see no reason why I may not as well take Use for my Money as Rent for my House 'T is a vain thing to say Money begets not Money for that no doubt it does 2. Would it not look odly to a Stranger that should come into this Land and hear in our Pulpits Usury preach'd against and yet the Law allow it Many Men use it pehaps some Church-men themselves No Bishop nor Ecclesiastical Judge that pretends Power to punish other Faults dares punish or at least does punish any Man for doing it Pious Uses 1. THE ground of the Ordinary's taking part of a Man's Estate who dy'd without a Will to Pious Uses was this to give it some body to pray that his Soul might be deliver'd out of Purgatory now the pious Uses come into his own Pocket 'T was well exprest by John O Powls in the Play who acted the Priest one that was to be hang'd being brought to the Ladder would fain have given something to the Poor he feels for his Purse which John O Powls had pickt out of his Pocket before missing it crys out He had lost his Purse now he intended to have given something to the Poor John O Powls bid him be pacified for the Poor had it already War 1. DO not under-value an Enemy by whom you have been worsted When our Country-men came home from fighting with the Saracens and were beaten by them they pictured them with huge big terrible Faces as you still see the Sign of the Saracen's Head is when in truth they were like other Men. But this they did to save their own Credits 2. Martial-Law in general means nothing but the Martial-Law of this or that Place with us to be us'd in Fervore Belli in the Face of the Enemy not in time of Peace there they can take away neither Limb nor Life The Commanders need not complain for want of it because our Ancestors have done gallant things without it 3. Question Whether may Subjects take up Arms against their Prince Answer Conceive it thus Here lies a Shilling betwixt you and me Ten Pence of the Shilling is yours Two Pence is mine By agreement I am as much King of my Two Pence as you of your Ten Pence If you therefore go about to take away my Two Pence I will defend it for there you and I are equal both Princes 4. Or thus two supream Powers meet one says to the other give me your Land if you will not I will take it from you The other because he thinks himself too weak to resist him tells him of nine Parts I will give you three so I may quietly enjoy the rest and I will become your Tributary Afterwards the Prince comes to exact six Parts and leaves but three the Contract then is broken and they are in Parity again 5. To know what Obedience is due to the Prince you must look into the Contract betwixt him and his People as if you wou'd know what Rent is due from the Tenant to the Landlord you must look into the Lease When the Contract is broken and there is no third Person to judge then the Decision is by Arms. And this is the Case between the Prince and the Subject 6. Question What Law is there to take up Arms against the Prince in Case he break his Covenant Answer Though there be no written Law for it yet there is Custom which is the best Law of the Kingdom for in England they have always done it There is nothing exprest between the King of England and the King of France that if either Invades the other's Territory the other shall take up Arms against him and yet they do it upon such an Occasion 7. 'T is all one to be plunder'd by a Troop of Horse or to have a Man's Goods taken from him by an Order from the Council Table To him that dies 't is all one whether it be by a Penny Halter or a Silk Garter yet I confess the silk Garter pleases more and like Trouts we love to be tickled to Death 8. The Soldiers say they fight for Honour when the Truth is they have their Honour in their Pocket And they mean the same thing that pretend to fight for Religion Just as a Parson goes to Law with his Parishioners he says For the good of his Successors that the Church may not loose its Right when the meaning is to get the Tythes into his own Pocket 9. We govern this War as an unskilful Man does a Casting-Net if he has not the right trick to cast the Net off his Shoulder the Leads will pull him into the River I am afraid we shall pull our selves into Destruction 10. We look after the particulars of a Battle because we live in the very time of War Whereas of Battles past we hear nothing but the Number slain Just as for the the Death of a Man when he is sick we talk how he slept this Night and that Night what he eat and what he drunk But when he is dead we only say he died of a Fever or name his Disease and there 's an end 11. Boccaline has this passage of Souldiers They came to Apollo to have their Profession made the Eighth Liberal Science which he granted As soon as it was nois'd up and down it came to the Butchers and they desired their Profession might be made the Ninth For say they the Soldiers have this Honour for the killing of Men now we kill as well as they but we kill Beasts for the preserving of Men and why should not we have Honour likewise done to us Apollo could not Answer their Reasons so he revers'd his Sentence and made the Soldiers Trade a Mystery as the Butchers is Witches 1. THE Law against Witches does not prove there be any but it punishes the Malice of those People that use such means to take away Mens Lives If one should profess that by turning his Hat thrice and crying Buz he could take away a Man's Life though in truth he could do no such thing yet this were a just Law made by the State that whosoever should turn his Hat thrice and cry Buz with an intention to take away a Man's Life shall be put to death Wife 1. HE that hath a handsome Wife by other Men is thought happy 't is a Pleasure to look upon her and be in her Company but the Husband is cloy'd with her We are never content with what we have 2. You shall see a Monkey sometime that has been playing up and down the Garden at length leap up to the top of the Wall but his Clog hangs a great way below on this side the Bishop's Wife is like that Monkey's Clog himself is got up very high takes place of the Temporal Barons but his Wife comes a great way behind 3. 'T is reason a Man that will have a Wife should be at the Charge of her Trinkets and pay all the Scores she sets on him He that will keep
Table-Talk BEING THE DISCOURSES OF John Selden Esq OR HIS SENSE of various MATTERS of Weight and high Consequence Relating especially to Religion and State Distingue Tempora The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Judge's Head near the Inner-Temple Gate in Fleetstreet and Awnsham and John Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row 1696. To the Honourable Mr. Justice Hales One of the JUDGES OF THE Common-Pleas And to the much Honoured Edward Heywood John Vaughan AND Rowland Jewks Esquiers Most worthy Gentlemen WEre you not Executors to that Person who while he liv'd was the Glory of the Nation yet I am Confident any thing of his would find Acceptance with you and truly the Sense and Notion here is wholly his and most of the Words I had the opportunity to hear his Discourse twenty Years together and lest all those Excellent things that usually fell from him might be lost some of them from time to time I faithfully committed to Writing which here digested into this Method I humbly present to your Hands you will quickly perceive them to be his by the familiar Illustrations wherewith they are set off and in which way you know he was so happy that with a marvelous delight to those that heard him he would presently convey the highest Points of Religion and the most important Affairs of State to an ordinary apprehension In reading be pleas'd to distinguish Times and in your Fancy carry along with you the When and the Why many of these things were spoken this will give them the more Life and the smarter Relish 'T is possible the Entertainment you find in them may render you the more inclinable to pardon the Presumption of Your most Obliged and most Humble Servant RI. MILWARD THE TABLE ABbies Priories page 1 Articles 3 Baptism 4 Bastard 5 Bible Scripture 6 Bishops before the Parliament 11 Bishops in the Parliament 13 Bishops out of the Parliament 19 Books Authors 25 Canon-Law Ceremony 27 Chancellour 28 Changing Sides 29 Chrismas 30 Christians 31 Church 32 Church of Rome 34 Churches City 35 Clergy 36 High Commission House of Commons 38 Confession 39 Competency 40 Great Conjunction Conscience 41 Consecrated Places 43 Contracts 44 Council 45 Convocation Creed 46 Damnation 47 Devils 48 Self-Denial 51 Duel 52 Epitaph 53 Equity 54 Evil Speaking 55 Excommunication 56 Faith and Works 59 Fasting-Days 60 Fathers and Sons Fines 61 Free-will Fryers 62 Friends Genealogy of Christ 63 Gentlemen 64 Gold Hall 65 Hell 66 Holy-Days 67 Humility 68 Idolatry Jews 69 Invincible Ignorance Images 70 Imperial Constitutions Imprisonment 72 Incendiaries Independency 