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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43611	The black non-conformist, discover'd in more naked truth proving, that excommunication, confirmation, the two great Episcopal appurtenances & diocesan bishops, are not (as now in use) of divine, but human make and shape, and that not only some lay-men, but all the keen-cringing clergy are non-conformists ... : also a libel, and answer (thereunto) fitted to every man's case (be it what it will) that is cited to ecclesiastical courts, whose shallow foundation is unbared, and a true table of ecclesiastical court fees, as it was return'd into the star-chamber, Anno Domini 1630, by the ecclesiastical fellows themselves, and compar'd with the statutes : also concerning the unlawfulness of granting licences to marry, Quakers-marriages, folly, as well as other evil consequences of that new law-maxim, viz. that no non-conformists ought to be jury-men : shewing also, that, religion, religion, that should have been the world's great blessing, is become the plague of mankind, and the curse of Christendom ... / by Edm. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1682 (1682)	Wing H1797; ESTC R22899	136,499	106

Or Munster's Bishop made to hew and strike Black mouth to damn and Bloody Arms to fight When Hand-cuff't good we 'll do the Devil right Of Flaming-Comet long since have you heard With Tayl hung down to Earth and grisly Beard I 'm skill'd i' th' Language of the Stars and know That horrid Meteor what it meant 't was thou Thou Bonner London's Bishop seem'd to be Arm'd with this Hellish Black-Guard Cap-a-pee Ordain'd it seems and good for naught but harms Like the French Bishop Odo clad in Arms That Coat of Mail ill suits that Coat so Gay Filii tui Haeccine Tunica Satan once came like a Py'd-Piper now This was a Fiend in Jeast in Earnest Thou By the Black-Regiment Martyrs chose to die That Naked Truth might live and so will I. After the French Religion must we Dance Now Persecution's A la mode de France Or shall the French find fairer Quarter here Than we to one another make appear A Bishop sayst Thou ly'st Him Cornet call Of the Black Regiment that Gaols us all FINIS ERRATA THE Introduction Page 4. Line 30. for every word in that weeks Read most words in the two Weeks p. 42. l. 14. for efflagitantes sollicitescit read efflagitates and sollicites it with several other escapes by reason of the Author's absence from the Press but not many NEWS FROM Doctor 's Commons Or A True NARRATIVE OF Mr. HICKERINGILL'S Appearance there June 8. 1681. Upon a Citation for Marrying People without Bannes or License WITH A PROTESTATION AGAINST THEIR SPIRITUAL COURT To which is Added An ESSAY Concerning the Virtue of SEQUESTRATIONS IT is too notorious and vulgarly known that the Waspish Swarms in Doctors Commons have been as stinging as stingy against Mr. Hickeringill and the little Infects as full of malice as venom against him as their hearts could hold ever since the Publication of the Naked Truth the Second Part. And yet poor Hearts they had better have been quiet and let him alone for they always meddle with him to their hurt as well as shame and confusion and come home by weeping-cross But some men will never take warning Quos Deus intendit perdere de mentat Prius was once accounted truth though spoke by a Stoick Men doom'd to Ruin when their Facts are bad Do blindly run upon their Death like mad We will begin as the Men of Doctors Commons did begin with Mr Hickeringill namely with the Citation in these words following RObertus Wiseman Miles Legum Doctor Almae Curiae Cant. de Archubus London Officialis Principalis legitimè constitutus Vniversis singulis Clericis Literatis quibuscunque in per rotam Provinciam Cant. ubilibet constitut salutem Vobis conjunctim divisim committimus ac firmiter injungendo mandamus quatenus ratione literarum requisitorialium ab Ordinario loci obtent Citetis seu citari faciatis peremptoriè Edmundum Hickeringill Clericum Rectorem Rectoriae Ecclesiae Parochialis omnium Sanctorum in Villa Col●…striae in Com. Essex Diaec Lond. Cantiaeque Provinc quod compareat coram nobis rostróve Secretario aut alio Judice in hac parte competen quocunque in Aula publica infra Hospitium Dominorum Advocatorum London locoque judiciali ibidem sexto die post Citationem hujusmodi ei in hac parte factam si Juridicus fuerit alioquin proximo die Juridico ex hinc sequen● haris causarum ibidem ad jura reddenda consuet certis Articulis Capitulis sive Interrogatoriis meram animae suae salutem morumque excessuum suorum reformationem praesertim ejus solemnizationem seu potius prophanationem Matrimonii inter diversas personas clandestinè absque eorum Bannis in