Selected quad for the lemma: child_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
child_n	force_v	plunder_v	sequester_v	2,126	5	15.7402	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96620	A discovery of charity mistaken; or, some reasons against committees forcing the Parliaments godly, faithfull and plundered ministers (who labor in the Word and doctrine) to pay fifth parts to sequestred wives and children. With some answers to some arguments alledged for it. As also some complaints of poore plundered ministers, against the hard dealings of some committees about fifth parts, and juries, with a motion for their settlements for their lives.	Williamson, R., fl. 1653.	1653 (1653)	Wing W2799; Thomason E723_10; ESTC R207250	14,125	19

A Discovery of Charity Mistaken OR Some Reasons against Committees forcing the Parliaments godly faithfull and plundered Ministers who labor in the Word and Doctrine to pay fifth parts to Sequestred Ministers Wives and Children With some Answers to some Arguments Alledged for it AS ALSO Some Complaints of poore plundered Ministers against the hard dealings of some Committees about fifth parts and Juries with a motion for their settlements for their Lives 1 Tim. 5.17 18. Let the Elders that rule well bee counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the word and Doctrine for the Scripture saith thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the corn and the Labourer is worthy of his reward Omne beneficium postulat Officium LONDON Printed at the desire of a Friend and are to bee sold at the Three Bibles in Pauls Church-yard and in Westminster-hall 1654. A Discovery of Charity mistaken SIR I Received your Letter wherein you desire to know my reasons why fifth parts should not be allowed to the Wives and Children of sequestred Ministers by those Ministers that are put into Sequestrations which with some intermixed grievances I hereby humbly offer to your serious consideration and candid interpretation But to prevent mistakes I premise 1 That I plead not against the States allowing fifth parts to the Wives and Children of sequestred Delinquents temporall Estates except they be Offices into which others are put Neither 2 Do I intend any evill but good to those that have sate and do now sit at the stern of our Commonwealth I am one of those that have acted with and suffered much in name body and estate for them but that you may see lament and reforme the hard measure that some of their best friends have received at the hands of some of their Committees and worse may if some good course be not speedily taken to reforme and restraine them and therefore I hope that neither you nor any others wel-affected will take in ill part what I shall say in vindication of this Position That it is not warrantable for Committees to force poor plundered Ministers put into Sequestrations to pay fifth parts of the profits of them to the respective Wives and Children of Ministers that are sequestred from them And my Arguments to prove it are these 1 Because they have no right unto them for if they have any right to them it is either in right of the sequestred Ministers or of themselves but neither of these waies therefore no way 1 Not in right of sequestred Ministers because they have no right unto them they had it may be a civill right unto them but that they have lost by their convicted scandalousnesse and delinquency and are dead in Law now you know when a Minister is dead neither he nor his Wife nor Children have any right to any profits due after his death and therefore not to a fifth part Obj. But you will say they are not dead in law because not legally put out by a Judge at Common Law or deprived by their Ordinary Sol. I Answer 1 They are deservedly put out by the Authority of the highest Judicature in England for most have been sequestred by the late Committee for releife of plundered Ministers who were all Parliament-men and though some have been sequestred by Country Committees who commonly Favoured Delinqent and scandalous Ministers much more then the Committee for Plundered Ministers did you know these Committees were authorized to do what they did who proceeded as favourably as they could according to those Rules given them from above and secundum allegata probata the scandalousnesse and delinquency alleadged and proved against them if not as I have heard they had their appeale even to the house it selfe if made within halfe a year after sequestration 2 You know that Juries are for the most part malignant and corrupt favourers of malignant and scandalous Ministers and foreswore taking upon them to bring in their Verdict not according to the evidence but to judge of the Law it selfe So that if some good course be not speedily taken Acts of Parliament and mens proprieties will be little or nothing worth I am confident there are no greater oppressions in England then malignant and corrupted Juries are to honest men and yet though the Lives and Estates of Godly and Wel-affected men are to be tryed by them there is no provision made against them 3 And besides the fifth part is commonly allowed to the wives and children of those Ministers who would undoubtedly have been sequestred not onely by an honest wel-affected and uncorrupted Jury at Common-Law but by a Vote of the major part of the whole House it self 4 And truely many if not most of those that now stand sequestred were never legally if we take legally according to Gods holy Word put in for God never sent them For he never sends any but such as he quallifies with