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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	king_n	power_n	4,568	5	4.9588	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

claim Jurisdiction over me and that by the sight of which Commission or hearing the same read I might know whether it were requisite in my case and circumstances to appeal from the same or make exceptions to the same if it do not give you cognizance of the Crime or pretended Crime objected against me and whether it be not counterfeit or not Sealed with the Kings Great Seal of England The old Ecclesiastical Popish Jurisdiction being as their Divine-Service and Mass Foreign and in a Foreign Language and exploded by 1 Eliz. 1. by the name of Foreign Jurisdictions and the High Commission Court by the same Statute 1 Eliz. 1. set up in the room thereof being also exploded by 13 Carol. 2.12 wherein his present Majesty obliges himself to grant no more Commissions Ecclesiastical which makes me believe you have no Commission at all nor Authority to cite me thus before you And therefore it is that I will not be uncovered before you until it appear that you are his Majesties Court Ecclesiastical by Commission derived from him II. I protest against your Proceedings because in the Citation of me hither there is no mention of the Kings Name nor the Kings Arms in the Seal thereof but only the name of Robert Wiseman Knight and Doctor of Law and to appear before him or his Surrogate whereas he is neither Arch-Bishop of Canterbury nor so much as Dean of the Arches and therefore he being at best but a Surrogate or Deputy he cannot have nor constitute a Surrogate or Deputy under him III. I protest against your Proceedings because I am cited out of the Diocess where I dwell contrary to the 23. H. 8.9 IV. I protest against your Proceedings because there is no certain day nor time mentioned in your Citation to limit and direct my appearance at a time certain V. I protest against your Proceedings because there is no certain and particular penal Crime mentioned in particular in the Citation to which and for which I am bound to make answer For it is a duty not a crime for a Presbyter as I am to joyn People together in holy Matrimony nor any Profanation though the Register get not unmerciful and unjust Fees for a formal License nor any penalty for marrying People without Bannes or License nor any thing more customary or more universally practised among the Ministers in the Country where I live than to marry without Bannes or License Nor do I acknowledge that the sixty second Canon pretended to be confirmed by King James is a Law of England nor any other Canons or things that are not enacted and confirmed by King and Parliament the naked truth whereof none dare deny without incurring a Praemunire the King and Parliament together having in England the only Legistative power Besides the Canons clash one against another for those made in Queen Elizabeth's time order That such as marry without Bannes or License shall be suspended ab officio for six months only But the sixty second of King James's Canons decrees Suspension for three years whereby it seems the Synod-men the longer they lasted the more they grew and improved not in goodness and mercy but in rigour and severity God bless us and all Englishmen from such Legislators and the bottom of the Plot and design of that Canon and Prosecution upon the same seems to be calculated to get mony for Licenses for the benefit of Registers Commissaries Officials and such like motly-Crew and Lay-Elders those Ecclesiastical Fellows whilst the Ministers and Clergy do the drudgery and truckle under them and truckle for them And is it not a Soul-saving and wholesom Canon that stops a Ministers mouth and silences him from Preaching the Gospel for three years together because a couple are honestly married for Five Shillings without giving the Commissaries Officials and Registers those Poscinummia Crumine mulgae eleven shillings and four pence more for a License VI. I protest against your Proceedings Argumento ad Hominem because according to your own not my Canons no Sentence ought to pass upon a Presbyter but by a Bishop and here is no Bishop to hear the Proceedings and therefore if afterwards any Bishop do pass Sentence Re in auditâ in propriâ personâ He must do it by a blind implicit faith in the reports of other men which I suppose no Bishop will be so rash as to venture upon Edmund Hickeringill Mr. Hickeringill told Sir Robert the penalty and danger incur'd by the said Statute of 23 Hen. 8 9. for thus vexatiously citing him out of the Diocess and threatned Sir Robert that he would sue him and prosecute him according to that Statute But Sir Robert replied That he would stop proceedings Mr. Hickeringill not content with that replied Who shall pay me for the vexatious Citation and unwarrantable trouble and charge you have put me to But Sir Robert said nothing to that nor to the Protestation it might as well have been Greek for it non-plust all reply Nor are all the Sir Roberts or Wisemen in England able to answer that Protestation for who can patch up an