neglect, as the last House of Lords was, and that to this end he had said and writ, that it was dissolved by his Excellence the Lord G.; and that for the word 'dissolved,' he never, at the time, did hear of any other term, and desired pardon if he would not to dare make a word himself, but it was six years after, before" they came themselves to call it an interruption."

CAP. 114.-FOR PUNISHING BLASPHEMIES AND HERESIES. FOR THE PREVENTING OF THE GROWTH AND SPREADING OF HERESIES AND BLASPHEMY.

Be it Ordained by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled. That all such persons as shall from and after the date of this present Ordinance, willingly by Preaching, Teaching, Printing or Writing, maintain and publish, that there is no God, or that God is not present in all places, doth not know and foreknow all things, or that he is not Almighty, that he is not perfectly Holy, or that he is not Eternal, or that the Father is not God, the Son is not God, or that the Holy Ghost is not God, or that they Three are not one Eternal God; Or that shall in like manner maintain and publish, that Christ is not God equal with the Father, or, shall deny the manhood of Christ, or that the Godhead and manhood of Christ are several Natures, or that the Humanity of Christ is pure and unspotted of all sin; or that shall maintain and publish, as aforesaid, That Christ did not Die, nor rise from the Dead, nor is ascended into Heaven bodily, or that shall deny his death is meritorious in the behalf of Believers; or that shall maintain and publish as aforesaid, That Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, or that the Holy Scripture (viz.) of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ester, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Songs of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obediah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zacharia, Malachi; Of the New Testament, The Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The Acts of the Apostles, Paul's Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians the first, Corinthians the second, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians the first, Thessalonians the second, to Timothy the first, to Timothy the second, to Titus, to Philemon, the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of

James, the first and second Epistles of Peter, the first second and third Epistles of John, the Epistle of Jude, the Revelation of John, is not the Word of God, or that the bodies of men shall not rise again after they are dead, or that there is no day of Judgment after death; all such maintaining and publishing of such error or errors with obstinacy therein, shall by virtue hereof be adjudged Felony, and all such persons upon complaint and proof made of the same in any of the cases aforesaid, before any two of the next Justices of the Peace for that place or county, by the Oaths of two Witnesses (which said Justices of Peace in such cases shall hereby have power to administer) or confession of the party, the said party so accused shall be by the said Justices of the Peace committed to prison without Bail or Mainprise until the next Goal delivery to be holden for that place or county, and the Witnesses likewise shall be bound over by the said Justices unto the said Goal delivery to give in their evidence; And at the said Goal delivery the party shall be indicted for Felonious Publishing and maintaining such error, and in case the Indictment be found, and the Party upon his Trial shall not abjure his said error and defence and maintenance of the same, he shall suffer the pains of death, as in case of Felony without benefit of Clergy. But in case he shall recant or renounce and abjure his said error or errors, and the maintenance and publishing of the same, he shall nevertheless remain in prison until he shall finde two sureties being Subsidy men, that shall be bound with him before two or more Justices of the Peace or Goal delivery, that he shall not thenceforth publish or maintain as aforesaid the said errour or errours any more; And the said Justices shall have power hereby to take Bayl in such

cases.

And be it further Ordained, That in case any person formerly indicted for publishing and maintaining of such erroneous Opinion or Opinions as aforesaid, and renouncing and abjuring the same, shall nevertheless again publish and maintain his said former errour or errours, as aforesaid, and the same proved as aforesaid, the said party so offending shall be committed to prison as formerly, and at the next Goal Delivery shall be indicted as aforesaid. And in case the Indictment be then found upon the Trial, and it shall appear that formerly the party was convicted of the same errour, and publishing and maintaining thereof, and renounced and abjured the same, the Offender shall suffer death as in case of Felony, without benefit of Clergy.

Be it further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid. That all and every person or persons that shall publish or maintain as aforesaid any of the

several errours hereafter ensuing, viz. That all men shall be saved, or that man by nature hath free will to turn to God, or that God may be worshipped in or by Pictures or Images, or that the soul of any man after death goeth neither to Heaven or Hell, but to Purgatory, or that the soul of man dieth or sleepeth when the body is dead, or that Revelations or the workings of the Spirit are a rule of Faith or Christian Life, though diverse from or contrary to the written word of God; or that man is bound to believe no more than by his reason he can comprehend; or that the Moral Law of God contained in the ten commandments is no rule of Christian life; or that a believer need not repent and pray for pardon of sins; or that the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper are not ordinances commanded by the Word of God, or that the baptizing of infants is unlawfull, or such Baptism is void, and that such persons ought to be baptized again, and in pursuance thereof shall baptize any person formerly baptized; or that the observation of the Lord's day as it is enjoyned by the Ordinances and Laws of this Realm, is not according, or is contrary to the word of God, or that it is not lawful to joyn in publique prayer or family prayer, or to teach children to pray, or that the churches of England are no true churches, nor their Ministers and Ordinances, true Ministers and Ordinances, or that the Church Government by Presbytery is antichristian or unlawful, or that Magistracy, or the power of the Civil Magistrate, by law established in England, is unlawful, or that all use of arms, though for the publique defence (and be the cause never so just) is unlawful, and in case the Party accused of such publishing and maintaining of any of the said errors shall be thereof convicted to have published and maintained the same as aforesaid, by the testimony of two or more witnesses upon oath or confession of the said party before two of the next Justices of the Peace for the said place or county, whereof one to be of the quorum (who are hereby required and authorized to send for witnesses and examine upon oath, in such cases, in the presence of the party). The party so convicted, shall be ordered by the said Justices to renounce his said errors in the publique congregation of the same Parish from whence the complaint doth come, or where the offence was committed, and in case he refuseth or neglecteth to perform the same, at or upon the day, time, and place appointed by the said Justices, then he shall be committed to prison by the said Justices until he shall finde two sufficient sureties before two Justices of the Peace for the said place or County (whereof one shall be of the quorum) that he shall not publish or maintain the said error or errors any more.

