Table-Talk BEING THE DISCOURSES OF John Selden Esq OR HIS SENSE of various MATTERS of Weight and high Consequence Relating especially to Religion and State Distingue Tempora The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Judge's Head near the Inner-Temple Gate in Fleetstreet and Awnsham and John Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row 1696. To the Honourable Mr. Justice Hales One of the JUDGES OF THE Common-Pleas And to the much Honoured Edward Heywood John Vaughan AND Rowland Jewks Esquiers Most worthy Gentlemen WEre you not Executors to that Person who while he liv'd was the Glory of the Nation yet I am Confident any thing of his would find Acceptance with you and truly the Sense and Notion here is wholly his and most of the Words I had the opportunity to hear his Discourse twenty Years together and lest all those Excellent things that usually fell from him might be lost some of them from time to time I faithfully committed to Writing which here digested into this Method I humbly present to your Hands you will quickly perceive them to be his by the familiar Illustrations wherewith they are set off and in which way you know he was so happy that with a marvelous delight to those that heard him he would presently convey the highest Points of Religion and the most important Affairs of State to an ordinary apprehension In reading be pleas'd to distinguish Times and in your Fancy carry along with you the When and the Why many of these things were spoken this will give them the more Life and the smarter Relish 'T is possible the Entertainment you find in them may render you the more inclinable to pardon the Presumption of Your most Obliged and most Humble Servant RI. MILWARD THE TABLE ABbies Priories page 1 Articles 3 Baptism 4 Bastard 5 Bible Scripture 6 Bishops before the Parliament 11 Bishops in the Parliament 13 Bishops out of the Parliament 19 Books Authors 25 Canon-Law Ceremony 27 Chancellour 28 Changing Sides 29 Chrismas 30 Christians 31 Church 32 Church of Rome 34 Churches City 35 Clergy 36 High Commission House of Commons 38 Confession 39 Competency 40 Great Conjunction Conscience 41 Consecrated Places 43 Contracts 44 Council 45 Convocation Creed 46 Damnation 47 Devils 48 Self-Denial 51 Duel 52 Epitaph 53 Equity 54 Evil Speaking 55 Excommunication 56 Faith and Works 59 fasting-Fasting-Days 60 Fathers and Sons Fines 61 Free-will Fryers 62 Friends Genealogy of Christ 63 Gentlemen 64 Gold Hall 65 Hell 66 Holy-Days 67 Humility 68 Idolatry Jews 69 Invincible Ignorance Images 70 Imperial Constitutions Imprisonment 72 Incendiaries Independency 73 Things Indifferent Publick Interest 75 Humane Invention Judgments 76 Judge 77 Juggling Jurisdiction 78 Jus Divinum King 79 King of England 81 The King 84 Knights Service 86 Land Language 87 Law 88 Law of Nature 90 Learning 91 Lecturers Libels 93 Liturgy Lords in the Parliament 94 Lords before the Parliament 95 Marriage 97 Marriage of Cosin Germans 98 Measure of things 99 Difference of Men Minister Divine 100 Money 107 Moral Honesty 108 Mortage Number 109 Oaths 110 Oracles 113 Opinion 114 Parity Parliament 116 Parson 119 Patience Peace 120 Penance People 121 Pleasure 122 Philosophy 124 Poetry 125 Pope 127 Popery 130 Power State 131 Prayer 134 Preaching 137 Predestination 144 Preferment 145 Praemunire Prerogative 148 Presbytery 149 Priest of Rome 151 Prophecies 152 Proverbs Question 153 Reason 154 Retaliation Reverence 155 Non Residency 156 Religion 157 Sabboth 163 Sacrament Salvation 164 State 165 Superstition Subsidies 166 Simony Ship-Money 167 Synod Assembly 158 Thanksgiving Tythes 171 Trade 174 Tradition Transubstantiation 175 Traitor Trinity 176 Truth 177 Trial 178 University 179 Vows 180 Usury Pious Uses 181 War 182 Witches Wife 186 Wisdom 187 Wit 188 Women 189 Year 190 Zelots 192 THE DISCOURSES OF John Selden Esq Abbies Priories c. 1. THE unwillingness of the Monks to part with their Land will fall out to be just nothing because they were yielded up to the King by a Supream Hand viz. a Parliament If a King conquer another Country the People are loath to lose their Lands yet no Divine will deny but the King may give them to whom he please If a Parliament make a Law concerning Leather or any other Commodity you and I for Example are Parliament-Men perhaps in respect to our own private Interest we are against it yet the major Part conclude it we are then in volv'd and the Law is good 2. When the Founder of Abbies laid a Curse upon those that should take away those Lands I would fain know what Power they had to curse me 'T is not the Curses that come from the Poor or from any Body that hurt me because they come from them but because I do something ill against them that deserves God should curse me for it On the other side 't is not a Man's blessing me that makes me blessed he only declares me to be so and if I