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
they pleased the Protestant Admiral Coligni was the first whom the King with a Counterfeit Countenance and Promises and great Donatives drew to Court the Queen of Navarrâ— was next drawn thither but soon after died as was generally believed of Poison that was given her in some perfumed Gloves to conceal which the Chirugions that open'd her would not touch her head pretending that she died of an Imposthume in her side the Cardinal Castilion was also at that time poison'd which though after confess'd by him that had done it yet was not then so much as suspected the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde were then drawn to Court and received with all the signs of Friendship could be invented a Dispensation was obtained from the Pope for the Marriage and the chief Heads of the Protestants were all drawn to Paris on pretence to assist at the Solemnities of the Marriage on the Seventeenth of August the King of Navarre was Married and four Days were spent in all the Bravery of Diversions that are usual on such occasions but were now performed with more than ordinary Magnificence and Joy there was but one part of the Kings deportment which could give any ground of Jealousie which were the horrid and Blasphemous Oaths and Imprecations which he made Use of on all occasions to persuade them of the Reality of his Professions which always raise suspitions in sober and wary Persons these the King used so frequently that the Writers of that time say he seldome spoke three words without some Terrible Oath or Blasphemous Expression but it was now high time to Execute his Design not valuing his Oaths the Duke of Guise was therefore put upon it to get the Protestant Admiral Assassinated who imployed therein one Maurenell who had formerly Assassinated another Person for him this Rogue he placed in the House of one who had been his Tutor near St. German of Auxerre where the Admiral used to pass as he went or came from the Louvre therefore on the Twenty Second of August about Noon as the Admiral was going home from the Court reading a Paper that he had in his hand the Assassinate that was laid for him shot him from the House where the Duke of Guise had placed him his Fury was charged with three Bullets that were believ'd to be poison'd one of these carried away part of the Fore-finger the other struck in his left Arm the third missed The King was in the Tennis-Court when the news was brought him and Personated a deep Resentment and said in a Tone seeming full of Affliction and with a Terrible Oath Shall I never have quiet and so threw away his Racquet and went out in a Rage The Duke of Guise did also counterfeit some Surprize The King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde came to the King to complain and desired his leave to go out of Town seeing men were not safe so near the Court the King seemed more to Resent it than they and with the most horrible Oaths that he could think of Swore he would Execute such Revenge on all that were found guilty as should never be forgotten and desired them to stay and be witnesses of it and visited the Admiral who lay sick of his Wounds with great shew of condoleing his misfortune but in short after all these and many other counterfeit Shews a Council is called by The Most Christian most Perjured King wherein it was Resolved That not only the Persons of Quality of the Religion should be killed but every one of what condition soever of that Profession should be Massacred and amongst them violently was moved that the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde should run the common Fate of the rest till with much ado moderated by another Party that they should be only enforced to change their Religion and the Conduct of the whole Business was committed to the Duke of Guise to destroy all the Protestant Hereticks through the Kingdom who first ordered a strong Guard to be set about the places where the Admiral and his Friends Lodged that none might escape and to have a multitude of Torches and Flambeaux ready only to light out of their Windows and a multitude of Soldiers whose Sign should be a White Linnen Sleeve on the left Arm and a White Cross in their Caps and the pretence was that these should shew the King a Divertisement in the Night in the Counterfeit Assaulting of a Fort and the time appointed for the Execution was at Tolling of the Great Bell of the Palace which should be done near the break of Day and then they were to light their Torches and March the Signal was given the Morning of the 24th of August St. Bartholomew's Day being Sunday part of the Soldiers are sent to the Lodgings of the Wounded Admiral to go through with the Murder begun and Seven breaking into his Chamber all Armed there killed him and the Duke of Guise being below the Court bid them to throw him out of the Window which was done and either the Duke or the Count of Angoulesme for it is differently reported wiped his face for it was disfigured with Blood to know if it was be indeed and perceiving it was trampled on his Belly and went away an Italian cut off his head and carried it to the Queen Mother and then embalmed it and sent it to the Pope then all the Ignominy and Barbarity possible was exercised on the Dead Carcass his Fingers and Hands were cut off his Body dragged about the Streets thrown into the Seine and hanged up in Chains his Feet uppermost and a Fire was set under to burn which only Roasted and consumed it not here the horrible Massacre began and ended not till it had run through the whole City and Countrey with all the most Hellish Butcheries could be devised one would cut off the Nose another the Ear a third the Hands a fourth the Arms of the same Party before they would be so merciful as to kill him No Degrees Age or Sex spared Young or Old Infant or Suckling and a single Death satisfied not till they made them die many Deaths and till as is Estimated there were destroyed an Hundred Thousand Innocent Protestants The Cruelty of which was so abhor'd by the Soldiers themselves that many of them endeavour'd to save many of the Protestants for sure of all Men the most Valiant are the most Merciful but the more than Feminine Cruelty of the Babylonish Bishops which they derived from the Woman who sate on the Beast so set on the Multitude as made them worse than all the wild Beasts in the World which justly gives cause of Abhorrence against Episcopal Compulsion to Marry by a Priest in a Temple the same being the means without which this Perfidious and Bloody Massacre could not have been Effected Why the Ottoman Emperors Marry not by a Priest or in a Temple and of the Bloody Murders ensued of the Sons of Solyman the Magnificent
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
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
his Money by it he will neither Stone nor Poison her but give a Divorce and save both her Life and Honour The Peguians buy their Wives of their Friends and when he is weary of her he may send her home again but he must then lose the Money he gave for her But it she leave him as she may likewise do then the Money is to be paid him back which he gave for her The Customs of the Jews allowed them to make Eunuchs Eunuch as Chron. 28.1 It is said David assembled the Eunuchs and 2 Kings 9.32 It is said When Jehu call'd after Jezabel had spoke to him out of the Window that there looked out to him two or three Eunuchs and 2 Kings 24.12 It is said And Jehoiachin the King of Judah went out to the King of Babylon he and his Mother and his Servants and his Eunuchs Origen and the Sect of Valesians gelded themselves and held that it was impossible for any but Eunuchs to be saved But later Jews allowed them not And Josephus lib. 4. de Antiq. saith Eunuchs are to be detested because they deprive themselves of Manhood and Power of begetting Children neither is it lawful to geld Man or Beast and the Civil Law punisheth it with Death Cod. lib. 4. tit 42. De Eunuchis Si quis post hanc Sanctionem in orbe Romano Eunuchos fecerit Capite puniatur If any after this Law shall make Eunuchs in the Roman World let him be punished with Death I conclude though there is much of the Moral Law mix'd amongst the Laws of Moses which is immutable and ought to be inviolably observed yet not on the Authority of Moses but on the higher Authority of God himself who writ them both in the Internal Tables of the hearts of men and in the External Tables of his Works which as to such of them as are living Creatures and concern Marriage as Christ saith he made them Male and Female Then as to the Ceremonial and Judicial Laws of Moses they were all National and belong'd only to the Jews and they were generally taken by the Jews from the AEgyptians and other Idolatrous Nations And Moses being not able to reform them in such a stiff-necked people except only as to Images for indeed all long Customs are hard to be broken in any People was fain to Tolerate them for the hardness of their hearts and they were many of them full of Superstition and Injustice CHAP. II. Marriage Matrimony Legitimation or Succession not to be judged by the Laws and Customs of Heathen Nations Chinaois way of Marrying IN China the Governor and Vice-Roy in each Province appoint a certain time and place where those that are willing to Marry may and do come where Twelve Principal Men are appointed Judges before whom they present themselves Six Judges divide the Men into three parts the rich the indifferent and the poor the other six Judges in the mean while divide the Maids into the beautiful the indifferent and the unhandsome thereupon the Judges give the very beautiful to the rich and they give what the Judges appoint for them the indifferent rich to the indifferent handsome who pay nothing for them and the unhandsome to the poor with the Money the rich paid divided into equal Portions Joan Gonsales Hist de la China P. 46. The like was done antiently by the Babylonians The Indians way Indorum virgines quum esse nubiles câ—perint in Publicum à Parentibus producuntur concurrente ut assolet multitudine libera illis datur optio è Juvenum turba virum sibi seligendi quem virtute aliqua insigniter praestantem putent Caelius lib. 18. cap. 31. The Samoyeds being a people bordering on Russia use to buy their Wives and have no other Ceremony of Marriage but agreement for the Price which commonly is dear they being their cheif Cattle and the Woman brought and delivered to the man that bought her by her freind and a Feast at his Tent there provided to entertain them and at Night all departing and leaving the Man and Woman together there alone till next Morning Gourdon Anno 1614. The Jews and Romans way was likewise buying and selling The Mahumetans likewise give Money for their Wives which when paid the Contract is Registred in the Caddyes Book which serves for the Tole-Book they paying the Market Fee which is all the Formality of the Marriage Heyl. 778. Caesar lib. 4. de bell Gall. saith That amongst the Germans exchange of Wives was in use and the Indian Histories relate That in Calicut the Custom of exchange is still reteined Exchange of Wives-Lending Wives and Jerome taxes Cato Vtican that he lent his Wife Martia to his Friend Hortensius as Appian relates 2 Bell. Civ Lucan lib. 2. And Plutarch in Numa that he did it by the Constitution of Numa These are the Marriages these the Solemnities the Pontifical Laws have taught and is there any still so stupid as to prefer the Laws of men before the Laws of God At Gomera it was heretofore the only sign counted of their Hospitality to let their Friends lie with their Wives and receive theirs in Testimony of mutual kindness Heyl. 105. For which reason there as in other places of the Indies the Sister's Son was usually the Heir The Common Councel or Senate of the Canaries or Fortunate Islands who were both Magistrates and Preists had before Conquer'd by Christians the first Nights Lodging with every Bride The Inhabitants of Zant solicit such Merchants as resort thither to hire their Wives and agree of the Price At Pegu when Merchant-strangers come thither they are provided a House and withal certain Maids of the City are sent to him out of whom he takes his choice and agrees with her Friends at what rate they can which is not much to pay a certain Summ for the use of her and this Maid attends during the time agreed as a Servant and Wife after which he may take another but not during the time agreed In Cunall a part of Tartary they count it a great honour to have their Wives and Sisters at the pleasure of others whom they entertain of which being restrained by the great Cham they petition'd him at three Years end to be restored to their old Custom affirming They could never thrive since they left it on which Liberty was again restored and they still use it Heyl. 857. At Tangut they think it not fit to tempt a Woman but if she offer her self they think it a great sin to refuse her Courtesie Heyl. ib. At Colchos the Husband thinks it a Credit their Wives can please and be acceptable to others to whom they prostitute them Purchas 342. The Turks are allowed four Wives Plurality which must be also of his Religion but he is allowed Concubines Slaves and of any Religion as many as they can keep The Persians allow as many Concubines as they will paying them Salary by Week Month or
