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
three Estates are the Lord 's Temporal the Bishops are the Clergy and the Commons as some would have it take heed of that for then if two agree the third is involv'd but he is King of the Three Estates 6. The King hath a Seal in every Court and tho the Great Seal be called Sigillum Angliae the Great Seal of England yet 't is not because 't is the Kingdom 's Seal and not the Kings but to distinguish it from Sigillum Hiberniae Sigillum Scotiae 7. The Court of England is much alter'd At a solemn Dancing first you had the grave Measures then the Corrantoes and the Galliards and this is kept up with Ceremony at length to French-more and the Cushion-Dance and then all the Company dances Lord and Groom Lady and Kitchen-Maid no Distinction So in our Court in Queen Elizabeth's time Gravity and State were kept up In King Jame's time things were pretty well But in King Charles's time there has been nothing but French-more and the Cushion-Dance omnium gatherum tolly polly hoite come toite The King 1. 'T IS hard to make an Accomodation between the King and the Parliament If you and I fell out about Money you said I ow'd you Twenty Pounds I said I ow'd you but Ten Pounds it may be a third Party allowing me twenty Marks might make us Friends But if I said I ow'd you twenty Pounds in Silver and you said I ow'd you twenty Pounds in Diamonds which is a Summ innumerable 't is impossible we should ever agree This is the Case 2. The King using the House of Commons as he did in Mr. Pymm and his Company that is charging them with Treason because they charg'd my Lord of Canterbury and Sir George Ratcliff it was just with as much Logick as the Boy that would have lain with his Grandmother us'd to his Father you lay with my Mother why should not I lie with yours 3. There is not the same Reason for the King 's accusing Men of Treason and carrying them away as there is for the Houses themselves because they accuse one of themselves For every one that is accused is either a Peer or a Commoner and he that is accused hath his Consent going along with him but if the King accuses there is nothing of this in it 4. The King is equally abus'd now as before then they flatter'd him and made him do ill Things now they would force him against his Conscience If a Physician should tell me every thing I had a mind to was good for me tho' in truth 't was Poison he abus'd me and he abuses me as much that would force me to take something whether I will or no. 5. The King so long as he is our King may do with his Officers what he pleases as the Master of the House may turn away all his Servants and take whom he please 6. The King's Oath is not security enough for our Property for he swears to Govern according to Law now the Judges they interpret the Law and what Judges can be made to do we know 7. The King and the Parliament now falling out are just as when there is foul Play offer'd amongst Gamesters one snatches the others stake they seize what they can of one anothers 'T is not to be ask'd whether it belongs not to the King to do this or that before when there was fair Play it did But now they will do what is most convenient for their own safety If two fall to scuffling one tears the others Band the other tears his when they were Friends they were quiet and did no such thing they let one anothers Bands alone 8. The King calling his Friends from the Parliament because he had use of them at Oxford is as if a Man should have use of a little piece of Wood and he runs down into the Cellar and takes the Spiggot in the mean time all the Beer runs about the House when his Friends are absent the King will be lost Knights Service 1. KNights Service in earnest means nothing for the Lords are bound to wait upon the King when he goes to War with a Foreign Enemy with it may be one Man and one Horse and he that doth not is to be rated so much as shall seem good to the next Parliament And what will that be So 't is for a private Man that holds of a Gentleman Land 1. WHen Men did let their Land underfoot the Tenants would fight for their Landlords so that way they had their Retribution but now they will do nothing for them may be the first if but a Constable bid them that shall lay the Landlord by the Heels and therefore 't is vanity and folly not to take the full value 2. Allodium is a Law Word contrary to Feudum and it signifies Land that holds of no body We have no such Land in England 'T is a true Proposition all the Land in England is held either immediately or mediately of the King Language 1. TO a living Tongue new Words may be added but not to a dead Tongue as Latin Greek Hebrew c. 2. Latimer is the Corruption of Latiner it signifies he that interprets Latin and though he interpreted French Spanish or Italian he was call'd the King's Latiner that is the King's Interpreter 3. If you look upon the Language spoken in the Saxon Time and the Language spoken now you will find the Difference to be just as if a Man had a Cloak that he wore plain in Queen Elizabeth's Days and since here has put in a piece of Red and there a piece of Blue and