost how to obey him you must be inform'd by those whose Profession it is to tell you The Parson of the Tower a good discreet Man told Dr. Mosely who was sent to me and the rest of the Gentlemen committed the 3d Caroli to persuade us to submit to the King that they found no such Words as Parliament Habeas Corpus Return Tower c. Neither in the Fathers nor the Schoolmen nor in the Text and therefore for his part he believed he understood nothing of the Business A Satyr upon all those Clergy-men that meddle with Matters they do not understand 5. All confess there never was a more learned Clergy no Man taxes them with Ignorance But to talk of that is like the Fellow that was a great Wencher he wish'd God would forgive him his Leachery and lay Usury to his Charge The Clergy have worse Faults 6. The Clergy and Laity together are never like to do well 't is as if a Man were to make an excellent Feast and should have his Apothecary and his Physician come into the Kitchen The Cooks if they were let alone would make excellent Meat but then comes the Apothecary and he puts Rubarb into one Sauce and Agrick into another Sauce Chain up the Clergy on both sides High Commission 1. MEN cry out upon the High Commission as if the Clergy-Men only had to do in it when I believe there are more Lay-Men in Commission there than Clergy-Men if the Lay-Men will not come whose Fault is that So of the Star-Chamber the People think the Bishops only censur'd Prin Burton and Bastwick when there were but two there and one spake not in his own Cause House of Commons 1. THere be but two Erroneous Opinions in the House of Commons That the Lords sit only for themselves when the Truth is they sit as well for the Common-wealth The Knights and Burgesses sit for themselves and others some for more some for fewer and what is the Reason because the Room will not hold all the Lords being few they all come and imagine the Room able to hold all the Commons of England then the Lords and Burgesses would sit no otherwise than the Lords do The second Error is that the House of Commons are to begin to give Subsidies yet if the Lords dissent they can give no Money 2. The House of Commons is called the Lower House in twenty Acts of Parliament but what are twenty Acts of Parliament amongst Friends 3. The Form of a Charge runs thus I Accuse in the Name of all the Commons of England how then can any Man be as a Witness when every Man is made the Accuser Confession 1. IN time of Parliament it used to be one of the first things the House did to Petition the King that his Confessor might be removed as fearing either his Power with the King or else lest he should reveal to the Pope what the House was in doing as no doubt he did when the Catholick Cause was concerned 2. The Difference between us and the Papists is we both allow Contrition but the Papists make Confession a part of Contrition they say a Man is not sufficiently contrite till he confess his Sins to a Priest 3. Why should I think a Priest will not reveal Confession I am sure he will do any thing that is forbidden him haply not so often as I the utmost Punishment is Deprivation and how can it be proved that ever any Man revealed Confession when there is no Witness And no Man can be Witness in his own Cause A meer Gullery There was a time when 't was publick in the Church and that is much against their Auricular Confession Competency 1. THat which is a Competency for one Man is not enough for another no more than that which will keep one Man warm will keep another Man warm one Man can go in Doublet and Hose when another Man cannot be without a Cloak and yet have no more Cloaths than is necessary for him Great Conjunction THE greatest Conjunction of Satan and Jupiter happens but once in eight Hundred Years and therefore Astrologers can make no Experiments of it nor foretel what it means not but that the Stars may mean something but we cannot tell what because we cannot come at them Suppose a Planet were a Simple or an Herb how could a Physician tell the Vertue of that Simple unless he could come at it to apply it Conscience 1. HE that hath a Scrupulous Conscience is like a Horse that is not well weigh'd he starts at every Bird that flies out of the Hedge 2. A knowing Man will do that which a tender Conscience Man dares not do by reason of his Ignorance the other knows there is no hurt as a Child is afraid to go into the dark when a Man is not because he knows there is no Danger 3. If we once come to leave that outloose as to pretend Conscience against Law who knows what inconvenience may follow For thus Suppose an Anabaptist comes and takes my Horse I Sue him he tells me he did according to his Conscience his Conscience tells him