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pos'd by the Philiftims, not to be allow'd the fharpning of our own axes and coulters, but we must repair from all quarters to twenty licencing forges. Had any one writt'n and divulg'd erroneous things & fcandalous to honeft life, mifufing and forfeiting the efteem had of his reason among men, if after conviction this only cenfure were adjudg'd him, that he fhould never henceforth write, but what were firft examin'd by an appointed officer, whose hand should be annext to paffe his credit for him, that now he might be safely read, it could not be apprehended leffe then a difgracefull punishment. Whence to include the whole Nation, and those that never yet thus offended, under fuch a diffident

diffident and fufpectfull prohibition, may plainly be understood what a difparagement it is. So much the more, when as dettors and delinquents may walk abroad without a keeper, but unoffenfive books must not ftirre forth without a vifible jaylor in thir title. Nor is it to the common people leffe then a reproach; for if we be fo jealous over them, as that we dare not truft them with an English pamphlet, what doe we but cenfure them for a giddy; vitious, and ungrounded people; in fuch a fick and weak eftate of faith and difcrétion, as to be able to take nothing down but through the pipe of a licencer? That this is care or love of them, we cannot pretend, whenas in thofe Popish places where

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where the Laity are most hated and difpis'd the fame ftrictnes is us'd over them. Wisdom we cannot call it, because it ftops but one breach of licence, nor that neither; when as thofe corruptions which it feeks to prevent, break in fafter at other dores which cannot be shut.

And in conclufion it reflects to the difrepute of our Minifters alfo, of whose labours we should hope better, and of the proficiencie which thir flock reaps by them, then that after all this light of the Gospel which is, and is to be, and all this continuall preaching, they should be ftill frequented with fuch an unprincipl'd, unedify'd, and laick rabble, as that the whiffe of every new pamphlet fhould ftagger them out of thir catechism,

chifm, and Chriftian walking.

This

may have much reason to discourage the Minifters when fuch a low conceit is had of all their exhortations, and the benefiting of their hearers, as that they are not thought fit to be turn'd loose to three fheets of paper without a licencer, that all the Sermons, all the Lectures preacht, printed, vented in fuch numbers, and fuch volumes, as have now well-nigh made all other books unfalable, should not be armor anough againft one fingle enchiridim, without the caftle St. Angelo of an Imprimatur.

And left fom fhould perfwade ye, Lords and Commons, that these argu-ments of lerned mens difcouragement at this your order, are meer flourishes, and

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not reall, I could recount what I have feen and heard in other Countries, where this kind of inquifition tyrannizes; when I have fat among their learned men, for that honor I had, and bin counted happy to be born in fuch a place of Philofophic freedom, as they fuppos'd England was, while themselves did nothing but bemoan the fervil condition into which lerning amongst them was brought; that this was it which had dampt the glory of Italian wits; that nothing had bin there writt'n now thefe many years but flattery and fuftian. There it was that I found and vifited the famous Galileo grown old, a prifner to the Inquifition, for thinking in Aftronomy otherwife than the Francifcan and Dominican

licencers

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