because in their making there was no Consent of an House of Commons and the House of Commons being but Delegates themselves can not Delegate the Peoples Interest in the Legislative to others for Delegatus non pâ—test delegare it was an Office of Personal Trust reposed in the Persons Elâ—cted to be Members of Parliament to treat with the King and assent to equal Laws in behalf of the People they could not grant over therefore this Office of Trust to Bishops or a Synod or a Council to treat with the King and assent to Laws for the People but every Member of Parliament ought either to refuse to accept of the Election or if he accept to serve in Person All Books of Canons made by Bishops without consent of Parliament void and not by Proxy assign or subdelegate in so great a Trust as to join in making Laws for the Publick Safety and Peace Hence will follow therefore That all Ecclesiastical Canons and Laws of Synods and Councils prohibiting Marriage without Publick Bans or Episcopal Licences and all Canons prohibiting Marriage in time of Advent Septuagesima and Rogation and all Canons prohibiting Marriage within degrees of Consanguinity and Affinity not prohibited by the Moral Law of God and all Canons prohibiting Marriage not made by the Ceremonies of a Priest and Temple and all Canons of the Council of Trent making null and void all Marriages not made before a Priest and two Witnesses are all in themselves utterly void for the House of Commons never assented to their making and all Laws prohibitory of Marriage being before shewn to be contrary to the Moral Law of God and to come from the Devil P. 52. and it being here shewn that they have no consent of Parliament such Books of Canons must in both respects be of necessity null and void as being neither the Laws of God nor Man in England but of the Devil according to which Books of Canons Bishops therefore Judging of Marriage contrary to the Moral Law of God and without any positive Law of Man their Judgment must likewise be void being according to the Law of the Devil and such Persons are no fit Judges who judg according to such Laws 7. They take to themselves the Fines and Penalties of their own Judgments That the Sole and Final Cause why Bishops so eagerly contest for the Jurisdiction of Marriage is Filthy Lucre is shewn before P. 52 53. c. and the same is so great a Pillar of the Kingdom of Anti-Christ that Pope ruin'd where Episcopal Jurisdiction of Marriage is taken away take but away Episcopal Jurisdiction of Maâ—riage the Papal Power is immediately ruin'd in those Provinces wheresoever it is done 1. In regard of the infinite Treasure he heaps hereby which appears before P. 52 53. 2. In regard of the Power he gains hereby over Kings and Princes in assuming to himself the Judgment of Filiations and Successions to Kingdoms 3. By enticing Princes to unlawful Marriages contrary to the Moral Law of God and procuring them to take his Dispensations for thereby such Prince and his Successors will be in great danger as to his Title unless he expose his Interest and Religion to obtain assistance from the See of Rome which made Philip the Second King of Spain who Married Queen Mary so furious to support the Catholick Religion in the Low Countreys by Fire and Sword and to make a Law That none should succeed him in the Government of those Provinces unless he took an Oath to maintain the Catholick Religion there and maintain the Authority of the Church of Rome And this made Queen Mary so cruelly furious against Protestants in England the Title of her Mothers Marriage and her Succession depending on the Popes protection And wheresoever any Prince is promoted by the Popes Canon Laws contrary to the Right of Succession instituted by the Moral Law of God such Prince to defend his Title against the right Heir by the Moral Law of God and his Successors become assured Vassals to the Religion and See of Rome 4. The Pope by procuring and dispensing Marriages of Catholick Ladies with Protestant Princes gains a numerous increase of Catholicks in those Dominions and many times turns the whole Tide to carry Tribute to Tyber But to return to the lesser Rivers the Bishops 't is no small stream of gain flows in to them too by such an unjust Power of Bribing themselves to Injustice by exercising so Arbitrary a Proceeding as to Fine and Commute what they please and putting it in their own Purses which should go to the Publick Treasury 8. They License Dispense and Pardon all Offences against the Law for Money It is to no purpose to make Penal Laws if the Judg hath liberty to License Dispense and Pardon Offences against them and nothing better enables him to do it than to allow a Judg to Fine or Commute and to put the Fine or Commutation Money in his own Purse now the Power of Licensing Dispensing and Pardoning Offences against the Laws of Marriage or any other Law must of necessity so corrupt the Judg as he will protect and increase the Vice he pretends to suppress Hence the Popes Taxa Camerae and the Bishops Courts increase more Fornication and Adultery than aâ—l the loose Women in the Countrey They are therefore no fit Judges of Marriage 9. They cannot be known whether they are Protestants or Papists if Bishops The Laws of Marriage have a very great influence on all Religions and in all Nations but more specially God hath been pleased in England to make the same the chief means and occasion in the time of H. 8. of planting the Protestant it is therefore of very great concern for the Preservation of the same that the Judges of Marriage be Protestants and it cannot be known whether they are so or no if Bishops 1. Because the excess of Riches which the Jurisdiction of Marriage Filtation and Succession especially to Kingdoms carries with it and all other Profits of a Bishoprick joined therewith are so great as may be too much a Temptation to any unless a Saint by Miracle to be of any Religion to obtain them and Christ himself Matth. 19 24. makes this Temptation so difficult to be resisted that he saith It is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven yea he makes a Miracle necessary for any to obtain Riches and Heaven together for he saith Verse 26. With men this is impossible but with God all things are possible And Austin in imitation of this confesseth in effect the same difficile imò impossibile est praesentibus futucis bonis frui It is difficult yea impossible to enjoy the good things of this World and of that to come Damasus Bishop of Rome endeâ—vour'd to convert Praetextatus a great Heathen Phâ—losopher to Christianity he answer'd him Make me Bishop of Rome and I will turn
