A LETTER TO A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT.  
WITH TWO DISCOURSES Enclosed in it.  
I. The One showing the Reason why a Law should pass to punish Adultery with Death.  
II. The Other showing the Reasons why the Writ, De Haeretico Comburendo, should be abolished.  
Non partis studijs agimur, sed sumsimus arma  
Consilijs inimica tuis, ignavia fallax.  
Printed Anno 1675.   

The Publisher's Advertisement:  
These Papers are made public, not in Presumption to inform the Parliament; but only to give them an Occasion, to think of the Subjects they treat of, it being wholly unimaginable but that the United Wisdom of the NATION will find out better and other Reasons for the Establishment of the Things they propose.   

My Dear Friend.  
WHen I review alone the grand Entertainments of Learning, I used to meet with in your Conversation, the Wit of the Poets, the Reason of the Philosophers, your Excellent Observations upon the Actions of Persons illustrious in Arms, who have lived in the several Ages of the World, my Affliction is almost unimaginable to be separated from you: When you went up to the Parliament, there is nothing could have stayed me (who can scarce be happy a Moment of my Life without you) behind you in the Country, but my Infirmity of Health, and a certain Desire of enjoying the Comfort and Pleasures of the Spring. You know, when we parted, how I conjured you always to bear in Mind that grand Rule, Inter pericula libertatis aut veritatis silent amicitiae et inimicitiae, and then the Light of your own Mind will dispel and overcome the Darkness of others without Noise or Tumult: This World is governed by particular Hatreds and Friendships, not by the Reasons of Things; and there is nothing can keep you constant in your Integrity, but the having a perpetual Eye to that Rule. I also then told you, you should look abroad as well as at home, keeping your Eye on Foreign Affairs; for although Hannibal be not yet ad portas, Philip is at Olynthus. I have herein enclosed the Papers I promised you, in which I claim no Property against your absolute Power over them, do what you will with them: You know, the one contains a Discourse showing the Reasons why Adultery should be Punished with Death; the other, why the Writ, De Haeretico comburendo, should be Abolished. Adultery, it is the greatest of all Thefts, a Theft of which no Restitution can be made, 
— Nulla reparabilis arte,  
Laesa pudicitia est, deperit illa semel.   
Marriage of late hath been looked on as an Engine, a Toil to catch Mankind in; the Magistrate had need encourage it to prevent Depopulations: and to be always secure and certain of our Wives, is in my judgement the best of Encouragements. As to the Abolishing the Writ, de Haeretico comburendo, you know I ever have had a Pity & Charity for Mankind, acknowledging in all a Communion of Minds and Mortality, and particularly for those that descent from me in Religion, Omnis animus veritate invitus privatur: No Beauty is so pleasant, so agreeable to the Eye as Truth is to the Soul; and all would love it, if they could discover it: As there is but one certain Existence of Things, so there is but one determinate Truth of them, the same to all Understandings, God's and Man's both. If after all my Search and Labour in Knowledge, I cannot discover a Beam of Truth to guide and lead me into an Unity of Mind with God, am I to be made a Criminal, and dealt with as a Malefactor? He is Infinite, and knows all Things; but my poor Understanding knows one Thing, and doubts of a Thousand: We are here in the Body tristi et obscuro Domicilio; and the inspired Apostle himself saith, we see darkly, and but through a Glass. God hath unfolded himself in as great Variety in the Minds of Men, as he hath done in the Material World: The Seed of Religion springs up variously in Human Souls, as we see the seminal Forms do out of the Earth; and would it not be Madness or Folly to destroy & cut up all Trees and Plants but the Oak? I am not without all Jealousy, that it is possible, we in England may return back again to the Church of Rome, not only because I see in History Monarchies more subject to Changes than Commonwealths in Matters of Religion, and observe how indefatigable that Infallible Church (in its own judgement) is to revenge our Schism from it upon us, and so may weary us out at last, & how unsafe they apprehend themselves at Rome, while the Power of the Sea is in the Hands of Heretics; but chiefly from the wild Philosophy and Atheism of the present Age, Atheism being a Preparation to receive any Colour or Tincture in Religion. I would have the Law of Burning of Heretics repealed, lest we should see that Day. It is a Law Sanguinary with a Witness, written like Draco ' s in Characters of Blood, as barbarous as that of Ordeal, or Trial by Battle, built upon no Reason, but upon a Self Opinion every Sect hath, that it hath a Monopoly of God to itself, and upon no Scripture I know of, but the Monkish Gloss, Haereticos de vita.  
My Dear Friend, Although Gentlemen of fine Parts are sooner debauched in popular Assemblies under a Monarchy, than Men of plainer Wisdom; as Native Beauty is less subject to be tempted by others, than Beauty accompanied with the Ornaments of Art: I doubt not at all your Integrity in this Parliament, you are not a Man of fluttering Principles betwixt Kravery and Honesty, you will herd in your Vote with no Cabal, but go with the Squadron volante, as Reason upon every Debate appears to you; I know you account a Liberty of Judgement in an uninterested indifference of Mind without Fears or Hopes, a Grandeur and Excellence above the Rewards of Wealth from the Court, or of Fame from the People; nor am I afraid that amidst the Pleasure or Business of the City, you will depart from the Contemplative Life, but be alone with your own Mind, and drink of the Spring of Truth there, which overflowed so constantly your Conversations with me in the Country: 
Non Venus, aut vinum sublimia pectora fregit,  
Officiumve fori—   
And, as for our Friendship, which has been a Communion of Minds & Fortunes for several Years, I have no Cloud, no Umbrage of jealousy towards you. Friends in this World are not like Satyrs or Centaurs without real Existence, as Cardan under a Mell ncholy complains they are; I am sure I have found one which (as he says) he neve● was so happy in his Life to do. I will detain you no longer from the Care of the public Affairs. I am Dearest Sir  
April 17. 1675. Your most sincerely affectionate Friend.   

