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 that none of the
and do all perhaps in fee with the Chandlers by Candle-light or thinking as some idle Trades-men do that burn the day that bought Light is best I say the Observation of the said idle Ceremonies of private Interpretation Making and Constitution make us all Schismaticks Seditious Seitious from and in defiance of the Act of Vniformity And we must all cry peccavi hold up our Hands and cry guilty guilty and culprit if we hap to be tried by God and the Country Nay where shall we get a Country or Jury that are not equally guilty of Nonconformity as our selves or that can find us guilty without bringing in a Verdict also at the same time against themselves and their own Nonconformity Which shows how unpractiacable that late Doctrine is like to prove that none but Conformists to the Act of Uniformity shall be Jury-Men A very fine Rod it would make everlastingly against all Protestants if such a new Doctrine should be establish'd as the Law of the Land For if Q. Mary's Days should Pythagorically Circulate and face about as we then were which for our Sins and base servile truckling is not impossible then we have made a fine Lash for our own Backs and with our own Mouths sentenc'd and for ever condemn'd the two great Assistants of our English Liberties Properties and ancient fundamental Constitutions Safeguard and Lise-guard namely Parliaments and Juries if ever the Popish Religion come to be the State-Religion and make an Act of Uniformity Search and you 'll find that the great Mystery of Iniquity runs in a Blood among all those that set up a standing measure for all Men to mete by and knock out all Men's Brains as that Giant Procrustes did who were Longer or Shorter than his Iron Stand-bed or cutting off so much of Men's Legs as out stretch'd it or else extended and rack'd out all the little Dwarfs in whom natural Endowments were desicient Obj. What then Shall not all be of one mind and keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Answ What upon Compulsion No if all the Inquisitions and High Commissions Racks Goals and Gibbets were in the Confederacy no Man can be made to do any thing in Faith upon Compulsion and whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin and it is not lawful it is the Devil's Work to tempt Men to sin You may imprison them you may knock out their Brains but if you would hang them you cannot make Faith or make any Man believe that is God's Prerogative alone It is the Gift of God Only use the Receipt that he prescribes against Infidelity Teach Exhort give good Examples in Meekness not in Goals instructing those that oppose themselves If this will not do do not stamp fret and curse and rail nor deliver them to Satan by Excommunication but pray to God for them and their Conversion Thus the Apostles conquer'd the World to Christianity untill the Pope came and in Imitation of Mahomet and Presbyterian Cruelty made Converts with Fire and Sword and Desolation confining like the fam'd Conjurer their Spirit or Familiar Demon to the Pummel of their Sword thence came Fire and Fagot the Inquisition-Purgatory for an excommunicated Infidel and Horning Goals and Outlawry in Scotland amongst the rigid Scotch Presbyterians for the like Offence and no Deliverance but the base Close-Stool of Repentance And whilst these Popish and Presbyterian Bigots are thus cursing damning killing destroying a Man and his House a Man and his Heritage they think or at least would perswade you to think that whosoever of them destroyeth or killeth you therein doth God good Service CHAP. XV. ANd who knows but God and Nature which seems in the wole Creation to delight in Variety and therefore not one Individual Man or Beast which are numberless are yet exactly in all Symetries and Proportions Sizes Features Figures and Complexions alike is also so offended with diversity of Thoughts Opinions Fancies or Judgments differing For tho we are all of different Airs and Feature and shapes yet we all continue to be Men and tho we may differ in many Punctilio's and some come short and some overstretch the known common publick and uniform Standard God forbid but still we all of us may continue to be Christians But we may as rationally quarrel with every Man we meet whose Nose of his Face is longer or shorter lesser or bigger than our own as to quarrel thus endlesly and to Daggers-drawing about different Judgments and Opinions in Men whose Heads and Eyes are not all of a size and accuracy to the shameful Disturbance of the Peace of the Kingdom and the Peace of Christendom And for all this We may thank the Avarice and Ambition of Rome and Infallibility that pretend to be the only Ring-leaders to Heaven and if you will not come along with them they 'll curse and damn you and bid the Devil take you for a Heretick and an Infidel Whist the Turk laughs in his Sleeve to see how the Protestant Christians are forc'd to fly to him for Shelter as now the Hungarians do called therefore Rebel Hungarians that so Gog and Magog would please to defend them and save them from Jesus Christ's Vicar and his Blood-Hounds the Jesuits A very goodly Account and ready way to convert the Great Turk So that for my part I wish we may now put into our Letany again that which is and was put in by the first Reformers and