Advocate for the Church of England both in word and deed by his learned Books and by his labour of love to this Church under the King being the Founder and by procured Benevolences the Maintainer of the French Church at the Savoy a goodly Pattern and Precedent for Imitation of the best Reformation Secundùm Usum Ecclesiae Anglicanae we cannot deliver it in better terms then it is expressed in his Letter to me bearing date the 7th of January 1662. Give me leave saith this worthy Author to furnish you with such an Argumentum ad Hominem as will not only confute that Party but is able to make all who have any fear of God to keep their hands from meddling with any of those Lands which the Piety of Christians hath Consecrated for the Maintenance of Christ's Ministers About four years since being with the worthy Major General of the City of London Sir Richard Brown and remembring that Doctor Brittain of Detford had told me he had seen in the hands of the said Major General a Letter of D. Cornelius Burges wherein he acquainted him that he was brought to great want and poverty and that he was eaten up with a Cancer in his Neck and Cheek I desired Sir Richard to do me the Favour to shew me D. Burges his Letter which was presently granted me And there I read these very words to the best of my remembrance I am reduced to want a piece of bread and am eaten up with a Cancer in my Neck and Cheek as this Bearer my Son may better Inform you Yet the man was not so humbled by that heavy and exemplary Judgment of God but that he added Sir mistake me not I do not beg I only acquaint you with my condition and do you what is fit 'T is known this man had a great yearly Income He was besides a Purchaser of a considerable Estate of the I. Bishop of Bath and Wells's Lands which he enjoyed long enough to reimburse himself and much more then so and how he could be reduced to that extream poverty is not easily to be guessed at unless his Sacrilegious Purchase proved as a Cancer to his other Estate to devour it up And who knows but God in his Mercy to make him sensible of his sin sent that other Cancer on his body and set him up for an Example to this Impious Age as it were with this Inscription Discite Justitiam Moniti non temnere Divos I must not omit that I am told Dr. Burges died a very penitent man frequenting with great Zeal and Devotion the Divine Service of the Church of England till his death which happened about two years ago Thus far Mr. Durel's words I must add my hearty wish that D. Burges had himself before his death by some authentick Instrument as publick as his Book for Sacriledge Retracted since he could not Restore and declared to the World this his Repentance to put all good men's Charity out of doubt Meanwhile let all that hear or read this Singular Example give God his Due as did the Emperour Mauritius Justus es Domine Rectum Judicium tuum Psal cxix 137. And Observe God's wonderful wisdom that commonly Punishment is the Anagram of Sin wherein as in Capitals every one may read That Beggary in that man's Estate was the Reward of Robbery the Sore there answerable to the Sin of Sacriledge and also the Cancer in his Body answerable to the Cancer of his Schisme For their word doth eat as doth a Canker or Gangrene saith the Apostle 11 Tim. ii 17. As if God had written upon his Forehead Sennacherib's Epitaph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let every one that looks upon me learn to be godly and a thousand more that in the Ballance of their final account have found this sad propoposition too true a Prophecy That the Interest of Sacriledge hath devoured the Principal As if all their Gains that way had been put into the Prophet's Bag with holes Hagg. i. 6. yet for all this men will not become wise 14. But we are loath to let our Sun set in a Cloud rather therefore to end all in Prayer I beseech God that this honest Work may prove a Graft of that good Tree Psalm i. 3. which bringeth forth his fruit in due season That all from the King to the Subject may find Relish in it and reap Benefit by it That all the King 's true Servants and loyal Subjects may never fail to give him as they are most bounden honest and faithful Counsels hearty and ready Obedience constant and couragious Defence to the Glory of God and the Peace Power Plenty and Prosperity of this great Nation and in order to all these Blessings That God forgiving our Sins amending our Lives uniting all our hearts and Hands will yet in Mercy hear the daily Prayer of his Church Da pacem Domine in diebus nostris Amen ERRATA I. In the Text. PAge 19. Line 4. for closs read close p. 20. l. 16. for the r. their p. 27. l. 8. for remaing r. remaining p. 28. l. 14. for live r. have lived p. 31. l. 28. for observers r. observes p. 34. l. 18. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 55. l. 21. from the word Cathedraticum to seq p. 56. l. 5. all this should have been in the Margent which being put into the Text obscures the sense p. 57. l. 11. for Ministers r. Ministery p. 116. l. 14. b for ordes r. order p. 133. l. 20. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 135. l. 29. These words and really punished also are to be within a Parenthesis thus p. 155. l. 14. after all add is II. In the Margent PAge 49. Line 12. for Alepo read Alepo p. 132. after page add 120. 123. p. 133. after pige add 69. ibid. l. 12. r. wesembec p. 165. l. 1. add Genes xlvii 22.26 p. 171. l. 32. before Majestie 's add late p. 192. l. 4. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 199. l. ult after 1626. add above p. 209. l. 14. for Ecclica r. Ecclesiae ibid. l. 16. for Lundonicae r. Lundoniae ibid. l. 27. after example of add William the Conquerour p. 228. l. 32. add Ezek. 1.16 A Wheel in the middle of a wheel ¶ Note That through a mistake from Page 113 to 120. the Pages have the same Number twice which to distinguish we have added the letter a to the first Number and the letter b to the second A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS The INTRODUCTION Page 1. CHAP. I. OF the Sacrilegious Malefactor Page 5 CHAP. II. The Description of Sacriledge Page 12 CHAP. III. The Distribution of Sacriledge Page 27 CHAP. IV. Of the Parties against whom the sin of Sacriledge is committed and here first of the Priest as God's Usufructuary onely Page 44 CHAP. V. That the Sin of Sacriledge is an offence against God himself who is the great Proprietary