do well I shall be blessed whether any bless me or not 3. At the time of Dissolution they were tender in taking from the Abbots and Priors their Lands and their Houses till they surrendred them as most of them did indeed the Prior of St. John's Sir Richard Weston being a stout Man got into France and stood out a whole Year at last submitted and the King took in that Priory also to which the Temple belonged and many other Houses in England they did not then cry no Abbots no Priors as we do now no Bishops no Bishops 4. Henry the Fifth put away the Friars Aliens and seized to himself 100000 l. a Year and therefore they were not the Protestants only that took away Church Lands 5. In Queen Elizabeths time when all the Abbies were pulled down all good Works defaced then the Preachers must cry up Justification by Faith not by good Works Articles 1. THE nine and thirty Articles are much another thing in Latin in which Tongue they were made than they are translated into English they were made at three several Convocations and confirmed by Act of Parliament six or seven Times after There is a Secret concerning them Of late Ministers have subscribed to all of them but by Act of Parliament that confirm'd them they ought only to subscribe to those Articles which contain matter of Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as appears by the first Subscriptions But Bishoâ— Bancroft in the Convocation held in King Jame's days he began it that Ministers should subscribe to three Things to the King's Supremacy to the Common-Prayer and to the Thirty Nine Articles many of them do not contain matter of Faith Is it matter of Faith how the Church should be govern'd Whether Infants should be baptized Whether we have any Property in our Goods c. Baptism 1. 'T Was a good way to persuade Men to be christned to tell them that they had a Foulness about them viz. Original Sin that could not be washed away but by
to be taken off and offer'd any Preferment in the Church that he would make choice of Luther answered if he had offer'd half as much at first he would have accepted it but now he had gone so far he could not come back In Truth he had made himself a greater thing than they could make him the German Princes courted him he was become the Author of a Sect ever after to be call'd Lutherans So have our Preachers done that are against the Bishops they have made themselves greater with the People than they can be made the other way and therefore there is the less Charity probably in bringing them off Charity to Strangers is enjoyn'd in the Text by Strangers is there understood those that are not of our own Kin Strangers to your Blood not those you cannot tell whence they come that is to be charitable to your Neighbours whom you know to be honest poor People Christmass 1. CHristmass succeeds the Saturnalia the same time the same number of Holy-days then the Master waited upon the Servant like the Lord of Misrule 2. Our Meats and our Sports much of them have Relation to Church-works The Coffin of our Christmass-Pies in shape long is in Imitation of the Cratch our chusing Kings and Queens on Twelfth-Night hath reference to the three Kings So likewise our eating of Fritters whipping of Tops roasting of Herrings Jack of Lents c. they were all in Imitation of Church-works Emblems of Martyrdom Our Tansies at Easter have reference to the bitter Herbs tho' at the same time 't was always the Fashion for a Man to have a Gammon of Bacon to shew himself to be no Jew Christians 1. IN the High-Church of Jerusalem the Christians were but another Sect of Jews that did believe the Messias was come To be called was nothing else but to become a Christian to have the Name of a Christian it being their own Language For among the Jews when they made a Doctor of Law 't was said he was called 2. The Turks tell their People of a Heaven where there is sensible Pleasure but of a Hell where they shall suffer they don't know what The Christians quite invert this Order they tell us of a Hell where we shall feel sensible Pain but of a Heaven where we shall enjoy we can't tell what 3. Why did the Heathens object to the Christians that they worship an Asses Head You must know that to a Heathen a Jew and a Christian were all one that they regarded him not so he was not one of them Now that of the Asses Head might proceed from such a Mistake as this by the Jews Law all the Firstlings of Cattle were to be offered to God except a young Ass which was to be redeemed a Heathen being present and seeing young Calves and young Lambs kill'd at their Sacrifices only young Asses redeem'd might very well think they had that silly Beast in some high Estimation and thence might imagine they worshipped it as a God Church 1. HEretofore the Kingdom let the Church alone let them do what they would because they had something else to think of viz. Wars