THE Night doth vanish when the Sun appears,  
And from all Clouds the smiling Morning clears:  
Romish Night-Ravens, fly ye filthy Fowls,  
And all ye Ceremonial Bats and Owls,  
And Weathercocks, 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 yourselves with flowery pride,  
Hear of an Holy Marriage, and a Bride  
Not given by Man, but God so great and wise,  
And by him Married as in Paradise;  
With Beauty bright as Fire, but chaste and cold  
As Snow, he Crowned her, and not with Gold.  
The Issue fair, who did not Prophesy  
Sacred Religion, Justice, Liberty,  
And Property, providing of the best,  
Both Bread, and Wine, for every Marriage Feast.   


The Moral Law   stone tablets inscribed with the ten commandments 
The Ceremonial Law.   depiction of an owl, a raven and a bat atop a church 
Marriage by the Moral Law of God Vindicated Against all Ceremonial Laws of Popes and Bishops destructive to Filiation Aliment and Succession and the Government of Families and Kingdoms  The Lord hath been a Witness between thee and the Wife of thy youth. Mal. 2.14. 
1680.  
Linea Recta Proefertur Transversali.  
RELIGION   depiction of a female religious holding an olive branch and an open book 
JUSTICE   depiction of a female figure in classical dress, blindfold and bearing her attributes of sword and scales 
LIBERTY   depiction of an armed male figure in contemporary dress 
PROPERTY   depiction of a wreathed figure in classical dress, holding a bunch of grapes, with a corn sheaf   

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 concerned Marriage, Filiation, Aliment and Succession, whereon not only private but public 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 God's Ordinance should be null and void without them, and no probation should be admitted of their performance, but the Certificate of the Bishop or Highpriest; by which, as to matter of Succession to Inheritances and Kingdoms, They bond 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 Relics 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 myself, 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. Laurence.   

THE CONTENTS Of the First Book.  

BY what Law Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, ought not, and aught to be Judged. p. 1.  
Not to be Judged by the Law of Moses, or Customs of the Jews. p. 2  
Not to be Judged by the Laws and Customs 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, answered. 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. Dee, 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 compel the Subjects ad aliud Tribunal, than Caesar's Judgement 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 Millstones 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 Relics 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 shows 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 Lady Ann of Britain Married to the bare Leg of the Ambassador of the Emperor Maximilian. p. 86  
Of the Lady Pulcheria Sister to Theodosius the Emperor, Married to Martianus, the Lady Etheldred to two Husbands, the Lady Amigunda to the Emperor Henry the Second, the Lady Editha to Edward the Confessor, the Lady Ann of Cleve to Henry the Eight, all Married by Priests, but not by their Husband. ib.  
Of the Custom of desertion of Virgins after deslowring. p. 88  
Of the desertion of the Lady Lucy by Edward the Fourth, for the Lady Jane Grey, and the infelicity followed thereon, to them and their Children. ib.  
Of the like desertion by a Gentleman in Ireland, after a Child born. p. 89  
Of the ancient Form of Marriage-Contracts, Se post concubitum in vitam non deserturum, now repugnantly turned into Verba de presenti.  
Of the Law giving liberty of Temptation to a Minor, Married to an Husband, after Carnal knowledge to desert him for a Richer. p. 91  
An example of the same in Scotland. ib.  
Of the Law tempting Women to desert their Husbands, by giving them more Alimony than the Interest of their Portions. p. 94  
Of the Law of Divorce after Procreation of a Child, for Precontract, or Precopulation without Preprocreation. ib.  
Stat. 3 H. 8. cap. 38. against Precontracts. p. 96  
Edward the Sixth abused by Papists in his Minority, to repeal his Father's Act against Precontracts. p. 98  
Of the Law making private Marriage or Carnal-knowledge without public Witnesses of a verbal Contract, Fornication. p. 101  
Of the Law requiring Witnesses of Marriage and Filiation, where both are acknowledged by the Parents, and no third Party claims the Father, Mother, or Child. p. 109  
Of the Law of Sequestration of a Woman, pendente placito, Sued by two Corrivals, and Sentencing either Man or Woman to be restored in Specie, and not in Value. ib.  
Of the Law making all prohibited Marriages Null. p. 100  
Of the Custom of Superalimentary Gifts, in consideration of Carnal knowledge between a Man and a Woman, either before or after Marriage. p. 113  
A satire against Mercenary Marriage. p. 117  
Of the Law giving Jurisdiction of the secret Causes of Divorce between Parents, and secret Uncleanness of Children in their Parents Houses, to public Tribunals.  
Of the Law compelling Parties Married, though mortal Enemies, to Cohabitation.  
Of the Law of Divorce, a Mensa & Thoro.  
Not to be Judged by Ceremonial Laws.  
Of the absurd and ridiculous Ceremonies on which Priests would have Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, to depend. p. 127  
Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, ought only to be Judged by the Moral Law of God. p. 130  
Of the Final causes of Marriage, by the Law of God and Nature. p. 135    


Erratas in Verse.  
LIb. 1. p. 131. line 5. for Moon read Morn, p. 135. l. 36. for lease r. cease. p. 223. l. 28. for I see r. is with me, p. 224. l. 9 for all r. such, p. 225. l. 8. for thanks r. there, and in the same line after, for there r. and, l. 39 for lightnings r. lightning, p. 228. l. 5. add the word (next) before the word (expel) p. 392. l. 11. for who bourn would not? r. who bourn would? Lib. 2. p. 239. l. 31. for Mariners r. Mariner, l. 36. for why r. who, Lib. 3. p. 89. l. 8. for their r. them, l. 16. for not babbling r. no babbling.   

Erratas in Prose.  
COntents to the First Book relating to p. 88 for in vitam r. invitam non deserturum, Lib. 1. p. 88 l. 8. add invitam before deserturum, p. 90. l. 42. for invitum r. invitam deserturum, p. 1. l. 11. for or any Subject r. on any Subject, p. 4. l. 28. for Harecloth r. Hayrcloth, p. 17. l. 36. for women were divorced r. women did divorce, p. 23. l. 21. for Affinity r. Consanguinity, p. 43. l. 11. for Canon Law r. Common Law, p. 93. l. 27. for Common Law r. Canon Law, p. 106. l. 31. for pity relieve him r. pity to relieve him, p. 110. l. 40. for invitum fore Matrimonium r. Irritum fore Matrimonium, p. 132. l. 36. add and shall cleave to his wife, p. 180. l. 11. for established r. abolished, p. 180. l. 42. for Chancellors of State r. Councillors of State, p. 210. l. 20. for Sacrament r. Sacrifice, p. 215. l. 28. for Tyrant r. Pirate, p. 282 l. 23. for there were Judges r. and Judges, p. 120. l. 1. leave out no, l. for Secreta Fori r. Secreta Thori, p. 121. l. 25. for false r. and the false, p. 121. l. 43. for take off Exequenda officia Matrimonialia r. talk of Exequenda officia Matrimonialia, p. 257. l. 30. for thinks r. think, l. 27. for that binds r. binds, p. 265. l. 17. for Obligatio libelli r. Oblatio libelli, Lib. 3. Preface p. 10. l. 1. for Algine r. Algive. In the Contents relating to p. 160. for Successor or Male r. Successor Male, leaving out (or) p. 2. l. 16. for ever that be r. Over that be, p. 13. l. 10. for wages r. ways, p. 188. l. 25. for Basiel r. Baliel. In the Index see Bail, in line 36. for Canon-Law r. Common-Law.    

OF The Laws of Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession.  

Lib. I. Of the Two Grand Questions concerning Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession.  
IT was the saying of one, Se benè dividentem velut Deum secuturum, And Dichotomy though the most difficult to do, is without dispute if well done, the most excellent Division and Method wherein any Discourse can proceed, or any Subject; which made me endeavour, though not passibus aequis, to follow that way directed by the great Methodist of Art, Aristotle, or rather the greater director of Nature, God himself, of whom it may more truly be said, In duo divisit quicquid in Orb suit.  
The whole Question therefore naturally depending on what shall be the Law, and who shall be the Judge, and all Parts of Argumentation, consisting either of Premises or Conclusion, & all Premises being either Negative, or Affirmative, I have as to Premises, stated the whole Controversy of Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, Negatively and Affirmatively, under these Two great Questions following.  
First, By what Law they ought not, and by what Law they ought to be judged.  
Secondly, By what Judge they ought not, and by what Judge they ought to be judged. And these two Premises being proved, he will be an absurd Logician, who denies the Conclusions following from them.  

CHAP. I. Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession not to be judged by the Law of Moses, or Customs of the Jews.  

Divorce.  DEut. 24.1. It's said, When a man hath taken a Wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his Eyes, because he hath found some Uncleanness in her; then let him write a Bill of Divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his House. And when she is departed out of his House, she may go and be another man's Wife. Her former Husband which sent her away, may not take her again, after that she is defiled, for that is abomination before the Lord. Math. 5.31. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his Wife, let him give her a writing of Divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his Wife, saving for the cause of Fornication, causeth her to commit Adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is Divorcèd, committeth Adultery. Math. 19.3. The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his Wife for every cause? And he answered, and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them Male and Female? And said, for this cause shall a man leave Father and Mother, and shall cleave to his Wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of Divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your Wives, but from the beginning it was not so. Here it is plain, Christ refers them to the Law of Nature, as the Law which was greater than the Politic, or Positive Law of Moses. And this was only tolerated by Moses, for the hardness of their hearts; and though it were lawful for Moses, or any other Legislator, to tolerate a lesser Evil, which he was not able by reason of the hardness of their hearts, to restrain, yet was it not lawful for the People to practise it, but they should be punished for it by God, though they were not by Moses. And hence doth manifestly follow, That all those Laws which were mala in se, and contrary to the Law of Nature, which was from the beginning, though Tolerated by Moses, who was not able to reform them, yet were they not properly the Law of Moses, but wicked Customs, which they received from Egyptians, Syrians, Canaanites, and other Nations, and ought not to have been practised by the Jews then, nor by the Christians now. Of Laws taken from the Customs of Idolatrous Nations, for a small taste take these that follow. Exod. 21.2. If thou buy an Hebrew Servant, six Years he shall Serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. Verse 4. If his Master have given him a Wife, and she have born him Sons or Daughters; The Wife and her Children shall be her Masters, and he shall go out by himself. Mahomet's was more fair than this; for he being Amorous of the Wife of Zeid his Slave, freely enfranchised him, though he were not bound to do it, as the Hebrew Master was, and besides his enfranchisement, gave him Money for his Wife. And thereupon saith, God appointed him to Marry her, after she was Repudiated, to the end that true beleivers might do the like, and not think it an Error, but what God hath appointed. Alcor. Cap. 33.260. And David did far worse than Mahomet, as to the Wife of the Subject Vriah; his Example therefore is as unfit a Rule to judge Marriage by, as that of Moses and Mahomet. Levit. 19.20. It is said, And whosoever lieth carnally with a Woman that is a Bondmaid, betrothed to an Husband, and not at all Redeemed, nor Freedom given her, she shall be scourged: they shall not be put to death, because she was not Free: And he shall bring his Trepass-Offering unto the Lord, unto the Door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, even a Ram for a Trespass-Offering. And the Priest shall make an Atonement for him with a Ram of the Trespass-Offering before the Lord; for his sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him. 1. This Law is unjust, for it punisheth the weaker Vessel, who is a poor Virgin, with scourging, and only fines the rich Lecher, a Ram; so he may commit Whoredom with as many betrothed Virgins, if not Free-women, for the price of a Ram apeice. 2. Here is nothing provided for satisfaction of the Damage of the Master, for the abuse of his Servant, and dishonour of his Family, nor of the Husband to whom she was betrothed; but let him bring a Ram, his sin shall be forgiven him, toties quoties, as 'tis the Custom of some old Pagan Manners, and Manors, if the Copyhold Widow be unchaste, she shall forfeit her Copyhold, unless she bestride a Ram, and ride to the next Court, and say these Words following, 
For my Incontinence I do this Task,  
Therefore to have again my Land, I ask.  Numb. 21.14, & 17. Notwithstanding the Midianitish Women had quarter given them and were Captives, yet in cold blood Moses more barbarously than the Heathens themselves used to do, commands the Soldiers to kill every Male amongst the little ones, and kill every Woman that have known Man by lying with them; but all the Women-childrens that have not known Man, by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. And Deut. 21.11. The Soldiers are licenced when they take Captive Women, after some idle Ceremonies of cutting their Hair and paring their Nails to lie with them, and turn them off again when they pleased; which examples, though from Moses, who was no more infallible in this, than David in the act of Vriah's Wife, of cruelty and uncleanness, are not to be followed, but abhorred of all Christians.  
The Jews had likewise a custom of Contracting and Espousing the parties before Marriage: of the great inconveniences of which shall be spoken after under the proper Title.  

The ways of Marriage of the Jews.  

Jewish Ceremonies of marriage, not appointed by Moses Law.  Saith Moses, de Cotsi was either with Money, or Instrument, or Copulation; with Money, as when they bought one to be their Wife; with Instrument, as when done by Contract in writing; by Copulation, as by lying with any single Woman, though no Consensus, yet Concubitus fecit Matrimonium: Especially if Conception followed, as appears in the case of Jacob and Leah, where there was not Consensus on Jacob's part, but only Concubitus & Conceptio. At the Jewish marriage a Rabbi marries them, and if the Bride be a Virgin, Wine is to be drunk in a narrow-mouthed Glass, and if she be a Widow in a broad-mouthed Glass, and an Egg must not be forgot to be thrown at the Bride and broken, to foretell an easy delivery.  
The manner of the Jews Marriage is, The Bridegroom wears about his Neck an Harecloth, the end of which the Rabbi puts on the Bride's head, after example of Ruth, who desired to be covered with the skirt of Boaz; then the Rabbi takes a glass full of Wine and gives it the Brideman and Bride that they may drink, than he takes the Bridegroom's Gold Ring, and asks of the standers by, if it be good and worth the money given for it; then puts it on the Bride's finger; then he takes another glass of Wine and prays over it, and offers it to the married Couple to taste, but the Bridegroom dashes it against the Wall in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem, so the Bridegroom in sign of sorrow puts on a black Cloak, and the Bride a black Hood. Mr. Addison tells of the Barbary Jews, That they are married at the Bride's Chamber, only by putting a Ring on the Woman's finger, and pronunciation of these words by the Rabbi, Thou art Married or Sanctified unto this Man with this Ring according to the Law: And when married they use a foolish Ceremony, if the Bride is a Virgin they give her Wine in a narrow-mouthed Cup; if a Widow, in a broad mouthed Cup, and after the Bridegroom casts a raw Egg at the Bride etc. And how the fopperies of such Ceremonies come by God's Law to make a marriage or no marriage, or legitimate or illegitimate the Child, no rational Man ever understood.  

Plurality of Wives.  As to the determination of number of Wives by Nature, it seems to be according to the number she herself gives. As in the East and Southern climes, the Feminine number natural exceeding the Males many fold. And in times of great destructions by Wars, such as are foretold Isa. 3.25. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in War, and her Gates shall lament and mourn, and being desolate, shall sit upon the ground. And in that day seven Women shall take hold on one Man. In the Kingdom of Benym amongst the Negroes, the King hath five or six hundred Wives, and his Subjects keep 20, 30, 40, 50. 60. according to their ability; and the poorest sort five or six, and some a Dozen. Hierotinus an Arabian King had six hundred Children by Concubines; so it seems excessive multiplication may be one reason against Plurality. It was a Law amongst the Garamants, That when any Woman married, had three Children, she should be separated from her Husband, because a multitude of Children cause Men to have covetous hearts; and if any Woman bring forth more Children, they shall be slain before their Eyes. Aristotle in his Politics thinks it profitable, That Plebeians should not have too many Children, and therefore allows Divorce lest the Wives should bear too many. Connubia mille, non illis generis nexus, non pignora curae, sed numero languet pietas. Claud. de Bell. Gild. Amongst the Medes anciently Polygamy was so far from being esteemed a fault, that it was a punishment for a common Person not to have seven Wives, and for Noble Women to have less than five Husbands. Heylin. 814. Of the custom of the Jews to keep one barren Wife and another to breed, 
One Barren and another Breeding Wife.  Selden de Jur. nature. lib. 5. pag. 586. translates out of a Jewish Rabbi these words, Sub diluvium hominum mos erat, ut pro libitu binas sibi duceret quisque uxores, alteram prolis gratia, alteram in Concubitum; ea autem quae prolis gratia haberetur, velut vidua quamdiu superstes esset; degebat, sed ea quae in Concubitum adhiberetur sterilitatis, exhaurire solebat Poculum, ut sterilis redderetur, atque juxta virum accumbere solita, velut meretricio ornabatur habitu. And in another place ornata etiam velut nova nupta lautiores comedebat dapes; acerbius autem & durius tractabatur socia & lugebat vidua. To which alludes Job 24.2. as 'tis in the Hebrew, he fed the Barren which brings not forth, but did no good to the Widow. Moses saith, Cursed be he that lieth with his Sister, 
Incest.  the Daughter of his Father, or the Daughter of his Mother. Deut. 27.22. Yet Abraham allowed it in his time, and married Sarah. And Amram took him Jochebed his Father's Sister to Wife, and she bore him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years. Exod. 6.20. Aretas King of Arabia Petraea and Herod fell at strife the one with the other for this cause, which ensueth. Herod the Tetrarch had married Aretas his Daughter, with whom he lived married a long time; afterwards taking his Journey towards Rome, he lodged with Herod his half Brother by the Father's side, for Herod was the Son of Simon's Daughter, which Simon was the High Priest; and there being surprised with the love of Herodias his Brother's Wife, who was Daughter to Aristobulus their Brother, and Sister to the great Agrippa; he was so bold as to offer her some speech of marriage, which when she had accepted, Accords were made between them, That he should banish his Wife Aretas far from him; who complaining to her Father the Arabian King, of the injury done her by her Husband Herod, the same raised War between him and Herod. Josep. lib. 18. cap. 7. de Antiq. And Aretas overt rowing Herod's Army, divers Jews were of opinion, That this Judgement fell upon him because he had cut off John's head, by the instigation of Herodias ibid. But as for this opinion divers believe that it hath been foisted into Josephus. vid. Bl●ndell. Hist. Sibyl. But as to the Point in question of Incest, 'tis very clear, That John justly reproved Herod for marrying his Brother's Wife, whether there was a Judgement followed on it or not. But it cannot be inferred that the cause why he reproved it, or why the War followed on him was Incest; but the cause thereof is more likely to be, because he so wrongfully Divorced his first lawful Wife, and likewise caused his Brother's Wife to be Divorced from him, while his Brother was alive and Tetrarch of Galilee, that he might have her from him: So here was a double Divorce, matter enough to reprove without minding any Incest; which agreed likewise with the Doctrine of Christ, and 'tis manifest, that was the only cause of the War, and not any pretence of Incest; for Aretas would have raised the War alike if the wrong had been done his Daughter by a strange Woman, as if it had been by a Kinswoman: Therefore no Argument can be brought that St. John's opinion was, this was Incest, nor that any Judgement happened for Incest, but rather for unlawful Divorces; so the marrying the Brother's Wife to raise up Seed to the Brother, seems a custom tolerated for hardness of their hearts, and not to be imitated by Christians.  
Trial of Virginity, more wicked than the Bill of Divorce, for this was after the Husband had lain with her, 
Trial of Virginity.  and perhaps likewise he might have got her with child. Deut. 22.13. It is said If any man take a Wife and go in unto her and hate her, and give occasion of speech against her, and say, I took this Woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a Maid: Then shall the Father of the Damsel, and her Mother, take and bring forth the Tokens of the Damsel's Virginity unto the Elders of the City in the Gate: and the Damsel's Father shall say unto the Elders, I gave my Daughter unto this Man to Wife, and he hateth her: and lo he hath given occasion of speech against her, saying, I found not thy Daughter a Maid, and yet these are the Tokens of my Daughter's Virginity; and they shall spread the Cloth before the Elders of the City, and the Elders of the City shall take that Man and chastise him, and they shall amerce him an hundred Shekels of Silver, and give them unto the Father of the Damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name on a Virgin in Israel. But if this thing be true, and the Tokens of Virginity be not found for the Damsel, than they shall bring out the Damsel to the door of her Father's House, and the men of the City shall stone her with stones, that she die, because she has wrought folly in Israel, to play the Whore in her Father's House. So shalt thou put away Evil from amongst you. This Custom, as many others, the Jews learned of the Heathen Nations, and was tolerated amongst them for hardness of their hearts.  
Leo Afer relates, amongst the Inhabitants of Fez in afric, the same wicked Custom to be in use, and that before the Wedding Feast, the Bridegroom ought to deflower the Bride, and then they come and show amongst the Guests a filthy defiled Napkin with great Exultation, and a loud Voice, Proclaiming the same in as filthy words and behaviour. But if this cannot be shown, it spoils the Wedding, and the Woman is turned away with great disgrace. The like they do at Zant, where the Wedding Sheets are always kept. And amongst the Persians, where, if the Woman fail to give this Sign, they cut off her Ears, and turn her home with great disgrace. And the like in divers other Heathen Nations, which Custom, both with Heathen and Jews, is (1.) very immodest and filthy. (2.) very cruel and unjust, for as Levinus Lemnius, and other Physicians and Anatomists hold, these Signs are extremely fallacious, and neither show who is, or who is not a Virgin, whereby many innocent Persons may be destroyed, and many wicked be justified, and therefore is no fit Precedent to be followed by Christians.  

Trial of Jealousy.  We find likewise the Trial of Jealousy prescribed, Numb. 5.18. And the Priest shall set the Woman before the Lord, and uncover the Woman's head, and put the Offering of Memorial into her hands, which is the Jealousie-Offering: and the Priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the Curse. And the Priest shall charge her by an Oath, and say unto the Woman, If no man hath lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy Husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the Curse. But if thou hast gone aside to another, instead of thy Husband, and thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thy Husband: Then the Priest shall charge the Woman with an Oath of Cursing, and the Priest shall say unto the Woman, The Lord make thee a Curse, and an Oath amongst the People, when the Lord doth make thy Thigh to rot, and thy Belly to swell: And the Woman shall say, Amen, Amen. And the Priest shall write these Curses in a Book, and blot them with the bitter water: And shall cause the Woman to drink the bitter water, that causeth the Curse. In Loango in afric, if any is suspected of Adultery, Witchcraft, Theft, or other Crimes, there is a little Tree with a small Root, like a White Carrot, called Imbunda, on accusation, the Priest assembles the accused Parties, and scrapes a little of the Root into water, which makes it as bitter as Gall. One Root will serve for the Trial of an hundred, the Priest beats it together with a Plantain stalk, and hits every one after they have drunk, with certain words: If they can walk by till they make Urine, they are free, but if they grow dizzy, they are knocked o'th' head, and dragged thence when dead. The Matimbas have the same Trial of Adultery and other Crimes, with the same Root made into bitter water; the nature whereof is, if it be given in too great a Dose, it stops the Urine, and flies up into the head, whereby the Party becomes dizzy, which if he be, here the Execution something differs from the former, and all the People presently fall upon them, and cut them in pieces with Knives. At Morumbay in afric, if any is suspected to be guilty of Adultery, or any Crime, there is an Idol in a great Basket called Morumbay, and they are compelled to come thither, when accused, and each to kneel down, and say, Mene quesa Cabumba Marumba, that is, I come to make trial of my Innocence: And if he is guilty, he falls down dead, and if he is free, he is freed. Andrew Battle saith, he saw six or seven in his time, that were put to this Trial. Amongst the Guineans, the Priests have a Drink called Enchion Kenow, which the Inhabitants believe hath such a force and virtue from their Fetisso or God, that if any Woman suspected of Adultery by her Husband, and brought to drink thereof for Trial, if she be Guilty, the Fetisso will kill her, which makes the Woman accused, if Guilty, rather compound, and assent to be Divorced from her Husband, then run the hazard of the Fetisso on a Trial by that drink.  
The Americans for the most part, if they find not their Wife's Virgins, or if after, they commit Adultery, Divorce them, wherein they far excel these shameless and devilish Trials of Jews and Ethnics, and the Water-Ordeal, and Fire-Ordeal, heretofore used by Christians, of walking over Red hot Ploughshares bare foot, or the newer fashion of putting Women to Self-accusation, Canonical Purgation, and Compurgation in Episcopal Courts. Likewise amongst Christians I say, this simple plain proceeding of private Divorce, both amongst the Guineans and Americans, by the light of Nature, far excels all the said Trials by Jewish, Pagan, or Popish Priests. Lastly, It is clear from Christ 's disallowing the Bill of Divorce by the Husband, except for Fornication, and his allowing it by the Husband, when there was Adultery. He disallows the Laws of Trial of Virginity, and Trial of Jealousy, as well as he disallowed the Bill of Divorce, without lawful cause. For the Trial of Virginity and Jealousy is far worse, and shows greater hardness of heart, than the Bill of Divorce, in regard the Bill of Divorce, if the Husband find any uncleanness or dishonesty in his Wife, only puts her away, and saves both her Honour and Life; but the Trial of Virginity and Jealousy, permits the man first to lie with her, and perhaps to get her with Child, and then to stone her, or with bitter water to poison her, and her Child together, wherein the Turk is not so bad as the Jew. For though he buy his Wife, if after he finds her not as she should be, he will Divorce her, and though he lose 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, than the Money is to be paid him back, which he gave for her.  
The Customs of the Jews allowed them to make Eunuches, 
Eunuch.  as Chron. 28.1. It is said, David assembled the Eunuches, and 2 Kings 9.32. It is said, When Jehu called, after Jezabel had spoke to him out of the Window, that there looked out to him, two or three Eunuches, 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 Eunuches. Origen and the Sect of Valesians' gelded themselves, and held, that it was impossible for any but Eunuches to be saved: But later Jews allowed them not. And Josephus lib. 4. de Antiq. saith, Eunuches 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 Eunuches in the Roman World, let him be punished with Death. I conclude, though there is much of the Moral Law mixed amongst the Laws of Moses, which is immutable, and aught 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 belonged only to the Jews, and they were generally taken by the Jews from the Egyptians, and other Idolatrous Nations. And Moses being not able to reform them in such a stiffnecked 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 Viceroy 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 anciently by the Babylonians.  

The Indians way.  Indorum virgines quum esse nubiles c●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 chief Cattle, and the Woman brought and delivered to the man that bought her by her friend, 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 Mahometans likewise give Money for their Wives, which when paid, the Contract is Registered 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. the 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 retained, 
Exchange of Wives-Lending Wives.  and Jerome taxes Cato Utican, 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 Council or Senate of the Canaries or Fortunate Islands, who were both Magistrates and Priests, had, before Conquered by Christians, the first Night's 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 Sum 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 petitioned 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 herself, they think it a great sin to refuse her Courtesy, 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 as they agree; And at the end of the time they are free, and may leave each other without other agreement.  
The Tartars by reason of their Plurality of Wives, have a multitude of Children. In Monomotapa they Mary as many Wives as they will, but the first is the Principal, and her Children only to inherit. The Mogul hath a Thousand, the Turk is said to have three Thousand Women.  
Amongst Barbarians mention is made of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a People where Women had many Husbands, and amongst the Medes which dwelled in the Mountains, 'tis said, a Woman had five Husbands at once. It is said that the Lacedæmonians had anciently a Custom, that one Woman should have two Husbands, one to go to War, the other to abide at home. In Malabar the Women have many Husbands, either at once, or successively, and if at once, they send their Children to them whom they think have most right to them. In Calicut some Women are related to have six or seven Husbands, and they Father their Children on which of them they please. The Anses had Women in common, and the Child was to be reputed his, with whom the Woman chose to live. Some report that Gorgophan Daughter to Perseus, about Anno Mundi 2630. 
Second Marriage.  was the first Woman who Married a Second Husband. When Myrrah fell in love with her Father Cynara, Gentes esse feruntur, in quibus & nato genitrix & nata parenti jungitur, & Pietas geminato crescit amore. 
Incest.  Ovid Metam. lib. 10.  
The Babylonians allowed Marriage of Parents and Children. Justin, lib. 1. saith, That Semiramis was killed by Ninus her Son, because she would have lain with him: but Orosius lib. 1. cap. 4. affirms, That she was Married with her Son. Curtius lib. 8. saith, In Regionem quam Naura appellant, Rex cum toto exercitu venit: Satrap erat Sysimithres duobus ex sua matre filiis genitis; quip apud illos licitum parentibus stupro coire cum liberis. Alexander came with his whole Army into a Region called Naura, where was a Satrap called Sysimithres, who had two Sons whom he begat of his own Mother: For with them it's held lawful for Children to lie with their Parents. This Sysimithres together with her who was his Mother and Wife, being possessed of an impregnable Rock, situate in the pass into his Country, opposed Alexander in his entrance, and being Summoned by him to yield, he himself assented, but was overruled by the same Incestuous Woman his Mother and Wife, who said, She would rather die then yield; so much more valiant was she than he, but in the end he overruled her, and yielded his Fort, and was content his two Sons should militate under Alexander, who took them with him as a kind of a wicked Rarity.  
Plutarch saith, That the Cimbri married their own Daughters, which Custom was taken from them by Marius, who overcame them in Germany and triumphed over them. The Quitteve or King of Sofala, hath an Hundred Women, Queens and Concubines, and many of them his Aunts, Ousins, Sisters, Daughters, all whom he useth, saying, His Sons by them are the truest Heirs to the Kingdom, because no mixture of blood; But none but the King on pain of death may marry Sister or Daughter, Jo. does Sanctus. At Cape Gonsalvetz, they have a filthy Custom that the King when his Daughters are grown, takes and keeps them for his Wives, and the Queens in like manner take their Sons, when they are grown up, and make use of them as Husbands. In Egypt some of the Ptolemy's married with their Sisters, and as it seems by Seneca, such Marriages were not unusual at Alexandria; for he saith, Athenis dimidium licet, Alexandria totum: and as Turnelius affirmeth at Athens they might Marry their own Sisters by the Father, such as Abraham, Gen. Cap. 20.12. said of Sarah, She is the Daughter of my Father, but not the Daughter of my Mother; and she became my Wife. Whereby you see Abraham is censured by the Doctrine of Seneca, as an Incestuous Person; but Lycurgus permitted Sisters only to Marry by the Mother's side, but forbidden to Marry Sisters of the Father's side. And Arnobius contra Gent. saith, That Incest was allowed amongst many Nations of whom Alex. ab Alex. lib. 1. gen. dier. C. 24. hath made a Catalogue. Cambyses amongst the Persians married his Sister, so did Artaxerxes, so did Darius; and in Egypt so did Ptolomeus Philadelphus, at Rome Claudius with Agrippina his Brother's Daughter, and Caracalla with his stepmother. Opian the Poet saith, That Caracalla Married Julia his own Mother. When Cambyses had a mind to Marry his Sister, he advised with the Magis to know, whether the Laws did allow it; who answered, They knew no Law which did allow it; But there was a Law which allowed the King of Persia to do what he would. Yapangoi, the Father of Guagna Capa, was the first Ingua of Peru, who married his Sister, that Ingua's might do it; and commanding his own Children to do it, permitting the Noblemen also to Marry their Sisters by the Father's side. Other Incest in the line ascendent or descending, and Adulteries were punished with death. The chaste Artemisia was the Wife and Sister of Mausolus.  
— Diique suas habuere sorores,  
 Saturnus Opim junctam sibi sanguine junxit,  
Oceanus Tethin, Junonem Rector Olympi.  Ovid Metamor. 9 
In Pozo in America they marry with their Neices and Sisters. The Chinois heed no degrees of Affinity or Consanguinity, so the Surnames differ, and therefore marry into the Mother's kindred be it almost never so near. If a Tartar die, his Son may marry all his Wives, except his own Mother and Sisters, so it is lawful for a Brother to marry the Widow of his Brother. Polo. Pliny in an Epistle to Loratius, saith, That the Athenians did use to marry Brothers and Sisters, but yet did not permit Uncles to marry their Neices, nor Aunts their Nephews. Aemilius Probus speaking of Cymon's Marrying his Sister Elpinice, Habuit autem in Matrimonio sororem nomine Elpinicen, non magis amore quam patrio more ductus: nam Atheniensibus licet eodem patre natas uxores ducere. The Arabians had anciently a Custom that one should be Wife to all her Brothers, whereby they become all Brethren; and the eldest should lie with her at Night, and at Day the other. Every one as they came first, set his Staff at her door, to give notice to the rest to forbear, whereby they were all Brothers. An Adulterer was punished amongst them with death. The Britain's had Ten or Twelve Wives apeice, as Caesar saith, which they held common amongst Brothers and Parents; and Dio saith, The Children thus begotten were brought up in common amongst them. Eusebius saith, That many Britain's kept one Wife in common. In Arabia the Happy, it's accounted Adultery to lie with any Woman except of their own kindred, as Sisters, Mothers, Cousins, and the like: whom they likewise take to be Wives. It seems Abraham's example and direction, to choose a Wife for his Son came hence. The Banyans Sons are Heirs to their Father's Estates,; but as a recompense, They are bound to maintain their Mother, and marry their Sisters, that they likewise may be provided for, out of their Father's substance. The Goan Indians have a custom, That none must marry but in a family using his Father's Trade: To which end the several Trades are severed one from another, and set apart in streets by themselves. Linschotten. The Inhabitants of Carthagena allow not marriage with the Sister, on this Tradition, That one who married his Sister was for that offence carried, and confined to the Moon, where he still remains the spot, or Man in the Moon.  
In China many charitable people, 
Fornication.  as they think themselves, have given and bequeathed for the good of their Souls, Rents and Revenues, to maintain Houses of Common women, who are to prostitute themselves to such Poor as have no money freely, which they think a work of great merit. Mendez. In China, adultery with a Married woman is death. The Common women not being suffered to live within the Walls, but in the Suburbs, where they are educated to Singing, Music, and Dancing, and whatsoever is fit for Dalliance, and are for that end bought of their Mothers, and prostituted for gain.  
In a large street in Pequin in China dwell a great number of Courtesans, who are all under Protection of the Tutan of the Court. At Cambalu, Harlots have a Corporation. In the Countries of Cotam and in Pegin, the Wives may marry new Husbands, 
Divorce for absence.  if the old be absent but twenty days. Purch. 427. Divorces are frequent amongst the Muscovites, for when they have a desire to part, they accuse each other, by suborned false Witnesses of Adultery, or want of Devotion; by which, they are condemned without answering for themselves. The Inhabitants of Casear have a Law, if the Husband or Wife is absent from one another twenty days, the other is at liberty to marry again. Heyl. 856.  
Diodorus Siculus saith, That the Egyptians before they had any Laws, every Man had as many Wives as they pleased, 
Divorce at pleasure.  and both parties were at liberty, as any other Companions, to come together, and part when either pleased: For they said, It was impossible, if Men and Women should be tied together, but the same must be with much trouble, contentions, and brawls. The Tappinineers in Hercinia bestowed their Wives on other Men, after they had had two or three Children by them. Purchas. 351.  
It was esteemed a dishonour, not only amongst the Indians, but Romans and other Nations, for Ladies who loved their Husbands, to survive them.  
Porcia killing herself on news of the death of her Husband.  

Conjugis audisset fatum eum Porcia Bruti,  
Et subtracta sibi quaereret arma dolour:  
Nondum scitis, ait, mortem non posse negari,  
Credideram satis hoc vos docuisse patrem.  
Dixit, & ardentes avido bibit ore favillas,  
I nunc, & ferrum turba molesta nega.   Martial. 

When Porcia heard of her dear Brutus slain,  
Weapons she sought, withdrawn from her in vain:  
Death, said she, not to be denied me is,  
I thought my Father's death had taught you this.  
She swallowed Coals, and proudly spoke the word,  
Deny me now to die by point of Sword!   
The Fact of Lucretia, Beza thus censures.  
Lucretia killing herself on the Rape of Tarquin.  

Si fuit ille tibi, Lucretia, gratus adulter,  
Immerito ex merita praemia morte petis.  
Sin potius casto vis est allata pudori,  
Quis furor alterius crimine velle mori?  
Frustra igitur laudem captas, Lucretia; namque  
Vel scelerata cadis vel furiosa ruis.   

If thou Lucretia lovedst th'Adulterer,  
Thy Death deserved, reward to claim doth err.  
If rather force did thy chaste Beauty slain,  
How mad, for others Crimes to be self slain?  
In vain Lucretia, praise thou seekest for Ay,  
Since Gild or Madness than cast thee away.   
Condemn not yet so great a Lady as Lucretia, without hearing her Answer.  

Pectora Tarquini, virtuti ingrate, fuissent,  
Hac perf●ssa manu, Foemina si potui.  
Jam cruor hic noster me non violasse pudorem,  
Ante homines testis, spiritus ante Deos.  
Stulte, meam frustra quid tentas redere famam,  
Orb volat simul, ac aethere protegitur.   

On Tarquin's breast, to virtue oh ingrate!  
If able, I prevented had my Fate;  
My blood to Men, my Soul to Gods on high,  
Now my chaste Innocence shall testify.  
Fool, thou in vain carp'st at Lucretia's Fame,  
Since Earth and Heaven both preserve the same.   
The Epigram of Beza is neat, but the Author seems to be much of the French woman's mind, mentioned by Montaigne; who alleged herself to be Ravished by force, but after often rejoiced, and thanked God she had once in her life so much pleasure without sin. Whereas Tamar, who was truly Ravished by force, 2 Sam. 13.13. saith, Whither shall I cause my shame to go. And vers. 18. It is said, She having a Garment of divers colours upon her: for with such Robes were Kings Daughters that were Virgins, apparelled. And vers. 19 And Tamar put Ashes on her Head, and rend her Garment of divers colours, and laid her hand on her head, and went on Crying. Why doth not Beza tax Tamar in the same degree, for spoiling her fine , and blubbering her Face, as he doth Lucretia, who being a Wife, was more concerned in the double, perhaps triple honour of herself, her Husband and Children, than a Virgin in here's, which is only single; and therefore to clear all suspicion, thought it necessary to give so high a Testimony of her Innocence as she did?  
Cicero in the like case commends divers noble Virgins, who killed themselves to preserve their honour. The like did the Women of Antioch, under Dioclesian; and other Antiochian Women under Chosroe the Persian. The like did Sophronia, a noble Christian Matron, under Decius. Many Virgins there were in the Primitive times, who drowned themselves in Rivers for the same cause. St. Ambrose highly commends those Virgins, who slew themselves for the same cause; and are all generally Recorded in the Ecclesiastical Histories for Martyrs. Yet St. Austin and other Fathers, seem doubtful, and I dare not in a Doctrine of blood be positive; yet I confess though I am no Idolater of Saints deceased, I cannot pass by their Ashes without due honour to their memory, and do think even the greatest Ethnics among them, shall rise up in Judgement against too many of the latter Age; who call themselves Christians, and glory in their shame, of what those laid down their lives to avoid the dishonour: and cannot but be struck with admiration of so Divine excellency in so weak a Sex, as made them greater in valour than Men; in love of their Husbands, than Women; in fame, than Angels: To whom, though Christ gives so high a degree of Chastity, as neither to marry or give in marriage; yet could not they avoid being spotted by slanderous Tongues, to be like the Heathen Gods, lovers of Women; whereas fame itself, dared not belie these Heroic Ladies, who defended their Honour with their Blood. But to draw to an end of this Section, There appear amongst the nations many good, many indifferent, and many most wicked Laws and Customs concerning Marriage, the height of the Examples, and the Authority both in good and bad, being only humane. The same can be neither obligatory nor satisfactory to the Conscience, neither aught marriage to be judged by them.  

Divorce by mutual assent.  It was by the Twelve Tables allowed, That by Mutual consent, the parties might Divorce themselves one from another, Quia unumquodque dissolvitur eodem modo, quo confl●tum est; as may be collected from Cicero Philip. 2 l. pern. ad leg. Jul. de Adult. li. 2. & 7. de divorcio. ex Apul. & Ambros. Epist. 65. Notwithstanding which, there was no Divorce followed in Rome for the space of 520 years.  
There have been examples of the practice of this amongst Christians, and Christ's words prohibiting putting away, which implies force, seems not to include a free or voluntary separation. Of examples of this amongst Christians, an express form appears in Marculfus his Formula, lib. 2. cap. 30. Dum inter illum & illam non charitas regnat, sed discordia placuit &c Seeing between him and her, the Charity according to God doth not reign, but Discord, so that they cannot live peacably together, it is agreed by the consent of both, that they separate from one another, and accordingly they have done as others. Leg. Rom. cap. 19 and Novel Instit. 117. These Canons have been made to change, and likewise other Imperial Laws.  

Divorce free for Women a well as Men.  Of Women departing from their Husbands, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word for it on the Woman's part. Sen. de Benef. l. 3. c. 16. Numquid jam ulla repudio erubescit. And Nobiles foeminae non consulum numero●sed maritorum annos suos computant, They departed and married again every year. Apud Romanos & Graecos mulier quam vir alteri potest dicere ut res suas sibi habeat, quin nomina rei illius propria jure Attico prodita erant, ut si vir discederet ab uxore, hoc diceretur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, si mulier à viro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Jos. Scàliger. Amongst the Romans and Greeks, both the Woman and the Man might Divorce one another. And by the Athenian Law, they had proper Terms for both; as if the Man left his Wife, this was called a Dismission; 
Dismission and Desertion.  if the Woman left her Husband, this was called a Desertion. So by the case put by Christ of a Woman, it appears then that Women were Divorced as well as Men.  
The East Indians, if they are but Jealous of their Wives, will kill them, and bring three or four witnesses to Swear, That strange Men entered into their Houses by night, or at unaccustomed times, who had their pleasure of their Wives; or in another sort, as they will devise it; whereby the Husband is straight discharged of the Crime of killing his Wife, by the Laws both of Portugal and Spain: and there are every year many Women without number, dispatched by their Husbands, and none think it strange, nor make wonder at it, because of the Custom; and the Women are never the more frighted from their Adulteries, but will say. They can die no better death then by such a Law, Linschot. And may presently marry another Wife. The Wives likewise frequently poison their Husbands, which, as some say, was the original of their custom not to survive their dead Husbands, but to burn them. And the causes of Jealous can by neither, be published to the Magistrate with safety or honour, either of Wife or Husband. Were it not therefore far better for the Innocent party or both by assent, to separate themselves privately, and marry again; then so live in danger of their lives one of another? and more agreeable to the Law of God and Nature, and the ends of marriage; then for them, if the Wife offends the Husband, to have power to kill her while alive, or if not offend, to kill her by burning with him after dead: or the Woman be tempted to prevent both by poisoning her Husband: were it not better to be put away privately as Joseph did his Wife, than the fault published? and Divorces would not be so frequent if left free to the parties; for who would marry again a Man or Woman who had Divorced themselves from their first marriage without cause?  
Augustus Caesar following the vicious policy of those times, to strengthen himself by marriage of Women, repudiates his Wife Scribonia the same day she was delivered of Julia, and married Livia, being great with Child by Tiberius Nero her Husband, still living, who was delivered of Drusus three Months after. Dio. Tiberius by assent of Augustus, repudiateth the Daughter of Agrippa, being then with Child, and marrieth Julia the Daughter of Augustus.  
Dioclesian the Emperor married six Wives in a short space, and repudiated them all great with Child. Oros. And having associated to him, because of many Travels in the Empire, Maximianus; they both meet at Milan to create new Caesars, to whom they may commit their Forces; where they chose Constantius Chlorus, and make him Governor of Britain, and Galerius, whom they make Caesar likewise, to defend Eastern Europe. These new Caesars they compel to repudiate their former Wives, and Galerius married Valeria Daughter to Dioclesian. And Constantius repudiated his Wife Helena, by whom he had Costantine (after called the Great) and married Theodora, Daughter-in-law to Maximian, by whom he had after six Children. Dioclesian assumeth Divine Honour, and he and Maximian triumph, yet they after resign the Empire (and retire themselves) to Galerius and Constantius: after Constantius createth his Son Constantine Caesar, and dyeth. Against him was set up Maxentius, Son to Maximian, and Maximian giveth his Daughter Fausta to Constantine. Herod Antipas repudiateth his Wife Areta, who was Daughter to the King of Arabia, and married Herodias, Wife to his Brother Philip, and Daughter to his Brother Aristobulus. Joseph. Anno Christi 1028. Constantine the Emperor being sick, the States put Romanus Argyrus to his choice, either to repudiate his Wife and marry the Emperor's Daughter, or to lose his Eyes; his Wife to save him from danger, entereth into a Nunnery, Romanus Argyrus is made Emperor, and marrieth Zoe the Emperor's Daughter, and banisheth Theodora, her Sister. Zon. Zoe falleth in love with Michael Brother to one of the chief Eunuches, they strangle Romanus in a Bath, he marrieth Zoe, and was much troubled with the Dropsy, and Falling-sickness; Michael neglecteth the Empress, and refraineth her Bed, shaveth her, and banisheth her: The people enforce him to recall her, and put out his Eyes. Cedr. Zoe marrieth Constantius Monomachus, who keepeth a Concubine, by her assent the Emperor is endeavoured to be stoned by the people, in hatred of his Concubine; Zoe pacifieth the people. Ib.  

Impotency and Sterility is a cause of Divorce.  The Law of Solon allowed Impotency in the Man, or Sterility in the Woman, to be a good cause of Divorce. Plutarch in Solon. vid. Aust. contra, etc. because then old Folks might not Marry. Such was the modesty of ancient times in Rome, that from the first foundation of the City, for the space of Five Hundred and Twenty Years, there happened no Divorce between a Husband and Wife. Val. Max. l. 2. cap. 1. And the first who began it was Spurius Carbillus, who put away his Wife for Sterility, which though it seemed a tolerable cause, yet wanted not reprehension from divers, who thought the Conjugal Faith ought to overweigh the desire of Children. Anno 631. Dagobert the great King of France, repudiated his first Wife for Barrenness, and Marrieth Nantildis a Nun▪ Amandus a Bishop reproves him, and he banisheth the Bishop, afterwards having a Son, he revoketh the Bishop to baptise him. Calais.  
Anno Christ. 1263. The Queen of Bohemia being old and Barren, the King intendeth a Divorce, she layeth the fault on him, he maketh her this offer, That she should appoint him a Maid, and if he got her not with Child in a Year, he would be reputed faulty, the Queen accepteth it, and in Ten Months he hath a Son, and afterwards divers Daughters. She is Divorced and Marrieth Kum Grand Daughter to the Duke of Muscovia. Chron. Boh.  
Regner King of Denmark, Anno 820. marrieth Langertha a Warlike Woman of Suevia, and had by her Fridlanus, and two Daughters, Crom. After he Repudiateth Landgertha for the inequality of the Match, and Marrieth the Daughter of Hezotus King of Suevia, by whom he had many Sons. Crom.  
Anno 1354. Peter King of Spain repudiateth Blanch Daughter to the Duke of Bourbon, and Marrieth Jean de Castro. Histor. Hispan. Anno 1373. The King of Portugal refused a Match in Castille, and taketh a Nobleman's Wife, and banisheth him, his Subjects are discontented with him. Hist. Hisp.  
Anno 696. Pepin King of France repudiated his Wife, and married Alpaida his Concubine, by whom he had Charles Martell, and he killed Lambert Bishop of Thuring for reproving his Marriage. Am. Fris. Anno 576. The Wife of Chilperic King of France was divorced and thrust into a Monastery, for being Godmother to her own Child. Truon. Charles the Eighth of France was Espoused to Mary the Daughter of Maximilian, Maximilian marrieth Ann the Daughter and Heir of the Duke of Britain by Deputy. The King of France repudiates the Daughter of Maximilian, and marries the Daughter of the Duke of Britain. Luis the Twelfth of France repudiates his Wife, and marries Ann his Predecessor's Widow. Anno 1333. The Marquis of Misnia having married Judeth the Daughter of the King of Bohemia, the Emperor causeth the Marquis to repudiateher, and marry his Daughter. The King of Bohemia taketh divers places in Misnia, and giveth Judeth to John, Son of the French King. Dub. The Archbishop of Gnesna in Polonia, forced Married Priests to be Divorced from their Wives. Alsted. Anno 1218.  
Lewis the Seventh King of France having married Elinor Daughter and Heir of William Duke of Guienne, and having two Daughters by her; notwithstanding divorced himself from her, on pretence they were cousins in the fourth degree: She was after married to Henry the Second of England, (who had by her Five Sons, and Three Daughters) and was she, who revenged herself on Rosamond, though not in so high a degree injurious to her, as Adela the Daughter of the King of France, affianced to her Son Richard, who was after King, was suspected to be; of whom it was commonly reported, That her Husband was so far enamoured, that he having Committed Elinor to Prison, resolved to be divorced from her and marry Adela. Bak▪ Hist. 55.59.  
King John having married Avicen Daughter and Heir of Robert Duke of Glouc●ster, having no Issue by her, divorced himself from her, alleging that she was his Cousin in the third degree.  
Juan Daughter of Edward the First, (for her Beauty called the fair Maid of Kent,) was married first to William Montacute Earl of Salisbury, and from him divorced; but it appears not for what cause, and was after married to Sir Thomas Holland in her right Earl of Kent, and Father of Thomas and John Holland Duke of Surrey, and Earl of Huntingdon; and lastly, she was Wife of Edward of Woodstock, the black Prince of Wales, and by him Mother of the infortunate King Richard the Second.  
Henry the Eight married first Katherine Daughter of Ferdinando King of Spain, the relict of his older Brother Arthur, and was after Twenty. Years marriage, and the Birth of his Daughter Mary (after Queen of England) by her divorced from her, on the opinion of some Divines, that it was not lawful for him to marry his Brother's Wife, and having successively married two other Wives, after their death he married his fourth Wife, Ann Sister to the Duke of Cleave, she lived his Wife six Months, and then was likewise Divorced. Civilians, Canonists, Divines, Lawyers, and one Pope against another, 
Aliment of Children.  and all by the Ears about Divorce, and unless as we ought, we wholly consult the Moral Law of God, there is not a word of sense in the Laws of men, but they are all for gain.  
As Desertions and Divorces of Mothers without cause, have been too frequent both amongst Gentiles, Jews, and Christians; so likewise is the Desertion, and not giving Aliment to Children. Aristotle stained his Philosophy with the bloody Doctrine of exposing Infants. The Chinoys, who are poor, think it Charity to strangle their Infants, and save their Aliment. Fornicators make it their custom to deflower Virgins, and get them with Child, and then illegitimate and desert both Mother and Child to save the charge of Aliment: And oh horrid amongst Christians! wholeParishes rise with Swords and Staves against one poor Sucking Babe, to exterminate both it, and the Mother naked, and to be Vagabonds to beg, steal, or starve, only to save so small an Alms as Aliment to one poor Infant, not able to speak or beg for itself. It is related by Travellers, that some Indians use, when a Child is born, if it take not to suck the Dug of the Mother well, they carry it out of the House and hang it naked on a Tree, and leave it there, returning themselves into the House: after a while they go out again, and bring in the Child and offer it the Teat; if it take it not, they carry it the second time, and let it hang twice as long, and fetch and offer it the Teat again; if it take it not then, they hang it on the Tree the third time, and leave it hanging till it dies. God made man righteous and writ the Moral Law in his heart, but since the Devil hath seduced him to the Ceremonial, he is become worse than a Beast.   

CHAP. III. Marriage, Filiation, and Succession, not to be judged by the Law-Civil, Canon, or Feudall.  
AS to the Author of the Civil Law, or rather the Emperor, in whose name and time the same was compiled, he was Justinian, whom, though his own Parasites extolled for a God, and his Lawyer Tribonian employed by him or his Wife Theodora, to do the work, claws him with a doleful Compliment, that he was in great fear lest he should be rapt up into the Heavens, when he little thought of it for his singular Piety to their insufferable loss. Yet Procopius makes him a Devil, and doubts very much whether he were not a Devil incarnate more likely, when he little thought of it, to be rapt to Hell. Bodin indeed speaks something, Fol. 17. may clear him from being a Daemon, for he saith, He was a blockish unlearned Prince, and out-witted by his Wife Theodora, when she pleased, and caused by her to make Laws only for the advantage of the Women against the Men; and Procopius likewise commends his Justice, and saith, That he used when he could catch them, to take Bribes of sides, and if any who had a Suit before him presented him with a Bribe, he was sure to carry his Cause, unless the other Party counterballanced him with another. As to the Collection of Laws attributed to him, it cannot be denied, but there are a multitude of excellent Laws of Nature scattered through the great Mass of them, but in such a confusion, as is rather proper to a Chaos, than an orderly Digest. Then for the bulk 'tis an Hundred times bigger than necessary, and the Evil Laws which increase it to that greatness in number, overwhelm and in Nature destroy or make useless the Good. As to the Religion in them it is Popery and Superstition. The Justice is Tyrannical and Arbitrary Government, the Mercy of them is Racks and all inhuman Tortures.  

Civil Law.  The Heads of the Civil Law prohibiting to marry, are comprehended in the Verses following.  
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Aetas, Conditio, Numerus, Mona, Et Ordo, 6. 7. 8. 9 10. Optio, Nobilitas, Sanguis, Tutela, Potestas, 11. 12. 13.  14. Fons Sacer, Affinitas, Raptus, Repugnat Honestas, Irrita quae faciunt Connubia legibus, haec sunt.  
1. The first cause making marriage void, or voidable, is Age, if the Man is under 14, or the Woman under 12.  
2. Condition, If it be servile, they were not allowed to marry Ceremonially, but might lie with one another, and get new Slaves.  
3. Number, If a Man have one Wife, he ought not to have another.  
4. If either Person be Monastic, as a Monk or Nun.  
5. Being within Orders, as a Priest or Clerk.  
6. Adoption prohibits marriage between the Adopting and Adopted.  
7. Nobility heretofore prohibited marriage with a Plebeian, and Senators and their Children, per Legem Papiam & Juliam, with their freed Women, or others of so mean Condition. A wicked Law, and contrary to the Law of God, for they might lie with Plebeians, but not marry them.  
8. Consanguinity, in respect of which, three sorts of Persons are considered, the Ascendants, Descendants, and Collaterals.  
9 A Guardian is prohibited to marry his Pupil.  
10. A Precedent of a Province is prohibited to marry one subjected to him, by reason of his Jurisdiction, in which two last cases the reason is, that marriage might be free, and not compelled by the Awe or Power of Authority.  
11. Fons Sacer, the Font of Baptism, is by the Pope made to contract a spiritual affinity or kindred between the Godfathers and Godmothers, and Child Baptised; for whom, or their Children to marry within the fourth degree is made without any sense, as Incestuous, as if within the degrees of Carnal kindred.  
12. Affinity, in which are the same Considerations of Prohibition to marry, as before in Affinity.  
13. Rape; for by the Civil Law the Ravished was prohibited to marry the Ravishor.  
14. Such Matters as are thought against Honesty, or are of ill report, according to the Manners of the People.  

Canon Law.  As to the Canon Law, Aquinas, Cajetan, and others, recite the Verses following, which have left out some of these Matters relating to the Civil Law, and added difference in Religion and other Matters withal, to the Modern Canons, in the manner following.  
Error, Conditio, Votum, Cognitio, Crimen,  
Cultus, Disparitas, Vis, Ordo, Ligamen, Honestas,  
Si sis affinis, si forte coire nequibis,  
Haec sociandà vetant, Connubia facta retractant.  
Which likewise may be easily understood by Exposition before made of the former. But they are likewise many of them wicked, and contrarg to the Law of God,  
The Civil Law is a Cento of Rescripts of Emperors, a frippery of Opinions of Doctors, Planting the Sword for the Balance, Superstition for Religion, Tyranny for Government, Antinomies for Laws, Torture for Judgement, Gain for Godliness, Iniquity for Justice, Confusion for Method, Fiction for Truth, Form for Matter, Manner for Merit, Ceremony for Substance, a Powder of Impertinents, a Remedy worse than the Disease, a Whirl-pool of Vertigoes, a Rock for Shipwrecks, a Gulf to swallow Money, a Sea driven with contrary winds, a Bottomless Deep of Doubts, a Chaos of Controversies, an Abyss of Darkness, a Bulk broken with its own weight. 
Canon Law.  Anno 1520. The Pope and Papists Excommunicating Luther, he appealeth to a Council, and burneth the Canon Law, and the Pope's Bull at Wittenberg.  
Calvin tit. Cynus writes of him thus, Cynus jurisconsultus Pistorii natus, Dyni Maxellani auditor, Bononiae jus  professus est, librosque de eo non paucos ita scripsit, ut semper à Pontificiis canonibus abhorret. In interpretatione l. quoties C. de Jud. scribit Canonicum jurisconsultum secisse sibi jura pro libitu voluntatis suae, & leges civiles servare eas ad commodum suum, non autem contra se, propter ambitum secularis jurisdictionis usurpandae, & non propter aliud. Cynus a Professor of the Civil Law at Bononia, and one wrote many Books concerning the same, yet did always very much abhor the Papal Canons, and writes in interpretation l. quoties C. de Jud. that the Canonists made all their Laws according to their own Arbitrary will, and observed the Civil Law only for their profit, and not when it made against them, out of Ambition to usurp Temporal Jurisdiction to themselves, and to no other end. The Canon Law is deservedly likewise censured, by the Lord Bishop of Lincoln in his late learned Book against Popery, fol. 35. where having recited many wicked positions in it, he concludes in these words, Thus much (and may be too much) for the Canon Law, that sink of Forgeries, Impiety, and Disloyalty; for I scarce know any Book, wherein are more forged writings (under good name sometimes) for bad purposes, and more impious Doctrines, and Positions owned and authorised for Law, and that by one who pretends, though without and against reason, to be Christ's Vicar, and Infallible; or any Book which hath more Seditious and Rebellious principles of Disloyalty. This I only say now, but when I have what I now want, time and opportunity, I can and will (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) make it good, how dangerous, (and when believed and practised) how pernicious to Kings and Princes, the principles of that Law are. I hope all Bishops will hereafter be of the same mind, and not own the Canon Law to be the Rule of Marriages, and Legitimations, or Successions of Protestant Kings, and Princes, or their Subjects; or for their Pardons and Excommunications, or fit to be any longer the Ecclesiastical Law, for the Government in any thing of Three Protestant Kingdoms.  
As to the Feudal Law, I shall defer it till I come to speak of the wicked obligations of some Tenors, 
Feudal Law.  to prostitute the Virginities of their Daughters to the Lords of the Land. It is enough for to show the slavery of Feudal Laws, if we but remember the late Wardships of Tenors, wherein the marriages of Men and Women were bought and sold, as if Beasts in the Market, and the unjust Laws yet remaining in customary Estates, prohibiting Widows to marry; and marrying young Women to old decrepit Men, not fit for marriage, to get a Widow's Estate: whereby they are left exposed to infinite Temptations. The wicked custom of March●ta Mulieris belongs to the Feudal Law. March●ta mulieris dicitur Virginalis pudicitiae prima violatio & delibatio, quae ab Eveno Rege sibi, & capitalibus dominis fuit impie permissa de omnibus novis nuptis, prima nuptiarum nocte. sed pie à Malcolmo 3 sublata fuit & in capite sequente certo vaccarum numero & quasi pretio redimitur. Sken. Reg. Ma. lib. cap. 31.  

1. It is to wit that conform to the Law of Scotland, the Marchet of ane Woman noble, or Servant, or Hireling, is ane Zoung Kow, or three shillings. And the right duty to the Sergeant three pennies.  
2. And she be Dochter of an Frie-man, and not of the Lord of the Village, her Marchet shall be one Kow, or six shillings; and for the Sergeant's duty, sax pennies.  
3. Item, The Marchet of ane Thane or Ochiern twa Rye, or Twelve shillings, and the duty to the Sergeant Twelve pennies.  
4. Item, The Marchet of the Daughter of an Earl pertains to the Queen, and is twelve Rye.   
The Spaniards in the West Indies setting a Tribute to the King, and the inferior Lords, to be paid yearly by every married person. To increase these yearly Tributes from married persons, they every year survey by List, the married persons of every Town: and cause their Children, Sons and Daughters to be brought before them, to see if they be fit to be married; and if of growth fit, they threaten the Parents for not marrying them, and raise his Tribute by way of Fine, till he marry them. And the set time they appoint for marriage to the Indians, is 14 to the Man, and 13 to the Woman; yea, some they compel to marry scarce 12 or 13 years of Age, if they appear of more forward strength; yea it is a shame to see how young they are enforced to it, pag. 155. So between the King of Spain and the Pope, the poor Indians pay dear for marriage, which God left free.  
The Civil Law is said to be Jus Leoninum, The Canon Law Jus Vulpinum, The Feudal Law Jus Asmarium, in regard of the intolerable oppression and servitude in it: I conclude therefore Marriage, Filiation, and Succession, not fit to be judged by any of these three Laws.   

CHAP. iv Marriage, Matrimony, Legitimtaion, or Succession, not to be judged by the Law of Mahomet.  
YOU will not offend God in speaking a word in secret to Women, that you research in marriage, although you conceal in your minds your design to espouse them, he understandeth whatever you think of them. Alch. cap. 2. pag. 23.  

Of Persons with whom Marriage is forbidden.  
Marry not the Wives of your Fathers, what is passed was Incest, abomination, and a wicked way; your Mothers are forbidden you, your Daughters, Aunts, Nieces, Nurses, and your foster Sisters: The Mothers of your Wives, the Daughters that your Wives have had by other Husbands. The Daughters of Women that you shall have known are also forbidden you; if you have not known them, it will be no sin. The Wives of your Sons are likewise prohibited, and two Sisters; for what is past, God is Gracious and Merciful. Married Wives are likewise forbidden, except the Women-slaves that you shall have acquired: God hath so commanded you. Except what is above forbidden, it is lawful for you to marry at your pleasure.   

Of the Time of approaching Wives.  
When your Wives shall be clean, approach them, according to what God hath commanded. He loveth them that repent of their Error, and are clean and purified. Your Wives are your Tillage, go to your Tillage at your pleasure; And do good to your Souls, you shall one day find it: fear God and preach his Commandments to true Believers. Alchor. cap. 2. pag. 21.   

Of forbearing to touch Wives.  
God will be Gracious and Merciful to such as shall swear, not to touch their Wives the space of four Months, if he return to them he is Gracious and Merciful; but if they desire to repudiate them, he understandeth and knoweth all things. Women Divorced shall tarry until their Terms be past four times, it is not permitted them to conceal what God hath created in their Wombs, if they believe in his Divine Majesty, and the day of Judgement. Alchor. cap. 2. p. 22.   

Of the propriety of the Wife in her Goods, distinct from the Husband.  
Oh ye that believe in God, it is not lawful for you to inherit what is your Wives by force. Take not violently away from them what you have given them, unless they be surprised in manifest Adultery, see them with civility; if you have an aversion from them, it may chance that you have a thing wherein God hath placed much Good: But if you desire to repudiate your Wives to take others, and that you have given them any thing, take not any thing that appertaineth to them. Will you take their wealth with a lie, and a manifest sin, how shall you take it since you have approached each other with a promise, to use each other civilly? Alchor. cap. 4. pag. 49.   

Of giving Suck by the Mother, and Aliment to her, and her Child, and Aliment by the Heir to his Parents.  
The Women shall give Suck to their Children two years entire; if they desire to accomplish the time appointed to suckle them, the Father shall nourish and clothe the Wife and his Children, according to his faculties. Expend not but according to the measure of your Goods, the Father and Mother shall not necessitate themselves for their Children. The Heir shall perform what is above ordained, he shall entertain his Father and Mother according to his abilities. If the Parents would wean their Children before two years be expired, they may do it without offending God, if they both agree to it. If you cause your Children to be Nursed by other Women than your own Wives; God will not be offended in giving them their Salary according to reason and honesty. Fear God and know that he seethe whatever you do. Alchor. c. 2. p. 23.   

Of Legitimation and Succession of Children.  
All the Children the Mahometans have by their Wives or Slaves, are alike Legitimate, and succeed to the Father's Goods in such manner, as did the Twelve Sons of Jacob. And the Grand Signior of the Turks himself esteemeth her, though she be a Bondwoman, his Sultana or Empress, who bringeth him the first Son, who is likewise Heir to the Empire, though never any Ceremonies of marriage by a Priest, or in a Temple were used.   

Of Succession of Children to the Goods of Parents, and of Parents to theirs, and of Collateral Heirs.  
God recommendeth to you your Children. The Son shall have as much as two Daughters: if there be more than two Daughters, they shall have two thirds of the Succession of the Dead; if there be but one, she shall have the moyity, and her kindred a sixth part of what shall be left by the Dead. If there be no Children, and the kindred be Heirs, the Mother of the dead shall have a third; if there be Brethren, the Mother shall have a sixth after satisfaction of Legacies contained in the Testament, and of debts. You understand to whom it is most requisite to do good, to your Children, or to your Father and Mother give them the Portion ordained of God; the moyity of what their Wives shall leave belongerh to you, if they have no Children. If they have, you shall give the fourth part of what they shall leave; after payment of the Legacies and Debts, they shall have the fourth of your Succession, if you have no Children; if you have, they shall have the Eighth Portion. If a Man and a Woman be Heirs of each other, and have neither Father nor Mother, nor Children, and have a Brother or Sister, each of them shall have a sixth part of the Succession; if they be more, they shall share the Third after payment of Legacies and Debts without fraud, following what God hath ordained. He knoweth all your actions, and is prudent in what he ordaineth, it is God ordained by his Divine Majesty, he that shall obey him and his Prophet shall enter into Paradise, where many Rivers flow, and shall dwell in Eternal felicity. He that shall disobey God and his Prophet, shall be cast Headlong into the fire of Hell, where he shall suffer ignominious Torments. Alchor. cap. 4. pag. 48, 49.   

Of Succession of Brothers and Sisters.  
If a Man decease without Issue, and hath a Sister, she shall have a moyity of what he shall leave, and shall Inherit it, if he hath no Children. If they be two Sisters, they shall have two Thirds of what the deceased left. If they be many Brothers and many Sisters, the Son shall have as much as Two Daughters; God teacheth you his Commandments, depart not from the right way, he is Omniscient. Alchor. cap. 4. p. 64.   

Of Fornication.  
Those that know no other Women but their own, and their slaves; These Mahomet numbers amongst the Righteous. Alchor. cap. 70. p. 362. If you desire Women for Money, and neither commit Concubinage nor Adultery, give them Salary, for which you shall agree, so you shall not offend God. He that shall not be able to espouse Women of a free condition, shall marry such Women and Maids as are slaves. The marriage of slaves is for them that fear Whoredom. Alchor. cap. 4.   

Of Desertion by Wives of their Husbands.  
If Women fly from their Husbands, they shall be brought again to them, which is a thing reasonable, they ought to honour them, and their Husbands likewise ought to honour them; but the Husbands have a degree of advantage above them. God is Omnipotent and most Wise in what he ordaineth. Alchor. cap. 2. pag. 22.   

Of Adultery by Wives.  
If your Wives commit Adultery, take four Witnesses of their fault, that be of your Religion; if they bear witness, keep them Prisoners in your Houses until death or until God shall otherwise ordain. If they Repent of their fault do them no harm, God is Gracious and Merciful to them that Repent. Alchor. cap. 1. p. 49.   

Of Divorce.  
When you shall repudiate your Wives, appoint them the time they must tarry before they again marry, take them with civility and modesty, and in like manner dismiss them; give them presents according to your ability, and take them not to abuse or torment them. They that do thus offend their own Souls. Alchor. cap. 2. pag. 22. He that hath repudiated his Wife thrice, shall not resume her until she hath been married to another who hath Divorced her, Alchor. c 2. p. 22. Then they may return to each other again, and marry without sin. ibid. If the Women Divorced be with Child, allow them what is necessary for them till they be delivered, if they desire to Nurse their Children, you shall give them an honest Salary; if ye like not this, ye shall cause them to be Nursed by another, whose pains ye shall reward: if ye be not wealthy ye shall allow according to your power. Alchor. cap. 66.   

Of the time Women are to tarry before a second Marriage.  
Widow's shall tarry four Months and ten Nights after the death of their Husbands, before they marry again. Alchor. cap. 2. pag. 23. The like time required after Divorce.  
The word Koran signifies a Collection of these Laws of Mahomet concerning Marriage and Succession; which seem to be no other but a Collection of some old Arabic customs, which he as well as the Pope, and many other Legislators (to ensnare the consciences of the Ignorant & Superstitious) counterfeited to come from God: in which, though each of the Persons are equally guilty of Blasphemy, yet as to the Laws, the Mahometan far excel the Pontificial. And pardon me if I think our own Municipal Laws derived from so impure a Legislator as Rome. For first here is in these Arabic customs, no Dispensation of what is truly Incest by the Law of Nature, nor any prohibition of any within the fourth degree, not prohibited by the Law of God or Nature. 2. Here is no prohibition of Septuagesima, Advent, or Rogation times, to get money for Licenses to marry. 3. Here is no Banes, carrying of Women to Temples, buying of the Priests Benedictions, nor money given for Licenses to marry without them. 4. Here is no enslaving Women by marriage, unless slaves whom they buy in the Market for money, or take Captive in Wars, by Robbing them of the propriety of their Goods; nor any ridiculous and unjust punishment of the Man for the Woman, or the Woman for the Man's offences. 5. Here is no letting Stews, or Fornication to Rent. 6. Here the Father hath liberty to acknowledge his own Children, and the Children their Father; and no Certificate of Bishops hath power to take that right from them. 7. Here the wantonness of Widows is forbidden, who are for new Husbands as soon as the old is put in his Grave, whereby who are Fathers of their Children is made uncertain. 8. Here is no false Fathering of Children on those who are within four Seas. 9 Here is no punishing Men twice for one offence; once by the Temporal Court, and then by the Spiritual Court: or contrary punishments by contrary Courts; one by the Contentious Court, and another by the Penitential Court. 10. Here is no Auricular Confession of their Wives or Daughters by Priests in Temples or Chambers, and defiling thereby of their Families. 11. Here is no punishing of Women for bringing forth Children, nor the Murders of so many Infants caused thereby, as by the Papist Laws is continually done. Yet I conclude, though the Law of the Turk is far better than that of the Pope, and shall rise in Judgement against such as plant his Canons in their Courts, in defiance of the Law of God and Nature; I think neither a fit Rule to judge Marriage, Legitimation, or Succession by.    

CHAP. V Marriage, Filiation, Aliment and Succession, not to be judged by Ecclesiastical Laws.  
THE Question is, Whether Marriage, Legitimation and Succession ought to be judged by Ecclesiastical Laws?  
No English Lawyer can mention my Lord Coke without great honour; but how he came so biased as to endeavour to set up Papal and Episcopal Laws under the name of Regal, appears not.  
Object. 1 It is objected by Coke, lib. 5.1. part 40. in Cawdryes' Case, That the Kingdom of England is an absolute Monarchy, and if the King cannot Authorise by his Commission or Writ Ecclesiastical, Judges to determine and judge those great and important Causes of Matrimony, Divorce, and general Bastardy, by Certificate of the Bishop, who is the Ecclesiastical Witness, and Judge both of Fact and Law, and by the Canon Laws, which by use and custom are now our Ecclesiastical Laws: Then he is disabled to be supreme Governor of this Realm in all Spiritual things, or Causes as well as Temporal, according to the Oath of Supremacy due to him: And that he could not then cause Justice to be administered to his Subjects in these so great and important causes of Matrimony, Divorce, and general Bastardy, on which depends the strength of men's Descents, and Inheritances. This I conceive, though not in the same words, yet in sense and substance, to be the weight of my Lord Coke's Argument, whereby he would make use of Marriage, as one means amongst his many other, to set up an Ecclesiastical Law, and Judge over the Temporal Freeholds and Inheritances, and other Birthrights, of the Subjects. To which is answered, First, As to the words Absolute and Supreme, I suppose he intended no such absolute Monarchy or Supremacy, as is not under the Law of God, though it be not so expressed in the form of the Oath of Supremacy: For though, Regum timendorum in proprios greges, 
Ecclesiastical Laws not needful to the King's Supremacy, but hurtful.  Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis; then I think he doth not intent it to be above the Law of the Land, seeing the King himself by his Oath, is pleased to oblige himself to his People to govern according to that Law, where it is not contrary to the Law of God. Then as to the pretended want of Power of doing Justice, concerning causes of  and Inheritance depending on marriage, except by Ecclesiastical Laws and Judges, that is very strange; for how was Justice done in the times of Primitive Christianity for many Hundred Years after Christ, when neither Bishops or any other Ecclesiastical Judges, ever pretended Jurisdiction todetermin Temporal Right or Propriety, but left the same to be judged by the Imperial Laws. How was Justice done in the time of Henry the Second, when the Jurisdiction of all Matrimonial causes remained in the Temporal Courts? Richard the First, his Son, being the first, as Matthew Paris writeth, whom the Clergy got by his public Edict to give the Jurisdiction of Power and Gifts, by reason of Marriage, and of all Matrimonial causes to the Bishop's Courts; and the same Richard likewise gave them Jurisdiction of all breach of Faith, Promises and Oaths, whereby if much of the Power so rashly granted, had not been by him so speedily resumed, they had hooked to themselves the whole Jurisdiction from the King's Courts, of all Contracts and Conveyances, Bonds and Obligations, as well as Marriages, concerning Temporal Goods and Inheritances. And why cannot general as well as special Bastardy be tried at Common Law? And how likewise are all Rights depending on all Marriages made during the late Civil Wars by pretence of any Ordinance of Parliament made by 12. Car. 2. cap. 33. to be tried by a Jury and the Common Law, and not by Certificate of the Bishop, or any Ecclesiastical Judge, to the advancement, and not prejudice of Justice; and a far greater expedition and advantage to the same would it be, if by the like Act the Jurisdiction of all Marriages and Legitimations, as it was in the time of Henry the Second, were again restored to the Common-Law-Courts. So likewise anciently Bastardy alleged in an Action of Trespass was triable by Jury, but now usurped by Bishops as well in personal as real Actions. 4. Edw. 4.35.  
Object. 2 
Coke lib. 5.1. part. in the same case of Cawdry it is further alleged, Circumspectè agatis gives no Jurisdiction of Marriage to Bishops.  That the Statutes of Circumspectè agatis made 13. Eliz. 1. of Articuli Cleri made 9 E. 2. Anno Domini 1315. of 15. E. 3. Cap. 6. of 31. E. 3. Cap. 11. give Jurisdiction of marriage to Bishops.  
To which is answered, That in the Statute of Circumspectè agatis, there is not a word mentioned of marriage, but only by it, Jurisdiction is given to the Bishops of Fornication and Adultery, which is not Marriage, but rather Anti-marriage; for Marriage is an Ordinance of God, Fornication and Adultery are Ordinances of the Devil; and whereas before, the Jurisdiction of Fornication and Adultery, as acknowledged by Coke, lib. 5.1 part. 488. was in Leets under the name of Letherwit, or more properly Lecherwit, yet had Leets never Jurisdiction of Marriage or Divorce, neither consequently could Bishops have it from them. As for Articuli Cleri, and the other Statutes, there is not a word in them concerning Marriage, nor so much as of Fornication and Adultery; the Jurisdiction therefore pretended, was never given by any Statute.  
Linwood likewise expounds the words of the Statute of Circumspectè agatis, which gives Bishop's Jurisdiction of all deadly Sins, as Fornication and Adultery, and the like; Non intelligas de omni peccato mortali, sed de tali, cujus punitio spectat merè ad forum Ecclesiasticum; nam si de ratione cujuslibet peccati mortalis cognosceret Ecclesia, sic periret temporalis gladii Jurisdictio, cùm vix esset dare causam quin ratione peccati possit deferri ad Ecclesiam.  
Object. 3 
Stat. Merton gives them no Jurisdiction.  It's alleged, That it appears by the Statute of Merton, that Henry the Third writ in his time to the Bishop to certify Marriage and Bastardy.  
First, It is to be understood therefore, that in the time of Pope Alexander the Third, Anno Dom. 1160. which was Anno 6. H. 2. (in whose time all Matrimonial Causes beonged to the King's Courts.) This Constitution was made, That Children born before Solemnization of Matrimony, where Matrimony followed, should be as Legitimate to inherit to their Ancestors, as those that were born after Matrimony.  
It is likewise further to be known, that King John the Father of Henry the Third, who made this Statute of Merton following, was by the then Pope Innocent Excommunicated, 
King John Excommunicated.  as likewise at the same time was the Emperor Otho and the whole Kingdom of England Interdicted, and so remained for the space of Six Years, Three Months, and Fourteen Days, during all which time there was no Church open for Marriages or Burials, but the poorer People were buried like Dogs in Ditches, and where they married God knows. Through which, King John was driven to such distress by his own Bishops and Barons, and the French assisting the Pope against him, that he was forced, before he could get to be released of this Excommunication, to pay the Pope vast Sums of Money, and to lay down his Crown, and Sceptre, Mantle, Sword and Ring, the Ensigns of his Royalty, at the feet of Pandolphus the Pope's Legate, and submit himself to the Mercy and Judgement of the Church Two Days, some writ Six, it was before the Legate restored him to his Crown, which he likewise received again on no better Terms then to hold the Kingdom of England, and Lordship of Ireland, from the See of Rome, at the Annual Tribute of a Thousand Marks Silver, and the Excommunication was not to be taken off, but deferred till further and full satisfaction was made to the Clergy, which was not done till Two Years after. The Bishops being hereby arrived at so great an height of their Tyrannical Power over this King: 
The Bishops usurped the exercise of Ecclesistical Laws by force over their Kings.  As that when the King having obtained absolution, had gathered a great Army to have been revenged on the French King, the Archbishop of Canterbury told him 'twas against his Oath at his Absolution, and the King in a great passion replied, He would not defer the Business for his pleasure, seeing Lay-judgment appertained not to him; the Archbishop presumed to threaten his native Sovereign, that unless he desisted, he would Excommunicate him. Note therefore, That in the time of H. 3. who was the Eldest Son of King John, the Bishops continued to assume the Power of Lay-judments, as well in Marriages, as they did of shutting up of Churches, in which they were made from the Pope, to whom they had enforced King John to surrender his Crown, and not from the King's Writ as that Statute of Merton shows, rather a proud Renunciation, and scorn to answer the King's Writ concerning Marriage, than any use permitted by them to the King of the same, unless he would as his Father had done, lay down again his Crown to them, and have Marriage judged according to the Law of the Pope: for otherwise they tell him plainly, They neither will nor can answer his Writ, as appears by the Statute itself, the words whereof follow. 20 H. 3. Cap. 9 To the King's Writ of Bastardy, Whether one being born before Matrimony may Inherit in like manner, as he that is born after Matrimony? All the Bishops answered, That they would not nor could not answer to it, because it was directly against the common Order of the Church, (that is meant the Romish Church.) And all the Bishops instanted the Lords, that they would consent, that all such as were born afore Matrimony should be Legitimated, as well as they who were born within Matrimony, as to the succession of Inheritance, for so much as the Church accepteth such for Legitimate. And all the Earls and Barons answered with one voice, That they would not change the Laws of the Realm, which hitherto have been used and approved. Coke 2 part. Inst. 97. It is said, Though the Bishops are Spiritual Persons, yet in case of general Bastardy, when the King writes to them to certify who is lawful Heir to any Lands or other Inheritances, they ought to certify according to the Law and Custom of England, and not according to the Roman Canons and Constitutions; yet if they do make their Certificate according to the Canon Law, 
No remedy against Bishops making Certificates contrary to the King's Laws. General Bastardy usurped by Bishops & not given them by Law.  and not the Law of the Land, there appears no Remedy unless such a one as is worse than the Disease. Sir Galfred le Scrope Chief Justice, saith, Before this Statute of Merton the Party pleaded not general Bastardy, but that he was born out of Espousals, and the Bishop ought to certify whether he were born before Espousals or not, and according to that Certificate to proceed to Judgement according to the Law of the Land. And the Prelates answered, That they could not nor would not to this Writ answer, and therefore ever since special Bastardy, viz. that the Defendant, etc. was born before Espousals, hath been Tried in the King's Courts, and general Bastardy in the Bishop's Court: and herewith agree out old Books, and the constant Opinion of the Judges ever since. Coke 2 part Inst. 99  
It being before granted, That the Law of England cannot be changed but by an Act of Parliament, and Magna Charta being before made, and being a Declaration of the ancient Common Law,  
First, That no Freeman was to be put out of his  or Inheritance, but per legale Judicium parium, and there being no cause of its own Nature more Temporal, or more concerning Succession to Temporal Inheritance than Marriage, It was contrary to Magna Charta and the Common Law, to judge the Fact of it by any other Judges than Juries, and the Law of it by any other Judges than those of Temporal Courts; and though the Pope and Bishops in those Superstitious times forced the Kings many times, as they did King John, to yield his Crown, and the Subjects to yield their Marriages and other Temporal Rights to their Arbitrary and Saleable Sentence, for fear of Excommunication; yet doth not this any way prove that the Jurisdiction of Marriage was ever granted them by any Law or Act of Parliament, or could be, without it were contrary to a known Common Law and Act of Parliament, which expressly gave the trial of Temporal Rights and Inheritances to a Legale Judicium parium, and not to any Ecclesiastical Judges or Laws. Now therefore it being clear they had no Jurisdiction but by Usurpation of so Temporal a Right as Marriage before this Statute, let any who thinks he can see Nine Miles into a Millstone, once more look into the Statute of Merton before recited, and try whether he can screw out of it any word giving the Bishops either a Jurisdiction of Marriage, or general Bastardy, or that this Statute ever forged so rude a Romish Tool as the two edged Sword of general and special Bastardy, to divide the living Child, or tear it in pieces between the Bishop and the Temporal Judge; or how it was then consistent with a Legale Judicium parium, to expose a Child, no Alien, but the King's Native Subject, to be tried for all he had, by a then Foreign Ecclesiastical Law, and a Judge a sworn Canonical Subject to a Foreign Pope; or that the wisdom of that Parliament intended to coin a Chimaera of a Distinction, without a difference of general and special Bastardy, which neither they themselves understood, nor any Lawyers which writ to this day, give any sensibly Interpretation, or agree amongst themselves concerning it; or that they who made the Statute to oppose the Bishop's Jurisdiction of Marriage should create a Notion of general Bastardy, which le Scrope says, was not in Esse before to give them a new Jurisdiction; which was to change the Laws of England, which they positively refuse in the Statute itself to change.  
Object. 4 
No Similitude of fetching the Laws of Athens to Rome, and bringing the Romish Laws to England.  It is further alleged by Coke lib. 5.1 part 9 That as the Romans fetching divers Laws from Athens, yet being approved and allowed by the State there, they were called Jus  Romanorum: And as the Normans borrowing all or most of their Laws from England, yet baptised them by the name of the Laws and Customs of Normandy. So albeit the Kings of England derived their Ecclesiastical Laws from others, yet so many as were approved and allowed hereby and with general consent, are aptly and rightly called the King's Ecclesiastical Laws o. England.  
To which is answered, That there is no similitude between making or changing the Laws of the Athenians, which were Foreign Laws, to become the Laws of the Romans, and the making or changing either the Foreign, Papal, or native Provincial Canons, or Ecclesiastical Laws, into the King's Ecclesiastical Laws of England.  
For First, The Athenian Laws before they were made Denizens of Rome, were not admitted in cumulo, but Articulated, and every Article examined one by one, by the Decem viri, or Ten Men (as our usurped Ecclesiastical Laws were appointed to have been done by the Statute of 25 Hen. 8.19. by the Two and Thirty Men; and likewise in time of Edward the Sixth by others, but neither succeeded) before the same was received for a Roman Law.  
Secondly, Such Athenian Laws as were picked or garbled from the rest, were by the Authority of the Legislative Power of Rome, both Senate and People, caused to be writ in Twelve Tables, and enacted to be the Laws of Rome; but in England there was never by Authority any Articulation, selecting or garbling of Canon Laws effected, nor the same reduced into Tables Written, or Printed by any Act of Parliament.  

Ecclesiastical Laws in an unknown Language.  Thirdly, The selected Athenian Laws were written in the Roman Language, to be understood by the People before they would be received as Roman Laws; but there is no such thing in the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Holy-Church concerning Marriage, or any thing else, but they all still remain in the Language of the Beast, and can be neither called the Laws of the Church, which by the Scripture are forbidden to be spoke in an unknown tongue, as appears 1 Cor. 14.19. It is said, In the Church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, then ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. It is as utterly unlawful therefore to make that a Law of the Church, or an Ecclesiastical Law of Marriage, which is in the unknown Language of Latin, as it had been to have made any form of Prayer taken from the Romish Church, though the Pater Noster itself, the form of Prayer of the Church of England, while it was in Latin; for the Minister would▪ then have been a Barbarian to the English man, and the Englishman a Barbarian to him; and it is as bad for the poor Englishman for his Lawsuits in Latin for a Wife in the Court of Arches and other Ecclesiastical Courts, as it would be, if his Prayers were again in Latin in the Church. For though he pay his Lawyers dear to plead his Cause, there he cannot understand for his Money, whether they call him and his Wife Rogue and Whore, or honest People; or whether the Judge by his Sentence will give him his Wife, or take her from him, but by the implicit Faith of an Interpreter, as let any one look on the Sentence of Divorce in Kennes Case, Coke lib. 7.42. E. he may understand or not understand the same.  

Ecclesiastical Laws are not the Laws of the Land.  Fourthly, The Athenian Laws were not obtruded on the Romans by Conquest of their Bodies by the Temporal Sword, or their Souls by the Spiritual Sword of Excommunication; but the Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage have been obtruded on England, ever since the Conquest by the superstitious Terrors, or actual force of Excommunication, either Papal or Episcopal, and never by consent in Parliament. The suffering of an oppression therefore, is no consent, nor an abuse against Law, an Use, Custom, or Law; neither can a wicked Oppression, Use, Custom, or Law, in name only, be turned into a Law of England; except by consent in Parliament, or other humane Power: besides, it is by the very before recited Statute of Merton declared, That the Laws of the Church are not the Laws of England; for when the Bishop; quarrelled, that the Law of England, as to Marriage, was not according to the Law of the Church, and would have had them changed into the Law of the Church; the Earls and Barons with one voice answered, We will not change the Laws of England. Whereby it's plain the Laws of England and Laws of the Church are opposite Laws, and not the same, and this is confessed by Coke himself in the exposition of his Statute of Merton, 2 part Inst. fol. 98. where he saith, Here our Common Laws are aptly and properly called the Laws of England; because they are appropriated to this Kingdom of England, as most apt and fit for the Government thereof, and have no dependence upon any Foreign Law whatsoever; no not on the Civil or Canon Law, other then in Cases allowed by the Laws of England; and therefore he saith, the Poet spoke truly hereof, Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos: So as the Law of England is proprium quarto modo to the Kingdom of England, therefore Foreign Precedents are not to be objected against us; because we are not subject to Foreign Laws. Again, that custom or use of Civil or Canon-Laws or Precedents, doth not make Civil or Canon-Law the Law of England, appears by the use of Sentences of Philosophers, and Poets, and Precedents of Historians, all as much used in Courts of Records, of Courts of Judicature, as the Civil or Canon-Law, yet doth not this use or custom make these Sentences of Philosophy and Poets, and the like, to be the Law of England, or obligatory to the People of England, unless such Sentences of Philosophers and Poets are selected from the rest, and enacted, or confirmed by Act of Parliament to be hereafter the Laws of England. And they are so far otherwise from being Laws of England, that Cardinal Woolsey Mich. 21. H. 8. Coram Rege was Indicted, That he intended Antiquissimas Angliae Leges penitus subvertere, & enervare, universumque hoc Regnum Angliae & ejusdem Regni populum, Legibus imperialibus, vulgo dictis Legibus Civilibus, & earundem Legum Canonibus, in perpetuum subjugare; & subducere &c Let any show a sensible reason, why the Bishops and Ecclesiastical Judges, who actually bring in the whole heap of Civil and Canon Laws to judge of the Marriages, Filiation and Succession of the Subjects, and amongst them the new coined Law at the Council of Trent, made when Foreign Jurisdiction was abolished; and thereby actually deprive him of that invaluable liberty, to which every Native Subject is born, and is confirmed to him by so many Acts of Parliament. And those great Fundamental Acts, Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right, to have his Birthright tried per legale judicium parium, deserve not as high a censure by Parliament, as Cardinal Woolsey had, who only intended to do the same: And if any hath any mind to consult (besides the Laws and Precedents against Foreign Laws and Precedents.) Bod. lib. 1. of a Commonwealth fo. 107, 108. will give him some satisfaction; 
Foreign Laws become not the Laws of this Land by being used by Lawyers.  where he saith, It was in most strong Terms judged, by a Decree in the Court of Paris in the Case of Philip the Second the French King, That be was not bound unto the customs of the Civil Law at such time, as they who were next kindred would have redeemed of him the Country of Guyens; howbeit that many both think, and write, the Prince to be bound to that Law; for that they think that Law to be Common to all Nations, and not Common to any City. And yet than the which Law, the Romans themselves in some Cases thought nothing more unreasonable. But our Ancestors would not have, even our Subjects bound to the Roman Laws; as we see in the Ancient Records, that Philip the Fair erecting the Parliament of Paris, and Mompelier, declared, That they should not be bound unto the Roman Laws. And in the erection of Universities, the Kings have always declared, That their purpose was to have the Civil and Canon Laws in them publicly professed, and taught to make use thereof at their discretion; but not that the Subjects should be any way bound thereto, lest they should seem to derogate from the Laws of their own Country, by advancing the Laws of strangers. And for the same cause Alaricus King of the Goths forbade, upon pain of death, any Man to allege the Roman Laws, contrary to his Decrees and Ordinances, which M. Charles du Moulin (my Companion, and Ornament of all Lawyers) mistaking, is therefore with him very angry, and in reproach calleth him therefore barbarous: howbeit that nothing was therein by Alaricus decreed or done, but that which every wise Prince would of good right have decreed and done: For Subjects will so long both remember, and hope for the Government of Strangers, as they are Governed by their Laws. The like Edict there is of King Charles the Fair, and an old Decree of the Court of Paris, whereby we are expressly forbidden to allege the Laws of the Romans, against the Laws and Customs of our Ancestors. Yea the King of Spain also hath, upon Capital pain, forbidden any Man to allege the Roman Laws in confirmation of their own Laws, (as Oldrad writeth.) And albeit there was nothing in the Laws and Customs of their Country, which differed from the Roman Laws; yet such is the force of that Edict, that all men may understand, that the Judges in deciding of the Subject's Causes, were not bound unto the Roman Laws: And therefore much less the Prince himself, who thought it a thing dangerous, to have his Subjects bound unto strange Laws. And worthy he is to be accounted a Traitor, that dares to oppose strange Laws, and strange Decrees against the Laws of his own Prince. In which do, when the Spaniards did too much offend, Stephen King of Spain forbade the Roman Laws to be at all taught in Spain, as Polycrates writeth: Which was more straightly provided for by King Alphonsus the Tenth, who commanded the Magistrates and Judges to come unto the Prince himself, and as often as there was nothing written in the Laws of their Country concerning the matter in Question. Wherein Baldus is mistaken, when he writeth the Italians to be bound to the Roman Laws; but the French no otherwise than so far, as they should seem unto them to agree with Equity and Reason. For the one is as little bound as the other; howbeit that Italy, Spain, the Countries of Province, Savoy, Languedoc, and Lyonnois, use the Roman Laws more than other People: And that Frederick Barbarossa the Emperor, caused the Books of the Roman Laws to be published and taught: the greatest part whereof have yet no place in Italy, and much less in Germany: But there is much difference betwixt a Right, and a Law: for a Right still without command respecteth nothing but that which is good and upright; but a Law importeth a Commandment; for the Law is nothing else but the Commandment of a Sovereign, using of his Sovereign Power. Wherefore then as a Sovereign, is not bound unto the Laws of the Greeks, nor of any other stranger, whatsoever he be, no more is he bound unto the Roman Laws, more than that they are conformable unto the Law of Nature, which is the Law whereunto (saith Pindarus) all Kings and Princes are subject. From which we are not to except, either the Pope or the Emperor, (as some pernicious Flatterers do) saying That those two, viz. the Pope, and the Emperor, may of Right, without cause, take unto themselves the Goods of their Subjects.  
Object. 5 
Foreign Laws cannot be baptised with the name of the King's Laws, without act of Parliament.  As to what is mentioned of baptising Foreign Ecclesiastical Laws, by the name of the King's Ecclesiastical Laws of England, he seems still to mistake, and puts baptising by the name, where it should have been confirmation by the name; and that confirmation too to be given, not by the Bishops, but the Parliament. Besides there is not the facto that name given; for the Ecclesiastical Court is kept in the Bishop's name, and not in the King's name. And the Bishop takes all the profits, and not the King. Feign he would mend the matter, and says, That a Leet is kept in the Lord's name, and he hath the profits, yet it is the King's Court. It might better been said, it was once the King's, before he gave it or sold it to the Lord of the Leet; as are many Lands, not being Ancient Crown-Lands. The King purchases, but if he sell again such Lands for valuable considerations, the propriety, as well as the name of such Lands is then in the buyer, and not in the King. Therefore, though he hath set out his Book as baptised, both in Latin and English, by the name of de jure Regis Ecclesiastico, and of the King's Ecclesiastical Laws; yet with due Reverence to the opinion of so great a Father of the Law, it may be said there appears none, either to baptise or confirm the name, nor any Godfather to it but himself. Neither will the Title of the King's Temporal Laws set upon Magna Charta, which gives that liberty to every Subject, of Trial of his Birthright per legale judicium parium, be consistent with the Title of the King's Ecclesiastical Laws, which take it away, and give it to a Trial by Certificate of the Bishop.  
Object. 6 It is again by Coke alleged, and Precedents cited, That Edward the Confessor, William the First, Henry the First, Henry the Third, Edward the First, Edward the Second; and all English Kings have Governed and Ruled both the Kingdom, and the Holy Church; and have given Jurisdiction to Abbots, Priors and Bishops, and have granted prohibitions, when they transcended the bounds of their Jurisdictions, and that Reges sacro oleo uncti, sunt spiritualis Jurisdictionis capaces, but still this is nihil ad rhombum, nor pertinent to make good the Name or Title he hath set his Book of the King's Ecclesiastical Laws: For there is a great difference, if he had Entitled it the jurisdictione Regis Ecclesiastica; for the King's Jurisdiction, and the King's Laws are clean divers things. And there is a great difference where he grants Jurisdiction to Ecclesiastical Persons, and where he grants them by what Laws they shall exercise that Jurisdiction; for the King's of England have Anciently granted Jurisdiction and Commissions to Ecclesiastical persons, as Bishops and Priests, to be Judges in the King's-Bench, Chancery, and other Courts, yet could they not grant them power to judge by any other Laws than the Laws of England, except by Act of Parliament. Then as to granting prohibitions, where the King had not, or could not by Law grant them Jurisdiction, proves nothing that any King did, or could by Law, grant them Jurisdiction of general Bastardy, without Act of Parliament; or that there was any Law or Act of Parliament, which gave them Jurisdiction of general Bastardy, because the King's Courts durst not grant prohibitions for general Bastardy. For in those superstitious times, neither the King nor Judges dared provoke their Excommunication, and therefore at the making of the Statute of Merton, when the contest was between the Ecclesiastical and Secular Power, which of them should give the Law to Marriage: The Temporal Judges for fear of their Excommunication, took only, like the Jackal, what the Lion refused, and left them, which they called special Bastardy. So, quod non capit Christus, capit fiscus, which is intended of the false Christ; for the true Christ took nothing from it, but paid tribute to it. Besides, if many Jurisdictions should judge by other Laws, this would be destructive both to the King and Subject. Though the King therefore give the Sword, he cannot change the Balance, as is in effect confessed by Coke himself 3 pt. Inst. fol. 120. in his Exposition of the Statute 27 E. 3. of Praemunire: where he saith, 
The right of King and Subjects not triable per alias Leges, or aliud Examen than the laws of the Land.  If Freehold and Inheritance, Goods or Chattels, Debts or Duties, wherein the King and Subjects have a right or property, should be judged per aliam legem, which he mentioned before to be Civil or Canon Law; And other Trial which he makes to be any Trial, except by Jury, or be drawn ad aliud examen; These three mischiefs endeavoured to be prevented in the said Statute, would necessarily follow, viz. Disherison of the King and his Crown: the Disherison of all his People, and the undoing of the Common Law: And fol. 121. he farther saith, Some have made a question, whether since the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was acknowleged in the Crown, an Ecclesiastical Judge, holding Plea of a Temporal Matter belonging to the Common Law, doth incur the danger of a Praemunire? Though hereof is no question at all, yet lest any Man might be led into an Error in a Case so dangerous, we will clear this point by Reason, Precedent, and Authority. The Reason holdeth still to draw the Matter ad aliud examen etc. And he citeth before several Precedents; and says, The reason of all these Cases is, because it draws matters Triable at Common Law ad aliud examen, and to be discussed per aliam legem.  
Peter du Moulin that famous Protestant Divine writes, That there was a a Book printed in the former Age, entitle The Canons of the Apostles, 
Antichristian.  whereby the Temporal power of the Pope is wholly taken away. And the sixth Canon expressly forbids a Bishop to meddle in Civil affairs. And in the 84th Canon are these words, A Bishop that meddles in War, or seeks to obtain these two things, that is to say, the Empire of Rome, and the Sacerdotal Government, let him be deposed; for the things of Caesar are to be given to Caesar, and the things of God to God. And that one Arnold who Preached this Doctrine, That the Pope had no Jurisdiction, nor any thing to do with the Temporal affairs with great applause; was in the year 1155 made a Martyr, and most cruelly burnt at Rome, by the order of Pope Adrian. And this agrees with the Testimony of Christ himself, 
Bishops Judg.  not only as to Jurisdiction of Marriage and Legitimation, but all other matters wherein Temporal propriety comes in question, that he refused the Jurisdiction of it; as appears Luk. 12.13. And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak unto my Brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a Judge or Divider over you? It appears therefore, the Episcopal Jurisdiction of judging or dividing Temporal goods in the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Courts, came not from Christ, but was usurped by Antichrist, by force of Fire and Faggot, and is from him derived to Bishops and Ecclesiastical Courts; to the destruction of the rights of Princes, and the liberty and propriety of the people, who ought only to stand to Caesar's Judgement Seat, and to be tried per legale judicium parium for the same.  
According to this principle Henry the first (Pope Paschal seeking to encroach on the liberty of the Kingdom) writes unto him in this manner, Netum habeat sanctitas vestra, quod me vivente, auxiliante deo, dignitates & usus Regni nostri Angliae, non imminuentur, & si ego, quod absit, in tanta me dejectione ponerem Optimates mei & totus Angliae populus id nullo modo paterentur. Let your Holiness know, that by God's help, while I live, the Dignities and Customs of our Kingdom of England shall not be diminished, and though I (which God forbidden) should suffer myself to fall into so dejected a condition, my Nobles and whole People of England will never suffer it.  
Object. 7 It is further objected in behalf of Trial of marriage by Ecclesiastical Laws, that by the Statute of 25 H. 8. c. 19 which gives power to the King to appoint 32 persons to examine the Canons and to continue such as they think fit, and abridge the rest: It is provided, That such Canons, Constitutions, Ordinances, and Synodical Provincials, being already made; which be not contrariant or repugnant to the Laws, Statutes, and Customs of this Realm, nor to the damage or hurt of the King's Prerogative Royal, shall now still be used and executed, as they were before the making of this Act, till such time as they be viewed, searched, or otherwise ordered and determined by the said 32 persons, or the most part of them, which Statute is revived 1 Eliz. 1. To which is answered, That 1. what is contrariant or repugnant to the Law of God, is made void, without this proviso; and the assuming the Jurisdiction of marriage, and dividing Inheritances ensuing thereby, is before proved to be Antichristian, for Spiritual persons who allege themselves Successors of Christ; and much more therefore the assuming the Legislative power, or giving Laws or Canons for the same. 2. It is shown likewise before, that the same power of Legislation and Jurisdiction concerning marriage, was usurped by Fire and Faggot, and Excommunication, and therefore their Canons concerning marriage are not intended, or if they were, yet this proviso cannot Lawfully preserve such usurpations so contrary to the Law of God. 3. It is manifest that all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and Laws, and Canons of marriage are contrariant, and repugnant to the Laws, Statutes and Customs of this Realm, as, First the Canons then made were, That marriage should be a Sacrament, and thereby draw to itself Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, which latter Acts of Parliament establishing the Protestant Religion, doth thereby abolish the being of marriage a Sacrament; and consequently the Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical incident to it as a Sacrament, and the Canons which make it so, or give any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction relating to the same. 4. All Ecclesiastical Canons of marriage are contrariant and repugnant to Magna Charta, and draw the Subject from his liberty, propriety, and Birthright ad alias leges, aliud examen, and aliud judicium, then legale judicium parium: which Magna Charta of liberties to the Subject, hath been confirmed by several Kings succeeding, above thirty times.  
Object. 8 It is objected, Admit there is no Act of Parliament gives Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction of Marriage, yet the unwritten Law of Use and Custom, which is the Common Law of England, and so long toleration gives it.  
To which may be answered, That by the Canon Laws Malus usus abolendus: besides there was never any use of Jurisdiction of marriage in the Ecclesiastical Courts, otherwise then in reference to the same, as being a Sacrament; which being now taken away, cessante causa & ratione legis, cessat & lex. So likewise, where the thing, which a Use or Custom concerns, is but changed, the Use and Custom vanisheth: as if by custom a Rate tithe be paid for two Fulling Mills in one House, and one of them is changed to a Corn Mill, the custom is gone. But besides, this being malus usus, is of itself void, and were it never so long used, can never grow to have the obligation of the Common Law, or to be thereby the Common Law: As was well answered by a young Gentleman, when complaint was made in Parliament, against the wrongful encroachments of the ecclesiastics; and they alleged for themselves, That they had used and accustomed, time out of mind, to practise what was excepted against. He replied, So have Thiefs at Shooter's Hill used, time out of mind, to Rob there, yet the Law allows no such prescription, nor doth the forced Toleration of their wickedness, by such people as were not able to resist their Robberies, oblige Successors to follow their precedents.  

Reasons against Ecclesiastical Laws concerning Marriage.  

1. Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage came from the Devils etc.  The first Reason against Ecclesiastical Laws is in regard of the wicked Authors, for all the Laws by which Bishops judge Marriage, Filiation, Aliment and Succession, were invented by Daemons, Pagan Gods and Goddesses, Magicians, Aruspices, Astrologers, Soothsayers; Priests of Priapus, and Venus, Jupiter, Juno, Cybele, Flora, Diana, common Prostitutes, Popish Saints, Popish Councils, Popes or Papists. The Canon prohibiting and nulling all Marriage, without a Priest in a Temple, except by the Pope's good Licence or Dispensation, was made by the Pope and the Council of Trent, as appears, Ego Council 147. pt. 5. & Council 197. pt. 6. as a main Pillar to support their tottering Kingdom, against the growing strength of the then Lutheran Protestant's; 
All marriage Priests instituted in the Mysteries of Priapus.  and they took their pious precedents from the old Pagan Priests of Priapus and Venus, and they had it from their Damon's or Devils. That all the ancient Pagan Priests were first initiated in the Mysteries of Priapus, before they could be capable to execute the Priest's office, cannot be denied; and is testified by divers Authors, and particularly by Cornelius Agrippa de van. Sci. p. 738. in these words, Sordidissimus Priapus pro Deo habitus, hunc coluerunt primi illi Religionum artifices Chaldaei, Aegyptii, Assyrii, Babylonii, Ar●bes, Scythae, Aethiopes. ac perinde tota Africa, Asia & Europa: nec fas erat ullum sacerdotem fieri, qui Priapi sacris non erat initiatus. Hic est ille Belphegor, idolum omnium antiquissimum, quod & Chamos dictum est à Chamo filio Noe. The filthy Priapus was esteemed a God, and was worshipped by those first founders of Religion, the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Arabians, Scythians, Phoenicians, Ethiopians, and even all Africa, Asia, and Europe: neither was it lawful for any to be a Priest, unless he were first initiated in the Rites of Priapus. This is that Belphegor of all other Idols the most ancient, which is likewise called Chamos of Cham, the Son of Noah. Now this was the Law of these Priests, for the wicked ends which are after mentioned.  

Dispensation with Incest came from Daemons.  The same, or a worse initiation had those ancient Priests called Magis of the Persians; for they, before they could be initiated, were to lie with their Mother, Sister, and Daughter. As to the Mother, Xanthus teacheth in magicis,  magus ex matre & nato nascatur, oportet. On which some passages collected by Saidus Batricides Patriarch of Alexandria, out of the Oriental Monuments, Language and Characters, concerning Nimrod the Giant, King of Babylon, are translated by Selden, de jure not 624. viz. That when Nimrod had observed the shape of a Crown to be in the Clouds, he caused a Crown to be made, and set it on his Head; whence it was reported amongst the vulgar, that he received a Crown from Heaven. And he is likewise said to be the first who worshipped the Fire, for he saw fire in the East, ascending out of the Earth; and thereupon drew over to discern it, and worshipped it. And then appointed a Priest to offer in the same place Incense to it, and from that time the Priests called Magis began to worship the fire, and the name of the first Priest, whom Nimrod appointed for that office, was Andshan, to whom a Daemon out of the mid●st of the fire, spoke these words; No Man can be consecrated, or understand my Sacred Rites, unless he first lie with his Mother, and Sister, and his Daughter. And Andshan did according as the Daemon taught him, and from that time, such Magis as performed the office of Priests, used to lie with their Mothers, Sisters and Daughters; and Andshan was the first who began the custom.  
That these Priests of Priapus had their Doctrine from the Devil, appears by the use they put it to, for these were Priests, who bringing the Women to their Sacrifices, and Temples, drew the Israelites to Idolatry, as appears Numb. 25.1. where it is said, And the people began to commit Whoredom with the Daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the Sacrifices of their Gods, and the people did eat, and bowed down to their Gods. And Israel joined himself to Baal Peor: from the Hill Peor, where was the Temple called Beth Pe●r, and mentioned Deut. 3.29. So what Priests and Gods they were, who first drew Women to public Sacrifices, and Temples appears by this. It's before shown, that Laws tending to so much uncleanness, as drawing marriages of Women to Temples, testify they come from unclean Spirits, and not from God, who is Holiness itself. I shall, as to that, add only one more History of a Person who was in as great reputation for holiness and learning, and greater than any Pope, which is Doctor Dee; yet was he deluded by the Devil, appearing first in the likeness of an Archangel, and then of Christ himself; and there is no other mark to prove him the Devil, but the uncleanness of the Doctrine he taught, though in most Angelical, yea Archangelical Language. And this is thought by all a sufficient proof; and the same argument therefore of the Uncleanness, Covetousness, and Ambition of this Law, proves that the Popes, who have been divers of them as great Magicians as the Babylonish Andshan before mentioned, 
Plato's Daemon of Community of Women.  and other Magis had it from the Devil. The first Law of Community of Women was given by Plato's Daemon, in his private Oracle, endeavoured to have been revived by the like Daemon in a private Oracle to Dr. Dee.   

The History of the Devil appearing in shape of Christ to Doctor Dee, and tempting him, and his Seer Kelly, to a Covenant of Community of Wives.  