73 Things Indifferent Publick Interest 75 Humane Invention Judgments 76 Judge 77 Juggling Jurisdiction 78 Jus Divinum King 79 King of England 81 The King 84 Knights Service 86 Land Language 87 Law 88 Law of Nature 90 Learning 91 Lecturers Libels 93 Liturgy Lords in the Parliament 94 Lords before the Parliament 95 Marriage 97 Marriage of Cosin Germans 98 Measure of things 99 Difference of Men Minister Divine 100 Money 107 Moral Honesty 108 Mortage Number 109 Oaths 110 Oracles 113 Opinion 114 Parity Parliament 116 Parson 119 Patience Peace 120 Penance People 121 Pleasure 122 Philosophy 124 Poetry 125 Pope 127 Popery 130 Power State 131 Prayer 134 Preaching 137 Predestination 144 Preferment 145 Praemunire Prerogative 148 Presbytery 149 Priest of Rome 151 Prophecies 152 Proverbs Question 153 Reason 154 Retaliation Reverence 155 Non Residency 156 Religion 157 Sabboth 163 Sacrament Salvation 164 State 165 Superstition Subsidies 166 Simony Ship-Money 167 Synod Assembly 158 Thanksgiving Tythes 171 Trade 174 Tradition Transubstantiation 175 Traitor Trinity 176 Truth 177 Trial 178 University 179 Vows 180 Usury Pious Uses 181 War 182 Witches Wife 186 Wisdom 187 Wit 188 Women 189 Year 190 Zelots 192 THE DISCOURSES OF John Selden Esq Abbies Priories c. 1. THE unwillingness of the Monks to part with their Land will fall out to be just nothing because they were yielded up to the King by a Supream Hand viz. a Parliament If a King conquer another Country the People are loath to lose their Lands yet no Divine will deny but the King may give them to whom he please If a Parliament make a Law concerning Leather or any other Commodity you and I for Example are Parliament-Men perhaps in respect to our own private Interest we are against it yet the major Part conclude it we are then in volv'd and the Law is good 2. When the Founder of Abbies laid a Curse upon those that should take away those Lands I would fain know what Power they had to curse me 'T is not the Curses that come from the Poor or from any Body that hurt me because they come from them but because I do something ill against them that deserves God should curse me for it On the other side 't is not a Man's blessing me that makes me blessed he only declares me to be so and if I do well I shall be blessed whether any bless me or not 3. At the time of Dissolution they were tender in taking from the Abbots and Priors their Lands and their Houses till they surrendred them as most of them did indeed the Prior of St. John's Sir Richard Weston being a stout Man got into France and stood out a whole Year at last submitted and the King took in that Priory also to which the Temple belonged and many other Houses in England they did not then cry no Abbots no Priors as we do now no Bishops no Bishops 4. Henry the Fifth put away the Friars Aliens and seized to himself 100000 l. a Year and therefore they were not the Protestants only that took away Church Lands 5. In Queen Elizabeths time when all the Abbies were pulled down all good Works defaced then the Preachers must cry up Justification by Faith not by good Works Articles 1. THE nine and thirty Articles are much another thing in Latin in which Tongue they were made than they are translated into English they were made at three several Convocations and confirmed by Act of Parliament six or seven Times after There is a Secret concerning them Of late Ministers have subscribed to all of them but by Act of Parliament that confirm'd them they ought only to subscribe to those Articles which contain matter of Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as appears by the first Subscriptions But Bishoâ— Bancroft in the Convocation held in King Jame's days he began it that Ministers should subscribe to three Things to the King's Supremacy to the Common-Prayer and to the Thirty Nine Articles many of them do not contain matter of Faith Is it matter of Faith how the Church should be govern'd Whether Infants should be baptized Whether we have any Property in our Goods c. Baptism 1. 'T Was a good way to persuade Men to be christned to tell them that they had a Foulness about them viz. Original Sin that could not be washed away but by
Temporal Lords Answ. We do not pretend they have that Power the same Way but they have a Right He that has an Office in Westminster-Hall for his Life the Office is as much his as his Land is his that hath Land by Inheritance 7. Whether had the inferior Clergy ever any thing to do in the Parliament Answ. No no otherwise than thus There were certain of the Clergy that used to assemble near the Parliament with whom the Bishops upon occasion might consult but there were none of the Convocation as 't was afterwards settled viz. the Dean the Arch-Deacon one for the Chapter and two for the Diocess but it happened by continuance of time to save Charges and Trouble their Voices and the Consent of the whole Clergy were involved in the Bishops and at this Day the Bishops Writs run to bring all these to the Parliament but the Bishops themselves stand for all 8. Bishops were formerly one of these two Conditions either Men bred Canonists and Civilians sent up and down Ambassadors to Rome and other Parts and so by their Merit came to that Greatness or else great Noble Men's Sons Brothers and Nephews and so born to govern the State Now they are of a low Condition their Education nothing of that way he gets a Living and then a greater Living and then a greater than that and so comes to govern 9. Bishops are now unfit to Govern because of their Learning they are bred up in another Law they run to the Text for something done amongst the Jews that nothing concerns England 't is just as if a Man would have a Kettle and he would not go to our Brazier to have it made as they make Kettles but he would have it made as Hiram made his Brass-work who wrought in Solomon's Temple 10. To take away Bishops Votes is but the beginning to take them away for then they can be no longer useful to the King or State 'T is but like the little Wimble to let in the greater Anger Objection But they are but for their Life and that makes them always go for the King as he will have them Answer This is against a Double Charity for you must always suppose a bad King and bad Bishops Then again whether will a Man be sooner content himself should be made a Slave or his Son after him when we talk of our Children we mean our selves besides they that have Posterity are more obliged to the King than they that are only for themselves in all the Reason in the World 11. How shall the Clergy be in the Parliament if the Bishops are taken away Answer By the Laity because the Bishops in whom the rest of the Clergy are included are sent to the taking away their own Votes by being involv'd in the major Part of the House This follows naturally 12. The Bishops being put out of the House whom will they lay the Fault upon now When the Dog is beat out of the Room where will they lay the Stink Bishops out of the Parliament 1. IN the beginning Bishops and Presbyters were alike like the Gentlemen in the Country whereof one is made Deputy Lieutenant and another Justice of Peace so one is made a Bishop another a Dean and that kind of Government by Arch-bishops and Bishops no doubt came in in imitation of the Temporal Government not Jure Divino In time of the Roman Empire where they had a Legatus there they placed an Arch-Bishop where they had a Rector there a Bishop that every one might be instructed in Christianity which now they had received into the Empire 2. They that speak ingeniously of Bishops and Presbyters say that a Bishop is a great Presbyter and during the time of his being Bishop above a Presbyter as your President of the Colledge of Physicians is above the rest yet he himself is no more than a Doctor of Physick 3. The Words Bishop and Presbyter are promiscuously used that is confessed by all and tho' the Word Bishop be in Timothy and Titus yet that will not prove the Bishops ought to have a Jurisdiction over the Presbyter tho' Timothy or Titus had by the Order that was given them some Body must take care of the rest and that Jurisdiction was but to Excommunicate and that was but to tell them they should come no more into their Company Or grant they did make Canons one for another before they came to be in the State does it follow they must do so when the State has receiv'd them into it What if Timothy had power in Ephesus and Titus in Creet over the Presbyters Does it follow therefore the Bishops must have the same in England Must we be govern'd like Ephesus and Creet 4. However some of the Bishops pretend to be Jure Divino yet the Practice of the Kingdom had ever been otherwise for whatever Bishops do otherwise than the Law permits Westminster-Hall can controul or send them to absolve c. 5. He that goes about to prove Bishops Jure Divino does as a Man that having a Sword shall strike it against an Anvil if he strikes it a while there he may peradventure loosen it tho' it be never so well riveted 't will serve to strike another Sword or cut Flesh but not against an Anvel 6. If you should say you hold your Land by Moses or God's Law and would try it by that you may perhaps lose but by the Law of the Kingdom you are sure of it so may the Bishops by this Plea of Jure Divino lose all The Pope had as good a Title by the Law of England as could be had had he not left that and claim'd by Power from God 7. There is no Government enjoyn'd by Example but by Precept it does not follow we must have Bishops still because we have had them so long They are equally mad who say Bishops are so Jure Divino that they must be continued and they who say they are so Antichristian that they must be put away all is as the State pleases 8. To have no Ministers but Presbyters 't is as in the Temporal State they should have no Officers but Constables Bishops do best stand with Monarchy that as amongst the Laity you have Dukes Lords Lieutenants Judges c. to send down the King's Pleasure to his Subjects so you have Bishops to govern the inferiour Clergy These upon occasion may address themselves to the King otherwise every Person of the Parish must come and run up to the Court. 