but now in time of Peace we begin to examine all things will have nothing but what we like grow dainty and wanton just as in a Family the Heir uses to go a hunting he never considers how his Meal is drest takes a bit and away but when he stays within then he grows curious he does not like this nor he does not like that he will have his Meat drest his own way or peradventure he will dress it himself 2. It hath ever been the Gain of the Church when the King will let the Church have no Power to cry down the King and cry up the Church But when the Church can make use of the King's Power then to bring all under the King's Prerogative the Catholicks of England go one way and the Court-Clergy another 3. A glorious Church is like a magnificent Feast there is all the Variety that may be but every one chuses out a Dish or two that he likes and lets the rest alone how glorious soever the Church is every one chuses out of it his own Religion by which he governs himself and lets the rest alone 4. The Laws of the Church are most favourable to the Church because they were the Church's own making as the Heralds are the best Gentlemen because they make their own Pedigree 5. There is a Question about that Article concerning the Power of the Church whether these Words of having Power in Controversies of Faith were not stoln in but 't is most certain they were in the Book of Articles that was confirm'd though in some Editions they have been left out But the Article before tells you who the Church is not the Clergy but Coetus sidelium Church of Rome 1. BEfore a Juglar's Tricks are discover'd we admire him and give him Money but afterwards we care not for them so 't was before the Discovery of the Juggling of the Church of Rome 2. Catholicks say we out of our Charity believe they of the Church of Rome may be saved But they do not believe so of us Therefore their Church is better according to our selves First some of them no doubt believe as well of us as we do of them but they must not say so Besides is that an Argument their Church is better than ours because it has less Charity 3. One of the Church of Rome will not come to our Prayers does that agree he doth not like them I would fain see a Catholick leave his Dinner because a Nobleman's Chaplain says Grace nor haply would he leave the Prayers of the Church if going to Church were not made a Mark of Distinction between a Protestant and a Papist Churches 1. THE Way coming into our great Churches was anciently at the West-Door that Men might see the Altar and all the Church before them the other Doors were but Posterns City 1. WHat makes a City Whether a Bishoprick or any of that Nature Answer 'T is according to the first Charter which made them a Corporation If they are incorporated by Name of Civitas they are a City if by the Name of Burgum then they are a Burrough 2. The Lord Mayor of London by their first Charter was to be presented to the King in his Absence to the Lord Chief Justiciary of England afterwards to the Lord Chancellor now to the Barons of the Exchequer but still there was a Reservation that for their Honour they should come once a Year to the King as they do still Clergy 1. THough a Clergy-man have no Faults of his own yet the Faults of the whole Tribe shall be laid upon him so that he shall be sure not to lack 2. The Clergy would have us believe them against our own Reason as the Woman would have had her Husband against his own Eyes What! will you believe your own Eyes before your own sweet
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
settled and then you may flourish upon your various Lections 14. The Apocrypha is bound with the Bibles of all Churches that have been hitherto Why should we leave it out The Church of Rome has her Apocrypha viz. Susanna and Bell and the Dragon which she does not esteem equally with the rest of those Books that we call Apocrypha Bishops before the Parliament 1. A Bishop as a Bishop had never any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction For as soon as he was Electus Confirmatus that is after the three Proclamations in Bow-Church he might exercise Jurisdiction before he was consecrated not till then he was no Bishop neither could he give Orders Besides Suffragans were Bishops and they never claim'd any Jurisdiction 2. Anciently the Noble-Men lay within the City for Safety and Security The Bishops Houses were by the Water-side because they were held sacred Persons which no body would hurt 3. There was some Sense for Commendams at first when there was a Living void and never a Clerk to serve it the Bishops were to keep it till they found a fit Man but now 't is a Trick for the Bishop to keep it for himself 4. For a Bishop to preach 't is to do other Folks Office as if the Steward of the House should execute the Porter's or the Cook 's Place 'T is his Business to see that they