Dr. Dee's Daemon of Community of Women.  Anno Dom. 1583 or thereabouts; Dr. Dee had two precious Stones, or Crystals, which he called the seeing Stones, given him by Spirits, whom he believed to be good Angels. And Edward Kelly had the gift of seeing all Apparitions made in those Crystals or precious Stones, and of reading and interpreting whatsoever seemed to be written in them. After long converse by Dr. Dee, with these Spirits, and a multitude of Apparitions represented, and some Discourses of secrets, and some Miracles shown with the same; The Spirit in show appointeth to translate the gift of seeing from Kelly to Arthur, the eldest Son of Dr. Dee; of the burden of which Kelly desired to be freed, but the success followed not to Arthur, but still continued to Kelly; and Madimi an Apparition, who appeared to Dr. Dee himself, at the beginning of his acquaintance with Spirits, in the shape of a Woman appeared to Kelly in the Air (being really unwilling to translate his office to Arthur) and other Spirits with her in an unseemly behaviour, and he is therefore again desired by Dr. Dee to see again in the same.  Ed. Kelly. 
There appeareth Madimi, she openeth all her apparel and herself all naked, and showeth her shame also.  Ed. Kelly. 
Fie on the Devil, avoid hence with thy filthiness, etc.  Madi. 
In the name of God, why find you fault with me?  Dr. Dee. 
Because your yesterday do and words are provocations to sin, and unmeet for any godly Creature to use.  Madi. 
What is sin?  Dr. Dee. 
To break the Commandments of God.  Madi. 
Set that down.  Madi. 
If the self same God give you a new Commandment, taking away the former form of sin, which he limited by the Law, what remaineth then?  Dr. Dee. 
If the self same God that gave the Law to Moses, and gave his new Covenant by Christ, who sealed it by his blood, and had his Witnesses very many, and his Apostles instructed by his holy Spirit who instructed us in all cleanness in words and works, yea and in thoughts, if by the same God those former Laws and Doctrines be abrogated, and the sufficient proof and testimony may be had, that it is the same God, then must the same God be obeyed.  Madi. 
A Privilege granted doth not abrogate a Law, but confirm it, etc.  
Here Arthur was smitten in a swoon, and Edward Kelly saw one in a long White-Garment make, as if he would strike him, and he became very sick for the time.  Madi. 
Whatsoever the Spirit of God teacheth as from him, though it appear sin before man, is righteousness before him. Therefore assure yourselves, whatsoever is seen and heard amongst you, is from above; and it is a sign and testimony this day before you, for I that touched thy Son might have taken away his breath.  
After other passages, Dr. Dee desired the Seer Kelly to inquire of certain words Madimi had spoken the day before. That they two had their Wives in such sort, as they might use them in common; whether she intended Spiritual or Carnal Community?  Ed. Kelly. 
Upon a scroll like the edge of a Carpet, I see is written De Vtroque Loquor.  Dr. Dee. 
The one is expressly against the Commandment of God, neither can I by any means assent to consent to that Doctrine, and for my help in that verity, I call down the Power of Almighty God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, and all the good Angels, his faithful Ministers, to assist me in the defence of the faithful obedience to the Law of the Gospel, and of his Church. Assist me O Christ, assist me O Jesus, assist me O Holy Spirit.  Ed. Kelly. 
It appeareth written on a White Crucifix, My Grace is greater than the Commandment, for my Grace is such, that Madmen shall attain Blessedness. Verily I say unto you, If I command a man to kill his Brother, and he doth it not, he is the Child of Sin and Death, etc.  Dr. Dee. 
Hereupon we were in great amazement, and grief of mind, that so impure a Doctrine should proceed from such, as I, from the beginning, and hitherto had judged, and undoubtedly esteemed good Angels, and had unto Edward Kelly offered my Soul as a pawn to indemnify Edward Kellys crediting of them, as the good and faithful Ministers of Almighty God. But now my heart was sore afflicted on many causes, and Mr. Edward Kelly had as he now thought he had, a just cause of leaving dealing with them any more; and his Prayer to God had been as he said of a long time, that he might have power to do it. Afterward I made some Declaration to our Wives of this our great grief, by reason of the Command laid upon us, to use Matrimonial Acts between us four in common, which thing was strange to the Women, and they hoped of some more comfortable issue of the matter, and so for that time I left off.  
After Edward Kelly had been four hours in seeing new Apparitions, giving him admonition to receive the same Doctrine, with threatening of Judgement upon us, if we should not; and many other things told me. We departed each to Bed, where I found my Wife awake, attending to hear some new matter of me. And we being alone, I then told her, and said, Jane I see there is no other remedy but as hath been said, of our cross Matching, so it must needs be done. Thereupon she fell a weeping and trembling for a quarter of an hour, and I pacified her as well as I could, and so in the fear of God, and believing of his Admonishments, did persuade her, that she shown herself prettily resolved to be content for God's sake, and his secret purposes, to obey the Heavenly admonishment But Edward Kelly who had divers other Apparitions made to him in his own Chamber, remained notwithstanding in his purpose of forsaking, and utterly discrediting these Creatures.  
A Spirit calling himself Raphael the Archangel, there speaketh to them who were not satisfied with the Testimony of Madimi.  
Raphael. Dear is thy Wife, more dear is Wisdom, and most dear ought I to be unto thee: Thou being Elected tremblest, and by doubting sinnest, all these things are lawful unto you, I admonish you as the Children of God, to consider your Vocation and the love of God towards you, and not to prefer your Wisdom before the Wisdom of the Highest, whose Mercy is so great towards you. Consider, that if he find you obstinate, the Plague's of heinous Sinners, and the contemners of the gifts of God, shall fall upon you. Therefore show yourselves lovers of him that hath led you and covered you with a mighty Shield, or shortly look for the reward of those who contemn the Wisdom and Majesty of the Highest. I Raphael counsel you to make a Covenant with the Highest, and to esteem his Wing more than your lives. After some little discouse and conference there, they went to Bed. April 20th. 1587.  
April 21th. 1587. John Dee, Edward Kelly, Jane. Dee, and Jane Kelly, promise to God though above their Carnal reason, in Abraham-like faith and obedience, to subscribe a Covenant to him to have one another in common.  
April 22th. 1587. Edward Kelly having on further consideration, a new reluctancy concerning this promiscuous Matrimony, makes a Declaration in writing that he would from that forward no farther meddle therein.  
April 24th. There are further Prayers made to God, desiring a further manifestation of his pleasure concerning this new Doctrine so contrary to the Laws formerly promulgated by him.  
A great flame of Fire appeareth in the principal stone standing on the Table before Edward Kelly, and behold one suddenly seemeth to come into the South Window of the Chapel, right against Edward Kelly (but before that, the stone was heaved up an handful high, and set down again well) which thing Edward Kelly did think signified some strange matter toward. Then after, the man, who came in at the Window, seemed to have his nether parts in a Cloud, and with spread abroad Arms to come towards Edward Kelly, at which sight he shrunk back somewhat, and then that Creature took up between both his hands the principal stone and frame of Gold, and mounted up away as he came, Edward Kelly catched at it, but could not touch it, at which thing so taken and carried away, and at the sight thereof Edward Kelly was in great fear and trembling, but Dr. Dee was glad and well pleased. A Fire next appears in the lesser stone, left behind on the Table, and a man in the fire with flaxen hair hanging down on him, being naked to the Paps, with spots of blood upon him, and in the shape of Christ.  Christ. 
If I had intended to have overthrown you or brought you to confusion, or suffered you to be led into temptation beyond your strength and power, than had the Seas long since swallowed you, yea there had not a Soul lived amongst you. But the Law and tidings of Gladness in Mankind, are both grounded in me. I am the beginning and the end, behold I was even myself the figure of Misery and Death for your Sins, why therefore disdain you to be figured after me? And as I have made you the figure of two People to come, so have I likewise sanctified you in an holy Ordinance, giving you the first-fruits of the time to come, contrary to myself; I teach you nothing, for this Commandment is not to be given to Mortal men, but is given to you to manifest your Faith. I I am the first and the last, and I will be Shepherd overall, that the Kingdom of my Father may come, and that my Spirit may be on all flesh, where there shall be no Law, nor need of light; for I myself will be their light for ever. I am Holy and Holiness itself, and out of me cometh no unclean thing, and if there be any of you that seeketh a Miracle at my hands, and beleiveth in my words, let him or her present themselves here next Monday, and he shall perceive that I was the Judge of Abiram, and the God of Abraham.  
May 3d. being Sunday, 1587. Stylo Novo, A Covenant with God is drawn into form, that according to his new Commandment they will by Abraham-like-faith and obedience, use Matrimonial Acts with one another in common, and was subscribed by John Dee, Edward Kelly, Jane Dee, and Joan Kelly, at Trebon-Castle. The Covenant being thus form, written and subscribed by the parties on their parts, it was thought necessary by them that God should make some manifestation on his part, that he would accept it in that form of words it was written; and to that end Dr. Dee with Edward Kelly, went to the Chapel to the South Table, and there Dr. Dee saith, he first praying to Almighty God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, to increase his Faith, and open the eyes of his Heart. He read over the Covenant verbatim, before the Divine Majesty and his holy Angles. After a quarter of an hour Madimi appeareth.  Madi. 
Pepigistis?  Dr. Dee. 
Pepigimus.  A Voice. 
Ratum est, perumpite; sunt vobis omnia communia Dei non hominis, estote promissa quae sunt, possidete vobis distinata: A ternus sum.  
Edward Kelly declared formerly his opinion, That all Spirits appearing in the shape of Women were evil Spirits, and not good, which is seems made him not again acquiesce in his apparition of Madimi: he therefore May 20th. required again the writing subscribed, to expunge his name from it; but having got it, he cut it into two equal parts, and kept that part wherein were his own and his Wives names, and returned the other to Dr. Dee and his Wife: But afterwards Madimi did with her finger drawn on the two papers make them whole again, etc.  
Then an apparition is made of Christ standing in a great Globe of Fire with a Purple Robe.  Christus. 
Who sitteth on the Cherubims, etc. As I humbled myself to Death, wherein the Unity between my Congregation and me was before my Father perpetually sealed, etc. So be you content to be the figures of the things that are to come by you, that it may be a perpetual Testimony before the Heavens, and before Men, of your perfect and sound faith. And thou, even thou, who hast tore in pieces this Morning this Covenant which thou hast made with me, behold the time shall come that thou shalt be torn in pieces thyself, and I will turn away my face from thee for a time, etc. But because thy mind was never to forsake me, even so shalt thou never be forsaken of me. Take heed of the Tempter, thou madest a Covenant with me in paper, which thou canst not by tearing the same put out, for my Register is Eternal. He that pawneth his Soul for me, loseth it not; and he that dieth for me, dieth to Eternal life; Behold you shall both as Lambs be brought forth before men in your later days, and shall be slain, and your Bodies tossed to and fro, but I will revive you again.  Dr. Dee. 
After which, as I and Edward Kelly walked out at the new stairs into the new Orchard along the little River, to view the small Fish, and returning to the fore-stairs again, Edward Kelly saw two as high as my Son Arthur, fight with Swords by the Riverside, and the one said to the other, Thou hast beguiled me. Then I at length said unto them, Can I take up the matter between you? One said, Yea that you can: In what is it said I? Then said he, I sent a thing to thy Wife by my Man, and this Fellow hath taken it from him; they fought s●re: at length, he that had it, was wounded in the Thigh, and it seemed to bleed, afterward he that was wounded did bring a yellow square thing out of his bosom, than I guessed it to be my stone which was carried away, as is mentioned before; suddenly he seemed to have been out of sight, and to be come again, he threatened the other that had wounded him, and said, He would be even with him, he asked whether he had lain it under the right Pillow; at length they both went one after the other into a little Willow-Tree-Body, on the right-hand next the new Stairs into the Garden, the Tree seemed to cleave or open, and they to go in.  
Hereupon we went away, and I coming to my Chamber found my Wife lying on her Bed, where I lay yesternight, and there I lifted up the right Pillow on which she lay, and there I found my precious stone that was before taken away by Madimi, whereat Edward Kelly greatly wondered, and doubted the verity of the show, but I and my Wife rejoiced, thanking God.  
Saturday May 23th. Proeces ad Deum fundebam, etc. And then we requested, That the Act of Obedience performed according to our Faith, conceived of our Vocation from the Almighty and Eternal God of Heaven and Earth, might be accepted, which is by Apparition and Voice accepted and blessed.  
So hence none doubts to conclude, that the Spirits which here appeared and assumed the names and shape of an Archangel and Christ were Devils transformed, and neither good Angels nor Christ, because they tempted to Adultery and Uncleanness.  

Bishops set up Community of Women for Commutation money.  The like Community is set up by Ecclesiastical Laws and Bishops, by pardoning for Money the deflowering and desertion of as many Virgins as you will, so you marry them not before a Priest in a Temple; and by the Popish Clergy who have liberty for a small rate or Taxa Camerae, to lie with as many Women-Virgins or Wives as they will, so they marry them not before a Priest in a Temple.  
So the Authors of the Bishop's Certificate of Filiation, were the Daemons of Hamon Delphos, and other Oracles, 
Bishop's Certificate of Filiation.  where it appears it was the Custom amongst the Heathens, when any Son doubted or knew not his Father, to consult the Devil's Oracle, as appears by the example of Alexander the Great, Oedipus and others, and the Devil gave them their Response by his Archbishop or Priest, and if they went not to him in person, but sent by Certificate in writing, which is the same with the Certificate of the Bshop.  
So the Law of Fictions of Marriage by intention of the Mind only, without carnal knowledge of the Body, 
Consensus non Concubitus.  and verba de praesenti without the Act, and Consensus non Concubitus facit matrimonium came first from Cecrops an Idolatrous King of Athens, and was since revived in imitation of him by Idolatrous Popes: and the same Law was confirmed by the Pagan Goddess Juno, and the Popish Mother of St. Kentegern, both got with Child without a Man, as after more at large mentioned, to the intent Husbands might not be Unbelievers, if their Wives were got with Child without them, seeing it is sufficient if they had a good intention in their Mind, and spoke Verba de praesenti, and there was Consensus non Concubitus.  
So the Law was first invented by Aruspices, Soothsayers and Astrologers, of prohibiting Times and Seasons of Marriage; for the G●eeks, Romans, 
Times when Marriages go out and come in.  Chinoys, and other Heathen Nations believed their Marriages could not be happy, unless the Birds and the Stars were consulted for a lucky day and lucky hour, to which purpose is that of Juvenal, Veniet cum signatoribus Auspex, and of Ovid, Mense malum Maio nubere vulgus ait; and they declared to the parties the unlucky Ideses, 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 Counsels 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 replied, Am I God; he thereby shows that 'tis 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 Licence, was first set up by the Priests of Priapus and Venus: 
Licence to marry.  And the Priests of Diana herself, could no more live without License-money for Marriage, than those of Venus; which made the Virgins of Greece, before they presumed to marry, humbly to beg the Goddess' pardon, that they left her Nunnery, for which they brought good Fees and Offerings to the Priests. 
Power of the Pope translated to the Archbishop of Canterbury.   
The Law of Dispensations, Legitimations, and Confirmations of Marriages, and Children, and the whole Papal power therein translated to the Archbishop 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 Bishop's 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 mentioned Ecclesiastical Laws; for it is manifest by the Scripture itself, 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 expressly, That in the latter times some shall departed from the faith, giving heed to seducing Spirits, and Doctrines of Devils, speaking lies in Hypocrisy; 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  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 satisfy 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 night's 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 deflowered by the Priest. The Algiers 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 Countryman, tells a story of one of these holy Prophets, who came to a Town, and espying a handsome 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 risen upon them, and would have knocked out the Brains both of Officers and Magistrates, had they not speedily desisted. Carpenter reporteth from a Monk of Douai, 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 Chapel of Ease of Auricular Confession, 
Auricular Confession.  in a more commodious Sanctuary of the lady's Chamber, than a public Temple; where having told her a story of the Lucrin Lake of Fire and Brimstone; and the Avernus of Purgatory, and washed her in a Bath of Tears; she who was before chaste and cold gins to grow warm, as the Wife in Martial did, washed in the like water.  

Casta, nec Antiquis cedens Laevina Sabinis,  
Et quamvis tetrico tristior ipsa viro!  
Dummodo Lucrino dum se permittit Averno  
Et dum Basanis saepe fovetur aquis,  
Incidit in flammas juvenémque secuta, reliclo  
Conjuge, Penelope venit, abit Helen.   Martial lib. 1. p. 32. 

 as old Sabine Wives Laevina was,  
And than her own sour Man more sad alas!  
Till since in Lucrin, and Avernus, she hath  
Been washed and fired in water of the Bath:  
Her old Man left, then for a young she burned,  
Penelope she went, Helen returned.   
O quoties, saith Cornelius Aggrippa, nova nupta redit instructior à confessione fraterculi, quàm ab amplexu mariti. And then he says, the Priest himself is more corrupted: Quomodo enim boni, pii, simplices, casti, pacifici, humiles esse possunt, qui continuo scelera inquirunt, flagitia examinant, crimina cantillant, suntque asperitate, immodestia, Rabie, cunctis intolerabiles. Oh how often, saith he, doth the new married Wife return, more skilled for Venereous postures, from confession of the Priest, then from the embraces of her Husband (and then he says, the Priests themselves grow hereby more corrupted) for how can they be good, pious, chaste, peaceable, humble, who always make Inquisition after wickedness, examine foul sins, and sing of filthy Crimes; whereby they become by their rudeness, immodesty, and madness, intolerable to all Men. Who, if he hath but half his senses, will not think it a more Lawful, , and Holy act, if two, not prohibited by any Law of God to marry; shall marry one another privately in their Chamber, without a Witness, or a Priest, then for a Priest who is not her Husband, to be private with her in her Chamber, without a Witness or her Husband. The same Agrippa complaineth further, that under colour of confession, habent Sacerdotes, Monachi, Fraterculi, Moniales, & quas vocant sorores, specialem lenociniorum Praerogativam; cum illis sub Religionis praetextu liberum sit, quocunque pervolare & quibuscunque, quantum & quoties sub specie visitationis & consolationis & confessionis secreto, & sine testibus lequi: tam piè personata sunt illorum lenocinia. And after, stuprant sacras Virgins & hospitum suorum adulterantes uxores. Saith he, under colour of confession, the Priests, Monks, Friars, Nuns, and whom they call Sisters, have as it were a special Prerogative for exercising their Whoredoms: for they have under pretext of Religion full liberty to be where they will, with whatsoever persons, as much and as often as they will, under a show of Visitation, Consolation, and Confession secretly, and without Witness to converse together. So piously Personated are their Bawderies, whereby they defile the holy Virgins, and commit Adulteries with the Wives of those who entertain them in their Houses. So much for the Lustful designs of those, who would force all Women to Priests, Altars, and Temples, for marriage.  
2. The next to be shown is the design of Covetousness, wherein will appear by the examples following, that they show as little shame or modesty, as in the former.  
— Nam quae Reverentia legum?  
Quis metus aut pudor est unquam properantis Avari?  Juven. Sat. 14. 

Prostitutions in Temples to gain the Priest's fees.  Concerning which, Herodotus writes, That Virgins were to be brought, before they were married, to the Temple of the Babylonian Venus, and were there placed, Crowned with Garlands, and sat separate from one another by little strings, and never stirred from thence till some stranger came in, and giving them money, took them out and lay with them: And till they had so done, they could not be married. Here was the Original of carrying Virgins to the Temples to be married, and the money they received for their prostitution of themselves, went to their Priest's Treasury in their Sanctum Sanctorum.  
The Phoenicians were likewise bound to prostitute their Daughters in the Temple of the Goddess Anethis, where Virgins, were bound to prostitute themselves, and the gains went to the Priests.  
The Temples of Bisnagar have large Revenues, which are increased by the Devotion of Women, who prostitute themselves to gain, for their Idols, which Gain goes to the Priests, as did the Gains of all the Whorish Idolatries.  
And many other Temples there were, too many to be repeated; and scarce any Nation, who had Temples, was free from this wicked way, of making gains by the Priests. Thus much therefore, as a touch only, of the gains of the old Babylonian and Pagan Priests: but as to the new Babylonish and Popish, they make far greater; for by this Law, being the Root from which so many other prohibitory Laws of the Pope's multiply, it being almost endless to repeat all the Taxes, Excises, and Customs he gathers out of his Temples, Spiritual-Courts, and▪ Stews; and to that end▪ having prohibited every little Circumstance of marriage, which is possible to be made, he hath his Gabel set on it for Licence or Dispensation. As, 
Fourth degree in Marriage prohibited to gain the Priest Fees.  1. Pope Calixtus prohibits all persons to Marry within the fourth degree of carnal consanguinity or affinity: then to tenter that Law; further, it is prohibited all spiritual affinity, as Godfathers, and Godmothers, and their Children to marry within four degrees; Then to stretch it yet to the utmost, 'tis prohibited persons under Civil Affinity: as between Guardians, Tutors and Pupils. Pope Nicholas the first prohibited the Clergy to marry, but they are forced to pay a yearly Tax to his Holiness for their Courtesans whether they keep them or no. Pope Sixtus the fourth set up in Rome so many Stews of both Sexes, as by estimation contain forty Thousand Whores and Rogues licenced, of whom the Pope receiveth the yearly Tribute of forty Thousand ducats, as saith Harding, under the name of Penance-money, or Fines, chief Rent, besides Casualties of this Pope. Part of his Epitaph was, 
sixth, jaces tandem, deflent tua busta Cinoedi,  
Scortaque lenones, alea, vina, Venus.   

Benedictions of the Priests to gain Fees.  Soier, Pope of Rome made a Law, No Marriage should be without the Benediction of the Priest that they might increase and multiply; this brings in new Fees for Benedictions, though to seek such Benedictions of a Priest, makes him a God and is Idolatry; if Jacob said not without cause when Rachel asked Children of him, Gen. 30.2. Am I in God's stead? yet will the Priest be in God's stead to give Benedictions on Marriages for money, and Maledictions too, if they give him none. Besides the Benedictions of the Priests own person, there are Fees laid for him at the Shrines for the Benedictions of all his Saints: 
Pilgrimage for Children to gain the Priest Fees.  What rich Offerings and Presents are sent from Catholic Princes and Nobles, to our Lady of Loretto to have Heirs? and how many Pilgrimages are made by the meaner sort to the Temples of such and such Saints with money in their Laps to obtain Children from the Priest or his Idols?  

Times of Marriage prohibited to gain the Priests Fees.  The old Prohibitions of Marriage and newly set out in the Episcopal Almanac of Advent, Septuagesima and Rogation, being the greatest and most convenient times of the year to Marry, do by so much yield the greater Income for Licenses. The Prohibition of Marriage without Banes three several Sundays or Holidays, fills up the residue of the year with money for Licenses: The Licenses and Dispensations from his Holiness for Papists to marry Protestant's (I would he would keep those at home) yield him greater sums of money: 
Fees extorted from Protestant Ministers Sons as from Bastardy.  and besides the betraying of the Protestants Dispensations from the Arch bishops to the Sons of Protestant Ministers on their admissions to a Benefice, as if they remained still Bastards according to the Canon Law. I was told by a Protestant Minister, that Ten pounds was extorted from him, on his admission to but a small Parsonage, by the Mr. of the Faculties, because his Father was a Minister, who was married. 
Commutation money.  Then there are great Fees received for absolution of impure Penitents in Auricular Confession, for Commutation-money, in Spiritual-Courts. It would be tedious to repeat all the several Fees which are received by the Pope, and his Ecclesiastical Officers, in relation to the matter of Marriages, and the offences by him made against it. I therefore refer the Reader to the Taxa Camerae lately Printed by Mr. Egan; but these are sufficient to show, he makes the Land a Sea to him, perpetually bringing in new Treasure. And his Priests the Panders General of his unclean Mysteries, and Universal Receivers of his Coin: Yea he hath hence besides, Sceptres and Crowns lying at his Feet, with infinite Sums.   

The third Reason against Ecclesiastical Laws, is, They pester the Three Kingdoms with an unnecessary and excessive multitude of Laws.  
There is no greater Plague to a Nation, than the excessive multitude of Laws; now the Ecclesiastical Laws comprehending in themselves, 
Ecclesiastical Laws pester with their multitude.  besides their own Synodal Provincial Canons, and Constitutions, the whole Civil and Canon Law; and all the rabble of Doctor's opinions on the same; the number of which is so infinite, as Swimburn in his Epistle to the Reader expresseth in these words, viz. Great and wonderful is the number of the manifold Writers of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws, and so huge is the multitude of their sundry sorts of Books, as Lectures, Councils, Tracts, Dicisions, Questions, Disputations, Repetitions, Cautells, Clausules, Common Opinions, Singulars, Contradictions, Concordances, Methods, Sums, Practics, Tables, Repertories, and Books of other kinds, that in my conceit it is impossible for any one Man to read over the hundredth part of their Works, though living an hundred years, and did intent nothing else. And to the same purpose speaks the Learned Haddon, in his Preface to the Reader, of that polite work of his, for the Reformation of the present English Ecclesiastical Laws, which he began first by Commission from H. 8. And after finished by like Commission from Edward the sixth, who speaking of the Pope and Canon Law, hath these words: In quo ipso jure, neque ullum tamen modum tenet illius impudentia, quin leges legibus, decreta decretis, ac iis in super decretalia, allis alia atque item alia accumulat, neque ullam ferè statuit cumulandi finem, donec tandem suis Clementinis, Sextinis, intra & extravagantibus Constitutionibus, Provincialibus, & Synodalibus Paleis, Glossulis, Sententiis, Capitulis, Summariis, Rescriptis, Breviariis, Casibus longis & brevibus, ac infinitis Rhapsodiis à deo orbem confercivit; ut Atlas mons, quo sustineri Caelum dicitur, huic si imponeretur oneri, vix ferendo sufficeret. In which his impudence holds no measure, but accumulates Laws upon Laws, Decrees upon Decrees, and upon them Decretals, others upon others, and again others upon them; nor doth he make any end of heaping one upon another, till at length he hath with his Clementines, Sextines, Intravagants, and Extravagants, Constitutions, Provincial and Synodal Palea's, Glosses, Sentences, Chapters, Summaries, Rescripts, Breviates, Cases long and short, and infinite Rhapsodies so filled the World with his Bag and Baggage, that if Mount Atlas itself, which is said to support the Heaven, were under this burden, it would scarce be able to bear it.  
The end why he heaps together these infinite multitudes of Laws, the same Author well further expresseth, saying, Tunc nec his contentus, jus fori sui haud prius desinit hactenus dilatare, quod totum etiam Civilem gladium cum plena potestate in suam traduxisset possessionem; non huc spectans interim ut morum Disciplinam in melius proveheret, quod fortassis numquam illi seriò curae fuit: Sed partim ut sedis dignitatem omnibus munitam modis, constabiliret; partim ut opes undetunque quam maximas ad explendam ipsius Avaritiam converteret, haud multum dissimili exemplo, quale de Dionysio Syracusano commemorat Plutarch; qui cum insidioso consilio quam plurimas tulisset leges, alias super alias ingerens, tum easdem eadem astutia à populo negligi pateretur, quo cunctos hac ratione sibi obnoxios redderet: nec aliud in consilio fuisse huic Pontifici videtur in tot congerendis legum Centonibus, quàm ut plurimum Canonicis suis artibus ei ex Dispensationibus & Condemnationibus accresceret, atque hanc puta catastrophen hujus choraguses: nam ut veteres olim Comoediae exibant fere in nuptias, ita Pontificis omnes fere molitiones desinebant in pecunias. Not content with this, he never left till he had so far dilated the Jurisdiction of his Court, that he had got likewise the whole Civil Sword of Plenipotentiary power into his possession, not aiming that he might thereby promote the correction of Manners, of which perhaps he never took seriously any care, but partly to establish the pride of his See with all manner of Muniments, partly to turn in from all hands excessive Riches to fill his Avarice; and not much differing from the example of Dynosius the Syracusan mentioned by Plutarch, who, when by Treacherous counsel he had published very many Laws, one upon the neck of another, than again, with the same subtlety, he suffered them to be neglected by the people, 
The multitude of Ecclesiastical Laws is chiefly to multiply Money.  that he might have them all obnoxious in guilt to his Lash; neither doth there any thing else appear in the design of the Pope, by heaping together so many mingle mangles of Laws, but that he might get the more into his Snares, and so have thereby the more plentiful incomes and fines, for Dispensations and Condemnations. And this take for the upshot of this Dance; for as the old Comedies used to end in Weddings, so all the enterprises of the Pope ended in money.  

Study of Ecclesiastical Laws corrupts Protestant's. Divers Weights and Measures. Ad aliud Tribunal, aliud Exmen, alias Leges. Circuit, Subornation, Perjury, Interfering of Courts.  4. The study of the Popish Canons corrupts the choicest Protestant Wits in their Education with Popish principles, in which rest the whole hopes of the gains of their profession.  
5. They introduce divers Weights, and divers Measures of justice in the same people.  
6. They compel the Subjects ad aliud Tribunal, than Caesar's Judgement Seat, ad aliud examen then per legem Terrae, ad aliud judicium then legale judicium parium.  
7. They cause endless Circuits of Action, Delays and Costs, Subornation and Perjury of Witnesses, and grind the people between two Millstones of interfering Jurisdictions, as appears in the Statute following.  

The Recital of the Statute 9 H. 6.11. following, concerning the contention of the Heirs of Edmund Earl of Kent in Parliament, relating to a Marriage without a Priest and Temple.  
ITem, Whereas by a supplication delivered in this present Parliament, by the Commons of the same; it was declared by Margaret Duchess of Clarence, Joan Duchess of York, Sisters, and amongst others Heirs to Edmund Earl of Kent, Richard Duke of York, Richard Earl of Salisbury and Alice his Wife, Ralph Earl of Westmoreland, John Lord of Typtost and of Powis, and Joyce his Wife, and Henry Grey Cousins, and other of the Heirs of the said Edmund late Earl, as in the same supplication is supposed, That is to say, the said Duke, Son to Ann Daughter of Eleanor, another of the Sisters of the said Edmund, the said Alice Daughter to Eleanor, another Sister of the said Edmund; the said Ralph Son to Elizabeth, another Sister of the said Edmund; the said Joyce Daughter to the said Eleanor Mother of Ann; and the said Henry Grace, Son to Joan Daughter of the same Eleanor: That whereas Eleanor Wife to James Lord Audley pretending, calling, and affirming herself Daughter and Heir to the said Edmund late Earl of Kent, and begotten and born in Marriage pretenced, had betwixt him and Constance late Wife of Thomas Lord Dispenser, whereby the said supplication is supposed, That the said Eleanor Wife to the said James is Bastard, and never was any Marriage made, had, nor solemnised betwixt the said Edmund and Constance, but the said Edmund (by the Ordinance, Will, and Agreement of King Henry the Fourth, Grandfather to our Lord the King, that now is, after great, notable, and long Ambassage had, and sent, to the Duke of Milan, for a Marriage to be had betwixt the said Edmund and Luce, Sister to the said Duke of Milan) did take to Wife, and openly, and solemnly Married the said Luce at London. The said Constance then living, and being there present, not claiming the said Edmund to be her Husband, nor any other Dower of his Lands after his decease, which Marriage betwixt the said Edmund and Luce, so had, and solemnised, continued without any interruption of the said Constance, or of any other during the life of the said Edmund, as divers Lords and other credible, and notable persons of the said Realm do well remember. And how after the decease of the said Edmund, the said Luce was endowed of his Lands, as his Lawful Wife, continuing thereof her Estate peaceably all her life. Nevertheless the said Eleanor, the Wife of James, upon great subtlety, and process imagined, Privy-labour, and other means, and coloured ways, to the intent that she ought to be certified Mulier by some Ordinary, in case that Bastardy should be alleged in her person, hath brought (as it is said) in examination before certain judges in the Spiritual-Court, not informed, nor having knowledge of the said Subtlety, Imagined Process, Privy-labour, and coloured ways, certain suborned proofs, and persons of her Assent and Covin, deposing for her, That the said Eleanor the Wife of James, was begotten within Marriage, had, and solemnised, betwixt the said Edmund and Constance. The said Duchess, the Duke of York, and Earl of Salisbury, and Alice, Earl of Westmoreland, John Lord of Typtost, Joyce, and Henry, nor any of them thereof warned, nor knowing, until long time after the deposition so made; whereof the said suppliants, do fear them to be grieved and impeached of their Inheritance, had by the said Edmund, by another subtlety and labour in the Temporal Law, to be practised and wrought, by the said Lord Audley and Eleanor his Wife. As if they will commence any Action against any persons of their own assent and covin, or otherwise, will cause such persons of such assent and covin, to pursue an Action against them (as is supposed they intent to do) in which action by the covin and assent aforesaid, Bastardy ought to be alleged in the person of the said Eleanor Wife of James; and thereupon by the assent and covin, an Issue is to be taken, and a Writ to be sent to some Ordinary (where it please them, not advertised of the said subtlety, assent and covin) to certify if the said Eleanor the Wife of James be Mulier or not, before which ordinary, the same Eleanor Wife of James, will allege and prove herself Mulier, by the said depositions of the said suborned Witnesses. And then the party reputed as adversary against the Lord of Audley and Eleanor his Wife, in the said action, taken, or to be taken by assent and covin aforesaid, will allege no proof nor matter, nor make any defence before the Ordinary against the same Lord Audley and Eleanor his Wife, but suffer the matter before the said Ordinary, to proceed according to the meaning of the said Lord Audley, and Eleanor his Wife. So that it is very likely that the same Ordinary will certify the said Eleanor, the Wife of James, Mulier, which Certificate so had and made, aught by the Law of England to disherit the said Duchess, Duke of York Earl of Salisbury, Earl of Westmoreland, John Lord of Typtost, Joyce, and Henry, and their Issue forever, of the whole Inheritance aforesaid. Whereupon the premises tenderly considered, and to Eschew such subtle disherisons, as well in the said Case, as in other Cases like in time to come, By the Advice and Assent of all the Lords Spiritual, and also at the special Request of the said Commons in this present Parliament assembled, It is Ordained and Established by Authority of this Parliament, That if the said Eleanor the Wife of James be certified Mulier in any Court before this time, that no manner of. Certificate heretofore made for the said Eleanor Wife of James, shall in anywise put to prejudice, indamage, nor conclude any person or persons, but him or his Heirs that was party to the Plea. And that from henceforth all justices of or in the Courts, where any Plea is or shall be depending, taken or moved, in which Pleas so depending, taken or moved, Bastarvy shall be alleged against any person party to the same Plea, and thereupon an Issue joined, which by the Law ought to be certified by the ordinary, that the judges, or one judge of or in the Courts, where the said Plea is or shall be depending, taken or moved before the time, that any Writ of Certificate pass out of the same Court to the Ordinary, to certify upon the Issue so joined or to be joined, shall make a Remembrance under their Seals, or his Seal, at the suit of the Demandant or Tenant, Plaintiff or Defendant in the Plea, in which the Bastardy is or shall be alleged, reciting the Issue that is joined in the same Plea of Bastardy, and certifying to the Chancellor of the King of England for the time being, to the intent that thereupon Proclamation be made in the said Chancery by threé Months, once in every Month, that all persons pretending any interest to object against the parties, which pretendeth himself to be Mulier, that they sue to the ordinary, to whom the Writ of Certificate is or shall be directed, to make their allegations and objections against the party, which pretendeth him to be Mulier, as the Law of the Holy Church requireth: And the said Chancellor having notice of the said Remembrance and Issue joined, and being required by the said Demandant or Tenant, Plaintiff or Defendant, having the said Remembrance to make the said Proclamation as aforesaid. The same Chancellor for the time being, shall cause to be made Proclamation in the form aforesaid. And the Proclamation so made shall certify in the Court, where the said Plea in which the Bastardy is alleged another time, shall be depending. And that the judges of or in the Court, where the same Plea is, or shall be depending, taken or moved, before any Proclamation so to be made in the Chancery, make one time such Proclamation openly in the same Court, and also another time, when the Proclamation shall be certified by the Chancellor of England and made in the form above rehearsed: then the said judge shall award the said Writ of Certificate to the Ordinary, to certify upon Issue so joined or to be joined: and if any Writ of Certificate be made or granted, before that all the Proclamations in the form aforesaid be made and certified, that then the said Writ of Certificate, and the Certificate of the Ordinary thereupon made or to be made shall be void in Law, and of none effect. And if any Writ before this time be directed to any Ordinary to certify, if the said Eleanor Wife of James be Bastard or not, and at this time not certified, if it be certified hereafter by virtue of the said Writ, that the same Certificate of the said Ordinary so made be void and of none effect. Rast. pla. fo. 29.105.261.280.577.609.   
That one Circuit of Action is too much is well known, where 'tis unnecessary, as on penal Bonds sued at Common Law, the party injuried is repelled from any Plea of Equity, either that he paid the Money and the Creditor refuses to deliver up his Bond, or to give him an acquittance, or that he received an acquittance, but it was since burnt by fire, or he hath since by any other casualty lost it, and forces him to a costly, tedious, and sometimes inextricable Suit for relief in the Chancery, whereby the remedy, unless for a very great Sum, becomes worse than the disease. All which Pleas of Equity, and others of the like nature, might have been far better determined in the same Court of Common-Law, as is excellently well done in Scotland, by admitting those Pleas of Equity in the same Court, and on proof of them, restricting the Penalty of the Bond to principal Interest, Cost and Damage. But here the Birthright of the Subject, wherein not only all his Bonds, but Lands and Goods are concerned, is put to a tedious Circuit in the Chancery of Suit and Proclamations, and after that again, to another Circuit of Action in the Spiritual Court, and then again to a third Circuit to Common-Law, of Prohibitions, and then again to a fourth Circuit back to the Spiritual Court by a Consultation; Circuits enough to tyre any horse, much more any honest man, yet shall he never come to the end of his journey at last, or if he do, he shall be robbed with Theives: and as this Statute mentions, if true men fail, false Witnesses shall be suborned against him, which if he had stayed in one Court and rid no Circuit at all, but the matter had been there tried by Twelve good men and true, at a Nisi Prius in his own Country, none of these Theives or false Witnesses would have dared to appear as they presume to do, in so great a Forest as London, in the Chancery, Ecclesiastical Courts, Affidavits, and Examiner's, Officers there; a●terrible oppression of the Subjects, or if they did, they would be easily taken or discovered.  
There are four mischiefs appear in this Statute caused by Ecclesiastical Laws, 1. Circuit of Action. 2. Endless delay and costs. 3. Subornation and perjury of Witnesses. 4. Interfering of Jurisdictions. One in ordine ad Spiritualia, the other in ordine ad Temporalia, one in ordine ad naturalem Equitatem, the other in ordine ad Legem communem; and as to the same, certainly a greater Calamity cannot fall on the miserable Client, then to be made a Borderer between two Enemies-Countries; an Hare between two Dogs, a Mouse between two Cats, and a Corn between two Millstones.  

Priesthood changed changeth the Law.  It is said, Heb. 7.12. The Priesthood being changed, there is of necessity a change also of the Law. Either therefore the Papists Preisthood is not intended to be changed into a Protestant-Priesthood, but the whole Papal power translated in time of Popery, by the 25. H. 8.21. from Rome to Lambeth, must so stand for ever, or if it be intended this Papal-Priesthood shall be changed into a Protestant, 'tis not the changing the Person from Italian to English, or the place from Tiber to Thames will do it; but 'tis the changing of the Laws from Papal to Protestant; for Papal Laws and a Protestant Priesthood are no more consistent, than Fire and Water. Many more great exceptions there are against Ecclesiastical Laws, which my great haste forceth me to pretermit.    

CHAP. VI Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, not to be judged by such Laws of England, Scotland, or Ireland, as are Relics of Popery, and contrary to the Law of God.  
Of the Law making Marriage a Sacrament.  
Of the profound Popery of the common Lawyers, of Transubstantiation of two persons into one person, and the mischiefs thereof.  
A Note taken at Kings-Bench, of the miraculous Transubstantiation of a Shoulder of Mutton between a Man and Woman.  
Of the Law of Transubstantiation of the Children of the Wife into the Children of the Husband, if he is within the four Seas at time of their begetting, and of no probation admitted to the contrary.  
A further descant on the words of Littleton and Coke concerning Transubstantiation of the Children of Parents within the four Seas.  
A relation of a Soldier in the late Civil-Wars, who at his return home found two of his Wives Children transubstantiated into his.  
Of the Law of Intails on Marriage, and the mischiefs of them.  
Of the Barbarous Law of Illegitimation, or making Children incapable to succeed to the Goods of their own Parents, and the excellent Law of the Emperor Anastasius abolishing the same, and the repeal of the Emperor's Law by the Strumpet Theodora, and succeeding Popes and Bishops.  
That the unlawful Marriage of Parents, ought not to illegitimate the Children to succeed to their Goods.  
A further touch on Intails.  

Sacrament of Marriage.  CAlvin lib. 4. cap. 19 Speaks thus of the Popish Sacrament of Marriage, At ne simpliciter Ecclesiam luderent quam longam Mendaciorum, fraudum, nequitiarum seriem, vim errori attexuerunt.  dicas nihil aliud quam abominationum latebram quaestisse, dum è Matrimonio Sacramentum fecerunt: ubi enim id semel obtinuere, conjugalium causarum cognitionem ad se traxerunt; quip res Spiritualis non erat profanis judicibus attractanda. Tum leges sanxerunt quibus Tyrannidem suam firmarunt, sed partim in Deum manifeste impias, partim in homines iniquissimas Quales sunt ut conjugia inter adolescentulos parentum injussu contracta, firma rataque maneant. Ne inter cognatos ad Septimum usque gradum matrimonia sint Legitima & quae contracta sint dissolvantur; gradus vero ipsos contra gentium omnium jura & Mosis quoque politiam confingunt, Ne viro qui adulteram repudiaverit, alteram inducere liceat. Ne spirituales cognati Matrimonio copulentur. Ne à Septuagesima ad Octavas Paschae & tribus Hebdomadis ante Natalem Johannis & ab Adventu, ad Epiphaniam, nuptia Celebrentur, & similes innumerae, quas recensere longum fueritex: Eorum caeno aliquando emergendum est, in quo jam diutius haesit oratio quàm animus ferebat; aliquantulum tamen mihi profecisse videor, quod Leoninum pellem istis asinis quadam ex parte detraxi. They thought it too little to delude the Church simply; but what a long chain of Deceits and Wickednesses have they knit on to this one Error, that you may say they sought nothing else in their making Marriage a Sacrament, 
Sacrament of Marriage.  but a lurking hole for their Abominations; for as soon as they got that granted, they drew to themselves the jurisdiction of all Matrimonial Causes, pretending forsooth that Spiritual things were not to be handled before profane Judges. Next they fell to making of Laws to confirm their Tyranny, in part manifestly impious towards God, and partly most injust as to Men: Such as are these, That Contracts of Marriage between Minors (for this is to be intended of verbal Contracts only) should be firm and valid, without assent of Parents; That Marriages contracted between Cousins to the Seventh degree, should be unlawful, and if any were Contracted should be dissolved, and they likewise feigned Degrees, contrary to the Law of Nations, and Policy of Moses, That it should not be lawful for a Man who Divorceth his Wife for Adultery to marry another. That Spiritual Kindred should not marry. That it should not be lawful to marry from Septuagesima to the Octaves of Easter, and three Weeks before the Nativity of John Baptist, and from Advent to Epiphany, and innumerable others the like, which were too long to recite; for I must at length get out of their filthy mire, in which my Feet have stuck longer than my mind could wellbrook, yet I hope to have got to myself so much good, as that I have in some part pulled the Lion's skin from these Asses. The making Marriage a Sacrament came from the old Pagan Priests of Rome, who persuaded the people to draw the gains of Sacrifice and Sacraments to themselves, that no Marriage could be happy unless they were Contracted by the Priests, with Sacrifices to the Gods, and Sacramenta ignis & aquae: for which reason the Priest sprinkled them with his Holy Water of this Sacrament, and made them touch Water and Fire, provided by the Priest to that purpose; and if any of these Ceremonies were omitted, whereby the Priest lost his gain, than were the Marriage called nuptiae innuptiae, or in the Pope's Canonical Language null and void. That Marriage is a Sacrament, the Bishops and common Lawyers deny in Words, but acknowledge and confess in their Works; for the Bishops continue still to usurp the same Jurisdiction of Marriage, which the Popish Bishops never pretended to, but as a Sacrament; and the Common Lawyers continue still the mystery of Transubstantiation, which the old Popish Lawyers never did pretend to, otherwise then as the effect of a Sacrament.  

Of the profound Popery of the Common Lawyers, in Transubstantiation of two persons into one person, and the mischiefs thereof.  
I shall not need to answer any place of Scripture making the Husband and the Wife but one Person: 
Transubstantiation of two persons into one person.  for there is not one word in the whole Scripture which affirms a Man and his Wife to be one person, or if it were, it must be a figurative and not a natural person. If it be objected, That they are called one Body, or one Flesh, I say the same words are said of an Harlot. 1 Cor. 6.16. Know ye not that he which is joined to an Harlot is one Body? for two (saith he) shall be one flesh. Yet was never any Divine or Lawyer, I have met with, so absurd as to infer from hence, That the Harlot and her Mate are one person, or that they are transubstantiated into one another, but remain two distinct Substances as they were before; much less that the Harlot hath no propriety in her Goods, and that every Customer she hath may rob her Shop, take all her Goods, and beat her, and she have no Action or Remedy against him; or if she catch a Chouse in her snare, that she and her Complices may rob, strip, sell him to the Barbadoes, and he shall not be allowed to sue her before the Magistrate; because he and she are in Scripture called one flesh. In like manner may be said of the foppery of Sacramental Transubstantiations of the Bread into the Body, or one Body into another, or making many persons in Society or Communion one person, because the Scripture calls them one Body, as it is said, 1 Cor. 10.16. The bread which we break, is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ? For we being many are one Bread, and one Body: for we are all partakers of that one Bread. This is intended a figurative but not a natural Body; and it were very ridiculous to make allusions, conclusions or similitudes, to run on four Feet, or to say, Because all these Communicants being Men and Women are by the Scripture called one Body, Figurative or Politic: Therefore to conclude that they are one Body natural, and one Person natural; And as no one body natural, or one person natural, can have a distinct propriety or a right of Action against itself, so none of these Communicants, Men and Women, can have the same against one another. Excellent Doctrine for the one Body made of many, and Society of the Adamites. I shall not here dispute which is the greatest Absurdity of Transubstantiation, of Bread into Flesh in the Mass, or of the Flesh of a Woman into the Flesh of a Man in Marriage, or whether gains most, the Priest by the former, or the Lawyer by the later Cheat. But this is easily shown, that the Communicants in the later Fantastic Sacrament lose more Temporally, then in the former, though perhaps the other may Spiritually. And in Compliment to the weaker Sex, I shall first do them right in showing the manifold mischiefs thereby ensue to them.  

Wife made a slave incapable of propriety.  First, By the fiction of their being made the Priest one Person with the Husband; Whatsoever they have is the Husbands, and what the Husband hath is his own, they lose all the right of Propriety in their own Goods to the Husband, as perfectly, as if they had been bought by him for Slaves at a Market, though the Husband hath therefore on the Wedding-Day transubstantiated into him a very fine Wife, all Silk and Satin, Velvet, Cloth of Silver, Cloth of Gold, Pearl and precious Stones: Yet after the fir●● Month, when the Moon changeth he may sell away St. Paul's Impertinent, putting the Money in his pocket, and transubstantiate her into a plain Petticoat and Waistcoat to last as long as she lives, and when she dies bury her in Woollen, and this is all the poor Woman gets by having him before Mr. Parson in his Temple, and making him to promise with all my Worldly Goods I thee endow, which made a wary old Gentleman, as saith the Woman's Lawyer, pag. 121. an acquaintant of his, lest his Son-in-law, though he did not take his Daughter down in her Wedding-shoes, should let her after go without stockings, and break her heart to see all her old feathers moult, and no new spring, and enforce her to take new Wings to fly to Heaven, before he was willing to spare her, therefore he in good earnest bound his Son-in-law in a good sound bond, to give his Daughter every year so many Gowns, Kirtles, pairs of Silk-stockings etc.  

Her Estate forfeited and consumed by her Husband's Vices.  2. If her Husband hath mortgaged or fraudulently made away his Estate before marriage, if he carelessly after marriage spend it on other Women, Drinking, Dicing, or other viciousness, if he is Outlawed, Attainted for Felony, Rebellion, Treason, or taken in Execution for Debt or Surety-ship, all her Lands, Goods, and Portion shall be taken from her, during his life, which may be longer than hers, and she may wear Rags or starve, if she can neither work nor beg.  

Robbed of her Trust in the Testator's Goods, as well as her own.  3. If she have a great Estate, as Executrix, her Husband will change the bonds into his own name, sell the Leases, change the propriety of all the Goods, and when he dies, leave her not a farthing of the Testator's Goods, or her own. The Turk is not so turkish to rob his Wife, who is a Freewoman, or to transubstantiate the propriety of her Goods into his, for so 'tis said, Alchor. cap. 4. pag. 49. O ye that believe in God, it is not lawful for you to inherit what is your Wives by force, (and this is not only of their own goods they brought with them, but likewise of the gifts of the Husband's Goods, given them by himself) for it is further said, ibid. Take not violently away what you have given them, unless they be surprised in manifest Adultery. But amongst Christians, Harlots are in better condition than Wives; for though the Scripture, 1 Cor. 6.16. says in the same words of an Harlot as of a Wife, 
Harlot loseth no Propriety.  Know ye not that he which is joined to an Harlot, is one Body, for two, saith he, shall be one flesh; yet never was so absurd Exposition made, that the Harlot loseth the propriety of her Goods and Rights to him who lies with her. It appears likewise by the Roman forms of Divorce, that the married Wives who were Free-women, notwithstanding their marriage, retained their propriety; the words of which form were, Res tuas tibi habeto, the word tuas shows propriety.  
4. He may cheat her in all his Promises, or Contracts made with her before marriage, as a Man promised a Women who knew no Quirks in Law, if she would marry him, to leave her so much worth after his death, and she thereon marries him, this promise is extinguished by the marriage, and she shall never have benefit of it.  

Compelled to pay her Husband's Debts.  5. He may by this Transubstantiation by many tricks in Law, eause others to bring actions without cause against his Wife, for his own use, and Arrest, Outlaw, and cast her in Goal at his pleasure. A. B. and D. his Wife, were bound by obligation in forty pounds, for payment of twenty, he suffered a Judgement by default, and after suffered his Wife to be taken in Execution, and put in Prison by his assent, whereby the Wife was driven to procure her own friends to pay the Condemnation for her Husband, and redeem her from her Turkish Pateroon, otherwise she might long enough have lain in Algiers, for he would till this was done, give no Warrant for any Writ of Error, and this was the Case of the good Wife at the Clock in Aldersgate-street, and the Judges pitied her but little, for as my Manuscript says, they only smiled at the unkind and subtle device. And this was done 42 Eliz. which shows that the poor Woman married by Priest, though they had a Queen Regnant there, had little better justice done them than now.  

Made an Outlaw, a Villain, a pagan, an Alien, a Person forfeited, etc.  6. Another mischief is by this Transubstantiation, she not only loses the right of propriety as a slave, but the right of action as an Outlaw, disabled to sue for any injury done her: and to express the same more full and plainly, she by this blessed Sacrament of marriage by a Priest, is made a Villain, a Pagan, an Alien, an Excommunicate, a Nun of Lisbon, an attainted in a Praemunire, a non habens personam standi in judicio against her Husband, a person convicted, forfeited, and confiscated to his own use, and what is worst of all, when he hath rob and rifled her of all she hath, he may exercise his Tartarian Authority, and beat her because she hath no more.  
Is this the humble compllment, with my Body I thee worship, a Divinity as Idolatrous as that of the rude Indians, who first worship their Cotton-Idols, and if their Prayers succeed not, beat them? What though the Jewish Scripture saith, Gen. 3.16. Thy desire shall be to thy Husband, and he shall rule over thee; yet is this to be intended in acts Matrimonial not Magisterial: And the Christian Scripture makes you requital, and Eph. 5.28. Men are commanded to love their Wives as their own Bodies, they must therefore first beat their own bodies, or suffer their Wives to beat them before they beat theirs, and you are made as great Rulers over the Husband's Bodies, as they over yours. 1 Cor. 7.4. And likewise also, The Husband hath not power over his own Body, but the Wife. Ladies I pity you, that Scripture has been so ill translated, and ill expounded in all your concerns of marriage; and the more, in regard you have as bad dealing from the Expositors of the Law as the Gospel: for Brook 12 H. 8. fo. 4. says plainly, 
Beaten by her Husband, hath no Remedy.  That if a Man beat an Outlaw, a Traitor, a Pagan, his Villain, or his Wife, it is dispunishable; because by the Law, these persons can have no actions. But I wish Ladies the next Law made for you, may sort you with better company, or farewell to England to be the Paradise of Women.  

Husband suffers others to abuse and ravish her, she hath no remedy.  7. The Husband may not only be cruel to his Wife himself, but command others to beat and abuse her, and she hath no remedy, yea if another Ravish her, she hath no remedy to recover damage, unless he will assent to join with her in the action: as 8 H. 4. fo. 21. A Woman was Prisoner in the Marshalsy, and made a suggestion to the Court, that the Marshal's man had ravished her in Prison, Gascoigne commanded the Marshal to take his Man to his custody, and his staff from him. And the Court told the Woman, that she alone could not bring the Appeal Sans Son's Baron, but if her Husband would come, and they two together prove the Rape, the Ravisher should be hanged, or otherwise not: a Woman is in a sweet case, if her Man is a Wittol, and willing to make money of her.  

Made a prey to all will seize her.  8. This encourageth vile persons to rob the Noble and Rich of their Daughters, and makes the City of London so insecure for young Ladies, that few great fortunes escape from being betrayed to persons unworthy of them; whereas if marriage changed not the propriety, goods, and right of the Woman to the Man, but left the same as full in the right of the Woman, and herself in as full ability and capacity to Purchase and Sue for herself as before, she and her friends would be able to take some course to preserve her and her Estate, and such Insidiators be discouraged, where they saw their hopes of making a prey taken away.  
9 This gives the Husband (if she dies and leaves Children) power on a second Marriage, to give her Goods to a Stepmother, and cast off her Children.  
10. It gains the Husband power to get as many Women with Child as he pleaseth, and to maintain them and their Children with the Goods of the Lawful Wife.  

Transubstantiation brings the same mischief to the Husband as to the Wife  The Man again is as bad mischiefed by this Transubstantiation as the Woman. 1. This gives power to steal and esloigne all her Husband's Substance, and put it into the hands of his Enemies. 2. It gains the Woman power where she is not able herself, to hire unknown persons with her Husband's Goods, to rob beat, disseise the Husband, and Esloigne his Goods from him. 3. This gives her power to lay all her secret and unknown debts, both true and feigned by her Confederates on her Husband, and to undo him. 4. Gives her power to commit as many Trespasses, either with tongue or hand, truly, or by confederacy with her Complices, making her Husband liable to pay the damage, and undo him. 5. It Gives her power to hire Adulterers with her Husband's Goods.  
Whereas it is well known Men and Women of all estates and conditions, if they have not been before a Priest in a Temple, will live forty years together in one House and dare not rub, beat, or injure one another; because they have liberty to sue for damage, which benefit this sottish Sacrament of Priests, and Lawyers, gives not persons transubstantiated. A Law would be thought very absurd and unjust, which should Enact, That no Man or Woman should sue one another in the Commonwealth; what horrible wickednesses and villainies would be committed by the two Sexes, one against another; but it is more unjust to make such a Law in Families, and more unjust to make such a Law between Men and their Wives, then in Families: For in the Commonwealth, such as are persecuted in one City, can fly to another. In Families such as like not one another's company, and are unmarried, can be received and have protection in other Families. But Men and their Wives are chained together, and cannot avoid the injuries of one another; and have no remedy unless they have the same liberty too for injury and propriety of their own, as all other Subjects have, and not compelled to live as Outlaws, deprived of benefit of Law.   

A Note taken at the King's-Bench, of the miraculous Transubstantiation of a Shoulder of Mutton; between a Man and his Wife.  
Being a Puny, I went as others did in a morning to Westminster, to the King's-Bench to hear and see the Forms of proceeding; 
Transubstantiation of a shoulder of Murton.  where amongst others, a Counsellor moved at the Bar in arrest of Judgement, and for Cause, alleged, That the Plaintiff in his Declaration complained against A. and B. his Wife, that amongst other Goods they had taken Armum ovillum, Anglice a shoulder of Mutton from him, and converted the same to the use of the said A. and B. his Wife; the ground of the exception against that part of the Declaration, was, because though the Wife eat her share of the Mutton with the Husband, yet the same ought not to be said to be converted to the use of the Wife, but only of the Husband: the ratio rationis was, because the Wife is one person with the Husband, that is to say, transubstantiated into him, and she being transubstantiated, the shoulder of Mutton which she eat, must be likewise transubstantiated into him; and so the shoulder of Mutton was converted wholly to his use, and not to the use of the Wife: And so some Precedents were cited for it, and others contrary; which profound piece of Popish Transubstantiation did so puzzle the Court, that they would give no resolution then, but would consider of it, and settle a course in it; which made me, being not arrived beyond natural simplicity, to think them all mad, who would not cause the poor Man to be paid for his shoulder of Mutton without all that ado, but I after understood, that were not the Forms mixed with so many such absurdities, there would be little work for them at the Bar.   

Of the Law of Transubstantiation of the Children of the Wife into the Children of the Husband, if he is within the four Seas at the time of their begetting, and no probation admitted to the contrary. And of Intails on Marriages.  

Husband within the four Seas, no probation admitted, that the Children were not his. Fiction and Falsity allowed against Truth.  That no probation is admitted to the contrary, appears 18. E. 4.30. where Littleton says, That if a Man marries a Woman great with Child by another Man (whether he knows it, or not knows it) and within three days after she is delivered of the Child, this Child is legitimate, and the true Son of the Man that married her. And this by a Fiction in Law, and with this agrees Coke, Com. 244.  
So here is a Father made, not by god, but by the Father of lies, and a false Child made Legitimate, and the true Child of a Father who never begot him, and the true Child if he begot any, before he was married without a Priest and Temple, made illegitimate, and a false, yea no Child to him who begot him, and all this held very good and sound Divinity. If marriage of the great bellied Woman be in fancy Ecclesiae, a brazen facies Ecclesiae, it must be where the Devil gives God the Fiction, the truth, the lie. And Coke and Littleton hold it too for good Law, I wonder whose Law they mean, and so stiff they are in it, that Coke Com. 244. saith, No proof shall be admitted to the contrary; so here 'tis not stabitur praesumptione donec probetur in contrarium, but it is the sin of Presumption, from which the two Fathers of the Law do not pray, as the Patriarch David did, Psal. 19.13. Keep thy Servant also from presumptuous Sins, let them not have Dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. One of them at least, defends the sin of Presumption so high, that he saith, 'Tis presumption, Juris & de jure, & non admittitur probatio in contrarium, and in fictione juris semper est equitas, a mere repugnancy and contradiction, which never came from the Law of God, nor is consistent with it, as appears, Psal. 96.13. For he cometh to judge the Earth: he shall Judge the World with righteousness, and the People with his truth: And not with fictions, and much less with lies, so punctually forbidden, James 3.14. Lie not against the truth, and so severely threatened, Revel. 21.8. All liars shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone: And Revel. 19.20. The false Prophet is to be cast in amongst them, who though he seems to be the greatest liar in the World, yet in none greater than in this his lie of Legitimation, against which must be admitted no proof to the contrary.  
The Law of Legitimation is further, That if a Woman Elope or run from her Husband with an Adulterer, and live in Adultery with him, and have a Child by the Adulterer, if her Husband be within the four Seas when 'twas begot, this Child shall be Legitimate, and shall be adjudged the Husband's Child, and no probation shall be admitted to the contrary, as appears 43. E. 3.19.7. H. 4 9.44. E. 3.10. 1. H. 6.7.19. H. 6.17. Coke Com. 244.   

A further descant on the words of Littleton and Coke, concerning the transubstantiation of Children of Parents within the four Seas. And of the Law of Intails.  
When a Common Lawyer hath for his Fees in a Deed of Jointure very formally settled Lands, Messages, Houses, Tenements and Hereditaments, etc. To have and to hold the said Messages, Houses, Lands, Tenements and Hereditaments, with their and every their Appurtenances unto the said A. B. and C. D. and to the Heirs of their two Bodies lawfully begotten, and the Priest on Banes or Licence as formally, per verba de praesenti, contracted the said A. B. and C. D. which he calls Marriage. You shall next hear what Heirs the Priest and Lawyer confederated, to do their Feminine Client a good turn (by their Fictions, whereat they are both good,) one will expound by the Gospel, and the other interpret by the Law, to be lawfully begotten of the Body of this Woman aforesaid. First, Littleton 18. E. Fol. 30. hath said, If a Man marry a Woman great with Child by another Man, and within three days after she is delivered of the Child, this Child he saith is a Mulier, that is to say Legitimate, that is to say lawfully begotten of the Body of the said Woman, by the said Man that married her. Yet he saith, In putting the case he was begot by another man, and makes a very great Fiction in the premises, and contradiction in the conclusion of his Case; but let it be what it will, Coke Com. 244. seconds him, and thinks Littleton hath spoken over conscionably, or wastes time, to allow three days; for cannot a Woman of full and lawful Age, though she sup a Virgin, if she lie with the Law by her side, that Night as well have a Child next Day by dinner, as if she stayed three whole days; he therefore takes off two of the unnnecessary days, and says plainly, reserving to the Case of Littleton on the Margin, That if the Issue is born a Month or a Day after Marriage between Parties of full lawful Age, the Child is Legitimate, that is as aforesaid, lawfully begot. And the reason he gives is Quia filiatio non potest probari: from which Premises he makes three Conclusions.  
First, Ergo probatio non admittitur in contrarium.  
Secondly, Ergo if a Man marry a Woman got with Child by another Man, and he is born but one day after the Marriage, this Child is lawfully begot by the married Man.  
Thirdly, Ergo if a man is on or within the four Seas, that is, within the Jurisdiction of the King of England, and a Child in his absence is begot by another Man on the Body of his Mermaid he left at home, this was lawfully begot by the Man on the four Seas.  
Let any Logician if he dare deny the Sequel, for here are two Aristostles for the Law, but he hath but one for his Logic: And there is a greater Aristotle too for the Gospel, the Bishop himself to second my Lord Coke, 
Bishop's Certificate Form.  hath given his Certificate in his Book of Entries, Fol. 181. And the foresaid Bishop by his Letters Patents and Close hath certified to the Justices here, That he by virtue of the foresaid Writ to him directed, Convocating before him such as of right are to be Convocated, hath diligently enquired and certified the truth of the matter, that in the Chapel of B. in the County of G. in the Dioccss of L. the Sixth day of August, Anno Dom. 1606 Matrimony true, pure, and lawful, Per verba de praesenti, according to the form and rites of the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, between the said A. B. and C. D. was Solemnised by one Mr. A. V Clerk, in the presence of J. J. W. B. W. W. R. M. Witnesses in this part, by the said Bishop examined and sworn, and of other Witnesses then present, the said Parties A. B. and C. D. his Wife being of lawful Age, and from all other Matrimonial Contracts free, clear, and clean, as the Witnesses so sworn and examined, believe.  
This is the Form of Certificate, which carries the best Circumstances and Face of a Marriage which can be put on any. But the Bishop will give his Certificate as full, of a true pure and lawful Matrimony to Coke's Woman with the Adulterous great Belly, who lays it down the next day, though no Witness will compurgate from other Contracts, and transubstantiate as well the Child Adulterous as lawfully begot, to be Child of the Husband, yet is not this Certificate neither free from fiction and falsity contrary to the Law of God; for it is already shown, That it is impossible to make a verbal Contract, per verba de praesenti, praeterito or futuro matrimonio, and that Matrimony cannot be before a Mother, nor a Mother before Conception of a Child, and that 'tis impossible to make a Ceremonial Law of Marriage, either of the Church of England or Rome, to be the Moral Law of Marriage instituted by God: and besides if there were a lawful Marriage, there can be no Sequel, or Ergo inferred, That the Adulterous Child of the Woman is lawfully begot, because the Marriage was lawful, or aught to be Successor to the Husband's Goods, because born of the Wife; for there can be properly no Adultery nor Adulterous Issue born, but within lawful Marriage. But Logician beware the Bishop's Certificate, and a Law of Transubstantiation, altar the case, if thy profane Reason will dispute Faith, or Episcopal Infallibility, in Marriage, Filiation and Succession, thou wilt be Excommunicated.  
The good Woman hath the same advantage, whether she go from her Husband's House or stay there; for if the goodman leave her at home, and march abroad himself a Soldiering or Merchandizing, if still it be within the four Seas, and his Stock increase and multiply at home the while, more than abroad, he must not be so ill natured as not to bear the charge of his better Factress than himself. During the late Civil Wars, 
A Soldier finding his Wife's Children transubstantiated into his.  I was credibly informed of a Soldier who left his Wife at home with one Child, and was for divers Years so long out in Service, that before he returned home again, his Wife had two more to increase his number, at length he returned home to the Town where he dwelled, and the Neighbours as soon as they understood it, went in show to welcome him home, but withal to see how he would like the increase of his Children in his absence, where after they had sat a while, he appeared very kind to his Wife, and very fond of his Child, which he had left at home at his departure, supposing the other to have been some Children of the Neighbours who were come in to play with his, till a while after seeing those Children by his Fireside to draw closer to his Wife then strangers use to do, he asked Whose the Children were, the Wife and answered him, Thine, whereat he was much amazed, and demanded how that could be, seeing he had not been at home so many Years. The Wife replied, thou mightst have stayed at home then, and got them thyself, if thou wouldst; so there being no other Answer to be got, the poor man was glad to take up this new Bag and Baggage, when he thought to have rested. For the fiction of Legitimation dared give the Truth of the Soldier the Lie to his face; yet he knew not whom to send a Challenge or a Duel to. In no better case had he been, had he in the Service of his King and Country, lost his life in a fight at Sea, if within the four Seas what he had got with his own Blood, must have gone to an Adulterous Blood, at the pleasure of his Wife, and the Certificate of the Bishop.   

Of the Law of Intails on Marriage, and the mischiefs ensuing by them.  

Law of Intails causeth Adulteries, and disinherits true Heirs.  It is before shown how mischievously the true Heirs are disinherited, and destroyed by Intails to two Bodies, and by Littleton, Coke, and the Bishop's fictions on the same, who in despite of Truth, Religion, Sense and Reason, God and Nature, will have the Adulterous issue of the Woman preferred before the true and lawful Children of the Man, in Succession to the Man's inheritance. I shall likewise here touch some other few, but fatal mischiefs, which the Chains and Fetters of Estates by Intails to two Bodies on Marriages, whether these Intails are made by the Pontificial or Temporal Laws, do cause: for it is to be noted, that the Laws of Theodora and the Popes, which Enact, That no Children shall be capable of Succession to the Father, but where the Father and Mother were contracted by a Priest in a Temple, is an Intailing of the Inheritance of the Man to the Heirs of the Body of the Woman, and an excluding of the Heirs of the Man, if she prove adulterous. So there cannot properly be said to be any Fee-simple in England; 
No Fee-simple in England.  for Fee-simple itself, is by the Popish Law Entailed to the Heirs of the Body of the Woman begotten, beget them who will; and the Priest who would not therefore be married himself to a Wife (lest she should put a cheat on him, and bring forth a y●ung Layman) but take a Courtesan, put cunningly the Fee-simple cheat on the simple Layman, and his Fills de prestre too, by making a Law, That none should be his Heirs, unless begotten on the Body of such Woman as he should give him in a Temple: 
Littleton deceived in Fee-simple.  So Littleton in his Chapter of Fee-simple, and his Commentator on him, understood not the words, his Heirs; for every Fee-simple where a Woman is married by a Priest in a Temple, is to go to her Heirs of her Body begotten, and not to his, and let her have as many Heirs as she will, begotten by the Adulterer, the Husband's Land shall go to her Heirs, but let the Husband, who is perhaps turned off by the Wife, get as many as he will by another Woman, none of those shall be his Heirs. For which reason, in favour of the true and natural Children, and that the Father might have power by Act executed in his Life-time to provide for his own, especially where he found his Wives Adulterous, as Britton fol. 122. saith, That the Forms of Deeds of Feoffment, 
The word Assigns gave power to cut off Fee-simple Intails.  were afterwards made to him, his Heirs and Assigns; and the word Assigns added in favour of the true and natural Children; which word Assigns, gave the Laymen power of cutting off the Fee-simple Intails, being the cheat imposed on them by the Popish Priest, and to Assign, Dispose, and Alien the same, as well Extra familiam as Intra, which it seems before, without the word Assigns they could not do. But it was not long after, when the subtle Popish Priest, who knew he could Reign not but by the Woman, got a Latin Statute to be made, Westminster 2 cap. 1. whereby he struck out the word Assigns, and took clean away the power of Men to Assign, Alien, and Dispose of their own Lands; and whereas the Entail of Fee-simple was only implicit, he then by express words Intails it to Heirs begotten of the Body of the Woman, whereby the adulterous might succeed as well as, and before the Lawful, if they came first; which Intails likewise were after carried into Scotland; for so says Craig. Feud. fo. 70. Ab Anglis ad nos defluxisse puto And fo. 59 he saith, Neque enim tale Feudum ad collaterales extenditur, in●ò quod majus est, si Maevio & Semproniae conjugibus concedatur Feudum, & baredibus inter ipsos procreandis, & nulli ex eo matrimonio supersint; Et Maevius ex alia conjuge liberos susceperit, high in feudo non succedant. 
Intails a Screen to Adulteries.  This digression hath been made, to show that the Original of Intails to more Bodies than one on marriage, came from the old Pagan Priests, and now revived by Popes, to be a screen to Adulteries and Adulterous Successions, and thereby their power over the Women, without which no Sacerdotal Empire can subsist. I shall now proceed to show the other mischiefs ensuing from Intails, besides the Patronage of Adulteries.  

Intails destroy Patriarchy, and introduce Hierarchy, Gynarchy, Paedarchy.  First therefore, Intails on Marriages destroy Patriarchy, and introduce into Family's Hierarchy, Gynarchy, and Paedarchy. That Patriarchy was the first form of Government instituted in Families by God and Nature, I think none will contend; the Ancient Writers and Poets are full of it, especially in their Celebrations of the Primaevous happiness of the Golden Age, and old Homer gins, 

Nec fora consiliis fervent, nec judice; tantum  
Antra colunt umbrosa altis in montibus Aedes,  
Quisque suas regit uxorem Natosque—   

Courts grew not hot with Judge or Lawyer then,  
But each Man without strife,  
In Mountain high ruled, or in shady Den,  
His Children, House, and Wife.    
Here Patriarchy was in its Throne, and the Moon and Stars all bowed to the Sun, till the Priests of Priapus and Venus, as before touched; and for the  ends of satisfying their own Lust, Covetousness, and Ambition first prohibited all Marriage except by a Priest in a Temple, then Intailing all Estates to the Heirs, Lawfully begotten of the Body of the Woman married by the Priest, and the Priest to be Judge both of the marriage, and the Lawful begetting; by this the Priest introduced Hierarchy, and got a greater Dominion over the Woman and the Children, than the Husband or Father, for he was not to be judge whether the Wife or Children were his, but the Priest: and now the Bishop by his Certificate, and likewise hereby the Priest became Judge of the Alimony and Maintenance, and gave what he pleased to the Wife and her Children, in regard the Father had no power of Alienation, by reason of the Pontificial Entail to the Heirs of the Woman; and thereby the Hierarchy of the Priest, the Gynarchy of the Wife, and Paedarchy of the Sons, necessarily arising from such principles, turned the poor Patriarch out of Doors, and took his Goods, when, and as they pleased.  

Intails d●●fraud civil and natural Debts.  2. The Entail deprives the Father of power to provide for his younger Children, but after his death the Sons are thereby left desperate, and betake themselves to the Highway, and the Daughters to be prostitutes, to the dishonour and destruction of themselves and Families.  
3. Intails as they defraud the Children of the natural debts of Aliment due from their Parents, so they defraud Creditors of the valuable debts due to them from their Debtors.  
4. They put the Subjects to infinite trouble, vexations, and charges, for Fines, Recoveries, Licenses of Alienation, to cut them off Bills of Discoveries, and hazard and danger, they being many times erroneous, and the Intails secret, and thereby not only all the cost and labour lost, but likewise the whole Purchase-money disbursed bona fide, by a Lawful Purchasor.  

Intails cause the abuse of private Acts of Parliament  5. They are the chief occasions pretended of private Acts of Parliament, whereby, contrary to all justice, the Lawful rights of Persons and Families are taken from them, and they undone, without Summons, or Hearing, or notice to make their claims; whereas by the just and honourable practice of the Kingdom of Scotland, they use to make Subsequent Acts of Salvo jure cujuslibet, whereby the rights of all Persons are preserved and restored, 
Acts of Salvo jure cujuslibet in Scotland.  against all private Acts precedent, as appears by the Acts of Parliament Car. 1. p. 1. Act 31. & p. 2. Act 70. & p. 3. Act 42. & Car. 2. p. 2. Act 29. & 2 Sess. Car. 2. p. 2. Act 52. & Sess. 3. Car. 2. Act 30. etc.  
6. To mention a word more, how much the taking away of the Father's power of free disposing, and Alienation of their Estates, by Intails, or any other irrevocable settlements on Children, brings into Families the unexperienced Pride of Paedarchy, whereby Children undo both their Parents and themselves (by depriving of their Parents of the means of their Education in the true Religion, and in Lawful Callings and Professions, the Parents having no other Bridle on them, to restrain them from vicious courses, but to give them hopes and fears of increasing or lessening their Portions, according to their demerits) may appear, Bodin 25. where he saith, It was obtained of Constantine, that the propriety of the Mother's Inheritance should be in the Children, and the Father should have only the usu-fruct. This was fair, that the Inheritance which came by the Mother, the Father should not have power to Alien from her Children. But after it was obtained of Theodosius the younger, That the propriety of all manner of Goods in general, however they came by them, should be to the Sons, the use only to the Fathers; so that they could not any-wise Alienate the propriety, 
Children command Parents by Intails.  nor dispose thereof, though for the benefit of their Children, yea with us, he saith, not so much as the bare use of such Goods is left to the Father, which hath so puffed up the hearts of Children, as that they oftentimes command their Parents, by necessity constrained to obey them, or to die for hunger.   

Of the Barbarous Law of Illegitimation, or making Children incapable of Succession to the Goods of their own Parents: And of the most excellent Law of the Emperor Anastasius, decreeing all natural Children to be Legitimate, and the repeal of the same, caused by the Strumpet Theodora, and the succeeding Popes and Bishops.  
The power of Sale of Legitimations of natural Children, was first in Pagan Rome, usurped there by their Pagan Bishops and Priests, and hath since in imitation of them, been usurped by Christian Bishops in name, but indeed Antichristian for the same filthy lucre; amongst whom, the Bishop of Rome and the Archbishop of Canterbury have been the Primates: But after the Emperors of Rome perceiving the vast Sums, as it were ex lotio, the Prerogative-Office, and the Office of Faculties heaped together, they swept them all into their own Exchequer, and suffered no Legitimation to be granted, unless they bought them of the Emperors, who received great gain thereby, till the Empire came into the hands of the virtuous Anastasius, who seeing the great oppressions on his Subjects, by taking from them that Birthright, which the Law of God and Nature gave, not only to them, but every Creature born into the World, to be provided for by those who begot them, and this to be continued only for the profit of his Exchequer; he disdained such sordid and impious gain, and made a most pious, holy, and honourable Decree, That all natural Children should be Legitimate, whereby all Intails to the Bodies of Women of the Husband's Estates were cut off, and the mischiefs of bringing Fictitious, Adulterous, Supposititious, and false Heirs into Families prevented. But after Theodora, who was a common Prostitute, 
Theodora a common Prostitute, the Author of the Ecclesiastical Laws of marriage.  came to be married to the Emp. Justinian; and another Theodora as bad as she, and her Daughter Marozia, and other such Creatures came to be Strumpets to Pope Sergius, and other Popes, and had the chief hand in making all the Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage, by which the Bishops to this day judge; Do any expect that these Whores of Babylon, would ever bring any good Laws out of the Stews into the Church? Certainly if any judicious and indifferent person will take the pains to take a full view of the Canons, he will easily find, there is not one which is not either a Gin to take their Prey, or a Bait to cover it; and that if all the Theodoras', Marozias, Laisses, Thaisses, Phryne's and Flora's were to be alive again, and sit in a Conclave of Women, they nor all their Chaplain Priests, could not invent better Laws for the advancement of their Trade, or ways to destroy Religion, Justice, Virtue, Modesty, and Chastity, than the Imperial, Papal, and Provincial Ganons are, under the name of Ecclesiastical Laws: And that notwithstanding Bishops amongst Protestants should be so long tolerated to judge arbitraties, or according to them, not only of Patrimonies and Matrimonies, Filiations and Successions of the Subjects, but of Kings and Kingdoms themselves, is horrible.  
But to return now to Theodora, as Bodin Fol. 17. says, and appears by divers Civil Laws compared, after she had got the the Mastery of Justinian the Emperor her Husband, a blockish and unlearned Prince, when she had made all the Laws she could for the advantage of Women against their Husbands, she got him to enact, That it should be death for a man to lie with any Woman but his Wife, but if the Wife lay with other Men besides her Husband, she should only be infamous, that is to say, she should have no punishment at all: for what honour can Infamy take from her, who by Adultery hath already lost her honour, and is totally defamed? I forbear for brevity, to recite other of her Laws, but amongst them all, there being not one good, except for her Trade, there cannot be a more wicked than the next: For she having the command of her choosed Husband, caused him to repeal the excellent Law of the Emperor Anastasius, which made, as before mentioned, all natural Children Legitimate, that is to say, where their Filiation was acknowledged by the Father by Adoption, or other sufficient Declaration by him of the same, whereby the old Ignoramus abrogated a better Law than ever he made, or was in the whole heap raked together in his name by Theodora and Tribonian, and they set up again the old Pontifical Intails of Husband's Lands to the Heirs of the Body of the Woman, married before a Priest in a Temple.   

That unlawful Marriages of Parents ought not to illegitimate the Children.  

Child not to be punished for the Father's sin. Desertion of Virgins after deflowering caused by Illegitimation,  First, This is contrary to the Law of God, to punish the sins of the Parents on the Children.  
Secondly, This incourages Fathers to deflower Virgins, and when got with Child, to desert both the Mother and the Child, as a far cheaper way, then by carrying her first to a Priest and Temple to draw a charge on himself of her and her Child as long as he lives; this incourages likewise such Fathers to get Children by Incest, and Adultery, and Fornication, and any other way which is not lawful, rather than according to the lawful Ordinance of God; because he can cast off all these Women and Children by only saying, they are illegitimate, and take an hundred more, and serve them the like, and they shall thereby be defrauded of Succession to his Goods, and so much as Aliment from the same: whereas if according to the Law of God, and the excellent Law of Anastasius derived from the same, all natural Children were to be adjudged Legitimate, the Children would be provided for, by being by Law made Successors to their Father's Estate, as far as the same will reach, and Fathers would be discouraged to get Children unlawfully, when they saw they could not thereby wickedly desert and make them illegitimate, or evade the Obligation laid on them by the Law of God and Nature, to provide for their own.  

A wicked Father ought not to have a greater privilege than a good. A Father not to take advantage of his own wrong.  Thirdly, 'Tis very unjust, That a wicked Father should have greater privilege than a good; and he who doth his Child injury, than he who is his Benefactor; for a Father who gets a Child unlawfully, doth a double injury to the Child, and rather ought to make double satisfaction to him, then if he got him lawfully; for he dishonours the Child; and it is a rule in Law, None shall take advantage of his own wrong; if the Child is unlawfully begot, who did the wrong but the Father, who is therefore, if proved, to be punished for the wrong, and not to take advantage of it against his injured Child to illegitimate and disinherit him: nor much less ought the Law to do it, for no other reason, but because the Father hath done him one wrong to do him another, but in justice to be the readier to make the Father who injured him to make satisfaction, by adjudging him right of Aliment and Succession to his Estate, for as it is inconsistent with Mercy, and the highest Cruelty, Afflictionem addere afflicto; so is it with Justice, because the Coat is taken from an innocent to take his Cloak also, or to make one injury done, the warrant to do another.  

No such word as illegitimation, nor no such deed in the whole Scripture.  Fourthly, Because there is no foundation for this unnatural Cruelty of illegitimation, or indeed worse than beastly exposing Children to be destroyed, in the whole Scripture, neither is there such a word as Bastard in the whole Original, Old Testament or New, Hebrew Text, or Septuagint, but the same is falsely Translated by Papists and Bishops, to deceive the World, as shall be more fully shown when I after come to the point of false-translation of all words concerning Marriage.  
Fifthly, All the examples of Scripture of unlawful Marriages yet Legitimate, and make the Children Successors to their Fathers in such unlawful Marriages; as Lot begot Moab and Ammon by Incest on his own Daughters, yet were Moab and Ammon Legitimate Successors to their incestuous Father. Judah begot Pharez by Incest on his Daughter in Law, yet was he Legitimate Successor to his incestuous Father; David got Solomon on an Adulteress, with whom he had committed Adultery in her Husband's life time, and killed her Husband to obtain, yet did not this illegitimate Solomon, but he Succeeded to his Father. And according to the Law of Anastasius, and the Law of God and Nature, whether the marriage were lawful or unlawful, yet the Law was amongst the whole Nation of the Israelites and Jews, That all natural Children were Legitimate, 
Illegitimation of Children shows Fathers worse than Pagan's Insidels, wild-beasts, Monsters, Serpents.  and Succeeded to their Fathers; and the same Law was amongst the Egyptians, Athenians, Phoenicians, Persians, Turks, Tartars, and Mahometans, who though Infidels have been better than such counterfeit Christians, who make Laws to illegitimate, and not provide for their own Children. O ye Jews, Turks, Heathens, Pagans, Infidels! O ye wild Beasts in your Dens! O you Serpents in the Deserts! Oh ye Monsters in the Sea, arise and witness against Popes and Bishops, that your Dens, Deserts, and raging Seas, are not such Hells as the Limbus puerorum of illegitimation; Did you ever illegitimate your little Ones? did ye not labour to provide for your own? will you not with invincible Piety hazard your own lives in defence of your young? Rise up in Judgement against these Romish wild Beasts, Serpents, and Monsters, far more Cruel, Poisonous, and Monstrous than yourselves, who for gain teach to illegitimate, starve and Murder their own self-begotten Babes before they can speak, deploring their miserable Fate with weeping and wailing, to be the Issue of so unnatural and cruel Parents.  
Sixthly, I shall only add a word concerning the Original cause which produced this wicked effect of illegitimation of Children, which the cursed invention of Intails by the Priest, of the Lands of the Husband, to the Heirs of the Body of whatsoever Woman he married, or certified married to the man; whereby as is before mentioned, the Priest by Certificate, and the Woman by Secrecy, had power to make Successors what Adulterous Heirs they pleased, and most commonly begotten by the Priest himself to the Husband's Inheritance, to cut off these Adulterous Intails, the most ancient whereof we read, were set up by Cecrops for the Owls of Athens; and King Aegeus the natural Father of the famous Theseus, was the first who invented Adoption to cut them off, and accordingly Adopted his natural Son Theseus, who thereby became his Successor to his Kingdom of Athens, whereby the Certificate of the Bishop was abolished, and the Supremacy of the Kingdom taken from the Priest to the King, and the free disposing left to Fathers of their Estates, to such Children as they acknowledged, according to the deserving or undeserving of the Children. After this Solon who is thought, though not as wise, yet to have been as great a lover of women as Solomon, and to have been drawn by them into as great Idolatry; for Solon as a principal piece of his Government, intended to be set up by his Laws (as shall be after further touched) Consecrated and Founded Priests, and a Temple to the Goddess Venus, and endowed the same with great Revenues and Privileges, and Consecrated a multitude of Courtesans to exercise their Trade, and pray for the prosperity of Greece in the same. And did what he could to restrain the free liberty of Adoption by Husbands, whereby the Ladies were prejudiced in their power of instituting Heirs to their Husband's Estates, in as free a manner as their Goddess Venus gave them leave. But the more Masculine Princes both of Greece and Rome, vindicated their own Power of Adoption both against the Priests and the Ladies. And Anastasius without any Formality of Adoption, cut off at a stroke all Feminine Intails, by making all natural Children as they ought to be, Legitimate, which continued till (as before mentioned) the Strumpet Theodora and her Bishops got the Law of Anastasius repealed, and Adulterous Intails again set up. And the like Law was in England, Fathers gave what they were bound by the Law of Nature to give to their natural Children, for provision for them, and they Succeeded to the same, till the Bishops for the same ends as the Pagan and Theodoran Bishops did set up. Here likewise by the Statute of Westmin. 2. Cap. 2. those Feminine and Adulterous Intails have been since endeavoured to be cut off by Fines and Recoveries. But the many Inconveniences of those ways make the Remedy almost as bad as the Disease.  

No remedy but abolishing Intails, and restoring the Law of Anastasius.  To conclude therefore, there is no way to prevent the exposing and desertion of Children by Fathers, the Adulteries of Mothers, and the murders of so many Infants, occasioned by this Diabolical Pontifical invention of Illegitimation, as the abolishing all Intails to more Bodies than one; and the restoring of that most excellent Law of Anastasius, That all natural Children shall be Legitimate, and the Innocent Babes be no longer punished and destroyed for the sins of the Parents.   

Of the Law of Consensus non Concubitus facit Matrimonium.  
Of the Pagan Goddess Juno, and the Popish Mother of St. Kentigern, both got with Child without a Man.  
Of the Lady Ann of Britain, married to the bare Leg of the Ambassador of the Emperor Maximilian.  
Of the Lady Pulcheria Sister to Theodosius, the Emperor married to Martianus; the Lady Etheldred to two Husbands; the Lady Amigunda to the Emperor Henry the Second; the Lady Editha to Edward the Confessor; and the Lady Ann of Cleve to Henry the Eighth, all married by Priests, but not by their Husbands.  

Intention of the mind.  The Authors of this Law were the Athenian Owl, and the Romish Buzzard, making intention of the mind, and publication of the Priest to be a Marriage, and not carnal knowledge. And these two pieces of Nonsense have by their Canon Enacted, That Consensus non Coneubitus facit Matrimonium, consent not carnal knowledge makes Matrimony, if before a Priest in a Temple.  
Owls were plenty in Athens, and Cecrops was the first King there, who made this Law; and the Pope, the King of Rome, who do excellently well agree in their Laws; for Cecrops was the first amongst the Greeks, who invented Marriage should be made, by the intention of the mind, and publication of the Priest; and Images should be made, and Altars set up, and the Sacrifice offered. So is the Pope the first who hath made Laws amongst the Romanists, That the intention of the mind, and publication by the Priest should be marriage; and that Images should be made, and high Altars set up, and the Sacrifice of the Mass offered. Cecrops Reigned a little after Moses, and the Pope Reigned a little after Christ, but neither of them had their Laws of Marriage, or their other Laws from Moses or Christ, but from the old Pagan Egyptian Priests; and as they did, they made their Laws not by that Law of God, which was more Ancient than the Egyptian, but made their filthy Laws for filthy lucre; whereby it's easy to see in these Birds the Owl and the Buzzard, as well as Men: how well good Wits jump for their Gain, and pretend that Gain is Godliness!  

Verba de praesenti.  This kind of Matrimony Gratian makes much ado about, and disputes the question pro and con, whether sponsion by words de praesenti make Matrimony? which question is composed of perfect Nonsense, and a lie and impossibility; For,  
1. All promises are of things future, and not of present or past; and 'tis as impossible by their Sacrament of Marriage, to transubstantiate time future into that which is present, as 'tis time present into that which is past.  
2. It is a mere lie for any Man to say to a Woman, I do make you a Mother, or get you with Child, when he doth only promise to do the same, and it is as impossible for the Priests to transubstantiate the verbal contract or words, into the real contract of carnal knowledge in fancy Ecclesiae, unless as in the Temple of Venus, he will have it actually done in his presence, that he may be able the better to give his Certificate thereof, on a Trial of ne unques accouple in loyal Matrimony. But I think it a mean condescension for any Philosopher to dispute with the Pedantic Sophistry of Gratian about Matrimony, as 'tis for a Divine to waste many Arguments against Ttransubstantiation of Mass: I shall only therefore turn him off to the Women, amongst whom he will not find the most simple Goodwife, who will not be able to tell him, that an ounce of Mother-wit is better than a pound of Clergy; and that Matrimony cannot be without a Mother, nor a Mother without Conception, nor Conception without knowing a Man, unless by Miracle: And though he Preach never so impudently, That consent and not carnal knowledge make Matrimony, yet that is clean contrary to the Text, Luke 1.31. where Mary replies to the message of the Angel (Thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son) How shall this be seeing I know not a Man? And might have been witnessed by the Angel himself, of whom Christ saith, They neither marry, nor give in Marriage, which they might do, if verba de praesenti will do it. But the next two stories will show whence the Popish Canonists have this Doctrine. And the next after, will show by the Testimony of great and virtuous Ladies, how impossible 'tis, and much better they deserve to have implicit Faith given them, than to the Doctors.  

Of the Pagan Goddess Juno, and the Popish Mother of Saint Kentigern, both got with Child without a Man.  

Juno & the Mother of Kentigern both got with Child without a Man.  Juno being displeased that Jupiter should bring out Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom, only by striking his head without a Woman. She also consulted the Goddess Flora, as good a one as herself, how she might bring out a Son without a Man, she meant without her Husband: Flora bid her touch a Flower which was in the field of Olenius, which being done, she conceived, and was her own Midwife too as well as Jupiter, and brought forth Mars, who being a Son of discontent, was made the God of War and Discord.  
In like manner the Mother of St. Kentigern, being in great distress and fervent desire of a Son, she earnestly prayed, and begged of Jesus that she might imitate his Virgin-mother in conception, and birth of a Child without a Man, and accordingly within a little she finds herself with Child, and often protested she never knew Man; but by the Law of that Country where she lived, she must, because she was thought to be very light, be cast headlong from the top of a high Mountain: she weeps and prays, but the Executioner doth his work, and on trial found her far lighter than she was thought, for she fell down, and was neither killed, bruised, nor hurt, but was then carried on Shipboard many Leagues into the Sea, and there turned out into a small Boat of Leather, destitute of all human help, yet with great speed and safety she arriveth at a far distant Port; and Landing, she is delivered of a Son, that famous Saint St. Kentigern, who no doubt, if his Mother had but prayed, that this Son might have been born without a Mother too, as he was without Father, and been left on the Sea shore at the same place she brought him forth, and the Shepherd's might find him there, no doubt he had then been the second Miraculous Adam, or Melchisedeck without Father or Mother in this latter Age of the World.   

Of the Lady Ann of Britain, married to the bare leg of the Ambassador of the Emperor Maximilian.  

Ann of Britain.  Charles the Eighth the French King, having Ann the Daughter and Heir of Francis Duke of Britain in his custody, she being Inheritrix to that Duchy, to Unite Britain to France, intending to marry the said Ann, one obstacle amongst others alleged was, That she was pre-contracted and married to Maximilian, by the usual Ceremony of his Ambassador putting his bare Leg into Bed to her for his Master.  
1. For the Contract he held it invalid, because she was his Homager or Ward, and her Marriage by the Tenure belonged to him.  
2. His Divines told him that the Ceremony of marrying by Proxy, by putting the bare Leg into her Bed, was only an invention of Men, and was no consummation by the Law of the Church; and on the same reason it might as well be said, that Banes, Publication and Contracting of Marriage in fancy Ecclesie, and Promulgation of the same by the Priest, are inventions of Men, and but Ceremonies as well as the other, Heyl. 196. This was a Contract, but no Matrimony.   

Of Pulcheria Sister to Theodosius the Emperor, married to Martianus. Of the Lady Etheldred married to two Husbands. The Lady Amigunda married to the Emperor Henry the Second. The Lady Editha to Edward the Confessor. The Lady Ann of Cleve to Henry the Eighth, all married by the Priest, but not by their Husbands.  
Zonara's reports, That the Empire being in great danger by reason of Wars with the Goths, 
Pulcheria.  on consideration that there was necessary to be chosen some able person to be Emperor against them; Theod●sius being dead without any Son and Martianus, an old experienced Captain, being taken to be the fittest for that purpose, he was chosen Emperor by the order of Pulcheria the Sister of Theodosius: and to give him the greater Authority, Pulcheria assented to marry him, on security given by him, that they should both live , and he suffer her to continue in Virginity, on which they were married, and they both faithfully observed their agreement of Chastity. This Lady made a very repugnant Vow to live a Nun, yet to marry therefore, I think her Vow doubly unlawful; first as to herself, if young, open to a necessary temptation, and then as to her Husband, though an old Soldier, to a probable one. Mr. Ricaut Turk. Hist. p. 72. Saith, 
Ghear Han Sultan.  That Ghear Han Sultan, Daughter to Sultan Ibrahim, hath had already five Husbands, yet continues a Virgin.  

Etheldred.  Etheldred was the Daughter of Anna King of the East-Angles, she was married to two Husbands, one after another, yet continued still a Virgin, and at last became a Nun, and was Canonised a Saint, under the name of St. Audery.  

Amigunda.  Henry the Second, Emperor, having married Amigunda the Daughter of the Count Palatine of Rhine, they lived most Chastely, both of them observing voluntary Virginity, without having any carnal knowledge one with the other. It is reported, that being accused of Adultery, she purged herself by going barefoot upon plates of fiery hot Iron, and that the Emperor was Penitent, for exposing her to such danger, being so  and Virtuous a Woman: she was very much beholding to him, to deny to Husband her himself, yet quarrel so far as to suspect her of another.  
Edward the Confessor married Editha the beautiful, and indeed virtuous Daughter of Earl Godwin, 
Editha.  and because he had taken displeasure against the Father, he would show no kindness to the Daughter, he made her his Wife, but conversed not with her as a Wife, but only at Board and not at Bed, or if at Bed, no otherwise than David with Abishag; and yet was content to hear her accused of incontinency, whereof if she were guilty, he could not be innocent: and he not only entertained such thoughts of his Wife, but the like accusation against his own Mother Queen Emma, of unchaste familiarity with Alwin Bishop of Winchester, and suffered her to be put to her purgation of fire Ordeal, by passing over Nine red hot Ploughshares barefoot, which she all escaped, to the astonishment of the beholders, and thereupon was adjudged Innocent, though there might be much juggling in those Trials; but whether there were so or not, it became not a Son to divulge the shame of his Mother. It seems he was , but without discretion, and not without injury to his Wife, and impiety to his Mother, Bak. Hist. 18.  

Ann of Cleve.  The same dealing had the Lady Ann of Cleve, who was married to Henry the Eighth, who lay by her six Months, yet left her a Virgin: And when her Ladies who attended her, said they looked now every day to hear of her being with Child; to whom she replied, They might look long enough, unless saying, How dost thou sweetheart? Good-morrow sweetheart, and such like words could make a great belly: for, said she, more than this never passed between the King and me, Bak. Hist. 288.  
I hope therefore none of our Protestant Ladies will believe this wicked Doctrine of Pope or Turk, That Consensus non Concubitus facit Matrimonium, if they do, we shall have no young Soldiers to fight against either.    

Of the Custom of desertion of Virgins after deflowering.  
Of the desertion of the Lady Lucy by Edward the Fourth, for the Lady Elizabeth Grey, and the infelicity followed thereon to them, and their Children.  
Of the like desertion by a Gentleman in Ireland, after the birth of a Child.  
Of the ancient Form of Marriage-Contracts, Se post concubitum non deserturum, now repugnantly turned into verba de praesenti.  
Of Seditions and Civil Wars raised for the said Crime of Desertion.  
Of the Law giving liberty of Temptation of a Minor married to an Husband, of desertion of her Husband after carnal knowledge, and to take a richer.  
A relation of the same practised in Scotland.  
Of the Law tempting Women to desert their Husbands, by giving more Alimony than the Portion.  

Desertion of the Lady Lucy by Edward the Fourth.  There being a Marriage in Treaty between Edward the Fourth King of England, and the Lady Bona Sister to Carlot the French Queen; the King happened to fall in love with the Lady Elizabeth Grey the Widow of John Grey, who in the Civil War between the House of Lancaster and York was his Enemy, and died in Battle at St. Alban against him: the old Duchess of York his Mother was very eager for the French Match, but however desired, if that did not please him (and he would needs marry one of his own Subjects) he should rather marry the Lady Elizabeth Lucy, whom he had a little before enticed to his Bed, which was a Marriage before God, and better than the Lady Elizabeth Grey, who was the relict of another Man, and his Enemy too; and thereupon she instigated the Lady Elizabeth Lucy to claim a Precontract of him, which Lady though set on by the King's Mother, and others, yet when she was solemnly sworn to speak the truth, she confessed to this effect, That he never in direct express words made any Promise or Contract to her of Marriage, but he spoke so loving words unto her, that she verily hoped he would have married her, and that if it had not been for such kind words, she would never have assented he should have lain with her, on which pretence the flattering Bishops, as though all Impediments were removed, by the not proving any express or formal words of Contract, though the real Contract of lying with her was apparent, to please the King gave him their allowance, That he should please his second Fancy, and not to be tied to his first: And he accordingly married Elizabeth Grey according to the Ecclesiastical Law, Consensus non Concubitus facit matrimonium. Which Repudiation of the Lady Lucy was certainly as much against the Law of God, as the Bill of Divorce by the Law of Moses was against the Doctrine of Christ, for ab initio non fuit sic, that a verbal Contract of words should pretend above the real Contract of carnal knowledge: And the Lady Grey, though it doth not appear but that she was otherwise a very virtuous Lady, yet if she knew the truth of what is before mentioned concerning the Lady Lucy, she cannot be excused in taking that Husband to herself, who had already given the first pledge, and made the chief and real Contract of Marriage with another Woman; and far happier might she have been if she had ascended a meaner but more lawful Bed; for the Earl of Warwick at his return home from France, finding by this Marriage his Embassage frustrated, the Lady Bona deluded, the French King abused, and himself made a stolen, and the disgraceful Instrument of all this; deeply resented, and waiting his time, raised an Army, and by surprise took the King Prisoner, and presently conveyed him to Middleton-Castle in Yorkshire, to remain there in safe custody with the Bishop of York, where if he had not by fair words and Money gotten his Keepers to permit him the recreation of Hunting, and thereby means to escape, he had lain at Mercy. And after he was escaped, and had gathered sufficient Forces, whereby he made the Earl of Warwick fly to the French King, where he was honourably received, yet the Earl returned again so Potent, with the French, joined with the great party he had in England, that the King was fain to fly to Burgundy, and the new advanced Queen to take Sanctuary at Westminster: And though her Husband again returned, and by a hazardous Battle, wherein Warwick himself, and many other Lords were slain, he recovered again his Kingdom, yet he had so little quiet, and less security, that what enjoyment she obtained of him, was always in fear and danger of the Field, and other Competitors of the Bed, after a man guilty, so more unhappy than herself; and when she lost him by death, she lived to see those Remains of him he had left her, two hopeful Sons most cruelly Murdered, and for the conclusion of all, herself confined to the Monastery of Bermondsie in Southwark, and all her Goods confiscate by her own Son in Law Henry the Seventh, yet no just cause appearing against her. In which Monastery in great pensiveness within few Years she died.  
There is a Case reported by Sir Jo. Davies, and likewise mentioned by the learned Dr. Godolphin in his Repertorium Canonicum 488. to have happened in Ireland, which was this, G. B. Esq had Issue C. B. on the Body of J.D. whom he had never carried to Priest or Temple; but his Son C. B. 
Desertion of a Woman after a Child, for a richer in Ireland.  was begot by natural marriage without any Pontifical Ceremony. About Sixteen Years after G. B. having found a Lady who was richer, and of a greater Estate and Reputation than his first Woman, by whom he had his eldest Son C. B. Marries her with assent of her Friends, by whom he had Issue E. B. and died; after the death of G. B. the said C. B. his reputed Son, and his Mother being both left alive, continued silent by the space of nine Years, till they happened to have one of their Kindred Bishop of K. by whom they then were encouraged by new hope to obtain their Right; who it seems not experienced in the Forms of Judicial Proceed without any Libel exhibited, and not Convocatis Convocandis, proceeded to take the Depositions of many Witnesses, to prove that the said G. B. Twenty-nine Years before, had lawfully married and took to Wife the said J. D. Mother of the said C. B. And the said C. B. was the Legitimate and lawful Son and Heir of the said G. B. And these Depositions so taken, the said Bishop caused to be engrossed and reduced into the Form of a solemn Act, and having put his Signiture and Seal to that Instrument, delivered the same to C. B. who published it, and thereupon alleged himself Son and Heir to the said G. B. Hereupon an information is put into the Castle-Chamber in Ireland, against the Bishop, suggesting a Conspiracy to Legitimate C. B. Son, and illegitimate E. B. the Daughter of the said G. B. And for this Practice the said Bishop and others were Censured. This Case and the forementioned Case of Kenne, are both contrary one to another, and both contrary to the Law of God: In Kennes Case the wrong Heir is Legitimated by the nullifying of a lawful Marriage consummate by carnal knowledge, and birth of the right Heir, by Sentence of the Spiritual Jurisdiction, and there the Common-Law will not relieve the right. Such Faith, they say they are bound to give to the Spiritual Sentence, whether right or wrong, whether with cause or without cause, until the Spiritual Judge revoke his own Sentence himself; but here where a right Heir is made Legitimate by Sentence Declaratory, of a lawful Marriage between the Father and Mother, of the right Heir, in the Castle-Chamber, the Common-Law will Legitimate the wrong Heir, and will give no faith to the Sentence of the Spiritual Judge, if that they think it wrong; so it seems the Common-Law in Westminster-Hall, and the Common-Law in the Castle-Chamber, are very contrary one to another as to the point of giving faith concerning Marriage and Legitimation to Spiritual Jurisdiction, yet both contrary to right, and destructive to the lawful Heir according to the Law of God, and both give faith to Common and Canon-Law, above the Supreme Law and Legislator.  
Amongst the Greeks the manner of the Contract of Marriage was, The Parties going to the Temple before the Priest, the Man swore▪ in the presence of Witnesses, Se sponsam post concubitum invitum non deserturum, That he would not, after he should have lain with the Woman, forsake her without her consent. Arch. Att. 156. The like form of words in the Marriage-Contracts was used by the ancient Romans, who shall rise up in Judgement against the Popes, who unless Parties mumble the aforementioned Nonsense of Verba de praesenti, give Licence for Money to deceive and desert a Thousand, though they have never so many Children by them, and to make all Women common, and to their own Priests to give example, being interdicted all verbal Marriage, that they may have the more liberty to abuse the real, and to take and leave all they please, and as oft as they please. The like do the Guiny Priests who converse with the Devil, and their form of Contract of Marriage is no doubt according as he will have it. For the Woman is there sworn to the Man, that she will not desert; but the man swears not to her, nor will oblige himself by any verbal Contract, but is to be left as free as any Popish Priest whatsoever.  

Desertion after deflowering hath caused Seditions and Civil Wars.  This deflowering and desertion was a while in fashion amongst the Roman Nobles and Patricians, who used to deflower the fairest Plebeian Virgins, yet by their Law would allow this to be no Marriage, nor suffer a Patrician to marry a Plebeian; but only to abuse them, till the Plebeians rose against them and beat the Patricians into better manners. The like raised a Rebellion in Persia: and Mutius lib. 22. Chron. Ger. relates, That a Rebellion arose amongst the Suisse Vri, and under- Waldensians, because their Nobles and Governors abused to their Lust all their handsome Virgins at pleasure, and then cast them off. 
If the greatest Peer get a Beggar with Child, the Marriage is indissoluble.  Whereas by the unquestionable Law of God, if the greatest Peer lie with a Beggar, whom he may lawfully marry, and get her with Child, he thereby makes her his Wife; and though before the birth of the Child she expressly Contract, She will take hire, and the same shall not be a Marriage, or after she give a release; yet the Marriage is indissoluble; for the Act of God of giving a Child, doth confirm and establish it, and whom the Act of God hath joined, the Act of the Parties or of all human Powers can never lawfully put asunder. So, as is said, one cause of the late Rebellion of the Moors under Gayland was, the abusing and desertion of their Virgins by their Courtiers.   

Of the Law giving liberty of Temptation to a Minor married to an Husband, after carnal knowledge to desert her Husband, and take a richer.  
In Scotland while it was my fortune to be put to sit there, as one of the Commissioners for Administration of Justice, it happened the Earl of B. deceased, having left two Daughters Inheritrixes of one of the greatest Estates in that Kingdom, both infra Annos nubiles, and by Will left their custody and disposing to divers Guardians, the Countess of B. his Relict, married the Earl of W. And after they two, the Earl being the Father in Law, and the Countess the Mother, disposed of the eldest Daughter, being under the Age of Twelve, in Marriage with the Son of G. S. as I remember the Sheriff of T. being about the Age of Fourteen, being a Gentleman of a very good Family, and of the same name of the Family of the Earl of B. deceased, who was the Father of the Daughters, but not of equal Estate. This Marriage was Consummated by the usual public Ceremonies, and by carnal knowledge. The Guardians hearing their Pupil married without their consent, being very much troubled, applied themselves to us, (who had then the facto all the Power Ecclesiastical and Civil, both of Bishops and Judges, which the Sword could put on us,) to null the Marriage, they alleging their Pupil to be infra Annos nubiles, and likewise the Marriage to be made without consent of the Guardians appointed by the Father, whereupon Summons were sent to all Parties concerned, to appear and answer the matter before us in the Court at Edinburgh. At the day appointed, there appeared the new married Lady all in Silver, the Earl of W. the Countess, and other Nobles with their Train, and as near as I can remember, so long since, what was spoken between the Parties and the Court, were to this effect.  Earl of W. to the Precedent of the Court, 
My Lord, we give appearance to your Summons, though I know no reason we should be troubled hither. Your Power is unlimited, and you do what you please, but I hope you will not part Man and Wife.  Presi. 
Complaint hath been made to us, and we shall only examine the truth of the matter, and do nothing but Justice therein, as we find the same to be, and as we ought to do.  
Thereupon the Earl and Countess and all other Parties, except the new Married Lady, were Ordered to withdraw out of the Room, and as the fashion there is, on any Consultation by the Court, the Doors to be close shut. The young Lady seeing her Mother and all her Friends shut out of doors from her, and herself detained Prisoner alone within the Bar to be examined by the Court, began to be something appalled, but the Precedent comforting and encouraging her, she addressed herself to answer what should be demanded.  Presi. 
Are you married to the young Gentleman mentioned by your Guardians?  Lady. 
Yes.  Presi. 
Is it by your free consent, or were you compelled or deceived to do it?  Lady. 
It is my free consent, and I was not compelled or deceived.  Presi. 
Were there any other Matches proposed to you besides this, and did you see the Men?  Lady. 
There were others proposed, and I saw them, but I liked this best.  Presi. 
Why would you disparage yourself to marry one so much beneath you, in Degree and Estate?  Lady. 
It was my Father's will, he having no Son, that I should marry one of the name of his Family, of which name this Gentleman, I have married, is; and I married him that I might preserve the name of my Father's Family, according to his will.  Presi. 
Why would you, being so sickly and and weakly as you appear to be, marry under the Age of Marriage, it's enough to destroy your health, and endanger your life?  Lady. 
I am more healthy than I was before.  Presi. 
You are young, and your mind may change, you shall have other Noble young Persons, and fit for your Marriage presented to you, and you shall take your choice of them.  
To which the virtuous young Lady deservedly incensed, though under the Age of Twelve, replied pretty tartly, That she should be then a Whore, if she should change her Husband for another Man.  
Thereupon the Lady was Ordered to with draw, and the Court on Consultation Ordered, That she should be delivered to the custody of a Governess in her own House at D. who should admit any other Noble Persons to present themselves unto her, as likewise the Husband she had already married, but no otherwise then openly, in the presence and sight of the Governess; and if the Lady liked to make choice before she came to the Age of Twelve, of any other to be Husband, she should have free liberty to do the same, if not then, her present choice should stand.  
This Sentence was right, if you admit the Common-Law, that great Popish Idol, which is worshipped through the three Kingdoms, to be the Law of God, but otherwise 'twas an unlawful thing, to put a new married Wife who had lain with her Husband, and for aught the Court knew might be with Child by him, to put her on the Temptation of changing her Husband, to take a richer, and thereby leave it to the wicked Canon-Law, which would have nulled her Marriage, to have illegitimated her Child, only for that desertion of her Husband, to which that wicked Law tempted her, but she was more Noble then to entertain such vile thoughts, and continued constant to her Husband till her death.   

Of the Law tempting Women to desert their Husbands, by giving more Alimony than the Interest of the Portion.  
Another great mischief is in the Ecclesiastical Laws, and those Laws which follow them, they will on Divorce under the name of Alimony, give the Woman more than the Interest of her Portion amounts to, which incourages all Women to seek Divorces, whereas the form of Divorce amongst the Romans was, Res tuas tibi habeto, and she was not to have more than she brought with her, and the same is the Law of the Jews, and all other Nations, except such as live under Popish Ecclesiastical Laws. And the injustice of our Ecclesiastical Laws to the contrary, is not one of the least causes, why Divorce and Separations are of late grown so frequent, because Women know they shall gain by the Divorce, and rob their Husbands of more than ever they brought them.  

Of the Law of Divorcing after Procreation of a Child, for precontract, or pray copulation without preprocreation.  
Of the Law prohibiting liberty of private Marriage without public Witnesses.  
Of the Law giving the Jurisdiction of the secret causes of Divorce between Parents, and secret uncleanness of Children in their Parents Houses, to public Tribunals.  
Of the Law compelling persons married, though mortal Enemies, to Co-habitation.  
Of the Law of Divorce à Mensa & Thoro.  
Of the Canon compelling the parties on Divorce for Adultery, to give Bonds and Sureties, not to marry again during each others life.  
Of the custom of Protestants marrying with Papists.   
Edward the Fourth was, as is alleged, first verbally contracted to Eleanor Daughter to john Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury, married after to Sir Thomas Butler Baron of Sudley; after this verbal contract, he married Elizabeth the Widow of Sir John Grace, she lived his Wife Eighteen Years and Eleven Months, and he had issue by her Three Sons and Seven Daughters: Elizabeth his eldest Daughter was first promised in marriage to Charles Dauphin of France, but married after to King Henry the Seventh; Edward the Fourth being dead, leaving his two Sons young, in the custody of his Brother Richard the Third; they were after murdered by him, to make his own way to the Crown: but first in preparation thereto, Dr. Shaw in a Sermon by him Preached at Paul's-Cross, took for his Text, Spuria vitulamina non agent altas radices: And to make short work, they were after by Act of Parliament Proclaimed Bastards, and not inheritable to the Crown, on no other Allegation made but the precontracts before mentioned with Eleanor Butler, as is recorded in the Parliament Roll.  