to us in flaming Fire both by Sea and Land devouring us both by Plagues without example for their Rage and Ruine and also by the bloody Sword both at home and abroad Hath not God almost spent all his Arrows to warn and to reclaim us from our wickednesses when his Vocal word did not prevail because we still neglecting or abusing it Hath not God added his Real Word for God's Judgments have a Voice If we had the grace to hear it Hear ye the Rod saith the Prophet Micha vi 9. and who hath appointed it And are we grown better for all God's Mercies and Judgments What remains then but a fearful expectation of the final Judgment of God to utter destruction of which sad Catastrophe by very wise men's more than bare Conjecture Sacriledge may be thought though not the onely Sin yet the most demeriting sin if not also the efficient sin of most of our other sins and sorrows of our National Miseries So that when ever that terrible Destiny comes upon us which God in mercy prevent still mark it who will Sacriledge will prove the Leader which therefore to stop in its furious March and to incounter valiantly we have now again mustered up our Forces but with a considerable Recruit in this our New Muster-Roll 7. For though we purposely have retained much of the old Levy which may therefore represent here some passages as unseasonable albeit not at all impertinent and which we could not well leave out without some Sacriledge against the Truth it self yet we have done so partly to shew to the World we were then the same men we are now both for Judgment and also Resolution so that though Tempora mutantur nos non mutamur in illis Partly that by a wise comparison of the times past and present if they prove better now or hereafter then heretofore we may entertain them with all thankfulness to God and the King But if they should prove as bad or worse if worse may be as our Sins and Errors make us fear worse and worse Then Experience of the time past 1 Pet. iv 4. as well as S. Peter's Caveat for the time to come having sufficiently warned us in these last and worst days especially not to think any think strange concerning the fiery Tryal we may then like true Christians arm our selves aforehand with Faith and Patience backed with an assured hope of a better World the onely Armour of Proof 8. Yet to the Considerate Reader this Book will appear most-what a New Book both for Matter and Form For first as to the Matter of it it is in a great measure augmented as by our Experience abroad so by our Inquiry and discovery at home of such Books as since the first Edition have been published for or against this Subject Two whereof especially as to the main we have taken in here namely that of Doctor Cornelius Burges (b) No Sacriledge nor Sin to alien or purchase the Lands of Bishops c. By Cornelius Burges An. 1659. If such a Book for Sacriledge had the licentiousness of a Second Edition for filthy lucres sake can any justly blame us for fairly taking the license of a Second Edition against Sacriledge for God's sake and another of Mr. William Prynne (c) A seasonable Vindication of the Jurisdiction of Christian Kings c. as well over the Possessions as Persons of Delinquent Prelates c. By William Prynne Esquire Anno 1660. which latter came not to our hands till this Book was already a good way in the Press By which several oppositions this Work is increased with many Additions so that from a transient (d) That SERMON was Preached in LENT at CHRIST's CHURCH in OXFORD Anno 1646. Before KING CHARLES the I. Of Glorious Memory Sermon at first afterwards by Royal Command Printed into a short Treatise for (e) S. Austin gives this Reason of writing Books for reading Ut sic bonae Notiones quasi virgulis limatis figantur ne ut aves evolent That so good Notions may be held as it were with Lime-twigs and not like skipping Birds fly away as they often do when a man only hears them especially if he hear them with prejudice permanency it is now become a full Book Thus to phrase it with the Poet Amphora coepit Institui currente Rota cur Vrceus exit Horat. So that I have found by little and little though with no little labour that as the Wise-man saith Eccles xxiv 31. My Book is become a River and my River become a Sea This to the Matter and also for the Length of it 9. As to the Form of it whereas it was before Composed in a continued Discourse and therefore more tedious and probably less profitable to the common Reader It is now disposed into Chapters and Sections as it were so many short Stages a better Method to give both Light and Ease to the Reader learned and unlearned 10. As for the Delay of this Second Edition hitherto for which yet we must thank Providence which hath thereby occasioned those necessary Additions 'T is true we were divers times summoned to appear again against this Common Enemy of the Church by the multiplied desires not onely of many of the Clergie and some of them the Right Reverend Fathers of the Church but even also by some of the Noble and generous Sons of the Church men of the Laity For that sowre Leaven of Sacriledge though now very far spread yet hath it not through God's Providence so utterly leavened the whole lump God be thanked for it But as before the Kings Restauration to have followed this Truth too neer at the heels it might and that without success have ding'd out our Teeth if not our Head after so many more of our betters So since the Restauration I could not though I did both intend and also indeavour it over-take the opportunity Being in the year 1661. honourably ingaged and that still with the Royal leave in the Service of that valiant Achilles of Christendome George Ragotzi the II. Prince of Transylvania my late gracious Master who for the space of seven years had honoured me with the Divinity-Chair in his University of Alba-Julia the Metropolis of that Noble Countrey and endowed me a meer stranger to him with a very ample Honorary till in that very Year that Prince dying of his Wounds received in his last Memorable Battel with the Turks at Gyalu the care of his Solemn Obsequies was committed to my Charge by his Relict Princess Sophia whereby I was kept a year longer out of England my most desired Haven that other being but my Bay pro tempore That Function I did perform at least in part to discharge my duty of Gratitude towards the Dead for the Benefits received from him when living whose Memory shall ever live precious in my Breast and to whose Sacred Manes abhorring Ingratitude I could not but Dedicate this grateful Digression if it be
appear they were more than bare Bug-bear-words even Fatal Predictions of God's real and visible Judgments which without Repentance and Restitution the Offenders could never claw off for indeed the more immediate the offence is against God himself the sorer and the closer the Curse sticks to the Offender (g) 1 Sam. 2.25 if one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him for finiti ad infinitum nulla proportio 8. Enough to make it appear that the Curse rightly applied is more than a meer humane Curse that it is for Authority Divine and therefore indeed rather an Approbation or but applicative Declaration in particular of God's own Curse already denounced in the general against all sacrilegious Offenders than a new Curse of their own being Copied as I may say into their several Books of particular Donations out of the Original in God's own Book wherein you may read those Curses written on both sides I mean in the New as well as in the Old Testament 9. Take one or two proofs of each The first Curse we read of in this kind is as old as Moses (h) Deut. 33.11 whom we may observe in the very Act of blessing the Tribe of Levy suddenly to shift his foot from Mount Gerizzim to Mount Ebal where he fals a cursing all those that shall attempt to hinder Levi in his substance or to impeach him in the Work of his hands saying Bless O Lord the Substance of Levi and accept the Work of his hands but smite through the LOYNES of them that rise against Levi and of them that hate him that they rise not again A full and fatal Curse this wherein you may clearly observe 10. First of all that in the Enumeration of all the other Tribes there is no mention of Enemies to any