withal Threatens a Proceeding against his Person Becket thereupon flies the Realm and appeals to the Pope and procures an Excommunication from the Pope of such Bishops as kept not their Oath of Canonical Obedience to him who was their Arch-Bishop The King of France Intercedes for Becket and the Pope Threatned Excommunication against the King himself if he Restored him not The King out of a Superstitious Fear of his Excommunication as appears by his Receiving afterward the Servile Penance imposed on him for Becket's death Restores Becket again to his See of Canterbury whither again arrived he continued notwithstanding the favour of the Kings Restauration as bad as before in Prosecuting his Excommunications he had got at Rome against such Bishops as sided with the King of which when the Excommunicated Bishops complained to the King and moved thereby his Passion He cried out Shall I never be quiet for this Priest if I had any about me that lov'd me they would find some way or other to Rid me of this trouble Whereupon Four Knights standing by took their Journey to find the Arch-Bishop whom they found at Church on the steps where they strook him on the Head with their Swords and killed him which though in the manner of doing it was no way Justifiable being without lawful Hearing and Trial Yet 't is very manifest that the Arch-Bishop by the Common Law it self without the trouble of an Attainder by Parliament might have been proceeded against Legally by Indictment of High-Treason and he was manifestly Guilty for it was by the Common Law High-Treason to appeal to a Foreign Prince And likewise for any Subject to bring an Excommunication from Rome against another Subject without the Kings Assent was Treason for this was the ready way to give the Pope Power to Raise Rebellions against the King when he pleased Bishops Traitors to King John The Bishops in the time of King John Conspired with the Pope and the French and the Temporal Barons and the Pope laid an Interdiction or Excommunication on the Kingdom for Six Years Three Months and Fourteen Days during which the Church Doors were shut up and there was neither Exercise of Religion Mass Marriage Baptism or Burial allowed in the Church or Church-Yard 'till the King would Surrender his Crown and take the Kingdom from the Pope and hold it Feudatory from him which the King was by the Treachery of his Bishops deserting him compell'd to do and accordingly he took off the Crown from his Head and laid it at the Feet of Pandulphus the Popes Legate the Pope to dispose of it how he pleased which he kept Three or Four Days from him and would not Restore again but on condition agreed That he and his Successors should hold it of the Pope and pay him for it the Yearly Tribute of a Thousand Marks which was a great Sum in those days besides all the other Tributes and Exactions which the Pope then had from the Subjects but this the King was fain to do before the Excommunication would be taken off from him and his Kingdom which being done and be perceiving himself clear from the Pope Resolved to Raise an Army and be Revenged on the French King whose Pensions had set all this on work against him and accordingly had Levied a very great Army having his Fleet all ready at Portsmouth to have Shipt them The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury thereupon told him He broke his Oath to the Pope at his Absolution if he Warr'd against the French King which in truth the Bishops had themselves by their Treason compell'd Him to To whom the King Replied in a great Passion That he would not defer the Business for his pleasure seeing Lay-Judgment belonged not to him The Arch-Bishop Threatned his Native Sovereign he would Excommunicate him unless he desisted and this was in behalf of a Foreign Prince his Enemy So far could French Pensions prevail with Prelats whereby the King to his great loss was enforced to Dissolve and Disband again his Army in the nick of Time when it was ready for Action Henry the Third the Tempest of the Barons-Wars beginning to Threaten him was asked by Robert Bacon a Frier Predicant What Sea-men feared most that they knew best themselves The Frier Replied My Lard I will tell you It is Petrae Rupes alluding to Petrus de Rupibus The name of the then Bishop of Winchester and under him meaning the whole Body of the Bishops Edward the First that wise and valiant Prince disdaining to be Priest-Ridden as his two Predecessors had been to so great danger of their Persons and Kingdoms and taught by their Experience that it was in vain to think of obliging by Benefits or Oath the Power of those who being a Body United and as it were an Army more firmly Banded under their Arch-Bishop than 't was possible to make the Lay-Nobility to be under their King he began first to Lop off from their Ecclesiastical Auxiliaries such Branches of Royal Power as he could do himself without a Parliament and Anno Reg. 6. Deprived many famous Monasteries of England of their Privileges and took from the Abbot and Covent of Westminster the Return of Writs granted them by the Charter of Henry the third And after he got to be Inacted by Parliament the Statute of Mortmaine against the so enormous Increase of their Temporal Possessions which was so detrimental to the Military Service of the Kingdom and in the Statute of Westminster 2. defalked the Jurisdiction of Bishops and Ecclesiastical Judges He left not here but growing more upon them he Required the Moiety of all their Goods as well Spiritual as Temporal for one year and I think their money and moveables could grow no more the next year which he took in one year And at the first one Sr. John Knight stands up amongst them in their assembly and said Reverend Fathers if any here will Contradict the King's Demand in this Business let him stand out in the midest of this Assembly that his person may be known and seen as one Guilty of the Breach of the King's Peace At which speech they all sate mute and though it put them into Extreme grief and perplexity they yet were fain to yield to his demand Dan. Hist Which if he had been possessed with a dastardly fear of Excommunication he had no more dared to do than his Predecessors Yet some say to be able to deal with his own Bishops he was fain to send the Pope a Furnish of gold for his Chamber to have his Connivence Edward the second Anno Regni 17 after the Overthrow he Received by the Treachery of his own in Scotland Bishops Traitors to E. 2. Caused the Bishop of Hereford to be Arrested and Accused of High treason for aiding the Kings Enemies in their Late Rebellion but he Refused to Answer being a Consecrated Bishop without leave of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury whose Suffragan he was and who he said was
