said to the frequent breach of the Oath of Canonical Obedience which also is daily broke by extorting Money and selling Prayers Ordinations Institutions Lectures Sermons Baptizings c. Here 's rottenness all over Besides also many Inhumanities Vexations Extortions Imprisonments Grievances and Oppressions that have within these thousand years been used in Spiritual Courts are against the Law of Nature and not the least colour of them in the Law of God and some point blanck against the law of the Land Was there ever the like known that men should not fear to trample the Sacred Laws under their foot if they make against them and at the same time hale in each Tittle of the letter of the Law against Dissenters when there is so much Dissention amongst themselves so little Congruity or conformity either to one another or to the Act of Vniformity But the sin is greater when Holy Ordinances and Holy Keyes become Snares to catch away mens Liberties in civil matters and will be an addition heaped up and running over that a man would wonder how it is possible for so much rottenness and corruption when it happens should subsist A Bulwark against Popery some men talk of go make a Bulwark of nothing but rottenness and tell me what it is good for especially if the rottenness and corruption is of the same nature with that Popish filth that was brought from Rome by Augustine that vilest of Monks as aforesaid CHAP. XV. A Bulwark quoth he and Court-christian Court-christian was so called sayes Coke because That as in the secular Courts the Kings Laws do sway and decide Causes so in Ecclesiastical Courts the Laws of Christ should should that was well put in rule and direct for which cause the Judges in those Courts are Divines Ay we are fine Divines as Archbishops Commissaries Deans Archdeacons c. A very special Christian Regiment of which not one such name is found in the holy Muster-roll of Scripture Linwood sayes Curia christianitis in quâ servantur Leges Christi Court-christian so called because in it is observ'd the Laws of Christ whereas in the Kings Courts are observed the Laws of the World Optime opponis Domine the Kings Laws the Kings Courts set in distinction and diametrically opposite to the Laws of Christ and Court-christian I profess the King and his Courts are strangely beholden to us Laws of the World quoth he yea but Laws Ecclesiastical they call the Laws of Christ our Courts Christian forsooth in distinction from the Kings Courts our selves Divines in distinction from earthly Lay-men that mind the World and worldly things our selves Spiritual persons in distinction from the carnal Layety and our Courts Spiritual Courts in distinction from the worldly Kings Courts Well I commend them for giving themselves and us a good name and a good word becoming our own Trumpets to commend our selves for if we did not who strives to do it the Papists indeed were barbarously Inhumane Soul-sellers Cruel Revengeful Mischievous constant Friends to the Devil and the Gaol but had the Law of the Land on their side for their black deeds But some men Oppress Extort Money for Gods Gifts Illegal Fees in high and open Contempt of the known Laws of the Land and in defiance of their own Oaths against Symony and their Oaths of Canonical Obedience And moreover if the 1 Edw. 6. 2. being the last Statute that ever was revived concerning Bishop-making and Ecclesiastical Court-keeping be in force as I doubt not in the least that any body will deny then to all wickedness is added the greatest Insolence Scandal and daring Triumph over the Laws that ever any Chronicle does mention or record CHAP. XVI AND Blessed be God that has in his Providence so order'd it that out of the Eater is come forth Meat and out of the Strong sweetness to me through the Strength Interest Malice and Power of my Adversary A Power that by bereaving me of my capacity of being a States minister or receiving the States pay has thereby not only given me leisure and occasion Oh deep Polititians not only to pry into their Constitution and observe their Motions but also has thereby emancipated my Judgment and knockt off those Shackles wherewith it might happen to be feterr'd byas't warpt or bended the wrong way through Self-ends or private Respects Interest too frequently Bribing and consequently Blindfolding the Judgment that it cannot discern light from darkness nor can I deny but that in composing this little Treatise I have had more than ordinary help and assistance Divine to discern further and yet undeniably true into the Validity and force of this so needful Statute so long despised by men that talk much of the Kings Prerogative when it serves their own ends To which also I cannot say but they might the rather be inclin'd by the Lord Coke but whether they wrought him to it or he them 't is not a pin matter Ignorantia crassa non excusat For As it is most certain that an after-Statute vacates and makes voyd all precedent Statutes that are contrary thereunto And as it is also as certain as that every child is younger than its father the author of its life and every effect junior to its cause so also certain it is that this Revived Statute must date its life and force from 1 Jacob. and therefore vacates 1 Eliz. 1. 