tend most to the Peace of the Church for unless there were an Interval for the Bell to Toll a space after the end of the Prayer before the beginning of the Sermon the Parish who love not long Prayer will not be able to know when the Sermon begins and very many of them though they would be all glad to join with the Chaplain in his Prayer for the King yet will they many of them perhaps have Scruples in Conscience to join with him in Prayer for his Patron Patron if to be Prayed for in Publick 1. Because he may sometimes happen to be a Papist and one that seeks the Destruction of the Protestant Religion and all Protestants and many may grow doubtful to Pray for the Prosperity of such a one the same seeming to be Prohibited 2 John 10 11. Where it is said If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your House neither bid him God speed For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of all his Evil Deeds Patron a Papist 2 As to Publick Persons we are directed by the Scripture to Pray in Publick for none but Persons in publick Authority but a Papist is by Acts of Parliament Excluded from all publick Authority and Office therefore no publick Person 3. As to private Persons the Scripture and practice of the Primitive Christians direct to Pray for no private Persons particularly and by name but such as are sick or possess'd by the Devil for in such Case the direction of Christ and practice of the Primitive Church was to cast him out by Fasting and Prayer but many Patrons are neither sick nor possess'd therefore there is no direction in Scripture for them to be Prayed for by name in publick 4. The Chaplain useth to Pray for Bishops especially if Patrons wherein many Protestants may not be free to join in regard they many of them assume to themselves to be Judges of Heresie and the Rule of Heresie they make is the Four first General Councils and the Papal Canons for Ceremonies and against Lollaries the Parliament deceived by the Bishops to leave the Four first Councils the Rule of Heresie was 1. Eliz. 1. In which Act to Prohibited Commissioners appointed by the Queen by virtue of that Act If Bishops are Papists or to be Prayed for who Judge Heresy by the four first Councils to proceed in Judgment of Heresie beyond the words prescribed them the words-Prohibited in a Proviso are these viz. Shall not in any wise have Authority or Power to Order Determine or Adjudg any Matter or Cause to be Heresie but only such as heretofore have been Determined Order'd or Adjudged to be Heresie by Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first Four General Councils or any of them or by any other General Council wherein the same was declared Heresie by express and plain words of the said Canonical Scriptures or such as shall hereafter be Order'd Judged or Determined to be Heresie by the High Court of Parliament of this Realm with the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation Of the Four first General Councils by which Bishops would Judg Heresie and of the Suspition lies on such Judges to be Papists and not to be Prayed for in Publick The Four first General Councils which I suppose they mean were the Council of Nice in Bithynia the Council of Constantinople where the Great Turk Lives the Council of Ephesus where the Great Diana of the Ephesians and the Image which fell from Jupiter were Worshipt and the Council of Chalcedon in Bithynia Council of Nice As to the Council of Nice there were two one about Anno Dom. 330. the other about Anno Dom. 381. In the First called by Constantine the Great there were 318 Bishops in another call'd by another Constantine there were 350 Bishops which of these our Bishops would have I cannot tell but they may wink and choose and though each was Nice yet neither of them was more Nice than Wise for the Profit of the Bishops and the Bishops 1. Eliz. were as wise as they to join the Canonical Scriptures and the Council of Nice that nothing should be Judged Heresie without their Joint Consent for the Canonical Scripture hath not so much as one Bishop they having falsely translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bishop which ought to have been an Overseer of the Poor so as there is not one Bishop to be found in Scripture to be a Judg of Heresie any more than of Marriage whereas at one of the Nices there were 350. And in the Scripture is not one Image found lawful to be Worshipped whereas at both the Nices there were a multitude Set up Images and at the last Nice all the Holy Images of Irene the Empress which the Emperor Leo Isaurus had knockt to pieces were Restored and Two and Twenty Canons thereupon made That all Image-breakers should be adjudged Hereticks to the great profit no doubt of the