another Haman also in the Destiny had not the courage as well as the Prudence of that noble Bishop restrained the zealous Londoners Walsingham and Daniel quo suprà who did then so love their Bishop that but for him they had burned John of Gaunts house the Savoy and made an end of him also had he not fled This is the very truth of Wickliffe's story concerning which as we will not affirm that all the errors imputed to him by the aforesaid Waldensis and Harpsfield were Wickliffe's Opinions Christian Charity forbids us to believe that of him Jer. xv 19. Because taking forth the precious from the vile his positions against the Popes Supremacy Purgatory superstitious Pilgrimages and the like were good Corn and so far God might make good use of John Wickliffe But on the contrary Christian Prudence forbids us to allow of Wickliffe's Chaffe for the good Corn mixt with it or to say hand over head that all his Doctrines were Gospel as his over-forward Advocate seems to Christen them Fuller We have learned a better Rule of Judgment from a better Doctor the Apostle of the Gentiles Let no man glory in men 1 Cor. iii. 21 And again from another Apostle Jude 16 not to have mens persons in admiration because of advantage To shut up this Period concerning Wickliffe's Positions in the words of his own Advocate Fuller John Wickliffe was but a man and so subject to error as much as other men especially all the premises considered to wit 1. Wickliffe's Deprivation as the cause antecedent 2. John of Gauâ—ts Instigation as the cause evident of Wickliffe's distemper against the Prelates and Church-men of his time Foelix qui potuit Rerum Cognoscere Causas And thus much may suffice both in point of Reason for the matter of Right and also in point of History for the Matter of Fact to non-suit every way that unseasonable Å¿ A seasonable Vindication of the Supream Authority and Jurisdiction of Christian Kings Lords and Parliaments as well over the Poss ssions as persons of Delinquent Prelates and Church men c. bâ— Vâ—illiam Pryâ—ne Esquire 1660. Book that we say no worse of it intituled An ancient Plea in Justification of the late taking away and sales of Cathedral Lands c. and let this close up our full confutation of that first Politick Pretence for Sacriledge namely Justice upon Delinquents 11. Followeth now the second Politick Pretence which is as specious as the first 'T is the Pretence of Peace to the whole Kingdom A precious blessing indeed well worth the praying yea the paying for is the Blessing of Peace If it be consistent with true Honour with Moral Honesty with Christian Piety if compatible with the Peace of God and with the Peace of a good Conscience else without these it were no Peace call it what you will but a meer Conspiracy against God which Christians of all men ought not to venture upon no not to save a World Except Peace come hand in hand with Honesty Justice and Truth if it be purchased with the counterfeit Coin of Baseness Falshood and Wrong with Robbery yea Sacriledge it can prove no other but an Imaginary Peace a very Mock-Peace such a Peace as more then once we have already been gulled withal and still Si populus vult decipi decipiatur a Peace in Jest but the very Preparative of a bloody War in earnest or rather indeed and in truth a very sorry base sneaking temporary shift that in the end through Gods just Judgment may prove but the Exchange of one Civil War for another and in the Conclusion of all the Malum Omen of a Forraign for a Civil War to boot the late case you know 12. A strange way of Cure this For can any endowed with any spark of Right Reason for this time bate Religion imagine to Purge a Land already sick to Death with the Surfeit of the old Sacriledge by Repletion by a new kinde of Sacriledge and worse as if the Iniquity of t Josh xxii 27. Peor were too little for us from which we are not cleansed until this day If Sacriledge began the War on their part who as falsly as odiously termed it the Church-War can they hope to end it by Sacriledge otherwise then in the Peoples slavery for the oppression of the Priest the event you know proved no better then so can we ever hope to recover our Peace or if recovered to retain that long which is so ill gotten they say that those sick folks that are recovered by the help of such as they call White Witches fall again into the same or worse disease It needs no application Martial Hic rogo non furor est ne moriare mori Is this a likely way to save the Church by destroying it Is it not time now or never to deal plainly and faithfully with you for say do we thrive of the Sacriledge committed in Scotland attempted in England In such a case to hold our Peace what were it but cruel Vncharitableness towards your own Souls damnable Vnfaithfulness towards our God our Church our King and the whole Nation 13. Think not therefore within your selves that whensoever we thus speak we are but Pleading our own private Cause all this while for once for all to satisfie you all about it the Cause is as Important and as Publick as any Cause in the World and therefore saith Calvin The Preacher may nay ought to be the freer with you all And the unworthy Advocate that now pleads this u Nemo mirari debet si toties Apostolus verbi Auditores ad Officium praestandum Exhortari voluit In quo fuit liberior quia non agebâ—t causam suam Privatam sed communi Ecclesiae Utilitati consulebat Aretius Calvin in Gal. 6.6 in baec verba Communicet qui Catechizatur Sermone ei qui se Catechizat in omnibus bonis Publick Cause before you all dares in the name of all his Brethren clear their Priestly Magnanimity and avouch their Christian Confidence in Gods all-sufficient Providence assured as the Holy Father St. Chrysostome being once threatned as we are Psal xxiv 1. with a Sacrilegious Deprivation that still Domini Terra plenitudo ejus For our parts doing our duty we have all manner of Cause to be secure that God will never want an Ark for his Noahs for his Preachers of Righteousness nor a Zoar for his Lots nor a Goshen for his true Israelites We know the worst of it If God disperse us he hath ingaged his Power and his Truth both that x Ezek. xi 16. He will be a little sanctuary unto us in all places where we shall be scattered * This truth the unworthy Author hath to the praise of God found by fifteen years experience having so long subsisted abroad without any supply out of England and yet with honour credit and competency yea sometimes plenty even to the relief of
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
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