Ecclesiis suis Parochialibus trinâ vice publicatis vel Licentiis sive facultatibus in ea parte legitimè obtent juxta Canones Constitutiones Ecclesiae Anglicanae in ea parte editas provisas aliaque crimina delicta concernen ei cum venerit ex officio nostro ad promotionem Thomae Doughty Generosi objiciend ministrand de Justitia sive juramento responsur ulteriusque factur receptur quod justum fuerit in hac parte quid in praemissis feceritis Nos nostrumve surrogatum aut alium Judicem in hac parte competen quemcunque debite certificetis una cum presentibus Dat. Tricesimo May 1681. WE live in an Age wherein some men are grown Libertines and since the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford some are grown so wonderful light and wanton that they kick up their Heels at all Correction and defie a Parliament with as much courage as they defie God and the Day of Judgment when they cry God-damn-me These are very merry days if they would but last When Mr. Hickeringill came into the Hall at Doctors Commons June 8. 1681. He went up to the Doctors Habited in their Formalities and with their Caps on and he also put on his Hat which Sir Robert Wiseman no sooner espyed but he bid Mr. Hickeringill be uncovered But Mr. Hickeringill replyed to him in Greek and to all Sir Robert's Repartees and discoursed for a considerable time Mr. Hickeringill discoursed still in Greek at length Sir Robert's patience being spent and none of the Doctors would find any more Greek to answer Mr. Hickeringil than Sir Robert did it was ordered that this appearance and Answer in Greek only should be Registred as a Non-appearance Wherefore then Mr. Hickeringill did Repeat in English that he had said in Greek telling Sir Robert that he first demanded to see or hear their Commission and Authority for citing him thus from his Family and Home and out of the Diocess where he dwells contrary to 23 H. 8.9 And that till it did appear to him that this was his Majesties Court Ecclesiastical he would pay no respect to it nor be uncovered before men that were all except Sir Robert his Juniors at the University and most of them very much his Inferiors in many other respects not suitable to his modesty there to particularize Degrees so easily purchas'd and empty Titles being admir'd by none but Women and Fools Whereupon instead of shewing a Commission Sir Robert again bid him be uncovered which still he refused Then Sir Robert made signs to an old Fellow a kind of Sumner to come behind Mr. Hickeringill and snatch his Hat off which he did but Mr. Hickeringill forthwith snatcht his Hat from the said Fellow and clapt it fast upon his Head and there kept it during his stay there throwing amongst them a Protestation which was read in Court and to this effect The Protestation of Mr. Edmund Hickeringill Rector of the Rectory of All-Saints in Colchester in the County of Essex Delivered to Sir Robert Wiseman at the Hall at Doctors Commons June 8. 1681. I. I Protest against all your Proceedings as contrary to his Majesties Laws and Prerogative since you will shew no Commission derived from his Majesty for such Proceedings and whereby you

such Suspension or Sequestration or Deprivation be supported by that which can only support them viz. a Statute But they should not need to have found the said High-Commission specially if Ecclesiastical-Courts then had or consequently have an ordinary Jurisdiction without special Commission from the King only and equally the Head of the Church and State But no Temporal-Courts or Judges do or dare Act implicitely but by special Patents or Commissions under Seal for as for Hundred-Courts they belong to Proprietors but all derived originally by Patents from the Crown as Sheriff-Courts and Corporation-Courts And besides from these Inferior Courts or Common-Law-Courts as are the Hundred-Courts they sit in the Hundred by Prescription where the Bishops also used to sit and keep their Courts together and at the same time and place which if they do not now so they cannot plead to hold Courts by Prescription except they as does to this day the Hundred-Courts and County-Courts keep up and keep to their Prescriptions as to place and time Canons and Laws Therefore away with all idle thoughts of making the Spiritual-Courts Ordinary or Comnion-Law-Courts this Court it self the Supreme of all the Spiritual-Courts cannot prescribe for sitting here in Doctors-Commons beyond the memory of man for it us'd to be kept in the Arches of Bow-Church whence it had its name but now most improperly except it sit by special Commission from his Majesty and be so styled in the Commission And if the Arch-Bishop have such Patent from the King to keep Courts of Judicature-Ecclesiastical as have