Aye Here 's your Men quoth the Popish Priests Chapmen What do you lack What do you buy Then then and not till then they got the whipping-hand of the superstitious world for he that has got a hank over other Mens Souls and Consciences their Bodies and Estates consequently are without dispute at his Service and Devotion And when a Priest can make a poor Lady believe that he can damn her or absolve her and has the Keys and something else under his Girdle and can let her into or shut her out from the Church and Sacraments so that she will but shew him all her Secrets and unbosome her self in Auricular Confession Cajol'd thereunto superstitiously and bug-bear'd by many lying Miracles in the Legend of many that dyed and got as far as Heaven-gates but were glad to return a long and weary Journey to earth again to be confest by a Priest before they could be let in dying unshriv'd or unhousled can such a Priest that has got the Lock and Key of a Ladies Closet and Secrets have far to go before he come at her heart And I have therefore wondred that the jealous Italians Spaniards and Portugueze that will not suffer any man scarce a Brother to see their Wives face should yet permit them to go to secret and auricular Confession to a young vigorous unguelt piece of Sanctity I had almost said Hypocrisie I could not but wonder 'till now of late to find St. Ambrosie Ora pro nobis in the Popish Letany or Mass For what merit Oh! Captain St. Ambrose was the first Ecclesiastical-Hector or Spiritual-Bravo that in defiance of God and the King durst as malapartly as barbarously and insultingly some say Traiterously shut the doors of the Church against his Prince and Emperor Theodosius the elder not admitting him to the Sacrament nor Divine Service 'till the Emperor submitted to the proud insulting Priest and promis'd upon his knees that for the future he would be rul'd and so he and the Priest became Friends again Well I see St. James the Author the Papists say of their Liturgy and Mass though he was none of the Twelve Apostles yet was a Bishop and a Prophet too if he could so early insert into the Churches Common-Prayer Book stout Captain St. Ambrose and make him pray for himself and all Christen-Souls 400 years before he was born Oh! the merit of some mens Ecclesiastical Insolence But if Captain Ambrose was Canoniz'd and Sainted for shutting the Church-doors and debarring a great Sinner from Divine Service and Sacraments Will not the men of the same Leaven Anathematize me for opening the Church-doors thus to Sinners great Sinners and small Sinners and shut me out But it is better far to eat with Publicans and Sinners as our blessed Saviour did than to partake with Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites to whom he denounced Wo Wo Wo. Thus have I known School-Boys taught in the Church but better fed than taught to barr out their Masters and be Masters of Mis-rule upon pretence of Christmas and a Holy-time and with a Brazen-face make Declamations and Verses in praise of that precious Ecclesiastical Discipline But if I come I 'le open the Church Doors again and spread the Arms of Mercy wide open and outstretched to as great a Latitude and Comprehension as our Blessed Saviour did even to Publicans and Sinners they shall eat with me let the Hypocrites eat alone and as fittest by themselves if they will not vouchsafe to eat with Sinners let them cringe and bow and face to the Left to the Left to the East the East Sinners look you Sinners though they despise Sinners so much in nomine Domini Sinners are the best Gryst that comes to their Mills If it were not for Sinners the Bench Ecclesiastical at least would not be so scarlet as it is their Holinesses might sit alone as well as a cold if it were not for Sinners and look as lean as an Easter-Offering Sinners quoth a Who is this that despises Sinners which our Blessed Redeemer did not despise by God's help this little Book shall open the Church-Doors to let in Sinners in spight of the most self-conceited Hypocrite as far as the Old and New Testament will go I say ipse dixi What shall sin walk barefac't magisterial in open Court and unrebuk't And shall the Naked-Truth be glad to hide its Head Ha shall the wicked Extortioners of Doctors-Commons sin and will you make me suffer and be whipt for their faults upon their Backs whilst they hold me up to you Sir look you my Lord Is there any Conscience in this Look you Sir look you I am got into the Modern Rhetorical Phraze entail'd on some seats of Eloquence can it be Justice look you my Lord that I should suffer because they sin and I only wish and endeavour their amendment Just thus does the unjust World abuse the poor Cuckolds when the naked-Naked-Truth on 't is the great and only fault is in the Cuckold-makers the Whore and Rogue And must he not have a face of Brass look you and a conscience of Steel my Lord that shall vindicate that domineering Popishly invented Prelacy