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
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
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
't is not the eating nor 't is not the drinking that is to be blam'd but the Excess So in Pride Idolatry 1. IDolatry is in a Man 's own Thought not in the Opinion of another Put Case I bow to the Altar why am I guilty of Idolatry because a stander by thinks so I am sure I do not believe the Altar to be God and the God I worship may be bow'd to in all Places and at all times Jews 1. GOD at the first gave Laws to all Manking but afterwards he gave peculiar Laws to the Jews which they were only to observe Just as we have the Common Law for all England and yet you have some Corporations that besides that have peculiar Laws and Priviledges to themselves 2. Talk what you will of the Jews that they are cursed they thrive where e'er they come they are able to oblige the Prince of their Country by lending him Money none of them beg they keep together and for their being hated my Life for yours Christians hate one another as much Invincible Ignorance 1. 'T IS all one to me if I am told of Christ or some Mystery of Christianity if I am not capable of understanding as if I am not told at all my Ignorance is as invincible and therefore 't is vain to call their Ignorance only invincible who never were told of Christ. The trick of it is to advance the Priest whilst the Church of Rome says a Man must be told of Christ by one thus and thus ordain'd Images 1. THE Papists taking away the second Commandment is not haply so horrid a thing nor so unreasonable amongst Christians as we make it For the Jews could make no figure of God but they must commit Idolatry because he had taken no shape but since the Assumption of our Flesh we know what shape to picture God in Nor do I know why we may not make his Image provided we be sure what it is as we say St. Luke took the picture of the Virgin Mary and St. Veronica of our Saviour Otherwise it would be no honour to the King to make a Picture and call it the King's Picture when 't is nothing like him 2. Though the learned Papists pray not to Images yet 't is to be fear'd the ignorant do as appears by that Story of St. Nicholas in Spain A Country-Man us'd to offer daily to St. Nicholas's Image at length by mischance the Image was broken and a new one made of his own Plum-Tree after that the Man forbore being complain'd of to his Ordinary he answer'd 't is true he us'd to offer to the old Image but to the new he could not find in his heart because he knew 't was a piece of his own Plum-Tree You see what Opinion this Man had of the Image and to this tended the bowing of their Images the twinkling of their Eyes the Virgin 's Milk c. Had they only meant Representations a Picture would have done as well as these Tricks It may be with us in England they do not worship Images because living amongst Protestants they are either laugh'd out of it or beaten out of it by shock of Argument 3. 'T is a discreet way concerning Pictures in Churches to set up no new nor to pull down no old Imperial Constitutions 1. THey say Imperial Constitutions did only confirm the Canons of the Church but that is not so for they inflicted Punishment when the Canons never did viz. If a Man converted a Christian to be a Jew he was to forfeit his Estate and lose his Life In Valentines Novels 't is said Constat Episcopus Forum Legibus non habere Judicant tantum de Religione Imprisonment 1. SIR Kenelme Digby was several times taken and let go again at last imprison'd in Winchester House I can compare him to nothing but a great Fish that we catch and let go again but still he will come to the Bait at last therefore we put him into some great Pond for Store Incendiaries 1. FAncy to your self a Man sets the City on Fire at Cripplegate and that Fire continues by means of others 'till it come to White-Fryers and then he that began it would fain quench it does not he deserve to be punish'd most that first set the City on Fire So 't is with the Incendiaries of the State They that first set it on Fire by Monopolizing Forrest Business Imprisoning Parliament Men tertio Coroli c. are now become regenerate and would fain quench the Fire certainly they deserv'd most to be punish'd for being the first Cause of our Destractions Independency 1. INdependency is in use at Amsterdam where forty Churches or Congregations have nothing to do one with another And 't is no question agreeable to the Primitive times before the Emperour became Christian For either we must say every Church govern'd it self or else we must fall upon that old foolish Rock that St. Peter and his Successours govern'd all but when the Civil State became Christian they appointed who should govern them before they govern'd by agreement and consent if you will not do this you shall come no more amongst us but both the Independant Man and the Presbyterian Man do equally exclude the Civil Power tho' after a different manner 2. The Independant may as well plead they should not be subject to Temporal Things not come before a Constable or a Justice of Peace as they plead they should not be subject in spiritual things because St. Paul says It is so that there is not a wise Man amongst you 3. The Pope challenges all Churches to be under him the King and the two Arch-Bishops challenge all the Church of England