Look to 't 'T is readily granted that there is a disserence betwixt the Bishop and the Defendant as to Riches c. But what then As a Prelate a poor Prelate has as much right to his Priviledges as the Rich and more need of it a great deal It is hard to pull off Hairs from the bald Crown or to rob the Spittle but there is no charity nor reason to take the few Hairs from the bald Crown to make a Wigg on for him that has a good Head of Hair of his own and needs no Wigg nor such superfluous Additaments I grant indeed Bishops are Prelats and Barons too So is the Defendant a little one and more than so the Defendant's Barony cannot be seized into the King's Hands as the Bishop's may for Contempt therefore I called the Bishops a sort or kind of Barons Not such Barons as the Temporal Lords who cannot forfeit them to the King nor the King cannot seize them for Contempt as aforesaid therefore there is a vast difference betwixt a Baron who is a Peer of the Realm and a Spiritual Baron the one is Magnas natus born a Peer and sits in the House of Lords as his Birth-right and Inheritance the other is Greatus and sits ex Gratiâ Regis and may upon the King's Displeasure or Contempt lose his Seat near the Wool-Packs and his Baronies and Temporalities forfeited into the King's Hands But what non-sence is it for Heraclitus to prate Numb 59. Jest says They the Whiggs clamour and say the Dammages are excessive Honestly said for a Fool or Jester Why so says Earnest or Sober-sides I think and so must every Man that thinks at all in one Doctor 's Opinion he might have said 't is a very cheap penny-worth to that which the honest Man Honest Man quoth he and a Proctor's Boy good sence and Tory-like had that pull'd off Hick's what plain Hick still no dread of the 2. Rich. 2 Will Men never take warning till they be maul'd 2000 l. thick Sure the Fellow thinks the Defendant cannot get as good a Jury in London or Middlesex as was lately in Essex Hicks Hat except the Privileges of the Saintship be as great as those of the Peerage Peerage The wise Fellow thinks that Bishops are Peers and thinks there 's no difference betwixt Words that are but wind and Blows or Assault and Batteries and Challengings to fight The Bishop is great Who denies it But 't is not so long ago since the Defendant being then as now for he is no Changling Rector of All-Saints and Cornet Compton quartering in Colchester I doubt the Defendant being an old Captain by Commission from two Kings of Sweden and Portugal by Sea and by Land would not have thought himself obliged in good Manners to give him the Wall except he had as Sir George did first told of his Pedigree then indeed then I grant But not a word of this should have been said but that they come so with their Comparisons when the Defendant had told them in the first words of the Naked Truth Second Part that he honoured Bishops but did not Idolize them could say my Lord but not my God But these Hireling Pamphletiers do so deify them that they are netled when Men do not fall down and worship the The Distance is great None envies his Lordships greatness the Distance is great the King made it so great as it is and can as easily make the Distance less when he list But enough of this Folly for such I acknowledg it but only that the Wise Man bids us answer a Fool according to his folly that is beat the Fool at his own Weapon 45. Edw. 3. The two Houses join Counts Barons Communes and represent to the King how the Government of the Kingdom had been a long time in the Hands of the Clergy do you see an old Complaint they were Papists indeed but true born Englishmen and could not tell how to buckle to a Mitre or Lawn-sleeves or that Westminster-Hall should truckle to Doctor's-Commons a great Indignity and a shameful Purent grant Mischiefs Dammages sont avenoz c. for the great Mischiefs and Damages that came thereby c. says the Parliament-Rolls But notwithstanding all this the Prelates baffled both King Lords and Commons having their Spiritual Weapons eek't out with two Temporal Writs namely de Heretico comburendo the other de Excommunicato capiendo The former with much adoe is damn'd to Perdition for the flames it made in Smithfield and all the Kingdom over the other de Excommunicato capiendo is yet in force and fills the Jayls dayly with Men Excommunicated many about Mony-matters and Fees Illegal-Fees and Oppressions Extortions as not paying the Knave a Groat c. For when the Popish Prelates could not burn any that stood in their way for a Heretick yet as obstinate and contemptuous they sent him to the Divel and then he and the Chancellours and the King's-bench and the Sheriffs got the poor Soul buryed alive in a Jayl till he dyed or submitted and swore future Obedience to Holy-Church Seven Years after this of 25. Edw. 3. the Prelates having got the whipping hand claw'd it away and to stop Men's Mouths from muttering got this Statute 2. Ric. 2. 5. Nay they are as cunning to preserve their Prelacy as for the Holy Scripture Christ and his Apostles having declar'd an Abhorrence of Spiritual Pride and Ecclesiastical Tyranny and Oppression calling them greedy Dogs that can never have enough and Wolves in Sheep's cloathing not sparing the Flock but tearing rending and devouring it It concern'd them to fly to Force and Temporal Power for aid of their abominable Hierarchy and the Magistrate in those days what for Fear and what for Folly what for Preferment or to keep Preferment since there was no other way gave his Assistance to the Beast and the false Prophet caw me and I 'le caw thee Rev. 13. 15 16 17. And he had power to give Life unto the Image of the Beast that the Image of the Beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast should be killed And he causeth all both smal and great rich and poor free and bound to receive a Mark in their right hand or in their foreheads And that no Man might buy or sell save he that had the Mark or the Name of the Beast or the number of his Name Yet in 20. Ric. 2. Eighteen Years after this Statute the House of Commons forgot not that they were Englishmen still and remonstrated to the King complaining that he kept so many Bishops about him in his Court and advanced them and their Partakers The King did not or the Bishops would not suffer him to heed his Subject's herein as aforesaid And Poor King it prov'd his ruine for after he had lost the hearts of his People it was not a few Lawn Sleeves and flattering Sycophants and Parasitical