the Judges in Westminster-Hall for keeping Courts-Temporal this Defendant desires this Court then so to Declare it that he may the better know how to demean himself with all humility and submission thereunto But this Defendant has taken the Oath of Supremacy and dare not own any other Head of the Church or Ecclesiastical Judicature but what is derived from Him in whom alone is inherent all the Executive power in Church and State And from Him imparted and derived to the Judges under Him Nay when His Majesty has derived such power to His Judges yet they cannot make a Deputy if they be sick nor an Official or Surrogate Indeed sometimes a Serjeant at Law is surrogated in the room of one of the 12 Judges sick dead or otherwise avocated and goes the Circuit but this must be done by Special Commission and his Name specially inserted and mentioned therein no Judge can make such a Surrogate or Deputy Besides it is but onely pro eo vice for that turn only And though an Archbishop with his Archbishoprick and Bishop with his Bishoprick if constituted according to Law have all Priviledges also annexed anciently and of right belonging thereunto by Prescription or otherwise yet a Right by Prescription and Custom or Common Law is lost when the Custom surceases and other new Customs innovated for Customs ought to be certain uninterrupted and continual both as to time place c. Thus a Court-leet may be lost and forfeited for want of Use according to the ancient Usage and perhaps this is also part of the Case Thirdly To solemnize Matrimony without Banes first published three several Sundays or Holy-days in time of Divine Service in the Parish or Parishes where the Parties inhabit is an Offence against Statute-Law onely namely the Rubrick before the Order of Matrimony in the Common-Prayer Book every Sentence whereof is Statute-Law in the Act of Vniformity Which if true then this Court is no competent Interpreter nor Judge of Statute Law nor of the nature of the offences against the same nor of the quality and degree of the punishment of such offences And though all Englishmen are bound to obey the same to a Tittle yet scarce any Englishman Bishop Priest or Lay-man but does offend and transgress the same little or much and are all Nonconformists and accordingly are all liable to be Indicted and have Presentments made against them for Nonconformity according to the said Statute of Uniformity and as Sinners and Transgressors of the same Yet some of the Rules in the Rubrick and the Transgressions thereof were thought so small and such little Peccadillo's that the Legislators or Law-makers did not think fit to annex and assert any Punishment to and for the same As for Example It is enjoined in the Rubrick to read the Communion Service at the Communion Table yet not One of a Thousand obeys except in Cathedrals c. and there also the Act of Vniformity is as much or more transgress'd than in any Countrey-Church in England that this Defendant knows of as shall be proved infallibly by and by But if all Ministers obey the Act of Vniformity aforesaid in reading the Communion Service at the Communion Table in the Chancel in many Churches if not in all Churches not one of an hundred could possibly at that distance and in the hollow and obscured Chancel hear the same or be more edified than if in Latine was read the said Communion Service or Mass for so is our English Communion Service said to be commonly known and called the Mass in the Common-Prayer Book put out by the Reformers who in composing and translating the said English Common-Prayer Book are by the Act of Parliament in 2 Edw. 6. Reign made for the common Use and general Practice thereof throughout the Realm said to be inspired thereunto by the Holy Ghost But here is the unsuitableness betwixt our Times and those Times they like the Primitive Christians Acts 2. took the blessed Sacrament in Cathedrals every day and in all Countrey-Churches on every Sunday and Holy-day Wednesdays and Fridays on which days onely the Communion Service was to be read nor was it wholly read but when the Holy Sacrament was administred which was usually every Sunday and Holyday in Country Churches and in Cathedrals every day and then read after the Letany and when the Letany was read then and not till then the Priest put on the Surplice or Albe and Cope And though no man is enjoined by that Act of Uniformity and Common-Prayer Book to receive the blessed Sacrament above once a year yet the Housholds in the Parish the Rubrick says were so order'd that one at least as his turn came always communicated with the Priest one or other every Sunday or Holy-day at the Altar where the Priest stood whil'st he read the Communion Service in the Chancel and might well enough be heard by the Communicants who all were in the Chancel This is to shew there is not the same reason now adays when the Holy Communion is so seldom celebrated no not in Cathedrals as it was wont when the Rubrick of King Edw. 6. enjoined the Communion Service to be read at the Altar for so is the Communion Table there stiled in that Book said by Statute Law to be composed translated or made by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost as aforesaid Again To give another Example of the constant and wilful

