Authority of Ecclesiastical-Courts can or does consist or subsist or who gave them the Authority they pretend to not the Pope as of Old not the Common-Law I am sure nor can possibly the Canon-Law or Statute-Law 13. Grant they have Authority It is but in Three or Four particulars Causes Testamentary Matrimonial Tythes and for neglecting to come to Divine-Service by 1 Eliz. 2. or at most but those Ten Things in 5. Eliz. 23. de excommunicato capiendo enumerated what 's this to justify their great extortions in Probates of wills and Administrations and their illegal Proving the same and keeping Men's Wills contrary to that Statute What 's this to Justify the Force of any Canons at this Day Or who made them Laws of England without a Parliament What 's this to Justify the Pilling and Polling the Church-wardens and the inferior Clergy by Procurations Articles of Visitation Oaths Arbitrarily imposed upon them both for Canonical Obedience What 's all this to their great Business in Visitations and Court-keeping namely The Money-Business And lastly what a shamefull thing it is to Impose upon the consciences of the Clergy an c Oath of canonical obedience condemn'd by Act of Parliament in condemning the canons of 1640. in 13 car 2.12 What Insolence for a Bishop to commend the observation of those Canons which the King and Parliament have condemn'd by Statute Quer. What punishment do such Incurr and for Imposing Oaths upon Church-Wardens to enquire into the breach of such late Canon's which cannot be possibly the Laws of England if made since the dayes of King Henry the 8th Their shamefull and illegal extortions are a Thousand times more sufferable and pardonable than these Arbitrary Impositions of Oaths to torture and rack men's conscienees if not to precipitate them into Purjury nay except God be more mercifull than they eternal damnation making men swear Stare mandatis Ecclesiae to obey the commands of the Church and to obey his Majesties Laws Ecclesiastical when it is not defined what or where these Ecclesiastical Laws are the wisest of them all will not cannot dare not tell nor determine I 'le bid this Arch Deacon farewell with the same complement he passes upon Mr. Hickeringil in his last words bidding him not be wiser than the Law If this D. D. had not been wiser than the Law he had not writ such a thin discourse and yet face it with a Bulky and Imbost-Title stiling it Leges Angliae If the Spiritual Court keepers were not wiser than the Law they would first prove their Courts Legal their Canons Legal their Fees Legal their Extortions and Impositions of Oaths upon the consciences of the King's Subjects Legal Nor write I this to weaken their Authority but that it may if it seem good to the King and Parliament prove Instrumental to give them a just Authority and a true face of Power and also limit their Exorbitances There 's no wise man nor good man that favours Anarchy The Kings Throne which God long preserve is establish't by Justice and Law and 't is the Peoples Happiness to be governed and guided by honest Laws not Arbitrary Canons Impositions and Methods but such as are of the right English Make and Temper enacted by King and Parliament And I dare justify That there is nothing in the Naked-Truth but what is good for the Clergy as well as the Laity if they will lay aside Prejudice and Pertinacy Pride and Covetousness Finally for I am heartily weary of the Company of this same Totnes-Arch-Deacon and with conversing thus long with such an impertinent D. D. that has not his fellow among them all for Insolence and Impudence in defaming and belying a Gentleman he never saw nor knows any harm by except perhaps from malice that never speaks well and seldom speaks true or from fame which was a lyar of old and long before ever there was an Arch-Deacon heard of in Christendom And now at length to make Mr. Hickeringil the Common odium nothing will serve but to make him a Papist a Hobbist c. when all his Enemies that know him have not effrontery to deny but that he has more Loyalty than to be a Papist more Conscience than to be a Simonist though an Arch-Deaconry of Totnes might be put into the bargain and Seal more Honour and Ingenuity than to be a Parasite more Reason than to be an Atheist more Religion than to be an Hobbist and more Honesty and Plain-dealing than to be Well-Beloved in a Dissembling Age of Sycophantry But after all this bespattering Language how inhumane it is in an Arch-Deacon and a D. D. so unmercifully to attacque Mr. Hickeringill with Pun and quibble a persecution beyond the plague of Barbers in an Itchy endeavour to be witty forsooth in despite of Nature and his Stars who have all entred sufficient Caveats against it Then for the Serious part if there be such a part in his Idle Pamphlet Is it not Quixolisme beyond the relief of Hellebore to stile his Insignificant babling Leges Angliae Make Bonefires of your Cook your Littleton your Crook Dyer Statute-Books and Common Law-Books for behold here in thrifty Querpo Leges Angliae the Laws of England price 8 d. Nor less madness is it in him or more Idle vapour than to appear thus publiquely upon the Stage as the chavalier or champion of Mother-Church in