Provincial and Synodal heretofore made and such as they judg'd worthy to be continued should from thenceforth be kept and obeyed But I never heard that these Commissioners did ever do any thing to the purpose Yet this Power of granting Commissions and Authority of this nature was by 1 Eliz. 1. for ever united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm and upon this Statute and foundation was built the Star-Chamber and High-Commission-Court and the Authority of all Canon-makers Synodical But down came the Fabrick by repealing 1. Eliz. 1. in 17 Car. 1.11 and also in and by 13 Car. 2.12 By which last Statute that unreasonable Oath also ex Officio by vertue whereof the Spiritual Courts if a man had lain with a Wench or a Wife had plaid foul play if examined by every little Surrogate and Register must either be their own accusers or by Perjury damn themselves was abrogated also and taken away together with that same choaking c. Oath and for company all the Fraternity thereof and Fellow canons of 1640 and Provision made by striking at the foundation 1 Eliz. 1. on which their High-Commission Courts were built that no more Commissions be granted by his Majesty for the future but the Spiritual-Courts by that Statute of 13 Car. 2.12 just in statu quo wherein they were 1639. Now will it be worth the while to consider what State they were in 1639 no great I 'le warrant if their Basis on which their Star-Chamber and High Commission-Court were built be taken away For the said Statute of 13 Car. 2.12 does not only provide against the Canons made in the year 1640. but also against any other Ecclesiastical Laws not formerly confirmed allowed or Enacted by Parliament which the Canons of 1603. never were or by the established Laws of the Land as they stood in the year of our Lord 1639. So that it is not so difficult to get out of this Labyrinth that does so puzzle many men as some do imagine For all Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions till the Statutes of Hen. 8. to the contrary were derived from the Pope as Supream Head of the Church This Head being beheaded the Supremacy was vested in the Crown and for Rules and Canons to walk by King Hen. 8. was empowered by the Statute aforesaid to nominate 32. Commissioners one Moiety Lay and the other Clergy yet they did nothing perhaps for that reason But 1 Ed. 6.2 This great Flower of the Crown is taken care for and not for ornament only but for weightier reasons it is Enacted that all Processes Ecclesiastical Summons Citations c. be from the first day of July then next following made in the name and with the Stile of the King as it in Writs original or Judicial at the Common-law and the Test thereof in the name of the Archbishop or Bishop or other having Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction who hath the Commission and grant of the Authority Ecclesiastical immediately from the Kings Highness and that his Commissary Official or Substitute exercising Jurisdiction under him shall put his name in the Citation or Process after the Test So that if there be any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in England distinct from his Majesties Lay-Courts they must be such as acknowledge his Majesties Supremacy above their Hierarchy and as a Testimony thereof all their Processes Ecclesiastical Citations Summons c. ought to be made in the name and with the Stile of the King as it is in Writs original and judicial at the Common law and also the Kings Arms Engraven in the Seal of their Spirital Court Oh! but this would be to buckle and stoop and thrust the Hierarchy and holy Pastoral Head under a Lay-girdle for though the Pope be exil'd this Realm it is hard to exile the Hierarchical Spirit witness the Fifth-Monarchy men Presbyterians and you know who they 'le keep no Courts at all first no will they not Then who cares who are the Losers If they go thereto and be so pettish And it is a proper Query what penalty they have and do incur by keeping their Spiritual Courts otherwise which were first founded upon the Popes Title and since that determination now vested in his Majesty as all other Courts good reason and Law too and all their original and judicial Processes ought to be in his Majesties name and under the Seal of his Majesty as a token of their due Homage by striking Sail and lowring their old rotten over-worn Top Sayls to the Kings-Flag 'T is true the said Statute of 1 Edw. 1.2 is repealed by 1 Mar. 2. but I care not for that for it is revived again by Repealing 1 Mar. 2. in the Statute 1 Jac. 25. And 't is well worthy our observation what 1 Mar. 2. The Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury in their Convocation assembled do acknowledge and confess in their Supplication to their Majesties Philip and Mary in these very words Insuper Majestatibus vestris supplicamus pro sua Pietate efficere dignentur ut ea quae ad Jurisdictionem nostram Libertatem Ecclesiasticam pertinent sine quibus debitum nostri Pastoralis officii curae animarum nobis commissae exercere non possumus nobis superiorum temporum injuriâ ablatâ restituantur ea nobis Ecclesiae perpetuo illaesa salva permaneant ut omnes leges quae hanc nostram Jurisdictionen libertatem Ecclesiasticam tollunt seu quovis modo impediunt abrogentur c. that is Moreover we do in all humility Petition your Majesties That out of your great Piety you would vouchsafe to make such Provision That those things which belong to our Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Liberties without which we cannot duly discharge that Pastoral Office and cure of Souls committed to our Care and taken from us lately by the Iniquity of the Times may be again restored to us so that they may for ever remain inviolate and safely secured and assured to us and the Church And that all the Laws which have taken away or do any ways hinder our Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Liberties may be made null and void Here 's ado and a whining for their dear Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Liberties which the Convocation themselves being Judges were at that time taken from them and abrogated and if since that time they have not catch'd it again 't is to be fear'd 't is desperate now and never to be retriev'd But Queen Elizabeth was enabled and empowered 't is the words of the Statute to retrieve their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by granting them Commissions to that purpose of which large Power granted by Parliament they made such large use as is complained in 17 Car. 1.11 at large against Magna Carta c. which I am loth to repeat but would willingly have it lie buried and never rise up in Judgement against any Successors as seem to be of the same sanguine complexion that 13 Car. 2.12 damns all such Commissions for ever and that his Majesty
