is in its full force at this day as all other Statutes unrepealed are I might add another Statute 17 Edw. 2. that when the Templars theeving bloudy decried Souldiers had their Lands taken from them yet were not those lands then divided among Parliament men nor sold for the Common-wealth although the Kingdome at that time was in distresse and want enough I beleeve more then now no the then Parliament surely conceived they might doe neither of these they therefore translated those lands and settled them on the Priorie of St John of Jerusalem and in the same Statute it is inserted that the Parliament then did not alienate the Lands of those Templars 1. Because they were given to God though possessed by men 2. Because they held it a sinne to rob the Donors of their gift 3. Because they held it would prove mortal to the Alienators and these causes were then held sufficient to keep a Parliament from selling or alienating Church Lands And it is in the same Statute provided that if in after times the said Hospitalers or their successors shall be put out of any of those lands they shall have power to recover the same according to the Law of the Realm I have likewise read that in the 25 Edw. 1. it is declared In the Review of the Covenant Printed 1644. That Lay-men have no authority to dispose of the Lands or Goods of the Church for they are only committed to the Priests to be disposed of I confesse I finde it not in the printed Statutes but this I find and read there That none high nor low by any occasion 3 Edw. 1. c. 1. shall course in any Parke nor fish in any Pond of a Prelate or other Religious person without the leave or will of the Lord or of his Bayliffe In those times sure the Parliaments found not that they had power to sell away the Bishops Lands and I conceive that the Parliament deemed not then that they had any such power by reason of the great Charter granted by this Kings father which Charter Sr Edward Coke calls the Bulwarke of the Subjects Tenures in England and therefore upon this give me leave a little longer to insist as being a maine part and foundation of our Lawes One Statute enacts 42 Edw. 3. c. 1. That if any Statute be made contrary to the great Charter it shall be void which Statute is still in force and now heare what this Charter speakes concerning the Lands of the Church and of Bishops and then say truely whether it be not against the Law of England to sell these Lands In this Charter confirmed two and thirty times by our best Parliaments it is expresly said Wee have granted to God and by this our Charter have confirmed for us and our heires for ever that the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her whole Rights 2 part Institut in Procemio and Liberties inviolable The great Charter saith Sr Edward Coke is no new Law but it is declaratory of the principal fundamental Lawes of England 25. Edw. 1. And he saith The Nobles and great Officers were to be sworn to the observation of it and by a Parliament it was judged to be taken as the Common Law of England and well may considering the four causes or ends of that Charter as is exprest in the entrance viz. 1. The honour of God 2. The health of the Kings soul 3. The advancement of the Church 4. The amendment of the Kingdome And now heare this Law speake which is almost the same which was granted by K. John in the nineteenth yeare of his Reign with the interpretation of the Oracle of our Law Paris p. 255. Sir Edward Coke on the Charter and first as all best Grants have it begins with God and saith Concessimus Deo where the Interpreter saith What is given to the Church as Bishops lands were is given to God and what hath this Law granted to God Why that the Church shall be free where the Interpreter tells you that by the Church is meant all Ecclesiastical persons their possessions and goods And these shall be free saith he from all exactions and oppressions and to sell away their lands is it neither oppression nor exaction If not heare the Charter and Interpreter goe on Wee have granted to God that the Church shall have all her Rights entire i.e. saith the Interpreter That all Ecclesiastical persons shall enjoy all their Rights wholly without diminution or substraction whatsoever Whereby saith hee all their Rights are confirmed as they had them before or as at the first grant and then they had them not to be sold It goes on and that the Church or Church-men have and hold all their liberties Which liberties saith he grants them the liberty of the Law of England the Privilege of Parliaments and all Grants by Charter or Prescription and shall none of these keep the Bishops Lands from sale Moreover these Grants are not alone for that or any set time but for ever Heare the Charter This we have granted to the Church i.e. Church-men for our selves and our heires for ever Which saith the Interpreter is added to take away all scruple that this Charter or Grant should live and take effect for ever And which is not unworthy your observation 12 Hen. 3. p. 23. in our printed Statutes there is an heavy Curse denounced against all those who shall breake this great Charter And