the disguize of Truth and the defeat of many an honest Cause These Quirks the Rabble that use them are useless in the Vnited Provinces where every Man pleads his own Cause of which the same Sun that views the first Process sees the End and Determination before it sleeps in the Ocean Whereas we labour with our nice Pleadings Quirks and Tricks Writs of Errors Pleas Rejoynders and Demurrers eternally A Man was Indicted quia furatus est Equum because he stole a Horse in Holland he had dy'd for it but with us the Indictment was quash'd for lack of Form there wanted Forsooth the Word Felonicè and therefore ill 29. Ass 45. A Man was Indicted that he was communis Latro a common Thief and the Indictment was held vicious because too general never coming on to the particular Proof A Man Murder'd another but the Indictment by the Clerks oversight or worse was only Interfecit and was quash'd for want of the Word Murdravit Thousands of Instances might be given of pretty Quirks and Niceties that are now made such essential parts of the Law that he is accounted the Man of Law that is most nimble at them to take a Cause with a Why not Tick-Tack as if some design had been to make the Law like Sives and Cullenders full of Holes for the nonce But some may say then What shall become of the Vermine the Locusts and the Catterpillars that like those Plagues of Egypt eat up evary green thing in the Land How now Is this good Behaviour Is Sampson bound or bound with Wit hs of smal Cords made on purpose to be broken Explain your self who do you mean by the Vermine the Locusts and the Caterpillars that eat up every green thing in the Land and is the great plague-sore thereof Who do you mean Sir You that are so blunt and such a plain Dealer do you mean those Throngs about Temple-Bar and Chancery-Lane those Crouds of Pen and Inkhorns that a Man can scarce stir there without being justled or run down by them or their Coaches Speak out who do you mean by the Vermine of the Land the Locusts and the Caterpillars Why then really truly and plainly I call those Locusts and Caterpillars and Vermine that live on the Sweat of other Men's Brows and of the sweet Labour and Industry of the painful Husbandman and Country-man who if they were not Fools would agree their Quarrels over a good Fire and a Pot of Ale by the Men of their Neighbourhood for it must come to that at last and why not as well at first before the Estate be wasted time consum'd with Danceing Attendance to Vermine But what shall the Locusts and Caterpillars do Ask Mr. Wilson who tells you in his Description of the new Plantation called Carolina that there is good Air room enough for the Locusts and Caterpillars those unprofitable Insects and Devourers Room enough for the He 's and She 's let them go there and work and Engender why should not Spiders spin And yet with Heraclitus his good leave the Defendant did if it were worth the mentioning in his pleading this Cause this Tick-tack which might as well have been kept secret but that Heraclitus will not be pleased without it For the Declaration is only un'Prelat not un'Magnat and though the Plantiff does declare as Episcop-Lond and un'Prelat yet said the Defendant it does not appear by the Declaration that the Plantiff is un'Magnat and therefore not within the Statute For the Defendant said further that he had consulted the Records of those times whereby the meaning of the Words Bishop and Prelate in those days is best cleared and does not find that ever by Prelates or Bishops is meant Magnates or le Grantz or le Seignieurs and therefore Scandalum Praelatorum nor Scandalum Episcoporum can possibly by that Statute be meant Scandalum Magnatum 25. Edw. 3. The Proceedings and Judgment of Death against Sir William de Thorp Chief Justice for Bribery and brought into Parliament which the King caused to be read Overtment devent les grantz de Parlement c. openly before the Great Men coram Magnatibus that could not be the Bishops Abbots Priors nor Prelates for they were always withdrawn in those days out of the House of Lords in Judgments or Inquest upon Life and Death as this was For the Chief Justice was hang'd for his Bribery right and good reason Cave cave 42. Edw. 3. Sir John de Lee Steward of the King's House was charged in Parliament for several Misdemeanors Et Apres manger vindrent les Prelats Duc's Counts c. After Dinner came the Prelates Dukes Counts c. Here being but a Misdemeanor the Prelates were present it not being in a Question of Life or Death 50. Edw. 3. Alice Perrers was accused for Breach of an Ordinance so is the Record but it was really a Statute which in those Days was called an Ordinance Fait venir devant ' les Prelats les Seignieurs du Parlement Which also was not in a Question of Blood and therefore the Prelates are nam'd as well as the Magnates or les Seigneurs Many Instances of this Nature may be given wherein Prelates were never signified by the words Magnates le Grants or le Seignieurs or Peers For they are tried as all Men ought to be by Magna Charta per Pares by their Peers or Equals and being tried by their Peers that is Commoners they therefore are Commoners not Peers of the Realm as the other Magnates le Seignieurs and le Grantz are And therefore tho the Bishop of London be Magnas as he is a Privy-Councellor and a Great Officer of the Realm yet the Declaration not mentioning any such thing the Defendant urg'd that it was deficient but the Judg over-rul'd him therein Yet 28. Edw. 3. Roger of Wigmore Cousin and Heir of Roger Mortimer Earl of March desires that the Attainder made 4. Edw. 3. against the said Mortimer might be examin'd Et dont le dit Seignieur le Roy vous charge Counts Barons les Piers de son Royalme c. The Lord the King charged the Counts Barons and Peers of his Realm to examine the said Attainder and give righteous Judgment But if the Prelates were meant by Counts Barons and Peers then they also were to examine the Attainder by that Command of the King But they had nothing to do with Attainders it being against their own canon-Canon-Law and Oath of Canonical Obedience as they afterwards declared in another Case to be seen in the Rolls of Parliament 5. Edw. 3. In a Parliament called for Breach of the Peace of the Kingdom away went the Prelates out of the Parliament saying What had they to do with such Matters Et les dits Counts Borones autres Grants per eus mesmes And the Counts Barons and other great Men went by themselves c. to consult c. So in the same Parliament upon Judgment given against Sir John Grey for
Good Word and Recommendation But the Defendant gave them such smart such nimble and such home Repartees and so free from all Passion and unmov'd that even his Enemies and all the Hearers could not but acknowledg that as he never spoke more at one time so he never spoke better in his Life And yet to no more Fruit than if he had preach'd as St. Bede did to a heap of Stones for the Jury were resolv'd-Men never Men better tutor'd better cull'd and obsequious Paedagogue said to his Imps Ye 'ave con'd your Lessen well stroke them o'th'Head Call them good Boys and buy them Ginger-Bread There is cunning in Dawbing and a Cause slenderly witnessed had need be well-Jury'd or else the 2000 l. had not been worth a Gray-Groat no not worth a Brummingham A plain Countrey Yeoman has neither Hopes nor Fears at Court the wiser and happyer Man he He is neither fearful a Commission to lose nor in hopes of a Commission to get But values his Oath his Soul and his Conscience above all You talk of an Ignoramus-Jury in London we 'll match them in Essex with Billa-vera-Men you talk of a Whigg-Jury we can match them with a Tory-Jury Does not the London-Juries Idolize the Men of Doctor's-Commons Bring Doctor's-Commons-Men into Essex and tho most abominable contemners of Statutes Oppressors Extortioners Buyers and Sellers of Offices and they know all this is true except their Consciences be hardned yet let them come into Essex and as the common Strumpet said to the Fellow that call'd her Whore which she knew as well or better than he you Sirra Villain I would you would prove me a Whore Sirra Bear Witness Neighbours Scandal Magn. he calls me Whore Scarlet Whore bear Witness Sir Thomas Exton must be call'd too as a Witness for his Master the Bishop a very good Witness said the Judge and the Council a Man untainted they meant unattainted unconvicted as yet a Blot is no Blot 'till it be hit if I live it shall be as well as Betts and Morris But what had Sir Thomas to do at a Parish-meeting in the Parish of St. Buttolphs in Colchester No that 's true But he was not produc'd as a Witness to prove the Declaration No no a good reason why he could not swear when he was not there But he was call'd to prove some private Discourse that the Defendant had with him in his private Chamber whither the Defendant came in Doctors Commons they being old Acquaintance and the Defendant desired the said Doctor Exton to mediate an Accommodation betwixt him and the Bishop as a common Friend to both which Sir Thomas undertook to do when the Defendant had ingenuously made a private Confession to him of the truth of the Case to the very same effect that the Defendants Witnesses unanimously swore it namely that the Defendant did speak of a Printed Paper which the Plantiff sent down to every Clergy-man beginning with these Words Good Brother c. and ending with these Words Your Lo. Brother H. London In which Paper the Bishop recommended to the Clergy the Observation of the 65. 66. and 3. Canons or Constitutions of Forty which the Defendant said again in open Court were so far from being according to Law that it was Non-sence forasmuch as the Constitutions of Forty have not 65 nor 66 Canons nor above eleven and therefore it was Insolence or Impudence to lay upon the Clergy Burdens not to be born and Duties impossible to be observ'd forasmuch as it is Non-sence to bid them observe the 65 and 66 Canons and 3d of the Constitutions of Forty there is not so many and yet there is enow of those Lambeth-Canons which the Defendant said do seem to have a mark of Non-allowance by the 13 Car. 2. 12. For if the Words of that Statute leave those Canons of 1640 only just in statu quo then the mentioning the not confirming them c. in the said Statute signifies nothing at all for so those Canons would have been in statu quo altho that Statute had never been made which Law the Defendant said if the Bishop knew not it was his Ignorance if he did know it it was Insolence to oppose his Sence and Judgment to that of the King and Parliament and to impose impossibilities upon the Clergy And this Defendant confessed again that those Words he did say and if the Bishop be aggriev'd thereat he is at Liberty if he have not enough of this to bring another Action of Scandal Magnat if he pleased but not being the Words of the Declaration that and what Sir Thomas Exton witnessed was nothing as the Judg fairly told the Jury to this present Action But this must be said for Sir Thomas Exton he did his good Will and no doubt but he will reap the Thanks for the same and perhaps be the better for the Defendants Money when they can catch it but no Jusuite could equivocate more than Sir Thomas did when he first gave his Evidence against the Defendant upon Oath For he had the Words Ignorance and Impudence spoken of the Bishop which come pretty near to those Words in the Declaration Impudent Man and Ignorant Man but being not the same could not affect nor ought not to affect the Jury as the Judge honestly told them and less he could not say as to the proof of the Declaration for the all the stress and weight of that lay solely and singly upon little Harris his Evidence And for that cause The Defendant neglected Sir Thomas his Evidence as impertinent to the matter in hand but I thank you Latet Anguis in Herbâ When Sir George perceived that the Defendant had and willingly slighted it and neglected to examine Sir Thomas Exton about the Colloquium and foregoing Discourse preceding the Words Ignorance and Impudence which when afterwards confessed by Sir Thomas upon the Defendants reexamining him and quite altering the Sence to see how Sir George when he thought the Defendant had done and said all and the Plantiffs Counsel claim'd the Privilidg that a sort of Females claim of having the last Word to see and hear I say how Sir George and Sir Francis did mouth and open upon 't Here is Sir Thomas Exton Gentlemen a Man of untainted Reputation he speaks in effect the same thing and almost the same Words And yet the Judg had said before that what Sir Thomas witnessed was nothing to the proof of the Declaration but Sir George spent many Words upon it notwithstanding Whereupon the Defendant interrupted him at which he stared and storm'd and fretted at a great rate but to little purpose for the Judg very mildly bid the Defendant go on to examine Sir Thomas Exton more strictly since they endeavour'd to make work with his Testimony declared Impertinent to the present Cause now in Question as aforesaid Sir Thomas Exton said the Defendant was there no Colloquium no Discourse preceding nor subsequent to to the Words Ignorance