gifts of Illumination and Sanctification convenient and necessary for them both which many if not most of them wanted when they were first sent by men 5 And truely many of those Patrons that presented them as well as those Bishops that instituted them were as sequestrable for delinquency and scandall as themselves and therefore sure they were not fit and competent Judges of them and their behaviour But to leave this to the Parliament who know upon what good grounds they have sequestred them 2 I say they have no right in themselves to fifth parts For 1. Though it be said by some that the Parliament hath given them to them and therefore that they have as much right to fifth parts as the Ministers put into sequestrations have to the four parts The Parliament seeing how forward some were to cut such large thongs out of honest mens their good friends sides if I may so speak as to allow third parts to the sequestred Ministers under the colour of their Wives and Children did as in the case of Usury make a Law to restrain them to fifth parts and thereby did indeed tollerate but not command their Inferiors nor necessitate themselves to allow fifth parts from poor plundered Ministers which Law of theirs is God knows much abused by their Committees to their great dishonor and the grief and undoing of many godly Ministers and their Families and the maintaining and rejoycing of their irreconcilable Enemies Secondly I deny the Argument For it doth not follow that because the State doth tollerate and restraine Usury to 6 l. per cent that therefore it is lawful and just So neither doth it follow because the State doth tollerate a maintenance to the wives and children of sequestred Ministers out of those Sequestrations where godly and plundered Ministers are placed and restrain their Agents to fifth parts that therefore it is lawful to force them to pay them to them Ob. You will say it is lawful by mans Law though it may be it is not lawful by Gods Law Sol. Sir

Grant the latter and you must yeeld the former for mans Law must be rightly grounded upon Gods else it will not be a righteous but ungodly Law But more of this hereafter For Answer I say with submission to all in Authority that they have no right unto fifth parts by Mans Law for 1 The Parliament did not command but only tollerate fifth parts as it doth not follow that because our state doth tollerate men to take 6 l. per cent that therefore they must take so much for men may lend for lesse or freely for nothing if they will But Committees force poor plundered Ministers to pay them to the Wives and Children of sequestred Ministers though people pay them not their Tythes and Dues 2 Their Committees are Patrons pro tempore of all sequestred Livings to which they present their Ministers when they send them to the Assembly or other godly Orthodox Divines and institute and induct them when they give them Orders for their respective places now by that good old unrepealed Law against Symonie it is unlawful for any Patron when he presents any Minister to a presentative Living to reserve a fifth part yea any part of the profits of the same either for himselfe or any others be they never so poor as all skilled in our Laws know right well and therefore I conclude that it is not lawfull for Committees to force poor plundered Ministers to pay to the wives and children of those that have been sequestred a full fifth part of the profits of their Livings as they doe under the penalties of Sequestration or imprisonment Ob. But you will say that every inferior Patron is but Committees are not tyed to that Law Sol. Sir I profess I am very loath to write any thing that may be by any construed against the late Parliaments just proceedings but I hope I may do this without offence as wel as others write against Usury which is tollerated by them Therefore in answer I say That it is contrary to the late Parliaments Declarations For you know the late Parliament Declared and Promised to repaire the losses of those that were plundered for their adhering to them which this forcing of them to pay fifth parts doth not doe but I will not say plunder them more And also to maintaine the good and wholesome Laws of our Land of which kind that known Law against Symonie is one and as yet is not formally repealed but even by the Parliament and Judges justly punished now to force Ministers to pay fifth parts to the Wives and Children of them that are sequestred hath the materiality if not the whole formality of Symonie And besides you know that Committees are not supream but subordinate Patrons and therefore are bound to observe the Laws of our Land as wel as any others Second Argument To force poor plundered Ministers to pay fifth parts to the Wives and Children of sequestred Ministers is contrary to their proceedings with others in like cases For 1 Many men have been sequestred from Offices of great profit which they or their friends have bought with great sums of mony and which they did and might hold by the Laws of the Land as well as Ministers and yet Committees though they have continued those Offices and put others though not plundered into them yet have not enjoyned much lesse forced them to pay fifth parts to their Wives and children though they were poor and had nothing else to live upon but their labour which was never yet denied to the Wives and Children of sequestred Ministers 2 Yea many Heads and Officers of Colledges and Halls in the Universities have been sequestred from their several Headships and Offices and yet have not forced those that