all things are common amongst the Saints what is mine is his therefore you do ill to make such a Law If any Man takes another's Horse he shall be hang'd What can I say to this Man He does according to his Conscience Why is not he as honest a Man as he that pretends a Ceremony establish'd by Law is against his Conscience Generally to pretend Conscience against Law is dangerous in some Cases haply we may 4. Some Men make it a Case of Conscience whether a Man may have a Pidgeon-House because his Pidgeons eat other Folks Corn. But there is no such thing as Conscience in the Business the Matter is whether he be a Man of such Quality that the State allows him to have a Dove-House if so there 's an end of the Business his Pidgeons have a right to eat where they please themselves Consecrated Places 1. THE Jews had a peculiar way of consecrating things to God which we have not 2. Under the Law God who was Master of all made choice of a
The meaning of the Law was that so much should be taken from a Man such a Cobbet sliced off that yet not withstanding he might live in the same Rank and Condition he lived in before but now they fine Men ten times more than they are worth Free-will 1. THe Puritans who will allow no Free-will at all but God does all yet will allow the Subject his Liberty to do or not to do notwithstanding the King the God upon Earth The Armenians who hold we have Free-will yet say when we come to the King there must be all Obedience and no Liberty to be stood for Fryers 1. THE Fryers say they possess nothing whose then are the Lands they hold not their Superiour's he hath vow'd Poverty as well as they whose then To answer this 't was decreed they should say they were the Popes And why must the Fryers be more perfect than the Pope himself 2. If there had been no Fryers Christendom might have continued quiet and things remain at a stay If there had been no Lecturers which succeed the Fryers in their way the Church of England might have stood and flourisht at this Day Friends 1. OLD Friends are best King James us'd to call for his old Shoos they were easiest for his Feet Genealogy of Christ. 1. TThey that say the Reason why Joseph's Pedigree is set down and not Mary's is because the Descent from the Mother is lost and swallowed up say something but yet if a Jewish Woman marry'd with a Gentil they only took Notice of the Mother not of the Father but they that say they were both of a Tribe say nothing for the Tribes might marry one with another and the Law against it was only Temporary in the time while Joshua was dividing the Land lest the being so long about it there might be a confusion 2. That Christ was the Son of Joseph is most exactly true For though he was the Son of God yet with the Jews if any Man kept a Child and brought him up and call'd him Son he was taken for his Son and his Land if he had any was to descend upon him and therefore the Genealogy of Joseph is justly set down Gentlemen 1. What a Gentleman is 't is hard with us to define in other Countries he is known by his Priviledges in Westminster-Hall he is one that is reputed one in the Court of Honour he that hath Arms. The King cannot make a Gentleman of Blood what have you said nor God Almighty but he can make a Gentleman by Creation If you ask which is the better of these two Civilly the Gentleman of Blood Morally the Gentleman by Creation may be the better for the other may be a Debauch'd Man this a Person of Worth 2. Gentlemen have ever been more Temperate in their Religion than the common People as having more Reason the others running in a hurry In the beginning of Christianity the Fathers writ Contra gentes and Contra Gentiles they were all one But after all were Christians the beter sort of People still retain'd the Name of Gentiles throughout the four Provinces of the Roman Empire as Gentil-hommel in French Gentil homo in Italian Gentil-huombre in Spanish and Gentil-man in English And they no question being Persons of Quality kept up those Feasts which we borrow from the Gentils as Christmas Candlemas May-day c. continuing what was not directly against Christianity which the common People would never have endured Gold 1. THere are two Reasons why these Words Jesus autem transiens per medium eorum ibat were about our old Gold the one is because Riply the Alchymist when he made Gold in the Tower the first time he found it he spoke these Words per medium eorum that is per medium Ignis Sulphuris The other because these Words were thought to be a Charm and that they did bind whatsoever they were written upon so that a Man could not take it away To this Reason I rather incline Hall 1. THE Hall was the Place where the great Lord us'd to eat wherefore else