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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	priest_n	6,450	5	6.6355	4	true

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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

Hell for Ever and 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-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 granting 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

by the Election of the Major part of the Presbyters within the Archdeaconry 4. To the End the Dean and Chapters may the better be fitted to afford Counsel and Assistance to the Bishops both in Ordination and other Offices mentioned before c. Moreover an equal Number to those of the Chapter of the most learned pious and discreet Presbyters of the same Diocess annually Chosen by the Major Vote of all the Presbyters of that Diocess present at the Election shall be always advising and assisting together with those of the Chapter in all Ordinations and every part of Jurisdiction which appertains to the Censure of the Church and at all other solemn and important Actions in the Exercise of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction wherein any of the Ministery are concern'd And Our Will is That the great work of Ordination be constantly and solemnly performed by the Bishop and his aforesaid Presbytery 5. We will take Care that Confirmation be rightly and solemnly performed by the Information and with the Consent of the Minister of the place who shall admit none to the Lord's Supper 'till they have made a credible Profession of their Faith and promised Obedience c. This was the Judgment of His Majesty in that Declaration which see at large to which the Parliament that made the Act of Uniformity gave so much Deference and Reverence That they Publickly gave His Majesty Thanks for the same And as to the matter in hand concerning Confirmation they Enacted it almost to a Tittle which see in the Rubrick foregoing that Sacred Office But who is Conformable thereunto and who are the Nonconformists now And who makes a pause in the work 'till first be obtained the Information and Consent of the Minister of the place without which in the Judgment of His Gracious Majesty Confirmation could not be rightly and solemnly performed It has been prov'd that if a Diocesan-Bishop had no other work besides Confirmation only it is impossible that all the Bishops in England should confirm those that want Confirmation in this one only Diocess of London though they did nothing else and left their own Sees vacant if they observe the Rubrick and Act of Uniformity and not do it as is too frequent perfunctorily and shamefully but with such previous caution scrutiny examination and circumspection and with Certificates thereof and Godfathers and Godmothers as the Common-Prayer-Book enjoyns Grant Confirmation to be a good and needful work yet the Law enjoyns Impossibilities if no one man can possibly be sufficient for these things though he shake off all worldly Affairs and Counsels Again If a Diocesan-Bishop had no other work but only to teach and exhort his Flock publickly and from House to House as Ignatius tells us all Bishops did in his time in the second Century before ever any Diocesan-Bishops were heard of for Bishops then were to enquire after every one by name even Man-servants and Maid-servants even this necessary feeding-work of a good Shepherd would be fully employed in a single Parish and in such a Parish as Saint Andrews-Holborn London there would be work enough for the Bishop and his Dean though the Lecturer and Reader came in to help For no Bishop in the Primitive-times nor 'till Pope Silvester I. had more than one Flock one Altar one Church nor then neither except only in Rome and Alexandria Indeed the Apostles that had the Gift of Tongues travelled all Nations and were Itinerant Preachers for the most part but I speak of setled standing Officers of the Church called Bishops or which is all one in Scripture-Language as Dr. Hammond Jo. Gerson Grotius and most learned men generally agree to be all one with Presbyters for a Sub-Presbyter such as parish-Parish-Priests are made in England is not to be found in the Holy-Scripture of the New-Testament nor the Prime-Primitive-times How then and when did diocesan-Diocesan-Bishops come into the World and wherefore may some say To which I will answer but not before some-body answer me this Question How when and wherefore Hell and Devils came into the Word for from the beginning Hell and Devils were not Some say it was Pride and Ambition that made Angels of Darkness of those that were first Angels of Light Lucifer would be like his Maker ambitious for Rule and Domineering and like God to be Omnipresent and Ubiquitary Therefore Down Lucifer Down to Hell and be condemned said the Almighty to Everlasting Chains of Darkness to the Judgment of the Great Day History Ecclesiastical tells us that the Chorepiscopi or Country-Bishops just like the Rectors of the Parishes saving the Name nay even the Name too of Prelates and Hierarchici was given to Parish-Presbyters though Parishes are no antient Invention Presbyteri qui praesunt Ecclesiis c. Concil Aquisgr and the Learned Filesacus p. 576 577. proves it abundantly that Presbyters were called Prelates as well as Bishops Episcoporum instar suam habebant plebem regendam I say the Chorepiscopi were dismist of their Authority by the rich adjoyning City-Bishops ne vilescat nomen Episcopi poor Country-Bishops that have no Lordly Equipage will make the name of Bishop cheap and vile and vulgar Ay Ay so it will What Can a Lord-Bishop found like a Lordly Name when poor fellows such as St. Paul the Tent-maker and St. Peter the Fisherman and poor Country Rural Beggarly Bishops pretend to the same Power and Authority in Name and Thing Can the name of a Bishop found Lordly and Domineering over the rest of the Brethren of the Clergy if it be common to every beggarly Minister of Christ and Steward of the Mysteries Therefore make Room and enlarge the Boundaries the Arch-bishoprick of York was glad to swallow seven little Bishopricks at one gulp to make it swell but to the bigness it is now of yet lopt and cropt Can the Tythes of a single Parish maintaian six Lackqueys six Grooms and as many idle Gentlemen or as the Dutch style them idle men Can lean Easter-Offerings buy a guilt Coach Come tell me that Or can a single Acre of melancholly and solitary Glebe-land make fat six Flanders-Jades or Coach-Horses No you must say No why then read the Learned History of the Council of Trent compos'd by Father Paulus a Papist but as great an Enemy of proud Prelacy as any Protestant he will tell you in Page 330 331 332 333. How Grandieur Grandieur And make Room there Sirrah for my Lord Bishop after the Emperors became Christian crept gradually and stole into the Church unknown to the Primitive and New-Testament sanctity I owe the Pope one touch more of my Pen if it be but for bringing in maintaining abetting and promoting Prelatical and Ecclesiastical Lordliness and Domineering in spight of his vaunted Predecessor St. Peter and in spight of our Blessed Saviour 1 Pet. 5.3 Luke 22. to both which he vaunts himself to be the Vicar or Vicegerent Luther's single Pen gave his Holiness such a crock or scratch the wretch has