Husband divorces the Wife for cause of precopulation committed by himself.  Buchanan rerum Scoticarum lib. 11.652. relates, That Earl Bothwel aspiring to obtain the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots, compelled his Wife to accuse him of precopulation with another Woman, before he married his Wife. Gordonia Bothuelii uxor cogitur in duplici foro litem de Divortio intendere; apud judices Regios accusat uxor maritum adulterii, quae una justa apud eos erat divortii causa, apud judices Papanos lege vetitos, tamen ab Archiepiscopo fani Andreae ad hanc litem cognoscendam, litem dare accusatur idem ante Matrimonium, cùm propinqua uxoris stupri consuetudinem habuisse, nulla in Divortio faciendo nec in testibus nec in judicibus fit mora; intra enim decimum diem lis suscepta, disceptata & dijudicata est. After, he saith, one thing thought necessary was, ut consuetae servarentur Ceremoniae, ut videlicet publice in conventu civium tribus diebus Dominicis nuptiae futurae inter Jacobum Heburnum, & Mariam Stuartam denuntiarentur, ut si quis quid vitii ant impedimenti sciret quo minus legitimè coirent, rem ad Ecclesiam deferrent. And after, he saith, Cùm de nuptiis in Ecclesia denunciandis ageretur, & lector, cujus id munus erat constanter recusare, collecti Diaconi, & seniores cùm reluctari non auderent, jubent Ecclesiastem nuptias futuras, de more edicere & is quidem hactenus paruit, ut se vitium quidem scire profiteretur, ac paratum seu Reginae seu Bothuelio cum vellent judicare, is cum in arcem accersitus, venisset. Regina eum ad Bothuelium remisit, qui quanquam nec blanditiis, nec minis Ecclesiastem de proposito deduceret, nec rem disputationi committere auderet, tamen nuptias apparat: unus Orcadum Episcopus est inventus, qui gratiam aulicam veritati praeferret, caeteris reclamantibus, causasque proferentibus, cur Legitimae non essent nuptiae cum eo, qui duas uxores ad huc vivas haberet, tertiam, ipse suum nuper fassus adulterium, demisisset: ita indignantibus omnibus bonis, vulgo etiam execrante, propinquis per literas improbantibus, inchoatus, & publicis Ceremoniis simulatis etiam factas detestantibus, tamen Matrimonium celebratur. Which forementioned precontract alleged against Edward the Fourth, was no more just cause to Illegitimate his Children, than it was to Murder them, nor was his precopulation with another Woman, confessed by Earl Bothwel, any more just cause to Divorce his Wife, than it was to aspire to the Kingdom. 32 H. 8. cap. 38. takes notice of the great mischiefs ensuing by dissolving by precontract Marriage, consummate by bodily knowledge, and fruit of Children or Child, which Statute follows in these words.  

WHereas heretofore the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome, 
32 H. 8. cap. 38. Of precontract.  hath always entangled and troubled the meér jurisdiction, and regal power of this Realm of England, and also unquieted much the Subjects of the same, by his usurped power in them, as by making that unlawful which by God's Word is Lawful, both in Marriage and other things, as hereafter shall appear more at length; and till now of late in our Sovereign Lord's time, which is otherwise by learning taught, than his predecessors in time past long time have been, hath so continued the same, whereof yet some sparks be left, which hereafter might kindle a greater fire, and so remaining, his power not to seem utterly extinct. Therefore it is thought most convenient to the King's Highness, his Lords Spiritual and Temporal, with the Commons of this Realm, assembled in this present Parliament, that two things, especially for this time, be with diligence provided for, whereby many inconvemences have ensued, and many more might ensue and follow: As where heretofore divers and many Persons, after long continuance together in Matrimony, without any allegation of either of the parties, or any other at their Marriage, why the same Matrimony should not be good, just, and lawful, and after the same Matrimony Solemuized, and Consummate by carnal knowledge, and also sometimes fruit of Children ensued of the same Marriage, upon pretence of former Contract made, and not Consummate by carnal Copulation (for proof whereof, two Witnesses by that Law were only required) been divorced and separate, contrary to God's Law, and so the true Matrimony both so Solemnised in the face of the Church, and Consummate with bodily knowledge, and confirmed also with fruit of Children had betweéns them, cleérly frustrate and dissolved: Further also, by reason of other Prohibitions than God's Law admitteth, for their lucre by that Court invented; the dispensation whereof, they always reserved to themselves, as in kindred or affinity betweéns Cousin-germen, and so to the fourth degreé, carnal knowledge of any of the same kin, or affinity before in such outward degreés, which else were lawful, and be not prohibited by God's-Law, and because they would get money by it, keep a reputation of their usurped jurisdiction; whereby not only much discord between lawful married persons, hath (contrary to God's ordinance) arisen much debate and suits at Law, with wrongful vexation, and great damage of the Innocent party hath been procured, and many just Marriages brought in doubt, and danger of undoing, and also many times undone, and lawful Heirs disherited; whereof there had never else, but for his vainglorious usurpation, been moved any such question, since freédom in them was given us by God's Law, which ought to be most sure and certain. But that notwithstanding marriages have been brought into such an uncertainty thereby, that no marriage could be surely knit and bounden, but it should lie in either of the party's power, and arbiter, casting away the fear of God, by means and compasses to prove a precontract, a kindred, and alliance, or a carnal knowledge to defeat the same, and so under the pretence of these allegations afore rehearsed, to live all the days of their lives in detestable adultery, to the utter destruction of their own Souls, and provocation of the terrible wrath of God, upon the places where such abominations were used and suffered.  
Be it therefore Enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That from the first day of the Month July next coming, in the year of our Lord God 1540 All and every such Marriages, as within this Church of England shall be Contracted betweéns lawful Persons (as by this Act we declare all Persons to be lawful, that be not prohibited by God's Law to marry) such Marriages being Contract and Solemnised in the face of the Church, and Consummate with Bodily knowledge, or fruit of Children, or Child, being had therein, betweéns the parties so married, shall be by Authority of this present Parliament aforesaid, deemed, judged, and taken to be Lawful, Good, Just, and Indissolvable, notwithstanding any precontract, or precontracts of Matrimony, not Consummate with Bodily knowledge, which either of the parties so married, or both shall have made with any other person or persons, before the time of Contracting that Marriage which is Solemnised and Consummate, or whereof such fruit is ensued or may ensue as afore; and notwithstanding any Dispensation, Prescription, Law, or other thing granted or confirmed by Act or otherwise. And that no reservation, or prohibition (God's Law except) shall trouble or impeach any Marriage without the Levitical degrees. And that no person of what estate, degreé, or condition soever he or she be, shall after the first day of the Month of July aforesaid, be admitted to any of the Spiritual Courts within this the King's Realm, or any his Graces other Lands and Dominions, to any Process, or Plea, or Allegation contrary to this aforesaid Act.   
1. Here it appears what a necessary stroke this Act gave, against the usurped power of Ecclesiastical Laws, and Jurisdiction, in this and other points of Marriage, forbidding any Spiritual Courts within this Realm, or any his other Lands and Dominions, to admit any Process, Plea, or Allegation, contrary to this Act. And although hereby, one of the heads of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was, as is said of the Beasts, Rev. 13.3. as it were wounded to death; yet so great was the subtlety of the Serpent, that the Ecclesiastics soon after, by abusing the minority of that most pious, though young King, Edward the Sixth, got all what the wisdom and courage of his Father had Enacted against them, repealed by the Son, 2 & 3 Ed. 6. cap. 23. 
Edward the Sixth abused by Papists in his Minority, to repeal his Father's Act of Precontracts.  And thinking themselves therein not sufficiently secure, they again procured the same to be repealed by 1 Eliz. 1. In which repeals, I can see nothing but a Papist Plot against them both, to revive those Ecclesiastical Laws by their own Authority against themselves, which might have yielded most dangerous pretences against their own Legitimations and Marriages, and Issue, if they had happened to have had any: For certainly no Marriage or Issue can be secure or certain, if any fraudulent person may secretly precontract, or pre-copulate with any vile person, and take Bonds of him, or her, to release the same upon request, and then marry another person, Ignorant and Innocent, and have Children procreate between them, and then cause the party who had the precontract or precopulation, to sue and obtain a Divorce against the Innocent person to be Divorced, and Children Bastardized, and Disinherited; and then to give a release to the party conspiring in the fraud. How is it possible to avoid this wickedness, if precontract or precopulation, should be allowed a sufficient cause to dissolve Marriage, Consummate by the Birth of a Child? And how is it possible propriety to be, if a distinction be not kept between it and contract, and between obligation and possession, according to the old Rule of Law, Rem Domino vel non Domino vendente duobus, in jure est potior, traditione prior? And the Rule of the Civil Law, and fundamental of all Nations, who have propriety, Obligatio non impedit translationem Dominii, sed translatio Dominii praecedens impedit obligationem. l. si quidem. 1. C. de donat. inter virum. Notwithstanding all which Reasons preceding, and likewise those in the mentioned Act of H. 8. The Ecclesiastics, though straining their Wits, and Eloquence to the highest, in the Act of repeal by Ed. 6. yet cannot allege the least reason, except only this, That if precontract should not dissolve Marriage, the parties might part from one another at the Church door, and then the Wedding Dinner would be spoiled; which surely may be sufficiently and over satisfied by recompense in value, were it a Half-Crown Ordinary: But a lost Virginity to an Innocent Woman, who was married bona fide, and knew nothing of this precontract; and her Child can never be repaired, if the Marriage be dissolved.  
— Nulla reparabilis Arte  
Laesa pudicitia est, deperit illa semel.  Propert. 
The Act of Repeal of the said most excellent Law of Henry the Eighth against precontracts follows. 2 & 3 Ed. 6. cap. 23.  


2 & 3 Ed. 6. cap. 23.  WHereas in the 32 year of the Reign of the late King of famous memory, King Henry the Eighth, Because that many inconveniences had chanced in this Realm, by breaking and dissolving of good and lawful Marriages, yea whereupon also sometimes Issue and Children had followed, under the colour and pretence of a former Contract made with another, the which Contract divers times was but very slenderly proved, and often but surmised, by the malice of the party, who desired to be dissolved from the Marriage which they liked not, and to be coupled with another. There was an Act made, That all, and every such Marriages as within the Church of England should be Contracted and Solemnised in the face of the Church, and Consummate with Bodily knowledge, or fruit of Children or Child, being had between the parties so married, should be by Authority of the said Parliament, deemed, judged, and taken to be Lawful, Good, Just, and Indissolvable, notwithstanding any precontract, or precontracts of Matrimony, not Consummate with Bodily knowledge, which either of the Persons so married, or both, had made with any other Person or Persons, before the time of Contracting of that Marriage, which is Solemnised or Consummated, or whereof such fruit is ensued, or may ensue, as by the same Act more plainly may appear. Since the time of which Act. although the same was Godly meant, the unruliness of Men hath ungodlily abused the same, and divers inconveniences (intolerable in manner to Christian Ears and Eyes) followed thereupon, Women and Men breaking their own promises, and faiths, made by the one unto the other; so set upon sensuality and pleasure, that if after the Contract of Matrimony, they might have whom they more favoured and desired, they could be contented by lightness of their nature, to over-turn all that they had done afore, and not afraid in manner, even from the very Church-door, and Marriage Feast, the Man to take another Spouse, and the Spouse to take another Husband, more for Bodily lust and carnal knowledge, then for surety of faith & truth, or having God in their good remembrance, contemning many times also the Commandment of the Ecclesiastical judge, forbidding the parties, having made the Contract, to attempt or do any thing in prejudice of the same. Be it therefore Enacted by the King's Highness, The Lords Spiritual, Temporal, and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, That as concerning precontracts, the said former Statute shall from the first day of May next coming, cease, be repealed, and of no force or effect, and be reduced to the estate and order of the King's Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm, which immediately before the making of the said Statute, in this case were used in this Realm: So that from the said first day of May, when any cause or contract of Marriage is pretended to have been made; it shall be lawful to the King's Ecclesiastical judge of that place, to hear and examine the said Cause: And (having the said Contract sufficiently and lawfully proved before him) to give sentence for Matrimony, commanding Solemnisation, Co-habitation, Consummation, and Tractation, as it becometh Man and Wife to have, with inflicting all such pains upon the disobedients, and disturbers thereof, as in times passed before the said Statute, the King's Ecclesiastical judges, by the King's Ecclesiastical Laws ought, and might have done, if the said Statute had never been made: Any Clause, Article, or Sentence in the said Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.    

Of the Law making private Marriage or carnal knowledge between persons not prohibited by the Law of God to marry, Fornication.  
Private Marriage, or carnal knowledge is of two sorts, the one without public Witness, the other without any Witness at all, and both by the Popish Laws (because if permitted, they would spoil their gains) are prohibited, and called clandestine Marriages. The public Witnesses are the Priest or Magistrate; private Witnesses are any other, 
Marriage without Witness nor clandestine.  not appointed by Law. The Law of England makes all private Marriage, and carnal knowledge, without public Witness, Fornication. The Law of Scotland in some cases relieves, though there be a defect and no public Witness of the Marriage by the Priest, as appears in the before cited Author Craig. Feud. 269. If there appear private Witnesses of Men or Instruments; but in all cases likewise, where there are neither public or private Witnesses, they leave it to be Fornication. That which I here affirm against both, is:  

Marriage without Witness not Fornication.  1. That carnal knowledge between parties not prohibited by the Law of God to marry, is not Fornication, nor any other Crime, though in the highest secrecy, and without any Testimony of Men, or Instruments whatsoever.  
2. That privacy of Marriage being not prohibited, nor publication commanded by God; all parties ought to have liberty of Conscience, to use the one or the other, according as suits best with their occasions.  
As to the first, there are these reasons. That private Marriage without Witness is not Fornication, nor any other Crime.  
1. There is no Law of God prohibiting private Marriage without Witness: Where there is therefore no Law, there is no transgression. Rom. 4.15.  
2. It is before shown, That for any human Law to prohibit Marriage or Meat, where not prohibited by the Law of God, the same came from the Devil. 1 Tim. cap. 4. v. 1, 2, 3. And that therefore the Law of the Pope, and Council of Trent, which nulls all Marriages, except made before a Priest in a Temple, and two Witnesses; came from the Devil and the Priests of Priapus and Venus, for filthy lucre to the Priests.  
3. Isa. 45.7. It is said, I create evil. And Isa 5.20. It is said, Woe unto them that call good evil, and evil good; That put darkness for light, and light for darkness: Here is therefore a curse pronounced against those, who, if God created not marriage without Witnesses, evil, of their own heads call it evil; and where God created it to be in darkness, and natural modesty, of their own heads will have it by Torchlight, and the whole Parish of Witnesses.  
4. All Fornication is Polyandry and Confusio seminum, whereby the Child cannot know the Father, nor the Father the Child, but here is no such thing; it is impossible therefore to be Fornication.  

Liberty Conscience to marry with or without Witnesses.  As to the second Point which I am to maintain, That privacy of Marriage without Witnesses, being not prohibited by the Law of God, nor publication commanded by the same; no human power ought to presume to prohibit what Marriage God hath not prohibited, but all persons ought to be left liberty of Conscience, to marry publicly or privately, with or without Witnesses, as it suits best with their conveniences and occasions, as is the use and practice in all other civil Contracts, which men do with or without Witnesses, as they think best, and were never accused of sin, if they had no Witnesses whereon to bring their Action; only that Party is justly charged with sin, who wilfully breaks his Contracts, because there are no Witnesses but God to prove it against him.  
Against these Positions I shall first answer the Objections, and then show further Reasons to confirm the same.  
Object. 1 First, It is Objected, That without the public Testimony of the Marriage by the Priest and Bishop, the Woman is in danger of desertion by the Man after he hath devirginated, and got her with Child, whereas she having the said public Testimony of the Bishop, if the Man take another Woman to Church and marry her, by the Law he shall be hanged.  
Answer. To which is Answered, That this Law or Penalty doth no way prevent the desertion; for though the Law which Theodora got her Husband Justinian to make, That it should be death for the Husband to lie with any other Woman but his Wife, might perhaps have something restrained the Man, yet this Law that the Husband shall marry no other Woman in Church, signifies nothing of restraining him from lying with an hundred elsewhere.  
Object. 2 In like manner it is Objected, That the Wife, if there were no public Witnesses, might desert her Husband for another Man; whereas now if she go to Church with another man, and is married to him, while her Husband is alive, she shall be hanged.  
Answer. To which is Answered, That though the Law of Moses, Levit. 20.10. which makes Adultery in a Wife Death, might perhaps something have restrained the Woman, the present Law restrains her no more than it doth the man.  
Object. 3 The Third Objection is, If Banes and Marriage were not in the presence of public Witnesses, none who had right to a Woman could know when or how to make his claim.  
Answer. To which is Answered, First, This preserves not the claimant's right, nor prevents the other man's lying with the Woman, if she hath a mind to another. Which it appears she hath, otherwise she would not have band herself openly with him.  
Secondly, If he hath a pre-promise or precontract, he ought not to recover the Woman in Specie against her will, but only damage for breach of promise, as to which the Banes make it neither better nor worse.  
Thirdly, Admit the man who is the claimant of the Woman, hath not only had pre-promise, precontract, but precopulation of the Woman before the other man, who is publicly band with her, yet to what purpose is a claim made of a Woman, who is now became an Adulteress by banning herself with another man, and ought not by the Law of God to be claimed by the first man; for by retaking an Adulteress the Husband becomes a Pander to the Wife, a destroyer of the Adultererous Child, by depriving him of the natural Father, and a destroyer of his own Children, by bringing in Adulterous Heirs amongst them, which is so far abhorred by the Scripture, that in case of Divorce, though the Woman is innocent, yet it is said Deut. 24.1, 2, 3, 4. according to the Original, When a man hath taken a Woman, and been a Man unto her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a Bill of Divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his House. And when she is departed out of his House, she may go and be another man's Woman. And if the latter man hate her, and write her a Bill of Divorcement, and give it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his House: or if the latter man die, which took her to be his Woman, her former man which sent her away, may not take her again to be his Woman, after she is defiled: for that is abomination before the Lord, and thou shalt not cause the Land to sin, which the Lord thy God, giveth thee for an inheritance. If therefore a Woman innocent put away, is not to be received again, much less is a Woman guilty of running. away with another man to be claimed again in Specie, but there is a more just remedy, if the Party is thereby damaged, to Sue the Woman for breach of her Contract, and the Adulterer for taking her away, for Damages.  
Object. 4 Another Objection is made, That without Witnesses of the Marriage, if the right of Successions to Goods or Lands come in question, the Bishop can make no Certificate of Filiation of the Child who is to Succeed, nor can the Common-Law, Judges or Juries judge of the matter.  
Answer. To which is Answered, First, That lawful Marriage is impossible to be without carnal knowledge, and so is likewise Filiation, both which are impossible to be witnessed by any but the Parents: 
Marriage what.  As to carnal knowledge, that which makes Marriage the same, may be defined to be a Seminal Conjunction of Man and Woman in the natural Act of Generation, mentioned Levit. 15.18. Cum vir concubuerit, cum ea Semine concubitus, which if between Persons prohibited, is an unlawful, if not prohibited, is a lawful Marriage. The Jews had three sorts of Conjunctions between Man and Woman, which they called Marriages. 1. Coemptione. 2. Copulatione. 3. Instrumentis. That which was Copulatione, was by their filthy Custom to be done before two Witnesses; 
Witnesses of Marriage, any impossible, but the parties.  but the Witnesses here in question, are not of the Copulation, but of matters impertinent and evidence, which tends not to the issue, and they are only to Testify that A. and B. went to Church together, and there said words de praesenti, and the Priest pronounced them Man and Wife, as though the Child was strait begot by the Tongues of the Parties, and the Priest in the Sacrament of Marriage, as it is in that of the transubstantiation, and thereon the Bishop gives his Non sequitur Sentence, that here was a Marriage, which includes carnal knowledge, though 'tis not so much Testified, nor known by the Witnesses or Bishop, whether the Parties were a Man and a Woman, or two Women, they never having been eye-witnesses of the same, nor any Ventre inspiciendo appointed for that purpose.  
Secondly, Admit there had been a couple of beastly Jewish Witnesses, who would see 'twas a Man and a Woman lay together, yet it being an undeniable exception against all Witnesses of any matter of Fact, that unless they show Causam Scientiae to be one or more of their five Senses, their Testimony is worth nothing, and such Witnesses having no Sense but their Sight to Testify Copulation, it is impossible, though their eyes saw the external Copulation, that they should see the internal to be Semine Concubitus, without which the external Testimony signifies nothing to make a Marriage.  
Thirdly, Admit it were possible these Witnesses saw the man lie with the Woman, yet it is impossible, and Perjury for them to swear that they saw the man get the Child, or that it was not got by another man before or after.  
It was an usual saying of Cato that he wondered how one Aruspex could forbear laughing when he met another, they both knowing how each gulled the people: If he were now alive, he would much more wonder, how one Bishop, who is a Father finder, could hold his gravity when he meets another, especially when they come to discourse of their rare Art of Divinity, in finding Birds Nests, and filling them with young Cuckoos, making the People believe they are Sparrows: So here appears an impossibility, if the●● were a Thousand Witnesses, for any of them to Testify Marriage or Filiation, but the Parents; and it is before shown, God hath not prohibited Marriage without Witnesses, nor made it Fornication; and it is likewise shown, That the Law prohibiting Marriage without Witnesses came from the Devil, only for the filthy lucre of the Priests; and no inconvenience can be objected against Private Marriage and Carnal knowledge, without Witnesses; or if there could, yet allegare inconveniens non est solvere argumentum, so positively deduced from the Law of God, I conclude as before;  
First, That here is nothing objected which can make private carnal knowledge (between Persons not prohibited by the Law of God to Marry) Fornication.  

Mischiefs of public Marriage.  Secondly, That therefore liberty of Conscience ought to be permitted to Dissentients from the Popish Law, to marry publicly or privately with or without Witnesses, as suits best with their desires and conveniences.  

Rivalry.  First, Because compulsion to public Marriage or Wooing causeth Rivalry both in Men and Beasts, and public Wars and Calamities amongst Men have ensued from Rivals to one Woman, and Nature itself hath instructed the Beasts, which are not able to defend themselves, to retire into Woods and secret places, in Pairs, to secure themselves from Rivals.  

Polyandry.  Secondly, This causeth Polyandry when one Woman is Courted by two, or many Rivals, she lies under the Temptation of tasting them all, and not till necessitated, to fix on one; this likewise Nature teacheth Beasts, by secret retirements of their Females, to avoid promiscuous Sires of their young.  

Rape.  Thirdly, It exposeth Brides to Rapes; thus did the Lapithae lay their plot, to fight for a Bride at a public Wedding, which if the Marriage had been secret, without Witnesses, had been prevented: So had the wicked Laws of King Evenus, the Moors, and Indian Bramyns, that Courtiers and Priests should have the first Night's Lodging, which were Rapes on the Brides, and might have been prevented; and those filthy Laws would have been to no purpose, if the secret Marriages of Nature, without public or private Witnesses, had been observed.  
Fourthly, As publication of Marriages, 
Fraud.  or intention of Marriage before Witnesses may cause Rape and Violence, so it may cause Fraud and Deceit, which a secret Marriage only known to the Parties would prevent, as appears Gen. 29.21. And Jacob said unto Laban give me my Wife, (for my days are fulfilled) that I may go in unto her. And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, (here are public Witnesses enough) and made a Feast. And it came to pass in the Evening, that he took Leah his Daughter, and brought her to him, and he went in unto her. And Laban gave unto his Daughter Leah, Zilpah his maid for a handmaid. And it came to pass, that in the Morning, behold, it was Leah: and he said unto Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did I not serve thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? Now if all the men of the place had not been called together, but Jacob had gone in unto Rachel secretly, he had prevented so great a Fraud of Laban put upon him.  
I happening to be in Scotland, had the honour of acquaintance with a Gentleman there, and I thank him of receiving a noble entertainment at his House, concerning whose Marriage I was given this relation, There were two young Lady's Sisters of great Beauty, drawn by the Pencel of Nature, and not of Art, and not in her vulgar manner, as expressed by the Love-Poet.  
— Fancies non omnibus una est,  
Nec diversa tamen qualem decet esse Sororum.  
But so like one another, that they could not easily be distinguished, each was — Gratusque parentibus error. often beguiling their Parents with that pleasant deceit. One of these Ladies was married by this Gentleman, and as I remember, I was likewise informed that the Scots Custom was to make themselves merry at their Weddings, that the next day after the Brideall night, when Dinner was ended, and a Voider brought in, the Bridegroom was to stand with a Creile or Basket on his Back, and the Company used as they pleased to throw into the same as into a Voider, so long till the Bride in good-nature took it off from him with her own hand, which the fooner she did, the better Wife they judged she would be; the Bridegroom being put to this task of the Creile, many loaded upon him so long, and the Bride showing no pity relieve him, he looked back very wistly on her, as he thought, saying, Sweetheart will you not help me? She Answered, No, I am a Maid, whereat the company fell a laughing which much amused the Bridegroom, at last after they had made sufficient sport with him about it, the true Bride was brought down the stairs, who took off his Burden; the other who refused, being her Sister dressed in her . Here might far easier have been a deceit imposed, then by Leah, had there not been greater honour and virtue in the Parties, then in Laban, yet neither here could it have been done, if the Marriage had been secret.  

Against natural Modesty.  Fourthly, Compulsion to marry before public Witnesses, and denial of liberty of private marriage without Witnesses, is destructive to the modesty of Nature, (appointed by God, to distinguish Men from Beasts) which in all chaste and virtuous Persons, desires the Veil of Secrecy. Adam and Eve made them Aprons of Fig-leaves, though they were Man and Wife, and none saw them but themselves; and the wild Africans and Americans with Skins and Feathers cover their shame. Boaz, Ruth 3.14. though he intended to marry Ruth, yet to keep secret her lying at his Feet amongst the Sheaves, that Night he makes her rise in the dark, before one could know one another, and bids her not let it be known that a Woman came into the floor. And Prov. 30.19. Agar saith, There are three things too wonderful for me; yea four, which I know not: The way of an Eagle in the Air, The way of a Serpent upon a Rock, The way of a Ship in in the midst of the Sea, And the way of a Man with a Maid. Neither would they ever admit amongst the Hebrews any such idle thing as Banes or publication of Marriage, but a Virgin amongst them was called Almah, that is hidden, or a recluse from the sight of men, taking that custom from the Eastern Countries, in divers of which, the custom of keeping Virgins in their Parents Houses, unseen of men, is so rigorously observed, that their very Wooers are not suffered to see them, till married and brought to their Beds, but marry them on good report, as Princes use to do.  

Dishonours the Parties.  Fifthly, Public Wooing causeth dishonour to each Party, and if any Man address himself publicly to a Lady as a Suitor, and after sight likes her not, but deserts her, this will disparage her, the thoughts of the next that is wished are that she hath been blown on, and refused; the like will it be to the Man, if the Lady refuse him.  

Causeth Fornication, Adultery, Stews, and Brothels.  Sixthly, Denial of liberty of private Marriage, and punishing the same, as Fornication, compels men to what is true Fornication and Adultery; for if men cannot be allowed secret Marriage, and secret Wives, without Witnesses they will take secret Fornication and Adultery, and secret Whores and Adulteresses without Witnesses, which is a Thousand times worse. So what St. Austin says, Demetrius lupanaria & turbabis omnia libidinibus, is not true, nor is Toleration of Stews the Remedy appointed by God to cure Lust; but private Marriage is the Remedy appointed by God to cure the Stews; for it is said by Paul, To avoid Fornication, let every Man have his own Woman, and every Woman her own Man, which if denied to such Persons, with whose Conveniencies or Conscience it stands not, to take a Woman or a Man publicly before Witnesses, and a Priest in a Temple, is to deny them to take any Man or Woman at all. Whereas if liberty were given of private Marriage without Witnesses, to such Persons as are not by the Law of God prohibited to marry, this would destroy all Stews and Brothel-Houses: for what Man or Woman who have liberty to choose whom they like best, and to enjoy them privately to themselves, would be so mad to hazard themselves in common Stews, to be infected with those miserable and deadly Diseases, to be rob, stripped, have their Throats cut, or at least, spirited to a Ship, sold to Barbados or Barbary? or if they scape those greater dangers, to be all their Lives pursued by Constables, Parators, Bedels', hooted at by Boys, Carted, Whipped, Pumped, and to come to Bridewell, and Beggary at last.  
Seventhly, Public Marriages are too costly for the Poor, therefore to prohibit them private Marriage, 
Too costly for the poor.  is to prohibit them all Marriage, except such as will undo them; the Grand Signior himself, dares not venture on that is public, or the cost of it, which is one reason he is never married publicly by a Priest in a Temple.  

One Man may have reason to marry privately and another not, and one to marry public and another not.  Eighthly, There may be many reasons likewise both for Rich and Poor to marry secretly, and one man may have a Reason, which another hath not; and it may be not only inconvenient, but dangerous to one, and not to another; therefore it is fit every man (seeing it is not prohibited by God) should have liberty to marry public or private, with or without Witnesses, as it suits best with his conveniencies.  
Henry the Eighth married Ann Boulogne, the Mother of Queen Elizabeth on the 14 of Novemb. and kept the same so secret, that it was not known till Easter after, when she appeared great with Child. And Archbishop Cranmer was married, and kept it so secret, that it was not known, till discovered by the King. No doubt the King and Archbishop both had very good reasons for what they did, though they thought not fit to divulge them, either before or after. So Abraham and Isaac both endeavoured to keep their Marriages secret, by telling lies: they had very good reason for their Secrecy, though not for their Lies.  
From what hath been said, appears therefore to be proved,  
First, That private marriage, or carnal knowledge without Witnesses, between Persons not prohibited by the Law of God to marry, is not Fornication, or any other Crime.  
Secondly, That it is a remedy provided by God to prevent Fornication, and that the same if not forbidden by Papal, Episcopal, Pontifical, or other Diabolical Laws, would overthrow all Stews, Brothels, and common Whores, and the whole Mystery of Iniquity of the Romish Antichrist, which fills his Coffers, and supports his Power by these filthy gains, and far worse than those Ex lotio collected by the covetous Emperor Vespasian.  
Thirdly, That it is a great sin to forbid to marry: And that those forbidden to marry, who forbidden either public or private marriage where not prohibited by God, or take away the free liberty of either, or compel to either dissentients in Conscience, or differents in Convenience, and thereby become accessaries to all the Fornications, Adulteries, and other wickedness which ensue thereby.   

Of the Law requiring Witnesses of Marriage and Filiation, where both are acknowledged by the Parents, and no third party claims the Father, Mother or Child.  
This irrational Law is put in practice, where a Man and Woman not prohibited to marry by the Law of God, cohabit or keep private company; and the pretence is, That every Man should have his own Wife, and every Woman her own Husband, by the testimony of Witnesses, which is as frivolous, when the parties themselves acknowledge (though as is before proved they are not bound to acknowledge it, neither is it a sin) and none else pretends claim to the Man or Woman, as 'tis to require Witnesses of every one possessed of Lands or Goods, or to force him to answer to a Bill of discovery of his Title, where none other claimeth or pretendeth a Title better than his possession: The like is it where a Man and Woman acknowledge a Child to be theirs, they ought not to be examined, nor forced to produce Witnesses, whose the Child is, unless another, as the Harlot did before Solomon, claim or pretend right to the Child, for where there is no Controversy or Crime proved, there needs no Witness or Judge; In like manner, where a Child is acknowledged by Parents in their life time, the Inheritance ought to be suffered to continue to him, as left without proof of Witness or Enquiry, where no other pretends to be a Child to the same Parents, or a better right than Filiation; for where there is no Controversy between some parties, nor Crime proved, nor Suspicion, there needs neither Inquisition, nor Witness, nor Judge.   

Of the Law when claim is made by Corrivals of one Woman, of Sequestration of her pendente placito, and Sentencing either Man or Woman to be restored in Specie, and not in Value.  
That where there is a Breach of promise, or Contract of Marriage between a Man or Woman, they ought to have liberty to repair themselves in damage, is granted; but that a Woman is to be Sequestered pendente placito, or that either Man or Woman is to be adjudged to be restored in specie, is denied.  

Sequestration of a Woman unlawful.  1. As to the Sequestration of the Woman, this is contrary to Magna Charta, and the Petition of right, to imprison a free Person before Judgement.  
2. None ought to be taken in Pledge, Distrained, or Sequestered, which cannot be returned in as good Condition, as when Taken, Distrained, or Sequestered, which a Woman cannot be.  
3. As to return in specie and not in value, I say, to deliver a Woman to a Man to be lain with against her will, is a Rape on the Woman; and the like is it of a Man, to compel him to lie with a Woman, who claims him against his will.  
4. This endangers the lives of Man and Woman, who are mortal Enemies, by Poison, Sword, or other wicked ways, when compelled to Co-habitation against their will.  
5. To sentence either Man or Woman to be taken in specie, & not in Value, according to the practice of the Ecclesiastical Law, bring in the great absurdity and wickedness mentioned by Fortescue p. 75, 
Fortescue.  76. where speaking of Trial by Witnesses in the Bishop's Court, he saith, If a Man and a Woman make a private contract of Marriage without Witnesses, 
One man Sentenced to lie with two Women, and punished for lying with each.  and after the Man and another Woman make a contract of Marriage before Witnesses, shall he not in the Contentious Court be compelled to marry her, and also after that in the Penitential Court be adjudged to lie with the first, if he be duly required, and to do penance as often as by by his own motion and procurement he lieth with the second, though in both Courts the Judge be one and the self same person. In this case, as it is written in Job 40.17, Are not the sinews of the stones of Behemoth wrapped together, or perplexed: Fie for shame, they are perplexed indeed, for this Man can carnally company with neither of these two Women, nor with any other without punishment of the Contentious Court, or Penitential Court; but such a mischief, inconvenience, or danger can never happen by the way of proceeding in the Law of England, yea though Behemoth himself doth labour to procure the same.   

Of the Law making all prohibited Marriages Null.  

Marriage without Witnesses or Ceremony, not void, though prohibited.  The Law of the Pope, and Council of Trent, not only prohibited all Marriages except contracted before two Witnesses, and a Priest in a Temple, but makes them null and void. The Law of England prohibits them, but doth not make them null and void, though the common practice of the Bishop's Court and Certificates, contrary to Law, follows the Canon of the Council of Trent, and though it was made after all Foreign Jurisdiction, was by Act of Parliament abolished. But to speak now according to the Law of God, and of the Land, I shall first cite the opinion of Grotius and other Authors upon it: As to the Law of God, Grot. de jur. Bell. & Pac. pag. 142. saith; Si lex humana conjugia inter certas personas contrahi prohibeat; non ideo sequetur invitum fore Matrimonium, si re ipsa contrahatur; sunt enim diversa, quid prohibere, & quid irritum facere; nam prohibitio exerceri potest per poenam vel expressam vel arbitrariam, & hoc genus leges imperfectas vocat Ulpianus, quae fieri quid vetant, sed facium non rescindunt. And after he saith, Indecentia est major in Actu quàm effectu; saepe etiam incommoda quae rescissionem sequuntur, majora quàm ipsa indecentia aut incommodum Actus ipsius. If any human Law prohibit Marriage between certain persons, it doth not therefore follow, that it makes such Marriage void, if it be actually contracted; for to prohibit a thing, and make a thing void are two different things, for a prohibition may exercise its power sufficiently by a penalty, either Express or Arbitrary, and this kind Ulpian calls imperfect Laws, which forbidden a thing to be done, but if done rescind it not. After he saith, For often times the indecency is greater in the act, than the effect; and often times the mischiefs are greater which follow a rescission, than the act itself. With this agrees the expression of Thamar to her Brother Ammon, attempting to force her. 
Thamar and Ammon.  2 Sam. 13.12. And she answered him, nay Brother do not force me, for no such thing ought to be done in Israel, do not thou this folly: And I; whither shall I cause my shame to go? And as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the Fools in Israel: Now therefore I pray thee speak unto the King, for he will not withhold me from thee. Howbeit he would not hearken to her voice, but being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her. Then Ammon hated her exceedingly, so that the hate wherewith he hated her, was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her: And Ammon said, arise, begun. And she said, There is no cause: This evil in sending me away is greater than the other that thou didst unto me, but he would not hearken unto her. For the same reason King Alcinous adviseth, 
Medea.  That Medea should be returned to her Father, if she were not deflowered, but if she were, the reason will be otherwise, as is remembered by Apolonius in his Argonaut. So likewise the Sabin Virgins being taken by the Soldiers of Romulus, 
Sabin Virgins.  their Parents raising Arms again to resove them home; when the two Hostile Armies in Battalia drew near one another, the Romans sent their Feminine Prizes to mediate a Peace, who using this argument to their friends and kindred, as they stood ready to fight, That it would be a greater injury. to their own honour, and their friends, to take them from their Ravishers, who were now their Husbands, than their first Rape, and thereby obtained it.  
Luther to this purpose, relates a story of a young Man he knew at Erfort, 
Luther.  who tempting his Mother's Maid, the Maid acquainted his Mother with it; she with a pretence to School her Son into a better Lesson, lays herself in her Maid's Bed, her Son gets her with Child of a Daughter, which being concealed, and the Daughter sent abroad to Nurse and School, and after being grown up and brought home, the young Man knowing not of it, married her; so that she became thereby his Daughter, Sister, and Wife. After the same being discovered, the University was consulted about it, who thereupon advised the Mother to repent of her wickedness, but seeing the married Couple were ignorant thereof, and knew nothing, they advised, to avoid greater offence, that they should continue together; Quod fieri non debet, factum valet. Here was a Marriage prohibited by the Law of God and Man, yet when made, it appears the opinion of the University was, it ought not to be rescinded.  

Law of England doth not null a marriage not according to the Common-Prayer-Book, though it prohibits it.  I am next to speak concerning the Law of the Land, which, though it prohibit, yet doth not null a Marriage, not made according to the form of the Common-Prayer-Book.  
The first Reason is, It doth not null the Marriage of a Papist, which is not according to the Book of Common-Prayer; à fortiori, therefore it doth dot null a Protestant's, which is not made according to that Form.  
That it doth not null a Papist's Marriage, appears by the Act 3 Jac. 5. where a Papist is prohibited to be Married otherwise then in some open Church or Chappel, by a Minister Lawfully authorized, upon pain that the Man shall lose to be Tenant by the courtesy, and the Woman her Dower, Widow's estate, and Frank Bank; or if the Woman hath no Land, whereof the Man may be Tenant by the courtesy, than the Man is to lose a hundred pounds: So in case of a Papist, nothing ought to be exacted for Nonconformity in Marriage, but the express penalties; nor can the Marriage of a Papist, though not according to the Act, be made null, or the Children thereby illegitimate, why then should a Protestant's?  
2. Because the Council of Trent, which made the Canon, That all Marriages should be null and void, except contracted before two Witnesses, and a Priest in a Temple, is a Foreign Jurisdiction, and the Canon was made after the abolishing all Foreign Jurisdiction; the same ought not therefore be admitted to null any Marriage in England, or illegitimate any Child.  
3. This is confessed by a Learned Civilian and Canonist of our own, belonging to the Ecclesiastaical Court. 
Swimburn.  Swimburn of Wills and Test. 1 part 34. Who there saith, That an unsolemn Marriage, or not having Canonical Ceremonies, is not therefore no Marriage, because it is unsolemn, the Banes perhaps not being asked or the Marriage not Celebrated in the face of the Church, but privately in a Chamber or some other Rite or Ceremony omitted, but is nevertheless a true Marriage: And in the Margin he adds to this effect, Insolemnitas autem est defectus juris civilis non juris naturae; nam illa requisita de quibus in C. cumin hibitio de Cland. despon. sixth. non esse deforma & substantia matrimonii, & Legitimationis prolis, sed de solennitate tantùm, & ipsius decore introducta, Post Theolog. & Canonistas prodidit Granis Consul. Civil. 168. & hanc op. communi calculo receptam, dicit Jo. Lub. & Mascard de probat verb. filius conclu. 798. n. 8. & licet hodie per Council. Tridentin. hujusmodi matrimonia fiunt irrita. Nos tamen sequimur antiquum jus common tanquam non mutatum. Insolemnity is a defect in the Civil Law, and not of the Law of Nature; for those requisites of 1 C. inhibitio de clan. despon. Granis Concil. Civil. 168. hath delivered, after many Divines and Canonists, the same not to be of the substance of Matrimony, and Legitimation of Children; but only introduced for their greater Ornament. And Jo. Lub. and Mascard de Probat. verb. Filius 798. say likewise, The same opinion to be received by general approbation; and though of late the Council of Trent hath made such Marriages void, yet they follow the ancient Common Law, as not changed: Whereby it appears that the Canon of the Council of Trent to make Marriages not according to the Romish Ceremonies, is rejected in many other places, and much more in England; where all Foreign Jurisdiction is abolished, and there is no other Law of England, if that of the Council of Trent is excluded, which makes any Marriage of Protestant or Papist void, or illegitimates the Children: If the Marriage is not therefore void, it is valid, and hath all the rights of a valid Marriage, and the Children all the rights of Legitimate Children.  
4. It is already in part, and will hereafter be further shown, That carnal knowledge and not Ceremonies are Marriage, and that the same, and the birth of a Child, and not Ceremonies make Matrimony; and that both Marriage, and Filiation are impossible to be proved by any Witnesses, except the Parents admit: Therefore if the Canon of Trent were confirmed by Act of Parliament, or a thousand Acts of Parliament, yet can they not make that Matrimony and Filiation, by a Ceremonial Law of Man, void, which is established by the Moral Law of God, as will be further shown under the Title of Ceremonial Law, and Law of God.   

Of the Custom of Superalimentary gifts in consideration of carnal knowledge, between a Man and Woman, both before and after Marriage.  

Portions of Daughters.  Nuptial love is like the gift of God, impossible to be bought for money. Cant. 8.7. If a Man would give all the substance of his House for Love, it would utterly be contemned. Solon the Athenian Law giver ordained, That Wives should not bring their Husbands above three Gowns, and some other movables of small value. Lycurgus' instituted, That Virgins should be married without Portions. 1. That none might remain unmarried for their poverty. 2. That none should be taken for their riches, but their virtues. Plut. In Poland, Fathers give no more with their Daughters then their Wedding Clothes. And the truth is, as to Fahers, it comes all to one, whether they give Portions with Daughters, or none, if there were such a Law; for if A. and B. have each of them three Sons and three Daughters, and A give Portions with his Daughters, to the Sons of B, and B give back again those Portions with his Daughters to the Sons of A, there is nothing got on either side, but the trouble and hazard of tumbiing in and out the money, and the vexation of Lawyers with their foul Fines, and crabbed Concord's, to do and undo all again like Juggler's knots. The Venetians had a Law none should give above fifteen hundred Crowns, others say sixteen hundred ducats with a Daughter, yet are they very rich. Bodin cries out against high Portions, and saith, That by the Ancient custom of Marseilles, it was not lawful to give above an hundred Crowns with a Daughter, and five Crowns in Apparel. And a Law was made by Charles the Ninth, forbidding to give a Daughter above a thousand pounds sterling: And yet the Ordinance of Charles the fifth doth give no more unto the Daughters of the House of France; and though Elizabeth of France, Daughter to Philip the Fair, was married to the King of England, yet had she but Twelve hundred pounds sterling to her Dowry. Some will say it was very much, considering the scarcity of Gold and Silver in those days, but the difference is likewise very great betwixt a thousand pounds, and four hundred thousand Crowns: It is true, she was the goodliest Princess of her Age, and of the greatest House that was at that day. Henry the Eighth gave for Portions to his Daughters, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, but Ten thousand pounds a piece. And if we will seek higher, we shall find that in the Law of God, the Marriage of a Daughter was taxed but a fifty Skekells, which makes at most but four pounds sterling of our money.  

Gifts by Men to Women.  Amongst the Jews there appeared almost no other distinction in the Scripture between a Wife and a Whore, but one took hire, and the other none; and indeed if there were no hire or gifts, there would be no Whore. Deutr. 23.18. It is said, Thou shalt not bring the Hire of a Whore, nor the price of a Dog into the House of the Lord. And it is said Ezek. 16.31. And hast not been as an Harlot, in that thou scornest Hire; but as a Wife that committeth Adultery, that taketh strangers instead of her Husband. They give gifts to all Whores, but thou givest gifts to all thy Lovers, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy Whoredom. Mich. 1.7. It is said, They shall return to the Hire of an Harlot. And amongst the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which may be Englished a Rogue and a Whore, came both from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, vendo to sell, which were the Lady of Pleasure and the Gallant, which let themselves to hire for money.  

Gifts in Law from Women to Men, and Men to Women.  Besides these gifts by acts of parties, there are worse, and more mercenary gifts and hire given by acts of Law Superalimentary, to hire Men and Women to lie together: To the Man, if he can deceive such a Woman he shall have all her Goods and Chattels, as is before shown, by Transubstantiation by force, while she is alive; and after her death, all her Lands and Tenements by courtesy as long as he can live: And the Woman, if she will lie with such a Man, shall steal and beg all she can from him while alive, and when he is dead she shall have Dower and Thirds besides: which gifts in Law on both sides, are for no other end, then ob turpem causam Copulationis. As to Aliment, 'tis granted the Husband ought to provide for the Wife, and the Wife for the Husband; but Superalimentary gifts are the matters here questioned.  
The mischiefs of gifts Superalimentary on Marriages, either by act of the Parties or of Law, are,  

Mischless of Gifts Superalimentary in Marriage.  First, In regard of Public Government, Religion is thereby depraved, Protestant Men are enticed to marry Papist Wives for great Portions and Tenancy by Courtesy; and Protestant Women to marry Papist Husbands for great Jointures, Dowers, and Thirds.  
2. By these gifts Superalimentary, the Wealth of many Families is accumulated in one, especially by Daughter's Heiresses. A great So●oecisin in the Policy both of Monarchies and States; for it is apparent by the Coats and Titles, that many Family's quarter; the Subjects grow more Rich and Potent than the Prince. This was prevented by Moses' Law, by raising up Seed to the Brother, and by marrying of Inheritrixes to the next Kinsman; as likewise did the Athenians. It was prevented in Persi●, Armenia, afric, and almost through all the East, by limiting the Succession of Inheritances, by a kind of Salic Law, only to the Males, and giving only the Movables to the Daughters; till Theodora, to set up her Feminine Militia, got her Blunderbus Justinian to repeal that Ancient Law. Now though a Family Salic is of excellent use to preserve the equality of private Families: yet in Royal Families it is contrary to all sound Policy, hindering the Union of Kingdoms by Marriage; for private Families may be too Potent, but Kingdoms cannot. In other Nation's equality of private Families are preserved by Gavelkind amongst the Sons, and Parcenary amongst the Daughters; and amongst the Jews, by limiting Primogeniture to no more than a double Portion.  
3. Another Mischief to the Public of marrying Daughters with great Protions, is, it foments' Seditions, and hinders the Union between Patricians and Plebeians, and between Poor and Rich; as we see in Rome, where they married for great Portions, they would take the handsomest Daughters of the Plebeians, and abuse, but not marry them; because though they had Beauty to answer their Lust, they had no money to answer their Covetousness. But amongst the great Eastern Princes, where they buy and receive no Portion from their Wives, they marry the Poor equally with the Rich, which is no question a great obligation on their Subjects, by becoming, as it were, the same flesh and blood with them; who seeing the Daughter of a Mason, Queen in the great Kingdom of China; and the Daughter of an Herb-Woman, Sultana to the Grand Signior, and their Princes born of these; they think themselves highly honoured to be of equal blood with their Princes. In like manner the Ancient Custom of the Babylonians and Indians of selling the fairest Virgins to the Rich for Money, and giving that Money to the unhandsome to be Wives for the Poor, united the Poor and Rich by Marriages.  
4. Another great Inconvenience is, The Father gives so great a Jointure to the Mother, that when he dies, she marries another Husband, and starves her first Husband's Children; and the Father he gets so great a Portion, and Courtesy of the whole Estate of the Mother, that he marries when she dies, another Wife, and brings in a Stepmother over his first Wive's Children: whose good quality the Poet expresseth: 

Lurida terribiles miscent Aconitoe Novercae.   

Stepmother's terrible poisoned in spite  
Sons of first Mothers with blue Aconite.    
5. To marry for Money, shackles Young Men to Old Women, and Young Women to Old Men, and persons loathed one to another; whereby they become miserable both Body and Soul, and fall into Adultery and Fornication, and often to poison or otherwise destroy one another: Whereas were there not the Temptation of great Portions, Tenancies by Courtesy, Jointures, Dowers, Thirds, every one would marry where they best liked, and might thereby live virtuously and happily all their days.  
This hath been endeavoured to be remedied by the Civil Law, in the Title De Donationibus inter virum & uxorem, by making all Gifts void between a Man and his Wife; and the same Law gives another Reason of it, Ne nimio amore spolientur, lest the party who loved lest should rob most, and the worst Nature make a prey of the best. The Common Law pretended likewise, in imitation of the Civil Law, to make all Gifts void between Baron and Feme; but it dissembled: for it forbidden such Gifts to be made directly, but encouraged them to be done indirectly by Chancery trusts, which is ten times worse.  
In Scotland, to prevent the taking away the Estate of one Family by another by these Marriage-Gifts, or Covenants, they have an Excellent Law and of great Equity, which makes them void, as appears by Craig. Feud. 307. but 'tis only in one Case, which is, when two persons have Marriage-Covenants for Portion and Jointure, agreed and signed, and they are accordingly married thereon: If either the Man or Woman die within the Year after Marriage, without any Issue between them; the Writings of the Portion and Marriage shall be all void, and the right of the Portion return to the Father of the Woman, and the Jointure to the Father of the Man, and both Families be in Statu quo they were before the Marriage.  
The Arabians, Britons, and other Nations, to the intent that one Family might not by Marriage Gifts rob another, always married in the same Family, and Brothers and Sisters married, making that Religion to marry in the Family, which others made Incest; and that Incest to marry out of the Family, which others made Religion: 
Portions and Jointures both to be limited.  This indeed secured all within the Family, but there are many more Lawful ways before mentioned, and amongst the rest, the making all such Gifts, forasmuch as is Superalimentary, void, or at least to limit them by a Law, That all Portions, and Tenancies by Courtesy above the value of 0000 shall be void, and all Jointures, Dowers, and Thirds above the value of 0000 shall be void.  

A satire against Mercenary Marriage.  
cursed the Female was, or Male,  
Who first did Beauty set to Sale:  
For Love did then lose both his Eyes,  
When Gifts and Gold did blind the wise;  
And Venus, which did shine on high,  
From Heaven fell into a Sty.  
Priapus then, the God unclean,  
Thereon his Temple built obscene;  
And set the Steeple up and Spire,  
That he might share both Whores and Hire.  
And Sextons set to keep the Keys,  
That none might enter without Fees:  
And Cryer next to Curse and Ban,  
Unless well paid Woman and Man;  
And Paritor about to ride  
With Bag for Money by his side,  
All Women unto Court to bring,  
Who did not Wed with a Gold-Ring.  
Then Fathers left their Babes forlorn,  
Who had no Licence to be born,  
And Mothers fled, Oh heavy Doom!  
Because they were not called home.  
Then Priests to make them greater Whores,  
Fettered Fifteen to Fourscores,  
And married dead to those alive,  
M●zentius Torment to revive;  
Mouths bound to Mouths were Eyes to Eyes;  
With Breasts to Breasts, and Thighs to Thighs.  
When Pralats in fine Linen jetting,  
Of Reverend Fathers own begetting,  
Their Babes of Grace, oh pretty things!  
Made often Heirs to Peers and Kings.  
This Palls and Mitres first made shine,  
And Missions to be Divine:  
Thus Love and Hate together Yoked,  
The Hangman Priest together choked;  
And for the Murders clayms a Fee  
To his unholy holy See.  
The Ambidextrous Lawyer enters,  
And takes a share with his Indentures;  
Lawyer nor Priest, nor Book nor Bell  
Would have, did they not Women Sell.  
If Money her or me must buy,  
Loves Pedlars I you all defy.  
Money did Solomon beguile, 
1 King. 11.5.   
His first black Wife to fetch from Nile:  
And her, because he loved not best,  
With Thousand Wives to be oppressed.  
This was beginning of the Trick,  
The wise turned after Lunatic  
The Goddess Astaroth to please, 
Astaroth was the Moon. Milcom was Priapus.   
Who Ruled the Sidonian Seas;  
And Milcom, he the foul delight,  
Adored of the Ammonite.  
This, Protestants made Papists Wed,  
And fight and scratch in the same Bed.  
Faith and Religion both Divine,  
Lie Victims at Pecunia 's Shrine.    

Of the Law giving Jurisdiction of the secret Causes of Divorce between Parents, and secret Uncleanness of Children in their Parents Houses to public Tribunals, contrary to the Law of God.  
It will be Objected, How should those Sins of Carnal Uncleanness be punished, if not brought before a public Judge?  
'Tis Answered, Far better than by him.  
First, It not denied, but public Fornication and Adultery, where there are Witnesses, belong to public Justice to punish, as where Diogenes lay with a Woman in midst of the Market; or as Leo Afer mentions, where a Mahometan Prophet lay with another man's Wife at a public Bath in sight of a multitude of Bystanders. It is not denied likewise, but Bawds, Panders, Stews, Brothel-Houses, where are Witnesses, are and aught to be severely punished by the public Magistrate. But the Question is, of such Fornication and Adultery which are generally so secret, as none but the Parties themselves can witness against themselves: these appear expressly by the Scripture itself, that they belong neither to Priest nor Magistrate, to judge or punish, but only to God: for it is said, Deut. 29.29. Secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed, belong unto us and our Children. And Heb. 13.4. Marriage is honourable in all, and the Bed undefiled: but Whoremongers and Adulterers God shall judge. It is not said man shall judge of secret sins, but God. And Deut. 17.6. It is said, At the mouth of two Witnesses, or three Witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death, be put to death, but at the mouth of one Witness, he shall not be put to death. And 19.15. One Witness shall not rise up against a man for any Iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two Witnesses, or at the mouth of three Witnesses, shall the matter be established. And 1 Tim. 5.19. Against an Elder receive not an Accusation, but before two or three Witnesses. And there is very great reason that man should not presume to usurp on the Jurisdiction of God, in things secret, especially in these and other offences of uncleanness. For  
First, This many times endangers the lives of innocent Parties, how many Joseph's, how many Athanasiusse's, how many Susanna's, have been falsely accused. How far from the Law of God or Justice, 
Justices of Peace ought not to receive accusations of Fornication, on the single Testimony of a lewd Woman.  is therefore the proceed of Ecclesiastical Courts, and many Justices of Peace, who without any other Witness, than so incompetent a one as a lewd Woman who is the Party, and gains by it, charge and punish men for Bastardy and Fornication, and contrary to Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and all the Fundamental Laws of the Land, made for preservation of the Liberty and Propriety of the People, the one by causing Excommunicatos Capiendo's, the other by Warrants, send whom they will to Goal, and Imprison them at their pleasure? And how far again from the Law of God or Justice is the compelling men for these Crimes to self-accusation, when they can get no Witnesses as they ought to have.  
Secondly, Public Inquisitions and Punishments of these Crimes of uncleanness, do more corrupt than reform both Judge and People. For the Judge, example may be taken from Auricular Confessors, who under pretence of injoining Penance to others, learn to be above all others the most debauched themselves: and as to the People, it is either a licensing or encouragement to all such as are rich, who for a little Commutation-Money buy the Pope's Pardon, or what is equivalent, the Bishops, or the Kirks; or if they will not suffer them to Commute, the People when they see the Nobles in the Stools of Repentance, will think it an honour to follow them, and besides, for People to hear or see the public Examinations and Stories of uncleanness in public Courts, they oftentimes do but learn more wickedness than ever they knew or thought of before, and are less corrupted at a Playhouse then such a Scene of Justice. All this is far better punished in every private Family between the Parents, if there be just cause, by Divorce one of another without publishing the cause, and if there be no cause amongst the Children, by taking away as much of their Portions as the offence deserves, and giving the same to the innocent Children, and by good instruction, reproofs, and virtuous example of the Parents, which will prevent more offences in Children, than Tribunals can ever reform, though they have Witnesses.  
So Lycurgus by commanding in his Laws, That all Captains of Armies, and Priests of Temples, should marry, and that Husbands themselves should come to their Wives, Furtim & verecunde; and the Children be modestly Educated, left Sparta so clean from unchaste demeanour, that when Geradas, an old Spartan, was asked by a stranger, What was the Punishment of Adultery in Sparta, for he could find no Law made by Lycurgus concerning that Crime; Oh Friend says he, There is no Adulterer with us, When he replied, But what if there should be any? Geradas told him, He should pay a Bull so big as should be able to stretch his Neck over Taygetus, and Drink of Eurotas, when the other laughing, said, There is not such a Bull to be found; Neither, quoth Geradas, Is an Adulterer to be found in Sparta, where Riches, Luxury, and wantonness of Apparel are counted a disgrace; and Modesty and Obedience to Magistrates an Honour. Where the Seminaries of Vices are not permitted, how can Vices grow?  
First, Therefore as to Man and Wife, as Bodin lib. 1. cap. 3. says, Nothing seems more pernicious, then to compel the cause of Divorce to be shown before a Judge: for in so doing, the honour of one or both Parties is hazarded, which would not be, if neither of them were compelled to prove the same before a Judge; as Plutarch in Alcib. relates, That when the Wife of Alcibiades went to complain of him before the Judge, he came after her into the Court, and took her by force, and carried her away home on his Shoulders, Ne Secreta Fori Panderet, whereat the Judge only smiled. The Hebrews likewise used to make their Bills of Divorce without a cause; neither is it prohibited by Christ, if there were a true cause, to put her away by private Bill, without public Tribunal or Judge; for such were all the Bills of Moses, and no public Judge required to judge of the Cause, but only the Conscience of the Party. And Joseph having a just cause of suspicion against Mary his Wife, did not bring her before a Judge; and is commended for so doing, to be a just man; as Matth. 1.19. is said, Then Joseph her Husband being a just man, and not willing to make her a public Example, was minded to put her away privily. So doth Plutarch in Aemil. relate of Paulus Aemilius, Who according to the Custom of the Romans, shown no cause of putting away his Wife, but affirmed her very honest, wife, and nobly descended, and by whom he had also many fair Children; but when he was pressed by her Friends to show the cause why he would then Divorce, he shown them his , which was very handsomely and well made, and yet says he, None of you know, but myself feeleth where it wrings my Foot. By which doing the Woman is not dishonoured, but may marry with another suitable to her quality; and the same liberty had the Wives to divorce themselves from their Husbands, without proving or showing any cause before a public Judg. This likewise preserves the repute of the Children, who though innocent, will likewise perpetually bear the reproach, if the dishonour either of their Father or Mother be published before a Judg. And further, as to drawing the secret offences of uncleanness of Children, especially of Daughters, before, a Judge, who are under the Family Jurisdiction, either of Father or Mother, or Husband, the same is an undoing to those who offend: for though they never so much repent and amend, yet there can be no repairing of their shame, or name when published; and the innocent, who are the Father, and Mother, and Husband, and the other Children, the dishonour can never be taken again from them. Seneca therefore who in all other things was a great honourer of the virtue of Augustus, yet blames, as a great oversight in that wise Emperor, that he punished the Adulteries of his Daughter Julia, publicly by Banishment. Quae potius, saith he, Principi tacenda quàm vindicanda sunt.  
Secondly, It makes every petty difference between Man and Wife irreconcilable, and heightens Contention from a small spark, by blowing it abroad to so great a flame, that it is at last unquenchable; for the publishing of many things, neither criminous nor sinful, may affect some modest Natures with as deep a sense of disgrace, as those that are false, as much as those that are true, and when once published, cannot by repentance be again revoked, but may cause such hatred between the Parties, as will never again admit them to live together.  
Thirdly, Where offences are not published, they oft times may with honour be forgiven, and the Parties reconciled, which if published cannot. So Antonius Pius forgave the Adultery of Faustina, and would not draw it to public Judgement, to prevent his own shame. And Ael. Sparta. writes, That the Emperor Adrian did the like to his Empress, who though he suspected, yet put not away, but only removed such Courtiers from his Court as he suspected.   

Of the Law compelling Persons Married though mortal Enemies, to Cohabitation.  
Another great mischief is in the Ecclesiastical Laws, they compel Cohabitation of Men and Women, when they are mortal Enemies, and take off Exequenda Matrimonialia Officia, and due benevolence, when one insidiates for the life of the other, of which take Bodin further, Fol. 19 but says he, If the Cause seem not sufficient to the Judge, (which he intends the Cause alleged of Divorce to an Ecclesiastical Judge,) or be not well proved, it is therefore meet to enforce the Parties to live together in that Society, which is of all other the straightest Test, having always the one and the other the object of their grief▪ still before their Eyes. Truly (says he) I am not of that opinion, for seeing themselves brought into extreme servitude, fear, and perpetual discord; hereof ensue Adulteries, and oftentimes Murders, and Poison, for the most part to men unknown. And for this cause, free Divorce to both Parties▪ and non-Cohabitation was permitted by the Roman Laws not out of wantonness, but out of the greatest necessity and Piety, for preservation of those ends for which Marriage was instituted: with the least danger and dishonour that might be to either Party, wherein they must of necessity suffer, if either free Divorce be tolerated, or the examination of the causes of the same drawn to public Tribunals. One cause Cato the Censor complains of, for which the freedom of Divorce, and non-Cohabitation ought to be permitted, was, because he used to say, That all Adulteresses were Poisoners, and this likewise appears by Valer. Max. lib. 2. p. 8. where it is thus related, Veneficii questio & moribus & Legibus Romanis ignota, quam plurium matronarum patefacto scelere orta est, quae cùm viros suos clandestinis insidiis veneno perimerent, unius Ancillae indicio protractae, pars capitali judicio damnata centum Septuaginta numerum compleverunt: An Inquisition was made concerning Poisoning, being an offence not known to our Manners or Laws, and the wickedness of many Matrons being disclosed, who by secret Treachery had killed their Husbands by Poison, they being drawn forth by discovery of a Maid that part of them who were condemned to death, amounted to the number of One Hundred and Seventy: A great number for one City at one time, and was no doubt not one of the smallest causes why Divorces grew so frequent in aftertimes, not as is vainly pretended, out of wantonness, but of necessity. Whereas if this private way of Justice and defence should not be tolerated to Families without public litis contestations, neither the honour or safety of any Family or Persons therein could be preserved; and such as had a mind to separate, if they could not do it but by public Judgement, would likewise, either as the Muscovites are said to do, Hire▪ some false Witnesses or Knights of the Post, to defame one another, or oftentimes, if that will not do, to destroy the lives of one another, or before the Party can make public proof, Poison, or otherwise kill him, whereby after it will be too late, as it was in these 170 Husbands, for any complaint to be made to the public; and the Wives are likewise in as great danger, if they have not the same liberty of providing for them themselves on the first discovery of danger. Had it not been better for all these murdered Husbands and Wives to have parted on either side, then to have acted such a Tragedy together. So Aegisthus corrupting Clytaemnestra to Adultery, thereby got her concurrence to the death of her Husband Agamemnon. And Sejanus having received an affront from Drusus, plotted no other way to destroy him, but by corrupting his Wife, as saith Tacit. Annal. lib. 4. Cuncta tentanti promptissimum visum ad uxorem ejus Liviam convertere, hanc ut amore incensus Adulterio pellexit, ad conjugii spem, consortium Regni & necem mariti impulit. So the Brother of Lewis the First, King of Hungary, was strangled by his Wife, and she married a new Husband; Lewis the King goeth into Italy to revenge his Brother's death; she and the new Husband fly to the Pope, who protects them. Here neither the corruption of Clytaemnestra, nor the Wife of Drusus, nor the Hungarian Hang-woman could have been discovered before a public Judge, till it had been too late. What are therefore such Elccesiastical Laws and Judges, who compel such secret and deadly Enemies to Co-habitation in one House, but accessary to their Murders, and who forbidden them to marry others, but accessary to the great sins of their Fornications, and Adulteries?  

Divorce by consent.  Authent. Col. 23.140. The Title of the Law is,  consensu Matrimonium solvi potest. And the Law itself ends with this Reason; Eos siquidem qui violento affectu odioque correpti fuerunt, perquam difficile est recon●iliare; contingit enim ut ex his nonnulli ad mutuas insidias procederent, venenisque & aliis quibusdam, quae lethalia essent, uterentur in tantum, ut saepe liberi qui ipsis communiter nati essent eas in unam candemque voluntatem conjungere non potuerint.   

Of the Law of Divorce à Mensa & Thoro.  
Haddon, in the new draught appointed in the times of Henry the Eighth, and Edward the Sixth, for Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws expressly abolisheth Divorce, à Mensa & Thoro, in these words, Mensae societas & Thori solebat incertis Criminibus adimi Conjugibus, salvo tamen inter illos reliquo Matrimonii jure; quae constitutio cùm à Sacris literis aliena sit, & maximam perversitatem habeat, & malorum sentinam in Matrimonium comportaverit, illud Authoritate nostra totum aboliri placet.  
To prohibit Divorce à vinculo matrimoni for adultery or other Lawful cause, and to prohibit the same to be done privately between the parties themselves, without drawing the cause to public Tribunals, is to contradict Christ himself, who speaks of a private Divorce by a Bill both from the Husband and the Wife, according to Moses' Law, and not a public Sentence of any Judge; and by the exception of uncleanness, allowed the Innocent party to marry another: but the Pope's Law, which prohibits it, doth it to no other end then to get the gains to his Courts, by the Jurisdiction of Divorces, and to compel the parties, either to make use of his Stews, whence he gathers his common Rents, or to pay him a private Taxa Camerae for such Women as he will allow, when he hath tied him from his Wife by the Divorce; Neither doth Christ take the private Jurisdiction from the Husband or Wife of Divorce given by Moses, but only prohibits to use it without a Lawful cause. In the same manner did the Laws of the Romans allow the same Jurisdiction, both to the Husband and the Wife, as appears by many examples. By the Law of Scotland Divorce for Adultery is allowed à vinculo matrimonii, and the parties may marry again: But by the Laws of England, the parties can neither be Divorced à vinculo matrimonii, nor marry again; which is touched by Craig. Feud. 269. Apud Anglos Matrimonium ob Adulterium non dirimatur, sed tantùm separatio à Thoro & Tabula permittitur; which is certainly clean contrary to the Law of God, and the Doctrine of Christ. Notwithstanding which, our Episcopal Canons rather follow the Pope then Christ; and are so outrageously oppressive on Innocent parties, Can. 4.7. that in all such Divorces, they order Bond and Sureties to be given, not to marry again during each other's life, which is as before shown a Doctrine of Devils, forbidding to marry where God hath not forbidden.   

Of the Custom of Protestants marrying with Papists.  
There is no Religion in the World established by any wife Legislator, which he desires to perpetuate; but the chief means he takes care of to effect the same, is by his Law to prohibit his followers, to marry with Women of another Religion, for they both seduce the Fathers and the Children. And while even in their Nursing, and before they have learned their Mother-tongue, they will with their Milk be so far seasoned with Old-wives Fables, as the greatest Doctors of truth will not oftentimes be able all their life after to get out again. Moses as to this is very strict and positive. Deut. 7.3. Where speaking of the Idolatrous Nations of the Land, saith, Neither shalt thou make Marriages with them; thy Daughter thou shalt not give unto his Son, nor his Daughter shalt thou take unto thy Son: for they will turn away thy Son from following me, that they may serve other gods, so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against thee, and destroy thee suddenly. And Nehem. 13.23. It is said, In those days also I saw Jews that had married Wives of Ashdod of Ammon, and of Moab, and their Children spoke half the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews Language, but according to the Language of each people; and I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their Hair, and made them swear by God, saying, ye shall not give your Daughters unto their Sons, nor take their Daughters unto your Sons, or for yourselves, did not Solomon King of Israel sin by these things? So doth Mahomet command his followers to marry only those of his Religion, whom he calls True Believers, and saith, It is better to marry Slaves, who are True Believers, than great Princesses who are unbelievers. So do the Popish Laws and Canons forbidden Papists to marry Protestants, under the name of Heretics, except with the Pope's Dispensation or Licence, which is only used where he sees a fit opportunity, to put such a snare about the Neck of a Protestant, as the Philistines did with their Dalilah about Samson, to betray and destroy him. So it appears, both Jew, Pope, and Turk, are wiser in their generation then the Children of Light. The Papists make Laws, and prohibit Marriage with Protestants, and illegitimate their Children, to make them incapable to succeed to a Papists Inheritance. The Protestant sleeps, and never makes so much as one Law to prohibit Marriage with Papists, or to make Papist Children incapable to succeed to a Protestant Inheritance.    

CHAP. VII. Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession ought not to be judged by Ceremonial Laws.  
BY the Law of the Patriarches or Moses, there were no Ceremonies instituted of Marriage; and the Marriage of Abraham to Sarah his first Wife, was no more than of Adam to Eve, Gen. 4.1. And Adam knew Eve his Wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a Man from the Lord. And this appears Gen. 20.2. where it is said, And Abraham said of Sarah his Wife, she is my Sister: And Abimelech King of Gerar sent and took Sarah: But God came to Abimelech in a Dream by Night, and said to him, as Mr. Selden de jur. Nat. & Gent. 573. translates the Hebrew Text, Ecce tu morieris propter mulierem quam accepisti; nam concubuit cum ea maritus. Behold thou shalt die, for the Woman which thou hast taken for her Male hath lain with her. God doth not say he hath carried her to Church and shook her by the hand before a Priest, or took her per verba de praesenti, or that Consensus non Concubitus facit Matrimonium, but the contrary, that he had married her, because he had lain with her. And the very same Marriage, without any Ceremony, doth Abraham likewise make with his second Wife Hagar. Gen. 16.3. And Sarah Abraham's Wife took Hagar her Maid, the Egyptian, after Abraham had dwelled ten years in the Land, and gave her to her Husband Abraham, to be his Wife: And he went in unto Hagar and she conceived. Here Hagar is made Abraham's Wife, by no other Ceremony but going in unto her, and her conception thereupon. And besides going in unto her, there is no Ceremony appointed for Marriage in the whole Law of Moses; nor had the Jews any custom of carrying the Woman to Church, before a Priest, but the contrary. When they married it was in the open Air (and thought it not Lawful in any House) whence they might behold the Heavens, in memory of God's promise to Abraham. Gen. 15.5. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now towards Heaven, and tell the Stars if thou be able to number them; and he said unto him, so shall thy Seed be. But admit Moses had made as many Ceremonial Laws for Marriage, as he did for Sacrifices; admit the Jews had superstitiously observed as many more by their Customs and Traditions; yet were it to no purpose; for both Ceremonial Laws and Traditions are all now abolished by Christ. Col. 2.14. Blotting out the Handwriting of Ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his Cross. And Math. 15.1. Where the Scribes and Pharisees asked Christ, Why do thy Disciples transgress the Traditions of the Elders v. 3. He answered and said unto them, Why do you also transgress the Commandment of God by your Tradition: For God commandeth, saying, Honour thy Father and Mother: but ye say, Whosoever shall say to his Father and Mother, It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honour not his Father and his Mother, he shall be free: Thus have ye made the Commandment of God of none effect by your Tradition. And vers. 9 But in vain do they worship me, teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men. Here is the very same thing done by Bishops, which was done by the Scribes and Pharisees; for they on a Ceremonial Form of words used by Children, gave them liberty not to honour their Father: And the Bishops on a Ceremonial Form of words used by the reputed Father, per verba de praesenti, presently make the Child honour him who is not his Father, nor begat him; and if such Ceremonial Form of words be not used, and a Certificate of the Bishop thereof, than they command the Child not to honour the Father who begat him; and command the true Father to illegitimate and abdicate his Child, which was truly begotten: And this they do either by the Ceremonial Law and Canons, or Traditions of Popes. But if both Ceremonial Laws and Traditions of Moses and Jews are abolished by Christ, and by the Moral Law of God, of honouring the Father, much more are the Ceremonial Laws and Traditions of Popes and Bishops abolished by the same Moral Law. I shall only mention a word more of the abolishing of the Ceremonials, by the Testimony of the Popish Writers themselves, who though in their works they keep alive all the Ceremonials of Moses' Law, whence they can male profit, yet in words and Doctrine they so far confess them abolished, that they say it were a deadly sin to use them. Aquinas therefore on the Question concludes; Ceremonialia adeo sunt evacuata, ut non solum sunt mortua, sed mortifera; Judicialia sunt quidem mortua; quia non habent vim obligandi, non tamen sunt mortifera; quia siquis Princeps in regno suo ordinaret illa judicialia observari, non peccaret, nisi forte hoc modo observarentur, vel observari mandarentur, tanquam habentia vim obligandi ex veteris legis institutione; talis enim intentio observandi esset mortifera. The Ceremonial Laws are so utterly void, that they are not only dead, but deadly; and the Judicials are dead but not deadly; because if any Prince in his Kingdom will command those judicials to be observed, he doth not sin, unless perhaps they are observed, or commanded to be observed as obligatory, by virtue of that old Antique Law: for such an intention to observe them were a deadly sin. So agrees Lippoman and others. The difference between a Ceremony and a Circumstance shall be shown after.  

Of the absurd and ridiculous Ceremonies, on which Priests would have Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession to depend.  
The chief Pagan Ceremony of Marriage in old time with the Greeks, was to carry the Woman to the Temple with Torches.  
Ac nec nupta quidem, taedaque accepta jugali  
Cur nisi ne caperes Regna paterna nothus.  
And this came first from the Priests of Priapus and Venus, who as is before shown in the Title of Ecclesiastical Laws, were the first inventors of all Ceremonies of Marriage, that for their own gain they might, by pretence of a Ceremonial Law, instituted by their false Gods and Goddesses, overthrew the Moral Law of the true God of Marriage. But to them who know the true God, and his Law, from the false, what doth a Torch more make a Marriage than an end of a Candle to go to bed with, or to have the validity or invalidity of the same, or the Filiation and Succession of Children to depend on?  
Amongst the Romans they were married by the Priest, and a Gold Ring put on the Woman's finger; the like is now in use amongst the Popist Romans. In the Persian Marriages instead of a Ring, the Priest incircles them with a Cord, conjoins their hands, takes a Reciprocal oath, and calls Mahomet to witness; then the Caddi registers their Names. The Assyrians never see the Woman until they are married to her, (so neither do Princes but by Picture) and marry on a good report; and go first and agree with her Parents, then a●an appointed time they are to meet in a Church, in a part of it designed for that use; where there is a Partition with an hole in it, on one side the Bridegroom and his friends stand, on the other the Bride and her friends: The Priest bids the Bridegroom put his hand through the hole, and take his Bride by the hand; which no sooner done, but her Mother and one other of her friends, being prepared with a sharp Instrument, pricks his hand all over, and if he doth not pull away his hand when he is so pained, but still holds her fast, they hold it a sign he will love her, if not they judge the contrary. Amongst the Macuas on the River Quizungo, when a Maid is to be married, she goes into the Wilderness a whole Moon every day, to bewail her Virginity, visited of her friends, and returning home every Night, and every Morning early returning to her wild Task again; as soon as the new Moon appears, a great Feast is made, and the next day she is delivered to her Husband, without any more Ceremony. Does Sanctos. The Lapponians hold, That no Marriage which is not consecrated by the Fire and Flint is Lawful, therefore they strike a Flint on the Steel, to show, That as the hidden sparks fly out by that Union, so Children are propagated by the conjunction of Male and Female. Nuptiae olim celebrantur accipiendo Aquam, & Ignem. L. per & ib. Gl. pen. de Donat. inter virum. The Incutan Priest makes a Marriage by joining the little fingers of the Man and Woman together, near a fire. The Brasilians without any Ceremony, yet Adultery is with them death. Amongst the Memesses, the Man and his Bride are set a stride on a Horse, both blinded, and so led into a Grove, there taken down and married by their Rites; then set up again blinded as before, and conveyed with their company, and Music, and Singing to their House, there taken down and had to Bed, still blinded till the next morrow; in the mean while the company continue drinking. Barclay. In Muscovy they ride to Church, they use a Ring and joining of Hands, she knocks her Head against his Shoe, and he throws the lap of his Garment over her. In Peru, the Man marries the Woman by putting an Ottoga or Shoe on her Foot, if she were a Maid the  was of Wool, if a Widow of Reeds. The Mexican Prlests married the parties by tying a corner of the Man's Gown and the Woman's Veil together, and so lead them to the Man's House; where there was a fire ready kindled and made, the married couple walk seven times about the fire, and so they become married. In the old Greek Marriages, when the Bride came to her Husband's House, they used to throw Figs on her Head, and the company to scramble for them: The Woman as Lactan. touches, was likewise to be set in the lap of Priap. The old Roman custom, was by eating a piece of Barley-Cake before the Priest, and other Ceremonies. The Cimbri had a custom, That such as would marry, after the Marriage agreed on, they each of them pared their Nails of Fingers and Toes, and sent the parings one to another, which, when they had mutually received; this was esteemed a holy and firm Marriage, and they became Man and Wife. The Teutonians rounded one another's Hair. The Elamites pricked one another's finger. The Numidians anointed one another with spittle and clay. In Rome, the Bridegroom and Bride married not by their own proper names, but by the name of Cajus and Caja; they used to call themselves by the name of Jupiter and Juno; so the Poet though never so poor a fellow, he says, Eja, mi Juno, non decet te tam tristem esse tuo Jovi. And in Muscovy the Bridegroom and Bride are called the Duke and the Duchess.  
The Armenians amongst other Ceremonies meet at the high Altar, and lean Forehead to Forehead; then comes the Priest, and turning his back to the Altar, lays his Bible on their Heads instead of a Desk, a weight sufficiently heavy, being a thick ponderous Folio; there he lets it lie till he reads the Form of Matrimony. The Scythians first touch one another's Feet, than they set together their Knees, than their Hands, than their Buttocks, than their Heads, than they embrace one another, and then 'tis a Marriage. If the Ceremonies or words of the Priest make Marriage, than Nero was, when he was married to one Pythagoras an Eunuch dressed like a Woman. And when another time he married Sporus an Eunuch in Greece, these must be Marriages: One said it had been good for the World, Nero's Father had been so married.  
At Banaras, and amongst other Indians, when a Man and a Woman is to be Married, they and a Bramayne or Priest, and a Cow with a Calf are brought together to the River's side. The Woman having a Brass-Pot in her hand full of Water; the Priest receiveth a White Cloth of four Yards, and a Basket cross bound with divers things in it; the Cloth he layeth on the back of the Cow, and then he taketh the Cow by the end of the Tail, and then he says certain words, and the Man doth hold his hand by the Priest's hand, and the Woman's hand by her Husband's hand, and all have the Cow by the Tail, and then they pour Water out of the Pot on the Cow's Tail, and it runneth through all their hands, and they lave up Water with their hands, than the Priest ties them together by the , which done, they go round about the Cow and Calf, give some Money to the Poor, and their Idol; and lest the man should think himself married to the Cow and Calf, he gives the Cow and Calf to the Priest, which is more than they give to the Poor, and so they are Man and Wife; and whom the Cow's Tail hath joined, let no Man put asunder, which if they do, 'twere fit the Priest lost his Cow and Calf. In Cambaia, as Texera reports, They have so great esteem of their Cows, that a Merchant Banyan spent 10 or 12 Thousand Ducats in the Ceremony of a Nuptial Feast, of marrying his Cow to his Friend's Bull, for the greater publication of it, not suffering it to be private in the Woods; and what were the Cow or Calf the better for all this, or who could the sooner know whether the Calf were the legitimate Issue of the married Bull, or some other in the Woods.    

CHAP. VIII. Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, ought only to be judged by the Moral Law of God.  
THE debate of the lawfulness of the Marriage of Henry the Eighth with Queen Katherine, having been his Brother's Wife, being in Agitation; it happened that Cranmer, (who was after Archbishop, and in time of Queen Mary Martyred,) and Dr. Stephens, and Dr. Fox met at Waltham one day at Dinner, where falling in discourse about the case, the other Doctors thought the Marriage might be proved unlawful by the Civil-Law, but said Cranmer, It may better be proved unlawful by the Law of God: And so it may be said here, Marriage, Filiation, and Succession, may be better proved, as it is in truth, lawful or unlawful, by the Moral-Law of God, then by Laws of Moses, of Nations, of Emperors, of Popes, of Bishops, of Mahomet, of England, Scotland, Ireland, or any human Laws in the whole World.  
First, Because the Moral Law, is the Law of Nature.  
Secondly, Because the Law of Nature is the unquestionable Law of God.  
Thirdly, Because it is a perfect Law, and comprehends in it all the innumerable Cases, which are impossible to be contained in any human writing.  
Fourthly, Because it is a Law universally given, as well to Gentil, as to Jew; and no Nation in the World exempted from the Jurisdiction of the Moral-Law.  
Fifthly, Because it is a Law immutable, and endureth for ever, and neither Jew, Pope, Turk, nor any Power in Heaven or Earth, except the Legislator himself, is able to change it.  


The Jews have an old Tradition, That God when he Created the World left a great hole in Heaven, that if any other God arrogated the glory of the Creation, the true Creator might bid him stop that hole first.  When a Jew shall stop the hole  
Left in Heaven near the Pole.  
When the Sun is in a Sack,  
And the Stars turn spots of black.  
When the Moon 's in Mah'met 's sleive,  
And a Priest shall Nature shrieve;  
And her Palace turn a Grange,  
Jew, Pope, and Turk, her Law shall change.   

When the Moon her head shall dress  
In the Western Wilderness.  
When in Heaven for a Sign,  
Charles his Wain shall cross the Line.  
When the Earth and Water shall  
Make two Globes, and not one Ball.  
Then, Oh then! what is more strange,  
Nature 's God her Law shall change.   

Changed may Second-Nature be,  
But no Eye shall ever see  
Highest Nature change from Good,  
Though by us not understood,  
Yea, though none him see or know,  
He Eternal Good will do,  
Through all Forms though Nature range,  
Nature 's God will never change.   
It will be asked perhaps by some, In what Tables God hath writ the Law of Nature, concerning Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, and how it may be read? To which I Answer, That the Tables are of two kinds, the External, and Internal; and the Readers and Witnesses are of two kinds, the External, and Internal; the External Tables of Marriage are expressed by Christ, Matth. 19.4. when the Pharisees question of Divorce, whether lawful for a man to put away his Wife for every cause? He Answered, and said unto them, have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them Male and Female? The Male and Female are therefore the External and visible Tables, wherein God hath written in living Hieroglyphics, or Figurations of the Sexes, his Law of Marriage. As to External Tables, of Filiation, Christ expresseth likewise the same, Matth. 18.2. And Jesus called a little Child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily, I sayunto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little Children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little Child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little Child in my name, receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones, it were better for him that a Millstone were hanged about his Neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea. As to the External Tables of Aliment, they are expressed in his own Mother. Luke 11.27. Blessed is the Womb that bore thee, and the Paps that thou hast sucked. The Paps therefore wonderfully prepared to overflow with Milk, just against the time the Child is to be born, are External Tables, wherein God hath written to Innocents', in letters as white as Snow; that the Mother ought to aliment them with the Milks of her Breasts; And when he hath made the Teeth to break through the Coral Gums, he writes in those Ivory Tables, That the Father ought to provide stronger meat for the Child. The Internal Tables are expressed by Paul, 2 Cor. 3.3. Written not with Ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in Tables of Stone, but in the fleshly Tables of the Heart. The External Readers and Witnesses are all Creatures, as appears, Job 12.7. But ask now the Beasts, and they shall teach thee, and the Fowls of the Air, and they shall tell thee; or speak to the Earth, and it shall teach thee, and the Fishes of the Sea and they shall declare unto thee. Go then and ask the Fowls of the Air concerning Marriage, Filiation, Aliment and Succession, they will show thee their Mateing, their Pairing, keeping true Wedlock, their private retirement to secret places, their holes, their Caves, their Nests they build for their young, their Males and Females who procreated them, and not the Bishops to be Judges to which they belong; their Grandmother Earth their dry-Nurse, the Sea, their wet-Nurse, Provision for them, all their feeding, their sucking their young, their teaching them when able, go to their Grandmother and take their Diet with her, and such of them as have Propriety in Goods and Chattels, Tenements and Haereditaments, as Bees, Aunts, and Squirrels, leaving as they die their Hives and Honey-Hills, and Corn-Holes, and Nuts, to their Descendants, to be their Successors. The Internal Readers and Witnesses in Man, are the Divine faculties of the Soul, Sense, and Reason, one doth Testify the Fact, the other the Law. The Internal Judge of the Probation of both, is the Conscience. The Laws which they read and testify are written in the Internal Tables of the Heart, Christ expresseth the first, concerning Marriage, in the foresighted Text, Matth. 19.5. For this cause shall a man leave Father and Mother, and they two shall be one flesh. Concerning Filiation, the Law of natural affection, which is writ in the heart of the Father, is mentioned, Psal. 103.13. As the Father pitieth his Children: so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. And the Law of natural affection writ in the heart of the Mother, is mentioned, Isa. 49.15. Can a Woman forget her sucking Child, that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb? As to the Law of Aliment written in the heart of the Father, it is mentioned, Luke 11.11. If a Son shall ask bread of any of you that is a Father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a Fish, will he give him a Serpent? or if he shall ask an Egg, will he offer him a Scorpion. Lastly, as to the Law of Succession written in the heart of the Father, whereby all natural Sons succeeded, either to the right of Primogeniture, or Filial Portions; the same runs through all the examples of Jews in Scripture, and of Gentiles in Histories.  
This great Law of Nature is acknowledged to be written in the Tables of the Heart, by the Scripture itself. Rom. 2.14. The Gentiles who have not the Law, do by Nature the things contained in the Law: these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves, which show the work of the Law written in their Hearts; their Conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts, mean while, accusing or excusing one another. So Rom. 1.26. Paul saith, Women did sin against Nature: Yet was there no Law of Moses, nor any Law written by God or Man, in Paper and Ink, which particularly prohibited them, but only that of Nature. And that this Law of Nature can neither be changed, nor abolished, or dispensed with by any humane power, is agreed by Philosophers, Poets, Divines, Common and Civil Lawyers, and all others, except Popes, who exalt themselves above God, Christ, and Nature, and all that is called God. Lex Naturae, neo tolli, neo abrogari potest, saith Tul. de leg. 205.  
Dionysius, when his Mother being an old Woman, desired of him he would get her to be married to a young Man: He answered, Kings might overthrow Civil Laws, but could not the Laws of Nature. Lex humana derivari debet à lege Dei, sed eam perfectè persequi non Potest. Aquin. Augustin, In humanis Legibus nihil est justum nisi ab aeterna lege dirivatur. Honesta & turpia natura judicanda sunt. Tul. de leg. 169.6. Hobart's Reports. 120. It is acknowledged, that all customs and Acts of Parliament against the Laws of Nature, are void; for Lex naturae est lex legum, the Law of Nature is the Law of God, and positive Law, if contrary or variant from it, is the Law of Man.  
Yelverion, Justice, said, When a new Case comes, for which there is no positive Law before; we do as the Sophonisis and Civilians, resort to the Law of Nature, which is the reason and ground of all Laws, and of that which is most beneficial for the Commonwealth make a Law, quod non negatur. 8 E. 4. fo. 12. Claudius' justly reprehends Tribonian, That in compiling the Institutes of the Civil Law, he omitted the Law of Nature. de Ferraiis. 552. But the flattering Courtier had he done so, knew he must have prefixed another imperatoriam Majestatem; and laid other manner of principles than placitum Principis to be the original of right: he could not have then divided Title and Jurisdiction with his Master. And Jupiter Proclaiming that Deus est imperator in Coelis, & Imperator est Deus in Terris. 'Tis well he claims only the Earth, for now the Pope claims, not only plenitudinem Terrae, but Heaven too, to sell to his Customers. Yet the Civil Law acknowledges the Law of Nature immutable: And this point of Marriage and Succession, saith, Lege duodecim tabularum benè humano generi prospectum est, quae unam consonantiam tam in maribus quàm in foeminis Legitimis, & in eorum successionibus, necnon in liberis observandam esse existimavit, nullo discrimine in successionibus habito, cum natura utrumque corpus ediderit, ut maneat suis vicibus immortal & alterum alterius auxilio egeat, ut uno semoto & alterum corrumpatur; sed posteritas dum inimica utitur subtilitate, non piam induxit differentiam etc. Cod. lib. 6. tit. 47. l. lege. By the Law of the Twelve Tables, it is well provided for Mankind, that there should be the same rule of Successions for Males, and Females, and in Children, and no difference to be made in their Successions; seeing Nature hath brought forth the Bodies of both, that they might continue in their course immortal, and one need help of another, and one taken away, the other might be destroyed. But later Ages, while they use so much subtlety, have made an impious difference, etc. Which is intended between Males and Females in Succession, when Lands are Entailed to Heirs Males. By which appears what opinion the Civil Law hath of Successions to such Intails to be impious, because contrary to the Law of Nature. The Civil Law likewise acknowledgeth, that Jura Sanguinis nullo jure Civili dirimi possunt; and again it follows the Law of Nature in Legitimation, Si mulier quinquagenaria partum ediderit, an, debet hujusmodi soboles suo patri succedere, & haereditatem ●jus nancisci à Caesariano advocato interrogati sumus, & sancimus, Licet mirabilis hujusmodi partus inveniatur, & raro contingat; nihil tamen eorum quae probabiliter à natura nascuntur esse producta respui; sed omne jus quod ex quacunque Lege liberis praestitum est, hoc merum atque immutilatum hujusmodi filiis vel filiabus servari in omnibus succ●ssionibus sive ex testamento, sive ab intestata. Et summatim non absimiles aliis fiant in quos similes natura efficit. Cod. lib. 6. tit. 47. si major. A question is proposed us by the Advocate of Caesar, if a Woman above fifty bring forth a Child, whether such Issue shall be Successor to the Father in the whole inheritance? And we Decree, though it be an admirable Case, and rarely happens, yet we ought not to reject any thing, known to be probably produced by Nature; but all the right which by any Law is given to Children, the same aught to be wholly and entirely performed to such Sons and Daughters in all Successions, whether to a Testament or an Intestate. And in short, that they ought not to be made unlike other Children in Successions, whom Nature hath made like. Hence it appears, that the Civil Law wills the Succession of Children shall be according to the Law of Nature, and not according to any Canon Law, or Law made by the Priest. Natura duce errare nullo modo potest. Tul. 1. de leg. Cum vero parentibus rediti, deinde Magistris traditi sumus tum ita variis imbuimur erroribus, ut vanitati veritas, & opinioni confirmatae natura ipsa cedit. 3. Tusc. Where nature is our Guide, it is impossible to err, but when we fall into the hands of Parents, and are delivered to Shool-Masters; we are then infected with so many Errors, that all truth gives place to vanity, and Nature itself yields to opinion accustomed. To fight against Nature, is like Giants to fight against God, Cato major.  

Of the Final Causes of Marriage by the Law of God and Nature.  
The Final causes of Marriage, which is the Ordinance of God, and not of Man, are not to fill Priests pockets with money, or to satisfy their insatiable Covetousness, and Ambition; to set their Foot on the Necks of Emperors and Kings, in their Legitimations, and Successions; and thereby to dispose of the Kingdoms of Princes, and the Liberty, Propriety, and Goods of the Subjects, at their Arbitrary will and pleasure. But the Final causes of Marriage by the Law of God and Nature, are three. 1. Procreation of Children. 2. That Man might have an Helpmeet for him, there being many necessities, especially in time of sickness, wherein Man cannot be without the help of a Woman. 3. To make his life more pleasant and delightful, Tristis sine conjuge lectus. As for the first part, which is the greatest and chiefest end of Marriage, namely procreation of Children; without which the World cannot be continued. To be the shorter I shall only mention one Poet as follows.  

Providei ille maximus mundi-Parens,  
Cùm tam rapaces cerneret fati minas,  
 damna semper sobole repararet nova,  
Excedat, agedum, rebus humanis Venus,  
Quae supplet ac restituit exhaustum genus  
Orbis jacebit squalido turpis situ,  
Vacuum sine ullis classibus stabit mare,  
Alesque Coelo deerit, & silvis fera,  
Solis & Aer pervius ventis erit.   Sen. in Hippol. 

Fates cruel Threats, when the great Parent saw,  
Against his Creatures, by as great a Law  
He then Enacted all those, whom it slew,  
Sold by new Births perpetually renew.  
Should Venus' lease, and should not still restore  
With fresh Supplies Natures exhausted store,  
On squalid Earth no Beauty would remain,  
No gallant Fleets would dance upon the Main,  
No Deer in Woods, no Birds would be in Sky:  
Winds only through sad Air would sighing fly.   
There could be neither King, nor Parliament, nor People, nor Governors, nor Governed; neither could the Protestant Religion defend itself against Pope or Turk, without Marriage; for though it be Apocrypha, it is truly said, Esdras 4.15. Women have born the King, and all the People that bear rule by Sea or Land.     
The End of the First Book.   

THE CONTENTS Of the Second Book.  

BY what Judge Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, ought not, and aught to be Judged.  
Of the Five Competitors, to be Judges of Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession; 

(1.) The Bishop.  
(2) The Magistrate.  
(3.) The Soldier.  
(4) The Parents.  
(5.) The King and Parliament. 137    
Exceptions against Bishops being Judges, in reference to the Legislative. ib.  
Except. 1. They assume to be Judges, Jure Divino, without a Sign of Mission from God, which overthrows the Legislative Power of the King and Parliament. ib.  
Of the Sign of Mission required by the Grand Signior, from Sabatai Sevi, a counterfeit Jewish Messiah. 139  
2. They have falsely translated the Scripture, in all words relating to Marriage. 142  
They have falsely translated Ish, Isha, Zona, Kadesh, Philiegesh, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Husband, Wife, Harlot, Concubine, etc. 142  
No such as word as Concubine in the whole Original Scripture. ib.  
They have falsely translated the Seventh Commandment Lo Tinaph, to be Adultery. 145  
They have falsely translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Fornication. ib.  
They have falsely translated the Tenth Commandment, in the words Wife, Manservant, Maid-Servant. 146  
They have falsely translated Mamzer in the Old, and Nothus in the New Testament, Bastard.  
Wherein are noted the Errors of Coke, Skene, and Grotius, in following Episcopal and other Popish translations. ib.  
Of the absurdity of Common and Ecclesiastical Lawyers, who make the Child born, without the Ceremonies of a Priest and Temple, no Sib, Kin, or of Blood, to the Father who begot, or the Mother who bore him. 154, 155  
Further Reasons shown, that they have falsely translated Mamzer in the Old, and Nothus in the New Testament, Bastard. 156  
No such word or thing as Bastard in the whole Original Scripture, or amongst the Hebrews, Greeks, or Romans.  
3. They have corrupted the Press, both as to Scripture; and Acts of Parliament, and interdict Protestants to Print against, or answer Papists. 162  
A Counterfeit Act of Parliament Printed by Bishops against Protestants, and the true suppressed. 163  
Mischiefs which follow the Interdiction of the Press to Protestants. 164, 165  
4. By pretence of giving the King the name of Supremacy, they have taken the thing to themselves. 167  
5. By pretence of giving the King Supremacy by the Ceremonies of the Coronation; they take it from him to themselves. 169  
David Anointed and Crowned by his Parliament, and not by the Priest. 173  
6. They assume in all matters concerning Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, to be above Appeal to the King's Courts 175  
Of the abominable Judgement passed by the Common Law Judges in Kennes Case, Coke lib. 7.42. whereby they gave away the Supremacy of the King's Courts to Bishops, and made them in all causes Matrimonial, subject to no Appeal. ib.  
Exceptions against Bishops being Judges, in reference to the Judicial Power. 180  
1. They are prohibited by the example of Christ, to Judge Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, or Succession. ib.  
2. They are totally ignorant of the Fact, and were never Educated in the Laws by which they pretend to Judge Marriage. 181  
3. They Judge by a Chancellor, and not in Person.  
4. They have Plurality of Offices, and more than they are able to serve, yet will be Judges of Marriage besides. ib.  
5. They are ambidextrous and amphibious Judges. 182  
6. They Judge Marriage by pretended Canons and Laws made by Bishops, without assent of Parliament. ib. & 183  
7. They take to themselves Fines and Penalties of their own Judgements. 184  
8. They Licence, Dispense, and Pardon all Crimes within their pretended Jurisdiction for Money.  
9 They cannot be known whether Protestants or Papists, if Bishops. 185  
10. They Judge by Fictions and not by Truth.  
11. They Judge by Ceremonies and not by Circumstances.  
Of the manifold mischiefs from the Judgement of Marriage by the Ceremonies of a Priest and a Temple. 192  
1. It compels to enter into an indissoluble Obligation, before the Parties can know each other, whether they are sit for Marriage or no. 193  
2. It give the Bishop the Monopoly of all Women and their Goods. 196  
3. It gives him the Monopoly of Successions, both in private Families and Kingdoms. 197  
4. It gives him power to Judge of Marriage, Filiation, and Succession, by Fictions. ib.  
5. It causeth in the Rich Excess and Vanity of Apparel, Tilting, Turneaments, Masking, Gluttony, Riot and Drunkenness. 198  
6. It undoeth the Poor in their Marriages. 199  
7. It causeth Immodesty in Brides, wanton Songs and Ceremonies, promiscuous Dancing, and corruption of Youth. 200  
8. It exposeth to public view what God hath commanded to be secret. 201  
9 It causeth Community of Women, Community of Children, Fornication, Adultery, Stews, Brothels, and the dissemination of most contegious and deadly Diseases amongst the people. ib.  
10. It hath caused Prostitution of Brides to Priests, Lords, Guests, and others. 205  
11. It hath caused Consecration of Incest, Whores, Sodomites, to attend the Service of the Priests, and the Temples. ib.  
12. It hath caused the Consecration and Adoration of Priapus, Baal Peor, Venus, Adonis, Flora, and the first defiling of the Virgin World with Whoredom and Idolatry. 207  
13. It first destroyed in the World the Omnipresential Worship of God. 208  
Prayers in Temples and Synagogues, except amongst persons agreed, prohibited by Christ, and why.  
A Poem on the Omnipresential Worship of God, and therein of Marriages in Temples. 223  
15. It caused the bloody Sacrifices of Virgins, Children, and Indian Wives. 229  
16. It lays punishments on lawful Child births, and destroys Millions of Infants. 234  
17. It caused the Parisian Massacre, wherein were an Hundred Thousand Protestants slain. 240  
Why the Ottoman Emperors Mary not by a Priest, or in a Temple, and of the bloody Murders ensued of the Sons of Solyman the Magnificent, by his breaking the Custom, and his being drawn by Roxolana to Marry her by a Priest. 245  
12. Bishops proceed to Judgement in the unknown Language of Law Latin. 254  
13. They Judge for Fees, where of the inconveniences following maintenance of Judges, and Officers by Fees, and not by Satary.  
Exceptions against Bishops being Judges, in reference to the Executive Power.  
1. They begin the Suit with Execution. 263  
2. They Pledge before Summons, Summon before Copy, Copy before Oath, Punish before Contumacy, Judge before Hearing, and Arrest before Judgement, all which preposteration gins with Execution. 268  
Of the Inconveniences ensue by Quorums, or more Judges than one in a Court. 276  
A satire against the cruel Preposterations above mentioned, both in Ecclesiastical and Temporal Courts.  
Of Summons to answer before a Copy given, of what is required to be answered. 286  
Of giving a Copy before an Oath of no Calumny. 288  
Of the multitude of Fictions and Falsities ensue in Chancery and Common Law, by neglecting the Oath of no Calumny. ib. ad 305  
Of Judgement before Hearing.  
Part of a satire translated out of Seneca, p. 685. on the settish Emperor Claudius, who used to Sentence before Hearing. 305  
An enumeration of divers. Forms of Judicial Proceeding, wherein People are Condemned before Hearing.  
1. By repelling men from the Truth, and merit of the Cause, and compelling them to make their allegations in Formalities and Fictions. 306  
A Dispute between two famous Judges, Fitzherbert, and Brook, 14 H. 8.25. concerning Truth and Good Sentence, and Formality and Fiction, in Judicial Proceeding. 306  
2. By compelling to Original Writs at Common Law, and not serving the Party with a Copy of the Declaration without them. 312  
Mischiefs of Original Writs. 313  
3. By compelling to the Writ of Subpoena in Chancery, and not serving the Party with a Copy of the Bill without it.  
Mischiefs of Writs of Subpoena.  
4 By the Capias ut lagatum, and Excommunicato capiendo.  
A satire on a Papist and a Protestant, Imprisoned, one on an Outlawry, the other on an Excommunication, against Imprisonment before Hearing and Judgement. 329  
A Digression concerning the danger of the Three Kingdoms, Condemning one another without Hearing, by reason of the Non-Union of their three Parliaments in one House.  
Of the Fatal Dangers attending a Non-Union, and the inestimable Benefits of the contrary. 335  
Of matters requisite to perfect an Union.  
An Elegy on the ill effects of Excommunication of Protestants by Protestants, causing a Disunion in the late unhappy Civil Wars. 343  
5. By Excommunication itself.  
The Form of the Jewish Excommunication. 345  
The Form of the Greek Excommunication against Thiefs. 347  
The Form of the Pope's Excommunication against Queen Elizabeth.  
All Forms of Excommunication wicked and Antichristian. 348  
Of the strange Cheats and Superstition in Excommunications. 352  
Of the damnable mischiefs arise to Christian Princes and States, by tollerating Popes or Prelates to Excommunicate, without a Sign of Mission from God. 362  
All Excommunication, Curses, and Deliveries to Satan, by Bishops or Priests, without a Sign of Mission from God, if Malefice follow, aught to be punished as Witchcraft, if not as a Cheat. 381  
A satire in defiance of all Excommunication without a Sign of Mission from God. 388  
An Epode on Protestants Excommunicated by Papists.  
Considerations concerning a True and False Test between Papist and Protestant.  
6. By Bishop's condemning Protestants of Heresy by the Four first General Councils.   
The other Exceptions against Judicial Forms, and what was intended concerning the other Competitor-Judges, I am enforced to break off abruptly by Disturbances at the Press.   

Lib. II. Of the Judge of Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession.  

CHAP. I. Of the Five Competitors to be Judges of Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession. (1.) The Bishop. (2.) The Magistrate. (3.) The Soldiers. (4.) The Parents. (5.) The King and Parliament.  
HAving before shown unanswerable exceptions against the Ecclesiastical Laws, by which Bishops pretend to judge; I shall now propose exceptions Declinatory, of the Authority and Jurisdiction usurped by them, and likewise of their Personal disabilities and incapacities, to be Judges of the matters in question, all which are (1.) In reference to the Legislative. (2.) The Judicial. (3.) The Executive or Military Power all usurped or abused by them.  

Exceptions against Bishops being Judges, in reference to the Legislative.  
They assume to be Judges, Jure Divino, without a Sign of Mission from God, which overthrows the Legislative Power of King and Parliament.  
For they assume to be Angels and Messengers of God, Ambassadors of Christ, and Successors by his last Will and Testament, of the whole Power of Judgement given to the Son; yet do they show no sign of Mission from God, no letters of Credence from Christ, nor any letters of Probat, that they were nominated either Executors or Legatees in any such Testament, or in the Testament of any Executor or Apostle of Christ; or in the Testament of any Executor of such Executors. But they follow therein the old Cheat of all the old Pagan Legislators. Thus did the old Egyptian Priests call themselves Angels of God, and were so called by the People; and Menes, their most ancient Lawgiver, recorded in the World, alleged his Laws received from Mercury the Pagan Michael or the Archangel of the Messages of the gods. Minos' the Legislator of Crect, to soar a pitch above the Authority of the Laws of Menes, attributed his to Jupiter himself, and alleged to the People, That the great God was his Guest in his House for the space of Nine Years together, and Dined and Supped with him every day, till he had indicted to him those Divine Laws, and he was able to write them for Publication. Thus did the Pope over-top that Law which was given by the disposition of Angels, by pretence of Inspiration of the Holy Ghost, whom he sent to the Council of Trent in a Cloak-bag. And Mahomet to outdo the Pope, made himself the Holy-Ghost, affirming himself to be the Comforter promised by Christ. John 14.25, 26. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you: but the Comforter, which is the Holy-Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Now the Bishops pretend to a greater Power from Christ then Mahomet, he only in this claims Power to Teach, but the Bishops claim Power Jure Divino from Christ, to Judge the World: yet whether they show any better Commission or Mission than he, Jure Divino, let any judge. The gift of Prophecy, 
Priests and Prophets at mortal Feud.  if true, goes not by Descent; those who therefore pretend to be Successors, and call themselves Priests, are fain to counterfeit either a Law or Gift from the Predecessor's Prophet, whereby the Priesthood was made Hereditary or Successive in that manner by which they take it, yet both the old Prophet, and the new Priest, a newer Prophet pretending a newer Revelation or Mission, again over-reaches and deceives the deceivers, which is the reason that Priests pretending to be Hereditary or Successive, are always at mortal Feud with new Prophets, true or false; the former who have no pretence but Possession or a Descent cast, and a Possessary Action dreading to be Evicted by a Writ of right Patent under the Great Seal of Mission, either of a true or sergeant Miracle. But such patches of Ecclesiastical Policy are now worn so threadbare and full of holes, that since Grammar-Schools, Boys themselves, peep thorough and laugh to spy the Devil hid under the Pall of pretended Jure Divino, without a Sign of Mission. Episcopacy must now therefore change the Scene, and show a Sign on the open Theatre, if they pretend from God, and their Letters of Credence, if they pretend from Christ; and the Probat of the Will and Testament, (hic in curia probat,) if they pretend to be Successors Testamentary, or they are likely to find none but Papists or Noncomposses to give them implicit Faith, for the Turk himself is not now so gross witted, as to admit either Priest or Prophet, Jure Divino, without a Sign of Mission, as is well known to all versed in those Histories, and may appear in the example following.   