which the Holy Scriptures and our Blessed Redeemer condemns making all his Disciples Spiritual-Levellers Luke 22. Whose Disciples then are the Popish Prelates that in defiance of Christ will domineer over the Clergy their Brethren and vex them with Law-Suits having great Interest and great Power and withal Purse-proud to defend in spight of Christ that Antichristian Lordliness and Clergical Tyranny over their Brethren calling it as the Pope contradictione adjecto first call'd it Hierarchy or the Holy Rule But how can that be Holy that the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Jesus decries and condemns and it was first Enacted and made a Law in England when the Pope did what he list both with King and People They had and we have a happy time on 't yet most of these Popish Hierarchical Laws are abolished and that was stoutly attack't though it still stands and let it stand I said in my Naked-Truth Rome was not built and cannot be destroyed in one day it crumbles a pace If you be for Discipline and Spiritual Weapons rather Draw upon the Adulterers and Adulteresses the Extortioners impudent Extortioners in your Spiritual-Courts in Probates Administrations Visitations Ordinations grant ing Licences to Preach Institutions Inductions Procurations and if you have power to Anathematize and Curse Curse the Cursers and Blasphemers of the unparallel'd Age we live in In all the Reign of Edw. 6. I find no man taken upon the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo nor 'till the fifth of Queen Elizabeth nor any legal Cursing or Commination save that in the Common-Prayer-Book denouncing of Gods Anger and Judgments against Sinners Cursed is he that smiteth his neighbour secretly and Cursed is he that lyeth with his neighbours wife c. and all the people shall say Amen Cursed is he that taketh a reward to slay an
then made per saltum as at leap-frog skipping over 3 or 4 Heads none vaulted into the Holy See or Seat nor leapt so high at one Jump but mounted as to the Altar and Holy of Holies by Stairs Steps and by Degrees Because a Bishop should be a Preshyter or Elder 1 Tim. 3.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a young Novice And why And why what stops his Grace The Apostle shews cause for his Non-placet in the next words lest be fall into Temptation or the Condemnation of the Devil by being puffed up with Pride 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swelled like a Bladder with the Windy and Fanatical Self-conceit of his own merit when in truth that Bigness is nothing but windy Emptiness and being discovered or let out will fall and flag as Lucifer did from Heaven That is the meaning of the Condemnation of the Devil namely the same Sin of being swell'd with Pride and Self-conceit will have the same Punishment that Lucifer had But notwithstanding all this the Church made bold to crack a Commandment in the case of Nectarius who having great Friends and Relations was chosen Patriarch of Constantinople whilst he was a Souldier a Layman and unbaptized And I can tell you the Patriarch or Pope of Constantinople would have scorn'd in those days to have given the Wall to the Pope of Rome Also stout Captain St. Ambrose that would scorn to bend to the Emperour Theodosius but flatteringly cring'd to the Usur per Eugenius was chosen Notwithstanding the Canon-Law to be Bishop of Milan whilse he was a Souldier and Governonr of the same City and Metropolis of Milan nay also unbaptized as I remember Thus when the Church can nail the Canons or crack a Commandment for Men of great Parts Interest Relations and Friends surely to show its Charity it may condescend a little from its rigorous Constitution and reach a helping-hand themselves also being frail and tardy and Indulgence in this my case to me a poor little Man that has neither great Friends great Relations great Parts great Learning nor indeed great any thing save a great Adversary To the 2d Question namely Quest 2. If Christ or his Apostles did ordain such an Ordinance as Excommunication who were the Administrators Answ The Answer is easy namely such as had Ability to judg and discern Right from Wrong Truth from Falshood and an Orthodox-man from an Heretick by the Gift of the Holy Ghost called discerning of Spirits For we shall be in fine taking if upon a fair Trial and Issue what colour is such a Horse white or brown we should place a blind Man upon the Bench or Jury or Men-purblind and short-sighted The Pope craftily foresaw this before ever he applyed that of Tit. 3.10 to his Jurisdiction namely a Heretick after the first or second Admonition reject And therefore he first made himself the Infallible Judge that cannot be mistaken but alwayes discerns Right from Wrong Truth from Falshood an Orthodox-man from an Heretick for then and then only is Excommunicating a Heretick rational when built and only then when built upon Infallibility take that away and down comes the lofty Fabrick