Pope hard-hearted wretch can deliver them but not a Soul of them except they or some-body for them down with their dust and ready Darby they will not trust for a twelve-penny piece which is the price of a Mass it seems now a days but when I was in Spain and Portugal they were cheaper one might have had two for a shilling and thank you too nay an Irish-Fryar a Teague Benedicite would make you twenty Legs too into the bargain with Abou bou bou by Chrees and by St. Patrick Fait and Trot by my Shoule Joy Never did such a silly cheat reign so long before in the whole World but it was only because they kept the people in ignorance and if any man durst offer to enlighten them and speak the Naked-Truth the Pope and his Inquisition and Emissaries were as spightful cruel and devillishly bloody as any are now amongst us at this day against the Naked-Truth They are vildly loth to lose their domineering insulting Kingdom of Darkness and are as mad as Bethlehem if men will not be Asses and tame Beasts and suffer themselves as of old to be caw'd crow'd over and Priest-ridden 'T is said of the Germans That just before God had raised up Luther to awake them and rowze them they were grown so fottish and be-jaded having so long been Priest-ridden that their Priests might almost have perswaded them not only to lye down and let the Priest whip them or which is as bad or worse make them whip themselves both of them daily Penances at this day in Popish-Countries but also they might easily have been perswaded poor Asses to eat Grass Surely English men are not so dull and tame to be Hen-peckt or to be rid and bestrid at such a rate I hope I confess I have not the patience to endure it But though the Pope says Christ gave Peter that is himself he says though his name be Pius Sergius Innocent or Alexander the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven be it so we will not now quarrel about it yet how the Devil and he should be so kind that the Devil should trust him or prefer him to a Porters place in the Kingdom of Hell I cannot imagin I am sure there is no Scripture for it Nor any reason or any thing else in the case but the Money-case I think I have sufficiently evidenc't that in Matt. 18.17 there 's nothing like it nor from or in imitation of the jewish-Jewish-Church and Gods Platform of his own making neither God nor Christ in the Old nor New Testament ever gave Authority Power or Command to any man High-Priest or low-Low-Priest or any Assembly of men Clergy or Lay-Elders to turn men out of the Church and shut and lock them out from Divine Ordinances the comfort as well as cure of Sinners much less did ever prostitute such Sacred Mysteries to sale and make a Money-matter or a Money-business of it this was the inyention of Pluto the Money-God or Money-Merchant or his Factors the Popelings Nevertheless though I assert this yet I do not deny but the King and Parliament may impower Bishops or who they please to Excommunicate but I say I see no Scripture for Excommunication Indeed in our Saviours time the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sanhedrim or Synagogue or Courts of Justice were Jewish-Justice but put into Commission by the Roman Governour the High-Priest was a Jew but ordain'd by the Emperor or Roman Governour nor durst not call a Court or Sanhedrim but by permission of the Romans Archelaus the Son of Herod was by his Father constituted and appointed in his lust Will and Testament King after his Fathers Death but he durst not own the Name of King till Caesar confirm'd him Nor durst the High-Priest act till confirm'd by the Roman-Governour in any great affair as Josephus relates in his 20th Book of Antiquities and he was in a grievous quandary for procuring the Death of James the Just the Brother of our Lord during the interregnum after Festus his Death and before Abbinas his Successor was arriv'd in Judaea in his Government But I say the Romans usually granted the Conquer'd Jews to use their own Laws and to be govern'd by their own High-Priest and Countrymen and Sanhedrim but always under favour and under correction still of the Romans This Sanhedrim or a Synagogue then was the same in Christ's time as appointed in the Law of Moses namely the High-Court of Justice and the Lower-Courts of Justice and all the Magistracy they ever had But our Blessed Saviour he never changed the Government that was enacted and established by Moses's Law nor suffered his Disciples to innovate any thing in the Civil-Government or which is all one Spiritual-Government Sanhedrim or Synagogue Which if our Saviour had ever spoke against no doubt but his Adversaries that lay at catch would have accused him of it and laid it to his charge when they so thirsted after his Blood Of this Court of Jewish-Magistracy our Saviour speaks when he says in Matt. 18.17 tell it to the Church or Synagoge or Sanhedrim Which I say was not a meer Spiritual Court no no it was no Bawdy-Court but a Court of Justice for Trying Causes whipping men beating them stoning them to Death In this Court St. Peter and St. John were threatned and St. Stephen stoned Acts 7. And the same Court had stoned Peter and John too but that they durst not for fear of the people that were so taken with them for that a notable Miracle had been done by them in curing a Cripple that was born Lame from his Mothers Womb Acts 3. and this was such an evident demonstration of the hand of God going along with them and done so publickly and only with a word in the powerful Name of Jesus that the people could not but admire it and applaud it Whereupon they were put to a notable plunge and when they had laid their Heads together Acts 4.15 They were at their Wits end and knew not what to do Acts 4.16 For on the one hand they resolv'd to do all the mischief they could or durst and on the other hand they had no other colour for doing mischief to the Apostles but only that they had done good and cured a poor Cripple and that would bear no colour for their intended cruelty against them What shall they do What shall they do They were mischievously bent and were resolv'd to do as much mischief as in them lay but that that perplext them and put them to this sad perplexity the people the people could not be gull'd with any colourable mist to blind their eyes and make them believe they punisht the Apostles for Treason or Sedition or Heresie therefore the Text says Act. 4.21 Finding they sought but they could find nothing how they might punish them the Apostles why could they find nothing 't is answered in that Text Because of the people for all men glorified God for