25 H. 8. 20. 1 Mar. 2. 1 2 Phil. Mar. 8. and all other Statutes that make Bishops of any other fashion or send Writs and Processes in any other name than that Statute does direct and enjoyn And though this Argument alone unfetters it from Coke's threefold Cord wherewith he endeavours to bind it down yet 't is ex abundanti and more than needs For his second Cord is untyed and loosed by saying as aforesaid that It is Impossible any Law should aim at the doing any thing which is Impossible to be the aim and mind of the Legislators But it is Impossible that the repeal of 1 Edw. 6. 2. could be the mind of the Legislators because there was no such Statute in being to offend them or to need their repeal And besides the 1 2 Phil. Mar. 2. is not contrary to 1 Edw. 6. 2. For though they may be diverse they are not contrary but may very well subsist together For the Pope may keep his Supremacy though Processes Ecclesiastical did run in the Kings Name As well as the King may keep his Supremacy though Processes Ecclesiastical run in Doctor Exton's name or Pinfolds name Therefore it was below the Ingenuity of the learned Coke to mention such a frivolous Cord that is so easily broken The third Cord seems the strongest as to the repeal of the first branch of 1. Edw. 6. 2. though it is very idle and insignificant as to the other branch of the Statute concerning keeping Ecclesiastical Courts in the Kings name For 25 H. 8. 20 only allows Processes Ecclesiastical as
good Even so The wise States-men have made such excellent Laws against Oppressors Extortioners Promoters Suborners Common Informers and the like Animals that rend and tear the Kings poor Subjects and Lambs that Encouragement is given by the same Laws to every right Englishman and true Protestant that will put the same in Execution against them he shall not only benefit the publick but himself also and deserve well of his King and Countrey For who can without great Regret and check of Conscience connive at much less Countenance such publick Scandals Oppressions Grievances Offences and Delinquency's Did our blessed Saviour or his holy Apostles curse them that refus'd to pray with them or refus'd to hear them preach and yet they were infallibly in the right Some of the more furious Zealots amongst his Disciples once and but once call'd for fire from heaven to consume those that rejected them as Elias did but our Redeemer presently Rebuk't the evil Spirit and cast it out of them saying see know not what manner of Spirit ye are of Did the Apostles drive men to Pound or the Jayl with any or all their Ecclesiastical rods and then replevy them and redeem them but never without Money in the case Did Christ or his Apostles whose Poverty and Self-denyal taking up the Cross was a qualification as absolutely necessary for a Follower of Christ and Successor of the Apostles as was Faith Hope and Charity did they by any Ecclesiastical Engine feel their Pockets get dominion or wreak their malice and revenge or truckle to Polititians to make their Spiritual Weapons Tools of State wherewith to do a State Jobb Did they either make money of Souls or of Sins Did they call to the Jaylors Hang-men or Bumbaylies to come and help them and lend them à hand to carry on the Gospel Did they either force or fright men to Heaven or scare them out of their Wits or out of their Consciences or out of their Purses or out of their Freedoms Liberties Estates Birthrights or Temporal Inheritances which he confest himself were exempt from his Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction not hooking it in as the Pope and others do with the old Popish Cheat in ordine Spiritualia taking away their Temporalities in order to their Souls health Our Blessed Saviour taught us not this cunning nor these medendi methodos new ways of Cure and Arts Empyrical Men never sooner cry out then when pincht of their Liberties or pincht by the Pocket especially if Spiritual-men be active in it they are apt to cry By what Authority do you these things and who gave you this Authority The old Prelates in King James his Reign calling themselves the Church of England in their Articuli Cleri presented to the King and Councel against all the Judges confest judiciously where their great Sampsons strength lyes as to their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction not in the least mentioning God nor Christ therein neither the Prophets Apostles nor the Gospel for it their modesty is Comm endable because no such Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Spiritual nor Temporal is found in the Holy Bible But very plainly and open heartedly they avow without dissembling the matter in the least That the chiefest Temporal Strength of their Ecclesiasti-Jurisdiction is Imprisonment upon the Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo Implying that if their Sampson's-Locks were cut they would become weak as other men And if this Royal Statute I Edw. 6. 