Parliament in these words Noverint universi Quòd Dominus H. Rex Angliae illustris Anno. 37. H. 3. R. Comes Norff. Marescallus Anglin H. comes Hereford Essex I comes de Warewico Petrus de Sabbaudia Caeterique Magnaces Anglia consenserunt in sentiam Excommunicationis generaliter latam apud Westm Tertio decimo die Muii Anno Regni Regis Pradicte in hà c formà scilices Quod vinculo Praefacae sententiae ligenter omnes venientes contra libertates contentas in chartis communium libertatum Angliae de Foresta c. Dominus Rex praedicti Magnates omnes Communitas Populi protestantur publitè c. by Communitus Populi there I understand the Honse of Commons though it had not the form in those days which now it puts on and decently wears By which it appears that the King and his Lay-people would not trust the Clergy in those days with making Sentences of excommunication nor with declaring causes of Excommunication much less without the Privity of King and Parliament as some have presumed But matchless is the Malice of those men that are angry with all Lay-men that dare be so bold as to see their own way with their own and not with Clergy eyes and Prospectives The Conclusion THus have I stared these Quaries so needful to be discuss'd And prov'd That all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction like all other Jurisdictions must be deriv'd from the King or the Pope To assert the latter Incurs a Praemunire or to pretend any old ordinary Jurisdiction originally granted them from the Pope in their first creation and his Majesty has oblig'd himself never to Empower them by Commission any more By the Statutes of Hen. 8. all those ordinary Jurisdictions Ecclesiastical were cut off and they left without any in Queen Maries time as the Synod did confess as aforesaid But in King Edward's time their Ecclesiastical Proceedings were revived but with condition that all Citations Processes c. should be in the Name of the King the Head of the Church as in Original and Judicial Writs at the Common Law He being also Head of the State And in due acknowledgment also of this Supremacy The Seals of their Spiritual-Courts should have engraven in them The Kings Arms. Great very great Reason there is and there was for such a Statute as that 1 Edw. 6. But oh this Hierarchy this Power how sweet could the Bishops ever be brought to this I 'le warrant some of them would keep no Courts at all first but who cares For cui bono cui fini should be the question every man puts in all his affairs so here cui bono cui fini what are the Spiritual Courts good for at this day as they are managed I protest I cannot tell and yet no man in England has more reason to know their virtue than I nor scarce any has had more experience of them and in them and still as I said before I have an Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of mine own For except a little money I should say a great deal of money ungedly money wickedly got by the Extortions of Registers I 'le prove what I say and shamefully against Law and money money from the poor Clergy the Inferiour Clergy and silly Churchwardens against the Common-Law Statute-Law Canon-Law Civil-Law Equity Conscience Reason and Humane Compassion all condemning this unnatural and Unkind Rapaeity Except these be good things I know not what they are good for not by what Authority they dare send out Citations without the King's Name Title and Seal against the King's Liege-People or how a Writ de Excummunicato Capiendo can legally be awarded the ground whereof being a Significavii under Seal a legal Seal unless the Kings Arms be engraven in the Seal of the Significavit and the Process on which it is founded also run in the King's Name c. Tell not me for I know it That the opinion of the Judges was ask't about this as in the said Proclamation But when was it It was when the High-Commission-Courts were in being no man durst speak any thing in these days against their Placet's It would be his ruine if he did But now since that Branch of 1 Eliz. 1. is repealed I for my part know not by what Authority we do these things And I write this as much for my own satisfaction and more than for any man 's else And that too in a discourse here such as it is neither Polite nor neatly dres't I have neither Will nor Leisure to write it over again and sleek it and polish it and make it Fine 't is now most natural most like my self plain and blunt not curious nor affected like my Garb not Rich and yet I hope not Slovenly For I am one of those that love my Pleasure and Humour so much as not to take over-much pains to please or displease any man alive However what Prudent Man would barter his Ease to purchase in Exchange the Reputation of a Writer not worth one farthing in this Scribling-Age For New Books are like New-Plays wherewith the Poets and Actors can scarce please One in Ten And though the Fops get there all the little Wit they have yet they will rail and disparage them but cannot notwithstanding for bear seeing them for their hearts I write as I speak right on and the Naked Truth and Home Truths purposely neglecting the wily circumspection of Flatterers and Dislemblers Fellows of no Soul And as I have writ this off-hand and what came next to hand and occur'd at present without pumping yet has not one word here slipt my Pen without its due weight and consiration nothing is here presented Crude and Immature but well-digested as a few of those things that my Head and Heart have long been full of though a late Occasion now gives them Birth no Abortion I hope For I am well assur'd that I have not only given Birth here to my own Conceptions but to the Conceptions also of almost the whole Nation whose Judgments are not blinden and brib'd by Interest And these last shall Be mine Enemies and they only But I hope also Psal 62.3 they shall be like a bowing Wall and a tottering Fence whilst I say and Pray the whose Psalm 62. I have no picque against any man in Particular no private Interest nor Revenge to gratifie but wish for my own private-Interest as well as for the publique-Weal That Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction were of force strength and vertue and not thus uncertain disorderly and precarious I have I confess in this Search and Inquiry Anatomiz'd and rip 't up to the Bottom some Secret parts yet I have also at the same time cast a vail over their Nakedness and hid their shame what I could I mean And in these Gentle Dissections if some think that I have gone too deep Let them consider that Old Vlcers and Fistula's are incurable except we search to the Bottom but in doing this also I hope I have retain'd the Property of a good Chirurgeon namely a Ladies Hand as well as a Lyons Heart And is there any but Babies and Boobies that will be frighted out of their Wits with a Scare-Crow or Magotte-Pye FINIS I Hereby allow and authorize Francis Smith Bookseller to Print my Book Entituled The Naked Truth the Second Part. Colchester November 2d 1680 Edmund Hiceringill