Of the Sign of Mission required by the Grand Signior of Sabatai Sevi a counterfeit Jewish Messiah.  
Sabatai Sevi, had his Design sped, would have been Competitor with the Grand Signior and all the Emperors and Kings of the Nations, for their Dominions, on the Title of a Messiah, who is Jure Divino above all Earthly Princes; and they should have felt the effect of a Jewish Excommunication to have been deposed from their Thrones, could he but have shown a Divine Patent for the doing, as his deluded followers firmly believed he would do.  
He was the Son of Mordecai Sevi an inhabitant of Smyrna, who gained his living by being a Broker to an English Merchant in that place; but his Son being addicted to study, became to be a notable proficient in the Hebrew Tongue, Divinity, and Metaphysics; and vented such new Doctrine in the Law of the Jews, under the notion of being their Messiah, so long expected; as made the Jews forsake their Trades, and Negotiations whereby they lived; and to venture all on the hopes of their purchases in the new Kingdom of their Messiah: Yet notwithstanding his Disciples were so numerous, as to be almost innumerable, there was one Samuel Penya a Jew in Smyrna of good Estate and Reputation, so much opposed him by arguments that he shown not the signs of Mission of the Messiah, according to Scripture and the Doctrine of the Rabbis; that he raised such a Tumult against him, as drove him out of the Synagogue with danger of his life. Yet being seconded by the Devil, this could not crush his Ambitious design: for within a while after, his Enemy Penya's Family were possessed, and his Daughter Prophesied, and fell into strange ecstasies: And this was not done only in his House, but four hundred Men and Women more, likewise Prophesied of the growing Kingdom of Sabatai; and young Infants who could scarce stammer out a syllable to their Mothers, repeat and pronounce plainly the name of Sabatai the Messiah, and Son of God; and voices were heard to sound from their Stomach and Entrails; and those of riper years fell into Trances, foamed at Mouth, and by inspiration from the Devil, recounted the future Prosperity and deliverance of the Israelites; their Visions of the Lion of Judah, and the Triumph of Sabatai; which made Penya Recant and turn Convert, and Preach more for him then ever he Preached against him. The noise of which Conversion of this persecuting Saul to the faith, hugely increased the conflux of multitudes to increase the Power of the Messiah, and nothing wanted now but that Sabatai should show some Miracle for a Sign of his Mission to so great a multitude of strangers, who had not yet seen or heard any, besides the Inspirations which horribly puzzled Sabatai, though the imagination of the People was so vitiated, that any Leigerdemane-Trick would have passed with them for an high Miracle. There happened an occasion wherein Sabatai was to appear in behalf of his Subjects before the Cadi or Judge of the City, to demand ease and relief against some oppressions which grieved them, it was thought necessary the Miracle should appear now or never, when Sabatai appearing with a formal and Pharisaical Gravity which he had starched on, some on the sudden avouched to see a Pillar of Fire between him and the Cadi, which report presently run through the whole Room, and some who strongly fancied, vowed and swore they saw it; the alarm of the Miracle ran likewise as speedily through those in the outer-yard, and was likewise received at home by Wives and Children in a moment, and the than Faith of this Miracle was so far rooted, that all those who questioned or believed it not, were called Kophrim, Infidels or Heritics, liable to the censure of Excommunication, with whom it was not lawful, as much as to eat; having thus settled the opinion of his Sign of Mission, he designs for the Jews in Constantinople, and privately ships himself in a Turkish Saick in the Month of January, 1666. and the Wind being Northerly, he was detained Thirty-Nine Days in his Voyage, so little command had the Messiah over the Sea and Wind, at length he gets sight of Constantinople, the Great Vizier being then there, and not yet departed on his expedition for Candia, who having heard some rumours of this man, sent two Boats, whilst the Saick was detained by contrary Winds, with command to bring him Prisoner to the Port; where being brought, he was immediately clapped into the worst Dungeon in the Town, where having remained two Months, when the Vizier being designed for Candia, and seeing the mighty conflux of People to him notwithstanding in his Dungeon, and that the Jews at Constantinople were grown as mad to set up his Dominion, as all the rest, thought it not safe to leave him in the Imperial City, whilst the Grand Signior and himself should be both absent, he causes him therefore to be removed to the Castle of Abydos, being of Europe side of the Hellespont, opposite to Sestos. After he had been there a considerable time, the noise of him flies louder to the ears of the Grand Signior, and he sends a Chiaux or Messenger to bring speedily Sabatai to Adrianople, where he than was, whither he was brought accordingly; and being demanded several questions in Turkish by the Grand Signior, he desired a Doctor of Physic, who had from a. Jew turned Turk, to be his Interpreter, which was granted him, but not without some reflection of the standers-by, That had he been the Messiah or Son of God he would not have wanted Languages. Being therefore come to make Answer for himself in that way he could, the Grand Signior demanded a sign of his Mission to be shown by him of his Messiah-ship, and would admit no other but a Miracle of his own choice, which was, That Sabatai should be stripped naked, and set as a mark to his Archers, if the Arrows passed not through his Body, but his skin was Armour of Proof, then would he believe him to be the Messiah. Here the Devil forsook Sabatai as he useth to do Witches, when brought before the Magistrate, who beareth the Sword; for the power of the Sword being a sign of Mission to itself, in regard the Powers that are, are ordained by God, and lesser Powers are commanded to be subject to the greater. The Power of the Magistrate may be greater than such petty Daemons, as can only do such Ape-tricks as Inspirations or Witchcraft; or if it is the roaring Lion himself, he may perhaps be afraid to adventure on so many Troops of Hunters as the Magistrate can command; and the Evil Spirit may not be in so high a degree Incorporeal, as not to be liable to Corporeal-Force: but whether he be or be not, 'tis certain his Instruments, Sabatais, Magicians and Witches are; and they are therefore by the Magistrate to be compelled to show a sign of Mission, as Elisha did, to call Fire from Heaven, which can protect them; or the like against the Sword given by God to the Magistrate, or else it is the duty of the Magistrate to execute Justice upon them. Sabatai therefore knowing he had no Spirit of God to protect him against the Sword of God, in the hand of a Power, to the dreadful demand of such a sign of Mission, disclaimed all his Titles to Kingdoms and Governments, and humbly alleged, that he was a poor Cocham and a Jew as others were, and had nothing of Privilege or Virtue above the rest: The Grand Signior notwithstanding not wholly satisfied with this plain confession, declared, That having given public Scandal to the Professors of the Mahometan Religion, and done Dishonour to his Sovereign Authority, by pretending to draw-such a considerable portion from him under the pretence of the Kingdom of a Messiah, as Palaestin; his Treason and Crime was not to be expiated by any other means, then by a Conversion to the Mahometan Faith, which if he refused to do, the Stake was ready at the Gate of the Seraglio to Impale him. Sabatai with much feigned cheerfulness replied, That he was contented to turn Turk, and that he did it not of force, but of choice; and having been a long time desirous of so glorious a Profession, he esteemed himself much honoured that he had the opportunity to on● it in the Presence of the Grand Signior. Hist. Three Impost. 48. The Messiah in whom the Jews had placed their Faith so high, appearing not able to show a sign of Mission, and what was worse, turning Turk, they were extremely confounded with shame, which they might have prevented, had they as they ought to have done, demanded the sign effectually first. And if Mahomet, who was the Mussul-men's Messiah, or the Popes, who are the Catholics Messiahs, had in their beginnings but been put by Princes to show such signs of Mission as Sabatai was by the Grand Signior, neither Mahometans, nor Popes, nor Bishops, nor so many Superstitious Sects and Schisms could ever have plagued the World, as they now have done: for all these have still been raised by pretences of Missions from God, of which they never shown a Sign.   

They have falsely Translated and Expounded the Scriptures in all words relating to Marriage.  
The falsity of the Translation appears in the particulars following.  
First, 
Ish. Isha. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  The word Ish, which in the Hebrew Text signifies amongst mankind a Male, and amongst Beasts the same, and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which in the Septuagint signifies the same, and the word Isha, which in the Hebrew signifies a Female, and in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in Latin Foemina, in French Feme, and in English Woman, which all signify amongst Mankind a Female, 
Male, Female.  which words Male and Female, are used by Christ in their natural, certain, and general signification. These have they translated into the Artificial, Ambiguous, and Arbitrary signification of their Vocabula Artis of Man and Wife, as 1 Cor. 7.2. The Original Greek is, Let every Male have his own Female, and every Female her own Male, which they have translated, Let every Man have his own Wife, and every Woman her own Husband; that is to say, such a Woman as the Bishop will please Arbitrarily true or false for Money to certify to be his Wife, and such Man as he will in like manner certify to be her Husband, and not such as Christ saith, as God hath joined and made Man and Wife, which is a false translation. 1. Because it translates words general, into words special. 2. Because it translates words of a natural signification, into Vocabula Artis, of an artificial signification. 3. Because the natural signification was the voice of God, and the artificial is only the voice of Man. 4. Because the natural was true, and the artificial is false and fictitious. 
Husband and Wife words ambiguous.  5. Because the natural was fixed, and certain, the artificial is ambiguous and mutable, ad placitum imponentis, to signify what he will, as serves most for his profit. The Bishops have therefore falsely translated the word of God into words of their own, that none may be called Husband and Wife but such as give them Fees to call them so.  

Zona, Kadesh, Pillegesh, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 false translated.  Secondly, They have falsely translated the Words Zona, Kadesh, Pillegesh, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Harlot and Concubine, which word Zona in the Hebrew Text signifies no more than a common Hostess or Caupona, one that sells Victuals, or keeps an House of Entertainment, the Chaldee renders it, Foeminam fallacem, vagam, non sub eodem tecto habitantem, and the Latin translation have rendered her worse, that is plain Whore; for the Romish Lady will be sure to call Whore first, and therefore translates Jos. 2.1. concerning the Spies sent to Jericho, Venerant in demum cujusdam meretricis Cauponae, cujus nomen erat Rachab ut cubarent ibi, but the English is translated, And they went and came to an Harlot's House named Rachab, and lodged there; 
Harlot.  now that she ought not to have been rendered Foeminam fallacem, appears by her works, for it is not only the interest of all Hostesses to be faithful to their Guest, though they do not lie with them; but she was in a more special manner faithful to these, and hazarded her life for them, if she had been discovered both for her hiding and letting them over the Town-wall. And as to the word Zona, seeing it hath most naturally a good signification of an Hostess or seller of Victuals, and Verba sunt accipienda in mitiori sensu, there is no warrant, were the word ambiguous, (which doth not appear neither) to translate it in the worst sense, and indeed when they have racked Zona all they can, they cannot so much as make it ambiguous, or squeeze more out of it then Caupona or an Hostess.  
Thirdly, As to the word Kadesh in the Hebrew, 
Kadesh.  it signifies a Woman Consecrated, which is an Holy-Woman, or an Holy-Nun, or Votaress; now these holy Nuns or Votaresses, who are Consecrated to the service of Venus, and those who are Consecrated in like manner to the service of the Virgin Mary, do often play the Harlots, yet to translate either of those named Holy-Nuns Harlots, is a false translation, for a Translator ought to be of Words, and not of Deeds.  
Fourthly, Judg. 11. is translated, 
Harlot.  Now Jeptha the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the Son of an Harlot: and Gilead begat Jepthah. Which is a translation repugnant to itself, for if she had been a common Harlot, or Hostess, or other, how could it be known that Gilead begat Jepthah, and how was not Jepthah Filius populi, rather than the Son of Gilead? If she were not a common Harlot, what difference between her and a Wife, in a Nation who allowed Plurality of Wives, and Succession in Filial Portions to the Sons of them all.  
Fifthly, As to the word Pillegesh, they derive it from Palag, 
Pillegesh.  divisit & Isha Foemina, which in the Hebrew Text signifies no more than a divided or several, or another Woman or Wife, where there was Plurality allowed, and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Septuagint, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  signifies in the natural signification no more than Juvencula, or a young Woman, and both these they forsooth have translated Concubine, a Vocabulum Artis of their own Forging, which they will have to signify a Woman who hath not had both Banes and Benediction of one of Priapus Priests in a Temple; yet is there ●ot in the Original of the whole Scripture, either Old or New Testament, such a word as Concubine, neither is there any where Isha, 
No such word as Concubine in the whole Original Scripture.  made more lawful than Pillegesh, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. So Gen. 1.2, 3. Sarah and Hagar are both translated Abraham's Wives. And Gen. 25.1. Keturah is translated Abraham's Wife, yet 1 Chron. 1.32. she is translated Concubine, whereas the words of the Septuagint are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and signify only the Sons of Keturah Abraham's young Woman, and there is no ground at all to translate her Concubine; for Abraham married her not till Sarah was dead, and the Marriage of Keturah therefore being lawful and unblameable, she ought not to be touched with the ignominious and fictitious name of Concubine.  
So Ruth 4.12. they translated her young Woman, who was fit to be translated Concubine, than Keturah, for she stole to Bed to Boaz at night amongst the Sheaves without his leave or calling, and like the Antipodes, the Woman wooed the Man, which Keturah was more modest for aught we find, then to do to Abraham, but with them kissing goes by favour.  
The like falsity is likewise used in translating 1 Kings 11.3. where it is said of Solomon in the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Which is translated in Latin, Adeo ut essent ei Foemina Principes Septingentae & Concubinae trecentae, quapropter inclinarant Foeminae ejus animum ejus, etc. but in English the translation is, He had Seven Hundred Wives Princesses, and Three Hundred Concubines, and his Wives turned away his heart, which ought to have been translated, He had Seven Hundred Women Princesses, and Three Hundred young Women, and his Women turned away his heart; for if Plurality of Women make Concubines, than ought the Seven Hundred to have been translated Concubines, rather than the Three Hundred; if it be said Riches and Portions make Wives, and Poverty Concubines, or Jointures and Dowers make Wives, and none make Concubines, this is contrary to what Christ saith of Marriage, That it is of such as God hath joined in one flesh, and not whom Scriveners and Lawyers have joined in one Indenture. Then as to Poverty, none will deny a poor Wife to be as true a Wife as a rich: and many think her in goodness, far superior, for intolerabilius nihil est quam Foemina dives, she that brings a Portion to hire the Man, and the Man who gives Jointures to hire the Wife, such a Woman so hired, may indeed be rather said a Concubine then a Wife; and such a Man so hired, be rather said a Stallion then a Husband, and such a Mercenary Conjunction be rather called a Market then a Marriage.  
To return again to the Translation, it is translated, That his Wives drew away his heart, but it is more likely the young Women, who are translated Concubines drew away his heart, then old Wives; whereas if it had been translated as it ought to be, his Women drew away his heart, which word includes both Wives and Concubines, it had been more true according to the Original, and more probable according to the effect.   

They have falsely translated the Seventh Commandment Lo Tinaph to be Adultery.  
Lo Tinaph, Latined Non Moechaberis, doth only signify Carnal uncleanness in general, but they to make all sins equal, 
Lo Tinaph false translated.  and that they might take as high Commutation-Money for the meanest, as the greatest Crime, have translated it Adultery, which is Species famosior, they say pro Toto Genere, as is usual in Tropes and Figures; but though, if they turn Poets they may Feign, if Songsters Descant, if Commentators Paraphrase, if Orators turn in Tropes and Figures, yet if Translators of a Law of God, it is wickedness for them to use any of these. He who is a Translator of any Law, especially of one that is Penal, is chained ad idem & non ad simile & verbum verbo curabit reddere fidus interpres, every word is to be rendered in no greater or lesser signification in the Language to which it is translated, than it was in the Original; for where the Legislator prohibits all uncleanness in general, and expresses no special Penalty, but only on pain of his displeasure, here he hath Power to punish the smaller offences with few stripes, and the greater with many, according to Justice and Equity; but if he prohibit specially Adultery, and makes no other Law, than he giveth liberty to all uncleanness beside what is not specially prohibited; for where there is no Law there is no Transgression. As Levit. 20.10. It is said, The Adulterer and Adulteress shall surely be put to death, which being a Penal Law of death, never was, nor aught to be extended to any lesser uncleanness than Adultery. For it is a Rule in all Justice, that no Penal Law ought to be extended by Equity; the translation is therefore false, which extends all uncleanness to Adultery, or Adultery to all uncleanness.  

They have falsely translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Fornication.  

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falsely translated Fornication.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Carnal uncleanness only in general, but they on the same account of raising their Commutation-Money, have translated it the special crime of Fornication, which is for the reasons given before of Adultery, falsely translated, and the same mischiefs ensue thereby.   

They have falsely translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Tenth Commandment, to be the Man Servant, and Maid-Servant.  

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, falsely translated.  Exod. 20.17. They have translated the Tenth Commandment, Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's Wife, nor his Manservant, nor his Maid-Servant. Whereas the Septuagint clean varies both in Words and Order, and makes the Commandment thus, Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's Woman, thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's House, nor his Field, nor his young Man, nor his young Woman, the Greek words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. So Amos 2.7. It is said, A Man and his Father will go into the samo Young Woman, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.   

They have falfely translated Mamzer and Nothos Bastard, wherein are noted the great Errors of Coke, Skene, and Grotius, by following the Bishop's translation, and other Popish Writers.  
Having recited many of the other false translations relating to Marriage, we are now come to the sowlest of them all, relating not only to Marriage, but all the dependencies of the same, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession. And whom have we the ill fortune first to meet by the blind leaders of the blind fallen into this common Ditch, but the two famous Fathers of the Law of England and Scotland, Coke, and Skene, who giving implicit Faith herein to Bishop's Translations, Certificats, and other Popish Writers, became so far by them deceived, as to leave behind them in their writings as follows.  
First, Coke Com. Fol. 243, and 244. saith; Bastardus dicitur à Graeco verbo Bassaris, id est Meretrix, quia procreatur à Meretrice and then he saith, Aerd signifies Nature, and Bastard signifies base natural. Then because Reason is very scarce with him, he gets an old Rhyme, and says,  
Manseribus scortum notho Moechus dedit ortum,  
 seges & spica, sic spurius est ab amica.  
But Skene ingeniously confesseth that Bastardus is a barbarous word; and that there can be no reason given for it; and certainly he so far speaks most true, or else was never a barbarous word, if this is not, which punisheth the innocent Child before it can speak, for the sin of the Parents, yet he after falls into the like mistake with Coke, which will best appear in his own words as you may find them. Skene de verb. signific. tit. Bastardus. Where he saith Bastardus, in French Bastard, ane Barn, unlauchfully gotten out with the band of Marriage, quhilk word is barbarous, and as I suppose, na reason can be given quhairfore it is so called, bot Gabriel Palaeotus in his buik de Nothis spuriisque filiis, cap. 18. alleadgiss it to come fra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, quhilk signifies an Huire or common Woman: be reason that Bastards are commonly got and procreate with sick Weemen. In Greek he is called Nothus; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signifies that part of the Fathers guides and gear quhilk be the Law of the Athenians leasumly micht be given be the Father to his Bastard Son, extending to the Son of Mille Drachmae, and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was called all that was not true or lawful, as writis Budaeus in Pandectas, and swa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cummis fra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privativa particula & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h. 1. Divinum, teste Suida; because he wantis that quhilk is godly and lawful, that is, ane honest or lawful Birth or Parentage, and swa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur qui non sit legitimus, to the quhilk there is na proper Latin word carespondent, as Quintilianus testify, lib. 3. cap. 6. nevertheless he is commonly called Spurius fo. in lib. 1. ff. de posses. contr. Tabul. Spurii dicuntur, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h. e. station vel seminatione, eaque vaga & promiscua, ubi doctiores, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 legunt quasisparsim concepti, like as they are called vulgo concepti! in adoptivis 14. de ritu nuptiarum. Likewise Spurius was the the proper name of ane man amangis the Romans, as Titus or Caius, & was written with twa letters S.P. and likewise they quha had na certain Father was designed with the said twa letter's S. P. and swa by commoun use, and consuetude, Spurii dicebantur sine Patre, as writes Plutarch in problematibus, because their Father and Mother notched being lawfully married, they have na certain Father, quia Pater dicitur, quem legitimae nuptiae demonstrant. l. 5. ff. de in jus vocand. and 'tis alike to have na Father, and to have incertain Father as we say, He quha will have money Gods, he's na God. Postremo Blundus lib. 8. Romae triumphantis is inquit qui illegitimè natus esset, ex Concubina vel scorto contumeliae causa, Spurius dicitur, cò quòd Sabini muliebre pudendum Sporon appellarunt haec ille in bonesto originis genere in lucem editos, infami & inhonesta appellatione not are voluerunt Veteres. And that part of Weemens' Claiths sick as of their Gown and Petticoat quhilk under the Belt, and before is open, commonly is called the Spare. As concerning the Succession of Bastard, these short rules are to be observed, conform to the Law and Practice of this Realm. First, That na Bastard, nor na Person, notch procreate and gotten in lawful Marriage may  ways be lawful Air or Successor to  of our Sovereign Lordis Liege's, lib. 2. c. in Custodiis 50. for be the Law of God, Ishmael being Bastard gotten upon ane bound Woman, Agar micht not be Air to Abraham, with Isaac, Gen. 21.10. Because all right of Succession is by reason of bluid and Consanguinity of the Father's side, quhilk is called Jus Agnationis, and theirfar ane Bastard quhais Father is incertain be the Law, 
Kin.  is understand be reason of bluid, to be sib to na man, and nane to him.  
I have done both Coke and Skene right, and presented what they say, to the full; now I hope I may have liberty to do the Truth right against them; and if I answer but these two, I need trouble the Reader with no more; for I shall answer all the Law of the highest repute in Great Britain, and with the same stroke overthrow all the Bastard-Law of Lawyers, and Bastard-Divinity of Bishops, in the three Kingdoms.    

Question. The Question is, Whether Mamzer in the Old Testament, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New, are falsely translatèd Bastard?  
Coke and Skene whether retained by the Bishops or free, appears not, but their best endeavours appear as far as they can, to defend the charge of falsity of the translation, and to prove the same true, which they try to do by the ways following. (1.) By Etymologies. (2.) By Authority. (3.) By Rhyme. (4.) By Reason. As to Etymologies, they derive Bastard from Bassaris, which they say signifies Meretrix. (1.) What is this to the purpose to prove Nothus a Bastard? (2.) It is denied that Bassaris signifies Meretrix, for Eustathius will have Bassara to signify Nutrix Bacchi, or a Drunken Mad Woman, and Bassaris to signify Vulpecula.  
First, They derive Etymologies from Spurius, from Aerd, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privativa particula & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from Sporadene, from Sporan, from the Spare, but what agreement have these in sound or sense with Mamzer or Nothus, or what Sequel as to the Question can be deduced from them; had it not been as pertinent for them to have recited those ridiculous Etymologies which derive Lepus from Levipes, and Lapis from Laedipes, and Beer from Be here, and Money from My honey: and concluded Ergo the Bishops have not falsely translated Mamzer and Nothus; for there is no reason why Meretrix may not come from an Hare as well as a Fox, loquendum cum Vulgo, they call her a light Woman. And Solomon Prov. 7.11. saith, Her Feet abide not in the House: Now she is without, now in the streets, which she was she is a Levipes. And did not Fabius Maximus show his shoe to one who asked him why he put away his Wife, and say, Is it not a fair shoe, yet none knows besides myself where it wrings my Foot, which shows she is a Laedipes; then may she not be as well Drunk and Mad with Beer as with Wine, which shows such Women may be derived from the one as well as the other; and may she not better be called Meretrix from Money, then from Wine; for Meretrix dicitur à Merendo, from letting herself to hire for Money or Reward, and this as well agrees with My honey, as Money; for Solomon saith, Prov. 5.3. The lips of a strange Woman drop as an honeycomb; and do not the Poets say, That a Bee which makes honey, stung Cupid by the Finger, while he was stealing it, whereof he complained to his Mother; and doth not this as well prove that Venus came from Bassaris, and that Cupid is in Hebrew Mamzer, and in Greek Nothus, and that therefore Mamzer and Nothus do signify Bastard, which is to infer quodlibet ex quolibet, and conclusions from non sequiturs. Behold the fantastic Fundamentals of a Matrimonial Divinity, and Law built on Etymologies of sounds and air, enveloped in the darkness and Clouds of strange Languages, of Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriack, Greek, and Latin, the like to which if done in English, would be derided by the very Boys!  
Secondly, The next Argument to make good their Bastard-Law, is Authority: Coke to begin, fetches an Author out of Goal without an Habeas Corpus, to give him Authority to bring him to any Court he calls him. Fleet. lib. 1. cap. 5. Next he makes bold with Bracton, and the Book of Assizes. E. 3. H. 4. H. 6. E. 4. Skene musters up as before mentioned, old King Malcomb the Second, Paloeotus Budaeus the Pandects, all having the unhappiness to be born, bred, buried, and made in the times of the highest Popery and Superstition, and though Plutarch writ excellently against Superstition, and was no Papist, he was a Pagan Priest of Apollo, who was a Devil, and his Priest partial in whatsoever tended to Daemonalatry, or the great gains accrueing thereby to the Diabolical Priesthood.  
Grotius, whom I shall after cite as to his Gigantomachia, in making all Giants Bastards, in his learned Peice de Jure Bell. & Pacis. wheresoever he comes to touch on Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, instead of the immutable Law of Nature, collects together the old Superstitious Laws, Customs, and Ceremonies of the Pagans, Greeks, and Romans, and on that sandy Foundation builds Marriage, Filiation, and Successions on private Pacts and Covenants of Parties, or on the public Pacts or Precepts of human Laws, and the Mercenary considerations of Portions, Dowries, Jointures, Morgengabicas Ta●ls, contrary to the Divine ends instituted by God of Marriage.  
All which Authorities, or were there numberless more of private Persons, or public States, or of Nations, Angels, Daemons, or Men, are already shown, to signify nothing against the least Commandment in the Moral-Law of God.  
Thirdly, As to the Rhyming Verses, if so great Laws and Nations are no Authority, a Poet can be none. Pictoribus atque Poetis quidlibet audendi semper fuit aequa Potestas. And it shall be further shown after, That if Coke allow but this his own Poet to be Authenteck, three words of his two Verses confute him unanswerably.  
Fourthly, As to Arguments of Reason, Coke hath none at all, except Quia Filiatio non potest probari, which hath been answered before, in the Law of the Husband's Fathering the Wive's Children, if within the four Seas; neither doth he give more reason why he would have a Child called a Base-natural, or his Fictions in Law believed above the truth of the Fact, than he doth, why a Manchild ought to be called Mulier.  
Fifthly, As little reason doth Grotius give, why a Giant should be translated Bastard, according to a certain Latin Translation of the Bible (of which there are a multitude, all variant one from another) 1 Sam. 17.4. which is thus, Et egressus est quidem spurius è Castris Pelischthoeorum, Goliath nomine, 
Giant falsely translated Bastard.  Gatho oriundus, cujus altitudo erat sex Cubitorum cum spithama; which is in English, And there went out of the Tents of the Philistines a certain Bastard, by name Goliath, whose height was six Cubits and a span; so because he was a Giant, this Latin Translation hath translated him a Bastard. And Grotius, though he were as great a Giant of learning, as Goliath was of Body, endeavours to give a reason which is not so tall as a Dwarf; for he saith, The Hebrews called Giants Bastards, because they lived without Matrimony; which he intends to be the Ceremony of coupling Male and Female together, used by a Priest in a Temple. Which cannot be; for of all Nations in the World, the Hebrews were most free from having so vile a word, or a thing as Bastard amongst them; and for Marriage in a Temple, they never had any at all, but always contracted in the open Air, and not under any Roof. And both they, and all other Nations, have had so honourable opinions of Giants, and esteemed their descent to be so far from being ignoble, as they derived them from their gods themselves. So Hercules they would have begot by Jupiter: And Ajax boasts of himself, Sic à Jove tertius Ajax. And both Jews and Christians affirm them to be begotten by the Sons of God: As Gen. 6.4. it is said, There were Giants in the Earth in those days: and also after that, when the Sons of God saw the Daughters of Men, and they bare Children unto them, the same became mighty Men, which were of old, Men of renown. 
Angels beget not Giants.  Some expound these Sons of God to be Angels; but that is contrary to Christ, who says, Angels neither marry, nor are given in Marriage. But though Giants and such Hero's were not begotten by Angels, they all agree to father them on more honourable Titles of the Sons of God; and therefore never intended they should be translated, or called Bastards, or base Naturals.  
As low a reason doth Grotius likewise give, why he should be called Nothus and not be inheritable, whose Mother at her Marriage had not a Torch carried before her.  
Ac nec nupta quidem Taedaque accepta jugali,  
Cur nisi ne caperes regna paterna Nothus.  Grot. de jur. Bel. & Pac. p. 168. 
1. This authority of Ovid which he citys, That the not vouchsafing to have a Torch, or other Ceremonies Nuptial at the Marriage, aught to make the Child a Nothus, or Illegitimate, as to Succession, proves against him; and that it ought not, but is an injury and injustice if it should: For this is written by Phaedra a later Wife of Theseus, to Hippolytus his Son, by Hippolita the Amazon, a former Wife deceased; with whom she, being his Stepmother, fell in love; and to tempt him to her, and not to forbear out of reverence to his Father's bed, who had been so injurious to him, as not to marry his Mother with due Rites and Ceremonies, that he might have a pretence to disinherit, and put him by the Succession of the Kingdom. She to make her argument the stronger, and the more inciting, joins herself with him to be as highly injured as himself, that he might the more assuredly trust to find her ready to join with him in revenge, as well as love; for so she saith, having first repeated her own wrongs she had suffered.  
Sola nec haec nobis injuria venit ab illo,  
In magnis laesi rebus uterque sumus.  
And after, she saith of the Marriage of his Mother:  
Ac nec nupta quidem taedaque accepta jugali,  
Cur nisi ne caperes regna paterna Nothus.  
And then she saith,  
I nunc, I meriti lectum reverere parentis,  
Quem fugit & factis abdicat ille suis.  
But the most virtuous and valiant Hippolytus remaining invincible in Chastity, as to his Stepmother, and in Loyalty as to his Father; she, as Potiphar's Wife did Joseph, to her Husband falsely accused him of attempting to force her; which he over-credulous to believe, sought to kill his Son. And he flying his Father's jealousy, and causeless anger, had by his frighted Horses, his Chariot overthrown, and himself torn to pieces amongst the Rocks. So infortunate was innocence in all things, except his Fame, which hath lasted through so many Ages. His Father on Phaedra's confession, understanding the Innocence of his Son, and falseness of her calumny, she first killing herself, after the just Funeral Rites performed, and Lamentation answerable made, is swallowed up with grief, for the loss of a Son so dearly by him beloved. Here therefore appears, That had it not been for the false calumnies of his Stepmother, Hippolytus had succeeded to his Father Theseus' Kingdom; notwithstanding his Mother Hippolita had not a Torch carried before her, nor was ever married by the Ceremonies of a Priest in a Temple: wherein though Grotius need no other answer to his Ceremonial Marriage, than what in this example he thought to vouch for them, and his principal Goliah-argument being fallen, there need no trouble of encountering the petty accessary Reasons: Yet I shall likewise pursue them in their flight, at least to discover what they are.  
His first reason is, he saith, Where the Father doth not vouchsafe the Woman the Lawful Ceremonies of Marriage, he makes the Child contemptible to be his Successor.  
To which is answered, That we need look no further than his own example, whether Hippolytus was a person contemptible, or not, meriting in all respects to succeed to his Father's Kingdom after his Death.  
2. It is further answered, That these Ceremonies whereon he found'st his Doctrine of Ceremonial Marriage, and the compulsion to the same, are before shown to come from the Devil, and the Priests of Priapus and Venus, and in imitation of them from Popery. Therefore in such Kingdoms as are Protestant, and not Pagan or Popish, though there may be a toleration given to such as desire to marry with a Torch, or any other public Ceremonies suiting with their Conscience and Convenience; yet ought not there to be compulsion of Dissentients, either in Conscience or Convenience; nor so impious a punishment as Illegitimation laid on the innocent Child, for such Toys as Ceremonies neglected or dissented to by the Parents.  
3. There is greater authority in point, than either Latin or Greek Poets, That the Father though he contemn, yea hate the Mother, ought not to illegitimate the Child, as to Succession, as appears, Deut. 21.15. If a Man have two Wives, one beloved, and the other hated, and they have born him Children, both the beloved and the hated; and the firstborn Son be hers that was hated: Then it shall be when he makes his Sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the Son of the beloved firstborn, before the Son of the hated, who is indeed the firstborn; but he shall acknowledge the Son of the hated for the firstborn, in giving him a double Portion of all be hath; for he is the beginning of his strength, and the right of the firstborn is his.  
The Reasons given by Skene, why Nothus should signify a Bastard, are:  
1. Because he saith, Bastards are commonly got and procreate of Common Women, who are in Greek called Bassaris. As to the Etymology, 'tis answered before, as to the matter of the Children of Common Women, 'tis denied that they have commonly any Children at all; for either they make themselves barren by some wicked Arts of Sterility according to the Poet.  
Et jacet aurato jam rara puerpera lecto,  
Tantum hujus Artes, tantum Medicamina possunt.  
According to which, we do not hear of Lais, Thais, Phryne, Flora, or others, who are famous or rather infamous at the Trade, to have had any Children at all; which was one cause that Flora made the Commonwealth her Heir. And we see by experience, that the Children born, as they call it, out of Wedlock, are, for the greatest part, of such as have kept themselves chaste to one Man; yea more chaste than many Wives, who have been coupled to the Husbands by a Priest in a Temple, or a Justice of Peace in his Hall. And further in Nature, the too thick sowing of the field, and the too soon ploughing after sowing destroys the Harvest: So in greatest probability, such a Woman as hath a Child, aught to be presumed she hath not been common, and the Child cannot be here filius populi; but his Father is better known then of the Children of a Woman married by the Priest in a Temple, though the Husband hath been always within the four Seas.  
2. He says, Nothia signifies by the Athenian Law a Portion given to a Child not born within Wedlock, which was not to exceed Mille Drachmae; ergo Nothos signifies a Bastard. Negatur sequela; For the Child which he himself makes a Bastard, he says, cannot be Heir or Successor to any; which is, he cannot be Successor Testamentory or otherwise to any filial Portion at all; which the Athenian Law did suffer him to be, so it exceeded not the value of Mille Drachmae. And further Reg. Majest. cited by him, saith, a Bastard can neither be Heir, or succeed to the Lands or Goods of the Parents, nor the Parents to him: A most inhuman Law, and subverting the course of Nature, which the Athenian was not. And what was the end of this Episcopal cruelty, of taking away the inheritance of the Parents from the Child, and of the Child from the Parents; but that they themselves might be Successors to his moveables, and if he bought not of them for money his Legitimation, than they might forfeit all was left to the King; not out of any good will they bore to the King, but to force the parties, Parents and Children, to pay them what they pleased, or quod non capit Christus, capiat fiscus, a kind of Antichristian Blasphemy against Christ, and Treason against their Princes; to frill their Treasuries with the spoils and curses of miserable Children, and Parents, under pretence of the names of God and the King, to make them thought Patrons and Accessaries to their Rapines.  
3. He says, Ishmael was a Bastard, and succeeded not to the inheritance, but had a Portion. As to Ismael's being a Bastard, it is false, and contrary to the Text of Scripture, Gen. 16.3. which expressly saith, Agar his Mother was Abraham 's Wife. If his Mother therefore we Abraham's Wife, he could not be Abraham's Bastard, for he himself affirms before, that a Bastard is got of a Common Woman.  
4. Abraham's giving him a filial Portion, and the Sons of Keturah likewise their filial Portions, is an acknowledgement and not a disacknowledgment of them to be his Sons: Therefore though he excluded them from the inheritance, he doth not intent thereby to make them Bastards, for it was the Patria potestas of every Father, then, to dispose of his own Estate how he pleased, and to those who pleased him best, and might give the inheritance from the eldest if he thought fit; till after restrained by the Law of Primogeniture, to give him a double Portion.  
5. The Arabians, who descended from Ishmael, and Turks to this day, affirm Ishmael to be the right Heir, and not Isaac; and on no other Title possess the Land of Palestine, but on the Primogeniture of Ishmael. 'Tis therefore very unadvised to call Ishmael Bastard, against a Succession so long derived from him by the Sword, without better reasons, or a better Sword to argue it against the possessors.  
6. Other reasons have been made likewise, in behalf of the Primogeniture and Legitimation of Ishmael, which show him to have been no Bastard: as first, That the Marriage between Abraham and Sarah, being Brother and Sister, was Incestuous, and therefore the Marriage with Agar more Lawful than hers. Next, that uncertainty of Filiation was more in Isacc then in Ishmael, and Ishmael had better probation of himself to be the Son of Abraham then Isaac had, for Agar was kept in perpetual custody of her Husband, from the time of his begetting, to her bringing forth Ishmael, whereas Sarah was let lose to the custody of Abimelech and his Courtiers.  
7. He says for a Reason, That a Child born out of Matrimony is not Sib or Kin, or of Consanguinity to any, nor any to him: which is contrary to the express Text of Scripture, Levit. 21.2. There shall none be defiled for the dead amongst the people, except for his Kin that is near to him, that is, for his Mother, and for his Father, and for his Son; yet here was no Father or Son made by the Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple. Not much unlike to this was the whimsy, which lasted a while, of our Episcopal Courts, and Common Lawyers, that a Mother was not kin to her Son, as appears, Swimburn 7. part 119. The Case was in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth: Charles Duke of Suffolk having issue, a Son by one Venture, and a Daughter by another, made his last Will, wherein he devised Goods to his Son, after whose death the Son also died intestate, without Wife, and without issue; his Mother and his Sister by the Father's side (for she was born of the former Venture) being then living, the Mother took the Administration of her Son's Goods, by the Stat. 21 H. 8.5. whereby it is Enacted, That in case any person die intestate, the Administration of his Goods shall be committed to the next of Kin, etc. The Administration being thus granted to the Mother; the Sister by th' Father's side doth commence Suit before the Ecclesiastical Judge, pretending herself to be next of kin, and the Mother not to be kin at all to the party Deceased; and therefore desireth the Administration, formerly granted the Mother, to be revoked, and committed to her, as next kin to the Deceased, by force of the said Statute. Hereupon the most Learned, as well in the Laws of the Realm as in the Civil Law, were consulted; and both Common Lawyers and Civilians, unanimously declared it to be an Article of their Faith, contrary to Scripture and common sense, that a Mother was not kin to her Son; so Judgement was passed against the Mother, whereby she lost her Son and her money too, perhaps some that she gave him. And in those days this precedent did so much prevail, that many other Judgements passed accordingly against the Mothers. Then in Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her Children, and would not be comforted, because they were not, yea weeping it over again.  
Qualis populea maerens Philomela sub umbra  
Amissos queritur faetus, quos durus arator  
Observans, nido implumes detraxit, at illa  
Flet noctes, ramoque sedens, miserabile carmen  
Integrat, & maestis late loca questibus implet.  
Yea our Rachel had twice more cause to weep then Philomela, for Philomela wept only because her Children were not, but Rachel wept both because hers were not, and because she must not be kin to them neither: And surely her mourning had continued for ever, had not in process of time, the Tears of Women and the Beauty of Truth (for what is stronger than Truth and women against Popery) prevailed in England, but could not in Scotland, because Skene put it on the Father, 
The Child not the Child of the Mother. Natural affection no consideration to raise an Use to a natural Son, but good to an Adulterate Son.  who is not so apt to weep as the Mother, that he should be no Sib or Kin to his Son. But will you not wonder? My Lord Coke will present you with a couple of rarer absurdities, if possible, than this; for he saith, lib. 10. in Leonard Loveis his Case, fol. 83. That if a Woman have a Bastard (which he intends a Child not born of a Ceremonial Marriage) that this Child is not in truth, but only in reputation her Child. And therewith agrees Dyer M. 17. & 18. Eliz. foe 345. & 12 Eliz. 290. And then he in his Commentaries; and the Judges in Plowden's Commentaries agree in Sharington and Pledal's Case, That if a Man in consideration of natural affection, covenant to stand seized of such a piece of Land, to the use of his Son; this natural affection is a sufficient consideration to raise an Use, as they call it, and to vest the Estate in the Son, though he were the Son of an Adulterer, and not the Son of his reputed Father, if his Mother were married by a Priest in a Temple, and his reputed Father within the four Seas. But if the Son be his true natural Son, begotten by himself, than the consideration of natural affection to his true Son, is no consideration to raise an Use, nor to pass the Land to him, but the same is void and null. In the first Case, where there is no ground for natural affection, they talk all of nature, extolling her above all considerations, and cry out Naturae vis maxima, and Natura bis maxima; and give away the Estate from the true natural Child, to the false Child of the Adulterer. Then in the latter Case, where there is a just and righteous cause of natural affection, commanded by God to Men, and instincted by him to Beasts to provide for their own. There they are void of natural affection, their blind Eye of the Law, must see the Infernal darkness of Fictions in the Law, and be shut against the Sun of Truth: They pretend the Law of Nature in their words, but in their works omnia naturae contraria legibus ibunt. 
Nothus made the true Son, and the true Son made Nothus.  They will not allow natural affection of the true Father, to his true natural Child to be a consideration to raise an Use, in so much as one Acre of Land; where they will allow it to the true Nothus, and Fictitious Child of an Adulterer, against whom probatio non admittitur in contrarium, sufficient to invest him in the thousands of Acres of Signories and Baronies. 'Tis strange that Men who profess Law and Justice, should not be ashamed of so gross and repugnant absurdities, and contrary, not only to all Law and Justice, but common sense and reason.  

Reason's showing further, that Mamzer in the Old Testament, and Nothus in the New, are falsely translated Bastard.  

Mamzer, Alienigena.  1. The word Mamzer is by the best Critics, affirmed to signify naturally and properly Alienigena, seu de alienae gentis foemina natus. And that Deut. 23.2. aught to be translated Alienigena non introibit, and not Spurius non introibit, or in English, a Bastard shall not enter; but the Translation ought to be in English, An Alien born shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord, even to his tenth generation shall be not enter. So as the Law here (as the Laws of most other Nations do) doth put a distinction in privilege between Alien and Denizen born, and not between unlawful and lawful born; for an Alien is as lawfully born as a Denizen, but hath not the same privilege either, as to Religion of entering into the Congregation, or of acquiring propriety in the Land, either by Purchase or Succession; for if that should be permitted, there would ensue the derision or corruption of all natural Religions, by contrary Nations, and the buying of one Nation out of their Land by another Enemy Nation, who were richer in money than they. And that the intention as well as the words of the Law, was only against Aliens born, as appears manifestly by the next Verse in the same Chapter; where it is said, An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord: which, as the verse before spoke of Aliens in general, speaks next of Aliens in special, Ammonites and Moabites; who being of kindred to the Israelites, might have been doubted, whether intended to be excluded under the general word Aliens, which this naming them specially clears, and likewise clears that it is intended the National, and not the getting or birth of Children in private Families. And this is manifest by the constant practice of the whole Israelitish Nation, who had no such thing as Illegitimation of the Children of any Hebrew Woman; but whether the Wives were one or many, the Children all Succeeded alike to their natural Parents; if the Father did not for any special reason, or otherwise expressly dispose of his Estate, which was a Patria potestas, without which propriety of Fathers in their own Goods, could not consist, nor Adulteries of Wives, and Rebellions of Children be prevented. And to the potestas Patria, 
Intails to Children of Adulterers and not of the Husband.  and potestas Dominii, potestas instituendi haeredis, as to Children; and alienandi as to strangers, was amongst all Nations incident, till the Tyranny of Pontifical, Imperial, and Feudal Laws set up Intails, & made the Priest's Judges, who should be Lawful married, and who should be Lawful begotten Heirs of their Bodies, to be their Successors, whether they would or no, and whether the Children were the Children of Adulterers, or the Husband's.  

Nothus a counterfeit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Secondly, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by Hesychius and other Authors of approved skill in the Greek-Tongue affirmed, to signify Fictus, which is, what is feigned or counterfeit, and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the plural Number is put in the Text Heb. 12.8. signifies Filius genitus, natus, or naturalis, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Filiatio in the true and natural sense, but in the fictitious sense, which is made ad placitum imponentis, it is made to signify Adoption, which is a feigned or counterfeit Filiation. Many ways of counterfeiting Sons have been used, (1.) When the Wife being Barren, to please her Husband feigns a great Belly and a Delivery, and presents him with a suppositious Child instead of her own; so is it related of Algive the Wife of Canutus, that she brought him such a Child, whom he called Sweyne, and afterward made him King of Norway; and many other examples have been of the like. (2.) When the Person who would make himself Son deceives the Father; so Isaac being blind, Jacob putting on Kids-skin-Gloves, the hair left on deceived the old man to believe him his true eldest Son who was but a counterfeit. And I myself knew a Woman in time of the Wars, who having two Sons, the Elder was Twenty Years before sent beyond Sea, and died there, whereby the younger had the Land of his Father settled upon him, but at length the Soldiers in their marches passing the Country, one amongst them of the like Age and Feature as was the Eldest Son of the Woman, who Twenty Years before died beyond Sea, Quartered in the Parish where the Woman lived, and being informed by some of the House where he Quartered, how like he was to that Person, and thereupon enquiring out as many particular passages as he could, which had passed between the Woman and her Son, and others, and what particular marks the Eldest Son had, the Soldier went to the Woman's House enquiring for his Father and Mother, whose blessing he asked, and they being thereat much surprised, he told them he was their Eldest Son, and what Fortune's Providence had carried him thorough to bring him home again: at which the doubtful Parents examined him, and asked him many questions to try whether he were their very Son Esau or not, and took more time, and the Woman likewise examined him in private by herself, but he at last so persuaded the Woman, that she believed, and affectionately received him for her Eldest Son who had been thought so long dead, till at length the younger Brother who feared to be again disinherited of what was settled on him, with much ado discovered the counterfeit. (3.) When the Mother is Delivered of a true Son, and a changeling is brought home by the Nurse or other Artifice instead of the true. (4.) When the Father having no natural Son, adopts a Son begotten by another Father; so did Claudius adopt Nero, and many other of the Roman Emperors, and many Persons of private Families, having no Son of their own, convey and settle their Names, Titles, Arms, and Lands, to the Son of a stranger; now these Adopted Sons are all Counterfeit Sons, and neither Emperor, nor Pope, nor Bishop, nor Act of Parliament, nor Legitimation, nor Dispensation, can make these true, or natural, or lawful begotten Sons, whom God hath not made so. (5.) When Sons who are not natural, are testified to be natural Sons by false Witnesses, which is often practised in the Biships' Courts, such are counterfeit Sons. (6.) When such as are not natural Sons, are testified Sons by the Bishop's Certificate, such are false and counterfeit Sons, and this way of Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, by the Bishop's Certificate is of all other the most wicked and abominable. Quia Probatio non admittitur in contrarium. Whence it is concluded, That neither the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seeing they have both a true and natural signification, ought not to be translated to words of a counterfeit signification. The said Text of Scripture therefore, Heb. 12. 8. Ye are Bastards, and not Sons, are falsely translated, and aught to have been translated, Ye are Counterfeits, and not natural Sons; for as to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is manifest to signify a Counterfeit, and therefore aught to be so translated, and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'tis manifest it signifies not a Son in general; for that comprehends both true and counterfeit Sons; but a natural Son in special, which only signifies a true Son as 'tis opposite to a counterfeit: where therefore the Genus is translated for the Species, or the Species for the Genus, this is grossly false Translation, 
Genus translated for the Species Species translated for the Genus.  as hath been shown likewise before.  
Secondly, A word of general signification ought not to be translated into a word of special signification, and this shows the Latin Translation, which is Supposititit estis & non filii, is false translated, though not so wickedly as the English, because a Supposititious Son is but a Species of Nothus the Genus, as Virgil says, Suppositos de matre nothos furata creavit.  

A certain word into an ambiguous.  Thirdly, A word that is certain aught to be translated into a word of incertain, ambiguous significations. Now the word Nothus in the time it was writ by Paul, which was before Justinian's and Pope's Heads were hot with their Civil or Canon-Laws, the word therefore aught to be translated in the certain significat wherein Paul writ it, which is a counterfeit, and not in the signification of what it is made since of a new invented Vocabulum Artis, by the Civil, Canon, or Common-Law; for than it must have been understood, all the writer's time by way of Prophecy, how Tribonian, Gratian, Coke, Skene, and Grotius, would expound it, and how the Bishops would translate it to be a Bastard, and him a Bastard whose Mother would not give them Money for their Licence to Marry, which was a thing impossible for the Christians of those times to understand, or how to reconcile the variant and contradictory expositions, would in the later days be for gain made on the same. Some make Nothi and Flii naturales all one, as Nou. 99 de Nothis makes Nothus the natural Son and illegitimate, as Insulanus Naturalis Filius à vulgo barbarorum dicitur, qui sit ex illegitimo toro suscitatus; sed parum aptè, est enim Filius naturalis qui sanguine & natura est tuus, non adoptione factus. A natural Son is he who is by Blood and Nature thine, and not made so by Adoption. Cato says there is no such word in Latin as Nothus, nor any of the like signification, but that which comes nearest it is Spurius; and Plutarch says it was a name amongst the Romans, as Sextus, and Decimus, and Caius were, and as other names were, was written short with two of the first Letters S P. but whether it was a name of honour or dishonour is not known, as appears by Hartm. Pistor. lib. 1. q. juris. q. 30. only it is said of them, that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fatherless, which is less suspicious of dishonour then before, for they called their god Vulcan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fatherless, and their god Mars was brought out by Juno without a Father, as they would have us believe, and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or fatherless, did signify only an Orphan, whom misfortune had deprived of his Father. And it was therefore true what Cato before said, 
Romans had no such word or thing as Nothus.  That the Latins had no word amongst them which agreed in signification with Nothus in Greek, and having no such word, they must have no such thing; for if they had had such a thing they would questionless have had a word to express it. So as Antichristian Christian Rome against the fatherless is worse than Pagan Rome, and neither Papal nor Episcopal Religion is pure, but unclean; for it is declared Jam. 1.27. Pure Religion, and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless; but it seems they think they have a better Scripture of Coke and Littleton of non habet ipsum patrem, to defend them, as if it were a sufficient cause to rob a Child of what is dearer than his life, his good name, and lay Ignominy on him because he is fatherless: but let them remember though the fatherless hath no Reverend Father in God to own him, he hath a greater, even God himself; for so he is called, Psal. 68.5. Father of the fatherless, and though he is forsaken as David, by his natural Father and Mother, yet may he say as he saith, Psal. 27.10. When my Father and Mother forsake me, than the Lord will take me up. And as there was no Nothus amongst the Pagan Romans, so there was no illegitimation amongst them or the Greeks, but all natural Children were legitimate, and Probation of Filiation was a Probation of Legitimation, 
Legitimation or Illegitimation of a natural Child impossible.  for there was no such word or thing as Legitimation, or making Children legitimate who were not born so; it being impossible to make a Child or a Son of such a man who was not born so, or to make any not to be the Child or Son of such a man if he were born so, till the Bishops made Marriage a Sacrament, and made infatuated People believe such absurdities as were impossible to be believed of any but à ment captis, as of transubstantiation of two Persons into one Person, of transubstantiation of the Children of the Wife into Children of the Husband, of making the Child of the man not to be his Child, nor of his Blood, nor of his Sib or Kin, and making the Child born of the Mother not to be her Child, nor she of kin to it, and the like unheard of Fopperies in former Ages: and accordingly Connan. lib. 2. cap. 16. num. 5. saith, That amongst the ancient Lawyers there is no such word to be found as Legitimation, and if not of Legitimation, there could be none of Illegitimation, or Bastardy. To translate therefore the word Nothus into a word of so many ambiguous significations as are so many Author's variant and contradictory on the same, and into a word which was not, nor the thing it is made signify in Rerum natura at the time of writing. Nothus is a false and a foul translation.  
Fourthly, A word in Scripture which is modest, ought not to be translated into a word of Scurrility, but Nothus or a Counterfeit is a word modest, it is therefore filthily and falsely translated into inhonestum & infame vocabulum, which they would derive a Sporo Pudendo Muliebri.  
Fifthly, The word Nothus doth not revile the innocent Child with the Crime of the Malefactor, but Coke, though it be said, 1 Cor. 6.10. No Revilers shall inherit the Kingdom of God, reviles God's Eldest Daughter, Nature, to be a Whore, and her Children to be Bastards; for he saith Aerd signifies Nature, and Base signifies Base, and a Bastard is a Base-natural, or one born of base Nature; if therefore he makes the Child a Bastard, he must make the Mother a Whore, and by making her Children Base, he makes none Noble but the Children of the Whore of Babylon, of whom she is delivered by the Man-Midwifry of a Priest in a Temple. There being therefore no such word in the whole Original Scripture, Old. Testament or New, which signifies a Bastard or illegitimate Child, nor any such thing amongst the Hebrews or Barbarous Nations themselves as illegitimation of natural Children, nor in Rerum Natura amongst the wild Beasts, Monsters, and Serpents, as illigitimation of their Young till that more and monstrous old Serpent and Romish Dragon appeared, described, Rev. 12.3. Having Seven Heads, and Ten Horns, and Seven Crowns upon his Heads. And his Tail drew the third part of the Stars of Heaven, and did cast them to the Earth: and the Dragon stood before the Woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour his Child as soon as it was born. And Verse 16. And the Earth helped the Woman, and the Earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the Flood which the Dragon cast out of his mouth. And the Dragon was wroth with the Woman, and went to make War with the remnant of her seed, which keep the Commandments of God, and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ.  
Now though none here undertake to unfold Mysteries, or expound Prophecies, yet it will be a more proper Exposition than the Episcopal translation of Mamzer and Nothus, and their Expositions on the same. If any should say allusively, though not prophetically, and expound Prelacy to be the Dragon with many Heads and Horns, Womankind to be the Woman; the multitude of Provincial and Ecclesiastical Laws of Marriage, to be the Flood of Waters cast out of the Dragon's mouth, against the Woman; the illegitimation of all Children not born of a Marriage made by a Priest in a Temple, to be the standing of the Dragon before the Woman ready to be delivered for to devour her Child as soon as it is born: The People who are Terrae Filii, to be the Earth helping the Woman, Prelacy, being wroth, and going to make War with Dissentient Protestants, to be the Dragon's being wroth with the Woman, and going to make War with the Remnant of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God, 
Old Teslament false translated by Bishops in 848 places.  and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ. And that these are not the only false translations which Bishops make of the Scripture, appears by the great Linguist Broughton, who in his Advertisements of Corruptions, affirms to the then Bishops of England, That their public translations of Scriptures is such, as that it perverts the Text of the Old Testament in no less than Eight Hundred Forty Eight places, and causeth Millions to reject the New Testament, and to run into Eternal Flames.  
Sixthly, To show that Coke needs no other to confute him in the signification of Nothus, not to be a Child born out of Wedlock, but a plece of his own Rhyme, I shall recite it, which is by him set down, Manseribus scortum notho Moechus dedit ortum, and is a false Verse; for No in Notho is short, which might happen by some Error of his Scribe, but the true Verse is in Calv. Lex. (whence I suppose he might have it,) Sed Moecha Nothis dedit ortum; which Moecha signifies an Adulteress, which she cannot be unless she is a Married Woman: therefore it is plain, the Rhyme itself confutes him, that Nothus is not a Child born out of Wedlock, but in Wedlock, which is unanswerable as to him; because ex ore suo, though not as to others, who are on better reasons unanswerably answered before.    

They corrupt the Press, both as to Scripture and Law, and interdict Protestants to write against Papists, or answer them.  

Act of Parliament against Lollards counterfeit by Bishops.  Coke 3. part 40. saith, There was a Statute supposed to be made, 5. R. 2. That Commissions should be by the Lord Chancellor made, and directed to Sheriffs and others, to Arrest such as should be Certified into the Chancery by the Bishops and Prelates, Masters of Divinity, to be Preachers of Heresies, and notorious Errors, their Fautors, Maintainers, and Abetters, and to hold them in strong Prison, until they will justify themselves to the Law of the Holy Church. By colour of this supposed Act certain Persons that held Images were not to be worshipped, etc. were holden in strong Prison, until they (to redeem their vexation) miserably yielded before these Masters of Divinity to take an Oath, and did swear to worship Images, which was against the Moral and Eternal Law of Almighty God. We have said (by colour of the supposed Statute, etc.) not only in respect of the said Opinion, but in respect also, that the said supposed Act, was in truth never any Act of Parliament, though it was Entered in the Rolls of Parliament; for that the Commons never gave their consent thereunto. And therefore in the next Parliament, the Commons preferred a Bill reciting the said supposed Act, and constantly affirmed that they never assented thereto, and therefore desired that the supposed Statute might be aniented, and declared void. For they protested, that it was never their intent to be justified, and to bind themselves and their Successors to Prelates, more than their Ancestors had done in times past: And hereunto the King gave his Royal Assent in these words, Ypleist au Roy. And mark well the manner of the penning the Act: for seeing the Commons did not assent thereunto, the words of the Act are, It is Ordained and Assented in this present Parliament, That, etc. And so it was, being but by the King and the Lords.  
It is to be known, that of ancient time, when any Acts of Parliament were made, to the end the same might be published, and understood, especially before the use of Printing came into England, the Acts of Parliament were engrossed into Parchment, and bundled up together with a Writ in the King's name, under the great Seal, to the Sheriff of every County, sometime in Latin, and sometime in French, to command the Sheriff to proclaim the said Statutes within his Bailwick, as well within Liberties, as without. And this was the course of Parliamentary Proceed, before Printing came in use in England, and yet it continued after we had the Print, till the Reign of H. 7.  
Now at the Parliament holden in 5. R. 2. John Braibrook Bishop of London being Lord Chancellor of England, caused the said Ordinance of the King and Lords to be inserted into the Parliamentary Writ of Proclamation to be proclaimed amongst the Acts of Parliament: which Writ I have seen, the purclose of which Writ, after the recital of the Acts directed to the Sheriff of N. in these words, Nos volentes dictas concordias, sive ordinationes in omnibus & singulis suis Articulis inviolabiter observari, tibi praecipimus quod praedictas concordias, sive ordinationes in locis infra Balivam tuam, ubi melius expedire volueris, tam infra libertates, quam extra, Publice Proclamari, & teneri facias juxta formam Praenotatam. Teste Rege apud Westm. 26. Maij. Anno Regni Regis R. 2.5. But in the Parliamentary Proclamation of the Acts passed in Anno 6. R. 2. the said Act of the 6. R. 2. whereby the said supposed Act of 5. R. 2. was declared to be void, is omitted: and afterwards the said supposed Act of 5. R. 2. was continually Printed, and the said Act of 6. R. 2. hath been by the Prelates ever from time to time kept from the Print. 
A Counterfeit Act Printed by Bishops against Protestants.  What English Protestant can read this without horror? what? doth he not observe it? why 'tis that Counterfeit Act of Parliament. 5. R. 2.1382. whereby Bishops usurp to be Judges of the Souls and Consciences of Protestants, and to put them in strong Prison till they conform and submit to the will of the Bishop; 'tis that Counterfeit Act whereby they usurp to be Judges of Heresy, and to make Protestants Heretics when they please; 'tis that Counterfeit Act whereby they have compelled the Subjects to swear to worship their Idols; 'tis that Counterfeit Act whereby they have dragged so many Pious Martyrs to the Stake, and burned them, filling the whole Land with fiery Furnaces; 'tis that Counterfeit Act by which the Bishops have usurped Power to destroy Religion, Liberty, Propriety, and Lives of all Protestant Subjects at their pleasure; 'tis that Counterfeit Act which was never assented to, but disclaimed, detested, abrogated, and declared null and void by the House of Commons. 6. R. 2. Anno 1383. and hath been yet most presumptuously caused to be printed as a valid Act by the Bishops being Masters of the Press; and the true Act of Abrogation 6. R. 2. Whereon all the Subject hath depends, most wickedly suppressed, and never Printed.  
Coke 2. 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 forbade 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 wholly 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 Authentic 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 discovered 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 discovered, and that to give either Spiritual or Temporal Judge's 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 mischiefs 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, Heretics with Orthodox. Secondly, They would Print Blasphemy, Idolatry, Treason, Rebellion, Uncleanness, Calumny, Reviling, Derision, and all manner of Heresy.  
Answ. 1 To the First is answered, (1.) That it is impossible to exclude Enemies and Papists from Printing, they being possessed 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 soothe 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 Schoolmaster 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 beforehand, 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 public, 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 public Crime, or private Injury in Print, to which he had set his name?  
3. As to matters of Heresy, 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 Catholics it was Enacted, mutually on both sides on pain of death, That no Catholic should Preach against the Lutheran Doctrine, or Lutheran against the Catholic; 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, than it was between the Lutherans and Catholics, who were mortal Enemies; That no dissentient Protestant should Print or Preach publicly, on any point of Ceremonial dissentiency, or other matter not necessary to Salvation, except in such matters as are particularly allowed by Supreme 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 mentioned 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 suffered to interdict either Press or Pulpit to the Protestants against them.  
To come at length to the further mischief's ensuing the Interdiction of the Press; any Interdiction of the Press (except in Cases before mentioned) either to Friend or Enemy, is a dishonour to the Protestant Religion, as if it dared not suffer itself to be disputed, or to meet an Enemy in the open field; whereas in truth, it is not Protestancy but Episcopacy. 'Tis 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 'tis Fiction and not Truth, Vice and not Virtue, 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 of Libels and Lampoons.  
It increases unlearned Sects and Heresies, who if drawn to Print would either not be able to form their Doctrine in Principles or Positions; or if they were, they would appear so absurd as would be fit to employ boys to laugh at, rather than Doctors to confute: Such were Mahomet's, whose Koran is not therefore suffered to be Printed, or Translated.  
5. It causes the more dangerous way of spreading Heresies, both learned and unlearned, to be neglected how to prevent, which is the secret creeping into private Houses, leading Captive silly Women, with whom they walk like the Pestilence in the dark; whereas if they appeared in Print or public Preaching, they might be known where they are, and opposed.  
6. It stops the truth of all intelligence, which is so invaluable a Treasure, and difficult to be got into the Gates of Princes.  
7. A free Press is the pulse of the Body politic, from which is impossible for the wisest State-Physician to discern, or prevent the public Distempers, unless it is suffered to beat free without a Ligature.  
8. It stops all just causes of complaint, and appeal of the Subject to the King and Parliament, against Judges and great Officers, both Spiritual and Temporal. It was my own ill fortune to be pricked Sheriff of a County, which enforced me to draw a Petition to be presented to the King and Parliament; desiring some remedy against the old Popish Oath, continued to be imposed on Sheriffs; wherein they swear to destroy the Protestant Religion, under the name of Lollary; and likewise to be relieved against the extortions of Officers of the Exchequer, on Sheriffs: which not knowing how otherwise conveniently to Address, I appointed the Messenger to get a Licence to Print; which he tried to do, but though there was nothing in it but Humility and Truth; as who dare present otherwise to the Legislative Power? The Licenser Swore He would not Licence it for Five Hundred Guinneys, whereby it could not be done.  
9 It stops all presentments by the People to the King and Parliament of public grievances, in regard the extent of the Three Kingdoms is great, and remote; and therefore neither fit nor possible, multitudes should come so far to present Petitions in person; and if not done in person, there are so many Papists, and Foreign Agents, and their favourers in the way, as may, and do often intercept from the King's knowledge, the humble applications of his Protestant Subjects, as is easy to do, when perhaps comprised only in one sheet of Paper. To avoid therefore the stifling of all just complaints of the Subjects, and the ill consequences which have been too often occasioned thereby, of presenting Petitions by Tumults and Armies: It is far more safe and equal, that the Press should be open to the People in all public Addresses to Supreme Authority; it being many times a sufficient satisfaction to them, if they understand that the King and Parliament do but vouchsafe to hear their complaints and desires, though they think it not fit to grant them: And a Child will often times awe his Enemies from harming him, if he do but threaten them he will tell his Father, where they know he hath that liberty given him.  
10. It appears by experience, That the Liberty of the Press in Holland, and other Foreign States, where permitted, not only bring no inconveniences, but very great benefits and advantages to the People.   

By pretence of giving the King the name of Supremacy, they have taken the Thing to themselves.  
The word Supremacy, is of so infinite Extent, as it can properly be attributed to none but the Divine Power of God; and the words, Jurisdiction and Government, with which it is joined in the Stat. 1. Eliz. 1. which gives the Form of the Oath of Supremacy, are of that Vast Latitude, that in their large literal Sense they include all Legislative, Judicial and Executive Power amongst men, and the Subject matters over which it is exercised, are all Divine and Human Rights; yea what is more, all things Spiritual and Ecclesiastical, as well as Temporal, circumscribed in nothing to difference it from the Papal Supremacy pretended over Heaven, Earth and Hell, but the Bounds of her Majesty's Dominions, within which no wise man ever believed Heaven and H●ll to be contained, though the Bishops under pretence of the same Supremacy given her Majesty which the Pope had, have in the Royal name exercised the same, not only in matters of Marriage, Filiation and Succession, concerning which I intent here only to contend with them; but in all other matters of Oppression of the Consciences, and Rights of the Subjects both as to Religion, Liberty and Propriety, as high as ever the Pope did; though never any such Supremacy was intended either by the Statute, or Oath to make Canon's Judge or Execute, but what hath before been, or lawfully may be exercised or used, (so the word lawfully, refers to time past, as well as future,) and that neither Pope nor Bishops had ever any lawful Supremacy or Power to make or use Canons, or Ecclesiastical Laws concerning Marriage, Filiation or Succession, but did the same by Usurpation in this Realm, is sufficiently proved before against my Lord Coke's Ecclesiastical Law, P. 31. and the Form of the Oath makes the Ecclesiastical Supremacy no higher than the Temporal Supremacy, which every one knows in all Acts of Legislation, is jointly in the King and Parliament, and not singly in either Estate. And therefore Bishops can claim to exercise no Supremacy from one, unless they have it from both; nor of any matter which is not within the King's Dominions, or of any other human Power, but only belongs to the Kingdom of God. And that Pious Queen herself, who began her Reign with the Statute and Oath of Supremacy, soon found the words so general, and thereby obscure, and the letter wrested to such extremity by Episcopal Expositions, that she endeavoured by a Subsequent Declaration published, to have explained and limited, according to the true intention; but the same not being done by Act of Parliament, became not of that Force was desired, and left the Bishops more liberty to exercise more Supremacy in the Royal Name by pretence, than was in truth intended in the Act or Oath. And the subtlety wherewith they glossed their designs, appears in the Act itself, of which they were the chiefest contrivers. For first, they begin with a Nolo Episcopare, alas; as if they intended never to Episcopate or seek for Ecclesiastical Supremacy against; for they utterly abolish all Foreign Power which was the Popes, and all usurped Power which was their own, and annex all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown, which includes the Jurisdiction of Marriage, Filiation and Succession, and many other matters: for they knew, if any part of the Supremacy had been left at Rome, they could never have got it to Canterbury; and though the one eased the Burden of the Subject no more than the other, but rather by the nearness of the Taskmasters increased it to blind the people, they pretend all to be for the Queen; and as if neither Pope nor Prelate should have to do with it, they incited the Queen, like the Eagle of Divinity, to Soar to the height of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Supremacy, to no other intention, than when she had taken the Quarry, they might take it from her and exercise it themselves to their own profit, and not hers: for the next Clause in the Act is, That the Queen may assign Commissioners to exercise all manner of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, which they knew would be to Bishops; but they abusing this Power they had got in the High Commission Court, and other Commissions, this Clause or Branch of Assigning Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Commission, is repealed 17. Car. 1. Cap. 11. & 13. Car. 2. Cap. 12. but the annexation to the Crown and Oath of Supremacy still continuing, they continue still in the King's Name to exercise all Acts of Supremacy, both of Legislation by continuing and making Canons, and of Judgement and Execution above all Appeal, in all matters concerning Marriage, Filiation, and Succession, or more than they were given Power by any Commissions to do while they continued, which makes them who exercise Acts of Supremacy, incapable of being Judges Delegate.   

By pretence of giving the King Supremacy by the Ceremonies of Coronation and Unction, they take it from him to themselves.  
Coronation is the Investiture of a King in his Kingdom, by the Ceremony of Tradition of a Crown, or setting it on his Head; so is the Investiture of a Bishop, by Tradition, of a Ring and Staff or Crosyer; and of a Soldier in Feudal Tenors, by Tradition of a Ring, Sword, or Spear.  
The Persons who have used to make Traditions of Crowns, have been in Kingdoms where the Priest hath the Supremacy of the King; as in Pagan Kingdoms by the High Priest, and in Christian Kingdoms by the Pope or Bishop; and in Germany by both; for the King of the Romans is used to receive three Crowns, one of Iron, another of Silver, and another of Gold. That of Iron he receives of the Bishop of Coleyn in Aquisgrave; that of Silver of the Archbishop of milan in Italy, in the same City, and in the Church of St. Ambrose. That of Gold, of the Bishop of Rome, in the Church of St. Peter, at the Altar of St. Maurice. Where Note, That Gold may be bought too dear, and that three Magpies have got by the Bargain Supremacy over the Roman Eagle.  
But in such Kingdoms where the Supremacy hath been in the King above the Priest, the Tradition of the Crown hath been by the People or their Representative, which we call here a Parliament, or one appointed by them, in regard a multitude cannot all do it in person.  
It is likewise to be observed, That there is a difference between assuming a Kingdom by Conquest, and by Contract; for he that comes in by Conquest, takes the Crown without Tradition from Clergy or Lay, whether they will or no, or exercises the Power of the Sword to govern at his Will without a Crown, as did the old Roman, and now do the Ottoman Emperors, who are never Crowned, but wear Turbans, whereby no Foreign Caliphs', nor their own Mufti's can usurp Ecclesiastical Supremacy: for whosoever accepts Tradition of a Crown, or any other Symbol or token of Investiture, lays aside all Titles by Conquest, and receives a Kingdom by Contract with the people, and takes an Oath to Govern according to the Laws Contracted; which Contract if made with Bishops, and they have the Power of Tradition of the Crown, (if we will believe Henry the Second) they will impose their own Terms of Supremacy and every thing else which concerns their profit; and how Imperious they have been in arrogating to themselves only the Right of Tradition of the Crown, I shall only mention one Example in the Reign of Henry the First, who after the death of his first Queen Matild, married a second called Adelira; and when she was to Be Crowned, Ralf, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was to do the Office, came to King Henry sitting in his Chair of State, ask who had set the Crown on his Head? The King answering, I have now forgotten, it was so long since. Well, says the Archbishop, who ever did it, he did me wrong, to whom it belonged, and as long as you hold it thus, I will do no Office at this Coronation Then said the King, 
The insolency of an Archbishop.  Do what you think good. Whereupon the Archbishop took the Crown off the King's Head, and after, at the entreaty of the people, set it on again, and then proceeded to Crown the Queen. Here appears a great difference between the Tradition of the Crown by a Bishop, and by the People; for the Bishop arrogates the Right, as the Pope by his Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Supremacy, and compels the Prince implicity to acknowledge the same, by either receiving the Original Tradition, or Confirmation of his Crown from him, as one that h●th power Jure Divino to give it; but where it is received from the People or Parliament, neither Superiority nor Supremacy is employed, nor comes in question, but only the form of the Contract; for Superiors, and Inferiors, and Equals, may all Contract alike, and bind themselves alike, whether Superior or Inferior, without any regard or consideration of the one or the other.  
Then for the Supremacy Spiritual given by Unction by a Bishop, they are ever citing their old Popish rule, Reges sacro oleo uncti Spiritualis Jurisdictionis sunt capaces, Kings anointed with holy Oil, are capable of Spiritual Jurisdiction, whereby they make an Appearance, as if by their Oil they gave Supreme Spiritual Jurisdiction; whereas in truth they thereby circumvent Princes, and make them implicitly acknowledge the Bishop who anoints, to be a greater Supreme than the Anointed: for the Bishop assuming without Miracle or sign of Mission to Consecrate the Oil, he thereby pr●tends he hath Power Jure Divino to Consecrate and Anoint as some Prophets had by Miracle amongst the Jews; and then from Christ's Argument, Matth. 23.17, 19 
Anointing safer for Princes by a Lay-hand, and with common Oil, than with Oil Consecrate.  Whether is greater, the Gold, or the Temple, which Sanctifieth the Gold? the Gift, or the Altar which Sanctifieth the Gift? infers, whether is greater, the Temple, or Bishop who Cons●crates the Temple? the Oil, or Bishop who Consecrates the Oil? and whether is a greater Supreme, the Person Anointed, or the Bishop who Anoints and Consecrates the Anointed? So it was by pretence of Consecration of Crowns and Oils, by which the Pope first, and since the Bishop, hath usurped Supremacy over Princes, and secretly steal the Supremacy of that Spiritual Jurisdiction to themselves, which they pretend to give them. But where the Tradition of the Crown or Unction is by the People or their Representative the Parliament, according to Contract between them and the Prince, they never pretend any such thing as Consecration in either, but a civil Contract obliged by mutual Oaths.  
To show some farther Authority, therefore, that never any Pope of Rome, or Ralf of Canterbury, or other Bishop, had any Authority from Christ in the New, or the Prophets or Priests in the Old Testament, to make Tradition of a Crown to any Temporal Prince, but the same belonged to the People or their Representative, who were to be Subjects: It is evident, (1.) as to Christ, John 18.36. His Kingdom is not of this World. (2.) He never had any Crown but that of Thorns, Matth. 27.29. Nor any Robes but the seamless Coat, John 19.23. As to the Prophets and Priests in the Old Testament, they never made Tradition of any Crown to any King of Israel or Judah, but they received them from the People, (such as wore them) and not from any Prophet or Priest; for though Nunrod, as is already mentioned, alleged or feigned before his Usurpation of the first Monarchy, that God shown him miraculously a Crown in the Clouds, and Constantine likewise alleged or feigned, that God shown him miraculously a Cross in the Clouds, yet never any material Crown or Cross dropped from the Clouds, neither doth it appear in Scripture, or any History, that any material Crown was ever by Miracle made by God, or sent by any Prophet or Priest, who should have Authority to make Tradition thereof, and thereby give Investiture of a Kingdom, nor Robes; for though, Gen. 3.21. God made Coats of Skins and clothed Adam; and Matth. 6.30. clothed the Lilies, yet it is before said, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these: Which shows, though God made the Lilies, he made not Solomon's Robes. And the Prophet Ahijah, 1 Kings 11.30. though he prophesied the Kingdom to Jeroboam, gave him neither Crown nor Robes, but rather disrobed him; for he caught his new Garment he bade on, and rend it in twelve pieces, and gave him ten of them. And they were the People only that gave him the Investiture by Crown and Robes, if those Ceremonies were at all used; for it is said, Cap. 12.20. The People sent and called him unto the Congregation, and made him King over all Israel: there was none that followed the House of David, but the House of Judah only. And Verse 24. It appears, that this was from God; yet were not the Priest's hand in it to Crown him, for they would not forsake the Sacrifice at Jerusalem; which, Verse 27. made Jeroboam to fear, that if the people should go thither to sacrifice, they would again return to Rehoboam, and caused him, for prevention, to set up the two Golden Calves at Dan and Bethel. As to the Coronation of Saul and David, we find Saul had a Crown, for, the Amalekite 2 Sam. 1.10. who tells David he slew him, saith, I took the Crown that was upon his Head, and the Bracelet that was on his Arm, and have brought them hither unto my Lord. 
Coronation of Saul, not by the Priest, but People.  (1.) It appears not that Samuel gave him this Crown, neither is it probable; for as hath been said before, it appears not in any History, that God ever sent a material Crown by any Prophet; and as to the Jewish Priests Custom they could have none, Saul being the first King in that Kingdom; and Law they could have none for the Priest to make Tradition of the Crown to the King, for Moses mentions no such thing: therefore it was done by the People, who were of necessity to show their assent and acknowledgement, by some external Ceremony of acknowledgement of their Governor, which after the manner of the Nations, after whose example they desired to have a King, was by Tradition of a Crown, and bringing him Presents; which Presents appear, 1 Sam. 10.27. to be made by the People, and not the Priest; for it is there said, The Children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? and they despised him, and brought him no Presents.  

Coronation of David, on a Conquest, by himself.  As to the Coronation of David, it was in a Kingdom he obtained by Conquest, made by himself, by taking the Crown from the Conquered King's Head, and setting it on his own head without Prophet, or Priest, or Contract with the People. 2 Sam. 12.26. And Joab fought against Rabbah of the Children of Ammon, and took the Royal City, And Joab sent Messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken the City of Waters. Now therefore gather the rest of the People together, and encamp against the City, and take it, lest I take the City, and it be be called after my name. And David gathered all the People together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it. And he took their King's Crown from off his Head, (the weight whereof was a Talon of Gold, with the Precious Stones,) and it was set on David's Head: Thus appears Coronation to be over a Conquered People; 
Coronation of David on a Contract, by the People.  but when David hath to do with a free People of Judah and Israel, it appears, he neither assumed the Crown himself with his own hand, nor received Tradition or Investiture of any Prophet or Priest of the same, but from the People, on Contracts mutually agreed. Yea not only the Crown, but the Anointing itself; which signified the Kingdoms, was given by the People; or, which is all one, by their Representative in Parliament, and not by the Priest, as will appear from the Texts following, viz. 1 Sam. 16, 13. where it is said concerning David, when he was brought before Samuel, Then Samuel took the Horn of Oil, and anointed him in the midst of his Brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came on David from that day forward. 2 Sam. 2.4. The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David King over the House of Judah. And 2 Sam. 5.1. Then came all the Tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron: And Verse 3. So all the Elders of Israel came to the King to Hebron, and King David made a League with them in Hebron before the Lord: and they anointed David King over Israel. And 1 Chron. 1.1. Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron: And Verse 3. Therefore came all the Elders of Israel to the King to Hebron, and David made a Covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David King over Israel, according to the word of the Lord by Samuel.  
By which appears first, that the anointing by Samuel of David, gave him no Investiture of the Kingdom; for Saul was then alive, but only he prophesied by this he should be King, and Successor after Saul's death, and by Miracle prepared and made him capable and fit to execute the Office, by giving him from that time the Spirit of God; which Miracle likewise followed the anointing of his Predecessor Saul, 1 Sam. 10.1, to the 12th. Verse. But there is no such Miracle ensues from Episcopal Unction or Consecration, neither do they show any sign of Mission, to Anoint as Samuel did; but every man that is born hath a sign of Mission from God to Contract with that Prince, under the protection of whose Sword he happens to be born, to yield him Subjection for Protection, and to concur with the whole Body of the other Subjects, to present him with a Symbol or sign of the same, with a Crown or Oil, as here the men of Israel and Judah do to David.  
2. 
David anointed by his Parliament.  That the Anointing which gave David the Investiture of the Kingdoms, was made by the Representative of the People in Parliament, and not by the Priest; for it is said, That all the Tribes, and all Israel, and all the Elders, which were a Senate or Parliament, to treat for the People, and make a League and Covenant with the King; for it was impossible for him otherwise to treat with so great a multitude as all Israel, had they not agreed to Elect a fit Representative for them; therefore it is said, The Elders anointed David, and no mention made of the Priest; neither had the Priest any Law of Moses to anoint Kings.  
3. That as there was no Crown sent David from Heaven for his Coronation, whereby Pontifical men might pretend to have the disposing, so there was no Oil sent thence for ●is Anointing, but he received both from the People. And surely the Mission of the Oil of Rheims thence is as great a Fable, as of the Crown of Nimrod, or of the Image which fell from Jupiter; neither did there need any Consecration of either, for by the Customs of most Nations, Crowns and Unctions were but civil Ceremonies of Honour given to the Parties which received them, not only in Elections of Kings, but almost in all other Solemnities, as Military Triumphs, Olympic and other Games, yea even in their ordinary Feasts, both of Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.  
Habent Vnctae mollia serta Comae.  Ovid. 
Which shows both Crowning and Anointing of their Guests, with Garlands or Crowns of Flowers, and Unction with Oil of the Olive, both which materials, though more properly made by God, than Crowns of Gold and Oils confected and Consecrated, yet were esteemed but as civil Ceremonies, and were a ministered by Lay-hands without a Priest. And of this civil Festival Honour of Anointing used amongst the Jews, as well as other Nations, Christ is pleased to take notice, Luke 7.36. My Head with Oil thou didst not anoint, but this Woman hath anointed my Feet with Ointment. And though both Coronation and Unction were but civil Ceremonies, and of humane Institution, where no Miracle testified a Divine, yet is David called God's Anointed, more truly than if he had been anointed by the Priest, seeing God gave the Priest no Mission, but yet himself turned the Hearts of the People by the civil signs of Coronation and Unction, to acknowledge David for their Sovereign; for which he himself giveth thanks and saith, Psal. 18.47. God subdueth the People under me.  
4. That David doth not make a League and Covenant with the High Priest, but with his Parliament, who were the Convention of Elders who anointed him.  
5. That though there had been long Civil Wars between Judah who followed David, and Israel who followed Isbosheth the Son of Saul, and Abner his General was dead, and Isbosheth was dead, and there remained with him Victorious and Veteran Armies; yet neither Judah nor Israel anointed him, till he had first made with them a League and Covenant.  
6. From hence may be discovered the great Mystery of Iniquity, whereby Popes have terrified Emperors and Kings as their Vassals, to receive Crowns and Unctions from them, which hath been only by persuading. That none but Bishops could Crown or Anoint them; the manifold mischiefs of which to Princes and People, are too long here to be recited; only whosoever will consider them, will find it clear, That Bishops who have pretended, or may pretend to so dangerous a Tenant, as, That none but they have Right to make Coronations and Unctions, are no fit Judges of Successions to Crowns.   

They assume in the Judgement of all matters concerning Marririage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, to be above Appeal to the King's Courts.  
It hath been already shown, that Bishops by assuming a Power Jure Divino, without showing a sign of Mission, and by false translating Scripture, and by corrupting and interdicting the Press, exercise a Power superior or equal to the Legislative; from which doth follow, That such as are Legislators, or assume or exercise such Power, ought not to be Judges Delegate. (1.) Because Legislation Supreme, and Judgement Delegate, are two distinct Offices, and ought not to be confounded. (2.) Because it is Repugnant, that a Legislator should be a Delegate to himself; for in Presentia Majoris cessat potestas Minoris, the lesser Power is lost in the greater. (3.) If wrong Judgement happen to be given, there can be no appeal but to those who did the Wrong; whereby they become Judges and Parties, and Judge in their own Case. (4) A Power Delegate to Judge without Appeal, ceases to be a Delegate Power, and is greater than the Legislative, which Power that it is assumed by the Bishops in all Matrimonial Causes, is the thing next to be shown.   

Of the abominable Judgement passed by the Common Law Judges in Kennes Case, Coke lib. 7.42. whereby they gave away the Supremacy of the King's Courts to the Bishop, and made them in all Causes Matrimonial, subject to no Appeal.  
Mich. 4. Jac. In the Court of Wards between Thomas Robertson, and Elizabeth his Wife, Plaintiff; and Florence Lady Stallenge, Defendant; The Case was, This Christopher Ken Esq was seized of the Manor of Ken in the County of Somerset, holden by Knight's Service in Capite, and 37. H. 8. de facto married Elizabeth Stowell, and had Issue Martha the Mother of Elizabeth one of the now Plaintiffs; and after, 1. & 2. Ph. & Mar. in the Court of Audience, between the said Christopher Kenne, Plaintiff; and Elizabeth Stewell, Defendant; the Judge there gave a Sentence in these words, Pretens' tractat' contract' sponsalia & Matrimonium quin verius Effigiem matrimonij inter Christopherum Kenne & Elizabeth Stowell in Minore & sua impubertatis aetate eorundem aut eorum alterius de fact' habit' contract' & celebrat' fuisse & esse eosdemque Christopherum & Eliz. tam tempore contractus & Solemnizationis dict' pretens' matrimonij quam etiam continuo postea idem matrimonio pretens' & Solemnizationi ejusdem dissensisse contravenisse Reclamasse & Reluctasse ac eo praetextu hujusmodi Pretens' tractat' sponsalia & matrimonium de jure nullum & nulla irritum & irrita cassum & cassa invalidum & invalida & minus efficax & inefficacia fuisse & esse viribusque juris caruisse career & career debere Nec non Antedictos Christopherum Kenne & Eliz Stowell quatenus de factor fuerunt ad invicem matrimonio ut predicitur copulat' ab invicem Separand' & divorciand' fore debere pronunciamus decernimus & declaramus Eosque Separamus & Divorciamus eisdemque Christopher' & Eliz. licentiam & Libertatem ad alia vota convolanda concedimus tribuimus & impertimur per hanc Sententiam nostram definitivam sive hoc finale nostrum decretum quam sive quod ferimus & promulgamus in hiis Scriptis etc.  
And after the Divorce, the said Christopher Kenne Espoused and took to Wife Elizabeth Beckwith: And after, Anno 5th. Eliz. before certain Commissioners Ecclesiastical, the said Elizabeth Beckwith Libelled against the said Christopher Kenne, That before the Marriage between them contracted, he had Married with Elizabeth Stowell; on which process was awarded against Elizabeth Stowell pro interest. And upon due examination of the Cause, it was Sentenced, That the Marriage between the said Christopher Kenne, and Elizabeth Beckwith, was lawful, and Sentenced them ad Exequenda Conjugalta obsequia, etc. And that the said Christopher Kenne was never lawfully Espoused unto the said Elizabeth Stowell; and after the said Elizabeth Beckwith died, after whose death the said Christopher took to Wife the said Florence, by whom he had Issue one Daughter, and called Elizabeth, and died. And Anno 36th. Eliz. it was found by Office in the County of Somerset, by Force of a Mandamus, after the death of the said Christopher Kenne, that the said Elizabeth Kenne was his Daughter and Heir, who was within Age, Viz. of the Age of Ten Months. The Queen granted her Wardship to Sir Nicholas Stallenge and the said Florence then his Wife, on which the said Martha alleged herself to be Daughter and Heir to the said Christopher Kenne, and with her Husband Silvester Williams, Exhibited their Bill in the Court of Wards against the said Sir Nicholas, and Florence, alleging, That the said Martha was Daughter and Heir of the Body of the said Elizabeth Stowell his lawful Wife, and that they the said Christopher and Elizabeth Stowell at the time of their Marriage in Anno 37. H. 8. were both of them above the Age of Consent, and that they Cohabited together Nine or Ten Years before the said supposed Divorce; during which Cohabitation the said Martha was procreate between them, and therefore pray they may have Licence to Traverse the said Office. To which Bill the said Nicholas and Florence put in their answer, and the Plaintiff examined divers Witnesses, and before Publication, Sir Nicholas dies; and thereupon the said Silvester and Martha exhibited a Bill of Reviver against the said Florence; and after, Martha having Issue Elizabeth the Wife of the now Pl. died, after whose death the said Thomas Robertson and Elizabeth his Wife, bring a new Bill of Reviver to revive the first Suit, in which the Witnesses were examined; and this Case was referred to Fleming and Coke, Chief Justices, and Tanfeild Chief Baron, and Selverton and Williams Justices, and Sing and Altham Barons of the Exchequer.  
If it be asked, for what reason was such a Sentence given? my Lord Coke nor the rest will neither tie the Bishop nor themselves to show any; for he saith, The lawfulness of Marriage belonging originally to be tried in the Ecclesiastical Court, if the Ecclesiastical Judge (that is, the Bishop) Sentence a Marriage Null, We (that is, the Judges of the King's Courts) ought to give Faith (that is, implicit Faith) to their Sentence, as they do to our Judgement, whether true or false, right or wrong, reason or no reason; and so he saith, Where the original cause of Suit concerning Marriage belongs to the Common Law Courts, the Ecclesiastical Judge is to give like Faith to them; as 22. E. 4. in Corbets Case, which was this, Sir Robert Corbet had by Elizabeth his Wife two Sons, Robert the Elder, and Roger the Younger, and dies; Robert the Elder being under the Age of Fourteen, takes to Wife one Matilda, and they dwell together t●ll full Age, Et habuerunt carnalem copulam, & cogniti & reputati pro viro & uxore palam. And after the said Robert put off the said Matilda, having no Issue by her, and Married one Lettuce in the life of the said Matilda, and hath Issue by her Robert, and dies; Lettuce Preached openly, that she was the lawful Wife of Robert, and her Son a mulier, Roger the Son of Sir Robert Corbet, sues in the Spiritual Court to Reverse these Espousals between Robert his Brother, and Lettuce; for which Lettuce sues a Prohibition. In which Case it was Resolved, (1.) That if Robert and Matilda had had Issue, and had been unjustly Divorced, and after Robert had Married Lettuce, and had Issue and died, that as long as the unjust Divorce had continued, the Issue of Matilda could have had no remedy at Common Law, the same gives so great Faith to the Sentence of the Bishop. (2.) That here Roger might sue at Common Law, notwithstanding the second Marriage, in regard the same was void, being made while the first Wife lived. On which may be noted, the injustice of the Bishops, being above Appeal in Judgement in these particulars, (1.) Here is a lawful Matirmony Consummate by the Birth of a Child, and two Persons thereby indissolubly joined together, by the Act and Law of God, put asunder by the Bishop and his Papal Law. Here is a Dispute from Generation to Generation concerning the Validity of a Marriage, and Succession to an Inheritance: Against the Marriage is alleged, That the same was declared void by a Sentence of Divorce, or rather of Nullity given by the Bishop. Against it is answered by Elizabeth a Descendent of the said Marriage, and the right Heir to the Inheritance, that the cause of the said Sentence was false. And she offered to prove, that the said Christopher Kenne and Elizabeth Stowell were both above the Age of Consent to Marriage, in Anno 37. H. 8. and were then lawfully Married and Cohabited together Nine or Ten Years, and the said Martha was lawfully Procreate between them before the pretended Divorce was made. Was there ever Probation more Relevant tendered? was there ever better Reason alleged by a poor Lady to defend her Inheritance? On this, Hoskins, Bacon, Dodridge, and other Council Argued so long from Term to Term, as was enough to spend a good Portion before it was got. But, alas, to no purpose; for had this Elizabeth, been Queen Elizabeth herself, these Judges will give no Relief or Hearing against a Bishop's Sentence, unless his Lordship will please to Revoke it himself. And notwithstanding all Arguments to the contrary, it was accordingly resolved by all the Justices and Barons, That she must go without her Inheritance, and her Mother Martha remain a Bastard, till the Bishop who made her so, should again unmake her, which was in plain English, to adjudge there should be no Appeal in any case of Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, or Succession from the Bishops to the King's Courts.  
2. He rests not there, but says, jisdem licentiam ad alia vota convolanda concedimus. So that here not only Licence may be had for Money to Marry, but for the same to leave the old, and make a new choice as often as they please. And my Lord Coke will have the Common Law to give such Faith, that they ought not to question these do, true or false, right or wrong; which sets all Women and Men to Sale for Money, and gave the occasion to Cornelius Agrippa, to call all ecclesiastics Panders General for their Profit.  
3. The Common Law Judges give the Bishop the same Supremacy of Power in Matrimonial Causes, since the Protestant Religion hath made Marriage no Sacrament, as they had in the time of highest Popery, and made it a Sacrament, though Sublata causa tollitur effectus. The same ceasing to be a Sacrament, and becoming a mear Temporal Contract, the old superstitious Faith of a Sacrament ought not to be given those who are no Judges of Temporal matters.  
4. It is worth a smile in this Case, were it not so wicked, to see how hot the Common Lawyers were a while in the scuffle for Supremacy of Marriage. But no sooner had the Bishops turned the muzzles of the Romish Canons against them, and discharged their piece of Conjuring in a strange Language, instead of a Sentence, but our Worthies of the Law fell flat on their faces, and yielded the Royal Fort of the Prerogative and all the Protestant Subjects Laws and Liberties, eya Magna Charta itself, to the Mercy of the Enemy, by so abominable a Judgement, that no Appeal lay to the King's Courts against the Sentence of a Bishop, touching Marriage, Filiation, or Succession, true or false, right or wrong, with cause or without cause, a Resolve deserving to be marked with a Note of perpetual Infamy, and Razed out of all Records. On which and other Reasons, though in most parts of Christendom the Clergy generally composed one Estate of the Country, yet since the Reformation they were excluded from being any part of the Estates, and of Holland, neither were they allowed any Vote in their Assembly: and far less Reason have they in England (seeing they have equal Privilege here with the Gentry, and all other Lay-free-holders' in Election of Knights of the Shire) to assume any other Power in the Legislative, Temporal or Spiritual, either in Person or by any other Representative. The like Practice is likewise in Venice, though they are Catholics, where before the Council sits, the Crier with a loud Voice commands all Priests out of Doors, lest they should discover the State secrets to the Pope, and likewise assume the Supremacy of Judgement from the Temporalty to the Spiritualty; to produce which effects they are a dangerous ingredient to be mixed, in how small a quantity soever, in any Supreme Council, and a little Leven of so active a Fermentation, Leveneth the whole Lump. A Reason is given by Aeneas Silvius, why it was held by more, That the Pope was above a Council, than a Council above a Pope, because Popes gave Bishoprics and Archbishoprics, but Councils gave none. Which doth not only hold in mere Spiritual Councils, but in such Spiritual Councils as are mixed with the Temporalty, in which the Spiritualty are always Bribed and Pensioned by the gift of their Offices: And this is apparent, and needs no further proof. And if any of the Temporalty receive the like Bribes and Pensions, upon lawful proof thereof made, it cannot be denied, that neither of them are equal or fit Legislators, and much less Judges of the Holy Laws of God, of Marriage, Filiation, and Succession of Subjects, and least of all of Kings.   

Exceptions against Bishops being Judges, in reference to the Judicial Power.  
1. They are prohibited by the example of Christ to Judge Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, or Succession.  
We Read, Christ was at a Marriage-Feast, but it was so poor a one, they wanted Wine, and 'tis likely he would have helped them to none, had the man been rich; for he might have bought enough for his Money without Miracle. But Christ shown his Bounty to the Poor, and the Rich he sent empty away. We read likewise, he taught the Doctrine of Marriage: but it was according to the Moral Law of God, and all Ceremonial Laws he Established; neither did he or his Apostles ever join any hands by the Ceremonies of a Priest or Temple, nor ever spoke of any other joining Man and Woman together; but by God only, as it was from the beginning. And as to the point of being a Judge of Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, he utterly refused it, though he knew the Fact and the Right far above any Bishop, as appears, Luke 12.14. And one of the company said unto him, Master, Speak to my Brother, that he divide the Inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, Who made me a Judge or a Divider over you? To give Judgement in this Case, according to Episcopal Doctrine, Christ must first have enquired with what Ceremonies the Father and Mother were Married, whereby the Marriage must have been first Judged. Then, Whether these two Brothers were begot before the Ceremonies, or after, and whether there were Witnesses at the begetting, which concerns Filiation. Then, Whether the Inheritance, which, according to the Romish Law, then Imperial in Judaea, included both Lands and movable Goods, were left by a Testate, or an Intestate; which would have concerned the Aliment and Succession, but Christ in a word refused to Judge any of these. And those who allege themselves his Successors, aught to follow his Example, who if he sent them, sent them to teach, and not to Judg. For he saith▪ Go teach all Nations; but there is not a word of Judging any Nation.  
2. They are totally ignorant in the Fact, and were never Educated in the Laws by which they pretend to Judge Marriage.  
That 'tis impossible for them to know the Facts of Marriage or Filiation, or to receive any Testimony of the same, is already shown and proved, P. 104, 105. and indeed the Cook with his white Sleeves who dressed the Wedding-Dinner, and the Tailor who made the Wedding-clothes, and the Midwife and Gossips who eat the Pie, and drunk the Bowl, (if any Certificate or Judgement were at all necessary as to the Fact of Marriage and Filiation, besides that of the Parents) were far more credible and fit, than the Bishop's who was an Hundred Miles off at the time of getting the Child, and of all these do besides.  
And as to the Law, 'tis known they were never Educated either in the Civil, Canon, Common or Statute Laws; the knowledge of all which they themselves cannot but acknowledge are necessary to make up an Ecclesiastical Lawyer: by which is manifest, they are as ignorant of the Law of Marriage and Filiation, as they are before proved to be of the Fact. With what Face or Conscience can they undertake to be Judges of what they are totally Ignorant, except only to take account of the Money and Gaines?  
3. They Judge by a Chancellor 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 Judge or Legislative Power can delegate Judgement. A Bishop must therefore be a Judge Supreme, or Delegate; if he Arrogate to be Supreme, he ought not to be suffered; 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 Covetousness, that they may have Plurality of Offices, and let them to Farm to Deputies; all which are most sad Ingredients to compound a Judge of Marriage, Filiation, and Succession: and it is clean contrary to the known Laws, for any Judge Delegate to Act by Deputy, and not in Person; for the Office of a Judge, is an Office of Trust, and cannot be granted over; and neither aught nor can be executed by any Assign, Deputy, Commissaries, or Chancellor, but aught 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 remembered of Becket Archbishop 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 Archbishop of Canterbury, before he would take upon him the Office of Archbishop, he, of his own accord, first surrendered his Office of Chancellor, not thinking it fit for one man to have two such great Offices at once; but they now make St. Peter's 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 mentioned; 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 absolver's, of Dispensers' of Faculties, of Interdictors of Marriages, of Li●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 Churchyards, 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 Sponges, 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 mere Temporal matters, and nothing can be more Temporal in itself, 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 confessed both by Common and Ecclesiastical Lawyers, That the mere Spiritual Judge, ought not to judge 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, judge of any Temporal matters in Ordine ad Spiritualia, he hath no pretence or colour of Right to be a Judge 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 Judge 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 Englishman 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 Birthright of the People; That if any House of Commons, who are Elected by the People, and entrusted 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 King's 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 summoned from their remote Habitations in the Country, and so long Journeys to the City, and their not being versed in the difficulties of Legislation, or any other probable matter of Excuse, that they desired to refer the whole care of the Public 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 wholesome 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 Summoned, 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, 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 People's Interest in the Legislative to others; for, Delegatus non p●test delegare, it was an Office of Personal Trust reposed in the Persons Elected 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 Public Safety and Peace.  
Hence will follow therefore, That all Ecclesiastical Canons and Laws of Synods and Councils, prohibiting Marriage, without Public 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 shown to be contrary to the Moral Law of God, and to come from the Devil, P. 52. and it being here shown 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 Judgement must likewise be void, being according to the Law of the Devil; and such Persons are no fit Judges, who judge according to such Laws.  
7. They take to themselves the Fines and Penalties of their own Judgements.  
That the Sole and Final Cause why Bishops so eagerly contest for the Jurisdiction of Marriage, is Filthy Lucre, is shown before, P. 52, 53. etc. and the same is so great a Pillar of the Kingdom of Antichrist, that, 
Pope ruin'd where Episcopal Jurisdiction of Marriage is taken away.  take but away Episcopal Jurisdiction of Marriage, the Papal Power is immediately ruined 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 Judgement 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 Catholic Religion in the Low Countries 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 Catholic 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 Mother's Marriage, and her Succession, depending on the Pope's protection. And wheresoever any Prince is promoted by the Pope's 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 Catholic Ladies with Protestant Princes, gains a numerous increase of Catholics in those Dominions, and many times turns the whole Tide to carry Tribute to Tiber. But to return to the lesser Rivers, the Bishops; 'tis 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 Public Treasury.  
8. They Licence, Dispense and Pardon all Offences against the Law, for Money.  
It is to no purpose to make Penal Laws, if the Judge hath liberty to Licence, Dispense and Pardon Offences against them; and nothing better enables him to do it, than to allow a Judge 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 Judge, as he will protect and increase the Vice he pretends to suppress. Hence the Pope's Taxa Camerae, and the Bishop's Courts, increase more Fornication and Adultery, than a●l the lose Women in the Country. 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 Bishopric 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, endeavoured to convert Praetextatus, a great Heathen Philosopher, to Christianity; he answered him, Make me Bishop of Rome, and I will turn Christian. And there are too many who say, make me a Bishop and I will be a Protestant. So did the Bishop of Spalleto, in late memory, leave Italy, while Paul the Fifth was Pope, because his Ambition was not so high preferred as he desired, and fled to England, and professed himself as Protestant, and Preached against the Pope; but when the old Pope was dead, and his Kinsman got into the Chair, being not made a Bishop here, he returned back again to Rome, and turned Catholic again in hope of great preferment there from his Kinsman: but in stead of the same, they took him and burned him for an Apostate. There want not likewise in the present time, Examples of those who professed themselves Protestant's, till not finding there Ambitious expectations satisfied with Bishoprics and other great places, have turned Papists, in hope to find the same amongst Them. (2.) If Frame err not, too many have been promoted to their Bishoprics by the Moyne and Recommendations of Great Catholics, whose Creatures they were; and how unfit Judges of Marriage, Filiation, and Succession to Protestant Kingdoms, such Bishops must be, is left to all true Protestants to consider.  
10. They Judge by Fictions, and not by Truth.  
Grant a Judge but liberty to judge by Fictions, he will make what Religion, what Law, what Equity, what Justice he pleaseth; he will be the only God to be adored, and Judge to be feared. He will be like the Pope, the only Proprietor of the World, and justify his Title to the Sale of Heaven, Earth, and Hell. The Fictions by which Bishops judge Marriage, and the mischiefs which ensue by them, have been most touched before: As, that Intention of minds, and not conjunction 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. (4.) That Children begot by Adulterers, were begot by the Husband, if he was within the Four Seas. P. 72, 73. (5.) That two Persons are Transubstantiated into one, by the words of the Priest pronouncing them Man and Wife. P. 66, 67. etc. That a Child is not Sib or Kin, or of Consanguinity, nor a Child to the Father who begot him, or the Mother who bore him. P. 14, 15. (6.) There is another Fiction by which they judge, not mentioned before, which is Benediction of the Priest, for it was an old Superstition nursed in the People by the old Pagan Priests, That their Wives should be Barren, unless they were blessed by the Priest. Hence the old Arabians were wont to Swear by God and the Bellies of their Wives; and Mahomet himself, Alchor. Cap. 4. P. 47. teacheth the same as a most Sacred Oath; and Sterility, the greatest Curse to be feared. And though Jacob teach, That the blessing of Children ought only to be asked and expected from God, and not from Man; and certainly it were in truth the greatest Idolatry to desire or expect that Blessing from the Priest, and were to make him God, as appears, 
Benediction of the Priest on Marriage a Fiction.  Gen. 30.1. And when Rachel saw she bare Jacob no Children, Rachel envied her Sister, and said unto Jacob, give me Children, or else I die. And Jacob 's anger was kindled against Rachel, and said, Am I in God's stead? who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the Womb? But to infuse the like Superstition into the Hearts of Christians, for the increase of his gain, Soter Pope of Rome, decreed, No Marriage should be lawful, without the Parties receiving the Benediction of the Priest. Plat. Func. And by a Decree in France, all Children born in Marriages, not blessed by a Romish Priest, are made incapable to succeed to any Goods of Father and Mother. Everard. 24. The multitude of Pilgrimages to Saints and Idols, that is to say, to the Priests who keep them, and take the gifts of all they can delude, to ask of them the Benediction of Children, are known, Mr. Stopford, Paganopap. 111. of this Superstition or Idolatry mentions a noted Example.  
Henry the Third King of France, sent a Princely Gift to the Virgin of Loretto, viz. a worthy Cup, to obtain Issue Male by her Intercession; a Gift, for substance and work, most excellent; for the Cup itself is of Hollowed Gem, at this day called the Azure Stone: 'Tis also very big, and intermingled with Golden Veins, the Cover whereof is of turned Crystal set in Gold, and adorned with many excellent Jewels; in the top of the Cover an Angel of Gold doth hold in his hand a Lily of Diamonds, the Arms of the Kingdom of France; which Lily doth consist of three Diamonds joined together in Gold with admirable Art, the Foot of the Cup being Emerald, is bound about and supported with Gold, and beautified with Precious Stones and rich Orient Pearls; in the bottom of the Foot, the Giver, and the Cause of the Gift, is engraven in manner following:  


O Queen, who by thy worthy Son  
Didst joyful Blessing bring  
To all the World; Bless with a Son  
The Kingdom and the King.   
Henry III. King of France and Polonia, in the Year of our Salvation, MDLXXXIV.   

Certificate of a Bishop false.  St. Germyn, lib. 2.69. raises a Question, Whether if the true Heir is certified by the Bishop a Bastard, as Ten to One if there happen a Contest between two Heirs, but he is; whether he that is of Council with the Adverse Party, may, with good Conscience advise his Client to make Use of this false Certificate of the Bishop, in which, without any Conscience (which he so much pretends) he saith he may; for these Reasons, First, because it is a Maxim in the Law, That a private mischief shall be suffered before a public Inconvenience; and the public inconvenience would be, that if the Certificate of the Bishop should not be final, then in this Case if another Writ should be after sent to another Bishop in another Action, to certify whether he were a Bastard or not, peradventure that Bishop would certify that he were a Mulier; that is to say, lawfully begot; and then he should recover as Heir, and so he should in one self-Court be taken for Mulier and Bastard; for avoiding which contrariety, the Law will suffer no more Writs to go forth in that Case, and suffers all men to take advantage of the Certificate, rather than suffer such a Contradiction, which in Law is called an Inconvenience. The Second Reason he gives, is, because the Certificate of the Bishop is the higest kind of Trial that is in the Law in this behalf.  
But with due respect to so grave an Author, whose failings are rather to be imputed to the time of Popery wherein he was born, and writ, than to his Person. In answer to his Reasons alleged, I say, first, to the Maxim, That 'tis better to suffer a private mischief, than a public Inconvenience, or, which is much like it, is better one man perish than the whole People, is to be intended only where the Case is reduced to that necessity, that either one or other must be; but in this there is no necessity Trial should be by Certificate of a Bishop at all; and though uno absurdo dato mille sequuntur, were there a Thousand inconveniences followed, if the Certificate of a Bishop should be questioned for falsity, it being first granted, it belongs to him to make Certificates; yet there is no necessity that absurdity should be first granted, that it should belong to him to make Certificates. for there are ways enough (wherein no Inconveniences follow) of Trial of Truth, without Certificates of Bishops. (2.) The supposition is repugnant and impossible, that any Case should happen or be shown in the World, wherein Fiction or Falsity ought to be suffered in Judicial proceeding; or where Probation ought not by the Law of God to be admitted against such Fiction and Falsity, (notwithstanding the corrupt practice of Courts to the contrary) and such suffering of a private mischief of that kind to a private Person, is so far from preventing a public Inconvenience, that it will bring both a private and public mischief, and destroy both; for it is as impossible to separate Truth from Justice, as the Light from the Sun. (3.) That which is alleged for an inconvenience to the public, That one Bishop would make a Certificate contrary to another, this is no more public inconvenience, than if Thiefs should fall out, and true men come by their Goods. (4.) As to what is said, That the Certificate of the Bishop is in this Case the highest Trial in the Law, we must distinguish the Law; for it was then the Law of Popery was Predominant, which gave Supremacy in Causes of Marriage, Filiation, and Succession, to the Bishops above Kings, and to the Sentences in Bishops Courts, and made them above Appeal to the King's Courts, and the Foundation of that their Supremacy was, That then by that Law Marriage was a Sacrament, and Penance was a Sacrament; but the Law being now changed from Popish to Protestant, and the Supremacy being now given by the Protestant Law to the King, above the Bishop, as well in Causes Matrimonial, as in all other Ecclesiastical Causes, and the Protestant Religion, taking away the two Popish Sacraments of Marriage and Penance, which were the only Roots whence the Episcopal Jurisdiction of Marriage, and the incidents to the same pretended to sprout, Cessante Causa, & ratione legis cessat & Lex, the pretended Causes of the Jurisdiction ceasing, the Jurisdiction itself ceases, whereby now the Certificate of the Bishop is so far from being the highest Trial, that it ought to be no Trial at all; for the Sacraments ceasing, the Jurisdiction ceaseth; and the Jurisdiction ceasing, the Power of Trial ought likewise to cease. (5.) For Council to advise his Client to maintain a false Certificate of the Bishops, knowing it to be false, is as wicked, as for the Bishop to make a false Certificate, knowing it to be false; or which is impossible for him to know to be true, as all relating to Filiation are, it being their own Rule, Filiatio non potest probari, except by the Parents; wherefore, ex Ore Suo, they condemn themselves of false Judgement, and are not therefore fit to be Judges.  
11. They Judge by Ceremonies, and not by Circumstances.  
As to the word, Ceremonia, some will have it derived à Cerere, because they used divers Formalities in the Worship of the Goddess Ceres: But this is not proper, seeing all the Heathen Gods and Goddesses had as many Formalities in their Worship as she; others derive it from Cerete, a Latin Town, whither (as saith Valerius Maximus) the Flamen Quirinalis and the Vestal Virgins fled with their Trinkets, while the Gauls besieged Rome, others derive it à Cereis, from Torches and Tapers lighted made of Wax, which amongst the old Pagans was a great Ceremony used in the Temples of their Gods, and at their Marriages; but this is likewise improper and only figurative, to take species famosior pro toto genere, and not natural; so it appears, the Etymology of it is either unknown, or it is itself an Original, not derived from any.  
Rites, which is a word usually joined with Ceremonies, and much of the same Signification, some will have derived à Ritualibus; now the Rituales were old Magical and Superstitious Books of the Hetruscan Priests, by help of which, they either conjured their Gods, or made the People believe so; and they had all the Formalities written in them which were to be used at making Marriages, at laying the Foundations of a City, and how Altars, Temples, and Houses were to be Consecrated, and how their Courts of Justice, and Counties, and Hundreds, were to be divided; for in all these the old Pagans used to Consult their Augurs, Aruspices, Bishops and Priests, and were like our Books of Ecclesiastical Canons: But it seems rather these ritual Books had their names derived from the Rites, whereof they were made a written Collection, and not the Rites from the Rituals; and so Rites, as well as Ceremonies, may be words which none knows whence they came, or whether they will.  
But to come from the Etymology of the word Ceremony, to the thing usually signified by it, and the difference between a Ceremony and a Circumstance; it seems, A Ceremony is an Act accessary joined to a Principal, not affecting the Principal Act with Good or Evil by the Law of God.  
A Circumstance, is an Act accessary joined with a Principal, affecting the same Principal Act with Good or Evil by the Law of God.  
Ceremonies are infinite, but Circumstances are usually drawn to Seven Heads.  