or Fortress or Cittadel of Excommunication that has so aw'd and overaw'd the whole Christian World For what a Blunder is it in Ratiocination to say the Church of Rome Alexandria Antioch have erred and the Church of England may erre and yet these same Churches shall as stifly decide and positively assert what is and what is not Truth as if they were not Seekers Searchers and Viatores but Infall ibility men For supposing a Church or Church-men may err as did the greatest Council of Bishops that ever was in the World about 700 at Ariminum Sirmium c. who were Arrians and denied the Divinity of our Saviour the Orthodox and Protestants had a good time of it to be burnt by the Bishops as Hereticks for asserting the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour Lawn-sleeves then nor all those Reverend Habits and Accoutrements of the Bishops whether the Most Reverend or the Right Reverend Fathers in God we see by many Experiments are no infallible Marks or Signs of Truth without all peradventure as if all their Placets must must must needs be right whilst they are frail like other Mortals And therefore Excommunication like Scanderbeg's Sword is but a common Weapon except it be wielded by Scanderbeg's Arm Judgment and Dexterity A Crieple would make but bungling work with it nay perhaps lose it to the Enemy and then we shall have it turn'd upon us fatally Good Crieples sit still and be quiet till you get Apostolical Arms Judgment and Dexterity for fear this two-edged Sword with which you do so cut and hack dismember and mangle the Body of Christ for a Guinee a cut be one day turned upon your selves with the fatal Edge towards you if the Enemy recover it and get it in his hand again The Enemy the common Enemy the Papists first from Tit. 3.10 Excommunicate a Heretick that is they deliver him over to Satan as the Apostles did but finding Satan would not take the Excommunicate as he did in the Apostles days then the Pope by an Arrogance as petulant as the Sarcasme surrogates the Magistrate instead of Satan to take the Excommunicate for the destruction of the Flesh and that in the most compendious way by Fire and Faggot for the destruction of the Flesh Body and Bones in the Flames And though amongst us the Heretick shall not now be delivered over to the Magistrate to be burnt since the Abolition of the Writ de Heretico comburendo yet even at this day when holy Church which yet confesses her self subject to error signifies a Man to be Excommunicate for Heresy the Magistrate takes him with the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo for the Destruction of the Flesh not with the fierce Fire and Faggot but still with a lingring death a Goal until he Repent and Recant that his wicked Error As for example Suppose a man should not with both his eyes which are good as other mens and with which he can see as far into a Milstone as any man should assert that though it be the positive Law of the Land to Excommunicate and Deprive men of the blessed Sacrament yet he cannot see in Holy Writ that Christ debarr'd Judas the Traytor nor that the Apostles ever did by Practise or Injunction command such a Discipline by some called an Ordinance of God in depriving them of the Ordinances of God as if a Physician should command that the Patient should never take a Cordial or Sanative Medicine because he is sick Alas Alas Cordial Medicines are made for the very nonce for the sick as the Sacraments for sinners and the whole if there be any such have no need of this Physick but them that are sick And if all sinners must be deprived of the blessed Sacrament and Excommunicate I doubt the Bishop and his Chancellor that Excommunicate sinners must be
The Black Non-Conformist DISCOVER'D IN More Naked Truth Proving That EXCOMMUNICATION CONFIRMATION The Two Great Episcopal Appurtenances And DIOCESAN BISHOPS Are as now in use of Human MAKE and SHAPE AND That not only some LAY-MEN but all the Keen-cringing CLERGY ARE NON-CONFORMISTS And Except they Repent Are Liable to be Indicted and Presented by GRAND-JURIES to the Loss of their Spiritual Promotions and Imprisonment without Bayl and the Patrons to PRESENT as if they were Dead when in Defiance of the Acts for Uniformity They Practise ILLEGAL CEREMONIES In Enjoyning to be worn whether Men will or no Ministring Divine-Service The HOOD FORSOOTH Or at any time except at the Communion the SURPLICE Prov'd to be SURPLUS or OVER-PLUS In bowing to the ALTAR at the Name JESUS to the EAST placing insignificant and idle UNLIGHTED CANDLES upon the ALTAR not wearing the COPE at Communion-Times using other Publick Prayers in the Pulpit than what are in the COMMON-PRAYER-BOOK 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 ECCESIASTICAL-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 when attended with the BLACK REGIMENT WRITS and LABELS CITATIONS and LIBELS CURSES and SUSPENSIONS SILENCING and EXCOMMUNICATIONS SELL SOULS and THE