answer to Mr. Hickeringil's Naked-Truth when he only tickles over the Skirts of the business and sayes not one word in answer to the main drift and design of the Naked-Truth namely in answer or vindication of the Canons Authority to keep Eclesiastical Courts or to impose Oaths of Canonical Obedience upon the Clergy or to impose Oaths upon the Church-Wardens nor one word does he say to vindicate their unjust and unconscionable Impositions and Extortions upon the Clergy in Procurations Institutions Licenses to Preach Ordinations Inductions Sinodals Visitations c. and yet most Impudently stiles his Book An Answer to Mr. Hickeringill c. Nor does that Statute 25. Hen. 8. give any Authority to Arch-Bishops or Bishops to keep Ecclesiastical courts or jurisdiction except such as was then practis'd when the Statute was made namely Popish Courts Popish Articles of Visitation Popish Habits and Palls and to be worn by Popish Arch-Bishops and Bishops But we have none now You know Hen. 8. that made that statute liv'd and dy'd a papist as aforesaid But what is that Statute however to justify your Arch-Deacon's Courts that Spiritual creature is not Nam'd in 25. Hen. 8. Well come Mr. Arch-Deacon Friends must part I 'le even bid you far-well and shake hands with you in hopes never to meet with you again but because I am in your debt for that witless Quible Hobby War-Hawk I 'le pay you Quid Pro Quo in the same coyne namely an Anagram for your Pun and Quibble nay an Anagram as Silly if possible as your Quible War-Hawk Fra-Fulwood Anagram War-dul-Fool THus has it cost me some pains the Labour of Six dayes not Seven dayes I protest to answer the Six Months Abortive Throwes of a sibling quibbling fribling fumbling Arch-Deacon And 't is enough at least as much as is needful and more than I could well afford upon so despicable an Opponent besides a subtle Anagram franckly vouchfaf't to him and ex abundanti liberally thrown and given him into the bargain To teach his costive-wit more Sobriety than to attacque the Naked-Truth only with Impertinencies and Pun and Quibble In his next attempt when peradventure he makes a second adventure Which not I so much as the the Booksellers greedily expect from him or rather some more modest more solid and better accounted champion of the Kirk's But enough I say at present not only because I am in haste and have other more Important affairs in hand than to spend much time with such a Scribling D. D. but chiefly because the Naked-Truth is Luscious too much at a time is apt to Glut and Nauseate to eat much Honey is not good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Husband-Man with wary Hand Not with whole Sack-fulls Sowes the Land But Thriftily contrives his Gain By Handfuls Husbanding the Grain FINIS London Printed for R. Janèway in Queens-Head Alley in Pater-Noster-Row
A VINDICATION OF The Naked Truth THE SECOND PART AGAINST THE TRIVIAL OBJECTIONS and EXCEPTIONS Of one FULLWOOD Stiling himself D. D. Archdeacon of Totnes in Devonshire IN A LIBELLING PAMPHLET WITH A BULKY and IMBOSS'D TITLE Calling it LEGES ANGLIAE Or The LAWFULNESS of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction IN The Church of England IN Answer to Mr. Hickeringill's Naked Truth the Second Part. By PHIL. HICKERINGILL LONDON Printed for Richard Janeway in Queens-bead-Alley in Pater-noster Row 1681. THE EPISTLE TO THE READERS IN the dayes of Solomon it was certainly true That of making many Books there is no end Eccles 12.12 what is it then in our dayes and since this Germane Engine and Invention of Printing is now so much Improv'd and Misimprov'd Books seeming to engender one another like those Genets of Spain the Offspring of every windy and Hypochondrick Vapour I that love my Pleasure and mine Ease so much would now for ever take my leave and last Farewell of the Press if I could with a safe Conscience connive at the Insolence and empty windy Vapours of this Huffing man whose flatulent Bluster has Begot or rather Ravish'd from me this following Answer and just Reproof To say nothing of his Insufferable and vainglorious Petulancy in styling his Railing Libel Leges Angliae The Laws of England too bulky to be compriz'd in his little Noddle and little Scribble I know full well that this Vindication is needless to all Considering and Understanding men who have already nauseated the Trifling entertainment found in the Archdeacons Pamphlet The Frustration being so much the more enhanc'd by the Promises and idle Invitations of the specious Frontispiece and staring Title Leges Angliae of his thin futile and cobweb Contextures and Composures and they will certainly judge this Vindication as unnecessary as unworthy any solid Pen But all men are not Criticks though his Mistakes are obvious and thick enough And doubtless He will miss of his End and Aim in every thing but one namely of thinking thus to be taken notice of for daring with such decrepid force to grapple with the Naked Truth Thus purchasing indeed a Name and Fame but with such Infamy as makes him a Scandal even to Archdeacons and to all the D. D's of his little way A Vindication of the NAKED-TRVTH The Second Part In Answer to a Libell called Leges Angliae