old rotten foundation that at first and at best was but a Popish invention not warranted in the Holy Scripture for a Bishop to vex and domineer and pill and poll and plague his Brethren Clergy and Laity biting and devouring what even birds of prey will not do their own Kind in spight of the Law of Christ Luk. 22.25 26. by illegal Fees Extortions Exactions Citations Excommunications Absolutions Dispensations Commutations Procurations Visitations Sequestrations c. Which last is an art so dark and unintelligible and as little known as seldom or never insisted upon of all other the mysteries of Iniquity which makes me subjoin this following Essay But some will say if Bishops Courts be dissolved as seems to be undeniably prov'd in the Naked-Truth and in a Book so stiled lately published then what are Bishops good for And what shall they do To which I answer Let them sit in Parliament and other Councils when his Majesty shall think fit to call them let them say their Prayers Preach give Alms Baptize and Catechise and do the work of their Ministry and if that be not work enough for one man which was a great deal more than the Apostles ever did who never were Parliament-men nor Privy-Councellors then let them perswade the King and Parliament if they can to set up their High-Commission Court again and give them power as formerly to be mischievous Bless us good God! what would Ambition and Covetousness Rage and folly be at if it could speak Is not stately Lordships and Mannors City and Country-houses vase Revenues and great and manifold Preferments enough to satisfie men but they must rob the Spittle and be uneasie except they have power to be mischievous Well God forgive them and give them repentance that 's the worst I wish them and send them more money and when they have got more wit and more

grace then also and not 'till then more Power An Essay concerning Sequestrations by Edm. Hickeringill IF ever any Rags of Popery remain in a Protestant Constitution and Government some think that old Popish Invention called Sequestration will still stand up and plead for its self Sequestration is a term of Art well known in the late Times namely when Lands in controversie or dispute or in Abeyance or in nubibus are put into the hands of an indifferent person or persons to retain the rents and profits or take them into custody till the controversie be decided and till there be a lawful Incumbent by Institution and Induction or if a Donative until the Patron do bestow the same upon a Clergy-man Sequestration is a Roman word and honest enough if it had not been so often abus'd and where Arbitrary Government as in the late times comes in fashion it is of use of wicked use For Silent leges inter arma we must not talk of Laws of the ancient and fundamental Laws of England when either War Force Popery or its Twin Arbitrary Government comes into play and is on the winning-hand The Pope had a Trick of old when any Bishoprick or good Living became vacant it should go hard but he would have a snip out of it before he put in a new Incumbent and this taking the Benefits into his own hand he called Sequestration that is keeping the profits in an indifferent hand to be ready for the next lawful Incumbent having some respect in the interim in making some provision for the Cure answerable to the profits of the vacant Benefice The Kings of England and the Pope have of old had many a shrowd and weary Tugg for the Profits in the Vacancies of Bishopricks c. But King Hen. 8. and his own Daughter Qu. Eliz. that set the Pope at Defiance made bold to keep the Profits of the vacant Bishopricks in their own hands right and good reason for by 35 Edw. 1.1 the Kings of England are declared the sole only founders of Bishopricks and Archbishopricks c. as other great men of the Realm and Lords of Mannors c. endowed the Parish-Churches and therefore the custody of the Profits of the Benefice in the Vacation belongs to the Patrons and of the vacant Bishopricks to the King and not to the Bishops by 25 Edw. 3. Anno Dom. 1350 and by the Statute of Carlisle 35 Edw. 1.1 How comes the Pope then and Bishops to be so busie in sending out Sequestrations in every Vacancy why some men love to be doing if it be but at small games they 'l play rather than stick out and send out Sequestrations if but for the fee sake come come something has some savour For some men dare in defiance of the said Statute take upon them to Sequester the Profits of vacant Benefices which the said Statutes do aver to belong to the Patrons in these very words 25 Edw. 3. Kings Earls Barons and other Nobles as Lords and Advowees have had and ought to have the custody of such voidances Besides men that love to be dabling and have an Oar in every Boat they think there is some sport in casting the Net though it does not always bring store of Fish in 't But a main reason certainly is That they cannot endure to hear that Ecclesiastical Profits should come into though they came out of Lay-fingers And therefore a heavy-do they kept the Bishops with Q. Eliz for keeping the Bishoprick of Ely so long vacant and sequestring all the stately Mannors Rents