here a piece of Green and there a piece of Orange-tawny We borrow Words from the French Italian Latin as every Pedantick Man pleases 4. We have more Words than Notions half a Dozen Words for the same thing Sometimes we put a new signification to an old Word as when we call a Piece a Gun The Word Gun was in use in England for an Engine to cast a thing from a Man long before there was any Gun-powder found out 5. Words must be fitted to a Man's Mouth 't was well said of the Fellow that was to make a Speech for my Lord Mayor he desir'd to take measure of his Lordship's Mouth Law 1. A Man may plead not guilty and yet tell no Lye for by the Law no Man is bound to accuse himself so that when I say Not Guilty the meaning is as if I should say by way of Paraphrase I am not so Guilty as to tell you if you will bring me to a Tryal and have me punish'd for this you lay to my Charge prove it against me 2. Ignorance of the Law excuses no man not that all Men know the Law but because 't is an excuse every Man will plead and no Man can tell how to confute him 3. The King of Spain was outlaw'd in Westminster-Hall I being of Council against him A Merchant had recover'd Costs against him in a
Suit which because he could not get we advis'd to have him Out-law'd for not appearing and so he was As soon as Gondimer heard that he presently sent the Money by reason if his Master had been Out-law'd he could not have the Benefit of the Law which would have been very prejudicial there being then many Suits depending betwixt the King of Spain and our English Merchants 4. Every Law is a Contract between the King and the People and therefore to be kept A hundred Men may owe me an Hundred Pounds as well as any one Man and shall they not pay me because they are stronger than I Object Oh but they lose all if they keep that Law Answ. Let them look to the making of their Bargain If I sell my Lands and when I have done one comes and tells me I have nothing else to keep me I and my Wife and Children must starve If I part with my Land must I not therefore let them have my Land that have bought it and paid for it 5. The Parliament may declare Law as well as any other inferiour Court may viz. the King's Bench. In that or this particular Case the King's Bench will declare unto you what the Law is but that binds no body whom the Case concerns So the highest Court the Parliament may doe but not declare Law that is make Law that was never heard of before Law of Nature 1. I Cannot fancy to my self what the Law of Nature means but the Law of God How should I know I ought not to steal I ought not to commit Adultery unless some body had told me so Surely 't is because I have been told so 'T is not because I think I ought not to do them nor because you think I ought not if so our minds might change whence then comes the Restraint from a higher Power nothing else can bind I cannot bind my self for I may untye my self again nor an equal cannot bind me for we may untie one another It must be a superiour Power even God Almighty If two of us make a Bargain why should either of us stand to it What need you care what you say or what need I care what I say Certainly because there is something about me that tells me Fides est servanda and if we after alter our Minds and make a new Bargain there 's Fides servanda there too Learning 1. NO Man is the wiser for his Learning it may administer Matter to work in or Objects to work upon but Wit and Wisdom are born with a Man 2. Most Mens Learning is nothing but History duly taken up If I quote Thomas Aquinus for some Tenant and believe it because the School-Men say so that is but History Few Men make themselves Masters of things they write or speak 3. The Jesuites and the Lawyers of France and the Low-Country-Men have engrossed all Learning The rest of the World make nothing but Homilies 4. 'T is observable that in Athens where the Arts flourisht they were govern'd by a Democrasie Learning made them think themselves as wise as any body and they would govern as well as others and they speak as it were by way of Contempt that in the East and in the North they had Kings and why Because the most part of them followed their Business and if some one Man had made himself wiser than the rest he govern'd them and they willingly submitted themselves to him Aristotle makes the Observation And as in Athens the Philosophers made the People knowing and therefore they thought themselves wise enough to govern so does preaching with us and that makes us affect a Democrasie For upon these two Grounds we all would be Governours either because we think our selves as wise as the best or because we think our selves the Elect and have the Spirit and the rest a Company of Reprobates that belong to the Devil Lecturers 1. LEcturers do in a Parish Church what the Fryers did heretofore get away not only the Affections but the Bounty that should be bestow'd upon the Minister 2. Lecturers get a great deal of Money because they preach the People tame as a Man watches a Hawk and then they do what they list with them 3. The Lectures in Black Fryers perform'd by Officers of the Army