A short Discourse why a Law should pass in England to punish Adultery with Death.  
Publicus assertor, vitiis suppressa levabo  
Pectora, vindictae quisque favete suae.  Ovid. 
IT will be necessary before I give my Reasons why such a Law should pass, that I do explain what Adultery is, the Notion of it being ordinarllly mistaken.  
Adultery is the lying of a Single or Married Man with another Man's Wife, and not the lying of a Married Man with a Single Woman. Thus it was constantly apprehended among the jews, to whom God gave the Law, Thou shalt not commit Adultery: And David's Sin was the taking the poor Man's Ewe Lamb from him, which lay in his Bosom, when he had Flocks enough of his own. I presume, there is none doubts the Christian Magistrates Power to make such a Law; Death is already amongst us the Penalty for less Crimes: We punish boldly with Death a Horse-stealer or a Cutpurse without any Scruple at all; and is not my Property in my Wife of dearer & nearer Concern to me, than my Horse, or a little Pocket-money?  
The primary Law of Nature is the Observance of our Contracts; for indeed, without this there could be no Government: the State of Nature would still have continued; this Crime intrenches highly on this Law, dissolving the Family-Government; it is a Breach of the Solemnest Contract (entered into pro bono publico, Marriage being seminarium Reipubls.) imaginable: That is the Nature of the Crime, but the Magistrate is chiefly to concern himself in the Consequences of it; and they are more mischievous where the Woman breaks the Contract on her Part; for thereby a Spurious Issue that robs the Husband by wholesale of his Estate, of all his own and his Ancestors Acquisitions, is brought into his Family. The Crime is then a Complication of all the Wickedness in Lust, Breach of Faith and Robbery; And therefore I may justly infer that seeing Men equally concur with Women to transact it, they are justly equally punishable.  
If a Man shall violate the Companion of the King, or the Companion of the Eldest Son and Heir of the King, it is high Treason: by this we see the Care of the Law, no Spurious Issue should inherit the Crown; should we not take some proportionable Care of our own Estates?  
We may do well to reflect upon the Example of other Nations, as of the jews (for many Ages the only known People of God) amongst whom Adultery was punished with Death, upon the Example of the Gentes moratiores among the Heathens; of the Athenians, who upon Solon's Law punished this Crime Capitally; of the Romans, who in Imitation of Solon's Law, set down for their Law in the 12 Tables, Moechum in adulterio deprehensum necato. Afterwards in the Roman State it was lawful for the Husband, until the Lex julia in Augustus his Time, Uxores in adulterio deprehensas sine judicio impune necare.  
We may also consider what the Christian Church has done for the Suppression of this Sin: In the first and best Times of Christianity they did all they could (having not jus vitae ac necis) against it. The Penance then for it was perpetual to the Hour of Death. Zepherynus Bishop of Rome, anno 216. moderated the Penance, but the African Churches, and particularly the grand Tertullian opposed it as an Innovation.  
The Ancyran Council, anno 315. ordains 7 Years Penance for it. And the Council of Eliberis ordains, that he that commits Adultery again after Penance for the First Fault, should not be taken into Communion at the Hour of Death.  
In after Ages, when the Roman Church was resolved upon a Corlibacy in her Clergy, It was necessary the Sin should be looked on with a gentle Eye, & now it is dwindled down into a Peccadillo, but is in Truth like the Pecadillo of not believing in God at all; for if ever he gave a Law to Man, it is one to prohibit Adultery. Several of the Reformed Countries, who have recovered themselves from under the Empire of Wit and Fraud over their Consciences by that Church, punish the Crime at this Day with Death.  
As for us in England, our present Law is not without the Infusions of the Roman Church upon it in this Case; all the Remedy the injured Husband hath by our Law, is, to sue a Divorce in the Spiritual Court, and be cozened with a Sentence of Separation a Mensa & Thoro, a Crafty Invention against the plain Gospel.  
If the Husband kill the Adulterer, or his Wife found by him in ipso actu, the Law excuseth him in this Case from Murder, but condemns him of Manslaughter, and hangs him if he cannot read; what a poor Remedy hath the Injured Man? If he kill the Adulterer deliberately, not provoked by Ocular Demonstration, it is Murder. Besides all this, the present Law being so defective, the Crime grows upon it; 'tis common, and this Age gives it the soft and gentle French Names of Gallantry and Divertisement, in Apology for it: What ought the Magistrate to do in this Case, but to pursue this Crime as far as his Hand can reach, to the Grave itself, and then Expectet Deum Ultorem?   

