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A88096
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An acquittance or discharge from Dr E.H. his demand of a fifth part of the rectory of Br.in Barks. Pleaded as in a court of equity and conscience. By John Ley preacher of the Word of God there. And now published. As l. Part of an apologie for him against the doctors defamations of him at Oxford, and elsewhere. 2. As a preparative to further contestation with him about other differences betwixt them. The contents whereof follow next after the epistle dedicatory.
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Ley, John, 1583-1662.
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1654
(1654)
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Wing L1868; Thomason E816_13; ESTC R207364
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30,875
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47
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parts for their Portion then a fifth only which they might have if the State have no Just Cause to be Jealous of their peaceablenes or loyalty by being admitted to other places for as to the same it is like our pious and prudent Superiours are most of them of the late Earl of Kent his mind who as I have heard him say was resolved so far as he had to do when he was one of the Lord Keepers of the Great Seal that he would send them as far as the distance betwixt East and West North and South rather then place them in the Parishes from whence they were removed But for my self I am so farre from hardning my heart against the grievances of any of my godly Brethren who suffered any hard measure under pretence of Reformation or Propagation of the Gospel that I heartily wish the Declaration lately published under the Title of Gemitus Ecclesiae Cambro-Britannicae may be seriously considered and enquired into and if the complaints therein be true that due and seasonable redress may be applied unto them And if the State had been pleased to allow any of them whom they have displaced a competent maintenance out of the Bishops or Dean and Chapters Lands to which the Offices put down no personal service is annexed c Cambd. Annal. Eliz. lib. 2. pag. 56. as Queen Elizabeth did to Abbots and other Ecclesiastical persons out of their confiscate Lands and other Revenues their charity towards them had been as I conceive not only lawful but commendable or had they made a rate for their charitable relief as for the Taxes or Impositions which are general all over the Land I should willingly have born my proportionable share with those who are bound to charity as well as my self or had they put but one or a few Delinquents upon our whole Tribe to be maintained as Solomon is supposed by some to have done by d He was not to live upon the Levites portion but was consined to his own fields in Anathoth his own not in common with others but proper and personal as his own Inheritance So Mr Gillespy in his Book called Aarons Rod Blossoming in Append added to the first Book pag. 138. For though the Tribe of Levi had not a part of the Land of Canaan separate or set apart by themselves as the other Tribes had yet upon extraordinary occasions it might and sometimes did fall out that some might have peculiar Interest in particular Lands not only since they lost the Land of Canaan as Joses surnamed Barnabas a Levite had and sold them Act. 4.36 37. but before that time as Jeremy who was of the same Tribe as Dorotheus writeth in his Book of the Proph. c. added to Euseb Socr. and Evagr. p. 527. who bought a field of Hananiel his Uncles son Jer. 32.9 Abiathar 1 Kings 2.26 though I conceive it is their mistake I should not have thought it a just occasion of complaint But that it should not be imposed upon every one severally to pay a fifth part of the Revenue belonging to his Pastoral Charge I hope I may have leave to assert upon the Reasons ensuing SECT II. The first Reason taken from the Necessity of Ministerial Service in the Sequestred Benefice and from the Parity of the Ministers Case with others on whom no Paiment of a fifth Part is imposed 1. THough they and their Abettors account such as are placed in Sequestred Livings Intruders into their Rights they may hold themselves fairly and justly possessed of them for when a place of Office is made void whether it be Civil or Ecclesiastical which necessarily requires an Incumbent upon it to officiate and the Party put out is disabled to do any Ministerial Duty in it it is lawfull for another to supply his place especially in a Pastoral Charge that Gods Sabbaths may solemnly be observed and the people spiritually provided for that their souls may be saved which must be done whether the Minister were injuriously ejected or not and Beneficium belonging to Officium the reward the whole reward is due for the whole work to him that doth it But if the party be put out for criminal miscarriage as the Sequestration is more Just so is the Entrance of another into his place more justifiable Especially if he had no hand either dirrctly or indirectly for his putting out Upon this ground such as have possessed Civil Offices as the Keepers of the Great Seal Judges Recorders of Cities and Towns corporate Heads of Colledges Halls Hospitals in the Universities and elsewhere as also Military Officers who possess the places of cashiered Commanders have never been charged with paiment of a fifth part to their predecessours wives and children though those that were put out had as much need and they that succeeded them had as much means to relieve them in their wants as Ministers have and for the most part much more and they may crave and hope also to enjoy the same immunity with them unless some colour of reason may be rendered to the contrary which they cannot answer SECT III. The second Reason taken from the Preheminence of that Authority which appointed us to be Incumbents above that of private Patrons 2. THe next consideration for Exemption from this Charge is of the preheminence of that Authority which appointed the substituted Incumbent above that of private Patrons which is the same by which setled and itinerant Justice is administred mens lives and livelihoods disposed of all matters of peace and warre ordered and managed throughout three populous Nations by whose power the people are protected for the safety of their persons and propriety of their Estates and but for which whatsoever is pretended for another Title we might come under more calamity by Anarchical and Democratical confusion then by Monarchical or Oligarchical Tyranny Taking those who have such predominant power for our Patrons we may we hope desire deserve and expect as much priviledge and protection as the Clerks of private Patrons have enjoyed who were never compelled to pay a fifth part to those that have been put out upon the death of the outed Minister though liable to no manner of Exception either of Insufficiency Negligence Scandall or Disaffection to the present Powers and it should not be forgotten and being remembred it may stop the mouths of such as are apt to clamour if the fifth part be denied them that Bishops when the Church door keys hanged on their girdles suspended ab Officio Beneficio divers of the most learned godly and conscientious non-Conformists of this Nation meerly for scrupling a superstitious Ceremony which themselves confessed at the best to be but a thing indifferent and oft times absolutely deprived them of their Benefices and instituted and inducted others into them thereby cutting from them all hope of recovery but allotting no portion at all for supply either of them or their wives and children So that the Benefit came in entire to