so imployed as to maintain Masses for the Dead or so c. yet they may not revert to the Donor or to his Heir nor be imployed to prophane or common uses his Reason is because Quod semel Deo dicatum est amplius ad prophanos usus transferri non debet sed talia oblata relicta ad alium pium usum converti debent I well know ad hominem of how little authority this Law is like to be or indeed all the good Laws of God and man if cross to the humour of the men I am now dealing withal The ground therefore why I quote this Law and other such like Laws is for the Reason of those Laws because Semel Deo dicatum c. What was once given to God must be Gods for ever And this Reason is expresly grounded upon i Num 16.38 See above page 126. Scripture too 9. And therefore the Wisdome and Religion both of your better Ancestors had a special respect unto it as may appear by two notable Acts of Parliament the first k Among the Statutes at large in the publick Library at Oxon. Staâ—utum de Terris Templariorum Coke l. 11. fol. 25. passed almost 400 years ago in the 17th of Edward the Second at the Dissolution of the Templars which was become Ordo impietatis and therefore voted down not by a Private Close-Committee of one single City or Nation either but by a general Act of all Christendom But then what became of all their Lands you shall finde in that EXCELLENT Statute that for their part your godly Ancestors made a Conscience of turning those Lands into Lay-fees and therefore did then and there upon sundry Reasons of Religion and Honesty both in that Statute excellently well delivered to the praise of the Piety and Christian Wisdom of that Age restore all those Lands to the Church by Act of Parliament Some of those reasons may be worth your notice because they may concern you now at least as much as them The first is because however those Lands were now abused yet originally they were giuen to the Augmentation of the Honour of God 2. For the good of Vniversal Holy Church Therefore 3. Those honest Common-wealths-men thought themselves bound in Conscience for the Health of their own Souls to preserve them still to godly uses That so 4. The godly and worthy will of the Givers might be observed in genere though it could not then in specie 10. And this fourth Reason is in that one Statute repeated twice for failing May their good Example be a warning to you all that it may not rise upon in judgment against you as against all the rest of this Generation For the good will of the Dead the Pious Founders of Holy Places and Portions is another Sacred thing and therefore ungodly to alter and to frustrate it was alwaies amongst all good men held a hainous Crime as being 1. Impious to the Dead 2. Injurious to your godly Ancestors and 3. To your own Posterity It will prove no better than fatal Sacriledge Therefore the Determination of that wise Assembly was this That neither our Lord the King nor any other chief Lords of the Eees nor any Persons whatsoever should by Escheat or by any other means have or enjoy any of those Lands but they should be still converted and charitably disposed of to godly uses and therefore they were given to the Prior of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem as it were in eodem genere though changed in specie And yet those Templars to whose Lands your Ancestors shewed so much Religious respect were no Church-men neither but Souldiers How much greater then ought your Care and Conscience to be for the preserving of those Lands which belong to the Church directly 11. The second Act of Parliament you may have amongst your private Statutes 2. of H. 5. upon the Dissolution of Priors Aliens The Reason expressed in the Preamble was ad Intentionem quod divina Servitia in locis praedictis possent plus debitè fieri per gentes Anglicanas c. so that still divina Servitia was their main care Therefore 't is observable that upon the same premised grounds immediately at the dissolution of those Priors Aliens the King kept them not in his own hands but gave them to other religious uses as for instance To the Monastery of Shene which he Founded to the Dean and Canons of St. Stephen c. 12. Say again that those were Times of Ignorance and Blindness and that therefore in those times the Impulsive Cause might be meerly Superstitious in the particulars yet for all that the final Cause was right still in the general namely to honour God to maintain his Service c. as may be seen in all their Evidences and Donations which ever bear this Clause Deo Ecclesiae To God and the Church before there be any mention of any Saint or other supposed Superstitious use Now in all Reason although the Impulsive Cause may cease yet the Final Cause ceaseth not nor the good effect flowing from it So that far safer it were to minde that in a reverend respect unto and imitation of those wise men your godly Ancestors who took hold of the general Intent of the Pious Founders however after abused by the particular Successors 13. And that you may once for all know directly what that general intent was Take it in the very words of the old Form of Dedication yet extant in the Capitular of l Scimus res Ecclesiae Deo esse Sacratas qua propter si quis eas ab Ecclesiis aufert proculdubio Sacrilegium comittit Caecus enim est qui ista non videt Quisquis ergo nostrûm suas res Ecclesiae tradit Domino Deo illas offert atque dedicat suisque Sanctis non alteri dicendo talia agendo Ita Facit enim Scripturam de ipsis rebus quas Deo dare desiderat ipsam Scripturam coram Altari aut suprà tenet in manu dicens ejusdem loci Sacerdotibus atque Custodibus Offero Deo atque dedico omnes res quae in hac Chartula tenentur insertae pro remissione peccatorum meorum ac parentum filiorum aut pro quocunque illas Deo deliberare voluerit ad Serviendum ex his Deo in Sacrificiis Missarumque Solemniis Orationibus Luminariis Pauperum ac Clericorum Alimoniis caeteris divinis cultibus atque illius Ecclesiae Utilitatibus Si quis autem eas inde quod fieri nullatenus credo abstulerit sub poena Sacrilegii ex hoc Domino Deo cui eas offero atque dedico districtissimas reddat rationes Ponit etiam in ea alias Conjurationes quas Enumerare longum est Absit ut rerum Ecclesiarum cupiditate vel oblatione Sacrilegi aut Anathema Efficiamur aut talibus Laqueis unquam devinciamur quoniam scimus Anathematos homines vel Sacrilegos non solùm infames Ã
them saith the great Shepheard and Bishop of our Souls and there he speaks directly of Teachers too and bids us judge of the Doctrine by the Fruits it brings forth be they good or bad and who sees not that since those powerful Preachers came up we speak of the generality of them we had more Christian Blood shed we had more Spirits of Error conjured up within the Circle of this one Island to the credit of the Cause be it spoken and within the compass of one Triennium the span of one three years of Schism and Rebellion than was raised in the whole Christian world besides all circumstances considered in thrice three hundred years And now having confuted their holy pretences drawn from colours of Religion we pass on to examine their State-Wisdom consisting of four points of Policy as it were the four Elements that make up the whole compound of their Plea for Sacriledge CHAP. VIII A full CONFUTATION of three Reasons of State or Pretences of Policy for the Practice of Sacriledge namely 1. Justice upon Delinquents 2. Publick Peace 3. State-Necessity 1. THe first is a pretence of Justice upon a Delinquent Party The second a pretence of Peace to the whole Kingdom The third a pretence of State-necessity The fourth a pretence of power Legislative to dispose of the Church Revenues as they see cause These be the Ragioni di stato of our English Machiavels To all which first in general Super totâ Materiâ we may well preface with the honest Observation you may call it an Oracle of that Noble Venetian Knight Paulo Paruta In questo corrotto seculo con certo vauo nome di RAGION DI STATO si vanno spesso perturbando e confondendo tutte le cose humane e divine That is In this Corrupt Age N. B. under pretence of a certain vain thing called REASON OF STATE men too too oft go on so far till have troubled yea confounded all humane and divine matters