DEVIL OF HELL CANONISTS and CIVILIANS SUPERSTITIONS and FOPPERIES NODDINGS and CRINGINGS ILLEGAL as well as DEFORMEDVESTMENTS and SCARE-CROWS HORNINGS and STOOLS OF REPENTANCE FIRE and FAGOT BEL AND THE DRAGON the BLOODY-PRIESTS and their SURROGATES CHANCELLORS and OFFICIALS REGISTERS and GAOLERS BENCHES and EXECUTIONERS SUMNERS and PROMOTERS HANGMEN and APPARITORS Dedicated to the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY with all Modesty and Submission By EDM. HICKERINGILL Rector of the Rectory of ALL-SAINTS in Colch ster LONDON Printed by G. Larkin and are to be Sold by Richard Janeway and most Booksellers in London M.DC.LXXXII To the most Reverend Father in GOD VVILLIAM Lord ARCHBISHOP of CANT ERBVRY Primate and Metropolitan of all ENGLAND And one of His MAJESTIES most Honourable Privy-Counsellors His GRACE SIR IN this Treatise your Grace will find somewhat suitable to you in the Case of Nectarius not Arch-Bishop for that name was not then invented but which did Tatamount Patriarch of the Arch-See of Constantinople Elected thereunto per saltum or rather vaulting and skipping into the Holy-See or uppermost Seat in the Church over the heads of all not only his equals but by many degrees his Superiors contrary to the Canon-Law of Holy-Church himself also being then but a Lay man nay and unbaptized To show us that it is not the first time that the Church has crack't a Commandment to dispense with rigour and summum jus in favour of great and not vulgar merit For many reasons therefore as well as for this great and concern'd example of Lenity against the strict Rules of Law does this little Tract in all lowliness expect as well as flie so high as your Patronage and Protection And Published not so much in mine own behalf for I need not your favour but impartial and equal Justice as in the behalf of the many Dissenters and Nonconformists to the strict Rules of the Act for Vniformity With which if you cannot dispense or grant Indulgences it concerns me as little or less than your self or those Clergy-men that are here prov'd to be Non-Conformists when they too frequently practise Illegal Ceremonies in defiance of the Acts for Uniformity that enjoyns those few Ceremonies in the Common-Prayer-Book and no other mark that no other Ceremonies which other Ceremonies are therefore Illegal Superstitions in enjoyning the Surplice and yet forbearing the Cope wherein none but Popish Priests are Conformists or arayed that I know of at this day and yet the Cope is as much commanded as the Surplice And besides in bowing at the Holy Name of Jesus the impertinence at least whereof I have in all humility undeniably evinc't in my Naked-Truth the second Part except we also bow at the Holy Name of God and the Holy-Ghost names equally venerable so often as we hear them or also bow at the Name of Jesus every time a Blasphemer which is too usual swears by the Name of Jesus and yet no man dops the head much less bows the knee there-at no not in Sermon-time when we hear the Minister 100 times in an hour name Jesus Or as impertinent as that illegal and idle Superstition or Ceremony in defiance of the Act of Uniformity so generally practis'd by bowing to the Altar setting insignificant and unlighted Candles thereon and bowing to the East Nay some have been so sillily and ridiculously Superstitious as to ruine a handsom Pile and Fabrick to their own impoverishment so far as to need or get the Charity of others only by rebuilding it worse to make it face to the left and directly East and West That so Men might bow to the Altar and to the East also with one single Nod Oh! most incomparable Atchievement and no doubt meritorious Whereas Astronomy tells us infallibly that there is no such thing really as East and West but meer imaginary Points and fictitious as the Figures of the heavenly Dog and Bear that being West to some others which is East to us and East to others which is West to us But besides the Folly so it may well be called it is hereafter prov'd to be a sin against the Act of Uniformity to bow to the East or Altar and not only a Peccadillo but so great as to make us except we repent and reform that wicked Error to forfeit all our spiritual Promotions The tender Consideration whereof will I hope make us tender against Nonconformists for our own sakes it had been better tho' for Charities sake to take off our keen and fiery edge against Dissenters and Breakers of some Branch of the Act of Uniformity lest we pronounce our own Suspension and Anathema with the same mouth and for the same Cause for which we censure and sentence others I have here modestly I hope search'd into the Nature and try'd the mettal and mettle of your great and onely Weapon in your Arch-Court or Court of Arches but always under Correction and with submission to better Judgments and the Laws Excommunication So often let flie in your Name in that Court though you seldom or never come there to hear the Merit of the Cause and the Witnesses viva voce and face to face no wonder then if you make many Random-shots and wide and beside the mark if you trust with implicite Faith