laying his hand on his Sword in the King's Presence for which he was question'd for his Life no Bishops nor Prelates being there therefore yet the Record says Le Roy charge touts le Countes Barons autre Grantz The King charges all the Counts Barons and other Great-Men to consult c. And then he must charge the Prelates too if he charged all the Great Men if the Prelates be Magnates or les Grantz which could not be in a Question of Blood 'T is true the Bishops are a kind of Barons and so were the Abbots and Priors by virtue of the Baronies bestowed upon them by the Charity or blind Devotion or for what other reason by William the Conqueror c. who divided his Conquests all over England into Knights-Fees and of several Knights-Fees laid together he made Baronies And some of these Baronies the Lay-men got but the Clergy in the Scuffle and Scramble put in never fear it for a Share and got proportionably and more some Lord-Bishops got and some Lord-Abbots got and some Priors By virtue of which Baronies they had Votes and Places in the House of Lords But one House being not able to hold so many Lords the King divides his Baronies into Majores Minores the Minors he tript off but the Bishops Abbots and Priors held it fast till Hen. 8. and then the Lord-Abots and Priors tripp'd off this was a sore Shock to the Prelacy and only the Bishops of all the Prelates in 2 R. 2. hold it to this Day And who Parliaments as at Bury St. Edmonds and also as aforesaid 2. Edw. 3. have been held without the Prelates and tho it is declared before the Dissolution of the Monasteries the major Part of the Prelates in 7. Hen. 8. in Keilway's Reports p. 184. Dr. Standishes Case Les Justices de soi ent que nostre Seigneur le Roy poit asser bien tener son Parlement per luy ses temporal Seignieurs per ses Commons tout sans les spirituals Seignieurs That our Lord the King may well hold his Parliament by Himself and his Temporal Lords and by his Commons without the Spiritual Lords c. Yet by virtue of their Baronies they have Right to sit in the House of Peers tho their Brethren-Prelates Abbots and Priors be outed and the Privilege of Sitting in the House of Lords does not now continue de facto to those Gentlemen that now enjoy those Baronies which the Abbots had with all their Privileges and Immunities c. Of which Privileges and Immunities c. this was one to sit in the House of Peers and granted and regranted in the same manner the Abbots c. held these Baronies But I do not know de Jure how far this Immunity does extend nor is it my Province to argue it tho I am possessed of the Barony of the Priory of Wickes in Essex to me and my Heirs with all the Immunities c. and therefore one would think I might claim the Privilege of a Prelate out of that old Statute 2 R. 2. that hath caused all this Debate and Debait Nay all Clergy-men that are Rectors are Prelates so Lyndwood a Doctors-Commons Official in his Provincials Con. Otho sacer Ordo verb. illiteratos Quae Ignonantia multò magis detestanda esset in Episcopo seu majori Prelato If there was a major Prelate then there was a minor Prelate little Men are Men tho little A hundred Instances I could give that all Clergy-men that are Rectors are Prelates Now if the speaking against any Prelate who is not Magnas nor so mentioned in the Declaration as here it is not mentioned that the Plantiff is Magnas and if in the Language and Dialect of those Times the Word Bishops does not imply Magnates or les Grants then surely all Prelates and all that have the Fee-simple of those Lands and Baronies granted to the King and his Heirs and Assigns by Act of Parliament and given and regranted to others together with all the Immunities and Privileges that the Abbots had and enjoyed by virtue of those Lands and Baronies c. ought to have the Benefit of this Statute of Scandal Magnat quâ Prelat Why they should not enjoy the Privilege of Prelates in that Act of 2 R. 2. of Scandal Magnat and all other Privileges that ever the Abbots enjoyed by virtue of their Lands and Baronies being meer Temporals not Gospel nor Spiritual Priviledges I cannot imagine if the Bishops do enjoy these Benefits quâ Prelati or quâ Barones Howsoever the other Priviledg of sitting in the House of Lords may be lost for the long Intervall or Vacation of not being call'd thither time out of mind of Man by the King 's Writ be lost or for what other Reason it is not needful here to discuss For if the Bishops sit not in the House of Lords purely ex Gratia Regis but quâ Barones by reason of their Baronies then è fortiori much more may those Gentlemen that have the Abbot's Baronies and other Prelate's Baronies claim the old Privileges belonging to their Baronies and for which and other Immunities they have an Act of Parliament to them and their Heirs Since Bishops have not so firm a Tenure of their Baronies and the Privileges Temporalities and Immunities thereunto belonging because they hold them ex Gratiâ Regis and for Contempt may lawfully be forfeited and seized into the King's Hands But the Baronies of Us that hold them in Fee-simple and by Act of Parliament with the Immunities and Privileges anciently belonging to the Abbot-Prelates and Prior-Prelates cannot for such Contempt ad libitum Regis be so forfeited or seized Nay since many Rectors in England have Baronies annex'd to their Rectories and their Parsonage-House is the Manor-House where Court Barons are kept to this day and the Tenants do their Homage and Fealty and they are really and truly Prelates I see no Reason in Law or Equity but they may have the Benefit of this Statute of 2 Rich. 2. of Scandal Magnat if it pertain to Prelates quâ Prelati And then every little Rector may bring his Action upon this Statute Qui tam c. for Contempt of his Clergy-ship and Prelateship and then Hey day we shall have a little Pope in every Parish and a spiritual Hogen Mogen in every Rectory Hey then up go we and then Thompson and Heraclitus look to 't we 'll pay you off for your Nick-names you had better have been tongue-ty'd And none can give a Reason why this Defendant should not also have the Privilege of a Prelate which his Predecessors had the Abbots of Wicks when this Statute was made whose Successor is this Defendant in the Barony and to him and his Heirs for ever Nay really Thompson and Heraclitus I believe the Defendant is in earnest since so much Money as 2000 l. may be ceined out of old Statutes there are London Juries and Middlesex Juries as well as Essex Juries
your Naked-Truth c. I find your Books in these parts to be like Universal Pills they have various Operations and work upon all Bodies Politick one way or other by Sweating Vomiting Purging Urin c. but generally the People take them as Cordials and digest them with a great deal of comfort for we are true Britains in the West and are glad to hear there is one wise Man in the East we hope there are more We are so yoaked with Consistory Collars that our Necks are worn bare and our Withers gauled and if we offer to winch or draw back we are presently pinch'd and such Goads run into our Sides that we are forced to go as they please for they must needs go that the Devil drives And tho' we have but short Pasture on our barren Mountains and lean Livings in Wales that we can but just keep Life and Soul together yet our fat Task-master does so exact that we can scarce keep Skin and Bones together we are so poor we cannot creep we are so drained in our Purses that we are no way able to wage War with the Beast Our trembling Vicars Levite-like conform to all and Issachar-like bear any Burdens that are laid upon their Backs and know not how to help themselves And our poor Church-Wardens stand Cap in Hand to the Worshipful Mr. Arch-Deacon the Reverend Doctor and Commissary and the Sir Reverence the Register and are glad they can get off and be dispatched by paying of their Mony which is a Parish Charge that grudg to give them allowance for their Time And if the Church-Warden offer to speak the Arch-Deacon nods and the Commissary frowns and the Register mouths and rails and calls them Saucy threatning them to march from Court to Court and wait attendance upon his Ar that they are so tired in Body and Spirit that they have no heart to their Drudgery they had rather be of any Office Scavengers to empty Dung than to be Church-Wardens for they are forced to swear and forswear themselves whether they will or no for it is impossible for them to keep their Oaths if they offer to speak their Mouths are stop'd with a Canon Bullet a Book of Articles is given them to present their peaceable Neighbours by The Margin doth quote several Canons which they cannot read neither do they know when or where they were made Nay they tell them of unwritten Traditions of Customs and Ancient Usages and frighten them with high Words and snap them up saying Take the Book here is the Guide you must go by and Present or else you are forsworn And when they make Returns which is writ by one or other of their Proctors for which they give a Shilling and subscribe Omnia bene they will not believe them but tell them The Court is informed otherwise and put pusling Questions to entangle them and will not take in their Presentments till they have put in the Names of some of their best Parishioners but they must not be Quakers and thus the whole Parish is set in a flame by these Incendiaries and poor ignorant Creatures they cannot help it If there be any dronish or debauched Clergy-man that they complain of they cannot be heard and they understand that some have been proved Prophane in Life and common speaking and Heretical and Popish in their publick Preaching that the High Arches do only check them and continue them in their Livings to the encouragement of Debauchery and the hazard of the precious Souls of their Hearers But if there be but one pious and painful Preacher the whole inquiry is after him What doth that Man do is he conformable in every Point to the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws and if there be the lest iota or Ceremony omitted at any time he is presently suspended ab Officio Beneficio and thus the Shepherd is smitten and the Flock scattered Sir I have held you too long I have been in the Company of the Clergy where your Books have been mentioned and some modest Men have spoken that there were many things too true But the High Hectors have run them down and railed against your Book and you saying They know not but you may be a Jesuit which they never said while you drudged for them They say That a Pillory is more fit for you than a Pulpit and a Rope than a Cope They say E're long your Mouth will be stopped they will cut your Gill and then Hicker where you will They have Silver and Gold Spurs yours are but Natural and they will slash you they will pick out your Eyes and crow over you they will not leave a Feather on your Back or a Quill to make you a Pen to scribble with they will cut your Comb and your Stones too and make a Gelding of you that you may only serve as a Door-keeper for their Nuns c. But I shall detain you no longer but subscribe my self Sir Yours to honour and serve SOL. SHAWE Sir Your Friends long to hear when the Term will be over and how it fares with you So much for the Prose next follows the British Muse bred on Pernassus the Penmenmaur THy Naked-Truth brave Hickeringil out-shines The glittering Silver and the golden Shrines Of great Diana all her Vanities Are clearly seen by Naked Verities This makes Demetrius and his crafty Crew With Pursevants so hotly to pursue For now their Trade is likely to go down They cry Diana round about the Town The Church the Church is come into disgrace An uproar now is rais'd in every place Confusion is so great they 'r in a smother Some cry out one thing some cry out another The greatest part know not the reason why They 'r met together to make Hue and Cry O for a Town Clerk th' Rabble to allay And send th' Assembly peaceably away For Naked-Truth robs not the Church but she Discovers only her Deformity Restoring her to Primitiye Beauty And when a lawful Convention of State Shall meet together to take thy Relate Into their serious Consult 't will be found There 's nothing writ but on a Scripture-ground They 'l see that Canon is not Statute Law But only like a blazing Wisp of Straw To scare the Simple to Conformity Against their Conscience Law and Liberty It 's only hissing Wild-fire that doth singe To make Fools unto Ceremonies cringe And by this means they will sind a just cause To regulate such Arbitrary Laws For King and Parliament have not confirmed Their Canon Laws therefore they may be mended Except unto the Romish Church they fly T' uphold confused Babel-Hierarchy And this thy Naked-Truth doth shew as much Except they are resolved to be such What tho' thy Naked-Truth by some be blamed Yet Naked-Truth will never be ashamed And what tho' thou like Paul wert formerly In Commission by Scribe and Pharisee To drudg for them oppressing some with Fines That would not bow and stoop to their Designs Yet if thou now