Thus he But e're we encounter them we had need to pray from such States-men and from such reasons of State as will make true Religion but a stalking Horse to false Policy Good Lord deliver us Once you may be sure of this that one day you shall not be Judged by your vain Reason of State but by your True Religion to God and Real Reverence to Holy Church under God 2. To the particulars One doth well define Sacriledge a coloured Theft under pretence of Law To begin therefore with the first Pretence 'T is the Pretence of Justice upon a Delinquent Party accused of two Crimes 1. Of old Collusion and fraud at the first original Purchase of those Church Revenues 2. Of another great new Crime since called Malignancy which is in plain English a compound of Religion to God Duty to the Church Loyalty to the King This is that terrible Chimaera Malignancy the fear whereof far more than the fear of God or of the King hath already Conquered and now possesseth the Hearts of the People the Heads of some Peers and the Tail of the Priests 3. To prove the first the Collusion they 'l tell you that of old the Priests took advantage of the simplicity of the times and of the men when both were at the worst and men â—awned upon or frighted upon their death-bed were fraudulently perswaded to do they knew not well what and clearly to prove all this they produce strong evidences such as for instance the merry Case of Naples c. and the like This is the Plea coloured with the odious imputation of Covin Covetousness and Ambition in the Priest Blindeness and Superstition in the People 4. I am confident men are too rational to expect we should confute this seriously But yet how do they evidence the Collusion for first a wise man would think it hard for a third Person to tell what passes betwixt a Penitent and his Confessor especially the Penitent dying upon it But 2. Admit there had been fraud indeed in some one odde case or other for to affirm this universally of all Church-Donations were both very untrue very Immodest that we say not impudent and very uncharitable although the particular intent might be bad in the deceiver yet at least for the general of it the Intent might be good and Religion in the party deceived viz. To further the Service of God and the salvation of his Soul as we have * See above page proved before 3. Why may not we in such a case for Gods Interest and the Right of the Church say as you say in your own Law for the Right of your Client or the Interest of the Common-wealth BETTER A MISCHIEF THEN AN INCONVENIENCE Better suffer some such one private injury than open a publick gap to Sacriledge as it was better for the Princes of b Joshua 9. See above page Israel though circumvented by fraud on the Gibeonites part yet to keep promise with the Deceiver than to open a gap unto Perjury and the penalty attending upon perjury But Ex abundanti in one respect more the ground of both those cases may be one and the same namely because * Semel Sacrata vero numini per veram Ecclesiam prophanari rursus aut in fiscum redigi non possunt Wesebec paratit c l. 1. T. xi § 4. Semel Deo dicatum what is once given to God must be Gods for ever For was not this the very case of the Gibeonites where besides the Interposition of an Oath à parte antè there was also the addition of a Dedication à parte post they were given to God and even therefore afterwards c Ezra 2.43 those Gibeonites were called Nethinims from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to give because they were given for the service of the Temple To be hewers of wood d Josh 9.27 and drawers of water for the Congregation and for the Altar of the Lord. 'T is true their Office was for the matter but vile and base as may appear by that proverbial speech among the Jews f Deut. 29.11 From the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water yet bebold so many hundred years after how severe an avenger God was of the injury done though by a King unto his Nethinims and if God be so tender over his water-bearers will he not much more avenge the blood of his High-Priests This by the way upon occasion of the parallel of the Gibeonites fraud with the supposed deceit of the old Priests in the obtention of those Testamentary Donations 5. But fifthly and lastly admit the charge of Collusion be false and the case not so indeed as for the general the contrary is most apparent then under pretence of Justice what an extream Injustice is this Invito donatore Who being dead yet liveth in his last Will and Testament for if an Apostle may be Judge upon the Case a Testament is of force after men are dead Heb. ix
soberly and ingenuously pondered doth quite alter the Case For 1. As for the Time it was when the Clergy so superabounded in their Revenues that a Law seemed necessary to interpose and restrain the Oblations by Mortmain p Stat. of Mortmain 7. of Edw. 1. When the people brought much more then enough as in Moses Case Exod. xxxvi 5. when the people were so liberal of their Oblations and Donations unto the Clergy That to phrase it with S. Luke chap. vi 38. in an higher sense they seemed as it were pressed down shaken together and running over into their bosoms But now the case is altered there is no great fear in this our Age that the people will over-do in this kinde The notable Subtractions from the Bishopricks and Deans and Chapters in the last Age the multiplied Prescriptions through Covin or Cowardise the Conversion of Lease-holds into Free-holds by incroachments the Decayes of Church-Rents the easie Pines of the Church-men in comparison of Lay-Land-lords the Aggravations by servile Taxes never heard of before now of late laid upon the Clergy such as Bridge-money Roague-money and the like These and much more could be said may sufficiently secure the State from the Clergies Exceedings therefore Distingue Tempora is a wise rule to silence the Objectors 2. As for the place John Huss Arg. 32. fixed his Assertions in the Kingdom of Bohemia whereof he affirms the Clergy had a fourth or third part from which proportion the Clergy of England though very thankful to God and the King for what they have are very far perhaps upon honest computation not the thirtieth part all Reprises duly deducted 3. The Parties against whom John Wickliffe and John Huss positions were directed were the Popish Prelates Abbots c. Shavelings as John Huss Arg. 42. out of Hildegardis Prophecy tearms them i. e. Monks The whole scope of both John Wickliffe and John Huss Positions is against such Clergy-men who did both usurp and also plead Exemption of the Clergy from the Kings Authority N. B. as over their Persons so over their Possessions Whereas the Clergy of England have better learned Christ since Rom. xiii 1. They know and acknowledge that Omnis Anima Every soul must be subject to the higher Powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to St. Chrysostoms Loyal Gloss upon the place Though he were an Apostle though he be a Bishop yet must he be subject to the Higher Powers and therefore our Prelates and Church-men do not only profess but also swear due Subjection and Allegiance to the King as Supream in both Respects as over their Persons so in all Causes and therefore over their Possessions Bp. Andrews Tortura Torti Bp. Morton's Causa Regia c. Our Prelates do not only practice due subjection in both these but also to their Power Protect the Kings Supremacy