or the Lawfulness of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Church of England NO man who has read the Book called the Naked Truth the 2d part and compared it with the pretended answer of Mr. Fullwood can imagine that ever the Gentleman read the Book which he threatens to Answer For many of the main Passages therein he touches not at all nay against the numerous and pregnant Testimonies from undoubted Law-Books Civil Cannon Common and Statute Laws Equity Reason and Conscience against Procurations Sequestrations Synodals and Visitations c. To Vindicate the lawfulness whereof above all other things it behov'd an Archdeacon to bestirr himself to make Answer unto he produces not one Reason or Argument except the Statute of 15 Hen. 8. C. 7. which is only for Synodals and Proxies to be granted from dissolved-Monastries and not one word therein to vouch that unconscionable bougling of the richer Dignitories in preying upon the poor Vicars and Rectors and the Inferiour Clergy and going snipps with them in all the Benefits in the Kingdom shearing the Fleece of every flock though they mind not at all the cure thereof And for which they are smartly enough Chastiz'd in Naked Truth Quaer 3d. But I 'le do him right and not o'reslip the least Tittle of his Arguments which I wish were stronger nor do I contend for Victory but for Truth I am oblieged to Track his Methods and must therefore begin with the Frontispiece a stately but most unproportionable Porch to such a Crazy and rotten Fabrick that only stands upon Crotches and Crotchets and if it were not for the little Sentences of Greek and Latine to unriddle the Hieroglyphick it would be as Dark Mysterious and Unintelligible as was of Old Those of the Aegytians or as the Primitive painting whose Pens were glad to Surrogate to their Pencels and write This is a Cock and This a Bull. At the Base of his Cathedral lyes a Wench in black or Mourning Apparel with a Cross upon her He makes her weep too and make a face as if she had lost her Maidenhead her Purity her Virginity and what would Disconsolate say if it could speak For my part I 'le have nothing to do with her for he cannot with any face make her to lye there as a Purtraiture of the present Church of England for In nomine Domini In the name of goodness what would those D. Ds. and Archds. be at Have they not all the Sway Power Dominion Honours Mannors and Preferments in the greatest Courts and Councels of the Nation Surely they will be asham'd to put singer in the eye and cry In the name of God I say what would these men be at what would they have And what do they want to keep a wawling and weeping and wailing what never satisfied never glutted The Papists indeed are crost of their Plots blessed be God but the Prelates have as yet no Cross upon them therefore I 'le not offer to guess what Mother he means that lyes weeping there under the Cross nor do I care I am sure she is none of my Mother be she what she will Upon the Pinacle of this Church of England sits a Pelican most kindly pecking and piercing her Breast to suckle her young with her dear hearts Blood and he makes her speak Latine too Proprio vos sanguine Posco Whereby he seems to Insinuate that this kind Pelican his Prelatical little Church has nourisht Mr. Hickeringill with her dearest and most precious Treasures her very Hearts-blood such he takes her best Preferments to be and indeed some men had as leeve part with their heart-blood as their flush Ecclesiastical Promotions calling him in his Epistle to the Reader A Divine of the Church of England who hath also a share in her Government And yet this He this ungrateful He that has suckt her very Heart-blood and got her nearest and dearest blessings she having taken him up on to the Bench and given him a share in her Government for him thus now to flye in her face nay most ungratefully and slovenly to spue up and nauseate all this Heart-blood those dear dear Procurations Synodals Visitations c. dear as the very heart-blood and to throw them up nay at the face of this kind Pelican Oh temporibus Moribus By all these Emblems I now perceive that this same Archdeacon knows not Mr. Hickeringill no more then he is willing to understand his Book for the Mother he speaks of has been always a Step-mother to the Author of the Naked Truth and he never had any thing of her but Frowns and Blows at best but a
to let his Majesty into the Church but he will not trust him wich the Keys as who should say we will open the Church doors to your Majesty and come in and welcome whilst we continue good friends But they that keep the Keys and can open the Church-doors to let his Majesty in can also whilst they have the keeping of the Keys upon displeasure lock him out well for this very trick and for another late Scotch trick If I were a Privy-Councellour I would advise his Majesty as Head of the Church and Governour thereof to keep the Keys of the Church in his Pocket or hang them under his Girdle if it be but because this Prelatical Champion this same pittiful Archdeacon like another Pope or St. Peter will keep the Keys of the Church and will keep his Majesty from them and would fain perswade him that our Laws to use his