to be under them The Presbyterian Man divides the Kingdom into as many Churches as there be Presbyteries and your Independant would have every Congregation a Church by it self Things Indifferent 1. IN time of a Parliament when things are under debate they are indifferent but in a Church or State settled there 's nothing left indifferent Publick Interest 1. ALL might go well in the Common-Wealth if every one in the Parliament would lay down his own Interest and aim at the general good If a man were sick and the whole Colledge of Physicians should come to him and administer severally haply so long as they observ'd the Rules of Art he might recover but if one of them had a great deal of Scamony by him he must put off that therefore he prescribes Scamony Another had a great deal of Rubarb and he must put off that and therefore he prescribes Rubarb c. then would certainly kill the Man We destroy the Common-Wealth while we preserve our own private Interests and neglect the publick Humane Invention 1. YOU say there must be no Humane Invention in the Church nothing but the pure Word Answer If I give any Exposition but what is express'd in the Text that is my Invention if you give another Exposition that is your invention
Baptism 2. The Baptising of Children with us does only prepare a Child against he comes to be a Man to understand what Christianity means In the Church of Rome it has this Effect it frees Children from Hell They say they go into Limbus Infantum It succeeds Circumcision and we are sure the Child understood nothing of that at eight Days old why then may not we as reasonably baptise a Child at that Age in England of late years I ever thought the Parson baptiz'd his own Fingers rather than the Child 3. In the Primitive Times they had God-fathers to see the Children brought up in the Christian Religion because many times when the Father was a Christiaâ— the Mother was not and sometimes when the Mother was a Christian the Father was not and therefore they made choice of two or more that were Christians to see their Children brought up in that Faith Bastard 1. 'T IS said the 23d of Deuteron 2. A Bastard shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord even to the tenth Generation Non ingredietur in Ecclesiam Domini he shall not enter into the Church The meaning of the Phraise is he shall not marry a Jewish Woman But upon this grosly mistaken a Bastard at this Day in the Church of Rome without a Dispensation cannot take Orders the thing haply well enough where 't is so settled but 't is upon a Mistake the Place having no reference to the Church appears plainly by what follows at the third Verse An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord even to the tenth Generation Now you know with the Jews an Ammonite or a Moabite could never be a Priest because their Priests were born so not made Bible Scripture 1. 'T IS a great Question how we know Scripture to be Scripture whether by the Church or by Man's private Spirit Let me ask you how I know any thing how I know this Carpet to be green First because some body told me it was green that you call the Church in your Way Then after I have been told it is green when I see that Colour again I know it to be green my own Eyes tell me it is green that you call the private Spirit 2. The English Translation of the Bible is the best Translation in the World and renders the Sense of the Original best taking in for the English Translation the Bishop's Bible as well as King James's The Translation in King James's time took an excellent way That Part of the Bible was given to him who was most excellent in such a Tongue as the Apocrypha to Andrew Downs and then they met together and one read the Translation the rest holding in their Hands some Bible either of the learned Tongues or French Spanish Italian c. if they found any Fault they spoke if not he read on 3. There is no Book so translated as the Bible for the purpose If I translate a French Book into English I turn it into English Phrase not into French English Il fait froid I say 't is cold not it makes cold but the Bible is rather translated into English Words than into English Phrase The Hebraisms are kept and the Phrase of that Language is kept As for Example He uncover'd her Shame which is well enough so long as Scholars have to do with it but when it comes among the Common People Lord what Jeer do they make of it 4. Scrutamini Scripturas These two Words have undone the World because Christ spake it to his Disciples therefore we must all Men Women and Children read and interpret the Scripture 5. Henry the Eighth made a Law that all Men might read the Scripture except Servants but no Woman except Ladies and Gentlewomen who had Leisure and might ask somebody the Meanning The Law was repeal'd in Edward the Sixth's Days 6. Lay-men have best interpreted the hard Places in the Bible such as Johannes Picus Scaliger Grotius Salmansius Heinsius c. 7. If you ask which of Erasmus Beza or Grotius did best upon the New Testament 't is an idle Question For they all did well in their Way Erasmus broke down the first Brick Beza added many things and Grotius added much to him in whom we have either something new or something heighten'd that was said before and so 't was necessary to have them all three 8. The Text serves only to guess by we must satisfie our selves fully out of the Authors that