THE Night doth vanish when the Sun appears And from all Clouds the smiling Morning clears Romish Night-Ravens flie ye filthy Fowls And all ye Ceremonial Bats and Owls And Weather-cocks whose painted Feathers strange With every Wind God's Moral Law would change His Law is light the Sun outshines the Torch Which blindly Virgins led to the Church Porch Ye Meadows deck your selves with flowry pride Hear of an Holy Marriage and a Bride Not given by Man but God so great aad wise And by him Married as in Paradise With Beauty bright as Fire but chast and cold As Snow he Crowned her and not with Gold The Issue fair who did not Prophesie Sacred Religion Justice Liberty And Property providing of the best Both Bread and Wine for every Marriage Feast The Morall Law The Ceremonial Law Marriage by the Morall Law of God Vindicated Against all Ceremonial Laws of Popes and Bishops destructive to Filiation Aliment and Succession and the Government of Familyes and Kingdomes The Lord hath been a Witness betweene thee and the Wife of thy youth Mal. 2.14 1680. Linea Recta Proefertur Transversali RELIGION IUSTICE LIBERTY PROPERTY TO THE READER THE Writers both of Nature and Policy agree That the Original of all humane Society was Marriage by which Families were first composed consisting of Men their Wives and Children and after Commonwealths composed of those Families when by the multiplication of Generation they were grown so numerous as to be no longer able to preserve their Religion Liberty Propriety and Lives against one another without some Union of all obnoxious to receive or do Injuries under such Form of Government as was by the whole or major part of the Fathers of Families in their General Conventions of themselves or Representatives Consented and Covenanted for the common Peace and Happiness of all to both which no Constitution of Laws was more necessary than those which concern'd Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession whereon not only private but publick Peace and War often depended and therefore Marriage being the Ordinance of God and not of Man it was impossible to lay any secure Foundation of the Rights of the same except on the Moral Law of God and no other was long observed either by the Jews or Gentiles than what was as Christ saith from the beginning till to break in pieces the Divine Tables of the same the Devil and the Priest conspired together to set up the Golden Calf of their Ceremonies and that Gods Ordinance should be null and void without them and no probation should be admitted of their performance but the Certificate of the Bishop or High-Priest by which as to matter of Succession to Inheritances and Kingdoms They bound their Kings with Chains and their Nobles with Fetters of Iron God was pleased to make the Contention concerning a Marriage between H. 8. and the Pope the occasion of breaking off some of the Links and of being a beginning of the Protestant Religion and Liberty and I hope he doth now offer the like or a greater occasion of propagating both to the present Age and Posterity and not only to break all the Reliques of the Chains but to file off the Collars themselves whereby the Bishop of Rome and the Provincial Bishops have long so gauled the Necks of Princes and People through all Christendom to the easing of which Burdens I should be glad if thou and so many other more fit than my self would lend your hands but seeing so many seeming to sleep in the midst of so great a danger I hope it ought not to offend if I hereby endeavour to awaken you and to be therein as I ought to be to my Power Your Servant Will. Lawrence THE CONTENTS Of the First Book BY what Law Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession ought not and ought to be Judged p. 1. Not to be Judged by the Law of Moses or Customes of the Jews p. 2 Not to be Judged by the Laws and Customes of Heathen Nations p. 10 Not to be Judged by the Law Civil Canon or Feudal p. 21 Not to be Judged by the Law of Mahomet p. 26 Not to be Judged by Ecclesiastical Laws p. 31 All Allegations of Coke in behalf of Ecclesiastical Laws answer'd ib. Of the mischiefs ensue from Ecclesiastical Laws p. 43 1. All Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage were invented by Daemons Pagan Priests or Popes ib. The History of the Devil appearing in the shape of Christ to Dr. d ee and tempting him and his Seer Kelly to Community of Wives p. 45 All prohibition of Marriage or Meat in any Ceremony or Circumstance not prohibited by the Moral Law of God came from the Devil p. 52 2. The Final Causes of all Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage variant from the Moral Law of God were Lust Covetousness and Ambition of the Priest p. 53 3. They pester the Three Kingdoms with an unnecessary and excessive multitude of Laws p. 57 4. They corrupt the choicest Protestant Wits in their Education with Principles of Popery and Slavery p. 59 5. They introduce divers weights and measures of Justice in the same People ib. 6. They compell the Subjects ad aliud Tribunal than Caesars Judgment Seat ad aliud Examen than per legem terrae ad aliud judicium than legale judicium Parium ib. 7. They expose the Subjects to Circuit of Action Subornation Perjury and to be ground between two Milstones of interferring Jurisdictions Spiritual and Temporal 8. Papal Laws of Marriage are inconsistent with a Protestant Priesthood ib. Not to be Judged by such Laws of England Scotland or Ireland as are Reliques of Popery and contrary to the Law of God Of the Law making Marriage a Sacrament p. 65 Of the profound Popery of the Common Lawyers of Transubstantiation of two Persons into one Person and the mischiefs thereof p. 66 A Note taken at Kings-Bench-Bar of the miraculous Transubstantiation of a Shoulder of Mutton betwixt a Man and his Wife p. 71 Of the Law of Transubstantiation of the Children of the Wife into the Children of the Husband if within the Four Seas and of Intails p. 72 A further descant on the words of Littleton and Coke concerning the same and of Intails on Marriages depending thereon p. 73 75 Of the barbarous Law of Illegitimation or making Children incapable to succeed to the Goods of their Parents the Reformation thereof by the Emperor Anastasius and the Deformation of the same again by the Strumpet Theodora and succeeding Popes and Bishops p. 79 That unlawful Marriages of Parents ought not to Illegitimate their Children p. 80 Illegitimation of Children shews Popes and Bishops worse than Pagans Infidels Beasts Monsters Serpents p. 82 Intails Feminine cut off by Adoption or Institution by the Father of his natural Children Heirs ib. Of the Law of Consensus non Concubitus facit Matrimonium p. 83 Of the Pagan Goddess Juno and the Popish Mother of St. Kentigern both got with Child without a Man p. 85 Of the