(1.) The Cause of doing the Act; which is divided into four kinds, The Efficient, Final, Material, Formal; and these again subdivided into others.  
(2.) The Person by, or with whom the Act was done.  
(3.) The Place where it was done.  
(4.) The Time when it was done.  
(5.) The Quantity continued, or discrete.  
(6.) The Quality, which is manifold.  
(7.) The Seventh and last Circumstance, is the Event of the Act; the Civilians expound very improperly, and instance, whether the Act is done by Fear, Force, Error, Deceit, Fault, Chance, or the like; for how can these which are precedent Causes of the Act, and therefore aught to be referred to the Cirstumstance of the Causes, be said to be the Event of an Act, which is always subsequent, and not precedent to the Principal Act, and in that sense is always used by the best Latinists, as Cicero in Rhetor. Things are often judged from the Event; than which there is nothing more unjust: and the Poets agree in the same.   
— Careat Successibus opto,  
Quisquis ab Eventu facta notanda putat.  
Eventus Belli incertus, wherein it is used for the Fortune and Success following the Battle, and not the Fortune or Chance which began or occasioned it. So the Common Law in punishing the Event, as the death of any Man within a Day or Year after his being wounded or beaten, punisheth only the Event of an unlawful Act of wounding or beating, not of lawful; which Event is subsequent, and not preceding to the Act. So likewise the Scripture useth the word Event, for what follows, and not for what precedes, as Eccles. 2.14. One Event happeneth to them all. And Eccles. 9.2. There is one Event to the Righteous and to the Wicked. And Verse 11. Ireturned and saw under the Sun, that the Race is not to the Swift, nor the Battle to the Strong, neither yet Bread to the Wise, nor Riches to men of Understanding, nor yet Favour to men of Skill; but Time and Chance happeneth to them all. Man purposeth, but God disposeth. Events are only in the Power of God.   

Ceremonies and Circumstances in this agree.  
(1.) That they are both accessary, and not the Principal Acts.  
(2.) That when single, they may be neither good nor evil; but when joined with another Act, they may become either good or evil.  
(3.) They may be in some junctures each the Principal, and in other, the accessary Act.  
(4.) In some junctures each may be good, in other evil, and in a third neither good nor evil; that is, neither be Ceremonies, nor Circumstances.  
(5.) In this Ceremonies and Circumstances agree, that they have been used and abused in all Affairs and Acts, both Civil, Military, and Religious; but I shall here only insist on such Ceremonies as have been abused and compelled by Pagan and Episcopal Canons in relation to Marriage.   

Ceremonies and Circumstances in this differ.  
(1.) Ceremonies and Circumstances differ, That Marriage and other Acts, are impossible to be done without Circumstances, but the same is possible to be done without Ceremonies.  
(2.) Ceremonies are always Acts external, and made the objects of the external Senses of Witnesses, and are of no Use in Marriage (but the gains of the Priest) where Witnesses are unlawful, as in Carnal knowledge; or impossible, as in Filiation, as is already proved, P. 104, 105. But Circumstances of Marriage may be both external, or internal and invisible. External, as Youth, Age, Sexes, Health, Sickness, Plurality, Unity. Internal and Invisible, as Religion, Conscience, Virtue, Vice, Love, Hatred, and the like. Ceremonies make Acts gaudy, which they call decent, or deformed before men; but Circumstances only make them so before God.  
(3.) All Ceremonials are Artificial, and not Natural; but Circumstances may be both Artificial and Natural.  
(4.) No Ceremonies in Marriage, are Commanded or Prohibited in the Moral Law of God; but many Circumstances are Commanded, and many Prohibited in the same Moral Law.  
(5.) God is the Author of all Natural and Moral Circumstances, which make Marriage lawful or unlawful; but the Devil is the Author of Ceremonies where is no Miracle or sign of Mission from God. And it hath been before shown, the compulsion to Ceremonies of Marriage came from Daemons and Priests of Priapus and Venus; and such as judge Marriage by such Ceremonies come not from God.  
(6.) Ceremony, is a matter of Formality in Judgement, but Circumstance, if any, is the matter of Substance. To conclude, it is a thing so absurd to judge by Ceremonies above Circumstances, and by Formalities above Substance, that never any Lawyer was so shameless to maintain in writing, or lay any such Principle in judicial Proce●dings to be equal, though by the Corruption of Practice, not only in Marriage, but in all things else. The Truth and Substance of Religion and Justice hath been utterly lost and destroyed in an heap of Ceremonies and Formalities, invented only for the gains of such Judges as would for that end with such Empty-nothings pretend to weigh Right and Wrong. For the Law of man can not make any Ceremony or other matter to be Substance, which the Law of God and Nature hath made an Accident; or make that Moral, which God hath made to be only Ceremonial; or make that Act Good or Evil in itself, or to affect another Act with Good or Evil; for to make Moral Good or Evil, or a Law for it, belongs only to Supreme Power. Isa. 45 7. I form the Light, and create Darkness; I make Peace, and create Evil. Otherwise he were not Legislator of the World.   

Of the manifold Mischiefs which ensue by Compulsion to Marry by the particular Ceremonies of a Priest or a Temple.  
It is not here affirmed, That 'tis unlawful to Marry by a Priest, or in a Temple; but it is only affirmed, That 'tis unlawful to compel any so to do, by Penalties; and especially by so unjust Penalties, as is done by the Popish and Epls●opal Canons of making Marriages Null, or illegitimating the Children; and that 'tis unlawful for Bishops to judge Marriages Null, or make Certificates of Ne unques accouple in Loyal Matrimony concerning the Parents, or of illegitimation of the Child, for no other cause than the omission or defect of so frivolous a Ceremony as a Priest or a Temple; and that such affirmance is not without cause, may appear from the manifold mischiefs which follow Compulsion of the same.  

(1.) It compels to enter into an indissoluble Obligation, before, the Parties can know each other, whether they are fit for Marriage or no.  

Mischiefs of Verbal Espousals, before Real Knowledge.  Proh Deum a●que hominum fidem! quae haec contumelia est? uxorem decrevit seize dar● mihi hodie; nun opor●et prascisse me ante? nun Communicatam oportui● Ter. And. 1. Act. Scen. 5. Oh the Faith of Gods and Men! what a scorn is this? He hath Decreed to put a Wife upon me to Day; should I not first know her? should I not first talk with her? This Custom of Verbal Precontracts, was in ancient time much used amongst the Jews, and Marriage delayed a long time after, as Jacob's was with Rachel, for Seven Years. But the later Rabbles finding many great inconveniences in the same, enjoined, if it were at all, the same should be a very little while before the Marriage. In like manner the Armenians who are of the Greek Church, Contract and Espouse together their Children at two or three Years old, yea often times the Mothers agree a Marriage between their Children, if one happen to be a Male, and the other a Female, while they are in their Bellies. Tavernier.  

Woman deluded.  This Custom of Precontracts and Espousals, is likewise used, though not between Children so young, as with the Armenians, by the Canon Law, and most wickedly allowed to be a sufficient Cause of Nulling a Marriage Consummate by Carnal knowledge and Birth of a Child, and illegitimation of the same Child of an innocent Person altogether ignorant of such Precontracts. Vid. plus of Precontract before, P. 88, 94, 95, etc.  
1. The inconveniences of Precontracts and Espousals is, that when Contracted, the one, especially the Man, delays and deludes the other so long, that one chief end of Marriage, which is prevention of Fornication, is defeated, and many times Women are kept along with Promises all their life time, and the Man in secret finds other Company, and never takes himself the Woman Contracted at the last, nor will suffer others to take her by pretences of Precontracts, and if he release them at last, others will often refrain those so blown on, supposing them repudiated for some secret fault.  

Impotent diseased Persons Contracted.  2. By Precontracts published by the Priest in fancy Ecclesiae, which they call Marriage, before the real and true Marriage, which is Carnal knowledge, Parties are joined together who are impotent, diseased, unpleasant, or otherwise uncapable of answering the great ends of Marriage, of Procreation of Children, and prevention of Fornication; and then by the Canon Law they are bound to Fast and Pray Three Years together, before by the Spiritual Court they can be untouched again; with such obscene or at least disgraceful Trials and Publications, as the Repudiations of either, is a Dishonour to both; yea many Examples there have been of modest and virtuous Ladies, who expecting to be Mothers by Marriage, have continued Virgins, to their great inward grief all their Husband's life time, rather than they would make any outward complaint as long as they lived; then, though no impotence or unfitness in Body, yet in Mind and Affection, which is as bad, the Man is Frigidus, and he Woman is Calida, as appears in the forementioned Example, especially of H. 8. and the Lady Ann of Cleve.  

A young Woman in man's apparel Married to an old, Robs her.  3. In Contracts before Carnal knowledge, Parties cannot know of what Sex each other is, or whether they are both Men or both Women. Concerning which, I have been credibly informed, That a certain old Woman being left very Rich in Money by her Husband which was dead, a young lusty Wench plotting how to get her Money from her, apparelled herself like a Man and wooed the old Chrone, and easily got her good Will to Marry her, and the Marriage was solemnly Celebrated by the Priest in the Temple, and the Female young Husband brought to Bed to the old Wife, and so ordered the business, that she stole her Bags of Money from her, and was therefore Criminally pursued and Executed.  

Woman with-Child Contracted, unknown.  4. The Husband often times finds the Woman with-Child beforehand, when 'tis insipientis dicere non Putaram, too late to repent of his Match, and the Priest hath fettered them together for better for worse, and no Probation to be admitted to the contrary that 'tis not his Child; of which there are too many Examples not fit to be publicly related. Whereas if no Verbal Contract or Espousal Private in the House, or Public in the Church, were allowed to be obligatory before the real Contract of Carnal knowledge Consummate privately between the Parties, no Woman could hope to impose such a Deceit, or would dare to expose herself to such a Dishonourable Repudiation at the Will of the Man. The ancient and true Form of Espousal was only on the Man's part to the Woman, Se post concubitum invitam non deserturum; and the Duth-man is still so wary, that he giveth not his Woman her Morgengabica, which is a kind of Dower, or Munus Nuptiale, until the next morning when he hath had the first Night's trial of her, which from the Dutch Word, Morgengab, is called the Morning Gift. Skene de verb. Sig. tit Does. It is likewise known, that the Jew, if he found not his Woman a Virgin, might Divorce her. So may the Turk, the Persian, the Tartar, the Ethiopian, and all Nations not blinded with Popery, do openly, or put her away secretly, as Joseph did.  

Notice of the Wedding day prostitutes the Bride.  5. In Precontracts when the same are known, and the Wedding-day agreed and appointed, than the Woman gives away on a sudden to another what she should have reserved a Week longer for her Husband. There were certain Oxford Scholars, (who might have been better employed in their Studies) got some Market-Maids to the Tavern, where having made them merry with Wine, they taught them what belonged to Venus, as well as Bacchus; and one of the Scholars was so good natured, as to tell his Mistiess he had singled, after he had performed his Service to her, That if she proved to be with-Child, and would send him notice, he would take care to provide for it. Oh, Sir, said she, never trouble yourself for that, for I am appointed to be Married within these three days.  

Makes Marriage, when made, Mercenary.  6. This makes Marriage often times turn from Conjugal Love to be only a Smithfield Bargain, for a Woman to buy a Stallion, or a Man to hire a Whore. There was a certain Rich Widow who Married a Young Man, having first, to secure her Money, bound him in great Bonds to her trusties, not to meddle with any thing of hers without their Assent In writing under their hands: The Marriage being solemnised, and both a deductio in Templum, & in Thalamum performed, she found notwithstanding her Bed-fellow to lie more quietly than she would have had him, for divers Nights together; till at last being deceived in her expectation, she began to chide him for his sleepiness. To whom he replied, Do you think I will undo myself, and forfeit my Bonds with meddling with what is yours, without Assent of your trusties in writing under their hands? Whereupon the Widow arose, and fetching the Bonds to him, they were forthwith Cancelled and cast into Fire. The like is more often done by the Woman, who, like another Lais, will not sell herself but at an high Rate and dearer to her Husband, by how much the better he loves her; and when she hath him under an indissoluble Obligation, than any else will give for her. Which was the Reason that both Civil and Canon Law made Donationes inter virum & uxorem void, ne nimio amore spolientur, lest they should rob one another with too much fondness; and void they ought still to be, and would be, were not the deceitful ways of trusties too much tolerated in frandem legis, to set up again the old Mercenary Trade of hiring Whores under the name of Marriage.  
7. These Inconveniences produced the shameless Sect of Adamites, 
Adamites.  and the almost as bad remedy proposed by Sir Thomas More in his Utopia; and what is mentioned by Sir Francis Bacon in his new Atlantis of Adam and Eves Pool, where he would have those who inted to Marry, 
Adam and Eves Pool.  first to have a naked interview. And that of Sforza, 
Sforza is refused to have a Lady seen naked before Marriage.  who when he would have Espoused Dorothy the Daughter of Lodowick Duke of Mantua, to his Son, he demanded that certain Physicians, whom he should appoint, might first see his Daughter naked; which Duke Lodowick refused, as appears, Tiracq. lib. 4. de Connub. Contr. Philip. dec. & Francis Aret. Consil. 142. who held, That the demand of Sforza was just, and the denial of Lodowick, injurious: a 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. Conthalamation 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 Council 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 Simo 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 Public, 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 Judge of Marriage and Divorce above Appeal, the greatest part of the Year and fittest for Marriage, they cannot Marry without his Licence, 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 yoke themselves by his Ceremonies, than 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 shears 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 Judge of Children as well as Parents, above Appeal, they all lie at the mercy of his Judgement, no Right of Primogeniture, no Filial Portion, no Rationali parte, no Hodgepodge, 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 Judge of Marriage, Filiation, and Successions, by Fictions.  
How great and how wicked the Power of Judging by Fictions is, hath been before mentioned; 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 shown 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 Mary another by a Priest in a Temple, deflowered 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 bore 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 shown at large before. P. 66, 67, etc. But 'tis 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 mentioned, 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 enslave themselves and their Posterity, their Religion, Liberty, and Propriety, to his worse than Arbitrary Judgement, to a False Judgement, a Lying Judgement, a Judgement 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 Judgements by Fictions, it were enough to make it abhorred 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 Lie.   

(5.) It causeth in the Rich Excess, and Vanity of Apparel, Tilting, Turneaments, Masking, Gluttony, Riot, and Drunkenness.  
When there is a Marriage intended by a Priest in a Temple, the Bride is dressed like a Bartholomew-Baby, or one of the Popish Saints, to be the Idol of the Place, than 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 itself. 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 Judgement against Christians; for one Christian's Wife costs him more than Ten Wives of a Turk; which kind of Luxury first corrupts the mind, 
Nil non permittit mulier sibi, turpe putat nil  
Cum virides gemmas collo circumdedit, & cum  
Auribus extensis magnos suspendit elenchos.  and corrupts and effeminates the State, by exhausting the Treasury in Feminine, which is necessary to be bestowed in Military Ornaments and maintenance. Seneca saith, That Women would wear too rich Inheritances at their Ears. And it is related of the Daughter of a Proconsul, That she wore at one time in Apparel and Jewels the value of Three Millions of Crowns. This Vanity is by many attributed to be one of the chief causes of the decay and ruin of the Roman Empire. I should but trespass on the Readers patience to recite the excessive Costs particularly, and the profuseness of Princes and great Persons, in Masking, Tilting, Tuneaments at public Weddings, in one whereof a French King Tilting in Person was killed by the casual running of a Splinter of the staff of the Lance into his Eye; as likewise to describe the Gluttony, Riot and Drunkenness accompanying Marriage-Feasts, they being all notorious.   

(6.) It undoeth the Poor in their Marriages.  
The chief times of the Year seasonable for Marriage of Advent, Septuagesima, and Rogation, it deprives the Poor of the use of God's Ordinance; for they are neither able to lose their days labour to travel to the Court, nor to expend the Money necessary to pay for a Licence to Marry; and when Married publicly by a Priest in a Temple, the expense of new  for Man and Woman, the Wedding Dinner, the Barrel of Beer, the Bridale-Night, the Baptising of the Child, the Godfathers' and Godmothers', the Gossips, and Churching the Woman Falling all within the compass of the Year, most commonly bring the Poor man so far in Debt, that he never recovers out of it as long as he lives.  
I was informed of a certain Poor Man, who intending to be Married, agreed the day with the Minister and Clerk, and accordingly on a Prayer day, he and the Woman came to the Church intending to be Married, and came up to the appointed place in the Body of the Church, where the Minister reading first the Form prescribed of the Institution and Ends of Marriage, before he joined their hands to Contract them, the man to be Married laid his Money on the Minister's Book, that he might proceed to Marry him; which the Minister refused to do, unless he would give him more Money than there was; the man answered There was all he had, and prayed him to accept thereof; the Minister peremptorily refused (unless he made up the Price) to Marry him; the Poor man seeing no remedy, took up his Money again, and he and his Woman returned to his House without any joining or Benediction of the Priest; and whether he had a Malediction I cannot tell, but at Night the Couple that were thus Churched and not Married the Ceremonial way, went to Bed and Married themselves the Real way; which though contrary to Episcopal Canons, yet no Bishops can show to be contrary to the Moral Law of God; but every one can show that Laws of compulsion of a Poor man to marry by the Ceremony of a Priest, and giving liberty to the Priest to refuse to Marry him, unless he pay him more than he hath, are contrary to the Moral Law of God; for this is prohibiting to Marry, and a depriving of the Poor of the Use of God's Ordinance, which is already proved to be the Doctrine of Devils.   

(7.) It causeth immadesty in Brides, wanton Songs and Ceremonies, premiscuary Dancing, and corruption of Youth.  
How modest Nature is in the State of Innocence, appears well in the expression of a Virtuous young Lady, a Virgin, who said, She wondered how any Woman could have the face to go openly to Church with a Man; and the Custom of most Nations not to suffer any Woman to appear in Public without a Veil, manifesteth the same: Yea, Mahomet himself forbids Women to expose themselves to public view, for thus, Alch. Cap. 33. P. 262. he represents God speaking to him; Oh Prophet, speak to thy Wives and thy Daughters, and the Wives of True Believers, that they cover themselves with Veils. And Cap. 24. Speak unto the true believing Women, that they retain their Sight, and that they be , that they suffer nothing of their Beau●y to be seen but what ought to be seen; and that they cover their Bosom and their Visage, that they permit them not to be seen but by their Husbands, their Children, the Children of their Husbands, their Brothers, their Nephews, their Sisters, their Women, their Daughters, Maid-Servants, and Slaves, their Domestics that are not capable of Marriage, and Children that regard not the Beauty of Women. And this public exposing of Virgins in their Marriages to be the Gazing-stocks of the multitude in a Congregation, seems likewise against the precept in Scripture, 1 Cor. 11.10. For this cause ought a Woman to have Power on her Head, because of the Angels; which is interpreted, covering on her head; and is likewise prohibited by Christ, Matth. 5.28. Whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her, hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart. If it be therefore Adultery to look on a Woman to lust after her, then is it a Temptation to Adultery to expose her who is to be another man's Wife to the public view of the whole Congregation in all the dress of Temptation whereof Beauty can be capable.  

Qui videt is peccat, qui non te viderit ergo  
Non cupiet, Facti crimina lumen habet.   Propert. lib. 3. Eleg. 

Who sees thee Sins; who not, doth neither hate  
Nor love thee. Light hath all the Crimes of Fate.   
Why it is not more modest therefore for Virgins to Marry in Thalamo, than in Templo; appears not.  
I shall recite not here the particular wanton Songs and Ceremonies which are used with us and in other Nations, by reason of this pompous Ceremony of leading the Bride to the Priest and Temple amongst a Rout of Boys, for whom between her Banning and her Churching it is asufficient sport a Week after; lest the same should cause, what I endeavour to avoid, the Corruption of Youth; and shall only here mention the grave Admonition of a Poet concerning the same.  
Nil dictu foedum visuque haec limina tangat,  
Intra quae Puer est, procul hine procul inde Puellae.  
Lenonum & Cantus pernoctantis Parasiti,  
Maxima debetur puero reverentia siquid  
Turpe paras, nec tu pueri contempseris Annos.  Juvenal.  

(8.) It exposeth to public view, what God hath commanded to be secret; and ridiculously appointeth ocular Witnesses of what is invisible, and neither lawful nor pussible to be seen.  
Of this, Vid. P. 101, 104. before.   

(9) It causeth Community of Women, Community of Children, Fornication, Adultery, Stews, Brothels, and the dissemination of most contagious and deadly Diseases amongst the People.  
As to Community of Women, it is manifest, that the Canon of the Council of Trent, which nulls all Marriages except before a Priest in a Temple, and the Certificates of Bishops and Penance, gives a general Licence for Money, either the Taxa Camerae of the Pope, or the Commutation Money of the Bishops, to have all Women common: for by decreeing no Marriages shall be of Validity, except with a Woman brought before a Priest and a Temple, they null and dissolve all Marriages made by the Moral Law of God, and the Obligations of them; whereby if any man lie with an Hundred Women, and get them with Child, if he hath been so cunning as not to lead any of them to a Priest in a Temple, there is no obligation on him to own any of these for Wife or Child, in regard the Moral Law of God is abolished by the Papal and Episcopal Canons, and made of no effect by their Traditions and wicked Customs; and the Party is left free to lie with as many more, and to have common amongst them Sans nombre, if he will but give them Money for their Hire, and the Bishop Commutation Money; and what is this but to have Women common to the Rich, and to exclude the Poor who have not Money, from having any? But this would be prevented, if the Bishops would, as they ought to do, compel the man who gets a Virgin with-Child, to marry her according to the Moral Law of God, and the express Precept of Scripture, Exod. 22.16. If a man entice a Maid who is not betrothed, he shall surely endow her to be his Wife. Which enticement is as well intended by Money, as Wantonness, and the Law the same, as well in case of Force or Rape, as enticement, but more Penal. Deut. 22.28. If a man find a Damsel that is a Virgin which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her and lie with her, and they be found, than the man that lay with her shall give the Virgin's Father Fifty Sheckels of Silver, and she shall be his Wife, because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days. This is the clear Moral Law of God, and the clear Texts of Scripture, and there is by them laid an indissoluble obligation on the man according to the old Form of Espousal, Se post Concubitum invitam non deserturum; and if there is a Child born, by reason of the further Obligation of Parents laid on them by the manifest Act of God, it is not in the Power of these Virgins who are now become Mothers, will they, nill they, nor of any human Power, to dissolve that which the Divine Power by giving birth to a Child hath once established. But Popes and Bishops are so far from compelling these deflowrers of Virgins, to Marry then and these begetters of Children to acknowledge them according to this most clear and just Law of God, and according to the Obligations both Ex Contractu Real, which are the lying with them and getting them with-Child, and Ex Malesicio Real, which are the same, that they like the Giants who would storm Heaven, (Oh Hellish presumption!) Level all the Canons they have, against the Divine Laws of God himself, and with them tear in pieces all Obligations laid by them of Husbands to Wives, and Fathers to Children, that Women may be in common, and Children in common, Nullius Filii Populi Filii; confounding Heaven and Earth, and all Divine and Human Rights, and subverting the course of Nature as far as they are able, to obtain to themselves the inexhaustible Treasure and invincible Power over Princes and People, over Emperors and Kings, incident to the Jurisdiction of Marriage, Filiation, and Succession.  
But how easily are these Giants quelled, and all the mischiefs ensue, by their letting the World lose to Community of Women, and Community of Children. (1.) 'Tis but to give liberty to those who Mary, to Marry according to the Moral Law of God, and to free them from compulsion to the Ceremonial Law of a Priest in a Temple. (2.) 'Tis but to give Power to the Temporal Judges and Magistrates to compel such as have had Children by Virgins, and desert them, to acknowledge those Virgins, according to the clear Texts of Scripture, to be their Wives, and not to leave them and their Children in common; which ought to be their enclosed Propriety.  
Whence would ensue, that if any man saw, that whatsoever Virgin he did first touch, he should be compelled to take, he would follow the Poet's Counsel. 
— Multis è millibus unam  
Elige, cui dicas tu mihi sola places.  Ovid. He would certainly choose, unless corrupted by Money, one whom he liked above all others; and having so fair a Garden enclosed of his own choice, he would be the more unlikely to run to graze in a Common; or if be should, he might find his expectation much deceived: for the same Justice having been done by the Magistrate on all others as well as himself, he would find no Common to run in, but every Quillet enclosed; nor should a single Woman be let, would she take him where another had Right, to claim him. As to Fornication, Adultery, Stews, Brothels, how great a cause the compulsion of Public Appearance in Marriage before a Priest in a Temple by prohibition of Private Marriage, is, the same is shown already before, P. 107, and as to the dissemination, by Fornication, Adultery, Stews and Brothels, not only of that miserabile scortorum flagellum, the Lues Venerea, the inseparable concomitant of those Vices and Places, but likewise of all other Epidemical contagious and deadly Diseases amongst the People, the same is notorious, but Episcopal Courts get as much by the Dead as the Living, and more by the Vicious than Virtuous. It is their Interest therefore to continue it so long as they can.  
It will be objected against the giving Power to Temporal Magistrates, to compel every Man who hath a Child or Children by a Virgin, to acknowledge her for his Wife, and her Children his, on Probation made of the Fact, that 'tis impossible if Marriages are tolerated without a Priest in a Temple, or a Justice of Peace in his Hall or Banns, at the Church or Market-Cross, to have Witnesses or any other Testimony or Evidence of the Fact, unless the Magistrate should give Sentence, as the Bishop doth, without Probation.  
To which is answered, First, That Toleration of Private Marriage without Public Witness of Priest or Magistrate, is no denial of liberty to those who desire Public Witness of their Contracts of Marriage; no more than the Toleration of passing Lands by Livery and Seisin in Pays, is a denial to pass them by Fines and Recoveries, or other matter of Record, which is public Testimony; but Parties may use one or the other, or both, as they desire and think suits best with their Conveniences; but that which is here pressed, is, that no Man's Christian Liberty be infringed, nor he be compelled to make public Witnesses either of Priest or Magistrate, but be left free, where God hath not prohibited him, to do as best suits with his own Conscience and Convenience, without unjust Penalties laid on himself, his Wife or his Children, for omission of a Ceremony never instituted by God, but full of great danger and mischief to many, though not to all, whose Consciences and Conveniences are not alike, but of different States, as is already before shown, P. 108. especially between Poor and Rich; for the Poor need neither Writing nor Witnesses for Portions or Jointures, as perhaps the Rich think themselves to need.  
Secondly, Parties that desire Witnesses, may, no question, have better Witnesses at their own Home in Private, and with less inconvenience, as well for Contract of Marriage, as they have for all other Civil Contracts; than a Priest in a Temple, or Justice of Peace in his Hall, or Bishop in his Cathedral, or  other Public Officer whatsoever; and one of the Jews ways, which was never questioned, but lawful and convenient was, to Marry by written Instruments of Contract without Priest or Temple.  
Thirdly, Though Parties that Marry have neither Witness Public or Private, yet they have Power, if they can Write, to give a Note in Writing one to another; or if they cannot, to give such secret Tokens or Pledges, as without Witnesses, will be sufficient to evidence their secret Congresses when their happens any necessity, as Judah when he went in to Tamar his Daughter in Law, Gen. 38.18. He said, What Pledge shall I give thee? and she said, Thy Signet and thy Bracelers, and thy Staff that is in thy hand; and he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she Conceived by him; and after, being accused of Whoredom, Verse 25. When she was brought forth she sent to her Father in Law, saying, by the Man whose these are, am I with-Child; and she said, discern, I pray thee, whose these are, the Signet, and Bracelets, and Staff: and Judah acknowledged them.  
Fourthly, If the Law were made, as it ought to be, That Private Marriage without Witness, and Procreation of a Child, between two Persons not prohibited by the Law of God to Marry, should be a Civil Act Sine poena aut infamia, and not a Criminal, as it is unjustly made in the Bishop's Courts; if done without their Ceremonies of a Priest in a Temple, the Proceeding of a Temporal Judge would be then Legal, and according to the ordinary course of Justice, (if a Woman came before him and first took her Oath, that such a man had her Virginity, and that the Child she hath is his Child) to put the man to his Oath concerning the same; for this is then no Oath Ex Officio, nor Self-accusation of a Crime, when the Fact is made no Crime, and is no other than like an Oath of discovery of a Civil Contract in Chancery, or Wager of Law, of No Debt, or Non-Summons at Common Law, and only gives the Woman and her Child the Civil Benefit to be in as good a State and Condition, as if she had been Married by the Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple, and no farther; and this without Penalty to the Father, who being put to his Oath, if he deny not what is alleged against him, nothing is more just than that he should be compelled (if he refuse) to acknowledge the Woman to be his Wife, and the Child his Child.  
Fifthly, when once it were known that the Magistrate had a Legal Power to perform this, he would be rarely troubled concerning any secret Marriage; but every man concerned in the same will be careful so much the more to perform the duty both of an Husband and Father in a Secret than a Public Marriage, by how much the more he desires to keep it secret.   

(10.) It causeth Prostitutions of Brides to Priests, Lords, Guests, and others.  
Examples of this in Priests are before shown, P. 53, 54. of Lords, P. 24, 25. Sabellicus reports of the like Custom amongst the old Carthaginians; the like was amongst the ancient Scots, Persians, Vri Swiss, under-Waldensians, Moors, and others; all which wicked Customs had been easily prevented and avoided, had not the People been compelled to Marry by the Public Ceremony of a Priest and a Temple.   

(11.) It caused the Consecration of Incest, Whores and Sodomites, to attend the Service of the Priests and Temples.  
The way of Consecration of the Persian Magis, by lying with their Mothers, Sisters, and Daughters, is before touched, P. 44. and the way Pope Alexander obtained his Holiness, seems not much to differ from the Magis, by the Epitaph of his Saint, 
Hoc jacet in tumulo Lucretia nomine, sed re  
Thais, Alexandri Filia, Sponsa, nurus.  The Consecration of Whores and Sodomites, whom, the Priests let to hire in the Temples and Groves for their gain, was so common amongst the old Pagan Nations, that the Jews made Use of the word signifying a Person Consecrated, to signify a Whore and a Sodomite, as the Hebrew word Kadash, Jos. 2.1. is translated in English, Harlot, and Rahab is so called; and 1 Kings 14.24. the same is translated Sodomite; yea at this day the Devil, under the name of Holiness, so much possesses the American Priests of Pegu, that they keep in the Temples Consecrated Sodomites, to make gains of them to the Priest, who are esteemed by the People most Sacred. Oh to what height of wickedness doth the Devil draw people, where he makes the Priest his Instrument to counterfeit Holiness with their Ceremonious Fopperies of Consecration, and bring the same into a Temple with the Name and Doctrine of being Sacred. The same was done amongst the Greeks, a wise Nation, and by a wise Legislator of theirs, even Solon himself; yet did the Devil and Priest delude him under the name of Holiness; for he caused by his Laws, as a Fundamental of Government, to begin his Magna Charta with the Privileges of the Holy Church, and to that end he appoints a Temple to be Dedicated to Venus, and Priests to be Consecrated, and Sacrifices instituted; and to be well governed by the Priests, he stocked the Temple with a multitude of Consecrated Whores, to be let to hire to increase the Priest's Profit and Pleasure; and this Holy Church he endowed with great Revenues and Privileges. There were the like Holy Churches filled with the like Holy Sisters at Ephesus, at Corinth, and Abydos, and so great veneration they were in amongst the People, no doubt, by the many pious Sermons of the Priests, what Miracles these Female Angels could do, that they attributed the whole overthrow of Xerxes, with his almost innumerable Army, to the Holy Prayers of these Consecrated Whores, in their Temples or Stews, to their Goddess Venus. Here Whoredom for the gains of the Priests and Temples is Consecrated, and believed not only by the grosser sort of People, but by the chief Princes and Governor, to be a Thing most Sacred.  
And is not Adultery with us, more wickedly than Fornication amongst the Heathen, Consecrated by compulsion to the Ceremony of a Priest in a Temple? It is; for if A. get B. with-Child, and deserts her, and C. get D. with-Child, 
Adultery Consecrated under the name of Marriage.  and deserts her, and A. gets the good will of D, and C gets the good will of B, and the two Women being both with-Child, and both deserted, grow more politic to prevent after desertions, and tell their new Courtiers peremptorily, that they shall expect no farther favour from them until they lead them before a Priest in a Temple, and Mary them there; now the only lawful way had been for these two Women to relieve themselves against their unjust Desertors, that a Magistrate had a Legal Power on complaint of the Women injured, to compel each Desertor to acknowledge his proper Wife and Child; but they take here a course to leap out of the Pan into the Fire, and to cure or cover a lesser Evil, by committing a greater, and go to Church to commit Cross-Adultery, and Cross-Marry, one the Man who had got the other with-Child, and the other the Man who had got the first with-Child; and the Priest accordingly joins them, and contracts and pronounces each Couple Man and Wife, and gives his Benediction; is not here Adultery Consecrated under the name of Marriage, and false Wives given to false Husbands, and false Children to false Fathers? and this Consecration of Adultery makes it so indissoluble, that no Probation shall be admitted to the contrary, either for Husband or Wife, or Father or Child. Certainly this is far worse than any Consecration of Fornication amongst the Pagan Priests of Priapus or Venus. Well doth Arnob. contra gent. therefore say, Where are Whoredoms more committed than by Priests in the Temples, and by the Altars? where are Uncleanness more practised, and Adulteries more meditated? Lastly, burning Lust is more frequently discharged in Chancels, than in Brothels. I shall only add a word from a Poet concerning the Romish Clergy,  
— Nulla hic Arcana revelo,  
Non ignota loquor, liceat vulgata refer;  
Sic urbes populique ferunt, ea fama per omnem  
Jam vetus Europam mores extirpat honestos  
Sanctus ager Scurris, venerabilis Ara Cynoedis  
Servit, honorandis divum Ganymedibus aedes.  
I had not defiled Paper with so much of their Filthiness, had not this Romish Ceremony of a Priest and a Temple so far besotted the Senses of many ignorant People, as they imagine Marriage made by a Ceremony of so unclean an Original, and causing so great and abominable Uncleanness, should make a Marriage more Holy, than one made without it according to Gods own Holy Ordinance in his Moral Law.   

(12.) It caused the Consecration and Adoration of Priapus, Baal-Peor, Venus, Adonis, and Flora, for Gods and Goddesses, and was the first which defiled the Virgin-World with Whoredom and Idolatry.  
The World in its Primitive Innocence kept all Wives secured under the Custody of their Husbands, and all Daughters under the Custody of their Parents; the strictness of which appears to this day in many Southern and Eastern Nations, till the Priests of Priapus and Venus, for they were the most ancient of which any Histories speak; and as Cornelius Agrippa mentions, none were to be admitted Priests who were not first initiated in the Mysteries of Priapus. These therefore could not pretend to be Priests, unless they had a God or Goddess to whom they might pretend to Sacrifice and Serve, and become mediators to present the Prayers of the People; a God they could not have, unless they made an Idol; and an Idol they could not have, without a Temple to secure it, and their rich Offerings, against the Spoil either of Thiefs or Wether: So the Building of Temples was the first means of setting up Idols, and the setting up Idols the first means of Consecration and Adoration of them, for Gods and Goddesses; and to draw a Conflux of Worshippers, there was no better way of Temptation of the Men, than by the Women; and of the Women, than by the Men, and of both them, by Feasting with Sacrifice, Music, Dancing, Dalliance and Whoredom; whence so frequently Idolatry in Scripture is called going a whoring after Idols: for indeed the Priests became thereby the Pandars-General, as Cornelius Agrippa calls them, by drawing Women to their Temples both for Marriages and Whoredoms, and first made them offer their Virginities for Sacrifices to their Idols and Priests, before this Spiritual Court of theirs would give them Licenses to Marry; for which, as now, they compelled them to pay their Fees; and to colour this Uncleaness the better, they Consecrated those impure Gods and Goddesses, Priapus, Baal-Peor, Milcom, Adonis, (whose Worshippers were the same the Scripture calls the Mourners for Tamuz) Venus and Flora, and instituted to them Sacrifices and Adorations, as the most Sacred and Potent Deities; and though the Feminine part of the World remained then in the strictest Custody, whether Wives or Daughters, which in the first is allowed and commended even by the wanton Love-Poet himself,  

Nupta virum timeat, rata sit Custodia nuptae;  
Hoc decet, hoc leges, jusque pudorque jubent.   

Wife fear thy Husband. Let thy Wardship stand,  
'Tis fair; this Laws, Right, modesty command.   
Neither had it been possible to have undermined in the World's Infancy those strong Fortifications of the Modesty of Wives, and Chastity of Daughters, had not the Magical Priest and Devil both conspired to have charmed them out of the holes of their Rocks with the Songs, Music, Dancing and Festivals of Sacrifices, under the pretence of the command and service of these Sacred and potent Gods before mentioned, to the Public places of Sacrifice and Temples; where when they once had them, they did with them what they pleased, sometimes in their Matins and Vespers by day, and sometimes in their Vigils by night, and by degrees brought them first by Enticements, and at last by Compulsion, not to Marry without a Priest in a Temple.   

(13.) It first destroyed in the World the Omnipresential Worship of God.  
In all the times before Moses, except amongst Idolaters, there was no Public Temple built for the Worship of God, nor Tabernacles; nor do we find any public Conventions of Worship, except as aforesaid; yet were those Times full of men Famous for Piety, Abraham himself, Gen. 21. planted a Grove to call upon the name of the Lord, which was for Privacy, and not to be Public, the dwelling in Tents not affording that convenience of Secrecy which Christ commands of Prayer in the Closet, and he went to an Hill alone to Sacrifice Isaac, and would not so much as suffer one Servant to go with him, Gen. 22.5. And in old time they called every high Hill which afforded the benefit of Privacy of Prayer, the Hill of God. And Christ himself, Matth. 14.23. When he had sent the multitude away, he went up into a Mountain apart to Pray, which was for Privacy, and he compelled not the multitude to Pray with him, nor so much as any Disciple; for it is said, when the Evening was come he was there alone; but both Groves and High-places, which were by Priests Consecrated for public Conventions of Men and Women to Worship Publicly, are commanded in Scripture to be destroyed, Levit. 26.30. Hos. 10.8. Amos 7.9.  
The first who built Temples were the old Egyptian Priests, which they Dedicated to Priapus, and drawing Women thither by Consecrated Whoredom, thereby instituted the same the places of Public Worship as well as of Marriage. The next was Cecrops King of Athens, who first in Greece instituted Marriage by a Priest in a Temple, and with the same brought in the Public Worship of Idols and Altars, and Sacrifice for them; whereby People were drawn from the Private and Omnipresential Worship of God, to Marry and Worship Idols in Temples, for the Gains of the Priests: yet even amongst these Idolaters, the wiser sort, though Heathens, understood these Pontifical Impostures, but durst not speak against them; as neither did Plato nor Aristotle, 
Heathens believed the Omnipresence.  being warned by the Fate of Socrates, though they many times expressed themselves, that they believed the Omnipresence of God. One desiring Demonax to go into the Temple of Esculapius to pray for the health of his Son, Is he so deaf, said he, that he can hear no where but in a Temple? Eras. lib. 8. Apopth. And Eratus the Greek Poet, whom Paul citys, speaks thus of God's Omnipresence, Plena sunt Jovis omnes Plateae, Omnium etiam hominum Fora; plenum est & mare, Pleni sunt & Portus; ubique Jove fruimur; omnes Hujus enim genus sumus. So the great Latin Poet, Virgil Eclog. 3.  

— Jovis omnia plena,  
Ille colit terras illi, mea Carmina curae.   

Jove keeps the Earth, all things full of him are,  
And he even of my Verses taketh care.   
Cato after the overthrow given by Caesar to Pompey, of whose Party he was, being advised to consult with the Oracle of Jupiter Hammon what course he were best take; Answers thus,  

Estne Dei sedes nisi Terra & Pontus, & Aer,  
Et coelum & virtus? superos quid'quaeritis ultra?  
Jupiter est quocunque vides, quocunque moveris.   Lucan. 

Is God's Seat other than Earth, Sea, and Air,  
And Heaven and Virtue? why do you despair,  
And seek beyond? who wheresoever in these  
You go or see, there to be found doth please.   
It is not here affirmed, (as is already said) That 'tis unlawful for any to Marry or Worship by a Priest in a Temple, or in a Public Convention; but it seems unlawful to compel any whose Conscience is dissentient or doubtful; and that the Scriptures and Christ are so far from Compulsion, that where Parties are not agreed, they forbidden so much as two or three to convene, as Amos 3.3. Can two walk together, except they agree? and though they do agree, yet single Prayer in private seems to be preferred, as appears by what follows.   

Prayer in Temples and Synagogues forbidden by Christ, and a distinction of the Place of Prayer and Preaching Commanded.  
There is as little encouragement given by the Prophets in the Old Testament for Sacrifices, Altars and Temples, as there is by Christ in the New, for Prayer and Sacrament in Synagogues and Temples Jer. 7.4. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord these are. Hos. 8.14. Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth Temples. Revel. 21.22. There was no Temple in the New Jerusalem, nor was there any Temple in the Earthly Paradise more than in the Heavenly, yet was Marriage instituted by God. But hear next what he, who saith, Matth. 12.6. here is one greater than the Temple, will say of Prayer in Synagogues which were the Jews Parochial Churches, and Temples which were the Cathedrals. John 4.21. Jesus talking with the Samaritan Woman, saith unto her, Believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain, nor in Jerusalem Worship the Father. And Verse 23. The hour cometh, and now is, when the true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth: for the Father seeketh such to Worship him. And they that Worship him, must Worship him in Spirit, and Truth 'Tis granted, the Jews set up a Local Worship in Synagogues and Temples, but this Judaisme Christ expressly saith, the hour was then come that it must be abolished, and all Jewish Ceremonial Law, and the Temple itself he foretold, in the future there should not be left one stone upon another. That he forbids a Prayer to be made in Synagogues, Temples, or any other public Place, and commands the same to be made privately in the Closet, appears, Matth. 6.5. When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the Hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the Synagogues, and in the Corners of the Streets, that they may be seen of Men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou prayest, enter into thy Closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seethe in secret, shall reward thee openly. The Jewish Synagogues were their Churches or Temples, having a lesser or Parochial Jurisdiction; and the Cathedral Church or great Temple having the National Jurisdiction; but Prayer in both is abolished by Christ. It is granted that in both the lesser and the greater Christ used to Teach, as it is said, Matth. 4.23. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their Synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of Diseases amongst the People. And Mar. 14.49. he saith of himself, I was daily teaching in the Temple. And the avoiding of public Prayer he taught not only by his Precept but Example, for we never find that he so much as Convened the Twelve, who were his own Family, to pray with him, but Mark 1.35. He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. And Matth. 14.23. He went up into a Mountain apart to pray: and when the Evening was come, he was there alone. And Matth. 26.36. Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the Disciples; Sat ye here, while I go and pray yonder. Whereby it is clear, that Christ both by Precept and Example taught, there ought a distinction to be made between the place of Preaching and Prayer; the one to be public, the other to be private, the one to be in conventions, the other to be single and alone; and if he prohibited the contrary to any who were free, he much more prohibited any should be compelled.  
Then as to Non-Communicants, 'tis manifest Christ never instituted the Sacrament in a Church, or Temple, nor appointed the same to be after Celebrated there; for he instituted it in a private House, and no company with him, but his own private Family with him, as Matth. 26.17. It is said, Now the first day of the Feast of unlevened bread, the Disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passeover? And he said, Go into the City to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand, I will keep the Passeover at thy House with my Disciples. The reasons why Christ prohibited public and commanded private Prayers, may be divers. (1.) The first is expressed to avoid vain glory, and suspicion of Hypocrisy. (2.) To avoid the dangers incident to Conventions in Temples, or public Places, whereby he foresaw his Church might be destroyed; and how many of the Primitive Christians, and since, have by this means of the Conventions in Churches and Temples, suffered; some have had the Churches fired about them and themselves burnt in them, others have been in them Massacred with the Sword, others carried away and destroyed by Torments, which had never happened to them, if they had followed Christ's Precept, of not casting their Pearl before Swine; or when they were persecuted in one City, to fly to another, or kept themselves in their Closets to pray. (3.) The impossibility of a Convention of People to agree what they would have prayed for, were it but when they would have Rain and Dry-weather. (4) The impossibility of worshipping God in Spirit and Truth, unless he is worshipped as Omnipresent; for as he that worships God in an Image, or towards an Image, commits Idolatry, because he confines his Omnipresence to the petty Prison of an Idol: so, who in his Imagination comprehends him who is Incomprehensible, in the walls of a Temple, is as guilty of Idolatry as the other, only one worships him in a greater Idol, and the other in a lesser. And as to Marriage in a Temple, or by a Priest, 'tis manifest the Jews never Married in a Temple, nor did Christ ever Mary any Man or Woman, nor any of the Apostles Mary any, nor had any Precept to do it; and all the Primitive Christians for 300 Years after Christ, so far observed the Precept and Example of Christ, and abhorred Marriage, or Worship in Temples and Altars; that Celsus doth reproach them with it, that they had no Sacred places of public Worship; and Origen in Answer, confesseth that they were not instituted by Christ, but crept in afterwards.  
Notwithstanding all which, the Divinity of the later Times hath been so far from following the Precept and Example of Christ, that it hath destroyed the Omnipresential Worship of God, commanded by him in Spirit and Truth, with a gaudy Ceremonial Worship by Priests and Temples; for to discover the Truth of this great Mystery of Iniquity, of Popish Priests, it concerns them in the highest points of their Profit, to abolish as much as they can possible, all thoughts of God's Omnipresence, for if this is once understood, it will appear there is no need for the People to pray by a Priest, whereby they will lose their gainful Offices of Masters of Requests; for where the Prince is in presence, there needs no such Officer. (2.) This will lose their gainful Office of Confession of Sins, for where God is in Presence, 'tis better to confess to him than the Priest. (3.) It will lose them their Pardon-Office, which brings them in Millions; for who is so mad to beg Pardon of a Priest, if God is in presence, and he may beg it of him? (4.) It will lose him his great Office of Benediction of all those who are Married in his Temple; for if God is in presence at ●ome, of whom the Party may crave a Benediction, who is so mad to think he need go beg a Benediction of a Priest in a Temple? (5.) It will lose him his Office of Excommunication, and casting out of his Synagogue and out of the Presence of God: for if God is Omnipresent, then can none cast out of his presence: for these good Reasons are all the Clamorous School men silent, and have writ nothing Material concerning that great Attribute of God his Omnipresence: nor have the in numerable Heaps of Theologists enclosed any thing considerable of this point: nor have the Bishops so much as once named it in the 39 Articles; but, like Lapwings, drawing the Readers as far as they can from their nest, diverting his Fancy when they speak of God, to matters unintelligible, and not necessary to Salvation, and fitting the rest with matters totally Tending to their gain.  
I cannot pass the Contemplation of the Omnipresence of God, without some further remarks; for without this he could not be Omnipotent, he could not be Omniscient, he could not be a God, he could not be distinguished or known from an Angel or Daemon, or any inferior Spirit, or Invisible Power: But that these are Circumscribed in their Vagrant Ubis, or Chained to their fixed Localities, to dwell in such a Temple, to haunt such a Grove, to give their Response from the hollow of such a Dodonaean Oak, Such a Delphic Den, from the belly of such a Sibyl, the Breast of such a Prophet, the Brains of such a Dreamer of Dreams; These show their Miracles only at such an Image, such an Idol, such a Tomb, such a Sepulchre, such a Fountain, such a River, such a Pool of Bethesda; But are not able to show them every where, nor to be present every where. Seeing therefore to believe in God only, is the Fundamental of all Religion, and we cannot believe in Him unless we know Him, and so cannot know Him unless we can distinguish Him from an Angel or Daemon or other Invisible Power, nor Worship in Spirit and Truth, unless we can distinguish Theolatry from Angelolatry and Daemonolatry, and Theology from Magic; nor when we are in distress can we know where to Pray to Him for deliverance, if we know not where to find him; and he being Invisible is impossible to be found unless he is Omnipresent; and if we Run to Temples, Tombs, Images, Idols, Oracles, we fall into the Power of Darkness, Daemons, Magicians or Deceivers; And even the forementioned Demonax and Cato, and many other Heathen, themselves will rise up in Judgement against us. And seeing the whole Language of Theology is grown Anthorpomorphite, to describe the Infinite Power in human shape, in human Apparition, or (what is worse) in Brutish, of Lamb or Dove, and confine him to a small Throne in the Coelum Empyraeum; from whence these mischiefs would follow, That Saturn would make his Orb the Round Table of eating Children; Jupiter his, the Seraglio for his Rapes; Mars his, a Spoliary; Sol his, a Throne to assume Supreme Worship to himself; Venus hers, a Stews; Mercury his, a Den of Theives; Luna hers, a Nunnery for secret Endymion's; The Prince of the Air, his a Forge of Cyclopses to fire the World, and in the Bottom of all these the Pope his, an Infallible Chair, In Hell and Purgatory to Rule the Roast; Then would be no Government of these Variant and Contrariant Orbs; Then would the Doctrine of Christ be in vain, Matth. 10.29. Are not two Sparrows sold for a Farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. Yea the Child himself, who is of more value than many Sparrows, And in the midst of all these Enemies, how shall he cry for help to his Father, who is so many Millions of Miles, as is the New Jerusalem, absent from him? How doth his Body live so long? how shall his Soul after Death break through so many Regions and Legions, as stand in Battalia against her ascent to so unimaginable an Height, (before she can reach her Father's House) as a Millstone cast thence with impetuous swiftness would not fall on Earth, or into the Sea, in Thousands of years; unless it be intended every Soul which goes to Heaven must borrow. Mahomet's Elborach? and that would not serve neither, if true what he Relates, That after he had Rid like a Witch by night through the Air, and was come to his last Stage, within Threescore Miles of God's Palace where he dwelled, all the way was so Impassable with huge heaps of Frost and Snow, that had he not been an hot Bodied and hot Headed man, he had been utterly lost and frozen to death before he had got through, and being got at length to the Presence-Chamber, God living in the midst of all that Snow put a cold Compliment on him, for he clapped him on the shoulder (but it was not to Knight him) with his hand so cold, That it pierced him to the very Reins of his back, and cast him all over into a Terrible shivering; and surely if it were possible for a Soul to pass so long a Journey, through so many Thousand Legions of Devils as are in the way to intercept her, and she should at length Recover faint and weary to the beginning of the Threescore Northern Miles of these Mountains of Frost and Snow, being so naked as Souls use to be when they come in and go out of the World, and not Turbanted, Coated, Shooed as the Body of Mahomet: It is doubted by many, before she gets ha●f way through, she must turn up her Heels if she have any, much sooner without Feathers, than a Robin doth with them in Winter. The Priests have brought their Soul to a fair pass, and left her between fire and frost, the Pope to burn one half, and the Turk to freeze the other; neither do they show a Remedy, nor, if the Soul is after death sensible of Good or Evil (as doubtless it is, or a●l Religion were in vain,) do they show in all the Piles of their Theology, how so much as one Sparrow shall be secure from falling on the ground, or one Soul shall Enjoy the Protection of Providence in the Centre of so many Enemies as she is encircled with, both in Life and after Death, who seek to take all the Good from her, and lay all the Evil on her they can. Alas Poor Soul! And why do they conceal from thee thy greatest and only present and Eternal comfort, the Omnipresence of God? Which if granted, none of this Evil can ever happen to thee. Thou art ever in his Embraces, he hears thee, he sees thee, he is with thee, and as is said, Rom. 8 38. Neither death nor life, nor Angels nor Principalities, nor Powers, nor things present nor to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other Creature shall be able to separate Us from the Love of God; though as Job saith, 9.11. Lo he goeth by me and I see him not, be passeth on also but I perceive him not. This neither Pope nor Turk dare deny, yet seek to bury in Oblivion and hid in Clouds of Darkness; forbidding all Disputes of the Premises, lest the truth of Conclusions, which must necessary follow, shake the Fundamentals of all their false Religions, and the vast gains accrue to them by the same.  
Some of the gainful Practices, arising from suppressing the knowledge of the Omnipresence of God, I have touched before, and some Others I have added, as followeth: (1.) If the Light of the Omnipresence should shine through the World, they could not pretend and deceive with Magic in the name of Theology, with Necromancy under the name of Prayer at the Tombs of Saints, and to their bones and Relics; they could not deceive with Witchcraft and Malice under the Name of Converse with God and Good Angels; nor could they pretend to be Inspirators without Miracle, if God is Omnipresent in every Soul alike. Divers Popes have been by Histories N●ted to pretend Inspiration, who have been great Magicians; and the Acting or Counterfeiting many Miracles by the Romish Saints, both beneficial and maleficial, are common in their Legends: and the Turks have as many as they; And seldom a Tyrant goes to Sea, but he will (if he can) have a Witch; so will they in their Land-Enterprizes have their prophets, which are the same. The Tartar, Chinese, and American Priests are generally Magicians, and are Consulted in all their Wars; so were the Magis of the Persians, and brahmin's of the Indians, The Druids of the Gauls and Britons, and many other Nations all Witches, who sometimes by the help of the Devil foretold truly, and sometimes falsely, success of Wars, and shared with the Soldiers in the spoil. Now though amongst the Heathens they were not ashamed to worship Devils, whom they called gods, and it was the Professed Divinity of Polytheist to Worship and Consult Inferior Spirits, as well as the Supreme; yet amongst Christians, the Profession being only to Worship the Supreme, if they Publish the Supreme to be Omnipresent, they cannot pretend these Magical spirits to be God, or Good Angels, who confine themselves only to some Persons or Places, and do Malefices either to Nations or private Persons; seeing if they Pray to God Omnipresentially, they may be sure to be heard for all Lawful and necessary Prayers, and the unlawful and Maleficious never to be granted by him; whereby the Priest will lose all his Customers; for he that believeth God Omnipresent will Pray alone, and not Employ another to Pray for him, to avoid the  Dangers: First because, for aught he knows, the Priest who Prays for him may be a Magician. Secondly, He will not Pray to a Saint or Angel, nor bring offerings as the Priest would have him, because, for aught he knows, this Saint or Angel may be a Daemon Transformed into an Angel of Light, whereby he himself should become a Magician, and incite this Daemon to do Malefice.  
(2) Such as believe the Omnipresence will not only avoid Praying by a Priest, or to an Angel or Saint, by whom he pretends to have Power to obtain unlawful Prayers, and to do Malefice; but likewise to obtain Lawful Prayers and to Receive Benefits; because the Granting of a Payer both by God or an Angel, or any Invisible Power, is a Miracle, and the Priest takes Money for every Miracle or benefit succeeds by his Prayers of benefit to the Party for whom he Prays; whereby it will be manifest, that the success of this Prayer is neither granted by God, nor a Good Angel; for God never sells his Mercies for Money. And this was the Theology of Simon Magus a Magician, to think the Holy Ghost might be bought with Money; to which was made a Tart Answer, Act. 8.20. Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the Gift of God may be purchased with money. And Christ gives express Command to his Disciples, Missionated by him with Power of Signs and Miracles, to do good to the People, Matth. 10.7. Go Preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand: Heal the sick; cleanse the Lepers; raise the dead; cast out Devils: freely ye have received, freely give. So Elijah, when he had cured Naaman of the Leprosy, took no Money of him, but punished Gehazi for doing the same, 2 Kings 5.20. And Moses, when he did provide the Miracle of Manna, he did not ask any Money, or sell it to those who needed; for that had been to have deprived God of thanks for his own Gift. And Petrus Quinqueranus Relates, That when some Neapolitan Kings had enclosed a place with a Wall, which was of great Resort of Poor, for the gathering of Manna there, that they might be Excluded from gathering, unless they paid a Tribute or Impost for the same, The Manna suddenly ceased, and fell no more; and when as the Doors were again set open, it fell as before. The Place was again the Second, Third and many times shut up, for Trial; and still when it was shut, the Manna fell not at all; but when open, as at first, it Continued to fall Plentifully. Camerar. Centur. 2. cap. 160. p. 401, 402, 403. It is not here affirmed, That if such as are Preachers or Teachers of the Truth of God, receive necessary maintenance, for their study and pains in Executing the same (unless they pretend to Preach by Inspiration) That their Doctrine is from Daemons, and not from God; for the Labourer is worthy of his Hire, and these have not Received their Gift freely, but by long study and Pains: but only this is affirmed, That if they pretend to any Extraordinary and Miraculous Gift from God, or Angels, as to be Mediators for Prayers, or to keep God under Lock and Key in a Temple, and Receive money for Executing the same, it is a Manifest sign, they have neither their Gift from God, nor Good Angels, but from Daemons. Some that have Writ of Witchcraft, say, That such as Pray, though to God, for unlawful things, if they succeed and have Their Prayers granted, It is a Sign That they have made a Covenant with the Devil; for God never grants unlawful Prayers; therefore it must be the Devil, or Fortune. And that a Man may be a Witch, yet not know it. There being therefore two great Dangers to Pray by a Priest who takes money for his Prayers; first, That he Prays to Daemons under the Name of God. Secondly, That he will make unlawful Prayers. Quid non mortalia pectora cogit Auri sacra fames? Flectere si nequeat superos, Acheronta Movebit. Should the Doctrine of the Omnipresence spread, men would rather Pray to God as Christ Commands, in secret, and Omnipresentially, to whom they may Pray and He Exacts no money of them, nor Compels their Consciences to Pray in unlawful Forms, or for unlawful Matters, rather than Employ so Chargeable and Dangerous a Mediator, who if God is in Person Omnipresent, is not only useless, but hurtful; whereby he will lose all his Money and Hire for his Prayers, and the Silversmiths of Diana, have their Trade utterly spoiled.  
(3) Men would be induced to worship in secret, and Omnipresentially, to avoid another Danger incident to Prayer by a Priest; for the Prayer by a Priest would be in Public, in a Synagogue or Temple, which is liable to a double danger, one of Daemons, the other of Men; to neither of which any Modest or Prudent Petitioner desires to have his Prayers known; not to Daemons, because he may have Errors and Imperfections in his Prayers, which if discovered only to God, He is ready to prevent those Dangers he would draw on his own head, by his Rash Petitions, and, like a Father in pity to his Child, to forgive them; whereas if Discovered to Daemons, they, if not by God restrained, would be ready to grant him success in all the Noxious things he asks, to Ensnare and Ruin him. Not to Men; first, because for any to confess his private Sins, or Enumerate his private Wants, or Desires in Public, would but afford matter of Derision to the Heathens. Secondly, The malice of Men would be apt to wrest all the Words, though innocently intended, of his Prayers; sometimes to Heresy sometimes to Sedition, sometimes to Treason itself; and the same would kindle the hatred, and sometimes provoke the Rage of all Dissentients against him; As at Vassy in France, Fifteen hundred Protestants being assembled in a Church on a Sabbath day, to Pray, and hear the Word of God, the Duke of Guise suddenly Compassed the Church with Armed Soldiers, himself standing in the Door with a drawn Sword, and Cruelly sent his Soldiers, who killed all without Distinction of Age, or Sex. Acts and Mon.  
(4) Granting the Omnipresence, Bishops could not pretend Power to N●ll and Dissolve private Marriage, Consummated by Birth of a Child; nor separate those at whose Matrimonial Acts God was present as a Witness and Party, and thereby joined them, not to be put asunder by Man.  
(5) Granting God to be Omnipresent, and present in the Internal Spirit and heart of Man, and sees and knows thereby all of his thoughts, all External Ceremonies of Worship are useless; yea the Compulsion to them is the highest Denial of his Internal presence, and all the Difference and Distinction taken away how to know the Worship of God, from the worship of Men, and the Counterfeit Worship from the True; for though to the worship of Men External Ceremonies are necessary, and the Internal thoughts of the Heart cannot be Expressed to Men, but by External acts of the Body, yet to God it is otherwise; for he being present in the Heart itself; it were as Impertinent that the Heart should be Compelled to Pray, or Express its Intentions by External Ceremonies without the Body, as to Compel a Vassal, when his Prince is in the midst of the House with him, to throw his Petition out of the Window to be sent to him many Miles off, by the Priest who is in the outer Court. And as Compulsion to Worship by the outward Ceremonies of a Priest, or a Temp●e, is unnecessary, so is it the way to Compel an Hypocritical and Counterfeit Worship, contrary to the Command of Christ. Joh. 4.21. Where he, talking with the Woman Concerning to the Two Places of Worship, the Temple of Samaria, and the Temple of Jerusalem, Saith, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. And vers. 23. The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit, and those that worship him, must worship him in Spirit and Truth. To worship therefore in Spirit and Truth, is the Internal Worship of the heart, and not the External Ceremonies, which may be Compelled and Counterfeit, and if mixed with the Worship of God, are not directly to Worship God, but the Idol or the Priest; as for example, I shall instance the usual Ceremonies of uncovering the Head, Bowing, and Kneeling, to which men are compelled in Temples, 
Compulsion to external Ceremonies, is to Worship the Idol and the Priest, and not God.  as both Ancient and Modern Pagan Idolaters pretend the same distinction of Worship to and towards the Image, where those or other Ceremonies are used, as do the Papists; and if the same should be allowed, there could be no Idolatry committed in the World, and the Second Commandment were useless, and deservedly by the Papist turned out of the Decalogue; for all Nations in the World, whether Civil or Barbarous, which use Idols or Images, yea the Tartars, Africans, Indians, and very Americans say, They Worship not the Idol, but their God in the Idol. But if once the Omnipresence is believed, this Faith destroys all Ceremonies of Worship, both towards and to, and in, and shows the Worship of Spirit and Truth to be every way, and every where, and that Idols ought not to be brought into the Place, or mixed with the Divine Worship, they manifestly drawing the Honour of Bowing, Falling down, Kneeling, or the like, towards, or before them, pretended to God to be given themselves; for which reason (it seems) Josephus lib. 8. cap. 2. de Antiq. Jud. says, Solomon sinned and broke the Law in making Similitudes in the Temple, of Beasts of Brass, to underprop the Brazen Sea, and Lions to set unto his Throne, which are apt to be Converted to Idolatrous Uses; and of the Act of Hezekiah, 2 Kings 18.4. to take away those External Ceremonies of Worship then in fashion; for it is said, He removed the high Places, and broke the Images, and cut down the Groves, and broke in pieces the Brazen Serpent which Moses had made: for unto those days the Children of Israel did burn Incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan. Yet here might it have been said by the Idolatrous Priests, who made great gains of these Ceremonies of Bowing, Kneeling, and Falling down to those Images, that they were very Ancient and Decent Ceremonies, and great Ornaments of the Worship of God; and they did not Bow, Kneel, Fall down, or offer Incense to the High Places, but God in them; yet here in the Judgement of Hezekiah, these external Ceremonies gave the Honour pretended to be given to God, to these Idols; and he therefore Abolished them.  
In the like manner do the Priests, now the Images are removed, yet Surrogate in their stead what Idols they can of Temples and Altars, abolished by Christ, and under pretence of the Ornament and Decency of Worshipping God, by Compulsion to those External Ceremonies of the Body, to which it is impossible to compel the worship of the Spirit and Soul, draw to themselves wholly that Divine Honour which they feign is given through these to God, as is easy to be seen, in every common Church or Temple, the People walk, talk, and place themselves in what posture they please, till the Priest appears and is heard in the Pew; then, as if the Apparition of a Deity spoke, there is such shuffling away of Hats, and falling on knees, to receive an Absolution, which none but God can give, of their Sins; and as assoon as the Morning Service is ended, and the Priest got out of the Church all the Hats are again on, and not a man to be seen on his knees till the Priest again return in the Afternoon; then are they all again on their knees to pray, according to the forementioned distinction, towards him, but not (as they said) to him, and receive his Benediction, which none is able to give but God; and these Ceremonies of falling on their knees towards the Priest, in those many Postures of Confessions of Sins, Penance, Absolution, and Benedictions were so scandalous to the Heathen, that when a Christian reproved one of them that he fell down before a dead Idol and worshipped it, he would answer, That the Christian fell on his knees before a worse living Idol, Et quod Pontificis coleret Genitalia. In the like manner was a Jesuit Recriminated, who reproved an Indian King of Candecan, that he fell down and worshipped his Paw-God, and answered, That He fell down and worshipped his Crucifix. To the same purpose have some Episcopal Protestants been Recriminated, who reproved Papists that they bowed and fell on their knees to the Host in the Mass, and answered, that they bowed and fell on their knees to the High Altar and the Bread received from it. So neither side can justify, but Recriminate, which how weak Argumentation it is concerning the worship of God in Spirit and Truth, is easily understood. But to return to the first consideration; That the Priest is worshipped, and not God, by the Ceremonies of the Temple, appears, in regard if they taught that the People must put off their Hats or fall on their knees in token of Reverence to God, as being in the Temple Consecrated by the Bishop more than in another place, then must they teach them that they ought to perform the same Ceremonies when both Bishop and Priest are out, as well as in; and must be perpetually, as long as they are in the Church, seeing God is perpetually in it, and both Bishop and Priest must be perpetually uncovered when there, as well as the People, and as well before Service as after, and as well without the People as with them; but they neither teach nor practise any such matter, but only command uncovering, and kneeling to be towards themselves when present, therefore they give the whole Honour of these External Ceremonies to themselves, and not to God. So the Pope's Missionary Priests breed up the poor Americans, in such Superstition and Slavery, as they worship the Priests for Gods; and if a Priest do but ride on a Journey through the street, they all as he passeth fall on their knees, with their hands Elevated towards him, praying him to forgive their Sins, and give them their Benediction; which the Priest very gravely doth, making many Mumpsimusses with his Mouth, and Crosses in the Air with his finger towards them, and they for the same bring him plenty of Provision and Oblations to his Lodging, where he Inns, The Archbishop of Moscho, reputed the Greek Pope or chief Patriarch, when he Consecrates the River there for Baptism, which is once a Year, he Rides in great State, in most Rich and Gorgeous Robes, carrying the Sacrament in his Lap, the Emperor himself leading his Horse by the Bridle, and many persons casting before him on the ground most Rich Garments, to be trampled on by the proad Palfrey, and when he hath passed over a parcel still fetching those who are left behind, and throwing them again before, lest the feet of his Holy Horse should touch the Earth, whose Master commands the Heaven. Some have thought by these Ceremonies the Horse is more honoured than the Emperor, the Lap than the Horse, the Sacrament than God, and the Bishop than all. The Latin Pope hath had a Crotchet to wear the Cross on his Pantofle when he admits to the Honour of kissing his Toe, yet none doubts but he aims more at the Honour of his Toe, though a crabbed one, than of the Cross. To the Emperor who performed this Servile Homage, saying in Extenuation of his Dishonour, Non tibi sed Petro, the Pope replied, Et mihi & Petro. Not only the Babylonian Priests of Bell, but of all Nations in the World (who could obtrude on the People the Ceremonies of Sacrify) have under pretence of feeding the Noses or the Mouths of their Gods, fed their own Bellies, and not their Gods. But the Doctrine of the Omnipresence destroys all these Ceremonies of Sacrifices, Incense, Burnt-offerings, Images, Hosts, Masses, High-Altars, Temples, and Oblations by Priests; for if God is present in the House, and at the Table of the owner, were it possible he could be hungry, or desire Meat and Drink, he could, as many great Princes have done from their meanest subject, more conveniently take a Meal from a Thousand Tables wheresoever he likes best, than the Priest to gather it for him in his Almsbasket at the Temple; and there to eat it himself; and say to the Priest as is said, Psal. 50.12. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the World is mine, and the fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of Bulls, or drink the blood of Goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy Vows unto the most High. And call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Were God likewise tolerated to be worshipped as Christ commands, Omnipresentially, in Spirit and Truth, 
Forms of Prayer Compulsive, are Ceremonies, but not Directive.  then could there be no compulsion to the Ceremonies of Forms of Prayer, Forms of Vestments, Forms of Songs, Forms of Music; for Forms of Prayer and other Forms of Worship in things indifferent, if made compulsive by Penalty, became Ceremonies, and destructive to the Worship of God in Spirit and Truth; and compulsive they cannot be made unless the Ceremony of the place of Worship be made compulsive. But if they are only Directive and without Penalties, as the Form of the Lords Prayer, left by Christ, who made it not Penal to miss a word, or syllable, or a letter in the Use of the same, then are they no Ceremonies, nor Ceremonial Laws, but Favours and Adminicles to help and direct, and not to punish the Weak who need them; if Popes and Bishops therefore should not smother the knowledge of God's Omnipresence, then must they allow that God is present in the heart of every one who Prays, as well as in every other place, and being there, as Job saith, 42.2. I know thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. And it is said, Psal. 7.9. The Righteous God trieth the Hearts and Reins. And Psal. 94.11. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man. And if so, they need neither carry nor send their Prayers to a Pope, Bishop, or Priest to offer them to God, in a Temple or at the Altar; but he may present them to God himself, and in a way more pleasing to him, on his own Altar of a broken heart, which way of Worship in the heart would utterly destroy their great Office they usurp, of being Masters of the External Ceremonies of Divine Worship, which brings them in infinite Riches, and likewise an Idolatrous Worship and Honour to Exalt themselves above all that is called God.  
(6.) If Prayers might be made to God in the heart of man, or as Christ directs in the Closet, as Omnipresent, than would the Priest lose his great gains of the Post-Office to Heaven, for sending Prayers though not by Letter or Writing, yet (which is as good) by word of Mouth, or better, if the Letters should chance to be lost, or Spies for Intelligence break them open by the way. When Prayers are brought to the Priest, to be sent so high and so far for the Petitioner, he will send them by some Angel, who is the swifter, or some Saint who is the slower and surer to carry them the first Stage, than He delivers the Message to our Lady of Loretto (if she be not below at her Chapel) to carry them another Stage, and to deliver them to her Son, who is to make the next deliverance of them to God, which way of Posting Prayers so far is very costly, and dangerous, and many times Petitioners get no Returns as long as they live, unless when intercepted by the Prince of the Air, and he grants their wicked Petitions with a Vengeance; all which cost and mischief had been prevented, if the Petitioner in person had, as Christ bids him, offered his Prayer to God in person in his Closet.  
(7.) The Priests could not put God into a Wafer or piece of Bread, and set him on an Altar, or carry him about in a Box; they could not lock him up in a Temple, and carry the Keys at their: Girdle; by which they would lose excessive gains.  
(8.) There would be no more Pilgrimages to Mecha, or Jerusalem, Rome, Loretto, Compostella, and a multitude of other Places, which would lose them vast gains.  
(9) They would lose the gains of Praying to Saints and Angels; for they who believe God only to be Omnipresent, and the Vbi's of Saints and Angels to be unknown, and uncertain when, and whether in Temples or no; would rather pray to God only, than such as they knew not where or when to find, and might therefore be mocked, as Elijah, 1 Kings 18.27. mocked Baal's Prophets, and said, Cry aloud, for he is a God, either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a Journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.  
(10.) They would lose the gains of all Sanctuaries, Asylums, and Horns of the Altar; for if God is every where, why should Malefactors have more privilege there than every where? whereby neither Cain by Land, nor Jonah by Sea, could fly the Presence of the Lord, and the same is no Protection, but a Punishment to the Wicked.  
(11.) There would be no more buying or hireing places of Burial in Chancels, Churches, Churchyards, or other Consecrated ground, by such as believed God Omnipresent; whereby a great Revenue would likewise be lost to Popish ecclesiastics.  
All which recited matters, and the forementioned Mediator, Confessor, Penance, and Pardon, Offices, and divers others, conduce infinitely to the gain of Papal and Episcopal Priests, and the Pride and Power of the Kingdom of Antichrist; which must be inevitably ruined, if the Doctrine of the Omnipresence were but duly Preached and Taught, which indeed is the Depth of all Philosophy, and the Height of all Divinity, and the most possible way of understanding the Divine Precepts of Christ, of worshipping God in Spirit and Truth.  

A Poem on the Omnipresential Worship of God.  
NO other God I Love or Fear;  
But who I see is every where:  
If on the Hills I feed my Sheep,  
Their Pasture there he Green doth keep:  
If in the Dale my Cows I milk,  
He makes their Teats as soft as Silk;  
And is he not there where I Blow?  
Who more Returns than I did Sow.  
If on the Wall I Prune a Vine,  
He must be there who giveth Wine.  
I drink the Wine of Ten Years old,  
He makes me then his Poet bold.  
In Eden's Fruit (what joy is this!)  
I taste a Thousand times he is:  
I sip the Nectar of the Bee,  
And find none there is sweet but he:  
Of Strawberries I dress a Bed,  
He's there, none else could make them Red.  
Yond Brook (hark!) tells with purling sound,  
From Sea who brings it under ground.  
A little Seed on Earth I spring,  
He there doth Heavenly Flowers bring:  
His Works in Beauty all appear,  
I'm sick with Love of him who's there:  
In Rosy Bower with Lute I sit,  
His Voice doth Ravish me from it.  
The hour I ask, and Dial view,  
He must be there who tells me true:  
If to my Study I then pass,  
He brings me light there through the glass:  
If to a lawful War I go,  
He's there to fight against the Foe:  
I watch in Frost, and Moonshine cold;  
From killing me he doth it hold:  
If to the fire I turn to warm,  
He's there, such Fury else would harm.  
To Woods I walk with wand'ring Eyes,  
He's there who mounts them to the Skies:  
At Sea the Tide learns me to know  
'Tis he there makes the Ebb and Flow:  
Bright Cynthia shows next who her guides,  
Where she in Silver Chariot Rides:  
In Darkness, Sounds do make me hear  
He is in them, who made the Ear:  
I look up to the Stars above,  
And see he's there, who doth them move:  
I take a Wife, and go to Bed,  
He Marries us who bids us Wed:  
A Child is born, he gave it Life,  
And not the Husband or the Wife:  
In sweetest Sleep my Rest I take,  
Eternal, did he not me wake:  
I die, his Mercy is so near,  
And he himself, I cannot fear.  
Then Shepherds all upon the Rocks  
Pray, and Praise him 'mongst your Flocks,  
And let your Pipes on every Hill  
The Organs be the Air to fill:  
You who Carouse, in pleasant Bowers,  
Ambrosian Milk that's made of Flowers,  
There when you hear the Cows to Low,  
Unto the God who fed you bow.  
Let Husbandmen who Blow the Field,  
Thanks for a fruitful Crop there yield;  
And for the Seed they cast away,  
Another Resurrection Pray.  
You who behold the Ruby Wine  
In curious Crystal Glasses shine,  
And drink your fill, there crowned with Bays,  
Indite high Hymns unto his Praise:  
Ye Poets, why sit you so sad?  
In holy Furies turn ye mad,  
He'll mount your Souls in Ecstasies,  
Unto the Joys above the Skies:  
Fruits of so many Tastes and Hues,  
Delicious Whites, Reds, Yellows, Blues.  
Who Banquet on, in the same Place  
Return for every one a Grace:  
Thou who hast found the Honeycomb  
In Wilderness, though far from home;  
Go suck Him there in such a Feast,  
As Child doth Mother from the Breast.  
The little Berries on a Bent,  
Who file before they shall be spent,  
You as in Golden Age than may  
Number no other Beads to pray.  
The Crystal Springs and Running Rills,  
Along the Banks of Daffodils,  
And Silver-shallows which do creep,  
Shows he them brings from Mercies deep:  
Who Flowers gather in the Meads,  
Praise him with Garlands on your Heads,  
Who gives such Flowers unto the Clown,  
As Caesar hath not in his Crown.  
If Lightnings shot from Beauty's Eye,  
Melt thine to Tears, and make thee sigh.  
Adore the Beauty none do see,  
Thou no Idolater shalt be:  
Who hear the Birds, with Thousand Notes,  
Praise him from pretty Bills and Throats:  
There let your Voices join in Choir  
With Instruments of Wind and Wire.  
On Dial look, and there him praise,  
Who shows to number out thy Days;  
Who light and shade so true makes run,  
Is on the Dial and the Sun:  
No longer in thy Study look,  
To search for God Chapter or Book;  
For wheresoever thou dost pass,  
He writeth himself on every grass:  
Ye Valours in defence of Right,  
Who for the King and Country fight,  
Your Souls to Heaven, where e'er you die,  
Shall without Church or Steeple fly:  
How Water turns to Gems of Ice,  
And they to water, who so wife  
To show? But he is there we find,  
Whose Power alone can lose and bind,  
You who sit by the Fire side,  
To Pray, you need not Run or Ride,  
For who dwells in Eternal Light,  
Is likewise in the Fire bright.  
Go Pray in yonder Wood or Grove,  
For there appears the God of Love,  
Except the same is Consecrate  
Unto some Goddess or her Mate:  
Soldiers at Sea, who doth it tame  
In Floating Castles, praise his name;  
Let Trumpets sound it to the shore,  
And with them let your Canon Roar;  
If Phoebe Fair shall on you peep,  
When she steals water from the Deep;  
Though such a Beauty ne'er was seen,  
Say she's his Handmaid, not his Queen:  
You who in Night's Black shades do stray,  
In fear there to him humbly Pray,  
In Darkness which doth Cloud the Sky,  
He Dreadful is in Majesty.  
The Stars that Rolled are in their Round,  
By him above, and under ground,  
Show he is there in Might and Power  
Who will not let them Rest an hour.  
Bridegrooms and Brides so Fresh and Trim,  
Each other Worship not, but him  
Who joins you both in such a Fate,  
As none but he can separate.  
Mother's Praise him, who are Devout,  
Who heard you when you Cried out,  
And made forget before the Morn  
Your Sorrows, when a Son was born:  
He's in thy Bed, though thou dost sleep,  
True time thy Pulses who makes keep.  
All the whole Day then seek a Theme  
To Praise him there, though in a Dream.  
When Death the Body turns to Fame,  
And Soul to Essence whence it came▪  
Oh happy Soul! thou canst not miss  
Thy God, for every where he is.  
Ye Idol-Priests who have begun  
Your Temple build, shall hold the Sun;  
And you great Neptune who adore,  
Build one shall hold both Sea and Shore;  
To Aeolus who make your Prayer  
Another build, shall hold the Air;  
At Venus' shrine than you who cry,  
Build one holds Venus in the Sky;  
And then with Millions of your hands  
Build one holds him who these commands:  
The God who cannot be confined,  
The God of Love, who is not blind;  
When this you do, and none derides,  
we'll to your Altars bring our Brides,  
But first before we enter in,  
Your Temple you shall clear from sin,  
The Canons of so many Popes,  
And of the Mitres and the Copes,  
Contrary to the Law of God  
Whip thence, as Christ did with a Rod;  
Then overturn the Tables next  
Of Money-changers, which have vexed  
Loves Liberty, who was born free,  
With Bonds, and Bills, and Usury;  
Then cast out Pride which doth bewitch,  
And Poor Divorceth from the Rich:  
Virtue and Beauty are the Gems,  
Excelling those of Diadems.  
Then Covetousness expel,  
The Idol foul which came from Hell;  
Portions and Jointures we'll have none,  
But every one shall keep his own,  
Nor Courtesy shall be so small,  
Of Lands and Money to take all,  
And Rob the Woman of her Goods,  
Leaving her scarce for Scarves and Hoods;  
When 'tis too late, she sees and grieves,  
The Temple is a Den of Thiefs,  
None there shall take another's Brats  
By Bishops false Certificates,  
No Bramyn of an Indian King  
Shall there Pollute the Royal Spring,  
Cardinal Confessor there none  
Shall shrieve a Queen upon a Throne,  
No, nor shall their Intails defiled  
Make Faithless Wife, or Rebel Child;  
We'll run no more to Romish Sees,  
But we will Marry without Fees:  
Why do you then God's Ordinance  
After your Pipes to Church make Dance,  
To buy for Money what's Divine,  
And God enclose in Silver-shrine?  
Why do you then so slyly steal  
A Sacrifice of Blood and Meal,  
And thither drive, on pain of Curse  
Your foolish Guests to pick their Purse,  
And your Bread-God on Altar lay,  
And him enclose with Walls to Pray?  
Know, who is the Almighty one,  
Altar or Temple he hath none.    

(15.) It caused the bloody Sacrifices of Virgins, Children, and Indian Wives.  
If Iphigenia had not been got to the Altar on pretence to be Married, she could not have been Murdered.  

Relligo peperit Scelerosa atque impia facta:  
Aulide quo pacto Triviai Virgins a●am,  
Iphianassai turparunt Sanguine foedè,  
Ductores Danaûm delecti prima virorum:  
Cui simul infula virgineos Circumdata Compius;  
Ex utraque pari malarum parte profusa est;  
Et maestum simul ante aras adstare parentem  
Sensit, & hunc propter ferrum Coelare ministros;  
Adspectúque suo lacrymas effundere cives;  
Muta metu, terram genibus Summissa petebat.  
Nec miserae prodesse in-tali tempore quibat,  
Quòd patrio princeps-Donarat nomine Regem:  
Nam sublata virûm manibus, tremebundáque ad arras  
Deducta est, non ut solemni more sacrorum  
Perfecto, posset claro Comitari bymenaeo;  
Sed casta incestò nubendi tempore in ipso  
Hostia Coincideret mactatu moesta Parentis:  
Exitus ut Classi felix faustúsque daretur.  
Tantum Relligio potuit suadere malorum.   

Religion hatched hath damned Impieties:  
This the Greek Chiefs at Aulis made Surprise  
Poor Iphigenia, by a wicked wile,  
And Trivia's Altar with her Blood defile.  
The Fillet which did bind her Virgin Head,  
Upon each Cheek hung down dishevelled,  
Her Father then sad to stand by she Eyed,  
And Priests from her their Bloody Knives to hid,  
Upon her Knees she fell down mute with Fears,  
And saw the People round her shedding Tears,  
Nor with the King did help her thus appalled,  
That she a Princess first him Father called;  
For, took by force of Men, she's trembling brought  
Unto the Fiery Altar, not as aught  
To have been done, a ●●●e to Consecrate,  
But to Pollute her with a Bloody Fa●e,  
Then her fell Father in her lovely Prime  
When he of Hymen's Joys promised the time,  
Kills her in Sacrifice, to get a Wind,  
And a good Passage for his Shipping find.  
Thus Blind Religion which doth nothing know,  
Yet so much Evil could persuade to do.   
The wickedness of the same Fact, Horace likewise describes. lib. Serm. 2. Sat. 3. In a Dialogue, between a Rustic and Agamemnon.  R. 
Nequis humasse velit Ajacem Atrida, vetas cur?  A. 
Rex sum.  R. 
Nil ultra quaero plebeius.  A. 
Et aequam  
Rem imperito: ac si cui videor non justus, inulto  
Dicere quae sentit permitto.  R. 
Maxim Regum  
Dii tibi dent captâ classem reducere Trojâ  
Ergo consulere, & mox respondere licebit?  A. 
Consul.  R. 
Cur Ajax heros, ab Achille secundus,  
Putrescit, toties servatis clarus Achivis?  
Gaudeat ut populus Priami, Priamusque inhumato  
Per quem tot juvenes patrio caruere sepulchro?  A. 
Mille ovium insanus morti dedit, inclytum Vlyssem,  
Et Menelaum una mecum se occidere clamans.  R. 
Tu cum pro vitula statuis dulcem Aulide natam  
Ante arras, spargisque mola caput improbe salsa,  
Rectum animi servas?  A. 
Quorsum?  R. 
Insanus quid enim Ajax  
Fecit, cum stravit ferro pecus? abstinuit vim  
Vxore & nato, mala multa precatus Atridis,  
Non ille aut Teverum, aut ipsum violavit Vlyssem.  A. 
Verum ego ut harentes adverso littore naves  
Eriperem, prudens placavi sanguine Divos.  R. 
Nempe tuo furiose.  A. 
Meo, sed non furiosus.  R. 
Qui species alias veri, scelerisque tumultu  
Permistas caplet, commotus habebitus: atque  
Stultitianes erret nihilum distabit, an ira.  
Ajax immeritos dum occidit desipit agnos:  
Quum prudens scelus obtitulos admittis inanes  
Stas animo? & purum est vitio tibi cum tumidam est cor?  
Siquis lectica nitidum gestate ame● agn●●n,  
Huic vestem ut gna●●●, paret anc●llas, paret a●rum;  
Rufam ant pusillam appelle●: fortique marito  
Destinet uxorem, interdicto huic omne adimit jus  
Praetor, & ad sanos abeat tu●●● propinquos.  
Quid? fiquis gnatum pro muta devovet Agna  
Integer est animi? ne dixeris. Ergo ubi prava  
Stultitia, hic summa est insania.  
Rusticus, Agamemnon.  R. 
Atrides, Why is it forbidden by thee  
To bury Ajax?  A. 
I am King.  R. 
So be.  
I a Plebeian dare no more inquire.  A. 
But just I am, and if thou dost desire  
To show thou thinkest not so, speak out thy mind,  
I give thee leave.  R. 
Great King, so may'st thou find  
The gods propitious, from Conquered Troy,  
Thy gallant Fleet to return home with joy  
May I then ask, and unto what thou sayest  
Reply again, with thy good favour?  A. 
may'st.  R. 
Why doth the Hero Ajax, the Renowned  
Achille's Second rot then above Ground,  
Who saved so many Greeks? Is it, to make  
Priam and Pryam's People joy to take,  
That he by whom their own so many have  
Lost Sepulchers, himself should lose a Grave?  A. 
The Mad man killed a Thousand Sheep, and cry  
He did, each Menelaus was, or I,  
Or brave Ulysses.  R. 
Wicked Man, dost thou,  
Thine own sweet Daughter to the Altars vow?  
And didst thou Butcher her in the Calf's stead,  
At Aulis; crumbling Salt Cake on her Head?  
And thinkest thyself more in thy Wits than he?  A. 
Why not?  R. 
be pleased but to hear and see;  
For what did Ajax, while he was so mad,  
To kill the Sheep (as thou didst) half so b●d?  
He did both from his Wife, and Son abstain,  
And only the Atridae cursed in vain;  
He neither Tencer, nor Ulysses slew.  A. 
But, that I was both wise and godly, show  
I will to thee; for, to get off my Fleet  
Which stuck upon the Sands, I thought it meet,  
Their safe return to speed through the rough Seas,  
The angry gods with blood thus to appease.  R. 
'Twas with thine own blood Mad man.  A. 
true, 'twas so,  
But that I was not Mad, this lets thee know.  R. 

Whose thoughts Tumultuous made by Wickedness,  
Takes False for True; is mad, and he no less  
Who doth by Folly err, as who by Rage.  
Was Ajax Mad who did in Fight engage  
To kill Poor Lambs; and thou Godly and Wise,  
Who Iphigenia killest in Sacrifice?  
And those Fair Titles from a Crime so black  
As thy Poor Daughter 'twas to kill, dost take?  
Should one in Coach a Lamb have with him ride,  
And for it , Money and Maids provide,  
And think't his Daughter, Miss and Madam too  
Call it, and Husband stout bring it, to woe.  
Would not the Praetor grant him for a Fool?  
And what if one his Daughters at the School,  
Should think a Lamb in Fold by like mistake,  
And her Devoutly to the Altars take,  
And think by Faith he that mute Creatures note  
Hears, when he cuts his Shrieking Daughters throat?  
Is he in his right mind? the other is  
A Petty Folly; wicked Madness this.   

Who think their God a Lamb, or that His Will  
Was, they himself should on his Altar kill,  
And offer to Himself; how Mad are they,  
Let s●me New Poet in a satire say.   
Godw. Jew. Ant. 141. Conceiveth Moloch, to whom Children were Sacrificed, to be the same Idol with Baal then, P. 152. He Conceiveth Baal Peor, so called from Peor the Hill on which his Temple stood, to be the same Idol with Priapus: so doth Cornelius Agrippa, call Priapus, Baal Phegor; It is before shown, That Priapus was the first who got Women and Men to be joined together by a Priest in his Temple; if Priapus therefore was Baal, and Baal Moloch to whom Children were Sacrificed: then ('tis more than probable) the same Idol, who Married in Temples; as he by this got the Jurisdiction of Marriage, so by the Jurisdiction of Marriage, he got into his Fiery hands the Jurisdiction of the Fruits of Marriage young Children; and like a true unclean Devil, Defiled his Temple and Altar, not only with Lust, but with Blood; and so this Custom of Marrying by Priests in Temples in as many Nations (which were the greatest part) of the World, which it passed through; carried likewise, the Barbarous Cruelty of Sacrificing, such Children of such Marriages, as the Priest requi●●d what Children he pleased; to be Sacrificed, and as the Scripture Expresseth, to Devils; I shall for brevity, only Cite one Poet concerning this wicked Custom.  

Mos fuit in Populis quos condidit advena Dido,  
Poscere caede Deos veniam, ac flagrantibus aris  
(Infandum dictu.) parvos imponere natos.   Silius. 

The People who by Dido founded were,  
Did Pray to Gods with Blood, without a Tear;  
And horribly on Flaming Altars burn,  
Their little Babes, yet for them never mourn.   
Ille suis Divis mos Sacrificare puellos,  Ennius. 
The Cruel Custom of the Indian Wives, burning themselves with their Husbands, grew from the Jurisdiction the Priest gained over them by such Priabeian Maraiage by a Priest in a Temple, and by the profit he made by the same Burning or wicked Sacrifice of themselves. Which Custom Propertius thus Describes:  

Jamque ubi mortifero Jacta est fax ultima Lecto,  
Vxorum fusis stat pia turba comis,  
Et certamen habent Lethi quae prima sequatur,  
Conjugium Pudor est non licuisse mori.  
Ardent victrices, & flamae pectora praebent,  
Imponuntque suis or● perusta viris.   Proper. l. 3. Eleg. 12. 

When the last Brand doth light Death's bed of Flames,  
With Hair disheveled stand the Pious Dames,  
And strive who first shall with her Husband lie;  
Oh, shame they think if hindered then to die.  
Victorious they with Breasts and Mouths on fire,  
Kiss their old Loves burning with new Desire.   
The Indian Priests, from whom this Fiery zeal, Superstition and Mischief came, usually attend the Woman at this Fatal Solemnity of her new marriage to her Husband in another World, with which he Deludes her assuredly to believe follows of course, if she burns herself, and goes with him. But first she must go to the River and be Baptised with Water, for the washing away of her Sins, and then be Baptised in this last fire, where he promiseth her their Holy Spirit and god Ram will appear to her in a Vision in the midst of the Flames, and be her Comforter: you cannot think a Priest will take all this pain to Murder his whole Parish of Women if he can, without a Fee, though without a Tear; for, besides his Ordinary fees, who should the Poor Deluded Martyress or Martyresses (for many times the Indians, their Laws allowing Plurality of Wives, have Ten or a Dozen, or if a Prince they may amount to a hundred) the Husband being dead, make Executor and Overseer of all their Goods they leave behind, to bestow them according to his direction, pur le Aline de defunct, for the Benefit of the Souls of them he Murdered, But the Priest who so kindly helped to dispatch them? Besides, he hath for a further small gratuity for his Pains, all the Bracelets, Pendants, Rings, and Jewels of Gold or Silver, which the Women ware, who came thus to Sacrifice themselves; for they are Adorned most Richly, as they were on their Wedding Day; And besides, other good Women throw into their Laps some Letters, some Presents, some Money, and Desire her to Deliver them to their Mother, or Brother, or other Kinsman or Friend, gone before them into the other World, all which are burnt with her; and when that is done, the Priest Rakes the Ashes, where, what a Batch hath he of all that is Incombustible of Rings, Bracelets, Gold, Silver, Jewels, Copper, Brass! Especially where there are many Wives who burn together, and belonging to great Persons: these so Sacred Relics of these Saints belong only to the Priest, to his great gain. Taverenr. 2. Part. 170. & Lynschotten.   

(16.) It lays Punishment on Lawful Childbirths, and destroys Millions of Infants.  
The Punishment of which, is Imposed on the Childbirths of every Woman, who hath not first been before a Priest in a Temple, and told all the Boys in the Parish, That she hath a mind to lie with a Man, is to be Exposed to Poblick shame in a White Sheet, in the same Temple; and the Boys aforesaid, 
The cause of Penance in a White Sheet is only for the gains of the Bishop.  to make Mops and Mows at her, though they might better be Employed in saying their Prayers after the Priest; the Persons on whom this shame is to be Imposed, is Principally the Mother of the Child, but reflected by participation on her Parents, Family, Kindred, and her Innocent Child itself. The Fi●al Cause why this Shame is Imposed, is, that the Bishop may enforce her to give him what Commutation Money he pleaseth to Demand, for his Remission of this Penance, and Pardon of her Sins, and that he may have Power to set what Taxes he pleaseth on God's Ordinance of Marriage, and all Acts incident to the same, which ought to be free, and thereby set to Hire and Sale, all Women Lawful and Unlawful; and the Successions not only to all private Patrimonies, but Kingdoms, and thereby fill his Chests with Gold and Silver.  
The Sin or Offence, for which the Punishment is Imposed, is Childbearing and nothing else, whatever is pretended; which is proved by these Reasons:  
(1.) If he say, That he punisheth the Mother for disobedience to his Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons, in not Publishing her Intention to Marry, to the Priest in the Temple, and the Boys in the Parish, and, what is the bottom of the Business, not paying him his Fees for Publication according to the Canons. This is easily Answered, by ask who made him a Legislator, and Canon-Maker, over a Free People and their Children? This already is before proved, That neither Ecclesiastical nor Temporal Law can be made, nor Tax imposed on Marriage, or any thing else, without the Assent of the House of Commons, and that was never given to any Papal or Episcopal Laws or Canons; as hath been already proved. And as hath likewise been proved, All Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons, made by any Popes or Bishops, Councils or Synods, from the beginning of the World to these presents; in regard they never had the Assent of the House of Commons in Parliament, are utterly Void and Null, to bind the People or their Posterity. 
No Law in England for standing in a White Sheet.  So there being not so much as a Law of Man in England Prohibiting Marriage, without a Priest and Temple, under the Penalty of standing in a White Sheet; and there being no Law, there can be no Offence Besides, if there were such a Law, it is already before shown that all Laws Prohibiting Marriage (Except by a Priest in a Temple) are the Doctrine of Daemons, and came Originally from Daemons and the Priests of Priapus and Venus, and Contrary to the Moral Law of God and Nature; the Bishop hath therefore no pretence to Punish the Woman for that.  
(2.) There are no other Offences in Bearing a Child which a Woman can commit, but breach of Contract, Incest, Fornication or Adultery. As to breach of Contract and Incest, the Bishop punisheth Persons Free, and not Prohibited by any Law of God to Marry: As to Fornication and Adultery, the first Offence cannot (as hath already been shown) be Committed without Polyandry in the Woman, and the second without Polygynecy in the Man; But the Bishop punisheth her who bears a Child, though the Father and Mother were no way Prohibited to Marry by any Law of God or Man, and they were at the time of Begetting the Child both Virgins, and neither Guilty of Polyandry or Polygynecy, and so still continue  and Constant one to another: The Bishop therefore punishing such a Woman, doth punish her for Childbearing, or for nothing.  
(3.) There is no Probation, by two or more Witnesses, of any Offence but Child bearing; and Probation by Compulsion of the Woman to self-Accusation, or by Compulsion of Canonical Purgation are unlawful. The Bishop therefore punishing such a Woman, if he punish her not for Childbearing only, he punisheth her for Facts whereof he hath no Lawful Probation.  
It being therefore proved, That the Bishop punisheth Lawful Childbearing: It appears further, That he punisheth the Lawful more than the Unlawful; for such Women as are common in Stews or Brothels seldom bear a Child, as hath been shown before, and such Women as are Married to Husbands (and therefore can only be Guilty of Adultery) if the Husband be within the Four Seas of the time of Begeting the Children on their Wives by Adulterers, it hath been shown already, That Littleton and Coke, will by Fiction have it be believed that these Adulterous Children were got by the absent Husband, And that Probatio non admittitur in Contrarium, whereby Marriage by a Priest in a Temple is made a Sanctuary for Adulteresses, and for Adulterous Childbearing they are Exempt from punishment, but the Poor Lawful Childbearing Woman, against whom there is neither Fact nor Probation of any Crime to be shown, is the Chief Subject of the Bishop's punishment: a Fact so Barbarous, as not to be paralleled in the Example of Turks, Tartars, Americans, or any Ethniek Nation; Except Gaeramantes, who have a wicked Custom, that if any Married Woman Procreate more than three Children, she shall be Divorced from her Husband, because a Multitude of Children caused Men to have Covetous hearts; and besides the Divorce of the Mother, such Supernumerary Children were to be slain before the Parent's eyes. But Bishops are worse than the Garamantes, for they punish though but one Childbearing, whereas the other punished not till after. Three, and exercise those Inhumanities' for their Gain against Childbearing Women, which the Scripture Prohibits to be Exercised to the very Brutes, Deuter. 22.6. If a Birds nest chance to be before thee in the way in any Tree, or on the Ground, whether they be young ones, or Eggs, and the Dam sitting upon the Young, or upon the Eggs, thou shalt not take the Dam with the Young. But thou shalt in any wise let the Dam go, and take the Young to thee, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days. The Bird is not any wise to be punished for this Natural Piety to her Young, but to be set at Liberty and let go, and that they may Defile their Marriages by the Example of the Garamantes with Blood, as they do by Example of Priapus and Venus with uncleanness, they most Cruelly, to that Misery Nature hath Imposed on the Mother in Sorrow to bring forth, (though of itself of pains Equal with Death, and oft ti●●es brings Death) add their Punishment of Exposing the Mother to Public Reproach and Shame, which to the Modest is worse than Death. And by how much the more Modest the Mother is, by so much the more easily is she tempted by the Devil, with a Praestat Emori quàm per dedecus vivere, to destroy her Infant to cover her own shame and his. Pope Gregory intending to Fish in a Deep Pond in Rome near a Nunnery, the Water being let out, found therein above Six Thousand Sculls of Infants: 
6000 Infants Skulls found in a Fishpond.  so the punishing of Childbearing Women, and Prohibiting Marriage (Except by a Priest in a Temple) under this Infamous Punishment, contrary to the Law of God, and according to the Law of Devil, who was a Murderer from the beginning, caused the Destroying of these Six Thousand Infants; and were all the like Instances recited, which for Brevity are here to be omitted, it would appear, That this punishing of Childbirths because the Mother went not first to a Priest in a Temple, hath Murdered Millions of Babes, and is the true Popish Limbus Puerorum Translated into the Romish Church from Hell, according to the Poet,  
Continuo auditae voces vagitus & Ingens  
Infantumque animae flentes in Limine primo  
Quos Dulcis vitae Exortes & ab ubere raptos  
Abstulit atra dies & funere mersit acerbo.  Virg. Aen.l. 6. 
And these Papal and Episcopal Destroyer's, make the Childbearing Woman justly take up the complaint of her Described; Jer. 4.31. I have heard a voice of a Woman in travel, and the anguish as of her who bringeth forth her first Child, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, woe is me now, for my Soul is wearied because of Murderers. Surely these Bloody Legislatours must have a Dreadful account, who make Laws, for their gains, to destroy the most Innocent of all Creatures, little Children, Luk. 17.1.2. Then said be unto his Disciples, it is impossible but offences will come; but woe unto him through whom they come: It were better for him that a Millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the Sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. O how far, in this, is the Practice of such as call themselves Christians different from the Doctrine of Christ? Matth. 18.2. And Jesus called a little Child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, verily I say unto you, except ye be Converted, and become as little Children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And vers. 6. Whoso receiveth one such little Child in my Name, receiveth me. But alas/ how doth this corrupted age receive such a little one? They receive him indeed as He Himself was received, Matth. 26.55. In that same hour said Jesus to the multitude, Are you come out as against a Thief, with swords and with staves for to take me? But this was not the Receiving he intended, of a little one; though now, amongst those who profess his name, no sooner doth God send a Child to be born in a Parish, unless the Mother bought a Licence of the Bishop to bear him, and bought (which none but God can give, more than the Child) the Benediction of a Priest in the Temple, but the whole Multitude presently rise with swords and staves, and are all in Arms against a poor naked Infant, weeping and wailing as the first taste of his misery, to be born into so wicked a World, and against the more miserable Mother, like the Dam sitting on her Young, whom they throw into some Dung-Cart, or other filthy Carriage, to draw her and her Child out of their bounds; and unless she is Rich enough to hire a House of Ten Pounds per annum value, they will not suffer her to come into it. Oh Prodigious Oppression! Oh Antichristian Cruelty! What benefit now have the Poor, who have not Ten Pounds per annum of the Gospels? the whole Land is in Hostility against them, they will neither suffer them to enter into their Parishes, nor their Churches; what benefit have these hundreds of thousands (who have not ten Pounds per annum) of Magna Charta? What of the Petition of Right? The Foxes have holes, and the Birds of the Air have nests, but the Woman with Child, like her pursued with the Dragon, Rev. 12.2. Cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. (Quis talia fando temperet à Lachrymis?) hath not where to lay her Young, her Child unborn, by reason of Papal and Episcopal Laws, which are the flood of Waters cast out of the mouth of the true Romish Dragon, heu miserande puer! damnatus antequam natus. 
Hospitals to prevent the Murder of Children not born under Popish Matrimony.  There are Hospitals in Italy and Spain, and many other places of large Revenues, to which Mothers who have Children without the Popish Ceremonial Marriage of a Priest in a Temple, may by night secretly bring or send their Babes, who shall be their Received, Alimented, and Educated without knowledge or enquiry by Bishop's Citations, or Justice of Peace's Warrants; and there is now one in Paris by the name of l' Hostile pur les Enfantes troves, or the Hospital of Infant Foundlings, wherein there are now no less than four Thousand. But in Great Britain there is not the least Relic of any such Charity, but on the Contrary most cruel Laws made, to punish Mothers for bringing forth Children, the most part of them lawfully joined to men according to the Moral Law of God, only on pretence of prohibition by Papal and Episcopal Laws, and their Doctrine of Devils, contrary to the Law of God, whereby they may get Money, the wicked Price of Blood, and of the Blood of those who are of all other the most Innocent, the blood of Infants; and are so far from providing Hospitals for Babes when they are born, that they will not in England suffer their Mothers to bring them (as is already said) to an House of their own, if not of the Value of above Ten Pounds per Annum; and so far from being Fathers to the Fatherless, that by their inhuman prosecution of the Punishments of those Cruel Laws, against Babes born of Parents not licenced by the Bishop, and benedicted by a Priest in a Temple, they make th● Child, for whom God had provided Parents, (by compelling them to fly from him for fear of their own punishment,) both Fatherless and Motherless, or (what is more horrible) to be Murdered by them who would have otherwise as affectionately preserved him, as all other Natural Parents and Creatures, both Human and Brutish, do their Young. Oh is it not a sufficient misery for an Infant to be born, unless he is likewise pursued to be destroyed by the Cruelty of Ecclesiastical Monsters, and hurried from the Womb to the Tomb of their Coemeterial Aceldamas, before he knows any thing of Life but Misery? if Bishops pity him not, let Lucretius do it, to their shame, though an Atheist.  

Tum porro Puer ut Saevis projectus ab undis  
Navita Nudus humi jacet Infans indigus omni  
Vitali Auxilio, cum primum in Luminis oras  
Nixibus ex alveo Matris Natura profundit  
Vagituque locum Lugubri complet ut aequum est  
Cui tantum in Vita restat transire malorum.   

Like Shipwrackt Mariners, the Child at Birth  
Cast from Rough Seas, lies Naked on the Earth,  
Wanting all Vital help, when first from throws  
Of Mother's Womb Nature doth him disclose:  
He Weeps and Wails, not without cause alas,  
Why so much Evil in this Life must pass.   

All Marriages lawful, not prohibited by the Moral Law of God.  All these Murders of Children would cease, better than by a Thousand Hospitals, if only this wicked Ceremonial Law invented by him who was a Murderer from the beginning, forbidding to Marry without a Priest in a Temple were abolished, and all Marriage Public or Private not prohibited by the Moral Law of God, and Consummate by the birth of a Child, Established to be Sine poena aut Infamia, as they ought in Truth and Right to be.   

(17.) It caused the Parisian Massacre of an Hundred Thousand Protestants.  
Why Protestants should Idolise this Ceremonial Snare of Compulsion to Marry by a Priest in a Temple, whereby the Papists with their Female Elephants hunt the Males to their destruction, in the same manner as the Priests of Baal-peor did the Isaelites, is strange. Numb. 25.1. And Israel abode in Shittim, and the People began to commit Whoredom with the Daughters of Moab. And they called the People unto the Sacrifices of their gods: and the People did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the People, and hang them up before the Lord against the Sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said unto the Judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men, that were joined unto Baal-peor. And besides those who were Slain by the Sword, Verse 9 Those that died of the Plague were Twenty and Four Thousand. I am here to speak against the mischiefs of Compulsion of Protestants to two Popish Sacraments, to both of which this Priapeian Ceremony of Marriage by a Priest in a Temple, is a Causa sine qua non, which two Sacraments, one of the Host, and the other of Marriage, are the two fatal Banquets to which the Catholic Lady useth to invite the imprudent Protestant, who hath learned only the Innocence of the Dove, but not the Wisdom of the Serpent. Their first Sacrament which is of Bread, they have transubstantiated into Poison; their second Sacrament, which is of Marriage, they have transubstantiated into Blood; of the first, these Examples follow.  
The Emperor Henry the Seventh was Poisoned in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, 
Popish Sacrament of Bread Tan●●bstantiared into Poison.  by a Friar of the Order of St. Dominick, and thereof died the same day. Perhaps one Reason why the Papist Priest Administers not the Wine to the Laity, but only the Bread, may be, because if the Priest should Poison the Wine, he drinking thereof first, might Poison himself as well as his Guests, and his Friends as well as his Enemies; but he may divide the Bread in Wafers or Morsels, such as are Poisoned, to the Parties he designs them, and such as he appoints for bits of a Passeover to the rest. But it is certain the Priest may do what he will, and whether he Poisons Bread or Wine, neither Prince or Subjects have their Tasters of either; and it is very hard therefore either should be compelled to receive it of any Priest, except of their own Election, as to Person and Place, though but once a Year; and very improper and dangerous it is for a Test between Papist and Protestant, seeing it cannot be known whether the Priest who gives it be a Papist or no, for if he be, he will not spare Poison, if he can thereby reach his designs, on his own Religion, as appears in the Examples following, much less on a Protestant.  
Lavaterus tells of a Friar at Berna, who was endeavoured to be deceived by his Companions, who made counterfeit Apparitions of the Virgin Mary to him in the Night, that he might become an Instrument by divulging his Visions, and the Revelations in them, to confirm their Superstition amongst the People, but it seems they were but Novices in the Art of Counterfeiting, and were so ill attired, or Acted so ill upon their new Stage, that though the Friar was but a Blockhead, he perceived by the voice it was the Subprior in Woman's apparel, who personated to him the Virgin Mary; they being therefore fearful he should detect their Knavery, attempted three times to poison him in the Host or Sacrament, and the third time he swallowed it, and vomited it up again, hardly escaping with life, which made the Bernoyes begin not to think the Sacrament the Body of Christ, which was so often turned to Poison.  
Prince Visnorisky who was a Protestant of the Greek Church, about the Year 1616. having prepared at Christmas to receive the Communion after their manner, the Priest who had usually served him in that Devotion being corrupted with Money by his Enemies, poisoned the Bread, which the Prince having received, he suddenly fell sick, and his Torments were so violent, as he died the next day; this bred a suspicion that he had been poisoned, whereupon the Priest was apprehended, who presently confessed he was guilty, and had been procured by his Enemies; whereupon the Priest was Executed, being bound in a Chair of Copper Wire, and Roasted to Death, Turk. Hist. 1350. These few are discovered to Men; but who can Imagine but a greater multitude of these Wickednesses are committed by such as are so studied in the Art of Poisoning, which remain in secret and undiscovered, and are therefore reserved to the just Judgement of the All-knowing God?  

Popish Sacrament of Marriage transubstantiated into blood.  Of the Second, which is the Popish Sacrament of Marriage transubstantiated into the Blood, take the Example following of the Infamous, Perfidious, Cowardly, Traitorous, Diabolical, and worse than Barbarous and Pagan Parisian Massacre of an Hundred Thousand Protestants, under Faith and Oath given of safe Conduct and Peace, and on Solemn Covenants of Marriage, Anno Dom. 1572. This base Practice of the French Papists, who found themselves too weak in the Field to injure the Protestant, of Circumventing him by Perjury, and breach of Faith and Covenant, the most Sacred Obligations of all humane Society, is very well, and more at large displayed in a Relation but lately Printed, 1678. out of Mezeray Thuanus, and other approved Authors, of which, with what Brevity I can, I shall only touch Heads.  