Souls The Apostolical pretenders Preach not one farthing better many much less I do not say much worse than when they were poor Priests Peter set ope ' the Prison-Doors and made a Goal-delivery But some the Goals would fill if they might have their Will Peter said indeed Silver and gold have I none And these indeed scarce know when nor think they have enough In short as I said once before I protest I do not know wherein St. Peter's pretended Successor imitates Peter but in denying his Master I wish I could see him on the stool of Repentance and weep as Peter did weep bitterly Instead of making others weep with their Inquisitions High-Commissions and their Tricks and Shams making the poor Widow and Orphans weep and curse them Apostolical men Successors and Imitators of the Apostle For shame no more With what Forehead I hate the Impudence more than the Hypocrisie Paul labour'd with his hands to get a Living others labour to undo men and their Families Paul had a Viper on his hand did him no hurt others have Vipers in their hearts and do as much hurt and mischief as in them lyes Paul raised Jairus's Daughter to life these breathe nothing but Goals Pillories Excommunication and Destruction Paul Excommunicated Swearers and Blasphemers and some Popes History says and Apostolical men would Blaspheme upon occasion Curse and Swear like Hectors But what and wherefore in nomine Domini do these men pretend Right to Excommunicate because St. Paul did it or the Primitive Church of Corinth that had both St. Paul's special order for it and his Spirit and his Sentence 1 Cor. 5.3 4. They had Gifts of the Holy-Ghost particularly that without which no man was so impudent to bind or loose or pretend to the power of the Keys in the Primitive times that wanted it namely the Gift of Discerning of Spirits St. Paul could see through a man into him into his very heart so could St. Peter and therefore did that which is a sin in any of us to do that have not the gift of Discerning of Spirits Therefore St. Paul called the Conjurer Elymas Enemy of all righteousness and Son of a Devil and St. Peter by his Spirit perceiv'd that Simon Magus was in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity The Pope and Popelings are ready enough at calling of Names but clavis errans they Nick-name men and call him a Child of the Devil that is more a Child of God a thousand times than themselves and yet they 'l be doing their endeavour and good-will to deliver them to Satan and yet God will not suffer Satan to take one of them that they Excommunicate that we know of no signs nor marks on 't but rather as they say of the Foxes proverbially The more they are curst the better they thrive Take him Satan Satan will not then take him Magistrate he must Whereas the Apostle Paul that made the Church of Corinth Excommunicate the Incestuous person it was for the destruction of the Flesh and Diseases as they did Job when God Excommunicated him or delivered him to Satan either kill'd him or brought him nigh unto the Grave if great Godly sorrow did not intervene Away with this Mimickry and Pageantry and Apish Imitation If we have the Spirit of the Apostles we are Apostolical men indeed they Peter and John Acts 8.17 Layd their hands on the Disciples and they received the gifts of the Holy-Ghost So the Pope and Cardinals c. they will be imitating and seem to do something and they 'l Confirm by Laying on of Hands but not that neither right according to their own Rubricks as I 'le show by and by but cui bono Away with Lying and Vanity let God be True and every man a Lyar I would appeal to any mans Conscience If ever he received any Gift of the Holy-Ghost by such Imposition of Hands and speak the Naked-Truth now and do not cogg lye and flatter your self nor dissemble any of you that ever was B Be-Pop't or that any Pope would tell truly and not lye Whether he felt whilst he was at it with Imposition of Hands that any vertue went out of him as it did out of our Saviour when he did the Woman good Away Away with Folly and Pageantry at this time of day God will not be mocked And every Plant that my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out saith our Blessed Redeemer and I believe him let Hell and the Pope think themselves never so cock-sure and culminant 'T is readily granted that if any man was a Heretick they should avoid him or reject him and cast off his Company in ordinary Conversation and if any Brother walked disorderly they should not eat nor drink nor dine nor sup with him that he might be ashamed But to think that God or good Men the Prophets Christ or his Apostles did ever in the Old or New Testament command any Men Synod or Synagogue Church or Court that they should shut the Church Doors and shut out the worst of Sinners from the Sacraments or Communion or hale them into Church either by the Head and Ears or which is the same Excommunicate him or put him out of Commons or the Communion of the Church the only Food and Cure of our Souls and made on purpose for Sinners is an opinion as senceless and groundless as it has been baneful and mischievous to all Societies and the Peace of Christendom I grant though sacra sacris and Holy things ought not to be cast to Dogs therefore the Text says Examin your selves and so eat of this bread and drink of this cup. Examin himself It is not said examin him Priest and confess him you Priest and Catechize him John Presbyter nor you Lay-Elder But let him examin himself and so let him come but sao piculo at his own Peril But the Church nor the best of men are not defiled with communicating with the vilest of sinners Was there ever any better than our Blessed Saviour or worse than Judas yet Christ eat the Passeover with him and probably the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper yet he then knew him and had Publisht him a Traytor whom before he call'd Devil I hate the Puritanical Pharisaical Hypocrisie of any Religion they shall be defiled with communicating with Sinners Drunkards c. And yet St. Paul and the Church of Corinth as good as the best of them are not commanded to forsake the Lords-Table though we read that some came thither Drunk and to fill their Bellies with the Bread and Wine 1 Cor. 11.21 Alas every man has enough to do if he mind it well to look after his own Preparation but that any that had not the Gist of Discerning of Spirits nor these neither did Excommunicate or forbid the Communion to any in the Old or New Testament I boldly say 't is false Nor can they prove but that he that was delivered to Satan did also come if