words p. 2. of the Proeme Exclude this purely Spiritual power of the Keys from the Supremacy of our Kings except it be to see that Spiritual men do their duty therein Belike this same Archdeacon carries the Leges Angliae the Laws of England in his belly and greedy gut for I am sure he carries them there or no where he carries not these bulky Laws of England in his Brains he has no Guts in his Brains For I pray good D.D. where does our Laws exclude this purely Spiritual power of the Keys from the Supremacy of our Kings if our Kings like good King David or wise King Solomon should have a mind to be Ecclesiastes In the days even of Popery I never heard of a King shut out even from the Topping-Pulpit if he had a mind to climb so high stout King Henry the 3d. made bold to Invade the Pulpit took his Text Psal 85.10 Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other and then in his Sermon ad Clerum to the Learned Monks of the Cathedral Church of Winchester when he had a little self-end too as some Pulpiters have also had in the case namely to Cajole the said Monks to Elect his Brother Athelmar Bishop of Winchester Bak. Chron. p. 82. Paraphrasing and enlarging upon his Text and saying to use his own words To me and other Kings who are to govern the people belongs the rigour of judgement and Justice to you who are men of quiet and Religion Peace and Tranquillity And this day I hear you have for your own good been favourable to my request with many such like words I do not know whether the King had got a License to Preach from a Bishop It seems the Clergy then too would favour Kings in what was for their own good and if it were for their own good would also permit the King to take a Text and Preach in their Cathedral-Church how hard-hearted or strait-lac't soever our Archdeacon proves and will not suffer our Kings to have the Keys neither of the Church nor Pulpit I say therefore some Kings would therefore keep the Keys of the Church themselves and trust never a D. D. of you all with them no not the Pope himself But what if I prove that our Kings at their Corronations have at the same time been ordain'd Clergymen they are no more excluded then by our Laws from the power of the Keys then Mr. Archdeacon or the Pope himself What is Ordination but the ordering designing or setting a Man a part to some office if to the Ministry then there are certain significant Words to that purpose and what more significant Words for Ordination to the Priesthood or making a Man a Clergyman then those the Bishop uses to our Kings namely with Unction Anthems Prayers and Imposition of hands as is usual in the ordination of Priests with the same Hymn Come Holy Ghost Eternal God c. The Bishop saying also amongst other things Let him obtain favour of the people like Aaron in the Tabernacle Elisha in the Waters Zacharias in the Temple give him Peters Key of Discipline and Pauls Doctrine Which last clause was praetermitted in times of Popery from the Corronation of Hen. 6. Bak. Chron. 742. till Charles 1. and Charles 2d lest it should imply the King to be more a Clergyman and Ecclesiastical person then these Archdeacons could afford him but our Gracious King Charles 2d and his Father at their Corronations had the antient forms of Crowning Kings reviv'd and in the Anointing the Bishop said Let those hands be Anointed with Holy Oyl as Kings and Prophets have been Anointed and as Samuel c. Then the Archbishop and Dean of Westminster put the Coif on the Kings Head then put upon his body the Surplice saying this prayer O God the King of Kings and Lord of Lords c. And surely of old the very Pope himself look't upon our anointed Kings as Clergymen else why did the Pope make Hen. 2. his Legate De Latere here in England the usual office of the Archbishop of Canterbury usually styled Legati Nati Therefore Mr. Archdeacon you talk like an unthinking Black-coat stockt with a little superficial Learning when you say our Laws exclude the King from the Keys of the Church to which he has as good right as your D. D. Divinityship And indeed to give the Man his due he is glad afterwards to confess that Constantine and the Eminent Christian Emperours called Councels and approv'd their Canons Then by your leave dear D. D. They also for the same reason might upon occasion and if they had seen cause also disprove the same who then was Papa of old Pa-ter Pa-trum surely no other but he that is Pa-Pa I mean Pa-ter Pa-triae Into a volumn beyond mine or the Readers Patience or leisure must this Vindication swell if I should trace him in all his Extravagancies Impertinencies and nauseous Repetitions and therefore I must quit my first design and summarily contract the crazy Principles and Postulata on which his mighty Fabrick of the Laws of England is Eâ—â—â—â—ed CHAP. I. In his first Chapter after a great deal of prattle to no purpose he Sets up the Propositions suggested by Mr. Hickeringill and then he Batters them The Propositions suggested by Mr. Hickeringill are these following 1. THat before Hen. 8. All Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in England was derived from the Pope as Mr. Cary. p. 6. 2. That Hen. 8. When he annex'd the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown he took it wholly away from our Ecclesiastical Ministers 3. That the Church had no Jurisdiction after Hen. 8. had annex'd it to the Crown till 1 Edw. 6.2 4. That if there be any Ecclesiastical Power in our Church it canot be executed but in the name and with the stile c. of the King according to 1 Edw. 6.2 5. That all our Ecclesiastical Power was lately founded in 1 Eliz. 1. as it Established the High-Commission-Court And that Act being repeal'd All Ecclesiastical Power was taken away with the Power of that High-Commission Then most insultingly concludes in