in and to Registers Notaries and Advocates those spiritual Hucksters of Souls that live by Fees from sinners whose Purses they take upon the Highway to Heaven or Hell and no Repentance will serve the turn except those motley Ecclesiastical-Lay Merchants for Souls be first pleas'd that is paid their Demands ungodly illegal Demands upon sight at our utmost peril 'T is a pretty Trade indeed invented by the Pope and the Devil delivering to Satan by Excommunication and delivering from Satan by absolution but not without money in the Case Thus precious Souls for whom Christ dyed are truck't for bought and sold by these Ecclesiastical Merchant-Adventurers a gainful Trade it is too if the Naked-Truth do not spoil the Market which is more than probable And if you would imitate our blessed Saviour how well would so Gospel a work become you to your Eternal Honour in this and succeeding Ages namely to whip these Buyers and Sellers of Souls out of the Temple though you can make a Whip as he did but of small Cords to slash and lash out these Silver-Smiths of Diana that coin Heaven and Hell by that abominable craft getting their wealth making merchandize of Souls to their own as well as others destruction Away with this Foppery out of the Church and Spiritual Wickedness in High places I hate the Folly thereof discern'd now by every Peasant and derided as much as the Hypocriste of it which you in sober sadness must confess and lament as much as nay more than others sitting so high at the Helm God guide your hand I hope you will not draw your spiritual weapons upon me tho' for this Honesty and Plain-dealing instead of slashing the said Chequer-work black and white motley-colour'd Hucksters of Souls and so disparage the Title Vestra Clementia usually given to your Predecessors If you do and I over-live you do not speak to me to write your Epitaph to Posterity And be not angry that I claim Kindred spiritual Kindred and Alliance with you a Man so much above me but of the same Order and Function There are none but bloated big-swollen and imboss'd Vpstarts that are asham'd of their Kindred and Relations because they are poor and low in the world And 't is below me to tell you how equal and alike we were when we were both Fellows of Colledges together in the days of Oliver in the University of Cambridge yet I never took the Covenant or any State-Oath in my life except that of Allegiance and Supremacy Therefore for the Sameness of our Function and your own Coat do not sit unconcern'd and patiently look on whil'st the men of Doctors-Commons seem to make you a Property and a Colour by your great Name and Authority to abuse me as they have done and so crush me by Proxy in your Court of Arches This should not be amongst Brethren I grant you are Rich and I am Poor What then Do not take part with my great Adversary the Bishop of London whom I never offended but by telling Truth because he is rich great and powerful but as the Wiseman counsels you Prov. 22.22 Rob not the poor because he is poor neither oppress the afflicted in the gate But open thy mouth Prov. 31.9 judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor and needy and God-like deliver the poor from him that is too strong for him the poor and needy from him that spoileth him Psal 35.10 The wicked in the pride of his heart Psal 10.2 9 11. doth persecute the poor let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined his mouth is full of cursing Anathematizing and deceit and fraud under his tongue is mischief and vanity he lieth in wait to catch the poor he doth man catch the poor when he draweth him into his net He hath said in his heart God hath forgotten he hideth his face he will never see it The Church-doors in Popish Countries and also the Chappel-doors in Monasteries stand open all the day long to let in to the Altar all those that commit Murder of which there are more than a good many make a Trade and their onely Livelihood and Vocation But to see as I have seen what rejoycing there was by the Parish Priests or the Monasteries whose luck hapned to be best and nearest to the place where the Murder was committed how they would Joy Huzzah and Hallou as at a Prize A Prize For if the Murderer have got 20 Doubloones the common price for a Murder the Altar-keepers will be sure to make him divide share and go Snips And then The Proudest He in Portugal or Spain or Italy dare not touch the Murderer for three days together the time allowed for his Escape no not the King himself can fetch him from Holy Church for he also is asraid of the Inquisition-men But what Conscience is there that a poor Whore should be excluded the Church and Sacraments and yet the Church-doors open and the Altar ready to receive a Barabbas a Robber and a Murderer A meer