Parisian Massacre of Protestants entrapped by a Marriage.  The French King after Ten Years Civil War, was advised to set on foot a Treaty of Peace, not so much out of any design to quiet matters, as to ensnare the Protestants in some fatal Trap, in which they might be safely and easily destroyed; the first Bait to be offered was, the Marriage of the Lady Margaret the King's Sister, to Henry King of Navarre, and if that succeeded not, they were to invent still a new Plot, till they found that which would do the Business, a Peace was therefore concluded with the Protestants, by which the free Exercise of their Religion was granted them, some Cautionary Towns were also put into their hands to be kept by them two Years, till there were a full settlement made of the Edicts, and the other things agreed to for their Security: the next Progress in the Treacherous Design was, when a Confidence was begotten on the Faith and Covenants of this Peace in the Protestants, then to draw the chief Heads of the Party to the Court, and they being so flattered into their compass, they had the Power whensoever they thought fit, to surprise and destroy them as 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 Navarr● 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 opened her, would not touch her head, pretending that she died of an Imposthume in her side; the Cardinal Castilion was also at that time poisoned, which though after confessed 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 King's deportment which could give any ground of Jealousy, 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 suspicions in sober and wary Persons; these the King used so frequently, that the Writers of that time say, he seldom 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 employed 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 Lovure; 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 believed to be poisoned, one of these carried away part of the Forefinger, the other struck in his left Arm, the third miss: 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 Surprise. 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 show of condoleing his misfortune; but in short, after all these, and many other counterfeit Shows, 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 Heretics 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 Linen Sleeve on the left Arm, and a White Cross in their Caps, and the pretence was, that these should show 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 Carcase, 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 Country, 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 abhorred by the Soldiers themselves, that many of them endeavoured 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 sat 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 Mary not by a Priest, or in a Temple; and of the Bloody Murders ensued of the Sons of Solyman the Magnificent by breaking the Custom, and being drawn by the Deceit of Roxolana to Marry her by a Priest.  
The Reasons why the Grand Signors Mary not themselves by a Priest, or in a Temple, or by a Magistrate, or with any other Public 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 Signors 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 Archpriest, 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 Selimus 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 Emperor's succeeding forebore, and it grew out of fashion to Marry by the Priest, to save their Dower and other excessive Expenses incident to Public 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 Signior thereby regained into his own hands the Patria Potestas belonging to every Father, of being Judge who were his own Children, which had been by his Superstitious Predecessors unwarily Aliened to his Arch-Mufti or Archbishop; for by giving him Power by his Hodget or Certificate to declare the Marriage, there followed as incident thereto the Archbishop'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 Archbishop, of Prior Marriage of the Later Mother by the Priest; as happened 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 Bondwoman, 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 Bondwomen, namely Mahomet, Selimus, Bajazet, and Tzithanger, and one Daughter called Chameria, Married to Rustan the Great Bassa; Roxolana being herself 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, discovered herself to be more adorned with Gold and Pearls than Virtue, 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 Poisoned 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  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 Caram●nia, to Govern that Great Country; and having thus cunningly Rid the Court of the two Competitors both of her Love and the Empire, rested not so, but began strait 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 increasing Fame of his Valour Virtues and Perfections, seemed 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 herself 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 Abbey, 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 Soul's health? to which the Mufti answered, That those Works were no doubt gracious in the sight of God, but nothing at all meritorious for her Soul's health, being a Bondwoman, yet very profitable for the Soul of the Great Emperor 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 Melancholic; her Cheerful 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 cheer, and to comfort herself, 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 her from her Bond Estate. So great a favour obtained, Roxolana with great cheerfulness began those Meritorious Works by her before intended, as if she had thought of nothing but Heaven, whereas indeed her thoughts were in the depth of Hell. While she had thus a good while busied herself in paving her way to heaven, as was thought, Solyman, not able any longer to forbear the company of her in whom his Soul lived, after his wont manner sent for her by one of his Eunuches, who should have brought her to his Bedchamber; to whom she with Eyes cast up to Heaven demurely answered, That her Life and whatsoever she had was at her Dread Sovereign's Command, but again to yield her Body to his Appetite, she might not do, without great offence to the High God, and manifest breach of his Laws, which permitted her not now voluntarily to yield him that, being a Freewoman, which he before might without offence command of his Bondwoman. And because she would not seem to use this as an Excuse, she referred herself in all things to the Grave Judgement of the Learned and Reverned Mufti, with whom she before had at full conferred. This she did, presuming of the Sovereignty she had over the great Monarch, whom she well knew she had so fast bound, in pleasing Fetters of his Affection towards her, as that she was sure enough of him without a keeper. Solyman Ravished with her Love, and the more for her denial, sent for the Mufti, requiring his Judgement in the matter; who before instructed in all points, agreed with what Roxolana had said, aggravating the Heinousness of the Fact, if he should proceed to enforce her as his Slave, who being now Free he might not without great offence touch unmarried; whereupon Solyman more and more burning in his Desires, became a fresh Suitor to her for Marriage, whom he had so often before Commanded without it; which his Suit easily obtained (as the mark at which she aimed) he with all speed, to the great admiration of all men, and contrary to the manner of the Mahometan Emperors, solemnly Married her by a Priest, which like the P●pist's Subsequens Matrimonium tollit Peccatum Precedens, Legitimates the Issue born before, for which the Ambidexter Priest had (no doubt) a good Fee, both of the Emperor and Roxolana, and he gave Roxolana a Dowry of the Yearly Sum of Five Thousand Sultanies per Annum; besides which Fees and Dowry, and his Patria Potestas, of Legitimating his own Issue, and Peace of their Families, his wiser Predecessors had saved by Marrying themselves privately, without a Priest or Temple; but all these he lost by it; for Roxolana grew now more busy than ever, to seek means to destroy the Prince; and to that end Ruftan gives the Intelligence to the Governors of Syria, That the old Emperor highly suspected the Prince his Son of aspiring to the Empire, bearing them in hand that the more suspiciously they writ concerning the Prince, the less suspicious the Emperor would be of his Governors; whereupon these Governors writing of the Princely Disposition, Wisdom, Valour, and Bounty of the Prince, whereby he courted and won the hearts of the Soldiers and People, and that it was probable he would at length thereby attain the Empire, Rustan not daring to bring any matter on these Letters to Solyman himself, brought them always to Roxolana, and left the rest to be managed by her cunning and malicious head, who taking fit opportunity when Mustapha was talked of, with Tears trickling down her Cheeks (which she could well Command) with aggravating these Letters, and other matters invented, told the Emperor in what Danger he stood, recounting amongst other things how Selimus his Father had by such means deprived Bajazet his Grandfather, both of his Life and Empire together, and therefore most instantly besought him, as though this had proceeded from her tender love, by that example to provide for himself. But these light matters seemed to Solyman of no sufficient weight to ground so dangerous a suspicion on, so that she little prevailed thereby, which she well perceiving and grieved at, she converted her Cruel mind to other mischievous devices, and sought by all means how to Poison the Innocent Prince, neither wanted there wicked Men for Reward ready to have performed all that she desired, had not God's Providence withstood so horrible a Practice; for whereas certain Rich Apparel was by her sent to him in his Father's name; he fearing the worst, would not touch it before he had caused it to be wore by one of his Servants, by which curious wariness (as was thought) he at that time prevented the Treason of his wicked Stepdame, and discovered her malicious Practice. Yet rested she not so, but was still Plotting new devices, and at last got from the Bassa who attended the Prince, certain Letters, wherein was contained that there was a Speech of a Marriage between the Prince and the King of Persia's Daughter, which thing he thought good to give knowledge of to the Counsel, that if any harm should ensue thereof he might be out of Suspicion; with these Letters Roxolana and Rustan go both together to Solyman, aggravating the danger of the Ambition of Mustapha, who under hand sought Alliance with the Persian, the old Enemy of the Ottoman Emperors, and that he might by the strength of Persia, and the Sanzacks and Janissaries, whom he had by large Gifts won to his service, deprive him in short time both of Life and Empire; and these Accusations they prosecuted with such continued Importunity, that they never suffered the Old Emperor to live quiet till he resolved to secure his own safety by the death of his Son, in this manner, Anno 1552. He caused an Army to be Levied by Rustan, in pretence against Persia, but indeed to surprise Mustapha, and bring him bound to Constantinople, and if he could not, by any other means to make him out of the way. And in the year. 1553. Solyman himself in Person marches with the Army against his Son, but the Design could not be carried so private, but Mustapha had some intelligence of his Father's Mortal, though undeserved hatred against him. Solyman lying Encamped at Aleppo, by Message commanded his Son Mustapha to come unto him there. This cast Mustapha into great perplexity of mind what to do, either to hazard his life by putting himself into his Father Power, or by flight or some other way to provide for himself; yet trusting to his own Innocence, though wonderfully troubled in mind, he Resolved, though with the extremest danger of his life, to obey his Father's command; thinking it more honourable to incur danger of death, than living to fall into foul suspicion of disloyalty. In so great a perplexity of mind, after he had with himself much discoursed too and fro, what course he were best to take, at length he boldly and resolutely asked the Doctor, whom (as we have before said) he had always with him in his Court, whether the Empire of the World, or a Blessed life after it were more to be desired? To whom the Doctor frankly Answered, That the Empire of the World, to him that would enter into the due consideration thereof, brought with it no Felicity, more than a vain Show and outward appearance of Good, nothing being more frail and uncertain than Worldly Honour, bringing with it fear, vexation of mind, tribulation, suspicion, murder, wrong, wickedness, spoil, ruin and captivity, with infinite mischiefs of like nature, not to be desired of him that would attain to true Felicity, by which means the Blessed life was to be lost and not gained: But they unto whom God had given the Grace rightly to Consider and Weigh the Fragility and shortness of this our Estate, (which the Common Sort deemeth to be the only life) and to strive against the Vanities of this World, and to Embrace and Fellow an upright kind of life; had undoubtedly a place Assigned for them in Heaven, and prepared by the great God, where they should at length enjoy Life and Bliss Eternal. This Answer of the great Doctor, wonderfully satisfied the troubled mind of the young Prince, foreseeing as it were the approach of his own end: and so staying not any longer Discourse, forthwith set forward towards his Father, and making great haste, came at length to his Father's Camp, and not far off pitched his Tents in the open field, but this his so hasty march the more increased the suspicion, in the mind of his wicked Father: neither spared Rustan in the mean time with his crafty and subtle devices to Augment the same; for by a sign given he caused the Janissaries and chief Men in the Army to go, as if it had been for Honour's sake, to meet Mustapha; which they all without delay presently did at his Command, and so altogether set forward: in the mean time he the most crafty Varlet, with troubled Countenance (for he could notably dissemble) as a Man half dismayed, came in haste into Soliman's Pavilion, and falsely told him, That the Janissaries and almost all the best Soldiers of the Army were of themselves without leave gone to meet Mustapha, and that he feared what would ensue thereof. Which news so troubled the old Tyrant, that he became pale for fear, and going out of his Tent, and finding them gone, easily believed all to be true that the false Bassa had told him. Neither wanted Mustapha strange warning of his end so near at hand, for the third day before his setting forwards towards his Father, falling a sleep in the Evening, he thought he saw Mahomet his Prophet in Bright Apparel, to take him by the hand, and lead him into a most pleasant place, beautified with most stately and glorious Palaces, and most Delicate and pleasant Gardens; and pointing to every thing with his Finger, to say thus unto him, Here rest they for ever, which in this World have led an upright and Godly life, following virtue, and detesting vice. And after that turning his face to the other side, to have showed him two great and swift Rivers, whereof the one boiled with Water blacker than Pitch, and in them appeared (as he thought) numbers of Men wallowing and tumbling, some up, some down, crying horribly for Mercy; and there (said he) are Punished all such as in this frail life have been the malicious workers of Iniquity: The chief of whom (as he said) were Emperors, Kings, Princes, and other great Men of the World. Mustapha awaking, and troubled with this melancholic Dream, called unto him his Doctor: and having told him all the matter, asked him, what the same might signify? standing a great while in a muse (for the Mahometans are exceeding Superstitious, Attributing much to Dreams) full of Sorrow and Grief at length Answered, That this Vision (for so it pleased him to term it) was undoubtedly to be feared, as presaging unto him the Extreme Peril of his life; and therefore Requested him, to have great care both of his Life and Honour. But Mustapha, as he was of a notable Spirit and Courage, regarding nothing that Answer, stoutly Replied, What, shall I suffer myself to be terrified and overcome with Childish and Vain fear? Why rather hast I not Courageously and Resolutely to my Father? and so much the more boldly, because I know assuredly I have always (as Reason was) Reverenced his Majesty, that against his will I never turned mine Eyes or Foot against his most Royal Seat, much less affected his Empire, except the most high God had called him to a better life, neither then without the General good liking and choice of the whole Army, that so at length I might without Murder, without Blood, without Tyranny well and Justly Reign, and in Love and Peace inviolate live with my Brethren: for I have set down with myself and chosen, if it be my Father's pleasure so, rather to die in his obedience, than Reigning many years, to be reputed of all Men, especially my Competitors, a Rebel or Traitor. Having thus said, he came unto his Father's Camp, and pitching his, (as we have before said) suited himself all in White, in token of his Innocency, and Writing certain Letters (which the Turks when they are about to go to any place of Danger use to Write, and always to carry with them (for they are wonderful Foolish in their Superstition) and putting them in his Bosom, attended upon with a few of his most Trusty followers, came with great Reverence towards the Tent of his Father, fully resolving to have kissed his hand, as their usual manner is. But when he was come to the Entrance of the Tent, remembering that he had yet his Dagger girt to him, he entered not, till he had put it off; because he would not come into his Father's sight with any Weapon, if happily so he might clear himself of his Father's needless suspicion; so when he was come into the more inward Rooms of the Tent, he was with such Honour as belonged to his Estate cheerfully Received by his Father's Eunuches, but seeing nothing else provided but one Seat whereon to sit himself alone, he perplexed in mind, stood still a while Musing, at length asked where the Emperor his Father was? Whereunto they Answered, That he should by and by see him: and with that casting his Eye aside, he saw Seven Mutes (these are strong Men bereft of their Speech, whom the Turkish Tyrants have always in readiness the more secretly to Execute their Bloody Butcheries) coming from the other side of the Tent towards him, at whose sight strucken with a sudden Terror, said no more, but lo my Death; and with that arising, was about to have fled: but in vain, for he was caught hold on by the Eunuches and Mutes, and by force drawn to the place appointed for his Death, where without further stay the Mutes cast a Bowstring about his Neck, he Poor Wretch still striving, and requesting that he might but speak two words to his Father before he died. All which the Murderer (for no addition is sufficient Significantly to express his unnatural Villainy) both heard and saw by a Travers from the other side of the Tent: But was so far from being moved with Compassion, that thinking it long till he were dispatched, with a most Terrible and cruel Voice he rated the Villains enured to Blood, saying, will you never dispatch that I bid you? Will you never make an end of this Traitor, for whom I have not Rested one night these ten years in quiet? which horrible commanding Speeches yet thundering in their Ears, those Butchering Mutes threw the Poor Innocent Prince upon the Ground and with the help of the Eunuches forcibly drawing the knitted Bowstring both ways by the Commandment of a most wicked Father, strangled him. With like Barbarous Cruelty, he shortly after caused Mahomet his Nephew (Mustapha his Son) to be strangled also. This unnatural and strange Murder committed, he presently Commanded the Bassa of Amasia, Mustapha's Lieutenant to be apprehended, and his head in his own presence to be struck off; which done, he sent for Trihanger, yet Ignorant of all that was happened, and in sporting wise, as if he had done a thing worth Commendations, bid him go meet his Brother Mustapha: which thing Trihanger with a merry and cheerful Countenance hasted to do, as one glad of his Brother's Coming. But assoon as he came unto the place where he saw his Brother lying dead upon the Ground strangled, it is not to be spoken how he was in mind tormented. He was scarcely come to the place where this Detestable Murder was Committed, when his Father sent unto certain of his Servants to offer unto him all Mustapha's Treasure, Horses, Servants, Jewels, Tents, and withal the Government of the Province Amasia: But Trihanger filled with extreme heaviness for the unmerciful Death of his well beloved Brother, spoke unto them in this sort, Ah Wicked and Ungodly Cain, Traitor (I may not say Father) take thou now the Treasure, Horses, the Servants, the Jewels, and the Province of Mustapha. How come it into thy Wicked, Cruel, and Savage Breast, so ungratiously and contrary to all Humanity, I will not say the Reverence of thy own Blood, to kill thy Worthy, Warlike and Noble Son, the Mirror of Courtesy, and Prince of Greatest hope, the like of whom, the Ottoman Family never yet had, nor never shall? I will therefore myself provide that thou, nor none for thee, shall never hereafter in such sort shamefully Triumph over such a Poor Wretch as I am. And having thus much said, Stabbed himself with his own Dagger in the Body, whereof he in short time died: which so soon as it came to the Old Tiger's Ears, it is hard to say how much he grieved. His dead Body was by his Father's Commandment carried from Aleppo in Syria, to Constantinople, and afterwards Honourably buried on the other side of the Haven at Pera.  
Hence appear the two great benefis the Ottoman Emperors receive from not meddling at all with the Priest, either in Coronations or Marriages, but as to the first, rather wear no Crown at all, and are content with a Turban, than receive it from them or their Unctions; and for their Marriages, take what Wife they like in Private, without them, or their Solemnities. For first the sparing a Coronation and likewise the Solemnity of any Marriage (which cannot avoid, if public by a Priest, the forementioned Excesses of Apparel, Tilting, Turneaments, Masking, Gluttony, Riot, Drunkenness, Dowers and Gifts, on the Coronations and Marriages of so great Princes) saves him a Vast some of Money to his Private Treasure; and what is a greater benefit than the other, secures his Supremacy against the Ecclesiastical Muftis and Caliphs', who can make no pretence to depose him, or take from him or his Successors that Government, which they never gave him, nor he would receive from them, or his Sons from their Unctions or Certificates.  

(12.) They proceed to Judgement in the unknown language of Law-Latine.  
That the Romish Bishops and Priests were the first who brought Latin into Churches, and compelled the People to Pray to God in any Language they understand not, I suppose none will doubt: and I cannot think any will oppose, but grant, these likewise were the first who brought the same Barbarous Latin, both into the Spiritual and Temporal Courts, they themselves being at first the chief Judges and Clerks of both. It will not likewise be denied that William the Norman was the first who brought in his Barbarous French to this Nation, and if we consider no further than that the Authors of these two Languages were Foreign Enemies and Papists, I see no Reason any Protestant Divines or Lawyers have (except filthy Lucre) to be so fond of them as to continue such Exotic Gibberish, to be not the least corruptions of our Religion and Justice, and snares of Liberty and Propriety, and sometimes of Life itself.  
The final causes therefore which induce these uncouth and crabbed Languages and Characters, both of Court and Chancery hands, have been and are very wicked. (1.) One cause for which the Roman, and likewise the Norman (who was the others Ape) put the Forms of Judicial proceeding into unknown Languages, was, to entrap the People. Bak. Hist. 27. (2.) It hath been continued by Judges and Officers of Courts, to Monopolise the Trade of Law. (3.) That Ignoramus and Dulman, who had not been at Shool long enough to learn true Latin, might write half Words and Dashes, which the Country Men might not be able to understand, and laugh at Scribe cum Dasho & bene est. (4.) That motions at Bar and demurrers and arguments in Law may multiply and cut out the more Work for Counsel; for often times many a Term is spent in Babbling about the pedigree of a false Latin word, Coined by Dulman, to derive it as high as a Radix, which grew in Babel, and when they have done that, as great a Task they have to make it agree with his Anglicè, whereby all the Cost, and many a good Cause is lost, because the Clerk could neither Latin nor English right. (5.) But when there is a Misprision or Mispleader by reason of a Language the Clerk understands not, what a World of money will it cost his poor Client, to get an Amendment for him of one, or Repleader of the other? The best Counsel in the Town must be Retained, and they must spend at least a twelve month from Term to Term, before they can be all heard, Pro & Con, to repeat over all the Acts of Parliament since Magna Charta, and all the Rotulo's in such a Hillary and such a Michaelmas Term. And all the Bundles in Ragman-Bag, and all the Records in the Tower, to the amazement of the Poor Countryman, who keeps Twitching them by the Sleeves, and Crying out like him in Martial,  

Non de vi neque caede, nec veneno  
Sed lis est mihi de tribus capellis;  
Vicini queror has abesse furto,  
Hoc Judex sibi postulat probari.  
Tu Cannas Mithridaticumque bellum  
Et perjuria Punici furoris  
Et Sullos, Mariosque, Mutiosque,  
Magna voce sonas, manuque tota.  
Jam dic Posthume de tribus Capellis.   

For Poison, Force or Slaughter I not sue,  
But for three Sheep taken by Trespass new;  
My Neighbour took them, and doth make denial,  
The Judge demands to have it brought to Trial.  
You talk how Scots did on the Bishop's fire,  
And Presbyters relieved by Cromwell dire;  
And how they Perjured broke the Covenant,  
And Independents thereupon did rant.  
With tongue and hand why such a Coil d'ye keep?  
Pray Sir please now to speak of my three Sheep.   
(6.) That they may conceal in a Cloud the Fictions, Falsities, Formalities, Unnecessariness, Absurdities, Repugnancies, Confusion and Injustice of their Proceed; which if Intelligible to the People they could neither avoid the Shame nor the Reformation.  
Francis the first for a sum of Money Commanded the French Laws, Plead, and Proceeeding should be in the French Language, which were before in Latin; and this so pleased the People, that they said the same was the first year wherein the Kingdom was out of Wardship. But here note the Covetousness of the French King, who would not ease his Subjects of that Wardship which laid much misery on them, but yielded not him a Penny profit, without a great sum of Money; for he had never learned Nulli vendemus Justitiam, but put them to buy at highest every bit of Justice, which would have cost him no more than a word of his Mouth, to have given freely. Our Noble King Edward the Third 36. E. 3. cap. 15. intended freely to have Enfranchised his subjects from the slavery of a strange Language, but he not being acquainted with the Terms of Judicial Proceed (as what Prince can be when kept in an uncouth unknown Tongue?) the Bishops and Clerks deceived him, as they have done in most Acts of Parliament wherein they found themselves Concerned, and set a Fair Title on the Act, and only changed French into Latin for their own profit, and not for the People's Benefit. Three sorts of Letters and Characters there are Illegible. (1.) Such as are Antiquated in the same Nation; As the Letters and Characters of the Germans, Gauls, Spaniards, and of other Nations perished by Introducing the Roman Letters and Characters; and their Tongues become Mixed and Corrupted, and no longer than between the First and Second Punic War, tre Roman Language was so changed, that the best Antiquaries in Rome could not understand the Articles of Peace made between the Romans and Carthaginians, at the conclusion of the first War. So Horace, though a Learned Poet in his own Countrey-Language, confesseth he understood not Carmen Saliare made in Numa Pompilius his Reign. (2) When they are the Letters or Language of a Foreign Nation. (3.) When they are Letters nor Language of any Nation, but made by Confederacy between some Party or Sect of Men in the same; such are Private Ciphers of Intelligences, and Lawyers Latin, Terms of Metaphysics, Schoolmen, Physicians, and Others, who seek to obscure their Trade for their Gain. Fortescue P. 112. makes the reason why the Laws of England were not taught in the Universities, to be, because the Judicial proceed were in French, and Lawyers Latin, and Court hand, and Chancery, which the University-Men did not understand; and yet (what is more strange) there were none then but Clerks or Clergy who had the chief ordering of those Courts of Equity; which doth not appear for what Reason it was, unless it was in Revenge by the Laity against the Clergy, As they sent them to Hell by forcing them to Prayer in Latin they understood not, so they would send them to Hell too by forcing them to do Justice in Latin they understood not.  
It appears by the Statute of 3. R. 2. Cap. 3. Of Praemunire, That the Pope used to place Foreign Priests in Benefices of a Foreign and strange Language, with whom the People could not Converse, but as long as the Prayers were in Latin it was no matter whether People or Priest understood them, 
Latin Pleading worse than Latin Prayer.  or one another. And the Truth is, Latin Pleading is worse than Latin Prayer; for none can be hindered from Praying to God in English, but from Pleading he may to a Judg. So to keep Latin in Courts, keeps all in readiness to bring it again into Churches, and to turn out the English and Foreigners into both. This is very mischievous in many respects, for, first, when a Writ comes to a Bishop himself he understands it not, and may sooner forswear himself than perform his Duty in it. (2.) When a Writ comes to the Sheriff he can neither read nor understand it, nor many times his Under-Sheriff, and they likewise may both sooner forswear themselves than perform their Duty. Then it may sometimes happen to be sent to the Coroners, where the Sheriff is a Party, and they are in no better condition than those before. Then if a Subpaena or other Order or Declaration in Latin be served on the Poor Defendant, he runs in a great affright to one Neighbour, and the other Neighbour, and then at length to the Minister himself of the Parish, who all cannot read or understand one line of the matter: then must he run away to an Attorney, and give him his Fee, and then to a Council; and then all the matters are found to be as false in the Fact, as they are in the Latin, and only done for vexation of the poor Man; and this he might have known in his own Parish, if it had been English, without being put to what is to him a great cost and trouble: Then, if it happen the matter to be true, and it come to Trial at the Nisi Prius, the Issue is in Latin and Court-hand, so are the Pleas and Declaration, there is not a man in the Jury can read a word of it, the Jury goes by Implicit Faith to whatever the Council for Hire inform them, and are in as great danger of Perjury, as the Sheriff and his Under-Sheriff were before. Then turn over to the Crown side, the Bills of Indictment are all in Latin, the Witnesses bound over to prosecute can neither Read nor Write, much less understand Latin, the malicious prosecutor puts what he will in the Bill, the Witnesses Swear to the Latin, and are Perjured for the poor Country men if it be Latin, and the Justice of Peace that binds them over, thinks they ought to Swear to the Bill of Indictment, let it be what it will, or they shall forfeit their Recognizance; and seeing they can neither read nor understand it, thinks they must Swear by Implicit Faith. And many times even some of the Grand-Jury may not be so well skilled in Law- Latin, but were it not by Implicit Faith only to their fellows Billa Vera, they would, if the Bill were in English, find an Ignoramus. So likewise Churchwardens commonly think it lawful to forswear themselves, if it be done in a word of Latin. I knew one who used when he had been cited to make Presentment according to the Charge in the Book of Articles, to the Bishop's Court, he used always at his Return from Court, to boast that he had presented omine bene, and thought his Conscience well discharged, whether all was ill or well, as long as he presented something in his kind of Latin which he understood not. The Evils are likewise considerable enough, in keeping up still this old Popish Language in the written. Instruments of Bonds, Charters and Patents; you shall not have a Bond in Latin written by an ordinary Clerk or Scribe in the Country, but he is apt to mistake; sometimes he will write Wiginti for Viginty, Quadraginta for Quadringenti, Quinquaginta for Quinginti, or the like; or mistake in the Dashes, for if those too be not More Clericorum, 'tis as bad as false Latin; yea, to put in true Latin, where they use to write it false, may be dangerous; for you run a hazard, either to lose your Money, or to fall into the misery of a Common Law Demurrer, or a Chancery Suit, which costs many times more than the Principal is worth, to recover, it. Then further, if the Obligor or Obligee understand not Latin, nor can examine the Writing to be Sealed, the Scrivener or Clerk may take Money of one part, and Cheat the other as he pleaseth.  
Then as for Latin in Charters and Patents, they are Penned in such obsolete, uncouth, and Barbarous Terms, that the King is many times abused and deceived in his Grant, and the grantees likewise; and fall often into tedious and wasteful Suits about a word, which if they had been in English would never have been nor happened. As bad mischiefs likewise often fall out by the Physician's using this Popish Language in his Bills, as by the Lawyers; for the Apothecary's Boys, though they have been at School, know not all the words in the Dictionary, nor can they find there the Barbarous Words and Terms of Latin or Greek Physic, nor their Antic and unnecessary Notes or Characters of Weights and Measures: So that oftentimes by mistake, either of the Ingredient or Dose, many a Patient is thereby Poisoned and killed, and be he Protestant or Papist, they find alike, that their Implicit Faith in the Doctor's Latin did not save, but destroy them; though they come not to complain after they are dead.  
Again, to keep Laws and Judgement in Latin, shows that Bishops are not (as they falsely pretend) Successors to Christ, nor to the Apostles; for those who had mission from them, had the gift of Tongues, purposely that they might Preach to every Nation in their own Language; as appears Acts 2.7. And they were all amazed, and marvelled, saying one to another, Are not all these which speak Galileans? And how bear we every Man in our own Tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Jud●ea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya, about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and Proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our Tongues the wonderful works of God. And 1 Cor. 14.18. I thank my God, I speak with Tongues more than you all. Yet in the Church, I had rather speak five words with my Understanding, than Ten Thousand words in an unknown Tongue. To Judge a Nation therefore in an unknown Tongue, is Antichristian, and Anti-Apostolick. Though the Turk prohibits Translation of his Alcoran out of the Arabic Tongue into the Turkish Language, yet he permits the People to have matters of Justice administered to them in their own Tongue. In old Rome the Forms of Actions and Judicial Proceed, were for many Ages kept hid by the Priests in secret, amongst the pretended Sacred Rites and Ceremonies of their gods; which matters of Religion and Justice were by most of the Ancient Priests kept in a Language unknown to the People, under the name of a Sacred Language, and only understood by the Priests; one of these Books of Forms Cneius Flavius, a Clerk to one of the Priests, Copied or Translated; and Published one, to the great Indignation of his Master, and of all the rest of the College of Priests. But so grateful was the doing the same to the People, that they advanced him to great Honours, and made him a Curule Aedile, only for doing the same. In the Councils of Venice, the Nobles are bound to use the Venetian Language, and when any hath begun to speak Latin, they have him in great Dislike, clapping their hands and crying out hold, hold. Govern. Ven. 26.  
In China though the Languages of the Provinces differ, yet have they one General Court-Language, called Quonhoa, for their Courts and Writings, which is common through all China, by means whereof the Magistrate need not in every Province to learn a new Language. Though the Persian Empire was very great, and contained an Hundred and Twenty Provinces, and every Province had a Satrapa or Sheriff to Govern it, yet, Esther 1.22. Ahasuerus sent his Writs unto all these Sheriffs into every Province, according to the writing thereof, and unto every People after their own Language. The Greeks and Romans had their Proceed in their own Language. And in Germany all Law-Suites are in the Germane Language, as saith Clapmarius de Arcan. Dom. P. 119. Constitutio imperii est, ne in Camera lites alia Lingua intendantur nisi Germanica. Jerem. 5.15. Threatens, as the greatest Plague, I will bring a Nation upon you from far, (and after he saith) a Nation whose Language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. Their Quiver is an open Sepulchre, they are all mighty men, and they shall eat up thy Harvest, and thy Bread, which thy Sons and thy Daughters should eat, they shall eat up thy Flocks and thy Herds; they shall eat up thy Vines and thy Figtrees; they shall impoverish thy Feneed Cities wherein thou trustedst, with the Sword. And what do Bishops with their Latin, and false Latin, and the whole Language of the Beast, but the same? This is a great Evil; yet would be Remedied with a word, and would make his Majesties Name Renowned to future Generations, that he was the first King of England who vouchsafed to send his Commands to his Subjects, in the same Royal Language which he spoke himself.  

They Judge for Fees, and not for Salary.  

Bajazet's fury against Judges taking Bribes.  In the time of Bajazet the Fourth, the Turkish Kingdom growing in Greatness, grew likewise in Corruption, but especially in the Men of Law and Judges of his Courts, who made all Justice saleable for Bribes; whereat Bajazet grievously enraged, commanded divers of the same Judges to be apprehended, determining to the Terror of others to have executed them, whose dangerous Estate was much pitied by Alis Bassa and other Courtiers, they perhas selling their Places to them, and thereby forcing them to sell Justice to others; yet none of them durst adventure, seeing Bajezet was of a furious Nature, and in his Anger dangerous to be spoken with, to mediate in their behalf; no not Alis Bassa, Charadin Bassa's Son, whom of all men he favoured most.  
There was at that time in the Court an Aethiopian Jester, who under some Covert pleasant Jest, would often times bolt out to the King in his greatest heat, what his gravest Councillors durst not speak to him in secret. This Jester Alis Bassa requested to devise some means to entreat the angry King in behalf of these Judges, promising to give him what he would desire, if he could appease the King's displeasure. The Aethiopian without fear undertook the matter, and presently put on his Head a rich Hat, all wrought over with Gold, and, accoutred in all other his  suitably, presented himself before the King with a great counterfeit Gravity; whereat Bajazet marveling, asked him the cause why he was so Gay. I have a Request unto your Majesty; said he, and wish to find favour in your sight. Bajazet more desirous than before to know the matter, asked what his Request was. If it stand with your pleasure said the Aethiopian, I would fain go as your Ambassador to the Empeperor of Constantinople, in hope whereof I have put myself in this readiness. To what purpose wouldst thou go? said Bajazet. To crave of the Emperor some Forty or Fifty of his old grave Monks and Friars to bring with me hither to the Court. And what should they do here? said Bajazet. I would have them placed, said the Jester, in the rooms of the old doting Judges, whom you intent as I hear to put to death. Why, said Bajazet, I can place others of my own People who are better, in their rooms. True, said the Aethiopian, for Gravity of Look and Countenance; and so would the old Monks and Friars serve as well, but not so learned in the Laws and Customs of your Kingdom as are those in your displeasure. If they are Learned, why do they then (contrary to their Learning) pervert Justice, and take Bribes? There is a good reason for that too, said the Jester. What reason? said the King. That can he that there standeth by, tell better than I, said the Jester, pointing to Alis Bassa, who, forthwith commanded by Bajazet to give the reason, with great Reverence first done, shown that those Judges so in displeasure were not conveniently provided for, and were therefore enforced many times for their necessary maintenance to take Rewards where they could get them, to the staying of the due course of Justice; which Bajazet understanding to be true, commanded Alis Bassa to appoint them convenient stipends for their maintenance, and forthwith granted their Pardon. Whereupon the Bassa set down Order, That of every matter in Suit exceeding One Thousand Asper's, the Judges should have Twenty Asper's; which Fees they yet take to this day. Whence may be Observed,  
(1.) That to place Judges in Courts to undergo the incessant labours of hearing multitudes of Causes, and not to allow them honourable maintenance, is the ready way to make men of ordinary Principles Freebooters, and to take the Prey for themselves. So the meanness of the Salary in Russia being but an Hundred Marks per Annum, makes the Judges extreme Extortious on the People.  
(2.) That those who buy either Judicial or Ministerial places in Judicatories, must sell again; and the sale of either is contrary to the Law of God, and of infinite Damage to the Public, turning the weights of Justice to the false weights of Merchandise, as says the Poet, 
Ergo Judicium nihil est nisi publica Merces,  
Quid faciunt leges ubi sola Pecunia Regnat?   
(3.) That the Bassa when he was appointed to provide the Judge's maintenance by stipend, providing the same by Fees made them worse than before, and gave them a pretence to take Bribes of the People under the name of Fees, and there are none more corrupt Judges for Bribery, than the Turks to this day; and well they may if they take Fees.  

Neither Judge nor Minister to take Fees but Salary.  It was the Ancient Law of England, that none having any Office concerning the Administration of Justice, should take any Fee or Reward of any Subject for the doing of his Office. Coke 2. part 176. and by the Statute Westm. 1. cap. 25. neither Judicial nor Ministerial Officer, as Sheriff, Escheator, Coroner, Bailiff, Gaoler, Clerk of the Market, Aulnager, nor other inferior Minister or Officer of the King, whose Offices do any way concern the Administration or Execution of Justice, or the common good of the Subject, or the King's Service, but shall be paid of what they receive from the King, on pain the Offender against this Act shall pay double Damages of the Plaintiff, and shall be otherwise punished at the Will of the King.  

Marrying for Fees contrary to the Laws of God and of the Land.  By which appears that the Episcopal Judging of Marriage, Filiation, Aliment and Succession for Fees, and the granting of Licenses of Marriage by Bishops, and taking of Fees by a Priest for Banns, or Marriage of any Persons in a Temple or elsewhere, is wicked, abominable, and contrary to the Laws of God, and Fundamental Laws of the Land, and they ought to be punished for doing the same; and had not Bishops corrupted the true Doctrine of God's Ordinance of Marriage, to obtain Fees and other covetous and ambitious Ends, Men had at this day Married according to the Moral Law of God, and not the Ceremonial Laws of Priapus and Venus.   

The Inconveniences which ensue Judges and Ministers taking Fees, are  
(1.) As Coke saith, 2 part, 210. When neither Judges or Ministers had any Fees, than had they no colour to exact any thing of the Subject, who knew they ought to take nothing at all of them, they being maintained by Salary from the King: but when some Acts of Parliament, changing the Rules of the Common Law, gave to the Ministers of the King Fees, in some particular Cases, to be taken of the Subject; whereas before, all their Office was done without taking, now no Office at all is done without taking, and a gap being once opened, there was after no bounds to the breach; so it causeth Oppression.  
(2.) It causeth corruption of Justice, for if a Judge take Fees it is from the Plaintiff and Defendant, and he will sell Justice to him who gives him the greatest; but if he take a Salary he takes it from the Public, and will be for the Public good, and not partial to the Parties.  
(3.) The Public, by giving the Salary and receiving the Fees, increases the Public Treasury; for the vast Income of Fees far exceeding the Merits of the Judges and Officers, it is just the overplus should be applied to discharge Public Burdens, and not to fill private Pockets; and what was unequally shared amongst Officers ignorant and idle by way of Fees, 
The English in Scotland turned all the Fees of Courts into a Public Treasury.  might be more equally divided by way of Salary, according to the proportion of Skill and Pains.  
The English Judges therefore sent inton Scotland, put the forementioned Statute of Westm. 1. cap. 25. to experiment there, and turned all Fees into a Public Treasury, to manage which we allowed our Treasurer out of the same Two Hundred Pound per Annum, and allowed Salaries to ourselves as the State appointed us, and to all our Clerks and Officers necessary, proportionable to Skill and Pains; which Treasury of Fees not only satisfied all the English and Scottish Judges and all the Officers of Justice, without any charge or trouble to the State, but likewise many Military Officers of the Army; and we found by experiment, that far more exact Justice was done by Salary, than ever any was done by Fees. And if the same were practised here in England, it cannot be, but the like effect must follow as to Justice, but vastly greater as to the increase of the Public Treasury, especially if the number of Judges were reduced to Three, who, as is after shown, are sufficient to dispatch all matters of Judicature, Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Criminal of the Kingdom.    

Exceptions against Bishops being Judges, in reference to the Executive Power.  
They begin the Suit with Execution.  
No Writer of the Forms of Judicial Proceeding, except the Bishop, was ever so Absurd as to Tolerate, much less to Ordain, any Lawsuit to be begun with Execution; and this is that which makes the Spanish and Romish Inquisitions, 
Romish Inquisition gins with Execution on the Person.  and the Barbarous Inquisition by Torture of the Civil Law, to be so Abhorred and Abominable, that they begin with Execution upon the Person, and Arrest him before Judgement.  
Now, that not only Arrest before Judgement, but Districtio Pignorum, or taking of Pledges by distress is likewise Execution, appears clearly, both by Civil and Common Law. As to the first, which is Districtio Pignorum, or taking Pledges by Distress, it is express in the Civil Law C. de Execut. rei Jud. that on a Sentence for Debt or Damage, the Judge may order Execution to be done by Distress, or taking the Goods movable of the Defendant, as Pledges; and if he satisfy not the Plaintiff within the space of Two Months after the Distress is made, than the Officer was to sell them and satisfy the Plaintiff.  
As to the Common Law; it appears 4. H. 6.17. & 22. Ass. pl. 72. That the Execution after Judgement is in the County Court only by Distress, 
Distress on the Goods is Execution.  and keeping the same in Pound till Judgement be satisfied; for they cannot sell the Distress; which shows that the Common Law esteemed Distress an Execution after Judgement, though it had not the Power to sell the Distress, as the Civil Law had. That it is an Execution therefore after Judgement, both by Civil and Common Law is clear. It will be next by some perhaps enquired, from whom the Original of this most Antichristian Custom came, of beginning Suits with Distress, and Attachments (which differ from Distress in that the one forfeits the Distress, 9 H. 7.9. for Nonappearance, the other not) Capiasses, Latitats, exaction of Bail, Mainprize, Outlawries in Civil Actions and Excommunicato Capiendo's, in all which the Goods of the Defendant being of greater value than the Debt or Trespass, are either seized or detained, or what is worse, Forfeited and Confiscated, or the Person Arrested, Imprisoned, and sometimes Starved, sometimes Poisoned, and sometimes Tortured before there is a Copy given him of any Complaint made against him, and before the Plaintiff hath so much as taken an Oath of Calumny, that he believes his Complaint True and Just, and before Hearing, Probation of Witnesses, and Judgement? That this most inhuman and more than Barbarous Proceeding came not from the old Romans, though Pagans, appears by what Alciat says, that not so much as the word Districtus or Districtio (which is to be intended before Judgement) is to be found amongst any of the Ancient Lawyers; and likewise that no such thing as Distress or taking Pledges, or exacting Bail, caution judicio Sisti, & Judicatum Solvi, or Arrest before Judgement, is to be found amongst those which are left of the Laws of the Twelve Tables: Yet in them these are expressed after Judgement, as appears by the Relics of the same, which follow in these words:  
L. 25. Si in jus vocet, atque eat.  
L. 28. Si vis vocationi fuat testamini; igitur em capito.  
L. 31. Si vindiciam falsam tulit rei, si velit is arbitros tres, dato forum Arbitriis fructus, duplione Damna Deciditor.  
L. 33. Aeris confessi, rebusque jure judicatis, triginta dies justi Sunto: postidea muus endoiectio esto: in jus ducito nei Judicatum facit, aut quips endo jure em vindicit, secum ducito, vincito aut nervo aut compedibus quin Decim pondo, ne minore; aut si volet majore vincito. Si volet suo vivito in suo vivit qui em vinctum habebit, libras farris endo dies dato, si volet plus dato.  
Wherein though many words are so Antiquated and obscure as no Interpreter can expound them, yet so much may be understood from them, (1.) That their Editio and Oblatio Libelli, by giving the Defendant a Copy of the Libel, Bill of Complaint, or Declaration, preceded their vocatio in Jus, Citation and Summons; for in the Law, Si in jus vocet, atque eat, the word Atque signifieth Statim, presently, in which sense it is taken in Leg. filia 20. C. de inof. Testam. and in Virgil. — Atque illum prono rapit alveus amni. Now it had been to no purpose when the Defendant had been called to appear before the Judge in Person Statim, presently, to answer, unless the Plaintiff before he had called him had made him Oblatio Libelli, and given him a Copy of his Bill of Complaint against him, and allowed him his dies justi, a fit time for him to deliberate and provide for the same,  veniat paratus ad respondendum, 
Oblatio Libelli precedes Summons.  when he shall be again called to appear in Person before the Judge; and without this, if the Judge caused him to appear, and cast him into Prison, as now Judges do, on lying Latitats and false Suggestions; all the Poor of the Land who are not able to give Bail, and on Forged Outlawries both Poor and Rich, without Bail, and forced him to answer to Copies of Declarations not delivered, till he had been first cast into close Prison an Hundred Miles from his home, where he had neither Meat nor Drink, nor Money nor Friends, nor Council nor Writings, nor Witnesses; he had made it impossible for such a Prisoner in Dures to answer, otherwise than to grant whatsoever the false Suggesting Plaintiff will Demand of him. And that the Obligatio Libelli preceded in jus vocatio agrees Cujac. Lib. 10. Obs. 10. & 11. Duaren. lib. 1. Disp. c. 1. Hermann. vult lib. 1. discep. c. 1. Goed. ad. l. 9 n. 1.6.7. ff. de verb. sign.  
(2.) By the Law si vis vocationi fuat testamini: igitur em capito, appears, that after the Defendant had a Copy of the Declaration delivered, no Capias before Judgement was to issue against him, without a Fugam fecit, or at least an hiding himself; and the word Testamini shows there must be Productio testium, Probation by witnesses of the flight or absconding, and not a Latitat granted on a mere false Suggestion and Lie, or on the Forgery of an Outlawry, to destroy that inestimable Right of Liberty, from wrongful Imprisonment, and more valuable than Life itself.  
(3.) By the Law si vindiciam falsam tulit, rei si velit is Arbitros tres dato forum Arbitriis fructus duplione damnum deciditor, appears, That the Plaintiffs were Fined pro falso elamore double the value, on a Writ of Enquiry of Damage to a Jury of Three, which (like Commissioners for examination of Witnesses) being equally chosen by the Parties were more able and equal than a numerous Jury of Twelve, all chosen by the Sheriff.  
(4.) This being granted, that by the Ancient Roman and Athenian Laws, Oblatio Libelli preceded vocatio in jus, and vocatio in jus preceded Contumacy, and Probation by Witnesses preceded Sentence of the same, and that Plaintiffs were punished for false Suggestions; it follows, there was neither taking of Pledges, Distress, Attachment, Satisdation, Exaction of Bail, or Arrest in their Original Process, nor before Judgement, except on Contumacy proved by Witnesses; which shows that neither Romans nor Athenians were Authors of beginning Law-Suits with Execution.  
(5.) It appears by the Law Aeris confessi, rebusque jure judicatis, etc. That the Pagan Execution itself, after Judgement, was more Just and Merciful, than the Papal and Episcopal is now with us before Judgement; for first they were so far from Arresting before Demand, and before Judgement, that they could not Arrest the Defendant on Hearing, and Trial, and Judgement passed against him, without giving him Monition of the Judgement, and till Thirty Days Justi dies to provide the Money were expired: but now, on a bare Bond before Judgement, and before so much as a Demand made, they cast into the Goal the Husbandman from his Blow, the Tradesman from his Shop, and the Merchant from the Exchange, without giving the least notice, Thirty or so much as Three Days to provide the Money, whereby they and their Families, their Reputation and Trade are oftentimes destroyed, not only to the ruin of themselves, but great damage of the Public; for the greatest bulk of Trade of the Nation being driven on Money borrowed on Interest, if it be intended what is borrowed should be applied to Trade, it is impossible that they can pay interest for it to the Creditor, if they must keep it at their Chambers for the Creditors to call it in again on an hour's warning, or as they now do without any warning at all; and employ it at their Trade they cannot, unless they may have at least warning for so small a pittance of Time as Thirty Days, which the very Heathen allowed their Debtors to be free from Arrest, though Judgement was passed against them. This abominable Cruelty of beginning Suits with Execution, came not therefore from the Heathen, but from the pretended Christian Romish Bishops and Clerks, 
All Attachments, Distresses, Exactions of Pledges, Bail, and Arrests before Judgement, are Executions before Judgement, and come from Romish Bishops.  against whom the Heathen shall rise in Judgement. Now that beginning of Suits with Executing by exacting of Pledges before Oblatio Libelli, Bail before Flight, Judgement before Hearing, Distress, Attachment, and Arrest before Judgement, was brought into Great Britain by the Romish Bishops, appears by these Reasons: (1.) Because the Register of Writs (that old Romish Idol; to which more innocent Causes and Persons have been Sacrificed and Destroyed, according to the proportion of the Territory it Commands, than to the Turkish Alcoran) is in Latin, which is the Romish Language; in which Register all the Original Process of Summons, Attachment; and Distringas are composed, for Exacting of Pledges and Bail, Distress, imposing Penalties and Forfeitures, Arrest and Imprisonment in Personal Actions, and Grand-capes and Petty-capes in real, before Oath of Calumny, Oblatio Libelli, Hearing, Probation or Judgement, and in Indictments by Inquisition. (2.) Because all old Formalities of Entries and Plead, of Instruments, and Contracts Public and Private were Originally in Latin, which shows they were form by Romish Bishops or their Clerks in their own Language, conform to their Romish Idol the Register, beginning with Execution, as particularly appears; in all Instruments concerning Feudal Jurisdiction are Clauses and Conventions of Distress, Reentry, Penalties and Forfeitures, horrible unjust, before Oath of Calumny, Ohlatio Libelli, dies justi, Hearing, Probation, Judgement, or Judge, but the Lord himself in his own Case, over his Vassal. (3.) Because anciently the Romish Bishops have been Chancellors in that Court which is Officina Brevium, the Shop of Writs, where they are forged; and have been likewise chief Judges in the other Courts of the King, keeping all their Proceed in Latin, Court-hand, and Chancery-hand, secret from the understanding of King and People, whereby they exercised what Tyranny and Oppression they pleased. (4.) Because they and other Ecclesiastical Persons, as Abbots, Priors, and the like, have Possessed the Third part of all the Baronies, Honours, and Manors in the Land, and, had they not been stopped by the Statutes of Mortmain, might by this time have got all; this way therefore of taking Distress, Penalties, and Forfeitures before Judgement, advanced their Interest in Tyranny, and made them Arbitrary and absolute Judges in their own Case. (5) Because anciently the Romish Bishops have been, 
Outlawries and Excommunicato Capiendos, and Judgement of Heresies, the Romish Inquisition in Disguise.  and to the shame of Protestants still claim to be, in their Ecclesiastical Courts Judges of Heresy; whereby, as the Common Law Judges by their Outlawries, which are Temporal Excommunicato Capiendos, they by their Excommunicato Capiendos, which are Spiritual Outlawries, have brought in the Romish Inquisition, to begin all Suits with Execution before Judgement. (6.) Because the Greek Bishops first destroyed the Equal Law of the Twelve Tables, Si in jus vocet a●que eat, which is before interpreted Statim eat, and made it in jus vocati statim eant, aut satisdent; which Satisdation included all the Rabble of Distresses, Pledges, Bail, Mainprize, Arrests and Imprisoments, before Oblatio Libelli, Hearing, Probation, or Judgement, which Greek Bishops were the Instruments of that wicked Empress Theodora, who foisted into the Laws of Justinian what they pleased, concerning Judicial Proceeding touching Marriage, Filiation, and Succession, and all other matters; and the Romish Bishops followed them in their wickedness, in whatsoever was for their gain, and brought the same, with themselves and the Language of the Beast into Great Britain and Ireland, to infect with the same Plague all Judicatures of these Noble Kingdoms. vid. How Satisdation before Judgement came, in the Authorities cited, Calv. Lex. tit vocare.   

They Pledge before Summons, Summon before Copy, Copy before Oath, Punish before Contumacy, Judge before Hearing or Probation, and Arrest before Judgement.  
It cannot be here objected, That I proceed partially against Ecclesiastical Judges, seeing the Temporal are here equally Taxed with the same Errors, and I contend with the Vices and not with the Persons of either. Yet so much I may affirm for Truth, and shall after prove against Ecclesiastical Judges, that the Papal and Episcopal Forms of Preposteration of Execution before Judgement, by beginning the Original Process with Attachments, Distresses, Exactions of Pledges, Bail, Mainprize, Penalties, Forfeitures, Confiscations, Arrests and Imprisonments, before a Copy of the Declaration given, and before Oath of Calumny, Hearing, Probation or Judgement, and Outlawries, and Excommunicato Capiendos both before and after Judgement, were Originally brought both in the Ecclesiastical and Temporal Courts of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland by Romish Bishops, and Priests, and Parliaments, in time of Popery, have been so far deceived by them to confirm their Superstitious Formularies in the Temporal Courts in so high a degree, as now the Temporal Judges are not able to Reform, without the Assistance of an Act of Parliament. But I shall first prove, that the said Forms are contrary to the Scriptures, and Antichristian. The Texts of Scripture follow.  
Job 24.3. They drive away the Ass of the Fatherless, and take the Widow's Ox for a Pledge.  
Verse 9 They pluck the Fatherless▪ from the breast, and take a. Pledge of the Poor.  
Ezek. 18.7. And hath not Oppressed any, but Restored to the Debtor his Pledge.  
Ezek. 33.15. If the Wicked restore the Pledge, give again that be had Rob,  
Amos 2.8. And they lay themselves down upon  laid to Pledge.  
Psal. 37.21. The Wicked borroweth, and payeth not again.  
Matth. 5.25. Agree with thine Adversary quickly, while thou art in the may with him; lest at any time the Adversary deliver thee to the Judge, and the Judge deliver thee to the Officer, and thou be cast into Prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost Farthing.  
Matth. 18.15. If thy Brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy Brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two, that in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses, every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church: but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be to thee as an Heathen man and a Publican. After the Servant who had been forgiven by his Lord Ten Thousand Talents, Verse 28: Went out, and found one of his fellow-servants which ought him an Hundred Pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the Throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow-servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into Prison, till be should pay the Debt. Verse 32. Then his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked Servant, I forgave thee all that Debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the Torments, till he should pay all that was due unto him.  
As to Criminal Proceeding the Texts are,  
1 Tim. 5.19. Against an Elder receive not an Accusation, unless under two or three Witnesses.  
Numb. 35.30. Whoso killeth any Person, the Murderer shall be put to death, by the mouth of Witnesses: but one Witness shall not testify against any Person to cause him to die. Moreover, ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a Murderer, which is guilty of death, but he shall be surely put to death.  
Deuter. 17.8. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in Judgement, between Blood and Blood, between Plea and Plea, and between Stroke and Stroke, being matters of Controversy within thy Gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; And thou shalt come unto the Priests the Levites, and unto the Judge that shall be in those days, and inquire, and they shall show thee the Sentence of Judgement.  
From all which may be inferred,  
(1.) That no man ought to be Summoned before a Judge, till a Copy of the Plaintiffs Declaration be first given him.  
For Christ saith, If thy Brother Trespass against thee, go and tell him his Fault between thee and him alone; which is fully performed by giving him a Copy of the Declaration or Bill of Complaint, and without it the same cannot be done, nor the full State of the Case be Represented to him, nor he take time of deliberation for an Answer. And from this Precept of Christ will follow, first, the Ordaining of Editio & vocatio in jus simul ex continenti, by the Popish Theodor an Bishops; in the Civil Law is a corruption and destroying of the Excellent Law of the Twelve Tables, Si in jus voces atque eat, which is already proved to have implied a Preceding Oblatio Libelli, and was the clear Law of Nature, and immutable in all Civil Actions.  
(2.) That the Law of Scotland, of including the Libel in the Summons, though it far excel our Summons by Writs, yet it is not so perfect as the Precepts of Christ, to make the Oblatio Libelli, or to give the Copy of the Declaration to the Defendant before Summons; for first, he must be forced to send many times Hundreds of Miles to a Judge to get a Summons, before the Return of which, all the business if there is no Contumacy, may be far better agreed and ended between him and his Brother at home. Secondly, If there is no Contumacy (as there can be none, before a Copy of the Declaration delivered, by which the Demand is made) it is unjust to lay such a Punishment on a Defendant, to run Hundreds of Miles to his great Cost and Trouble in England, to appear before a Judge at Westminster, and when he comes there, no Bill in Chancery, nor any Declaration at Common Law, is put against him. And in Scotland to appear at Edinburgh at a longer day, when he was ready and tendered to satisfy his Brother at home in a shorter, and he refused, only to put him to Charge and Vexation. Thirdly, It is unreasonable and unjust, that the Plaintiff should be compelled to send so far for such a Trivial Formality as the hand of a Judge to his Libelled Summons, or to expect no Judicial assistance from it, if he gratis make Oblatio Libelli, as Christ Commands; for if, as is the Modern practice in Scotland, the Lords of the Session never read a word of the Libelled Summons, and they may be Blasphemy or Treason for aught they know, yet they set their hands to them as fast as they can be brought, and I have myself set my hand to Hundreds of them; and that course of Summoning being by Act of Parliament made in time of Popery, which we had no power to alter, I thought that kind of Justice better than none at all: though before Oblatio Libelli it serves to no more Use than our Latitat and Subpoena Offices, and others, to have a pretence of gathering Money for the People for doing nothing, and perhaps (if all Truth were spoken) for doing Mischief. Fourthly, If, as the ancient Practice was of Sir Thomas More when he was Chancellor of England, who used to read over, himself in Person, every Bill was preferred in Chancery, and consider whether it were just or no, before he would grant a Summons of Subpoena; and of Skene in Scotland, who, as I have been informed there, would likewise read the Bills himself before a Summons was granted, and if he found them not fit, would tear them in pieces, and throw them over the Bar. It hath been therefore to no purpose for the Plaintiff to have sent to Judges for Summons, who might see that Injustice in his Bill which the Defendant perhaps might not see, or might be willing to pass by, if it had been first shown to him at home. Fifthly, It is unjust for the Plaintiff to make his Oblatio Libelli first to the Judge, and to get a Summons thereon before he doth it to the Defendant, for the Defendant may, perhaps, if shown him, show the Plaintiff so just exceptions against the Bill, as may satisfy the Plaintiff himself, and save both Parties the Trouble and Cost of going further to Law; or he may amend his Bill on such exceptions, and if he think it just after amended, insist on the same further; to show his bill first, therefore, to the Defendant, though his Enemy, if he will except against it, is more profitable to the Plaintiff for amendment, than if he shown it his own Council; for a Friend may never show the Party his Faults as an Enemy will: As it is more Just, so it is therefore more safe, first to make the Oblatio Libelli to the Defendant, before it be done to the Judg. Sixthly, The Justi dies, or time of Returning an Answer, cannot be agreed without great Trouble and Cost, unless there be first an Emparlance between the Parties, without troubling the Judg. Against offend the taking out of Execution on Judgement acknowledged by assent, and on Recognizances, and Statutes in England, and on Registered Bonds in Scotland without Summons, or Oblatio Libelli, or Warning, or Demand. Seventhly, Because Judges use to take Caution, or Plegii de prosequendo of the Plaintiff, and the like Pledges of the Defendant, purposely to hinder Agreement according to Christ, and to set them by the Ears to get in Fees to the Court.  

(2.) That no man ought to be Summoned before a Judge, until a Productio Testium first made to him.  
For Christ says, If he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses every word may be Established, whence will follow, that the Mock-Probation still falsely mentioned in the end of every Declaration, Et inde Producit Sectam, and Summons on Motions and Rules of Courts, founded on the Infamous Credit of Affidavit-men, are abominable Relics of Popery, and Antichristian. (1.) Because they are not produced to the Defendant where he dwells, that he may except against their Persons, if he hath cause, and if he hath none, he may see them Sworn, and if they Swear false, he may have his lawful Remedy against them. (2.) Because the Affidavit-men are single Witnesses, whereas Christ Commands two or three Witnesses. (3.) They are both such as live in London and Westminster, and such as come out of those Parts, altogether unknown to the Judges and Masters who take their Oaths; if therefore they will proceed on the Testimony of single Witnesses, seeing by the Precept of Christ, Actor Sequitur forum rei, and the Plaintiff is to carry his Witnesses to the Defendant; it is far more Just and Equal that the Affidavit be either taken by Commission in the Parish where the Defendant lives, or every Minister be Authorized to take the Oath, on notice given to his Parishioner to be present, if he please, at the Taking. (4.) Because generally the Affidavit-men are Knights of the Post, and common Swearers for Hire, who will Swear any thing for a Dinner. (5.) Because Probatio non admittitur in contrarium, whereby Courts overflow with Perjury. And as is said, Jer. 23.10. Because of Swearing the Land mourns.   

(3.) That a Defendant can be guilty of no Contumacy till an Oblatio Libelli, and a Productio Testium first made to him.  
For Christ says, The Plaintiff is not to tell the Church, till two Refusals made by the Defendant, one to hear him single, the other when he ha●h produced his Witnesses.   

(4.) That no Pledges or Distress ought to be taken till Judgement.  
For Ezek. 18.7. says, The Debtor ought to be restored his Pledge. And Christ Commands on Contumacy shown by two Refusals, immediately to tell the Church; so he is to do nothing further till the Sentence of the Church is passed, and very just; for thus far none hath Judged whether his Cause is just, and his Brother Contumacious, but himself, and he ought not to be Judge in his own Case, and much less be his own Carver of Execution by Pledges and Distresses, on his own Authority, without the Sentence of a Judg. Secondly, Otherwise the Ass of the Fatherless, the Ox of the Widow, and the Pledge of the Poor, would be taken from them without Hearing of their Cause, and the Creditor, Landlord, and every other Person would be Judges in their own Case, and Carve Execution for themselves. Thirdly, Though the Poor may be able to give Convenotinal Pledges, yet they are not able to give besides Judicial Pledges, when they are enforced to sue for their Conventional, unjustly seized and detained from them; nor though they are able to Mortgage the Right of their little Living, to be seized when they fail paying Interest for the Debt, yet are they not able to leave Possession by which they must live, if the Creditor unjustly enter before a Judgement Declaratory, and a true Account made by him, and a Return of the overplus, whereto the Mortgage amounted above the Debt. So though a Poor man is able, to grant a Rent-charge and a Clause of Distress, if he be in Arere on paying Interest for the Debt, yet if the Creditor wrongfully or excessively Distrain, he is not able on a Replevin to give Pledges de Prosequendo, and de Returno habendo to take a Conventional Distress therefore, or to make a Conventional Seizure, Entry or Reentry of, or into Goods or Lands, Pledged for Debt or Rent, or made liable by any Covenant or Clause Irritant, to forfeiture for non payment of the same, before a Judgement Declaratory of the non payment, and of the value of the Goods to be Distrained; and Lands Seized for satisfaction of the same, is as unjust and wicked as to take a Judicial Distress, Pledge or Forfeiture, before such Judgement passed.  
The Laird of Sauchi Sued one of his Tenants to make him remove from his Tack or Lease, the Defendant excepted, That he had a Tack, it was replied, That the Tack was null and void, because there was a Clause Irritant contained in it, that if the Duty reserved were not paid, the Tack should be null and void, and that the Duty was not paid; to which was duplied by the Defendant, that this failure of payment was not yet declared by any Declaratory Sentence of a Judg. The Lords found that there ought to be a Declaratory Sentence of a Judge first, 
Declaratory Sentence of Scotland.  before any removal of a Tenant ought to be, though the Clause Irritant had been, that the Tack should be null without any Declaratory Sentence, 4th, July, 1628.   

(5.) That no Bail ought to be Exacted before Contumacy or Judgement.  
First, If to Distrain dead Goods and Pledges of Cattle is prohibited before Judgement, à Fortiori to Exact for Pledges or Sureties the living Bodies of men, is prohibited. Secondly, It is manifest Christ intended to relieve the oppression of the Poor against the Rich, and that none but the Rich are able to give Bail to Tolerate, therefore the Rich, because they can give Bail on every unjust Suit of theirs, to Exact Bail of Poor men before Judgement, who are not able to give it, fills Prisons, and destroys innumerable Innocent Poor, and leaves their Blood to cry against those who Tolerate so great an Oppression, as to make Necessity Contumacy, and Punish the Poor for his Poverty. No less abominable is the Practice of Attorneys and Clerks with their Writs of Privilege, who will command what Bail they please, though the Poor man own them not a farthing, and he being once Arrested, and not able to give Bail, he must therefore Rot or Starve in Gaol, or pay whatever the other will ask, right or wrong. The Chancery Clerks and Officers go a degree beyond these, and will take no Bail but four Subsidy men, and if they can but Arrest the pretended Debtor, will keep him in hold too, till he pleads Instanter what they will have, to Ruin him. These are the Prodigious Relics of Popish Tyranny left in Protestant Courts of Law and Conscience, and translated from Romish Ecclesiastical-Clerks to English Lay-Clerks: It were more just these Privileged men had a Privilege granted to Rob on the Highway, for there honest men would be able to defend themselves against them, but with these two Privileges of theirs, one that they will take whomsoever they please Prisoners, and the other that they will be Sued not where but in their own Court, makes it as difficult to deal with them, as Turkey Pirates, who will be Tried by none but their Fellows, nor Sued any where but in Algiers. How little necessity there is of this horrible Oppression of Exaction of Pledges, 
No Pledges, Bail, Outlawries, required in Chancery.  Distresses, Bail, Penalties, Forfeitures, and Outlawries, before Judgement, doth easily appear from this, that in the Chancery there is none of all these required, and though the Defendants are Richer, and the Causes of far greater value than those in Common Law Courts, yet do the numerous Plaintiffs rather shun the Common Law Courts, and throng thither, choosing to Sue there, than in the other; and certainly if it be truly considered, these Exactions of Bail and Outlawries, and Suprizes of Debtors before warning, do but necessitate them to fly from their Creditors, and deceive them of what they would be ready to pay on a fair Demand or warning, and liberty given to come to a just account with Security. This cruel dealing therefore of the Creditor with his Debtor before Judgement, tends not to his Profit, but very much to his Loss, as well as it doth of the Defendant, and many times undoes them both.   

(6.) That no Arrest ought to be made before a Judgement, though there is Contumacy.  
This follows from what hath already been proved, That a Plaintiff ought not to be Witness, Judge, or Executioner thereon in his own Case, and therefore not of the Contumacy of his Brother; 
Contumacy.  but if he is Contumacious, the Plaintiff ought by his Witnesses to make Probation of those matters which are necessary to show a Contumacy, as (1.) Oblatio Libelli. (2.) Productio Testium. (3.) His Refusal to answer and satisfy, and thereon obtain a Sentence Declaratory of the Contumacy of the Defendant, and a Capias to Arrest him. All Arrests therefore before Judgement, 
Pursuivants. Tipstaffs.  by Pursuivants, Messengers of Arms, Tipstaffs, Maces, Sheriffs, or any other, are Relics of Popery, and contrary to the Law of God, and of the Land, and indeed are so far from having Right to Arrest before Judgement, that they ought not so much as to Summon before an Oblatio Libelli, and a Productio Testium.   

(7.) That though there is a Judgement, yet Christ allows no Imprisonment of a Debtor not able to pay; for Disability is no Contumacy; and Poverty may more often fall on the Righteous than the Wicked.  
The Scripture makes our Demeanour to the Poor in Prison in this Life, of great concernment to our well or evil Being after Death, as is said, Matth. 25.34. Then shall the King say unto them on his Right hand, Come ye Blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in Prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the Righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in Prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer, and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these ●y Brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say unto them on the Left hand, Depart from me, ye Cursed, into everlasting Fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in Prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in Prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the Righteous into Life Eternal. It may be much doubted, what account these inferior Judicial Proceed, of Exactions of Pledges, and Bail before Summons, Outlawries, Excommunicato Capiendo's, Penalties, Forfeitures, Confiscations, Arrests, and Imprisonment before Judgement, will be able to give at the Supreme Judgement, they being all point Blank contrary to the Judicial Precepts of Christ. And this Humanity and Mercy to Prisoners that are Poor and unable to pay, hath so far prevailed amongst most Nations, and with the Civil Law, and with the Law of Scotland, that in all these, 
Cessio Bonorum.  if a Prisoner in Execution for Debt makes a Cessio Bonorum, that is, assigns his whole Estate he hath left, by Inventary on Oath to the Creditor, he ought to be set at liberty; and certainly, the Arresting of Debtors without giving warning, or time necessary, and who are not able to pay before Judgement, or detaining them in Prison after Judgement, is not only, as hath been already said, hurtful to the Creditor himself; but to the Public, the same being destructive to Trade, and likewise to the Peace; for Civil Wars and Seditions have been caused both in the Grecian, Roman, and many other Commonwealths, by the Cruel Prosecution and Imprisonments by Creditors of their Debtors; and I remember we received often advertisement from our Army in Scotland, to desire us to restrain our Letters of Caption from Arrests of Debtors, and that we filled the opposite Army who were then in Hostility against us, with greater Recruits of Debtors, who fled from Arrests, than they had been ever able of their Power to have done, and of Debtors so Potent (for the Privilege of Peers to be free from Arrest, was then taken away) as drew multitudes with them to the Hills, who would, if secured from Arrest, have all stayed quiet Neuters at home.  
(8.) That in case of Contumacy of the Debtors, Christ allows both to take Pledges, Arrest and Imprison him after Judgement.  
(9) That he allows not, though after Judgement, to detain the Debtor in Prison for Penalties and Forfeitures, above the value of the Debt and Damage.   


One single Judg.  (10.) That he allows on lawful Probation and Judgement, Imprisonment to be by one single Judg.  
For he says in the Singular Number, and the Judge deliver thee to the Officer, and thou be cast into Prison, Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the utmost farthing. And at that time the Roman Judges both at Rome, and in Judaea, sat on single Tribunals in Courts by themselves, and not with associates: Judices delegati à principe fuerunt 12. in Civitate Romana, Octo Erant Minores, & Quatuor Majores, & quilibet sedebat in suo Praetorio in Basilica, gl●in Rub. & in §. Rebus in Authent. de Judicibus in Collatine. 6. In the City of Rome there were Twelve Judges Delegates made by the Emperor, Eight Lesser, and Four Greater, and every one of them sat in his several Court in the Palace Hall. This Christ seems to allude to Matth. 19.28. When the Son of Man shall sit in the Throne of his Glory, ye also shall sit upon Twelve Thrones, Judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel. In the like manner they placed single Judges in the Provinces; as, Herod, Felix, Festus, and others, were all single Judges within their several Territories of Judaea. And these single Judges were not only, (1.) Judges of Temporals, but Spirituals, till the Superstition of the Emperors divided the Supreme Jurisdiction into Episcopal and Imperial, giving the Supremacy to the Episcopal; for before the Emperors, the Roman Law was Rex Sacrorum Praeses esto, as appears by the Laws of Romu●us and Numa, of whom, one was an Augur and King, which was then their highest kind of Prophet, and above a Priest, and the other a Sacrificer and a King. The Senate after the Expolsion of Tarquin, took upon themselves to be Praesides Sacrorum, and the Emperors after they had overtopped the Senate, made themselves High-Priests and Emperors, so did Julius Caesar, so did Augustus and their Successors, till as is before said, Superstition again divided the Imperial Jurisdiction. But likewise (2.) the same Judge was of Civils and Criminals, and (3.) the same one Judge was of Fact, Law, and Equity, and there was not amongst, nor in any Empire in the World, that unnecessary and unjust distinction of Chancery, Common Law, and Juries.  
It is not here objected against the Bishops, that they place more Judges than one in their Spiritual Courts, or any Court where they can get Jurisdiction, we know the contrary; and too Ambitious and Subtle they were to draw any such Inconvenience on themselves, but they rather studied to lay that Clog of unnecessary Number on the Laity in the Common Law Courts, they themselves having usually been sole Judges in the Spiritual Courts, concerning Marriage, Testaments, and Tithes, under the name of Judge Spiritual or Ecclesiastical; and in the Chancery, concerning other Temporal matters, under the name of the Judge of Conscience and Equity, and in their Inquisitions Criminal, concerning matters of Life and Death, under the name of the Judge of Heresy, have made themselves absolute Monarches over the Religion, Justice, Estates and Lives of the People, and Clogged them with numerous Judges and Juries, that they might not be able to lift an hand, or move a Tongue against them, in the same manner as the Senate did deceive the People of Rome, by multiplying their Tribunes under pretence of favour to them, to no other intent, but that the Defensors of their Liberty might be more easily divided against themselves, and weaker to oppose the Senate. I shall only give a touch of the Reasons, why more Judges than one ought not to be admitted in any one Court, except in a Court of Appeal, or in Judges equally Elected by the Parties, as Arbitrators, and Commissioners for Examination of Witnesses use to be.  
(1.) Because as to Election of the Judges, it is easier to find one Man of Ability and Integrity fit to be a Judge, than Twelve.  

Reasons why more Judges than one ought not to be admitted in one Court.  (2.) The hearing of a multitude of Causes is extreme tedious and toilsome, where there is therefore a numerous Court, they are apt to shift their Collar from the labour, and leave all to the Precedent, while they either talk with one another more pleasant discourse, or let their Wits run a woolgathering, or plainly, nod and sleep upon the Bench.  
(3.) Admit they do attend the Cause (which they very rarely do except for a Friend, or against an Enemy) they may vary in their Votes, whereby no Judgement can be given as in a Ceux que Droit Case, where are many Competitors for the same thing, A. B. C. D. the first Judge may be for A. the second for B. the third for C. the fourth for D. whereby no Judgement can be given.  
(4.) In a General Issue, or Special Issue, some Jurors may be of the Gonscience that such Witnesses are not above Exception, nor to be credited, others that they are; others, that such Evidence doth not conduce to the Issue; others, that it doth; whereby no Verdict could be given, were they not compelled by that unconscionable way of starving them, to agree against their Consciences.  
(5.) If we come from Judges of the Fact, to Judges of the Law, who allow themselves better Quarters than the other, and will not be kept without Meat, Drink, Fire, or Candle-light, till they pass their Sentence; yet the Courts in Westminster consisting of the equal number of Four Judges, are often divided, two against two, and what if the Vote of the Chief Justice hear it against the other, yet one man's opinion being as good as another, yea the Puisne Justice being oftentimes of greater Age and Ability than the Chief, his Sentence will not carry the Reputation of Justice, neither may it be thought worth the Labour and Cost to have an Associate joined with him, if his Vote must be nulled by the others, he had been better at first sat and Sentenced alone; and of more esteem his Sentence would have been, had it never been opposed by a contrary Sentence of greater esteem than that, to help which, there hath been sometime added a Fifth Judge in England, and in Scotland, where the number of the Lords of the Session or Judges was Fifteen, with a Numero Deus Impare gandet, but in neither of these is this happy Imparity so much to be found, as in one who cannot be divided in the least proportion against himself, whereas Four may be divided, Two against Two; and Fifteen, Eight against Seven; which will leave a Sentence very Instable and Suspicious, for many times the Minor Party are the Melior.  
(6.) In a numerous Court they may all vary in the state of the Question to be Voted, if the Precedent should have Power to put what Question to the Vote he pleaseth, if he propose either a General Issue or State of the Question, the Residue may each raise his Special Question, which will need a Decision before the General can be Voted, as a Jury often do in a Special Verdict: if the Precedent propose a Special I●sue or State of the Question, the Residue again may every one raise his particular or Individual State of the Question, and think the Special cannot be Voted till the particular be decided, whereby they will be able no more to agree in the Special than the General, unless used as a Jury; none of which Inconveniences can fall out in a single Judge, but he easily gives his Sentence in the Roman manner, either Absolvo, or Condemno, or Non liquet; in England they use to send two Judges in every Circuit, because one sits on Civil Causes in the Nisi prius side by himself, and the other on Criminals, in the Crown side of the Town-Hall where they come, by himself, which fashion being imitated in Scotland, and two English Judges usually in every one of those Circuits, being sent to sit both together in one Criminal Court, (for there are not Nisi Priuses or Trials of Civil Actions in the Circuits of Scotland) proved inconvenient, and though but two, they often differing one with another, left Business not done, or at least much delayed; whereas the Custom of Scotland before was much better, who used to send but one Judge at a time in their Circuits, or Justice Eir, whom they call the Justice General.  
(7.) Where Justice is appointed to be done by a Quorum, it is extreme difficult, and many times impossible to get them together; that this Clog upon Civil Proceed was brought in by the Romish Bishops to the same intention which is before mentioned, to weaken the Roman Tribunes, appears from the very name, that 'tis Latin, 
Restraining Justices of Peace to Quorums, destroys Justice.  and the effect of it destructive to Justice, for wheresoever a Justice of Peace is limited to Act single without a Quorum, he is as good as (to that matter) disabled to Act at all, especially for the Poor, who have most need of them, and are not able to draw Quorums together, as the Rich may. In no less danger is the Public safety of his Majesty and his Protestant Subjects, by Restraining or at least making doubtful the Authority of the Sheriff (who is his Majesty's Lieutenant Sworn, and Vice Consul of his Province or County) to oppose a Rebellion or Invasion without a Quorum of Deputy Lieutenants, or Justices of Peace, who though Persons of great Honour, Ability, and Valour, to serve their King and Country, yet if Fettered together in Quorums, like Plurality of Generals in an Army, by how much of higher Courage and Conduct they are, by so much the more are they apt by Ambitious Emulation to cross one another, 
To restrain Sheriffs by a Quorum, dangerous to Public safety.  and bring the Army in confusion whom to follow. An Example of which happened in the Alarm in Dorset, Decemb. 9th. 1678. of a Foreign Enemy landed on that Coast, which I have the more Reason to remember, happening to have been pricked Sheriff, but not Sworn for that County; when as soon as the noise was spread, some ran to the Sheriff, some to one Deputy Lieutenant, some to another, some to one Justice of Peace, some to another, some gathered together East, some Witted, some North, with great Courage and Resolution to Fight the Enemy wherever they found him; but in such a Confusion, they knew not who was to Command, or who to Obey, and pity 'twas to see so many stout men so unarmed, undisciplined, and unprovided as they were; and certainly, if they are suffered so to continue in that and other Countries, it is impossible for the Protestant not be Surprised by whatsoever Rebellion the Native, or Invasion the Foreign Papist (unless God as he hath hitherto done, discover their Plots by Miracle) Design and Attempt; neither doth appear any more ordinary way of Remedy, than freeing the Militia from Quorums, who without their default may have Popish Spies unknown crept in amongst them, (which is impossible for any but a single Person to prevent) to discover their Counsels, and cross all their Actings, and will be utterly disabled either to Arm, Train, or Discipline a Militia, as were necessary; all which would be easily done by a Sheriff who is a single Person, if his Ancient Legal Authority were, as is most fit, restored to him to Act singly for the preservation of his Country without a Quorum, and his Honour and Interest would oblige him, had he undisputable Authority to Muster, Arm, Train and Discipline those Men to the height, whom he himself, if an Enemy appears in his Year, is to lead in Person against him.  
(8.) The greater the number of Judges, the greater the delay in the Proceed.  
(9) The greater number of Judges, the more difficult to obtain Remedy against those of them who Judge wrong, for they conceal their names, as the Lords of the Session of Scotland, being Fifteen, and sometimes Eighteen, compel the Precedent to sign their Sentence in his name, A. B. I. P. C. that is, in praesentia Curiae, though it be contrary to his Vote, whereby it is as impossible to discover who gave the wrong Sentence, as 'tis in a Jury who gave the wrong Verdict delivered by the Mouth of their Foreman. So in Athens, the Court of the Areopagites were in number Twelve, and they gave their Sentence into a Balloting Box, by Black Beans, and White Beans, whereby it was impossible to know who gave the unjust Sentence, on which Plutarch mentions a passage of Alcibiades, who being sent for home out of Sicily to Athens to be questioned for his Life, Fugam fecit; and being asked by one, saying, Wilt thou not trust thy own Country who begat thee, to be thy Judge? No, quoth he, nor her who brought me forth, lest she being Ignorant, and not conceiving the Truth, mistake a Black Bean for a White. Amongst o●hers was the Custom to do it with Black and White Stones, as Ovid, 

Mos erat Antiquis niveis atrisque lapillis,  
His damnare reos, illis absolvere culpa.   

They Sentenced with Stones of Black and White,  
That know thou mightst not who Judged Wrong or Right.    
(10.) The Appeal must be to double the number, as from a Jury of Twelve, to a Jury of Four and Twenty, which makes double the danger amongst so many, they all concealing their Names in giving their Verdict, as well as the first Jury.  
(11.) When a Jurisdiction is divided to two Judges, which might have been exercised by one, by the Interfereing of the divided Jurisdictions a man is pulled to pieces, to pay Tribute for the same Cause to both; as between the Chancery and the Common Law Courts, between the Kings-Bench, and Common-Pleas, one on Indictment of Trespass, the other for Action of Trespass, for the same offence; so between the Common Law Courts, and the Episcopal Courts, a man is not only put to double Costs, but is twice punished for the same offence, and all Jurisdictions in the hands of several Judges will interfere, except such as are divided by Territory, and no other respect, as the Jurisdiction of one County-Court is divided from another by Territory, the County Pala●ines from the Westminster Courts by the Territory bounding them, the Admiralty from the Common Law Courts by the Territory covered with the Sea.  
(12.) Where one Judge is sufficient to perform the Office of many, with greater Expedition and Justice, a multitude of Judges must be then a vast Charge to the Public, and a Prejudice; as, if to Justice the Romans had appointed Twelve Judges for every Province, where one alone discharged the same, it had been enough to have exhausted the Treasure of an Empire; it is manifest, that but three Judges, only i● Westminster, one in the Kings-Bench, the other in the Common-Pleas, and the third in the Exchequer, let them have but the Jurisdiction of Fact, Law and Equity, as they ought to have, may with as exact Justice and greater Expedition than now is done, discharge all the Offices of the Twelve Judges of the Kings-Bench, Common-Pleas, and Exchequer, save the labour of the Prerogative Court of Arches, Court of Audience, Court of Faculties, Court of Peculiars, Consistory Courts, Court of the Archdeacon, or his Commissary, the Court of Delegates, and all Episcopal Courts and Offices, and likewise save the Labour and Charge of a distinct Chancery, and of all original Writs, and of all Commissions of Rebellion, and of all Outlawries, of all the intolerable Slavery of Sheriffs in making Panels, and of Freeholders' serving in Juries, and of Nisi Priuses, and of Counsels speaking to matters of Fact before Juries. And that three Judges are sufficient to do this, and many matters more, I speak by experience; for there were but four English Judges sent into Scotland, and sometimes there were but three, and sometimes but two, there the other serving in Parliaments, as they fell out, and occasion required, and we discharged all the Offices of Lords of the Session, Lords of the Exchequer, and of the Justitiar General in his Justice-Eir, and in his particular Justice-Courts, which did answer all the Offices and Power of the Judges in Westminster, of the Chancery, Kings-Bench, Common-Pleas, and Exchequer, and of the Justices of Gaol-Delivery in their Circuit, and besides these, we Discharged the Commission for Plantation of Kirks through all Scotland, and were Visitors of the Universities; there were Judges likewise of the Seizures of all Ships except English, Importing any Goods of the Production of Asia, Africa, America, or Europe, contrary to an Act made 1651. Cap. 22. for Increase of Shipping, and encouragement of Navigation; we likewise Discharged a Commission of Claims, and a Commission for moderating the Fines laid on Persons who had been in Hostility, to a Third part; we likewise Discharged a Commission to Elect all Chief Officers in the Boroughs, and made all the Sheriffs of Scotland; yet had we not above Six Hundred Pound per Annum for all this, and about Two Hundred Pounds to bear the Charge of a Circuit, which was no profit to us, but spent in entertainments for the Public Honour; neither did we take any Present, Treat; or Entertainment from the Sheriffs, though of our own making, and much less any Bribe, or so much as Esculenta, or Poculenta from them, or any other; now that which made it possible to us to Discharge so many Courts, Offices and Commissions, was, that we were saved the labour of having Causes tossed and tumbled from Chancery to Common Law, the Chancery and Common Law being there united, and Pleas of Equity admitted in the same Court, and there being no Juries in Civil Actions, the same Persons were Judges of Fact, Law and Equity; another cause was, that there were no Original Writs, but the more compendious and just way of Summons used, by serving the Defendant with a Copy of the Declaration; another cause was, that Council could not speak to matter of Fact in Civil Actions before Juries or at Nisi Priuses, there being none, nor was so much as one of them suffered to speak or appear at the Bar when the Depositions of Witnesses are Advising or Reading, as they do with us at Chancery-hearing, to the intolerable charge of Suitors, and destruction of Justice and Equity; another cause was, that the Council first excepted to the Law, which we call a Demurrer, and after that to the Fact, which we call a Plea, and had that liberty given, both to demur and plead, which kept the way so clear before them, that they had never any Delays by Jeofails, Repleaders, Arrests of Judgement, or Writs of Error; another cause was, that both Parties and Advocates took the Oath of Calumny, that they believed their Allegiance just and true, Illud juretur quod lis sibi justa videtur, which Oath keeps their Allegiances clean from falsity, that I never found so much as one Fiction in all their judicial Proceed; and if the same Oath were but taken here as there, I believe there would not one Bill in Chancery, or Declaration at Common Law come in for Twenty, which now are thrust in by heaps; many other causes there are, which lessen the labour of a Judge, and of the Suitors, which for Brevity I omit; all which show the Prudence of that Noble Kingdom, where the People enjoy so great Justice with so little Cost and Contention; Lastly, we could have done more Business than we did, had we been set to Act as the Roman Judges, every one single, without Associates in a Court by himself; and how great an Addition to the Public Treasury, as well as advantage to Justice, the lessening the number of Judges, and turning Fees to Salary will cause, is already mentioned.  

A satire against the Cruel Preposteration of Ecclesiastical and Temporal Courts in Judicial Proceed, contrary to the Precept of Christ, Matth. 18.15.  
AND will you never learn the skill,  
Which first Subpoena is, or Bill,  
Or foremost know with all your wit  
If Declaration is, or writ,  
Or which precede should in your Tale,  
The Capias or Original?  
You which is best, who make a pause,  
To Sentence first, or hear the Cause,  
With Execution who begin  
Before a Judgement, or a Sin,  
Who grind and eat the Poor distressed  
With Tongue and Teeth of Romish Beast?  
For Grace, in Anglice's who curse;  
The Rent was bad, the Patch is worse:  
Who have no Summons but Surprise,  
Who have no Laws but Treacheries:  
Do you not know there is a Cry  
Gone up against your Cruelty?  
The Prince himself of Righteousness,  
So foul Oppressions to suppress,  
Descended hath on Earthly Globe  
And glorious Died his Scarlet Robe  
In his own blood, to keep the Peace,  
And from your Dungeons to release.  
Twelve Trumpets hear, 
12 Apostles.  whose Silver sound  
Doth from the East to West rebound,  
Proclaimed the Sacred Edict have,  
And Penalty, whence none can save;  
Which lest to you should be in vain,  
Ye Adders deaf, hear it again.  
If Thee, thy Brother, or thy Friend,  
Or Enemy, hap to offend;  
See thou to warn him do not grudge  
Twice at the least without a Judge,  
And the last time, see thou no less  
Show him than thy two Witnesses,  
Or three, to make the Fact appear,  
If he shall doubt, to him more clear.  
Nor shalt thou him for any thing  
Unto the Seat of Judgement bring,  
Until he Litis Contestate,  
Or show a Contumacious hate;  
That, if thou canst, thou may'st him prove,  
Thus first at home to win by Love.  
Let every Plaintiff thus his Suit  
Begin, or be for ever mute,  
No form of Strife shall be but this,  
Our express will and pleasure is  
The Nations Bow, and struck with Awe.  
Adore the Justice of the Law,  
And to the dread Tribunal run,  
High as the Clouds, bright as the Sun,  
With loud Appeals, and further will  
Upon this Statute draw their Bill,  
Both of Indictment and Complaint,  
And of these Crimes you thus attaint:  
That against this Divinest Act,  
More Fees and greater to exact  
The furious Plaintiff false or true,  
While hot you bind him to pursue,  
The slow Defendant wrong or right,  
You Bail or Goal to make him fight,  
And Fines on Concord's heavy lay,  
To make them your unhappy prey;  
The Debtor travailing to find  
The Creditor with honest mind,  
Your Outlawries ambush the way,  
And will not suffer him to pay,  
But in your Tolls you take him there,  
And bind him like a filly Dear,  
Or (what doth make him as forlorn)  
To death you hunt him with the Horn,  
To make his Skin and Carcase yours,  
You cheat both him and Creditors,  
And while his Plaint each sadly tells,  
You take the Fish and leave the Shells.  
Thus Innocents' you lay in Chains,  
Before they know who 'tis complains,  
Or what 'tis for; nor shall they see't,  
Till all Extortion's paid by Sheet.  
You lay Imbargues, and Prizes take,  
Before the War proclaimed you make,  
And Right by Battle try, and Wounds  
Mortal, before the Trumpet sounds;  
Your Hellhounds hunt without a noise,  
Your Snake not rattles, but destroys;  
There's nothing true, and nothing Sworn,  
Till Justice is to pieces torn,  
And you who cite not, but infest us  
With your Excessus Manifestus,  
And us torment with great unfitness, 
Dr. Cousins writes in defence of suppressing the names of Witnesses, Accusers. Excommunication ipso facto without Citation.   
Because you will not name the Witness,  
Your Ipso Facto's make us wonder,  
At Thunderbolts without a Thunder,  
And Bodies Judge in Hell to cast  
Before the Judgement day is past,  
And deathless Souls make pale and wan,  
Because you Curse before you Ban.  
No Plea deceives the Judge on high,  
What will you do, stand mute or fly?  
All rather, or, who most reputes,  
Burn Popish Forms and Precedents;  
Is it not better then to turn  
To Flames, than you yourselves to burn?  
Some way with speed appease his Ire,  
Your pain proclaimed is, Hell and Fire.      

Of Summons to answer before a Copy given of what is required to be answered.  
This is in Scotland provided for by Act of Parliament, and no man is troubled to appear before any Judge to answer, before by their Libelled Summons a Copy is delivered to the Person, or affixed at the Door of his dwelling House, containing all the matters at large to which his answer is required; and though the People of England are not yet so happy as to enjoy so great a Privilege, on which those invaluable Treasures of their Liberty and Propriety depend, yet every Attorney and Clerk of a Court hath it, and is free from giving appearance before a Judge, or being Arrested, till a Copy of the Declaration first delivered him, and Judgement passed against him, Attor. Ac. 28. The reason why these Lay-Clerks, who are Successors in Courts to the old Romish Spiritual Clerk, Monopolise this from the whole People only to themselves, is Filthy Lucre: For first, if the Plaintiff were compelled, as he ought to be, to make Oblatio Libelli to the Defendant, by giving or sending a Copy of his Bill in Chancery, or of his Declaration at Common Law, to the Defendant at his dwelling House, and so likewise the Defendant bound to return his Answer Sealed up, directed to be left for the Plaintiff in such Court, having Jurisdiction of the Cause, as the Plaintiff desired, within Fifteen Days after the Service of the Copy at the dwelling House, to be by the Officer of the Court delivered Sealed to the Attorney of the Plaintiff when he demands the same, and the like done on Reply, Duply, Triply and Quadruply, and all Exceptions of Fact or Law, Postulations and Motions of either Party, both on matters principal and incident, till there be a Contumacy to return Answer, or a Litiscontestation made, and a Commission desired to examine Witnesses and the Parties for Probation, this would cause all those little Shreds of Sheepskins which so unnecessarily torment the Country, and the dead Pots to be laid aside, as the Popish Agnusses Dei, or rather Agnusses Diaboli were, and so the Successors to the Popish Clerks would lose their Fees in the one as well as the other, to the great joy of all the Protestants. (2.) What is worse, they would lose their Eight pence per Sheet for but Eight words in a Line, and Fifteen Lines in a Sheet in Chancery; and for Six half words in a Line with a Dash, and Twelve Lines in a Sheet at Common Law, all which a Boy would far better transcribe for a Penny per Sheet; for want of which Oblatio Libelli, by the Plaintiff, a Rich man will of purpose draw his Bill in Chancery, and stuff it with nothing but Falsi i●s so long to multiply the Sheets against a Poor man, that it will cost him many times Three or Four Pounds for a Transcript, for which he must send an Hundred Miles besides, before he shall know what he must Answer. So that the Rich need do nothing else to undo the Poor but suggest and throw him into the Lion's Dens of Chancery, Common Law and Checquer-Clerks, for Copies of those Legends of Lies they themselves invented; whereas, if these rich and vexatious Plaintiffs were compelled to serve Defendants by sending them from their Palaces, but a Copy to their poor dwelling Houses or Cottages, what their wills and pleasures are to have right or wrong, they would pay as far as they were able, rather than if they told them they should first go so far to Clerks to buy Copies of their Will and Pleasure before they would vouchsafe to reveal the same, and after be less able to pay than before. (3.) They would lose all the Gains of those unnecessary and hurtful Entries and inrolments of the Bills, Declarations and Pleas of the Parties, in those huge heaps of Mouldy Rolls, wherein it is easy for them to forge what they please; for no Averment is allowed against Clerks and their Records, which should be far better and more Authentic, were the Copies delivered Signed by the Parties themselves, and only filled orderly as received from the Parties, and not Entered nor Enrolled by the Clerks, but kept by Filazers. (4.) They would lose all the Gains de Temere Litigantibus, which is more than they have from suitors which Sue of necessity and for just Cause, and would not have one Suit in Ten which they now have before them; for the Countryman▪ where the Writ is served before the Bill or Declaration, think they shall Conquer presently their Adversary, if they but Arrest, Outlaw, or have a Commission of Rebellion against him; whereby they are encouraged by Attorneys to rush blindly into unwarrantable Suits, which many times undo them: Whereas if the Law were, as it ought to be, by the Precept of Christ, That every Plaintiff should first send a Copy of his Bill to the Defendant, and heir his Exceptions against it, or sinned his Contumacy, before he Summoned him before a Judge, he would, before he would rashly en angle himself in Law-Suits, consult Council, and have his Bill or Declaration drawn by them, and hear the Exceptions of his Adversary against it, after which, there would not one of Twenty dare run headlong on a wrong Suit, except P●●sons extremely Litigious and shameless: Whereas now on Summons and Arrests tolerated before a Copy of the Bill, or Declaration given the Defendant, vexations Contentions both in Chancery and Common Law are infinite and endless.   

Of giving a Copy before an Oath of Calumny, That he who gives it, believes the same true and just.  
The Oath of Calumny may by the Civil Law be required, not only of the Parties Litigant, but of their Advocates and Procurators, who are in our Language their Councillors and Attorneys, and the same is appointed by an Act of Parliament of Scotland, the Practice of the Courts there, and the same is done not only to the Bill, but to all parts of Process alleged either by Plaintiff or Defendant, and is of excellent Use to clear those Contagious Plagues and Pests of Judicial Proceed, Fictions and Falsities, and to restore Truth, which is impossible to be kept alive in Religion or Justice, without abolishing the other.  
The Causes which introduce Fictions and Falsities into Judicial Proceeding are Four: One, the not using the Oath of Calumny: The Second, the not admitting Averment or Probation to the contrary: The Third, the not giving the Adverse Party notice of the time and place the Swearer is appointed to be Sworn, and liberty to be there present himself, or by his Commissioners to except against him if he have cause. The Fourth is denial of Travers, and Contrary Probation to all that is doubted to be false. In the Civil Law there was but one Fiction, which was Fictio Postliminii; the occasion whereof was, the Romans, to incite their Soldiers to Conquer or Die, which is to take no Quarter, touched by Virgil, Jaciat si quem fati sors dura peremit, and Horace, p. 75. Si non perit immiserabilis captiva pubes; If Captive Youth should not be suffered to perish without Pity and Redemption, it would, saith he, be a pernicious Example to Posterity, had this Cruel Law or Custom, That who was a Captive, lost the Rights of a Citizen; and who died a Captive in the Power of the Enemy, his Estate should be confiscated to the Public Treasury, and he should have no Heir to succeed him. ff. de Captiv. & postlimin. To abate the rigour and severity of this Law, the Judges helped the Captive by a Fiction, feigning, that he was never taken Captive, but always remained in the City; and the Legislative, in imitation of the Judges, that they might the less be taken notice of to derogate from their Military Discipline, stretched the former Fiction a little further, and enacted by their Lex Cornelia, in favour of the Heir whose Father happened to die Captive to the Enemy, (a Charitable Fiction, not to punish the Child for the Father's offence) that the Father died the next hour before he was supposed to have been taken Captive; L. Simo is qui pro Emptore in addit. marg. de Vsucapio. And like that of the Midwives of Egypt, to preserve young Children from Destruction, seems excusable, if it was not possible to do it any way else: but these Episcopal Fictions, That Marriage is of Souls, not Bodies; of Spouses, not Wives; begetting of Children is by Husbands absent within the four Seas, not by Adulterers within the Spouses Bed: That Sons are not of the blood or kin to the Father who begot them, but of him of whom the Bishop will please to certify them: these are not Mendacia Officiosa, but Pernitiosa, not to preserve Children, but to destroy them; and not only those of Subjects, but of their Prince, though not captived in War, yet exiled by War, 
No Digression to father on Bishops the Fictions and Preposterations of Common Law, as well as Spiritual Judges.  by which it was impossible to use the Episcopal Ceremonies of Common Prayer-Books in Marriage, or without danger of his Life to Marry otherwise than by the Moral Law of God.  
And let it not seem here a Digression, that I am enforced to Father on Romish Bishops not only all the pernicious Fictions and Preposterations in Judicial Proceed of Spiritual, but likewise of Temporal Courts, and to make it part of the Exception against them, That they are not fit Judges of Marriage, Filiation, Aliment and Succession. (1.) Because Romish Bishops, as is already shown, were the Former's of all the Common Law Writs in the Register, and Forms of Judicial Proceed in the Book of Entries, and the Compile of the Common Laws was trusted to Britton a Bishop, as well as the Forms of the Citations, Libels, Litiscontestations, Compurgations, Excommunications, and Provincial Laws and Canons were to other Bishops, and the Bishops have been the chief Judges in the Common Law Courts of Westminster, and Chancellors in the Chancery, and have rid the Circuit with the Earls in the Countries, and after them with the Sheriffs; which Earls and other Lay-Judges in time of Popery were only Assessors or Executioners of the Sentence of the Bishop, and he only the pretended infallible Oracle both of Law and Gospel to Judge how he pleased. (2.) Because what is a good exception against a Common Law Judge, is a good exception against a Spiritual Judge; and what Fiction is a good exception against Succession by the Verdict of the Jury, is a good exception against Succession by the Certificate of a Bishop. (3.) Because by a kind of Conspiracy between the Spiritual and Common Law Courts in time of Popery, their Preposterations, Fictions and Formalities are so complexed and entangled one with another, that 'tis impossible to divide them, or carry on a perfect Discourse of one without the other, or of Preposteration without Fiction and Formality; the one being commonly cause of the other. (4.) It is necessary to prevent any Excuse the Spiritual Judge may pretend; if he should say, The Common Law Judge is suffered to Summon and Arrest before Copy, to Copy before Oath of Calumny, and to use Hundreds of Fictions and Falsities in his Judicial Proceed, and why should not the Spiritual Judge be allowed as well as he? but where they are both censured, they can neither recriminate. And how guilty they both are of nursing that viperous brood of the old Serpent, who have eaten through the Bowels of Justice, may appear by the particulars following: The Subpoena in Chancery is a Writ or Summons form by the Bishops themselves when Chancellors, wherein notwithstanding the Holy Catholic Fathers form as many Lies as Lines. (1.) It gins, as West hath it, Proceeding in Chancery, p. 183. Jacobus Dei gratia Angliae Scotiae Franciae & Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor, 
Fictions and Falsities fomented in all Forms of Judicial Proceed. Subpana's full of Fictions.  etc. A. C. salutem Quibusdam certis de causis coram nobis in Cancel' nostra propositis. This is not true, for though here, and in other Nations anciently, Princes sat in their Courts of Judicature in Person, 'tis not so now; neither are any Causes proposed coram nobis, before the King in Person, unless, as some presume, they will attribute the incomprehensible Attribute of Omnipresence to Humanity; neither is it sufficient to reply, that he is present there by his Delegate; for a Delegate is only where the Prince is absent, or will not himself receive the Complaint, which is signified by the words of Absalon, 2 Sam. 15.3. See thy matters are good and right: for there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee. Intimating, if there had been a Judge Deputed he needed not fear the King's presence to have his matters so severely weighed, as if he had Judged in Person. And we see, to avoid the Fiction of Human Omnipresence, in an Action of Debt returnable in the Common Pleas, where the King sat not in Person, but Judged by Delegates, the Sheriff is commanded Sum' per bonos Sum' praedictum A quod sit coram Justitiariis nostris apud Westmonasterium; and if it had been Coram Nobis, it would have been a Fiction; but that which makes the Certis de Causis coram nobis in Cancel' nostra propositis, not only a Fiction, but a gross Falsity, is, that the Complainant hath taken out his Subpoena before he hath any Bill presented either to the King in Person, or the Chancellor, or the meanest Clerk in the Court. It goes on and say, Tibi praecipimus firmiter injungentes quod omnibus aliis praetermissis & excusatione quacunque cessante. Yet ought the Defendant to be admitted to offer a lawful cause of Excuse or Essoin. Next it says, In propria persona tua, yet may the Defendant be admitted to appear by Attorney. Next, Sis coram nobis in dicta Canc' nostra à die Paschae proxim' futu● ' in unum Mensem. Yet to appear Quarto die post the Return-day, is sufficient; then, ubicunque tunc fuerit ad respond' supper his quae objicientur, an Objection cannot be, unless there is some allegation first put in by the Defendant, any more, than an Answer can before some Bill put in by the Plaintiff: here is therefore a double Falsity, and the Poor Country man is fooled, to ride up an Hundred Miles, when he never put in a Bill himself to be objected against; nor, when he with much labour is got to Town weary, quarto die post, is there any Bill put in against him by the Complainant for him to Answer. Then it is further said, Et ad faciend' ulterius & recipiend' quoth Curia nostra consideraverit in hac parte, yet had neither Party, Plaintiff or Defendant, a Bill or Answer in Court; how can it then be said In hac parte, where there is no Party. Et hoc Sub poena Centum librarum nullatenus omittatis. This is likewise a Menacing Fiction, the Chancellor having no Power to impose any Fine or Forfeiture on any Subject, of a Farthing. Et habeas ibi hoc breve. Teste meipso apud Westmonasterium, when the King is a Hundred Miles off Westminster, 12 die Febr. Anno Regui Domini, etc. George, etc.  
But if the Defendant is a Nobleman, than no Subpoena is awarded, but a Letter by the Lord Chancellor or Lord-Keeper, thus,   

A Note of the Fictions of the Episcopal Form of the Letter in Chancery, usually sent to a Nobleman, instead of a Subpoena, to Answer.  
The Superscription is, which first comes to be read, and is directed thus, To my very good Lord, I. L. D. These.  
This Title of very good, if it had been put in Latin, might have been more Complementally expressed Optimo, had it not been a Danger lest Maximo would have been added: whether the Title of very good given to man, is always as great a Fiction as the Titles of Sanctus Clemens, and Pius, given to Popes, may be always doubtful, in regard Christ himself in Humility refused the Attribute of Good, which is a degree under very good; Luke 18.19. And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? None is good but One, that is, God; but this Title very good, is sometimes certain, and not doubtful to be a Fiction, when it is attributed to the Lewdest Person known, the Letter gins, After my very hearty commendations to your Lordship; (This, when there is a Mortal Feud between the Chancellor and the Lord, must be a Fiction) Whereas there hath been of late a Bill of Complaint exhibited into the Court of Chancery against you, by H. O. Gent. I have thought good to give you notice thereof rather by these my private Letters, than by awarding his Majesty's Ordinary Process. This, if no Bill is come in, is as great a Fiction and Falsity in a Private Letter, as in a Subpoena; and it were far fairer dealing with any Nobleman, as well as a Poor man, if J. O. first took his Oath of Calumny to his Bill, and then made him, according to the Precept of Christ, an Oblatio Libelli, and sent him a Copy of his Bill by his own Letter, before he troubled him with a Chancellor's Subpoena or Letter, and made Use of them only on Probation and declaratory Sentence of Contumacy first obtained; and after that obtained, far fairer dealing it were with J. O. or any Poor man to grant the same Process of Contumacy that a Nobleman shall have against a Poor man, and not put him to the extraordinary cost and incertainty of a Chancellor's Private Letter to a Nobleman, seeing by Law he ought not to receive any Private Letter from him; and such Nobleman ought to be punished by the Civil Law de Ambitu, and by the Common Law for Maintenance, if he send any; and this Justice would prevent Fictions both of Poor and Rich, and bring forth Righteousness and Truth.) The Letter goes on, and says, Wherefore these are to pray your Lordships to give order for the taking out of the Copy of a Bill, and for the putting in of your Answer thereunto, according to the usual course in such Cases accustomed, at or before Octab. Hill. next ensuing. By this Prayer here is a Fiction, that the old Episcopal Chancellor had an Imperial Authority over the Commons, and only Precarious over the Nobles, and was a Fiction, if he derived his Authority from the King, of the weakness of the Royal Power, and of a Dishonour to it, as if it was not able to do Justice to the Commons against the Nobles, as well as to the Nobles against the Commons; if a Sheriff at Common Law should Execute his Praecipe quod reddat, and his Praecipe quod faciat (whereby he is willed by the King to command those against whom those Writs are directed) by writing his humble Letters, when he perceives they concerned Noblemen, to pray their Lordships to do what he was appointed to command, the Law makes him liable to high punishment; and why a Chancellor should not be liable to the same, who commits the same offence, and having the King's Process to command in his hand, will not, or dares not administer Equity by the same equal Process, to his Majesty's Subjects both Poor and Rich, appears no reason, or rather an higher, Quanto Major qui peccat habetur, by how much greater the Power of a Chancellor is, extending to a Kingdom, than of a Sheriff confined to a single Country. The next in the Letter is, Nothing deubting but that your Lordship will have the care and regard which appertaineth, (but another man may doubt whether he spoke Truth or Fiction,) He concludes well, if not in Hypocrisy, I leave your Lordship to the most Merciful keeping of the Almighty, from Saint A. the 9th. of May, 1654. 
 Your very loving Friend, J. P.  

Prolixity caused by Fiction.  The Bill in Chancery for want of the Oath of Calumny is known to be commonly a Pack of Lies from beginning to the end, which is full of infinite Mischiefs, and destructive to all Justice, and makes it of such immense Prolixity, (for Lies may be infinite, but Truths are few and short) that it compels the Answer to be longer than itself; for every Lie must be Answered as well as the Truth; and by reason of such Prolixity, neither the Chancellor, as he ought to do, will take the pains to read, nor the Council to be instructed in either; but the Truth like a Grain of Mustard-feed thrown into an heap of Tares, is lost, and impossible to be found; and Sentences and Decrees passed both Interlocutory and Final, without the least Merit of the Cause Started, Stated or Debated.  
The Process of the Chancery is almost as mischievous a Fiction, as the Outlawry at Common Law, which is the Commission of Rebellion, that on non-appearance, the most Loyal Subject that is may be Feigned, Proclaimed and Imprisoned as a Rebel; so the Chancellor needs nothing but a Fiction to elude Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right, and an Hundred Acts of Parliament more if they were made to that purpose, to which the Fiction is point blank contrary and destructive, and as inconsistent with all the Fundamental Laws of Liberty and Propriety, as Darkness with Light; yet is there no necessity of it at all: for where it is not necessary to take the Defendants Oath, but the Plaintiff can prove his Bill by Witnesses, full Justice may be done either by Missio in Possessionem, where the Action is Real, or where it is to stop Suits by the English Injunction or Scotch Suspension; and where the Defendants Oath is necessary either for Discovery or Probation on proof made of the Bill, and of the Countumacy and Sentence Declaratory, a Capias may be awarded against the Defendant, as after a Judgement passed.  

Fictions of Latitats.  If we go to the Common Law Process, that is as bade infected with Fictions as the Court of Conscience. The Latitat is a mere Lie; first it supposeth a Bill of Middlesex to precede, where there is no such matter; then the Defendant is slandered Latitare & discurrere, when he lives as openly as any of his Neighbours, and never stirs from his home; the suggested Latitations are therefore Lies: Then it saith, De placito Transgr' Ac etiam; for if the Ac etiam be true of Debt, than it is false as to Trespass; for there can be no Joindure in Action of Debt and Trespass in the same Writ; and so the Kings-Bench ought to have no Jurisdiction of Debt, notwithstanding this Fiction, except on a Writ of Error, which is, upon the matter, confessed by Coke himself, though he was Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench; for he saith, 4. part, 76. In former times some ill disposed Clerks of the Kings-Bench, because they could have no Original returned out of Chancery for Debt in that Court, they would Sue out an Original Action of Trespass, a mere feigned Action returnable in this Court, and so proceed to Exigent; and when the Defendant appeared, the Plaintiff would waive all the former Proceeding, and file a Bill against the Defendant for Debt; which, he saith, deserveth severe Punishment according to the Statute of Westm. 1. cap. 29. If the Kings-Bench therefore ought not to entertain the Fiction of a Trespass from the Chancery, to hook in the Jurisdiction of Debt with it, but the Practice ought to be severely punished; why doth that Court allow itself the Fiction of a Trespass in a Latitat, to hook in the Ac etiam Jurisdiction of Debt, and not severely punish the same? 
Acts of Parliament eluded by Fictions.  according to the Censure of their own late famous Chief Justice Coke in a stronger Case, when the Fiction comes from the Chancellor under the great Seal itself. Or why should a Chief Justice be suffered to elude Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and all other Fundamental Laws of Liberty and Propriety, and starve and rot the Poor Subjects in Prisons on mere Fictions of Latitats, more than a Chancellor ought to be when he pleaseth by the Fictions of his Commissions of Rebellion, seeing both Latitats and Commissions of Rebellion are both point blank contrary to the Fundamental Laws of Liberty and Propriety?  

Fictions of Summons served.  Then, the Original Summons in the Common-pleas, which should by Law issue before the Capias and Outlawry, is usually by Fiction of the Clerks taken out as of a former Term, and Antedated, the Sheriffs Returns upon them forged, the Returns of the Exigend and Proclamations forged, the Outlawry forged; Crimes in Clerks and Attorneys, which, if a Law were published for it, deserves death. So a Clerk will Outlaw any man in an hour, as well as a Twelvemonth, and this he doth by Fiction, and as he calls it, of Course; and all those Acts of Parliament which have been made, or will be made, against the secret Stealing out of Outlawries, are to no purpose, and every Clerk derides and eludes them by Fictions of Course, and will do, unless all Fictions in all Actions, and all Outlawries in Civil Actions are clean taken away, root and branch.  