he could for Diseases to Sacraments Prayers and to Church the ready road to have his Spirit saved in the day of the Lord Jesus I wish they were cut off that trouble you that is I wish the Devil had them in his power to inflict Death or Diseases upon them for it is impossible that the Apostles should be so uncharitable to their Spirits or Souls as to wish them cut off from the Church Militant or Triumphant except by some extraordinary and particular Revelation For cutting off and delivering to Satan are the same thing and it is clear the Apostles lookt upon the Incestuous Person that was delivered over to Satan as a dying or dead man because he adds That his spirit might be sav'd in the day of the Lord Jesus And so both in the Old Testament by the Septuagint and in the New the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking out of the middle of you cutting off is never used that I remember but for the death of the Body or Soul and therefore can never signifie Excommunication Besides we never find in Holy Writ that Interdicting the Sacraments or debarring from the Communion was ever used for a Punishment The Leper or he that had touched a Dead Body or a Menstrous Woman c. were Excommunicated properly or put from Holy Communion but these Impediments did as likely befall to the good as well as to the bad and was not put for a Punishment Oh! but this was a Type of Excommunication under the Gospel That 's good and well said a Type of that that never was and never will be first prove Excommunication a Gospel-Ordinance and then 't is time enough to show where it was Typified And as if Real and not only Typical holiness were not as requisite under the Law as under the Gospel it was a sin then as well as now to make many Prayers when the hands were full of Blood And strange it is that the Apostle that warns Timothy Tites and the Presbyters or Bishops for the Presbyters Vers 17. are called Bishops Ver. 28. Acts 20.17 28. of Ephesus to do their Duty should not besides feeding the Flock charge them also to fleece the Flock and starve the Flock by depriving them of Communion or Spiritual-food upon occasion if Excommunication be the Appurtenance of a Bishop or Presbyter And that our Blessed Jesus that took such care to mind Peter if he lov'd him to feed his Lambs and seed his Sheep should not if it be a sacred Ordinance speak a word to fleece them and scourge them and interdict them spiritual food upon occasion or if they stray No no if they stray thou that art a good Shepherd reduce them thou art well kept and paid for the very nonce Which brings to my mind this Parable or Story I will not say 't is true and real more than the Parable of Dives and Lazarus And it begins too just as that Parable begins There was two certain rich men which were Cloathed in Purple and Fine-Linnen and fared sumptuously every day but all these good things were frankly bestowed on them at the mercy and by the favour of the King upon condition though that they would be Shepherds and feed his Sheep and anoint them for the Scab and underlook them but not worry them nor destroy them nor Fleece them nor Shear them to their own private use nor plague them nor vex them though perhaps the Sheep might sometimes stray and straggle and go a wrong Road and tire perhaps and fret the Shepherds with following and running after them yet they were not to revenge themselves upon the stray Sheep and set their Wit against theirs but gently reduce them and do nothing rashly maliciously revengefully or peevishly except perhaps some of the Sheep should be incurably scab'd and then the King promised he would give the Shepherds good Wages and Hire and they should want for nothing Who would have refus'd a Shepherds office upon these easie terms or who would desire better terms than to do good not to kill not to do mischief not to destroy But so it hapned that the two Shepherds though they had several Flocks and several fat Pastures yet the Sheep graz'd all on one Common in distinct Flocks whilst the Shepherds could meet together and view them and over-see them and yet enjoy one another feast together and laugh and talk together And as I said before they wanted for nothing but their Pouches was full of Money their Bottles full of good Wine and their Scrips full of good Victuals and variety enough Yet so it was one morning one of the Shepherds came to the other puffing and blowing fretting and fuming and so out of breath that he could scarce tell his Tale. At length and after some pause recovering himself Brother Shepherd quoth he was ever man so plagu'd as I have been this morning with running after a stray Sheep Wanton and Fat I think he has led me a fair dance I am so tyred I have scarce breath enough left to tell you and to make this complaint Indeed and indeed quoth the other to his Brother and is this true yea very true replied he see but how I fret and sweat his Brother being tender-hearted could not but pity and take compassion on his fellow Labourer and so much the more because for ought he knew his own Flock might take example thereat and lead him a dance he knew not how soon and put him also in the same pickle sweat and balnio They parted though for that time to consider alone and afterwards joyn Heads together and study how to be reveng'd of the said wanton fat Weather if it were but for example-sake to all the other fat Sheep in the Flock for the lean Hags poor Souls were tame enough they had more mind to graze and eat than to be gamesome and they kept them to sharper Commons on purpose to make them be gentle and easie to be guided Well something must be done that was resolv'd but what or how to proceed they could not well tell Let 's eat him says one Ay quoth the other that would not be amiss but the craft's in the catching him you saw I sweat with but running after him and could scarce give him a turn Besides we have Victuals enough of our own and need it not and also the King has commanded Feed my Sheep but Fleece them not much more do not kill Do not steal let them live and 'mend they would have turn'd him out of the Flock too but they had no Commission for that At length one of them found out a Quirk an Evasion an Exception in their Commission viz. Except perhaps some of the Sheep should be incurably scab'd and I say He is a scabbed Sheep How shall we prove that quoth the other for I understand by you that he is so wanton he would never suffer you to come so near him as to feel him and