9. The Protestants have no Bishops in France because they live in a Catholick Country and they will not have Catholick Bishops therefore they must govern themselves as well as they may 10. What is that to the purpose to what End were Bishops Lands given to them at first you must look to the Law and Custom of the Place What is that to any Temporal Lord's Estate how Lands were first divided or how in William the Conquerours Days And if Men
at first were juggled out of their Estates yet they are rightly their Successors If my Father cheat a Man and he consent to it the Inheritance is rightly mine 11. If there be no Bishops there must be something else which has the Power of Bishops though it be in many and then had you not as good keep them If you will have no half Crowns but only single Pence yet Thirty single Pence are half a Crown and then had you not as good keep both But the Bishops have done ill 't was the Men not the Function As if you should say you would have no more Half-Crowns because they were stolen when the Truth is they were not stolen because they were Half Crowns but because they were Mony and light in a Thieves hand 12. They that would pull down the Bishops and erect a new way of Government do as he that pulls down an old House and builds another in another Fashion there 's a great deal of Do and a great deal of Trouble the old Rubbish must be carried away and new Materials must be brought Workmen must be provided and perhaps the old one would have serv'd as well 13. If the Parliament and Presbyterian Party should dispute who should be Judge Indeed in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth there was such a Difference between the Protestants and Papists and Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Chancellor was appointed to be Judge but the Conclusion was the stronger Party carried it For so Religion was brought into Kingdoms so it has been continued and so it may be cast out when the State pleases 14. 'T will be great Discouragement to Scholars that Bishops should be put down For now the Father can say to his Son and the Tutor to his Pupil Study hard and you shall have Vocem Sedem in Parliamento then it must be Study hard and you shall have a Hundred a Tear if you please your Parish Object But they that enter into the Ministry for Preferment are like Judas that look'd after the Bag. Answ. It may be so if they turn Scholars at Judas's Age but what Arguments will they use to persuade them to follow their Books while they are young Books Authors 1. THE giving a Bookseller his Price for his Books has this Advantage he that will do so shall have the Refusal of whatsoever comes to his Hand and so by that means get many things which otherwise he never should have seen So 't is in giving a Bawd her Price 2. In buying Books or other Commodities 't is not always the best way to bid half so much as the Seller asks witness the Country Fellow that went to buy two groat Shillings they ask'd him three Shillings and he bad them eighteen Pence 3. They counted the Price of the Books Acts 19. 19. and found Fifty Thousand Pieces of Silver that is so many Sextertii or so many Three-half-pence of our Money about Three Hundred Pound Sterling 4. Popish Books teach and inform what we know we know much out of them The Fathers Church Story Schoolmen all may pass for Popish Books and if you take away them what Learning will you leave Besides who must be Judge The Customer or the Writer If he disallows a Book it must not be brought into the Kingdom then Lord have Mercy upon all Scholars These Puritan Preachers if they have any things good they have it out of Popish Books tho' they will not acknowledge it for fear of displeasing the People he is a poor Divine that cannot severe the Good from the Bad. 5. 'T is good to have Translations because they serve as a Comment so far as the Judgment of the Man goes 6. In answering a Book 't is best to be short otherwise he that I write against will suspect I intend to weary him not to satisfie him Besides in being long I shall give my Adversary a huge Advantage somewhere or other he will pick a Hole 7. In quoting of Books quote such Authors as are usually read others you may read for your own Satisfaction but not name them 8. Quoting of Authors is most for matter of Fact and then I write them as I would produce a Witness sometimes for a free Expression and then I give the Author his Due and gain my self Praise by reading him 9. To quote a Modern Dutch Man where I may use a Clasic Author is as if I were to justifie my Reputation and I neglect all Persons of Note and Quality that know me and bring the Testimonial of the Scullion in the Kitchen Canon-Law IF I would study the Canon-Law as it is used in England I must study the Heads here in use then go to the Practisers in those Courts where that Law is practised and know their Customs so for all the Study in the World Ceremony 1. CEremony keeps up all things 'T is like a Penny-Glass to a rich Spirit or some excellent Water without it the Water were spilt the Spirit lost 2. Of all People Ladies have no reason to cry down Ceremonies for they take themselves slighted without it And were they not used with Ceremony with Complements and Addresses with Legs and Kissing of Hands they were the pitifulest Creatures in the World but yet methinks to kiss their Hands after their Lips as some do is like little Boys that after they eat the Apple fall to the Paring out of a Love they have to the Apple Chancellour 1. THE Bishop is not to sit with a Chancellor in his Court as being a thing either beneath him or beside him no more than the King is to sit in the King's-Bench when he has made a Lord-Chief-Justice 2. The Chancellour govern'd in the Church who was a Lay-man And therefore 't is false which they charge the Bishops with that they challenge sole Jurisdiction For the Bishop can no more put out the Chancellor than the Chancellor the Bishop They were many of them made Chancellors for their Lives and he is the fittest Man to govern because Divinity so overwhelms the rest Changing Sides 1. 'T IS the Tryal of a Man to see if he will change his side and if he be so weak as to change once he will change again Your Country Fellows have a way to try if a Man be weak in the Hams by coming behind him and giving him a Blow unawares if he bend once he will bend again 2. The Lords that fall from the King after they have got Estates by base Flattery at Court and now pretend Conscience do as a Vintner that when he first sets up you may bring your Wench to his House and do your things there But when he grows Rich he turns conscientious and will sell no Wine upon the Sabbath-day 3. Colonel Goring serving first the one side and then the other did like a good Miller that knows how to grind which way soever the Wind sits 4. After Luther had made a Combustion in Germany about Religion he was sent to by the Pope