I have made to your Lordship that all Differences as well as the Action of Scandalum Magnatum brought against me by your Lordship may be amicably composed before the utmost Extremity be tried If I had spoke the Words modo formâ as they are laid in your Declaration I know not whether upon any Submission your Lordship would find Mercy enough to remit them But my Lord if you will vouchsafe me a Hearing with or without your own Witness or Witnesses I doubt not but he or they will evidence my Innocence that I never spoke the Words as they are laid but without any Interruption or Intermission in a continued Discourse I did explain and explain and express what horrid Plot it was which I said your Lordship had a hand in viz. against my righteous Name and Reputation in the Barretry And that those ungrateful Words of Impudent and Ignorant which are odious if considered abstractly had reference only to a Discourse we had of a printed Paper your Lordship recommended to the Clergy of Essex in your last Visitation and amongst other things the Observation of the Canons of 40 by Name disallowed by 13. Car. 2. 12. Which Statute if your Lordship knew not I said you were ignorant thereof or if you knew it it was impudent to confront the said Act of King and Parliament opposing your Sence against theirs All which my Lord are not scandalous taken together nor against the Statute if true but the last Words were very rashly and irreverently spoken and I am so far from justifying the Irreverence and Indecency of the Expressions what Provocation soever I might have that I will give your Lordship what Satisfaction your Lordship shall reasonably require with all Humility and Contrition And I am the rather hopeful of the good Success of this my humble Submission because I hope your Lordship intended nothing else in bringing the Action but only to bring me to Acknowledgment of the Irreverence of the Expressions and not with a design to enrich your self by any Money of mine or undoing me and my Family Yet my Lord I doubt not but to make it appear if you will admit me to your Lordship that the Action against me is ill laid and that you wlil certainly be non-suited tho it be no Policy to tell your Lordship how and wherein at this time of Day However it will approve me ingenuous towards your Lordship and that I do as industriously avoid a Conquest as well as all Contest with your Lordship and that this Submission proceeds from nobler Principles than Fear can suggest But I have had so ill Success in all my former Applications to your Lordship that I have but little Faith or Hope in the Success of this however nothing on my part shall be wanting to an Accommodation And since Almighty God in Mercy does not send a Thunderbolt for every rash Oath or every irreverent Word against his holy Name your Lordship I faintly hope will after his Example find Mercy and Grace enough to remit My Lord Your Lordship 's humble Servant EDM. HICKERINGIL Now let the Reader judg whether any soft Concession or Submissions can mollify this sort of Men Flints will break upon a Feather-Bed but the Bishop and his Clerks near the Isle of Scilly are harder than Flint harder than the Adamant or the nether Milstone What Advantage did Sir Francis Pemberton the Lord Chief Justice take at the Defendant's ingenuous Concessions which were more than needed in the Case For there are not any Words laid in the Declaration if never so true and well-prov'd that are actionable or within that Statute but are justifiable as they were spoken And upon a Writ of Error it will appear for the Oath of the Judges is to have no respect of Persons in Judgment That the Words in all the three several Counts are not actionable nor scandalous and if so then all this Noise is like the Shearing of Hogs a great Cry and a little Wooll To say His Lordship is very ignorant 't is too true and if he be wise he will confess it as aforesaid St. Paul did and so Socrates and all the wise Men before or since Agur or Solomon one of them says I am more brutish than any Man I have not the Vnderstanding of a Man That Danger is over the other is easy For to say in sensu conjuncto nay in sensu diviso That his Lordship is a bold Man A Souldier should be so much more when he is a Souldier of Christ much more when he mounts so high as to be a Prelate he had need be bold or daring because of the many Oppositions he must expect to encounter The Apostle bids us stand to our Arms and put on the whole Armor of God and stand and when we have done all to stand Aristotle and all the Philosophers make Fortitude to be one of the four Cardinal Vertues I never heard it was scandalous before to say a Man is bold and daring if it had on the contrary been said his Lordship is fearful a Coward and then Then then indeed the Scandal magnat would be greatly scandalous and within the Statute and the Action would well lie but not to say His Lordship is a bold daring Man though you add a bold daring impudent Man for sending some Heads of Divinity in a printed Paper contrary to Law Is it not Impudence to live in the Practice and Office Episcopal acting contrary to those Methods Rules and Rubricks commanded in the Statutes by King and Parliament and contrary to the Common-Prayer Book and Act of Uniformity Yes you must say for a Bishop cannot plead Ignorance nor Frailty for then his Lordship would indeed be very ignorant The Defendant is the Man that will prove if any Body have the Face to deny it and when Time shall serve that there is a Bishop within a Mile of an Oak that has liv'd in the Practice and Office Episcopal acting contrary to those Methods Rules and Rubricks commanded in the Statute by King and Parliament and Common-Prayer Book and Act of Uniformity As for Instance He that confirms all Comers Hand over Head without Exception without Examination without Certificate without knowing that they are Baptiz'd or Catechis'd is not this abominable bold daring and impudent No great Man if he be a Subject is too great for the Law not too great to be corrected reform'd and better taught not too great for King and Parliament and their Statutes It is Treason to deny this Truth What shall Confirmation of which the Papists make a Sacrament and Protestants make an Ordinance and statute-Statute-Law be slubber'd over against the very Design of it be slubber'd over by confirming such as have neither Sureties there nor any Witness nor any God-Father or God-Mother nor any Minister to testify that ever they were baptized O abominable What is bold daring and impudent if this be not The Canon Law says Episcopus non potest statuere contra
Jura Lyndwood in Con. Oth. quid ad ven v. corrigend Then 2 dly For the Bowings Noddings to the East to the Altar to the Wax-Candles Is it not bold and daring c. to set up or countenance Ceremonies against the King's Laws and Acts of Uniformity that were never of God's making nor of the King and Parliament's making Is not this bold daring and abominably impudent Then 3dly To recommend in a printed Paper Canons for the Clergy to observe the 65 66 and 3 of the Canons of Forty when there never was any such in the World And as for these Lambeth Canons that to make all the Republicks in the World our Enemies falsely assert that Monarchy is Jure divino by the prime Law of Nature and at large confuted in Naked Truth 2d Part. It was Impudence in the Clergy to make that first-of-the Lambeth-Canons at first and greater Ignorance that a whole Convocation should be no wiser and yet so bold daring and impudent as to impose upon the Clergy and Lay-People such Vntruths and Falshoods as are in that first Article of the Constitutions of Forty but strangely bold daring and impudent for any Man at this day to justify vindicate recommend or defend them The Naked Truth 2d Part has confuted the Vanity and Ignorance of the Convocation in that first Article of their Lambeth-Canons or Constitutions of Forty against all Contradiction and beyond the Skill of all the Bishops and Clergy of England to answer at least hitherto they have slept quietly upon 't and shall a single Bishop and one of the youngest Sort too revive them and yet cannot justify the very first of them which is not the worst of them neither as is fully and particularly and at large proved by the Defendant in his former Works and condemn'd by the great Wisdom of the Nation in an Ordinance This 't is for Men to stand on the utmost Pinacle of the Temple and oversee and command all others when a lower Seat of the Church would be as well or more easily supplied by them What Mischief to the Church in all Ages has it brought To make Boy-Cardinals and Boy-Bishops and Novices great before they be good and to command wiser Men than themselves Like Fresh-water and Courtier-Captains of Ships and yet know not Larboard from Starboard or how to right the Helm nay perhaps can neither box nor so much as say their Compass and yet these must be Pilots and Governors 't is the Ruin of the Fleet. Or to set up or prop a Church of Christ with the unsuitable and rotten Props of Cruelty and Force as if Christianity destroyed what it came to amend Humanity or that to be a Christian Governor is to be an inhumane Devil good for nothing but to run up and down seeking whom he may devour and worse than Turks Jews Heathens and Infidels It is this Ecclesiastical Policy that has ruin'd the most resplendent Empire of the Christian World Spain not so terrible in her inexhaustible Treasures and Indie-Mines as formerly in her Warlike Hands yet How contemptible now how depopulated how despicable to all their Neighbours that were so formidable so latley to England and the Christian World How did King James court them and King Charles the First humble himself in hopes of an Alliance with Spain What cringing Letters upon this Hope were writ to his Holiness what Complements for I hope they were not in earnest to Pope Gregory the 15th that Wretch Sanctissime Pater Beatitudinis vestrae Literas c. Nunquam tanto quo ferimur studio nunquam tam arcto tam indissolubili vinculo ulli mortalium conjungi cuperemus cujus odio Religionem prosequeremur c. Vt sicut omnes unam individuam Trinitatem unum Christum crucifixum confitemur in unam Fidem coalescamus Quod ut assequamur labores omnes atque vigilias Regnorum etiam atque Vitae pericula parvi pendimus c. Bless us what Promises are here of Propensity to Rome even to the Hazard of Life Kingdoms and All in devotion to his Blessedness so he is friled who will not stir a Step from his Infallibility one would think that to have met him half way had been Devotion enough in all Conscience Reason Scripture Law or Equity and for such mighty and wise Kings and Princes too you 'll say as were King James and King Charles the First in so I hope never to be again imitated Condescension and Submission It makes my Heart ake to think on 't or read the Letters published at length by the indefatigable Mr. Rushworth as before quoted and all the Pope's Demands signed by the King and Prince p. 73. of his Historical Collect. Part 1. And all this for what For the Spanish Match And now Spain is glad to woo instead of being wooed glad to court and address instead of receiving Addresses glad with Gifts Pensions even to the emptying of their Inexhaustible Treasure beggar themselves and keep themselves poor and pennyless to keep Cart on Wheels nay and all will scarce do neither And why and why They are depopulated by the Inquisition the Severity and Persecution according to Law tho And their Trade is decayed by reason of their foppish and numerous Holy-Days or Play-days Families are needy and starved because not suffered to work upon the Six Days whereon God says thou shalt labour That were it not that the Indian Mines did supply them with merconary Souldiers poor Refuge to trust unto God knows they had given up the Ghost long ago And now do not they gape for Help or some poor Comfort like Men drawing on or at the last Gasp Nay I my self know scarce any Man better that if there were War betwixt England and Spain which few Men desire in this Conjuncture Jamaica and the Wind-ward Islands alone are ten Men to one of all the natural Spaniards in the Indies and without the help of England either in Men or Ships Money or Ammunition could I know what But I 'le reserve it to another Season I know on what Score the brave Raleigh was sacrificed to Gundamore's Revenge the Spanish Embassador Yet some Politicians the Scholars and Disciples of Nat. Thomson L'Estrange and Heraclitus think that the best Way to keep a Kingdom quiet is to depopulate jail them beggar them sham-plot them send them to the Devil and the Jail spoil all Trade discourage all Adventures to Sea as if Men were Dogs and good for nothing but to be hang'd And yet the wise Man found it true That Oppression makes a wise Man mad and with all his Wisdom and his Politicks he found too late that he was mated and bearded by his own Servant and he none of the best neither Jeroboam who taking advantage of the People's Discontent and Murmurings wanting only a Head to relieve themselves soon won eleven of the twelve Tribes from the Fool that would listen to no Advice no Address but that