but to these two (i) Verse 7. Be thou an help to Judah from his Enemies to the Royal Tribe of Judah and to the sacred Tribe of Levi It seems Moses and Aaron the King and the Priest must still be (k) Lam. 3.6 Fellow Patients pardon the word for so God himself joyns them in the Lamentation and so the Devil and his Agents too match them in the Persecution also It was against Moses and against Aaron that seditious * Num. 16.3 Corah and his Company gathered themselves together not against Moses alone nor against Aaron alone but against both at once He very well knew what belonged to his King-craft that said it (l) King James in the Confer at H. C. NO BISHOP NO KING for the self same in effect was the Oracle of another wise Emperour above a thousand years afore King James spake it (m) Maxima quidem in omnibus sunt Dona Dei superna collata Clementia SACERDOTIUM ET IMPERIUM illud quidem Divinis Ministrans hoc autem humanis praesidens Inter haec duo Consonantia omne quicquid est utile humano confert generi c. Authent Coll. 1. Tit. 6. Novel 6. in praef ad Epiphan Archiep. Patriarch Constantinop It seems those ancient Sages did conceive That the Influence of good Success upon a Nation Prince and People mainly depends upon the good Correspondence and bappy conjunction of all the Estates with the Priesthood A Maxime very memorable as full of Policy as of Religion and in experience as full of Truth as of both those That Harmony being indeed the onely ordinary way to maintain Correspondence with God himself namely to correspond with God's Priest because God's immediate Agent in spiritualibus in all matters 'twixt God and man Did this Nation ever thrive since it began to strive with the Priest Hosee iv 4. Justinian I mean These two the King and the Priest as they were of old Twins of Oyl as the Rabbins style them so are they still Twins of Destiny too they stand or fall together Therefore and it were but in Policy in point of Mutual Interest they had need support and assist each other against the common Enemy 11. But although Judah and Levi the King and the Priest have both their Enemies yet doth not Moses curse the Enemies of Judah neither so directly nor so vehemently as he doth the Enemies of Levi as if they were more or more full of Animosity against the Tribe of Levi than against any other Tribe whatsoever That we may all prepare my Brethren for Nil novum sub sole whether it be for Aaron's Rod the Priest's Power or for the flourishing of that Rod the Priest's Portion it seems 't is an old Grudge the mad World hath still to the (n) Laici semper sunt Infesti Clericis Covarruvias Clergy 'T is strange that of (o) 1. Thrice for water Exod. 15.24 and 17.2 Num. 20.2 2. Twice for the way Num. 11.1 Sol Jarchi and 21.4 3. Once for bread Exod. 16.2 4. Once for flesh Num. 11.4 5. Once at the News Num. 14.2 6. Twice at the Priest especially Num. 16.11.41 ten several popular Mutinies in that stiff-necked Jewish Nation upon six several occasions of the Persecution the Priest had more than his share twice over far above his Tenth of that to be sure that none will grudge him 12. Secondly Sacriledge whether personal or real 't is no matter either way 't is the sin cursed here must needs be an hainous Offence that moves meek (p) Num. 12.3 The man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth Moses that Mirrour of Lenity upon God's own Record 1. To fall a Cursing 2ly To extend his Curse through the very Loyns of the Enemies of Levi that is as it were to Intail the Curse upon their Posterity 3ly To aggravate this Curse with the Doom of a final Destruction praying unto God that such of all others may never rise again 13. And as if the Curse upon Sacriledge were always so fatal and final so runs King Darius his Curse also annexed to his Charter of Donation to the Temple (q) Esdr 6.12 1 Esdr 6.33 The God that hath caused his Name to dwell there destroy utterly destroy all Kings and People that shall put to their hands to alter and to destroy the house of God Here is utter destruction again and that to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To all Kings saith our Translation To all Kingdoms saith the Vulgar No respect of persons for Magnitude or Multitude all is one with God To whom in point of Revenge The Nations are but as a drop of a Bucket Isa 40.15.17 and are counted as the small dust of the Ballance behold he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing Hear this Isle of Great Britain All Nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity 14. Goe to prophane World and mock on think as slightly of the Priest's Curse as you usually do of his Blessing To
lack of Restitution Ite Maledicti will sound far harsher So it were a gallant opportunity to the charity of publick Spirits whom God hath blessed with abundance both of Grace and Wealth to redeem the Lord's Inheritance Less than half an Age of Peace and Plenty might do it and who knows but such a Project as this in the Heart of this Nation might through God's acceptance purchase again that well-grounded Peace which all the other fair and foul means we have already used have missed of as yet As for the Medium how to effect that Resumption or Redemption that in all modesty we must wholly leave to the Justice and Authority of the Higher Powers whose Immortal Glory it would be once for all to have freed this Church and State from the Plague of Sacriledge for ever Secondly In that this Prophet here and others (d) Nehem. 10.35.37 else-where make mention of the Priest's Storehouses their Magazines or as S. Hierom calls them (e) Inferte in horrea i. e. in Thesauros Templi Hieron their Treasuries It is from hence evident it was never God's meaning that his Priests should live basely or poorly from hand to mouth as they say Thirdly In that God to this duty of Restitution promiseth so many Blessings of all kinds Blessings privative Deliverance from Incumbent Judgments from the Devourer c. verse 11. Blessings positive plenty and credit again at home and abroad verse 10.12 Since I say all these Blessings are assured upon the observation of this one Precept of all others as if in it God had summed up his whole Law We may thence infer two things 1. That he that makes no Conscience of the sin of Sacriledge will make Conscience of no sin at all The Jews have a Proverb That * Drus Idolatra totam Legem abnegat Sacriledge therefore being in St. Paul's judgment of the same size and latitude with Idolatry it must needs renounce the whole Law Rom. 2.22 not onely in St. James's general sense Jam. 2.10 but more particularly because all the Second Table depends upon the first and all the Commandments upon the formost Secondly When ever we miss of God ' Blessings as now let us then remember the Cause why all this evil is come upon us and amend it * See the Exhortation appointed for the Fast against the Plague of Pestilence An. 1665. Deutr. 