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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43636	A speech without-doors, or, Some modest inquiries humbly proposed to the right honourable the Convention of Estates, assembled at Westminster, Jan. 22, 1688/9 concerning, I. Bigotism, or religious madness, II. Tests, and the present test in particular, III. Penal laws in matters of religion, IV. The necessity of changing and recanting our opinions in religion, V. Restraint of the press / by Edm. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1689 (1689)	Wing H1827; ESTC R20396	31,636	44

A SPEECH Without-DOORS OR SOME Modest Inquiries Humbly Proposed to The RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Convention of Estates Assembled at WESTMINSTER Jan. 22. 1688 / 9. CONCERNING I. Bigotism or Religious Madness II. Tests and the Present Test in Particular III. Penal Laws in Matters of Religion IV. The Necessity of Changing and Recanting our Opinions in Religion V. Restraint of the Press By EDM. HICKERINGILL Rector of the Rectory of All Saints in Colchester LONDON Printed by George Larkin at the Two Swans without Bishopsgate MDCLXXXIX To the Illustrious Right Honourable and Honourable The Convention of Estates Assembled at WESTMINSTER Jan. 22. 1688. Illustrious Right Honourable and Honourable FOr as much as you are Esteemed by the whole Body of the People the wisest and honestest and therefore the most able and proper Healers of our present Breaches and Distractions so you cannot better approve your selves such than by the best Testimonal thereof that Possibly can be viz. Moderation For no Extreams last long When Passion Pride and Self-Interest the boldest and worst of Usurpers do come to be the Domineering and Prevailing-Party then Right Reason and consequently true Religion and Justice are depos'd and dethron'd and then comes Confusion and every evill work There never can be nor ever were more than two sorts of Polititians in Christendom The one thinks Justice Piety and Honesty the best Policy as our blessed Saviour the Apostles and all Christians that follow their steps The other makes use of Justice and Religion too sometimes but no further than they serve his Politick turn his worldly greatness and glory which if Justice and Christian Religion will not bring to him then he tries what Oppression and Superstition will do For this Brute as if he had the Soul of a Beast and not an Immortal Soul never looks up to Heaven nor takes his measures from him that Made and Rules the World and the Kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will but calculates all his Plots to the Glory of this World and terminates them in this life And if his Plots and the Devil ●ail him like Achitophet he does or is ready to hang himself or like that Brute the King Nebuc●●adnezzar driven from his People and turned to Grass like a Brute as he was until he knew that the Most High R●leth in the Kingdoms of men and and giveth them to whomsoever he will. Our Saviour says his Kingdom is not of this World when therefore we pray Thy Kingdom come we ought not to wish much less endeavour that Antichrist's Kingdom should come But in carrying on True and Pure Religion and the Gospel we ought to content our selves with such Engines wherewith Christ and the Apostles propagated the same all the World over three hundred years before Constantine was born Nor ought we to follow the Antichristian steps of the Pope or Turk For Antichrist or the man of Sin are surely nouns of multitude accumulative words and signifie those that carry on a Superstition contrary to Christ's Religion they are Antichrist or against Christ and they that sit in the Temple of God God's Throne commanding Souls and Consciences as if they were Gods they are limbs of that man of sin which shall fall by the Finger of God. Which Finger of God was never more apparently and miraculously seen than in this late Revolution which is like a Resurrection from the Dead Dead I say for both we and our irreconcileable Adversaries had past the Sentence of Death upon us unreprievable without a Miracle And whoever treads in the Antichristian steps and Policies of the Man of Sin by Propagating the Gospel with force of Arms can they expect other than to stand or fall with such ill Company But as our Riders are chang'd we hope also to have our heavy Burdens and unreasonable Loads taken off For by force chiefly Antichristian Mahomet made Converts with his Alcoran or Bible in one hand and his Sword in the other with this motto If one will not do the other shall And thus the Most Christian Turk makes Converts with Constables Hangmen Jaylors Penal Laws Tests and Troops of Dragoons Will the bolder English never be wiser than to follow French-Fashions Shall nothing be the mode here no not in Religion neither but what is A-la-mode de Francois Never had any Englishmen a greater Trust put upon them nor a greater Power put into their hands than is put into yours this day in this extraordinary rare necessary and therefore Just Convention You have virtually in you the power of all the Laws and all the Kings and Parliaments that ever were or ever shall be again in England to the worlds