depending in the King's-Bench Hah where Sir John Shaw had no Authority to give or take an Oath Hah in private Hah against the Laws of the Land Hah and made them ready against the Bishop came down to set the Bishop to Roil Mr. Hickeringill whom he knew would not tamely suffer himself and his Reputation to be illegally and publickly brought in question by any Bishop in Christendom Hah This was the Sum and Substance of those two Letters which the Defendant writ to the said Bishop that were never answered but only as Men are when they are prest to Death with more Weight more Weight The Defendant in vain opposed the reading of his private Letters saying it was not genteel civil nor manly to produce such Evidence and nothing to the present Declaration and that tho there was nothing in them but what was modest and true yet private Letters are and ought to be sacred in their Privacy and that Si liceat parvis componere magna King Charles 1. If it be lawful to compare great with small did justly upbraid the Parliament with the Incivility of publishing his private Letters taken at Naseby tho there was nothing in them nor in this Defendants Letters for which any Man need blush or be blam'd But this is the Ecclesiastical-Candor any Method to expose the Defendant no Vengeance is great enough no Fine or Verdict outragious enough to crush one that dares as the Defendant has discover the Mystery of Iniquity Ecclesiastical in Extortions illegal Fees Oppressions and Courts kept in dessance of the Statutes of this Realm Excommunications Absolutions Prophanations Procurations Visitations namely Vexations c. There 's a Villain indeed Plague him All Hands aloft all 's at Stake down goes if you do not help This Fellow is another Germana illa Bestia quae non curat Aurum a German Beast that regards not Preferment as the Cardinal told the Pope when he chid him because he could not by tampering with Luther and the proffer of Gold and a Cardinal's Cap prevail with him nor take him off from writing and preaching against the Abominations and Corruptions of the Church and Church-men Church and Church-men Ay set but the Clergy upon a Man and you need not set any Dogs upon him to worry him Church and Church-men Ha! do you know who you speak against what Find fault with Oppressions and Extortions of Ecclesiastical-Courts with Apparitors Registers Commissaries and all that Fry of Lay-Elders Church and Church-men Ha! Do you speak against Prelacy Say that Word again say it again before Witness Sirrah Villain Rogue How dare you at this time of day speak Scripture dangerous Scripture Scripture against Statute-Law 2 Rich. 2. 5. which Statute makes a Prelate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 8. 9. some great One and you Sirra would have him as your Saviour and the Gospel would have him as lowly as Christ or his Apostles you Sirra do you speak Scripture in a Court of Law Ha! what do you produce a Bible instead of a Breviate Do you plead Gospel against Law and Christ and his Apostles in defiance of Rich. 2 An Aggravation an Aggravation as Sir Francis Withins said the Defendant justifies in a Plea of Non-Culp this is rich indeed These Errors will be committed when you suffer Parsons to be Pleaders and plead their own Cause and understand not the Punctilio's and Methods of nice-pleading very fine What suffer Scripture to be quoted instead of Law and Christ and his Apostles instead of Cook and Littleton for Shame And yet the Defendant ignorant Man did not understand the mischief of urging a little Scripture in this Cause betwixt two Church-men and already there decided namely that of Christ St. Paul and St. Peter against all Prelacy Pride Lordliness and Dominion one Brother over another not Lording it over God's Heritage But Christ and St. Paul and St. Peter were poor Men Silver and Gold had they none they were meek humble and lowly and when they were reviled reviled not again nor brought an Action of Scandalum Magnat nor did Fee a pack of Lawyers to mouth it upon an old Statute made in the time of Popish Prelacy and when Antichrist was Rampant and when the Devil raigned a time as the Defendant told the Court when the Prelates did all and all ill a time when the Prelates were grand Rebels as ever were in England For then in the Raign of Rich. 2. was this Statute made when the Clergy were as very Rebels as Wall the Priest Wat. Tyler or any of that wicked Crew 'T is true Henry Spencer Bishop of Norwich was General for the King both in England and France did not Armour disgrace Bishop Henry's Lawn-Sleeves The Bishop of Ely was Lord Chancellor Countez Two Tho. Arundel Bishop of Hereford Countez Three Lord Treasurer Nicholas Abbot of Waltham Lord Privy-Seal Four William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Five Alexander Arch-Bishop of York Countez Six William Bishop of Winchester Seven And Thomas Bishop of Exeter Eight Good Men and True that 's a Lye a Pack of damnable Villains and Rebells as ever