more the Synods and Convocations at this day who are so far from being the Representative-Church of England that the people of England have not the least vote or suffrage in their Election they have not any hand I had almost said nor heart neither in the choice I am sure nor head in it I mean their advice is not askt about it Nor indeed as I shall prove hereafter are these Synods fairly Elected by the votes and suffrages of the Clergy the Inferiour Clergy and so also are not so much as the Representatives of the Clergy For though the Generality of the people heed them not so much yet they look upon the Inferiour Clergy to be at their Beck and still within their Clutches And to that purpose to make them easie and gentle to be ridden and to bear like Issachar all the burdens they impose without daring to kick them off they mouth them before they back them with an c. Oath in the 6th Can of 1640. of Canonical obedience which if they had not a good Swallow would choak them in the going down But finally my Babe of Grace forbear c. Cleveland's Poems will be to far to Swear For 't is to speak in a familiar Stile A Yorkshire Wea-bit longer than a Mile This pretty c. Oath of obedience Canonical is in these words Can. 6. of 1640 I A. B. Do Swear That I do approve the Doctrine and Discipline or Government established in the Church of England as concerning all things necessary to Salvation And that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Popish Doctrine contrary to that which is so established nor will I ever give my consent to alter the Government of this Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons c. as it stands now established and as by right it ought to stand nor yet ever to subject it to the Vsurpations and Superstitions of the See of Rome And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and Swear according to the plain and common sense and understanding of the same words without any equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever And this I do heartily willingly and truly upon the Faith of a Christian So help me God in Jesus Christ And if any man Beneficed or Dignified in the Church of England or any other Ecclesiastical person shall refuse this c. Oath the Bishop shall give him a Months time to inform himself and at the Months end if he refuse to take it he shall be suspended ab officio and have a second Month granted and if then he refuse to take it he shall be Suspended ab officio beneficio and have a third Month granted him for his better Information but if at the end of that Month he refuse to take the Oath abovenamed he shall be deprived of all his Ecclesiastical Promotions whatsoever and execution of his Function which he holds in the Church of England Solomon says The mercies of the wicked are cruel Prov. 12.10 but whether the Imprudence or the Impudence the ignorance or the audaciousness be greater for men at this day to dare to put those Canons in execution and to Quote them and give them in charge as Rules and Canons and Laws to the present Clergy when they are condemned by 17 Car. 1.11 and also by 13 Car. 2.12 Query What Penalty they do incur that dare set up Laws in Defiance of the Statutes of this Realm to enthral the Kings Liege People For both Laity and Clergy are in a fine Dilemma at this wicked rate Since that whosoever denies the King and Parliament to be the only Legislators or affirms that the ancient Hierarchy of the Pope is yet in being or that any other have power to make Laws in this Realm contrary and Repugnant to the Kings Prerogative Royal or the Customs and Laws or Statutes of this Realm shall be punisht c. on the one hand For what skills it to cut off the Popes Prelatical Hierarchical or Pastoral head and set up with a new-name another in the Room of it whether Presbyterian Fifth-monarchy Prelatical or any other Bigots this is to cut off Hydra's head when another as bad and alike as two Twins starts up in the Room of it But on the other hand if either Clergy or Laity derogate from Holy Synod and do not acknowledge it to be the Representative-Church of England Can. 139 140 141. Anno 1603. and that dare affirm that the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons and the rest or c. is Antichristian or contrary to the word of God shall be Excommunicated never to be absolved until they repent and publickly revoke this wicked Error I know some that have as good a Swallow us the best Latitudinarian of them all Can. 7. 1603. but of all cornute things they most dread a Dilemma for though you escape one horn you are catcht and tost upon the other To affirm the Pope or any thing like the Conclave any other Pastoral head to be the Supream head and Governour of the Church is to incur a Praemunire by denying the Kings Supremacy as also by denying the King and Parliament to be the only Legislators And there is not a Protestant in England if a Lay-man that dares or does deny the Kings Supremacy and that the King and Parliament are the only Legislators Law-makers or Canon-makers Nay the Lay-men are not much afraid to say that the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops c. or Reliquos whether Commissaries Officials Arch-Deacons Sumners or Apparitors Surrogates Registers deputy Registers Canons Petty canons Prebends Residentiaries Non-Residentiaries Chapters Chanters Precenters Rural-Deans Sub-Deans Vicar-Generals Lay chancellors c. which last are a kind of Lay-elders which we laugh at in the Presbyterians are not sound nor in the least mentioned in the word of God although they are threatned with Excommunication which in their sense is eternal damnation until they recant publickly and within 40 days after Excommunication the Gaol But the Clergy men poor Souls they are hamper'd with an c. Oath of Canonical obedience dare not say any thing in defiance of that c. Oath though it be condemned which they honest men do not know at least very few of them by Act of Parliament namely by the 13 Car. 2.12 as aforesaid The Statute 25 Hen. 8.19 condemns the Popes Supremacy and all Hierarchy and Canons which were prejudicial to the Kings Prerogative Royal 25 H. 8.19 and to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and gives Power and Authority to the King Hen. 8. to nominate and assign at his pleasure thirty two Persons of his Subjects whereof sixteen to be of the Clergy and sixteen of the Temporality Some Lay-elders then in those times of the upper and nether House of the Parliament to view search and examine the Canons Constitutions and Ordinances