Juvenal Veniet cum signatoribus Auspex and of Ovid Mense malum Maio nubere vulgus ait and they declared to the parties the unlucky Ides Kalends and all the dismal times and days which got the Cheats much money from the foolish people and to continue the same Trade the same was revived by Popes and Councels of Laodicea Iterda and Trent by their prohibitions of Marriage in times of Advent Septuagesima and Rogation Pope Soter made the Law prohibiting Marriage without delivery of the Woman by the Father and receiving a Benediction from the Priest Delivery by the Father and Benediction by the Priest yet Christ saith For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and though a Father may deny to give his Daughter so liberal a Portion if she marry without his consent as he would give with it yet can he not prohibit her to marry and when Rachel said to Jacob Give me children or I die and he in anger replyed Am I God he thereby shews that 't is not the Benediction of the Priest or Pilgrimages to Saints cause fertility or sterility but Children are the gift of God Marriage within the fourth degree Pope Calixtus made the Law prohibiting Marriage within the fourth degree either of Consanguinity or Affinity and others extend the same as well to Spiritual as Carnal kindred The Law prohibiting Marriage without License was first set up by the Priests of Priapus and Venus License to marry And the Priests of Diana her self could no more live without License-money for Marriage then those of Venus which made the Virgins of Greece before they presumed to marry humbly to beg the Goddess's pardon that they left her Nunnery for which they brought good Fees and Offerings to the Priests Power of the Pope translated to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The Law of Dispensations Legitimations and Confirmations of Marriages and Children and the whole Papal power therein translated to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by 25 H. 8.21 was made by Papists in a time of Popery The Law of Banes was invented by Popes and revived by the late long Parliament Banes and the Laws of New England only translating the Marriage to the Magistrate instead of the Priest Marriage without a Priest or Temple The Law prohibiting marriage without a Priest and a Temple was invented by the Priests of Priapus and Venus and revived by the Pope and Council of Trent In all these Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage the two Strumpets Theodora of Justinian Strumpets and Theodora of Pope Sergius and that impudent Quean Marozia and other Strumpets of the Popes had a great hand We are like therefore to have excellent Laws in the Bishops Courts and Justice for Marriage Fillation and Succession while the Laws of such Legislators continue All Laws prohibitory of Marriage or Meats came from the Devil Lastly There needed not to those who believe the Scripture this Recital of so many wicked persons to be Authors of this mention'd Ecclesiastical Laws for it is manifest by the Scripture it self that all Laws prohibitory of Marriage or Meats they being things not indifferent but necessary for the preservation of Humane Nature in the least Ceremony or Circumstance where they are not prohibited by the Law of God came from the Devil as appears 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. Now the Spirit saith expresly That in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils speaking lyes in Hypocrisie having their consciences seared with an hot Iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving I conclude therefore that all the fore-mentioned Ecclesiastical Laws prohibiting marriage without their Popish Ceremonies or Circumstances not appointed by God came from the Devil or many Devils The Final causes of the Ecclesiastical Laws concerning Marriage invented by Daemons and the Priests of Priapus and Venus were Lust Covetousness and Ambition of the Priests The second Reason against Ecclesiastical Laws is the wicked ends for which they were invented which were no other but only to satisfie the insatiable Lust Covetousness and Ambition of Priests As to which the Indian Histories mention That in the Kingdom of Molabar neither the King or People are allowed to have a Wife Luft Covetousness Ambition of Priests the only ends of Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage unless sanctified for him by the first nights Lodging of the holy Bramin who is their Priest which is the reason that there the King's Sons succeed not to the Kingdom but their Sister's Sons for they say they know not the Father but they know the Mother Linschot Little better is done in Catholic Kingdoms often times though not openly yet secretly by those unchristian Bramins the Cardinal Confessors and it is common in Italy for Catholics to jeer one another that their Children are Fils de Prestre The Benyan Indians give their Priests the first fruits of their Wives and think the Marriage will not be blessed without it The Southern Americans in divers parts think it a great Devotion to offer their Daughters to be first defloured by the Priest The Algier Mahometans and the people of other parts of Africa think it a meritorious work to prostitute their Wives to their Morabates or holy Saints whom they esteem their Prophets And Leo Afer who was that Countrey-man tells a story of one of these holy Prophets who came to a Town and espying a handsom Woman being a person of very good quality and great esteem in the Town yet the Prophet took her being at a Bath and lay with her openly in the concourse of a great multitude of people who applauded the Fact as a great honour to the Lady and many of them ran to congratulate her Husband how happy he was to have so holy a Man partner with him in his Wife and when some of the better sort of people whose discretion was a degree above the common superstition of their Religion went and informed the Magistrates of the Town of the foul and shameful act was committed by a Vagabond Prophet and they sent their officers to apprehend him the people rose upon them and would have knockt out the Brains both of Officers and Magistrates had they not speedily desisted Carpenter reporteth from a Monk of Doway That not long ago it was a custom in Biscay a Province in Spain that every Man having married a Wife sent her the first night to the Priest of the Parish which it seems was the Fee due to the Priest for his labour the same day of marrying her in his Temple Carp 193. So it was at the door of the Tabernacle Hophni and Phinehas Sons of the Priest lay with the Women of the congregation 1 Sam. 2.22 To the Temple of Marriage the Popish Priests have of latter times added the Chappel of Ease of Auricular Confession Auricular Confession in a more commodious
Part. Fol. 584. saith And here is to be observed how the Statute of 35. E. 1. hath been dealt with since the 17th of E. 3. for in an Act that Year a branch of the Statute of 35. E. 1. was recited That forbad any thing should be attempted or brought into the Realm which should tend to blemish the King's Prerogative or in prejudice of his Lords and Commons which is now wholy omitted and Fol. 585. he saith Note in the Roll of Parliament of the Statute of 38. E. 3. Cap. 1. of Provisors there are more sharp and biting words against the Pope then in Print a Mystery often in use but not to be known of all men from which examples it is manifest that this came by the Fraud of the Bishops who before Printing were Masters of the Authentick Copies of the Laws appointed for promulgation and since Printing are Masters of the Press to interdict and publish what they will Accipe nunc horum insidias Crimine ab uno Disce omnes These few Frauds are discover'd in Print against the Interdictors of Printers which discovery they would likewise have interdicted if they had been able for these latter Books of my Lord Coke were prohibited to be Printed and got out in the late time of Troubles but by these it is clear which were only spoken obiter and without any inquisition after them that all they are guilty of are not discover'd and that to give either Spiritual or Temporal Judges Power to interdict the Press is to give them Power to have what Law what Gospel what Text what Translation what Canonical what Apocryphal what Scripture what Act of Parliament what Common Law what Statute what Religion what Justice what Liberty and what Slavery they please Besides which Power of Fraud and Forgery destructive to all Truth these further mischeifs follow all interdictions of the Press but I shall first answer such Objections as are made against the Liberty of it Object 1 First If Liberty of the Press should be permitted Enemies would have it equal with Friends Papists with Protestants Hereticks with Orthodox Secondly They would Print Blasphemy Idolatry Treason Rebellion Vncleanness Calumny Reviling Derision and all manner of Heresie Answ 1 To the First is answer'd 1. That it is impossible to exclude Enemies and Papists from Printing they being possess'd of so many Transmarine Presses whence they can with far greater advantage vent their matters then from any Presses in England 2. Admit they could be excluded yet in prudence they ought not but are more necessary to be admitted then Friends for those whom we use to call Friends are pessimum inimicorum genus Adulantes the worst kind of Enemies Flatterers who flatter and sooth us up in our Vices and destroy us but any truth of our Faults we shall never hear but from Enemies Plutarch therefore calls an Enemy a School-Master which costs us nothing 2. As to the matters of Blasphemy Idolatry or Uncleanness neither Enemy or Friend will so far dishonour themselves or their Cause as to Print them openly for it is against their interest As to Treason or Rebellion who that hath an Enemy doth not desire to know before-hand wherein the strength of his Cause as well as of his Forces lies and to have the War Proclaimed in Print before it begin that he may the better provide against Besides if there were but a Law made that nothing shall be printed without the names of the Author and Printer with their Additions and Designations And that all Crimes against the publick committed by Printing should be punished by Indictment according to Law and all injuries to private persons should be reparable by the parties injured on their Actions according to Damage Who would dare make himself guilty of a publick Crime or private Injury in Print to which he had set his name 3. As to matters of Heresie such as by accident become dangerous to public safety the prudence of the Legislators may where they find cause prohibit them both Press and Pulpit but not in the Thoughts and Consciences of Men As in the end of the Wars of Germany between the Lutherans and Catholicks it was Enacted mutually on both sides on pain of death That no Catholick should Preach against the Lutheran Doctrine or Lutheran against the Catholick but both should enjoy the liberty of their own Consciences to themselves This agreement was here made otherwise those bloody Wars would never have ended without a total destruction of one of the Parties And likewise such a Law were here much more necessary between dissentient Protestants who were Brethren then it was between the Lutherans and Catholicks who were mortal Enemies That no dissentient Protestant should Print or Preach publickly on any point of Ceremonial dissentiency or other matter not necessary to Salvation except in such matters as are particularly allowed by Supream Authority to exclude Popery there being Field-room enough in the Moral Law of God to exercise gifts in Preaching and matters which have the promise of this life and of that to come and no cause for any to complain who have liberty likewise of Conscience to use what Protestant Ceremonies and Form of Worship they will to themselves though they have not power to compel the Consciences of others who are dissentients But if Protestants are tolerated to Print or Preach against one another this is the thing the Papist would have and knows will in the end make them both a prey to himself But though Protestants ought not to preach one against another yet the juncture of Affairs being not at present in great Britain as before mention'd in Germany and an appearance of War Plotted by the Papist rather to begin than end with the Protestant the Bishops ought not to be suffer'd to interdict either Press or Pulpit to the Protestants against them To come at length to the further mischiefs insuing the Interdiction of the Press any Interdiction of the Press except in Cases before mention'd either to Friend or Enemy is a dishonour to the Protestant Religion as if it dared not suffer it self to be disputed or to meet an Enemy in the open field whereas in truth it is not Protestancy but Episcopacy 'T is not the Moral Law which is the Protestant Law but the Ceremonial which is the Popish Law which dares not encounter the shock of an Enemy And 't is Fiction and not Truth Vice and not Vertue which fears either Press or Pasquil 2. The Foreign Presses being impossible to be interdicted to the Papist if the English are interdicted to the Protestant he is thereby silenced and prohibited to answer the Papist let him preach what he pleaseth 3. By Interdiction the profit of the English Protestant Print-houses will be transported to Foreign Papists which will be a great discouragement to so necessary a Trade in England and prejudice to the Protestant Religion and Policy 4. The Interdiction of the Press will multiply the greater evil