Martyrs and Composers of the Common-Prayer-Book and Letany in 2 Edw. 6th I know not by what or whose Artifice now omitted Namely From all Sedition and privy Conspiracy From the Tyrany of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable Enormities from all fulse Doctrine and Heresy from Hardness of Heart and Contempt of thy Word and Commandment Good Lord deliver us There 's not one word of alteration in the Letany from what it was at first except in this Suffrage and sure 't is now as needful and seasonable a Prayer as ever it was For is it not great Tyranny in the Bishop of Rome and of all such as are of like Popish Principles to quarrel with all Men we meet upon the Road to Heaven because they will not go our Way and if Words will not do then Blows shall and then hale them along and curse them and damn them excommunicate and Goal them And all forsooth because the Pope and every little bigotted Popeling and rigid Spit-fire pretends that he is in the right Road and in the very infallible way to Heaven and they that will not just come along with them for which also they 'll make them pay Toll too then hale them along by Head and Shoulders out them in Prison and take away their Purses A most incomparable Christian Method but I 'll say of such as Pope Alexander 6th said of his wicked Son Caesar Borgias me commonstratore non didicit he ne'r learn'd this of his Father I mean the Father of Spirits our Heavenly
every large Skin of Parchment 00 00 08 00 00  Item In defiance of the Statute For Ingrossing every Inventory and Accompts according to the length thereof not exceeding Two shillings for every Press of Parchment 00 00 02 00 00  Item In defiance of the Statute For Exhibiting of every Inventory and for subscribing of the same 00 06 00 06 00  Item For the Copy of every Act extracted out of the Registry under the Register's hand 00 00 01 00 00  Item For the Copy of every Inventory Testament Libel Matter Allegations or Articles whatsoever extracted out of the Register under the Register's hand 00 00 According to the length 00  Item For Letters of Request made to another Ordinary to Cite one dwelling out of the Judges Jurisdiction 01 08 01 08 00  Item For every Renunciation of an Administration of the Goods of a Deccased or an Executor of a Will Admitted and Enacted 00 06 00 06 00  Item For every Decree made upon the distribution of Goods amongst the next of Kin and for Registring the same 06 08 06 08 00  Item The Fee of a Proctor every Court-day in which he is Retained upon any Cause whatsoever is 01 00 00 00 00  And no more Therefore they Abuse you when they take Ten Groats ☞ And indeed there is scarce one of all these Particulars but the Officers belonging to these Courts do now Demand Take and Extort most Vnjustly Greater Fees than are here set down which yet are all that themselves had the Confidence to ask or pretend due in the Time of King Charles I. since which Time they have not any Colour of Law Reason or Authority to have them increased Therefore if any of them shall for the future Demand or Take any Fees Duties or Sums of Money more or greater than are here set down let the Party grieved forthwith Indict them for Extortion the onely way to Curb the Avarice and Oppression of greedy devouring Locusts who like the Sons of the Horse-Leech always Cry Give Give till with tedious Vexations they undo those they can get into their Birdlime-Clutches POSTSCRIPT I 'LL add but one Argument more and 't is the stenderest in all the Artillery of Logick but for Home-thrusts like a Vipers tongue 't is slender indeed but most Mortal and Irresistible 't is called Argumentum ad Huminem like Rom. 2.22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery Doest thou commit adultery so say I Thou Adulterer Art not thou a transgressor of the Law and Acts for Uniformity Is not Adultery against the Common-Prayer-Book Is not an Illegal Ceremony-monger a Non-Conformist Is not an Adulterer a Non-Conformist Is not a Noddy I should say Nodder to the Altar to the East a Non-Conformist Is he so Why then thou old formality thou whip and spur Will no pace serve thee but a Gallop and Tantivy Foot and Horse Companies and Troops Trot and Gallop On what Service What Expedition To root a Conventicle Have a care man and fly fly get out of harms way for fear they face about and root thee for a Non-Conformist and take from thee thy pride and joy of thy heart thy 2 3 4 5. Spiritual Promotions Ha Non-Conformists Is that the Word one would think thou shouldst for thine own sake hereafter be good to Non-Conformists thou dull Coyner and Forger of Ceremonies thy chief Religion in desiance of the Holy Acts for Uniformity You that would have all Non-Conformists undone Body Soul and Estate you that are all for Cursing and Imprisoning all for filling Hell and the Gaol come on How do you like this deprivation for Non-Conformity How does this Stone-doublet fit you you that breathe nothing but Gaols Fines Consiscations Suspensions Hell and Excommunications and Writs in the Rear of it Thou wicked and unjust Judg dost thou Sentence or Excommunicate some Non-Conformists and not all Non-Conformists and dost thou partially spare thine own Nodding Superstitious silly self James 2.1 My Brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ nor the Laws of God and the King the Lord of