with their Pens and Learned Writings against all Opposers on the right hand and on the left against all whether Anabaptists or Papists so that to confound our Prelates and Church-men with those Prelates and Church-men in John Wickliffe's and John Huss times is a malicious Plot. Certainly here if any where Comparisons are odious To argue thus from the left to the Right what is it but Crassa ignoratio Elenchi a fallacy exploded in the very Schools 4. The matter about which both John Wickliffe and John Huss frame their Arguments is the Clergy offending habitualiter that is as Wickliffe explains it which continue in the custom of sin and will not amend and John Huss Argument 2. instances in Rebellion against the King and Arg. 24. Treason as in the case of Bishop Judas Iscariot as he terms him Heresie as Pope Leo Rapos and other such grievous Crimes enumerated also by the Author in the title of his Appendix to John Wickliffe's Articles c. with which hainous Matters Impudence it self cannot charge our Prelates and other Canonical Church-men who when tried in the fiery furnace of the late Rebellious and Sacrilegious Persecution absit verbo invidia proved generally the most loyal and most constant Subjects of all so as neither Sequestration nor Deprivation nor Banishment nor Torment nor Death it self could prevail upon them to make them renounce their due Allegiance to the King Therefore to tell the King that to take away their Temporalties is neither Sacriledge nor Injustice is such a bad office such an high offence against the Kings Justice as would deserve some Exemplary Correction to deter others from the like presumption against my Lord the King whose Royal Generosity so Hereditary to him from his unparallel'd Father q No Prince in the whole world did ever both in word and deed more abhor the Sin of Sacriledge than the late godly King Charles the First Witness those Divine Lines in his Portraicture especially Sect. 14. Vpon the Covenant No man saith that King can be more forward than my self to carry on all due Reformations with mature Judgment and a good Conscience in what things I shall after impartial advice be by Gods word and right Reason convinced to be amiss I have offered more than ever the fullest freest and wisest Parliaments did desire But the sequel of some mens actions makes it evident that the main Reformation intended is the abasing of Episcopacy into Presbytery and the Robbing the Church of its Lands and Revenues for no men have been more injuriously used as to their Loyal Rights than the Bishops and Church-men These as the fattest Deer must be destroyed the other Rascal-herd of Schisms Heresies c. being lean may enjoy the benefit of a Toleration Thus Naboth's Vineyard made him the only blasphemer of his City and fit to dye Still I see while the breath of Religion fills the Sails Profit is the Compass by which factious men steer their course in all seditious Commotions Whereupon the King protests his detestation of such sacrilegious Reformation in these words I have alwayes had such a perfect abhorrence of it in my soul that I never found the least Inclination to such sacrilegious Reformings yet no man hath a greater dâ—sire to have Bishops and all Church-men so reformed that they may best deserve and use not only what the pious munificence of my Predecessors hath given to God and the Church but all other additions of Christian Bounty Thus that incomparable Prince of Glorious Memory doth scorn such unworthy Counsel and Councellors as would perswade the King against his gracious Genius to do an Act whereby that Estate I mean the Clergy which suffered most for the King should now also suffer again by the King 5. As for the manner how far both John Wickliffe and John Huss extend or limit their Assertions 'T is to be observed first that as they both still pre-suppose as a ground of just deprivation 1. The notorious abuse of those Revenues or Temporalties of the Clergy 2. The Clergies Contumacy or continuance therein and all this not pretended but proved so secondly
do they expresly limit those who have Authority to deprive such offenders when and how and how far they may proceed and enter their Protestation against all Arbitrary Deprivation for so runs the Preamble before John Huss Arguments N. B. I do profess saith he That it is not my intent like as it is not the meaning of the Vniversity he means Prague to perswade That Princes or secular Lords should take away the goods from the Clergy when they would or how they would and convert them to what use they list Certainly John Huss thus protesting would never have been of Councel to turn the Church-Lands into Lay-fees and therefore to make his or John Wickliffe's case a parallel with this and to detort their Arguments as An Ancient plea in justification of the late taking away and sales of Cathedral Lands c. which Act was not passed by the King God be thanked but by a Parliament sitting against the King is a prevarication as bold as it is strange tending mainly to vilifie the just owners and to gratifie some unwary Purchasers to say no worse of them in reverence to the Law who before their hasty bargain might have minded the Rule of the Law Caveat Emptor 10. And now that by way of Ratiocination we have sufficiently confuted those pretended Arguments wrested from the sayings of John Wickliffe and John Huss for the matter of Right it will be very pertinent for the matter of Fact to make some Reflections upon the History of those times by way of inquiry what might be the motive which set on John Wickliffe to broach that controversie against the Temporalties of the Prelates and Church-men of his time Somewhat therefore must be observed 1. Concerning John Wickliffe's Person and profession 2. Somewhat concerning his Positions as they relate to this matter of the Temporalties of Prelates and Church-men the point in question And 3. Somewhat also of his chief Patron who set him on to maintain those Positions and as it were did license and authorize both the Author and his Opinions First then concerning John Wickliffes Person and profession the History tells us he was a Secular Priest Graduate and Professor in Oxford about the year 1375. and that for want of a just Title he was by Simon Sudbury Arch-Bishop of Canterbury deprived r Daniels Hist of England in Edw. the 3. Fullers Eccles Hist B. 4. Cent. 14. of the Headship of Canterbury-Colledge now incorporated into Christs Church This Deprivation bred Discontent saith your Daniel The humor that commonly breeds opposition and many times hurries discontented men into Schism as that Historian wisely observes and experience both of old and of late abundantly confirms This Censure therefore did sharpen Wickliffe's Pen Contrà Religiosos possessionates as Walsingham phrases it against Church-men who had Temporal Possessions Hereupon Wickliffe vexed with opposition Fuller which makes men reel into violence as his own zealous Advocate would excuse him in this transported with a Polemical heat when chafed with Disputation became active in his Sermons and acts in the Schools where that 17. Article so much pressed on by the Churches Adversary was first coined Here Wickliffe did mainly inveigh against Church-men endowed with Temporalties especially the Monks then not free from scandal and no doubt worthy to be taxed when found Delinquents Moreover Wickliffe stayed not there but becoming