makes it a necessary qualification of a Priest to be a Linguist and yet to my knowledge not a Fryar in forty can speak true Latin Did the Apostle deliver the Incestuous Person by his spirit to Satan and also the Blasphemers Why the Pope would be at it too though he cannot Kill whom he Excommunicates for Hereticks 'till he makes the silly Bigotted Magistrate Gregory it for him And so also most of the Popish Prelatical-tricks are meer Mimickry and Idle as well as Apish Imitation of the Apostles And he is fore't to pretend to this Juggle and Cheat because his Ambition has Entitul'd him Peter's Successor and his pretty Cardinals and Bishops Apostolical men give the Word backward for these Apostolical men Apostolical men Thus the Gypsies imitated Moses and Aaron with their Inchantments Exod. 7. till Aaron's Rod swallowed up their Rods yet Pharaoh's heart was hardned and he and all his Conjurers look't upon all Religion as a humane Invention till by being abominably Lousie and like Atheistical Herod eaten up with Lice they confest Digitum Dei the Finger of God Nor do I think the Popish Conjurers will ever part with their dear dear precious gainful Money-Trade of the Keys till some remarkable Judgment fall upon them for the Abominable and Atheistical abuse Alas the Keys 't is plain were no silver Keys nor earthly worldly mens Keys and therefore when Christ gave them to Peter he calls them Matt. 16.19 The Keys of the kingdom of Heaven So that an Excommunicate Person clave non errant if justly and duly Excommunicated by Persons qualified as the Apostles were with the Gift of the Holy-Ghost called the Gift of Discerning of Spirits without which we never read in Holy Scripture that any Man or Church took upon him or them to Excommunicate any body I say such an Excommunicate Person is by the Evangelical Precept to be as much shut out of Church as if he had never entred in or as much as and no more than a Heathen-man or a Publican But that ever Christ or his Apostles or the primitive-Primitive-Church did ever intend by Excommunication to lay claim to his Purse or deprive him of his Freedom Liberty or Property Moneys or Lands as the Jesuits held by asserting that Dominion is founded in Grace and is the ground-work of the Pope's Tyranny and Vsurpation over Princes and their Subjects is no where found in Holy Writ nor any such Appendix Writ or Label hanging at any Excommunication that ever I heard of in the Gospel or Primitive Church Nor the least hint in the Gospel that our blessed Saviour who would not suffer a Prelate no not St. Peter amongst his Disciples should under colour and by vertue of Excommunication grant them a Licence to rend and tear rant and domineer as nay more than the Princes of the Gentiles over one another much less by such a stratagem to deprive Nonconformists Atheists or Libertines of their Lands or Goods Freedom or Free-hold nor ever attempted any such Invasion of the Heathen Emperors Dominions but quite contrary paid them Tribute taught subjection to them by vertue of Religion not usurpation upon their civil Rights under colour of Religion and this no Man can deny who does believe our Saviour when he said My Kingdom is not of this world And therefore he never meant when he parted with these Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to his Church and Servants that they should flourish them huff and vapor with them fight and quarrel threaten and revenge or vend their malice with them or much less knock Mens brains out with these Keys or by the help of these Keys by more nimble conveyance get into their Purses or pick their Pockets or which is worse lock them up in a Jayle by vertue of these Keys and deprive them of their Lands and Livings Liberties and Properties No no it was the Pope the Pope and his Off-spring that first turn'd these Keys the wrong way as I have said and contrary to the way of Christ for which he and all such as he meritoriously deserves the name of Antichrist or contrary to Christ 'T is Pride devilish Pride call 't what you will that makes men Lord it over God's Heritage and enslave their Bodies and Souls too together with insatiable Avarice in greedy Dogs that can never have enough 'till they get the Devil and all This makes the Popes both the greater and the lesser by the abuse of Excommunication or the power of the Keys to cram their Coffers to enrich their Nephews and satisfie their Whores when decrepit old Age cannot surrogate to their Lust and therefore my Letany is From the Popes both the greater and the lesser From Le Chese the French Confessor And from his Popish Successor Libera Libera CHAP. IV. ANd I 'le justifie it it is but a Branch of Popery in any sort of people that decry the Pope and all his Works if they do the very same things whilst poor men change their Lords indeed but not the Lordliness and Vsurpation And that Incestuous Person that was Excommunicated and Delivered to Satan I Cor. 5.4 Wherefore was it To what end and purpose The same Text tells us for the destruction of the flesh his lustful Flesh or fleshly Lusts not for the destruction of his Estate Freedom or earthly Priviledges but that his spirit might be saved All the design and all the management and all the consequences were spiritual purely spiritual Our Blessed Saviour though it was proffer'd him and some would never have refused the Preferment that have not the mind of Christ would not be a Judg in Civil matters Counsellor nor Privy-Counsellor For his Kingdom was a spiritual Kingdom his Rule a spiritual Rule in mens Hearts and Spirits by his Word and Spirit his Weapons were not Carnal but Spiritual for the bringing down of strong Holds not Castles and Mannors No no the Devil and the Pope and such as follow the steps of Antichrist set up and maintain and uphold this Anti-Kingdom in opposition to the Kingdom of Christ but the Pope was glad to uphold his tottering Kingdom with the Inquisition High-Commission Racks and Gibbets Fire and Faggot Fines and Imprisonments or which is all one deliver them over to the Magistate to be Excontioners for him We thought it a fair deliverance from this Popish thraldom when we were delivered from the Inquisition High-Commission Racks and Gibbets Fire and Faggot too of late by condemning the Writ de Heretico Comburendo I do not deny though but that the two last Fines that is unjust Fees and Imprisonments are to this day in England the Consequences of Excommunication But they are mistaken that think these Consequences are held forth to us in the Gospel of Christ or the practise of the Apostles or Primitive Church No no Fines and Imprisonments attend Excommunication upon another score namely the Law of the Land and therefore you hear me say nothing against it I know what I could say if

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