Tradesmen and Ministers is as if a great Lord should make a Feast and he would have his Cook dress one Dish and his Coach-Man another his Porter a third c. Libels 1. THough some make slight of Libels yet you may see by them how the Wind sits As take a Straw and throw it up into the Air you shall see by that which way the Wind is which you shall not do by casting up a Stone More solid Things do not shew the Complexion of the times so well as Ballads and Libels Liturgy 1. THere is no Church without a Liturgy nor indeed can there be conveniently as there is no School without a Grammar One Scholar may be taught otherwise upon the Stock of his Acumen but not a whole School One or Two that are piously dispos'd may serve themselves their own Way but hardly a whole Nation 2. To know what was generally believ'd in all Ages the way is to consult the Liturgies not any private Man's writing As if you would know how the Church of England serves God go to the Common-Prayer-Book consult not this nor that Man Besides Liturgies never Complement nor use high Expressions The Fathers oft-times speak Oratoriously Lords in the Parliament 1. THE Lords giving Protections is a scorn upon them A Protection means nothing actively but passively he that is a Servant to a Parliament-Man is thereby protected What a Scorn is it to a Person of Honour to put his Hand to two Lyes at once that such a Man is my Servant and employ'd by me when haply he never saw the Man in his Life nor before never heard of him 2. The Lords protesting is Foolish To protest is properly to save to a Man's self some Right but to protest as the Lords protest when they their selves are involv'd 't is no more than if I should go into Smithfield and sell my Horse and take the Money and yet when I have your Money and you my Horse I should protest this Horse is mine because I love the Horse or I do not know why I do protest because my Opinion is contrary to the rest Ridiculous when they say the Bishops did antiently protest it was only dissenting and that in the Case of the Pope Lords before the Parliament 1. GReat Lords by reason of their Flatterers are the first that know their own Vertues and the last that know their own Vices Some of them are asham'd upwards because their Ancestors were too great Others are ashamed downwards because they were too little 2. The Prior of St. John of Jerusalem is said to be Primus Baro Angliae the first Baron of England because being last of the Spiritual Barons he chose to
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
him all the Trouble and made all the Confusion in the World and that is Opinion 3. 'T is a foolish thing for me to be brought off from an Opinion in a thing neither of us know but are led only by some Cobweb-stuff as in such a Case as this Utrum Angeli in vicem colloquantur if I forsake my Side in such a Case I shew my self wonderful light or infinitely complying or flattering the other Party But if I be in a business of Nature and hold an Opinion one way and some Man's Experience has found out the contrary I may with a safe Reputation give up my side 4. 'T is a vain thing to talk of a Heretick for a Man for his heart can think no otherwise than he does think In the Primitive Times there were many Opinions nothing scarce but some or other held One of these Opinions being embrac'd by some Prince and receiv'd into his Kingdom the rest were condemn'd as Heresies and his Religion which was but one of the several Opinions first is said to be Orthodox and so have continued ever since the Apostles Parity 1. THis is the Juggling Trick of the Parity they would have no body above them but they do not tell you they would have no body under them Parliament 1. ALL are involv'd in a Parliament There was a time when all Men had their Voice in choosing Knights About Henry the Sixth's time they found the inconvenience so one Parliament made a Law that only he that had forty Shillings per annum should give his Voice they under should be excluded They made the Law who had the Voice of all as well under forty Shillings as above and thus it continues at this Day All consent civilly in a Parliament Women are involv'd in the Men Children in those of perfect Age those that are under forty Shillings a Year in those that have forty Shillings a year those of forty Shillings in the Knights 2. All things are brought to the Parliament little to the Courts of Justice just as in a Room where there is a Banquet presented if there be Persons of Quality there the People must expect and stay till the great ones have done 3. The Parliament flying upon several Men and then letting them alone does as a Hawk that flyes a Covey of Partridges and when she has flown them a great way grows weary and takes a Tree then the Faulconer lures her down and takes her to his Fist on they go again heirett upsprings another Covey away goes the Hawk and as she did before takes another Tree c. 4. Dissenters in Parliament may at length come to a good end though first there be a great deal of do and a great deal of Noise which mad wild Folks make just as in brewing of Wrest-Beer there 's a great deal of