are totally Ignorant except only to take account of the Money and Gaines 3. They Judg by a Chancellour and Commissaries and not in Person The Causes are First Ignorance whereof they are before proved Guilty The Second Pride that they may be equal to Kings who pream Judg or Legislative Power can delegate Judgment A Bishop must therefore be a Judg Supream or Delegate if he Arrogate to be Supream he ought not to be suffer'd if a Delegate Delegatus non potest Delegare The Third is Sloth to take the Gains and not the Pains of doing Justice The Fourth is Covetousnes that they may have Plurality of Offices and let them to Farm to Deputies all which are most sad Ingredients to compound a Judg of Marriage Filiation and Succession and it is clean contrary to the known Laws for any Judg Delegate to Act by Deputy and not in Person for the Office of a Judg is an Office of Trust and cannot be granted over and neither ought nor can be executed by any Assign Deputy Commissaries or Chancellour but ought to be served in Person besides they Excommunicate by Lay-deputies contrary to their own Pretences that the Power of the Keys belongs only to Persons in pretended Holy Orders 4. They have Pluralities of Offices and more than they are able to serve yet will be Judges besides One good thing is remembred of Becket Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who though he was a Traitor to King Henry the Second yet being first by him made Chancellor of England and after made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury before he would take upon him the Office of Arch-Bishop he of his own accord first surrendred his Office of Chancellor not thinking it fit for one man to have two such great Offices at once but they now make St. Peters Net of so small a Mash that great or small all is Fish that comes to it And first they begin with the Coronation Office already mention'd then the Offices of Legislation in Parliaments of Legislation in Assemblies of Legislation in Synods of Chancellors of State of Negotiators of Intelligencers of Soldiers of Treasurers of Almoners of Temporal Barons of Masters of the Ceremonies of Worship of Visitors of Inquisitors of Confessors of Penancers of Excommunicators of Pardoners of Absolvers of Dispencers of Faculties of Interdictors of Marriages of Liâ—ncers of Marriage of Interdictors of the Press of Licencers of the Press of makers of Ministers of Licencers of Preachers Curates Lecturers Schoolmasters Physicians of Consecrators of Churches of Consecrators of Church-yards of Interdictors of Burial of Interdictors to cast out the Devil by Fasting and Prayers of Licencers to cast out the Devil and many others out of each of which they reap gains yet are not able to serve the least part of them but let them to Farm to their Spunges whom they squeeze into their own See whereas they cannot so much as pretend any Mission from Christ for more than One Office which is of Teaching in Season and out of Season and would they follow that as they ought the same would be sufficient to take up the whole man and leave them little leisure of being Judges of Marriage Filiation and Succession or to execute any other Temporal Office 5. They are Ambidexter and Amphibious Judges in Spirituals and Temporals They cannot deny that Marriage since it was purified by the Protestant Religion from the defilement of being a Romish Sacrament and Filiation Aliment and Succession incident to the same became meer Temporal matters and nothing can be more Temporal in it self or wherein the higest Temporal Rights of Princes and People of Liberty of Person and Propriety of Goods Freehold and Inheritance are more concerned than in them and it being likewise confess'd both by Common and Ecclesiastical Lawyers That the meer Spiritual Judge ought not to judg of Temporal matters neither was there any such Jurisdiction ever pretended to Marriage by the Pope himself but as to a Spiritual Sacrament and in Ordine ad Spiritualia he by it deposed Kings and disposed of the Succession of Kingdoms at his Will and Pleasure Unless therefore a Bishop will affirm That Marriage continues still a Romish Sacrament or that he may like the Pope judg of any Temporal matters in Ordine ad Spiritualia he hath no pretence or colour of Right to be a Judg of Marriage Filiation Aliment or Succession but let the Right be what it will de Facto he hath got a Spiritual Lord and a Temporal Baron into one Doublet and produced from thence a monstrous Ambidextrous Jurisdiction with the Spiritual Sword in one hand and the Temporal in the other neither Divine nor Humane nor Fish nor Flesh but like the Amphibious Crocodile partly with Tears partly with Terror Raving both by Land and Water and Destroying in both the Elements of Spirituals and Temporals 6. They Judg Marriage by pretended Canons and Laws made by Bishops and Synods which are no Laws but are utterly void they not having had in their making the Assent of the Parliament No English-man can deny That to make a Law are required the joint Assent both of King and Parliament and if either is wanting there can be no Law decreed and enacted by any other Convention Ecclesiastical or Lay whether Council or Synod And this is so great a Birth-right of the People That if any House of Commons who are Elected by the People and intrusted by them to be their Delegates to treat with his Majesty or his Successors to enact Laws of Marriage and other Laws concerning the same should consent and agree That an Act of Parliament should be made that the Bishops and a Synod should instead of the House of Commons have full Power and Authority on their Convention by the Kings Writ to treat with the King and by his Royal Assent to make and enact Canons and Laws concerning Marriage Filiation Succession Religion Liberty and Propriety of the People and such Canons and Laws so made should have the force of Acts of Parliaments and the Commons should declare That to ease themselves of the trouble of so often being summon'd from their remote Habitations in the Country and so long Journies to the City and their not being verst in the difficulties of Legislation or any other probable matter of Excuse that they desired to refer the whole care of the Publick Affairs to Bishops and Synods who are Learned men and they should from time to time as often as they saw necessary on Summons make wholesom Canons and Laws for the People and that the House of Commons desired to be excused from the burden of sitting any more and accordingly such an Act should be passed and thereon a Synod be Summon'd and they should make a Book of Canons concerning Marriage Filiation and Succession by the Royal Consent and these should be proclaimed to be Laws and to have the force of Acts of Parliament yet would such Book of Canons be utterly void and of none effect
fit opinion for Aretine but for no modest Lawyer or Physician Surely God never commanded these Precontracts nor these Adamite Interviews Marriage to be private and unknown except to the Parties themselves Con-Thalamation before Con-Templation for after Adam and Eve were Married as soon as they understood themselves they got Fig-leaves to cover their Nakedness and Nox amor Night-shades and secret places by Nature joined them rather than the sight of the Sun It is more warrantable therefore as to Precontracts to follow God who never commanded them but Popes and Priests who keep them up for their filthy Lucre and far more modest is it to make Marriage-Contracts in Thalamo than in Templo Conscius omnis abest nutu signisque Loquuntur and the same Poet gives as good further Councel to either Si piget in primo limine siste pedem the Woman may rise up illaesa Virginitate and illaeso pudore and as Boaz bid Ruth Cap. 3.14 Let it not be known that a Woman came into the floor But Si in hoc Convenimus ambo and they agree so well that Conception follows and a Child is born were there neither Priest nor Temple within an Hundred Miles yet it appears God was there who gave Birth to the Child therefore as they will answer it before him this Marriage is indissoluble by Pope or Caesar or any humane Power I conclude therefore Marriage ought by the Law of God to be Private and not Publick and Conthalamation ought to be before Contemplation if the Parties have any Contemplation at all 2. It gives the Bishop the Monopoly of all Women and their Goods For he claiming to be Judg of Marriage and Divorce above Appeal the greatest part of the Year and fittest for Marriage they cannot Marry without his License for which they must pay Money and when Married they lie at his Mercy whether he will part them again or no for what he doth there is thence no Appeal if he do admit them to live together and death part them yet no Jointure no Divorce no Thirds no Aliment unless he will vouchsafe his Certificate for which they must pay Money and this they get if they obey his Canons and are Married by a Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple if they come not to yoak themselves by his Ceremonies then he calls them Whores and exacts from them Money by Penance seeing they would give none for Fees and sets what Rates and Taxes by Fees or Penance as he pleaseth so by his Power of Compulsion to this Ceremony he Levieth his Rents on Obedients and Disobedients and sheers both his Sheep and his Goats by having the Power of Compulsion of them to this Fold of his Temple and without it the same could not be done 3. It gives him the Monopoly of Successions both in Private Families and Kingdoms For he claiming to be Judg of Children as well as Parents above Appeal they all lie at the mercy of his Judgment no Right of Primogeniture no Filial Portion no Rationali parte no Hotch-pot no Collatio bonorum no Aliment can be had although they starve unless he vouchsafe his Certificate of what he knows no more than the man in the Moon Yet could he not exercise this Power over the Children had he not Power to compel the Parents to this Ceremony of their Marriages of a Priest in a Temple 4. It gives him Power to Judg of Marriage Filiation and Successions by Fictions How great and how wicked the Power of Judging by Fictions is hath been before mention'd and the Primary Fictions enumerated 1. That intention of mind and not Conjunctions of Bodies makes Marriage P. 83. 2. That Sponsa before a Priest in a Temple is Vxor ib. 86. 3. That Verba de praesenti are Facta de Praeterito Futuro P. 84. The Secondary Fictions and damnable Mischiefs which ensue out of these Primary for as uno absurdo dato mille sequuntur So uno Falso dato mille sequuntur have been likewise before mentioned and shewn at large 1. That if a Man deflower a Virgin with whom he may lawfully Marry and get her with Child or hath many Children by her that he may notwithstanding desert her and Marry another by a Priest in a Temple deflower'd or begot with Child by another Man and the latter and not the first is his Wife and Child P. 88 89. 2. That a Child is not Sib or Kin or of Consanguinity or the Child of the Father who begot or the Mother who bare him or they of him P. 154 155. 3. That by the pronunciation of the words by the Priest that the Man and Woman are Man and Wife the Man is transubstantiated into the Woman and the Woman into the Man and two Persons into one Person and the multitude of mischiefs incident to this Fiction of Transubstantiation are shewn at large before P. 66 67 c. But 't is Compulsion to the Ceremony of Marriage by a Priest and in a Temple is the Causa sine qua non neither the said Primary or Secundary Fictions could be made nor could any of those manifold mischiefs before mention'd ensue from them and if dissentients in Conscience and differents in Convenience had but that liberty permitted which by the Moral and immutable Law of God they ought to have to Marry without the Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple the Bishop could not inslave themselves and their Posterity their Religion Liberty and Propriety to his worse than Arbitrary Judgment to a False Judgment a Lying Judgment a Judgment by Fictions had he not the Power to compel them to this Ceremony of a Priest and a Temple So that were there nothing else to be said against this Compulsion but that it causeth so great a mischief as Judgments by Fictions it were enough to make it abhor'd by God and all good men For grant but one Fiction in Religion it will Spawn a Thousand Heresies and grant but one Fiction in Judicial Proceeding it will Spawn a Thousand Oppressions and let the old Serpent but get in his Head he will draw in his whole Body à Vero non declinabit Justus Justice comes from the God of Truth and not from the Devil who is the Father of Lies 5. It causeth in the Rich Excess and Vanity of Apparel Tilting Turneaments Masking Gluttony Ryot and Drunkenness When there is a Marriage intended by a Priest in a Temple the Bride is drest like a Bartholomew-Baby or one of the Popish Saints to be the Idol of the Place then no Text shall be Preached on but her Clothing is of wrought Gold though far better Doctrine and more proper for such an occasion doth offer it self Isa 3.16 And 1 Pet. 3.3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the Hair and of wearing of Gold or of putting on of Apparel The Turk in his Frugality may rise in Judgment against Christians for one Christians Wife costs him more than
by breaking the Custom and being drawn by the Deceit of Roxolana to Marry her by a Priest The Reasons why the Grand Seigniors Marry not themselves by a Priest or in a Temple or by a Magistrate or with any other Publick Solemnity but only make Use of Private Natural Marriage are 1. It prevents the great Charge of a Dower or Jointure which Turkish Emperors are bound to give their Queens who are Married by a Priest for as Withers Relates amongst the Grand Seigniors Seraglio of Women Marriage made by the first birth of a Child and not by words of a Priest she is esteemed Empress who brings him the first Son and they were formerly Married before the Mufti or Arch-Priest which was only to give one another their Assent before him and he to make an Hodget or Note in Writing of it and of the Dower the Emperor was to give her which except as to the Dower was no other than as our Certificate of the Bishop touching which Selymus being Uxorious and having given in his Marriage Five Hundred Thousand Chequins a Year to his Queen made a Law no Successor if they Married should give less than he had done to their Queens whereupon the Emperors succeeding forebore and it grew out of fashion to Marry by the Priest to save their Dower and other excessive Expences incident to Publick Marriages of Princes and had thereby likewise their Queens far more obsequious than before they thereby depending wholly on the Love of their Husbands to give them what they pleased according to their merit 2. By not Marrying by a Priest he is clear from all Burden of Allyances of his Sultana Poor or Rich. 3. The Grand Seignior thereby regained into his own hands the Patria Potestas belonging to every Father of being Judg who were his own Children which had been by his Superstitious Predecessors unwarily Alien'd to his Arch-Mufti or Arch-Bishop for by giving him Power by his Hodget or Certificate to declare the Marriage there followed as incident thereto the Arch-Bishop's Legitimation of his Children and Declaration of his Heir Apparent and Successor Then further the Mahometan Law allowing Plurality if Married by the Priest they could not be Married altogether but one after another or if they were a Child of a Woman Married after might come sooner which Priority of Marriage by the Mother would have destroyed the Custom of Primogeniture of the