London Promoter against this Defendant in the beginning of the Articles by cashiering Thomas Doughty of the Place And then to prefer Doughty to his old place again and face about again as you were It is either an Affront to make the said Bishop a Promoter or else if he like the place 't is an Affront to dismiss him thereof and take Thomas Doughty on again in Conclusion But what Reason the said Bishop will have to thank the Impudent Proctor for the Promotion or Preferment time will discover In the Interim consider how sawcily impudent and mischievously sawcy are some Servants that if their Masters will tamely suffer the Familiarity play the sawce with their Masters like Churle-cats so long till they scratch them And is it not subtle to grant a Sequestration to Mr. Sewell for the poor Rectory of St. Leonard's aforesaid and never revoke the same nor give notice of such Revocation and yet send out another Sequestration for poor Harris the other to Mr. Sewell being unrevok'd as aforesaid and confirmed by accepting the Fees at every Visitation and in force if any Bishop's Sequestration be in force which is no sin to question especially upon this occasion their Power at best being for Edification not for Destruction like the Apostles if they be like their Power is to do Good not Harm especially to the Poor However by their own Law and Method all their Sequestrations are in force till they be revok'd and Mr. Sewell's was never yet revok'd no matter tho how soon that the People may see the difference on 't and that seldom comes a better in the mean while Mettal on mettal is false Heraldry And is it not subtle to implead this Defendant for a breach of a Clause in the Rubrick of marrying without Banes when every pittiful Register Surrogate Official c. makes no bones of it but publickly sells such Indulgences Licences or Dispensations in defiance of the Act of Parliament the Act of Uniformity and the said Rubrick a Branch of it that equally forbid and prohibit all Men And is it not subtle to cull out only five unlucky Couples for Instance that inhabit in such Parishes where it is impossible that the most of them should ever be married according to the rigid and strict Rules of the Rubrick there being no Divine Service constantly said in any of the said Parishes but in St. Leonard's at present not once in a quarter of a Year and in St. Bottolph's and St. Mary Magdalen not these thirty Years last past nor any Churches save what are demolished wherein to read Divine-Service or publish the Banes And therefore it would have been impious in this Defendant in this Exigency not to have coupled them together and to prevent their unmarried Concumbency and consequently Adultery Thus the Priest in a strait gave David some of the Shew-bread which except in case of hunger and necessity was not lawful for a Lay-man to eat but only for the Priests this Defendant also dispensing with the Rigor of a Commandment which was impossible to be kept without a greater Mischief and Inconvenience namely Adultery A Sin proper of all other for the Cognizance of this Court and the Scotch-man John Dargavel late Vicar of Boxted in Essex who got two Bastards in one House where he boarded much of one age this Defendant baptized them both calling one by the name of Dargavell being put into this Court and flying from Boxted a Vicarage of 30 l. per annum a wonder in Scotland was punish'd with another Living in the West Country of 100 l. per annum which he enjoyes at this day and when his new Parishioners prosecuted him in this Court for his old Adulteries they had as good have thrown their Caps at him These are Crimes with a witness publickly known and scandalous and yet in this Court it seems it found no Suspension for three Years as here in this case is threatned for preventing Adultery by marrying without Banes where none could be had Some Men had better steal a Horse than others look over the Hedg And lastly for this Paper is almost done Is it not subtle for Men to search for a Mote in this Defendant's Eye with a Beam in their own and by the busy officiousness thereby give an Occasion to have their own Eyes look'd into blear'd with illegal Fees Extortions and Oppressions of the King's Subjects in Probates Letters of Administration Ordinations Institutions Inductions Visitations Synodals Procurations Excommunications Absolutions Indulgences Licences and Dispensations and also in illegal Rites and superstitious Ceremonies in defiance of the Statutes of this Realm Thus giving Irritation and Provocation as well as Occasion to bring their Works of Darkness unto Light as if they long'd for Correction And Pity it is great pity that he should escape the Lash who wantonly calls for it efflagitantes sollicitescit Finis Respons CHAP. XIII VVEll may the Reader wonder that wise Men should be so Hood-wink'd with Passion or Prejudice to make such a do about nothing and accuse a Man for old acquitted Barretry in an improper Court or make it a Crime to defend himself his ancient Rights Freehold and Tenants from an Intruder But above all 't is incomparable that Registers Commissaries Officials and such kind of Creatures should make such a noise about marrying People without the strict Rituals of the Church which they break every day by granting Licences publickly in defiance of the Statute and pronouce such Solemnization of Matrimony a Prophanation How do they pass Sentence against themselves as if the Children of all that were married without Banes by their Licences and Indulgences contrary to the Ritual and punctilio of the Statute of Vniformity were Bastards Which wicked Suggestion the Papists may possibly but God forbid they should ever have the Power improve upon us all and by the same Argument make all our Marriages not Solemnizations but Prophanations and our Children conseqently Bastards c. not inheritable to our Estates as being not born in lawful Wedlock or Matrimony which say they can never be Legal except made according to the Ceremonies of the Roman Ritual And therefore tho some Protestants and Papists rashly marry together yet the Papists will be married according to the Roman Ritual by a Popish Priest and then they do not much care for they look upon 't as nothing more than of old to be married by a Justice of Peace for the present Exigency and edge of the Law and therefore will condescend to be married again according to the English Ritual Which brings to my mind a Passage here well worth the inserting and mentioned in the History of the Life and Death of that Famous Judg Lawyer Philosopher and Divine Sir Matthew Hale In these Words Page 83 84 85. He was a devout Christian a sincere Protestant and a true Son of the Church of England and yet he had been one of Oliver Cromwell 's Judges of the Common-Pleas moderate towards