2. be in force all their Processes Ecclesiastical Significavits Certificavits in their own name and not in the Kings name must all be illegal and consequently all Capiesses and Imprisonments thereupon Illegal and ill grounded Therefore no wonder if men concern'd do stand up stoutly to keep this Law down For if it rise up in Judgment against us what will become of us or if all the standing in the world cannot bind it down For the Law at long run is too hard for any man alive I profess The old Prelates knew how it concern'd them to hush it down when it seem'd to rise up to fright them by being unloosned primo Jacobi having long been fetter'd and bound down primo Mariae And it was honestly done of them to confess that their strength did lie in the Writ De Excommunicato Capiendo why should men ly for the matter especially in a case so plain and palpable We are all agreed that Commissaries Officials Proctors Registers Sumners and all that drive that Sell-Soul Trade are not found in Gods Word If therefore it shall appear before we have done that they are not of the King neither prethee tell me if thou canst who they are of This Province I know would be best managed by a Lawyer yet it is not his Peculiar nor Exempt from the proper Cognizance of a Divine especially in Reference to such Statutes as this of 1 Edw. 6.2 which relates only to Divines and their Surrogates especially to such Divines as I am to wit a Bencher and Judge Ecclesrastical 'T is true I only state the Case for it is the Kings Judges that onely ought to determine its Validity And well are they called in Law his Locum Tenentes because by Partiality Timidity Corruption or Injustice they have not only been charg'd with breaking the King's Oath thereby as well as their own put have had their Necks broke at the Gallowes for their pâ—iâ—s Nor since this question was first started 4 Jacobi did any of them I will â—â— say they durst not decide this Quere Judicially For the Judges may declare the Law but never a man in England can either make or Repeal a Statute out of Parliament 't is Fatal to him if he attempt it And I 'le speak a bold word I believe the Ingenious Reader will conclude before I have done that all the thâ—n in England are not able to speak one reasonable word against the Validity of this Royal Statute thought so necessary for the Preservation of the King's Supremacy and Royal Prerogative after the Popes-head was decollated that it was the first Statute that ever was made except that concerning the blessed Sacrament to be taken in both kinds after the Reformation In the Reign of Edw. 6. For his Father Reform'd indeed the Monasteries into his Pocket but liv'd and dy'd a Zealous Papist CHAP. II. ANd if in handling this Serious and Solid Argument The Reader happen to meet with an Angery expression sometimes which he deems too light for the Gravity of the matter in hand let him know there is not a word here writ till well ponder'd and of Set-purpose For which mixtures I have the Oracle of the Law the most incomparable Cook for my Warrant as well as Copy and President recommending the plain down Right Arguments of Law in his Institutes by Interlacing them with Poetry and vivid Humanity therefore rendring them more Amâ—aâ—le and acceptable Or if you please He Damask's and Waters his best and strongest Stuff And I to speak in his own Phrase I mean the Cooks
our Lives if that Branch of that Statute be in force In the Interim God keep me out of the enemies clutches though For I think I know sufficiently what Ecclesiastical Clemency is if they get a man at their mercy women and timerous men are said to be most cruel when they get a man down they never think themselves safe till he be made sure for ever rising up again but if they had not run to Westminster-Hall cry'd out there for help against me I could have dealt well enough with them till they had been Tyred nay They knew it as well But no more of that at present for their business was never so fully and compleatly done as now Take my word for it CHAP. III. THe Branch of the said Statute 1 Edw. 6. 