Revenues one of the best in England at that time and putting the moneys thereof as at this day into a place that often needs the same the Exchequer Putting off the fretting-Bishops with a Complement namely that she kept the said stately and rich Bishoprick vacant so long as only till she could find a man fit for it And the man that fitted her pretensions that is would be content to part with the said rich Lordships Rents and Revenues and in lieu thereof take a Pension was the man for her purpose resigning all to the Crown from whence they came and that chang'd the rich Abbey of Ely into a Bishops-See in the reign of Hen. 1. and in exchange contented with a yearly Pension out of the said Exchequer in ready money when he gets it Thus Hen. 1. kept the Archbishoprick of Canterbury by Sequestration from the death of Anselm five years till Rodolph a man for his turn succeeded that Rodolph that would not consecrate Thurstan Archbishop of York except he would swear obedience to him in the See of Canterbury Thurstan scorn'd the motion and the Pope took part with Thurstan and bid him not yield an inch but Rodolph endeavour'd to be above him and the King took part with Rodolph but to no purpose for the King was glad at length to connive and submit Nay that I 'le say for the Clergy in Popish times and foppish times they shall justle for the place and bustle for profit where there 's any to be got as well as the best carnal Lay-man of them all And the true reason in Law why the King Nobles Patrons c. ought to have this Priviledg which the Pope and Bishops have long usurpt is saith my Lord Cook because the King is sole founder of Bishopricks Instit 1 Part p. 344. and Patron of Benefices and at this day all Donatives which the King creates shall for this reason be visited by the Chancellor not the Bishop nor Arch-deacon And if the King license a subject to erect and found a Church or Chappel it is to be visited by the founder only not by the Bishops And by parity of reason the Churches and Chappels of dissolved Monasteries are to be visited by the owners only that bought and paid for them And for like reason Kings of England before the Pope's Usurpation as sole owners and founders of Bishopricks did deliver to the Bishop-Elect the Crosier or Pastoral staff and the Ring whereby there was a wedding made betwixt him and his Church-Cathedral or Mother-Church And K. Hen. 1. Bak. Chron. being requested by the Bishop of Rome to make the Bishopricks Elective refused but King John was glad to part with this choice flower of the Crown to preserve the Crown its self of which otherwise that Bishop had made bold to deprive him 'T is true at this day the Bishops are in effect the Kings creatures I mean of his creation only and the Election by the Chapter c. is but meer form but still the Chapter at this day does not part with this shadow as neither with their grants of Sequestrations Licenses to Preach Ecclesiastical Court-keeping demand of Synodals Procurations exacting Fees and Oaths from Churchwardens unconscionable Oaths like the c. Oaths and impossible to be kept all all shadows that still they dote on how illegal soever and ridiculous to all unbiast and knowing men One would think the

that which was done Ay ay that 's the right and only way of return to God for manifestation of any Naked-Truth by his Servants to glorifie his Name for the same And why should not the Sanhedrim have glorified God for the same as well as the people Had not they Souls to save as well as the people What was this Sanhedrim or High-Court of Justice made up of Who were the Members of this Council It is answered Acts 4.1 The Priests Ay Ay I should have wondred else at a piece of mischief if I had not found the Jewish-Priests there in the first place next the Captain of the Temple and the Sadduces A fine medley of Priests Soldiers and Atheists for so were the Sadduces the Jewish-Church was like to be well govern'd nor do I wonder they went about in the next Verse Acts 4.2 to suspend the Apostles ab officio or silence them from Preaching being grieved good hearts that they taught the People Whereupon they put them in Jayl for that Night designing to get all or a greater number of their Council together upon so good an occasion too And then appears a great Motley crew made up of Rulers and Elders and Scribes and Annas the High-Priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all the High-Priests Nephews Cousins and Cousin-Germans This is only to show you what the Church was that our Saviour speaks of Matt. 18.17 Tell it to the Church is as much as to say in England Complain in Westminster-Hall Sessions or Assizes For want of the knowledg whereof Excommunication has been counted a sacred Ordinance and every little gather'd Church as well as the great took upon them the Government and thought themselves some-body and would have power over their own Members to interdict deprive cut off c. and woful work they made with it Johnson and others that fled to Holland and had a gathered-Church and cut of and cut off Hereticks and wrong Believers till he left himself alone or but with one that just jumpt