CXXXI. SUBSIDIES. 1. HERETOFORE the parliament was wary what subsidies they gave to the king, because they had no accounts; but now they care not how much they give of the subjects' money, because they give it with one hand and receive it with the other; and so upon the matter give it themselves. In the meantime what a case the subjects of England are in! If the men they have sent to the parliament misbehave themselves, they cannot help it, because the parliament is eternal. 2. A subsidy was counted the fifth part of a man's estate, and so fifty subsidies is five and forty times more than a man is worth. ΙΟ CXXXII. SUPERSTITION. I. THEY that are against superstition, oftentimes run 1.3. but now they care not &c.] This change was one of the first acts of the second Parliament of 1640. When they raised money they did not follow what had been the usual way, of giving it immediately to the King, to be paid into the exchequer, but provided for its payment into the hands of members of the House, named by them, who were to take care to discharge all public engagements. The King allowed the first money bill to pass with the names of Commissioners inserted in it, who were to receive and dispense the money; and from that time there was no bill passed for the raising of money, but it was disposed of in like manner, so that none of it could be applied to the King's use, or by his direction. Clarendon, Hist. vol. i. pp. 321-2 and 678. 1. 6. upon the matter] i. e. in strict fact: really. See 'Philosophy' and note. into it on the wrong side. If I will wear all colours but black, then am I superstitious in not wearing black. 2. They pretend not to abide the cross, because 'tis superstitious; for my part I will believe them, when I see them throw away their money out of their pockets, and not till then. 3. If there be any superstition truly and properly so called, 'tis their observing the sabbath after the Jewish I. WE have had no national synod since the kingdom hath been settled, as now it is, only provincial; and there 1. 4. when I see them throw away their money &c.] 'The Parliament's gold coins are just like their silver ones, viz. on one side two shields with the cross and harp.' Abp. Sharpe, Dissertation on the Golden Coins of England, sec. 6. The cross was a common impress on earlier English coins. 1. 7. If there be any &c.] See 'Sabbath' and note. 1. II. We have had no national synod &c.] The London ministers, in their petitions in 1641, prayed the Houses of Parliament to be mediators to his Majesty for a free Synod. Neal, Hist. of Puritans, iii. 43. The Commons accordingly included this among the requests in the grand Remonstrance of December 1, 1641: -'We desire that there may be a general synod of the most grave, pious, learned, and judicious divines of this island, assisted with some from foreign parts professing the same religion with us, who may consider of all things necessary for the peace and good government of the church.' Rushworth, iv. 450. Selden's objections to the calling so many divines together, and to the forming of a Synod to do work which could be done by the existing Convocation, seem to have been directed against this request. It was not granted by the King; but the Commons finally took the matter into their own hands, and summoned, in 1643, the Westminster Assembly of Divines to advise with Parliament on the points for which a general Synod had been prayed for. But it was not sum will be this inconveniency, to call so many divines together; it will be to put power in their hands, who are too apt to usurp it, as if the laity were bound by their determinations. No; let the laity consult with the divines on all sides, hear what they say, and make themselves masters of their reasons; as they do by any other profession, when they have a difference before them. For example, goldsmiths; they enquire of them, if such a jewel be of such a value, and such a stone of such a value; hear them, and then, being rational men, judge themselves. ΙΟ 2. Why should you have a synod, when you have a convocation already, which is a synod? Would you have a superfetation of another synod? The clergy of England, when they cast off the pope, submitted themselves to the civil power, and so have continued; but these challenge to be jure divino, and so to be above the civil power: these challenge power to call before their presbyteries all persons for all sins directly against the law of God, as proved to be sins by necessary consequence. If you would buy gloves, send for a glover or two, not 20 Glovers' hall: consult with some divines, not send for a body. 3. There must be some laymen in the synod, to over moned under the name of a Synod, indeed it was expressly claimed for it that it was not a national Synod or representative body of the clergy, but only a body to deliberate on matters submitted to it by the House. Neal, Hist. of Puritans, iii. 43, 44, 49. On the claim of the Presbyterian clergy of this body 'to be jure divino, and so above the civil power,' see note on 'Presbytery,' sec. 4. 1. 23. There must be some laymen &c.] This takes us to a time, at or about 1643, when the constitution of the Assembly of Divines had not been finally settled, and when its name had not yet been fixed. The next section shows that the point insisted upon in sec. 3 had been so determined when the Assembly actually met. The Ordinance (June, 1643) is termed : 'an ordinance for the calling of an assembly of learned and godly divines and others'; but in the ordinance itself the assembly is said to be: 'of learned, godly, and judicious divines.' look the clergy, lest they spoil the civil work. Just as when the good woman puts a cat into the milk-house to kill a mouse; she sends her maid to look after the cat, lest the cat should eat up the cream. 4. In the ordinance for the assembly, the lords and commons go under the names of learned, godly, and judicious divines; there is no difference put betwixt them, and the ministers in the context. 5. It is not unusual in the assembly to revoke their votes, 10 by reason they make such haste, but 'tis that will make them scorned. You never heard of a council revoked an act of its own making. They have been wary of that, to keep up their infallibility; if they did anything, they took away the whole council; and yet we would be thought as infallible as anybody. It is not enough to say, the House of Commons revokes their votes, for theirs are but civil truths, which they by agreement create, and uncreate, as they please; but the truths the synod deals in are divine; and when they have voted a thing, if it be then 20 true, 'twas true before, not true because they voted it; nor does it cease to be true, because they vote it otherwise. 6. Subscribing in a synod, or to the articles of a synod, is no such terrible thing as they make it; because, if I am of a synod, 'tis agreed, either tacitly or expressly, that which the major part determines, the rest are involved in; and therefore I subscribe, though my own private opinion be otherwise; and upon the same ground, I may without scruple subscribe to what these have determined, whom 30 I sent, though my private opinion be otherwise; having respect to that which is the ground of all assemblies, The major part carries it. Selden, who was a member of the assembly, must have been a little amused to find himself included in the description. Rushworth, v. 337. CXXXIV. THANKSGIVING. Ar first we gave thanks for every victory as soon as e'er 'twas obtained; but since we have had many, now we can stay a good while. We are just like a child; give him a plum, he makes his leg; give him a second plum, he makes another leg at last when his belly is full, he forgets what he ought to do; then his nurse, or somebody else that stands by him, puts him in mind of his duty, Where's your leg? CXXXV. 1. TITHES are more paid in kind in England, than in all Italy and France. In France they have had impropriations a long time; we had none in England till Henry the 8th. 1. 13. we had none in England] They were, Selden shows, not common in England till Henry VIII, but he mentions them as occasionally found. Conf. 'Although in other states these infeodations or conveyances of the perpetual right of tythes to laymen be very ancient and frequent also, yet no such certain and obvious testimony of their antiquity is in the monuments of England as can enough assure us that they were before the statute of dissolutions in any common use here. But some were, and, for ought appears in the practice of the time, many more might equally have been. . . . In sum then we may affirm that some such ancient infeodations have been in England as in other states.' Works, iii. 1274 ff. 'Neither hath the canon law wrought otherwise in Italy, but that there also particular customs, as well of non decimando as in the modus, are frequent. Multis Italiae locis, says Cajetan, contingit ex consuetudine that nothing at all is paid. And so is the practice there for the most part at this day, the parish priests being sufficiently maintained by manse and glebe, and the revenues that are in some places paid as according to a modus.' iii. 1174. 'In that state (sc. France), against the whole course of the canon law in this kind, they have, what by reason of ancient infeodations still continuing, what through customs, allowed divers lands to be not at N 10 |