Holy Bishops who knew as well as the Silver-Smiths of Diana wherein their Gain lay Council of Constantinople The Council of Constantinople was a General Council call'd about the Year of our Lord 383 by Theodosius the Emperor where were 150 Bishops of several Sects 36 of them were Macedonians who held the Holy-Ghost to be an Angel because Christ is said to send him and Macedonius their Teacher was then Bishop of Constantinople the place where this Council Sate Him this Council Deposed and his Party became thereon Excluded Members whereby all Votes passed for the Bishop of Romes Doctrine with whom the Bishop of Constantinople was always a dangerous Corrival for Supremacy there were joined in this Council Theodosius Gratian Confirmed Images and Damasus the Pope this Council confirmed the Nicene Faith and their Worshipping of Images for a Pope could not live without them Council of Ephisus Another General Council was called at Ephesus about the Year 834 by the Emperor Theodosius the Second and by the Instigation of Pope Celestine the First against Nestorius then Bishop of Constantinople who according to Evagrius l. 1. c. 7. held That the Blessed Virgin Mary ought to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of Christ Continued Images and not the Mother of God which Doctrine being dangerous to the Worshipping of Images and the drawing of the Supremacy from Rome to Constantinople the Pope got the Council called and not to sit as formerly at Constantinople but at Ephesus where Nestorius had not so much Power and there being not able to bring him to Submit to the See of Rome they Deposed him and Banished him to Oasis This Council of Ephesus is said to have left Two Copies of its Canons in certain and variant one from another and some of them are Condemn'd by the Council of Chalcedon as Suppositious which besides the Worshipping of Images continued by this Council makes it a
he ought to be punish'd in One Hundred Pounds to the King and Imprisonment one Year without Bail and One Hundred Pounds more to the Knight injured thereby or to any other Person who in his default will Sue for the same and is contrary to the two said standing Acts of Parliament of greater consequence than Magna Charta or the Petition of Right themselves for if there is a Protestant Parliament no doubt they will make and we shall not want Protestant Laws but if once there get in a Papist Parliament both Protestant Laws Religion and Protestants themselves will be all destroyed And as the Sheriff Returns Fictions to Courts so do they send Fictions to him and it is hard for him to know when they speak true and when false as if a Venire Facias be sent him to Return 12 Jurors he must Return 24 which is double the number or he shall be Fined for as they write their words in the Venire by halves so do they as it seems their Meaning by halves yet the poor Sheriff is bound to understand them to his Cost then if they send him a Pone per Vadios Salvos plegios the Sheriff must Return no other Plegii to answer their Fiction than his own Fiction of Plegii John Den and Richard Fen or they will teach the Party to have a false Imprisonment against him Suits are removed when the Plaintiff hath been at all the Cost and trouble and is ready for a Trial on meer vexation and to delay on Suggestion or Fiction of a Cause without any Oath of Calumny Attachments and Arrest of Goods and Persons is used in the City without any Oblatio Libelli or Oath of Calumny on meer Fictions and Suggestions City Law 22. but very wrongfully for a Citizen hath as good Right to Magna Charta as he hath to the Charter of the City and under the name of being free of the City doth not lose the liberty of a Subject to be free from Arrest before Judgment Coke Vind. Law 26. says Abuses of Fictions to Arrest before Judgment This brings to my remembrance how a Gentleman was Arrested for 1500 l. the same day that he was to have been Married without any colourable cause of Action spitefully to hinder his Match and was not able to give Bail but the Party being Non-suit the Gentleman notwithstanding could recover as I remember no more than 7 s. 2 d. Cost yet he lost his Monies and indeed himself by it for I know it was the occasion of his utter Undoing and a man that is Cannibally given may devour the Credit of 500 men Arresting them for 5000 l. a piece never declare yet pay no Cost though Party Arrested had better have paid 500 l. and this is so usual that 't is commonly said I 'le bestow a Bill of Middlesex on such a man to stay him in Town that I may have his company into the Countrey when I go down And I my self was informed by a Sea-Captain who was a Sufferer in such an Arrest That there happen'd to be two Merchants in London