in the case Rare Discipline Let me hear no more talk of Discipline except it were better Where does one of all the Whores in England stand in a white Sheet for lying in polluted Sheets are they amicae Curiae Besides Tho to me it seems improbable that ever Popery should be the State-Religion yet it is possible that it may be so and then by this Act of Uniformity-Principle we must all be Papists or Mariyrs Then I think we have uniform'd sinely and have made a sine Scourge for our own Backs And well may the Inquisition-men stop our Mouths with our own Arguments and Methods unanswerably with Out of thine now Mouth will I judg thee thou wicked Servant But all this while I had almost forgot our old Friend Mr. Manwaring and his Sentence which was 7. That his said Book was worthy to be burnt and that his Majesty may be moved to grant a Proclamation to call in the said Books that they may be all burnt accordingly in London and both the Vniversities and for inhibiting the printing thereof upon a great Penalty This was a true English-Parliament in 28 and not that of 40 nor 41 41 as the rascally-Hireling Pamphleteers thunder it Slaves like Esau that vilely sell their Birth-rights And all the Addressers in England can never chuse other than true English-men to defend their Liberties their Lives their Estates their Children and their Wives basely sold by Pensioners formerly tho the Tantivy-Slaves little deserve such a Parliament England is not frenchisied nor ever will never think on 't they 'll dye first a thousand Deaths if possible Men may as well talk of 21 and 28 and 71 or 91 as 41. For when we are dead our Children will be true free-born English-men and so dye if they be not Bastards Now my Lord compare the Crimes of the Laudian-Convocation of 40 for which you do so stickle and hate me and vex me ever since I opposed them Canon 1. with the Crimes of Manwaring charged upon him in Parliament by Mr. Rous namely a Plot and practice to altar and subvert the Frame and Fabrick of this Estate and Common-wealth 1. In labouring to infuse into the Conscience of his Majesty Oh! may such Ear-wigs never now come so near him the perswasion of a Power not bounding it self with Laws the very Crimes charged against Duke Lauderaale and the E. of Danby by the Loyal long-Long-Parliament they sate never the longer for that tho But what car'd they which King James of famous Memory calls in his Speech to the Parliament Tyranny yea Tyranny accompaned with Perjury where is your Jus Divinum now my Lord and your Prime-Law In your Constitutions of 40 See the Articles and Impeachment of Arch-bishop Laud. 2. In endeavouring to perswade the Conscience of the Subjects that they are bound to obey Commands illegal yea he damns them for not obeying them vide your Can. 1. of 40 to the same tune 3. In robbing the Subjects of the Propriety of their Goods vid. the Proceedings twelve Years together from 28 till 40 whilst Bishop Laud was a Minion and a Privy-Counsellour in Loanes you may call them Gifts for they were never repayed Ship-money Customs and such like If a High-way-man say with Sword in hand Come Friend I must borrow your Purse we had as good give it him as be cut 4. He brands them that will not lose this Propriety with most scandalous Speeches and odious Titles to make them both hateful to Prince and People so to set a Division between the Head and the Members and between Members themselves and how like my Lord are your Proceedings against me ever since you said you begun to know me when I spoke against your Canon and Constitution of 40. How have I been vext and plagu'd ever since a Martyr for the Publick-weal against your Canons of 40 by your Promotions Citations Processes Ecclesiastical about Fiddle-faddle Suspensions Excommunications except I would pay a Guinny which I did Suits Articles Libels Actions Informations Whispers to Judges and Great Men Supplicavits Informations in the Crown-Office Defamations as a Person convicted of Perjury Declarations and now an outragious and convicted Verdict of 2000 l. And yet for God's sake what one Evil have I done or who swears against me but the for-sworn Rogues Groom and Martin your Apparitors six Proctors Harris and Exton all Ecclesiastical Fellows And yet here 's no Plot belike against my righteous Name and Reputation I never was quiet one whole week together since that fatal time that your Lordship begun to know me Know me for what for what for what you shall know me till I dye against your Lambeth-Canons of 40 a true free-born English-man that hath a lusty Posterity and Estate for my Heirs and Heirs for my Estate if I can but keep it out of your Episcopal-Gripes and I 'le gage all I have chearfully upon this Quarrel and Difference the true cause of all our Differences ever since and more fit to be decided by a Parliament than a Tory Jury pickt and singled out If I had said as you said and as the Convocation of 40 said and as the Poor Clergy then present durst do no other than say It had been 2000 l. in my way and a better penny the Canons of 40. with a Curse and mischief attending them But no Bribes can tempt me nor Fears appale me as the Cardinal told the Pope of Luther when he refused a Cardinals Cap Germana illa bestia non curat aurum Therefore keep your Gifts to your self and your Threats too and reserve your High-Places and Preferments for Tantivies I am none nor for Threat or Money to be made a Slave or a Traitor to the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of this Kingdom and this as Mr. Rouse stiled it to the Speaker without Rebuke This State and Common-wealth not unlimited and absolute Monarchy but bounded within Laws not by prime Law of Nature nor by express Texts of Holy Scripture as falsly Can. 1. of your Constit 40. but by human Bargain Compact and Stipulation contracted and agreed unto betwixt the King and his People 5. To the same end not much unlike to Faux and his Fellows he seeks to blow up Parliaments and Parliamentary Powers God grant there be no such Vilanies alive at this day No such privy Earwiggs nor therein Successors of Laud. One would think a Bible should better become Bishops than unhinging of Governments and Fundamental Laws that the Sycophanis have no skill in thus unlike Apostolical-Men and leaving the Word of God to serve Tables Acts 6. 2 4. nay leaving it to do Mischief and get the Kingdom 's Curse and sometimes a Block for their Pains and unsuitable Albtro-Episcopal Mischief Hamlet King of Denmark was poysoned and kill'd by Poyson poured into his Ears as he lay carelesly and securely and supinely sleeping by his false Friends and Sychophants We are told this day by Nat. Tompson's Intelligence Numb 134. that John Wolf I
no man dare make any such suggestions for the future and may such Earwigs also be banish't to any part of Earth or into the Earth rather than thus to plague a King and Kingdom at this rate in all Ages and vex and grieve his Sacred Majesty and his Parliaments what a pother and a doe have Parliaments had with these Tantivies in all Ages And how ruinous and ruful were the Consequents I know not whither you my Lord can remember But I can by woful experiment you said you begun to know me now you know me better and I know you in part I hope I shall know you better the onely design of this Letter I wish Synods and Lambeth Convocations and Bishops would keep to their Bibles and mind their own business work enough in conscience for 1000 Bishops in England if they would stoop to be Conformists to the Act of Uniformity and more than a thousand Bishops can legally perform if there were so many in England for there was a greater number in a far less spot of ground in Africa Contemporaries with S. Austin the Bishop of little Hippo that was never so big as Islington which is not impossible nay if we had a thousand Bishops in England they could not at all do the confirming work alone let alone the Work in the House of Lords and at the Councel-Board and their promotions at Doctors Commons and ther Actions Suites and Declarations and Libels as Action-drivers and Promoters and Visitations and vexations of ruinous consequence to the Projectors as well as to the Kingdom such as the Tantivie Doctrine of Manwaring and little Laud that had better minded his Book his excellent Book against Fisher then to turn Politick-Engineer and Master-Gunner in planting of Canons against the Fundamental Laws that such Tantivies are not skill'd in but if they read but of a King in Scripture though it be Rehoboam that Fool or Caesar that Heathen then Heysday for the Pulpit or the Synod Hey for Lambeth and the Canons of 40. But you will say what have I to do a Priest also with these State-matters ' To which I answer 1. These State-matters improperly or foolishly handled by your Tantivee-Archbishop Laud and your Tantivees Bishops that would have been Sybthorp and Manwaring and by your Tantivee Canon 1 of the Constitutions of 40 was by you justified in your publick Visitation and before the Mayor hnd Aldermen of Colchester and the greatest part of the Gentlemen of the Town and Clergy of that Precinct and for you boldly to recommend or justifie this Tantivie-Canon 1 of the Constitutions of 40 I know not whether all the Clergy you have or any Friend in England would have thus adventur'd suo periculo to awake you out of this Tantivee-dream in which as in the old disease the Plague of English-men and of English-men only called Suder Anglicus or the English-sweating-sickness if you sleep in it 't is mortal if you had a hundred thousand lives and I think you are beholden to me above all mankind him that you have thus vext above all mankind for nothing but the cause the cause of the Kingdom the cause and Fundamaentl-Laws scoff't at and derided by none but drunken Tories and Sack-posset-Tantiviees that cry brother let me pledge thee Brother Sybthorp Brother Two Livings Brother Manwaring Brother Arch-Laud they will be loath to follow him though at the long run and latter end But it is that we must all come to If we be Tantivees therefore as you love your self my Lord and me Let me hear no more in my part of Essex any more Commendations Justifications Aggravations or Recommendations of this ignorant Synod and Tantivee-Convocation of Lambeth in their Constitutions of 40 nor of any such Synod-men that were never lick't into Form-Political let them tell Sacred Stories of God and Christ I but no more Politick Canons of 40. against the Fundamental Laws if you love me or my betters innuendo your Lordship for one 2. This Politick-Lecture of State-matters begun by you and your Lambeth-Synod has been a Plaguyvexation to our Kings and Parliaments in all Ages read the History of the Barons Wars in King John's Reign Hen. 2. Hen. 3. The Edwards The Richard's the Henry's I had almost said The Charle's By what I have said you read the said Bickerings in the Reigns of King Charles I. and our present Soveraign King Charles the II and His Loyal House of Commons then which never any King was more Happy than He in that yet though chosen in a time of Languishing Expectation after the Prosits and Benefits of a King which we had too long wanted they were English-men still And he 's an Ass that expects a fitter juncture or more auspicious Election for the choice of Parliament to carry on any Designs but what are Catholick and according to the Good Old Cause I mean the Fundamental Laws which not a few swearing and beggarly Pamphleting Tories and unthinking and very impudent Tantivees and withal very ignorant are able to defeat though they draw down their Canons of 40 which I thought had been nail'd and damn'd and ram'd 40. years ago by the Tories Themselves and Tantivees to whom they prov'd so fatal will men never take warning must Parliaments always be plagu'd with these Earwiggs and Tantivees Flaterers and Court Sycophants and Blesphemous Insinuators of Divinity into Humanity by a most Atheistical Invention of a New Hypostatical Vnion But the Holy Trinity admits no Partners though the Priests teach us or inculcate never so villanously traiterously falsely illegally unscripturely irrationally or blasphemously It is a high shame that 's the truth on'c that such Tantivee-Doctrines should thrive and such as stand up for the Ancient Laws and Liberties must suffer above all others 't is a shame power should be thus abused like a silk worm to ruin and consume its self to bedeck worse Vermin 't is a shame I will not venture to say any more but draw a Curtain over some mens shame because I will not show all their Nakedness I forbear my Lord I have done And leave you to think sadly to think and with sorrow I hope and repentance too for justifying this first Canon of the Constitutions of 40. those Chequer-works of different Hue black and white good and bad especially the First of them nigro carbene notamur let you and I remember that First fatal Canon of the 1. of the Constitutions of 40. that has been so mortal already and will still prove without very timely and immediate Repentance baneful to one of us or rueful to both of us or to this Kingdom State and Common-wealth But still you will object what have I to do to discuss these State-matters sit chiefly for a Parliament I answer That you have given the occasion the sad occasion It now becomes me and becomes necessary what before had been as impertinent as for a Bishop or Synod-man to meddle in the State-affairs But 2. Do you compare my