mark that should use such Hoods as pertaineth to their several Degrees So that to wear the Surplice or no is left to every Man's Liberty even in Cathedrals especially in all other places Hoods according to the degree not in time of Divine-Service as in many Cities and Country-places worn not for want of Ignorance but only may be worn in preaching the Sermon upon the Knowledg of a Man's Degree and Quality may recommend the Sermon possibly and possibly not the Hood is commended not commanded to be worn but the reason ceases in reading Divine-Service and Administring Sacraments or reading of Homilies which are the works of the Law not our own works and are not nor need to be recommended by the Dignity of the Reader or Administrator and therefore Hoods worn at any time except Sermon-time and Surplices forc'd upon Mens backs in reading Mattens Even-Song Baptizings or Burials whether they will or no and not leaving Men at Liberty is enjoining other Rites and Ceremonies than what the Law enjoyns as well as bowing at the Name of Jesus and bowing towards the Altar a place which some Men never pass by but they bow they ought to lose their Spiritual Promotions for such Superstition and good reason for it is either Folly or worse Popish Superstition For if he that bows still as he goes by or approaches the Altar does not fancy that there is somewhat extraordinary there that exacts and requires this extraordinary Reverence above other places then he is a foolish Coxcomb to beck and bow only to that place above all other for no reason or for nothing But if he doth believe there is something plac'd there that requires this Reverence as the Papists assert who can excuse him from the belief of that Popish Doctrine of Transubstantiation Also all are Nonconformists that administer the Sacrament without Copes on and this makes all the Ministers in England Nonconformists for no body wears Copes and most wear Surplices tho this Defendant has not worn one except at Communion-times for several Years by-past And a Cope he would wear at such time only of celebrating the Lord's Supper but he cannot get one necessitas vincit Legem And in this Instance he hath been the more copious to show how little those Boanarges or Sons of Thunder do observe how they thunder out their own Sentence and Condemnation Out of thine own mouth will I judg thee thou wicked Servant When nothing but Hell and Damnation Goals and Excommunications Fines and Confiscations Suspensions and Deprivations will serve their turns for every little Breach of any Clause in the Rubrick and where no harm ensues nor loss but gain to the People when they are perhaps married without Banes or Licence And for Men to say that bowing at the Name of the Holy Jesus our blessed Redeemer is an harmless Ceremony aggravates the Offence It is the Popish Excuse for all their multiplied Ceremonies so many that their Religion is little else or so miserably covered therewith that Men can see little else To bow at the Name of God or Jehovah the greatest of all Names is harmless but it would be endless to do it and there is no Scripture to vouch these Bowings at the Name of JESVS or GOD c. as is hitherto unanswerably proved in the last page save two of the Naked Truth the second Part. To wear two or ten Surplices especially in cold weather together with an Hood about the Neck are harmless and the Hood keeps the Neck warm in Winter but is too hot in all conscience in Summer-time but if it were not too hot nor yet too heavy yet still they are other Rites and Ceremonies than are enjoined in the Act for Uniformity and therefore punishable and unlawful And what can or dare these Rigid Conformists answer in their own defence except cry Peccavi and confess their Ignorance Let us pray for them in our blessed Saviour's words Father forgive them they know not what they do For certainly the Law does not forgive them but is clear against them What can they say for themselves why Judgment should not be given against them according to their celebrated Act of Uniformity And to say the Canons enjoin some of these Ceremonies much aggravates the Offence to play old Canons against the King and Parliament's new Acts and