now if you grant which I think you will not denie that this Charter is a part of our Law then I hope it will follow that by our Law the Lands of the Church or of Bishops may not be sold or alienated You have seene what the Charter hath granted the Bishops as Church-men Chap. 19. now consider what the same Charter grants them as free-borne Subjects of the Kingdome Nullus liber homo saith it capiatur vel imprisonetur vel disseisiatur de libero Tenemento suo vel libertatibus vel liberis consuetudinibus suis nisi per legale judicium parium suorum vel per legem terrae Where the Interpreter expounds 1. Who is a free-man 2. What disseising is 3. What is the Law of the Land To the first he saith That every free-born Subject is meant here to be a free-man To the second to be disseised saith he is to be put out of his seisin or dispossessed of his free-hold that is lands or livelihood To the third by the Law of the Land saith he that is either by the Common Law or the Statute Law or the Custome of England And for further explanation adds by the Law of the Land is understood by processe of Law by indictment or presentment of good and lawful men And all this saith he is no new Law or grant but it is onely declaratory of the Law of England And this saith he should admonish Parliaments that in stead of this pretious trial by the Law of
CHURCH-LANDS NOT TO BE SOLD OR A necessary and plaine Answer to the Question of a conscientious PROTESTANT Whether the Lands of the BISHOPS and CHURCHES in England and Wales may be sold Prov. 20.25 It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy Sr Edward Coke Instit 2. c. 1. What ever is granted to Gods Church i.e. to Churchmen for his honour and maintenance of his Religion and Service is granted for and to God and what is given to God is holy Ezek. 48. Prov. 23.10 11. Remove not the old Land-mark and enter not into the field of the Fatherless for their Redeemer is mighty and he shall plead their cause with thee Coke Ibid. Our Law-Books teach us that the Church is ever understood to be under age and to be as a Pupill or Fatherlesse and that it is not agreeable to Law or Right that such should be dis-inherited Printed in the Yeare 1648. The Heads or Points briefly touched in this Answer 1. THat Lands may be given to the Church for Gods Service and Servants therein 2. That Lands so given and accepted become holy to the Lord. 3. That the Lands of Bishops and the Churches in England were so given and therefore may not be alienated or sold 4. That such Alienation or Selling is forbidden in the Old and New Testament 5. That it hath beene so judged by the most strict Reformers in the Protestant Churches 6. That this kind of Alienation is against Prudence Justice the good of the Kingdome in general and of the Tenents to such lands in special 7. That it is against the Lawes of this Kingdome of England which the two Houses of Parliament and Kingdom by their several Declarations Protestations and Covenants are bound to maintaine 8. That it is against the Prudence and Justice of the King and against his lawfull Oath 9. One and twenty Arguments which are brought in defence of or colour for such Alienation are answered 10. The Curses and punishments which are set downe and executed in Holy Writ against Sacrilegious Alienations are held forth and opened CHAP. I. That Lands may be given to the Church for Gods Service and Servants therein DId I conceive it proper to this Discourse and that it would move you it were easie to shew out of very good Histories that the Heathen who knew not the true God and Infidels not beleeving in our Lord Christ have set forth lands and possessions for the perpetual maintenance of their Priests I shall therefore give you but a touch of this and that in our owne Land wherein then Heathenish were Idol Priests Antiqu. Brit. Armicaâ— whom Lucius King in some part of Britain being converted to the knowledge and faith of Christ about the yeare 176. rooted out and taking away their possessions and territories he gave them to the Churches of the beleeving Christians which he endowed with addition of more lands and larger immunities And that this may not seem any new or strange thing I pray consider that God by his Prophet Moses hath bin pleased to expresse that the Egyptian Priests had lands for so we read Gen. 47.22 Onely the lands of the Priests he sold not in the margin of which Text it is added or of the Princes not as doubting whether they were Princes and not Priests but intimating that as the original word signifies both so they were or might be both Priests and Princes And not only the Egyptians but the Assyrians Chaldeans Medes Persians Greekes and Romans honoured their chiefe Priests as Princes Baren ad An. 383. yea Constantine the Great being Emperour and a Christian yet retained the title of Pontifex maximous The great or high Priest But to returne to our purpose for we argue not for title but maintenance out of that Text of Gen. 47. it appeares that the people who were as the Apostle speakes without God in the world Ephes 2.12 yet by the light of natural reason found and held it requisite