were the Halls made so big Where he saw all his Servants and Tenants about him He eat not in private except in time of Sickness when once he became a thing Coop'd up all his greatness was spoil'd Nay the King himself used to eat in the Hall and his Lords sate with him and then he understood Men. Hell 1. THere are two Texts for Christ's descending into Hell The one Psal. 16. The other Acts the 2d where the Bible that was in use when the Thirty Nine Articles were made has it Hell But the Bible that was in Queen Elizabeth's time when the Articles were confirm'd reads it Grave and so it continued till the new Translation in King Jame's time and then 't is Hell again But by this we may gather the Church of England declin'd as much as they could the descent otherwise they never would have alter'd the Bible 2. He descended into Hell this may be the Interpretation of it He may be dead and buried then his Soul ascended into Heaven Afterwards he descended again into Hell that is into the Grave to fetch his Body and to rise again The Ground of this Interpretation is taken from the Platonick Learning who held a Metampsychosis and when a Soul did descend from Heaven to take another Body they call'd it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the lower World the State of Mortality Now the first Christians many of them were Platonick Philosophers and no question spake such Language as was then understood amongst them To understand by Hell the Grave is no Tautology because the Creed first tells what Christ suffered He was Crucified Dead and Buried then it tells us what he did He descended into Hell the third day he rose again he ascended c. Holy-Days 1. THey say the Church imposes Holy-Days there 's no such thing tho' the Number of Holy-days is set down in some of our Common-Prayer Books Yet that has relation to an Act of Parliament which forbids the keeping of any Holy-Days in time of Popery but those that are kept are kept by the Custom of the Country and I hope you will not say the Church imposes that Humility 1. HUmility is a Vertue all preach none practise and yet every body is content to hear The Master thinks it good Doctrine for his Servant the Laity for the Clergy and the Clergy for the Laity 2. There is Humilitas quaedam in Vitio If a Man does not take notice of that Excellency and Perfection that is in himself how can he be thankful to God who is the Author of all Excellency and Perfection Nay if a Man hath too mean an Opinion of himself 't will render him unserviceable both to God and Man 3. Pride may be allow'd to this or that degree else a Man cannot keep up his Dignity In Gluttony there must be Eating in Drunkenness there must be drinking
and both are Humane For Example suppose the Word Egg were in the Text I say 't is meant an Hen-Egg you say a Goose-Egg neither of these are exprest therefore they are Humane Inventions and I am sure the newer the Invention the worse old Inventions are best 2. If we must admit nothing but what we read in the Bible what will become of the Parliament for we do not read of that there Iudgments 1. WE cannot tell what is a Judgment of God 't is presumption to take upon us to know In time of Plague we know we want Health and therefore we pray to God to give us Health in time of War we know we want Peace and therefore we pray to God to give us Peace Commonly we say a Judgment falls upon a Man for something in him we cannot abide An Example we have in King James concerning the Death of Henry the Fourth of France one said he was kill'd for his Wenching another said he was kill'd for turning his Religion No says King James who could not abide fighting he was kill'd for permitting Duels in his Kingdom Judge 1. WE see the Pageants in Cheapside the Lions and the Elephants but we do not see the Men that carry them we see the Judges look big look like Lions but we do not see who moves them 2. Little things do great works when the great things will not If I should take a Pin from the Ground a little pair of Tongues will do it when a great Pair will not Go to a Judge to do a Business for you by no means he will not hear of it but go to some small Servant about him and he will dispatch it according to your hearts desire 3. There could be no Mischief in the Common-Wealth without a Judge Tho' there be false Dice brought in at the Groom-Porters and cheating offer'd yet unless he allow the Cheating and judge the Dice to be good there may be hopes of fair Play Juggling 1. 