no prejudice either to their suing or speeding for deliverance from it because it was then imposed when they were driven from their own places and plundered by the Malignant party of all they had in which extremity they were glad to take pains upon any tearms he that hath nothing will not refuse to do service though he have not so good pay for his pains as Micah his Priest had Ten Shekels of silver a year a suit of apparel and Victuals Judg. 17.10 and thence it was that the House of Lords at the first made no scruple to order that not a fifth part or third only but a k Witness the case of D. R. from whom the Rectory of F. in Essex was sequestred and he was by Order of the House of Lords to have half the profit of the Benefice and M. l. now or late Minister at Br. but the other half to serve the Cure and this Sequestration to last but half a year as a person of eminent place parts and integrity told me not long agoe full half of the maintenance of a Preaching Minister should be paid to him who was not to preach and as if this were too great a favour to be long enjoyed it was to hold out but half a year But now their l I mean not by any thing I have said of the House of Lords any diminution of dignity to those truly noble and worthy Patriots of that House who have been faithfull and constant to the cause of the Commonwealth against the boundlesse Prerogative of an absolute Monarchy for upholding whereof thirty eight Earls and Lords revolted from the Parliament to the King who are particularly named in M. Mays History of the Parliament of England lib. 2. cap. 5. pag. 87. nor from these would I detract any honour due unto them though I have no reason to like their resolution in this particular Lordships have no such power in favour of their Chaplains to oppress the Ministers put into their places by the House of Commons who now without them are reputed a compleat Parliament they may both with good Conscience complain and upon just reasons such as have been given in this cause expect that that burden which at first was laid upon them and taken up by them by a double necessity as hath been shewed should not still be continued when it is in the power of their Patrons to relieve them Object But it is against Charity to deprive the offender of all his means and to leave his wife and children who offended not without any maintenance Answ First I grant it is so and not in the case of Ministers only but of others who put out of Office have no fifth part assigned them or theirs out of the Offices they have lost and not alone while they are living but when they are dead and then much rather as hath been proved Secondly I hold that we are bound by the rule of Scripture to give bread and drink to an hungry and thirsty enemy Proverbs 25.21 Romans 12.20 but I take not this to be a meer ministeriall Duty but a Christian Duty common with us to all others of our Christian Profession and therefore Thirdly I wish the case of all indigent persons may be taken into compassionate consideration and such means ordered and ordained for their relief as is most just and reasonable and it is most just and reasonable that a common duty as that charity is should be exercised in such a proportion as that it may not be oppressive to any particular person as the paiment of the fifth part is even to those who are possessed of Benefices of good value for as in part I have said before 1. The Parishioners in most places make no conscience to pay them their dues or to rob them of their portion because they take them for intruders into other mens Rights 2. They care not how heavily they load them in taxes to ease themselves 3. The Ministers have not such ready means to require or recover their dues as the Clerks of particular Patrons have formerly had 4. Some of them are burdened with providing for those who according to the Law fore-mentioned are put upon them for relief to which adding the paiment of a fifth part with the relief of the poor besides many extraordinary charges no lesse then if they enjoyed the whole Benefice to themselves adde to all these the many harsh usages they meet withall from their ill affected people their condition becometh so displeasing to themselves that they are as capable of pity with those that know it as of envy with those that know it not Fourthly For the particular way or means of extending Charity to such persons as for offence to the State have forfeited their places of imploiment and benefit annexed thereto I will not take upon me to give any directions but if there were a Committee appointed to that purpose and liberty given for others as in some cases it hath been to make proposals unto them I doubt not but such an Expedient might be offered to their approbation as might be more comfortable for Sequestred Ministers and no ways grievous to any as the paiment of a fifth part is to most on whom it is