2. now to be considered is this verbatim BE it therefore further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all Summons and Citations or other Process Ecclesiastical in all Suits and Causes of Instance vetwixt Party and Party and all Causes of Correction and all Causes of Bastardy or Bigamy or Inquiry de Jure Patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of Administrations of Persons deceased and all Acquitcances of and upon accounts made by the Erecutors Administrators or Collectors of Goods of any dead person be from the first day of July next following made in the name and with the style of the King as it is in Writs Original or Iudicial at the Common-Law And that the Teste thereof be in the name of the Arch-bishop or Bishop or other having Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction who hath the commission and grant of the Authority Ecclesiastical immediately from the Kings Highness And that his Commissary Official or Substitute exercising Iurisdiction under him shall put his name in the Citation or Process after the Teste Furthermore be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that all manner of Person or Persons who have the exercise of the Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction shall have from the first day of July before expressed in the Seals of Office The Kings Highness Arms decently set with certain characters under the Arms for the knowedge of the Diocess and shall use no other Seal of Iurisdiction 〈◊〉 wherein his Maâ—esties Arms be ingâ—â—â—en upon pain that if any person shall use Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction after the day before expressed in this Realm of England Wales â—â— other his Dominions or Territories And not send or make out the citation or process in the Kings name or use any Seal of Iurisdiction other than before Limited That every such Offender shall inâ—â—â—â— and run in the Kings Majesties Displeasure and Indignation and suffer Imprisonment at his Highnesses will and pleasure Now what is there in all this that should make a man loth to act in the Name and Style and Seal of the Kings Majesty and not in the old method when a Priest was the head of the Church if there were not something in the hollow of his Heart They do not pretend as aforesaid that their Spiritual-Courts are named in God's Word if therefore they be the Kings-Courts what in the name of goodness makes them unwilling that their Processes Citations and Summons Ecclesiastical should not as other Writs Original or Judicial in the Kings Common-Law Courts run in the Name and Style and Arms of the Kings Majesty Edward 6. was the first Protestant-King since the Reformation For though King Henry 8 as I said Reform'd the lustful Monasteries yet he neither reform'd his own life thereby nor his Popish opinions But his Son was likely to be a happy Instrument of good to this Nation Whatever Doctor Heylin the darling Advocate of some Bishops have had the Confidence to Print to the contrary who in the Epistle before his pretended History of the Reformation expresly affirms That he cannot reckon the death of King Edward the Sixth for an Infelicity to the Church of England How Sir was it not an Infelicity to the Church to lose such a King To have the hopes of a glorious Reformation â—â—pt in the very Bud To have a fearful deluge of Blood and Idolatry rush in upon us by a Popish Successor But what will not the Craftsmen of Ephesus say when they fancy their Shrines in hazzard And how ready alas are such as think Lordships and vast Revenues and dominering power the Churches only Felicitâ—â—s to Reproach and Scandalize even in Sacred Princes the clearest Innocence and the most solid Piety and the brightest Zeal But God he thanked this Censure of Noble King Edward of Blessed Memory is but one Doctor 's opinion and I know not an other honest Protestant at home or abroad that will subscribe to it The very first Statute that the Parliament made as I said before in this good Kings Reign was this that we are now considering except one onely concerning the Blessed Sacrament and receiving it in both kindes with which they as piously begun and their next work was this Regulation of Spiritual-Courts For it seems very absurd that if the Ecclesiastical-Courts be the Kings-Courts and not the Prelates-Courts which they dare not in plain words deny That the Writs thence Issuing should not be in the name and style of the King the Ecclesiastical-head as well as the Temporal Nevertheless never since King Edwards Reign could the Prelates be perswaded to act in the Kings-Name but in their own Every thing would gladly be Independent and Noun Substantives And like reeling â—â—unkards scorn to be held up though they cannot stand by themselves And though this Statute was Repâ—â—â—â—d in the next Reign by a Popish Successor yet King James in his first Parliament In the first year of his Reign reviv'd this Statute by making void the Force of that Statute 1 Mar. 2. whiâ—â— had long held it under Restraint and made it Motion-less But those band being Loosned by Repeal of 1 Mary 2. in and by vertue of the Statute prim Jacobi cap. 25. It was thought to be reviv'd by the two Lord Chief Justices at the first in the fourth year of King James But when the Lord Chief Baron and other Judges had consider'd the Prejudice that might redound to the Kings Subjects if some Diocesses had no Lawful Bishop and consequently all the Priests ordained by such Bishops at least as were made since the first of the King namely the three last years must be Illegal Priests and Illegal Bishops And many other Inconveniences must ensue if the 1 Edw. 6. 2. should be deemed to be in force to the great Scandal and Impeachment of his Majesties Justice which together with the great Influence the Bishops had at Court In the three last reigns together with the Terror of the High Commission Court The business was Hush't up pretending that it was repealed and bound down with a three fold Cord as Coke is pleased to phrase it 2 Instit. fol. 685. or three after Statutes viz. 1. first by 1 Mar. 2. Secondly by 1 and 2 Phil. and Mary 8. Thirdly By 1 Eliz.