that their Priests should have a setled maintenance and that in lands Give mee leave here to adde what Mr Selden a man of great reading hath observed that in some parts of Europe the maintenance of Priests lieth wholly in lands But I must to the holy Historie and tell you that so soone as God had raised himselfe a Church by the Ministery of his servant Moses Acts 7.22 who was learned in all the Wisdome Lawes and Policies of the Egyptians he gave to his servants in his Church besides 1. The first-borne of all men and caâ—â—â— 2. Besides the first fruits of the earth 3. Besides a part in all their severall Offerings 4. Besides all the Tithes both of their Goods Weems Synagog and of the encrease of their Lands so that if an Husband-man had 6000. bushels of graine or corne growing in a yeare after that he had paid all his Tithes he had left to himselfe but 4779. I say besides all this though the whole land was hardly 160. miles in length from Dan to Beer-sheba and but 46. Ep. ad Dardan miles in breadth from Joppa to Bethlehem as Saint Jerome who lived long there testifieth God gave them 18. Cities with the Lands and Suburbs round about And although the Tribe of Love at that time of division of the Land were but 23000. and the Tribe of Asher was 53000. of Nepthali 45000. of Zebulun 57400. of Issachar 64000. of Dau 64000. yet the most of the Lands allotted to any of these Tribes exceeded not 19. Cities so bountiful was God under the Law to a corporall abouring Levite which was but a shadow of the glorious Sun-shine of the Gospel and the Royal Priest-hood which we enjoy And yet as though nothing could then under the Law be done too much for the Servants in Gods Temple King Solomon a Type of Christ not only suffered them to enjoy what before had bin given them immediately from God but to shew the high esteeme which ought to be had to the Priest whereas the King had a Coine estamped with the Sword and Scepter which was the Royal Coine the Priests had their Coine too bearing the pot of Manna and Aarons Rod to shew it a Royal Priest-hood when as yet as before is said it was but a shadow of that Royalty which after appeared under the Gospel whereof Bishops and Presbyters are the Ministers And so long as this honour and honourable maintenance was continued to the Priests the Church of God and the whole land flourished untill the time of Jeroboam who by his Rebellion Idolatry and Sacrilege begat that confusion which by degrees brought all to utter destruction Neither did the Convert Christians with Judaisme renounce this kind of Dedicating Lands to God and his servants for what was that act of the Christians lesse which the Apostle mentions Acts 4. and 5 Whereupon Beza and other learned Divines hold that the Christians then and there dedicated the lands themselves but because the times were
But why in Gods name are not the Assembly of Divines at Westminster consulted with in this point Or why doe not our conscientious Brethren read the Annotations of the Assembly who note that Egypt which would not in the greatest extremity of famine On Gen. 47. when all other mens lands were sold yet then that they would not sell the lands of the Priests shall rise up in judgement against the alienators or sellors of lands which have been dedicated to God or his Servants CHAP. VI. That this kind of Alienation is against Prudence Justice the good of the Kingdom in general and of the Tenents to such Lands in special BUt were there not so much said in Gods Book and by learned Orthodox Divines shall neither our owne Lawes nor Prudence nor Justice prevaile in this case to keep us from selling of Church Lands For what Justice is it to sell that which is not our owne And that these lands are 1. Gods I hope it is proved sufficiently by Gods words the verdict of allowed Divines and shall be further proved anon by the Lawes of our Land 2. They are the Bishops who are Gods Assignes and Usufructuaries and these lands are theirs by as good title in Law as any man can hold any land in this Kingdome 3. They are by Patronage the Kings for this is very lately professed in a good Parliament 1 Jacob. 3.3 in these words Whereas all the Lands of the Bishops in England and Dominion of Wales were given by Kings of England the full truth whereof I will not dispute whereby the King is become the lawfull and rightfull Patron of all those Lands therefore it is desired that the King would enact not that they without the King would or could no such power then knowne and what is desired not that the Bishops Lands should be sold but that they may not be leased out by the Bishops for longer terms of time then for 21. yeares or three lives no not to the Crowne And is this Justice so soone forgotten or so soone changed in so short a time that without the consent of God the Proprietary of the King the Patron and of the Bishops the Assignes the lands shall be utterly sold away And yet must we call this Justice I pray God this Justice call not for judgement from heaven And whether it can be just to sell the Bishops Lands I pray examine by that rule and touch-stone of true Moral Justice which our Lord