humble Servant when where and in what he list For presently after he brings that of Isa 10.1 to vanquish the King and Parliament that made him Recant his own Canons two years before Isa 10.1 Dicente Domino per Prophetam Vae qui condunt Leges iniquas c. Wo unto them that Decree unrighteous Decrees c. meaning the Statutes made by the King and Parliament for so he goes on quia igitur ab antiquo tempore inter Leges Magnates Angliae ex parte unâ Archiepiscopos Episcopos Clerum ejusdem Regniex altera duravit amara dissensio pro oppressione Ecclesiae contrà Decreta summorum Pontisicum contra Statuta Conciliorum contra Sanctiones Orthodoxorum Patrum in quibus tribus summa auctoritas summa veritas summaque sanctitas consistunt supplicamus Regiae Majestati c. huic periculosae dissentioni dignemur finem apponere salutarem cui finis alitèr imponi non potest nisi vos sublimitatem vestram praedictis tribus scilicèt Decretis Pontificum Statutis Conciliòrum Sanctionibus Orthodoxorum Patrum juxtà Domini beneplacitum cùm Catholicis Imperatoribus dignemini inclinare ex his enim tribus sunt Canones aggregati jura Coronae vestrae Christi Coronae supponenda cujus sunt Diadema Sponsae suae monilia universae Ecclesiasticae Libertates All which are most emphatical words and most apt for our purpose to stop the Arch-deacon's Mouth that would have the present Church of England and its Jurisdiction derivative from Edw. 1. and Edw. 3. Nor do I know any man more able in all History to write all that could be said for Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Canon-Law or Civil-Law than the said Peckham nor can any thing better represent the posture of Affairs in England as to Ecclesiastical matters than the said Letter which I will English faithfully as followeth Because quoth the Archbishop there has been of old and long has continued a bitter Dissention betwixt the King and Parliament of England on the one part God grant they may alwayes be so as they ought to be but one part and the Archbishops Bishops and Clergy of this Realm on the other part to oppress the Church contrary to the Popes Decrees contrary to the Canons of Councils contrary to the Sanctions of the Orthodox Fathers in which three consists the Supream Authority the greatest Verity and the choycest Piety We intreat your Royal Majesty that we should vouchsafe together to put an end to this dangerous Dissention and Differences which can never be concluded except you will please to submit your highness to the said three things namely the Decrees of Popes the Canons of the Synods and the Opinions of the ancient Orthodox Fathers according to the Command of the Lord and after the Example of Catholick Kings For of these three are the Canons made and the Rights of your Crown must submit to the Crown of Christ the Churches Rights and Liberties being the Diadem of Christ and the Ornament and Jewels of his Spouse c. Whence I make these plain Remarks 1. That as the Devil Tempting our Blessed Saviour accosted him with Holy Scripture in his Mouth so does this filthy Symonist talk Scripture Language to the King and Parliament whilst he himself hated to be Reformed 2. That there was and has been an old Feud Difference and Dissention and cannot possibly be otherwise where the Layety are Governed by one Law and the Clergy by another the Layety a distinct and peculiar Party on the one part and the Clergy with other designs a party in Opposition to the Layety on the other part The Devil and the Pope brought in that distinction of Layety and Clergy not God and Scripture and it was never a quiet World in Christendome since that time of making that distinction which God never made 3. That when the King and Parliament Thwarts the Clergy and the Canons of their own devising and made to gratifie as those of Rading aforesaid only their Avarice Ambition and Revenge yet that is called Oppressing the Church of God 4. That Kings must alwayes under the notion of submitting to God and Christ submit their Scepters Crowns and Dignities to Religious Zealots and Bigots when they get the Power and they 'l have it too or they 'l want of their will 5. That the Clergy Archbishops and Bishops accounted themselves and were taken and accepted for the Church of England 6. That the Pope was Head of this Church his Decrees their Rule and Canons to walk by and carry on their Ecclesiastical-Courts and Jurisdiction 7. That their Laws were contrary to the sence of the King and Parliament 8. That the King and Parliament were sometimes though but a little little time too hard for those Archbishops Bishops and Clergy of