popular did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 drew Disciples after him of the populace to be taken notice of and discerned by a new livery long Russet Coats and going barefooted and professing Poverty with that kinde of Novelty the more to catch the people who rather believe then judge Thus much concerning John Wickliffe's Person and Profession Secondly Concerning Wickliffe's Positions whereof the occasion you see was Deprivation Fuller adds also his Ambition because he did miss of the Bishoprick of Worcester which he aimed at The old quarrel in Church History of some male-contented Priests against their Bishops we purposely wave to charge Wickliffe with those Centuries of Articles exhibited against him by Thomas Waldensis Harpsfield and others who might be excepted against for partiality we will therefore confine our discourse chiefly to two of your own Historians Daniel and Fuller afore-cited Wickliffe's Positions placed by Walsingham at the year 1377. Daniel delivers thus Wickliffe maintained That neither the King nor Temporal Lords could give any thing to Church-men in perpetuity which certainly was an error as full of Injustice as of untruth as being opposite to the whole current of Holy Scriptures both in the Old and New Testament contrary to so many Councels Fathers Laws of all sorts Canon Civil and to the Laws of the Land and to the practice of the whole Catholick Church in all Ages as well as to right Reason the ground of both Precept and Practice for it as is at large demonstrated throughout this whole Treatise especially Chap. 11. Secondly he maintained saith the same Historian That Temporal Lords in their necessity might lawfully take away the Goods of Religious Persons This if true as he is charged by Historians is as contrary to Justice as to right Reason to deprive men whether they be Delinquents or no But this Doctrine as it was popular so it proved very pleasing to great men Walsingham and Daniel especially who commonly imbrace Sects either for Ambition to get or for Jealousie not to lose or for Hatred to revenge as your own Historian judiciously observes it which fell out to be John of Gaunts Case and brings us to the third consideration of John Wickliffes namesake and chief Patron John of Gaunt the Duke of Lancaster fallen out with that eminent Prelate Godwin de praesul bus Angliae Gulielmus Wickham William Wickham Bishop of Winchester Ob causam mihi non ignotam saith another good Author for a cause not unknown to me which haply will not be so expedient to record Episcopum implacabili odio prosequebatur did thereupon prosecute the Bishop with implacable hatred and did instigate King Edward the Third then decayed through Age both to take away all this Bishops Temporalties and also to except him out of the general Pardon This quarrel was aggravated by another accident when John Wickliffe being cited came to appear before the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury aforenamed at a Synod in St. Pauls Church there John of Gaunt blew up the Coals saith Fuller and both by Word and Deed animated Wickliffe bidding him not to fear the Bishops saying They were all unlearned in respect of him Whereupon there happened a fierce contest between Courtney Bishop of London and John of Gaunt threatning the Bishop that he would bring down the pride not of that Bishop alone but of all the Prelates in England Like another Haman Esther iii. 6. who scorned to be revenged only on the person of Mordecai and therefore did plot the destruction of the whole Nation Though for this John of Gaunt was like to have proved
and confident all their own then to step in and to interpose and in an instant to quell their rage with a Hucusque f Job 38.11 Hither shall thy proud waves come and no further 18. Behold what our selves with all our own Inventions could never yet hit on God can yet Command a SVRE AND AN HONEST PEACE thus many wayes 1. Either by Constraint of the Enemies unto Peace contrary to their nature Amen So he turned g Gen. 33.10 Esaus heart towards Jacob. Or 2. By Diversion finding the Enemies work enough elsewhere so by the h 1 Sam. 23.27 28. Philistines he diverted Saul from pursuing after David Or 3. By Division among themselves at last so he sent an evil Spirit between i Judg. 9.23 Judg. 7.22 Abimelech and the men of Shechem and made them to destroy one another Or 4. By the self destruction of the Ring-leaders of them as k 2 Sam. 17. Achitophel hang'd himself Or 5. By arming the Creatures winde and weather and waters l Exod. 15.9 against them or pleading the Kings Cause with raging Pestilence or cruel Famine Or 6. By infatuating their Councels and making the m Isa 19.11 Princes of Zoan fools to their own Ruine Or 7. By panick fears by a Rumour a meer Imagination as the n 2 Kings 3.23 Moabites were overthrown by occasion of a colour of Blood caused on the waters by the reflection of the Sun Or 8. and Lastly Should all these wayes fail God can yet command Peace a thousand other wayes by o Jer. 31.22 Creating a new thing in the Earth as the Prophet phrases it for of all other Blessings God expresly doth challenge the Blessing of Peace to be his own proper work saying p Isa 57.19 'T is I the Lord that CREATE the fruit of the Lips PEACE PEACE to him that is far off and to him that is near If you do really intend to have a sure Peace indeed then to God you should turn not from God By good honest and just wayes you should apply your selves to God every one of you for 't is God and none but God can create Peace as he did this world out of nothing in sight or out of a Chaos such as this our present Confusion worse then nothing Though Miracles in ordinary be now ceased yet still in extraordinary cases God can work Marvails so we for our part and in the Clergies own behalf too say still in our q Almighty and Everlasting God which alone workest GREAT MARVAILS c. The Collect for the Clergy daily Prayers 19. There being therefore yet so many wayes to Peace why should any short spirited soul out of despair or doubting rush headlong into the way of Sinners That if we keep our selves from the accursed thing one of these wayes God will send us an honest Peace at last we have great Cause to hope considering not only the justness of our Cause which God is concerned in to uphold but also on the contrary as the base Treachery so the Unparalell'd Immodesty yea Inhumane Pride of our Enemies in their hard hearted Rejection of all those so frequent Royal Offers of Grace and Peace accumulated as by the Royal Father now of Glorious Memory so in imitation by the King his Son and Lawful Successor as in his Kingdoms so in this Vertue of Clemency The Crown of the Kings Crown provided it be not abused Jude 4. as the Grace of God which ungodly men turn into wantonness The obstinate refusal of all which Royal Acts of Grace as it is a sad Symptome of the Sons of Belial so to all wise and Religious men it is a shrewd Crisis that seems to portend no less then their fatal end at hand and if so then what an unspeakable comfort and glorious will this be to all honest men that they have had and held out the Grace of Perseverance thus long to hold out patiently and all this while to keep their hearts and hands pure as well from Sacriledge as from Rebellion either of which hereafter may be such a r 1 Sam. 25.30 31. grief of minde and offence of Heart unto the Sacrilegious Apostates as will soure yea quite take away all the sweetness of Peace when it comes and send them full of shame and sorrow mourning and pining to their Graves I pray God all may so believe these Truths that it may be unto you even as you will 20. If so you do I have a Commission from God to assure you however the world goes yet Å¿ Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doingâ— but woe unto the wicked it shall be ilâ— with him for the Reward of his hands shall be given him Isa 3.10 11. that it shall be well with you and that if God see it good for you one of those many wayes this Course of Patience with perseverance will in Gods good time and that with the inward Peace of Conscience too without Sin or Sacriledge really procure that outward Peace indeed which it may be you miss all this while even because Peace is made but the Pretence to perswade unto a necessity of Sacriledge the third Politick Pretence now to be examined 21. 