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
* Salazar To deprive of their Livelihoods good and godly men the Act in hand and sure of all such men the holy men of God for so of old in all Reverence the Primitive e Nos Sanctos vocant Dei servosâ— c. Aug. Christian People did esteem and as usually call the Priests of God by this Religious Title of the Saints of God not as now hand over head the prophane or at least ignorant People call Gods Priests their Ministers when no where in all the whole Bible are they so called by their great Master God himself the servants of men in that general sence And if * 2 Cor. iv 5. but once in all the Bible they do in a special and voluntary case of Condescension as St. Paul for Preaching gratis to the Corinthians call themselves your Servants yet mark well what follows 't is for Jesus sake they do it But else all over Gods Ministers are styled Mens Guides Mens Rulers and other such like terms of Superiority and then Gods Ambassadors Gods Ministers or Gods Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they are or should be so and so accounted of by you This in a glance only and thus much for the Fact and the two main Species of Sacriledge both Personal and Real 7. Secondly The Plea or the pretended Matter of Right is after Vows to make Enquiry That is as the same f Retractare revocare refellere c. Salazar interpreter glosses it aright first to commit Sacriledge and then to study and finde out Reasons and Colours to defend it The Black Art of too many in our Generation and who knows but they may have learned this good Lesson also of the Popes themselves who first would Impropriate that is devour that which is holy and then what themselves had thus wrongfully done de facto they made their Friers the receivers of the Sacriledge use all their wits to maintain it de jure As to name no more your Countrey-man Alexander Hales did who was the first that ever directly maintained that Tythes were de Jure Ecclesiastico not Divino which Popish conceit hath yet since by divers of your own g D. Ridley D. Carleton D. Downhâ—m Sir James Sempel c. and so many more as yet unanswered c. Champions been learnedly confuted 8. But secondly some of the Hebrews read it thus It is a snare for a man to Consecrate and after vows to change for the worse If so then let our Changelings look to it any of these wayes they will light on a Snare Thirdly and lastly the h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laqueus est homini qui devovit Sanctuario postea tangit eum anima ipsius Targum Septuagint out of the Chaldee are yet more strict and read the Text thus It is a snare for a man to consecrate a thing rashly and afterwards to repent it From whence observe 1. That if Vota temerè nuncupata Rash Vows be obligatory and must stand then à majori out of all doubt Deliberate Consecrations 2. If it be a Snare for a man after Consecration to grudge or but to Repent it then à majori again what a Snare must it needs be utterly to reverse it and to resume it and if but to resume à majori still to rob And thus for the Nature of the sin 't is hainous enough 9. Secondly as for the Danger it is expressed here by the Metaphor of a Snare or of a Trap that is Destruction as several Translations read it and that Snare a double Snare too as Cajetan well observes it for first by his vow he is caught to one side in the Snare of Gods Law for that bids him i Psal lxxvi 11. Deut. xxii 21 24. Vow and pay because though vovere voluntatis yet reddere necessitatis else the Law will be a perpetual Snare to attach the Votary till he pay it Take one notable Instance of this in the old Patriarch k Gen. xxviii 20 22. Jacob who in his extremity fleeing from his Brother Esau vowed to build an Altar unto God at Bethel but it seems afterwards he did for the space of thirty years either altogether forget or at least foreslow the payment of his Vow All this while he is no sooner quit of one mischief as it were one Snare but he lights on another such as Esau's Ambushment Gen. xxxiii The Deflourement of his Daughter Dinah Gen. xxxiiii The furious Massacre committed by his Sons upon the Sichemites to the provocation of all the Nations round about him till God at last in mercy plainly puts him in minde of his Vow saying * Gen. xxxv 1. Arise go up to Bethel and make there an Altar unto God that appeared unto thee c. And then did he pay his Vow and so slipt his foot out of the snare And as thus he that vows is caught in the Snare of the Law till he pay it So 2. If he do not pay it he is trapped on the other side with the Snare of his own Sin of Sacriledge so that till he repent and reform and restore also turn which way he will he will light on a snare or fall headlong into Jeremy's Labyrinth †Jer. xlviii 43 44. Fear and the Pit and the Snare will be upon him so as when he fleeth from the fear he shall fall into the Pit and when he getteth up out of the Pit he shall be taken in the Snare 10. Now if you will further know what that Snare is it is no other but that which before the Prophet Malachy did directly call Gods Curse of which enough l See above page before and therefore no more of it at this Time 'T is such a Noli tangere in the Nature of it witness Jeremies Metaphor m Jer. ii 3. Israel is as an hallowed thing unto the Lord and as the first fruits of his Increase all that devour him shall offend evil shall come upon them They shall be sure to light on a Snare And get the Bird once in the Snare and you need no Fortune-teller to tell you her destiny so is the Case so is the Fate of every Sacrilegious Person Family Nation it needs no other Clog And you of this Nation may well suspect such a Clog hangs about you for your n Exod xiv 25. Chariot Wheels have for some years last past driven very heavily To any Nation then this one sin will be ILLAQUEATION sufficient because of all others it hath in it as much of the Devils Power and Policy as any 12. And that in short is the strong Reason of the hainousness of this sin because 't is a sin so Fundamental and Radical of almost all other sins that where it is entertained it presently fills the Heart with the Devil and all his works So doth God charge Sacrilegious o Acts v. 3. Ananias at his Arraignment why hath Satan