28.21 The publick voyce of the Church tells us plainly That because the Portion of God is invaded his Altars robbed of Tythes and Offerings and holy things of all sorts prophanely and sacrilegiously devoured Therefore God in his just Judgment will cause the Pestilence to cleave unto us until he hath consumed us from the Land Have we felt it already and yet will not we believe it nor use the Remedy Repentance and Restitution Men may toil and moil as they say plot and project and purchase too and yet all this while put all their gains into the Prophet's bag with holes (f) Hag. 1.6 If God do but blow upon it When all is done 't is the (g) Prov. 0.22 blessing of the Lord that maketh rich Decima ditesces saith the Rabbin from this Text contrá Let the Modern Projectors then build their Babels never so high if they be reared upon the Ruines of Sion they will finde at last that Foundation Fabrick and all will down all at once and sink both the Founder and his Posterity into worse than their first nothing Finally for a close of this large Sermon of the Prophet Malachy against Sacriledge let us observe the Success for it may be I am preaching mine own Destiny so far were some from relenting much less restoring that they were rather hardned at it and scoffed at both the Prophet and his God too so God complains directly (h) Verse 13 14 15. Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord. And yet on the other side to the comfort of the Preacher and the Honour of his God some became of a better mind took the Matter into their serious Consideration They feared God saith the Text verse 16. and God himself takes special notice of it Registers up their mutual good motions in his great Book of Remembrance against the great day of Reckoning and Reward verse 17. on which day at furthest shall clearly appear saith God verse 18. The wide difference betwixt the righteous and the wicked between him that serves God and him that serves him not And thus endeth the Prophet's Sermon against Sacriledge and for the most of it the Fathers Descant upon it who there expresly inlarges the Application of all this both in respect of the Minister's Maintenance and the Vsurpers Offence too unto all Nations under the New Testament And this also the Father urges fully in a direct and express Opposition to Marcion Valentinus and the rest Qui vetus non recipiunt Testamentum saith the Father there that as the men of our Generation especially if the case be concerning Rebellion or Sacriledge or any such Cross-Theam they 'l at one dash recuse the whole Old Testament as if one and the same good God were not the Author of both Testaments New and Old but some evil Spirit had been the Author of the Old point-blank to the sound (i) The old Testament is not contrary to the New Article 7. Doctrine of this Church their own Mother from which in this as in so many good things else whilest they Apostatise you see they become ex Asse the Heirs and Successors of the old Hereticks 17. But to leave them and all others without Excuse and that you and all men may clearly see we want not in the New Testament also as full and as memorable a Text against Sacriledge as any we have yet produced besides our own Text what will they say to the Famous History of Ananias and Sapphira 18. For that they were guilty of Sacriledge 't is plain not onely by the verdict of the Holy Fathers both Greek and Latine as (k) In locum St. Chrysostom (l) Serm. 9. St. Ambrose (m) De verbis Apostoli St. Austin and to name no other Writers by a full Jury of Protestants upon the place amongst the rest Calvin (n) Erat Sacrilega fraudatio quia partem ex eo subducit quod Sacrum esse Deo profitebatur Calv. ad locum and more largely above pag. 21. See the rest in Marlorati Ecclesiasticâ Expos ad locum Beza whose Testimony (o) See at large Beza on Acts 5.2 amounts to these five Concessions 1. That there may still be a Consecration of things under the Gospel 2. That this Consecration may be of Lands 3. That this Consecration because it was offered Ecclesiae to the Church therefore it was construed to be offered Domino too to the Lord as Irenaeus by and by in Vsus Dominicos so that the Lord is still a Party in this Cause 4. That this
or never must strike at the Root of all our Mischiefs and tell you a sad truth that of all our swarms of Heresies and Schismes of all our Divisions and Distractions of all our Seditions and Rebellions too of all our Sacriledges and Prophanenesses of all these cursed branches the Mother Root hath been the Contempt of the Church for these four Buttresses or Master-pillars of the Church The Churches Apostolical Truth Holy Peace Just Power and Due Patrimony stand or fall together and like * Plutarch Scylurus his Arrows whilest kept tied in the bundle do render that Church and State impregnable invincible but one of them once sundered from the other break but any one and you may easily knap all the rest in sunder This is the sad story of all our former National miseries and till the Restitution of this Church Right also and that cum effectu Excommunication so dreaded in other Churches the Greek especially being now become with the many in England but a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bug-bear unless that Brachium Seculare do corroborate it by some coercive way as shall seem to their wisdom most suitable unto the symptoms and dispositions of this Nation yet very much out of joynt Till then we may in vain hope for a Respit but never obtain the effectual Remedy much less the real Recovery of this Church and Nation 36. And to bring in all this here is a fair Hint given us by the Holy Ghost from this very Text and History of Ananias wherein you may for an Epilogue from Calvin observe yet this one Item more That one main Aggravation and always a deadly Ingredient of this sin of Sacriledge was and is the Contempt of a general Godly Practice of the whole Christian Church whose bare Custom in those honest and simple Apostolical days St. Paul thought an Argument strong enough to confute any Irregular Schismatick saying upon occasion of a Church-Difference (q) 1 Cor. 11.16 If any man seem to be contentious we have no such Custom neither the Churches of God Of such force in those days of Discipline was the general Practice of the Church How much more forcible then would have been the Precept of the Church not only or chiefly of the Church Diffusive the whole Body at large for that in the matter of Exercise or Execution was never could never be Subjectum capax of that Power or Jurisdiction but principally of the Church Representative the Apostles and Ministers who as you have heard and Calvin very well observes still upon the place Though they were but men yet they were no meer private men because God's Vicegerents in which sense the Contempt of the Church is by a plain consequence a Contempt of Christ himself who according to his gracious (r) Matth. 