opposed Particular Reasons against the Paiment of a fifth Part to D. E. H. SECT I. Reasons against Doctor H. his claim of a fifth Part in Particular of the Rect. of Br. TO these Reasons against the paiment of a fifth part in general I shall annex some others in particular which may evince That though a fifth part might justly be assigned to some outed Minister from some Minister Incumbent yet not in our case for neither is the Doctor such a man as is capable of it nor am I in a condition to part with such a portion of my dues to his use 1. For the first That he is not capable of the fifth part in the intent of the Ordinance as the regular practice of the Committee for Plundered Ministers at Westminster expounds it I shall shew by two Reasons 1. The one is that he needs it not 2. The other is That if he did there are other wayes for supply of his wants 1. That he needs it not I can prove it by double evidence 1. From Himself 2. From Others 1. From Himself he hath said divers times But for the Means he hath in Wiltshire the Parsonage of Br. would not have answered his Charge in the time of the Warres how much that addition amounted unto I have not been informed but secondly That it is enough now for a competent Subsistence himself confessed when March 24 1649. he said That he should not need a fifth part above two years and to both these Testimonies of his I can produce sufficient witnesse upon Oath if he dare for conscience or can for shame deny his own words but I think he will not because he did not when I had mine evidence ready to produce against him
like a pestilent contagion have spread abroad among the people as the Prophet complained of old From the Prophets of Hierusalem is prophanenesse gone into all the Land Jer. 23.15 and it will prove the more effectual to that purpose because it is committed to their execution whose Zeal will not cool into carelesse Negligence or partial connivance that was it which made the Government of the City of Geneva to be so much commended even by Bodine a Papist to which he applieth the saying of a Ridiculum est ad legem esse bonum ita fit ut quae legibus nusquam vindicantur illio i. Genevae coerceantur ab ils censoribus qui summam virtutis opinionem de seipsis excitarunt Igitur nulla meretricia nullae ebrietates nullae saltationes nulli mendici nulli otiosi in ea civitate reperiuntur Bodin Method hist c. 6. p. 246. Seneca It is a ridiculous thing saith he there to be good onely by ordaining righteous things their manner is to be practically as well as legally just as strict in execution as wise in constitution of good Laws thence it is that those excesses which no where else are duly punished are there restrained so that no whoredome no drunkennesse no dancings no beggars no idle persons are to be found in that City And for that Proviso of the fifth Part his Highnesse and you of his Council had to induce you to it 1. An Ordinance of Parliament 2. Examples of Practice in several Committees answerable to it 3. An Opinion of Charity as the ground of both which I humbly conceive might make you lesse willing to debate the Point and more ready to passe it then otherwise you would have been if it had been as a new thing to be cast into the mould of your own judgements The lesse cause is there for such as suffer by it to be offended at the Ordinance as it is yours and the lesse offence I hope will be taken at the reasons or deprecations of the pressure of it by those who feel it heavy upon them as it is theirs who have urged it to their prejudice requiring a fifth part for the Wife and Children of the offending Party but awarding nothing for him nor his who offended not when he is without any Pretence of insufficiency or miscarriage put out by the Patron upon the death of the former Incumbent which if it should be ratified as a Law of the Medes and Persians without any alteration Daniel 6.8 may not sinne seem to have a perpetuall priviledge which to innocence shall never be permitted But I am perswaded better things of you for I am confident you never thought to make any of your Ordinances in such matters to be received as the Pope obtrudeth his Dictates for infallible Decrees Nor did our Bishops though some of later time were forward enough to take too much upon them assume any such Authority to the Canons of their Synods as if they could not erre for they all subscribed to the 21th Article of the 39. Articles made in the year 1562. not onely of the Fallibilitie of Generall Councils but of their actuall failing in things pertaining unto God Nor can I fear from you or any of your Honourable rank the tart entertainment of Amos by Amaziah for being too bold at Bethel Amos 7.13 in presenting my Conceptions to your Cognizance though as yet it may be somewhat different from some of yours who sit and act in so high a Sphere since you are not more eminent for Dignity or