we thee an hungred or a thirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in Prison and did not minister unto thee Then shall he answer them saying Verily I say unto you in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me And these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the Righteous into Life Eternal It may be much doubted what account these inferior Judicial Proceedings of Exactions of Pledges and Bail before Summons Outlawries Excommunicato Capiendo's Penalties Forfeitures Confiscations Arrests and Imprisonment before Judgment will be able to give at the Supream Judgment they being all point Blank contrary to the Judicial Precepts of Christ And this Humanity and Mercy to Prisoners that are Poor and unable to pay hath so far prevailed amongst most Nations and with the Civil Law and with the Law of Scotland that in all these Cessio Bonorum if a Prisoner in Execution for Debt makes a Cessio Bonorum that is assigns his whole Estate he hath left by Inventary on Oath to the Creditor he ought to be set at liberty and certainly the Arresting of Debtors without giving warning or time necessary and who are not able to pay before Judgment or detaining them in Prison after Judgment is not only as hath been already said hurtful to the Creditor himself but to the Publick the same being destructive to Trade and likewise to the Peace for Civil Wars and Seditions have been caused both in the Grecian Roman and many other Commonwealths by the Cruel Prosecution and Imprisonments by Creditors of their Debtors and I remember we received often advertisement from our Army in Scotland to desire us to restrain our Letters of Caption from Arrests of Debtors and that we fill'd the opposite Army who were then in Hostility against us with greater Recruits of Debtors who fled from Arrests than they had been ever able of their Power to have done and of Debtors so Potent for the Privilege of Peers to be free from Arrest was then taken away as drew multitudes with them to the Hills who would if secured from Arrest have all stayed quiet Neuters at home 8. That in case of Contumacy of the Debtors Christ allows both to take Pledges Arrest and Imprison him after Judgment 9. That he allows not though after Judgment to detain the Debtor in Prison for Penalties and Forfeitures above the value of the Debt and Damage One single Judg. 10. That he allows on lawful Probation and Judgment Imprisonment to be by one single Judg. For he says in the Singular Number and the Judg deliver thee to the Officer and thou be cast into Prison Verily I say unto thee thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the utmost farthing And at that time the Roman Judges both at Rome and in Judaea sate on single Tribunals in Courts by themselves and not with associates Judices delegati à principe fuerunt 12. in Civitate Romana Octo Erant Minores Quatuor Majores quilibet sedebat in suo Praetorio in Basilica glâ—in Rub. in § Rebus in Authent de Judicibus in Collat 6. In the City of Rome there were Twelve Judges Delegates made by the Emperor Eight Lesser and Four Greater and every one of them sate in his several Court in the Palace Hall This Christ seems to allude to Matth. 19.28 When the Son of Man shall sit in the Throne of his Glory ye also shall sit upon Twelve Thrones Judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel In the like manner they placed single Judges in the Provinces as Herod Felix Festus and others were all single Judges within their several Territories of Judaea And these single Judges were not only 1. Judges of Temporals but Spirituals till the Superstition of the Emperors divided the Supream Jurisdiction into Episcopal and Imperiâ—l giving the Supremacy to the Episcopal for before the Emperors the Roman Law was Rex Sacrorum Praeses esto as appears by the Laws of Romuâ—us and Numa of whom one was an Augur and King which was then their highest kind of Prophet and above a Priest and the other a Sacrificer and a King The Senate after the Expolsion of Tarquin took upon themselves to be Praesides Sacrorum and the Emperors after they had overtopt the Senate made themselves High-Priests and Emperors so did Julius Caesar so did Augustus and their Successors till as is before said Superstition again divided the Imperial Jurisdiction But likewise 2. the same Judg was of Civils and Criminals and 3. the same one Judg was of Fact Law and Equity and there was not amongst nor in any Empire in the World that unnecessary and unjust distinction of Chancery Common Law and Juries It is not here objected against the Bishops that they place more Judges than one in their Spiritual Courts or any Court where they can get Jurisdiction we know the contrary and too Ambitious and Subtle they were to draw any such Inconvenience on themselves but they rather studied to lay that Clog of unnecessary Number on the Layity in the Common Law Courts they themselves having usually been sole Judges in the Spiritual Courts concerning Marriage Testaments and Tiths under the name of Judg Spiritual or Ecclesiastical and in the Chancery concerning other Temporal matters under the name of the Judg of Conscience and Equity and in their Inquisitions Criminal concerning matters of Life and Death under the name of the Judg of Heresie have made themselves absolute Monarchs over the Religion Justâ—ce Estates and Lives of the People and Clogg'd them with numerous Judges and Juries that they might not be able to lift an hand or move a Tongue against them in the same manner as the Senate did deceive the People of Rome by multiplying their Tribunes under pretence of favour to them to no other intent but that the Defensors of their Liberty might be more easily divided against themselves and weaker to oppose the Senate I shall only give a touch of the Reasons why more Judges than one ought not to be admitted in any one Court except in a Court of Appeal or in Judges equally Elected by the Parties as Arbitrators and Commissioners for Examination of Witnesses use to be 1. Because as to Election of the Judges it is easier to find one Man of Ability and Integrity fit to be a Judg than Twelve Reasons why more Judges than one ought not to be admitted in one Court 2. The hearing of a multitude of Causes is extream tedious and toilsome where there is therefore a numerous Court they are apt to shift their Collar from the labour and leave all to the President while they either talk with one another more pleasant discourse or let their Wits run a wool-gathering or plainly nod and sleep upon the Bench. 3. Admit they do attend the Cause which they very rarely do except for a Friend or against an Enemy they may vary in their