liv'd about those times 9. In interpreting the Scripture many do as if a Man should see one have ten Pounds which he reckon'd by 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. meaning four was but four Unites and five sive Unites c. and that he had in all but ten Pounds the other that sees him takes not the Figures together as he doth but picks here and there and thereupon reports that he hath five Pounds in one Bag and six Pounds in another Bag and nine Pounds in another Bag c. when as in truth he hath but ten Pounds in all So we pick out a Text here and there to make it serve our turn whereas if we take it altogether and consider'd what went before and what followed after we should find it meant no such thing 10. Make no more Alegories in Scripture than needs must the Fathers were too frequent in them they indeed before they fully understood the literal Sense look'd out for an Alegory The Folly whereof you may conceive thus Here at the first sight appears to me in my Window a Glass and a Book I take it for granted 't is a Glass and a Book thereupon I go about to tell you what they signifie afterwards upon nearer view they prove no such thing one is a Box made like a Book the other is a Picture made like a Glass where 's now my Alegory 11. When Men meddle with the literal Text the Question is where they should stop In this Case a Man must venture his Discretion and do his best to satisfie himself and others in those Places where he doubts for although we call the Scripture the Word of God as it is yet it was writ by a Man a mercenary Man whose Copy either might be false or he might make it false For Example here were a thousand Bibles printed in England with the Text thus Thou shalt commit Adultery the Word not left out might not this Text be mended 12. The Scripture may have more Senses besides the Literal because God understands all things at once but a Man's Writing has but one true Sense which is that which the Author meant when he writ it 13. When you meet with several Readings of the Text take heed you admit nothing against the Tenets of your Church but do as if you were going over a Bridge be sure you hold fast by the Rail and then you may dance here and there as you please be sure you keep to what is
Suit which because he could not get we advis'd to have him Out-law'd for not appearing and so he was As soon as Gondimer heard that he presently sent the Money by reason if his Master had been Out-law'd he could not have the Benefit of the Law which would have been very prejudicial there being then many Suits depending betwixt the King of Spain and our English Merchants 4. Every Law is a Contract between the King and the People and therefore to be kept A hundred Men may owe me an Hundred Pounds as well as any one Man and shall they not pay me because they are stronger than I Object Oh but they lose all if they keep that Law Answ. Let them look to the making of their Bargain If I sell my Lands and when I have done one comes and tells me I have nothing else to keep me I and my Wife and Children must starve If I part with my Land must I not therefore let them have my Land that have bought it and paid for it 5. The Parliament may declare Law as well as any other inferiour Court may viz. the King's Bench. In that or this particular Case the King's Bench will declare unto you what the Law is but that binds no body whom the Case concerns So the highest Court the Parliament may doe but not declare Law that is make Law that was never heard of before Law of Nature 1. I Cannot fancy to my self what the Law of Nature means but the Law of God How should I know I ought not to steal I ought not to commit Adultery unless some body had told me so Surely 't is because I have been told so 'T is not because I think I ought not to do them nor because you think I ought not if so our minds might change whence then comes the Restraint from a higher Power nothing else can bind I cannot bind my self for I may untye my self again nor an equal cannot bind me for we may untie one another It must be a superiour Power even God Almighty If two of us make a Bargain why should either of us stand to it What need you care what you say or what need I care what I say Certainly because there is something about me that tells me Fides est servanda and if we after alter our Minds and make a new Bargain there 's Fides servanda there too Learning 1. NO Man is the wiser for his Learning it may administer Matter to work in or Objects to work upon but Wit and Wisdom are born with a Man 2. Most Mens Learning is nothing but History duly taken up If I quote Thomas Aquinus for some Tenant and believe it because the School-Men say so that is but History Few Men make themselves Masters of things they write or speak 3. The Jesuites and the Lawyers of France and the Low-Country-Men have engrossed all Learning The rest of the World make nothing but Homilies 4. 