Christ hath expressed in two short Precepts the one Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe The other Mat. 19.9 Mat. 7.12 Whatsoever ye would that men should doe unto you doe you even so unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets Now by the first rule examine your selves whether in this act of selling the Bishops Lands you love the Bishops as your selves And trie this by the other whether you would yeeld your consent as to a thing just that if the Bishops had your power they might and should preserve to themselves their own lands and expose yours to sale If your hearts speake the truth I feare they would denie this to be just in the Bishops against you and if so then be assured that in this act of selling the Bishops lands you doe not that which by the verdict of your owne conscience is just And if you will as Law-makers should look forward and provide for future times stands it with civil Prudence to sell those Lands away which doe and will yeeld so much for maintenance of the King and Kingdome in Tenths First-fruits Subsidies and Taxes which for the most part will bee swallowed up when fallen into Lay-hands 2. Stands it with civil Prudence to robb Tenents of so good penniworths as they now hold from Bishops and Church-men which they must not expect when in Lay-hands whereby they have beene enabled the better to serve the King and Kingdome in time of need 3. Stands it with Prudence and Charitr to cast so many into a state of beggery and danger of theeving who by Bishops and Church-men have been reasonably relieved by under Offices and places in the Church Upon the dissolution of the Religious Houses in the Reign of K. Henry the Eighth Chron. f. 773. Mr Speed saith that a great Rebellion was raised in Lincolnshire and the Rebels expressing the cause thereof to the King they say Wee grieve for the suppression of so many Religious Houses whereby the Pooralty of your Realme is unrelieved and many put off their livings which is a dammage to the Common-wealth Soone after another Rebellion arose in Yorkeshire where 40000. with Horse Armes and Artillery rose for Religion who had upon their sleeves the Name of the Lord the ground of their rising was saith the same Author That the King by his evill Counsellers will destroy the Ministers of the Church f. 775. which makes against the Common good 4. Stands it with a Religious and civil Prudence to robb Learning and Religion of that profit and preferment which encouraged the study and encrease both of Learning and Religion Prov. 14.4 Where no oxen are the crib is cleane And the Land soon after K. Solomon found this true 1 King 13.33 for when Jeroboam had taken away the best maintenance of the Priests what followed but that the Priests were chosen out of the lowest of the people Which I would it were not too true now in our Land and in after times the Church suffered more under Julian then Dioclesian for this tooke away the able men but that Apostate their maintenance I shall close this point with that memorable passage of Sr Edward Coke in Winchesters Case The decay of the Revenues of the Church will draw after it the downe-fall of Gods Service and Religion which God in mercy avert CHAP. VII That it is against the Lawes of this Kingdome of England which the two Houses of Parliament and Kingdome by their severall Declarations Protestations and Covenants are bound to maintaine BUt if neither Gods Word nor the Verdict of best Divines nor Justice nor Prudence can be heard yet I pray heare what our Lawes say in this case and yet before I urge these to which I am as much a stranger as to the Profession let me remember you with that which I have heard to be a Maxime in our Law That no Statute Law or Custome which are against Gods Law or Principles of Nature can be of any validity but are all null which if granted it will save me the paines to cite our Lawes as having before proved that it is against Gods Law to sell away the lands of Bishops Yet let me adde that one Statute saith 1 Edw. 3. c. 2. That the King by evil Counsellors caused the Temporalties of Bishops to be seized into his hands for a time to the great dammage of the said Bishops which from henceforth shall not be done and this Statute is not repealed and therefore
is incompatible with the state of the Church in the New that is understood to be continued and commanded to the practice of the Christian Church Now that an Hierarchy or Superiority and Subordination of the Priests was instituted in the Old Testament I think is denied by none that understands the Government of that Church and that this kind of Government is repealed in the New Testament appears not for the words of Christ forbid onely an Heathenish Tyranny and not a Christianly Superiority or an over-lording and not an orderly ruling Luke 22.25 26 1 Pet. 5.3 2. When in that place our Saviour explicitely forbids such Dominion or Lordship as the Kings and Gentiles exercised not ones mentioning alluding to or touching that Government instituted and practised in the Old Testament me thinkes it stands to reason that this kind of Government by Superior and