illa absolutos c. This amongst many others wherein I could instance is but to shew that the King's Judges did controul the inferiour Jurisdictions called Ecclesiastical and Judge whether the cause or contempt deserved Excommunication and accordingly commanded Absolution c. as I have known the Lord Chief Baron in his Majesties Court of Exchequer about seven years ago command Doctor Lake Commissary of Lincoln and then in Court to absolve one King c. to which the Doctor making some tergiversation the Lord Cheif Baron threatned to lay him by the heels for his contempt For it is great insolency for a Commissary Official or his Master the Arch-deacon to excommunicate in their Courts and Visitations the Kings Subjects except by Authority and Commission from God or the King From God they have no power to excommunicate or to hear Causes then hath any Parish-Priest in his Parish if so much And if they have a Commission from the King let them shew it but when they have shewn it I dare say it will run with submission to His Majesties Decrees in his superiour Courts Courts of Record at Westminster Courts of good and great use Courts that have his Majesties Authority and Commission to shew for what they do Courts that do not bear the Sword in vain Courts that are not made up only of an empty noise of Curses and Anathema's thundring and cracking as if they came from Heaven when all is but vox praeteria nihil and not of little or no use but to vex and weary out the Supplicants Suiters and Attendants by enriching some few not of the best of mankind with Money Money And on the contrary how careful have our Kings of England been rather to encourage Parish-Ministers that labour and look after the Flock even in times of Popery as for instance in this Brief sub privato sigillo Edwardi 1. anno regni ejus 33. in these words Rex dilecto sibi Ricardo Oysel Ballivo suo de Holdernesse salutem Mandamus vobis quod de exitibus Molendinorum nostrorum in Belliva vestra faciatis Decimas dari Personis Ecclesiarum in quarum Parochiis Molendina ista existunt prout alii Magnates de regno nostro ac hominis partium illarum Decimas dant de exitibus Molendinorum suorum Et nos vobis inde in compoto vestro ad Scaccarium nostrum debitum allocationem fieri faciemus T. R. apud Westm 20. die Octobris Per breve de privato sigillo And good reason sure had that valiant King to give all due encouragement to the Inferiour Clergy if we consider how he was affronted and defy'd and brav'd by the Prelates Polid. Virgil Angl. Hist l. 17. especially by Robert Arch-bishop of Canterbury so that the King was forc'd to put all the Rebellious Prelates and Clergy out of his protection seizing their Goods and Revenues until they at long-run submitted themselves after a tedious Bustle to which they were encouraged by Pope Boniface I know that the King granted his Favour afterwards and Protection to the said stout Arch-bishop Robert and the rest and suffered the said Arch-bishop to stand by him and his Son upon a wooden Scaffold erected before the Gates of Westminster-Hall for that purpose when with many Tears the King askt Pardon with all Humility not the Arch-bishop's Pardon but that the People would pardon him Walsingham Hist Angl. p. 36. but it was not for his humbling the proud Clergy as aforesaid but for his Arbitrary Government Dicens se minús bene tranquillè quam Regem deceret ipsos rexisse c. Rursum ut libertates contentas in Magna Charta Mat. West An. 1297. p. 409 410. Ypodigmae Neustr p. 84. de Foresta in usu extunc efficacius haberentur voluntarias super his exactiones inductas de caetero quasi id irritum revocaret petentibus Comitibus Baronibus Rex Articulos in praedictis chartis contentos innovari insuper observari mandavit Henry de Knyghton adds Rogavitque Populum accepta licentia ut omnia condonarentur ei orarent pro eo orabant quidam publicè alii vero sic alii vero occulte pauci vero bene Anno 32 Edw. 1. this King was again affronted by Thomas Corbridge Arch-bishop of York For when the King by his Letters Patents granted to Mr. John Bouhs the Prebend of Styvelington in the Church of St. Peter in York and commanded Thomas Corbridge the new Arch-Bishop to admit him c. after two successive Mandates he neglected to do it to the King's damage 10000 l. as in the Plea Rolls of Trinity Term held at York To be seen in the Receivers Office of the King's Exchequer at VVestminster 32 Edw. 1. is at large expressed Thereupon the Arch-bishop being summoned to answer this contempt before the King's Justices he appearing answered That he was always ready to obey the Kings commands so far as he could but he could not admit the King's Clerk because the Pope had conferred the said Prebendary and Chappel thereunto belonging on his own Clerks of whom they were now full and that he could not make void the Act of the Pope his Superiour Lord nor deprive or remove his Clerks And therefore prayed the King to hold him excused refusing to give any other answer Whereupon Judgment was solemnly given against him That what he alledged was no sufficient cause for him not to execute the Kings commands and that all his Temporalties should be seized into the Kings hands for this his contempt c. By which we may see that even in times of Popery the Kings of England have opposed the Popes Innovations and Usurpations and the Kings Justices have taken cognizance of these Ecclesiastical matters and that no Forreign Mandates or Bulls were pleadable in the Kings Courts in bar of the Kings Writs and that long before the Reign of King Henry 8. obedience to the Pope before the King was adjudged a very high contempt in Law and had a suitable punishment and that the Kings Temporal Courts had Soveraign Jurisdiction over the Ecclesiastical Proceedings which is also more evidenced by the several sorts of Mandates dates and Writs even in times of Popery frequently issued out against Arch-bishops Bishops Ecclesiastical Judges and Ordinaries commanding them to do this and that and prohibiting them not to do this and that witness the Writs of Quare impedit Quare incumbravit Quare non admisit de Clerico admittendo de copia libelli deliberanda de permutatione Beneficiorum de revocatione Praesentationis Bracton de Residentia facienda de cautione admittenda de Assisa ultima Praesentationis cessavit de Cantaria de Nonresidentia pro Clericis Regis de Praesentatione ad Ecclesiam Praebendam Capellam c. Nay it seems to me that even in times of Popery the Kings Judges would take no notice of any Excommunications Cook Instit 134.2 but what were decreed by the