A short Discourse showing the Reasons why the Writ, De Haeretico comburendo should be abolished.  
Chrysippus non dicit idem nec mite Thaletis  
Ingenium dulcique senex vicinus Hymeto.  Juvenal. Paena errantis est doceri. Plato cited by Grotius. 
BEfore I give my Reasons, it will be necessary to show the State of the Law at present upon this Writ: Before the Statute, 2 H. 4. cap. 15. No Person could be convict of Heresy, but by the Archbishop and all the Clergy of the Province, but by that Statute any particular Bishop might in his Diocese convict of Heresy, and issue forth his Precept to the Sheriff to burn the Person he had convicted; a Law whereby the Clergy gained a Dominion over the Lives of the Subjects independent upon the Crown: it was repealed by the Stat. 25. H. 8. cap. 14. but so as particular Bishops may still convict; but without the King's Writ, De Haeretico comburendo, first obtained, no Person convict can be put to Death; and so the Law stands at this Day.  

My REASONS are these.  
I. The Continuance of this Writ in force amongst us, is a standing Reproach to the Christian Religion we profess (a Religion of Love and Peace) If it be not to be propagated in the whole by Force and Bloodshed, certainly a Part of it as a particular Point of Faith in it, is not. In the Gospel of Christ all the Punishment of Heresy and of Infidelity itself, are adjourned over, and left to the other World.  
II. If an Act pass to abolish this Writ, it will be an Act of Indulgence in part, and give an Assurance to all Persons of a different judgement from the present established Church, that they are secure as to their Lives under the Government.  
III. If Popery should ever return back into England, there must a Parliament sit to repeal such an Act, before any Protestant for his Opinion could be put to Death.  
IV. Such an Act would leave the Power of the present Church to convict, excommunicate and imprison Untouched▪ only would take away their barbarous Execution of her Sentence.  
If it be objected, the Writ is grown Obsolete and disused and so need not be taken away: The Answer is obvious; Not so obsolete neither: It was used in King James' Time; However, it's fit it should not remain as a Snare among our Law; for the Case concerns Life or Death: and the Papists use the Writ constantly against the Protestants; but they never against them.   
FINIS.