have been put into them to pay their Wives and Children fifth parts though some of them have neither Wife nor Children neither have they been plundered as some Ministers that are forced to pay fifth parts have been neither are they defrauded of and troubled about their dues as many poor plundered Country Ministers commonly are I write not this out of any envy of them God knows my heart I wish them better then they have for some of them have too little but to let you see the inequality of some Committees proceedings Yet why both these sorts of men should be exempted from fifth parts and other godly and plundered Ministers who have Wives and Children of their own should be charged with them I see no reason at all but only will 3 It is inconvenient to force them thereunto in many respects 1 To Committees for there by they are many times put to a great deal of labor and charge to watch and wait to make orders and hear causes about fifth parts which might well be spared and better spent 2 To the Parliament and Army For 1. Thereby godly Ministers having been plundered for aiding of them are disabled now to helpe them as formerly they have and might and would 2. Malignants are not thereby made their friends but the more able to hurt them and their friends and doubtlesse will when time serveth 3 To their Ministers and that many ways for it takes them off from their studies compels them to be absent from their Families and flocks and puts them to great trouble labor and charges to attend the hearing of their Causes For many times they are put off until their friends be absent and a Committee made against them yea when they have shewed good cause and that approved of and have been thereupon discharged from fifth parts yet many times they have been charged again and hereby they are not only disabled from repairing their old dilapidated houses and releiving the poor but are necessitated to be more strict with their Parishioners about their Tythes and Taxes then otherwise they would be Yea further it animates malignants against them for they look upon fifth parts as an earnest that their old sequestred Ministers have right to all and shall one day enjoy all again and this makes them many times and wayes to vex and oppresse the Parliaments poor plundered Ministers by over-valuing and over-taxing their Livings that a fifth part is made a third part and then there remains but two parts to the Parliaments poor plundered Ministers to maintain themselves their own Wives and Children pay Taxes releive the poor repair their houses and keep hospitality and it may be are forced to goe to law with their Parishioners for all and in the mean time borrow mony to pay taxes and fifth parts and in the end compound for halfe the value of their Tythes after they have spent twise as much as their Tythes were worth Is this the way to releive poore plundered Ministers Yea further it being left to sequestred Ministers Wives and Children to chuse their fifth parts of which Living they please for many of them had two Livings some three it so fals out that they commonly pitch upon the places where poor plundered Ministers

are placed and let the other alone or make some under-hand bargain with them and so it comes to passe that many times godly Ministers who have been deprived of the lives of their friends of their estates in the wars and have Wives and many small Children of their own and friends who have lost their limbs in the Parliaments Service to maintaine are compelled to pay full fifth parts unto the Wife or child of the sequestred that hath it may be good considerable temporall estate to live upon and this without defalcation of taxes and charges which were or are in many places above a fourth part of the whole but this is occasioned by Committees giving them leave to chuse where they list and alwaies and all of one and so Newters yea Malignants till of late and young men who have either none or but little charge and never lost any thing by the wars escape fifth-part-free and the burthen as hath been shewed is laid upon the aged wel-affected poor plundered Ministers who have great charge of children and friends depending upon them Third Argument To force poor plundered Ministers put into Sequestrations to pay fifth parts unto the wives and children of sequestred Ministers is a practise not well grounded upon the Holy word of God which ought to be the rule and foundation of Christian mens actions Therefore it is not warrantable I know it is pretended to be an act of great mercy and the Ministers that are against fifth parts though they be truely godly and poor and merciful to those that are poor indeed are hardly censuRed and looked upon as covetous selfe-lovers and without natural affection but it is for the most part by such that are so indeed and also false accusers and despisers of those that are truely good 2 Tim. 3. But Sir some wise and worthy men say it was but an act of humane pollicy devised at first by some in favor of Malignants and connived at by others as in time of the wars favouring honest godly Ministers but continued to their undoing Now to evidence it to be a practise not well grounded upon the Word of God I suppose it will not be amisse to lay down those portions of holy Scripture producible for the lawfulnesse of Committees forcing fifth parts from godly poor plundered Ministers to the wives and children of those Ministers that are sequestred by the Parliaments Authority and then clear them Ob. First is or may be alleadged 1 King 2.26 And unto Abiather the Priest