Provided always, and be it Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, that no attainder by virtue hereof shall extend either to the forfeiture of the estate real or personal of such person attainted, or corruption of such person's blood.

2 May, 1648.

See Scobell's Collection, p. 149.

APPENDIX J, (p. 131,)

ORDINANCE AGAINST ATHEISTICAL, BLASPHEMOUS AND

EXECRABLE OPINIONS.

CAP. 22.-PUNISHMENT OF ATHEISTICAL, BLASPHEMOUS AND EXECRABLE OPINIONS.

The Parliament holding it to be their duty, by all good ways and means to propagate the Gospel in this Commonwealth, to advance Religion in all Sincerity, Godliness and Honesty, Have made several Ordinances and Laws for the good and furtherance of Reformation, in Doctrine and Manners, and in order to the suppressing of Prophaneness, Wickedness, Superstition and Formality, that God may be truly glorified, and all might in well doing be encouraged.

But notwithstanding this their care, finding to their great grief and astonishment, that there are divers men and women who have lately discovered themselves to be the most monstrous in their Opinions, and loose in all wicked and abominable Practises hereafter mentioned, not onely to the notorious corrupting and disordering, but even to the dissolution of all Humane Society, who rejecting the use of any Gospel Ordinances, do deny the necessity of Civil and Moral Righteousness among men; The Parliament therefore, according to the published Declaration of the Twenty Seventh of September, One thousand six hundred forty nine, To be most ready to testify their displeasure and abhorrency of such Offenders, by a strict and effectual proceeding against them, who should abuse and turn into Licentiousness, the liberty given in matters of Conscience. Do therefore Enact and Ordain, and be it Enacted and Ordained by the Authority of this present Parliament, That all and every person

and persons (not distempered with sickness or distracted in brain) who shall presume avowedly in words to profess, or shall by writing proceed to affirm and maintain him or herself, or any other meer Creature, to be very God, or to be Infinite or Almighty, or in Honor, Excellancy, Majesty and Power to be equal, and the same with the true God, or that the true God or the Eternal Majesty dwells in the Creature and nowhere else; or whosoever shall deny the Holiness and Righteousness of God, or shall presume as aforesaid to profess, That Unrighteousness in persons or the acts of Uncleanness, Prophane Swearing, Drunkenness, and the like Filthiness and Brutishness are not unholy and forbidden in the Word of God, or that these acts in any person, or the persons for committing them are approved of by God, or that such acts, or such persons in those things are like unto God: Or whosoever shall presume as aforesaid to profess, That these acts of Denying and Blaspheming God, or the Holiness or Righteousness of God; or the acts of cursing God, or of Swearing prophanely or falsely by the Name of God, or the acts of Lying, Stealing, Cousening and Defrauding others, or the acts of Murther, Adultery, Incest, Fornication, Uncleanness, Sodomy, Drunkenness, filthy and lascivious Speaking are not things in themselves shameful, wicked, sinful, impious, abominable, and detestable in any person, or to be practised or done by any person or persons: Or shall as aforesaid profess, That the acts of Adultery, Drunkenness, Swearing and the like open wickedness, are in their own nature as Holy and Righteous as the Duties of Prayer, Preaching or Giving of Thanks to God: Or whosoever shall avowedly as aforesaid profess,

That whatsoever is acted by them (whether Whoredom, Adultery, Drunkenness or the like open Wickedness) may be committed without sin; or that such acts are acted by the true God or by the Majesty of God, or the Eternity that is in them; That Heaven and all happiness consists in the acting of those things which are Sin and Wickedness; or that such men or women are most perfect, or like to God or Eternity, which do commit the greatest Sins with least remorse or sense; or that there is no such thing really and truly as Unrighteousness, Unholiness or Sin but as a man or woman judgeth thereof; or that there is neither Heaven nor Hell, neither Salvation nor Damnation, or that these are one and the same things, and that there is not any distinction or difference truly between them; all and every person or persons so avowedly professing, maintaining or publishing as aforesaid, the aforesaid Astheistical, Blasphemous or Execrable Opinions or any of them, upon complaint and proof made of