with him in all things And indeed as in the Mathematicks when a crooked Line deviates from a streight Line the further it reaches in length still the greater distance and more irreconcileable so here this Text of Matt. 18 17. being mistaken and wrong construed the longer the error lasts the greater mischief and the harder to be reconciled For this Interpretation has leaven'd not only Diocesan Synodical but Presbyterian Independent and Congregational-Churches till they have fought one another with this Spiritual-Weapon most Bloodily and they knew not wherefore they are mistaken in the words of their Commission Father forgive them they know not what they do I deny not but that a Bigot Papist Protestant Presbyterian or any other Sect that believes the Church has this power at this day to bind and loose and knows no better than the old Traditional-Interpretation of these words Tell the Church have and may still if they please be frighted out of their little Wit with the thunder of Excommunication thinking it Jure Divino and that the Thunder comes from Heaven But I doubt not but to prove how far it is a meer earthly Cracker and a Bugbear and frights none but Women and Fools were it not for the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo that follows in the Rear of it I know well how the Emperor Theodosius the younger was frighted out of his little Wit because a silly Monk had Excommunicated him and could not eat drink nor sleep till he absolv'd him there has and will be Bigotted Fools and Coxcombs to the Worlds end Nay men that are in all other things wise yet if they once be possessed with the Spirit of Bigottism and Superstition and be Priest-ridden not minding what the Holy Scriptures say but what comments the Priests for their own lucre and to uphold their Prelatical Hierarchy Dominion and Usurpation put upon it are easily Bugbear'd with this cracker of Excommunication as was that bravest of Men and Warriours the Emperor Theodosius the Elder Excommunicated by Ambrose the greater sinner of the two Not but that the Emperor might be in fault in some fault as what great Warriour and Conqueror as he was can possibly be innocent and have hands clean from any stain of Blood but whether he was in fault or no is not easie to determine read the Story in Nicephorus and though the Emperor did command the Soldiers to humble the City that were certainly Traytors and were Guilty laesae Majestatis in abusing most shamefully the Statues and Picture of his dear Wife and Empress and possibly the Soldiers might they are apt enough to exceed their Commission when there is good plunder in the case But the poor Emperor must pay for all and smart for all For indeed he was not Emperor but a Bigot I mean he did not know his own Strength Power and Authority but suffered himself to be nuzzled by Ambrose that formerly had been a Captain and now was made Bishop of the same Town Milan that he had formerly been Governour of but he forgot not his stout heart though he had put on his Canonical-Weeds read but the Story it is too long here to insert but you will then with me pity the poor Bigot Emperor got into ill-handling and under the clutches of a Priest that well knew the Ascendant he had over him For even in these days a Bishoprick begun to be a stately business and not only a good but a great thing and had been so of 100 years standing namely ever since the good Emperor Constantine had been so wonderfully Enamour'd of them Bishops and therefore he made them rich and riches are apt to make men proud and pride is apt to make men fall And there 's an end on 't But if the Sanhedrim or Synagogue had been a Spiritual-Court only as men make it that thus Construe Tell the Church then certainly it was a Bloody Court as well as a Bawdy Court for St. Paul confesses that he had a Commission from thence to Imprison men and put them to Death which surely was Law or else King Agrippa and Festus the Roman-Governour would have chastised him for it when he confest Acts 26.10 that many of the Holy men he shut up in Prison having received Authority from the Chief-Priests mark that and when they were put to Death he gave his Vote for it and punisht them oft in every Synagogue or Church so that I say Tell it to the Church or Synagogue is Complain to the Justice and no more And it is strange indeed that Christ should in those Words of Matt. 18.17 set up a new Jurisdiction in the World and the Apostles who at that time knew nothing of nulling any of the Law of Moses or that Christ should die and yet should make no exception to it or question to have it more explain'd if it were to be a standing Sacred Ordinance to vouch Excommunication to the Worlds end And as strange

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-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-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-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