'T IS not Juggling that is to be blam'd but much Juggling for the World cannot be Govern'd without it All your Rhetorick and all your Elench's in Logick come within the compass of Juggling Jurisdiction 1. THere 's no such Thing as Spiritual Jurisdiction all is Civil the Churche's is the same with the Lord Mayors Suppose a Christian came into a Pagan Country how can you fancy he shall have any Power there he finds faults with the Gods of the Country well they will put him to Death for it when he is a Martyr what follows Does that argue he has any spiritual Jurisdiction If the Clergy say the Church ought to be govern'd thus and thus by the Word of God that is Doctrine all that is not Discipline 2. The Pope he challenges Jurisdiction over all the Bishops they pretend to it as well as he the Presbyterians they would have it to themselves but over whom is all this the poor Laymen Jus Divinum 1. ALL things are held by Jus Divinum either immediately or mediately 2. Nothing has lost the Pope so much in his Supremacy as not acknowledging what Princes gave him 'T is a scorn upon the Civil Power and an unthankfulness in the Priest But the Church runs to Jus divinum lest if they should acknowledge what they have by positive Law it might be as well taken from them as given to them King 1. A King is a thing Men have made for their own Sakes for quietness-sake Just as in a Family one Man is appointed to buy the Meat if every Man should buy what the other lik'd not or what the other had bought before so there would be a confusion But that Charge being committed to one he according to his Discretion pleases all if they have not what they would have one day they shall have it the next or something as good 2. The word King directs our Eyes suppose it had been Consul or Dictator to think all Kings alike is the same folly as if a Consul of Aleppo or Smyrna should claim to himself the same Power that a Consul at Rome What am not I a Consul or a Duke of England should think himself like the Duke of Florence nor can it be imagin'd that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did signifie the same in Greek as the Hebrew Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did with the Jews Besides let the Divines in their Pulpits say what they will they in their practice deny that all is the Kings They sue him and so does all the Nation whereof they are a part What matter is it then what they Preach or Teach in the Schools 3. Kings are all individual this or that King there is no Species of Kings 4. A King that claims Priviledges in his own Country because they have them in another is just as a Cook that claims Fees in one Lord's House because they are allowed in another If the Master of the House will yield them well and good 5. The Text Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's makes as much against Kings as for them for it says plainly that some things are not Caesars But Divines make choice of it first in Flattery and then because of the other part adjoyn'd to it Render unto God the things that are Gods where they bring in the Church 6. A King outed of his Country that takes as much upon him as he did at home in his own Court is as if a Man on high and I being upon the Ground us'd to lift up my voice to him that he might hear me at length should come down and then expects I should speak as loud to him as I did before King of England 1. THE King can do no wrong that is no Process can be granted against him What must be done then Petition him and the King writes upon the Petition soit droit fait and sends it to the Chancery and then the business is heard His Confessor will not tell him he can do no wrong 2. There 's a great deal of difference between Head of the Church and Supream Governour as our Canons call the King Conceive it thus there is in the Kingdom of England a Colledge of Physicians the King is Supream Governour of those but not Head of them nor President of the Colledge nor the best Physician 3. After the Dissolution of Abbies they did not much advance the King's Supremacy for they only car'd to exclude the Pope hence have we had several Translations of the Bible upon us But now we must look to it otherwise the King may put upon us what Religion he pleases 4. 'T was the old way when the King of England had his House there were Canons to sing Service in his Chappel so at Westminster in St. Stephen's Chappel where the House of Commons sits from which Canons the Street call'd Canon-row has its Name because they liv'd there and he had also the Abbot and his Monks and all these the King's House 5. The