Fictions in Trespass.  Then for the Action of Trespass, 'tis full of Fictions; it makes a Clausum fregit, where there is neither Hedge nor Ditch, nor other Enclosure; my Lord Coke indeed says, There is one in the Eye of the Law; but I am sure there is none in the Eye of the Gosp●●●; then there is a Fiction of a Vi & Armis in the Trespass, though a Woman, or a Child, or a Sheep, or a Lamb do it. Then a Fiction is made of a Continuando of the Trespass, when the Trespasses were all severally committed, with intervals between each Trespass; then because the Writ-maker will be sure to run as far beyond the Truth as he can, he will conclude with the Fiction of Alia enormia ei intulit, though the Lamb did nothing there, but what was scarce enough to make it a Trespass, 
Fictions of Transitory Actions. Fictions in Trovers.  cat some of the Grass. Transitory Actions are Fictions and great Abuses.  
A Trover is properly an Action of the Case, which a man may have against another for Finding, and detaining from him of his Goods so found; as for his Hawk reclaimed with her Bells, for his Gold-chain, Purse of Money, Box of Writings lost and found by another; and the Declaration is, Bona praedicta casualiter amisit Quae quidem bona & Catalla ad manus & possessionem praed' A devenissent, yet do they use to bring this Action where there was never any casual loss of the Goods, nor finding of them by the Defendant; as, an Action of Trover may be brought by the Master, for Money which a Servant, sent with Corn to Sell for him received on Sale of the Corn, M. 40, & 41. Eliz. B. R. Holiday & Higs, yet here is neither casual losing or finding of the Corn or Money; And it may be brought for Twenty Pooks of Corn, Tr. 38. Eliz, C. B. Price, versus Sir Walter Sands, yet such Goods standing after Reaping, in the same Field where they grew, cannot be said to be lost when they are taken away, nor found by the Trespassor who took them, any more than if he had taken them before Reaping; so a Trover is brought for an Hundred Load of Wood, and Forty Beech-Trees, No. lib. intra 41. S. 33. which quantity cannot be said to be casually lost; so they use to bring Trovers for a Cow or an Horse not found, but bought bona fide, not knowing any other owner but the possessor who sold them; and likewise on Goods lent by one to another, for which Goods the proper Action is a Detinue, but they turn the true Action of Detinue, into the false of a Trover, for these two Reasons; one to deprive a Third Person injustly of his lawful Garnishment and Right of Interpleder; the other in this, to do what they use to do in the rest, that is to say, 
Fictions make Judicial Proceeding unintelligible. Fictions in Ejectments.  to make Judicial Proceed Nonsense and unintelligible, that in so dark a Mist of Ignorance on the People, they may judge what they please unperceived; and this they may do with greater security than Latin, for Latin is intelligible to some, but Fictions and Nonsense to none; and all this is caused by neglecting the Oath of Calumny.  
The General Trial of Titles by Lease of Ejectment is likewise by Fictions in the Verge; Coke says, 2. part, 548. there can be no Suit, except one Party at least be of the King's House, yet Suits are there, though all Parties are strangers, which must be by Fictions.  
An Obligation made beyond Sea cannot be Sued in England, as saith Perk. 25. & 95. &, 
France by Fiction brought into England.  Bro. Obligation 70. & Dr. & Stud. 63. but Coke Com. 261. b. g. saith, It may be alleged to be made in quodam loco vocat' Bordeaux, in France, in Islington, in the County of Middlesex, and there it shall be Tried. So though in matter of Life, of highest concernment in High-Treason, by adhering to the King's Enemies beyond Sea; it is certain saith Coke, such adherency without the Realm must be alleged within the Realm, Coke Com. 261. And before the Statutes of 33. and 35. H. 8. etc. they used to allege Treasons committed beyond Sea, to be committed within the Counties in England, where the Lands forfeited lay, though it was done on Oath, ib. & Stamf. 90. but this was in time of Popery, when they could easily dispense with Oaths, and take away not only men's Estates, but Lives by Fictions; I hope such Popish Fictions will no longer be suffered in Protestant Courts of Justice.  
Coke saith, From the taking away of Oaths for the truth of the cause of Essoin, by the Statute of Marlebridge, cap. 12. there arose after Fourcher per Essoin by several Tenants alternis vicibus, and making false Essoins ultra mare, all endeavoured to be taken away by Westm. 1. cap. 43. & 44. but when a mischief comes by making an ill Law or Statute, it is never cleanly cured by after Statutes of Explanation or Limitation, without clean repealing again the Statute which causeth the mischief; additions of new Patches to old Garments, making the Rent but worse.  

Fictions in Essoins.  The mischief of Fictions of Husband and Wife to be but one Person, have been sufficiently shown, P. 66, 67.  

Fictions de Plus petitionibus.  In the Common-Law. Declarations the next Fictions, for want of the Oath of Calumny, are de Plus Petitionibus. Conrade 405. saith Olympia triplum condemnabantur qui majorem Summam in libello assignaverant quam reus debebat, but in more ancient times, I find they forfeited only the Tenth part, which with an Oath of Calumny might be now sufficient to restrain the lawless laying of Debt and Damage in their Declarations an Hundred times more than it is, which is very mischievous and dangerous to Defendants, when Plaintiffs pack and bribe Juries, and they happen to misplead, make defaults, or have other Casualties fallen on them, whereby they cannot attend their Suits. Dr. cowel says, The Civilians are in no danger de Plus Petitionibus, by reason of certain Cautelous Clauses they ordinarily have at the end of every Position, or Article of their Libel or Declaration, to this effect, Et ponit conjunctim divisim & de quolibet, & detali, & tanta quantitate vel summa, qualis & quanta per Confessionem partis adversae vel per probationes Legitimas in fine litis apparebit, and again in the conclusion of all, Non astringens se ad singula probanda sed petens ut quatenus probaverit in praemissis, aut eorune aliquo, eatenus obtineat. But Civilians and Canonists make their Laws like Juglers-knots to tie with one finger, and untie with the other, they make a great noise of their Oath of Calumny, and the Plm Petitionibus, and by these secret Clauses in their Libels, make it all again to no purpose.  
All the Common Law Writs of Questus est nobis, are now grown Fictions; and Declarations Licet saepius Requisitus, are likewise Fictions, whereby men are surprised by Arrests before any Demand made; the Ind producit sectam in the end of the Plaintiffs Declaration is now turned a Fiction, which was heretofore a legal proof of Witness, produced to prove his Declaration, for the better Caution against the false Calumnies of Plaintiffs; the former Taking of Pledges of the Plaintiff, is now turned to a Fiction of Plegii de prosequendo, John Do and Richard Roe, the Counter-pledges exacted of the Defendant, are now turned to a Fiction; John Den, and Richard Fen.  

Courts of Justice compel to Fictions and Falsities.  It doth not satisfy Courts of Justice to tolerate Fictions and Falsity, but they compel to them; as, the Defendant shall be compelled to give colour; a mere insensible Fiction and Lie, he shall be compelled at Common Law to answer Negatively or Affirmatively, as if he were Omniscient, and shall not be permitted to say Dubito, or Ignoro, though Juries of greater number may all say Ignoramus; he shall be compelled to a Plus petitio, to avoid a Variance between his Obligation and his Declaration, as Bro. Confess. 37. If a man Sue an Obligation for Ten Pounds, and the Defendant confesseth all except Forty Shillings, whereof he showeth an Acquittance, the Plaintiff prays Judgement, and says nothing of his Acquittance, for if he confess it, his Writ should have abated.  

Fictions of Acts made the first day of the Session.  If an Act of Parliament come before them to judge, when it was made, they will judge it by Fiction, to be made the first day of the Session.  
33. H. 6.17. the Case was this, In the Exchequer-Chamber, Fortescue Rehearsed how the Parliament last passed, made a special Act against John Pilkington Esq for the Rape of a Woman out of N. etc. and Rehearsed the effect of the Act, and how by the same Process was granted to be made to the Sheriff of E: to make certain proclamations in a Ville, that the said John ought to appear before the Lords at W. at a certain day, etc. to answer to the Trespass contained in the said Act, etc. and if he would not, that then he should be attaint of the Trespass, and pay a certain Sum to the Party, etc. and that the Proclamations were accordingly made and returned into Chancery, and the said John made no Appearance, etc. and after the said John was taken, and in the Kings-Bench, committed to the Marshals-Ward for certain Causes, on which a Transcript of the Act, and a Mittimus was sent out of the Chancery directed to us, etc. whereupon the Marshal was charged with him for the same Condemnation contained in the Act, and the said Prisoner comes now and alleges by his Council, That the Act of Parliament is not sufficient, and therefore prays to be discharged, etc. for the Bill being directed to the Commons, passed them well, and was endorsed in this Form, Let it be delivered to the Lords; but whereas the Bill was, That the said John should render himself before the Feast of Pentecost next ensuing; the Lords endorsed the Bill in this Form, The Lords grant, that in case he appear not before the Feast of Pentecost, which shall be Anno Domini, 1452. etc. to wit, at Pentecost next, after the Feast contained in the Bill. And therefore the Lords granted a longer day than was granted by the Commons, in which Case, the Commons ought to have had the Bill delivered back again to them and they to have assented to the Grant of the Lords, which was not done; and therefore such Act of Parliament is void. Fortescue, It seems we ought to intent no otherwise but that the Act is good, for the King hath written to us by his Writ, and hath certified unto us, That the Bill is confirmed by Authority of Parliament. Illingworth Chief Baron, This cannot here be intended as you say; for the Writ which is made only by a Clerk of the Chancery, cannot make an Act of Parliament good if it be vicious in itself, etc. And afterwards he sent for Kirkby keeper of the Rolls, and for Faukes' Clerk of the Parliament. Fortescue Rehearsed the matter to them both; on which Kirkby, Sir, The course of the Parliament is this, etc. But if any Bill is particular, or other Bill, which is first delivered to the Commons and passed, they use to endorse the Bill in this Form, Let it be delivered to the Lords; and if the King and the Lords agree to the Bill without changing it, than they use not to endorse the Bill, but the same is delivered to the Clerk of the Parliament to be Enrolled; and if it be a Common Bill it shall be Enrolled and enacted; but if it be a particular Bill, it shall not be Enrolled, but Filled on a File, and it is well enough; but if the Party will Sue to have the same Entered for his better Security, it is well enough, it may be Enrolled; and if the Lords will alter the Bill, that which may stand with the Grant of the Commons shall not be delivered back to them; as, if they will grant Tonnage and Poundage for Four Years, and the Lords grant them only for Two Years; this shall not be redelivered to the Commons, because 'tis consistent with their Grant; but if Vice Versa, the Commons grant for Two Years, and the Lords for Four, than the same must be redelivered to the Commons for their Assent, etc. Faukes, Sir the Case was thus, The Bill was put into the Commons after the Feast of Pentecost, which was in Parliament time, and the intent of the Bill was, That the Proclamations should last till the Feast of Pentecost than next ensuing, which was Anno 1452. but every Bill of Parliament shall have Relation to the first day of the Session of Parliament, though it be put in at the latter end; therefore the Lords granted according to the intention of the Bill. Prisot, Are you certain that the Bill was delivered after the Feast of Pentecost which was in Parliament time, or not? Faukes, Truly, I do think so, etc. Markham, Do you use to make enrolment of the Day, when you first receive the Bills. Faukes, No Sir. Markham, Verily this is a Perilous thing, for the Court of Parliament is the Most High Court the King hath, and it were well done, if every Act and Thing there done, which is material, and reason of it, were Enrolled, etc. For in this Case, if the Bill passed the Commons and the Lords in the manner aforesaid, before the Feast of Pentecost, than the Act is void, because of the variance of the Endorsement of the Day by the Lords, etc. From the Bill, etc. And it was not redelivered to the Commons, but it was delivered after the Feast of Pentecost; than it seems they are agreed, for all is one day; wherefore this matter cannot determine one way or the other by your Record, who are the Clerk, etc. And now we can give no other credit to what is said, but that the Bill was delivered the first day of the Parliament, etc. Fortescue, This is an Act of Parliament, and we will be well advised before we make void any Act of Parliament, and peradventure the matter ought to rest till the next Parliament, and then we may be certified by them of the certainty of the matter; but however, we will be well advised what to do, etc.  
This Fiction and the Inconveniences of the same, are very well Reform by an Act of Parliament of Scotland. Jac. 6. P. 7. Cap. 121.  
FOrsameilk as it is understand to the King's Majesty, and Threé Estaites of Parliament, that oftentimes Doubts and Questions arisis touching the Proclamation of the Acts of Parliament, and Publication thereof, it being sometime alleged by the Liege's, that they are not bound to observe and keép the samin as Laws, nor incur  pains contained therein, quhill the same be Proclaimed at the Mercat Croces of the head Burrowes of all Schires. For remeding of quhilkis Doubts in time coming: It is Statute and Ordained be our Sovereign Lord and Estaites of this present Parliament, That all Acts and Statutes of Parliament maid at this time, and shall happen to be maid at onie time hereafter, shall be Published and Proclaimed at the Mercat Croce of Edinburgh, only quhilk Publication, our Sovereign Lord and Estaites, foirsaidis, decernis and declaris, to be als ratiable and sufficient; as the samin were Published at the head Burrowes of the hail Schires within this Realm; And alswa declaris the hail Liege's to be bounden and astricted to the obedience of the saides' Acts as Laws Forty Days after the Publication of the samin at the said Mercat Croce of Edinburgh being bypast.  

Fictions of Members of Parliament, Resident and Native.  By the Statute of 1. H. 5. cap. 1. It is Enacted, That the Knights of the Shires which from henceforth shall be chosen in every Shire, be not chosen unless they be Resident within the Shire where they shall be chosen, the day of the date of the Writ of the Summons of the Parliament; and that the Knights and Esquires, and others, which shall be choosers of those Knights of the Shires, be also Resident within the same Shires, in manner and form as is aforesaid; And moreover it is Ordained and Established, That the Citizens and Burgesses be chosen of the City and Burrows, Men Citizens and Burgesses, Resiant, dwelling, and Free of the same City and Burrows, and no other in any wise.  
And as though this were not sufficient for Excluding Foreigners from Elections, It is Enacted further, by 23. H. 6.15. That the Knights of Shires for the Parliament, hereafter to be chosen, shall be notable Knights of the same Counties for the which they shall be chosen, or otherwise, such notable Esquires and Gentlemen born of the same Counties as shall be able to be Knights.  
So by these two Acts of Parliament it is Enacted, None shall be chosen for Knights of Shires but such as are both Residents and Natives of the Shires for which they serve: Acts of most high Wisdom and Justice; but alas, now both Residents and Natives being in practice only turned to Fictions, what defence are they to the Subjects, in what all they have is concerned, the Election of an equal and faithful Representative, against the Two Hundred Thousand Pounds discovered in the Letters of the late Horrible Popish Plotters, to pois on all the Elections of Parliament-men through the Kingdom, by buying of their Places to Papists and their Adherents, Pensioners to Rome and France, to sell the most Protestant King, Religion, and Three Kingdoms, for a Spoil to Foreiners, and to place such Sheriffs as may in tendency thereto, by Fictions of their Returns, that the Freeholders',  major pars totius Comitatus praedict' tunc ibidem existen' jurat' & examinat' Secundum vim formam & effectum diversorum statutorum inde edit' & provisorum Eligerunt A. B. milit' & C. D. milit' infra Comitat' praedict' commorantes, etc. Now if these Knights are not infra Comitat' praedict' commorantes, Residents of the County, and Secundum vim formam & effectum Statutorum, etc. Especially of the 23. H. 6.15. Natives of the County, this Return is Fictitious and False and utterly unlawful, contrary to the Sheriff's Oath, and for which he ought to be punished 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 writ 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 mere 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 mere 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 Judgement. Coke Vind. Law. 26. says. 
Abuses of Fictions to Arrest before Judgement.  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 Nonsuit, the Gentleman notwithstanding could recover as I remember no more than 7 s. 2 d. Cost, yet he lost his moneys, and indeed himself by it, for I know it was the occasion of his utter Undoing; and a man that is Cannibal 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 'tis commonly said, I'll bestow a Bill of Middlesex on such a man to stay him in Town, that I may have his company into the Country when I go down. And I myself was informed by a Sea-Captain, who was a Sufferer in such an Arrest, That there happened 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 happened 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 Pirate, 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 Voyage. 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 Scribbling of Clerks in false Latin and Court-hand, for their Fees, come to be of higher Authority than the Scripture itself, is strange; for it was never denied, except against Mahomet's Koran, 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 altered, 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 acknowledge and testify to the Honour of their Form of Judicial Proceed, 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 shall Swear.  
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, give they be present in all Causes in the beginning, or he be heard in the Cause, he shall Swear that the Cause he Trowis is good and leill that he shall Plead; and give the Principal Party be absent, the Advocate shall Swear in the Saul of him, after as is contained in their metres.   

Illud juretur quod Lis sibi justa videtur,  
Et si quaeretur verum non insicietur.  
Nil promittetur nec falsa probatio detur,  
 Lis tardetur dilatio nulla petetur.   

Of Judgement before Hearing.  
Part of a satire translated out of Seneca, page 685. on the Sottish Emperor Claudius, who used to Sentence before Hearing.  

Deflete virum,  
Quo non alius  
Potuit citius  
Discere Causas  
una tantum  
Parte audita,  
Saepe & nutra.  
Quis nunc Judex  
Toto lights  
Audiet Anno?  
Tibi jam cedit  
Sede relicta  
Qui dat populo  
Jura Silenti,  
Cretaea tenens  
Oppida Centum.  
Cedite moestis  
Pectora palmis  
O Causidici,  
Venale genus,  
Vosque poetae  
Lugete novi,  
Vosque in primis  
Qui concusso  
Magna parastis,  
Lucra fritillo.   


Weep for the Man,  
All ye who can,  
Than whom none would  
Or sooner could  
A Cause right catch,  
Or it dispatch,  
Though part but one  
He heard, or none.  
A Judge alas,  
Is now an Ass,  
He cannot hear  
In a whole Year,  
Or end a Suit,  
There's such Dispute.  
To thee give place  
Minos his Grace.  
Though he hath Men,  
And Ten times Ten,  
Cities in Crete,  
Who do him greet,  
And with his Laws  
The silent awes,  
Goblins and Ghosts  
With all their Hosts,  
Oh Saleable,  
Lawyers now Yell,  
And likewise you  
The Poets new,  
And you whose pains,  
For easy Gains,  
Causes to haste,  
The Dice did cast.     
It is further mentioned, that when Claudius for this kind of Justice was Arrested in Hell on a Latitat, and many complaints were there made against him by those who were injured thereby, he desired he might be heard to answer for himself, and espying there P. Petronius who had been his Creature while above ground, he humbly requested Aeacus who was the Judge, that Petronius might be of his Council and plead his Cause for him. Petronius having been used to the Trade while alive, very readily Venit & Defendit, Vim & injuriam quando, but Aeacus sharply forbid him to speak, being clear of opinion, that Claudius who had condemned so many before Hearing, aught in Justice to suffer the Talio, and be himself so condemned, he therefore to as many complainants as desired it, gave liberty to lay more Arrests and more Bilbo's on him before Judgement, and to as many as desired Judgements, gave them as many as they would have before Hearing, and to Execute as many punishments as they would; against which, he struggled much to have been heard to answer for himself, yet they thrust such a Gag into his mouth, that he was enforced to suffer many Judgements to pass against him on a Nihil Dicit.  
Now though a feigned Aeacus is to be derided, yet there is a Judge of the World who will not be mocked; and though there are many forward enough to condemn Claudius, yet may there too many if they will but inspect their own Forms of Judicial Proceeding, find themselves guilty of as great if not worse Vices in their Judicatories, than he.   

An Enumeration of divers Forms of Judicial Proceeding, whereby the People are Condemned, and Judgement passed against them before Hearing.  
The First is, When Men are repelled from showing the Truth and Merit of their Cause, and compelled to make their Allegations in Formalities and Fictions.  

A Dispute between two Judges, concerning Formality and Truth in Judicial Proceeding.  
The point of Formality in Judicial Proceed is very well Disputed by two famous Judges, Fitzherbert, and Brook, 14. H. 8.25. b. Where the Case was this, In an Action of Debt brought on an Obligation endorsed with a Condition, to perform all Covenants in an Indenture, between the Defendant and Plaintiff, which Indenture contained Four Covenants, One whereof was, That a stranger should be Clerk to the Sheriff, who was then Plaintiff; and also that the stranger should pay at the Proffers Seventeen Pounds at such a Feast, and Thirty Pounds more at such a Feast, and other Covenants which he Recites; and saith further, That he was a Layman, and not Lettered, and that the Indenture was read to him, concerning no more than the two first Covenants and no other, which two he had paid and performed, and so damands Judgement Si Actio, and says not Et sic non est factum, on which Plea the Sergeants demured in Law. Fitzherbert, I conceive this a good Plea, for by the Law a man is Compellable to no more than only to show the matter of his Case in Truth and good Sentence, and if the Parties in their showing cannot agree, then to join Issue upon the matter of Fact on which they differ, and put it on Trial of the Jury, and then the Judge, on the Truth of the matter of Fact found, shall adjudge what is the Law; and here it seems the Defendant hath shown in Truth and good Sentence, for he hath shown he was a Layman and not Lettered; and that only two of the Covenants in the Indenture were read unto him, and no more; and I think he is only bound to perform what was read to him, and so the Obligation to be good for the same, and void for the Residue which was not read; and I find it adjudged, 47. E. 3. where one was bound to an ignorant Layman, who was not Lettered in an Hundred Pounds to be paid at several days of payment; and at the first day the Obligor made due payment for what was then to be paid, and the Obligee made him an Acquittance of the first Sum, and in the end of the Acquittance was added a general Release; and of this, only that part was read to the Obligee which was an Acquittance of the first Sum, but the part which mentioned a general Release was not read; and this matter was pleaded in an Action of Debt after brought against the Obligor, and it made the Acquittance which was read good, and the Release which was not read void, and so the Deed was adjudged good for part, and void for part; and it would be a great Mischief if it should be otherwise, for in the same Case, if the Deed should be void in whole, than the Obligor should lose all the Money he paid, and if it should be good in the whole, than the Obligee should lose his Obligation, which were unreasonable that any man should be deceived by his Ignorance of the Fact, though he may by his Ignorance of the Law. And here the Defendant being bound to perform two of the Conditions in the Indenture, which were read to him, he cannot plead non est factum, for that would be a Lie, and contrary to the Truth, of his own confession; therefore seeing he hath pleaded the Truth in good Order and good Sentence, and concludes Judgement, Si Actio, I think he cannot plead or conclude in any better Form. And Brudnell agreed with Fitzheabert.  
Brook, Ch. Justice. I conceive the contrary, and that the conclusion is not good. And Sir, as to what is said, that the Law is no other, but that a man shall Declare his matter in Truth and good Sentence; the Law is more than so, for without Formality the same is nothing worth; as the Form of Law is, a man shall show his matter without Duplicity of Multiplicity, yet may matters more than one be True and in good Sentence, but they want Formality, and therefore are nothing worth, and a Form ought to be used, or otherwise all things will be in confusion. So in Trespass, the Defendant ought to give a colour of Right to the Plaintiff, yet the colour is not true, nor the Sentence the better, but it is the Formality which is required; and Formality is the chiefest thing in our Law, and though the matter in the present Plea appears in Truth and good Sentence, yet here wants Formality, for he ought here to have concluded not Judgement Si Actio, but Sic non est facium, for I conceive, in regard only two Convenants of the Indenture were read to him, and there were more Covenants not read, that the whole Indenture is void, and it is Fraud in the Obligee. And Pollard agreed with Brook that it was no good Plea, and that the whole Indenture was void. But to this Fitzherbert and Brudnell might have replied, that admit the whole Indenture had been all void in Law for the Fraud in part, and the Defendant might Rigore Juris Plead it, yet Quilibet potest Renunciare juri pro se introducio, if the Defendant was more merciful than the Law, and his Conscience would not suffer him to use Summum jus, but doth assent to perform those Covenants were read to him; is it therefore Reason or Conscience that the Plaintiff for his good Nature and Courtesy, should return him Evil for Good, and put the Burden of all the Covenants on him, because he would perform any when he needed perform none, if he would have pleaded in a Form against his Conscience, and that Truth ought to be preferred before Fiction and Formality? But I leave the Merits of the Cause to others to Censure, and shall only upon the whole Dispute, take th●se Observations,  
(1.) It appears by the Case, that there are but Four Judges in the Court, and they are divided Two against Two, Fitzherbert and Brudnell for Truth against Fiction, and Substance against Formality; and Block and Pel●ard for Fiction against Truth, and Formality against Substance, whence is shown, that there have been, and are many good men Judges, and other Professors of the Law, who with all their their Power, Desire, and long to remove those Abuses of Fictions, Forms, and other Irregularities, which are Reproaches on the Practisers; but should they afflict themselves to death, can do nothing, if equipoised or overpoised by the other Party, therefore they ought not to be imputed to those who are not guilty, but the consideration of them ought to be left to the Legislative, which hath Power to Redress them when they please with a word, and shall give account to God if they neglect the same.  
(2.) It may be observed how many Contentions arise about a petty piece of Formality, when there is none about the Substance; which is acknowledged by Coke himself, Com. Lit. 303. whose words are these: When I diligently consider the Course of our Books of Years and Terms, from the beginning of the Reign of Ed. the Third, I observe that more Jangling and Questions arise upon the manner of Pleading and Exceptions to Form, than upon the matter itself, and infinite Causes lost or delayed for want of good Pleading; by which he means, Formality hath destroyed infinite good Causes, which is a most horrible thing to be Tolerated in any Government.  
(3.) The next thing observable is, The great Ignorance of Court's themselves, in their own Formalities, for they have continued by Coke's confession, Jangling and Wrangling about them ever since Edward the Thirds time, and are yet never the wiser, nor any perfect Form invented or settled by them; they are still ever Learning and never come to the knowledge of Truth, and so will be to Doomsday, if they are not by God sooner called to Account of their Stewardships, and this point of Ignorance in their own Formalities, is further confessed by Coke in another place, where he saith, It were to be wished, that Littleton had writ something concerning Plead, which shows, he was but a wisher or woulder at it himself, for whom, if he had been able, it had been far more proper to have writ a perfect Form of Judicial Proceeding, than to wish the same had been done by one dead Hundreds of Years before, and if he could have had him alive, 'tis likely he was as much to sack as himself; for he could not write any directions concerning it to his own Son, though it was a point above all other which he desired he might Learn; and in respect of which, his Tenors were but Trifles, but he is fain to leave it to him as his other Queries de Dubiis, and a Terra Incognita, where he should g●t Rich Mines of Gold and Silver if he could light on it; in these words: And know my Son, that it is one of the most Honourable, Laudable, and Profitable things in our Law, to have the Science of well Pleading in Actions Real and Personal, and therefore I counsel thee especially to employ thy Courage and Care to learn this. Which yet neither he nor any since ever learned or found out in this Climate, neither is it possible for any to do, unless those very Forms of Actions and Writs are made only Directive and not Coercive, and Liberty given of Commenceing and Disputing Suits on more Solid Foundations of Right, than can be laid on any Forms in the World, especially on such, in which the Courts themselves are Ignorant how to proceed; and their so many divided and contrary Opinions in the Expositions of the Law, have so entangled the cross Threads of their several Clues of unravelled Opinions, that now no Courts unless they clean break them all to pieces, are able ever to get out of their own Labyrinth of Formalities, and are most commonly in the pitiful Condition, wherein Vigelius Dia. Jur. 477. finds his Judge who is Ignorant of the Forms of Judicial Proceeding At nunc, saith he, Cum Judex Litiscontestationis adeoque judicandi ratione sit ignarus sedet inter Advocatos & Procuratores tanquam Asinus inter simias, nescit quando Disputationes in Causa permittendae sunt, quando contra sunt inhibendae, hinc ne necessarias inhibeat non necessarias permittit, & Advocatis in infinitum Disputandi Licentiam concedit, non Semel sed saepius dilationes Dat, easque velex levissima causa. But now saith he, when a Judge is Ignorant how tostate the Point of the Cause, and of the Form of Judicial Proceeding, he sits amongst the Barristers and Attorneys like an Ass amongst Apes, he knows not when Disputes of the Cause ought to be permitted, nor when they are to be restrained; then lest he should restrain the necessary, he lets lose the unnecessary, and casts the Reins on the Pleaders necks to run whither they will, and on every Trisle multiplies Delays: and as the same Author further says, p. 610.  nunc Status Judiciorum nostrorum habet, viginti, interdum Triginta dilationes Dari solent, eaeque ex causis plerumque levissimis, nec ad Pr●bandum solum sed ad Excipiendum, replicandum, duplicandum, triplicandum, etc. Sed & conclusa Disputatione Judex etiam trium vel quatuor, interdum plurium annorum Dilationem sibi sumit ad pronunciandum, etc. n●que two qui reformandis Judiciis praeficiuntur tam Crassos Errores perspi●iunt, sed & si perspiciunt defendere tamen quàm Emendare malunt. Vereor itaque ne juris peritorum eundem quem & Clericorum Authoritas Exitum sit habitura. As now the state of our Judicial Proceeding stands, it useth to give Twenty, sometimes Thirty Dilations, and those on mere Toys, and not only for Probation by Witnesses, but to Except, Duply, Triply, Quadruply, etc. As likewise when the Disputations are concluded, a Judge will delay Three, Four, or more Years, before he will pronounce Sentence; neither do those who are set to preside in Judicial Proceeding see so gross Errors, and though they do, yet had they rather defend than amend them. I fear therefore lest the Lawyers come to the same end which the Popish Judges and Clerks, their Predecessors in their Courts did. It is certain the Soldiers in the late Troubles were so much enraged, that they would have cut all their Fictions and Formalities to pieces, if any would have prescribed them a Form of Proceeding which should be intelligible to them. Now all these Delays rise from Disputes or pretence of cause of them, and all Disputes at Common Law, rise from Formalities; and how can it be otherwise, seeing the Writs on which all Judicial Proceed are founded are nothing but Formalities? and all Demurs and Disputes relate only to the Gist of the Writ, or the Form of the Declaration or Plea which are Relative to the Writ, and there can be never any Demurrer or Dispute at Common Law on the Writ of the Merits of the Cause, which though one Form of Writ will not bear, another may, and all Equity on which the true merit of all Causes depends, is clean Excluded out of all Common Law Courts, because to Judge by Formalities is more profitable, and raises more Contentions than the Merit or Equity of the Cause.  
(4.) It is to be Observed, how contradictory these Formalities are to themselves, and one another, as in the Case of Colour before mentioned, a mere unintelligible piece of Nonsense (for what is more insensible than a Lie or Fiction) yet will they force the Defendant to this Lie, and not to plead the General Issue of Not Guilty, not allow him to plead a Special Issue according to his Case, as a Formality whereby they take the Cause from the Jury to themselves at their Arbitrary pleasure, so as unintelligibly and Arbitrarily, in all other Cases, they compel poor men to take or leave the General Issue at their Fancy, for Formalities so uncertain, as they themselves often contradict themselves, and sometimes they are all divided, what Plea shall amount to the General Issue, and what not, or what ought to be given in Evidence on the General Issue, or what ought to be pleaded specially, and not given in Evidence on it, and frequently spend the whole Term in unnecessary, long, tedious and costly Arguments, de Lana Caprina on Demurrers on both, when if they would give but a Formulary directive, and not coercive, how they would have men plead, men were permitted but to speak the Truth of their Case in such Words and Language as their own Sense and Reason which God hath given to that end, prompts them according to the same, and where it fitted not their Case, to wave it, all this were saved, and the merits of so many good Causes, miserably destroyed for so petty and pitiful insensible Formalities preserved. Coke Com. 282. acknowledges, that by one mistake of giving matters of Justification in Evidence on the General Issue of Not Guilty, the loss of most Causes depends, yet would he and others keep it up still; to what end none can tell, unless to keep the same Pi● open, that so many more Causes might continue perpetually to be lost in it for the gain of Practisers pleading to Juries, before whom it being matter of Fact, they ought not by Law be suffered to speak. And this Rule of not giving in Evidence, but pleading on the Issue Not Guilty, they will force the same man in one end of the same Room to plead his Justification, and not give the same Evidence; and in the other end of the Room to give it in Evidence, and not plead his Justification. As in a Trespass for Battery at an Assizes, If at the Nisi Prius he will plead Not Guilty, and give his Justification in Evidence, That he beat the Plaintiff in his own defence, he loses all. And if at the Crown-side, he who hath beaten and killed a Robber or Thief in defence of his own Life on the Highway, or of his House by Night, plead his Justification, and will not say Not Guilty, and give it in Evidence, be he never so Innocent he loses all; and well he may, when he is to be Judged by those who contradict themselves, and are not able in their Fictions to follow that necessary Rule, Oportet mendacem esse memorem, and forget at one end of the Hall the Formality they Commanded or Prohibited at the other.  
(5.) The Fifth Observable may be, how great a prejudice and danger it must be to the People, to be forced to put all their Estates on the hazard of such Forms as the Judges themselves understand not, nor can agree about, but are in perpetual Contention and Contest for, one with another; and the vast charge they must be at to maintain these Disputes to destroy themselves, which would not be, if Formalities were taken away, and only the merit of the Cause examined in Judgement. Most Noble Fitzherbert the first Flower of Judges which ever sprung in Westminster-Hall, we may thank God for thee from Generation to Generation, who first didst dare with the Sword of Justice oppose the whole World of Enemies to Truth, and to give the monster us Romish Hydra of Formality, and the Devil himself the Father of Lies and Fictions that wound in Judicial Proceed, whereof they shall never be cured.   

(2.) The Plaintiff, especially if a Poor man, is Condemned without Hearing, by being compelled to begin his Suits by the Purchase of Original Writs, and so likewise the Defendant.  
This excludes the Plaintiffs of the Poor out of Courts, and only takes in the Rich. (1.) Because of the remoteness of sending for Writs, the same being the greatest part sent for Hundreds of Miles. (2.) They are limited to so many short Returns, only to multiply unnecessary Fees for Aliases and Pluries, that they are extremely troublesome and costly to the Poor. (3.) The Forms of them are so ticklish, that when got, they are easily abated and overthrown for the miss of a word, a syllable, and often a dash to an half word, not made more clericorum, and often for false Latin. A Writ abates likewise for any default of Form varying from the Register, Omission, variance in order of words, from the order used in Chancery; the following matters are likewise good exceptions to abate Writs, rasure, interlining false Latin (yet they never write true) Omission of the words Vi & Armis, or of the words Contra pacem, Outlawry, Misnaming, a Twice naming of the Person, Misnaming of the Village or Hamlet, Misnaming of Barockshare for Berkshire, Misnaming of the Village, Misnaming of the Person; so variance between the Writ and the Declaration, or Count, in the least toy is a sufficient Exception to overthrow both Writ, Declaration, and Count, 
Hastings & Hasting?.  as 9 E. 4.42, 43. Det by Edward Hastings, and Counts, that he by the name of Edward Hasting?, recovered Land in Ancient Demesne, and One Thousand pounds' Damages, and brings his Action for the Damages; by Three Justices against Five, the Writ ought to abate.  
28. Ass. 52. A Record removed, and a Variance between the Record and the Mittimus, and the Certiorari, for one was H. Green, Just. 
Green and de Green. Molineux Moliney.  and the Writ was Henry de Green; the omission of the word De stopped the proceeding of the Justices. Trespass, the Writ was Molineux, the Protection Moliney, and therefore disallowed for the Variance. 7. H. 6.22.  

Nuper omitted.  Trespass against J. N. nuper de D. in the Protection Nuper was omitted, therefore Variance. 19 H. 48.  
Audita querela upon an Indenture, which was Langa White, the Writ was Lang Whaite, which put the Party to great Cost to get it to be amended. 21. H. 6.7. 7. Port. said an Outlawry was reversed for the Variance between Dockwra and Dockawre. 21. H. 6.7. 
Dockwra Dockawre   
I. In the Obligation the Defendant was named J. M. de M. in the Writ M. was left out, and therefore abated. 38. E. 3.24.  
In Mayhem the Writ was, Contra pacem Nuper Regis, and the Count Contra pacem nunc Regis, therefore it abated. 8. H. 4.21. 2. E. 4.25.  
Amendment 21. A Dispute is whether Wagam and Vagam are a material Variance. 
Wagam, Vagam.   

Count less than the Writ.  A Judgement given in a Writ of Annuity was reversed, because the Writ was, That Twenty-six Marks, Six Shillings, Eight Pence, was Arrear of the Yearly Rend of four Marks, and in the Count Six Shillings Eight Pence omitted, which is a Variance. 9 E. 4.51, 54. Here the Poor man was punished for his Conscience, because he desired less in his Count, than his Attorney had put into his Writ; and it is said there, that is not Misprision of the Clerk to be amendable, because the Count is made by the Party, and not by the Clerk.  
A world of other Abatements of Writs there are, too many to trouble at this time the Reader with, both as to Variances between the Writ and Count, and between the Writ and another Writ, between the Writ and Specialty, between the Writ and Testament, between the Writ, Count, and Specialty, between the Writ and Warrant of Attorney, etc. And the more Writs are abated, and Causes thereby overthrown, the more Money the Courts and Clerks get to send out new; but the more miserably are the Poor by them oppressed, and it were more merciful, in short, to deny them Hearing, than to cause them to hazard and lose all that little they have, and at last not to be Herd. This mischief of Writs was first invented by the College of Priests at Rome, and were called Formulae Juris, which is, little Forms, or diminutives of Forms; the little Forms were those we call Writs, the greater Forms, whereof the lesser pretended to be as the Contents of the Chapters, were, what They called Libels, and We Bills and Declarations. These Formulae though set up by the Priests for their Gain, were contrary to the Law of the Twelve Tribes, in regard Oblatio Libelli being by that Law to precede Vocatio in jus, as before is shown, these Writs or Formulae were useless, and the Forms of Libels were sufficient to direct the People themselves, 
Original Writs abolished by Justinian,  and better than the other which were so rigorous in their punctilios of Formalities,  cadente Syllaba caderet Causa; these Forms therefore of Original Writs of the Priests were totally abolished by Justinian, lib. 2. tit. 58.   

De Formulis & impetrationibus Actionum Sublatis.  
Juris Formulae aucupatione syllabarum insidiantes cunctorum Actibus radicitus amputentur. Dat. X. Calend. Feb. Constantio III. & Constante II. A A. COSS.  
Let Forms of Actions insidiating by hawking at Syllables in all men's Suits, be cut up by the Roots. Baldus Notes on the place, Quia supervacuae Formulae sunt sublatae, & non oportet Actiones à Pontificibus impetrare, sed sufficit eas apertè proponere, and very well against this insidiation of Writs in Words and Syllables, agrees the expression of Isa. 29.21. They make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the Just for a thing of nought.  
The like to this of Justinian was done by that famous King James the Fifth, the great Justitiar of Scotland, where they had formerly their Writs as we have, till they were sick of them, and able to bear them no longer, which was remedied by an Act of Parliament. Jac. 5 p. 6. cap. 75. The words of which Act follow, ordering a Copy of the Libel to the Person or dwelling House.  

The Order of Summounding all Persons in Civil Actions.  

Copy of a Bill or Declaration served in stead of a Writ.  ITem, For eschewing of great Inconvenientes and Fraud done to our Sovereign Lordis Liege's, by Summounding of them at their dwelling places, and oft times falsely and gettis never knawledge thereof, It is Statute and Ordained, That in times coming, quhair  Officiar or Schireffe in that part passes, at Command of the King's Letters, or the sheriffs, Stewards, Baronnes, or Bailies Precept, to Summound  Party, if they cannot apprehend them Personally, they shall pass to the Ȝett or Dure of the principal dwelling place, quhair the Person to be Summonde dwellis, and hes their actual Residence for the time, and there shall desire to have entresse, quhilk give it be granted, they shall first schaw the cause of their coming, and give they cannot get the Party Personally, they shall schaw their Letters or Precept before the Servandes of the House, or other famous Witness, and shall execute their Offices and Charge, and thereafter shall offer the Copy of the saidis Letters or Precept to  of the Servands, quhilk give they refuse to do, that they affix the samin upon the Ȝett or Dure of the People Summouned; and siklike, give they get na entress, they first knockand at the Dure Sex Knocks, they shall execute their Office before famous Witness at the said House and dwelling place, and affix the Copy upon the Ȝett or Dure thereof as said is, quhilk shall be leiful and sufficient Summounding and delivering of the Copy, and the Party and Officiar shall not be halden to give  usher Copy bot at their awin pleasure. And every Officiar in his Indorsation shall make mention of his awin Execution in manner fore said, and the Party at quhais instance the Letter or Precept is direct; shall pay to the Officiar Executor the Expenses of the Copy affixed as said is, and shall be taxed and given again to him the giving of the Decreet or Sentence, give he happenis to obtain. And give the Officiar heis foundin culpable in the Execution of his Office, he shall be put in our Sovereign Lordis Prison, and punished in his Person and Gudes, at the King's Grace Will.   
Coke 4. part 99 saith, The Common Pleas may in many cases proceed against their own Officers by Bill without Writ, and why may not all the Subjects have the same Right, as well as the Officers of the Common Pleas? In London before the Mayor and Aldermen, Debt and Personal Actions are determined by Bill without Writ. City-Law, 3. And so are Assizes of Nuisance, ib. 4. and why may they not by Copy of the Bill be commenced better than by Writ, over all the Kingdom?  

The mischiefs of Original Writs from the Chancery.  Besides the Delays of Original Writs and Process, by remoteness of Courts whither they are to be sent for, and by the multiplications of Aliases and Pluries, and the manifold dangers when gotten and executed, to be again overthrown and nullified by Abatements, for a multitude of frivolous Causes and Formalities, and likewise for so many sorts of Variances as before mentioned; of all which, the Declaration might have been free, if no Writ had preceded: (1.) It is excepted against Writs, that Declarations are not amendable, and it costs many times so much in amending the Misprision of Clerks in their Writs, that the Plaintiff if he is not so poor as not to be able, were better abate his own Writs and Declaration himself, and pay Costs, and buy Twenty new Writs, than get one of the old amended. (2.) Writs Original are altogether useless, except to get Money for nothing. (3.) They are saleable, contrary to Magna Charta, Nulli vendemus Justitiam, and the Civil Law, for Liege Julia tenetur repetundarum, qui accepit aliquid ob Judicem delegatum dandum, mutandum, vel ob non dandum, etc. And what doth a Writ of Right, a Justicies, or any Original do besides, but assign a Delegat Judge to hear the Cause in the Kings-Bench or Common-Pleas, or Lords-Court, or County-Court? Then 'tis contrary to Equity, the Plaintiff should be compelled to buy a Writ, which is not only useless, but pernicious to his Declaration, and puts it in ten times more danger to be overthrown, than if he might, as he ought, be permitted to use it without a Writ, and the Plaintiff being to deliver a Copy of his Declaration, Expensis Actoris, to the Defendant, 'tis no reason he should be at any expense to pay Clerks for Writs impertinent. (4.) As to the Writ in Chancery, of Subpaena, 
Mischiefs of the Chancery Writ of Subpaena.  which is to be distinguished from the Writs to the Common Law Courts, it is contrary to Magna Charta, Nulli negabimus Justitiam; for if a Poor man Sue a Nobleman there, a Chancellor will deny a Poor man his terrible Writ, which he uses to grant under a Hundred Pound Penalty, in Terrorem Pauperum, and he shall get no more of him, if he do that, at a greater price than the Writ would have cost, but a poor begging Letter to the Nobleman, to send his Answer to the Complaint against his Oppression; which is no other, than to bring into England the old Slavery of Rome, whereby no Slaves were permitted to Sue their Lords before the Praetor, or any other Judge, were their Tyranny over them never so great and unjust. What a wretched dishonour is it to Public Justice, which heretofore was blind to the Person, that she turns now blind to the Cause, and who heretofore carried the Sword in her hand, Parcere Subjectis & debellare superbus, to have now lost her Sword and got a Crutch, to become only a blind Beggar when she is to approach the Gates of Nobles? neither is there any Law of God or man in England, to justify a Chancellor, that he shall presume to use a different process of Concumacy against the Commons, 
Chancellor hath no Power to Imprison Commons any more than Lords.  which he dares not use against the Lords; for if it be not lawful for him to Issue Attachments or Commissions of Rebellion against the Lords, or to imprison them; then is it not lawful for him to Issue Attachments or Commissions of Rebellion against the Commons; for both are equally Interested in Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right, not to be imprisoned without the lawful Judgement of their Peers, and they being both Allies and Confederates by the said Acts to maintain the Commons Liberty; 
The Liberty of the Commons is the Out-work which preserves the Liberty of the Lords.  if the Commons be Invaded, though for the present such Invasion touch not the Lords, yet when it hath destroyed the Liberty of the Commons, the Lords will not be able to defend theirs, when their Allies are lost.  
The Liberty of the Commons is the Outwork which preserves the Liberty of the Lords, the Liberty of the People is the Outwork which preserves the Liberty of the Parliament, the Liberty of the Subjects is the Outwork which preserves the Safety of the King; and as Solomon saith, Prov. 20.28. Mercy and Truth preserve the King; and if contrariorum contraria est ratio, Cruelty and Fictions of Writs of Subpoena's in Chancery, Latitats in Kings-Bench, and Capiases without Summons in Common-Pleas, wherewith they abuse the King's name in false imprisonments of his Subjects without Crime or Cause, destroys the prisonments of his Subjects without Crime or Cause, destroys the Safety of the King himself; and in a Case between the Duke of Lenox and the Lord Clifton, M. 10. Jac. Though a Lord was not to be Committed for Contempt in a Poor man's Case, yet in this Case between two Lords, Chancellor Egerton said, If Noblemen will commit Contempts, they are to be Committed. Now that the Imperial Power which hath been usurped by Chancellors, to imprison the Freeborn Subject Arbitrarily at their pleasure, is contrary to the Acts of Parliament, both of Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right, so late in memory, which abolish all Imprisonment both of Nobles and Commons, without the lawful Judgement of their Peers; so likewise is it contrary to all other Fundamental Laws of the Land, made for defence of the liberty of the People, which is more necessary and more dear than Life, as may appear by the Reasons following, (1.) There is an Act of Parliament made, 15. H. 6. cap. 4. That none shall Sue a Subpoena until he find Surety to satisfy the Defendant his Damages if he do not verify and prove his Bill to be true, this Statute had nipped in the Bud the Overflow of all those innumerable Fictions and Falsities, which have since followed in the Suggestions of Bills in Chancery; for this being made, 15. H. 6. there is no mention made in all the Year-Books, of any quarrel between the Common-Law-Judges and a Subpoena, till 37. H. 6. which is above Twenty Years after, so great a Fright had this Act falling from the Supreme Power, put amongst the Frogs, though now despised as a dead Log, as likewise are all the rest; and it is in vain to make more, unless the Honour of these is vindicated by the same Authority that made them; for Chancellors, as if Jura negant sibi nata, they were two-great to be bound by Acts of Parliament, though they have not the least pretence to colour their Authority against these Three, the greatest Acts for Security of the Subjects against false Imprisonments, that ever were made in England, for there is no Prescription or Custom of any Court can be alleged against an Act of Parliament, be it never so old; and there is no Pretence to allege any against the Petition of Right, 
Chancellor hath no Authority to impose a Fine.  being in so fresh memory; and no longer since, than 3. Car. 1. they have trampled under soot the Authority of these Supreme Acts, and all lawful Judgements on them. (1.) To lay Fines on the Subject, thus Trin. 3. Jac. did Chancellor Egerton impose a Fine on Sir Thomas Themilthorp, for not performing his Decree concerning Land of Inheritance, and Estreated the same into the Exchequer; and upon Process against him, the Party appearing pleaded that the Chancellor had no Authority to impose a Fine; the Attorney General Petiit advisamentum Curiae, concerning the Authority of the Chancellor, and on mature advice, It was adjudged, That he had no Power to Fine in the Case, Coke 4th. part, 84. (2.) To Extend; according to which pretended Power, the said Chancellor Decreed against Waller certain Lands, and for not obeying the Decree imposed a Fine, and upon Process out of the Court of Chancery extended the Lands that Waller had in Middlesex, whereupon Waller brought his Assize in the Court of Common-Pleas, where the Opinion of the whole Court agreed in omnibus with the Court of the Exchequer, ib. (3.) Not only to proceed to Imprison the Subjects on false Suggestions, without taking any Surety of the Complainant, according to the Statute, to verify his Bill, but without so much as taking his Oath of Calumny to his Bill, and have further presumed so high, as by their Edicts and Orders of Chancery (which they have not the least Authority to make) to order the Subjects to be Attached and Imprisoned on every Affidavit of any Knight of the Post, and no Probation to be admitted to the contrary; and if while the Innocent Party is imprisoned, being remote from his Home, and suffering great Loss and Damage by this his false Imprisonment, he shall at length offer to prove the Affidavit false, and Knight of the Post perjured, he shall be discharged, but without any Cost, for the great Service the Knight of the Post did the Court to Forswear himself against the Prisoner, whereby they get some Fees: See here, a Chancellor, in desiance of Three Acts of Parliament, without any Sureties, without any Oath of Calumny, without any Judgement of Peers, publisheth in sight of the Sun his abominable Orders, to cast into Prison the most Innocent Person on the false Affidavit of every Perjured Knight of the Post, yea a single Affidavit, as appears by the Orders of the Chancellor and Master of the Rolls, Printed 1669. Page 67. and yet they pretend Page 65. under the Title of Commitment, that they are tender of the Liberty of men's Persons, and of their Imprisonments on Affidavits, and confess they are often Malicious, and made by one mean and ignorant Person; yet in the same breath, Page 67. as if they soon forgot, or understood not what they said, in the beginning of their Order, they, the next leaf conclude, That a single Affidavit of such a malicious, mean, and ignorant Person, yea though he is proved afterwards to be Perjured, shall be sufficient to Imprison the Innocent Subject; and when he again gets out of Gaol, if he can let the Innocent Party be endamaged his whole Estate, he shall not have a Farthing Cost for the false Imprisonment; and observe the depth of the Reason why, given by a Chancellor, and (as the Printed Orders say) with advice and assistance of the Master of the Bolls. 'tis this, as appears Page 68 at the top of the leaf, viz. IN RESPECT OF THE OATH MADE AGAINST HIM AS AFORESAID, that is to say, the Oath, though false, of a Villain Perjured, against the Innocent Person; for so is the implication of the Order, and likewise, though they durst not say so in express terms, yet so is the implicit Non Obstante, notwithstanding any Law of God or Man, or Acts of Parliament to the contrary. Doth not here a Chancellor assume the Omnipotent Power of the Pope, to dispense with the Laws of God and Men, and assume a Power of Imprisoning the Subjects above the King and Parliament, yea contrary, and in contempt of their Laws? he doth; for the Law of God and Precept of Christ is known to prohibit the Imprisonment of any, 
No Imprisonment ought to be, but where the Witnesses and Party are brought Face to Face.  without two Witnesses at least, and without bringing the Witnesses and the Party accused face to face, that he may know them, and except against their Persons or Testimony if he hath cause, which is never done on an Affidavit. And the Laws of the Land, Magna Charta, and Petition of Right, utterly prohibit all Imprisonment of the Subject on Affidavits, whether they are true or false, without bringing the Witnesses and the Party face to face, and a Judgement on such Testimony against him by his Peers; and if such Evil Precedents be suffered to pass without some example of Justice shown on them, all Acts of Parliament which ever have been or shall be for protection of the Liberty of the Subject, 
Forgery Licenced in Chancery, thereby to Imprison the Subject falsely.  will be vain and to no purpose. (4.) The Chancellor in the said Chancery-Orders, Printed 1669. presumes to do in the Court of Conscience, what was never heard of to be done in the Courts of Turks, Infidels, or the most Barbarous Judicatories in the World; for he is not ashamed publicly to give Licence to Cursitors and their Clerks to commit Crimen Falsi, which we call Forgery, by Antedating Writs, taking them out of Returns past, or of a former Term; by reason of which Forgery of Writs, and Forgery of Returns, Antedated Capiases, Proclamations, Exigends, and Outlawries Antedated have been likewise Forged, and Thousands of Poor men unjustly cast in Goals, and miserably undone, without any Summons or Hearing; and these are likewise the damnable effects of the Chancellors Writs, by which, as by others, the Plaintiffs, so here the Defendants, are destroyed without Hearing; and certainly these Crimes of Antedating and Forgery of Judicial Acts, though here Licenced by Orders of Chancellors, and Protected by Courts, by not Licensing Averments against them, are by the Civil Law, and Laws of Scotland, and of many other Nations, both of these, and Instruments, Death; and even by our own, the imbeselling of a Record by a Clerk, and Counterfeiting of Fines, is Felony; and, if the second time, so is the Forgery of Deeds. Writings, and Court-Rolls; and deservedly, the Offender better deserving death than a Robber on a Highway; and why any Crimes of this Nature should be publicly Licenced to the Ruin of all Truth and Justice, by any Chancellor in his Chancery Orders, is very strange; the mischievous effects of which said Attachments on Affidavit, and Antedating Writs, and Forgery of Outlawries, are notoriously known, and not complained of here without good Cause and Testimony; and some particular experience of my own, to my loss, who have (as well as others) suffered in an high degree by the false Affidavit of a Fellow, who Subscribed and Swore it by a false name, and not his own, and likewise procured a Forged Outlawry antedated against me. 
It belongs not to a Chancellor to be a Judge of Equity in England.  (5.) It belongs not to the Chancellors Office to be a Judge of Equity, or to make Orders, Edicts, Laws, or Writs, and thereby to Imprison the Persons, and dispose of the Lands and Goods of the Subjects Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure. Coke 4. part 82. saith, That all Statutes which give Authority to the Chancellor to determine Offences in Chancery, are to be intended only in the Ordinary Court there, which proceeds in Latin, and is Secundum Legem, etc. and not in any Extraordinary Court which proceeds in English, Secundum Aequum & bonum, and 37. H. 6.14 & 27. H. 8.18. it is Resolved, That the Court of Chancery Proceeding by English Bill, is no Court of Record, and therefore it cannot bind either the State of the Subject's Lands, or the Property of his Goods or Chattels, and therefore they there admit he may Imprison the Person, 
Chancellor cannot bind the Subject's Goods not Persons.  which is not only a Non sequitur, but a contrary conclusion follows on it, for if he cannot bind the Subject's Goods, à Fortiori he cannot bind his Person; For the Life is more than Meat, and the Body is more than Raiment. Luke 12.23. And though those Common Law Judge; of H. 6. and H. 8. so sordidly delivered the Subject Prisoner to the Chancellor, so as they might keep his Lands and Goods to themselves, yet had they no more Law or Right to do it, than they had to deliver him Prisoner to the Turks, or to send him to the Barbadoes; for the Subject is no Slave, neither ought he to be given or sold for one, without his own Assent by his Representative in Parliament; and having so good a Protection against the Chancellors and Common Law Judges, and the Orders and Writs of both, as Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right, both for his Lands, Goods, and Person, they ought to show some greater Laws than their Writs and Orders of Courts, or Forgeries of Clerks, before they presume to invade either. (6.) There being no Law in England which ever Ordained a Chancellor to be a Judge of Equity, or to make Edicts or Orders concerning the same; he can pretend no Title thereto, unless from the Laws of France: and to that effect Polydore Virgil saith, The Chancery came in with the Conquest, to which, though my Lord Coke saith, Perperam Erravit, because the Mirror saith, The Constitutions of the ancient Kings were, that every one should have out of the Chancery of the King, a Writ Remedial for his Flaint without difficulty, yet he himself seems to be in the Error, and not Polydore, for though the name of Chancellor and Chancery was before the Conquest, and divers other Countries use the name of Chancellor as well as England, yet the greatest part of the Writs came from Normandy, and are mentioned in their Customary, as who will peruse it shall find, but as to the Writ of Subpoena, Centum librarum, and Arbitrary Power of the Chancellor, and to be a Judge of Equity, came first from the Conquest, and was never used before, nor did it belong to the Chancellour's Office, either of England or Scotland, that having other employment, and more than a Chancellor could do, though he never troubled himself with Judgement, but left the same to the Judges, to whom the King Delegated the cause by Writ, and this the very name of Chancellor testifieth, who was Originally no other than a Master of Requests to the Prince whom he served, and on Petitions delivered to him by the Subjects, if unfit to be Granted, he struck cross lines over them like Cancelli, or Lettuces, by which he Cancelled them, and thence had his name of the Canceller or Chancellor, as Turn. lib. 11. advers. c. 25. and not according to that Fictitious Verse of his Power, Hic est qui Leges Regni Cancellat iniquas.  
For when was ever any Chancellor in England allowed to Cancel any Roll or Act of Parliament? And when these Petitions for Justice were delivered by the People to this Master of Requests, called the Canceller of such of them as were Evil, such as were Just he Cancelld not, but on behalf of the Petitioner, Granted the Prince's Rescript or Warrant to the Praeses Provinciae, where the cause of Action arose, or the Defendant lived, for Actor Sequitur Forum Rei, which Rescript or Warrant we now call a Writ, containing in itself, (1.) A Questus est nobis, a short recital of the Complaint. (2.) Si A. fecerit te securum, a taking Security or Pledges of the Plaintiff; de Prosequendo. (3.) A Summoneas, or Summons of the Defendant to appear before the Prince himself, or such Judges as he Delegated, though out of the Province or County where he lived, which was the Reason of taking Pledges of the Plaintiff, because he made the Defendant appear many times Hundreds of Miles from his Home, when he might in those days implead him before the Precedent or Sheriff, or Lord of the Barony in his County, unless he excepted Partiality, or other just cause against him. (4.) A taking of Pledges of the Defendant to appear. (5.) To make Return of the Writ; and left Writs should be Counterfeit, the Chancellor was Keeper of the Seal, and Sealed them. It appears by the Lex Julia de repetundis, 
Chancellor not to sell Writs and Copies of Bills and Answers.  that the Master of Requests or Canceller, was not to take any Fees for these Writs, for giving or not giving a Judge out of the Province or County where the Defendant lived, for it was a great vexation and oppression of the People to be Summoned out of the Provinces on malicious Suggestions, without cause; and our own Parliaments in England have often complained against the same oppression here by the Pope, on whose Citations and false Suggestions without cause, men were compelled to give personal Appearances at Rome, as many and as often as he pleased, if any would but buy there of his Officers a Citation; and to prevent this vexatious exaction of Appearances on Writs, of men out of their own Counties, besides the requiring of Pledges on all Common Law Writs, and the enjoining of Pledges to be taken in the Chancery-Writ of Subpoena, as in the Lex Julia, so is it mentioned in Magna Charta, Nulli vendentus nulli negabimus Justitiam vel Rectum, which is intended of a Writ of Right, and all other Writs, whereby Right is obtained; for if the Chancellor were not to take Fees, and sell his Subpoena's and other Writs, he would not so often by them make men Travail through Nine Shires to Westminster (when they may have better Justice done at home in their own County) on no other cause than Fictitious and Malicious Suggestions of the Plaintiff, and that he may take a Fee for the same, and he would Cancel according to his Office more Petitions and Bills than he would Grant; but assoon as Chancellors took Fees for Writs (which Sale of Right, 'tis likely, as Polydore says, came from the French) than no Suit could be begun without Writ, all were driven to Westminster, Parties, Witnesses, and Juries, unnecessarily, and to no purpose but to enrich the Judicatories, and undo the People; in like manner the Plaintiffs and Defendants ought to give one another mutually Copies of their Bills, Declarations, and Pleas, at the expenses of the Giver, which is very small and easy to the Parties, and not to be compelled to buy them of the Chancery, or Common Law Officers; so the Chancellor had neither his Jurisdiction to Judge of Equity, or his Sale of all the Judicial Parts of the same, and of the Law with it, from the Law of England, but A-la-mode de France from the Conqueror, till Magna Charta abolished his Tyranny by the Judgement of Peers, and of his French Comtes, by the 28. E. 1. cap. 8. by which Act that gallant King grants every County the free Election of their own Sheriff, after which the Land was free from the Chancellors Troubling men out of their own Counties by his Subpoena's, till H. 5. Conquered France, by which, as is usual in other Conquests, some Touch of the Diseases and Vices of the Conquered will be returned on the Conquerors, and accordingly in the time of his Son H. 6. the Subpoena and a Chancellor with a Praetorian Jurisdiction pretended of Equity, with Power of making Laws, Edicts, and Chancery-Orders, and Forms of Writs, and to Sentence above all Appeal, all which Powers belonged to the Roman Praetor, of which the French Chancellor was the Ape, and Ours of the French; and this pretended Praetorian Jurisdiction ever since hath grown so much A-la-mode, partly by making Bishops Chancellors, who pretended Supremacy in all matters of Conscience, and had in their hands amongst the Superstitious the flaming Sword and Thunderbolt of Excommunication, partly by their Power, overtopping and overawing the Common Law Judges, and partly by flattering the People with doing Justice in the English Tongue, which was very grateful to them (and would be as grateful now in the Common Law Courts if they could get it) the Chancellors contrary to the greatest Fundamental Laws and Acts of Parliaments of the English, introduced on them a most lawless Arbitrary Power, and Servility of a Foreign Nation, to dispose of their Lands, Goods, Persons, Liberty and Propriety, at their pleasure.  
And what is more, have assumed like the old Romish Praetors the Power of making Laws, Edicts, Forms, Writs, Obligatory to the Subject's Persons, Lands and Goods; for Coke on the Question, In what Text the Common Law is to be found, saith, In Forms of Writs, and Forms of Entries, in Courts of Records. And Bracton saith, Breve ad similitudinem Regulae Juris Formatum. So who assumes the Power of making Writs, Judicial Edicts, Forms and Orders, assumes the Legislative Power, notwithstanding, and above Acts of Parliament, to dispose of the Subject's Liberty and Propriety at pleasure; yet this have Chancellors done, Forming divers Writs in the Register out of their own Heads, Lamb. Archeion. which always are Form for the greatest Profit of the Clerks and Courts which make them, and not of the People, and Episcopal Chancellors have so far in time of Popery deceived Parliaments, that Westm. 2. cap. 24. gives the Clerks of the Chancery as good as Power to make what Writs they will, and the pretence is insinuated by the Clerks, De caetero non recedant querentes à cur' Regis sine remedio, or Ne Curia Regis desiceret in Justitia exhibenda, whereas none who understands the least part of the Forms of Judicial Proceeding there is, who doth not know that the King's Court if he please may do far better Justice, if all the new Writs made by Clerks, and all the old Writs in the Register were made a Bonfire all together, and none but Copies of Declaaations served without them, then 'tis possible to do with them; which Deal gation of Power to Clerks to make Writs, must be void; for the making of Forms of Writs, Edicts, or Orders, is an Act of Legislation; and to give Votes in Legislation, is a Personal Office of Trust reposed by the People in their Representative Elected by them; and by the known Law, no Office of Trust can be Assigned, Granted over or Delegated; if the Parliament therefore please to enact themselves any Judicial Forms or Orders of Proceeding, they ought to be obeyed as Laws; but it would be a great injury to the People, if they should Grant over the Office of Trust in them, to a Chancellor and Clerks never Elected or Entrusted by the People. 
Chancellor of England or Scotland no Praetor.  Let a French Chancellor be therefore what he will, 'tis clear no English Chancellor ought to be a Praetor, Judge, of Equity, maker of Laws, Edicts, Forms, or Orders of Judicial Proceeding, nor any Chancellor of Scotland, the full of the matters of both whose Offices, though they may differ in the Fees, are mentioned Stat. Mal. 2. cap. 2. that is to say, (1.) To Seal Writs. (2.) To Seal the King's Patents, Grants, and Commissions. (3.) Presentations to Churches. (4.) Pardons to such Malefactors as deserve them; which Statute of Malcom 2. cap. 2. follows in these words,  
(1.) Item, They Ordained to the Chancellar the Fie of the Great Seal, that is, for ilk charter of an Hundreth Pound Land, and above that, the Fie of the Seal Ten Pounds, and to his Clerk for the Writing twa Marks.  
(2.) Item, For ane Precept of Suising conform to the charter, to the Chancellar for the Fie of the Seal ane Mark, and to his Clerk twa Shillings.  
(3.) Item, For ane Letter of Attornay or Protection, for the Fie of the Seal Twelve Pennies; and to the Clerk for the writing Thrie Pennies.  
(4.) Item, For ane Brieve closed with Walx, to the Chancellar Sex Pennies, and to the Clerk for writing Thrie Pennies.  
(5.) Item, For are Letter of Remission given by the King for the Slauchter of a man, to the Chancellar 40 Shillings, and to his Clerk for the writing Sex Shillings Aucht Pennies.  
(6.) Item For ane Letter of Presentation to ane Kirk, or to ane Hospital, to the Chancellar 40 Shillings, and to his Clerk for writ●ing Aucht Pennies.  
(7.) But that part of the Office of the Chancellor of Scotland which concerns Original Writs, is since Reform, and all Writs Abolished, except Seven, 
Only Seven Writs left in Scotland.  which Skene de verb. sign. tit Breve recites thus, Bot Seven Forms of Brieves all anerlie are now commonly used, The First, The Brieve of Mortancestrie. The Second, The Brieve of tutory. The Third, The Brieve of Idiotry. The Fourth, The Brieve of Terce. The Fifth, The Brieve of Line, or Lineation of Lands and Tenements within Burgh. The sixth, The Brieve of Division. The Seventh, The Brieve of Perambulation. Quhair of the Three first Brieves are Answered, and retoured again to the Chancellary, and the uther Four receives na retoured Answer. And in all other, Actions, instead of Writs, by an Act of Parliament of James the Fifth, after mentioned, the Defendant ought to be served with a Copy of the Declaration to begin the Suit.  

Only one Writ in Wales for Real Actions. Writs pull men out of their Houses, Beyond Sea.  In Wales, and some parts of the North, they Try all Real Actions by a Quod ei deforc●at.  
(8.) The mischiefs of Writs are, they pull men out of their Houses before Judgement, contrary to the Civil Law; ff. siquis in jus vocatus non ierit l. 21. de Domo sua nemo extrahi debet, which is expounded by Bartolus, Invitus quis de domo non debet extrahi, sed ibi existens potest verbaliter citari, & contra contumacem fit Missio in possissionem.  
(9) Writs help not for any matter rising beyond Sea, unless by Fiction of the place beyond Sea to be in England, so honest men are without Remedy, and only Liars obtain it.  

No Oath of Calumny can be to a Writ.  (10.) No Oath of Calumny can be given of a Writ, whereby it becomes full of Falsities and Fictions, but to a Bill in Chancery or Declaration, an Oath of Calumny may be given, which will purge it from all Falsity and Fiction, if no Writ; but if there is a Writ false, it will compel the Declaration to be false, because it will otherwise be abated for Variance from the Writ.  
(11.) Writs make Declarations to be of double length, and contain two Declarations, one a vain repetition of the other, for 7. H. 6.47. In every Action on the Case, the whole Cause of Action at large aught to be contained in the Writ, for it is not sufficient to have a general Writ and special Count, whereby the Party is compelled to Enter, and the Defendant to Copy a double Declaration of huge length, and often twice as long as a Chancery Bill; and Four Judges on Demurs to have each a Copy, and of the whole Process, to the intolerable Charge of Suitors, and Gains of Clerks and Officers of Courts, though it be but a trifling Action for Words, or the like.  
(12.) Writs must pass the hands of Under-Sheriffs, who often times will delay and betray them as long as the Party will give them Money.  
(13.) The old Writs which are in the Register, and all the new which have been coined or joined by Chancellors or Clerks, are defective and insufficient to supply Justice in the multitude of Cases which happen.  
(1.) Because the greatest part of the Writs of the Register are Antiquated, and never used, but remain as Forms out of Fashion, and matters as unprofitable Lumber.  
(2.) All real Actions are thrown aside; and the truth is, Lawyers are so ignorant how to manage them, that, like the old ●ion in his Den, they draw all their Clients into Chancery, whence Vestig●a nulla retrorsum.  
(3.) The two old Principal Writs of Droit Patent, and Novel Disseisin, the one to determine the Right, the other the Possession; no Lawyer now knows in them to join the Mice, or arraign the Assize, any more than he doth when he talks of Robin Hood to Shoot in his Bow, whereby the two chief Writs, which dispatched more Justice than all the rest, are utterly lost.  
(4.) It is as impossible for a Chancellor and Clerk, though they make in their Officina Brevium a Thousand Forms of Writs more than they have, to fit with them all that want Right, any more than for a Shoemaker in his Officina Calceorum, though he hath a good stock of Shoes ready made, to all the Feet with them which want Shoes; yea more impossible; for the Shoemaker makes his Shoes of soft yielding Leather, his Straps or Buckles open or shut them wider or closer, his Shoeing-horn, Weesel-skin or Fists, draw, pull, and thump them off and on, and many pretty tricks and Instruments he hath to curry, shave, stretch, punch, oil, water, and stand them on the Last, to accommodate them for the Foot, but a Chancellor makes all his Writs of Iron or Latin, and puts in them so many Gravels of Fictions, Falsities, broken Words, Repugnancies, Absurdities, Nonsense, that it kills or cripples any Case to walk from its own Home to Westminster.  
(5.) That there is an intolerable defect in Writs to supply Justice to the People, appears in this, That though all Originals come out of a Court which entitles itself a Court of Conscience and Equity, yet there is not one Writ to Remedy a particular Case of either, nor any Action on the Case, for a Case of Conscience or Equity arising from the Moral Law of God, but all fall down and worship the Themis or Great Idol of the Ceremonial Law of Man, of Livery and Seisin, Fines, Recoveries, inrolments, Writings, Seals, Forms of Entries, Forms of Pleading, Forms of Words, Fictions, and the like, which are not able to give a Right to the least foot of Land or handful of Goods, nor any other Law than the Moral Law of God of Truth and Equity; neither if these Writs were Form according to the Truth and Equity of the Moral Law of God, is it possible a sufficient number should be Form, for Writs are finite, and Cases of Equity infinite, and not to be put in Writs, or written, except by God, in the Fleshly Tables of the Heart, and in the Spiritual Tables of the Soul itself, and Conscience.  
It will be asked, How could they subsist before H. 6. without a Sub paena and Equity from a Chancellor, seeing the Common Law Writs could not supply it; and what expedient is there now how Equity may be supplied? To which I answer, That Equity was then supplied by the Writ of Right, and Justicies, the Titles of both which Writs signify Equity; and likewise other Writs, and the General Issues Form on them, of the Mere Right, Not Guilty, Null Tort, Null dissersint, Nihil debet, guided the Jury to find according to Right and Equity, by the Moral Law of God, and not the Ceremonial Law of Man; till the Judges, to wrest the Power belonging to Jurors into their own hands, brought in the Tender of the Demy mark, to turn the Issue of mere Right into a Possessary Issue, and instead of Truth brought in the Pictions of Colours, destroyed the Justicies by Writs of Remover, gave way to false Laying of Counties in Transitory Actions, changed Venues, granted new Trials, abated Declarations for Variance from the Bond, and not Sueing for what was paid, as well as for what was not, granting Arrests of Judgement after Verdict, and not permitting to demur first to the Law, and after to plead to the Fact before Verdict, prohibited on the Issue Not Guilty, matters of Justification to be given in Evidence, admitted Demurs to Evidence, admitted special Verdicts, caused Juries to be of an even and not of an odd number, and the Verdict not to be according to the Plurality of Votes; and many other ways they had to weary Juries from giving a Verdict according to Conscience and Equity, or when they had so given it, to same.  
I conclude therefore, to compel men to Commence Suits by Writs in the present Age, is to condemn them without Hearing of the Equity and Merits of their Cause; and to compel them to revive again those Ancient Writs, and try Equity by Juries, hath many great inconveniences, before mentioned to be incident to all Writs, especially such as are Antiquated and not understood; but all these mischiefs are salved by Commencing Suits by a Copy of the Declaration Sworn, in stead of a Writ, which cannot be Sworn, and a Judge Commissionated with Jurisdiction of Fact, Law, and Equity, under Appeal, which single Judge in a Court by himself sitting without Vacation, as a Chancellor hath Power to do, will, no doubt, be able to dispatch more Causes without troubling any Writs, Juries, or Council at the Bar, and more justly and under Account in one Year, then 'tis possible for any Chancellor with Plurality of Offices, or Court with Plurality of Judges, Juries, and Council at the Bar, to do in Seven.  
(6.) Men are condemned before Hearing on the Capias Vtlagatum, and Excommunicato Capiendo.  

A satire on a Papist and a Protestant Imprisoned, one on an Outlawry, the other on an Excommunicato Capiendo, against Imprisonment before Hearing.  
A Papist and a Protestant  
Who used, when they met, to Rant  
About the Altar and the Rail,  
Were both together Clapped in Gaol:  
The first was catched by an Outlawry,  
The last whose Conscience did vary  
From Bishops and their Common Prayer,  
As Felon or a false Betrayer,  
Was therefore Excommunicate,  
And put to beg within a Grate.   Pap. 

Brother then quoth the Papist sad,  
Are Protestants too grown so mad  
To have an Inquisition here;  
Who thus can, though no cause appear,  
Forfeit our Goods and Selves at will,  
In Prisons cold to starve and kill  
Before they Hear us? dost not know  
Amongst ourselves it is not so:  
Who by Experience wiser grown,  
Will Inquisition now have none?  
Witness the Rich Venetian,  
And wary Dutch, who late began  
For Liberty against such Lords,  
And Swiss, with their two handed Swords.  
For this Proud Arragon Rebel▪ d;  
And Naples Silk-men hardly quelled,  
And many more abhorred such Tricks,  
Yet are they all good Catholics.  
So Holland justly now prevents  
Imprisonment of Innocents',  
And makes (to help the Poor oppressed)  
Before a Judgement no Arrest.  
Is this the Charta, and of Right  
Petition, for which you fight?  
That every ' Torney and his Clerk  
(Who use to live upon the shark)  
Forge all the Outlawries they please,  
Remedies worse than the Disease,  
And, that Poor men may be betrayed,  
First Forge the County where 'tis laid?  
They Forge and Antedate the Writs  
Of Parchment cut in little Bits,  
Than next they Forge the Sheriff's name,  
And Forge Returns upon the same:  
They Proclamations Forge and Feign,  
And Exigends next without pain;  
And all this Knavery you may spy  
Page Sixth of the Academy,  
Which is their Mother and their Nurse,  
Teachers to Forge and Steal of course.  
Such Clerks deserve hanged to be  
As Nicholas Clerks upon a Tree;  
And thus, though made them to prevent,  
They fool all Acts of Parliament;  
For no Averment must deny  
The Shrieve or Clerk, although they lie.  
Is this the Liberty so proud,  
(You use to cry it up aloud)  
And Property you so much Vant  
That every Papist it doth want?  
What Purgatory can you tell  
Is worse than this on Earth, your Hell?  
Or what Hell is there more worth fearing,  
Than Your Damnation without Hearing?  
He neither shows me Time or Place,  
Nor Witnesses brought Face to Face.  
My Goods are all Confiscated;  
My very Wives and Child's Bed  
The Bailies Seized, without account  
Of Price to what they did amount,  
Or Witness; Writings, Boxes, Chest,  
And Money too on a Suggest,  
And Lies and Fictions; in worse case  
I am than Felons in this Place,  
Their Goods, although the Law is strict,  
Not Forfeit are until Convict,  
But left to feed them: Oh the blessed  
Justice is shown to men distressed  
By Protestants who only, you  
Say, have the Religion true!  
But Christ says, Know them by their Works,  
Which shows you worse than Jews or Turks.  
I have not left a Bit of Bread,  
Witness these unfeigned Tears I shed:  
The Plaintiff asks of me a Sum,  
As at the Dreadful Day of Doom  
I answer shall, and God doth know,  
I do not him a Farthing owe;  
Yet can I not, although I try,  
Be brought to answer or deny  
His Forged Stuff, or see the Face  
Of Judge or Jury on the Place;  
But here to perish am designed,  
And to this Dungeon confined,  
Unless I give what e'er he'll ask;  
This is my miserable Task.  
I think you now turn Witches too,  
The Rogues the mischief who did do  
To bring me here, sure had a Spell,  
(What Language 'twas I cannot tell)  
'Twas written in a little scrow,  
Half-words and dashed, that none might know;  
Or rat●er scratched it was in Soot,  
With Devil's Claw, or Cloven Foot.   Prot. 
Brother, your 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 ere it saith,  
Law- Latin 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 passed 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 tried in vain.  
The Papist too brought Fictions in,  
And Forgery that foulest Sin;  
The Papists too were the first sharks,  
And sat in Courts, Bishops and Clerks.  
And left their Cursed Precedents  
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 Prelate's Pride:  
And if you Perish by the same,  
Who but yourselves now can you blame?  
The Protestant at length Essayed,  
Although by greater Power dismayed,  
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 Balance 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 Public Rend  
Force from the Common's Skin and Bones,  
It was in vain to make our moans.  
From Justice then, with many Jeers  
You kept, and first made us shed Tears;  
Although deceived in your hope,  
Perhaps now from yourselves 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 Appealed, 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 Sentenced 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  the Bishop saith:  
Is't just, because that I cannot,  
I should lie here to Starve or Rot?  Pap. 
Brother, I'll freely tell my mind,  
And say where Protestants are kind  
To Catholics, in Recompense,  
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 Tyburn to advance;  
And with some part when 'tis espied  
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 myself, 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 try 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 'tis in the same Expressed,  
Before a Judgement no Arrest.  
(7.) The Three Kingdoms condemn one another without Hearing, by a Non-Union of their Three Parliaments.    

Of the Fatal Danger threatening 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 Judge 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 Judge constitute, there will be no inferior Judge equally constitute; and being no equal Judge 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 Judge 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 Suit 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 endeavoured to) kindle a Civil War, there can be n● Judge 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 Judge it to A. another to B. another to C. the House of Lords in one to Judge it to D. in the other to E. in the other to F. the House of Commons to Judge it in one to G. in the other to H. in the other to I. the Episcopal Synod to Judge it in one to K. in the other to L. in the other to M. The Persians did better, who made but one Judge, though 'twere an Horse, by first Neighing at the Sunrising, to declare his Master Successor to the Crown of Persia, than to dispute it with Thousands of Men and Horses vomiting their Votes in Blood. How joyfully would Rome Triumph in the Spoils of Self-divided Protestants slaughtered with their own hands! This would be the sad effect of divided Parliaments, divided Houses, and divided Kingdoms, according to what Christ himself deel res, Matth. 12.25 Every Kingdom divided against itself, is brought to desolation: and every City or House divided against itself, cannot stand.  
(3.) It divides the Head from the Bodies, for a Prince cannot be Omnipresent; if he is in Person wi●h any One of his Parliaments, the other Two are without their Head; but if the Three Parliaments are united in one Body, then is there one Body, and one Head.  
(4.) The Head which is separated from any of the Bodies is insensible of the Pains, Distempers and Dangers of those Bodies from which it is separated; those Members who are Elected as Natives of England to serve in Parliament, cannot be but ignorant of the true State of Scotland, and Ireland, and Scotland and Ireland of one another, and both of the true Sta●e of England; but when they sit altogether in one House, they can inform one another, and his Majesty, and give him a full prospect at once of the true State of all his Kingdoms, and the Affairs in them.  

Parliaments divided delayed with Nine Negatives.  (5.) Parliaments divided by Hundreds of Miles distance by Land, and passage over Sea, are most dangerously dilatory in all Affairs of War, and all other matters concerning public safety; for every Vote to raise Money, or if it be but to relieve a Garrison, must pass Nine Negatives, or Nine Affirmatives, Three in the Parliament of England, Three in the Parliament of Scotland, and Three in the Parliament of Ireland, before which will be passed and executed, Nine Towns may be taken.  
(6.) This Dilatory danger of Division of Houses sufficiently appears in the Higher and Lower House, though neither divided by Lands nor Seas. And how much Time is wasted in fruitless Messages from one to another, till the opportunity and what is contended for is lost! whereas if they had sat in one House, and the Matters to be carried by plurality of Votes, there must have been an expeditious Dispatch. Coke mentions some Records, wherein appears, that when there was a necessity of Levying Money for a War, the Commons would assent, and the Lords refuse, Rex accersitis Regni Barombus tractabat cum iisdem de Regni Regimine, deque pecuniali subventione sibi ferenda; sed proceres regiis votis tum minime paruere. Et 18. E. nu. 14. The Commons Granted Money, but the Lords would Grant none. In the time of H. 4. the Commons would have Granted an Aid, but Subsidium denegatum fuit Proceribus renitentibus. Walsingham saith, p. 475. His diebus clerus & populus primo quintam decimam & postmodum tricesimam bonorum suorum Regni Angliae in subsidium concesserunt. So here is no mention made of the Lords, which is always done when they give; where by it seems they evaded the Subsidy. 29. Eliz. The Commons desired the Lords they would join with them in a Contribution or Benevolence to the Queen; the Lords gave Answer, They would leave the Commons to themselves, and they would Rate themselves; which they did at the Rate of Two Shillings in the Pound. The like 13. E. 3. n. 7. b. 18. E. 3. n. 10.20. E. 3. n. 11.27. E. 3. n. 8.4. R. 2. n. 13. When the House of Commons had offered to grant an Aid, if the Clergy, who had the Third part of the Land, would pay the Third part of the Aid; the Clergy Answered, They were not to pay Aid by Parliament, but willed the Commons to do their Duties, and they would do their own. All which Examples show, That more Houses than one are a great clog in all matters concerning Public Safety; and a far greater are many Parliaments remote one from another.  
(7.) There can be no Pledges given of Peace and Unity, but by the Union of Parliaments, wherein each Nation in One House, give themselves as Pledges of Amity one with another.  
(8.) There can be no Love without it, which is the greatest Bond of Union, for, Ignoti nulla Cupido; how can they be acquainted, where they can neither see nor hear one another, and how can they Love where they are not acquainted?  
(9) Parliaments United strengthen one another against the common Enemies, like the Cable made of many Cords, which holds the Ship of the Commonwealth at safe Anchor, against all the fury of Winds and Waves, and cannot be broken; or like the Arrows when bound in a Sheaf, invincible; when separated, easily broken.  
(10.) When separated, either Parliaments, or Houses, it is easier for Enemy-Princes to corrupt Members with Money; for, it is easier for the Shepherd to watch one Fold, and secure it against the Wolf, than many; the corruption likewise is easier of Messengers between Parliament and Parliament, and House and House, than of the Members, who may easily in travelling have opportunity of spreading false News, Bruits and Rumours, and cause thereby Misunderstanding between the King and his Parliament, and People, and between every Parliament and House one against another; whereas there need no Messengers, if only one House of Parliament.  

Secrecy of Union.  (11.) The more Parliaments and Councils there are, the less Secrecy; there was at Rome but one only Senate, and what Livy lib. 48. mires at, there was no Privy-Councel for matters of State allowed, but all matters of Peace and War were transacted in the Senate prudently enough (though Livy hesitate as to the Prudence) and the Secrecy of this great numerous Senate was so close, that none of the Ambassadors of Greece or Asia could fish out, either by Friends or Money, amongst so great a number of Senators, what Eumenes his business there (who had Audience in the Senate) was; a thing impossible to be done, where there is a Senate and a Privy-Councel, or a Plurality of Supreme Senates.  
(12.) One dissentient Parliament or House standing divided, may clog or betray the Defence of the rest; it is already mentioned how often Dissension between the Higher House and House of Commons have stopped Military Provision against the common Enemy; and how often fell it out in the same man ere at Rome, That when Recruits and Supplies were to be sent to an Army in the Field, Discords were importunately raised between the Senate and the Tribunes of the People, whereby the Enemy commonly obtained his Design of Stopping the Raising new Forces against them; for the Tribunes of the People sat not in the Senate, but were a divided State, having a Negative on their Votes, but no Vote with them and were indeed a most imperfect constitution of Defensors of Liberties against Senators permitted to be Hereditary, and was no way to be remedied, unless the People had taken on them the Election of the Senators, as is now done by such Nations as have the Liberty of Parliaments; but if Two dissentient Negatives, or Houses, or Parliaments, are joined together in one House, where the matter is to be carried by Plurality of Votes, there dissentient opinions of the several Members are so far from hurting the Public, as they do the same much Good: First, by the contrary Dispute of the Question, the Truth is the better understood; Secondly, When two Extremes contend, they commonly moderate one another, and produce a more temperate Sentence, than if the whole Senate were all of the same mind, without any Faction; so, as long as Cato and Caesar made Orations one against the opinions of the other in the Senate, it mitigated them to moderation; and it was the Contention in the Field and not in the Senate, caused so much mischief to the Public; which could not be avoided in such a Senate which was no equal Representative Elected by the People, but some Senators, so disproportionable in Power, as Caesar and Pompey were to the rest.  

Strength of Union.  (13.) Though Confederacy of Foreign Princes ought not to be neglected, yet the Confederacy of the Three Parliaments by Union in one House, is a far greater assistance, than of any Three Foreign Princes Confederated and living in Foreign Palaces; and such Three Protestant Parliaments in one House, and under one Protestant King, are (by God's help) of greater Strength and Council than any Three Catholic Kings, and the Pope with them, if they should wrongfully confederate against the Protestant.  

Examples of Un on of Parliaments.  (14.) All these, and (no question) more dangers of Disunion, and Benefits of the Union of Parliaments were foreseen to the Wisdom of King James of famous memory; and how zealously the desire of such an Union was pressed on him by him, between England and Scotland, appears by the Act, 1. Jac. cap. 1, & 2. And thereby Commissioners of each Nation were appointed to meet and Treat, and to reduce their Doing therein to Writings or Instruments Tripartite, every part to be subscribed and sealed by them, and one part to be delivered to the King, the other to the Parliament of England, the other to the Parliament of Scotland; this was promoted several times in the House, and vigorously Seconded by many Noble Protestant-Patriots; after which, as appears, Coke 4th. part, 347. there started a question amongst the Commissioners, whether there could be made a new Kingdom of Great Britain, before there was made an Union of Laws, which Question was, by Command of the King, referred to all the Judges of England in Trinity Term, Anno 2. Jac. who unanimously Resolved, Coke being then Attorney General, That Anglia had Laws, and Scotia had Laws, 
A ridiculous Answer of Judges, touching Union of Kingdoms.  but this new Erected Kingdom of Britannia had no Laws; and therefore where the Forms of all Judicial Proceed of England are Secundum Legem & consuetudinem Angliae, it could not be altered, Secundum Legem & consuetudinem Britanniae; an Answer fit for Protonotaries than Judges, as if no Union were possible to be made of Kingdoms, but by rastal's Book of Entries; whereas one word of a Nuper would have salved this horrible objection, and but two lines of a Proviso in the Act of Union, might have made the Style of their Formality what they would have had it; but this unlucky Pedantry of Theirs was a fatal Scourge to Great Britain, for in all humane probabilities, if there had been then made an Union of Parliament, the late Bloody Intestine Wars had never been. 3. Jac. cap. 3. A Recital is made of the long and worthy Labours of the Commissioners of England and Scotland, and how, albeit all things had been by them fully and effectually pursued and accomplished, etc. Yet for that divers other matters required present Dispatch by the Parliament, and the matters concerning the Union might be considered as well any other Session, therefore the same was deferred for that time.  
Anno 4. Jac. 1. An Act is made for Repealing certain Acts of Hostility, in former Ages made between the two Nations, where the Commissioners lost all the Pains they had taken, to the discouragement of any other who should thereafter attempt the like; so by the Power and Subtlety of the Popish Episcopal Party and Lawyers (all whose Interests a Reformation of Laws for Britannia would have crossed) the whole business and Attempts of Union have been ever since obst●ncted.  
As for Examples, In former Histories we find none more free than the Romans, to Naturalise their Associates, and to make the Natives of the Provinces Citizens of Rome. The Grand Signior takes into his Council the Natives of several Kingdoms, yea though Christians, when once Educated in his Religion. The several States of Greece had not been able to have subsisted against the Persian, had they not United themselves in one common Council of State, though their Laws and Commonwealths remained several. The Netherlands had been never able to have subsisted against the Spaniard, had not the Provinces been United in one Staadt-House and Common Council; yet is not that Union perfect, they remaining still under several Laws and Customs, and in the nature of several Commonwealths, and therefore not impossible to be again divided, as the Grecian States thereby were. So were it imp●ssible for the Germane Empire to subsist against the Turk, were they not United in one Supreme Diet and Common Councli; for a Parliament of Kings in person, as the Electors are in Power, is better than none at all, and better than a Confederacy of Kings by Proxies, they remaining in their several Palaces; yet in many other respects the Union being of the Prelates and Princes, and not of an equal Representative of the People, it is liable to perpetual dangers of Civil Wars, and the Dividing of one Prince against another, who may perhaps, as the Captains of Alexander the Great, and the Italian Princes, in the end set up every one for himself, there being nothing to hinder but the Terror of the Neighbouring Turk; whereas if the Union were constituted of an Emperor and Parliament equally Elected by the People, the Empire were invincible, for the Prince were then but one, and the Senate but one; but this is impossible to be performed, except in Protestant Dominions, for than must the Pope and Prelates be Cashiered, which no Catholic Prince can, or dare attempt. How great thanks do we therefore own to God, who hath vouchsafed Protestants so great a Privilege, to Unite all their Parliaments, if they in blindness and stubborness neglect or resuse not so great a Mercy, as perhaps may not again be so easily offered? The Cantons of the Swiss could not subsist without being United in a Common Council for State-Assairs. So of the Grisons. Yet do the Cantons remain in the nature of several Commonwealths, with several Laws and Customs, which Union is very imperfect. Livy lib. 2. complains of this defect of Union of Councils in Rome, and saith, Profecto si essent in Republica Magistratus nullum futurum fuisse Romae nisi publicum consilium; nunc in mille Curias Concionesque cum alia in Esquiliis, alia in Aventino fiant Concilia, dispersam & dissipatam esse Rempublicam. And by this doth Tacitus confess it was, that Rome Conquered Great Britain, Nec aliud adversus validissimas gentes pro nobis utilius, quàm quod in common non consulunt, rarus duabus tribusque Civitatibus ad propulsandum commune periculum conventus, ita dum singuli pugnant Vniversi vincuntur. Neither (saith he) was there any thing so profitable for us against the most valiant Nations, as that they had no Common Council; a rare matter it was amongst them to have a Convention of Two or Three Cities against the common danger; so, while they every one fought single, they are all Conquered: Whereas if Great Britain had been then united under one King, and one Parliament of the whole Island, they perhaps might have as well said of his second Landing, as of his first, Territa quaesitis ostendit terga Britannis.  
So doth Justin mention of the States of Greece, every one of them had at last their Councils apart, and fought single, whereby, one after another, they were all overthrown. What hath United the Heptarchy of the Saxons, and the mixture of Danes inseparably, but the equal Mission of their Representatives to the same Parliament? and what did Unite the Noble Remainder of Britain's to England, but the Statute of 27. H. 8.26. Enacting, That all Persons born in Wales should enjoy all Liberties, Privileges and Laws, as other Subjects in England do: and should send their Knights and Burgesses to the same Parliament with them? The Glory of a King is the multitude of his People, and what more Glorious for a King, who hath the Royal English, Scotish, Irish and British Blood United in him, who is the Head, than to have the same United in his Parliament, who is the Body. Let it not offend, if I mention here the late Experience of Union of the Three Parliaments in one House, by the late Usurper, seeing we are commanded to learn Wisdom, though from the Serpent; and if he under so great disadvantages of Opposition, made great Benefit, the lawful Prince may make far greater thereby, and his Subjects likewise by his Favour participate of the same. I cannot deny that it was my Fortune, though I never sought it, to be chosen for a County, and to serve in that great Convention at Westminster, Anno 1656. called then a Parliament, wherein the Parliaments of England, Scotland and Ireland, were Convened and United in One, with the same facility as they are Convened to sit in Three Places, and there being then a War designed against Spain, it was wonderful to see, with what Expedition and Courage all things were moved towards the Design, and what an Endearment it was between the Three Nations to meet, be acquainted, eat, drink, and converse together, about the Common Concernments.  
Having considered so far of the great Benefits of an Union of the Three Parliaments of the Three Kingdoms in One, it may not be amiss next to consider the Requisits necessary to perfect the same.  

(1.) Whether an Union of Crowns be necessary to perfect an Union of Parliaments and Kingdoms?  
It seems for the Affirmative.  
(1.) Because, where the Natural Person of a King is One, if the Politic Person or Capacity is not made One, the one Politic Capacity may be divided against the other, in the same Natural Person; as on the Succession of King James to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen of England had declared War against the King of Spain, the King of Scotland was in Peace with them; so in the divers Rights of Two Crowns, there was War and Peace at one time between the same Persons; the like Doubts may arise, Whether the Royal Assent may pass contrary Politics Acts and Laws in the Parliament of one Nation, to what he hath passed in the other, in reference to the contrary Rights of each Crown: Whereas if both are consolidated and made one, no contrariety of Acts can happen.  
(2.) It is as dangerous to have Two Crowns, as Two Marble-Chairs; for they may be kept in several places, and the more easily may an Usurper happen on the possession of one of them, and the Vulgar be deluded to think Possession of those Signs of Supreme Honour, to be equal to the Right; and besides that, a Fatality will follow them.  
(3.) Seeing it hath pleased God to make the Head of the Three Kingdoms One, men ought to follow his Example, and make the Crowns One.  
(4.) The continuance of several Crowns is apt to continue a perpetual memory of Hostilities between the Kingdoms.   

(2.) Whether an Unity of Protestant Churches is necessary, to an Union of Protestant-Kingdoms?  
It seems for the Affirmative;  
Because, if Protestant-Churches divide one against another, the Kingdoms will be a Prey to the Papist, and the Protestant will have none to Unite.   

(3.) Whether permission of Protestants to Excommunicate Protestants, is consistent with the Unity of Protestant-Churches?  
Neg.  
If the Pope Excommunicate Protestants, it Unites them the firmer; but if they Excommunicate one another, they denounce War, and destroy one another with their own hands, and leave the Spoils to be divided by the Pope.  

An Elegy on Protestants, in the late Civil Wars, Excommunicating Protestants.  
LVgeat in trisidis jam moesta Britannia flammis,  
Et doleat jam fulminibus percussa trisulcis,  
Intonuit falsus nebulosa Tibride Petrus,  
Et Magicis stolidum perterruit Artibus Orbem.  
Piscator Twedae retonat, multisque cachinnis  
Rupibus ingeminans sua fulmina misit: ab Altis,  
Becketi Lemures contra hunc torsere minaces,  
A Thamisi gelidas Vulcania tela per auras.  
Heu non Oceanus circum vaga Littora fusus  
Nec freta compescant tantis ardoribus ignes.  
Risit Romanus Tarpeia Rupe Tyrannus,  
Cumque suis, inquit, sese immisere Gebennis  
Pontifices Britonum per mutua vulnera tandem  
Ne sic deficerent inferno gurgite flammae,  
Ipse super terram viventes igne cremabo.  
Ecce jocum, mintrat mus rodens, Rana coaxat,  
Et cum limosis ineunt certamina juncis;  
Milvus, spemque suam motis circumvolat alis,  
Ipse paludosam sic vellem carpere Ranam,  
Et sic ridiculum vellem discerpere Murem.   

Englished.  
LET Britain mourn, who burns in triple Fires,  
And struck with threefold Thunderbolts expires,  
A Peter false from Tiber in a Cloud,  
By Magic Art did Thunder it aloud.  
The Fisherman of Tweed with many Mocks  
Returned his Thunder double from the Rocks.  
Proud Beckets Ghost 'gainst him from Thames broke forth,  
And with Vulcanian Darts fired the North.  
What Ocean, which her wand'ring Shores doth drench,  
Or Seas, alas! so many Flames can quench?  
The Romish Tyrant on Tarpeia smiled  
To see the British Priests thus both beguiled.  
When they have sent each other unto Hell,  
Saith he, by mutual wounds (hark what I tell)  
Lest they want Fire should, in the Pit profound,  
I will them both alive burn above ground.  
Behold the Jest, the peeping Mouse and Frog  
With Bulrush fight are on Hill and Bog:  
Like Kite, mean while, hid in a Cloudy Day  
With soft moved Wings I'll soar about my Prey;  
So I, at length, the Croaking Frog shall gull,  
And Mouse ridiculous in pieces pull.   
I shall proceed next to the Form and whole Nature of Excommunication, and the further manifold mischiefs it brings to all Protestant-Churches, which shows, Bishops who use it, are neither sit Judges of Marriage, nor of any thing else.    

The Form of the Jewish Excommunication.  
By Decree of the Cities, and Command of the Saints, We Anathematise and Adjure, Exterminate, Excommunicate, Curse and Execrate by the Will of God, and the Church, by the Book of this Law, by the Six Hundred and Thirteen Precepts written in the same, by the Anathema wherein Joshua Anathematised Jericho, by the Curse wherewith Elisha Cursed the Children; and by the Curse wherewith he Cursed Gehazi his Boy, and by the Excommunication wherewith Baruch Excommunicated Merath, and by the Excommunication which the men of the great Synagogue use, and by the Excommunication which Rabbi Jehuda the Son of Rabbi Jehezkiel used in this matter; and by all the Anathematas, Imprecations, Burn, Excommunications and Exterminations, which have been from the time of our Master Moses, and since by the name of Acetheriel Jah Lord of Hosts, by the name of Michael the Great Prince, by the name of Mittraton, whose name is as the name of his Master; by the name Sandalipon, who Binds the Binding by his Lord, by the name of the name of Forty-Two Letters, by the name of him who appeared to Moses in the Bush, by the name by which Moses divided the Red-Sea, by the name of Four Letters, by the Writing which is Writon the Tables, by the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, sitting on the Cherubin, by the name of the Spheres and Circles, and the Holy living Creatures and Ministering Angels, by the name of all the Angels which Minister to the Supreme God, let every Israelite and Israelitess wittingly or willing violating any of the things denounced to be observed, be Cursed to the God of Israel sitting on the Cherubims, let him be Accursed by the Name Glorious and Bright, which the Highpriest expresseth in the Day of Expiations; let him be Cursed by Heaven and Earth; let him be Accursed by the Omnipotent God; let him be Accursed of Michael the Great Prince; let him be Accursed of Mittraton, whose name is as the name of his Master; let him be Accursed as Acetheriel Jah, Lord of Hosts; let him be Accursed of the Seraphim and the Orbs, and Holy living Creatures and Angels who Minister before the Supreme God in Holiness and Cleanness: If he was born in the Month Nisan, which the Angel called Vriel, as Prince of the Rank under which he is, Governs, let him be Accursed of him and all his Rank; and if he was born in the Month Jier, which the Angel called Trephaniel, as Prince of the Rank under which he is, Governs, let him be Accursed of him and all his Rank; and if he is born under the Month Sivan, etc. (this Cursing runs through every Month one after another in the same words) Then follows, Let him be Accursed of the Seven Angels set over the Seven Days of the Week, and of all their Ranks and helping Powers; let him be Accursed of the Four Angels set over the Four Quarters of the Year, and of all their Ranks and helping Powers; let him be Accursed of the Seven Palaces; let him be Accursed of the Princes of the Law, in the name of the Crown; and in the name of the Seal; let him be Accursed of the Great God, strong and bright; let their be Confusion of his Seed; let him fall with a swift Ruin; let the God, the God of the Spirits of all Flesh, destroy and cast him away; let the God, the God of the Spirits of all Flesh, subdue him; let the God, the God of the Spirits of all Flesh, overthrew him; let the God, the God of the Spirits of all Flesh, keep him down; let the Wrath of the Lord, and a violent Whirlwind fall on the head of the Wicked; let the Angel of Destruction fall upon him; let him be Accursed in all things to which he sets himself; let his Soul departed in Terror; let him die of the Quinsey; let not his Breath go out nor return, with the Consumption, Fever, Burning, Drought; let him be smitten with the Sword, with pining away, with the Jaundice, nor before his Destruction be freed from them; let his Sword enter into his heart, and let his Bow be broken; let him be as Dust before the Wind, and let the Angel of the Lord scatter him; let his way be Darkness and Slipperiness, and the Angel of the Lord persecute him; let unlooked-for Desolation come upon him, and let the Net which he hath hid take him; let them Expel him from the Light into Darkness, and from the habitual World they shall Banish him; Tribulation and straits shall terrify him, his Eyes shall see his own Destruction, and he shall drink the Wrath of the Almighty; let him put on Curse as a Garment; let him devour the strength of his Skin; also God shall scatter him for ever, and shall root him out of his Tabernacle: The Lord will not rest to forgive him, but the Wrath of the Lord and his Jealousy shall smoak against that man, and all the Curses which are written in the Book of this Law shall lie upon him for Evil, out of all the Tribes of Israel, according to all the Curses of the Covenant which are written in the Law. But you who adhere to the Lord your God, bless you this Day, he who blessed Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Aaron, David and Solomon, and the Prophets of Israel, and those who amongst the Nations are Holy, bless this Holy Congregation, and all other Holy Congregations: Except only He who sh●ll break this Curse, God of his mercy keep them and make them safe, and take them out of all trouble and misery, and Prolong their Days and their Years, and send his Blessing and a prosperous Wind to the Work of their Hands; and let Him Revenge them speedily with all other Israelites, and so let his Will and Decree be. Amen. Seld. de Jur. Nat. & Gent. Juxt. Discip. Ebr. lib. 4. Cap. 7.527.   

The Form of the Greek Excommunication against Thiefs.  
If they Restore not to him that which is his own, and possess him peaceably of it, but suffer him to remain Injured and Damnified; Let him be Separate from the Lord God Creator, and be Accursed, and Unpardoned, and undissolvable after Death in this World, and in the other which is to come; let Wood, Stones and Iron be dissolved, but not they: May they Inherit the Leprosy of Gehazi, and the Confusion of Judas; may the Earth be Divided, and Devour them like Dathan and Abiram; may they Sigh and Tremble on Earth like Cain, and the Wrath of God be upon their Heads and Countenances; may they see nothing of that for which they Labour, and Beg their Bread all the Days of their Lives; may their Works, Possessions, Labours, and Services be Accursed, always without Effect or Success, and blown away like Dust; may they have the Curses of the Holy and Righteous Patriarches Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; of the Three Hundred and Eighteen Saints, who were the Divine Fathers of the Synod of Nice; and of all other Holy Synods; and being without the Church of Christ, let no man administer the things of the Church, or Bless them, or give the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Blessed Bread, or Eat or Drink, or Work with them, or Converse with them; ●nd after Death, let no man Bury them, in penalty of being under the same State of Excommunication, for so let them remain until they have performed what is herein Written.   

The Form of the Pope's Excommunication against Queen Elizabeth.  
Pius, Bishop, Servant of God's Servants, etc. She (Queen Elizabeth) hath clean put away the Sacrifice of the Mass, Prayers, Fast, choice or difference of Meats, and single Life; she possessing the Kingdom, and by Usurping the place of the Supreme Head of the Church in all England, and the chief Authority and Jurisdiction of the same, hath again brought the said Realm into miserable Destruction. Unto her all such as are the worst of the People resort, and are by her received into safe Protection, etc. We do declare, That the said Elizabeth, and as many as stand on her side in the matter , have incurred the Sentence of our Curse: We also declare, That we have Deprived her from that Right she pretended to have in the Kingdom aforesaid; and also from all and every her Authority, Dignity and Privilege. We charge and forbid all and every the Nobles, and Subjects, and People, and others aforesaid, that they be not so hardy as to obey her, or her Admonitions, Commandments, or Laws, upon pain of the like Curse upon them: We pronounce, That all, whosoever by any occasion have taken their Oath unto her, are for ever discharged of such their Oath, and also from all Fealty and Service which was due to her by Reason of her Government, etc.   

All the said Forms of Excommunications Wicked and Antichristian.  

Forms of Excommunication Wicked and Antichristian.  As to which Forms of Jewish, Greckish, and Romish Excommunications, they are all Wicked, and liable to their several Exceptions. (1.) The Jewish and Greekish praying for Curses to Angels and Saints, fall into the Crimes of Angelolatry, Idolatry and Daemonolatry; for it is manifest, if they on malicious Prayers of men do any Malefice to any of God's Creatures; they are Evil and not Good Angels. (2.) They ramble together a company of Angels names, not knowing whether there are any of the Names or Offices they assign them, or not, or whether they are Angels, or Daemons transformed. (3.) They pray for the Curse of Gehazi, which was to him and his Seed; whereas God declareth he will not punish the Sins of the Parents on the Children; therefore they can pray for the Curse of Gehazi to none but Daemons. (4.) All the three Curses, both Jewish, Greekish and Romish, are Antichristian; 
No such word as Excommunication in the whole Scripture.  for Christ commands to Bless, and not to Curse.  
I suppose therefore none will dare to use any of these Forms in England; nor if they are true Christians, will they dare to coin a Form of their own Heads, there being not so much as the word Excommunication used in the whole Scripture, nor Pattern or Precept of a Form from Christ▪ who gave a Form of Prayer to forgive Trespassors, but none to Curse or Excommunicate them. The Form of Proceeding to Excommunication is set down by several Writers concerning our Ecclesiastical Courts, as appears in Linwood, 500 That anciently when the King and the Sheriffs did continue Communion with the Excommunicates, or let them out of Prison, 
This may as well prove Bell Book and Candle to be from Christ, as Excommunication.  contemning all the Keys of the Church, the Bishop renewed his Sentence by the highest Romish Ceremonies of Bell, Book and Candle; for so is the Canterbury Canon, Huic ergo morbo congruum vo●entes adhibere remedium, Statuimus quod Excommunicati sic capti ac taliter excuntes de Carcere ad majorem detestationem liberatorum & liberantium publicè & solemniter pulsat●s campanis & candelis accensis excommunicentur. These were the Form of Ceremonial Acts, but I find no Provincial or Common-Law-Author which sets down any Form of words to be used in Excommunication; only there is a blind old Certificate of the Archbishop, lib. Intra. 320. 
The Form of the Archbishop; Certificate of Excommunication.  in this Form recited, Vniversis & singulis Justic' Domini Regis & aliis Christi fidelibus quibuscunque praesentes literas visuris & audituris salut' & fid' indubiam prosecutionis adhiberi sicut ovis morbida ab ovili penitus ejiciend' ne aliis infectiva reddatur: sic Excommunicati sunt à Communibus actibus excludend' ut ex hoc Censura Ecclesiastica magis teneantur, & Excommunicat' hujusmodi rubor' confusi ad reconciliac' gratiam citius inclinentur. Vniversitat' igitur vestrae notitiae deducimus per praesentes quod frat' I. Prior Priorat' de L. nostrae Dioc' propter suas manifestas & multiplicat' contumac' rebelliones & offensas non parend' certis monitionibus licitis & canonic' authoritat' nostra ordinaria sibi fact' in men's ' M. ult. praeterit' suit & est majore Excommunicationis sententia eadem nostra authoritat' ordinar' innodatus & pro sic Excommunicato publ' denunciatus, & eadem sententia excommunicatus per immodica tempora perseveraverit & perseverat animo pertinaciter indurato, Dat' sub sigillo nostro, etc. But here is nothing shows the Form of the words of Excommunication used by the Archbishop.  

