Parliament was wary what Subsidies they gave to the King because they had no account but now they care not how much they give of the Subjects Money because they give it with one hand and receive it with the other and so upon the matter give it themselves In the mean time what a case the Subjects of England are in if the Men they have sent to the Parliament mis-behave themselves they cannot help it because the Parliament is Eternal 2. A Subsidy was counted the fifth part of a Man's Estate and so fifty Subsidies is five and forty times more than a Man is Worth Simony 1. THE Name of Simony was begot in the Canon-Law the first Statute against it was in Queen Elizabeth's time Since the Reformation Simony has been frequent One reason why it was not practised in time of Popery was the Pope's provision no Man was sure to bestow his own Benefice Ship-Money 1. MR. Noy brought in Ship-money first for Maritine Towns but that was like putting in a little Augur that afterwards you may put in a greater He that pulls down the first Brick does the main Work afterwards 't is easie to pull down the Wall 2. They that at first would not pay Ship-money till 't was decided did like brave Men though perhaps they did no good by the Trial but they that stand out since and suffer themselves to be distrained never questioning those that do it do pitifully for so they only pay twice as much as they should Synod Assembly 1. WE have had no national Synod since the Kingdom hath been settled as now it is only Provincial and there will be this inconveniency to call so many Divines together 't will be to put Power in their Hands who are too apt to usurp it as if the Laity were bound by their Determination No let the Laity consult with Divines on all sides hear what they say and make themselves Masters of their Reasons as they do by any other profession when they have a Difference before them For Example Gold-smiths they enquire of them if such a Jewel be of such a Value and such a Stone of such a Value hear them and then being rational Men judge themselves 2. Why should you have a Synod when you have a Convocation already which is a Synod Would you have a superfetation of another Synod The Clergy of England when they cast off the Pope submitted themselves to the Civil Power and so have continued but these challenge to be Jure Divino and so to be above the Civil Power these challenge Power to call before their Presbyteries all Persons for all Sins directly against the Law of God as proved to be Sins by necessary Consequence If you would buy Gloves send for a Glover or two not Glovers-Hall consult with some Divines not send for a Body 3. There must be some Laymen in the Synod to over-look the Clergy lest they spoil the civil Work Just as when the good Woman puts a Cat into the Milk-House to kill a Mouse she sends her Maid to look after the Cat lest the Cat should eat up the Cream 4. In the Ordinance for the Assembly the Lords and Commons go under the Names of learned godly and judicious Divines there is no Difference put betwixt them and the Ministers in the Context 5. 'T is not unusual in the Assembly to revoke their Votes by reason they make so much haste but 't is that will make them scorn'd You never heard of a Council revok'd an Act of its own making they have been wary in that to keep up their Infallibility if they did any thing they took away the whole Council and yet we would be thought Infallible as any Body 'T is not enough to say the House of Commons revoke their Votes for theirs are but Civil Truths which they by agreement create and uncreate as they please But the Truths the Synod deals in are Divine and when they have voted a thing if it be then true 't was true before not true because they voted it nor does it cease to be true because they voted otherwise 6. Subscribing in a Synod or to the Articles of a Synod is no such terrible thing as they make it because If I am of a Synod 't is agreed either tacitely or expresly That which the major part determines the rest are involv'd in and therefore I subscribe though my own private Opinion be otherwise and upon the same Ground I may without scruple subscribe to what those have determin'd whom I sent though my private Opinion be otherwise having respect to that which is the Ground of all assemblies the Major part carries it Thanksgiving 1. AT first we gave Thanks for every Victory as soon as ever 't was obtained but since we have had many now we can stay a good while We are just like a Child give him a Plum he makes his Leg give him a second Plum he makes another Leg At last when his Belly is full he forgets what he ought to do then his Nurse or some body else that stands by him puts him in mind of his Duty Where 's your Leg Tythes 1. TYthes are more paid in kind in England than in all Italy and France In France they have had Impropriations a long time we had none in England till Henry the Eighth 2. To make an Impropriation there was to be the Consent of the Incumbent the Patron and the King then 't was confirm'd by the Pope Without all this the Pope could make no Impropriation 3. Or what if the Pope gave the Tythes to any Man must they therefore be taken away If the Pope gives me a Jewel will you therefore take it away from me 4. Abraham paid Tythes to Melchizedeck what then 'T was very well done of him It does not follow therefore that I must pay Tythes no more than I am bound to imitate any other Action of Abraham's 5. 