Son first born of any Wife whether the beloved or hated or first Married or after Married so 4. he kept the Right of Primogeniture and Peace in his own Family which if he having an Elder Son by a first Wife not Married by a Priest should have a Younger Son by a Second Wife Married by a Priest this pretence might cause Murder or Civil Wars between his Elder and Younger Sons one standing on his Right of Primogeniture and the other on the Hodget or Certificate of the Arch-Bishop of Prior Marriage of the Later Mother by the Priest as happen'd in the Example of Solyman the Magnificent and Roxolana Turk Hist 758. where it appears that Solyman the Magnificent begot of his first Empress a Circassian Bond-woman not Married by a Priest Mustapha his Eldest Son who proved a Prince of great Excellency and most dearly beloved by the Army and People after Solyman according to their Custom of Plurality of Wives grows wanton and begets four Sons more of Roxolana another of his Bond-women namely Mahomet Selymus Bajazet and Tzithanger and one Daughter called Chameria Married to Rustan the Great Basha Roxolana being her self a great Beauty and having so fair an Issue and a Potent Son in Law to assist her and no obstacle but the Primogeniture of Mustapha to make her own Son the Heir apparent of the Greatest Empire in the World discover'd her self to be more adorned with Gold and Pearls than Vertue yet counterfeits Religion to bring her Designs to pass but first take the Epigram by Knolles subscribed to her Picture Fronti nulla fides nulla est fiducia formae Pectore dum savo dira venena Latent Philtra viro Miscet fallax miserumque coegit Sanguine natorum Commaculare manus No Trust there is to Face or Beauty when The Breast of Poison'd Serpents is the Den. Her wretched Husband her Love-Cups untrue Made in his own Sons blood his hands imbrue This Woman to begin her intended Tragedy under colour of Good-will and Love had procured Mustapha the Young Prince and his Mother to be sent as she pretended for their greater Honour and Estate with a Princely Train and Revenue to Caramâ—nia to Govern that Great Countrey and having thus cunningly Rid the Court of the two Competitors both of her Love and the Empire rested not so but began straight way to plot in her malicious head the Destruction of him to whom all others wished Happiness and though she had removed him far absent in his Person yet the continually encreasing Fame of his Valour Vertues and Perfections seem'd to be still before her Eyes and in her Ears the great and only disturbance of her Desires and Clouds which kept the Sun from shining on them and doubting of any sufficient Assistants or Instruments amongst the Military Forces in regard all the Soldiers were at the Devotion of the Prince and not of Rustan her Son in Law whom they hated though she had got him to be Chief Commission-Officer over them she therefore fixes the other part of her hopes on the Priest and Resolves to try what could be supplied by the Gown which was defective in the Sword and to prepare the way the better she on a sudden Counterfeits her self to be very Religious and having grown by the favour of Solyman exceeding Rich pretended as if it had been on a devout Zeal for the health of her Soul after the manner of their Turkish Superstition to build an Abby with an Hospital and a Church which so Godly a purpose she imparted to the Mufti or Chief Mahometan Priest demanding of him if such works of Charity were not acceptable to God and available to her Souls health to which the Mufti answer'd That those Works were no doubt gratious in the sight of God but nothing at all meritorious for her Souls health being a Bond-woman yet very profitable for the Soul of the Great Emperour Solyman unto whom as unto her Lord both she and all that she had appertained at which answer of the great Priest she seemed to be exceedingly troubled and thereupon became wonderful pensive and Melancholick her Chearful Countenance was Replete with Sadness and her fair Eyes flowed with Tears her Mirth was Mourning and her Joy Heaviness which thing Solyman perceiving and sorry to see his Love upon Conceit so to languish sent her word to be of good chear and to comfort her self promising in short time to take such a Course as should ease her of all her Griefs of which she had made some discovery to him which he did solemnly Manumising
he ought to be punish'd in One Hundred Pounds to the King and Imprisonment one Year without Bail and One Hundred Pounds more to the Knight injured thereby or to any other Person who in his default will Sue for the same and is contrary to the two said standing Acts of Parliament of greater consequence than Magna Charta or the Petition of Right themselves for if there is a Protestant Parliament no doubt they will make and we shall not want Protestant Laws but if once there get in a Papist Parliament both Protestant Laws Religion and Protestants themselves will be all destroyed And as the Sheriff Returns Fictions to Courts so do they send Fictions to him and it is hard for him to know when they speak true and when false as if a Venire Facias be sent him to Return 12 Jurors he must Return 24 which is double the number or he shall be Fined for as they write their words in the Venire by halves so do they as it seems their Meaning by halves yet the poor Sheriff is bound to understand them to his Cost then if they send him a Pone per Vadios Salvos plegios the Sheriff must Return no other Plegii to answer their Fiction than his own Fiction of Plegii John Den and Richard Fen or they will teach the Party to have a false Imprisonment against him Suits are removed when the Plaintiff hath been at all the Cost and trouble and is ready for a Trial on meer vexation and to delay on Suggestion or Fiction of a Cause without any Oath of Calumny Attachments and Arrest of Goods and Persons is used in the City without any Oblatio Libelli or Oath of Calumny on meer Fictions and Suggestions City Law 22. but very wrongfully for a Citizen hath as good Right to Magna Charta as he hath to the Charter of the City and under the name of being free of the City doth not lose the liberty of a Subject to be free from Arrest before Judgment Coke Vind. Law 26. says Abuses of Fictions to Arrest before Judgment This brings to my remembrance how a Gentleman was Arrested for 1500 l. the same day that he was to have been Married without any colourable cause of Action spitefully to hinder his Match and was not able to give Bail but the Party being Non-suit the Gentleman notwithstanding could recover as I remember no more than 7 s. 2 d. Cost yet he lost his Monies and indeed himself by it for I know it was the occasion of his utter Undoing and a man that is Cannibally given may devour the Credit of 500 men Arresting them for 5000 l. a piece never declare yet pay no Cost though Party Arrested had better have paid 500 l. and this is so usual that 't is commonly said I 'le bestow a Bill of Middlesex on such a man to stay him in Town that I may have his company into the Countrey when I go down And I my self was informed by a Sea-Captain who was a Sufferer in such an Arrest That there happen'd to be two Merchants in London each of which designed a Voyage to the same Port of Barbary whether he who could arrive first was assured he should to his great gain obtain the Prime of the Market to which purpose they both strove with all diligence possible which should be foremost at the Spring and it happen'd that he who had his Ship first ready had entertained this Captain of my acquaintance to command her for him and all being ready to set Sail the Captain would needs walk into the City to take his parting Cup and Farewell of his Friends where unexpectedly he was Arrested for 5000 l. though not owing a farthing and the same being a Choak-Bail-Sum he knew he should get none to be Surety for him and thereupon sent to his Merchant to inform him how he was boarded before he could get aboard who being much troubled that his Captain was taken by a Land Pyrat repaired to him and understanding from him that he did not owe the Party at whose Suit he was Arrested a farthing and knowing withal that it was done by the Spite of the other Merchant to stop his Ship from getting before him he gave Bail for his Captain and sent him immediately on the Voiage All which Mischiefs happen because there is no Law to compel to give a Copy of the Declaration and Oath of Calumny before Arrest by which all Fictions are prevented All the Judicial Transactions of Fines and Recoveries are Fictions Fictions of Fines and Recoveries so though we have fled from Land to Sea and back again from Sea to Land we know not where to find Rest for the Sole of our Foot from Fictions We are next come to another horrible cause of their Increase which is that no Averment or Probation to the contrary is admitted against the Sheriff or the Clerk nor the Returns or Records how Records which are nothing but the Scribling of Clerks in false Latine and Court-hand for their Fees come to be of higher Authority than the Scripture it self is strange for it was never denied except against Mahomets Alchoran but Averment and contrary Probation might be brought against the false Copying false Translating or false Printing of any word or Clause in the Scripture or it would be very difficult to overthrow Popery What greater reason is there of so many Forgeries of Clerks but that there is no Averment allowed against their Records nor contrary Probation whereby they may for Money insert what Fictions and Falsities they please Estopples are another mischievous cause and the denial of liberty of Travers as bad or worse than the other Turpia quid referam vanae mendacia Linguae I am weary and ashamed to recite so much reflecting so deeply on the Honourable and necessary Profession of the Law Pudet haec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli But all this may be easily taken away of Fictions and Falsities if so small a matter of Form were but alter'd as to give liberty to Traverse all is false and to cause the Plaintiffs and Defendants to give Copies of their Declarations and Pleas and to give their Oath of Calumny to them for I saw it by experience in Scotland which I must acknowledg and testifie to the Honour of their Form of Judicial Proceedings That I could never for the space of Six Years observe the least Fiction in the same which I can attribute to no other cause than the wise and just Act of Parliament concerning the Oath of Calumny Jac. 1. P. 9. C. 125. and the present Practice accordingly which Act being short I have transcribed That Advocates and Fore-speakers in Temporal Courts sall Sweare THrow the consent of the hail Parliament it is Statute and Ordained That Advocates and Fore-speakers in Temporal Courts and alswa the Parties that they plead for gif they be present in all Causes in the beginning or
may be easie for the Priests to put Apples Grapes and Nuts in a Coffin and by Night to make fearful Noises Shrieks Groans and Counterfeit Apparitions about Graves and Tombs whence the horror of the very place and darkness make such impressions on timorous Fancies as they shall not dare to approach much less examine the matter and take out the new Body out of the Coffin and put in one had been Buried Seven Years and then a Vault made of purpose to make a noise under ground in the Church and Sofronio know nothing of all this 5. But whether it were Witchcraft or Cheat it is most horrible wickedness to make Use of either under pretence of Church-Discipline or the Worship of God seeing they both come from the Devil Alvarez a Portugal Priest Relates of himself That at the Town of Barva in Ethiopia there appeared a Terrible Cloud of an infinite number of Locusts which at length fell and Devoured the Countrey and that he and another Portuguez Priest took a Consecrated Stone and the Cross and sung the Letany and in this manner went in Procession through the Corn-Fields for the space of a Mile unto a little Hill and there he caused them to take a quantity of the Locusts and made of them a Conjuration which he carried with him in writing which he had made the Night before Requiring them Charging them and Excommunicating them Willing them within Three Hours space to begin to depart towards the Sea or towards the Land of Morez or towards the Desart Mountains and to let the Christians alone and if they obey'd him not he called and adjured the Fowls of the Air the Beasts of the Field and all the Tempests to scatter destroy and consume their Bodies And for this purpose he took the quantity of Locusts and made this Admonition to them that were present in the name of themselves and those which were absent and so let them go and gave them liberty The Locusts began forthwith to depart and in the mean while a mighty Tempest and Thunder arose toward the Sea which drowned all the Locusts in the River and the dead Locusts remained in heaps two Fathom high on the Banks so by the Morning there was not one Locust left alive This Excommunication if true were Conjuring and Witchcraft Flies Excomunicated Peter de Nathal in vita Bernhardi Relates That St. Bernhard denounced the Sentence of Excommunication against Flies Whether this may be call'd Witchcraft or a Silly Prank of St. Simplicius I cannot say but if he could Excommunicate Flies without a Magical Telesme or Inchantment Fishes Excommunicated he shall be the Domitian of Divinity Mere. Gallo lib. 6. p. 592. saith That Anno Domini 1593. The Bishop of Conagtion very malitiously Excommunicated the Innocent Fishes Theodosius a Bishop of Alexandria Dead Excommunicated Excommunicated Origen Two Hundred Years after his Death if he is censur'd only for a Cheat 't is less than so wicked a practice deserves Now though God may permit wicked men to Excommunicate and Daemons Witches wild Beasts and Tyrants to abuse the Bodies of the best men after they are dead they have no Power to touch the Soul And we ought not to fear but contemn their Excommunication for so saith Christ Matth. 