whom the Pope was Supream head 9. That it is impossible that our present Archbishops Bishops and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction can derive their Authority for Ecclesiastical Courts from the Popish Arch-bishops Popish Canons Popish Bishops that had the Pope for their head since our Clergy Archbishops and Bishops do renounce the Popes Supremacy 10. That the Ecclesiasticals before Hen. 8. whilst the Pope was their head look't upon the Kings of England as their Inferiours and that the King and Parliaments Sentiments and Decrees should truckle to theirs And if some had not some strange Reliques they would not dare as this Archdeacon does to write and defend a Jurisdiction and Courts in England without special Authority and Commission from the King And for him to say They Keep Courts by Common-law is the idlest of all his dreams 1. Because before Will. the Conqueror there was never any Spiritual Courts Kept distinct from the Hundred-Courts and if they have right to keep them there at the Bayliffs house let them come but instead of Chancellours Surrogates and Officials and Archdeacons must sit for Judges there as now and of Old two honest Freeholders let them come then with their Ecclesiastical Courts founded in the Common-law before William the Conquerour 2. The Common-Law this D. D. calls p. 51. long and granted Use in the whole Land but then if they plead for their Ecclesiastical Courts according to ancient use and custome they must keep them in Places Times and by such Laws and Judges as were of the ancient use and custom 3. The Common-Law of England is ancienter than our Christianity but Bishops as now in England much less Archbishops for Austin the Monk sent hither by the Pope was the first Archbishop and much less Archdeacons are the Inventions of men and the favour of Kings at first of Popish Kings for before Austin the Monk Anno Dom 〈◊〉 England had neither Lord Bishops nor Lord Archbishops after the manner they are now therefore neither they nor their Courts as now kept have any foundation in Common-law 4. By his own shewing that Edict of William the Conquerour enjoyns that no Bishop nor Archdeacon hold Pleas any longer in
have lost those two main Pillars I do not see but it may be yet in great measure true what the Learned Spelman sayes was Currant of Old even to a Proverb Os Sacerdotis Oraculum esset Plebis Os Episcopi Oraculum Regis Reipublicae Both King People and Common-wealth took all for Gospel that the Bishops and Priests said and perswaded And therefore no wonder at what Mr. Archdeacon sayes p. 49. That our great Church-men had no small hand in making all our Laws both Ecclesiastical and Civil and made bold to sit upon the Benches with the Judges in the Kings Palace and Court in the Councel and Parliament In the County with the Earl and Justices of the County in the Sheriffs County-Court with the Sheriff and in the Hundred-Courts with the Lords of the Hundred All true to a Tittle why who durst take them by the Lawn-sleeves and ask them what they had to do there They had as good have taken a Bear by the Tooth the stoutest Lay-man of them all Besides a Scholar was a rare Bird in those daies Ignorance is the Mother of Popish Devotion and therefore neither Lords nor Parliament-men nor Judges had any more Learning than needs must no nor skill in Laws So that the Clergy did all who sway'd the Kings Councels but they who were Lord Chancellors Lord Treasurers Lord Chief Barons Lord Chief Justices Master's of the Rolls but they Was not Nigel Bishop of Eli in H. 1. time Lord Treasurer and wonderful skilful in the Laws and Court of the Exchequer Was not Martin de Patishal Clerk and Dean of Paul's made Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-bench in H. 3. time because of his skill in Law Brail So also was William de Raleigh Clerk made one of the Judges of the Kings-bench Henry de Stanton Clerk Lord Chief Justice of the Common-pleas and the Parson of Oundell in Northamptonshire made Master of the Rolls with thousands more even to our times Bract. Rot. Pat. 17. E. 2. and in man's memory was not the Bishop of Lincoln William's Lord Treasurer so also Bishop Juxton Bishop of London And Archbishop Laud did all in all with King Charles 1. And in the Case of Ship-money and the Loans and Benevolences those hard shifts that good King might well repent that ever he followed such precipitate Counsels And therefore Mr. Archdeacon it is no great Credit to you nor for your Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical to quote all the 12 Judges and their Subscriptions to vouch your Citations in your own Name and not in the Name and Stile of the King because that Opinion was subscribed by 12 Judges John Brampston L. C. J. John Finch L. C. J. Humph. Davenport L. C. B. Will Jones Jo. Dinham Ri. Hutton George Crook Tho. Trevor George Vernon Ro. Berkley Fr. Crauly Ri. Weston For they were very man of them except Hutton and Crook condemn'd by Parliament for betraying the Rights and Properties of the Kingdom in the case of Ship-money And therefore Mr. Archdeacon I except against the Judgment and Opinion of your 12 Judges very legally in the cons truction of the Statute of Edw. 6.2 Alas good men to say otherwise it was as much as their places were worth besides the Terrour of the Star-chamber and High-Commission-Court and indeed every Spiritual Court which were then as horrible as the Spanish Inquisition and so much the more cruel that by the Oath ex Officio a man was bound to accuse himself which is not required by the Inquisition of Spain And therefore some have observed that when the severe part of the Law as in Sentences Fines c. has been put to the Vote in the Star-chamber and other Courts against Offenders the Clergy-Men there who should have been Exemplary in Mercy and Charity and not for summum Jus were alwayes more rigid and fierce than the Laity As for Instance when Mr. Chambers 5 Carol. 