Temple to worship in where he was more especially present Just as the Master of the House who owns all the House makes choice of one Chamber to lie in which is called the Master's Chamber but under the Gospel there was no such thing Temples and Churches are set apart for the conveniency of Men to Worship in they cannot meet upon the Point of a Needle but God himself makes no choice 3. All things are Gods already we can give him no right by consecrating any that he had not before only we set it apart to his Service Just as a Gardiner brings his Lord and Master a Basket of Apricocks and presents them his Lord thanks him perhaps gives him something for his Pains and yet the Apricocks were as much his Lord 's before as now 4. What is Consecrated is given to some particular man to do God Service not given to God but given to Man to serve God And there 's not any thing Lands or Goods but some Men or other have it in their Power to dispose of as they please The saying things Consecrated cannot be taken away makes men afraid of Consecration 5. Yet Consecration has this Power when a Man has Consecrated any thing to God he cannot of himself take it away Contracts 1. IF our Fathers have lost their Liberty why may not we labour to regain it Answ. We must look to the Contract if that be rightly made we must stand to it if we once grant we may recede from Contracts upon any Inconveniency that may afterwards happen we shall have no Bargain kept If I sell you a Horse and do not like my Bargain I will have my Horse again 2. Keep your Contracts so far a Divine goes but how to make our Contracts is left to our selves and as we agree upon the conveying of this House or that Land so it must be If you offer me a Hundred Pounds for my Glove I tell you what my Glove is a plain Glove pretend no Virtue in it the Glove is my own I profess not to sell Gloves and we agree for an hundred Pounds I do not know why I may not with a safe Conscience take it The want of that common Obvious Distinction of Jus praeceptivum and Jus permissivum does much trouble Men. 3. Lady Kent Articled with Sir Edward Herbert that he should come to her when she sent for him and stay with her as long as she would have him to which he set his Hand then he Articled with her That he should go away when he pleas'd and stay away as long as he pleas'd to which she set her Hand This is the Epitome of all the Contracts in the World betwixt Man and Man betwixt Prince and Subject they keep them as long as they like them and no longer Council 1. THey talk but blasphemously enough that the Holy Ghost is President of their General Councils when the Truth is the odd Man is still the Holy Ghost Convocation 1. WHen the King sends his Writ for a Parliament he sends for two Knights for a Shire and two Burgesses for a Corporation But when he sends for two Arch-Bishops for a Convocation he commands them to assemble the whole Clergy but they out of Custom amongst themselves send to the Bishops of their Provinces to will them to bring two Clerks for a Diocess the Dean one for the Chapter and the Arch-Deacons but to the King every Clergy-Man is there present 2. We having nothing so nearly expresses the Power of a Convocation in respect of a Parliament as a Court-Leet where they have a Power to make by-By-Laws as they call them as that a Man shall put so many Cows or Sheep in the Common but they can make nothing that is contrary to the Laws of the Kingdom Creed 1. A Thanasius's Creed is the shortest take away the Preface and the Force and the Conclusion which are not part of the Creed In the Nicene Creed it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe in the Church but now as our Common-prayer has it I believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church they like not Creeds because they would have no Forms of Faith as they have none of Prayer though there be more Reason for the one than for the other Damnation 1. IF the Physician sees you eat any thing that is not good for your Body to keep you from it he crys 't is Poyson if the Divine sees you do any thing that is hurtful for your Soul to keep you from it he crys you are damn'd 2. To preach long loud and Damnation is the way to be cry'd up We love a Man that damns us and we run after him again to save us If a Man had a sore Leg and he should go to an Honost Judicious Chyrurgeon and he should only bid him keep it warm and anoint with such an Oyl an Oyl well known that would do the Cure haply he would not much regard him because he knows the Medicine beforehand an ordinary Medicine But if he should go to a Surgeon that should tell him your Leg will Gangreen within three Days and it must be cut off and you will die unless you do something that I could tell you what listning there would be to this Man Oh for the Lord's Sake tell me what this is I will give you any content for your Pains Devils 1. WHY have we none possest with Devils in England The old Answer is the Protestants the Devil hath already and the Papists are so Holy he dares not meddle with them Why then beyond Seas where a Nun is possest when a Hugonot comes into the Church does not the Devil hunt them out The Priest teaches him you never saw the Devil throw up a Nun's Coats mark that the Priest will not suffer it for then the People will spit at him 2. Casting out Devils is meer Juggling they never cast out any but what they first cast in They do it where for Reverence no Man shall dare to examine it they do it in a Corner in a Mortice-hole not in the Market-place They do nothing but what may be done by Art they make the Devil fly out of the Window in the Likeness of a Bat or a Rat why do they not hold him Why in the Likeness of a Bat or a Rat or some Creature That is why not in some shape we paint him in with Claws and Horns By this trick they gain much gain upon Mens Fancies and so are reverenc'd and certainly if the Priest deliver me from him that is my most deadly Enemy I have all the reason in the World to reverence him Objection But if this be Juggling why do they punish Impostures Answer For great reason because they don't play their Part well and for fear others should discover them and so all of them ought to be of the same Trade 3. A Person of Quality came to my Chamber in the Temple and told me he had two Devils in his Head I
has Stone whipt Stones cries I might have called my Lord of Salisbury Fool often enough before he would have had me whipt 3. Speak not ill of a great Enemy but rather give him good Words that he may use you the better if you chance to fall into his Hands the Spaniard did this when he was dying his Confessor told him to work him to Repentance how the Devil tormented the wicked that went to Hell the Spaniard replying called the Devil my Lord. I hope my Lord the Devil is not so cruel his Confessor reproved him Excuse me said the Don for calling him so I know not into what Hands I may fall and if I happen into his I hope he will use me the better for giving him good words Excommunication 1. THat place they bring for Excommunication put away from among your selves that wicked Person 1 Cor. 5. Cha. 13. Verse is corrupted in the Greek for it should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put away that Evil from among you not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Evil Person besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Devil in Scripture and it may be so taken there and there is a new Edition of Theodoret come out that has it right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is true the Christians before the Civil State became Christian did by Covenant and Agreement set down how they should live and he that did not observe what they agreed upon should come no more amongst them that is be Excommunicated Such Men are spoken of by the Apostle Romans 1. 31. whom he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vulgar has it Incomposit sine faedre the last Word is pretty well but the first not at all Origen in his Book against Celsus speaks of the Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Translation renders it Conventus as it signifies a Meeting when it is plain it signifies a Covenant and the English Bible turned the other Word well Covenant-breakers Pliny tells us the Christians took an Oath amongst themselves to live thus and thus 2. The other place Dic Ecclesiae tell the Church is but a weak Ground to raise Excommunication upon especially from the Sacrament the lesser Excommunication since when that was spoken the Sacrament was instituted The Jews Ecclesia was their Sanhedrim their Court so that the meaning is if after once or twice Admonition this Brother will not be reclaim'd bring him thither 3. The first Excommunication was 180 Years after Christ and that by Victor Bishop of Rome But that was no more than this that they should Communicate and receive the Sacrament amongst themselves not with those of the other Opinion The Controversie as I take it being about the Feast of Easter Men do not care for Excommunication because they are shut out of the Church or delivered up to Satan but because the Law of the Kingdom takes hold of them after so many Days a Man cannot Sue no not for his Wife if you take her from him and there may be as much reason to grant it for a small Fault if there be contumacy as for a great one In Wectminster-Hall you may Out-law a Man for forty Shillings which is their Excommunication and you can do no more for Forty Thousand Pound 4. When Constantine became