Brother yâ—ur self when Caught you find In snares for others you designed Learn Who ill Principles extends Against his Foes destroys his Friends And when for us you dig a Pit You are the next fall into it It was your Church what er'e it saith Law Latine left and Latine-Faith And Babbled without Mood or Tense In Church and Court and without Sense That blind might lead the blind and they Rob so all pass'd through their dark way You before Hearing first did Curse And Oulaw too to take a Purse Of which too late you now complain And we to help have tri'd in vain The Papist too brought Fictions in And Forgery that foulest Sin The Papists too were the first sharks And sate in Courts Bishops and Clerks And left their Cursed Presidents Of Forms for their wicked Intents Which still continue now and you As well as we begin to Rue At least the Poor of either side Though they touch not the Prelat's Pride And if you Perish by the same Who but your selves now can you blame The Protestant at length Essai'd Although by greater Power dismai'd Forms Fictions and Forgeries By Papist left to blind the Eyes Of Justice and Religion And in a Language still unknown And the High Places of old Baal Which did both Souls and Bodies Thrall To take away and teach their Youth Worship in Spirit and in Truth And Justice too by those who swayed In a True Ballance to be weighed For Fictions and Forgeries Come from the Father of all Lies But still the Protestant in vain To Supreme Power did complain While Papist-Peers in Parliament And Pensioners the Publick Rent Force from the Common's Skin and Bones It was in vain to make our moanes From Justice then with many Jeers You kept and first made us shed Tears Although deceived in your hope Perhaps now from your selves they drop And you and we suffer alike From strokes which you and us did strike Am I not in as bad a Case As you within this Dismal Place And me to make yet in a worse They Outlaw may as well as Curse You have unto the Dreadful Doom Of God Appeal'd which is to come You nothing owe I to the same Appeal and his most Dreadful Name I have committed no Offence ' Gainst men nor ' gainst my Conscience For which I 'm Sentenc'd to lie here And be your Fellow-Prisoner Who Rule the Conscience can but God Or who can change it with a Nod I see not when the Bishop winks Or if I think not as he thinks Or cannot by Implicit Faith Believe what e're the Bishop saith Is' t just because that I cannot I should lie here to Starve or Rot Pap. Brother I 'le freely tell my mind And say where Protestants are kind To Catholicks in Recompence They each enjoy their Conscience And Toleration hath united Not only those before Recited But bloody Wars could not be ceased In Germany 'till Conscience eased On each side was in the same Nation By a mutual Toleration The like in Hungary was acted And no Peace there could be transacted Between the Emperor and them 'Till Grafted both on the same Stem And many other like appear Too many to be Cited here They are not Commons but our Peers Who set us both now by the Ears They Pensions take from Rome and France Poor Us to Tyburne to advance And with some part when 't is espi'd They Pardon Buy and us Deride Why then should English Freedom miss More than our Neighbour Dutch or Swiss Or Driven be to Gaol or Church Conscience and Justice both to Lurch Prot. Brother I 'm not so void of Sense As Punishment on Conscience To wish who in so high degree Suffer for it my self you see But on what Terms the wiser State Will both Religions Tolerate I cannot tell or if no fears They have of Poor but only Peers I know not only this I say We should small Prudence then bewray To trie for others and in vain 'Till our own Liberty we gain Pap. Yet we in this do both agree Though Toleration none there be And both alike for this contend That whether he is Foe or Friend Yet before Hearing he ought not In Cruel Prison Starve or Rot And Magna Charta none can be Of Property or Liberty Unless 't is in the same Expres't Before a Judgment no Arrest 7. The Three Kingdoms condemn one another without Hearing by a Non-Union of their Three Parliaments Of the Fatal Danger threatning all Protestants by the Division of the Three Parliaments of England Scotland and Ireland and the inestimable Benefits ensue the Union of the same in one House Unless the Supreme Judicatory is rightly constituted to Judg between the King and his Subjects Church and Church Kingdom and Kingdom Nation and Nation Possession and Succession and between one Subject and another it is in vain to constitute inferior Judicatories to any of those great ends of Preservation of Religion and Justice Peace and Truth Liberty and Propriety for there being no Supremeequal Judg constitute there will-be no inferior Judg equally constitute and being no equal Judg Supreme or inferior if Kingdoms happen to become Plaintiffs and Defendants one against another for Religion or any other Quariel they are necessitated to condemn one another without Hearing because they agree not by what Judg they will be heard but will like the Scythians worship the Sword and Fortune for the Gods and Judges of the World and begin their Sute one against another with Execution by the unjust Capiases and Outlawries of War and Proclamations of the same by the Trumpet 1. First therefore the great danger these Three Protestant Kingdoms lie under is If any Papist should again as they have by their perpetual Plots hitherto endeavour'd to kindle a Civil War there can be nâ— Judg equal Elected by them able without the Persons Elected sit in one House to punish the Incendiaries and prevent the War Succession of the Crown divided by divided Parliaments 2. If the Succession of the Crown should happen to become contentious between Competitors and the Parliaments continue as they do divided in several Houses and several Places the Three Kingdoms if they depart from the immutable Moral Law of God either to the Ecclesiastical Laws of their several Churches or to the Temporal Laws of the several Kingdoms they may each have several Laws Privileges and Customs of Succession one from another and the Houses of Lords may have different Customs and pretences to Judicatories from Houses of Commons and the Episcopal Assemblies and Synods may pretend several Rights of Judicature from the Law-Courts so every Kingdom may happen to be divided in their Sentence of Succession and one to Judg it to A. another to B. another to C. the House of Lords in one to Judg it to D. in the other to E. in the other to F. the House of Commons to Judg it in one to G. in the other to H. in the other to