Inferior is rather confirmed then weakened by our Saviours prohibition for had be intended the abolition of such a Government is it not probable being now as it were upon the theme that be would in some glance at least have strook at that Superiority and Subordination among the Jewes Especially when you consider what before was spoken that the Apostles and their Successors did and were to order the Discipline and Government of the Christian Church by the pattern of the Jewish and whether the like kind of Hierarchy was or is likely to be incompatible for the Christian Church which was instituted for the Jewish Church we may judge by the first and after continued practice of the Christian Church from the Apostles and succeeding times And here I shall cite whom you may as well credit as you are willing to heare Mr Calvin Instit 4.4 who confesseth in the Primitive Christian times they chose one called a Bishop who was as Consul in Rome and the Consuls in Rome were above the Senators in place and power And Mr Beza and Mr Moulin come neerer to us and truth who confesse that either in or very neer after the Apostles times Bishops ruled in the Christian Church where they deny not Bishops to have been in the Apostles times onely they will not lest they should offend or lose by the truth say what they did generally read and I am perswaded did beleeve that Bishops were in the Apostles times yet in the other they are plain and peremptory saying Bishops were soon after the Apostles and could they have proved it they would as readily and as plainly have said the Bishops were not in the Apostles times but soon after but by an artificial blinding or hood-winking the truth they chose rather to expresse it as they doe Whereas Bucer Professor of Divinity in Cambridge in K. Edward the Sixth's time speaks as plainly as truly saying From the first Ordination and perpetual Institution of Christian Churches by the Apostles it seemed good to the Holy Ghost to have in them Bishops and in the Book of Consecration of Bishops made and set forth in the fifth and sixth of K. Edward the Sixth and confirmed by Parliament 8 Eliz. 1. it is thus said It is evident to all men reading the Scriptures and ancient Authors that from the Apostles times there have been these Orders of Ministers in the Church of Christ viz. Bishops Presbyters and Deacons And if it were as evident that the Apostles either instituted or commended a Presbyterian Government and not Episcopal may it not be as a wonder and astonishment that so soon as ever the Apostles were deceased or the most of them the whole Christian Church dispersed through the whole world would suddenly conspire and convene to change that Government instituted or commended by the Apostles into Episcopacy And that Episcopacie and not Presbyterie was the Government generally I may say universally used in the Christian Churches from the times of the Apostles besides the authorities above mentioned I appeale to all the best Histories Moreover it cannot be denied but that this Government came into this Kingdom with the first planting of the Gospel here which was almost 1500. years agoe and hath been ever since established by our best Lawes but hath been confessed by the best learned of the Assembly not to be repugnant to Gods Word and by the most learned and strict Presbyterians Calvin Beza Monlin acknowledged to be either in or soon after the Apostles times and by the full consent of the best Historians proved to be instituted if not by Christ yet by his holy Apostles and by and from them spread over all the Christian world and yet to the end this holy Government may be abolished this detestable sin of Sacrilege must be committed The end and the means we see meet but then well weigh and consider that if it be damnation to him that doth ill to a good end as the Apostle testifieth then what damnation shall attend them who to such an end as the abolishing so holy or divine a Government as Episcopacy shall wilfully commit so detestable a sin as Sacrilege But the second end perchance is better which is as professed to pay necessary debts a good end I confesse I would it were practised by all yea or in this case But would not the Excise and Compositions have discharged that debt had the money been rightly imployed as it was pretended I pray remember that Charles Martell of France under pretence of pay for the Holy War seised on the Church Revenues and though he promised restitution yet was proclaimed by the best Historians to be a notorious and a damnable Sacrilegist But how ever the ends meet perchance there is some great cause that moved or provoked the two Houses to this selling yes and the cause is expressed for this late War was promoted by the Archbishops and Bishops and in favour of them or their adherents and dependents I confesse it seems strange to me that their Lands should be sold for what was done in favour of them who know not by whom this favour is done neither are their favourers once impeached for the favourable act for suppose one doe an evill act in favour of or for Mr Speakers sake who never desired nor acknowledged the favour shall Mr Speakers lands be sold away for this And yet more strange it is that their lands should be sold because the War was in favour of their adherents and dependents But it is said that the Bishops promoted this War and yet not said who nor when nor how but may not that more truly be said which I would not add were it not visible and apparently known to all that some one at the least of the Bishops have stood with and by the two Houses in this War For hath there been wanting one who hath sought and received dangerous wounds as it is reported and proclaimed and that in the War for the two Houses against the King For which he hath not only by suit obtained a pardon for his former disservice so called but bath