were in England for taking upon them by Commission to rule the King and Kingdom and so the Judges concluded that Commission of thirteen Persons to rule the King and Kingdom of which eight were Prelates with five Lay-men for fashion-sake for the Prelates could out-vote them when they list a Devilish Rebellion abominable Prelates in Rich. 2d's time when the Statute of Scandalum Magnatum was made and struck at it has been by the last Parliament at Westminster and others as a Statute obsolete or in the Judgment of the Wisdom of the Nation the Honourable House of Commons to be repealed being made in the wicked time aforesaid when the Devil danc'd and Simon Magus vaunted himself to be one of the Magnat some Great One and yet also the Successor of Simon Peter who was a poor Fisher-man and a Fisher of Men not a Pick-Pocket nor a Promoter of Law-Suits nor did he mend his Market by turning Church-man as some have done too well known but to his dying day was poor and pennyless having his Faith and Hope in another World and being a Disciple of him whose Kingdom is not of this World All this and more the Defendant told the Court and the Men that were sworn for to give the Judge his due he gave the Defendant sufficient leave and leisure for three hours to defend himself against the crafty Suggestions and dirty Language thrown at him on purpose to vilify him with Dirt which the Counsel had rak'd up together and in two set-Speeches made on purpose fetch'd it far and not at all to the purpose or to the matter in hand villifying him with the Miseries and Vexations with which they had loaded him in the Barretry and Supplicavit as if his Sufferings were his only Crime But something they must say for their Guinies and for their Lord Prelate and in hopes of Preferment and his
against all the rest of the Company who are so positive in what they heard and then swore unto unanimously and constantly like honest Men when no Persuasions no Motives no Temptations could alter them for they had all been tamper'd with and Mr. Edgar Mr. Hill and Daniel Howlet were subpoena'd for the Plantiff But all would not do to win them for the Bishop's side and make them face about 7. Lastly What Jury alive except this could against the Evidence of so many substantial Witnesses credit one single Creature that was so infamous First For deserting his Flock that he swore to feed and was bound by Oath by Law of God and Man Justice Conscience Equity and Christianity to look after and mind the Cure of them and take the Care and Charge but neglected by him three Quarters of a Year together and whilst the Fleece grows he is hired to another Flock staying till Summer till the Wooll be grown before he goes down to clip them Secondly Infamous because he had forsworn himself before this time as the Right Honourable the Earl of Lincoln there in Court testified upon his Oath When Harris was his Chaplain and having often broke his Word with the Earl and told him many a Lie he was not willing any more to trust him upon the Security of his bare Word whereupon Harris takes up a Greek Testament that lay upon the Table and solemnly imprecates by all the Mercies and Benefits that he should receive by the Contents of that Holy Book he would return to the Earl at furrhest on the next Saturday and so be ready the next day to officiate except Sickness prevented But the Gentleman came not home till the Tuesday following and then came with Tears in his Eyes that is as the Earl upon his Oath explain'd it drunk maudline-drunk And the Earl said it was some considerable time and not till his Servants took notice of it to him that Weeping was the certain Symptom of his being in Drink that as other Men rant and tear and swear when they are drunk this little Episcopal Tool always wept when he was drunk Whereupon the Earl one time when he saw him weep ask'd him What ail'd him Harris answered That he had a Sister an Apprentice in the Exchange and that he had heard sad News of her namely that her Mistress and she had quarrell'd and had some hard Words together Another time he said he wept because he had an Vncle lately dead This was over-night but the next day when the Earl ask'd him of the Quarrel betwixt his Sister and her Dame and of the Death of his Vncle at another time Harris star'd at him and ask'd his Lordship what he meant by these Matters for he could not imagine what the Earl should mean by such Questions he said indeed he had a Sister an Apprentice he had an Vncle but never heard of his Death nor at the other time of the said Female-Bickering And as for the Solemn Oath that he had took and broke he told the Earl There was a Cause for his Stay for he was in pursuit of a Girl whom he intended also to marry and he was as good as his Word in that for this Episcopal Implement has her much good may she do him Body and Bones But would any Jury that were not of Tory-Consciences credit the single Testimony of this Bishop's Engine when it was prov'd that he abandon'd all his Interest that he expected in the Mercies and Benefits of the Gospel and the Merits of our blessed Redeemer for a Fit of Wooing or in pursuit of a Wench Or set a profligate Clergy-man in competition with six honest substantial Laymen and Men of unstained Honesty and Reputation except the Tories are Eagle-sighted nimble and quick to foresee the Inundation of Popery that they senslesly imagine is coming tumbling in apace But I hope God will preserve his Majesty with longer Life than any of his Father's Children that as he is the Alpha he may be the Omega the last as well as the first of his Father's Children Thus I prophesy as I would have it not I confess according to the Course of Nature nor according to the bloody Principles