glory with respect of persons Either all being guilty let all suffer but where shall we get Executioners or else being guilty As in general Matiny none suffer Otherwise James 2.3 Are ye not then partial in your selves and are become judges of evil thoughts Then do not bespeak Grand-Jury-men to make fish of one and flesh of another but either spare all Non-Conformists or spare no Non-Conformists small nor great Lay-man nor Clergy-man Bishop nor Arch-Bishop Dean nor Chapter Singing-men nor Singing-boys Register nor Sumner no nor Justices nor your selves Grand-Jury-men spare all or spare none from the greatest to the least from the Bench to the Bar. Dost thou say no Non-Conformists ought to be sworn of a Jury Ha let me hear this again Is this Law That no transgressors of the Law shall be either Judg or Jury-man turn thine eyes inward look into thine own Breast and then tell me Is this Law What Shall no transgressor of a Statute be a Judg or a Jury-man not one Whoremaster Drunkard Extortioner nor Blasphemer Curser nor Swearer Or is the transgression of the Statutes for Uniformity the greatest transgression There 's no reason for that but we 'l admit it rather than spoil good discourse and then tell me thou silly Superstitious deviser and observer of Illegal Ceremonies thou Cloud that would overcast all Religion Dost thou think to escape the Inquisition by the works of Darkness Mists and Clouds of thine own making Art not thou also a Non-Conformist The Millenaries have long expected Christs Personal Reign upon Earth when the Saints shall judg the World but all in vain for now one Non-Conformist condemns another a Non-Con on the Bench a Non-Con at the Bar pretty I protest Vice corrects Sin Fait and Trot and by St. Patrick 't is well a fine Joy If ever Popery come to be the State-Religion as it was for hundreds of years in England then those that assert it for good Law That no Non-Conformist shall he a Jury-man has cut all our Throats defeated all our Estates Liberties and Properties with that one Breath Pestilential Breath For where are our Lives our Liberties our Properties our All by the Law if it be Law to have none but Conformists Jury-men if ever we live to see none but Papists Conformists which is not impossible This it is to wyre-draw the Law only to serve a trick or a turn or a present occasion this furnishes the Papists with a fine lash to slash us and by Law too our own Law Judges and officers saith God Deut. 16.18 19. shalt thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy Tribes And they shall judg the people with just judgment Thou shalt not wrest judgment thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wife and pervert
pretenders Preach not one farthing better many much less I do not say much worse than when they were poor Priests Peter set ope ' the Prison-Doors and made a Goal-delivery But some the Goals would fill if they might have their Will Peter said indeed Silver and gold have I none And these indeed scarce know when nor think they have enough In short as I said once before I protest I do not know wherein St. Peter's pretended Successor imitates Peter but in denying his Master I wish I could see him on the stool of Repentance and weep as Peter did weep bitterly Instead of making others weep with their Inquisitions High-Commissions and their Tricks and Shams making the poor Widow and Orphans weep and curse them Apostolical men Successors and Imitators of the Apostle For shame no more With what Forehead I hate the Impudence more than the Hypocrisie Paul labour'd with his hands to get a Living others labour to undo men and their Families Paul had a Viper on his hand did him no hurt others have Vipers in their hearts and do as much hurt and mischief as in them lyes Paul raised Jairus's Daughter to life these breathe nothing but Goals Pillories Excommunication and Destruction Paul Excommunicated Swearers and Blasphemers and some Popes History says and Apostolical men would Blaspheme upon occasion Curse and Swear like Hectors But what and wherefore in nomine Domini do these men pretend Right to Excommunicate because St. Paul did it or the Primitive Church of Corinth that had both St. Paul's special order for it and his Spirit and his Sentence 1 Cor. 5.3 4. They had Gifts of the Holy-Ghost particularly that without which no man was so impudent to bind or loose or pretend to the power of the Keys in the Primitive times that wanted it namely the Gift of Discerning of Spirits St. Paul could see through a man into him into his very heart so could St. Peter and therefore did that which is a sin in any of us to do that have not the gift of Discerning of Spirits Therefore St. Paul called the Conjurer Elymas Enemy of all righteousness and Son of a Devil and St. Peter by his Spirit perceiv'd that Simon Magus was in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity The Pope and Popelings are ready enough at calling of Names but clavis errans they Nick-name men and call him a Child of the Devil that is more a Child of God a thousand times than themselves and yet they 'l be doing their endeavour and good-will to deliver them to Satan and yet God will not suffer Satan to take one of them that they Excommunicate that we know of no signs nor marks on 't but rather as they say of the Foxes proverbially The more they are