'T is ridiculous to say the Tythes are God's Part and therefore the Clergy must have them Why so they are if the Laymen has them 'T is as if one of my Lady Kent's Maids should be sweeping this Room and another of them should come and take away the Broom and tell for a Reason why she should part with it 'T is my Lady's Broom As if it were not my Lady's Broom which of them soever had it 6. They consulted in Oxford where they might find the best Argument for their Tythes setting aside the Jus Divinum they were advis'd to my History of Tythes a Book so much cry'd down by them formerly in which I dare boldly say there are more Arguments for them than are extant together any where Upon this one writ me word That my History of Tythes was now become like Pleus's Hasta to wound and to heal I told him in my Answer I thought I could fit him with a better Instance 'T was possible it might undergo the same Fate that Aristotle Avicen and Averroes did in France
Table-Talk BEING THE DISCOURSES OF John Selden Esq OR HIS SENSE of various MATTERS of Weight and high Consequence Relating especially to Religion and State Distingue Tempora The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Judge's Head near the Inner-Temple Gate in Fleetstreet and Awnsham and John Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row 1696. To the Honourable Mr. Justice Hales One of the JUDGES OF THE Common-Pleas And to the much Honoured Edward Heywood John Vaughan AND Rowland Jewks Esquiers Most worthy Gentlemen WEre you not Executors to that Person who while he liv'd was the Glory of the Nation yet I am Confident any thing of his would find Acceptance with you and truly the Sense and Notion here is wholly his and most of the Words I had the opportunity to hear his Discourse twenty Years together and lest all those Excellent things that usually fell from him might be lost some of them from time to time I faithfully committed to Writing which here digested into this Method I humbly present to your Hands you will quickly perceive them to be his by the familiar Illustrations wherewith they are set off and in which way you know he was so happy that with a marvelous delight to those that heard him he would presently convey the highest Points of Religion and the most important Affairs of State to an ordinary apprehension In reading be pleas'd to distinguish Times and in your Fancy carry along with you the When and the Why many of these things were spoken this will give them the more Life and the smarter Relish 'T is possible the Entertainment you find in them may render you the more inclinable to pardon the Presumption of Your most Obliged and most Humble Servant RI. MILWARD THE TABLE ABbies Priories page 1 Articles 3 Baptism 4 Bastard 5 Bible Scripture 6 Bishops before the Parliament 11 Bishops in the Parliament 13 Bishops out of the Parliament 19 Books Authors 25 Canon-Law Ceremony 27 Chancellour 28 Changing Sides 29 Chrismas 30 Christians 31 Church 32 Church of Rome 34 Churches City 35 Clergy 36 High Commission House of Commons 38 Confession 39 Competency 40 Great Conjunction Conscience 41 Consecrated Places 43 Contracts 44 Council 45 Convocation Creed 46 Damnation 47 Devils 48 Self-Denial 51 Duel 52 Epitaph 53 Equity 54 Evil Speaking 55 Excommunication 56 Faith and Works 59 Fasting-Days 60 Fathers and Sons Fines 61 Free-will Fryers 62 Friends Genealogy of Christ 63 Gentlemen 64 Gold Hall 65 Hell 66 Holy-Days 67 Humility 68 Idolatry Jews 69 Invincible Ignorance Images 70 Imperial Constitutions Imprisonment 72 Incendiaries Independency 73 Things Indifferent Publick Interest 75 Humane Invention Judgments 76 Judge 77 Juggling Jurisdiction 78 Jus Divinum King 79 King of England 81 The King 84 Knights Service 86 Land Language 87 Law 88 Law of Nature 90 Learning 91 Lecturers Libels 93 Liturgy Lords in the Parliament 94 Lords before the Parliament 95 Marriage 97 Marriage of Cosin Germans 98 Measure of things 99 Difference of Men Minister Divine 100 Money 107 Moral Honesty 108 Mortage Number 109 Oaths 110 Oracles 113 Opinion 114 Parity Parliament 116 Parson 119 Patience Peace 120 Penance People 121 Pleasure 122 Philosophy 124 Poetry 125 Pope 127 Popery 130 Power State 131 Prayer 134 Preaching 137 Predestination 144 Preferment 145 Praemunire Prerogative 148 Presbytery 149 Priest of Rome 151 Prophecies 152 Proverbs Question 153 Reason 154 Retaliation Reverence 155 Non Residency 156 Religion 157 Sabboth 163 Sacrament Salvation 164 State 165 Superstition Subsidies 166 Simony Ship-Money 167 Synod Assembly 158 Thanksgiving Tythes 