State all over London yet the Processes of Suits run not in the same name and Style but sometimes in the name of the Bishop sometimes in the name of his Arch-Deacon sometimes in the name of the Vicar-General sometimes in the name of the Official c. Therefore this far fech't Inference strained and stretcht is too short to reach a Blow or so much as to touch that part of the Statute of 1 Edw. 6. 2. concerning the use of the name style and Arms in the Citations and Processes Ecclesiastical Nay more It is evident also that the Popes 〈◊〉 Supremacy and re-establishment might well enough 〈…〉 i th the use of the King's Name and Style in Processes 〈◊〉 as well as with Exton's name or Pinfold's name or any 〈…〉 ay-Commissary's name in the Time of Popery If you sa 〈…〉 ut the name of the King's Majesty in a Writ or Process 〈…〉 an Avow or Tacite Recognition that the Courts-Ecclesiasti 〈…〉 the King's-Courts I readily grant it and therefore it argues the more strongly for the reasonableness and great Expediency of that Statute that well enjoyns His Majesties Name Style and Arms in Courts Ecclesiastical If they be the Kings-Courts Ecclesiastical and His Majesty Head of the Church as he is of the State This Statute then of 1 and 2 Phil. and Mar. 8. does not so much as by Consequence repeal 1 Edw. 6. 2. Yet I well know what my Lord Coke says to it and do better know that he durst say no other then he did so terrible then were the Prelates looking bigg and formidable in their High-Commission-Court and Starr-Chamber Otherwise a man of his sence and acute reason could not have talkt as he does of the dreadful Consequences if that Statute of 1 Edw. 6. 2. be in force to the Infinite Prejudice of His Majesties Subjects in cases of great Importance and to the Scandal and Impeachment of His Majestics Justice c. For â—le secure the Scandal and all the dreadful Consequences before the Reader has turn'd over many more Leaves of this little Tract if the Oracle of the Law the Learned Coke be not mistaken And if the Bishops in 4 Jacobi had not had somewhat else at the bottome which I â—are not to name we should have had and still have as good Bishops and Priests as ever we had if that be all the Objection that the Statute of 1 Edw. 6. 2 as to the use of the name and style of the King in Processes Ecclesiastical will make us loose our Priests and Bishops God bless us we are not so lost and undone as yet if 〈◊〉 Coke be not out of his Law in this particular the Learned are affi 〈…〉 warps But a Statute may by express words in after-Statutes be repealed in part and in a Branch and not alwayes in the whole as is easy to instance in many Crowding Presidents And Coke says the Arch-bishops and Bishops would all be illegal if they were made according to our Celebrated Act of 1 Edw. 6. Because Thought it be not repealed yet the 1 Eliz. 1. reviving the Act of 25. Hen. 8. 20. is thought to vacate so much of it as concerns the making and constituting Bishops And therefore King James his Bishops should not have needed to have been so scared and affrighted as if the Sky had fallen when the 1 Edw. 6. 2. was reviv'd by King James his repealing 1 Ma. 2. if the Lord Coke say true For Queen Elizabeth had secur'd his and her Bishops by reviving her Fathers Act concerning Bishop-making in these words And at every Avoydance of any Arch-bishoprick Bishoprick The King His Heirs and Snccessors may grant to the Prior and Covent we have got none now or to the Deaâ— and a Chapter a Licence under the great Seal c. containing the Name of the person which they shall Elect and choose c. A pretty kind of Election for they shall neither will nor chuse nor dare to refuse him that is nominated in the Letters missive yet it is called an Election though although it be whether they will or no. Bishops then 〈◊〉 need if Coke be not mistaken to fear but they are well enough made 〈◊〉 I wish with all my heart that some of them were made better for their ow 〈…〉 and for my own sake There 's no harm nor scandal in this Prayer I 〈◊〉 But still what 's all this to the contempt 〈…〉 ute of 1 Edw. 6. 2 as to the use of the name style c. of the King in 〈…〉 mmons Ecclesiastical if that Clause in 1 Edw. 6. 2. be unrepealed Why it is repealed in effect says the Lord Coke by this 〈◊〉 that Statute of 25. Hen 8. 