Christian Burial And all this exemplified by the R.R. Father in God Lancelot Andrews late Lord Bishop of Winchester But above all those Admirable Collections the greatest wonder is how any Man durst Print and revive as he does the Proclamation of King Charles I. wherein the Proceedings of His Majesties Ecclesiastical Courts and Ministers are Proclaimed to be according to the Laws of this Realm Indeed when that Proclamation was put out They were so The Star-Chamber and High-Commission Court being then in being and 1 Eliz. 1. not repealed but in force But now the Case is alter'd and these Courts and that Law that founded them is taken away sure the structure then built upon it must follow the same fate and the Church left but with just the same Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical they had in the days of Queen Mary a little before the 1 Elizabeth 1. which by their own Confession was taken away from them as aforesaid And therefore It is high time surely That these Doubts were clear'd and resolv'd that both the Bishop's Jurisdiction might not be so precarious as it is And also that the People might know at length How much of the Canon-Law and How many Canons or whether any Canons be in force at this Day and when and for what Ecclesiastical matters they are lyable to be Excommunicated and Goaled or whether the Wisdom and Piety of the Realm does not think it most fit to make the same use of this same two-edged Sword as the Ancient Jews did of Goliah's Sword which was carefully preserved in the Temple and laid up behind the Ephod and never to be made use of but by David himself and not by every Whipster that knows not how to wield it no nor by David neither but in Cases of Vrgent Necessity The Apostle Paul that had the Gift of Discerning of Spirits and therefore never drew this Sword in a wrong cause as now adays but against the Enemy of Christ onely never drew it neither but Twice and that against Horrible Sinners An Incestuous Person and Blafphemers And therefore though Excommunication was in use in the Church whilst the said Gifts of Discerning of Spirits were frequent and onely against Notorious Offenders and Offences yet Quaere Whether every Commissary and Lay-Vicar-General though he has a Priest by him sometimes for fashion-sake did ever wield this sharp-Weapon or draw it upon every Occasion as when the Register's Fees and Sumner's Fees are not paid especially in these Days when Men may justly scruple whether they ought to obey their Processes as not being in the King's Name and under the King's Seal as the Law enjoyns 'T is sad thus to send Men to Satan because they do not pay the Knave a Groat especially when the Sumner does not Cite Men according to Law and to make Appearance before a Court too that does not pretend to Sit by His Majesties Commission nor by Vertue of their Original Constitution and ordinary Jurisdiction from the Pope This to Assert would make them incurr a Proemunire what can they say for themselves The Apostle Paul did many things that we cannot do our Blessed Saviour did many things which would be sin in us to Attempt to do He walk't upon the Waters he Fasted 40 Days and 40 Nights he commanded his Servants to take away a Man's Ass and Colt tyed we may not Attempt these things they are above our Skill And so I fear it is beyond our Skill and Abilities to wield and draw sheath and unsheath that Goliah's Sword of Excommunication Especially when Men offend onely our Interests and not the Law of the Land and yet it is often brandished against this sin of Sacriledge Sacriledge and by those many times that do not or will not know what Sacriledge is Nay I have heard some Men speak great Words against the King and Parliament in Hen. 8. time and against all Parliaments ever since that Alienated or consent to Alienate these Abbey-Lands and Nunneries as if they would smite them with this Thunder-bolt of Excommunication as guilty of Sacriledge if they durst It was as safe for Naboth and his Vineyard to lye conveniently and next Hedge to Ahab's as sometimes to have had Lands bordering upon St. Petèr's Patrimony why so what can't St. Peter or his Pretended Successors do Oh! this Religion this Engine of pretended Religion this Dart of Excommunication when 't is out of the Magistrates keeping shall wound and mawl them wonderfully Ask the Excommunicated Venetians when Dandalus their Ambassador came with a Rope about his Neck to beg their Peace ask the poor Duke of Ferrara if this be true Let the King Command a Becket or a Woolsey to his Allegiance They will be his Humble Servants with a Salvo honore Dei And say others in omnibus nisi rebus Christi so that these kind of Religious Bigots always keep in Reserve a Starting-Hole a Loop-Hole a Sally-Port always ready and open when their Forces and occasion calls to Attempt against the King's Supremacy especially when their Humours are cros't or their Pride Affronted or their Revenge unappeas'd or their Covetousness unglutted And 't is a hard matter to Glut it The Popish Religious Houses had once a third part of the Land and were they Glutted Bishops and Arch-Deacons have enough to live on without sharing with and pareing every Benefice in the Diocess yet though they know not how they came honestly and lawfully by their Procurations Synodals and Visitations though it be against Law Conscience and Compassion for the Rich thus to pinch the Poor yet take it from them And 't is a hundred to one if they do not plead Jure Divino for the Tenure and cry out Sacriledge Sacriledge Of the Church of England Quaere What it is THere 's nothing more ordinary than for People to say in these days of Part-taking and distinguishing who Men are for I am for the Church of England Whereas there is not one of a Thousand understands what he means or who he means in saying so In the Days of Popish Prelacy Men were Taught to believe as the Church believes meaning as the Clergy believes So that for Salvation they needed no further Knowledge or Insight than a blind Implicite Faith in the Church that is in the Clergy To see with Clergy-mens Eyes to believe as they pleas'd to prescribe to be led thus by the Nose to Heaven was the Divinity of Old And so a Man did but follow his Nose in the dark no matter for Eyes The Arch-Deacons those oculi Episcoporum together with the Bishops they could see and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Oversee for us all 'till at last the Church had no other Members but Head and Eyes a monstrous Church sure And though the Holy Apostles and Elders had as good Eyes one would think as these Pretenders and pretended Successors yet they never had the Forehead that those Men put on who confine and Monopolize the Church of Christ to themselves alone