out of all hope of prevailing he wrote to me That he would give me possession of the house as he had done of the Church and in his Letter professed That since himself might not be permitted to hold the living he was contented I should have it before any other man This I have yet to shew under his own hand For other things which he hath said or can say against me I shall care the lesse because 1. I am confidently and chearfully conscious of mine own innocence and clearnesse from any charge of injustice that he can take up against me 2. I believe it lieth not in the power of his tongue or pen to lessen my estimation in the Judgement of those good men with whom I am best acquainted nor with any good man at all to whom both he and I are throughly known though it may be some who were mine intimate Familiars before our late troublesome Mutations and after long intermission of mutual entercourse whereby they may not know how farre nor upon what grounds I have been constant or changeable with the vicissitude of affairs and times may haply be as credulous as mine adversary is clamorous against me for there are some men whose passionate prejudice will admit of no pause to take in any true intelligence against mis-information and it is no marvel if such do sacrifice not only common charity but special friendship to diversity of opinion and partiality of interest from which whether levity or iniquity I hope my practice shall always prove my disposition to keepa just and religious distance 3. For such as know me not if they be wise they will not lend too open an ear to the accusations of an open mouthed adversary since they may very well think it is more like that out of envy because I possesse what he hath lost his ill will would not suffer him to say well then that I out of avarice or any other corrupt motive should do so ill as he suggesteth and if they be not wise their folly must be allowed the priviledge of a patient permission and of free pardon 4. That which I have now published as it will I trust give full satisfaction to the particulars objected so it will be an earnest of the like satisfactory returns to other Objections if the Doctor have any to bring in against me But 5. That on which as upon a rock of surest refuge I set up my rest is the precept and promise of the Lord by the Psalmist Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also unto him and he shall bring it to passe and he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgement as the noon-day Psal 37.5 6. I blesse his Name for it he hath given me grace to obey the Precept and faith likewise to believe I shall receive the Promise and if his Providence make use of thy wisdome and goodnesse good Reader to such a purpose it will engage me the more affectionately to remain Thine in all Christian Observance JOHN LEY Brightwell in Berks Octob. 17. 1654. General Reasons against the Paiment of a Fifth Part out of Sequestred Livings for Maintenance of the outed Ministers Wife and Children SECT I. Some Cautions and Distinctions premised before them WHile I speak against the paiment of a fifth part in the general my meaning is not to lay the blame of that heavy burden upon all or the better part of the Members of that Parliament by whose Authority it was ordained for though the King a Mr Prinne in his Speech in Parliament concerning the Kings concessions p. 51 52. of Edit 3. proposed That such Ministers as were sequestred for malignancy and were not scandalous might have a third part of the Livings out of which they were ejected and the House of Peers for relief of their disaffected Chaplains meant them as liberal an allowance as they could hope might passe in the House of Commons which was a fift part at the most yet divers and those very eminent men for wisdom and godliness in that House were as I have been credibly informed against all defalcation of any part of the Ministers means who were to bear the whole burden of the Pastoral charge and consented to that proportion rather as a Prohibition as in case of usury * This sense since this Treatise was finished I found in the late Ordinance of his Highness the Lord Protector for the ejecting of scandalous and ignorant and insufficient Ministers and School masters p. 625. priucip That none should have any more then a fifth part then as a Concession that every one should have so much and therefore the Committee for Plundered Ministers at Westminster which the House of Lords never liked consisting wholly of the Members of the House of Commons often ordered against that allowance and where they permitted it they did it with much more moderation and ease to the Incumbent Minister then Countrey Committees used to do where some leading men were sometimes so favourable to sequestred Ministers probably out of some carnal or worldly Interest of their own as to make their condition more comfortable then their who succeeded them which was much against the minds of the soundest Members of that Assembly 2. Concerning the ejected Ministers I conceive there may be some such distinction made of them as Dr Du Moulin maketh of the Popish Clergy in France I know saith he b D. Du Moulin in his Defence of the Catholick faith in King James his Book c. 6. p. 94 95. that in this great body of the Clergy there are a great number though many also are of a quite contrary minde on Whose Spirits Nature hath more force then their habits and the love of their Country more then the maxims of Italy So I may say there is great difference of those Ministers whose lot hath been a like for outward losses not only in their spirits and affections but otherwise for some of them are ignorant and erroneous in their judgements irreligious and scandalous in their conversation rash proud uncharitable and turbulent in their spirits speech and behaviour who both wish and watch for an opportunity to be fishing in troubled waters and are every way such that as it was a very ill deed to put them into the Ministry so it was a very good one to put them out again But there are others who are Learned Orthodox Discreet Humble Charitable who cordially desire the peace of their Countrey and would not if it were in their power redeem themselves from private damage with any publick calamity their greatest fault being their errour in opinion and affection too adverse to any form of Government that is not hereditarily and absolutely Monarchical and to any form of worship but that of the service-Service-book For such as these or if they be not altogether such without the abatement of some grains of just weight I wish them rather a plentiful then a competent Subsistance rather five