and all other about the House perform their Duties 5. That which is thought to have done the Bishops hurt is their going about to bring Men to a blind Obedience imposing things upon them though perhaps small and well enough without preparing them and insinuating into their Reasons and Fancies every Man loves to know his Commander I wear those Gloves but perhaps if an Alderman should command me I should think much to do it What has he to do with me Or if he has peradventure I do not know it This jumping upon things at first Dash will destroy all To keep up Friendship there must be little Addresses and Applications whereas Bluntness spoils it quickly To keep up the Hierarchy there must be little Applications made to Men they must be brought on by little and little So in the Primitive Times the Power was gain'd and so it must be continued Scaliger said of Erasmus Si minor esse voluit major fuisset So we may say of the Bishops Si minores esse voluerint majores fuissent 6. The Bishops were too hasty else with a discreet Slowness they might have had what they aim'd at The old Story of the Fellow that told the Gentleman he might get to such a Place if he did not ride too fast would have fitted their turn 7. For a Bishop to cite an old Canon to strengthen his new Articles is as if a Lawyer should plead an old Statute that has been repeal'd God knows how long Bishops in the Parliament 1. BIshops have the same Right to sit in Parliament as the best Earls and Barons that is those that were made by Writ If you ask one of them Arundel Oxford Northumberland why they sit in the House they can only say their Fathers sate there before them and their Grandfather before him c. And so say the Bishops he that was a Bishop of this Place before me sate in the House and he that was a Bishop before him c. Indeed your latter Earls and Barons have it express'd in their Patents that they shall be called to the Parliament Objection but the Lords sit there by Blood the Bishops not Answer 'T is true they sit not there both the same way yet that takes not away the Bishops Right If I am a Parson of a Parish I have as much Right to my Gleab and Tithe as you have to your Land which your Ancestors have had in that Parish Eight Hundred Years 2. The Bishops were not Barons because they had Baronies annex'd to their Bishopricks for few of them had so unless the old ones Canterbury Winchester Durham c. the new erected we are sure had none as Glocester Peterborough c. besides few of the Temporal Lords had any Baronies But they are Barons because they are called by Writ to the Parliament and Bishops were in the Parliament ever since there was any mention or sign of a Parliament in England 3. Bishops may be judged by the Peers tho' in time of Popery it never hapned because they pretended they were not obnoxious to a secular Court but their way was to cry Ego sum Frater Domini Papae I am Brother to my Lord the Pope and therefore take not my self to be judged by you in this Case they impanell'd a Middlesex Jury and dispatch'd the Business 4. Whether may Bishops be present in Cases of Blood Answ. That they had a Right to give Votes appears by this always when they did go out they left a Proxy and in the time of the Abbots one Man had 10 20 or 30 Voices In Richard the Second's time there was a Protestation against the Canons by which they were forbidden to be present in Case of Blood The Statute of 25th of Henry the Eighth may go a great way in this Business The Clergy were forbidden to use or cite any Canon c. but in the latter End of the Statute there was a Clause that such Canons that were in usage in this Kingdom should be in force till the thirty two Commissioners appointed should make others provided they were not contrary to the King's Supremacy Now the Question will be whether these Canons for Blood were in use in this Kingdom or no the contrary whereof may appear by many Presidents in R. 3. and H. 7. and the beginning of H. 8. in which time there were more attainted than since or scarce before The Canons of Irregularity of Blood were never receiv'd in England but upon pleasure If a lay-Lay-Lord was attainted the Bishops assented to his Condemning and were always present at the passing of the Bill of Attainder But if a Spiritual Lord they went out as if they car'd not whose Head was cut off so none of their own In those Days the Bishops being of great Houses were often entangled with the Lords in Matters of Treason But when d' ye hear of Bishop a Traytor now 5. You would not have Bishops meddle with Temporal Affairs think who you are that say it If a Papist they do in your Church if an English Protestant they do among you if a Presbyterian where you have no Bishops you mean your Presbyterian Lay-Elders should meddle with temporal Affairs as well as Spiritual Besides all Jurisdiction is Temporal and in no Church but they have some Jurisdiction or other The Question then will be reduced to Magis and Minus They meddle more in one Church than in another 6. Objection Bishops give not their Votes by Blood in Parliament but by an Office annext to them which being taken away they cease to vote therefore there is not the same Reason for them as for