'T is the Pretence of State Necessity in answer to which first of all use would be made of a sound Rule by way of Distinction delivered by one of the Holy Fathers t Bern. Ep. 7. ad Adam monach That some things there are purè bona such as Faith Hope and Charity so purely good as that they are alwayes obligatory so as upon no case of Nâ—cessity whatsoever to be forbidden or forborn But on the contrary some other things there are purè mala the Father instanceth expresly in Adultery and Sacriledge as being sins of the same Nature and things so purely evil as that upon no Case of Necessity whatsoever to be commanded or committed The Reason is clear because in such a case betwixt the two extreams of the Necessity and the Sin God still leaves us a fair Medium namely to MAKE OF NECESSITY VERTUE by suffering gallantly patiently and Christianly that Necessity what ever it be This is then upon the Case Gods revealed will which we ought quietly to submit unto and to attend till God himself point us out a lawful way of Deliverance or of Escape else violently through impatiency to Rescue our selves out of our Makers hands were as I may say to break the Goal which a very u Senec. Heathen would condemn as a most Capital offence base in the Commission dangerous in the Consequence for we can never escape this Goalers hands 22. In such a case of Necessity therefore 'till God himself help us out of it we must suffer but we may not sin to help our selves for we x Rom. 3.8 may not do evil though but the least evil that good may come thereof though
grant preserve and defend the Rights of the Church 1. FOR first If you consider the King but as a Man in his meer Moral Capacity were it not an unnatural act to betray his best Friends those that to phrase it in e 1 Kings ii 26. King Solomons words have really been afflicted in all wherein the King hath been afflicted And yet this Salomon spake of such a Priest Abiathar who though Loyal in Absalom's Rebellion 2 Sam. xv 24. yet as here too many of our Tribe proved an errand Traitor in Adonijah's second Rebellion 1 Kings i. 7. But our constancy God be thanked makes our case the better For should the King deal worse with his Innocent with his Loyal Priests Nay could the King save the whole Kingdome from ruine by giving but his Consent to take away the Life or but Livelihood of but one Innocent man that we say not a Bishop or a Priest we may safely say by the rules of bare Moral Honesty the King might not do it in Point of Honour as the King is a man 2. But secondly consider the King in his Political Capacity as a Magistrate and of all other Estates or Corporations whatsoever by your own rules the King is bound in Conscience and Law both to defend and provide for the Church as his perpetual Ward in Law since as you say your selves and your own f Sir Edward Coke upon Magna Charta page 3. See the several Records to this purpose quoted by him there Records say no less Ecclesia semper est infrà aetatem in Custodia Domini Regis qui tenetur Jura haereditates suas manu tenere defendere in point of Justice as he is a Magistrate that we say nothing of the INTEREST OF STATE for no State in the whole Realm is more beneficial unto the Princes Exchequer then the Clergy if it be kept flourishing not only because they are deepest in Subsidies but because from the Clergy and so from no other Estate in the Land the King hath a considerable continual standing Revenue of Tenths besides First-fruits c. so that the King will be a loser by the bargain when all is done and * Ezra vi 22. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the King and we hold our Peace 3. But to wave that Temporal respect Thirdly and lastly how much more is the King ingag'd to the Defence of the Church besides his Royal Title of DEFENDER OF THE FAITH which is preserved in and by the Church in point of Conscience or Spiritual Interest if you consider the King in his Spiritual Capacity as a Christian man for that relation trebbles the Kings Obligation to all the premised Acts of Justice and Honesty 4. Especially if in the fourth place you adde to all these Bonds the Solemn Supervention of his Royal Oath Personally taken by the King at his Coronation and to declare his Majesties sincere and plain dealing and his Real Intention to keep his said Oath His Majesty hath therefore graciously been pleased himself thus to publish it 5. In that Oath the King Swears in a manner thrice for the Clergy particularly and so for no other Estate of the Realm besides to intimate that as your Law †8 Esiz c. 1. In the Preamble styles The Clergy a High State and one of the greatest States of this Realm so it deserves a special care and high regard proportionable Therefore as in the first Paragraph g At the Kings Coronation the Sermon being done the Arch-Bishop administreth these Questions to the King and the King Answers them severally §. 1. Episcopus Sir will you grant and keep and by Your Oath confirm to the People of England the Laws and Customs to them granted by the Kings of England Your Lawful and Religious Predecessors and namely THE LAWS CUSTOMS AND FRANCHISES GRANTED TO THE CLERGY by the glorious King Saint Edward Your Predecessor according to the Laws of God the true profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom and agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the ancient Customs of this Realm Rex I grant and promise to keep them §. 2. Episcopus Sir will You keep Peace and Godly agreement entirely according to Your Power both to God the Holy Church the Clergy and the People Rex I will keep it §. 3. Episcopus Sir will You to your Power cause Law Justice and Discretion in Mercy and Truth to be executed in all Your Judgments Rex I will §. 4. Episcopus Sir will you grant to hold and keep the Laws and rightful Customs which the Commonalty of this Your Kingdom have and will You defend and uphold them to the Honour of God so much as in you lieth Rex I grant and promise so to do Then one of the Bishops reads this Admonition to the King before the people with a loud voice §. 