B' her looks, her language, and her dress: For false wares one another's church; Yet all of us hold this for true, 255 So many fishes of so many features, As if the world were in deep waters drown'd. But see sir Thomas Brown's Treatise on Vulgar Errors, book iii. chap. 24. And yet that thing that's pious in The one, in th' other is a sin,] Many held the antinomian principle, that believers, or persons regenerate, cannot sin. Though they commit the same acts, which are. styled and are sins in others, yet in them they are no sins. Because, say they, it is not the nature of the action that derives a quality upon the person; but it is the antecedent quality or condition of the person that denominates his actions, and stamps them good or bad: so that they are those only who are previously wicked, that do wicked actions; but believers, doing the very same things, never commit the same sins. 2 That ought to be above such fancies, As far as above ordinances?] Some sectaries, especially the muggletonians, thought themselves so sure of salvation, that they deemed it needless to conform to ordinances human or divine、 For truth is precious and divine, Quoth Hudibras, All this is true, Of subtle turns, and shifts of sense, 260 Serve best with th' wicked for pretence, And presbyterians, for excuse' Such as the learned jesuits use, 265 And presbyterians, for excuse ;] On the subject of jesuitical evasions we may recite a story from Mr. Foulis. He tells us that, a little before the death of queen Elizabeth, when the jesuits were endeavouring to set aside king James, a little book was written, entitled, a Treatise on Equivocation, or, as it was afterwards styled by Garnet, provincial of the jesuits, a Treatise against Lying and Dissimulation, which yet allows an excuse for the most direct falsehood, by their law of directing the intention. For example, in time of the plague a man goes to Coventry; at the gates he is examined upon oath whether he came from London: the traveller, though he directly came from thence, may swear positively that he did not. The reason is, because he knows himself not infected, and does not endanger Coventry; which he supposes to answer the final intent of the demand. At the end of this book is an allowance and commendation of it by Blackwell, thus: Tractatus iste valde doctus et vere pius et catholicus est. Certe sac. scripturarum, patrum, doctorum, scholasticorum, canonistarum, et optimarum rationum præsidiis plenissime firmat equitatem equivocationis, ideoque dignissimus qui typis propagetur ad consolationem afflictorum catholicorum, et omnium piorum instructionem. Ita censeo Georgius Blackwellus archipresbiter Angliæ et protonotarius apostolicus. On the second leaf it has this title: A Treatise against Lying and Fraudulent Dissimulation, newly overseen by the Author, and published for the Defence of Innocency, and for the Instruction of Ignorats. The MS. was Against the protestants, when th' happen 270 And he that made, and forc'd it, broke it, 275 Not he that for convenience took it, A broken oath is, quatenus oath, That never comes within their claws? 280 seized by sir Edward Coke, in sir Thomas Tresham's chamber, in the Inner Temple, and is now in the Bodleian library, at Oxford. MS. Laud. E. 45, with the attestation in sir Edward Coke's handwriting, 5 December 1605, and the following motto: Os quod men. titur occidit animam. An instance of the parliamentarians shifting their sense, and explaining away their declaration, may be this: When the Scots delivered up the king to the parliament, they were promised that he should be treated with safety, liberty, and honour. But when the Scots afterward found reason to demand the performance of that promise, they were answered, that the promise was formed, published, and employed according as the state of affairs then stood. And yet these promises to preserve the person and authority of the king had been made with the most solemn protestations. We protest, say they, in the presence of Almighty God, which is the strongest bond of a christian, and by the public faith, the most solemn that any state can give, that neither adversity nor success shall ever cause us to change our resolutions. They have no pow'r, but to admonish; 285 For when they're set at liberty, They're from th' engagement too set free. 290 The rabbins write, when any jew Did make to god or man a vow,* The rabbins write, when any jew 295 Did make to God or man a vow,] There is a traditional doctrine among the jews, that if any person has made a vow, which afterward he wishes to recall, he may go to a rabbi, or three other men, and if he can prove to them that no injury will be sustained by any one, they may free him from its obligation. See Remains, vol. i. 300, 5 And have not two saints power to use A greater privilege than three jews ?] Mr. Butler told Mr. Veal, that by the two saints he meant Dr. Downing and Mr. Marshall, who, when some of the rebels had their lives spared on condition that they would not in future bear arms against the king, were sent to dispense with the oath, and persuade them to enter again into the service. Mr. Veal was a gentleman commoner of Edmund Hall during the troubles, and was about seventy years old when he gave this account to Mr. Coopey. See Godwin's MS. notes on Grey's Hudibras, in the Bodleian library, Oxford. The court of conscience, which in man To ev'ry petty court i' th' state, Be forc'd t'impeach a broken hedge, 300 305 310 • Allow'd, at fancy of pie-powder?] The court of pie-powder takes cognizance of such disputes as arise in fairs and markets; and is so called from the old French word pied-puldreaux, which signifies a pedlar, one who gets a livelihood without a fixed or certain residence. See Barrington's Observations on the Statutes; and Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. iii. p. 32. In the borough laws of Scotland, an alien merchant is called pied-puldreaux. 7 Tell all it does, or does not know, For swearing ex officio 2] In some courts an oath was administered, usually called the oath ex officio, whereby the parties were obliged to answer to interrogatories, and therefore were thought to be obliged to accuse or purge themselves of any criminal matter. In the year 1604 a conference was held concerning some reforms in ecclesiastical matters when James I. presided; one of the matters complained of was the ex officio oath. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Treasurer, and the Archbishop (Whitgift) defended the oath : the king gave a description of it, laid down the grounds upon which it stood, and justified the wisdom of the constitution. For swearing ex officio, that is, by taking the ex officio oath. A further account of this oath may be seen in Neal's History of the Puritans, vol, if p. 444. Be forc'd t' impeach a broken hedge, And pigs unring'd at vis. franc. pledge?] Lords of certain |