Wife 3. The Condition of the Clergy towards their Prince and the Condition of the Physician is all one The Physicians tell the Prince they have Agaric and Rubarb good for him and good for his Subjects Bodies upon this he gives them leave to use it but if it prove naught then away with it they shall use it no more So the Clergy tell the Prince they have Physick good for his Soul and good for the Souls of his People upon that he admits them But when he finds by Experience they both trouble him and his People he will have no more to do with them what is that to them or any body else if a King will not go to Heaven 4. A Clergy-man goes not a Dram further than this you ought to obey your Prince in general if he does he is lost how to obey him you must be inform'd by those whose Profession it is to tell you The Parson of the Tower a good discreet Man told Dr. Mosely who was sent to me and the rest of the Gentlemen committed the 3d Caroli to persuade us to submit to the King that they found no such Words as Parliament Habeas Corpus Return Tower c. Neither in the Fathers nor the Schoolmen nor in the Text and therefore for his part he believed he understood nothing of the Business A Satyr upon all those Clergy-men that meddle with Matters they do not understand 5. All confess there never was a more learned Clergy no Man taxes them with Ignorance But to talk of that is like the Fellow that was a great Wencher he wish'd God would forgive him his Leachery and lay Usury to his Charge The Clergy have worse Faults 6. The Clergy and Laity together are never like to do well 't is as if a Man were to make an excellent Feast and should have his Apothecary and his Physician come into the Kitchen The Cooks if they were let alone would make excellent Meat but then comes the Apothecary and he puts Rubarb into one Sauce and Agrick into another Sauce Chain up the Clergy on both sides High Commission 1. MEN cry out upon the High Commission as if the Clergy-Men only had to do in it when I believe there are more Lay-Men in Commission there than Clergy-Men if the Lay-Men will not come whose Fault is that So of the Star-Chamber the People think the Bishops only censur'd Prin Burton and Bastwick when there were but two there and one spake not in his own Cause House of Commons 1. THere be but two Erroneous Opinions in the House of Commons That the Lords sit only for themselves when the Truth is they sit as well for the Common-wealth The Knights and Burgesses sit for themselves and others some for more some for fewer and what is the Reason because the Room will not hold all the Lords being few they all come and imagine the Room able to hold all the Commons of England then the Lords and Burgesses would sit no otherwise than the Lords do The second Error is that the House of Commons are to begin to give Subsidies yet if the Lords dissent they can give no Money 2. The House of Commons is called the Lower House in twenty Acts of Parliament but what are twenty Acts of Parliament amongst Friends 3. The Form of a Charge runs thus I Accuse in the Name of all the Commons of England how then can any Man be as a Witness when every Man is made the Accuser Confession 1. IN time of Parliament it used to be one of the first things the House did to Petition the King that his Confessor might be removed as fearing either his Power with the King or else lest he should reveal to the Pope what the House was in doing as no doubt he did when the Catholick Cause was concerned 2. The Difference between us and the Papists is we both allow Contrition but the Papists make Confession a part of Contrition they say a Man is not sufficiently contrite till he confess his Sins to a Priest 3. Why should I think a Priest will not reveal Confession I am sure he will do any thing that is forbidden him haply not so often as I the utmost Punishment is Deprivation and how can it be proved that ever any Man revealed Confession when there is no Witness And no Man can be Witness in his own Cause A meer Gullery There was a time when 't was publick in the Church and that is much against their Auricular Confession Competency 1. THat which is a Competency for one Man is not enough for another no more than that which will keep one Man warm will keep another Man warm one Man can go in Doublet and Hose when another Man cannot be without a Cloak and yet have no more Cloaths than is necessary for him Great Conjunction THE greatest Conjunction of Satan and Jupiter happens but once in eight Hundred Years and therefore Astrologers can