each of which designed a Voyage to the same Port of Barbary whether he who could arrive first was assured he should to his great gain obtain the Prime of the Market to which purpose they both strove with all diligence possible which should be foremost at the Spring and it happen'd that he who had his Ship first ready had entertained this Captain of my acquaintance to command her for him and all being ready to set Sail the Captain would needs walk into the City to take his parting Cup and Farewell of his Friends where unexpectedly he was Arrested for 5000 l. though not owing a farthing and the same being a Choak-Bail-Sum he knew he should get none to be Surety for him and thereupon sent to his Merchant to inform him how he was boarded before he could get aboard who being much troubled that his Captain was taken by a Land Pyrat repaired to him and understanding from him that he did not owe the Party at whose Suit he was Arrested a farthing and knowing withal that it was done by the Spite of the other Merchant to stop his Ship from getting before him he gave Bail for his Captain and sent him immediately on the Voiage All which Mischiefs happen because there is no Law to compel to give a Copy of the Declaration and Oath of Calumny before Arrest by which all Fictions are prevented All the Judicial Transactions of Fines and Recoveries are Fictions Fictions of Fines and Recoveries so though we have fled from Land to Sea and back again from Sea to Land we know not where to find Rest for the Sole of our Foot from Fictions We are next come to another horrible cause of their Increase which is that no Averment or Probation to the contrary is admitted against the Sheriff or the Clerk nor the Returns or Records how Records which are nothing but the Scribling of Clerks in false Latine and Court-hand for their Fees come to be of higher Authority than the Scripture it self is strange for it was never denied except against Mahomets Alchoran but Averment and contrary Probation might be brought against the false Copying false Translating or false Printing of any word or Clause in the Scripture or it would be very difficult to overthrow Popery What greater reason is there of so many Forgeries of Clerks but that there is no Averment allowed against their Records nor contrary Probation whereby they may for Money insert what Fictions and Falsities they please Estopples are another mischievous cause and the denial of liberty of Travers as bad or worse than the other Turpia quid referam vanae mendacia Linguae I am weary and ashamed to recite so much reflecting so deeply on the Honourable and necessary Profession of the Law Pudet haec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli But all this may be easily taken away of Fictions and Falsities if so small a matter of Form were but alter'd as to give liberty to Traverse all is false and to cause the Plaintiffs and Defendants to give Copies of their Declarations and Pleas and to give their Oath of Calumny to them for I saw it by experience in Scotland which I must acknowledg and testifie to the Honour of their Form of Judicial Proceedings That I could never for the space of Six Years observe the least Fiction in the same which I can attribute to no other cause than the wise and just Act of Parliament concerning the Oath of Calumny Jac. 1. P. 9. C. 125. and the present Practice accordingly which Act being short I have transcribed That Advocates and Fore-speakers in Temporal Courts sall Sweare THrow the consent of the hail Parliament it is Statute and Ordained That Advocates and Fore-speakers in Temporal Courts and alswa the Parties that they plead for gif they be present in all Causes in the beginning or
John Stratford Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on whom the King likewise laid the blame of his Wants writes a proud Letter to the King and desired him and his Council without delay to deliver the said Prisoners otherwise he plainly writes That according to his Pastoral Charge he must proceed to the Execution of the Sentence of Excommunication concluding how notwithstanding it was not his Intention to include the King Queen or their Children so far as by Law they might be Excused It was well for the King he was in the head of a brave Army in France for if he had been single as his Father was they who durst Menace him amongst all his Forces in the Field if he had lost the Day as his Father did were as likely to bring him for a French Pension to as miserable a destruction as they brought his Father but by Gods Providence he proved afterward Victorious but first Replied by another Letter to the Arch-Bishop That Relying on his Council he was first put on the Action of the French and that he had promised