28.20 Promise for a Farewel to his Apostles hath ingaged himself by his Spirit of Power and Counsel to be present with and in his Church unto the end of the world In reference to which Divine Promise That Primitive Catholick Ceremony of placing the Sacred Book of the Gospel on a Throne in the midst of the Councels sitting was till of late Solemn and full of Divine Mysterie namely among the rest to intimate that in regard of Christ's Spiritual and Invisible but undoubted Presence in the midst of his * Reputare debuerat ubi duo aut tres congregati sunt in Christi nomine illic eum adesse Praesidem nec secùs in eo coetu se gerere quà m si Deum oculis cerneret Calv. in Act. v. 4. Church all men ought to behave themselves in and toward the Church with as much Obedience as if there they saw with their Eyes Christ himself visibly present 37. To draw up all our several Observations upon this Apostolical History into a narrow compass By this time you see That the Contempt of the Godly Precept or but General Practice of the Church such as ever was this of Consecrations or Dedications is first of all Injurious to Jesus Christ himself the invisible Guide and perpetual President of the Church 2ly Derogatory to Venerable Antiquity and to all those that have gone before us in this devout way of well-doing 3ly Scandalous yea in its contagious Nature and bad Example pernitious too to the present Age and unto Posterity to boot 4ly Dangerous yea without timely Repentance Damnable unto the Contemners what ever they be 38. And now after all this said and proved too yea ex abundanti sealed also both ways with God's own actual Curse or Benediction as it were his visible Image and Superscription yet still to ask the question whether we shall Render this Sacred Tribute (s) Matth. 22.20 21. unto our Maker or no still for all this to pretend a fear of God's Refusal of our Devotions or to say we want still a particular Revelation of Gods Acceptance or to quarrel about the Authority of the Vicegerent to assure us of all these The Sacrilegious Cavils of some in our days What were all this but plainly to declare we have no more mind to this Religious Errand than he in the (t) Prov. xxvi 13. Proverbs when instead of running he tells you of a Lion in the way a Lion in the streets 39. For as touching the main of all these Assurance of Acceptance since that is now adays called in question I beseech you have we not as much Revelation for God's Acceptance of this as for any other good work as for our Prayers or for our Alms or for any To affirm the contrary were it not besides the sin of Infidelity a Tang of Deep Hypocrisie yea the very Cut-throat of all good works of Mercy or Piety whatsoever private as well as publick would not this Doctrine also bid very fair for Enthusiasme 40. Say we had no more but some one of (u) 1 Cor. 15. ult God's general Promises would not that serve Nay may not the Nature of the work it self be instead of all Revelations if it have all the four Essential usually requisite Conditions of a good work I mean if it be done 1. Upon God's Warrant or according to his Word (x) As under the old Testament Prov. iij. 19. So under the New Gal. vi 5. See above p. 65. 2ly If the general intent in it be to please and serve God (y) Rom. 14.6 He that eateth not eateth not to the Lord c. 3ly If the work be done in love to God for no self-respects or by-ends of our own but chiefly as the Church praiseth him propter magnam gloriam suam for his own Glory because we know that God is (z) To do good and to distribute forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased Heb. xiii 16. honoured by this our Acknowledgment 4ly and lastly If that our Devotion be offered in (a) Luk. vii 47. Faith out of a perswasion of God's love to us in Christ and of his general
custom and Antiquity are wont to procure unto all things and thus by little and little the very FOUNDATION of Government will undermine it self so as in time all the whole FRAME OF STATE we may say the same of the Church will insensibly down to the ground being justled out by the ambition of a few great ones or by the licentiousness of the many the People who having once forgotten the reverence they owed unto the old Laws will soon make Insurrection against all manner of Laws whatsoever The truth of all this is clear in the Case betwixt the State of Rome and Marius the Peoples Favourite against the old Laws c. Thus far the Italian States-man 19. And this Forraign VVisdom upon this very Case too was as I may say naturalized here by a Royal p See the Proclamation for the Uniformity of Common prayer before the Book of Common Prayer Act for the Authorizing an Vniformity of the Book of Common-Prayer c. Established by Act of Parliament wherein to prevent the Temptation to and Imputation of FICKLENESS that GREAT SCANDAL OF STATE the Royal Admonition runs thus We do admonish all men that hereafter they shall not expect nor attempt any further ALTERATION in the Common and Publick Form of Gods Service from this which is now established for that neither will we give way to any to presume that our own Judgment having determined in a matter of this weight shall be swayed to alteration by the frivolous suggestions of any light Spirit neither are we ignorant of the Inconveniences that do arise in GOVERNMENT by admitting INNOVATION in things once setled by mature deliberation And how necessary it is to use Constancy in the upholding of publick Determinations of State for that such is the unquietness and unstedfastness of some dispositions affecting every year new forms of things as if they should be followed in their unconstancy would make all Actions of States ridiculous and contemptible whereas the stedfast maintaining of things by good advice established is the weal of all Common-wealths Behold a Fort-Royal strong enough against all such Changes if but well manned and maintained 20. And indeed the Platform of it was borrowed from the wisest mortal King that ever was Solomon it is who gives us all fair warning saying q Prov. 24.21 22 23. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change The Precept is backed with an ominous Prophecy For their Calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both both Changers and Medlers These things also belong unto the wise as wise as some men may think themselves were they as wise as Achitophel they may need and they should take this wise counsel betimes lest they prove Achitophels at their latter end 21. But if Solomon had not given us this fair warning we may know those mens good meaning in the Change by their Intentions and Endeavors too ad ultimum Potentiae expressed in the Bill for Abolition offered at Uxbridge r A full Relation of the passages concerning the Treaty at Uxbrige c. p. 160. Exchange is no Robbery was once your Proverb but our late sad Experience of those Reformers good Intentions in the change may have taught us more wit then still to believe words As once the Orator so may we now justly cry out Quid verba audio cùm facta videam let their Actions speak and they 'l speak loud and tell you what goodly Change they mean to make Behold Testimonia rerum loquentia signa In two late flourishing Kingdoms at once as in a two leaved broad Glass you may clearly see that under pretence of Commutation they have at last compassed their great Project of utter Confusion in the utter abolition of the chief Offices and Sacrilegious Conversion of the Church Lands and Revenues to their own proper Lay Vses Except it may be Offam Cerbero here and there a bone cast to stop the mouths of such as otherwise would bark out against their crying sin of Sacriledge For as an ſ Non alio censendi Elogio sunt quos Templorum Sacerdotiorum Opulentia ad fidei dogmata novanda illexit qui suos Pseudopastorculos aliqua divitiarum particulâ asperserunt totum ut ipsi devorarent Impetuè Contzen ad Rom. cap. 2.22 Author upon our Text saith too truly They deserve no other Epithet whom Covetousness hath allured to Innovate all in Church and Religion and all out of a hope thereby to inrich themselves with the rich spoils of the old Church and Religion