make no Experiments of it nor foretel what it means not but that the Stars may mean something but we cannot tell what because we cannot come at them Suppose a Planet were a Simple or an Herb how could a Physician tell the Vertue of that Simple unless he could come at it to apply it Conscience 1. HE that hath a Scrupulous Conscience is like a Horse that is not well weigh'd he starts at every Bird that flies out of the Hedge 2. A knowing Man will do that which a tender Conscience Man dares not do by reason of his Ignorance the other knows there is no hurt as a Child is afraid to go into the dark when a Man is not because he knows there is no Danger 3. If we once come to leave that outloose as to pretend Conscience against Law who knows what inconvenience may follow For thus Suppose an Anabaptist comes and takes my Horse I Sue him he tells me he did according to his Conscience his Conscience tells him all things are common amongst the Saints what is mine is his therefore you do ill to make such a Law If any Man takes another's Horse he shall be hang'd What can I say to this Man He does according to his Conscience Why is not he as honest a Man as he that pretends a Ceremony establish'd by Law is against his Conscience Generally to pretend Conscience against Law is dangerous in some Cases haply we may 4. Some Men make it a Case of Conscience whether a Man may have a Pidgeon-House because his Pidgeons eat other Folks Corn. But there is no such thing as Conscience in the Business the Matter is whether he be a Man of such Quality that the State allows him to have a Dove-House if so there 's an end of the Business his Pidgeons have a right to eat where they please themselves Consecrated Places 1. THE Jews had a peculiar way of consecrating things to God which we have not 2. Under the Law God who was Master of all made choice of a
three Estates are the Lord 's Temporal the Bishops are the Clergy and the Commons as some would have it take heed of that for then if two agree the third is involv'd but he is King of the Three Estates 6. The King hath a Seal in every Court and tho the Great Seal be called Sigillum Angliae the Great Seal of England yet 't is not because 't is the Kingdom 's Seal and not the Kings but to distinguish it from Sigillum Hiberniae Sigillum Scotiae 7. The Court of England is much alter'd At a solemn Dancing first you had the grave Measures then the Corrantoes and the Galliards and this is kept up with Ceremony at length to French-more and the Cushion-Dance and then all the Company dances Lord and Groom Lady and Kitchen-Maid no Distinction So in our Court in Queen Elizabeth's time Gravity and State were kept up In King Jame's time things were pretty well But in King Charles's time there has been nothing but French-more and the Cushion-Dance omnium gatherum tolly polly hoite come toite The King 1. 'T IS hard to make an Accomodation between the King and the Parliament If you and I fell out about Money you said I ow'd you Twenty Pounds I said I ow'd you but Ten Pounds it may be a third Party allowing me twenty Marks might make us Friends But if I said I ow'd you twenty Pounds in Silver and you said I ow'd you twenty Pounds in Diamonds which is a Summ innumerable 't is impossible we should ever agree This is the Case 2. The King using the House of Commons as he did in Mr. Pymm and his Company that is charging them with Treason because they charg'd my Lord of Canterbury and Sir George Ratcliff it was just with as much Logick as the Boy that would have lain with his Grandmother us'd to his Father you lay with my Mother why should not I lie with yours 3. There is not the same Reason for the King 's accusing Men of Treason and carrying them away as there is for the Houses themselves because they accuse one of themselves For every one that is accused is either a Peer or a Commoner and he that is accused hath his Consent going along with him but if the King accuses there is nothing of this in it 4. The King is equally abus'd now as before then they flatter'd him and made him do ill Things now they would force him against his Conscience If a Physician should tell me every thing I had a mind to was good for me tho' in truth 't was Poison he abus'd me and he abuses me as much that would force me to take something whether I will or no. 5. The King so long as he is our King may do with his Officers what he pleases as the Master of the House may turn away all his Servants and take whom he please 6. The King's Oath is not security enough for our Property for he swears to Govern according to Law now the Judges they interpret the Law and what Judges can be made to do we know 7. The King and the Parliament now falling out are just as when there is foul Play offer'd amongst Gamesters one snatches the others stake they seize what they can of one anothers 'T is not to be ask'd whether it