and bloody Plots of Papists who as it is undoubtedly known even by them that ridicule the Popish Plot never spare any Prince that is not at least in Heart Heretical and of whose Inclination they have not good Assurance longer than they think good or can come at him I say the Jury possibly were quicker-sighted than other Mortals and could foresee the speedy Appearances of approaching Popery if all be Gospel and infallible that comes from a Clergy-man tho he be as lewd and bad as the Irish Friar Teague O Divelly but Lay-men are not to be believed against a Clergy-man this is the Council of Trent right just right nor to have the Benefit of the Clergy You must not expect it Gentlemen never look for it you Lay-men till you come to be hang'd From a Tory-Jury Good Lord deliver us That 's as honest a Letany as that Letany that used to be read or sung just before the Mass I do not mean that Letany where 's Harris with his Innuendo the Popish Suffer me to explain my self do not lie at catch and at snap I do not mean that Letany wherein was the Suffrage now blotted out and thought by the Wise who think themselves wise enough to make our Prayers for us in spite of our Teeth to be omitted and left out for fear no doubt of displeasing his Holiness namely From the Bishop of Rome and all his vile Enormities good Lord deliver us But since neither the Act of Vniformity nor the Common-prayer-Book does license us as once it did to pray so against the Popeâ— yet I will take liberty without asking leave of an Act of Uniformity or a Common-prayer-Book to pray From a Tory Jury of forlorn desperate and hardned Consciences Good Lord deliver us I once thought the Defendant might have ventur'd his Life in the hands of this Genteel Jury one Moyety Knights I 'le assure you but as Coleman said at the Gallows when his Devil fail'd him There is no Truth in Men. When Power and Interest does but plead against it there is no Oath so sacred but some sort of Judges and Jury-men will break it without any regard Ay ay the honest Lord Chief Justice Hale is dead and gone in his Room seldom comes a better came Sir Will. Scroggs but as thought unmeet discharged but to mend the Market who comes there who comes next Sir Francis Pemberton the present Judg in this Cause With whom we will as he did conclude this Trial for I have enough on 't if you knew all whatever the Reader has Sir Francis summing up the Evidence and directing the Jury to this effect namely That this Action was brought by the Bishop of London against Mr. Hickeringill upon the Statute Scandal Magnat for speaking scandalous Words of
his Lordship and such Words he told them as the Defendant himself ingenuously acknowledged Such a Rehearsal transpros'd would fright a Man from ever making an ingenuous Acknowledgment whilst he lived If a Man be not submissive then he is proud and obstinate and justifies an Aggravation an Aggravation as Mr. Withins said but if he be coming they 'll take him o' the Chaps and make him stand further off but this is the Policy The Judg said that the Defendant acknowledged that if he had said the Words modo formâ as they are laid in the Declaration the Jury could not punish him enough This 't is to be courtly and complemental a Man that is not us'd to it neither for really and truly the Words in the Declaration the Lawyers say are not actionable except the last Innuendo the Popish Plot had been proved and instead of an Innuendo Harris swore Plot against my righteous Name It is besides impossible to be prov'd by this Declaration because no preceding Colloquium is laid but this 't is to be civil and to make Concessions without which the Judg would have been put to 't to have directed the Jury as to the Scandal of them or the Law in that Point For 't is not Scandal Magnat the Learned say to say His Lordship is very ignorant because 't is true of him and of wiser Men and better Men than Henry Bishop of London and therefore cannot be Lies and scandalous or within that Statute The Bishop of London for Knowledg and Wisdom is not worthy to carry St. Paul's Books Cloak or Parchments after him if he were alive and yet that blessed Apostle that could cast out Devils with a word confesses he was very ignorant and knew nothing as he ought to know But not to insist of Divinity to come to Philosophy the wisest Man of Greece and the chief of the seven wise Men of Greece to whom the Oracle of Apollo awarded the Golden Tripos confess'd he was so ignorant that he knew nothing but only this namely he knew that he was very ignorant or knew nothing Hoc tantum scio quòd nihil scio 'T is Atheism to say that St. Paul made that ingenuous Confession of his Ignorance in that and many more Places only in Complement as some that are as proud as Lucifer or as the Devil can make them will yet say Your humble Servant For Shame Away with these Scandal Magnat.'s and undoing Men and Families for speaking nothing but the Naked-Truth and which the Bishop of London cannot without blushing refuse to acknowledg that His Lordship is very Ignorant Which if he does acknowledg the Defendant and he are agreed in one certain Naked-Truth But if his Lordship does not acknowledg that he is very ignorant all the wisemen of Man-kind must condemn him as very ignorant For none but he that does not know himself none but a Fool but must know and acknowledg themselves to be very ignorant 'T is true the Issue is Non-Culp because the Defendant never spoke those Words as they are modo formâ laid singly by themselves in the second Count of the Declaration and all the Witnesses except Harris nay Exton the Doctor 's Commons Man too says that the Word Ignorance had reference to the Law or Statute of which tho a Bishop be ignorant yet