1. said and only privately to the Privy Councel call'd thither to answer for not paying Customs That the Merchants in England were more wrung and screwed than in foreign parts And what if it had been true why may not our Laws screw them and enact bigger Customs and Excise as of Wines c. we do where 's great mischief Why for this he was to be fined in the Star-chamber for the words are not other where actionable And the Chancellour of the Exchequer he was for fining him for those words 500 l. so also voted the two Lord Chief Justices Ay but when it came to the Bishops Doctor Neal Bishop of Winchester cryes 3000 l. then also Doctor Laud Bishop of London 3000 l. At last the business was adjusted and the Fine settled 2000 l. Therefore Mr. ARchdeacon do not vapour and tell us of the opinion of the Judges when High-Commission-Court and Star-chamber were up do not we know who penn'd the Proclamation 's and who did the business and every man's business that durst st and in his way You may as well say That Atturny General Noy was a great Lawyer who doubts it does it therefore follow that Ship-money his Invention was Legal Anno Domini 1632. And the Judgment of a whole House of Commons might surely stand in Competition with the opinion of a single Archdeacon though he had some of the Judges on his side although it was that House of Commons in 1640. for not one in Ten of them were Rumpers Resolved That the Clergy in a Synod or Convocation hath no power to make Canons Vote of the House of Commons Constitutions or Laws Ecclesiastical to bind either Laiety or Clergy without a Parliament And that the Canons are against the fundamental Laws of this Realm against the Kings Prerogative Property of the Subjects the Right of Parliaments and do tend to Faction and Sedition And therefore your Doughty work and Leges Angliae which you seem to commend as the sence of a Convocation and you their Prolocutor saying p. 66. So whether it seem good to the King and his High Court of Parliament to augment or lessen it Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction or to continue it as it is we we again shall still maintain our Loyalty that 's kind and manifest our duty and chearfully submit our selves I am glad to hear it if this chearful submisson be the sence of your Brethren and that you have Mr. Archdeacon from them authentick Letters of Credence for this Manifesto But I doubt it for certainly your Brethren are better Scholars and better principled than to own such an idle and impertinent Discourse as this of yours that is throughout so loose futile and tending to such arbitrary Principles that indeed none are so fit to answer you as a Parliament if they do not think it beneath them to take notice of such a Prater that has so little Judgment as to think it possible to prove the Spiritual Courts and Jurisdiction as now practised to be Common-Law Courts much less Statute-Law-Courts which is next to be
in their own names and not in the name and stile of the King their head and the head of the Church as well as State and as all other his Majesties Courts are kept in England Indeed the Courts-Baron and Courts Leet c. are kept in the name of the Lord of the Leet Hundred c. they being the Lords-Courts properly and not the Kings-Courts no more than his Lands or Mannors are properly the Kings Lands and Mannors But the Courts of Justice whether Ecclesiastical or Civil ought surely to be open to all the Kings Leige people and have the Kings Authority name and stile not only for their Warrant and Authority but to give them thereby life vigour power Granduer and Majesty And 't is strange to me that men who have taken the Oath of Supremacy have bid desiance to the Pope and do not pretend to set up a Commonwealth in a Common-wealth nor any Government independent of the Crown Imperial of this Realm nor have no privy designs at some time or other to stand as of old upon their own legs without dependance upon the King whom both Papists Presbyterians Fift-monarchy-men c. endeavour to subjugate to their discipline should be so aukward and loath to have their Processes and Citations go out and run as other Writs in the Kings name and stile and it were but for their own ends to agrandize their Processes and Proceedings except as formerly the Clergy do take care to have as little dependance upon a Lay-man as possibly may be and I say again it will never be well nor our differences cemented until Lay and Ecclesiastical men be