End because it is in your Breasts to save destroy continue or abrogate them or any of them arbitrarily at your good pleasure It becomes not me to determine positively whether the Monarchy be dissolv'd by the Kings d●parture throwing up the Reynes of Government and will Guide no longer quitting the Helm of Empire and leaving the ship once more to the mercy of the Waves to sink or Swim refusing to call Parliaments the only Scourge of Evil Courcellors and in whom jonytly with himself was lodg'd the Ligislative Power Or Whether the General Revolt had taken from him the Power of Guidance forfeited by Male-Administration of the Executive Power of the Laws Or whether also the Invading of the Legislative Power by erecting a Dispensing Power which seems in effect but a New Name for a New Legislative Power The Executive Power of our Laws was by our late Constitution lodg'd in the King alone as the Sole Power of the Militia making Alliances Judges Sheriffs c. a Burden thought to be too heavy for any single Shoulder and has occasion'd two or three general Revolts and Expulsions of the Monarchs in the three last Raigns for the Males Administration thereof as was at least pretended together with other sad Consequences too dismal to be remembred here and too lately done to be forgot nor need we mention the many and general Revolts in our Fore-Fathers times during all the Vnhappy Raigns since William the First all of them arising from the same occasion Yet will it not well become your Wisdoms quaerere vias antiquas to keep to the old frame of Government Monarchical with what limits of the Executive Power you shall please and as near as may be with any convenience to the old line too and next Heir Not only because a more awful Deference and Veneration is paid to what is anciently the Royal Family than to anyVpstart Family but because the Finger of God seems to point out and direct to that Incomparable and Blessed Branch thereof which God has made so strong for his own Self and the chief Instrument in the Hand of the Almighty for our Salvation from Popery and Slavery Nothing here hinted at is to inform your Wiser Judgments that knows much more of this already far be such Vanity from me But to stir up your

Holy Ghosts Words Scripture Words which if Ambiguous let us leave men to their own Master to stand or fall to their own Judgments to Consent or Dissent and never make these Impositions of Creeds an occasion of Scandal or a Stumbling-Block in our Brothers way to make him fall Will men still urge an Act of Vniformity which they themselves keep not made by a King that this present King has published whatsoever he was in his Life a Papist at his Death and made by a Parliament distinguished by a Name Eternally Infamous the Pensioners Parliament from the multitude of Judas's that sold their and their King and Countreys Consciences betray'd their Master by cheating His Exchequer going S●ips with him in his Revenue and like Ambo-Dexter-Lawyers took Fees on both sides took Money of the Countrey to be faithful to their Interest and then rook'd or robb'd the Exchequer to betray the Countrey that entrusted them O abominable Perfidy Never to be forgotten nor forgiven till a Brand be set upon them to mark them out to all Posterity for an Example of Treachery and till they truly repent which cannot be without Restitution Shall a fellow be hang'd for taking a Purse of Five Pounds value by the High-way And shall they go Vnpunish'd that do not only betray their Trust but rob the King and the Countrey too Learned Lawyers have found Treason in it If they had not been Purified by the House of Peers and well Poiz'd by the honest Patriots in the House of Commons what mischief might they not have done Sometimes we read of the Church of Philippi Ephesus Galatia Thessalonia c. There a National there a City-Church and sometimes we read of the Church in thy House all true Churches both the greater and the lesser So that the Church of England are all the Faithful Christians in England and ought not to be Vn-Church'd though they differ in smaller Ceremonies or greater Matters for in the Church of Corinth some denied the greatest Fundamental in Divinity 1 Cor. 15.12 13 14 15. without which all Preaching Praying Sacraments c. are Null Vold and of no Effect viz. The Resurrection of the Dead and yet they were in the Church and no Apostolical Decree to Excommunicate them or Cast them out How Unjustifiable then is it to Excommunicate a Believer because he Refuses to Take the Church-Wardens Oath or Sacrament or for not Conforming to some Imposition of Trivial Concern Are not they that thus Excommunicate the Schismaticks by laying a Scandal in their Brothers way to make him fall Rom. 15.13 and then by an Unchristian Capias to Imprison him till Iris Purse help him out And a Protestants Absolution after all costs Ten times more Money then is demanded by the Popish-Priests in their Authentick and Printed Table of Fees for Adultery or Incest c. So that what Ease is it to a Protestant that lies starving in a Goal after he has stood Excommunicated 40 days that it is not the Common Enemy has undone him but a Protestant-Friend Not the Brishop of Rome but one at home If my