depending in the King's-Bench Hah where Sir John Shaw had no Authority to give or take an Oath Hah in private Hah against the Laws of the Land Hah and made them ready against the Bishop came down to set the Bishop to Roil Mr. Hickeringill whom he knew would not tamely suffer himself and his Reputation to be illegally and publickly brought in question by any Bishop in Christendom Hah This was the Sum and Substance of those two Letters which the Defendant writ to the said Bishop that were never answered but only as Men are when they are prest to Death with more Weight more Weight The Defendant in vain opposed the reading of his private Letters saying it was not genteel civil nor manly to produce such Evidence and nothing to the present Declaration and that tho there was nothing in them but what was modest and true yet private Letters are and ought to be sacred in their Privacy and that Si liceat parvis componere magna King Charles 1. If it be lawful to compare great with small did justly upbraid the Parliament with the Incivility of publishing his private Letters taken at Naseby tho there was nothing in them nor in this Defendants Letters for which any Man need blush or be blam'd But this is the Ecclesiastical-Candor any Method to expose the Defendant no Vengeance is great enough no Fine or Verdict outragious enough to crush one that dares as the Defendant has discover the Mystery of Iniquity Ecclesiastical in Extortions illegal Fees Oppressions and Courts kept in dessance of the Statutes of this Realm Excommunications Absolutions Prophanations Procurations Visitations namely Vexations c. There 's a Villain indeed Plague him All Hands aloft all 's at Stake down goes if you do not help This Fellow is another Germana illa Bestia quae non curat Aurum a German Beast that regards not Preferment as the Cardinal told the Pope when he chid him because he could not by tampering with Luther and the proffer of Gold and a Cardinal's Cap prevail with him nor take him off from writing and preaching against the Abominations and Corruptions of the Church and Church-men Church and Church-men Ay set but the Clergy upon a Man and you need not set any Dogs upon him to worry him Church and Church-men Ha! do you know who you speak against what Find fault with Oppressions and Extortions of Ecclesiastical-Courts with Apparitors Registers Commissaries and all that Fry of Lay-Elders Church and Church-men Ha! Do you speak against Prelacy Say that Word again say it again before Witness Sirrah Villain Rogue How dare you at this time of day speak Scripture dangerous Scripture Scripture against Statute-Law 2 Rich. 2. 5. which Statute makes a Prelate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 8. 9. some great One and you Sirra would have him as your Saviour and the Gospel would have him as lowly as Christ or his Apostles you Sirra do you speak Scripture in a Court of Law Ha! what do you produce a Bible instead of a Breviate Do you plead Gospel against Law and Christ and his Apostles in defiance of Rich. 2 An Aggravation an Aggravation as Sir Francis Withins said the Defendant justifies in a Plea of Non-Culp this is rich indeed These Errors will be committed when you suffer Parsons to be Pleaders and plead their own Cause and understand not the Punctilio's and Methods of nice-pleading very fine What suffer Scripture to be quoted instead of Law and Christ and his Apostles instead of Cook and Littleton for Shame And yet the Defendant ignorant Man did not understand the mischief of urging a little Scripture in this Cause betwixt two Church-men and already there decided namely that of Christ St. Paul and St. Peter against all Prelacy Pride Lordliness and Dominion one Brother over another not Lording it over God's Heritage But Christ and St. Paul and St. Peter were poor Men Silver and Gold had they none they were meek humble and lowly and when they were reviled reviled not again nor brought an Action of Scandalum Magnat nor did Fee a pack of Lawyers to mouth it upon an old Statute made in the time of Popish Prelacy and when Antichrist was Rampant and when the Devil raigned a time as the Defendant told the Court when the Prelates did all and all ill a time when the Prelates were grand Rebels as ever were in England For then in the Raign of Rich. 2. was this Statute made when the Clergy were as very Rebels as Wall the Priest Wat. Tyler or any of that wicked Crew 'T is true Henry Spencer Bishop of Norwich was General for the King both in England and France did not Armour disgrace Bishop Henry's Lawn-Sleeves The Bishop of Ely was Lord Chancellor Countez Two Tho. Arundel Bishop of Hereford Countez Three Lord Treasurer Nicholas Abbot of Waltham Lord Privy-Seal Four William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Five Alexander Arch-Bishop of York Countez Six William Bishop of Winchester Seven And Thomas Bishop of Exeter Eight Good Men and True that 's a Lye a Pack of damnable Villains and Rebells as ever were in England for taking upon them by Commission to rule the King and Kingdom and so the Judges concluded that Commission of thirteen Persons to rule the King and Kingdom of which eight were Prelates with five Lay-men for fashion-sake for the Prelates could out-vote them when they list a Devilish Rebellion abominable Prelates in Rich. 2d's time when the Statute of Scandalum Magnatum was made and struck at it has been by the last Parliament at Westminster and others as a Statute obsolete or in the Judgment of the Wisdom of the Nation the Honourable House of Commons to be repealed being made in the wicked time aforesaid when the Devil danc'd and Simon Magus vaunted himself to be one of the Magnat some Great One and yet also the Successor of Simon Peter who was a poor Fisher-man and a Fisher of Men not a Pick-Pocket nor a Promoter of Law-Suits nor did he mend his Market by turning Church-man as some have done too well known but to his dying day was poor and pennyless having his Faith and Hope in another World and being a Disciple of him whose Kingdom is not of this World All this and more the Defendant told the Court and the Men that were sworn for to give the Judge his due he gave the Defendant sufficient leave and leisure for three hours to defend himself against the crafty Suggestions and dirty Language thrown at him on purpose to vilify him with Dirt which the Counsel had rak'd up together and in two set-Speeches made on purpose fetch'd it far and not at all to the purpose or to the matter in hand villifying him with the Miseries and Vexations with which they had loaded him in the Barretry and Supplicavit as if his Sufferings were his only Crime But something they must say for their Guinies and for their Lord Prelate and in hopes of Preferment and his
and Impudence Yes replyed Sir Thomas you were discoursing of a Printed Paper and the Statute of 13 Car. 2. 12. which seems to disallow the Canons of Forty which Statute you said if the Bishop did not know it was his Ignorance but if he did know the same it was Impudence to oppose his Sense and Judgment to the Judgment of the King and Parliament And herein when it was almost too late herein when he had almost forgot his Oath which so lately he had sworn to speak the whole Truth as well as nothing but the Truth herein when the Jury and the Court was possest and prejudic'd with his Evidence first given of the Words Ignorance and Impudence three hours together then indeed upon further Examination the Truth was pump'd out of him Oh! the Policy of this wicked World Some are wiser than some at least some are crafty wise to do Evil but to do Good they have no Knowledg a Craft that is easily and readily learn'd for any Man that is not a very Fool may soon arrive to be a Knave tho none but a Fool will be a Knave any Fool has Head-piece enough to be a Machiaveilian if he have so little Wit as to be a Knave and so bad a Heart as to be hard or hardned in Mischief For scarcely any Man wants Wit enough if he have but Wickedness enough to be a Knave or perfidious Then the Defendant bid Sir Thomas Exton say upon his Oath on what occasion these Words were spoken to him by the Defendant in private with him in his Chamber To which the Doctor then and not 'till then replyed That the Defendant came to him as his old Acquaintance but a false Friend to be sure that he would use his Interest with the Bishop to accommodate those Matters which honest Office of a Peace-maker Sir Thomas undertook and promised to give the Defendant the Bishop's Answer with all convenient speed the Bishop being then at his Country-House at Fullham Ay But when the Defendant came again to his Chamber to hear the Bishop's Answer Sir Thomas begun with wrinckled Brows to tell this Defendant That Did he the Defendant think that after all the Mischiefs he had done to the Bishop's Courts Ay there there it pinch'd in his late Books all the Kingdom over that the Matter could be taken up with a private Submission in a parcel of fair and soft Words Will you quoth Sir Thomas publickly and in Print retract and refute your Books called the Naked-Truth Who I replyed the Defendant what The same Hand that gave the Wound give the Cure What Vulnus opemque tulit continued Mr. Hickeringill Nothing like it quoth Sir Thomas No no replyed the Defendant you are high enough already but I 'll see you all 〈◊〉 high as Pauls first whereupon the Defendant departed from him for ever parted And let all ingenuous Gentlemen judge how un-Knight-like ungenteel un-Christian and Inhumane it was in Sir Thomas to make his Table a Snare and to be an Evidence to improve tho he could not prove the present Action of Scandalum Magnatum from Words ingenuously confessed to him in private as a Common-Friend and Mediator betwixt the Bishop and the Defendant Can any Man imagine or can it be in the least probable that any Man should give more scandalous Words against the Bishop at the very time and to the very Man that undertook to be a Peace-Maker and did not so much as take the least Exceptions against what was spoken but went to treat the Bishop to terms of Accommodation until the Defendant peremptorily refused to retract or write against the Books called the Naked-Truth the Second Part in lieu of which Retraction the Defendant did write again indeed but mended the Matter in the Black-Non-Conformist These are the dear dear Books that has cost the Defendant so dear and must be his Ruine if combined Clergy-Malice and Revenge-Ecclesiastical will do the Feat Barnaby Tak 't for a Warning neither write nor speak as this Defendant has against the vile Corruptions abominable Extortions of the Men of Doctor's-Commons Hem Heu Wo and Alas Devorat Accipiter vexat censura Columbas The Birds of Prey are never vext But the poor Doves must be perplext Or thus Make Rome there for the Birds of Prey But fright the poor Doves quite away Let the Vexations Citations Actions Articles Promotions Writs Supplicavits and Oaths of the Ecclesiastical-Men and Men of Doctor's-Commons the only Affidavit-Men against Mr. Hickeringill be Chronicled to all Posterity together with that unconscionable inhumane and outragious Fine of 2000 l. by a pick'd Jury pick'd and appointed on set purpose together with the Names of the precious Jury-men and let them pray that the righteous God do not deal as severely with them and theirs to their ruine as they have unmercifully and unchristianly ruin'd the Defendant and his Family Wife and Children God is Just not only hereafter but in this World wait and see the Finger of God in this Affair shall he not avenge his own Elect tho he bear long with them Yea he will avenge them speedily he must he will to vindicate his Word his Gospel his Christ and his Apostles publick Enemies to Prelatical Pride against all the Hypocrites that put on Religion Religion the Church the Church for a Cloak to their Tantivee-Avarice and high-flown Ambition Good God! Arise and let thine Enemies be scatter'd and let all that hate thee flee before thee A single Arm has done Wonders when upheld by God We read indeed Eph. 5. 11. that God gave some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry c. But who the Devil brought that Man of Sin that Son of Perdition into the Church 2 Tim. 2. 3 4. that sits in the Temple of God and opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God viz. the Magistrate Away Away with these carnal millenaries the Kingdom of Christ is not of this World nor the true Apostles and Disciples of Christ ambitious to sit neither on the Pinnacle of the Temple nor the Pinnacle of the Palace When Bishops begun to be very Rich then then they begun to be high-minded and to trust in uncertain Riches rather than in the Words of the living God 1 Tim. 6. 17. the Words of our blessed Saviour and his Apostles against Tyrannical and Lordly Prelacy and when they left the Word then they to clap their hands upon the tame Magistrates Sword if one would not the other should this is the plain Truth on 't and observ'd by all that observe any thing For who heeds their Excommunications their Suspensions their Silencings their Ecclesiastical Mischiefs Curses and Anathema's if it were not for the old Writ invented first by Popish Prelates and since and now still made use of to this day to eeke out their Spiritual-Weapons which every Man can take the length of