Christian he so fell in love with the Clergy that he let them be Judges of all things but that continued not above three or four Years by reason they were to be Judges of Matters they understood not and then they were allowed to meddle with nothing but Religion all Jurisdiction belonged to him and he scanted them out as much as he pleas'd and so things have since continued They Excommunicate for three or four Things Matters concerning Adultery Tythes Wills c. which is the civil Punishment the State allows for such Faults If a Bishop Excommunicate a Man for what he ought not the Judge has Power to absolve and punish the Bishop if they had that Jurisdiction from God why does not the Church Excommunicate for Murder for Theft If the Civil Power might take away all but three Things why may they not take them away too If this Excommunication were taken away the Presbyters would be quiet 't is that they have a mind to 't is that they would fain be at Like the Wench that was to be Married she ask'd her Mother when 't was done if she should go to Bed presently no says her Mother you must dine first and then to Bed Mother no you must dance after Dinner and then to Bed Mother no you must go to Supper and then to Bed Mother c. Faith and Works 1. T Was an unhappy Division that has been made between Faith and Works tho' in my Intellect I may divide them just as in the Candle I know there is both Light and Heat But yet put out the Candle and they are both gone one remains not without the other So 't is betwixt Faith and Works nay in a right Conception Fides est opus if I believe a thing because I am commanded that is Opus Fasting-Days 1. WHat the Church debars us one Day she gives us leave to take out in another First we fast and then we feast first there is a Carnival and then a Lent 2. Whether do Humane Laws bind the Conscience If they do 't is a way to ensnare If we say they do not we open the Door to Disobedience Answ. In this Case we must look to the Justice of the Law and intention of the Law-giver if there be no Justice in the Law 't is not to be obey'd if the intention of the Law-giver be absolute our Obedience must be so too If the intention of the Law-giver enjoyn a Penalty as a Compensation for the Breach of the Law I sin not if I submit to the Penalty if it enjoyn a Penalty as a future enforcement of Obedience to the Law then ought I to observe it which may be known by the often repetition of the Law The way of fasting is enjoyn'd unto them who yet do not observe it The Law enjoyns a Penalty as an enforcement to Obedience which intention appears by the often calling upon us to keep that Law by the King and the Dispensation of the Church to such as are not able to keep it as young Children old Folks diseas'd Men c. Fathers and Sons 1. IT hath ever been the way for Fathers to bind their Sons to strengthen this by the Law of the Land every one at Twelve Years of Age is to take the Oath of Allegiance in Court-Leets whereby he swears Obedience to the King Fines 1. THe old Law was that when a Man was Fin'd he was to be Fin'd Salvo Conteneniento so as his Countenance might be safe taking Countenance in the same sense as your Country-Man does when he says if you will come unto my House I will shew you the best Countenance I can that is not the best Face but the best Entertainment
't is not the eating nor 't is not the drinking that is to be blam'd but the Excess So in Pride Idolatry 1. IDolatry is in a Man 's own Thought not in the Opinion of another Put Case I bow to the Altar why am I guilty of Idolatry because a stander by thinks so I am sure I do not believe the Altar to be God and the God I worship may be bow'd to in all Places and at all times Jews 1. GOD at the first gave Laws to all Manking but afterwards he gave peculiar Laws to the Jews which they were only to observe Just as we have the Common Law for all England and yet you have some Corporations that besides that have peculiar Laws and Priviledges to themselves 2. Talk what you will of the Jews that they are cursed they thrive where e'er they come they are able to oblige the Prince of their Country by lending him Money none of them beg they keep together and for their being hated my Life for yours Christians hate one another as much Invincible Ignorance 1. 'T IS all one to me if I am told of Christ or some Mystery of Christianity if I am not capable of understanding as if I am not told at all my Ignorance is as invincible and therefore 't is vain to call their Ignorance only invincible who never were told of Christ. The trick of it is to advance the Priest whilst the Church of Rome says a Man must be told of Christ by one thus and thus ordain'd Images 1. THE Papists taking away the second Commandment is not haply so horrid a thing nor so unreasonable amongst Christians as we make it For the Jews could make no figure of God but they must commit Idolatry because he had taken no shape but since the Assumption of our Flesh we know what shape to picture God in Nor do I know why we may not make his Image provided we be sure what it is as we say St. Luke took the picture of the Virgin Mary and St. Veronica of our Saviour Otherwise it would be no honour to the King to make a Picture and call it the King's Picture when 't is nothing like him 2. Though the learned Papists pray not to Images yet 't is to be fear'd the ignorant do as appears by that Story of St. Nicholas in Spain A Country-Man us'd to offer daily to St. Nicholas's Image at length by mischance the Image was broken and a new one made of his own Plum-Tree after that the Man forbore being complain'd of to his Ordinary he answer'd 't is true he us'd to offer to the old Image but to the new he could not find in his heart because he knew 't was a piece of his own Plum-Tree You see what Opinion this Man had of the Image and to this tended the bowing of their Images the twinkling of their Eyes the Virgin 's Milk c. Had they only meant Representations a Picture would have done as well as these Tricks It may be with us in England they do not worship Images because living amongst Protestants they are either laugh'd out of it or beaten out of it by shock of Argument 3. 'T is a discreet way concerning Pictures in Churches to set up no new nor to pull down no old Imperial Constitutions 1. THey say Imperial Constitutions did only confirm the Canons of the Church but that is not so for they inflicted Punishment when the Canons never did viz. If a Man converted a Christian to be a Jew he was to forfeit his Estate and lose his Life In Valentines Novels 't is said Constat Episcopus Forum Legibus non habere Judicant tantum de Religione Imprisonment 1. SIR Kenelme Digby was several times taken and let go again at last imprison'd in Winchester House I can compare him to nothing but a great Fish that we catch and let go again but still he will come to the Bait at last therefore we put him into some great Pond for Store Incendiaries 1. FAncy to your self a Man sets the City on Fire at Cripplegate and that Fire continues by means of others 'till it come to White-Fryers and then he that began it would fain quench it does not he deserve to be punish'd most that first set the City on Fire So 't is with the Incendiaries of the State They that first set it on Fire by Monopolizing Forrest Business Imprisoning Parliament Men tertio Coroli c. are now become regenerate and would fain quench the Fire certainly they deserv'd most to be punish'd for being the first Cause of our Destractions Independency 1. INdependency is in use at Amsterdam where forty Churches or Congregations have nothing to do one with another And 't is no question agreeable to the Primitive times before the Emperour became Christian For either we must say every Church govern'd it self or else we must fall upon that old foolish Rock that St. Peter and his Successours govern'd all but when the Civil State became Christian they appointed who should govern them before they govern'd by agreement and consent if you will not do this you shall come no more amongst us but both the Independant Man and the Presbyterian Man do equally exclude the Civil Power tho' after a different manner 2. The Independant may as well plead they should not be subject to Temporal Things not come before a Constable or a Justice of Peace as they plead they should not be subject in spiritual things because St. Paul says It is so that there is not a wise Man amongst you 3. The Pope challenges all Churches to be under him the King and the two Arch-Bishops challenge all the Church of England to be under them The Presbyterian Man divides the Kingdom into as many Churches as there be Presbyteries and your Independant would have every Congregation a Church by it self Things Indifferent 1. IN time of a Parliament when things are under debate they are indifferent but in a Church or State settled there 's nothing left indifferent Publick Interest 1. ALL might go well in the Common-Wealth if every one in the Parliament would lay down his own Interest and aim at the general good If a man were sick and the whole Colledge of Physicians should come to him and administer severally haply so long as they observ'd the Rules of Art he might recover but if one of them had a great deal of Scamony by him he must put off that therefore he prescribes Scamony Another had a great deal of Rubarb and he must put off that and therefore he prescribes Rubarb c. then would certainly kill the Man We destroy the Common-Wealth while we preserve our own private Interests and neglect the publick Humane Invention 1. YOU say there must be no Humane Invention in the Church nothing but the pure Word Answer If I give any Exposition but what is express'd in the Text that is my Invention if you give another Exposition that is your invention