171 Trade 174 Tradition Transubstantiation 175 Traitor Trinity 176 Truth 177 Trial 178 University 179 Vows 180 Usury Pious Uses 181 War 182 Witches Wife 186 Wisdom 187 Wit 188 Women 189 Year 190 Zelots 192 THE DISCOURSES OF John Selden Esq Abbies Priories c. 1. THE unwillingness of the Monks to part with their Land will fall out to be just nothing because they were yielded up to the King by a Supream Hand viz. a Parliament If a King conquer another Country the People are loath to lose their Lands yet no Divine will deny but the King may give them to whom he please If a Parliament make a Law concerning Leather or any other Commodity you and I for Example are Parliament-Men perhaps in respect to our own private Interest we are against it yet the major Part conclude it we are then in volv'd and the Law is good 2. When the Founder of Abbies laid a Curse upon those that should take away those Lands I would fain know what Power they had to curse me 'T is not the Curses that come from the Poor or from any Body that hurt me because they come from them but because I do something ill against them that deserves God should curse me for it On the other side 't is not a Man's blessing me that makes me blessed he only declares me to be so and if I do well I shall be blessed whether any bless me or not 3. At the time of Dissolution they were tender in taking from the Abbots and Priors their Lands and their Houses till they surrendred them as most of them did indeed the Prior of St. John's Sir Richard Weston being a stout Man got into France and stood out a whole Year at last submitted and the King took in that Priory also to which the Temple belonged and many other Houses in England they did not then cry no Abbots no Priors as we do now no Bishops no Bishops 4. Henry the Fifth put away the Friars Aliens and seized to himself 100000 l. a Year and therefore they were not the Protestants only that took away Church Lands 5. In Queen Elizabeths time when all the Abbies were pulled down all good Works defaced then the Preachers must cry up Justification by Faith not by good Works Articles 1. THE nine and thirty Articles are much another thing in Latin in which Tongue they were made than they are translated into English they were made at three several Convocations and confirmed by Act of Parliament six or seven Times after There is a Secret concerning them Of late Ministers have subscribed to all of them but by Act of Parliament that confirm'd them they ought only to subscribe to those Articles which contain matter of Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as appears by the first Subscriptions But Bishoâ— Bancroft in the Convocation held in King Jame's days he began it that Ministers should subscribe to three Things to the King's Supremacy to the Common-Prayer and to the Thirty Nine Articles many of them do not contain matter of Faith Is it matter of Faith how the Church should be govern'd Whether Infants should be baptized Whether we have any Property in our Goods c. Baptism 1. 'T Was a good way to persuade Men to be christned to tell them that they had a Foulness about them viz. Original Sin that could not be washed away but by
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
to command that is where he must be obeyed so is every Supream Power and Prince They that stretch his Infallibility further do they know not what 5. When a Protestant and a Papish dispute they talk like two Mad-men because they do not agree upon their Principles the one way is to destroy the Pope's Power for if he hath Power to command me 't is not my alledging Reasons to the contrary can keep me from obeying For Example if a Constable command me to wear a green Suit to Morrow and has Power to make me 't is not my alledging a hundred Reasons of the Folly of it can excuse me from doing it 6. There was a Time when the Pope had Power here in England and there was excellent Use made of it for 't was only to serve Turns as might be manifested out of the Records of the Kingdom which Divines know little of If the King did not like what the Pope would have he would forbid the Pope's Legate to land upon his Ground So that the Power was truly then in the King though suffered in the Pope But now the Temporal and the Spiritual Power Spiritual so call'd because ordain'd to a Spiritual End spring both from one Fountain they are like to twist that 7. The Protestants in France bear Office in the State because though their Religion be different yet they acknowledge no other King but the King of France The Papists in England they must have a King of their own a Pope that must do something in our Kingdom therefore there is no reason they should enjoy the same Priviledges 8. Amsterdam admits of all Religions but Papists and 't is upon the same Account The Papists where e'er they live have another King at Rome all other Religions are subject to the present State and have no Prince else-where 9. The Papists call our Religion a Parliamentary Religion but there was