here make bold with a Friend and reprint the last Verses of the late New Satyr call'd the Mushroom in the Post-script thereof namely To serve a turn of State a Renegade That has his Conscience God and King betrayd Sometimes a base Interpreter is made Though he an Atheist be in Masquerade And in rich robes through villany array'd Yet this Apostacy who dare upbraid The Villian struts it and seems not afraid Suborners tho' are shown in Cavilcade To publick-wrath may liable be made Oh! then the Villain will for all be payd Then where 's your gay-Apostate Renegade I have heard of a certain Prince not in Utopia but in Europe that said So long as I can make Bishops and Judges whom I list I 'le have what Religion and what Law I list If He had also said and what Juries I list nay Essex-Juries if I list He had nickt the business and instead of saying our Goods our Estates our Lives our Wives our Children our Lands and Liberties are our own it would be questionable whether we might say our Souls are our own but worse than the Tantivee-Preacher For He only said Caesar shall have your Goods your Bodies your Lands your Children and your Wives c. Caesar shall have all All is Caesars on the outside of your Souls But they belong to God God shall have your Souls And if he would make his word good we would clap up the bargain immediately and upon that Condition that He will make it good That God shall have our Souls Let Caesar take our Wives our Lands our Children our Bodies nay our Lives and the sooner the better we shall not grutch the Exchange But Hard very Hard is Mr. Hickeringill's Case with these Ecclesiastical Fellows who are either very ignorant or very impudent thus boldly and daringly to confront the Kings Laws and shall fare better in Westminster-Hall then the man that reproves them yet how industriously has our wise Ancestors fenc't against these Plagues of Mankind Promoters Turbidum hominum Genus as Coke calls them Instit l. cap. 88. 18. Eliz. 5. 28. Eliz. 5. Jac. 14. In which last about 30 old obsolete Statutes Snares with which Promoters catcht men were at once repealed and yet says Coke notwithstanding all these Statutes against Promoters Four mischiefs still remain'd I could have told him one more that makes Five mischiefs but 21. Jac. 28. did some good against this sort of Cattle who under the reverend Mantle of Law and Justice instituted for protection of the Innocent and the good of the Commonwealth t is Cokes own words Inst l. 3. c. 88. did vex and depauperize the Subject will men never take warning and commonly the poorer sort for malice mark that or private ends and never for love of Justice Shall Honesty and Ingenuity always be out of fashion and under the Hatches and vile tims-serving Slaves against their own Consciences Slaves always keep above Deck Where do we live that pimping bawdy scurrilous Poetasters shall impunè Libel the Honourable Peers and Patriots of the Kingdom and the most glorious City in the Universe And as that bold daring and impudent Hackney-Muse in his late Satyr like a Judge arraigns cundemns and deprives them of their Priviledges and Immunities to his utmost granted and confirmed by so many Kings and Parliaments through feign'd suggestions of his own For thus he Rhymes Customes to steal is such a trivial thing That 't is their Charter to defraud their King All hands unite of every Jarving Sect They cheat the Country first and then infect They for Gods cause their Monarchs dare dethrone Our Sacriligious Sects their Guides outgo And Kings and Kingly Power would overthrow What 's this but to be a Make-bate what 's this but to hang men up in effigie for fancies of his own making What must we still down of our knees and beg Pardon and another Act of Indempnity from every Rascally Pamphleteer and beggarly Hirelings that would fain make our wounds bleed afresh would gladly trouble the waters that are quiet in hopes of good fishing to make up their Hungry mouths and greedy mawes Any thing any method to make the World believe that the Citys Charter is already forfeited or deserves so to be And then money more Money and put it where in a Bottomless Bagg that will hold none you may as well fill a Sive with water as make debaucht Torys rich whose lusts would beggar exhaust and consume the Indies Is Libels the way then nay to Libel the most Loyal best disciplin'd best govern'd best built most glorious most sober most potent most rich and most populous City of the World And this by every Sneaking Rascally dull and Insipid Rhithmer and Pamphleteer the World is at a fine-pass when instead of bringing Buckets to allay and quence every vile Incendiary throws weekly sire-balls to kindle if possible our heats into a flame And instead of curing our distempers and wounds or of endeavours to heal our breaches must men be countenanced to make them rancor more Is that the way As if they studied like some Arithmaticians by the Rule of false Positions to gain a conclusion they most wish for and most especially ayme at namely Substraction and Division But he that sits in the Heavens has hitherto laught them to scorn and hath discovered their sham's and has had their fallcies in derision The Hire of these Pampleteers may prove one day to be as Tory Hilanders call their Booty Black-meal mock not when the Mosse-trooping trade breaks them or their necks Search Histories consult the Past-times and then tell me if there can be worse fools in Nature then some that call themselves Polititians How have they been bassled disappointed and beloved with their own Politick Wyles Shams and Gimcracks or could have devised a shorter cut or a neerer way to stop their own Wind-pipes and ruine themselve and their posteries Except they should have made a noose of their own Bedcords and yet like Rogues that are branded might safely swear that they had got the Law in their own hands more shame for the branded Rogues to Glory in that that is their shame as well as Bane But these are sad and melancholy Contemplations and therefore to recreate the Reader I 'le relate a foolish story or a slory of a fool a Country Bumpkin who having been at London at his return home his Inquisitive neighbours ask't him what news at London News Quoth Hob I know none but that they say Sir Francis Pemberton is made Lord chief Justice Scroggs Scroggs with a murrain cryes the neighbours thou talks like a fool or whether he was Party per pale as much Knave as Fool some questioned If he had said Sir Francis Pemberton had been made Lord chief-Justice Hales the wonder had been the greater and the non-sense not more unwelcome Scroggs quoth a a likely business Scroggs and be naught to him This 't is to want good breeding Scroggs and be hang'd to him
do not know whether your Lordship ever heard of him or no that notorious Pick-pocket when he was on Saturday Feb. 18 Instant at Salisbury drawn to Eexcution confessed that he had pickt Pockets at St. James's Chappel at the time of receiving the Sacrament c. God bless us from Church-Pick-Pockets Amen Thus saith Mr. Rouse to the Speaker you have heard the Voice of the wicked one Judas quid dabetis what will you give me two good Livings and Preferment and Favour Tantivie And I will betray this State Kingdom and Common-wealth And observe how Manwaring nickt the time for rendring this damnable Doctrine namely in the Heart of the Loan and printed in the Term that ended in a Remittitur So that you might guess saith he there might be a double Plot namely at Westminster-Hall as well as in the Pulpit at White-Hall by the Law and Conscience to set on fire the Frame and Estate of this Common-wealth was Mr. Manwaring just such another Man as he that justifies the Canons and Constitutions of 40 well he got Preferment by it but it was his ruine as well as the like Doctrines the ruine of this Kingdom and Common-wealth And by his Divinity saith Mr. Rouse he Manwaring would destroy both King and Kingdom mark that the King for there can be no greater Mischief than to put the Opinion of Diety whose Will is a Law into his Ears yet how ignorantly and impudently by that Lambeth-Synod attempted in that Can 1. of the Constitutions of 40 from falsely pretended express Divine Scripture Will Men never take warning For if continues Mr. Rous from the King's Ears it should have passed to his Heart it had been Mortal you know how Herod perished I may add you know how King Hamlet perished and died by this Ear-Poyson Will Men never take warning King Alexander the Great well answered his Sycophant Courtiers that Diefied him He that empties my Close-stool is not of your Opinion nor did the Wenches that lay with Jupiter and Hercules think them to be Gods or but very lustful beastly Goatish Gods Jupiter appeared to Io more like a Bull than a God Now continues Mr. Rous this Man Manwaring gives Participation of Omnipotence to Kings tho a Part may seem to quality yet all doth seem again to fill up that Qualification and very dangerously if we remember that God saith of himself I am a jealous God He goes about to destroy this Kingdom and Common-wealth by his Divinity But do we find in Scripture such a destroying-Divinity yes yes if we believe a whole Synod and believe the Constitutions of 40 my Lord mischievous Canons of 40 I may well say and so may all mine and this poor Kingdom too ruined and undone by such Synchophant-Tantivee-Doctrines Surely I find there namely in Scripture continues Mr. Rous that God is the God of Order and not of Confusion and that the Son of God came to save mark that my Lord and not to destroy By which it seems he hath not his Divinity mark that too my Lord from God not from the Son of God And that we may be sure he went to Hell for his Divinity he names sundry Jesuits and Friars with whom he hath consulted mark that too and traded for his Divinity But not to be-ly Hell it self the Jesuits are honester than He mark that too for if he had not brought more Hell unto them then he found with them he had not found this Divinity in them which he hath brought forth yea in his Quotations he hath used those Shifts and Falshoods for which Boys are to be whip'd mark that too in Schools and yet by them he thinks to carry the Cause or a Kingdom mark that too my Lord you see the Ground and Occasion of this Difference betwixt your Lordship and my self begun in the Presence of Mayor and Aldermen of Colchester is not private Piques but an adjudged Case long ago in many Parliaments and called in 1628 in Parliament The Case of a Kingdom and so it is and will be See the Book called The Loyalty of the last Long-Parliament wherein tho there was a long Bill of Pensioners who may yet live to be hanged for it is far worse than robbing by the High-way said to be found amongst them such as the Treasurer had gratified with two hundred thirty one thousand six hundred and two Pounds in two Years time Oh liberal on a poor Kingdom 's Stock and so empty an Exchequer as the Widows and Orphans howl Yet the major part of the Parliament did and for ever will continue true English-men to the ancient Constitution and Frame of Government and the Fundamental Laws the Scoff of Tories and Tantivies This Loyal Long-Parliament plainly told the King in their Address against Duke Lauderdale Feb. 23. 75. not 41 nor 40. that he was abused saying Some Persons in great Employment under your Majesty have fomented Designs contrary to the Interest of your Majesty and People intending to deprive us of our Ancient Rights and Liberties that thereby they might the more easily introduce the Popish Religion and an Arbitrary Form of Government well coupled in troth Papist and Tantivie together to the ruine and destruction of the whole Kingdom c. then particularizing The Duke of Lauderdale did publickly affirm in the Presence of your Majesty sitting in Council I am apt to think your Lordship heard him and before divers of your Majesties Subjects then attending that your Majesties Edicts ought to be obeyed for your Majesties Edicts are equal with Laws and ought to be observed in the first place Thereby justifying the said Declaration of March 15 71. and the Proceedings thereupon and declaring his Inclinations to Arbitrary Councels in terrour of your Majesties good Subjects They conclude thus We do therefore in all Humility implore your Sacred Majesty That for the ease of the Hearts of your People who are possest with extream Grief and Sorrow to see your Majesty thus abused and the Kingdom endangered that your Majesty would graciously be pleased to remove the said Duke of Lauderdale from all his Employments c. Wherein if his Majesty has gratified his People to ease their Hearts from the said Terrour your Lordship knows better than I. And in their Addresses against the King's Declaration of Indulgence they tell his Majesty plainly but with all Humility That Penal Statutes in Matters Ecclesiastical mark that cannot be suspended but by Act of Parliament and yet some Judges have been of another Opinion I know who and where and when when time shall serve And tho his Majesty tell them in answer That they question his Power in Ecclesiasticks which he finds not done in the Reign of any of his Ancestors And in fine His Majesty did desert the misinformations of Earwigs and adhered as most safe to his great Councel of Parliament and did cancel that Declaration notwithstanding the suggested-Power in Ecclesiasticks and declared it should be no President for the future Let