a hundred and fifty chosen men Princes and seducers of the people malignants these indeed for they rebelled against the Prince whom God had set over them and raised a destructive Schisin against the high Priest and his Successors utterly to extirpate them in this case God will not suddenly condemn without examination of cause and persons though he knew both as neither would Christ cast out Judas a thief and a traitor because as Saint Augustine notes he was not so convict according to the Law but God to let the malignants have a fair open and just trial bids them bring their censers before him and there to have the cause fully examined whereupon God found those maliguants to be the offenders and although the censers were used by them in the maintenance of this Rebellion and Schism yet what doth God Doth he let the persons goe free and sentence onely the censers to be sold and turned to pots and the like for the service of the Common-wealth and State No quite contrary he punished the malignants with an unheard of fearfull kind of death but the censers of these sinners Make them plates for the Altar Ver. 38. for saith God they were offered before the Lord therefore they are hallowed What then shall we say to this Is Gods judgment unrighteous to punish the malignants and spare the thing offered before the Lord Or is yours just to sentence and sell the thing offered before the Lord and let the malignants so called goe free Or why judge ye not according to Gods judgement O ye sons of men A wise and great Peer of this Realm spake truly well in this Parliament when he said That a Law or Ordinance when it is made according to the just power of it binds to obedience But saith he it follows not therefore that this Law or Ordinance is good and just for that the best and wisest Law-makers of men have been found to blame in this kind for so I read Solon made one Law to abolish all debts whereby the honest creditors lost and the false debters gained Another Law he made to punish all Neutrals in time of Sedition which Plutarch condemned For saith he this is to infect the sound party which might otherwise strengthen the weak Lycurgus without respect to Religion Justice or Temperance a Policy too much used now adayes made Laws onely to breed and encourage Souldiers whereby the Lacedemonians continued so long as their Wars held and no longer I could give instance in Laws and Ordinances neerer home but I forbear and close with that counsel of St Paul Prove all things hold fast that which is good 1 Thes 5.21 for all things are not good and just onely on this ground because they are Laws and Ordinances Some more there are to be found in the common Pamphlets which I know not what to call Objections if you will for they doe not deserve the name of Arguments yet this in regard that it seems so plausible and is so much cryed up by the back friends of the Church and her Revenues I could not but take notice of and labour to satisfie the judicious and reasonable This what you will runs thus The Lands were given to the Bishops for their Preaching and therefore they not performing this service ought to lose the benefit i. e. the Lands Although I cannot but approve of that as prudent and the rather because observed and practised by all best States untill within these last hundred years it hath been altered by Factious and Rebellious people that among all Religions true and false they have made and held a distinction of Priests giving to some more honour and maintenance then to the rest Yet I must and doe with all reverence submit to that of Saint Bernard saying That a man dignified without merit is like smoak in an high candle-stick and that a man in high place not able to govern is like an ape on the top of an house and therefore as the Labourer is worthy of his hire so an honourable maintenance doth require a worthy Labourer Now in this case what is the labour of the Bishop becomes the Question To which the Arguers against Bishops or rather against their Lands seem to say Preaching is that their work or labour But then let me propound three other Questions 1. What is meant by Preaching 2. Whether Preaching alone be the Bishops work 3. Whether not withall or not more rather the well ordering or governing the Church be his work And that I may clear the last Question first consider I pray when Saint Paul in two places viz. 1 Cor 12.28 and Ephes 4.11 had set