once I am sure a Parliamentary Pope Pope Urban was made Pope in England by Act of Parliament against Pope Clement The Act is not in the Book of Statutes either because he that compiled the Book would not have the Name of the Pope there or else he would not let it appear that they medled with any such thing but 't is upon the Rolls 10. When our Clergy preach against the Pope and the Church of Rome they preach against themselves and crying down their Pride their Power and their Riches have made themselves Poor and Contemptible enough they dedicate first to please their Prince not considering what would follow Just as if a Man were to go a Journey and seeing at his first setting out the Way clean and fair ventures forth in his Slippers not considering the Dirt and the Sloughs are a little further off or how suddenly the Weather may change Popery 1. THE demanding a Noble for a dead body passing through a a Town came from hence in time of Popery they carried the dead Body into the Church where the Priest said Dirgies and twenty Dirgies at four Pence a piece comes to a Noble but now it is forbidden by an Order from my Lord Marshal the Heralds carry his Warrant about them 2. We charge the Prelatical Clergy with Popery to make them odious tho' we know they are guilty of no such thing Just as heretofore they call'd Images Mammets and the Adoration of Images Mammetry that is Mahomet and Mahometry odious Names when all the World knows the Turks are forbidden Images by their Religion Power State 1. THere is no stretching of Power 't is a good Rule Eat within your Stomach Act within your Commission 2. They that govern most make least Noise You see when they row in a Barge they that do drudgery-work slash and puff and sweat but he that governs sits quietly at the Stern and scarce is seen to stir 3. Syllables govern the World 4. All Power is of God means no more than Fides est servanda When St. Paul said this the People had made Nero Emperour They agree he to command they to obey Then Gods comes in and casts a hook upon them keep your Faith then comes in all Power is of God Never King dropt out of the Clouds God did not make a new Emperour as the King makes a Justice of Peace 5. Christ himself was a great observer of the Civil Power and did many things only justifiable because the State requir'd it which were things meerly Temporary for the time that State stood But Divines make use of them to gain Power to themselves as for Example that of Die Ecclesiae tell the Church there was then a Sanhedrim a Court to tell it to and therefore they would have it so now 6. Divines ought to do no more than what the State permits Before the State became Christian they made their own Laws and those that did not observe them they Excommunicated naughty men they suffered them to come no more amongst them But if they would come amongst them how could they hinder them By what Law by what Power they were still subject to the State which was Heathen Nothing better expresses the Condition of Christians in those times than one of the meetings you have in London of Men of the same Country of Sussex-Men or Bedfordshire-Men they appoint their Meeting and they agree and make Laws amongst themselves He that is not there shall pay double c. and if any one mis-behave himself they shut him out of their Company But can they recover a Forfeiture made concerning their Meeting by any Law Have they any power to compel one to pay but afterwards when the State became Christian all the Power was in them and they gave the Church as much or as little as they pleas'd and took away when they pleas'd and added what they pleas'd 7. The Church is not only subject to the Civil Power with us that are Protestants but also in Spain if the Church does Excommunicate a Man for what it should not the Civil Power will take him out of their Hands So in France the Bishop of Angiers alter'd something in the Breviary they complain'd to the Parliament at Paris that made him alter it again with a comme abuse 8. the Parliament of England has no Arbitrary Power in point of Judicature but in point of making Law only 9. If the Prince be servus natura of a servile base Spirit and the Subjects liberi Free and Ingenuous oft-times they depose their Prince and govern themselves On the contrary if the People be Servi Natura and some one amongst them of a Free and Ingenuous Spirit he makes himself King of the rest and this is the Cause of all changes in State Common-wealths into Monarchies and Monarchies into Common-wealths 10. In a troubled State we must do as in foul Weather upon the Thames not think to cut directly through so the Boat may be quickly full of Water but rise and fall as the Waves do give as much as conveniently we can
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-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
'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
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
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