him by a Candiot Caloire call'd Sophronio a Preacher in Smyrna of great Repute and Learning That a certain Person for some Misdemeanours committed in the Morea fled to the Isle of Milo and being Excommunicated died In the mean time the Relations of the Deceased were much afflicted and Anxious for the sad Estate of their Dear Friend whilst the Peasants and Islanders were every Night affrighted and disturbed with strange and unusual Apparitions which they immediately concluded arose from the Grave of the accursed Excommunicate which according to their Custom they immediately open'd and therein found the Body uncorrupted Ruddy and the Veins replete with Blood the Costin was furnished with Grapes Apple and Nuts and such Fruit as the Season afforded whereupon Consultation being made the Caloires Resolved to make Use of the common Remedy in those Cases which was to Cut and Dismember the Body into several Parts and to boil it in Wine as the approved means to dislodg the Evil Spirit and dispose the Body to a dissolution But the Friends of the Deceased being willing and desirous that the Corps should rest in Peace and some ease given to the Departed Soul obtained a Reprieve from the Clergy and hopes that for a Sum of Money they being Persons of a competent Estate a Release might be purchased of this Excommunication under the hand of the Patriarch in this manner the Corps were for a while freed from dissection and Letters thereupon sent to Constantinople with this Direction That in case the Patriarch should condescend to take off the Excommunication that the Day Hour and Minute that he Signed the Pardon should be inserted in the Date And now the Corps were taken into the Church the Countrey People not being willing they should remain the Field and Prayers and Masses daily said for its Dissolution and Pardon of the Offender when one Day after many Prayers Supplications and Offerings as this Saphronio attested with many Protestations and whilst he himself was performing Divine Service on a sudden was heard a rumbling noise in the Cossin of the Dead Party to the Fear and Astonishment of all Persons there present which when they had open'd they found the Body Consumed and Dissolved as far into its first Principles of Earth as if it had been Seven Years Buried the Hour and Minute of this Dissolution was immediately Noted and precisely Observed which being compared with the Date of the Patriarch's Release when it was Signed at Constantinople it was found exactly to agree with the Moment in which the Body returned to its Ashes And he after saith Such is the much-tobe-Lamented Poverty of the Greek Church that they are not only forced to sell Excommunications but the very Sacraments and to expose the most Reverend and Mysterious Offices of Religion unto Sale for the maintenance and Support of the Priest-hood The same Author writing concerning the Armenian Church page 439. saith That Excommunication is as frequent amongst them as the Greeks by the Abuse of which the Priest procures the most considerable part of their Gains nor is any Ecclesiastical Right performed nor a Benefice confer'd without Money And p. 439. he saith That amongst the Armenians the Penance on which Excommunication or Absolution is to follow being once imposed by the Priest no man can Remit no not the Bishop or Patriarch himself 1. Hence is to be Observed That the only Final Causes why the Greek Armenian Romish and British Popes agree to Exercise Excommunication Penance and Absolution and to set Heaven and Hell to Sale for Commutation-Money are only Covetousness and Ambition and thereby to Lord it more imperiously over the Consciences Lives Liberties and Propriety of their Superstitious Adorers than any Temporal Emperor is able to do over his Vassals 2. That 't is the Prelate only pockets all the Money in the Greek Romish Ethiopian Muscovitish Russe and British Churches and starves the inferior Clergy and the Parochial Priest in the Arminian and that the Penance and Excommunication of the Parochial Priests must probably be heavier and his Absolution sold dearer than the Pope's or Prelat's because the remoteness of the one and the greatness of his Territory and that he must thereby leave all to Under-Officers and cannot Act in Person cause his Inquisitions not to be so strict but multitudes will find easie Evasions from them whereas the Parochial Priest having the narrow Bounds of his Parish always under his Eye and within his reach will not only swallow every Camel but strain at every Gnat which comes within his verge for the advantage of his Petty Dominion and Gains 3. That the Greek Popes are notwithstanding but Poor and the Romish Rich because the Grand Seignior being not Superstitious nor his Empresses nor fearing such counterfeit Fulminations as Excommunications and his Mufti 's or Arch-Bishops being only Durante Beneplacito and his Parish-Priests Elected by the People without Consecration or Ordination and Independent one of another neither the Greek Popes Patriarchs Bishops nor Priests nor his-own dare Excommunicate him whereas the Christian both Eastern and Western Emperors their Empresses Children and People having been permitted to be perpetually Educated by the Popes in Blindness and Superstition he hath them upon the matter in the condition of Sampson and Polyphemus with their Eyes pull'd out and makes them grind for him as he pleases or with his Ecommunications sends them packing as they in their Ignorance think to Hell or Purgatory which makes most for his Gains and Profit whereby he hath accumulated infinite Riches 4. The Effects of Excommunication on the Bodies of Dead men is either Witchcraft or a Cheat Witchcraft is possible to be sometimes not always as may easily be proved from the Raising of Samuel by the Witch of Endor and an Hundred Histories more related by Authors of unquestionable Credit And as the Devil may sometimes be permitted to abuse the Bodies of the best men