three Estates are the Lord 's Temporal the Bishops are the Clergy and the Commons as some would have it take heed of that for then if two agree the third is involv'd but he is King of the Three Estates 6. The King hath a Seal in every Court and tho the Great Seal be called Sigillum Angliae the Great Seal of England yet 't is not because 't is the Kingdom 's Seal and not the Kings but to distinguish it from Sigillum Hiberniae Sigillum Scotiae 7. The Court of England is much alter'd At a solemn Dancing first you had the grave Measures then the Corrantoes and the Galliards and this is kept up with Ceremony at length to French-more and the Cushion-Dance and then all the Company dances Lord and Groom Lady and Kitchen-Maid no Distinction So in our Court in Queen Elizabeth's time Gravity and State were kept up In King Jame's time things were pretty well But in King Charles's time there has been nothing but French-more and the Cushion-Dance omnium gatherum tolly polly hoite come toite The King 1. 'T IS hard to make an Accomodation between the King and the Parliament If you and I fell out about Money you said I ow'd you Twenty Pounds I said I ow'd you but Ten Pounds it may be a third Party allowing me twenty Marks might make us Friends But if I said I ow'd you twenty Pounds in Silver and you said I ow'd you twenty Pounds in Diamonds which is a Summ innumerable 't is impossible we should ever agree This is the Case 2. The King using the House of Commons as he did in Mr. Pymm and his Company that is charging them with Treason because they charg'd my Lord of Canterbury and Sir George Ratcliff it was just with as much Logick as the Boy that would have lain with his Grandmother us'd to his Father you lay with my Mother why should not I lie with yours 3. There is not the same Reason for the King 's accusing Men of Treason and carrying them away as there is for the Houses themselves because they accuse one of themselves For every one that is accused is either a Peer or a Commoner and he that is accused hath his Consent going along with him but if the King accuses there is nothing of this in it 4. The King is equally abus'd now as before then they flatter'd him and made him do ill Things now they would force him against his Conscience If a Physician should tell me every thing I had a mind to was good for me tho' in truth 't was Poison he abus'd me and he abuses me as much that would force me to take something whether I will or no. 5. The King so long as he is our King may do with his Officers what he pleases as the Master of the House may turn away all his Servants and take whom he please 6. The King's Oath is not security enough for our Property for he swears to Govern according to Law now the Judges they interpret the Law and what Judges can be made to do we know 7. The King and the Parliament now falling out are just as when there is foul Play offer'd amongst Gamesters one snatches the others stake they seize what they can of one anothers 'T is not to be ask'd whether it belongs not to the King to do this or that before when there was fair Play it did But now they will do what is most convenient for their own safety If two fall to scuffling one tears the others Band the other tears his when they were Friends they were quiet and did no such thing they let one anothers Bands alone 8. The King calling his Friends from the Parliament because he had use of them at Oxford is as if a Man should have use of a little piece of Wood and he runs down into the Cellar and takes the Spiggot in the mean time all the Beer runs about the House when his Friends are absent the King will be lost Knights Service 1. KNights Service in earnest means nothing for the Lords are bound to wait upon the King when he goes to War with a Foreign Enemy with it may be one Man and one Horse and he that doth not is to be rated so much as shall seem good to the next Parliament And what will that be So 't is for a private Man that holds of a Gentleman Land 1. WHen Men did let their Land underfoot the Tenants would fight for their Landlords so that way they had their Retribution but now they will do nothing for them may be the first if but a Constable bid them that shall lay the Landlord by the Heels and therefore 't is vanity and folly not to take the full value 2. Allodium is a Law Word contrary to Feudum and it signifies Land that holds of no body We have no such Land in England 'T is a true Proposition all the Land in England is held either immediately or mediately of the King Language 1. TO a living Tongue new Words may be added but not to a dead Tongue as Latin Greek Hebrew c. 2. Latimer is the Corruption of Latiner it signifies he that interprets Latin and though he interpreted French Spanish or Italian he was call'd the King's Latiner that is the King's Interpreter 3. If you look upon the Language spoken in the Saxon Time and the Language spoken now you will find the Difference to be just as if a Man had a Cloak that he wore plain in Queen Elizabeth's Days and since here has put in a piece of Red and there a piece of Blue