be first of the Temporal He was a kind of an Otter a Knight half Spiritual and half Temporal 3. Quest. Whether is every Baron a Baron of some Place Answ. 'T is according to his Patent of late Years they have been made Baron of some Place but antiently not call'd only by their Sir-Name or the Sir-Name of some Family into which they have been married 4. The making of new Lords lessens all the rest 'T is in the business of Lords as it 't was with St. Nicolas's Image The Country-Man you know could not find in his Heart to adore the new Image made of his own Plum-Tree though he had formerly worship'd the old one The Lords that are antient we honour because we know not whence they come but the new ones we slight because we know their beginning 5. For the Irish Lords to take upon them here in England is as if the Cook in the Fair should come to my Lady Kent's Kitchen and take upon him to roast the Meat there because he is a Cook in another place Marriage 1. OF all Actions of a Man's Life his Marriage does least concern other people yet of all Actions of our Life 't is most medled with by other People 2. Marriage is nothing but a civil Contract 't is true 't is an Ordinance of God so is every other Contract God commands me to keep it when I have made it 3. Marriage is a desperate thing the Frogs in Aesop were extream wise they had a great mind to some Water but they would not leap into the Well because they could not get out again 4. We single out particulars and apply God's Providence to them thus when two are marry'd and have undone one another they cry it was God's Providence we should come together when God's Providence does equally concur to every thing Marriage of Cosin-Germans 1. SOme Men forbear to marry Cosin Germans out of this kind of scruple of Conscience because it was unlawful before the Reformation and is still in the Church of Rome And so by reason their Grand-Father or their great Grand-Father did not do it upon that old Score they think they ought not to do it as some Men forbear Flesh upon Friday not reflecting upon the Statute which with us makes it unlawful but out of an old Score because the Church of Rome forbids it and their Fore-Fathers always forbore Flesh upon that Day Others forbear it out of a Natural Consideration because it is observ'd for Example in Beasts if two couple of a near Kind the Breed proves not so good The same Observation they make in Plants and Trees which degenerate being grafted upon the same Stock And 't is also further observ'd those Matches between Cosin-Germans seldom prove Fortunate But for the lawfulness there is no Colour but Cosin-Germans in England may marry both by the Law of God and Man for with us we have reduc'd all the Degrees of Marriage to those in the Levitical-Law and 't is plain there 's nothing against it As for that that is said Cosin-Germans once remov'd may not Marry and therefore being a further degree may not 't is presum'd a nearer should not no Man can tell what it means Measure of Things 1. WE measure from our selves and as things are for our use and purpose so we approve them Bring a Pear to the Table that is rotten we cry it down 't is naught but bring a Medlar that is rotten and 't is a fine thing and yet I 'll warrant you the Pear thinks as well of it self as the Medlar does 2. We measure the Excellency of other Men by some Excellency we conceive to be in our selves Nash a Poet poor enough as Poets us'd to be seeing an Alderman with his Gold Chain upon his great Horse by way of scorn said to one of his Companions do you see yon Fellow how goodly how big he looks why that Fellow cannot make a blank Verse 3. Nay we measure the goodness of God from our selves we measure his Goodness his Justice his Wisdom by something we call Just Good or Wise in our selves and in so doing we judge proportionably to the Country Fellow in the Play who said if he were a King he would live like a Lord and have Pease and Bacon every Day and a Whip that cry'd Slash Difference of Men. 1. THE Difference of Men is very great you would scarce think them to be of the same Species and yet it consists more in the Affection than in the Intellect For as in the Strength of Body two Men shall be of an equal Strength yet one shall appear stronger than the other because he exercises and puts out his Strength the other will not stir nor strain himself So 't is in the Strength of the Brain the one endeavours and strains and labours and studies the other sits still and is idle and takes no pains and therefore he appears so much the inferiour Minister Divine 1. THE imposition of Hands upon the Minister when all is done will be nothing but a designation of a Person to this or that Office or Employment in the Church 'T is a ridiculous Phrase that of the Canonists Conferre Ordines 'T is Coaptare aliquem in Ordinem to make a Man one of us one of our Number one of our Order So Cicero would understand what I said it being a Phrase borrowed from the Latines and to be understood proportionably to what was amongst them 2. Those Words you now use in making a Minister receive the Holy Ghost were us'd amongst the Jews in making of a Lawyer from thence we have them which is a villanous Key to something as if you would have some other kind of Praefeture than a Mayoralty and yet keep the same Ceremony that was us'd in making the Mayor 3. A Priest has no such thing as an inindelible Character what difference do you find betwixt him and another Man after Ordination only he is made a Priest as I said by Designation as a Lawyer is call'd to the Bar then made a Serjeant all Men that would get Power over others make themselves as unlike them as they can upon the same Ground the Priests made themselves unlike the Laity 4. A Minister when he is made is Materia prima apt for any form the State will put upon him but of himself he can do nothing Like a Doctor of Law in the University he hath a great deal of Law in him but cannot use it till he be made some bodie 's Chancellour or like a Physician before he be receiv'd into a House he can give no body Physick indeed after the Master of the House hath given him charge of his Servants then he may Or like a Suffragan that could do nothing but give Orders and yet he was no Bishop 5. A Minister should preach according to the Articles of Religion established in the Church where he is To be a Civil Lawyer let a Man read Justinian and the Body
to command that is where he must be obeyed so is every Supream Power and Prince They that stretch his Infallibility further do they know not what 5. When a Protestant and a Papish dispute they talk like two Mad-men because they do not agree upon their Principles the one way is to destroy the Pope's Power for if he hath Power to command me 't is not my alledging Reasons to the contrary can keep me from obeying For Example if a Constable command me to wear a green Suit to Morrow and has Power to make me 't is not my alledging a hundred Reasons of the Folly of it can excuse me from doing it 6. There was a Time when the Pope had Power here in England and there was excellent Use made of it for 't was only to serve Turns as might be manifested out of the Records of the Kingdom which Divines know little of If the King did not like what the Pope would have he would forbid the Pope's Legate to land upon his Ground So that the Power was truly then in the King though suffered in the Pope But now the Temporal and the Spiritual Power Spiritual so call'd because ordain'd to a Spiritual End spring both from one Fountain they are like to twist that 7. The Protestants in France bear Office in the State because though their Religion be different yet they acknowledge no other King but the King of France The Papists in England they must have a King of their own a Pope that must do something in our Kingdom therefore there is no reason they should enjoy the same Priviledges 8. Amsterdam admits of all Religions but Papists and 