curst the better they thrive Take him Satan Satan will not then take him Magistrate he must Whereas the Apostle Paul that made the Church of Corinth Excommunicate the Incestuous person it was for the destruction of the Flesh and Diseases as they did Job when God Excommunicated him or delivered him to Satan either kill'd him or brought him nigh unto the Grave if great Godly sorrow did not intervene Away with this Mimickry and Pageantry and Apish Imitation If we have the Spirit of the Apostles we are Apostolical men indeed they Peter and John Acts 8.17 Layd their hands on the Disciples and they received the gifts of the Holy-Ghost So the Pope and Cardinals c. they will be imitating and seem to do something and they 'l Confirm by Laying on of Hands but not that neither right according to their own Rubricks as I 'le show by and by but cui bono Away with Lying and Vanity let God be True and every man a Lyar I would appeal to any mans Conscience If ever he received any Gift of the Holy-Ghost by such Imposition of Hands and speak the Naked-Truth now and do not cogg lye and flatter your self nor dissemble any of you that ever was B Be-Pop't or that any Pope would tell truly and not lye Whether he felt whilst he was at it with Imposition of Hands that any vertue went out of him as it did out of our Saviour when he did the Woman good Away Away with Folly and Pageantry at this time of day God will not be mocked And every Plant that my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out saith our Blessed Redeemer and I believe him let Hell and the Pope think themselves never so cock-sure and culminant 'T is readily granted that if any man was a Heretick they should avoid him or reject him and cast off his Company in ordinary Conversation and if any Brother walked disorderly they should not eat nor drink nor dine nor sup with him that he might be ashamed But to think that God or good Men the Prophets Christ or his Apostles did ever in the Old or New Testament command any Men Synod or Synagogue Church or Court that they should shut the Church Doors and shut out the worst of Sinners from the Sacraments or Communion or hale them into Church either by the Head and Ears or which is the same Excommunicate him or put him out of Commons or the Communion of the Church the only Food and Cure of our Souls and made on purpose for Sinners is an opinion as senceless and groundless as it has been baneful and mischievous to all Societies and the Peace of Christendom I grant though sacra sacris and Holy things ought not to be cast to Dogs therefore the Text says Examin your selves and so eat of this bread and drink of this cup. Examin himself It is not said examin him Priest and confess him you Priest and Catechize him John Presbyter nor you Lay-Elder But let him examin himself and so let him come but sao piculo at his own Peril But the Church nor the best of men are not defiled with communicating with the vilest of sinners Was there ever any better than our Blessed Saviour or worse than Judas yet Christ eat the Passeover with him and probably the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper yet he then knew him and had Publisht him a Traytor whom before he call'd Devil I hate the Puritanical Pharisaical Hypocrisie of any Religion they shall be defiled with communicating with Sinners Drunkards c. And yet St. Paul and the Church of Corinth as good as the best of them are not commanded to forsake the Lords-Table though we read that some came thither Drunk and to fill their Bellies with the Bread and Wine 1 Cor. 11.21 Alas every man has enough to do if he mind it well to look after his own Preparation but that any that had not the Gift of Discerning of Spirits nor these neither did Excommunicate or forbid the Communion to any in the Old or New Testament I boldly say 't is false Nor can they prove but that he that was delivered to Satan did also come if he could for Diseases
qualification of a Priest to be a Linguist and yet to my knowledge not a Fryar in forty can speak true Latin Did the Apostle deliver the Incestuous Person by his spirit to Satan and also the Blasphemers Why the Pope would be at it too though he cannot Kill whom he Excommunicates for Hereticks 'till he makes the silly Bigotted Magistrate Gregory it for him And so also most of the Popish Prelatical-tricks are meer Mimickry and Idle as well as Apish Imitation of the Apostles And he is forc't to pretend to this Juggle and Cheat because his Ambition has Entitul'd him Peter's Successor and his pretty Cardinals and Bishops Apostolical men give the Word backward for these Apostolical men Apostolical men Thus the Gypsies imitated Moses and Aaron with their Inchantments Exod. 7. till Aaron's Rod swallowed up their Rods yet Pharaoh's heart was hardned and he and all his Conjurers look't upon all Religion as a humane Invention till by being abominably Lousie and like Atheistical Herod eaten up with Lice they confest Digitum Dei the Finger of God Nor do I think the Popish Conjurers will ever part with their dear dear precious gainful Money-Trade of the Keys till some remarkable Judgment fall upon them for the Abominable and Atheistical abuse Alas the Keys 't is plain were no silver Keys nor earthly worldly mens Keys and therefore when Christ gave them to Peter he calls them Matt. 16.19 The Keys of