one and the same with one and the same ends and designs in this Kingdom where all Ecclesiastical and Lay-power is united and one and the same in one Head our Soveraign Lord the King 'T is this Bigottism that undoes us and wars upon the score of Religion that above all other things has blooded all over the woful face of Christendom But let me hear of no more Extortions for Visitations Procurations Synodals Institutions Inductions Ordinations Licenses to Preach Sequestrations Pilling and Polling the Clergy nor in Probate of Wills the Laity and in Visitations Church-Wardens And when they have done and Performed their said Great Duties if after that they cry out for want of work and Employment let them also sit upon as many Benches as shall be thought fit It is acknowledged also That Convocations are alwayes have been and ought to be Assembled by the King 's Writ only no doubt on 't for else they are an Unlawful Conventicle And there let them Sit together 'till I or any Body else disturb them or meddle with them The Power to make Laws for the Church was ever in the King and Parliament only and who ever denyes the same 't is fit they should severely Answer it in a Parliament Have a care of a Parliament Mr. Arch-Deacon Have a care of a Praemunire War-Hawk I will not say War-Buzzard I had almost forgot to touch upon one String with which he makes a great Sound and Noise in his Proem and that is to prove That Chancellors Registers Sumners Officials Commissaries Advocates Notaries Surrogates c. ejusdem farinae are all Church-Officers Jure Divino and according to Holy Writ Ay! But where What Chapter What Verse It follows as close as any thing In 1 Cor. 12.28 Helps in Government The Registers are but to Make I thought that had been the Judges Office to Make and keep the Acts of Court c. Advocates and Proctors to Order and Manage Causes And Apparitors to Serve Process and Execute Mandates c. Then this Remark Mr. Hickeringill is a Man of great Experience in Spiritual Jurisdiction and need not be told of these plain Matters having said in the first words of this Paragraph But How Witless and Quaker-like is this And How unlike Mr. Hickeringill Sometimes he makes Mr. Hickeringill a Hobbist a Papist a Statist and a Man of great Experience in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and now a Witless Quaker Even just what the Good Old Gentleman pleases But sure Mr. Arch-Deacon does mistake and Mr. Hickeringill is not a Man of so great Experience but he had need to be told of these Plain Matters again and again before it can be beaten into his Head That the Apostle who never had Register Surrogate Apparitor nor Commissary Official nor Advocate nor the Primitive Church no not so much as an Arch-Bishop or an Arch-Deacon should ever intend or mean any such Creatures when he told the Corinthians of Helps in Government Well of a D. D. 't is an Incomparable Finder a Piercing and Quick-sighted Commentator for a Man of his Age that cannot see without Spectacles For Proctors Sumners and Apparitors are just such Helps in Government in the Church as Squire Dun and Gregory in the State namely Helps to Ruin many Alas Poor Primitive Church of Christ That made a Shift to subsist many Hundreds of Years by Miracle surely and yet never had these Ass-sistants or Helps in Government Such Helps in Government God knows Plut. Lives p. 940. as are far more fit to People the City that Plutarch speaks of called Poneropolis God grant them a good Shipping they 'l meet with many of their Brethren in Spain and Italy And it is as sensless to Defend these Ecclesiastical Fellows by Magna Charta because such as They if they still be Papists as those were were then Members of Holy-Church and brought hither from Rome by William the Conquerour For by that First Clause of Magna Charta That the Church of England shall be Free and have all Her Liberties c. can never be meant as the Arch-Deacon would insinuate that it is a Sin to alter that Frame of Government and the Rights and Libertyes of Holy Church For Peter-Pence First Fruits and Tenths to the Pope Investiture of Bishops c. with many other were then the Right and Liberties of Holy Church as aforesaid when Magna Charta was Made I have not willingly omitted to give Answer to all and every the idle Cavils and Exceptions in his Book Once for all by way of Conclusion for I am quite tired with his Impertinencies let the Reader Read the Statute of 1. Eliz. 1. and he will find 1. That the Popish Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Church at the Making of that Statute was cut off utterly by the Name of all Forreign Powers Repealing the 1. and 2. Phil. Mar. 8. whereby the See of Rome had been again set up in England from whence that Statute confesses with great Contrition to use the Words of that Statute They had a long while wandred and strayed abroad and in which Statute the Protestant Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction set up by Edward 6. is Disanulled 2. That therefore by 1. Eliz. 1. it appears there was then neither Popish nor Protestant Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical 3. That therefore full Power and Authority is granted to the Queen Her