Authority then for the Profession of the purest kinde and degree of Reformed Religion which if it be sincere and I dare not think otherwise is founded in Humility and Humility will dispose you to receive without disdain any considerable Advertisement though from a Servant You have read it said of Job by God Himself That he had not his like for Goodnesse in the Earth Job 2.3 and for Greatnesse he was the greatest of all the men of the East Job 1.3 and yet was he so low in his own Eyes that he did not despise the Cause of his man-servant or maid-servant when they contended with him Job 31.13 And of Moses as well the worthiest as the meekest man that was upon the face of the Earth Numbers 12.3 for he was Captain Generall under the Lord of Heasts and over his own peculiar People a miraculous Deliverer of them out of the hand of a most Potent and Obstinate Tyrant that he slighted not the Counsell of b Jethro was a Priest of Midian rather then a Prince though the Original word be taken sometimes for a Prince or chief Ruler because his Daughters were so meanly imployed and so little respected by the Shepherds Exod. 2.16 Jethro Exodus 18. though in Gifts in Graces in all Authority Divine and Humane Ecclesiasticall and Civill by many degrees inferiour to him I have been thus farre drawn on in an ingenuous freedome of Speech unto you Worthy Sir by the Remembrance of my first Acquaintance with you many years agoe occasioned by that rarely Religious Gentle-woman then my gracious Parishioner and since your worthily and singularly beloved Yoke fellow who was not more Honoured for her Piety by the Godly then loved for her Charity and Humility by all that knew Her in which Graces my conceit hath hitherto been that you were both sutably and happily matched But now it may be it will not become me to look so farre backward to what is past but rather to look upward to what you are at present by your high Preheminence and from you and for you I must raise my thoughts farre above you even as high as God himself blessing him for you and for your Honourable Colleagues though principally for his Highnesse the Lord Protector in that you have all concurred in a pious as well as a charitable Providence for the Ministers certain and comfortable Maintenance for you considered them as by Office the Servants of God so by Nature Nation and Religion Brethren to your selves manifested many wayes particularly by the Instrument of Government of c Art 35. December 16th 1653. and the Ordinances of d Pag. 633. August 29. and September 2. both of the year current 1654. which we cannot but account not onely as a gracious Beneficence of yours unto us but as a mercifull Deliverance of us out of their hands who think us worthy of no better cherishing for the best Service we can do to God or man then such as Ahab appointed for Micaiah Put this fellow in prison and feed him with the bread of Affliction and with the water of Affliction 1 Kings 21.27 whose principles since we know them to be such as are as repugnant to the Right and Propriety of Civill Authority as to the Right and Propriety of Sacred Ministrations we shall hold it our Duty by all warrantable wayes of opposition within the compasse of our Faculty and Function to appear and act against them
before the Committee at R. Now since he is known to be so good an Husband as not onely to know his own Estate but how to manage it to his best advantage and to speak as much for his own Interest and to pursue it as eagerly as any man can do that makes not mammon his God none that knows him will ever believe he would have said so much to the prejudice of his own profit if it had not been true and such a truth as he was familiarly acquainted withall and whereof he might be convinced if he should say the contrary 2. From Others I was ready at R. upon the 19th of October 1652. the day agreed upon by the Committee our Judges and the Doctor himself and me the parties for the hearing of our differences to produce my Witnesses for proof that in Wiltshire he had Lands let for the yearly value of about 80 l and Woods upon them worth many hundreds But he knows who would not suffer them to give in their Evidence upon this pretence That the Ordinance allots the fifth part without any exception of other means or maintenance more or lesse though he were so assuredly informed That he could not but believe it that the Committee for Plundered Ministers at Westminster did by their ordinary practice clear the meaning of the Ordinance to be for the allowance of a fifth part onely where other means of necessary Subsistance was wanting and that upon good reason for if a man may have a good Estate of his own and neverthelesse without any pains may have a fifth part of his portion who bears the whole burden of Ministeriall duties in the Church of Hous-keeping and of Hospitality at home and of all Taxes and Impositions