down both the extraordinary temporary and perpetual ordinary Officers of the Church that of the later sort he mentions onely two Governments and Teachers 1 Cor. 12. and Pastors and Teachers Ephes 4. Now if the Governor and Pastor in these places be distinct from Teacher then I hope it is evident that Preaching alone is not the office or work of a Bishop as some would have it And that they are distinct it may be conceived for that the other Officers mentioned in those places as Apostles Prophets Evangelists are distinguished one from the other and therefore probably these two Governors or Pastors and Teachers ought or may likewise meane two several works And when Saint Paul in each place saith God gave and God set these in the Church in that he gives them several names and titles why may we not conceive that under the distinct names the works likewise are to be distinguished And that Pastor in Saint Paul to the Ephesians may be the same with Governor I appeal to Saint Paul himself who Acts 20.28 sending for not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he terms them to the Corinthians and to the Ephesians but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Elders of the Church in his charge to them useth not the metaphor of a School-master or Teacher but of a Shepheard and therefore begins Take care to the flock And what is he to doe in that care why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to feed the Church And may not he be rightly said to take care of and to feed a flock that so oversees them as that they may be well ordered and fed And for this the Apostle cals not these Elders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teachers but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Overseers or truly Bishops And doth not the same Apostle Tit. 1.7 call this Bishop or Governor in the Church by an other like name when he terms him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Steward And in what consists the duty or office of a Steward but in this that as a Bishop a Shepheard a Governor he take care and so order it that the family may have their several allowances and be wisely and rightly governed by exhortation admonition and if need be by casting out And from these Texts or if you please more plainly without any borrowed speech from that Rom. 12.
plentiful and large against it in the Old Testament 2. Considering that whilst the Apostles lived they were so far from having Lands or Tithes or setled maintenance that they had not houses nor holes to put their heads in except they were in prisons and therefore then to write against taking away the Lands and goods of the Church when they had neither would have been accounted but a labour in vain and notwithstanding all this Saint Peter and Saint Paul the one by his sound Doctrine the other by his miraculous power have taught and admonished every good Christian enough whereby to avoid and beware of Sacrilege I will begin with the Doctrinal part Rom. 2.22 which is so plainly set down as before I made appear that all the best Divines doe and cannot but confesse from that Text that alienating the Church-Lands is a sin of an high nature and therefore utterly to be abhorred Acts 5. And what judgment hath passed upon this sin is as plain in the story and case of Ananias who for detaining but part of that which he had promised to God for the Church was suddenly struck dead which visible death sayes Mr Calvin on the place was Symbolum the fore-reckoning or fore-shot of the death eternal which saith he was just 1. to punish Ananias for so hainous a sin 2. to admonish allo after him For had not Saint Peter thus severely punisht this sin many saith Mr Calvin under colour of Religion would have been forward to have robbed the Church And now for close of all will you be pleased to compare the Sacrilege now intended and begun in selling the Bishops Lands with that of Ananias Where 1. he sold onely the lands which were his own but here that is taken away and sold that is Gods 2. He had but promised those lands to God but here in these lands God and his Assignes and Servants have for his use been in real and actual possession many hundreds of years 3. He there kept back but a part but here all must be taken away both root and branch 4. There probably he might think to keep back a part whereby to maintain himself his wife and family alive in the great persecution but here the rich and wealthy take them away thereby to joyn land unto land and Gods inheritance to their own possessions 5. It may well be conceived that as this Ananias was but one private man of no great note so that he might be of no extraordinary knowledge and understanding but more then probable that he being a New Convert from Judaism or Paganism was but a novioe in the Law of God or at least of Christ whereas they who take and sell these Lands are many selected and chosen as the wisest ablest most just in this great Kingdom and then how far this Sacrilege doth exceed that of Ananias in respect of the persons the matter the manner and almost all circumstances judge you And yet I may adde one