5. Our Lord the King we beseech You to pardon and to grant and to preserve unto us and to the Churches committed to our charge ALL CANONICAL PRIVILEDGES and due Law and Justice and that you will protect and defend us as every good King ought TO BE PROTECTOR AND DEFENDER OF THE BISHOPS and the Churches under their Government The King Answereth With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my Pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your Charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Justice and that I will be your Protector and Defender to my Power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom in right ought to Protect and defend the Bishops and the Churches under their Government Then the King ariseth and it led to the Communion Table where he makes a Solemn Oath in sight of all the people to observe the Premisses and laying his hand upon the Book saith The Oath The things that I have here Promised I shall perform and keep so help me God and the Contents of this Book This Oath is to be found in the Records of the Exchequer and is published in his Majesties Answer to a Remonstrance c. of the 26. of May 1642. The same Oath for matter you may read in an old Manuscript Book containing the Form of Coronation c. in the Publick Library at Oxon. of that Oath the King Swears in general to do Justice and Right with Mercy and Truth unto all the whole body of the People and the Clergy joyntly so afterwards more particularly in the second and fifth Paragraphs the King Swears in special for the Clergy and that He will be the Protector and Defender of the Bishops in their Priviledges that is not only or their Persons but of their Possessions also that is of their Persons in such a Condition so qualified in sensu composito with such Rights and Liberties and those Rights must needs pre-suppose their Essence and Office too and that as it was then in being according to
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
upon scruples of Conscience because they were Popish or so for say they were gotten and heaped up together by MEER IMPOSTURES yet saith he since God hath been pleased all these are his own words still to spoil the Egyptians I mean the Papists and to give them unto us why should not we enjoy our own Can they be converted to a more pious use than to maintain the Ministers of God or will any affirm that use to be better which they are put unto by the Nobility and Gentry that Rob us of them Then he concludes all saying Let us therefore once for all know that with a very good Conscience we both may take and keep too those Church Revenues to our selves And thus far our first ample Witness Luther for Germany 18. In the second place the next Witness we produce in the behalf of our Cause will be far more brief and yet very pithy too and 't is Calvin for France who even there were u Ecclesiae facultates in alienos usus convertere sacrilegium esse dicunt Assentior Si nihil hic apud nos peccari dixero Mentiar non Excuso Principes nostros accusant quòd Patrimonium Christi Ecclesiae Deo consecratum rapuerint in profanos usus dilapident Quod in eos tantùm usus non impendantur Ecclesia reditus quibus sunt dedicati mihi displicere profiteor Mecum etiam id gemunt omnes boni ECCLESIAE BONA ex Sacerdotum Monach rum Erepta manibus ad se receperunt Principes nostri Fateor grave Judicium pronuntiari adversùs eos qui Ecclesiam spoliaverunt ut sibi raperent quod illius erat quia veros Ministros fraudant suo victu Jam ante Triennium testati sunt nostri principes moram se nullam in Restitutione facturos modo in eundem se ordinem cogi patiantur c. Habet igitur tua Majestas Invictissime Caesar principes suá promissione obstrictos c. Extat etiam in manibus hominum Libellus ut ad Doctrinae consensionem ea res non debeat esse impedimento Calvin Tractatu de Necessitate Reformandae Ecclesiae in vol. Opuscul Ex professo he does his utmost in writing unto the Emperor Charles the Fifth and to the rest of the Princes then assembled at Spira to excuse at large the Sacriledge objected to the Reformers yet even then I say is he forced to let fall thus many Truths at once 19. First he truly States the Objection thus They say that to convert the Church Revenues unto other uses is Sacriledge I grant it 2. That at the Reformation those Church Revenues were not so well disposed of I should lye if I should deny it And again it cannot be free from blame and again I cannot excuse it Though the pretence was then as now and so is his Plea that part of it was employed in Stipends to the Maintenance of the Ministers yet for all that he ingenuously confesses and complains too that those Church Revenues which he there calls expresly the Patrimony of Christ and the Patrimony of the Church consecrated to God were not employed only to those uses to which they were dedicated I speak all this while in Calvins own words and that they are not so imployed is my grief and all good men lament this case with me If you now make a question what Church Revenues he means he tells you plainly he means no other but those Church means that by the Princes of the Reformation were taken away from THE POPISH PRIESTS AND FRIARS so that he must needs make THE FRIARS Means part of the Churches Patrimony Nay Calvin goes farther to denounce Gods grievous Judgment against all those that had thus robbed the Church to inrich themselves and last of all for a conclusion of all he seems to point out no other Remedy for it but * For this kinde of pious Restitution of the Church-Lands and other Sacred Revenues formerly usurped we need not go beyond Seas to seek Precedents This Island so famous for ancient Christianity affords us memorable Examples To cite but one for all Willelmus Rex Anglorum Reddidit Ecclesiae omnes fère terras antiquis modernis temporibus à jure ipsius Ecclesiae ablatas quarum terrarum Nomina haec sunt In Cantia Raculf Sandwic Rateburch Widecun Monasterium de Limminge cum terris Consuetudinibus ad ipsum Monasterium pertinentibus Saltwude cum Burgo heche ad saltwude pertinente Langport Niwendene Rokinge Detlinge Prestentune non longè à fluvio Medeweie sitam Sunderhersté Iarbeche Orpentun Amesford Denintun Stocke Quatuor Praebendas de Mwentune praeter haec omnia multas alias modicas terras tam in insulis quam extrà insulas in Cantia sitas Stocke verò Denentum Lanfrancus Archiep's Reddidit Ecclesiae Sancti Andreae quia de jure ipsius Ecclicae Antiquitùs fuerunt In sutrege Murtelac Lundoniae Monasterium Sanctae Mariae cum terris Domibus quas Livingus Presbiter uxor illius Lundonice habuerunt In Middlesexum Hergam in Buckingham-scire Risbergam healtun In Oxenaford-scire Niwentun In Suchfolke Frakenham hanc Villam Lanfrancus Archep's Reddidit Ecclesiae Sancti Andreae quia antiquitûs ad ipsam Ecclesiam pertinebat In East Sexum scistede Stanbgrigge haec omnia Reddidit pro Deo pro salute animae suae gratis sine ullo Precio This Record is to be seen in the Rare Library of that late Famous Antiquary Sir Robert Cotton in a Manuscript Entitled Canones Burcardi Lanfranci Constitutiones Fol. 165. B. In which Notable evidence are very observable 1. The Royal Example of Restitution to the Church 2. The godly Concurrence of Lanfrancus the Arch-Bishop 3. That this Restitution tends to God Pro Deo pro salute Animae suae 4. That this was done gratis sine ullo precio It was neither by way of Commutation on the Restorers part nor by way of Redemption on the Churche's part 5. But this only obiter we may also hereby take notice of the Marriage of Priests in those ancient dayes 600 years ago for Arch-Bishop Lanfranc was promoted to the Sea of Canterbury Anno 1070. That such Restitutions were procured by Arch-Bishop Lanfranc may further appear Nam maneria 25. per Odâ—nem Epùm Baiocensem fratrem Regis uterinum erepta Ecclica Restituenda Curavit Mannerium de Râ—dburne per injuriam ereptum illius Operâ redditum est Godwin de Praesulibus in Lanfranc Restitution which he therefore mentions twice for failing Telling the Emperor that some three years before the Princes had made a Promise to restore them all without delay but upon Condition namely Provided the Friars and the Priests and the Bishops too who did also abuse Church-means to maintain Vice and Luxury would part with them also Conditions unlikely enough and therefore to this day that Restitution is yet to make In conclusion Calvin seems as it were to put up for it his Petition to the Emperor himself