10.28 Fear not them that can kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell Excommunication of the Devil Devils Excommunicated Mengus de Flagell Daemon Describes part of the Form of the Romish Exorcism to be I Command you Oh Davils who are come to the help of those that vex this Creature of God N. upon pain of Excommunication and Immersion into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone for a Thousand Years that ye yield no Aid and Assistance to these Devils It seems the Devil is of the Society of these Romish Priests otherwise he could not be Excommunicated To grant a Bishop Power of Excommunication is to grant him the Legislative Judicial and Executive Power Excommunication gives the Pope the Legislative Power over all Nations for by this he made his Canon-Law whensoever he pleased to be observed through Christendom by no other Obligation than his Command they should be observed on pain of Excommunication By granting the Power of Excommunication the Legislative Power is granted and the Clergy in Convocation used anciently without asking the Royal Assent to make Canons touching matters of Religion to bind not only themselves but all the Laity without Assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament It was used in ancient time for Creditors besides other Security to procure Debtors to Swear they would pay them and thereupon there being then no Arrest in the Temporal Courts for Debt they Sued them in the Spiritual Courts on their Oaths and they granted an Excommunicato Capiendo to Arrest them without Bail which were so frequent that E. 1. could not keep his Servants free from Arrest in his Court till to prevent it he caused a Writ De Promulgantibus Sententiam Excommunicationis Capiendis Imprisonendis Commanding to Imprison such as Excommunicated any of them Rot. Parl. 25. E. 1. Intus Henry the Second according to Hovedon would That all such of the Clergy as were Deprehended in any Robbery Murder Felony Burning of Houses and the like should be Tried and Adjudged in the Temporal Courts as Lay-men were But Becket Arch-Bishop of Canterbury stood proudly on the Pontificial Prerogative of the Clergy That no Clergy-man ought to be Tried but in their own Spiritual Courts and by men of their own Coat And if they were Convicted before them they ought only to be deprived of their Office but if they after offended they should be Judged in the Kings Courts This Power of Judgment he drew to his own Court only by his Power of Excommunication A Copy of a Prohibition of Excommunication A true translated Copy of a Writ of Prohibition granted by the Lord Chief Justice and other the Judges of the Common-Pleas in Easter-Term 1676. against the Bishop of Chichester who had proceeded against and Excommunicated one Thomas Watersfield a Church-Warden for Refusing to take the Oath usually tendred to Persons in such Office to Present such who absent from Church by which Writ the Illegality of all such Oaths is Declared and the said Bishop Commanded to Release and take off his said Excommunication c. CHarles the Second by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To the Reverend Father in Christ Ralph by Divine Providence Lord Bishop of Chichester or any other competent Judg in his behalf whatsoever Greeting We are informed in our Court before our Justices at Westminster on the behalf of Thomas Watersfield That whereas by the Laws of this our Realm of England no Person ought to be Cited to appear in any Court Christian before any Judg Spiritual to
Authority from them and that they were chosen and called by their several Congregations or what is all one Cities or Parishes and not by the Emperor or Prince till Constantine to corrupt them under pretence of prevention of Schisms and Heresies which he thereby encreased took away the free Election of the People of their Pastors which they had always before enjoyed to make them Pensioners and the Christians Mercenaries to Fight all their Quarrels Right or Wrong That Presbyters were only Parochial and not Provincial is not doubted That Bishops were all one with Presbyters and therefore were Parochial and not Provincial A Bishop and a Presbyter all one is proved first by the Authority of Jerome who saith ad Tit. Cap. 1. That a Bishop and Presbyter was all one And that it may not depend solely on humane Authority this is proved by the words of Paul to the Philippians Chap. 1. 1. Paul and Timotheus the Servants of Jesus Christ to all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons Grace be unto you and Peace Now Philippi is one of the Cities of Macedonia and in one City there could not be many Bishops unless they were Parochial and not Diocesan or Provincial and the same the Presbyters were Acts 20.17 It is said Paul from Miletum sent to Ephesus and called the Elders of the Church and verse 27. he saith to them For I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole Counsel of God Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock over the which the Holy-Ghost hath made you Bishops to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood For I know this that after my Departing shall grievous Wolves enter in among you not sparing the Flock Here appears that the same Persons whom Paul first verse 17. calls Elders Presbyters of Ephesus he after in the same Chapter verse 27. calls Bishops or Overseers And 1 Pet. 5.1 The Elders which are among you I Exhort who am also an Elder and a Witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the Glory which shall be revealed Feed the Flock of God taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy Lucre but of a ready mind Neither as being Lords over God's Heritage but being Examples to the Flock From which Scripture appears 1. That the great Apostle Peter himself from whom the Bishop of Rome pretends his Succession to Imperial Supremacy Bishops ought not to be Lords calls himself no more than an Elder or Presbyter and that he had other Co-presbyters with him 2. That these Presbyters who are now call'd Bishops ought not to be Lord Bishops for the words are they are not to be Lords of Gods Heritage In one Chapter of Mahomets it is forbidden to all Persons of what Quality soever to call themselves in any sort Lords except the great Caliph or great Bishop the Successor of Mahomet who at the first was the only Lordly Monarch and Lord of all giving unto Kings and Princes their Principalities and Kingdoms during pleasure untill that the Ottoman Princes the Cundes and the Kings of the higher part of Asia and Africk by little and little Exempted themselves out of their Power by Reason of the Division between them and the Anti-Caliphs Bod. 203. 3. That they ought not to have Temporal Baronies for they are not to take charge of Souls for filthy Lucre but of ready mind 4. That they ought neither to Counterfeit a Nolo Episcopare when they take Baronies nor to Refuse the Charge of Souls when they have none for the words are not by constraint but willingly Cranmer That Bishops were Presbyters and chosen by the Parish And it is likewise acknowledged by that Pious Protestant Martyr Arch-Bishop Cranmer though he were a Provincial and chosen by the King himself yet That amongst the Primitive Christians the Bishops were chosen by the Congregations and were all one with Presbyters From all which Premises these Sequels follow 1. That if a Bishop were chosen by his City or Parish he came not in Jure Divino but by human Election and was only a Servant and not a Lord of the City or Parish 2. That he had no Sign of Mission from God unless he had a Gift of Miracles 3. That he could not Excommunicate any of his own Parish for the Inferior cannot Excommunicate the Superior and Electors are Superiors to Persons Elected and the Host is Superior in his own House to the Guest and he who gives the Pension to the Pensioner Bishops cannot Excommunicate 4. That a Bishop Elected by the People cannot on Excommunication deliver any Person to Satan without the Gift of Miracles as a Sign of Mission for Nemo potest plus Juris ad alium Transferre quà m ipse habet the Electors themselves had no Power to deliver to Satan therefore Bishops Elected by them cannot without Miracle 5. Though he hath the Power of Miracles to deliver the Body to Satan he cannot deliver the Soul nor can he have any Sign of Mission to do the same for that is a Prerogative inseparable from the Person of God to send the Soul to Heaven or Hell and Inter insignia imperii which cannot be Delegated 6. That as a Bishop cannot Excommunicate a Citizen or Parishioner who Elected him so he can much less Excommunicate a King or Interdict a Kingdom who if he had any Jurisdiction at all can be no greater than within the Petty Bounds of his City or Parish and cannot extend to Empires or Kingdoms 7. That he can give no Consecration or Ordination to a Bishop or Priest for where the Office ought to go by Election of the People it cannot go by Ordination of the Bishop and where it goes by human Election it cannot go by Consecration and after the Gift of Miracles ceased both the Election by Missioners from God and Consecration and Ordination likewise ceased Subjects free from Superstition the safety of the Prince 8. That 't is a great Safety to Princes to have their Subjects well Educated and Instructed against the Superstition and Popery of Consecration Ordination and Excommunication of Bishops and Priests for by this only means we see the Grand Seignior though he Tolerates a multitude of Sects and Religions in his Empire yet he is endanger'd by none because all Mahumetan Priests are chosen by the Parish and though they are in great Reverence of the People yet they have neither Consecration nor Ordination but continue as perfect Lay-men as our Ordinary Clerks of our Parishes and much less have they Power of Excommunication or Absolution but Preach That those that Fight Valiantly and Die in the Field for their Prince and Prophet go to Paradise and who slie Cowardly go to Hell whereby none of his People are Educated in the Superstition of Pontifical Excommunication and therefore fear it not but deride it And for the Greck
much as a Non-Communion which is far less than an Excommunication with Hereticks or unbelievers appears by his Example of Eating and Drinking with the Pharisees and his frequent Converse with all the Jewish Sects yea with Samaritans and what is more he Eat and Drank with Publicans and Sinners and taught The whole needed not the Physician but those who are Sick Bishops Murderers to deliver to the Lay-Power and how great a weakning 't is to Religion not to admit Liberty to Dissentients in Faith and Form of Worship but to persecute them with Excommunication though brevity permit me not here to speak I may on another occasion shew Waldus and Wickliff who were Protestants taught That Excommunications Suspensions and Interdicts were only inventions to maintain the Bishops Pride and Covetousness and that they were Murderers who deliver'd over to the Lay-power The same held John Hus and Jerom of Prague who were therefore Martyr'd by the Papists Luther likewise opposed Excommunication and Erastus and many other Learned men have sufficiently proved the imposture of it and that it never came from Christ but the true Original from whence it came appears in the Examples following Numa Pompilius the old Superstitious Law-giver of Rome who had his Law or he feigned from his Nymph or She-Devil Egeria first instituted his Pontifex Maximus or High-Priest which name the Pope hath since assumed to himself and gave him Power over all Sacrifices and Ceremonies to make propitious their Celestial and especially to appease the Manes and infernal Gods under whose Power they believed the Souls lay after Death and made their Superstitious Followers to believe That the Priests who were Masters of these Ceremonies could send their Souls to Heaven or Hell as they pleased according to Virgil Animas ille evocat Orco Pallentes alias sub tristia Tartara mittit He some pale Ghosts with Voice as with a Spell Call'd up and others head-long cast to Hell Supremacy got by Excommunication And by this Superstition the Pagan Priests got their Supremacy over the World by the like means did the naked Druides get Supremacy over the Gallick and British Cavalry as appears by Caes Com. de Bell. Gall. p. 157. Where he saith In omni Gallia eorum hominum qui in aliquo sunt numero atque honore genera sunt duo nam plebs pene Servorum habetur loco sed de his duobus generibus alterum est Druidum alterum Equitum Illi rebus divinis intersunt Sacrificia publica privata procurant Religiones interpretantur ad hos magnus adolescentum numerus Disciplinae causâ concurrit Magnoque ii apud eos sunt in honore nam fere de omnibus controversiis publicis privatisque constituunt si quod est admissum si caedes facta si de haereditate si de finibus controversia est iidem discernunt praemia poenaesque constituunt siquis aut privatus aut populus eorum decreto non stetit Sacrificiis interdicunt haec poena apud eos est gravissima quibus ita est interdictum ii numero impiorum sceleratorum habentur ab iis omnes decedunt aditum eorum sermonemque defugiunt ne quid ex contagione incommodi accipiant neque iis petentibus jus redditur neque honos ullus tributtur His omnibus Druidibus praeest unus qui summam apud eos Authoritatem habet hec mortuo siquis ex reliquis excellit dignitate succedet si sunt plures suffragio Druidum adlegitur nonnunquam etiam de Pontificatu Armis contendunt And after he saith Druides à bello abesse consueverunt neque tributa unà cum reliquis pendunt militiae vacationem omniumque rerum habent communitatem Here is the perfect Platform of the modern Excommunication and the Privileges claimed by Bishops and that impious Punishment Neque iis petentibus jus redditur that a Person Excommunicated right or wrong shall not be permitted to Sue for his Right though never so just and the like with the Excommunication instituted by the Beast Rev. 13.17 That no man might Buy or Sell save he that had the Mark or the name of the Beast A Satyrin Defiance of all Excommunication without a Sign of Mission from God DAmn'd Fiend of Hell who first in Earth or Skie Did'st counterfeit the Voice of the most High And both to God and Man to shew thy Hate In darkest Clouds didst dare to Fulminate Either of Ignorance or Air the Light Of humane Souls or Sun