'T is observable that in Athens where the Arts flourisht they were govern'd by a Democrasie Learning made them think themselves as wise as any body and they would govern as well as others and they speak as it were by way of Contempt that in the East and in the North they had Kings and why Because the most part of them followed their Business and if some one Man had made himself wiser than the rest he govern'd them and they willingly submitted themselves to him Aristotle makes the Observation And as in Athens the Philosophers made the People knowing and therefore they thought themselves wise enough to govern so does preaching with us and that makes us affect a Democrasie For upon these two Grounds we all would be Governours either because we think our selves as wise as the best or because we think our selves the Elect and have the Spirit and the rest a Company of Reprobates that belong to the Devil Lecturers 1. LEcturers do in a Parish Church what the Fryers did heretofore get away not only the Affections but the Bounty that should be bestow'd upon the Minister 2. Lecturers get a great deal of Money because they preach the People tame as a Man watches a Hawk and then they do what they list with them 3. The Lectures in Black Fryers perform'd by Officers of the Army Tradesmen and Ministers is as if a great Lord should make a Feast and he would have his Cook dress one Dish and his Coach-Man another his Porter a third c. Libels 1. THough some make slight of Libels yet you may see by them how the Wind sits As take a Straw and throw it up into the Air you shall see by that which way the Wind is which you shall not do by casting up a Stone More solid Things do not shew the Complexion of the times so well as Ballads and Libels Liturgy 1. THere is no Church without a Liturgy nor indeed can there be conveniently as there is no School without a Grammar One Scholar may be taught otherwise upon the Stock of his Acumen but not a whole School One or Two that are piously dispos'd may serve themselves their own Way but hardly a whole Nation 2. To know what was generally believ'd in all Ages the way is to consult the Liturgies not any private Man's writing As if you would know how the Church of England serves God go to the Common-Prayer-Book consult not this nor that Man Besides Liturgies never Complement nor use high Expressions The Fathers oft-times speak Oratoriously Lords in the Parliament 1. THE Lords giving Protections is a scorn upon them A Protection means nothing actively but passively he that is a Servant to a Parliament-Man is thereby protected What a Scorn is it to a Person of Honour to put his Hand to two Lyes at once that such a Man is my Servant and employ'd by me when haply he never saw the Man in his Life nor before never heard of him 2. The Lords protesting is Foolish To protest is properly to save to a Man's self some Right but to protest as the Lords protest when they their selves are involv'd 't is no more than if I should go into Smithfield and sell my Horse and take the Money and yet when I have your Money and you my Horse I should protest this Horse is mine because I love the Horse or I do not know why I do protest because my Opinion is contrary to the rest Ridiculous when they say the Bishops did antiently protest it was only dissenting and that in the Case of the Pope Lords before the Parliament 1. GReat Lords by reason of their Flatterers are the first that know their own Vertues and the last that know their own Vices Some of them are asham'd upwards because their Ancestors were too great Others are ashamed downwards because they were too little 2. The Prior of St. John of Jerusalem is said to be Primus Baro Angliae the first Baron of England because being last of the Spiritual Barons he chose to
of the Law to confirm his Brain to that way but when he comes to practise he must make use of it so far as it concerns the Law received in his own Country To be a Physician let a Man read Gallen and Hypocrates but when he practises he must apply his Medicines according to the Temper of those Men's Bodies with whom he lives and have respect to the Heat and Cold of Climes otherwise that which in Pergamus where Gallen liv'd was Physick in our cold Climate may be Poyson So to be a Divine let him read the whole Body of Divinity the Fathers and the Schoolmen but when he comes to practise he must use it and apply it according to those Grounds and Articles of Religion that are established in the Church and this with Sense 6. There be four things a Minister should be at the Conscionary Part Ecclesiactical Story School Divinity and the Casuists 1. In the Conscionary Part he must read all the chief Fathers both Latine and Greek wholly St. Austin St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome both the Gregories c. Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus and Epiphanius which last have more Learning in them than all the rest and writ freely 2. For Ecclesiastical Story let him read Baronius with the Magdeburgenses and be his own Judge the one being extreamly for the Papists the other extreamly against them 3. For School Divinity let him get Javellus's Edition of Scotus or Mayco where there be Quotations that direct you to every Schoolman where such and such Questions are handled Without School Divinity a Divine knows nothing Logically nor will be able to satisfie a rational Man out of the Pulpit 4. The Study of the Casuists must follow the Study of the School-men because the Division of their Cases is according to their Divinity otherwise he that begins with them will know little As he that begins with the study of the Reports and Cases in the Common Law will thereby know little of the Law Casuists may be of admirable use if discreetly dealt with though among them you shall have many Leaves together very impertinent A Case well decided would stick by a Man they will remember it whether they will or no whereas a quaint Position dieth in the Birth The main thing is to know where to search for talk what they will of vast Memories no Man will presume upon his own Memory for any thing he means to write or speak in publick 7. Go and teach all Nations This was said to all Christians that then were before the distinction of Clergy and Laity there have been since Men design'd to preach only by the State as some Men are design'd to studdy the Law others to studdy Physick When the Lord's Supper was instituted there were none present but the Disciples shall none then but Ministers receive 8. There is all the reason you should believe your Minister unless you have studied Divinity as well as he or more than he 9. 