it is no blemish nor scandal to him Nay scarce a Bishop in England understands or ever read so much Law as the Defendant yet it is no Scandal to them nor disparagement Nay Harris himself at last confesses that the Ignorance and the Impudence had reference to the Printed Paper and the Canons of Forty and therefore these Words His Lordship is very Ignorant could never as laid in the second Count singly be spoken in Manner and Form as they are laid in the Declaration But were the Bishop of London really and truly wiser than Solomon St. Paul or Socrates yet it is as clear as the Sun at Noon-day that he was ignorant in tanto whatever he might be in toto namely ignorant in so much and in that which occasion'd all this Discourse namely in sending Harris with a Sequestration of the Benefits and the small Tithes of the Parish of St. Buttolph's the place of this Contest and also the occasion too in Colchester when the said small Tithes and Benefits nay all Tithes both small and great Tithes of St. Buttolph's Parish appertain to the Defendant as Rector of the Rectory of All-Saints and has been enjoyed by his Predecessors since the Raign of Henry the 8th and so to continue for ever as is more fully declared pag. 27. of the Black-Non-Conformist and therefore it is no Lye and therefore not within the said Statute of Scandal Magnat but a great Truth tho a costly one Truth has been a dear Commodity to this Defendant but still it is too true that the Bishop was very ignorant in sending such a Sequestration it had been better for the Defendant by 2000 l. if he had been wiser and then this sad occasion had never come hard Case to be whip'd on another's Back and taken up at these Years for other Men's Faults and that the Bishop should without Law disturb the Defendant's Title to his Free-hold and then by the help of his Tool and Utensil and a good Jury ruine him for complaining when he is pinch'd The Itch the Scab the Morphew the Boyls the Uncombs the Carbuncles the Leprosy the Pimples a Pox and the Nodes are but Skin-Diseases and Deformities coming immediately from the vicious Ros and Gluten of the third Concoction at third hand poor par-boyling Function but it cannot help it for the Mischief the Mischief the Author and Origine of all this Mischief is the first Ventricle that 's erronious and out of order If the Bishop the Original Cause of all this Discourse and Stir in sending down a Sequestration of the small Tithes of St. Buttolphs the Defendant's Free-hold by this same Harris in hopes to do the Defendant a Mischief or Displeasure had not been mistaken in this his Attempt these Evils had not come they were but the third Concoction and necessary Consequents of the bishop's Error Except some thought perhaps that Mr. Hickeringill is as Heraclitus now calls him an Ass good for nothing but to be burthen'd or worse than a Worm and should say Prelate come tread me come stamp upon me I know such an Ass-like sottishness had been as it proves the wisest way because the cheapest way But what Patience can endure to be so nusled And so the Word Impudent if as it ought it have reference to that nonsensical at least Imposition upon the Clergy and to the Statute who can deny but that it is Insolence and Impudence too for a Bishop so to insult over the Clergy as either to recommend to them Articles to observe which are no where to be found or which interfere or are not warranted by the Statute And if the
debaucht Courtiers that could guard him from the unjust Arms of Hen. 4 who had got the Peoples Hearts only because the lawful King had lost them by adhering to an Effeminate debaucht Crew Observe the Machiavillian-skill of the Ingineer's what Masters of Art these Ecclesiasticks Divine and Lay conjumbled have commenc'd in Politicks and all not worth to them one Louse after they have beat their Heads together for a piece of cunning let them alone when Advocats and Counsellors Civilians or no Civilians Lawyers and Divines Clergy and Lay ana The Proctors and Atturneys the Pulpit and the Bar Breath-sellers all are in Conjunction against a poor Whig to bring him to ruine to trample on his conquer'd Corps to insult over his Grave to drink and cry Huzzah the Enemy is fled we are Conquerors and shall yet in spight of Fate and the naked Truth live and rule the Roast oppress and extort make Havock of of Souls Bodies and Estates hang up or Jayl their Bodies damn their Souls beggar their Families swallow and grow Fat with their Estates not so greedily there have a care of choaking come let us carowze and drench our selves revell and be drunk with the Tears of the Widow and Orphans Huzzah Huzzah incomparable Epicures Nay I am told from a very good Hand that the good Bishop of London in great piety and devotion intends to dedicate this 2000 l. to St. Paul for a Deodand and build up Paul's Ruins here in London with the Defendant's 2000 l. as far as 2000 l. will go Oh! most Exemplary and Episcopal Zeal worthy his great Soul and noble Extract and fit to be chronicled to all Posterity This Heroick Charity shall be writ upon his Tomb where he shall lie in Paul's when 't is built nay he shall lie as great Men use to lie in State and his Exequies adorn'd with the magnificence of this grand Exploit celebrated in Heroick Verse answerable to it and his own Grandieur I am just now before my Fancy cool writing his Epitaph to be ready for him we are all mortal But yet the greatest glory of this Atchievement does belong to Inch-board Harris that small Heroe must come in to the Meeter and Merits the one half of the 2000 l. he earn'd it dear and swore hard for it he has more right to it than any Man alive except the Jury-Men for the Judg upon the whole Matter with some grains