and assured him he should not want Treasure to perform the work and that notwithstanding by the negligence and malice of the said Arch-Bishop and his Officials those Provisions Granted him by his Subjects in Parliament were in so slender proportion Levyed and with such delays sent over as he was pressed of necessity to his great Grief and Shame to Condescend to the late Truce with the French though extreme Wants charged with mighty Debts forced him to throw himself into the Gulf of the Usurers in such sort as he began to look into the Dealing of his Officers some of which upon apparant notice of their ill Administration of Justice their Corruptions and Oppressions of his Subjects he removed from their Places and others of mean Degree he Committed to Prison and there detained them to the end he might find out by their Examinations the truth of their Proceedings Then he charges the Arch-Bishop with his own Corruption and declares how himself being under Age had through his ill Council made so many Prodigal Donatives prohibited Alienations and excessive Grants and Gifts that thereby his Treasury was utterly Exhausted and his Revenues diminished and how the Arch-Bishop corrupted with Bribes Remitted without reasonable cause great Sums which were due unto him applying to his own Use or Persons ill deserving many Commodities and Revenues which should have been preserved for his necessary Provisions and concluded Unless he desisted from his Rebellious obstinacy he intended in due time and place more openly to proceed against him and the King before the Arch-Bishop Submitted caused a Letter to be sent to the Pope from the Parliament not to make any more Collations of Benefices in England and prohibited them on pain of Death on any that should present or admit them which Resolute slighting of Excommunication both from Arch-Bishop and Pope though in the very time of War with France made the Pride of the Arch-Bishop stoop and with much ado got himself Reconciled to the Kings favour for which the King was bound to thank God and not the Pope or Bishop who gave him that Victory and Success against the French as neither Pope or Arch-Bishop dared to Excommunicate him Against Richard the Second one of the Articles brought against him to have him deposed was That whereas the Realm is immediately holden of God after he had obtained divers Acts for his own particular Ends he obtained Bulls heavy Censures from Rome to observe and perform them contrary to the Honour and ancient Privilege of this Kingdom whereby appears That even in a time of Popery the Assistance of the Pope and Bishops which were included in it was so far from being a Protection to the King that it was Destructive to him much more is the Assistance of Bishops likely to be Destructive rather than a Safety in a time of Protestancy The Bishop likewise Concurr'd with the rest and accused him That he had taken Money Jewels and Plate from them at his going into Ireland Bishops accuse R. 2. for Trifles to Depose him so far were they from seeking to preserve the Kings Life with those Superfluities of theirs where they could keep them and their Bishopricks together that they shewed their Fidelity to their Native King by endeavouring to destroy him For such Trifles divers other Articles were laid against him in behalf of the Bishops by whose doing only the King was utterly undone Truss 46. And not one of all the Bishops in England or Ireland spoke so much as one word to preserve their Native Sovereigns Life but only one namely Thomas Mercks Bishop of Carlisle Dilemma of danger from Excommunication As to the Dilemma a Prince falls under in expecting safety of Government from the Power of Excommunication of Popes or Bishops either the greater part of his Subjects will be Religious or Superstitious if Religious they will so easily see through the Superstition of Consecration and Excommunication as it will rather Irritate and Provoke them as it did in the late unhappy Civil Wars but if Superstitious will the Pope or Bishop make Use of the great Interest and Strength they gain thereby in the People to advance their pretended Spiritual Sword above the Temporal and their own Supremacy above Temporal Kings and Princes which if Resisted by the Princes of such Subjects hazards their being Deposed and losing Kingdoms and Lives together as appears by the Examples before Recited In the same danger is a Prince who Trusts a Temporal Officer whether Treasurer or other with too much Power of Money as Theocritus Anno 518. caused Amantius an Eunuch to give Justin Amantius the General of the Army a great Sum of Money to give the Soldiers to choose Theocritus Emperour but Justin distributed it for himself and so obtained himself