into Superstition Sacriledge then stood ready to knock at their Gates but the good Porter kept the door close And again of late did not the Sacrilegious Sects press sore upon the Universities offering violence ready to break the door Had not as I may say the Universities Provincial Angels †Dan. xi 13 21. Gen. xix 9. protected them and smitten those Sons of Belial like the men of Sodom who came to commit a Rape upon them with blindness that they could not finde the Door for there wanted nothing but opportunity and may they still want it But this we may be sure of there wants not even at this day whole Herds of brutish Schismaticks and furious Fanaticks that still cry down all manner of learning as superfluous nay as a base Badge of Antichrist Do you believe those wilde Beasts if they had full power to their mad will would count it Sacriledge to pull down the Colledges or favour the Vniversities more then the Churches which when they reigned and raged they by the Spirit turned into Stables who knows but what hath been may be except God and the King prevent it 11. Since to compass this Audacious Project you may observe that the Arguments they produce are as groundless as their Pretences are false drawn from Religion from Policy their Religious Pretencesâ— 1. Of Zeal for Purity of Religion 2. For a Powerful Ministry Their Politick Pretences 1. Of Justice upon Delinquents 2. The Publick Peace 3. State-Necessity 4. Legislative Power which duly examined have proved as you have seen either black Calumnies or else false Colours which once brought to the light of Truth and Reason do signifie just nothing for it we dare appeal to meer rational men that we say not Christians Nay I am verily perswaded that some of them in their own Consciences cannot but sometimes Doubt at least that their Distinctions and Extenuations may then want Christs Approbation when Christ himself shall charge them with Sacriledge and Rebellion at the day of Judgment and then what will become of the miserable Authors Since one day all of you single or Assembled high and low rich and poor one with another must be Judged not by your RAGION DI STATO but by your RIGHT RELIGION TO GOD TRUE ALLEGIANCE TO THE KING AND DUTIFUL OBEDIENCE TO HOLY CHURCH TOO UNDER GOD. 12. Since when these Projectors perceive the Impotency of their Arguments yet still to bring about their Injurious Ends their Practices are so violent their Machinations so Mahumetan so bloody for the Devil was a Murderer from the beginning John viii 44. and therefore will still be doing his own work his own way nothing else but a Train of Multiplied Conspiracies and Rebellions against both Church and King so lately overflowing all over three whole Christian Kingdoms with such a Deluge of Sin Schisme and Christian Blood as a Turk would blush at to see or suffer to be thus wilfully spilt among his own Mahumetans you may justly and that also i Matth. vii 20. infallibly know them by their fruits by the baseness of their Course judge of the goodness of their Cause fortified with nothing else but a new Usurped Power under-propt by a multiplication of Seditious and Schismatical Covenants for Form and Matter Authority and Ends all of them in aâ—l these point-blank to all the several National Covenants mentioned in Holy Scriptures Believe us not but search and try it your k There are but SIX NATIONAL COVENANTS mentioned in all the whole Bible and all of them 1. Both given and taken by the Kings Authority never a Covenant of them all imposed without much less against Sovereign Authority 2. They were meerly Religious Covenants not Politick no STATE-COVENANTS 3. If as in Esra's Case King Artaxerxes expresly moved by Evil Councellors such as Bishlam Tabeel and his fellowâ— did forbid the going on with it or with the publick Reformation then they accordingly left of all till God sent them another better King till a Darius gives them leave to go on with it again yet were those Kings to whom the People of God shewed so much Respect and Duty but meer Heathen nay humanitûs loquendo Usurpers also But had it been as is pretended the Nations Duty to Reform Religion without nay against the Kings leave then they ought to have suffered the utmost rather then to have sinned by the Sâ—rcease of such a Necessary duty This is all clear Scripture read it and believe it accordingly the several places are extant in Josh 24.25 2 Kings 11.4 2 Chron. 15.12 and 29.10 and 34.30 and Ezra 10 3. and 4.23 24. selves Sealed with so many Execrable Counter Oaths Positive Ngative inforced upon all men within their Line of Communication as I may call it This is LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE indeed when no man may buy or sell except he have THE MARK OF THE BEAST Rev. 13 1â— one or other in his right hand or in his forehead Sure as it argues that Building must needs be very weak or else very rotten that needs so many more then ordinary Props to keep it from falling So likewise it declares plainly that Scelus Pavidum est it is a Malignant sign this that they sore suspect the Honesty or Strength in the end of their own Cause which makes them for very fear use so many sinister means to harden their miserable Complices in a brazen obstinacy against God against the King against the Church and against all those other good things that belong unto their Peace that so as much as in them lies they may save the Devil himself the labour and Cauterize the Consciences of their poor deluded Proselytes for what is all this if it be not to Seal men under utter Impenitency against all possible Touches of Remorse lest any of those whom they have so inveigled or ingaged or indeed directly compelled into their Inhumane Conjuration perceiving by the Event God Almighties sore displeasure at these hellish Confusions and being at the last it may be touched in Conscience with the horrors of so many National Mischiefs in Church and State so much Christian Blood streaming of all sides of them in all Quarters and crying aloud for Gods Vengeance upon themselves and the whole Land might as in Conscience they are bound under pain of Damnation notwithstanding all their Unjust Oaths which being ill taken are m In malis promissis réscinde fidem in turpi voto mâ—ta Decretum Isidor hispalâ— Illicitum praestare tenetur nemo Herods keeping of his Oath and cutting off John Baptists head was far worse than the taking it Mark 6.26 far worse kept give over at last their Damnable Rebellion and so by their Repentance never to be repented of hazard the further Prosecution and utterly prevent the Perfection of the Devils great Master-Plot in some respects far beyond the horror of the Gun-Powder-Plot it self or any Plot new or old 13. And yet since for all these Furious Attempts