Purse my Liberty or my Goods be taken from me 't is a Cold Comfort to ease my Heart with this Melancholy Contemplation that my Country-man a Protestant did it and not an Italian Priest or to escape the Romish-Fire and Faggot or Bloody M●ss●cres that soon puts us out of Pain and yet be Crucified alive in a J●yle a Man and his House Never do we read in Holy Scripture of a Convocation of Clergy-men that took upon themselves an Authority to make Canons and lay Impositions upon the L●●…ity no not when even all the Chief Apostles were met in Synod at that only Synod that holy Scripture speaks of at Jerusalem without the consent of the Lay-Brothers Acts 15.23 And even there were not an innumerable company of Impositions and Canons Not so much as one Imposition of Creeds to be believed Nor any one Anathema or Curse or Penal Law denounced against Dissenters Yet they had the presence of the Infallable Spirit of Truth which the Church of England does not in the least pretend to and even then also enjoyned only a few necessary things Act● 15.28 And if either Church of Rome or Church of England had not a Bigoted and Priest-ridden Arm of Flesh wherewith to Fight Non-conformity and would be content with such Weapons as Christ and his holy Apostles thought sufficient they might Anathamize and Curse till their Hearts should ake before any Wise and Rational Christian would believe as they believe only because they believed it Who gave them Dominion over our Faith and Consciences What Authority have they to Lord it over Gods Heritage the Layity There 1 Pet. 5.3 called Gods Clergy especially since as shall be shown hereafter they have Erred already both in Doctrine and Discipline That late Doctrine of Passive Obedience they now Smile at and some of them together with all English Protestants have Actually Recanted Repented of and Forsaken or else we had sin'd against the great Law of Nature Self-Preservation Must we Pray against Arbitrary Government and Oppression and not use the means May we not pay men in their own Coyn and give them as good as they bring May we not repell vim vi Force with Force This Doctrine of Passive Obedience is poyut-blanck against the 39 Articles of the Church of England which Curses all that dares deny That it is Lawful to serve in the Wars And if any War be Lawful a Defensive War in defending Ours or our Neighbours Lives Houses Goods or Rights as Men and Christians is by all agreed to be the most Lawful War because it is of absolute necessity For what has God and Nature furnished Men with Eyes and Couragious Hearts and strong Arms To keep our Arms in our Pockets till our Throats be Cut We beg your Pardon Mr. Passiv● Obedience Or if you will not give us Pardon sell it to us as you do other Absolutions SECT IV. Of the Necessity of Changing and Recanting our Opinions in Religion IF any man Pope or Mahomet say he has no Sin he is a Liar and the Truth is not in him saith St. John Then how is it possible for a Man to go to Heaven except he Recant and R●pent for Heaven is fill'd with ●0 glorified Saints except R●canters No Book in the World is Faultless and Infallible except the Holy Bible for either Matter or Manner of Expression or du● Taming the thing or some other Circumstance it has some Errors or Faults in it And if this be true then every Author that writes a Book ought to Recant the same if he be a true Christian I mean the Errors committed therein for I never heard of any Christian Man as yet that ever was so like the Father of Lies as 〈◊〉 desire that any Body would Recant the Truth 's contained in his Ways Books or Works The Truth will shift for its self in spight of all Opposition at long

Affections and to be One of your Humble Remembrancers For every man is now or never concern'd to put to his helping Hand at this Dead Life and you concern'd to accept kindly the Service even of the Weakest at least surely the least you can do is to thank them for their Love and good Will though no otherwise serviceable unto you Besides A Slip now may be fatal or at best not so cureable hereafter as now and as is more particularly insisted on in the Conclusion of this Treatise I well know that in this Crisis every Politick Noddle is pregnant with Projects never at rest till it be delivered of his Minerva which perhaps proves a Maggot Yet if what is now said be evidenc'd beyond all Contradiction and Confutation other than the old Antichristian Engine a Jayl be pleased to protect the Author from such Vnchristian Vn-Scholar-like Vnreasonable Confutation until these Inquiries be oppugned with the only proper weapons in Spiritual matters Holy Scripture and Right Reason My Lords the present Bishops for the generality of them have approved themselves in this juncture not only most excellent Englishmen but excellent Christians notwithstanding the Now-Church-of England's-Doctrine of Passive Obedience without exception and the only Weapon-salve of Prayers and Tears a good Doctrine for him indeed that is uppermost right or wro●g and finding the necessity of Recanting the same some of them at least have in good time betaken themselves to a keener weapon and the rest and those the best of them are willing to come to a temper