when Living as he did Job's and what is the highest Example Christ himself carrying him to the Pinacle of the Temple so he may when they are Dead I shall Instance one only Example further in the Primitive times mention'd by Cornelius Agrippa de occult Philos lib. 3. cap. 41. where he Relates out of the Cretensian History That certain Ghosts which they call'd Catechanae were wont to return back to their Bodies and go into their Wives and lie with them for the Avoiding of which and that they might not annoy their Wives any more it was provided by their Common Law That the Hearts of them who did Arise should be thrust through with an Awle and their whole Carcasses be burnt to Ashes These without Doubt are wonderful things and scarce credible did not those Laws themselves and ancient Histories witness them The frequent practice likewise of Necromancers by their wicked Art to call the Devil into a Dead Body and take Responses from him confirm what hath been said And it may be likewise a Cheat for it
Rule of great incertainty to Judg Heresie Council of Chalceldon The last of the Four was the Council of Chalcedon in Bithynia which was called by the Emperor Martianus about the Year 455. whereat the Emperor was present in Person and 630 Bishops and Reverend Fathers from the greatest part of the World What a work is here who should Judg Heresie yet they never placed the Power of Judgment in the Right hand neither will it be possible to be taken out of the Wrong nor did any of these Emperors nor shall any else dare do it as long as Bishops continue hired with their own Treasure and Revenue and their own Temporal Sword deliver'd into their hands for Rome and Constantinople to Fight for Supremacy over themselves and to Sentence and Judg them and their Subjects as Rome hath done since it obtain'd Supremacy at their pleasure The Bishop of Rome had at this time got a Bishop at Constantinople placed for his purpose who was content to acknowlege the Supremacy of Judging Heresie to be in the Bishop of Rome or any else if he might be Second and enjoy so Fat an Office as to be Bishop of Constantinople but the City differ'd from their Mercenary Bishop who was call'd Anatolius and disdaining in their Religion to bow to Rome set up Eutyches an Abbot or Archimandrite of Constantinople to publish a Doctrine That Christ had no Humane but only a Divine Nature in him To suppress which Opininion Flavianus a former Bishop of Constantinople had moved the Emperor Theodosius the Second to call a Council at Ephesus Anno. 449. wherein Eutyches was Condemn'd by Flavianus yet by the help of Chrysaphius the Eunuch and Endoxia the Empress who favour'd that opinion Theodosius was prevailed with to make another Synod Judg of this Heresie which was again Summon'd by the Emperors Authority at Ephesus and Dioscorus of Alexandria made President at which Synod Eutyches is again cleared and declared Orthodox and Flavianus opposing it was so upon that Three Days after he died and all this being done in the Council of Ephesus Anno 449. in Theodosius's time was again Repealed and Abrogated Anno 455. in Martianus's time at the Council of Chalcedon And Leo the First Bishop of Rome by the help of Anatolius Bishop of Constantinople and his other Pensioners carried the Day for Supremacy of Judgment and Punishment of Heresie and Anatolius and the See of Constantinople was to be only next in Dignity to the Infallible Chair of Rome Considerations on the Judgment of Heresie when assumed by Bishops according to the Four first General Councils if it make them suspect to be Papists and not sit to be Prayed for in Publick 1. Coke says this Parliament 1. Eliz 1. was doubtful what they ought to determine Heresie and Schism and what not which was as much as the Bishops needed to desire that the Layity might be Ignorant and they have Power to keep them so and Heresie a Quaere to be Judged by themselves pro Arbitrario 2. It appears that the Pious Queen the Dawning of the Reformation but newly entring with her she could not suddenly Dispell the Darkness yet hanging over her own Protestant Party nor the Blacker Clouds gathering from Foreign and Native Papists against her nor resist her own Bishops designing to continue those Privileges of Profit translated by from Rome to Canterbury for certainly if the Protestant Party had understood That the Four first Councils had adjudged all those to be Hereticks who would not Worship Images and had been able to have over-Voted the Popish Party and Bishops they would never have given them Power to Judg Heresie according to those Idolatrous Councils for thereby they might Sentence them and all Protestants that were against Images to the Stake 3. The Bible was but little before Translated into English yet to keep it more dark still than if it had continued in Latine they who alledged themselves Protestant-Bishops sent the People to Learn the same of Greek Councils and to Read there the Law of Heresie while they Judged them at home in their Latine-Law and Latine-Courts the mean while 4. They equal Councils with Canonical Scriptures that their Convocations and Provincial Synods may have the same Authority 5. They equal their Convocation with the King and Parliament for the words of the Statute are or Determined to be Heresie by High Court of Parliament of this Realm with the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation Knowing if the Miter once get equal 't is but one step more to be above the Crown 6. By those words they Constitute to themselves the Power of a Negative in Legislation against the King in Parliament and the two other Estates which makes them a Fourth Estate in the Legislative Power knowing such Fourth Estate like the Fourth Beast in Daniel may easily Devour all the rest 7. They Judg since no Commissioners were made every Bishop in his Diocess a Judg of Heresie Jure Divino and they by their own Popish Canons and the old Popish Acts against Lollards who were the followers of Wickliff and the Primitive Protestants and the Proto-Martyrs of England Judged Protestancy to be Lollary and Heresie and all the Sheriffs of England take an Oath with all their Power to Destroy all Heresies and Errors commonly call'd Lollaries which is Protestancy and to assist the Bishops in the same whensoever by them Required whereby they have the whole Military Power at their Command to Judg and Destroy Protestants as Hereticks 8. They Judg Heresie by their own Ceremonial Laws and Canons whereby they Arrogate a Power above the Moral Law of God by which alone all Heresies and Schisms