under pretence of sprinkling their false petty Shepherds with a few drops that so themselves without controul may swallow up all Of some of our Reformers Pudet haec dici potuisse non potuisse refelli 22. But in such a case should they or we all hold our peace very Heathens would open their mouth and plead Gods Cause for us against them would you think a t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de legib lib. 10 principio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Sacrilegio Plato by the meer light of nature could charge such a kinde of Sacriledge with flat Atheism Whosoever saith he speaking there expresly of Sacriledge wrongs the Gods any of those waies he must of necessity be guilty of one of these three crimes either he absolutely thinks there is no God at all or secondly that if there be a God that he is a God careless of what is done here below or thirdly That this God is nothing so just or so terrible to offenders at the world is made believe but either corrupt one that will be bribed in his own Cause or a very tame facile God with all profound reverence be this but repeated to the Conversion or Confusion of the Authors of such Atheistical Opinions and practices a flexible God whom you may offend at pleasure and re-appease as you please with a few good words for many bad deeds God deliver us from such a Childish ridiculous Religion nay from such damnable Atheism in thought word or deed for as the x Vel Deos non esse c. vel illos praeter aequum bonum Muneribus precibus conciliari Illa enim absurda Deo attribuere est negare Deum Joh. Serran in Platon Glossator of this Text in Plato well comments by such carriage towards God in attributing such absurdities unto God what is any one the least of all these three wayes but utterly to raze down the Foundation of all Religion and even then when in words we profess a GOD in WORKS to deny HIM as the y Tit. 1. ult Apostle argues the Case 23. And as for t' other part of the pretence the powerfulness of their Ministry and the Purity of their Gospel c. will you take our Lords Advice Then judge of the Tree by his Fruit for z Mat. 7.16 by their Fruits ye shall know
the Law when the King took that Oath This may be one Golden Nail more to fasten the Clergies Title and to Rivet it more and more into your own Law 6. For by this Juratory Obligation of the Kings special Promissory Oath unto God for the Clergy in particular some of your own good Lawyers teach us to say That the Clergies supposed tacite Consent in a general Act is not remissory at all of the Kings Conscience from this particular Clause of his Oath without the Clergies particular Consent first obtained and clearly expressed by a particular Body Representative of their own of the Clergy quatenus Clergy and not involved with the general Body of the People Their Act to free the Kings Conscience must in Reason and Equity be proportionable and adaequate to the Kings Act or Bond that is full out as particular 7. For else this bundle of Absurdities would follow that the Clergy obtains no more by the Kings Special Oath in their particular behalf then if the King had Sworn only in general which is as much to say that in this little short draught Oaths that should be spared are multiplied without Necessity or so much as Signification or that they must pass for meer Tautologies 8. If therefore the case be so that the King after such a solemn particular Oath may not consent to the Bishop's Deprivation c. without Injustice nay Impiety then sure I am that no man ought to counsel the King so to do for that Subject whoever he be that will go about to perswade the King to so impious an Act perswades the King to do that which were most palpable Injury to his fellow Subjects and most damnable wickedness against the Soul of the King himself for whom contrariwise every Loyal Subject is bound in Conscience to pray that rather then His Royal Soul should be so loose it may for ever be h 1 Sam. xxv 29. bound in the bundle of Life with the Lord his God but that the souls of His and the Churches Enemies may for ever and ever be slung out as out of the middle of a sling This must be their Destiny at last for Malum consilium consultori pessimum you never knew it prove otherwise in the end We say no more but conceive this enough to confute one necessity with a greater the pretended Necessity of State with the real Necessity of Conscience so many wayes ingaged in this publick Cause of God and the Church which Church as it rationally and clearly appears from the premises the King is obliged to defend in point of Conscience as the King is a Christian CHAP. X. The Confutation of the fourth Politick Pretence of a Legislative Power FOllows now the Fourth and last Politick Pretence of a Legislative Power to dispose of the Clergies Revenues and consequently of all mens Estates as they see Cause 1. This pretended Plea of a Legislative Power is mainly pressed by the chief Advocates both for Sacriledge and Rebellion for those Diabolical twins are still bred and born and grow up together and the same is also made the very Basis and Foundation of all the late Sacrilegious Vsurpations by that notorious i No Sacriledge nor Sin to alien or purchase the Lands of Bishops c. by Cornelius Burges D. D. This Sacrilegious Book in those Rebellious times had the licentiousness of a second Edition Anno 1659. Doctor of Sacriledge CORNELIVS BURGES who not content to * Matth. v. 19. break one of the greatest Commandements of God by practising Sacriledge in his own person Usurping for many years both the Mannor and Demesnes of the Bishoprick of Wells from the just owner that Learned and Venerable and most ancient Bishop Dr. William Pierce but had also the impudence to teach men so by Preaching and Printing the lawfulness of Sacriledge which at first was but only intended or pretended by his Rebellious Complices but as it was ex signis causis in a manner foretold by us three years before the event in the first Edition of this very Book it was afterwards acted in earnest k This Torrent brake out first against the Prelates the Lords Spiritual whom having once burried out of the way it soon overtook also the Lords Temporal and never stopt till at last it swallowed up the King himself Therefore principiis obsta is good counsel and very seasonable and also legitimated by that Sacrilegious Act of their pretended Parliament and which is worst of all aggravated by immediate Sacriledge against God himself blasphemously making God the principal Author of their Sin and with a complication of Blasphemies making the late Gracious King now a Glorious Martyr the Instrumental Cause of it for he worse than cursed Cham having begun his Libel with down-right railing at the Bishops and Pastors of Gods Flock to whom this ungrateful wight owed his Ordination over whose unjust persecution and illegal Abolition drawing out his arrow from the Popish or Mahometan Bow that is arguing from their Cross against their Cause he there doth most barbarously insult telling the world of the sad Providence on the Cathedral Prelacy of England * C. B. ch 1. though since another happy providence hath most visibly confuted him by a gracious and almost miraculous Restauration both of King and Bishop then he dares affirm expresly that it was God who did put it into the hearts of the late Long Parliament by an Ordinance of both Houses dated Octob. 