Business in grinding the Mault and that spoils any Man's Cloaths that comes near it then it must be mash'd then comes a Fellow in and drinks of the Wort and he 's drunk then they keep a huge quarter when they carry it into the Cellar and a twelve Month after 't is delicate fine Beer 5. It must necessarily be that our Distempers are worse than they were in the beginning of the Parliament If a Physician comes to a sick Man he lets him Blood it may be scarifyes him cups him puts him into a great disorder before he makes him well and if he be sent for to cure an Ague and he finds his Patient hath many Diseases a Dropsie and a Palsie he applies Remedies to 'em all which makes the cure the longer and the dearer this is the Case 6. The Parliament-men are as great Princes as any in the World when whatsoever they please is priviledge of Parliament no Man must know the number of their Priviledges and whatsoever they dislike is breach of Priviledge The Duke of Venice is no more than Speaker of the House of Commons but the Senate at Venice are not so much as our Parliament-men nor have they that Power over the People who yet exercise the greatest Tyranny that is any where In plain truth breach of Priviledge is only the actual taking away of a Member of the House the rest are Offences against the House For Example to take our Process against a Parliament-man or the like 7. The Parliament Party if the Law be for them they call for the Law if it be against them they will go to a Parliamentary Way if no Law be for them then for Law again Like him that first call'd for Sack to heat him then small Drink to cool his Sack then Sack again to heat his small Drink c. 8. The Parliament Party doe not play fair Play in sitting up till two of the Clock in the Morning to vote something they have a mind to 'T is like a crafty Gamester that makes the Company drunk then cheats them of their Money Young Men and infirm Men go away besides a Man is not there to persuade other Men to be of his mind but to speak his own Heart and if it be lik'd so if not there 's an end Parson 1. THough we write Parson differently yet 't is but Person that is the individual Person set apart for the Service of such a Church and 't is in Latin Persona and Personatus is a Personage Indeed with the Canon-Lawyers Personatus is any Dignity or Perferment in the Church 2. There never was a merry World since the Faries left Dancing and the Parson left Conjuring The Opinion of the latter kept Thieves in aw and did as much good in a Country as a Justice of Peace Patience 1. PAtience is the chiefest fruit of Study a Man that strives to make himself a different thing from other Men by much reading gains this chiefest Good that in all Fortunes he hath something to entertain and comfort himself withal Peace 1. KIng James was pictur'd going easily down a Pair of Stairs and uppon every Step there was written Peace Peace Peace the wisest way for men in these times is to say nothing 2. When a Country-wench cannot get her Butter to come she says the Witch is in her Churn We have been churning for Peace a great while and 't will not come sure the Witch is in it 3. Though we had Peace yet 't will be a great while e'er things be settled Tho' the Wind lie yet after a Storm the Sea will work a great while Penance 1. PEnance is only the Punishment inflicted not Penitence which is the right word a Man comes not to do Penance because he repents him of his Sin but because he is compell'd to it he curses him and could kill him that sends him thither The old Canons wisely enjoyn'd three years Penance sometimes more because in that time a Man got a habit of Vertue and so committed that sin no more for which he did Penance People 1. THere is not any thing in the World more abus'd than this
fain see that Man that durst tell me there 's any thing I understand not 3. When the Pageants are a coming there 's a great thrusting and a riding upon one another's Backs to look out at the Window stay a little and they will come just to you you may see them quietly So 't is when a new States-man or Officer is chosen there 's great expectation and listning who it should be stay a while and you may know quietly 4. Missing Preferment makes the Presbyters fall foul upon the Bishops Men that are in hopes and in the way of rising keep in the Channel but they that have none seek new ways 'T is so amongst the Lawyers he that hath the Judges Ear will be very observant of the way of the Court but he that hath no regard will be flying out 5. My Lord Digby having spoken something in the House of Commons for which they would have question'd him was presently called to the upper House He did by the Parliament as an Ape when he hath done some waggery his Master spies him and he looks for his Whip but before he can come at him whip says he to the top of the House 6. Some of the Parliament were discontented that they wanted places at Court which others had got but when they had them once then they were quiet Just as at a Christning some that get no Sugar Plums when the rest have mutter and grumble presently the Wench comes again with her Basket of