in the Diocess of London are five as aforesaid For when Bishops had Diocesses so large and great as now they are if they were never so Eagle-sighted it is impossible one Man could oversee them Therefore then they got for themselves these Spectacles or rather Eyes for so the Arch-Deacons are called oculi Episcoporum And in London Diocess there are as aforesaid Five Auxiliary-eyes Revel 4.6 in imitation some think of those Beasts in the Revelations which had Eyes before and behind only there is some difference in the number for there were but Four beasts here Five I hope no Man is so ignorant as to think this Similitude a Sarcasm to the Five Arch-Deacons for it is the greatest honour that ever was conferred upon them For two of the most Learned Interpreters of our Age Grotius and Doctor Hammond agree that these four Beasts aforesaid were four Apostles Peter John Paul and Barnabas saith Doctor Hammond very probably but Grotius thinks those Four Beasts were Peter James the Lords Brother Bishop of Jerusalem Matthew and St. Paul But this by the by only to avow and vouch the Complement past upon the Arch-Deacons those Bishops eyes before and behind to help him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to inspect or oversee his Diocess and if he had as many Eyes as Argus he would not have one superfluous Eye in so great a Cure a Care and a Charge In the Apostle's days the Office of a Bishop was a good thing but now it is also a great thing a great trouble to be sure for one man a trouble and a charge too And truly at length these Arch-Deacons also learnt to be some-bodies and would be known too in their places Did the Bishop visit so would they Had he any Procurations so would they 'till at last Visitations grew so comfortable and pleasant to Mr. Arch-Deacon and so profitable also that they never thought themselves in their Harvest like as when they were at this work of Visitations what by Commutations of Penance Money from Church wardens Money from Delinquents Money from the Clergy they had such Golden days on 't by Visitations Procurations c. that they would always have been upon the spur to be at it till their eager vagaries were restrain'd and they confin'd to make but one Visitation in a year Therefore we frequently meet with such Canons as this Archidiaconi suas Ecclesias semel tantûm quotannis visitent Archidiaconi non mulctent excessus pecuniâ nec nisi Authoritate Episcopi confensu in alios sententiam promulgent so that though these Arch-deacons were the Bishop's Eyes yet not his mouth nor could they thunder out an Excommunication without special Licence Thus of old onely semel in anno by Visitations but amongst us his in anno ridet Archidiaconus Nay though the Bishop suspends the Arch-Deacons Jurisdiction three Months before and three Months after his own Visitation and the Bishop gets the Procurations of the Inferiour Clergy in his Visitations which is every third year yet Mr. Arch-Deacon will demand them over again and the Clergy good Men are so wise and civil as to pay it even any thing for a quiet life Yet in the said Maxime 't is added after semel tantùm quotannis visitent nè tamen graves sint Let the Arch-Deacon visit but once a year but then also without being burthensome or being Such a grievous Man Yet Custom is his only pretence for these Exactions which Apology here aggravates his Crimes as if one that is accustomed to take a Purse Swear and Curse and pick Mens pockets should say I beg your pardon Gentlemen 't is but to keep my hand in ure I am so accustom'd to 't I can't help it indeed I cannot But custom in sin augments the Crime like an old ulcer that the Leg has long been us'd to 't is the harder to be cured and the harder to be endur'd It is a Maxime of the Common-Law which is especially made up of Customes landable and reasonable Customes that Pur ceo que cest prescription est encounter reason ceo est voyd Customes against reason especially against Laws and Statutes to the contrary are void Ideoque malus usus abolendus est It is a custome time out of mind for wicked men to take Purses upon Salisbury-plain will this plea save a Thief from the Gallows Consuetudo non prescribit abi per jus expressum reprobatur Hostiensis Hostiensis No Man can prescribe a Custom against a Positive Law And does not the Twenty Ninth Chapter of Magna Charta Magna Charta confirm'd by Edw. 1. and by Edw. 3. four times and Rich. 2 c. that Sacred Law so often confirm'd and the breakers thereof so oft Curst by Bell Book and Candle and has withstood and stood its ground against all Violence Oppressions Innovations High-Commission-Courts c. in opposition to it and rising up against it nay more it has been proof against the length of time and looks as fresh and flourishing as if it were in its prime and it is my Faith my Hope and my Prayers that it may so continue to the worlds end sure it was made in a lucky hour which Enacts That No Free-man shall be taken or Imprisoned or be disseized of his Freehold of which nature are all Rectories and Vicaridges or Liberties or Free-customs or be Out law'd or Exil'd or any otherwise destroyed nor we will not pass upon him nor Condemn him but by lawful judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land we will sell to no Man we will not defer to any Man Justice or Right Bishops are Right Reverend Men and Arch-deacons Reverend Men but still they are but Men and if I were a Clergy man if I could not hold my Free-hold nor obtain it my Benefice but ad nutum Episcopi I would never hold one whilst I liv'd for if so then he that Marries his Chambermaid or his Son or his Kinsman or his Kinswoman's Husband or his Kinswoman's Maid's Husband if a Clergy man would find one hole or other in my Coat or make one which is more easie and more common big enough to make me lose their Lordships good opinion who though good Men and Right Reverend Men yet whilst they are so they may err and be wrapt with Passion Prejudice or Interest against which I know it experimentally Innocence is no fence and therefore I say if I were a Clergy-man as perhaps I am for ought any body shall know I would leave them all the Benefices to themselves rather than hold them upon such tickle terms and not like a Free-man and an Englishman by the Laws of the Land my Birthright And does his Sacred Majesty and his Privy-Councel pretend any right to exact Money or to raise any or take any mans Freehold from him but by Law and Acts of Parliaments and shall these Bishops and Arch-Deacons dare to continue these Exactions against Law against Christs Law not to