't is upon the same Account The Papists where e'er they live have another King at Rome all other Religions are subject to the present State and have no Prince else-where 9. The Papists call our Religion a Parliamentary Religion but there was once I am sure a Parliamentary Pope Pope Urban was made Pope in England by Act of Parliament against Pope Clement The Act is not in the Book of Statutes either because he that compiled the Book would not have the Name of the Pope there or else he would not let it appear that they medled with any such thing but 't is upon the Rolls 10. When our Clergy preach against the Pope and the Church of Rome they preach against themselves and crying down their Pride their Power and their Riches have made themselves Poor and Contemptible enough they dedicate first to please their Prince not considering what would follow Just as if a Man were to go a Journey and seeing at his first setting out the Way clean and fair ventures forth in his Slippers not considering the Dirt and the Sloughs are a little further off or how suddenly the Weather may change Popery 1. THE demanding a Noble for a dead body passing through a a Town came from hence in time of Popery they carried the dead Body into the Church where the Priest said Dirgies and twenty Dirgies at four Pence a piece comes to a Noble but now it is forbidden by an Order from my Lord Marshal the Heralds carry his Warrant about them 2. We charge the Prelatical Clergy with Popery to make them odious tho' we know they are guilty of no such thing Just as heretofore they call'd Images Mammets and the Adoration of Images Mammetry that is Mahomet and Mahometry odious Names when all the World knows the Turks are forbidden Images by their Religion Power State 1. THere is no stretching of Power 't is a good Rule Eat within your Stomach Act within your Commission 2. They that govern most make least Noise You see when they row in a Barge they that do drudgery-work slash and puff and sweat but he that governs sits quietly at the Stern and scarce is seen to stir 3. Syllables govern the World 4. All Power is of God means no more than Fides est servanda When St. Paul said this the People had made Nero Emperour They agree he to command they to obey Then Gods comes in and casts a hook upon them keep your Faith then comes in all Power is of God Never King dropt out of the Clouds God did not make a new Emperour as the King makes a Justice of Peace 5. Christ himself was a great observer of the Civil Power and did many things only justifiable because the State requir'd it which were things meerly Temporary for the time that State stood But Divines make use of them to gain Power to themselves as for Example that of Die Ecclesiae tell the Church there was then a Sanhedrim a Court to tell it to and therefore they would have it so now 6. Divines ought to do no more than what the State permits Before the State became Christian they made their own Laws and those that did not observe them they Excommunicated naughty men they suffered them to come no more amongst them But if they would come amongst them how could they hinder them By what Law by what Power they were still subject to the State which was Heathen Nothing better expresses the Condition of Christians in those times than one of the meetings you have in London of Men of the same Country of Sussex-Men or Bedfordshire-Men they appoint their Meeting and they agree and make Laws amongst themselves He that is not there shall pay double c. and if any one mis-behave himself they shut him out of their Company But can they recover a Forfeiture made concerning their Meeting by any Law Have they any power to compel one to pay but afterwards when the State became Christian all the Power was in them and they gave the Church as much or as little as they pleas'd and took away when they pleas'd and added what they pleas'd 7. The Church is not only subject to the Civil Power with us that are Protestants but also in Spain if the Church does Excommunicate a Man for what it should not the Civil Power will take him out of their Hands So in France the Bishop of Angiers alter'd something in the Breviary they complain'd to the Parliament at Paris that made him alter it again with a comme abuse 8. the Parliament of England has no Arbitrary Power in point of Judicature but in point of making Law only 9. If the Prince be servus natura of a servile base Spirit and the Subjects liberi Free and Ingenuous oft-times they depose their Prince and govern themselves On the contrary if the People be Servi Natura and some one amongst them of a Free and Ingenuous Spirit he makes himself King of the rest and this is the Cause of all changes in State Common-wealths into Monarchies and Monarchies into Common-wealths 10. In a troubled State we must do as in foul Weather upon the Thames not think to cut directly through so the Boat may be quickly full of Water but rise and fall as the Waves do give as much as conveniently we can
a wise Man that knows the minds and insides of Men which is done by knowing what is habitual to them Proverbs are habitual to a Nation being transmitted from Father to Son Question 1. WHen a doubt is propounded you must learn to distinguish and show wherein a thing holds and wherein it doth not hold Ay or no never answer'd any Question The not distinguishing where things should be distinguish'd and the not confounding where things should be confounded is the cause of all the Mistakes in the World Reason 1. IN giving Reasons Men commonly do with us as the Woman does with her Child when she goes to Market about her Business she tells it she goes to buy it a fine Thing to buy it a Cake or some Plums They give us such Reasons as they think we will be catched withal but never let us know the Truth 2. When the School-Men talk of Recta Ratio in Morals either they understand Reason as it is govern'd by a Command from above or else they say no more than a Woman when she says a thing is so because it is so that is her Reason perswades her 't is so The other Acception has Sense in it As take a Law of the Land I must not depopulate my Reason tells me so Why Because if I do I incurr the detriment 3. The Reason of a Thing is not to be enquired after till you are sure the Thing it self be so We commonly are at What 's the Reason of it before we are sure of the Thing 'T was an excellent Question of my Lady Cotten when Sir Robert Cotten was magnifying of a Shooe which was Moses's or Noah's and wondring at the strange Shape and Fashion of it But Mr. Cotten says she are you sure it is a Shooe Retaliation 1. AN Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth That does not mean that if I put out another Man's Eye therefore I must lose one of my own for what is he the better for that tho' this be commonly received but it means I shall give him what Satisfaction an Eye shall be judged to be worth Reverence 1. T IS sometimes unreasonable to look after Respect and Reverence either from a Man 's own Servant or other Inferiours A great Lord and a Gentleman talking together there came a Boy by leading a Calf with both his Hands says the Lord to the Gentleman You shall see me make the Boy let go his Calf with that he came towards him thinking the Boy would have put off his Hat but the Boy took no Notice of him The Lord seeing that Sirrah says he Do you not know me that you use no Reverence Yes says the Boy if your Lordship will hold my Calf I will put off my Hat Non-Residency 1. THE People thought they had a great Victory over the Clergy when in Henry the Eighth's time they got their Bill passed That a Clergy-Man should have but two Livings before a Man might have Twenty or Thirty 't was but getting a Dispensation from the Pope's Limiter or Gatherer of the Peter-Pence which was as easily got as now you may have a Licence to eat Flesh. 