Whereby they do by Implication confess a too feavourish and hot distemper that has been 't is now time to come to the cooler and milder Galaxye or milkye way the only Way to Heaven And if any thing in these modest Inquiries may tend to our Cure no moderate Church of England man can possibly be offended except they are past cure and past ' mending to such we have nothing to say but to write Lord have mercy upon their Doors Not only the welbeing but the being of these Nations depend much upon the success of this most August and most Honourable Convention which has so many and those so great Friends and Enemies And is it not now high time to enlarge our Interest and widen the Church of England's Pale and not exclude out of the Church and the Priviledges of it the better half of the Nation Is not this Piety Nay Is not this true wisdom and honest Policy Now now I say when the Irreconcileable Enemies of our Holy Religion are by cruel and bloody Confederacy bandied and knotted together to destroy us and our Religion Root and Branch Brittain was never conquer'd but by her self How By her divided Parties saith Tacitus the best Roman Historian of the Romish Conquest over Britain smiling Dum singuli pugnabant omnes victi Is it not now therefore time to open the Church-doors as wide as Christ and his Holy Apostles opened them Shall Filthyluere Pride or Malice shut them up whilst monopolized to a few that share all the Gains though the Poor Dissenter must partake the hazzard and the Pains in our Common Defence Even Private Soldiers fight coldly without any Pay or any hopes of Reward in the Booty after Victory Very excellent men as it happens which seldom happens in such a Constitution of a Church are now uppermost But surely we are not obliged to believe all that they say who happen to be uppermost only because they are uppermost For though at present we have for the generality of our Fathers in the Church at this time very good men yet sometimes the very Froth and Skum may be uppermost And therefore if some errors in our Church both peradventure in Doctrine as well as Discipline be humbly inquired into if they appear upon moderate deliberation to be Errors must we continue in them or curse our selves to an eternal continuance therein or as in the Office of Commination in the Common-Prayer-Book say Amen still so be it Amen Is it not better to say Amend Amend For this Cause the Author humbly hopes that you will pardon the nice formality of Printing this without an Imprimatur which cannot in any likelyhood be obtained from the present Licensers if any thing here thwart their Interest and spoil their Trade To your Unbyassed and Impartial Reasons therefore the Author humbly appeals And what Book or Author would desire to live if cast and condemn'd by such Judges And who dare condemn whom your better Judgments think meet to save These following Essays are most seasonable as to the subject matter inquired into But if for want of dexterity they be ill handled yet be pleased not to discourage this well-meant and humble attempt here laid at your Feet since at worst it may serve for a Prompter to put better Heads in mind and to set better Tongues at work to discourse the point more accurately within your Walls which is now only A Speech without-Doors by Your Ready Servant E. Hickeringil SECT I. Of Bigotism or Religious Madness A Bigot What 's that 'T is a Spiritual Narcissus a Self-conceited Religious Coxcomb that falling in love with the shadows and Whimses Opinions and Imaginations of his own dear Crazy Skull in matters of Religion Espouses them to that height of Dotage that he will Bustle and fight like mad and in the Quarrel wilingly dye a silly Martyr too at least will freely venture Life and Limb Goods and Lands though he had Kingdoms to stake yet neither knowing why nor wherefore For this Spiritual Bankrupt takes up all his stock of Religion upon Trust and at all adventures without ground or reason other then Education or some wilder chance and therefore believes a Lye as eagerly and firmly as the greatest Truth and had been a Mahometan if born in Turky a Papist Moor or Jew if born in Portugal and an Infidel in China If this Spiritual Lunatick wants Power and Authority he plays his Religious Pranks and Freaques only in apish Tricks and devout Mimickry skiping perhaps from the Shop board to the Pulpit where the mad Ape makes such Faces and Grimaces quoting of Holy Scripture and Commenting thereupon as Frenzically impertinently and Fanatically as Olivers Porter in Bedlam and if a stranger that is not us'd to it should spy him there he might Swear and safely too in the words of Hosea The Prophet is a fool and the Spiritual man is mad or more properly and according to the original The man of the Spirit is mad and being craz'd with a notion like Archimedes runs skiping about Crying Eureka Eureka I have it I have found it when nothing is found but the soft place in his head But if Magistracy and Authority shall happen at any time to be possest with this mad spirit of Superstitious Lunacy Then for Propagation nothing less will serve then to encrease and multiply this spurious Issue and Bastard Minerva of their Priest-ridden Brayns amongst