to close in Night That thy Sulphurean Sentences might blaze Like Comets and the foolish World amaze That to thy false Fires Knees and Hearts might bow And the true Fire and God they might not know Thou Druids first taught'st in our Isle to sing Dirge's to Souls which made the Woods to ring And did they thought transport them in a trice to happier Groves or to Fools Paradise This the old Britons Courage made renew And more than Woad themselves their Foes look blue Whose trembling Souls they made with Fear to groan Of Styx with Fiery Water where was none To Bless or Curse they car'd not right or wrong Thus Priests the Spoils got Soldiers a Song Who should be Arch-Priest raised Civil Wars The Forest ratled then with Armed Cars And naked Anti-Popes far off from Fights Spit Fire at one another just like Sprights Each side were Martyrs inade who dy'd of Wounds Sans nombre which did so o'restock the bounds Of the Elizian Common that they tell Souls after Death Fought who should go to Hell With this inchanted Sword more ill to do They stole or took by force the Civil too And like so many Kets in Savage State Under their Oaks of Reformation Sate And Judged all Causes and of Peace and Wars The Treasures got thus without Wounds or Scars All to their Sentence bowed as to Fate Whom they but doom'd to Excommunicate Yet they no Sign of Mission thus to do Druydes Sign of Mission Had but their Oak and on it Misleto The Druids dead they left their Furies Whip Brothers and Sisters falling first to strip And as their Worships pleas'd to Lash and Jerk First to one Pope then many in a Kirk Nobles and Poor Bare-Footed and Bare-Leg'd Stood at Church-door and for their Pardon 's Beg'd Which to be granted were so long delay'd Till Commutation-Money first was paid Unto the same they next gave by their Will Their flaming Sword to Strike Depose and Kill High Emperors and Kings and cut the bands Of Subjects Oaths and Faith at their Commands Blind Cupids Arrows first they stole of Love And after thus the Thunderbolts of Jove The Romish Bishops Sign of Mission The Romish Druids next to shew a Sign That their Infernal Mission was Divine By their Black Magick Art in time most strange The hollow Oak to holy Church did change And on the top they made the Mislet◠To turn and there into a Steeple grow And Leavs to Ropes and Berries into
Bells Transform'd to Ring to Weddings and to Knells To an Aceldama their Church turn'd next And the dead Bones for Burial-Fees they vext Their restless rest thus purchased in vain They then for Reliques dig'd them up again And sell their Merits though of Tyburn-Saints And Heaven to all whose Purse or Faith not faints Oh Joseph of Arimathea nam'd And on the British-Shores for ever fam'd Whose Ship of Olive-planks from Palestine Of Tidings glad the Pacquet brought Divine The Sea Nymphs danc'd each with a Triton Mate For joy thou mad'st their Isles the Fortunate Oh tell us had thy Vessels such broad sides Of Canon as that which in Tybur rides Whose roaring Thunder beats and buries Towns Cities and Churches Kingdoms and their Crowns And sinks them how or whither none can tell To Time-set Limbo's or Eternal Hell Or from thy Bark being then the Western-Church Thy Passengers to leave so in the lurch Did'st thou cast overboard and in the Dark Leave them there to be snapt by the old Shark That thou their Cargo rifle might'st the while And Gold and Silver like a Pyrat vile Tell us did Christ the great or lesser Curse Teach who were bad before to make them worse Or Bless or Curse not did he who did say Intend and mean the clean contrary way Who left his Peace did he bid to annoy Who came the World to save would he destroy From Satan who so oft deliver'd men Them back again did he cast to his Den He in this World who Kingdom would have none Did he bid Priests Depose Kings from the Throne Deliverance to Captives who did Preach Priests them to starve in Prison did he Teach When Peter warm'd did for his Master mourn All whom he Master'd did he bid him burn No Joseph no this was not the good Seed Thou brought'st and Sow'd'st whereon the Flocks might feed The Evil One those Fiery tasted Tares Sowed and them intangled with Snares None but the Devil from th' Infernal Pit Doth Curse and Ban and Fire and Brimstone Spit Great Hus and Jerom now for ever blest Oh two true Witnesses Slain by the Beast Whose Treachery safe Conduct gave to both But basely perjur'd broke it and his Oath You who made tremble the Infernal States And dared Attacque black Dis at his own Gates What was your Doctrine which so terrified The pompous Popedom in its highest Pride You held and that made them so highly hate That Bishops could not Excommunicate This did you both from thence to Heaven raise And sent you thither Crown'd with Fiery Bays And Sparks of you to Stellifie this sent With Protestants the British Firmament Brave Hero's now the horned Miter pull From Phalaris of Rome his Brazen Bull Hear your dead Martyrs how they do you press And cry from all his Fiery Furnaces Dismount his Canons from the Battlements Of his Church-Catholick which get his Rents Take from the Building but the Thunder-stone Oh then for ever down falls Babylon An Epode on Protestants Excommunicated by Papists What though with Bans and Curses They Rob and Kill and take our Purses In highest Faith come on And know there hath or shall be none Happy decreed by Fate But who first was or is unfortunate Arm Arm against the Devil He 'l flie and all his Spirits Evil. And Beast with Seven Heads At this time was a great noise in the Countries of Armies seen rising out of the ground and others in the Air. If on your Land or Sea he treads To fight him never spare Soldiers and Poor each one then take your share What though whole Armies rising From Earth are fearful hearts Surprising And Daemons of the Air Fighting in Clouds tempt to Despair What though they come from Hell There 's no Enchantment against Israel Hark how our Canons Thunder And keep the Romish Canons under Their Organs grunt and whine Our Flutes and Haubois are Divine And Cornets to the Skie Sound for Religion and for Liberty Angels to hear grow prouder Than their 's our holy Musick louder And valiant Souls shall bear From Death to Musick 's highest Sphere Who burn would not like a Brand That thus renown'd may die with Sword is hand Whether an Union can be of protestant-Protestant-Parliaments and Churches without a true Test between Papist and Protestant Test between Papist and Protestant Neither Protestant-Parliaments or Churches can be Known without a true Test much less therefore can they be United Whether Recusancy to pray in a Temple or in the Form of Common-Prayer is a true Test between Papist and Protestant A true Test ought to Provide and see that there be none in it of the Servants of the Lord but the Worshippers of Baal only 2 Kings 10.23 But in this of Recusancy to pray in a Temple are all the true Worshippers of God in Spirit and Truth if we may believe Christs Precept and Designation of them at large before Debated p. 210. c. in Reference to the Omnipresential Worship of God Christ in thy Closet bids thee Pray Thine is there both the Church and Key What though no Bishop walk'd it round Gods being there makes holy Ground The mischiefs of Compelling Protestants to a Form of Common-Prayer appear too much in being the occasion of the first breaking out of the late miserable Civil Wars and the Irreparable loss of his then Majesty the mischiefs of Compelling Papists to Protestant-Churches appear in this That one Church-Papist is more Dangerous than an Hundred open Absenters and they who truly understand the Danger of Mixing would rather think it prudent like the Primitive Christians to have a Non-Communion with Idolaters and their Ostiarii as they had to see none crept into the Places of their Convention for Prayer than compell such Bloody Spies incensed by Penal Laws thither to betray them Whether Recusancy to receive the Sacrament in a Temple or in the Common-Form is a true Test This likewise is before Discuss'd p. 212. and Examples of the frequent Poisoning the Sacrament by the Priest p. 240 241. To compell therefore any Eminent Protestants to Receive the Sacrament of such Persons of whom they cannot be assured were to be Accessary to their Murder Whether Subscription to the 39. Articles is a true Test 'T is shewn before That no true Test ought to endanger the Conscience of any Protestant but 't is notorious that the greatest part of Protestants are Dissentients in Conscience to divers Doctrines of the 39. Articles and therefore Subscription to the same is no true Test nor ought to be Imposed on them 1. Because these 39. Articles were made by the Bishops Anno 1562. in the Fourth Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth while the Papist Peers were yet in Parliament and in Power who with the Bishops in their Front were too hard for her and of whom she might then say Res durae Regni Novitas me talia cogunt She was not able to perfect Reformation at one Stroke 2. Because
in these Articles Bishops presumed to be Legislators Judges and Executioners in their own Case for the Bishops make the Article 36. whereby they Constitute themselves Arch-Bishops and Bishops and Article 32. They Declare it lawful for all men to Marry Article 34. They Ridiculously make Traditions of the Church to be Changeable according to Diversity of Countries Times and mens Manners so before they come to their Ceremonial Law they set up their Legend-Law and the Ceremonies must be Founded on what Legends they please and no man must oppose either Tradition or Legend or Ceremonies set up by Common Authority that is by Authority of the Bishops for the House of Commons never Authorized them Rog. Art 34. Prop. 2. p. 196. Then Article 33. they Order Excommunication Delivery to Satan Penance and Absolution Then to compell the Observation of these Articles Anno 1603. They assume the Legislative Power to make Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical without the assent of the House of Commons they Order Saying or Singing of Common-Prayer and the Letany with all the Ceremonies prescribed by the Can. 14 15. Copes Surplices and Hoods to be wom in Cathedrals by Can. 17 27. Marriage not to be without Banns or License Can. 62. None to deliver from Satan without the Bishops License Can. 72. And no Minister to Preach Read Lecture or Catechize without Subscription to the 39. Articles Can. 36 37. And then to make clear work they Order That if any affirm any of the Nine and Thirty Articles made by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops to be in any part Erroneous or such as he may not with a good Conscience Subscribe to let him be Excommunicate Ipso facto which is without Summons or Hearing Can. 5. Can. 9. So unless the Protestant-Minister will Popishly acknowledg the Bishop to be Infallible and without Error and that all his Traditions and Ceremonies of Worship of Marriage and the like Ordained by Episcopal Authority are of Divine Right to oblige the Conscience and that he neither can Teach nor Fast nor Pray though to deliver from the Devil without his License Here is a Test wherein the Bishop assumes to be Legislator Judg an Ipso facto Executioner in his own Cause against a Protestant-Minister and not only prohibited to speak Book of 39. Articles and of Canons oblige not the Subjects to Clergy or Lay. but his Conscience to think against it in his own Defence 3. This Subscription to the 39. Articles ought not to be Imposed as a Test because neither the said Book of Articles nor Book of Canons had the Assent of the House of Commons at the time of their Making without whose Actual and Express Assent no Law or Canon or Article can be made to oblige the Subject which is more fully proved before Whether the Positive part of the Oath of Supremacy is a true Test The Form of the Oath 1. Eliz. 1. is as followeth I A. B. do utterly Testifie and Declare in my Conscience That the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm and of all other his Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things or Causes as Temporal and that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm and therefore I do utterly Renounce and Forsake all Foreign Jurisdictions Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Highness his Heirs and lawful Successors or Vnited and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book It being granted that no true Test can be which the Conscience of a Protestant weak or strong ignorant or knowing refuseth or is doubtful to take it is manifest that the positive part is refused by a very considerable part of the People and a greater part are doubtful and take it with Reluctancy yet are they such as cannot be doubted to be sincere Protestants in Religion and most Faithful and Loyal Subjects to the King and their Objections seem to be these 1. The words only Supreme Governor are of so infinite and unlimited an Extent in the Letter that there is necessity of limiting them in the intention which intention being Implicit only and not Express may be made so various by Expositors that the same likewise is infinitely ambiguous and unintelligible and that Pious Queen Elizabeth being at her first Entry to the Kingdom as good as under the Wardships of Bishops could not avoid the Forming of this Oath of Supremacy by them on the first Act and Year of her Reign and to impose the same on the Subjects not for her Benefit but their own though after finding the same so general obscure and wrested by false Interpretations she endeavour'd by a subsequent Declaration published to have explained and limited the same according to her true intention and meaning but the same being not done by Act of Parliament proved not sufficient to relieve many doubtful and wounded Consciences amongst the People of which vide more at large before p. 167 168. 2. The words Supreme Governor include both the Legislative Judicial and Executive Power The words only Supreme exclude Parliaments and the word only excludes literally the Parliament from having any Vote in either whereas the known Law of the Land is That no Law can be Enacted to bind the People without the mutual Assent of the King and their lawful Representative in Parliament and that no Contract of Supreme Government can be made without the Assent of two Parties at least and not one only 3. The words only Supreme Governor in all Spiritual things according to the Letter include the Papal Power of Dispensation with the Law of God of Receiving Confessions of Sins Imposing Penance Excommunication Absolution and Pardon of Sins which are Powers only belonging to God in Person and ought not to be Assumed or Exercised by Angels Saints Daemons or Men. 4. The same words include Supreme Power over the Souls and Consciences of men which is a Power belonging only to God in Person and ought not to be Assumed by Angels Saints Daemons or Men. 5. When all this Supremacy in Spiritual things is congested into an Oath and the Flowers inseparable from the Celestial Crown presumptuously attempted to be torn thence and annexed to a Temporal what is the Design and Effect of it but that the Bishop Robs both God and the King of the Supremacy pretended to both but intended to neither for where will the Bishop permit the Temporal Prince to dispense with the Law of God to Receive Confession of Sins to Impose Penance to Excommunicate to give Absolution and Pardon of Sins but he will command him to desist or what is worse with his Temporal Sword to beat the Bush that the Bishop may catch the Bird or with his