the Empire The Western Emperours first raised the Popes to that height as to Excommunicate the Eastern Emperours the succeeding Popes to return their Advancers due thanks Excommunicated after the Western Emperour The French Kings assisted and after raised the Popes to such height that they Excommunicated Deposed and Poisoned the Western Emperour after by the same Power the French King gave them in thanks they Excommunicated and Assassinated the French Kings The Princes of Sicily and Naples had been mighty defendors of the Papacy but when they had made it mightier than themselves the Succeeding Popes took from them their Sovereignty to themselves As to the Impossibility of Safety of Princes amongst Subjects Educated in fear of Excommunication Subjects Educated in fear of Excommunication dangerous to Princes It is to be Noted as well from the Testimony of approved Authors as from the Scripture it self that amongst the Primitive Christians those who are now called Bishops but in the Original word signifie only Overseers were Parochial Bishops or Overseers and not Provincial and that they were the same with Presbyters and differ'd not in
conclusions or similitudes to run on four Feet or to say Because all these Communicants being Men and Women are by the Scripture call'd one Body Figurative or Politick Therefore to conclude that they are one Body natural and one Person natural And as no one body natural or one person natural can have a distinct propriety or a right of Action against it self so none of these Communicants Men and Women can have the same against one another Excellent Doctrine for the one Body made of many and Society of the Adamites I shall not here dispute which is the greatest Absurdity of Transubstantiation of Bread into Flesh in the Mass or of the Flesh of a Woman into the Flesh of a Man in Marriage or whether gains most the Priest by the former or the Lawyer by the later Cheat. But this is easily shewn that the Communicants in the later Fantastick Sacrament lose more Temporally then in the former though perhaps the other may Spiritually And in Compliment to the weaker Sex I shall first do them right in shewing the manifold mischeifs thereby ensue to them Wife made a slave incapable of propriety First By the fiction of their being made the Priest one Person with the Husband Whatsoever they have is the Husbands and what the Husband hath is his own they lose all the right of Propriety in their own Goods to the Husband as perfectly as if they had been bought by him for Slaves at a Market though the Husband hath therefore on the Wedding-Day transubstantiated into him a very fine Wife all Silk and Satin Velvet Cloth of Silver Cloth of Gold Pearl and pretious Stones Yet after the firâ—â— Month when the Moon changeth he may sell away St. Paul's Impertinent putting the Money in his pocket and transubstantiate her into a plain Petticoat and Wastcoat to last as long as she lives and when she dies bury her in Woollen and this is all the poor Woman gets by having him before Mr. Parson in his Temple and making him to promise with all my Worldly Goods I thee endow which made a wary old Gentleman as saith the Woman's Lawyer pag. 121. an acquaintant of his lest his Son-in-law though he did not take his Daughter down in her Wedding-shoes should let her after go without stockings and break her heart to see all her old feathers moult and no new spring and enforce her to take new Wings to fly to Heaven before he was willing to spare her therefore he in good earnest bound his Son-in-law in a good sound bond to give his Daughter every year so many Gowns Kirtles pairs of Silk-stockings c. Her Estate forfeited and consumed by her Husband's Vices 2. If her Husband hath mortgaged or fraudulently made away his Estate before marriage if he carelessly after marriage spend it on other Women Drinking Diceing or other viciousness if he is Out-lawed Attainted for Felony Rebellion Treason or taken in Execution for Debt or Surety-ship all her Lands Goods and Portion shall be taken from her during his life which may be longer then hers and she may wear Rags or starve if she can neither work nor beg Rob'd of her Trust in the Testator's Goods as well as her own 3. If she have a great Estate as Executrix her Husband will change the bonds into his own name sell the Leases change the propriety of all the Goods and when he dies leave her not a farthing of the Testator's Goods or her own The Turk is not so turkish to rob his Wife who is a Free-woman or to transubstantiate the propriety of her Goods into his for so 't is said Alchor cap. 4. pag. 49. O ye that believe in God it is not lawful for you to inherit what is your Wives by force and this is not only of their own