'T is a foolish thing to say Ministers must not meddle with Secular Matters because his own profession will take up the whole Man may he not eat or drink or walk or learn to sing the meaning of that is he must seriously attend his Calling 10. Ministers with the Papists that is their Priests have much respect with the Puritans they have much and that upon the same ground they pretend both of 'em to come immediately from Christ but with the Protestants they have very little the reason whereof is in the beginning of the Reformation they were glad to get such to take Livings as they could procure by any Invitations things of pitiful Condition The Nobility and Gentry would not suffer their Sons or Kindred to meddle with the Church and therefore at this day when they see a Parson they think him to be such a thing still and there they will keep him and use him accordingly if he be a Gentleman that is singled out and he is us'd the more respectfully 11. The Protestant Minister is least regarded appears by the old Story of the Keeper of the Clink He had Priests of several sorts sent unto him as they came in he ask'd them who they were who are you to the first I am a Priest of the Church of Rome you are welcome quoth the Keeper there are those will take Care of you and who are you A silenc'd Minister You are welcome too I shall fare the better for you And who are you A Minister of the Church of England O God help me quoth the Keeper I shall get nothing by you I am sure you may lie and starve and rot before any body will look after you 12. Methinks 't is an ignorant thing for a Church-man to call himself the Minister of Christ because St. Paul or the Apostles call'd themselves so If one of them had a Voice from Heaven as St. Paul had I will grant he is a Minister of Christ I will call him so too Must they take upon them as the Apostles did Can they do as the Apostles could The Apostles had a Mark to be known by spake Tongues cur'd Diseases trod upon Serpents c. Can they do this If a Gentleman tells me he will send his Man to me and I did not know his Man but he gave me this mark to know him by he should bring in his Hand a rich Jewel if a Fellow came to me with a Pebble-Stone had I any reason to believe he was the Gentleman's Man Money 1. MOney makes a Man laugh A blind Fidler playing to a Company and playing but Scurvily the Company laught at him his Boy that led him perceiving it cry'd Father let us be gone they do nothing but laugh at you Hold thy Peace Boy said the Fidler we shall have their money presently and then we will laugh at them 2. Euclid was beaten in Boccaline for teaching his Scholars a mathematical Figure in his School whereby he shew'd that all the Lives both of Princes and private Men tended to one Centre Con Gentilizza handsomely to get Money out of other Mens Pockets and it into their own 3. The Pope us'd heretofore to send the Princes of Christendom to fight against the Turk but Prince and Pope finely juggl'd together the Moneys were rais'd and some Men went out to the Holy War but commonly after they had got the Money the Turk was pretty quiet and the Prince and the Pope shar'd it between them 4. In all times the Princes in England have done something illegal to get Money But then came a Parliament and all was well the People and the Prince kist and were Friends and so things were quiet for a while Afterwards there was another Trick found out to get Money and after they had got it another Parliament was call'd to set all right c. But now they have so out-run the Constable Moral Honesty 1. THey that cry down moral Honesty cry down that which is a great part of Religion my Duty towards
a wise Man that knows the minds and insides of Men which is done by knowing what is habitual to them Proverbs are habitual to a Nation being transmitted from Father to Son Question 1. WHen a doubt is propounded you must learn to distinguish and show wherein a thing holds and wherein it doth not hold Ay or no never answer'd any Question The not distinguishing where things should be distinguish'd and the not confounding where things should be confounded is the cause of all the Mistakes in the World Reason 1. IN giving Reasons Men commonly do with us as the Woman does with her Child when she goes to Market about her Business she tells it she goes to buy it a fine Thing to buy it a Cake or some Plums They give us such Reasons as they think we will be catched withal but never let us know the Truth 2. When the School-Men talk of Recta Ratio in Morals either they understand Reason as it is govern'd by a Command from above or else they say no more than