2. As soon as a Minister is made he hath Power to preach all over the World but the Civil-Power restrains him he cannot preach in this Parish or in that there is one already appointed Now if the State allows him Two Livings then he hath Two Places where he may Exercise his Function and so has the more Power to do his Office which he might do every where if he were not restrained Religion 1. KIng James said to the Fly Have I Three Kingdoms and thou must needs fly into my Eye Is there not enough to meddle with upon the Stage or in Love or at the Table but Religion 2. Religion amongst Men appears to me like the Learning they got at School Some Men forget all they learned others spend upon the Stock and some improve it So some Men forget all the Religion that was taught them when they were Young others spend upon that Stock and some improve it 3. Religion is like the Fashion one Man wears his Doublet slash'd another lac'd another plain but every Man has a Doublet So every Man has his Religion We differ about Trimming 4. Men say they are of the same Relion for Quietness sake but if the Matter were well examin'd you would scarce find Three any where of the same Religion in all Points 5. Every Religion is a getting Religion for though I my self get nothing I am subordinate to those that do So you may find a Lawyer in the Temple that gets little for the present but he is fitting himself to be in time one of those great Ones that do get 6. Alteration of Religion is dangerous because we know not where it will stay 't is like a Milstone that lies upon the top of a pair of Stairs 't is hard to remove it but if once it be thrust off the first Stair it never stays till it comes to the bottom 7. Question Whether is the Church or the Scripture Judge of Religion Answ. In truth neither but the State I am troubled with a Boil I call a Company of Chirurgeons about me one prescribes one thing another another I single out something I like and ask you that stand by and are no Chirurgeon what you think of it You like it too you and I are Judges of the Plaster and we bid them prepare it and there 's an end Thus 't is in Religion the Protestants say they will be judged by the Scriptures the Papists say so too but that cannot speak A Judge is no Judge except he can both speak and command Execution but the truth is they never intend to agree No doubt the Pope where he is Supream is to be Judg if he say we in England ought to be subject to him then he must draw his Sword and make it good 8. By the Law was the Manual received into the Church before the Reformation not by the Civil Law that had nothing to do in it nor by the Canon Law for that Manual that was here was not in France nor in Spain but by Custom which is the Common Law of England and Custom is but the Elder Brother to a Parliament and so it will fall out to be nothing that the Papists say Ours is a Parliamentary Religion by reason the Service-Book was Established by Act of Parliament and never any Service-Book was so before That will be nothing that the Pope sent the Manual 't was ours because the State received it The State still makes the Religion and receives into it what will best agree with it Why are the Venetians Roman Catholicks because the State likes the Religion All the World knows they care not Three-pence for the Pope The Council of Trent is not at this day admitted in France 9. Papist Where was your Religion before Luther an Hundred years ago Protestant Where was America an
Parliament was wary what Subsidies they gave to the King because they had no account but now they care not how much they give of the Subjects Money because they give it with one hand and receive it with the other and so upon the matter give it themselves In the mean time what a case the Subjects of England are in if the Men they have sent to the Parliament mis-behave themselves they cannot help it because the Parliament is Eternal 2. A Subsidy was counted the fifth part of a Man's Estate and so fifty Subsidies is five and forty times more than a Man is Worth Simony 1. THE Name of Simony was begot in the Canon-Law the first Statute against it was in Queen Elizabeth's time Since the Reformation Simony has been frequent One reason why it was not practised in time of Popery was the Pope's provision no Man was sure to bestow his own Benefice Ship-Money 1. MR. Noy brought in Ship-money first for Maritine Towns but that was like putting in a little Augur that afterwards you may put in a greater He that pulls down the first Brick does the main Work afterwards 't is easie to pull down the Wall 2. They that at first would not pay Ship-money till 't was decided did like brave Men though perhaps they did no good by the Trial but they that stand out since and suffer themselves to be distrained never questioning those that do it do pitifully for so they only pay twice as much as they should Synod Assembly 1. WE have had no national Synod since the Kingdom hath been settled as now it is only Provincial and there will be this inconveniency to call so many Divines together 't will be to put Power in their Hands who are too apt to usurp it as if the Laity were bound by their Determination No let the Laity consult with Divines on all sides hear what they say and make themselves Masters of their Reasons as they do by any other profession when they have a Difference before them For Example Gold-smiths they enquire of them if such a Jewel be of such a Value and such a Stone of such a Value hear them and then being rational Men judge themselves 2. Why should you have a Synod when you have a Convocation already which is a Synod Would you have a superfetation of another Synod The Clergy of England when they cast off the Pope submitted themselves to the Civil Power and so have continued but these challenge to be Jure Divino and so to be above the Civil Power these challenge Power to call before their Presbyteries all Persons for all Sins directly against the Law of God as proved to be Sins by necessary Consequence If you would buy Gloves send for a Glover or two not Glovers-Hall consult with some Divines not send for a Body 3. There must be some Laymen in the Synod to over-look the Clergy lest they spoil the civil Work Just as when the good Woman puts a Cat into the Milk-House to kill a Mouse she sends her Maid to look after the Cat lest the Cat should eat up the Cream 4. In the Ordinance for the Assembly the Lords and Commons go under the Names of learned godly and judicious Divines there is no Difference put betwixt them and the Ministers in the Context 5. 'T is not unusual in the Assembly to revoke their Votes by reason they make so much haste but 't is that will make them scorn'd You never heard of a Council revok'd an Act of its own making they have been wary in that to keep up their Infallibility if they did any thing they took away the whole Council and yet we would be thought Infallible as any Body 'T is not enough to say the House of Commons revoke their Votes for theirs are but Civil Truths which they by agreement create and uncreate as they please But the Truths the Synod deals in are Divine and when they have voted a thing if it be then true 't was true before not true because they voted it nor does it cease to be true because they voted otherwise 6. Subscribing in a Synod or to the Articles of a Synod is no such terrible thing as they make it because If I am of a Synod 't is agreed either tacitely or expresly That which the major part determines the rest are involv'd in and therefore I subscribe though my own private Opinion be otherwise and upon the same Ground I may without scruple subscribe to what those have determin'd whom I sent though my private Opinion be otherwise having respect to that which is the Ground of all assemblies the Major part carries it Thanksgiving 1. AT first we gave Thanks for every Victory as soon as ever 't was obtained but since we have had many now we can stay a good while We are just like a Child give him a Plum he makes his Leg give him a second Plum he makes another Leg At last when his Belly is full he forgets what he ought to do then his Nurse or some body else that stands by him puts him in mind of his Duty Where 's your Leg Tythes 1. TYthes are more paid in kind in England than in all Italy and France In France they have had Impropriations a long time we had none in England till Henry the Eighth 2. To make an Impropriation there was to be the Consent of the Incumbent the Patron and the King then 't was confirm'd by the Pope Without all this the Pope could make no Impropriation 3. Or what if the Pope gave the Tythes to any Man must they therefore be taken away If the Pope gives me a Jewel will you therefore take it away from me 4. Abraham paid Tythes to Melchizedeck what then 'T was very well done of him It does not follow therefore that I must pay Tythes no more than I am bound to imitate any other Action of Abraham's 5. 'T is ridiculous to say the Tythes are God's Part and therefore the Clergy must have them Why so they are if the Laymen has them 'T is as if one of my Lady Kent's Maids should be sweeping this Room and another of them should come and take away the Broom and tell for a Reason why she should part with it 'T is my Lady's Broom As if it were not my Lady's Broom which of them soever had it 6. They consulted in Oxford where they might find the best Argument for their Tythes setting aside the Jus Divinum they were advis'd to my History of Tythes a Book so much cry'd down by them formerly in which I dare boldly say there are more Arguments for them than are extant together any where Upon this one writ me word That my History of Tythes was now become like Pleus's Hasta to wound and to heal I told him in my Answer I thought I could fit him with a better Instance 'T was possible it might undergo the same Fate that Aristotle Avicen and Averroes did in France