9. 1646. after the King saith that Shimei had deserted his Parliament Corn. Burges chap. 1. raised his Standard against them whereby he put both them and the whole Kingdom out of his Protection and none but those two Houses of Parliament remained to take care of the Publick Interest in a Legal Way wholly to abolish the Name Title Style Dignity and Offices of all Arch-Bishops and Bishops within the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales and to vest and settle their Lands and Possessions in Trustees to the use of the Commonwealth c. and soon after he proceeds farther avowing that on the 13. of April 1649. the Commons of England being then the only persons remaining having then after the Bishops thrusted also the Temporal Lords out of doors in Parliament Assembled were necessitated forsooth to sell the Lands of Deans and Chapters whom he rails at with a full mouth as at the former and so to enact an utter abolition of these also reserved for the last to satisfie the Bulimia of those cruel and unsatiable Polyplemus's and so to make good their so long designed extirpation of both Root and Branch It were a Crime of Participation to be patient or silent in this cause which is Causa Dei Religionis Ecclesiae Regis all these at once and Sacriledge in special being expresly excepted in the Act of Oblivion We must therefore be mindeful to proceed against it This pretended Legislative Power of that illegal Assembly and their Sacrilegious Act
repeat the so many several complaints of your own Gildâ—sses of old nor of late of your Gilpins Ridleys Latimers Tindals Jewels Hookers Andrewsses and of so many more nor their several sad Considerations Prophecies and humble Petitions put as it were up in their Sermons and Epistles yet extant and directed to their several Kings and Queens even then when this Serpent was but a Scorpion in the Egge what then would all those Å¿ Bern. Gilpin in a Serm. at Greenwich An. 1552. before Edw. 6. B. Ridley in his Le ter to Mr. Cheek July 23. 1551. from Fulham among the Letters of the Martyrs by Miles Coverdail p. 683. Lond. 1564. Latimers Serm. of Covetousness Grindals Manuscript Letter to Q. Elizabeth 1580. Jewel's Sermons on Hag. 1. v. 2 3 4. and on Psal 69.9 Hooker B. 5. of Eccles Polit. B. Andrews did much finde fault and reprove three sins too common and raigning in this latter age 1. One was Usury c. 2. Another was Simony c. The third and greatest was Sacriledge which he did abhor as one principal Cause among many of the Forreign and Civil Wars in Christendom and Invasion of the Turks wherein even the Reformed and otherwise the true Professors and Servants of Christ because they took GODS PORTION turned away it to publick prophane uses or to private advancements dâ—d suffer just Chastisement and Correction at Gods hand And at home it had been observed and he wished some man would take the pains to collect how many Families that were raised by the Spoils of the Church were now vanished and the place thereof knows them no more See the Sermon Preached at the Funeral of the Lord Bishop Andrews by the then Lord Bishop of R chester Anno 1626. forty years ago good men have said think you had they been so unhappy as to live to our Sacrilegious dayes to see this sin grown to the stature of a full Dragon indeed 4. But lest these being but Domestici testes should seem partial in their own cause therefore we intend to cite none but the Masters of the Reformation abroad whom you shall hear crying aloud against the Sacriledge of the Reformers in their several times and places charging them with deep Hypocrisie damnable Avarice and what not and that under pretence of Reformation they did but intend nay practice Robbery in the Usurpation of those Church Revenues that were Dedicated to God for the maintenance of his Ministers of such free and full strains their Writings are top full 5. And yet to prove all this we will only single out one eminent Triumvirat of such witnesses as we are confident even with these men we are pleading against will be most free from all exception They be Luther Calvin and Knox as it were so many Delegates for Germany France and Scotland the Three great Foreign Stages of the Reformation 6. According to their Seniority the first main Witness we produce in the behalf of our Cause is Luther who preaching on that ample Text of S. Paul to the Galathians t Quoties lego Pauli Adhortationes c. This Testimony being prolixe we will only extract the most Emphatical points in it and refer the Reader to the Author at large Summa homines videntur degenerare in Bestias Satan horrendissimum malum hoc vehementer urget per Impios Magistratus in Civitatib Nobiles in Rure qui BONA ECCLESIARUM ex quibus Ministri debebant vivere rapiunt c. Tangit autem acu mores Nostratium qui securissimè nostrum Ministerium contemnunt Praecipuè Nobiles qui pastores suos sibi tanquam viles Servos obnoxios faciunt nisi haberemus tam pium amâ—ntem veritatâ—s Principem Jam dudum ex his terris èxturbassent nos Exclamant quando pastores postulant aut queruntur Sacerdotes avarisunt Insatiabiles Tyranni subsannatores Dei videri tamen volunt Evangelici Puniet Deus acerrimum odium vestrum in Ministroâ— Ferox Nobilitas Cives Rustici cum periculum moâ—â—is Instabit sentient Comminationem quam rident Deus enim non irrideâ—ur Sint illa PAPAE BONA per meram Imposturam coacervata tamen Deus Spolians Aegyptios hoc est Papistas suis Bonis tranfert ea in locis nostris in pium usum Non quando Nobiles rapiunt transferunt in abusum sed quando ij qui gloriam Dei annunciant inde aluntur Sciamus igitur nos bonâ Conscientià posse fruâ— BONIS ECCLESIASTICIS See at large Luther himself on Galat. 6.6 Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things you may call this the Ministers Magna Charta indeed irrevocable by any humane Authority or Municipal Laws whatsoever for I hope none of our Religion will presume herein to shake hands wth the Pope to pretend a Power to dispense Contrà Apostolum Luthers Gloss upon St. Paul doth so fit our Meridian in almost all the particulars as if it had been penned but yesterday here in England not a hundred years ago nor so far as Germany St. Basil somewhere argues that the Holy Ghost was no doubt very God because he was present at the same time with Habakkuk in the Field Jeremy in the Dungeon Daniel in the Den witness the Concordance of their Prophecies I stand not now upon the truth of the Chronology but only I do observe that sure there is somewhat more then ordinary of Gods publick Spirit in this publick Cause of the Church seeing that all these men of several Nations at that distance of times and places yet still consort in a Harmony however their Descant do vary their Ground is one and the same and all of them joyntly constant unisones against this particular kinde of Sacriledge namely the Converting of the Lands and Possessions c. formerly given to Superstitious or Popish Uses unto Lay-Uses and that also which is worth the observing after those Superstitious Officers and Offices Mass-Priests and Popish Monks c. had by lawful Authority not so here the Bishops and Deans been abolished But now * It is to me a wonder how those Declaimers against such alienations of Cathedral Lands can with any forehead produce such eminent Protestant Authors as bearing witness for them against this practice after the Offices be all at an end Cornelius Burges in the Preface to his Sacrilegious Book where like another Goliah 1 Sam. xvii 10 he bids defiance to all Fathers Canonists Schoolmen Protestants though never so eminent if they dare cross his way to his Mammon of Iniquity by Cornelius Burges his leave let the Witnesses be heard to cite them with their reasons will be enough to confute him To begin with Luther if you please but tacitly all along to apply him to Cornelius Burges his Case †A Case concerning the Buying of Bishps Lands with the Lawfulness thereof presented to his Parliament Anno 1650. as a Prodromus to his Book for Sacriledge you