20. as aforesaid by 1 Eliz. 1. reviv'd namely in these words And further it is Enacted that every person chosen Elected Iuvested and consecrated Arch-bishop or Bishop according to the Form and Effect of this Act c. shall do and execute iu every thing and things touching the same as any Arch-bishop or Bishop of this Realm c. might at any time heretofore do Thus the Lord Coke recites that Branch of the Statute with greater prevarication then became a man of his Ingenuity which herein far surpast his Integrity The Truth is a great Lawyer and the higher he is staged had need to be of all others a good man like Roscius of whom Cicero gives this Character Roscium it a peritum dixit ut solus esset dignus qui in Scenam deberet intrare ita virum bonum ut solus esset dignus qui eo non debeat accedere Roscius was such a skilful Actor that he of all others did best become the stage but so good a man withall that it was a Pity he should ever have come there As the Learned Coke does quote the Statute Arch-bishops and Bishops may nay they ought to say Mass baptise our Bells spit in our Childrens mouths when they baptise them and a thousand idle â—opperies more they ought to do if they ought to do in every thing as any Popish Archbishop or Bishop might at any time heretofore do To the great Dishonour and Disparagement of the Prudence and Wisdom of Queen Elizabeth and her first Parliament nay and of all Parliaments since that time By Cooks Citation of the Statute to serve his purpose against the said clause of the Statute of 1 Edw. 6. 2. he opens a gap to let in Popery or to let out the Bishops thither if they please if they must do and execute in every thing and things as any Arch-bishop or Bishop of this Realm might at any time do before the time of Hen. 8. Story says that Aesculapius was struck by a Thunderbolt for taking Immoderate Fees for a Cure and some men think that it was either Covetousness of a great Huge banking Fee or Fear of loosing some Place or Office by displeasing the Bishops that Cook did not fully and honestly recite the said Statute
For the true words are As any Arch-bishop or Bishop of this Realm without offending the Prerogative Royal of the Crown and the Laws and Customes of this Realm might at any time heretofore do Which clause by Cook wilfully or weakly omitted and left out quite alters the Case and gives the Arch-Bishops and Bishops no power to act do execute or Issue out any Processes Ecclesiastical as Popish Bishops used to do in their own Names and Styles sealed with their own Arms and not the Kings Armes because it is contrary to the Law and Statute of 1 Edw. 6. 2 And those Armes are usually Papa in Cathedraâ— as 〈…〉 of my Court in the Soken of Essex is the Mitred Pope sitting 〈…〉 Chair so that still I say The Kings Armes engraven in all Cour◠〈…〉 â— would be a good Recognition that all the Ecclesiastical Co 〈…〉 His and He Head of the Church as the Popes Picture of old â— Court-Seales with the two Cross-keys in his hand did seem 〈…〉 Popes Supremacy and Authority as chief head of their old 〈…〉 Ecclesiastical Courts 〈…〉 the second and third Ligaments or Cords said to bind the force of this Act namely 1 2 Phil. Mar. 8. 1 Eliz. 1. does not so much as touch upon 1 Edw. 6. 2. no not obliquely much less do they repeal it expresly and by name and least of all could it be any ways possible that the Legislators had the least thoughts to strike it dead by 1 2 Phil. Mar. 8. or 1 Eliz. 1. when they knew it was dead and buryed before by 1 Mar. 2. CHAP. V. THis Beloved Statute then is got loose from the pretended shackles that Phillip and Mary or Queen Elizabeth are said to design against it alas they could not possibly be so weak as to plant their Artillery against a thing that the Queen had struck dead whilst she was a maid a year before they had not the least thought of it I dare say for them Much less had Queen Elizabeth the least thoughts of destroying this Statute by any thing in 1 Eliz. 1. when they very well knew that it was dead or repealed by 1 Mar. 2. And though 1 Eliz. 1 does obliquely glance at it by making the old fashion of making Bishops Legal in a Protestant Church yet she does not empower by a revival of 25. Hen. 8. 20. any Arch-bishop or Bishop to transgress any Statute allready in force much less any Statute that should come to be in force after Queen Elizabeth was dead and buryed Which is the very case here For had Queen Elizabeth as Queen Mary or any other King or Queen by name expresly Repealed this Statute with which Cords Learned Coke makes such a Pother to no purpose yet by his own Arguments all his Pother is an idle Pother and nothing that King Phillip and Mary nor Queen Mary alone nor Queen Elizabeth alone nor all of them united can do is able to repeal 1. Edw. 6. 