Excommunicato Capiendo and Heretico Comburendo to catch and roast the Bird himself for the Bishop to eat it and of the subtlety of the Bishop as to this matter see more before p. 167 168 169. How little incouragement there is therefore for Protestants to take this Oath of Supremacy wherein the Kings name is only abused and made a Stale to draw a Supreme and Arbitrary Power to Bishops both over the King and them and to drein the Royal Treasury into their own Pockets and how untrue a Test such an Oath must be is humbly submitted to Supreme Authority Supremacy granted by Act of Parliament of Marriage and Legitimation to Canterbury yet Sworn to be in the King 6. By the Statute 25. H. 8.21 Power is granted to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and his Successors by their Discretions to Grant unto the King his Heirs and Successors all such Licenses Dispensations Compositions Faculties Grants Rescripts Delegacies for Causes not contrary to the holy Scriptures and Laws of God as heretofore had been used and accustomed to be held and obtained by his Highness or by any his most Noble Progenitors at the See of Rome and all Children procreated after Marriage by virtue of any such License or Dispensations shall be admitted and reputed Legitimate in all Courts Spiritual and Temporal So this Act of Parliament made in time of Popery translates the Pope from Rome to Canterbury and the Supremacy before used or accustomed by him over the King and his Subjects concerning all the matters mention'd in the Act is placed in the Person of the Arch-Bishop and the Bishops call this a Supremacy in them according to Scripture and the Law of God which is worse and more Papal than to claim it only by Act of Parliament for what more Papal Supremacy can there be than Power to Grant Licenses Dispensations Faculties Compositions Grants Rescripts Delegacies of Marriage Legitimation and all other matters which Popes have formerly granted from Rome to Kings and their Subjects at discretion and this Exceptio is contraria facto for the granting of Licenses by Popes to Kings is contrary to the Law of the Land and is a Power Supreme to the Legislative and Law of the Land so the Grant in the Act is Repugnant to the Exception for 〈◊〉 Licenses or Dispensations are necessary but where there is a standing Law of God or Man to the Licensed or Dispensed with no Composition or Pardon necessary but where there is a standing Law violated or broken no Faculty necessary but where is a standing Law disabling the Party to do what he desires to have a Faâ—ulty for that he may be enabled to do No Rescript is but from a Supreme Prince no Delegacy but from a Superior to an Inferior for the Pope is Superior to his Legate though he be Legatus à Latere and the highest preferment this Popish Act of Parliament allows the King is to be the Arch-Bishop's Legate then the Act having made him Supreme to the Legislative Law and King gives him as high Supremacy over the Judicial Power in all Courts as well Spiritual as Temporal which is Supremacy over the Parliament which is a Court-Temporal This Act therefore doth set up more than Prelacy or Arch-Prelacy at Canterbury for that was there before and the Gyants had piled up Pelion on Ossa already and now they steeple it with Olympus and if they set not on the Gyants head the Triple Crown 't is sure they have the Triple Miter three stories high of Prelacy Arch-Prelacy and Supremacy When the Arch-Bishop got therefore of the Parliament this Act he was something like the Carpenter who begg'd of the Wood only one Helve long enough to turn his Hatchet into an Ax and when he had got that he cut down the whole Wood for he having now got so long a Helve to his Spiritual Hatchet as Supremacy over the Marriage not only of the old Palm Trees and Legitimations of the young at his Discretion that is to say if they give him whatsoever Money he asks for Dispensation and Legitimation this gives him likewise Power to strike both at Root and Branch of all the Royal Protestant-Cedars themselves in the Popish Points of Ceremonial Marriage and Legitimation endeavour'd now to be brought to the true Test of a more Supreme Law and Judg than his the Moral Law of God himself How therefore the Protestant can safely Swear in Conscience the Supremacy to be only in the King when so great a share of it is granted to the Arch-Bishop by the King and Parliament until the same Act of Parliament of 25. H. 8.21 by which 't is done is Repealed I confess my Ignorance and if it be without cause crave Pardon 7. The Party who is to Swear who is the only Supreme Governour must be intended to Swear either who is Supreme De Facto or De Jure if De Facto who hath the Actual Power of the Sword it may happen to be in a time of War when two Armies are in the Field and Inter utrumque Volat Dubiis Victoria pennis It is necessary at such a time that the Swearer unless he will Forswear himself be a Prophet of whom there are not many in this Age amongst such as take the Oath of Supremacy if it be said the Swearer ought to Swear De Jure who hath Right to be only Supreme Governor to this is Answer'd 1. Unless he can Swear to the matter in Fact he cannot Swear to the matter of Law or Right for Ex facio jus Oritur all matter of Law must arise from the matter of Fact therefore the Fact must be first known before the Right can be known which is to be deduced from it 2. The Right when the Oath is required may be as to Succession of the Crown wherein the matter of Fact depending only on Genealogies the Heralds themselves especially after Wars may not be able to make any clear probation of the Descents as Ezra 2.62 and Nehem. 7.64 it is said These sought their Register among those that were reckoned by Genealogie but it was not found therefore were they as Polluted put from the Priest-hood If therefore the Genealogies of Priests who wore themselves the Registers and kept their own Descents as curiously as was possible may be lost much easier may those of the Lay and the Law and Divinity may likewise be so doubtful that it is justly acknowledged by the King and Parliament themselves 25. H. 8.22 That Ambiguities and Doubts touching the Successions of the Crown have been Causes of much Trouble and no perfect and substantial Law hath been made for Remedy of the same and accordingly at the Death of Queen Elizabeth there were no less than Sixteen titles endeavour'd to have been set on foot to the Succession partly by Papists to overthrow the protestant-Protestant-Religion partly by others to overthrow the Union between the two Kingdoms in the Person of King James in which the Protestants of
not yet it prohibits unlawful Invasions amongst all which that of Conscience is the greatest with a Denunciation of the ill Success shall follow sufficiently verified in the many Examples of Emperors and Princes when they went to make War against such as Defended their Conscience 2. To Plant Religion by the Sword is a Relapse to Popery and we commit that Crime our selves which we impute to be the highest in them 3. Error in Conscience is not in the Power of the Party to Redress it is unjust therefore to Impose a Penalty for what was not in the Parties Power to prevent before or amend after 4. Thoughts ought not to be punish'd by men before they break into External Acts or at least discover themselves by Words or Deeds to External Witnesses 5. Tests Penal are no other than the Romish Inquisition compelling men to accuse themselves Criminally or to commit Perjury to avoid it or to rebell to Defend themselves against it 6. Protection is the more Honourable which is hence given the Consciences of Foreign Protestants against Foreign Papists by how much the more merciful the dealing is of the Native Protestants here towards the Consciences of their Native Papists 7. If a Test is made Penal it ceases to be a Test for men will Swear contrary to their Consciences to avoid the Penalty whereas if no Penalty on Confession they would confess the Truth 8. This will Punish the Innocent together with the Nocent there being many of the poor sort of Papists who Curse the Covetousness of their great Ones who take Bribes Gifts and Pensions to themselves and leave the Inferiors exposed to all the Dangers It is a sufficient Use of a Test therefore if it only Dis-Office the Papist to preserve the Publick Government in Protestant-hands Whether Papists or Protestants ought to be Compell'd to Confession of Faith or any External Form or Ceremonies of Worship against their Conscience by Penalties It seems not 1. Because a Non-Compulsion is not an Approbation Non enim idem est ferre aliquid ferendum probare si quid probandum non est Cic. Fam. Epist L. 9. Ep. 6. Neither is it as much as a Toleration of the Popish Forms of Worship either of Images Idols Crucifixes Crosses Beads Reliques Masses c. But all Acts of Parliament remain in as full force against these Superstitions as before and the Command of Scripture as performable Deut. 12.2 Ye shall utterly destroy all the Places wherein the Nations which ye shall possess served their Gods upon the high Mountains and upon the Hills and under every Green Tree And you shall overthrow their Altars and break their Pillars and burn their Groves with Fire and you shall hew down the Graven Images of their Gods and destroy the Names of them out of that Place But a Non-Compulsion amounts to no more than this That the Penal Acts against Recusancy and Non-Conformity may be laid aside equally as to Papist and Protestant which destroy all Conscience in both 2. Because a Non-Compulsion doth not hinder but advance a Publique free Worship according to such Form and Ceremonies as shall be allowed by the King and Parliament only it frees from Force and takes away the Usurpt Supremacy of the Bishops of Forming Godliness into Gain by restoring it to the Legislative Power of the King and Parliament 3. Recusancy is easier foil'd by giving way than contending and Conformity easier won with Lenity than Rigor Vitia quaedam faciliùs tollit Princeps si patiens eorum est saith Senec. de Clementia Cede repugnanti cedendo Victor abibis Minus placet magis quod suadetur quod dissuadetur placet Plautus Noli Vitia irritare vetando Vidi ego nuper equum contra sua fraena tenacem Ore reluctanti fulminis ire modo Constitit ut primum Laxatas Sensit habenas Fraenaque in Effusa Laxa Jacere juba Ovid. I saw my self an Horse curb'd with a Bit To flie like lightning in despight of it But still he stood as soon as he no Check Felt and the loose Reins cast were on his Neck 4. Chrysostome Hom. 19. in Matth. saith Do the Sheep persecute the Wolf No but the Wolf the Sheep Whence appears that those Protestants who persecute Dissentient Protestants for their Conscience are Wolves in Sheeps Clothing and to be Censur'd far worse than the Papists who do it openly in the Form of a Wolf 5. Thy own Conscience is not Infallible nor Immutable Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall It were a great shame therefore to be over-violent in that from which thy own Conscience or Practice may perhaps eftsoones be Changed 6. Non-Compulsion to discover it self to punishment is the best Right that a Conscience so Innocent as abstains from discovering it self only that it may not thereby offend can crave Tacere liceat nulla Libertas minor à Rege petitur Senec. Oedip. Govetousness the only cause of Compulsion of the Conscience to Confession of Faith or Form of Worship 7. The Final cause of Punishing Consciences which are silent and offend not is only Insatiable Covetousness which can pretend no other cause or colour of taking the Spoils of Innocents Thus Popes and Bishops Rob and Murder the greatest part of Christendome under the name of Hereticks And the Turks the greatest part of the World under the name of Unbelievers and Mahomet after he hath in many places of his Alcoran incited his followers to Fight with Kill and Slay such Unbelievers and take their Goods and Lands from them wherever they can find them he Commandeth them to bring a share of the Spoils to the Prophet meaning himself and saith further Alc. cap. 61. God loveth those who Fight in Rank and File for his Law And what other Doctrine and Practice do Popes and Bishops Preach and Act but the same which shall take the Spoil of the miserable People they get under their Power for no other Crime but their Conscience for this they contend one with another and offer Force to destroy the Conscience it self and Body and Soul with it so they may Seise their Prey of Goods and Lands as Jezabel did of Naboth 1 Kings 21.8 So she wrote Letters in Ahab's name and Sealed them with his Seal and sent the Letters unto the Elders and Nobles that were in his City dwelling with Naboth And she wrote in the Letters saying Proclaim a Fast and set Naboth on high among the People and set two men Sons of Belial before him to bear witness against him saying Thou did'st Blaspheme God and the King And the men of his City even the Elders and the Nobles who were the Inhabitants in his City did as Jezabel had sent unto them They Proclaimed a Fast and set Naboth on high among the People And there came in two men Children of Belial and sate before him and the men of Belial witnessed against him even against Naboth in the presence of the People saying Naboth did Blaspheme God and