together yet with all this Aid 't is impossible to prevail against God and his Truth Did you never see a Grey-Hound stare when he had lost a Hare in an unhappy Bush that stood by the way just when he was at the very clique and gaping to mouth her even so have I seen a cunning Politician stare as if out of his Wits or at least at his Wits end when some sudden cross Providence by him call'd strange acciden has given his Devilship the go-by then then to see him stare and stamp fret and curse rave and roar like a Lyon in a Graté that would be mouthing but for the Barriers Go then you subtile Persecutors fret and be molt in your own fat and live like the Green-land Bears in Winter upon your own Grease as long as it lasts whilst Truth like Muscovy-Wives and th' Walnut-Tree The more they are beaten still the better they be Well this I 'le say for the Pope and a fig for him but we ought to give the Devil his due much more the Arch-Bishop of all Bishops the Pope I say give him his due builds the Fabrick of his Ecclesiastical Policy rationally if his Foundation were true But Protestants do not that consess themselves and their Churches fallible and frail as does the Church of England in her 19th Article of the 39. For what non-sence is it for any Man or Church to Curse and Damn a Man for a Heretick when we confess our selves that we are fallible and consequently may err in our Judgment of the Man or his Faith Shall blind men shoot a Crow I hate this Hitty-missy Whereas the Pope grant him this Theoreme that he and his Church is infallible is in the right on 't let him Curse who he will and from Morning to Night for ever and aye for if he be infallible he only can draw this Sword of the Lord Excommunication and yet be secure that he fights not against God which Protestants that confess they may err even in matters of faith can never be sure of 'Till the Church then can get eyes to see and discern right from wrong infallibly and a Sinner from a Saint and a Believer from an Infidel and Truth from Falshood indisputably and not fallibly and uncertainly let them down on their knees and pray for the Conversion of one whom they judg an Infidel and then leave him to his Maker to stand and fall and pray to God to tye up their hands to the good Behaviour to Charity Meekness and Humility wherein they can never err which would well become them better than all this Ecclesiastical-Artillery which has ruin'd Christendom and rather let them break than uphold this Money-Trade and Merchandize of Souls especially in this her weak and Militant State How have the Churches the Councils the Fathers the Canons Clash't and Thwarted Curst and Condemn'd one another to the Pit of Hell it would make a man's heart ake to read Ecclesiastical Histories and to hear the pious Bishops complain that they never knew any good come of any Convocation of Bishops Councils nor Synod-men and one Guelt himself to make himself Canonically uncapable of Lawn-Sleeves How did the whole Christian World who were all Arrians and deny'd the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour Curse that poor single Non-Conformist Athanasius Nick-naming him Sathanasius Banish't him and Suborn'd false Witnesses against him and try'd him for his Life for Murder whilst on the contrary our Church of England declares that no man can be saved that does not believe all the Creed of Athanasius and the Comment in words of his own not in Scripture-words of the Holy and Sacred Trinity made by him Though a man does believe the Holy Trinity declar'd in Scripture yet if he will be saved he must believe all the Athanasian-Creed I do not know any man that does not believe it But all the Common-Prayer-Books in the World and all the Acts for Uniformity nor all the Kings and Parliaments in the World can never make any thing true that is really false nor make any thing false which the Holy Scriptures plainly says to be true As for example suppose there be some mistakes in the Common-Prayer-Book by false Printing or in the Table to find Easter for ever yet it is Statute-Law But that cannot make a thing true which is Mathematically false nor can any Statute make a Child of God a Child of the Devil though Anathematiz'd for a Heretick And how good Bishops have bewail'd the Diocesan-frame in our days see pious Bishop Hall's Confession of the Corruptions in Church-Governours and Government I am not singular in his Modest Offer and Peace-maker See the Incomparably Learned Bishop Vsher's Model See Mr. Alesbury's Confession especially p. 21 24 28 104 169. See Mr. Baxter of Episcopacy or in short the Postscript thereof See Dr. Stillingfleet's Irenicon how does self-interest hoodwink the wise writ before he became a Dignitary-Ecclesiastical Or see Bishop Ganden's Hiera Epist particularly p. 263 and 287. with which I 'le conclude I neither approve or excuse the Personal faults of any particular Bishops as to their exercise of their Power and Authority which ought not in weighty matters to be managed without the Presence Counsel and Suffrages of the Presbyters such as are fit for that Assistance The want of this St. Ambrose St. Hierome and all sober men mark that justly reprove as unsafe for the Bishops and Presbyters and the whole Church Now I have done at the long run with my Naked Truth expos'd to the World without Power without Friends without