goods they brought with them but likewise of the gifts of the Husband 's Goods given them by himself for it is further said ibid. Take not violently away what you have given them unless they be surprized in manifest Adultery But amongst Christians Harlots are in better condition then Wives for though the Scripture 1 Cor. 6.16 sayes in the same words of an Harlot as of a Wife Harlot loseth no Propriety Know ye not that he which is joyned to an Harlot is one Body for two saith he shall be one flesh yet never was so absurd Exposition made that the Harlot loseth the propriety of her Goods and Rights to him who lies with her It appears likewise by the Roman forms of Divorce that the married Wives who were Free-women notwithstanding their marriage retained their propriety the words of which form were Res tuas tibi habeto the word tuas shews propriety 4. He may cheat her in all his Promises or Contracts made with her before marriage as a Man promised a Women who knew no Quirks in Law if she would marry him to leave her so much worth after his death and she thereon marries him this promise is extinguished by the marriage and she shall never have benefit of it Compell'd to pay her Husband's Debts 5. He may by this Transubstantiation by many tricks in Law eause others to bring actions without cause against his Wife for his own use and Arrest Out-law and cast her in Goal at his pleasure A. B. and D. his Wife were bound by obligation in forty pounds for payment of twenty he suffer'd a Judgment by default and after suffer'd his Wife to be taken in Execution and put in Prison by his assent whereby the Wife was driven to procure her own friends to pay the Condemnation for her Husband and redeem her from her Turkish Pateroon otherwise she might long enough have lain in Algiers for he would till this was done give no Warrant for any Writ of Error and this was the Case of the good Wife at the Clock in Aldersgate-street and the Judges pittied her but little for as my Manuscript says they only smiled at the unkind and subtile device And this was done 42 Eliz. which shews that the poor Woman married by Priest though they had a Queen Regnant there had little better justice done them than now Made an Out-Law a Villain a pagan an Alien a Person forfeited c. 6. Another mischief is by this Transubstantiation she not only loses the right of propriety as a slave but the right of action as an Out-law disabled to sue for any injury done her and to express the same more full and plainly she by this blessed Sacrament of marriage by a Priest is made a Villain a Pagan an Alien an Excommunicate a Nun of Lisbon an attainted in a Praemunire a non habens personam standi in judicio against her Husband a person convicted forfeited and confiscated to his own use and what is worst of all when he hath robbed and rifled her of all she hath he may exercise his Tartarian Authority and beat her because she hath no more Is this the
humble compllment with my Body I thee worship a Divinity as Idolatrous as that of the rude Indians who first worship their Cotton-Idols and if their Prayers succeed not beat them What though the Jewish Scripture saith Gen. 3.16 Thy desire shall be to thy Husband and he shall rule over thee yet is this to be intended in acts Matrimonial not Magisterial And the Christian Scripture makes you requital and Eph. 5.28 Men are commanded to love their Wives as their own Bodies they must therefore first beat their own bodies or suffer their Wives to beat them before they beat theirs and you are made as great Rulers over the Husbands Bodies as they over yours 1 Cor. 7.4 And likewise also The Husband hath not power over his own Body but the Wife Ladies I pity you that Scripture has been so ill translated and ill expounded in all your concerns of marriage and the more in regard you have as bad dealing from the Expositors of the Law as the Gospel for Brook 12 H. 8. fo 4. says plainly Beaten by her Husband hath no Remedy That if a Man beat an Out-law a Traytor a Pagan his Villain or his Wife it is dispunishable because by the Law these persons can have no actions But I wish Ladies the next Law made for you may sort you with better company or farewell to England to be the Paradise of Women Husband suffers others to abuse and ravish her she hath no remedy 7. The Husband may not only be cruel to his Wife himself but command others to beat and abuse her and she hath no remedy yea if another Ravish her she hath no remedy to recover damage unless he will assent to joyn with her in the action as 8 H. 4. fo 21. A Woman was Prisoner in the Marshalsy and made a suggestion to the Court that the Marshal's man had ravish'd her in Prison Gascoigne commanded the Marshal to take his Man to his custody