Skill or Learning or Vndeastanding in Laws and State-matters with meer Cassock men meer Synod-men that never yet were lick't into other Form or Fashion than their own Tantivee Will and Inclination undisciplin'd unrefin'd in Judgment by the study of the Law of the Land the study of men and the Laws and Tempers and Constitutions of Forreign Kingdoms more whereof I have seen than some Tantivee Circingles ever read off in Heylin's Geography if they have it And do you compare my Knowledg-Salt-water-Souldiers Knowledg in State-matters Do you compare us that have been Souldiers at least on this side the Water in times of Peace with meer Cassockmen I Hope there is no Compare at least the Comparison is as odious as groundless But I had almost forgot the Provost of Eaton where I left him Mr. Rous to the Speaker saying For a Conclusion to give you the true Character of this man Dr. Edward Manwaring whom I never saw I will shew it you by one whom I know to be contrary to him Samuel we know all to be a true Prophet now we read of Samuel that he writ the Law of the Kingdom in a Book and laid it up before the Lord. And this he did as Mr. Manwarings own Authors affirms That the King may know what to command and the People what to obey But Mr. Manwaring finding the Law of this Kingdom written in Books tears it in pieces and that in the presence of the Lord right Tantivee in a Pulpit that the King may not know what to command nor the People what to obey Thus Mr. Manwaring being contrary to a true Prophet must needs be a false One and the Judgment of a false Prophet mark that belongs to him I have shewed you an evil Tree that bringeth forth evil fruit and now it rests for you to determine whether the following sentence shall follow cut it down and cast it into the fire Thus have you seen my Lord what a Pother and a do these Clergymen have made in the Kingdom how Parliaments have been plagu'd with these Tantivee-Jehu's nay Kings most of all and themselves also the Rash Phaeton's setting the world in a flame by ambitiously mounting and driving switch and spur Gallop and Tantivee in a Chariot they have Pride to mount but no skill to drive sindging and burning themselves to boot in flames of their own kindling In your next Visitation I hope we shall hear no more of these Canons and Constitutions of 40 I wish it for my own sake that would avoid all occasions of Contests Differences Suits and Disputes with all men more especially with you but I wish it also more for your own sake you will most repent it in Conclusion if it take Air and be nois'd abroad so loud till it come to the Ears of the King and Parliament when we got one His Majesty has promis't his Subjects frequent Parliaments the Fundamental Laws which whosoever attempts to undermine and liker another Faux to blow up it will be his ruin and fall heavy on his head Better leave no Lands no Fields to our Heirs than Akeldama's only or Fields of Blood or else in base Tenure at the Will of the Lord much worse at the mercy of every Court Sycophant that may well beg us and our Estates for Fools if we be willing to part with our Fundamental Laws for Manwaring's Sycophantry or your so magnified Can. 1. of the Constitutions of 40. And in your next Visitation not my Sufferings will so far daunt the English-Clergy but that they will remember they are Englishmen not Scots nor Irish Tories nor Lambeth Canon-men especially when their Eyes are a little more opened with more Naked-Truth for Magna est veritas praevalebit Men will not long be blinded under pretence of Loyalty to abuse the King the Constitutions of the Kingdom and themselves and their Posterities nor be willing to bold their Liberties their Estates their Lives their Wives and their Livings ad nutum Episcopi no nor ad libitum Regis but ad libitum Legis Oh vile Slaves willing by cowardly Pedantry or ambitious Sycophantry to be Hoodwink't and led by the Nose to a certain Precipice and ruine or to have a Ring put through their Nose and led about like Bears for Sport or Collars about their Necks because enamell'd perhaps or made of Silver and snapping and biteing and snarling at him above all others that would take the Collars off wnuld unringle them would unhoodwink the blind-men Buffs in spight of their Teeth I 'le do 't I am resolv'd let them snarle and bite poor hearts it is their nature they cannot help it nor can I in reason expect other requital of my Charity I know them the men and their Communication the men and their innate envy and peevish revenge In time they will grow better when prejudice and passion makes them not forget that they are Englishmen not Irish-men Christians not Bigots and willing to be governed by our ancient English Constitutions and Laws not the Manwaring and Laud's Canons and Constitutions of 40. Have we with so much adoe been puzzling all this while these 40 Years and are we not yet got over the Lambeth-Canons and Constitutions of 40 must the Church and Kingdom twice be split on the same Rock some men endeavour it might and main or else the Loyal Long-Parliament were not the Happy House of Commons as the King styles them at least not happy in their Intelligence if they struck so violently without sufficient Reason against Duke Lauderdail and the Earl of Danby for this very cause of the Kingdom The Good Old Cause without a Sarcasm Good for the King and Kingdom the best and surest if not the only way to make the King and Kingdom happy safe and pleasantly united against which the old and true foundation and principle none ever yet attempted but it prov'd his ruine bringing the Old House over his Head And when you hav impartially weighed the mischiefs that have attended these new Sybthorpian Doctrines Manwaring and Dr. Lauds false Canon of 40. you and I shall never more quarrel nay let us now shake hands enter the Ring again and try the other touch in a New Tryal or let us shake hands and be friends and on Condition you be so Good Natur'd as to remit this Vnconscionable and Outragious Verdict I to shew my Good Nature in requital will Remit the Injuries aforesaid the Original Sin that has tainted the Consequent Differences and Contests I hope I have in this Long Letter given your Lordship such sufficient satisfaction about the Canons of 40 the vanity the Mischief and Falshood especially of the 1. Canon thereof that like eager Disputants we shall end just where we began and yet both be wiser and better and the Kingdom too for this Contest and then this Outragious and Vnconscionable and Vnreasonable Verdict will have a Happy Issue in either Curing the St. Anthonies Fire Heat and Tantivee-Flame that has not
only endamaged Me but Endanger'd the Peace of the Kingdom if we believe the late Long and Loyal Parliament or if not convert at least convict and rise up in Judgment against those Erostratus's that get great Titles by setting the Church on Fire again by such Tantivee-Heats as produc 't and brought forth that destructive-Canon 1. of the Constitutions of 40 and burnt a fine Church Yet some tell me that all this Long Letter is but labour in vain that you are set upon a Will and Revenge and whom you once hate you know not how to Remit but I have other hopes surely I do not wash a Blackamore nor preach thus long a Sermon to as little purpose as St. Bede when he preacht to a heap of Stones or as if I were preaching to the Rocks near Silly called The Bishop and his Clerks you cannot be so Stony-hearted I think but either you will Remit the Verdict and be friends or accept of those Honourable and profitable Proposals which I hear make you of a New-Tryal and if you will do neither the World shall know it that they may judge betwixt you and me and my Six substantial Witnesses and your single interessed Witness that swears for his own ends to get me out of my Rights which you have unlawfully indeavoured to invade by an Illegal sequestration the cause of the words betwixt us and the Canons of 40 the cause and first occasion of your displeasure against me which made you so willing in defiance of 1 Tim. 5. 19. Gods Holy Word to receive an accusation nay and prosecute it too upon the single Testimony of an in famous wretch who wants the necessary accoutrement of a Lyar a good Memory whom I have begun to prosecute for the Perjury I hope you will not still countenance him against such a Man as I am I have also prosecuted for Perjury your other Apparitors Groom Martin and your six Procters of Doctors-Commons blush for them help them not for for shame I hope no noli prosequi nay I am advis'd to make an attaint against the Jury I have in this Letter made very sharp Reflexions and corroding Epithites of the Laudian-Faction and Tantivee-Principle It is not rashly done but upon good Advice such spreading Cancers and dangerous cannot be corrected check't nor cured without Precipitate Corrosives For this Lambeth Divinity ruins Humanity Polity and Policy We do not live in Muscovy where John Valevodsky I believe I do not write it right the Muscovy-Duke and Emperour of Russia Tyrannically laid a Tribute upon the people of several bushels of living Fleas and in default an outragious Fine and arbitrry If it had been bushels of dead Fleas I believe I knew where he might have been fitted the last Summer but Fleas have a skittish Property and are sooner kill'd than jail'd or put into pound except they be dealt with as the Spanish Fryar dealt with the Musquetoes of the Bay of Campeachy in America namely he Excommunicated them and then every body knows it is not very far to the Jail or pound The Tyrant had as good have seized their Lands their Liberties their Lives and their Wives without the Ceremony of Bushels of Fleas only to pick a quarrel For so the Tyrannical Bashaws of Egypt at this day bring thither a Ship load of Tin and without the Philosopher's Stone turns it immediately to a Ship load of Silver by sending to every man according to his Estate a quantity of Tin commanding them to send him the like quantity of Silver and so the Bargain is made or if they do not like the Bargain a Mute goes along with the Janizaries and does the mens business with a Bowstring if they do not cheat them and save them the Labour by making use of his own Bed-Cords before they come nigh when he first hears they are coming and knows their Errand Tyranny needs no Ceremony but a long Sword These arbitrary Cruelties are common in Turky Muscovy and a little I fear in France and the Priests make them believe they have a Jus Divinum and express Texts of Alcoran in English holy Scripture for all But the Canons of 40. are not yet Canonical my Lord nor ever shall if I can help it though you prosecute me with all the united Power privy Whispers Affidavits Verdicts Articles Libels Supplicavits Informations Declarations Suspensions Silencings Jails and Bails or your severest weapon namely what the Fryar frighted the Flys with Excommunications But I have by this fair Proposal so profitable to you acquit my self in the Judgment of all Ingenuous men for if it be profit or my money you seek that I will secure if you recover by an indifferent Jury if Honour that is better secur'd by this Proposal for it can be no Honour to you if you dare not try the cause before not a pitckt Jury for the nonce but such a Jury as is indifferently return'd upon other Tryals And if nothing will prevail with you but you 'l keep the catching hold you have got nor listen to any thing but revenge revenge except I make dishonourable and base Submissions then Scabbard be gone fight on be bold And let him fall that first says hold I believe you do not read my Books for if you had impartially weighed the 7th Page of Naked Truth second part second Edition I should have been more in your books then the Canons and Constitutions forty read 21 Hen. 8. 13. or Acts. 6. 2. 4. against Spiritual-Apostolical-persons medling with temporal Councels and Employments disdain not to bedrawn out of a Pit with rags and do by me as you would be done by when time shall serve for these contests are but a kind of hot-cockles there will be no sport if we do not lye down in our turns especially when I prophesy so right why and how and who it is that smote me Neither despise nor reject with scorn the good Admonitions in this Letter if I had not lov'd you well and better than you deserve at my hands I would not have bestowed so much pains upon you But there is seldome a greater Plague attending Greatness than the flattery of their own judgments and conceits as well as the flattery of Sycophants without but what non-sense is it The King can make a man a Knight but he cannot make the Knight one jot the wiser or more learmed he may be the poorer for his Title The King can make a Bishop but all the Kings in Christendome cannot with the Lord convey Learning and Wisdom but usually less for a Lord-Bishop has more Diversions from his Studies and Books by attending Councils and Parliaments and Confirmations and Procurations and Visitations Promotions Suits and vexations that it is next to impossible that he can study so much as a Country Vicar Robert Grotshead Bishop of Lincoln writ a Letter Monitory to the Pope and the distance betwixt them two was was far greater than betwixt your Lordship and my self nay Abbot