gore-blood Religion sure that a man must part with his Humanity before he can be proselyted or perverted thereto Indeed the Tolerated and Publick Stews makes the Whores and the unmarried Priests some amends but they cannot play the Whore and Rogue there neither tho' by Authority 'till they get a Licence which must be paid for too I know it And can we think but that it is a hard world for some sinners to be excluded the Church and Sacraments by greater Villains than themselves And does not all the world know that not only gray hairs five or six Caps more than needs Rheums Coughs and distempers of Body but diseases of Soul too by the Simony of Flattery and looking through the fingers at sin are the best lifts to Preferment and helps to Government Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Jurisdiction of the Holy-Chair at Rome Whither the Arch-Priest is no sooner crept by those old Serpentine and Pimping Arts but he writes himself by strange contradiction the Prince of the Apostles who Good Men never had a Prince amongst them but also he stiles himself Arch-slave also or Slave of Slaves Servant of Servants And there he says true for none but the vilest of Slaves will so unman as well as unchristen themselves to pimp to other Mens Lusts thereby to gratifie their own Lusts of Avarice and Pride to which they are first enslav'd Arch-slave or Servant of Servants His Holiness is in the right on 't I profess and therein Infallible whether his Worship considers it or no. But I wonder not at his Greatness and Monstrous Ecclesiasticalship For when the Antichristian Clergy had once made the Silly-Bigotted World believe that they their Commissaries Registers and Sumners were the onely Buyers and Sellers in the Temple and What do you lack Would Men have Estates Real or Personal in Heaven for ever or in Purgatory for a certain term of years for a less Sum or be freed from Hell for Ever and
man to be delivered from Satan or absolv'd but he made him then pay for his Journey thither by Excommunication before ever he would suffer them to return by Absolution and as bad as trading goes for the Naked-Truth has almost quite spoil'd it yet it is to this day absolutely the best Trade I was going to say but that 's a lie but it is still the most gainful Trade in Europe for you run no hazard but of the first waftage to Satan and even then also if ever they be suffered to return they pay sauce they pay for all at last besides a man runs no great hazard in stock for a small stock will set a man up a little Wax and Paper and Pen and Ink except the place might cost somewhat at the entrance and admittance for a Garsome or Fine but however the Trade begins to brisk up again and sometimes they shall make you of one particular Soul especially if it be a Churchwarden's Soul ten or twenty waftages and for every waftage seven or eight pound if it be a weighty and rich Soul and long upon the Road or Voyage for they go both by Land and Water and of a poor Soul and quick passage perhaps not above ten Groats or such a matter I am sure I am within a shilling under or over if it be a poor Churchwardens Soul and sometimes thirteen shillings and four pence and sometimes I may well say a Guiney Well! 't is no laughing matter Gentlemen Proximus ardet it may be your own turns in good time there 's no body has cause to laugh that I know but the Pope and such as he first constituted Sumners Apparitor's Surrogates c. they indeed may well laugh they win There are two Books of Naked-Truth I ought to tell the Reader the third Part and fourth Part that are father'd upon me but they are spurious and unlike me or my style which is uniform at worst and some say so singular that I need not put my name thereunto 't is self-evident I never writ more Naked-Truths than This and the Second Part of Naked-Truth and the Vindication thereof against Fullwood Nor had I writ this but upon the said occasion nor troubled my self or the World with my Notions if I had not been troubled in their Spiritual-Courts for I love my retiredness having been cloy'd with the Flourish and Grandeur of the World before I chose to settle my self in an obscure and dormant Function in being a Priest In which silence I had for ever as my desire was lain hid but Providence will have it otherwise Yet after two or three experiments I think men are mad possest or bewitch'd to trouble me or trouble themselves with me incessantly to instigate and provoke a man that studies to be quiet if the Devil did not owe them a shame The Reader cannot reasonably expect that accuracy of method or spruce style in so hasty a Birth Conceiv'd and Digested long ago but writ every word in that Weeks stay I made at London in the throng of other businesses and far from my Study my Notes and my Books But he that will please to read St. Augustine in his 16th Sermon upon Gods Word in St. Matthew and in his first Book of the Lord's Sermon on the Mount and Athanasius Chrysostome