of Allowance to humane Frailty and Temptation was there or thereabouts at least he was the best of them a Judg swears to have no respect of Persons in Judgment Oh hard hard And therefore I say though the Glory of the Action and the Honour of the Foyl shall be given to the precious Jury-Men alone for they only did the Business and the most that the Counsel said to the Matter except Railing and Ribaldry against the Defendant was not very pertinent to the Declaration for want of Matter in it no doubt yet the whole profit of the Verdict does really and truly belong to Harris he gag'd his poor Soul for it let him have it I say 't is more than Judas got he has my Vote for it and that signifies more thereunto than all the Votes of all the Men in the World besides for if I say no He never gets a Penny of it nor all the Prelates in Christendom on this side the Alpes Therefore do not blaspheme St. Peter nor St. Paul by thinking to wheedle them into the Contract for they were monyless when alive and have less need of 2000 l. now they are dead God tells us he hates Robbery for a Burnt-Offering and if Paul's will not be built or go on but slowly God knows there 's my 35 s. buried already I wish I had it in my Pocket again for this Trick the Fool and his Mony should not be so soon parted to help to build a Cathedral whose Walls must be cemented with the briny Tears of the Widow and Orphans and the noise of the Singing-Men and Singing-Boys drowned with the Groans Cries and Howlings of Men distressed and jailed by a Bishop For his great Honour Another B This should not have been here inserted for it is part of an Epitaph belike But I 'le divert my Reader and recreate my heavy Fancy from meditating on the doleful Cruelties and tragical Adventures of Ecclesiastical Policy Oh! wo wo and alas that ever a Bishop and his Clerks should be so stony-hearted I 'le chear you though and my self too and no more than needs in this Confinement and Retirement with musing on those mischievous Rocks near the Isle of Silly at the Lands-end of England so fatal to Mariners and called I am in earnest indeed by Sea-men time out of mind of Man to the contrary The Bishop and his Clerks In a Dialogue betwixt BO-PEEP and TORY Bo-peep THose fatal Rocks in Sea that stand Near th' Isle of Silly nigh the Land By Marriners so shun'd and blam'd The Bishop and his Clerks are nam'd But prethee Tory tell me why They were so call'd for Rythme truly Tory. It was some Whigg first call'd them so Meer Scandalum Magnat I trow Bo. A Whigg dost say that is not so Whiggs were not born so long ago To. Not Christned by that Name you mean Bo. Ever since Abel Whiggs have been I must confess By Tory-Cain Poor Abel persecuted was and slain No Tory can this Truth confute For Tory-Cain did Persecute For Difference in Religion too Plagu'd the Dissenter Is 't so now For Whiggish Abel was so stout He would not cringe nor face about To East nor West nor yet comply With th' Act of Vniformity Which Cain had made but did implore His Makers Mercy and adore The best way that he could and so As God did best approve on 't too Not walking in the Way of Cain But his Religion was his Bane For Naked-Truth Abel was slain But to the Question keep and tell Why that Name suits those Rocks so well To. Bishop and 's Clerks Call you Rocks so Harris come here and swear once mo'e Would you make Bishops stony-hearted And have shook hands with Grace and parted Or make them as of Old when as Bonner a Friend to Jaylors was When Bishops by Canonical Oath Were bound it is the naked-Troth By Canon-Law to keep a Jayl Or two or sometimes three for fail Bo. Hard Hap When Clerks are made of stone And yet a Name Divine dares own Who e're alas does come them nigh Or touch upon these Rocks they die Behold yond' Wreck swims there I say A stately Ship it was this day With Flags and Streamers in her trim How pleasant 't was to see her swim How loftily she loum'd no sight E're pleas'd the Eye with more delight To gaze on her some ceas'd to eat With joy forgetting Work and Meat A bluff-tall-Ship she was indeed But her best Quality was Speed No Algerines swift though they be So nimbly cut the Waves as she No
complain against them in the Name of the Commons of England and to perswade the King not to disoblige his People for the sake of a few Court-Prelats But do you think that that unthinking King would hear them And did not he lose their Hearts thereby And did they not all join with an Vsurper against him that had no Title to the Crown nor a thousand Men at first when he landed One says well Lege Historiam ne sias Historia Let us observe the History of Times past lest our inconsiderate Actions fill the Chronicles of Times to come Let us remember Rehoboam and Richard 2d I dare say the Defendant does not so much as in a wish regret what 's past for all things shall work together for good c. 'T is only short-sightedness and want of Faith in God that makes Men stag and despond Nay no good thing will he with-hold from them that desire to walk uprightly And what unrighteousness has the malice of the Adversary been able to prove against Mr. Hickeringill and yet there are Man-catchers enough that have perverted his words which were but due and just Reproofs against a wicked foolish and perverse Generation The Defendant has cause if any other have more cause to say with Holy David Psal 37. 