said the King get thee to Anathoth unto thine owne fields for thou art worthy of death Hereupon it is said that it is evident that though Solomon sequestred Abiather the Priest from being Priest unto the Lord yet he did not take away all his maintenance from him but commanded him to goe to Anathoth to his owne fields there therefore say they fifth parts are grounded upon the Word of God for here is example for a maintenance out of a sequestred Ministers own fields Sol. For Answer unto this be pleased to consider these things 1 That Solomon was an absolute King as most men hold extraordinarily made by the Lord as Adonijah said 1 King 2.15 and therefore Solomons practise is no good president for our Committees who are but conditional else we are in a worse condition then wee were in formerly but let it goe for good then know 2 That Solomon the Supream Magistrate sequestred Abiather the High Priest as a grand Delinquent for adhering to Adonijah who would needs be King before King David was dead or willing to resigne his Kingdome into his hand for which Solomon judged him worthy of death and yet pardoned him as to life and temporall estate and confined him to his fields at Anathoth which belonged not to him as he was High Priest if Solomons practise be a good president for fifth parts why not for our Committees to sequester 3 That Solomon pardoned Abiather as to life and temporal estate for that time for his former good Service done to his father David and sufferings for and with him but thrust him out of the Priests Office and confined him to his own fields at Anathoth So many Ministers though they have more deserved death then Abiather did yet have been pardoned by the Parliament as to life and liberty though they have done both them and their Fathers and friends all the mischeife they could But now that Committees practise in allowing fifth parts to sequestred Ministers Wives and Children and forcing godly poor plundered Ministers to pay them is not well grounded upon Solomons nor consonant thereunto is manifest For 1 Solomon sequestred Abiather from being Priest before the Lord and put Zadock in his room but he did not allot Abiather or his wife or children a fifth part of the High Priests maintenance and much lesse compell Zadock who performed the Office to pay it him or any other But now Committees doe commonly cut out fifth parts as large as third parts of the profits of sequestred Livings to sequestred Ministers wives and children and constrain godly faithful plundered Zadockes to pay them besides performing the Office to which by the Law of God and man they have ever been annexed and paying of all taxes and charges imposed which Zadock knew not of under the penalties of sequestration or imprisonment to sequestred Abiathers shall I say that name is not convient for they never bear the Arke before nor suffer any thing with or for the Parliament but rather acted with Saul and Absolom and either like Doeg murdered or at lest like Shimei cursed and railed and cast stones against them and their friends now whether most Committee-men have truly written after Solomons copy let all seeing and uncorrupted men judge 2 Solomon did confine Abiather to his own fields or possessions at Anathoth for near thereunto was the City of Nob before Saul destroyed it where Abiathers land lay as the learned * S. W. R. Knight observes He did not give him leave to make away his temporall estate and then chuse his maintenance where and when he would out of Zadocks as some Committees have done no but he confined him to his owne fields belonging to his Person not to his Office and that was a speciall act of grace to Abiather because he had carryed the Ark of the Lord before his father David and had been afflicted in all wherein his father David had been afflicted And truely if we look back to the 1 Sam. 21.22 chapters we shal find that Abiather deserved some favor more then other For he had done and suffered much he had born the Ark before David and he had lost his Father and friends and moveable goods for Davids sake and shared with him in all his troubles and his fault was such as a wiser man might have slipt into For Adonijah was the Kings eldest Son a proper man and Davids Darling and the King had not declared any thing against Adonijahs succeeding

faithful Captain Steward or Ambassador should be forced to pay a full fifth part of his pay or Salary to the Captains Stewards Ambassadors wife or children that hath been justly cashiered or displaced for insufficiency scandall or delinquency he would not like it very well but complaine and cry out injustice njiustice especially if he should be compelled to do the Office of a Captain Steward or Ambassador seeing omne beneficium postulat officium Every Benefice requireth the Office thereunto belonging and omne officium beneficium postulat beneficium Every Office requires the Benefice or Wages thereunto belonging And what is it Justice to compel the poor plundered Minister to performe all the Duties belonging to his Office and yet force him to pay a fifth part of the Profits Benefits or Wages thereunto belonging whether hee can get them or not to him or his who perform not the Office but is judged unable or unfit to doe it 4 That is not true spirituall mercy which necessitates them to neglect their duty But forcing of poor plundered Ministers to pay fifth parts to the wives and children of sequestred Ministers necessitates them to neglect their duty even those things which God himselfe hath commanded them to doe Therefore I conclude it