belongs not to the King to do this or that before when there was fair Play it did But now they will do what is most convenient for their own safety If two fall to scuffling one tears the others Band the other tears his when they were Friends they were quiet and did no such thing they let one anothers Bands alone 8. The King calling his Friends from the Parliament because he had use of them at Oxford is as if a Man should have use of a little piece of Wood and he runs down into the Cellar and takes the Spiggot in the mean time all the Beer runs about the House when his Friends are absent the King will be lost Knights Service 1. KNights Service in earnest means nothing for the Lords are bound to wait upon the King when he goes to War with a Foreign Enemy with it may be one Man and one Horse and he that doth not is to be rated so much as shall seem good to the next Parliament And what will that be So 't is for a private Man that holds of a Gentleman Land 1. WHen Men did let their Land underfoot the Tenants would fight for their Landlords so that way they had their Retribution but now they will do nothing for them may be the first if but a Constable bid them that shall lay the Landlord by the Heels and therefore 't is vanity and folly not to take the full value 2. Allodium is a Law Word contrary to Feudum and it signifies Land that holds of no body We have no such Land in England 'T is a true Proposition all the Land in England is held either immediately or mediately of the King Language 1. TO a living Tongue new Words may be added but not to a dead Tongue as Latin Greek Hebrew c. 2. Latimer is the Corruption of Latiner it signifies he that interprets Latin and though he interpreted French Spanish or Italian he was call'd the King's Latiner that is the King's Interpreter 3. If you look upon the Language spoken in the Saxon Time and the Language spoken now you will find the Difference to be just as if a Man had a Cloak that he wore plain in Queen Elizabeth's Days and since here has put in a piece of Red and there a piece of Blue and here a piece of Green and there a piece of Orange-tawny We borrow Words from the French Italian Latin as every Pedantick Man pleases 4. We have more Words than Notions half a Dozen Words for the same thing Sometimes we put a new signification to an old Word as when we call a Piece a Gun The Word Gun was in use in England for an Engine to cast a thing from a Man long before there was any Gun-powder found out 5. Words must be fitted to a Man's Mouth 't was well said of the Fellow that was to make a Speech for my Lord Mayor he desir'd to take measure of his Lordship's Mouth Law 1. A Man may plead not guilty and yet tell no Lye for by the Law no Man is bound to accuse himself so that when I say Not Guilty the meaning is as if I should say by way of Paraphrase I am not so Guilty as to tell you if you will bring me to a Tryal and have me punish'd for this you lay to my Charge prove it against me 2. Ignorance of the Law excuses no man not that all Men know the Law but because 't is an excuse every Man will plead and no Man can tell how to confute him 3. The King of Spain was outlaw'd in Westminster-Hall I being of Council against him A Merchant had recover'd Costs against him in a
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
some five hundred Years ago which were Excommunicated by Stephen Bishop of Paris by that very Name Excommunicated because that kind of Learning puzled and troubled their Divinity But finding themselves at a Loss some Forty Years after which is much about the time since I writ my History they were call'd in again and so have continued ever since Trade 1. THere is no Prince in Christendom but is directly a Tradesman tho' in another way than an ordinary Tradesman For the purpose I have a Man I bid him lay out twenty Shillings in such Commodities but I tell him for every Shilling he lays out I will have a Penny I trade as well as he This every Prince does in his Customs 2. That which a Man is bred up in he thinks no cheating as your Tradesman thinks not so of his Profession but calls it a Mystery Whereas if you would teach a Mercer to make his Silks heavier than what he has been used to he would peradventure think that to be cheating 3. Every Tradesman professes to cheat me that asks for his Commodity twice as much as it is worth Tradition 1. SAY what you will against Tradition we know the Signification of Words by nothing but Tradition You will say the Scripture was written by the Holy Spirit but do you understand that Language 't was writ in No. Then for Example take these words In principio erat verbum How do you know those words signifie In the beginning was the word but by Tradition because some Body has told you so Transubstantiation 1. THE Fathers using to speak Rhetorically brought up Transubstantiation As if because it is