Heavenly Father never taught them thus to fight and quarrel upon the Road to Heaven Why suppose a Man will not go our way or think his Business rather lies another way a shorter cut a nearer way and a better Road. Must we because we think the Man is in an Error and Mistake draw our Weapons whether carnal or spiritual upon him where 's the Reason the Conscience the Christianity of it Does not every Man best understand his own Concern or if he doth not 't is not our loss but the harm is his own We may advise him friendlily and tell him of the dangerous way he is in of which yet none of us the wisest of us are certainly infallible and assured But if he will not take our Advice fare him well curse him not but pray for him and say God bless him and teach him and us the right way Indeed if our Actions and Manners be against the indisputable and unquestionable Laws of God and Nature as Blasphemy Adultery Drunkenness and Rebellion Treason c. Then take him Goaler and let the Magistrate correct him But to curse whip lash slash and Bridewel a Man for not thinking as we do Opinion and Thought being free and impossible to be compell'd is a Spanish Inquisition High-Commission and Romish Tyranny and a Lunacy to boot beyond that of Bedlam God grant us to be all of one Heart and Mind in God's Worship and Service and to keep the Unity of the Spirit at least in the Bond of Peace and Comprehension But if thus Praying will not do cursing and excommunicating and damning should not do I am sure Which makes me think of a Gain and I 'll not think it Battology to recite it again namely That admirable and Christian-like Direction and only safe Prescription of the said Incomparable Sir Matthew Hale amongst his said 18 Caveats given to himself in these Words That I be not too rigid in Matters purely conscientious where all the harm is Diversity of Judgment and if in Criminals it be a Measuring-cast to encline to Mercy and Acquittal This is true Piety indeed and the only true Christianity but the contrary is true Impiety and the only true Antichristianism Besides 'T is true Policy too no Man quarrels with another that is not just of his Size Complexion and Pitch and why not Because there 's no Law to fine every Man that is not of such a common Standard Size and Pitch if there were Covetousness and Tyranny would set the Uniform and common Sandard-men at work if it were but for the Fine sake to hale in the Nonconformists and dissenting Scanltings and then what old tugging and quarrelling goaling and baleing would there be to the perpetual Disturbance of the Neighbourhood and the Kingdom as well as to the shameful Scandal of Christianity that makes Doves and Lambs indeed but neither Wolves nor Bloody Bonners or Tygers Whereas now that we have a general Comprehension as to all Sizes of the Body and no Man is bound to grow to just such a Scantling and no higher we have no quarrelling about the Matter no more than there is in Holland about Religion where tho they have different Religions yet every Man being left to God and his Liberty to go to Heaven which way he please they never curse damn excommunicate or quarrel about the matter but leave every Man to stand and fall to his own Master and Creator further than Christian Admonitions and State-Encouragements and Preferments do invite or allure For they admit and courteously entertain like Men and Christians all Mankind except the said Inhospitable and An●ichristian Bloodhounds the Jesuits and those if they catch hunting or resting in any of their Dominions they immediately upon proof boil them to death in scalding Oil. And to this Severity they are forc'd and constrain'd through that Jesuitical Maxime that Dominion is founded in Grace and consequently All the Kingdoms of the World Territories People and Dominions ought to be subject to Christ's only Vicar or Vice-Gerent upon Earth the Pope For Severity and Cruelty may make many Hypocrites but cannot make one Saint it can do much Mischief when in Power the only thing that wicked Men mind but not any Good it can surrogate to Destruction but not to Edification it can like Erostratus get a Name and Fame for destroying the Temple and Church but wants the Heart of Holy David and the wise Head of Solomon and the Apostles to build the Temple and Church of God Our Blessed Saviour came neither to destroy the material or spiritual Temple but if Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites destroy it he said he could build it again in three days But some Mens Arts are like the late Bishop of London Bonner his Arts they can destroy and fire the Spiritual Temples of God in few days more than they will erect and build up all their Life-time Sic facilis descensus Averni The way to Hell is very easie And down-hill all way to 't an 't please ye And therefore away with Mens Prate and Talk vouching their private Malice and Revenge with the Constitutions of the Church The Church if they be not according to the Constitutions of Christ in the Gospel for as Cyprian says Serm. 5. de Lapsis non est Pax fed Bellum nec Ecclesiae jungitur qui ab Evangelio separatur Then trust ye not in lying Words Jer. 7.4 saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these Behold ye trust in lying Words that cannot profit Will ye steal murder commit Adultery c. and come and stand before me in this Houses which is called by my Name and say We are delivered to do all these Abominations If this House which is called by my Name become a Den of Robbers in your Eyes Behold even I have seen it saith the Lord. But go ye now unto my Place which was in Shiloh where I set my Name at first and see what I did unto it for the Wickedness of my People c. Whence I note that no People or Church how dear soever it has been unto God has a Charter of Priviledges to offend rob or murder their Brethren under the Title Umbrage and Name of the Church the Church which Church is not exempt from God's Visitation and Punishment if not Extinguishment Which brings to my Mind what Heylin in his Geography says of Poland l. 2. 150. The King at his Coronation takes an Oath to confirm all the Rights and Priviledges of the Subject granted by any of his Predecessors and also adds this Clause Quod si Sacramentum meum violavero incolae Regni nullâ nobis Obedientiâ tenebuntur That if I break my Oath the Subjects are not obliged to us in Allegiance or Obedience A Clause that seems to me proper only if proper at all for an Elective King as is the King of Poland and not for a King whose Kingdom is Hereditary as Sweden Denmark England France and Spain nor can it