and Theophylact and they will find that my Comment here upon Matt. 18.17 is not Heterodox nor Singular I have but one thing more to beg of the Courteous Reader viz. his Pardon for several escapes lapses and tautologies not to be avoided but by writing it over again But I have no leisure and less disposition to give it a second draught Let it go rough as it runs blunt and unhewn 't is natural and mine own But neither I nor the Reader will repent our cost and pains if this do but help to blunt that keen and fiery edg of Excommunication that has set all Societies in Christendom together by the ears and has been the great if not only bane of Charity the sole Test and Truth of any Religion The two most Learned Pen's Sir Thomas Moor and Erasmus Contemporaries and great Cronies together are both my Warrant and Authority as well as President for this Jocular way of writing on a weighty subject which is nauseous if it be affected and not free and natural But if it be genuine it is the most profitable way of writing upon a grave subject because pleasant For the most tough and sinewy Arguments are then most effectual when made pliable to the capacity and finely fitted to the head which the said two great names 't is rare two in one Age had got the knack of nor were any of their time more belov'd by some or more hated by others The former hated even to death The latter to damnation or rather Excommunication by the Pope and Fryars and yet for his great Learning pleasant and facetious way of Writing Canoniz'd by others for a Saint so that setting one against the other 't is fancied that he is neither in Heaven nor Hell but betwixt both in a Limbus of his own However the Town of his Nativity Roterdam as the seven Islands-Mediterranean contended for the Honour of being the Birth-place of Homer in eternal memory of his Immortal Name have set up his Effigies in Brass in their chief Church as I am informed styling him for their own Honour as well as his Erasmus Roterdamus But no man ever yet writ so well since the Christian World was and is so divided into factions as to get every bodies good word no not our blessed Jesus himself some said true of him as Peter Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God and others lyed and said Thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil And it will always be so with the best of men some shall not love him so well but others shall hate him as much either through their Native Virulency Malignity and ill Humor or else in envy of his Fame Learning Parts or Prosperity will endeavour to blacken him and do him mischief And these Delinquents the Fools and the Knaves are by far the major part of the World and therefore 't is reputation enough and to be sure the most lasting and the way to be everlasting if men be but acceptable to the few honest and wise who shall eternize the memory for fools bolts are not sooner shot than vanisht and the envy of knaves expires and ceases and is buried with and in the Grave of the Worthy Besides Truth is always prevalent and strongest at long run if it be not smother'd by an Inquisition or a Jayl the Popish methods of old but not practicable now people are generally unhoodwinkt And yet I deny not but the World I mean the vulgar are not guided by Reason Truth or solid Judgment but by Interest Fancy Opinion and Superstition yet they are glad always at long run for their own sakes to suffer the few wise men to
every Official or Commissary might testifie Excommengement that is make a Signicavit of Excommanication into the Kings Court Note by the way that Spiritual-Courts were not estemed the Kings-Courts they must be the then Pope's Courts or no bodies Courts except they themselves be Soveraigns and for mischief that ensued thereupon Ay Ay that work was worthy a Parliament if they knew but how to 'mend a retten Spiritual-Fabrick that has no foundation in the Word of God it was ordained by Parliament for Remedy But was not the Romedy still the same with the Disease that none should certifie Excommengement but the Bishop only there they hit it Did no body ever hear of a Gentleman he shall be nameless for me that would needs have a Hat button'd up of the right side but happening to put it on the wrong way stamp'd and star'd like mad at the Haberdasher Sirrah quoth he did not I speak for a Hat that button'd up on the right side yea quoth the Haberdasher but that will cost ten shillings more cost what it will cost quoth Gallant that had more Money than Wit I 'le have it so he was glad to go home and bring him the same Hat again and putting it on right all parties were pleas'd Or him that bespoke a Picture of a Horse lying tauveing upon his Back and the Painter brought it and set it before him en passant at which disappointment the Gallant rav'd 'till going home and for more Money he brought him the same Picture turn'd topsie-turvy and so the fool was pleas'd Was fault found with the Significavits