commonly said Amicus est alter idem one should go about to prove a Man and his Friend are all one That Opinion is only Rhetorick turn'd into Logick 2. There is no greater Argument tho' not us'd against Transubstantiation than the Apostles at their first Council forbidding Blood and Suffocation Would they forbid Blood and yet enjoin the eating of Blood too 3. The best way for a pious Man is to address himself to the Sacrament with that Reverence and Devotion as if Christ were really there present Traitor 1. T IS not seasonable to call a Man Traitor that has an Army at his Heels One with an Army is a Gallant man My Lady Cotten was in the right when she laugh'd at the Dutchess of Richmond for taking such State upon her when she could Command no Forces She a Dutchess there 's in Flanders a Dutchess indeed meaning the Arch-Dutchess Trinity 1. THE second Person is made of a piece of Bread by the Papists the Third Person is made of his own Frenzy Malice Ignorance and Folly by the Roundhead to all these the Spirit is intituled One the Baker makes the other the Cobler and betwixt those Two I think the First Person is sufficiently abused Truth 1. THE Aristotelians say All Truth is contained in Aristotle in one place or another Galilaeo makes Simplicius say so but shows the absurdity of that Speech by answering All Truth is contained in a lesser Compass viz. In the Alphabet Aristotle is not blam'd for mistaking sometimes but Aristotelians for maintaining those Mistakes They should acknowledge the good they have from him and leave him when he is in the wrong There never breath'd that Person to whom Mankind was more beholden 2. The way to find out the Truth is by others mistakings For if I was to go to such a place and one had gone before me on the Right-hand and he was out another had gone on the Left-hand and he was out this would direct me to keep the middle way that peradventure would bring me to the place I desir'd to go 3. In troubled Water you can scarce see your Face or see it very little till the Water be quiet and stand still So in troubled times you can see little Truth when times are quiet and settled then Truth appears Trial. 1. TRials are by one of these three ways by Confession or by Demurrer that is confessing the Fact but denying it to be that wherewith a Man is charged For Example denying it to be Treason if a Man be charged with Treason or by a Jury 2. Ordalium was a Trial and was either by going over nine red hot Plough-Shares as in the Case of Queen Emma accus'd for lying with the Bishop of Winchester over which she being led blindfold and having pass'd all her Irons ask'd when she should come to her Trial or 't was by taking a red-hot Coulter in a Man's Hand and carrying it so many Steps and then casting it from him As soon as this was done the Hands or the Feet were to be bound up and certain Charms to be said and a Day or two after to be open'd if the parts were whole the Party was judg'd to be Innocent and so on the contrary 3. The Rack is us'd no where as in England In other Countries 't is used in Judicature when there is a Semiplena probatio a half Proof against a Man then to see if they can make it full they rack him if he will not confess But here in England they take a Man and rack him I do not know why nor when not in time of Judicature but when some Body bids 4. Some Men before they come to their Trial are cozen'd to Confess upon Examination Upon this Trick they are made to believe some Body has confessed before them and then they think it a piece of Honour to be clear and ingenious and that destroys them University 1. THE best Argument why Oxford should have precedence of Cambridge is the Act of Parliament by which Oxford is made a Body made what it is and Cambridge is made what it is and in the Act it takes place Besides Oxford has the best Monuments to show 2. 'T was well said of one hearing of a History Lecture to be founded in the University Would to God says he they would direct a Lecture of Discretion there this would do more Good there an hundred times 3. He that comes from the University to govern the State before he is acquainted with the Men and Manners of the Place does just as if he should come into the presence Chamber all Dirty with his Boots on his riding Coat and his Head all daub'd They may serve him well enough in the Way but when he comes to Court he must conform to the Place Uows 1. SUppose a Man find by his own Inclination he has no mind to marry may he not then vow Chastity Answ. If he does what a fine thing hath he done 't is as if a Man did not love Cheefe and then he would vow to God Almighty never to eat Cheese He that vows can mean no more in sense than this To do his utmost endeavour to keep his Vow Usury 1. THE Jews were forbidden to take Use one of another but they were not forbidden to take it of other Nations That being so I