it a day after But these are rich and mighty and with Beaver cock'd make Speeches and give in charge to pay Procurations to one another that will not be forgotten I 'le warrant and not as the holy Scripture says Remember the Poor but Rememember the Rich Arch-deacon and the richer Bishop with your Procurations Synodals and Visitations though the poor Vicar's Family pine and pinch for 't a Month after And if they may not thus gò snips and share in every Benefice throughout the whole Diocess then Woe be to you with Suspensions Anathema's Excommunications and the Goal And yet some of these Arch-Deacons pay neither to Church nor Poor neither to Assessments nor yet keeping Hospitality or so much as keeping House These Undue-dues then thus coming into Mr. Arch-Deacons hands though he be alive and alive's like 't is no contradiction to say they come in manus mortuas Is it not within the Statutes of Mortmain If they can shew any License from the King or any of his Predecessors to vex his Subjects thus against Law Reason and Equity If they had orderly sued out their Writ ad quod Damnum out of Chancery before they had established this Ecclesiastical Revenue and Annuity let them shew it But to plead only a Custom of Sinning against Law Reason and Conscience is the absurdest of all their Pleas. And in good earnest if there were no Law against it Is there any Conscience that a poor lean bare-bone-Vicar should thus greaze a fat Arch-deacon in the Fist I know that when the Devil shew'd our blessed Saviour all the Kingdoms of the World in a moment of time he said unto him All this power will I give thee and the glory of them Luke 4.5 6. for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it But that was a Lie Yet the Pope says that all the Kingdoms of the World and the Power and the Glory of them are his and delivered unto him and to whomsoever he will he gives them but most especially all Bishopricks and Benefices are his in his donation And he gave them conditionally to go snips in them all that as the High-priest under the Law had the Tenth of the Priest's Tythes so he would have the tenth part of every Bishoprick and Benefice And though the Bishop is not the High-Priest as Aaron was and also that His Majesty has the Tenths yet they would be known too in their places and go snips with all the Rectors and Vicars in the Diocess by Procurations Synodals and Visitations c. which amounts to as much as His Majesties Tenths in many Benefices and in many also much more Though Aaron's Law is exemplified in paying the Tenths in England yet never did Aaron exact two Tenths or three Tenths of the Tribe of Levi let them even take all for me I hope in time they 'l have enough Inventum est quod in quibusdam locis Presbyteri duo denos vel quatuor denos denarios Episcopis in censum annis singulis darent quod penitus abolendum esse decrevinus Syn. Cab. 2â— cap. 17. that is We hear says the Synod that in some places the Elders or Presbyters pay the Bishops every year twelve pence or fourteen pence as a Subsidy or Annuity which we hereby Decree shall henceforth be utterly abolished It is to be hoped the King and Parliament will be Petition'd to make such a Decree too here in England Twelve pence or fourteen pence yearly for Procurations It would be well for thousands of poor Benefic'd Vicars in England if they could put off the rich Bishop or his Great Eye the Arch-deacon with ten times so much no they 'l have it to a peny or else suspend the profits of the Benefice silence the Minister ab officio and not leave him and his Family a farthing to live upon till they be paid and till the charges of the Sequestration and costs of Suit be also paid or else by Excommunication his Soul is delivered to Satan and his Body to the Goal from whence there is no deliverance till the charges of putting him also into Goal and for his delivery thence be also paid which is about seven pounds for Spiritual-Court-Fees and other consequents thereof I know it So that want of Money delivers the poor Priest to Satan and the Goal soul and body and ready Cash again delivers him from both The Pope that has the Keys of Heaven-gates if he says true pay the Porter and he lets you in And our Absolution-men pretend to have the Key of Hell-gates and to let men out from the Devil to whom they themselves had delivered them for being poor and un-able to pay but upon condition tho' that if they have any credit to borrow money enough or empty the Pewter-shelf to Alchymize into money to pay the Porter they let you out and you are as you were rectus in Curiâ as honest Christians as ever and you and they as good Friends as ever Thus Orpheus is said to trade to Hell by the Poets and also to redeem men thence by Musick These by Money do the feat Oh Money Money oh the vertue of Money the vice of wanting Money our blessed Saviour says It is hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but at this rate quite contrary It is hard for a poor Man or a poor Vicar to come there if he do not pinch very hard to get money for these men whoever goes without or in whose debt soever he dies if he dies in their debt He had better no he knows his doom There wants nothing but * A yellow coâ—t painted with Devils and Hell fire with which the Inquisition do array the Jews and Hereticks when they burn them in Spain and Portugal Sambenitas and a Faggot with the Writ de Haeretico comburendo to make him the most Wretched This is a pretty thriving Trade if it would but last and for my part I that have as much power to Curse Anathematize and Excommunicate as any Bishop or Arch-deacon of them all and to absolve them again with all my reading and experience in their Spiritual Courts and Jurisdictions few men have had more or so much as I I say I here protest considering the premisses and the repealing of 1 Eliz. 1. that I know not by what Authority we do these things by what Authority we deliver the King's Subjects to the Devil and back again at pleasure what Rule Canon Law or Authority we go by and who gave us this Authority and Commission since His Majesty cannot give any such Commission by 13 Car. 2.12 Luther spoil'd the Pope's Market for Indulgences to this day and 't is an even lay but some honest Protestant or other will by vertue of the Naked Truth spoil this Trade to Hell and back again But how the Devil should be so much at their devotion and beck as if he was their Goaler to take all that