the kingdom of Heaven So that an Excommunicate Person clave non errant if justly and duly Excommunicated by Persons qualified as the Apostles were with the Gift of the Holy-Ghost called the Gift of Discerning of Spirits without which we never read in Holy Scripture that any Man or Church took upon him or them to Excommunicate any body I say such an Excommunicate Person is by the Evangelical Precept to be as much shut out of Church as if he had never entred in or as much as and no more than a Heathen-man or a Publican But that ever Christ or his Apostles or the Primitive-Church did ever intend by Excommunication to lay claim to his Purse or deprive him of his Freedom Liberty or Property Moneys or Lands as the Jesuits held by asserting that Dominion is founded in Grace and is the ground-work of the Pope's Tyranny and Vsurpation over Princes and their Subjects is no where found in Holy Writ nor any such Appendix Writ or Label hanging at any Excommunication that ever I heard of in the Gospel or Primitive Church Nor the least hint in the Gospel that our blessed Saviour who would not suffer a Prelate no not St. Peter amongst his Disciples should under colour and by vertue of Excommunication grant them a Licence to rend and tear rant and domineer as nay more than the Princes of the Gentiles over one another much less by such a stratagem to deprive Nonconformists Atheists or Libertines of their Lands or Goods Freedom or Free-hold nor ever attempted any such Invasion of the Heathen Emperors Dominions but quite contrary paid them Tribute taught subjection to them by vertue of Religion not usurpation upon their civil Rights under colour of Religion and this no Man can deny who does believe our Saviour when he said My Kingdom is not of this world And therefore he never meant when he parted with these Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to his Church and Servants that they should flourish them huff and vapor with them fight and quarrel threaten and revenge or vend their malice with them or much less knock Mens brains out with these Keys or by the help of these Keys by more nimble conveyance get into their Purses or pick their Pockets or which is worse lock them up in a Jayle by vertue of these Keys and deprive them of their Lands and Livings Liberties and Properties No no it was the Pope the Pope and his Off-spring that first turn'd these Keys the wrong way as I have said and contrary to the way of Christ for which he and all such as he meritoriously deserves the name of Antichrist or contrary to Christ 'T is Pride devilish Pride call 't what you will that makes men Lord it over God's Heritage and enslave their Bodies and Souls too together with insatiable Avarice in greedy Dogs that can never have enough 'till they get the Devil and all This makes the Popes both the greater and the lesser by the abuse of Excommunication or the power of the Keys to cram their Coffers to enrich their Nephews and satisfie their Whores when decrepit old Age cannot sarrogate to their Lust and therefore my Letany is From the Popes both the greater and the lesser From Le Chese the French Confessor And from his Popish Successor Libera Libera CHAP. IV. ANd I 'le justifie it it is but a Branch of Popery in any sort of people that decry the Pope and all his Works if they do the very same things whilst poor men change their Lords indeed but not the Lordliness and Vsurpation And that Incestuous Person that was Excommunicated and Delivered to Satan I Cor. 5.4 Wherefore was it To what end and purpose The same Text tells us for the destruction of the flesh his lustful Flesh or fleshly Lusts not for the destruction of his Estate Freedom or earthly Priviledges but that his spirit might be saved All the design and all the management and all the consequences were spiritual purely spiritual Our Blessed Saviour though it was proffer'd him and some would never have refused the Prefirment that have not the mind of Christ would not be a Judg in Civil matters Counsellor nor Privy-Counsellor For his Kingdom was a spiritual Kingdom his Rule a spiritual Rule in mens Hearts and Spirits by his Word and Spirit his Weapons were not Carnal but Spiritual for the bringing down of strong Holds not Castles and Mannors No no the Devil and the Pope and such as follow the steps of Antichrist set up and maintain and uphold this Anti-Kingdom in opposition to the Kingdom of Christ but the Pope was glad to uphold his tottering Kingdom with the Inquisition High-Commission Racks and Gibbets Fire and Faggot Fines and Imprisonments or which is all one deliver them over to the Magistate to be Excontioners for him We thought it a fair deliverance from this Popish thraldom when we were delivered from the Inquisition High-Commission Racks and Gibbets Fire and Faggot too of late by condemning the Writ de Heretico Comburendo I do not deny though but that the two last Fines that is unjust Fees and Imprisonments are to this day in England the Consequences of Excommunication But they are mistaken that think these Consequences are held forth to us in the Gospel of Christ or the practise of the Apostles or Primitive Church No no Fines and Imprisonments attend Excommunication upon another score namely the Law of the Land and therefore you hear me say nothing against it I know what I could say if I were in place