Statutes this is petulant and unpardonable I had almost said They had more need petition for an Act of Indempnity to pardon all Non-Conformists and to get for themselves Remission in the Crowd CHAP. XI AGain The said Rubrick says None shall solemnize Matrimony without Banes But who observes it who obeys it Do not Commissaries Officials Archdeacons Registers Vice-Registers and all that Tribe grant Licences and Faculties with a non-obstante to the Statute and Rubrick But with what Forehead and by what Authority If the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury or York should grant such Licences or Indulgence to dispence with the Statute a little more might be said for it if but a little But for these Fellows to sell Indulgences and Dispensations to the Statute where 's the Modesty or rather the Impudence The very same Rubrick is in the Common-Prayer-Book of 2 Edw. 6. For the said Statute gives no Privilege no Exception no Dispensation to any Man to solemnize Matrimony without Banes solemnly published three several Sundays or Holy-days in time of Divine Service where there are Churches and Divine Service said in such Parishes where the Parties inhabit otherwise they cannot be married without breach of the said Act or Rubrick except perhaps in that impediment because Necessitas vincit Legent And truly Matrimony tho not a Sacrament yet is so serious a thing so lasting when the Knot is once tied by a Priest ever lasting during Life that the Law could not safely have been made otherwise than by commanding such a solemn previous Publication in open Church in the Parishes where the Parties inhabit three several Sundays or Holy-days And then there could be no stoln-Weddings nor Infants trepann'd into Marriage without the consent of their Parents and Governors A Caution that even in the times of the late Usurpation was taken care for when the Justices of Peace did the Jobb And for Registers and Surrogates c. to take upon them to take Bond of 100 l. is so small a Penalty and the Bond so unwarrantable in Law that it signifies just nothing but to give a Man an Oath in the case is altogether illegal and punishable However it is contrary to Law in the said Rubrick But what shall be the Penalty The Judges alone shall determine according to the evil Circumstances and evil Consquences thereof So that if this Defendant be guilty of solemnizing Matrimony without Banes first published c. he hopes he may pass Scot-free in the Throng and amongst the crowd of so many and great Nonconformists But in this case this Defendant has more to say in his Vindication than all of them put together are

he went to visit the Brethren and see how they did and by Preaching confirmed or strengthned the Souls of the young Converts or when his Harbinger return'd with sad News of cold comfort and accommodation stopt his Coach and fac't about to the next good Town 4. Is not the Souls of Villagers and Countrey-Folk as dear to God and ought to be as dear to a Bishop as those of the Citizens and Towns of good Trade and Accommodation 5. If Confirmation be onely a Bishop's work and also a needful work as the Common-Prayer Book seems to say then why is not Confirmation the Bishop's daily work if the People want such daily bread And the Unconfirmed Persons and Children in London Westminster and Lines of Communication cannot possibly by one Bishop be confirmed in Twenty Years though he do nothing else every day in the week without resting the Sabbath although he confirmed Forty every day which are as many as he can well examine as the Law and Reason admonishes they ought to be examin'd though both his Chaplains were his Assistants in so solemn and grand Inquest on which the receiving of the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper does depend and to which such serious and previous Precaution is so necessarily requisite And by that time the Bishop and his Chaplains have spent twenty years in so good a work they had need begin their Circuit again for in those 20 years a new Generation will arise that will need their helping hand as much as the former and so for ever would the Bishop of London be employ'd in London onely and then what would become of three Counties more Essex Middlesex and Hertfordshire How should we in the Countrey make shift without Visitations Procurations Confirmations Institutions Inductions Consecrations and Ordinations for which the Bishop could spare no time if he have his hands full of Little London onely Wherein are more Professors of Christianity than were in a thousand Bishopricks in the Primitive Times 6. If Confirmation and the said previous examination and capacity be requisite as the Rubrick asserts and enjoins then will not greater