a Papist is permitted to be Indicted for Recusancy or Absence from Church a Protestant may on the same Penal Law be Indicted on the same if a Papist is punish'd for Non-Conformity to any other Ceremony a Protestant who as much dissents from that Ceremony as a Papist may be likewise punish'd by the same and a Legem quam tuleras feras be minded against him and the Protestant be brought in a worse Condition than the Papist whencesoever any Bishop Bancroft or Gundamore gets a Pardon of all Penal Laws against the Papist and their Execution sharpen'd against the Dissentient Protestant so if an Excommunicato Capiendo and Confiscation thereon be granted to the Power of the Bishop against the Papist or any Heretick we see by experience it shall not be emitted against the Papist but only against the Non-Conformist Protestant The Compulsion of Papists to Confession of Faith or any External Forms or Ceremonies of Worship by Penalties or any illegal Proceedings which destroy Liberty and Propriety in them cannot be done without bringing the Liberty and Propriety of the Protestant into the same danger as the Penalties by Statutes laid to compell Confession of Faith and a Form of Worship and the illegal proceeding on them or without them of beginning Suits with Original Writs Law Execution Summons before Oblatio Libelli Oblatio Libelli before Oath of Calumny priety of Protestants Exaction of Pledges Bail Mainprize Distresses Condemning before Hearing Judgment before Probation Arrest before Judgment Outlawries and Excommunicato Capiendo's are Penalties and Abuses in the Forms of Judicial Proceeding destructive and impossible to consist with Liberty and Propriety in any Kingdom or State now if any of these are permitted to Invade the Liberty and Propriety of the Papist Tua res agitur as well as his it will be impossible for the Liberty and Propriety of the Protestant to escape such an Invasion suffer'd to break in unless therefore all the said Abuses are utterly Abolish'd as well against the Papist as the Protestant it is never to be hoped that Liberty or Propriety shall be enjoyed by either Compulsion to confession of Faith or Form of Worship causeth Civil Wars It is impossible to prevent Seditions and Civil Wars where there is practised in any Kingdom or State Compulsion of the Natives who are but numerous enough to Raise an Army to any Confession of Faith or Form of Worship by Penalties this Cruelty being practised by Antiochus Epiphanes against the Jews Raised a great Rebellion and Wars against him in that Nation as long as he lived which Rebellion continued after his Death against Antiochus Eupator his Son but the Son advising with wiser Council than his Father had done offer'd the Jews on a Capitulation the Free Liberty of enjoying their own Religion which granted they immediately agreed and concluded a Peace with the King Lysias his General after the Peace concluded Councell'd Antiochus to put Menelaus the High-Priest to Death as the Evil Councellour who had been the occasion of that Rebellion and War by giving such wicked Councel to his Father to compell the Jews to forsake their Rellgion and the King understanding it sent Menelaus unto Beraea a City in Syria and Commanded him there to be put to Death he having before his being sent thither been High-Priest for the space of Ten Years and made Alcimus High-Priest in his place where appears that to Councel a King to compell a Nation to a Form of Worship contrary to their Conscience tends only to the Advancement of Episcopal and not of Regal Interest and the Kings Person is exposed to the hazard of the Battel while the Bishop Luxuriates in the delights of his Pallace Episcopal Councels unsortunate to Kings and why and this Evil Episcopal Councel to compell the People to his Confession of Faith and Forms of Worship hath not only been unfortunate to antiochus but to all Kings and Emperors who have trusted on the Staff of so bruised a Reed as a Crosyer on which when they have leaned a while in the end it will go into their hands and pierce them for the Episcopal advice of Compulsion to Forms and Ceremonies makes a Rich Bishop but a Poor King and People and the Interest Regal and Episcopal and the Law of the Crown and of the Canon being Diametrically opposite one to another it is no wonder if the Councils of the later level always at its own Supremacy and the Subjection of the former such was the Episcopal Council of the Bishop of Rome and Spanish Bishops to Philip the Second of Spain for they Councell'd him to break his Oath to his Subjects of the Netherlands whereby he had bound himself not to increase their ancient number of Bishops being but Three to which he notwithstanding contrary to his Oath added Fourteen which no man doubts was highly for the Interest of the new Bishops and Bishop of Rome but every man may see was clean contrary and destructive to the King's Interest so they councell'd him to bring in the Inquisition amongst them to cut off the Heads of the Protestant Nobles to Massacre the Protestant People all tending to the Advance of the Romish Episcopal Tyranny but Destructive to Regal Government and what was the Success of these Episcopal Councels and Benedictions of Perjury and shedding of Blood the whole Power of Spain with all their European and American Dominions were thereby disabled to reduce so small a Spot as the United parts of the Netherlands and with infinite Losses and Dishonour beaten thence and lost the Government ever since Such Councels gave the Romish and German Bishops to the Emperors both in the time of Luther and the Wars then as likewise in those later Wars both in Germany and Hungary to compell with Fire and Sword the Protestants to the Episcopal Forms and Ceremonies highly no doubt to the Episcopal Interest but Destructive to the Imperial and what was the Success God hath been pleased to make the Protestants stronger and stronger and the Emperors weaker and weaker ever since Charles the Fifth in whose time those Wars began and both he and his Successors have been still compell'd before the Wars ended to which they were set on by the Bishops Dishonourably and with Loss to condiscend to a Free Exercise of Faith and Religion which is more than a Non-Compulsion to Confelsion of Faith and Form of Worship which they might have Honourably and before any Damage and Devastation to them or their Countrey have Granted and would have been at first Honourably accepted So in the Peace concluded between the Emperor and his Discontented Subjects in the Higher Hungary Anno Dom. 1606. The first Article agreed on was That from theneforth it should be lawful for every man through the Kingdom of Hungary to have the free Exercise of his Religion and to believe what be would and had not the Emperor been misguided by Episcopal Councils to the contrary he might with more Honour
both were so much concern'd and others for their own private Ambition if therefore Parliaments themselves have not or shall not sufficiently clear Ambiguities and Doubts to answer so many pretences How can it be expected that Ignorant people can clear the same upon their Oath or Conscience 3. It is permitted to Grand Juries when it doth not appear to them whether the Bill is true or false to find an Ignoramus and where the people are totally Ignorant both of the Fact and Law of Supremacy why ought they not to be allowed the same Equity according to the Truth to Answer Ignoramus 4. It is against the known Maxim That Only matters of Fact can be Testified by Witnesses and matters of Law or Right cannot be Testified but by the Law it self 8. An Usurper or Idolater may happâ—n to get the Possession of the Crown How then can a Protestant Swear to the Right of the first in Temporals or of the second in Spirituals 9. It doth not appear how a Protestant may Swear That no Foreign Prince or Person ought to have any Power Authority or Preheminence Ecclesiastical within this Realm and that he doth renounce all Foreign Power in regard it may so happen that a Protestant-Prince hath or may be born beyond Sea and be a Foreign Person and yet on failure of a Lineal Heir may happen to be the next right Heir to a Protestant King after his Decease it may seem therefore to cross Gods Providence to Swear to Renounce or Abjure all Foreign Protestant-Power as to the Succession for the Oath puts no distinction between Protestant and Papal Power but Renounces all alike if they are Foreign Persons Of the Mischiefs which ensue a false Test between Protestant and Papist 1. By the same Power is given to the Favourers of Popery to turn the Edg of all the Penal Statutes made and intended against Papists to destroy the Protestants and the Preteritions and Pardons intended the Protestants are wholly apply'd in favour of the Papist the Plagues designed against the Aegyptians are wholly let loose on the Israelites and the Passeover to which were invited the Israelites is made only a Feast for the Papist So did Bishop Bancrost in the time of Queen Elizabeth persecute all Anti-Papist-Protestants under the name of Puritans and Protected all Dominican Priests Seminaries and Papists under pretence of Opposing the Jesuits by pressing the false Tests of Recusancy to Pray in a Temple to Pray after the Common Form to Receive the Sacrament after the Common Form to take the Oath of Supremacy to use all Episcopal Ceremonies in the Worship of God and the utmost Rigor and Penalties of such Recusancy against the Anti-Papist Protestant who hath been the only Counterpoise against the Papist that he hath not over run the Land and giving Protection to Papists against the very same Tests and Penal Laws so furiously Prosecuted against the Anti-Papist Protestant So did the subtle Gundamore give a new Whet to the High-Commission-Court and turn'd the Edg of the same Originally intended against the Papists to be against the Anti-Papist Protestant And since Bishops have been discharged of that Commission yet the same Course of Bancrofts and Gundamores hath been still continued against the Anti-Papist-Protestants as then under the name of Puritans so since under the name of Fanaticks such Protestants have had the Penalties of Recusancy laid on them when Papists have Compounded for Trifles or been absolutely Pardon'd such Protestants have had the Oath of Supremacy forced on them against their Conscience when Papists have neither had Supremacy nor Allegiance required of them nor their Consciences troubled but have remained absolutely unsworn from so much as any Oath of Fidelity unless to Foreign Princes such Protestants have had their Houses utterly Disarmed and not so much left as sufficient to keep out a Thief when Papists have had their Houses full of Arms and not so much as searched such Protestant's Children have been by the Usurped Power of Bishops Certificates made Bastards because not Married with the Ceremonies of the Book of Common Prayer and this they have done by pretence of the Canon of the Council of Trent a Foreign Jurisdiction long since abolish'd by Act of Parliament but such Bishops have never troubled Papist's Marriages made by Priests or Jesuits with Romish Ceremony nor Null'd them or Bastardized their Children such Protestants have been Excommunicated Cursed and given to Satan when a Dog hath not dared against Papists to move his Tongue such Protestants have been Confiscated and cast into Prison when Papists have Triumphed in Liberty and Propriety 2. Many Able Loyal Zealous Protestant-Ministers are hereby Excluded from Preaching and Teaching the Gospel 3. Many able Loyal and Useful Instruments both in Civil and Military Offices who are Protestants are Excluded and the King and Parliament deprived of their Service 4. The Offices and Arms of the Three Kingdoms are ingross'd into the hands of Persons Recommended by Papists An Essay of the Form of a Test whereat it seems no Protestant can scruple I A. B. do utterly Testifie and Declare in my Conscience and in the presence of God and do believe that the Pope or Bishop of Rome or any Bishop on Earth is not the Head of the Catholick Church nor of any National Church of England Scotland or Ireland and that they are not Infallible and that all such Popes and Bishops as pretend to Supremacy either Spiritual or Temporal or Infallibility without a Sign of Mission from God are Hereticks I believe that the Host Consecrated Crucifixes Images Idols Reliques of Saints or Saints themselves ought not to be Worshipt or Prayed to in Publick or Private and that the Mass is Idolatry I believe neither Popes nor Bishops have any Power or Mission from God to Exact Auricular Confession or to Impose Penance or to give Absolution Indulgence or Pardon of Sin or to Redeem from Purgatory or to give or sell Heaven or Paradise or any Place in the same or to Excommunicate Curse or Deliver to Satan And I do therefore utterly Abjure and Renounce all Absolutions Indulgences Pardons of Sins and Redemptions from Purgatory given or to be given by any such said Popes or Bishops or any deriving Authority from them and defie all their Excommunications And I do Promise and Swear to be True and Faithful to our Sovereign Lord the King his Heirs and lawful Successors So help me God Whether any Test of the Conscience ought to be Penal either to Protestant or Papist It seems not 1. Because to Plant Religion by Penalty is to Plant it by the Sword whereof Christ gave neither Precept nor Example but rather a Prohibition Implicit in his Express Command to Peter Matth. 26.52 Then said Jesus unto him Put up again thy Sword into his place for all they that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword Which though it prohibit not lawful Defence to those who have the Power of the Sword which Peter had