a Woman when she says a thing is so because it is so that is her Reason perswades her 't is so The other Acception has Sense in it As take a Law of the Land I must not depopulate my Reason tells me so Why Because if I do I incurr the detriment 3. The Reason of a Thing is not to be enquired after till you are sure the Thing it self be so We commonly are at What 's the Reason of it before we are sure of the Thing 'T was an excellent Question of my Lady Cotten when Sir Robert Cotten was magnifying of a Shooe which was Moses's or Noah's and wondring at the strange Shape and Fashion of it But Mr. Cotten says she are you sure it is a Shooe Retaliation 1. AN Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth That does not mean that if I put out another Man's Eye therefore I must lose one of my own for what is he the better for that tho' this be commonly received but it means I shall give him what Satisfaction an Eye shall be judged to be worth Reverence 1. T IS sometimes unreasonable to look after Respect and Reverence either from a Man 's own Servant or other Inferiours A great Lord and a Gentleman talking together there came a Boy by leading a Calf with both his Hands says the Lord to the Gentleman You shall see me make the Boy let go his Calf with that he came towards him thinking the Boy would have put off his Hat but the Boy took no Notice of him The Lord seeing that Sirrah says he Do you not know me that you use no Reverence Yes says the Boy if your Lordship will hold my Calf I will put off my Hat Non-Residency 1. THE People thought they had a great Victory over the Clergy when in Henry the Eighth's time they got their Bill passed That a Clergy-Man should have but two Livings before a Man might have Twenty or Thirty 't was but getting a Dispensation from the Pope's Limiter or Gatherer of the Peter-Pence which was as easily got as now you may have a Licence to eat Flesh. 2. As soon as a Minister is made he hath Power to preach all over the World but the Civil-Power restrains him he cannot preach in this Parish or in that there is one already appointed Now if the State allows him Two Livings then he hath Two Places where he may Exercise his Function and so has the more Power to do his Office which he might do every where if he were not restrained Religion 1. KIng James said to the Fly Have I Three Kingdoms and thou must needs fly into my Eye Is there not enough to meddle with upon the Stage or in Love or at the Table but Religion 2. Religion amongst Men appears to me like the Learning they got at School Some Men forget all they learned others spend upon the Stock and some improve it So some Men forget all the Religion that was taught them when they were Young others spend upon that Stock and some improve it 3. Religion is like the Fashion one Man wears his Doublet slash'd another lac'd another plain but every Man has a Doublet So every Man has his Religion We differ about Trimming 4. Men say they are of the same Relion for Quietness sake but if the Matter were well examin'd you would scarce find Three any where of the same Religion in all Points 5. Every Religion is a getting Religion for though I my self get nothing I am subordinate to those that do So you may find a Lawyer in the Temple that gets little for the present but he is fitting himself to be in time one of those great Ones that do get 6. Alteration of Religion is dangerous because we know not where it will stay 't is like a Milstone that lies upon the top of a pair of Stairs 't is hard to remove it but if once it be thrust off the first Stair it never stays till it comes to the bottom 7. Question Whether is the Church or the Scripture Judge of Religion Answ. In truth neither but the State I am troubled with a Boil I call a Company of Chirurgeons about me one prescribes one thing another another I single out something I like and ask you that stand by and are no Chirurgeon what you think of it You like it too you and I are Judges of the Plaster and we bid them prepare it and there 's an end Thus 't is in Religion the Protestants say they will be judged by the Scriptures the Papists say so too but that cannot speak A Judge is no Judge except he can both speak and command Execution but the truth is they never intend to agree No doubt the Pope where he is Supream is to be Judg if he say we in England ought to be subject to him then he must draw his Sword and make it good 8. By the Law was the Manual received into the Church before the Reformation not by the Civil Law that had nothing to do in it nor by the Canon Law for that Manual that was here was not in France nor in Spain but by Custom which is the Common Law of England and Custom is but the Elder Brother to a Parliament and so it will fall out to be nothing that the Papists say Ours is a Parliamentary Religion by reason the Service-Book was Established by Act of Parliament and never any Service-Book was so before That will be nothing that the Pope sent the Manual 't was ours because the State received it The State still makes the Religion and receives into it what will best agree with it Why are the Venetians Roman Catholicks because the State likes the Religion All the World knows they care not Three-pence for the Pope The Council of Trent is not at this day admitted in France 9. Papist Where was your Religion before Luther an Hundred years ago Protestant Where was America an