Inconveniences necessarily follow Namely either making Diocesses less and after the Primitive Mode and like the Primitive Christians when no Bishop had above one Altar nor more of his Diocess than his Chancel and Church would well hold as is sufficiently and undeniably prov'd by Mr. Baxter in his Treatise of Episcopacy a Parish and a Diocess signifying one and the same thing and some one of our Parishes as Stepney St. Martins St. Gyles's St. Andrews Holborn c. the least whereof would make an Hundred Primitive Diocesses nay it is well if an Hundred Bishops could look well after one of them Parishes as they ought to be look'd after Four hundred years after Christ in Augustine's time at a Conference Provincial there were 286 Bishops and 120 absent and 60 Sees vacant 486 Bishops in one Province Or else if the Diocesses continue so vast then Suffragan-Bishops and Chorepiscopi must necessarily come into Play again or else Confirmation must either not be done or not done as it ought and as is required by the Statute to be done impossible to be done throughout a whole Diocess by any one man or Bishop in such manner as the Law enacts So that necessarily either the Diocesses must be made less or my Lords the Bishops by Bishop-Suffragans augmented in Number or else Confirmation taken out of the Common-Prayer Book or at least altered 'T is a Fable to say That Atlas alone bore up the Heavenly Globe on his single Shoulders 't is a Burden too great for any individual mortal man and so is the Office of a Diocesan-Bishop at this day except his work be made less or his Helps in Government more and greater By Helps in Government I do not mean Excommunicating Helps in Government Lay-Chancellors Doctors Proctors Registers Vice-Registers c. But Saving Helps and Confirming Helps Chorepiscopi Suffragan-Bishops a word no Nusance nor a stranger to our English Language But will that old Remedy of Suffragan-Bishops be ever listned unto What Bishop alive will be guilty of so much Self-denial as conscious of his own Inability or rather Impossibility for the discharge of so great a Cure and work as to take in Partners and Comrades to so high a Chair where some think there 's room little enough in all Conscience for one Corps I confess it would shew great Zeal in my Lords the Bishops and Obedience to the celebrated Act of Vniformitn if to shew their Conformity thereunto and their Love to Episcopal Confirmation they should Surrogate many Suffragan Bishops as Coadjutors in so blessed a work and would chronicle them and renown them to all Posterity and entitule them to the great Honor of being Conformists in After-Ages But some men do not love Honor so well as to purchase it at so dear a Rate For in all Conscience the Suffragan-Bishops that share in the Pains might honestly put in their Spoons for a Meals-meat and share in the Gains For that very Trick therefore I do not expect to live to see such a Primitive Face of the Church in this Iron Age nor so much Tenderness and Conscientiousness in the discharge of Duty and Self-denial in any Bishop but I wish I could see it In the Interim as I hap to meet with them I will see if I can persuade them to 't because the Harvest is so great and the Labourers too few no wonder so much good Corn is lost amongst the Nonconformists and Quakers and shakes in the Field for want of more hands to the work the mighty work of Confirmation Nothing can be more apposite and seasonable to conclude this Essay than His Most Gracious Majesties Declaration pag. 11. published Anno Domini 1660. to vindicate it from all appearance of Novelty in these words Because the Diocesses especially some of them are thought to be of too large Extent We will appoint such a Number of Suffragan Bishops in every Diocess as shall be sufficient for the due performance of their work 3. No Bishop shall ordain or exercise any part of Jurisdiction which appertaineth to the Censures of the Church without the advice and assistance of the Presbyters And no Chancellors Commissaries or Officials as such shall exercise any Act of Spiritual Jurisdiction in these Cases viz. Excommunication Absolution c. As to Excommunication Our Will and Pleasure is That no Chancellor Commissary or Official Decree any Sentence of Excommunication or Absolution Yet I my self was Absolv'd by Dr. Pinfold and Dr. Stearnes two L●y-Doctors in the Delegates no Presbyter being present Quaere Whether the Statute aforesaid 25 H. 8.19 which alone constitutes the Delegates gives such Delegates power to Excommunicate and Absolve how come they by the Power of the Keys Nor shall the Archdeacon exercise any Jurisdiction without the Advice of Six Ministers of his Archdeaconry whereof Three to be nominated by the Bishop and Three