and his staff from him And the Court told the Woman that she alone could not bring the Appeal Sans Sons Baron but if her Husband would come and they two together prove the Rape the Ravisher should be hanged or otherwise not a Woman is in a sweet case if her Man is a Wittal and willing to make money of her Made a prey to all will seize her 8. This encourageth vile persons to rob the Noble and Rich of their Daughters and makes the City of London so insecure for young Ladies that few great fortunes escape from being betrayed to persons unworthy of them whereas if marriage changed not the propriety goods and right of the Woman to the Man but left the same as full in the right of the Woman and her self in as full ability and capacity to Purchase and Sue for her self as before she and her friends would be able to take some course to preserve her and her Estate and such Insidiators be discouraged where they saw their hopes of making a prey taken away 9. This gives the Husband if she dies and leaves Children power on a second Marriage to give her Goods to a Step-Mother and cast off her Children 10. It gains the Husband power to get as many Women with Child as he pleaseth and to maintain them and their Children with the Goods of the Lawful Wife Transubstantiation brings the same mischief to the Husband as to the Wife The Man again is as bad mischiefed by this Transubstantiation as the Woman 1. This gives power to steal and esloigne all her Husband's Substance and put it into the hands of his Enemies 2. It gains the Woman power where she is not able her self to hire unknown persons with her Husband's Goods to rob beat disseize the Husband and Esloigne his Goods from him 3. This gives her power to lay all her secret and unknown debts both true and feigned by her Confederates on her Husband and to undo him 4. Gives her power to commit as many Trespasses either with tongue or hand truly or by confederacy with her Complices making her Husband liable to pay the damage and undo him 5. It Gives her power to hire Adulterers with her Husband's Goods Whereas it is well known Men and Women of all estates and conditions if they have not been before a Priest in a Temple will live forty years together in one House and dare not rub beat or injure one another because they have liberty to sue for damage which benefit this sottish Sacrament of Priests and Lawyers gives not persons transubstantiated A Law would be thought very absurd and unjust which should Enact That no Man or Woman should sue one another in the Common-wealth what horrible wickednesses and villanies would be committed by the two Sexes one against onother but it is more unjust to make such a Law in Families and more unjust to make such a Law between Men and their Wives then in Families For in the Common-wealth such as are persecuted in one City can fly to another In Families such as like not one anothers company and are unmarried can be received and have protection in other Families But Men and their Wives are chained together and cannot avoid the injuries of one another and have no remedy unless they have the same liberty too for injury and propriety of their own as all other Subjects have and not compelled to live as Out-laws deprived of benefit of Law A Note taken at the King's-Bench of the miraculous Transubstantiation of a Shoulder of Mutton between a Man and his Wife Being a Puny I went as others did in a morning to Westminster to the King's-Bench to hear and see the Forms of proceeding Transubstantiation of a shoulder of Murton where amongst others a Counsellor moved at the Bar in arrest of Judgment and for Cause alledged That the Plaintiff in his Declaration complained against A. and B. his Wife that amongst other Goods they had taken Armum ovillum Anglice a shoulder of Mutton from him and converted the same to the use of the said A. and B. his Wife the ground of the exception against that part of the Declaration was because though the Wife eat her share of the Mutton with the Husband yet the same ought not to be said to be converted to the use of the Wife but only of the Husband the ratio rationis was because the Wife is one person with the Husband that is to say transubstantiated into him and she being transubstantiated the shoulder of Mutton which she eat must be likewise transubstantiated into him and so the shoulder of Mutton was converted wholly to his use and not to the use of the Wife And so some Precedents were cited for it and others contrary which profound piece of Popish Transubstantiation did so puzzle the Court that they would give no resolution then but would consider of it and settle a course in it which made me being not arrived beyond natural simplicity to think them all mad who