be sorc't to Communicate alone by themselves Well say some but is it not clear that Titus was commanded to Excommunicate a Heretick after the first or second Admonitions Does not the Learned Doctor Hammond upon the Word Reject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translate it Excommunicate him or cut him off by Excommunication So Doctor Taylor says the Word signifies to be drawn out of the City as an outcast and that is rejecting with a witness if they will also eject deject and stone him to death as they did St. Stephen And a great many more like Horses in a Teame Jog on through thick and thin without chusing their way following their Leaders if they have great and hard names And yet such an illiterate man as I can see no reason in the World that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reject in English should be construed that the Apostle meant that Titus should throw a Heretick out of the Church by Excommunication And this I will make bold to defend against all the Fierce Bloody and Sanguine-complexion'd Greek-Criticks in the World But in short can any man expound the Apostles meaning by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which for the present we will construe Excommunicate the Heretick bet-better than by the usage he makes of it himself in another place And can any thing better clear his meaning Compare then with this 1 Tim. 5.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the younger Widows Excommunicate or throw out of the Church for what for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they will marry And thus if men had not two measures one to buy by and another to sell by they would not by their Interpretations and Comments to gratifie their spleen set all the young Widdows in the Kingdom about their ears For If a young Widdow brisk healthful and buxom according to the Guerdon and Dictates of Nature to propagate her kind make a slip or so What then then Excommunicate her if a Register or a Sumner smell it out or have it in the Wind. But then you 'l say let her Marry rather than Burn Ay but my fierce Interpreters will still have her upon the Hip again and Excommunicate her for Marrying by vertue of 1 Tim. 5.11 so impossible it is for a young Widow to come fairly out of their clutches if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie necessarily Excommunicate Nay in the whole Bible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never signifies Excommunication We meet with it 1 Tim. 4.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there we can be content to translate it gently refuse prophane and vain bablings and exercise thy self rather unto godlines So here A Heretick after the first or second admonition refuse or avoid his company and rather exercise thy self with men Orthodox or men of Godliness This Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you meet with also in Luk. 14.18 19. and there it is translated as it ought to excuse forbear or be excused And then the sense will be A Heretick after the first or second Admonition excuse or forbear or meddle no more with him What a Hub-bub What Smithfield-fires has this doubtful Word kindled in the World How many Goals has this fiery and fierce construction fill'd Blessed Apostle little didst thou intend by that harmless expression and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thereby so many Martyrs in the day of Henry 8. and Queen Mary should have ascended like Elijah's to Heaven in a fiery Chariot from famous Smithfield or that the Goals and Goalers should have been enrich't with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refuse avoid excuse or forbear be a sufficient Commission wherewith to Plunder Imprison and Kill all Christendom over in Bloody Massacres Fines Goals Dungeons and Confiscations 'till for shelter like the Hungarians they fly for Refuge to the Turk that though a Graecian born yet never at this sad rate learnt to Construe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Known is the Story of that Arrian-Heretick Mahomet afterwards the great Prophet of the Turks who to inveagle his Followers and easie Mussel-men told them he would show them some Tricks and by Faith remove Mountains and make two adjoyning Hills come together though he did not thereby show his Faith so much as his Brazen-face For mounting to the top of one of the Mountains with his Disciples he admonish't the adjacent Mountain to come to him but it stirr'd not then he gave it a second Admonition but lapidi loquitur it made as if it did not hear and budg'd not no not upon the third summons No quoth Mahomet Will you not budg then if the Hill will not come to Mahomet Mahomet shall budg to the Hill and so fairly marcht to it I will not apply it but this I will say concerning some call'd Hereticks that seem sixt as a Mountain to their Principles and who but Infallible-Sirs can tell but that after the way some men call Heresie so Worship they the God of their Fathers If these fixed Hereticks will not be removed if we had faith like a grain of mustard-seed we could remove these mountains without the carnal helps of Spades Axes and Pick-axes but 'till then if the Mountains will not come to us nor we so supple and condescending as to march over to them let them stand and fall to their own Master and Creator that there fixt them except they obey the first second and third Admonition Their Souls are their own they best know on whose Errand they go we have deliver'd our Souls and done our duty 't is they must suffer and is it not punishment enough to lose Heaven hereafter but we must take their Purses upon the High-way thither or Goal them Sequester them Kill and Slay Fine and Confiscate and make them take Heaven by violence in a wrong sense vi armis with Sword and Gun Is the Church for this call'd Militant Beside Heresie is not so ill-natur'd a Word as fierce men make it Constantine the Emperor calls Christian Religion Heresie that is a Sect or Profession or Opinion The Sect of the Sadduces Acts 5.17 and Sect of the Pharisees Act. 15.5 in the Greek is of the Heresie of the Pharisees who believed Non sum in eadem cum illo Heresi i.e. sententia says Cicero in his Paradoxes Quest 3. Against what Offenders and Offences Excommunication was made use of Answ 3. This requires considering the large Premises but a compendious Answer namely This Sword of Excommunication was never drawn that we read of by our Blessed Saviour at all nor yet by his Apostles except that St. Paul drew it twice once against an Incestuous Person and then afterwards against Hymenaeus and Alexander for Blasphemy Not a Fornicator nor an Adulterer Excommunicated in those days more than in our days nor a Common-swearer or Blasphemer amongst them more than amongst us Excommunicated except the said Hymenaeus and Alexander that we read of And these