4 6. My Soul is among Lions and I lie even among them that are set on fire and the Sons of Men that are set on fire whose Teeth are Spears and Arrows and their Tongue a sharp Sword They have prepared a Net for my steps my Soul is bowed down They have digged a Pit before me in the midst whereof they are fallen themselves God shall send from Heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up He travaileth with Iniquity and hath conceived Mischief and brought falshood Hide me secretly in thy Pavilion from the strife of Tongues until this Tyranny be overpast My Enemies in the Hebrew Man-catchers would daily swallow me up for they be many that fight against me oh thou most High Every day they wrest my words all their thoughts are against me for evil yet have I not refrained to declare thy Truth to the great Congregation and therefore they gather themselves together they hide themselves they mark my steps when they wait for my Soul Psal 22. 12 13 16 19 20 21 22. Many Bulls have compassed me strong Bulls of Bashan have beset me round They gaped upon me with their Mouths yea the very abjects gathered themselves against me making mouths at me and ceased not For Dogs have compassed me the Assembly of the Wicked have inclosed me Deliver my Soul from the Sword my Darling from the power of the Dog Save me from the Lion's Mouth And then I will declare thy Name unto my Brethren In the midst of the Congregation I will praise thee Psal 56. 7 8 9 3 10 11. Shall they escape by Iniquity In thine Anger cast down the People oh God Thou tellest my wandrings put thou my Tears into thy Bottle Are they not in thy Book When I cry unto thee then shall mine Enemies turn back This I know for God is for me What time I am afraid I will trust in thee In God will I praise his Word in the Lord will I praise his Word In God have I put my trust I will not fear what Man can do unto me Psal 57. 1. In the shadow of thy Wings will I make my Refuge until these Calamities be overpast Psal 58. 6 7 8 9 10 11. Break their Teeth O God in their Mouths c. The Righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the Vengeance He shall wash his Feet in the Blood of the Wicked so that a Man shall say verily there is a Reward for the Righteous verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth But of all the whole Book of Psalms there is not one Psalm better suits his Condition or administers more Comfort than every Verse of Psal 94. It was when David hid himself and play'd Bo-peep 1 Sam. 23. 14 15. in the Wilderness of Ziph in a Wood. He fled not from Goliah when hand to hand but he would not contend with the Power of the King and yet he did study Self-preservation Who can blame him against combin'd malice And wherefore were David's Enemies so malicious not for any fault of mine he saith Psal 59. 2 3. for loe they lie in wait for my Soul the Mighty are gathered together against me not for my Transgression nor for my Sin O Lord for they compassed him about with words of Hatred and fought against him Psal 109. 3. without a cause Yet though they compassed him about yea they compassed him about yet he had Faith to say Psal 118. 11 12. that though they compassed him about like Bees stinging stingy and in Swarms yet in Faith he said in the Name of the Lord I will destroy them Ay but when might some say to David When can you tell us that for to a carnal Eye there was little probability of it Nay in the very next Onset Psal 118. 13. Thou hast saith he thrust sore at me that I might fall but the Lord helped me That whole 118 Psalm is spoken of Christ and his Kingdom under the Type of David and his Sufferings typified and his Resurrection and Ascension by David's Victory at length then God had delivered him from the hands of all his Enemies it was long first he was glad to fly for it first and from the Hand of Saul But at length Vers 22. of that 118 Psalm the Stone which the Builders refused typified of Christ and verified also in David the same is become the Head of the Corner This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our Eyes In Mr. Hickeringill's Retirement his Muse the Heavenly and only Companion of his Solitude compos'd this Psalm an Infallible Antidote if sanctified against all Discontent the common Plague of Mankind Sorrows and Fears And which for that purpose he sent since his Fiery-Tryal to his most dearly beloved Wife to Confirm her not to Bishop her but to strengthen her against the Bishop's Promotions and Suits which for the Publick-Good or Common-Weal I here publish viz. THat which disquiets most Poor Mortals here Is not the Pains they feel but what they fear And what we fear Either it will not come Or else sooner may come our fatal Doom And free us lodging us in our Long-Home Where neither Bishops nor his Clerks will come To wrack us any more Then do not whine The present Good or Ill alone is thine But what 's i' th' depth of future Times can'st tell Thou Fool for thou the Morrow know'st not well Nor where thou shal't to morrow be nor tell Whether on Earth thou'lt be in Heaven or Hell Let Fools and Knaves then for the Morrow pine And fear they know not what nor can divine And let the morrow for its self
only endamaged Me but Endanger'd the Peace of the Kingdom if we believe the late Long and Loyal Parliament or if not convert at least convict and rise up in Judgment against those Erostratus's that get great Titles by setting the Church on Fire again by such Tantivee-Heats as produc 't and brought forth that destructive-Canon 1. of the Constitutions of 40 and burnt a fine Church Yet some tell me that all this Long Letter is but labour in vain that you are set upon a Will and Revenge and whom you once hate you know not how to Remit but I have other hopes surely I do not wash a Blackamore nor preach thus long a Sermon to as little purpose as St. Bede when he preacht to a heap of Stones or as if I were preaching to the Rocks near Silly called The Bishop and his Clerks you cannot be so Stony-hearted I think but either you will Remit the Verdict and be friends or accept of those Honourable and profitable Proposals which I hear make you of a New-Tryal and if you will do neither the World shall know it that they may judge betwixt you and me and my Six substantial Witnesses and your single interessed Witness that swears for his own ends to get me out of my Rights which you have unlawfully indeavoured to invade by an Illegal sequestration the cause of the words betwixt us and the Canons of 40 the cause and first occasion of your displeasure against me which made you so willing in defiance of 1 Tim. 5. 