of Officials Commissaries c. Oh then let the Bishop for the future send them to the Kings-Courts Ay well 't is done And what are you better when Bishops signifie just as Officials certifies Hixius doxius Face about as you were now the Cap I hope is Button'd upon the right side Are you now pleas'd Gentlemen Surely you are well helpt up now When God knows the Bishop is not ubiquitary Can he be here and there and every-where he is but a man What would you have Can he signifie of his own knowledg the merit of the Cause Or who ought or ought not to be Excommunicate when he judges meerly by hear-say and 20 Miles of and by Implicite Faith in his Proxies and of his own knowledg knows nothing whether he does well or ill right or wrong a meer Lottery for Souls And if as Cook Inst 1. Sect. 201. a Certificate upon another Bishop's report is not sufficient much more a Certificate upon a Register Surrogate or Officials report is illegal and insufficient An error in the first concoction Physicians say can never be amended in the second and third so here if the Official miss the mark the Bishop never mends it but shoots at random lets sly at all in Course and after him in Course too the Writ follows in Course Course-doings to be sure though the Sell-souls think 't is very sine It makes them sine that 's certain that 's all the good is got by this great mischief to the Kings Liege-people this 't is to be wiser than God and to set up an Ecclesiastical Discipline unknown to Holy Scripture and the Primitive times For what should a blind man do in the Gun-room he may Fire a Canon and kill a Friend as like as an Enemy or fight against God with Gods own Sword by Coring his Servants this is to kick against the pricks to bind and loose before Christ has breathed on us and given us the Gift of the Holy-Ghost the Gist of Disourning of Spirits or Spirit of Discerning take the Sword out of the Mad-mans hand or the Blind-mans hand he 's more like to do mischief with it than good Except it were lawful to have an Ecclesiastical Discipline that like an Essexâ— Jury hang half and save half or like drawing of Cuts for Souls long Cut or short Cut or like David's Revenge upon Moab making them all lie down in a Field Men Women and Children then stretching a Line through the middle of them on one side to put to death and with one full Line to keep alive 2 Sam. 8.2 A most nimble dispatch and compendious way of Execution There 's some hopes yet for a true man to escape by this Lottery but we are worse Is there any Whores Whoremasters Swearers Blasphemers c. let them live and 'mend what Ecclesiastical Discipline did ever correct a Debanchce But is there ever a true man or one that dares speak truth in a Province Sumner search him out Cite him to Court Come hither Sirrah Vallain you Rogue you speak truth in an Age of Sycophantry Pimping and Pandering make an example of him Indict him Sue him Article against him Swear against him get Witnesses to swear that he spoke scandalous Words against the great Lord Bishop Ha Sirrah Have we got you within the swing of a Statute of Scandalum Magnatum we 'll swinge him with a Vengeance Ay Ay it is even so you are in the right on 't Who dare deny you have got the whipping hand of him be sure you keep it it shall go hard else if power can but be persuaded to make curt'sie to Revenge Yea yea Did you never see the Character of a keen over-grown Churchman Drawn by a Pen not a Pencil in all his Bloody and Bloaty Features ' cwould make a man Spew to look at him in that trim with his two Appendixes Hell and the Gaol attending his Beck In good time I have it at their Service so Drawn to the Life that he that runs may read his Name in Characters and digito monstrarier dicier hic est I 'le let you see your own Faces in my Mirrour the Successors of the cruelty of Bloody Bonner Men born to ruin will never take warning yet History will tell them that a Bloody Joab never came to the Grave in Peace and the Persecuters were choak't with the Blood they spilt or drown'd in the tears of the Widows and Orphans that they made For Heaven has ears and there is a secret Nemesis a Divine Vengeance that pursues him and finds him out Lurk he behind what power he will to hide his hated Head from God's Justice Hodg like a Horse-leech still for Blood doth thirst By Blood the Villain liv'd by Blood he burst Come strike then and feel how hard it is to kick against the pricks you 'll find that striking the Naked Truth is striking a naked Weapon with a naked Hand the harder you strike the deeper you are gasht try as soon and as often as you will Iniquity and Cruelty will in time meet with its match in this World at least truth shall Conquer as Christianity got ground in the World by suffering when the Blood of the Martyrs were the seed of the Church Therefore let false men strike and spare not show as much Plodding-Policy after Revenge Craft and Cruelty as the Devil can teach them when they