and here a piece of Green and there a piece of Orange-tawny We borrow Words from the French Italian Latin as every Pedantick Man pleases 4. We have more Words than Notions half a Dozen Words for the same thing Sometimes we put a new signification to an old Word as when we call a Piece a Gun The Word Gun was in use in England for an Engine to cast a thing from a Man long before there was any Gun-powder found out 5. Words must be fitted to a Man's Mouth 't was well said of the Fellow that was to make a Speech for my Lord Mayor he desir'd to take measure of his Lordship's Mouth Law 1. A Man may plead not guilty and yet tell no Lye for by the Law no Man is bound to accuse himself so that when I say Not Guilty the meaning is as if I should say by way of Paraphrase I am not so Guilty as to tell you if you will bring me to a Tryal and have me punish'd for this you lay to my Charge prove it against me 2. Ignorance of the Law excuses no man not that all Men know the Law but because 't is an excuse every Man will plead and no Man can tell how to confute him 3. The King of Spain was outlaw'd in Westminster-Hall I being of Council against him A Merchant had recover'd Costs against him in a
to command that is where he must be obeyed so is every Supream Power and Prince They that stretch his Infallibility further do they know not what 5. When a Protestant and a Papish dispute they talk like two Mad-men because they do not agree upon their Principles the one way is to destroy the Pope's Power for if he hath Power to command me 't is not my alledging Reasons to the contrary can keep me from obeying For Example if a Constable command me to wear a green Suit to Morrow and has Power to make me 't is not my alledging a hundred Reasons of the Folly of it can excuse me from doing it 6. There was a Time when the Pope had Power here in England and there was excellent Use made of it for 't was only to serve Turns as might be manifested out of the Records of the Kingdom which Divines know little of If the King did not like what the Pope would have he would forbid the Pope's Legate to land upon his Ground So that the Power was truly then in the King though suffered in the Pope But now the Temporal and the Spiritual Power Spiritual so call'd because ordain'd to a Spiritual End spring both from one Fountain they are like to twist that 7. The Protestants in France bear Office in the State because though their Religion be different yet they acknowledge no other King but the King of France The Papists in England they must have a King of their own a Pope that must do something in our Kingdom therefore there is no reason they should enjoy the same Priviledges 8. Amsterdam admits of all Religions but Papists and 't is upon the same Account The Papists where e'er they live have another King at Rome all other Religions are subject to the present State and have no Prince else-where 9. The Papists call our Religion a Parliamentary Religion but there was once I am sure a Parliamentary Pope Pope Urban was made Pope in England by Act of Parliament against Pope Clement The Act is not in the Book of Statutes either because he that compiled the Book would not have the Name of the Pope there or else he would not let it appear that they medled with any such thing but 't is upon the Rolls 10. When our Clergy preach against the Pope and the Church of Rome they preach against themselves and crying down their Pride their Power and their Riches have made themselves Poor and Contemptible enough they dedicate first to please their Prince not considering what would follow Just as if a Man were to go a Journey and seeing at his first setting out the Way clean and fair ventures forth in his Slippers not considering the Dirt and the Sloughs are a little further off or how suddenly the Weather may change Popery 1. THE demanding a Noble for a dead body passing through a a Town came from hence in time of Popery they carried the dead Body into the Church where the Priest said Dirgies and twenty Dirgies at four Pence a piece comes to a Noble but now it is forbidden by an Order from my Lord Marshal the Heralds carry his Warrant about them 2. We charge the Prelatical Clergy with Popery to make them odious tho' we know they are guilty of no such thing Just as heretofore they call'd Images Mammets and the Adoration of Images Mammetry that is Mahomet and Mahometry odious Names when all the World knows the Turks are forbidden Images by their Religion Power State 1. THere is no stretching of Power 't is a good Rule Eat within your Stomach Act within your Commission 2. They that govern most make least Noise You see when they row in a Barge they that do drudgery-work slash and puff and sweat but