filled thy heart Pride and Envy Fraud and Oppression Avarice and Ambition are all but the hand-maids that wait in ordinary on this great Beldam-sin of Sacriledge This for the Original Cause of Sacriledge 13. As for the Fruits of such a Cursed Stock no wise man can expect they should be blessed It being as you have heard at large a sin Destructive of all Religion and Policy of Church and State Introductive of all Irreligion Atheism and Anarchy The very new Gun-Powder-Plot or White-Powder-Mine under holy pretences and therefore without noise to blow up Priest Priesthood and all that is called Holy Balaams or Julian's Plot was but a Puny to this Would I turn Traytor in grain against God and man I would only counsel Sacriledge That will do it that will speed any Church or Nation to sudden and total and final Destruction Reason enough therefore to adde no more why all good Christians should abhor this sin for ever 14. And therefore in the third place you may take notice that in all Nations all wise Law givers in conformity to Gods Law have been careful yea severe as by wholesome Laws to prevent so by rigorous and generally Capital Execution to punish the crime of Sacriledge as heavily as any this is clear in the Records of all the Laws Canon Civil Saxon French 15. For by the Canon Law whosoever takes away or alienates to other persons or uses goods or things Chattels your Lawyers call them nay Facultates at large is the word p Sacrilegi judicantur qui ECCLESIAE FACULTATES alienant Tit. Omnes ECCLESIAE RAPTORES Alque FACULTATUM suarum ALIENATORES Sacrilegos esse Judicamus non solùm eos sed omnes consentientes eis â—uia non solum qui faciunt rei Judicantur sed etiam qui consentiunt facientibus PAR ENIM Poeâ—a AGENTES ET CONSENTIENTES COMPREHENDIT Decret part 2. c. 17. l. 4. c. 5. both in the Title and in the Body of the Law all manner of Church-wealth or Estate that must needs comprehend all Moveables and Immoveables or whosoever shall consent to any such Alienation shall be all alike guilty of Sacriledge and as the Canonists phrase it shall incur ipso facto crimen laesae Majestatis divinae which by comparison with the other crime of High-Treason against the King on Earth whatever Sacrilegious Thieves or Rebellious Subjects may think of it must needs be by proportion a Crime of the highest degree and so 't is punished with the highest spiritual extremity that Law can inflict the heavy sentence of Excommunication and to note farther the hainousness of the offence as Ivo Burchardus Gratian and the rest agree the Canonists allot unto it seven years Penance where so many dayes might suffice for other ordinary sins but because q Aquin. 22. q. 99. 4. saith Aquinas as heavy as the just sentence of Excommunication may seem to a right Christian yet it is by the Sacrilegious offender commonly no more regarded then a bug-bear word therefore pro qualitate delicti it is by the Secular Power punished sometimes with pecuniary Censure heavier to the offender that commonly fears more the loss of his Money then the loss of his soul sometimes with outright Decapitation 16. Or as by the Civil Law r Sacrilegii poena de Jure communi regulariter est Capitalis ita ut prâ— qualitate personae conditione rei Sacrilegi aliquando damnentur ad Bestias aliquando ad Ignem aliquando ad Furcam l. Sacâ—ilegii 6. ff ad L. Jul. peculatus in §. Item l. Julia peculatus 9. Wesembec paratit ff l. xlix Tit. 13. ad l. Jul. peculatus de Sacrilegis Infrà de publ Iud. Jure Saxonieo rotâ concutiendos esse Sacrilegos statuitur Art 13. l. 2. Schneid ad lib. 4. Instit Tit. 2. de vi bonorum raptorum proportionably to the quality of the Offender and condition of the Offence they were condemned sometimes to the Wilde Beasts or to the Fire to the Gallows or as now Jure Saxonico to the wheel and of old by your own r Leges Aluredi Regis cap. 1. l. 6. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Saxon Law to Mutilation at least or cutting off the Sacrilegious hand In France I remember I have seen Sacriledge punished with Hanging and Burning both at once according to the Civil Law 17. As for your own Common-Law I have heard some of your great Clerks say that it is somewhat defective about the Case of Sacriledge as taking no Cognisance of it nor affording any Action for it under that Notion but yet that in such cases it allows no Clergy to the Thief * See above Chap. IV. Sect 3. seq Magna Charta Item Ch. VII Sect. 9. seq Statutes Anno 28. H. 8. c. 1. 32. H. 8. Persons guilty of Robbing Churches Chappels or other Holy Places shall not be admitted to the Benefit of their Clergy such as be admitted to Holy Orders i. e. of the Order of Subdeacon or above only excepted and this Statute to be in force for ever It seems by this Statute that in the eye of the Law Clergy-mens persons are privilegiate even in Delinquency not that their sin is less but rather as we said above greater then the sin of the Laity But that the favour of the Law is greater to Clergy-men in regard of their Office One degree more of aggravation we may observe from the Act of Indemnity An. 12. Car. II. cap XI where out of the General Pardon Sacriledge is excepted expresly no less then Rapes and other monstrous Sins against Nature as if the Law-â—iver would hereby intimate that Sacriledge is a sin parallel to those crimes for hainousness grounding the sentence on that common principle received almost in all Laws to wit That frustrà Legis auxilium invocat qui in Legem committit And this singularity addes one grain of aggravation to the hainousness of this sin even in the ballance of your own Law CHAP. XII A Cloud of Domestical and also a Triumvirate of Forreign Witnesses 1. Luther for Germany 2. Calvin for France And 3. Knox for Scotland all of them expresly deposing against the Sin of Sacriledge 1. AND now as your free Merchants use to give somewhat into the Bargain for an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for good Measure or down-weight so for a close of this our Pleading take ex alundanti so many Testimonies of all sorts of men in their generations that you may not think this our Action against Sacriledge geazon or uncouth or meerly litigâ—ous on our part 2. Amongst those so many Testes veritatis we forbear to accumulate the Holy Fathers of whose Declamations against this sin we have given you sundry hansels already and could afford you many more full Pieces but that ad hominem the more shame some more Modern Witnesses will be far more Authentical 3. And yet amongst these too we will not so much as