is no spirituall mercy The major is so clear that I suppose none will deny it And the minor I prove thus 1 It necessitates them to neglect their owne Families their owne Wives and Children for whom the Law of God and Nature requires them to provide for He that provides not for his own family is worse then an Infidel 1 Tim. 5.8 for it is impossible for them to pay fifth parts and provide for their own Families and do other duties too 2 It compels them to neglect those that are poor indeed and ought to be releived 1 Tim. 5.16 In which Chapter the Apostle distinguisheth of two sorts of Widowes 1. Widowes that bee wanton 2. Widowes that be godly and grave And Widowes that are godly widows indeed as the Apostle cals them are of two sorts 1. Some are poor and without friends And 2. Others have rich friends able to releive them Now those that are wanton must not be releived by the Church nor those that have rich friends lest it hinder the Church from releiving of those widowes that are poor indeed Vide Perkins as strong and sturdy Beggars must not be releived except in the case of extremity lest we do thereby rob those that are aged impotent and unable to work in the releiving of such Ministers ought to go before others not onely in Word and Doctrine but also in Deed and Practise Matth. 5.16 But the Wives and Children of sequestred Ministers are seldome or never such widows indeed and fatherlesse indeed as the Apostle would have releived by the Church much lesse onely by poore plundered Ministers though they are looked upon as such by some men that are better able to releive them then poor plundered Ministers and yet when they are such indeed they take no such care and pains to releive but leave them to the wide world to shift for themselves as godly Ministers Wives and Children have done and doe and why not now as well as when their Husbands and Fathers are dead 3 It hinders them from distributing to the necessities of the Saints and keeping of hospitality both which they ought to do Rom. 12.13 for fifth parts devoure the meat drink cloaths and lodging which would else be given to Christs hungry thirsty naked and harborlesse members which mercy Christ accepts as done to himselfe Matth. 25.35.40 Indeed they may bee given to hospitality and other such duties but this forcing of them to pay fifth parts makes them unable to perform them for the neglect or rather not doing of such good works they are deeply charged by some men with covetousnesse and unmercifulnesse and their names being thereby defamed their persons are soon despised and their doctrine contemned and God much dishonored Is not the cause of the cause the cause of the thing caused by that cause And thus I hope I have sufficiently proved that forcing of poor plundered Ministers who labor in the word and doctrine to pay fifth parts to sequestred Ministers Wives and Children doth necessitate them to neglect at lest leave those things undone which the Law of God commands them to doe Therefore I conclude that the forcing now or lately in fashion of poor plunder Ministers to pay fifth parts to sequestred Ministers Wives and Children is not true spiritual mercy especially that intended by our Saviour in Matth. 5.5 but rather unmercifulnesse to those poor Ministers that have been plundered for their piety to God and good affection to the Parliament to their poore Wives and Children to many hundreds of poor indeed yea members of Jesus Christ who might and would be releived by godly Ministers put into Sequestration though they were kept out of or under in the Ministery by those unworthy men in the Bishops time were they not constrained to pay fifth parts to maintain Delinquents and scandalous Ministers their Wives and Children in pride idlenesse and malignancy For if they pay them not they will either sequester them or imprison them or seize upon their Estates sometimes all three there is no such course taken to recover poor plundered Ministers reall and just debts which their people owe them for Tythes or else they must leave laboring in the Word and Doctrine amongst the people that have duely chosen them and leave them to Dogs Foxes and Wolves to be devoured which in conscience they cannot do Christ the great Shepherd and Judge of all the world seeth all these things and will one day visite for them all But God give the Causers Actors and Abettors of them speedy and unfeighned repentance for these and all other abusings of his faithfull Messengers and Witnesses Ob. But you will say still that Sequestrations have been freely given by the Parliament to many Ministers who had but little before Sequestrations were set on foot and therefore met hinks they should not be averse from paying of that which they allow and their Committees ordered to be paid Sol. Sir I doe not any way desire to undervalue the Parliaments free bounty to any Godly Ministers much lesse to them that have adhered to them in times of their extremity and suffered for their sakes but honor them and praise God that he did at first put it into their hearts to sequester scandalous and delinquent Ministers and put godly and wel-affected Ministers in their roomes For by it much glory hath redounded to God and good to his Church themselves and the Commonwealth I wish them well and pray for them but yet I cannot blame those poor plundered Ministers that struggle as for life to be freed from that intollerable and unlivelihooding burthen of fifth parts arbitrarily and contrary to the Parliaments intention imposed on them by Committees who compell them to make