he that governs sits quietly at the Stern and scarce is seen to stir 3. Syllables govern the World 4. All Power is of God means no more than Fides est servanda When St. Paul said this the People had made Nero Emperour They agree he to command they to obey Then Gods comes in and casts a hook upon them keep your Faith then comes in all Power is of God Never King dropt out of the Clouds God did not make a new Emperour as the King makes a Justice of Peace 5. Christ himself was a great observer of the Civil Power and did many things only justifiable because the State requir'd it which were things meerly Temporary for the time that State stood But Divines make use of them to gain Power to themselves as for Example that of Die Ecclesiae tell the Church there was then a Sanhedrim a Court to tell it to and therefore they would have it so now 6. Divines ought to do no more than what the State permits Before the State became Christian they made their own Laws and those that did not observe them they Excommunicated naughty men they suffered them to come no more amongst them But if they would come amongst them how could they hinder them By what Law by what Power they were still subject to the State which was Heathen Nothing better expresses the Condition of Christians in those times than one of the meetings you have in London of Men of the same Country of Sussex-Men or Bedfordshire-Men they appoint their Meeting and they agree and make Laws amongst themselves He that is not there shall pay double c. and if any one mis-behave himself they shut him out of their Company But can they recover a Forfeiture made concerning their Meeting by any Law Have they any power to compel one to pay but afterwards when the State became Christian all the Power was in them and they gave the Church as much or as little as they pleas'd and took away when they pleas'd and added what they pleas'd 7. The Church is not only subject to the Civil Power with us that are Protestants but also in Spain if the Church does Excommunicate a Man for what it should not the Civil Power will take him out of their Hands So in France the Bishop of Angiers alter'd something in the Breviary they complain'd to the Parliament at Paris that made him alter it again with a comme abuse 8. the Parliament of England has no Arbitrary Power in point of Judicature but in point of making Law only 9. If the Prince be servus natura of a servile base Spirit and the Subjects liberi Free and Ingenuous oft-times they depose their Prince and govern themselves On the contrary if the People be Servi Natura and some one amongst them of a Free and Ingenuous Spirit he makes himself King of the rest and this is the Cause of all changes in State Common-wealths into Monarchies and Monarchies into Common-wealths 10. In a troubled State we must do as in foul Weather upon the Thames not think to cut directly through so the Boat may be quickly full of Water but rise and fall as the Waves do give as much as conveniently we can
fain see that Man that durst tell me there 's any thing I understand not 3. When the Pageants are a coming there 's a great thrusting and a riding upon one another's Backs to look out at the Window stay a little and they will come just to you you may see them quietly So 't is when a new States-man or Officer is chosen there 's great expectation and listning who it should be stay a while and you may know quietly 4. Missing Preferment makes the Presbyters fall foul upon the Bishops Men that are in hopes and in the way of rising keep in the Channel but they that have none seek new ways 'T is so amongst the Lawyers he that hath the Judges Ear will be very observant of the way of the Court but he that hath no regard will be flying out 5. My Lord Digby having spoken something in the House of Commons for which they would have question'd him was presently called to the upper House He did by the Parliament as an Ape when he hath done some waggery his Master spies him and he looks for his Whip but before he can come at him whip says he to the top of the House 6. Some of the Parliament were discontented that they wanted places at Court which others had got but when they had them once then they were quiet Just as at a Christning some that get no Sugar Plums when the rest have mutter and grumble presently the Wench comes again with her Basket of Sugar-plums and then they catch and scramble and when they have got them you hear no more of them Praemunire 1. THere can be no Praemunire A Praemunire so call'd from the word Praemunire facias was when a Man laid an Action in an Ecclesiastical Court for which he could have no remedy in any of the King's Courts that is in the Courts of Common Law by reason the