2. for ever For if an after-King and Parliament do but repeal their Repeal the Statute Repealed gets New Life and is born again as Coke infallibly proves and affirms in his discourse upon the Revival of this very Statute For he says that by the Repealing of a Repeal the first Act is Reviv'd which is most true for remoto Impedimento reviviscit Statutum And therefore the Force of this Statute about which Coke does so puzzle himself with this Three-fold Cord easily appears and Breaks loose from any Tye that 1 Mar. or 1 2 Phil. Mar. or Q. Eliz. could possibly shackle it and fetter it with which Shackles shall bind no longer then till they or some of the succeeding Kings and Parliament do unbind and take them off All which was soon done in the first of King James in his first Parliament Repealing by Name 1 Mar. 2. that by Name had Repealed this Royal Statute so advantagious to the Kings Supremacy and Prerogative Royal and also thereby through its Revival Virtually Repealing all Precedent Statutes whether of Phil. Mar. or Mary or Queen Elizabeth that went before it if contrary to it or in tanto For in Statute Law contrary to the Laws of Heraldry The Junior always takes place of the Senior But the Arch-bishops or Bishops ought to have used their own names Styles c. in their Processes whilst 1 Edw. 6. 2. stood repealed during the Reigns of the two Sisters Mary Elizabeth and no longer it seems then till Primo Jacobi It was revived The only difficulty that ever I could find that seem'd to question the force of this Statute of 1 Edw. 6. 2. Is its Repeal by 1 Mar. 2. which though its self be Repealed by 1 Jacobi yet the 1 Edw. 6. 2 being not revived by Name therefore some doubt its vigour though the Force it lay under be quite taken away Because say they It is not reviv'd in express words by 1 Jacobi But the Lord Coke makes no difficulty at all of that for he has these Words on this very occasion namely It was strongly urged and enforced c. that all their the Bishops Process and Proceedings being in their own Names Stiles and Seals where by the said Act they ought to have been in the Kings Name and under the Kings Seale were all unlawful and voyd Ay! And to prove that the said Act of Anno 1 Edw 6. was nâ—w in force They alleadged that this Act of 1 Edw. 6. was Repealed by the said Act of 1 Mar. above mentioned which Act of Repeal being Repealed by the said branch of Primo Regis Jacobi â—â—nsequently the said Act of 1 Edw. 6. was thereby revived For when an Act of Repeal is Repealed The first Act that was Repealed is Revived A plain Case Remoâ—o Impedimento Reviviscit Statutum And herewith agreeth the Book Case in 15 Edw. 3. Tit. Petition Placit 2. And this is true and cannot be denyed Thus far Coke Why is it so Then truly I think 't is no great sin to be of my Lord Chief Justice Pembertons Opinion I mean whilst he was at the Bar urging the force Validity of this Statute in Mr. Wealds Case of Much-Waltham in Essex moving with Mr. Rotheram for a Prohibition against the proceedings of the Ecclesiastical mens Process against Mr. Wealds because their Process against him run in their own Names sealed with their own Seales and not the Kings-Arms But because Sir William Scrogs nestled and nestled and Scracht his Head Sir Francis Pemberton it seems easily perceived his Disease and therefore seemed to Compassionate the Lord Chief Justice Scrogs by saying My Lord I have urged the Statute of 1 Edw. 6. but I will not be warm upon it because I perceive your Lordship is not prepar'd at this time to give it an Answer or he used words to the like effect in Presence of above an hundred Witnesses The Truth is the time Sir Francis Pemberton urg'd this Statute was Parliament-time
no very seasonable time for a Judge to declare a Statute to be null and void that never any Judge as yet did upon the Bench take upon him to do since 1 Jacobi reviv'd it by Repealing its Repealer 1 Mar. 2. And truly whilst Ecclesiastical-Courts did little else but prove Wills and now and then get a few crack't Groats from a poor fearful Church-Warden rather than contend with them and some such little business most men past them by through contempt As not daigning to trouble themselves with medling with them though in that little they did They opprest and still do oppress His Majesties Subjects most impudently by extorting excessive Fees in despight and defyance of the Statutes to the contâ—â—y Impudent Registers But there is this to be said for them by way of Apology That when they give some hundreds of Pounds for the Sell-Souls-place they must make their money of Sins and Souls which yet is contrary to their own Canons I profess I have many times long together been puzling my self by studying what those Ecclesiastical-Fellows in their Ecclesiastical-Courts are good for or what one good thing they do every Creature of God is good for something but now I think on 't they do not pretend to be purely of Gods making there 's nothing in holy Scripture that is alike to their Constitution nor by what has been here said will any man that I know venture to say they are purely of the King 's making Legally if they live in defyance of the Kings Laws and refuse to use the Kings Name Style and Seal in their Processes Ecclesiastical enjoyned by the Statute I have been in Popish Countreys and there I have seen a Crew in many things like them But God knows we Protestants do unanimously declare against Implicite Faith and yet the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction from the first Citation to the end namely to Excommunication and the Jayl is much carryed on by Implicite Faith For the Judges believe the Bishops Significavit and Arch-bishops Signifieavits whilst they good men signify a man Excommunicated and yet never heard one word of the merit of the cause but the Judges believes the Bishops Significavit and the Bishop believes the Registers Certificavit which unavoidable comes if you do not stop the Registers hand with money to his content Oh sad estate of Christianity Christianity God bless the King and Parliament when it sits I mean and by all Tokens it is probable that they 'l soon resolve these Riddles and also not admit palpable Symony and Hypocrisy to Provoke Gods Wrath and Judgments upon the Nation by making holy Ordinances and Ordinations vendible and Gospel-Keys of binding and loosing once another Gift of God a money-business or Political Engine to take away men's Franchises and Votes when there is no other way to deprive them thereof I cannot think that Christ entrusted Anathemas to his Disciples to play them so frankly at a bold Rate fast loose He that eats drinks unworthily that is to a Politick Carnal End eats and drinks his own Damnation and he that opens and shuts Heaven and Hell-Gates binding and loosing using the Holy-Keys unworthily that is for low politick Carnal-Ends uses them to his own Damnation God will not be mocked CHAP. VI. I Doubt not but all that Read this must say that in this Tract I have done their business already to all intents and purposes A Law may sleep a Statute may lie Dormant as did the Act of Vniformity whilst the King's Act of Indulgence according to his Royal Word and Promise from Breda facilitating his Return did last but though Laws may be husht and lull'd asleep awhile nay a long time yet if they be not quite dead woe be to him that tramples on them for the Laws of England are so sacred that it has been observ'd they have been too hard for any man at long run that durst oppose them withstand them or stand in their way the Laws are called the Subjects best Inheritance I remember part of Sir Harbottle Grimston's speech in Parliament Anno 1640. concerning Spiritual-Courts was to take notice of an Insolence of theirs much alike to what has been heard of in other cases namely under a Religious Pretext to meddle with mens Franchyses Charters and Priviledges as English-men for says that Loyal Gentleman and true Englishman speaking of the Lambeth Canons of 40. and the Synod then there ` That the Synod called together upon pretence of Religion took upon them `the boldness out of Parliament to grant Subsidies and meddle with men's Free Holds Oh! How dishonourable is it to any Religion to palliate so much venome as under a notion of a Gospel Ordinance of Excommunication or the like to design to make men uncapable of a Vote or Freedoms Franchises and Charters especially if they seem to be affraid of nothing so much as that some should conform and consequently be capable of as many Priviledges as the Debauchee or prophane Libertine Christianity do you call it more like Ely's Sons or Simon-Magus Oh God! may not such well dread thy Vengeance Christianity do you call it The wisest of all the ten Persecuting Emperours was Dioclesian whose Conscience so tormented his Breast for Persecuting the Christians that he threw the Diadem from his hated head and hid it in a Garden in the obscurest Py-corner of the World But the Horrour of Nero's Visage is by Suetonius rendred so tremendous to behold after he vented his Cruelty upon the Christians that it would make a mans Hair stand on end to view him extantibus vigentibusque oculis usque ad horrorem visentium with ghastly Looks and frightful Eyes strikeing Horrour in all that saw him such was the Fate of this Persecuting Atheist Religionem usque quaque Aspernator as Suetonius calls him a Contemner of every thing that lookt like Religion And such are the brood of Simon Magus that make use of Religion which is intended for the Salvation of mens Souls only to the destruction of their Bodies and Estates Simon quoth he no Simon Magus was not thus Impudent he did his business indeed namely the money business and to be ador'd and Reverenc't forsooth But he did it by juggle and sleight of hand but the Son 's of Eli and Symonists like Ghosts long enur'd to walk appeared at Noon-day did take purses before mens faces Swagger Curse Anathematize Damn bluster In good time they were charm'd down In Nomine Domini Amen If ever you were in Spain or Portugal as I have been tell me what Monkey or Baboon is more contemtible than a sneaking perjur'd Hypocritical Ecclesiastical Property of State What more Ridicule then a fawning Spiritual Sycophant in Antick-Dress cringing with his Pin-Buttocks and hallow-smiles upon a Whore Atheist or Renegade that do but scoff at his ghastly Habilements of uncouth Guize and Shape Portentous and Prodigious Risum teneat is Amicâ— could ye have held from Laughing at the Holy Mymick