Worldly Interest to support it It is usually thus those that worst may are often put to hold the Candle to their betters yet like Link-boys many times get not of the Gallants but a kick for their pains But I 'le shift the better having a King to Friend a Glorious King to Patronize me and vouch against all Bloody Religions Charles I. Eik Basil Advice to his Son our Gracious Soveraign Charles II. in these words In point of true conscientious tenderness I have often declared how little I desired my Laws and Scepter should entrench on God's Soveraignty who is the only King of Consciences My Counsel and Charge to you is that you seriously consider the former real or objected miscarriages which might occasion my Troubles that you might avoid them Will nothing but Sanguinary Counsels yet please Are we no further yet from Rome Not yet Dost thou not feel me Rome Not yet Is Night So heavy on thee or my weight so light May Church of England say Have we so long Been quitting Rome yet not quite from among Christ and his Church by Blood are glorious grown But not by others Blood but by their own Whilst Antichrist and 's Church are Monstrous grown By shedding others Blood but not their own Bless us the Monster Yawns and Glares don 't start In nomine Domini stand speak say What art A Bishop sayst the Devil thou art more like

Pope might be satisfied with St. Peter's Patrimony as big and rich as all England in Italy at least with those many happy obventions for Indulgences Jubilees Miracles Canonizations Annates Installations Pensions Consecrations c. and not as he does claim and get the first-fruits also and Tenths of every Benefice in Popedom And one would think that the magnificent and extravagant charity and benevolence of those that founded and endowed the Bishopricks in England with such large Immunities Profits Honours Priviledges Mannors Palaces Country and City-houses c. might content the greediest Bishop in Christendom without snipping some part of the fleece of every flock Surely they do esteem themselves of another make another temper other mettal and of another mould than other Priests or at least that the Bishop is the man and the Rectors and Vicars but his Journey-men or Curates for so it seems to be intimated by that passage Send down upon our Bishops and Curates and as if the Rectors and Curates in England had not as undoubted a right and Freehold in their Benefices as a Bishop in his Bishoprick which as they certainly have so they cannot be deprived or lose the same but by twelve men of their Peers according to those Statutes that one would wonder at the impudence of such as dare invade them namely 9 Hen. 3.29 25.25 Edw. 3.4 28 Edw. 3.3 36 Edw. 3.15 17 Car. 1.10 And they will certainly come within the danger of those Statutes whenever they are so venturous as to trust to their Sequestrations as a Title in Law Cook Instit part 1.344 a. or think it sufficient whereupon to ground an Ejectment or dispossess any man of his Possessions whether his Title to that Possession be good or bad it is not of spiritual cognizance for a Benefice whether void or not void shall be tried by the Common-Law And God keep us all and our Freeholds from Arbitrary-sway and out of the hands shall I say clutches and paws of greedy dogs that can never have enough I mean unreasonable and wicked men who show their abilities in nothing more than being able to crush the more 's the pity I say again that they should have more power than wit or grace Thus in the days of Popery if there hapned to be in any part of the Land a supereminent piece of good land fat Meadows pleasant and stately timber'd woods a serene air a rich soil and a convenient situation and habitation then the Church-mens fingers itcht to be at it and then Hey for St. Clare St. Katharine or St. Bennet The good land was soon converted to Popery and Superstition and became the Holy land and Church-land belonging to an Abbey Priory or Nunnery of the Benedictines Franciscans Dominicans Carthusians c. And though this Spiritual Jingo Janutus is clear enough discovered in England yet still the same itch sticks to some mens fingers and they are still in defiance of Statutes mens Proprieties Advowsons and Lay-fees scratching and clawing fingering and playing their tricks and their pranks with the Leiger-demain of a Sequestration playing their Canons and Proclamations as of old most Arbitrarily against the Sacred and fundamental Statutes of the Realm and is it not high time then that they should be lookt after what were the men that occasion'd by evil counsel the Veterane mischiefs And if at this time of day they be so daring and bold when their Jurisdiction is so cripled what would they do nay what would they not do if they again retreive as some men hope their High-Commission Court without which what ever did or ever can their inferiour Courts signifie more than a May-game or to be laught at But if the Inquisition be set up again then have at the Naked Truth with fire and faggot Bell Book and Candle and with a vengeance But Dat Deus immiti cornuacurta London Printed for R. Janeway in Queens Head-Alley in Pater-Noster-Row 1681.