for the Publique the condition of many both pains means and charge considered will be better by putting out then theirs who are put in to possesse their places which surely cannot be according to the minde of the Parliament Besides for the Doctors wife and children she being an inheretrix of a fair Estate when her father dieth who is a weak man and well stricken in years if he be yet alive there is no fear of their want though they have neither Right nor part in the Rectory of Br. 2. For the other Reasons That if he had no means of his own he should be no sharer with him in wages who doth all the work when he doth none of it for which it is due Besides the Arguments against the fifth part in general already produced it may reasonably be pleaded in barre to his claim of the fifth part by particular application unto him That 1. If he be not invincibly wilfull against the Government which gives him Protection he may no doubt have employment for his good parts and a competent Salary for the good service he may do in the use and exercise of them 2. If he will not be taken off nor abate any whit of his rigid misconceits and disaffection to the present Government and to their publick proceedings nor forbear to do them as much disservice as he can and dare upon all occasions in private and publique they may think it a matter rather of favour then of rigour if he want to send him for supply to the known Laws of the Land so much cried up by him and his party and they will send his wife and children to the able Gentleman her Father 〈◊〉 their Grandfather for in such a case it is thus ordered by Law The Father and Grand-father Mother and Grandmother being of sufficient ability shall relieve them in such manner as the Justices of Peace in that County where such sufficient Persons dwell at their quarter Session shall assesse Dolt Justice of Peace printed for the Society of Stationers an 1619. p 84 85. But he and his if they were in want being such as they are with such an one as his Father in Law is would finde mercy ready enough to receive them without any order of Justice of procure their entertainment SECT II. Reasons why I should not pay a fifth Part to the Doctor NOw as by what hath been said it appeareth in respect of him That it is not reasonable he should require a fifth Part of the Parish of B. So I shall now give Reasons in respect of my self which may conclude it as unreasonable that I should pay it 1. Though I acknowledge with all thankfulnesse the Parliaments benevolous intentions towards me in designing me to officiate in such places as promised me a very comfortable reward for the work of my Ministry yet such hath been my mishap through others Malignity that I have been a loser by them and so little a gainer or saver by the exercise of my calling for the best part of fourty years together that upon a just occasion though but an unjust surmize of my thriving by adherency to the Parliament I made bold to tell some of the most eminent Commonwealths-men of this Nation That if they would make mine estate as good in Lands as it was before I went to the Vniversity or in money and goods as good as before I had an Ecclesiastical benefit I would serve the Church and State with my best abilities according to my Conscience for nothing as long as I lived Or if they would but put me into as good a condition as I was possessed of before I was driven to flie from all I had because my Judgement and Conscience engaged me to be of the Parliament Party I would give up all I had of their gift without any desire of further Benefit from them Which being true I cannot but so farre confide in their wisdome and goodnesse as to believe they would not have taken a fifth Part from me to gratifie such a Doctor that so little needed it 2. I may be the more confident herein because where I was last disposed of and where for my Settlement there passed an Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament though it wanted a formality of accomplishment by the great Division betwixt the Parliament City and Army which then happened I was so great a sufferer in all kindes by those who hated the Right and Reformation of the Parliament and me for their sakes that if my Cause had been seasonably throughly and truly represented unto them I doubt not but they would rather have awarded me reparations for wrongs and damages sustained then mulct me by diminution of my wages for the work which lieth wholly on me and nothing at all upon the Doctor to perform 3. As it was my losing lot to part with the last Parsonage I had too soon for it was a little before the harvest was ready for the Reaper and so to be m At Astb where upon the death of Dr. Dod the Sequestred Rector by pretence of a Writ De vi laica amovendâ I was violently and illegally put out of possession by the under-Sheriffe but upon complaint to the Committee for Plundered