and all Error and Truth ought to be Judged I conclude therefore That such Bishops if there are any such as Exercise all these ways of Popery many Protestants may happen to suspect them to be Papists for their profit and therefore scruple to join with their Chaplains in their Prayer before Sermon for God to speed them It will not agree with the Consciences of many Protestants to join with the Chaplain in publick Prayer for his Patron 1. Because all Patronages were invented and erected by the Pope and Papal Laws all Patroage came from the Pope and the Strength and Riches of all Popery consists in Patronages or Power of Presentation to Cathedral Collegiat Parochial or other Religious Churches or Houses 2. It is very unjust that any who must pay the Lawyer or Physician his Fees should not have Election of such a one of either as he can Trust and much more as to a Divine Lawyer and Physician of his Soul that any should be Imposed on him whom he cannot Trust and who may perhaps Poison him in the Sacrament it self of which Examples have been already Cited but the Chaplain who Prays for the Patron is obtruded on the Pay of the Parish without their Assent and the Patron many times pays him not a Penny but Sells to him
and less Damage to himself and Subjects have prevented those Intestine Dissensions by not taking from them that Liberty of Conscience as to Faith and Form of Worship which he was compell'd at last to give them it being certain that the Bordering Turk by the Imprudence of divers of the Emperors in being blinded by the Romish Bishops and their own to violate the Liberty of Conscience of those Frontier Countries and thereby dividing and disuniting them against the Common Enemy he hath thereof taken great advantages to the great danger of the Emperors themselves the Empire and the rest of Christendom And how unfortunate were Episcopal Councils in our own Countrey in this point of Compulsion of the Conscience to their Faith Forms and Ceremonies tending to Episcopal and not the Regal Interest and how they thereby exposed his late Majesty a Valiant Wise and Pious King and his Three Kingdoms to an unnecessary War and the miserable loss ensued thereby is yet in Bleeding Memory What Wars have been in France by Compulsion of Conscience by Force and destroying it by Perfidious Treacheries of Episcopal Councils is likewise sadly known so that in all the Kingdoms of Christendom Bishops by this Compulsion to their Faith Forms and Ceremonies have one time or other raised Civil Wars and Dissensions dangerous or destructive to Princes and People and shared thereby the Spoils of both or what was a greater Prey got by our own made Sale of all the Estates of the Revenues of the Bishopricks fallen Twenty Years before they ever made a Sermon in their Church or Served at their Altar so though the Wars were by themselves occasion'd and kindled and were an universal loss to the People yet they lost nothing and gain'd all That Compulsion against Conscience causeth Wars doth likewise agree the Learned and Pious Doctor More who saith Denial of Liberty of Conscience brings upon Nations and Families Wars Bloodshed Subversion of Families Deposing Stabbing Poisoning of Princes perpetual Hatred and Enmity amongst men and all the Works and Actions of the Kindom of Darkness whereas if it were universally acknowledged that Liberty of Religion were the Right of Mankind all these mischiefs would be prevented the Prince could not pretend any Quarrel against the People nor the People against the Prince or against one another except for Civil Rights which are more plain and intelligible That Compulsion to Faith or Forms of Worship hath had the same Destructive Effects against the Eastern Emperors likewise which it hath had against the Western appears by the Example of Michael Palaeologus Emperor of Greece who fearing an Invasion from the Turks and other Foreigners from the East endeavour'd to strengthen himself from the Pope and by him with the Emperor and other Christian Kings from the West and by his Ambassadors to that end treated with Gregory the Tenth then Pope of Rome to Unite and Conform the Greek Church to the Latine and to acknowledg the Popes Supremacy over the Greeks and Liberty of Appeal from them to the Court of Rome which the Emperor offer'd and the Pope gladly accepted of but the People generally abhor'd these Proceedings of the Emperor and were so Tumultuous that the Emperor was fain to leave off the care of the Foreign Dangers to look to these greater at home and told the People to quiet them that this Alteration was made not out of any good liking he had to it but in respect of the dangerous Estate of things in that juncture of Time it behoved Prudence to admit the less Evil to avoid the greater for if by not granting the Latine Church what they would have they would take advantage of the Wars they had with their other Enemies and fall on them at the same time whereby they would attain more by force from them than would satisfie them by Treaty and not only by War become Lords of their Religion and Ceremonies but of all at once their Wives Children Estates and Lives at the will of the Conqueror therefore he required them to yield to necessity and not to compell him to use more Severe Remedies and not finding them pliable some he Imprison'd some Banish'd some Confiscated some pull'd out their Eyes some Tortur'd some Dismembred on which some outwardly Conformed but not in their hearts but the greater part fled some to Thrace some to Achaia some to Peloponesus and other Countries and the Emperor trusting to Foreign Forces whom he joined and this and his other Cruel Practices in denying his Subjects Liberty of Conscience seeing they were put to Fight only to confirm their own Slavery so discouraged the Greek Army that the Turks overthrew them and their Emperor and won the day by which they got their first Footing in Europe Whereby appears That as Compulsion to the Faith and Ceremonies of the Bishop of Rome and denial of Liberty of Conscience to the first Arrian Christians was the cause of the great Conquests of Mahomet who gave them Toleration in Asia which they could not have of the Roman Emperors so this denial of Liberty of Conscience by this Greek Emperor and his Compulsion of his Subjects to the Ceremonies of the Bishop of Rome was the first opening an Entrance to the Turk into Europe and after the losing of the Grecian Empire to him whence so many Fatal Miseries have ensued to Christendom By the Interruption of the Press I am compell'd to break off this Book abruptly