circumstance more which doth heighten this fin as much if not more then any other for in the late Covenant you have sworn to extirpate Episcopacy which is the main and leading cause in the Ordinance wherefore the Lands of Bishops must be sold and not onely have you sworn this your selves but by threats and forfeits have urged even the Bishops themselves to take the same so that they who are to be spoiled and undone are urged contrary to Law Justice and Nature to swear their own extirpation O heavens O earth I had almost said O hell Did you ever hear the like In the Preface to the Covenant it is said that this Covenant is made according to the commendable practice of this Kingdom and the example of Gods people and I doubt not but it hath been Preached as it hath been Printed that this Covenant is warranted as agreeable to the Covenants in holy Writ and in the best Reformed Churches how truly this is spoken and printed I refer to that which Mr Nye Cov. with narrative p. 12. one of the Assembly hath printed where he saith It is such an Oath the like hath not been in any age or Oath we read of in sacred or humane Stories And I say that when this shall be proved by the Word of God by the example of Gods people and the commendable practice of this Kingdom that a few of the people without their Head did first covenant themselves and then by threats fears and punishments did compel all both head and tail to extirpate the Religion long setled by Law and confirmed by the bloud of many holy Martyrs against which nothing is brought in proof that it is repugnant to Gods Word and thereupon to take and sell away what was lawfully given to God for the maintenance of his Servants in the Church I say when this shall be proved I will take the Covenant both which will be ad Graecas Calendas that is as we say the morrow after Doomesday or never I have proved that alienating of these Lands in Gods Law is Theft and I have shewed Gods threats and judgments against this sin we have a proverb what need a rich man be a Theef for few but such cast in their lots for Christs garment and thereby to hazard the wrath of God and their own fatal execution The Philistims a people out of the Covenant of God 1 Chron. 6. yet for detaining but a while the Ark wherein the Law was kept were shamefully punished in their hinder parts and some with death which caused the living to restore what was unjustly taken with interest of much gold And when Moab and Ammon had consulted covenanted and voted utterly to take away Gods inheritance it so came to passe Psal 83. that after all the Church flourished and kept her own when Moab and Ammon were utterly extinct and laid in the dust which like consideration hath moved some as wise as pious never to mingle their other lands wlth the Churches inheritance and others as pious as wise never in Parliament to give assent to any Bils for the Alienation of Church-Lands It is conceived by many holy and learned Divines that the 74. Psalm was penned upon the robbing of the Temple at Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes which if so then read and consider the sorrow confession and death of that Antiochus Now saith he 1 Macc. 6.12 I remember the evils that I did at Jerusalem that I took away all the vessels of gold and silver that were therein I perceive therefore that for this cause troubles are come upon me and behold I perish through great grief It is time you will say to conclude and I pray let it be with Prayer and such as Mr Calvin used in his Comment on Acts 5. Lord grant that as upon the sudden fearful punishment of Ananias his Sacrilege Acts 5.11 Fear came upon all the Church and upon as many as heard these things so the same or the like fear may strike all our hearts that so out of a true love and due honor to God and that we may escape the dreadful curses and punishments threatned and inflicted on this sin we may in time while it is called to day repent us of this and all other our sins and so obtain mercy and eternal life in Christ Jesus our only Lord and Saviour Be wise now therefore O ye Kings Psal 2.10 be instructed ye Judges of the earth Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Ver. 11. Kisse the Son lest he be angry and ye perish Ver. 12. The end Errata TItle Pag. And what is given to God is holy Ezek. 48. add in the Margin p. 5. l. 19. Matth. 10.1 40 41 42. Mark 9.41 John 13.20 p. 6. l. 17. dele Lev. 27.32 p. 9. l. 29. d. Ibid. p. 53. in mar p. 17. l. 7. for here r. hear p. 19. l. 14. Mat. 19.19 p. 32. l. 30. d. Exod. 23.2 r. Num. 16.38 p. 33. l. 33. Pro. for 25.20 r. 20.25 in mar p. 34. l. 31. for Ball. Catoples r. Bell. Staplet in marg p. 41. l. 11. for 3. r. 4. in mar p. 42.12 r. Gal. 4.15 p. 43. l. 29. r. abased p. 48. l. penul r. 47. in mar p. 52. l. 20. r. 25 Hen. 8. c. 20. in mar p. 55. l. 25. for Covenant r. Government p. 60. l. 4. r. Christ and S. Peter p. 61. l. penult r. Rom. 3.8 in marg p. 64. l. 33. r. 1 Sam. 22.18 p. 69. l. 33. r. Mat. 4.17 in mar p. 75. l. 26. for 5. r. 4. l. 29. for 8. r. 7. l. 32. for 9. r. 8. l. 36. for 9. r. 4. p. 76. l. 4. for 11. r. 12. p. 80 for 1 Chro. 6 r. 1 Sam. 6. n mar