Sugar-plums and then they catch and scramble and when they have got them you hear no more of them Praemunire 1. THere can be no Praemunire A Praemunire so call'd from the word Praemunire facias was when a Man laid an Action in an Ecclesiastical Court for which he could have no remedy in any of the King's Courts that is in the Courts of Common Law by reason the Ecclesiastical Courts before Henry the Eighth were subordinate to the Pope and so it was contra coronam dignitatem Regis but now the Ecclesiastical Courts are equally subordinate to the King Therefore it cannot be contra coronam dignitatem Regis and so no Praemunire Prerogative 1. PRerogative is something that can be told what it is not something that has no Name Just as you see the Archbishop has his Prerogative Court but we know what is done in that Court So the King's Prerogative is not his will or what Divines make it a power to do what he lists 2. The King's Prerogative that is the King's Law For example if you ask whether a Patron may present to a Living after six Months by Law I answer no. If you ask whether the King may I answer he may by his Prerogative that is by the Law that concerns him in that case Presbytery 1. THey that would bring in a new Government would very fain perswade us they meet it in Antiquity thus they interpret Presbyters when they meet the word in the Fathers Other professions likewise pretend to Antiquity The Alchymist will find his Art in Virgil's Aureus ramus and he that delights in Opticks will find them in Tacitus When Caesar came into England they would perswade us they had Perspective-Glasses by which he could discover what they were doing upon the Land because it is said Positis Speculis the meaning is His Watch or his Sentinel discover'd this and this unto him 2. Presbyters have the greatest power of any Clergy in the World and gull the Laity most For Example admit there be twelve Laymen to six Presbyters the six shall govern the rest as they please First because they are constant and the others come in like Church-Wardens in their turns which is an huge Advantage Men will give way to them who have been in place before them Next the Laymen have other professions to follow the Presbyters make it their sole Business and besides too they learn and study the Art of perswading some of Geneva have confess'd as much 3. The Presbyter with his Elders about him is like a young Tree fenc'd about with two or three or four Stakes the Stakes defend it and hold it up but the Tree only prospers and flourishes it may be some Willow Stake may bear a Leaf or two but it comes to nothing Lay-Elders are Stakes the Presbyter the Tree that flourshes 4. When the Queries were sent to the Assembly concerning the Jus Divinum of Presbytery their asking time to answer them was a Satyr upon themselves For if it were to be seen in the Text they might quickly turn to the place and shew us it Their delaying to answer makes us think there 's no such thing there They do just as you have seen a fellow do at a Tavern Reckoning when he should come to pay his Reckoning he puts his Hands into his Pockets and keeps a grabling and a fumbling and shaking at last tells you he has left his Money at home when all the Company knew at first he had no Money there for every Man can quickly find his own Money Priests of Rome 1. THE Reason of the Statute against Priests was this In the beginning of Queen Elizabeth there was a Statute made that he that drew Men from their civil Obedience was a Traitor It happen'd this was done in privacies and confessions when there could be no proof therefore they made another Act that for a Priest to be in England was Treason because they presum'd that was his business to fetch Men off from their Obedience 2. When Queen Elizabeth dy'd and King James came in an Irish Priest does thus express it Elizabetha in orcum detrusa successit Jacobus alter Haereticus You will ask why they did use such Language in their Church Answ. Why does the Nurse tell the Child of raw Head and bloody Bones to keep it in awe 3. The Queen Mother and Count Rosset are to the Priests and Jesuits like the Honey Pot to the Flies 4. The Priests of Rome aim but at two Things to get Power from the King and Money from the Subject 5. When the Priests come into a Family they do as a Man that would set fire on a House he does not put fire to the Brick-Wall but thrusts it into the Thatch They work upon the Women and let the Men alone 6. For a Priest to turn a Man when he lies a dying is just like one that hath a long time solicited a Woman and cannot obtain his end at length makes her drunk and so lies with her Prophecies 1. DReams and Prophecies do thus much good they make a Man go on with boldness and courage upon a Danger or a Mistress if he obtains he attributes much to them if he miscarries he thinks no more of them or is no more thought of himself Proverbs 1. THE Proverbs of several Nations were much studied by Bishop Andrews and the Reason he gave was Because by them he knew the Minds of several Nations which is a brave thing as we count him
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