past if he had had no other work but to fence and ward off the Blows made at him Then six Proctors they swear against him Articles in the King's-Bench and procure the Writ of Supplicavit against him a Writ seldom granted against any in these Days as we are told by the Compleat Sollicitor p. 73 74. He says he remembers that about eight Years ago in the days of Usurpation for his Book was printed Anno. Dom. 1666. a troublesome malicious Priest sued one namely a Supplicavit against some of his Neighbours but he had not heard of any since and the Parties craving it should take their Corporal Oath that it is not desired for any Malice Hatred or Envy to the Party surely if the said six Proctors swore it they swore it freely heartily and clearly Besides tho 't is a Writ rarely granted yet when it is granted it is more rarely granted against any but common Rogues and Villains common Barretors and Man-Catchers Is there greater Indignity than to be crucified amongst Thieves and Rogues It has been the Lot of his Betters tho the Defendant offered an Affidavit in his behalf made before Judg Dolben by three Worthy Citizens and desired with all Humility that as the Bench had heard of one side Affidavits against him that they would please to leave one Ear open to hear some Affidavits for him and some Pleas in his Defence intending to insist upon the Statute of 2 Edw. 6. 1. which if it be in force then the Ecclesiastical Courts sit not legally nor can they be called by Names bad enough and if that Statute be not in force then why did the Lord Chief Justice Pemberton insist upon it so lately at the King's-Bench Bar and also Mr. Rotherham for their Client Mr. Weald of Much-Waltham in Essex about the time that the last Parliament sate at Westminster telling the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs that he would not urge it warmly or Words to the like Effect because he perceiv'd his Lordship was not prepar'd at that time to give an answer to that Statute or Words to the like Effect A moot-Case belike then and a hard Case to bind a Man to the Good-Behaviour or threaten him with a Jaile when not wiser in the construction of the force of a Statute than the Lord Chief Justice But nothing would be admitted to be pleaded in the Defendants Defence but utrum horum that is not false Latin whatsoever quisquis is Sad choice alas Bail or a Jail There is no fence against a Flail They that will hear but of one Ear here shall be made to hear on both Ears one Day the Day of Judgment And tho Mr. Shepherd in his Office of a Justice of the Peace pag. 83. says that in taking a Recognizance upon a Supplicavit the ordinary Sum is ten or twenty Pounds and difficultly enough too to be procured by a poor Rogue tho a great Rogue yet since the time and Sum is Arbitrary and in the Breast of the Justices no less than a hundred Pounds must Mr. Hickeringill be bound in for affronting the Men of Doctors-Commons if the Proctors swore through-stitch nay one of the Bench stood stifly for 200 Pounds that the Principal should Recognize but in that he was over-ruled and four Sureties in 50 l. apiece whereas a poor common-Rogue could hardly have procur'd two Manucaptors Ay Ay he that will have Honour must sometimes pay for his Ambition But as if all these troubles were too little for the Defendant besides the Weekly Affronts By the Weekly News-mongers in their Tantivy-Pamphlets not to mention those familiar little friendly Courtships and Caresses of Villain Rogue Colchester-Hick the great Scribler of the Nation Daring Nat. Thompson reports him to be convict of Perjury tho Nat. hides his viler Head for the same and dare not give an appearance for himself and his Consort to Mr. Godfrey Woodward Attorney who has long been prepar'd for him if he could come at him for villifying and aspersing such a Man as Mr. Hickeringill with so pernicious and false a Slander all the Kingdom over But these are small Matters loss of Reputation and to be called and accounted a common Rogue common Barretor common Villain a small matter Oh! But in the Neck of all comes me decima unda the tenth Wave an Action of 5000 l. thick brought by a great Bishop too of great Interest great Power great Friends great Parts great Learning and great all over against a poor Priest or younger Brother a Minorite to Reform him if any Body could tell how and make him better Nay it will be dangerous this whole long Year for Mr. Hickeringill to say as did the Emperour at a General Council when at the first setting out and opening thereof the good Fathers were gravell'd and at a loss where first to begin to 'mend the Ecclesiastical Frame being so horribly out of Frame â Minoritis cries one of the great Ones very politickly no quoth the Emperour rather a Majoritis let us first begin to 'mend the great Ones The Naked Truth with ease we tear Not such as Vizor-Masques do wear For Vizors sconce and skreen Men here But will not always last I fear This fam'd Trial came on March 8 1681. at the Nisi prius Bar before the Lord Chief Justice Sir Francis Pemberton The Jury by the Sheriff of the County of Essex were thus return'd viz. Essex ss Nomina Jur. inter Henr. Epis Lond. qui tam c. Quer. Et Edmond Hickeringill Cler. Defend Andreas Jenner de Dunmow Magnâ Bar. Ricardus Everard de Waltham Magnâ Bar. Edwardus Smith de Thoydonmount Bar. Willielmus Appleton de Shenfield Bar. Johannes Bramston de Roxwell Miles Balnei Marcus Guyon de Coggeshall Magnâ Miles Johannes Marshal Miles Willielmus Maynard de Waltham Stow Ar. Willielmus Glascock de Farnham Ar. Jacobus Milbourn de Dunmow Magnâ Ar. Alexander Prescot de Mountnessing Ar. Willielmus Pert de eâd. Ar. Samuel Hare de Leigh Ar. Anthonius Abdey de Kelvedon Ar. Ricardus Ballet de Hatfield Broad-Oak Ar. Johannes Meade de Wenden Ar. Johannes Tendring de Baddow Magnâ Ar. Willielmus Petre de Stanford Rivers Ar. Henricus Paschal de Baddow Magnâ Ar. Henricus Humfreys de Westhamingfield Ar. Ricardus How de Ingate-stone Ar. Ricardus Stanes de Altâ Ongar Ar. Aurelius Piercey Wiseman de Wimbish Ar. Edwardus Taverner de Canfield Ar. None of the Jury were challenged by either side Most of the Gentlemen first named in the Pannel appear'd and serv'd being sworn a little Councel tremblingly made a shift to read the Heads of the Declaration viz. The Declaration in English faithfully translated out of the Lawyers Latin was to this Effect viz. Trinity Term xxxiii R. R. Carol. 2. HENRY Bishop of London one of the Prelates of this Realm of England as well for our Soveraign Lord the King as for himself complaineth of Edmond Hickeringill Clerk in the Custody of the Marshal of the Marshalsea for that whereas in
the Statute made in the Parliament of King Richard the Second after the Conquest at Glocester in the Second Year of his Raign held amongst other things it is Enacted and strictly Charged under great pain That none should be so bold as to devise speak or relate of the Prelates Dukes Earls Barons and other Nobles and Great Men of the Realm of England nor of the Chancellor Treasurer or Clerk of the Privy Seal Steward of the King's House Justice of the one Bench or other nor of any Great Officers of the said Realm any false News Lyes or any such Falsities whereof any Scandal or Discord within the said Realm may arise And whosoever this should do should incur the Penalty otherwise thereof ordained by the Statute of Westminster the First as in the said Statute more fully it is contained Yet the said Edmond Hickeringill the Statute aforesaid not regarding nor the Penalty of the said Statute any ways fearing but craftily designing the Good Name State Credit Dignity and Honour of the said Bishop to hurt and blacken and him the said Bishop into great Displeasure Distrust and Discredit of our said Lord the King that now is and of the great Men and great Officers of this Realm of England and also of divers worthy Persons Subjects of our said Lord the King that now is to bring the fourth day of April in the three and thirtieth Year of the Raign of our said Lord the King at Chelmnesford in the County of Essex divers false News and horrible Lyes of the said Henry then and yet being Bishop of London and one of the Prelates of this Realm of England in the presence and hearing of divers of the Subjects of our said Lord the King falsly maliciously and scandalously devised spoke related published and proclaimed in these English Words following viz. The Lord Bishop of London meaning himthe said Lord Bishop of London is a bold daring impudent Man for sending some Heads in Divinity to all his Clergy in those parts meaning the Clergy within the Diocess of London in those parts which are contrary to Law meaning the Laws of the Realm And of his further Malice the said Edmond afterwards to wit the said fourth day of April in the three and thirtieth Year abovesaid at Chelmnesford in the said County of Essex scandalously and maliciously and further to defame and scandalize the said Bishop likewise devised spoke related published and proclamed of the said Henry then and yet Bishop of London upon a Discourse of the said Bishop then and there had these other false News and horrible Lies in these English Words following that is to say His Lordship meaning the said Henry Lord Bishop of London is very ignorant And the said Edmond further craftily designing not only the good Name State Credit Dignity and Honour of the said Bishop to hurt and blacken and him the said Bishop into further great Displeasure Distrust and Discredit â—our said Soveraign Lord the King that now is and of the great Men and â—â—eat Officers of this Kingdom of England and of divers other worthy Subjects of our said Lord the King to bring but also to cause him to endure the pain and peril of the Laws and Statutes of this Realm against Traitors and such Malefactors made afterwards to wit the said fourth day of April in the said three and thirtieth Year of the Raign of our said Soveraign Lord the King that now is at Chelmnesford aforesaid in the said County divers other false News and horrible Lyes of the said Henry then and yet Bishop of London and one of the Prelates of this Realm in the presence and hearing of divers of the King's Subjects scandalously falsly and maliciously devised spoke related published and declared in these English Words following viz. I meaning him the said Edmond Hickeringill can prove His Lordship meaning the said Henry Lord Bishop of London to be concerned in the Damnable Plot meaning the Popish Plot to destroy the King and subvert the Government of this Realm late discovered By Means of which said several false News and horrible Lyes the said Bishop is not only hurt and scandalized in his Reputation Honour and Dignity and the said Bishop hath lost the Favour good Opinion and Esteem which our said Soveraign Lord the King and other great Men and Prelates of this Realm afore towards him did bear and divers Rumors and Scandals between divers of the Nobles of this Realm and great Men and other the King's Subjects upon the Occasion aforesaid within this Realm are risen and spread abroad and great Scandals and Discords by reason of the Premises between the said Bishop and others of this Realm are risen and daily more and more are likely to arise to the great disturbance of the Peace and Tranquillity of the Realm to the Contempt of our said Lord the King and great Scandal of the said Bishop and against the Form of the said Statute of Richard the Second to the Bishop's Damage 5000 l. and therefore he brings this Suit Issue Non Cul This Trial of so great expectation came on about nine a Clock in the Morning Wednesday the 8th of March 1681. To prove the Declaration only one single Witness was produced for the Plantiff namely one Samuel Harris Clerk Witnesses sworn on the behalf of the Defendant were The Right Honourable Edward Earl of Lincoln Mr. Benjamin Edgar Mr. Ambrose Flanner Robert Potter Henry Bull Christopher Hill and Daniel Howlet all except that Noble Earl Parishioners of the Parish of St. Buttolph's in Colchester and present when the Words were pretended to be spoken Actions for Words ought to be precisely and punctually prov'd and all the Words together without addition or diminution otherwise as the Defendant who pleaded his own Cause told the Court the Sense must differ except they be taken together with the antecedent and subsequent Discourse in sensu conjuncto not diviso jointly and not severally adding that he had a thousand times said that there is no God and yet that saying that looks so scandalously Atheistically and Blasphemously taken disjointed and severally from the foregoing Words are really innocent and harmless and have been spoken a thousand times by every Man that has a thousand times read or repeated Psal 14. 1. The Fool hath said in his Heart there is no God So also in infinite Instances as to say It is not lawful to love God nor to 〈◊〉 our Neighbour dissemblingly or hypocritically take away the last Words and 〈◊〉 looks scandalously and most prophanely but taken altogether no harm all but good and true and like that of the Apostle Let Love be without Dissimulation The said Harris Witness for the Plantiff had got the Words pretty well by Heart but yet did not swear them so roundly off as was expected For as to the first Words namely The Lord Bishop of London is a bold daring impudent Man for sending some Heads of Divinity to all his Clergy in these