Form of words of Excommunication, 1648.  In the late times of Usurpation, Aug. Anno 1648. cap. 118. The new coigned Form of words of Excommunication appears to be this,  
Whereas thou N. hast been by sufficient proof convinced (here mention the Sin) and after due Admonition and Prayer remainest obstinate, without any Evidence or Sign of true Repentance; Therefore in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and before this Congregation, I Pronounce and Declare Thee N. Excommunicate, and shut out from the Communion of the Faithful.  
After the Denunciation of this Sentence, the People are to be warned, that they hold him to be cast out of the Communion of the Church, and to shun all Communion with him; nevertheless Excommunication dissolves not the Bonds of Civil or Natural Relations, nor exempteth from the Duties belonging to them.  
If the Party after Excommunication show Signs of Repentance, than the Form of Absolution is appointed to be this, or the like,  
Whereas thou N. hast for thy Sin been shut out from the Communion of the Faithful, and hast now manifested thy Repentance, wherein the Church resteth satisfied: In the name of Jesus Christ, before this Congregation, I Pronounce and Declare Thee Absolved from the Sentence of Excommunication formerly Denounced against Thee, and do receive Thee into the Communion of the Church, and the free Use of all the Ordinances of Jesus Christ, that thou mayest be partaker of all his Benefits, to thy Eternal Salvation.  
The old Episcopal Forms of Eucommunication being so gross, as if published, not able to clear off the Charge of Exceptions in that furious time of Contest made against them, the Anti-Power in the Forms before mentioned, screwed their Wits to the highest, that they might so refine them, as if possible, no Exception might be took against them; for it mattered not how the Form was, so they might obtain the effect of commanding the Temporal Sword by the Excommunicato capiendo, and continue to possess thereby the great Power and Profits incident, which have been before mentioned, to belong to Marriage, and all other points of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; yet there is always such a Repugnancy in the mixture of Truth and Falsity, that never so artificially gilded over, the Flaws of the one will be visible and lie open to Exception from the Solidity of the other. Against these Forms therefore as well as the former, may be the following Exceptions taken.  
1. It is excepted against the Form of Excommunication, That it is in the name of Jesus Christ, without showing a Sign of Mission from Jesus Christ; for Jer. 14.14. It is said, The Prophet's prophecy Lies in my Name; I sent him not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them. And Jer. 27.15. I have not sent them, saith the Lord, yet they Prophesy a Lie in my Name, that I might drive you out, and that he might perish, ye, and the Prophets that prophesy unto you. And 29.9. For they Prophesy falsely unto you in my Name; I have not sent them saith the Lord. So may a Priest of Baal, or a Papist Priest say, he Excommunicates in the name of the Lord, or in the name of Jesus. Christ, as well as a Presbyter, if he be not put to his Sign of Mission.  
2. Here is a Civil or Temporal punishment of Excommunication or Banishment from Society, Sentenced or adjudged by this Form, without a Commission shown from the Magistrate or Tempor ●●●●●ver; which if suffered, that any without Commission should be a Judge, than every man would Judge in his own Case; which would be a confusion of all Government.  
3. This Form Excommunicates from Communion with the Faithful, and declares not who are the Faithful, or how they may be known.  
4. This Form Excommunicates from the Church, but doth not say whether a Particular Church or the Catholic Church, or a National, or a Parochial Church, or Congregational Church; and being only Form to be Pronounced by the Rector of a Parochial or Congregational Church, it is as improper to extend his Spiritual Jurisdiction to a National Church, as the Temporal Authority of a Petty Constable to a Kingdom.  
The Form Excluding from Communion, declares not whether from Spiritual or Temporal Communion, or both; if Spiritual, it declares not whether from the Word Preached, or Prayer, or Sacrament; if from either, or all, the Interdiction of a Carnal man from Spiritual Communion is no Punishment, but he will rather rejoice in it than Repent, and had rather take the pleasures of Earth than of Heaven; if it intent from Temporal Communion, than the Spiritual Person exceeds his Bounds to Judge of things Temporal; and besides, the Comment destroys the Teut; for it declares, That Excommunication dissolves not the Bonds of Civil or Natural Relations: Now all Temporal things are under Bonds of Civil or Natural Relations, therefore it cannot intent Excluding from Communion in Temporal Things; but indeed it is such a Linsie-Woolsie of Spiritual and Temporal, that neither itself nor any other knows what it intends; and such an Amphibion of Flesh and Spirit, none knows in what Element to place it.  
6. 
Excommunication a word insensible.  Excluding from Communion, or Excommunication, is a word insensible; the old Pagan's Interdiction from Fire and Water, the druids Interdiction from the Sacrifices, the great and lesser Curse of the Jews, the Pharisees casting out of the Synagogue, the delivery by Paul to Satan, were all Words Sensible and Intelligible; but Excommunication is a Word without Sense, Signification or Intelligence; no Wonder therefore if there is not such a word in the whole Scripture, not that men could never draw the Form of a Chimaera without incongruity, which hath no Being in Nature, but in the vertiginous Notions of a Frenzy.  
7. The same Ordinance of the long Parliament, in the Prayer appointed to be used with this Form of Excommunication, calls it the Ordinance of God; which is the same which is beforementioned, Jerem. 14.14. The Prophet's prophecy Lies in my Name, I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke I unto them. How can that be an Ordinance of God or Christ, which they never so much as spoke, nor is the word to be found in the whole Scripture?  
8. This Form brings in Popish Confession of Sins to the Priest, and Penance, and Commutation-Money, and Punishment of one Sin Twice, first by the Magistrate, and then by the Priest.  

(1.) Of the Effects of Excommunication of the Greek Bishops, either by Witchcraft or Cheat, on the Bodies of the Excommunicated; and of the Apples, Grapes and Nuts found in their Graves after Burial.  
(2.) Of the Ghosts called Catechanae, returning into their Bodies after Death, in manner as into the Excommunicated.  
(3.) Of Excommunication of Locusts, Flies, Fishes and Dead Bodies.  
(4.) The Effects of Excommunication on the Soul ought to be contemned by all who fear God more than the Devil.  
(5.) Of Excommunication of the Devil.   
Mr. Ricant, amongst many other his rare Observations, Relates, page 277. That the Greek Christians believe, If any Person die Excommunicate by the Bishop, and not Absolved, some Evil Spirit enters into the Body in the Grave, which Actuates and preserves him from Corruption, in the same manner as the Soul informs and animates a living Body; and that they feed in the Night, walk, digest, and are nourished, and have been found Ruddy in complexion, and their Veins after Forty days Burial, extended with Blood, and when opened with a Launcet, have yielded Blood as plentiful, fresh and quick, as that which issues from young and Sanguine Persons; And it was informed him by a Candiot Caloire called Sophronio, a Preacher in Smyrna of great Repute and Learning, That a certain Person for some Misdemeanours committed in the Morea, fled to the Isle of Milo, and being Excommunicated died: In the mean time the Relations of the Deceased were much afflicted and Anxious for the sad Estate of their Dear Friend, whilst the Peasants and Islanders were every Night affrighted and disturbed with strange and unusual Apparitions, which they immediately concluded arose from the Grave of the accursed Excommunicate; which according to their Custom they immediately opened, and therein found the Body uncorrupted, Ruddy, and the Veins replete with Blood, the Costin was furnished with Grapes, Apple, and Nuts, and such Fruit as the Season afforded: whereupon Consultation being made, the Caloires Resolved to make Use of the common Remedy in those Cases, which was, to Cut and Dismember the Body into several Parts, and to boil it in Wine, as the approved means to dislodg the Evil Spirit, and dispose the Body to a dissolution. But the Friends of the Deceased being willing and desirous that the Corpse should rest in Peace, and some ease given to the Departed Soul, obtained a Reprieve from the Clergy, and hopes that for a Sum of Money (they being Persons of a competent Estate) a Release might be purchased of this Excommunication under the hand of the Patriarch; in this manner the Corpse were for a while freed from dissection, and Letters thereupon sent to Constantinople, with this Direction, That in case the Patriarch should condescend to take off the Excommunication, that the Day, Hour and Minute that he Signed the Pardon, should be inserted in the Date. And now the Corpse were taken into the Church (the Country People not being willing they should remain the Field) and Prayers and Masses daily said for its Dissolution, and Pardon of the Offender; when one Day, after many Prayers, Supplications and Offerings, (as this Saphronio attested with many Protestations) and whilst he himself was performing Divine Service, on a sudden was heard a rumbling noise in the Cousin of the Dead Party, to the Fear and Astonishment of all Persons there present; which when they had opened, they found the Body Consumed and Dissolved as far into its first Principles of Earth, as if it had been Seven Years Buried: the Hour and Minute of this Dissolution was immediately Noted, and precisely Observed, which being compared with the Date of the Patriarch's Release, when it was Signed at Constantinople, it was found exactly to agree with the Moment in which the Body returned to its Ashes. And he after saith, Such is the much-tobe-Lamented Poverty of the Greek Church, that they are not only forced to sell Excommunications, but the very Sacraments; and to expose the most Reverend and Mysterious Offices of Religion unto Sale for the maintenance and Support of the Priesthood. The same Author writing concerning the Armenian Church, page 439. saith, That Excommunication is as frequent amongst them as the Greeks, by the Abuse of which, the Priest procures the most considerable part of their Gains; nor is any Ecclesiastical Right performed, nor a Benefice conferred without Money. And, p. 439. he saith, That amongst the Armenians, the Penance on which Excommunication or Absolution is to follow, being once imposed by the Priest, no man can Remit, no not the Bishop or Patriarch himself.  
(1.) Hence is to be Observed, That the only Final Causes why the Greek, Armenian, Romish and British Popes agree to Exercise Excommunication, Penance and Absolution, and to set Heaven and Hell to Sale for Commutation-Money, are only Covetousness and Ambition; and thereby to Lord it more imperiously over the Consciences, Lives, Liberties and Propriety of their Superstitious Adorers, than any Temporal Emperor is able to do over his Vassals.  
(2.) That 'tis the Prelate only pockets all the Money in the Greek, Romish, Ethiopian, Muscovitish, Russee and British Churches, and starves the inferior Clergy, and the Parochial Priest in the Arminian; and that the Penance and Excommunication of the Parochial Priests must probably be heavier, and his Absolution sold dearer than the Pope's or Prelate's; because the remoteness of the one, and the greatness of his Territory, and that he must thereby leave all to Under-Officers, and cannot Act in Person, cause his Inquisitions not to be so strict, but multitudes will find easy Evasions from them; whereas the Parochial Priest having the narrow Bounds of his Parish always under his Eye, and within his reach, will not only swallow every Camel, but strain at every Gnat which comes within his verge, for the advantage of his Petty Dominion and Gains.  
(3.) That the Greek Popes are notwithstanding but Poor, and the Romish Rich, because the Grand Signior being not Superstitious, nor his Empresses, nor fearing such counterfeit Fulminations as Excommunications, and his Mufti's or Arch-Bishops being only Durante Beneplacito, and his Parish-Priests Elected by the People without Consecration or Ordination, and Independent one of another; neither the Greek Popes, Patriarches, Bishops nor Priests, nor hisown, dare Excommunicate him; whereas the Christian, both Eastern and Western Emperors, their Empresses, Children and People, having been permitted to be perpetually Educated by the Popes in Blindness and Superstition, he hath them, upon the matter, in the condition of Samson and Polyphemus, with their Eyes pulled out, and makes them grind for him as he pleases, or with his Ecommunications sends them packing (as they in their Ignorance think) to Hell or Purgatory, which makes most for his Gains and Profit, whereby he hath accumulated infinite Riches.  
(4.) The Effects of Excommunication on the Bodies of Dead men, is either Witchcraft, or a Cheat; Witchcraft is possible to be sometimes, not always, as may easily be proved from the Raising of Samuel by the Witch of Endor, and an Hundred Histories more related by Authors of unquestionable Credit. And as the Devil may sometimes be permitted to abuse the Bodies of the best men when Living, as he did Job's, and, what is the highest Example, Christ himself, carrying him to the Pinnacle of the Temple; so he may when they are Dead. I shall Instance one only Example further in the Primitive times, mentioned by Cornelius Agrippa de occult. Philos. lib. 3. cap. 41. where he Relates out of the Cretensian History, That certain Ghosts, which they called Catechanae, were wont to return back to their Bodies and go into their Wives and lie with them; for the Avoiding of which, and that they might not annoy their Wives any more, it was provided by their Common Law, That the Hearts of them who did Arise, should be thrust through with an Awl, and their whole Carcases be burnt to Ashes. These without Doubt are wonderful things, and scarce credible; did not those Laws themselves, and ancient Histories witness them. The frequent practice likewise of Necromancers, by their wicked Art to call the Devil into a Dead Body, and take Responses from him, confirm what hath been said. And it may be likewise a Cheat; for it may be easy for the Priests to put Apples, Grapes and Nuts in a Coffin, and by Night to make fearful Noises, Shrieks, Groans, and Sergeant 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 Country; and that he and another Portuguez Priest took a Consecrated Stone, and the Cross, and sung the Litany, and in this manner went in Procession through the Cornfields 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 departed towards the Sea, or towards the Land of Morez, or towards the Desert Mountains, and to let the Christians alone; and if they obeyed 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 departed, 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 Excommunicated.  Peter de Nathal, in vita Bernhardi Relates, That St. Bernhard denounced the Sentence of Excommunication against Flies; Whether this may be called Witchcraft, or a Silly Prank of St. Simplicius, I cannot say; but if he could Excommunicate Flies without a Magical Telesme or Enchantment, 
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 maliciously Excommunicated the Innocent Fishes. Theodosius a Bishop of Alexandria, 
Dead Excommunicated.  Excommunicated Origen Two Hundred Years after his Death; if he is censured only for a Cheat, 'tis 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 ask 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 Laymen were. But Becket Archbishop of Canterbury, stood proudly on the Pontificial Prerogative of the Clergy, That no Clergyman 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 King's Courts: This Power of Judgement 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 Churchwarden, for Refusing to take the Oath usually tendered 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, etc.  

Charles' the Second, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. To the Reverend Father in Christ, Ralph, by Divine Providence Lord Bishop of Chichester, or any other competent Judge 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 Judge Spiritual, to take any Oath, unless it be only in Cases Matrimonial or Testamentary: But whereas also by a certain Act in Parliament, began and holden at Westminster the 8th. Day of May, in the 13th. Year of our Reign, and there continued till Wednesday the 30th. Day of July, in the 13th. Year of our Reign aforesaid; and from the same Day the Parliament Adjourned till the 20th. Day of November than next following; amongst other things it was Enacted by the Authority of the said Parliament, That it should not be lawful for any Archbishop, Bishop, Vicar General, Chancellor, Commissary, or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, to offer, tender or administer to any Person whatsoever, the Oath usually called the Oath Ex Officio, or any other Oath, by which such Person to whom it may be offered or administered, might be burdened or compelled to confess or accuse him or herself of any Criminal matter or thing, whereby he or she might be burdened with any Censures or Punishments: as in the said Act amongst other things it is more fully contained. Yet you the aforesaid Bishop after the Coming forth of this Act (viz. the 23d. Day of July, in the 27th. Year of our Reign) in no wise regarding the said Law and Statute, at Chichester in the County of Sussex, did offer and tender unto the said Thomas Watersfield, being then Church-Wapden of the Parish Church of Arundel in the said County of Sussex, a certain illegal Oath Ex Officio, to be performed by the said Thomas Watersfield, in a Cause neither Matrimonial nor Testamentary; by which the said Thomas Watersfield might be forced to accuse himself of divers matters Criminal, and with which he might be Burdened with divers Punishments and Censures Ecclesiastical. In which Oath as it was then tendered, the said Thomas Watersfield, should with his utmost Diligence Present every Person, which then or lately was Inhabiting within the said Parish of Arundel, who hath done any offence, or neglected any Duty mentioned in certain Articles contained in a certain Printed Book (which Book was then and there shown by you the said Bishop to the said Thomas Watersfield) and the said Thomas Watersfield doth Aver, at the time of the Tendering of the said Oath, and before and afterwards, ever since, and hitherto, That he hath dwelled and been Resident in Arundel aforesaid; and that in the said Printed Book at the said time, that the said Oath was tendered to be performed, there was contained amongst other th●ngs this Question (viz.) Whether every Person Inhabiting or Sojourning within the Parish of Arundel aforesaid did daily resort every Lordsday and Festival appointed for Divine Service, to the Church? and whether they did there remain the whole time of Divine Service quietly, with Reverence, Order and Decency? and whether Church wardens, and Officers called Sides-men, did observe those which came late after the beginning of Divine Service, or went away before the end of the same? and whether they did suffer some to stand idle or to talk in the Church-Porch, or to walk in the Churchyard, during the time of Prayer and Preaching, or other Sacred Duties? And forasmuch as the said Thomas Watersfield did then and there refuse to take the said Oath; you the aforesaid Bishop did pronounce the Sentence of Excommunication upon him afterwards; that is to say, upon the 23d. Day of July, in the 27th. Year of our Reign aforesaid, at Chichester aforesaid; In Contempt of Us, and the manifest Damage, Prejudice, and Impoverishment of the said Thomas Watersfield, and against the Form and Effect of the said Statute, and the Common Law of this Our Realm of England. And whereas such Pleas, by the Laws of England of Right belong to Us, and not to You, We therefore being willing to maintain the Laws of our Crown, and the Law and Custom aforesaid, as by the Bond of our Oath we are bound to do, We forbidden you; firmly enjoining you not to intermeddle or hold before you the said Bishop, the Plea and Sentence aforesaid, as to any Answers in the said Articles, concerning the said Thomas Watersfield, or any thing from thence attempted: But that you Release and Dissolve all Decrees and Sentences (if any be) against the said Thomas Watersfield, by reason of the said Fulmination: And that you do absolutely Release him the said Thomas Watersfield from all Decrees and Sentences, upon occasion of the said Fulmination.  
Teste at Westminster the 6th. Day of May, in the 28th. Year of Our Reign. Wurley.   
The Suggestion on which this Prohibition is granted, remains Recorded in the said Court of Common-Pleas in Mr. Wurley's Office. Roll 551.  

Excommunicators Murderers.  John Hus, and Jerome of Prague held, That Priests ought to Preach notwithstanding Excommunication; That Bishops were Murderers, for delivering men over to the Lay-power for Disobeying them; That such Excommunication was a humane Invention, to maintain the Pride and Cruelty of the Clergy: And were Martyred for this and other Truths. The King shall be forced to Execute every Decree of the Pope or Priests with the Temporal Sword, though contrary to his Conscience; otherwise he shall be Censured, if obstinate, not worthy to hold his Crown. 
Sheriff of England's Oath.  The Sheriffs of England are compelled to be Sworn to Assist and Execute all the Commands of Bishops, not excepting against the King himself; which is a most wicked Oath to be suffered. For though it doth not Swear in express words, to give the Supremacy of the Temporal Sword to this Spiritual Sword of Excommunication (that the Priests were too subtle to have appear openly in their Form; 
Excommunicators Usurp Supremacy. ) yet doth it require him to Swear what is Aequipollent, to assist and maintain the Bishops and Commissioners of the Holy Church, as often as by them required; whereby their Spiritual Sword is made the Imperant, and the King's Temporal Sword the Obedient. The Imperant hath Supremacy over the Obedient, as it is said, Rom. 6 16. Know ye not, to whom ye yield yourselves Servants to Obey, his Servants ye are to whom ye Obey? Shall the Sheriff therefore be compelled to be a Traitor, to deliver the Temporal Sword entrusted in his hand by the King, to those who assume that Luciferian Title of the Holy-Church to be Supreme above the King? which is point-blank contrary to his Oath of Supremacy, which obliges him to suppress with it such a Rebellious Pride to the utmost of his Power. The Sheriff is likewise by the Law of Scotland to do Execution on Excommunicate Persons, as appears▪ Skene de verb. signif. tit. Schiriff; 
Sheriff of Scotland.  whose words are, The Sheriff shall take and apprehend all Cursed and Excommunicate Persons at the desire of the Bishop or his Official, and put them in Prison until they satisfy God and the Kirk, Stat. 2. Reb. Br. specially them quhahes remained under the Censure of Excommunication by the space of Forty Days, Quon. Attach. Rextali, 76. And by Ja. 2. P. 4. cap. 7. it is Enacted, That nane against quhome the Process beiss led be received in the King's Castle or Place, or in his Presence, nor admitted to Council or Parliament, heard nor answered in the Law of Judgement of Fee and Heritage, or uther Causes; bot ever Eschewed as Cursed, unto the time the said Persons cum to amendis, and assyith the Party, and obtain Absolution in Form of Law. And Jac. 6. p. 3. cap. 53. in the King's Minority an Act was got by the Kirk, ' That all Excommunicate Persons not Conforming ' in Forty Days, should be denounced Rebels, and put to the Horn. The English Commissioners in the said late time of the Troubles had Instructions to take from the then Kirk, such Letters of Horning, and not to assist any Excommunication with the Temporal Sword; which we performed accordingly. The King of Spain joined with Tyrone and the Rebels in Ireland, against Queen Elizabeth. And Don John de Aquila, Landing in Ireland with 4000 Spaniards, entitled himself Master-General, and Captain of the Catholic King, in the Wars of God, for holding and keeping the Faith in Ireland, only on pretence of Excommunication. Sextus Quintus the Pope of Rome, on the Invasion prepared by Spain against England, Anno 1588. sent out his Crusado, as if against the Turks, and having passed Sentence of Excommunication and Deprivation by his Bulls against Queen Elizabeth, promising Pardon of Sins, Heaven, and Eternal Life to all who died in the Invasion.  

(1.) To grant a Pope or a Bishop Power to Excommunicate Protestant-Subjects, is to grant him Power to Excommunicate Protestant-Kings.  
(2.) To grant him Power to Excommunicate Protestant-Kings, is to grant him Power to Levy Money, Raise Soldiers, Denounce War, and Depose them.  
(3.) Of the Dilemma of Danger threatening Princes who seek Security of Goverement from the Excommunication of Popes, or Bishops, either over a People Religious, or Superstitious.  
(4.) Of the Impossibility of Security for Princes, unless their Subjects are Educated or Instructed to be free from the Superstition of Excommunication, and to contemn it.  
(5.) Of the Impossibility of obliging Popes or Bishops, either by Benefits or Oaths.   
Excommunication is, as Proscription, made a pretetence of Confiscation without showing cause. The Romans, saith Aman. Marcellus, proscribed Ptolemy the then King of Cyprus being their Confederate, for no fault, only they wanted Money in the Treasury; who therefore poisoned himself, and the Isle became Tributary to the Romans: In the like manner do Popes and Bishop; fall on the Richest with their Excommunication, to fill their empty Purses.  
Pope Gregory the Tenth, Commanded Percham Archbishop of Canterbury to pay him Four Thousand Marks within Four Months, on pain of Excommunication. So Excommunication is a ready way to Levy Money for War.  
Anno 1230. The Pope having Excommunicated the Emperor, the Emperor was fain to pay for his Absolution an Hundred and Twenty Thousand Ounces of Gold, Plat. Nam. Anno 1231. The Emperor for memory of this hard Pennyworth for his Absolution, put into a Pool at Helbrand, divers Pikes and other Fishes with Brass Rings, having Inscriptions of his name, and the Year of the Lord; one of the Fishes was taken up 267. Years after, Ann. Suev. Calv. Henry the Second, after that Traitor Beckett, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, had been Slain, though not by the King's Command, was enjoined amongst other things this Slavish Penance: He walked Three Miles barefoot on the sharp Stones, that he at length had so cut his Feet, they marked the ground with Blood every step he went. And after this, which was worse than Running the Gantilope, he Received of the Priests, Monks, Bishops and Abbots, on his naked Flesh so many Jerks with Rods (Oh brave Pedants and Pontifical Government for Princes!) as according to Baronius amounted to at least Fourscore Lashes, which doubtless was the Number the Jew administered to the vilest Rogues, lest their Brothers should be despised in their Eyes, and not heard to have been Exercised in their Eyes, and not heard to have been Exercised on the Priests, Bishops and Abbots themselves; though they killed and murdered many Laymen without Law or Justice, they incurred only a deprivation; and instead of Hanging, which they deserved sometimes, no more than a suspension Temporary ab Officio.  
In the time of King John, Anno 1211. The Pope Excommunicated him, and gave the Kingdom of England to the King of France. Paris Wend. The Pope Excommunicated Henry the Eighth, and gave the Kingdom Primo Occupanti. Queen Elizabeth was Excommunicated by Three Popes, Pius Quintus, Gregory the Thirteenth, and Sextus Quintus. Anno 1308. The Pope Excommunicateth Andronicus, Emperor of the East, and setteth up the King of Russia against him, Bzou. So he dealt alike with the East and Western Emperors. Excommunications have brought the Venetians to extreme straits formerly, therefore they are yet no Friends of it. Dandalus, Duke of Venice, was compelled by Pope Clement the Fifth to Crouch under the Table Chained like a Dog, before he could obtain Peace for the Venetians. The Pope Excommunicated John King of Navarre, and Granted his Kingdom to the Spaniards. Nicephorus Phocas, Emperor of the East, was Excommunicated by Polyeuchus then Patriarch of Constantinople, because he had been Godfather to a Child of Theophania, Wife to his Predecessor, and after his Predecessor's Death Married her. Pope Zachary deposed Chilperick the French King, and gave the Crown of France to Pepin. The two French Kings, H. 3. and H. 4. who were Assassinated, had great Guards, whereby it appears, though Princes may secure themselves in Vaults and Caves from Thunderbolts, yet can they not against the Bishops of Rome's Ignis Fatuus of Excommunication; but that to Assault them, 
Per medios ire Satellites  
Et perrumpere amat saxa potentius  
Ictu fulmineo,   
Eight Emperors were Excommunicated by Popes, who were these: Frederick the First, Frederick the Second; Philip Conrade; Otho the Fourth; Lewes of Bavaria; Henry the Fourth; and Henry the Fifth, The Emperor Henry the Fourth Fought in Threescore and Two several Battles, and had for the most part Victory; he was Excommunicated by the Pope, and to obtain his Absolution, came Three Days together barefoot to the Gates of the City Canusium, where the Pope then was, and with much difficulty obtained it. The Catholic Majesties of Spain cannot secure themselves from Excommunication, without Money; nor their great Vice-Roys in America; for a Rebellion was Raised in Mexico, by the Archbishop there Excommunicating the Governors; the People by Superstitious Episcopal Education, made more afraid of the Counterfeit Power of the Keys, than of the true Power of the Sword, and will side in Rebellion with the Bishop, against the Secular Governor: men may talk therefore and believe what they please, that the Supremacy of the Temporal Sword is Consistent with the Spiritual of Excommunication; but when it comes to Trial amongst a Superstitious People, they will be very much deceived, and perhaps Ruined. Bzovius de Pont. Roman. 611, 612. to maintain the Power, That the Popes may depose Kings, Recites a Catalogue of above Thirty Kings and Princes deposed by them; all which, pretended Power of Excommunication; and if Bishops are granted the same Power of Excommunication which Popes have, what hinders, but that British Popes and British Bishops are thereby granted, when they dare, and have opportunity to Excommunicate and Depose Kings, as well as the Romish Popes and Bishops, who are as quiet as the British, till they have opportunity, and dare show their Teeth?  

Pagan Priests claim Supremacy in Judgement above Kings.  This was commonly practised by the Pagan Priests, whom the Pope and Bishops follow, to claim Supremacy in Judgement Jure Divine over their Kings; to which purpose Tacitus speaks, lib. 4. cap. 2. That the Priests amongst the Germans took on them the Power of Judicature, not by Commission from the Prince, but by Command pretended from God, whom they account to be then in presence, and to be assisting in their Fights; which Power claimed by those ancient Pagan Germane Priests, is no other than the Jurisdiction at this day claimed by the later German Arch-Bishops and Bishops over their Emperors. The like Power long before them was claimed by the old Egyptian Priests over their Kings, whom they thereby divers times Sentenced, and put to Death.   

How vain the hopes are of obliging Bishops, either by their Duty of Allegiance to their Native King, or by Benefits or Oaths, it appears by the Examples following.  

Bishops not to be obliged by Benefits or Oaths.  When William the Conqueror came in, he took this Kingdom from the Gift of the Pope, and promised in consideration thereof, to hold it Feudatory of him, and thereupon coming hither with a Bull and an Hayne of St. Peter, and other Romish Trinkets the Bishops, who were then more Potent than the Temporal Barons, forsook Edgar Atheling their Native Prince and the unquestionable Lawful Successor, and betrayed the Land to a Foreigner, though he after served them in their kind, and left not a man of them to sit in their Sees. Henry the First, after the Death of his Queen Matilda, Married Adeliza the Daughter of Godfrey Duke of Lorraine; when she was to be Crowned, Ralph Archbishop of Canterbury who was appointed to Crown her, first came to King Henry sitting Crowned in his Chair of State, ask him, Who had set the Crown on his head? The King Answered, He had now forgotten, 'twas so long since. Well, said the Archbishop, whosoever did it, he did me wrong to whom it belonged; and as long as you had it thus, I will do no Office at this Coronation. Then, said the King, do what you think good. Whereupon the Archbishop took off the Crown from the King's Head, and after, at the People's entreaty, set it on again; and so proceeded to Crown the Queen. It was a sufficient favour that the King appointed him to Crown his Queen, and whosoever Crowned himself, it was fit the King should have his own choice, if done by a Bishop, who should do it: But the Archbishop will have the Power of a Pope or none; to put on and take off the Crown from a King at his pleasure; so that unless well paid, if he please, the King shall not be Crowned. And all this Imperious Pride p●oceeds from his Imaginary Power of Excommunication, and the Profuse Bounty of Kings towards Bishops; which doth not oblige, but disoblige, and cause them to despise their Benefactors, who have Raised them to Revenues equal, or Superior to their own●: Of which a notable Example appears in Hubert, another Archbishop of Canterbury, Anno Domini 1021. The Feast of the Nativity approaching, King John and his Queen appointed to keep that Festival with great Magnificence at Guildford; Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury being in disfavour of the King, to show how little he regarded it, and to put an Affront on him, Published he would keep a Ch●istmas of as great Magnificence as the King; and accordingly performed it in his own Palace, with that Splendour and Multitude of Attendants, Richness of Banquets, Pageantry, Costly Attires and Gifts at Canterbury, as the King could not exceed him at Guildford. Matth. Par. in Antiq. Eccl Angl. in vita Huberti. Which very much Incensed the King to see himself purposely outbraved by a Priest. Anno 1473. Edward the Fourth Seized on the Mitre of George Nevil Archbishop of York, which was so Rich with Gold and Precious Stones, that the King of the same made himself a Crown; and likewise he Seized on Twenty Thousand ●ounds-worth more of his Money and Goods: A vast Sum in those Days, Ant. Brit. Anno 1421. The King wanting Money for the French Wars, pawned the Crown to the Bishop of Winchester for Twenty Thousand Pounds, Ant. Brit. So we see the Bishop's Head is as Richly Crowned as the Kings; and when a Bishop grows so Rich a Broker besides, as to take Crowns to pawn, it may be then said in no Disloyal sense, The Mitre is above the Crown; for the Borrower is a Servant to the Lender. Which Excess of Riches, Insatiable Covetousness, High Titles, Precedency of the Temporal Barons, and (till the same was altered by Act of Parliament) Precedency of the Archbishop of Canterb●ry, of the King's Brothers themselves, Elevates Prelacy to so great a height of intolerable Pride, and makes them so much over-value their own Merits, as 'tis impossible to oblige them by Benefits. 
Bishop's perfidious to the English Kings.  Henry the Second Raised Becket from nothing, to be Chancellor of England, and after to be Archbishop of Canterbury, and to have the Education of his Son; yet as soon as he saw himself invested with the Power of Excommunication, he moved all the other Bishops, being under the Oath of Canonical Obedience, to him; and Threatened the King, that His Sword struck only with Temporal Death; but that of Bishops struck the Soul with Eternal Death to Hell. The difference between the King and the Bishop; was, the King would have it Ordained, That the Clergymen who were Malefactors, should be Tried before the Secular Magistrate, as Laymen were; this Becket Proudly opposed, and said it was against the Privileges of the Church, and therefore against the Honour of God; and very high and hot the Contentions were about it, till at last Becket condescended to assent to the Ordinance Salvo Jure Suo; the King liked not the Clause, as being delusive of the Ordinance; at last with much ado the Archbishop yields to this also, and set his hand to the Ordinance, and takes his Oath to observe it: But going homewards, his Cross bearer and some other about him, blamed him for what he had done; whereupon the next day, when they met again, he openly Repent his former Deed, Retracts his Subscription, and openly sent to the Pope for an Absolution of his Oath. Which the Pope not only granted, but encouraged him to persist in the Course he had begun. The King seeing his Perjury, and that there was no prevailing by fair means, Seizes on his Temporalities, and withal Threatens a Proceeding against his Person. Becket thereupon flies the Realm, and appeals to the Pope, and procures an Excommunication from the Pope, of such Bishops as kept not their Oath of Canonical Obedience to him, who was their Archbishop. The King of France Intercedes for Becket; and the Pope Threatened Excommunication against the King himself, if he Restored him not. The King out of a Superstitious Fear of his Excommunication (as appears by his Receiving afterward the Servile Penance imposed on him for Becket's death) Restores Becket again to his See of Canterbury; whither again arrived, he continued, notwithstanding the favour of the Kings: Restauration, as bad as before; in Prosecuting his Excommunications he had got at Rome against such Bishops as sided with the King; of which when the Excommunicated Bishops complained to the King, and moved thereby his Passion, He cried out, Shall I never be quiet for this Priest? if I had any about me that loved me, they would find some way or other to Rid me of this trouble. Whereupon Four Knights standing by, took their Journey to find the Archbishop; whom they found at Church on the steps; where they struck him on the Head with their Swords, and killed him; which though, in the manner of doing, it was no way Justifiable, being without lawful Hearing and Trial: Yet 'tis very manifest, that the Archbishop by the Common Law itself, without the trouble of an Attainder by Parliament, might have been proceeded against Legally by Indictment of High-Treason: and he was manifestly Guilty; for it was, by the Common Law, High-Treason to appeal to a Foreign Prince. And likewise, for any Subject to bring an Excommunication from Rome against another Subject, without the King's Assent, was Treason: for this was the ready way to give the Pope Power to Raise Rebellions against the King when he pleased. 
Bishop's Traitors to King John.  The Bishops in the time of King John Conspired with the Pope and the French, and the Temporal Barons, and the Pope laid an Interdiction or Excommunication on the Kingdom for Six Years, Three Months, and Fourteen Days; during which, the Church Doares were shut up, and there was neither Exercise of Religion, Mass, Marriage, Baptism or Burial, allowed in the Church or Churchyard, till the King would Surrender his Crown, and take the Kingdom from the Pope, and hold it Feudatory from him; which the King was, by the Treachery of his Bishops deserting him, compelled to do; and accordingly he took off the Crown from his Head, and laid it at the Feet of Pandulphus the Popes Legate, the Pope to dispose of it how he pleased; which he kept Three or Four Days from him, and would not Restore again, but on condition agreed, That he and his Successors should hold it of the Pope, and pay him for it the Yearly Tribute of a Thousand Marks, which was a great Sum in those days, besides all the other Tributes and Exactions which the Pope then had from the Subjects: but this the King was fain to do, before the Excommunication would be taken off from him and his Kingdom; which being done, and be perceiving himself clear from the Pope, Resolved to Raise an Army and be Revenged on the French King, whose Pensions had set all this on work against him; and accordingly had Levied a very great Army, having his Fleet all ready at Portsmouth to have Shipped them. The Archbishop of Canterbury thereupon told him, He broke his Oath to the Pope at his Absolution, if he Warred against the French King; which in truth the Bishops had themselves by their Treason compelled Him to. To whom the King Replied in a great Passion. That he would not defer the Business for his pleasure, seeing Lay-Judgment belonged not to him. The Archbishop Threatened his Native Sovereign he would Excommunicate him, unless he desisted; and this was in behalf of a Foreign Prince his Enemy: So far could French Pensions prevail with Prelates; whereby the King to his great loss was enforced to Dissolve and Disband again his Army, in the nick of Time when it was ready for Action.  
Henry the Third, the Tempest of the Barons-Wars beginning to Threaten him, was asked by Robert Bacon, a Friar Predicant, What Seamen feared most, that they knew best themselves? The Friar Replied, My Lard, I will tell you, It is Petrae & Rupes, alluding to Petrus de Rupibus, The name of the then Bishop of Winchester, and under him meaning the whole Body of the Bishops.  
Edward the First, that wise and valiant Prince, disdaining to be Priestridden, as his two Predecessors had been, to so great danger of their Persons and Kingdoms; and taught by their Experience, that it was in vain to think of obliging by Benefits or Oath the Power of those who being a Body United, and as it were an Army more firmly Banded under their Archbishop, than 'twas possible to make the Lay-Nobility to be under their King, he began first to Lop off from their Ecclesiastical Auxiliaries, such Branches of Royal Power as he could do himself without a Parliament; and Anno Reg. 6. Deprived many famous Monasteries of England of their Privileges, and took from the Abbot and Covent of Westminster the Return of Writs, granted them by the Charter of Henry the third. And after he got to be Enacted by Parliament the Statute of Mortmain against the so enormous Increase of their Temporal Possessions, which was so detrimental to the Military Service of the Kingdom: and in the Statute of Westminster 2. defalked the Jurisdiction of Bishops and Ecclesiastical Judges: He left not here; but growing more upon them, he Required the Moiety of all their Goods, as well Spiritual as Temporal, for one year (and I think their money and moveables could grow no more the next year which he took in one year) And at the first one Sr. John Knight, stands up amongst them in their assembly, and said, Reverend Fathers, if any here will Contradict the King's Demand in this Business, let him stand out in the midst of this Assembly, that his person may be known and seen as one Guilty of the Breach of the King's Peace. At which speech they all sat mute, and though it put them into Extreme grief and perplexity, they yet were fain to yield to his demand. Dan. Hist. Which if he had been possessed with a dastardly fear of Excommunication, he had no more dared to do, than his Predecessors. Yet some say, to be able to deal with his own Bishops, he was fain to send the Pope a Furnish of gold for his Chamber to have his Connivance.  
Edward the second Anno Regni 17 after the Overthrow he Received by the Treachery of his own in Scotland, 
Bishop's Traitors to E. 2.  Caused the Bishop of Hereford to be Arrested and Accused of High treason, for aiding the King's Enemies in their Late Rebellion: but he Refused to Answer (being a Consecrated Bishop) without leave of the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose Suffragan he was, and who, he said, was his direct Judge next the Pope, and without Consent of his fellow-Bishops, who then all arose and humbly desired the King's Clemency in his behalf; but finding him Resolute, they took away their fellow-Bishop from the Bar, and delivered him to the Custody of the Archbishop of Canterbury till some other time the King should appoint for his answer to what he was charged withal. Shortly after he was again taken and Converted as before; which the Clergy understanding, 
The Bishops rescue a Traitor-Bishop from the Bar of Justice.  the Archbishop of Canterbury, York, and Dublin, and Ten other Bishops, all with their Crosses erected, went to the place of Judgement, and again took him away with them, Charging all men on pain of Excommunication to forbear to lay violent hands on him: with which audacious Act the King was much displeased, and presently Commanded inquiry to be made Ex officio Judicis Concerning those objections against the Bishop, whereto he Refused to appear and answer; and he being found Guilty of the same, Judgement was passed against him as Contumaciously absent, and thereupon all his Goods and Possessions were seized into the King's hands; this Act Lost him the Clergy, and added Power to the Discontented Party; which by Reason of the misfortunes of the Prince, and his having advanced unpopular officers, As Gaveston and Spencer were grown in the people, and Concurred to his after Deposeing from the Throne, and horrible Murder when Deposed. Hence may be very well observed, in what a sad Condition a Prince is, who must Depend on the Protection of Bishops and their Excommunications; And how shamelessly notwithstanding they will boast, that no Bishop, no King. For here are France and Scotland Confederated against the Kingdom; the King is valiant, but young and unexperiensed; his Bishops and Barons are Corrupted against him by French Pensions, and cause the Overthrow of his Army; he discovers one of the Bishop's guilty of the Treason, and had he not been Rescued by the other Traytor-Bishops his Companions, he might perhaps have discovered the whole Plot and all his Complices. The King very Justly Sentences him both as Mute, and Contumaciously absent, and seizes on his Estate as forfeit. What more Just proceeding than this? here is no condemning without Liberty of Answer and Hearing; yet this must lose the King all the Arch-Bishops and Bishops in England and Ireland, and all the Clergy of both Kingdoms who received Ordination from them; And they will no longer be his subjects, unless he will allow them to betray and sell him to his Enemies, and not Punish or question the Treason. But all concur to irritate the Temporal Barons, the people and his own Traitorous Queen to depose and destroy him; And the Bishop of Hereford Preaching before her, took this Text My Head acheth, my Head acheth; and thence draws this wicked Doctrine and Use to a wife, that she must cut off her Husband's Head who was her Head; and when after the King was deposed, and his son chosen, the Archbishop of Canterbury Preached in Westminster-Hall on this Text, Vox Populi, Vox Dei, to encourage the people in the Treason, which was after perfected by his horrible murder in Prison. The next Consideration will be, how this might have been prevented by his Renowned Father, who was of such Wisdom, Vigilance and Valour, as neither Gaveston nor Spencer nor Bishops Dared to abuse; if he had suspected they would have practised such Treachery against the younger years of his son. Concerning which, it seems he was able and might have easily prevented it, had he not Committed two oversights, the one was, That he only Banished Gaveston, and had not cut off his head if he had deserved it; for assoon as he was dead, Gaveston returned again, and corrupting the young King, was the first occasion his Enemies made Use of to cast the vices and misgovernments of his Favourites on himself. It may be here objected, That perhaps though Gaveston was a wicked vicious person, yet he might not be Guilty of any Crime for which he might be lawfully put to death. To which is answered, That it possibly might be so, though it be not likely; And if he were not Guilty of such a Crime, he ought not to have been put to Death: for a Throne cannot be Established by shedding Innocent Blood. But neither he nor his son needed to have been Guilty of it; for his son needed not have sent for him Contrary to his Father's Command; and though he incurred that fault, the Lords cut ●ff his Head, who must answer for it, and freed him from the Gild and danger of him. The second oversight was of more weight, that was, When he made an Act against Mortmain for the future, he had not taken away, as H. 8. after did, all that was before Mortmained. And when he took the Moiety of the Reverend Father's Money and Goods, he had not taken all; and when he Lopped the Branches of Privileges and Jurisdictions of Bishops and other ecclesiastics, he had not took both Root and Branch: For it is as lawful to take present Mortmaineses, as 'tis to prohibit Future. And if lawful to take the Moiety, it was lawful to take the Whole: And if lawful to take the Branches, it was as lawful to take the Root of Hierarchy; which if he had done, This clear Benefit he had Received by it, he had left his son secure from any Spiritual French Pensioners, who are the most Dangerous sort of all other; And the Temporal Barons could not have had without them so great and specious advantages to have Betrayed him. (2) He had freed him from such Audacious Traitors as would Rescue their fellows from the Bar of Justice; which Temporal Barons never dared do (3) He had f●eed all his successors who should happen to be superstitious, from having Rebellions raised against them, and themselves Deposed by Excommunication, by abolishing Bishops and their ordination; which had been an advantage, none of his neighbour Emperors or Kings could hitherto ever obtain; nor if Bishops had been taken away, Episcopal or Ecclesiastical Government by halves; though it was sufficient to abate their Power as to himself, it was worse for his Son, than if he had done nothing at all; for he thereby left Bishops and a Clergy full of Rancour in their minds for those blows they had been beaten with by the Father; which though they dare not revenge themselves on him, yet did they on his Son to his destruction: and though there never had been a Gaveston or a Spencer, would have found other pretences enough for their Treasons; which they could not have done, had he clean abolished them and not left a See for a Bishop to fit in.  

Archbishop threatens to Excommunicate Edw. 3.  Edward the Third being with his Army in France, and disappointed of his Supply of Treasure, upon his last Return into England had in great displeasure Removed his Chancellor, and Imprisoned his Treasurer, with other Officers, most of them Clergy men. John Stratford Archbishop of Canterbury, on whom the King likewise laid the blame of his Wants, writes a proud Letter to the King, and desired him and his Council without delay to deliver the said Prisoners, otherwise he plainly writes, That according to his Pastoral Charge he must proceed to the Execution of the Sentence of Excommunication; concluding, how notwithstanding it was not his Intention to include the King, Queen, or their Children, so far as by Law they might be Excused. It was well for the King he was in the head of a brave Army in France, for if he had been single as his Father was, they who durst Menace him amongst all his Forces in the Field, if he had lost the Day, as his Father did, were as likely to bring him (for a French Pension) to as miserable a destruction, as they brought his Father; but by God's Providence he proved afterward Victorious, but first Replied by another Letter to the Archbishop, That Relying on his Council, he was first put on the Action of the French, and that he had promised and assured him he should not want Treasure to perform the work; and that notwithstanding by the negligence and malice of the said Archbishop and his Officials, those Provisions Granted him by his Subjects in Parliament, were in so slender proportion Levied, and with such delays sent over, as he was pressed of necessity to his great Grief and Shame to Condescend to the late Truce with the French, though extreme Wants charged with mighty Debts, forced him to throw himself into the Gulf of the Usurers in such sort, as he began to look into the Dealing of his Officers; some of which, upon apparent notice of their ill Administration of Justice, their Corruptions and Oppressions of his Subjects, he removed from their Places: and others of mean Degree he Committed to Prison, and there detained them, to the end he might find out by their Examinations, the truth of their Proceed. Then he charges the Archbishop with his own Corruption, and declares how himself being under Age, had through his ill Council made so many Prodigal Donatives, prohibited Alienations and excessive Grants and Gifts, that thereby his Treasury was utterly Exhausted, and his Revenues diminished; and how the Archbishop corrupted with Bribes, Remitted without reasonable cause great Sums which were due unto him; applying to his own Use, or Persons ill deserving, many Commodities and Revenues which should have been preserved for his necessary Provisions; and concluded, Unless he desisted from his Rebellious obstinacy, he intended in due time and place more openly to proceed against him: and the King, before the Archbishop Submitted, caused a Letter to be sent to the Pope from the Parliament, not to make any more Collations of Benefices in England, and prohibited them on pain of Death on any that should present or admit them: which Resolute slighting of Excommunication, both from Archbishop and Pope, though in the very time of War with France, made the Pride of the Archbishop stoop, and with much ado got himself Reconciled to the King's favour; for which the King was bound to thank God and not the Pope or Bishop, who gave him that Victory and Success against the French, as neither Pope or Archbishop dared to Excommunicate him.  
Against Richard the Second, one of the Articles brought against him; to have him deposed, was, That whereas the Realm is immediately holden of God, after he had obtained divers Acts for his own particular Ends, he obtained Bulls & heavy Censures from Rome to observe and perform them, contrary to the Honour and ancient Privilege of this Kingdom; whereby appears, That even in a time of Popery the Assistance of the Pope and Bishops which were included in it, was so far from being a Protection to the King, that it was Destructive to him; much more is the Assistance of Bishops likely to be Destructive, rather than a Safety in a time of Protestancy. The Bishop likewise Concurred with the rest, and accused him, That he had taken Money, Jewels and Plate from them at his going into Ireland; 
Bishops accuse R. 2. for Trifles, to Depose him.  so far were they from seeking to preserve the King's Life with those Superfluities of theirs, where they could keep them and their Bishoprics together, that they shown their Fidelity to their Native King, by endeavouring to destroy him. For such Trifles divers other Articles were laid against him in behalf of the Bishops, by whose doing only the King was utterly undone. Truss. 46. And not one of all the Bishops in England or Ireland spoke so much as one word to preserve their Native Sovereign's Life, but only one, namely, Thomas Mercks' Bishop of Carlisle.  

Dilemma of danger from Excommunication.  As to the Dilemma a Prince falls under in expecting safety of Government from the Power of Excommunication of Popes or Bishops, either the greater part of his Subjects will be Religious, or Superstitious; if Religious, they will so easily see through the Superstition of Consecration and Excommunication, as it will rather Irritate and Provoke them, as it did in the late unhappy Civil Wars; but if Superstitious, will the Pope or Bishop make Use of the great Interest and Strength they gain thereby in the People, to advance their pretended Spiritual Sword above the Temporal, and their own Supremacy above Temporal Kings and Princes, which if Resisted by the Princes of such Subjects, hazards their being Deposed, and losing Kingdoms and Lives together, as appears by the Examples before Recited. In the same danger is a Prince who Trusts a Temporal Officer, whether Treasurer or other, with too much Power of Money; as Theocritus, Anno 518. caused Amantius an Eunuch to give Justin, 
Amantius.  the General of the Army, a great Sum of Money to give the Soldiers, to choose Theocritus Emperor; but Justin distributed it for himself, and so obtained himself the Empire. The Western Emperor's first raised the Popes to that height, as to Excommunicate the Eastern Emperors; the succeeding Popes to return their Advancers due thanks, Excommunicated, after, the Western Emperor. The French Kings assisted, and after raised the Popes to such height, that they Excommunicated, Deposed and Poisoned the Western Emperor; after, by the same Power the French King gave them, in thanks they Excommunicated and Assassinated the French Kings. The Princes of Sicily and Naples had been mighty defendors of the Papacy, but when they had made it mightier than themselves, the Succeeding Popes took from them their Sovereignty, to themselves.   

As to the Impossibility of Safety of Princes amongst Subjects, Educated in fear of Excommunication.  

Subjects Educated in fear of Excommunication, dangerous to Princes.  It is to be Noted as well from the Testimony of approved Authors, as from the Scripture itself, that amongst the Primitive Christians, those who are now called Bishops, but in the Original word signify only Overseers, were Parochial Bishops or Overseers, and not Provincial, and that they were the same with Presbyters, and differed not in 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 increased) 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 yourselves, 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, 
Bishop's 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 called Bishops, ought not to be Lord Bishops; for the words are, they are not to be Lords of God's Heritage. In one Chapter of Mahomet's, 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, until that the Ottoman Princes, the Cundes, and the Kings of the higher part of Asia and afric, 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, Archbishop 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.  

Bishop's 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 quàm 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 'tis 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 Signior, though he Tolerates a multitude of Sects and Religions in his Empire, yet he is endangered by none, because all Mahometan 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 Laymen 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 sly 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 Patriarches and Bishops, they dare not Excommunicate an Emperor of such a People who Contemn their Excommunication, and would Revenge it on themselves, if they should presume to make a vain noise with it. Christ commands Wisdom to be learned of the Serpent, and the experience of all Ages witnesseth to whosoever will but consult Histories, That there was never any Prince Gentile or Jew, Mahometan or Christian, who admitted near his Throne Episcopal or Pontifical Consecration, Ordination or Excommunication, could that remain, He or his Posterity secure, or not Ruined or Plagued by those Devils Transformed, which he Superstitiously or Impudently had Raised against himself, or them; as may sufficiently appoar by the Examples before Recited.  

Presbyters independent.  Lastly, (9) If Parochial Bishops and Presbyters were Elected by the Congregations or several Parishes, these were Independents in the Primitive Christians time, and no Prelacy was amongst them; for though the Cities or Parishes in greatness might exceed one another in greatness and in Precedence, yet the Presbyters Elected were as Independent one of another, as Members of Parliament Elected from great and small Shires.   

As to the Impossibility of obliging Bishops by Oath.  

Bishops not to be obliged by Oath.  It is impossible to oblige those by Oaths who claim to be Judges of Oaths and Perjury, as all Bishops do, and their Spiritual Courts; for how many and easy pretences will they find to Evade and Nullify them? sometimes a Parte Ante, Force or Circumvention; sometimes matter Ex post Facto, that though at first Law, yet by new matters since arising, the same is became unlawful to be kept. So, grant a Bishop the Jurisdiction of Perjury, he will never Judge himself guilty of it, nor any Subject who breaks his Oath of Allegiance to the King, in obedience to the Bishop; and the rather, because he is not bound to show any Cause or Reason of his Judgement; neither as Coke will have it to be questioned, in the King's Courts, of what he hath the Jurisdiction, 25. H. 8. Cap. 19 The Clergy Promise the King in verho sacerdotii that they will never her ceforth Praesume to attempt allege claim or put in ure, enact, promulge or execute any Canon's Constitutions Ordinance Provincial, or other, or by whatsoever other name they shall be called in the Convocation, unless the Kings most Royal assent may be to them had, and that his Majesty do give his most Royal assent; so it appears they used to make them before, presuming on their Power of Excommunication; yet when Queen Mary came in, they were as high again as ever, notwithstanding their Promises.  

Holy water to wash off Oaths.  There was a water which Ran in the way Appia, dedicated to Mercury, wherein the old Pagan Romans did believe, if they dipped a Laurel Branch, therewith calling on Mercury, That they were discharged thereby from any breach of Oath and Perjury they had Committed, Alex ab Alexandr. Genial. Dier. The Popes have store of this Holy Water, and no doubt can spare some to the Bishops, as well as Holy Oil. Guiccuardin. Com. de Pol. Relates a then in use Proverb, Proprium esse Ecclesiae odisse et timere Caesares; Ecclesiastical Laws and Excommunications therefore, made by such Enemies, are not likely to be friends to Kings or subjects. Bishops are Ecclesiastical Persons Aiming at a supremacy in Judgement of Heresy, in Judgement of Oaths, in Excommunication, all inconsistent with Temporal Supremacy, as is their Interest, which hath always made them perfidious to Temporal Powers. 
Pope's perjured.  The French King besieged Pope Alexander the Sixth in his Castle of St Angelo, from whence after a time he came out swearing to such capitulations as he could obtain, and the French King kissing his foot: Amongst other Articles he agreed the French King should have his Son Caesar Hostage for the Performance, but not long after, Caesar making an Escape, his Father the Pope, contrary to his Oath contracted a League Contrary to the French, to their great Prejudice, and it was the Custom of that Pope to use most Oaths when he intended most to deceive.  
Pope Julius the second had obliged himself by Oath, to have a General Council within two years after his Election to the Popedom, but this being not performed, Maximilian the Emperor and Lewes the French King Convened a Synod at Pisa, whither some Cardinals under protection of the French King caused the Pope to be summoned to make his appearance, but the Pope instead thereof Excommunicated them and the French King, and called an Antisynod at Rome, to whom he Excuses his Oath, and Dies, but how he Excused it after he was Dead the Historian doth not mention. Anno. 1414. In the Council of Constance convened by Sigismond the Emperor and Pope John the Third, Consisting of about a Thousand Bishops and Doctors, and Continued four years, yet amongst so many Bishops Vix una Fides; 
Bishop's perjured.  for though these declared that the Council was above the Pope, yet they Resolved to be as perfidious to Protestants as he, and accordingly there ordained, That faith ought not to be kept with Heretics: Here they ordered the bones of John Wickliff that famous Primitive Protestant of England, to be digged out of his Sepulchre and burnt at this Council: likewise was John Hus and Jerome of Prague contrary to the safe conduct and faith given them by the Emperor and Bishops, Perfidiously and Cruelly made Martyrs; and burnt for the Protestant Religion. Here you see were a thousand Bishops, yet none kept the Promise of safe conduct. Burchard Archbishop of Magdeburg taking some offence at his Citizens besieged them with Armed Power, but they Redeemed their liberty with a sum of money, he thereupon Swearing he would molest them no more: yet shortly after, he besieged them again; but this Perjury was justly met with, for in a Sally they took him Prisoner, at which time by his humble Demeanour, and counterfeit Oaths never to molest them more, They Released him; but when he was at Liberty, getting a Despensation for his Oath from Pope John the 23d, he began to molest them again, Murdering them whom he had sworn to Maintain. But it was Gods will he should be once again caught and cast into Prison, and Punished for his wickedness, Magdeb. Cent. And did not the Archbishop of Canterbury, Becket, as well as Burchard Archbishop of Magdeburg as is before mentioned, commit as great a Perjury against his native King, Henry the second, after all the Labour and pains taken with him, both by fair and foul means to bring him to Agreement, assoon as he Recovered home to his House, by Retracting his Oath and getting an absolution from the Pope for the same?  

Bishops compel H. 2. to accept the Kingdom on their Terms, or not to have it.  By the Pretended Power of Consecration, Ordination, and Excommunication Popes and Bishops Pretend a Divine Mission to Anoint and Crown Kings, and then again to Excommunicate and Depose them all, to Null all Oaths of allegiance unless they will buy their Crowns of them and pay Tribute. There is in our own English History a Manifest Example of the same, in that noble King Henry the second, who Complains to his Parliament against the Bishops and the whole Clergy, That in their Election of King Stephen his Predecessor, who was a Collateral Heir, they had imposed on him their own Conditions, with all advantages to themselves, whereby they Deprived his Mother Maud the Empress, and him who was her issue and the right Lineal Heir, of the Succession to the Crown. And how they dealt with the People, as well as with the King, appears by the Complaint of the Lay-Nobility to the King at the same time, That the Privileges of the Clergy hindered all Execution of Justice, that the same could have no Passage through the Kingdom; and having Exempted themselves from the Jurisdiction of the Magistrate, there had been since the beginning of his Reign, above an Hundred Manslaughters Committed within the Realm of England by Priests, and men within Holy Orders, Dan. Hist. 83. Such were the Fruits of Bishops and persons within Holy Orders, and the three fine Knacks of Consecration, Ordination and Excommunication, wherewith they both Alured and Terrified the Superstitious People. And such were the fruits of their pretended Divine Mission with the Olive Branch of Peace, for though Unction and Crowning of Kings; who confected their Ointment of the Ingredients mentioned in Psal. 55.21. The words of his mouth were smother than butter, but War was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.  

(1.) Of God's Preservation of John Keysar, notwithstanding his. Excommunication, and Delivery to Satan by an Archbishop of Canterbury.  
(2.) Of Delivery to Satan by Bishops, and their Prohibition to cast him out again by Fasting and Prayer, without the Bishop's Licence.  
(3.) All Excommunication and delivery to Satan by Bishops, without a Sign of Mission from God, if Malefice follow, aught to be Punished as Witchcraft, if not as a Cheat.  
(4.) To grant a Bishop Power of Excommunication, is to grant him Power to set up Idolatry; to make all Sins equal, to Pardon all Sins for Money.   
Coke part 3.42. Ex Mich. 5. E. 4. Rot. 143. Coram Rege.  

Keysar delivered to Satan, protected by God.  John Keysar was Excommunicated by the greater Excommunication, before Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, and Legate of the Aposto lick See, at the Suit of another, for a reasonable part of Goods, and so Remained Eight Months; and the said Keysar openly affirmed, That the said Sentence was not to be feared, neither did he fear it; and albeit the Archbishop or his Commissary hath Excommunicated me, yet, before God I am not Excommunicated; And he said he spoke nothing but the Truth. And so it appeared, for that the last Harvest standing so Excommunicate, he had as great plenty of Wheat and other Grain as any of his Neighbours, saying to them in scorn, That a man Excommunicate should not have such Plenty of Wheat; the Arch Bishop (denying these words to be within the Statute of H. 4. concerning Lollards, who were the Primitive Protestants and Protomartyrs of England) did by his Warrant in writing, comprehending the said Cause by Pretext of the said Statute, Commit the Body of the said Keysar to the Gaol at Maidstone, for that, saith he, in respect of publishing the said words, Dictum Johannem non immerito habemus de Haeresi suspectum; by reason whereof, the said John Keysar was Imprisoned in Maidstone Gaol, and in Prison detained under Custody of the Keeper there, until by his Council he moved Sir John Markham, than Chief-Justice Justice of England, and other the Judges of the Kings-Bench, to have an Habeas Corpus, and thereupon (as it ought) a Habeas Corpus was granted, upon which Writ the Gaoler Returned the Cause and Special Matter, and withal, according to the Writ, had his Body there. The Court upon mature Consideration (and on Conference with Divines) Resolved, That upon the said words Keysar was not to be Suspect of Heresy within the said Statute, as the Archbishop took it; and therefore the Court first Bailed him, and after, he was delivered, for that the said Archbishop had no Power, by virtue of the said Act, to Commit to Prison. John Keysar hereby proved the Archbishop to be no Incantor Messium, but he thereby proved, though he was no Witch, yet he was a Cheat.  

Prohibition to cast out the Devil by Fasting and Prayer.  In the Book of Canons newly Printed, 1673. the Canon 72. contains these words: No Minister or Ministers shall, without the Licence and Direction of the Bishop of the Diocese first had and obtained under his Hand and Seal, attempt upon any pretence whatsoever, either of Possession or Obsession by Fasting and Prayer, to cast out any Devil or Devils, under pain of Imputation of Imposture or Cozenage, and Deposition from the Ministry. The Bishops in prohibiting to cast out the Devil without their Licence, imitate something the Popish Exorcists, part of whose Exorcism, is, according to Mengus Flagell. Daemon. p. 36. The Exorcist ties a Stole about the Neck of the Party with three knots, saying, Oh ye Abominable and Rebellious Spirits, I Adjure, Conjure and Compel you, wheresoever you have your Residence in this man, by the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that ye immediately understand the words of my Conjuration, and the virtue of it, and that ye dare not departed from the Creature of God, and Image of Christ, without my Licence. This is not only Anti-Protestant, and the way to bring in all the Popish Magic and Exorcisms into the Church; but is Antichristian, for Christ himself affirms, There is no holier or higher way of casting out the Devil than by Fasting and Prayer, as appears, Matth. 17.14. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord have mercy on my Son, for he is Lunatic, and sore vexed, for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy Disciples, and they could not cure him. And verse 18. And Jesus rebuked the Devil, and he departed out of him: and the Child was cured from that very hour. Then came the Disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your Unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if ye have Faith, as a grain of Mustardseed, ye shall say unto this Mountain, Remove hence u●to yonder place, and it shall remove: and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by Prayer and Fasting. Christ agian will not suffer the Disciples to prohibit any to cast out the Devil, as Mark 9.38. And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out Devils in thy Name, and we forbade him, because he followed not us. But Jesus said, Forbidden him not for there is no man that shall do a Miracle in my Name, that can lightly speak Evil of me. For he that is not against us, is on our part. The Bishop's Canon appears therefore clean contrary to the Example and Precept of Christ.  
It is before mentioned, how the Bodies of Dead Persons in their Graves are by some believed to be Revived and Tormented by the Devil; and how Locusts, Flies and Fishes have been struck with this Thunderbolt of Excommunication. There is no Good man dare Torment or Destroy by the help of any Invisible Spirit, nor will, nor ought any good Magistrate suffer them, without a Sign of Mission from God, above the Power of his Temporal Sword; for all Magicians and Witches would then Act their Mischiefs under pretence that they do it by the Spirit of God; and that their Excommunication is the Curse of God. If therefore any Malefice follow without a Sign of Mission, whereby they had a Warrant to Curse, the Magistrate Sign of Mission, whereby they had a Warrant to Curse, the Magistrate ought to punish them for Witchcraft, or all Laws against Witchcraft must be Repealed, and the Devil let lose, by his Instruments the Witches, to do what mischief he pleases, and no Judge presume to punish a Witch, if he only say, What he did was done by the Spirit of God. It is impossible to distinguish invisible Spirits, or to try the Spirit, whether God or the Devil, but by visible Sign; if the hurt be done therefore by any Person, by assistance of a Spirit, unless he show a Sign, he ought, by the standing Laws and Acts of Parliament, to be punished for Witchcraft; and if he pretend to have a Mission from the Spirit of God, and hath none, he ought to be punished for a Cheat. And under the same Dilemma fall the Authors and Executors of the before mentioned Canon, prohibiting Ministers to cast out the Devil by Fasting, and must be guilty either of Withcraft or a Cheat, if they cannot show a Sign of Mission to make such a prohibition, and to give such a Licence as their Canon imports, though they impute the same to the Ministers who Fast and Pray, when they do not.   

Excommunication makes all Sins equal.  
Excommunication, as it came from Pagans, so it sets up again that old Pagan Doctrine of the Stoics, Omnia Peccata esse Equalia. 
Excommunication for Two Pence.  There was a Poor man who used to go to Labour for  a Day, he lived in a Parish where the Custom was, The Clerk was to have a Penny every Year of every Householder, and being very Poor, rather needing to receive Alms, than to pay Rates, he thought he might have been on that Cause excused, whereby this Penny was neglected to be paid for two Years following, which amounted to the Sum of Two Pence, for which he was Sued in the Bishop's Court, and Excommunicated; and he would often complain, that he could not recover his Estate till he had given the Court Eighteen-pences. See the Piety of an Excommunicator, he would, if he had had Power, have sold the Poor man's Soul to the Devil for Two Pence, if he could not get some Money to redeem it.   

Excommunication Pardons all Sin for Money.  
Excommunication is done to no other end, than to drive them to buy Absolution, which enticeth and encourageth all kind of Uncleanness, and other Wickedness.   

Excommunication sets up Idolatry.  
Pope Gregory the Second, 
Idolatry.  Excommunicated and Deposed the Greek Emperor Leo Isaurus, because he made a Law against Images, and nicknamed him Iconomachus, or the Fighter with Images.   

Excommunication and Power to Judge of Heresy, returns all to Popery and Priest-riding.  
Thus Excommunicators follow the Precedent of the old Pagan Priests of Mars, whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Fire-bearers, who having Solemnly performed their Rites and Ceremonies of Cursing, Execration or Excommunication (as Balak would have had Balaam to have done) used, before the Battle joined, to cast Firebrands between the two Enemy-Armies, standing in Battle Array one against another, and so stirred them up to fight, but they themselves yet retired out of the medley and danger.  
1. This gives the Popish Priest, that main Pillar of the Popish Empire, the Jurisdiction of Marriage, Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, and the Arbitrary disposing of the same, both in Kingdoms and Private Patrimonies.  
2. This gives him the Power of setting up Images, as appears in the forecited Example of the Emperor Leo Isaurus Excommunicated and Deposed, because he forbade Images.  
3. This gives him Power to Asassinate Kings, of which are a multitude of Examples.  
4. This gives him a Power of Confiscating Kingdoms, and Selling them to others.  
5. This gives him Power to Confiscate and Imprison Arbitrarily the Subjects by Excommunicato Capiendo's, as is before declared.  
6. This gives him Power of taking from the People the free Election of their Parochial Ministers, and imposing on them the Popish Sacrament, of Orders and Ordination, contrary to the Law of God.  
7. This gives him Power to compel Confession of Sins to be made to the Priest, which ought only to be made to God, the Magistrate, and the Brother injured.  
8. This gives him Power to impose Penance and Corporal punishment; which ought only to be done by the Magistrate, (1.) Because the Magistrate should else bear the Sword in vain. (2.) Because it is unjust the Magistrate should penance or punish once, and the Priest punish again for the same Sin; for, Nemo debet bis puniri pro eodem delicio.  
9 This gives him Power of imposing what Commutation-Money and Arbitrary Fine he pleaseth, which is a Subversion of all Propriety in Goods.  
10. This gives him Power to sell Absolutions and Pardons of Sins, and compel the same to be taken from the Priest, which ought only to be taken from God, the Magistrate, and the Brother injured, for unumquod que dissolvitur eodem modo quo conflatum est, none can pardon an Offence against a Law, but a Legislator; none can release a Trespass, but the Party against whom the Trespass is committed.  
11. This not only gives him Power, by Pardon to Null the Laws of God and Men, and the Penalties of the same, but to Enact Arbitrarily new Laws and Penalties contrary and Superior to the Law of God, viz. Ceremonial Laws made by the Priest, contrary and Superior to the Moral Law made by God.  
12. This Empowers him to Usurp the Throne of God himself, in the Soul and Conscience of man, wherein none ought to be Judge but God himself.   

Excommunication without a Sign of Mission, not Instituted by Christ, but invented by Pagan Priests and Daemons.  
That Christ never Judged nor Condemned any, though he heard him Preach in Person, and believed not, appears by the Scripture; Faith and Infidelity being rather unavoidable Passions, than free Actions of the Soul, it being not in humane Power to believe what the Conscience is not convinced of, or not to believe that whereof it is convinced; and that Christ never appointed so much as a Non-Communion (which is far less than an Excommunication) with Heretics 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 weakening 'tis 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 show. Waldus and Wickliff, who were Protestants, taught, That Excommunications, Suspensions and Interdicts, were only inventions to maintain the Bishop's Pride and Covetousness; and that they were Murderers who delivered over to the Lay-power: The same held John Hus and Jerom of Prague, who were therefore Martyred 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 Lawgiver of Rome, who had his Law (or he feigned) from his Nymph, or She-Devil Egeria, first instituted his Pontifex Maximus or Highpriest, 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  
Called up, and others headlong 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 Druids get Supremacy over the  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 two 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 two 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, Druids 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.  
Damned Fiend of Hell, who first in Earth or Sky  
Didst counterfeit the Voice of the most High,  
And both to God and Man, to show 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 Fool's 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 cared not, right or wrong,  
Thus Priests the Spoils got, Soldiers a Song;  
Who should be Archpriest, raised Civil Wars,  
The Forest rattled 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 died of Wounds  
Sans nombre, which did so o'restock the bounds  
Of the Elysian Common, that they tell  
Souls after Death Fought, who should go to Hell;  
With this enchanted 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 Sat,  
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 doomed to Excommunicate;  
Yet they no Sign of Mission thus to do 
druids 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 pleased, to Lash and Jerk,  
First to one Pope, than many in a Kirk;  
Nobles and Poor , and Bare-leged,  
Stood at Church-door, and for their Pardons Begged,  
Which to be granted, were so long delayed,  
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 Subject's Oaths and Faith at their Commands;  
Blind Cupid's Arrows first they stole of Love,  
And after, thus, the Thunderbolts of Jove. 
The Romish Bishops Sign of Mission.   
The Romish Druids next to show a Sign,  
That their Infernal Mission was Divine;  
By their Black Magic 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  
Transformed, to Ring to Weddings, and to Knells.  
To an Aceldama their Church turned next,  
And the dead Bones for Burial-Fees they vexed;  
Their restless rest thus purchased in vain,  
They then for Relics digged 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 named,  
And on the British-shores' for ever famed;  
Whose Ship of Olive-planks from Palestine,  
Of Tidings glad the Packet brought Divine.  
The Sea Nymphs danced 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,  
Didst thou cast overboard, and in the Dark  
Leave them there to be snapped by the old Shark,  
That thou their Cargo rifle mightst the while,  
And Gold and Silver, like a Pirate 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,  
Intent, 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 delivered 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 warmed, did for his Master mourn,  
All whom he Mastered 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 entangled 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 perjured broke it, and his Oath.  
You who made tremble the Infernal States,  
And dared Attack 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 Crowned with Fiery Bays;  
And Sparks of you, to Stellify, this sent  
With Protestant's the British Firmament.  
Brave Hero's now, the horned Mitre 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'll fly, 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  
Fight in Clouds, tempt to Despair?  
What though they come from Hell?  
There's no Enchantment against Israel   

Hark how our Canon's Thunder,  
And keep the Romish Canons under;  
Their Organs grunt and whine,  
Our Flutes and Haubois are Divine;  
And Cornets to the Sky,  
Sound for Religion, and for Liberty.   

Angels to hear, grow prouder,  
Than theirs our holy Music louder,  
And valiant Souls shall bear  
From Death to music's highest Sphere.  
Who burn would not like a Brand,  
That thus renowned may die with Sword is hand?    

Whether an Union can be of 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 Christ's Precept and Designation of them, at large before Debated, p. 210. etc. 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 walked it round?  
God's 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 compel 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 Discussed, p. 212. and Examples of the frequent Poisoning the Sacrament by the Priest, p. 240, & 241. To compel 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?  
'Tis shown before, That no true Test ought to endanger the Conscience of any Protestant; but 'tis 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 aught 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 men's 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 compel 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 Litany, with all the Ceremonies prescribed by the Can. 14, 15. Copes, Surplices and Hoods to be women in Cathedrals, by Can. 17, 27. Marriage not to be without Banns or Licence. Can. 62. None to deliver from Satan without the Bishop's Licence. Can. 72. And no Minister to Preach, Read Lecture, or Catechise, 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 acknowledge 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 Licence; Here is a Test wherein the Bishop assumes to be Legislator, Judge, 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 Testify and Declare in my Conscience, That the King's Highness is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm, and of all other his Highness' 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 aught to have, any Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority, Pre-eminence 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 King's Highness, his Heirs and lawful Successors, or United 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 endeavoured 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 encouragement there is therefore, for Protestants to take this Oath of Supremacy, wherein the King's name is only abused, and made a Stolen, to draw a Supreme and Arbitrary Power to Bishops, both over the King and them, and to drain 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 Archbishop 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 Licence 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 mentioned in the Act, is placed in the Person of the Archbishop; 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 Licenced 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 Faculty 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 Archbishop'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 Giants had piled up Pelion on Ossa already, and now they steeple it with Olympus, and if they set not on the Giant's head the Triple Crown, 'tis sure they have the Triple Mitre three stories high, of Prelacy, Arch-Prelacy, and Supremacy. When the Archbishop got therefore of the Parliament this Act, he was something like the Carpenter who begged of the Wood only one Helve long enough to turn his Hatchet into an Axe, 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, endeavoured now to be brought to the true Test of a more Supreme Law and Judge 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 Archbishop by the King and Parliament; until the same Act of Parliament of 25. H. 8.21. by which 'tis 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 Governor, 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 Answered, (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 Genealogy, but it was not found: therefore were they, as Polluted, put from the Priesthood. 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 endeavoured to have been set on foot to the Succession, partly by Papists to overthrow the Protestant-Religion, partly by others to overthrow the Union between the two Kingdoms, in the Person of King James, in which the Protestants of both were so much concerned, 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 itself.  
(8.) An Usurper or Idolater may hap 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 Pre-eminence 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 God's 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 Edge of all the Penal Statutes made and intended against Papists, to destroy the Protestants, and the Preteritions and Pardons intended the Protestants, are wholly applied in favour of the Papist; the Plagues designed against the Egyptians, are wholly let lose 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 Rigour 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 Whetstone to the High-Commission-Court, and turned the Edge 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 bancroft's and Gundamores hath been still continued against the Anti-Papist-Protestants, as then under the name of Puritans, so since under the name of fanatics; such Protestants have had the Penalties of Recusancy laid on them, when Papists have Compounded for Trifles, or been absolutely Pardoned, 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 Bishop's 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 abolished by Act of Parliament; but such Bishops have never troubled Papist's Marriages made by Priests or Jesuits, with Romish Ceremony, nor Nulled 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 Testify 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 Catholic 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 Heretics. I believe that the Host Consecrated, Crucifixes, Images, Idols, Relics of Saints, or Saints themselves, ought not to be Worshipped, or Prayed to, in Public 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 defy 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 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 ourselves, 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 punished 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 rebel 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 Public Government in Protestant-hands.   

Whether Papists or Protestants ought to be Compelled 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, Relics, Masses, etc. 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 hue 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 Nonconformity 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 Public 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 Usurped 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 foiled by giving way, than contending; and Conformity easier won with Lenity, than Rigour; 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,  
o'er reluctanti fulminis ire modo.  
Constitit, ut primum Laxatas Sensit habenas,  
Fraenaque in Effusa Laxa Jacere juba.   Ovid. 

I saw myself an Horse curbed with a Bit,  
To fly like lightning in despite of it:  
But still he stood, as soon as he no Check  
Felt, and the lose Reins cast were on his Neck.   
(4.) chrysostom 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 Protestant's for their Conscience, are Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, and to be Censured 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 overviolent in that from which thy own Conscience or Practice may perhaps eftsoons be Changed.  
(6.) Non-Compulsion to discover itself to punishment, is the best Right that a Conscience so Innocent, as abstains from discovering itself 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 Christendom, under the name of Heretics: 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 itself, and Body and Soul with it, so they may Seize 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 didst 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 sat 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 the King. Then they carried him Forth out of the City, and stoned him with stones, that he Died. Whence is to be Noted, (1.) That the Whore of Babylon imitates Jezabel, in sending Letters in the King's name; for so are all Excommunicato Capiendo's, and Haeretico Comburendo's in the name of the King in whose Dominions they are Granted, and Sealed with his Seal. (2.) Jezabel pretended Religion, Proclaimed a Fast, and accused of Blasphemy; so do the Ministers of the Whore pretend Religion wholly and solely in those Writs. (3.) In this they are worse than Jezabel, for she accused only of Blasphemy, which is an External Act, and if there had been any such thing, it had been possible to have been witnessed, but these punish and destroy for Internal Thoughts and Conscience. (4.) Jezabel accused of Actual Blasphemy against God, which is Malum in se, and against the Moral Law; and though Ahab and she were both Idolaters, yet did not accuse Naboth; That he was a Recusant or Nonconformist to come to the Temple of their Idol, or to join in their Common-Prayer before it, or would not bow to their Altar, or observe their Ceremonies; nor do we find amongst all the Idolatries amongst the Israelites, that any was compelled by Force to Worship them, neither could there have been Seven Thousand who had not bowed the Knee to Baal, had there been Penal Statutes against Recusancy or Nonconformity; but the now Masters of Ceremonies are worse than Jezabel, who destroy men unless they will break the Moral Law, bow to Idols and Altars, and obey the Ceremonial Law of men above the Moral Law of God.  
(8.) That the sole end of Compulsion to Forms of Worship or Confession of Faith, is to get Money, and not the Glory of God. Take these farther Examples, in the Primitive times, Anno 346. Eustathius Bishop of Sebastia, a man of great reputed Integrity and strictness of Life, being a Dissentient from the common practice of other Bishops, absented himself from the Public Conventions, where things were practised against his Conscience; and kept Meetings in Private Houses, Preached and Administered the Sacrament, not in the places and manner appointed by the other Bishop's Cannons; they seeing their Gainful Canons and Orders like to be laid aside, Conspired together at the Council of Gangra and Antioch, making severe Canons of their own, and likewise pretending Apostolical Canons against all Bishops or Presbyters (for so were they called) which should be Non-Conformists, that they should be Excommunicated and Deposed, not regarding though to Acts against their Consciences, and not Commanded by the Moral Law of God; but though this Corruption crept in, even in the Primitive times, amongst those who called themselves Christians, and the misery of Iniquity did then begin to work, 2 Thes. 2.7. And there were then many Anti-christs', 1 John 2.18. Yet no Example or Precept could they pretend from Christ, or his Apostles, for these Antichristian and Anti-Apostolical Canons, Coined to get Money, and Compulsory to Consciences, either to destroy themselves by Acting contrary to their own Light, or openly to accuse themselves, to be destroyed by others; where did Christ (who abolished all Ceremonials, and Declared the Worship of God to be in Spirit and Truth) make so much as one Canon against Recusancy to Pray in Temples, or Nonconformity to Prayer in Forms? Where did Christ or his Apostles make one Law or Canon Compulsory to the Conscience in Form of Worship, or with the Penalties of Confiscation, or Excommunication hanging at the tail of it? where did they ever make so much as one such Canon of Marriage, the matter now in Controversy? or, where did Christ, or any Apostle of Christ, so much as Marry one Couple, or give Authority to any Priest to do it, or to receives Fees for the doing? who would never make Canons to compel the Conscience to that, or any thing else, were it not to get Money. Cyrillus, who passes for a Father of the Church, getting to be Bishop of Alexandria, Anno Dom. 4.18. turned out all the Novatians out of their Churches there, they being Non-Conformists to his; and the chief matter objected against them, was, They were against Bishops, which might have satisfied a Successor of Christ, who pretended only to lay up Treasure in Heaven, where neither Moth nor Rust doth Corrupt; but he Rifled all the Treasure from those Churches, and from their Bishop or Presbyter all the Substance he had, and like a new Broom swept all clean into his own Coffers, Socrat. lib. 7. cap. 7. How far different from the Example of Christ, who though he whipped the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple, and overthrew the Tables of the Money-Changers, took not one Penny of the Money; but Bishop Cyrill aimed at the Monopoly of the Trade to himself here on Earth, and left the Treasure in Heaven to Christ. Theodosius Bishop of Synada a City in Phrygia, was a great Scourge to Non-Conformists, whom he called Heretics, but he persecuted them not out of Zeal, but Covetousness to wring Money from them; wherefore to that end there was no Device but he practised; and to afflict them the more, he put them in Fetters to hold up their hands at the Bar, Socrat. lib. 7. cap. 3. But while Theodosius went to Constantinople, to obtain greater Power yet to Squeeze Dissentients and Non-Conformists, and particularly those who were against the Faith of one Substance; and had above all other Persecuted Agapetus a Bishop of a contrary Faith; Agapetus in his absence, to gain his Enemy's Bishopric from him, turned to be of the same Faith with his Enemy, and acknowledged one Substance of the Father and Son, and who before was an Homoiousiast, became now an Homousiast, and obtained thereby the Government of the Diocese, Churches, and City of Synada; shortly after, Theodosius returned home from Constantinople to Synada, and brought with him the Authority from the Lieutenant, whereof he bragged not a little, that he had enough to Pepper the men to the purpose, who were not of one Substance with him; and being Ignorant of all the things which were done in his Absence, he strait way went to the Church, where he found but small welcome, for the Doors were made fast against him; and after he knew their Dealing, again he posteth to Constantinople; there he bewailed his State to Atticus the Bishop, and opened unto him, That he was Injuriously Thrust from his Bishopric; Atticus apprehending that all fell out for the Profit of the Church of God, endeavoured to pacify him with mild and courteous Language, Exhorting him to embrace a quiet Life void of Trouble and Molestation, and not to prefer his own Gain and private Lucre above the Public Profit and Peace of the Church; and thereon writ to Agapetus, willing him to enjoy the Bishopric, and not to fear at all the Displeasure of Theodosius, Id ib. By which appears, though Bishops call themselves Angels and Messengers of God, yet are they not like them, of whom it is said, Luke 15.10. There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God, over one Sinner that Repenteth. Nor though they call themselves Shepherd; of the Flock, are they like the good Shepherd of whom Christ speaketh, Matth. 18.12. If a man have an Hundred Sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the Ninety and Nine, and goeth into the Mountains and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, Verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that Sheep, than of the Ninety and Nine which went not astray. Nor like Christ, who saith, John 8.50. I seek not my own Glory. Nor like Paul, who saith, 2 Cor. 12.14. I seek not yours, but you. And Hebr. 13.14. Here have we no continuing City, but we seek one to come. Nor like those he saith died in the Faith, Hebr. 11.13. Not having received the Promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced, them and confessed that they were strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth. For they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a Country. And truly if they had been mindful of that Country, from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned: But now they desire a better Country, that is, an Heavenly. None of which Examples, would the Alexandrian or Syadan Bishop, nor many others follow; nor do they with their Penal Tests, Forms and Ceremonies, Persecute to Convert, but to Pervert; and to that end form their Tests, Oaths and Ceremonies, as contrary to Sense, Reason and Conscience, as they can possible; and as numerous as they are in the 39 Articles, that they may have all either under blind obedience, and take Arbitrarily from them what they please, or if they will not Renounce their Sense, Reason and Conscience, they may have a pretence to Plunder them of their Goods; and a Terrible Disappointment it would be to Bishops and their Chaplains, if all Ministers should have turned Conformists to their Faith, Oaths, Subscriptions and Ceremonies, for than would all Pluralities have been supplied with single Incumbents Residents on the Places, and perhaps the greater part of the Bishoprics and Benefices, with men more above Exception than many of the Possessors may be; and there might have been many Peter in the Church, yet not a Simon found amongst them.  
(9) There aught to be no Compulsion used to Papists to Pray in a Temple, because it is already proved to be Prohibited by Christ, for any to Pray in a Temple or public Place, except the Parties are agreed.  
(10.) It is a Compulsion many times of a doubtful Conscience, either to Sin or Damnation, as some have doubted, Rom. 14.23. or Martyrdom, or Hypocrisy, to save their Lives or Goods.  
(11.) It is as great a mockery of God, to force men to play the Hypocrites in Ceremonies or Prayers, against their Consciences, in a place of Public Convention, as to drive Horses and other Cattle into the Church at the time of Prayer there; and as Banks did his Horse, make them fall on their Knees, and Worship the Cross.  
(12.) Compulsion of Papists or Protestants to Forms of Common-Prayer, deprives them of the Benefit of being taught the Gospel, by Reason that no distinction of the place and time of Prayer and Preaching is made, according to the Examples and Precepts of Christ, already shown; for all the Common-Prayer being Form by Popes or Bishops, is chopped into so many pieces of Prayers, Chapters, Lessons, Responds, Litanies, Psalms, pieces of Epistles, pieces of Gospels, etc. as Confound both Method and Memory; and thereby, while the People endeavour to Pray and Learn both at once, they can do neither effectually.  
(13.) Compulsion to Common-Prayer deprives both Papist & Protestant of the Benefit of either Reading, or Hearing the Scripture Read. (1.) Because it is Read in such a mangled immethodical way, neither according to the Contexture of the History, nor according to the Titles of a Concordance or Polyanthy, but both Examples and Precepts broken off confusedly from what preceded or followed them, whereby they are made unintelligible, and not again joined with such of one another, as should mutually expound them, and both Prayers and Psalms are Read in such a Canting Note in Cathedrals, as they are not intelligible; so, as there is no human Author, Art or Science Read or Taught so confusedly, immethodically and Cantingly, as the Scripture, whereby such as cannot Read themselves, never hear the same Read in any Edifying way their whole Lives, which is done only on design of gain, to make more Dissentient Ministers, and fewer of the Trade. (2.) Those who are able to Read themselves, are thereby deprived of the Reading the same at their Homes; the Papists by their own Priests being not suffered to have an English Bible in their Houses, and the Protestants in England being not suffered by their Priests to keep themselves at their Houses; whereas in Holland many Devout & Pious Protestants never go to Churches to hear the Scripture Read, but Read the same on Sundays at home at their own Houses, and are far more ready and skilful, and more Pious in practice of the same, than those that do Repair to the Public Reading; neither is there any man Compelled to Church or Chappel there, but may if they desire, follow the Precept of Christ, to Read or Pray privately in their Closet; and the Example of the Primitive Christians, amongst whom there was not a Temple or Altar for near 300 Years after Christ, till Constantine corrupted them to set up Cathedrals. (3.) Many things in the Common-Prayer being offensive to many Consciences, I dispute not whether weak or strong, or whether they are offences given or taken, but being offensive to many, such as are offended, and who would gladly come to the Church to hear the Scripture Read by itself, or Expounded in an Exposition, or Lecture, or Sermon, if the same were done as Christ always used to do it, in a Synagogue, without Prayer mixed with it (the Reasons whereof are sufficiently before show, p. 〈◊〉) but some Consciences scrupling to mix any Prayers with Preaching in a Synagogue contrary to the Precept of Christ; & others scrupling the Forms of Common-Prayer, whether single, or mixed, they lose the hearing of Scripture Read, because they shall be forced to hear such Prayers as offend them Read or mixed with it; & as long as they are compelled, how can it be expected, but the number of Non-Conformists will be far greater than Conformists.  

Nonconformity to the Prayer before Sermon.  (14.) As the mixture of Common-Prayer deprives both Papists and Protestant of the Benefit of hearing the Scripture Read in the Historical Contexture and Order, wherein it was left written; so the Prayer before Sermon deprives them of the Benefit of hearing the Scripture Expounded, either in that Method and Order it was left written, or in any other Order or Method appointed by the King and Parliament, of such matters as are necessary to Salvation, and tend most to the Peace of the Church; for unless there were an Interval for the Bell to Toll a space after the end of the Prayer, before the beginning of the Sermon, the Parish who love not long Prayer will not be able to know when the Sermon gins, and very many of them, though they would be all glad to join with the Chaplain in his Prayer for the King, yet will they many of them perhaps have Scruples in Conscience to join with him in Prayer for his Patron. 
Patron if to be Prayed for in Public.  (1.) Because he may sometimes happen to be a Papist, and one that seeks the Destruction of the Protestant Religion and all Protestants, and many may grow doubtful to Pray for the Prosperity of such a one, the same seeming to be Prohibited, 2 John 10, 11. Where it is said, If there come any unto you, and bring not this Doctrine, receive him not into your House, neither bid him God speed. For he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of all his Evil Deeds. 
Patron a Papist.  (2) As to Public Persons, we are directed by the Scripture to Pray in Public for none but Persons in public Authority; but a Papist is by Acts of Parliament Excluded from all public Authority and Office, therefore no public Person. (3.) As to private Persons, the Scripture and practice of the Primitive Christians direct to Pray for no private Persons particularly, and by name, but such as are sick or possessed by the Devil; for in such Case, the direction of Christ, and practice of the Primitive Church, was, to cast him out by Fasting and Prayer; but many Patrons are neither sick nor possessed, therefore there is no direction in Scripture for them to be Prayed for by name in public. (4.) The Chaplain useth to Pray for Bishops, especially if Patrons, wherein many Protestants may not be free to join, in regard they many of them assume to themselves to be Judges of Heresy, and the Rule of Heresy they make, is the Four first General Councils, and the Papal Canons for Ceremonies, and against Lollaries; the Parliament deceived by the Bishops to leave the Four first Councils, the Rule of Heresy was, 1. Eliz. 1. In which Act to Prohibited Commissioners appointed by the Queen by virtue of that Act, 
If Bishops are Papists, or to be Prayed for who Judge Heresy by the four first Councils.  to proceed in Judgement of Heresy beyond the words prescribed them, the words-Prohibited in a Proviso are these, viz. Shall not in any wise have Authority or Power to Order, Determine or Adjudge, any Matter or Cause to be Heresy, but only such as heretofore have been Determined, Ordered or Adjudged to be Heresy by Authority of the Canonical Scriptures, or by the first Four General Councils, or any of them, or by any other General Council, wherein the same was declared Heresy by express and plain words of the said Canonical Scriptures, or such as shall hereafter be Ordered, Judged or Determined to be Heresy by the High Court of Parliament of this Realm, with the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation.   

Of the Four first General Councils, by which Bishops would Judge Heresy, and of the Suspicion lies on such Judges to be Papists, and not to be Prayed for in Public.  
The Four first General Councils which I suppose they mean, were the Council of Nice in Bythinia; the Council of Constantinople, where the Great Turk Lives; the Council of Ephesus, where the Great Diana of the Ephesians, and the Image which fell from Jupiter were Worshipped; and the Council of Chalcedon in Bythinia.  

Council of Nice.  As to the Council of Nice, there were two, one about Anno Dom. 330. the other about Anno Dom. 381. In the First, called by Constantine the Great, there were 318 Bishops; in another called by another Constantine, there were 350 Bishops, which of these our Bishops would have I cannot tell, but they may wink and choose, and though each was Nice, yet neither of them was more Nice than Wise for the Profit of the Bishops; and the Bishops 1. Eliz. were as wise as they, to join the Canonical Scriptures and the Council of Nice, that nothing should be Judged Heresy without their Joint Consent; for the Canonical Scripture hath not so much as one Bishop, they having falsely translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bishop, which ought to have been an Overseer of the Poor; so as there is not one Bishop to be found in Scripture to be a Judge of Heresy, any more than of Marriage, whereas at one of the Nices there were 350. And in the Scripture is not one Image found lawful to be Worshipped, whereas at both the Nices there were a multitude; 
Set up Images.  and at the last Nice all the Holy Images of Irene, the Empress, which the Emperor Leo Isaurus had knocked to pieces, were Restored, and Two and Twenty Canons thereupon made, That all Image-breakers should be adjudged Heretics, to the great profit (no doubt) of the Holy Bishops, who knew as well as the Silversmiths of Diana, wherein their Gain lay.  

Council of Constantinople.  The Council of Constantinople was a General Council, called about the Year of our Lord 383 by Theodosius the Emperor, where were 150 Bishops of several Sects, 36 of them were Macedonians, who held the Holy-Ghost to be an Angel, because Christ is said to send him; and Macedonius their Teacher was then Bishop of Constantinople, the place where this Council Sat; Him this Council Deposed, and his Party became thereon Excluded Members, whereby all Votes passed for the Bishop of Rome's Doctrine, with whom the Bishop of Constantinople was always a dangerous Corrival for Supremacy; there were joined in this Council Theodosius, Gratian, 
Confirmed Images.  and Damasus the Pope; this Council confirmed the Nicene Faith, and their Worshipping of Images, for a Pope could not live without them.  

Council of Ephisus.  Another General Council was called at Ephesus, about the Year 834 by the Emperor Theodosius the Second; and by the Instigation of Pope Celestine the First, against Nestorius then Bishop of Constantinople, who according to Evagrius, l. 1. c. 7. held, That the Blessed Virgin Mary ought to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of Christ, 
Continued Images.  and not the Mother of God, which Doctrine being dangerous to the Worshipping of Images, and the drawing of the Supremacy from Rome to Constantinople, the Pope got the Council called, and not to sit as formerly at Constantinople, but at Ephesus, where Nestorius had not so much Power, and there being not able to bring him to Submit to the See of Rome, they Deposed him, and Banished him to Oasis. This Council of Ephesus is said to have left Two Copies of its Canons in certain and variant one from another, and some of them are Condemned by the Council of Chalcedon as Suppositious, which besides the Worshipping of Images, continued by this Council, makes it a Rule of great incertainty to Judge Heresy.  

Council of Chalceldon.  The last of the Four was the Council of Chalcedon in Bythinia, which was called by the Emperor Martianus, about the Year 455. whereat the Emperor was present in Person, and 630 Bishops and Reverend Fathers from the greatest part of the World. What a work is here, who should Judge Heresy? yet they never placed the Power of Judgement in the Right hand; neither will it be possible to be taken out of the Wrong, nor did any of these Emperors (nor shall any else dare do it) as long as Bishops continue hired with their own Treasure and Revenue, and their own Temporal Sword delivered into their hands, for Rome and Constantinople to Fight for Supremacy over themselves, and to Sentence and Judge them and their Subjects (as Rome hath done since it obtained Supremacy) at their pleasure. The Bishop of Rome had at this time got a Bishop at Constantinople placed for his purpose, who was content to acknowledge the Supremacy of Judging Heresy to be in the Bishop of Rome, or any else, if he might be Second, and enjoy so Fat an Office as to be Bishop of Constantinople; but the City differed from their Mercenary Bishop, who was called Anatolius, and disdaining in their Religion to bow to Rome, set up Eutyches an Abbot or Archimandrite of Constantinople, to publish a Doctrine, That Christ had no Humane, but only a Divine Nature in him, To suppress which Opininion, Flavianus, a former Bishop of Constantinople; had moved the Emperor. Theodosius the Second to call a Council at Ephesus, Anno. 449. wherein Eutyches was Condemned by Flavianus, yet by the help of Chrysaphius the Eunuch, and Endoxia the Empress, who favoured that opinion, Theodosius was prevailed with to make another Synod Judge of this Heresy, which was again Summoned by the Emperor's Authority at Ephesus, and Dioscorus of Alexandria made Precedent, at which Synod Eutyches is again cleared, and declared Orthodox, and Flavianus opposing it was so, upon that Three Days after he died, and all this being done in the Council of Ephesus, Anno 449. in Theodosius' time, was again Repealed and Abrogated, Anno 455. in Martianus' time, at the Council of Chalcedon, And Leo the First Bishop of Rome, by the help of Anatolius Bishop of Constantinople, and his other Pensioners, carried the Day for Supremacy of Judgement, and Punishment of Heresy; and Anatolius, and the See of Constantinople was to be only next in Dignity to the Infallible Chair of Rome.   

Considerations on the Judgement of Heresy when assumed by Bishops, according to the Four first General Councils, if it make them suspect to be Papists, and not sit to be Prayed for in Public.  
(1.) Coke says this Parliament 1. Eliz: 1. was doubtful what they ought to determine Heresy and Schism, and what not, which was as much as the Bishops needed to desire, that the Laity might be Ignorant, and they have Power to keep them so, and Heresy a Quaere to be Judged by themselves, pro Arbitrario.  
(2.) It appears that the Pious Queen, the Dawning of the Reformation but newly entering with her, she could not suddenly Dispel the Darkness yet hanging over her own Protestant Party, nor the Blacker Clouds gathering from Foreign and Native Papists against her, nor resist her own Bishops designing to continue those Privileges of Profit, translated by— from Rome to Canterbury; for certainly if the Protestant Party had understood, That the Four first Councils had adjudged all those to be Heretics who would not Worship Images, and had been able to have over-Voted the Popish Party and Bishops, they would never have given them Power to Judge Heresy according to those Idolatrous Councils, for thereby they might Sentence them and all Protestants that were against Images, to the Stake.  
(3.) The Bible was but little before Translated into English, yet to keep it more dark still, than if it had continued in Latin, they who alleged themselves Protestant-Bishops, sent the People to Learn the same of Greek Councils, and to Read there the Law of Heresy, while they Judged them at home in their Latine-Law and Latine-Courts the mean while.  
(4.) They equal Councils with Canonical Scriptures, that their Convocations and Provincial Synods may have the same Authority.  
(5.) They equal their Convocation with the King and Parliament; for the words of the Statute are, or Determined to be Heresy by High Court of Parliament of this Realm, with the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation: Knowing if the Mitre once get equal, 'tis but one step more to be above the Crown.  
(6.) By those words they Constitute to themselves the Power of a Negative in Legislation, against the King in Parliament, and the two other Estates, which makes them a Fourth Estate in the Legislative Power, knowing, such Fourth Estate, like the Fourth Beast in Daniel, may easily Devour all the rest.  
(7.) They Judge, since no Commissioners were made, every Bishop in his Diocese a Judge of Heresy Jure Divino, and they by their own Popish Canons and the old Popish Acts against Lollards, who were the followers of Wickliff, and the Primitive Protestants, and the Proto-Martyrs of England, Judged Protestancy to be Lollary and Heresy; and all the Sheriffs of England take an Oath with all their Power, to Destroy all Heresies and Errors, commonly called Lollaries, which is Protestancy, and to assist the Bishops in the same, whensoever by them Required, whereby they have the whole Military Power at their Command, to Judge and Destroy Protestants as Heretics.  
(8.) They Judge Heresy by their own Ceremonial Laws and Canons, whereby they Arrogate a Power above the Moral Law of God, by which alone all Heresies and Schisms, and all Error and Truth ought to be Judged.  
I conclude therefore, That such Bishops, if there are any such, as Exercise all these ways of Popery, many Protestants may happen to suspect them to be Papists for their profit, and therefore scruple to join with their Chaplains in their Prayer before Sermon, for God to speed them.  
It will not agree with the Consciences of many Protestants, to join with the Chaplain in public Prayer for his Patron, (1.) Because all Patronages were invented and erected by the Pope and Papal Laws, 
all Patroage came from the Pope.  and the Strength and Riches of all Popery consists in Patronages, or Power of Presentation to Cathedral, Collegiate, Parochial, or other Religious Churches or Houses. (2.) It is very unjust, that any who must pay the Lawyer or Physician his Fees, should not have Election of such a one of either, as he can Trust; and much more as to a Divine Lawyer, and Physician of his Soul, that any should be Imposed on him whom he cannot Trust, and who may perhaps Poison him in the Sacrament itself, of which Examples have been already Cited; but the Chaplain who Prays for the Patron, is obtruded on the Pay of the Parish without their Assent, and the Patron many times pays him not a Penny, but Sells to him his Presentation, and Exacts so great a Sum for it, as brings him in Debt as long as he Lives, which makes him rather Prey on the Flock, then Pray for it, and to be in perpetual Contention, rather than Peace. (3.) Admit the Parish should happen to be all Poor, and the Patron by Depopulation, Impropriation, Enclosure of Commons, and other Oppression, Gets all, and Pays all; yet it is just the Parish should Elect their Minister, and not he; for Christ sends it as Glad Tidings to John, Matth. 11.5. The Poor have the Gospel Preached to them, and saith nothing of the Rich, Christ pronounceth all his Blessings on the Poor, Luke 6.20. Blessed be ye Poor: for yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. And James 2.5. Hath not God chosen the Poor of this World, Rich in Faith, and Heirs of the Kingdom, which he hath promised them that love him? Dan. 4.27. Wherefore, O King, let my Counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by Righteousness, and thine Iniquities by showing Mercy to the Poor. Prov. 29.14. The King that faithfully Judgeth the Poor, his Throne shall be Established for ever. 2 Cor. 9.9. He hath given to the Poor, his Righteousness remaineth for ever. And Matth. 19.21. Give to the Poor, and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven. But Christ never pronounceth to the Rich any thing but great Dangers and Woes, Matth. 19.23. Then said Jesus unto his Disciples; Verily I say unto you, that a Rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say unto you, 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 God. Luke 6.24. Woe unto you that are Rich: for ye have received your Consolation. Woe unto you that are full: for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now: for ye shall mourn and weep. Isa. 5.8. Woe unto them that join House to House, and Field to Field. And James 5.1. Go to now ye Rich men, Weep and Howl for your Miseries that shall come upon you. Your Riches are corrupted, and your Garments motheaten. Your Gold and Silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be against you, and shall eat your Flesh as it were Fire. Now if the Rich should choose the Chaplain for the Poor, he would be apt to Preach contrary to Christ, totally in favour of the Rich, and not reprove but animate them in their oppressions of the Poor, which is too notorious in the Chaplains, both of Ecclesiastical and Lay-Patrons; wherefore if Patrons have more than their single Votes in Election of the Minister, the poor Parishioners may expect such Law as is mentioned, James 2.6. Do not Rich men oppress you, and draw you before the Judgment-Seats? But they shall never have such Gospel as Christ Preached, and appointed to be Preached to the Poor, nor such Law as he denounced against the Rich. (4.) The Chaplain in his Prayer before Sermon tells God so many Lies to his Face in commendation of his Patron, that surely it must be a mere Mockery of him, for he calls him his Grace, his Excellency, Right Honourable, Right Worshipful, Pious, Virtuous, and his Very Good Lord and Patron, when sometimes he is a Person of the most Vile, Unworthy, Sordid and Wicked Conditions on the Earth. (5.) He gives him more Magnificent Appellations than to God himself, for though he ingeminate many times in his Prayer, Good Lord, and Good Lord, yet he never calls God my Very Good Lord, but reserves that Superlative Title for his Patron; the meanest degree of which greatest Divine Attribute of Good, Christ himself (to be an Example of Humility) refused, Luke 18.19. Why callest thou me Good? there is none Good but one, that is God. (6.) If the Patron is so Very Good, Pious and Virtuous, as the Chaplain makes him, he were more proper to ascend the Pulpit and pray for his Chaplain, who many times proves none of the best, either in Doctrine, or Manners, but was only one who came first and gave most for the Place he hath. (7.) He is rather an Herald hired to proclaim every Sunday in the Year his Patron's empty Titles, than a Messenger of God to Preach on his Divine Attributes. (8.) By these Parasitical Prayers the Patron is puffed up in such Pride and Folly, that he grows like the profane Lord mentioned by Cambden, who said, He never needed to Pray for himself, he had so many Priests to Pray for him; and the Patron and Patroness are so foped with overmuch Flattery, that they seldom grow wise again as long as they live, to discover those Faults wherein the Priest leads them, and himself blinded to Destruction, and unto the Woe pronounced to them, Isa. 5.20. That call Evil Good, and Good Evil, that put Darkness for Light, and Light for Darkness, that put Bitter for Sweet, and Sweet for Bitter. (9) As is before mentioned, amongst the Primitive Christians the Election of the Minister was always by the Parochial Congregations, till Antichrist who began to work very early, deprived them of this liberty of Elections by Endowments and Patronages; the Patrons of which, by this Imposing such Patriarches, Bishops or Presbyters as they hired, and corrupted for their Turn, and depriving the Cities and Congregations of the Free Election of their Pastor, destroyed the Purity of Primitive Christianity. 
The loss of Election of their own Ministers, destroyed the Primitive Christians.  (10.) The restoring again the Election of their own Minister to Parochial Congregations, and liberty of secret Suffrages, would, First, destroy all Popery, for Popery cannot be without Patronages, and the Pope as the Apex of his Supremacy, claims to be Supreme Patron of all Catholic Churches. Secondly, This would prevent all Imposing of Church-Papists to be Ministers to Protestant-Parishes. Thirdly, This would prevent all kind of Simony, either to the Bishop for Ordination, or Patron for Presentation, which is impossible to be otherwise prevented, and such Parochial Election is therefore better both for the Minister and the Parish; 
No Patronages in the Ottoman Empire.  and the Grand Signior may in this rise in Judgement against Christians, who allows no Patronages to Parochial Cures in his Dominions, but gives Liberty to every Parish to choose their own Priest, to whom he himself pays some small Salary out of the Public Treasury.  

Liberty of Conscience given Papists, secures Liberty of Conscience to Protestants. The Test of Oaths and Sacrament falls only on the Protestant, and not on the Papist, he hath Offices in Trustee's names. Liberty and Propriety given Papists, secure the Liberty and Propriety of Protestants.  The Compulsion of Papists to Confession of Faith, or any External Form or Ceremonies of Worship against their Conscience by Penalties, cannot be done without bringing the Conscience of the Protestant into the same danger with the Conscience of the Papist; for if 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 punished for Nonconformity to any other Ceremony, a Protestant who as much dissents from that Ceremony as a Papist, may be likewise punished 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 sharpened 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 Heretic, we see by experience it shall not be emitted against the Papist, but only against the Nonconformist Protestant.  
The Compulsion of Papists to Confession of Faith, or any External Forms or Ceremonies of Worship by Penalties, or any illegal Proceed, 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 compel 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, Judgement before Probation, Arrest before Judgement, 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 suffered to break in; unless therefore all the said Abuses are utterly Abolished, 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, offered 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 Counselled Antiochus to put Menelaus the Highpriest to Death, as the Evil Counsellor who had been the occasion of that Rebellion and War, by giving such wicked Council to his Father to compel the Jews to forsake their Religion; 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 Highpriest for the space of Ten Years, and made Alcimus Highpriest in his place; where appears, that to Council a King to compel 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 King's Person is exposed to the hazard of the Battle, while the Bishop Luxuriates in the delights of his Palace; 
Episcopal Counsels unsortunate to Kings, and why.  and this Evil Episcopal Council to compel 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 Counselled 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 counselled 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 Counsels, 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 Counsels gave the Romish, and Germane 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 compel with Fire and Sword the Protestants to the Episcopal Forms and Ceremonies, highly not 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 Emperor's weaker and weaker, ever since Charles the Fifth, in whose time those Wars began, and both he and his Successors have been still compelled, before the Wars ended, to which they were set on by the Bishops, Dishonourably, and with Loss, to condescend 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 Country, 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 and less Damage to himself and Subjects, have prevented those Intestine Dissensions, by not taking from them that Liberty of Conscience, as to Faith and Form of Worship, which he was compelled at last to give them; it being certain that the Bordering Turk, by the Imprudence of divers of the Emperors, in being blinded by the Romish Bishops and their own, to violate the Liberty of Conscience of those Frontier Countries, and thereby dividing and disuniting them against the Common Enemy, he hath thereof taken great advantages, to the great danger of the Emperors themselves, the Empire, and the rest of Christendom. And how unfortunate were Episcopal Councils in our own Country, in this point of Compulsion of the Conscience to their Faith, Forms and Ceremonies, tending to Episcopal, and not the Regal Interest, and how they thereby exposed his late Majesty, a Valiant, Wise and Pious King, and his Three Kingdoms, to an unnecessary War; and the miserable loss ensued thereby, is yet in Bleeding Memory. What Wars have been in France by Compulsion of Conscience by Force, and destroying it by Perfidious Treacheries of Episcopal Councils, is likewise sadly known; so that in all the Kingdoms of Christendom, Bishops by this Compulsion to their Faith, Forms and Ceremonies, have one time or other raised Civil Wars and Dissensions, dangerous or destructive to Princes and People, and shared thereby the Spoils of both; or what was a greater Prey got by our own, made Sale of all the Estates of the Revenues of the Bishoprics fallen Twenty Years before they ever made a Sermon in their Church, or Served at their Altar; so though the Wars were by themselves occasioned and kindled, and were an universal loss to the People, yet they lost nothing, and gained all.  
That Compulsion against Conscience causeth Wars, doth likewise agree the Learned and Pious Doctor More, who saith, Denial of Liberty of Conscience, brings upon Nations and Families Wars, Bloodshed, Subversion of Families, Deposing, Stabbing, Poisoning of Princes, perpetual Hatred and Enmity amongst men, and all the Works and Actions of the Kingdom of Darkness; whereas if it were universally acknowledged that Liberty of Religion were the Right of Mankind, all these mischiefs would be prevented, the Prince could not pretend any Quarrel against the People, nor the People against the Prince, or against one another, except for Civil Rights, which are more plain and intelligible. That Compulsion to Faith, or Forms of Worship, hath had the same Destructive Effects against the Eastern Emperors likewise, which it hath had against the Western, appears by the Example of Michael Palaeologus Emperor of Greece, who fearing an Invasion from the Turks and other Foreigners from the East, endeavoured to strengthen himself from the Pope, and by him with the Emperor and other Christian Kings from the West, and by his Ambassadors to that end, treated with Gregory the Tenth, than Pope of Rome, to Unite and Conform the Greek Church to the Latin, and to acknowledge the Pope's Supremacy over the Greeks, and Liberty of Appeal from them to the Court of Rome, which the Emperor offered, and the Pope gladly accepted of; but the People generally abhorred these Proceed of the Emperor, and were so Tumultuous, that the Emperor was fain to leave off the care of the Foreign Dangers, to look to these greater at home, and told the People to quiet them, that this Alteration was made not out of any good liking he had to it, but in respect of the dangerous Estate of things in that juncture of Time, it behoved Prudence to admit the less Evil to avoid the greater; for if by not granting the Latin Church what they would have, they would take advantage of the Wars they had with their other Enemies, and fall on them at the same time, whereby they would attain more by force from them, than would satisfy them by Treaty, and not only by War become Lords of their Religion and Ceremonies, but of all at once, their Wives, Children, Estates and Lives, at the will of the Conqueror, therefore he required them to yield to necessity, and not to compel him to use more Severe Remedies; and not finding them pliable, some he Imprisoned, some Banished, some Confiscated, some pulled out their Eyes, some Tortured, some Dismembered, on which some outwardly Conformed, but not in their hearts, but the greater part fled, some to Thrace, some to Achaia, some to Peloponesus and other Countries, and the Emperor trusting to Foreign Forces whom he joined, and this and his other Cruel Practices, in denying his Subject's Liberty of Conscience; seeing they were put to Fight, only to confirm their own Slavery, so discouraged the Greek Army, that the Turks overthrew them and their Emperor, and won the day, by which they got their first Footing in Europe. Whereby appears, That as Compulsion to the Faith and Ceremonies of the Bishop of Rome, and denial of Liberty of Conscience to the first Arrian Christians, was the cause of the great Conquests of Mahomet, who gave them Toleration in Asia, which they could not have of the Roman Emperors; so this denial of Liberty of Conscience by this Greek Emperor, and his Compulsion of his Subjects to the Ceremonies of the Bishop of Rome, was the first opening an Entrance to the Turk into Europe, and after the losing of the Grecian Empire to him, whence so many Fatal Miseries have ensued to Christendom.    
By the Interruption of the Press, I am compelled to break off this Book abruptly.