19. Gods Holy Word to receive an accusation nay and prosecute it too upon the single Testimony of an in famous wretch who wants the necessary accoutrement of a Lyar a good Memory whom I have begun to prosecute for the Perjury I hope you will not still countenance him against such a Man as I am I have also prosecuted for Perjury your other Apparitors Groom Martin and your six Procters of Doctors-Commons blush for them help them not for for shame I hope no noli prosequi nay I am advis'd to make an attaint against the Jury I have in this Letter made very sharp Reflexions and corroding Epithites of the Laudian-Faction and Tantivee-Principle It is not rashly done but upon good Advice such spreading Cancers and dangerous cannot be corrected check't nor cured without Precipitate Corrosives For this Lambeth Divinity ruins Humanity Polity and Policy We do not live in Muscovy where John Valevodsky I believe I do not write it right the Muscovy-Duke and Emperour of Russia Tyrannically laid a Tribute upon the people of several bushels of living Fleas and in default an outragious Fine and arbitrry If it had been bushels of dead Fleas I believe I knew where he might have been fitted the last Summer but Fleas have a skittish Property and are sooner kill'd than jail'd or put into pound except they be dealt with as the Spanish Fryar dealt with the Musquetoes of the Bay of Campeachy in America namely he Excommunicated them and then every body knows it is not very far to the Jail or pound The Tyrant had as good have seized their Lands their Liberties their Lives and their Wives without the Ceremony of Bushels of Fleas only to pick a quarrel For so the Tyrannical Bashaws of Egypt at this day bring thither a Ship load of Tin and without the Philosopher's Stone turns it immediately to a Ship load of Silver by sending to every man according to his Estate a quantity of Tin commanding them to send him the like quantity of Silver and so the Bargain is made or if they do not like the Bargain a Mute goes along with the Janizaries and does the mens business with a Bowstring if they do not cheat them and save them the Labour by making use of his own Bed-Cords before they come nigh when he first hears they are coming and knows their Errand Tyranny needs no Ceremony but a long Sword These arbitrary Cruelties are common in Turky Muscovy and a little I fear in France and the Priests make them believe they have a Jus Divinum and express Texts of Alcoran in English holy Scripture for all But the Canons of 40. are not yet Canonical my Lord nor ever shall if I can help it though you prosecute me with all the united Power privy Whispers Affidavits Verdicts Articles Libels Supplicavits Informations Declarations Suspensions Silencings Jails and Bails or your severest weapon namely what the Fryar frighted the Flys with Excommunications But I have by this fair Proposal so profitable to you acquit my self in the Judgment of all Ingenuous men for if it be profit or my money you seek that I will secure if you recover by an indifferent Jury if Honour that is better secur'd by this Proposal for it can be no Honour to you if you dare not try the cause before not a pitckt Jury for the nonce but such a Jury as is indifferently return'd upon other Tryals And if nothing will prevail with you but you 'l keep the catching hold you have got nor listen to any thing but revenge revenge except I make dishonourable and base Submissions then Scabbard be gone fight on be bold And let him fall that first says hold I believe you do not read my Books for if you had impartially weighed the 7th Page of Naked Truth second part second Edition I should have been more in your books then the Canons and Constitutions forty read 21 Hen. 8. 13. or Acts. 6. 2. 4. against Spiritual-Apostolical-persons medling with temporal Councels and Employments disdain not to bedrawn out of a Pit with rags and do by me as you would be done by when time shall serve for these contests are but a kind of hot-cockles there will be no sport if we do not lye down in our turns especially when I prophesy so right why and how and who it is that smote me Neither despise nor reject with scorn the good Admonitions in this Letter if I had not lov'd you well and better than you deserve at my hands I would not have bestowed so much pains upon you But there is seldome a greater Plague attending Greatness than the flattery of their own judgments and conceits as well as the flattery of Sycophants without but what non-sense is it The King can make a man a Knight but he cannot make the Knight one jot the wiser or more learmed he may be the poorer for his Title The King can make a Bishop but all the Kings in Christendome cannot with the Lord convey Learning and Wisdom but usually less for a Lord-Bishop has more Diversions from his Studies and Books by attending Councils and Parliaments and Confirmations and Procurations and Visitations Promotions Suits and vexations that it is next to impossible that he can study so much as a Country Vicar Robert Grotshead Bishop of Lincoln writ a Letter Monitory to the Pope and the distance betwixt them two was was far greater than betwixt your Lordship and my self nay Abbot