Ecclesiastical Courts before Henry the Eighth were subordinate to the Pope and so it was contra coronam dignitatem Regis but now the Ecclesiastical Courts are equally subordinate to the King Therefore it cannot be contra coronam dignitatem Regis and so no Praemunire Prerogative 1. PRerogative is something that can be told what it is not something that has no Name Just as you see the Archbishop has his Prerogative Court but we know what is done in that Court So the King's Prerogative is not his will or what Divines make it a power to do what he lists 2. The King's Prerogative that is the King's Law For example if you ask whether a Patron may present to a Living after six Months by Law I answer no. If you ask whether the King may I answer he may by his Prerogative that is by the Law that concerns him in that case Presbytery 1. THey that would bring in a new Government would very fain perswade us they meet it in Antiquity thus they interpret Presbyters when they meet the word in the Fathers Other professions likewise pretend to Antiquity The Alchymist will find his Art in Virgil's Aureus ramus and he that delights in Opticks will find them in Tacitus When Caesar came into England they would perswade us they had Perspective-Glasses by which he could discover what they were doing upon the Land because it is said Positis Speculis the meaning is His Watch or his Sentinel discover'd this and this unto him 2. Presbyters have the greatest power of any Clergy in the World and gull the Laity most For Example admit there be twelve Laymen to six Presbyters the six shall govern the rest as they please First because they are constant and the others come in like Church-Wardens in their turns which is an huge Advantage Men will give way to them who have been in place before them Next the Laymen have other professions to follow the Presbyters make it their sole Business and besides too they learn and study the Art of perswading some of Geneva have confess'd as much 3. The Presbyter with his Elders about him is like a young Tree fenc'd about with two or three or four Stakes the Stakes defend it and hold it up but the Tree only prospers and flourishes it may be some Willow Stake may bear a Leaf or two but it comes to nothing Lay-Elders are Stakes the Presbyter the Tree that flourshes 4. When the Queries were sent to the Assembly concerning the Jus Divinum of Presbytery their asking time to answer them was a Satyr upon themselves For if it were to be seen in the Text they might quickly turn to the place and shew us it Their delaying to answer makes us think there 's no such thing there They do just as you have seen a fellow do at a Tavern Reckoning when he should come to pay his Reckoning he puts his Hands into his Pockets and keeps a grabling and a fumbling and shaking at last tells you he has left his Money at home when all the Company knew at first he had no Money there for every Man can quickly find his own Money Priests of Rome 1. THE Reason of the Statute against Priests was this In the beginning of Queen Elizabeth there was a Statute made that he that drew Men from their civil Obedience was a Traitor It happen'd this was done in privacies and confessions when there could be no proof therefore they made another Act that for a Priest to be in England was Treason because they presum'd that was his business to fetch Men off from their Obedience 2. When Queen Elizabeth dy'd and King James came in an Irish Priest does thus express it Elizabetha in orcum detrusa successit Jacobus alter Haereticus You will ask why they did use such Language in their Church Answ. Why does the Nurse tell the Child of raw Head and bloody Bones to keep it in awe 3. The Queen Mother and Count Rosset are to the Priests and Jesuits like the Honey Pot to the Flies 4. The Priests of Rome aim but at two Things to get Power from the King and Money from the Subject 5. When the Priests come into a Family they do as a Man that would set fire on a House he does not put fire to the Brick-Wall but thrusts it into the Thatch They work upon the Women and let the Men alone 6. For a Priest to turn a Man when he lies a dying is just like one that hath a long time solicited a Woman and cannot obtain his end at length makes her drunk and so lies with her Prophecies 1. DReams and Prophecies do thus much good they make a Man go on with boldness and courage upon a Danger or a Mistress if he obtains he attributes much to them if he miscarries he thinks no more of them or is no more thought of himself Proverbs 1. THE Proverbs of several Nations were much studied by Bishop Andrews and the Reason he gave was Because by them he knew the Minds of several Nations which is a brave thing as we count him