will save your selves and me some labour 7. First then Luther begins his Sermon with Astonishment and blushes to think that so great an Apostle as Saint Paul should be forced to use so many words nay so many full Sermons to perswade the People to maintain Gods Ministers so as to spend about it two whole Chapters to the Corinthians in an earnest kinde of Beggary I would be very loath saith Luther to his Audience to diffame my Wittemberg as St. Paul doth his Corinth But this is the ill fortune of the Gospel that so far are most men from giving any thing for it or to it that all men will rather use all the base tricks they can to circumvent to snatch to steal away the means that should maintain the Ministers of it The short and the long is this men are degenerated into Beasts This is Luther right 8. So that hence from we may learn I speak in Luthers very words all this while how nâ—cessary this Doctrine of Saint Paul touching the Maintainance of Gods Ministers is to be Preached unto the People for the * It seems the German and British Devils are near of Kin. Devil hath but two high-ways to destroy Religion The one is by the Errors of Hereticks and the Terrors of Tyrants or Persecutors But the other way is by starving or depriving Gods Ministers thereby forcing them to desert their Ministry upon the Failer whereof in time the miserable People for want of Gods Words are turned into so many brute Beasts 9. This horrible Mischief the better to bring about the Devil stirs up the Impious Magistrate in the City and some ungodly ones of the Nobility and Gentry in the Countrey violently to take away and to convert to their own impious use those Church Revenues which are the maintainance of Gods Ministers whereby it will soon come to pass that none that 's worldly wise will put his Children to the Divinity-School of all others but rather apply them all to the other more gainful Trades and Sciences That you may the better heed this Luther goes over it again discovering the Devils deep drift in this mystery of Iniquity saying This is the Devils own Master-Plot to banish Christs Religion out of our Land without either the visible violence of the Tyrants or the under hand work of the Hereticks 10. Ah! then how much more likely is the Apostacy and miserable must needs be that poor peoples Case in whose Land all these three may seem to have conspired in a joynt Concurrence to the Destruction of that Church and Nation Heresie Tyranny and Robbery all these at once Lord have mercy upon us But Luther goes on sadly still and you must hear him out for you must give Witnesses leave to speak out and to tell out their own Tale their own way too 11. Will you know the Calamities attending upon such horrible Ingratitude Then behold because an ungracious Nation thinks much to part with their Carnal things for our Spiritual things therefore saith he by a just Judgment of God they shall forfeit and utterly lose both their own Carnal things and our Spiritual things too 12. And indeed I am verily perswaded that these Churches of Galatia and of Corinth c. were for no other cause thus infested and troubled with so many false Apostles but because they did so notoriously neglect their own true Doctors For most just it is with God that those that deny him their Pence when He affords them all their own good things and offers them eternal life to boot should be given over to such frenzy as freely to bestow whole pounds on the Devil and his Apostles and then you may say penny wise and pound foolish indeed Then commenting further on the next words following Be not deceived God is not mocked The Apostle saith he is so earnest in urging this Text for the liberal Maintenance of Gods Ministers that he is fain to back his Exhortation with Increpation down-right chiding yea to fortifie both these with a severe Commination saying Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap 13. And even here as we say he hits the nail on the head and meets full in the face with the good manners of the men of our Generation that most securely contemn our Ministry Chiefly the great ones that keep their Chaplains at such distance as if they were not their Pastors but their basest Slaves So that were it not for Gods mercy that hath blessed us with a Prince so pious and such a fast Friend to Religion some of them had long ago made us weary of this Land Do not imagine 't is I speak this for these are still Luther's own words all of them 14. Such are they that when the Preacher offers to defend or to demand but his own or but fairly to complain of his wrongs they cry out straight These Parsons are ever Covetous and insatiable men they never have enough and the like yet for all that saith Luther we must not give over pleading Gods Cause when the Scripture it self pleads it thus for us But these hard Lessons men must be taught and told oft though they Scoffe at us for our labour 15. Yet these latterdayes-scoffers of God himself in his Servants would seem as good Gospellers as any of the best But for all that know ye saith he that however God for awhile delayes his Vengeance yet in his due time he will finde you out and plague your Dogged hatred against Gods Ministers 16. Methinks some are tyred already with reading thus much against the hair will Luther never have done but the main is behinde yet for now Luther may seem to thunder and lighten indeed saying That for all this Patience of God yet the time will come when the proudest of the Gentry the Covetousest of the City and the rudest Clowns in the Countrey shall all at the very approach of Death finde the Curses of God to be no Bug-bear words they shall then at furthest finde yea feel too the Truth of this Curse of God upon them that in the end God will not be mocked indeed but that as they have sown so now they must go reap for ever 17. And lest any should misconceive that Luther speaks only this at large of the Ministers Maintainance in genere and so not to our particular purpose therefore for a Conclusion take notice that Luther speaks there expresly of BONA PAPAE as there he calls them of such Popish Church Revenues as some miscal the Lands of your Bishops Deans and Chapters Luther himself would have said no less of the Abby-Lands for were not these also inter Bona Papae which Luther is so far from condemning to Lay-uses because of the abuses that he rather earnestly warns all Ministers to take special notice That those Church Revenues are their own Maintainance and therefore they should not suffer themselves to be deprived of them by the Laity