the Sheriffs c. cannot as the Law then was and now is make such Execution and give the Clerks presented Jus in Re or possession And if a Bishop or Arch-deacon for they are but men do refuse the same wantonly or through prejudice or design for a Kingsman or a Friend of his own when modestly requested by the Clerk presented and will not admit him habilem then the Law has provided a Writ called Quare Impedit to force him to shew a Lawful cause in the Kings-Courts and by them approved or otherwise to force the Bishop to make Execution according to the Patrons Presentment Thus we see in Times of greatest Popery our Ancestors did assert their own Proprieties against Arbitrary Proceedings of Men that call'd themselves the Church the Church I le give but one Instance more to show what little pretence the Clergy alone have to entitle themselves alone the Church Representative of England distinct from the Lay-Brethren and that is in making a Canon to Cringe to the East and Bow at the Name of Jesus Object How now will some say Of all instances you might have forborn this For can any good Christian do too much Reverence to the Name of Jesus We now know what you would be at Phil. 2.10 11. for does not the Apostle say that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow c. this might have been let alone Answ But I will not let it go so yet must acknowledge readily and chearfully That there is no other Name under Heaven by which we can be saved nor any other name except that of God and Jehovah that deserves more signal Reverence And yet notwithstanding Bernardus non videt omnia nor the Church the Church I mean the Clergy in her Placet's always rational much less Infallible The words in Phil. 2.10 11. are That at the Name of Jesus every knee not every head should how of things in Heaven therefore not litterally to be understood for there is no knees there to bow and things in Earth and things under the Earth there is no knees there neither except those in Graves and they are too senceless at least too stiff to bow And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord Therefore such as take the words litterally ought at the same time that they bow the head or knee to use also their Tongues and confess at the same time that Jesus Christ is Lord. But I say in obedience to this Holy Scripture or rather some Clergy-men's Comment thereon Men at this day at the Name of Jesus bow their heads not their knees yet the Text speaks not one word of that nay in all discourse as well as in the Church men that understand it in the litteral sence ought to bow the knee and not dop the head and also at the same time they ought with their Tongues confess That Jesus Christ is Lord. Thus when we hear a Common-Swearer 100 times in an hour swear by Jesus as is usual and often we ought by this Interpretation to make a Legg every time and with our Tongues Eccho to him and cry out Jesus Christ is Lord. But such was the wisedom for want of comparing the Words with the Context For by the Name of Jesus there is understood the Power and Soveraignty of Jesus to which God hath highly Exalted him not those 4. or 5. Letters but a Power above every Name that is above every Creature or above all created Powers whether in Heaven or in Earth or under the Earth that they might how the knee to him that is adore him So Prov. 18.10 The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower not the Letters Jehovah or Jah is a strong Tower or the found and noise of those words but The Power of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous run unto it and are safe not into the Letters or found of the Name Yet notwithstanding if any man will show Reverence at the Name of Jesus I am not offended so he shew as much Reverence at the Name of God and at the Name of the Holy Ghost It is a hard and harsh saying of some and borders upon Blasphemy to make distinctions in the Holy Trinity as if we were more beholden to the Second Person of the Holy Trinity than to the First or Third Person This Grates to make a difference in Reverencing The Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity But in this Instance I only show that the Clergy the Clergy much less a few of the Clergy because Higher and Taler have shown no Charter hitherto nor reason to have such a Charter granted to them to be without the Laity The Church The Churth of England The whole Oecumenical Council of Nice had erred shamefully but for one single ey'd man Paphnutius And it is pretty reading in the Council of Trent to see how at a loss the Fathers were for a Resolution 'till Post-Night till the Packet return'd from Rome one said with their Holy Ghost in a Cloak-bagg So that the next day after the Post came in People repair'd to the Counsel-House for News and to know how squares would go as men do now to a Country Coffee-house on a Post-night to know how things go above But is it not strange Impudence Atheism and Effrontery thus to take Gods holy Name and Spirit in vain by making the Holy Ghost father all our Escapes and By-blows adulterately begotten by Self-Interest Pride Passion Revenge crasty Fetches covetons designs whether the French or the Spanish Interest carry it still The stile is It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us God forgive them And this is the Church The Church that is the Clergy the Clergy or rather the Few the Few the least in number I will not say I cannot say the worst of the number nor the Idlest of the number But add to them Lay-Chancellors or Vicar-Generals Sumners Registers c. To make up this Church the Church of England And you make them worse and worse I look upon the Church of England as the greatest Bull-Work against Popery what This latter sort of men are they such a Bull-work no the Protestants of England The Protestant Laws of England embodied with the fundamental-Fundamental-Laws of the Realm Ruine one and you ruine the other for they must live and die together Thus have I evidenced that the Laity in the Apostles times were the Church and as much Canon-makers and Rule-makers and had the conduct of the infallible Spirit and gifts of the Holy Ghost as well as the Apostles and therefore certainly the Christian People as well as the Clergy of England are the Church of England Nay In Hen. 3. time when the Popish Prelates were most Rampant and Othoben the Pope's Nuncio had almost Beggar'd that King keeping him poor and doing what he list with him yet when they were to be excommunicated that Infringed Magna Charta The Clergy nor the Synod did not make it but the King and